The Beast

 After months of doing everything but not anything quiltwise, I finally found my mojo again.

So, grandchildren’s drawing off the wall and a quilt on.

The “ it takes two”! Now, where was I. Just as I decided to sew the square in a square parts for the border by hand, I found loads in a basket. Hmmm, all machine made,so, let’s proceed with those.

Then I “ lost” 2 packages of 8 yards each, red fabric. My sewing room is small so where could it be hiding??

Found it eventually in a drawer that I already opened 3 times…..

Then prewashed the load with Retayne, dried it, ironed a yard and started cutting squares.

It was only then I realised how humongous this quilt was going to be with the borders sewn on!

92”x110”. Wow that s impressive. I am creating a monster quilt in red and white.

I think it’ll be named The Beast.

Oeps!

Last week I saw an advert for a lovely Singer Featherweight 222. This was on my `wish list`, but 222`s are always waaaaay to expensive. Mindlessly I put in an offer, thinking it would never be accepted.

But to my utter surprise it was and I had to inform my DH that we were going on a road trip to collect a Featherweight I accidentally bought..LOL

Arriving at the seller`s house we were in for another surprise: the man owned a genuine sewing machine museum!!

We got stories and demo`s, looked at pictures and documents and I think my mouth was open all the time.

I should have made moer and better pics as well as a video or 2, but I forgot all that…

On our way home, we stopped in the village and went to a museum, dedicated to those who were in hiding in WW2, very impressing stories and a beautifull old building.

Look at these floors!

I feel a quilt coming up :)

But without further ado, here she is:

First thing I sewed was a reversible sleeve for her protection when storing

The free arm proved very usefull when topstitching

Glad I kept this magnetic bowl instead of gifting it to my DH. I already dropped the screw once and ofcourse it rolled under the fabric cabinet, `cause why not…pfff

Ofcourse I informed my children about my spontaneous purchase.:)

All in all we had a great day and I love this Feather!!(and my children ..)

Up, up!

Last week we ( BikerSon, his GF and me)climbed the medieval St John’s basilica…..

Scaffolding was up because the roof tiles need replacement.

( pic from the internet)

Some photo s were made by me, some ( the really good ones :p) by BikerSon.

Well worth the effort!!

Sidetracked..

 After crocheting the avatar characters, I got another pattern..

Gabby and the kitty cake. I crocheted the kitty 3 times, for each one of the girls, the Gabby doll once. It was too much of a hassle to make 3. Happy it is done!

DH, meanwhile, was/is busy getting  bikes for the 2 eldest. He bought the bikes secondhand and is fixing them up. I do the styling….Bike one ( of 2) is ready.

Since I had the needles and cotton at hand, I made them keychains ( free pattern here https://www.mariskavos.nl/free-cat-amigurumi-pattern/)

After all that was finished I sat drumming my fingers in a “ now what” mood. I had no quiltproject immediately at hand, only a sewingmachine project.

So…..

Crochet project

 At a request of my DD I tackeled an Avatar crochet project. Not the blue creatures from that movie, but air, fire, water and earth benders. My grand ladies watch cartoons I have never heard of and this was one of them.

I watched it while crocheting ( and found it extremely boring LOL) so now I know what the girls are talking about. The middle one has a birthday coming up and she really lóves the cartoon so I decided to make these characters for her as a bd gift.

I made the water bender and her brother

Fire benders

Friends…

And the Avatar himself

The patterns were fiddly and had a number of typos. Not for an absolute beginner, but the designer has loads of very recognisable characters.

Perhaps I will crochet myself a small Freddy Mercury….

Something else….

 The third granny quilt was signed, sealed and delivered. Time to put my It Takes Two red and white in the wall and start with the borders. So I thought…

Quilting DD had another suggestion: middle grandgirl is apparently very fond of a Netflix cartoon called Avatar. Not the blue characters, but another series. Quilting DD found some amigurumi patterns online and could I, would I, but only if I feel like it! 

So C and I went off on a field trip to a nearby huge wool shop to gather the crochet hook I needed (2.75) and some yarn colours I didn’t have.

The amigurumi s are very tiny. This is a leg e.g.

But we’ll get there!

One down, 4 to go!

Meanwhile I celebrated my 67th birthday with an annual visit to a museum. Van Gogh this time. It has been 3 years since I was there and enjoyed it very much.

Another visit to Amsterdam is planned for March 13th. I managed to get a ticket for the big Vermeer exhibition in the Rijksmuseum. Looking forward to that one!

What annoyed me, were the “ influencers” flocking the streets of Amsterdam. One couple even tried to block a narrow alley because “ they were doing a reel for insta”  and if everyone could wait for “ let ‘s say 10 minutes” Uhhh: no

Stopping in the middle of the road, bike lanes, etc to make pics, walking around while holding selfie camera/phone and only looking at yourself constantly… that sort of thing 😩

67 is a perfect age to finally turn into a CrankyOldWoman 😠 LOL

Three is a charm!

 Granny Square 3 is sewn, doubled and pinned

Threaded needles

And the first stitches are in!

Got to hurry, youngest granddaughter has a “big” bed now and she’s waiting for her quilt!