HAPPY NEW YEAR

This was a very, very cold week and it seems that tonight will be just the same. That means we won´t stay very long outside at 24.00 to fire and watch the fire works!

My parents spent some days at our place and my mother brought along her last works to show me.

I thought it would be the right thing to share these nice works with you to give you inspiration for next year.

The apple core quilt is hand-sewed, hand- appliquéd and hand-quilted. I love the colour combination.

The second quilt is machine-sewed and is being hand-quilted. My mother was inspired by a pattern at Quiltville.

I wish you a very happy new year and a lot of finished works (wether they are sewed, quilted or knitted)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I wish you all a peaceful and very happy Christmas.

NEW TEMPTATIONS

How is it that Christmas is already in 10 days and I haven´t seen anything of December yet?! What with bad weather, ill family members (DS and DH both sick with fever and heavy coughing), getting and/or making presents,...

Anyway, yesterday I took some time off to get some quality time going with a good friend of mine to the opening of a new yarn and quilt shop.

Christiane has made it! She now has a very nice shop with gorgeous yarn and fabric.




Of course I did some retail therapy but could not take any picture yet.

This week I knitted some presents for my dear sis: some mitts (modified version of Evangeline) and knee socks (my own pattern).

I just hope that they arrive on time in England. It is supposed to be so cold there (especially inside the house, isn´t it Sis? ) (Private joke!).

Now my DH has discovered a tam he would like to have for Christmas too so you know what I will be knitting next week!

I wish you all a nice third Advent.

WINTER AT HOME

The weather forecast was right, this is what it looked like here at the beginning of the week. Now the snow is gone and it is only cold.

I finished another of Bea´s BOM this week, only two to go and this year´s stitchery project will be complete. Now to sew these cutties together in a top will last some time as I am still pondering which setting will enhance them the best.

In the meantime I have something else to do, not that I would get bored or something!

My mother sent me a top to machine quilt. I like it very much, very scrappy, just my colours. It will be a pleasure to quilt as it isn´t too big and my mother had already put the batting and the back to it. I just have to switch on my sewing machine and off I go!

This picture shows a detail. It is a very easy block made of 2 squares and one rectangle. Either one dark square with one light square and rectangle or one light square with one dark square and rectangle. The squares are 1,5" finished.

During the week, I dyed some more sock yarn. It seems the color combos turned out nice as some skeins are already gone to become Christmas presents.

Tomorrow night will be the time to prepare my DS´s advent calendar. Fortunately Playmobil and Lego exist!

I wish you a very nice first advent sunday and a agreable week.

IT IS GETTING COLD

The weather forecast said we were going to have some snow this week. Time to snuggle under quilts!


For our guild meeting, Bea designed some stitchery and here is what I made of mine. A little bag and a note book cover.




As always, Bea´s designs are fun and look good.


I am knitting quite a lot these days but I still did not have a knitting needle holder and they (the needles) were all stuffed together in a drawer. This is the end of that!

I sewed a needle holder for all my needles and there is still space for more to come! When I was in England to visist my sis, we went to a yarn shop where I bought one skein of a silk blend yarn. I knitted the prismatic scarf out of it.

The yarn is really nice, very warm, soft and I like the color combo a lot.

I can wear it straight away as it is murky here outside.

I wish you a nice week.

GUILD MEETING

At last some quilt pictures again!

Last saturday was our regional guild meeting organized by our group. Over 160 persons turned up and the main theme was redwork. We had a great time, met a lot of friends, made new ones, had a nice lunch, and infected some new women with the quilting bug!

Here are some impressions:

The stage being prepared before the arrival of the crowd.

( the quilt on the front right handside is from my mum.)

The board in front of which Dorothea and I showed some hand stitchery live!

Some of the quilts hanging there.





I particularly like that one!

And the show and tell!

This week is going to be very busy for me: a new course, a lot of appointements,... I hope to be able to squeeze some knitting and/or sewing in between.

I wish you a nice week.

SHE DID IT AGAIN!

Yes, you see well, I did some more Kool-Aid, food-colouring dyeing at the week-end!
The big ball is lace yarn and is a bit too pale to my taste and the second is sock yarn and looks like fun!


Winter is coming and my son´s head has grown, it seems. So what is a mum to do, a new skull hat of course. I would not have chosen that pattern myself, but better he likes it and WEARS it as goes bare head and catches a cold!
I finished the socks for my DH too. I like the colours but did not have enough( he has BIG feet!) so I had to mix in some dark grey yarn at the toes.And finally, I sewed a little bag. It is for a surprise project at our quilt group and that´s why I can´t show the stitchery on it at the moment.

That´s it for today. Still not much quilting going on but I am thinking about it!

Have a nice time.

NICE AUTUMN

Nothing much going on this week. Running errands, doctor´s appointements,...
I had time to admire some trees in the neighbourhood and I hope to get inspired from their colours for some future projects.
Last week´s workshop on machine quilting went very well and we had much fun. So much fun that I forgot to take pictures!
Anyway I have finished Bea´s 9th BOM. I changed it a bit. I hope Bea won´t mind!

As I have a growing stash of scrap sock yarns, I started using them. First for a pair of
booties for a student of mine who is expecting. ( Don´t worry, I teach adults!)









Then some preemies´ hats and socks for a local hospital.
When I have more I intend to visit the hospital with my DS to bring them the socks. My DS was born there 8 years ago and he was a preemie too, so I thought that would be a nice idea to thank them for their care.


Now I am knitting some socks for my DH, who is quite a bit larger than a preemie and the socks are taking a bit more time.
After that I intend to go back to sewing and quilting. I still have some projects ( others would say UFOs!) which need looking after.

I wish you a nice autumn week.

END OF FALL BREAK

We are back after a great time at my sister´s in Great Britain. She liked her socks (main thing!) and we did a lot (like shopping at the interknit café, going to the cinema to watch Mamma Mia, or spending a day in London).
All that time I could not sew nor knit so I haven´t much to show this week.

I had finished quilting that piece before going. The blocks were friendship blocks from allover the world. I machine quilted it and then washed it to get the antique look.

While in Great Britain, I bought some food colouring to try some more yarn dyeing. And this time I am very pleased with the results:

The three skeins were dyed with a mixture of Kool Aid and food colouring. Now when am I going to knit all those socks and/or scarves?!

Not tomorrow as I will give a workshop on machine quilting! I will show the result of the course next time.

I wish you a nice week end with a lot of sun (as we had today).

RUNNING NOSE

Two weeks without posting! I had a reason: a nasty bad cold, with my head feeling like a pumpkin most of the time.

The week before I had started quilting my siggy swap blocks quilt and I hope to show a picture of the finished quilt soon.
This week I received the last lot of my yarn subscription. That was something I could drool over. Quite easy with a running nose! I can see some nice socks or scarves there.

As my dear son and I are flying next week to the UK to see my dear sis, I had to finish her socks. And here they are. The pattern is called Clessidra from Knitty.

She wanted some flaps to fold over boots and there are still some buttons missing at the outside sides.

I hope she will like them, if not they are coming back with me!

This afternoon we had a gorgeous weather and so I spent some time dyeing more sock yarn with Kool Aid.

Pictures will be in the next post too.

I want to thank you all for your nice comments on the scrappy star quilt. They went down like honey, which was just what I needed this week.

Well enough whinging! I wish you a nice week with pumpkin in your gardens or on your plates!