First wall hanging and a giraffe baby quilt.

'Kijk' (Look) is my first wall hanging and it will really hang in our house. It also is the first quilt which hand finished binding!

30 x 35 inch wholecloth

I took a piece of my purple cotton. I just wanted to practice and I used thick polyester, the only material I had at that moment, to make a sandwich.
I started with the heart and used metal thread for it. Then I chose my colors: shades of yellow, orange, green and blue. I used thin polyester thread and some multi color rayon. I wanted to use a lot of different fmq patterns.
I stitched the patterns very small, but I enjoyed the sewing. I like the sound of my sewing machine at this speed. In the bottom part I used a lot of botanical patterns. I quilted a snail, a hedgehog, stars, a moon, a spider and two dragonflies. So there is much to look at and much to discover. That is why this quilt is named: 'Kijk' (Dutch for 'Look').
There are mistakes and not all the stitches are equal. But, although it started as a practice quilt, I decided not to cut it in place mats, but to hang it on a wall in my house. 

Some details:

For the backside I used a dark purple polyester thread:

I found a picture of a baby quilt like this tuesday on the Internet (just a picture on Pinterest, no name unfortunately). Friday night there would be a dinner party with my husbands son Sander and his lovely wife Nicole, who expected a baby in November. So I want to give them the quilt.
I cycled down town Amsterdam and tried to find fabrics in all the fabric stores I know, but I did not succeed. So I looked on the Internet stores and found the fabrics in a store 25 miles away for Amsterdam and decided to go there on Wednesday.
I was very lucky. I think I found the best Quilt Shop in The Netherlands. Lots and lots of fabrics. More than 2600! There is all you need to quilt, knit or do anything else with fabrics and yarn. And last but not least: a very friendly owner. I will go back there for sure! It is not far from a place where I lived for more than thirty years, so I can combine visits to my friends with visits to the quilt shop!

I bought beautiful soft fabrics and nice woollen batting and pieced the pieced the quilt top the same night. Thursday  busy with the the giraffe applique on the top and shopping again in Amsterdam for the bells in the horns.  I also did rustle plastic in the ears. Friday morning I quilted the quilt and hand sewed the binding. Ready to go to the dinner party!

Sander and Nicole were very happy with the quilt and we had a very nice evening with them, Nicole’s parents and the delicious Spanish tapas. They cooked for two days! The best were the home made Serrano croquettes.

Next week I will post the pattern of the Giraffe baby quilt.




My quiult WIP's for next week:

1. Posting the Giraffe pattern.
2. Postcard and inchies for aq swap.
3. Two place mats for a dinner party Saturday
4. A doll quilt for my granddaughter Salijn.
5. I already pieced the top of two ladders and snakes play quilts for my granddaughters. I want to applique the snakes, ladders and numbers. Also two big dices. The play quilts must be ready before their birthdays in Augustus and September.
6. Two more red place mats for my daughter in law. So I can give it to her the next time we go to see them.
7. The fabrics for two more Balloon baby quilts are cut weeks ago. This week one finish. The one I will give to my youngest daughter when she finally can tell me she is pregnant. 

Enough to do

Keep quilting!


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Thanks so much for reading


Maartje Quilt
Amsterdam