Brioni's latest book

I have just received a book in the postbox which I have to tell you about, I'm so enthusiastic!
25 Ways to Sew Jelly Rols, Layer Cakes & Charm Packs by Brioni Greenberg.

Helen blogged about it and was enthusiastic, so I put it on my birthday wish list. O yes, sorry you weren't invited, but I hardly ever give BIG (loud) parties. Maybe next year?
And in case you're wondering: I'm one of the big girls now because I'm 51!

Anyroad: I very often buy a book in an acutal shop (or on the web, yes) and then I come home, have a proper look at it and find that only one and if I'm lucky perhaps 2 quilts are in there I really like; I really want to make.
This time it's the other way round: perhaps there's 1, perhaps 2 I know I'll never make: the other 23 are fabulous!!

Every favorite of Brioni can be found here: petals and asterisks. I love 'm both too.
Anything with flowers (but 60's & 70's  fabrics) is good with me.

I also love that she hasn't always chosen white (or snow) as a background for a quilt or another project.
That gives it all the more originality!

Some project I may have seen before on Flickr or on her website, but their gorgeous nonetheless.
Like for instance the table runner on the right, with the holly leaves: she's got a tutorial for them on her site: look here.

Perhaps it's your birthday soon, or you want to treat yourself?
You certainly wouldn't want to wait till Christmas, would you?
I'm sure you'll love it too.

Bee blocks

Here's what I made so far for our Euro Siblings Together Bee:

The star was for me: an 18" block, tutorial here. I have 12 now and it's time to make a quilt of it.
The churn dashes were for Miss August: Dutch Comfort, she asked for 4 smaller blocks of 9.5"
And the garden fence was for Molsig (Sigrun): it's a 18.5" block (all unfinished measurements)
I'm looking forward to Miss October!

I also found a group on Flickr, where you can give Bees a hand: Bee's helping Bee's It does happen that somebody drops out or some other conundrum? You can find them here, in case you want to have a look or join.

At the moment I'm making a baby quilt, but my pace is sooooooo slow. I'm used to making single blocks now! I'll have to get that mojo back so I can show you a finish soon!

Quilt exhibition in Alkmaar

With Ingrid I went to the Annual Dutch Quilt Exhibition in Alkmaar. In the Big Church, you might call it a small cathedral, with a wooden ceiling (just on the inside).

I'd like to share a few quilts with you that really inspired me. Like this one (below).

The lady who made this stood right next to it and told us a list of prizes she'd won.

Perhaps you've already seen it somewhere.

A beautiful and colourful lady herself, but I did not write down her name, I'm sorry.

Standing in front of it, you could nearly feel the heat of that scorching sun.

And here's and original kind of communication; I remember mostly doing this with my oldest.

Their hearts and thoughts were beautifully embroidered with beads and all kinds of buttons

There were a number of quilts made on the theme: Parade

I love this military take on row after row.

As it was my son Laurens' 23rd birthday, this coffee corner in the church was very apt:

Art quilts with children's drawings as inspiration

 This one, the dreamy one, was my favourite art quilt.

And this was my favourite quilt: to me it was about cycling along the sunny (& windy) fields

And second place takes this huge one. Last year this was a craze in the Netherlands. Building houses from scraps: make a small house every day (by hand or paper piecing on the machine). At the end of the year you'll have 365 houses and a big one in the middle (your own?), which you made in between, somewhere (pattern here on Etsy).

Not my cup of tea (no patience), but I loooooooved this one. So many other things were added: trees, dogs. And all her colours are bright & light.

Sorry for the wrong angle, but I wanted to get all of it in one picture.

Here are some close ups; the dog barks: wraf (what does an English dog say?) She lives next door!

And here are the last ones: Well done YOU!!

The yellow table topper (top right) was made by a 12 year old!

Hope you have a lovely week full of inspiration!

Rotterdam (third and last)

Then we went on the water bus (with our bikes) to go to Dordrecht (and cycling back to Rotterdam). Dordrecht is a really old town. Lots of old and crooked buildings. 
It was only then I realised that the old stuff was all bombed when my country was invaded in may 1940. My granny's three brothers died in those 5 days, two near Rotterdam.
As we were nearing Dordrecht we saw this and we remembered the man who'd been in the news: he built the Ark of Noah:

Strange to see a huge thing like this ... 
And you can go an visit it too, but that was only because the man who built it, ran out of money. And then he couldn't open to the public because he didn't have enough or the right kind of emergency exits.
All this is sorted now and he can (or already has) finished his ship.

And then we saw a beautiful small boat: a salmon fisher boat from Woudrichem (upstream from Dordrecht). Apparently there used to be salmon in these waters ...  Not any more ...
(the boat on the left, of course)

Dordrecht is a small, old town an far more lovely than I'd expected.

There were many crooked houses but how can you show on a photograph? Well, I think this one is very obvious

Then on to the church, well we passed it and it was open. And so beautiful.

It was built after the Reformation so as a protestant church. The old church was destroyed (partly?) by fire before the Reformation started.

Here the vicar would have his congregation almost around him in a circle; beautifully designed.

The organ was leaning toward the right, perhaps difficult to see here.

And here's a design for free motion quilting for a a very proficient quilter

Here's a beautifully decorated tombstone, the kind you can fall over if you're not careful.

The dead were buried in (the very rich) and around the church until Napoleon told us to do it differently. 

(and we did, because we're such obedient a people ...)

We cycled back to Rotterdam in blazing sunshine!

Next time it's back to quilting

Thanks!

Rotterdam (2) by bicycle

Very ehh original architecture, if you like, you can read more about these quaint houses here.

If you live in one of these a lot of your furniture would have to be bespoke because of the odd shapes on the inside too. Not my cup of tea.

Inside the museum  of  Dutch Architecture

This is the SS Rotterdam which took a lot of emigrés to the USA after WWII. 

It will now be made into a luxury hotel by the same owners of this hotel and I mean the old one in the front with the clock tower. 

A lovely garden was made at the spot where so many people said goodbye to each other; people did not count on seeing each other again in this life. 

And of course there was a lot of luggage left (that always seems to happen ...) but now it's a work of art. (I can see a nice Samsonite ... and a modern one on wheels)And of course we did a bit of shopping too and being by bicycle it was so easy to park!! I loved those socks and the Mister nearly bought these, but he didn't need three.

And he didn't like shopping and I don't blame him.

(haven't got a clue who he is; like his socks though)