Week #16: Quilter #16: Irene from Sugaridoo

Hi there! I'm super excited that it's my turn this week as quilter #16 in the 52 quilters adventure. This is such an awesome project, meeting these quilters from all over the world. I hope you join the fun with me this week.

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Irene Staal and I'm from The Hague in The Netherlands. While growing up my mom and grandma exposed me to all kinds of crafts. Including knitting, cross stitching, making Waldorf dolls, friendship bracelets and small sewing projects. I always loved creating things. But I haven't always loved fabrics. My mom made many dresses and other clothes for me when I was little. That was great, but it also included buying a lot of fabric. And as a child I just couldn't see the fun in strolling around for hours at a fabric market. So it took a while before I joined my mom in quilting ;)

From living at my parents I moved to a student home for five years. In those years I didn't really do much with my crafty genes. I did start baking and discovered the fun in cake decoration. In those years I baked a lot and started giving cake decoration classes. Such fun! Then I met my boyfriend (soon to be husband), and finished my bachelors. We moved to The Hague together where I started my masters in Mechanical Engineering. In those years I rediscovered my love for yarn. I started crocheting and designing my own amigurumi patterns. For which I opened an Etsy shop, so scary at the time, but I did it anyway.

One of my amigurumi friends and my first sewing machine

My love for quilting originated shortly after that, mainly by an old sewing machine I got from my parents neighbor. Such a pretty machine isn't it? After I got the machine I visited a fabric market. And guess what? I loved it :) Ha! Who would have thought? I loved all the different colors and fabric designs and all kinds of ideas popped in to my head. So that was it, I was hooked. I started off with a simple baby blanket with help of my mom for choosing the right materials and techniques.

In January 2014 I started my first big paper piecing project. My mom has been a quilter for many many years. And she always makes quilts for other people. I decided to design and make a quilt specially for her. What a journey that was, it was so much fun! I'd like to tell you more about that in my next post.

The quilt I made for my mom

Well, through that quilt I really fell in love with quilting. It makes me so happy working with pretty materials, all those happy colors. Sharing this passion with my mom makes it even more special. Although I've only been quilting for two years I would love to share some of my quilting journey with you this week.

Love,
Irene

You'll find me on instagram, twitter and pinterest as @sugaridoo.
And my little Etsy shop: sugaridoo.etsy.com

Post by Irene - Week #16:   
Irene is 27 and lives in The Hague, The Netherlands with her boyfriend, cat and bunny. She has been quilting for almost two years now, inspired by her mom. When Irene is not quilting, she works as an R&D engineer in the offshore industry. Visit Irene on instagram or her website at  http://www.sugaridoo.com/