Thank You Michele!

Look what Michele sent me! Her contribution to Ola's Quilt is just gorgeous. Lots of beautiful fabrics, including the purple fabric in the background, which was wrapped around the other fabrics.




She also sent me this as a surprise:

A needle threader in my favourite colour. I was a bit doubtful whether it would handle the tiny needles I use for applique and patchwork: #12 hand applique needles by Piecemaker. I'm happy to report it works perfectly and it saves an enormous amount of fiddling around with a thread and a tiny needle! It works just as well with DMC floss as with other threads. What a great idea!

Thank you so much, Michele, for making life easier.

Charity Quilt Update & Furry Helper

The first block for the charity quilt is finished, using Ineke's fabrics. Thanks again, Ineke!

I'm working on several blocks simultaneously now, so it could take a while before I have another update for these blocks.

I thought the pretty flowers on Vintage Valentine's block 3 deserved a close-up picture, since the picture I posted the other day didn't show much detail.

And of course I have to end this post with a picture of my Furry Helper (a.k.a. the Ort Master), who - thankfully! - seems less and less interested in my stitchy endeavours. He prefers to have a snooze nearby and keep an eye (or so he says) on what I'm doing.

He recently became an 'uncle', because his sister Kira had four kittens last week. Just as well that they're all spoken for ;o)

Vintage Valentine Block #3

Vintage Valentine block #3 is done!

Since it was finished, I worked on the Sunbonnet girls and boys for the charity quilt. My background fabric arrived yesterday and this means I can finally really get to work!

Thanks for all your lovely comments. I really appreciate it!

Vintage Valentine Block # 2

Back to Vintage Valentine (design by Vera Mosquera of the Vintage Spool) for a little bit. The petals for block 2 got a bit boring, so I started tracing, fusing and cutting block # 3 and couldn't stop myself working on that one.

Here is block #2, completed:

And the pictures of the materials which I only just managed to take before starting block #3:

Block # 3 is now also almost done, so watch this space.

o-o-o

Lots of preparations of pieces for the Charity Quilt going on too, and lots of stalking of our postie, who is late bringing me my parcel with background fabrics for the Sunbonnet Sue blocks for the Charity Quilt.

Look What Came in the Post!

Look what Magda of Magdaleentje sent me in the post!

Her very generous contribution to little Ola's Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

Thank you so much, Magda!

Three More

Three more Sunbonnet Sue blocks prepared for the charity quilt for little Polish orphan Ola.

This is so much fun and a good to think that it will end up being a nice warm quilt for Ola to sleep under.

The design we came up with has 48 blocks with Sue or Sam/Billy, so I have my work cut out! :o)

Charity Quilt Update

The pieces for four more blocks are ready, whilst I'm waiting for the background fabric to arrive:

Made with fabrics which I received from my Mum and Ineke (thanks!) and from my own stash.

Charity Quilt

Something cropped up that I just could not ignore: a fellow quilter is organizing a project to make 41 (and later 70 in total) quilts for orphans in an orphanage in Poland.

I just had to offer my help, even though a whole quilt was a bit too daunting. The result was a joint-project with the organiser, to make a Sunbonnet Sue quilt for a little 6-year-old girl named Ola.

The next thing was that I needed lots of scraps of fabrics for the frocks, bonnets and pinafores and other pieces of the blocks. The postie is a busy person and yesterday the first envelope arrived (thank you, Ineke!) and I had fun yesterday evening preparing the pieces for the first block, using Ineke's fabrics:

Today the postie brought an envelope from my Mum (thanks Mum!) and there is another one on the way from the owner of the Dutch ONS which I frequently order from (thank you Magda, owner of Magdaleentje).

This should keep me going for a bit, but [beware: shameless begging coming up!] if you have any quilting fabric scraps - which are suitable for frocks and bonnets - that you are willing to part with, please let me know. Bear in mind that you will be helping a little girl, who has nothing at all to call her own. Hard to imagine when you are lucky to live in a country like ours. Thank you for your help.

Snowbound block # 7

Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs released this block a day early, in honour of the 4th of July.

Another very pretty block. Finding the right fabrics and embellisments is so much fun.

Back to Vintage Valentine block # 2 tomorrow. All the pieces are ready to be fused and blanket stitched.

Vintage Valentine block 1 & Sleepy Furry Helper

What a lovely project this is to work on. This afternoon I completed block #1 of Vintage Valentine.

I'm using the kit supplied by Shabby Fabrics. The fabrics are absolutely gorgeous.



Just had to show you a few details:

The flower centres are made of fabric covered buttons which I made, using little button kits. The idea is not mine; a clever person from Shabby Fabrics came up with this great idea.

And - as promised - here are the fabrics for block #2 of this project:

As for my Furry Helper, he's been suffering from the hot weather and is still trying to squeeze himself in 'Kruimel's Nest' which is part of our big scratching pole in the living room.

A rather tight fit for our 18 month-old British Shorthair tomcat.

Thanks for all your lovely comments. They certainly are very inspiring and it is so great to find other people's stitching blogs, and gaining inspiration from them.