Ahhh Memories

I have been sitting here all morning with nothing accomplished to speak of.  I cleaned up my Pinterest site, I answered e-mails, I made phone call invitations to our Annual Lions End of Year party, I wobbled back and forth to the computer from the sewing machine, and I am in a great deal of discomfort with this leg I managed to hurt yesterday.  All in all not a productive morning!
I did however visit lots and lots of sites whenever I managed to sit down in front of this screen, some which I added to my Pinterest and some which I tried to enter, but, couldn't and then I just got myself sidetracked with memories of other places which house other shops!  
For instance, I really wanted to share some of the Fabric shops I visited while in Holland last year, like Stegemans Textiles.  I wrote last year about my visit there but I don't believe I gave it a thorough review.  The shop is located in Rouveen, very near the old Dorp (Village) of Staphorst.   That is the shop to go to if you want folklore costumes, or just bits of old costume fabrics which are resold and you can take apart to remake into something quilty or wearable.  The town itself is quiet, and its elder inhabitants still wear traditional costumes of many years ago.  The sight of a woman on a bicycle dressed in traditional garb is quite the treat.   There is a lovely Blog I visit now and again names Belvivere Luxury Linens, there you will find a well written article with interesting pictures on her Holiday stay there last summer (I think it was last summer).  One of these fine years I too will be back visiting that Village and this time taking much, much longer to spend my money in that fine fabric filled shop.  It carries traditional Dutch reproduction fabrics which if you were to visit you'd be overjoyed with.  Mind you, present day fabrics are not excluded, that shop has such a varied and wide selection of the latest for you to purchase as well. 
Henk Van der Leeden took a wonderful and awesome picture of women of Staphort all in traditional attire - you have just got to see this picture. 
Compliments of Bon Voyage Theodora there is this picture showing full frontal views of the "Sunday Best" so different from the everyday working attire those women are wearing....

In Stegemans you can actually buy reproductions of these fabrics or, in the alternative as I stated above, you can but the pieces of the costume itself !
As it is with our Mennonite and Amish Sects here in North America, these people of Staphorst still are not comfortable with getting their pictures taken. 
Now, if you would like to visit a modern quilt shop in the Netherlands, try out the t'Hobby Hoekje 

in Arnhem (very close) actually in Huissen, more or less a suburb of Arnhem.  This store is open for business through the week and also does a good retail business over the internet with its web-store.  The selection of fabrics is impressive for small space store!
Last memory I would like to share with you today is the De Lapjesgaard in Amstelveen.... Looking around (see pictures at this site) you can see the "old fashioned" furnishings of the shop which enhances your visit to this well stocked store.   

The scent will transport you you know, old floors, old cabinets, old wood?
Now that I have shared some of my Dutch Fabric/Quilt shops with you, it really is time for me to think of a return trip, don't you agree, I should return and revisit and explore more shops to share?
IF you find yourself in Holland I can attest you will not be disappointed in the quantity and the quality of the Quilt Shops and fabrics in this tiny country.   Like so many other countries in Europe, the dutch quilter is meticulous and takes her hobby of quilting very seriously, they are great at adhering to the letter of the pattern.  What these women in Holland have I might never acquire, patience.  
Thanks for putting up with my meanderings today,  I hope you enjoyed some of my memories?


Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.  ~Author Unknown

I'M AS READY AS I CAN BE!

It's here, it's here, the final day of waiting until I leave very early in the morning!  MY wait is over, hurry up tomorrow and slow down the clock for the next 2 months...puleeeeese?
Picture this:
A van with two suitcases, two women, and a sketchy budget!!!  Back in the very early 1990's, my best friend and I journeyed from Ontario down through the United States heading for Pennsylvania, Amish Quilt Country (at least that is how it was referred to at that time). 

My friend traveled from Holland to Canada landing at Pearson International airport in Toronto    

two days later we were on the road, for us, this trip was a trip of out lifetime.  In those days, neither had a computer, so snail mail flew back and forth.  She had just become addicted to "patchwork" and scoured her library for books on the basics of quilting, which she did, but by hand.  Somehow she convinced me that I too needed a hobby and that is when and where my addiction to quilting began. 
We had six weeks of sheer pleasure, no office, no husbands, no children, really no responsibilities. 

Getting to Pennsylvania was such fun, along the smaller highways and byways whenever I passed a farmer I would shout and wave a HELLO.  The first two hello's she asked me "who was that? "  I would say, "a farmer"!  "Yes" she said, "but what is his name?" I replied, "I don't know" "I just wanted to say hello".  

Poor farmer, he must have thought we were someone he should have known. 
We had a ball, we ate too much at the Amish eating houses, visited as many quilt shops and farm quilters homes as we could, searched all of the byways for those out of the way Amish quilters who allowed the public to visit and shop at their farms and bought way too much fabric.  This is where we were introduced to Miller's - 

wow, our eyeballs bulged the whole time we were in there and our piggy banks took a good beating..

Miller's was and I bet still is a place to visit, especially if your so very new to the quilting hobby and you want to experience some of the Amish style eating places which Miller's clerks can direct you to!!  It was through Miller's we got reservations to many eating establishments, the one we remember the most was the one called "Good and Plenty"

 what sheer eating pleasure that was.  Mmmm  Visit Miller's web site, you will find everything you can want in AMISH QUILT COUNTRY.
We bought far too many pieces of fabrics, so much so that her fabrics could not all be taken home with her as it would put her into major overweight and boy was overweight ever expensive in those days!  Luckily friends and family were traveling to Holland that year and the fabrics were farmed out to the various travelers and eventually found their way to Holland and my friends stash.
We laughed and laughed that whole journey and the memories we made together on that trip are all alive and well today!
Now at that time we'd both been married 25 years by the time we took that trip, but we let loose the responsibilities of family and work and just had a fantastic great time.
Here I am in 2011 and I am so ready for this journey to begin and come 4:30 tomorrow morning I will be up, have had my first cup of coffee, washed, dressed and sitting on my suitcase on the veranda waiting for my brother to pick me up and get my vacation started, after all, I only have two months!!!!  LOL

I have lived with my lists for so long that everything that made it into my case was supposed to be included and well, everything else will remain left behind.  No shampoos,conditions,moisturizers,hand creams or hair equipment of any kind is included among the things in my case, anything I need, I can buy there..  What my case is crammed with are things my friend cannot get there.  Local quilt shops are not as plentiful as in North America and I decided to take a whole ream of things for her to have. 
Thank goodness I bought a special package with my airlines to allow me some extra weight allowances.  This suitcase of mine is so close to my allowance weight and if I had to carry it, I simply wouldn't have the strength to do it. (I just know the look my brother is going to throw my way when he tries to pick up that suitcase and place it into the trunk of his car)!!!!  He is going to lecture me big time, I just know it!!!  LOL 

I have my quilted luggage tags securely attached, strips of the brightest and prettiest blue fabric I could find in my stash neatly tied to the handle of my red suitcase, to make it stand out when it rolls around on the luggage carousel at Schipol Airport.   I locked it using only those interlocking twist ties that you have to cut to get off (better than a lock needing a key to open it) and it is already down stairs. Thank goodness it had wheels or I'd have killed myself getting it down a flight of stairs for sure.
Like I said, I am so ready for this, and hope I will not bore you as I post throughout my time away from my home here in Canada.  
I realize I have written an even longer post today than on some other occasions, but, as stated somewhere in another post, I love to share and who better than you to share it all with.
Thank you for allowing me to share some good memories with you and to begin making new memories this year, and no matter where in this wonderful world we live in, have a simply marvelous day and remember, if you feel like passing a comment, please do, I would love to get to know you  better.