Blooms and more

Friday evening was craft night here at Lauren Farms. Jenny came over for the week-end and my friend Lois and her husband came for supper and then it was time to make our sock monkeys. Jenny had found the red heeled socks at a store in St. Catherines and with help of a book and some other instructions we were on our way. Part way through we realized that it would have gone way faster if we had used the machine for part of it. We did not get it all finished, but we had a lot of fun. On my trip to town yesterday I stopped at Spinrite and got some red cotton yarn to make a few hats and scarves. That will have to wait till the latest pair of socks are finished. On Saturday Jenny and I started to work on a "Quiet Book " It's just what it sounds like. The book is made out of fabric and has lots of interesting things to do for smaller kids. I used to make them years ago for the Mennonite Relief Sale and according to Jenny she never had one for herself. Since lots of her friends are having babies she decided to learn how to make one herself, with help from mother that is. Pictures will follow as we get the pages done. I have kept my ammarillis bulbs over the years and have had some success with getting them to bloom again. Usually I put them outside in the ground and dig them up in the fall. Last year I put them in large pots on the deck and they did very well. Up to now 6 have bloomed, most with multiple stems with a few smaller ones to come yet. Those and the blooming orchids make it colorful in the house. For years I always hoped for a cardinal at the bird feeder. When finally one showed up just before Christmas I was very pleased. He was a little skitterish and as soon as he saw a reflection in the window he was gone. Over time he must have gotten used to us and would sit for a short period of time on the sill in the kitchen window. Then one day Laurence heard a strange noice and here was the cardinal, flying again and again in the window for about 5 minutes and then he would disappear. Then I remembered a neighbour, complaining of a cardinal doing that same thing over and over again. I wonder what it sees in the window. It always is at about the same time of the day, later on in the morning. This morning I happen to be close and have my camera handy and I managed to get a few pictures. Most did not turn out. By the time I took the picture, the bird was long gone.

Tulips

Yesterday was our guild meeting and like most other months I made a day out of it. I make a list of things to do and yesterday it took all morning to get the things I needed .Jenny will be here this coming week-end and we will be working on a few craft projects. More about that next week. To get ready I had to clean up and I found a few kimono's I had made. It was a shame to put them back in the drawer. I came up with an idea for a small quilt. I put a few stitches of sashiko on the side ,fused the background around a piece of Timtex and sewed the ends with a zigzag stitch. Before I fused the back, I stitched the kimono to the front in a few spots. I have a few more kimono's and plan to make a few more of these small quilts. I have been appliqueing these tulips and I had fun finding the right fabric. All the pieces for these tulips came out of one piece of Phil Beaver fabric. I had bought it out west a few years ago and never found a good project to use it. Now I would have liked more. You get this effet by cutting very selectively and it does not take long and the "best" spots have been used. As I mentioned, yesterday afternoon was our guild meeting. As usual in February the programs in done by members, since the weather quite often is bad. Not yesterday. It was above freezing and sunny. We had our annual chair sale and I was very, very lucky. I arrived early and spotted one of the earlier books by Elly Sienkiewicz, the one I did not have, for $1, yes that is $1. I bought that right away. Then I spotted a piece of fabric I have looked for for a long time and got that for $2. It is not often that I'm lucky, but yesterday was my day. Five members had each a 10 minute demonstration and as usual you always learn a few things. All in all a good day.

Farmer Hofstra

When our children were still small I did some supply teaching and one day the librarian gave me a small book to read. It was called " The cow, who fell in the canal" The drawings were very well done and showed scenes of years gone by in Holland. When I opened the book and started to read I had to chuckle. The cow belonged to farmer Hofstra. Now my maiden name is Hofstra and my father was known in the area as farmer Hofstra. I could not find a copy in the store and the librarian was kind enough to get me a copy, which our kids loved to read. But as they grew older, the book was stored with the other childern's book and forgotten. Now forward about 30 years and we are in Amsterdam. On one of our walks a few weeks ago we ended up the old "Nieuwe Kerk" I guess it is the newest of the old churches. It was close to closing time, and we could not go through it, but the store was still open and since it was cold outside and we were tired we popped in. My cousin came up to me and asked me, if I had ever seen this small book about a cow, who fell in the canal.It was the same book I had at home! And it was in English I don't think that it was ever available in Dutch. I could not pass this up and bought a couple. They would make nice stocking stuffers. The next day we went through the Rijksmuseum, where we saw all the fantastic paintings and pottery and so much more. At the end you come to the museum store. And there, in the kiddy corner was another copy, this time 2/3 the size of the book at home. Had to buy another copy! By that time I had bought quite a few books, so I had to keep in mind, that I had to take all this stuff with me on the plane. Now to the real farmer Hofstra. He did wear similar work clothes as you see in the book, but I do not have a good picture of my dad in his working day clothes. My mother was the kind of person, who made you change in your "good" clothes before a picture was taken. But here is a picture of my father at a favorite activity of his, a show of his beloved Frisian horses.

Makkum

One of the places I wanted to visit in Holland was Makkum,where the Tichelaar Family has made pottery for over 400 years. On a cold and rainy Monday my cousin Sippy took me to see some Delft Blue pottery. Located in these old buildings they still make the plates, pots and vases, that they are known for. At the back was added a very modern ,light show room, where you can buy the old style pottery as well as very modern pieces. They were very accomodating and I could take pictures as much as I wanted. One thing had changed. We could not tour the actual factory anymore, but had to watch through windows. This was a fantastic piece( below), used long ago to show of tulips. That was in the time, that tulips were worth more than gold. They had done restauration work on some pieces for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and decided to make a few new ones. And what a job it must have been! One was left without the blue decorations and that gave it a very modern look. I would have loved to take some of the bigger pieces home with me, but after my fall I thought it better not to try. The first place I stayed in Friesland was at my sister's. They live in a 100 year old house which has been fixed up with a lot of the old things still in place. Included in that are a lot of old tiles in the living room, kitchen and outside beside the front door and above the windows. All are close to 100 years old.It was here, that I saw the book about the Tichelaar Family for the first time. In the book were pictures of the tiles and and of this house. As you can see, they made a lot more than what we think of as Delft blue pottery. It seems that they were very good at changing as the times changed. That might be one of the reasons, that they is still in business after more than 4 centuries. I did buy the book, so I can have a better look now that I'm home. And I could not go home without at least a few small gifts. For Tony and Jenny, who plays the French horn, I found this horn player and for Shawn and Emily I had a choice of different horse and riders. And yes, I got them home safely. It has been back to work for me. The crazy quilt is almost finished. It is hanging on my frame and it is (almost) square and it hangs straight. I will have to go over it with a magnifying glass to try and catch all the loose ends, but I'm happy I did not give up. It took me almost 5 years, of and on. We missed the BIG storm. We were warned, that we might get up to 30 cm of snow, but it ended up with about 5 to 10, but with some wind. Schools were closed, but all the roads around here were open. It was just a good day to stay inside and get some work done.

Back again

I have been home now for a few days now, but they have been very hectic. Just before Laurence left for the airport to pick me up, he got a message that his uncle, his mother's only surviving brother had passed away at the age of 98. Then later we got the call that his aunt, grandma's only surviving sister had passed away 14 hours later at the age of 92. We have been spending time with grandma and made sure she went to the visitation and funeral. It seems, that this is my first day at home and I have been busy catching up with the chores around here. Now about my trip to Holland. After 2 plane rides, 5 train rides, visiting 4 museums, 6 fabric stores, 2 bookstores and visiting with my siblings and a cousin I made it home in one piece. And a 2 day visit to Amsterdam, where we did a lot of walking. The start was a little shaky. I know now, that yes, you can fall on your head out of a still standing train! I still have the bump to prove it. That was the beginning and low point of my trip. After that I had a great time. On the first afternoon my sister took me to this cheese store, right on the farm. Too bad I could not take any of those cheeses with me. Then it was on to the first fabric stores in the old town of Staphorst. I was searching for old looking white and blue fabrics and I got some nice ones. This is the church in Bozum. I used to teach there for 2 years before I came to Canada. Where I'm standing used to be the play area, where the kids spend recess. I lived in this small house , kind of tacked on to the bigger one with just one room and a small kitchen. You can see it on the right side of the bigger house. And yes, it was very small. I would sleep in the old fashion way, in what looked like a closet. During the day you would close the doors and at night open them again. It still looked lived in. In our early years of farming we would have students from the Agricultural School in Leeuwarden staying with us for the summer. Later on we needed help for a longer period and we would get help through another exchange program. One of the fellows, who was with us 2 summers was Johannes. From him I learend a few years ago about a big quilt show at the Frisian Museum, where he is working in security. Last week one of my stops was this museum and as you can see, we had a good time catching up on all the news.

Bad news there was, that this museum will be moving to a new location and all their textiles had been put away, so no quilts.

Before I can think of starting on a new quilt I will have to finish a few. That will be my goal for the coming week.

A little of this.......

This past week was a time to get a few things finished.Last year this time I was in Japan and this year I will be going to Holland. I'm leaving in a few days. It has been a few years since I was there and I think it is time to visit my relatives. I have a long list of things I'm planning to do. Yes, I'm going by myself. Laurence does not like the idea of going over in the winter and visiting museums is not on the top of his list of priorities. We have had a lot of snow lately and any day now the trails will be open and he will be off for a run on the snowmobile. And then there are the chores, that have to be done. I still have few pairs of socks here and finished this pair this morning.Another Cookie A pattern, but the wool I got on sale somewhere and I have no idea where it came from. It did knit very well though. I'm still waiting for the pearls I bought to be used in the tying of the crazy quilt, so I had to find something else to do. Cards don't take long. This time I made 5 back grounds, using some of my selvages. Then I finished a few with some ribbon flowers I found.The rest all went into a bag and will be used when I need a quick project. I always find that once you put a frame around a landscape it looks completely different as is the case here. I found the frame in a drawer and it was the perfect size. I also realize that it will need a few more small trees in the front before I will do the threadwork. And...I cleaned up my sewing room. I find nothing is worse, than coming home after a trip and the room is a mess. This way I can start fresh with whatever I have decided.

New Year, new project

Here it is the new year. I made my oliebollen and as usual, there were way to many. I did it the easy way by buying a box with a mix in town. I did take some to the neighbours. You have to eat these oliebollen right away. The next day they are just not as good, even with maple syrup!. We started the year without snow, but that has changed. Yesterday we got a lot and today it is beautiful outside. Cold, but sunny. Laurence can hardly wait till the snowmobile trails will be ready. I have been working on my vase. The first picture shows the vase with only the basic applique. I did not have a Dutch fabric with a scene, so I used this oriental picture. The color was just right. The back ground is different. A few years ago a friend gave me a few old doilies she had bought at an auction. For this I used the large one. It is made out of natural colored linen. My plan is to put this doilie, after all the applique is finished, on a dark blue background. The second picture shows how far I got as of this morning. Some of the dark blue pieces are appliqued, but I did use embroidery. Some of the points are just too tiny. There is still a lot more to do. These vases were very elaborate and that's what made them stand out. After this is done I will have to think about the tulips, that will go in the vase. I think that they will be yellow or red. This is turning out o.k and up to now it has been fun. I will have to put it away for a few days. I'm also basting the crazy quilt and will have to start the quilting.There will only be a few lines, just to keep it all together. The rest will be tied. For that I have ordered small pearls for on the back. And now that I'm so busy with all this Delfts blue stuff, I really need to do some more research, so I have booked a flight to Holland for the end of next week. Laurence prefers to stay here. He is not into visiting museums and quilt stores first of all, and than to do this in the winter makes it worse. Now I hope, that he can get some snow mobiling in. That way we are both happy!

At the end of the year

Here we are on the last day of the year. What a year it has been. From a fantastic quilt trip to Japand to being down and out for a while after surgery. But by and by it has been a good year. We had a lovely time during Christmas. The group was smaller then I'm used to,but that did not matter. We had a white and cold Christmas, but right now it is raining, so no more smowmobile rides for a while. This year I have been knitting up a storm. After not being able to knit for years, because of painful shoulders, I found that I could knit socks again if I took my time.Most of the socks have found a good home. These were barely of the needles before Christmas. I gave our son-in-law's mother a choice and she picked this pair. The pattern is another by Cookie A and the yarn is by Socks-that-Rock, my favorite combination. I'm working on a new pair, since my inventory is quite low after the holidays. I have a new idea for a quilt and this Delft Blue vase is part of it. The idea is to make a quilt with old Delft Blue vases and pots. In the vases I would applique bouquets of spring flowers. I'm thinking of tulips, daffodils, snowdrops and crocusses.To see if I can pull it of, I took pictures of a vase that I remember sitting on the mantle at my grandparents. From there they( yes there are 3) came to my mother's and after she passed away they came to me.

I found a few suitable blue/white fabrics in my stash and I have been looking around for more. Next week I should have a good start.

This vase will be filled with tulips and I found some fabric by Phil Beaver with lots of color variations. I have not been able to find a suitable Dutch picture for the center, but I did have a suitable oriental fabric, so that's what it will be.

Now it is on the the next job. When we were growing up, my mother would always make oliebollen for New Years Eve. I found a recipe, so I will be making some for us and take some to the neighbours, at least if they will turn out.

Wishing all of you out there a very Happy 2010!

Thinking a year ahead.

Not long after I had send all our Christmas cards away I discovered, that I was a few short. My eye fell on my container with selvages and an idea started to form. I had a nice piece of dark blue batik,already with WonderUnder at the back. And I found a piece of Timtex, big enough to make 5 cards.The Timtex is used to make the cards stiff, so they look like a real postcard. I dumped the whole box of selvages on the table and started to sort the blueish ones out, both with lettering and color dots. I also found a few pieces of a silky type ribbon, used to tie fabric packs together. First step was to cut out the Timtex a little larger then I needed. On one side I ironed Wonder Under. I took the paper of so only the glue part was left. Next step was to audition pieces of the selvages and ribbon and try and come up with a nice design. Once I was satisfied I ironed the pieces on to the Timtex. I had a piece of dark blue batik all ready to go. I drew halve the tree design on a piece of freezer paper, folded it double and cut it out. From there I ironed it on the dark blue fabric and drew around it with a white marking pen. Once cut out I centered it on the selvages and ironed it down. For the back I found a piece of grey/blue wintery fabric with cranes, just enough for 5 cards. After ironing some WonderUnder to the back, I put a piece on the back of each card. Now was the time to square it all up. Then the final step, the finishing of the edges. I used a variegated King Tut thread, left over from a previous project. Some cards are gone, but a few were stored in a safe place. I have been making different cards for what must be close to 15 years and at times the hardest thing for me is getting a new idea. Now I don't have to worry about next year. I will have to start to collect more selvages from blueish fabrics though. It took more thant I thought. This will be my last post before Christmas and I wish everybody out there a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas cards

I know it has been a while, but I did not feel the best. But a visit to the doctor and some medication took care of it. But in the meantime not much got done. Last week I managed to do the water area of my landscape. The front will have more trees and rocks, but I have not decided what will go where. It is on my design wall and once in a while I have a good look. One of these days I will get THE idea. Yesterday I mailed this year's Christmas cards. I had the wintery print for a while and I had enough for 12 cards. The back ground is a fine Indian cotton, what made it hard to stitch the sashiko. The sashiko was done by hand and I used overdyed cotton thread by Sassalyn . It was left over from another project. Inside the cards is a piece of Timtex and this makes it firm. Now today I realize, that I'm a few cards short. I found enough Timtex for 5 more cards and I will show the result next week. Most of my Christmas shopping is done and the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. This is the first time we went to a tree farm near Mount Forest for out Christmas tree. What I liked the most was the giant Saint Bernard, which greeted us. We used to have one years ago on the farm and I'm still partial to them. I did some special baking also, but around here that never lasts too long. Whereever I hide it, my dear hubby will find it. My solution is, to do the rest of the baking just before Christmas Day. On Tuesday I finished my schedule for this year. I did a trunk show at the guild in St. Mary's. We have had a fair amount of snow, not as much as a lot of places around us, and the roads can be slick at times. We were lucky. I did get there in time and had a wondeful time. And after my talk, there was a catered lunch. What can be better. When it did start to snow again, I got out of there in a hurry and I made it home in good time. We have had the bird feeder out for a few weeks now. When we just moved here, I was complaining to Laurence , that we never saw any birds. Well, this year is different. It seems, that every few days I have to fill up the 'big' feeder. And for the first time I saw my favorite bird, the cardinal. I know, that this is not the best of pictures, but I cannot get any closer. All in all it seems that most of the work for Christmas has been done and I feel less pressure than some years.

Winter is here

Last Saturday I had a workshop in Burlington, at least a 11/2 hour drive from here. When we got up, it was freezing rain. Not good for this nervous driver! But since we were up early, Laurence decided to come along. He quickly did the chores and of we were. He dropped me of at the store and spend the day visiting with Jeanette and Tony. They had promised to take him out for lunch if he would bring the truck. That way he could take their summer tires back to our place for storage. We had a pleasant time during the workshop. For lunch a few went across the road to a deli and they came back with some Dutch chocolate I had not seen in 40 years. As a child we would get small chocolate Christmas wreaths topped with sprinkles. And here was a whole container to be shared by all. That started the conversation and it ended up that most had some Dutch in them and all had stories to tell. And yes, during this all they kept working very hard. All in all a succesful day. When Laurence picked me up again, the snow and ice were gone and the sun was shining. But I was very happy he came along. I have been somewhat under the weather for the last few weeks and had dreaded this day, but it turned out fine. Not much has been accomplished, just the necessary seems to get done. I put the crazy quilt away till next year. I did find this small wallhanging I made years ago. I never used it. No wonder, it did not have sleeve. I put a sleeve on and will hang it in the hall. I think I made it, when I got a machine with some fancy stitches. I do remember, that it was hard sewing with this golden thread.

And winter is here. We have snow on the ground. This morning I saw a car almost sliding in the ditch. It seems that you have to see something like that, before you are slowing down yourself. And now the snow can come for Laurence. The outside work is done and he has his new snowmobile licence!

Grandma's cross stich quilt

When Jeanette asked me to take a few of her quilts home so that they can be flat on a bed for a while, this was one of them. With one large dog and 2 cats her house is not set up to display her "good" quilts. I still remember when grandpa and grandma Helmuth went on holidays to the States for a few days. Grandma found this pattern for a cross stitched quilt top. She had bought the kit and spend the following few winters making the top. It is a beautiful design with lots of different colors. Once the top was finished, she quilted it, all by her self. Really, 100% of this quilt has been done by her. Then when Jeanette and Tony got married, grandma choose this quilt to give to them as her wedding gift. Right now, she cannot display it, but she hopes that in the future she has the right place for it. It has been another busy week with specialists appointments for grandma and dentist appointments. Right now Shawn is home for a few days, so we want to spend as much time with him as possible. He will fly back to Calgary at 6 tomorrow morning. That means leaving about 4. It will be a short night! I'm allready packed to go and teach in Burlington tomorrow. This will be the last workshop for this year. Last week I send a picture of my crazy quilt to a quilter by the name of Allison Aller, who is very well known for her crazy quilts. I asked if she had some ideas about how to put my crazy quilt together. She gave me some great suggestions. According to her I should put some thought into what I put on the back. Now for me a backing just means to get a piece of fabric, preferable matching the front somewhat, and that's it. I knew I wanted to use the fabric my mother had bought years ago to make a Hindelooper costum. She never got around to it and finally gave me the fabric. Over the years I had used some of it, but I did have enough left to make the back you see here. Then I used some of the lace I used for the front and covered the seams with that. The lace is then embroidered to the background. This is all I will do. The next step will be to do some hand quilting around the blocks and around the border. The rest will be tacked together with beads. How I have not quite decided. It will be one step at a time.