warm heart

Look at this wonderful suprice that was waiting for me to come home to on Friday.
A beautiful heart made by Elizabeth. She is a very creative woman with a great eye for detail. Look at the tiny little bird the tulip and that lovely red heart, so preciosly embroidered! And she used red, blue and white my favorite 'dutch blue' colors! Elizabeth and I have just met each other recently on Flickr.
She's so talented and makes great pictures of all her work. She also started a blog.
So go check out her photostream here and maybe you would like to welcome her as new blogger on "Creative Breathing" here.

cross-stitch cushion

We've got some lovely sunshine today. It's so nice to sit outside put my feet up and rest from a day at work. And to take my mind of things...there's nothing better than making cross-stitches. I only had a few left to do, so now this cushion is finished.
And it fits perfectly in the bedroom next to the Billy bookcase!



I'm really pleased with the result. Thanks to the Hema, I'm thinking of buying more pillowcases in other colours.

quilting in circles and an early Christmas card

I start quilting in the white open spaces, making circles to fill them up.
I use light blue thread for contrast. More work than I thougt it would be...turning, turning and turning the hoop around!



And here is a Christmas card I'm SO excited about!
It looks better in real life than on a photo though,(bad light).



A few months back I was asked by Susan O'Hanlon, how is a card publisher in England, if she could use my photograph "holiday season ornament" for publishing it on one of her Christmas cards. These cards are sold in stores in the UK and also in major stores in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, France and Switzerland. Sadly not in Holland.
Also these Christmas cards are published in support of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and 20% will go to this Charity.



I wonder how they look in a store next to all other Christmas cards?
So, if you spot one please let me know!

Cover update

It's pooring down rain right now and more rain is coming.
So a good excuse to stay in and work on the cushion covers.



Hope you all have a creative weekend too!

making stitches

Most off you sugested hand quilting for this quilt and I totally agree, that would look best. But as you can see I started quilting with the machine. Reason??...just wanted immediately result!
Well, fast it goes... although I'm not so happy with the open spaces.
There's an idea in my head how to fill those spaces up, so probably there will be some working by hand after all!



Another new project I can hardly wait to start are these pillowcases.
I found them at one of my favorite shops the HEMA.
They are 50 cm square and made from 100% cotton. The woven threads are easy to count so perfect for doing cross-stitch on. They also sell these cases in red. That would be a lovely color for Christmas combining with white thread.



And finally a picture of Noah's ark free Bom, I love doing these little stitcheries.


I've a few more strips to sew on, so see you later!

what's in the box

I found an old project that was hidden in a box



It's a beginning off a quilt I made from a picture I saw in the book below.



It's a variation off the snowball quilt and it's great to use scraps in.
I was planning on making it a large quilt for a double bed. I always start new projects with great enthousasme but usually that enthusiastic feeling fades away quickly.
So today Thinking on all the work that still needs to be done, UGH!!... it just gives me a headache!
I need a new plan!



Well, that was simple just making a dolls quilt instead!



Next dilemma, quilt by hand or machine? What kind off yarn do I use for machine quilting?
Would anyone like to offer some opinions or advice? It is always welcome!

Good intentions!

In may 2007 I wrote about a schedule, a plan to help me finishing off this quilt before Sept. 2008.


(picture from McCalls superbook of quilting)

What was I thinking?? Oké, my intentions where good, I was determined to stick to it. And so I did...at least for a month or so. While making small stitches I was making slowly progress too.



But now today, it's Sept 2008 and sadly there's no finished quilt to show here!
Where did I go wrong....well, I blame it on blogging...just to many distractions! It's not that difficult to get lost on the WWW and to lose all track of time! So many wonderful things are outthere so easy to get inspired and start something new before the old is finished!
Does this sound familiar?
Last week I started to make small stitches again (with spectacles this time) and throwed away the schedule!

Also last week our DS left for a vacation to his Bolivian family in Cochabamba. I made some gifts he could take along. And I made a mess, seems like I can't do one without the other (lol)!



And I made another bird!





Happy monday!

Sunday bird

We had a really lazy Sunday wich I spent sitting around drinking coffee and reading old magazines. I tried cleaning up some clutter here and there but all I really did was moving things around. I watched the closing ceremony of the olympics..very impressive! And I sat behind the sewing machine for a while hoping something good would come out of it. This was the result. Is it a swan a or a chicken? Well, its a weird kind of bird...just named it the "Sunday bird".





Today my three weeks vacation also ended...that means tomorrow its back to work, so no more lazy days...snif, snif! No, I'm just kidding...I'm really looking forward to start work again!
Have a good start of the week too!

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!