what‘s going on?

So… what’s going on overhere?

A while ago I entered a give-away at Lily’s blog. I was the lucky winner of the ‘How does your garden grow?’ pattern from Don’t Look Now. Lily added some other gorgeous stuff to the package. She made me a sweet pincushion which is already being used. The fabrics are great as a starter to make the garden grow pattern. Some gorgeous pink beads and an add 1/4″ ruler. Thanks again Lily!

My ‘Zen’ quilt on the designwall. You can see it’s not Zen at all… yet!

Maybe this way it’s more balanced, but it’s still not what I want it to look like.

I bought fabric to making sashings and cornerstones, but I didn’t like it. They make the quilt kind of traditional. That’s not what I want for this quilt. So maybe I’ll use the light fabric and play with the blocks again.

The funny thing is when I look at the pictures, a new idea pops into my head! I can always rename the quilt from ‘Zen’ to ‘Chaos’!

That’s maybe why we name our quilts when they’re ready and not on forehand?

Nicolette

November 21st

Hi there!

Just a small post to thank you for your very kind words, well-wishes and support and for your emails asking if I’m doing fine and telling me you miss me. You’re the best!

My mother is doing so much better. I’m amazed by all she’s doing again herself. She’s such a tough lady!

November 21st, we’re in the midst of Autumn. Temperatures are wonderful, 16 C today. The garden’s carpet is brownish yellow with a tiny touch of green (the above picture is taken at a country estate – not my garden).

I hope to get my blogging spirits back and to start posting on a regular basis again some time next week. Can’t imagine it’s only 5 weeks untill Christmas! I’m pretty busy making gifts, taking classes, stitching sample quilts, finishing other secret stuff, putting parcels together. I always enjoy the anticipatory pleasure better than the holidays themselves…

I still need to take photos of gifts received and (almost) ready to send, finished quilts, and blocks and projects I’m working on. There’s a lot to talk about and show!

A happy weekend and a wonderful start to a new week for all of you!!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest is over

Maybe you wondered why I stopped my every day pinktoberfest posts.

My attention is needed elsewhere. Last week my mom had an accident at home. After 4 days of severe pain, the drs decided to have some X-Ray‘s made. She was diagnosed with fractured rib-bones and was admitted to hospital to fine tune the pain medication. She will be back home today.

I try to take care of her well-being now. Crafting and blogging have become of secondary importance.

I’ll take a break from the blog and hope to be back a.s.a.p., to show a lovely package of gifts I received from a dear friend fom OZ.

Wishing you all a wonderful and light-spirited week!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 21 – quilts, baby! and a winner

Quilts, BABY! Don’t you love the cover? It’s a real wannahave book. And now I have one!

It’s not just another quilt book, it contains quilt designs from quiltdesigners and blogfriends who’s work I admire, like Victoria (thesillyboodilly) and Kajsa (Syko). Loads of inspiration! I know what I’ll be reading tonight!

October 21st, time to announce the winner of the second pinktoberfest give-away:

congratulations Karol Ann, I’m so happy you won and I loved Jack’s jokes! Please send me an email…!

It’s still pinktoberfest at dutchcomfort. It’s easy to give-away nice stuff, but we also need to raise money for research. And awareness, so less women will have to deal with the desease.

When you leave a comment, please share the name of your most favourite quilt, sew-, craft- or cookbook! And if you’re not into books, please share your favourite music!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 20 – star atarashii progress

In the picture (sorry for the bad photo-quality, light is getting poor at night), you can see the 8 blocks I finished and sewed together. The circles are folded to make the front and the back of the quilt. They will be filled with batting and be handquilted.

This week already, will be the last class of the course. How time flies when you’re having fun!

The other side

You can call either side the front or the back, depending on which one you like the most.

It’s a very labour-intensive quilt, but I love a challenge and I’m very happy with the romantic, ancient atmosphere of the fabrics. I only need to make another 100-something blocks to have a nice sized quilt! Bur there’s no hurry!

I love to buy fabrics for the quilt in the proces of construction, it’s much more fun than working with a collection you planned on forehand.

Once more I would like to thank all my blogfriends who are still with me during this crazy blogtoberfest. It’s definitely not easy to post every day and I can imagine the same counts for visiting and leaving comments.

So, why not ask you what you would like me to post about. I hope I can live up to your expectations!

Tomorrow I will draw the winner of the second Pinktoberfest give-away.

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 19 – unexpected gifts

One of my friends asked if I was still making quilts and if I could use some ‘fabrics’ that she planned to bring to the thrift store. She showed me the fabrics, and though the flowery parrot fabric is way too heavy to be used for quilting, I thought it would be fun to use for something else, like maybe a bag.

It’s a huge piece, a heavy kind of linnen cotton blend. I guess it was used as a table cloth. The photo only shows a small piece of the pattern.

And what to think about this gorgeous circular table cloth from the Provence. It fits our round teak garden table. I don’t think I can cut into this fabric.

It’s almost midnight, but I did it again, I wrote a post, 19 days in a row.

There are still 36 hours left to enter my second pinktoberfest give-away (see October 14th post!)

Good night!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 18 – kitchen shelf

Sunday. Rain. Clouds. Wind. Cleaning. Stitching. Reading. Taking pictures. Having nice food.

Our kitchen shelf, stuffed with cookbooks and a very beautiful Iittala vase with little candles. We use it on the shelf because it’s heavy. It serves as a book end. Of course the vase is even more beautiful when filled with flowers. Way more beautiful! Maybe we should find ourselves a heavy book-end that’s made to do the job. And fill the vase with tulips. White tulips.

We like to change the books every now and then, like today. We exchange them with those kept in the sideboard. The wintery ones are on the shelf now, with recipes for December cooking and stew and of course Jamie Oliver.

We will have grilled turkey fillet tonight, with curry, mushrooms, red onions, silverskin rice and some cucumber. And a glass of rosé. Yummy!

pinktoberfest day 17 – less

speechless

pictureless

sleepless

painless

pityless

playless

cashless

none the less

nothing less

any the less

dress for less

more or less

less is more !

See you to-more-row!

Nicolette

blogtoberfest day 16 – think green / act green

Thanks for wishing me well and for your ‘jokes’.

One day late for blog Action Day. This years’ topic was Climate Change.

I won’t write a profound post, but just show you some stamps that were specially designed to have the Dutch think and act green(er).

planting of forests to compensate for CO2 emission

carpooling diminishes the number of cars

use green energy from windmills and/or biomass.

cars with soothfilters intercept by-products

use recycled paper and envelopes when sending a letter

isolation will keep the warmth inside

drive a hybrid car

solar thermal collectors provide for energy

drink biological milk

windmills provide for energy.

I love the designs, I guess they are very clear even without my humble translation.

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 15 – shivering

I’m under the weather.

Your comments on yesterday’s give-away post are keeping me warm though! I nearly laughed my head of reading your funny stories and jokes. I’m sure I fail to see some false bottoms, cause English is not my native language, but you’re doing a great job!

To thank you I send a virtual bouquet of white/green Chrysanthemums.

I’m a real bad joke teller. I just remember the simplest from my childhood:

How do you catch a rabbit? ….by making the sound of a carrot!

Some jokes can’t be translated into another language, can they?

That’s all for today. Make it a good one!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 14 – pink give-away no 2

October 14th is here! Almost halfway Pinktoberfest. Thanks for all your visits, comments and support. It’s not achievable to visit you all at the moment. I’m only halfway reading all the entries of the Quilt Festival over at Amy’s ParkCityGirl.

Thanks for joining my first Pink give-away. There are some splendid ideas to use the Cosmo multiwork for!

And…. a new Pink give-away, pink because i’m still trying to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.

You can win a handmade zippered pouch. The outside fabric I used was received as part of a private swap I had ages ago with Jade. It’s lined with some Pink ‘tulipy’ ginger blossom fabric. The pink is a bit reddish in the photo, but it’s really pink!

With the pouch goes a pink tin with a pink ruler and some pink wooden star beads.

If you like to join the give-away, no hustle and bustle, no extra entries and no spread the word stuff to collect more visitors for my blog. At dutchcomfort we like plain give-aways.

So please leave a comment on this post, a funny one, I can do with some laughter! Or tell me what you would use the pink wooden star beads for!

The give-away will end on 21st October, 12.00 hrs WET.

————————

I have been drawing the winning name for the 4 spools of Cosmo Multiwork.

The random no generator said:

and the winner is:

Rafael’s mum!

Congratulations mum of Rafael! Please send me your postal address! You can find my email here!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 13 – English Tea ?

Would you care to sit with me
For a cup of English tea
Very twee, very me
Any sunny morning

What a pleasure it would be
Chatting so delightfully
Nanny bakes fairy cakes
Every Sunday morning

Miles and miles of English garden, stretching past the willow tree
Lines of hollyhocks and roses, listen most attentively

Do you know the game croquet
Peradventure we might play
Very gay, hip hooray
Any sunny morning

Miles and miles of English garden, stretching past the willow tree
Lines of hollyhocks and roses, listen most attentively

As a rule the church bells chime
When it’s almost supper time
Nanny bakes fairy cakes
On a Sunday morning

(lyrics by Paul McCartney)

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 12 – oh… what a day !

The delights of being self-employed

Monday October 12th

1 client down (crisis… what crisis? )

2 clients discussing the photo-contents of a magazine that’s ready to go to the printer

3 cups of coffee and a piece of ‘speculaas’ later I wonder what will be next today…

4 minutes of my favourite music while driving to the longarm quilting service

5 ohhhh’s and ahhh’s (at least 5) for the quilted quilt (gorgeous – more soon!)

6 pieces of cat-nip on the carpet

7 quilt-blocks for my meditation quilt are finished

8 piles of clutter in my studio

9 quilt-blocks ready to get stitched for a Christmas quilt

10 € price increase for a Personal Training (duh…? that’s a lot extra to pay to stay in shape)

11 pins on the door mat (Midas?)

12 pincushions in the house don’t seem not be enough !

Oh, what a (Mon)day!

Tomorrow it’s the 13th… I hope all will go smoothly!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 11 – Fall

It’s that time of year again. Chilly, rainy and stormy weather. The leaves are falling. A wonderful opportunity to stay inside and admire all the quilts of participants at ParkCityGirl’s Quilt Festival.

I’ve seen some very special quilts, like this one. The story that goes with the quilt is pretty special too.

I hope your Sunday is a lovely one!

Nicolette

pinktoberfest day 10 – Quilt festival Fall 2009

Amy at Parkcitygirl is hosting Quilt Festival Fall 2009.

After the Pink Ribbon Quilt I showed during Quilt festival Spring 2009, it’s time for another Pink quilt, Samara’s Kitty Quilt.

It all started with a birthday card I received. When I saw all the funny cats on the card instantly a quilt came to mind.

Early 2008 I asked the readers of my blog if they knew a special child who would be comforted with a quilt. A little girl in the UK, named Samara, was called attention for. She had to deal with a congenital disease and was going  through some tough times. As she’s a lover of pink, there had to be lots of it in the quilt. She, nor her family knew I was making the quilt, so when it arrived at her place it was a big surprise

I started to work on the quilt in March and finished it in September 2008. I appliqued all the cats’ bellies by hand, embroidered their bodies and all the mice and cat-toys. I chose fabrics from the Moda Pink Quilt range for the border and the backing.

I made a scrappy backing and had it quilted with a swirly girly pattern.

One of the ‘funny’ cats.

I’ve been asked many times to write a pattern for the quilt. I didn’t do so for two reasons. One: there’s copyright on the birthday card, so these drawings aren’t mine. Second: I love the idea that there’s only one Samara’s Kitty Quilt. The one that was made for a special girl.

Enjoy reading all the lovely posts about the quilts of other participants in the Quilt Festival Fall 2009!

Happy weekend!

Nicolette