Cheesecake???

Baking DD wants to make a cheesecake and on the net there are so many recipes that she doesn't know which one to choose. Mind that she never made a real cheesecake before so she needs a recipe that will work and produces a yummy cake. She has her mind set on a New York cheesecake with creamcheese.
 Anyone with baking qualities and THE cheescake recipe???

BTW, she did her drivers license exam today and passed!

What's another year..?

When even familymembers ask why there's nothing new on your blog, you know it's time to start up a pc :)
What was going on during the last few weeks..Well, C and I went to a quiltmarket. We had a nice day out, but the new hall in which the event took place was drafty, a bit cold and had no "feel" if you get what I mean. We also missed something "new": fabriclines, notions, gadgets. Is it that we are spoiled with the internet on which everything new is already seen?What matters is that we had a break from daily busyness and we're looking forward to a next event..
I made few pics, but we both loved these quilts:

 And this one, made from clothinglabels!

February is my birtdaymonth...yep, another year was added! I'm 55 now, but still alive and kicking +lol+
I was spoiled, to say the least. Without going into details (burglars are still active in the vicinity!) I can tell that C just now helped me getting to know some software.
Wanna see some other presents???

And last but not least: I was asked (I think it was Ranette) to post pics of my Dutch quilt in all its glory...

I proudly present...

Long time since the last post. I kept on struggling a bit with work, boss, life..but I'm doing better every week. I still have trouble sleeping well: there are more reports of burglaries in the vicinity and I'm awake every time I think I hear something.
 It is hard to keep connected without my own laptop too. My old Toshiba was on every day and I could surf and mail in front of the tv, taking a break from quilting or sewing or whatever. I spent a lot more time online for sure!
So, I apologize for not aswering to your comments and I promise to be more considerate in the future :)

 I did sew (duh) and I finally did my binding chores. My red/white quilt had to wait 2 years for its binding..

I finished the White Christmas quilt, in time for Christmas 2011

..and did the binding on the Dutch quilt. So I now have THREE finished quilts!

I am very pleased with myself. (and to Quilting DD: no, they still do not have labels, I will print those after finishing this post and sew them on tonight! And yes, I know a quilt isn't finished without a label, I taught you so..) 

I have been seeing the fysiotherapist. My collarbone is turning and wants to come up. Not a good idea. The fysio forbid me to quilt for more than 10 minutes a day. She obviously has no clue what she asks from me. I cheated ofcourse, to finish the Christmas quilt. I think she also meant no sewing, but I was wise enough not to ask that. I limited myself to sewing small stuff instead of finishing the next UFO. (when a top is finished, I want to quilt it immediately..)

So, I made a keychain clutch, a "bubble" clutch (all from Keykalou patters) and a zippered make-up bag, just to keep me occupied :)

Só looking forward to the weekend: C and I will go to a quiltmarket/ exhibition. It has been ages since our last trip!

I'll let you know how much we enjoyed it!

Unwanted guests..

Once again, the Monster (aka the family pc) and I need to become friends again.
Yesterday early morning  at 5 p.m. we found that our frontdoor was wide open. All the drawers of my fabric chest were open as well as some drawers and cabinet doors in the livingroom. My laptop, photocamera and the TomTom were missing..
My laptop was an oldie and can be replaced, but I truly mourn the loss of everything that was on it. I don't think that i need to explain that to other quilters with a 1000 sites bookmarked and even more patterns trusted to a harddrive. DH had just made a backup from the C partition, but not yet of the D on which all of my goodies were.
The type of camera I had (and absolutely loved) is no longer available, so we need to find another, just as great. The photos that were on it, are ofcourse lost as well. (I had them on the camera ánd on the laptop..)

Later the day i found my red and white polkadotted pc sleeve was also missing. I know, polkadots áre hard to resist.

Even with all new and extra locks installed, I didn't sleep very well. You can imagine that.
What 's there to do than whine on my blog, count my losses and start over?

Welcome!

...to my sewingroom! It is not always this neat and clean, I admit. I clean it frequently though; I cannot sit and enjoy my own space when it's a mess. That distracts and annoys me big time. Clutter is okay when sewing a quilt, but once a project is finished, all has to be in its place again.

My room is attatched to the livingroom. It used to be my former bedroom. When Quilting DD moved out, our bed moved upstairs and tadááá: I had my own space. Just slide the door open and step in!

On the slidingdoor there's a friendship star quilt, that Corrine made for my 50th birthday.

First the fabric treasure chest. I always have 3 small quilts on the wall there; they change according to the season..

Tins with thread, ribbons etc. on top, a glass vase with pincushioncollection and on the side a wooden quiltrack. Not for displaying quilts,but for quilting purposes. I use it mainly during summer, so you don't have to hold a quilt on your lap when handquilting. Corrine's DH made it for me for that same birthday.

Let's move to the left and there's my big table. I use it for sewing, drawing, cutting, the laptop is there often etc. I usually sit where the machine is, Corrine opposite of me. Oh I forgot: my room is for 2 (or 3 when Quilting DD comes to play along) C has no sewingroom and is a frequent guest in mine. She even has her own can of notions on her side of the table..
Where the white chair is, that's where other familymembers are allowed :) The family pc aka the Monster, pc stuff, cd's, printer/scanner. The monitor can used as a tv as well.  As you can see I have a window; not a spectacular view (the neighbours frontdoor) but it's nice to have daylight..

This is on the wall between table and pc desk: the embroidery I did 100 years ago for DH and the miniquilt in 2007. It's there for DH to make him believe it's his room too. (Dream on..) It prevents discussion about he wanting a room of his own too. Ah men, it can be so easy...

Okay, futher left: the desigwall! At this moment the Attitude Girls panel is on it, but almost empty when I took this pic. In the corner my manikin (is that the correct word?) showing an apron that I still didn't finish. Behid her back the part of the pc desk that holds my patterns (behind the door) and books. If you slide my door further open, you have acces to the rulers and quilt templates. Also the ironingarea..

..and that's it! (I'm happy to post more detailed pics for those who are very nosy)
Ranette showed her room, Myra VIDEOTAPED hers (if you haven't checked that out, please do so now!)
and I'm anxious to see other's . So..who's next?

What to say?

I was planning to invite you my to my sewingroom. I cleaned and de-cluttered, made pictures and even put them in a post in order to add text later on. I made coffee and Baking DD had delicious chocolate chipped muffins ready for you all to come and visit :)

Then the doorbell rang; the postman ...: "goodmorning, a package for you, have a nice day" and he handed me a rather bulky envelop.

Dianne, Melissa ánd ofcourse LuLu wanted to sent me something for my birthday in february, but when they read I wasn't doing all that well, they decided I needed it right now. In the envelop was a card saying they thought I needed an Attitude Adjustment. (They are só right!) These girls are not only very generous, they pay attention too.

Note the polkadot wrappingpaper for starters!

What was inside? (better to say: what was not..!) A complete Honeybun, lots of matching fabrics (ah..can you tell I love polkadots?) ánd a pair of soft, warm ,polkadotted (duh!) gloves!  All from Moda's "Attitude Girls", except for the gloves ofcourse, but wearing them just gives you an attitude *lol*          

To complete this absolute great, wonderfull, amazing gift: The Attitude Girls themselves..

ánd, as if things weren't overwhelming enough: another Mary Engelbreit panel

I am só thrilled that someone sent me ALL this, that I was without words for a while. Next project will be an Attitude quilt for sure. I already browsed the internet, looking for ideas and inspiration.

What more is there to say than THANK YOU and....

Sewing rooms..

Let me start by thanking you all for the uplifting and nice comments on the "I'm not doing so well" post. I'm doing a bit better, thank you. At least i'm not whining and crying all the time and that's a huge improvement :)

Secondly: Let's make 2011 a great year: health, love, creativity...

When I did some blogreading this afternoon, I came across Ranette, showing her tidy sewingroom. I enlarged and admired every picture on her blog and thought about my own spot where I keep my stuff.

I googled "sewingroom" and had a pleasant hour looking at all those different spaces  :)
People have small rooms, enormous ones, messy spots and very clean ones. Some even have their own fireplace!
Lots have different areas for sewing, cutting, ironing etc.
Some pics I randomly plucked from the internet:

Although I consider myself very lucky to háve a separate sewingroom, (only thing I had to do was to kick a child of mine out of the house and claim the space; easy!) I'd love to have different spots for every step of quiltmaking. (And ofcourse more storageroom!) My sewingroom has one huge table in the middle for sewing, cutting, eating, computer...and one fabric cabinet. Plastic fabric containers here and there... That's it.

No matter what sewingrooms there are and how big/small...one thing I don't get: why have so many people such small tables for their sewingmachine??? Even the lucky ones with a huge amount of space have tiny sewing tables. When I sew a quilt with my Husq. it's a huge mess on my table: piles of fabric, scissors, cutters, pincushion, tapemeasure, food.... You name it and it's there, somewhere..

Am I just messy and disorganised? (could well be!)

How does your sewingroom look like? Any great tips to get lots of stuff in a small room, organised?

Merry Christmas!

Me, myself and I

Kind of selfish post title, in the light of the time of year, I admit, but it's been a while since my last update and there was a reason for that. I was, am, not doing great. Tinnitus therapy triggered more than I bargained for and after a nasty conflict at work I gave in and called in sick. It became clear that i was pretty exhausted, both in body and soul and something had to be done to prevent a burn out.
I slept a lot, cried a lot, worried a lot and felt at the top of my nerves all the time.
I'm doing a bit better now and decided to pick up blogging again. Sorry for not answering comments and an occasional email. I needed the energy that was left, just to get through the day.
Enough said and on to happier things!

I did sew! Well , I quilted more . The Dutch quilt is done. Except for the binding ofcourse. As you know I hate doing bindings and this time I had the perfect excuse: I had no binding fabric! Hurray for online shopping; it arrived this week so I hope for a real finish  soon.

I also finished sewing the "White, not the average Christmasquilt" (work title..haha) and even did a lot of handquilting after this pic was taken..

The border HST's on the front ánd on the back were all "waste". The things that you're left with when then pattern says: "sew, fold and cut ... off". Well, my name is NOT Eleanor Burns and i didn't want to throw piles of HST away.....

Another update on how things are in my corner..It's cold and white. I'm not a fan of snow and don't care a bit about a white christmas. Sorry, but i can't enjoy piles of snow, slipping and sliding when driving etc. I'm just not a winter girl. Today I got stuck with my car and DS had to push. I first stepped out, slipped and landed on my butt in a huge pile of freshly fallen snow. A man passing by said how he (really) LOVED that we were going to have a white christmas. Grrrrr! I remembered the "peace on earth" thing just in time..
This is last week

This morning we had 9 inches of snow on the garden table and there's more on the way.

Anyway...I wish you all a very merry Chrismas!
(and now I'm blogging again, I hope I won't loose another follower...lol)

He's here!

Last saturday, St. Nicolaas arrived safely in our country. Along with him lots of his helpers, the "Zwarte Pieten"

He's here to celebrate his birthday on the 5th of december with gifts for everyone.
In our family we buy a gift for one familymember. Ofcourse i know whose name came out of the hat for me to buy a present for, but  do not know who drew MY name!

More and more people don't celebrate "Sint", for they say it's only for children and they give eachother presents at Christmas. I think we should cherish this very old Dutch (and Belgian)tradition. Therefor I pinned my button on my coat, saying: "Long live Sint!)

Last week I also got the best envelop there is in my mailbox

Even on a flipped-over picture "Fabric" is the best word in the English language. In Dutch we say "stof"; how boring is that!?
This is what was inside:

Christmasfabric for the backing of my machine pieced (still working on it..) Christmasquilt. I do like the Falala fabric and am humming that song all day long..(The only lyrics I know are "falala..")
The colour is slightly different than the right side of the quilt and so I was in desparate need of RED to bind it all together. I never have to persuade friend C to come along on a quiltshoptrip and there I got these

Ridiculous to run out of red if it's your fav colour!