Grietmarkt

Yesterday Man and I were at the

Grietmarkt in Amerongen

The name comes from  

Margaretha Turnor

Chatelaine of the Amerongen Castle

in the seventeenth century.

The people of Amerongen have chosen her name
(also the flower "marguerite", which is "margriet" in Dutch !)

for their market of organic products,

art, music and other cultural events,

which they hold twice a year.

I've visited and attended several markets this year

and I must say :

this one was the best !

A good organization, a lovely place,

fun events and life music.

We had wonderful, kind helping

stand-neighbours

lovely customers and nice sales !

I hope they all enjoy their purchases

Thanks "Grietmarkt"

Just at the start of the day

Us, and the neighbours opposite with weaving products

(made by mentally disabled in a social workplace)

The wonderful ceramic birds "next door"

a silversmith and embroidered landscapes

bird feeder- coffee cups and insect hotels 

more paintings

Many, many, many people with lovely items,

I didn't take pictures of them all ...

A special fashion show by a group of "Down" people

Crafting, a puppet-show

and a small carousel for the youngest visitors !

I didn't take pictures of the many delicious

organic-food stands either, but there were many.

We took home some gorgeous chanterelle mushrooms for diner !

All in all a wonderful day !

colourful

Ahhhhh  February almost over

and colour is never far away.

This week, when I saw again the strips I cut some years ago

for a "Michael James" quilt,

I felt an itching to use all those lovely "left overs"

Lots and lots of strips, 3,5 cm wide

arranged like a rainbow

Two boxes in fact ánd some new strips ...

because when you start thinking about a new piece

it turns out you don't have the "right" colour

As long as I have the "Glorious Patchwork" book

by Kaffe Fassett, I loved the quilt

that's adorning the cover,

but never came around using that particular pattern,

untill now !

A loose arrangement with what I have so far

(squares of about 30, 15 and 7,5 cm)

Many more blocks will be made

(and yet more strips to cut)

This is what I needed all the strips for in the first place !

You have to be very neat with the stitching

but in fact it's not thát difficult

because you're working on a grid (1 cm)

printed on interface 

( vlieseline  rasterquick )

*

And that it's the end of February

is showing in the garden too !

After the winter aconites and the snowdrops :

there are the small irises
(ha, each year there are móre !)

knocked out ... but it was fun

This morning the alarm went off early
because daughter and I were making our trip
to the market in Zeeland.

The forecast said sunny weather
but heavy thunderstorms late in the afternoon,
well, we would deal with that later.

When we arrived in bright sunshine
we set up the small marquee
(that we bought yesterday)

in a lovely spot next to a walnut tree.

One of the boxes with yummy stuff to unpack

After our two makeshift sides were fastened
there was quite a bit of wind
.....
would it remain standing ???

The wind was probably caused by some storm elsewhere
but it died down relatively quickly
pfffffffffffft !
(relieved)

THIS was what our stall looked like 

with daughter's wonderful sun-and-moon rug as focal point !!!

Daughter brought her spinning wheel

 and we had a little lottery for Pink Ribbon

Later the sun came out again and it became really hot !

Lots of friends visited and we sat together

in the shade of the walnut tree.

We got many compliments on our work

and we sold some items too    ;-) 

But the daughter of the owner made a tour along the stalls

in the afternoon, "that heavy rain was expected soon" !

That was the signal to end the fun ...

much earlier then intended.

But on the way back we still expected (and got) 

a lot of traffic on the road.

At home, Man had some dinner ready for us

and only then I realised how knocked out I was

but :

we had a fun day !

 (and we hope our buyers will be happy with their purchases)

wordless wednesday

October giveaway

( Ha, it's just after midnight here right now
so it's October !
"Down under" this new October day has already started,
Asia is asleep, and the America's are still busy in September )

THREE YEARS

I can hardly imagine that they have gone by so fast !

Well ..... no .... not really :

a lot of things have happened,

góód and some not so good,

but all in all  

three good years.

So here is all of my promised giveaway

" the last summer flowers sometimes remain until fall "

You can participate is this giveaway 

by leaving a comment to this post.

After the  next weekend I will draw a winner

and send it in the mail 

to wherever she or he lives

Just a photo to show you how big (small) it is.
I'll attach a piece of wire to hang it,
but if you prefer to use it as a bookmat for instance
it can easily be removed.

Good Luck everybody !

starshine

Two little pieces in progress

One is backed with very thin dark blue cloth

and the other one with some old bed sheet.

I stitched on both, but though the sheet was very old

it isn't easy stitching through that ...

(won't use it again)

Making the star "shine" was the first thing to do 

after glue-stitching (basting) everything together. 

I love the light shining through this very thin piece :

sunshine and starshine !

almost ... ?

The first day of October 

isn't thát far away, only one week,

which means :

my third  blogaversary 

(so hard to imagine : three years of blogging !)

Though I forgot the second one

(probably because I was too busy to notice)

this time my giveaway for the blogaversary is finished !

yes ... only a small part of it,

the rest of the quiltlet will be revealed in a week !

However ... I can show you something else.

Remember I made a little quilt for a friend ???

I just got an e-mail from Eva

that it arrived safely in Germany !

At first I only showed two small corners, but here it is

It is my part of the swap we made : a watercolour against a quiltlet 

(A4 size)

*

So just be a little patient and keep an eye on the calendar,

the giveaway might be coming your way in a few weeks time

.......

just slowly going

It's so much fun

to go through my little plastic box

with the tiniest scraps I have

to see if they fit into the new little quilt.

This sun might Jacky recognize, she once send it to me

A Kaffe Fassett scrap I also used on my Night Wings jacket

(Oh my, I will have to start something else real soon :

blogaversary coming up !!!)

Though today wasn't only for stitching :

daughter came over and I helped her a bit 

preparing a template for some "window painting"

she promised to do in the school.

(ha : the next generation goes painting, though maybe I'll go help her, it's fun !)

And finally I múst show you this :

the shawlette with beads daughter was working on

during our holidays is finished !

Her first ever spun wool !

(I have some of the same yarn in my stash !!!)

;-)

in time !!! happy birthday J !

Just an hour ago, after lunch,

I made the last stitch

on "Mandala"

Later this afternoon we will visit the birthdaygirl

who reaches the wonderful age of

70

( our mandala teacher/friend ) 

She will nót be behind her computer at this moment

so I can reveal now the quiltlet I made for her  

(I'm a bit surprised myself that I did finish it in such a short time)

a piece of a flower became a butterfly

......

J had two cats (brothers)

but sadly enough one of them died some months ago 

......

and the Polygonatum (Solomon's seal)

 moved from one garden to another

and the next

...

I hope we have many more years of friendship and drawing together !

last but not least !

Today, though it wasn't really day eight,

the last presents were unpacked.

The first was a painted cardboard basket

(of which I showed a sneak peek ages ago)

that contained all the presents

but which was wrapped from the start !

The design and the beginning with a Neocolor crayon

Then I painted with white acrylic paint

one, two, three (and sometimes four) layers

to get a good white image.

Four sides ....... all year round

The last present took most of the time making ...

this little Birth Quilt

(48 cm   x  38 cm)

belongs to a series or three,

one for each of daughter's children

and for every one of them I chose a bird for the center section

The grebe is a wonderful bird that we often see in the water

next to our garden.

It is so cute to see the tiny ones get on to the back of the parent

so they can ride along safely when they're tired.

(the youngsters swimming around are of course the older sister and brother) 

Mom : isn't she a beauty ?!?

(YES, we think she is !)

I made this one because it is the Year of the Dragon

Above the dragon is written "roots  and  wings"

(which is written on every one of the three Birth quilts)

meaning :

give your children roots

so they know where they come from

ánd where they can always return to,

give your children wings

so they can fly out into the world and live their life.

There are some extra wings on the top

(and when you look closely you can even see a little bit of magic thread !)

The first Birth quilt ever,

for the oldest daughter

and the second one,

for the (now) middle one, the older son

Making these little quilts for the children was a lot of work

but worth every moment of it