Happy stitches

My quiltfriend Willemijn
also started a weblog. Take a look at: http://www.happystitches.nl/shop/blog/

Preparations (1)

If you think, just buy a ticket, get in the airplane and go to Seattle, you're wrong. I'm very busy with the preparations : ). What did I do saturday. I baked "drie in de pan" (three in the frying pan). It seems that this is a very old dutch recipe. I know my mother used to make them when we were a child, and we loved them. They look like little pancakes. Well I want to bake them for Marne and Elaine in Seattle. And I must admit I'm not the best cook of the world, so I really thought it was a good idea to do a "try-out". My husband liked them, but I'm not sure he's the most reliable judge.

DRIE-IN-DE-PAN (THREE IN THE FRYING PAN)
Preparation: bowl, blender/mixer, frying pan

Ingredients:
200 gram self raising flour (7 ounce oz)
3 dl. milk (1 fl. ounce)
1 egg
a little bit salt
1 or 2 grated apples, or chopped in little pieces
50-100 gr. raisins (2-4 oz ounces)

What to do next?
Wash the raisins and let them dry. Put the flour in the bowl, add the milk slowly. Add the salt and the egg. Mix it very good. Add the raisins and the grated apple. The challenge is to make a good pastry, because the idea is to bake three little pancakes at the same time. So make a soft mix, something thicker than crepes.

Now comes the fun part: Put some butter in your frying pan. Take a big table-spoon/server (you use for soup). Make three little pancakes in your frying pan. Wait till they're "dry" on the top, and then turn them over, and bake them brown on the other side.

They taste very good with syrup or icing sugar.

Pringles

Oke this isn't advertising. I even don't like pringles. But you know? Empty pringles-cans seems to be very usuable for all kind of things. Lucky I have friends and collegues with kids that do like pringles.

This pringle can is transformed into a "dutch sewing kit".

To make a blockkeeper see this Tutorial. But instead of a tube I used a pringles-can. Funny thing is you can store your supplies (scissors, pincushion, thread etc.) inside. I must admit it's not my original idea, I read this on the quilting library.

Seattle....

in exactly three weeks. Here we (Dieuwke, Willemijn and I) come. About 7 months ago we started the preparations to visit Marne and Elaine, and now it's only 21 nights sleeping. So for me that means, start collecting my stuff. Make piles in the spareroom, like two piles with Allerhande (free cooking magazine from the Albert Heijn) for Marne and Jacqueline. Sorry, no chocolat, because our dog Paco likes chocolat too much, and the last time Marne and Elaine were here he ate all there chocolate when we were visiting the flower Market, the only that was left was a bill from the vet. But of course gryotten (dutch candy) and some very interesting gloves (wantschoenen: can't be translated a dutch wordjoke) from the Unox. WANTSCHOENEN commercial.

Blackberry

A few weeks ago all the managers at my work got a Blackberry. Well I always thought I'm not somebody for gadgets (except quilting gadgets of course). But I must admit it's very handy to have your email, agenda and contacts in this little computer, so I use it a lot at work.

The only problem is, where do I keep this blackberry. I don't like big bumps in my pockets, keep it in my hand when I'm going from meeting to meeting is no option, it already fell twice on the ground. But you're quilter or you're not. So I made this little bag, and with button "woof" on it everybody thinks it's a very exclusive "brand".

Of course I have to make a few more, because the bag has to match with my outfit : ).

Spring seems far away

Today, snow, tomorrow snow, this week snow. I can't remember we ever had so much snow as this winter. Usually we have rain. The daffodils in my window sill bring a little spring inside, with snow falling outside.

Quiltexpo

Saturday morning, 7.30 breakfast, 8.15 groceries, and get myself ready to pick up Dieuwke at 9.15 to go the Quiltexpo, 9.35 found a parkingplace, 9.40 we got our tickets, 10.05 meet Willemijn. I must say we're not very enthousiastic about the Expo, the quilts on the exhibition we're not my kind of style, just a a few I liked. But it was nice to go around all the little shops, and meet "old friends" like Agnes from Minewood Quilting. MORE PHOTOS

Block Roll

At one of the blogs I follow, I saw a "block roll" or "block keeper". Well that looked very handy, you can easily take your blocks with you, (without folding them again, again) when you travel around or visit friends/family. So a little search on the WWW and I found a tutorial how to make it. Thanks Teresa from Australia.

I made a few changes. I used a plastic plumbing pipe (bought at a DIY shop, for 60 eurocent). For the inside I used fleece. I think the advantage of fleece is that your pieces of fabric stick a little bit to it.
And I made a little pocket to put a few things in, like some thread and little scissor.

Thirties quilt: 60 blocks finished, 50 to go.

Arrived in Italy

I'm a member of the Crazy Exchange Group. Marne my friend in Seattle is as well, so that's how we met.

Well, I organised a winterexchange, my partner was Vania from Florence. A few days ago my gift arrived. The theme was "winter", no big suprise ; ). And when I look outside it is winter, again snow here in the Netherlands.

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.