Blackbird singing in the dead of night

We have been blessed with the most wonderful Spring- en Summertime wheather over the last couple of weeks. So lots of time was spent outside.

We have had new inhabitants in our little city-garden. Mr and Mrs Blackbird and their something children were dominating the 35 square meters for some weeks now. The parents are working like crazy to feed their little ones, hundreds of flights with wurms and caterpillars in their beak. I even saw Mr B pick a complete snail out of a garden pot that I had just emptied.



I love to watch all the activity. It makes you conscious of the fact that we should be happy with all the socalled vermin in our gardens, well that is... in our little city-gardens. I can imagine when you own some land, things are put in a different perspective!

it’s wonderful to see the co-operation between the parents, working like crazy to feed their kids. When you watch an empty nest, it’s so ingeniously made. Those birds are multi-taskers. They can build a nest with the most amazing material. I’ve accidently thrown away one of the empty nests before I had taken pictures of it. I was amazed, because it was full of plastic and that’s not a good thing. Birds using the plastics we dump in nature...



Midas was being shouted at, the poor guy. He doesn’t even know what to do with a bird and isn’t capable of making that specific sound, cats do make when seeing a bird. Pour soul. He played hide-and-seek or stayed inside.



The gardener has cleaned our little garden last week and saw that the nest was empty. The birds have flown out and have broaden their horizon. So Midas carefully enjoys some outside time again.



Last week I did achieve next to nothing on the crafty front. Lots of clients orders (why do they always come all together, when you want to finish other stuff...?) My shoulders and arm are much better, thanks to the physio-therapist and lots of exercise! When the wheather forecast is right, we will have rain for the next couple of days. So, lots of time indoors to work and hopefully sew like crazy, to finish gifts that are approaching deadlines very, very fast...!

Tomorrow I will draw the name of the winner of my 1-year-blogging-anniversary-wordgame-give-away!
If you didn’t leave a comment on my forelast post yet, comments are open till 24.00 hrs (WET) today!

See you tomorrow!

Happy weekend to all of you!

Nicolette

pieced pieces of fabric and fabric pieces pieced

I’ve enjoyed all the comments on my last post. So many new words I didn’t know and a lot of new visitors, thanks for leaving comments and words! You will all be in the draw for my give-away on the 24th of May.
To all of you who did not leave a comment on my last post yet, please do and don’t forget to leave a special word!


Girl Power quilt-top

I used Heather Ross lightning bugs fabrics for this quilt-top. It will be a really girly quilt. The Girl Power pattern from Cherrihousequilts can be downloaded for free!


B-7 World series and B-6 Wild Goose Chase


B-5 Hot Cross Buns and B-8 Water Lily

4 Dear Baby Jane blocks. I’m still very happy with the white on white stripe background fabric, but it’s sometimes very difficult because the stripe has to be used correctly horizontal, vertical or diagonal.



Star blocks for the quilt-a-along.

Maybe you’re surprised to see the fabrics I use for this quilt. I felt challenged to step out of my comfort zone and make a quilt with more soft colours. The quilt will be made of blues and greens. The matching fabric for the setting-blocks is absolutely fabulous! I hope to make one of those this week. And yep, the white on white fabric again. I’addicted to it, love it!

My weekend was great! I had a quilting weekend at my local quiltshop. A two days workshop called Experiment 1. We learned to work with fabrics and other materials like tulle, voile and polyester fleece, metallic threads and machine embroidery threads, different needles (like twin-needles) and we learned to echo-quilt. I felt a bit overwhelmed by all the information and new ideas.
I will show some pictures of the blocks I made in one of my next posts.

I hope you will all have a wonderful week. I will try to visit all your blogs this week!

Nicolette

7 days late to celebrate...

I’m back my friends after 16 days. Thanks for all your lovely comments and emails and for wishing me well! My arm is not much better, part of that is caused by having worked on too many crafty projects! I’m seeing another physio-therapist who has a completely different approach to the problem in my neck and shoulders.

On May 8th this blog existed 1 year!
It has been a year meeting wonderful friends, reading about your crafts and lifes and being inspired by so many of you! I’ve learned about places on the globe I never heard of, loved to see your work and pictures. I’ve learned so much on the quilting and sewing front and have been spoilt numerous times. I’m amazed on a daily base by the generosity of so many bloggers.


The kitties-quilt, steadily making progress

It has been a year in which I felt supported, comforted and encouraged. I hope I learned to write better in English. I hope I never offended anybody by using the wrong words...! You can really get lost in translation! I don’t use a translation programme for my blogposts, I just write what comes to my mind. When I doubt a word I use my dictionary. I don’t have the vocabulary native English people have. I dig in my brain and often end up using the same words. Oh would I love to learn more words!


slowly finishing the handquilting project

The first few blogging months were a struggle to find some balance between my professional design work and my free time fun and crafty life. Once I decided that the blog had to be about my crafty life only, things went more smoothly for me.


two personal blocks Leanne Beasley designed for me, stitched and ready to be framed

To celebrate my 1 year blog-experience there will be a give-away.
I don’t know what yet, the gift will be sort of made/bought for the winner(s).
Here’s my idea: I would love to learn more proper (please behave yourselves...) English words. That’s why I challenge you my friends. If you want to be in the draw, please leave a comment on this post before the 24th of May. For the one who teaches me the most impressive (crazy or fun) new word, there will be a gift. Don’t forget to tell and explain about your wonderful (new) word! For the non-native English speaking friends, just leave a comment or leave a funny or wonderful word in your own language!


Of Peace and Plenty by Leanne Beasley, stitched and also ready to be framed.
All this was part of a huge prize I won at Leanne’s blog


A special thanks goes to my dear friend Tracy for giving me two blog awards during my absence! The Arte Y Pico Award, an award given for creativiy, design, interesting material and good contribution to the blogging community and the You make my Day award. Thanks again Tracy.
I explained Tracy I won‘t me tagging other bloggers, because I made that commitment earlier this year.





In the next post: Dear Baby Jane blocks and blocks I made for Amandajean’s star blocks quilt-a-long and hopefully (some) quilttop(s).

Don’t forget to leave a wonderful word in the comments, to be in the draw!

Nicolette

Celebration and remembrance

Orange buttercups

Dear friends, I’m taking a break from the blog and the computer.
I need my arm to rest because I need it badly to finish numerous (sewing- and quilting) projects I’m working on.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the Queen’s Birthday, well the Queen’s mother’s birthday. Our Queen Beatrix’ birthday is on January 31st. When she came to the throne, she announced she would like to continue to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday on April 30st, her mum’s birthday (our former Queen Juliana).

Our country will be wrapped in orange, there are all kinds of festivals, music-festivals and fairs. The wheather forecast is not good, that’s really sad, but we will celebrate anyway!

Thursday is Ascension Day so a lot op people in Holland are having a holiday untill next week. Lots of schools have a two week holliday till after Whitsunday.

May 4th is our remembrance of the dead. We will remember all who lost their lives in favour of our freedom during World War II and of course we will think about all those men and women who have fought since and those who are still fighting today.

May 5th is our Liberation Day and we celebrate our freedom.

I will be back some time next week with another celebration.

I hope your week(end) will be fine.

Nicolette

Lovers knot or barbed wire...?

Two weeks ago I had a workshop at my local quiltshop. Our teacher was Wiea van der Zwan. We learned to make quiltblocks with the lovers knot technique. I’m so amazed how much you do during a workshop. We cutted fabrics, sewed strips together, ironed (very important!) cut and sewed like crazy! This is the result so far.


Some blocks, I hope you can see the lovers knot.

I can’t help seeing a barbed wire in the lovers knot...

Nicolette

Dear Baby Jane update no. 2

Three posts within 24 hours. I’m going nuts!


(B-6 Wild Goose Chase - test block!)

I worked on block B-6 of Dear Baby Jane today, a try-out. I will make a new one tomorrow (or later) with the right fabrics and colours. This block cannot be papier-pieced in one piece. You need to make several parts. I will have to use more firm foundation piecing material and I have ironed all fabric pieces on freezer paper now, so I can see how much seam-allowance is needed. If there is anybody with some great advice on how to make this block the easy way... (if there is such a way) please tell me! I would also like to know how you would sew this block by hand.


(B-2 Sweet Tater Pie and B-12 Starflower)

I wish I had better read Anina’s post about B-12. I was busy cutting the ‘flower’ out of the freezer paper when I discovered the block could never be reversed appliqued, using the block-pattern in the book... Lucky me had I did not cut the fabrics yet!


(C-3 Rayelle’s Fence and K-7 Rose of Sharing)

I used the strip-sewing technique for Rayelle’s Fence. It worked great.
The Rose of Sharing was the first block I had to make all over again. I made a mistake by not cutting the rose in four pieces diagonally but horizontally and vertically. I was left with 4 very big hearts that were too large for the background fabric. The fabrics were already cut, shame, shame, shame.

Nicolette

Earth Day

April 22nd, Earthday.

African fabrics and doodle quilting

(Ladybug in a tiny little maple tree and helleboris)

It’s really Spring overhere! Yesterday we had wonderful Spring wheather. Midas and I enjoyed spending time in our little City-Garden. The man of the house enjoyed watching sports (passively and passionately). Today was another wonderful day.

Last week I received a parcel from Karol-Ann with the most gorgeous African fabrics. She kindly offered to send me some, cause she knows I love those gorgeous African prints!



Don’t you love all those wonderful prints and the really really pink cat-fabric? Thanks again Karol-Ann, I hope to ship your package tomorrow!

Last week I had a workshop on how to quilt free (e)motion(nally). Karen Lipton was our teacher again. Do you remember the workshop on low-stress machine-quilting? This time Karen teached us a lot about the free-motion quilting. I was amazed how soon it felt like something quite normal to move the fabric under the needle with the right speed. It’s like doodle-stitching on the machine! It might have helped that I used to play the piano, because you are kind of used to using both hands.
Karen is such a nice lady and she has a great way of encouraging. I hope she will be back in Autumn to give more workshops...!


We started with lines, then balloons, hearts, leaves, flowers, stars and free stuff.



The finished Days in Provence quilt. Just in time to celebrate Les Herbes Provençales!

I wish you all a wonderful week. Don’t forget to cherish every (blog)friend! It can really make the difference. I experienced that (once again) over the last couple of days!

Nicolette

Sun, zon, Beertjie Zonn, Sonnja

(Some pictures of Beertjes Zonn or Beertjies Zonn (a tiny difference between Dutch and Afrikaans - uploaded from Sonnja’s blog with her permission)

Today’s post is about Sonnja, who does such a wonderful job by making bears for little children in Africa, who are orphans and/or suffer from Aids.

As you might have seen there is a logo in the sidebar of my blog of Sonnja’s Beertje Zonn. I posted about her wonderful work before.
Because there are many more bloggers who visit my blog than way back, I think it’s time to draw your attention to her wonderful work again and ask you to consider sending her some fabric for the bears. Most of us have lots of fabrics, we organize fabric-give-aways and swaps. I know some of you are already supporting Sonnja.
If you decide to send her some fabric, the size needed to make one bear is 60 x 30 cm (24" x 12"). She can also use fat quarters and ribbons. If you feel like helping her, please leave a comment on her blog to ask for her postal address. She will be very happy with your offer and support.

Nicolette

Dear Baby Jane update no. 1

Thanks for all your supportive comments on my last post!

Today I had a workshop on how to make a quilt using the lovers knot technique.
We worked like crazy and it was a lot of fun to learn new techniques, tips and trics.
More about this in another post.

First an update on the Dear Baby Jane quilt.
6 Blocks finished, not perfect at all, but finished! I love to work on this project.


(A-7 Dad’s Plaids; D-3 Jason’s Jacks)


B-1 Batchelor Buttons; B-4 Chris’s Soccer Field)


(B-3 Mirror Image; M-10 Simple Simon)

Inspired by Anina I’m keeping a journal to have all the fabrics I’m going to use for Dear Baby Jane sorted on colour. I plan to write about the progress too. I bought a book with a large binder, so I can put lots of stuff in it.





Even more (quilting) news in the next post!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Nicolette

Is this blog becoming a quilters’ one...?

Back from a little blog break! I still have lots of emails to reply too and blogs to visit. Do you see a tendency overhere? I’m so slack lately. I don’t know if I will manage to catch up reading all your posts and replying to all your emails, so I apologize on forehand. I tried to stay tuned with Anina though, because I don’t want to loose track on the Dear Baby Jane quilt. I will post about my progress tomorrow.

When I don’t feel totally happy I don’t feel like writing, visiting blogs, commenting and posting at all. The reason I felt blue was the fact I had to take a decision on the working front. Yesterday I told one of my most important clients I won’t be designing for his business any longer. The whole affair had kept me busy over the past few weeks. I already feel so relieved I took this decision however, so no doubt I will work it out! Less luxurious-fabric-purchasing-moments will be one of the results. I’ve built up quite an amazing stash, so that will keep me busy for some time... I hope!



Signs of Spring in my garden

Today I woke up with the sun shining through the bedroom curtains... It made me feel sooo good. Doesn’t sunshine make the difference? The last few days were not bad either. The nights are cold, we still have night-frost, but this afternoon I spotted a whole 15 degrees Celcius on the thermometer.

I got some distraction from all the worries using the good old quilting recipe and of course some very dark chocolate and quality tea and coffee. Inspired by Amandajean’s Finish-it-up week I succeeded in finishing some stuff indeed. My week will at least take another 7 days though!




The flanel quilt for my mother, I only have to stitch down the binding. I won the flanel fabrics used for the quilt-top over at Lizzy’s. I used a simple pattern, inspired by the Journey Quilt from Leanne Baisley’s book Romancing the Road Trip. The quilting is straight forward , horizontal and vertical lines.


Quilt-detail and roses from my husband to cheer me up

I wanted the quilt to be ready for my mum’s birthday next week and I simply don’t know (yet) how to quilt a big(ger) quilt on the machine using other than straight lines! I bought dark-red flanel for the backing and a wonderful printed flanel for the binding. I’m quite pleased with the result. I hope my mum likes it too.

I’ve finished 17 blocks for Samara’s quilt (with all the cats) and I’m working on the blocks with a mouse here and there and cat-toys. However, my right arm is preventing me from stitching by hand, because it is aching. I guess I have worked too hard both on the designing and the quilting front and the stress didn’t do any good either. The muscles in my neck and shoulder are the cause of the problem. I hope the exercises my physiotherapist gave me, will help to get my arm better.
I can’t knit either at the moment, isn’t this a moment when you say ...DUH!

When all the quilting is done I will have a finish-it-up-gifts week (or two, three, four...). I really want to finish a lot of gifts because the recipients are patiently waiting for far too long now...

Happy days!

Nicolette