52 craft projects // sheeping mask

As you read this I'm sitting in an airplane somewhere over the atlantic and trying to get some sleep with the help of this 'sheeping mask'. Sleeping in an airplane is always difficult for me because it's never really dark in an airplane(I always seem to end up with neighbors who don't own a TV and spend all night watching movies instead of sleeping.). Naturally I had to sew a sleeping mask that would identify me as a yarn addict right away :)

I made the mask from fabric scraps. The back of the sheep is a soft flannel. I was too excited about the cute sheep and completely forgot to take a picture of the back - sorry! My roomie Julia got a similar mask, too - I managed to turn her into a yarn addict after just living with me for a couple of months!

This mask will make counting sheep much, much easier ;)
This is project #52 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // project life 2013

I love scrapbooking but finding the time to do it is a real challenge for me. Mainly because all my scrapbooking supplies are hidden in storage boxes so I need ~15 mins to get it all out (and usually about half an hour to clean up my mess). Add the time of having my pictures printed at the next pharmacy(or even order them online and wait for them 2-3 business days) and you need at least a whole afternoon to get a couple spreads done.

Some spreads in my 2013 album have lots of details and movie tickets etc.

Other spreads were put together months later and only some random facts were pulled from my daily planner or my cell phone.

My album consists of everything that happened the past year - happy and sad moments, family trips, parties with friends, lots of knitting and sewing, some random crafts, lots of plant pictures and blank weeks that were filled with studying.

I really love having one picture fill the entire spread.

The last weeks of the year were composed in monthly spreads rather than weekly, because I was running out of time.
Using a core kit really helped speed up the process. For 2014 I plan on making monthly spreads and spreads for special occasions, and probably some spreads that concentrate on my craft adventures.

Do you use project life? Or another form of scrapbooking? I'd love to see how you documented 2013 :)
This is project #51 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // circular knitting needle organizer

I just love combining my two favorite hobbies: knitting and sewing.
I made this knitting needle organizer to keep my interchangeable knitting needles organized. I made a knitting needle organiser back in 2011 but it's too small for my collection of knitting needles. Having too many knitting needles is a good excuse to make a new organizer, right?

There are 15 small pockets for interchangeable knitting needle tips in various sizes, as well as three large pockets for the cables and connectors. I have a couple of wips so the organizer would be full if I ever finished all my wips and stored the needles in here.

I'm using the knitpicks/knitpro symfonie knitting needles. I'm pretty happy with them but I've had quite a few broken needles last year. Their customer service is really great though - I've received several packages from India with new needles :)
Do you see the lonely red cable? I got a pair of Addi click lace needles to try at a fair and I LOVED them. I had a 3.5mm (US 4) needle that was perfect for knitting shawls. Unfortunately, someone stole them at a craft fair where I had my needles on display to demonstrate the knitting needle organizers I sell :(

Isn't the deer fabric the cutest? It's one of my favorite echino fabrics by kokka.
Where do you store your knitting needles?
This is project #50 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // travel knitting needle case

Oh hey, remember me? I've neglected this blog way too much this year. I'm sorry, little blog. But better times are coming, I promise.

I finished all my exams for now (round two will be in April... sigh) and have exactly one day before I'm off for a two-week vacation. So naturally I spent the day taking pictures of all the projects I've been meaning to share for months. Want a short roundup what I'm gonna blog about in the next couple of weeks?
- finally post the rest of the 52 craft projects I completed back in 2013 but never got around to share
- introduce a new monthly feature
- show you guys an awesome cardigan I knitted in January
- share some of my to-knit list for this year as well as embarrassing stash pictures
- introduce you to my new love - the Juki TL 2010Q sewing machine!!!
- business goals for 2014
- lots of vacation pictures

But first let me share the last four of my 52 craft projects.

I made designed this knitting needle travel case for my shop for knitters who want to start a new project on the go without brining all their needles or worrying about breaking their needles on the go when they are simply thrown into a bag.
The travel case is completely padded and has enough pockets to carry everything you need for 2-3 projects. I packed mine for our upcoming vacation (I plan to knit a pair of socks, a hat, a shawl and start a cardigan. I have an ambitious to knit list for my vacation.) but I'll also bring another small zipper pouch for stitch markers, row counters, tapestry needles, etc.
This is project #49 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // shopping cart coin case

In Germany you need a coin (0,50€ or 1€ or a plastic chip made of the same size) to get a shopping card. That can be pretty annoying especially since you never seem to have any coins on hand when you need them. So I made a tiny case that can be added to the keychain to hold a coin,
Turns out these tiny pouches are also idea to hold small USB sticks.

I like to make these from fabric scraps and add a coordinating case to all orders over 20€. People usually love them and it's fun to have a coordinating accessory to your knitting project bag, right?
I gave this one to Julia and seeing how 'raw' her keychain looked it really adds a pop of color.
This is project #48 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // bolster pillow cover

Julia has begged me to sew a pillow case for her bolster pillow for months. She chose the fabric(from IKEA) and I made it using her old cover as a template. It was a quick and easy projects (also great for beginners!) and she loved the result. I added colorful drawstrings because it was a little too boring for my taste.

I'm intrigued to sew a triangular pillowcase next. Do you remember the triangle-shaped tablet from The Office? Wouldn't it be hilarious to have one of those in form of a pillow?


This is project #47 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // fabric baskets

My mom made several cute fabric baskets a couple years ago. She gave me two and I've been using them every day since - they're perfect for all kinds of small things you'd normally have flying around. I use one of the baskets in our bathroom mirror cabinet to hold elastics and make up.

Since I always need little gifts I made two following Ayumi's tutorial. It's easy to follow and fun to make but piecing all the little squares together takes quite some time. Still a super fun and useful gift!
The top basket was a birthday gift for Julia and the bottom one was a gift to my very good friend Katja. They both loved the baskets and I know they'll be used a lot.

These are projects #45 and #46 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // quay scarf

I made the Quay scarf by Brooklyn Tweed for my brother for Christmas. BT patterns never disappoint and this one knit up beautifully. I love all the cables! They're so much fun to knit and the result is gorgeous. All the nerdy knitting information can be found on the ravelry project page.

The length turned out to be perfect - the scarf can easily be wrapped around twice. Blocking made the scarf wonderfully soft and quite a bit longer than before. A great, enjoyable knit that wasn't super quick but definitely worth it :)



This is project #44 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // echino ipad cover

Hey there and a (very, very late) happy New Year 2014!
It's that time of the year again when school takes up 95% of my 'free time'. I'm usually stuck on campus until 8pm these days so taking daylight photos is impossible. Yesterday I finally managed to take pictures of the remaining 52 craft projects. Most of the last ten projects are dear to my heart so instead of cramming them all into one post I decided to schedule posts and share one or two with you each day. So you get to enjoy looking at my craft projects while I'm spending every minute of my day trying to learn about the German corporate taxation system, Spanish vocabularies and marketing strategies. Sounds fun, right?

My family has had an iPad for almost two years and it took me 1.5 years to finally sew a proper iPad sleeve for it. We've had the magnetic Apple cover thingy since the beginning but this quilted sleeve is definitely an improvement.

I used this tutorial because I was too lazy to come up with the measurements myself. The tutorial is great but I'm not a fan of the 'floppy look' of the velcro. If I ever make another one I'll skip the interfacing and quilting on the flap and just use regular kam snaps. Or buttons. But that's just a personal preference.

The iPad including the smart cover fit into the cover with still some room. 1/4 to 1/2 inch smaller would've also been fine. The outer fabric is one of my favorite echino fabrics and the lining is a pink polka dot patchwork fabric I got on sale last summer. You can't ever go wrong with polka dots, right?

This is project #43 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // daily planner cover

I've been using the Moleskine daily planner (pocket size) for four years now and I'm really happy with it. I use it to keep track of appointments and school deadlines, to jot down ideas for craft projects and recipes and my daily to-do lists. This year I got the magenta version which I love but the cover is plain so I thought why not add some linen goodness to it?

I went through my scrap bins and found a bunch of echino (and some other kokka) scraps of various sizes - perfect for a patchwork book cover!

Even the backs of the covers are pretty!

The deer with glasses that's on the back is probably my all time favorite echino fabric - so happy I got to include it right next to some sheep and a camera!

I've been using the cover for the past days on my 2013 calendar and it's awesome how easy it is to find it - I used to empty half my bag because small planners tend to be at the very bottom of bags but with a colorful cover it kind of flashes at you when you open the bag. I'm exited for a colorful and well-organised year 2014!
This is project #42 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // patchwork mug rug

It's extremely difficult to find a present for my uncle because he has a very different taste than I do, he has 'everything he needs' and enough money to buy anything he wants. Naturally I decided to make something for him that he doesn't have already and can't buy in a shop: a handmade mug rug!

I chose a color combination to match his taste. For inspiration, I simply looked for patchwork mug rugs online and stumbled about this beautiful blog. Lots of inspiration for beautiful mug rugs there!

My beloved sewing machine has been having some major tension problems. The tension seems to change ten times during one sewing project. Not fun! But I have plans to purchase a mechanical straight-stitch machine next year so hopefully that will solve my tension problems ;)

This is project #41 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // chicane cardigan

Yet another Christmas present: Chicane cardigan by CookieA for Brooklyn Tweed. I love all the BT patterns I've knitted so far and this cardigan is no exception. The pattern was very easy to understand and it was a fun knit (except the sewing everything in/together at the end... thankfully my mom did that part!).

This cardigan was a gift from my mom and me; my dad chose the pattern and the yarn and my mom and I knitted it. You'll find mods, yarn information, etc. on the ravelry project page.


This is project #40 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 crafts // echino tote

Yet another project I've made as a Christmas present. My mom is the lucky new owner of this tote. I came up with the design and pattern myself. We both love echino fabrics and linen so naturally I used both in this project. I started with a bunch of echino fabrics and determined the width of the strip by the size of the green bike fabric.

I just love how bright and summer-y it looks. I'll definitely have to make a similar one for me - once I found a source of high-quality linen in Germany! [other than flea markets...]

I made the handles long enough that the tote can be carries on your shoulders or in one hand. The lining is a repurposed bed sheet and the cute pink polka dot pockets are ideal for cell phones, keys, etc.
I used a lightweight fusible interfacing to five the bag some stability without adding too much weight and bulk - it's suppose to be a tote that can be carried around to flea markets, the grocery store, etc.

I'm sorry about the picture quality - we're having a very rainy Christmas over here so we had to wait for the rain to stop for a few minutes to hurry outside and snap some pictures in my grandma's garden. This bag is definitely my favorite gift I made this year - do you know those gifts that you'd love to keep yourself and you're having a real hard time giving them to the recipient? This tote is definitely one of those and I'm glad I decided to make it and finally use some of my beloved echino fabrics. They're too pretty to stay hidden in my closet!
This is project #39 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // hand dyed socks

These socks were made from yarn two friends of mine hand dyed. Originally we wanted to dye yarn together but I had to spent the day at the ER with my grandma so I couldn't make it. I was really bummed that I couldn't make it. My two lovely friends gave me some gorgeous fingering weight yarn they hand dyed that day for me. I LOVE the colors - not too many colors yet the splashes of green make the socks interesting and fun.

I made up the pattern in my head as I knitted the sock - nothing fancy just some cables at the beginning. I love the way these socks turned out!
This is project #38 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // christmas cards 2013

I'm terrible when it comes to sending Christmas cards. It's the same every year. Yesterday evening I made a couple of simple cards to have them on hand for next year. No more excuses not to send Christmas cards next year!
I like minimalistic cards. For the first batch I cut out trees from a pattern paper, stuck them to a simple white card and stamped 'Merry Christmas' in German on the card. Super quick but I love the way they turned out.

For the second batch I experimented with wash tape. I got a bunch of Christmas themed washi tape on sale a couple of weeks ago and have used them for gift wrapping, home decor projects and packing orders.
The cut out trees are definitely more my style but I like the wash tape cards as well. Better to have simple homemade cards than no cards at all, right?
This is project #37 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // Molly hat

I finished this hat in November but couldn't post pictures earlier because it's a Christmas present for a friend of mine. The pattern is called Molly and it was a pretty fun knit - although I ended up using the entire skein except for a couple of inches. The last hour or so of knitting wasn't very relaxed anymore because I was afraid I had to frog the decrease section again to make it smaller.

It's a great in-class knitting project because it's easy yet interesting enough so you won't fall asleep in particular boring classes.

My lovely roomie Julia kindly offered to model the hat. She's very photogenic and it's always a pleasure to take pictures with her!
You can find all the dirty details on the ravelry project page.
This is project #36 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // walk with me quilt

Remember the quilt top I shared in the summer? I'm happy to report that the quilt is finally done. I had originally planned to finish it in October so I could launch into making my Christmas quilt in November and have it ready by December. Things don't always work out the way we hoped they would and I only finished this quilt a couple of days ago. At least I got to finish it in 2013 so I can check it off my 2013 to-do list.

You can read all about the quilt top making here so I'm gonna skip that step here.
My mom quilted it on her long arm quilting machine. She posted about the quilting process on her blog. The picture below was taken by her when my quilt was on her long arm - it looks so tiny compared to her huge frame!

I love that my mom used three different quilting designs - each border got its own pattern and the plusses were quilted with geometric shapes.

After sewing the coordinating patchwork pillow I still had some scraps from the jelly roll leftover so I decided to use the scraps for the binding. I love the look and I saved some money because I didn't have to buy yet another fabric for this quilt. It's really amazing how much you can get out of one jelly roll - they aren't cheap but imho definitely worth the bucks.

The flannel on the back is super soft - unfortunately it's really hard to see the quilting on the fray background! I used this tutorial for the binding - I know I complained a lot about the machine binding last time I around but I figured it's better to have an imperfect binding than no binding at all and having yet another ufo laying around next year (confession: I'm terrible lazy when it comes to sewing on a binding by hand. It probably would've taken me another year to finish the quilt if I had to sew the binding by hand).

Here are all the important information at a glance:

the quilt:

• name: Walk With Me Quilt (because it took me so long to finish it...)
• size: 57 x 45.5 inches 
• quilt pattern: plus quilt (/cross quilt)
• making the quilt top
• quilting it on a long arm machine
• machine binding tutorial
• coordinating patchwork pillow 

the materials:

• sewing machines used: Juki HZL-F600 for piecing and binding, Handi Quilter Avanté for quilting
• threads: 'sew and quilt thread' by aerofil madeira for piecing and binding, 'so fine' by superior for quilting
• 'A walk in the Woods' jelly roll by Aneela Hoey for Moda: Hamels fabrics in Chilliwack, BC, Canada
• 'bleach white' by KONA cotton: Quilt und Textilkunst in Munich, Germany
• 'blue mushrooms' by Aneela Hoey: Volksfaden in Berlin, Germany
• quilt backing fabric (brand unknown): Alfatex in Göttingen, Germany

This is project #35 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // socks for Julia

I knitted these socks a while ago in class. It took me about 1 1/2 weeks of classes to get these done. I'm currently in the process of using up all of my sock yarn leftovers (if you have any project suggestions I'd love to hear them!!). I used the same yarns for these striped socks.

They are also in my ravelry notebook but really there isn't much to say - just a pair of plain socks in a fun color combo!
This is project #34 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // pencil case II

Remember the pencil case I made a while ago? I love it but after only a couple of months the zipper broke. It was a recycled zipper that I got at a flea market last year. It looked sturdy but it seems like it has lived the better part of its life in someone else's bag.
I used the same measurements for the new pouch because it was perfect and I didn't think it was necessary to change anything - except the fabrics.

The outer fabric is by Ellen Luckett Baker for kokka. It's a sturdy linen/cotton mix. For the bottom I used linen. The lining is a Tilda fabric I got during our vacation to Denmark. I wanted to add a pop of color so I chose a bright pink zipper. This time I used a new YKK one so I hope it lasts longer than my last pencil pouch zipper!

To add a fun little detail I quilted the bottom part of the pouch to match the top fabric. Quilting linen isn't very rewarding because it looks kind of messy because of the linen structure but I still think it's a fun detail.

ps: in case you were wondering how the heck I plan to complete 52 projects seen that I'm at project 33 and there are only about 4 weeks left... Well, there are several Christmas gifts that I can't share until after Christmas. Also, I have a couple of finished projects laying around that just wait to be photographed. I'm seldom home during daylight hours so taking pictures is pretty challenging. TGIF and I get to take proper pictures on weekends :)
This is project #33 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.

52 craft projects // reading mitts

I knitted these mitts in class over the past couple of weeks, along with two big Christmas gifts. These mitts are fabulous for in class knitting/on-the-go knitting because they don't require a lot of attention and they're small enough to take them everywhere.

I bought the yarn a couple years ago. Originally, I wanted to use it for a sweater. But I didn't buy enough yarn and the yarn is discontinued so I've been using it for smaller projects like this cowl. I love the color of the yarn but it doesn't feel very alpaca-y. I'm glad I didn't end up making a sweater out of it because it's way too scratchy for my taste.
Check the ravelry project page for yarn information, etc.

This is project #32 of 52 craft projects I'm attempting to complete in 2013. You can see all the other projects I've complete so far here.