Big Fat Jack twice!

This morning I finished the two Big Fat Jacks as a present for two former colleages. And I'm glad to say they both loved it!

We were at another friend/former colleague's house where we had lunch together to celebrate the start of the summer holiday. Two of these girls had turned 60 in May and June. I'd already pieced the Big Fat Jacks and shown them off in June when we had a littel get together.

Tutorial to Lynne's Double Fat Jacks is here.
Here they both are:

And the quilting in close up:

You might think it's not that much, but to me it means a lot:
My first quilties really quilted, not just with straight lines, but real free motion quilting.
My first attempt!
My first succes!!

It feels like a holiday

You may noticed I've changed the lay out a tad bit: I think it's easier on the eye, don't you agree?

Just some pictures of where I've been walking and cycling:

When I stood up after taking this picture,
a hen pheasant flew away not 3 feet from me!

Easy to get a good flow here!

I was surprised my camera could handle this.

the smell!

the colour of this bark!

and of this grass!

This is not in a woodland, but open fields:

Big boys and girls I don't want to get too near ...

All of these insects were very busy.

Very relaxing!

Next time I'll have some finished work to show you.

Have a great week!

Progress

Just a quickie to let you know how my WiP are going:

Bottle quilt: waiting for my holiday and I'll sew them by hand

Big Fat Union Jacks: quilting half done:

Postage Stamp Quilt Along: still waiting ...

What else is there? Rosa's Quilt is coming along nicely.

Too many ideas for other quilts which are distracting me.

Like another giveaway by Lynne. 

And I'd love to have this fabric, for I like my rainbows ... 

And I'd love to make a baby quilt of this bundle (found here):

I'll keep you posted!

Superwoman Lily?

I so love the determination and TURBO force of Lily's Quilts
Whenever I'm surfing the web, watching her creations, her ideas: 10 seconds later she reacts to my comment. I don't know how you do it!
Anyway: I'm a huge fan

Go over and have a look at her blog, click here
And she has a giveaway here

As for my sewing:

FWQAL: I've decided what fabrics to use: I have a stack of (lots of blue) Kaffe Fasset's fabric, so I'll use that.

Quilt for Rosa: bottles are not my favourite pattern. I'll just have to do that by hand.
In the meantime I'm making something completely different
Just a sneak peak: it doesn't really give anything away:

This was the champagne breakfast my daughter got on ther 22nd birthday last Tuesday.
I had a glass too, I must admit and we had a jolly morning!
She's not renting a student room in town at the moment. She'll be dying to in September, I'm sure.
Or am I making it too comfortable for her?
Nah!
This was the start of a wonderful birthday: she told me so!

And I'm of course linking up to Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts

Have fun this weekend!

The world at your feet

You may have missed me and I've been working very hard on a project, or rather more than one.
But first the news: (not about quilting)
our youngest son has made it through his final exams!
This means he can A start studying  B live on his own.
The world is at his feet! And now his life has really begun (not counting all the other events in his life).
He wants to study business economics, but this could change before school starts again in September.

What I did this past fortnight:

I took pictures of Blauwe Deuzzies/Blue Boxes, which I hadn't done yet. It's for a dear friend who loves blue and a little red. But then I ran out of blue and used more red than I had intended.
Pattern from Empty Bobbin. Fabrics used: Changing Seasons by Classic Cottons; wonderful fabric!
I machine quilted some circles in the squares.
I'm not very good at that yet; I'll just have to persevere!

This is a table runner I made for friends: she like neutral colours, I like loud colours.
She loved it! She said she'd use the floral side if she didn't have any flowers on the table.

Well now for my last project.
It's a gift, so I can't show anything yet.
What a clif hanger for next week!
I'm linking up to Sew Fresh Monday
Have a great week

The Farmer's Wife and bottles & waves

I'm so excited about this: I signed up for a quilt a long doing The Farmer's Wife and not in those dreadful     fabric colours most Americans love, but in bright colours and of modern fabric.

Two blocks a week!

This is week two and I am already behind!

But here's why:

Over a year ago I bought a template. This was meant for a quilt for our eldest daughter, sailing in the Navy.

It had to be blue, was her wish.

So when we found this template of a bottle, we were excited! My husband has great faith in me, so we bought it. It's a bottle but when you put a lot together, they look like waves.

I've been dreading that day when I would have to start on this quilt.

The fabrics I've had for over 6 months ...

So now that she has a new home (away from home) I decided I couldn't put it off any longer: START ON THE DARN THING!

So I did.

First cutting all the bottels (375)

And now I'm working on it.

No, I struggleing, fighting!

This is what I practised on a few weeks ago and it looks OK from here

Cutting all the fabrics and counting light and dark ones and then mixing them all up as to sew at random.

This is the result.

It all looks great from a distance, but the bottles are moving: they end up lower every time I sew one on.

First I've sewn them in twos, and then those together so I could see what one row of the quilt would look like.

Perhaps I should do it all by hand?

Perhaps I should stop moaning and work on?

Perhaps I should start using pins?

Once I saw this video, I've only been working on curves this way: it's great and it's fast.

But not yet perfect.

So that's the challenge of this week!

I'll let you know what my progress is next week!

The Map

Glad to be back!
I have been working feverishly on the project I conjured up for my father in law.
He really loves maps, especially old ones.
 A few months ago the BBC featured a series on maps, which I taped (Old School word) for him and he loved it. I loved it too, and I'm not even into maps!

He turned 80 at the end of May and yesterday we had a big family do to celebrate this!
So I made him a map of the village where he was born (Ameide, NL) and the immediate surroundings.
He was born in 1931, the map is of 1934: few roads, many ditches and small villages.

the river Lek (with flash)

Here you can really see all the quilting (without flash)

A lot of man made ditches that drain the water away from the land

detail

It was difficult at first, I didn't know how to tackle this.
So pondering about this, during the early hours mainly, it came to me and then I knew how to do it:
From the blue fabric I first cut out the river shape, a broad wavy line.
On the back of the green fabric I lay my map, which I had copied onto special fabric, that can easily be torn away once it's sewn. That sounds strange, but this paper fabric is especially made for this purpose.
So, the map on top, then the green fabric and last the wavy river shape: now I could trace the exact river onto the green fabric by sewing all the lines on the back. I then cut away the rest of the blue fabric.
Then I made the embankments but cutting out the exact shape and sewing this to the front with a zigzag stich.
The rest speaks for itself, I think.

red = all the roads
blue = river Lek, and all the ditches
green = meadows
brown/grey = river bank
black spots on green = churches
black lines on blue  =longitudinal embankment dike (levee), this is to slow the water in the river down


Now, what shall I do this week?
Cutting more bottle shapes to make the quilt for my eldest daughter!

Have a wonderful week!