A new kind of Stau

Do you remember the cow staus? Being stuck in one place for 20 minutes because of cows is a very unique experience but quite common in Garmisch. But last Wednesday morning, on the way to work, I encountered a new type of Stau!

That's right! I was stuck behind this flock of sheep for 10 minutes. And instead of being mad, I smiled the entire time.

I love living in this town with all its quirks!

Take care,

Me

17 Years of a Wonderful Time

Today Martin and I are having our 17th wedding anniversary! We are a very low key couple in regards to our wedding anniversaries. In fact, most of the time we don't do anything special really! 

We agreed on a "no presents or cards or flowers" policy! But we always spend the day together. Just puttering around the house, doing things in each others company!

This year we went to have breakfast at the Edelweiss with Pasha who is the cherry on our marriage sundae! And on a spur of the moment, after we dropped of Pasha at the Halloween dance, we went to have dinner at Pullmann's where they serve the best steaks ever (at least according to Martin!).

It was a perfect day with hopefully many more to come!

Martin, I love you more each day!

Take care,

Me

The Devil's Daughter

Pasha is going to the Teen Center's Halloween Party tonight! After much deliberation she decided that this year she wants to be the Devil's daughter. I was brainstorming with her on how we she would look like and she wanted it simple yet playful! 

So I bought two cheap t-shirts (black and red) from C&A. I cut the the red one apart and placed the front piece under the black shirt. 

Then I wrote "Daddy's Little" and drew a devil on the front of the t-shirt. I sewed around it by hand and cut away the black part.

Here is a closer look!

That's six hours worth of work :-)

I took the back of the red shirt and sewed (freehand) the devil's tail. That is being pinned on her black jeans with a safety pin.

I got her a pitch fork, some little devil's horns and some skull elastics to round this all out.

And this is how she looks all dressed up!

It is such a simple costume. She debated about going with a store bought costume but really wanted this one. I spent Euro 17 on the horns and the two t-shirts and 13 dollars on the pitch fork and the hair bands. I think, no, I know that a purchased costume from the P.X would have been about $20. But I prefer the hand made one! She put some thought in it instead of letting someone do it for her! I love it when she is creative!

Are you going trick-or-treating this year?

Take care,

Me

P.S. I messed up on the hand sewing. I don't think the t-shirt is going to last very long because I forgot to tie a knot at the beginning of each thread! Oh well, it's just a costume! But this gives me more ideas. Just look up images on google from "Alabama Chanin". It will blow your mind....

Cheap Pillow Forms

I love pillows. But pillows are expensive. Now that I sew I just see a pillow somewhere and make it myself instead of spending $40 on a pillow case. But I still needed the pillow forms. I bought those online for about $4 - $8 each. Not exactly cheap and not always available in the size I needed.

 So I decided to make them myself as well! I bought polyester fiber fill bags from the Arts and Crafts store in Stuttgart. I paid about $6 per bag. If they had any (and they rarely did!) I needed to buy them by the box with 6 bags per box. Those bags wouldn't last very long! I would end up paying about $3 - $5 per pillow form in the size I wanted. 

But I knew I could do better! One day I had an epiphany as I was buying some pillows for our guest bedroom. Why not cut those open and use the fill for my pillow forms? Yup, that's exactly what I did!

I bought one cheap pillow for $3. I cut it open and made 2 custom size pillow forms out of it. This means that I end up paying $1.50 for one pillow form. I don't think I can get that any cheaper :-)

Take care,

Me

Surprise Flowers

Tonight is my trunk show! I am so nervous! Martin has surprised me with some flowers and a card to give me some courage!

Aren't they gorgeous!?

I have packed the quilts, table mats, pillows and wall hangings in three suitcases. They barely fit! 

And I don't even show all my quilts that are currently residing in my home. There are about 8 more and that's just our lap quilts that we use to cuddle up with on the couch... :-)

I don't know what I am going to say... I don't know what they would like to know... I don't know anything... my mind is blank!

But what I do know is that Martin will take pictures of the quilts as I am showing them so you can see them too! :-)

Take care,

Me

P.S. I have the sweetest daughter! I offered her to stay home and she insisted to come along. She said: "I will be with you every step of the way!" If I wouldn't be already in love with this girl, this would have been the moment that I would fall in love :-)

Charm Pack Project # 3

I didn't just make one or two pillow cases... Actually I made 3!

Yup 3! I started to make on, and then another, and I had all the little clipped off corners. I couldn't let those go to waste, now could I? LOL

So I made this one as well!

I still have a couple of charm squares left over and lots of clippings. I really liked your suggestion of mug rugs... so I think I am going to make a couple of those next :-)

Take care,

Me

Strike Two of the List

Yes, that's right... I am on the roll. Another pair of Pajama pants has been sewn up by me. This must be a new record for me. I bought the fabric on Sunday and I already have two, yes, two pairs of pajama pants sewn up.

Pasha modeled for me. But it took me a few tries to get her to stand still and without making a funny face:

Here is a close up of the fabric: Roses on black background. Love it!

Take care,

Me

Dinner with a Dear Friend

I am going through the photos that I have taken this summer and came across the ones that I took while we were having dinner with Jeannie!

Jeannie is a very good friend of ours. We have known her since we have gotten stationed here and just grown closer over the years. She used to be a teacher at the DoDDS school but is now in charge of all the student teachers that are moving in and out of our area, Italy and the Netherlands (?)! In fact, she just let us know that she is in sunny Sicily right now and will be back this weekend!

She is a very sweet woman. Kind, giving, supportive and a very good listener!

She also gave Pasha her first official job: She is in charge of taking care of her plants, bringing in the mail and airing out the apartment. Pasha feels so grown up with and I feel so old!!! :-)

Take care,

Mar

Strike One of The List

I finally did it! I don’t know if you noticed but I have this to-do list on the right hand side of the blog. One of the items that has been lingering there for the last 8 months are pajama shorts. Well, I changed that to pants because it has gotten colder! I cut out two pairs from the fabrics that I bought. I made up one already. They are looking so cute on her!

What are you working on right now? The table runner?

Take care,

Karin

The first Snow!

I had to be up really early today to sign in a couple of drivers. Look what I found covering the cars and the ground...

I took another picture a couple of hours later to show you the entire extend of this beautiful yet cold beauty...

And then I took another picture with the view outside my window as I was getting ready to go home at 1700hrs. 

The snow has melted on the streets and almost all of it is gone on the fields. However, I know that we will get lots more :-)

It's funny to be so excited by it in the beginning. But by January, I am so ready for it to be gone. I think this is the only place I ever lived where we have 6 months of Winter, 2 months of cold Spring, 1 week of Summer and 3 1/2 months of fall :-)

I bet the sun is shining where you are :-)

Take care,

Me

Table Runner - Charm Pack Project #2

Your table runner inspired me! I decided to make a table runner out of my charm pack. I found this tutorial for a baby quilt but thought that I could change the size to make the table runner.

It went together fairly quickly. 

Now that it is pinned, I just have to find the time to quilt it :-)

These are my left overs:

I need to come up with more things to make. Maybe a pillow case or two?

Take care,

Me

Update on my WIP's

It definitely helped me to write down all my ongoing projects! I was able to get a couple finished and I didnt add any! I am so proud of myself...So here is where I am with my projects:

1. Love Birds (large lap size) - DONE :-)

2. Sherbert Quilt (queen size) - working on the blocks. It looks good but I need to order another jelly roll! - DONE :-)

3. Swoon Quilt (queen size) - I cut the fabric and it is ready to be sewn together (ha, didn't even get started on it yet!)

4. S's hounds tooth (twin size) - I cut it and I am getting ready for sewing (nope, nope, nope - I made a mistake in cutting it and had to change it completely! But that's another posting in itself!)

5. N's flowers (twinish size) - I have to put the border on it - No progress there... her birthday is only a couple weeks away and it has to be mailed by next week!

6. Snowballs (large lap size) - DONE :-)

7. Large Star (queen size) - top is finished; I need to sandwich and quilt it - DONE :-)

8. A's christmas quilt (large lap size) - same here; I need to sandwich and quilt it (haven't even looked at it lately!)

9. Square Dancing (king size) - the rows are done; I just have to sew those together... It is so huge that I am reluctant to tackle it!  :-(   

10. Crazy Quilt (twin size) - ready to be sandwiched and quilted

11. Loulouthi Tiles - I have the fabric all ready but I just don't feel like getting started on it! 

12. Pajama capri pants for P - she needs three pairs: Well, now they are pajama pants and I finished one pair so far! But the second one is already cut out and ready to be sewn

13. Computer table cover - Yup, another one of those utility things that I keep on dragging my feet on doing this - nope, no progress here at all

Yup, so proud of myself...

I am going to keep posting this until I either have a big fat red DONE :-) next to each of them or I died of shame LOL

Where are you on your projects?

Take care

I am so grateful...

...because she is my mother! She has always supported me in all my adventures... even the stupid ones:-)

She is wonderful, funny, kind, patient, oh so patient!, giving, supportive and most of all loving!

(My mom with her two blonde granddaughters Pasha and Natalie!)

I love her and hope that she is having the best Birthday ever! We got her an iPad for her birthday! She is now emailing me daily, reading ebooks, surfing the net and watching movies. She is discovering a brand new world :-)

Take care,

Me

A wonderful Sunday

We met up with my Mom and Steffi at the Munich train station to go to the Holland Stoffmarkt at the airport. It was awesome. We got there just as it opened. We were able to walk through without having to fight other people just to look at the fabrics. If you wait til later to go, you’ll have to deal with the masses and that takes the fun out of shopping!

Here are my purchases:

I was able to get a new cutting mat. My old one had deep grooves from all the cutting and needed to be replaced.

I got fabrics for skirts. Pasha needs a couple of them for her chorus performances during the holiday season. I didn’t want to spend Euro 40 for a skirt, so we found the perfect fabrics. I got enough for 3!

She chose two fabrics for her pajama pants as well, and two types of fleeces for some hooded sweaters. I am thinking that I should be able to get one piece of clothing done each night… that might be wishful thinking but I need a target to aim at!

I found some neat fabric for a skirt. They even had the pattern. It looks really nice! But I will make that one up last! Oh, and I got a knit for a scarf!

We went to a Bavarian restaurant at the airport for lunch. We also shopped a bit at the stores there. Pasha found some really cute earphones. They have cupcakes all over. And she found a cupcake key ring. I am sensing a theme  there… :-)

It was a really nice day. Filled with family, fun and laughter and yeah, fabric! What could be better? Maybe if you would have been there with us…?

Take care,

Me

A Whirlwind of a Weekend

This weekend went by so fast. I barely had the time to blink my eyes. But it was filled with so much fun and excitement.

The quilt show was on Saturday. I wanted to go in the afternoon. But I was nervous, hmmm, no, excited that we went there already around lunch time!

The quilts that they showed were fabulous! There were all kinds of quilts:

Amish inspired:

Art Quilts:

Classic:

And then of course, mine:

The lady who was watching this particular room even pulled her chair right up to my quilt to answer questions about it. I never would have thought that my quilts would attract that much attention.

We also had some soda and cake. Martin loved his which is kind of rare because he isn’t too fond of German cake. It’s not sweet enough for him :-)

Take care,

Me