Trunkshow by Petra Prins and Nel Kooiman at the Australian Dutch Connection Quiltshow

So much going on in quilt land at the moment, it is hard to keep up with blogging about it all.

But even if it is a few days later than some bloggers, I wanted to make a blogpost about this very special trunkshow. Why don’t you get yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to look at all the beautiful antique quilts in this post.

A few days after I attended the Nantes quilt show there was the Australian Dutch Connection quilt show at the St. Joris church in Amersfoort. Organised by the ladies of the Petra Prins’and Nel Kooiman’s quiltshops (click and click) it promised to be a beautiful exhibition, we were certainly not disappointed.

The show was advertised not only on the websites of Petra’s and Nel’s shops, on Facebook, via flyers, via the local tourist agency, but also the local media paid attention to it, in case you missed this bit of journalism have a look (click), my favorite bit starts at 1.22 min…. ooooohhhhhh….. Judith (click) certainly shows how we all feel about our quilting passion 😊

I was one of the lucky ones to attend the trunkshow by Petra Prins and Nel Kooiman themselves, where they talked about and showed antique quilts from their private collections.

Let me share some of these beauties with you (here we go Marja 😊  (click) !  )

This was just part of what was waiting for us when we entered the room

Petra and Nel welcoming us

Petra decided to start things off with a stunner!

There were many more equally stunning quilts…..

Nel’s sweet basket quilt

As a contrast: her crazy quilt

Petra’s Seven Sisters quilt

Baptist fan quilting

Which was all the more special because the pattern went in opposite directions

So many “ oooooohhhhsss “ and “ aaaaaaahhhhhsss”  in the room when Petra showed this beauty

 If I remember correctly Petra said there were almost 29.000 pieces in this one…… can you imagine the lady who made this… without the help of all the notions, daylight lamps etc. that we have now? 

Beauties!

Showing you this one….

Also for the quilting

I adored this one….. love a red and white quilt anyway and the way that this quilter had no problem at all with the pieces not all being the same size just warms my quilting heart, she just solved every problem she encountered right there and then ….  I can just see she had such fun making this and every reason to be proud too, I think it is such a joyful quilt!

Simplicity with many fabrics is always a great combination

A very special hexagon quilt

Did I say ‘a very special hexagon quilt’?

Petra and Nel showed sooooo many beautiful quilts…..

The blue and white striped fabric of this one was very special, it looked and felt like seersucker fabric

On and on they went with the show…

This quilt has been made into a pattern/kit by Petra (click) with different but beautiful colors

Petra and Nel brought so many quilts with them, there was not even time to show them all

When Petra asked at the end of the show if there were any questions… there were none… because we were all left speechless…

All we could do was applaud and thank them both for showing us so many of their treasures.

Thank you again, ladies, this was very special!

Phyllis

Show and Tell a la Marja

Well, I just returned from a great morning attending Marja’s (from the blog Sweet Home A La Marja, click) show and tell at Karen’s (click for her blog) bed and breakfast (click) and I thought I would share it with you straight away.

By now a yearly event at Karen’s, a Dutch quilter is invited to share her quilts and stories, a Dutch quiltstore is in attendance to make sure that once inspired by all we have seen we can make some purchases and do not leave empty handed and Karen herself (helped by some trainees) makes sure we are well catered for.

It was fun seeing some familiar faces, meeting new quilters and of course seeing all the beauties Marja brought with her.

The shop this time was the Quiltster (click) by Marcha, who was constantly too busy for me to be able to make a good picture, but I will make up for that in a later blogpost.

Now for the show and tell:

A colorful start

Small, but very special, made from her father’s old ties

A navy man

Some red, white and blue

Lots of colorful beauties

This was adorable, she appliqued her house and some of her own animals in the centre

A very special Dear Jane, with old and reproduction feed sack fabrics

Her version of the 1718 Coverlet

Beautiful old tops

And how about this one

And her version (still under construction) of the compass quilt owned by the Polak family shown at an exhibition in 2015 (click for my blogpost of my visit) , as the original, Marja’s version is a stunner

She not only showed us quilts and quilt tops, but also shared some of her large collection of old embroidery

And so-called ‘baafjes’ (a part of Dutch traditional costume)

I hope you enjoyed these pictures of a lovely morning, thank you to Marja, Karen, Betty, Marcha and Karen’s trainees J

Phyllis