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

On a diet? Look away now!

Earlier this week some girls of my bee came over for a day of sewing and trading holiday stories.

I thought I’d make them a real American treat,

Peach Cobbler!

I found some recipes on the internet and made my own recipe by mixing them up into one recipe and doing what was simplest (simplify, simplify, that is my attitude towards cooking), so here is my Peach Cobbler recipe.

I used American cup sizes, but if you don’t own these, I weighed the items,  the Dutch/European equivalent is in brackets.

Ladies on a post-holiday diet, look away now!

100 gr of butter
1 cup of sugar (190 gr), I used fine sugar
1 cup of self-rising flour (125 gr)
1 cup of milk (200 ml), I used low fat, because that’s what I had in the fridge
1 large tin of halved pieces in syrup (822 gr)
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 190C/375F (I have a fan oven, if you do not you should probably heat your oven to 200C). Drain and slice up the peach halves. Put the butter in a glass casserole (the one I used is 18 x 28 x 5 cm) and put it in the oven for the butter to melt. Make sure it does not bubble or burn.

Mix the sugar, salt and the self-rising flour in a bowl with a (wooden) spoon, then slowly blend in the milk and the vanilla. Keep stirring until the lumps have gone, then pour this mixture over the melted butter, do not stir anymore! I know it looks really strange at this point, but it will turn out fine (also at this point you can see why you should stay well clear of this when you’re on a diet, allllll that butter & sugar!).

Divide the peach slices evenly over/in this mixture, sprinkle a  little bit of cinnamon on top and put it in the oven for about 30-40 mins. As this will be different with each oven so start checking after 30 mins how your cobbler looks. When it looks like the picture above take it out, leave to cool for a few minutes and spoon it out to serve in small bowls. It should be served warm and if you want to live really dangerously, some vanilla ice cream slowly melting on top of your piece of cobbler will be just the thing!

Enjoy!

With the weather being nice to us, we had a lovely day working on our projects, in Anita’s case, showing the projects done during the holidays, honestly, the speed at which she is turning out quilts, she puts us all to shame, and her quilts are time and time again so original and colourful!

 

See who is trying to get everyone’s attention?!

Jantine talked about her trip to the Birmingham Quilt Festival, Hubertine worked feverishly on a  s e c r e t  project, Sandra stopped by with cute, cute Charlie, who has grown so much over the summertime! And Irma, Lilou and myself just chatted the day away….

It was great seeing each other all again, a nice kick-off for a new quilting season!

 Phyllis

All over the place

That is where we were the last few weeks, which is why it was a little quiet here on my blog. To give you an idea of just some of the things we were up to:

We were on top of the ‘world’:

Had a hotel with a great view:

Went cycling in Central Park:

Ate all sorts in Chinatown:

‘Did’ Memphis, where we…

visited Graceland:

were educated at the Civil Rights Museum:

saw where some of DH’s favourite things are ‘born:

got into the blues on Beale Street:

Then we were educated some more at the impressive Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas:

To find out in the end that it is still Texas we l♥ve most.

The people, the space, the excellent food, the old-fashioned civility and the hospitality.

We fell in love with east Texas (first time in that part of the state, but certainly not the last time), the beautiful village of Jefferson,

the lovely B&B we stayed at, the Hale House Inn  http://www.thehalehouseinn.com/:

Breakfast on the porch, courtesy of our gracious host Timm, who gets up before 6 a.m. each morning to make everything fresh from scratch:

Antiquing:

Cowboy churches:

And of course, city life in wonderful Houston!

Visiting our usual haunts, among others:

And a fantastic concert in 70.000 seater Reliant Stadium with country greats Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney!

In true Houston style, because it was such a warm day, the roof of the stadium was closed ……..   so they could put the airco on!  Soooooo comfortable J !

Mr. Tim McGraw, if you please, ladies! I thought I had died and gone to Country heaven!

… and I like his music too  …. J

Record breaking temperatures everywhere we went:

Occasional rain, but then an awful lot at once….

And I admit … I gave in to my only vice now and then…  a Texas steak or crawfish with a margarita (made with Patron tequila, on the rocks and with salt on the rim) … can’t beat it!

Back home now, with lots and lots of wonderful memories…

Hope y’all ( J )  had a great holiday too!

 Phyllis