It only takes two

Remember this picture of something red and white growing on my wall?? 

 

It’ s an old BOM from Sentimental Stitches called

 “ it takes 2”

I made a few blocks to see if I could do it and if I would like it. Who was I kidding??

It grew like a mold:)

By day I sewed blocks by machine and in the evening the more difficult ones by hand. There was a lot of appliqué involved, not my expertise. So since there was a lot of time to kill during lockdown 1, I watched how to's on YouTube endlessly 

  

The pics aren’t great; I didn’t take them with a blogpost in mind.. 

The sewing frenzy came to a halt when school (and thus work) re opened again after the summer holidays…

I also became a grandmother, or “ oma” in Dutch for the third time! Late July we welcomed a third granddaughter! Quilting DD now has 3 little ladies.

The 2 older sisters came to stay for sleep-overs several times while schools and daycares were closed (parents working from home) and I love having them. Never knew that being an oma could be so wonderful!

Gifts….

 Gifts that came by mail,unexpectedly,during the first Covid lockdown….. those are the best and most treasured!

Grandkids made drawings and Quilting DD embroidered it. 

And on Mother’s Day, I always welcome a bunch of tulips, my absolute fav flowers!

Block book

I usually use my machine by day and hand sew in the evenings. I lay my pieces out on a tray and put that tray on the armrest of my couch. At least once, every evening, I kick the tray off. 

I needed a block book and here’s how I did it:

I cut 2 pieces of fabric approx. 35x 70 cm, and cut one of those pieces in half, and seamed those on one side.

Put the pieces on top of each other, right sides together and stitched 3 sides: the seamed side is left open. Sewed a ribbon in the outer seames. Turned  and ironed:

 Measured height and width, and cut “pages” just a cm smaller

I cut 3 flannel pages and 2 cotton ones and stacked them alternately. In my experience, patchwork block pieces tend to migrate to the adjacent page when a block book is closed. The cotton pages will prevent this ánd I can pin something on that fabric. The middle pages are both flannel, for XL blocks.

Sewed the pages together in the middle and placed them on the outer part, the dotted red. Sewed all layers again in the middle

 And last I cut two pieces of cardboard and put those between the 2 outer layers.

Now the outer layer is sturdy and the cardboard can be removed if I want to wash my book or want to fold/roll 

Ready to roll!

As I was sewing this, more ideas came to mind: a pocket could be added to the out- or inside of the outer fabric to store a pattern e.g.

Other materials,  room for a cutting mat…

Maybe next time :)

When the sewing mojo hits, it hits hard...

 So, during the time between quilting the blocks and making my mind up for a border motif  for the Farmer’s wife, I cleaned out drawers and boxes in my quiltroom. Donated a shopping bag full of fabrics that I didn’t like anymore ( or gifts from others that I never liked: neither person nor fabric LOL) and re-arranged fabrics that were keepers. I even cut out a piece of cardboard in order to fold all of my fabrics the same size, so I could get nice, even stacks....yup: omg 😮, lockdown fever perhaps?

I also came across a pattern I got for free when I bought the matching panel.

I tucked everything else I found in a box labelled “ UFO’S” and sewed this together frantically on and off in about 2 weeks time.

The pattern as well as the panel is called Thicket from Moda. I hoped it would make a dent in my black/white fabrics, but it turned out that my whites were mostly a bit off white instead of really white.

Not quilted yet, there was no backing available in my stash and since then, non essential shops are closed. Quilt shops are non essential, but that one is open for discussion if you asked me!

But! Note the red and whites appearing on the left side of this pic. O my, that was when the mojo really grabbed me by the throat,so to say. There was no stopping me now: I plunged into a red and white adventure!

Lockdown quilting

During the first lockdown, march 2020, I cleaned my sewing room and found the Farmer’s Wife quilt, hidden away in a corner, half of the blocks were quilted. I decided that I wanted it out of the way and finished! Goal was to handquilt at least one block per day. 

That went smoothly, but it took a while to decide what to do with the border. Templates I had were to small or to big and I had no idea what motif to use...Back in the corner it went.

When it came to the second lockdown last December I made a fan template, quilted every evening while watching Netflix and before I knew it.....tadaaaaa

If not now, then when..?

We ‘re in the middle of the second lockdown since the pandemic started. Work has stopped for the second time ( high school is open for a limited amount of students per day and catering is closed, so nothing to do for me as caterer). I found my quilting mojo during the first lockdown in March ‘21, after a really really long time. I never stopped reading everyone else ‘s blog, just neglected mine and considered starting it up again during the first  lockdown, first time schools were fully closed. After all: something was happening again quilting wise and above all it seemed such a significant time in our life, that, somehow I started to feel the need to record “something”

Laptop died since, so I’m depending on an old mini iPad and I already hate blogging on it ..But if I am starting  up this old blog again then yes: if not now....

It 's time!

Yes, it is about time to get OUT of hibernation. Spring is coming, the sun's out, daylight saving time has begun and Easter is around the corner.
But the most important reason is that granddaughter 2 is born! April fools day is the day she choose to enter the world. Mom and baby are doing well, and so is Dad :) Cutiepie 1 needs a little time to adjust.
I met her saturday afternoon and I think we will get along just fine😀

Grandma took a drink after returning home: cheers and here 's to a happy, healthy life!!

Catching up...

October was obviously a busy month! Shopping days with BakingDD and with CutyPie, BakingDD' s birthday, an "oma-day-care-and -cuddle day etc....no time for blogging.

Luckily there was  hobby time.

I finished knitting BakingDD 's long winterscarf

Added her OWN special label, since she's so fond of the UK. It took me all day to figure out how to make the label in Word. I used some iron on stuff and needed a mirror image. Little did I know I could simply set my printer on " mirror-image"...*sigh*...live and learn!

I also started to crochet a nativity set, suitable for tiny fingers to play with.

Still need a manger, camel, some sheep and an angel. I'm thinking about a stable..

I found the (free) pattern here: http://mispequicosas.blogspot.nl/2014/12/pesebre-amigurumi-patron-navidad.html It s in spanish, but after an email I got the english version.

The animal pattern was bought at www.echtstudio.nl.  

I saved the best "catching up news" for last: late March there will be another grandchild, if all goes well.CutyPie  will be a big sister!!! This gran will have to make another playquilt😀 and playquilts last for years; BakingDD pulled out the one I sewed when I was pregnant with my first ( the very first I ever made, before even knowing it was a quilt), to play with  CutyPie who's growing up fást!

Bloglist....

Another thing that suddenly disappeared is the bloglist in my sidebar. I didn't do anything with the blogsettings and still....gone!The gnomes took over my laptop I guess.
I tried to restore it but it could be that a blog is missing. Nothing personal, I just couldn't remember them all......

Lost and found!

A few weeks ago I missplaced my " quilting " specs. It 's an old model, nothing special,  but I use it for watching tv ( looking through the glasses) and quilting ( looking underneath, since I'm nearsighted and don ' t need any specs within short distances) 

I missed them! Now it was either quilt and miss my fav tv series, or watch and don't quilt.

Then I bent a needle, broke another and couldn't find the Roxanne needles I was sure I had. Somewhere.....

To top it off, I lost my fav Stamps watch. Just an empty clip on the wristband....

Yesterday I suddenly found my specs AND my needles. I guess they wandered off together ...

And, the watch re-appeared, hidden in the sofa cushions, where I looked 100 times.....

Now I DO believe there are little gnomes hiding somewhere in my house......