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

And so this was Christmas..

… in London. Rather than doing a lot of groceries and cooking at home and also instead of buying each other presents, we decided to give ourselves a one big present by celebrating a very British Christmas in London and it did not disappoint, but then London never does, any time of year.

No theatre visits, no shopping, just looking at beautiful Christmas trees and lights, enjoying yummy food and long walks, in short: just taking in that very special, very festive British Christmas cheer!

Let’s start with – to me – the most beautiful Christmas tree I have ever seen (and it did not even have lights):

This tree was at St. Pancras station and we could not get enough of it. The station itself is a Victorian beauty also, a perfect place for this very large tree. St. Pancras station is known for its famous Harry Potter 9 ¾ platform but (for all of you fans) that is actually located at neighbouring King’s Cross station, just a sign on a wall,

 but if you want to take a picture of yourself with the sign….. then get in line!

We passed.

Back to the Christmas trees, we went criss cross thru town to see some really nice ones:

Harrod’s , with carol singers

near Covent Garden

someone in this pub really likes Christmas trees!

our hotel did not disappoint either.

Of course there were other decorations as well:

the Blue Bird at King’s Road

Peggy Porschen

Covent Garden.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…..

In the evening time we admired the famous London Christmas lights:

Regent Street

Oxford Street

Carnaby Street.

And everywhere really:

 If you ever plan to spend Christmas Day in London you must know that there is no public transportation at all for over 24 hrs, no Underground, no buses, nothing, except for a few very expensive taxi’s. Public transport ends at midnight Christmas Eve and does not start up again until early Boxing Day, the handwritten signs warning you of this come up sometime during Christmas Eve day, this one was at ‘our’ Underground station:

Soooooo, what to do on Christmas Day? Well, I think we had a really British Christmas Day.
Without any public transportation we went for a long walk in the morning through the very quiet streets (hardly any cars either, I think lots of people had left the city or were already at their destination in the city), it was a dark, grey day so it was lovely to see the lights of the Christmas trees and candles in the houses where people were celebrating.

Back in our hotelroom we watched the Queen’s speech.

I had organised for us to go for a traditional Christmas lunch, with crackers, turkey and the trimmings

After which it was time for another walk, I loved seeing all the Christmas wreaths on the front doors, there were so many I made a collage of just a few of them, if you like making your own this may be inspiration for next year 😊

Then time for some Netflixing in our hotelroom followed by yes, our third walk of the day, 

the mews behind our hotel:

then some drinks in the hotelbar and sleep, contented after a lovely Christmas Day.

The next day, Boxing Day, we knew the masses would head for the shops as the big sales would be starting and since our flight back home was not until early evening we did have time for another long walk on this bright and sunny morning, this time through the Holland Park area via Kensington Palace.

Look at the beautiful, large Christmas tree in the gardens of the Palace

There was even some quilty inspiration here…  quilty steps!

These were our last impressions of this wonderful city, our last moments of a very special trip. A big present to ourselves which we spent four wonderful days slowly unwrapping.

Bev Bannard (click) left a remark under one of my Instagram posts of this trip: ‘if your are tired of London you are tired of life’ and I fully agree, we will never tire of London and we cannot wait to go back.

(if you are not on Instagram, here is the link (click) for my account )

As I am writing this on New Year’s Eve, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a healthy, happy and creative 2018!

Enjoy the festivities tonight and for those in The Netherlands: be careful with fireworks, stay safe!

Phyllis