Tuesday

This has been a busy few days around Casa Nana.  Gracious.  Sunday, after a magnificent service at church, virtually entirely done by the youth, we ventured out in the sunshine to attend to Miss Saskia (the RV).  We had put everything away after the holiday WET and it was time to really attend to that.  So we went to the storage yard and opened the awning to dry.  We applied Rain-X (a wax-type of material that causes rain to bead up on the windshield and then run off) which really helps in northwest downpours and on the highway.  We got the outsides of the windows washed and measured for a new mattress.  The one we have is minimally adequate but very, very hard on a plywood base.  So Monday it was order a new mattress day.  And wonder of wonders, it should be here on Thursday.  They are made in southern British Columbia and should be down here by mid day.

The weather has continued glorious and just what wonderful spring weather should look like.  Views from the front and back porches,

And this marvelous weather, what should we do but make sure we are dining al fresco.  So last evening it was just perfect for finding ourselves at Ivars for some fish and chips on the back float.  It's noisy, but so great.  That was followed by a most uplifting concert by the University of Washington Gospel Choir spring concert.  Always much fun - and clearly the students really enjoy singing this music, directed by Phyllis Byrdwell from Mt. Zion Baptist Church.  Lots of toe tapping and hand clapping.

So today, despite the sun, I continued some of my "indoor" projects.  I made my blocks for the Stashbusters group quilt effort, as well as strips to be used as sashing between the individual blocks and for the piano-key border.  Bright, huh?

This project I started some while ago and just worked on when I could find some time.  I finally managed to get the string piecing done and the muslin backing trimmed to size.  Now just to sew them together and then add the binding - like the one I made last year.  My sweet son and dear DIL don't have anything to go under the Christmas tree, so this will be a gift for them. Hope they like it.

And about last for today, I made strips and am making binding for the black and white 1600 quilt.  If this is new to you, the name comes from the idea that using a normal "jelly roll" (quilt fabric 2 1/2" strips) is about 1600 inches long, if joined end to end.  You simply join the strips [each in the vacinity of 42 inches long - several of mine were longer] into one long strip, then fold it in half and sew the two pieces together.  You cut where they meet up so now you have a piece which is two strips wide.  You join two and then have four, four and then you have eight, etc. etc.  My sweet friend Alayne is a long-arm quilter and also a member of my RV group.  She has offered to quilt it for us and then we can make a joint donation to the auction.  Good, huh?

And that's about all the news from hereabouts.  Plans are to head to the Oregon coast (that's the Pacific ocean) for a long week-end, with one other RV.  Will have the camera along (now just to remember to use it!)

Week-end with some sunshine

Hurrah - we are at last seeing some weather that is appropriate to this time of year.  And thankful for all favors, this is NOT tornado country - so we don't have that to worry about.  Extra hurrah!

I have been working on a little project.  It's an auction item for our RVing Women's August auction.  I don't know if it should be a secret until then, or not.  So for now, here is just a peek,

Lots and lots of refilling the bobbin.

Stashbuster's met last Thursday and we worked on selecting fabrics for our blocks:

Aren't these so bright and fun?  I didn't have any batiks in this sort of 'jewel tone' - mine all had a gray overtone.  Lucky that we had folks with fabric to share.  Here is a photo of the pattern - although we are making some changes,

this will be nice, I think.  That's about all the news.  Off to visit with the younger grands later this afternoon - always fun.

Memorial Day (already)

Despite some really lousy weather, Memorial Day has come along and now is over.  We survived, keeping dry in our patched and resealed RV.  Rain is a challenge for any RV, but in the northwest, it is a major reality.  We picked up Saskia at the service locale, attached the car and headed to Mossyrock.  For those who are unfamiliar,  Mossyrock is approximately 2 1/2 hours south of Seattle.  Along the way, someone drove past honking their horn and pointing.  We immediately pulled over, realizing that two of the bin doors were unlocked and flapping as we hurried down the road (all within the legal speed limit).  Unfortunately, we also discovered that apparently we had not hooked the car correctly to the RV and the emergency cables were what was holding the car behind the RV.  Phew! and Thank Goodness.  So we unhitched the car and drove it separately from the RV to our campground.  We had a really fun week-end with some of this and some of that, lots of games, learning "Hand and Foot" and "Chicken Foot".  We played Five Crowns and Mexican Train.  It was a delightful time.  It proved to be an excellent test for our newly sealed roof cap - as we had rain and rain and then some more rain.  If it was dry as we walked to the clubhouse, it was raining when it was time to come out.  We learned to "never leave home without it" - that being your umbrella!  All of this to say, that there were very few photos, as the lovely scenery wasn't so nice in the wet.  I did get two photos of the view out our front window,

There's a lake behind the first row of trees

It really is a very nice park.

We decided to avoid as much of the traffic as we could, coming home, so didn't leave until today.  As we couldn't re-hook the car to the RV (apparently we bent a piece of the hitch) so drove separately to the Service locale and had them fix the attachment, as well as repair the electrical connection that puts the steps out when you open the RV door.  We couldn't avoid a piece of tire that was on the roadway (some truck had a blow out) and apparently it managed to catch the wiring under the stairs and broke that.  Ah the joy of owning an RV.  [I hear that boats are the same or even worse!]

She is now parked, happily, in her storage lot until the next trip out in a couple of weeks.  Meanwhile, I can show you a couple of things I have managed to get finished or close to finishing.

Here's a dolly blanket for Brennan - practicing a really nice stitch.

I have managed to finish up the top of my Spakenburger wall hanging

and have finished my little flag hanging, that Caro and I each made, just like Yvonne,

[it's my photography, not the work - it's really very cute.]

We have been enjoying one of our souvenirs,

Gouda cheese.

And there you have it.  Now to press hard and get a 1600 quilt made before the RV group auction in August.  I watched Caro make one while we were there, so it should sure be do-able even with some distractions between now and then.  Lots of dirty laundry from 6 days on the road.  :-)

A bit behind - jet lag, and all

Well, we made it home.  And while my sleeping habits are not quite adjusted, we're getting there and I'm managing to stay awake until at least 10pm.  Mostly it's just the early morning.  Oh well.  It does mean that I can quietly work on "shoveling out" my quilt room, which became the storage place for all our extra things while traveling.  So, go back a number of days,

On the next to last day of my extended stay in the Netherlands, Dieuwke and Diana and I went to Amsterdam, specifically to visit Den Haan and Wagenmakers - a most incredible quilt fabric store.  You could imagine our distress when we learned that it will likely to closing in the not too distant future or at least altering considerably.  The two men who founded the store with reproductions of old fabric patterns, many (most?) from the Dutch East Indies company, sold the store a few years ago to Petra Prinz, who also has a marvelous shop in Zutphen.  However, those two men have decided, apparently, to no longer be making the repoduction fabrics for which they are known world-wide.  And so the shop will be changing.  The fabrics are exquisite and colorful and unique.  So sad, so sad.  We each managed to find a few things that we couldn't live without.  After our lunch, it was fun to wander a bit in A'dam to notice the architecture for which it is known.  Great memories.

Caro and I worked on finishing up our American flag mini quilts and then decided to make little bags to hold dice.  Caro printed fabric which included the scoring of the dice game, Farkle, for the front of the bags.  Fun!  See her blog: Caro-en-rob.blogspot.com

Lucky for me, I arrived on a lovely, partly cloudy day.  So nice.  And we have had a number of pleasant days since.

I do love the spring.  Today, alas, rain and gray.  Good weather for:

but I will still need to go outdoors with my "babysitting" duty:

Ariza is a lovely, good dog and really not trouble at all.  Happy week before Memorial Day.  We're headed off camping.  I'll report in next week.

Monday reporting

Elaine got off and Caro and I headed to Delft.  We have been trying to find a replacement for the earrings Susan bought two years ago and has lost one of.  No such luck.  once again there was no art market, as promised by the VVV (tourist office).  Oh well, it is such a fabulous town and I love to be there.  There even was some sunshine on our arrival but we left as the rain was beginning (again).  I forgot to mention the small concert in the Catholic Church.  Very nice.

Caro and I have doing lots and lots of sewing.  Some photos below.  The cute little flag piece is just like the one we saw at Yvonne's last week.  I will take it home and finish it.  I have taken the antique fabrics from Spakenburg and made the 3D squares.  It is such a "happy" little piece, again likely finished at home.

On Sunday Caro and I visited Palais Soesdijk, the former home of Queen Juliana.  Her daughter, the former Queen Beatrix, grew up there.  It is such a lovely, lovely home and fabulous grounds.  It is interesting that there is quite a bit of conversation going on around if or how it will be maintained.  There doesn't seem to be the "will" to keep it as a memorial to that queen, and of course, how will it be paid for?  Of course, we did have to stop for coffee at the Orangery (sp?) on the grounds.  On our return we had a short soup making lesson and a bit more sewing.

This morning Caro and I adjourned to Emma's home, nearby, along with Diana, for a sewing morning.  They do this somewhat often.  Emma then served Caro and me a delicious lunch, filled with French taste treats. (Photos below). Of course, we sewed some more.  Tomorrow is breakfast out and then a pretty quiet day.

Early Saturday morning

Later today this little adventure will change a bit.  Elaine flies back to Seattle and I will move from our little apartment to Caro and Rob's home.  So first, more of this weeks happenings.

Thursday was Hemelfaart.  This is technically a church holiday - on which Christ ascended to heaven - this rather non-churched country celebrates it with holiday from most work, no school, some stores closed, etc.  But after an effort begun several years ago, we were able to take a tour of The Peace Palace, the Vredepalais.  You probably would enjoy googling this and reading about the peace efforts that have continued for a hundred years here in The Hague.  Lucky for us, we managed to get into an English tour so that we could indeed understand more fully.  We were not allowed to take photos inside the building.  So these are from out front.  Our visit followed closely on the heels of the national day of remembering - the Dutch Memorial Day, in appreciation and thanks for all the efforts made to end the Second World War.  The sincerity of the Dutch people is impressive, up to and including the maintenance of American cemeteries.

We have spent some time in "downtown" The Hague, doing some shopping and a bit of wandering around.  We were able to walk around the Nieuw Kerk.  Like many churches in the Netherlands, this is a gorgeous old building used for exhibitions or other community events, but not church.  The Hague is a city which is busily reinventing itself, so there is no end of building going on.  It has a very iconistic skyline.

Caro and I had a fun evening in Katwijk.  Some months ago I started writing to a dutch woman, online, as she and her husband were on a cross-USA trip in an RV.  We were able to visit her home on the evening of their weekly "quilt bee".  It is such fun to meet in person, folks who had previously been modern-day pen pals.  Oh the worlds that quilting has opened up for us.  Such a fun adventure.

Last evening we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Bij Mauce, with our friends Dieuwke and Willem, as well as Caro and Rob and dog Mies.  Non-service dogs in restaurants are fairly common.  This morning will likely be our last breakfast with CNN International.  Interesting the things that will be different in a week, including no more cats.  

Caro and I have planned sewing adventures for the next six days, before I fly home.  You will likely hear from me again before then.

before too much happens and I forget

Monday was just lovely, so we caught Bus 24 and rode to the end of the line at Kijkduin.  We had a bit of a wander around, although many shops are closed on Monday.  had one of our favorite lunches:

Pannenkoeken met spek, kaas en ananas.  (That translates to Dutch pancakes with bacon -although we had ham, cheese and pineapple). Oh yum!  Monday we had dinner with Rob and Caro and their friend Tale came as well.  Rob made his "famous" macaroni with tomato sauce and vegetables.  IT was very nice.  Strawberry shortcake (somewhat improvised) for dessert.

Tuesday was our scheduled visit to Keukenhof and my blankety blank camera decided not to work.  (Of course it would happen at one of the photographic hi lights of the whole trip.). So check it out online.  It was amazing.  Caro came over for some supper and a visit.  She also brought some fabrics for a project we will work on next week. 

This morning (Wednesday) guess what resurrected itself?  We used the last of our discount train passes and went to Amsterdam again.  Today we had an appointment to visit Het Grachtenhuis Museum.  This was a really worthwhile adventure to a really high tech museum about the building of the city of Amsterdam and the multiple canals (grachten) which the city is built around.  It is housed in a lovely old double building on Herengracht, dating from (we can't exactly remember) but likely in the 1600s.  Check out their websites for more photos inside the exhibit.  Sound and movies and holographic s - it was great.  Lunch outside at Spui and a walk back to Central Station.  As we arrived in The Hague we ran into our first rain.  Alas.