Bye Bye Holland

Today is my last day in Holland and tomorrow morning I fly back to Singapore.  It has been a busy week and my mother in law and I have been travelling all over Holland visiting friends and family.  The weather has been quite mild although there was a lot of mist yesterday.

Yesterday we had my mother in laws 70th birthday party which was nice and I managed to catch up with people that I havent seen for a while including nieces and nephews.

Here are a couple photos from the quilt show in Holland called "De Naaidoos"
This is a must see if you are visiting Holland!

On Monday I went to visit my aunt in Schiedam and met a friend of hers that is also a keen quilter.  It was great meeting her and seeing her work.  Isnt it great that no matter what country you come from, quilters are such lovely people!

Well its time to go and pack my suitcase.....see you all again in Singapore

Bon Voyage Houston, Bonjour Holland!

Our last full day in Houston was pretty relaxed and the weather was really sunny.  After breakfast Hennie and I went geocaching, this time on the other side of Houston.  These caches were hidden in the inner city parks and it was nice to see some greenery in the midst of the highrises.

The last day at the Quilt Festival was pretty quiet.  A lot of people had gone home the day before so it was nice having a last look without having to bump into others.  There were also some pretty good bargins to be had.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack.

Tuesday morning we arrived back in Amsterdam to be greeted by Jan and Hilly,  friends that had lived in Singapore and moved back to Holland in April. They took us back to my mother in laws house for coffee.  It was great to see them again.

Now I am staying at Hennies house in Schoonebeek.  Today we went to check out the local quilt shop.
What can I say but Wow!  The shop was in a converted farm house and there were just so many fabrics to choose from. It was HUGE!  They also feature the work of local quilters on their walls and coffee, tea and biscuits were available to guests.  "heel gezellig!" Check out their website:  De Naaidoos

We also had a look in Emmen (and bought some socks which I had forgotton to pack!)

Sorry no photos yet, I hope to post some soon.

Happy Quilting, tot ziens
Marianne

Howdy from Houston 2

Yesterday was a busy day for us.  After breakfast Hennie and I managed to find a couple of caches in Downtown Houston.  It was pretty windy and a bit chilly but we found two geocaches.

Then it was off to the Quilt Fesitval to check out some of the quilts and hit the market stalls.  The quilts were absolutely stunning and it never ceases to amaze me the amount of creativity people have.  There was a good variety of traditional and contemporary quilts as well as some terrific art quilts.  Something for everyone.

Then it was time to go and check out some of the vendors.  There were the usually array of beautiful fabrics to choose from as well as new tools and the latest gadgets.  We spent from 10.30 till 6.45pm looking at quilts and shopping and even then we didnt make it to the other end of the building.  This gives you an idea of the sheer size of the Festival.

I even got my photo taken with Alex Anderson the host of the "Simply Quilts"show and now co-host together with Ricky Timms from "The Quilt show".

You can tell that I come from Singapore as I was the only one wearing a thick ski jacket!

Hennie and I found most of the things that we were looking for and at reasonable prices (compared to Holland and Singapore).  The choice is also HUGE here.







Today we spent the day with Glenda, a friend from mine that lived in Singapore and is now back in Houston.
She picked up us this morning and we spent the day checking out the craft shops including our favourite "the Hobby Lobby".  There is just no shop in either Holland or Singapore that can compare to the sheer volume and choice of what can be found here.

We then went for a yummy (but HUGE) lunch at the Texas Roadhouse.

Hennie,Glenda and I

After lunch we went back to Glendas house and met up with the rest of the family including a really smart dog called Blake. This dog is so smart it even closes the door behind him!
We had a wonderful day with Glenda and it was wonderful to catch up with her again.  Thank you Glenda!

With love from Houston, Texas

Howdy everyone from Houston Texas! 

I left Singapore on Monday night to fly to Holland and was met there by my friend Hennie and my mother in law Gysje.  After a quick freshening up, we went into Barneveld to do some shopping and later that afternoon we did some geocaching around the area.  This is a great way to see some of the local sights that you normally wouldnt come across.  The weather was nice and "crisp".

The next morning it was back to the airport to fly out to Houston for the Quilt Festival.  It was raining when we arrived in Houston and it was a "balmy"15 degrees celcius.  Brrr.  After checking in at the hotel it was time for Hennie and I to check out the Festival.  It wasnt long before the jet lag set in and it was time to go home and sleep.

Today we went on the Lone star tour which visited a couple of local quiltshops and a ranch (a mere 22000 acres!)

This evening we will go back to the festival to check out the winning quilts and some more of the vendors.I will post photos soon.