A lovely autumn weekend

We were so lucky this weekend. Sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine.

We spend the whole weekend in the woods in our 'summer residence'. Beside walking and sunbathing I finished a few more blocks of my Spakenburger Mills, 36 blocks are sewn together. That means another 13 blocks for the top, and four blocks for the corners in the border.

Slowly but steady going on.

Holiday is over ....

Along the Donau at Regensburg.

 
..... work again.

Around 15.00,  tme for cake and coffee in Germany

Time to start blogging ; ), and pick up our  "normal" life.

We had a lovely two weeks. We started at the Veluwe at our own mobile home: walking, cycling, reading, visiting the Zoo, open air museum, a little bit of shopping, some quilting and just being lazy.




Along the coast in The Hague  it was pooring rain, but here the weather was pretty good, with lots of sunshine.

Regensburg, with all the coloured houses it feels almost italian.

The second week we drove to Germany to end in Regensburg, and visit our friends Hubert and Sabine. About 780 km, I hate long drives, so we decided to take it easy, and made a stop for two days in Koblenz, lovely cit along the Rhine. Unfortunetaley the weather was sooo bad. It started raining in the morning and it didn't stop till we left.

Abbey Weltenburg

We hadn't seen Hubert and Sabine for more then 4 years, but for some reason it seemed that long. Nothing changed, maybe we all got some extra wrinkles.


Regensburg is a beautiful medieval city along the Danube. The stone bridge (see our picture), was built  between 1135–1146, it'ss a highlight of medieval bridge building. The knights of the 2nd and 3rd  crusade used it to cross the Danube on their way to the Holy Land.

Abbey Weltenburg

Hubert and Sabine

On friday we visited  the abbey Weltenburg. The abbey is situated on a peninsula in the Danube, on the so-called "Weltenburg Narrows" or the Danube Gorge. The monastery, founded by Irish or Scottish monks in about 620, is held to be the oldest monastery in Bavaria. Very famous is the brewery, in operation since 1050, making "dark / dunkel" beer.

We visited the Abbey by ship. Of course Mies needed a ticket as well.

Only 7 weeks till my next holiday: Seattle here I come.

A special dog ticket.

Spakenburger Mills

Emma was here last sunday and she made a picture of me and my Spakenburger quilt, which is still in progress. It's a very interesting quilt, because you can see different stars and circles in it. I think I like it to be pretty big. The picture really inspires me to go on.

After cleaning up my quiltroom, I have avoided quiltshops. There is enough fabric in my quiltroom to keep me busy for several years ; ). Most of us know this problem.

But .... I had to go the Museum in Spakenburg.they're closing down for the winter, and I needed to be sure there is enough fabric to finish my "Mills of Spakenburg".

The museum exposes different quilts, mostly made of spakenburger fabrics.

Loads of "quilt fabrics" waiting for their new owners.

Lovely day with Emma, Olivier, Nathan, Lucy and Bailey

The morning started grey with lots and lots of rain. 

Emma's famous lemon cake!!!!

But by the time they arrived it stopped raining. Hurrah!! And the rest of the afternoon sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine. Friends around, bbq, quilting, making a walk, happy children and dogs.What a perfect way to spend a sunday afternoon.

More about Spakenburg .....red cabbage, smoked fish and

..... yes you can cycle with traditional clothes.












Red cabbage with fried herring on monday
This lovely couple were busy cooking red cabbage. It's a tradition to eat it on monday with fried herring or fish. In the large and poor families you didn't have your own plate. You were all sitting around the table and eat directly out of of the pan. There was a little bowl (see picture) with some fat, you could dip in your food. But when family came from outside Spakenburg they used those nice plates, but only for the guests. It tasted very well.

This red bowl was used in old days to dip in food.

Plates for the guests.

For Mies

This quilt comes from the Jules book. "A house is not a home without a dog". 

I hope Mies will appreciate it.I'm not so sure about it ; ).

Women of Spakenburg

Already a year later, and again we're on the fishing day of Spakenburg. It's so good to be here. I made many pictures, but I especially love those made of the women of Spakenburg with their beautyful kraplappen, 

To answer the question of Chookey: Every year less women wear traditional clothes. A group of probably 40-50 women wear this costume daily. So long time they feared the costumes would be no longer part of the streets of Spakenburg. But there is much more interest now from younger generations. Not to wear it daily but to make it and wear it on special days like the Fishing Day. The Historical Club is giving very regular courses, and they're well visited.

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Sweet lavender sheep

 Not a big quilting project : ). Just a little sheep I made, filled with lavender. The pattern is from Atelier Bep, http://www.atelierbep-winkel.nl/.

Happy birthday Mies

.... 14 years old today.

Walking through Nuenen ..... village from Vincent van Gogh

His parents house

..... although he lived here only for two years (1883-1885) with his parents in the vicarage. He painted here one of his most famous paintings "de aardappeleters".




The village is like an open air museum.

He painted the little church, his dad was the vicar here,  for his mum in 1884 when she broke her leg.

As my friend Barbara said: NL is zo leuk. (so fun). It's true!!! So much to see and explore.

 so

House of Margot Begeman, the girl next door he fell in love with.

De aardappeleters, finished in 1886

Park 65

And then there Park 65 in Nuenen, this house that has nothing to do with Vincent van Gogh. But between  1988 - 1995 we stayed here several times. The house was of the parents of a collegae of mine. One a year they had a family day. But her parents didn't like to leave the house unattended. So we took care of the house for a weekend. It's such a lovely house, her parents died long ago, but I think her brother is still living there. We peeked through the windows, and there was still the same furniture. Back to memory lane.