change is in the air

Oh my, the last weeks have been a whirlwind. In between studying for finals, writing research papers, going to conferences, job interviews and lots of shop orders, there hasn't been as much time to enjoy the Christmas spirit as I would've liked.

The holiday season and the approach of a new year always makes me think about my life and what I'd like to change about it. New ideas for blog content, new designs for my shop, new knitting/spinning/dyeing techniques. But also questions about what I want to do after school. I'm all set to finish my Bachelor's degree next summer. Then what? I'll take a year off because the graduate schools I want to apply to have very inconvenient application deadlines. I want to work for a big company, grow my small business, travel the world and stay home to cuddle my cat and knit everything that's in my revelry queue. Preferably all at the same time.

Change is good. I can't wait to see what life has to offer after school. Also, here are some shop news:

In celebration of the 100th dawanda shop sale, I offer free shipping on all orders (yes, that includes international orders too!) until Sunday, December 21st with the coupon code Blog100 in my online shop. I also added a sale section to the shop to make room for new designs in the next year.

I'll close the shop from Monday, December 22nd until the new year.

wiwo wednesday vol. 17

I can't wait for Christmas so I can go back to sharing what I'm working on openly. The only knitting I can share with you are two selfish projects:
First, a pair of red socks. Duh, it's Christmas soon. Naturally I need another pair of red socks, right??
I've had the skein in my stash for quite a while now. Originally, I bought it to use it for Julekuler (knitted Christmas balls). But I only used a couple of yards of the yarn so I have plenty left for socks.

Next up is the Levenwick cardigan that I've been knitting on forever. Or so it feels. Progress has been very slow because it's gotten too big to carry. I need the DPNs that I'm using for the sleeve for another project (a Christmas gift), hence I'm in a hurry to finish the sleeve so I can borrow the needles for the next project. Basically that also means that I won't get to knit on this cardigan till after Christmas. Or however long it takes me to finish said Christmas gift - plus all the others I still have on my to knit list.

Also, an alternative title for this post could've been 'daylight abstinence'. I've been putting off taking pictures for this post for days because it's been very gray and rainy around here. Also, it gets dark so early which makes it basically impossible to take pictures using a natural light source. German winter is not the most blogger friendly season ;)

sock monkey christmas quilt

Do you remember the Christmas fabrics I bought in August last year? I made plans to sew a Christmas quilt back then. After sewing these project bags using the same fabrics I started the quilt top. That was October 2013. Fast forward a year and I still only had a couple of odd-sized log cabin blocks. I put it on my November goals list et voilà, it's the beginning of December and I have a finished Christmas quilt!

My mom and I bought a bolt of Kona cotton snow a couple months ago so I added white stripes to each block and cut them down to the same size (9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches). My mom helped me by cutting all the strips of fabric and ironing the seams while I was speed-sewing everything together. I'm so thankful for having a fast sewing machine!

Deciding on a backing, batting and binding was pretty easy because I simply used what my stash had to offer. The backing is a very cheap fleece fabric that I bought at a German 'fabric market' years ago. The size matched the quilt top perfectly and I was glad to not have it lay around anymore. The binding is one of my current favourite fabrics; it's the perfect striped fabric for drawstrings, bindings, internal pockets, etc. It seems to go with every single fabric I own. I just love it and I regret that I didn't buy more of it. But fabric is heavy and my suitcases were already at their limits. Oh Canadian fabric stores, can't you open a store right next to my house?

I have a very talented longarm quilter in my family who offered her services for free (thanks, mom!). The quilting pattern is a free motion holly leave pattern with loops connecting the leaves. I love that the quilt is still fluffy and not 'quilted to death' yet it is a Christmas themed and fun pattern. Perfection all around!

Here are some random information about the quilt:
I used moda's 'santa's little helpers sock monkeys in squares' fabric in green and red for the centers of the log cabin blocks. Then I just added a variety of green and red fabrics around. The fabrics are a random collection of scraps I found in my mom's scrap bins (some of them are from my childhood) and a mixture of other Christmas fabrics I bought with the sock monkey fabrics (e.g. other fabrics from the collection as well as the cute 'presents all wrapped up' by Aneela Hoey.

So yay, I finally have a Christmas quilt!