Did you notice what is going on in blogland?

I don't know if you noticed that a lot of bloggers are building houses.  You can see this house in their sidebar:

A Dutch woman is organizing a quilt-a-long, called 'building houses from scraps'. The participants   make each day of 2012 one tiny house , so at the end of the year they'll have a quilt with 365 houses.

Here you can find the blog, and here are some more houses, and here.

Inge made some houses with her grandsons, they had a lot of fun.

Her sister Erna is fond of animals, this are her houses.

I did not want to participate, but downloaded the pattern, because 'you never know'..... When i saw on all the blogs all those cute tiny houses, (they are only 3 inch square,) I realized that i also have alot of scraps, so why not make one or two.

But i can tell you, when you start to make them, you cannot stop, it's really addictive.

For the moment I have twelve houses , that  should be a nice doll quilt. I 'll show you the houses tomorrow, it's too dark now to make pictures. Here are my first pieces, I piece by hand in the English paper piecing way.

A finished doll quilt

This week I finished a doll quilt, all hand pieced and hand quilted.  I used Kaffe Fassett and aboriginal fabric and the yellow applique background is, of course, a Kona solid.

The pattern is from the book: Fat Quarter Quilting by Lori Smith.

I finished my VERA today

Here is my knitted bear:

Isn't she CUTE? 

Tomorrow she'll take the train to Holland, so she'll be in time for the birthday party on saturday!

May I present you VERA

I am knitting a bear for a sweet little girl"s first birthday.

I have not finished my bear yet, here she is, a light brown bear:

Vera is a friend of Jacobus, do you remember him?

I already knitted more patterns , made by Annita. The patterns are a pleasure to knit and the result is so cute. If you are interested in the patterns , they also are available in English. 

And this is the sweet little girl  who will become ONE year next saturday. 

Do you want to know my quilting projects for this new year?

There is one quilt which is already for months looking at me and calling me: buy me and make me........
Thanks to my blogfriend Lizzie I already am a member of the blog.

I am talking about  the Civil War Bride Quilt. Corliss Searcey of Threadbear in Australie made a pattern of the original quilt that is hanging in the American Folk Art Museum in New York.

This great quilt is only applique and because I do not have a  lot of experience in applique, I bought this small applique pattern by Lori Smith: songs of spring, to make first....;

And I started today an applique pattern by Yoko Saito.  

In the last number of Quiltmania was the first block of a Quilt Mystery. 

I asked her if she could make me a kit for this block. I have met her on the Craft fair in Rotterdam last year. She has an enormous variety of woven Japanese fabric. So she made me a beautiful kit. The next  block will be in the next Quiltmania in march.....

And of course I want to make a lot of doll/small quilts this year. there are two quilts that are waiting to be finished. I 'll show them this week with another , so cute, knitting project. 

keep in touch and happy crafting!

A new doll quilt

Last week I made this doll quilt, it's a pattern made by Kathleen Tracy, from her book American Doll Quilts.  I used a lot of Dutch folklore fabric that i bought two years ago in Staphorst. You can read more about this visit here.

I already started another kathleen Tracy pattern from her book Remembering Adelia. In this book you find quilts which are inspired by Amelia's diary. She was a 19-year-old woman who lived in northern Illinois in the beginning of the Civil War. In the book you can also read fragments of Amelia's diary!
 

I bought two gorgeous Amish quilt patterns

I found two beautiful Amish quiltpatterns . They are based on quilts from the Esprit collection of the Lancaster Quilt and textile museum. This is the double-ninepath quilt.

This is the sunshine and shadow quilt

Aren't they GORGEOUS? 

The printed material you  get with the patterns starts with information about the quilts (they are made in 1935) and you learn about Amish quilting during this period. 

The patterns include very detailed and easy to understand instructions for both modern and traditional methods.

Each pattern comes with 22 pages of information and instruction and .........with several quilting stencils.

 These quilting stencils!!!! are for the double-ninepath quilt.

The stencils for the sunshine and shadow .....

Look at those baskets!!!

I cannot wait to start, But first I need to choose the colors, of course I will use Kona solids ,do you remember that already I ordered some? 

When you finished the quilts you can register them in the Museum and you will receive a seal of proof on a numbered certificate of authenticity.

  

If you are interested you can buy them here.

Happy New Year and do you want some origami paper cranes from France?

I wish you and your loved ones  good health and peace in 2012. Thank you for all your comments on my blog in 2011,  your friendship, and your inspiration.

I want to give you something in the beginning of this new year. On New Years Eve and today I have been folding origami paper cranes. I already have about 80 cranes.  Do you know the story of these Japanese paper cranes?

In Japan it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper cranes makes a person's wish come true.
A thousand paper cranes are traditionally given as a wedding present by the father , who is wishing a thousand years of happiness and prosperity upon the couple.

The thousand origami cranes was popularized through the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who was exposed to radiation from the atomic bombing in Hiroshima during the World War 11.
Sasaki soon developed leukemia and, inspired by the cranes legend, began making origami cranes with the goal of making one thousand. In a popular version of the story as told in the book about Sadako, she folded only 644 before her death; in her honor her friends completed the rest and buried them all with her.
In an alternate version of the story she completed the 1000canes before her death.

Sadako's short life has also inspired another sort of legacy: the Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima. After Sadako's death , her classmates sought to ho,or their friend by creating a monument to mourn all the children who died from atomic bombing.

Beneath the pedestal , there is an inscription:

This is our cry. This is our prayer. For building peace in the world.

Though I cannot give you 1000 paper cranes , I want to give you ten, one for every 100........
If you want to receive 10 origami paper cranes, folded by me, leave me a comment and I'll contact you for your address.