A day with Linda Collins

First of all let me tell you this was a wonderful and inspiring day in many ways.

Second: Juud (click) wrote the perfect blogpost about it. There is no way I can add anything to that and also – nice for me, because this does not happen a lot on your own blog where you are the one taking the pictures – I happen to be in some of the pictures and those pictures show you just how much fun we had that day.

But, since this blog is also a kind of a diary for me and maybe you like to see even more of this day, here it goes: a great day with Linda Collins!

When Marcha from the Quiltster (click) announced some time ago there would be 2 workshops by Linda Collins at her shop of course I wanted to attend. I had been in touch over the www with Linda for quite some time but had never met her, so apart from the fact that I would love to see her antique quilts from up close, this would be a great opportunity to meet. But... our first meeting actually took place a few days earlier at the Nantes quiltshow (click) , so after all that time just ‘digitally talking’ it was great to meet her in person not once but twice in such a short period.

Because of the number of attendees the workshop was held at the church across from Marcha’s quiltshop, where everything was ready and waiting when we arrived 

and Linda soon started her talk about her passion for quilting, antique quilts and sharing those quilts with the rest of us quilters, via shows at her barn back home, her blog, IG account, FB, her book (click), patterns and templates (click) and of course also in person.

She showed us some of her beautiful antique quilts, wonderful to see these beauties which we know from her book in ‘the flesh’ now.

Can you spot the blocks where the maker got things mixed up? 

A very special finish for this one

Linda showed us some of her own work as well

The templates for this pattern, Little Boys Britches (also from her book) come in three sizes

After so much inspiration it was time to do some stitching!

Linda brought a great new project for us to work on, a new pattern from another antique quilt, in bright, happy, spring colors

 and Marcha had already made a start with it in different colors, love the way she used her fabrics!

 We soon got busy

While we were busy it was time for others to relax and share a joke 😊 

And I took some time to make a few more pictures of the room

While Linda went around the room chatting and signing her book

There was time for a show and tell, some real beauties were shown by among others

Margreet

Martine

Marja

a few ladies with their Panama Pyramids in various stages

The day ended much too soon, before we had to say goodbye and leave we received a sweet little gift from Marcha, to remind us of this special day.

 It was a fun filled (doesn’t this picture of Juud with a photobomb by Martine 😊😊 say it all?)

and inspirational day!

Thank you to Linda and the ladies of the Quiltster for all your work to make so special.

Phyllis

Trunkshow by Petra Prins and Nel Kooiman at the Australian Dutch Connection Quiltshow

So much going on in quilt land at the moment, it is hard to keep up with blogging about it all.

But even if it is a few days later than some bloggers, I wanted to make a blogpost about this very special trunkshow. Why don’t you get yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to look at all the beautiful antique quilts in this post.

A few days after I attended the Nantes quilt show there was the Australian Dutch Connection quilt show at the St. Joris church in Amersfoort. Organised by the ladies of the Petra Prins’and Nel Kooiman’s quiltshops (click and click) it promised to be a beautiful exhibition, we were certainly not disappointed.

The show was advertised not only on the websites of Petra’s and Nel’s shops, on Facebook, via flyers, via the local tourist agency, but also the local media paid attention to it, in case you missed this bit of journalism have a look (click), my favorite bit starts at 1.22 min…. ooooohhhhhh….. Judith (click) certainly shows how we all feel about our quilting passion 😊

I was one of the lucky ones to attend the trunkshow by Petra Prins and Nel Kooiman themselves, where they talked about and showed antique quilts from their private collections.

Let me share some of these beauties with you (here we go Marja 😊  (click) !  )

This was just part of what was waiting for us when we entered the room

Petra and Nel welcoming us

Petra decided to start things off with a stunner!

There were many more equally stunning quilts…..

Nel’s sweet basket quilt

As a contrast: her crazy quilt

Petra’s Seven Sisters quilt

Baptist fan quilting

Which was all the more special because the pattern went in opposite directions

So many “ oooooohhhhsss “ and “ aaaaaaahhhhhsss”  in the room when Petra showed this beauty

 If I remember correctly Petra said there were almost 29.000 pieces in this one…… can you imagine the lady who made this… without the help of all the notions, daylight lamps etc. that we have now? 

Beauties!

Showing you this one….

Also for the quilting

I adored this one….. love a red and white quilt anyway and the way that this quilter had no problem at all with the pieces not all being the same size just warms my quilting heart, she just solved every problem she encountered right there and then ….  I can just see she had such fun making this and every reason to be proud too, I think it is such a joyful quilt!

Simplicity with many fabrics is always a great combination

A very special hexagon quilt

Did I say ‘a very special hexagon quilt’?

Petra and Nel showed sooooo many beautiful quilts…..

The blue and white striped fabric of this one was very special, it looked and felt like seersucker fabric

On and on they went with the show…

This quilt has been made into a pattern/kit by Petra (click) with different but beautiful colors

Petra and Nel brought so many quilts with them, there was not even time to show them all

When Petra asked at the end of the show if there were any questions… there were none… because we were all left speechless…

All we could do was applaud and thank them both for showing us so many of their treasures.

Thank you again, ladies, this was very special!

Phyllis