Celebrations!

This April seems to be a month of celebrations, so let’s celebrate!

First up: my 1^st blogaversary (is that what it’s called?), I started blogging a year ago, and of course you start because you think you’ll enjoy it, but I enjoy it even more than I thought, it gives me some structure in my projects, as in: there is more pressure to actually finish them and not get started on that next ufo J  ….  and – more important - I met some wonderful new people through blogging. Both online and in person. Which is one of the reasons I like quilting in the first place, apart from it being a creative hobby it is definitely also a social hobby!

Second: last week was Whoppers 1^st anniversary in The Netherlands and in our family. He arrived from the shelter in Spain on April 10, 2012, when we picked him up at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, you can read about that eventful day here. It is wonderful to have him, he is such a good, sweet and cheerful dog, we took several doggy training courses with him, he loves his cuddles, falls asleep on your lap and we just love him to bits!

 

 

 

And third: later on this month, April 30 to be exact our Queen will abdicate and her son will become King of our country,  a reason to celebrate for many and seeing all the decorations etc. in red, white, blue and orange in the shops it reminded me of a ufo….



 

 

I started this quilt sometime in the early 90’s (my first quilting period so to speak, I started again a few years ago after approx. 12 years without quilting….) , after a quilt by dutch quilter, Mariet Soethout, she makes wonderful quilts.  I think I did a course at the time with Joop Smits. I found some drawings I made as well as some unfinished borders and a nice amount of fabric, more than I know what to do with, don’t know if I will ever finish this quilt.

 

 

 

So with all these celebrations, I think I should share some of this fabric in these very patriotic colors, red and blue with you.

Soooooo, if you’d like to have some let me know by leaving a comment to this blogpost. Next weekend DD will draw a winner who will receive about a yard of various red and blue fabrics out of this box. They are fabrics from the early 90’s and all are washed.

Love to hear from you,

Phyllis



 



Patchwork en Quiltdagen 2013

Nice to have a quiltshow near where I live for a change! The Patchwork en Quiltdagen, just a 5 minutes drive. And I was so looking forward to it because of this, Dorry’s antique quilts:-

 

 

A tied lone star quilt, I love the stippling effect of all those light colored strings.

 

 

 

Look at those edges!

Antique Dutch quilt

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detail of that quilt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 



… and these are for the quilt police J !



 

 

 

 

 

A quilt show is always a great place to meet up with (quilt)friends. It was lovely to see Marcha again. In November 2011 we sat opposite of each other for 3 days during the Applique Masterclass by Ted Storm. Apart from working very hard to master what Ted was teaching we had a lot of fun and although we had not seen each other since then we did keep in touch. At the time Marcha already had a webshop but since she has opened up a ‘real’ quiltshop too: the Quiltster, with a great selection of fabrics and patterns, including her own.

 

 

For those of you who are not familiar with Ted Storm’s work, her quilt won the Founders' Award at the Houston Quilt Festival 2012 and that was not the first of her quilts to win a prize there!

 

Ted in front of her winning quilt at the Houston Quilt Festival

 

And because I did not have a blog at the time, this is the picture taken (at the Quilthoeve quiltshop) after the 3-day Applique Masterclass of the students and a proud teacher J , with Marcha and I standing on the left.

 

 

 

But that was then and this is now and I had a great time at the quiltshow last Friday, hope you did too and if you weren’t there hope you enjoyed the pictures, the antique quilts were a highlight for me since we do not often get a chance to see antique quilts over here.

Have a good week,

Phyllis

 

 

 

 





A nice stack

of Jacob’s Ladder blocks. Just a quick blogpost, I have finished my 63 blocks… now putting them together starts, yes!

 

 

Enjoy your day!

Phyllis

Technical stuff...

To my surprise it has been about 2 weeks since my last blogpost!

Partly due to computer problems (which have not completely been solved yet…L ) and really, there was not a lot to blog about.

Busy with Eline who this week has to chose the subjects she wants to study for the next years of her secondary education and her final exams in a few years time.

‘Busy’ complaining about the weather, although we are lucky, incredibly cold but no snow as in parts of the US or the UK.

Busy with my Jacob’s Ladder, made these blocks, just 6 more to go and I can start putting the top together…

These two blocks will get a special place in the quilt, the fabrics were gifts from her.

 

 

And unfortunately, I have had to put the word verification on for comments on my blog. I am really sorry, I know it is such a pain, but since a few weeks I have been receiving a lot of spam on my blog via the Comments. This started after a few weeks ago I made one (1!) blogpost using Google Chrome rather than my usual Windows Explorer L…



 

And since I am not interested in buying “steroids” or “Viagra” from ‘Anonymous’,  I thought I’d try and keep things as clean as possible by putting on the word verification.
I do hope it will not stop you from leaving a comment, I love hearing from you and I really, really appreciate each and every comment, thank you!



Then I read that  Google Reader will stop in a few months, I never used it, but I read a lot of users are changing over to Blog Lovin, so I thought I’d try it out and it’s great! I find it really easy to use (and I am not an IT-wizzard). For those who are still on Google Reader and are looking for a replacement, try it out, it even gives you a special option to transfer your Google Reader feed in one go and I have read that works.

Sorry about this rather boring post, but sometimes that’s all there is…. Enjoy your week & one thing about this cold: it’s great quilting weather!

Phyllis

It was spring...

And  it was last Monday,  March 4.

I enjoyed that day, the first day of spring always sees me spring cleaning, and I always start on the windows.

After that I earned my first latte in the sun outside of the season, on the bench in front of the house, with the sun shades down, lovely!

Even sewing inside is so nice, with the sun shining in and the windows open, I finished more circles of the King George III

Last week there was also another day of sewing on my Jacob’s Ladder with fellow Feathergirl, Hubertine…. and her cat Teun!

Some of the blocks of my Jacob’s Ladder, altough I am not a big fan of green,  somehow this green block has become one of my favourites in that quilt.

Monday night was bee night again this time at Anita’s, the bowl on her table looked very wintry and Xmassy with the four candles, but it was filled with chocolate Easter eggs, maybe it was inspired by the strange weather we are having

because this morning, walking with Whopper, I took this picture, apparently we have just had the coldest March night e*v*e*r, - 13C/8.6F in some places….

I am ready for some more spring and sunshine, how about you?

Phyllis

Feathergirls update, a doggy dental visit and more

A few days ago my fellow Feathergirl Hubertine came over so we could check the progress on our Feathergirls quilts.

I laid out my Jacob’s Ladder blocks so far:

Getting somewhere! I want to make 63 blocks, 7 x 9, so not that far to go anymore.

Piles of goodness!

This week saw the midterm school holiday in our area, unfortunately my 15-year old daughter, Eline spent the beginning of the week ill on the couch, wrapped in a quilt.

She missed joining me for this: Whopper’s dental appointment!

Inside:

“I’m having none of this, what are you doing?!”

“Uhm, actually, Linda, this doesn’t taste that bad after all!”

(Chicken flavoured toothpaste!)

“Tineke, I’ve been a good boy, can I have my goodie bag now?”

 

And what a great goodie bag it was!

Seriously, this was a free instruction at our vet’s office to show you how to take care of your dog’s teeth, great initiative, Linda and Tineke were great with him.

Later on in the week Eline had recovered enough for a shopping trip to Rotterdam, where we had a great lunch at Bazar, one of our favourite restaurants there, love the interior:

Even though it was lunchtime we went for the breakfast Bazar, which they serve almost all day:

After lunch we went to this:

Really worth the visit, a very interesting exhibition! You are allowed to take pictures, but I won’t show them here, you should really go and see for yourself if you have the chance.

Have a nice week!

Phyllis

New blocks and a visit

This week I finished blocks 7 and 8 of the King George III quilt.

My blocks (or rather circles) so far:

Then, at the Blogger’s Bee in February Hubertine and I were invited to visit the their weekly bee again, so that’s what we did one evening last week.

At the Bloggers Bee I also met Rennie for the first time and we have mailed a few times since. In one of those mails I promised to bake her a banana bread (which I had also made for the pot luck lunch at the Bloggers Bee) so this was a good opportunity to make good on my promise. Since Yvonne had invited me initially months ago and was also the host I of course could not arrive without making her one as well, and while I was at it decided to make a third banana bread for the other ladies to enjoy that evening. Phew!

I promised to put the link of the recipe on my blog, you can find it here.

There is one thing I add to the recipe: 50 grams of chopped walnuts for some extra bite and I always put 5 walnuts on top before I put it into the oven.

Waiting at the bee were the gifts Shannon made for the participants of the Bloggers Bee, but which unfortunately arrived too late for that, lovely crochet flower brooches. Such a nice gesture from Shannon, this is the one I chose:

The evening was great, lovely ladies (and two very well behaved dogs), nice projects, laughs and a glass of wine. More on this evening here.

Hubertine showing off her quilting skills at the bee.

Thanks ladies for your hospitality and also Shannon for your gift, it was a fun evening!

Phyllis