GOING TO SCOTLAND.........
On Saturday I am flying to Glasgow for a walking vacation together with quilting friends from England, Denmark, Italy, Holland and Canada for a week. You can imagine that I am really looking forward to that! We will stay all together in a lodge in Fort William, close to the Ben Nevis. More information of this region you can find on: www.lochaber.com
When there we will play a Chinese dice game and everyone had to make a little quilt for that as rememberance of the trip. My friend Imi found these "handsome Scottish men" on the Internet and I decided to make a little redwork from it, it is A4 paper size.
See you again in one week!

DYB round robin, block 3

Here is a picture of the block I embellished for Ati in Norway, her theme is Chinese Tea. I decided to embroider a Chinese Tea jar, hope she'll like it. The colors are a bit strange on the picture, I tried to use all the colors that are already in the block, like red, yellow, blue and gold to get the right harmony.

I HAVE BEEN TAGGED........

by Ati and Lorenza to tell 7 things you don't already know about me! Do I have to tell 14 things now? Think I'll stick to 7, here we go!

1. I love HUGE cars, my favorite is a Cadillac Escalade, color Gold Mist, but it is way to big for the Dutch roads......by the way, I drive a Landrover Freelander.

2. Maybe you want to know my shoesize........LOL
It is 42 with pain, so I am not only tall (1.80m), but live on big feet also.

3. I like to watch motorsports, especially MotoGP, my favorite is Valentino Rossi, please don't disturb me when looking and of course also not during Grey's Anatomy!

4. I am married for 27 years tomorrow.

5. I believe that when one door closes another one opens for you.

6. I was born 6 weeks early.

7. I dislike wintertime.

So, do you know me better now?

Please have a look at my friends blogs also:

Ati: www.malinaplass.blogspot.com
Lorenza: www.lorenza-crazyvalsusa.blogspot.com

SUNDAY WALK







Last Sunday we went for a long walk in the wood near the castle of Doorwerth when we suddenly came in this lane that lead to the town of Oosterbeek. We were all surrounded by beautiful azalea's..... I am trying to walk a few hours every
Saturday and Sunday because I am going on a walking trip to Fort William in Scotland with quilting friends from all over the world in the last week of June, of course doggie Daisy is happy with that!

SOH HEARTS FINISHED

These Flower Fairie hearts I made for Candi and Ingrid. They look a bit pale on the pictures. Candi likes pastels and purple and Ingrid is from Dutch heritage, that's why I made her the one with the tulips.

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....