2009 - 2010

We wish all our friends, family and readers a very happy and healthy 2010. May all your dreams come true.

Caro, Rob and Paco

This morning the house is still smelling a little bit. Yesterday I baked "oliebollen" (literally translated oil balls, I'm sorry there isn't an english word for it, some people call it the dutch donut). It's a very traditional Dutch Food Tradition, oil balls are eaten on New Years Eve. The best way is to make them yourself. I prefer to fill them with little pieces of apples and raisins.

The Quilting facts and figures 0f 2009

- 121 posts on my blog (a new record)

- I finished a lot of quilts: for my mum (2), my niece Promise, neigbours baby, spare-room, X-mas quilt, Tilda sofa quilt

- I also started a lot of new quilts that aren't finished yet like the miss Bennet and the Rose Quilt

- I learned a new technique Sashiko

- I made a lovely "quilt" trip to Marne and Elaine

- Willemijn, Dieuwke and I booked our trip to Seattle (March 2010)

- I bought an antique quilt in Seattle

- I was in three swaps all over the world, but the biggest suprise was the swap from Angel, she lives "around the corner" in Seattle

- Marne and Elaine came along in March to visit us

- I really had a Tilda mood (lucky me, I got all her books now)

- I tidyed up my quiltroom yesterday

- Dieuwke, Willemijn and I started quilting on my "antique" quilt, I think about 10% is ready now

- I'm very proud on my "american quilt", it's the biggest quilt I ever made, I only have to see the binding on the back

The challenge for 2010 will be:

- finish a few UFO's (at least my 30's quilt)

- use my batiks to make a "lizard" quilt, new experience

- don't buy any new fabrics, until at least my fabric stocks fits in the cupboard again (ha ha, I don't think any quilter will believe this, especially not when you're going on a "quilt"trip to Seattle).

Bye, bye, see you all in 2010.

Caro

X-mas holidays

The second week of my X-mas holiday is halfway. Back to work on monday the 4th januar. We had all kind of weather the last weeks, snow, rain, ice, wind and sun. The last week I spend with quilting, having dinners with friends, shopping, making walks with Paco, and now my last action for this year is tidying up my quiltroom. I must say I got more UFO's and fabric than I thought. OEPS.
So I promised myself not to start any new projects, before I finish three UFO's.

We had a lovely X-mas! On X-mas day during breakfast we unwrapped our X-mas gifts from aboard. So Marne, Elaine, Hubert, Sabine and Vanessa THANKS, we really loved your presents. In the evening our friends came along for dinner.

The last days I worked very hard on my "american quilt". Dieuwke helped me sandwiching the quilt. And now it's almost finished, I only have to sew the binding on the back of the quilt. Maybe it's good idea to do that on New Years Eve. I always have trouble to stay up late. And then the quilt will be on the bed in our spare-room, waiting for guests to come.

My American Quilt is made from fat quarters Marne's Quiltbee "Stashbusters" gave to me on my first trip to Seattle in september 2008. I thought 7 months about the pattern, and I started cutting and sewing in March 2009, when Marne and Elaine were in the Netherlands. I made 145 blocks called "puss in the corner". The quilting I did with my sewing machine. And I must say it's not an easy job, to get a king size quilt under your sewing machine. But I'm very proud on my "first big project".

The Hague in the snow

When it's snowing in the Netherlands it's a big chaos on the roads. I think we're not used to snow anymore. If you had to work yesterday, you got a hard time to get there. No buses, no trains, no trams, and a lot of traffic on the roads. But if you having holidays like me, it's lovely to walk with the dog through The Hague and enjoy the snow.

Driving back Home

It took us about 4 hours to drive 120 miles (200 km) on sunday. Slow and steady. So you can understand that we were very glad when we saw The Hague. MORE PICTURES

Day 2, still snow in Brugge

MORE PICTURES, It's saturday, still snow and a cold wind blowing. The first thing we did was having an English Breakfast on the "Grote Markt". English breakfast will give you a good base for the morning. So we decided that some exercise would be a good idea. Well if you want some exercise in Brugge, we can advise you the "Belfort". To have stunning views of Brugge, and it was stunning with the snow on the roofs, you only have to climb 366 steps up.

The rest of the morning we spend shopping, we bought a pillow with a cocker spaniel on it (Brugge tapestrian), two ornaments for the hallway, and some other little gifts. Shopping is very fun in Brugge, beside the tourist shops you can find lots of special shops, for an example a dress shop for your dog/cat.

In the afternoon we had a very good time in the Brewery Halve Maan (Half Moon), another 220 steps to climb during the guided tour.

Brugge in the snow

MORE PICTURES

Brugge is a lovely little town in Belgium, so a very good start for our X-mas holiday. And even more suprisingly, we have snow in Belgium and the Netherlands. Yesterday we spend most of our time with just walking through the little streets, eating and of course a quick visit to the quilthshop. Today we have the beerbrewery on our list, ice-sculptures and the Brugge museum.

And of course shopping, choclate and eating!!

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.