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.......

ANOTHER SOH HEART RECEIVED

Today I received this oriëntal heart from Lori from the USA, ain't it pretty, the middle part is embroidered, I especially like the "chopsticks" in her hair!

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY
Week 5

This week Sharon challenged us to do something with the Chevron stitch, in Dutch Chevronsteek of zigzagsteek.I have sewn some rick rack to a heart I am working on with EdMar Iris variegated thread and did a variation in purple and yellow cotton DMC to one of my Victorian blocks.

3" CRAZY QUILT SQUARES












Lesa on CQForNewbies showed some 3" crazy quilt squares on her blog and asked who was crazy enough to swap some. Well, you must not say things like that to me Lesa.............LOL
Today I finished these two, one square took about 2 1/2 hours to make. I have put Fast2Fuse and a backing fabric to them, then stitched around with shiny Sulky thread by machine and must say, I really like them. Now back to making some more!

SOH - ANOTHER HEART ARRIVED







I already told you about the Crazy heart swap on CQForNewbies. This week I received this lovely embroidered heart from Donna in the USA. Donna, once again thanks for your nice heart!

BAGGIE ARRIVED FROM AUSTRALIA

I am in an Internet quiltgroup called Crazy Quilters Around the World. We are swapping 4 x this year, 3 baggies and a needlecase. I am paired to Maureen from Australia and she has sent me this nice baggie. I especially love the siggie, handpainted lace and shiny threads. She also sent a leaflet from the place she lives, boy, it looks like a great place for a holiday! Close to the ocean and lovely beaches, I really like the sun!

(Sorry for not updating for so long, but I had difficulties to start up my Blogger account)

FLEAMARKET

Last week I visited a fleamarket and did find some great things for CQ!
I especially love the 2 ladies
on a black background, with some little pearls around them
they will look great on a Victorian CQ block.

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY
Week 4

The challenge this week is the Cretan Stitch, Kretasteek in Dutch. I did some combinations of stitches and threads this time. On the first one I did use normal hot pink DMC for the Cretan stitch, then added the green stitches in rayon DMC and at last the light pink in Edmar Iris thread. On the second picture I did a double row of Cretan stitches, green in normal DMC and blue in metallic DMC, then added the purple cross-stitches in lilac rayon DMC. The third picture shows a Cretan stitch in normal DMC, worked through with a Heringbone stitch in variegated WeekDye thread, it goes from purple to yellow but it doesn't show on the picture. I still don't know what to think of this combination....

SWAPPING OUR HEARTS (SOH)

I am participating in 2 birthday swaps of Crazy Hearts on CQForNewbies. I picked february and june as birthday months
because March, when I have birthday, was already taken.
Today I received two beautiful hearts from Janet in Colorado, the pictures don't do them justice, Janet thanks so much for your lovely hearts!

UGLY DUCKLING.......


















Judyth on CQForNewbies found 12 of these blocks, made a long time ago. She didn't know what to do with them until several ladies on the list voluntered to embellish a block.
Yesterday my "Ugly" block arrived and well, I wouldn't have picked that fabrics and colors together, but do find the block touching.... Think the fabrics are about 50 years old and just imagine that your mother or grandmother could have been sewing them to comfort you! I'll do my best and will find a way to make it a bit prettier, I am sure, this is really a challenge. I'll keep you updated, the block must be sent back before March 15th.

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY
Week 3


Detached chain stitch, or Kettingsteek in Dutch, is the challenge of this week. I made the lavender yesterdayevening, the look and smell always reminds me of France, where I spent so many lovely holidays.... Also I got an idea on what to do to the blue plaid fabric, the colors in the picture are not that good, but it are 4 lazy daisies with a purple bead in the middle. The last picture with the orange embroidery I did already some weeks ago. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

I told you about the bad weather we had this week. Here in Holland 7 people died, mostly because they got hit by falling trees when driving home.
I have a garden without a fence now, I am living on a corner so everyone can look straight into my livingroom now, not a comfortable situation! In my neighbourhood a lot of trees have fallen down and a lot of roofs are (partly) without tiles.

BIRTHDAY SWAP JANUARI

I just finished two hearts for the birthday swap on CQForNewbies.
They are for Rhonda and Peggy in the USA. I only have to make a backing on them so they are ready for applique, so they will be sent out with tomorrows mail.

Ati, I have already put a piece of the fabric in your baggie!

Here in Holland we have very bad weather today, it is raining the whole day and very stormy with a strong wind blowing, not my kind of weather.......

CQForNewbies Challenge nr. 3

Challenge nr. 3 is to cut up a piece of fabric that you have been patting, drooling over, admiring for a long time, a difficult one this time.....LOL
I dicided that I have to cut up this piece with Japanese geisha's, that I bought in Canada last year. Fortunately Lesa didn't say how big the piece has to be, so I think I will cut only a little piece for a Crazy Heart I am going to make, will show you the results later!

CQForNewbies Challenge nr. 2

I totally forgot to put up a picture from this challenge. This time Lesa asked us to show something out of the cupboard that had been hidden away for some time. I remembered I made this little Christmasquilt from
Debbie Mumm fabric in 1995, so this one was shown in my hall last Christmas.

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY
WEEK 2






This week Sharon has chosen the
buttonholestitch, festonsteek in Dutch, as challenge. Since I
worked a lot and had much appointments this week I couldn't do much sewing, so I show you one of my Crazy Staphorst blocks on which I highlighted the pansy with variegated DMC thread in buttonholestitch and did a row with half buttonhole wheels and beads.

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY WEEK 1












Here I tried the Herringbone stitch in the round on one of my Staphorst blocks,I used perle Edmar thread. Found it a bit empty until I visited Susan's blog and saw the idea of putting a button in the middle!

TAKE-A-STITCH-TUESDAY WEEK 1, results


This is the result of the "doorstrengelde flanelsteek" I told you about on Wednesday. It was fun to do, but I find the result a bit messy, don't know if I will use this one often!

TAKE-A-STITCH TUESDAY, WEEK 1

The first stitch that Sharon has chosen for this challenge is the Herringbone stitch, or Flanelsteek as we say in Dutch.
Looking at the Crazy Quiltblocks I made until now I realised that on everyone of them I made this stitch. Here you see some examples:













I love the combination with the Chevron Stitch Sharon showed us, I am gonna try this one out this week.
I found in an old Dutch book another strange combination: the "doorstrengelde Flanelsteek", I am sorry but I have no idea how to translate that in English.
You have to make the Herringbone stitch, then turn it upside down and wave through another thread. Here is a picture of the stitch, I will try to do this one and show you a picture later this week!

THANK YOU!!!

all for your sweet New Year's wishes and compliments!
Elizabeth, I will mail you privatly, Susan have a save trip to Texas and Lita, have fun moving to your new home, hope you get the chance to do some quilting agian soon!
Nina, I have just been to the postoffice, so the heart is coming your way.