Doggie Quilt

Over the last last year I collected some doggy fabrics to make a big dog quilt to put on the sofa. I think I got about 20-25 different fabrics now. And when I have finished my X-mas quilt I will start with my "ugly fabric doggy quilt". But this monday evening, the fabrics where calling, I really had to try, so I made this small dog quilt for aunt Betty. She got her birthday next weekend.

Paco kept me company in my quiltroom.

Chess game

One of my collegues, will be 65 years old soon, and is going to leave our Department of Social Affairs and Labour. He worked there for a very long time. Over the years we became good friends, drinking coffee together. Because he loves chess I made him this "chess quilt".

On the chess board you see the end of a famous Chess Game. The story dates back to 1454. Two nobleman fell in love with the beautiful Lionora. The father, did want them to make enemy of either suitor or lose them in a duel. He decided the two rivals should play a chess game. The game took place on the square in front of the castle, with armed living persons carrying the ensigns of Whites and Blacks. It's still played every two years in Italy, Marostica.

I have won a give away!!!

What a nice suprise in my email after a very busy day at work. I totally forgot about the give-away Simone from Atelier Soed Idee had organised. What did I win? One of her embroidery patterns. So I could choose one of the patterns in her webshop. Isn't this "projectkeeper" lovely. I like this kind of style. And because she also got them digital, it arrived in less then 20 minutes. Can't wait to start another project.

I also promised you a picture of Granny's quilt. As I wrote you we had a very busy sunday, but it was good to see all our family and celebrating Granny's 85 birthday together.

Birthdays

We really have a birthday sunday. On sunday morning we're starting with a brunch, our friend Lies will be 80 years old. From there we drive to granny, she also got her birthday and she will be 85 years old. You understand I had a busy week, making gifts. This table-runner I started in Seattle, (Marne is very good at table-runners) and this week I finished handquilting and binding. I'm also busy with a lap quilt for granny, wich is ready, except for the binding. Some people think that sewing bindings is very boring, I always do the "back" by hand, and it goes very well with some episodes of Little house on the praire.

My blog in a book

In this digital world, with e-books and e-readers I still like books in "paper". Lucky my father is a bookbinder, and he made this wonderful book for me. It's a print of my blog 2007 - 2008.
You can easily make a PDF of your blog at this company: http://www.blog2print.com It takes just a few minutes and it cost you only 7.95 dollars. Of course you have to find a bookbinder then ; ). I just ordered "Caro's Blog 2009".

It's quilting time

The first days of the week I was so tired (work, jetlag) that I didn't do anything!! That's "strange" because my suitcases were filled with quilting stuff from Seattle, that are calling me. But thursday eve inspiration and energy returned.


At work we have an auction begin of april, to raise money for the http://www.roparun.nl/. So they asked if I was willing to donate a quilt. Well this UFO quilt only needed a binding. Isn't it a cheerful child's quilt. I hope they will pay good money for it.

Back Home

Monday morning at 7.15 a.m. I was back in Amsterdam, I got my suitcases so quickly that I was already home at 8.30 a.m. Lucky Rob picked me up from the airport, because I would be having a hard time to get home alone with all my stuff. At 10.00 a.m. I was back at work. That seems a little bit crazy but I found out it's a very good way to get over your jetlag. Well saying goodbye to Marne and Elaine was not so difficult this time, because in 2,5 months they will be arriving in Netherlands, and stay here for 10 weeks. It's fantastic!!! We're already busy making plans and fill up there schedule.

Seattle Tour (day 10)

My last day in Seattle, tomorrow at 12.55 I'm leaving, back to Amsterdam and my hometow The Hague. I came with 1 suitcase and will be leaving with 2 suitcases! Like always I'm having a great time here. Today it was really nice weather, the first time this week, blue sky with beautiful clouds..

We started with coffee with Neil and Shannon. Neil is Marne's son, and they moved a couple of months ago from Washington DC to Seattle.
They live close to the Salmon Locks, one of my favorite places of Seattle, unfortunelately: not much fish today on the fishladder. Salmon Locks is the border between sweet and salt water, they build a fishladder for the Salmon so they can migrate like they always did.
From there we did some touring along the bay, and what a suprise we ended for lunch at Chinook. Chinook is very good fish-restaurant near the Harbor, here you can also find the ships from the Discovery serie: Deadliest catch.

Well if you thought our day had finished, no way: on 2 p.m. we had a wine taste at their wineshop.

And now, we're all on the sofa, in front of the TV, with a glass of wine, and the leftovers from Churchdinner, and i'm try to catch up with my blog, because tomorrow morning there want be any time left.

Church dinner at Rozz and Tom (day 9)

I was very lucky, two church dinners in one week. This time Rozz and Tom were our hosts. They have a lovely house in Kirkland, they just moved in. She's a quilter too and it was lovely to see her quilts. Marne, Elaine and I were responsible for dessert. Marne made Peach Zhesamm, and I bough the ice-cream that goes along with it. But really, it's a very good recipe, and not much work, it's one of my favorites, although I must say that Johnnie's choclate cake has become a good competitor.

Recipe Peach Zhezamm (Dutch and English)
4 personen
1 groot blik perzikken (ongeveer 800 gram)
50-60 gram geschaafde amandelen
1/3 pak cakemix (bijv. vanille, geen chocola) of ongeveer 175 gram
125 gram gesmolten boter

Laat de perzikken uitlekken, en snij ze in plakjes.
Doe de perzikken in een ovenschaal
Strooi de amandelen erover.
Strooi de cakemix erover.
Giet de boter er gelijkmatig over heen.
Verwarm de oven voor op 180 C, baktijd: 30-35 minuten.
Smaakt heerlijk met ijs.

Recipe for 4 persons
1 big can of peaches
70 gr. of almonds
1/3 of a large cakemix, vanilla or yellow
175 gr. of butter
Drain the juice of the peaches, put the peaches in a pan, put over the almonds, put over over the cakemix. Melt the butter and pour it over. Preheat the oven on 350F. Bake the dessert for 30-35 minutes.
Serve with ice-cream.

Sewing Expo (day 9)

Marne, Alayne, Ronda and I , we spend all day on the Sewing Expo in Puyallup (south of Seattle). This Sewing Expo is one of the biggest of the country. We followed two classes one was of Eleanor Burns, she was good. We sing along, we laughed and she told us all about her book " Quilts on American Barns. I think she could be the first stand up comedian quilter, as we would say in the Netherlands: prettig gestoord.

The Sewing Expo is really a good place to get inspiration, and to try out new things. Don't you love those laces, made of quiltfabric, they match with the dress!!!!

Traditionally you start Puyallup with scones, we did, and end it with a root beer float, ice with lemonade, we didn't too cold too wet.) according to Marne. I was so exhausted that I felt asleep in the car when we drove home.


Quilt blocks on American barns
This fun tradition began in 2001 in Adams Country, Ohio, where Donna Sue graves painted a quiltblock on the family's barn to honor her mother, and avid quilter. The local community joined in and soon painted quiltblocks on their barns. These barns has now become tourist's attractions with maps pinpointing each barn location.

Stashbusters ...... (day 8)

.......is Marne's quiltgroup. It was so good to see everybody again.

Befriender (day 8)

My quiltfriend Willemijn was complaining that there we so less pictures of Elaine. Well, Elaine had a course this week from 8.30 till 5.00. She was trained to become a befriender, it's an international programm to help people with their problems.

Show-and-tell at Alayne (day 8)

The red quilt will be in the QA-show end of march . The pattern and style is Buggy Barn Stars. The 0ther quilt Marne made is the Mystery Quilt from Bonnie Hunter, it's called Roll-roll cotton boll, I love the sound of that name. But she didn't liked it, so she made a "deal" with Alayne. And yes, Alayne is also a very cook and made us a lovely banana-cake.

Driving through Seattle

Just to give you an impression.

Superfluity on a church morning (day 7)

End of march there is a superfluity (rommelmarkt) from the the church. Well one of the things that had to be done was sorting out the books. We had 60 boxes full of books, and they had divide in categories like gardening, religion, selfhelp, science etc. What happens if you do this with 10 people and one dog. Well you have lots of fun!!!! They even found me a little child's quilt novel.

The running quilter (Day 6)

What was on the programm today. Well running from shop to shop. Buying the last things I " needed" because the rest of the week the programm is filled with other things, like the Sewing Expo in Puyallup on friday with Ronda and Alayne. So we ran from REI (outdoor shop) to Jo-Ann (craft/quiltshop) to Jill and Jock (running shop), to actually buy running shoes (they're much cheaper here).

And don't forget our lunch!!

This morning we will help in the church with the superfluity sale (rommelmarkt), after lunch we're going to visit Alayne, and the rest of the day: QUILTING. I bought a few more fabrics because a friend of Rob and me is having her 80th birthday on the 20th March, I want her to make her a tablerunner with those fabrics, they don't show out on the picture very well, but they're very soft coloured brown/creme.

Orange chicken, Oranje kip (day 6)

Marne really is a great cook!!! So I wrote down one of her recipes so we can share them with you. Although I must say the recipe is originally from Alayne, Marne's (quilt)friend, she is also a great cook as well, and Jacqueline is, she made us very good ginger cookies. Yeah I'm having a hard time here, surrounded by great cooks. How do they do it?

Recipe for 4 people (in dutch and english) 1 pound of chicken
1/2 package dry onion soup,
4-5 ounces jam (yellow jam, like abricot, peach or ananas)
4-5 ounces salad dressing based on tomatoes (Catalina or Russia)

500-600 gram kip
1/2 half pakje uiensoep
150 ml jam (abrikozen, perzik of ananas)
150 ml sladressing (met als basis tomaten)

Brown the chicken in the frypan.
Preheat the oven: 350F.
Put the chicken in the baking dish (ovenschotel).
Mix up the jam, onion soup and dressing. Pour it over the chicken. .
Cover and bake for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes remove the cover and then leave it for 10 minutes more in the oven.

Oven voorverwarmen op 180 C.
Kip aanbraden in de koekenpan.
Meng de overige ingredienten, giet het over de kip.
Dek de ovenschaal af, en bak de kip gedurende 30 minuten in de oven. Haal de deksel of het aluminiumfolie van de ovenschaal, en bak de kip nog 10 minuten in de oven.

Served with noodles or rice. Eet smakelijk. Bon Appetit.

Stone Soup, High Tea and a Lecture (day 5)

This sounds like a busy day, well it was a busy day.

At 9.15 a.m. hop in the car to Stone Soup. Marne's is a volunteer in this Quiltgroup, they make quilts for people with cancer, every monday they come together, to work on quilts, sort out fabrics etc. Every year I'm with Marne I like to come here, it's good to be back and meet everybody, especially Patty she's the one who organise everything. (Maybe she will come to the Netherlands in october just for a few days).

Suprisingly they even got a tea-kettle now. For us dutch, that sounds strange, but here in the USA everybody takes care of his own tea and coffee, you just take it with you. But now they have a kettle to make it just there.

12.30 p.m. just got home. On our way home we did a few little shoppings for our hightea, a quick lunch, tidy up the livingroom and do the last preparations. We're ready!!

13.45 p.m. Jacqueline arrives, we have a very pleasant time talking dutch, discussing dutch subjects, drinking tea and eating snacks, especially the choclate cookies I made were perfect ; ).

16.15 p.m. Jacqueline leaves the building.

We have just half an hour to get ourself nicely dressed and pick up Maud and Alayne for dinner and a lecture from National Geographic.

17.10 p.m. Arriving at Alayne and Maud, just a quick look at the quilt she just finished and there we go to Palomino for Happy Hour

19.30 p.m. Lecture National Geographic, Joel Sartore, America's Great Wildlife in the Benaroya Hall (Home of the Seattle Symphonie), with two beautiful chandeliers of glass.

9.45 p.m. back home

11.00 p.m. time to go to bed.

Tomorrow: nothing special on our program, some shopping, some quilting.