And then the sun came out..(and went away again )

and we got a little heatwave.. I m not good with high temperatures, perhaps because I’m a redhead, turning strawberry blond, turning grey..😜Anyhow…. a quilt on your lap is NOT an option, nor sitting in a warm quiltroom sweating away behind a machine. Mind you: the biggest part of my house is facing south and my aircosystem is opening all the windows in the evening. Advice is to close them all during the day ánd close the curtains as well. Not for me.. the sliding door in my livingroom is wide open and the curtains are too. I need the air and gardenview. 

But! I will not sit with idle hands, so I took out my stamps and stamped a gazillion triangles.

and Sewed those in small rows, 2dark,2light and attached them to a larger triangle. 

 ….Then I needed a contrast colour!So hot or not, off to the fabric store!

And when you put it all together, you get something like this

Meanwhile, we had 2 weeks of heavy rain with a bit of hail now and then. From sweating to shivering!

But! Since this million triangles will take forever, I just keep on stamping, cutting and sewing.. ( sorry for the Gossip in the garden quilt that is quietly moaning on the rack: no progress on that front)

End of the crosstitching outburst?

 It seems that the winter of crosstitching is reaching it`s end.. My mind drifts more and more to fabrics!

It was a welcome distraction from the health issues and hospital nasties I had last year.

And I found that a quilting project isn’t the thing that you easily take to hospital. I had no ready-to-go handsewing project at hand. All I had then, was a rather boring book and a windowview.

 

Besides, when nurses come to get you for tests, it is not easy to shove the quilting a side immediately.

So, a crosstitch project is more portable and my one colour thingies from www.longdogsamplers.com were small enough to toss aside whenever necessary.

I kept on with embroidery, because there were no fabric choices and layout choices to be made and it took quite some time for my mind to relax again.

I will keep this blue project for `just in case` and `you`ll never know`situations. And for `I need something to do while on the road`..

It is a rather big project with 100 blocks. I stitch on an average of 1 block a day.

But now fabrics and quilts are on my mind again. The Gossip quilt needs to be (finally) finished and other patterns are calling.

Shall I do a panama pyramids quilt or the cheddar stars by youngatheartquilting (check her insta, it s lovely)

Perhaps I should go back to the old routine of quilting in the evenings and patchwork during the day…

Needlecrafts

 Every now and then I get bitten by an embroidery bug. Years ago, while visiting a quiltshop, I saw a cabinet there with loads of biscornu’s. I then spent a good deal of the winter embroidering those, made additional pinkeeps and that was that.

Then I found my flower fairies patterns again, while cleaning up. I made those 40 years ago and they got lost in a house fire. Embroidery was my “thing” before I discovered quilting. 

I made them again, just because.

Recently I found a sampler online; a scissor sampler to be exact. Immediately got the pattern and then found out it was rather big. So instead of 14 count aida, I took 20 count and began embroidering with one strand of dmc thread, ofcourse in red ( number 666😈 for the embroiderers among us)

(Tilted pic ofcourse🙄)

Must say: I really like it. I don’t always see exactly how a particular figure looks like, only to discover e.g. that it isn’t just a wreath with leaves, but that it has buds as well.

Others are more beautifull than I thought just by looking at the black and white chart.

And credit where credit’s due: the original with the designer’s name. I got it on Etsy…

Bookbinding

 Years ago I did a lot of cartonnage. I made my sewingbox, a teabox, a box for all my cartonnage stuff, etc.

I really liked it a lot but after a while, quilting once again had my attention and became my nr 1.

Last year I came across a website that offered a workshop bookbinding. Since the location was in the neighbouring village, I signed up and had a lovely time cutting cardboard, linnen and folding signatures. 

A while back a second workshop was up, this time Coptic binding. 

The book on top I made later at home, using 4 needles instead of one on the book below. There was some cat fabric left that I bought for one of the grandgirls (made a pencilcase for her fountainpen) and I used it for the cover

Another technique I learned from YouTube is how to turn fabric into bookcloth….

Then there was the Japanese binding

….and a binding that’s , I believe (?) called Australian  binding..

Very fun to do imho, although I didn’t have the correct kind of paper. And I felt stressed and got glue stains all over. Ah well, it is what it is and I will practice some more. This one is filled with special drawing paper and the grandgirls tested it and approved so I guess I will have to make 3 drawing books..

Now I have this little pile plus the 2 I already gifted to the girls. Number 3 is eagerly awaiting hers..

The summer of ‘25 :(

 It’s an understatement that I did not have the best summer. After having some health troubles for at least a year, I got admitted to the hospital 3 times: first an operation that was useful but did not solve my problems, secondly a procedure that had a unforeseen complication and didn’t solve it either and third a totally unexpected admission for a few days that involved a 112 call and an ambulance. ( and I watch those emergency shows on tv: “911 what s your emergency?” and “ is the patient breathing?” Luckily we could have a laugh about that ín the ambulance and we even discussed that show “the Pitt”with the ambulance staff)

Still, nothing is solved and I have more questions now than I had before…

But! Enough about that! Oktober is round the corner and I started walking daily again to regain strength and stamina,

and to get the stress and anxiety out of my mind and body..

And on the bright side:

I  have another bookbinding workshop in the agenda ánd I will go to a craftfair with the grandgirls ( plus my DD) A TikTok star known as “ craftchick” will be there and the girls are all excited by that..

( craftchick? Yes, I feel old)

So fun things ahead to look forward to!

I borrowed my BikerSons old sportwatch to monitor my health and to remind me to exercise. Every so often it buzzes and tells me to get up and move. ( and that doesn’t mean :go to the kitchen and grab some snacks) 

When I was quilting the GossipInTheGarden quilt this afternoon, to my utter surprise, it buzzed to say that I should take a breath and relax because it noticed that my stresslevels were getting a bit high.  Wtf???

Never a dull moment with modern technology….

Back to the Featherweight!

 During my Scotland roadtrip, I sewed the Starblocks that I had, together. 

This is now in one piece, stacked in a box again, to take with me whenever I need an “ on the go” project.

When putting away all the vacation stuff, I noticed that the lid on the big scrap shoebox wasn’t closing properly anymore. So I checked it out and came across leftover squares from the GrannySquare quilts I made for the grandgirls. I cut some other scraps into squares too, to play with.

But first I had to give my Feather some love and attention.

Ah, how I love that little machine!

So: Feather on the table, lots of squares and then you have this: 

I planned to fill the gaps with white squares and be done with it, but then I got another idea

How amazing to see the whole dynamic change with adding a secondary block!

Ofcourse the second block is made of scraps too and there’s not enough fabric to fill in all the gaps, so I ordered some yardage and I’m ready for its arrival!!

There, and back again.

 I went on a road trip.. Saw mountains and verges covered with gorse and daffodils everywhere.

Drove past lochs and lakes, rivers and canals and saw the sea on more than one occasion

I searched and found mythical beasts and monsters and out of this world technical wonders

I visited castles and ruins, owned by dukes, duchesses and royalty and walked their grounds

I fell asleep with stunning views and watched numerous gorgeous sunsets

Looked at things described in books..

And walked on a battlefield that left me speechless….

….and now I`m back again.