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Showing posts from June, 2014

Stash shopping

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Or more like fabric shopping! ;-) I forgot to take a picture of it this morning but my red tour in the Dear Jane quilt is finished! I've started working on the next tour which is going to be a grey-green / grey-blue one. Because I didn't have enough fabrics for finishing this round I went stash shopping. I brought a little bit more than foreseen :-)! All just yummy colours ... a little bit "antique" like and just screaming to be used! Allmost all are cuts from 140cm x 15cm (the minimum I could take but more than sufficient for the DJ blocks that don't use lots of "block fabric"). Will post a picture of the completed round soon. In the meantime here's a WIP. I've completed 25 blocks now ... only 200 to go! ;-))

A little bit of everything

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This past weekend we've paid an unexpected (= as in unplanned) visit to the sea for two days. The children stayed at home with their grandparents and we could go to the beer festival that is held each year. Not that we got drunk but we enjoyed the atmosphere :-). Especially on Sunday afternoon when our Red Devils played their second match and won after 88 minutes with their first - and last - goal against Russia. One of the "stalls" on the sea dyke   Publicity for following the Red Devils' match on TV in a big tent Here's all of the men watching ... our national colours were to be seen everywhere! :-)   Someone being fanatic ... although fan of both the Belgian and Holland teams :-) We simply enjoyed this ...   ... and this - Mussels for the hubby   Codfish for me :-) We highly enjoyed our stay there and I benefited of a couple of uninterrupted "needle" hours each day. I've advancement some more...

Red Devils

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Before you think I'm going crazy ... no, I don't feel like going to hell ;-). I want to talk about our official football team that are called the "Red Devils" :-). For the first time in 12 years we're back in the game!!!   Yesterday evening was their first match against Algeria which they won with a 2-1 score after an exciting game. Congrats to our team! Everyone in Belgium is sooo proud of you! Now we can only hope for a good result the next two games. This Sunday against Russia and next Thursday against South Korea. You can't even imagine all the merchandising that you can buy here in the shops :-). I think we started seeing those things some 1 - 2 months ago. Personally I like their shirts best (not that I would buy one :-). And guess what I did at that moment ... make a new block for the Dear Jane quilt! ;-) How are your teams doing?

Start on Asian Beauty by Lanarte

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Started on a new design called "Asian Beauty" by Lanarte Mom really likes this cross stitch design. Because she doesn't like stitching on black she talked me into it so ... now I'll be stitching this one for her! :-) Before starting on it there were two things that I didn't like at all being the fabric - aida and it's colour - black. I knew this was simply asking for troubles! Now that I've already stitched some of the design it goes better than I've imagined - not fast but with an acceptable "speed" :-). Start of the piece! What a PITA this gold thread was (I've always disliked stitching with gold thread  but apparantly the new DMC Diamant would be better ?) Day two ... by now her ear is almost finished (the gold is the start of her "crown") I don't have that much time stitching on her because I work :-) and the evenings aren't that great due to the lack of natural light. Have a nice weekend!

Busy like a little bee

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Well the weekend has passed in an excellent way! ;-) On Saturday 7th we invited my youngest DD's whole class to celebrate her birthday which is on the 19th. The reason for this are three kids' birthdays in her class in June. We decided to be fast this year! The weather was great. They all ate chips, candy, icecream and the birthday cake(s). I hope none of them went home with an indigestion! ;-) Location : an outdoor play garden located in an old fortress Both birthday cakes (8 and 4 persons) - something "fresh" for the high temperatures (up to 30°C)   On Sunday we went to a second hand books fair in open air. I decided to buy a couple of classics for my DD's which I enjoyed as a child. Both are from the hand of Thea Beckman. 1985 - 1987 - 1989   It's the first and third book of the trilogy "Children of Mother Earth" that I've bought (they didn't have the second book :-) Thea Beckman (23 July 1923 - 5 May 2004) wa...

Shall I yes or no ... blackwork?

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I'm always interested in learning new embroidery techniques. Last week I found a great freebie chart. Miriam from the blog  Borduurblog posted the link and I checked it out and downloaded it. It's a great blackwork sampler but I'm quite hesitant because I detest backstitching :-). On the other side ... think of all the possibilities with overdyed threads! :-). I can see similarities with some cross stitch designs from Ink Circles ... Cirque des Carreaux - Cirque des Cercles (in my stash) Cirque des Coeurs - Cirque des Triangles And just for the eyecandy ;-)) Bramble and the Rose - Woodland Vines Rosetta (in my stash)   Baroque - Growth Rings (in my stash) Have a nice and sunny weekend! Off for three days (Monday 9th is a Bank Holiday :-)!

Quilting in my garden

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Aaahhh ... some free time at last. Four glorious days of "everything is possible" and no pression at all (Bank holiday on Thursday 29th and bridge to the weekend on Friday 30th :-). I have been looking for an inch ruler for some time now. Unfortunatelly all the quilt shops were closed for the long weekend! Sooo ... off I went to the "Stoffenspektakel - Spectacle of fabrics" in Malines and to my big surprise there were two well stocked quilt shops as well (went five years ago for the first - and last - time because there was nothing to my liking). Drafting the sashings with my new inch ruler Having the right equipment meant that I could at last begin with sewing together all the Dear Jane blocks that I already made. I found a good blog post on how to sew the sashings at Aunt Reen's place . Using her instructions I was able to avoid those - possible - teeny tiny square blocks between each "cross" ;-). The sashi...