July 2018

This summer!

Don’t know about you, but I love summer and I love this summer, intense heat in all. I love the outdoor living, I love the house with it’s open windows and garden doors, I love being able to walk outside just like that (no shoes, coat, scarf, gloves to put on first), I love the lighter foods, I love the late afternoon apératifs enjoyed in the garden with friends and neighbours, I love the beers on the beach in the evenings just watching those glorious sunsets, I even much prefer those extreme heat days when I really do not know what to do with myself (37C in a super insulated house and no airco…. , definitely buying those units before next summer) to the very Dutch alternative of rain and wind.
But sewing…. not a lot, not this July.

This summer is to be enjoyed outside, at the beach and in the city, trying out new restaurant terraces and familiair ones, with Whopper of course!

July is also the month in which our American friends celebrate their country’s birthday.
That particular day we certainly had a party to go to, a rather untraditional family outing ….. to a Guns n Roses concert!

Again, a scorching hot day but perfect for the occasion.
In 1993 (!) I had tickets for their concert in our country, but as I had just met my husband (again) and he could not go with me I sold my tickets (out of loyalty, he would have loved to join me) , shortly after GnR as a group broke up, so this concert was something we waited for a long time! Little did we know in 1993 we would have a 20 year old daughter to join us this time 😊

Golden circle tickets, Axl’s voice still as strong as ever, Duff still a steady force and Slash *superb* , a day and evening to remember.

Back to quilty things later on in the month, you may remember I met my first quilt teacher again during the Rijswijk quiltshow in the spring (click) after decades if being out of touch? 

Well, she came over for a visit and it was a  lovely afternoon.

In her mid-eighties, still driving a car, still quilting and still as sharp as ever, what can I say, lots of respect for this lady, Ingrid van Hengel.

She brought a few quilts she still has, most quilts she has made she has given away 

She showed me an interview with her in the April 2012 issue of Quilt Life

She kindly gifted me a so-called Dutch ‘kraplap’, part of Dutch national costume in certain area’s, this one – as it is black – part of mourning dress, it is very beautiful.

We discussed colors, I remembered her lessons from the past, we looked for a border fabric for the hexagon quilt she is working on and talked about much more.
What a great lady.

As I am writing this the weather has cooled down from that July heat, definitely back to a bit more sewing now, so more quilty things to share in my next blogpost.

Thank you for visiting my blog,

Phyllis

April 2018 , The Netherlands

There has not been a month ever I think that I have been so busy with quilt events. So for this month I decided to divide my ‘monthly memories’ post into two installments.

First, I was asked to help out at Petra Prins’ (click) booth at the quiltshow in Rijswijk at the beginning of April. I had worked at booths at quiltshows in the past (a long, long time ago) and since Petra’s is always a favorite booth of mine when I visit shows I was thrilled, not in the least also by having the chance to work alongside Judith (click).

The afternoon before the show we transformed an empty booth  into this

That evening Juud and I toasted to a good show during a dinner in The Hague center (click to her blogpost) the night before the opening.

The next morning we could not wait to get started….. we were the first in the parking lot :-))! This would be the same everyday, btw, just raring to go each day.

Being early gives you a chance to have a few chats with your neighbours and for a bit fun, here are Juud and Betty (who had her quilts on exhibition this show, more on that later) before the show ‘opening up their creative chakra’s’  ….  or something like that 😉 😊

Once the show opened on the first morning things started a bit different than planned when Elsbeth (click) phoned to say she had car trouble and could not be there until lunchtime.
That left me working in the Den Haan & Wagenmakers (click) booth and Juud in the Petra Prins’ booth on her own. No problem as they were next to each other.

Both booths looked beautiful and it was a joy to work in both of them.

Being popular booths, usually they were busy but during those rare moments when it was a bit quiet Juud found the time do some quilting

and we took turns to have a look at the exhibitions, I really loved Betty Prins’ (click) . Maybe because Betty spends quite a lot of time in France I don’t know, but when I look at her quilts I see the sun shine:

Quiltshows for me are not only about quilts, booths, fabrics, notions etc. but also very much about the people. One of the things I really enjoy about working at a booth at a quiltshow is meeting the people who come to the booth. New faces, familiar faces, quilters I see regularly, quilters I have not seen for a while or in one case not for a very, very long time.

Among the familiar faces was the talented Hilde (click) , who I am in touch with but as she currently lives in Ghana do not see a lot. This will change when she moves back to The Netherlands. She was visiting with a (quilt)friend who – we found out when chatting – lives in my area, so a new bee was born!

And then there was a very special meeting indeed.

A lady passed stopped at our booth and I already thought she looked familiar. So we started talking and what I thought was right, she was my very first quilt teacher! She gave me my 1^st patchwork lesson in the late 80’s and taught me so many techniques during the courses and workshops I attended.

During several summers back then she was a guest teacher at this incredible location (click) &  (click) where she gave week-long courses, living close to each other we took turns in driving there. This location was then used for creative week-long summer courses: painting, sculpting, sewing and yes, quilting. You can imagine, these were special times.

And at one stage she even gave me private lessons at her home, teaching me Baltimore Album techniques in exchange for the blocks I made then, to use as examples for the Baltimore Album course she would be teaching.

With me moving away from The Hague (happy to say, moved back quite a few years ago) and busy family life and work getting in the way we lost touch but I always wondered how she was and several times ‘googled’ her, did not find a way to contact her. She told me she recently found those Baltimore Album blocks I made and wondered about me as well.

Juud kindly offered to look after the booth while we had a tea and a long chat. I was so pleased to find she still quilts and is still as sharp as ever, what a lady. And I am happy to say: to be continued……!

The days working in Petra Prins’ booth were special, not just because of the beautiful fabrics and quilts that surrounded us but for the emotions as well. Happy ones and sad ones. The latter needs to be mentioned as well. 

In the back of our minds and therefore very much present in the booth was Bep, longtime employee but much more than that of Petra’s , who at that time was very ill and left us a few days later.
Always kind, smiling, cheerful, helpful, funny, passionate about quilts and quilting and just always there: in the shop, at quiltshows, workshops, bees and exhibitions. I followed workshops by her, attended bees with her, I shared stories and jokes with her, she advised me on purchases. She was so much a part of Petra Prins' in Zutphen, I will really miss her.
Emma (click) and I were lucky enough to see Bep again during the weekend workshop by Di Ford (click) in Zutphen last September when she came in just for a visit. As always Bep was a ray of sunshine and I am so happy I can remember her in that way.
Bep’s passing and other sad news during those days made this a bit of rollercoaster kind of few days where happy moments and sad moments took turns.

Make the best you can of every moment, or as a lady I spent time with later on the month (blogpost coming up) said: "this is no dress rehearsal",

Phyllis