good wishes...

To Marcha whom I had the pleasure of meeting during the Blogger Day at the Quiltgebeuren!
She just opened a brand new little web shop, de Quilt Ster because there are no quilt shops in her area where she lives in the province of Zeeland.

I thought that was a really cool thing to do, so here's my little shout-out, to wish her all the best and
ask you who read this, to go visit her webshop and say "hello"! A little quilty-love can go a long way...

Good Luck Marscha!

Blogger day...

A day where bloggers, blog readers and non-bloggers could get together, connect, and do all sorts of quilty things!  Janine hosted this day at her shop Atelier Quiltgebeuren.  It was really cool to meet the quilters behind the blogs.  I helped by manning the beautiful Jasmine quilt frame and demonstrating hand quilting, for those who have never used such a frame.

As always, it's so energizing to meet new quilters, exchange ideas and admire each other's work.
A few moments:

making a covered button

pincushion workshop

stash building...

focused stitching

sweets are never far...

All in all a wonderful day.  

Thank you so much Janine, for being such a wonderful hostess!  

...and yes, I forgot my fabric!  ...but I'm sure it's in a safe place...;-)

steadily stitching

and not having anything really new to show for it as yet.  More Mariner's Compass Blocks have been made with 10 more to go, and I'm working on The Beyond the Cherry Tree blocks, stitching them down.  However, a girl has to take a break once in a while, and get some fresh air.

Perhaps I'll head up north to Amsterdam and have a wonder here:  A Stitch A Day: Embroidering in Prison 1940-1945  at the Dutch Resistance Museum.  A very interesting part of Dutch history that I first read about in Handwerken Zonder Grenzen, in edition #130 from 2005.

It's on from now until March 2012, so maybe I can get some quilting criminals to join me...

Hey chickas,  (and you know who you are!) up for a field trip?

a visit to a castle..

On Sunday past my quilting buddies Janine, Diana and I went to Kasteel Cannenburch to spend the day  admiring quilts in a beautiful old castle, doing a bit of shopping (of course!), and enjoying each other's company.   It looked like the day was going to be a wash-out with heavy storms and lightning on the way there,  (even striking ground objects along the road as we drove along - making us jump, and almost landing Janine on my lap in the drivers' seat!),  but eventually the sun came out and we could enjoy our pleasant surroundings.

Unfortunately it was not allowed to photograph the quilts on display - apparently this was not the case the year before, and no explanation as to why not this year, so that's why I could not share the wonderful work with you.

Anyhow....

There were some great shops there, all decked out in their finest wares, and naturally some souvenirs had to be brought back:

Something for the stash...

something to read....

and something just for the fun of it!

The catering was wonderful, yummy sandwiches and cakes and we indulged ourselves on strawberries and cream in the sunshine, what more could a quilter ask for?

...and now back to sewing!

souvenirs from the Patchwork & Quiltdagen....

Saturday I spent a wonderful day with my quilt buddies at the Patchwork & Quiltdagen in Vijfhuizen.
Oh, so much to see, and lots to be tempted with!
Of course I couldn't leave without some souvenirs:

a basket full of goodies:

some tweed, linnens, reproductions fabrics and quilting thread

here's a close up of the white linens

and a snap of the luscious tweeds

Yummy, no?
I've got a few projects that I can't show right now, that I need to get done, and then I can't wait to get my hands on my new goodies!

on a rainy sunday

I'm very quickly typing in this post, awaiting my friend whom I'm giving a cooking lesson.
I hope you all had a good weekend, Mine here started out beautifully with lots of sun and gentle winds, but now it's grumpy outside, dark rainy and windy.

At least Friday was a good day!  I met up with my quilting friends at 't Quiltgebeuren to help owners Wil and Janine celebrate the shops' 5th anniversary.  They beautifully decorated the store and Wil's home ( who lives upstairs ) with quilts of their own and customers.

The moment I walked into the door, I was sent up the stairs by Diana, with no chance to greet anyone.
Upstairs, I was greeted by quilting friends, and congratulated.  Congratulated?  For what?

My quilt was there too, it was hung upstairs in the living room. And it won second prize!  Wow!

I had no idea that prizes were being given, and never won anything, so this was really very special!
Normally it's friends and family that see my work and tell you it's nice, but it's another bag of beans to have it judged by people in the business, and other quilters you don't know compliment your work.

The first and third place quilts were truly wonderful and deserving of their prize.

..and the third prize...

Super, aren't they?

There were so many wonderful quilts hanging, it was hard to capture them all, but here's a sample:

What a great day to catch up with friends and talk quilt!  Seeing and meeting up with quilters is always good fun and inspiring.  It certainly gets my fingers itchy and eager to get back to sewing, my head full of new ideas and things to try out in the future.

I'm really proud of Wil and Janine, they worked so hard to get to this point, and they are going farther still!  They've made this shop not only a great quilt store, but a place where you are warmly welcomed.  I wish you many, many more years!

So now, it's time for me to get back to my projects - I've finally got some more foundation to finish my log cabins for the baby quilt, and the pieces for a simple modern wall quilt ( an experiment really) are cut and ready to go under the needle.  So stay tuned!


have a great week,
heidi

Veldhoven 2010

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to head out to the European Quilt Championships in Veldhoven.  There were beautiful quilts to see...

...details that caught my eye...

In the paper bag: a pallet of Japanese fabrics and shot cottons from Kaffe Fasset, for a modern wall quilt.  Oh, and I couldn't wait - they're already cut up and on my brand new design wall - thank you Ro!
A cute little "Basket & Stars quilt pattern.
...and a stack of some solids from India out of my stash that I'm auditioning with the solids I bought.

a beautiful pallet of hand dyed and printed linen fabric from a German Artist.


But the weekend didn't end there...
Sunday I got together with some friends with our Featherweights to begin work on Droomdekentjes.
These are quilts made for children who are seriously ill, suffer from a life-threatening disease, and or have suffered from a trauma be it physically or mentally.  The quilts are there to offer comfort and everyone is welcome to donate supplies for quilt making, blocks, or an entire quilt.
Armed with scraps, a production line was sent up and our little machines were humming away!  I'll post soon with the our simple but heartfelt results.

All in all, a wonderful weekend, filled with quilty goodness!
I'm off now to unpack, and get ready to do some stitching on this cold and rainy day.  It really is a day for some chicken soup made from scratch!

I hope you all had a great weekend...do anything cool?

happy national quilt day!

 It's almost midnight, but I wanted to get this in before flopping into bed, so here it goes:

To celebrate the day I met up with my quilting friends in 's Gravenzande for "Tomatendag" or "Tomato Day" with Ted Storm ( with whom studied the art of hand quilting ). In this region many greenhouses are located where amongst many other kinds of produce and flowers, tomatoes are grown.  Hence the name, simply put.   It has been some time since I took her course, and the first time I came to this event. Why I didn't come before, I cannot for the life of me remember,  but I'm happy I did this day! 

This is an annual happening where Ted's alumni can meet up again, catch up with each other, do a show and tell, and a little shopping.  What's a quilting day without a little sniffle through some fat quarters? The shops certainly did  not disappoint!

If I hadn't been so busy catching up with friends, and sharing our latest adventures ( mine you will here about soon, so watch this space...) I would've take some better pictures, but this is some of what I've got from the show and tell - wonderful quilts enriched by the stories they hold, told by the makers themselves.  I was touched, inspired and felt a kinship with much of what our fellow quilters shared with the group.  So here are some snaps:

Drawings from a son translated into wonderful appliqued blocks.

An alphabet quilt - so charming!

 

 

Made from Dutch folkloric costumes and fabrics - beautiful colors!

The applique is adorable, and the colors of the circles quilt are wonderful.

A massive block of the month quilt, wow!

A little family history and thinking out of the box with these two little quilts

Souvenir quilt top and vintage block from a holiday in Amish country in Pennsylvania turned into classic quilts.

These kinds of events recharge my quilting batteries, make my fingers itch to get busy.  I have another reason why I'm even more motivated, but that story is for next time....

I hope you felt charged and inspired on this national quilt day.....


signing off,
heidi

Until Midnight

Friday the 13th may be an inauspicious date for some, but for a group of 30 some-odd quilters in the small village of Brielle, it was our lucky day!
't Quiltgebeuren, run by owner Wil and "de meiden", Patricia and Janine (the girls), hosted an event called Until Midnight, where participants are asked to bring basic sewing materials from home, and at the store, pick out a fat quarter of fabric and get a packet of the rest of the materials to make....something. You see, it's a mystery! Participants are welcome to bring snacks and goodies, and the evening starts at 7 in the evening, and it usually runs "until midnight".

It was so very good to see Wil and the girls again! the welcome is always very warm, and it feels more like visiting good friends than going to a shop. I was so very pleased to see quilters that I had taken classes with, and met very lovely and funny new ladies this evening as well!
Everyone was so curious as to what we were going to make and kept pressing Wil to finally reveal the surprise. When everyone had their machine plugged in and tea in hand, she finally showed us the project: a roll with 5 see-through pockets to keep you sewing supplies in - handy for on the go!

Ah ha! So that's what we had to bring our zipper foot for! Myself and a few other quilters, had never used our zipper foot before, (and why would you if you basically piece quilts with it?) or had sewn with plastic for that matter, so it was exciting to learn something new. After a quick demonstration, we all settled down and got to work.





Let's see, how does your zipper foot go?







...and lots of catching up to do - how easy it is to forget to sew with so much to chat about!



Taping a piece of paper on the plate, helps the plastic slide along, and using a strip of thin sewing paper on the top prevents the zipper foot from sticking to the plastic as you sew the zipper...

Next to Wil (sitting at my machine at the bottom of the photo) are Tieneke and Els, two wonderful quilters who had us all laughing!


As the evening progressed, you could begin to see the fruits of our laughter and labor, a very handy roll began to emerge from the humming machines...


pretty no?
well, better stop chatting and snapping and get back to my own machine....lol!

I did finally get mine done, thanks to Wil who quickly put a decorative zig-zag on my binding just before midnight. Would've gotten it done sooner if it weren't for Patrica and I getting into a chat and sharing some extra-quilting ideas......lol!

This evening has certainly spurred me on to take a closer look at my machine, beyond the basic things and play a little more with the extra bells and whistles it has to offer.

...and this is the one I made!


Thank you Wil, Patricia and Janine for a wonderful evening! The creative batteries have been recharged and I just can't wait to get my sewing room back and get sewing again! I think everyone really enjoyed themselves - speaking for myself, I did and am very happy with my roll, having learned something new and to have spent time with good friends and quilters.

Looking forward to the next mystery,
heidi