Cycling and Patchwork

Rob was on a short holiday last week (wednesday till tuesday). On thursday and friday he had a congress in Maastricht. Friday-evening he started his cyclingtour together with his friend Tale. They made a cycling-tour through Belgium (Hasselt, Soersel) and the Netherlands (Middelburg, Ouddorp), back to The Hague. I think they cycled about 440 km. PHOTOS.

The weather was great, and lucky, most of the time they had the wind in their back.

Well what about me?

They left me alone with Paco (our dog). Time for some quilting. I used the whole house, fabrics, ironboards, patterns were standing everywhere. Saturday-night I was sewing till midnight. So I finished the top of this springquilt in one weekend. It's made from two charmpacks (5 inch) and two other fabrics, all bought at my favorite quiltshop: http://www.quilterspalet.nl/.

This quilt is for myself. It's called a split nine-patch, I love making these pattern. They're easy, the result is great and you can make a lot different patterns. I made the top with the sewing machine, I think quilting I will do by hand.

Easter Bunny .....

... where are they come from? And why do they bring us chocolate eggs in a basket on their back? Who put the eggs in the basket? And why do they want to hide them in your garden? You can find answers on the internet. But most of it all has to do all with our past. Just like eggs, bunnies are fertility symbols of extreme antiquity. Well very interesting. The Easter bunnies I made are just for fun, one for my summerhouse, and the blue-white for Marne's dutch corner. Tomorrow it's Easter Monday, so in the Netherlands it means extra day free from "work". An extra day of quilting.

Weeder wanted...

When we were in Doesburg Marne and I saw a lovely quilt with the text: "weeder wanted", "where's my green thumb" and "dirt therapy". Because there wasn't a patron of it, we made our own design and cut the fabric, just the morning before she was leaving a few hours later on her way to Seattle. I think we're really quilt-addicts!!! It's still a long time to februar 2010. The border is made with the string-piece technique, Marne explained to me how to do that. It's really easy and fun, and good to get rid of your scraps. This is very good site about this technique.

Projects to finish

Two new projects. Both started when Marne was here in The Hague. One is for my mother and is called a "split" nine-patch, it's blue-brown-beige. The back is from darkblue fleece. The other project is called "puss in the corner". This one is made from my "american fabrics" that I got in september 2008 from Marne's quiltbee "Stashbusters". It took me really long time to decide what I'm going to do with these fabrics, because I wanted to use all the fabrics in 1 quilt. Aren't these fabric lovely, there are "civil war fabrics".

Marne got safe home...

..... and now our house looks very empty and quiet.

Yesterday Marne flew back to Seattle, the end of a lovely week with visiting friends, quilting together, looking for fabrics, coffee and lots of conversation. Now it's counting down till next year. PHOTOS DAY 17

Day 13 - Day 15

We did a lot of things the last days, and not only quilting. Wednesday the weather was so beautiful so we decided to take the dog for a walk on the beach. We could even drink coffee outside.

Thursday we prepared our little trip to my parents, they're living in the east part of the Netherlands. First we went along Agnes from Minewoodquilting, Marne is a customer for years, so it was really fun to meet her, and look around in her little shop at home, she has a lot of dutch fabrics. From there we drove to the next quiltshop: Atelier Bep in Doesburg. It's a lovely shop so we took some time to have a look around.

On friday we went to Munster to the Westfalenstoffe together with my parents. Westfalenstoffe has a beautiful collection, and it was so nice to see all the fabrics in series. And Munster is really worthwile visiting!!! Lovely shops, old-town centre.

After Munster we went to the Castle of Bad Bentheim, at the moment there is an exposition in The Hague / Mauritshuis about Jacob van Ruysdael, he made several pictures of the Castle. Although we didn't recgonize everything he painted, well maybe he changed some parts.

And today (saturday), meeting with some members (me, Marne, Jacqueline, Simone, Joke and Bianca) of the Crazy Exchange Group. We all came to Simone and had a lovely time outside in her garden, with talking, laughing, showing and lots of eating. Everybody took something for lunch, "potluck". It was supposed to be a quilt/embroidery bee but we were much too busy with other things. So I didn't even do one stitch.

If you want to see all the pictures from the last two weeks on you can have a look on: http://picasaweb.google.nl/photos338

Quiltshops and Quilting

Yesterday was all about quiltshops and quilting. And today also!!! We have taken over the diningtable so there are now two sewingmachines on it and a lot of other quilting stuff. We have a little bit space left over for breakfast and dinner. So as soon as we get up (even before breakfast) we start already quilting. Marne learned me how to make a string pieced, very good for your leftovers. After breakfast we visited Rob his grandmother, she's a quilter too, and a dollmaker. Then we went to Haarlem. I don't know Haarlem that well, but Marne was my guide. We found a lovely restaurant where you can eat bagels, probably the only American restaurant in Haarlem, and we've picked it, but very good and cosy.

We went to the Quiltshop The Sampler and bought some lovely Westfalenstoffe (German), and visited the Corrie ten Boom Huis, it's a kind of museum, during World War II they hide a lot of jews and people from the resistance, very interesting a little bit too religious, but well ... that's part of the story.

Well of course that wasn't enough so we ended the day at Evy's Quiltshop www.quilterspalet.nl in The Hague. Like I always say: my quiltshop. It such a lovely shop, we had a nice conversation at the table, drank some tea, and Marne bought a lovely serie of blue-white fabrics.

Day 11 Haarlem
Day 11 Granny
Day 11 Evy

So dinner was take-away pizza, who wants to cook after a day of quiltingactivities. Oh I almost forget if you haven't seen enough pictures of our adventures here are the pictures of Day 10 Peace Palace The Hague: PHOTÖS

Tuesday Haarlem

Today we're going to granny and Haarlem. So another busy day. Time goes so fast so we don't have time for all our plans. Saturday it was Delft, sunday we had Quiltbee and yesterday we visited the Peace Palace. And of course we did some quilting, we're working on a quilt for my mother, it's brown and blue, and it's called a: split nine-patch. And then Marne is also working on her mouse Wim.
Day 9, French Toast
Day 9, Delft, dinner at De Kurk

Don't worry, more pictures to follow from our Quiltbee, Peace Palace, Quilting and Haarlem.

Day 7 - dinner, Day 8 Flowermarket, Binnenhof

Yesterday evening Tale joined us for dinner, and even cooked us a very nice dinner PHOTOS: Tortellinni's, mushroomsoup, cheese and peas. It tasted wonderful. We ended with a lovely desert made by Marne: Tiramisu.

Today we got up very early because we wanted to go to the Flowermarket (PHOTOS) in Aalsmeer, so we had breakfast at 6 o'clock, and drove away at 6.30. We had a very interesting time walking through the Flowermarket/Auction, and it smelled lovely. Homecoming there was a nice suprise, Paco, our dog, had found some chocolate in Marne's and Elaine's room. So he had a lovely time, and I had to take him to the vetinary. Because chocolate isn't very good for dogs. So he throw up, and afterwards he felt very well.

Well that didn't end the day, because in the afternoon we visited the Knight's Hall and the Second Chamber (PHOTOS). Well that ended the day. Time to go to our favorite restaurant http://www.bijmauce.nl/

Day 4 - day 7

See how Marne and Elaine are getting on. Visiting friends, shopping, having lunch, eating etc. etc. PHOTOS