Dashy Baby

I finished another baby quilt, you've got to love a small project. The quilting and binding is a breeze on these. The baby in question isn't born yet, but since I do have quite a few todo's in mind with a deadline, I'm glad I finished this one at least! I blogged about is earlier here. The room for the baby to be is in green and grey, boy do I love how that turned out in the retro looking churn dashes. They are easy to make and give a great secondary pattern!

Quilt stats:
Name: retro churn dash
Measurements: 36x48 inches
op: I was inspired by the churn dashes I made for a bee. I just pulled boyish fabrics in green and grey with lots of novelty fun fabrics. You can find tutorials for churn dashes all over the internet.
Back: Big green white checker.
Quilted: Straight lines sort of following the blocks in neon green on my home machine
Binding: Grey, by hand

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Yannick has decided to enter the world

You all know I had finished a little boat medallion of course, but I couldn't show it yet because the baby wasn't coming and I wanted to surprise my friend. I blogged about it here and here. Let me tell you: he is cute! A little snugly big bear like my Fedde at 9 pounds. Yannick is sleeping under his new quilt so I can show you now!

Quilt stats:
Name: Boaty baby
Top: I chose the pieced boat and some double hourglasses, I added a white border and after that 2 strips of scrappy squares on top and bottom to give it some length.
Fabric: Lots of blues, whites, greys, beige with a touch of red. Built around the boat print I bought especially from Kokka (one of my all time favorites). I love that designer fabrics are mixed with old shirts, bed linnen and fabric from the market.
Back: Pieced with fabric that I used in the front too
Quilted: Straight lines sort of following the blocks in beige on my home machine
Binding: Scrappy, by hand.

Now I just have to iron his name on!
See you soon!

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Another finished top - but no batting yet

Hi everyone, I made the grey and green churn dashes into a top! I love the result!There's a lot going on here, circus, guitars, giraffes, frogs, stars, dots, elephants, owls, but because I used only grey and green tones it's not to busy (I think). The batting is on it's way, thanks for the tips everyone!

Right now I'm pondering what my idea will be for a new bee (Joining hands) with people as far away as Russia and Kuwait. These are actually very abstract places to me and I love imagining about them while making the blocks to send there.This group is started by Corrinne Louise who I've met (virtually) in the creative quilt blocks bee which is ending some time soon after a bumpy ride. We sent the blocks around the circle there, adding to each quilt that past you. The idea is lovely, but a few people were out of the loop some time and the circle broke a few times. I think I will receive the lovely blocks everyone made me this fall. It will be aquas and pinks and white with lots of flying geese, looking forward to that. You can find my starter block here, blogged about almost a year ago. Time flies.

See you soon!

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I love you yeah, yeah, yeah

I love the churn dash blocks in grey and green! I had  made two and now I finished all twelve!

They will make a lovely quilt all put together!

We went to a local boat festival and I made some lovely pics!

aren't they handsome together

They had so much fun, though I was glad when they were out

Big friends eating belgian fries together!

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Settling down - fabric shopping!

We are getting back at our routine, the kids going to school and day care, we are working again and all this from our new temporary apartment. I have to remind myself to go there instead of to our old home from work or grocery shopping. Otherwise my automatic pilot will take me to our old home. My youngest, who was pretty indifferent about our temporary move asked me "when can we go home" when I tucked him in yesterday. When I told him we can't since other people are living there now (and holding my breath for a tantrum), he just said: oh okay and settled down to go to sleep.

This weekend we enjoyed a little nice weather and I took the bike to The Hague center for a fabric market (twice a year). I was hoping to buy batting. I've never ordered it online and my LQS (Local Quilt Store, it took me some time to figure it out too) seems to be closed everytime I leave from work (it's close toe work, not to home). If you read this blog more often you know I can't handle to many unfinished projects (UFO's) lying around. I fear never finnishing them and hesitate to start new things. And I still have the grannys front porch quilt to baste, quilt and bind and do good has deadlines about those.... But to make a long story short: no batting on the fabric market. But I couldn't resist a few additions to my fabric stash (Excuse: fairly cheap ones if you compare it to quilt store fabrics)! So if anyone has tips as to where to buy batting online, preferably in the Netherlands so it wont be to expensive to order, please let me know!

Don't you love a crisp sunny sunday morning!

Bambi!

Dots are good stash builders

€2,50 a meter! 100% cotton for backing

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waiting for Bram

My quilt for my friends baby is done. But He (his working name is Bram, but that isn't his real name of course) hasn't arrived yet. Who would have thought I finished it before the deadline with the move and all. But he is not coming out yet. Maybe today.... So I can't show it yet either, since I want her to be a little surprised at least. I gave a sneak peak here.

I'm always full of energy and new ideas after a quick finish, especially when sewing the binding down by hand I have time to visualize all kinds of new projects. So I moved on to the the next due-date on my baby boom list. For some reason a lot of people close to us are having babies this fall. Which makes me, I hope I'm not an exception, a little nostalgic since mine are getting bigger and bigger and there probably won't be another one. And that's fine, I am so lucky to have two beautiful boys and it's a good decision, but hormones can't be stopped when sewing up little snuggly baby quilts.

That being said and behind me. I was really nicely surprised by the churn dash blocks I made for the comfort circle the other day and decided the next baby quilt on my list would be churn dashes. This one is for a good friend of Alexander who is expecting his first baby in September. They seem to like a little retro look, so that went well with the churn dashes I think. And I started to collect blues and greens from my stash and scraps. (I am of course trying not to buy any fabric because I have enough because we need a lot of money to renovate our new home). I asked to see some pics of the babies new room just in time, because it's green and grey. A really nice color combo, that I didn't see coming. So I changed out the blues for greys, which I have a lot less of, but still plenty!

I have finished cutting and preparing the blocks. I made two. I am chain piecing it together, it's pretty quick! And I love the retro look of the first results.

The stack waiting to be blocks

My husq varna is humming!

I have a lot more babies on my list so if you have nice ideas for baby quilts, let me know!

See you soon!


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churn dashing away

With my sewing place set up, I couldn't wait to start a little project. And on my to do list I found the september block for do good stitches (Comfort circle). Alphenquilts asked for a churn dash block, which is a real classic, but I had never made it before. I love it! She asked for low volume backgrounds and bright pastels. I sometimes have a hard time deciding how to define such terms, so I just make what I like in the spirit of the blocks the others make. I'm really excited about this block and I think it will make a lovely baby quilt for someone on my list too!

The boys are getting used to the appartement. Look at the big one practicing his angry look. We were baking some together today.

I was glad some of the batter made it into the cake.

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Home Sweet temporary appartment

The move is done, the first one that is to a temporary apartement, awaiting the renovation of our real new home. Try explaining that to a toddler.... He's a bit confused, but stoic as he is, decides to ignore this and just repeat the question: Is this our new home? a few thousand times a day. I decided not to worry to much about it, he will find out soon enough. We expect to move again in November. A lot of our stuff is placed in sea containers, so a. we don't have to pack everything (just half) again in November, b. it won't fit in the temporary apartment.

We unpacked fairly quickly since it wasn't all of our stuff and I set up a little sewing corner. I decided I had to bring some sewing stuff, because otherwise I will go insane a lot of babies are due in the next months and I want to do some sewing for the new home. (see the stack of empty moving boxes on the balcony?)

It's in the living room, and I look forward to being in the middle of things when sewing! Speaking about babies and sewing, one of my girlfriends from high school (I'm lucky to have quite a few left from this period) is having her second baby. The theme of the new room is not very outspoken yet (or not discussed yet) but I got her to give a few hints: something boaty, with blues and beige and white. I started some blocks in our old home (weird to wright that down) and decided to do it medallion style, which attracts my eye a lot on flickr and pinterest. (for non quilters: medallion style means designing something around a center block, adding different borders). My center is a boat, surrounded by double hourglasses and then some strips. I added a little touch of red to make it a little more lively, but now I'm doubting this decision. I will be contemplating new borders to add this afternoon, any tips are always welcome!

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