It’s just about time to clear up the cobwebs around here. I’ve not had much–or anything– stitchy to say since November, the last time my sewing machine(s) and I lived in the same country. Here’s a bit of an update of what I’ve been up to.
I moved back to Munich in mid-November and started working about a week later. I rented a room from a friend until the end of February, and although she had a sewing machine and I had a bunch of fabric and some of my sewing kit with me, I couldn’t get the hang of her Bernina.
I spent most of December to February stressing out about finding somewhere to live, and finally signed a lease towards the end of February. You guys, this house we’ve rented… is HUGE. We’re on the ground floor, which has three bedrooms, a “hobby” room (a small, awkwardly shaped room), a living room (room is a bit misleading: I’ve had one-bedroom flats smaller than this room), a foyer almost as big, a dining room, and a huge basement. I moved in at the beginning of March to an empty house. It didn’t even have a kitchen, just a room with pipes sticking out of the wall (Germany, it’s not all shits and giggles)(Wait, maybe it is. Go ahead and google “German toilets;” giggles guaranteed).

The view from our driveway. We live on the edge of a village with 40 residents. We just about doubled the village’s feline population.
At first I planned to use the hobby room or one of the spare bedrooms as a sewing studio, because I could close the door without the cats making a mess of things, or without having to tidy it up mid-project in case we had company, but then I wouldn’t have the cats around when I was sewing and would have no excuse to clean up when we had company, so I’ve ended up taking over half of the living room. I’ll post about the set up another time, because I’m still trying to figure it out.
Here are some of the stitchy things I’ve been up to in the last few months:
1. Buying fabric. Because why not? I made a few trips back to the UK between November and March and took advantage of the super-cheap fabric in my ghetto store and the fact that the Germ’s company was paying for the movers who would haul it all back to Germany for me. (Five boxes PLUS a huge duffel bag of fabric. And four sewing machines–when did that happen?!)
2. Buying more fabric. Sometimes it pays to follow fabric designers on Twitter (or non-fabric-designers — give us a follow @quiltingrainbow). I’ll do a separate post about this, but for a ridiculous price (340 GBP, including shipping), I managed to get my hands on about a yard of each fabric in five separate fabric collections from a designer who was cleaning house. That’s about 120 yards. Which even after item 3 below, I still don’t know where to store.
3. Buying furniture to store my fabric. Also a separate post coming, but will you look at this thing? Is it not a dream?!

Vintage shop cabinet, scored an eBay from a fabric store in Bamberg that had closed. Built in Munich sometime in the 1960s.
4. Buying more fabric. Enough, you say? But the Dutch fabric markets do a tour through Germany and their Munich stop happens to be three kilometers from my house! Which, um, didn’t mean I didn’t drive around for over an hour trying to find it. I nearly ran out of gas on the way. If not for the pouring rain, it would have been faster to walk. I have to admit that I was quite controlled at this one. Because I’m saving myself for when I go to Utrecht in the fall to an actual Dutch fabric market that has been in existence for over 400 years.
This weekend I’m off to Nadelwelt in Karlsruhe, a sewing and stitching congress. I’m booked on a three-hour long-arm class that I am pretty stoked about. I don’t imagine I’ll go mad with fabric shopping, mostly because fabric prices here make me want to cry, but I’m sure I won’t come home empty handed, because hi, have you met me yet?