Bachelor becomes Master

It is less than 2 years ago, that I finished this quilt.
It was made on the occasion of the BSc of my oldest daugther Sanne and her friend Wouter. It is hanging in the living room of their apartment in Wageningen. During our trip in British Columbia (CND) in 2008, Sanne saw this quilt in a shop near Radium Hot Springs, where we stayed a couple of days, and immediately loved it. We took a picture with Leonore's telephone, and during my stay in Minneapolis later that year, I found the perfect fabric for this quilt. Only 3 weeks ago, Sanne graduated from Wageningen University and is now a Master of Science in Spatial Planning. And if that is not enough, she entered the PhD program. Needless to say that her mother is very proud!

Sow and Harvest

The Harvest Quilt is finished and now hanging in our living room. As mentioned before, I bought this fabric during our last trip to the USA in October 2010 in Intercourse (PA) in  Zook's Fabric Store (http://zandsfabrics.com/). The quilt brings back the memories of Autumn in Pennsylvania, the colors of Indian Summer and the lovely time we spent with our friends in Pittsburgh, and in the B&B's we visited in Addison, Hummelstown and Flemington.


This project was finished on the 22nd birthday of my youngest daughter. Birthdays of their children bring mothers back to the very day of their delivery: Leonore was born 2 months early, after I had spend 3 months in the hospital. Although she was so small, she did very well from the beginning:the pediatrician in charge wrote in her files: lively, lovely, smart. And she has proven to be all of it: she is 4th year medicine student, starting her intern in May! Time to celebrate!

With love from Linux

My husband Jack's favorite animal is the penguin. As software developer, the penguin is more than an animal it is also the symbol of Linux, a computer operating system. During his business trips in the USA, he always brought me some fabric, which I really appreciated. That's why I decided to make him a special quilt, to decorate his office.
"With love from Linux" started with cutting a number of triangles to make hexagons. I had never had done this before, but ordering the triangles was really fun, and ended in a sort of icy landscape, populated with penguins. The blue Star of David in the middle originated of it's own accord, obviously showing my Jewish roots (according to my Mother).
I love the quilt, and every time I see it, it makes me smile.

Colors of Indian Summer

After a 3 weeks stay in the USA we are back home again. The weather was beautiful, the company even better, and the pictures will remind us of another unforgettable trip.  Not only did I bring back a collection of fabrics, I also left something behind in the States: a friendship quilt for our friends in Pittsburgh on the occasion of there new home, where we had a very pleasant stay. 

The colors of Pennsylvania Fall are magnificent, with a broad scale from bright red, corn yellow to rusty brown. I learned from a tourist info flyer that "Pennsylvania has 127 varieties of trees and every one turns a completely different shade in the fall." I believe we saw them all during our trip! And they are a true inspiration for more quilts.

Shopping for fabric will always be one of my favorite things; my friend Kathy knows that. Since we did not have the opportunity to go together this year, she brought me a package with fat quarters in 'American Stars and Stripes' style.
 

Besides visits to the City Quilter in New York, and the always necessary stop at a Joann Fabric store (this time in Pittsburgh), we planned to visit some shops in the heart of Dutch Pennsylvania. These shops have possibly the largest variety of fabric I have ever seen; the Zook's shop in Intercourse claim to have 20.000 bolts in stock! Some people were wondering whether I would make it in time for our flight back ;-).




The almost confounding quantity of material, didn't it make any easier to come to a choice...but I think I pretty well succeeded to buy just what I needed! Next time I might consider to check another bag....

Patchwork to comfort

Sunday is my radio day: I use to sit in our down stairs room, looking out over the garden, working on some patchwork project, and listening to The Sandwich: a radio breakfast.  This Sunday is a sad day: the last broadcasting The Sandwich. It will be strange to sit there and not hearing Jacques Klöters on the radio...luckily the patchwork will be there to comfort me! And there is a lot of work to do: in October we are visiting friends in Pittsburgh, who have moved into a new house; I am working on a little memory quilt. The nice thing about a memory quilt is, that it is growing while you work on it. Usually I only have a vague idea in mind, and just start somewhere. I have made a few memory quilts, one is the Europdonor quilt, made on the occasion of our organization moving into a new building. I have tried to reproduce aspects of  stem cell transplantation, the search for a donor and the international collaboration. The quilt is hanging in the hall of the Europdonor office in Leiden.

Cats and quilts

During my last visit to the US, I bought fabric to make a quilt for our new guestroom. I decided to use the twisted sister design by Ami Simms (www.amisimms.com/twistedsisters.html). Making the blocks is fun and the result is every time a surprise! After finishing the top, I used the living room floor to make the sandwich. Within seconds our cat Lotje decided the new top was a far better spot sleep on. Cats and quilts....they seem to attract each other....