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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Home Again!

It is always good to be home, no matter how much fun you have while away! I think Dorothy said it all..."There's No Place Like Home!" This post rambled out very long, so please bear with it all! There is so much to talk about!

My body clock is all screwed up. And I thought I would have time to recover yesterday, but I ended up with 3 clients needing massages yesterday. AUUUGH! So...no rest for the weary! Not much unpacking either. But that's okay. I'm not in a hurry, I can do it a bit at a time, and the major house cleaning I wanted to do can also just be patient with me. Life is back in full swing!

I had such a wonderful time with Lucy and her family. These memories will live forever in my heart, and I hope we have lots more fun times ahead in the future. I can hardly wait until her whole family come to see ME this summer! We get to see each other two times in ONE YEAR..how cool is that?!

I love meeting quilters from all over, but never have I met anyone who is such a "carbon copy" of myself as Lucy. Even though we speak different languages, we can still finish each other's sentences and thoughts. She is definately my "heart sister". And people told us that we could BE sisters because of how similar we look! Tall, blonde, blue eyed and completely addicted quilters!

Something else I've always known deep down....FABRIC IS THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE! Even if you can't speak the language, when in a group with other quilters, you can see their eyes light up, and the ooh's and ahh's over fabric are the same in any language. It was SO great.

I uploaded about 175 pics from my camera! It's going to take a while for me to sort through them, name them (I hate it when they are all numbers and you don't know what anything is..) and figure out what I want to post about. I still feel like I didn't take ENOUGH pictures. And what to post, and what to say about it....my brain is so dead right now!


The pretty flower pics are from Lucy's back garden. There were a few days where the garden was warm and wonderful. We sat out enjoying the weather, having a cup of tea and looking through quilt books. :c) I took these pics to remind me of the beauty of Lucy's garden and the care she takes to have such a lovely welcoming home! She loves flowers, inside and out. My one regret is that her tree that is usually covered with pink blossoms was NOT quite ready to bloom yet..the weather wouldn't stay warm long enough! So...she will have to post pics of that tree in a couple weeks when it finally does pop. The buds are oh so ready!

This pic is of a street in Amsterdam. You can see that the weather turned VERY cold! Not a great day for beautiful photos. This pic was taken right off the stoop of Den Haan En Wagenmakers, the shop with the beautiful reproduction chintzes. Click the photo, I think you can make it bigger to see the sign that says "patch work" on it :c) This shop has the honor of being the home of the most expensive fabric I have ever bought in my life! *LOL* ONE FQ (a metric FQ) was NINE EURO! But it was a once in a life time purchase, I went for it. I want to reproduce the look of antique dutch quilts...*dreaming*


Aren't they GREAT?! I've never been much for really florally fabrics...but I love these antique ones. One quilt they had hanging in the shop just wowed me. It was hanging in the stair well, and I just had to get pics. It is PERFECT for using the dutch chintzes in the big center hexagon, and I love the combination of the plaids and solid black and red to show everything off. It's another quilt that proves to me that people who say "solids just read as flat" do NOT know what they are talking about! I'd love to draft this up. They only sold it as a kit, and there was no way to afford that! I snuck photos. I don't know if I was allowed to or not, but too bad. :c)



I am so far behind on catching up with everyone. I hope you will forgive me, and I hope to catch up with everyone's blog as soon as I can! I've got two clients scheduled today, one at 10am, one at 2:30pm...so in between I am planning on working more on my own hexagon UFO. I got quite a bit done while at Lucy's and sitting at the airport for layovers. We visited with another customer of mine (the one I put the 3 quilts in the space bags for!) on friday night after shopping at Den Haan. She had us to her house (oh wow, it was so unbelieveably GORGEOUS!) and showed us her quilts and studio, etc. So fun! It was a great evening! And I am so inspired by how much HAND PIECING she gets done. She has a crazy job with incredibly long hours and lots of stress...but she always keeps something in a little tin for hand piecing while waiting for this and that, and she gets TONS done! So...that's my inspiration. If she can do this with her crazy work schedule, so can I!

Rambling Still.....
Bonnie

16 comments:

  1. HI Bonnie
    I just wanted to say I have enjoyed reading of your visit with Lucy....it's wonderful that you have a soul sister...I would love one!! I also love the hexagon quilt..it's sooo different. May I have you permission to copy a pic of it from yours? Thanks for all you do in the quilting community....Ann-Maree in Australia

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  2. Hi Bonny,

    It is so nice to read you enjoyed your stay with your friend in my country so much.

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  3. What a surprise to see some flowers from my garden.. all the pictures are such a good memorie! I almost don't dare to tell you but I am wearing now shoes without socks and a tanktop!!!!

    I can't wait to come in august. see you again soul sister :c)

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  4. Oh, I love those fabrics. They are so beautiful and they just look Dutch! Or what I think Dutch looks like, I guess, to my mind. What does 9 euros compute to in dollars? I'm lost in money exchange.

    It's funny that you posted a hexagon quilt. We have been having a little go-round with everyone showing and discussing their hexagons quilts! I love this one, especially since it's a little different!

    Glad to see you back! Can't wait for the pictures!

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  5. Hi Bonnie,
    I loved each and every one of your visit-with-Lucy stories. It sounds like you two had a wonderful time together! Thanks for sharing it. =)

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  6. I"m finally catching up also from Paducah! WOW those chintz's are gorgeous! I can't wait to see your quilt with them. And the picture of down the street in Amsterdam - wow, I can't even imagine being there - the buildings are soooo gorgeous!

    I knew you would have a great time! And how wonderful that Lucy and her family get to come visit again this year! What fun that will be!

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  7. Welcome home! Glad the trip was so wonderful, and that you got to spend time with your "heart sister"!

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  8. It's good to have you back on our side of the pond, but so happy that you had such a great time with Lucy and her family. I look forward to seeing more pictures.

    Great hexagon quilt!!

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  9. It's nice to see you back on your own blog, but I really liked your posts at Lucy's blog. I'm so thrilled that you had such a good time with Lucy in Europe.

    Inga

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  10. Welcome home! Good luck getting your "clock" reset...it takes me weeks. Give a shout when it looks like you have free day...I leave the area late June :(
    Sio

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  11. Welcome back Bonnie! I understand what you mean about no place like home. I love travelling, but nothing beats being in your own home again.

    I'm glad you had such a fun time.

    OMG that fabric was soooo expensive!! Can't wait to see your hexy quilt when its done. Hmmm. A hand piecing kit in a tin. Good idea!!

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  12. Glad you made it home safely with the luscious fabric. It was well worth buying (9 euros a fat quarter? aaghh)as remembrance of the trip.

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  13. I'm SO happy that you and Lucy had the chance to spend more time together. And then, to do it all again in August?!?! COOL! 8o)

    Welcome home!

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  14. Welcome back!

    And thanks for taking the time to add me to the ring, I appreciate it!

    I'm not normally a floral-type person either, but I got a bunch of FQ from eBay for a steal, so I'll be watching with interest to see what you do with them. :)

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  15. Welcome back. I'm glad you had such a good time. The Dutch fabrics are just gorgeous. I wouldn't have resisted either.

    If you need some help with your internal clock recovering from jet lag you might try melatonin. DD uses it when she has to travel overseas to dance. They don't always get a lot of time to recover before going to work. It's natural and you can buy it in the drug store with the vitamins and minerals.

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  16. You and Lucy have given us such a grand adventure through your eyes, Bonnie! What a precious friendship!

    Your pics have been wonderful! My duaghters are both very interested in many countries in Europe...so they've been visiting yours and Lucy's blogs...and ooh-ing and aah-ing right along with the rest of us!

    Hope you're settling back into your routine without getting worn out, Bonnie. Good to have you back in the US.

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