PAN

Do you know that feeling? After a lovely long sunny weekend, back to work on tuesday. Coming home from work and thinking: Who's going to cook tonight? Well nobody. And there we went for one of our favorite restaurants PAN, just around corner, a 5-minute walk. And they got my favorite dessert today: homemade Choclate cake (with a glass of red wine). Oh, so tempting to take two portions.

Easter Monday

In the Netherlands we don't just have Easter Sunday, but also Easter Monday. It's called "second sunday", everybody is free from work. With this weather I couldn't resist to pay Atelier Bep a visit. Again I took Rob his bike and cycled 40 km. Lucky Rob picked me up, because 80 km would be little bit too much.

Simone from Atelier Soed Idee was there also with here own embroidery patterns. And the Marianne's from "Verknipt" (Cut up). I love the quilts they made, from second-hand men's shirts. I think I have to cut up some shirts of my collegues. Chase them with my scissors through the office. That will be fun.

Easter Sunday

I found my quilting spirits back. It's almost boring but we had another day full of sunshine 24 C. This afternoon I worked on my X-mas quilt, I sewed the rows together in the garden.

I think I will manage to finish this X-mas quilt before X-mas (2011).

In the afternoon we had a family dinner at my parents. Potatoes, salmon and salad. What's up for tomorrow? Another day of sunshine, that's for sure, a cycling tour and visiting Atelier Bep.

De witte pimpernel

I have been lazy the last two days. I didn't do any quilting. So what did I do instead of quilting: reading in the garden, walking through the woods, running with Paco, buying new clothes for work and I visited a quiltexpo in the quiltshop "De Witte Pimpernel" in Oene. Today it's the last day, so you have to wait till next year. The quilts they showed were very modern, I myself prefer the more conservative style, but I always like to look at work from other quilters. And it was a nice cycling tour, about 36 km. Near the quiltshop is the mill, where we bought flour for cakes, bread and pancakes. Don't you love this old sewing machine for the floursacks.

Paco also enjoys himself very much, he has found all kind of spots to dig holes.
Getting bored on Easter Monday, and you don't want to visit the "furniture shops", Atelier Bep is open.

We've got the dining table back ....

... for dinner. Yesterday Dieuwke came over to help me basting my schoolhouse quilt. This morning I did the last "row". So instead of basting the whole week, it's now ready in three days. Thanks Dieuwke. Next step will be handquilting, my biggest project. But I think the quilt has to wait till winter. Because we have another lovely sunny day here in the Netherlands, about 23 C.

More pictures of our quiltbee

I must say, I really enjoyed showing my antique quilts, so here a few pictures of me. I added the pictures from Joke as well at my webalbum, so more pictures if you want to see how we enjoyed our quiltingbee.

Germany Cycling Tour

My DH Rob and his friend Tale were this weekend away for a cyclingtrip through Germany, they started just before the German border. In four days they cycled 415 km. Bad Bentheim and Osnabrück are really worthwhile visiting. If you interested we can send you the route in GPX, and the adresses of the B&B. Just leave a comment.

Friday: Hengelo - Lühnen, 100 km

Saturday: Luhnen - Löhningen, 110 km

Sunday: Löhnngen - Dörente, 120 km

Monday: Dörente - Hengelo, 95 km

Show-and-tell in the garden

Our DH's are still away. Any better ideas then spending a sunny sunday in the garden, quilting together. We really had a great time.

I did my first show-and-tell about my Antique Quilts.

The first I showed is my logcabin, bought in Issequa, dated around the ''30's. It's the most special one, because with this quilt my antique collection started.

My blue-white dates from the second half of the 19c, it was originally tied. The small quilt with the rectangles is from the same period. The eightpointed stars are from around 1900-1910, just like the the purple/pink logcabin. The improved nine-patch I got from Ronda, we think it got fabrics from the fourties and fifties. And last but not least my quilt with antique dutch costume fabrics.

Want to see all the quilts showed and everything else that happened, click on PHOTOS.

Schoolhouse

Such a busy quiltingday. But because we're moving to the Dieuwke's garden tomorrow, my dining table became free to sandwich this schoolhouse quilt top.

This quilt will be add to my "Antique Quilt Collection". The quilt is handmade, dated around 1900-1910. Very special is that there are not only 20 schoolhouses on it, but also cross-stitch trees. I have never seen this before. But if you know any quilts from this periode with cross-stich please let me know. The next step is handquilting.

WIP

Work In Progress. We try to use every minute this weekend. No cooking tonight, an easy breakfast, no homemade cookies. Yesterday we finished sewing after midnight. I'm not sure we will manage this tonight as well. Dieuwke is working on a brickstone quilt. I finished all my stars, now I only need the to sew the rows together. Tomorrow will be a lovely sunny day here, so we move from my house (with only a balcony) to Dieuwke's garden.

What's going on this weekend

Well my DH is away with a friend for a cyclingtour through Germany. Dieuwke's DH is away to France. We are all alone.

There is only one thing we can do: Have a quiltingweekend!!!!!! So the house is clean (clean enough I think) and in few hours Dieuwke and Willem (her son) will arrive. Can you imagine how many episodes from "Little house on the prairie" we're going to watch during quilting?

My quiltingsplans: try to finish the top of my X-mas quilt, do a few bindings, and some handquilting. Results will be shown on sunday eve.

Happy Dog

We just came home from the "vet", Paco got his annual check-up. In the Netherlands we would say: "doorsmeren en olie verversen" (grease and refresh oil). He is now 11 years old, you can see around his nose that his fur becomes a little grey, His eyes are getting "blue" (cataract). But he still is a cheerful, happy, grumpy, eager dog.

With the ferryboat over the Berkel ....

... a river in the east part of the Netherlands. This is a walk we made yesterday with my parents to the Staring Tower. It's a very small tower, along the river Berkel between the meadows. You can only reach it with the "ferryboat". The Staringkoepel was the favorite place of miss Constantina E.T. Staring (she died in 1893), daughter of the famous poet Staring. The tower was restored to his previous state a couple of years ago. A part of one of his most famous poems:

Wij schuilden onder droppelend loover,

Gedoken aan de plas,

De zwaluw glipte 't weivlak over,

En speelde om 't zilveren gras,

Een koeltjen blies, met geur belaâd;

Het leven door de wilgenblaâd.

If you want to make this walk, you can park your car at the Boevinkbrug, between Almen and Lochem (easy to find with googlemaps), from there it's a 15 minute walk. There is also a walk from 8 kilometers you can make.

Breakfast

Marne was writing on her blog that she was busy preparing her trip to the Netherlands. Well I can tell you she isn't the only one who is busy with her trip ; ). I try to make English breakfast saturday morning, sausages with muffins and syrup. According to my DH it tasted very well. Well I hope Marne can approve this breakfast, she is the Queen of making breakfast. That means another trip to "expat" shop.