A bit of this and a bit of that

Eindelijk weer een blogpost. Ik had een klein ongelukje, stootte mijn teen tegen een stoelpoot. Deed veel pijn maar ik dacht, gaat vanzelf wel over. Na tien dagen was het nog niet over, naar de dokter, foto laten maken en je snapt het al....... gebroken. Nu zit ik met twee tenen aan elkaar geplakt  en voel me een beetje gehandicapt. Het is prachtig weer en er is veel werk in de tuin.....maar ik zit te breien en te haken.
Ik heb ook nieuw garen ontdekt, zag het al steeds voorbij komen. Holstgarn Coast.
Een melange van katoen en wol , het voelt heel zacht aan en werkt heerlijk. Het garen doet aan linnen denken, het is mat en de kleuren hebben iets vintage; Ik ben er erg enthousiast over.
 Mijn eerste werkstuk is een sjaal naar een patroon van Cécile Balladino uit haar boek: Au fil des couleurs .

 

 

 

De kleur is op de eerste twee foto's het beste.

Ik heb er een Drachenfels  mee gebreid , in dezelfde kleuren als op  de link, moet nog geblokt worden en ben aan een tweede bezig, voor de meimarkt, in blauwtinten.
Een heerlijk patroon om te breien en dan met dit fijne garen.....

 

En nog een project met dit garen, de sjaal is inmiddels af en ik ben aan tweede bezig. Weer een makkelijk patroon met een mooi resultaat. Het is de Blossomy.

 

Ik ga ook weer borduren, heb het boek van Cecile Franconie gekocht : Jardin revé, jardin brodé.

Is ook een heerlijk, op de bank zit, werkje......

Als je het blog nog niet kent, is het de moeite waard om er even rond te kijken. Ceécile houdt van kleur en dat is aan haar projekten goed te zien!

Tot slot nog een foto van een ongeduldige kip, tegen etenstijd komt ze in de vensterbak staan en tikt tegen het raam.

 

Yarn dyeing with plants and the retro sampler

After my experience with dyeing with madder i wanted more....... I already told you that in the sixties I dyed yarn with plants, I remember that mostly  pale yellow colors were the result, they also faded quickly.
 I bought Jenny Dean's book 'Colors from Nature. A dyer's handbook'. A book with detailed information about mordanting, different modifiers and lots of recipes. And another book in French: 'Michel Garcia, Couleurs végétales, teintures, pigments et encres'.

A bought 4 hanks of undyed yarn at Renaissance Dyeing,  devided them in small hanksof about 20 gram.  I only needed small hanks with different colors because i wanted to knit the Retro Sampler with it.
Then the yarn was mordanted , following Michel Garcia recipe with 15% alum et 7% cream de tartre.
I died with madderroot, cutch, rhubarb root, chamomile, sorghum extract, hibiscus flowers, neprun.
some hanks where overdyed with indigo.
And here they are......

Arent' they beautiful ?

This was my first indigo vat and i also dyed some scarfs  but those pictures are for another post....

I started the retro sampler and as usual i changed some patterns, pattern 3 and 5 are mine.

Finished crochet cushion and crochet work in progress

When I saw the gipsy style cushions made by her , I bought the book with the pattern. The book is: Crochet Bohème by Cécile Balladino, it is written in French and is translated in German.

I made a red/purple/turquiose one and a more softer one in off white and teal.

My auntie Tineke gave me a lot of small hanks of tapestry yarn in different colors .....

 I am going to use ElfieJO's backpack pattern to make something with this yarn.  Do you know her blog? She is very creative with her hook, look at her version of the Tilda doll.... Isn't this cute?

There is a giveaway on her blog, you can sign up till the 7th of april. 

An in-between crochet project

For my crochet inspiration I often visit the blog 'Madame fait du crochet' (madam is crocheting). every month they have a crochet challenge. For september the challenge is crocheting in Japanese.
You could sign up for a crochet pattern in a Japanese crochet book.
So I decided to sign up for a small  scarf/shawl.
I used merino/silk lace yarn, hook 2,25.

I cannot give you the pattern . If you are interested in the pattern you need to buy the book, those are the rules of this challenge.

Au revoir Nantes 3

Some more quilts to admire!!
This the Kaffe Fassett room, so colorful!

The Boro exposition:

Some Petra Prins quilts.

And now my favorite quilts, those from Di Ford. Some of you asked why i do not want to make a Dear Jane quilt. But I am really not inspired by all those different blocks. But the composition, the fabric use, the beautiful colors in the Di Ford quilts are for me .

And of course I bought her new book with all the patterns. For me the Phebe and Ann's legacy quilt are my favorites.

She signed it here....

Two pictures from the book.

More Di Ford in my next post.....

I was in Paris

On my journey away and back to Holland I had several hours to spend in Paris;
Oh, how I love to be in Paris. To walk in the small alleys in the Marias, sitting on a terrace on the Ile St Louis , buy some delicious food in the shop of Florence Kahn in the rue des Rosiers..... I bought their Jewish cookbook with  their family  recipes!
Here I  am on the terrace , looking out over the bridge of the Seine. The heaters on the terrace made my hair more red than it is in real. Do you see the blanket over my legs, there were several on the chairs to keep your legs warm while sitting outside...

When you stood on the bridge you saw this:

Nearby was the famous quiltshop Le Rouvray.

Inside were several antique quilts, this one was my favorite....

I did not find there the fabric for my Union Station which I was looking for.....

I also went to a yarnshop in the beautiful, very old ' Passage du grand cerf'.

While looking for the metro station I saw this cowboy shop! I did not need any cowboy stuff but if so , be sure they have everything cowboy related!!

I'll show you to soon what I bought in Paris and in Holland.

Birds, birds........ and more birds

With my creative club we will have another market in may for mother's day. I am already making things.
I found a cute crochet pattern for these birds, perfect for key rings. It's a free pattern.

On this blog I found the pattern of an owl cell phone cosy, so cute...

And thanks to the lovely Jill from Untie the ribbons, I could finish my owls. She bought for me the brown floral tape that I could not find here . It came all over from the U.S to France. Thanks a lot Jill!!! 

They look much better now their feet are done, don't you think?

For the pattern of these owls I used two books: the Little Bird book and The artful bird. In both books are owl patterns, I made mine by combining the two patterns. If you like to make birds you could  go to the sites and look inside these books.

I was in the bird mood so I made a small one, here he is.... The pattern I found on the web...

Yoko Saito flower bouquet quilt 1....and a crocheted small pouch

Some month ago I bought the latest Yoko Saito book with a lot of beautiful  bags and this quilt.

I already made 6 blocks, will show you the pictures tomorrow!

I made a small pouch with two granny squares lined with a piece of liberty fabric. It's a beautiful pouch to give as a present with a small treasure inside.....

The fabric I love and.......... Yoko Saito

I love all kinds of fabric, I love reproduction fabric like this one:

I also love fabric designed by Denyse Schmidt,  her small prints, her not-so-crying colors! The teals and grey's in her lines are so beautiful! I have several pieces of her different lines. I have some Aunt Edna

Some Hope Valley....... and some more. Here is the Denyse Schmidt site.

But I also love the Japanese woven fabric that Yoko Saito uses, the subtile colors, her beautiful patterns , so really ZEN.

Somemonths ago i bought this book:

Yesterday and today I made this small pouch, all made by hand (the pattern is in the book).

You can still enter my giveaway here. There is also a giveaway on Mieke's blog.