Tilda Sheep

My sister and I are real fans of Tilda. I think we both have all her books. My sister made this little sheep, isn't it cute. I can't wait to make one for myself.

Our diningroom

This is a kind of tour through our house. Today we had a gourmet/dinnerparty to celebrate Rob his birthday. Friday our diningroom was transformed into a quiltroom.

I think the diningroom is one of my favorite places (beside my quiltroom) in our house. The diningroom is separated from the livingroom with leaded-light doors, so yo can easily make "two rooms". It's big, so you can sit around the table with lots of people with or without sewing machines. And I like the views, you can step easily on our balcony and watch the gardens below.

Tomorrow will be a quiet day, with some exercise. Especially Paco, when we were saying goodbye to the family he ate all the choux pastry with whipped cream from the plate in the living room. He is such a lovely dog, and he can be so smart when it's about food.

Granny and me

Granny (83 years old) and me spend the whole friday with quiltingactivities. She had bought a white quilt at Ikea but we decided to put some appliques on it. So friday we used my dining table to make a design and stitch it on the machine. Flowers, butterflies and a bird. I think we did a great job, and it will look very nice on her bed. I consider myself very lucky, still having a granny, and having the same hobby.

Our kitchen ...

is not very big, you could say it's rather small and narrow, but it got lovely views over the backyardgardens and there is a balcony.

On the walls are hanging little quilts, and other baking stuff. Not that I'm a cook that much.

Tooday is Rob his birthday (45 years old), so we started the day with home-made muffins. A very quick and easy recipe from AH (Marne's favorite store in the Netherlands), just take a box of muffin-stuff, put some water with it, and there you go. How difficult can life be? Tomorrow we have a little family-gourmetparty (10 people) to celebrate Rob his birthday.

Pimp my Tilda Quilt

My Tilda Quilt is warm and cosy, but a little bit boring. Just big squares. After the workshop of Sue Daley I got lots of inspiration, I never thought of the combination English Paper Piecing and applique. But it's a perfect way.

Just 32 flowers to go.

Trunkshow

I never heard of a Trunkshow, and I never had heard of Sue Daley (australian designer), but that didn't matter. There so much to learn and see about quilting.

Sue did a wonderful show-and-tell in the Quilterspalet in The Hague. Petra and Evy managed to get 30 chairs in the shop, quite amazing. THANKS!!! Sue uses the technique of English Paper Piecing for her quilts. You can do beautiful things with this technique, as you can see on the pictures.

I think Dieuwke and I loved her "Pie and Tarts" Quilts the best. It's a perfect way to get rid of your scraps.

Especially as she told us: "the scraps you don't like, make your quilt special". You know us quilters: we buy a piece of fabric, treasure it for some time, put in a drawer because it's so nice, so we won't use it, and after a few years we look at it, and say: How could I ever buy this ugly fabric. Well as Sue told us: That are the fabrics you need for your "pie and tarts" quilt.

The only other thing you need is lots of time, because it's all hand-pieced, and the pieces are rather small. But the advantage is you can take your English Paper Piecing everywhere, just put it in your handbag, and sew when you get a chance.

Another new project to start in 2010... well maybe.

My exchange arrived.. from Belgium

I'm still busy with my winterexchange, and I totally forgot that someone is also sending me a present. So it was a real suprise saturday to find this lovely gifts in my mailbox. The theme was "winter", and I love those potholders Anita from Belgium made for me. I think I will use them as little wallhangers, they far too nice to be used. One of the fun things was to send a little souvenir as well, so isn't the belgium cow funny, it's a tape-measure. THANKS ANITA.

Spanish cooking, part 2

Another fun evening with Maria, Jose and 6 "students" (including me and mum) to learn some Spanish recipes, and having a dinner together. The first time (in december) we made the mistake, by having a small dinner at home before we went. This time we didn't have dinner at home, even this dinner for us dutch is late, around 20.30. We like to eat: 18.00!

Still snow in the Netherlands. We're having a real winter.

Part 3 of Spanish cooking will friday 18 april. Probably now snow then. PICTURES Spanis Cooking

This was the menu:

Gazpacho (cold tomato soup, it's more for the summer, but with 8 warm people in the kitchen, it tasted very well)

Stuffed mushrooms

Pincho de huevo duro, see the picture (this was the part my mum and I made, very tastefull)

Chicken in the oven (not my favorite)

And for dessert we had Abricot with greek/bulgarian yoghurt.

Lizard quilt

Yesterday (sunday) I finished my lizard quilt. I think it has turned out great, and I'm really in the mood for some more experience with batik. Especially to work with "raw edge applique". I think this method is something that goes very well with these kind of fabrics. It's very easy and you can find very good instructions on Youtube.

Well the first project of this year is finished (all done on my sewing machine ) and give away to Tale, a good friend from us, who really loves lizards.

As you can see I'm busy with my next project. I had some batiks left, so I want to make a quilt in the hallway.

Facts and figures '30's quilt: 49 blocks finished, 61 to go.

You might be a quilter if .......

This is the title of an article I read in the weekend in an old quilt-magazine (Fons & Porters, jan. 2004) of Marne. And it was so funny. And then I thought: Am I addicted to quilting? Well, last week I found some pieces of fabric in my office at work, probably fell of my clothes. Oooeps. I don't have clothes without threads on them. My sewingmachine is always ready to use, so I have to hurry for work in the morning, and tear myself away from my quiltroom. Today I'm going away for a 3-day course from work about leadership. What do I take with me: my sewing machine. I think I have a serious problem : ).


Here some "quotes" from the article:

We'd rather buy fabric than have a pedicure. Even though we might not be able to give you directions to the nearest hospital, we know exactly to the quarter mile (fat quarter mile, mind you) how far it is to every quilt shop within commuting distance.

We quilters speak a language all our own, talking about fat quarters, rotary cutters and bias edges. Our husband and children are accustomed to sitting on lost needles and stepping on stray pins.

We quilters, can't balance our checkbook, but we can figure to the quarter yard how much fabric you need to make a scrappy, queensize Mariner's Compass Quilt.

Our dogs wears tiny vests with "I live with a Quilter", appliqued on the back.

There is not room in our pantry for groceries, - it's full of fabric, as are the hall closet, the china cabinet, and the guest bedroom. In fact, your husband has threatened to put locks on his dressers drawers, if you keep eyeing them the way you do.


Well how about you? Can you also claim guild for those actions?
Have a nice quiltweek, Caro