This fabric page I received this month from Yoke in Holland. It has a drawing of a dragonfly and the rest of the page is felted, thank you so much for your lovely work Joke! Beyond you see the page I made for Robin in Australia, her theme is nature.

Sad week

We are very sad because our dear friend Gerard has died exactly on his 59th birthday.
He was a big, sweet guy with lots of humor and above all a great artist. He was also my artteacher until he got ill last year. Only 14 days ago we were still talking about going to paint
again together in September and now he is already gone, due to this dishonest disease we already lost so many dear friends and family to, life is so unfair sometimes..........

Rest in peace dear friend!

I told you some time ago that I was busy with a portrait and this is the result. I found it very difficult to paint this little fellow, because it was the first baby I have ever painted.

The next picture is of the fabric page I just received from Wendy in Alabama, USA, thank you so much Wendy for the lovely dragonly. I have received 4 pages until now and they are all so different from each other, didn't realise that it was such a difficult subject to do. I love dragonflies, they are so delicate and colorful.

Today I want to show you 2 postcards.
The first one I made for Ati in Norway, who celebrated her birthday last week. She has sent me an article about making fabric paper some time ago, so this was a good opprtunity to give it a try!The next postcard with the sweet little rabbit I received from Lisa, I swapped with her in the Pot Luck swap on Art4Mail. Thanks for swapping Lisa!

This is the fabric page I made for Margreet here in the Netherlands this month. She wrote to me that she liked it very much, she is living in the Northwest part of Holland and sees this landscape with flowers often in spring.

Today I received this beautiful fabric page from Lise in Norway. The background fabric is a rusted piece. I read about this technic in the Quilting Arts magazine, think I am gonna give it a try soon also.

The background of the page is also beautiful, wish I had a machine that could do such wonderful stitching......... Once again thanks Lise!

Hi there,

I am back from a wonderful vacation in Florida!

We stayed in Orlando and Fort Myers Beach and have been driving around a lot.

The last part of the vacation at Fort Myers Beach was awesome. We stayed in a resort at the beach and have seen a lot of wildlife, I especially liked seeing dolphins and manatees diving up close to you!

Unluckely coming back in Holland we both got the flu, there were a lot of people sneezing in the airplane on our way back home.

Now life is back to normal (almost, there is a heatwave here in the Netherlands at this moment) so I started painting and sewing again. This weekend I have to finish a "landscape" fabric page for Margreet, I will show you a picture when it is ready. Last Thursday I finished this painting, some months ago I told you about the lambs that were born in front of our home, these are the little ones with their mother.

The last weeks I have been busy making "pansie" postcards to sent out for birthdays and swaps.3 of these are sent to Jan and Lisa in the USA and Helina in Finland.

Beyond you see a picture of the lovely postcard I received from Sharon H. from the USA in the Pot Luckswap on Art4Mail.

Today I want to show you some lovely items I have received. On the first picture you see a fabric postcard I got from Jan in the USA and 2 yellow ATC's I swapped with Lisa and Mary, they all belong to the Art4Mailgroup. The fabric page with the dragonfly I received from Maureen in Australia. The background is a beautiful velvet fabric all embroidered with shiny threads, this one is made for the monthly swap on Fibre-fever.Thanks so much for your lovely work ladies!

This is the fabric page I made this month for Marja in Holland, her theme you must have guessed already: "Birds". I found it difficult to start with this subject until I remembered an article in a Quilting Arts magazine from some time ago. As I mostly sew by hand it was a little experiment for me to sew by machine and use paint on the fabric page, but I think it worked well. Here in Holland we call this bird a "Roodborstje".
On Art4Mail I swapped a bookmark with Miriam from Ireland, ain't it lovely. She also sent me this postcard she made of an Irish landscape.

Another painting finished....
This is sweet little Poekie, the other dachshund of my friends Karin and John. I showed them the painting (40x40cm)done in acrylics last Tuesday and they really liked it. Today I have put varnish on it and it looks even better.
And this fabric postcard I made for Marja, she had her birthday last week. We are both member of Fibre_fever.

Strange....

to find out how much you can miss the Internet! The last days we were out of Internet, TV and telephone until the Phone company found out the modem was not working as it should and changed it for a new one.........very annoying!!!!!

The good thing is that I read some books, heard lovely music and have started 2 new paintings!

Today I want to show you some ATC's I received and some lovely additions to my "Austrian" Crazy Quilt.These are the ATC's I received back in the Spring ATC swap on CQForNewbies, thank you Alice (2x), Beth, Genie(2x), Ira, Jocelyne, Lesa and Linda for your nice work.

As you might know, I love to visit collectors fairs. That's where I found these lovely additions last month. I just love the little spider brooch I have put on the spiderweb made of metallic Madeira yarn, ain't he cute? (As far as you can call a spider cute.....LOL)I was also very happy to find this vintage brooch made of beads and sequins, on top I have added a little organza bow.Also I found this vintage spider silkie, that came with boxes of cigars in the fifties. It's colors are perfect on this quilt. I have on and off been working on this CQ, made from Austrian fabrics I got from my birthday buddy Helen some years ago. She has the other half of the fabrics and has challenged me to make a quilt of them. I just fund out in an old blogpost that I started this CQ in september 2007 , think it is time to finish it soon!

Today I received this colorful felted postcard from Sherry from the USA. We are both in the Art4Mailgroup and participated in a Pot Luck swap. Thanks so much Sherry for your lovely work.

Exciting.....

Wednesday I already told you about all the pregnant sheep of our neighbours.

Yesterday afternoon I saw for the first time in my life the birth of a little lamb, here you see a picture of it 5 minutes old. It was very touching to see it stand up for the first time......

Half an hour later we came outside and saw a little head peeping out of mother sheep, our neighbour had to push it back and get it out again with the feet in front. The twins are doing fine,

there are now 11 lamb born and we are now waiting for one of the brown sheep to give birth.

Today there was an exciting envelope in the mail!

I won the give a way on Frauke's blog and got these beautiful fabrics she handdyed and printed. Of course I am very happy with them!

Frauke is a very talented quilter from Germany, have a look at her blog. If you live in the Netherlands, you can see 2 of her quilts on the European Quilt Championships next week in Veldhoven.

Spring has definitely sprung!

Today we had to watch the sheep of our neighbours because they had an appointment elswhere. This morning twins were already born, just like some days ago and probably 16 sheep in the meadow in front of our home are expecting. Until now nothing has happened. Here a picture of the first born sheep.I have just been walking around with the dog and made some pictures in the neighbourhood, if you look very careful to the picture above you see our house peep through the blossom. Beyond you see a view to the right from our home and to the other side of the street.

Fabric pages

This month I have started with a new round of fabric pages in the Fibre Fevergroup. We have to make a fabric page every month for a year long, the theme is chosen by the receiver.

As theme for this round I choose "Dragonflies".Today I received the first page made by Claudia in Austria and it is beautiful. Thanks so much Claudia for your lovely work!

I had to make a fabric page for Barbara in Germany, her theme is "View from inside to outside".

I appliqued a piece of fabric with a Tuscany landscape to a piece of sky fabric. Then made the window around it with "wooden" fabric, added some lace as curtain and did lots of French knots

to lighten up lavender and bushes.

TAST 2010

I joined the Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge 2010 from Sharon Boggon, but after week 1 life got in the way again. I hope to make up week 2 - 4 in the coming time.

I found it very difficult to make the Diamond Stitch of week 1, had difficulties to get it even, combined the stitch with some Lazy daisies but the result was bad. This is definitely not my favorite stitch!

This afternoon I could sit in the sun in the garden and did the stitches for week 5,6 and 7.

Here you see the stitches of week 5 Knotted Buttonhole Stitch and week 7 Rope Stitch.

I will try some variations later this week.

Also I did the Buttonhole Eyelet Flower. I made the first circle of stitches a bit big, the red one has petals made of 15 wraps and around that petals made of 20 wraps. The pink one has more petals, they are all made with 15 wraps also. I will have to practice more on these stitches to get them even.

New painting finished I hope you can see who this is, when you are above a certain age and love music I think you will know....... LOL
I find it sometimes difficult to find a subject to paint and must say that I have been strugling with this one because it is the first person I have ever painted.

Had a bit of bad luck on Easter Monday, fell down on the street and strained my left ankle very bad, it got twice as thick and got almost every color of the rainbow. Luckely it gets better every day now.

Happy Easter to all of you!
This week I received a lovely prize from Nicki, as I already told you she has started a webshop (www.RavioleeDreams.Etsy.com)
I was 1st Runner Up in a contest on her blog and I am very happy with these lovely fabrics and handdyed laces, once again thanks Nicki and I hope we get the chance to meet next year in Connecticut!

April 1th...
This lovely card I bought on a collectors fair last week. It is

really shiny, so it is difficult to take a good picture of it. The text says as I remember well in French: You wouldn't want to refuse this beautiful fish and my kisses. There were more cards with an April 1th theme and they all had fish on it. Does anyone know what is the meaning of this??

As you must have noticed last Monday was my birthday and I received this beautiful postcard from Ati in Norway.

I had a nice day, in the morning I had to work, in the afternoon my mother and MIL came for tea and cheesecake and in the evening we went out for dinner with our son and his girlfriend, friends and my mother, which was really cosy.
I have received lovely presents, some canvases to paint on, paint, brushes, books and a DVD, also I received these beautiful tulips.