The Splendid Sampler™ 1 - Hearts Aflutter

Today I was feeling a little (a lot) under the weather, spending the day reading (Die Wanderhure, by Iny Lorentz, De Wandelhoer in Dutch), sleeping, hanging on the couch and Pinteresting (I know that isn't a verb, but it should be). It must be through Pinterest, or through some random blog that I read, that I stumbled across The Splendid Sampler™ Quilt Along. Now, usually when I see a quilt along the thing is already almost finished, or it requires you to sign up to buy a certain pattern, and it somehow never held much appeal for me. But today was different. I cleaned out my fabric cupboard recently. I found myself refolding a bunch of fabrics I bought 2 or 3 years ago, for the purpose of making a quilt for my (and my husband's) bed. I still love the fabric, but I've pinned about a million possible patterns, and it was beginning to feel like I would never find one that would convince me to finally start sewing!

I really like this green polka dot and pink roses fabric, and I finally started using it!

Well today The Splendid Sampler™ did just that: I sewed the first block of my new quilt! The whole thing seems so much fun and so attainable, and it just started last week, so I'm not hopelessly behind before I ever started! Plus, not committing to one design is liberating, and waiting for the next block to become available is exactly my kind of excitement.

The finished block measures 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches, as it should, and is just a bit wonky!

My husband and I always kid that I was born a granny, my kicks are learning new sewing techniques, seeing my seedlings germinate and popping a cake in the oven, and they have been for as long as I can remember. As a teenager the fact that I was not only able to sew, knit and crochet, but that I actually enjoyed these activities, was a well kept secret. Now, a lot of people envy me for these skills, it's a bit weird how the status of hand crafts has changed so much in just a few years time (wait, I was a teenager twenty (20!) years ago...).

Blanket stitch around the heart to hide messy hand applique for extra definition.

A while back I followed Kristyne Czepuryk of Pretty By Hand as she made her Farmer's Wife Quilt, block by block. I not only admired her skill in picking the perfect palette for each block, but also the tenacity to keep going, and the end product. That is one gorgeous quilt!
Often, I find sampler quilt too busy and not cohesive enough, but if she can do it, so can I, right? Well, I'm going to try!

The Splendid Sampler™ 1 - Hearts Aflutter

A pillow case for Marian and a first-day-of-school outfit for Felix

I did some more sewing with Marieke last week. It was her idea, to sew something for her cousin, Marian, who turned 6. So we got out the fabric stash and made a big mess, and Marieke decided to make a pillow case, using mostly fabric I bought on Spoonflower, adding in some Backyard Baby by Michael Miller, which was a perfect match in colors and theme and Acorn Trail by Taegan White for the backing.

Don't you agree the fabrics look perfect together.

I really don't have a huge collection of fabrics, and really very little designer fabric just lying around, so we were lucky to find everything in stock. Or maybe my taste in fabric is pretty constant, so things are bound to go together more or less.

With stuffing.

Marieke pieced the top, using the interfacing method of joining squares (or rectangles, in this case), and I did the finishing. I didn't have a matching zipper, so I did a simple envelope in the back. I'm thinking I should order some labels for Marieke to mark her sewing projects, like I do.

My tiny label, for a finishing touch.

The back makes for pretty wrapping, tied with some left-over bias tape.

The birthday girl didn't have a lot to say about this present, she was too busy unwrapping the next one and welcoming new guests, but her mother was charmed. The pillow goes perfectly with the woodland theme of Marian's bedroom, and it's in the same color scheme.

It wouldn't look bad in our sofa, either.

Although my stash is by no means huge, I'm still imposing a temporary no-new-fabric rule on myself, because my cupboard is full of really pretty fabric. And of course there's always more pretty fabric in stores and online, but it would be a waste to just hang on to all the pretty stuff in my cupboard and not experience the joy (and slight dread) of cutting into a cute fabric and making something lovely which becomes a joy for me to give and someone else to use. Plus, I have quite a few novelty fabrics, which my kids love now, but probably won't in 10 years time!

Simple quilting in straight lines.

Still, I did buy some new fabric in 2016. I saw this bunny fabric in a store I almost never pass, and just had to buy it for Felix, since he's always singing 'Ooooh, konijneneten!'. I bought just half a meter and made a little shirt that very same weekend. So it only added a few scraps to my stash. I then cut up some old pants of mine to make a matching pair of trousers.

Ready for first day

I bought these the first winter after Felix was born, took them in a few cm for the second winter, but found that I can't take them in any more to wear them this season. But the fabric was far from worn, so this way I found a new use for them. I call it 'eco-sewing'!

Uit de oude doos: baby-boekje voor Felix.

Ik maakte dit boekje toen ik zwanger was van Felix. De stof kocht ik op Spoonflower, van My Tiny Star.

We used the ribbon to tie it to Felix's cot.

I still love the illustrations today.

All the critters are just soooo cute!

Mug rugs

Back in December I just wanted to sew something small and quick, so I made two matching mug rugs. They were a really fast and fun project.

I used leftovers of the Echino linen-coton blend I used to make a skirt for me from as a starting point, and added cotton scraps and a fine linen.

I decided to use them as a Christmas gift, so I added some coffee and chocolate.

In use. I don't drink coffee, so I went for milk and chocolate.

Another perspective.

I love the texture of the quilting...

...and of the linen.

Silver spoon.

When you look through the camera lens, milk is beautiful, but something more beautiful turned up in the edge of my vision...

...aaaw, babytoes! So cute!

Pyjamas for Lucas and a shirt for Jan.

My fabric cupboard is full. It's not a very big cupboard, but I don't want to collect heaps and heaps of fabric that I do nothing with, except move it around when I'm cleaning out my sewing cupboard. So I decided to do some sewing with leftovers from other projects, and with fabric I bought because it's pretty, but with no specific project in mind. Last weekend Willem and I had some unexpected free time, as all our kids stayed at my parents for two nights, so I took to the sewing machine and finished two projects!

I only have this picture of the PJ's, because I hurried to have them finished for Sunday night.

 Lucas got to stay up a little later than usual while I cursed my double needle trying to get the hems on his shirt and trousers done. He was very happy with the finished item. This is probably his first new pyjamas, he only has hand me downs from his older brother and sister. I've been saying for months that the kid only has rags to sleep in and desperately needs some new stuff, but somehow never got round to it. I still have a fear of sewing with knits, ever since I spend hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, before someone told me you need special machine needles to sew knits. I was sewing with cheap cotton thread and a blunt regular needle, you can imagine the mess! But still, whenever I get started on them, I see images of skipped stitches, knotted thread and fabric being pulled into my machine floating in my mind's eye, and I'm always surprised when I manage to sew a whole seam without any trouble. I now like that you don't have to finish the seams, because they don't fray anyway, but as you can see on the collar (a bit puckered in the front, too loose at the back), I still have some learning to do where knits are concerned. Next time I sew this, I'll have to remember not to try and stretch the collar band evenly all around, but to give more in front, and stretch it more in the back. But on the PJs it doesn't bother me enough to redo it. Plus, I don't have a lot of fabric left and I want to make another PJ, for Jan. Maybe if I have some orange fabric left after that, I'll cut out the collar and replace it with a slightly wider, better executed version. I also keep having trouble with the double needle for the seams: skipped stitches and breaking thread, I don't know why.

It took me 15 minutes to fold this nicely, and I'm not unfolding it for the pictures!

Neat button holes. I'm over my fear of them, but can't help the little puckers I get at the ends...

Collar point and little ants in little tunnels.

My pretty label makes the whole thing look very professional, I think.

I also made this shirt for my godson, Jan. I made another shirt like this for Toon last year, but for this one I used a collar with stand, which I drafted for Felix's konijntjes-hemd (rabbit-shirt). I did want to make it a winter shirt, but I ran out of fabric, so it has short sleeves. I think the colours will go well with Jan's eyes. I hope he likes it. It's nice to make 3 shirts from the same pattern. It's much quicker when you don't have to trace the pattern anymore, or refer to instructions when sewing.

A mermaid and birdfeed.

Although I haven't posted anything on my blog over the last few months, that doesn't mean I haven't been creatively busy lately! Quite the contrary, I have been very productive. But the dark winter days don't make taking nice pictures of my creations easy. Plus, when I'm busy sewing, I can't be writing blog posts, of course.

There are two creations I have made pictures of, so I'll register those on this blog.

The first is a little mermaid that I crocheted in two days, because Marieke asked me to, and I felt like a little project that would be finished quickly.

Lola, de zemeermin.

 The pattern is here. And then I spent some time with the boys, making bird feeders, to give as presents to the family.

They all decorated their flower pots before adding the grease and seeds mix.

They took it very seriously. Here Felix is unwrapping the grease...

...and Lucas is looking for the yellow pencil.

I also assembled a DIY set for Hugo and Theo...

... and one for Marian and Toon.

Passing on my skills

My daughter gets bored easily. It frustrates me no end, because I never seem to have time to get bored. But I remember when I was her age I used to get bored, too. And I remember that my mum would often take time to teach me something new, even though she probably didn't have time to get bored either. That's how I learned how to sew with the machine: as an antidote to boredom! So now I'm teaching Marieke to handle the sewing machine. She paper-pieced a whole lot of christmas trees, which we assembled into a mini-quilt. She picked the fabric herself from my scraps. I quite like the end result, and more importantly, so does she. Now we just have to wait for the next boredom session to finish it.

I love the creative mess of our living room!