Hive 12 - October - Francis

Hi, my name is Francis and I live in the Netherlands. I’m married to Jan, 30 years in October! 

We have 2 daughters, both 27 years old. 

The oldest one lives in the UK, she stayed there after she graduated 
from the University of Reading in 2012. 
She found a job there, not her dream job, but still a paying job :-)
She is passionate about nature and in particular birds (of prey) and hopes to get the opportunity to do a PhD somewhere in the world. 

Our youngest daughter is a jewellery artist and an Art teacher. 
She moved in with us last year after she got divorced. 

That was difficult for the three of us, she moved out when she was 17 to become an Art teacher, so a lot of adjustments for us all when she moved back.

Beside her work as a jewellery artist and her daytime job,  she went back to school last year to get her English Teaching degree, quit her daytime job and found a new Art and English teaching job here in town, so things are going well for her! 

My mom lives in the same town as us and I’m happy to still have her. 

I also have a brother, he lives with his wife and son in Thailand.

(Here a pic of all of us. FLTR my husband, me, our youngest, our oldest, my mom, my nephew and my brother) 

(Three generations this summer celebrating my moms 75th birthday)

I work 26 hours a week as a secretary for an organisation who facilitates public education here in our region. At the office we do all the non-educational work for 18 elementary schools.

I swim once a week with a friend in extra warm water to keep my muscles fit. I have a lot of joint and muscle aches every day :-(

I’m quilting since 2010. I have always sewed, I made all the clothes for my daughters when they were little and I made  a lot for myself too. I stopped when I got my job in ’99 but in 2010 I joined a beginners course ‘hand quilting’ here in my town. It was with traditional fabrics and when I discovered the quilting world on the WWW I shifted to a more modern style. 

I really like to handquilt, I patch on the machine but I find it very relaxing to sit 

on the sofa and handquilt. 

I donate 99% of my quilts to the ‘Droomdekentjes’ (Dreamblankets) organisation. 

They distribute the quilts to sick children or siblings of sick children. 

I also make Little Quilts of Love and donate them to a local hospital.

I 'organise' my fabric like this: stacks of:  DOTS – STRIPES – FLOWERS – MODERN – LOW VOLUME – EVERYTHING ELSE – LARGE SHEETS FOR BACKING – WADDING – UFO’S. 

It doesn’t look organised but I can find everything. 

The fabrics from Anna Maria Horner, Kaffe Fasset are fabrics I like very much but I also am very fond of  low volume fabrics and fun-bright fabrics for children. 

One of my all time favorites are red-white-blue fabrics.

Fabric here in the Netherlands is very expensive and we don’t have so much variety , so I order a lot in the USA and the UK. The one thing I would have known before I started quilting is the arrange of fabric that you can buy, how addictive fabric is and how expensive that is for us here J

My favorite quilting tools are my rulers and the silicone thimble I use. 

I picked the metal top off  the thimble because I couldn’t get used to that.

I like the writing style of Jane Austen and I have read all her books. 

I don’t know if I would have liked to live in the era, but reading about is is fun!

So that’s a bit about me, now on to the block I chose: 

a simple 9 patch in WHITE-RED-BLUE-GREEN!

I would like you to use white for the centre block. I used white cotton from my local haberdashery shop, so as long it is a crisp white I’m fine with it. 

For the other 8 blocks, please select one RED fabric and for the rest BLUE and GREEN.

Cutting instructions:

WHITE: cut one 4,5x4,5”

RED: cut one 4,5x4,5”

BLUE – GREEN: cut seven 4,5x4,5”

Layout your fabrics with the white fabric as the centre block.

Sew each block with a ¼” seam allowance.

Sew the three rows together and you will have a 12,5” block.

Once I have all the blocks I will make it into a ‘Droomdekentje’ for a boy J

Thanks in advance for making one little boy happy with his ‘blankie’!!!