A new project

Now that my Jacob’s Ladder top is finished (and I haven’t started quilting her) I have started a new project on my regular sewing machine, a project that was long overdue.

My daughter Eline (15 years) has been asking me for ages now to make her a quilt, only rather than the more muted colors I usually like to work with, she prefers bright colors and modern fabrics.

So last year during our summer holiday in the US Eline and I hit the quiltshops we happened to pass and bought lovely bright fabrics. Also my fellow bee members assisted with giving me brightly colored scraps. Most notably Anita, where Eline and I spent a lovely afternoon going through boxes of her scraps. We came away with a bag full of colorfull stuff, a big ‘thank you’ is in order here.

Eline chose wonky stars as a pattern she would like, such a fun and easy pattern. I am using this tutorial. So now I am chain-piecing, chain-piecing, making stars, making stars.

 

 

 

 

I am enjoying it very much, it is great to be working with such different fabrics than I have been using up till now.

Together with the crochet project I started a few weeks ago and which is coming along nicely, it will be a colorful summer I think.

 

At the moment it is hot, at last, but the weather has been really nice lately anyway. That makes all the little animals in my neighbourhood come out, especially early in the morning when I walk Whopper and before our roads are filled with children and parents on their bicycles going to school. In the early morning we have more bicycles than cars on the roads here, which doesn’t scare these animals away.

 

 

 

These two little friends can always be found in the little playground (which I now call bunny hill) in the morning….

 

 

 

Sometimes the larger white rabbit is with a little black one these days….. his/her baby??

 

Hopping with us to the next corner each morning is this little friend,  making a lot of noise too, I think he/she is trying to protect his nest which must be nearby, the little birdies have not flown out yet, maybe this week.

 

 

I love these early mornings with the sun just out, don’t you?

 

Enjoy the upcoming summer days!

Phyllis

 

 

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Enjoy your day,
Phyllis

The good and the bad

Yesterday fellow Feathergirl Hubertine and myself had a chance to see our  Feathergirl projects together as finished tops:

My Jacob’s Ladder top was already sandwiched with the help of quilt friend and fellow bee member Anita at her terrace (it was a bit windy, so we needed some boxes to keep everything from flying away), she has become an ace at this and her help is very much appreciated, Hubertine’s quilt will follow at a later date

 



 

 

 





Anita has no blog, such a shame, she makes wonderful, beautiful, mostly modern quilts and many of them too…

 

The granny squares are coming along nicely too, I am enjoying making them very much

 

 

I needed the distraction of this crochet project because a few weeks ago a strange spot behind my left ear was diagnosed as skin cancer and had to be removed promptly. That left me looking like this

 



Last week, luckily, I got the all clear, it was all removed, so after my appointment at the clinic I treated myself to a nice latte at nearby Pierre’s in Rotterdam, to …. exhale………….

 



My new found love for crochet seems to have an effect on Hubertine, she has now started her own granny square project, so yesterday we shared a nice afternoon in the garden with balls of cotton yarn, crochet hooks and fruit shakes

 



The afternoon was followed by a healthy, slimline dinner, I made a recipe I found at David’s blog (click for the recipe) not so long ago and which has become a favourite our household since: prawn curry in coconut milk:

 

 

This weather may hold for a few more days, enjoy it!

Phyllis



 





I could not resist...

this……!!

After making the orange crochet crowns in April I found I really liked crochet, so I wanted to do some more. And guess what? I think I found a new addiction!

I got these at Echtstudio during the grand opening of their store last Saturday and what a fun day that was!

At noon exactly Kim, the owner, cut through the ribbon

 

 

and in we all went, it was busy, busy!

 

 





<3  the colours!

 

 



A beautiful old cabinet filled with little goodies like pendants, beads, etc. to use for your crochet projects.

 



Of course it did not take me long to fill up my basket

 



Nice goody bag with my purchase

 

 



What will I do with my lovely cottons? Granny squares!

 



This will be a nice project for the summer time (am sure summer will happen, even if it is just for one day…) and while I am quilting my Jacob’s Ladder. And now that I have found crochet as a nice diversion from quilting that ripple blanket will happen too sometime….

 

 

The week before – during the few hours of sunshine we had -  I kept myself busy with cleaning the garden furniture , which went from this

 



to this:

 





Always such a gratifying job, even though my back doesn’t think so!

Recently we spent a nice afternoon on the ‘Pure Markt’ in The Hague, where we found some great stalls with nice food (even though we watch our weight, we are foodies), like

 

English pies

 

French breads with herbs

 



Surinam barra’s, freshly fried by a very cheerful gentleman

 



Falafal and couscous salad

 



French butcher

 



And last but not least, the first time I had this in The Netherlands: pulled pork!

Look at those huge American bbq’s!

 

 



It was delicious, great thing about this: they did not put a lot of sauce on it, so you could really taste that beautiful meat!

 



Well, the sun is out, better enjoy some of it, it never lasts long over here,

 



off to the garden now!

Phyllis



Jacob's Ladder top finished!

Yes!! I finished my Jacob’s Ladder top! And I am really happy with how it turned out. I love the pattern (of course), but now that all the blocks have come together I also love the way that it looks with all the colors and different fabrics. Each fabric appears just once in the quilt, so as there are 63 blocks, 126 different fabrics were used.

 

Making this top has taught me a lot about machine patching and my black Featherweight, The Duchess, which was the reason for making this quilt in the first place. Also for my fellow Feathergirl, Hubertine, since we both got our Featherweights at about the same time, we decided to do this project and go through the learning process together.

 

In all those blocks of course there are some favourites, one is right in the middle, the light blue block, not only made of sweet fabrics, but I was allowed to pull them from the stash of my fellow Feathergirl, who should show you her result today as well.

 

As soon as I can I will sandwich this quilt and then machine quilt it. That will be a learning process too, I have only ever once machine quilted a quilt. I will not do the machine quilting on The Duchess but on my Pfaff. It is a broader machine and will therefore give me more space while I am quilting.

Will show you pictures when I get to that stage.

Thanks for stopping by,

Phyllis



Veldhoven quilt show 2013

Yesterday I was at the quilt show in Veldhoven. I saw some beautiful things and met some lovely people:

 

By Petra Prins:

 

 

Of course her stand was beautiful too

 

Centre of a quilt by Petra Prins, appliqued tree of life

 



And by Di Ford

 

 

 

 

It was great to have Di sign my copy of her book, such a nice lady and such a gifted quilter

 

 



So much inspiration!

Phyllis

April 30, 2013

Today sees the inauguration of the new King of our country. Eline wanted something a bit different to wear to during the festivities, so I made her this crochet crown, the pattern I found here.

 

 

A lot of orange decorations can be found everywhere but we will stick to these….

 

 



orange crochet crowns and orange tompouces, yummy!

Enjoy today!

Phyllis