December 2018

Still catching up on those blog posts I should have written some time ago…
so here’s a little post about the goings on in December. No use showing a picture of our Christmas tree anymore (it was small, but sweet) or our Christmas celebrations (again small, but sweet) but Christmas is also a time of exchanging gifts and gifts were exchanged.

Both Emma (click) and I had had birthdays recently so early December I sent a package to France with her pressies which included a little framed mini-mini top:

These are 3/4”  triangles, I used one of Jeanneke’s (click)  stamps to make this, a fun little project but I would not have the patience to make a quilt of this 😉

My Christmas present from my Mr. this year was this lovely little doggy pincushion, obtained from Dorry (click), I think it is supposed to be a dachshund but it think is looks just like Whopper!

There was a visit by Karen (click) and her very well mannered dog Freia, Karen is one of the busiest persons I know, she always has stories to tell and projects to show, at the time she was knitting pairs of Norwegian patterned mittens, yes pairsssss, one pair for each family  member of her family, and she had time to quilt too. All that in addition to running her own business (click)

As you can see, I worked on the circles of my Sugar Plum quilt, pattern by Judy Newman (click) , four more finished

And there was a really nice day in Amsterdam,  a Christmas holiday tradition for our family, it is always dark and grey when we are there around Christmas time and all the pretty lights make for such a special atmosphere:- 

Apropos, birthday presents….  you may remember I celebrated my birthday with Emma in France in October (click) during Margaret Mew’s (click) workshop in Emma’s shop (click)?
Emma thought of the most wonderful gift, unfortunately it got stuck at the French customs (think they liked it so much they would not let go of it!), by the time the package was released it I was back home in The Netherlands, so Emma brought it with her to Houston in November……the pattern and templates for Margaret’s Rosa Biddlecombe quilt a n d  starter fabric kits from Margaret’s own stash!

I always love going through other quilters’ stash, don’t you (is ‘stash-envy’ a thing?) and these fabrics are soooo beautiful!

A great project for 2019!

Phyllis

November 2018, Texas (2)

I should have written this blogpost weeks ago. But: ‘better late than never’ is a Dutch saying, so here we go.

Because it is late you may have seen some of the quilts in my pictures already elsewhere, still I hope this will still contain inspiration for you to kick off your new year.

My previous blogpost contained highlights of our day trips outside of Houston, this blogpost is all about the fun days we had in Houston with Emma (click) and Olivier, centering on the Houston quilt events.

Soon after Emma and Olivier’s arrival in town the quilty fun began. Emma and I were excited to attend our first ever sample spree, our boys were excited to watch the goings on and amazed by how large everything was, the convention center, the crowds.

We were at the convention center way too early, but that gave us time to prepare:

Same for the boys, they were more than ready !

And would you believe it, while standing in that large line waiting for sample spree to open, who walked in through the doors we were standing next to? Yessss, Petra (click) and Juud (click)

We knew would see them in the coming days, but this was a surprise.

The shows were beautiful and varied as you may imagine, I can go on and on about them, but I am sure all you are waiting for is pictures (which by now you may have seen elsewhere too…) so here we go:

This year there was an exhibition from Quilts de Légende again, always beautiful:-

And so many other beautiful quilts …..!

Karen Styles’ finished 2018 Mystery Quilt at the Quilt Mania booth:

With all the fun and lovely people around, the beautiful quilts at the exhibitions, all the wonderful inspiration it can be it bit overwhelming, I love to just take a bit of time every day for a ‘time out’ to take it all in, reflect on it and just be grateful that I can enjoy it all, either in the park across from the Convention Center or on the terrace of the Convention Center itself

One of the highlights for me were Christopher Wilson-Tate’s (Antique Textile Company) (click)  gorgeous antique quilts:

The Best of Show winning quilt and quilter:-

And I loved seeing this beauty in ‘the flesh’ , I had seen it before on the www but had no idea this lovely antique would be here, it was a pleasant surprise:

When it comes to the Houston quilt events, I always say it is as much about the people as it is about the quilts, always so nice to see familiar faces:-

Karen Styles (click) of course, always lovely to see her, always a beautiful booth

I always go and say ‘hello’ to Ronnie at Cindy’s Antique Quilts (click), I can spend a long time there going through all the lovely antiques

Edyta! (click) Her booth was so busy I did not get a chance to take a picture of it, but she did find a a little time for a small chat and to sign her book for me:

The Houston quilt events are a great opportunity to meet new people and we met some lovely new people again:-

Marion Drake (click), who did a fabulous job for Antique Textile Company a.o. organising their exhibition when her boss Christopher Wilson-Tate suddenly could not make it to Houston

Alison from the Collectible Quilt Company  (click) , I had no idea she was going to in Houston, so big surprise

Julie Silber (click) I had seen her before but this was the first time we had a chance for a long chat

 Julie and the Mr.  found they shared another interest besides quilts, plenty to talk about

Here is one of my fav pictures from this trip!
At Petra’s booth: it was Juud’s first trip to Houston so of course the first time in Petra’s booth at this show….. I have seen in the past how incredibly busy that booth is during the first few hours of the Quilt Festival…. This is shortly after…. Juud was still reeling from the ‘storm’ 😊

As mentioned before in this post we would see more of this dynamic duo, we also met up the them and a few other friends in the quilt world for dinner one night : -

Juud (click) on one side of me and Karen (click) on the other, the Mr., Paul (Karen’s husband) , Petra (click), Emma (click), Michelle Yeo (click) and Olivier (Emma’s husband) , so nice to have some 'boys'  at the table too.

Which brings me back to these two wonderful people, Emma and Olivier. If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that Emma and I are friends and we are really happy that our husbands enjoy each other’s company too. The Mr. and I have stayed with Emma and Olivier’s at their house in France, this trip we all stayed in one house in Houston and at the end of our trip we decided that we had had such a great time together it will be something we’d love to repeat in the future.

With this happy picture and two last ones of the Houston shows (where in the world can you enjoy a nice cold beer at at quilt show…. 😊 )    ...............

I finish this long overdue blogpost, sorry about that, but hope you enjoyed it anyway,

Phyllis