A Rainbow for Fleur

Hi there! I hope you are enjoying a great weekend?

This week I took out my box with scraps. I’ve mentioned before how Fleur likes to move around with her pillow, and you probably can imagine what this means for the cover. All the scratching with her nails ruins the fabric, so I really needed to make a new one.

I started by sewing scraps together on the short sides, and changing the colours very slowly.

Then, starting in the middle, I sewed these strips counter clockwise, going on and  on like a spiral.

Going on in rainbow colours:

As you can see it is not as neat and straight as it probably would have been when only using one kind of fabric. But with quilting this was pretty much solved.

So after adding a back and sides, Fleur has a new pillow cover:

Groetjes, Dorien

Work in Progress

Hello; how nice of you to visit! It has been a crazy couple of days for me. This weekend I was featured on the Facebook page of Garnstudio Drops Design . Of course that meant a lot to me, and the response was immense! So I’ve been at my computer a lot of time.

In between I’ve been working on my hexagons.

The pile keeps growing, and by now I’m sure it is going to be another blanket.

Every hexagon starts with a 3-round circle, and all of these hexies are different. And I haven’t even made circles with pink and purple shades yet.

I’ve also tried to make a little keychain in a heart shape, but I’m not yet satisfied. The heart doesn’t stand out as it should, so I have to work on that.

And then there is of course a new block of the Forest QAL that I’ve finished.

Now I’m only 3 blocks behind! I really hope there will be time to catch up soon. But at home there is work to do as well. I thought it might be a wise thing to do some painting. The woodwork around the windows really needs to be done, so that is what I started to do. But the idea was only the woodwork!

Our house is more than a hundred years old, and of course we know that you always can expect the unexpected. But this is not really what we were hoping for. Instead of a job for a few weekends, I guess we’ll be working on this all summer.

Groetjes, Dorien

Barcelona!

Hello!! It is good to be back, even after a few wonderful days in one of the most wonderful cities you can imagine.

Narrow streets, beautiful balconies,

Huge buildings, old churches,

And of course all the beautiful works of Antoni Gaudi:

I feel so lucky and grateful to have seen all this!

Groetjes, Dorien

Jean Paul Gaultier

 

Today I want to share a post with you, totally different from what you’re used to from me. I went to an exhibition in Rotterdam, with the work of Jean Paul Gaultier. And it was really incredible.This man has a wonderful way of using different techniques and shapes, and working them into an item with lots of detail and of course an unique look.

One of the first things that come to mind when you mention his name, are of course the stripes in sailor’s clothes. But he uses them in such a different way:

Like above in a beautiful evening gown, or below, with lace.

There was amazing knit- and crochet work,

Amazing pleats:

Feathers,

Embroidery,

And can you see what this is??

You really had to look up very close to see:

And some more amazing beadwork,

I feel very lucky to have seen all this, and I can only hope you like this little collage of pictures.

Groetjes, Dorien

Gordana’s Pouf

Do you remember the  Circles into Squares Tutorial  I wrote a couple of months ago?  A lovely lade from Serbia, Gordana, used it to make a wonderful cover for her pouf. She allowed me to show you pictures of it:

Isn’t this a great idea??

I’ve been working on the 5th block of the Forest QAL, and this time it was an Eurasian Jay. I really loved this, because there is a Jay in my garden almost every day. And because I’m not actually living in a forest, more in the center of a town, I thought it was so funny to find this pattern in a Forest QAL.

This was the first block that really gave me a hard time. Somehow Mr. Murphy joined me when I was stitching this one up, and some of the parts I had to do over. But in the end I was very happy with the result, until…. When I was removing the paper I unfortunately pierced the fabric and now there is a little hole in it!  I’m not sure what to do about it, because mending it would definitely not make the block more beautiful, and the idea of making it all over again, is not very appealing to me. For now I’ll let it rest, and I’ll decide later.

Groetjes, Dorien

I’m going on a trip and I’m bringing….

Hello lovely ladies. How are you doing?? You have all been so kind to me lately, with all your nice comments and questions.

So as I mentioned in my last post, I was thinking of making a new toiletry bag, because I’m going on a trip in 2 weeks. The idea was a bag with a large compartment for bottles, and a lot of smaller pockets. I thought it would be great if it could be hung as well. So, this is the idea I came up with:

After drawing this, I needed quite some time to figure out how to construct this. I didn’t want the seams to become very thick, and especially the way of attaching the compartment to the back gave me some trouble.

This is the front, with a fabric button, because I couldn’t find a matching one, I made it myself.

Then looking from different angles:

Maybe you notice that it became a little bit different than the original idea. I skipped the pockets on the top, because I thought it was becoming too large.

Now there are 2 zippered pockets, and on top 3 small pockets, which I gave a little bit extra space by folding the seams.

Groetjes, Dorien

Little Update

Today was really the best day this year; for the first time we were able to go out without socks, warm coat and big scarf. The first time in year this is possible is always so great. So this morning I jumped on my bike, to go and watch my son playing a tennis match. And I saw this typical Dutch phenomenon: everywhere were people on their bike, going for a ride, enjoying the warmth and the sun.

Because I was longing for this day last week, I thought it might help to bring some sunny happiness into my stash:

There is this idea in my mind to make a toiletry bag out of these, but I’m not sure about the pattern yet. It will need to have a lot of pockets, and a large compartment for full size bottles. Any ideas??

Something I’ve been working on:

Hexagons:

Don’t think this is going to be another afghan, but you never know.

I want to thank everyone who visited this little corner in blog-land; a lot of you have become follower and that is really great. Thank you!!

Groetjes, Dorien