The ten-weeks Little Amsterdam Course Finished

After ten weeks of hard work, but spiced up with a lot of laughs we finished the course of Little Amsterdam. During this course the participants made their own version of the prize-winner Little Amsterdam. Though they used the same color scheme, all of the quilts are different and very special. The quilters let their creativity fly incorporating their own houses, personal memories into their quilts. On the right you can see the first finished Little Amsterdam quilt. Below there are some photos from the course.

Having fun with the embroidery stitches on the Bernina





Photos of the finished projects



Thank you for participating in the course.

www.northseaquilters.com

Carol's First Quilts

We would like to use this blog also to create a forum for our friends, clients to show and introduce their patchwork to other quilters. If you would like to tell about your quilt, please send us the photo of your patchwork and your story behind the quilt.

This time I would like to show you the photos of Carol's quilt. She is an expat quilter, living in The Hague and this is - better say - these are her first quilts. Can you imagine that she just started to quilt and she made immediately two big quilts? These two identical quilts were her Christmas presents for her daughters. It is a beautiful, true scrap quilt. In the quilt Carol cleverly incorporated fabrics, she collected during her traveling/posting, like African fabrics. Look at the beautiful color of her quilts. The blues and the orange accents work really well.
We quilted them on the new Statler Stitcher, using an overall pattern of "Baroque swirl."

Carol's daughters really loved their special Christmas present. I'm sure they will be happy to snuggle under the quilts in their dormitory and they'll be very proud of their mum.


Carol's daughters wrapped in the quilt and the two quilts together

The back of the quilts, quilted on the Statler Stitcher, pattern Baroque swirl

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

Beginner's Sampler "Zinnia Patch"

InDecember our six week course has finished. This sampler quilt was designed by our teacher, Leslie Carol Taylor for beginners to learn the basics of quilt making.

During the course they learned how to cut fabrics quickly and precisely using a rotary cutter, special mat and ruler. How to sew them together neatly (by machine) and how to press the seams to make a nice flat and square top. They also learned how to look at fabrics and put them together in combinations that they like.

The quilt contained different blocks, like “Summer Winds”, “Ohio Star” and an adaptation of “Churn Dash”, “Log Cabin”, “Monkey Wrench”, “Maple Leaf” and “Pinwheel”, “Nine Patches”, “Four Patches”, “Quarter Square Triangles” and a ”Tree”.

It was good to come together on a regular base and sew together, make new friends. In the group there were absolute beginners and experienced quilters, but everybody learned something new. And the most important is that the quilting community became richer with new members, as the ladies got infected by the "patchwork bug". Here are some photos from the last lesson and of course the finished blocks.

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING OUR PATCHWORK COURSE!

Santa's Midnight Runner One-day Workshop

I wish all of you a Happy 2008 Year! A New Year, time for the New Year's resolutions. One of my New Year's resolution is to write more often in our blog and of course to catch up reporting on events, which we had at the end of the year.
One of them was a one-day workshop where we made a table runner, using Mt. Redoubt's Santa's Midnight Runner pattern. We pieced the background from different blues, than we placed Santa and his reindeers to the background, using a raw-edge appliqué technique with the help of fusible web. It was fun to go through the pile of fabrics to find the right choice for each piece of the appliqué.
Though each participants used the same background fabrics, each table runner turned out different, very unique. By the end of the day we finished the top and the homework was "just" to embellish your top and quilt it. I hope this table runner became a nice center piece on the Christmas table.

This day was not only about "hard" work, but also fun, helping each other, chatting, drinking coffee and tea, having a good time and eating home-made cakes and
Marybeth's delicious soup.
Here are some pictures, capturing the ladies while they are tracing the pattern. You can also read some testimonies.

Hanneke: "Loved the day, did far more work in one go than I ever do at home, and
enjoyed the company and the food! "

Elaine: "Thank you for great day out yesterday - Maria for the delicious4 cakes,
Marybeth for the lovely lunch and tips
on satin stitch and last but of
course not least - Leslie for your patience with fusing those blasted reins!
I had a great day and have all sorts of ideas for embellishing the quilt."


Sandra: "Many thanks for the workshop today. I had a great time - thanks for all your help, especially Maria for battling with my sewing machine!!!! Also for the great lunch."

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING OUR WORKSHOP!

Quilts, Cats, Christmas

Have you ever wondered why do cats love patchwork? How is it possible that they always find quilts, even in hidden places? My cat always sleeps on them, even if just a tiny spot is available for her (the rest is still under work - "unwanted" obstacles, like sewing machines, rulers or me prevents her from taking over the whole quilt). I took this picture during the Christmas holidays. It didn't take long for our cat to discover the patchwork tree-skirt under the Christmas tree and since then this is her new "bed". I'm afraid it's not for long.



Luckily she is also happy to share the new quilt with my daughter, which was a Christmas present to her from all three of us, the North Sea Quilters. It is a lovely Carol Armstrong's design, which we couldn't resist to make it. There are still some Cats in the Cabin kit available on our website.

With these pictures I wish you a very Happy 2008 Year and a lot of fun quilt projects and many happy patchwork hours!

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com
http://patchwork.jouwpagina.nl

Patchwork.jouwpagina.nl - a new website by NSQ

We've created a new website http://patchwork.jouwpagina.nl/ in order to share useful links, regarding to patchwork with other quilters. The site is bilingual in Dutch and in English. It mainly contains links, concerning the Dutch patchwork community, European quilt exhibitions, competitions, quilting associations and of course the North Sea Quilters. We will continuously add more information to the site.

Maria
www.northseaquilters.com

1st Prize at European Quilt Championship

We were surprised and honored as the competition was so stiff, that our "Little Amsterdam" quilt won the 1st prize in the long-arm quilting category at the European Quilt Championship in Waalre, The Netherlands in October 2007.
For four days visitors could enjoy the exhibition of patchworks from European quilters, stroll around the patchwork shops and look at the exhibition of the special guests, the Hungarian quilter, Eszter Bornemissza and the Dutch Henk van Kooten.
You can see the photos of prize winning quilts at the following website:
http://www.eqc.nl/nl/eqc2007/index.htm

Here we are in front of our quilt in Waalre.

I think quilt exhibitions/competitions, like the European Quilt Championship play an important role in the European patchworker's community, especially now that the European Quilt Expo ceased to exist. In a way they can take over the role of the Quilt Expo. It gives opportunity to see other quilters' work from all over Europe and gives a boost and inspiration to quilters. I would encourage every quilter to dare to submit their work to competitions, to share their patchwork with the quilters' community. The deadline for the next EQC is the 15th January 2008.

Maria
http://www.northseaquilters.com