such sweet memories !!!

Today we had a lovely
"long-time-no-see" friend with her daughter
visiting us !

Sixty eight years ago I first met Karin.
We were both having our summer-camping-holiday in Austria :
we were from The Netherlands (Rotterdam)
and they came from Germany (Nürnberg)
We were both single girls away with our parents
(my much older brother never went with us)
Not speaking the language
is no big problem for children :
we played, we talked with our hands
or asked the grown ups to translate for us.
We had a click were very happy together.

On our way back home we stopped by their place
and that was the start of a loooong friendship
and many many letters
after I started German in the second year
in secondary school.

In August 2020 the Stitch Club workshop by Anne Kelly
was about making a leporello booklet
and I decided to make one about my long friendship with Karin.
I unearthed ephemera that I didn't know I still had
and had such great fun making the booklet !!!

My dearest Karin and daughter Jana
(who, with her brother, made this trip possible)

THANK  YOU  SO  MUCH

for this lovely visit !!!

I hope we can still repeat it in the future !

wordless Wednesday

 

a textile day !

Yesterday daughter and I visited the
"Textiel Festival"
in Amersfoort.



It was the last day of four days stuffed to the brim :
with the presence of all the major textile associations,
workshops, lectures, the results of a competition,
exhibitions through the (lovely old) city,
an Arts & Crafts market and
about 800 "hoops" ("Rondje Textiel")
filled with any textile technique
you can think of !!!

It was a sunny and (too) warm day
so we picked the things we liked most to visit.
I'm sorry to say we just missed "The Red Dress"
because we had to wait too long for a time-slot
but we're happy to have seen the "Colorminds"
and the three "LAK" ladies.
(and of course we came home with some goodies !)

It was a wonderful day !!!
A big THANK  YOU  to the organisation
and all the volunteers who made this possible !

Thank you !

 After a quiet Sunday
a very busy Monday and again a quiet day today
I have time to tell you that we had a lovely Saturday
at the GRIETMARKT !

(ready for the start)

Sunshine, a sweet friend assisting me,
a happy friend in the next stall who had her first try,
lots of nice people to talk to about felting, stitching and painting
and some sales !
We went home satisfied.

A big
THANK  YOU
to the team who organized the market
and my customers !!!

wordless Wednesday

 

ART MARKET Amerongen

Only a few more days from now
on Saturday
Mai 9
 

I will be at the

GRIET  MARKT

again !

If you are anywhere near,
please come to Amerongen to this wonderful market
with lots of organic products, design and art
to choose from.
And . . . there will be music too !

In addition to my gouache paintings I am also bringing
textile panels with birds, with flowers and with abstract stitching,
and lots of felt objects.

 

Textile jewelry : like the new necklace here,

small felted bags, fish, finger puppets and insects.

It would be lovely to see you there !!!

birthday and painting

Yesterday
I had a lovely birthday with friends
and there will be more celebrating this Sunday :
a dinner party for a special round-figure birthday !

80


Right now the garden is looking lush with blooming trees and new greenery
(haha, birthday beauty for me !)

Just some days ago I started a new gouache painting.
After the initial idea sketch I made a bigger one 
with more elaborate details,
one ready to move onto the heavy water colour paper.
(I often use a grid for that)

I work in layers, starting with the background.
Earlier on I made the whole background in one colour
but with gouache, unlike acrylic paint,
the pigment dissolves again when the next wet layer is added
(colours start mixing !)
So now I changed that and leave certain parts open.

This far I finished today.