Pot or Casserole Carrier

This sewing project was made for my Grandma’s 80th birthday a couple of weeks ago and as I promised, here I am with the details and pictures of it. My uncle lives with my Grandma and he gave me the diameters of the plastic box which my Grandma uses to carry cakes and other sweets to parties. This box has no handles on it and this is why I thought a carrier for it should be a good present to her birthday. And with my uncle’s help it could even be a surprise for my Grandma.

But this also meant that I did not have the box while making the carrier, so I used a similar sized cardboard box in the process as my template. The inspiration was this beautiful green casserole carrier with wooden spoon handles but of course I had to make my own pattern after the measurements I received.

First I sprayed together the layers for quilting. I was only able to sew strait lines because my sewing machine can’t have free motion quilting foot (it’s a basic household model). Very unfortunate… Anyway, I managed to quilt it like this:

I left out the middle panel because after sewing together the two pieces I wanted to quilt them together. They became later the bottom of the cake box carrier. But before that I added a blue bias tape to the edges. Did you notice that the fabric patterns are the same but in two different color?

Then I realized that the hole thing was brighter then my wooden spoons, so I had to get the seam ripper and make some adjustments.

Finally it looked ok and the size was right.

I had to hand-stitch the loops because my poor sewing machine couldn’t handle so many layers but they look fine even from the inside:I finished the loops for the wooden spoons, then quilted the two pieces together as I mentioned before.

This is how it turned out from both sides:

Take a look at it from the right side:

The finishing step was to add the velcro and voila!

Please, note that the box on the pictures is slightly bigger that the actual plastic box and the carrier in reality fits just perfectly! (Sorry, no pictures though…)

What are your thoughts on this cake/pot carrier?

I liked this project because it wasn’t too difficult, it looks lovely with its cheerful colors and not at last, it is practical. I hate things with no purpose but this one will hopefully help my Grandma for many more years to carry her delicious cakes!

My first mini-quilt

I had the idea to make a recipe book for my sister for Christmas but since my sewing machine was almost three weeks long at the repair shop, there was no chance that this project will be done in time. So I told my sister that she is not getting any present this Christmas and to be honest, she was ok with it. She didn’t mind it at all but it bothered me and I couldn’t let it go.

I got back my sewing machine in mid January and started to make our carnival costumes right away. They took me weeks to finish them all, but they were ready just in time! (A post about them is coming soon by the way!)

Today is Ash-Wednesday and guess what? My sister’s Christmas present is finally finished! I know it’s ridiculous but she isn’t expecting anything from me right now and in about two weeks we are flying back home and I can give her her present at last!

For her recipe book I chose a small (A/5) sized binder and I made a cover for it but I also added a mini quilt on the front side.

My inspiration for this mini quilt was one of my older baby quilts (check it out here) and I know my sister loves fabric with small floral prints, so I added this cute frame to it. I like how the light blue color appears in the dark red. I think it definitely matches the colors of the mini quilt!

I also added a button to the side: in a shape of a flower, too.

And finally pockets on the insides.
I don’t know if my sister will use this as a recipe book or something else but I do hope she will like it.

Once again: Hungarian Blue Print

You might remember a post that I wrote about a year ago, it was about the Hungarian blue print fabric and a couple of sewing projects made of blue print. I love this fabric. I love it because it is absolutely high quality and great to work with. I love the look of it. I love its colors: the white and blue but in many variations. I love it because it always reminds me of Hungary and my cultural background and heritage. I love it because I remember that my great-grandmother used to wear clothes made out of this fabric. Very traditional looking clothes. Actually I still have one of her outfits which is at least sixty years old if not more and for some reason I try to preserve it as long as I can. And I inherited old blue print fabric from her, as well and I used it to make a lovely skirt out of and I still wear it occasionally.
But I think sometimes this fabric is underrated. If you’ve ever been to Hungary, you might have seen this blue print in souvenirs shops. They would probably offer you some horrible looking apron, maybe a table cloth, a pillow or a girl’s skirt. I mean those are adorable but come on people, use your fantasy! We can do even better!

This is why I often wonder why don’t people use it for other, much more up-to-date projects? I have a long-term project in mind: I would like to make a huge quilt from blue print for our bed but I didn’t have the time to start yet. Hopefully I can report back on that in couple of months. Until then here are a few sewing ideas that I made for our up-coming craft fair in Aachen.

My first project was this notebook cover. I sewed a couple of small pieces of different blue print together, then attached the white stripes, then I continued to make the cover as described in a previous post of mine. I love how it turned out.

Then I made lots of fabric angels for the craft fair just like last year. After all, it’s going to be a Christmas fair and last year people loved it.

Here are a few with red fabric:

A couple made with floral prints:

A few more including my favorite with the yellow fabric:

Aren’t they just cute?

I saved the best for last: wine tote bags. I will post the tutorial and more in an other post but for now just enjoy how great they look in the blue print fabric!

Using the yellow fabric and a plain blue print I created a bright, fun and modern wine tote. Even though I added a traditional flower mostly used in embroidery, it still looks very fresh and hip to me. Don’t you agree?

Hungarian Blue Print for Christmas

I know it’s only September and you might ask why am I writing about Christmas? I didn’t go crazy, just let me explain. I was invited to a crafters’ market at the beginning of this year’s advent (which btw. will take place in Aachen) and this invitation got me thinking: last year I participated in a similar but much bigger Advent market where I realized that I should had prepared more “christmasy stuff”. As you probably know that by now, my favorite thing to sew is baby blanket but it is such a big item and at these markets the smaller items sell better. So I decided to figure out a few new items to sew and if it is possible, use the traditional Hungarian blue print fabrics.
In my first attempt I tried to make a Christmas ornament following this video. The ball turned out very well and I think it looks awesome, but it took me a lot of time and material to make it. So I will probably not make more of these for the market, just not worth it. But as a present or just for our family I’ll make a couple more for sure because it is a fun and easy technique and the end-result is really beautiful.

About a week ago I found an other great idea. The tutorial itself is not very well detailed but with a little bit of creativity and logic you can make the angel ornaments without a problem. First I wanted to use only blue print fabric for this project, as well but then I had so much fun with those cute angels, that I made a lot more of them. I hope they will sell on the market.

How do you like the other colors?

I found the tutorial video to my last project just a couple of days ago but I couldn’t wait to try it out. These ornaments are really easy to make, don’t take much time and they look very good. Would you try to make them? This tutorial video is really well detailed and easy to follow, I can only recommend it.

 

Personalized wedding presents

As I promised in a previous post I finished two wedding presents and I am about to show you them. I already gave one of them to my friend but unfortunately the other one is still waiting for the chance to be delivered. Since it probably won’t happen before spring, I decided to post the pictures anyway.

The idea was to make something very personal and also quilted if it possible. This is how I came up with the idea of a recipe book: the covers were quilted and I wrote a couple of my favorite recipes into the book for starters.

As a personal touch I added the names of my friends on the front which I cross-stitched.

The covers are washable: you can slip the books out of them and simply wash them. I thought this is absolutely necessary because it is a recipe book and of course it will get dirty and stains over all over the years.

Well, what are your thoughts on this project? Would you be happy if you received a recipe book like this?

 

One more baby quilt

The last piece that I sewed before the Lothringair Street Festival was a beautiful yellow and green baby quilt. It’s made from stripes so it is kind of an easy project but this time I quilted it a bit differently: with waves. I think it turned out very nicely.

For the back side I was finally able to use that beautiful flower-printed fabric which I bought very long time ago.  I love the fresh colors and the fact that it’s unisex.

I would have been very happy if I got something like this blanket on my baby shower (if I had had one).

 

By the way a notice for all: I will go on vacation and get back to you with the results of the monthly give away sometime in July. Until then: have a great and creative time!

Toys for boys…

Last year, just a few weeks before Christmas I had a booth at a local craft fair which was an amazing experience for me and I learned a lot about this business. Of course I took a look at the competition and I realized something: when crafters sew for kids they usually have more stuff for the girls. It is understandable because it’s much easier to make cute clothes and accessories for girls. But I decided to look at this as a challenge and try to come up with ideas for boys. Well, it’s not easy, let me tell you this but not impossible.

The first thing was for me to buy a great boat-themed printed fabric and then I made a few things using this very nice fabric. I already presented once before the playing mat but my collection has more members, such as a portable changing mat…

a toy storage…

… a car seat organizer with a cup/bottle holder…

and a notebook cover (for the book of medical records that every child has in Germany)

Which one is your favorite?

Besides this boat themed collection I also made two fort kit. No, it wasn’t my idea, I saw it somewhere and thought it would be a great present for a bigger boy!

The fort kit contains a blanket, a flashlight, clothes pins, carabiners, wooden rings, kitchen towel clips, and clothes line in a great bag.

The third idea came from this website and I had one of those typical moments: “Why did I not think of this before?” Pirate eye patch!

 

 

The next idea came when I was making head bands for girls: Why not make feather head bands for boys? For the feathers I used my scrap-felt fabrics. I am officially out of felt now… I hand stitched the feathers first, made the bands and then attached the feathers by hand-stitching.

Unfortunately my son didn’t like them, so I had to ask our teddy bear to be my model again.

The next idea is kind of old. Do you remember when I made car-garage that you can hang? In case if you don’t remember here is a picture from one of them:

So when I made these last year I thought I should make some kind of portable car-storage or bag for boys and here is what I finally came up with:

This car-bag has seven pockets: four smaller and three bigger. Also has a road and you can fold it and roll it up and it’s ready to go!

Finally I made a truck-themed drawing set, as well.

So far these are my “toys for boys” ideas. How do you like them?

Elephant Baby Quilt

Last week I worked on an other baby quilt. I wanted to use my newest elephant-print fabric that I found in Hungary on our last trip. I find it very cute and perfect for baby/kids projects, so I decided to make an other blanket. After a long consideration I choose a geometrical quilt pattern and I am happy with the results.

It wasn’t a difficult project but with my very simple home sewing machine I am not able to make advanced quilts. Anyway, my elephant baby blanket is soft and cozy and kids will love it. I can’t wait until my next craft fair where I will be selling this one, too.

 

The binding is hand-stitched which takes a bit longer time but considering that this blanket is only 1x1m, it wasn’t that bad. I really like the fact, that even the backside looks very neat.

Who wouldn’t want a blanket for his kid like this?

A colourful babyblanket

A tried something new again: a babyblanket made out of stipes and let me tell you, I loved this project! I loved it because it was very easy to make, quickly done and it contains so many colours! It’s like a rainbow but even better because the colorful stripes can come in any order. I can only recomand this project to beginners and for those, who need a quick present for the next babyshower.

 

And I am already working on the next, similar babyblanket that I will spice up with a couple of elephants! Are you curious? Well, it’s not done yet but here is a sneak peak:

An other sneak peak

I have been working on this project for weeks. I mean I started it weeks ago but you know how it is: sometimes you have 20 minutes to work, then you put it aside for days, then it turns  out, that one fabric is not enough and you have to run to the store to get more. Then you wash it and iron it and then nothing happens for days again because you just don’t have the time. And every day when you go to bed, you’re imagining what it will look like if it’s finally done… So this project is exactly that one. But I do hope that sometime soon I will finish it and be able to present it. For the record, this is the largest pice that I have worked on yet.

You asking what it is? I see. I’m not telling but I’d be happy to hear/read your guesses!  🙂

An other babyblanket

This babyblanket was an other step for me learning new techniques in patchwork. Assembling triangles was new for me and I really thought through every little step of it, I was careful and watched some tutorial videos on youtube. Take a look at this picture below, it shows you the steps how I created this pattern. Yes, it does take time but at the and it will be worth it.

Now I am proud of the final product.

It’s a 1x1m blanket with thicker batting, so it’s even better for those little crowling babies. I hope a little one will enjoy this blanket for a long time!

I will be seeling this blanket with all the others at a three-day long maket in Aachen in December. (12. 06-08. Nikolausmarkt in Marienhospital)

Hungarian blue print

I was recently thinking about my Hungarian heritage. I studied cultural anthropology and folklore, now I make blankets and other crafty things. How did this happen? And how could I continue crafting but also represent my culture at the same time? I feel like I have some kind of a mission since I don’t live in Hungary: with my actions and also with my products I represent a little bit Hungary. At least I feel this way. So I figured one thing out so far: I sew and I would like to use a traditional hand-printed fabric called blue print. It’s really a beautiful fabric, although not easy to use because it’s died in indigo and with washing one must be very careful. But I find it very good for patch-working with all the different kinds of pattern.

Some companies make “fake blue prints”. They are actually printed cotton fabrics, that look like blue print but they are very easy to work with. I had a little piece of this kind at home, some old scrap-fabric from a skirt that I made ages ago. And I created an other baby blanket/playing mat using this fabric.

 

Take a closer look at the blue fabric, I think it’s very lovely:

I was also experimenting with free motion quilting but unfortunately there is no free motion quilt foot to my Janome sewing machine, so I did this very simple floral quilt with the normal sewing foot. And voila! It looks nice, don’t you think? And it shows of course on the other side as well:

One more picture of the final product:

Well, what do you think?

After I finished this blanket, we traveled back to Hungary and I was able to buy some real blue print fabric but let me tell you, it’s not easy to find! Anyway, next time I want to use blue print fabric, I will use the real ones:

 

 

 

My corner

Who has ever been in our apartment knows, that it is very small, especially the living room. But somehow it works for us and we use it as an office, a play room, a guest room and now as craft room, as well. And the whole room is just about 16qm! Can you believe it? Take a look at my corner: this is where I create. I like this corner because it’s close to the window and it’s bright. The desk was previously a smaller one (about the half size of this one) but with my husband we decided to update and I love this new desk. It works well so far and it smells really good because it’s real wood. And while we were shopping for a desk, I saw this small organizer above on the shelf with the drawers on sale! I was lucky to find it because now all the threads and other small stuff are organized and I can  keep these things away from my son. Practical and safe at the same time!

The lamp in the corner was a full-length standing lamp until my son ruined it as he started to crawl. Then I cut the bottom part off, put a lace on it and now it helps my work beside the desk when it gets darker.

And finally there is the green cutting mat and rolling cutter on the left side of the desk. I got those just yesterday but I already tried them out: they are very useful and looking forward to work with them. And of course there is a picture of my husband and son on my board. They inspire me the most… 🙂

Plans

As I mentioned in my previous post, recently I sewed two baby-blankets using new techniques. I didn’t have pictures of the second blanket but I do now and I would like to share them with you. Unfortunately I did not take picture during the sewing process, therefore I can’t give you a step by step tutorial. But if you look very closely, you’ll see that this blanket is actually a visual illusion because I sewed only squares together. Each square has four little triangles on its side using the other color.

Put two squares next to each other that are “negatives” or “opposite colors” and the pattern will turn out very neatly!

I feel like all the math-classes in school were after all worth it because finally I can use that knowledge! Yeay!

This blanket it approximately 70x140cm, so it would perfectly fit to a same sized baby bed to cover it when it’s play time and not sleep-time. For the back I used the darker, deep-red fabric.

And it’ll be for sale soon on a website, called dawanda. It’s very similar to etsy.com or meska.hu in Hungary. Anybody with a payPal account can use it. And yes, I am planning on starting a small business. This is the reason why I don’t have so much time now to write: I am busy planning and researching but hopefully soon I will be able to introduce my own online business. Fingers crossed!

Learning phase

I decided that I would like to learn new sewing techniques and in order to do that I bought a great book online: it’s called the “10-Minute Blocks 2” by Suzanne McNeill. I came across her video on YouTube where she explains a couple tricks and recommends her book as well. And right now it’s the perfect learning material for me!

I am trying out these new techniques from my brand new book and I have to tell you that I really enjoy them! The working process is not very complicated but of course it takes a bit of time to practice, so let me share a sneak peak with you until my new “master piece” is complete!

Lately

Lately I have been working on couple of things but nothing really new.

I made an other felt-picture but this time I put it in a real frame and it looks much better this way.

Then I sewn two new notebook covers (U-Heft Hülle). It is very amazing that on a simple product how many changes can be made! Use a different fabric, or just change one color, maybe put onto it a ribbon…really there is no limit!

Well, there is a new thing that I created: a small apron for my son. I know it’s a very girly thing but I tried to use darker colors and I put the letter “B” on it, as well. (You know because his name starts with B.) Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of him wearing the apron but hopefully soon! What do you think?

And finally two baby blankets. The first took me a while to finish it because the stars in it are so complicated but it’s finally done! It’s really not perfect if you look closely but for now I think I did a good job. I made mistakes and I learned a lot, so next time it will be better.

For the other blanket I really just wanted to use my scrap-fabric because it had been piling up and we do not have a space for that. It was a simple project: I cut out the same size squares from the left over fabrics: as many as possible, then I laid them out on the floor and played with the pattern until I thought it’s gonna be nice.

Baby blankets

Since we are expecting a baby, I decided to make a nice baby blanket. I’m not really good at patchwork but I like to try it out sometimes. In May the doctor told us that the baby is going to be a girl. Most likely.  So I looked for that old pink-red material that I bought about two years ago in Detroit. Of course, it wasn’t big enough, so I bought an other pink material and used it on the other side of the blanket.  The pattern of the blanket is very simple. And I put some filling between the two material. Unfortunately I have no idea what’s the name of it in English. Could someone please tell me?

Anyway, here is the final product:

But I also got some blue materials, just in case… Then I got to know that my sister-in-low is also expecting, and it’s a girl, too. I thought that I make her baby an other blanket, so I used the blue materials but somehow made it very girly with lots of flowers. Their baby is going to be named after a flower anyway. This time I tried to make more pattern on the blanket and I think I succeeded. First I sewed on the flowers on both sides, then the filling on one side, finally I sewed the two layers together. It is really not complicated.

PS.: Yesterday we went to the doctor again and had a big ultrasound, and as it turns out we are having a boy… No comment.