It's quilting weather today .....

.... in the Netherlands, and especially in The Hague. They predict wind, rain and cold.



So quilters I would say hurrah!!!


 I have been doing some quilting the last weeks, but till this weekend the weather was so lovely that we spend a lot of time outside, walking the dog, cycling, drinking wine outside in the Theresiastraat. Enjoying the autumn sun.

I can't show you all my projects, because some of my finished projects are going to Seattle. And I don't want to spoil the suprise. Sorry Seattle-friends, still 5 weeks to go.

Work in progress

In the afternoon Emma is coming, and later on her husband and kids will join us for tea and dinner. I think I will make "snert" (literally translated "rubish"). But in the Netherlands it's another name for pea soup.



The "house quilttop" is almost finished, I'm working at the last border, one finished, three to go. Seems like a nice Featherweight project for this afternoon. The last border will be hourglasses.

Not to forget: We cycled to farm "Geertje" yesterday, needed some special things like pearjuice, cranberry juice and honey wine. Aren't those little piggies cute.


Farm / Boerderij Geertje, close to Leiden

Last sunday we visited a Nature reserve in Lelystad. I think the last time we were there was at least 10 years ago. It's lovely parc. You can make long walks, and it's free. You only have to pay three euro to park your car. So if you want to have a fun sunday, and don't want to spend a lot of money. This is a good idea. Dogs and bikes are allowed ; ).

Sun bathing otter family

 

Mies watching the wild cows in the reserve.

My mum and dad .....

My french plates.

... in The Hague. It's still amazing how good the weather is here, about 20C and some sun.

So we split up, dad and Rob went away for a cyclingtour, mum and me chose the beach.

We found a very interesting knitting project. I wonder who made this little flags on our way to the beach.

Marne if you're sick of making cloths during basketball games. Here is an altnernative ; ).

Dinner "Chez Rob et Caro"

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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