A new bag

Hi,

Yesterday I made a new bag. A smaller version then the last bag. It was a bit to big for me. I made a picture of the front and the backside so you can see how the bag works. On the backside there are 4 hoops so you can turn it into a backpack. Which is just great!



The backstraps have Velcro so you can remove them.

well, don't really know what I am going to do today, maybe work on my diamonds quilt and listen to a book on CD Bilbo from Tolkien...

bye

Have you found your thing??

Okay time for some thoughts I have been having this week after my Quilt marathon.

What is my thing?

When I was at the Marathon all the people there seemed to have that special thing within quilting. Vivi has her wonderful hexagonquilts. Lena has her artwork. My friend Weronica is a fan of dark colors, batiks and has her wonderfully blues. Lucy has her wonderful quilts that look antique and Bonnie Hunter has her amazing scrapquilts ..And I can name many more. This had me thinking about what my thing was.

I love pink, applique, handquilting, quilts with embroidery and much more but I don't have the feeling that I found my thing.

Ofcourse you can debate the fact if you need one thing. Is it better with lot's of things that you like.
Having one thing sure is better for you stashbuilding..*s* Because now I am all over the place, but almost never have enough of one type of fabric for a whole quilt.

I have been reading the comments on my blog and loved all the nice messages and am very curious what you think about this.. let me know!


Oh right what have I been up to this week. I have been at the LQS and finished my Crazy Quilt for the shop. I made a bag with Weronica. It turned out to big, so I am going to make the pattern a bit smaller and make a new one.
I am working hard on a surprise for a friend, but since she reads my blog I can't tell you jet..but as soon as she gets it I will post some pictures.

Bye!

Back home from Quilt Marathon

I'm back after a whole weekend with nothing else but quilting, laughter, great food and companionship! We had a great time! We were living in an old typical Swedish house. We had 2 ladies who took care of the food and everything else. They did a great job.

Let me tell you what we did and show you some pictures.



Friday we arrived at 18:00 found a spot to sit and started sewing. I sat with my friend Weronica. I started on my baskets quilt and Weronica started on her Stack and Wack quilt. At 19:00 dinner was ready. We had salmon which was delicious!
After dinner we went back to sewing. Some people used this weekend to finish things others started on new things.

Vivi who sat behind me did the handsewing of binding on all kind of quilts. Carin worked on her Jeansquilts. Ann-Christine worked on a quilt made of Wuthering Heights fabric, her daughter Jessica made a babyquilt for a friend, Ann-Christine's mother did some handquilting on a fabulous Jenny Beyer quilt. Torun and Marie did a lott of bags if I remember correctly and they are very artistic with freemotion quilting, Angelina embroidery and so on. Elisabeth had a package of different fabrics for some time and wanted to make something from that and made a quilt. Lena K finished her Thimbleberries club quilt...(I still have to finished that one..)Lena T did a double sided quilt. I can't for the life of me remember what Annette made. I think it was a stack and slash quilt. Eivor arrived on Saturday and prepared a Jeansquilt.



We all spent quite some time going around and seeing what the others were doing.
I went to bed at 23:00. Some people went on until 1:30 but that was a bit to late for me.

Saturday breakfast was served at 08:00, with freshly baked bread ..*hmmm* We started sewing again,...and sewing. We had a coffeebreak and at 13:00 we had lunch, quiche with salad.

Dinner was chicken, pasta en salad..
In the evening we had show and tell which was a lott of fun. It also was interesting to see as we have so many different people in the group.


We have Lena who is a artist. She does a lott with painting on fabrics and so on. She also had exhibitions. This is a picture of a quilt she made. It is a picture of her and her husband, her children and grandchild. The picture doesn't do the quilt justice.
Maria does a lott with things as Angelina, painting fabric and something called Artist Trading Cards but I don't have any pictures of her work..*sorry*.

There were a lott of other quilts like this Stack and wack. It is so fun to see that it looks so different then mine. We had quite a chock with show and tell. We had some larger quilts to show, so two girls climbed unto the soffa to hold it...and fell trough it!..*lol*
Some people were up until 2:30 so I have been told and had a lott of fun..*s*



On Sunday the time pressure set in. Everybody wanted to finish there projects and there wasn't much time for lunch ...at least I was eager to get my basket quilt ready and I was getting so close....and I did it! I haven't decided on borders yet ..but that will come


















I had a great time and we had a great gang of girls. The next date is set for 16,17,18 September. I can hardly wait!

When I came home on Sunday evening I was so tiered and my arms hurt from the intense sewing. I could hardly lift my cat into my arms....*lol*. Yesterday I slept most of the time. Later today Weronica is coming and we are going to sew our Amy Butler bags...

bye!

Am I moving??

Well, I know it is just one weekend but it looks like I am moving out. It is always amazing all the stuff you need for a weekend like this. Since I already cut everything I don't even have fabrics with me...*lol*
I am almost packed and ready to go..I just have to go to the pharmacy and to the store buy something to drink (soda) and maybe some candy. I have been waiting all day, but it is snowing and I thought I would wait until it was a bit less, but it doesn't seem to stop...*s*

So I am bringing:
1)My own basket quilt in pink and brown made from fabric I already had. Didn't buy a thing..*s*
2) My Amy Butler bag..a totebag that you can turn into a backpack
3) My embroidery for A gardeners Journal (www.hatchedandpatched.com.au)

4) My Petra Prins rose quilt that I still have to make. This is a picture of the quilt finished.


Also I would like to thank everybody for the wonderful nice emails and comments I got on my blog. I haven't managed to write everybody back, but I will try when I get back home! Thanks!

Well, take care...

Barbara

Prepare..Prepare...Prepare...

The last couple of days I have preparing for my Quilt Marathon this weekend! I am so looking forward to it. We are 15 quilters who are going to meet up for a whole weekend of quilting. We sleep at a place there they have conferences normally. Everything will be fully taking care off. The food, beds and so on. So nothing to think about except sewing.
I keep thinking of all the stuff I will get done. I have big hopes of this, but I wonder if I am being to optimistic....*lol* I have prepared the whole basket quilt from scraps and now I am going to go into town to buy supplies for a Amy Butler bag I have received a pattern of. It is a tote bag that can be transformed into a backpack.


Last Tuesday I did a crazyquilt for the LQS out of some of my scraps of Wuthering Heights. I am going to do the stitching on a new Janome sewing/embroidery machine at the LQS. I will let you know how that works out.


On valentines Day I got a bunch of roses of my DH, in my favorite color pink...*s* He is so sweet. Also my father from Holland dropped by for one of his short visits. It was a really nice..

Well I am off to the LQS to do some shopping...*s*

Lovely Poem

Today I have no serious plans .. I have the LQS owner Ann-Christine coming by. We are going to have a look at my sewingmachine...
I have finished cutting all my scrap fabrics for my basketquilt yesterday. I just have the settingfabric left to cut. I will try to applique the handles on the top triangle of the basket before piecing the blocks together..
I have started on the big heap of scraps for my Ocean Waves, but it doesn't look like it when I look at the pile left on the floor....*s*

At my friends house I read this lovely poem written by a daughter of a quilter after recieving a quilt from her mother:

Quilters Daughter

I am a quilter's daughters,
A treasured title to own,
For hours my Mum has thought of me,
And sewn and sewn and sewn

In each piece of fabric,
In every border, every square,
My Mum, the quilter, stitches her love,
And boldly lays it bare

There is not mistaking the motive,
Of one who gives quilts,
Just to see the pure joy on my face,
Is what my mother's hands have built

When I was a little Mum would use,
Her hands to tuck me into bed,
Now the quilt, with her fingertips,
Tucks me in instead

I can only pray my daughter,
Feels half as loved by me,
To feel warm and backed and stitched in,
To their Grandma's legacy

Source: Australian Quilters Companion no 18
written by: Margaret Taylors daughter from Chatswood NSW

I hope you liked this poem too. I wish my mother had been a quilter...*s*

See you later..

Baskets of stash

Yesterday I finished piecing this basket quilt. I just have to put some handles on it. I tried to do it with needleturn applique but it was quite lumpy so I am going to try to make a template in the round shape and then trace it and applique it on the fabric. This is made for my LQS.

I saw these baskets in a book and I thought I would use my scraps. So now that I finished this one for the LQS I can start my own. I am going to make it in pink and brown scraps. Next weekend I am going to go to a quiltmarathon! It is going to be so cool! It is from fridaynight untill sundayevening. So I am now cutting all the pieces from my stash. I hope to have everything ready before next weekend so I can just sew and sew and sew.

I also think I am going to start cutting for a Ocean Waves. I saw a scrappy one made by Bonnie Hunter which was lovely! http://www.quiltville.com/oceanwaves.shtml
She also haves this great stash/scraps systems that is worth reading about!http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml



Well I have a pile of scraps waiting for me so...wish me luck.

Outside for the first time

yesterday was the day I had to let my baby go outside for the fist time alone. I was looking outside the whole time and really worried about him and the snow. In some places the snow was higher then he is..
But he did great. A bit nervous..*s* but fine. He went a bit futher and futher every ten minutes. And came back when I called for him.

But after some hours and me leaving him for longer periods he managed to explore the whole yard and started to explore the neighbours yard. But when I came outside he wasn't there and I got a bit scared. But the snow saved me, because of the wonderfull things called...footprints! I could just follow him to the neighbours yard and look over the small fence and see he was doing fine! So while I am writing this he is outside again exploring, but I am not so nervous anymore..

I also finished a redwork quilt for my LQS. I looked nice and I even managed to handquilt it in 2 days. I didn't do the binding that is the owner going to do.. I hate binding..
Today my friend Weronica is coming and I am going to work on a basketquilt for the LQS it is finished but I ran out of fabric . I will get more tonight.




See you later!

Thankfull for:
1 Snow
2 Jam made of roses
3 my digital camera

Bussy day yesterday

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day at my LQS perpairing for my new class. Making a housebag as you see on the picture. I am also going to help her sew some quilts for a big quilt-fair she is going to be a vendor at.

I am going to sew a redwork miniature quilt. I started sewing it last night and finished it. I am handquilting it now. I am also going to do a crazyquilt and something in reproductions with baskets but I am not quite sure yet.

We also had our thimbleberries-club. Most of us had finished our block. We made a cute small keyhanger in the shape of a house ...

Well I am off into town to buy a birthday present for my friend Sacha..

Btw My cat is looking for modelling work...what do you think?? This is for the lastest series of bags for the LQS..

Bow done just in time

Today I finished my BOW K5 from Dear Jane. I finished it 5 minutes before the dead-line...*s*

This was a nice block to do I did it in Reverse Applique.

The rest of the day I will try to do some Applique on my Home Sweet Home and a block of my Thimbleberries club.

At the moment I am listning to a CD-book: The girl with the pearl earrings by Tracy Chevalier which is quite nice!

A new start

Hi,

I am giving this a new try. I have been writing last year but I made some changes to my site and a lot of things dissapeard so I was a bit !!#¤$. But now I changed the template an giving it a new try!

Today I have been working a bit on my crazy quilt. I had the binding left to do and then I am finished. I also want to get a Dear Jane BOW (block of the week) done today but we will see how that goes...

It is -10 here today and there is quite a lot of snow, but the sun is just radiant like it is the middle of July. So the house is very brite and great for getting some quilting done...!

Talk to you later!

Barbara