This week I want to finish 3 quilts.... number 3

Today I finished this country baskets quilt.

I am sorry for the bad photo's, but it was raining ......

Have a good New Years Eve and I 'll be back tomorrow!

This week I want to finish 3 quilts.... here is number 2

In number 58 of Quiltmania I saw a beautiful quilt. If you were in Tokyo in 2007 for the international quilt festival you could have seen this quilt....

The quilt is called : the Amish checkerboard baskets crib quilt, it's made in 1930 and it's from the Wooden collection in Ohio.

I made my version :

The colors are darker but with the sun shining it's not easy to get the right blue's.

The quilt is hand pieced and hand quilted. The fabric is Kona cotton. I LOVE the Kona solid colors, as a Christmas present I bought myself 2 FQ bundles of Kona cotton, one in reds and one in purples!!! 

I hope to finish the third quilt tomorrow........

This week i want to finish 3 quilts.... here is number 1

Finally,  I finished my grandmother's flowergarden..... The hand quilting was so long and in the end so boring. And the choice that I made for the back fabric wasn't a good one. In the thriftstore I bought 6 meters of linen for 1 euro!!!
I used that linen for the back, but it was so heavy and stiff, so hard to quilt by hand. That's why I machine quilted the borders. I am so happy i finished this quilt and I am very satisfied with the result...

I want to finish 2 more quilts this week , so stay in touch.

Merry Christmas

I wish everyone a merry and peaceful Christmas.
Here I found some cute vintage Christmas cards...... enjoy!!

See you next week.

Do you need some last minute Christmas decorations?

This morning I saw this beautiful handmade angel on Ingthing's blog.

 There 's a very good tutorial, so come on....... make one or three for your Christmas trees and some more as a lovely handmade present for your family. Because everyone needs an ANGEL .

I aso love this origami flowerball. The tutorial is on this blog You have to scroll down untill the  27  november post.

I made one flower yesterday with some japanese origami paper....

Happy crafting!

Handmade Christmas presents

Last week I made a lot of Christmas chocolates. With my two garden clubs we had several chocolate afternoons.....

As you can see we were very concentrated....and we also had a lot of fun.

This a part of what we made:

Yesterday I made this bag for my niece Alda , I hope it will arrive before Christmas. (I made a second one for the summermarket next year!)

My friend Lucienne is always crafting, look what she made for her children and grandchildren....

It's more than three weeks ago that I showed you a finished quilt. Did I abandon quilting? 

NO, not at all, I am working on 4 project. I will show you more later this week...... 

And the winner is......

Thank you all for the comments on my SMS Giveaway . I shall visit all your favorite blogs in the next week, there were a lot that are completely new for me!!!!!

And the winner of the FQ bundle of designers fabric is :jojoebo, she said:
I don't think I have one favorite, I have about 200 in my reader:

I already have send jojoebo an email.

The winner of the Indonesian sarong fabric is Jane, she said:

Thank you for such a nice giveaway! I think the sarong fabrics are beautiful.:) Right now my favorite blog is Attic24. She crochets, has 3 cute little kids and pots wonderful photos of her house and the surrounding countryside. fun stuff!
Jane and I are already in contact.

More antique doll quilts

There is no time for crafting these days.  I want to visit all the blogs that participe in the Sew mama Sew giveaway. And there are more then 300!
 I already have so many comments on my blog....... just fabulous!
Next week I want to visit all your favorite blogs, there are so many I never heard about before.....

So in today's post no quilts made by me but three antique/vintage doll quilts that I bought recently.
The first one is a simple bow tie pattern , only two colors.

And a doll quilt wich is has on both sides a one patch pattern.

The third one is my favorite, it's a crazy quilt in lovely colors. Mostly crazy quilts have quite dark colors but this one is so vibrant. 

Happy crafting.

GIVEAWAY DAY

This year I participate in the great Sew Mama Sew giveaway Day.

Welcome to my blog.  Let me introduce myself. I am a Dutch woman who lives in the French countryside. It's very rural here, no shops, no entertainment......
I have been crafting whole my life and my other passion is gardening. Both passions came from my parents, so this blog is in some sort a dedicating to my parents.
I have been knitting a lot, sewed my garments when I was a student and about two years ago I discovered quilting. And you could say that the quilting virus hit me!!!!

But enough, you want to see the giveaway prizes, yes prizes, because there are two!  You could win one of these fabric bundles.

The first bundle is original Indonesian sarong cotton, there are 12 pieces of about 25 x 110 centimeter in the bundle.

The second bundle is designers quilting cotton, there are 10 Fat Quarters . There is Amy Butler, Hester Bailey, Eric Morris, Laura Gun and some more.

Here are the rules:

You have to leave a comment in this post, telling me what your favorite blog is. 

In your comment you also need to say which bundle you want when you should be the winner. 

You have to leave a comment before friday 16 december 12 o'clock p.m european time.

I do ship internationally and I will choose the winners by using the random generator. 

Good Luck

Handmade Christmas presents from the Fifties

My blogfriend Ann has been going to her collection of old magazines looking for handmade Christmas presents.
This Teddy-bear muff is so cute, Ann found it in her Woman And Home magazine collection.

And what do you think of these pipe-cleaner family....

I think this vintage apron should be a lovely gift for someone who loves cooking. 

BTW she updated her shop with more angels and other small Christmas gifts. 

My angels arrived yesterday!!!!

I love HEMA

I think only my Dutch readers will understand what i am talking about in this post!!
Yesterday in Holland they celebrated Sinterklaas.

My friend Lucy made the traditional Sinterklaas cookies: pepernoten, gevulde speculaas and even banketstaaf  without sugar for me...... Everything was delicious!

And there was a parcel from Holland for me. Before I can tell you what was in the parcel I have to tell you about the HEMA.  This s a famous Dutch shop, they especially sell non food things but..... they also sell some food . Their smoked sausage and their tompouce are  FAMOUS. While shopping, there is always the  flavour of the smoked sausage..... When I am in Holland I immediately go to the Hema, I drink my coffee there and love to look their publicity. 

And............ in my parcel from Sinterklaas was a crochet kit to make my own smoked sausage and tompouce !

Thank you Sinterklaas for this very cute and original present.

Handmade Christmas presents

These Christmas presents are all handmade in your kitchen. Who would not like to receive these foodie-gifts.........? You can find the recipese here.

Some inspiration

Do you want some inspiration for making a Christmas quilt or table runner.
I am sure you can find it here.  Danielle is hosting a Christmas quilt show, there are already about 90 blogs that participate.

What do you think of this one? She made this quilt.

You can find this one here.

And the last one, I think this is my favorite, maybe in red!!!!

Antique doll quilts

Last weeks I bought some antique/vintage doll quilts. I did not want to pay the expensive so they are not perfect at all. But each of them had something that touched me, in someway or another.
They were all bought in the United States and came from estate sales.

I don't know how old this doll quilt is.... There is a backing but no binding, all done by hand. The pattern is something between a one-patch and a crazy quilt. I love the fabric choice and the primitive impression of the quilt. The fabric is coton, flanel and satin.

I bought this embroidery doll quilt because the embroidered images are a strange combinations, most embroidered quilts have one theme : nursery rhymes, animals or Suebonnet Sue's.

This one is a combination of several; two animals , two Suebonnet's and two images of traditional Dutch

people.

I was touched by this traditional Dutch farmer's wife with tulips in her hands. Someone in the States embroidered this. Did she have Dutch grandparents or was she Dutch herself?

To be continued....

My Suebonnet Sue quilt

This morning I finished this small quilt. Hand pieced and hand quilted. I love the bright colors.

I found the pattern in this book.

Suebonnet Sue, do you know here?

This picture and the information about Suebonnet Sue was found on this blog. 


Whether you know the pattern as the Sunbonnet Sue, or the Dutch doll, Bonnie Bonnet, or as the Sun Bonnet Babies....she's been made into quilts, painted on nursery walls, appliqued onto clothing and goes back to our grandmother's or even great-grandmother's time

Many of the illustrators of the late 1800's and the early 20th century drew playful children with big hats or bonnets, but only a few are recognized as being Sue's earliest illustrators. The first is Kate (Catherine)Greenaway (1846-1901) who as a British book editor who often drew pictures of children, especially sweet girls in bonnets on her greeting cards. Many of her designs were used on the patches of fine Victorian crazy quilts or appeared in early editions ofSmithsonian magazine. These were probably Sue's very first appearance in quilts.

 

But it is another illustrator, Bertha Corbett Melcher, who is officially regarded as the "Mother of Sunbonnet Babies." Bertha illustrated children's Primer books in the early 1900's and her books depicted girls with their faces hidden by their bonnets. Her drawings caught the eye of a Primer illustrator Eulalie Osgood Grover, and the two women began a collaboration what would last for many year, through many different Primer books.


Browsing on the web you can find so many fabulous Suebonnet's, there is even a Sunbonnet Sue blog!

You can find on the blog this pattern of crocheted Suebonnet Sue hankies.

And this pattern....

These paperdolls are free to download here.

Tomorrow i'll show you the Suebonnet Sue wall hanging that I made.