Time can be beautiful!

Sometimes you stumble onto a brilliant idea! I was searching for some inspiration for my hexagon quilt that I am making along with my friend Sonja. I decided on sewing them together as diamonds to place between red hexies. Here are my first 3 diamonds. Sorry the photo is bad but I took it with my phone to send to Sonja over the Easter weekend.

Soms kom je een bijzonder idee tegen. Terwijl ik inspiratie zocht voor mijn hexagon quilt die ik aan het maken ben samen met mijn vriendin Sonja. Ik heb besloten ze als diamanten te plaatsen tussen de rode "hexies". Hieronder zie je mijn eerste drie diamanten. De foto is helaas niet helemaal scherp omdat ik alleen mijn telefoon bij me had dit weekend en geen echte camera.

I stumbled on Kimono Reincarnate blog with a fabulous idea! I loved it so much that I drove to IKEA the next morning to buy a Smycke clock and get started. My diamonds would have to wait a little longer...

Ik ben Kimono's reincarnatie blog tegen gekomen met daarin een fantastisch idee.  Ik vond het zo goed dat ik direct naar IKEA gegaan ben om deze Smycke klok te kopen en te beginnen.  Mijn diamanten moeten maar even wachten.

With various fabrics picked out of my stash, I got to work tracing the hexagons to the exact size for the pieces of the clock. Having the center hexie white didn't look nice with my fabric choices so I carefully snipped the hexie to fit around the clock itself. ModPodge and foam brush in hand along with a couple of hours to sit and glue all the fabrics and this is the result...

Ik heb een aantal stofjes gekozen uit mijn kast en ben aan de slag gegaan om hexagons uit te tekenen die precies even groot zijn als de onderdelen van de klok. Het middelste blok heb ik ook bekleed anders zou het wit afsteken tegen de rest. Dit moet je wel voorzichtig doen. Met ModPodge lijn en een speciale kwast heb ik de klok in een paar uurtjes gemaakt en alle stofjes erop gelijmd, hieronder zie je het resultaat:

I love it!!! Thanks Melanie for some wonderful inspiration that has added a personal touch to my quilt studio. 

Het is geweldig! Met dank aan Melanie voor deze fantastische inspiratie die het mogelijk heeft gemaakt om een persoonlijk tintje aan mijn quilt studio mee te geven.

Heidi

Potholder quilt progression.....

This past Wednesday was our quilt evening for May. I have been adding more blocks to our potholder quilt for this year's theme.

I added a fourth saying to the tablerunner...Measure twice, cut once. I stitched a spool of thread with a tape measure holder and tape measure. I have an antique one in my sewing antiques (which you can see in the collage photos) so thought it would be fun to add one to my quilt.

I also added another miniature patchwork block inside one hexagon. It is the Anvil to show my love of ironwork. I have often dreamed of taking a blacksmith course.

I am going to add blocks to the sides now as I think the runner is good at this length for my quilt studio table. You never know...I might make it longer later in the year but for now am going to concentrate on this length. Now to decide on my designs for the 7 hexie blocks.

I am linking to Suzanne's Lets Get Stitched.

Heidi

New quilt group theme...potholder quilt

Last year, I was so charmed by the jubilee quilt that my blogging friend Tammy was making that I asked her to be an honorary member of my quilt group (fitting since she is a Dutch American) and share her quilt with us to use as our theme project for 2013. Tammy used her quilt to celebrate her 50th birthday. It is a wonderful project and she will be sharing it on her blog so keep checking.

She created pdf's for us along with the story of how her jubilee quilt came about. We started with our first meeting last week. I have made my first four blocks to use as samples for the quilt evening. I adapted a block to be able to use miniature patchwork block here and there.

My quilt is going to become a tablerunner which has a sewing theme. This will be for my table in the quilt studio. I am using a combination of sewing sayings (notice my old blog saying in there?), sewing redwork and a couple of patchwork blocks. I had to slip Dagi in there as my quilt tester. *grins* Enlarge the photos for a closer look.

These blocks are sewn, quilted and bound which is how they got the name potholder quilt. They are then whipstitched together. Even making 7 blocks creates a tabletopper. So the ladies are able to make their quilts as large as they want. The quilt is double-sided in a way as you have the redwork front and a scrap quilt look back when turned over.

Thanks Tammy.....I am loving this project as I know the others are too!

Heidi

A Primitive Christmas tree.....

For the past few years, I have been looking for a feather tree. They are just so expensive and now postage costs have gone sky high too. I was inspired by Pamela at Our Pioneer Homestead back in November to create my own feather tree. I am thrilled with how it turned out and now I have a sweet little tree for my kitchen.

The tree started out life like this (see photo below). It was an inexpensive one that I bought at Wibra. The base had a prim look so it was perfect. I thinned out, trimmed and cut away at the branches. My mother was watching on Skype and thought I should not tape the inside. She liked it being green.

I added some rusty jingle bells tied on with raffia bows. Then I created a gingham star top with some scrap fabric. I simply sewed four layers of batting between two pieces of fabric leaving the edges rough. I added buttons to the front and back of the star. I am so pleased with my little tree!

Pamela has just posted some primitive Christmas ornaments. If you remember my primitive ornament SAL I did back in 2009, you can still find them on my old blogs here and here. There were 13 ornaments total. Pamela's ornaments would work really well with mine so I might have to stitch some of these up to add to my tree. I keep that tree up year round in my quilt studio.

Be creative this Christmas!

Heidi

If I didn't have my sewing machine......

Excuse me a moment while I bob along with my sewing machine...

Yep...this is what I am looking like at the moment. *wink*  I am into full production right now and have finished the 8th surprise for my quilt group's high tea as of today. My machine is groaning under the pressure but so far, so good. 

In between the surprise, I had a quilt top that I wanted to machine quilt for practice. I love to hand quilt and will do so until I can't but want to try machine quilting once in a while. Meet Bobby Pumpkin-head!

Named after a family member for his resemblance. Years ago my mother, her cousin, big brother Bill and I went to Amish country while I was home visiting. She called her brother Bobby Pumpkin-head (sorry Louise but you REALLY did say it) so here he is. *grins*

No fabric purchased for this quilt as it all came out of my stash cupboard. It is 24 inches square. Just the right size for my quilt wall.

I had fun making this label. I used a piece of muslin and stitched a piece of black scrap fabric down the side keeping the raw edges exposed. Then I wrote the text and stitched it on using higgelty-piggelty crosses.

Have a creative weekend!

Heidi

My Great Grannies.....

Meet Florence...my Singer 160. This machine, if you do not already know about it, was designed to celebrate Singer's 160th anniversary this year. It is a computer sewing machine put in a nostalgic model reminiscing back to the original old Singers. Jos spent some time looking for one for me.

I have decided to name her Florence in honor of this lady...

She is my great grandmother and her name was passed on further in two generations to come including my wonderful aunt who was Florence Jane. Her husband was James, the handsome man in the next photo.

These two people in my family passed long before I was born but I am so glad that they gave me their daughter who was to become my grandmother. My grandmother was a very special and magical lady.

When I heard about the Great Granny Along that started this week, I thought it would be fun to participate but in my own special way. I wanted something special to be the first quilt sewn on my new machine Florence.

If you want to see or read more about this quilt along just check out Lori and Jodi's blogs. There is a tutorial on how to make the block on Lori's blog. I really enjoyed this technique.

Perhaps you might have spotted the differences for me with this QAL in the photos? I first wanted to make this quilt in honor of my own two great grannies. I started this yesterday with my laptop sitting on a chair beside me in my studio. My mother was on Skype with me and telling me about my great grandmothers while I sewed. She was able to see me sew the first block on this quilt. That made it much more fun knowing she was watching.

The other difference in my quilt is that I needed to use fabrics that gave an old feel since my great grandmother Florence was born in 1874 and my great grandmother Mary Jane born in 1873. I love seeing that bright look many are using for their Great Granny blocks as it resembles the granny square afghans popular at moment but it would not give the feeling I want for this quilt.

The final difference is that I reduced the size in Lori's instructions from a 12 to a 6 inch block. I am turning this into a doll quilt. You know how addicted I am to making doll quilts. Here are my first three blocks.....

Finally, this is my great grandmother and grandfather Mary Jane and Albert. Mary Jane has to me the very typical grandmother's face. What a shame I never knew any of my great grandparents. My mother is a great grandmother to four and it is wonderful that they all know her and get to spend time with her. It shares a piece of who you are when you can connect generations.

I am trying to connect in my own way through stitching pieces of our family history into this quilt.

Christmas in July celebrations

I have been neglecting all three of my blogs because life has been very busy. Our house has been painted on the outside. It took two painters two and a half weeks and they still have to come back to finish the wood panels. They need a third layer and then it is finished. So I have been taking care of these two...one of whom is the son of one of the ladies in my quilt group. They needed coffee, tea, cookies, ice cream and cold drinks. I also have been cleaning up all the dust created during the sanding. I was busy preparing for my quilt group's Christmas in July celebration. Each July, I hold a party to kick off being creative for the coming holiday season. So while all my family and friends back home were celebrating the 4th of July...I was celebrating Christmas. *grins*

This year, I choose the theme of hand making a door hanger. Everyone had a couple of months to play elf for someone else in the quilt group.

This is my hanger which I stitched on unbleached linen. It is a modified pattern from an Acufactum book. The original design said Wilkommen and I used letters in the design and created the H to match from the I. The design was stretch on posterboard and glued to a wooden hanger along with red trim.

With my package wrapped and waiting, it was time for the party to start. Everyone started arriving with their food for the evening. We created an appetizer buffet this year with everyone contributing a dish. Four of the ladies also created a dessert buffet. Everything was so delicious that we almost could have forgotten our gift exchange but the fun began. We played Santa is a thief which was incredibly fun and provided many laughs as we were allowed to either open a new gift or steal one of the previous ones. 

These are the results of everyone's hard work! Everyone's work was amazing and beautiful.

I stole a gift that was made by Elly. You can see it hanging here in my quilt studio.
A wooden red painted heart that says 'love to quilt' with a fabric heart glued on it.

I decided that it would look perfect in my studio hanging beside Jesse's Hearts quilt. This is a quilt I made after our cat Jesse died very suddenly in 2002. If you enlarge the photo, you should be able to see the little kitty paws I quilted in the red squares.

Thanks Elly for my wonderful gift and to the entire group for another fun Christmas in July.

A special thanks to Albertha, Wilma, Sonja and Bep who always help out so generously. They jump up to serve others and help clean up afterwards. Bep is always the last to leave making sure Jos has help putting every last dish, chair or anything else away. You are all stars!