Home, sweet home and sue

Here is my Sunbonnet again. I changed her sunbonnet a little bit and put the buttons on. On the background a lot of tiny quilted flowers. I am gonna make more of her, so I can develop my favorite
sunbonnet, give her trousers and play with my buttons.
Coming saturday quiltseason really starts. So I have to finish a lot of little things before this day. Every year I design a mystery quilt, so the block of the house is part 0 for the upcoming mystery. The quilt will be 200 x 200 cm, the theme is 'Home, sweet, home' and the rest is a secret....Yes, it has to do with houses, you will need two colourgroups and it will be a lot of fun again.

Looking for a mascot

Every serious wonderland has his own mascot. Disney has Mickey Mouse, The dutch Efteling has Pardoes. I started thinking about my fabricwonderland mascot: It has to be Sunbonnet Sue in some way. I like her very much and collected a lot of books and patterns with this little girl. This evening I started to play with some fabrics and buttons.....It was wonderful to open a little bag with white buttons....and to poke around and discover little flowers and hearts. I hope you understand what fun I had. I think a non-quilter wouldn't understand my pleasure and excitement.
Now I have to think about the sewing by machine and then make another one....with other buttons.

Back in town with...inspiration

More than 1200 quilts were in the show from a lot of countries. Small and large quilts, traditional and contemporary, innovative quilts in all sizes and also miniature quilts. Well, you have to see it yourself.

It is impossible to show you all the quilts and it is not allowed without permission...so here is a picture of my mum with here quilt......


Of course we had to do a lot of shopping.... I bought 2 kilo of buttons...I do not know what to do with them at this moment, but I love them.... 10 colours and a lot of different sizes.... enough for the rest of my life!

On this picture a colourful selction of the shopping results: my buttons in combination with my mums coloured silk waste, paintsticks and threads.

I had some strange feelings with those little bags with buttons...somtehing like a drugscourier.

Well, if we had a plane crash...you could find a lot of buttons....what would they think? And what to think of all those fabrics, threads and whatever.... more than 50% of the people were quilters....Including the show were also 'galleries'from famous artists, like Inge Hueber, Ricky Tims and Susan Brandeis. It is interesting to see a serie of work from one quilter at the same time, to discover why you like their work or not. I concluded for myself that I do not like work with a lot of black in it. For me no browns, black and other dark colours. I like the brights, white and pastels.
One of the smaller exhibitions was the European Art Quilts V, an overview of modern quilts in Europe. This new overview will travelling around the world the coming 2 years, to find out more: http://www.europeanartquilt.com/. They have a wonderful catalogue

We had some wonderful lectures (Amy Bulter, Mary Roper and Ineke Berlyn) and you always get inspired by enthousiasm of other quilters.

Tomorrow more...I go quilting now and watch the Olympic Games on a dutch canal. You want to hear the stories of the dutch.....

Here we come.....

Just a few days to go...and off we go to Birmingham, four days of quilts, quilts and quilts.....
Last year it was fantastic to go there with my mum and share everything! So, let's go again....
I have a lot to do before we go: batteries loaded, cameracard clean (more than 1300 quilts means a lot of inspiration), what to wear, I need space in my suitcase...just in case.....and of course something little to patch in the evening.....

Thinking of....wonderland

The name fabricwonderland generates a lot of new possiblities in my quiltlife. I already know the theme for the mystery in 2009/2010....and today I was on a bookmarket (all secondhand) and I picked up a children's book. On the first page was a wonderful merry-go-round drawing and immediately I was wondering in which book I saw a quilt with this item.
I have to write down all the ideas I got with this name. I like to see comments with your ideas/dreams with this name. Please be aware that if another reader had the same idea and posted it, it is not neccessary to send it also. Make a difference with your idea, that gives every reader new ideas!

A lot of ideas

Starting with something new like a weblog creates other new ideas....and I think that it is better to stop with sleeping. It looks like such a waste of time, but you know what a lack of sleep means: you have a lot of unsewing to do! So, I try to sleep well and have dreams about quilts, weblogs, pictures and fabrics.
Today I cut from all those lovely fabrics a piece of 30 cm. It was very busy in the shop so I didn't have time to enjoy them, but now they are on my table and I can have a look at them. A busy day with all those enthousiastic visitors gives you a lot of energy. It is wonderful to talk about fabrics, colours and patterns. To chose with the customers fabrics for their new projects and have a smile for them when they are dreaming about quilts to come....
Since june we have also the "quiltcafé" (only tea and coffee), a lot of talking and sewing during the day and it was fun to have a young girl, Anne, as well at the café with her mother. I liked to see how she was busy with her project, trying different possibilities and saving all the pictures on her mothers cell phone to make a good choice afterwards.

New Fabrics

One of my favorite places at Wonderland is my fabric store....A lot of fabrics and customers who want to share their love for patchwork and quilting. And I like to share my passion for fabrics with them! Last week a lot of new fabrics arrived. Imediately we opened the boxes and smiled! Yes, I can make a start with my new design for the mystery. Fabrics with stripes, flowers, more flowers and bright colours...I love them and I think I need a piece of each one for my own stock at home....Just in case....

The pictures shows two of the new favorites and also the fabric I used at the header is from the same series. (by the way: they are all from Kaufmann: a fresh daisy.....

Welcome to Fabricwonderland

My first steps in Wonderland....where to go first....Is there a plan which way to go? I am struggling with the pictures, lay-out and text. What where? Which colours are the best? I need constrast between background and text. The picture does not fit...maybe I used a wrong template. Building your weblog is like preparing a quilt. A lot of ideas, a lot of possibilities and a lot of practice....
My intention with fabricwonderland is to share all the joy and pleasure I have with patchwork and quilting and other stuff you can do with fabrics.
Like any wonderland in the world there are a lot of places to go in one day. And each time you visit a wonderland you can find new merry-go-rounds and rollercoasters. Sometimes they are new and sometimes hidden during a previous visit or your day was to short to visit all!
A visit to my imaginary Fabricwonderland gives me a lot of pleasure, dreams and ideas. And I wish that you discover your own dreams and favorite places to go.

Have a nice stay!