Off to Europe we go! (and some progress updates)

My friends, the time has come; me and my son are off to Turkey this evening!!! I am super excited and a little nervous too. You know that feeling; you think you forget something and keep searching for it in your mind even though you made checklists and ticked everything off the list! Yes, I have that feeling and cannot stop searching for that missing item. And probably won't stop until I arrive at my destination!

Before I leave, I want to show you some progress photos of the quilt I made for my son and a few bits and pieces I made to take with me as gifts. 

Let's start with the quilt. Here is where I am at at the moment.

My initial plan was to buy some nice flannel fabric from Turkey and start quilting it once I returned...uhmm..nope, I couldn't wait. I couldn't resist the itch. I bought some very cute flannel from Lincraft-normally I never buy fabric from Lincraft or Spotlight but this fabric was good quality-and just got on with it. I think I made a very good progress; given that I quilted that area only in two days. Then I had stop to prepare for our departure.

I chose to quilt it with this linear pattern as I thought it would compliment the stripes on the quilt (I have other plans for the stripy bits). It is so fun; goes very quickly and you can fill a large area in no time. I must admit that I am not very happy with my thread colour choice. It doesn't show clearly in the photo but it is variegated with some soft yellows, blues, greens and pinks. I thought they would pop on the grey background but instead , they blend in so well that they become almost invisible. The thread quality, however, is superb! It is Superior King Tut; nice and shiny, the weight is beautiful- I think it is NE 40 in Aurifil, and the most importantly it doesn't create lint balls in the bobbin case area, which is the only thing I don't like with Aurifil. 

So, to add some colour for the sake of visibility-if it is so!-, I also quilted with a lovely green Aurifil I found in my stash. I will at least quilt a few rows in this colour and then go back to the variegated one.

Well, even though the thread colour didn't go as planned, I am so proud of myself. I never thought I would be able to manage such a large quilt on my domestic machine but proved that it was possible. I made a very good progress; I will be very happy to find it almost half quilted when I return. Also, I love the texture that the quilting creates!

I did some gift shopping for my family and friends as well. Over the six years, I had three trips to Turkey and took lots of gifts that reflected Australia. This being the case, I struggled to find different and unique things for a few family members; so I decided to make pouches for them at the very last moment!!

I used a thick interfacing for the green bottomed one and regretted it so much. It was almost impossible to turn the pouch inside out. Because of the struggle, the fabric wrinkled and ironing it didn't help much. So, for the red bottomed one, I just used cotton batting without interfacing and it was just perfect too. (I now notice that I forgot to topstitch around the zipper. I might still have time for it LOL.) The tutorial for these pouches and two other sizes can be found at Noodle-head. 

And the last thing to show you is one of my bee blocks which I totally forgot about until the other night! 

It was around 11pm when I started cutting the fabrics for this. Luckily, I had every colour I needed. I finished making the second one early this morning as soon as I woke up and they have been sent to its recipient. Phew!

Oh, one more thing. I was given a lovely charm pack by a quilty friend a while ago. I didn't have any plans for it until I decided to entertain myself in the plane with EPP hexagons!! I quickly ordered the templates, which arrived yesterday. I brought everything I needed to cut the fabrics into four to the office this morning. In under ten minutes...voila! A nice pile of 2.5"x2.5" squares to be basted in the plane! (I must be kidding myself by the way. Someone remind me that I am travelling with a three year old!)

Well, I feel like I have achieved a lot in such a short time. This shows one more time that I work more efficiently under some stress and approaching deadlines!

I am super excited about seeing my family and friends again after two years. They last saw my son-except the regular Skype calls-when he was just one year old. I am so looking forward to their reaction!

I am also looking forward to the delicious Turkish food which I don't cook very often, street bazaars, fabrics shops, streets at nights full of people, and basically everything! We will be catching up with my hubby in Germany and spending a couple of weeks there as well. I have never been to Germany; so, this will be interesting too. As the last stop, we will hop to England to spend a few days with my husband's niece who is about to give birth. In early August, we will be heading home. 

I feel like this will be a fantastic trip which we will always remember. And some other adventures are waiting for me upon my return!

Well friends; thanks for your patience and reading this long post. I will try to keep blogging while overseas. You can always follow my fabric and food (and everything else) adventures on Instagram.

Stay safe, stay well, keep stitching!

Love,

Nurdan 

Monday Makers! #5

Hi there!
What a week it was for me! My stock for my jewellery business arrived last Wednesday. Since then I have been trying to finish purchasing all the necessary things like boxes, wrapping material, display busts...I haven't done much sewing except for the zipper pouches. My machine is playing up and driving me nuts. I booked it for its first service since I bought it-4 years ago-oopss!

Now, the zipper pouches from the last week.
I have made three; one quilted, two not quilted.

I quilted this one by just stitching around the flowers. My machine struggled while sewing the quilted panels together so I decided not to quilt the other two. Also, I didn't like this one much because it looks like a brick! Has nothing interesting.

 Not so pretty.

But it is great to keep all my make up stuff which are free floating in my handbag. So, it found its place in there. 

I was thinking how I should make the others. I remembered that last year I enrolled in Kristin Link's Bag Making Basics: Reversible Tote and Zipper Pouch at Craftsy. I quickly visited this class and made these two cute pouches.

 And I remembered to use a tag when sewing the second one.

I love them!

My project for today is to make a light box to be able to take nice and good quality photos of my jewellery.  As you see above, I need to develop my photography skills. I will be following this tutorial. Since I have all the material needed, this shouldn't take too long. 

Now, show me your finished projects and tell me what you are starting to make today!

Here are the linky rules: 

Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!
2. Grab the button from the side bar- this is still a WIP- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.
3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!
6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?
You don't have to be a follower of my blog, however; I wouldn't say no if you wanted to become one :-) Join and share as often as you want.

An InLinkz Link-up