Hopfaldera

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!!):

 

Winner!!

The winner of my Giveaway Day prize is......

Ariadne from Greece!! She made comment #120 and that is the number Random.org picked from the 147 comments that were left. Congratulations, Araidne! Συγχαρητήρια!

And another winner is Loreen from Sweden. She won the Eurovision Songcontest with a modern song that I rather like. The Netherlands did really bad again with You and me by Joan Franka, but never mind that, we are used to it. I love Sweden, so GRATTIS to them!!!

 

 

Souvenir from Sweden #2

 

While we were in Sweden we heard this song on the radio a lot!!! Jag kommer by Veronica Maggio.

We bought her CD and brought another bit of Sweden home that way.

 

Giveaway Day December 2010

{{Commenting is now closed. The winner will be announced soon!}}

The winner is Cami from Palma de Mallorca in Spain! Congratulations!!

Here it is again, Giveaway Day!

I always play a bit of music for my visitors first, so here goes... This is a video by a very popular Dutch (yes, you have landed on a blog that is based in The Netherlands) singer VanVelzen. It's a Love Song, short and sweet. Have a listen!

 

Now for the Giveway Prize! This time I'm giving away a handmade (by me) Holiday Ornament and some sweet buttons, that I will pick for you from my stash, and cute ribbon decorated with windmills (a touch of Dutch)! I'll ship internationally!

 

If you want to win, please leave a comment on this post (one entry per person)! Do so before the end of the day (NB the day ends a little earlier over here than in the US) on Wednesday December 15. This is a little earlier than Sew Mama Sew suggested, but this way there is more chance that the package will arrive before Christmas. Wednesday night I'll close the commenting and will I let the random number generator help me pick the winner...

Make sure you leave your e-mail address on the comment form, so I'll be able to contact you. And if you leave your blog URL I'll try to visit your blog.

Find the other giveaways at Sew Mama Sew! I'm going over there right now!

Good luck everyone and thanks for visiting! You're welcome to drop by more often...

 

Je veux...

Here's a song we heard a lot in France. It's a big hit over there, and we loved it too!!!

Voilá Zaz avec Je veux!

3 times 6 equals fun

Tiffany of Tigglegiggles had a great idea. She thought up a new formula for a virtual quilting bee: the 3X6 Bee. You sign up for periods of 3 months, quarters of the year. In those 3 months you are a member of a Beehive of 7 quilters. You tell your fellow Beehive members your color preference, and they each make a block for you in those colors, but according to their own interpretation. You in return make 6 blocks in their color preference. The best part (I think) is that you choose just one block design to make all those 6 blocks. This is just the best way to see how a design can look so completely different if you use different colors, it's a great exercise in color theory (=fun)!

These are the blocks I made using this tutorial for a block inadequately named Four-Patch.

Right now, Tiffany is setting up the hives for the third quarter of this great bee. If you want to join, go to this discussion thread soon (well before June 15).

p.s. No, Sieneke (or we) didn't make it to the final of the Eurovision song contest. Tonight we will voting for Lena from Germany. Especially Damaris is a fan!

Sorry, Sieneke!

With my internet name Doucepoints (Douze points, 12 points, the highest possible score from one country to another) I have to devote at least one blogpost to the Eurovision Songcontest (or Songfestival as we say in The Netherlands) which will be held this week, here in Europe. Unfortunately, the Dutch entry this year is not exectly my taste in music, it's just really old fashioned and not in a good way. So, sorry Sieneke, I'm not playing your song on my blog!

I like a different kind of old fashioned, retro would be a better word. Listen to Caro Emerald, also a new Dutch singer but with a bit of an edge!

P.S. If you really want to hear Sieneke with her Shalalie, go here... By the way, I do hope she will get far in the contest and would be proud of her (and also very surprised)!!

Texel

This time about not about textile, but about Texel (there will still be some textile, don't worry).

Texel is an island in the north of the Netherlands. We went there last weekend.

We saw sheep and seals.

 

 

I saw two quilt shops (two more than in Leiden) and visited one: De Witte Engel. And bought some fabric, of course.

We cycled. We stayed in a nice hotel. We played games. We saw our favorite tv shows. We read our books and magazines. The weather was great. We had a great time!!!

And we even won a prize: a sausage! Dutch people will probably remember this: Heb je ook wel eens een leverworst gewonnen? (Have you ever won a liver wurst?); a quote from the tune to a children's tv show from when I was a teenager, Theo en Thea. Here's the song... (it's pretty weird!)

Give-Away Day

It is that day again... Give-Away Day!

I will talk about the prize later, but first I'd like to give something to everybody. A little video of Dutch comedian Hans Teeuwen. After having reached the top here in the Netherlands with his unusual sense of humor he quit performing and went to London to start all over again. This video is a small part of his show in English. Afterwards you can click on related videos for more Hans Teeuwen. Okay, watch this video for some fun (the video is appropriate for all ages and backgrounds, except maybe for Mozart-puritans...)!

Now for the prize of today's give-away: You can win a tea wallet that I have made and two meters of cute ribbon. The tea wallet started out as a No Cash Wallet from Amy Karol's Bend-the-Rules Sewing book but I had to bend the rules even more after it turned out that the wallet was too small for regular credit cards. I changed it into a tea bag carrier and I have included some tea bags for the lucky winner as well. Can you see the teapot button?

What do you need to do to win? Well, leave a comment on this post before Monday morning (in Western Europe) December 7th! At that time I will pick a winner. Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you. The Give-Away is international!

If you are still looking for cute presents for Christmas, please take a look in my Etsy shop. I have some sweet ceramic birds, all kinds of fabric zipper pouches, some Dutch themed baby bibs and more in my shop. Thanks for looking!!!

Go to Sew Mama Sew for more Give-Away fun. Good luck to everyone!!!

###Comment are now closed! Wait for the winner to be announced in the next post###

Dutch music promotion

For everyone that has not heard of Dutch rock star Anouk yet (and for everyone that already has!):