still here

Thanks to you all for your lovely warm wishes and welcome to our granddaughter Luca. Here she is, our sweet little girl. She is so fantastic and she does what all babies do (most of the time)...eat, sleep and grow!



Things have been a bit quiet lately here on the Dutch blue blog, but that does not mean I have sat still! I kept myself busy with searching for a new cabinet/ bookcase for the bedroom. We had an empty wall since our old cubboard moved out to Luca's room, see this post.

After seeing many, I mean "MANY" differant cubboards, cabinets and bookcases we finaly went for the Billy bookcase system from Ikea. It covers up the whole wall perfectly and the glass doors are making it almost impossible for dust to nest on the shelfs. This is certainly no superfluous luxury for a bookcase in a bedroom!


The bookcase looks still a bit empty now, but not for long, I'm sure!

baby news

On august 2, early in the morning our daughter M gave birth to a daughter.
She's our first grandchild..Luca is her name and she's the most adorable, sweet, pretty little baby you can imagine...so precious.
Mother and child are healthy and doing great.
I would love to show you a photo of her but I've to ask the parents for promision first!
So instead I have for you "beschuit met muisjes". It's traditional food served to celebrate the birth of a baby in the Netherlands, read all about this typical Dutch custom here.
I'm off, this proud oma has to go visit her granddaughter...(again!)

month 3

I'm on a roll...yeah! Rainbows and cows stitchery almost done!
Next in line...two kangaroos!

Happy stitching!

Summer?

Where's the summer? Today yet another day with rainy wet cold weather. It feels like autum!
Forced to stay inside I finally caught up with my mountain of ironing today, thank goodness!
And I managed to made the last stitches on this dove. I'm trying to catch up on this BOM as well. I'm months behind!



Don't know why I'm behind because this really is a lovely work to do!
Also made these cards. A quick and easy job...sewing fabric patches on cardpaper using gold thread



That's just what I like ....minimal effort, maximal result.



Have a nice monday!

recycled calico bag

Mom made this recycled calico bag. It's such a lovely and bright tote bag. The colors red, white and blue gave it that typical Dutch twist.
This morning she handed it over to me and before I even could think..wow...what a sweet gift, she said; "it's not for you, it's for in your shop"!!



Mom thanks!... maybe we have to order new labels with the text; "Dutch sisters and their mom"!

p.s: extra detail, this bag has a nice inside pocket!

Redwork

There's a research book on the shelf in my craftsroom that's absolute one of my most favorite books! Red & White: American Redwork Quilts and Patterns written by Deborah Harding. I had it on my wishlist for a while before I purchased it from Amazon.com. I made a good deal, especially now with the low dollar against the euro it's very lucrative for us living in Europe to buy books in the US!



It's a cardboard box that contains two beautiful bound and wonderfully illustrated books. The first book features the history of redwork embroidery along with illustrations of exquisitely executed quilts. The second book supplies instructions and a lovely collection of redwork patterns.
It's one of my goals to one day make a redwork quilt!



I choose some gorgeous redwork photos from Flickr and made them into a redwork mosaic to inspire me.
The work on the photos is made by others, very creative people....just click on the titel below for further information.


1. REDWORK friday, 2. redwork birdies drawstring bag, 3. Redwork girl & boy dancing, 4. ratinha1, 5. February Valentines, 6. redwork doll, 7. Redwork linen cloth, 8. environment friendly giftwrap - detail, 9. Redwork, 10. Redwork, 11. Stickerei, 12. Lou's Redwork Quilt, 13. Stickmustertuch, 14. QW0004-01, 15. redwork 1, 16. redwork (1)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

labels

This is looking so cool...our own "dutch sisters" labels!!


And what do I want most with new things...use it immediately! So, that's what I did today... It was about time I sew some new tea cozies for the etsyshop anyway.


I put the new cozies in the shop tommorow. Sorry, for this short, quick post, but there is realy nothing else to tell!
Still no news on the babyfront... (waiting very patiencly here ,lol)
Promise I'll keep you posted!

pink and blue

The crib quilt is finished. The sheet with the little birds on is one made by my mother ages ago. I slept underneath it when I was a baby and so did DD and in just a few weeks time a newborn baby will too!
DD worked real hard on decorating the baby's room and it's ready now! She did a great job...the room turned out beautiful and oo so sweet!



The diaper basket on top of the cupboard is an old family piece and so is the cupboard. (There is an empty spot in my bedroom now!!)



Auntie Heleen made this little heart.



And above the crib hangs a music mobile from Kathe Kruse



I love the sweet pink and blue DD used for color the room...it's so fresh. Is it for a "baby boy" or "baby girl"?? Only a few more weeks to go and we will know!

hello again

Just a little post to say hello. There is not much to tell here. No creative thoughts to share. In fact my sewing machine had so much sleep lately...its completly covered with dust!!
Time to blow the dust off and get crafty again. First atempt this pincushion.


Oké this realy is a short post but I hope to show you more next time!

building an ark

The titel sounds like a lot of heavy work is going on around here!
Well, not yet... I don't hear any hammering and sawing at this very moment but....there is a slight possibility that this can change real soon!! That is if I can convince DH how much fun it is to make this arc and its animals!
I saw it in this book; and I love it.



And now a little update on the other arc!
As I told you in March, I joined the stitch-along Noah's Ark BOM from Lynette anderson designs.
The first month "two rabbits" is finished. Please keep in mind this was my first stitchery attempt.


I'm still working on month 2 "the dove".
Month 3 "rainbow and cows" and month 4 "the kangaroos" are waiting patiently to be next.


I'm in no hurry, its a pleassant little work to do in between and its lovely to see it grow.
I'll keep you posted, till next time!

squares

It happen to me all the time.....when I don't have a clue on what pattern to use..... I always end up making squares.
It must be my favorite figure! I think because a square is nice and simple and has four equal sides. And by using different colours and fabrics all kind of patterns can be made. Plus it's easy to sew, no difficult curves.
So guess what pattern I use for the cribquilt???
The fabric with the roses comes from Biggiebest and was also used to make the curtains from.



This is the old cribquilt from my daughter. It seems that even back then I already developed a soft spot for squares! I had the whole babyroom decorated in Laura Ashley. I was a big fan of all their fabric and wallpapers.



I'm curious, what is your favorite shape/ figure to use in quilts? I'll bet we all have one!
DD is checking up on me every now and then to see how much the cribquilt is progressing.....so I better get back behind the sewingmachine!

Hello

Hello, remember me?
I know it's been a loong time,...two whole months!
I never had the intention to step away from the computer for that long, but let's just say I've got lost!!
I lost myself in many things going on at the same time. And those things gave me stress...lots of stress.
I had to make a choice....that's why blogging came second. I also wasn't all that creative, so what was there to tell?
But now things are calmed down and I try to work my way back. I've got a lot of blogreading catching up to do and try to find some inspiration again.

There is a stash of Fabric in front of me waiting to be transformed into a cribquilt.
It's a quilt for our first grandchild, DD is due mid-July. We are so excited!
The baby's room is almost finished and is oh so sweet.
Aunt Heleen was a big help. She made the curtains and helped with the crib. I'll post some photos of the crib next time. It's an old one, Heleen and I slept in it when we were babies and so were our children. And now it's going to be used by the third generation.
I'm off now...see if I can find my scissors and start on cutting this fabric and make it a quilt!

Rabbits and a winner

Wow...I was stunned by all the comments I received on the giveaway post. There were so many!!
Thank you each and everyone of you, you all make my day!
So this morning was the big moment. I put all the names in a box and asked dd (she's expecting her first baby) to pick out one name.


And the winner is: Katherine from sew me something good
Congratulations Katherine, there will be a package sent of to you somewhere next week!


Now, let me show you my little project for upcomming weekend. I decided to join the stitch-along Noah's Ark BOM from Lynette anderson designs. This is my very first attempt on making a stichery, I like doing it so far.
I choose the gingham fabrics to use between the stitchery blocks. I hope to show the result next week!



Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Happy stitching!!

more tea cozies

Easter was cold, snow white, hail and sunshine...we experienced it all!
But it was warm inside so I spent some time behind the sewing machine to make two new tea cozies for the dutch sisters shop.



They were lots of fun to make and for a special touch I gave each one different curtains.



The one in the middle (above) is not finished yet.



And I made a little basket to hold teabags in. It's from the same pattern as the one from my previous post.



The post on which I received so many lovely comments, I feel overwhelmed. Tomorrow is the last day to enter this giveaway and the drawing and announcement of the winner will be on thursday.
So if you want to be in for this drawing, please feel free to leave a comment.
I'm of now, have to finish the pink flower cozy!

1 year anniversary

Hip, hip, hooray....my blog is 1 year old!! A year sure goes fast, doesn't it? I learned so much trough blogging, such as writing better English (lol) but best of all...I met you and so many other wonderful people!
Thank you'll for coming by and letting me share a little bit of my creative thoughts with you. It's so inspiring to visit your blogs too!
I really want to celebrate my blog's first anniversary with you so I made a little gift basket ( with suprise) to giveaway and I also made a tutorial on how to make one.
If you want to enter the draw all you have to do is leave a comment before wednesday march 26.
So feel free to join in also if you don't have a blog you are still very welcome!


Tutoriol "How to make a gift basket"

Step 1.)

Draw a basket like the one in the picture. You can make a larger or smaller basket by changing measurements.
Cut the pattern out.


Step 2.)

Pinn the pattern on the fabric add seam allowances and cut the pattern out.
Place the pattern for the outside basket on the fold.



you'll have three parts.

Step 3.)

place both lining fabric pieces on outside fabric piece with the right sides together and sew the top left and right, see picture.


This is how it should look.



Step 4.)

Fold the fabric with the right sides together and sew all around leaving an opening on the side of the lining fabric, see photo.



Step 5.)

Turn the basket inside out and sew the opening closed.



Push the lining into the outside fabric piece.



Step 6.)

Add cord, string or ribbons and sew them on the basket as you pleased.
Buttons, beads, you can use anything to make it a fancy basket.


For those who want to give this pattern a try, I hope you enjoy and please let me know how it turned out, I really like to know!