Quilting my Jacob's Ladder quilt

Before starting a new Feathergirls project, an update of the first one: recently I started quilting my Jacob’s Ladder quilt. I decided to handquilt it, had not done handquilting in a long time and I love the process.

These are the pattern pieces I made for the quilting patterns. I decided to treat the area where 4 blocks come together as a block on itself, regarding the quilting pattern.

 

 

 



Hope you can make out the pattern.

Then, regarding the two-colored lines that cross the quilt, I decided to use this pattern piece, there will be 3 of these quilted in one (2-colored) piece of a line – oh dear, hope that makes sense to you…-.

 

Because my eyesight is not what it used to be, my stitches are not as small as they used to be, but I don’t mind, my goal now is just to make even stitches.

I am using a #10 quilting needle and Yli quilting thread in Ecru. As markers I use Sewline pencils, a grey one and a white one.

And now for something that really made me happy: in the past when I quilted I would always do serious damage to the top of my left hand middle finger, I used that to feel if the needle has come thru all 3 layers, so I use it as a kind of pincushion (I have tried other ways : thimble pad, spoon etc. but none of it worked for me).
After a quilting session my finger would be bloody and sore and I could not quilt for 1 – 2 days waiting for it to heal, before I could quilt again.

But now I have found what works for me, this!

My English (quilt)friend Emma recommended this to help with another problem I have with my hands in wintertime (splitting cuticles, ouch!) I bought this in London.

And then I figured why not put a few layers of this wonderful stuff on my left hand middle finger before I start quilting to protect my skin. And yessss! It worked! Now I can still feel the needle coming thru all the layers and the only thing that gets damaged is those layers of ‘New Skin’. My own skin does not get damaged at all and I can quilt day after day after day….. it is wonderfull!

 



So, if any of you experience the same problem try and get a hold of a bottle of ‘New Skin’,  I bought mine at a Boots in London , but they are all over the UK.

Happy quilting!

Phyllis

A new year, a new project?

After finishing the Jacob’s Ladder quilt top it was time to oil The Duchess for the first time on Sunday. I was a bit apprehensive at first, but with the help of this website it was easy…..

However, some of the places that need oiling were hidden in the machine and I was glad to have the help of the flashlight in my Iphone

If you want to oil your Featherweight as well apart from the website link above Francis posted some clear instructions this week as well.

After oiling and with a new needle The Duchess sews wonderfully again, having working on my Pfaff lately for Eline’s Stars I missed that lovely sound of a Featherweight!

The sales at the quiltshops near where I live (we are so lucky here in The Hague, 3 quiltshops nearby!) were visited with great results! Soooo …….. with a Featherweight raring to go… and new fabrics…….is it time for another Feathergirls project??

Phyllis

A great way to start the New Year!

Maybe a bit late and not quite according to etiquette, but still, I wish everyone a healthy, happy and creative 2014!

And to start off the right way: a finish!

Yes, I finished ‘Eline’s Stars’ on time to give it to her at Christmas, so at 16 years she finally has her own quilt (shame on me, I still have not finished her babyquilt… but that is another story…) Here it is:

Statistics:

Size: 148 cm x 190 cm / 58”x 75”
Block size: 15 cm / 6”
Quilting: machine- (Aurifil 40/2) and handquilting (with DMC Perle 8, loved this!)
Fabrics: most of them given to me by fellow bee members, so their memories are in this quilt as well!

Batting: Quilters Dream Blend (70% cotton, 30% poly) which was great for machine quilting but as it stays a bit stiffer than the 100% cotton batting I usually work with I don’t think I will use it again.

Of course the quilt has a label:

 

With regards to the binding, I tried something new: usually I make my binding with the aid of a bias tape maker. Once finished that means the binding is a single strip of fabric around the quilt.
This time I used Jenny Doan’s method of the Missouri Quilt Star company, which not only makes the binding a double layer of fabric (especially great for this quilt, because it is already getting a lot of use) but also the ‘trick’ used to bring the two ends of binding together (at 8.30 mins into the video) works!  When you have finished the binding you really cannot see where you started/ended your binding, it comes together perfectly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vCWpxBRs20

 

 

This will definitely be my way of binding from now on for larger quilts that get some real use.

So this was one Xmas present, the other was a New Year’s trip to London. For years Eline and I wanted to see the Xmas lights in London, but DH was not keen (“Much too cold to be walking the streets that time of year..”). So this year, rather than asking if we should go, I said Eline and I are going and asked DH if he wanted to join us. He said…. no.
OK, that made 2 of us (in the worst weather I have ever had in London: gales and lots of rain) in London on the first weekend of this year.

An impression:

After arriving the first thing we visited was beautiful Leadenhall Market, right in the City.

It is famous for this:

 

 

Because it is right in the City of London, the contrast between the old and the new is rather stark, coming out of the market at one end the building next to it is this, the Lloyds Building:

And on the other end, looking up, you see the same contrast:

After years of wanting to do so, we did finally see the Xmas lights:

 

I loved the above lights on King’s Road

And the view from the upper floor of the Starbucks in King’s Road was this

Eline making pictures in the middle of Regent Street while trying not to be blown away by the gales

Street food! This smelled soooo delicious, unfortunately we came across it straight after breakfast so we had to give it a miss (next time ;-)!  )

One of the highlights of this trip for me: a visit to Shaukat with a basement full of Liberty fabrics!

Beware though: this is not a quilt shop, so no fat quarters, the minimum they will cut for you is half a meter, but there are some scraps…

Soooo, that was a wonderful way to start 2014, hope your year started off great too!

Phyllis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



All things Xmas!

Oh dear, I started my Xmas preparations a bit late this year, so yesterday I had to go down town for some last minute shopping. One of my favourite shops around this time is De Bijenkorf department store, their Xmas decorations are always wonderful! I took this picture of their huge Xmas tree:-

Speaking of Xmas trees, remember I was soooooo angry last week? Guess what..??

Yes, I took this picture too yesterday afternoon, the tree in the Passage is back!!! Hubertine and Sandra already told me on Friday they were putting it up so I had to go and take a look for myself and yes, there it was!
Usually it is up weeks before Xmas and then there are lots of things going on, carol singers etc. It is all much too late for that now, but at least the tree is back, the Passage looks much better now and there were more people around too. I can only guess that all the protests worked. And I am sooo pleased to see this tree again.

Next year, when the Apple Store has opened, you bet I will have a chat with the manager and go on the Apple Facebook page again in time to try my best to get the tree there again!

Of course, there is a Xmas tree at home too, full of soft decorations.

 

Getting into the Xmas swing of things was greatly helped by Dorry’s wonderful Xmas party last weekend. She did a wonderful job, greatly helped by Dorien and her mum and a friend.

Hubertine and I went together and we enjoyed it so much!

 

We had some yummy food

 

Dorry organised a lovely little workshop, nothing too difficult so plenty of opportunity to enjoy the company at the table of some very nice ladies.

 

 

 

Dorry introduced her newest member of staff, Pluis:-

And Dorien showed her beautiful version of the Love Entwined quilt top:-

After all this inspiration I was ready to start planning Xmas dinner, looking at old Xmas issues of my favourite food magazine, making lists..

In between all this I am turbo-quilting, trying to get this quilt ready for Xmas to give to my teenage daughter Eline.  I can safely write that here, she seldom looks here.

 

First I machine quilted criss cross across the quilt and then I decided to handquilt the colored centers of the stars to give it a little more texture (I love handquilting, it just takes so long).



I used DMC Perle 8 and big stitches, I did a workshop big stitch quilting by Laura some time ago at Den Haan & Wagenmakers, it is the first time I used this technique and I loved it. So relaxing not to put your quilt in a hoop and trying to make small stitches! Easier on the eyes too!

The binding is ready and waiting to be attached too!

 

 

While all this is going on I love listening to all the Xmas tunes on the radio, there was one song I kept on hearing and couldn’t get it out of my head, my favourite this Xmas season. When they played it again a few days ago I decided to look it up on the playlist of that radiostation.

And this is what was…..that boy……. before all that puberty madness started :-

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0t8w-0GO8Q

 

 

The same boy singing the same song but very nervously (the hands!) for President Obama..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGi5wwsQ-Kw

Because the coming period will be busy I doubt I will get a chance for a blog post before the end of the year. So I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been reading my blog and has left comments, I really appreciate it. 2013 Was my first full year with a blog and I enjoyed it so much! A heartfelt “Thank you!”, is in order,  it is great ‘meeting’ you all this way and I hope we will ‘see’ each other again this way (or maybe in person) next year.

Wishing everyone a lovely, wonderful, cozy Christmas with family and friends! Enjoy, enjoy!

Phyllis

 

 

 

 



I am angry!

Anger is not a very Xmassy emotion, I know, but in my home town of The Hague unfortunately this year anger has something to do with Christmas this year.

I love my hometown and one of my favourite places, ever since I was a child growing up in The Hague, is the chique Passage, I wrote about it in this blogpost last Christmas and showed you this picture.

Isn’t it beautiful?
I always love going to the Passage around this time, to see this huge Christmas tree with all those lights. Often on weekends there are Christmas carol singers or children playing Christmas songs on their violins for some pocket money. The acoustic in the Passage is wonderful, which makes it all a bit magical.

It is a good thing I made this picture last year, because from now on it will not look like this anymore. From now on the place will be empty and silent and right now it looks like this.

 

And not just this year, apparently our beautiful Christmas tree will not return at all anymore.

Why? You may think it is because of the economic crisis or lack of money….. but nooooooo that is not the case…….
It is because behind those black boards a new Apple Store is being built and the Apple company does not want that tree it front of its Store………….. Apparantly in its rental agreement Apple has negotiated that the tree will not be put up any more from now. I am just sooooooo angry about this and I apparently I am not the only one.

 



You can see more about it here, start watching at 7.40 mins (it is in Dutch)

To be honest, it is good news our town is getting an Apple Store, they make the most wonderful Stores in wonderful buildings everywhere in the world, it is good for the city, it brings jobs etc. etc .  And yes, I like Apple products, I do have an Iphone, we have an Ipad. But that does not give a huge company with $$$$$ to spend the right to take away local traditions! There is more to ‘moving’ into a town than just $$$$$!

What a stupid thing to do on both sides, Apple and the other party in the rental contract to take away this lovely tradition. (Honestly ‘other party’ whoever you are, a Christmas tree would not have been a deal breaker, you lack negation skills to say the least!)

And what a missed opportunity by Apple too, are their marketing peeps asleep? Why not put up that beautiful tree in front of the Store each year, pay for it with all those Apple $$$$$ and put a sign next to it: ‘Sponsored by Apple’, or something.
Give those children with the violins and the carol singers back their place next to the Christmas tree, and give us back that special place downtown full of Christmas spirit, instead of this bare rotunda where nothing is happening right now and where - once the Store is there -  only shoppers will walk, just like every other day of the year.

Certainly the local people will go to the Store and spend their money and buy Apple products, so Apple, do the decent thing: give something back to our community, give us back our Christmas tree, our Christmas tradition, it is CHRISTMAS after all, a time for giving not taking!!

 

I rest my case.

 

Phyllis