Sunday, December 25, 2011

My Christmas cake is ready at last and Christmas brunch is waiting...........
There has a lot been happening in my life this last weeks but I will tell you more about that later, let's celebrate now!
I am wishing you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS, enjoy a quiet time with friends and family!

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Some projects for 2012........
Maybe you have seen the two new buttons on the right, I have decided to join Sharon Boggon's Take A Stitch Tuesday again next year, beginning Jan. 3th.
I have participated for some time in the last years and hope to pick up some new stitches again next year. In April in Connecticut I have seen Sharon's band sampler "live", what a gorgeous piece of work,it is now almost 23 metres long....
Also I decided to join the
Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012.

This is a great project to make Crazy Quilting more known all around the world. There are already hundreds of participants and I am really looking forward to see all the journal pages that will be made!
This week I received this Christmas Cracker from Theresa from the USA, I can't wait to open it!

The postcard above I made for a swap and sent out, haven't heard yet if it arrived!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

HONKING ORANGE!!! I already told you that I joined the Orange Color Study on CQ For Newbies, this is the first block I received from Angie to embellish. I have to embellish a quarter of the block and this is what I did. I found a piece of tatted lace in orange and it was perfect to make the striped piece a bit more quiet. Then I added a herringbone stitch with Edmar yarn above it and extended the seam with lazy daisies. Then added an orange trim to the top seam. I painted the lace rose and sewed that to the right part and added the feather stitch next to it and some sequins to the butterfly in the middle. The orange color is difficult to make a good picture.......

Sunday, November 20, 2011

This is the new issue of Crazy Quilt Gatherings and I am very proud that Pat Winter asked me to write an article in it! You can see my contribution at page 32/33!!
You can buy this magazine or watch a preview over here!

Friday, November 18, 2011

My Christmas Cracker is ready to be sent out to the USA. It will go in the mail early next week. First have to buy a Christmascard for in the package.I have stuffed the cracker with a lot of goodies, hope the receiver will like it!
Have been to Artschool again yesterdayevening, made a small painting of a little bottle of Maja perfume.This vintage bottle was from my grandmother, she liked Maja soap and perfume very much, I can still remember the sweet smell. I always bought some Maja for her when I was on vacation in Spain. I have put a stylo next to it on the picture so you can see the 4" size!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

ANOTHER PAINTING FINISHED
I am now working on a serie of perfume bottles, new and vintage. This is the first oilpainting I finished, a bottle of my favorite parfum "Daisy" from Marc Jacobs.
And a close up:
Since this month I am participating in a Crazy Quilting color challenge on CQ For Newbies. It is a challenge to do this Round Robin because I don't like the color we have to make the block in and embellish: ORANGE!
Here in Holland orange is our National color, so I have to give it a try.......
This is the block I made for it:
Monday will be my mothers 82th birthday, she is very strong coping with her bad sight. I have bought her a big watch in black and white, because she can't see the time on her own watches anymore and I will make her a mango cheesecake tomorrow. We will go out forChinese dinner on monday.
The weather here in Holland is getting chilly, at night we have had frost already for several times.
Have a nice weekend!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Finished today....
the outside block for the Christmas Cracker Swap on Crazy Quilting International, now I can fill it with goodiesand a heart for Betty Pilsbury who lost her beautiful garden due to the flooding in New York State some time ago.The colors are more turquoise and bold cobalt blue then on the picture, the fabric with the flowers is a piece of vintage traditional Dutch fabric from Staphorst with white and yellow painted dots.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Can you imagine that in 2 months it is Christmas?
This week I made the decision to join some swaps to distract me from a lot of things happening in my life at this moment. Won't badder you with that... Today I have been making a block of 8 x 13 inch for a Christmas Crackerswap on Crazy Quilting International. After finishing the block you have to make a Christmas Cracker of it and fill it with fabrics, threads, motifs, little presents and a Christmas card. This evening I started with the embroidering.

Friday I have been to the institute for blind people with my mother. She would love to move to a home over there, but unluckely she has to wait for more then a year, there is a long waiting list. Now that she stills sees a little bit it would be much easier for her to get used to everything!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

On May 22th I told on this blog about the Crazy Quilt block I made for "Hearts and Hands for Sendai" to raise money for the victims of the earthquake in Japan. Leslie Ehrlich has done a great job sewing all blocks into many quilts and now they are on their way to our friend Hideko in Japan. All quilts will be shown at the Quiltshow in Yokohama in November. Here you see the Crazy Quilt with my block in it, it is in the middle of the upper row.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Last post I told you that I was not happy with my Victorian CQ block. Gerry was so sweet to have a look at it and you can see her proposals on Gerry's Block Talk. I will show you the end result in time when I have decided what I will change.Now I'd like to show you a great buy I did some time ago. The lady I bought the crocheted pieces from told me that they were made by nuns as examples for later on. There were some very unusual pieces among them. I can't crochet at all, so I admire every piece. They will be great for CQ and multi media projects.After all the encrusted blocks I made I am now working on some very different CQ blocks. I got a postcard with a beautiful antique American Crazy Quilt made in the late 19th century on it and immediately fell in love with it. I think I may not show a picture of it because of copyright. Most of the blocks have an almost childish embroidery on them of flowers, animals, capitals or fans and the seams are stitched with thick perle threads. I have finished these 2 blocks and am working on a lot more. I will keep you updated!

I had not much time to post lately, my dear mother lost sight in one eye some years ago and now she has thrombosis in her other eye and has only 20% of sight left. Her eye-specialist told her that it isn't safe for her to live on her own. You can imagine that she (and me also) are very upset about this, friday we have an appointment in an institute for blind people to see if she can get a home over there.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

ENCRUSTED OR NOT? Some years ago I did Sharon Boggons Encrusted Crazy Quilting class. I thought I "encrusted"this crazy quiltblock very good.........Finding the block again after some years I thought it could have some more......so I added some cigar silkies and several leaves to the flowers and a bow. Didn't like the spider so I removed that one.And I still didn't like it. I removed the lace in the upper right corner and added some more butterflies and a flower spray. Now I am still not satisfied by it's look and I have to think deep about what to do more on the right side of the block, especially on the green silk. Any ideas?
Maybe I should ask Gerry?

Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11/2001 - 9/11/2011 May we never forgetPictures made at Ground Zero/St.Paul's Chapel in April 2011

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

My last day of vacation
I have spent making this crazy quiltblock, it is for the First Timers on CQI. Tomorrow it is back to work again and a busy working schedule is waiting. I am looking forward participating in this Round Robin.It is still summer over here, but it looks like autumn has already started. We have heavy rain and a lot of wind this evening, temperatures around 15 o C.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

My first try on Zentangles....During my vacation the last week I tried to do some zentangles, when in the USA in April I bought this little book about it at Barnes&Nobles. I really liked doing these.This is the second one I made, I think the first one was better. Think the Paisley shape in it doesn't work very well. Must say that making these little drawings is very relaxing.... On the third one I tried to add some color, have decided that I definately don't like them with color.This is the last one I made for now, I like this one, especially the dark beads.These zentangles are lovely to make when you have the time for it! Just give it a try if you can, it is really fun making them!

Friday, August 26, 2011

The last days of summer......
The summer here in the Netherlands is one of the wettest ever, also the temperatures haven't been great either! The last months we couldn't go on vacation because of the illness of my MIL, now she is in a nursery home and we could leave for some time. We decided to stay in Holland (in case something would change in MIL's situation) and went to Kijkduin, close to the Hague on the coast. Well, we had some sun every day, but more rain..... We walked on the beach and in the dunes, the flora is very beautiful over there, here some pictures:This ladybug,"lieveheersbeestje" in Dutch, was enjoying the sun also!

Sunday, August 07, 2011

WEEKLY UPDATE
This week I received a present from Cathy, in return for some Austrian fabrics I have sent her. She made me some sheets with vintage Americana and Halloween prints, now my hands are itching to start something new! Thanks so much Cathy! Yesterday my MIL got a place in a nursing home, she will stay there for revalidation until she can go home again.
Since last weekend I am working on a 12"quiltblock that I started in 2007 (!!!) during Sharon Boggon's Encrusted Crazy Quilting Class. At that moment I thought it was finished, but now I am really "encrusting" it, will show you some pictures later this week when I feel that I am at last really finished, well, is a CQ ever finished?????? Last weekend I did a great buy, this little silver birdie pincushion, ain't it cute? Also found some pieces of vintage lace.From my mother I got some dahlia bulbs in Spring, the package said "red flowering dahlia". To our suprise the first flower was a white one with a few red petals, the next one was a red one with some white petals.....LOL The weather over here is still bad, rain almost every day and the temperatures still below normal for summer. I would love to see some sun!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

PLUTOI promised you a picture of the hound I finished painting this week. Yesterday I showed the painting to the owners of Pluto and they are very happy with it. Now they asked me to paint a former dog of them, Tommy.

A tip: Have a look here to see my friend Cathy's tutorial on making flowers from zippers, a great addition to your CQ block!
A close up of my Egyptian block

Sunday, July 24, 2011

LOST QUILTS After a quiltmarket in Salt Lake City Allison Aller's beautiful "Crazy in the garden"quilt that is on the frontcover of her book and 3 other ones are missing. Go to www.lostquilts.com to see pictures of all missing quilts. I sure hope they will be found soon! Yesterday I have been finishing some CQ postcards to sent to friends. I try to do some stitching every evening after work to find some relaxation. MIL is still in hospital and waiting for a place in a nursery home to recover.

Here in Holland the weather is terrible already for the whole month of July, it is supposed to be summer but we have rain almost the whole day and cold temperatures around 15 o C......
Today I have been painting all day, I have a commission to paint a hound called Pluto. The painting is almost finished, I will show pictures of it later this week.