Another day with tiny pieces *bliss*

This morning I was early awake.

Another day with another possibilities.

 View from my sewing table. 

Hmm think I'm in a kind of 'color mood' lately, blue and mustard. Look at the background :-) 

At the left hand is a mini I already made a few years ago. At the right hand a new finished little tiny quilt....

for my little knitted bears.

An overview of my dressoir with bears and one of my Christmas trees with, yes, knitted Christmas balls from the book by Arne and Carlos  (< click, they are so fun)

Have a Wonderful Merry Christmas! 

Lucy

A tin with tiny squares

 Yesterday I found this little tin with little scrap squares in my closet. I played with them years ago. 

I feel like to make a mini quilt right now in between all christmas rush.  

 View to the left from my sewing table.

Years ago I made this one from the same tin.  

 I rarely quilt my quilts by machine. Well this time I did.

 and finished!

Lucy

Meet our farm animals ;-)

Those little mouths of these animals are sooooo cute. Look at them. 

Bambi's ears are placed in a funny way on her head compared to the others. That's why my daughter named her Bambi. (Bambi is most left)

Moppie, on the right, is the oldest. She is 6,7 years old. Bobo, the grey one, is maybe my favorite, she is always so interested in the world. Zusje (second left) is very sweet too and has a funny crest on her head.

Wish you could hear them, with their lovely sounds.

And my daughter (with special needs and autism)... well my daughter is the best 'guinea pig mom ' of the world!

Lucy

Little Bear

It was a pleasure to follow a 'bear making' class by Annemieke.

This is my result. 

Lucy

'If it is too big cut it off'

After a lot of years it was time for a 'new bed'. We bought a second hand pinewood bed and thanks to my DH it looks like a new one. (He sawed off and added some wood. He painted the bed in a nice 30's yellow color)

 The only problem is that this bed is bigger as the other one.

It means that my quilts don't fit anymore.

I made this top and backing in 2008. I still love it and it is perfect for my new bed. 

So time to baste it. 

2008 is a long time ago....

When I layered the top I found out that the backing and batting were too small. (ooh and I just cut the batting down from a kingsize....)

Oops, what to do. 

1)  Buy a new king size batting and enlarge the backing.

2) Listen to Gwen Marston's --my idol--wise words: 'If it is too big cut it off'.

I cut it off.

 It's time to baste :-) 

Lucy

10 years of blogging

Three quilt projects I want to finish soon. The yarn is from Kate Davies club. 

Today I it's my blogging anniversary. I blog for 10 years! How that can happen. 

 10 years I'm giving you a peek of my creativity and my life with pictures and a little text.
 I do remember the time I started blogging. I was a little naive, I thought that no one could find me. I liked to be in a small community of quilters. I never thought that I'd be still blogging after 10 years.

Through the years more women started a blog and I came in contact with women all over the world.
I made friends and I even still have contact with a few women from the first hour. No words can describe how precious these friends are to me.

In ten years I have two Quilting of the Past blogs. The first I closed a little while ago because I realized that there are 10 years of my life on the web. 10 years is a long time. Is that what I want?

I have (almost) done three challenges of 365 days pictures. I love this project so much. It is like a diary and it keeps my eye awake for photography moments. 

I will open all my blogs this month for public. You can find them in the tabs below the header.

 Maybe you like to look back for a moment. Next month I will close the older blogs. 

Through 10 years I've had lot's of moments that I doubt about blogging. So now and then I'm serious thinking to quit. It's a hate love affair. Because I'm not anonymous means that everyone can see what I'm doing and also where I've been etc. At this moment I'm more selective of what I share as in the beginning. 

My english is something I wish I could do so much better. I had help and a teacher for a few years. (Thank you so much Kathie)  You can notice that in my earlier posts. Right now I'm writing on my own feet. That means that it isn't perfect anymore. 

I know it is a 'beautiful life' I show you on my blog. Like a 'magazine'. That's ok to me. There are enough hard times these days and making up the world a little more beauty is like giving a little smile into this hard world.

I will thank you, my readers, I will thank you all who support me through the years.

 I will thank you who share a little of your life too, your blogs and creativity inspire me so much!

 I will thank the readers who left a comment. I appreciate every comment I've got! I read them all. I will thank the readers who took time to send me an email. Finding a comment or email in my mailbox make my day sing. 

Well, last week a friend told me about my blog this: 

It shares a little about your life but leaves a little mystery, too.

Lucy

Today in the Dunes. 

Geocaching and Ducks

Years ago Holly wrote on her blog about geocaching. It never left my mind. My daughter came up with this about a year ago. I talked about it with Holly and she came with the idea of sending a 'travel bug' to each other. She send me two from her place and I crocheted these ducks to send them to her. (Holly told me not to buy something expensive or very neat so I came up with these ducks) 

But, I have so many things I like to do and time flies. 

And these ducks kept staring at me from my dressoir all the time.........

They really wanted to travel the world.

Annemieke came with some help. She and her DH are very active geocachers. She helped me to find my first cache so I could send my ducks on their way to their new home. 

Their journey started in Cruquius. 

The pink one went to Katwijk and is now in someone's hand to travel to ??? I don't know yet. 

But the yellow duck is arrived in Oregon with some help from a friend!! Isn't that fantastic. It travelled 6256 miles, visited Nevada, Idaho to Oregon. 

Please read more about this at  Holly's blog. (click) She has a nice blog with amazing pictures of Oregon. 

Lucy

Friendship

Yes!!!!! I have completed my quilt of friendship.  (click)

It was so fun to make. I will definitely make a strippy quilt again. It's easy to sew with a great result. 

Don't you think a quilt like this in solids would be great? (I have a lot of solids in my stash)

But first I have another quilt top waiting to be quilted.  And this quilt is ready for use. The weather is grey and it is getting colder outside. 

Lucy

Next part of my spinning experience

Well the next part of my spinning experience isn't what I was hoping for :-/

I wound up the yarn from the spindle onto a plastic lid. I made it wet it and let it dry. Then I found out that for plying you have to do it directly from the spindle.

Ok I have now a 1 ply Icelandic wool. 

The yarn feels soft before spinning and while spinning. Only after moisten it feels a little coarse .... 

I've read about a nøstepinne on which you can wind the yarn into a nice ball..

Because I don't have a nøstepinne I searched for something similar what I have.

This should work. 

Next problem was that I didn't have something like a yarn swift and the yarn came of the plastic lid and everything tied together.  After minutes.... almost hours I decided to break the yarn so I have at least a small ball..

and the other part? That went into the garbage.

Spinning is learning.

Lucy

Spindle

 After a little practicing with my spindle of 34 years old I found to that it is too heavy to spin a nice thin thread. (50 gr.) The thread broke often and the little hook on top too. So time to search for what I need. 

A friend gave me a tip for this site: www.spintollen.nl

They sell wonderful spindles 

And so it happens and this one came home. It is a gentle small spindle of 23 gr. 

Perfect to spin a nice thin thread.

The blue thread is sock yarn for 2,5 mm needles. 

 The wool I'm spinning is from a light grey Icelandic sheep.

I can tell you I'm hooked and I feel a new addiction coming :-) 

Lucy

ps. and for the quilters who read my blog... Yes I'm still quilting too. I hope to have a finish soon.

Le petit Prince

Since my teenage years I collect 'Le petit Prince' by Antoine de saint Exupéry in different languages. 

I was lucky to find it in Icelandic this summer.

Today I went to the bookstore for some books and my eye felt immediately on this book in the shop window.

A pop-up version** WOW**

Look at yourself it is stunning!

Every detail is perfect.

My growing collection :-) 

Lucy