EQA

I went to the "The National Quilt Happening" in Belgium last Thursday, it was fun.
I saw some beautiful quilts and one Dear Jane quilt done by Fernande Authuys. 

To my surprise there were some small quilts from EQA (European Quilt Association) 

9 from each country. 

I took some pictures:

Iceland

Denmark

Britain

Finland

The Netherlands (This one I liked very much)

Luxembourg

Norway

Sweden

Germany

All of them very pretty. 

And of course I bought  some beautiful fabrics

I needed some brown for my planned tree quilt.

Now I'm off to play some golf, it is such a fine weather today.

Until next time

Happy stitching

Paula

Farmhouse Quilt

Now the strips have turned into houses, 

I'm machine appliqué this quilt with raw ends.

It is fun but I wonder how it will last.

Can anyone tell me?

I use "Lite Steam-A-Seam2".

12 houses are done, 

now I will have to work on the blocks in between.

My third block for "Sweet Nostalgia" was September block "Back to School".

I want to share with you a link to Edyta's video,

where she shows her fantastic quilt small/big bag

Have a look at this:

Bag/purse

You can find the pattern at her blog if you scroll down.

Until next time

Happy stitching

Paula

Have been making strips from fabrics I ordered from

 Patsy Thompson long time ago.

When I got this "Friendship Strips & Scraps" book by Edyta Sitar 

I found an opportunity to use that fabric.

I'm going to do this quilt on the cover. 

Actually I would like to do every single one in that book. 

The book is just great.

I have all hers books. 

She recommended Aurifil threads, so I ordered a kit,

to give it a try, and what a difference.

I have been having problems with what I thought was my sewing machine,

but it turned out to be the thread I was using.

This is what I'm knitting at the moment, a cardigan for my son.

Lovely Italian yarn from Lana Grossa,

 Merino Wool / Baby Alpaca / Cashmere. 

So soft and nice to work with.

I tried to get dye from that seaweed I told you about, but without success,

will keep trying.  

This yarn was dyed with dye I made from birch and mint.

Have also done some DJ blocks.

Thank you for stopping by, I would love to see what you are doing.

Until next time,

happy stitching.

Paula

It's Wednesday, that is the day we FG ladies meet at Karen's blog 

and admire and encourage each other.

If you like to see some beautiful hexagons

pop over to One Flower Wednesday

You might like to join in.

My Flower Garden is still growing, 

one could say 

"at the speed of a snail".

Isn't it a cute little fellow?

Thank God we don't have to carry all ours belongings on our back.

One more block finished for "Sweet Nostalgia" 

Hide and Seek, August block.

I just love doing these blocks.

This is a scarf (comforter) I knitted and was very easy,

you just cast on 3 sts. increase one st. at the end of every other pin until you have ca. 130 sts. on the pin, then you start to decrease one st. at the same end until you have only 3 sts. left, you cast off.

It is nice to have multicoloured yarn.

I also made two more blocks for my DJ this week.

Thank you for stopping by,

Until next time,

Happy stitching

Paula

I'm back from the Ecumenical Pilgrimage Tour  in Italy
with True Life In God.

We were 800 people from 60 countries. Amongst us were about 100 clergy:

Cardinal, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Monks and Nuns.

It was a very difficult tour, the day started between 5 and 6 in the morning
and lasted until 11 at night.

I did not sew one stitch the whole week.
My sewing remained in my suitcase.

I'm glad and thankful for this tour and I'm also very glad to be home again.

We visited many Churches and the floors captivated me,
 I was always thinking of patterns and saw them everywhere

These are all floors,
while other people were looking up at the ceiling, I was looking down at the floor.

Well I better get into my sewing room and do something.

Until next time
Happy stitching

Paula

On a pilgrimage

I came back home last week from Iceland, went for a weekend to Rotterdam and tomorrow I'm going on a Pilgrimage Tour to Rome. I will show you some pictures when I get back.

But what I brought back from Iceland was this seaweed,

 which I'm going to try to get some dye from,
Isn't it pretty? and the smell, now filling my cellar -  wow, wonderful.

I had this top quilted by a Long Arm, 

as I did not want to spend more time on this quilt.

I'm working on my second block for Sweet Nostalgia, 

selecting fabric for CWB block no. 11

and doing some hexagons for my Flower Garden.

One picture from Iceland, 

from the mountain called ESJA

I love hiking up there and enjoy the view to Reykjavík

unfortunately it was a bit cloudy that day.

Until next time

Happy stitching

Paula

Civil War Bride block

A little progress, one more block for my CWB quilt, I finished last night,

by laying them out together the thought passed my mind that I could stop now, nine blocks and it is not to big for any wall.

But then I decided - I will do them all, just one at a time.

Sweet Nostalgia 

Started a new top, this one is stitched and my first block July, 

is called "Fun at the Beach".

The pattern was a free Block of the Month from Dorothy Baker Designs some years ago. You can see a picture of the quilt  here

New books

I purchased three books, one is Masters Art Quilt,  it was published 2008 so it is not quite new but there are over 400 pages of beautiful pictures of art quilts from all over the world.

The second one is Wildflowers, designs for appliqué and quilting by Carol Armstrong, I thought I might need it when finish my Flower Garden. 

The third one is Jelly Roll and charm quilts, if one day I  buy a Jelly Roll.

Until next time - happy stitching

and thank you for stopping by.

Paula

Flowers and CWB

These flowers are ready to be added to my Flower Garden.

I have 67 flowers joined together.

It is still growing.

If you like to see some beautiful flowers, 

visit One Flower Wednesday and have a look

what the Ladies in this Flower Club are doing.

Thank you Karen for hosting this Club.

This is my 8th block for The Civil War Bride Quilt,

going very slowly there!!!

If you like to see more blocks from this quilt 

visit The Civil War Quilt blog 

Two very pretty cushions my mother made many years ago.

This is a Snowball quilt I made, using fabric 

by "Den Haan & Wagenmakers" in Amsterdam.

I'm not very pleased with how it turned out, the fabric is very nice though, 

I should have chosen another pattern.

Well next time I will.

Thank you for stopping by

and happy quilting.

Paula

Some old embroidery

To day I would like to share with you some of my mother's  embroidery. 

She was born on July 7th 1921 and died last February,

She would have reached 90 tomorrow.

This beautiful wall hanging she made 1945, with her  initial at the bottom.

Her name started with this Icelandic letter Þ.

Three beautiful rococo chairs (one for each child). 

They were always in use in her living room, for about 40 - 50 years.

Still beautiful.

Single chair. 

Later I will show you the dining room chairs. 

I forgot to take photos.

This is called "puntuhandklæði"  in Icelandic, (decoration towel)

Behind it you hang the tee towels.

My father made the wooden piece, he was a very good craft man.

Here are two  "puntuhandklæði".

I don't know how many she made.

She also crochet lace. 

This is just a tiny bit of her work.

Always doing something,

amazing woman.

Hope you enjoyed this,

thank you for stopping by.

Happy stitching

Paula

One flower Wednesday

One flower from a fabric I found at OEQC in Veldhoven.

It was a great show, beautiful quilts and many good sales stands.

 Ohh and was my trunk packed when I headed home!!!

So now there are 60 blooming flowers in my garden.

I have not decided yet how many flowers I will add,

as long as I enjoy doing them, they keep coming.

Lenna Green at Stitchingcow 

has a  give-away party, if you go to her web site you will also find 

many free stitching patterns.

Until next time,

enjoy what ever you are doing.

Paula
stitching with a smile

New fabric

This fabric which I bought on my last visit to Iceland, 

when I went to that workshop by Guðrún Erla,

is her newest design (I think) called Flair. 

It is beautiful, and 

 this is the pattern. 

I'm very excited to start on that one.

I just finished this top I started in that workshop,

the block is called "Strip To Be Square".

Also new pattern from GE design,

and will be published next month as a pattern.

When I look at this picture I see that the top needs

 some border in good color.

Today I prepared some "siggies" and sent them of to 

USA, Norway and Australia.

I also started on my 8th CWB block. I decided to do number 18.

Hope it doesn't take to long to finish it.

Until next time, happy stitching.

Paula

My 7th block and some flowers

Block 10 is my seventh block for the Civil War Bride quilt.

I must say, there were some difficulties with this one, I'm glad it is done.

But I can't wait to start the next one.

Two flowers for "One flower Wednesday" 

I'm still enjoying every minute I spend making these flowers.

65 flowers made.

This was a gift we received at the workshop in Iceland with Guðrún Erla,

lovely pattern called "Journey Roads", designed by her.

This is hers newest book called "Table talk".

"In this book are 16 projects designed to grace your table 

and Gudrun's family recipes to share with yours,"

says at the back cover.

The book is in English, published by Kansas City Star Books.

Happy stitching

Paula