July 2018

This summer!

Don’t know about you, but I love summer and I love this summer, intense heat in all. I love the outdoor living, I love the house with it’s open windows and garden doors, I love being able to walk outside just like that (no shoes, coat, scarf, gloves to put on first), I love the lighter foods, I love the late afternoon apératifs enjoyed in the garden with friends and neighbours, I love the beers on the beach in the evenings just watching those glorious sunsets, I even much prefer those extreme heat days when I really do not know what to do with myself (37C in a super insulated house and no airco…. , definitely buying those units before next summer) to the very Dutch alternative of rain and wind.
But sewing…. not a lot, not this July.

This summer is to be enjoyed outside, at the beach and in the city, trying out new restaurant terraces and familiair ones, with Whopper of course!

July is also the month in which our American friends celebrate their country’s birthday.
That particular day we certainly had a party to go to, a rather untraditional family outing ….. to a Guns n Roses concert!

Again, a scorching hot day but perfect for the occasion.
In 1993 (!) I had tickets for their concert in our country, but as I had just met my husband (again) and he could not go with me I sold my tickets (out of loyalty, he would have loved to join me) , shortly after GnR as a group broke up, so this concert was something we waited for a long time! Little did we know in 1993 we would have a 20 year old daughter to join us this time 😊

Golden circle tickets, Axl’s voice still as strong as ever, Duff still a steady force and Slash *superb* , a day and evening to remember.

Back to quilty things later on in the month, you may remember I met my first quilt teacher again during the Rijswijk quiltshow in the spring (click) after decades if being out of touch? 

Well, she came over for a visit and it was a  lovely afternoon.

In her mid-eighties, still driving a car, still quilting and still as sharp as ever, what can I say, lots of respect for this lady, Ingrid van Hengel.

She brought a few quilts she still has, most quilts she has made she has given away 

She showed me an interview with her in the April 2012 issue of Quilt Life

She kindly gifted me a so-called Dutch ‘kraplap’, part of Dutch national costume in certain area’s, this one – as it is black – part of mourning dress, it is very beautiful.

We discussed colors, I remembered her lessons from the past, we looked for a border fabric for the hexagon quilt she is working on and talked about much more.
What a great lady.

As I am writing this the weather has cooled down from that July heat, definitely back to a bit more sewing now, so more quilty things to share in my next blogpost.

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Phyllis