Une fete en France

A few weeks ago my husband and I were lucky enough to be part of a wonderful party.

Lucy, the daughter of my friend Emma, was celebrating her first Communion and we were invited to join in the celebrations. It was a memorable day and weekend.

The day before the Communion Emma’s husband Olivier took us all to St. Quentin to first visit the basilique, which was all the more special because when we were there the organ was being played (a short video on my IG account (click) unfortunately I cannot insert the video here as my phone crashed the day after we returned from France and I lost all my  data   ☹ )

   

After this we visited the weekly town market, , I always love to visit a local market, the colors, the food, the people, the atmosphere

In the afternoon the boys went to visit nearby champagne caves and the girls went to……Le Patchwork d’Emma, where else?!

Emma’s own work is exquisite

And then of course the next day it was Lucy’s big day, she looked so pretty

After the church service, time for presents and a party!

It was a wonderful weekend, with lovely people, a great fête (wonderful food and champagne, I was like a kid in a candy store) in beautiful surroundings. The highlight of our summer, of our year I am sure. And a warm memory for ever.

Since then I have gone a bit awol. Both on my blog and on my IG account. Apart from the memorable weekend in France with Emma and her family, this summer is turning out to be a trying time. Just before our weekend in France I have had to say farewell to a kind, wonderful, charismatic, spiritual, positive and beautiful person who was taken from us much too soon. The speed with which his illness claimed him left us in shock and incredibly sad.

Then those around me are suffering set backs and challenges, which for privacy reasons I shall not get into, but it drains my energy and in some cases involves a lot of work. Not even our dog Whopper was exempt from this run of bad luck, suffering from kennel cough. And my new part-time job proved to be less part-time than I was led to believe.  

So since my afternoon at Emma’s atelier I have hardly had a chance to do some quilting and it doesn’t look good for the rest of the summer. I will try though (oh, I miss it) and as soon as I get the chance to do so, I will share on my blog and IG- account.

In the meantime, have yourselves a lovely (and hopefully quilty) summer,

Phyllis

Le Patchwork d'Emma

Last week I spent a few wonderful days visiting my friend Emma in France.

Emma and I met when she contacted me via my blog after moving from France to The Netherlands a few years ago. She is a quilter and was looking for Dutch quilters to share her passion with. And to the surprise of both of us it turned out we lived only a five minutes walk from each other… so…. many a blissful morning or afternoon was spent quilting and chatting together and later on, when Emma and her family got their dog Bailey, many a play date for my Whopper and her Bailey was planned.

Needless to say that since Emma moved back to France I have been missing those visits. And missing seeing her children grow up, playing with Bailey, planning quilts, sharing jokes, trips to quilt shops, etc. etc.

Therefore it was high time I made the trip to France to visit Emma and her family. She has not been idle since moving over there, quite the opposite, since moving back she has started her own quilting business, called Le Patchwork d’Emma  and as you can imagine  I could also not wait to see that!

So below some pictures of a few wonderful days:-

The town where I arrived by train

Of course early next morning a trip to the local boulanger

My favorite, giant almond croissants!

Life in the country…

Collecting (still warm) eggs from the chickens, to eat for lunch

Can you imagine having this view from your garden?

Or this view from the front of your house?

Lots of inspiration and peace and quiet to concentrate on projects for Le Patchwork d’Emma!

Join me on my visit!

I was amazed by the space and light of the atelier, such a wonderful place and great atmosphere to work on our quilts and be taught new techniques!

The sewing machine/ironing/fat quarter corner, how is this for ironing with a view 😊 ?

Fabrics and books…

Liberty fabrics!

As a ‘notions-junkie’ I fell in love with Emma’s notions wall ❤

Quilts on the walls like Emma’s finished Di Ford’s QM Mystery quilt

When I was there was a class for quilters working on the Dear Jane quilt scheduled , so I was lucky to be able to join in for a lesson and trying to converse with the ladies in the bit of French I still remember from school…

I was not the only guest at the class that afternoon…

Bailey made himself very comfortable during the afternoon 😉

Needless to say I was impressed by what Emma had accomplished with her atelier which has only be open for less than a year. Also the ladies present were very sweet and patient (my French, you see…) and both the afternoon at the atelier and my visit to Emma and her family ended much too soon.

Time to pack my bags (with some lovely goodies I bought at the atelier) and take the train 

To spend a few hours in sunny Lille

Before taking the bus back to The Hague with my delicious French ‘lupa’…..  

…..  with wonderful memories and plans to return soon!

Phyllis