AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas came and went. All run well with nice company and mild weather.

In the meantime the recipient of this quilt is born (a very cute little girl named Lucie) so I ´d better hurry to get it finished.

The pictures are not great but they are the best I can manage with the winter sun.

I will machine quilt it with flowers and loops in a white thread.

I wish you all the best for 2012.
May you have a peaceful,rewarding and joyful year.

WALLS REQUIRE ART

We have been living in our house for over 10 years now. That means some walls needed some fresh paint. I started with the toilet (I don´t think you want to see pictures of that!) and then I painted the entrance with a light linen colour.
The wall on one side looked naked and we needed a shelf anyway to put keys, letters,...or so I told my DH. He built a shelf which I painted with about 10 coats of satin white and then made a collage to put above:
It is made out of old and new magazine pages, pictures I found in discarded school books... I printed the cutlery on a tea bag! I added some scrap booking papers ( yes dear sister, I have some of them too!) and I called it done.
Even if I see things which I could have done differently, I like the colour scheme and the over all feeling. Can you guess? It won´t be my last collage.


I started yet another baby quilt (this time for a girl as you can guess) for someone in my family in France. I will add appliqué flowers on the white borders and see how it turns out.

This time last year I was complaining about the snow, well this year winter is taking its time. I won´t complain now, just that it could be colder to get rid of all the bugs still around!

Have a nice advent!

WELL, WELL, WELL

Runs in cold mornings, pumpkins galore and less work than usual: that´s what it looks like around here at the moment.

My mother likes sewing and has a lot of time in winter so that she can finish a lot of tops. But she does not feel like quilting them all (she quilts only by hand) so from time to time she gives me one top to machine quilt.
This is one of them:

I was inspired by Fall and quilted leaves and pumpkins. I hope my mother likes it.

At our quilt group we have a haiku project going on. It was my turn and that is what I came up with. It says " forgotten dreams, whispered words, the pictures of the past have disappeared"

When the project is over (in february), we will have around 20 little quilts which will hang together. I will show more pictures then.

Till next time!

STILL THERE

Yes, really, I am still there! After some relaxing sommer holidays, some gardening ( it felt like a lot!) and some renovating I am back to my hobbies:


I knitted some socks with left-over yarn. That´s why they are not very long.

But they are still nice enough to walk around the house and the garden and that´s less yarn in the basket.
I also got new glasses. And that was not funny at all. They are with progressive- addition lenses which are just a bother! After more than one week, I still have to move my head a lot to see clearly. It is getting slowly better though I think.

We are having a wonderful weather here at the moment. That means some more work in the garden but great walks and runs too.
Have a nice time!

CREAM AND BLUE

Well, that was a quick finish. I quilted the baby throw on 2 afternoons in a meander pattern and I must say that I really like it!



The colours are muted but I tried to vary the textures for the baby. The quilt has linen, cotton, ...
and some "teddy bear" fabric!
Only 2 weeks til the holidays and I am really looking forward to them.

Have a nice time and enjoy your favorite hobbies.

ANGRY

We stayed ELEVEN days with no telephone nor internet! I am really angry at our telephone company. I had to spend hours trying to get through with my mobile, I was sent to ten different departements where nobody knew nothing about nothing and just as I begun threatening them, did they react! What a bother...

Anyway now everything is back to normal, I hope.

I finished the top for the baby quilt. I am machine quilting it at the moment. It looks better in real because the colours are richer. And by the way I got the pattern there.


I have a lot of blogs to read so that´s all for today!

Bonne fête, Maman!

Today is mother´s day in France and that is something which won´t happen to my mum tomorrow as she is on holiday in Turkey having a great time I hope. For those of you who don´t speak french, it says "Mother´s day, the day after" and on her apron "We love you, Mummy"!


After a very long stop, I started piecing patchwork again. This will become a baby boy quilt. The mother-to-be wants muted colours but I think I will still add some aqua blue like the blue in the right down corner block. Only 63 more blocks to go!

I am still busy filling up my art journal:


Unfortunately the garden wants some attention too so that I am not as creative as I would like to be but I am working on it.

Till next time!

DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND!

Well, actually just from my sister, who posts much more than I do.
So here are my art journal beginnings.
That´s the book I started with. It is a Christmas present from dear friends. The paper is really nice but the cover was a bit boring.

I changed that first with the help of gesso, acrylic paint and gel medium.

Then I started:


I enjoy the journey, the thoughts I put in this first journal, the colour combinations I try, the way it makes me look at things and people from a new angle.

Maybe I will add some fabric to it in the future. After all, I have some (sic!) shelves full of it!

I hope you enjoy your creative journey too. Be daring!

SEWING MACHINE HERE I COME!

Gosh, it has been a long time! I am at the computer every day and still it takes me so long to post something. Just because of all the other interesting websites, blogs, videos,...
But as I am teaching a course on machine quilting soon, I spent some time with my sewing machine too. I tried new motives and I like them, especially the top left; it looks like coffee beans!

I knitted a small jacket for a sweet baby girl. Baby things get knitted so fast. It lasted me a bit longer to spin the wool first and dye it. The mother liked it and was glad the jacket was not pink!


As I said before I am trying to learn drawing and I started an art journal which is quite addictive. I will show more of that next time. Til then Happy Easter!

SUNNY TIME

It is still very cold over here but the sun is shining a bit longer every day. Time to grab some tools and put some order in the garden.

Till then some pictures of my new projects.

First a top which did not cost me a cent: I had a shop bought jumper whose wool was too nice to throw away but which shape shout too much "I was made in the 90s and I am proud of it" (wide shoulders, too long,..). So I undid it and then plied the wool as it was very fine (machine knit). Then I made a pattern as I went along, being inspired by some other patterns from magazines.
I am very happy with the result and it is a piece very easy to wear.
I worked some more in my sketchbook:

Trying new things like acrylic paint, coloured pencils,...


I am having fun! I hope you too!

FEBRUARY RANDOM

Winter lasting a bit longer than I like, I tried to bring some spring at home. Inspired by this lady, I sewed first a square to see how it goes. I am glad I made first a small quilt as I learned a few things in the process.


But I like it and I think I will make a table runner out of the rest of the fabric. I can imagine it will look good with some fresh flowers on top. Spring can arrive!

I made another sketchbook, this time for my favorite niece (mind you, I have just one at the moment!) as she is a keen sketcher.


I had fun playing with gesso and gel medium, making the green paper.
I made a drawing of a lady to send with the book and you can see there what my niece and her mother thought about it ( as I have said before I am just a beginner!)

I started a new jumper out of recycled wool which I hope to show next time.
Til then have a nice time.