Pompeij

I am a big fan of the ancient world. Athens, Mykene, Rome, ..... To walk in these places imagening how life has been there 2000 years ago, the feeling to relive history - that's really fascinating for me.

Therefore I wanted to visit Pompeij for a long time but somehow I never made it. But now I did it. My expectations were enormous - and still they were surpassed. The size alone is overwhelming. Pompeij is really comparable to a modern city in size. We walked the excavation site for more than 7 hours and still we did not see everything.

To walk Pompeij is one of the most fascinating things. There is so much to see, to read and to guess (What was this? Who lived there? What did they do in these rooms?).

The frescos on the walls are still in great conditions ...

... as are the mosaic floors

And above all there is Vesuvio looming - always visible, most of the time with a cloud obscuring the summit, shadows on the flanks, always a reminder to what happened in 79.

Of course there is a lot more to see in and around Naples. Herculaneum, the Archaeological Museum or the amphitheater in Pozzuoli just to name a few. And if you need even more incentives to go there - this is how the sunset looks.

A cover for my calendar

I decided that my calendar needs a cover showing my passion for fabrics. And especially for this cute fabric with paw prints. It is so easy to do and just needs about half an hour. And this is how to do it:

Measure the outside of your calender, don't add any seam allowance at this point. Measure the complete width backside, spine and frontside - a tape measure works best for this.

Add 2 cm/1 inch to the width and to the height for seam allowance and cut 3 pieces out of the chosen fabric. I did cut all three pieces from the paw print but you can use a contrasting color for the inside piece and/or the flaps.

If you want to make your cover softer cut a piece of batting in the same size.

Cut one piece of the fabric into two halves. My piece has a width of 28 cm (see measure tape in the first picture) and 2 cm of seam allowance which makes 30 cms. So I cut 2 pieces of 15 cms.

Fold each of these 2 cut pieces into half, right side out and iron them. These are your 2 flaps.

Lay out your piece of batting (if you use one). Lay the first piece of fabric (which is the outside of your cover) on the batting right side up. Lay the two flaps on the ends of the fabric and align the open ends with the end of the fabric.

Put the last piece of fabric (which is the inside of the cover) on top, right side down. Pin all the layers together.

Sew around the cover leaving approximately 8 cm/3 inches open in the middle of one of the long sides. Backstitch at the beginning and the end of the seam to secure the thread. Leave 25 cm/10 inches of thread at the end of the seam.

Trim the batting almost to the seam and cut off the four corners. Be careful not to cut into the seam.

Turn the right side of the cover out through the opening, iron and close the opening with hand stitches using the leftover thread.

Iron once more and put your calender/book/notebook/sketchbook/... into the new cover.

I'm linking this post to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Fridays" blog. 

Grande Finale

… was the title of the very last show of Europeanartquilt.com. Since 1997 Olga Prins-Lukowsky and her team organised 8 exhibitions showing the very best of European textile art. When Olga (who is a great textile artist herself) decided to retire she organised one last show with 150 pieces of textile art by 75 artists from 18 different European countries. Each piece was once exhibited in one of the 8 European Art Quilt Shows.

Lucky me – I happened to be on vacation in the Netherlands during the last 2 days of the exhibit. I arrived at the Amsterdam airport at noon, rented a car and immediately drove south to Goes where this show took place. By 4 o’clock I was in the museum – an old schoolhouse where the quilts were hung in small rooms over 3 floors. The quilts got plenty of room on the walls and a lot of daylight. It was a wonderful show – but have a look for yourself:

“Daily Walking 5” by Cécile Trentini of Switzerland

The quilt “Daily Walking 5” by Cécile Trentini does look colorful from the distance but not too impressive. But when you get close and you can see how it was made it’s a very different story. Cécile took pictures of her daily walks and quilted the streets, ways and pathes in different colors. Many photos were assembled to make this quilt where the colors are leading you right into the pictures. What a great piece.

“Chaos and Order” by Charlotte Yde of Denmark

“Confusing Dreams 1, 2 and 3” by Bente Vold Klausen of Norway

“Shapes and Lines” by Heide Stoll-Weber of Germany

“The Blue Line” by Jane Lloyd of Great Britain

“Diptich Daedalus and Icarus” by Irina Voronina of Russia

“Aftermath” by Leslie Morgan of Great Britain

“Crime and Punishment” by Isabelle Wiessler of Germany

“The Arrival” by Brigitte Kopp of Germany

One of the most heartwrenching pieces for me was the quilt “The Arrival” by Brigitte Kopp which shows the arrival of refugees and the indifference and sometimes hostility of the people living there.
Brigitte also did a great job depicting the skyline of the city with embroidery.

It was a wonderful show in a very nice location (although a little bit away from the main routes) and I felt really lucky that I was there in time to see it. If you want to see more of this or the previous European Art Quilt shows there are still catalogues available at europeanartquilt.com

Thank you Olga Prins-Lukowsky for your dedication to the European Art Quilt. Enjoy the time to come and I am looking forward to seeing your quilts in quilt shows around the world.

In the Netherlands

A few weeks ago I spent a wonderful week in the Netherlands, the land of windmills and cheese. And cows and sheep and ships and canals and tasty, international food and great coffee and cakes and a beautiful, windswept landscape and cute villages and …. and …. and …. You get the point – a beautiful country with nice people. I really loved it.


The vacation was built around my husband’s schedule of conferences. He happened to be there and I just joined him. So it really was a coincidence that at the same time the Quilter’s Guild of the Netherlands had their annual show in Alkmaar. And since nothing is really far away in Holland we drove to Alkmaar, for me to see the show.

The quilts were hung in a beautiful and really huge church with enough daylight through the large windows to see the quilts in their real colors. The quilts were all by quilters from the Netherlands and it was an interesting overview of the different styles. One could see everything from traditional to contemporary, from appliqué to paper-piecing and everything in between.

“Colourful Escher” by Henny Meerman. 105 x 105 cm / 41 x 41 inches

“Mijn papavers” by Ria van den Bosch. 110 x 110 cm / 43 x 43 inches

“Geometrisch Alfabet” by Laurence Schoemaker-Aaftink. 125 x 175 cm / 49 x 69 inches

“Indonesische sawas” by Nelleke Kooij. 10 x 100 cm / 39 x 39 inches

16 quilters from the quiltgroup “De Lakenquilters” made this groupquilt, clearly inspired by the great painter Piet Mondrian.

“Stijlvol 2017”. 120 x 180 cm / 47 x 71 inches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Paleishet Loo” by Maaike Bakker. 160 x 214 cm / 63 x 84 inches

“Losing my marbles” by Marina Brito de Campos. 162 x 162 cm / 64 x 64 inches

“Amish Circles” by Ingeborg Nyqvist. 129 x 129 cm / 51 x 51 inches

“Zweven” by Jeanette van der Linden. 150 x 110 cm / 59 x 43 inches

The quilters of the Netherlands always had a special affinity towards appliqué and I remember breathtaking quilts which weren’t only marvelled at in Europe but also in the United States (i.e. Ted Storm won at least 3 times Best of Show at Quiltweeks). And they still make beautiful appliqué quilts…

“Slingerkrans” by Ineke Goulmy-Hendriks. 250 x 210 cm / 98 x 83 inches

 … or use a combination of piecing and broderie perse.

“Antique Wedding” by Jannie de Wilde-van den Eijkel. 160 x 160 cm / 63 x 63 inches

 

 

“Ximeroni” by Jenny Kanakis. 85 x 55 cm / 33 x 22 inches

“Elke dag een draadje” by Marjan Rijnders. 240 x 240 cm / 94 x 94 inches

“Spanish dream” by Anja Kok. 185 x 200 cm / 72 x 79 inches

Holland was not only a great place for vacation but also a marvellous place for the travelling quilter (there even was a second, totally different quilt show – more about this one next week).