More Limericks.

Hello friends,

This morning I sent three more limericks to  Two Patch Ladies. They are in Dutch this time. 

It is so much fun and I'll write these three new ones down here:

 Number 3:

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Door vrouwen in Ierland, ze lijken getikt,

wordt menig deken doorgestikt,
 

 terwijl wordt gepraat

op rijm, in de maat.

 Zo ontstaat dus een quilt in Limerick.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Number 4:

 ~~~~~~~~~

 Een stofverslaafde uit de polder

geeft quiltlessen bij haar op zolder.

Maar ze is uit haar doen

 en je krijgt van katoen,
 

 als je zegt dat ze lijdt aan de lappenkolder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Number 5:

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 Een domineesvrouw uit het Groningse Leek
 had geen behoefte aan gepreek.

 Zij deed wat ze wilde
 met het Quiltersgilde

 en vond inspiratie in De Zondagssteek.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Yesterday evening I watched 'The King's Speech' at home on DVD that I borrowed from the library.
Fantastic, entertaining, witty and heartbreaking it is, absolutely!

 The weather today is drizzly and grey; perfect day for cooking some nice, warm(ing) stuff like Applecrumble, which will be served for Sunday dessert with whipped cream, lots of whipped cream.

No fabric is cut yet, so no machine sewing / Zondagssteek has been done either.
Maybe next week.


Cheers!

Sissy Day 2011 and more...

Hello friends!

 I think I told you before that I am blessed with five sisters and two brothers?
These five sisters have planned a 'Sissy Day' on Saturday 19 November, here with me, in my home. What a surprise!
We all live in different places, spread over the country, so it was quite a job to make sure every sissy can join that party :>)
 I don't need to prepare anything ( due to that hand-icap ); they did or will do, from cooking, baking, buying, bringing, sleeping and carpooling to doing the dishes after the party.
They arranged this all because a Sissy Day that was planned earlier this year had to be cancelled.
By then I could not yet travel for long, as I was still recovering from surgery for colorectal cancer in August last year.
And now they did not want the year to go by without having had our Sissy Day, so I got a phonecall a few weeks ago from Ingrid, revealing their surprising plan.
We are all looking forward to Sissy Day 2011!

~  The SissieSix ~

From top left it shows me, Ingrid, Jacqueline  and Loni
Sitting on the floor are Stella and Annelies.

 This picture was taken 1st.of November 2008, Sissy Day at my place.

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 Today I received the Thimblelady thimble  that I ordered from Quilthuis Lieselotje
That thimble promises to offer perfect handquilting, without tendon or gripping pain, and that's what I am looking for at the moment, well, months.
If my finger will not get back in its old supple shape, I want to try to handstitch with this thimble.
At this very moment my finger still is too thick to fit in ( although I bought size L ), so I must be patient for some more time. Yet it is something I look forward to!
 For now I am thinking of machine stitching a charmpack diagonally, cut the blocks and stitch the whole lot together in some kind of pattern, to make a mini quilt.
 Hope I can handle the rotarycutter or the scissors.....
Putting this Frisian saying into practice:

( If it can't be done like it should -  It should be done like it can )

 ~~~~~~~

She ( Jim Shore's 'Sew Angelic') is in my Little Walhalla, watching my stash for the time being:

  ~~~~~~

 Tonight the clock will be turned back one hour, so we can sleep a little longer :>)
 Won't be of any problem for me, I took this crocheted coverlet
 this morning to upgrade my bed, making it winterproof as nights are getting colder now.
I crocheted the coverlet 32 years ago, double sized; must have been suffering from a serious crochet fever. Don't know.. I do know I was in love, we had planned our wedding and I was making this for the newly-wed's-bed :>)

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 Have a wonderful weekend!

 Cheers!

Limerick fun at Two Patch Ladies

 Hello friends,

 Hanneke and Inge at Two Patch Ladies started a draw you can take a chance in by sending a Limerick about Quilting.
There are two stitchery packets to win. Isn't that nice?
 I love everything concerning  fabric and language, so you understand I think it's great fun patching and matching words about quilting, creating a Limerick!

 I already sent one in Dutch:
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Een quiltster uit een Dokkumer streekje
 deed het liefst met de hand ieder steekje,

 maar na een prik in haar jat
 lag haar handwerk plat

 en dat steekt; het heelt niet in een weekje.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 And I've tried to write one in English:
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Patching and matching and stitching
make a quilter's hand become itching,

 when she goes through her stash
 and pictures in a flash

 the result of her quilt-in-the-ditch-ing.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Enjoy your Sunday; mine is a perfect Autumn one.

 Cheers!

 

Grandma's laptopped lap

Hello dear friends!

 Yesterday afternoon I went to Nunspeet, where I am still at this very moment, to my daughter Loni and her husband Gerben with their sweet little five months old darling daughter Nine.

 Being, or at least feeling a modern gr@ndm@ I took my laptop with me, as I  am on duty today, caring for Nine. She is so adorable and I enjoy doing  this so very, very much.

So, when Nine's asleep I can fill the duty-breaks surfing, blogging or e-mailing.

 After lots and lots of rain during the last three days, today is a sunny, clear and crispy-morning day.

I went with Nine in the stroller and Border terrier Jayden on his 4FT for a  lovely fifty minutes' walk and it was great.

I'll go back home next Saturday, so there are still many hours of pure grandmother's joy for me to come!

Cheers!

The French Connection

Hello friends!
 

 Last September a quilting friend had her birthday and fortunately I had a birthday present ready-made waiting on the shelf for her.

 She is of French origin, moved to Dokkum when she married her Frisian husband, many years ago.

 This is my birthday present for her
 

The French, Dutch and Frisian flags are all to find on this .....

 pincushion!
 :>)

~~~~~~~~

 For Alie Bahlmann, my Q-Teacher here in Dokkum when I first started quilting four years ago, I made this pincushion; it's my own design, using Dutch fabrics and adding self crocheted red  Frisian 'Pompeblêden' at the connecting points.

Pincushions showing the French - Frisian Connection.
Made in Fryslân by a Dutch non-Frisian girl :>)

 Have a nice day!

 Cheers!

Handy update

Hello friends!

 More than one whole week without posting; quite unusual for me in normal circumstances but, since I am handicapped there's not so much left to post about.

However, today I can Show and Tell a bit about The Hand, if you don't mind.
If  you do, please quit this blog and hop over to quilt-blogs you like :>)

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 My hand is on the mend :>)

 New skin is now covering palm and finger, antibiotics and their anti-allergic medication are swallowed to a finish; the only medication I still need are painkillers.
Without that stuff I feel like hand-stuck between the door.

 And that's a horrible pain  I really can't cope with.

I don't bother about stiffness or limited power or suppleness, but P A I N ... I hate that, especially that kind of pain.

  Twice a week I go for physiotherapeutical treatment, which means  massage and applying lymphdraining tape to reduce the swelling.

 This is what my taped hand looks like now, five weeks after surgery: 

Next  picture was taken after two weeks, when the surgeon had removed the wound drains:

 ( the colour is bad, too blue-ish )

  I think you can imagine how glad and thankful I am, that all has come to such a happy end, with my finger still where it belongs; could have been much worse if I had come a little later...

 And I think you can't imagine, like I couldn't, that this is caused by
one simple curved basting safety ( !! ) pin.
And nasty bacteria giving a hand.

 So, I think you can also imagine that quilting and stitching by (that) hand have to wait for some more months. I'll see what comes and when, and in the meantime I do my stinking best to sew with my left hand and with my dear friend the sewing-machine, which already had some surprising results; not to Show and Tell about yet, because it's for a swap I joined :>)))
~~~~~~~~

 To show you something nice I made and bought before the Big Sting, look at this:

 The peace of cake is a p........n,
yes-guess-yes,
a pincushion!

 The biscuit that looks so real that you'd like to take a bite, is a coaster I bought at Blond Amsterdam, when I was there, shopping for real Dutch presents I wanted to take for my friends in Australia, two years ago.
This funny biscuit was a present for myself.

 Well, I think the pictures of this deli stuff give this post a happy and tasty end, don't they?

 Wishing you all a blessed and sunny weekend!

 Cheers!

My mother's sewing - box

Hello friends,

 today I'd like to show you my mother's sewing - box, that's got a place of honour in my living / craftroom, after I furbished it:

 Shortly after my Mum got her first electrical sewing - machine in the early 60's of the last century (sounds like a fairytale, just like my  Snow-white-like-finger-story), my Dad bought her this box to go with the machine.

 Originally it was beechen with black painted handle / legs, but after all those years it was fairly worn, you can imagine. 

I decided to paint the box mahogany and the handle / legs lavender. 

 In this lovely  heirloom I cherish some of my mother's haberdashery that came with it. Some empty jars filled with buttons, lace or ribbon, spools for frivolité, sew-on badges and frill and a little brown paper bag filled with dried lavender. An old little paper bag from the shop ( Zuhorn in Groningen ) where she had her nylon stockings repaired, which was not unusual in those days, as nylon stockings were not cheap and the 'disposal age' wasn't invented yet.

Noah's Ark, in the background, is made by Jim Shore, an artist who's highly inspired by his quilting grandmother, or his grandmother's quilting.

Till soon.

Cheers!

House - sparrow

Hello friends,

 A couple of months ago I bought a little white bird-cage in a discount store to house the bird I found (and sewed) in the Eline's Huis book:

 

 

It's in the spare bedroom, waiting for company to stay and play with. 

My own house-sparrow.

 Isn't it a tweety-sweety?

 

Days have become less boring for me, since the pain in my hand is bearable and I managed to change (partially) from being right to lefthanded, which is of good help in housekeeping practice.

You know, the laptop is a wonderful thing and so is the internet but, if that's all there is...... 

And sewing is also quite another chapter...

 Maybe I can start trying to do some machine stitching, this week or next. My both hands are itching! And not only because of the cure.

Today's highlight was my first bikeride in more than three weeks. 

 Oh, how I love that! Just a short ride, to the physiotherapist and to do some shoppings, that could be taken home in the bicycle-bags. No more left arm stretching by dragging too heavy shopping bags.

 

 I am off now.

 Sleep well and till soon.

 Cheers!

In my backyard

Hi friends,

October has arrived smoothly, bringing along September's wonderful weather with the

morning dew and freshness, many hours of golden sunshine, line-dried sheets with that lovely smell...

  

 

 After showing you the little Autumn make-over of my livingroom yesterday, I'd like to share some pictures of what my XXXS backyard looks like, now BBQ and most of the outdoor furniture have been moved to the attic.

   

 Cheers!