wiwo wednesday vol. 21

I've been busy these past two weeks with a super secret project that I'm gonna share soon - hopefully. But in the meantime, I have a couple of in-progress shots for you of the major craft projects I have on/under the needle.

Last weekend I finished sewing the quilt top of a triangle quilt. I bought the fabrics in Canada last August so it's been on my to-do list for quite a while. Last Thursday was a public holiday in Germany so I had a four-day weekend to work on this. I finished the entire quilt top - including cutting all the triangles, going to a local quilt shop to buy more fabrics because I needed like 60 more triangles, sewing everything together (quite a challenge in a tiny apartment!) and flooding my IG feed (@froggeddesigns) with pretty pictures of it. Sunday evening I rearranged the furniture in my boyfriend's apartment to baste it. After I was done I realised the backing looked terrible - wrinkles all over! - so I undid everything and I'm sending it off to my mom so she can baste it on her longarm machine.

Over the past 4 years I have accumulated quite a lot of pants that I need to shorten (#shortpeopleproblems). My mom helped me pin them to the correct length three weeks ago when my parents were in town and they've been occupying one of my chairs since then. I'm determined to shorten ALL of them next weekend (another three-day weekend - yay!). Wish me luck.

Good thing I discovered the serial podcast to keep me company. If you haven't listened to the first season yet you totally should; it's been accompanying me on my daily walks and it's so addictive. I can't wait for season two to launch in the fall :)

This wouldn't be a wiwo post if I didn't share my progress on at least one knitting project, right?
Here's the current state of the pair of socks that's on my needles. I'm knitting them using Wollmeise twin yarn and 2.5mm needles. It's hilarious that the second sock looks SO DIFFERENT from the first although I'm using the same skein of yarn and I'm knitting from the same end. I might actually knit another pair after this using the same skeins of yarn so I can match up the two socks that look alike the most. I'm sure my mom won't mind taking a pair off my hands :)
I'm not gonna finish them until the beginning of stash dash though - which is in only two days! I'm so excited. There are lots of WIPs in my project bags that are begging for attention which they shell get.

So what have you been working on? Are you participating in stash dash this year?

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!