I am feeling kind of Dutch today!

Here are this month's postcards I made out of my Dutch fabric. One is going to the guild swap and one is going to my cousin in Holland! Hopefully she will receive it before she reads this post!


More playing with my Dutch fabrics. I made this Shadow and Light mini block, but how shall I frame it?


And here is my round robin returned from Christine! She hasn't finished the centres of the poppies yet, but no worries.


Also check out my friend's new blog: The Cozy Quilter, that I 've added to my blog roll.

Delft Baskets

I have been playing around with my favourite Dutch fabrics. I have been making so many unusual wall hangings for the Guild challenge, that I had the urge to go back to something traditional. I've never made a basket block before. I got the idea from a Gwen Marston book I found at City Lights a used book store, Twenty Little Amish Quilts (1993). I had a heck of a time, though, there was something off in the measurements and I had to cut down all my centre squares a half an inch. The instructions said add 1/4 inch seam to template, but by doing so it made the centre square too big for the little squares. weird. But these things don't phase me anymore and a trim here or there is no big deal, I added sashing where there wasn't any, and anyway this is the result, Delft Baskets, I call it:


Spring has finally arrived. I know this because I refuse to wear gloves and my boots anymore, and of course the Thames river has flooded because of rain and snow melt. This photo shows the park behind the HMCS Prevost. As you can see the bicycle path has been completely flooded up to the base of the hill.

I like to use this sewer pipe as a guide to river depth. The first photo shows one of the lowest depth of the river, this was January.


This was March 31st:

This was April 1st:


So what is that 10 feet, maybe more? egads! They say this is the highest it's been since 1977.(I have since found out it rose 13 feet!)

UFO Madness!

I've been busy...what else is new? We've been getting 3 times the amount in deliveries as we stock for Christmas! I come home so tired! Friday our furnace at home went on the fritz! ugh, apparently it needs a new motor...the furnace is only 9 years old! The part won't be in until today (Monday)! So I have been living like a refugee from the war! Lots of quilts, sweaters and space heaters! My parents always the optimists, tell me "Now you know what it was like when we were kids in Holland!" My dad says they would leave the window open a bit "because it was healthier" and when they woke up the water in the basin would be frozen and they would use the water from their hot water bottles to wash up with! Yes Dad I am grateful for the what I have, although I wish I had heat!

I did get to spend Saturday at the UFO day with some of the guild and managed to complete the top for my Dutch Mini quilt (July 21st post) I was making. I am glad it is done! Please put mini paper piecing down as "Once is enough"!




Here is Christine at our very organized and tidy work station!

Echt Hollands Done?!

I think the top is done! My mom brought me back some more fabric from Holland and I was able to complete the top. It measures 42.5 inches square (about 108cm square). I think I will have it professionally machine quilted. I am afraid I will ruin it if I do it myself! Any suggestions on how it should be done. I am partial to wavy circular designs or should it be floral in nature, should they use white thread? Help!

Here are few photos of my mom's trip. My mom is originally from Haarlem, the same city where Lucy lives and here is the store where she works part time. I had specific instructions for my mom to pick up more Dutch fabric for me there. This photo shows my mom, nearest to the door, with my aunt Janny.
What a beautiful shop! Is there any of Lucy's work in the window?

The next couple of photos, I believe, my mom took in Leiden.(oops, no I found out the town is Schagen) There was a parade of people dressed in traditional costumes, even the babies in the antique carriages!




So cute!

Mini Quilt

When my cousin from Holland came over last October she brought me some beautiful real Dutch fabric and I started my Echt Hollands quilt. She also brought me some mini quilt patterns. I thought I would give them a try. Holy Smokes! They're mini alright!

First I had to relearn my paper piecing. After not doing it for a long time I forget how to do it and I get everything backwards! Even after I get into the groove, I can still find myself having to redo the same seam over 2 or 3 times! I'll forget to press open the seams, or I'll accidentally trim the good part, or when the seams are open it doesn't fit the space! eeek! Here are a few of the things I learned:

1) I copy the pattern onto tracing paper or tissue paper. It is a lot thinner and easier to tear away as well as see through. Make 2 copies of each page in case, like me, you have to do it over due to excessive seam ripping. :P


2) I set my stitch length to 2 (very small) on my sewing machine, because it is easier to tear away the paper and the seams are not very long on this project.
3) Fabric pieces right sides together and paper on top of first fabric. On paper side, sew seam on line, starting a little before the line and ending a little beyond the line.
4) After my first seam I fold back the paper along the seam and cut a 1/8th inch seam allowance. This gets rid of excess bulk especially important in this mini quilt.




5) Finger press open, then fold paper along the next sewing line and again trim a 1/8th seam allowance. This will give you a guide to how to place your next piece of fabric. If I didn't do this, I was more likely to screw up the placement of fabric.
6) Place your next fabric right sides together and sew on the next seam line. Continue in this manner.

Here is how it looks in progress:

7) Once I've done to the outer seam, I will trim the excess from that side:



8) This boat is done in 2 separate pieces, then sewed together. I leave the paper on to match up the seams more accurately.



Here are the few I've done so far, each still take me an hour to do. I do one per night, to avoid frustration. It's kind of addictive but intense, when working with such small things! One night I ripped out the same seam 3 times...it was time to give it a rest!


Did I mention the instructions are in Dutch? I don't speak or read Dutch and I couldn't find many of these words in my small pocket dictionary!

I've just been going through the Quilt Maverick's blogring and came upon this post by Judy at Sunshine Quilts about prewashing fabrics, March 26 post. I don't have any horror stories, thank goodness, but I have a huge fear of the fabrics running and ruining all my work. Here's what she says:

"Now, I wash every piece of fabric (except white!) with a good size (maybe 12" x 12") piece of muslin. If the fabric runs, I'll sometimes wash it a second time using Retayne. If it still bleeds after the second time, it goes into the trash."

Sounds like good advice, I'll have to try it. She also mentioned another product, Synthropol, dye catching sheets, that some have had luck with to removes the unwanted dye. I am posting it on my blog so that I can find the name quickly if I need it.

Another reason to prewash fabrics is because of the chemicals they use on the new fabrics. For instance the charity quilt that I am machine quilting was pieced by someone else and the fabrics are all donated. It was obviously not prewashed, and the new fabric smell just makes my eyes and nose burn, ugh. And some say that some fusable applique products do not work as well on non-prewashed fabrics.

And to go off topic, I realized I hadn't posted, the pieced Echt Hollands quilt. I finished it up just after my 'quilt til you wilt' outing The photo was a little dark and I lightened it up in Picasa. I hope the colours don't look too washed out. Now, do you think I need a border? My mom suggested a 2-3 inch blue border... any suggestions?

I've made the flying geese and the pinwheels border. I haven't sewn it completely together yet, as I thought I would wait until I get the corner appliques done. This way I can applique on a small corner piece rather than the whole thing. I found some nice white fabric in my stash, that I could use for the applique background. It kind of softens all the busy fabric.


I tried a sample boerenbont, but I thought the blue pieces were a little too small to work with and needed a bit of exaggeration to look better.


Here is the bolder version:


I used some ribbon for the stem; it's only pinned on, I might need a darker shade of blue.

More Echt Hollands

Am not feeling too well, today, I think I am getting a nasty cold that is going around. So here are few photos of my 'Echt Hollands' (Real Dutch) project I've been working on. See my October 21st post for the origins of this project.



I've run out of the fabric, I want to put in the corners. I am thinking I will applique a 'boerenbont' pattern in the corner blocks. Boerenbont is a pattern that can be found on some Dutch dishware. My mother really loves this pattern, and always brings back these dishes from Holland. And amazingly enough never breaks them! I mentioned to my mom I thought I might applique this pattern with my dutch fabric and her first reaction was it's not the right shade of red! And she is right but this is just a representation not an exact replica....really the boerenbont might do better with the country shades, but hey, this is my project.


Here are some of the plans I've drawn up, and the beginnings of some flying geese and some pinwheels. I always feel so anxious when I start to cut the fabric, like, don't screw it up! Especially, when I am making up the pattern, and I don't know how much fabric I will need. LOL