Dazed {oh happy daze}

August has been amazing ... fulfilling, happy and promising.

keep reading ... there's more about this quilt "oh happy daze" at the end ...

It all began with one of two open house days here in the shop ... expectations were surpassed in every possible way! So many friends came, shopped, visited and enjoyed my freshly baked cookies, coffee and tea. The weather cooperated and everyone was able to cozy up in the courtyard for a chatter. It was so nice to see everyone and makes me appreciate this fantastic circle of friends in so many way. Three friends in particular really went out of their way to help make the open house a success ... Edith, Magda and Marleen organized, folded, rolled and priced, cleaned and made coffee. Without them the open house days would not have been nearly as successful.

p.s. I've been officially told off for not showing you more pictures of the inside of the shop. If you're on facebook be sure to check out the pictures that Marleen took.

On Saturday we went to pick up Axel's new bike. The first time since he was a child that the poor guy has had a frame that fits his own 6'8" (203cm) frame.  More about that in a few days when I tell you about our fantastic anniversary weekend.

Sunday I cut, sewed and machine quilted the little quilt you see above. I hand quilted some of the quilt too and you can see a close up of that below.

Monday I ran around cleaning house ... because company was expected. Oh my gosh! Neighbours from England who now live back in their native Ireland. Man, it's been 12 years ... and they were only staying for one night. Seriously. HOW do you pack 12 years and a night's sleep into 20 hours?? It was a blast and there is no way we're going to wait another 12 years. For one, their girls are growing up way too fast. Niamh was in diapers last time we saw here, but bummed that Aisling couldn't join them - next time!

Once they left I got the shop ready for the 2nd open house day. It was Wednesday, everyone thought I shouldn't expect too many visitors. I agreed and we were all blown out of the water when it turned out to be even busier than the previous Friday. The weather was crappy but that didn't stop the sweetest bunch of ladies from gathering around my kitchen table to stitch, chat, drink coffee and tea and enjoy more of the cookies I had made.

Thursday morning I stumbled out of bed and made myself as presentable as possible to run to the airport and pick up my friend, Brenda, and her husband, Gary. Woohoo, did we pack a lot into four days! We laughed, cried and laughed until we cried some more. Brenda needed her dress altered to wear to a wedding this weekend in Italy. Ugh .. shifty lace and chinese silk lining, but oh my gosh it turned out so cute! And in exchange she tackled my Mt Rainier pile of ironing and finished it! .. the best part is she still thinks she got the better end of the deal. We had a lovely day in Gent to celebrate her birthday and I bought something rather cool but will tell you about that later too. I dumped them onto the train Monday morning and then came home and went back to bed. I had some serious sleep to catch up on.

Another bleary-eyed morning greeted me on Tuesday as I jumped in the car to head to Germany. Axel's parents were in dire need of a bulky grocery shopping trip so I combined it with an afternoon sewing with my girlfriends from Mülheim. Bummed that I didn't take pictures but you can read more about my last visit here. Their projects always astound me ...

Duty and pleasure were taken care of and rewarded by confirmation from our doctor that we are all clear to start trying to get pregnant again. Oh my ... emotions are trying to flood in all different directions but thankfully the busy month means that I'm distracted and busy enough that I'm still sleeping ok and trying my best not to stress.

This last weekend was the perfect way to do that ... Axel and I went away to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Trust me, the B&B where we stayed and the weekend itself deserve their very own posts. So check back soon ...

But .. you want to know more about that quilt, right? It sure isn't my "normal" thing is it? NOPE! Not at all .. in fact I made it as a sort of challenge to myself ... soft, blendy colors. What do you think? successful? or not? I think it's either a love or dislike, maybe even indifferent for some people. But if you're interested in the kit or pattern let me know and I'll see what I can do ;) I'm sending it off to a friend today to use as a sample in her store.

The quilt is entirely machine pieced. Then I machine quilted it except for the points of the stars. There I chose to do a "bigger" hand quilting stitch using 3 strands of hand-dyed embroidery thread. I love how that part turned out! I think it gave it a little weight, dimension, definition and some softness to otherwise very straight lines. Check here to read the label. I prefer to write directly on the quilt backing to create a permanent label that can't be changed or removed.

I'm calling the quilt Oh HAPPY DAZE 

to celebrate the amazing month 

this August has turned out to be.

And a word for the wise ... always wash your fabric! No matter what "they" say. My quilt now measures just over 19-1/2" square-ish. Ahem - it should be 20-1/2" but ... guess who was in a hurry and didn't wash her fabrics. Never, NEVER will I do that again. I always wash my fabric with very very few exceptions. But I can tell you that this quilt after quilting and washing it shrunk an entire INCH!! I really had to do a bit of stretching, pulling and blocking to get to to be 19-5/8" when I was done. Straight out of the wash it was much closer to 19-1/4" ... ugh. Just a reminder to me and everyone else who wants to know - WASH your fabrics. They do shrink. Just think if it shrunk 1 inch out of 20 ... if you were making a king size it could potentially shrink up to FIVE inches. What a disappointment if you wanted that quilt to fall to the boxspring line or something.

I'm also linking up to WIP Wednesday .. must celebrate this finisht that was never even on the list!

Argh, my list of WIPs hasn't changed a bit :(

Next week maybe.

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Celebrations of Friendship

One thing we have very been blessed with is friends. 

We've met so many wonderful people. On the internet, via my blog and the shop.

You probably all remember me telling you about me designing a block for the Fat Quarter Star Quilt Along last year. Well we had just found out we were expecting twins so my block celebrated our excitement in twos. There were a whole bunch of quilters following the quilt along and when the twins arrived so many messages of love and support poured in.

Then Konda asked if anyone would like to make blocks out of their scraps from the quilt along. She collected them all in and put together this quilt. It arrived on our doorstep a few days ago but I haven't been able to snag anyone to take a picture of the two of us with it .. so Axel had to model alone.



Isn't it amazing?? We love it. It's just the right size on our sofa. Perfect even for a summer's afternoon snuggle. Ask me how I know ... wink.

So I've been missing all the wonderful ladies here in Belgium too ... the shop has pretty much been closed since I went on bedrest in late October .. it makes me sad. They are a fantastic circle of friends who have offered so much support. I've been able to get together with some of them but have only been ready for that recently. In the meantime, the shop sits there ... empty ... of friends ... and full ... of so many beautiful fabrics, threads, wool, packets and more. 

Here's a little collage of the shop I did today ...

So today, I finally announced an OPEN HOUSE ... there's so much to get ready. But I am really looking forward to it. Almost everything in the shop will be 20% off. My prices are already quite good by European terms. But this makes them even better. Our sales tax (BTW) is 21% so this nearly covers it. So by the time you convert the $ to € and the yards to meter you're almost at even steven!! 

In the meantime and for the forseeable future the shop will remain closed. We're not giving up on our wish to grow our family and until that future is a little more certain I don't think it's fair to keep opening and closing it. I wrote a little about that here - it's in Nederlands but you're welcome to give it a shot.

I'll do my best to keep you all posted. I am busy tidying the shop with the help of friends. This will also mean I can feature a few packets here and there for sale. And ... hmmm, that Mystery! Yes the packets are cut. A number of the blocks are planned and some sewn .. I'm working on the applique now.

Can you guess which color combination is the mystery in the collage above??

Tonight I will be raising my glass to all my friends all over the world.

Near and far. Whom I've met over the internet and in person. 

Thank you! 

You mean the world to me. Every single one of you!

xox Jovita

p.s. did you notice the two sunflowers to the left of Axel in the picture .. they showed up all on their own ... my two little ones "reminding us to turn our faces to the sun." As we've shared this story we've had reports of several twin sunflowers seeding themselves in friends' gardens too. 

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When there are no words ...

 

Janine said to me she "had no words, so she made me a quilt" but with it came a beautiful letter. I knew it was coming because she had mentioned it on her blog. But still, when the quilt arrived tears fell. My husband got choked up reading the letter. You can see close-up pictures of the quilt here.

Beautiful ... the quilt, her friendship, her words.

Thank you Janine! Thank you!

The next day I was surprised again when the doorbell rang and a delivery man was standing behind these. 

 

They are from dear friends of ours. Being tulips, they have exploded. It's been amazing to watch. They were so tight, short and small when they arrived. I waited a day to take the pics because I knew they would open up more. They've since grown a few more inches and have really relaxed - I love it!

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