I have a dream! - A Janome Horizon -

I would love to have a new sewing machine with a bigger throut, more stich programs, needle up and down position selection and so forth.

For a long time I used my mothers sewing machine. At that time I only made small things like shortening trousers, repairing cloths a.s.o.

Then I took this quilting class and really got into patchworking.

When my mum wanted to have her machine back, it was a cheap one from Aldi by the way, 
I bought a Pfaff Hobby 1132 for 400 Euros at Amazon as I thought, patchworkers sew straight lines. Yes, I was so wrong at that time.

While I made good progress with new projects and really had the patchwork virus I had to realise that I bought the wrong machine. I should have contacted a shop which offers service and consultation  before buying a machine.

I did so some weeks ago. I had heard about the Florin family from several sewing people and phoned them to ask for a free motion foot for my Pfaff Hobby machine. He, Mr. Florin, was so gentle and he knows his business well. He recommended to use a Janome free stitching foot on my machine, as there was none available for my model. And so we made contact and a deal.

Then, when I finished my sampler quilt recently and when I looked at it from a distance I realised that it was better to do the quilting, even if it was stitching in the ditch, with a walking foot.
Problem: One cannot put a walking foot on my Pfaff. Duh!

As I had made contact with the Florin family now I asked for an appointment in there shop and when Mrs. Florin asked me on the phone for me requirements she had an idea right away which machine would suit me. She told me to bring some pieces and some fabrics or quilt sandwiches to the shop so I could try some techniques.

Me and Birgit (Stoff Natur Werkstatt at Dawanda.de) went there.

They have a love shop. Mrs. Florin was so kind to let me sew for two hours on the Janome Memory Craft 8200. We tried free motion quilting, stitched letters, numbers and decorative flowery quilting stitches. We put on different feet, sew a zipper, made buttonholes etc etc. And we had a good time chatting, drinking good coffee and eating chocolate. It was so nice.

She also let me try out a Singer and another Pfaff, but I was already in love with the Janome.
The only problem is that I need to wait for some time to get the money together.
But, Janome you will be mine soon!

I like the Memory Craft 8200 better than the 6600 or 7700 because it has a free arm, as I need to sew patches on my kids Jeans, which is not possible with these.

A quick project on a rainy sunday "Happy fuzzy cutting"

I saw these blocks on Instragram:

Fuzzy cut quilt blocks from crazymomquilts

and these inspired me to make a table runner for Easter. Easter is soon to come! ;-) My mom gave me several table cloths with cute embroidered chickens, flowers a.s.o. with Easter themes and I really liked them but I did not not want to put them on my tables. It wasn´t very me. So I kept them in the drawer. I also read the Cath Kidston book "Patch!" again lately in which she shows how to sew a crazy patch cushion from scraps of lovely embroidered pieces. Well, combine these ideas and you have this:

Add white saching, put them together in a row and you have : Tadaaa!

a happy, scrappy, colourful table runner.

May I mention here that I am only going to quilt all the covers I sew at the moment when I have my new sewing machine!

The cat lap size quilt
Susanne, a friend, who recently visited our house, loves my quilts and asked me if I could make a cat quilt for her. She has a faible for all things catty and Hello Kitty.
I asked her what colors she wanted for her quilt and she said red, rose, pink and white and maybe beige. She mentioned that when she was in my house it inspired her to combine red and rose. The colors of her house were mainly red and beige. Now she has a faible for all things cat related and "Hello Kitty style" for some years already and she thought she had a problem combining it. So it freed her mind, when she saw me decorating rosie, pink and red together.
I dare to do so only for a few month I must admit :-)

When I saw the one Aneela Hoey (comfortstitching.typepad.co.uk) posted on Instagram I knew this was the one I was going to make. It reminds me of Whiskas and it is fun to make as it is an easy and fast pattern.

I liked Aneelas color selection. So I went to my friend Birgits little fabric and crafty store after I dropped of the kids ats school and kindergarden and got a pink, rose and a lovely fabric from Westfalen with a white backround for the project.

 I bought Aneelas pattern at her Etsy Shop, cut the pieces and

 this is how far I hace gotten until today. I guess I will add some "stone grey" fabric to give it a bit more tension. Until now I did not add any pink. I think I don´t like it together.

I will keep you posted on the progress. One block measures 15.5 inches square or 40,5 cm so I might make one more and add a cushion to the present for Susanne too :-)