ANOTHER DYB FINISHED

This is the 6" DYB I have finished for Helina in Finland. The picture doesn't do justice to the purple colors.

BIRTHDAY BOX ARRIVED YESTERDAY!

Today I have been unpacking a lot of baggies for my birthday
from Crazy Quilters from the CQForNewbies list.
Thank you so much ladies for all these lovely fabrics, laces, charms, beeds, pins, fancy threads, siggies, buttons and cards, you all
"made my day"!

1. Bethany
2. Brenda
3. Ati
4. Marianne
5. Mary
6. Laura
7. Susan
8. Gerry
9. Judyth

ANOTHER PACKAGE ARRIVED.........



















This is the wonderful baggie in my favorite turquoise colors that I received from Beth in NYC.
We are matched for swapping a baggie every 3 month(jan./april/july)
and in october a CQ needlecase on the CQInternationalSwap2007.
Thank you so much for swapping Beth, I will use most of it in my Staphorst Crazy Quilt!

UFO/SEWING DAY















Today the Engelbees Internetgroup has organized a UFO finishing day. We keep each other updated by mail and pictures of what we have done.
I decided to finish some blocks for the DYB Round Robin and here is the first finished block for Cobi in Leiden in the Netherlands. She asked for a Jugendstil(Art Nouveau)theme
and I found it very hard to start with. She has sent the red variegated thread and red seed beads to use in the block.
I hope she'll like the result.

DYB ROUND ROBIN

Here is a picture from the blocks I made for a Round Robin I joined in the Crazy Quilters Around the World group. The blocks are 6" and I have chosen for blocks in creme with in the middle a print from old postcards with Joan of Arc as theme. The blocks are now travelling around Europe to be embellished and I am really looking forward to get them back after summer.

A NEW CHALLENGE.....

My birthday buddy this year was Helen from Austria. She has sent me this lovely Trachten fabrics from Tusman and matching metallic yarn and shiny threads. She knows I like traditional fabrics very much, when she was in Holland some years ago we made a trip to Staphorst together, a little (religious) town here in Holland where a lot of people are still wearing their traditional costume.

Helen has the same amount of fabric and she challenged me to make something of it before the end of the year. Of course I accepted the challenge, I don't need more UFO's at this moment..........LOL Did I tell you that on the last meeting of my quiltbee I won the prize for the one with the most UFO's??

FINDS ON COLLECTORS FAIR

Last weekend I visited a collectors fair in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. It is held twice a year and I am always looking much forward to this fair. Here you see some of my finds. I like to collect old sewing things and I couldn't resist this old pincushion, beaded and embroidered with bouclé yarn. The backside is made of dark red velvet, I think it is made around 1930. I also collect samplers made in red, called "merklappen"in Dutch, this one is from 1902. I wonder if the other one is not finished because it ends with ABC.....

The trim with the sequins is also from around 1930. I am definitely not collecting evening pursus, but couldn't resist

this one.........LOL Think you can imagine why?

Sorry for not updating for such a long time, but life got in the way.
I started in a new job some weeks ago and because of that I am working often 40 hours a week at this moment, so not much time for Crazy Quilting... It is a nice job as receptionist at a holidayparc for disabled people, you can see more on:
www.bio-kinderrevalidatie.nl (The website is only in Dutch I am sorry).
I have received several beautiful hearts and baggies for my birthday last month and will try to show you some pictures soon. At home we had to buy a new laptop and I first have to find out how everything works before I can do that, I already
found out that I definitely don't like to work with Windows Vista!
See you soon!

ENCRUSTED CRAZY QUILT CLASSES Week 6

Unluckely my time is still limited due to my worksituation, but I managed to do some stitching this weekend.It is a pity that the lessons from Sharon have ended.

I enjoyed this lessons very much and learned a lot, so if you have the chance to take this lessons, I can highly recommend them. This week I have added several beads to the buttontrail, still doubt if it is not to strong now and embroidered the wagonwheels above the lace in the middle. Also made the spider and dragonfly, but still have a lot of work to do! This afternoon I had a nice phonecall from Ati in Norway and promised to show some pictures today, well here they are Ati, it was great talking to you!

ENCRUSTED CRAZY QUILTING

Week 4 and 5

These weeks I didn't have much time to work on my CQ block. I added the spider's web, took of the lace in the top left and replaced it with another one and added SRE flowers to the circle seam treatment left. I also added some flowers to the creme silk. Found these lovely heart shaped mother of pearl buttons some time ago. Also added

a buttontrail beyond the block. In yesterdays mail I received some tatted items from my friend Maureen from Australia and I immediately added the pink butterfly to my block, doesn't it look great on it?

3" SQUARES

This week I received some lovely 3 inch squares that I swapped on CQForNewbies.


The 2 above are made by Christy, USA, nr. 2 and 3 by Jo in New Zealand, nr. 5 by Janet, USA, nr. 6 by Peggy, USA and nr. 7 by our listmom Lesa, aren't they beautiful? Thank you very much for swapping ladies!

Sorry for being so late with updating, but I just started in a new job and this takes all my attention at this moment.

I also received some wonderful Crazy Hearts this weeks, will see if I can blog them later this week!

ENCRUSTED CRAZY QUILTING

Week 3

This week I have tried to learn the bullion stitch. Sharon explained it very well in her lessons and I manage to make some petals now but still I get no good result on the roses, that's why I don't used them in the flower spray I made around the "silk lady". I think I just don't have the right needles and have to order some Milliners.

Here you can see what I have done this week. I have sewn a lilac cord around the silk lady and added a flower spray, sewn some bugle beads to the right seam to make it stronger and am still busy doing some embroidery to the short seams.

Still don't know what to do with the seam between the creme and green silk left of the silk lady that ends in an angle...

ENCRUSTED CRAZY QUILTING
Lesson 2

Here you can see what I have done until now.

I like the seam treatment in the upper right corner and the purple/green one next to the creme silk with flowers. The seam on the right side looked nice by evening but in daylight I think it is not strong enough, but I don't know what to do to improve it. The seam with the wagonwheels I don't especially like, think they look a bit like jellyfish.......LOL

Now I am wondering what to do with the short seams on the outside of the block, especially the purple/cream and creme/green seam on the right side of the block, I have to avoid that the eye leads to the outside of the block.

I would love to hear your comments.

I have just printed out lesson 3 and looking forward to

start with doing some SRE.

SOH Heart for Gerry

This is the heart I sent out this week to Gerry in Missouri. She asked for a Victorian one, hope she'll like it!

ENCRUSTED CRAZY QUILTING Lesson 1

After reading the first lesson and making a fotocopy of the block, I found out that I have a lot of difficult lines and angles in my block. (Due to my limited time I started with this block before reading the lessons...). I decided to stay working on this block and see how I can improve it.

The line in 1. is very long and I decided to sew a silk siggie on it to brake this line, later I can maybe do some SRE around it.

I think that I have to cover the angle in 2.with a buttontrail.

There is a lot of contrast between the 2 purple/lilac pieces in 3.

I am gonna sew a piece of lace between the 2 pieces.

The right corner of the block 4. is way to dark I think, hope I can cover it with the piece of lace I have chosen. I sure hope I made the right decisions, here you see the result on what I have done so far....

SNOW IN HOLLAND

Last week we had our first snow this winter. We had about 10-15 cm snow and the next day everything was gone........

This pictures are made around the castle

in Doorwerth, about 10 km's from my home.

The tree on the pictures is said to be from the 12th century.

3" SQUARES

Also I wanted to show you a picture of the 6 squares I have finished until now. I love to make these little ones, but only wish I had some more time! I have a day off from work today, so I had time to finish some, now I have to start with ironing, not my favorite job......

Next week is spring holiday here in Holland and all mothers with little children want to have a short vacation, for me that means a workload of 42 hours, so not much time

for Crazy Quilting!

DAISY

Today a picture of my yellow labrador Daisy, ain't she funny?

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY

week 6

This week Sharon challenged us to do the Algerian Eyestitch.

In Dutch it is called the Italiaanse stersteek.

I have done the square one and tried a row in triangle form.

It is done with WeekDyeWorks yarn, mermaid nr. 4217, it is variegated yellow/green/blue/purple, the pictures don't show the beautiful colors. And sorry, I still have to remove the pencil lines...........

ENCRUSTED CRAZY QUILTING CLASSES

Last week I decided to join Sharon B's Encrusted Crazy Quilting Classes at Joggles.com.

Although I started Crazy Quilting for about a year ago, I have the feeling that I still have a lot to learn. I am very happy that there are lessons to follow on Internet, because it is difficult to travel to the USA or Australia to join lessons in Crazy Quilting!

(or I must win the lottery......LOL)

Yesterday evening I printed out the instructions for the first lesson and this is the block I made for this lesson. I wonder if I maybe better can make one that is more monochrome.......