Wednesday 30 July 2014

Wordless Wednesday

Friday 25 July 2014

My portrait, by Jesse Breytenbach



A few weeks ago Jesse from Jezze Prints announced that to celebrate the opening of her portrait shop she was having a giveaway - and I was the lucky winner of the free portrait! I love it, and according to my kids she has captured me perfectly.Thanks Jesse!

Wednesday 16 July 2014

Kombi Van Sewing Machine Cover

Update (February 2016): the pattern for this cover is now available in my pattern store on Etsy!



I am very fond of Kombi Vans (in Holland they are called VW buses), and the cover we did for Down Under Quilts 161 last year (you can see it here, scroll down a little) inspired me to make a Kombi Van cover for my sewing machine. It is a project in issue 165, which goes on sale tomorrow, so I can finally share it! (I showed a sneak peek here and here)



In Australia the magazine is sold in newsagents; if you're overseas you can buy it through this website.



Here is the cover on my machine in my sewing room - it makes me smile every time I enter the room!

Saturday 5 July 2014

Christmas in July



This week I have been making a Christmas table runner which will serve both as a project for the Christmas issue of Down Under Quilts and a present for my mother-in-law - for we will be celebrating Christmas with her and the rest of our family in the Netherlands this year! I am so excited - we will finally meet the two nieces that I have made Aussie baby quilts for in the past 18 months, and even better; another niece or nephew is due in the week before Christmas, when we are there!

The boys can't wait to play in the snow - we have told them that it's quite possible there won't be any snow in the Netherlands in December or January, but they still expect something like a Frozen set ;-). There was snow just before we moved to Australia, in March 2007, but only our eldest can remember that - he had just turned four. Here he is on his sleigh!
(If there is no snow in Holland we will probably drive down to the south of Germany to find some)



The table runner is finished but I can't show more than a sneak peek yet. I am also making matching placemats, using this lovely Poinsettia fabric:



Working on a Christmas project feels kind of appropriate, for it is of course winter here in the Southern Hemisphere. Although there is no snow in Brisbane it does get pretty cold at night in our unheated and badly isolated wooden house! The boys have two weeks of winter holidays at the moment (I always think of it as Christmas holidays) and we are having a lovely relaxed time after the busy first half of the year. I think this weekend is the first since January without any obligations! No gymnastics training, no competitions, no tennis, nothing!

Meanwhile I have started preparations for my next project: the gymnast quilt. I have printed the photo after enlarging it through Block Posters:



I imagine the finished quilt will measure about 1m x 1.5m. Now thinking about which fabrics to use...
To be continued!