Another star and some more..

Looking back done quite a bit this last week.
Prepared all the pieces for my third star, traced the patterns onto interfacing, cut out all the pieces and made little packages..


De afgelopen week al met al toch nog aardig wat gedaan.
Eerst de derde ster voorbereid, patronen overgenomen op vlies, alle stukjes uitgesneden en pakketjes gemaakt..


Once that was done, it didn't take long to piece together.


Zodra dat was gedaan duurde het niet lang om het blok in elkaar te zetten.

The most time was spent deciding on what fabric to use, sitting on the floor in my pj's surrounded with all the different fabrics, no picture but i'm sure you can imagine!! ..;))  I decided to go for just orange on this one.

De meeste tijd zat in het kiezen van de stof, al zittend op de vloer in mijn pyama met alle stofjes rondom me heen verspreid, geen foto gemaakt maar je kunt het je vast wel voorstellen!! .. ;))
Heb besloten om deze helemaal in het oranje te maken.

I've also been busy with the blocks that will go in between the star blocks.
Verder ben ik ook nog bezig geweest met de blokken die tussen de sterren gaan komen.


And in between done some quilting too.
I prefer to neatly tug away all my loose threads, just as you would when hand quilting. For that I use a special needle, it is a needle that has a little hook in its eye so you can just click in two threads at a time, it is really easy and quick.

En tussendoor ook nog wat gequilt. 
Ik hou er niet van om de draadjes af te knippen en werk ze altijd netjes weg, zoals je bij het handquilten ook zou doen. 


Ik gebruik hiervoor een speciale naald, deze heeft een oog met een haakje zodat je de draad er in kan klikken ipv door het oogje te steken, werkt heel gemakkelijk en vlug want je kunt 2 draden tegelijk nemen.

Have a nice day and see you soon!

'till next time!

Essie

Not a very good start to the holiday..

Yesterday I was just about to sit down and post an update on my blog when....
the police rang on our doorbell to tell us that the window of our car had been smashed in.  When we went down to the car this is what we found..

The glass was everywhere and ..YES.. that is a brick on the passenger seat!
Luckily nothing was stolen, everything was still there...just pure pointless vandalism...and a lot of work, headache and money for us to get it fixed!

Anyway, what I was intending to blog about was this..

I said I'd try and do some hand quilting....I know ;-)

But I couldn't get it right and finally after several attempts I decided to just machine quilt it.

I think the swirls with the snowflakes capture the flurry of snowfall quite well, don't you think?

Here is a little close up, the blanket stitches around the applique were done by hand, but the swirls around were free motion quilted with the BSR foot on my Bernina (you can just see a glimpse of the foot in the corner of the previous picture.

Well, the next couple of days I'll probably won't have much time to do any quilting with all the shopping, cooking (and eating) for the Christmas days to come.
I might just have some time to finish some knitting that I've started though. And next Friday we are off to the cinema to see the Hobbit part 2, can't wait..really looking forward to seeing that!

So for now I want to wish you all a very happy holiday, wherever you are I hope you will spent it in good health and surrounded by your loved ones.
(Found this picture on the web, think it captures the holiday spirit just perfectly, don't you think?)

Till next time!
Essie

A grey day outside..

but while the weather is not so nice for being outdoors..it is however great weather to do some quilting!

And not feel guilty about it..;)

Well in my last post I promised to show you what else I have been working on, so here she goes..

In the past few weeks while not working on my Jane blocks, I have made this stack and whack kaleidoscope quilt. Fabric is a border print from Jinny Beyer. 

This is a sample for the workshop we have planned in September with our Bee.

A couple of weeks ago I bought this gorgeous fabric from Laurel Burch.

I will be doing another stack and whack with this one, but this time with 6 equilateral triangles forming hexagons from the book "One Block Wonders Cubed" from Maxine Rosenthal and Joy Pelzmann.

Can't wait to get started on this one!!

Love all those bright colors..

Also I have been busy quilting my entry for the OEQC competition in Veldhoven which is in October.

The theme for this year is "Berlin". 

these blocks represent The Wall, 

doing some straight lines here.

The famous picture of the defecting soldier taken during the early days of the Berlin Wall.

The little running man were free motion "thread sketched" over a layer of organza.

I've probably cut the organza too close to the stitching and while quilting the background that layer of organza has started to come loose. Will have to redo that once all the quilting has been done, probably even after the binding has been done.

Oh well..we learn as we go along!

If somebody has got a good tip on how to prevent this sort of thing in the future please let me know??

'Till next time!

Have a great weekend,

Essie

Good news after a bad start..

What have I been up to this week?
... well I've been busy quilting

Last monday the car broke down..wouldn't start. We finally got it running after a push and drove straight to the garage to get her fixed.
It was just the battery that had packed up but all in all we've spent nearly the whole afternoon in the garage.

When we got back home I received the good news that my quilt got accepted into the annual show of the Dutch Quilters Guild (Quiltersgilde) and was doing happy dances the rest of the evening.
Next day I went straight to work on it because it still needed to be finished, still need to do the quilting, then the binding and so on..
That is what I am doing every minute I have now and that's why Jane will have to wait..
I'm going back to do some more quilting,

"till next time!
Essie

Busy, busy, busy..

I have been very busy the last few weeks. Between some spring cleaning, having my in-laws visiting for almost 2 weeks and helping my own mother who is now in hospital for a new hip(..to name but a few)...somehow I managed to do some quilting.

I did a little bit of this, some free motion quilting:

The blocks I posted about before are now all together in a quilt, don't want to show too much yet as this is for the OEQC in October but this is a part of it :

And also done some of this, it is hand drawn with a black waterproof marker then colored in with brown

Need to get back to making some more Dear Jane blocks too..some are nearly finished and will post them sometime later this week. Little behind now, but still on my schedule of 1 block per week (..only just though).

'Till next time..

Essie

Goals and plans for 2013

A new year..what are your goals and plans for 2013?

A list of things I would like to do this year:

1. First things first,  I really need to finish the block of the month project I put together.
(A few more blocks to go, not sure yet to quilt it by hand or machine, all of it so far is hand made..seems a shame to not finish it by hand..)

Block 1 of the BOM "Happy Hearts"

2.  When the BOM is (nearly) finished I can start on my quilt for the OEQC this year. The theme for this year is Berlin.

3. Practice and practice and practice some more FMQ.

4. Perhaps try out some blocks for a Dear Jane quilt like this one in red white and blue? ...perhaps if I can do one block a week I can have it finished in maybe 3 or 4 years..??? ..OMG..pfff !!!

Let me know if you have any goals and plans of your own for the new year?
Let's make it a good (quilting) year!!

Till next time,
Essie