Stitchy Fingers

Hi all,   As you could've thought I was on holiday. As said before I don't like to post that I'm away - you never know who's watching/reading this ... We took a break for three weeks of which we went to the Belgian coast (we had great weather) the first two weeks and relaxed at home the last week.   As usual I had packed a couple of projects in different areas = crochet, knitting, quilting, cross stitch. However ... it seems that I did a little bit of everything but with no great advances in all of my projects ;-). We relaxed - and so did I. So what did I do ...?   I've bought a new Dimensions Gold kit in my favourite LNS (at the sea). My husband really likes it so I decided to make it for him - although this one won't be finished immediately. You see, Dimensions projects - the bigger ones - tend to be fully embroidered and have lots of backstitch, mixed colours etc. Dimensions Gold - Rocky Point So far I've done the lighthouse and part o...

Hope you aren't getting bored with my updates on Dear Jane! I'm sooo in love with this quilt and it's colours - sometimes I amaze myself :-). I got a good advice from the ladies in the quilt shops I often go to : "don't buy your fabrics all at once but build it up row by row". For me this is an advice that works. So without further ado ... It's on my kitchen floor because it's becoming too big ... 34 blocks so far   Green row - from right to up to left : C7 : start Sunday 29th of June - finish Monday 30th of June 2014 D6 : start and finish - Monday 30th of June 2014 E5 : start and finish - Tuesday 1st of July 2014 F4 : start and finish - Friday 4th of July 2014 G3 : start and finish - Saturday 5th of July 2014 H4 : start and finish - Saturday 5th of July 2014 I5 : start and finish - Sunday 6th of July 2014 J6 : start Sunday 6th of July - finish Monday 7th of July 2014 K7 : start Wednesday 9th of July - finish Thursday 10t...

I'm on a roll and don't wanna stop! ADDICTION!!! ;-) I'm trying to do as much as possible on the "green tour" because I want to show off with my Dear Jane this Saturday (12th) because I'm going to the Supergoof class in Holland - hosted by Quilt It & Dotty - where she'll tell us how to make Cathedral Windows, followed by a lovely lunch made by Dorry and a show-and-tell in the afternoon by Ingrid. A blog post about the previous lesson can be found at Ingrid's website . Sooo ... here's a piccie from my quilt WIP (taken on July 1st)! The red tour entirely finished! In the meanwhile I've already made 9 green blocks (an upload from my Ipad - with a more recent piccie - doesn't work for the moment). See you soon!

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! ;-))

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...

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...

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...

Yesterday mom and dad paid us a visit and mom showed me some of the stitching she really likes.  She is someone that stitches more on smaller and medium sized thingies than the BAP so I already heard her coming .... "can't you make me this and that ...?" Here's what she likes most: Lanarte - Asian Beauty Let's say that I'll consider it mom (all that on black ... go figure). Not even talking about the ones I like ... Lanarte - Asian Beauty and Oriental Sunset Lanarte - Geisha (in my stash) Before my parents came over, I also did spend some time in my favourite quilt shop in Antwerp to find the perfect sashing fabric for my Dear Jane quilt (and also find me some other colours for the blocks :-). Here's what I came up with: Makower "Small Leaves" used as background fabric for my blocks Makower "Scrolls" for the sashings Both fabrics have the same hues (which you wouldn't say looking at the pictures) and a...

Hi all, As you will know by now I'm obsessed working really hard on the Dear Jane quilt but ... there's still a long way to go. My first love will always be cross stitch and guess what ... via Amarin's site I've found a big cross stitch version (625 x 625 x-stitches) of the Dear Jane quilt for FREE . I've already downloaded and printed the charts :-). Preview of part 1/1 I already knew the versions by Linda Myers (her designs often incorporate houses and quilt blocks in cross stitch form) but this one beats them for sure. Here's a couple of pictures for those not familiar with her works. Quilt Sampler VI - Jane Stickle's Civil War Blocks   Quilt Sampler XIV - Jane's Quilt Garden   and   Garden Gate Quilt V - Neighborhood Quilts Quilt Sampler XIII - A Village Gameboard   and   Quilt Sampler XI - 19th Century Blocks Amish Quilt Show (one of my favourites) A Seasonal Sampling    Beautifull a...