Verandah view and other projects

I finished Cheryl's first block of her Verandah Views. I think this is a lovely BOM! The two birds in the nest are still missing, but I want them to be gray and still have to find some thread for that. And yes, Jutta, I know, I should have ironed my project before taking a picture ...


Here's another part of my 4 season quilt. One more row of stars to go and a few more stitcheries. Somehow swaps make me very uncertain of what I am doing. Luckily I have a daughter who makes me feel very good and encourages me to go on the way I had planned!

These colors are better!

Nine little bird

I finally put away my 6 reindeers and let these little birds take their place. They always remind me of spring that will soon be here, even though we still have some very cold days ahead of us.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy the things you are doing!

Take care (O:

Applique and calendar quilt challenge 2009

This is my applique try out. I found out very quickly, which is my favorite. It is the one using freezer paper (bottom bird). It has volume and looks soft. I know the middle one with the vliesofix looks best, but somehow I don't like making the blanket stitch and it looks too perfect. The top one, using Tilda's method looks uneven and is too thick.
I will have to practice on the freezer paper applique, but one has to start sometime!

See, I need some practice ...

Here are the first 25 days of my 2009 calendar quilt. It really is a challenge and becoming very large the way I had planned it. I like the green stripes, bringing some rest in the whole.


On Saturday I received another pin cushion pattern with materials, this time by Leanne's house. This is definitely my favorite one! Four pin cushions in one and I haven't even finished any of the other ones yet. Shame on me. But I guess those are wisps for this year!
In the green thread you can see the pin that goes with every pin cushion package.

And Saturday when I was in Aachen, Germany with my husband, I bought myself this book. It has such wonderful patterns in it. And even if you don't make any of it, looking at all the beautiful things is very much fun too! Very inspiring.

Have a happy day!

Blog change

As you see, today I changed the layout of my blog. I went from two to three columns, trying to get it better organized for myself (I could do this thanks to my sweet husband, who was willing to put his time into figuring out how to do this!). Due to this change, I can 'only' choose out of 75 backgrounds, not liking many of them. I compromised with this one, but am not quite happy with it. I will have to spend some more time on it one of these days and who knows, blogger might have some new backgrounds soon.

So no picture today. I did start my applique try outs, thanks to Jos from Cybele's Patch, who was so kind as to send me some freezer paper, so that I could try before I buy (in the Netherlands we have a programm Try before you die ...). I'm trying three methods, one with freezer paper, as you might have guessed, one the way Tilda appliques and one with the button hole stich (by hand). I will show the results soon.
I am doing this 'try out' because applique is not really my thing and I am trying to figure out which one suits me best and looks best for me. Then I might start the challenge A Tisket a Tasket Bunny Hill Basket.

Have a happy day!

Pink and green

I finished this apron for myself! Shawnee from the apron swap, told me the apron I originally made for the apron swap was perfectly alright. I was glad about it, because I had especially made it for that purpose. I added some small 'think pink' items to it, so it all did look very sassy in the end!


Some of the fabrics I used for the above apron are from Ikea, I bought 7 or so years ago. I made a quilt with them then, which my daughter sleeps underneath if it gets extra cold. So this winter it has been on her bed since December!

Apron detail

This is the beginning of the quilt for the Four season swap. Once again I had a hard time deciding on what I would make. Thanks to the Teeny tiny quare quilt swap I came across the book 'Mini quilts' by Els Feteris and Margo van Strien, of course after I finished the mini quilt. The size of on star square is 8 x 8 cm. I'll be making 15 of them, probably with a small stitchery in the middle.

And then my first 'snow bells' in the garden. They always give me a happy feeling, reminding me that spring is on its way! If you feel like stitching a 'Galanthus nivalis', look on Heikes Quilt. She started a BOM called Heike's Gartenjahr. It is very pretty!

Have a happy day!

Proximidade

Dzintra and Shari have given me this very special award!

This is a very cool Portuguese Award and it means that this blog invests in and believes that blogging makes us close. Proximidade translated to English means vicinity, or neighbourhood. I am so grateful that in blogland almost everyone is kind to one another and appreciate the others the way they are, letting you know this too! Since I blog, I have made some very special contacts with people from abroad. I even dare to call some of them my friends! And I am definitely not someone to call a person a friend very fast!

The meaning of this award:

This blog invests and believes in Proximity- nearness in space, time and relationships.

These blogs are exceedingly charming.

These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends .

They are not interested in prizes for self-aggrandizement!

Our hope is that when the ribbon of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated.

I'm supposed to pass this award on to fellow bloggers, to include the above text in their blog.

I find it very difficult to pass this award on to others, so I decided to pass it on to every lovely reader of my blog! I just want to mention four people who, besides Dzintra, have become very special to me, Evonne, Sarah, Jutta and Mai.

Then, at the beginning of this month Jackie from Jackie's Stitches tagged me.

Here are the rules to play the game:
1. When you are tagged you are asked to list eight random facts about yourself and post them on your blog for visitors to enjoy. This is gonna be fun!
2. Tag eight of your blogging friends and leave them a comment that they have been tagged and to join in the fun if they have the opportunity. (If not, that's okay. They can still enjoy the random facts everyone shares:) Be sure to list a link to your eight friends in your posting.

Now for my 8 facts:
1. I have made things with fabrics ever since I was a kid, from barbie doll clothings, to softies, to embroidery to anything, even my own clothes!
2. I started quilting years ago, not remembering when, put it aside for years and started again a few months ago.
3. I am the lucky mom of a teenage daughter and son and have a very sweet (and sometimes very annoying) husband.
4. I had a heart problem, which took over my life last year, but thanks to today's medicine, they were able to help me from my problem and life has been very good for me since then!
5. I'll be turning a half century this year.

6. I visited California and New York and just loved it there!
7. I love taking my dog Bibi (the beagle) for a long walk every morning.
8. Stitchery is like meditation for me.

OK, once again, I won't be tagging 8 people. But whoever wants to let others know 8 facts about you, please do! In fact, I thought it was quite difficult to do this.

Once upon a time and the apron swap

Yesterday I finished Bea's first free BOM block. A lovely pattern!

Then, I told you I was nervous about this apron swap. Well, I guess I was right. When I finished my apron (picture below) I was all satisfied and decided to look on the apron swap blog once again. I don't know how I could have missed this, PINK being my favorite color, but now I read: think pink, pink, pink. Red and white will work too.
No, not even behind pink glasses, did my original apron look pink. So ... I decided to start a new one. Even more fun to make, since I love to be surrounded ... by pink!


And one big suprise for me this week: I was the winner of Lyn's Whirl into winter giveaway!


Have a happy Sunday (O:

Ready for my swaps, some vintage embroidery and two more free BOMs

This weekend I finally decided how to work out the table runner for the 4 season quilt. I started cutting the pieces, which is quite a lot of work. The pattern is from the Mini quilt book, which I rediscovered after I made my teeny tiny square quilt. There will be some stitchery in it too.
And as you see, there is a book next to all this, which I really want to read. In two weeks I've only read about 20 pages. I am a slow reader, but I don't think it's that ... My blogging friend Dzintra is encouraging me to start reading and my daughter already finished it.

Today I received the name of my secret swap partner for the Sassy/flirty apron swap. I am a bit nervous about this swap.

If you ever plan to make an apron, many, many patterns can be found here and here.

OK, and this is an embroidery I made for my parents in ... 1975! I was wondering if that is vintage. I used to do this quite a lot when I was a teenager, always being busy with all kinds of handcrafts, such as knitting, crochet and making cloths for my Barbie and myself. My oldest sister is a genius in embroidery. If you look at her work, you can hardly tell the back from the front.

And then I found two more BOMs:

1. One is a 10 month BOM called Verandah Views, a very cute stitchery by Willowberry designs. I will probably start this one after I finished the first block of Once upon a time ...

2. Season's of the heart by Sandi. It's a very nice BOM too!

Off to some swap work now! I hope you have a happy day!

Teeny tiny square quilt and other things

This week I finished the quilt for the Teeny Tiny Square Quilt Swap. I have had these fabrics for a while and never knew what to use them for. This, I think looks very cute. I made an identical one for myself, but of course I only finished the top. Finishing it will be one of my Wisp's, I hope for this year.



I finished the wonderful stitchery of the first block of the Christmas Wish by Gail Pan. You should really make it! It is fun, easy and fast to do (O:

Today I finally started the quilt for the Calendar quilt challenge 2009. I'm not quite satisfied. The stripes are 1 3/4" x 10" cut. This I think is too big, so I'll change the stripes to

1 1/2" x 6", making five rows. The fabrics are from projects I just made, I recently baught and I have in my stash but don't know what to use for, such as the 'kitchen' fabric. My stripes will sometimes be higher, so that the figures come out better. That one will count for two days then, otherwise I'll have to make too many changes.

And here is a picture I took when taking a walk with my DH and our dog this morning. The snow was better during the week, but I always forgot the camera. Today is the first day that it is no longer freezing. The snow will probably be gone soon now. Luckily we were able to enjoy it for over a week, which is quite special.

Gorgeous Giggle buttons, my first Opam challenge project and some free BOMs

A while ago I won Sonya's giveaway at Giggle Buttons. And today it arrived, together with the Australian magazine Handmade. Sonya's pattern that goes with these buttons is in it. One more project for my Opam challenge!
The buttons are beautiful. They are made from porcelain so they are very sturdy and hard wearing, you can wash them in the washing machine, they will not break, and will not fade in colour. They are very very pretty and make you smile (O:

These are a few of the many projects I want to finish this year.

With the fabric on the right I made my first project. An apron. The first apron I ever made. I had planned it differently, but the red fabric is very stiff (even after machine washing), so I was unable to gather it evenly. It looks very squarish on the picture, but if you put it on it's very nice!


I made this apron for Kathy, from Pink Chalk Fabrics, who send me my first fabric order from abroad. Since it didn't arrive after 6 weeks, she send it again. That package took only one week. Finally after about 12 weeks, the first package arrived. I wanted to pay Kathy for the extra order, but she wouldn't let me. So, I don't know why I decided on making an apron and not something else, but it was the first thing that came into my mind.

While I was blogging, I found several new and free BOMs:

1. The great summer holiday mystery at Hugs n Kisses

2. Guute's Design Mystery BOM 2009 at Mijn Quilthoekje, which Mai mentioned on her blog

3. Once upon a time at Capricorn quilts.

Unbelievable, all the good things all those wonderful people design!

4. I just found another free BOM. I love Gail Pan's patterns. They make me happy. So please check it out.

5. And check out Bunny Hill Designs' free BOM. She has a very cute miniature quilt too.

Join the challenge

I can hardly believe it, but this year (4 days old) I already joined two challenges. The first one is the One project a month challenge, which challenges you to finish WISP's (works in slowest progress) as Kris and May Britt call them or any other project, one each month.


The second challenge is the Calendar quilt challenge '09. This will become a quilt full of memories for me, knowing that a lot will happen this year (such as turning a certain age and my daughter most likely leaving home in September).

And, if you're in for giveaways (I think there are about 60!) and have time, check out the Whirl into winter quilt giveaway. This is really overwhelming, with so many nice people having such wonderful giveaways. It is also a chance to get to visit many different inspiring blogs!

In case you don't have plans yet ...

Today I found this beautiful free BOM on Ellie's blog. This month you can find the instructions for assembling the blocks and the stitchery pattern for January.