Finished top

.... And then I had 8 star points. Which background should I use?
I wanted to use fabric from my stash.

A dark pink? .. hmm nope.

Mustard?... nice but it doesn't have that WOW!

A dark grey?.. Also nice. But what is under the dark grey fabric. Yes BLUE!

The blue is calling me. I can't help it.

A light blue? ...no.
Yes this is the fabric I like, a darker petrol blue! Yes.

The star is coming together...

Only the tricking thing from a lone star is the center. It's the last sewing part. I'm always a bit nervous for it. Afraid that I sewed a bra!

Pinning carefully.
And there it goes..
pfeww! I'm satisfied. The center is nice and flat!

I also used in this quilt solids from Kaffe fasset. I love to mix them up with Kona solids. It gives such a nice Amish feel! The center is from a Fasset solid. So are the background and the green points.

I didn't have enough of the blue/petrol fabric. I used two different fabrics.

And ta dahh.. finished. My fingers are itching to quilt it. I love to quilt on solids. It brings the quilt alive! Unfortunately it has to wait. Some other projects need to be finished first.

Lucy

(who had to use blue in this quilt :-)

Hi

Hi, life’s busy here,

I have started running again.. I run three times a week approx. 4.9 miles. I enjoy it so much. I guess running is as addicting as quilting :-) I’m thinking of a splendid goal…I want to run the marathon of New York when I’m 50!! ( well keep dreaming Lucy ;-) Right now I’m 43 so I have loads of time to train for it .



Finally I’m working on my small Amish Lone star. I’m teaching the Lone star as a workshop and I think an Amish quilt is a good example to show.



This was my first choice of fabrics.



But somehow I have always blue and red in my quilts. So I decided to change the blue and then also it ended up that I changed some other colors too. But now I miss the blue..



Well it is time to choose the background.
I will keep you up posted

Lucy

Solids

Spring fever has hit here and I am enjoying spending lots of time outside, running and of course taking pictures.

Today I took some solids from my stash. I want to make a small lonestar. Think solids are perfect for this.
I hope to show you my progress coming week!

Lucy

Elburg

There is not so much sewing going on here. I'm still working on projects I can't show at this moment.

Maybe you like to see some pictures I took when we visited Elburg about a month ago. It's a nice old place here in the Netherlands.

Some beautiful old houses on a street.

The saddle from an old delivery bicycle.




This is a typical Dutch fishermans boat. It could be 100 years odl and maybe even more. I love the color of the wood and all the browns.


Since I bought my DSRL camera 1.5 years ago, I'm more and more into photography. It looks like that it is going to be my second hobby! I have to learn a lot but I enjoy it so much.

Lucy

Houses

" Dit huis is proper genoeg om gezond te zijn, en stoffig genoeg om gelukkig te zijn."

It started with one little house made inspired by The Little Quilts houses. It's a very fun block to make from scraps.

With four houses I could make a mini quilt..

But sometimes an idea doesn't work.. I couldn't choose how to set them.

Nothing worked i.m.o.

I decided to go for simplicity, four houses together framed by a nice red fabric.

Quilted and almost the binding is done, BUT there is something. I still don't like it. The chimneys are blending in the doors.

So four new houses were easily made..

Yes this is better, just with sashings and cornerstones simple.

8 houses and two mini's further and I finally like it :-)

Lucy

I thought about the post where I promised to explain how I make my writing space wider.

I found these two websites, since the sites are much better at explaining then I am, I decided to post the two links for you. ;-)

The blogger guide

Tricks for new bloggers

Lucy

Flour sacks

Thank you for your congratulations! It means a lot to me :-)

Lucy




Flour sacks

A little time ago LaDonna, from Gracious Hospitality, saw flour sacks in her favourite antique shop. She thought of me because we are going to do a Sun Bonnet Sue quilt together. Thanks to her help I could buy these beauties.
Look how bright the colours of the labels are. I don’t know which year these flour sacks are dated. I don't think they are that old. Does anyone know more about them?
I don't dare cut the flour sacks. I will keep these in my collection of feed sacks.
Thank you LaDonna. The sacks are shining on my rack in my living room.

Lucy

Quiltmania

I am so excited… look what I am holding in my hands!!!!! .
The newest issue of Quiltmania.

And the biggest surprise is that I’m in the magazine!
Quiltmania came to visit in December when Bonnie was here.They took pictures in our home of a few of my quilts. I’m so happy.

Who else is in the same issue? My dear friend Bonnie! Quiltmania wrote a very nice article about her new book!

Lucy


Ps. Quiltmania choose 7 quilts of mine that they will publish with a pattern in future issues.

I bet some of you were wondering why I haven’t been posting about my quilts in progress, this is why!
When they are published in the magazine I will let you know . Once they are published I will post about them with pictures of the quilt..
This is so exciting for me.

Lucy

*update*


Many of you have asked which issue I am in.
Its Issue no. 70.

The magazine comes out in the USA weeks later so you will have to look out for it.
You can find Quiltmania in Barnes and Noble, Borders, quilt shops and I am sure there are shops that carry it on line.
As soon as I hear it is available in the USA I will let you know.

Larger pictures

Some of you asked me how I enlarge some of my pictures. Larger as the 'large' size which is available in blogger.
I hope that the following information is helpful.

Upload your picture as usual. In medium size.
Like this...

When you read the Html of the picture you will see this:

WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bbCRFiRAtDA/Sa45DnLQ4dI/AAAAAAAACvc/54oeymMIkgw/s320/eieren+027.JPG" border="0"

Here it comes..

Change:

- WIDTH: 320px into 640px
- HEIGHT: 214px into 428px

and read a bit further change

- s320 in s640

That's all and ta daaaahh here it is; the picture a bigger size.



Another question was how did I make my writing space wider. I have template 'Scribe' and a long time ago I customized it. My son taught me a lot. Bonnie showed me how to make a nice background and I read a lot of information sites about blogging. Since that was a long time ago I have to go back and take a look to see what I did. I will find which site was very helpful for me and I will post the link to thsi site.

I hope to give you more information about this in a few days. Please just give me some time :-)

Lucy

Toy sewing machine

Look at my lastest find!
What a lovely addition to my little sewing machine collection.
I am just so happy with my new little machine.

Lucy

Needlecase

As a Dutch woman I collect Dutch fabrics of different kinds. They are very different as what I'm used to working with. I love the bright look of them. Yesterday I made this needlecase. Look at the lace I used. (Think you have to enlarge the picture).It has such tiny windmills with little farms on it. I love it!

I used a pattern from the book American Doll quilts by Kathleen Tracey

Lucy

Sampler II

Today I finished my feathered star. It's a complicated but oh such a lovely block. I'm making a sampler with different size blocks which I can use for a few of my classes. The feathered star is a workshop I teach and the other blocks are a part of a sampler class. I can use the appliqué blocks for my appliqué class as well. This is a start; I will make more blocks and complete it with fillers like, flying geese, windmills, squares and others.





Lucy

Sampler

I have been designing a sampler quilt for a class I am teaching. This will be one of the blocks, a feathered star. I’ve cut all the pieces, now the fun begins, sewing it together!


Lucy

Look who is knitting too!! It's her first time.

Lucy