WINTER PACKAGE RECEIVED




Yesterday I received my winter package from Lorenza in Italy. We are both in a group called the Sewpals. We had to sent out a package every season to one of the members(Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter)and buy something for each character.
Lorenza has sent me:
White and red napkins
Iridiscent floss
Needle holder
True handmade dresden plate
Excellent chocolate
Red Japanese fabric
Here a picture of both sides of the Dresden plate, love them both!
Thank you so much dear friend!

Can you imagine, only 11 more days until Christmas?
Yesterday I went shopping for Christmas presents in Arnhem and this was no fun at all!
It was so crowded, it sure doesn't look like people have less money to spent! Now I have to start thinking about Christmasdinner, have only 2 more days to do my shopping next Thursday and Saturday, the rest I have to be at work, the next holidayseason is starting!

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Sorry for not writing for such a long time, but life got in the way once again.

Susan,thanks for your compliments on the CQ block for Hideko.I made the little flowers with variegated DMC thread (think it was nr. 4110...)just like spiderweb roses, so nothing special......

At this moment I am trying to finish some CQ Christmas cards, here you can see some pictures from what I am sewing. I was planning to make a lot of these, but it looks like I get to finish only 2 or 3!
Time flies and we already received 2 Christmas cards , so I have to hurry!

Last week I did a great buy, it is a book about needlework from 1950. It shows a lot of stich variations, so you can imagine that I am very happy with it!

WINTERTIME.....

These pictures are taken by my husband this morning, the first one is made in front of my home and the other two on the other side of the road. Normally we don't get much or even no snow in wintertime, but so much snow in autumn is very unusual......... It is beautiful to see, but not so nice when you have to drive to work!

NEW DYB BLOCK FINISHED
This is the second block I had to embellish in the Do Your Block Round Robin of the Crazy Quilters Around the World group.
This block is for Hideko in Japan. Her theme is Autumn Roses.
After a weekend of embellishing this is the result.
The whole weekend it was snowing and cold, so I have been sewing all day!

A NEW PROJECT!

Today I want to show you some pictures of a new project I am working on.
Maybe you have noticed the last months that I have been collecting a lot of fabrics, beads, trims, threads etc.
I want to make these diamonds in different colors from light to darker and keep them all in tone to tone fabrics.
The difficulty is that for one diamond as shown on the picture you need 30-35 different pieces of fabrics in one color, so this project will take a lot of time to finish.........
One diamond measures 3 by 5 inch and as you see, each big diamond is made of 9 little diamonds. I am still adding beads etc. to this diamondblock.












Close-up


I have now stitched 9 little diamonds in purple and plan to do a yellow/orange and a light to dark green one after this, but still have to collect some more fabrics. I have enough dark colors, but the light ones are always a problem......

Fabric postcard received...














This wonderful autumn postcard I received yesterday from Kathy in Minnesota, USA. We are both swapping in the postcard group on Stitchinfingers.

ATC's RECEIVED

These 6 ATC's I received the last weeks. I have swapped them in the Christmas ATC swap of the Chains of Hearts yahoogroup.
These are made by Margreet from Holland, Susie from the UK and Florence, Maureen, Rosemary and Margaret from Australia.
Thank you so much for your lovely work ladies!

TWO VISITORS AT THE SAME TIME.......

The picture ain't that great but here you see our daily visitor the squirrel together with a big multicoloured woodpecker.
I am at home with the flu,so not much to tell(got a shot against the flu last week and got sick immediately.....)
I have started the Studio Journal classes from Sharon Boggon last week and am behind already, so I hope to feel better soon!

DYB block for Maureen

This block I have embellished for Maureen in Australia. We are both participating in a Do Your Block Round Robin in the "Crazy Quilters Around the World"group.
We had to make 6 inch blocks and send them out to the next participant, she has one month to embellish it, then sends them further to the next participant etc. etc. Maureen has made creme coloured blocks and we can embellish them like we want, with the only restriction not to use to much orange/red and especially have fun-no stress! I did make 6 blocks for this swap with an under the sea theme, I have blogged them some weeks ago. I am looking forward to the next block to embellish, think it is for Hideko in Japan, will keep you updated!

Another stranger in my garden.........

When I was working in the front garden I found this weeds(hope this is the right word...)and decided to let it stay for awhile, you can imagine how surprised I was when the flower opened, ain't it beautiful? Have never seen this kind of poppies.

Today I want to show you the wonderful Halloween card I received from Brigitte Trinkl from Austria. She was also participating in the Spooky Boo cardswap on the Engelbeeslist.
Thank you so much for your lovely card Brigitte!

ANOTHER LITTLE VISITOR....

The picture ain't that good but I just want to show you another little visitor in our garden.
I looked outside yesterday and saw this little squirrel eating some peanuts! Ain't he (or she?)
cute?

SPOOKY BOO CARD






And the winner is.............................
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......................................Gerry!!!

Sorry for being so late with my announcement but life got in the way!
Our son has got the key of a new home this week and we are very busy
with helping him cleaning, painting and moving! He lived in a studenthome with 4 other guys which was very noisy and bad for his study to become a producer/composer. Now he has a home of his own
where he can study quietly and he is so happy!

Gerry, congratulations, the card is coming your way!

NEW ADDITIONS.......
















Yesterday we went to a collectors fair in Utrecht with friends.
I found a lot of beads, sequins, rick rack etc. for my Crazy Quilting!

I told you some days ago about visitors in our garden.
Maggie asked the names of the birds and butterfly.
The birds on the 1th and 3th picture are coletits, on picture 2 you see a peacock butterfly and the bird on picture 4 is called a "boomklever" (Sitta Europaea) in Dutch, don't know the English name,
I am sorry, it is not in the dictionary.....

4 ATC's FINISHED

I made these 4 Christmas ATC's (Artists Trading Cards) this week for an ATC swap on the Chains of Hearts group.
I hope to finish 2 more tomorrow, I really love to make these little ones big as a creditcard! As you can see, for me Christmas is still red and green, very old fashioned!

VISITORS IN OUR GARDEN

Today I want to show you some pictures of visitors in our garden, it is a joy to see all kinds of birds flying of and on for some peanuts. Autumn is starting and the leafs are falling here in Holland. Temperatures are around the 15 o C right now. I hope to make some more pictures of the changing colors in the coming weeks, have already seen several mushrooms also.

Thank you all for your nice comments on my Halloweencards, the fabric was bought during our trip in the USA at a Walmart in Page, AZ.
It is a pity that we don't celebrate Halloween over here in the Netherlands, I just love the "spooky" theme and decorations!

HALLOWEEN POSTCARDS

For the SPOOKY BOO postcardswap from the Engelbees I made the first card. It is on it's way to the USA.

Postcard number 2 is going to Liz in Kansas, it was made for a Autumn postcardswap on Stitchinfingers.

Number 3 is a GIVE AWAY, write a comment on my blog and maybe this card will be sent to you! I will put all names in a hat and let my family pick a name at Sunday Oct. 12th.!

BACK TO CRAZY QUILTING....











This month we start with a new DYB (Do Your Block) Round Robin on the "Crazy Quilters Around the World" list. I have made 6 blocks of 6 inch with an "under the sea" theme for the other ladies to embellish.I have bought the fabric with the dolphins in Orlando, Florida 2 years ago. Unluckely there were only 2 dolphins to use in this FQ, the others ones had lost their head or tail....
In this DYB we do embellish one block a month, I am really looking forward to start working on the first block of Maureen in Australia!

AND SOME MORE PICTURES...

First I'll show you what I bought at JoAnns. I am very happy with the Crazy Quilt book
and all the fabrics for a new CQ project of which I'll tell you later. Now about the rest of our trip. From Monument Valley, Kayenta we went to Bryce Canyon. The first picture is from the Overlook across the Valley of the Gods, you can see how high we were on the mountain. The second picture is from one of the bridges in the Natural Bridges National Monument. Picture 3 is from Powells Colorado river near Hite, the rest of the pictures are all made in Bryce Canyon. From here we went to Zion National Parc and then back to Las Vegas. Sorry but Blogger is acting up again, can't change the size of the letters......

MORE PICTURES...






From Las Vegas we visited the Hoover Dam (picture 1), Kingman (picture 2, quilt in Mohave museum)and then we went on Route 66 to Williams/Flagstaff. From there we stayed in Page, flew by helicopter through the Grand Canyon and also drove by car through the Grand Canyon National Park (picture 3,4,5). Then we had breakfast at Lake Powell (picture 6), drove to Kayenta and Monument Valley, here we have spent a lot of time, the landscape is just as beautiful as in the Star Wars movies. We have spent several days in Navajo Nation, talked a lot with Navajo's and enjoyed every minute of it, sure will come back here once.
During our trip we also saw a lot of wildlife like eagles, a condor, wild mustang, a coyote, bisons, deer and a lot of those cute chipmunks, luckely no rattle snakes!!!


Monument Valley The Mittens
















and DH and I in front of the three sisters