time for a break...

A last walk in the cool woods with Darwin.

..and then it's off to take a trip to visit family and friends.

It seems New York City is having a heat wave.

Washington Square Park by Luis Sanz

Looks like fun, doesn't it? 

Taking some sewing with me to finish - hopefully they'll let me do some on the plane.

It'll be nice to take a blog break, and come back refreshed.  

Where are my followers?

Do you have this problem too?
My followers are gone, and although I've tried a few things, they haven't come back.

Checking out the Google forums where many people have addressed this problem - all advice didn't work.
Unless, it's just me who can't see the followers' list and you all can?


I've removed the followers list gadget , refreshed the blog, and placed it back - no go.
I went into the Friends Connect account and saved it - that didn't help either.

any ideas?


(..in the meantime, have a good weekend!..)

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...;-)

per adua ad astra...

The diploma is signed, a chapter closed, a new one opens....



The important thing is not to stop questioning
-Albert Einstein

She did it!!!

My "little" Monki has graduated VWO-TTO!!!!
Now it's off to Leiden University!!!

Congratulations my baby girl, you did it!!

yeah!

Yesterday I was sat at the dining room table gritting my teeth cutting out hundreds of little bitty shapes for my Mariner's Compass blocks, when I took a little break and checked out the blogs on my Google reader.
Lo and behold,  Dawn's Blog, Collector With a Needle came by the name of the winner of the  Triangle Giveaway, looked very familiar: me!
If you're not familiar with Dawn's blog have a look, lots of wonderful fabrics and quilts, vintage sewing notions and I've learned quite about about old quilts and patterns from her informative posts.

Thank you for your generosity Dawn!


..and now back to those itty bitty bits....pfft!
listening to some great bands ( U2, Coldplay ) of the Glastonbury Festival is helping to get me through...

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!

to the stars....

As promised I was going to share my new project.  Here's the first block:

After spending time taking courses on learning all sorts of techniques on the sewing machine, and becoming comfortable maintaining and using it, the time came to go back to my quilting roots and sew by hand.  Perhaps a bit ambitious, starting with a Mariner's Compass, but I think this block turned out all ok.

The last time I made such a block was when I took a beginner's quilting class, many moons ago.

I fell in love with the background fabric, and given it's vintage look, went for scrappy, randomly placed rays.  I'll make a few more and see how that pans out....