Astrid's Quilt for Hailey

[Before I get started, and if you never saw THIS post from 2011, let me remind you that I really don't think there's anything she can't do.  The following is a case in point...her first and only quilt ever.]

Back in September last year we gave granddaughter Hailey an indoors tent for her first birthday, picked from a list of gifts Mama Eva had given us.  At that time, Astrid told Eva she would make a quilt and pillows for it to make it more cozy.

That project was started in January this year when Astrid first did a 7.5 x 10-inch mock-up of what she had in mind:

Finding the paper colors she wanted, she first cut out individual triangles to fit the pattern together.

I've discovered that this is almost always what she does before she starts a project!

She already had the silver, satiny fabric as the glue to hold everything together,

and then asked me to go with her to the fabric shop to pick out the hot pink and blackish fabrics,

having already calculated exactly how much she'd need of each.

Just like with her mock-up, she then cut out all the cloth triangles and placed them on the blanket

that had been Papa Jeroen's as a child (he's 31 now) and which would be the backing of her quilt.

Then she started stitching the triangles together, making squares...

...and then strips.

Of course, she was ironing everything as she went along...

until it was all stitched together and laid again on top of the blanket.

Yes, it fit exactly (of course)!

She then added a hot-pink border before attaching it to the blue border of the blanket,

and then top-stitched around every black piece to finish it off.

When you turn the quilt over, smack-dab in the center are these two tiny mice characters.

I made sure that Astrid used THIS blanket because of those mice.  How endearing, right?!

And because the blanket was thick enough, no quilt batting was necessary.

The crowning touch:  Oma Astrid 2020

As if all of that wasn't enough, the pillows!

Astrid made all of them with zippers so that Mama can wash them whenever.

Another crowning touch, with dear Hailey inside her tent in her play room upstairs.

THIS is what Astrid had pictured all along, finalized by the end of March.

Don't you just love it?!

[photos by Astrid; collages by moi]

Pennsylvania Dutch Art: A Tribute

Helena Jacoba Therese Wijdekop van Leeuwen
1 Aug 1924 - 17 Jan 2004

I've never met her but she's everywhere around me. On bookshelves, cabinets, walls, floor and bed. And for over a year now, I have wanted to memorialize her. It has been 7 years this month since her passing, so now is when I pay tribute to her...Astrid's mom.

There are two quilts on our bed during the winter months, both on which the quilting was done by hand. As often happened 'back then,' nothing was wasted. If you squint (or click to enlarge), you can see her initials (HWL) embroidered on the left one, from 1981.
I see them every day when I make the bed...both the quilts and the intials.


On the headboard of the same bed sits the doll she knitted from scratch for Astrid when Astrid was around 2 years old. Astrid named him Beremans ( = Bear Man). Originally he was made from t-shirt fabric and had no clothes, but after Astrid loved him to death, literally, her mom re-stuffed him and then knitted skin and clothes for him from scrap yarn.
Astrid never played with dolls, she says (she always poked their eyes out).
This was her only stuffed animal, still standing the test of time.

Everything else sits around the apartment on ledges and shelves, the floor and the wall, as testament to her artistic flare. She was a Leo, a lover of beautiful things. After a year, I still do not take any of it for granted. She was a prolific painter and gave much of her handiwork away. The pieces we have are ones Astrid saved from going elsewhere.

This cozy little trinket box sits in the curio cabinet Astrid's mom gave Astrid for her September wedding back in 1983. Astrid's 29th birthday was on 24 August that same year. If you squint (click to enlarge), you can see the HWL initials in the top-left image (above)...and Astrid's wedding garter, of course, as a keepsake.

The handiwork of a Dutch artist!
And now I know where Astrid gets her own artistic talents...in knitting, drawing, creating, building, fixing, and...what have you! But that's another post, another day.

Today is my turn again at Vision and Verb, where I talk about tole painting (or hinderlooper schilderkunst), Pennsylvania Dutch art, and how crazy-making such terms can be!