June 2018

For the first time since February I spent a whole month at home in June, I was getting used to spending part of the month in France 😊

Having been away more than usual lately meant a lot of gardening needed to be done, I had to catch up with friends I had not seen for a while, non-quilters (no pics) and quilters like Karen (click).

It was in Karen’s beautiful garden I made the last quilting stitches to what will be my baby-Phebe quilt, having decided to just make the center and large applique border.

There was also time to see my friend Lucy (click). Lucy and I decided to catch up during a visit to beautiful Leiden and the great exhibition at the Textile Research Center in Leiden (click). We were there 2 days before the exhibition closed, so you probably already saw pictures of it, but if you did not or would like to see a bit more, here are mine:-

The weather was glorious, it had been a long time since we had so many sunny and warm days in a row, so a lot of time this month was spent outdoors, on terraces, having drinks, dinner and meeting people, not a lot of quilting being done.

Evenings on the beach….

Although not everyone was captivated by that gorgeous sunset….

Well, they are both soccer fans and it was the World Cup after all 😉

A time and a place for everything, I guess !

Enjoy the summer, we certainly are,

Phyllis

February 2018

February flew by, which I do not mind at all as it still is frightfully cold and I much prefer sunshine and nice temperatures so I cannot wait for spring to arrive.

But the low temperatures do give me more time for sewing (in spring and summer some of that time must be spent gardening) so the first part of February I spent time on Phebe.

I thought the whole thing needed a bit of ‘oomph’ so I added some bright red berries:

the large flowers in the upper corners

Time to start attaching that second sawtooth border

And while I pondered over what is next for Phebe, the weather changed from grey and dull into very cold and sunny, which made the trip to Karen’s B&B in Rijpwetering for the talk and show & tell by Hanneke Kwakkenbos from Atelier Vlijtig Liesje about broderie perse all the more pleasant, it was a lovely morning.

Someone was watching over my camera  😊 

Later on in the month I finally made my first dodecagon shape, I fell in love with those during the Margaret Sampson-George workshop I did at Petra Prins’ in Zutphen in January.

Betty Prins (click) was at the workshop with me and also fell for this shape, she invited me for some ‘dodecagonning’ at her atelier. She is way ahead of me (the hexies in the pictures are hers), it was inspiring to see the dodecagons she has already finished, we shared a lovely, warm, chatty morning.

Looking forward to making more of these dodecagons in March, they are quite addictive 😊

Phyllis

January 2018

Looking back on this month the highlight of the month definitely was the Dodecagon workshop by Margaret Sampson-George.  

This picture says it all, 

Such an inspiring, warm, cozy, memorable day.

It may have taken me 4 trains to get to Zutphen, but with a travel time of 2 hours I beat those who unfortunately arrived too late, because the trip by car from close to where I live myself had taken them 3 hours!

When I arrived everything was ready and looked so inviting

We were ready to start!

Ah, Margaret, first time I met her, a lovely lady and lovely quilts! 

Her quilts really lifted my spirits in these grey-sky days

 After lessons from Margaret

It was time to start ourselves

A day that ended much, much too soon, Betty and I had a hard time letting go 😊

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 Earlier in January I made my final quilting stitches on my King George quilt

So now I have to find the right binding fabric for it and make a label to finish it, hopefully soon.

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Finishing the quilting on the King George meant I could un-box another ufo….. Phebe!

I really want to finish this one in some way, I already spent so many hours on it and I still love the pattern by Di Ford, but I will not finish it in the way she designed it, just too much work. 

Once I have finished with the applique and second sawtooth border I must have a good think to see what will be next for my Phebe….

So far I worked on the upper corners 

It had been some time since I did applique, really nice to get back to it.

Thank you for visiting,

Phyllis