A new look at an old love

With the season changing into fall I felt the urge to pick up an ‘old’ project again. All my temporarily (?) abandoned projects are boxed up with their names on the boxes. So I got the ‘Phebe’ box  Saturday morning, and got re-acquainted with the pattern and the fabrics I had bought for this quilt. I put everything I had on my design wall and there she was again: Phebe!

I started this quilt about two years ago and it seems to be my fall/winter project. I abandon it when the season changes into spring and pick it up about 6 months later again. Do you have projects like that?

Having something like a design wall now really makes this a lot easier now, I mean making the fabric choices, which I find is the most difficult thing of this quilt. My so-called design wall is really a simple thing, one of those systems you hang paintings from, a large piece of flannel and some hooks, that’s all.

I am really glad I finished the applique centre and whenI look at what I have so far I really need a few lighter pinks in my stars and a few more of the darker pink/cherry stars, don’t you think? Do you see the star with that color that really stands out? Any other ideas, tips? I welcome them.

I am making only a few minor changes to the original pattern by Di Ford, no major ones, I just love the pattern as Di designed it.

So now you know what I will be doing those dark long fall and winter evenings when the storms are raging outside, especially here in The Hague, the infamous November storms. Although while writing this blog post I heard on the radio the first autumn storm will be with us this afternoon and evening!

Phyllis

This morning

I went to the Sue Daley workshop at the Quilters Palet in The Hague. It was my third Sue Daley workshop there in as many years and as always Sue, Evy and Petra had everything ready and waiting for us, fabrics, thread, templates, patterns, the only thing we needed to bring were a pair sharp pointed scissors and ourselves!

Here are Sue’s things and the examples, we were going to make the appliqued basket on the needle case during the workshop, the pattern and materials (including one of Sue’s applique needles) we could take home with us to finish the whole needle case.

With a room full of quilters Sue still managed some one on one instruction, for her

and for me

Oh, those glasses! Showing my age now, recently I got a second pair of glasses made, I now use one pair for reading and for patchwork and the new pair for applique. Still have to figure out which one I’ll use for hand quilting…

 

 

 

Like before Sue brought over a suitcase full of quilts to show us, just a few examples:-

The quilt that is on the cover of her new book:

A medallion quilt made from Petra Prins’fabrics:

Another medallion quilt, loved the eggshell patterns in there (I think Evy just can’t get enough of these quilts ….!) :-

This I loved, two very different quilts from the same pattern!

Of course, some shopping had to be done, so many fabrics to choose from, I was among the last to leave the shop, sorry for the blurry picture, my arm was a bit heavy from the fabrics I bought , I think…….

Thanks again ladies, for a very enjoyable morning!

Phyllis

Time for a quilting update

don’t you think?

In between all the other (social and domestic) things I also have been doing some quilting, so here’s an update.

I worked a bit on my Jacob’s Ladder, you already saw the yellow block I made in my tutorial (link), but I made a few more blocks since then:-

So, when put together, my blocks now look like this:-

Also, another block has been added to my Jules quilt:-

Recently I had time to visit two quiltshops, one nearby

the summer fair at De Quilthoeve in Naaldwijk, not able to take a nice pictures inside, too many people in there, but here’s one from the terrace on the forecourt, with live music (!), also great place for the menfolk to wait and read a newspaper while the ladies enjoy themselves with all the goodies on offer!

Last Thursday (yes, before the Coldplay concert, a day of extremes so to speak) I went to Quilt it and Dotty in Tilburg with Hubertine, always nice to see Dorry and Jose again, where the coffee is always ready (thanks ladies, that is always much appreciated after the ride from The Hague)  & where there is plenty of inspiration! The Dutch home of the Jules version I am making, thanks to Jose’s excellent choice of fabrics. The original is of course by French quilter Veronique Requena.

No quilting yesterday though, just had to enjoy the beautiful weather, read on the news sites that it might be the last day of summer weather, so we headed out to the terraces & with the sunshine opted for an Italian lunch at the terrace of our favourite pizza restaurant in The Hague:-

My choice? The Pizza Crudo, easy on  the cheese for me … mmmmmm ….

Ciao!

Phyllis

Oh, Oh, Then Haak

Yesterday evening was concert night for us again, months ago we purchased tickets for the Coldplay concert on the Malieveld in our home town The Hague, it turned out to be a great evening.

The wonderful weather (dry, no wind, 16 c/ 60 F, a lovely September evening), a great band on good form, a well organised event (thanks city of The Hague, proud of my hometown), made for a mellow crowd of some 65.000 people, enjoying a great, great night together.

We’re in!
Loved the lighted wristbands!

Chris Martin pleased the locals in the crowd not only with his musical talents but by first trying his best at some Dutch (turned out to be somewhat German sounding): “Hello The Hague, et ist fantastisj hier zu sein!”a few songs later followed by a unique rendition of the song that ‘helped’ in naming  my
blog: Oh, Oh, Den Haag (here’s the original) :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptGJ8wzeGDE

The Chris Martin version came out sounding something like: “Oh, Oh, Then Haak”, but he managed the chorus in full, (loved the “Lenge Poten”) changing the lyrics at the end to “We would like to play here agai-ain!” to a  - by then - tumultuous crowd!
Thanks Chris, you warmed our The Hague hearts!

We managed to get close to the front

From the screens: Chris Martin in front of a sea of lighted wristbands

And you know the evening is a success when your (almost) 15-year old daughter – already a seasoned concert goer herself - exclaims: “This is better than Justin Bieber!!”

Phyllis