Castle and Monastry Slangenburg

The castle Slangenburg is build between 1541, when the land was given to the Family van Bauer and 1679. Very interesting detail is the "schuilkerk" (hidden church) in the castle. This little catholic chapel was hidden in the attic. Around 1675 the official religion in the nothern Netherlands was protestant-christian, so the lords of the Castle of Slangenburg were excluded from public service.

The castle is beautyfully designed with paintings (41), wood-carvings and plastered walls and ceilings. For example the western tower shows pictures of the three devine virtues: believe, hope and glory. In 1772 the Castle was sold for 400.000 dutch guilders. Between 1772 - 1895 the castle had several owners.

In 1895 the german family Passmann bought the castle. They loved the castle, when the daughter of the house died on the age of 20, she was buried on a special graveyard on the estate. In 1945 after the World War they were forced to leave the castle, and the castle was given to the government.

In 1945 the Roman Church wanted to build a monastry in the eastern part of Holland. So they got 63ha of land from the castle. In 1949 the friars started to build the monastry. During that time they lived in the castle. There was a special entrance through a window in the cellar they used. Nowdays this entrance is still used by the visitors for their bikes. In 1952 the Monastry was finished and the castle became a guesthouse. Still there is connection between the castle and monastry. Many guests are visting the services in the little Church of the Monastry.

Castle Slangenburg

Today Jacqueline and I are leaving together for a weekend. We are going to the Castle Slangenburg in the eastern part of Holland near the little village Doetinchem. The castle is a place for anyone who longs for rest and good care. And of course we have taken our quilt-equipment with us. I hope the weather will not be too bad.

http://www.kasteelslangenburg.nl/welcome.htm

Patchwork & Quilt Days in Rijswijk

March 28, 29 and 30, 2008 the 5th Patchwork & Quilt Days takes place in the Exhibition Centre of Rijswijk (near The Hague, Holland). There will be vendors selling fabrics, books, patterns and all kind of things quilters need.

And there will be beautifull exhibition of quilts. And guess what: my quilt with stars I made for my mothers 65th birthday will be hanging there!!!!

USA here I come ........

Still six months to go, and than ....... I'm flying to Seattle to visit Marne and Elaine. Marne visited me in februar and now I'll make a return visit in september. It's really excited, meeting new people (quilters), joining her quiltbee, visiting americain quiltshops, learning new skills from Marne. Woh, I can't wait.

Seattle is on the westcoast of the USA, they're living 582.000 people. Famous people born in Seattle are: Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Bill Gates. The climate is almost the same as here. And they have also tulips, so I have to think about an other gift.

Blog updated

Some of my friends of the Quiltbee in Putten complained that I hadn't posted on my blog for a week. So ladies here all news about a week patchwork and quilting.

Round Robin

The first of March, means sending our Round Robin project. So yesterday evening I finished Jacq's RR so monday I'll send it to Marc in Anterwerpen (Belgium). Jacq likes country-style so I choose semi-dark colours. Personally I love the eight-pointed stars in the corners.

Marne has taken my "sleeping dog"with her, after that Marc put the first border on it. In august it will be completed. It 's really fun, you don't how it's going to look in the end. The first border: Marc, second border Marne, third border Jacqueline, and the last border myself.

Putten - Den Haag (The Hague)

Saturday 1th of march. The quiltbee I join in Putten is visiting me. The last time I saw them was at Helen's X-mas workshop. So it was really good to see everybody. I can't join this bee as much as I want, I hope summertime will be better. Of course we've started with a show-and-tell. Afterwards we went up-town. Visiting my favorite quiltshop in The Hague. After finishing coffee at Evy (Quilterspalet), buying some stuff and fabrics, we went for Parimar (bookshop with lot of quiltbooks). At 4 o'clock the RandstadRail brought us back home, unfortunetaly it was already time to go for the ladies. Next trip will be Rijswijk the 29 th March. Helen has made a lot of beautyfull pictures this day, you'll find the pictures and story on her weblog "Helen's Blog".

Log cabin part 8

As you can see we've worked very hard on our log-cabin projects, the fun is of doing a course that everybody chooses his own colours, and that effect is very different. I want to expand my logcabin with two borders, so in the the end it will be about 1m80 x 1m80. In this lesson Wiea told us how we can finish the quilt. I decided I will use a combination of machine- and handquilting, but I think it will take me several weeks to finish the top.

Workshop Dijanna Cevaal

Today I did a workshop at the Quilterspalet in The Hague. It was very special. The teacher was Dijanna Cevaal (born in Holland) and living since her 10th birthday in Australia. She is a Textile Artist. Her quilts are very famous, she dyes and prints her own fabrics, what makes them unique.

The technique we learned today is called: Tifaifai. It’s based on Polynesian quilts and free-machine applique. First we designed our own pattern (not ease but great results), and ironed it on the top. After that we start working on our sewing machine, to sew the applications by free-machine quilting. And unbelievable, end of the day I had finished my top.

I think the day was fantastic!! Thank you for teaching Dijanne. Thank you Evy and Petra for organizing this day. In my webalbum (see right in the corner) you can see all the pictures I made this day.

If you want to know more about Dijanne Cevaal, you can read her blog: http://origidij.blogspot.com/2006/12/i-have-updated-my-picturetrail-site.html

Marne

On Thursday and Friday Marne (USA) visited me. I only know her from the quiltgroup on the internet so it was very exciting. At 10.30 a.m. she arrived by train, after lunch, of course we had to visit a quilshop, so we went to Evy (Quilterspalet) for a chat and a cup of tea, and buy some (not americain) fabrics. Lucky for us Evy just received fabrics from Denmark. In the afternoon Jacqueline and her daughter were visting us too. Jacqueline knows her also from internetquiltgroup, we had a lovely time and dinner was a great succes.

On friday we went to Amsterdam to visit "De Haag en Wagenmaker" and "Birdblocks". The "Haan en Wagenmaker" is a very special shop with beautyfull reproductions of old dutch fabrics. I think we spend at least an hour over there. I have made a little quilt with fabrics from their shop, and the lady in the shop asked me to send some pictures when it's finished. And of course I also had to buy fabrics for a quilt. Yesterday evening Marne learned me how to use the patterns in the fabrics to create new patterns in squares. I think she's really expierenced, I wish she could stay longer and learn me all the trics and techniques she knows. Quilting in the USA has a long tradition, there are stores with fabrics, we even can't image, and the magazines they have. Marne brought me six different magazines, so lots of inspirations. I think when I go to the USA I have to take one empty suitecase with me, and fill it up with fabrics, magazines and books.