A Wedding Quilt, but different.

Fabrics from Australia and my stash

Less than a year ago, my daughter Sanne and her friend Wouter announced their wedding plans for June 23rd, 2012. You could say there was enough time for the design and making of a wedding quilt, but the final idea was born just before we left for our trip to Australia in April/May. It was decided that it should be a family project, not only joining the efforts, but also multiple techniques. Patchwork, applique, cross-stitch and quilting were combined in a contemporary wedding quilt. My mom and daughter Leonore were involved in the process of choosing the colors and during my trip 'down under' I  found the perfect fabrics.My brother in Canada and his daughter Julia were invited to make some stitches as well.

The idea was to make a tree filled with apples, each apple containing a little symbol or figure characteristic for the happy young couple. All apples were bordered with the fabric of the top and fit into the correct spot, as is shown on the apple tree map (left picture; A is for apple...).

All the fabric for the top was cut, but I could only start putting them together, after the apple-stitch project was finished!

The tree itself and the foliage were made by applique; the drawing was copied on fusible web, ironed on the top and anchored with little embroidery stitches.

This part was done in group sessions, which gave us also the opportunity to practice the songs we prepared for the wedding. Oh, the best fun is preparing for a party, with all the secrets and surprises!

Working together to get this project finished!
With Leonore.....

...... and my mom!

Five left-over apples were put together in a separate border that was attached with ribbons under the quilt. On the other side, the names of each person that had helped with this project was embroidered by my mom. After finishing the top, I quilted a chained heart border.

June 23rd, 2012 was a lovely sunny day. After weeks with too much rain, this really was special, but exactly what the bride and groom deserved.
After a beautiful ceremony in the Town Hall of Wageningen, where Sanne and Wouter live, we had a day filled with joy and happiness. Lots of friends came to congratulate the happy couple and in the evening, after a lovely dinner, it was party time!

That was only 3 days ago; it is amazing how time flies, I am sitting on my couch and wondering what my next project will be....

A Quilt for a Baby.

Although it is sometime ago since my last blog, it does not mean I have not been working on some projects! Currently I am preparing some patchwork bookmarks (using Ami Simms' double-diamond pattern) as give-away's for some upcoming trips, using fabric with Dutch flowers (tulips and daphodils).

Dutch design bookmarks and potholders

Bookmarks in Dutch flower design

Whenever the (future) arrival of a new is announced, I immediately feel the urge to start a new project: a baby quilt is always a nice project to work on, it has a clear deadline (the due date)and furthermore it is challenging to work with the colors that the soon-to-be-parents have chosen for their newborn. I remember one Summer during the time that I was working in the pediatric stem cell unit, 5 nurses were pregnant and I made them all a little quilt.

Carmen's quilt

Luna's quilt

But the last baby quilt I made was different, it was for one of my best friends, and the day the little girl announced it was time to be welcomed in the world, we were online, chatting for about an hour, since she does not not exactly live around the corner! It was very special, and I will never forget these moments, although she was thousands of miles away, it felt if we were in the same room.
The colors she had chosen for her nursery were green and orange, and although I guessed about the exact shades, in the end it seemed to fit pretty well. I choose for typical Dutch symbols in applique, like a mill and tulips combined with the facts of the newborn, composing a sampler.

A quilt for Tennyson

Forever Africa; a quilt for Carla

Some colleagues are special and deserve a quilt for their special occasion. Carla was involved in Europdonor Foundation from the very beginning as office manager, personal assistant for the director, and  jack-of-all-trades for the donor center, keeping an eye on the stem cell donation schedule. She kept all the historical facts in her head or in her archives. She was our living wiki with knowing all the ins and outs and who's, what's, and where's of stem cell donation. She will retire in January 2012, and we had a farewell party last Friday.

That I would make a quilt for Carla was a matter of course, but the implementation took me more time than expected. Oh, the theme for the quilt was easily found: Carla loves Africa, and has traveled their a couple of times. But how to process this theme into a quilt in an original way? Every time I was thinking about a design, I heard Carla's voice somewhere in the back of my head: 'don't forget, I am very critical'. I selected and deselected fabrics for hours.

I thought of traditional blocks, but decided for something less stringent. I asked Carla if she would like to have her own Africa pictures processed in the quilt; she gave me a CD with photo's and I choose six of them that found their destination on the map of South Africa.

Little by little, step by step, the 'Forever Africa' quilt was born and developed over the past weeks. For the borders I decided to use the colors of the South African flag, using simple solids. The evening prior to the farewell party I finished the quilt. And Carla? She seemed to be pretty content with the result!

Rainy days in Summer

It has been raining almost all July, and last night temperatures dropped so much, that it really felt if Winter has decided to return early this year. You might think that rainy days in Summer are the perfect days for quilters. But sometimes my work is too busy and I am not able to focus on my UFO's or start a new project, because there is work to finish that I brought home from the office. To avoid loosing the quilting bug (which seems to be impossible, once contaminated), I like to visit blogs of other quilters. The American Quilter Society can be followed on Facebook there they announce their 'blog-of-the-week' winner. This week Julie Letvin's http://www.quiltjewelry.blogspot.com/ is the lucky winner. I visited her blog and was so surprised with what I saw. She makes the most beautiful miniature (and I really mean 'miniature', with a size of 1-2"!) patchwork pendants and pins. I was even more surprised that she decided to give away some of her pieces. It was not difficult for me to choose from her stash (the 1 1/2" pineapple heart in pink, purple an cream batiks). To give you an idea I have copied this picture from Julie's blog.

Reading other quilters blogs gives inspiration for new ideas. But there's more blogs that I like: and one I particularly like to read is http://momentswithmotherculture.blogspot.com/. I met Karen and her husband at breakfast, when Jack and I were in Flemington on our trip from Pittsburgh to New York. We stayed in the Manor House on Main street, a very nice B&B in an old Victorian house. Karen's posts are so nice to read, about the daily things in her life, (often about her knitting or embroidery projects), but always with a lesson or advice in a very pleasant way.
If you are interested in our trips, you can visit our travel blog http://tripsandtravel.netau.net/. Our next trip will head 'down under' next Spring: yesterday we picked up some information at the local travel agency, so we can start preparing. And preparing a trip is one of the nicest things to do (besides quilting, but that's obvious!). Enjoy the rainy days in Summer!

Golden heart - the journey of a quilt

	I love to make quilts for a special occasion, in particular memory quilts, like the Europdonor quilt that I showed you before. In 2007, my parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary, a Golden Wedding. With the help om my daughters Sanne (colors) & Leonore (design), I made 'A Golden Heart'. It was quite a project that started with the choice for a main block: We choose to increase the 'Watercolor heart' block ( from Nancy J. Martin's perpetual calendar 365 quilt blocks a year, Feb 15) and filled the blocks with pictures and drawings of the grandchildren, printed on fabric, and other blocks that we felt were resembling my parents. After the choice for the blocks and the fabrics, the second part of the journey began: cutting pieces and fitting them together until we were all happy with the result. Our living room floor was more than once covered with blocks, pieces of blocks and one of us crawling around, trying to do some jigsawing with fabric pieces. What started with piles of fabric, started to look like a real memory quilt, and during a nice party, two of the younger grandchildren offered it to Oma & Opa. Needless to say that they were very surprised. The quilt is now covering my father's grand piano in the heart of their living room. Every time I see it, it makes me smile and brings back the memories of this nice quilting journey.

Bye bye John

The project I finished this week started just a couple of weeks ago, when I learned that my colleague John Lie, after almost 20 years, had decided to leave Europdonor. We have been working together, performing donor searches for Dutch patients in need of a stem cell transplantation, since 1997. He taught me everything about matching, and we talked about family, and food, and the assortment of our 'Sweets and Soup Shop' (a little table in a corner of our office with chocolate bars, sweet treats and noodle soup and a small cup for the payments for our Europdonor colleagues), and became friends.

Since John's roots are Chinese, I decided to make a quilt with an appliqued chinese character, meaning: See you, good bye! I have chosen for fabric from Japan, bought in the City Quilter in New York, mixed with matching fabrics from my stash.



When I was stirred up by something, John always stayed imperturbable and often said to me: 'be careful, you have too much fire'. With this quilt I have donated him some of my fire.








John loves monkeys and is concerned about their well being, see also: Stichting Aap.

The little monkey is part of John's signature: Jocco Aap. 

Next Monday, search will go on, but things in the Europdonor office will never be the same...

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!