Hallo Oude Vriend Viking! // Hello Old Friend Viking

Source: Fabadashery

Eigenlijk was ik op zoek naar ritsen voor een ander projectje. Ik kreeg de geest gisteren. Ik wilde eigenlijk wat opbergzakjes naaien maar ik kon geen ritsen vinden voor mijn snelle projectje! Verdorie. Kennelijk dus of te goed verstopt of ik heb ze allemaal gebruikt! Maar in mijn zoektocht kwam ik wel een patchwork project tegen van maar liefst...... meer dan 2 jaar geleden... Ik had nog even tijd voordat ik de kinderen moest ophalen van school en schoof dus achter mijn bijna vergeten Viking en naaide wat halve vliegende ganzen (worden ze zo in NL genoemd? het zijn flying geese). Wat was dat lekker, hersenloos lapjes over elkaar leggen en er onderdoor halen.

Ik ben namelijk wat grieperig geweest en ik had bewust school even opzij gezet de afgelopen twee dagen en dit was even perfect! Ik heb de Viking laten staan want ooit moet hij toch af, de Easy Street Quilt van Bonnie van Quiltville. Al 3 patronen van haar liggen op de bank, een 4e ligt alleen als top klaar om afgemaakt te worden en Easy Street zou de 5e worden. Ik heb genoeg stof liggen dus ik denk dat ik daar de komende tijd ook lekker aan ga werken.

De quilts van Bonnie zijn echt een aanrader, ze heeft veel gratis patronen en ze zijn heerlijk kleurig a la ratjetoe.

Houden jullie ook van wat afwisseling met het haken? Wat doe je dan? Vertel me!


~~~~~~~

I was actually searching for zippers for a quick small sewing project but I couldn't find them. And then I found my abandoned Easy Street Quilt mystery... from 2 years ago.... So I got out my Viking, and in the time I had left before I had to pick up the children I actually sewed 40 single wings to flying geese. You need to know that I stopped at clue 2 of this mystery quilt because I couldn't wrap my head around it but they flew underneath my needle. I am going to sit and sew a bit here and there! 

This was the perfect project right now for my and my emotions since I had been sick with the flu on Monday and Tuesday and I didn't want to pay attention to school work. It was bliss. Just putting two pieces of fabric together and put them underneath a needle. So easy and soothing! Let's see how far I will come with this top.

The Easy Street Quilt is designed by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville. She has a lot of free patterns and her tutorials are awesome. If you like seing please go check out her colourful quilts!

Any one else into sewing? Or do you have a number 2 hobby next to crochet? Tell me!


xXxXx

Barbara

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Tutorial: The Easy Quilt

Dit kan echt iedereen met een naaimachine! Serieus. Geloof me. Zoek je een snel dekentje voor jezelf of als cadeautje? Dit lieve dekentje maakte ik voor Kathelijne, en showde het gisteren.
Wil je hem zelf maken? Ik beschrijf het heel globaal en geef links naar tutorials die ik zelf heb gebruikt. Je kunt het!

Wat heb je nodig?
Naaimachine
Quiltgaren (Gutermann katoen bijv) in het spoeltje voor onderdraad en bovenop de machine
Bias band (minstens 4x zo veel als de breedte van je quilt)
2 leuke stofjes van ongeveer 1.50 bij 1.50 (dit is genoeg voor een kinderdekentje of kleiner in het geval van een baby deken), de hoeveelheid stof van de stof aan de voorkant moet kleiner zijn dan de achterkant.
Tussenvoering (katoen of synthetisch) in een iets kleinere maat dan de achterkant. (zie ook link over sandwichen)
Spelden
evt. losse quiltnaald
textielstift
geleider (zie foto)

1. Knip de stukken stof en de tussenvoering van 1.50x1.50 of in gewenste maat.
2. Maak een sandwich van alledrie de lagen met wateroplosbare lijmspray (Action!) of rijg of speld de lagen vast.
3. Zoek het midden op van de stof en zet een lijn over de breedte of de lengte. Het maakt niet uit, gewoon de middellijn!~
4. Zet de naaimachine op standje 1 mm, zet de naald in de middellijn, naai ongeveer 5 mm, ga terug, en weer heen. Zet na die 5 mm de naaimachine op 1.5 en stik de middellijn volledig door. Kom je aan bij de laatste 5 mm dan zet je hem weer terug op 1 mm, naai tot het einde en hecht af door eerst terug en dan weer heen te gaan.
5. Zet nu de geleider in je voetje, en kies een afstand die je wilt aanhouden tot je naad. Ik koos voor iets minder dan 7 cm (7 cm was het maximale).
6. Zet de geleider op de middellijn en stik dus op ongeveer 7 cm afstand de deken door. Zo werk je de hele eerste helft af.
7. Draai de quilt om, zoek weer de middellijn en werk de andere helft af.
8. Maak netjes alle hoeken recht met behulp van deze tutorial.
9. Begin dan met bias band. ALLES maar dan ook ALLES over het vastnaaien van dit bandje deed ik met deze tutorial. Alleen stikte ik de bias band door na het dichtvouwen. Dat deed ik met behulp van deze tutorial. Niet helemaal perfect, maar hij zit mooi dicht!

Klaar! Stop de eindjes bij de bias band weg met de quiltnaald.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My little girl is very happy with her very own quilt! It was very easy to make and I think you can do it as well! So for this weeks tutorial I thought "let's do something else instead of crochet!" If you have a sewing machine, you can absolutely do this! I give you basic instructions and provide links to sites I used myself.

Go for it!

You'll need

2 big squares of fabric (about 55" square), the fabric that is going to be the back of the quilt has to be about 2" larger than the fabric that is going to be the front.

1 big square of batting, a little bit bigger than your front fabric.

Quilt thread

Sewing machine

Quilting bar (see picture)

Pins

Bias band (at least 4 times the width of your blanket)

Quilting needle

fabric marker

1. Cut your fabric and batting in the desired size
2. Mak
2. Make a sandwich of all three layers with watersoluable glue spray, or pin all layers together
3. Find the center of your quilt and mark a line in the center from top to bottom.
4. Put the needle of your sewing machine and select smallest stitch (1 mm), sew 1/4", go back, and sew another 1/4", select 1.5 mm and stitch along the marked line in the center of the quilt.
4. Zet de naaimachine op standje 1 mm, zet de naald in de middellijn, naai ongeveer 5 mm, ga terug, en weer heen. Zet na die 5 mm de naaimachine op 1.5 en stik de middellijn volledig door. Kom je aan bij de laatste 5 mm dan zet je hem weer terug op 1 mm, naai tot het einde en hecht af door eerst terug en dan weer heen te gaan.
5. Attach quilting bar to sewing foot. Select a distance you want between the middle and the next stitch line and put the quilting bar on your first stitch line. And sew a second line (I chose about 7 cm, the widest distance allowed by the quilting bar).
6. Continue this for the first half of the quilt.
7. Turn quilt, and stitch the second half of the quilt.
8. If needed, square off your quilt with this tutorial.
9. Start with the binding! Either make your own or use bias binding from the store. I used every step (just not last) of this tutorial. It is such an awesome tutorial! I did not close the binding by hand, but stitched it shut on the back of the quilt with help of this tutorial.

Done! Hide any ends with help of a small sewing or quilt needle.

Have fun
xx

Friday Find: I want to Quilt!

My hands are itching. Along with the crochet zen vibe came a certain stirring in the quilt area of my brain....

My goal was to finish two quilt tops this year. One is done, minus the border. The other one is still waiting. The start of the patching is in the pic above....

Source: Jo's country junction

Source: 356 days and other ramblings

That would be my Easy Street mystery quilt from Quiltville. I adore Bonnie's patterns! I started out with the first clue but stopped after that because I just could not wrap my head around flying geese. Maybe this year I will understand?  This Mystery is from november/december 2013 and the book the pattern can be found is over here (it's "More adventures with leaders and enders"). I am going to dig up the clues and see where all the fabric has gone to! And if you like, there will be a new Mystery hosted by Bonnie at the end of this year!


I know quilting is very labor intensive, but just as long as the patchwork is done, I will be very happy!


Any other quilters out there? Who is your favorite designer? Are you currently working on a quilt?

Very Slow Quilt Progress...But It's Getting There!

O yes, that quilt top! Do you remember? How many weeks did I leave it untouched? I dare not count.... With both kids off at the daycare provider I took it downstairs (I sewed the last blocks over the weekend) and puzzled with the layout.

And sewed three rows together.

Oooo I hope to have the top finished by the end of the week!!!!

It's the Patches & Pinwheels quilt from Quiltville and is one of the tops I desperately want to finish before the end of 2014. Should be doable, it's only May! :)

O ja, de quilt... Weet je nog wanneer ik begon? Hoeveel weken ligt dit nou al te liggen? Ik durf niet te tellen... Vandaag waren beide kindjes bij de gastouder, dus sleepte ik de naaimachine en alle blokken naar beneden en puzzelde ik met de rijen.

En ik heb maar liefst 3 rijen genaaid.

Oooo wat hoop ik dat voor het einde van de week de hele top in elkaar zit!!!

Dit is de Patches & Pinwheels quilt van Quiltville en is 1 van de tops die ik voor het einde van 2014 in elkaar wil krijgen. Zou moeten lukken toch? Het is nog maar Mei! :) 

2013 Review: Weight Watchers for the Yarn Stash!

In March 2013 I found out about Linda's and Ana's Stash Busting Project!

I started out at 17,6 kg. O my. My yarn closet was flooded with yarn.... Bags on the floor were also filled with yarn....

I did buy some yarn last year, but I kept it at a minium. I bought some sock yarn for a shawl, some yarn for a sweater and I (ahem) bought a lot of little balls of Phildar no. 3 for lots of colourful projects..

In maart 2013 ging ik van start bij het Stash Busting Project bij Linda en Ana.
Ik startte met 17,9 kilo aan garen... Mijn kastje was echt te vol. En naast de kast stonden ook nog tassen.

Ik heb wel wat garen gekocht het afgelopen jaar maar ik heb echt maar weinig gekocht! Ik had wat sokkengaren, wat garen voor een trui en (ahem) aardig wat bolletjes Phildar no. 3 voor kleurrijke projecten. 


I was sooooo excited to weigh my yarn and to see how much yarn went out of that closet despite my yarn addiction!
I knew that I had "lost" 2 kg to the knitting group at the elderly home, but I had no idea how much I lost making my crochet projects in 2013!

Ik was zooooo zenuwachtig om mijn garen te wegen, om echt zeker te weten hoeveel garen er weg was gewerkt.
Ik wist dat ik twee kilo had gegeven aan de breigroep in het bejaardentehuis hier, maar ik wist niet hoeveel kg in totaal al hakend er weggewerkt was. 

I started 2014 with 11,9 kg of yarn. Phew. I lost 5 kg!

And I have lots of space in my yarn cupboard.

Ik begin 2014 met 11,9 kg garen. Gelukkig, 5 kilo afgevallen!
En ik heb heerlijk ruimte in mijn garenkast. 

For 2014 I want to make a few resolutions:

- Bust more kilos of yarn!
- Make space in that same cupboard for my fabric stash

I already have some WIPs at the moment;
Ik heb nog wel wat WIPs op dit moment:

My CAL blanket (as-we-go stripey blanket) with the Dutch CAL 2014

My Hidden Triangles Hexagon blanket which has been a WIP for almost two years

A Tunisian Project (soon-to-be-released)

And still a pair of socks (Aargh!)...
En nog steeds sokken...

And we are going to use dishcloths! So I need to crochet a whole pile of them with all of the Lily Sugar n Cream in my stash.
En we gaan over op gehaakte poetsdoekjes. Ik moet dus flink wat doekjes haken maar gelukkig heb ik wat bollen Lily Sugar n Cream in mijn voorraad.

My goal is to have them by March. Well, not the CAL blanket but I hope to have these other WIPs done!
Mijn doel is om deze projecten af te hebben in Maart. Alleen de CAL loopt langer door.

For my fabric stash I have the same resolutions as for my yarn stash. Use it! I got rid of a lot of fabrics by donating them to Little Man's school. His teacher was very happy to get a bag full of scraps/bits and pieces/yards.

At the moment I am working on Patches & Pinwheels and I am close to finishing my last 12 blocks.
After that I planning on getting back at my Easy Street quilt!

Do you have any crafty resolutions for 2014?

Books 'n hooks 'n threads!

 

Last week I showed you the cover of "The Gentle Art of Stitching" by Jane Brocket and since then I flipped through it a few times. What a lovely book. I just love how she writes, very down to earth, and I really like all the colours used for the projects. I am particularly in love with a quilt in this book and the embroidery lessons.
 

The same day I got home after my appointment with the company doctor, a surprise package had arrived! My sister send me these two little booklets, available at Bruna (a dutch stationary/little book store). Really really cute books aimed at the knitter/crochert-on-the-go. The crochet booklet has some lovely amigurumi in it and the knitting edition has some cute sock patterns!

Yesterday I managed to install the free hand embroidery foot on my sewing machine. It is a tricky looking thing, and at first I really had not clue how to install it. Some time ago I asked a demonstration at the local yarn/fabric/sewing machine store and the owner showed me. I tried hard to remember how it went and I got it inserted quite quickly.

But then I made some 5" by 8" sandwiches and tried stippling.

Not as easy as it all sounded! Above picture shows the front and it looks quite okay...

The back however...

O dear. All those loops!

Take 2...

It's a little bit better but I have to practice practice practice.... Some Google-fu told me that I am probably moving the sandwich to quick with my hands, so next time I will slow down!

 

The past few days I have been picking up a stashbusting project. It is finally getting along somewhat quicker. I have noticed that I am totally in love with my Tulip Etimo crochet hooks. My Clover Soft Touch hooks are being neglected at the moment. The head and shaft part of the Tulip Etimo hooks is so much smoother than those of the Clover and I find them really comfortable to work with. I love them!

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Weekend

Finally! My grading work is done! I am closing my bag for the weekend.

Still, lots and lots and lots of other stuff happening and trying to catch up with me....

What did I accomplish today?

- finished a new design
- finished grading
- got my two fourth year classes being all ears and explaining lots and lots about hemoglobine and oxygen saturation
- prepared the amylase practical class for my fifth year class, everything is at hand for Monday
- freshened up my knowledge of calculating chemistry stuff such as molarity

O, and of course did some teaching, running around, etc.

What I want to do this weekend?

- finish up on Sinterklaas preparations
- work on a BIG project (surprise!)
- work on a new shawl design
- do some housekeeping
- go out with the kids
- cuddle with Big Man
- cuddle with the cats

And last but not least:

Cut and sew about 120 four-patches and start on 126 geese triangles with wings. O dear. I dived into Quiltvilles Mystery Quilt (see right bar on my blog page) "Easy Street". It will be my first time using these small bits of fabric, a first time of using the Easy Angle Ruler and the Companion Angle Ruler, and a first time every Mystery Quilt. What is the fun? I really have absolutely no clue how it is going to turn out. Joy!

Have a great weekend!

Finished: Scrappy Flower Bargello

My third quilt, and best so far, has finally been finished! Today I did some repair (I am not very good at stitching the border bias) and finally hid the very last ends.....

The last five days I pulled through the last 75% of all ends. I was so cold of the bit of fever I had and snotting and coughing like mad, so I hid myself three days under this quilt with a needle and scissor on hand. So besides keeping myself warm, I also kept my fingers busy.

I am really pleased with the outcome. There is absolutely no bunching of thread at the back and I don't know if it is because of the brand I used this time (King Tut on this one, Gutermann cotton on the other two) or because I have more experience with the quilting itself.
It really has an English cottage feeling.... I can imagine myself with this quilt on a nice cushy sofa, with a flowery oldfashioned tea cup in my hand overlooking a nice English garden.... I can dream on, right?

Here it is in full glory! Six panels, three upwards and three downwards, all flowery prints. Love, love, love it. Thanks to the wonderful tutorial of Bonnie at Quiltville.com.

Here is a little detail of the quilting itself. Every block, and both border have a line quilted at 1/4 inch from the side. It is subtle and simple, exactly like I wanted!

For the next quilt (I am not going to start one soon I think) I really want to try an all over design. But first, I have several other sewing plans, and I really need to see if I can use the embroidery foot I have with my sewing machine!

Here are the previous posts I made about this quilt, for more pics: Tuesday PJ day, After rain comes....

Pillow Case Boost

We have these pillows on our couch that are really in need of renewal. Their colour (cream) seems so blah to me now that I am following several colour addicted bloggers (including myself), our orange wall and the colourful quilts that are decorating our couch.

By MiekK posted a little while ago a very nice and simple tutorial on how to sew pillowcases, without zippers or buttons. Also, Lucy at Attic24 made some lovely pillow cases which looked really adorable and very playful! Me wants.

So I am investigating patterns on the net. I would like either stripes or something with quilt blocks. I really like the fold over option as By MiekK explains in her tutorial. Easy, fast, lovely!

But, I have a Big Man whose opinion in home decoration I really count on. He needs to like it. Most things I just make and think: "Well, I like it, it is done, nothing to do about it!" and most of the times luckily he likes what I make. But in the past, some things have been abandoned because he simply hated it. So, for the pillow cases I want keep hubby happy (this is ofcourse all written tongue-in-cheek, love him dearly! He really has good taste in home decoration, but wild colours are not his thing).

For the fabrics I am going to limit myself. I am only going to use the fabrics I have in my stash.

I found several options.

I really like the stripey ones from Attic 24, but I would like to make it more uneven, with more pieces in one strip.

From Allpeoplequilt.com

I like these, with the extra touch of rickrack. Bit too colourful I think.

From Allpeoplequilt.com

I love this one. A bit oldfashioned homespun feeling. And I can learn to cut triangles and make windmills. Haven't done that yet!

From Allpeoplequilt.com

The ubar simple stripe pillow case. Love it!

They have 23 lovely free pillowcase patterns over at Allpeoplequilt.com. Really nice to check it out!
I also found free patterns for bags. Very tempting.

Very tempting....... Isn't this one lovely?

I found what I was mentioning about strips for a cushion and that I wanted it to be of more parts. A bit vague, I know.

It is called a brickstone pattern!

Favequilts.com

I would love to see this in black and purple or red and orange. As long as it goes with our orange wall!

Incolororder.blogspot.com

I also like this one. Very simpel, but lovely composition!

And I really did not need a new sewing project! Well, I will let it simmer for a bit. Talk with the hubby.

Tuesday PJ Day

What should have been a working day (a very long working day with meetings and all) came to be a PJ day. Little Lady was ill and was having quite a fever. She was really sweaty and complaining Monday evening and after a night of tossing and turning her temperature remainded high. So I stayed at home with her. Big Man dropped Little Man off at school and fortunately he was supposed to lunch at school so I could stay home for the most of the day.

The whole morning was cuddle time. Little Lady was glued to me, and would not want to sleep because her nose was so stuffed.... Luckily after eating lunch she started to behave a little bit more like herself and she napped for about 2 hours after rubbing her chest full of Luuf and give her some nose drops.

Sitting on the couch for the most of the morning meant I had some time for getting all my thread ends up to the front of my quilt. I was really desperate to go into the last stage of this quilt. Quilting the borders, but I had to pull most of the ends up...

 So I persevered yesterday and finished most of the border and yesterday evening I cut off all the extra batting and underlayer! I am ready to cut the binding!!

Also, I am seriously overdue with a Sailor Sock update. Here they are! Both heels are done and I am on my way to the cuff. I really did not know how I managed to get the red heel (my second heel) right, so I do not think there will be a pattern for this amount of stitches. I feel like I did to many weird things to get the heel come out right.

Two examples of how our household works, or how it does not work. I really need to fold the clean laundry and put it away. Two different socks on both me and Little Man. Normally I do no mind wearing two different socks, it is actually normal for me, but I keep the kids in matching socks!

I was supposed to be home very late and I would alone (Big Man had a dinner with colleagues), so I thought I would run into the Chinese restaurant and take home some food. But plans changed, I was home, but with a sick kid, so after picking up Little Man I went to the grocery store. We ate sort of a kid friendly but healthy meal. Corn on the cob, fries out of the oven and fish. Especially the corn was incredibly yummy. Good food!

After rain comes....

 

Did you see all the rain yesterday morning? I crossed my fingers and hoped it would stop in the afternoon. I really wanted to go outside with the kids....

Our cats are still not very friendly to eachother. We kept them seperate for a week. Mies is used to both me and Big Man, she lets us pet and cuddle her, but Rover is still too much for her. She hisses and growls if he sits in front of our bedroom door. We decided to put the door open and let him sniff around and look at her. On Sunday (and today) they fought together because Rover wants to go to her to smell her I think, but she will not allow it. Hopefully it will get better.

So, grumpy kids, grumpy cats. Luckily the sun started to shine in the afternoon. After lunch I grabbed everything we needed and we biked to 't Geertje, a lovely petting zoo.

Little Man was mesmerized by this chicken with her little chicks. He could come very close and she would allow it. The little chicks are adorable with all the stripey backs!

We drank and ate a bit at 't Geertje and went back home. It was nice and warm in the backyard so I pulled out the summery toys for the kids.

  

With this heat, they love to play with water. 

It was a lovely day.

Today I had day of me-time. The kids are (as we speak) at the babysitter, playing with their best friends.

That means: Crafty time!

I sandwiched my quilt on Sunday, and had a chance to admire it on Monday (I had to do the sandwiching quick quick quick).

I had so much doubt about the fabric choices I made for this quilt, but after sewing the inner border and the outer border to the top, I fell in love with it. No more doubts about it! It is perfect. I wanted it to be a bit English cottage style, but without pastels and dark/light contrast.

Yesterday I wound a few bobbins with the help of Little Man, so today I could start quilting my sandwich.

I went "out of the ditch" for the first time. One of the ladies at De Witte Engel advised me to quilt at a 1/4" distance from the seam both vertical and horizontal. When its done, all the squares will have a sort of a quilted frame. Also, I bought a coloured thread for the first time. On my first two I only used cream thread, because it felt very safe. On this one I use a light pink thread. It looks neat!

This morning when I looked out the kitchen window I saw a thrush sitting in the bushes in our garden. There were three of them rummaging through the dead leaves looking for snails and worms. I have never seen them this close, so I ran for my telelens and took this picture.

And last but not least, in between putting laundry away in the closets, sipping coffee, and loading the washing machine, I wrote down a new type of sock heel for the Sailor Socks I am knitting for Big Man. I wanted them to knit in the same colour as the toes, but I did not know what kind of heel would work. So after some sock research, the books tell me to make a "short row heel with a mini gusset". Well, I will try! I had to rewrite a pattern from a book to get it right for the amount of stitches I am using for the Sailor socks. Hopefully it will work.

Another busy-days post, but they were/are very nice busy days.

'Till next time!