Not a dolly quilt...

but I had a quick start and finish this past week anyway! Bennie is a very sweet cat, but he leaves his strawberry blonde hairs all over the place. And because he seems to prefer my very dark purple foot stool to most other lounging spots, that's where most of the shed hair seemed to accumulate: exactly where it shows the most. My sister's cat Tejo was white and loved taking naps on her black clothes. It must be a cat thing...

The best way to make sure Bennie could keep his lounge seat and I would not have to vacuum it every day, was - of course - to make a little quilt for him to sleep on. So I took some leftover fabrics from my previous project and started cutting and sewing. Bennie kept coming by to inspect the goings on and seemed very pleased with progress.

Yesterday evening, the quilt was finished and Bennie has his very own quilt on top of his foot stool throne.

Here's a full view of the quilt. The patches are 2" finished size, making this quilt approximately 34" or 86 cm square. I machine quilted it in diagonal lines. I think that's fine for a utility quilt like this and it works with the trip around the world pattern.

I love working on the big bed size quilts I usually make, but making large quilts has at least one downside: I can count very few finished projects in a year. That's why it feels so good to start and finish a quilt in a short time once in a while: I need that sense of accomplishment. And while I sit at my computer, Bennie dozes off on his special kitty quilt. What a wonderful feeling!

Lady of the Lake top finish

No, I did not start a dolly quilt just yet. I'll ponder that a little while longer, until I have a clearer idea of what I want it to look like.

However, I finished my Lady of the Lake top. I had been having doubts about my color choices. I usually go for bright colors in my quilts, that's what I feel comfortable with. For this quilt, I wanted to challenge myself, so I chose batiks in colors I don't usually work with. There are lots of browns and greens in there, definitely not my favorite colors. And then I even put in some pinkish background fabrics... all fine, but I was starting to get worried if I could make it work. Now you can see for yourself:

Now it's all together, I think I like the colors and the simple repetition of the block pattern. The top is quite large, like most of my quilts. It measures 69 by 91" or 175 by 228 cm. I can't get a full picture of it in my sewing room because the walls are too close together, even when I use the wide angle setting on my camera :-) I'll have to take the top to someone's garden to get it all in one shot. I wish I had a garden - and a larger sewing room would be really good too!

Open European Quilt Championships in Veldhoven

Today I went to Veldhoven for the OEQC and had a wonderful time. I was there early and made a point of viewing the quilts on exhibit. The vast majority looked wonderful, and the quilts were exhibited a lot better than previous years (there have been lighting and placement issues at the current venue). I also think there were many more quilts on show than before - which in my book is great. Unfortunately, I had left my camera at home, so it's a good thing I have the catalog with color pictures of all the contest quilts.

There were lots of vendors and many people buying the goods. I joined in the fun by adding a little to my stash:

It looks as if there's at least one predominantly black & white project in my near future! Or lots of quilts with b&w details? I'm not sure yet, but I simply love these stripes and dots. I was also tempted to buy some King Tut variegated quilting thread, they come in so many yummy colors. However, I'm still a novice machine quilter and I decided to hold off on those. There will be plenty of opportunities yet to invest in beautiful threads ;-)

And for most of the day, I helped Merel in her booth. It's such a joy to help quilters find the right fabrics for their projects. You get to meet quilters with lots of different styles and tastes, it's so inspiring!

One of the things I love about going to quilt shows is meeting quilting friends. Today, I ran into Hilde, Shirley, Katrien, Inge, Inge, Erna, Evy, and many others. It was great seeing you all and I hope to see you again soon!

Something else I feel very good about is that I managed to reduce my stack of UFO's. I donated two projects that I have not worked on for years to Stichting Verdanda. The people of Verdanda make quilts for  handicapped people. The quilts are very well received and I enjoy contributing to their good works in this small way. Plus it relieves me of some of my feelings of guilt about all those unfinished projects hidden away in boxes and drawers!

So I've been a very good quilter today... does that mean I can now start a new quilt? I've been dying to make a doll sized quilt... it would be a quickie project - can I, pretty please???

Progress report and mini bee

It's going to be simply wonderful to finally, after almost four years of study, have some more time for quilting. Here's what I've been working on during my bits of quilting time lately.

First, there are the Lady of the Lake blocks I got out when I went to visit my father a few weeks ago. After that weekend, I put in a little more time and got twenty more blocks finished. I sewed the last seams on these last evening and pressed them this evening. I now have a total of 104 blocks and need only 4 more to make the quilt I have in mind. Here they are, waiting for a chance to jump onto my design wall:

And, like so many other quilters, I have a Dear Jane quilt in (extremely slow) progress. I started working on my DJ almost exactly five years ago and have so far made 52 blocks. I'm stitching these by hand, mostly as my portable project. I'm a very slow and meticulous hand stitcher, so each block takes ages to finish. I am aware I could let go of my perfectionism a little and stitch faster, but I don't want to - this is how I like to do these blocks!

When I visited my mother and my step dad, I had brought a little block to sew. I actually finished it during the Easter weekend:

I think it turned out really well!

Yesterday evening my dear friend Merel joined me for a bee. We've been having our little two person bee at irregular times due to our busy schedules. We're both looking forward to getting together more frequently. We had a wonderful time catching up and Merel even brought me some lovely presents to celebrate Benny's adoption:

I just don't know which of these I like best: the beautiful calendar with oh so gorgeous quilts, the sweet pink fabric with the cutest little cat foot prints, or the pattern for a little cat quilt. Merel made this quilt too and I think it's adorable. You can see it here. And Benny really enjoys these cat treats, which makes me happy in turn! Thank you Merel, you're a wonderful and generous friend!

Please meet my new quilting buddy: Benny!

Wow, the past couple of weeks have just flown by. I won't bother you with all the details, but I've been so busy with work, family matters and other 'stuff', that quilting and blogging time was scarce. However, there's good news too: meet Benny!

I adopted Benny from the shelter last Friday. He was very shy in the shelter as he was bullied by a female cat. However, he obviously enjoyed me stroking him and according to the lady at the shelter Benny has a very friendly disposition. I liked him immediately too, so I invited him to come and live with me. He is still getting used to his new surroudings (including me, of course) but he is starting to relax. He follows me around wherever I go and loves to cuddle. I think we'll get along just fine! It will be fun to see what he makes of my sewing and if he will try to 'help'.

Here's Benny on his pillow, getting used to my sewing room. That's where he is right now, within two feet from where I'm sitting and typing this blog entry.

So there it is, I've joined the hordes of quilting cat personnel!

This has been another great weekend. I went to visit my Dad and stayed Saturday and most of Sunday. We are great pals, we talk and laugh a lot and usually stay up way too late. We also enjoy cooking together.

I had brought my Featherweight and was patching some Lady of the Lake blocks while my dad was trying to figure something out on his computer. We were each doing our own thing and both enjoying the company. What a great way to spend the weekend. My dad rules! :-)

Here are the blocks I sewed, I have four more about half way done.

These blocks are fairly straight, it's my photographic skills that are wonky! 

Quilting retreat and aftermath

Wow! That was some quilting retreat! 63 ladies, all bitten by the quilt bug, together for four days in a StayOkay hostel in Elst, situated in a lovely wooded area here in the Netherlands. The weather was not great, it rained most of Saturday, but hey! We were all cozy in our huge quilting studio.

The organizing team, Ingrid, Ariane and Marjolein, had put together a wonderful program. There were lectures, workshops, show and tell, and meals of course, yet enough time was left for everyone to spend patching, quilting, visiting nearby quilt shops, go for a nice walk in the woods and of course chat with each other. What a wonderful time I've had. This was my 6th time in Elst and I must say, it gets better every time. By now, it feels like coming home. Thank you ladies and I hope to see you again next year!

All participants received lots of gifts, some from the in house quiltshop (thank you Angela!), some from the organizing team and some we made for each other. This is a gift I received from Caroline:

It's a notebook with a kitty cover she made, isn't it cute? The little charm pack is exactly the right size for my Ocean Waves quilt (which right now is just a bin containing 600 half square triangles). There was also a sweet little button in the package. Thank you Caroline!

On Friday, Hilde gave a lecture on decluttering the house and quilting studio. Hilde is a professional organizer who has her own company, Yourganize. Hilde had lots of useful tips and suggestions, most are common sense but still very useful to hear, such as: think before you buy (do I really need this?), if you buy a pair of shoes: throw one (or two) pairs away.
And, very important: decide what you want to use a space for. If it's your bedroom, sewing stuff does not belong there! Umm, I have a very small apartment and a lot of quilting materials. I may not be ready to adopt that rule just yet. Or maybe I'll make the whole apartment a designated quilting area - problem solved! LOL!

Hildes lecture certainly has got me thinking again about decluttering my house. Probably Surely something I should do more often. I think the spring weather is also to blame ;-)

On Saturday, Arnout Cosman showed many of his quilts. Arnout is a true quilt artist. I didn't take pictures because the light was so bad, but there's a quilt gallery on his website. Take a moment to visit there, I'm sure you won't regret it! While Arnout was talking about his quilts, the room with over 60 quilters was completely silent. Truly an accomplishment, just like his gorgeous quilts.

(Hi Shirley, I hope you don't mind I 'borrowed' one of your pictures...)

Arnout designs his own quilts using the design software he created. This program, QuiltAssistant, is available as a free download on his website. It is different from ElectricQuilt6 (which I often use). It assists in making quilt designs based on photographs. Arnout also demonstrated how he uses QuiltAssistant to design quilts. It was fascinating and I will definitely give it a go soon.

When I came home on Sunday afternoon, it was wonderful to just be quiet and unpack my many bags. I wanted to go to bed early but had to wait up for the plumber to come and unclog the kitchen drain. The upstairs neighbor's dishwater welled up in my sink and I was very lucky not to have come home to a flooded kitchen.

Yesterday I had another day off to recuperate from the busy weekend. It was so good to sleep in, potter around the house with the balcony door open and sew a little more. The first part of the zig zag border for the Antique Quilt is done, pressed and now hanging on my design wall. Pictures will follow soon!