Adventures of a young quilter

Time off

2012-01-30T21:08:00.000+01:00

This blog has been silent for a while.. And among other things that kept me from posting I have been on a long holiday with bf to Indonesia and Australia visiting a friend and SIL. This trip was the best holiday we've had so far.
Indonesia was overwhelming. Everything is so different from our western culture. We've toured around Yogyakarta on a scooter with our friend as a tour guide and visited the Burubudur and Prambanan temples, had a taste of the local cuisine and went to the wedding parade of the sultans daughter. Of course I brought back some batik fabric but there were so many beautiful fabrics that I just bought 2 pieces for myself and got my mum and Corrine some. Our suitcases were already to heavy!

In Australia we saw a lot of wildlife. I was so happy when we spotted the first kangaroos! Terrified when we saw a poisonous snake coming towards us... And Australia also has the most beautiful beaches I've seen. We also visited the quiltshop were my parents in law bought several fat quarters aboriginal patterned fabric for me. In the quiltshop worked to lovely ladies who loved to explain everything they had in the shop. And that was a lot!! Stacks of fabric everywhere! Of course I bought some fabric there too, but only one fat because I've nearly finished my Australia quilt top! As you can see on this picture, fabric everywhere!

I never go on holiday without a quilt project, and I started something new to take with me on trip because I all the quilt tops I've been working on are sort of finished of too much work to take with me. So I spent two evenings cutting everything and even bought a airplane cutter. I figured I could sew an entire quilt during our 18 our flight to Jakarta. All I have sewn are three 5x15 cm strips to a square. On the flight back home. Because I thought, I have carried this in my backpack all the way to the other end of this planet, I must sew something! But last week I've spent two afternoons behind my sewing machine and this is the result!

The pattern is Bizzy kid that I found on the Cluckclucksew blog. I really liked this pattern but the fabrics I've used are very different from the original. While I was sewing it together I doubted if I would like it as much as I hoped.. But I already cut everything thinking I'd come home from holiday with a quilt top so I just finished it! And now that it is finished I really like it. I love every fabric in it! I'm not sure if I'm going to add a border... I might just leave it like this and make it a quilt just to snuggle under on the couch. But before I start quilting this one I have to finish quilting my disappearing nine patch (which is lying half on the floor in the topleft corner of the picture), it's almost done!

Presents!

2011-09-22T14:40:00.001+02:00

I got a few unexpected presents lately! First my mum called me to say that she was sending a package my way. I guess she couldn't wait until I got it and called her about it... When I finally got it in the mail it was my apron! My mum promised me and my sister an apron many months ago, mine was half finished on display in her sewing room for some time now. But it was finished now and very nice!

It has two sides, the other side have the same fabrics but dots instead of the black and white and visa versa. I already tried it and it makes me look fabulous while cooking dinner!

When we visited my bf's parents my mother in law also had a present for me. They visited a town where some people still wear regional costumes ( I believe it was Staphorst, but I'm not sure) and they would sell leftover fabric. So I got some pieces of fabric!

Don't know what I'm going to do with it yet but that doesn't matter, I do really like the black and white!

Finishing touches

2011-09-14T21:10:00.001+02:00

After an afternoon of studying I thought I'd relax a bit behind my sewing machine. I still had some finishing touches to do on the baby toys, sew a few filling holes for the stuffing in the blocks and machine sew the crinkle label toys together so it feels nicer (or the fabric and crinkly foil feel like 2 different layers...)
I did one and I thought it might be nice if I used some embroidery stitches on my machine. I tested a few and went on with the label toys until my sewing machine stopped! It had made a whole bundle of thread at the back and was starting to eat up the fabric. Oh no! This is when 'relaxing' behind my sewing machine became not so relaxing. I cleaned the everything I could reach, rethreaded it three times, meanwhile calling my mum because it had been hers so maybe she knew what to do, then changed needles and it didn't help! I could figure out what was wrong with it and agreed that my mum would take it to the shop for a checkup. Then after dinner I tried again and it worked perfectly again.... Maybe its having it's period? But I could finish the stitching on the crinkle toys. I hope they give it a good cleaning back at the shop so I can sew without worrying about it eating my fabric!

Busy weekend

2011-09-12T21:23:00.001+02:00

I've had a busy weekend! Saturday my mom and I went to the annual exhibition organized by our quilter's guild. And it was in my hometown, Leiden! We've only just come back from Birmingham and we both thought we would be disappointed because it wasn't as huge as the festival of quilts. It was held in the Pieterskerk, an old church that doesn't function as a church anymore, that is a very nice building to walk around in with old tombstones and statues and such. We saw some beautiful quilts and looked around by the shops! Check my moms blog for pictures, she will post them later this week.

Then on sunday I had work to do! My mom and sister have booked a booth in a some sort of an arts and crafts market. So in a couple of weeks they have to have some goods to sell at this market! My sister is going to sell cupcakes and my mother and I are busy sewing some little things. Baby toys are my department so I made this:

It isn't a very good picture because it's already dark outside... But it in reality the color are very bright and happy! I hope the people will like it!

Then there was one other thing I have started this weekend. I bought a journal. No ordinary journal... It is a little book called "wreck this journal" and that's exactly what you'll have to do with it. In every page are some instructions about what to do with it, drawing, cutting, poking holes even taking it with you in the shower. I followed some instructions already including the 'sew this page' page.

If your curious, I started a weblog to document how the journal is doing: awreckedjournal.bloodspot.com , you find the link on the right!

Arts and crafts

2011-09-03T20:48:00.001+02:00

It has been a while since my last post. Not much sewing done last week... And this monday is the start of the academic year so I will have little time to sew or quilt then too! But I have done something crafty. When I have little time I like to do something that can be finished in an afternoon or evening. I already tried to make a journal quilt but that didn't turn out how I wanted it to be.
They had canvasses and paint on sale in the shopping mall today. A friend of mine has started painting, she paints because she likes to do something but she never likes it very much when she is done and usually throws it away, lol. But that's ok, it's fun while you're working on it. I thought that I might give it a try!

Of course I didn't have inspiration to really paint something but I made two canvasses. I don't know what I'll do with them because they're not that nice, but, it was fun to do!!

Birmingham Gallery II

2011-08-16T18:57:00.004+02:00

I've got one more post with a random selection of my half of the quilts pics we took in Birmingham. For more check out my mum blog (carpe-quiltem).Clearly a winner, this quilt was unbelievable neatly stitched!
Very modern fabric with a traditional design, I like it!
Lots of tiny bits and pieces!

Beautiful design and colours too!

Now it is time to get some quilting done myself. I took my wonky log cabin with me on the trip (I felt very much like Bonnie Hunter who always takes, lots of, projects with her on trips) but didnt quilt at all (of course). I also have to do a little shopping rehab... Birmingham is THE place to go shopping, so thats what we did. And yesterday I bought some new jeans and some thread in various colours. To make things worse it is 'Feestweek' (a party week) at our favourite quiltshop (de Quilterij, in Den Bosch) so I have to pay them a visit too this week and you dont usually leave a quiltshop empty handed!

Birmingham Gallery

2011-08-15T19:58:00.005+02:00

As promised, a few pics of the exhibition. And once again, Im sorry I cant tell you who made these beauties!

I love the colours of all of the above. I really like the 'almost'wholecloth with the cream and soft orange. Ive always thought about making a wholecloth but I think I like a design like this better. It is still very simple and easy for your eyes and the focus is on the quilting but it has a little but extra compared to a regular wholecloth.
Ill sort out the second half of my pictures tomorrow so maybe I'll show you some more then!

Edit: Some of the quilts arent complete in the picture. Thats because there were a lot of people and sometimes it wasnt possible to take a proper picture...

We're back from Birmingham!

2011-08-15T19:43:00.004+02:00

My mum and I went, for the first time, to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham last week. It was a lot of fun! When we arrived the first day there were a lot of people (or actually women), quilted bags and vests everywhere. I heard some women say they had to 57 shops before they allowed themselves a bathroom break, we still thought that it couldnt be thát big. We were wrong...

It was huge! We started with the exhibition and by lunchtime it dawned on us we couldnt see all the quilts in one day. So we had a nice lunch at the quilters café and went on to the shops in the afternoon. We made lots of pictures, didnt buy anything yet and in no time it was time to go back to the hotel. The next day we thought we could go and see the other half of the show and shops. We were wrong again. It tooks us three days and we still arent a 100% sure we have seen everything ;-)

I bought some stuff too, some things were a lot cheaper there then when I buy it here because of various show offers and discounts. Here is what I got:
Some white on white fabric and just a few fat quarters that I liked (apparantly Im very into blues and greens). A few notions, mesh transfer paper, a sheet with tiny little holes in it to draw quilt patterns etc on fabric and an aeroplane cutter. We both got ourselves the funny pin. But the best of all are the charmpacks I spoilt myself with. The big one is the Happy go lucky fabric by Nel Whatmore. I love the colors! I had to resist the temptation of sewing the little charmpack together today... I thought I'd at least think about what Im going to do with it for another hour ;-)
We also spotted some 'celebs' like Kaffe Fasset and Marti Michell, had lots of inspiration from all the quilts and are already planning our visit next year!

In my next post Ill show you some pictures of the quilts. I cant put a name on the quilts because my mum has the catalogue, and even if I had it I dont think I could make out who made what quilt, there are too many of em! But its always nice to see some beautiful designs and such isnt it?

Mail!

2011-08-04T11:21:00.001+02:00

Last week I was too tired to do anything in my spare time. I had to work from 7 am till 4 pm in Delft at the construction site for the new underground railway tunnel. They are digging in the ground so the archaeologists had to be there! It is a very cool project, very big and archaeological interesting because the tunnel follows the medieval town wall. But my alarm clock rang at 5.15 am every day so when I finally got home at the end of the day I was too tired to even catch up on my blogreading.
And I almost forgot I ordered some fabric from the USA! so it was a bit of a surprise when the mailman brought me a package. I need a project to take with me when we go on holiday and why not start something new? I found some beautiful fabric online, Dena Fishbeins Kumari Garden! I ordered everything available....

The one on top is my favorite! I like it so much I think I'm going to order some more because I don't want it to be gone when I finish this project...
I found a picture online of a beautiful quilt and loosely based the design on this one. Now I have to cut everything so it is ready to sew when I'm on my holiday! I might even take some blocks with me on the airplane, we have a very long flight...

Quilt Journal II

2011-07-23T12:26:00.002+02:00

I havent done much quilting this week but I have been working on my quilt journal. Of some quilts I don't have any fabric left or have no photographs at all but of others I did! It's fun to gather all of that and write why you started the quilt and how it was made etc.
It's a free Saturday today so maybe I'll be able to show you some progress on the quilting of the wonky log cabin tomorrow, for now all I have are some pictures of my journal :-D

Quilt Journal

2011-07-18T22:35:00.002+02:00

I have been so busy! Till the end of august all of my weekends are fully booked, all fun things and mini breaks and the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham for example.... and during the week I'm now working full time, my regular 2 working days and the rest of the week I'm working on my thesis to finally graduate next year.

But tonight I have a free evening and have started a quilt journal. I had seen other quilters keep a journal about every quilt the made and I liked the idea. Now I have already made 3 quilts which I gave away and I do not want to forget about them! I have written down 2 quilts tonight. My first and second one. The first called 'Bootjes' and is 17x17 centimeter. The second one is my first big quilt, a sampler of 156x226 centimeter, which I started in 2005 and finished in 2007 because I set myself a deadline by entering the European Quilt Championships exhibition.
I'm writing down some basic information about the quilt on the right and am going put in some pieces of fabric I used (if there is any left and I can find it ;-) ). On the left I'll put a photo of the finished project. So tomorrow evening I'll have to look up some pictures and search for little pieces of fabric and I'll show you what my journal is going to look like!
Maybe some of you are keeping a quilt journal yourself, if there is something I shouldn't forget to document in this journal or other tips and tricks... all suggestions are welcome :-)

Mini quilt: Garden and Graduation Lady

2011-07-13T19:43:00.003+02:00

Not so long ago a friend of mine graduated. I didn't know what to give her for this occasion so I made a mini quilt. Then she has a reminder of this achievement and its something else than framing your diploma and hanging that on the wall!

I got my inspiration from a quilt my mum made for me. She was inspired by the 'Gardenlady's' she saw over at Loft Creations. This garden lady is actually a block from a quilt pattern in the book "Garden Club Quilts".
This is the little quilt my mum made for me. It is supposed to be me... ;-) The label is in Dutch, it's a description of me and the quilt. It says, among other things, that I wear a red dress because it is my favorite color and the shovel in the ground is because I study Archaeology.

I drew the block and made it into a paper piece block with some alterations. No sunhat for this lady, she's a graduation lady and not a garden lady! I didn't know whether my friend would like it but even if she doesn't want this on the wall somewhere this is nice gift (I hope ;-) ) and I had fun while sewing/quilting this mini quilt!

For Dutch readers/Voor Nederlandse lezers

2011-07-12T18:33:00.003+02:00

Ze is eindelijk online! M'n zusje heeft een blog geopend over haar taart en cupcake creaties.
Ze maakt al ruim een jaar de lekkerste én mooiste taarten en besloot dat het tijd was dit met de wereld te delen. Als het water je nu in de mond loopt bij het bekijken van haar weblog kun je ook een taartje bij d'r bestellen (en als je in regio Boxtel/Den Bosch woont komt ze 'm nog brengen ook!)

http://www.botercremeeneieren.blogspot.com

Hier alvast een voorproefje van een van haar eerste taarten. Een archeologietaart voor de verjaardag van mijn vriend, compleet met botjes, scherfjes, veiligheidshelm en schep!

For all the non-Dutch readers. My sister started a blog about her cake and cupcake creations. The blog is in Dutch but you can always take a look at the beautiful cakes she makes!

A long day!

2011-07-09T21:52:00.002+02:00

Today was such a long day. We were supposed to pick up bf's sister and family from the airport (she lives in Australia and is visiting) at 5.30 am. But when I checked the flying schedule yesterday night it said the plane was going to land an hour early! When we were finally back home at 8 I couldn't go back to bed and sleep, it was already broad daylight!

Because we had the whole day still ahead of us I planned a quilt day for myself. That did not go as planned.... I just didn't have the energy. I sat with the box of fabric for the HSH (Home sweet home) on my lap for an hour, machine piecing involved to much thinking and focus. Then I tried to find a nice quilt design for the log cabin... I decided to quilt it very easy because the quilt is already very colorful. By the time I quilted 5 lines I almost fell asleep in front of the tv. It feels a bit like a wasted day but we got to see my SIL and her family for a bit and I did start the quilting of the log cabins!! And sometimes it's nice to do absolutely nothing, just sit with a cup of tea in the sun!

Porcelain Painting

2011-07-04T21:02:00.002+02:00

My sister needed some cheering up because of a broken heart and what is a better way to cheer someone up than crafting! I went to visit her and brought Robbie Williams, Mr. Big, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, porcelain paint and lots of plates and cups.
At first she wasn't enthousiastic but my mum and I handed her a plate, a brush and we started painting! I had never done this before so I accidentally bought transparent paint, that was a mistake... You can see all the brush lines and then it looks a little sloppy if your not skilled at doing this. But that did not stop us..!

This is a plate I made for my brothers gf. She has an unusual spelled name so she can never buy a pen or keychain or something with her name on it. It's a breakfast plate and it says 'Goodmorning Yessy', behind it a mug for my brother, the motorcycle on the back is not visible unfortunately.

We stopped at noon to go out for lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day so we sat in the sun (I did get sunburned of course :-( ) and enjoyed our meal. When we got back my mum started to put all the finished things in the oven, to make them dishwasher proof. After a whole day of therapeutic painting this was the result.

The plate with the red witch was made by my mum of course and my sister made the cutest set for herself. Her name is Maren and she loves to bake cupcakes...

We had been so busy we had a late dinner with Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, Samantha and of course Mr. Big.... And then I had to go home already! Hour and a half drive home and I had to work today but my sister was a lot happier and C dropped by to see what we made and to watch some SATC as well. When I got home I received a picture of my phone that showed the girls having a mini spa at home! Very relaxing!

We already decided that with the next broken heart or relationship crisis we would have to make a mosaic mirror or something! But it was such a fun day that we might decide not to wait till someone has a minor depression... ;-) haha!

Show and tell

2011-07-01T23:22:00.002+02:00

In my previous post I promised some pictures of a finished project so here it comes...! This winter I made a baby quilt for my sister in law. Last time I made a baby quilt I found the fabric line 'creatures and critters' by Amy Schimler and got all the different fabrics with animals. Because I made that one with nice pictures of animals for the child to look at I had the idea in my head that I had to find another set of nice matching (animal) picture fabric. Problem was I couldn't find anything that I really liked. So I went to 'De Quilterij' determined to come home with fabric for the quilt!
I didn't know if it was going to be a boy or girl so I got a very cute owl fabric with blue and pink and some lime and purple fabric that went well with the owls. My SIL really likes lime and purple so I figured I could not go wrong with that!

But as it turns out I don't have any pictures of the finished quilt! I do have one of the finished top and the quilt gift wrapped... The very afternoon I was making the labels for the quilt I got a call that the baby was born! So I had to hurry... sewed the label on, gift wrapped the quilt with the custom made squeaky toy and we went off to the hospital! This picture was made in the evening so the colors aren't as bright as they are in daylight but it's all I got. I'll make new/better pictures next time I'll visit them.... :-)

Tomorrow I'm going to catch up on my blogreading to see what everybody else has been up to this week. And this weekend is going to be creative though it doesn't involve sewing and fabric but porcelain, glue and a brush...! Curious? ;-)

Summertime!

2011-06-27T19:12:00.002+02:00

After a week of rain the summer is here! So my bf and I both took the day of and went to the beach to fully enjoy the sun. We weren't going sunbathing because that would turn me bright red and the seawater is still cold so no swimming either... I don't think the water of the North Sea is ever at a nice temperature actually. But we went to the beach and sat in the shade on the terras of a beach bar, had a nice cold IceTea and ate lunch. Then we walked along the beach with our feet in the water, got ourselves some ice-cream and when we were tired (of doing nothing...) we went home! Unfortunately we got in a traffic jam and it was very hot and we don't have air-conditioning in our car so I got sunburn from driving back home from the beach on one arm and half my neck..... :-(

I don't think I am going to do much quilting this week in between working, taking a few days off to enjoy the weather and bf's birthday this week but we are scheduling a Home sweet home quilting day soon!
In the meantime I'll show you one of my recently finished projects later this week...

Dutch TT Assen

2011-06-26T20:41:00.004+02:00

No quilting to write about today but something completely different... Yesterday my dad and I went to the Dutch TT Assen. Its the motogp race in the Netherlands! I used to watch the race every week and I am a huuuuuge fan of Valentino since I was about 11. We have been to the TT in Assen several times, just me and my dad or the whole family, but this time was different. We got 'leftover' VIPtickets from a collegue of my dad! We had no idea what to expect but the brochure was promising (free drinks, lunchbuffet, paddocktour).
We left on the motorcycle around 6 am in the morning because it is a 3,5 hour drive to Assen, and unfortunatly it was raining already :-( The closer you get to Assen the more motorcyclists you see and the last half hour or so you drive with hundreds of them to the circuit. We had special parking and we could take a shuttlevan to the 'VIPvillage'. When we got there we did not really know where to go (everybody else seemed to know where they were going...). Where we were supposed to be was one of the VIProoms of course!! I did feel a bit out of place because you dont know anyone there and a lot of people are there for networking with other companies etc. But once I walked outside and saw Valentino Rossi driving by about 10 metre away from me I sat down in the best chair and decided to stay there the whole day!

But we did leave our chairs for a paddock walk! In the picture above you see me walking in the middle of the paddock! The red trucks on the left are the ones from the ducati team, Valentino Rossi is numer 46 and Nicky Hayden is 69. Unfortunatly they werent walking around, I think he was putting on his leather suit because their race was to start in an hour. I did see another driver (Alvaro Bautista) driving by on a scooter and two of the 125cc drivers walking by but I did not recognize who they were. When we got back we were just in time for the lunchbuffet. Lasagna, shrimps, grilled vegetables and much more! I dont think we ever had such a lunch at the TT... The people across the circuit were putting up their umbrellas because it had started to rain but we didnt have to worry about that either, we were under a roof!
The some of the races were very exciting, a lot of riders fell off their bikes because of the rain. It was a bit slippery here and there but they stil go around the track with 300 km/h! The last race was the MotoGP with Valentino.... It was not the most interesting race to watch because a few rider fell and everyone was driving a few seconds apart, so no fights for first, second or even fifth place and Valentino came fourth over the finish line. But, seeing him drive by soooo close is enough excitement for me ;-)

The first time we went to the TT I thought I wouldn't be such a screaming, loudly cheering fan as the girl next to us was (and she wasnt even cheering for Valentino ;-)) but as soon as he drove by I started screaming and cheering and yelling so hard, surprising myself and the man next to me! He told me to save my breath because the race was going to last another 25 laps... hahaha. So maybe it was not so bad the MotoGP race was not THAT exciting because the VIPvillage was not the right place to be screaming I think (I read on twitter our vice prime minister was in the VIPVillage too) ;-)

At the end of the day we both got ourselves a t-shirt to remember the day and we drove home in the rain. But accompanied by the other hundreds, or actually thousands, of bikers who had come to see the races. And alongside of the road, on every viaduct, on every parkingplace near the highway and even in the emergency lane and on the guard rail (!) were people watching the motorcycles and waving at them.
Now, to end this post another picture of Valentino (and others) driving in the pitlane and a short video! (In reality the track was much closer than the video shows)

Finished top!

2011-06-22T15:38:00.002+02:00

This weekend in between all the visits to my dad and my father in law I finished the log cabin top. I went through my mums stash to find some fabric for the sashings. And this is it, polka dots for the sashings but still mostly a black fabric so the blocks pop out!

I haven't had the time to start on the quilting yet. And yes, I should finish my disappearing nine patch blended first. I have that one almost done but then the wheater became to hot to quilt. Since it has been raining for a week now it is quilting time again! But as soon as I have the blended finished this one is ready to go!

Happy Fathers day!

2011-06-19T10:07:00.001+02:00

Black and white it is....

2011-06-17T18:21:00.002+02:00

I didnt know what to use for sashings between my colourful log cabins. The sashings in black and white are the best choice I think. Plain white or black was just not doing it, maybe that's why I couldn't decide. I don't have many black and white, in fact, the piece in the picture is all I have. Luckily I'm visiting my parents soon and my mum has plenty! ;-)

I'm going to take my home sweet home project with me to show it off and get some (constructive) criticism I'm sure. I do hope we get some better weather and a little bit of sun but it looks like it is going to rain in the weekend too.... Great quilt weather though!! Have a nice weekend!

Wonky Log Cabin

2011-06-16T16:33:00.002+02:00

I came across a lot of 'wonky' blocks and quilts on the internet lately... I really like those crooked blocks and the whole liberated quilt making idea but I didn't think I could do it. Another thing I'm not good at is working with scraps. I would like to make a scrap quilt and just use every piece of fabric I come across. I tried that once, used a very tiny piece of a pink striped fabric that I didn't really like but convinced myself I wouldn't notice it once it was finished. Wrong. Every time I see that block I see the pink stripes and I think about how ugly that fabric is.

Today I made liberated wonky log cabins with all the fabrics I never really use and my scraps and it turned out great! Halfway through the first block I was still convinced that my block was not going to be as nice and colourful as the ones I found on the Internet, and that I would have to tell you my little experiment failed. But when it was finished I really liked how it turned out and made three more!
That is another thing, I cannot make small quilts. They always end up twin size or bigger... But this is going to be a wallhanging (I think)!

The only thing to decide is what colour the borders between the blocks are going to be, black or white.....

Open Air Museum / Openluchtmuseum II

2011-06-14T21:12:00.010+02:00

Part two of the Open Air Museum! In this little street builde in the 'Zaanse'style was a little shop with Dutch fabrics! There was even a little sign which said you could use it to make quilts ;-) I bought some of the red and white fabric in the bolt under the brown with flowers.

This street is a street in Tilburg (where my mum grew up). Every house was furnished in a different stye/time. The last house was very sixties/seventies and the sewingmachine looks very much like the one my mum used to have!!

I also added another border to the Home Sweet Home quilt! It already getting quite big. The next border is a bit bigger and has a lot of different blocks so it wil take me a bit longer to sew that one. My mum has also begun with this quilt too so Im curious how that one is going to be. Corrine hasn't decided on the colorscheme yet, too many choices, too much fabric! I think it is going to be lemon and pink.... ;-)

Pffff.. blogger seems to think I like having lots of empty spaces in this post.... :-(

Open Air Museum / Openluchtmuseum

2011-06-11T21:39:00.005+02:00

Today we went on a little trip to the Open Air museum in Arnhem. It is like a beautiful park with authentic buildings in it. They have farms, factories, cottages, shops, farmyards, even a brewery and of course some windmills! It is a park full of the history of every day life of the last 200 years. We walked around the park all day and I made lots of pictures. But maybe we should have taken the historic tram because my feet are killing me right now!
Here are some of the pictures:

In one of the first houses we visited was a star made of tiles on the wall. It looks just like my cornerblocks of yesterday!

In the pictures below you see a 'bedstee', a box bed. They are all so tiny it is hard to believe that people slept in those. It couldn't have been very comfortable, sleeping while sitting up because they are so small ... In the third picture there is a sandcarpet under the table. These were made (in some regions of the Netherlands) every saturday so the house looked nice for sunday. On sundayevening they would walk all over it to clean and scour the foor with the sand.

And of course, a lot of windmills were present! I am standing in front of a windmill that is used for grinding wheat into flour etc. The little windmill in the right picture is pumping water. They made this area of the park to resemble the landscape of the provinces Noord-Holland en Zuid-Holland (which I am living in now) and we have a lot of 'polders' (I looked it up in the dictionary but polder is polder in English!). Polders are pieces of land that are supposed to be under water but we pumped the water away... This little mill was in a little polder they created and it was pumping water! The farmhouse you see on the left of it is what we call a 'stolpboerderij', the dictionary translates this in : a traditional four square Dutch farmhouse with a pyramide shaped roof.

I will show you some more tomorrow, if you are interested ;-).... Now I am going to put my feet up and have a nice cup of tea!

Practice makes perfect!

2011-06-10T20:32:00.002+02:00

Well, almost perfect. I sewed the next border of the Home sweet home quilt today. When I looked at the design of the corner blocks my heart sank because it is a very complicated star with a lot of tiny different shapes. I wanted to be calm and relaxed while machine piecing today so I chose to make a different star and I think it looks really nice! And my corners are much better today, the triangles are pointy so I'm a bit proud of myself ;-)

Blood, sweat and tears....

2011-06-09T14:06:00.002+02:00

I think I just lost 5 pounds trying to sew the border to the center block of the home sweet home quilt. Oh my god...
My mum has been (trying/practising) machine piecing for some time now, even finished a big quilt top with machine sewing! I heard that my mum found it sometimes very difficult to get all the blocks neatly together and I thought I did not have a problem with it. How wrong I was... I have only sewn blocks consisting of squares on my sewing machine and with squares it is a lot easier to make all the ends meet.

But now I had to sew a border with corner blocks with all triangles and get all the pointing ends together.. The first try was a disaster, the second time still very bad and the third time I did not dare to look at the outcome. I ironed the whole thing blindly and decided that it was humanly impossible for me to do any better... When I turned it around it wasn't as bad as I feared. Of the 4 corners one is bad still, one is ok and the last two are something in between. The trick is not to look at it for too long I think ;-)

Now what did I tell you! Scroll down quickly! This is a much nicer picture...

Another small disaster that kept me busy yesterday is some of the red fabric I bought the other day. When I washed it it looked like I slaughtered a chicken in my sink.... I washed it again and again and let it soak in vinegar for a few hours then washed it again but the water still turns red. I'll try the washing machine today and if it still loses color I will have to find some other fabric :-( I sometimes hear people saying they never wash their fabric before use and that I don't understand. They obviously never experienced the horror of pulling your quilt out of the washing machine and everything white has suddenly turned pink.....!

Edit: I'm looking at my border and the one on the original pictures... Turns out I have my corner blocks upside down! And does make it more difficult to get it all right.... Should I tear it apart just one more time?

Cannenburgh

2011-06-05T16:30:00.002+02:00

Yesterday we had a lovely day in Vaassen at a castle named Cannenburgh. The last time a quilt exposition was held at this castle was 4 years ago and since then they restored the castle and the grounds surrounding it.

It wasn't allowed to make pictures inside but if you are interested in how the inside of the castle looks like take a look at my mums blog....
The exhibition was nice and the quilts just look great in such an environment. There was even an 17th century quilt on the bed in one of the rooms. Maybe the robber knight who used to live here a long time ago slept under it! In the basement and kitchen were a lot of stores and outside were tents with shops too.
I bought some reds and greens for the home sweet home quilt and got a few fabrics from my mum :-D (I had little money to spent because of a speeding ticket...).

And to top it off we sat in shade in the park, looking at the castle and it's surroundings eating this:

Yummy! And with such a view... I hope we don't have to wait another 4 years for a day at Cannenburgh! :-)

Home Sweet Home

2011-06-03T17:36:00.002+02:00

A few weeks ago we went to a quiltshow and our favorite quiltshop (www.quilterij.nl) had a little exposition there of the 'Home Sweet Home' mysteryquilt. They were all very nice but I completely fell in love with this one (made by Suzanne van der Schoot).

I like the pattern and I just love the colours of this particular one... So we bought the pattern and I also bought some green, white and red fabric to start with. And because today was too hot for quilting (27* in our house) I started with the center block of this quilt.

The original pattern has a 'crazy house' block in the center but I liked the idea of putting your own house in the middle to personalize the quilt a little bit. But the apartment we are living in now does not make a very nice center block and our previous apartment was an old cloister so that is too complicated for 30x30 cm. After an hour of drawing doodles I 'designed' this:

Bit dark picture because it was made with my phone but, this is the door of my student flat! The first time I was living on my own (in my own home) and were I met my boyfriend. So with the thought of 'home is were your heart is' (a bit cheesy but so what) this is the perfect center block of this quilt. Maybe I should call it home is were your heart is instead of home sweet home now... ;-)

Cookies!

2011-05-24T20:20:00.002+02:00

I had to buy 4 packs of cookies today... Because only then I could get this tin for free! It is from 'Verkade', a Dutch cookie factory, especially made for their 125 year anniversary. I liked it so much I had to have it and now I have a closet full of cookies. But you can even play tic tac toe (boter, kaas en eieren) with it!

And I found a new blog/webshop that I really like and want to share with you. It's listed by links on the right side of this page (www.studiosoil.com). It is called studio Soil and they sell handmade and homemade items but also DIYkits and vintage clothing. The blog is also very fun to read!
My sister is also starting a blog about all the cupcakes and pies she bakes. I added her link too (Botercreme en eieren) but it is not fully up and running yet, I will let you know when it is!

And for the Dutch readers: als je ook van koekjes en taartjes houdt, klik dan eens op de Buurvrouw en Buurvrouw link!

Speelkleed

2011-05-22T12:23:00.002+02:00

This winter I made a quilt for my mother in law, or actually for her grandchildren. It was the first quilt I machine pieced on my new sewingmachine and I must say, it turned out good! This quilt is likely to be spit, spilled and puked on so I used fabric from the market and of course in bright colors. Handquilted this one in record time because I wanted to give it as a Christmas present (I had fingercramp!) and this is the result:

(not the best picture but I forgot to make a proper picture with my camera and only have a snapshot on my phone...)

Festival of Quilts

2011-05-19T17:31:00.002+02:00

This year we are going to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham U.K.! We talked about it before but my mum decided that it was time we finally went too. Yesterday I read about the workshops, lectures and masterclasses you can participate in and I already made a little list of things I want to do!
For starters, the lecture 'Top 10 reasons, You need more fabric!' should be mandatory for everyone! And the one about how to get rid of all your unfinished projects sounds like something for me....

About that, it took me 2 days to figure out how to quilt the disappearing nine patch from the previous post but today I decided how. All loops!

One year ago...

2011-05-18T12:54:00.002+02:00

..is the last time I updated my blog. But I got a new toy for my birthday this week and it is so much more fun to write a blog on my new iPad instead of my old laptop. So I'm starting this blog again!
But that isn't the only thing my mum spoiled me with, I also got her old sewing machine a few months ago. And since then I have sewed a lot....

This is what I have been working on this weekend. This project started a few years ago when a friend brought me most of the fabrics from America. The reason that it took me so long to finish the quilt top? Well, you usually do not cut half the fabric with scissors and half with a rotary cutter and start with hand sewing and then switch to machine sewing... I did, and my mum and I spent hours taking half the quilt apart and recutting everything because some blocks were over a centimeter bigger than others!
Last week I found the box with all the little pieces of fabric and finally started to sew them into a quilt top. Because the quilt had been almost finished before I already had the fabric for the backing and in a weekend it is now ready to be quilted! Yaay!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Living on your own..

2009-07-18T23:34:00.009+02:00

...also means you actually have to do all the DIY chores yourself :-P But with a few calls to our dads we managed to fix some last things in our new home. And as a finishing touch, the mailman brought us a package today and we've got internet!! Hurrah! So I am totally back in blogland.
And as we have to get used to some aspects of living on your own, we also have to get used to living together. I moved in with my bf 3 monthes ago in his old apartment/room but not much changed then exceptwe put in one extra cupboard. Now we had to set up and decorate this home together which is sometimes a bit of a challenge. But Ill let him have his ugly but very comfortable office chair if I can have my bright red cheerful one... :D The other thing is that this house feels so big sometimes, and it really isnt.. But our studentrooms were a little over 10 m2 and bf's previous one room apartment was a little over 30 m2 so we have been used to be around each other all the time and now we have 5 rooms to be in! So when Im making diner in the kitchen I just start talking assuming bf can hear me but instead of a proper response he walks in the kitchen 10 minutes later asking me if it was me who said something or if it was some noise from outside, lol.

Having the space to do some stitching and quilting is great by the way.. and since I made a list of all my UFO's I have been quilting a lot. I finished my Leiden quilt and almost finished my 'Quiltslag'. The last one is a small 'whole cloth' to practice quilting for the first time but I did not have the patience to finish that one and started quilting my sampler and left this one in a box for over 2 years. It is almost finished now but I can't quilt the border because I have no quiltpatterns here, or the tools to make one myself. Then there is my second archaeology quilt, MDHP-12, which is almost done too. I hope I can put them on the finished projects list next week or so!

Not quilting, but crafting

2009-07-16T18:55:00.003+02:00

Today I have been busy in my quiltroom but not with fabric or thread. Here is a picture of the quiltroom (finally) when my mum and I were quilting in it. The other picture shows you what I have been doing today. I do not know the english word for this thing but we call it an 'etagère'. I saw this at a friends house and I really liked the idea of making one which plates and cups etc. So I went out to buy some nice and cheap plates, cups and bowls to make my own.. because there was a lot on sale and I got carried away I ended up with a whole bag full of tableware and made three. Two black and red and one red, white and blue which I'll give to my mum. Then my sister, who loves to make muffins and cupcakes, has a nice display for all her bakings. The other two I am going to use next weekend when we are having a housewarmingparty. I just hope I have used the right glue and they won't fall apart... haha

I have been busy quilting though.. I made a list of all my current UFO's and all my finished projects. Not a very good result, but I have finished two projects so far and a third one is almost done. I will tell you more about this when I have been properly connected to the internet, hopefully next week, and uploading a picture doesn't take hours :P

Quick post

2009-07-03T21:53:00.002+02:00

I have got access to the internet again! :D But until we are properly connected to the internet we have a usbstick that provides wireless access. This stick however is limited in use and only goes up to 500 MB (whatever that means). I think that must be enough to show you my new quiltroom!!

I haven’t quilted anything yet in it but it’s there waiting for me.. and now my mum and Corrine can finally come to my house and go quilt and patchwork here. We made jokes about that happening since I have moved to Leiden because I lived in a 10 m2 room but now it has to happen :) The downside is that if I am going to organise a quilt get-together my boyfriend thinks he has the right to invite his friends in my quiltroom too and play computergames all day, hahaha. Luckily I have a big loveseat which is very good for watching tv and quilting at the same time. When I have full access to the internet I’ll show you what Im working on at the moment.

Edit: I can't upload any pictures at all.. if it is the slow connection or blogger I don't know but you'll have to wait to see them!!

A weddingday, movingday and a birthday!

2009-06-24T14:02:00.003+02:00

My sister-in-law's weddingday was last friday. It was a wonderful day, the wheater was perfect, everybody looked great and every little detail was perfect. My boyfriend was going to give a speech during the dinner and I have never seen him so nervous! He did great of course and made the whole weddingparty cry :)
The next day we went to our new home where my parents were already wallpapering etc (again) and they had a surprise for us! They had bought the glass cabinet we wanted to put our archaeological stuff (some pottery, sherds, flint etc) in and a worktable for under the window in our quilt/computerroom. :D
We did a lot of work this weekend and we have to paint one wall and then it is finished to this saturday is movingday! Some friend and family are coming to help us move and I cant wait! This also means internetacces again so I can blog all the time!!

Today I wanted to buy bf a birthdaypresent because it is his birthday monday. I had a poster in mind of amsterdam that would look great in our new home but then he told me he didnt like it. So I made a plan B, buy an old map of the city. He already has some old maps but few are actually framed. I just stopped by the shop I saw a really nice one and they are closed till july! Now I have to go and find something else....

a new home!

2009-06-12T15:35:00.005+02:00

Yes, we are moving to a bigger and better apartment! I was a bit nervous about it before we signed the lease but now I am very excited. But you have to think about so much now we are moving to an actual apartment. For the first time ever we have to contact a powercompany and a water distribution company and all that. I was just looking online for the prices and different contracts and I just don't know where to start.
This new home did not come at the best time because with everything we have to arrange for the new apartment bf had to arrange the bachelor party for his best friend (who is marrying bf's sister) and I was invited for the bachelorparty of this sister. This weekend we have a wedding party next weekend a 'real' wedding and the weekend after that it is bf's birthday. My boyfriend is the best man at the wedding and also working his ass off on a project that was supposed to take 10 days but is now prolonged and he was already a bit stressed out about all this and now there is a new house to think about on top of it!
Luckily I have the nicest parents, my mum came over wednesday when we got the keys to the apartment to check it out and make pictures of the floor and electricity and drainage pipes for my dad and they are coming tomorrow and staying in our new house for the weekend to hang some of the walls with new wallpaper and paint everything while we are at a wedding party... :) Yesterday we bought wallpaper and paint, white and a blue/turquoise color for the kitchen and bedroom that is called 'sea' (there was another turquoisecolor which was called 'satisfaction' but unfortunatly it was twice as expensive, I would have rather had satisfaction on my walls than sea, wouldn't you?).
The positive side of the fact that my boyfriend is stressed out and is leaving me sort of in charge of the new apartment is that I can create a quiltroom if I want to... haha... and maybe a little corner somewhere for his computer and guitars. As soon as things are a bit more relaxed I'll show you some pictures of our new home and my quiltroom ;-)

Diamonds are a girls best friend...

2009-05-20T16:40:00.005+02:00

It was my birthday last saturday and my boyfriend gave me a diamond ring! OMG! He had planned a visit into town and had a clear idea of what it had to look like and he bought me the ring (or rings actually) in the picture. They look even better on my finger :-P. My birthday already had a good start on fridayevening when the whole bar started to sing 'Happy Birthday' when it was 12 o'clock and the following morning my parents came over and had prepared a breakfast. My bf and I spent the rest of the weekend on Texel, a island in the Wadden sea. I will post some pictures tomorrow but I had to show you my bling bling!! :-D

Note: Lotte has no internetacces at her home, and she asked me to edit this post. According to emails/comments she got, you're getting the wrong idea about her birthday present! Although it might be dissapointing to some (and a relief to others..): she's not engaged to be married. Her BF just wanted to give her some nice jewelry for her birthday and that's all :)

Annemiek (the girls mum)

Pictures!

2009-05-06T08:48:00.005+02:00

Pictures! I quickly made these photo's before going to school today.. This is the cowpattern I needed the inch ruler for. I had cut everything and started putting the cows together yesterdayevening and I need a bigger worktable! Because it was advised to cut everything beforehand and pile all the pieces up to keep you from mixing up different 'cowfabrics' my whole worktable was covered with pieces of cow. I had to put the iron on the sideboard and it became a sort of organised chaos. Luckily my bf wasn't home, haha. He is working at the other end of the country this week and staying in a hotel there, but he called yesterday to tell me he is coming home today instead of friday! :-D

I also have a picture of the aboriginal fabrics I bought this weekend. Top left are the fabrics I bought, and below left are the original fabrics I got from my bf and his parents from Australia. Below on the right are fabrics which are inspired by the original fabrics and top right are just nice fabrics that go well with everything else. The fabrics I bought have very different colors than I already had which is good because I was afraid it was going to be a very red/pink and lightbrown/orange quilt. I still haven't made a decision about the design of the quilt and I think it is best to leave this project in the cupboard for a while because I have just started this cow-wallhanging!

European Quilt Championship

2009-05-04T09:12:00.007+02:00

This weekend we went to the european quilt championship. We, Corrine, my mum and me, were really looking forward to this event because it has been a long time since we went on a 'quiltingtrip'. There were some nice quilts on display but also a lot which aren't really 'my cup of tea'. The display of the quilts wasn't so good either, they usually have every quilt on a different wooden board set up through a big hall but this time all the shops were in the middle of the hall and on the walls of the big hall were the quilts. There were also 2 or 3 quilts hanging above each other with poor lighting and sometimes we could not even read the badge if they had won a prize!! We spent all day there anyhow ;-) This exhibition is in a big hotel/conference center surrounded by woods. They have a nice terrace where we had some coffee and applepie in the sun and we had a fun day.
I bought some fabrics of course and one fabric I bought proves there was poor lighting in the hall. It has green and orange leaves on it and I thought this might go with my aboriginal quilt fabrics. When I came home I saw it has lots of golden dots! And I don't like fabrics with gold in it... :-( Luckily that wasn't the only thing I bought. I found some real aboriginal fabrics and I got one black and white and one red and white fabric I intend to use for a little cow quilt. I wanted to post a picture of those but I forgot to make one so I will put those on later.

When I wanted to start on this cowquilt yesterday I forgot that the instructions are in inches and I don't have an inch ruler! So I called my mum and while we were talking about how to fix this my dad was already trying to fit my mums inch rulers on his motorcycle and he brought them to me! Now I can make these cows! :-D

And I see I have another new follower, oh my god, Im popular, haha... I tried to take a look at her blog but I got distracted by the 'Which Jane Austen heroine are you?' quiz... of course I would like to be Elizabeth Bennet but I am apparently more like Marianne Dashwood which isn't bad either.. a fling with Willoughby and to end up with Colonel Brandon :D Look in my side bar for the link to the quiz!!

Big brown paper envelopes

2009-05-04T08:50:00.005+02:00

It has been a while since my last post... because I was ill (all better now because of some anti-biotics) and very busy with other things of course :-) But I see I have new followers, in total 6 followers now, yaayy :-D

I shall explain what has been keeping me busy this last week which is not very quilting related Im afraid... My friend and I read an article in the newspaper last monday about a journalist who has hidden 250 brown paper envelopes in the easter weekend all over the country. In those envelopes is a number and a letter. If you find one he wants you to sent it back with an item in the envelope that has a story. He is then going to find out what that story is! I read this on monday at work and looked at the site/blog where this reporter keeps track of all the envelopes (http://www.eengrotebruineenvelop.nl/) and there is also a map of the netherlands with the places the envelopes were hidden and hint to were it is and sometimes a picture. I found out that there were still 2 envelopes in the town where I live and 3 where my friend lives... I went to dinner with my friend and he said he'd drop me off at my place after dinner but instead we drove by my house, picked up bf, I called my sister to look on the internet for me where these envelopes were exactly and we went on a search for a busstop (see picture). My sister found out that there was an envelope at a nearby service station, convinced our dad they had to drive there NOW and when they arrived she found out that there was an envelope and some guy who worked there thought it was a stupid joke or something and threw it away! Still she was more lucky than we were, we drove to both places but we never found the busstop in the picture and the other location did not have a picture only a the word "candy?" and when we arrived at the spot it was in the middle of a residential area... So, we were on a search the whole evening and whitout succes. These two envelopes are still not found according to the site but it has been almost 3 weeks since this reporter hid them, I guess they are just lost now!

Goodmorning!

2009-04-15T10:27:00.006+02:00

It is a lovely sunny morning again here. I love this time of year when you can just pick up your bag and go somewhere without a coat or loads of suncream! I miss having a balcony now, there is a 'garden' at my new house but then I have to take a chair outside along with a drink, my keys and a book or quiltproject but if I wanted to quilt I need some sort of table to put my pincushion, needles, thread and everything else on... In my old house we had a balcony with some old fauteuils and a balcony table! Perfect! But I might move again soon, or we might move again soon because bf and I are going to look at an apartment tomorrow. Very exciting!

I haven't quilted much with Easter. Watched Jesus Christ Superstar just like my mom and of course I sang all the songs along way to loud too (bf played a pc game and put on a headphone) while painting some eastereggs. I think no one is to old to paint eggs with Easter and they looked very nice on the breakfast table I made in the morning. The only thing my bf didn't understand was that I cooked two more eggs, he wanted to eat my easter eggs! They were way to pretty of course and are still on display in the kitchen!! :-D

We also went to the Keukenhof (http://www.keukenhof.nl/) and were not the only ones with that bright idea... lots of Germans and French people and very few Dutch :-P We heard on the news that we were among 50.000 other visitors but it was really nice. It is just a huge garden with flowers everywhere. I bought some tulips for my mom because these are her favorite flowers and we came across 3 bromelias which were grown by bf's uncle!

p.s. de tulp op het plaatje is dus jouw tulp mam :P een parkiet tulp...

Springtime!

2009-04-08T11:09:00.005+02:00

You'll never guess what happened to me this week. it was a nice spring day and I was shopping.. trying to buy some nice, new, spring/summer clothes and I couldn't find anything that was both nice and in my size. Then I found myself in the sportsdepartment of a big warehouse, I went home and suddenly I found myself, wearing my new sport pants and skates, in the park across the street! Oh my god!
And since then I have been skating every day, except one work day and yesterday it was raining.. There is a big park just across the street, a part of it are now gardens you can rent or buy and the rest of the park is very quiet and the only people you run into are runners or skaters or someone walking their dog. I posted a satellitepicture and the red line marks the park. I am very proud of myself and when it is summer I will be very slim and everybody will be jealous, hahaha.

And I dug up an old quiltproject. Or actually, my first quiltingproject.. I patchworked a lot but never finished anything so that it could be quilted and I claimed I didn't like quilting at all. Then I had to do it because I wanted to finish my sampler and send it to an exhibition. Our neighbour and quiltingfriend then gave me quiltingthread and a ca. 40x40 cm little 'quilt' with the quiltpattern already drawn so I could practice my skills. I came halfway and then decided to start on my 'real' quilt. This week I have been working on this again and tried to make a picture of it to put on my blog which was absolutely impossible because it is just one big square of red fabric and red quiltingthread... Ill try again when it is finished!

Just another week...

2009-03-25T11:00:00.007+01:00

Luckily no underlined text in this post.. I heard other bloggers were having the same problem so it wasn't something I had done... :)
Not much quilting going on this week, Im a bit stressed because I have 2 exams at the end of this week and I have to study hard of course. I also have a 'safety-meeting' from the archaeological employment agency I work for, which is obligatory and it is tomorrow evening. I am curious about what it will be but we'll see.. And at the end of this week there is an annual archaeological lecture and my friend wants me to go to with him and signed me up for it, busy week! But, after the lecture everyone is always going for a drink so that will be fun and saturday will be too because I am going home for the birthday of my brother!

So although my sewingmachine is still on the table I haven't done anything with my 'blended quilt' this week.. thought about it a lot though ;-) What I've also been thinking about is the 39 yards of fabric mama spark bought a week ago! :-D Fabric here is so much more expensive then it is in the USA, I would have to be rich to buy 39 yards.. But I think if it was the same price here I would buy yards and yards too, then I still had to be very rich because I have to have a house with an extra large storageroom for all my fabrics ánd a sewingroom too of course!!!

And what I haven't told you yet.. the babyquilt is in Australia and they really liked it. Bf's dad filmed them as they opened my present and it was kind of weird watching 'my' quilt being there. And as they were looking at my quiltstichtes very carefully I thoughtsomething like: 'Oh no, not all those stitches are as neatly as I wanted them to be.' and they said something like: 'I can't believe she did this by hand, the stitches are so regular and nicely done!'
I think it is really funny that when you make something for another person you see all the flaws and they just love it! I've never made a quilt for someone else but this was a succes! :-D

A quick post

2009-03-19T15:33:00.005+01:00

A quick post because Im at work... Here are two designs I made for my Australia quilt in EQ and I have been very busy this week and look what happened when bf wasn't at home ;-)

Busy week!

2009-03-13T10:39:00.021+01:00

I have been so busy this week! Working, studying and of course designing my australiaquilt... :-P I googled some pictures of Aboriginal art and 'aboriginal-quilts', which are mainly quilts made with these Australia/aboriginal fabrics. Aboriginal art consists of lots of dots usually and they draw lots of geometric forms and lines. I also found a quiltpattern that is very simple and I think very nice to make a quilt that, if you play with the blocks, appears to have some sort of geometric forms and lots of lines.
I searched and found my cd of EQ again and tried to draw the block and assemble the quilt but that didn't go as smoothly as it was supposed to go because I didn't remember the exact layout of it.. Because I don't have internet at home I could not google it again and because the blocks are so very simple it really frustrated me.

But, I just printed out the picture so I can try again when I get home. I do have to calculate if I have enough fabric for a bedsize quilt. If not I have some shopping to do! :D

The first picture is the quilt design I will use and the last two are Aboriginal art. I'll post a picture of my EQ design after the weekend.

This weekend is going to be very busy too! I am going to Maaseik, Belgium with a friend, bf, mom and sister. There is an exhibition of The Terracotta Army of Xi’an. This army was found in the tomb of Emperor Qin Shihuangdi and consists of thousands of unique pieces of foot soldiers, cavalrymen with horses, archers and charioteers. These statues (a few of them) being in Belgium right now is exceptionally because these artifacts are rarely allowed to travel. It is not the same as visiting the tomb where these statues still remain exactly as they were found by archaeologists but at least we can see something of it!

P.S. OMG! I have another follower! Hurrah! :-D

Sewingmachine..

2009-03-03T09:44:00.007+01:00

I am slowly turning our apartment into a sewingroom... Last week I brought my sewingmachine to my new home and yesterday my sister came and had a bag with her containing some of my unfinished quiltprojects from which my mom thinks it is about time Ill finish them. To make that perfectly clear she even included some fabric for the back of the quilts. You may have noticed that I made a list of all my current projects at the bottom of my blog.. and I intend to finish them all, in time :-P Allthough I think I am quitting my vliscofabricquilt because is has a very nasty coffeestain on it, which is weird because I seldom drink coffee, and I don't like it that much anymore..
The one I am going to work on is my blended quilt. I had that one almost finished but because I cut half of the fabrics with scissors and half with a rotarycutter I had to recut all of the handcut fabrics and resew the whole quilt, I recut almost everything but now I have to sort out the whole quilt again and sew it all together. When I finish the top of the quilt I am going to start my australiaquilt. Then Ill have something to quilt and to sew! I promised myself I won't cut any of the australiafabrics before I got along with my blendedquilt but searching for a good design for it won't hurt anything.... :-D
Ill post a picture later this week of this project!

Carnival!

2009-02-18T14:13:00.003+01:00

This weekend I am going home for carnival! Where I live now they don't do carnival actually.. It is something which is celebrated in the south of country and all the people here don't really like it BUT my bf has to come with me this year. He has to experience the whole carnival thing at least one time :-D He is going to wear a jalabba, he bought one as a souvenir when he went to Syria years ago and he has worn it to every costume party since. I usually go as a witch, my mom and I have perfected our witch costume over the years but I thought it was time for something else.

To match my bf I thought I buy a haremcostume but because they don't do carnival up here the only costume you can buy is a pirate or princess costume for children! That really frustrated me because I know of 2 very large stores where you can buy any costume you want in the area where my parents live. So I found a pattern of harempants on the internet and yesterdayevening I cut an old cloth and tried if I could make one, before I bought nice fabric and ruin it..(Frustration number 2, there are no fabric stores in this city!!!). That actually turned out quite well.. But I don't have my sewingmachine here yet :(

So, right now my mom is on her way to one of these big stores to see if they have a costume which makes me look like Jasmine from Aladdin and if not, I am going to buy myself some nice fabric on the market and make my own! Maybe Ill try that anyway because it only cost 2 euro a metre... Who would've thought I would make my own pants!! :-D

Friday the 13th...

2009-02-13T13:02:00.005+01:00

We've had a good start this morning.. My bf went to work but was back in 10 min because someone tried to steal his car last night! They failed, luckily, but the door was damaged and they tried something with the wires underneath the steeringwheel. He called the police and 2 very tough detectives (rechercheurs) arrived and immediatly started to 'investigate' our 'crime scene' which I found really reassuring. They even took some 'evidence' of the break in in the car with them allthough I would've liked to see some fingerprint tracing brush etc used on a cardboard yoghurt drink the 'thieves' had left in the car like they do in the C.S.I. tvshow :-P The car and bf are at the garage now where they are fixing the car so everything is ok now but it is a bit of a scare in the early morning!!

As soon as I get home I am going to sew the label on the babyquilt because it is going to Australia next week! (I'll post a picture of the label next time) I am very excited and very curious to their reaction on such a gift. I'll hope they like it :)

I've moved in...

2009-02-11T10:06:00.004+01:00

I am officially living together now. :-D And the picture shows you (more or less) where I live. It used to be a monastery but now there are studentrooms and they created some apartments in the chapel. It isn't very big, 35 m2, but it is ok and much better than my studentroom of 10m2. Plus, I don't have to share a bathroom and kitchen with 14 other people anymore! Packing and moving all my stuff was a lot of work. It is incredible what rubbish you can collect over 5 years in such a small room. Everything I don't necasseraly need right now is carefully packed in boxes and already in my newly rented storage room and the rest of my stuff all fits in my bf's apartment! I only need a little cupboard for my quiltstuff.. Yesterday my sister and Corrine came for a visit as they were moving my sister out of her studentroom back to my parents and they said I cunningly added my things to bf's room, my first (mini)quilt on the notice board, cowmagnets on the refrigerator (I collect cows), another quilt on a stool. I think my bf has nothing to complain about my things suddenly being everywhere :-P... just wait till I have my sewing machine...

Mail!

2009-01-30T08:38:00.007+01:00

Yaayy, a new post in almost a month! Life got in the way of blogging. I have been very busy with the holidays, university, work, family and our moving plans; but, yesterday I got a package in the mail from my bf sister and she sent me these two panels. This came precisly on the right moment to cheer me up! My classes start next week again so then I will have a regular schedule again and I'll put in some extra time for blogging ánd quilting!

Finished!

2008-12-23T13:55:00.010+01:00

I finished my little Christmasquilt! That is without the binding because my bf does not allow a sewingmachine in his house.. just wait till we live together, muhahaha :-D I called my mum to say how very annoying it was that I could not really finish the quilt and then she called me back to say it was even more annoying that bf does not have acces to internet either so I could let you all know that the quilt is finished and blaming bf for the lack of a binding. But I see that my mum made you all aware of my troubles on her own blog so I will post a picture of my Christmasquilt and pimped up tree. And a picture of our real Christmastree! I wanted Christmascookies in our tree and my mum bought them for me but I already ate most of them of course... The only addition bf made to the tree was hanging the self painted 'christmasball' his little niece, who lives in Australia, made for him last year and was sent to him up in the tree.. sweet!

I also started on another PHD yesterday. I started this little quilt I think almost 2 and a half years ago when the rest of the family went on a motorcyclevacation. I bought the pattern and only used the paperpieced bits of it because I did not like the original borders etc. I liked it so much because it reminded me of a spot in Leiden with a windmill and a little brigde exactly like in the quiltpattern. I have quilted all the paperpiece elements of the quilt and I am now working on the windmill, then all I have to do is quilt something simple in the 'borders' and I can call my mum to cut me another binding for when I come home with Christmas!

Christmastree, -party, -quilt...

2008-12-15T09:00:00.007+01:00

This weekend we went on a search for a Christmastree. I always want a tree in the house, it makes everything very christmassy :-P, and because I cannot have one in my 10m2 studentroom I want one at my boyfriends house... Last year we got it from my parents and bf really liked it as well. So, this weekend we tried to find the perfect Christmastree. And it was a long search... First we went to Ikea, to buy the red Christmas decorations I wanted in the tree this year, something my bf doesn't really understand ('don't you like those decorations any more?' Of course I do, I just want something else this time!) Last year we had silver and green so it looked like a Christmastree which could easily be a Christmastree from the Slytherin common room from the Harry Potter books and this year I want a kind of a 'Griffindorlook' to balance things out :-P. They also sold trees at Ikea but they were not very nice and very expensive, then we went to a local store who had advertised with cheap trees but they were sold out and then finally we went to a garden-centre. The trees they had were little and overpriced or huge and even more beyond our budget and I could not understand all those people buying a 'half naked' tree! But of course I did not give up and finally we found the cheap ones, who I like best anyways, and now we have a beautiful Christmastree in the house! I really like it when you get out of bed in the morning and it is cold and dark outside, then you put on the lights of the Christmastree and everything is instantly nice and cosy.. And the old Christmascrib (kerststal) of my grandparents finishes it. All I need now is a Christmasquilt.

I still have no finished Christmasquilt.. I started the paperpiecing quilt my mum has finished this week (the one with all the stars) a few years ago in a time when I didn't use sewing machine and of course did not finish it. Then last year I wanted to make a christmasquilt and made one with scraps from my mums in an afternoon,(http://carpe-quiltem.blogspot.com/2007/12/pimping-tree.html), the one on the picture. I already made one real christmas tree with decorations etc but I still have to quilt one border. I am going to do that this week! So when it is christmas I can show you a picture of it hanging in the livingroom... :-D

And check this out... http://a.muglets.com/1UL7G-A

Sinterklaasje kom maar binnen...

2008-12-04T10:51:00.010+01:00

Tomorrow is 5 december! 'Sinterklaasevening'! Very exciting.. tomorrow I am going with my boyfriend to his family and saturday we are going to my parents to celebrate 'pakjesavond', wich means 'present evening'. Last year bf's parents hired 2 zwarte pieten to come to their house because the little nephew and niece of my bf still believe in Sinterklaas of course. I am never ever going to do that for my own children (if I ever have children eventually..), every adult in the house was very stressed and nervous, waiting for the banging on the door and you know the ones who are zwarte piet know you and going to make you sing a song for them or worse... I am really looking forward to saturday, we all had to buy gifts for someone and I bought absolutly nothing from the person's wishlist I got. I think, or hope, he/she will like the presents I got or else I will keep them myself because I like them so much myself! I wrote a poem of 36 lines or something (sinterklaaspresents traditionally come with a poem) and am totally ready for it!! :D

Then for something else but also very exciting, bf and I are thinking of living together. I spent a lot of time at his place now and I discoverd that it is much cheaper to rent an apartment then a studentroom. And I would really like it! Bf has a one room appartment now but still rents it from the same student room company. For what he is paying now he could also have a 3 room appartment 2,5 times bigger than this one. With all our money together we can even rent a house with a garden and everything but, that may be a little to much :P I just looked at some appartments thinking, 'hmmm, three rooms, a livingroom, a bedroom and a quiltroom for me!', but I guess I can't claim a whole room for myself, haha.. It would be nice to have my quiltstuff at my own home instead of at my parents house and if we really are going to move to something bigger and better I will put up a little designwall somewhere so I can imagine I have my own quiltroom while bf is playing computergames next to me :D

P.S. Did you notice I got one official follower now (who is not my mum) and both Tactile pleasures in fabric and Cybele's Patch have a link to my blog on their site?
I did and thank you!! :D

Par-tay!

2008-11-26T09:31:00.005+01:00

Lots of party's got in my way! I showed you my wig before and this weekend me and my boyfriend dressed up like Al and Peggy Bundy. We picked up some friends of bf (Kitt and Micheal Knight) and drove all the way to Belgium where the 80s-90s tv theme party was. I expected everyone to be dressed up as some character but that was not the case! More than half the people were just theirselfs (and boring, if you ask me ;-P). We had a nice time anyhow and drove back home the next morning.
Then last monday my best friend graduated from University and is now officially 'Master of Arts in Archaeology'. I never went to a graduation before and I found it a little dissapointing. First my friend had to come up to a room and talk about his thesis. Friends and family had to wait outside, then he came back and we could all join him and the actual 'ceremony' took place. But there was no ceremony! Just a short and very nice speech from one of his teachers (who is also a personal friend) and he got his diploma. On the other hand, if you are graduating you must be so nervous you just want it to be over, very quickly! Here in Leiden it is also a tradition that once you are graduated you get to sign the walls of 'het zweetkamertje' ('the sweatroom'). This was the room that they used years ago to talk about your thesis etc. and even the autographs of the royal family who studied in Leiden are still on those walls!!

Good, bad and....

2008-11-19T21:25:00.008+01:00

Bad news.. My wallet got stolen today!! I was in an H&M store and my whole backpack was unzipped and it was gone, of course I first called my mum who told me I'd better first call the bank to block my accounts... :-P Then she called back to say she was on her way to Leiden to buy me a new wallet and some pocketmoney for the time being :-D yaayy! Now I have an empty brand new bright red wallet. The policelady I talked to said that those pickpockets usually only take the money and leave the rest behind so I hope they find mine somewhere this week or I have to get all new passes...

But the good news is I am going to a party soon which has an 80's-90's tv theme and I thought I'd go as Peggy Bundy. I just got home and my Peggy Bundy wig arrived and omg! It is really cool and very Peggy. Now I only have to find a sleezy shirt to wear with my thight black jeans, preferably with lepard print I think.. Put on some red lipstick and nailpolish and Im done!

Here are some (very bad) pictures made with my phone to get an impression...

Sampler

2008-11-06T13:11:00.004+01:00

Because I am very busy with school little quilting is going on, but I can show you my first big quilt.
I always wanted to make a sampler because I really like the traditional blocks like ohio star etc. I did want to give it a modern look by chosing the black, white fabrics and one real colour (my favourite colour, red) to make the quilt. When we went on family holiday I thought this was the perfect project to take with me (my mum and I always take a patchwork project with us in a (too) small box) and I cut all the pieces of the different blocks at home and pieced almost all the blocks in Italy. Then, of course, it was in danger of becoming a very long term project untill our neighbour bought the black fabric for the borders for me in America. I really wanted to finish the quilt and when I had the idea of sending it to the European Quilt Championship I wanted to finish it even more ánd I had a deadline!
The problem was that I never quilted before, I had pieced and sewn lots of ufo's but nothing was ever finished and ready to quilt. I also thought quilting was very dull and unpleasant... My mum then taught me how to do it and gave me some books so I could start on the real thing. I first wanted to quilt with thread the colour of the fabrics so you wouldn't notice when I did something wrong or had a bad stich or something but the author of the book my mum gave me said that is a bad idea because all of your very small, nice and regular stitches don't show either(she also said that using a thimble was not nessacery because quilting was supposed to hurt a little, I certainly did not agree on that one!).
I signed in on the European Quiltchampionship so my quilt would be on an exhibition, very exciting!!! On the picture you see me, very proud at my own work, and my sampler. It is really weird to see other people looking at en even taking pictures of your quilt but the best thing about it was the public award competition. Not that I won of course but when I put my own choice in the box there were several notes which voted for my quilt! And they were not filled in by my mother, boyfriend or anyone I know!
This sampler is now lying on my boyfriends bed. My mum made me an Irish chain quilt which is on my bed and in a studentroom of 10 m2 there is no room for two big quilts. But my boyfriend always puts it on his bed and it is not folded up in the closet so I think he likes it! :)

I also discovered a very funny abbreviation in quilting blogland today, a PHD (project half done), on Tactile Pleasures in Fabric. I really like this term because it is also used for an advanced academic degree :D I think I will work on my Sinterklaas PHD some more tonight ;-)

Finished babyquilt!

2008-11-01T19:25:00.010+01:00

The finished babyquilt, the front and the back.. all those circles :-D I have to sew the label on the back and we can ship it to Australia!

Oh no!

2008-10-30T10:49:00.007+01:00

What a week already.. It is the beginning of the second half of the first semester and I litterally have to work three times harder! Very little time to quilt this six weeks, loads of work already and the first week is not yet over, very rainy stormy autumn wheater and it has (finally) happened... my all stars gave up! I had been walking around all week with a wet sock most of the time and I could not figure out why it got wet! Well, I just found out my shoe has a big hole in it's sole... Oh no! And I cannot really afford to buy myself another pair right now but if I have finished all my essays and passed all the exams etc by Christmas I can reward myself by buying myself a nice christmaspresent, new shoes!!
Although I have to do a lot of work for school, I am taking some interesting courses. I especially like one because when I was a little girl at primary school I wrote to the teacher! I had to interview someone whose job you would want. I always wanted to be an archaeologist so I found one and wrote him a long letter with all kinds of questions about being an archaeologist and send it to the Faculty of Archaeology, which sounded very official to me at the time. This man, who is now my teacher, wrote a very elaborate nice letter back to me (this was before email existed, haha) which I still have I think. This whole thing made an impact on me and it was decided that I would go to Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology. Now I am here, and I think I am going to search for this letter when I am at home this weekend and show it to him...

Quiltfair

2008-10-26T11:02:00.003+01:00

Yesterday we, Corrine, my mum and I, went to a quiltfair, or actually a craftfair.. There used to be a very big annual quiltfair but last year they quit organising this event. In search of a replacement we went to the craftfair in Rotterdam.

I expected lots of non-quilt booths but it was the other way around, just a few knitting and embroideryshops were present. Our goal was to find some feathers, gold band etc to decorate our Sinterklaasquilt. Of course we ended up with a bag full of other things :D

I bought coloured feathers and two tassels for the Sinterklaasquilt, two tins with a 'buttonprint' ánd a Debby Mumm cow pattern! Very simple cows and I think I am going to make them with all kinds of black and white fabrics and since my mum has loads of black and whites...

I also bought a new thimble, I deserved that after working so hard on the babyquilt. Thimbles always wear out very quickly on the inside, then they get all black and yukky. In order to prevent that from happening too soon I am going to use transparent nailpolish on the inside as a little quilting experiment :-P

Award

2008-10-20T15:07:00.006+02:00

I received an award from my mum but I forgot to put it on my own blog!
A creative award, yaayy :) Not sure if I deserve it though.. I did get it from my mother and we all know mothers are very partial... ;-)

Quiltmarathon

2008-10-20T12:30:00.005+02:00

I survived the quiltmarathon!
Our goal was to make a 'Sinterklaasquilt' this weekend and because it was a paperpiecingpattern we had a whole weekend of machinepiecing ahead of us. I had to learn how to work with my brand new secondhand sewingmachine (yaay!) and that was not easy for me or the machine itself but when we finally got it working allright we were off! As you can see of the pictures I had to actually read the user manual of the sewing machine but look how it sparkles on the next pic! :-P
We started very organised with boxes of fabric, each a set of patterns and on the table a big mug with sissors, pencils, rippers etc. After an hour or so everything was all over the place of course but the first finished 'zwarte pieten' en 'sinterklazen' were pinned on the designwall! That night, at half past 1, we went to bed and the quilttop wasn't finished yet...

The next morning all we had to do was add the borders and when the quilt was nearly done I put it on the designwall to see how nice it looked. Of course, a little flaw in a quilt is acceptable but my mum once read that if you can see what is wrong with your work on a galloping horse you have to fix it and even my mum could see that my quilt wasn't a rectangle but a trapezium without wearing her glasses!! I actually wanted to give up and go home but I took my ripper tore of the borders, made the middle piece rectangular, sewed on the borders again and it was finally finished!! Hurray!! The left picture shows our work and the left is my quilt. Off to Leiden with a Sinterklaasquilttop, batting and backing fabric and the babyquilt with binding...

Do check out my mums blog for additional information about the Sinterklaasquilt, and this link for Sinterklaas in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Very busy!

2008-10-17T09:54:00.004+02:00

I have been very busy last week... next week is the first of the four 'examweeks' we have during the year so I had to study hard. Plus I was quilting my ass off to finish the babyquilt, this weekend I am going home so it would be nice if I could finish it then with a binding etc. I also spend a reasonable amount of time in the pub or at party's...

The babyquilt is nearly done with quilting but (of course) I am not completely satisfied with it. Because I used solids as the back of the quilt and quilted it with bright rainbow coloured thread you can see every single stitch that failed to go through all the three layers.. When I noticed that I tried to make stab stitches at the difficult places but those stitches are always bigger at the front of the quilt and at the back of the quilt they look like I made a few completly random stitches.. not good :p But, my boyfriends mother really likes it anyway :p (of course she does!) My bf told her I made it with a sewingmachine so she assumed I did the quilting with a sewingmachine too. When I told her I only handquilt she looked at me and said "But that is an awful lot of work!" :D My boyfriend is going to make the label for the quilt, the least he can do ;-)

But, I have classes again and then the quiltmarathon this weekend.. For those who read my moms blog already knew that of course but no way I am going to make that patchwork bag!! Yes, it looks cute but thats just the fabrics! :p When are you going to use a bag with only one handle?? *sigh* my mom sometimes has the tendency to like some patchwork bags and I (unfortunatly?) still don't but I will show you next week what else we are going to make this weekend!

October 3

2008-10-03T13:54:00.007+02:00

Today is the third of October and when you live in Leiden that means a party!! Leiden revolted against the Spain somewhere in the 16th century and the spanish besieged the city for almost 6 months. Every year on october 3 we celebrate the end of the siege, called Leids ontzet. Traditionally we all eat hutspot (mashed potatoes, carrots and unions), white bread and herring because that was what the spanish left behind at the end of the siege. The whole city is in uproar around october 3. Yesterday the funfair started and there are marketstalls everywhere, a lot of pubs and bars have built a stage outside and have bands or dj's performing all night.

Yesterday my brother came to Leiden on his motorcycle and we walked around on the funfair. He bought a bright pink candy cane for his girlfriend and of course we ate a doughnut ball. Yesterday evening my roommates made two big pans of hutspot. The idea was to go to a pub afterwards but actually I wanted to quilt on my babyquilt... but I decided to go with them into town because otherwise you always feel like your missing out on a lot of fun and since there is no school today I can quilt as much as I want now..
Maybe I'll go out with my boyfriend tonight when he is not too tired. He had to do fieldwork all week (he's an archaeologist too) and stayed with his colleagues in a holiday cottage near the site because it was almost a two hour drive from here. But since I have missed him all week it doesn't matter if we didn't go out, even if it is october 3 :-P, we'll have a nice evening anyhow!

Babyquilt

2008-09-29T18:42:00.010+02:00

This weekend I started on the babyquilt. First I had to decide with what fabrics I wanted to make the sashings. My mum picked me up at the trainstation and had already searched her stash for some additional fabrics but in our favourite quiltstore we found the perfect fabric (ofcourse), the dotted one. I still had to decide on the design for the quilt. I wanted to try to make a quilt with the sewing machine so it had to be simple... The rest of the weekend I spent in the sewing room and the quilt on the picture in the product of perfect teamwork :-P
I started cutting all the pieces and my mum put them on our designwall. Then my lovely assistent, also know as mum, handed me the blocks one by one and when I had sewn them she pressed them and so on.. When all the blocks were done our quilting neighbour came to see how we were doing and she and my mum started measuring left over filling and fabrics for the back of the quilt. When I was done sewing the quilt there were 4 bright coloured solids on the table, washed and ironed, ready to be cut in 4 big squares to make the back of the quilt.

I really like how the babyquilt turned out. You can't get bored with it because of all the different animals. My mum and I already have a favourite animal in the quilt.. Now I have to buy the filling for the quilt and start quilting! I am going to quilt different sizes of circles on the quilt and have already drawn them on the top. It's a pity most of the quiltshops around here are closed on mondays or I would be quilting right now!! With my new quiltingthread I got from our neighbour from the USA, yaayy :D

One bull and a lot of cows...

2008-09-24T16:28:00.012+02:00

No fabrics from my boyfriend as a souvenir this time but a spanish mosaic bull.. I picked him up from the airport last saturday. If you drive to the airport there is a viaduct for airplanes over the road and exactly when I was driving there, there was a huge airplane driving over the road! Oh my god!! My bf grew up in a town near the airport to to him it is nothing special but I like airports. Wathing the airplanes and the people, some nervously walking around with 'Welcome-home-balloons' or those people who stand there waiting for someone with the name of that person on a sign, they sometimes stand there forever! I believe my bf had a great time in Barcelona and he bought me a bull for my cow collection.

Yes, I collect cows, I don't know why but I like the cowpattern.

Over the years I have collected a lot of cowish things and I've even created a little bit of plastic grassland for my cows to graze. I also have a cow-quiltproject and no, it is not finished yet :-P It is one of the first quilts I started. The original pattern was in inches and I converted the inches to centimetres to make things easier. I shouldn't have done that... one little mistake with the measurements resulted in me stitching and unstitching every cow three times before I got it right. I also didn't want 'regular' cows so I used all kinds of animal fabrics. I think I might start on this project again..

I do have another quilt with cows. My mum made it for me and I got it with 'Sinterklaas' a few years ago (for the ones who don't know Sinterklaas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas). My mum made it for me secretly when I was in Leiden the whole week and when I came home in the weekends she had to hide it. It is called 'Ska koeien' , which means 'Ska cows'.

Ska is a kind of music I like and often associated with the white and black blockpattern. I have it for almost 3 years now, hanging in my room, and I still really like it!!

Work in progress: MDHP-12

2008-09-18T15:50:00.010+02:00

I have lots of unfinished quiltprojects and this is one I have been working on recently. I have written that I have worked in Delft all summer on an archaeological excavation. The projectcodename of the dig was MDHP-12 and that is the name of my quilt too... (the photo isn't very good because I made it with the camera on my mobilephone, I'll post a better picture when it is finished!)

We found a very spectacular Roman well with the wooden poles and basketwork between them intact. I helped removing all of the mud from the wood and documenting the well that day. We also collected all the poles because specialists can date the well using the annual rings (is dat a correct english word? :p) of the wood. When we were done there was nothing left but a big puddle of mud and some very happy and content archaeologists.

Because such a well isn't an everyday find I put it in my miniquilt. What you can see is the cross-section of the well. The poles and the basketwork at the bottom and the colouring in the earthlayers above is the mark the well left in the soil. You can see our blue portable toilet and canteen, the excavating machine and I quilted the electricity pylons. I also have some pictures of the real thing...

As you can see being an archaeologist is not quite as glamorous as in the Indiana Jones movies but I'll be very happy if I can walk around in dirty clothes, safety shoes, bright yellow waistcoat equipped with a trowel and a decent shovel next summer holiday again!!

Babyquilt

2008-09-17T17:29:00.005+02:00

I am going to make a babyquilt! My boyfriend's sister is pregnant and she apparantly said that it would be nice if I could make a little quilt... And I thought, why not?!
I love to start new projects, my mum always says I have to finish a project first... but, she has had a quilt lying on her bed for 11 years UNFINISHED :-D But, this babyquilt is a very good reason to start a new thing because it has to be finished soon of course.

I found one really cute piece of fabric at the stores at the exhibition a week and a half ago and the day after I ordered almost the rest of the whole collection of that particular fabric on the internet. Yesterday I got a email from my mum that they arrived at my parents house! Yaay! Now I have to find a nice design for the quilt so I wont have to cut all the animals on the fabric in half... any ideas?
Another problem I hadn't thought of is how am I going to give the quilt to her because she lives in Australia.. :-P Maybe I have to save up for a very expensive ticket to fly to the other end of the world and go for a long holiday down under.. I can't send, can I? What if anything goes wrong and my quilt is lost between 2 continents!!!

Weekend!

2008-09-14T21:25:00.002+02:00

A very busy weekend indeed.. My boyfriend went away friday because he is gone on a holiday with his friends for a week in Barcelona!! They call it 'stoere mannen vakantie', which means something like tough/bold guys holiday, but in the end they'll go sightseeing and surfing and thats as bold as it gets. :) But, I have to miss my boyfriend for a whole week so I planned a lot this weekend!

Saturday was 'Open Monumentday' and a lot of monuments in the whole country are then accessible and with free admission. I went to Delft which has a historic city center and my friend and I just walked around and entered every monument on our way through the city. I saw a lot of beautiful houses from the 17th and 18th century, imagining myself in pretty dresses playing cards in the drawing room with handsome bachelors as if it was a Jane Austen novel (I watched Pride and Prejudice last week...).

Today was a less pleasant day, I had to do some shopping and finishing an essay which took longer than expected but there is some good news too... Valentino Rossi just won the motogp race ánd I can fit in two pairs of trousers again which I could not at the beginning of this summer...!!

Australia

2008-09-05T21:43:00.004+02:00

Today my mum and I went to the Dutch Quiltersguild exhibition. Lots of beautiful quilts including two that were made with Australian aboriginal art fabrics!
Last year my boyfriend took part in a group study exchange project, went on a trip to Australia and bought me two aboriginal patchwork fabrics. Since then I have been collecting fabrics to make an Australia-quilt, since the real aboriginal fabrics are not for sale in the Netherlands I collected fabrics with sorto f the same colors, patterns etc. A week ago I was the only one to receive a souvenir, 3 aboriginal fabrics (!!), from my 'parents-in-law' who came back from Australia visiting their daughter who lives there and today I bought 4 more on the exhibition... yaayy!! Now its time to start looking for the right design for the quilt...

p.s. Thanks for all the comments! :D

School has begun!

2008-09-01T13:54:00.007+02:00

After being a part of the archaeological fieldteam in Delft for four months, it is time to return university, and it is not going to be the same as the previous years... My best friend is (finally :P) going to graduate and my little sister has moved to Leiden and is now living 30 metres from my studentdorm and studying archaeology too!!
Fortunatly I don't have classes until wednesday so today I had time to clear away the mess in my room, check my timetable, order some books to be ready for the first semester.

While I was waiting for my sister to pick up some books she needs I decided to start myself a new (quilt)blog..
I also worked in Delft last summer and enjoyed it so much I made a miniquilt about the dig. I am now almost finishing my second archaeological miniquilt about this years excavation. But I participated in two excavations this year and since everyone is expecting a miniquilt for each dig I still have to design the second... the thing is I ran out of the fabric which represents the soil with the different geological/archaeological layers. As soon as I finish my miniquilt and have an idea for the next I'll let you know!!

A new start

2008-04-15T11:53:00.000+02:00

A brand new blog! Hurrah!