sewing weekend with friends

Every year, my sewing group - Patchworkgruppe Nersingen - goes missing for one weekend on a retreat organized by Sabine Feldmann of Quilt Oase. This year we wanted a new location to optimize our sewing pleasure. And boy, did we ever find the greatest place in Altheim - Heiligkreuztal south of Ulm and north of the Bodensee. The weather was so beautiful when we arrived on Friday late in the afternoon, too.

This very beautifully restored and updated Kloster (Zisterzienserorden) or convent dating back to the early 13th Century captured our hearts. Kloster Heligkreuztal is a very large complex with several restaurants/bistros, gardens, bookstore, and meditation areas, media rooms, and gift shop. After we set up our working stations in this rather spacious room, we gathered in the Gaststätte for a full and very fresh buffet. After a short while of giggling and relaxing, we went to work hammering away on the sewing machines until wee hours in the morning.

Pure sewing bliss - Photo by Karen Ackva

My station was all the way on the other side of the room close to a window. The room was very spacious so we did not feel cramped at all. We had sewing machines, ironing boards, extension cords, music, all the fabrics and supplies that we needed. An extra delight for us were these amazing design boards provided by the facility! You could wheel them around the room to wherever you wanted.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

We had the chance to work on anything that we wanted; there was no course, just pure sewing fun. I brought my Berenstain Bears II quilt fabric already cut and ready to sew. I actually thought I could finish the quilt before I went to bed. Boy did I overestimate my sewing abilities!! There were close to 200 - seven inch patches; I did manage to get all 12 rows finished, though. Here you can see me laying it out for the final construction.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

The next morning we were greeted with another full and fresh buffet of German breads and pastries, soft boiled eggs, meats and cheese, jams and jellies as well as everything else with your extended German breakfast. We set off back to our sewing machines. When everything was running smoothly, we were pleasantly interrupted by our second breakfast of freshly baked butter pretzels and coffee. We took a short break for some photos for our group photo album as well. Here you can see me waiting for my beautiful models to arrive. I took some personal photos for our exhibit in the fall 2015.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

We returned to sewing and then came lunch. Another awesome spread of roasted lamb, fresh steamed/sauteed veggies, and full salad bar not to mention desert. Shortly after lunch, I finished my quilt and Katrin helped me to show off my quilt as went on a short photo tour of the convent. Thank you, liebe Katrin for helping me tote my quilt top around. ;-)

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

This is such a beautiful and amazing convent. I love how it smelled of history. You could feel the religious presence around you. It really inspired me as well. You could capture the different design elements and use them for new ideas in quilts and artwork.

After our short photo session, we went back to work. All of the other lovely ladies were hard at work pumping out quilt tops, pp light houses, blocks for our guild sampler, ragtime quilts, modern art quilts and pictures. I started to work on another block for my sampler quilt. I want to get it finished before our big exhibit in October in Nersingen.

Afternoon coffee and cake greeted our hungry appetites once again followed by more sewing and then another amazing buffet dinner in the evening. We sewed, we gossipped, we drank wine. We had a great time together. Sisters through sewing. ;-)

Our weekend was rounded up by more fabulous food on Sunday as well as a procession of children taking their first communion. It was very inspiring to watch. This was the view from our sewing room window. Only one-third of the procession is shown.

Photo taken by Katrin of http://cattinkakw.blogspot.de/

Our patchwork weekend came to an end. We said our farewells and made reservations for next year! We will be back! What a lovely convent and accommodations for our fabulous sewing weekend with the girls. ;-)

Thank you, Katrin for most of the photos I showed on my site. She took almost all of them. You can see more photos of the weekend by clicking here. Thank you for stopping by!

tangram and pinwheel variation

Motivation is a big problem right now. Is anyone else struggling with this too....summertime fun? I think we all are?! Time for sewing is very limited with such nice weather. I'd rather be sitting by the pool reading a super good book!

I managed to take the time and go to my monthly patchwork guild meeting. We decided this year, several of us were going to present a block or technique for all the others to try out. At the end of the year, we should have enough new blocks for a sampler commemorating our 20 years as a patchwork group.

The two previous months, we made a puzzle block and an Atarashii block. These two didn't go as well as I wanted them to, because they were very time intensive. Actually, I don't even have the puzzle block finished. But the blocks for June and Juli went very smoothly. Although I didn't even take my fabricto my meeting, let alone my sewing machine to the meeting, I did take notes and help out my friend, Marianne. She also nudged me along to finish these two blocks this week instead of putting them off. This post is dedicated to her - she reads (or looks at) my blog, but never comments. I think it is because I write strictly in English. Well, we'll see if we can get this post translated into German so she can read it too. ;-)

Both of these blocks (tangram and pinwheel variation) measure roughly 19cm or about seven inches. After I made these two, I thought about making my folded star a little smaller or ripping out the borders and adjusting the size to match the others. I might even finish the puzzle block a little smaller to be more in unison with the others.

I also really like to make blocks if they don't take too long to sew. You know me; I don't like it too complicated, or I just won't finish it. I think about one to two hours to complete a block is just about the right amount of time I like to take. My SewKitschy blocks take about three to four hours when I take my time and try to get the fabrics right. My North Pole blocks take much longer. My Hasenbach Challenge is just about finished and was quite easy to sew. The blocks were simple, and I kept the fabrics limited. And of course there is the Jump Start SAL. The blocks were so awesomely easy, I could fit it in between projects.

How long do you like to take for your blocks? I would like to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. If you are new to the site, please follow or subscribe for updates.

fancy folded star demo in our patchwork group

Last year I presented a demonstration to our patchwork group on the fancy folded star written by Maria Wallin. You can find the instructions on her website - not only quilts or here translated into German. I really fell in love with this technique that has more to do with folding and fabric composition than sewing .

We worked on this technique for two or three months until everyone got through it. Here are a few snapshots from my patchwork group. I wanted to collect more, but either I left my camera at home or the ladies forgot to bring their stars! ;-) Before too much times goes by, I wanted to present what the very charming ladies made so far.

The gals were very pleased with this demonstration and can't wait to learn more techniques in the group. We all want to learn more and have made a pledge to do just that! In 2015, we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary of the Nersinger Patchworkgruppe and are very excited about creating loads of new quilts showing off our talents. I hope you will join us along the way and cheer us on. If you have great ideas to share with us as far as techniques, events, activities we would love to hear from you.

Thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to leave comments in any language!

weekend retreat

This past weekend was my long awaited weekend retreat at the Quilt Oase in Nersingen. And oh, how the weekend was enjoyed. Five other ladies from our quilting group joined up to do a little sewing and lots of laughing. It is such a great way to relax and get some things accomplished and learn from the guru herself - Sabine Feldmann. She has so many tips and tricks up her sleeve, you never walk away from her without learning something new.

I first met Sabine over six years ago, when I took a patchwork class through our local community college. I knew then that she was and is extremely knowledgeable and masters her craft. She is a wizard in math -- an artist in designing -- and a master storyteller. I think she knows every technique there is to know in the patchwork scene. She is MY patchwork guru. Thank you, Sabine and ladies, for such a great weekend. I am looking forward to it again in January on our exclusive quilting retreat! Don't forget to visit Sabine's shop and participate in one of her courses. She also speaks English if your German isn't perfect. And, she told us a little secret that is going to make lots of patchworkers go wild!!

Our patchwork group is displaying and selling items at the Christmas Market in Nersingen beginning tomorrow. Please support our patchwork group and stop by. There will be so many lovely, handmade items to choose from.

Katrin, who also sewed this weekend, brought in lots of self-made goodies and most of them were snapped up before they even hit the market stands. You can visit her site and see what she worked on here.

What did I work on over the weekend? My updated plaid quilt! A couple of weeks ago I asked for some advice from you all about making a more up-to-date plaid quilt for my husband. I originally wanted to make a 60° triangle quilt, log-cabin-style. I didn't have enough plaids though, and we agreed it was going to be just a little too busy. I opted for a softer pattern (for a MAN) with lots and lots of plaids. This is a little sneak peek of what I am working on.

I wanted to get a little further, but my fabric ran out and didn't have anymore in stock. I will continue on it in January at our group's exclusive quilting retreat (in a castle...yeahh).