she's góód !

Today daughter and kids

went to the "Castlefest" Keukenhof, Lisse.

(this Sunday was the last of the four days

of performances, costumes, music, eating and FUN)

She has been working these last few weeks to make

fun outfits ...

You've seen it growing.

But when you go there you need to bring "stuff"

and you don't want to "spoil" your costume !

So together with the fierce Dragon rider Hiccup,

there was Toothless, his dragon :

trolley "Toothless"

Is she good or is she good !

(or am I prejudiced ...)

*

Yesterday we had our very special

Alpaca knitting club LUNCH !

This time we went to 

"De Buytenhof"

(if you live near Rotterdam I can gladly recommend

that you go there someday !!!
They have a lovely restaurant with good food, a shop,
you can pick flowers, strawberries or apples
depending what time of the year it is, of course )

Outside, in the shade of a screen

(it still promised to be another HOT day)

Some things finished, some things still in progress ...

And later :

a delicious lunch !

*

Last week my sweet "Queen of the night" bloomed again.

(Epiphyllum oxypetalum)

(number 8 and 9 !)

*

Slowly (my back is getting a bit better)

there comes a new necklace

Black, white, GRAY

I'm trying my luck with black beans too ...

???

forced rest

The last half of July has been quiet,

it has been a forced rest :

hardly any work has come out of my hands.

Pain high up in my back makes it hard to do any

felting, stitching, knitting, crochet ...

even cooking ..... (but Man is a great help !!!)

I have had backache before,

but most probably it was triggered this time

by all the heavy watering cans that brought my garden relief

in the HOT  SUMMER  DAYS !

(It's really too hot and too dry over here)

So the new necklace I had started earlier

is progressing  V E R Y     s..l..o..w..l..y 

Even sitting in a straight-back chair

I have to stop after one or two stitched beads ...

But

at last

Still need to make a closure.

*

Though it was most of the time too 

HOT

to come outside,

the garden was lovely in the morning these last few days.

Counting butterflies for the "Vlinderstichting"

for ten days, so they know in the end

a bit more, which butterflies go where ...

I was lucky :

a Swallowtail (Koninginnepage)

in our garden, a rare visitor !

(and I lucky, catching it like this !)

*

Despite the heat,

daughter has been very busy at her sewing machine !

the suit for Hiccup the Dragon rider

is nearly finished !

(and a little trolley bag will be transformed

into "Toothless" )

YES, she's góód !

:-)

some bits together

After the last post

I owe you the dress for granddaughter.

She really looked lovely in it !

(she has wonderful long hair and made lots of braids in it

just like the lady on t.v.)

(later I just realized it was a dress inspired

by a costume of Daenerys of  "Game of Thrones"

I know of it but don't follow it,

but looked it up )

Of course she needed a dragon ....

Ha, she made one herself,

she's GOOD with crochet !

(she had to sew on the wings and front paws in the car,

driving to the festival !!!)

And this was mum's outfit this time

*

The garden looks rather good now

because we have sun and a lot of rain

(so I don't have to water the plants)

I'm always happy when the

Altea cannabina

starts flowering like a fountain is little pink flowers !

lots of beauties

*

And the ongoing activity these days

is still the stitching on my red / purple piece

(scribbles, like little fireflies looking for a place to land)

... stitching along

   one stitch after another

hot in July

While summer solstice was a kind of drizzly day,

at the end of June and now in July

the summer is in full swing :

it's HOT !

We keep the doors and windows closed

to keep the heat out as much as possible

only to open them up very late in the evening.

Last night it stayed well over 25 degrees

...

Lots of time to make some new items

for the MAF-Festival (and market)

this Sunday :

a "dance" waistband 

(leastwise : there are tiny bells sewn onto it,

so it jingles as you move)

(MAF : Mother Earth Family festival)

It was so much fun to look for bright and "bling" goodies

in my vast stash.

But some of the ribbon (also with the pompons) I bought

last week on the Rotterdam weekly market.

I lóve those tiny pompons

except :

I  DON'T like it that my thread

catches time and again behind them !!!

I just need to sew on the bands to tie it.

A detailed peek.

And here is another one in blue

That little "baby" ...  is just a matching cuff

Another detail.

Of course the cuff has a little bell too !

And yet another, in black and white.

It was hard to find some good black-and-white flowers

(I didn't have a big felted one)

so I took this gorgeous big silk peony and bow

as a bright pink accent.

I sat in the garden just now,
sewing on the black and white one in the last daylight,
listening to the quiet, lazy songs of several blackbirds
singing their latest tunes
.... mmmmmm
warm summer nights !

the bigger piece (14 - 1 - 14)

I promised to tell about the bigger piece that I made

after starting the year with smaller work.

When the green collar was finally finished

(after all the setback)

I wanted to start another collar/shawl.

With the green collar I tried several things in this one piece :

like inclusions, nuno and different threads on the surface.

Now I just took some pieces of needle felt

that I bought at Hawar's (móre than a year ago)

There I bought a bit of red, magenta, pink and orange.

I wasn't satisfied with the pattern of the green collar either.

Felt can be rather "stiff".

It doesn't have the "flow" (flexibility)

some other fabrics have.

That's not a problem ...

as long as you deal with that caracteristic feature.

That's why I wanted to shape the collar

around a torso-like pattern.

I wanted two layers,

I wanted leaves,

I wanted points.

Two layers, and rolling wet felt means : shifting

and thát, I didn't want.

So I had to do a lot of sewing together with a running stitch.

Leaves, layers, everything !

A LOT of preparations, but it paid off at the end.

... and where would we be without the magical bubble wrap ...

Un-picking the linen threads was a lot of work too

.....

but finally

......

was  this  the reward  !

;-)