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?

Hooray Hooray!

I just noticed I already have THIRTEEN followers!
WOW I'm very much honoured and I hope I can keep you interested in reading my scribbles!

This week everything is at a slower pace due to the start of the Summer Holidays in this part of the country.
A lot of my friends are or are on the brink of going away.
Great!

The mister and me aren't leaving till everyone else is back ....
So another month of preparation for our trip; which means I have to get things ready for the Hexalong I'm following:
I've ordered (YES!) 2 more charm packs of Terrain, because that's the fabric I've chosen.
I've also ordered more paper templates for this English Paper Piecing project here: my hexes will be 2".

Meanwhile I'm (still) qulting free motion and in straight lines, the quilt I've made for my eldest daughter Rosa. I hope to bring it next weekend, if she's not away on holiday too. I'll give her a ring.
My machine really is annoying me from time to time: one minute it works great and the quilting is easypeasy; the next it's like this:

Don't you hate it when this happens!!

It must be something with thread tension, but I haven't figuered it out yet.
So I turned my attention elsewhere at sewing round the bend LOL:

Does it look a bit funny on our floor: I can see green and white tiles peeping out.

Does it look a bit funny on our floor: I can see green and white tiles peeping out.

It's 15" x 58" (38 x 147 cm) and I had planned it for our living room: a long horizontal line, quilted with PATIENCE. But now my mum is moving and she hasn't got space left for her big cabinet, something like this:

And even though we are not on speaking terms she let my know (via her grandchildren) that I could come and pick this up if I wanted to. And YES I want to!

But I phoned a removal firm to pick it up for us: I want the cabinet, but I don't want contact.

Yes I know what you're thinking: hypocrite!

Well, maybe.

But then you don't know all the details of our past lives ...

I've not told you about the bullying, the sneering, the blackmailing (mentally), etc

She was not happy and she saw a chance to relive her life through mine.

It took me 43 years not only to realise this but also to rebel against it.

So now you know the whole story.

Anyway, it means we have to rearrange things in our living room, which I don't mind at all for I have loved this piece of furniture for as long as I can remember.

Hooray again!

Have a great week!

Hexing along

I've now officially enrolled for the Hexalong hosted by Lynne and Gayle
Information here's the introduction and here's more information.

Sewing by hand gives me peace of mind, makes me ponder over things, not fret, but ponder.
It's reassuring, too: you have an almost instant result when you've make something small.
I also love the portability of it: in the back of the garden, in front of the telly, or on holiday: you can take it anywhere.

So to me it's about relaxing, having fun, laughing about a silly or rude joke (what else!) and perfecting skills. So next time this'll look even better:

And then yesterday as the mister (as Kirsty says) and I had a cup of coffee, he looked out into the garden and saw this:

O, I know, form here you have to look really hard, but perhaps you can enlarge the photo by clicking on it? And there on our own dike (leftovers from digging the pond) .... 

He's looking left, turning his head away from us.

Yes, can you see him?

Well anyway, WE were exited: deer in our own garden! 

Here in the Netherlands there are 17 (?) million people living together on a bit of land where the seawater was pumped out. Nature is MADE here, because there's nothing left of it's own accord.

So when we made our own bit of nature, we planted a small clump  of trees right behind this dike. So that deer could wander from the cornfields straight into our garden where they would have shelter.

Could this one be hunting for new territory, perhaps?

Have a great week!