My Staphorst quilt -part 2-Today some more about the making of this quilt and some close-ups. When I was designing the pattern of this quilt I had the bold, vivid daily wear of Staphorst in mind. Every few months I try to visit
the shop of Stegeman. The family Stegeman is very helpfull (father, mother and 2 girls)and very friendly. Mr. Stegeman buys traditional costumes from people that don't want to wear them anymore or from family of people that are no more with us. The shop is very cosy with a lot of fabrics, but also other sorts of textiles, yarn, buttons etc. When you click on "fotoboek" you can see it. When designing this
quilt my father -who was already ill for 5 years- got worse and died. At that moment I decided to make this quilt from fabrics people wear when in mourning. On the second picture you see a block made o
f fabrics when people are in heavy mourning. The damask is from a blouse, the black and white fabrics are often with different prints on both sides and are used to make a kraplap. The
black fabric with blue stripes is from the cloth that goes around the neck. This is daily wear. On the first picture above you see a piece of stipwerk in the middle from a kraplap to wear on Sunday. When in heavy mourning you wear black with some white added, after a few months you can change to black and white with some blue and again after some months some green is added. Older ladies mostly stay with the black and white version.
On picture 3, 4 and 5 you can see stipwerk showing this. By the way, when making this pictures I found out that nr. 4 and 5 are the same pattern, so proba
bly made by the same person.
Now you probably wonder why I added the blue and green, which is a very unusual colorscheme. When driving through Staphorst/Rouveen you can see the most beautiful farmhouses and the doors, fencing etc. are painted in these colours. You can see them on this site of Staphorst , click "Over Staphorst", then "Foto-impressie".
-to be continued-
My Staphorst quilt -part 1-On CQForNewbies I told the story of this quilt, it is handsewn and handquilted and took me 5 years to make.
First I have to explain that I love making quilts from second hand fabrics of traditional Dutch dresses, especially from costumes from Staphorst and Spakenburg, 
which I like most. Staphorst is one of the most religious towns in the Netherlands with a lot of people attending 
Calvinist church. It is situated in the province Drenthe, has about 15.000 inhabitants and is famous for people wearing traditional dresses. It is forbidden to take fotographs of Staphorst inhabitants without their permission. On the site of the museum of Staphorst
you can see pictures of people wearing the costumes when you click on "foto's", then click on "museumboerderij".
There are still about 600 women and 6 men who wear the traditional costume. A daily dress is different from a Sunday dress. On a weekday they wear a "kraplap" (upper part of costume) made of cotton or viscose, on Sunday the kraplap is m
ade from a heavy satin and decorated with "Staphorster stipwerk". This is made by nails stuck in corks and then tipped in paint. In early days it was made with a paint with lead in it, which is forbidden now. On the pictures you can see a cap and a close up of it and another close up of 
stipwerk on another piece of satin. Every stipwerk painter made his own patterns.
The Sunday kraplap is different if people are in heavy mourning (when a parent or husband has died),then it is in black and white as shown on the last picture. When in light mourning more colours, mostly blue and green are added to the kraplap, I show you a picture of that next time, also I will tell more about why I used the black, blue and green fabrics and the making of the quilt.
Little flower bouquetStill no sewing for me, so I will show you
a little bouquet I made last month on the red/black Crazy Quilt I am making. This was also my first try to make the cast on stitch! Also a picture from last weekend from the woods behind our home. The mist was frozen to the trees and with the blue sky above it was a beautiful sight. Temperatures have gone up to 1-3 oC, so the snow has melted now. At night it still freezes.
NEW LACES.....
Today we visited a collectors fair in Utrecht, that is where I found these beautiful vintage laces. I especially love the lace in the third row with the birds and flowers, never seen one like this before. They look a bit like the pheasants I made a picture of yesterday, don't you think so?
NEW VISITORS IN OUR GARDEN.....
Here in Holland we are having a very strong winter with a lot of snow and temperatures were this night -20 o!
This is very unusual over here, normally we have no or only 1-2 days snow in wintertime. A lot of Dutch people like to skate and most of us are hoping for an Elfstedentocht, when people are ice-skating on nature ice along 11 cities in the North of Holland, Friesland. This race has only taken place 15 times in the last century. You can read more about it over here.
Today we had some new visitors in our garden, this morning we saw the first pheasant, later they came together.
Wishing you all a happy, above all healthy and creative 2009!I know that life hasn't been easy for a lot of us in 2008 with health problems, not seeing or losing beloved ones or jobs and of course the economic crisis, I sure hope that this new year will be a better one for all of us!
For myself I have decided to try to work one day shorter each week if possible and learn several new creativ techniques. Due to chronic inflations of my shoulders it is sometimes very difficult for me to do handsewing and quilting, that is why I am going to work more by machine. Also I have discovered that after 20 years of sane quilting and making antique looking quilts, I now prefer more vivid colors and artquilts, so I have a lot to explore..........I will keep you updated!
NEW DYB BLOCK FINISHEDThis 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!
the shop of Stegeman. The family Stegeman is very helpfull (father, mother and 2 girls)and very friendly. Mr. Stegeman buys traditional costumes from people that don't want to wear them anymore or from family of people that are no more with us. The shop is very cosy with a lot of fabrics, but also other sorts of textiles, yarn, buttons etc. When you click on "fotoboek" you can see it. When designing this
quilt my father -who was already ill for 5 years- got worse and died. At that moment I decided to make this quilt from fabrics people wear when in mourning. On the second picture you see a block made o
f fabrics when people are in heavy mourning. The damask is from a blouse, the black and white fabrics are often with different prints on both sides and are used to make a kraplap. The
black fabric with blue stripes is from the cloth that goes around the neck. This is daily wear. On the first picture above you see a piece of stipwerk in the middle from a kraplap to wear on Sunday. When in heavy mourning you wear black with some white added, after a few months you can change to black and white with some blue and again after some months some green is added. Older ladies mostly stay with the black and white version.
bly made by the same person.
