I had a dream...

It feels like a dream.. (and 5 days later it still does!) but it was very real and it really did happen!
Last Wednesday I received a telephone call, with the most exciting news...my quilt entry for the OEQC in Veldhoven had won a prize! And not just any prize it actually won the award for this year's Theme "Berlin".



















Ever since that phone call it has been an exciting few days, on the Thursday evening I was invited for the championships dinner during which all the prizes were awarded.

My prize was a box full with all spools of Aurifil thread, it has the whole range of colours (!!), I am really thrilled with it as you can imagine..!
I received such a great response to my quilt, it really was overwhelming, I really never expected that.

Friday was time to pack because on Saturday me and my friend Jo were going to the workshop "Celtic Connections" with the lovely Pat Archibald.
If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of her classes I would highly recommend it.
Take a look at her website here, she makes the most amazing quilts.

We stayed the night in Veldhoven and after a lovely (big!) breakfast on Sunday we took our time to look at all the quilts in the show and of course we took a tour around all the shops.. ;-))

My quilt and all the other winning quilts will be going on a small trip around the world, first they will be on display in Houston (during market and festival) and they are also going to Berlin twice, first in November at the Kreativ Tage Berlin and then again in May-June at the EXPO Berlin.
I can't believe my quilt is actually going to Houston!! :-))

Next year's theme for the OEQC is going to be "Old Masters", I've already got an idea in my head what to do with that so...  see how that develops, in any case..I've got lots of colours of thread, something colourful perhaps?

'Till next time!
Essie

It's been a while since I last posted, but I haven't done any quilty things and therefore not much to show you.
Yesterday was a horrible, wet and windy autumn day.

Nice day for sitting next to the fire with a steaming cup of hot chocolate ...unfortunately I don't have either of those so I settled for a cup of tea instead... ;-))
Going out wasn't exactly an option so while the wind and rain were creating havoc outside, I decided to do some work on my LE.

The crown is finished, and now started working on the little flowers.
The triangles that form the crown were done with the Floriani stabilizer and I also used starch to iron the pieces into shape before applique-ing.

Found this fabric which I thought would be nice for the little flowers around the crown.

Here is one finished (took me most of the afternoon!!)
These were done using needle turn applique, not as smooth as I would have liked it though...
They are so small. I put a coin next to it so you can see the scale.
(just realized that people outside the EU will not now this coin, sorry for that, should have used a ruler instead..)





Part 5 will be coming out soon, and I'm still working on part 2.
Still have got a long way to go yet..
But it is not the only project I'm working on, so steadily doing bits at a time and I might catch up one day (I hope)..


In a previous post I told you about an idea I had for a label for my "Berlin" quilt.

Well this is it:

It decided not to use it as a label but more as an extra embellishment for the top.
It's a so called "dog-tag", like the ones they use in the army for ID purpose.
But instead I put the title and a short text on it. Seeing as I have a picture on the quilt of a soldier I thought this would go well together.

Looking very much forward to the show next weekend, can't wait to see what other people have made for this year's theme. And all the other quilts too of course!

'till next time!
Essie

Love Entwined - The circles on the compass ring

Continuing with the Love Entwined, the circles have been put on the ring around the compass.
"My oh my"...they are tiny!

Here is how I made them using the method I saw on Carin's blog.

I found this fabric last week at the quiltshow, it has the exact size circles that I needed.

Deze stof vond ik vorige week tijdens de tentoonstelling, de cirkels zijn precies de goede maat voor wat ik nodig had.

Basting around the circle...

Precies rondom geregen...

...wetting it with starch. The color is not coming from the fabric but it is my cutting mat shining through.

...nat gemaakt met stijfsel.  De kleur komt niet van de stof maar het is mijn snijmat die doorschijnt.

Then I put the little washer on top and..

Dan het kleine ringetje er bovenop en...

...pulled the thread tight around the washer and put the iron on it for a few seconds.

...de draad stevig aangetrokken rondom het ringetje en het strijkijzer er een paar seconden op gezet.

Be careful when you pull the thread though, because if your fabric is loosely woven and/or frays easily, this can happen.

Wees voorzichtig met het aantrekken van de draad, want als je stof heel los is geweven en/of snel rafelt, want dan kan dit gebeuren.

After carefully removing the washer, I pinned the circle where I wanted it to be...

Nadat ik voorzichtig het ringetje heb verwijderd, heb ik het cirkeltje op de juiste plek gespeld...

...and appliqued it in place.

...en geappliceerd.

I only done 16 circles, instead of the 32 that were on the pattern.

Ik heb maar 16 cirkels gedaan en geen 32 zoals op het patroon.














Next step is to applique the compass onto the background square and then the triangles that go around the compass. Oh..and before I do that I still need to put the circle in the middle of the compass of course!

De volgende stap is het kompas te appliceren op de ondergrondstof en daarna de driehoeken die rondom het kompas komen. Oh..en voor ik dat allemaal ga doen moet ik eerst natuurlijk nog de cirkel in het midden van de kompas appliceren!

'Till next time!
Essie

Quilt show and Love Entwined compass ring

On Sunday me and 3 more ladies from our bee went to the quiltshow in Alkmaar.
We had a lovely time, seen some beautiful quilts. Amongst which were 3 amazing quilts that all won a prize in Houston last year.

My quilt was there too, here I am with my quilt:

I made more pictures of the show but will show them another time!


What I wanted to show you today is how I done the outer ring on my compass for the Love Entwined.

I traced the ring onto Floriani using only the inside seam lines, not the outside seam allowances and then carefully cut out this ring on the traced lines.

Eerst de lijnen van de ring overgetrokken op Floriani, niet de naadtoeslagen maar alleen de binnen lijnen van de ring zelf. Daarna de ring voorzichtig op deze lijnen uitgeknipt.

Then I cut a piece of background fabric about 10 inch square.

Dan een stuk achtergrond stof van ca. 10x10 inch uitgeknipt.

I placed the ring onto the wrong side of the background fabric with the shiny side down and ironed the ring onto the fabric, being careful not to warp the shape of the circle.

De ring op de verkeerde kant van de achtergrondstof gelegd met de glimmende kant naar beneden en heel voorzichtig gestreken zodat de ring zijn vorm behoud en niet vervormd.

After that I placed the background fabric back on top of my pattern and carefully traced the seam allowance on the inside of the Floriani circle.

Daarna heb ik de achtergrondstof weer op het patroon gelegd en voorzichtig de naadtoeslag aan de binnenzijde van de ring overgetrokken op de stof.

Then cut away the inside circle.

Daarna de binnen cirkel uitgeknipt.

And cut into the seam allowance every 1/4 inch or so.

En de naadtoeslag ongeveer iedere cm ingeknipt.

Then I put some glue on top of the Floriani circle and folded over the seam allowance and ironed in place.

Daarna lijm op de Floriani cirkel en de naadtoeslag omgevouwen en gestreken.

Fold your circle in half and finger press the edges, then open up and fold it over again and press to get 4 folds north-south and east-west. Align these folds with your 4 points of your compass.

Vouw de cirkel in de helft en geef een vouwtje, daarna nog een keer in de andere richting nog een keer vouwen zodat je 4 vouwen krijgt, noord-zuid en oost-west.  Plaats deze vouwen op de 4 punten van je kompas.

Carefully pin the ring on top of your compass using first 4 points of the compass, then the points in between those and so on.

Speld voorzichtig de ring op het kompas door eerst de 4 punten vast te spelden en daarna de punten daar weer tussen.

..untill you have a completely pinned ring and now you can applique this using your own preferred method of applique.

..tot de hele ring is gespeld en nu kan hij geappliceerd worden op de manier die je zelf het fijnst vindt.

Before you start your applique, be warned!
If you have a cat, you might not get the chance....hahaha

Voordat je met appliceren begint, wees gewaarschuwd!
Als je een kat hebt, krijg je misschien niet de kans om te beginnen...hahaha


Next time I'll do the little circles on the ring.

Volgende keer doe ik de kleine rondjes op de ring.


See you next time!
Essie

An (almost) finish..

Today I've been working on the binding of my "Berlin" quilt.
I really enjoy doing that, love watching those raw edges disappear.

Does that mean it is finished?? Well...no, it's not quite finished yet..but nearly!
Still have an applique piece to add and maybe I'll put in some hand stitches..not sure about those just yet?
And lastly I will put on the hanging sleeve and a label. Got a great idea in my head for a label, but need to look into that, will show you if it works out!

Today the stabilizer arrived in the post, so I can continue with the Love Entwined.
However, not sure if I'll have the time this weekend.. Tomorrow will probably be a shopping day and on sunday we'll be going to the Quilt show in Alkmaar.

But next post will show you some more of my progress on the Love Entwined and of course some pics of the show!
See you Sunday maybe and if not, 'till next time!
Essie

Hi there!
Holidays are over for most of us and things are getting back to their usual routine.
Lots to do and a busy ( but fun!) week ahead...
First a quick update, these are the Jane blocks I've done over the last couple of weeks:

C-13, "Lakota Sioux" mostly foundation
pieced

D-1, "Alison's Guiding Light",
also foundation pieced

These blocks I made while we were in Birmingham, thought I'd bring a couple of easy blocks so I'd have something to do in the evening ;-))

D-7, "Meeting Place"

D-6, "Challenge"

D-13, "Field of Dreams"

Have started on blocks D-2 and D-9 already and as I mentioned in a previous post still need to do the applique pieces on blocks C-5, C-7 and D-4. The Floriani Stabilizer has been ordered and will hopefully arrive some time this week. And with that I can also continue working on my "Love Entwined".

Yesterday I received confirmation in the post that my entry for the OEQC has been accepted. Most of the quilting has been done, will try to get that finished this week and then I can put the binding on. Then all I have to do is add some hand stitching for finishing touches and make a label and hanging sleeve.
This week wednesday is our first Bee evening and next weekend is the annual quilt exhibition of the Dutch Quilters Guild (Quiltersgilde), so lots and lots to look forward to!

For now, have a nice evening and see you next time!
Essie

What I'm working on right now..

I've been busy this week with my compass for the LE, this is how it looks so far:

I'm quite happy with how these colours turned out.. ;-))
The middle circle still needs to be appliqued and then onto the outer ring with the little mini circles all the way around it. I'm waiting to order the "Floriani Stitch N Wash" stabilizer which I'll be using for the applique. (see here for more information on Esther Aliu's blog)

I also think the stabilizer will come in very handy for use with the applique pieces on my Dear Jane blocks.
I'm working on block C-5, here you can see I've ironed the freezer template on the white fabric, I then cut out the inside and basted this on top of the pinwheel block for applique-ing, after that a circle will be cut out of the little pinwheel block and that will be appliqued in the centre..

...and for some reason I find myself working on more than one block at a time so also working on blocks  C-7 and D-4, still need to do the applique pieces on those
And blocks C-13 and D-1 are halfway done as well !

I'll show you the finished blocks next time, for now I'll leave you with some eye candy from Birmingham Festival of Quilts

An overview (don't be fooled, it was busy!)

Small Selection of the Horizons Exhibit by the Quilt Guild

"Jonny asked for lizzards" by Joyce Dorsett, UK

And some very bright colourful quilts:

"The Seasons" by Liz Jones, UK

"Coloured Windows" by Sheilagh, UK

"Blowing Bubbles Undersea" by Huei-Lan Chuang, Taiwan

A close up of some beautiful applique

"Transition Fragonfly" by Sandra Wyman, UK

More to show you next time,
Have a great weekend!
Essie