Spiderwebbing

Snow melted and the sun was shining again lovely. Fresh winds were blowing all dust nests away. Blew me in the mood to do some nice talking to my sewing machine, opened it up a bit and acted like the winds, with a little help from a tiny brush.

I was going to have a tutorial on Spiderweb Quilting, the first steps of creating a star point, the next morning.
It was sheduled at The Stitch Cottage, The Hague, and Jantine Urban was going to teach and tell us all about it.

It was fun and not too difficult. Can't wait to take it a step further, but my schedule of commitments is rather 'thick' these days. Too much going on, not only nice things. Like playing music and going to some other music. That was and is the nice part of it all, folks!

Anyway, this is what I came up with. Most scraps and fat quarters from my stash, but some greens from the shop longed to come along, couldn't resist it. Weak!

Haven't had time yet to bicycle all the way to the other quilt shop in town to get some more dark blue batik for my QAL. Maybe tomorrow. Fingers are tickling to go on with it.... (Sorry if my English is sometimes a bit (!) double Dutch for you. I am learrrning, that's the whole point! ;-))

Thinking of doing also some like this:

And I am sure on the go I will come up with some more exciting combinations, like some kind of red and more golden stripes, maybe blue middle points in the spiderweb. Even golden ones. Just anything what catches my eyes and makes me happy. The big star in the middle is going to be in two shades, greenish and blue-ish, you can just see a wee bit under the right wing. There will be also more darker blue and lighter blue combinations. At least that's what I am thinking now. This is definitely a project where everything will and can change during the process. Don't you agree?

Jantine is great in explaining and letting us do our own thing. I totally forgot to picture the choices of the other girls. Next time, new chances!

Jantine Urban and here fab red spiderweb.

Daphne and Angelica very busy at The Stitch Cottage.

My piece of cake...

Hope to give you later on more of it.

Starburst Star QAL

In the spur of a moment some major decisions are made. So when I came along this Indie Starburst star pattern I skipped all other projects I had in mind and started going along. Contacted Melissa Corry who made the pattern asking if I still could join. Wouldn't be a problem, so there I was looking through my stash, searching and deciding what fabrics and colors would do for me. I wasn't going to buy new ones.  Good idea to start with...

This is what I came up with. Don't you think it's pretty beautiful? A combination of Java Prints and Batiks.

The reds and blues are quite difficult to catch for my camera. Imagine them a bit darker in the 2nd row from right, and the reds brighter. I am not quite settled on the 2nd row, there might probably some changes during the process.

For the backround I changed from black to dark blue to black again and then I found this dark blue & black batik in my stash. Super! Not enough though, so soon this will be followed by a short (;-)) visit to the batik quiltshop...

Nothing wrong though with starting to cut the Java Prints...

Almost forget: I will do the 24 inch block size. That's big enough for me.

I like to think it to be a kind of tribute to my early childhood years I spent (with my parents and 2 sisters) in Indonesia in the late fiftees. In Bogor on the beautiful island of Java to be precise.


On the special tab page on top you will find all about the QAL and the on going process, I'd like to share with you.

You may like to see also more of it on http://www.flickr.com/photos/zil3lion56lis/

Making miles and still smiling

Today is a cold, grey and grim day, even rain came this afternoon. So I decided not to go outside making miles by walking, but instead stay at home and make the miles with needle and thread, maybe even pass the finish line with the stab stitch.

And there I was, sitting in my conservatory, listening to the tick-tack of the raindrops falling on the glass roof, to the wind beating the windows, it felt much like camping in a translucent tent. To complete the picture, I choose my new cd with Liszt Cello Sonatas (present from Mr. B for my birthday recently) on Itunes and started to stab, stab, stab into the cloth. It was so lovely to sit & stab feeling warm and comfortable, the stab stitches going like they were running the marathon. Tea cup near at hand. Music singing in my ears. Forgot almost the time. And so I finished the double square, at last! Hooray! Looks quite nice, if I may say so.

The next job is to complete the design by drawing with the blue (washable) pencil and start quilting the ordinary stitch, one at a time in the beginning, after a while trying to get more stitches on the needle. It’s all about learning and improvement, that’s the idea of course.

Enough for today, of this. Cooking time!

Making miles... and learn to smile

Making miles, that is what you are supposed to be doing when learning the stabstitch. In the beginning it was like learning to swim or to skate. More falling than menaging, but after going on stubborn and strong, and also getting some good advice from my fellow stitchers - they told me so! - I now can say: Yes, I can! I am there.... I think.
It is starting to look nice and even the stitches are becoming more and more like little hyphens in the row.
It even feels like fun again, needle in, straight down, catching it under the cloth, turning, stabbing straight back, gripping it and see... there you are: stab stitch!

Making Miles makes me smile ;-)

This design is from the course: Hand Quilting, by Nanny de Haan, in The Stitch Cottage, The Hague.

New Beginnings

Time for something new.

Time for a change.

Time for fun in the land of Fibre art.

This is the place to be for that.
Let me tell you from time to time
about the discoveries and inspirations
encounters, small & huge, on this exciting path.
Every inch a mile stone.
Making miles with a smile.
You already have been sharing a lot,
Let me share with you.

Enjoy!

Did you know a Red Knot is a kind of bird, a 'Peep'. It is not so big in size, but it is a huge flyer: it migrates up to 150.000 miles for its breeding grounds. From here all the way to New Zealand. In Dutch this peep is called 'Kanoet'. Say that quick enough and you end up in the word 'Knoet'. In Dutch that is something to do with knitting and also knot, but perhaps more tangled up.

And 'KNOTS' is kind of 'Crazy', with the K sound (in Dutch), so I guess I am kind of crazy... ;-)

Anyhow, now its time for a bite!