Bonnie's garden

Dieuwke is on her way to the south of France, she even took her bathing suite with her.

No quiltbee and no  "Little house on the prairie" this week, we started season 3 last week.

But she left me this book as an early birthday present: "Bonnie's Garden", "Le Jardin de Bonnie". It's really my style, I love the applique. And I couldn't resist making this project "A little birdie told me'', not too complicated  not too much work.

Things are a little bit "strange" at home, with our little four-legged friend Paco having a hernia. He seems to recover pretty well, but he has to stay in his basket for two weeks. Not easy for such an active dog as Paco, although he's almost 12 years old.

Sunday morning breakfast at Theresiastreet

Just to spoil ourself, after walking with Paco which ended in a little hail storm.

It's still amazing what you can do even if you're limited to 30 minutes walking, 30 minutes sitting on a chair,  several times a day. You just have to be inventive.

Yesterday evening we had dinner for the first time in  8 weeks at our favorite restaurant Mauce also in Theresiastreet.

We called them with, told them what we would like to eat and at what time. We're eating very regular here so we know the menu by head. We arrived at 6.15 p.m., took a drink standing at the bar, and exactly 6.30 p.m. like we agreed dinner was served. At 7.00 p.m. we left, taking our dessert (choclate cake) with us. Back home 7.05 p.m.

I was joking to Marne on skype, it felt like what some tourists do, Europe in three days.

Little doll quilt

Today we did a  35 minute visit at the County Museum in The Hague.
This is the advantage of having

":museumcards". The museumcard give you free access to a lot of museums in the Netherlands, and you can go as often if you want. The county museum is a very big museum, feels like a kind of maze when you're walking around. I totally lost track. Lucky I had my DH with me.

 We had to made choices and visited the "doll houses" exhibition and we went to the "wonderrooms". I could only find one little doll quilt. (All the other pictures are from the website of the museum.)

Especially in the 17th and 18th century people spend a lot of money of decorating dollhouses. The exhibition shows dollhouses from several European countries, and even one from China. The 25th march is the last day of the exhibition. So hurry if you're a fan of dollhouses.

The wonderrooms is something you just have to experience. We just visited only 1 of the 6 rooms, and it was full of funny "junk".

A nice way to spend a grey and cloudy sunday in the Netherlands.

Slowly but steady .....

.. my original plans to clean up and tidy up my quiltroom during my X-mas holiday were unexpectly changed on first X-mas day.

So now very slowly my quiltroom is getting reorganised with the help of my DH. One of the most important things for me is that we changed my cutting table. I used to use a little  wooden dining table for cutting my fabrics, but to be honest, of course it's too low. Now we have changed it and my DH bought me a bar table at Ikea (what a great store). So cutting fabrics has become a much healthier process for my back.

Of course I had to try it out just for a short moment. One of my projects for 2012, beside all my other UFO's, is making a kingsize crazy dog quilt. Last year in march I bought several dog fabrics in Seattle. So I hope I have enough, and if not,  then I have to do some shopping in september in Seattle again. 

But with the cold nights and winds blowing around the house I really appreciate my warm quilts.

They even talking about a "elfstedentocht" (eleven city skating tour 200 km). Woh,  that would be great the last one was in 1997.

Still very very very slowly, but still steady things are getting a little bit back to normal.

Stlll under construction Spakenburgerhouses

The quilt for the museum in Spakenburg (if they want it) is almost finished, just the border.

My own quilt will be a little bit bigger but not the 365 houses, at the moment I'm thinking about 8x8, that'still 64, I already made decisions for the sashings and the border. Maybe in the corners another house. We will see. I wonder how many are there already build worldwide? I have done 15 in januar, slowly but steady.

Applecores

Two projects: Spakenburger houses (14 finished) and Appelcores. For the applecores I borrowed a stamp from Dieuwke (you can buy it in Dorry's quiltshop). It's very easy, and saves you lots of times, no drawing with templates. On the other hand you loose that time because sewing applecores is much more complicated then I thought. I love the mix of muslin and scrap fabrics. You know I'm a muslin addict, so visiting Marne in september there will be muslin on my shopping list again. Because I want this to be a big quilt.

It seems that next week will be a little bit colder, some freezing temperatures. Well who cares, with all the narcisses we bring spring into our home.

This is just The Hague

No we are not on holiday in some tropical country. Although that sounds very tempting. Long time ago a few ring- neck parakeets escaped, and for some reason they survive very well here. In The Hague there are living about 5.000 parakeets. What about our great tit and blue mouses, well they're not impressed only a little bit harder to get on the photo.

Spakenburger houses choices to make

Decisions to make about my Spakenburger houses. Well not 365 that's for sure. I started with the originally pattern with sashings around, and cornerstones between. But it didn't make me really happy. So I'm going for option 2, making rows of houses, with only sashings up and under like blue skies. So there will be two Spakenburger Houses Quilts. A small one I will finish the orignally way but only with 9 houses. A gift for the museum in Spakenburg where I found my fabric treasures. And a big one just for me "the 100, 81, or 64 houses of Spakenburger. Depending the amount of fabric I have. The border will be just rectangles. It's really fun, maybe Jeanneke can do a counting on the first of januar 2013. How many houses have we made all over the world. The Guiness book of records?

A creative family

My father is a bookbinder, this is one of his examples. Very handy at the moment, I use it for my daily report. A few times a year you can find him on little markets selling his products. My sister likes all kind of handcrafts, together with her son Thomas she made this X-mas gift. It's hanging on our balcony, and with the temperatures falling down, our city birds will be very happy. My mum likes to makes clothes, my little niece Sophie got a whole collection for her dolls. Sorry no pictures. And what about me, well things are slowing down a little bit. But this weekend I made this little happy flower house of the Spakenburger costume fabrics. By the way I passed my first exam Management Science/Busness Administation with a very good result. My next course will start in april.

Pin cushions

Well what's so interesting about pincushions, except that you need them for your needles and pins. Well I was looking for my friend Marne for a special pincushion, something she could easily use after her surgery. In the hospital or when she's back home, the last thing you want is to find needles and pins in your bed. 

I love my little finger pincushion, it's very handy and I use it a lot at the moment. I bought one at an exposition in Seattle, but they're very easy to make yourself. Just use the cap of a bottle.

Here is a very good tutorial.

At the Etsy shop you can find hundreds of differents pin cushions, and all kind of home made products. For example I ordered a little pillbox with a black cocker spaniel on it. Real fun. Very handy are the pincushion you can wear around your wrist, so this one is flying to Seattle. So you see there is a lot to tell about pin cushions.

Maybe a little Spakenburger House as a pincushion?

Surfing around here a few give-aways you really shouldn't miss:
Marha, Supergoof and Simone