Hopfaldera

Giveaway Day

 

***Comments closed! Winner will be announced shortly*** 

Yes, it is Giveaway Day once again, or actually Giveaway Week, as this giveaway (and all the others over at Sew Mama Sew) will be open all week for you to enter and try your luck!

What will I be sending to my lucky winner this time?

These are the goodies:

A metric fat quarter of alphabet fabric, a good size scrap of fairy tale deer fabric, washi tape with happy bunting, and a card that says Smile! These last two are from the Dutch department store HEMA (the HEMA, as we say). Do these look good to you? Then you'll want to read on.

What do you need to do to win?

It's simple: please leave a comment on this post, telling me your favorite color. Everyone can enter only one time, international entries welcome! On Friday the 13th of December (will it be you lucky day?) at 9 pm (my time here in The Netherlands) I will close the comments and let a random number generator choose the winner. Make sure you leave your email address in the comment form or in the comment, so I can contact you if you win!

It is not a requirement for winning this giveaway, but it would be great if you would visit my blog again. Please consider following me on Bloglovin'!

Good luck and Happy Holidays!!

Dalahorses

This week was all about Dalahorses for me. For the Penny Sampler we were making two Dalahorse blocks, and for the Trim the Tree ornament swap I also chose to make little Dalahorses.

For the quiltblocks I decided to make two different horses. Each one in a color of the two Dala horses I have. One is black and I got it when I was on my first vacation in Sweden when I was 7. I thought it was lost somewhere in a box, either in our own attic or in my parents' attic, but when my parents saw me working on Dalahorses last week they took an Instagram photo of the black horse that they had. I was so glad to see it! I remember that when I got to pick out the horse with my parents I chose a black horse because I found that the most realistic color. When I was 7 I thought that was important... The red and blue horses just felt very weird to me.

The other horse that I own is white. I have shown it on my blog very often. Here is the story of how this horse came to live with us.

The ornaments that I made are all very unrealistic in color. But I hope very christmassy! I made them by tracing around a wooden Dalahorse shape I got in Sweden (for free, from a craft table at one of the horse factories in Nusnäs, on which they had wooden scraps from the factory that you could paint if you were inspired by seeing all the horses being produced). For each ornament I piled three felt horses and sewed them together with perle cotton. I glued the saddle and ribbon on with fabric glue. The hanging ricrac was added while I sewed the horses together.

These packages will be on their way to my swap partners today!

 

Double Dutch summer sew-in

Last Sunday the Double Dutch quilting group I am a member of, had another meeting. The summer sew-in. It was a lot of fun! We welcomed some new participants, Nicole and Anne. The others attending were Mari, Linda, Lotje, Eva-Marie, and me. 

We worked quite hard. Everybody had at least one project with her to work on: basting a quilt, sewing bee blocks together, making a bag, making a pillow, embroidering, piecing blocks for a new quilt.

The Do.Good Stitches charity quilt I worked on

We had set ourselves the challenge of coming up with a quilt block based on the words Double Dutch. These are the results all together on the coffee table. Because we also had coffee of course, and tea, and cake. And we chatted a lot! 

We also did some showing and telling (here is a photo of Lotje and me holding up my Marcelle Medallion). And also an ugly fabric swap. It always turns out that you come away from a swap like that with fabrics that aren't ugly at all, ha!

Our Round Robin blocks

A great Sunday!! Thank you Double Dutch ladies!

My own interpretation of Double Dutch

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

Converging corners quilt finished

Two bees with one stone... The members of two online quilting bees made blocks for this quilt using Kona Stone as the background fabric. Yes, I have finished my Converging Corners quilt (tutorial by Film In The Fridge) and so I have met my Lovely Year of Finishes goal for March! 

And it is a good thing we have another finished quilt in the house, because spring still seems very far away and last weekend we even had Siberian temperatures around here (this was what the weatherman on national television called it; he might have exaggerated a bit but not much...)!

on the back are four blocks from the 3x6 sampler bee and leftover scraps and yardage from the front

I used a teal solid for the binding

Quilt stats:

Pattern: Converging Corners by Film in the Fridge

Blocks made by: members of Sew Buzzy and Bee Europa 2012-2013

Batting: 100% cotton

Size: 48" x 72"

Sewn together, quilted and finished by: me, Muriël

A big thank you to all my fellow bee members!!

Getting there

How is it going with my goal for March? It's going pretty well.

the quilt top, consisting of 24 blocks

I have all the elements of the quilt sandwich ready to be piled on top of eachother and to be basted and quilted and I have already made a roll of binding. I chose a solid colored fabric for that, because there are already so many prints in this quilt. 

blurry photo of the quilt back, made from leftover scraps and yardage, and a few old bee blocks

double fold binding ready to go

Today I want to do the basting. I'm going to use my quilting safety pins. I want to try basting with temporary glue in the future, but I couldn't get it right now.

 

 

 

Goal for March

A dilemma: two days ago the fabric for my February goal finally arrived (safe and sound with a tax billl attached to it; 18.90 euro, I hope the government will spend it well ;-) ), so I could just repeat that goal for March but I really had a different plan. I want to finish a quilt that the members of two of my bees made blocks for, my Converging Corners quilt. Sorry Pippi, you will have to wait a bit longer, first those corners will converge!

The blocks for the quilt I plan to finish were made by members of Bee Europa (in September) and of Sew Buzzy (in November). I have 24 blocks, so I could use a layout of 4 by 6 blocks, or I could make one more block and make a square quilt of 5 by 5. I will have to decide.

The block I made for myself

This is the tutorial for the blocks by Film in the Fridge. I sent out Kona Stone for the background and strips from my stash for the corners. Also I sent everyone a square from a charmpack for the center of the block. The charmpack is from Flora by Lauren and Jessi Jung for Moda Fabrics and I also used it for color inspiration in choosing my corner fabrics. 

The charms I sent out for the centers

The fabrics I chose from my stash for the corners

I am very excited to see this quilt come together. It shouldn't be that hard: all the blocks are 12.5" and they are all in the house. I also have enough batting and enough fabric to make a backing. I will have to think about how to quilt it, but I will not make it too hard on myself. Making the binding is one of my favorite things, so I can do that when I get burned out on tasks that are a bit boring or take very long.

I am linking to A Lovely Year of Finishes, of course! What have you got planned? 

Lone Star

I did finish something this month, but not the project I had planned for A Lovely Year of Finishes. Unfortunately my fabric still hasn't arrived, but I still have hope, because just last week I received a quilt block that had been traveling since December 6th. Still I would say normally I don't have any problems with the mail to and from the US.

Here is what I started and finished in February: a Scrappy Lone Star quilt.

Size: 32" x 40", so it's a midi quilt, not really mini, but not very big either. I could say baby quilt, but there aren't any babies here to use it.

For the star I used this tutorial on Better Off Thread. And then I added a bit of my own imagination to finish the quilt. I love the prairie points that look like bunting. The whole project reminds me of Easter and spring in general. I'm so happy we are heading towards a fresh new season!

I already know my project for March, and I even have all the neccesities in the house already. That quilt block that I talked about above was the last ingredient. I'll post about the new plan at the beginning of March.