At work again

It feels good to be finally back at work again. I did not do anything fabric related for over 1 month. Now, with workshops coming up I have to settle down and get organized. We still have company as you can see. This means lots of walks in the cold. We are finally getting used to each other. One more week and she will have to return to her owners.
On Saturday I have another "Postcard" workshop for my guild. The first one was in December. I missed that one, because I had the flue. I hope to do better with this one. Since the samples for the last one were all Christmas related I had to come up with something new. These 5 cards are my new patterns.
I will teach in the morning and in the afternoon we will talk about the cards we will make for the next Mennonite Relief Sale quilt. The first step for that one is making cards showing something to do with the work of MCC.

On FEBRUARY 3nd And MARCH 10th I will teach a 2-day workshop for the Waterloo County Quilters Guild. The workshop will be at the Community Center in Mannheim, Ontario that is.I will teach this pot with orchids, surrounded by a sashiko border. There are still a few spots open. So..... if you would be interested in joining us, you contact me at helmuth@golden.net

Home again

On Monday I arrived home again after a very good few weeks. I spend a lot of time with my mother and celebrated her 90th birthday with family and relatives on my last day there. It was fun to meet some cousins I had not seen for a long time. I did not come home with a lot of pictures I dropped my camera with as a result that most did not turn out.
But I do have these of a bridge in the north of Friesland with skaters.

Every so often, when there is lots of ice there is the "elf steden tocht" , the race/tour along the 11 historical cities of the province. The total length is about 200 kilometer. The first race was in 1909 and the last one 10 years ago. This bridge is a salute to all the participants over the last century. The picture of skaters is made up of small blue tiles with pictures of skaters over the years.
I found one square of a woman, who had done the tour in 1909.Her picture showed her when she was older in her Frisian costume.
My father skated the race 3 times in 1941,1942 and 1943, still on the old type wooden skates with iron runners, and we are in the process of getting a tile for my father in his memory. And yes, I did visit the Rijksmuseum with my cousin, saw all the flowerstalls along the water (and wished I could have taken all those lovely flowers home with me)
And the horses. Black horse everywhere. When I was still at home, over 35 years ago, not many people were riding on Frisian horses. When I went with my brother to a dressage show, about halve were black. And the quality.....amazing.
And I did something fabric related. In my quest to get things for my next crazy quilt project, I asked around for old laces. And I was very successfull, later more on this subject.
Once home again, it was back to the familiar.I promtly got the flue again and spend a few days in bed.Then I very graciously gave it to my husband, who is feeling downright sick today
And we did get some visitors. Our daughter and son-in-law have gone to the sunny south and we are looking after their cat, who spends most of her time up on the showerstall and their dog, Berni, who had a lonely few days, but is getting used to us.
AS you can see, never a dull moment on the farm

A New Year

Here we have a new year and lots of things going on. Tomorrow this time I will be on my way to Holland. We will celebrate my mother's 90th birthday. And I cannot miss that. Besides spending a lot of time with my mother I have a few other things on the calendar. One of my cousins and I will visit the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and my brother will take me to the Friesian Museum. Everything is diferent, when you do not have a car. I used to go with the train for 5 years to college. Since living in Canada I have never been on a train, except when I'm over for a visit, so I do not mind taking the train.
And I'm lucky enough to be able to go to the Friesian Horse Show on January 12th. That will bring back a lot of good memories.
But I had to be sure to finish a few projects. This is the 81/2 inch block for my Crazy Quilt Block workshop. I put it in a shadow box, what looks great, but did not photograph well.
A few months ago I finished the applique on my crane quilt. Most of the quilting has been done by my friend Florence. Part of the quilting is done in sashiko style. Once I'm back some more quilting lines have to be added. This crane is about 7 inches tall and consists of about 75 pieces. The white pieces are all out of one mottled fabric.
Since I will not have a computer for the next 2 weeks, this will not be updated till I will be back.