What happened here?

Yep..that's what is left of my DJ book, I've finally done it!
It was getting harder to copy the patterns from the book, so I had no choice but to cut it apart.

Just quickly want to show you two more Jane blocks I've done.

Block C-7

and block C-11

Tomorrow we're off to Birmingham for the Festival of Quilts...:-))
Will keep you posted..
See you next time!
Essie

Hottest day of the year..

Its the hottest day of the year so far, 36 degrees Celsius in the shade!!  Hopefully we will have some thunder storms later..
So keeping calm next to the fan with a nice cold drink and working on some Dear Jane blocks.
Wonder how Jane coped with such hot weather in her time? No air conditioning, and with wearing all those skirts and hoops in those days, it must have been very hot!

Done this one today, Block C-10 "Patriot's Lantern"

These blocks were also done the past couple of weeks
Block C-9 "Jane's Tears"

and C-2 "Streak of Lightning"

With a little help of my little furry friend (poor thing, she must also be very hot!) I have prepared some pieces for block C-11 and they are ready to be appliqued.

This time next week my friend Jo and I will be visiting the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, UK..
sooooooooooo excited!!
With over 700 quilts on display there is so much to see and lots to shop too;))
One day is simply not enough to see it all, so we will be visiting the show 3 days, Friday thru Sunday. On the Friday we will also attend a lecture with no other than Kaffe Fasset himself and on Saturday we will be attending a workshop. I will bring my i-pod and try to do a daily update of the show on my blog with some pictures too.
Hopefully the temperature is going to be a wee bit cooler when we go!

See you 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

Time flies..time for a Jane update

Time seems to go faster and faster..before you know it another week has gone and then another month..
My last post was a month ago..can't believe it!
Time has gone very fast the last few weeks but luckily I did have time do a few baby Janes..

Block C-3  "Rayelle's Fence" 

this one is foundation pieced.

Block C-4 "Tic Tac Toe" 

mostly foundation pieced 

Block C-1 "Trooper Green's Badge"

foundation pieced

nice to have an easy block now and then.. ;)

Block C-8 "Hani's Crown"

middle section with the white pieces is foundation pieced and outside corners are traditionally pieced.

Block C-12 "Family Reunion" 

decided to traditionally piece this block, but those pieces are soooo tiny! Took me quite a while to put together..

Oh, well.. as they say

"No pain..no Jane.."  ;)LOL

Noticed there's some threads on some of the pictures, sorry about that, however it does give you a sense of scale so you get an idea of the size of the blocks.
This puts me on a total of 31 blocks and seeing as we are in week 28 that means I'm still on schedule.
That's all I have for Jane, next time I'll show you what else I've been busy with..

"Till next time!
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

Photos from EXPO Veldhoven

Here is a video I made with a selection of quilts from the show at EXPO Veldhoven last week,

I always come back from a show inspired and full of new ideas, hope you enjoy looking at these amazing quilts as much as I did (and still do)!

Next post I will have some more DJ blocks to show.
"Till next time!
Essie

Porkies..

Somebody has been telling porkies!
Me that is, in one of my previous posts I may have mentioned that I only have one more block to do in order to finish row B of my DJ.
Well that wasn't quite true, when I sat down to do that last block to my own surprise I realized that it was actually 2 blocks, here they are:

Block B-5, "Hot Cross Buns"

When I look at Jane's version they look pieced but I reverse appliqued the diamonds first to the blue squares before traditionally piecing the rest together.

Block B-7, "World Series"

Melons appliqued to the background, then reverse appliqued a circle on top of that. Then appliqued the tiny diamonds as last, pffff..what a task that was! Can you see which one I done first?

That makes 26 blocks done!
So now on to Row C..

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of quilts I stumbled on by accident, they are very colorful..

These quilts are made by Fraser Smith, and they are not what they seem..

They are actually carved out of wood! Isn't that amazing?

You can find more pictures here.

"till next time!

Essie