I’ve build my first log cabin

To be truthful I’ve nearly build my first log cabin. I thought I had enough fat quarters but then I was forced to recount. Funny how I now count ten rows  and a couple of weeks ago I though I had enough fabric (8 reds & 8 crèmes). After recounting, I concluded that I needed two more reds and two more crème coloured fabrics.  I phoned Mirjam to converse how to solve this problem. Don’t you love that word? It is always good to have a quilting buddy nearby. Problem was solved in a jiffy.

So guess where we went to today? Yes, to Petra Prins Patchwork & Quilting in Zutphen. Luckily Gerda was there to help me.

I wasn’t the only one who bought stuff.

These are the fat quarters I bought.

Oops, I bought a little more then 4 fat quarters!! How many do you count? I also bought a nimble (a soft thimble) to use while patchworking. I let you know what I think of this notion.

The fabric is being washed at the moment, so won’t be completing my first log cabin tonight. Will however start with another block. Will complete both blocks when the washing has dried and the quarters are ironed. This is most probably tomorrow!

England

Last weekend I was in England.

In the map you can see the route we took. For some clarity: you find Dover in the right hand corner,  London in the middle and Cambridge above middle. If you want to have some more information, just click on the picture and it will enlarge.

I didn’t take hardly any photos. This was mostly due to the rainy weather. I was wishing for a day punting in Cambridge but sadly not this time. It was cold and raining. We did however have a lovely lunch in a pub near Cambridge.

The Red Lion Inn is definitely worth your visit. The serve great food.  They have been shortlisted to the top six gastro food pubs in the UK in The Publican Food & Drink Awards.

I’ll be getting one of these guides, next time we visit.

We naturally visited a book store. These are the books I bought.

Yes I also bought a new bookmark! Daisy Dog. I’m a fan of  Kathy Reichs, the author, and of the TV series Bones. According to the company ‘if’, ‘Daisy will probably dribble if your book is about bones’. Guess I shouldn’t use this bookmark when reading one of Kathy Reichs books (lol). No heavy reading this time. These books are pure for relaxation.

On Saturday we first drove to Luton, taking the back roads. We were advised to go to the Hare & Hounds in Warden. The pub, was according to Anthony, just down the road. After driving on some narrow country roads for a while we arrived at the pub.

I had the ‘pie of the day’ with vegetables and hand cut potatoes. Delicious. Hubby had the Trio of Gamlingay Sausages.

I would love to live in this house!!

‘It has character’! A quilt room and a big kitchen is all I need.

Our break was short, but can’t wait till our next visit.

notions!

For some days now I’m losing my thimble while quilting. Am I losing some weight? Or is it just my fingers that are getting slimmer? I have three thimbles, sizes 17, 16.5 and 16. Today I got a new thimble, as size 16 is too big.

 

And I got a aqua trickmarker.  I’m going through a lot of them at the moment as I draw lines and quilt patterns on Zoë’s quilt to guide me while quilting.

Time for some therapy

Got these books recently. Hoping they will give me some insight.

chocolate cake

Having a hamburger and movie night! Friends are coming over, so I had to make a chocolate cake for desert. 

It turned out pretty well. Can’t wait to taste it.

New bicycle

Picked up my old bike. It looks new, except that the model might be a little outdated. Can you believe that this is a 20 year old bike. It feels like a new bike, it even looks like a new bike. All shiny. Bling, bling.

The ride back home was good. What have I learned? I should fix-up my bike more often. It is really your money’s worth. 

Patchwork & quilt lesson

It seems that some readers just can’t contain their anticipation. I had only just posted my previous blog, when I received an e-mail asking if I had been to the patchwork & quilt class last night.

Yes, yesterday evening after having enjoyed a relaxing massage in the afternoon, I went to the first patchwork & quilt class for this autumn. Just before I had packed the car to leave, one of the quilters phoned letting me know she wasn’t coming tonight. If you read this, I want you to know you were surely missed. Hope to see you soon.

Anyway, we are going to make a log cabin quilt. Here is an impression of the fabrics the other quilters choose.

And these are mine underneath.  Do you recognize them yet?

Our teacher presented some of the different kind of quilts you can make, using the log cabin pattern. 

If you want to know a little about the history of the Log cabin Quilt, visit this site. As you may remember, I’m going to make the Kentucky Log Cabin. Can’t wait to see it finished. According to one of the other quilters (my dear friend Mirjam) this will be sometime around 2025!

This 160 x 200 cm quilt has three patterns. The basic Log cabin, around the border the courthouse log cabin & the house blocks.

I don’t understand the instructions in the book. Luckily our teacher can always simplify things. After some instructions we were on our way. 

As you can see we are really busy. No laziness during patchwork & quilt lesson.

Not everyone has thought of which pattern to use. In the picture above, you can see Matty designing her own creation.

The nicest thing I heard all evening was that I have chosen a real easy pattern.  I definitely have enough fabric , don’t have to go out to buy more at short notice. But this was the relaxer statement; I don’t have to worry about which order I use the fabrics as long as one side is light (crème fabrics) & the other side is dark (red fabrics).  By the way, we were told that these blocks represents log cabins on the prairie with red centre squares for the hearth, light values on one side for the sunny side of the house and dark values on the opposite side for the shady side of the house. Isn’t that sweet? Just to be me, I have a black hearth, representing the fire that has gone out. For psychologists this is an interesting choice I have made, considering my state of mind.

There are numerous log cabin variations:

basic log cabin

courthouse steps

  pineapple

These are only a few.

I think I might like the log cabin the best. So far, after one evening, I think this is going to be easy. I don’t need too many challenges in my life at the moment. So looking forward to picking this up.

Body massage therapy

Massage is one of the oldest, simplest forms of therapy and is a system of stroking, pressing and kneading different areas of the body to relieve pain, relax, stimulate, and tone the body. The basic goal of massage therapy is to help the body heal itself and to increase health and well-being.

Massage can stimulate or calm the nervous system and thus help reduce fatigue, leaving the receiver with a feeling of replenished energy.  This is what I need, I though!! Massage has the potential to restore the individual physically, mentally and spiritually.

With fast paced lives and the continuous chase to meet deadlines, the tired mind and body tends to seek out for a stress buster.

So yesterday afternoon I phoned the wellness centre, to see if an appointment late in the afternoon was available. Lucky me, she had an available slot. I had an hour of relaxing to look forward to. 

Body massage therapy is a tool that can help eliminate stress and bring about a relaxed me.  I tend to lean to a more holistic and natural healthcare methods for my stress / health problems. Sadly, in the Netherlands body massage hasn’t emerged as a popular  healing method, yet. But slowly we see a change. Today, it isn’t hard to find a well trained masseurs/masseuses in your telephone book or yellowpages. 

It seems the word has derived from many languages. In French  massage defines "friction of kneading", in Arabic massa meaning "to touch, feel or handle", in Latin massa meaning "mass, dough". In distinction the ancient Greek word for massage was anatripsis, and the Latin was frictio. I guess I was speaking a little french when I made my appointment for a massage.

I had my first body massage therapy when I was in Australia for a visit 10 years ago. An old friend introduced me. Lots of people in Australia go regularly, I belief. So often as once a fortnight.

Yesterday afternoon I think I finally found someone who has fully developed her art. In a professional setting I was treated for a whole full hour.

It was good. When is my next session? Sadly not until the end of October.  I’m definitely going to be doing this more often.

Log cabin

Tonight the first quilt class for the season. Thinking of making the Kentucky Log Cabin quilt. Hopefully I have enough fabric. But I don’t think so! 

The fat quarters are washed, dried and ironed. I might need to buy some extra brown fabric. Will discuss this tonight. Then again I might make some alterations on the pattern. But what ever happens I will put some houses in the design. 

The cure!!

I go to the gym to sweat,

I watched ‘PS, I love you’ for the tears

I now only need to go to the sea!!

PS I’m getting pretty good with Picasa. Don’t you just love what I did with one of the pictures I took in Wales, last year?

PS I forgot where I read this quote. If it happens to be from you, please let me know.

Bicycle ride & walk

Today I decided to drop off my bike to get it fixed.  The tyres go flat over time and I have to pump them up if I want to go out. My bike needs a tune-up. This means two new tyres, brake maintenance, greasing of the chain  & a general clean-up. It will be all new coming Friday.

I realized when bicycling to the shop that I miss this. By the way, this bike is about 20 years old. I expect it will look new when I get it back. I’ll post a picture of the new bike!

I decided to walk back from the shop to my home. It was a 45 minute walk. This was what I saw along the way. An impression of my neighbourhood.

It is amazing what you see when you are going at a slow pace. I found out (again) that walking is a great way to clear your head.

Remember your worth

The One Flaw In Women ...

Women have strengths that amaze men.....

They bear hardships and they carry burdens,

but they hold happiness, love and joy.

They smile when they want to scream.

They sing when they want to cry.

They cry when they are happy

and laugh when they are nervous.

They fight for what they believe in..

They stand up to injustice.

They don't take "no" for an answer

when they believe there is a better solution.

They go without so their family can have.

They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.

They love unconditionally.

They cry when their children excel

and cheer when their friends get awards.

They are happy when they hear about

a birth or a wedding.

Their hearts break when a friend dies.

They grieve at the loss of a family member,

yet they are strong when they

think there is no strength left.

They know that a hug and a kiss

can heal a broken heart.

Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.

They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you

to show how much they care about you.

The heart of a woman is what

makes the world keep turning.

They bring joy, hope and love.

They have compassion and ideas.

They give moral support to their

family and friends.

Women have vital things to say

and everything to give.

HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,

IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH. 

Remember YOUR worth.

I’m really grateful that Kate posted this and I want to share it with you. I’m one of those women who sometimes forgets her own worth as I’m trying to please everyone else.  I’m in the phase of recognition, identifying and feeling my lifetraps. I’m also seeing how they play themselves out in everyday situations. I take on too much load. I’ve concluded that I’m on a road that I don’t want to be on. I’m trying to find out how to build a case against my lifetraps. I need to change certain beliefs. I’m balancing between thinking & feeling. I always tend to lean towards thinking. It is a trait I have mastered. But I’m in imbalance.  I really need to empower myself and validate my needs.  I really need to listen more to how I feel. If it doesn’t feel right I just shouldn't do it.

I’m pondering about….. why I keep ignoring my feelings. I need to learn how to breakdown this trap. Need to change my pattern, need to change my beliefs.

Back to reality. How am I going to do this?

 

What am I reading?

Don’t you just love my bookmark? It is a kangaroo!

Bloglines, is closing down!!

Bloglines posted some days ago that they will officially shut down on October 1, 2010.

To say I am annoyed is an understatement. I yelled HELP and luckily hubby responded. I don’t want to figure out how to transport my 256 feeds to another RSS aggregator! They can say it is easy, but from experience it usually isn’t. My first response when hubby entered my study was, what is an RSS aggregator? My second question, can you fix this for me?

Then came the next important question, which RSS aggregator am I now going to use?  I didn’t put much effort in my search. I knew Google Reader provided this service, so after some nagging, hubby exported my current subscriptions from Bloglines to .

Here is a screenshot of my Google Reader page. Naturally you will have to put some effort in finding out how Google Reader works. There are some nifty features, like ‘Google trends’. I’m sure I haven’t found them all.

So let the 1st of October come! I expect I won’t miss Bloglines. If only life’s problems could be fixed so easily.

I now can keep up with all your quilt adventures and not worry about missing out. So keep on posting your creative efforts. I’ll be watching you.

The bucket list

I might need to make my own bucket list. Creating and achieving your bucket list is about deciding what you really want - which means setting goals-, as well as planning, budgeting, and then taking the necessary steps to accomplish your goals. The last part, taking action, includes incorporating habits and routines into your daily life.

My work is taking over my life and it is definitely not making me happy. It is not giving me any joy. I’m working longer hours than ever, juggling multiple tasks and project. I’m overwhelmed by my workload and am unable to keep things under control. At least it doesn’t feel as if I’m in control. The tasks & duties I face everyday are more than I can (and want to) handle. 

I’m in a lock down at the movement. I need to recess my working life. I need to set some time aside to create my bucket list and stop putting off my dreams for "someday".

Just watched ‘the bucket list’, the movie.

This is me in the ‘home theatre’. Drinking a latte macchiato & having some cake with whipped cream.

This movie is a real tear jerker, but also inspirational.

Halfway through the movie Carter says to Edward when overlooking the pyramids. When you die you're asked two questions, and your answers determine whether or not you'll get into heaven:
1. Have you found joy in life?
2. Has your life brought joy to others?

Sadly, I’m having a hard time answering these questions. I thought I had found joy and brought joy to others. But the past months have made me re-evaluate my answers. I’m not finding any joy from my work.

The song at the end of the movie gave some insight.

 

I think I need to choose what I want and say it out loud. This is going to be my biggest challenge, say no to what others want from me and say yes to what I want and to that which inspires me.