Productive week.....

I have been very productive this week. So time to write about my quilting activities instead of Easter snow. I finished my border for the Round Robin for Marne. I hope she likes it. She's now busy with my RR.

Afterwards I started a "little quilt of love", as an example for the Quiltshop. Evy from the Quilterspalet (LQS) asked me if I wanted to organise the project 'little quilts of love". "Little quilts of love" are quilts made by quilters for stillborn babies (and their parents). The original idea is coming from Australie. In the Netherlands 26 hospitals are involved in this project. More information about the dutch project you can find on the website: http://hier.is/lqol

And I started sandwiching the quilt for my sister-in-law Astrid, she's expecting a baby in september. I bought a beautyfull panel when I was in Amsterdam with Marne. Still 5 months to go .... to finish it quilting. Making a sandwich is part of process of quilting, but I think it's the most boring part.

Quilts, 33 years old

My collegue at work (she isn't a quilter), showed me two quilts she made 33 years ago for her daughters. They're still in perfect condition.

Patchwork and Quiltdays

Today the Patchwork and Quiltdays in Rijswijk (Netherlands) started. For me it was very special because I send in my Starquilt. I was very proud seeing it hanging on the exposition, and other people making pictures of it, and talking about it. Rob's grandmother and me spend a wonderful day with looking, around and buying new patrons and fabrics. Visiting these days ... is coming home with much more stuff than you thought off. A lot of quilt were modern art, personally I really love the more traditional quilts. In my webalbum you can see an impression.

Easter monday ..... snow

It's unbelievable, the whole winter there wasn't any snow at all, and when we drove home last night from my parents it started snowing. Now it's 7 a.m in the morning and it's still snowing.

This evening we had a lovely dinner at Jacqueline and her family. It was very "gezellig" (there isn't a real english word for it). It means something like: having fun with friends, have a nice dinner with family or friends, talking and drinking coffee/tea together... and a lot of other things. It's a typical dutch word.

Easter in the Netherlands

Easter-sunday will probably the coldest Easter since 1975. They excpect temperatures around 0 - 5C. As you can see at 7.30 am it was -5,1 C.

Easter is very early, the last time Easter was so early: 23 march 1913 and 23 march 1856. So don't hide your easter-eggs too early, because they'll be frozen.

Tomorrow our squirrel was visiting us for the first time this year.

Religion versus tradition

Of course Easter, also called Pascha, is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year.

But each country also has his own traditions. In the east part of the Netherlands where I grew up, they have the traditional Easter-Fires. With these fires they want to chase the demons of the winter. As we were children we went searching for eggs these days, and of course we liked to paint eggs. These traditions were celebrating the coming of springtime.

Nathaniel 1 year

The 10th of March Nathaniel had his first birthday. We send him a postcard but it's not sure it will arrive. They're living in Yanthai (China) and my brother emailed me, that the mailman can't read english. So we have to wait on a mailman who can read english.

Birthday Exchange

Thank you Carol for the beautyfull gifts and especially the pincushion you made for me. I love it very much.

Grandma's quilt

Rob his grandmother finished her first quilt, she's 81 years old.

She used the paperpiecing-technique, that I learned her last year.

I'm really proud of her.

The weather today, rain, rain, rain

www.buienradar.nl

As you can see, Holland disappeared in a cloud of rain.

Happy Birthday Paco

Today is Paco's birthday, he is now 8 years old. That's a lot older than us, 8x7 years will 56. On friday 17th dec. 2000 we brought Paco home. He was 9 months old. I think he was not feeling happy that time. But after a few months he feels completely home with us. Socially he's not the best dog in town, but for us he's very special.
This are the first pictures of him, he still had his puppy-hair. And he's really black-coloured. Nowdays he become a little bit grey around his nose.

Weekend at Slangenburg

Jacqueline and I spend a wonderfull time in the Castle. We did a lot of quilting, talking, walking and visited two local quiltshops. Our rooms were at the attic with beautyfull views on the garden. In the past these rooms were for the servants. You may almost enter every room in the castle, that makes it very special. There is diningroom, readingroom, chapel, piano-room, writing-room and TV-room (not much used). Dinner is served at 12.45 sharp, don't be late!!! You're eating all together at one big table. That's very amusing and interesting because it's a very good way too meet other people. Jacqueline even learned one the guest the basic-principles of patchwork.

Castle and Monastry Slangenburg

The castle Slangenburg is build between 1541, when the land was given to the Family van Bauer and 1679. Very interesting detail is the "schuilkerk" (hidden church) in the castle. This little catholic chapel was hidden in the attic. Around 1675 the official religion in the nothern Netherlands was protestant-christian, so the lords of the Castle of Slangenburg were excluded from public service.

The castle is beautyfully designed with paintings (41), wood-carvings and plastered walls and ceilings. For example the western tower shows pictures of the three devine virtues: believe, hope and glory. In 1772 the Castle was sold for 400.000 dutch guilders. Between 1772 - 1895 the castle had several owners.

In 1895 the german family Passmann bought the castle. They loved the castle, when the daughter of the house died on the age of 20, she was buried on a special graveyard on the estate. In 1945 after the World War they were forced to leave the castle, and the castle was given to the government.

In 1945 the Roman Church wanted to build a monastry in the eastern part of Holland. So they got 63ha of land from the castle. In 1949 the friars started to build the monastry. During that time they lived in the castle. There was a special entrance through a window in the cellar they used. Nowdays this entrance is still used by the visitors for their bikes. In 1952 the Monastry was finished and the castle became a guesthouse. Still there is connection between the castle and monastry. Many guests are visting the services in the little Church of the Monastry.

Castle Slangenburg

Today Jacqueline and I are leaving together for a weekend. We are going to the Castle Slangenburg in the eastern part of Holland near the little village Doetinchem. The castle is a place for anyone who longs for rest and good care. And of course we have taken our quilt-equipment with us. I hope the weather will not be too bad.

http://www.kasteelslangenburg.nl/welcome.htm

Patchwork & Quilt Days in Rijswijk

March 28, 29 and 30, 2008 the 5th Patchwork & Quilt Days takes place in the Exhibition Centre of Rijswijk (near The Hague, Holland). There will be vendors selling fabrics, books, patterns and all kind of things quilters need.

And there will be beautifull exhibition of quilts. And guess what: my quilt with stars I made for my mothers 65th birthday will be hanging there!!!!

USA here I come ........

Still six months to go, and than ....... I'm flying to Seattle to visit Marne and Elaine. Marne visited me in februar and now I'll make a return visit in september. It's really excited, meeting new people (quilters), joining her quiltbee, visiting americain quiltshops, learning new skills from Marne. Woh, I can't wait.

Seattle is on the westcoast of the USA, they're living 582.000 people. Famous people born in Seattle are: Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Bill Gates. The climate is almost the same as here. And they have also tulips, so I have to think about an other gift.

Blog updated

Some of my friends of the Quiltbee in Putten complained that I hadn't posted on my blog for a week. So ladies here all news about a week patchwork and quilting.

Round Robin

The first of March, means sending our Round Robin project. So yesterday evening I finished Jacq's RR so monday I'll send it to Marc in Anterwerpen (Belgium). Jacq likes country-style so I choose semi-dark colours. Personally I love the eight-pointed stars in the corners.

Marne has taken my "sleeping dog"with her, after that Marc put the first border on it. In august it will be completed. It 's really fun, you don't how it's going to look in the end. The first border: Marc, second border Marne, third border Jacqueline, and the last border myself.

Putten - Den Haag (The Hague)

Saturday 1th of march. The quiltbee I join in Putten is visiting me. The last time I saw them was at Helen's X-mas workshop. So it was really good to see everybody. I can't join this bee as much as I want, I hope summertime will be better. Of course we've started with a show-and-tell. Afterwards we went up-town. Visiting my favorite quiltshop in The Hague. After finishing coffee at Evy (Quilterspalet), buying some stuff and fabrics, we went for Parimar (bookshop with lot of quiltbooks). At 4 o'clock the RandstadRail brought us back home, unfortunetaly it was already time to go for the ladies. Next trip will be Rijswijk the 29 th March. Helen has made a lot of beautyfull pictures this day, you'll find the pictures and story on her weblog "Helen's Blog".

Log cabin part 8

As you can see we've worked very hard on our log-cabin projects, the fun is of doing a course that everybody chooses his own colours, and that effect is very different. I want to expand my logcabin with two borders, so in the the end it will be about 1m80 x 1m80. In this lesson Wiea told us how we can finish the quilt. I decided I will use a combination of machine- and handquilting, but I think it will take me several weeks to finish the top.