Another boxy puch!

I made another boxy pouch! My Mom actually wanted one for Christmas and I gladly made her one.

I had asked her what colours she wanted and she said: 'Uh, I don't know, something with flowers.' Well, the fabrics I used are as far as flowers go in my fabric stash.

My Mom also wants to use the bag as toiletry bag and loved to have oil skin fabric from the inside. That's actually where the colour scheme came from. I selected the oil skin first and then picked colours to match the inside.

The oil skin is a flower fabric as well, so I guess that counts as 'something with flowers'?

I made one large quilted panel and cut it in half and added the zipper. I think it looks really good and my Mom loves it. The tutorial is from Katie Pedersen and you can finds it here. 

Biene's Adventure Quilt block #7

After this super hot summer we're having an amazing autumn. Sunny, not too warm but with beautiful blue skies and sunshine. We decided to spend a few days at the Dutch coast again, time for long walks and relaxing evenings.

I made another adventure beach block and got Biene to sit beside it in the sand. Not an easy task when the dog has nothing else in mind but running after that ball.

It was still warm enough for Biene to dip her feet into the water and trying to be faster than the seagulls.

Here's the block I made. Pretty simple beige scraps for the sand, wavy print for the water and a blue solids for a clear blue sky. With the recent adventure blocks I'm tending to keep the block design horizontal to achieve a cohesive overall look. I hope that'll work out.

Oh I love this coastline so much. The minute I reach the beach I have a feeling of deep relaxation. Walking along the shore is almost therapeutic, there's nothing better than listening to the crashing waves, the wind and being in great company. 

Another rare selfie of the three of us in the dunes. The only way Biene would sit still is waving the ball in front of her face. 

Even when we had a break from chasing ball she could hardly sit still. If we wouldn't play with her she would play by herself, hiding the ball in the sand, only to dig it up again a few moments later. Even though Biene is already seven years old, at the beach she behaves like a puppy. 

Biene seemed to enjoy herself most wen she was absolutely covered in sand. That's what I really adored about her playful behaviour. Have fun, no matter what. With her at the beach it's a bit like: play like there's no tomorrow. Doesn't matter if you're getting dirty, if you have sand all over your face, it's the moment that counts.

In these few months since we have her Biene has taught me so much. A dog doesn't want much of you. Whether it's going for a walk, belly rubs or playing ball: A dog wants you to be present. It actually is that simple.

Biene's Adventure Quilt - block #6

We enjoyed the last bit of the hot summer days in August with Biene and went for a swim. Well, Biene did, we just had fun watching her.
As with previous water blocks I opted again for a nice wavy print to represent the water.

Biene loved the water and the welcoming coolness of it, no wonder she kept hopping in an out.

Give that dog a ball and she's happy!

The excitement was big and it was hard to have her sit still. She would lay down for just a few seconds, not leaving the ball out of sight.

And that's Biene in what used to be green grass. This heat wave has burned all the grass that Biene now is pretty much camouflaged.

Boxy Pouch made from scraps

I had a lot of oddly shaped scraps left from my Pantone quilt 'Purple Haze' so I decided to use them straight away. I love that colour combination so much anyway.

I have been admiring these boxy pouches by Katie of SewKatieDid and I thought I have enough scraps to make one pouch. Because you can never have enough pouches!

That were the two panels I made. Mostly all strips were individually pieced with tiny scraps. Not the quickest way to do it but what can you do when you have small but lovely scraps?

And this one is really large! I first made it more squat but didn't like it so I adjusted it to make the shape of the pouch more square and I like it better that way.

While adjusting I also added a second strap, there's one at each end now which makes it easier to handle when zipping and un-zipping the pouch.

This lovely pouch is a great way to use up scraps or, what Katie suggest, using orphan blocks.  I'll definitely make another one!

Linking to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Biene's adventure block #4+5

We're having such a hot summer here in Central Europe that we are not able to go on long walks during the day. Temperatures between 30 and 37C (86 to 99F) left us with longer walks in the mornings and evenings and only very short walks during the day.

Nevertheless we went into the forest at weekends, that was the only place we could actually stick this heat. Biene had fun no matter what. I didn't do much sewing either, when you have temperatures of 26 to 29C (79 to 84F) inside the house you do not turn that iron on!

However, I made another tree block, improv pieced, in turquiose this time. Who said that trees need to be green all the time?

We have the feeling that in the forest Biene is her most natural self. Very alert, very active, always searching. A true hunter. A very beautiful one though (and not hunting at all, we would not have her run free if she would).

Here's another improv pieced tree block in the forest with a very playful Biene, having picked up every stick along the way.

This tree I made with small scraps and pieced them randomly together until I had a form that kind of looked like a tree. Variety is good!

And that's Biene seeing if we really, really do not want to play with that sick laying in front of her.

Temperatures are suppose to drop in the next two weeks or so, I guess the quilty summer adventure is turning into a year long project which I don't mind because we go on adventures with Biene all year round!

Biene's Summer Adventure Quilt - Block #2+3

We're having so much fun with Biene and I can't wait to show you more summer adventure quilt blocks.

We are having fantastic spring weather here with temperatures that feel like summer already (27C / 80F). So we decided to go in the forest and remain in the shade, otherwise it was just too hot.

So this is the first imrov tree block for the quilt and it has very subtle colours. Again I used only scraps and worked with what I had on hand.

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a long walk.

Who would have thought that Biene is such a poser?!

The following day we went to my Rowing Club and Biene went for a swim. The previous owners told us that she loves to swim and we could see it recently that she attempted to hop into every pond she saw. (Not every pond is suitable for a dog swim though, especially not with lots of birds currently breeding at the banks.)

Usually we don't let her play with tree branches but in the water it was an exception.

So and that is block #3, I used some Alison Glass fabric from her collection 'Sun Print Bike Path' in blue to represent the water, some green for the river banks, birds and flowers and a blue sky.

She hopped into the water a couple of times but was dry very fast in this lovely weather.

And that's Biene with the quilt block pinned to our boat house timber facade. As if she knows that this quilt is going to be about her and our adventures!! She looks so good!

Biene's Summer Adventure Quilt - Block #1

Ever since I can remember I wanted a dog. As I was young I walked every dog in the neighbourhood but was never allowed to have one by myself.
As I got older life got too busy for a dog: university, high performance rowing, working full time, living abroad.
My dream has finally come true in December last year when we gave Biene a new home. 

So why is there a story about a dog on the blog today? I got inspired by Kitty Wilkin's beautiful lecture 'Quilts to mark milestones' at QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena earlier his year. Kitty made quilt blocks of family adventures and brought them with her on hikes, boat rides and even flights. She documented the adventures with her beautiful photography on her blog here and here. Kitty brought her finished quilt top with her to the lecture and it was so beautiful to look at all those fun improv blocks that documented a whole summer.

After the QuiltCon lecture I immediately knew that I wanted to make my own 'Summer Adventure Quilt' marking adventures with Biene. This April we went on the first adventure that is also our first holiday with Biene to the North Sea in the Netherlands. 

There are endless sand beaches in 'Zeeland' and they are famous for the timber poles which break the waves in stormy weather.

The first quilt block was inspired by those poles in the sand. I improv pieced this block using only scraps. I took Kitty's advise and decided for a 15" height of this block and all coming blocks. The width will vary but 15" is the consistent height I'm aiming for.

The weather forecast was not the best so there is a bit of a grey cloud in the block as well.

It was too windy to hold the block up so I taped it down to the lovely timber huts that are all over the beach.

We had so much fun at the beach and Biene just did not tire of running after that ball.

Her whole face was covered in sand but that didn't seam to bother her.

Her floppy ears were going nuts with her speed and that wind. Isn't she beautiful?

 We got Biene to pose with the quilt block and the poles but she could hardly sit still, too excited!

The weather did improve after all and we had some really lovely sunny days.

If Biene wasn't playing ball she would dig holes.

Or dip her feet in the water.

I think she did have a lot of fun!

We all did actually! This is one rare selfie with the three of us where Biene did sit still for a couple of seconds...

I can't wait for our next adventure! And the next quilt block!

(I hope that weren't too many dog photos, but given the fact that I needed to wait for sooooo long to have a dog I think the amount of photos are in order. Quilty photos coming soon, I promise!) 

Baby Quilt for Yara

When one of your fellow Quilting Bees is expecting a child it almost is a natural response to make her a quilt. So as Yara told us she is having a baby we immediately started to plan a quilt. We were aiming for scrappy blocks in a white/ off- white background.

Our bee (the Quilty Circle of Bees) consist of 6 members and each of us made two large or four small blocks. The personal style and fabric choices really show in each block and if you know us you can tell which Bee made which block.

So here for example you can see two small blocks by Allison (bottom left and center), two big blocks by Vicky (top left and bottom right), one block by Magda (top center) and one of my blocks (top right).

Here are the two blocks Melanie made (left and bottom right), again one block by Magda and Allison (center middle and right). As we started making the blocks we didn't know whether it was a boy or girl so we aimed for 'gender neutral' colours avoiding too much pink or purple.

The great thing about a joint quilt by such a small bee group is that everyone of us contributed not only the blocks, but also the batting, the backing and binding fabrics.

This time it was me who put the quilt together. I wanted to create a bright background which was subtle and lively at the same time. I used three different whites/ off- white to beige solids, quilted simple straight lines in light beige Aurifil 40wt thread and I think it worked quite well.

Yara received the quilt already and she, her partner and the little baby girl love it and that's the main thing!

Here baby is on the quilt and she looks so good! 

Linking this to Let's Bee Social at 'Sew Fresh Quilts'