Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2017!

Hello everyone,

As my last post for this year I’d like to wish you a lovely, warm, cozy and merry Christmas time!

And best wishes for a healthy, happy, wonderful and creative 2017!

At Christmas time so many places look pretty, my home town The Hague is no exception, so I thought I’d take you on a little tour and share with you some of the beautiful Christmas trees on show here this Christmas season.

At the Royal Theatre, Koninklijke Schouwburg: 

At the Prison Gate museum, De Gevangenenpoort: 

At department store De Bijenkorf:

At shopping arcade De Passage:

Along a canal - yes, we have those too in The Hague -  at Café Hathor….. (oh, I remember way back when….. J ) : 

One of our main squares, Plein:

 And last but certainly not least the beautiful Mauritshuis museum:

Hope you enjoyed this Christmas tour of The Hague and thank you so much for visiting my blog this last year. Again, have a lovely Christmas and until we meet again in 2017!

Phyllis

Have yourself a merry little Christmas bee

Meeting up with other quilters is always fun, to share ideas, to be inspired by their projects, to discuss plans, to help each other with ‘technical’ tips. But to find a spot in a few busy agenda’s that you are able to see each other can prove difficult. When late in summer we talked about meeting up, we found that the first available date was near the end of December! So a Christmas bee it was, small but sweet, at my place with Yvonne (click) and Judith (click).

The girls came bearing gifts, sweet, handy and much appreciated:

We munched on chocolates, pannetone and pumpkin soup while we sewed and chatted and chatted.

Juud gave both Yvonne and myself a board that can be used for shaping your block but is also great for just working on, she uses it herself too:

And Yvonne started using it straight away too:

Yvonne had brought her beautiful Dear Jane quilt, made from Minick and Simpson fabrics:

Whopper loved it and the cuddles too!

I always have to look at the pincushions quilters use… this was mine, I always bring it out in December (made it during a Christmas party at Dorry’s (click) a few years ago, from a Primitive Gatherings  kit :

these were Juud’s:

and this one was Yvonne’s, a ring pincushion, much loved and used:

It was a lovely day girls, let’s do it again sometime…… maybe next Christmas ;-)) ?!

Also last week I attended an Aurifil Masterclass. All about the history of the brand, the actual production of the thread, the types of thread etc. etc. It is being organised at several quiltshops, I went to the Masterclass at the Quilthoeve in Naaldwijk (click), as always we were well looked after by the ladies there and it was nice to see some familiar faces that I had not seen for a while. And there was a nice goody bag J. The whole thing is very interesting so if there is one near you, do try and attend.

Now back to some quilting this Sunday, a calm day before the Christmas madness starts next week.

Thank you for visiting J !

Phyllis

A lot of Ikea, lots of Italian food and some quilting

Has it really been that long?!

Time flies, I have not forgotten nor forsaken my blog, it is just that my attention and time went to other things than quilting. In between what has been going on I have done some quilting and nearly finished my scrappy quilt, it just needs labeling and binding.

I cannot show you the whole quilt yet as this is a Feathergirls project. My fellow Feathergirl Hubertine (click) and I are looking for an opportunity to make pictures of both our scrapquilts so that we can show you the results at the same time as we always do, so hopefully we can soon find some corresponding space in our agenda’s soon to do this.

Quilting is one of my passions, good food another one. Both eating it and making it. OK, mostly eating it… but in order to eat good food I (mostly) have to make it so I am always interested in learning more.

For a long time I wanted to take an Italian cookery course at La Cucina del Sole (click), and now at last I had the chance and spent a four Saturdays recently learning all the basics and much, much more from the wonderful Nicoletta.

We were with a  small but enthousiastic and fun group 

made the most delicious food

and enjoyed eating it

and laughed a lot!

Surprise, surpirse in this small group of foodies there was someone I had met before: Nadine Kieft, a very talented jewelry maker/goldsmith (click).

I think her work is beautiful and very special, a few years ago my husband gave me this ring for my birthday, made by Nadine.

Unfortunately recently I had become just a little bit too small and she kindly resized it for me for free. Now it fits comfortably again so I wear it on a regular basis like before.

Another thing that took up time and energy was moving DD to her student digs. After a few months of searching she found a room to rent and apart from the work of getting her moved over there, the two of us had a lot of fun (and those breakfasts J )one Sunday morning finding her some new furniture our local IKEA. She chose light and natural colors and materials, now that it is all there it has become a really nice room.

Soooo, since DD moved out a lot of her stuff and therefore the upstairs was messy anyway, I took the opportunity to start a cleaning up operation of my quiltroom. I reorganised the way I keep my fabrics. Before, they were stacked in Ikea Billy bookcases, but I found that when I pulled some fabrics off a shelf it quickly became messy and I would not see certain fabrics anymore. Also, with it being a small but sunny room I was afraid the sun would damage the colors.

So again, another trip to Ikea (lucky it is only a 5 mins drive from my home) early one Monday morning (the quietest time of the week, really) was called for and this is my solution. Large flat plastic boxes, one for each color, when I open them I see all my fabrics straight away and when I pull out a few, no mess, the other fabrics just stay in place. And they are safe from the sunlight. 

and stacked up, they do not take up a lot space in my small room.

Now that my fabrics are sorted, time to go tackle the rest of my quiltroom, see what else is lurking in there….

I did already find this old project, the Morrell quilt, pattern by Di Ford. This block I have been dreading to make for a long time, decided it was about time. Bit by bit, I should be able to finish it in between all the other things that keep me busy.

Thank you for visiting J !

Phyllis

Festival of Quilts II

In my last blogpost I promised show you some of the antique quilts on show at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham. Let’s go and first visit the Family Connections exhibition hosted by the UK Quilter’s Guild:

This stunning quilt obviously was the inspiration for the new fabric collection by Karen Styles called Elizabeths Dowry  :-

I loved and was amazed by this exhibition by the Quilter’s Guild, obviously guarding their heritage is close to their hearts and something they put a lot of effort into, they have built an extensive collection since their formation in 1979 and are very proud to share it. To be honest this focus on what is the basis, the history of our shared passion is something I do miss at our national guild in The Netherlands.

Next, let’s have a look at the other exhibtion with antique quilts, Kaffe Fassett was kind enough to show some of his antique quilts at this show:

And to end our tour of this exhibtion another stunning quilt:

Hope these antiques inspire you as much as they do me!

Phyllis