No-reply......

Graag wil ik reageren op n commentaar en graag wil ik iemand blij maken met n bunny, maar........iedereen staat op no-reply dus ik kan niet reageren! Dames check jullie settings aub...

Who doesn't want a HAPPY BUNNY ??

Since I'm a grandma, I 've been searching the internet from time to time on the hunt for funny/cute/nice etc things to sew for babies.
Last week, through Pinterest, I came across theredbootquiltcompany. Well with such a name, you have me interested!
I found the most lovely quilts and dolls patterns at absolute reasonable prices, even down right cheap in my opinion..Ofcourse I bought a ragdoll pattern

and the minute the PDF arrived in my mailbox I already had my fabrics selected:)

I knotted the hair a bit closer to het head so it really stays upright. I printed the pattern at 80% 'cause CutyPie is still a small baby!

 

 

I had such fun making her! I love the hair, so much better than the usual woolen hair on most ragdolls. That never turns out the way I want it to look.

Then I found this pattern.....BUNNIES!!

My printer was still set on the 80% so my first one looks like this. He has a rattlebox in his tummy.

Then his brother was made

 One babyproof butt and one with a pompom

 And here they are, happily waiting for a playmate

Since i liked making these so much, I browsed the redboot pages a bit more and learned that she has a book coming

I'm not a big fan of quilts with pics for children but the combo with matching plushies is a great idea!
Besides, you can pimp a bag or duvetcover with just one dog/bear/panda/superhero etc etc. Make a wallhanging, a pillow, heck, the possibilities are endless.
Needless to say that i pre-ordered the book on www.bookdepository.com (lower price than Amazon and free delivery; that's a win-win, but  on Amazon you can preview some pages..just saying..)

So what do you think: wanna make a bunny for Easter? They're easy and quick to sew, so you can make a bunch of them and still have time to paint the eggs.
What you need to do to get FREE COPY OF THE BUNNY PATTERN is simply comment below. I have 2 copies to give away and will do so tomorrow when I get back from work..(if anyone commented that is, hahaha)
Yeey BUNNIES!!

Sewing up a storm...

There was smoke coming out of Sven when the sewing bug hit me at high speed last week.
I started with the 365 challenge project and made good progress, although I'm going to re-sew some. The technique  hidden squares and I were not competable. But with 4 blocks and the centerpart behind, I can safely say that I will get there (cough)

 After struggling with pesky little pieces I took some Pinterest time and found big bold letters! Ah, how nice to cut something beyond 1"!!
I first found a "C" and used up the only Fasset fabric I had left. Everytime I made something for C it has been this fabric, so now I need to get me a new Fasset fq:)

Then I got on a hunt for an "A" and made another mini

Backings that match personalities too....

Later on I decided that cuty pie granddaughter was in need of a grabbal. She loves contrasting colours so that's right up my alley

Finishing touch: a handmade label

 I brought it over myself since I had an extra day off aka cuddle time with oma again!

Last but not least: only a few more blocks to do and all of the 111 Farmer's wife blocks are on my wall. I need to draw/design 2 blocks myself since the author repeated herself twice and i want them ALL to be unique

Next on the list is some de-cluttering in my sewingroom......bleeeh....

On track and way behind

Last week I made my granddaughter a quilt. I hadn't done so because DD wanted to use a blanket instead of a quilt. But it felt odd! After all; this gran is about quilts:) Plusses because grandbaby IS a big plus and when you tilt your head a little, they become xxxxx: kisses!!

So big kisses from "oma" as grannny's are called in Dutch.

The back is a lovely fabric from Inkalily, I picked the cycling animals...

 

 

 

 

Since one can only sew one thing at the time, I'm waaaaaaay behind with the 365 challenge project.

Hopefully I find time to catch up soon.

On the bright side: I'm right on track with the Farmer's Wife!

"only" 16 more blocks to go before the painstaking process of putting it all together can begin.

 

I have a new addition in my sewingroom....a sleepover bed for cutypie.

 She came to visit oma with her parents last sunday and will come again next saturday.

The flannel cloth with the blue trim is 70 years old and handmade by my mum, when she was pregnant with her first. Still soft so her great grandchild can safely rest her head:)

Will MY great grandchild sleep under one of my quilts in 70 years time? I'd like to think so!

 

I cleaned my sewingtable to make room for a changingmat. When the little one was freed from her diaper however, she did what she had to do with such enthousiasm, that she almost hit the FW on the designwall ...LOL! But when your bum is as cute as hers, oma doesn't mind at all!!

Challenge

There's this thing going round called the 365 challenge. With my eyes closed, I jumped in. After all: what's an extra UFO or 2 (4, 6....)
Yesterday's block was called "frame" and there were hst's involved. Small ones...1" ones.
I picked not very contrasting fabrics to disguise any mismatched points.

And now, by miracle, my points match. I have no place to show off but here.
I hated this block and I'm glad it's done.

After this block, this quilt, a Nearly Insane quilt will be like a walk in the park on a sunny day.

 

"I love sewing 1" hst's" said no quilter ever.

On the challenge facebook page people claim they have "sooooo much fun" when making this block.

Fuck off, get a life

 

 

Hello......it's me.....

Happy birthday!!

Born this afternoon: a beautifull granddaughter!!!!!

 

let's waste some time

Yesterday. winter finally came with temperatures below 0. With no better things to do, I decided to put my Farmer's Wife blocks in the 'correct" order on the wall. That is: like they are placed in the book. I was sure the author must have had a certain brilliant master plan, placing the blocks as she did. Perhaps dividing big and small patterns evenly e.g.??

 First thing I noticed was that I was NOT as far as I thought I was. Putting the blocks close together like in pic 2 gave me the idea I had " much more quilt" ! Look at all those gaps!
Furthermore it turned out that with the "right"placement, I had clusters of houndstooth....

 blobs of blue and green

 and too much of the same background fabric in one place

 After thinking it over, I came to the conclusion that the author had no plan AT ALL. She just pieced blocks and distributed the colours she used, evenly across her designwall (or so...) like I'm going to do now. Spread out the houndstooth. divide all the reds evenly and avoid green blobs.
All in all it took me hours to mark the blocks with their "correct number", placing them where they "should" be and waiting for an epiphany to see the Plan.
Pffff I could have sewn a block or two!

Then i decided to get Sven the Husqvarna started to try some machine quilting. I've signed up for a lesson or 2  in machinequilting and had some homework to do. I picked up the machine manual to read about the settings and to my surprise it said in capitals: WEAR SAFETYGOGGLES (?????)
Can you see it? Sewing in full protective gear? I did!

Safety first *LOL*!

And since it was getting really cold outside, I then dug another pincushion out of the cupboard. Yep: winter! The cup decor is really Dutch and freely translated it's something like "farmer's bright".
Okay, let's do block 65 of the FW quilt!

 

How was your sunday??

2016

Yeey! I made it into 2016:).... I have been a bit under the weather, hence the silent blog. My heart skipped a beat and then raced to make up for that. When you call your doctor and say you have 'pain in the chest area" everyone kind of panicks. Tests were done, pills subscribed and that was that. All done and it seems my heartbeat is a bit faster than what's considered "normal".

Since i had to keep a low profile for a while, I had some time to think. About blogging eg. Stop, keep going, write in Dutch?? Facebook seems to be the new blogging and instagram the new facebook these days. I like neither. So I've decided to keep on blogging every once in a while and perhaps switch to Dutch but for now; same old, same old.

I sewed too. Not much (i slept mostly..) but the Farmer's Wife is growing slowly but surely

 This isn't the final layout. I just smacked all the blocks onto the wall just to see what I got so far.
I also have a new friend: meet Epson, the printer. The old one was way past his time!

It's on my fabric cabinet. Do i want it there? Nope. Does it need to be there? Yep! I'm done with going upstairs to put it on and then again to get the print.
The Epson has 'airprint', to print directly from my Ipad and since I took over Quilting DD s iphone 5, I'm all up to date and into 2016 :)

Speaking of DD: grandchild 1 is expected in a week or so. The Iphone is fully charged and in the vicinity all the time now. You'll never know when that phonecall is coming!!

Home again..

after the trip to Berlin with Baking DD. Lovely stay at the Hampton hotel, gorgeous sunshiny weather, great sights, beautifull artifacts at the museums, good company....what more do you want?(although I could do without the sore feet after constant walking/strolling around town! We were completely knackered after our return!!)

The cute trafficlights in the former east

 Medieval citywall

 Quaint streets

 Bernini inspired fountain

 The church (can you believe it was built in 1998???? It was there before, bombed in the war and rebuild later)

 Views from the top of the church

Postdammer Platz

 Jewish memorial

 The wall

the most beautifull piece at the Neues Museum: statue of Nefertiti, my personal highlight. The pic is not mine (not allowed to photograph her) but picked from the internet

 

and much, much more......