Some January finishes and WIP

This little quilt is made out of scraps which I almost discarded. Now it is finished, it looks quite cheerful and I'm happy I saved the little squares.

I used my Bernina 807, from the seventies, for it.  I found this sewing machine once in a thrift store. It came in its original red case, compleet with all the assessors. After cleaning and replacing the bobbin winder spool, it is sewing great.

Facts:

Machine sewn and quilted.

Size: 80cm by 87cm (31,5 by 34 inches)

Fabrics all cotton, Batting: wool

This is a little pouch with a crocheted edge. The outside fabric is made of an antique French piece of fabric I bought in Nantes  few years ago. It was just the right size.

 Inside fabrics are new and thrift store fabrics.

The crocheted edge is made with a perle cotton number 5. ctually I embroidered all my Teddy bear noises with this;)

 In the meantime I'm working with all the hexagons made out of scraps I told you about in my previous post. This is the middle part....

which is growing into this. The next rows will be turning from light yellow into brighter yellow. The inspiration for this came from an old Dutch quilt which is in the open air museum in Arnhem .

Have a nice weekend,

GroetjesAnnemieke

Finally I met Brigitte Giblin!

This was a happy day! I finally met Brigitte Giblin. She was in Amsterdam to give workshops at  Den Haan en Wagemakers.  Brigitte is a very talented, friendly and relaxed lady whose work I admire for quite some time now.
As some of you may know I made coverlets from her first book : 'Feathering the nest'  already in 2013 and 2014, see these two photo's below:

You see more pictures here  and here
'
I had hoped to meet her one day and now was the chance. She gave a workshop called :'Tricks of the trade- Fussy cutting workshop'.

We started with a package of templates (made by Brigitte herself:), paper shapes, laser cut 'paper windows', enough fabric, instructions, photo examples, a folded mirror for finding the right spot to cut into and coffee with sweets. Enough to keep us busy the whole morning!

 All kinds of shapes placed here by Brigitte: this is what she calls playing with fabric.

 She uses beautiful bags to hold all her stuff. You can find the pattern here

Did you ever think of finishing your coverlet (there is no quiltng on most of her coverlets like in the old days in England) with these kind of fringe? Fun isn't it?

Explanation by Brigitte how to choose your fabrics/colours here on the tessellations coverlet from her first book.

Look at this folded quilt's beautiful edge finish!!!

My photo's of this quilt don't do this quilt justice but this was all I could do in the room upstairs the shop.

 The edge again...I will make one someday!

This ( and on the other 3 photo's above) is a quilt you can find on the cover of her second book: 'Feathering the nest 2' and of course all the instructions in the book
.

How to use the mirror, great method!

Thanks Brigitte for all the tips and tricks on  this wonderful morning. I hope we will meet again some day.

I could not leave the shop without taking some fabric home....

And Than I left Amsterdam again.....full of happy memories.

Have a nice start of the week,

Groetjes
Annemieke

Great find!!!

THIS is what I found yesterday, at a Dutch antique textiles fair in Maarn!!! Isn't it beautiful????

I immediately noticed it was a silk quilt, not quilted, with a thick batting (looked may be like wool) and backing at the back . It is not quilted at all, only the backing was stitched through the batting and the whole was finished with a trimming around the edge.

The grey silk fabric in between the rosettes of hexagons is special too, I think. I didn't see this colour a lot in books. There was some damage on quite a few fabrics. It has to do with the way they starched the fabric before using it. Sadly the silk breaks. I learned that from An Moonen.

The ladies of the booth were kind enough to hold it so I could take a picture.

Where is the quilt now? I didn't buy it.... I thought it would need a proper home with someone who could take care of it and preserve it for the future. Somewhere everyone could go and look at it, I thought. So this is what I did:

I saw An Moonen at another stand and asked her if she wanted to look and may be buy that quilt and she did. I hope to be able to meet her soon so I can see her antique quilts, see this beauty again and hear more about it. She was very happy and thanked me. I feel I rescued a quilt today!!! 

If you visit An Moonen's site or weblog you can write her and arrange a visit with a group and have a wonderful afternoon hearing all the history and see antique quilts.

Note: the quilt is probably from around the 1850s!

Have a nice Sunday,

Groetjes
Annemieke

(ps I know some people might say I should have bought it myself and I could have sold it for more. I thought about that later in the car home....I think I will never be a rich girl this way; but I'm still very happy!)
 

2016: Lots of Projects to choose from.....

Hi Everyone, I want to thank all of you for reading my blog and your most appreciated and nice comments in 2015 !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are 14 of my WIP projects. Have fun reading!
 

1718 coverlet update (1.73m by 0.35m), lots of more blocks to make. Such a nice project to work on, very different than usual and fabrics as linen, upholstery and woven fabrics too.

  Apple core doll quilt, needs quilting and a binding....

 tree top...needs finishing....(the blue and green is from another top)

Still working on my Cathedral windows quilt (in Dutch: 'Ramen lappie' á la Supergoof), this will take a while because the plan is to make it big. Love working on it though (all by hand).

 Crocheted sheep blanket in granny stripes, only needs a border (and finish all those loose hanging threads..)

 Teddy bear, made of sackcloth or sort of linen fabric, needs eyes and body... but I like him already.

Lizzy BOM, from Quilt it & Dotty,  lots of blocks to make....I don't mind that it will take a while. Nice to know I can make a block without having to think to much...

 Two tops with old Dutch patterns, both need finishing...

 Mushroom, autumn top, needs finishing...

 Red and white Irish chain, I already started machine quilting this...it is quite heavy and big to handle.

A red, white and blue star, part of a sampler quilt to be...there are other orphanage blocks in my closet in the same colour range so may be one day it can be a sampler quilt....

My Bird quilt top...like this one too, a bit quirky..

 '70ties Holiday quilt top, needs more borders... a project I take with me when I go on holiday...

Little dancing dollies table runner, made from antique French fabrics(bought in Nantes, France) on linen, mostly applique. I like this too, don't know why this stayed in my closet for so long...

Of course there are even more plans in my head and patterns and books in my closet, so I feel very privileged .

And now I bought Brigitte Giblin's second book: Feathering the nest 2 at the Quiltster
it is full of nice new projects, ha ha, just what I needed, new ideas!

Saturday the 23thrd I will be attending a workshop in 'back basting applique' and trunkshow (with antique quilts) from Dawn, collector with a needle  at Quilt it & Dotty at Overloon (the Netherlands).  Exciting!
(  I think there are still some tickets left for the trunk show only).

The plan is to show progress on all my projects from above in the coming year!!!


I wish everyone a very creative year too in 2016,
  

Groetjes

Annemieke

The one with the chicken finished!!

And yet another finish....I already made a Spring quilt in turquoise in April, so that is why this is called the one with the chicken!!!
The chicken is a block I draw myself (wanted to make an Easter quilt one day...)

This one really cleared out my closet because a lot of left over blocks were used in this quilt. Also a few unfinished projects are finished because of this project!!

There is embroidery in it, old ( the old round one made by my Mother in law years ago)and new, gifts( the one with the garden gate my friend Marieke gave to me)  and self made pieces.

I made up the long twine of  leaves to use a lot of red scraps. The applique, showing a girl with a flower in her hands is from a book Le petit Monde by Jaqueline Morel 

 In each corner there is a compass. I first saw them  in one of Ingrid's quilts.  My husband draw the pattern for me and I made it into a paper piecing pattern.

The paper pieced blocks were made in a class taught by Gré Koopman. She is sadly enough no longer with us, but I learned a lot from her and admired her as a person, shop owner and teacher.

This Geranium is from a pattern by Lori Holt from Bee in my Bonnet . May be one day I will make the whole quilt. I appliqued this one with a herringbone stitch I showed here. The mini blocks I made during a class somewhere in the 90's....and they survived!

The big character 'A' is made with the broderie persé technique. And the bright coloured block in pink and yellow was bought at an antique stand (and is about 150 years old). The little handkerchief with the character 'A' was a gift when I was about 8 years old.
In this quilt I also included  left over blocks from previous quilts like 'klosjes' from the klosjesquilt, a basket from my basket quilt.

 In the evening sun...

I like paper pieced patterns like this with the flying geese going round, I made that one years ago.

 A lot of big pieced blocks are from a calendar with lots of nice block designs.

A glimpse of the back made from random pieces of pink and beige fabrics. And a binding in dark red.

And I just made a quick picture on my balcony so you can see most of the back of the quilt. Not so exciting but nice and  'quiet' to see if the quilt is turned.

Facts:

Size: 1.70 cm by 1.73 cm,  (67 inches by 68 inches)
Quilting: Hand quilting in big stitches, without a hoop, with yarn from Weeks dye works 
Batting: 100 % cotton.
Embroidered over the finished blocks with perlé yarn numbers 8 and 5, in pink, reds and beige.
Washed in the washing machine (with 6 colourcatchers!) and partly dried in the drier.

Have a good and creative weekend,

 Groetjes

Annemieke