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

Scrap tree quilt top

This is my version of a scrap tree (still a top) I finally made!!

On the cover of the book: Minimal Quiltmaking, written by Gwen Marston  is a tree I wanted to make for some time. Then I found a  free tutorial of a similar tree on  Pinkadot Quilts written by Kelly. What I did differently was make a background of scraps in all sizes. This is also the way my daughter, Kellie ( yes I know it is a bit confusing, Kelly and Kellie  but I'm talking about two different persons here;), likes to work. I once showed Kellie's work here.

The branches are also made out of scraps, dark brown strips in different sizes which would fit one of the gaps in the background.
To use different sizes of scraps is probably not the easiest way, but if you form little units and join those to bigger units, you will end up with a big piece of back ground fabric in no-time. While doing this I sew, cut or sew extra and iron and cut again until my piece is big enough.
So nice to use up all the little quirky scraps !

Thanks to Kelly and Kellie for encouraging me to work like this!!!

Groetjes

Annemieke

Red and blue experiment, more crocheting in wool and dolls bed.

New project... It is just an experiment and not finished yet. I'm quilting the red and blue scraps with the  cotton (see the balls above) in red and blue.

I like quilting in big stitches with the thin cotton (number 8). May be this piece is just going to be a quarter of a whole quilt. I have to make three more pieces then and sew them together with the 'quilt-as-you-go' method. We'll see.

Some times the light is so beautiful here on the river,  that I have to get my camera out, even if I'm still in my pajamas. This was in the morning.

And now my progress of the woolen crochet blanket. It is 72 cm long now, so I crocheted one third of the whole blanket I guess.

I hope my father in law, who did all the spinning of this wool, has some of the darker wool left. I almost ran out of it and it gives such a nice contrast.

If I'm crocheting I can cover up my legs easily see? He once made me some pair of socks too (the ones I'm wearing here). I saved them for my wooden shoes, which I hope to use again in the garden.

On our last trip in september to the Vendeé (France) I bought an old dolls bed at Les Sables d'Olonne (no website).  It is made of wood and came with a matress and cushion, filled with excelsior (the stuff old teddybears were stuffed with). My home-made teddybear has his own crocheted blanket with ripples.

Here the little bed in the sun in France. I hope to make small curtains for it some time. May be some made out of small hexagons would be nice.

 The matress and cushion were in the fridge for 48 hours,  just in case some little animals were living in there.
 The shop owner said the bed is from the 1930's.

 The bed is totally foldable too!

Our view to the west at the end of the day. The beautiful sky is different every minute of the day and there fore difficult not to photograph, I think.

Have a good week,

Groetjes
Annemieke