Thank you Edda

I organised a X-mas exchange for the intergroup "Crazy Exchange". And I got this lovely present from my partner Edda. She lives in Iceland. It's very pretty. I'm not good at embroidery at all. So it's wonderful to get those gifts.

I'm really happy with it. The ornament will be hanging in my X-mas tree.

Ronda (she lives in Seattle) was my partner, so I made her a X-mas mailbag with a X-mas pig on it. For some reason she loves X-mas pigs. It will be fun to see her in Seattle in March. Only three months to go.

The mailman or mailwoman...

has a very busy time here in The Hague with all the swaps/exchanges/gifts that I find on my doormat. This week my parcel (Chookey's Secret Santa Swap 2009) arrived from down under.

Vanessa, she lives in Australia, sent me two lovely X-mas ornaments, and one big gift, that I can't open before X-mas. Very exciting!!!! Still waiting for one more parcel from Iceland. It will be fun at X-mas morning.

Dress makers dummies

1 for my mum, 1 for my sister and 1 for me, all from the book Tilda's Summertime.

Spanish cooking

Last friday my mum and I followed an evening class Spanish cooking with Maria in Warnsveld (near Zutphen). We had lots of fun, and a lovely dinner. PICTURES. It was just a small group (only 4 people) so we had to work very hard. We smelled lovely afterwards, because the spanish kitchen uses a lot of garlic. We made: fried broccolli/courgette, stuffed tomato, spanish omelet (tortilla with eggs and potatoes) and french toast with tomato-tapenda. For dessert we had baked bananas with sugar, liquor, and ice-cream. I think I need a balanceweek. Next class will be 29 januar.

This is one of my favorite recipes, very easy, very healthy, very tastefull. I tried it yesterday at home. And I'm not great cook, but even I could do it.

FRENCH TOAST WITH TOMATO TAPENDA

- 1 french bread

- 1 big or 2 small tomato

- 100 gram Serrano ham/bacon (Spanish bacon)

- 3 table-spoons of olive oil

- salt and pepper

- 1 piece of garlic

Cut the french bread in slices of 1 inch (2 cm). Cut the tomatoes and garlic in pieces. Put the olive-oil, salt, pepper, tomatoes and garlic in a bowl. Make a sauce with your blender. (Taste it, to know it's oke). Butter the tapenade on the bread, and on a top a little piece of serrano-ham.

If you want you can first toast the bread in the oven.

Little bottle bag

I got this lovely fabric from Margaret (Scotland), because she lives close to the sea. I don't live probably that close to the sea, but it's only a few miles away from my home. In the winter we love walk along the beach with our dog Paco.

In the new book of Tilda (Summertime) I saw this little bag for your bottle. So I really had to try it, how would it look with this fabric. Great I think!!!

Garderen

Yesterday Dieuwke and I went to a little quilt-exposition in Garderen. Henny Oosterbaan was having a kind of X-mas quilt exposition in her own house. I love her house and her style.

The house is situated in the woods, with white walls and a reed roof. My friend thougt it just looked like a little Dwarf-house. They welcomed us very warm-hearted, especially because we came all the way from the Hague. The Hague - Garderen is about a 1h20 drive, 72 miles. Quite a distance in the Netherlands (probably hard to understand for a lot people, but Holland/Netherlands is very small country). PHOTOS EXPOSITION

I must tell you something very typical about the Netherlands. Most most people that lives in the east-part of the Netherlands, think it's quite a journey to go to the west part of the Netherlands. That's a big journey (you really have to plan and prepare it ; ). On the other hand, we, people from the west part don't think the east part is that far. So for some reason it's easier to go from west to east, then from east to west.

Well the advantage is that we got a very warm-hearted welcome, an extra cup of tea, because we came all the way from The Hague. So we were treated very special.

Friendship Bag arrived!!

Swaps are so exciting. You never know exactly when the mailman/woman will deliver it. And it's always a big suprise what's in the envelope. Today my "friendship" bag arrived, it came from Scotland, and it was several weeks in the mail. Scotland is not so far from the Netherlands, but anyway. A lovely bag, I will be hanging it in my bathroom with little soaps in it, very nice earrings (also home-made), lovely pieces of different blue fabrics, wich are perfect for my doll-house quilt, and some sea-fabric, perfect for a Tilda-project from the book "Summertime". So thank you very much Margaret!!!! I'm really very happy with your alle gifts. I will make good use of them.

Summertime, "les soeurs Gribouille"

I got this lovely book from my sister. So my collection of Tilda books is complete now. Although it's all about summerprojects, I think I will start as soon as back from my three-days course from work, these project are so lovely. Can't wait.

Last weekend I finished my black autumn cats. I bought the fabric and pattern at the Sewing Expo in Rotterdam. Don't they look stubborn, these little cat-sisters. You can find The pattern is in the Quiltmania Autumn 2009. I bought the complete kit (quiltmania and fabric) at Dorry.

For my mum ....

...... I made this quilt. As I told you a few months ago, my mum like sewing children clothes, doll clothes etc. so I try to convince her about quilting, she bought some fabric. But no, she isn't a quilter. All those fabrics where waiting in her cupboard. I took them home and made this quilt. The fabrics are from the Haan & Wagenmaker. For those who're not dutch, the Haan en Wagenmaker is a very special quiltshop. Their site presents cotton chintzes, a quilting fabric based on antique Dutch manuscripts. So if you're in the neighbourhood ... don't forget this quiltshop in Amsterdam.

I love Tilda ....

I got most of her books. And I'm really a fan of her. Her patterns are very easy to make, you don't have to be very expierenced. Her books are lovely to go through the pages, and I love her style of fabrics. I found a very good shop, where they got a rather big Tilda

colletion Your Zoap in Lelystad, as I promised you a few posts ago, here update of my Tilda collection: MORE PHOTOS ...

- 1 quilt (big enough to keep yourself warm on the sofa)

- 2 bears

- bath-angel

- sleepy angel (hanging on the door of our spareroom)

- X-mas wall hanger

- mailbag

- bedroomangel

- reindeer (one of my favorites)

Quite a collection, and waiting for more to make.