fabric book ready

First I made a double fabric strip, 1,5 cm wide, on the left side of the pages.

Then I sewed them together with a 5 mm bead in between for some 'space'.

The cover was ready made a year ago.. The pages are 15cm square, I made the cover 16 cm+ 5 cm for the spine+ 16 cm for the back. And 16 cm high. Added extra sturdy fabric in the spine.

Then I sewed 6 buttons on the spine and with every stitch I sewed the spine stitches with the button stitches on the outside.

Et voila: a fabric-book!

Thanks to all the 13 participants from the Fibre-fever group. It is a lovely book!

Hyacint lace shawl

This shawl is ready. The pattern is from Evelyn Clark. You can buy it here.
I started with 5 stitches and ended up with 436 in the last row. I added a bead in each point.
The yarn is Pathway sock, hand-dyed, color old rose. Bought online at Slackford studio com.
Very nice yarn to knit with, and soft after washing.
I have used 584 meter yarn ( 640 yard), almost 2 skeins.
The size of the shawl is: wide 184 cm. ( 72") high: 74 cm. ( 29")
This is my fourth shawl for the * 10 shawls in 2010* group on Raverly.com

quilt back

This is the back of the quilt. The meaning was that we should sew letters or numbers on the front, but I didn't like that, so I made them on the back.
I made the back from leftovers of my stash. The best thing on this quilt is that I didn't buy one inch of fabric!
I have to buy batting of course and some threads. It will take a while because the quilt-shop is a 160 km drive and it is winter! And we got new snow on top of the layer we have all the time since half December last year.

Fabric book pages

This is the fabric-book page I made for Margeet in the Netherlands. Margreet's theme is: With a song in my heart. I have made a needlefelt heart, embroidered it and added beads. Then I sewed it on a fabric page with music notes on it. Inside is a CD with choir songs. Margreet sings in a choir for many years and I thought she might like it.
Below the page Barbara in Germany made for my Cottage Garden book. It is lovely, very nice embroidery. I am a lucky person to get such beautiful pages for my fabric-book. This was the last page in a year round swap. Now I have to make the book!
The pages are 6" ( 15cm) square.

Liberated quilt top ready

The Liberty quilt top is ready. The size is now 202 x 152 cm. ( 79,5 x 60 inch)
Now I have to make a back also from rests and I have to add some letters or numbers. I have chosen a name for this quilt "Liberty". This name I shall sew in letters in the back.
I only have to figure out how ;-)
Usually I takes weeks to sew a top this size but now I am "liberated". I enjoy it very much, no matching points, no pattern, no quilt-police!
I have joined a blog: Lazy Gal Liberated Amish 2010.
And they gave me the idea. Now I sew my drawers with quilt cottons empty!

liberated quilt part 3 and shawl #4

Yesterday I have cut the blocks square, they became 9 inch.

Here the layout. Now the sewing can begin but this weekend I don't have time. To be continued on monday.

Photo below: in the evenings I knit shawl #4. Now I have 14 hyacinth lace repeats and start with the border of this shawl.

Liberated quilt part 2

Yesterday I finished sewing the raw blocks. Here are 6 piles of 8 blocks.
Today I shall cut them straight into 9 1/2 inch squares and hopefully start to sew them together.
To be continued...
Do you see the striped shirt, the beige kitchen curtains with a little pink flower and 3 blue blouses and a blue skirt? Just click on the photo!
PS. I like the freestyle sewing :-))

in my mailbox today

About 2 weeks ago I ordered some silk ribbon to embroider flowers with
from Pat Winter's Etsy shop.
This is what came in the mail today!
So many extras, it looks if I have my birthday today!
A lovely heart shape brooch, made by Pat and tea, silkies and extra ribbons.
Pat you are tóó kind. Thank you very much!!

Liberated Amish quilt

A new project on the table. A liberated Amish quilt.
About a week ago I came on a blog from a group ladies who are sewing a liberated Amish quilt and add letters and numbers too.
I have sewn an Amish quilt in the past and hand-quilted it.
Now I sew a very free Amish quilt and will machine quilt it when the top is ready.
We are supposed to pick a quilt from the Brown collection as inspiration.
I picked number 027 'Roman Stripes' as inspiration for a freestyle quilt. Photo below from the Brown collection.
I don't know yet if I will make the letters in the front, maybe I sew them on the back.
I have started already to sew blocks. Not easy to sew wonky for a "sane"quilter in so many years were all the points should match precise!
But I learn quick and it feels very liberated :-))

Bead Journal Project

This is my BJP 2010 project for January. Yes, I know I am late. I didn't know what to make, didn't have inspiration. Until the moment I made a white/silver beadsoup last week, to bead the mountains on the CQ block below. Then I thought I can make snow crystals from beads :)
I made the background from needlefelt on my embellisher from wool. The edge is made from shiny organza ribbon with glass seed beads.
The photo is rather poor, in real the contrast between the matte wool and the shiny beads is so nice. I 'll keep this for myself ( I think). 95% of the things I make are for swaps and leave my house. This has the size of a CD.
Now to think about February;)

A valentine rose for you

A few weeks ago I found crochet roses on a blog and the friendly owner sent me the pattern.
It is in German and English, very clear with many photos. Thank you very much Tracy Ann! It was a pleasure to make them. Every rose took an hour to make. The red one is thin wool yarn with crochet needle 2,5 mm.
Below the pink rose is made from crochet DMC thread nr 30 with crochet needle 1 mm.
The needle is a sewing needle, this is to see how small the rose is.
Maybe usefull for a CQ item one day?

Crazy quilt eye candy

This is Loreza's block in a "step by step"round robin in the CQAW group. I was the fourth person to had to work on this block. The beautiful embroidery is done by Maureen and Anne and the 'item's are made by Margreet. My task was' to do' the beads. I started with the snow on the mountains with a white/silver beadsoup.

After that I gave all the flowers a bead-heart. Then glass beads along the lake shore for a 'water-sparkle'. In the end I made some little flowers from sequins in the lower corner.

I hope Lorenza likes my additions. The size of this block is approx. 12x13 inch. 30x33 cm.

Now the block goes to Helinä, she is the last person who will do 'the finishing touch"and then the block goes back to Lorenza in Italy. It was Lorenza who pieced this block, it is a view near her home in the neighborhood of the Alps.

Please click on the photo to see the great embroidery from Maureen and Anne and the crochet items Margreet made! The sails of the sailboat are knitted from crochet thread!

Ishbel shawl

Here is a new shawl I have knitted the last weeks. The pattern is available here.

I made this shawl from 2 skeins Ficolana Merci. 50% wool-50% cotton. 200 meters per skein.

I like the yarn. It is very soft and nice to knit with. I bought it online at 123knit.com in Denmark.

The size of this shawl is: wide 158cm (62"). High: 62cm ( 20,5")

Knitted on needle 3mm. ( US 2,5)

I started with 3 stitches in the neck and ended up with 465 on the last row!

It is a nice pattern to knit but not for a new beginner.

This is my third shawl this year.

I have been asked to enjoy a group on Raverly, called 10 shawls in 2010 and I said yes.

How weird can one become, when bitten by the knitting bug? ;-)