QUILTERS DREAM

2010-05-16T21:35:00.008+02:00

Vandaag heb ik de laatste steekjes gegeven aan de 3 kleine werkjes (oefeningen eigenlijk) die binnen moeten voor de tentoonstelling in Nazareth volgend weekend.

"De textielmap" was een spel met papier, stof, houtlijm, verf, kant, goudblad, vilt, angelina fiber enz. Deze map zal ik gebruiken om mijn "moderne" werkjes in te bewaren.
Groetjes,
Jenny

binnenkant - inside

achterkant - back

voorkant - front

"The Children of Lir" - onze opdracht was een thema te kiezen en dit door gebruik van foto's - teezakjes, verf - gel - een compositie te maken en deze te bevestigen op een stukje vilt. Ik heb gekozen voor een Keltisch thema en heb de tekeningen gebruikt uit het boek Celtic Quilt Designs II by Philomena Durcan, alsook the samenvatting van het verhaal van "The Children of Lir".

"Winter in mijn tuin" is gemaakt van een foto die ik genomen heb in de winter van de ene boom in mijnen hof - de achtergrond is gemaakt van stof - organza en nog een iets (sorry ik ben de naam vergeten op het ogenblik). Het was ook mijn allereerste keer om met de machine te quilten - zoals gezegd allemaal oefeningen.

detail

Today I managed to add the last details to the 3 small works I had to finish in time for the exhibition next weekend.
The first - "a textile folder" was a game of paper, fabric - paint - gel medium - angelina fibers - beads etc. I will be using it to hold my other "arty" little works.

Our second exercise was to choose a theme, and make a composition made up of photo(s)tea bags - cloth - paint - medium gel etc. I chose the theme of "The Children of Lir" an old Celtic legend from the book "Celtic Quilt Designs II" by Philomena Durcan

The third photo is called "Winter in my garden" made up of a photo of the one and only tree in my garden one winter morning, and the background is made up of fabric, organza and something else of which I forgot the name (told you I was new at all this) - It was my very first attempt at machine quilting (meandering).
till next time,
Jenny

2010-05-13T21:09:00.007+02:00

Vrijdag 30 april heb ik een bezoekje gebracht aan de EQC tentoonstelling in Veldhoven en toon hierbij enkele van mijn favoriete quilts. Geniet er van! Er volgen nog enkele later.

"Jazzy" door Annelies Ghyselen - Belgium - she won the price for best interpretation of the theme which was "Rhythm"

"Cordoba" gemaakt door Claudia Pheil - Germany

"Bird of Paradise" by Shulamit Ron - Israël

"African Rhythm" by Israela Hirsch - Israël

"Amphorae" by Shulamit Ron

"African Adventure" door Janneke de Vries - Nederland

On Friday 30th April we visited the European Quilt Championships in Veldhoven (The Netherlands) and as usual there were some really stunning quilts to be seen. I like to share some of these beauties with you all - enjoy! More to follow.

2010-05-12T17:24:00.006+02:00

Het is alweer een heel lange tijd geleden dat ik nog geblogd heb. Ik heb ondertussen wel gewerkt aan quiltjes en andere zaken. De tentoonstelling in Nazareth komt nader nl het Pinksteren weekend - 22-23-24 mei - iedereen is welkom elke namiddag.
Dit jaar hebben we ons volledig toegespits op de meer moderne vorm van de kunst - met name meer "quilt-art" ipv het traditionele quilten. Voor mij was dit wel totaal buiten mijn komfortzone. Ik heb het uitermate genoten maar heb toch besloten dat het traditionele quiltwerk meer mijn genre is.

Mijn laatste "landschapsquiltje" is reeds geruime tijd af - niet helemaal quilt-art maar toch wat gedurfder dan mijn gewoonte is :-)). De stof die ik gebruikt heb deed me denken aan zonnebloemen en dus heb ik mijn quiltje daarop gebaseerd. Het bovenste gedeelte - zonnebloemvelden met zaden - het midden - zonnebloemen in bloei en het laatste een foto van een droge zonnebloem, versierd met pareltjes en net - (dat was mijn idee om het wat meer "arty" te laten lijken. Hierbij enkele foto's. Verder heb ik nog een textielmap gemaakt en een A-4tje dat ik persoonlijk heel graag zie - en dan nog een werkje. Later zet ik hiervan ook nog wat foto's op mijn blog.

Verder ben ik nog aan mijn sterrenquilt (de rood-blauw-witte) aan het quilten - met de hand en heb ik ook verder gewerkt aan mijn Y2K quilt. Bezig ben ik geweest maar gewoon niet veel zin om aan de computer nog te zitten - kan gebeuren.
Hopelijk zal ik nu terug weer wat meer tijd aan mijn blog werken want ik heb wel mijn bezoekjes aan andere blogs gemist.
groetjes
Jenny

It's been quite a while since I last spent some time blogging. Not that I have been lazy, just too tired to sit at the computer after a long day of working in the house, garden and quilting.

Pentecost weekend we have our local quilt show - all the groups in Nazareth are participating. Our group this year has concentrated on the more modern form of quilting. More "quilt-art" type of stuff and although I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it, it has only confirmed that my true love lies with the traditional quilting style.
I have finished my latest little landscape quilt (use your imagination with this one :-)) - see photo's. The fabric reminded me of sunflowers so my quilt is made up of three parts - the fields with the seeds, the sunflowers in bloom and the last one a photo of a dried-up sunflower, decorated with beats (my attempt at a more contemporary style LOL.)
Then on to the more arty stuff - I made a textilefolder - a little A-4 quilt using a photo of the tree in my garden and a little other arty thing. Photo's will follow.

In the meantime I have continued working on my Y2K quilt and started quilting my star quilt.
Hopefully I will get back into the habbit of spending more time on my blog, especially since I enjoy visiting other peoples blogs.
Hugs
Jenny

365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs: Day 1 - Shadow Waves

2010-05-10T11:02:00.000+02:00

365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs: Day 1 - Shadow Waves

2010-01-27T17:47:00.007+01:00

Wat een drukte van jewelste vandaag, men heeft zo van die dagen gelukkig is het momenteel weer wat rustiger.
Hierbij een foto van mijn volgende UFO welke volgende op mijn lijste van "te quilten tops" stond. Het is een swap waar ik aan meegewerkt heb, de top heb ik verleden jaar afgewerkt. Het is volledig gemaakt van reproductiestofjes. De blokken komen van Denemarken, Amerika en Australia, rechts bovenaan is mijn blok. Ik ben halfweg klaar met het driegen en dan kan ik beginnen met het quiltwerk. Ik ben op het ogenblik aan verschillende projecten bezig - ik hou van wat afwisseling een beetje quilten, piecing en verder spelen met mijn "art-quilt" topjes.
groetjes,
Jenny

Such a busy day I have had today, sometimes I wonder whether I wouldn't be better off still working and earning some money instead of staying at home and be on call for everyone else around me - still.
Above is a photo of the quilt which was next on my to-do list as far as quilting is concerned. I am halfway through basting it and then comes the fun work - quilting. The blocks come from Denmark, The States and Australia. The top right hand block is mine.
I am working on different projects at the moment as I like a change - from piecing to quilting to working at my "art-quilt" trials.
happy quilting
Jenny

2010-01-19T17:31:00.012+01:00

Het is mijn laatste kans deze week om nog iets toe te voegen aan mijn blog. Mijn kleinzoon komt deze avond logeren tot en met zondag en aangezien hij pas 2.5 jaar oud is betekend dit veel aandacht geven maar ik geniet er wel honderduit van.

Mijn nieuwjaarsresolutie was om net zoals verleden jaar aan UFO's te werken en nu heb ik daarnet een leuke "badge" gevonden bij "Annes Ida's blog waar ik via de blog van Rose Threadbare terecht gekomen ben. Iedereen is vrij om dit logo over te nemen.

Verder heb ik aan mijn winter journal's wat verder gewerkt waarvan er later foto's volgen.

This is my last chance this week to work at my blog as my little grandson of 2 1/2 is coming to stay tonight until Sunday so I will be spending all my time with him, which I love.
As mentioned earlier I decided this year to carry on with my resolution from last year - try and finish as many UFO's as possible. Through Rose's blog Threadbare I found this great button at "Quiltoholic"'s blog. Everyone is free to copy it onto their blog.
For the rest I have been working at my "winter journal's" - photo's of these at a later date.

Herewith one of the quilt tops that I want to finish next. It is going to be a tablecloth and is made of crazy blocks from a swap I took part in a few years ago of which the theme was "autumn". I want to machine quilt this entire quilt so hold thumbs for me please LOL. Since I have trouble with my back and knees I decided to try and sandwich my quilt on my ironing board and it really worked wel - maybe a tip for others.
Happy quilting
Jenny

Dit is een van de quilts die ik volledig met de machine wens te quilten (duimen aub LOL). De top is gemaakt van crazy blocks in een swap waaraan ik enkele jaren geleden deelgenomen heb - het thema was herfst. Aangezien ik na een operatie aan mijn rechterknie niet langer op mijn knieën kan zitten of lang gebukt staan heb ik geprobeerd om deze quilt op mijn strijkplank te sandwichen en het werkt prima - misschien een tip voor anderen met hetzelfde probleem.
groetjes
Jenny

2010-01-14T19:31:00.005+01:00

Eureka, ik heb het gevonden (denk ik), nu spreek ik over mijn volgende landschapsquiltje. Gisteren na een bezoek aan verschillende blogs ben ik tot de slotsom gekomen dat ik nog te veel "traditioneel" denk. Dus wordt het hoog tijd dat ik een beetje oefen met de meer moderne technieken die ik aan het leren ben. De afmetingen van mijn landschapsquilt zijn gehalveerd, de achtergrond gekozen en de blokken geplaatst (allemaal in mijn gedachten nog LOL) maar ik voel me er goed bij dus zodra ik wat meer tijd heb begin ik eraan.
Ondertussen heb ik wat met vliesofix en verf gespeeld en enkele achtergronden op stof gefixeerd. Zoals je van de foto's kan zien zijn er hier en daar nog wat mankementen maar het zijn dan ook oefenblokjes. Ik wil er wel A4 quiltjes van maken tot nu toe allemaal wintertaferelen - hoe kan het ook anders met deze koude en sneeuw.

I think I found it! the solution to my landscape quilt. Looking through some blogs last night I realised that I was still thinking "too traditional" to be able to make a quilt-art type of landscape. In my mind I have it all planned - the size of the quilt will only be half of what I first intended and I figured out the placement of the blocks that I wanted to use. The minute I get more time I will turn these thoughts into action.
In the meantime I decided to play around a bit and get more confidence in working with the quilt-art techniques. I painted some Vliesofix and then fixed it to fabric to be used as a background. You will notice from the photographs that there are quite a few "mishaps" but then these are only trial quilts. I want to make them into A4 (journal quilts) up to now all winter landscapes. Keep tuned for the next episode.
hugs
Jenny

2010-01-11T20:26:00.007+01:00

Het blijft maar winteren, gezellig "binnenweer". Op het ogenblik ben ik bezig met het plannen van mijn volgende landschapsquilt. Het wil maar niet lukken. Ik werk nu reeds aan mijn derde idee! Verleden jaar heb ik enkele "proefblokken" gemaakt met gebogen lijnen en van hieruit is dan het idee gegroeid om deze blokken te gebruiken in een landschapsquilt. Aangezien we dit jaar met ons groepje lessen krijgen in het gebruik van "moderne" technieken en allerlei zaken wil ik deze nieuwe kennis graag incorporeren in mijn volgende quilt. Ik zal wel zien welke weg ik ga volgen. Normaal werk ik aan een idee en dan groeit de quilt naar buiten toe en zie ik maar wat er uit verder komt.
Dit zijn twee van de blokken en het begin van het idee.

Father winter has decided to stay for a while in Belgium - we certainly are not used to that over here. Just the right kind of weather to stay indoors, nice and warm and plan my next landscape quilt. I am having trouble though. Last year I made some trial blocks incorporating curved lines. Looking at these I got the idea of using these blocks in my next landscape quilt. I am now working on my third design!!! These are just rough sketches. This quilting year our little group is working on learning the more "modern" techniques and usages of other materials. I would like to use this new knowledge in this quilt. I"ll have to wait and see how it develops as I seldom have a pattern worked out from beginning to end. I usually start with an idea and then take it from there - block by block. Above is a photo of two of the blocks that started the idee.

2010-01-08T17:17:00.009+01:00

Wat een drukke week is het geweest - den opruim na de Kerst- en Nieuwjaarsdagen - dinsdag mijn brood gebakken - doe ik nog steeds artisanaal daar hou ik van - de woensdag een ganse dag wintergroenten schoongemaakt en klaar gemaakt voor den diepvries - nog zo gemakkelijk daarna. In de namiddag het toch klaar gespeeld om te quilten en eindelijk is er nog een AFFO ipv een UFO LOL. De quilt die ik voor mijn kleinzoon gemaakt heb voor zijn eerste Kerst is uiteindelijk volledig gequilt geraakt. Hij heeft hem wel kunnen gebruiken als speelquilt omdat ik met de machine "in the ditch quilten" gedaan had. Er was nog wel heel veel handquilten nodig alvorens ik hem kan wassen en vandaag is het dus zover - hij is af.
Nu kan ik me concentreren op andere projecten.

Hierbij nog een paar foto's van mijn Y2K quilt center - zij tonen de overgang naar de andere kleuren. Nu kan ik ook hier aan verder werken.

Such an extremely busy week this has been - clearance after the Christmas and New Year's days - baking my weekly bread on Tuesday (I still do this by hand as I prefer it). Cleaning and preparing veggies for the deepfreeze all day Wednesday - so much easier afterwards.

In the afternoons I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of quilting most days and I can finally say that I finished Ben's Quilt. You might remember that I made this quilt for his 1st Christmas - having machine quilted in the ditch so that he could use it as a play-quilt. Before washing it I needed to do a lot of hand quilting to it and finally today I turned another UFO into a FO (finished object) looks weird when you abbreviate it LOL.

I am als attaching some other photo's of my Y2K quilt showing the other part of the center as the colours go over into the darker once. Now I am free to carry on with this as an UFO and carry on with my next "landscape quilt" - more about this later.

2010-01-01T18:41:00.005+01:00

Het is weeral zover - we schrijven 2010 wat vliegt de tijd toch snel. Ik wens iedereen een zeer prettig en productief jaar toe met genoeg tijd om aan je hobby to spenderen. Persoonlijk wil ik terug enkel UFO's boven halen, enkele tops quilten en natuurlijk ook een paar nieuwe zaken beginnen.

Unbelievable how time flies, we are writing 2010 and I suppose it will take a while again to get used to it. I wish everyone a very pleasant and very productive year with lots of time to spend with your hobby. Personally I plan to tackle a few UFO's again this year, quilt a few finished tops and off course start a few new things.

I would like to share with you this New Year's cake made by my son-in-law Davy

2009-12-29T18:33:00.016+01:00

Kerst is alweer voorbij en weldra schrijven we 2010! Aan iedereen nog zeer prettige feestdagen en alles wat je wensen kan voor 2010.

Christmas has passed once again and soon we will be writing 2010. I would like to wish everyone a very good holiday still and all that you may wish for 2010.

I finally got around to take a photo of the framed wallhanging:

This is the photo I worked from - taken at Kleinmond - Western Cape South Africa

and my repro "challenge quilt top"

Enkele jaren geleden heb ik in Birmingham gedurende het Festival of Quilts een setje gekocht om een speciale doos te maken (mijn allereerste) - ik heb wel mijn eigen stofjes gebruikt. Ik heb deze nu uiteindelijk afgewerkt en gevuld met chocolade en als extratje onder de kerstboom geplaats voor mijn zoon en zijn partner.

A couple of years ago I bought a set of cardboard to make a special box - this was a first for me. I finally got around to finishing it and I did use my own fabrics. I put it as a little extra under the Christmas tree for my youngest son and his partner - filled with chocolats.

2009-12-22T18:13:00.006+01:00

Na bijna een ganse dag winkelen en hoognodig bezoek aan de kapper is er wat tijd om nog een fototje toe te voegen van een project dat nu volledig af is. Mijn landschapsquiltje. Het is ook ingelijst maar daar moet ik nog een foto van nemen - de lichtinval moet goed zijn. Die volgt later.

After nearly a full day shopping and a much needed visit to the hairdresser I finally have some time to add another photo of a finalised project. The landscape quilt. It has been framed since but I haven't taken a photo yet. Hopefully tomorrow if the light is right.

2009-12-21T18:45:00.009+01:00

Het is alweer een hele tijd geleden dat ik nog mijn blog bijgewerkt heb - hier ga ik dan nog maar eens. 2009 was geen al te best jaar wat de gezondheid betreft dus heb ik me grotendeels geconcentreed op het werken aan UFO's. De volgende dagen ga ik proberen om een paar van de genomen foto's te plaatsen. De eerste foto is een plannetje op papier van hoe ik de blokken wenste te plaatsen - een nodige geheugensteun.
This first photo is a plan on paper of the blocks as I wanted to place them in the centre of the quilt - a necessary step:

It's been ages again since I last worked on my blog. 2009 has not been a very good year healthwise so I mainly concentrated on working on my UFO's. During the coming days I will try and post some of the photo's and try and take photo's of some more - weather permitting as these last few weeks it has been dark early and late and never a good light for taking photo's at all. So here I go again.

The following photo's are the first rows joined - I worked diagonally.

2009-09-03T18:44:00.006+02:00

Vandaag dus enkele van de blokken die ik net klaar heb. De andere zijn te zien op de webshots album.
groetjes
Jenny

As promised today some of the blocks I just finished. The rest can be seen on my webshots. Cheers Jenny

2009-09-02T21:03:00.007+02:00

Eén van de projecten waarvan ik graag de top zou af hebben dit jaar is mijn Y2K quilt. Of het gaat lukken weet ik nog niet maar hoop doet leven. Een tijdje geleden had ik 15 blokken klaar gemaakt om te naaien. Een tijdrovend werkje aangezien ik nu aan mijn "blending" blocks bezig ben. m.a.w een blok die de overgang van een kleur naar een andere weergeeft. Ieder jaar in de zomer - de kleuren zijn zo veel beter in het zonlicht dan bij lamplicht bereid ik enkele blokken voor. Gewoonlijk gaan die dan mee op vakantie. Door het feit dat ik nu toch weinig anders kan doen ben ik alvast begonnen met het naaien van de blokken. Alles gebeurd nog op de traditionele manier, mijn stofjes bestaan uit 2.5" en 3" lapjes, nadat ik ze gesorteerd heb, teken ik het patroontje d.m.v. een malletje op de achterkant, knippen en dan pin ik deze op papier.
Hierbij enkele foto's van de gevolgde procedure. Morgen hopelijk foto's van de blokken die ik deze laatste dagen gemaakt heb. Meer foto's staan er op mijn webshots pagina.
1. Choosing the fabric and placing it.

Fabric has been cut and pinned in position

Leftovers for a next quilt.

One of the project which I would love to finish is my Y2K quilt top - my goal has always been to finish the quilt by 2010 - 10 years to make a quilt should normally do it LOL. A while ago I had started preparing 15 "blending" blocks. They will be used to join one colour to another colour. This has been a summer job for quite a few years now - the colours show up much better in the sunshine than in the lamp light. Since I can do little else I have now started making up these blocks. Very much in the traditional way I start by choosing my colours from the 2.5" and 3" bits of fabric, then they get pinned to a piece of fabric. The pattern gets drawn on the back, cut and pinned again, ready to sew. I have included some photo's of the procedure I follow. Tomorrow hopefully photo's of the blocks I have made in the last few days. More photo's can be seen on my webshots page.

2009-08-30T15:24:00.006+02:00

Het weekend is steeds zo snel voorbij. Enkele zullen zich misschien het landschapsquiltje herinneren dat ik begonnen ben gedurende een workshop van Margaret M. Roberts. Het is nu eindelijk gequilt en nu nog enkel de details toevoegen - enkele rotsen, zeewier enz. Daarna kan ik het laten inkaderen en op naar de volgende UFO.
Nog een prettige zondag,
groetjes
Jenny

Weekends fly - some of you may remember the landscape quilt which I started during a workshop by Margaret M. Roberts. I finally managed to quilt it and this week I will be adding the details such as rock constructions and seaweed etc. and it will be ready to be framed. I am looking forward to seeing the finished product. Then full go for the next UFO.
Have a wonderful Sunday,
Jenny

2009-08-28T11:31:00.003+02:00

Ik kan het niet nalaten enkele foto's van mijn kleinzoon en mijn vader met 3 van zijn kleinkinderen en 3 achter-kleinkinderen toe te voegen - kwestie van een persoonlijke noot :-))

I cannot resist adding a few personal photo's - two of my grandson taken two weeks ago - caught in the act - no wonder he was so quite :-)) and the other is of my father (89 years old) my son and grandson and two of his grand-daughters and their children.

2009-08-28T11:02:00.006+02:00

Zoals gezegd heb ik me kunnen bezig houden met een paar zaken - borduren en mijn Y2K quilt. Veel energie en inspiratie om echt creatief bezig te zijn met het ontwerpen van nieuwe zaken of het spelen met nieuwe technieken is er niet geweest. Wat ik nodig had waren werkjes waar ik mijn verstand op nul kon zetten, dus hierbij enkele foto's van extra blokken die ik geborduurd heb voor mijn redwork quiltje.
Jenny

As mentioned in my previous mail, I have been keeping myself occupied with a few things that didn't ask for too much of right brain activity. I did not have the energy to try out new techniques or design new quilts. All my brain needed was routine stuff where I could switch off all. A few photo's of extra blocks I embroidered for the redwork quilt are shown herewith.
Jenny

2009-08-28T10:50:00.003+02:00

Hallo iedereen,
Eindelijk komt er licht aan het einde van de tunnel en zal ik terug meer tijd kunnen besteden aan mijn hobbies en het bloggen.
De laatste paar maanden heb ik het op allerlei gebied enorm druk gehad - ook de gezondheid was niet zoals het moet. Dinsdag heb ik een kleine ingreep moeten ondergaan aan mijn rechtervoet en ben ik nu 2 weken immobiel - een beetje met de hulp van krukken rond pikkelen. Het geeft me tijd om een weinig achterstand in te halen. Daarna nog 2 weken met een verband en dan hopelijk is die miserie achter de rug. Aan alle trouwe bezoekers nogmaals dank, hopelijk krijgen jullie in het vervolg enkele nieuwe zaken te zien.
groetjes
Jenny

Hi everyone,
Finally I start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and I will be able to start spending more time with my hobbies and blogging off course :-))
The last few months have been extremely busy in more ways than one. My health hasn't been what it should be either. Last Tuesday I had a small operation to my right foot which leaves me imobile for the next two weeks - hopping around on crutches and keeping my leg up as much as possible. It gives me time to catch up on a few matters, including computer time. After that another 2 weeks with a bandage and hopefully then at last I will be able to put that part behind me for good - fingers crossed.
To all my loyal visitors, thanks again, from now on hopefully you will be finding new things appear.
Jenny

2009-07-22T21:10:00.003+02:00

Na een paar moeilijke maanden ben ik er deze week uiteindelijk in geslaagd om terug wat aan mijn hobby te werken. Een van mijn jarenplan quilts is mijn Y2K quilt - voor hen die toen nog niet door de quiltbug gebeten waren betekend dit mijn Jaar 2000quilt. Ja inderdaad 2000. In 1998 is het begonnen langzaam maar zeker begonnen tot het uiteindelijk een ware wedstrijd werd voor sommige deelnemers. Er is toen iemand op het idee gekomen om pakketjes stofjes te ruilen 24stuks + 1 siggy (handtekening blokje) - men kon kiezen tussen 2.5" of 3" pakjes. Ik ruilde beide.

Nu denk ik dat het merendeel van de deelnemers gewoon alle blokjes aan elkaar stikten met de siggy in het midden, blok per blok. Er zijn er andere geweest die de meest uiteenlopende ideeën uitgewerkt hebben wat geleid heeft tot prachtige quilts.

2009-06-22T11:13:00.004+02:00

Hallo iedereen - het is heel lang geleden dat ik nog een berichtje gestuurd heb - deels door persoonlijke problemen (bijna opgelost) en deels door medische problemen (ook bijna opgelost). Deze twee zaken lieten mij aan het einde van de dag uitgeput en uitgeblust achter. Hopelijk komt hier zeer binnenkort betering in. Aan diegene die mijn blog toch nog regelmatig bezocht hebben hartelijk dank - vanaf heden ga ik proberen terug al jullie blogs te bezoeken en mijn achterstand inhalen, groetjes
Jenny

Hi everyone, it has been ages since I have sent a message on my blog, partly through personal problems and partly through medical problems (both of which are nearly sorted out TG). A combination of both left me completely drained by the end of the day and I am happy to say that things are looking up and I will soon have more time and especially energy to get going again. To all those that despite this are still visiting my blog my heartfelt thanks. As from now I am going to try and catch up with all your blogs again,
hugs
Jenny

2009-05-09T20:32:00.004+02:00

Gelukkige moederdag aan alle moeders morgen,
Ter herinnering aan mijn eigen dierbare moeder een foto van haar met mezelf genomen in 1949 in de tuin van ons huis in Congo.

A happy mother's day to all mothers tomorrow,
In memory of my own dear mother a photo of her and myself taken in 1949 in the garden of our house in Congo.

2009-05-09T20:11:00.005+02:00

Vliegen bij jullie de dagen ook zo snel voorbij? Altijd maar druk bezig met alles en nog wat en het is alweer weekend. In mijn stash heb ik volgende stofjes gevonden die goed passen bij de borduursel voor het redwork quiltje. Nu nog een patroon uitwerken, dat zal wel niet te moeilijk zijn zeker.

Where has the time gone to again? Always busy running around doing one thing and another and before we know it is weekend again. Looking through my stash I found these fabrics which I think will go well with the stitcheries for the redwork quilt I have planned. Now I need to come up with some pattern - nothing too complicated, nice and simple after all it is for a baby's room.

I have not forgotten about the quilt for my grandson Ben. I am almost finished the hand quilting part and soon I will be able to give the quilt its first wash. Since he used it as a playquilt for quite a while it is showing evidence of all sorts of things LOL. Some photo's of the quilting herewith.

Bijna de eindstreep bereikt met het quilten van mijn kleinzoon zijn quilt. Daarna een eerste wasbeurt en dan is hij klaar voor zijn groot bed. De quilt is reeds veelvuldig gebruikt als speelquilt en toont duidelijk tekenen hiervan. Ik heb nog wel wat stof over om een kussenovertrek te maken. Dat is dan voor later.

Nog een fijne avond,
Jenny

2009-05-05T17:37:00.006+02:00

On the 25th April I promised to post some photo's of the stitcheries I worked on for a redwork quilt. They come out of a panel I bought at Creativa Brussels last year, presented by Windham Fabrics as Redworks by Susie Osburn. Today I finally get to do so - life can take over sometimes and cut right into our quilting time but here I go:

Op 25 april heb ik beloofd enkele foto's te tonen van de borduurpatroontjes die ik in een redwork quilt ga verwerken voor mijn broer zijn kleinkind. Ondertussen is er alweer een tijd verlopen maar hier ben ik dan. De werkjes komen uit een paneel dat ik verleden jaar op Creativa Brussel gekocht heb - Redworks by Susie Osburn - uitgebracht door Windham Fabrics.

Next I'll be looking for suitable fabrics to go with the stitcheries.
Happy quilting
Jenny

2009-05-04T16:14:00.012+02:00

Visit to Veldhoven
Saturday the second of May my friend and I visited the European Quilts Championship Exhibition in Veldhoven the Netherlands. It was a welcome break after two week of working solidly. We enjoyed the exhibition very much but were dissappointed at the way the quilts were displayed; some of them were so high up that after a few hours you ended up with a sore neck plus one could not see any of the details on any of the quilts, not even those hanging lower down. A great pity since a lot of the quilters must have gone through a lot of trouble and effort to give their quilts that little extra. Taking photo's was another problem. We did but unfortunately most of them were rather blurred. You could buy a DVD of the entire exhibition but I prefer taking my own photo's. At the cost of 12Euro's entrance fee I at least like to see the quilts in detail and not on a DVD. I did leave a comment on the site of the organisers and hopefully next year their display will be a bit kinder to the visitors. Otherwise it was a great exhibition with some outstanding quilts and off course lots of shops. Shop till you drop was the message :-))

For those that would like to see the winning quilts you can go to the following site
Veldhoven

I bought two books that will help me (I hope) with future landscape quilts that I have planned.

The quilt "King Solomon's Magical Carpet" won a price of merit and was made by my friend Shulamit

A photo of Christiane (no blogger) and myself at the stand of McKenna Ryan she was demonstrating some of her newer selection blocks. Lovely works

Glad to be back blogging, till next time,
Jenny

2009-04-25T21:06:00.004+02:00

Life happens! I have just returned from a 5-day stay with my eldest son and grandson last night. Not much happened quilt wise. I did take some stitchery with me for a redwork quilt I am planning to make for my brother's granddaughter and managed to do some of that. I am hoping to be able to post some photo's of the done work tomorrow.
for now it is good night.

Op het onverwachts ben ik de ganse week weg van huis geweest - op bezoek bij mijn oudste zoon en kleinzoon - geen quiltwerk gedaan wel een paar borduurmotiefjes afgewerkt die ik wens te gebruiken in een redwork quilt die ik voor de kleindochter van mijn broer ga maken. Ik hoop morgen enkele foto's te plaatsen van het gedane werk.
groetjes
Jenny

2009-04-15T21:11:00.005+02:00

Het is alweer woensdag wat vliegt de tijd toch snel. Mijn kleinzoon Ben heeft met veel plezier zijn paaseieren gezocht. Enkele foto's hierbij. Mijn jongste zoon heeft zowat 3 weken geleden een blitsbezoek gebracht aan New York. Toen heeft hij voor zijn petekind een T-shirt van NYPD samengebracht. Véél te groot nog maar zijn papa wilde hem op Paaszondag dit T-shirt laten dragen! We hebben er allemaal eens goed om kunnen lachen, hopelijk zal Ben er later ook om kunnen lachen - Paasbest noemt men dit dan.

Time flies, already three days since it was Easter Sunday. My grandson soon knew what it was all about and had great fun looking for his Easter eggs. About three weeks ago my youngest son went to New York for a few days and bought this T-shirt for his godson. Way too big still but Ben's daddy insisted on dressing him in it. We all had a good laugh, hopefully he will laugh about it when he is older.

2009-04-10T20:20:00.005+02:00

I hope everyone has a lovely and sunny Easter. Personally I look forward to having the family around and helping my grandson Ben look for his Easter eggs in the garden.
To get in the mood herewith some photo's of my spring flowers and shrub.

This week I have spent time quilting Ben's quilt, about 3/4 finished now.
Till next week
Jenny

2009-04-06T18:14:00.006+02:00

Mijn landschapsquiltje is af - nou ja - de basis is gelegd. Nu moet ik eerst nog een weinig quilten en dan wil ik het opspannen op een harde achtergrond bv isimo. Pas dan zal ik de verschillende extra's kunnen aanbrengen - de schelpen - steentjes -zeewier enz. Daarna is de bedoeling om het te laten inkaderen.

My landscape quilt is finished - the base anyway. After quilting I want to stretch it over a solid background in order to be able to apply the various pieces of embellishment such as the shells - small stones - seaweed etc. The idea is to have it framed.

Cheerio
Jenny

2009-04-03T20:48:00.006+02:00

Het komt stilaan goed met mijn landschapje - vandaag weer wat tijd gehad om er aan te werken. Ik heb vooral gespeeld met stofjes en de layout voor de linkerkant, hopelijk kan ik dit morgen afwerken. Waar je de leegte ziet is de plaats waar ik de schelp die de rots moet weergeven ga aanbrengen. Dit kan pas op het einde gebeuren aangezien ik deze met lijm moet aanbrengen (hopelijk lukt het me)- ik heb de schelp wel eens los geplaats om een idee te geven. Groetjes, Jenny

Slowly but surely my landscape is taking shape. Today I managed to add one other piece and I sat playing with fabric and lay-out for the left side, hopefully I get to do that tomorrow. The empty spot is the place where I want to add the shell which will represent the large rock. I can only add that at the end as it has to be glued down - I just put it in place to give an idea of what I have in mind. A few other embellishment will follow once the top is finished.
cheerio till next time,
Jenny

2009-04-02T14:02:00.009+02:00

Eindelijk is het me gelukt om verder te werken aan mijn landschapsquiltje. Na vele probeersels ben ik tot dit resultaat gekomen.

Nadat ik de rots aangebracht had begon ik met de groene velden (struiken en bossen) - bij het eerste probeersel had mijn berg precies een hoela-hoep rokje aan en heb ik vlug alles losgemaakt en ben ik herbegonnen. Ik heb toen ook besloten de groene zone onder te verdelen in 3 verschillende lagen. Dit vond ik al heel wat beter. Ik weet niet of het zichtbaar is op de foto's maar ik heb er wat reliëf in aangebracht door de stoffen van de rots gewoon te verfrommelen en op te vullen met den overschot van de stof. Onder de groene heuvels heb ik een weinig batting aangebracht.

Finally I had some free time to concentrate on my landscape quilt. It's amazing how much time is spend trying out different fabrics and ways to apply them. I tried bringing a 3-dimensial effect to it by putting the extra fabric of the rock underneather it and squeezing the entire rock. When applying the green fabric representing the trees and shrubs my mountain looked like it was dressed with a hoola-skirt. After unpicking it all I restarted and decided to do the green part in three layers thus giving a nicer effect (I think so anyway) behind the shrubs I added some batting in order to give it the fuller effect.

Since I want to use some shells etc I felt that the landscape needed that bit of extra filling in order for it to look more realistic. Whether I'll achieve the look that I want remains to be seen.

2009-03-30T20:22:00.004+02:00

No quilting to show today. Last Thursday my favourite man came to stay (my grandson Ben - age 20 months) and he stayed until Sunday afternoon. We had great fun together but no time for anything else off course :-)).

I do want to share with you the website of a dear friend of mine though - Günsu Güngör from Turkey. I met her through a yahoo quilting group swap a good many years ago. The Doves of Peace - see her Press link for a view of her quilt. Since then I have met her in person and she is the sweetest person you can meet. Günsu has had a stand and quilts at the Birmingham Festival of Quilts in the UK a couple of times as well as having been invited to the Paducah quilt show in the States. She set up a studio in Ankara, Turkey and teaches the local women the art of patchwork and I can assure you some of these quilts are too beautiful. Unfortunately you cannot see those on her website but I have her first catalogue and was thus able to ooh and aah over them. So if you get a chance, pay her website a visit and enjoy.
till next time,
Jenny

De man in mijn leven - mijn kleinzoontje van 20 maanden heeft bij mij gelogeerd van donderdag tot en met zondag dus is er geen tijd overgebleven voor quiltwerk.

Graag wil ik jullie toch laten genieten van de website van een dierbare vriendin van mij. Zo'n tiental jaren geleden heb ik via een swap - Doves of Peace - op een Yahoo quiltlijst Günsu Güngör leren kennen. Sindsdien heb ik haar ook reeds persoonlijk ontmoet en zijn we bevriend geraakt. Het is een schat van een dame. Zij heeft reeds enkele malen een stand gehad in Birmingham Engeland en misschien hebben enkele lezers haar ook daar ontmoet. Zij was ook uitgenodigd op de quiltshow in Paducah, Amerika - meer info op haar site onder de link "Press". In Ankara heeft zij een quilt studio opgezet en daar heeft zij de lokale dames patchwork en quilten aangeleerd. Ik heb het geluk een kataloog van hun eerste quiltshow in bezit te hebben en sommige van deze quilts zijn echte meesterstukken. Indien jullie een beetje tijd hebben breng dan gerust een bezoekje aan haar site en geniet het.
Groetjes
Jenny

2009-03-25T17:09:00.006+01:00

Whilst waiting for a suitable pattern for my reproduction quilt's appliqué border to appear to me :-)) - I decided to tackle one of my UFO's. It is a landscape quilt (approx. 28cm x 35cm) that I am making from a photograph taken in Kleinmond South Africa - the Western Cape - whilst on holiday there a couple of years ago.

In 2006 I was lucky to follow a workshop with British landscape artist Margaret M. Roberts which I thoroughly enjoyed. During that day I managed to do the basics, enlarging the design, bringing it over on a backing fabric and pick some of the fabrics. That is how it ended up on my wall and that is how I took it down a couple of days ago.

Every day since I have tried playing with my landscape for a few hours and have since changed some of the fabrics as one cannot take all once fabric to a workshop especially since this is the very first landscape quilt I am attempting to make. It has been great fun playing with fabric and embellishments that I might use. This is how far I have come today.

Enkele jaren geleden heb ik het geluk gehad om een workshop te volgen met Margaret Roberts en ben toen gestart met het maken van een landschapsquiltje. Voor bijna drie jaar heeft het aan mijn ontwerpmuur gehangen en nu heb ik uiteindelijk besloten er iets mee te doen. Tot nu toe heb ik elke dag een uur of twee kunnen besteden aan dit landschapje en het uitermate genoten. De foto is genomen in de West-Kaap Zuid Afrika gedurende een verlof daar.

2009-03-22T19:43:00.005+01:00

Het is alweer zondag wat vliegt de tijd toch snel. Een heel drukke week gehad met weinig "vrije" tijd maar ik ben er uiteindelijk toch in geslaagd om de blokken van mijn reproductie quilt aan elkaar te zetten en ben wel blij met het resultaat. Toen ik aan het spelen was met de stofjes voor de border riepen die verzamelde blokken zo luid "wij willen een appliqué border eerst"! Hebben jullie dat ook dat je quilt of stofjes met je praten? :-))

Dus nu maar zoeken naar een geschikt motief voor een appliqué border. Het enige nadeel is natuurlijk dat dit terug een quilt wordt van lange duur :-((. Ik hoop toch hem dit jaar nog helemaal af te krijgen - zien of het lukt.

Time flies when you're having fun! Not that I had that much fun last week - just overly busy with everything and nothing. I did finally manage to join all the blocks in my reproduction quilt thinking, finally I am going to have a quilt that is not too large and will be finished quite soon. However, as I was auditioning fabric for the border(s) my blocks suddenly spoke out loud and clear “we want an appliqué border”! Does this happen to you sometimes?

Ok I think I will go ahead and look for a suitable pattern for this appliqué border. I will have to accept the fact that once again I am working on a quilt that will take time and more time to get it finished. I am hoping for the end of the year
time will tell.

Herewith a photo of the joined blocks. I am actually quite pleased with the setting, by the look on his face so is my quilt inspector.

2009-03-15T20:38:00.004+01:00

Onze eerste prachtige lentedag - dus niet quilten vandaag maar gezellig in de tuin werken. Gisteren zijn wij naar een tuincentra geweest en hadden enkele fleurige lentebloemen gekocht alsook enkele nieuwe plantjes voor mijn keukenraam. Laat de zon maar schijnen want er is nog heel veel werk in de tuin.
groetjes
Jenny

Since we had our first beautiful spring day today quilting time has been postponed and I worked in the garden instead. In Belgium we have to make the most of each sunny day we get. Yesterday I paid a visit to my favourite garden centre and bought some spring flowers as well as some new plants for my kitchen window. So instead of quilts I'd like to share these photo's of my new plants. As there is plenty more work in the garden I am hoping for plenty of sunny days.
regards,
Jenny

2009-03-14T19:57:00.004+01:00

This past week I spent babysitting my grandson Ben, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but was unable to go online. However I did manage to do quite a bit of piecing and am happy to say that my challenge blocks have now been joined in 4 rows of 3 blocks each. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to join these rows and finish the top - minus the border that is. I am quite fussy in this way that I like my points and seems to be as accurate as possible this is another reason why I prefer to do all my piecing by hand - I tried machine piecing large blocks or borders before and usually spend more time ripping the seems and doing it over and over again that sometimes it's quicker to just to it by hand :-)). I probably just need more practice.

I paid a visit to the blog of the Hexagon Quilt Along group just now - I love hexagons - and from there moved on and came across the blog and website regarding the Inklingo way of printing templates onto the wrong side of your fabric. There is a demo video on the site and after watching this I was sold. This really looks like something for me, using this method I might even try and make certain blocks by machine and actually get to make some of the quilts on my wish list. I hope you enjoy the link.

As my dear mother-in-law used to say "that's all the news for today" - good night and thank you for visiting my blog.
Jenny

2009-03-07T21:53:00.002+01:00

Eindelijk een namiddag vrij om te quilten. Na 5 uur quilten ben ik een flink deel verder geraakt met Ben zijn quilt en zal ik hopelijk mijn doel om deze tegen Pasen af te krijgen nog bereiken.
Groetjes en slaap lekker

Today I finally had the afternoon free and time to quilt. After 5 hours of quilting I managed to do quite a bit on Ben’s quilt and hopefully this way I will reach my goal of having it finished (finally) by Easter.
Good night
Jenny

2009-03-06T15:15:00.005+01:00

Ik ben terug - I am back. It looks like sickness has hit quite a few bloggers lately - it sure hit me. I really did not have the energy to spend much time at the computer - didn't even get to do much quilting - just some piecing. Hopefully from now on I will get some more time to do some fun things again.

I did receive my book by the author An Moonen "Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Quilt" or History of the Dutch Quilt. I have been trying for years to buy her previous book which is out of print but no luck so when this new book came out I made sure to order it immediately. From the little I have read and looked at it sounds and looks fantastic.
Aan al mijn Nederlandstalige vrienden - indien je nieuwschierig bent naar het verhaal achter de quilt hier in de Nederlanden dan kan ik jullie dit boek van harte aanraden. Er staan prachtige foto's in van quilts - kledij maar ook van schilderijen enz. In één woord een boek dat in onze bib niet mag ontbreken.
groetjes en tot de volgende keer
greeting and see you soon
Jenny

2009-02-25T18:07:00.009+01:00

Had some computer problems these last few days but here I go again.

After seeing a finished quilt on Conny's blog I orderd the pattern from Bareroots and yesterday it arrived. I am absolutely thrilled with the stitchery patterns on it.
I spent quite a bit of time quilting on Ben's quilt. Really want to finish it by Easter, and played with the challenge blocks to find a way to put them together. I do not want to add sashing, just join the different blocks. I saw a quilt like it once and loved it - very scrappy and still lovely. I am still wondering as wether to add a border (plain) to it or just bind it. Your ideas are always welcome.

2009-02-21T20:40:00.008+01:00

This afternoon was spent washing, drying and ironing fabric. I hadn't bought fabric for quite a while but in January and February I made up for it :-)) - just could not resist all these lovely bargains calling out to me. I always wash my fabrics before use especially to make sure that there are no "bleeders" in between. I would hate spending all that time making blocks and quilts only to have them ruined one day by a fabric that bleeds.

November last year 4 ladies in our little group decided to make the same quilt - a small wallhanging only 40cm x 50cm (approx. 15" x 19")- it is the first time we have done this as we never work from a pattern and mostly make up our own design. Well there has to be a first time for everything and although the basic pattern is the same the results are so different. I made mine as a present for a person very dear to me in "her colours". I was very lucky to be able to use all fabric from my stash - some of the pieces in my stash only being 8" x 8". Goes to show how a little can go a long way.
When the wallhanging was finished I found it a bit "dull" (see photo above) so after taking the workshop on fabric painting with paintsticks etc. I decided to be brave and used some gold in the centre of the large flower - yuk it looked as if I had messed something on my poor flower. What now - I searched webshots for some photo's of Lilies - this flower is meant to be just that - and found some beautiful shots. One of them had the gold centre and then spots of "gold" running from the centre of the flower and splashed all over the leaves. I then remembered having been given a box full of beads from someone who used to make decorations out with them. So out came the box and there I found these tiny golden green beads. OK - in for a penny in for a pound. Got some fabric glue, a pin and a toothpick and glued each little pearl on to the fabric one by one. This is the result and I would love to hear your reactions. I haven't the faintest idea whether this person will like this or not and am nervous about giving it to her so I am anxiously awaiting your verdict!

The pattern comes from the May/June'98 issue of the Quiltmaker - an American magazine

2009-02-17T21:34:00.010+01:00

Hier ben ik dan met het laatste blok voor mijn challenge quilt - nu rest het me nog ze op een gepaste wijze samen te voegen.
I finally made it - finished my last block for the challenge quilt all that rests me now is to join them in a fun way - keep you posted. Our instructions were to make a 8" and a 4" basket block and two appliqué blocks of 4"x8" each. This is the result.

I also managed to cut the pieces for my next border for the RR and have joined some of the one border so you can see where the idea is going. Don't get a fright by the colours - I have used quite of few of my "icky greens" as they are called among the reproduction quilters. The rest of the quilt is far more subdued and looking gorgeous. I am just hoping that I will not spoil it by joining this border - but then - if I don't like it I make another one and keep this one for a future quilt.
My poor fingers (nails) on my left hand healed a bit so I got some more quilting done on Ben's quilt as well. All in all not bad going for two days word.
good night and thank you for visiting my blog.

Jenny

2009-02-15T20:03:00.004+01:00

I had a rather hectic weekend mainly due to serious plumbing problems - we suspect burst pipes outside through the freezing weather we have had this year. I tried to contact a plumber but in vain so hopefully tomorrow morning I will have more luck.

For the rest I have managed to finish the last block of my challenge quilt but will only be able to take a photo tomorrow in the daylight in order to get the colours correct.

So I decided to finish a few more blocks for my "blue and white" quilt that I am making. This started off with a swap of red-white and blue blocks with our repro-group. I decided to make two quilts out of them. The all blue blocks I kept aside and used them as the centre blocks for the blue-and white quilt. On and off I have been making 6" blue and white (cream etc) blocks - all different patterns mainly from the book "Around the block" by Judy Hopkins. You can find all the blocks on my webshots - see links - but I am posting the last 5 now.

2009-02-12T14:39:00.006+01:00

I have been spending so much time "blogging" that I don't get much quilting done at the moment :-)) - happens at times. I have today come across some great blogs of people working with repro-fabrics and stitcheries - another of my hobbies. The result of this is that I ordered some patterns from:https://bareroots.com/store/agora.cgi. I saw the finished quilt on Conny's blog: see my blog. I am still trying to figure out how to get the link by clicking on the blogger's name.

I have been doing some quilting on Ben's quilt though but my poor fingers need a rest so since this is a clear day - blue sky - we had some snow this morning so I decided to make the most of the light and cut the fabric for my next border on my RR2006. Will show some photo's next time.
cheers
Jenny

2009-02-07T21:29:00.007+01:00

Didn't get much quilting done yesterday. Today I managed to carry on quilting on Ben's quilt.

So here are two more blocks from my challenge quilt:

July: contained two parts - one a 4-patch variation block

and part two we had to make 5 "orange peel" blocks which look as follows:

For August we had to make 4 - 6"x6" star blocks - these could be all the same could be different
so I decided to make two of each:

That's is for today - good night
Jenny

2009-02-04T18:46:00.009+01:00

The last couple of days I have been spending approx. 2-3hrs an evening quilting on Ben's African Village Quilt - I am so thrilled that I finally started working on this again.

As for my challenge blocks - this weekend I want to finish the appliqué bits to my last block so that I can start playing around with the setting of the blocks. In the meantime here are two more blocks for my challenge quilt:

May: we were told to make one triangle block 9"x9" and 7 - 3"x3" hourglass blocks. I have not joined the hourglass blocks to the larger block as I still want to play with the setting of the blocks

June :our challenge was to make a appliqué block - own choice - of 12"x12" -

I found this pattern in the book "Wisconsin Quilts - History in the Stitches" a fantastic book for lovers of reproduction quilts and stories - it includes 8 pattern blocks both piecing and appliqué.

Happy quilting

Jenny

2009-02-01T20:52:00.007+01:00

Do you ever wake up feeling in a particular mood in the morning? By this I am not talking about good or bad but more like "today I am going to clean cupboards - bake bread" type of mood.

Well this morning I woke up in a "quilting" mood - no big surprise there LOL. Yet I do not mean piecing or appliqué but actual quilting.So as it promised to be a nice quite Sunday - very little cooking - no visitors that I expected and the fact that it was a freezing but beautiful sunny day today I did just that.

For Christmas 2007 I made my grandson a play-quilt. Should have been a crib-quilt but my quilts have a habit of growing and growing. My DIL had asked for bright colours - no problem - Since both I and my sons are born in Africa and grandson Ben learned to recognize a lion and zebra before a cow or kitten I wanted to make him an African themed quilt. (still thinking crib quilt at this stage).

Hunting around for some fun fabric I came across the fabric line called "My African Village" and loved it. Once it arrived I found out the prints were rather larger than I thought - and so my quilt grew. A couple of weeks before this I took a lesson in "seminole technique", that looked good with the colours I had in mind. In 2005 during a visit to South Africa - visiting family and friends I met up with a lady from Westville that sold hand-dyed fabric from her home:http://www.amafu.co.zaif/. Not only was her home situated in the village next to the one we lived in for 23 years, the cotton sheets she used were spun and woven at the factory were half the family was employed in one position or another at the time. I needed no further encouragement or motivation to start his quilt.

By Christmas-eve I could present him with his quilt - but I had to take it back as it still needed a lot of hand-quilting done to it. I had done a lot of the straight lines by machine (not really a succes) and sat for 17hrs tying the ends.

Ben loved his quilt and whenever he visited us it was used. The hand-quilting was put in the back of my mind. Now however the quilt could use a wash and before doing so I must get this quilting done. So that is my main project for this month.

In the meantime I'd like to share some of the WIP and photo's of Ben using his quilt, which I named "Ben's African Village".

Enjoy

2009-01-31T20:32:00.005+01:00

Two more blocks of my challenge quilt.

For March the instructions were to make 4 blocks of 6”x6” – baskets.
April we had to make flying geese units – 3”x12” strips and these are the results.

2009-01-31T20:30:00.001+01:00

I am a happy girl, got my clustrmap bag. Thank you to the ClustrMaps Team. To anyone encountering the same problem you can find the solution under the label Blogger Help.

2009-01-30T22:54:00.000+01:00

Bijna elf uur - hoog tijd voor bed. Ik heb net een paar uur doorgebracht om de meest van mijn "quilt-boeken" toe te voegen aan mijn boekenrek. Gemerkt en de quilters' boeken vooraan gezet - dacht ik - zij staan dus achteraan indien je ze wenst te zien begin je best met de laatste pagina. Ooit zal ik dit goed krijgen

I just realised that I typed this in Dutch. I wanted to mention that I have just spent a couple of hours adding my quilt-related books to my bookshelf, tagged them and put them at the front or so I thought. So any interested in seeing them best begin at the last page. Sorry about this I will sort this out one day - soon I hope :-))
nite-nite

2009-01-30T20:18:00.000+01:00

I did it again. Trying to be clever doesn't always pay :-)). I had the link to the clustermaps which I love, just now I wanted to insert a counter, deleted the html link of the clustermaps thinking this was saved and inserted the counter html bit. Result I now have a counter and no map. I tried to re-instate the map but to no avail. I contacted the clustermap people and hope they will come up with the solution.

Does anyone know how to insurt extra buttons etc. without having to delete the previous one?

All help is welcome

2009-01-29T21:59:00.000+01:00

Oops the photo's did not show so here I go again

2009-01-29T21:48:00.000+01:00

Hurray how happy I am I have one follower - hallo Corry, dank voor je lieve woorden and Kirsten paid a visit - all the way from Australia LOL. Kirsten and I are both lovers of reproduction fabrics and antique quilts and all things related.

Since I have not done any quilting today - too many other "need to do" stuff got in the way :-)) I would like to show you some more blocks of the Challenge Quilt.

The January block which was our first assignment had to be a "12-inch star block"

The February block had to be made up of 9 - 3x3 inch "pinwheels - spinners" blocks.

I had been collecting these beautiful fabrics that I had no specific purpouse for except than to use them one day. This challenge was an ideal project. So I started by gathering some of those that I thought would look well together - not easy always as all I had of some of the fabrics was a piece of 8x8inch - I admit that I feel quite happy now that I see them all together.

2009-01-28T22:41:00.000+01:00

Well I have done it - advertised my blog. I can't go back now :-)).

January 2008 I joined a group of ladies on-line into making a "challenge quilt". Our list-mum give us the monthly instructions: for instance make a block using a star - make an appliqué block - make 4 blocks only using triangles etc etc. Each time the combination of the instruction was that the total of the blocks made per month would add up to 12". The result was a great variety of blocks made by the different participants and I really look forward to seeing the end result.

I have only one more block to finish of the 12 - November where only the appliqué part needs to be added. Today I managed to take a photo of the October and December blocks - see below

2009-01-26T21:16:00.001+01:00

A new week has started and from now on I hope to be able to keep my blog - or quilting diary - as I like to call it more or less up to date. First job off course is to "advertise" otherwise no one will know I exist LOL.

January is sales month and I have been busy ordering new fabric and books - a girl can never have enough of either of them.

Up to about a year ago I was very much a traditional quilter - still am most of the time. Thanks to my mentor Annelies I have slowly build up enough courage to start experimenting with more contemporary quilts. Traditional quilts and reproduction fabrics will always be my favourites but I am enjoying the playfulness and "no bounds" of working the “arty” way.

Having followed a full day workshop on “Surface Design” with Annelies a new world opened up to me and as a result one of the books I bought is called “The Painted Quilt” by Linda and Laura Kemshall. Lots of interesting ways to play are described in there. I am going to try and import a photo of this book. I have a question about printing the cover of a book on the Blog – do we need to create a link to the shop where we bought it? What if there is no link?

2009-01-23T18:59:00.000+01:00

To date I have not told anyone of my blog as I am still very much in the trial and error stage and have come to the conclussion that I will definitely need some help :-)). Luckily I have some people I can call on for help so by next week my blog should look a bit more interesting

2009-01-21T21:36:00.000+01:00

Hi,
Since I have been admiring other people’s blogs for ages I decided to have a go at this myself. After all, how hard can it be since so many are doing it? – famous last words! OK if I don’t try I’ll never know so here I go. I cannot promise exiting beautiful photo’s, tutorials, comments etc. from the start as this is very much a learn as you go project for me. I do most of my quilting and piecing by hand (95%) so I will not be showing new projects every week. Patchwork and quilting has become so much part of my life that I would hate to miss it. I enjoy every aspect of it – from fabric fondling, buying, cutting, sewing, reading and visiting blogs every free moment I can spare. To those that are prepared to support my blog by visiting or leaving comments thank you so much in advance – I hope you will be plenty and that you will enjoy whatever little I do post.

Welcome to a Quilter’s Dream
Jenny