Dies ist ein sehr langer Blogpost und meine deutschen Leserinnen möchten mir es bitte verzeihen, dass ich aus Gründen der Länge darauf verzichtet habe, den Post zweisprachig zu schreiben. Ich habe oben links auf meinem Blog einen Button “Übersetzen” installiert, der wird einen recht lustigen Text aus alledem machen. Aber die Bilder, und das ist die Hauptsache, sagen ja viel mehr als all die Worte.

"Size does matter" – a lot of the English speaking readers may have an idea of funny jokes around these words and I would love to tease you too with humorous words and ambiguousness, the only thing is: I just can’t. I'm not familiar enough with your language to know all the inside jokes. But since I'm no native you will surly allow me to translate the word size into my language. The word SIZE in German is “Größe” and has two meanings: the one is size, the other is greatness. So I chose to speak rather of greatness .
And that brings me back to Barcelona, my current group with Moda which is shipping to stores in September.

Barcelona is a city to which I have fallen in love at first sight .
Those of you which have been there will know what I'm talking about – and for those who haven’t so far: if you ever have the chance to visit the city – do so, it will enrich your live!
Speaking of greatness and Barcelona - there is a name that everyone is talking about: the genius Antonio Gaudi.

Sagrada Familia from Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona

I think everyone of us is a genius inside and has special gifts - you don’t have to be an artist to leave an impression. What matters is to find and develop your own gift and enfold it. Antonio Gaudi was a gifted architect, artist and he lived the way we call: Only the Sky is the limit. Studies of nature have inspired him and he developed completely new constructions, the so-called modernism.
His architecture exudes greatness and walking through his buildings you inevitably feel your own vocation.

Which leads me back to my adapted motto "Greatness Matters". It matters to take your own gifts seriously and to unfold what is inside you. It is something we can contribute to the world and what makes us happy. And that's why it has a meaning.

Gaudi's cathedral windows have inspired me: I created a quilt  which is like a dark wall, in the same way like disappointments or hard times or obstacles of life can appear to us. And through this dark wall more and more color and light comes through. It looks even as if the colors arise and finally explode like fireworks. The idea of this quilt is to remind us that we all have hidden treasures which we want bring to the daylight and let them sparkle. Your greatness can be an inspiration for others. I called this quilt Shine Through.

That’s my story why size (or greatness) matters. Back to the actual meaning of size – of course for quilters it matters most. Sewing a block with a seam allowance which only differs 1/16” at each seam gives you a not fitting finished block ;-(
So we are trained to exactly take care on sizes.

Moda has created a booklet of inspirational blocks showing how variations of block size give a new look and each of us Moda designers will introduce you to one of these blocks.
My block shows you a finished 18" size, but includes the same block (or better said 4 of it) in just 6 ". It looks as if layers overlap each other.

This is my original block (I don’t even know the correct name, do you?)
 

 

 

I drew it 18” size and overlaid it with 4 of the same blocks 6” size and got this one…
 

18” is a nice size for a small table runner or the center of a table runner surrounded with a border.
It could also be a cover of a large pillow.

You will find the detailed sewing instructions for downloading here.

Some coloring ideas anybody? Here you go…

Some setting ideas for the 6” block?

    
 

 

But wait – the fun doesn’t end here: You will find each day three new different blocks introduced from Moda designers, all explained in detail. All with different fabric styles, suggestions -  you name it. Fabulous!

Hop over to Moda’s website where all the other designers and blogs are listed! There is even a video from all of us speaking at Quilt Market Schoolhouse. Give the blocks a try, sew some of them.

Today two of my favorite colleagues are introducing their block patterns too: The lovely Edyta Sitar from Laundry Basket who creates beautiful traditional batik quilts (oh my, although I am a more modern girl, I admire all her quilts!)

 

and the inspiring Kaari Meng from French General who has wonderful antique French red and linen prints in her groups and presents her current line Josephine.

 

And we have even more fun – the very best: You will have the chance to win! Yeah! We have a precut + pattern from the very  brand-new fabric collection Barcelona for you. I thought I will give two winners a chance and one will get 1 Layer Cake and my pattern Clarity, you just add a background and can make your own modern stunning quilt!

Vollständiges Album anzeigen

The other goodie is 1 Jelly Roll and my pattern Pure, add four light naturals for the background and make a terrific unique quilt from the colorful strips.

Vollständiges Album anzeigen

What do you have to do?

1. FOLLOW the Zen Chic blog, the one you are currently looking at ;-) and get all the news about project and fabric ideas. 

2. Leave a COMMENT on the blog as to why or for which project you would like to work with the Barcelona fabrics!

Don’t miss to leave your email address so I can inform you in case you are the lucky winner.

We quilting women have a secret

which we won’t tell a man, no way ever:

Size DOES matter! Pssst - all Moda designers share this opinion. In fact we are so convinced that we will reveal our insights and give you a look behind the curtain why size matters for us (and I guess for you too).

From 4th to 16th September we all chat for a while on our blogs about that mystery SIZE. And when you know about us, you will also know that everyone will have something handy for you – not only inspiration, but also a little free gift.

There is a list of all participating Moda designers, their blog-addresses and when they will open their giveaway on Moda’s website. For more information hop over there!

So – STAY TUNED! Zen Chic will be at the first round on September 4th!

About blog reading

When I came to gather some interesting blogs I’d like to read on a regular basis I first used just the feed reader of my browser. Then I felt more comfortable with the Google reader showing me a picture and some first lines of a post of each of my favorite blogs displayed side by side on my dashboard.
But one thing I was not really satisfied with: Google reader showed the blogs always in a static, means the same order. So I started each time with the same blog to read and when my timeframe was over I didn’t get to the ones positioned more on the end. The first positioned blogs got more attention than the ones at the end, and this was not my deliberate preference.
And another thing bothering me was: I’d gathered various themed blogs: I’m reading of course about quilting, but also about organizing, design, business advice and so on. Some blogs are more important for me, others I come back in times of strolling around. So I’d like to have all the blogs divided in categories (the ones I read twice a week, the ones I read once a month or some I read, when I have time to make plans about business strategies and so on).
So I’m really happy to have found goodnoows as my reader.
This reader comes usually with preinstalled feeds of some popular news and magazines. I deleted them all. Then I created my own subcategories: Quilting, Organizing, Design and so on. In each subcategory I made the entries about the feeds of my favorite blogs.
Now when I have my timeframe for blog reading I click on my favorite category and all posts will be shown in an dynamic order: the newest comes first. This way my attention will be scattered randomly about all my valuable blogs and when the time is over I don’t feel any guilt of having neglected always the same blogs.
Goodnoows allows different views of the feeds, only as headlines, as picture gallery, as kind of ticker and so on, whatever your reading habits suits best.




I think there are a lot more good feed readers out there, which one is your favorite?
Als ich begann, interessante Blogs zu abonnieren, nutzte ich zuerst einfach den Feedreader meines Browsers. Nach einiger Zeit fand ich es aber schöner, den Google reader zu benutzen, der von allen meinen Lieblingsblogs nebeneinander ein kleines Fensterchen zeigt, mit einem Bild und den ersten Zeilen darin. So fand ich schnell, was ich mir näher ansehen wollte.
Aber es gab da eine Sache, die ich immer unzufriedenstellend fand:

How to make blogging easier

Well maybe this isn’t new to most of you, but I know of some bloggers who haven’t heard of this tool so far and this is why I’m mentioning it:
It’s so much easier to do blog writing with a helpful application. I use Windows Live Writer. It’s an offline WYSIWYG application, you can write and format your posts like for example in Word, add easily pictures, vids, maps and others, preview the post in your blog and then determine at which date and time it should be published (which allows me to prepare my posts for times when I’m in vacation). And it’s free.
It works for Blogger, Wordpress, and several other services. When you first start with this application you make some settings of your blog service (login data). If you’re done with your post writing you just click “publish” and your content will be uploaded to your blog. And that’s it, pretty easy and really timesaving.
This is a screenshot of my just right now writing…


Which tool does you use writing your blog or what is helpful for you making blogging easier?



Wahrscheinlich kennen schon viele Leserinnen dieses Tool, doch andere, die vielleicht gerade mit einem Blog beginnen, haben möglicherweise auch noch nie davon gehört, und deshalb möchte ich hier ein hilfreiches Programm erwähnen:
Es ist soviel einfacher, einen Post für einen Blog zu verfassen, wenn man eine entsprechende Blogging-Application benutzt. Ich benutze Windows Live Writer. Es ist ein WYSIWYG-Offline-Programm, man kann seine Posts ähnlich wie in Word einfach schreiben und formatieren, Bilder, Videos, Landkarten oder ähnliches einfügen und auch einen Zeitpunkt vorbestimmen, wann der Post im Blog erscheinen soll (was ich sehr angenehm fand, um für die Zeit meines Urlaubs ein bisschen was vorzubereiten). Und das Programm ist kostenlos.
Es funktioniert für verschiedenste Blogdienste wie Blogger, Wordpress und einige andere. Beim ersten Start richtet man eine Verbindung zum eigenen Blog mit Logindaten ein. Wenn man dann einen Post fertig hat, klickt man einfach auf “veröffentlichen” und schon wird der Inhalt zum Blog hochgeladen. Es ist ziemlich einfach und auf jeden Fall eine Zeitersparnis. Oben abgebildet ist ein Schreenshot meines Bildschirms, auf dem ich gerade diesen Post mit Live Writer verfasse.
Welches Programm benutzt du oder welche Tipps hast du, um das Blogging einfacher zu machen?