Sip 'n Stitch Sunday

Today, we had the Sip 'n Stitch at my home. It was the first time I had Harmien, Barbara and Annemarie to my house. I really enjoyed the day together and preparing a High Tea for us all. It took us a while to get to the table as I showed them my home and then we looked through a number of my quilts and quilt tops.

Our menu was:
Zucchini soup
Stuffed vine tomatoes
Italian ham rolls
Cucumber tea sandwices
Friesian smoked 'droge worst' (sausage)
Oreo truffels
Fresian sugar bread

Pot du Creme au Chocolat

Strawberry buttermilk floats

As table favors, I had asked them a favorite color before they came and made them each a beaded scissor fob which I laid at each plate along with a strand of Carrie's Thread. I kept the table favor stitching themed.

I felt totally spoiled as if it was Christmas as I received a pinkeep made for me by Harmien, two speculaas moulds to add to my collection from Barbara and a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a package of quilt fabrics in chocolate brown and pinks from Annemarie. Thank you all three so very much, first for the company to brighten a Sunday and then also for your wonderful gifts!

You can enlarge the slideshow by clicking on a photo.

French letter samplers update

Once a month, I get together with my two lacemaking friends for an afternoon of tea, chatting and handwork. These are the two friends I gave the wooden boxes and fabric to last year for their birthdays. We have now all three started our letter samplers using threads to match the fabric we will be using in our boxes. Here is the start to the three samplers.

I was able to get alot accomplished today on my own piece. I finish the lower case H I had started and started another H which is now almost half finished. I then need to stitch a few more symbols. I am searching for a shillouette of a sitting cat. I also want to include more sewing symbols. I will share photos of our samplers after we add more to them each month.

I was asked about the printed hexagons I showed on my last entry. There is a free online program you can use to print out any size hexagons by changing the settings. I used a double thickness computer paper to print them on. It was a bit tricky to get the thick paper through my old laser jet printer but it worked. You can find the link here.

A full load...

And why? Well, obviously I have no will power when it comes to a needle and thread. I just love a project and get started. Never mind that I have a stitching basket sitting there filled to overflowing.

So my French Abecediare SAL is taking a backseat this month but I plan to remedy that this weekend. We are off to Cranberry Cottage as our new firewood shed is being built and I should have lots of stitching time between making coffee. I do have a start on the latest part as you can see.


I blame Gigi for my problems. *grins* She came up with yet another amazing free design on her blog and I fell head over heels in love with it. I started my version of 10 Virgins the same day I saw it. I am using four DMC color that will work well with my other works on my sampler wall in our bedroom. I am using DMC 730, 3781, 3750 and 3858 on Sandstone 40-count linen. I love how it is coming along.


I joked on a homekeeping list about holding a Stocking Along and we are starting it today. I printed some hexagons and will be making a charm hexagon stocking that fits in very well with my quilt group's theme for this year.


I added two more motifs to my Beatrix Potter Quaker sampler. Then I ordered two more books about her to add to my bookshelves. I thoroughly enjoy reading more and more about this amazing woman!


I have, last but not least, finished scissors on my French Letter sampler for my sewing box. I still need to rip out the tiny H in the light shade. It just does not work on my linen and need to decide if I am gong to add another shade instead. I don't think any light shade will show up well though so I may end up having to go with just the two shades I am already useing. For now, this one will be set aside while I catch up with my Abecedaire SAL.


Yes, I do have a full load but I think it is the way I like it. I seem to find a creative energy in working on each and every one of these projects. Now we won't even go into how many quilt projects I have going...lol!

Note: I did not iron these projects before I photographed them as we are leaving early for Cranberry Cottage. I hope my online friend Joni enjoys seeing my unironed projects. See Joni, I am not so obsessed!

Have a wonderfully creative weekend dear friends!

Primitive ornaments SAL - Peace and Goodwill

I could not decide which ornament chart to share this month and then decided to give you two at once. To me, these two go together just like the Christmas Carol. I could just see and hear Victorian carolers in my mind as I stitched these. Enjoy!


My photo seems like the linen is light instead of the dirty look hand dye. All my ornaments are being stitched on 30-count Old Mill Java hand dyed linen.

I used a star eyelet stitch for on top of the pine tree. You could also use a small button or large bead. For the holly berries in Goodwill, use either a large red bead or 3 small ones. You could also use a small red button for the berry.

Goodwill To Men is slightly blurred as the beads are too large for me to scan this well.

Here are the two charts for this month...



Enjoy the slideshow of the photos I have received since our last SAL entry. Keep these beautiful photos coming in as each month, I draw a name from that month's photos. It doesn't matter which ornament you send a photo in from as they are all entered each month. This month's winner is.....Letty. Please contact me with your snail mail address Letty so I can get the gift out to you right away. Congratulations to you and everyone for their wonderful ornament finishes.

Easter is a time of.....

.....tulips.....

.....Easter bunnies.....

.....Easter eggs.....

.....baby chicks.....

.....and nests.....

I wish you a very Happy Easter and a color-filled and joyful spring!

Note: Please send your photos of any of the Primitive Pillow Ornaments to me before April 15th to be included in the next giveaway.

Afternoon tea anyone?

Today, I took my quilt group out to a beautiful old Dutch farm for an Afternoon Tea. We all had a really fun afternoon together. Here is a slideshow of a few of the happy moments from this afternoon...

Note: If you click on the picture itself on the slideshow, you can see the photos larger.

Coloring Easter eggs?

Remember the sneak peek photo in my last entry? I used the various fabrics in purple, yellow, green, pink and blue to make fabric Easter eggs.


On April 1st, Letty had an April Fool's Day surprise hidden on her werbsite. It was the pattern for these eggs. I love the old fashioned look to them with the stitched seams. I think it spoke to my love of 'crazy quilting'.


Placed with a simple twig wreath in my creamware dish and I have a sweet new Easter decoration. I just love it and want to thank Letty for sharing this pattern.

I also want to thank you all for your comments about my charm quilt. I enjoy linking history to the quilts I make and try to use a great deal of symbolism in them. I am so delighted that you too enjoy hearing these precious stories from the past too. And thank you for the sweet anniversary wishes too...

Note ~ Please be sure to email me photos of your Primitive Pillow ornaments as the latest ornament is coming up next week along with the drawing for the giveaway.

Old tales made new...

I am so glad I can start my weekend knowing that I have finished my charm quilt. This is the first of two I am making this year for my quilt group's theme. In case you are new to my blog or missed the entry about this...my quilt group is making charm quilts this year. We are swapping pieces to have enough to complete our projects. A charm quilt is made up of all different fabrics using a one-patch block. My quilt is made up of fabrics in shades of creams, beige's, browns, pinks, blues, greens, yellows and grays.


I decided I want to become better at machine quilting and will practice on a few of my quilts this being one of them. I am really pleased with the results this time.

At first, I debated about using blues in the quilt, but later as it came together, I found the blues added an exciting element to the whole quilt. I wanted this quilt to have an old fashioned look to it. There are 390 pieces of fabric in this charm quilt.

You can see the two directions that I quilted from the back. I quilted horizontally first and then went back and did the vertical zigzag lines of the hexagons.

Now why is this an old tale made new? I named this quilt 'Vintage Brain Training' because when you research charm quilts, you will discover that some woman made these quilts to use for their children when they became ill. They would repeat a fabric which would entertain a child who was sick in bed searching for the two pieces of like fabric print. I thought this was such a sweet story and could imagine a child searching along the patchwork for these matches. It was like the memory games or the modern day brain training computers. Why use a computer when you can sit and stare at a quilt instead? My quilt has 7 repeated fabrics and, believe me, they are not that simple to find. I love being able to tie stories of quilt history into my own quilts.

Here is a sneak peek at my weekend project. If you are curious to see what these fabrics become, stop by and visit me next week. We are off to Cranberry Cottage for the weekend. It is our 22nd wedding anniversary and we want to go out to eat at a favorite restaurant near the cottage. This will be my first stay since the New Year as my breathing problems were making it too difficult to stay there. I am looking forward to going again.

Whatever you do this weekend...enjoy it!

Something old, something new...

Something old, something new, something with pink to share with you...

Here is my French Abecedaire SAL part four is finished and I have started the new part. I am really enjoying this sampler and it seems to get prettier with each part that Claire shares with us. So this is my 'something old'...


...and for 'something new'...

I have started a new project. Last year, I gave my two lacemaking friends a box and half meter of fabric as a birthday gift. It was for us to make sewing boxes. We are first each designing our own French letter sampler. I will be stitching not only Hs on mine but also sewing items like the scissors I have started, my husbands initials and a cat to symbolize Dagi. I am having lots of fun adding letters to this but am very unsure about the lightest of the three pink shades. It does not show up well at all on the fabric although it matches my fabric choice perfectly. I am going to have to change this shade and rip out the small H I already stitched.


We will be lining the box in fabric and making a few accessories for in the sewing box. I will share progress as I go along and hope to show you the other two boxes also. This is going to be fun to do since they are going to become very personal to each of us.

A tale of UFOs

This is a tale of some UFOs. Just some mind you as I could never even admit to how many I have. That is what happens when you used to teach patchwork and lead a quilt group. You have to keep coming up with new things meaning the 'old things' never get finished. But I am going to share a few tht I have been concentrating on this month of March.


This is the first of my two charm quilts that I am making this year. Each year, I create a theme for our quilt group to work on. In January, we started on charm quilt. These are quilts using a one-patch block and in which all the fabrics are different. This type of quilt became popular in the Victorian period while women saved a scrap of fabric to use for making this quilt. You can read more it about it here.

We are swapping our scraps to help each other get as many fabrics as possible. My top is now ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I have made this charm quilt with a twist in its tale but I will reveal that when I show you the finished quilt next week. Did I say next week? Yes, I really want to get this quilt finished before my next quilt evening on the first Wednesday of April. Crunch time for the deadline!

I will keep the tale of this second quilt (sorry for the wrinkles) a secret until I am farther along with it. I am again making this quilt with a historic connection in mind. Are you intrigued? I hope so and I will tell you the tale soon...

Finally, this applique block has a tale. I have never been a lover of needle applique so I decided to start this Bunny Hill BOM to make myself practice the technique more. I am very behind as this is the January block and I have yet to start on February or March. I will start the next one after I get the quilting done on my charm quilt.

Next post, I will share my stitching projects. I just started a new project which is going to be a very fun one to work on!