Oh what an amazing day!

I just have to tell you about it. Even though it has nothing to do with quilting! I have been involved in a foundation to help children with disabilities in developing countries. Second Home Foundation. We have had our living accommodation up and running since December of 2008. Working on this project in the last couple of years (and it is a lot of work) we ran into bumps in the road, made contact with other foundations and gathered loads of invaluable information. This can sometimes be very, very frustrating indeed. All this is going somewhere, don't worry!

All our frustration, found a great outlet in a new project (since the worst thing in the world is to get bored). We decided it was time that foundations working on charitable projects in The Gambia started working together, sharing information, even resources. That was last year...... And now..... We started worldaidunited.org

Our logo!

We have organised a whole Gambia Weekend and - even though we have not started advertising it yet - 35 foundations have said they want to attend! The Ambassador for The Gambia in Brussels  is not only attending the day, he is helping us organise it. Dutch politicians will debate developmental aid with their Gambian counterparts, there will be workshops to help inform the foundations, networking, a benefit in the evening, an African market the next day and much, much more! Everybody we talked to was enthusiastic about the project and offered their knowledge. It was already going wonderfully well....

The theme we dreamed up for this day was Dream, Dare, Do for The Gambia. It turned out to be the title of a Dutch book. We asked the author of the book- Ben Tiggelaar - for permission. He not only gave us permission to use his book title, he also gave us ten copies of his book as a contribution to the day. How great is that?

And today we heard that Wilde Ganzen (a very well known and large charitable organisation in The Netherlands) has told us that they are very interested in helping us organise the event. I am over the moon with joy!

I wish you all many days like mine today!

Lots of love,
Heleen

Donkey quilts or quilts for donkeys?

I've told you before about the farm with camp site owned by friends of mine. They also have donkeys. Lots of them. Very cute donkeys in fact. They adult donkeys enjoy going for walks with the guests. And I do mean really enjoy it. When one of them gets to go out, the others get pretty angry if they don't get to go. During these walks they carry stuff for the guests (like pick nick baskets). Especially for this purpose, Kees has made special saddles for the donkeys. 

Underneath those saddles he uses plain old blankets.....Well that just will not do. So we assembled a group of enthousiasts (meaning my sister, Petra and me) and started talking about making some nice saddle blankets for those beautiful creatures. The results of those talks are below. 

It is not as easy as it looks/\.....

 Truly, it is not. We debated the How To and got it very wrong indeed. Ah, well. If at first you don't succeed....try again!

First stitches. Wrong of course

 Loads of fun and laughter. Unfortunately it would have been better if we had been paying attention to the sewing.

The work shop.....or was it sweat shop? I forget.

The first one sort of ready.

Sort of ready indeed. This blanket needs to be lined with additional blankets (nice and soft for the donkey back) and the farm's logo. I was very proud of the result. Until Kees informed me that the measurements had gone wrong. This one will fit the fattest (not very nice to say, but true) donkey.

We will just need to re-cut the fabrics!

I will post a picture of the finished product on one of the donkeys when available (at this rate that might make some time....).

Have a wonderful day, if possible filled with donkeys!

Lots of love,
Heleen

With a little help from......

It is a building site....

I've not written in a while. I got busy! Let me explain a little bit. I have been ill most of last year. Nothing serious, but really annoying. That meant that most of my time was spent indoors. And now I am finally feeling better. So I went outside! I visited my favourite quilt shop, I went to the hairdressers (YES), I went shopping....My sister took me to the building site of her new home, see the picture above (check out their progress right here).

In other words, I had a great time!

One of the things I also got to do was cut fabrics for the mystery quilt Patch Parade. It took some time, since this month 240 pieces needed to be cut to form 20 blocks. I did have help, though.

Sleeping soundly while I work. She likes to move her bed around a lot!

Fabric inspection.....

Final check of the pattern

Now I do appreciate her help immensely of course. However sometimes it is easier to cut fabric when she is asleep. She snores a bit, but really who doesn't?

Have a great day!
Lots of love,
Heleen