A doll quilt and a new love

I've been sneezing and coughing and hibernating for almost two weeks now, but yesterday afternoon I decided it was enough and I needed to shake myself.
I picked some fabric scraps from my boxes and I quickly sewed a little doll quilt.
I am so in love with this sweet colour scheme that I had to take a picture of the tiny leftovers.
I have so much hand-dyed fabric left over from my Twelve by Twelve Colorplay projects that I really need to use it. And I like how I'm now using colours that I would never have thought of, like this light green for example.
While spending too much time on the sofa drinking hot tea and feeling just too tired for sewing, I suddenly felt the urge to do some crochet... (Don't ask me why.)
It's not really a new love, as I can't even remember who taught me how to crochet, I guess it was my mom or my grandma. Anyway, I made a small granny square blanket, and it was so much fun that I will do more.
This square didn't make it into the blanket...

Hasu

Hasu means lotus in Japanese.
As I said in an earlier post, this project underwent many transformations but the lotus remained a constant focus all the way through. When Gerrie gave us this theme of "Metamorphosis", I first thought of Kafka and Ovid, for obvious reasons, and also of Buddhism because impermanence is one of the main features of life in Buddhist thinking.
Lotus being a very important symbol in Buddhism, I quickly found myself going through my photo folders looking for images of lotus. I chose a few pictures taken in Kyoto and Arashiyama during my last trip to Japan.
With this quilt, I wanted to show the beauty of the lotus plant with its roots in the mud and its ephemeral flowers almost open and rising towards the sunlight.
Here are a few details...
Next is one of my source photos. It was taken in Kyoto in summer 2010.
There are so many amazing things to say about the lotus. Do you know that all parts of the plant are considered as edible in Asia? And have you heard about the lotus effect?
I could easily see a lotus-based series in my quilting future. I haven't used the roots (mmm... delicious!), the open flowers (gorgeous), nor the seed heads (so graphic) in this quilt. So much more to explore.
In the meantime, I am off to the Twelve by Twelve blog to see what the other members of the group have done!

Chicons au gratin

This is what we had for dinner today. A typical Belgian dish, easy to prepare, delicious in winter. (Yes, it is still freezing cold!)
While the chicons (Belgian endives) are slowly cooking, prepare a béchamel sauce (butter, flour, milk, salt, white pepper, nutmeg), add a little grated cheese.
Roll each cooked endive in a small ham slice.
Arrange the rolls in a baking dish, top with the sauce, add more cheese.
And bake for about 15-20 minutes. Et voilà!

Bon appétit!

My metamorphosis quilt is ready. Hopefully, there will a little sun tomorrow and I'll be able to take the pictures.

I can't wait to see the other Twelves' quilts on Sunday (Feb 12th).

I'm quilting

It isn't finished yet, but it's coming along nicely.
Just in case you're wondering what happened to my poor dandelion quilt, here's a picture I took just before I threw it away. ;-)
And this was another metamorphosis attempt... after the dandelion idea and before the option I finally decided to follow...

One the Design Wall

This design is from Sarah Nephews book.   It is piecing together nicely.  

Whitework and colourful quilting

It's been cold here, very cold.
Yesterday we finally got our first real snow of the year. And this morning, I took a few pictures through the window...Spider whitework... very pretty...
a close-up...
Back to my "Metamorphosis" quilt for the new Twelve by Twelve challenge...
I must say that my project had to undergo several major metamorphoses in the course of the last days!
The idea of transforming the dandelion quilt into a lotus quilt was rather nice but I had to admit that it wasn't working at all. So, I decided to change gears and direction.
I finished piecing the quilt top yesterday.
Here are some fabric leftovers...
A little peek at the quilt...
and another one...
I've just started with the quilting. I had to go out to buy some green thread. I walked to the shop... Brrrrr....