A lovely, lovely week!

On Thursday the 18th Laura heard that she graduated from High School. In Holland there is a tradition, that when someone graduates, you hang out all kinds of things that you used at school. Most people hang out the Dutch flag to it, but since we don't have one, we hung up a flag with 'geslaagd' (graduated) on it.



For the first time I met a blogger friend, on Wednesday (O: I went to Jos, to bring her my charity quilt, which she will take to the person who organizes it. It was great to finally meet Jos. She is a wonderful person! We had a great afternoon. Time really went fast, chatting about all kinds of subjects. I was very lucky to be allowed to see Jos' great projects in real, such as her Charity Quilt, the finished Civil War Diary Quilt blocks, her hexagon quilt, Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks and her finished New York Beauty Quilt, to mention only a few. And I was able to take a look in her wonderful Japanese Quilt books. Thank you, Jos, for the wonderful afternoon! I hope we will soon do it again!

This week I finished the two stitchery BOMs I am working on, after having finished the Leanne's House stitcheries of mini block 5. Jutta and I decided to finish block 2 and 3 in three months, since we both are a bit too busy, to be able to do one block each month this summer.

This week my swap package arrived from Evonne. Evonne is a wonderful person I met when I joined her 'Santa is watching' giveaway for a pattern she designed. I didn't win the giveaway, but I did win a dear friend! Look at the lovely journal she made for me. And inside the candy bag there is some great candy (liquorice with chocolate). Even though the Netherlands is famous for its liquorice, I have never had these. They were very good, Evonne. Everyone here loved them, especially Ger!
Thank you, Evonne for having had this wonderful swap with me and for being my friend!

This is one of the presents I made for Evonne. It is a wallhanging with a stitchery pattern by Ursula Schertz. As you know from former posts, I just love Ursula Schertz' patterns!

And now I can also tell you, that I was Micki's June Star. I hadn't mentioned it before, because one of the pictures was the above wall hanging and I was afraid Evonne might see it. Micki interviews a quilter each month. It is a great way to connect quilters around the world! Thank you, Micki, for letting me feel like a 'star' for a while (O:

When I go for my daily morning walk with my sweet beagle Bibi, I often see lovely things nature gives us for free and meet and chat with all kinds of people. I always like looking for clovers with four leaves during my walks and this week I was very lucky once again. I always tell myself, that a clover with four leaves hardly stands by itself. This was so true again. When I found one and looked a little closer, I found six more. The next day, when I went back, I found some again. My family tries to find these clovers too, but somehow they can't get in touch with them ...

"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it."

- Ivan Panin

Have a lovely week!

Where did the time go?

I can hardly imagine how fast the time goes. It has already been two weeks, since I made a last post. I have been working on several projects, but since a lot is also happening in and around the family, there has been less time for it all. And, then there are projects I can still not show because they are secret swaps. Some nice objects for another post.

This week my PIF from Sherri arrived. Sherri is a wonderful person and makes very inspiring and often unbelievably pretty projects. I found myself very lucky, when I was able to join her PIF! Here is a detail of the tablerunner she made. Look at her quilt work!



And this is the tablerunner. The picture does not do it justice, but it was the best. It fits perfectly on our livingroom table and brightens up our room (this picture was taken outside, so that you don't get the idea that it is our table in the living room).

This is a handmade card and look at the cutest mini-honey bun from Aviary Sherri added to the PIF. Thank you so much, dear Sherri, for these lovely PIF presents!

I've been spending quite some time on Leanne's House Block II. A block with a lot of stitchery and lots of French knots. Not sure whether I will finish it this month, as I also want to finish the Christmas Wish and Verandah View BOMs.

I am also still working on The 12 Days of Christmas stitchery by Anni Dawns. So much fun to make in between all those other projects. One of my sisters already finished hers. She did it within 12 weeks! Now that was a very clever goal. She now started one for one of my other sisters.

And this is the one my daughter Laura is working on. Click on the picture and you will see the tiny tiny stitches she uses. Incredible.

Here is a sneak peek of one of the presents for The Christmas in July swap. Luckily the Quiltshop I go to sells Christmas fabrics all year round!

The quote I want to share with you this time:

"That's when you're at your best, when you're focused and you're serious and passionate about what you do, but at the same time you can relax and have fun and be confident."
- Derek Fisher


HAVE A LOVELY LOVELY AND CREATIVE WEEK (o:

Long long time ago

Hello everyone! It has been quite a while since I last added some news to my blog. Things have been a bit busy and out of the usual around here. Laura finished her final exams on Tuesday and her results will be in on June 18th. Ger went to the three day pop concert Pinkpop, where even Bruce Springsteen gave a concert. Then, Thijme returned early this morning (4.30 am!) from the now legendary soccer match Cambuur - Roda JC (his favorite club). And it was worth it all. Roda won after having to take panilties.
And me. Well, I've been busy with this and that, such as stitching, quilting, visiting my parents, going to my favorite quilt shop The Log Cabin, some gardening and reading. I finished the hilarious novel 'The Undomenstic Goddess' by Sophie Kinsella and started 'The Secret Lives of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd. A very touching story.

I finished my first Leanne's House block together with Jutta. This month we will be working on our second one.



For Sarah I made this bag for our flower swap. The stitchery pattern is by the German designer Ursula Schertz. She makes wonderful happy projects! As soon as I have more time, I want to make this stitchery quilt for myself.

I finished my 5th block of the Verandah Views.

This block I will be making 20 times for the Summer Block Swap. In return I will receive 20 other blocks in one color family per block. The pattern for this block is fun and easy to make. For a tutorial see here.

And look at this lovely letter I received from my 8 year old niece Lieselot today. This really made my day! If you click on the picture you can see that she used another color for every line she wrote. Thank you, dear sweet Lieselot!

I have also been working on the second border of the Spring Fling Round Robin 3 and the Christmas in July swap. No pictures that I can share with you yet, until it is all posted and received.

Finally I want to share this quote with you:

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."
- Frederick Keonig