Ah, this summer!

Is just lovely, isn’t it? The sun, sometimes the rain, the great temperatures, sometimes a bit too hot, but still, I love it.

So do my strawberries

 

But then so do the birds, they looooove my strawberries! We usually only get to eat a few they have left for us J .

 

 

 

This summer I bought Zoku cups and Eline and I have become addicts. We put all sorts in there: strawberry lemonade with strawberries, pureed fruit with yoghurt for fruit smoothies, chocolate milk… in less than 10 mins it freezes and we have slush, frozen smoothie or some really good frosty, mushy chocolate stuff, yum!!

 

 

 



 

My summerprojects?

Eline’s wonky stars so far:

 

 

 

 



Eline’s granny squares so far:

And remember this wonderful quilt from two blogposts ago?

I wrote I did not make it, but I didn’t know who did at the time. Well, now I do, it was made by Nicolette and this (click) is her blog.

Love this, her version of a Dear Jane quilt is so different and cheerful!

Enjoy the summer!

Phyllis

 

 

No summer break

Many bloggers are taking a summer break from blogging, quite understandably, since there is less going on right now. 
No bee’s, no exhibitions and this summer (finally, after some bad ones) I find it often too hot to quilt or crochet. So for me no blog break, just less and shorter blog posts from me this summer.

When it is not too hot I am working on both my summer projects:

 



 

 

Eline’s wonky stars quilt:

 

 

 

And my granny squares, which Eline has claimed as well now, once the throw is finished, she has asked if she can have it in her room. Of course she can.

 

And recently my husband picked this up for me when he had to go to Zutphen (where Petra’s shop is), now I finally have my copy of this gorgeous book:

 

And signed by both An and Petra:

 



‘See’ you in a bit & enjoy the summer!

Phyllis

A new technique

Isn’t this quilt lovely? No, I did not make this quilt, but saw it at the Quilterspalet quiltshop in The Hague , a very special version of a Dear Jane (or is it a Nearly Insane??) quilt this one, which is why I am showing it, made from 30’s type of feedsack fabrics.

I was at the Quilterspalet with Hubertine for a workshop to learn how to work with Appliquick utensils.

This is what we were up to:

 

 

 

 

With our teacher and shop owner Evy.
Because my hearing is less than perfect I always try to sit next to the teacher at workshops. Teacher’s pet, that’s me!

I found the Appliquick method really helpful, I can recommend it. From now on at least for those really small applique pieces I will be using this method.

Also at the Quilterspalet I saw this:

 



 



Isn’t that adorable?!

Meanwhile hubby and R&R friends made another 36-hour trip to the last Rolling Stones Hyde Park concert on July 13.  Again, the guys made it way up to the front, where he was able to take these pictures, nobody between him and his heroes!

 

 

Apart from the Appliquick workshop not a lot of quilty things going on right now, I find it too hot, get too distracted by the heat. I did make a few extra stars for Eline’s quilt, though.

 

 



Enjoy these summer days!

Phyllis

 



Concerts and things...

Woke up this morning at this time….

Yes you saw it right, 00.55 am… and all because of this:

 

No I am not going, but hubby is. Together with a few other madmen he is driving to Calais, to take the train to the UK at 05.30 hrs and then they will drive to London, leave the car somewhere and make their way to Hyde Park….

And then after the concert they will to do the same in reverse, so that is a non-stop 36 hour just to see Mick, Keef & Co…. and they will be doing the same for next weekend for the July 13 concert…..

Well, I did get a few hours of sleep after he left, but had an early morning anyway, which was nice, great weather today, lovely early morning walk with Whopper to see loads of our bunny friends…

 



And finally some time for a blogpost!

Several things have kept me from blogging the past few weeks:

I have had a horrible cold with a bad cough for the past two weeks, it just won’t leave me and together with my pollen allergy it has left me feeling drained of energy;

 

My computer hasn’t been working well for months and it finally broke down altogether so I was without for a number of days, but with a new hard disk drive I should be back in business now….

Basically I am working on just two projects right now,  Eline’s wonky stars quilt and my crochet granny squares, so not that much to show you, but here you go

 

I love working with these fabrics

 



And these are my granny squares so far:

 



Although I am not joining hubby on this trip to the Stones I did go with him and Eline to the Bruce Springsteen concert two weeks ago which was fantastic! I think it is the 5^th time I went to see The Boss and he never disappoints, what a great performer, so much energy and such a nice man…

 

It started by waiting a few hours, we had a great spot just behind the fences, so once there we could not leave anymore

The Boss came on at 19.30 hrs exactly (such good manners not to keep us waiting),  and did not leave the stage until 22.50 hrs, playing constantly …

 

 

We were right underneath the US flag…pictures taken from the big screen, only had my telephone with me so could not take pictures very well.

With Steven van Zandt, another hero of mine, he is great in the E Street band and I loved him in the Soprano’s (my all time favourite tv-series)

At the end of the concert it was pooring down with rain, Bruce stayed out on the catwalk in the rain getting absolutely soaked, same as us, cracking jokes: “It just doesn’t rain enough!” and  “It still doesn’t rain enough!!”
Hence, my nasty cold…..

A few days after the concert I had two fellow quilters over for a day of sewing and chatting, always nice to see Rennie and fellow Feathergirl Hubertine:

 

 



Rennie gave me a big bunch of beautiful yellow roses … , they remind me of this  

Ah, Texas…

Just heard from hubby, they are at the Hyde Park venue now, near the front, the weather is great, the crowd huge. Can’t wait to hear the stories tomorrow morning!

 

Have a lovely and sunny weekend!

Phyllis

 

 



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