Double Dutch - another sewing meet!

We had another double dutch sewing meet in Leiden. Double Dutch is a little organisation of Dutch modern quilters who meet every once in a while, you can find us on Flickr here.

We did a double dutch themed block challenge and we had
lovely muffins made by Mari

My input was dutch "windmills" in the colors of the dutch flag

Lotje and Muriel showing Muriel's lovely Marcelle Medallion

"my" round robin with the basket on top of all the other ones

One of our new members holding up her New York beauty!

Linda en Nicole (followthewhitebunny) holding up Nicole's scrap
vommit quilt! It's lovely. We all got some scraps to start our own.

I love these meetings spent with very different people who all share a love of modern quilts!

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Making my boys happy part two

Are your children jealous when I make something for someone else? Mine are. When I finish a gift they will say it's nice (or not, you've got to smile at their honesty in all things), but they will sum up everything you've "promised" to make for them immediately after that. My eldest has been asking for a bigger swim bag for some time, and after I finished a gift for his dad, he couldn't wait any longer. I made him another string bag pack. Loosely based on the tutorial I've used very often by Noodlehead. I've left out the zippered pocket for speed and because he never uses it for his swimming lessons.

 I used some left over faded jeans, the red and white stripes is a canvas coupon from Ikea. The cars fabric is a curtain coupon I fussy cut and fused on the jeans. His name is made with Iron on felt. I always order them here. They are good quality and really quick to send your order. The rope I bought at a dutch "dollar store" called action. Much cheaper than an any specialized store.

And to be one step ahead of my little one I made him a quick zippy robot pouch (he calls "porteneetje" in dutch) using my own zippy pouch tutorial you can find on my sidebar.

See you soon!

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Making my boys happy

Remember my fathersday post? I already showed you our fusible beads (strijkkralen) gift here. But I made him another little something. Using my quilt as you go technique I used scraps to make him a big potholder.

I usually save leftover bindings and use them in smaller projects like this one. I love recycling in that way! Sometimes I just use all my left over bindings for on big quilt. So be thrifty and don't throw them out. I even make my bindings longer than needed sometimes to be on the safe side and because I know I will use the leftovers later.

Because I made the front on some leftover batting with scraps and than added some heat resistant batting the potholder is pretty stiff and thick. On the other hand you will definitely not burn your hands with them!

The backing is some leftover Ikea fabric, they are nice and sturdy usually. And the quilting is neon orange. I have definitely developed a neon thing.

Now I'm off to make other big boys something!
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Boys being creative - fathersday

Morritz went all out for fathersday using fusible beads (strijkkralen). He made "sparkling stars" and we made a basket using fusible beads in the oven together (you can find a tutorial here). I found this "recipee" on pinterest and loved it at first sight. It's really easy to make and the possibilities are endless.....

I love his color choices and he can play with fusible beads forever. He loves to make things using examples (you can find lots of examples on pinterest!), but freestyling is fine to. So everybody run to ikea to buy a pot of fusible beads is my advise for a rainy weekend!

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Wedding bells - a neon wedding gift

I have not been sewing at all for some time. I'm not complaining, most reasons are good ones! My baby sister got married and we did 4 evenings of walking 5 km with Morritz's school called "wandelvierdaagse". 

So I'll share a bit of the story with some pics.

Remember I made my mom a table runner for her 40th wedding anniversary? You can find the post here. I made my sis a wedding themed pillow in neon (the neon fabric is by michael miller, just as the silver sparkled white I used as a background, looove it!). This is a good example how different the same block can be in different fabrics and projects.

The happy couple it was for. They looked beautiful  And it was a beautiful, sunny and happy day, full of new memories.

As for our walking adventure, he was a trooper and made it through all 4 evenings and got a medal for it. The last evening we went with all four of us. He even pushed his brothers buggy that evening and showed him the way! My big boy, he makes me so proud!

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Let's fly away! - a do good stitches finish

I have finally finished my do good stitches plane quilt. My first and last finish in the care circle, since I have now joined the european Comfort circle.

It's my second finish for the second quarter finish along with she can quilt, you can find my goal post here.
I asked for free interpretations of the tutorial from bad skirt and I got lots of pretty blocks from all over the world for it. I made a border around all of them and than cut them up wonky to make it look like the plains are moving in the sky. I backed it with a yellow gingham and some blue, quilted it with straight lines in green and gave it a green and white striped binding. I looove striped bindings.

So are you ready?

Quilt stats

Name: Fly away

Block tutorial: by badskirt

Fabrics: Scraps and stash from me and my fellow bee memebers

Quilted: By machine, straight lines in green

Bound: By hand with a green and white stripes cotton 

I asked if I can make a little boy who needs some comfort happy with it in our local children's home. Other wise I will send it to Jopie's dreamblanket organisation. 

See you soon. 

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Maak ook eens wat voor Pap, Mam

I Make lots of homemade gifts, but mostly for women and children. But I have made some things for Fathersday....
I made him an apron from some sturdy Ikea fabric, which he really uses! (if he does it to please me we will never know, and ignore) You can find the tutorial here. And the blogpost here.

I've also made him a sleeve for his MacBook, He thought it up and I made it. He uses this one everyday too. Blogged here.

With fathersday approaching rapidly, I'm thinking something up to make for him. Options are limited for men, but I think this shouldn't stop us to make something for the man or men we love. I went through my tutorial list for some options other fabulous lady's thought up. Do you have more to add?

• Toiletry Bag by EvaMaria

• Circle zip earbud pouch by dog under my desk

• iPad case - Sew mama Sew 

• My version of the iPad case

• My version of the ereader sleave (many more found on the web)

• For the (wannabee, or needtobe) cooks you could make oven mitts, or potholders

So what are you making for fathers day?

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