Back to normal?

IS it possible to go back to normal after the 7th of january?
I was in Paris a week after the murders , the banners and flags were still hanging at the statue on the Place de la Republique. Everywhere were flyers with 'je suis charlie'.
In the metro i was looking at people while thinking : are you Charlie or are you not Charlie.....
I heard on the radio that teachers have l problems to talk to children who said: 8 murders was not necessary but Charb needed to be killed because he insulted Mahomed.....
I think we have to live with these problems.....

I'll show you a logcabin quilt which i made last winter and finished quilting these days.
I used old and new Dutch traditional costume fabric from MarKen, Staphorst, Scheveningen ,Bunschoten, Spakenburg and Zeeland. The quilt is for Thom, he choose the blues and because I also had lots of reds, i used reds with blues to make a nice border.

I quilted a pencil ,  I saw the idea on the blog 'Crayon and Pencil', she wrote:

For the unspeakable and to remember

Let our needles go

Reaction to what happened these last days, against obscurantism of any form

But also for girls to go to school everywhere in the world.....

Let us sew, embroider, quilt a pencil on each work this year.

Important information for crafters with pain in arm or hand.......

When I came upon the blog of Susan Crawford I was looking for information about the workshop she will do in Nantes , at the quiltmarket.

Then I found this post with such important information about pain related to knitting, crochet and so on. I have permission to give you the excersises which are mentioned in this post. For more information I advice you to read the whole post here.
I have a  carpal tunnel syndrom and since I do the exercises it feels better!!!!!

GENTLE WARM UP EXERCISES

1) Warm up soaks and stretches

Perform the stretches in a basin large enough for you to immerse your hand, forearm and if possible, elbow. The water should be as hot as you can stand.

Finger stretch: Stretch out your fingers as wide as you can and hold for a slow count of 10 to 20 seconds. Bend your fingers and hold for a count of 5. Repeat up to 10 times.

Wrist stretch 1: Pull your hand backwards gently with your fingers and hold for a slow count of 10. Repeat with the other hand.

Wrist stretch 2: Make a fist. With your other hand, push down on the fist and flex it forwards towards the wrist. Hold for a slow count of 10. Repeat with the other hand.

2) Quick stretches during the day

Wrist tendon stretch

Place your hands together in the prayer position. Raise your elbows out to the side, keeping the palms together. Spread your fingers wide and bring them together again, slowly, five times. Repeat.

Chin tuck

Good for in a car with a head rest, or lying down with a cushion under your head. Tuck your chin down toward your chest and push your head against the headrest or cushion. Hold for a count of twenty then relax. Repeat 3 times.

Shoulder shrugs

Stand or sit up straight. Shrug your shoulders as high and tight as you can and hold for 10. Relax. Repeat 3 times. Then shrug your shoulders back as far as you can and hold for 10. Relax. Repeat 3 times.

AND FINALLY, THE DONT’S
These are the things we probably all do much of the time!

Don’t keep wrists bent towards you for long periods (flexion) as irritates the nerves and tendons in the wrist.

Don’t tilt your hand in the direction of the little finger (Ulnar deviation) - this position folds the tendons over the wrist bone putting needle strain on the tendons.

Don’t grip or grasp an object for long periods of time. This contracts forearm muscles, pull tendons and creates pressure and rubbing in the carpal tunnel.

Don’t pinch (grasping with only the fingers) – causes additional pressure in the carpal tunnel.

Don’t keep elbows bent forward (as in at a keyboard) for long periods – causes compression of the nerves causing irritation.

Don’t slouch.

Don’t lean over your work. Strains neck and shoulders. Also can impinge on nerve roots.

Don’t keep your arms in a work position for a long period of time, the constant stress of supporting the weight of your arms and your work can irritate the shoulder.

I also go for regular sports massage to relax the muscles and to remove the built up toxins found in them and this helps a great deal. But if you haven't got time for exercising or massages, just change your position regularly, let go of the needles or stop typing, stand up, walk around, move your shoulders, but remember to treat your body gently and with respect.

I just found another blogpost about this problem here. 

So sweet and so cute

When I was in Holand I saw these cute cards in a yarnshop. You could buy the kit with pattern and yarn, which was cotton perlé from DMC, there was also a hook in the kit, number 1,5.

I made them for the Christmas market, made 18 cards and I love them.

And I want to announce the winnerbof the pincushion Bloghop giveaway. 

Joke from http://jokegaoxing.blogspot.fr/ is the winner, please send me your address and you will receive the fabric.

Memorial quilt

Some years ago I read this blogpost on Barb's blog about the memorial quilt she made for her mother. Her mother died at the same age as my mother and also , like mine, of breast cancer.  Barb and I discussed in some emails how important such a quilt can be as a tribute to the beloved parent.

And then this year Marjo  offered me her already cut strips of Dutch traditional costume fabric in mourning colors.  The strips were too small for the purpose I had in mind so I said :no, I cannot use them.
Then there was another coincidence: I saw a picture of Jeanneke's quilt and immediately I knew: this will be the pattern for the memorial quilt for my parents.
So I mailed Marjo and asked for the strips and this is the result:

I used the strips in traditional mourning colors to make logcabins . My father was a nursery man and the small shed on his nursery was a very important place when I was young, it happened often that my mother, me and my brother went to my father's nursery to drink a cup of tea; We were sitting around the shed and we played around. Life was calm and peaceful..... there also were besides bushes a lot of flowers on his nursery. Both, my mother and my father loved to have some flowers on the table.

After his retirement my father had a vegetable and flowergarden till two years before his death.

I embroidered their names and for both of them  I added some important words which were the guiding motives in their lives .

For my mother those words were  'de heer is mijn herder' (the lord is my shepherd, psalm 23).

And for my father 'ik ben op weg naar de stad' (I am on my way to my lord).

When I was twenty-one.......

After she showed us a picture on which she was twenty-one years old, there appeared a lot of beautiful young ladies on Dutch blogs.

So here am I, standing in the garden of my parents house.

 I was still living there although not happy with my life, my mother died 6 years earlier and my father was remarried. I had my own infant-class in a village not far from where I lived. 

I left Holland for Paris that year to work  as an au-pair girl . We lived in front of one of the gate's of the Luxembourg garden, every day I was there with Maria, the one and a half girl I was looking after, sitting on the edge of the sand-box together with Russian, Portugese, Italien, Engish and Greece au-pair girls.

It was my first time to be abroad and quite exiting as you can imagine!

You can find more pictures of young ladies here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Do you like to join us? 

Th message of the Utah bloggers....

A burning candle

Today I join Annemiek and I light up a candle for
Roos, her husband and their children.  They need our thoughts and prayers.