baby,it's not so cold outside

I would have loved some cold and snow, but it's not coming yet. Actually I closed the shades to be able to see my screen well. Well I guess there's always something to complain about.
I've been planning the garden for my new home, in my head and with some drawing. It should be green (with white and blue flowers, maybe some pink), but with enough terass, I would like a new vegetable garden, a special children's spot with a swing, I would not like to be on my knees every day to pull out weeds, it should be modern, but still cozy, etc. I hope to combine it in a design that I can actually realize moneywise... But first there is a dream, than there is a plan. And if the plan has several steps, so be it.

I can finally show you the Christmas presents that did make it of the list. Do you make way to long making lists for Christmas? Maybe we should start in January this year LOL.

I made my middle sister a sleeve for her new iPhone. She picked it out on pinterest herself. You can find the tutorial here. It's really easy going, and delivers a nice result (I think). I've used some of my new bees and some neon fabric!

I made my youngest sister; who is somehow attached to the Eifel tower and Paris, some potholders with some especially ordered Paris fabric.

And I made my sister in law a reversible tissuebox cover made with this great tutorial. Even the bias tape worked with me.

I made my boys some pillows for their new rooms that they were very happy with. Forgot to take a picture, so I will show them next time!Pin It

starry scrappy night

I'm the queen bee of the comfort circle again in January. I decided to make the blocks, so everyone could have a head start if they wanted. I've used this tutorial, but decided to use all colors instead of one. I love the idea of the wonky white stars popping up all over the quilt with a random touch to it. They are big blocks (17,5 inch finished) so I will probably make two smaller quilts of them.

And I finished the hand sewn (!) Dresden plate for Odette in the joining hands bee. It's a classic of course, made modern by the fabric choices. I like it, but I do not see a Dresden plate quilt in my foreseeable future!

Merry Christmas everyone!
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hohoho merry christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas. The boys needed new bow ties for their christmass festivities at school, at least I thought so! I've used some more sturdy fabric than last time. This was left over from some shorts I made once. I've made them before and browsed pinterest for tutorials. I didn't use one especially, but there are lots! They're easy to make and really rewarding! I use a velcro closing.

 

And I received the fabric I ordered at fatquartershop.com on black Friday! Yeah! How dou you like the mirror dots. They were on sale and I restocked!

Have a very mery christmas!Pin It

ting ting ting tingtingelingeling ting tingelingeling ling

My holiday spirits are up! And my first handywork present is finished. A ticker tape doll quilt, for the bed I gave her for her birthday!

I love making these. It feels so thrifty to use up even the smallest scraps! I have made some before and I think there are more of them in my future.

And the tree is up in my new house. A whole year of working towards this moment. Having up the tree in the new home. I'm so thankful that our dream came true.

Let's go make some more presents!Pin It

What's new pussycat?

I am receiving economy blocks almost everyday now from the very international members of the joining hands bee! This is an update shot! It's going to be wonderful!

I have received some new fabrics from a great dutch fabric webshop vanmarieke.nl. My sister in law gave me a gift certificate and I couldn't stop myself!

And I added a little scrapset too! They always come in handy, for example to make my scrappy hexies, or to add in the economy blocks. I love the surprise element of it!

And I folded my fabrics and put them in color order on my shelves. I love letting all the fabric go through my hands! I know you don't believe me but I haven't bought much fabric since we knew we would move and made a lot of quilts from my stash. So the stash is relieved to get some company again!

Off to get my Christmas lists in order! See you soon!


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sewing inspiration

Hi everyone,

I decided I couldn't wait anymore showing you my new (shared with my Alexander) hobby space. It's definitely not done yet, but the basics are set up. But maybe you will inspire me how to do it up from here?

I wanted to hang this cutie in my old room, but never did. I love it and it has a homely tictac.

We have two new desks, which are actually dining room tables from Ikea.
We can make them bigger or smaller. I can't wait to bast my first quilt on them!

This picture is from "his"side of the desks. And you can see the shelving he put up for me as a surprise.
So I can show off my lovely stash. And should keep it really neat (that should be a challenge)

This is the rack next to my desk holding my scraps and all kinds of odds and ends.
As you can see I just unloaded the boxes and this needs organizing. 

The dutch Santa Claus (Sinterklaas) brought me a new quilting book!
And a gift certificate from my favorite dutch online fabric shop vanmarieke.nl.
Of course it burned in my hands and it is already spent. 

So my plans are:
- to organise my fabric on the shelves
- to organise my rack
- to hang some curtains
- to make a mini to hang on the wall
- to add the presentation line I saw at slootjesschilder.blogspot.com
- to hang up some pictures
- etc.

And of course invite my sewing friend.

Any bright ideas I hadn't thought of?


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Bzzzz Bee block update

I'm still trying to find my way in my new home, make new routines, trying to remember where everything goes, trying to make time to organise a closet or hang some shelves. Not much sewing and blogging this period. That's why beeblock commitments are also good things. When you've made a commitment, you have to unpack your sewing machine to do at least a little sewing. Even if it is with only the unpacked resources!

I've made my last block for the creative quiltblock bee for my friend Corinne Louise. She asked for variations on a nine patch with a bird theme in cool colors. Well I looked up my birdie I bought at Veritas in Belgium. I'm so in love with them. And fussy cut a bird on the back of an elephant. I decided to do a straightforward nine patch to keep the pieces of fabric as big as possible.

I've also made a block called chain for Jo in the joining hands bee. You can find the tutorial here on quilterscache.  If you've never been you should go take a look. There are so many blocks here you couldn't make them in a lifetime! The tutorials are easy to follow. It does take some imaginations to imagine a modern quilt with them, but it's possible! Jo asked for purple, black, grey and white. A combo I have maybe even never used for a quilt. It's crisp, and I'm curious as to the secondary patterns that will emerge when putting all the blocks together.

See you soon!

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My first new home finish

The last day in the dreary apartment I put on the binding of this baby quilt, surrounded by boxes. After the move and unpacking most of the boxes I stitched the binding down, so this is my first official new home finish! I'm not ready to show pictures of the new home yet, there is still to much to do. But I can show you this finish. Because I will be giving it to baby Daniel this Sunday! My friend brought this little wonder into the world last week when we were busy packing and unpacking! I blogged about the top earlier here.

I couldn't be happier with this finish. I love the color scheme and the light and dark contrast, I love my versatile HST's (Half Square Triangles), I love the size, but what I love most is the binding. This fabric was bought, once upon a time, to make clothing. I don't remember what I had in mind, but isn't it lovely as a binding! I wish I would've bought more, but I have enough left to bind at least one other quilt.

This quilt was made entirely from my stash (from which I could make at least 10 more, sshhht) and inspired by a quilt on pinterest which I seem to have lost unfortunately, but made it from memory. The backing is made out of bigger pieces from my stash. The quilting was done by home machine and with a light grey thread, following the diamonds in the quilt.

Now I'm of to order an iron on name!
See you soon (with pics of the new home)



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Bzzzz Beeblock update

Bee block wise, I'm ready to move. I made the november blocks for the joining hands bee (last update) and the do good stitches comfort circle. Mighty Crumble asked for free style, but not wonky log cabins in fall colors. I love the process of just grabbing fabric that is striplike from my baskets of scraps and seeing something happen under my hands. I have never made a log cabin quilt, but the name alone would be inviting enough to make one once.

And I received the first economy blocks from the joining hands bee (from Pam in Oman) and made some more my self. Since you can use small scraps for these, I like to precut triangles and centers from leftovers when working on other things. I put them in an "economy block" ziploc bag. I pulled it out and there were several blocks precut and ready to sew. Since I need at least 80 blocks in the end, I will repeat this process untill I have enough blocks. I really look forward to this quilt, it will be great!

See you soon, but most likely when I am set up in my new sewing space!Pin It

Starting the count down to the move - home sweet home

There are 12 dreary appartment nights left untill we can start a new period in our existence as a family in our new home. They are finishing it this week and the next. We will move and do the last things ourselves. So how about a look around?

Our new bathroom

The new kitchen to be, a concrete counter top

The front door to our palace

stained glass, adding my favorite color turquoise

The old walnut tree in the backyard being trimmed to stay healthy

See you soon!Pin It

Babyquilt marathon - handsewn dresden plate

I've made my fourth babyquilt in a row! Well this one is just a top yet actually!

Last weeks pixie churn, off course Yannick's boaty baby, and Boasson's Dashy baby. Not really a babyquilt, but a toddler quilt for Lydia made with the do good stitches comfort circle; grannies comfort. I love that they are all modern and in someway attached to my style (I would gladly kept anyone of them), but so very different depending on the person it is made for!

So are you ready for my next reveal?

The working name is aqua diamonds. (I do hope you see the diamonds emerging) It is for my good friend who is having a baby on her own, which I think is a very brave and great thing to do. She is absolutely up to it, any baby will be blessed with such a sweet, confident, persevering mom. I wish them every happiness. I will sandwich it and quilt and bind it before the move, I hope... Because after I will be busy with other things for some time, like unpacking, making curtains etc.

For the joining hands bee someone asked for a hand stitched dresden plate. The dresden plate is a flower like very traditional block. I didn't really know how to start. But I found some template on the web, traced them on freezer paper, ironed fabric around them and just started. Like I've said before, to me quilting is 20% measuring and cutting, 30% ironing, 10% actually stitching but mostly daring. Daring to sink your scissors in to fabric, daring to start, etc. I'v finished the first step and now I have to applique them to a background, again by hand. Taking this step by step. We will see how it ends up, but do far so good. 

See you soon!Pin It

pixie churn - joint venture

My friend Lotje, de slootjesschilder.blogspot.com, and I did a co-production for a mutual colleague (Bas) who will have a baby soon. She is working on the penny sampler over at stitchedincolor.com and one of the patterns you receive when you join is the Pixie churn. I was already in my churn dash fever, so I needed no convincing. We added a row and did a loose interpretation, but the churn dashes in different sizes are to cute. The smallest one is really tiny and the one in the back is seriously huge! Using white churn dashes with a colorful background was new and I love the crisp contrast it gives.

We used an old shirt from Bas, white with tiny blue flowers, and one of my Alexander (pink and white checkers) as a basis. I really love that the baby girl will be sleeping under her fathers shirt. I could really recommend cutting up all the shirts you usually throw away! Ask all the men you know to donate them for your next quilt!

I love that it's really scrappy and colorful! And how two creations become one without clashing. You can really see my style and Lotje's in it if you would know them! You should try a co-production!

It's quilted by home machine with straight lines and a light pink thread. It's bound by hand with a buttery yellow and white striped fabric. I didn't want anything flashy to distract from the center.

See you soon!

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Bzzzz Bee block update

I made a block for november in the joining hands bee. Called the depression block. You can find the tutorial here. It's not depressing to me at all. I like how it's scrappy and it will give a lovely secondary pattern if combined in a quilt.

Three weeks and counting down to the move!

See you soon!Pin It

bookmark production line

This makes me smile!

I made another batch of bookmarks (30) for his classmates. It's his birthday treat. I did it last year and wrote up a tutorial. You van find it here. The kids and parents loved them last year, so why change a winning team. He has mostly new kids in his class, and he is learning to read and write now, so they should come in handy! I ordered some fabric for it from japan, but it hasn't arrived yet. So I made do with what I had. I embroidered the names of his classmates on them with my sewing machine. Now we have to go bake or buy something sweet to go with them!

And I started a babyquilt (yes again, I can't help everyone around me keeps having babies). My friend knows, but doesn't tell us what the baby will be and says she will keep everything turquoise (which tells us exactly nothing). I tried bribing her, but nothing works, so turquoise it is. I decided to combine it with grey and was really inspired by a quilt on pinterest which I cannot find again, but I'm making it from what I remember of it. It involves lots of HST's (Half Square triangles), which I have no made and cut for accuracy (You did what? Yes I cut the to an accurate 5,5 inches, please don't faint, I learn from my mistakes LOL)
This afternoon I will lay them out to see how they will come together!

See you soon!




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birthday boy - 7

7!

proud mommie

Lorraine Pascale's bacon cheese twists (recipee)

Piggies in a blanket

Chocolate cake from Allerhande

He loved it,

See you soon!Pin It