Starting off the Kaleidoscope...

I bought this book by Eleanor Burns and the ruler years ago, when we were still in the sampler cross-stitch club in de Rijp. Today I finally started the Kaleidoscope quilt of Dutch fabrics I want to make for my dad.
Last week I coloured the quilt plan to have an idea of how many blocks I will have to make.
Yesterday I set up this cutting station. I works wonderfully well. I will have to change the bedsheets for my little niece when she has to sleep in her bed. I'm afraid the bed is filled with fabric threads.
I used M.'s great 6x24 inch ruler to cut 5"strips. I know now what I want for my birthday!
Strips, strips and more strips.... The 5" ones are for the triangles, the 4"ones are for the corner blocks.
By using the kaleidoscope triangle ruler I cut each strip into 8 triangles.
There are three stacks of triangles to be cut: dark, medium and light blues. I've finished the light ones
And this is what the floor looks like after a few hours of cutting... G.

Patchwork en Quiltdagen

This weekend the Patchwork en Quiltdagen were held here in our "backyard" in Vijfhuizen. An enormous amount of shops were there and some wonderful exhibitions. I was able to add some great fabrics to my Dutch fabric stash, found the perfect cornerstones for my Civil War quilt and bought some cute fabrics to make myself new potholders. My dad made a very nice series of photos from the exhibitions, just click below and see some of the quilts that were exhibited. Thanks, dad for these pictures! They are perfect! G.

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Little Miss T.'s not in purple

I think this is a first: little Miss T. isn't wearing purple! I. gave me this cute pattern, she had it finished in one night, it took me a bit (a few more nights) longer! But I'm very happy with the result. G.

I'm just looking at I's blog and I can't believe it.... I used exactly the same fabric she did!!

Just have a look here. I'm sorry I., I had no idea!

Christmas in February ?

Last year's christmas tree had a very ugly stem.( My husband had chopped off a bit too much)

So I decided to make a tree skirt. I started it just before Christmas, but didn't finish it until today. We'll see how it looks on the tree this year! The pattern is from an article in the magazine from the Quilters gilde. G.

New Projects by R.

R. has made her own bonnet and scarf. I'm so proud of her. G.

Sweater

I'm always making stuff for the girls, so T. asked me to make something for him. I really enjoyed making him this sweater. I don't think I'll have to make a matching "knuffel" this time. G.

Tossing and Turning

I've spent quite some time at my sisters' balletstudio.

Moving the blocks back and forth and eventually calling my husband to help me. This sure was difficult, but I think I'm quite happy with the arrangement now. I started out with the original order of the blocks from the book, and then changed the order where there were too many matching fabrics or patterns. G.

CWDQ Homework - January

Feeding the Rebels

Gloomy Prospects(left) and Sorrow(right)

Greenfield and Stockton

I can't believe it.... These were my last blocks of Civil War Diary Quilt homework. I've finished 121 blocks!! I made my first block September 17 th, 2008 and my last one on January, 14th, 2011. Now lies the enormous task ahead of sorting the blocks and making sashings, cornerstones and borders. My goal is to have it assembled and quilted by September this year.... At this point I'm planning to quilt the blocks in the ditch on the sewingmachine and handquilt a tiny bit in the center of each block. We'll see how this will all work out! I'm very excited!! G.

Knitting Lesson

R. has a knitting lesson from her grandmother. I'm so very jealous of her, I so want to learn how to knit! And I am so very proud of her, she picked it up immediately and started knitting her own scarf! G.

CWDQ Homework - December

Victuals

Texas Rangers

Southern Notes

Draft Threat

Ok, I didn't finish my homework for December in December, but the first of January is close enough, isn't it?? And finishing these blocks also means that..... I only have four more blocks to do. I can't believe I am almost finished and I have done 117 blocks! Chosing fabrics for the last four blocks was very difficult, I'm afraid I've had enough of most of the swatches.... Now I have one more month to worry about how to finish my quilt. G.

CWDQ Homework - November

Bad Box

Death Penalty. (I can't help it that some of these blocks have such horrible names...)

Foragers

Lincoln's Telegraph. I had no intention to put a picture of Lincoln in my quilt, sorry good old Abe. And some of our class put in a picture of Obama, I'm afraid I don't want to sleep under him either, so a nice little flower is much more restful. G.

Poor little Miss T.

Little Miss T. has been asking for a costume like the one she wore at the "Zuiderzeemuseum", one of a "poor girl with wooden shoes". The latest Burda had a pattern of an apron in it, so with the ribbon I thought it would look a bit like a Marker girl. It'll have to make do. G.

Dresses for Christmas

Just in time for Christmasdinner at school.... Little Miss T.'s dress is finished. She's happiest with her new shoes however... It took me ages to make all the ruffles on the underskirt. But this really is a Christmas dress, so I'm very happy with it.

R. wanted the same shiny shoes of course...

Two happy little girls ready to go to school. G.

R.'s sewing lessons

R. is working on a new project: a skirt. G.

A Box full of Surprises

A box full of gorgeous fabrics, what more can you want!! I wasn't expecting my shipment to arrive so soon, as the mailmen are on strike.

I had wanted to make this dress for little miss T. for Christmas, but found the fabrics at the Stoffenspektakel too expensive. Now that they're half price at "de Stoffenkraam" on the internet, I ordered some lovely purple fabric. Let's get started!

So I started right away cutting the fabric and sewing it. Hoping I will finish on time for her Christmas dinner at school next week.... G.