A sunny sunday in Arnhem

My niece Esther is living in the neighbourhood of Arnhem. Her husband Han works in Sonsbeekpark, so yesterday we got a special tour, and afterwards good mexican food.

The weather was lovely, saturday rain and sunday lots of sun. Before Sonsbeekpark we went to the Openluchtmuseum. PHOTOS ARNHEM

A dark and rainy day with a BIG SUPRISE ...

Today I received my Stitchers Angel suprise. And I finally found out who was my partner. Because in the email you use a secret name. Well my partner is from the USA, her name is Diana and she lives in DuPont (just around "corner" from Tacoma/Seattle).

Rob and I were having lunch, and the doorbell rang, we didn't almost hear it, but lucky we have Paco, who likes to bark when the doorbell rings. Rob went downstairs, and came upstairs with a box, and not just a box, but a very big big box. In this box where the most beautyful gifts. She made a lovely "play-bone" for Paco, that I will hang above his basket in the hallway, I don't want him to chew on it.

A lovely X-mas angel, I'm already going to hang that up. I know it's still 8 weeks till X-mas. A pincushion. A lovely bag in cream and brown, the colours suits very good with our house, with a lovely rose on it. A lovely bookcover with a note-book in it, I will take that with me on my Seattle trip.

Well I'm so spoiled, really, because everything was put in a sewing basket, with lots of goodies (pins, fabrics, candies, buttons and ribbon). This will be my "Tilda" sewing basket. You know I'm a Tilda fan.

I think my husband liked the "bear poop" and "whitetail deer poop" the most.

DIANA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Inspirated weekend in Dalfsen

We planned it for several months. Visiting Dieuwke's aunt in Dalfsen and finally we did go. Unfortunetaly Willemijn couldn't join us, totally unexpected she had to work. She really was fed up (de balen). I can imagine!!! And we really missed her. PHOTOS. Dieuwke's aunt Joke really has a lovely home. She too is a quilter, but she also is a stylist . So as we would say in the Netherlands her house is a "plaatje" (lovely home). In every corner is something to see, a lot of their furniture is home-made or bought in second-hand shops, and refurnished. They (Marco and Joke) are very good in DIY. And don't you think their parrots Koko and Pukkie are lovely.

Of course we did some shopping during the day, a quiltshop that's really interesting, if you like folkoristic fabrics is Stegeman. You also can buy second-hand traditional clothings items here.

The evening we spend quilting and talking in her wintergarden, with the woodburner and candles burning.

Sashiko

Today I followed a workshop Sashiko by Irene Outshoorn at the Quilterspalet in The Hague. I had a fantastic afternoon, and this really is technique I want to learn more about, and practise more. It's not very complicated, but to make regular stitches, that's not always easy. Sashiko is a japanese quilting/sewing technique. Originally it's white thread on a indigo-blue fabric. It was used to make clothes stronger, or to decorate. Especially in the little villages each family had his own favorite patterns. If you want to read more about it, there is a very good book translated in dutch from Susan Briscoe, it's called Sashiko Handboek / The ultimate Sashiko Source book. Instead of blue indigo fabric, I used a brown japanese fabric.

Autumn

This weekend we're in our little summerhouse, just enjoying autumn and having a birtday party from my mum and dad. Friday, the weather was lovely, so we made long walks through the colouring red woods. Today we got real dutch autumn weather: windy, rainy and cold. Quilting- and party weather.

Fabrics, Cessius, Tilda, bookcover .....

Friday I finished the baby-quilt for Cessius. Cessius is the baby of our neighbours downstairs, and was born about 8 weeks ago. Because of my whooping cough, we had to wait. I wasn't complete satisfied with the quilt, it needed something, so I put his name on it, to make it very special.

Thursday I found suprise in my mailbox, a big envelop with fabrics from Marne, I think they're lovely to make a country X-mas quilt. I just bought a book today, 301 blocks for X-mas. I'm not sure I will finish it this year : ).

In The Hague http://www.parimar.nl/, you can find cheap quiltbooks here, or order them.

I made some little things the last couple of weeks. One of the things I finished and gave to my friend Yolande is this note-book cover. It's very easy to make, on the blog Abyquilt you can download the pattern.

I was just thinking of a list of all the projects I have to show you from the last couple of weeks. I really was in a kind of Tilda mood. So next week I will show you pictures of my Tilda collection:

- bears

- bath-angel

- angel

- wall hanger

- mailbag

- quilt on the sofa

and my personal favorite the reindeer.

Doll Exhibition

Saturday Granny (Rob his grandmother, 83 years old) and I went to the doll-exhibition in Rijswijk. We had a lovely time. She's a dollmaker and she needed a little wig for one for her new projects. I especially liked the doll-houses and furniture. I was really tempted to buy a big Doll-house, but instead I bought this little wooden shop, to make a quiltshop. Granny already started making little roles of fabric. Isn't it cute!!!!!

Little hedgehog

Even when you're living in the centre of a big city you can be suprised. Walking with Paco through the park "Haagse Bos" we saw this little hedgehog crossing the path, and hiding in the bushes.

Stitchers Angel Swap.... ....

my parcel travelled 10.809 kilometers (6716 miles)

to finally arrive in Chile.

I always feel relieved when it is safely arrived on her doormat.

My swapfriend Odette has a lovely blog: http://odette-spatch.blogspot.com/

Chandeliers and pajamas bags

Last year (october) we moved to our new house, we (especially Rob and his oncle) did a lot of DIY, and then it was finished. But no lamp in the living-room. It took us almost a year to find the right lamp. And there, in a very small shop in Putten, I fell in love with this Chandelier.

Oke, the weekend wasn't all about chandeliers. I did some quilting. I worked on my X-mas wall hanger, pictures will follow later, and I made two pajamasbags for my little nieces Esmee (1 year) and Sofie (4 years). Of course in their favorite colour ROSE.

The free pattern you can find on: YOURZOAP (hobby --> werkbeschrijvingen). Yourzoap is lovely little shop in Lelystad with a big collection of Tilda-fabrics. The pattern is in dutch but here are the instructions and sizes in english:

The original sizes are:

55 x inches x 16 inches (A)

55 inches x 8 inches (B)

39 inches of ribbon

55 inches of bias tape

I used the sizes:

55 inches x 18 inches (A)

55 inches x 6 inches (B)

39 inches of ribbon

Instructions

Cut the fabrics, take the smaller piece of fabric (B) and either put bias tape along one of the long edges [to finish that edge smoothly] or use a second piece of fabric to make to make a lining. I personally prefer to use lining.
Then the wrong side of fabric B goes against the right side of fabric (A). Sew some lines through both pieces to make sections in the smaller piece. Fold the whole thing together and sew it up to make a bag. Make a casing to insert the ribbon around the top to close the bag. Good luck.