Who me? Just because I have started dreaming about sewing hexagons together doesn't mean I am obsessed - does it?



Still I just can't get enough. I have been cutting and tacking like crazy over the last couple of days because we are off home to the UK on holiday and I am hoping I will be able to finish off the rest of the hexagon blocks for the quilt I am making. With only one suitcase between Amelie, Hanna, me and my hexagons it has been a squeeze and I am lucky we are staying with Mum and Dad and have easy access to the washer! Darned low cost airlines. They advertise such cheap fares but the reality is oh so different. I guess another indication I am obsessed - I would rather take my hexagons than more clothing!



I have also been working on a hexagon tutorial. Although it is dead easy really. I will post it as soon as we get back in a couple of weeks.



So in the meantime take care. We are off to dance our socks off with Grandma and Grandpa. This is at least what Amelie keeps telling me.

I no longer even remember when I started this quilt. It has been sitting in the WIP box for almost forever. I know that I bought the Kaffe Fassett with my Mum long before Amelie was even a twinkle in my husband's eye. But when I actually put it all together - who knows.



I had already done some simple in the ditch quilting. So all that needed to be done was something a little more to make it pop. This is probably why it has been sitting there so long.



I have come to realise that I need to do a lot more actual quilting. The virtual bees have been great for improving my block making skills. Now I need to also focus on my quilting skills.



It certainly feels good though to get another quilt finished. There is almost enough space in my WIP box for a new project!!

You can imagine my excitement when I saw this on a package delivered yesterday.



Inside was the most fantastic quilt from Monika (monaw2008). I am absolutely bowled over by this quilt. And get this - it is the first quilt she has made! Can you believe that! I certainly can't and I can't wait to see her making many more. I had already been following Monika's work on flickr so I am soooo happy to have one of her pieces in person. And she also included a lovely pincushion and some chocolate - yummy!



There are so many things that I love about this quilt. The simple quilting lines so neatly done.



The labels on the back. I adore the way she put her name with raw edge applique and apparently her son made the picture label.



The DQS6 group on Flickr had agreed to post pictures of themselves with the quilts and when I told Amelie that I needed a picture of me and the quilt she was insistent on taking the photo herself. I have to say she is a natural. None of the photos she took were blurred. She managed to get my head in 90% of them and even Hanna too. But I did have to keep telling her to make sure Mummy was in the picture and not just the sky and to keep her finger on the button! I have to say a fantastic job for a 3 year old!



I have to admit that I knew all along which quilt I was going to send to my partner. It is just I didn't want to send it! I had fallen in love with the birds and circles and just couldn't bring myself to part with it. So I decided enough with procrastinating and made a second one! Oh and I went with binding in the brown fabric with white flowers.



Once the second was made I was able to package up the first and send it on its way to Susi from Daveandsusi.



Amelie was having decidedly more fun as the photographer rather than as the model.

It has been great to get to know another German quilter and I am already signed up to make a block for Susi's Show and Tell quilt. You never know maybe we can even organise a European quilting bee! That would be fun.

The tea quilt is also almost finished. Just need to embroider the face and some steam from the cup.

Do you remember this quilt? I didn't know how to finish it off and asked for your advice. Well I finally decided that I needed to make room in my WIP box.



I decided to go with a wide white border, pieced border and orange gingham binding. Thanks Katy and Holly for your good ideas.

I just love this quilt. I backed it with fleece so that it is extra warm. I know very important now that it is Spring. But we will appreciate it once Winter comes again and lets face it the North European summer is not exactly reliably hot.



There are no designer fabrics in this quilt and very few new fabrics. I used mostly reused fabrics from bedcovers, sheets and scraps that I have picked up at the local flea markets. I also used a lot of my screenprinted robots, vehicles and polka dots. In each of the corners there is a single robot. I used a piece of paper to block off the majority of the screen and then printed single robots.Have I mentioned that I love it?



I kept the quilting very simple. Just diagonally across each of the squares and then lines on the pieced border. Getting the tension right through the quilt and the fleece was a little problematic and I have to admit that I had to step away from the quilt on a couple of occasions!



Right on to the next WIP!

Amy from Park City Girl has organised a virtual Quilt Festival! Yippee! I haven't been to a real Quilt Festival for donkey's years so it is so much fun to see everyone participating online.

So we are supposed to choose our favourite quilt and blog about it. Surprise, surprise my favourite quilts are the ones I make for my girls! I couldn't choose just one but instead am going to show you 3! Hope you don't get bored!



The first is a Kaffe Fassett quilt I made for Amelie while she was still in my belly. I knew she was going to be a girl so I chose red, orange and pink. I absolutely adore this quilt even though Amelie ignored it for the first 3 years of her life. But I am pleased to report that it is now her favourite cover for her bed.



Next up is another quilt for Amelie but one I designed myself. Amelie was having problems with her colours. She still does with green and blue but I am pretty sure she isn't colour blind! So anyway, I made this quilt so we could practice recognising colours. At the time her favourite song was "Carola la Caracola" in other words Carola the Snail. So I came up with some little snails and put some velcro on their backs so that she could stick them on the corresponding flower on the quilt. Amelie and Hanna still have great fun with this quilt. Hanna enjoys stealing the snails from Amelie and Amelie enjoys chasing Hanna! Nevermind at least it still gets lots of use!



Finally, there is the number quilt I designed for Hanna. It is supposed to be a garden with different animals hiding behind leaves and flowers. Hanna can play peek-a-boo with the animals and also learn to count.



We hung it in her bedroom but a little bit too high. Next time I have to remember to hang quilts at child level! She can still play with it but has to balance on a stool.




Now go and check out the other quilts. There are some gorgeous ones out there!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. The sun was shining and we used every second of the 4 days together. We went to Tierpark on Friday and saw crocodiles and manatees. Amelie was in heaven with the crocodiles! Luckily we chose to go to Tierpark and not the central zoo which we normally go to. For some reason some crazy lady decided it would be a good idea to go swimming with the polar bears and jumped into the bear enclosure at feeding time. She was obviously mauled pretty badly but what concerns me more is all the kids that were watching. Thank goodness we were not there. (By the way it was not Knut!)

On Saturday Meredith's fabric from the Bee Inspired group arrived and as Luis and the girls were busy in the garden I set to and made these blocks. I think I used every inch of fabric that I received. It was certainly a close call for the final block.







On Sunday Amelie was mysteriously struck down by fever and headache. So Luis and Hanna headed off to church without her. But she perked up in the afternoon and we had an easter egg hunt. Hanna scoffed her chocolate in seconds flat. Her mouth oozing chocolate. She definitely has my genes. Amelie on the other hand continued to hide and re-hunt her chocolate all afternoon and evening. In the end she never ate a single bite. Sometimes I wonder if we are related!

Monday we went off to Rheinsburg. A fantastic Schloss with lakes and grounds. We had a lovely picnic with friends and lazily strolled around the grounds. I took a stack of hexagons with me and managed to finish off another couple of blocks!




So all in all a perfect 4 days! Hope you all had a great time too.

Apparently when I started the race on Sunday Amelie had a breakdown and thought I was never coming back. After crying for a while over the fact I was gone she asked Luis whether she would get a new Mummy. Hmmm. I have to admit that hurt. Obviously if I really was gone I would want her to have someone equally as important but when I just go running for a couple of hours and she requests a replacement.....

So anyway in a bid to win her over I started a new quilt. I know such a hardship for me. Not sure where it is going yet. I was thinking of hexagon blocks rather than an entire quilt of hexagons, but this block got pretty big pretty quickly. So now I am just not sure.



I hope to get a couple more "blocks" done over Easter. I am so far up to date with my quilting bees and as we will have no post over the next few days there will be no chance that the next lot of fabric arrives!

Hope you all have a good Easter. We have had such a fantastic week of good weather I just hope it holds over the holiday weekend. Sod's law says it will pour down.

Yesterday I ran the Berlin Half Marathon. And wow don't my legs hate me for it!

It was a great day for running - not too hot and not too cold but with a good breeze. I managed to finish in 2 hours 7 minutes! I am very happy with this time as I get to run once in a blue moon. But it does make me realise that I am only a shadow of my pre-baby fit self. Oh well!

My sister was also running yesterday - but in Paris. She ran the full marathon in 3 hours 56 minutes. Go Kate!!!! Fantastic time! And she sounded very bright and breezy at the end.

So I should imagine that not a lot will get done today. Mostly because I had a tidy up and put away all my fabric upstairs and my legs will not cooperate to get me there!




So instead I shall sit and ponder my doll quilt swap quilts and decide which to send my partner. And more importantly what binding to use. I am definitely considering polka dot (thanks Katy for the suggestion). But if you have any other ideas let me know please!

Hooray and we have been outside enjoying the wonderful weather. Just in time I discovered the perfect project to take to the playground. Hexagons!

I am busy cutting hundreds of hexagons to make a quilt for Amelie and Hanna. I can tuck a few in a bag when we head off outside and sit on the edge of the sandpit and quite happily tack a few to paper while Amelie and Hanna are playing. Bliss!



This block however is on its way to Katy as part of the Cottage Quilting Bee.



Along with this block. I think it will find a happy home judging by Katy's house! And I would die for that sofa!

I finally decided on the bird blocks for the Row Robin and they are winging their way to Tracey as I write. Can't wait to get Carrie's row!






In other news we are eating LOTS of ice cream. Somehow we decided this was a good treat for Amelie if she managed to go without nappies for the day. And with such incentives she has been pretty much dry for almost a week!