Thursday 31 July 2014

Big red, blue and white blocks and garden pictures

Remember I told about the tablecloths in my previous post which I bought at an antique market? The lace border in the above picture was part of one of them. The middle part of the cloth had stains so I cut that out.

I just wanted to make blocks, big blocks and use up some of my blue fabrics. I also wanted to try to make little diamonds cut with the ruler from Jaybird Quilts, see picture below.

I bought this ruler at the Quiltboutique.




In 2012 I bought these old sheets and wrote about it here . I finally used the blue one as the outside border of the above quilt block. It is a bit soft but I thought it fits nicely around the blue and white lace border.

Another block, the pattern is called  'courthouse steps' . I didn't measure anything. I'm just making big parts and square up to 60 cm x 60cm.

Like this one too, also 60cm x 60cm.






 Sis of  Labradoodle quilts , who is soon starting a vegetable garden, asked if she could see some garden pictures of my garden. I thought I would make some and show them here. ...the only thing is that my garden (sort of an allotment with no vegetables but only flowers, fruit and plants) is really overgrown (see above photo). I just didn't do much work in the garden because of a sore arm, but hope to make it more accessible soon. I walked through the garden and got all scratched up, it is sort of a jungle, well a Dutch jungle.


This was the garden 1,5 month ago ( I know, a lot of weeds too).


 The positive side is that there are so much insects. A lot of bees, so that's good!!

 Like here too...

  And here...

and butterflies





So may be it will be like this soon again. See my two dogs almost meet in the middle on this garden path?
I will show more pictures of the fruit shrubs soon.

Groetjes
Annemieke



Friday 25 July 2014

Moose under orange and pink trees on my balcony and my orange dress

This tabllecloth is made out of  Ikea Algört stof . It was in my closet for some time and I didn't buy enough for my round table but this week I suddenly got the idea to use it out on the balcony. It cheers up the whole balcony see? It costs only 6,99 euro for one meter. It is a thick cotton and easy to wash in the washing machine. I only had to make four little seams.I made more tablecloths out of Ikea fabric. I like a lot of the designs they made, it is also cheap and good value for your money.

This was before....

Here with the tablecloth before the sun came out on the balcony.

And here the table in full sunlight.

You can see, in the first picture, a small piece of the fabric of my dress I made last year. There is so much to see, it is like a town map and I like the colours. I kept it in my closet for maybe 20 years or so? I liked it so much I didn't want to cut it up... It was made by  Oilily  and I bought it back then in a outlet shop. I don't know if you can buy fabric from Oilily on the bold nowadays.

 It is just a simple dress. I used a pattern  for the top part but just gathered a rectangle of the fabric for the skirt and made a high waist.

The moment I put the dress on the ground Lizzy thought: Thank you and made herself comfortable:)
I thought if I didn't want to wear the dress anymore I am left with a good piece of fabric anyway to make something else out of it.

In Haarlem there is an antique market in spring and summertime sometimes on a Saturday. You can click on the link for the dates and address. I bought these small tablecloths. I might use the lace in a quilt sometime.

Groetjes

Annemieke


Monday 21 July 2014

Summer Bag




This bag from Tilda is in this book called: 'Sew pretty homestyle' . I have had this for a long time and always wanted to make this bag and today I did!




It looks complicated but it isn't. In the book she uses no batting, but I used quilt fabrics so it gives a nicer feel with batting in between the bag. This way I was able to quilt the bag too.




Turning..




The bag is turned and ready to close the yellow lining.




All is left to do is sewing the handles onto the fabric. My handles are a bit bigger than in the book but they will do the job too.



Like this. Forget the second blue line, it is a wrong one. The blue lines from the blue fabric marker is easy to get rid off, just with a damp cloth.
 
 This is how the inside of the bag turned out.

The bag my sewing room. Sorry the light is not that good, is was getting late last night.



 The quilting: just free hand lines with big stitches. I used cotton number 8.

I bought this lovely fabric at Quilt it & Dotty  Tilburg, The Netherlands. A very nice shop and owner. Sadly enough a bit far from my home, about 1 hour 45 minutes.



 I'm happy with my new bag. It looks like a real summer bag don't you think?
Have a good start of the week,

Groetjes

Annemieke






Thursday 17 July 2014

Broderie persé and a bit of nature...

Broderie persé: first time and having fun! I didn't expect it because it is a lot of work and I couldn't imagine that it would look good. The only negative point is the vlisofix I used. It is a bit too stiff, after some sewing (herringbone stitch like I used here) my arm gets sore. Well I have to do a little bit every day than. And next time buy less stiff stuff like 'steam a seem lite'. Here is a nice article about broderie persé, written by Barbara Brackman.

Now and then I make a block out of a box full of, sort of,  matching fabrics. May be someday it will be a quilt like the Sarah Morel quilt, see for images:  Sarah Morel quilt on Pinterest . The idea in the Sarah Morel quilt is that you alternate pieced blocks with Broderie persé blocks. I will sew whatever I want to make on a sewing day :)

Some of the pieced blocks are from a perpetual calender I really like. Every day in this calender has a different block.

Something totally different: Have you ever seen a bat up close?

I'm sorry it is not alive anymore. I found the little animal on the ground in the poring rain but couldn't leave it there. Partly because I find it interesting to see one up close and this way I can put it somewhere else where my dogs cannot touch it.


We see them in the evening flying around our apartment, I think that is rather special don't you think?
I hope I didn't scare anyone with these pictures..

Have a nice day,
Groetjes
Annemieke