Dear Jane update

I have made 15 DJ blocks so far. Don't think there will be any more made this year ;)

I am happy with the result so far. Love the hand sewing, so relaxing!

Tonight the last bee of the year, thankful for my "Vughtse Stucjes" quilt friends. Live is good when you have friends to quilt with…..

Happy sewing,
Rose-Anne

Merry Christmas and a happy and creative New Year!!

Wishing all of you 

a Merry Christmas 

and 

a happy, healthy and creative 2014

Enjoy time with family and friends.

Rose-Anne

In case you wondered….

I actually do some quilting in between all other things…..A friend gave me the pattern for the weaving method to put sashings between the DJ blocks. I have made 14 blocks so far. Will see how many more will follow….

first attempt to put some of my DJ blocks together with the weaving method

with a stamp bought at the "regiodag" I made the first scrap stars

At the regiodag in Oisterwijk I bought a stamp from Quilt it & Dotty. All the scraps from my Camelot quilt are in a bag and they will turn into little stars!! Lucky them….

Happy quilting!!
Rose-Anne

Inspiration

I have been busy with all kind of things lately. And my head is bursting with ideas!

We had an inspirational day with the Dutch Quilters Guild at the Gardens of Appeltern. And here is the result…

Some old spoons and forks, stick apples on top et voila!! The birds are happy!

I taught two lovely ladies making small Christmas ornaments at my home.

And now my bee friends want to come over and give it a try too. The cardboard kits have been ordered ladies!

And my  Dear Jane with Kaffe Fasset fabric is growing slowly. I met with Sandra (click to go to her webpage and see what amazing things she makes and sells!!) to see what progress we made in the last weeks.
This always gives me an energy boost and all I want to do now is make another DJ block!

I am going to put the sashings in a special way, got the pattern from one of the ladies from our bee.

Did I already tell you I have too many ideas and plans in my head?  Oh yeah, told you already…..

Keep looking, you will find inspiration everywhere around you!!

Rose-Anne

Organize action!!

The Netherlands is busy with the challenges of http://yourganize.nl/ . Small clean up tasks per day, to help you get rid of some stuff in drawers, handbags, kitchen cabinets and wardrobe closets.

My desk is clean and I must admit: working at a clean and organized desk feels much better.....and makes you more productive!

In the mean time, I also made some progress with my DJ blocks and even started a baby quilt for one of my neighbors (baby due any moment now!)

baby quilt in progress

DJ block 6

Wishing all of you a clean and organized workspace!!!

Rose-Anne

DJ progress

After intense labour of 48 hours I can happily announce the birth of block G6 ..... I call her: difficult...

This is my 5th block of Dear Jane, it can only get easier after this.

Keep positive and happy quilting!!!!

Rose-Anne

DJ 2

Finally got my fabrics sorted out and finished block 2 of DJ.

Block 2: F7

Block 1: G7

Inspired by Jeltje from quiltshop 100 rozen I will use all the Kaffe Fasset fabrics I collected during the last 10 years for this mega project......

To be continued........


Happy quilting!!
Rose-Anne

Purple strips....

Yesterday I hosted the Vughtse Stuckjes quilt bee. Ans brought the little flags (they can also be used as potholders) we made to celebrate her safe return. 

I promised you a picture of all five together. 

front

back

 And because we still have a lot of strips left........We started making log cabin blocks. Not clear how we will put them together, but it will be a group quilt in the end....

Happy Quilting,

Rose-Anne

Finished project !!!

Vughtse Kermis

I started working on this quilt after I moved back to the Netherlands in November 2011 at the Quilterij in Den Bosch. Françoise Maarse made the design of this little mystery quilt called "Little Carrousel".  Yesterday evening I finished stitching the binding by hand. Still have to put a label at the back.

This flower was modified by me to make it into the perfect "Françoise flower".

A lot happened since I worked on the first blocks...... The Quilterij moved to Vught, I moved to my permanent home, I found a job as a boardmember of the Quiltersgilde and together with  five lovely ladies we started our quilt bee the "Vughtse Stuckjes" every other week.

I have the feeling after finishing this project, I must change the title of my blog.....
Instead of "expat quilter returns home" it should be "expat quilter feels at home".
It feels like I have lived in Vught all my life!! Thank you dear friends to make me feel so at home.

Happy quilting,
Rose-Anne

Welcome home

Our quiltbee "Vughtse Stucjes" has welcomed home Ans after her bike ride to Rome with a heart garland. (picture will follow) Five hearts in different colors, mine is purple.

Just before she left, she gave each of us a shoebox filled with 3cm strips for a group project. We decided to make her a garland using those stripes.

Almost five weeks she has been on the road together with her husband.

According to initial reports, she would come home this Friday. So the plan was to collect the hearts on Wednesday (tomorrow) that gave us plenty of time to hang them at her front door.

BUT: yesterday we found out that she was coming home that evening!!

At full speed yesterday we finished the hearts .... just in time to welcome her home.

Welcome home Ans, we are looking forward to your stories.

Happy quilting,
Rose-Anne

AFFO (top)

The "Lovely Lady Camelot" top is complete. Today I added the last corner.

my own design for the corners

What else can you do on a grey Sunday afternoon....

Not sure yet how I am going to quilt this top, hand pieced so deserves to be hand quilted.......

Will keep you posted....

Happy sewing,

Rose-Anne

Corner design

Finally I figured out what to do with the corners of my Camelot quilt top.
When I was a member of the IQI  Guild in Chicago I had a workshop about designing borders. The most important thing I remember is to make a connection between the middle of the quilt and the border.
So I came up with this idea.

 Yes, the corners will be round, like the circles of the Camelot blocks. I traced the design once on pattern paper and then put 4 layers under my sewing machine (big stitch, no thread) and copied the pattern 4 times! Easy! Now I can paperpiece the 4 corners.

 The back of the 4 sheets of paper still together.

Yeah, I am ready to sew the last bit of this top!!

Happy sewing,
Rose-Anne

Almost there ....

Working very hard to get the Camelot top finished. 

Still two borders to sew and figure out what to do with the corners. 

Happy summer,

Rose-Anne

The lovely Lady Camelot

The lovely Lady Camelot on the lawn under the appletree.  

Happy summer,

Rose-Anne

At the applefarm

Stitching along ....

What a view...

Happy summer!!

Rose-Anne 

Quilt on the go

Busy putting some pieces together for the border of the Camelot. Enjoying the summer weather in Ireland. 

Visited Castle Coole today. 

Happy summer , 

Rose-Anne

Special feeling....

Now I know how it feels to be " the chosen one".
Yesterday, while driving back from the Patchwork Tage in Berlin, I found out that my blog was "blog of the week". And I must say: I feel very honored!!!

Thank you for visiting my blog despite the fact that I am not posting a lot lately. If only we could have 48 hours in a day.

Update on Camelot:

Decided to NOT use the Shanghai blocks and started cutting the points for the border. Hope I will have enough fabric...

Patchwork Tage in Berlin was a great event, you will be able to read all about it in the September number of Quiltnieuws.

the car was packed

You can find some pictures on the blog of the German Quilt Guild.

Happy quilting!!
Rose-Anne

Camelot

In between all the "other" quilt things I do, I managed to put together the camelot blocks I made last year and beginning of this year.

Still debating if I will put my "Shanghai blocks" in the corners.

16 Camelot blocks Den Haan & Wagenmakers fabrics

The  blocks I made in Shanghai from the same "fabric box".

Will become a big quilt, but it is already big anyway.......
What do you think....

Happy quilting,
Rose-Anne

Kings-quilt block

Yesterday I decided last minute, I would make a block for the "Kings-quilt" after all.
Watching my favorite series Flikken Maastricht I was able to finish it and today I will put it in the mail.

Quiltshop Leur (click) is organising this event and they already received over 150 blocks!! I don't know how many quilts they will be able to put together with so many blocks!!

Variation on Dutch Windmill

Happy Quilting!!

Rose-Anne

Yes I did it!!

I decided it was about time I send in my application for the Algemene Tentoonstelling.
Due date is May 1st.

So today I took my memory stick to the photo shop and had them print out the pictures of my quilt. Put them in an envelope and filled out the form. Yeah!!! There was no way back after I dropped the envelope in the mailbox....

And now I will have to wait (together with 300 other ladies and a few men) to find out if my quilt will be accepted.
I hope they have enough space, because it measures 250 cm x 250 cm ........

Keep your fingers crossed.

Happy Quilting,

Rose-Anne

Spring

Just too busy to do any quilting these days....
But enjoying my bulb garden, looking better every day!!

Happy spring!!

Rose-Anne