Project 54 Place-mats

As part of my stash busting efforts, thought it was a good idea to make a few sets of place-mats as Christmas gifts. Original and personal gifts using African batiks. If then the recipients would not like them, well then they could either give them back and I would gift them elsewhere, or they could gift them to someone would appreciate them. It turned out my SIL liked the two sets I made her (2 green and 2 pink). The two for her daughter will find their way in February as she did not make it to her grandparents' house this year.

I finished them in time, wrapped them and then realized I had forgotten to take pictures. So I ended up unwrapping the smaller package to take pictures, rewrapped them, thinking I would take the other pics the 24th at night. Only to forget again and asked my SIL to take a few pics.

The place-mats are my contribution to OMG December of Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

I started making place-mats for ourselves using Christmas, and finished the top sides. And then my machine started acting up. The pedal became very hot and started making sizzling sounds. Not a good sign I think. Had to abandon them. I demonstratively put them in a plastic bag along with the remainder of the Christmas fabric .... something for next year. Next steps: bring away my two sewing machines, one is in desperate need of a servicing after 25 years and a repair of the pedal that stops and goes as it pleases, the second also needs pedal repairs ..... as I am not comfortable with a sizzling pedal. Are they telling me it is OK to go look for a new machine that allows for quilting ....

Project 53: Sock knitting bag

I always carry a craft-on-the-go project with me. Since I have discovered sock knitting is has become my favourite on-the-go craft as it is small and relative easy to take a long, not much thinking required other than for the heel flap and turning. I have this little mesh bag from WoolWare house in which some sock wool was delivered. It is not meant to drag my knitting in everywhere and the seems came unraveled. Yesterday I repaired the little bag and was thinking that I needed a bag to carry my knitting around. And I knew exactly the bag I wanted to make. This time around it was much easier, the first time I made this bag was back in January. It was a bit of a puzzle. Now it went rather quickly. The bag consists of three squares of 35 cm each in different fabrics and three squares again of 35 cm each in one colour for the inside. The handle is made in a different colour. And my knitting project fits perfectly in it.

I am submitting this colourful bag as part of the bag-it 2017 hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

Project 52 Bread basket

Months ago I bought a wired basket to keep the bread in, all it needed was a fabric basket to decorate it and keep the crumbs from going all over the kitchen. This "all" took forever. If it wasn't for the bag-it challenge from Elm Street quilts, I don't think I would have made it this year. In the end it did not take me a long time to make the breadbasket using the pattern from ESQ. It has some glitches as this was the first time I tried to make a basket. The next ones will be better, for next year aim to make a few, smaller ones though.

I used African fabric from my stash (Woodin) for the outer side and brown cotton for the inner-side. I used batting to give the basket some thickness and end up doing some FQM to make the basket a bit sturdier.

I am submitting this for Patty's bag-it challenge (just in time).

10 December

Project 51 Scarf for Slava

Slava lost his scarf, the one I made him last year. Nowhere to be found. Lucky for him I have a stash of left over yarn from my harmony blanket as well as some other yarn rests. Knitting the scarf on the bond was the fastest part, weaving in all the ends took some time. He is happy with his scarf keeping him warm.

6 December

Project 50 Quince Jelly

It is no secret that I enjoy making jams, jelly I don't make often though. I was given a few kilos of quinces and did not look forward to peeling them. To make jelly one does not peel the quinces, merely quarter them and remove seeds. The jelly is quite easyt to make, boil the quartered fruit in quite some water, filter the juice and cook with sugar. As I had too much juice (4 kilos)I froze a part. the fruit pulp also went in to the freezer and will be used to make fruit snacks and compote

One Monthly Goal December Christmas gifts Place-mats

Christmas is around the corner, gifts are needed and I still have a stash of fabric. Hence hand-made gifts it is this year. Thought to make place-mats (read mini-quilts) as they are fun and relatively easy to handle with my sewing machine. I had ordered a quilt Christmas book, some models I will not make - ever - others are good for inspiration. I need to make 4 place-mats for my SIL and two for my HB niece who needs to fit the gift in her suitcase.

My goal for OMG December from Elm Street Quilts is to make thus two sets of place-mats using my African batiks.

Project 49 Top of BSB quilt done

Now that I had finished all the individual blocks, it was time to sew them all up. The quilt is huge. Somehow as all the different blocks were made seaparately I did not realize how big the quilt would be.

The next step will be the sandwiching and the free motion quilting. This will have to wait until January, no idea how I can quilt this on my small sewing machine. It is seriously time to consider a long-arm machine. Or find someone who has a professional quilting machine. Have started asking around, no luck yet.

Finishing the top of the Bella Skill Builder quilt was part of my One Monthly Goal for November with Patty from Elm Street Quilts.

Project 48 Autumn socks

Knitting socks is becoming an addiction. They are the best projects on the go. Sometimes one sock will take weeks and then I go off on a knitting frenzie and knit sock number two. Or as was the case withe autumn socks, number two was progressing real slow. Until I bought Christmas yarn - the second sock was finished in no-time.

Project 47 Halloween capes

Halloween is here and the kids want to dress up. First at the "summer camp" they had to come dressed up. Slava wanted a Star Wars cape and Alexei a Vampire cape.
One of the best investments was my lock-machine. It makes finishing costumes really easy. Don't they look cute with their masks and capes.

Project 46 Sweater for Alexei

Last year I started knitting a sweater for Alexei. And then winter made way for spring and the sweater was not done. It became one of these lying-around projects. So as part of my 52 projects challenge, I had to include finishing these WIPs. All it took was a few weeks of vigorous knitting, puzzling on how to attach the sleeves to the body of the sweater and then knit the yolk. The first attempt at the yolk was horrible, so frogged it all and started all over. Second time around it worked. The sweater is now finished and Alexei is happy and warm.

21 October 2017

OMG November BSB quilt assembly

So now after all these months of making a set of blocks of the BSB QAL, I find myself with this pile of blocks in all kind of different sizes and colours. There is one colour I would have never chosen myself; however as it was part of the package I used it.

Now that they are all finished the next step is to lay them out and start sewing. My OMG for the month of November, hosted by Elm Street Quilts, is therefore to sew these all up and make the boards.

Project 45 BSB Block 9

October block for the Bella Skill Builder is the last block of the quilt. Making the block is my objective for the OMG October of Elm Street Quilts.

I enjoyed making the blocks, there are two sizes and colour schemes. At first I had no idea how to cut the fabric as I don't have the lazy angle ruler. A good thing the cutting mat on which the fabric was cut in the video provided clues. I made the calculations, jumped in to the cutting for one square and it worked ... happy dance ......
The green block turned out amazingly well, guess I am learning how to be more precise when cutting the fabric.

Now need to find time to place all the blocks together and sew. Most likely that will be something for next month.

9 October

One Month Goal October

Time flies .... a bit too fast sometimes .... maybe I am too ambitious in my plans, or just too enthusiastic with too many ideas.

October is here, a birthday coming up for my youngest that needs planning, as well as my daughter's party with her school friends. So this month I will not have a lot of time for crafting.

The minimum to do this month is my BSB block 9 to finish as my objective for the One Month Goal for October from Elm Street Quilts.

A bonus will be for myself if I make a second mini quilt and a bag and ....... Let's see how far I get before my ideas run away again.

Project 44 Mini quilt

I was asked to make a mini quilt. Of course I said yes. This mini quilt encompasses many "firsts". The first time someone asked me to make a small quilt, making a mini quilt and free-motion quilting.

It was quite a challenging project ... I designed the quilt based on a picture I saw on the internet .... then calculated all the different sizes. Cutting and piecing was relatively easy .... well the first try-out was ugly .... with the second version I improved my sewing and the end result was not too bad. The mini quilt turned out a little bit bigger than I thought it would, but that was because my half-square triangles came out a little bit bigger.

How to continue ... I asked Patty from Elm Street Quilts who kindly gave me good advice. Thereafter the next big challenge was the FMQ ... a mini quilt is indeed the best way to try this out and gain confidence. After all if I wasn't going to jump now and do more than straight lines, I was never going to do so. Thank you Patty for the little push I needed.

The end result is a very nice mini quilt. Its size is 19 by 19 inches. Still small enough to be framed, and big enough to place on a table. I can treasure it for a few weeks as I will gift the quilt in November.

The mini quilt and my BSB block 8 were done in time for my September objective for One Monthly Goal

30 September

Project 43 Plum bramberry jam

Project 42 A small bag for Alexei's drum sticks

Two years ago I tried to make a little bag for Alexei's drum sticks. I failed miserably. He used the bag anyway as it protected his drum sticks. So this afternoon I pulled the bag apart and used the fabric to make a new one. It is still not perfect but will do for now. I did not have a pattern and just tried several things.

24 September

Project 41 BSB block 8

Block 8 of the Bella Skill Builder was released for September. I like all colours of the kit, except for the brown colour. A good thing there is not that much. I used the template as I don't have the ruler. It worked well. Before sewing together I ironed all parts, and after each seem I ironed more and more. Especially as in the center all pieces come together. They turned out quite nice, I can clearly see that I have made progress.

Making these 5 blocks was part of my One Month Goal for September at Elm Street Quilts. My second project as part of the September OMG is making nice progress, almost done.

Project 40 - Black linnen pants

As part of my 52 projects I actually need to use my stash of fabric. Years ago I bought this nice thick linen and it just waited to be sewn. I used a simple pattern that does not need a zipper, the top is closed with safety pins. The original pattern asks for a more complicated system. I had made one some 7 years ago and never got around to try this out. And in the end it was perfect - just safety pins, my pants always fit. So this pair will have the same system of safety pins. When I make the third pair I will think of a different way, for now this will work.

19 September

Project 39 Ross part 3

Am making slowly progress. During the holidays made actually quite a lot of progress on part 3 of the Ross Blanket. Once back home ..... with the kids going back to school, evening school meetings and getting used to the new schedule ..... and no more time to crochet. The last four rounds took me several days .... if not more than a week. And now they are done. Am impressed with myself - never thought I could get this much crochet done, let alone all these new stitches. Well, the whole idea of course was to challenge myself and I did. Next goal: try to start part 4 before the end of the month and get it done in two weeks time ........

19 September

Project 38 Plum jam

It is September and it is plum season. I made 9 jars of jam. One I shall give to our neighbour as a good part of the plums came from her tree.

I used 2 kg of jam and 1600 gr of sugar. I let the plums soak in the sugar overnight, then boiled it for some 15 minutes. I let it rest for one day to make sure the jam is thick enough. I then boil it again before poring in to the jars.

Project 37 Summer kitchen organized

My summer kitchen is (was) a mess. I had a cabinet with three drawers for all my baking supplies and containers. I gave away the cabinet as I had my eye on this lovely cabinet from Ikea. It just took me forever to buy it. Meanwhile all my things were in laundry baskets and of course not used. So finally after maybe 6 months I could not stand the mess anymore. I went to Ikea, bought the cabinet, mounted it and filled it. Oh what a pleasure. I also used this re-arranging to out aside things I had not used since many years.

14 September 2017

OMG September

September is already here - where did the summer holidays go? The kids are back to school and work has started again. Ideas are flowing and time is just not enough to make all I want.

My September quilt projects include making the BSB September block and to make one of the BSB August blocks in earth colours. A friend of mine asked me for a small quilt in earth colours and I had no idea what to make for her. I have some nice Indonesian batiks that would be very nice for this. I will need to complement with other colours so it seems like I will need to visit a fabric store. Very dangerous indeed.

These are my goals for the September OMG with Patty's Elm Street Quilts

Project 36 Cushion covers

The kids have each a chair in which they watch television. To make them more comfortable I bought three pillows and made three cushion covers - in African batik of course give by my friend. They match perfectly and the kids are happy.

Project 35 BSB blocks 7 August

I love reading - however this week no reading for me. The August block of Bella Skill Builder is waiting for me. As I "chop" my larger projects in smaller projects to get them done - I "chop" the different steps for each block as well. So one afternoon I cut the fabric and then later in the week I sit behind my sewing machine and sew the pieces together. My iron board and iron were never used so much since I started quilting. I never liked ironing, for quilting it makes the sewing definitely so much neater if ironed.

To make sure that I would finish the August block in time (and my July block as well) I challenged myself. I signed up for the One Monthly goal of Elm Street Quilts. That block is addictive and so inspiring. All these gorgeous projects out there .... I need to keep on reminding myself that I have too many projects waiting (or in progress) and I should finish first what I started.

I liked making the blocks, the August ones are bigger than the other months. So with the same amount of work I ended up with two big blocks. And ideas are flowing ..... maybe one quilt using earth colours.... how many quilts can one have .....

Am happy that I finished my objective for August finishing both the July and August block.

26 August

Project 34 Ross blanket squares 2

The kids are on holidays so need to occupy them. They love going to the playground. I love going there for other reasons obviously. I don't see myself hanging upside down from a pyramid or pirate boat. I sit in the shade and crochet (or knit depending on what I have at hand small enough to bring along). So part two - making 4 squares was accomplished.

24 August

Project 33 Ross blanket part 1

For a while I have been eyeing this lovely blanket. Last year during a call the Demelza blanket was done, and I loved the colours. I just did not have enough time to participate as I have so many projects to finish. And I thought that I would never be able to crochet something complicated. Well, I also said that for the Frida blanket and all the other lovely projects passing by.
No more time to be "afraid" - I ordered the package. I started the squares of week 1 and panicked, how on earth was I ever going to learn this. To complicate all - the videos use English terminology and I use US terminology. So I watched the videos a few times, US instructions next to me and yes - got it - I managed to finish the 16 little squares - of course by the time I finished them, the CAL was at week 4 ...... it didn't matter. I finished them.

17 August

Project 32 BSB block 6 July

Quilting time - one of the advantages of participating in a QAL is that every month a block is released and I have one month to actually make the block. July came, video was posted, I watched the video, cut the fabric and then .... no time to finish. Meanwhile the August block was released.
So before going on holidays I made time and finished the July block. Time for a happy dance.

Making the block is also part of my One Monthly Goal for August of Elm Street Quilts.

14 August

OMG August - am behind schedule

July is gone and August started and not much progress on my July block for the Bella Skill Builder. First I had to finish my baby quilt and then bring the baby quilt to the Netherlands ........

And then I was soo excited to learn that I won a prize - for the first time I actually won a PRIZE. A gift certificate from my favourite quilt shop - FQS - and it will be spent many times in my head before I actually spent it. Well, that is part of the fun.
A big thank you to Elm Street Quilts and FQS.

So back to my BSB quilt - my August goal for One Montlhy Goal from Elm Street Quilts will be to finish my July block (#6) and to make my August block (#7).

Project 31 Apricot peach jam

I had some wild peaches cut in pieces in my freezer and some apricots that needed to be eaten fast. So why not make jam, after all nothing better than some nice home made jam on a piece of toast in the morning.

Project 30 Finished the baby quilt

The baby quilt is finished and ready to be given to the newborn baby's parents. Halfway the quilt was wondering if the baby built would be baby-ish enough, and it is. The quilt is a lovely combination of bright happy colours. The border is done with one of the yellow African fabrics that has quite some of the other colours used. I choose this colour as the baby is a boy. Would the baby have been a girl, I would have use some purple for the border.

At the same time I managed to reach my aim of finishing the quilt as part of the OMG July challenge that Patty at Elm Street Quilts is hosting. It does help to set a public goal!!

Making the border of the baby quilt OMG July

Quilting is addictive. I have had a weakness for fabrics ever since ... well ever since I learned how to use a sewing machine. I used to go the "lapjes markt" (fabrics market) in the Netherlands when I was a student to buy fabrics to make my own clothes. And then when living abroad would buy fabrics everywhere. I made some nice silk jackets from Chinese silk bought at the market in Rawalpindi when living in Pakistan. And I bought some lovely hand woven fabric made by Guatemalan refugees living in refugee camps in Southern Mexico. I still have the jacket I made, it is too big, however I can not throw it away. And for work I traveled to several African countries and bought loads of African batiks. And of course I bought kilos and kilos of batiks in Indonesia. A good thing I stopped traveling because I have so much now.

And then I discovered quilting. I had made one years ago, I had a picture from a magazine and Laura Ashley fabrics my mum had given me when I was a teenager. A little plastic bag with 5" squares. It was a good learning experience and I thought this is it. I have made one, it asks too much precision, not for me.

A friend of mine had given me 6 yards of African fabric a few years ago. I made a curtain, and a lamp for the boys' room and there was still so much left. So I made a quilt, all squares and it looked great until I tried to actually back it and quilt it all together, it looked wobbly on the back side.

Still not giving up, I came across the QAL from the FQS "Cross Roads" and I made it using fabric from my African stash. It looked much better. Still wobbly on the backside after quilting but improvement.

And early June I discovered the site Elm Street Quilts - and they have monthly challenges. This is all I needed. I had started this cute baby blanket again using my African stash and signed up for One Monthly goal. July has started and OMG July is open.

My goal for OMG July is to make the border and finish the baby blanket. The baby is born (a boy) and am traveling end July to bring the blanket.

Project 29 Quilting the baby quilt OMG June

And I did it .... I participated in Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal (OMG) for June. I had decided that my goal for this month was to do all the quilting for the baby quilt that is to be a present. Project 21 describes how I decided to participate. Looking at what other quilters make is so inspiring, especially to a newbie as me.

Goal was to quilt the blanket: use my new walking foot and try the embroidery foot for free style quilting.

Conclusion: I love my new walking foot, it really makes quilting easier. Also I did block by block to see if this would give a nicer result. It did. As for the FQS it is still rather difficult to do on a whole quilt, I tried and did not succeed very well for two reasons: I still have a hard time juggling all that material in my sewing machine (I so need a bigger arm machine - out of reach) and I need a quilting support for my machine (not available as my machine is very old). So I did reach my goals albeit with a different result as I originally visualized. Some of the sewing is a bit wobbly. As I was juggling and turning and sighing I thought: it does not matter that some of the lines are wobbly, after all I am poring a lot of love in this baby blanket

Lessons learned: quilt by blog, turn the fabric sometimes in a different direction than what I automatically do as sometimes turning clock-wise or against the clock can make a big difference in handling all that fabric.

Follow up: try to make a quilt table myself - well design and draw and then ask my DHB to make it for me.

Next steps: do the binding - but that is for next month.

June 30

Project 28 Socks pair number 3

Socks are the best on the go project and I finally finished by pair mnumber 3 that I had been carrying around for a few months. In between they were put aside as I had some other gifts to finalize. Lovely mosaic colour.

24 June

Project 27 Block 5 Bella Skill Builder

June and time to make block 5 of BSB. Half square triangles.

24 June

Project 26 Confiture rouge

My family loves home made jams and marmelades. One of our favourites is the "confiture rouge" or Hungarian jam as my special jam book calls it. Years ago I bought the "Larousse des Confitures", an excellent collection of tested and yummy recipes. Actually I bought the book in June 2004 as I had written this inside the book.

The Hungarian jam is a combination of red fruits and I use whatever my garden grows. As not all fruits are from the same season I freeze what becomes available and when I have a moment make this jam. This year includes cherries, red currents, black berries, red berries, white currents. I made a total of 5 pots which should last a few months. Fresh fruits are being frozen for next's times batch.

I use one kg of fruit, 800 gr of sugar, juice of 1 lemon and 100 ml water. Cook it all until right consistency.

12 June

Project 25 Pink short for the miss

After finishing the green short in no time, realizing she could not wear it to school as some colour had faded, decided to make another. One she could wear to school. She choose pink African fabric and one hour later .... voila a pink short. She has plenty of t-shirts to with this.

11 June

Project 24 A green short for my daughter

Alesya wants to wear shorts, because "all" the girls wear shorts to school. True with the heatwave some of the girls were wearing shorts soooo short ..... and of she wanted to wear her red short. No was the answer, the red short is for going to the beach or during the holidays .... and not for school.

Drama ......

So I said I would make her a short, a bright green one with some left over fabric. Easy model and she is soo happy with it. Unfortunately this one was a non-school short either as the fabric discoloured a little.

Maybe I am too strict? I don't know .... I do think it is important my kids go well dressed to school. And yes I do repair the knees in jeans with patches and send them to school in the jeans. Some mums don't .... do their kids never ruin their jeans, or do they simply buy new ones each two months?

11 June

Project 23 Vegetable and herb garden

OK, this is not the most creative project, however one that takes up time. And therefor decided that all the work on the garden counts as one project. After three years of starting preparing the vegetable garden and never getting very far, this year was going to be different. The kids helped me, which did make a big change. I turned the soil, cut the weeds and the kids collected all the weeds and threw them on the pile of compost. We have two compost heaps. One big green plastic composter in which we throw all kitchen green garbage and the cut grass. The second is merely throwing all green from the garden, including weeds, down on the slope towards the river. Here it naturally processes and one day the slope will be higher and less a slope (or not).

We bought our first plants: 4 different types of tomatoes, cellery, eggplant, two types of bell peppers and several salads. Now each week we clean and remove the weeds, water each day when the sun has gone down and wait patiently. I also bought some herbs and planted these in pots close to our house. In the front garden I planted two types of squash and a melon. These plants grow everywhere so not very handy when the grass needs to be mowed.

Need to go the garden center again and get some more plants including courgettes as these were not yet available.

11 June

Project 22 Backside baby quilt

Making the back side of the baby quilt did not take much thinking, I was going to use the same motif of the front side, make one big one for the center. I doubled all measurements, used the same blue for the center square as the outer rim of the blanket and the jungle green/blue African fabric for the triangles. The end result is quite nice.

11 June

Project 21 A baby quilt and "One Monthly Goal" Challenge

Time to make a baby quilt. In July we will be in the Netherlands and one of my nieces will have her first baby. The family has a lot of knitters so no point in knitting something. A quilt it was going to be.

One of my favourite quilting blogs is the FQS blog. Not sure how they do it, each time there are so many ideas and so many lovely fabrics to choose from. And many free patterns. So while eating my lunch behind my computer I was reading and looking for ideas. I chose to make the Layer Cake Pop a great way to use my stash of fabrics and make a colourful baby blanket. The pattern is for 20 blocks for a large quilt measuring 48 by 60inches. My baby quilt consists of 12 blocks.

Last night while looking at other BSB quilters I came across the blog Elm Street Quilts by Patty. I immediately just loved her posts and oh so dangerous as I see all these lovely quilts.

It turns out that a group of bloggers decide on one quilting goal each month

I need to join them, this is exactly what I need to finish my baby quilt. The idea is that we choose a goal, blog in the beginning of the month and a second time at the end of the month when we are done and show pictures.

My goal for June is to finish the baby quilt, i.e. to choose the backing and quilt all together before the end of June. Ideally the binding will be done as well.

For me the big challenge will be of course finishing the quilting, more so using my new walking foot and try free motion quilting using my embroidery foot.

4 June

Project 20 Infinity scarf

This project took soooo long, I started this in winter. A friend of mine was coming back to Geneva, after a few years in Africa. And the winters here can be cold. So I decided to quickly make an infinity scarf for her. I had made one years ago and it was done in no time. Only that one was done with hook 6mm and thick yarn. This green scarf was crocheted using a hook 4 mmm and Stylecraft yarn. It used up quite some yarn, which is OK as it is now one fluffy infinity scarf that should keep my friend warm next winter (28 May)

Project 19 Block 3 Bella Skill Builder

Block three, the pineapple block, of the BSB QAL is a challenge, there are no other words for this. Many rulers are designed for quilting, and there is one specifically for making pineapple blocks. Unfortunately they do not come cheap, the rulers are not that expensive, but the costs double for shipping. So this is not feasible as I don't even know if I will like these blocks. Comes in "youtube" with loads of tutorials - thank you crafters who give their time to make and share these.


These blocks are a lot of work and I learned a lot. Will I make them again? Maybe ... after all I love challenges (21 May)

Project 18 Block 4 Bella Skill Builder

April was a busy month with all the holidays. We went down South for the Easter weekend, back a few days, and off to Disney and Paris with my daughter. All our kids can choose a trip for their 9th birthday with me. It all started with Alexei who wanted to visit New York. I took him to NY and Washington DC for a one week trip. So now it was Alesya's turn. Initially she also wanted to go to NY. And then changed her mind - Disney it was going to be and Paris. So clearly no time for crafting.

Block three was a bit too challenging so decided to first make block 4 the flying geese


The technique shown in the video was an eye opener, what a great way to make these (7 May)

Project 17 Block 2 Bella Skill Builder

Beginning of the month and a new block is out on the FQS website - time to tackle block 2 Orange Peel


The printed pattern came with a real-size template. I had never made these before and followed the instructions in the video. The end result is good looking, however the feel I don't like that much, as the video suggested to use interface the orange peels are thicker and stiff. As there is enough fabric, I can always decide at the end if I want to remake them using a different technique. (2 April)

Project 16 Carnaval outfit Alexei

Alexei is now 11 years old and it is about time that he invests a bit in his own carnival costume. So he choose to be a joker dragon. Last year's outfit fitted still, all I had to do was to make a dragon's hat .... I used the same pattern of Slava's dragon hat and tail in all the different colours of his joker's outfit. (25 March)

Project 15 Carnaval outfilt Slava

March is school carnaval time, this years' theme was "les animaux fantastiques". Slava wanted to be a dragon - so a dragon was made from different colours green shiny fabric. He was soo happy and proud. (25 March)

Block 14 Block one "Bella Skill Builder"

It is official, I like quilting. A new monthly quilt was about to start to learn different skills through the Fat Quarter shop. I dream away with the different quilts presented. So this QAL was going to be perfect for a beginner as myself. I treated myself to the full packet and backing. Oh the delight of splurging and waiting for the mail to bring me my package. I was not disappointed. Each block came in its own sachet and the printed pattern included. There was enough fabric included to make a few extra blocks or to redo some in case cutting mistakes were made.

Each month a block pattern is released on-line with a video. Of course having bought the kit I already have them all. Decided to do one each month as the videos would be helpful.
Block one ((15 March)

Project 13 Finalizing my African batik crossroads quilt

Now that the backing is done it was time to combine all pieces together and finalize the quilt. I had bought some basting, unfortunately it was that horrible synthetic stuff, as I could not find the nice thick cotton quality I had used for Alexei's quilt (bought in the US). I tried different techniques for the quilting. I glued (or so I tried) the different layers together. Only the synthetic basting did not really take to the glue I found out the hard was as I was quilting. I tried using my embroidery foot (or free style foot) to have the fabric slide easily through the sewing machine ......... and then ended up using the normal foot and of course the lower layer started going in different directions. I am happy with the result, even if there are quite some irregularities. A learning curve going upwards and that is what matters. (13 March)

Project 12 Curtains in the living room

I have cats, and each time we have a new kitten, the most popular thing to do is to ruin my silk curtains. Unfortunately Che died last year and the ruined curtains were still a sign that we had a kitten. After 6 months it was time to do something about this. I still had silk left over (a good thing I had bought 20 m in Cambodia) and made a new set of curtains. The window looks presentable again (10 March).

Project 11 Backing quilt Cross roads

Now that the front side of the quilt was finished, time to concentrate on the backside. I used different batiks to create one big block, finished it with the blue backing I had decided on. Happy with the result (21 February)

Project 10 Blue sweater for Brigitte

And done, not sure how long the sweater took me. I made it at least twice .... The first time it was too small for my friend so took it all apart (oh how I loath that). And last night finished it. So now this one can be sent to my friend. Next cardigan I knit should be one for myself. I don't think I knitted anything for myself in 2016.

And of course my lovely cat Glacon walked in to my picture

Project 9 Alesya's dress

It all started out with Sue bringing me some fab fabrics from Tanzania. And there was more than enough to make two dresses. So instead of cutting the fabric in half and share, I suggested I make the two dresses. It turned out there was enough to make a baby dress as well. Alesya's dress is a bit different in style, afterall she is 9 now, turning in to a little lady. I asked her if she wanted pockets and she said yes.

Project 7 and 8 Emma's and her little baby sister's dress

Last year November my dear friend Sue, supplier of lovely fabrics, brought me some more fabrics. So in return I said I would make a dress for her niece Emma as well. In the end I ended up making three cute dresses; one for Alesya, one for Emma and one for her baby sister due in June. As the prints are rather large I bought some mint green solid colour fabric to play around. Emma's dress was not too complicated to make. I had forgotten the work that making a baby dress entails; the tiny details, the little surfaces and fine work that is needed ......

They are finished, packed in an envelope and ready to be mailed tomorrow morning. May they enjoy wearing them.