Wonky stars & a day in Zeeland

I finally sat down to do some sewing again last week and now have enough wonky star blocks for my daughter Eline’s quilt to start putting it all together:

 

Also I had a great day last week with my fellow Feathergirl Hubertine, going to Zeeland and (finally!) visiting Marcha at her shop De Quiltster in Dreischor. Situated in an old building, it is not a large store but the atmosphere is so nice and cozy. Marcha has a wonderful collection of fabrics and it is no wonder she will be one of the shops hosting the 2014 Di Ford Quiltmania Mystery.

With Hubertine and Marcha in Marcha’s shop

Marcha behind the counter in her lovely shop

With the weather still being as wonderful as it is, after our visit with March, Hubertine and I went to her boat for some coffee and to enjoy the sunshine, the quiet and the view…….. bliss!

 

 

 



That evening, after an invitation from Yvonne, Hubertine and I went to the Katwijk Bee. No pictures this time, sometimes it is just wonderful to sit with other quilters and enjoy the passion we share for quilting, without always thinking of blogging and taking pictures. Again it was really nice to visit with these ladies, I thank them again for their hospitality, hopefully there will be a next time and then maybe again with pictures.

All in all, it was a nice quilty week, hopefully there will be a bit more of that this coming week. The sun is certainly joining in, it was lovely out there today and I read it will be the same tomorrow!

Enjoy it!

Phyllis



Sweet 16!

Today she is 16, our daughter Eline and by way of a present we decided to give her a weekend trip to London…… of course she could not go on her own and Onno and I ‘had’ to go with her … ;-)

We love London and were soooo lucky with the weather, after arriving Friday evening we went into town for a walk around Soho and were just in time to see the beautiful Liberty department store in the twilight…

On Saturday - among other things - Covent Garden was on the program, always fun to see the performers and other people there. We watched this guy for quite some time, Onno and Eline even had their picture taken with him but we could just not figure it out…… how does he do this??

 

And these people:

 



On our way from Covent Garden to King’s Road I had  time to go into Liberty’s, I did not buy anything, the smallest cut of fabric they would do is half a meter at 11 UK Pounds…. but there was inspiration enough!

 

 

Saturday evening we had Eline’s 16^th birthday celebration dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in London, Sticky Fingers. Owned by Bill Wyman, former base player with the Rolling Stones, it is filled with Rolling Stones memorabilia, so for us Rolling Stones fans this place is a must  but even if you are not a fan it’s a fun place, great atmosphere, good US style food.

 

 

For the occasion the people of the restaurant had attached balloons to our table

 

and when we finished our plates some of the staff came over with a little surprise and sang “Happy Birthday” for her



 

 



On Sunday we walked for hours through Kensington and Mayfair, our favourite pastime on Sundays in London. I love the beautiful entrances with flowerpots of the houses there.

And this must be the thinnest house in London!

All that green with the white (or grey) houses, beautiful!

It was great to be in London again, hope to be back soon!

 

Phyllis



Holiday surprises and some crochet

Our recent holiday to Texas was full of wonderful surprises, two of which I’d like to share with ‘y’all’   ;-)

Upon my arrival this was waiting for me….

It already surprised me it was in a box. You see, before our holiday Kathie had told me she would send me something, so I expected an envelope, but certainly not a box. And my, oh my, when I opened the box…. Look!!!!

Piles and piles of scraps came out! Beautiful, wonderful scraps and not small ones either, just awesome (to use a word that is surely overused these days, but very appropriate here)! Five pounds worth of fabrics, I had to weigh them, because I really did not know if they would fit into our suitcases weight wise, but we divided them over our 3 suitcases and 3 hand luggage cases and they all came back home with me!

 

Kathie, I can’t thank you enough, it is a wonderful gift and some of these fabrics I have seen them in some of your work, that makes it really special. My head is spinning with ideas of what I can do with these, your blog is inspiration enough. Thank you, thank you!!

That was not all, there was another surprise waiting for me. I had ordered Camille’s new book Simply Retro

and when I opened it:

 



What Camille wrote may just be an inspiration of what to do with Kathie’s scraps!

I love autographed books, love the one that Petra and An signed for me recently and now this one.

And now with everything back home going back to normal I have had time to go back to my projects again like crochet. I have 100 granny squares now.

 

 

 

 



 So… now what to do with them?

Phyllis



We heart Texas !!

And this summer we were lucky enough to indulge ourselves again….

Unfortunately the first 2 days were somewhat stressful:

First: KLM managed to leave my suitcase in Amsterdam, it arrived 24 hours after me and then they were only going to deliver it 24 to 48 hours after it arrived (can you believe that…L?!), so we went to pick it up ourselves from the airport the day after our arrival.
Second: Hertz totally messed up our booking for a rental car, which took 2 days to sort out, requiring a third trip to the airport 2 days after our arrival to sort out a new, correct contract & new car.

But after that…………….

 

Any trip to Texas the cowboy comes with me (that man in the suits stays back home) J !

There was a wonderful trip to Austin, driving there we saw this:

 





(more on old/antique quilts in a later blogpost)

Austin was great, laid back, clean, green and fun, we loved the outdoor café’s

Austin is the state capital, so it has the State Capitol building

 



Always interested in history we visited the Texas History Museum, Texas has such an interesting history, did you know it was an independent country once, the Republic of Texas, from 1836 - 1845? And the city of Austin was named after Stephen Austin who founded the Republic of Texas.

 







We really enjoyed our hotel, The Allandale, I booked a room but we stayed in a suite, more like an apartment, with a complete kitchen and the whole thing was in retro 60’s style, even the kitchen appliances and they all worked!

 

So for during our stay at The Allandale we bought our groceries at the Wallmart and HEB and stayed in for dinner & after dinner: relaxing in the hot tub!

 



Perfect was the Oasis Restaurant, with terraces at several levels, all overlooking Lake Travis. When we arrived and they heard we came from The Netherlands, the people there were kind enough to open up a private balcony for us (reserved for special occasions like anniversaries or wedding proposals), so we were higher up than the other terraces and had a perfect view..

 

 





After Austin we spent one day in Dallas to visit the Bush (43) Presidential Library that opened in May. Interesting but to be honest for several reasons (none of which political) I was more impressed with the Clinton Presidential Library we visited last year. But….. we had lunch at the Café 43 at the Library and I had the best eggs Benedict ever (I always have that when it is on the menu), they were perrrrfect!



 

 



After Dallas on to beautiful Jefferson. We stayed here last year, but only to spend the night and did not have the chance to see anything more than Jefferson itself, which is gorgeous enough. But also the area around Jefferson is beautiful. So we thought we’d go back to spend a few days there.

 

 

 

From a lovely lady, Belinda, who lives here



 

we rented a cottage

 



So pretty, come and have a look inside…..

 

 

 

Belinda also arranged a special tour for us on Caddo Lake with Byron, a true Texan if ever we met one! We had a wonderful time with him out on the lake, Caddo Lake is just beautiful……..so quiet and mysterious………

 



 

Byron kindly let the cowboy and the teenager steer the boat, they loved it!

 

 



Lots to talk about with Belinda, she was sweet enough to treat us to breakfast at the local bakery on our last morning in Jefferson

 



Oh, those American breakfasts!

After Jefferson a short stay in The Woodlands Resort and Conference Centre  just for some relaxing, love that pool!

Especially at 8 am when nobody else is there yet!

And because the grounds of the Resort are rather stretched out they do not expect you to walk to the pool or the main building, no, you just call from your room and they pick you up and bring you where you want to go in one of these….

And after all that back again for a week in wonderful, exciting, diverse, super friendly Houston!

The food & the drinks (well, my drinks…. “visjes moeten zwemmen..”)

The people



 

The views

 



The economy

Yep, that is 3 Ferrari’s parked in front of that jewelry store….

The (specialty) shopping, this is the cowboy’s kind of store:

 

 

Even love the busy traffic! (But we must be the only ones)

 



Words cannot express the great time we had or how much we miss H-town & the wonderful people there! Thanks to everyone who made our holiday such a memorable one!

Hope you as fabulous a time this summer as we had!

Phyllis