birthday (14 - 4 - 14)

Ha !

This time the special date

coincides with ...

my birthday

 

I was awakened by a (creaky) voice singing Happy Birthday

(well, try for yourself, you're probably not a great singer in the morning either)

 

and a wonderful bunch of flowers

 

Family and friends visiting

 

brought lovely presents

(and more flowers !)

 

Guests for lunch, guests for dinner,

a wonderful day.

 

It often happens on this day that we can sit outside in the garden,

alas, it was much too cold and windy.

But

inside the sun was warm !!!

 

 

And the little one : 

was playing with everything that was around.

Turning the table upside down is easy,

sitting in it is fun,

but 



getting out again ...

seemed a bit of a problem !

Stolpersteine

 

Today we experienced a sad and emotional day.

 

 

My sister-in-law applied for the placing of three

stolpersteine

 

(stumbling blocks)

 

in the city of Dordrecht

in front of the house where her and my husbands

grandfather, uncle and aunt

had last lived

before they were taken away

and killed in Auschwitz.

 

Her and my husband's and two brothers'  mother Sofia

survived the war.

 

She had lived in that house with her father,

two brothers and sister,

their mother had died some years before the war.

 

 



She had married just before the war began

and had moved to Rotterdam

where she had her first son

(my husband)

Her oldest brother went into hiding

and survived too.

 

Her father, younger brother and sister

never came back.

 

For them

the German artist and initiator of  "Stolpersteine"

Gunter Demnig

placed three little stones

in front of their last home :

for us and everyone else

to remember.

 

Three great-grandchildren of Meijer De Liver

each gave a stone

which Gunter then put in the pavement

 

My sister-in-law held a short speech

and a friend finally

said kaddish

for Meijer, Mozes and Rosette

Amen

 

stitch and ..... ?

 

Sometimes all the other plans are going on hold

when something else jumps to my mind :

I thought ...

I needed to make something special

for a special friend.

 

Though I had serious felting plans for today,

this project came up

and got priority.

 

 

 A tiny sketch is most of the time enough for me

 

After that I made a new stash

of "wonder-undered" polyester velvet.
 

(first time round I didn't heat up the iron enough

or didn't stay on the stuff long enough to make

the wonder-under (vliesofix) stick ...

btw : always use baking paper to avoid

nasty things happening to your iron !) 

 

 

After all the preparatory steps

 

the stitching is the really fun part !

 

 

This is the back side

 

 

 

The stitching is done

and you know what ?

 

I really don't know yet if I will burn this one too

.......

 

(and no overall view,

this will be in the mail soon

and when it arrived safely

you'll see)

 

 

And now I'm off to my mandala evening

 

;-)

 

 



spring days

 

Yes, these are wonderful spring days

and we have to make the most of it

(while they last  ;-) ... )

 

So, after daughter and little grandson

picked me up this morning

 

we went to the local yarn shop to do some knitting

with a lot of others ...

(a lot of talking, knitting, crochet-along

coffee, tea and sweet stuff

and a quiet little boy getting lots of attention) 

 

.. and on my way home

 

 

I made a little detour

in our lovely surroundings.

 

Rapeseed colours the roadsides beautifully bright yellow

 

 

 

And these windmills (21 together on a rather small spot)

attract lots of tourists from all over the world

when the weather is good

(and even when the weather's not so good) 

 

Later in the garden I still had plenty of time

to enjoy the sun and ...

 

give my second box tree a much needed "haircut"

 

The Ginkgo is still barren but the Prunus  is a pink joy,

the Malus is almost at his best "red",

and in a week or two the trees on the other side of the water

will totally hide the appartment blocs behind them :

a green oasis

 



playing with leftovers

 

We had a lovely party last Saturday

and brother-in-law liked

his stitch-and-burn piece.

 

(the "60" wasn't too obvious :

I had to point it out to him)

 

After the burning I'd cut the work out of the bigger piece of lutradur.

So I had some leftovers to play with

 

the polyester velvet snippets and the painted "wonder under" (vliesofix)

 

all ironed in place with some sheer on top

 

Then I did the machine stitching and sewed on a button

 

I didn't burn this time :

the edges of the burning are rather sharp !

 

a finished hand cuff

 

;-)

 

 

Furthermore I enjoyed another sunny day in the garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



brother in law

 

My brother in law

(husband's youngest brother)

became sixty last Tuesday

and we celebrate that fact with a party tomorrow.

 

For a little present I made all the preparations

for another "stitch-and-burn" piece

 

by painting the "lutradur" (kind of thick polyester interface)

the "vliesofix" (wonder under) and ironing 

unpainted vliesofix onto the polyester velvet.

 

 

Cut, ironed

and topped up with polyester sheer pieces

 

 

The fun part is the stitching

with  COTTON (!)  thread

...

but

 

DON'T FORGET TO PUT THE PRESSER FOOT DOWN !

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

otherwise, you'll end up with this nasty mess of loops

at the backside

which you have to undo

and start anew

(do you see the amount of thread, I did it móre than once ...)

This happens  because, with this "quilting" presser foot,

I have to put the foot down in some semi down position ...

which I sometimes forget !

 

I did the burning today outside in the sunshine

(it stinks ! thought I didn't burn out a lot,

I did it outside anyway)

 

You can see the "60" here in the design

though it isn't too obvious in the whole piece

 

(I think ...)

 

 

In this picture against the bright sunlight

 

you can clearly see I used the leftover cut out shapes 

of the circles to complement the square design

...

no initial plan, that just happened

*

 

And in that sunny garden

 

 

BLUE  ! 

 

and a bit of brown



felting exchange

 

I know. I'm a bit late,

but right now my March assignment

for the felting-exchange is finished.

 

I must say it was a funny theme

to make a little felt about ...

"tidy up"

"clear away"

(opruimen)

?

On top of that : I must confess :

I'm a no-good tidy up person !!!

I'm very good at making a mess,

but rather lousy in clearing things away

(ask my dear husband and he totally agrees with me on this)

So I decided to make something with two sides :
one : a mess,
the other : tidied up
 



As you can see (I hope) I started with the tidied-up side

(the mess lies next to it)

 

Then I covered it with white, the next layer was gray,

and on top of that the "mess"

 

Loops and free standing parts on this side

 

"order" on the other side 

 

It wasn't a simple one this time I think,

I hope Anneke likes it.

(I think I like the messy side best  ;-) !) 

Tomorrow it will go in the mail

 

(with some extra precautions to keep the "mess"

nicely standing up, instead of lying flattened out in the envelope)