Almost forgot to tell ......

I received a beautyfull X-mas exchange gift from Claudine (France). It's a X-mas sock with little presents inside.

After X-mas

I Have a few days off, work will start again on the 2 januar. Thursday I found myself a new hairdresser in The Hague. In the Bonnetrie I bought a lovely blue mantle/coat to wear at work. Friday Jacqueline, Rick, Gert and Alice visited us. Jacq and I had a lovely time at the bookshop (looking for quiltbooks) and my favorite quiltshop "Quilterspalet". Together we choose fabrics for my new project: log cabin. This course will start the 8th januar.

I love these colours very much.

Next week I will send my Round Robin to Marc, with the Crazy Exchange we started a round robin with 5 people: Me, Marc and Karen from Belgium, Marne from the USA and Jacqueline. So end of the year I will have a top form 1m10 x 1m10. This is the block I made:

X-mas

The day before X-mas: did some X-mas shopping and made a little X-mas tree for Rob his grandmother. In the evening we had dinner at her place.

First day of X-mas we spend in our "summerhouse", no obligations, no family just the two of us and Paco. We made a lovely walk from 17 km through the woods. The evening we spend looking at Ratatouille, great film. Still 30 blocks to quilt on Sophie's quilt. I hope to finish it in januar 2008.

The next day we went at my parents. My broter and sister-in-law and my little nephew were also present. In the afternoon we made a walk to Joppe. Every year there is a "living stable". But the camel didn't like the sheep, he was constantly chasing them.

Wintertime

The last days has been rather cold here in Holland. During the day -2/-3C. There are already some places where you can skate. We decided to walk to Putten today and take a lunch at "De Heerdt". It's about a 8 km walk, and we would return by bus. As you can see the woods were withe-couloured. Unfortunately the timetable of the bus changed, so we had to wait for 45 minutes. But we didn't want to get cold feet so we decided to walk home. So in the end we walked about 17 km.

Creative week

It's been a very creative week. Made some X-mas presents. Thursday evening we went to our 'summerhouse" at the Veluwe. It was a very cold inside +1C. It took us two ours to warm it up. We had a lot of stuff with us, X-mas clothes, presents, food and of course three bags with patchwork- and quilting things. So no chance of getting bored.

Workshop at Helen

Today was our Quiltbee X-mas Workshop at Helen. Everybody was there including Helen's friend Miriam. We had a great time with making X-mas trees, stitchery and yo-yo's. For lunch Helen made us a very good vegetable soup. That gave us energy for the afternoon. Sadly around 15.30 end of our Workshop, and I had to go back to The Hague. Our next mini-workshop is in The Hague on saturday the 1st March. I'm already looking forward to it.

Birds in the garden

This weekend we were on the Veluwe in our summerhouse. Saturday and sunday the weather was not to bad. So we made a walk at the Caitwickerzand with Carla and Kaatje. Kaatje is Paco's friend. Here is some information about the Caitwickerzand. It's a very special area where you can find dunes: http://www.gsnel.nl/wandelen/wandeling.php?id=74. During the day birds were visting our garden, I think they liked the food we gave them.

Forget the picture of my snowman

This is the snowman I made at the Workshop at Henny's Oosterbaan. We all became a map with eight patrons, so there is lot to do ...... till X-mas. This snowman I send to Mel as an exchange gift. I'm joining an exchange group and that's lots of fun. Now I'm busy with my Round Robin project and a X-mas tree for my grandmother. She is having her birthday the 19th decembre. She will be 87 years old. In march I'm going to organize a little workshop at the Hague for my quiltfriends from our Bee on the Veluwe. I alreadly found some nice fabrics at Atelier Bep. I can't show them because it has to be a suprise.

Last lesson in Putten

Tonight I had my last lesson at Aagje. The disadvantage of living in The Hague is, that itsn't easy to arrive in Putten at 19.30, there is so much traffic. So I decided to stop, but I will be joining our Quiltbee. In januar I will start a course Logcabin in The Hague. I hope it will be as much fun as I had the last two years at our quiltgroup.

Before I went to class Jacqueline and me had dinner at Tennesse in Harderwijk. It was her birthday- present from me. It was fun, we talked a lot (in dutch: kwebbelen) and dinner was very good. Only problem: I ate to much. Afterwards we went to Putten. Instead of working on our compasses we made X-mas trees, with ribbons and little bells.

Snowman

Friday 23th novembre we (Helen, Jacqueline and me) had a wonderfull Workshop at Henny Oosterbaan in Garderen. We could make several things, everybody got a package with fabrics and patrons. There were about 15 woman all talking, laughing and having fun. When we had to pay attention Henny ring with a little bell. Lunch was fantastic, a few days before her husband had shoot a wild hogh/pig in the woods.

X-mas exchange

Today Carol from the USA posted me, that the X-mas gift I send her was arrived. Here it's windy and rainy, she got snow. I'm jealous. I made her a little X-mas tree. I used two techniques stitchery and patchwork. I like making little quilts in country-style. The little book is hand-made by my father.

Walk at Meijendel

This weekend we stayed in The Hague. We made a beautyfull walk today at the dunes at Meijendel. Through the dunes we walked to the sea, it's about 2 km. At the beach there was a lot of wind, but it was sunny and not to cold. The wind took Paco's ball. Lucky we had second one with us, because he likes playing with a tennisball on the beach. After the walk we had a lunch at: http://www.meyendel.nl/. I think this will not be the last time. Lunch was very good!!!

Exchange gift from Pascale

Thursday I've picked up my exchange gift from Pascale from Belgium. She send to our old home in Almere. So I had to wait a few days before I could pick it up.

As you can see this beautyfull made. I'm really happy with it. Last week I posted my X-mas exchange gift, I wonder who's going sending me a X-mas gift. This week I worked very hard at my "house quilt". And of course I had to visit the Quilterspalet in The Hague. It's very nice shop, with beautyfull fabrics and a very enthousiastic owner Evy. In two weeks I'm going to join a quiltbee over there.