april finished .... quilt finished !

Today is Koninginnedag (Queen's day) in Holland.

It's a day that a considerable part of our country is coloured

orange !

I like that colour but I didn't join the party.

Our queen (with a lot of her family)

celebrates her "birthday"

somewhere in Holland.

Though her real birthday is in Januari ...

but then it's a bit too cold to celebrate outside,

so she decided to stick with the date of her mother's birthday

for all the festivities.

I didn't go out or watch t.v.

because I wanted to finish my

Caterpillar quilt

... and I did !

After adding a lot of hand stitching

I put the machine on the table again :

I finally had to tackle the problem of the sides,

but a "normal" quilt binding didn't fitt to the design, so

......

I know from experience

that making a "zig zag" stitched border

can go terribly wrong !

brrrrrrrrrrr

After a few try outs I solved the problem

with this special press foot

(although it still wasn't easy)

Then I fixed the sleeve at the back

and added the parts that "stand out", after making them a bit stiffer

with some dissolved "water soluble fabric"

This is all you get right now ....

When the new owner has the quilt

then  I will show the whole picture.

belated and beforehand

Today I recieved a belated birthday present

......

from our daughter

(...another one )

Because of the "special number" birthday !

You can count the little squares

but I can tell you : there are a hundred,

65 are the normal bright fabric and 35 are still "veiled"

(that's our way of telling : hope you live to be a hundred)
There are some luck charms and bells at the bottom

The squares are 2 x 2 cm,

with white beads sewn to the background

(and most of the tiny pieces of fabric are "known" to me)

This is the second special quilt she made for me,

lucky me !

Jude will start another "Whispering" in May.

Beforehand I started with a star ...

... to get in the right mood probably

(there's a friend who will recognize some of the pieces :

I just asked her for old scraps

and she brought a bag full with her)

about cooking ... why not

After falling seriously ill and nasty treatment

now thirteen years ago

I switched to being (almost) a vegatarian

and subcribed to a weekly bag of organically grown fruit and vegetables.

(I love "Odin" on his eight legged horse !!!)

You never know what will be in it

(unless you look on the internet, which I hardly ever do)

but I learned to live with that

and even appreciate it!

... get inspired by what you have ...

(not a bad idea I think)

Today I made pie, as I often do

... dough from a tin (sorry)

preparing the filling ...

miwing it all together ...

adding some tomatoes on top for colour ...

and after 33 minutes in the oven ...

(I love funny numbers ... 30 or 35 is okay too)

DINNER IS SERVED !

*

(Hmmm , I  haven't finished the "caterpillar quilt" yet:

still some problems to be solved!)

..........

promises

When I walk in the garden in spring

I love it when I discover new growth or buds.

It's the time of the most rapid changes

Allium Christofii

only a bud now, but a big spiky sphere in no time !

Another Allium

Purple Sensation

( ... what's in the name .... )

   ... promises for next year ... 

... and for some friends !

Happy Easter weekend to you all !

eagles

Last week on Wednesday we had our

monthly Mandala drawing group

The subject for our inspiration this year is

animal spirits

( I already showed one )

This time the Eagle was chosen :

we have a meditation and there is some special music to go with it

this is "my" Eagle

I saw recently some great photo's from an

"Eagle - Cam" on Deanna's blog

The camera follows a Eagle couple

and they now have three chicks.

It's great to see these magnificent birds.

party !!!

What a great party it was yesterday 

with a lot of dear family and friends.

There were quite a lot of preparations but with the skilful help

of man and daughter it was very neatly done.

Before the guests arrived

coffee an tea waiting

and ... 

the yummy part of course

( nót home made but from a very fine bakery )

Later on there were all sorts of more good things to eat

( a lot of it home made this time ! )

The weather was nice as it often is on my birthday !

It's such a pity there is no scent-button on the blog :

the fragrance of these sweet peas is sooooo good .

It was a lovely unforgettable day.

b .... day

Today is b....day !

that's ..

beetle - day ?

an old beetle and a new beetle

~

or ..

Beatles - day ?

"... will you still need me

will you still feed me

when I'm 64 ? "

no, ..... that was

"...Yesterday ..."

~

or ..

bonbon - day ?

no, we will get lots of bonbons tomorrow.

~

or ..

blues - day, ... bargain - day, ... bad hair - day ... ?

NO 

b....day is

BIRTHDAY  !

my birthday !

and a very happy one too !

leaves

Man is studying Italian.

He does so for quite some years now

he loves the sound of that language !

It's very different from Dutch

so rather difficult to learn

but he's doing great.

He watches Italian tv ( with awful programs )

tries to read the sports page of Italian newspapers on internet

and sometimes he goes to an Italian movie with his class mates...

( no subtitles !!! )

For his conversation lessons he choose my quilts

as inspiration to talk about

and took some quilts with him to show.

There, someone loved this green one very much ...

and wants to buy it !!!

( I'm very proud ofcourse )

This is a detail of  "Caterpillar versus Polygonatum"

Every year I can hardly wait for the Solomon's seal ( Polygonatum )

to emerge from the ground :

misty gray-green leaves and tiny white bells.

And every year :

the caterpillars strike

and eat my beautiful plants till almost only the stems remain.

I made this quilt almost two years ago

for a contest in Holland called "Sporen" ( traces )

When it was almost finished

I got another good idea for the same motto

so made another quilt.

That one I entered in the contest ( and it was rejected )

Now I will gladly finish this "first born"

so it can go to a new home.

There are more funny things in the garden

this "monster" tulip

( who dares to enter here ? )

and I've never seen this one before :

it has a nose ( no, probably his mouth )

of almost 1 cm long !

... Pinoccio hover-fly ...?

lovely spring weather

What a lovely spring weather we have.

The garden starts to be blue all over.

I can never resist picking some of the delicate Fritellaria bell-flowers

and put them in a little vase in the house.

Despite this warm weather I'm inside most of the time :

the living room needs some serious

decluttering !

With a birthday and a party coming up it is

really necessary.

When I'm working on my quilts or felting

I do this in the living room

although my "stash" is in a room upstairs.

During the whole proces I gather around me

new stacks of fabric or wool of certain colours

... and leave them there ...

This goes on a long time

( and I must say I have a patient husband )

So now I've started to make our living room look a bit more respectable again

and not like some sewing studio.

But ...

 I still find time to enjoy the weather and the garden

;-)

no name yet ...

This morning I did the last stitches on my March felt / fabric

( I know it's April )

There were some new things I tried in this one

and I like the way all of that turned out.

You can think things out beforehand

but it's funny how opportunities suddenly appear along the way.

I wanted this piece to be really "Springy"

In our garden there are lots of flowerbulbs blooming every year

so I wanted bulbs in the ground

and then ... above ground

a Daffodil "appeared"

But then I thought: it would be fun if the flower was

three dimensional ...

so that's what happened.

Such magic needs some magic thread !

After all the elfs were there I saw that the Daffodil

was right over one of the bulbs :

it was like they were just waiting to be connected.

magic

The very last thing I did after all the stitching

was putting some beads on.

( and signing it on the back ofcourse )

Now there are three pieces finished

although I don't have a name for the last one yet

( any suggestions ? )

After I saw Jude's post "Willow wakes" today

I made a photo on the balcony :

the Willow right on the other side of the water

is already fully awake and "weeping"

coming along nicely

So far the weather in April is quite good.

In the garden the flowerbulbs are racing one after another,

evey day there's something new to look at.

Winter aconites are over

and so are some of the early Daffodils

Lots of  blue, blue and blue again

I love my Fritellarias

( and each year there are more, because they sow around quite good ! )

On my felt / fabric the flowerbulbs are doing fine too

Another elf in the making ....

... and finished !

The magic thread is creeping up the stem of the Daffodil.

With still some stitching to do 

this piece will soon be finished all together.

fools' day ?

I think it is really the First of April today

.....

What does a duck do in a hedge 1,8m high ?

Looking for a nesting site ?

Her "man" was very nervous

and kept an eye on her

 I think he was saying : "Woman what are you thinking ?".....

... and after a while she got down

and swam away.

Another elf