London calling!

Yes, I had just been in September, but London…. I never tire of London!

Some time ago Hubertine and I talked about not being able to make the Houston Quilt Festival this year and wanting to do something else instead.  And London is always fun!

So here we were Friday lunchtime:

 

Did you notice the small dog in the lower right hand corner…. he made me laugh, he and his friend were soooo sweet and calm, waiting for their boss to finish his lunch… but the way he sat with his leg straight….

 



The absolute highlight of our trip already came on Friday evening, we had tickets for this:

 



You may know I am a Rolling Stones fan and have seen them many times (all but twice standing right at the front), so I have also seen Ron Wood many times in his role as guitarist of the Stones (and to be honest, because of his health issues in various conditions….) , but this was a first for me, Ron Wood with his own band. Also a first for me to see Mick Taylor, ex-Rolling Stone, who joined the Ronnie Wood Band for this occasion (he left the Rolling Stones before I went to their concerts, he was replaced in The Rolling Stones by none other than…… yes, Ron Wood!).

The ‘gig’ was in the beautiful Royal Albert Hall (another first for me), within walking distance of our hotel

 





And we had great seats!

Then the fun started………….

 



A fabulous evening of blues (love the blues anyway)……… what can I say, it was such a memorable night, Ron Wood was at his best (being one of a group with the Rolling Stones he gets much less chance to shine when playing with them), such sharp guitar play and wow, …. I had no idea he was such a good harmonica player……. Mick Taylor was great too, wonderful to see them both playing together…. And with their guests this evening, like Bobby Womack and Paul Weller.
And Ron’s fun personality made that big, elegant concert hall feel like more being in at club concert….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S29BEsRcyKE&list=UU696-kuDzUMAMTkMJeZyjkw

Saturday morning a change of pace… the Victoria & Albert museum, also within walking distance of our hotel:

It was difficult taking pictures, everything being behind shiny glass and the light reflecting in it…

Inspiration in the tiles on the floor

 

 



As for the rest of the weekend, we were lucky with the weather, Saturday and Sunday mostly no rain but sunshine, which called for morning coffee on the terraces

Visiting fun shops in Soho

 

 

How about this: the floor of a travelbook shop ….. a map of London!

For me London is also about foooooooooood (of course)!

Like Indian food

Another this was another highlight for me: a farmer’s market (ok, a rather posh one ;-)  ) with oysters, can’t resist oysters, and another first: English Maldon oysters, never had those before, they were fresh and tasty! 

Ha! Not my best picture, this is my ‘slurp’ face enjoying the oysters, but love the double decker there! (Great shot, Hubertine!)

Gone! That was for starters, the oysters were followed by duck confit in a bun

London already showed the first signs of the Xmas period : in our hotel lobby

At Covent Garden

The WhiteCompany

It was a wonderful visit to London, we had a fantastic time & what a great way to get into the mood for the Xmas season!

 

Phyllis

A new technique

Isn’t this quilt lovely? No, I did not make this quilt, but saw it at the Quilterspalet quiltshop in The Hague , a very special version of a Dear Jane (or is it a Nearly Insane??) quilt this one, which is why I am showing it, made from 30’s type of feedsack fabrics.

I was at the Quilterspalet with Hubertine for a workshop to learn how to work with Appliquick utensils.

This is what we were up to:

 

 

 

 

With our teacher and shop owner Evy.
Because my hearing is less than perfect I always try to sit next to the teacher at workshops. Teacher’s pet, that’s me!

I found the Appliquick method really helpful, I can recommend it. From now on at least for those really small applique pieces I will be using this method.

Also at the Quilterspalet I saw this:

 



 



Isn’t that adorable?!

Meanwhile hubby and R&R friends made another 36-hour trip to the last Rolling Stones Hyde Park concert on July 13.  Again, the guys made it way up to the front, where he was able to take these pictures, nobody between him and his heroes!

 

 

Apart from the Appliquick workshop not a lot of quilty things going on right now, I find it too hot, get too distracted by the heat. I did make a few extra stars for Eline’s quilt, though.

 

 



Enjoy these summer days!

Phyllis

 



Concerts and things...

Woke up this morning at this time….

Yes you saw it right, 00.55 am… and all because of this:

 

No I am not going, but hubby is. Together with a few other madmen he is driving to Calais, to take the train to the UK at 05.30 hrs and then they will drive to London, leave the car somewhere and make their way to Hyde Park….

And then after the concert they will to do the same in reverse, so that is a non-stop 36 hour just to see Mick, Keef & Co…. and they will be doing the same for next weekend for the July 13 concert…..

Well, I did get a few hours of sleep after he left, but had an early morning anyway, which was nice, great weather today, lovely early morning walk with Whopper to see loads of our bunny friends…

 



And finally some time for a blogpost!

Several things have kept me from blogging the past few weeks:

I have had a horrible cold with a bad cough for the past two weeks, it just won’t leave me and together with my pollen allergy it has left me feeling drained of energy;

 

My computer hasn’t been working well for months and it finally broke down altogether so I was without for a number of days, but with a new hard disk drive I should be back in business now….

Basically I am working on just two projects right now,  Eline’s wonky stars quilt and my crochet granny squares, so not that much to show you, but here you go

 

I love working with these fabrics

 



And these are my granny squares so far:

 



Although I am not joining hubby on this trip to the Stones I did go with him and Eline to the Bruce Springsteen concert two weeks ago which was fantastic! I think it is the 5^th time I went to see The Boss and he never disappoints, what a great performer, so much energy and such a nice man…

 

It started by waiting a few hours, we had a great spot just behind the fences, so once there we could not leave anymore

The Boss came on at 19.30 hrs exactly (such good manners not to keep us waiting),  and did not leave the stage until 22.50 hrs, playing constantly …

 

 

We were right underneath the US flag…pictures taken from the big screen, only had my telephone with me so could not take pictures very well.

With Steven van Zandt, another hero of mine, he is great in the E Street band and I loved him in the Soprano’s (my all time favourite tv-series)

At the end of the concert it was pooring down with rain, Bruce stayed out on the catwalk in the rain getting absolutely soaked, same as us, cracking jokes: “It just doesn’t rain enough!” and  “It still doesn’t rain enough!!”
Hence, my nasty cold…..

A few days after the concert I had two fellow quilters over for a day of sewing and chatting, always nice to see Rennie and fellow Feathergirl Hubertine:

 

 



Rennie gave me a big bunch of beautiful yellow roses … , they remind me of this  

Ah, Texas…

Just heard from hubby, they are at the Hyde Park venue now, near the front, the weather is great, the crowd huge. Can’t wait to hear the stories tomorrow morning!

 

Have a lovely and sunny weekend!

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