Now it's my turn!

Thank you for sending me your good wishes, prayers and (sort of) advice!
That was very nice.

I have decided to do nothing: no contact with my mum.
And then today my mum phoned me.
But I'll tell you all about that after I mulled it all over ....

Which I can do because now it's my turn to go on holiday!
Tomorrow we'll be leaving for England: a week (and a bit) in North Yorkshire and a week in the Lakedistrict.
We'll set sail from IJmuiden, heading for Newcastle.
I'm back on Monday the 19th.

Have fun without me!

Gobsmacked!

Yes, that's what I was this last week.
You know why?
My daughters told me my mum was getting married (in secret) and they were both witnesses to the marriage (which is obligatory here in the low countries). They had a lovely day together!

But what should I do?
Should I do something?
And what if I would, would my mum expecting more?

I thought of making something (a smal quilt), but then I rejected it.
It would raise too many expectations: and I don't want any contact.

So I'm doing NOTHING.
But I'm not happy about that ...

I think it's great she's tied the knot again.
At nearly 80 (in a year) she's made a new start with someone she loves (I hope she does).
Good for her.

Now my daughters tell me of other reactions; not so positive at all!

This gets me thinking and doubting again ....

I know you can't help me, but I just needed to get this off my chest.
Thanks for listening


Have a great week!

I've been cheating ...

Last week I was busy making an extremely quick quilt for my in-laws.
They spent the weekend here and they love sleeping under a quilt. They're used to sleeping in a forrest. Well ... it's not really a forrest but a part of Eindhoven where the houses were built in the forrest; so a forrest with plenty houses.
So I thought after 'Orange, Rosa, Blue' I could make a really quick quilt by cheating.
I bought this:

Annie's Patchwork in Yellow, from Annie's Farm Stand by Hollie Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods, 100% Cotton Fabric, bought here

A backing from Ikea + batting from my local shop.

I usually buy the Hobbs iron-on batting, because it's so easy to work with.

I was working along nicely, had time on my side. But then I had another migraine: in bed, on the couch, sleeping and not sleeping. Taking pills that take ages to work ....

And I wanted to Quilt this Thing!

I finished it Saturday: quilting, binding, washing & drying it.

The tent in the garden was for my youngest daughter who turned 19 yesterday: Hurray!!
She wanted some privacy with her boyfriend, perhaps?
Anyway, the weather was good and the guestroom was taken by my in-laws: so GREAT!

This is my first day without medication and tomorrow (hopefully)  my head wil be clear again.

Have a great week!

Orange, Rosa, Blue

Once upon a time ... the queen of the swamp (our lawn is so soggy) had an idea: 

let's make a quilt for Rosa:

As she's in the navy, riding the waves (not a the moment,but still), let's  make this a quilt with lots of waves! Or bottles, it depends on your view:

Unfortunately, the queen of the swamp didn't manage to put her theory to practise, so she thought of something else: another design which would be (much) easier!

Rosa only had one wish: she wanted anchors on it.

A beautiful set of (12 green and blue) fat quarters of Kaufmann Batiks were waiting to be transformed into a quilt.  So the QofS started working, in secret.

In spite of many setbacks later .... she finished the quilt.

pinwheels

stained glass or Pojagi

blogged about this

Anchors!
Actually, at our local second hand shop I found this (shynthetic) duvet cover.
It's one from the Navy; how it got there I don't know ...
I will never use synthetics again, EVER

washed & tumble dried; pattern here

I chose a blue and green batik for binding.

So glad it's (finally!) finished.

We gave it to Rosa yesterday evening and she was pleased.

And very surprised about the duvet cover.

My husband thought of the name: Orange, Rosa, Blue

Orange: the colour of our royal family

Rosa: in the middle

Blue: one of the colours of the sea.

At the same time somewhere else in the garden of the Swamp:  the while our hydrangeas (Lime Green) are so beautiful and smell lovely!

And our pond is nearly overflowing; well, we've still got 40 to 50 cm left before that cup runneth over ...

No Birmingham, but certainly a B

What do you do if you're not in or going to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham: 

I'm sure I'm the last person in the world who hadn't seen this already ...

I don't even like Family Guy!!! But I like this:

Sorry, back to a normal post next time ...

He Came, he Saw and he Pointed out

Yep, the sewing machine repair man has been!

Apparently my thread wasn't strung in the right way.

At my machine (Janome 6600) there is 

a big white (sort of) button; 

You can turn it to adjust the tension of the upper

thread.

The bit sticking out.

You have to put the thread around it when you string a (new) thread.

(I've tried but I can't make an arrow, nice and red to point out exactly what you need to be looking at.)

Can you see the small thing the thread is taking upwards?

It's made of metal and just a bit thicker that the thread.

When you string your thread you have to check whether this bit goes up as well. This means your thread can get tension.

And that's probably where I went wrong.

Now I know.

And hopefully, you do too.

Hexing along

From one charm pack Terrain (Kate Spain) I'm hexing. All hexagons are 1" (= the side). This is where the hexies look big:

And you can see in the second photo how they shrink!

this is going to be very small; what am I going to do with it?

Make it into a bag?

Hang it on the wall?

We'll see once it's ready.

Or I might get a brilliant idea in the meantime!

Or a suggestion form you?

It's going to be 7" x 25"  ...

That is tiny!

This is the colour range.

hmmm ...
I might make some changes.

Today is the day my sewing machine will be repaired! If there's something wrong with it ... Otherwise it's something else and I will have to start again from point ZERO.
We'll see
And I'll let you know!

A tour of the campus

Yesterday we went to Enschede to see the campus.
Twente University (in Enschede) is the only one in the Netherlands where students actually are accomodated in the same compound as the university buildings. It's not that big: 2 square kilometres and there are lots of really old trees: the site used to be part of an estate. It's beautiful!
There are 9000 students mainly for technical studies.
Our eldest son is admitted there to study psychology.
Not his first choice to go here, but he really liked it.
He wanted to stay in Groningen or else move to Amsterdam: which student wouldn't?

We had a tour around the compound and everything was explained to us.
Our tour guide was a student who showed us everything in his own spare time!
In the end he took us to the highest building (where you can see for miles and miles).
Here you can see a 3D animation of the whole surroundings.
There is a road in the middle: from left to right (and v.v.); the part below the road is the actual compound.

I found something I could laugh about on something that is used in building, something to store a wire/tube of some sort.
But the I'd have to explain something first, you may already have seen it. It's a daft couple designing like mad: they can be seen here
And then I can show you what I found:

Technically not the same, but it made me laugh.

Now just some odd bits and pieces:

• Next Tuesday my machine will be repaired: he wasn't on holiday but (still) very busy. I'm so happy!
• And go here to read about a lovely initiative to get more people into quilting; it's also for (more) experienced quilters. And there will be so many giveaways the next 3 months. I already loved orange, but now even more.
• Go! here to buy a Go! cutter for less.

Have a great weekend!

No sewing this week

My machine has broken down ....
There's still so much I want to do, but alas ...

This is a great opportunity to really dig into the Hexalong or other hand piecing work (like knitting?).
If you'd like to join in, please do!

Somewhere along these lines ...

Unfortunately it also means the quilt I'm working on, still isn't finished: I did more unpicking that I liked.
And If I'm lucky the repairman has just left for a 3-week holiday.
Well, we'll see.

What made me very glad last week was receiving my new purse & coin/card holder! And my phone fits easily in too!

Great buy from Octopurse: a Belgian lady making purses, very nice ones, too!
I also bought 2 small ones for my nieces in Canada. Technically they're not my nieces, but I call them that just to simplify.

I'm linking up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Days.
(Is there anyone who can keep up with this girl!)

So not much new this week from me, how about you?