Hopfaldera

Working on my skirt

How is it going with my goal for May, my skirt from feathery AMH fabric? I made the pattern, washed and ironed the fabric and cut out all the pieces of fabric needed for the skirt. 

So it is going pretty well. Next I have to secure the raw edges that will be at the back of the skirt. I found a great tutorial for french seams, so I'm going to make the side seams like that. I couldn't figure out how to make a french seam in the back because I also have to add the zipper there, so the back will have a different finish. I added an inch of fabric to do that. 

I also cut fabric for a second skirt. I used the fabric that I had planned to make a skirt from last year (or was it two years ago?) I had the pattern ready, so that was easy. And I'll end up with two new skirts!

I'm linking up to the mid-month check-in of A Lovely Year of Finishes.

 

P.S. To get back to my previous post: Anouk has made it to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest!! We're very excited for tomorrow's show!

Marcelle and Anouk

Today I want to show you my Marcelle Medallion. I don't have the book that the pattern is in (Liberty Love: 25 Projects to Quilt & Sew Featuring Liberty of London Fabrics by Alexia Abegg), but I do have the magazine (only available digitally now). 

This is how I planned my medallion and how it grew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am now working on border 5. You can see the bricks above. I have already sewn them into strips, and next thing will be to add those strips to the medallion. It is a great project. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm actually cutting into my Liberty fabrics and some other precious fabrics that I normally keep in a separate place. Stay tuned for more of my Marcelle Medallion!

Today I also have to talk about the Eurovision Songcontest. Tonight is the semi-final in which Anouk will try to get a place in the final for The Netherlands. This has become a bit of a national trauma; we haven't gone to the final in so many years that I can't even remember when was the last time. And we want it so bad! So bad, that this year Anouk, who is definitely the coolest and maybe the best singer in the country, is representing us. If she doesn't make it to the final I suggest we forget about it and never enter again, with pain in our hearts. Here is the song (please vote for us if you are in one of the countries that can vote tonight, thank you!!):

 

Giveaway winner!

I am happy to announce that Kathy from Australia won the giveaway! Congratulations, Kathy! I will send the prize to you as soon as I can.

I was a very lucky girl myself, because I also won a giveaway! I won a lovely FQ of Suzuko Koseki fabric from Dapple & Grey. Thank you very much! 

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway. It was fun to have so many visitors, and some even started following me on Bloglovin', great!! See you again soon!

Grandmother's Choice update

I'm still working on the Grandmother's Choice block of the week project. Each week I make a block in red and white, and it's still fun. We've made 36 blocks now, only 13 to go! I'm already thinking of how I'm going to sew them into a quilt. Shall I use a traditional setting, or think of something new? These are my blocks so far.

Did you know this week is the big Sew Mama Sew giveaway day event? Be sure to enter my giveaway before it closes on Friday! Here it is.

 

Giveaway Day May 2013

***The giveaway is now closed. The winner will be announced as soon as possible.***

It is Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day again!!

Welcome to my blog, if you came over from Sew Mama Sew! And welcome back, if you have been here before!!

This is the prize I have for you:

Crafty goodies including party flags, buttons and a postcard from the famous Dutch department store HEMA, and a piece of LOVE ribbon. But that is not all...

There is also a metric FQ (larger than a quarter yard!) of cute owl fabric.

Do you like the prizes? Would you like to have them? Then please leave a comment on this post (one per person). Make sure you leave your email address in the appropriate field of the comment form or in the comment. That way I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is open internationally; I will be sending it to you from The Netherlands.

The winner will be chosen randomly. The comments close on Friday May 10 at 6 pm Central European Time. 

Please consider following my blog on Bloglovin'! It is not a requirement for winning but it would be very nice to see you here again!!

Visit the other giveaways on Sew Mama Sew. Good luck everyone!!

Plan for May

It's time to set a goal for the new month of A lovely Year of Finishes. This time it will be a project that I haven't started yet, but something I have been thinking about for a while. Actually, I had a similar plan last year but I just didn't do it. This month I want to make a skirt for myself.

The pattern, or method because you make the pattern yourself, is from Sew What! Skirts. The fabric that I got for the skirt is a linen/cotton blend from Field Study by Anna Maria Horner (I ordered it from her own webshop by the way).

The first thing I need to do to make this plan a success is wash and press the fabric. Then I will make a pattern on paper. I will need to check if I have a good zipper, otherwise I will have to buy one. Then I will cut into the fabric and follow the method to make the skirt. It will be an A-line skirt with a zipper in the back. (I like to make my plan as concrete as possible, so it is easier to accomplish)

I'm linking to the May goal setting party of A Lovely Year of Finishes.

 

A little house in Zierikzee

A while ago I made a quilt block  (for Charise in the Cocorico bee) picturing the house that my grandmother used to live in. My father liked the quilt block very much; it is also the house that he grew up in. He was sorry I had to send it to someone else. He 'suggested' that it would make a perfect birthday present for him...

So of course I made another block just like it, but in different colors, and made a mini quilt for my father's birthday. I kept it  secret from him, but we celebrated his birthday last weekend so now I can reveal it.

Here is a photo from Google streetview of the actual house in Zierikzee.

And this is the sneak peek I posted on Instagram of the back and a bit of the quilting.

Tomorrow is Queen's Day and the inauguration of the new king! We're going to have fun!!!

Some orange sunshine on the mini quilt I made for my mother's birthday last year

Finished picknick quilt

I completed my Lovely Year of Finishes goal for April: to make a picknick quilt out of a quilt top I had made a long time ago. Here it is:

The quilt is made of 14 Friendship star blocks and 2 Ohio stars. The binding is my favorite part because it is made of strips of all the fabrics that are featured in the quilt. The fabrics were a fat quarter bundle that I bought at Sew Mama Sew and that was put together by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls. I added the turquoise background fabric myself. It is a rather sturdy fabric. That's why I made this into a picknick quilt; it is a bit too thick to snuggle under. 

At the last minute I thought of the idea to add a carrying strap to the quilt. The strap also keeps the quilt rolled up. It is integrated into the binding so you can't lose it, handy feature!

the label: made by Muriël

a colorful detail on the back

Size: 55"x 55"

Spring and summer can come now!! 

I'm linking to the Finishes party of A Lovely Year of Finishes.

I'm still debating what to do next month... I have another week to make up my mind.

But it is a strange week. On April 30th our queen (of The Netherlands) will abdicate and we'll have a king, Willem-Alexander. It is going to be a very festive day I think, so that is something to look forward to! But last Sunday night we got a big scare in my town, Leiden, to make everybody think twice about big festive occasions. Sunday the police found out that someone had made a threat on an internet forum to carry out a school shooting at a high school here in Leiden. It did not say which school. My daughter is a high school student. She had to stay at home on Monday because all schools (20) were closed. At the elementary schools the children couldn't play outside that day. On Tuesday schools reopened, but because there was still no resolution, armed policemen and women were posted at every school and only one entrance could be used. Today was the same. And we still don't know who made the thread, if it was serious in the first place, and what this all means (they arrested someone and then released him). It is really scary, but it also feels like this doesn't apply to us at all. I mean, how can a high school student have a weapon here in The Netherlands? And how come they can't find out who posted the threat? Will it all blow over? Will we just forget about it, and feel safe again after the spring break? Will we get more clarity? Not the best week.

update: The Dutch 18-year-old that made the threat was arrested in Costa Rica and brought to The Netherlands. After telling a judge that he hadn't been serious about his threat, and handing over his passport, he was left in his parents' custody.

 

On with the sampler

I made another block for my sampler of some sort. It is the Squash Blossom block from a tutorial by Anita of Bloomin' Workshop.

In this block you can see the background fabric that I'm using for this sampler. It will be in more blocks, together with fabric from the two FQ stacks that I'm using.

I put all the blocks that I have so far together in different ways to see what that looks like.

My conclusion is that I need more blocks before I know anything about a layout. I do like the symmetrical layout though. I think my original idea was to have asymmetry, so that changed... we'll see what happens next...

From Hope to Comfort

From September 2010 until now I have been part of the Hope circle of do. Good Stitches. Do. Good Stitches is a charity quilting bee consisting of (many) circles that make a quilt each month for various charities. Hope circle is one of the first three circles of the bee and the charity we most often make quilts for is Threading Hope, an organization that distributes the quilts to children in underprivileged countries. I made many many blocks (57, I had to recount because I couldn't believe it) for the Hope circle and sent them (most often in pairs) to the quilting members of the circle who live in the USA.

first block I ever made for do. Good Stitches

Last month I offered to make the quilt, so this time everyone has to send their blocks from the US to me (in The Netherlands). I didn't really have a problem with paying the postage and I didn't hear from anyone else that they had, but of course it's all rather costly when you add up all the small amounts.

So I was pleasantly surprised when Rachel (the brains behind do. Good Stitches) approached me about moving to a European circle that Nicolette, another Dutch quilter had thought up. I said yes, then everything went very quickly, and now I am part of the Comfort circle, with people all based in Europe, benefiting European charities.

I already made my first two blocks, that will not have to travel very far.

my first blocks for the Comfort circle

Bye bye and good luck to everyone in the Hope circle! I had a great time!! Of course I will still finish the quilt for March for the Hope circle and show photos of it here and on Flickr.