Being very busy..

It is a busy time of the year for Jacqueline. And there are a lot of things going on.

Last weekend, and the three days before the weekend, she was at the “Handwerkbeurs”, that’s a kind of Spring Craft Fair. A lot of booths with a lot of different crafts. Knitting, crocheting, embroidery, quilting, velts, beading and much more. Enough to fill the whole hall. 

Jacqueline has her own booth, of course. With a handful of her quilts hanging at the wall, and a range of different (Dutch) patterns. And for this special Craft Fair, we made a lot of great fabric bundles. These bundles had a lot of lovely flowery fabrics in them, in a whole range of colors.

Why those fabrics for sale, I hear you asking… Well, let me tell you some awesome news. Jacqueline is moving out of her ‘old’ apartment, and moving in into a great ‘new’ apartment. With.. and yes, this is really awesome: a large studio! And she’s looking forward to it, as you can imagine!

So because of the moving out stress, she has all those flowery fabrics for sale. Jacqueline has no intentions to use these any more. And by selling them, she makes a lot of women very happy!

Because of all the busyness, I helped her making those fabric bundles. She couldn’t find the time to do that. 

Not only she had the Fair last weekend, but she’s under a lot of ‘moving out’ stress. The wooden floor in her new house was damaged, and couldn't be repaired. So now she has to pick up the flooring from the old house, and move it into the new apartment. You can imagine how much extra work this will be.

And next Friday she’s teaching classes, and a week later she’s flying to the United Kingdom to teach some classes. Actually there’s no time to move..

But when these three extremely busy weeks are over, Jacqueline has time to be happy with her new apartment. She is happy now, of course, but actually too busy to have fun and enjoy it.

It is a great apartment though. With a large living area, a great hall way, one small and one very large, a super-sized bedroom and a walk-in closet. And the bonus in this apartment is of course the studio. And yes, she planned every detail of the tables, the place for the sewing machine, the quilt on the wall, the fabric storage, everything. The result will be great, and exactly as she had planned. I know my sister ;)

We keep you all updated!

The studio

The studio

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a girl. 

This girl was good in everything she did. She loves to draw, she was good in sketching dresses and ladies in lovely gowns. She was good in making things, and was always busy with paper, carton, fabrics, coloring, glue, you name it and she’s able to make what her eyes see. She didn't like school, but she was good at school where all those creative school subjects were taught. Everything she touched turned into gold.

She was so talented that she would love to go to the Academy of Arts in a city far away from the town where she grew up. Unfortunately her mom and dad wouldn't let her go, because they loved her too much.

Another path was taken.. She always liked making things, and when she discovered her mom’s sewing machine, she found her destiny. She started small, by making dolls clothes, cushions, clothes for herself and for mom. She even designed her own clothes and wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses and evening gowns.

Not only she was good with needles and scissors, she was also very talented with a lot of other things, as in colored clay.. It was quite a popular item in the Netherlands back then, and she was good.. Once there was this orchestra and they asked her to make brooches for their festival outfits. She designed hair clips, necklaces, brooches and so much more…And there was this (Queens day) fair where she sold those little giveaways.

There once was a time everybody had these “goose on a stick” made of fabric in their houses, don’t ask me why people had them, because they were such a weird things. But this girl thought, well…I can make that myself, and so she did…and not only for herself, but for everyone who wants them. The same with stuffed ducks.. The girl shows the ones she made for herself, and the orders came in… At last there were ducks all over her living room. It was so fun to see!

Everything she made turned into gold..

And then she discovered quilting…. And it was as if she come home..

Long ago she treated herself for inspiration on a crafts magazine, and there it was: a dream in soft pinks and lovely blues, a log cabin quilt. This was what she wants to try, and so she did. She dyed her own fabrics, because in those days there were no quilt stores close by, or the right quilt fabrics. She uses cottons, and for the batting she used the material you use in your kitchen hood. She uses an ordinary ruler for measuring and a pair of bad scissors. It was not perfect at all, but she loves every minute of making this. And so it began. Years later she wants to sell her first quilt, by which it all started, in a church fair. Luckily no one wants to buy it, and now it's still here. 

We’re thirty years later, and this girl is now one of the most talented quilt designers in the world. With her great eye for color and her breathtaking designs, she takes quilting into the 21th century, and tries to touch the hearts of the younger generation.

Once upon a time there was a girl, and her name is Jacqueline.

Busybusybusy

And I’m back again. Yes, it’s me, Bridget. I’m sorry it’s me who’s writing this blog again, for Jacqueline is extremely busy with creating and designing and finishing all kind of things for the new patterns.

Yes, new patterns which will be released next month, at the International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, TX. As always each year, there is sooo much to do before a pattern is send to the printer. You have no idea. Let me try to explain the process to you..

Each year in October/November there is this awesome Quilt Show in Houston, TX. First there is Market, that’s where all the fabric manufacturers presenting their Fall collections, where the stores present their new lines, where new designers present themselves, and where Jacqueline’s presenting her beautiful collection of quilts with the new range of patterns. And when Market is over, there is this great Quilt Festival, where we meet all of you, fantastic men and enthusiastic women who love quilting. And where we show all the best of Jacqueline’s outstanding quilts and gorgeous patterns. But before we present ourselves at Market and Festival, a lot happens..

Jacqueline always try to design new quilts, and re-write one or two of the ‘golden oldies’. These are patterns are from the ‘stone age’, from the beginning of BeColourful. There are a lot of gorgeous designs who deserve to come back as a newer-better-perfect pattern, ready for the 21th century. And, just as important, as a modern version, the ‘golden oldie’ comes with all the papers included. You can imagine that’s quite a lot of work, and it is.

When it’s November, and Market and Festival is over, Jacqueline takes a little break to recover from the madness of the past months. She definitely needs that, because she works long days, and sometimes nights to get everything done in time. Then December comes, with Sinterklaas (that’s our Santa) and the Holidays, and the itching begins.. New designs are scribbled and hanging on the design wall, waiting to be made into quilts. Fabrics crawling towards the sewing machine, rulers and scissors eagerly waiting for Jacqueline’s hands, needles and pins are making soft sounds until Jacqueline picks them up and start using them again.. And YES, the time is come to design!

The first three months of the year is the time for designing and sewing beautiful new quilts. But not only making new designs, it’s also the time to brainstorm on re-design one or two of the ‘golden-oldies’ collection.

In between the sewing and designing, Jacqueline has her daytime job in the hospital, 4 days a week. And of course teaching several classes here in The Netherlands in the winter time, and in Springtime she does a lot of teaching in the USA. All in all she’s a really busy lady.

When Summer begins, the writing of the patterns starts. And that really is a very time consuming job! It takes all summer and she’s busy writing and re-writing until it’s faultless and ready for the printer. Her goal is having everything finished and at the printer before the end of September, because in October, she will be teaching a lot of classes in the US. And at the end of October, there is The International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, TX and everything starts over again and again and again…

Amy :)

When we were in Birmingham, Jacqueline bought a beautiful piece of ribbon. She has a plan to make it into a collar for Amy, her beloved Greyhound. And so she did. She send the ribbon to a lady who made this into this gorgeous collar. Complete with a lovely tassel. And Amy looks lovely with her one of a kind dog collar.

Time flies..

Time flies.. It’s almost a month ago since we were in Birmingham. Jacqueline and I went there to teach at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC. Not that I was teaching, I was with Jacqueline to support her, and for taking pictures of course. What a great time we had there. Birmingham is a great city to visit, it has a fantastic city center and an awesome shopping mall. We spend a good day shopping, as you can imagine. Unfortunately we had only one day for exploring Birmingham, so we definitely need to come back. It was just great!

And there was work to do. Jacqueline’s class was filled with 15 lovely ladies, who eagerly looked forward to get lessons from Miss BeColourful herself as being the first English class to teach. Jacqueline was quite nervous about it. But there was no need for. English ladies are just as lovely as all the other quilt ladies from all over the world. And those two days flew by.

We had some time to walk around the festival floor and oh, we did. Jacqueline had a fun time walking around, visiting all those fabric booths, touching and sniffing at all those beautiful materials and trying not to buy anything, and I had a fun time taking pictures. And oh, there were so many great items that had to be photographed. Fabrics, Jacqueline touching fabrics, more fabrics, Jacqueline petting fabrics, fabrics, Jacqueline buying fabrics, and so on.

And as I said before, time flies and we had to go back home again. 

Love, Bridget and Jacqueline 

Our first BeColourful book!

There’s more awesome news to share with you all. Maybe you already know, are even have it in your possession! What it is.. it’s our first book ever! Yes, a real BeColourful book, featuring all, well, not all, but almost all of Jacqueline’s beautiful designs in it.

Jacqueline is a quilt designer as you may know, and designs for more than 20 years beautiful quilts. And there are so many pretty and stunning designs, and to see them gathered in this beautiful book, well, it’s a treasure. How does it started. Let me tell you.

It was close to Jacqueline’s 53th birthday, and her dearest wish was a photo album with all of quilt designs in it. And I thought that was a lovely gift. It took me some weeks to make this album, and the result was really beautiful. I had chosen high gloss photo paper, on which the pictures came up really colorful. I made a kind of real book of it, with an introduction, and some bible versions that suits Jacqueline. It turned out to a wonderful photo album, and to see all those stunning quilts and amazing designs gathered in an album, it was just so beautiful. And my dearest sister was so happy with this very special album, it brought tears in her eyes..

 Jacqueline thought it was a lovely idea to send one photo album to the American Quilters Society, to Meredith Schroeder, as a thank you gift, because this lovely lady has done so much for Jacqueline in the past years. And with sending her this fantastic photo album, Jacqueline wants to thank Mrs. Schroeder  from the depths of her heart. And I thought Mrs. Schroeder loved this book. So much that she thought it was a great idea to make a real book of this album!

And so it happened. All of us came in action by sending photo’s to the AQS, some quilts needed to be photographed again, and text had to be adjusted. Well, all kind of things that’s needed to make a real book. And July 1th there it was: the first BeColourful coffee table book. Almost as beautiful as the original photo album. It has the same size, 11”x 11”, and the same layout as the original photo album. And there are 54 striking photo’s of Jacqueline’s designs in this stunning book. That makes it really very special.

For me, it is kind of strange to browse the book. I know each and every page, every photo, every little detail I had made, things I had changed, replaced, and more. And to see it in real life, as a book, well..it was strange in a way. It became a beautiful book, but to be really honest, not as beautiful as the original photo album, because that was a gift specially made for my sister, who I love so very dearly.

If you want to have this striking artwork yourself, it’s avaliable at https://shop.americanquilter.com/the-becolourful-quilt-collection.html And believe me, you will love it! 

Love, Bridget

BeColourful at The Quilt Show

It’s been quite a while since our last post. And there is so much happening since! A lot of great things, I can tell you that :)

Let’s start at the beginning. It was at the International Quit show in Houston, that  John Anderson from The Quilt Show came to our booth. In his hand he had our DVD, How to make a BeColourful quilt. Okay.. that’s great, was our thought. He came to our booth with a question, a request.

He asked us if it’s okay to have our DVD showing at the Quilt Show for 3 months. You can imagine our reaction: we screamed and jelled and danced in our booth, high fived each other, running down the aisles with our arms up in the air. No, that was what we did in our heads.. Our mouth answered with all the right lines ;) Can you imagine how we feel? It is such a great honor which the Quilt Show is given us! This is more than amazing!

And that brings me to the next chapter. We thought it would be the easiest way for them to copy the files by ripping the DVD. But when you do that, you lose some of the resolution, and we don’t want that to happen. And that’s where I (Bridget) came in. Because the DVD files are at my laptop and in HD, the people in charge at the Quilt Show want to have those files. And there were a lot of files to transfer.. Meanwhile it was mid-June, and we’re running out of time. Because the first of July the DVD has to be online.. So I started uploading the files, via Dropbox. But the files were that large, sometimes it took more than 8 hours for one file to upload! Dropbox was way too slow. So I started We Transfer at the same time. And with Dropbox and We Transfer it took about 5 days to transfer all the HD files to the other side of the ocean. But we succeeded!

And it worked out so very well. July 1th was the first episode online. A lot of quilters bought the “Happiness” pattern to quilt along with the DVD. And I’ve seen some results and they are so very pretty!

Well, this is for now. There’s much more happening, I come back with more!

Love, Bridget