Lots of News

It has been a while since I updated my blog.

This afternoon I paid a visit to my favourite LNS and bought the materials for Scandinavian Christmas by Lynette Anderson.


The pattern has been screaming at me ever since it arrived before our holidays and now I just had to go out and buy the essentials :o)

This is what the quilt will approximately look like when it is done.

Image copyright Lynette Anderson.

Today I completed block 11 of Snowbound by Bunny Hill Designs. Anne Sutton designed another very cute block for this month. Only one more to go and then all the piecing and finishing still needs to be done. But at least I'm caught up with all the blocks.

And Kruimel aka the Ort Master is convinced he still fits in the basket of the climbing pole. It is a very tight squeeze, as you can see!

We are in the process of constructing a big cat enclosure in our garden, so they can go out for some fresh air and a bit of scratching and climbing, and still be safe. Once there is more to see and the garden is not such a huge mess anymore, I will share pictures.

Apart from Snowbound, I worked on My Garden BOM block 4 (also by Lynette Anderson) which is very nearly done (I will share a picture soon) and also lots of work was done on Le Jardin by Bunny Hill Designs. I need to find a way of displaying what I have completed so far, to see what progress I have made to date. That quilt is huge! More about that soon.

Le Jardin Progress Report

Despite lots of distractions in the form of cute snowman patterns and other goodies, I'm still persevering with Le Jardin. It is so much fun to work on and I'm determined to at least get one project completed by the end of this year. I reckon my best bet is Le Jardin.

Here is block #4: the applique was already completed, but the block needed to be assembled:


I finally got the (huge!) block 7 completed and assembled:

And now I'm working on block #8, which I placed on the beautiful fabric used for the borders.

You'll probably think, "this is all looking really positive and she's well on her way to complete the top", but I still have some work to do on previous blocks, some of which are in various stages of completeness and one (block #3) hasn't even been touched yet. When I was still doing this project using needleturn applique, I found all those leaves (no fewer than 25!) rather daunting :o)

As usual, please excuse the creases. I cannot keep ironing these blocks when I take pictures. It will all come out once the top is completed (I hope!).

***

Thanks for all your good wishes for my SIL. I'm happy to report she came through the operation well and is now awaiting further treatment at home. She's not out of the woods yet, but the prognosis for a full recovery is quite positive.

And since I know she is reading my blog: here's to you, Maudy, for a very speedy and full recovery!

My Garden BOM # 1 & Other Things

First of all my apologies for ignoring you!
I'm working on a translation assignment together with a fellow-translator and it is so much fun, but it does have the knack of taking up too much time. It is lovely to be working together with someone, since being a freelance translator can get a bit lonely at times.

Still, the pennies to spend on all my pastimes have to be earned, so....

.... Saturday our lovely lady postie brought Ineke's and my package with fabrics for the My Garden BOM by Lynette Anderson and of course I had to send Ineke her share and use mine to complete block #1, since the stitchery had been ready for several days:


A detail of the flowers, the button and the birdie:

And a few piccies of the fabrics which we chose. One didn't make the cut, because it is a bit too purplish to work for My Garden. This range, by Moda Fabrics, is called Evening Mist, a beautiful name for a gorgeous range of fabrics. Have a look:

A while back, Ineke and I went fabric shopping at De Sampler in Haarlem.

I fell in love with this stitchery, also by Lynette Anderson. It is called The Quilt Shoppe and it comes with a cute cat button.

Ineke helped me buy the kit (her present for my birthday) and I chose the same fabric to do the finishing as the people at the LNS used, this pretty pale blue fabric with gorgeous flowers:

And I keep saying to myself, 'I'm not going to start this, I'm not going to start this......'

Not that is doing me any good, but for the moment I have been able to leave it be.

Instead I worked on block #7 of Le Jardin by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs:

Block #7 is the big one bottom left. It is now nearly done and I will share pictures soon, I promise.

Anne Sutton posted a new cute snowman for Snowbound yesterday and I still haven't made the snowman for August drive his cute little cart, so I had better get to work!

So sorry for all the cat lovers: no cat piccies this time. I'll make it up to you soon.

And last but certainly not least: please send healing vibes, spare a thought, or light a candle for my SIL, who is currently having an operation for thyroid cancer. Fingers crossed she will pull through and make a full recovery.

Thank you.

Le Jardin & Painting

Another long post with plenty of piccies, since you haven't heard from me for a little while.

I'm still working on Le Jardin, because I have a lot of catching up to do before block #7 arrives.

This is the first part of block # 4:



The sidebar of this block:


And the main part of the block:




They are now ready to be assembled.

And here is block # 5, almost done apart from stitching the end of the washing line (coming from block #4) which the two birds at the top are holding, and the ribbon which embellishes the rabbit on the watering can.



There has been a lot more painting going on, since I managed to create a painting corner in my hobby room. This makes life much easier when leaving the layers to dry, without two young cats who are very interested in the water, the paints, the brushes; basically everything I need for watercolour painting! ;o)

o-o-o

Here are my two favourite paintings from recent sessions:

First of all, Rackwick Bay on the island of Hoy in the Orkneys (Scotland), where I'm hoping to go next year. We will be staying on the island of South Ronaldsay and hopefully there will be a little ferry or causeway to the island of Hoy, where this bay holds the most spectacular collection of boulders I have ever seen.

This painting was painted in mixed media, using water colour paints, gouache and soft pastels.

Rackwick Bay, Hoy, Orkney Islands

And this is one of my favourite places on the isle of Skye: Elgol. A different view from the usual one pointing towards the Cuillins. This is the view towards the islands of Rhum and Eigg.
Also painted in mixed media, using a combination of watercolour paints and soft pastels.

Elgol, Isle of Skye, Scotland

And whilst I was doing that, our little furbaby Luna - who hates to be locked out of my painting room - finally fell asleep on my bed and had a loooooong nap.

o-o-o

Tomorrow Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs (the designer of among others Le Jardin) will be publishing the 6th block for Snowbound. Guess what I'll be doing?