Whoopie...another finish!

Well Barb, I think we need to slow down our happy dance. No more polka with my and your finishes coming back to back or we might have to be admitted into hospital. *wink* Yes, another finish for me. I picked back up my second saying from Blue Ribbon Designs.

I have five total to make. If you remember I bought these frames simply because I loved the look of the frame for them. This means playing with fabric to make some of them fit. I am doing each one just slightly different.

All the fabrics will be from among the ones I used for the little patchwork side of the first saying.

This way they will all have a distinct feel while they all still go together well. And I cannot wait to hang these in our new house!

I am so very tempted to start the third one today but am resisting as I have picked up another UFO to work on instead. You may have already figured out that my surprise giveaway happen with each finish. I want to do this throughout the summer with the hopes that I will be giving away a number of handmade things. That alone makes me motivated to finish a UFO as I love making things for others!

I am trying to connect what I make to the finish. This saying is about passion and another of my passion is creating a beautiful garden...

...so here is a fob to celebrate a summer garden. I went back to the post where I showed my start of this project and entered the 24 comments into the number generator. Now in this case, the number 13 turned out to be Hazel over at QuietlyStitching's lucky number. Please email me with your address Hazel and I will get your fob out to you this week. Congratulations and I hope you and your scissors enjoy this little bit of jewelry to brighten it up.

Speaking of gardens, anyone else enjoying the coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show this year?

In the pink of the season...

I have been a bad girl. I was home on Friday evening and had a finish on the weekend but no blog entry. I just for some reason have been too busy with my needle and thread to pick up the computer. I have only visited a handful of blogs and not stopped by to say hello. But here it is...drum roll please...

My French Abecedaire sampler is finished if only a year late. As my regular readers know, I put this aside last year when I became too ill. I had not planned on letting it sit as a UFO for so long as I really do love it. I stitched it 1/1 on 28 count using DMC 3787, 3721 and 223. I found a frame that was perfect for it at a shop here in Holland called Action. It was a steal at only 1,49 euro.

I want to thank Gazette94 for a wonderful SAL sampler!

Our vacation was very wet and cold but we enjoyed exploring the Harz is Germany. We stayed in Quedlinburg but, thanks to Anita, made a pitt stop in Braunschweig on the way there to visit a quilt shop. Yes, I broke my stash diet. I am excited to start on some projects soon with these...

On my return home, I had my second part of the new SAL from Sophie waiting in my inbox so I had to start on it right then and there.

And to celebrate the finish and framing of my sampler, I have the winner of my next surprise giveaway. I went back to this post and the random number generator gave me comment number 12. How about another drumroll...

The winner is Christine. I made her a fob using various green beads since it is almost summer time and added a sewing charm of a measuring tape. Congratulations Christine and can you email me through my profile page Christine so I can put your scissor fob in the mail to you?

I hope you are having a great week. It is hard to believe that this is the last week of May! I will be sharing another framed finish before long. Two finished in one month feels really good...

Happy stitching!

SAL fun!

I was really going to use 2010 as a year to finish many of my UFOs. I am doing that but find a need to work on new things along with them. It is an exciting creative energy that is released when you start something new. A kind of needlework steroid. *wink* When I saw a new French SAL starting on Sofie's blog, I could not resist. The first glimpse of it was beautiful as it is stitched lace. This appealed to my bobbin lace heart. As some of you know, I also make bobbin lace although I make little time now to do this.

I am using stash for this SAL and choose Wichelt Jobelan 'Bay Rum' 32 count fabric. I seem to have gone all chocolaty once again with my thread choice. I am using DMC 3858 and 3371 which is like looking at a raspberry filled dark chocolate bonbon. *wink*

Here is the first part of my 'In The Meantime The Summer' SAL.....


I will be away from my computer for this week. Jos and I are on vacation. We spent a few days at Cranberry Cottage since we had a long holiday weekend. We are back home to do the laundry and repack for a few days in Germany. I am looking forward to spending some time in the beautiful old village of Quedlinburg. I hope you all have a great week and I will be back visiting you on the weekend.

Don't forget that a day is not complete without needle and thread...

Through the pumpkin patch...

Well, come along...
There is so much to see in the pumpkin patch...

Look! Emily has a face. She visits with me while I stitch. Now I know most people know Emily Bronte through her tortured romance Wuthering Heights, but are you familiar with her poetry? She writes music with her beautiful words. I feel, at times, like I am there with her on the moors as the words come to her. I am so enjoying my ode to Emily through this sampler.

If you wish to hear some of her words, I have placed some of her poems in my sidebar music box. Take a moment to really listen and you might also be touched in your heart by her...

Okay...I heard you snicker and cry what does this have to do with a pumpkin patch???

This is what is in my hoop today. I am working on this UFO which, if you read my blog regularly, know that it had to be put aside when I was sick a year ago. Why I have left it so long to get back to, I do not know! I just love it.

I saw you roll your eyes again thinking pumpkin patch. It is coming...

I picked my linen and threads for new SAL by a French blogger. Since this is a long post, I will keep you in suspense until next week over this one. I am a terrible tease I know. Can you see the pumpkin patch yet???

I am also raiding my stash cupboard for my next doll quilt. We are making an Irish Chain doll quilt for the next challenge on SmallQuiltTalk group. I am leaning towards doing a red and cream quilt with various reds for the chain.

Still no pumpkins???

I have been playing with some Japanese folded patchwork. Since I only just tested a couple of blocks, I cannot reveal much yet but promise more to come.

No pumpkins in sight? Do you need to put on your glasses? I see them!

You remember that I had started the Quilt Along for Strawberry Fields? I just love this and right away knew I wanted to use a burnt orange fabric that I bought recently when Saskia and I were forced to go to a local quilt shop. Yes, forced! Her mother told us to leave her beautiful dog with her and go. Really she did! *grins* So I picked this for the lightening setting blocks and went from there...

Seeing the pumpkins now?

I picked various autumn shades to make my 9-patch variation blocks. If you read my blogs then you know that autumn is my favorite season so it was nice to get back to these beautiful shades again. And with these fabrics, there is not a strawberry in sight so I decided that my quilt would have to be Pumpkin Fields instead.

And so you land smack dab in the middle of my pumpkin patch. Leaves me wondering if Annemarie is planting her pumpkin patch this year? I keep threatening to raid her patch each year. *wink*

Hand quilting is well underway with great pleasure. I started it yesterday while at Sonja's for more quilting lessons. When you talk, drink tea, eat yummy treats and quilt, you get so much done.

Bet you thought I was a little crazy when this blog post started? Go ahead and admit it. But I found a wonderful little handmade gift for my next giveaway among the pumpkins. I will be giving it away sometime next week but unannounced again. I am going to pick a previous post and use that for the giveaway. I just love surprises, don't you? Glad you joined me in the pumpkin patch! *grins*

Hand me down beauty...

And never can hand me downs be more beautiful than when you use them to create something new. So when I took all my cast off corners from another quilt (read about it here if you missed it) and started to make another doll quilt, I was having fun creating something around these tiny little one inch half square triangles.


I wanted to give it a very old look so created something to look like a cutter quilt. And as I was hand quilting it, I thought I must call it 'The Hand Me Down' quilt.

This doll quilt measures 10-1/2 x 15 inches. It was machine pieced and hand quilted.

I am starting a little series of surprise giveaways. I am not announcing that I am doing a giveaway but picking a name from a previous entry. I have been having fun creating some handmade items to give as gifts to my readers. I love reading your comments and want to thank you in this way. I went back to the entry where I showed this patchwork and the random number generator came up with comment 17. I had made a scissor fob around this beautiful glass bead with flowers in it. The charm is a hand bag in honor of my hand me down quilt. The winner is Carolien. It will be on its way to you soon or you could come over and play? *wink* (Carolien lives in the same city as me and we get together to stitch or quilt.)

Thank you so very much to everyone who stops in to say hello to me here. I appreciate all of you so very much! Sharing my passion for needle and thread with you is a joy.

Quilt group theme project - part 4

Last night was our monthly quilt evening. We all look forward to seeing the latest blocks in our theme quilts. Here is block 4 for Heidi's House...

The weather was strange yesterday and my block looks a bit washed out so sorry about the photos. This is my block as it will fall in the overall quilt.

I had no inspiration for changes this month so ended up making it just days before our evening to get together. The one thing I did know I wanted to do was my initials in the small stitchery blocks. I just did patchwork for the large section as I did not want all the stars in the block.

But what to do in the two blocks underneath??? Then Saskia came over last Thursday for a cup of coffee and a chat...

...and gave me this. She said when she saw it at the shop, she thought of me. I would not know why...giggle. *wink* It did the trick and I knew what my blocks would be.

First the word laughter...

...followed by the watering can I use in my garden.

Last week, Enny and I went to Elburg for a fun day out. I took her to the bead shop I love to visit there for beads for her quilt. She told me she would love to have a scissor fob. She picked out the beads she likes and I made her this.

Enjoy a slideshow of the blocks from the ladies in the group. A couple a people were away on vacation this time but there was still lots of eye candy to enjoy.