The story of the Ups and Downs quilt

 BikerSon needed a new quilt. I made him a skull quilt when he was in his teens and a `hello handsome` when he was in his twenties.

They are now, in my opinion, no more than rags. He slept under them for years on end. He begs to differ, saying that they remain precious, since I made those especially for him. Ahhhh.

I came across a drawing of the Ups and Downs and immediately started to draw. BikerSon likes simple shapes, geometrical desings and black/grey/white with a splash of red. I understood the assignment!

C had bought a batting during her last USA trip that I could have. It was a Hobbs 80/20 that I always use and prewash in a laundry bag. So far so good. While layering the quilt I noticed that parts of the batting got very thin. Nevertheless ther was a warning light on in my head, I started to quilt. After a couple of blocks I had to acknowledge that this was no good …. I unpicked everything (!) and went to the quiltshop where I earned that there is a difference between a regular Hobbs (that I used) and a heirloom Hobbs (that I used to have) the last one can be pre washed, the first not *sigh*

I came home with another batting: bamboo this time. It felt so soft and lovely and draped beautifully…

Untill I started quilting again…. After a while it started to `beard`.And as I quilted on, it bearded more and more. Not just when you pulled up the needle, but the bamboo fibers kept appearing on the surface, time after time, no matter how often I tried to remove them..

Like I said in the previous post: I accepted that this is what it is..

I guess that after a while the whole damn bamboo batting while come to the surface untill there is nothing left..

It is finished now and I will give it to BikerSon coming sunday. 

There is no joy in gifting a quilt you know is no good

Ups and downs

 All I did during summer was embroider lost and found patterns from the late 70’s. Must remember to take pictures of those later..

Since a week or 2, I finally started quilting again on the Ups and Downs quilt. So named for it has had lots of ups and downs during sewing ánd quilting with a bamboo batting that’s bearding like mad, but I have decided that it is what it is..

Middle part is all done now, so I must decide what to do with the borders next.

Since the weather is very nice for the time of year I also decided to make daily walks. Downloaded an app that keeps track and gives me virtual medals when I reach certain goals like “ you walked 3 times in a row yeey” 😬 At least it makes me go out the door every day; I don’t want an app tell me that I failed LOL

Since I’ve seen my own neighbourhood, I sometimes take the car to go to another city/town to walk there:less boring than same old same old.

And you learn something along the way! This is the only surviving “mount” ( called “redoute”) of 7, with room for a canon and an armed soldier to fight the Belgians if they would come to attack. They never did btw….haha

And a castle in a huge park with not a soul in sight.. 

Now where will I wander tomorrow?

Sidewalk garden

 About a year ago, the town council decided to get rid of the existing trees in my street and replace them with new ones. The old trees weren’t exactly thriving, so new plantholes were digged, filled with richer earth and new trees were planted. The plantholes however, were twice as big as before ( why ???) and we were stuck with basically a dog and cat toilet next to our car ‘s parking spot.

My neighbour, who loves to garden, was gifted a bag of seeds and we quickly decided to toss loads around the tree.

And what a surprise this turned out to be!

Everytime we thought the flowers were done as they withered, new ones with new colours appeared! 

We had mainly yellow for a while, then all was blue, white, pink and now we have these ( 

We even grew 2 buddleia’s LOL

For comparison: this his how the other plantholes look

and this is ours..

It s a gift that keeps on giving😄😄🥰

Summer of `24

 Now what did I do since May?

Visited a museum to look at some old paintings and such..

Got lost in a big city…

It rained a lot..

Went to another museum that reminded me how we looked like in the 70`s ánd that everything was orange in our house..

Threw seeds on a barren piece of soil with my neighbour and was amazed by the results…

Hunted for and caught some dinosaurs with the grandgirls

And we found the tallest tree in the vicinity.

Finally, the grandgirls painted `happy stones` and decorated the backdrop entrance.( flipped picture, one should tilt your head to the right)

There was some patchwork and embroidery activity as well, but that`s something for another post..

On the road again

 Yesterday C and I went to the beautiful city of Amersfoort, to visit a quilt exhibition in the local St Joris kerk. 

Just a few of the quilts we saw..

                                                        

                                                         

We were especially in awe about the ( hand) quilting. Such small, regular stitches, amazing!

                                     

The blocks in the first picture were no bigger than a cm2. 

I didn’t take that much pics; C and I just enjoyed and admired the craftsmanship of these quilters.

We walked around in the city too, had a coffee in the morning and a fresh roll in the afternoon.

If you want too see all of the quilts, visit the insta of @juudsquilts, she made several video’s.

Spring!

 Two days with family outings! One to the Waterloopbos, where engineers once tested the famous Dutch waterworks in real life on a small scale and 2 days later a trip to the biggest Dutch castle, castle de Haar with the oldest grandgirls

Loved both days, out in the forest and the castle grounds surrounded by loved ones and enjoying the fresh greens of spring.