Crockery in Almen (Brocante)

Why do most quilters also like crockery. Isn't having cupboards full of fabric enough for us. Why do we need also cupboards filled with dishes, cups etc. I really have no idea ; ).

Saturday Rob and I made a bike tour from my parents house in Epse to Almen. There we found this shop full with, cups, plates, dishes and other things you don't need.

The shop is only open on saturday from 10.00 till 16.00 (Bijdehands, Scheggertdijk 6 in Almen).

And by the way if you're in Allmen don't forget to visit the "Staringkoepeltje". It's really really worthwhile, a short walk and then cross the river with a little ferry (by hand). The "Staringkoepeltje", is a little tower along the river Berkel, it's always open. See my post about my visit april 2011.

Oh yeah, Almen is 'close' to Zutphen, about 10-12  kilometers away from Petra Prins, so you see you can fill your whole day.

Gift projects

Bep's FW bag, went to Barbara.

No big projects at the moment, just small project to give away, birthdays and other events in life. I like making gifts, it doesn't take an awfull lot of time, you got a quick result, it makes somebody happy and it helps to reduce my stock fabric ; ).



For my sister/brother-in-law together 100th birthday.
Everybody had to give 25 little gifts, so I made an
advents calender.








Birthday Doggie Quilt  for Rob his mum

   



Puppy quilt, for my collegue Wubbe, he will be

leaving the company and enjoy staying at home being
a pensionado. He also loves dogs, and will be
having a puppy soon.

 

 







This is just for me, I finished my sewing mat

for my white FW.

 
Now something else: for everybody who want to see my antique Spakenburger Quilt in real, it will be showed on the exposition I mentioned in my previous post. I feel pretty "proud".

Summer Exposition : Quilts from traditional costume fabrics

At the Quiltshop in Putten I saw a brochure 'Van ootje's Gôet". And I really need to tell you about it.

Over 100 quilts made from antique costume fabrics from Bunschoten and Spakenburg will be exposed from 10 july till 18 august. I can assure you that I will be there. I love "old" quilts. This is my quilt made from Spakenburger costume fabrics from the period: 1900 - 1950.

Click here for the brochure.

Quilts in Otterlo

 You really have to hurry if you want to see the quilt exposition in the dutch Tile museum, the 1th of july is the last day.  The quilts are inspired on tiles. I must say that I wasn't to enthousiastic about the quilts myself, but that's because I like tradtional quilts, and here were a lot of art quilts. But I really can appreciate the work, and there were a few quilts I really really liked.

The museum itself is very cute. It maybe sound boring to you "tile museum", but it's really worthwile visiting and can be very inspiring for quilters. So a well spend afternoon of my holiday. I must admit I haven't done much quilting yet. I'm watching a very exciting danish DVD called "the killing". Woh, still 5 episodes to go before I know who've done it. We do a lot of cycling. Still no barbeque weather. Tonight "code orange" weather, rain and thunder. Maybe a good moment to spend some quilting time, warm and cozy in our little summer house.



Quilt made by Aafje Hartman-Wolf, the original tile
was found by her father in a old house in the 40s.




Made by Els Postmus,
tiles found in the museum, turned into a quilt.



What's going on?

We're having holiday this week, so we moved to our summer "residence" in Garderen. The weather is pretty good, no barbeque weather but good for cycling. We're happy with every bit of sunshine, because it's already june, but most of the time it felt like autumn.

It's our first holiday without Paco and that feels very strange, we do miss him a lot.



Rob along the Mosel



Rob finished his cyclingtour last sunday, 660 kilometers in 10 days. I'm trying to finish some quilting projects to get some space in my cupboards or to fill them with new fabrics ; ).

Sunday Dieuwke, Willemijn and I had a quiltbee. I finished my sewing mat for my white featherweight. Dieuwke is still busy with her embroidery project and Willemijn worked on the "Sinterklaas" boat. She still has some time because he won't be arriving before the 17th november.

 



2011, sunbathing at our summer residence ; )



Tuesday "girls" evening



Enough to choose.

 Rob is still cycling through Germany, he's about half way now and arrived in Trier today.

And what about me? I have a busy programm this week, beside going to work I have my fitness (mo, wed, thu), my mindfullness course on monday, and today we had a fantastic evening at Barbara's house. She organised a girls evening: tying/string beads. THANKS.

Angelique our instructor did a vey good job. After a day of work it was sometimes hard for me to get the thread through the beads. But everybody went home with her homemade product.

Angelique



Special European Football Championship bracelet made by Carolien. She still believes we will be champion ; ).



To give you an idea about the costs, my home-made necklace, 5, 5 euro.

If you also want a "beads" evening with your friends, you can contact Angelique. My programm for the rest of the week: wednesday dinner at Mauce, thursday "mutsenavond" (quiltbee), friday just quiet at home I think/hope. Saturday shopping and dinner with Yolande, sunday quiltday with Dieuwke and Willemijn.
I started cleaning and tidying up my quiltroom, there are several projects waiting to be finished, some of them already waiting a very long time. So I promised myself that I will use sunday to finish some of them.

Rob will be back sunday, and then we have another holidayweek together.
Life is good!!

Not without my featherweight

Rob left friday for his cycling holiday to Maastricht and from there into Germany direction Trier, he will be cycling about 650 kilometers. Lucky for him the weather is still pretty good.

 

Te left house was my grandparents.



My old school

 I left for a weekend to my parents in Epse, where I spend my childhood. Of course, as you can see, with enough quilting equipment to keep myself busy between  walking and cycling. It always feels good to be back. 



Of course I changed their livingroom into a quilting room as my mum was joking. Maybe I took a few too many projects, because she was thinking I would stay for the whole week. Friday my mum and I  took our bikes for some shopping in the country store in Gorssel, a near by village. We're good shoppers and I "needed" some new clothes since I lost about 16 pounds. 



Saturday, a cold and windy day, the three (dad, mum and me) of us went for walk to the house my father was born and where he and his sister grew up. My grandparents were market gardernings. The house was sold around 1979, after they lived there for about 45 years.



My grandparents old house.

Saturday evening was rather disappointed, the dutch football team didn't win from Denmark. Well maybe wednesday evening the next game against Germany will be better. 

 

Mr. Featherweight

Bep had a suprise for us. Mr. Featherweight from Apeldoorn (oke his real name is Robert de Bruijn, his phone numbers you can find on his anti-aging and life style website. He knows everything about sewing machines, so also about our Featherweights. So he solved some little problems just there and explained how to keep our machine in  good condition. It's so good to know that if our "loves" need repairs there is somebody to help us. Thanks Bep.

I made two little films (in dutch) where he's telling about what to do:  number 1, number 2.

Just one drop of oil is enough.

Oiling your machine

Depending how often you use your machine it needs once or twice a year some oil. Just put a small drop of sewing machine oil, into all the little holes in your machine. See some examples on on the pictures.



Explanation on film 1 and 2.



And no, you don't need special singer sewing machine oil. Every sewing machine oil is oke.

Here is another youtube film in English about how to take good care of your love one.

 

Singer Featherweight Day Atelier Bep

I adore my white feather weight.

 How many girls can  you put in Bep's kitchen and livingroom with a Featherweight?

Well the answer is:  24 girls (and we're not featherweight ; ). It was a rainy sunday and they say the temperatures were the same as X-mas 2011. The last time we had such a cold summerday was in 1953.

The girls liked my own design of a  cross stitch FW so if  you like the pattern, it's for free and I can send it to you, or you can print the picture, just follow the link above.

 

FW-soup, recipe on Bep's blog.



But who cares about rain when you're in Bep's kitchen eating Featherweight soup.  And then there was Mr. Featherweight from Apeldoorn. He knows all about FW's and explained us how to oil the machine etc. And Jeannet with a show-and-tell of her quilts. Bep, Gerard, daughters of Bep,  thanks for taking care of us.

In a few days I will post some little films and pictures about oiling your machine. So keep watching my blog.

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I

And how are things at home. Well it's very quiet, it's strange when you're coming home from work and our four-legged friend isn't there to greet us. Nobody anymore who's playing hide-and-seek with your shoes. We sure miss him!  

After a walk nice and warm on the sofa under my X-mas quilt.

Paco (16 march 2000 - 1 june 2012)



Last picture, made this morning.

A sad day. Our 12 year old dog Paco (cocker spaniel) passed away. He had already some serious health problems with his back. Together with the vet we decided that there was no use in letting him suffer any longer. Not an easy descision we had to make, I can assure you.

So we try to remember all the good things like, the mountains we climbed together, our daily walk through the Hague Woods, his "unfriendly behaviour" to most other dogs, and his never ending appetite, jumping on the dining table to get our dinner, stealing bread and choclate out of the bags of our guests, and many other memories. But it's quiet in the house, now he isn't walking around.

It's almost five years ago that I started my blog, and my first post was about Paco on a mountain in Austria.

 

 

Paco in France 2010.



His favorite basket in my quiltroom.

 

Snow, that's good.

He really needed a haircut.



One of his favorite acitivities.

After a long walk sleeping with his head on his favorite lion pillow.

They say mud is very good for your skin.

The beach, here we will be leaving his ashes.

Feeling himself really happy.

Paco in his new home in The Hague, his basket wasn't there yet, but the laundry basket seemed a good alternative.



World Championship Football 2010