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

Yeah! An article!

Oh wow, this is so awesome! Jacqueline has an article in a great needlework/artwork  magazine. How incredible is that. 

It was somewhere in February, I came up with the idea to write at some magazines. It was my thought, because Jacqueline’s company BeColourful has her 10 year anniversary. And so I did. And there was this one magazine that was interested, Handwerken zonder Grenzen, a needlework magazine.

A few months later Monique Bons came to Jacqueline for an interview. And what a lovely lady she was. Monique was so interested in BeColourful and Jacqueline. The interview was great, and the article ended up in 5 pages.

Of course the article has to be enlighten with a few pictures, and that’s my part :) You maybe know I love photography. I’m the photographer of all the pictures you see at our Facebook page, at Instagram or Tumblr and of course at our website. Anyway, taking care of some photo’s is not a problem at all for me. I’ve chosen quite a nice collection of pictures where they can make a selection of. And it was great to see my pictures in a magazine. :)

The article was great, Jacqueline was so very proud to see her work on paper. And at the cover a beautiful detail of one of her new designs.

Love, Bridget

Fun at Pinterest

It has been a while since we have launched our new website and we want to tell you how happy we are with the response from all over the world.

It was a lot of work for Bridget, Harm and Johan, they have put a lot of effort to make it as colorful and clear for you as we could.

 And as we read all the sweet compliments, we think we succeed!! Thank you so much for all the lovely words! 

Since a year and a half we are also very active at other social media like Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube. When Bridget started this, I had no idea how important social media is for a company like BeColourful. I’m so blessed that Bridget is my sister and that she put so much time and effort in BeColourful. She is always looking for nice things and items related with colors or BeColourful to share them with you. I think is it is very time consuming for her, however she is a social media addict ;-)

One of the social media pages that we have is our Pinterest page…We have a lot of very nice mood boards….. I love it! A lot of our thoughts, ideas and inspirations comes from these mood boards.

At our Pinterest page you will find about 24 mood boards such as Dreamy fabrics, Sewing room inspiration, Beautiful quilting, Quilt labels, Inspiring colors.......

And also my favorite mood board: Quilts and Pets. It is so nice to click onto the pictures and see all kind of quilt related items and….so many more… see for yourself.

Love, Jacqueline

How to make a website

Okay, time for a little update from the BeColourful team. As you may have noticed, we finally have a brand new  website. The old one was very dated, and it was time to make a fresh new one. And I can tell you that was a lot of work. A whole lot of work.

I was the one who was making this website. Our webmaster made the frame, and when finished, it was my turn. I had never done something like this before, and I can tell you it’s quite difficult.

I love to work with all kind of things, Instagram for instance, I like to do that and Tumblr is also one of the social media sites where I like to post some pics now and then. Pinterest is also one of my very favorite sites to visit to search for great ideas. Facebook, well, you all know that Facebook BeColourful is like my baby, how I love to be there, and keep you updated with all kind of posts. And I love YouTube, I would like to do more with that stream, but you know, there’s only so much hours in a day..

Okay, back to the website. Did I mention how difficult it was? I think so.. At first, I had to think about how to get every photo and picture on the right spot. And where. Sometimes that was a hard decision. And can you imagine how frustrated I was when I was working on this site, and the photo’s didn’t do what I expected them to do? As in stay where they are? Once I added a photo, great, but after I had find the right spot for this photo, it kept hanging at my mouse. It followed me everywhere on the page. I wanted to scream, not that was of any help and it didn't work either.. I tried everything to get rid of the picture, but it keeps on following me. It was not funny anymore..

Oh, and at one time, I had the whole page scrolling without my permission. It scrolled up and down time after time. I didn't know what I’d done, but finally it stopped. Until now, I have no clue what I did to make it stop. Anyway, I think it looks good, and I’m quite happy the way it turned out. It’s a bright and colorful website, just as bright and colorful as Jacqueline’s designs.

As you explore our website, you may notice some poor English sentences.. Feel free to e-mail me and correct me. I don’t mind. You know, English is not my first language, and although I do my very best (with a little help of Google Translate now and then ;) ) there’s no doubt I make mistakes.. So please, don't hesitate to mail me.

Love, Bridget

How a girls dream turned into a nightmare..

When I was a little girl I had a dream… I want a horse, I want to ride on a horse, I want some lessons on a horse riding school etc. etc. I think every girl has a dream like that… Unfortunately there was no money for things like that. Mom and dad decided music and swimming lessons are more important than riding a horse.  And it became a desire, a dream that I want to try it…….

Last Saturday it was girls day out, and the girls and me go for a beginners ride. OMG, I really had the feeling that the BIG day finally was there. My pink-girly-day-dream came true. I’m riding on a real horse!!! I have never been that close to a horse than seen one on a picture in a magazine….o yes.

That morning my sister-in-law Victoria and I drove by car to the riding school in Schoorl, a one hour drive, of course we were there the first. We parked the car and we went in to the riding school. The horses…. well they look really big. But we saw many young girls, riding full of self-confidence, on the back of those big horses. Well if they can do it, we can do this… right, we can do this, we can do this, we can…

Finally all the girls arrived and we tried on some riding caps and boots and off we go. We were able to ask for a special horse. Mariska asked for a “sweet one” and she got a sweet one, Fiory asked for a smaller one… and she got a small horse. Everybody had a special request… and me, well I’m not the skinny type I’m afraid, I love to have a horse that can carry my weight. And then there was my horse….. My God, it was the biggest horse I have ever seen! I was not able to look over his or her back.

She was enormous! I had no idea how to get on her back, I’m not an athlete you know. And to swing my right leg in one movement over her back… well “in your dreams fluffy”. I definitely need a ladder or stairs to get on that horse ;) Well, I won’t tell you how I finally got on top of the horse back, but after a while I was on top of my BIG horse, with the name Whisper. What I didn’t know, someone whispered in his or her ears that she can eat whenever she wants and wherever she wants. And that means she stops at every bush and tree. She don’t wants to listen to me, she only wants her bushes and trees.

After 30 minutes I was done with horses, horse riding, horse poo, bushes and trees, I really want to go back. But unfortunately we booked this beginner class for 90 minutes….. Yes, 90 minutes! The last 30 minutes I was worried how to get of this BIG horse. I was so cold and stiff and because it rained the entire ride, there was not a dry piece of cloth on my body. Finally there was the riding school. They showed us how to get off in a very relaxed manner. But because I was so cold and stiff, and my horse was so BIG and the ground was so far, far away from my feet….. Well, I was able to get off. And no, I won’t tell you how inelegant I finally get of Whisper. Use your imagination ;-)) I was so happy with both my feet on the ground, I almost could kiss the ground, almost. And I know that there will be a day that I can walk again without the intense myalgia. Horses and me…. I don’t think it is the right combination…. I’ll better keep on quilting..

How a girls dream turned into a nightmare……..

Love Jacqueline

Social Media and a sneek peek.. :)

Okay! It’s been a while since the last time you were here. Well, there’s a reason for that. While Jacqueline was in America, teaching you all, and showing off at the Quilt Show in Padukah with Harm, I was the only one left behind at home. Poor little me..

However there was a little bright side to it. Because with Harm and Jacqueline both at the other side of the ocean, I had time to do my thing with BeColourful. No one to disturb me with endless phone calls, no one to hunt me down with emails, only some text messages which I could ignore… No, just kidding, it was really too quiet and boring and I didn’t like it at all, them not being here.. I missed them a lot, because we’re very close with each other. We speak to each other on a daily bases, so you can imagine what it has to be for me, when they’re not here.. Yes, poor little me..

And you know, I’m doing my share with BeColourful. Keeping every stream updated! Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and of course Facebook. 

We also have our own You Tube channel, and with only 5 videos so far, that needs a little attention of me too. But you know, with my daily job, the necessary housekeeping and all the BeColourful work, there’s not much time left. And above that, for new videos I’ve to see Jacqueline who’s living more than 2 hours away from me, and shoot some new videos to add to it. And there’s so little time for it…

But I’ve have great news for you all. And that’s why I thought to make this time the blog myself. We’re working on a brand-new website!

How great is that! The old one is very dated, I can’t even look at it L But this new website is so great! Our web designer chooses the format, and I’m doing most of the “filling” (I’m sure there’s a better/other word for that, but I think you know what I mean) We all have our ideas what has to be added, and how we want it to look like, to make it just as sparkling and colorful as Jacqueline’s quilts. And I think it will work. I added some “making of” videos, make a page for classes and shows, a page with all the beautiful BeColourful quilts you all made, 

and so much more! I think this website is going to be great. Hopefully this month it will be released, and I can’t wait for you all to see this beautiful website!

Hope to speak to you soon, when we’re online!

Love, Bridget

Picture perfect ;)

I have to make a confession……

Last Wednesday evening I have had my presentation to the Boise Basin Quilters (the BBQ) in Idaho. And I cannot explain how terrified I was for that evening….

But you have to do what you have to do. I took all my nineteen quilts with me in the hope that all the ladies would pay attention to the quilts and not looking at me. Believe me this is not something I really like to do. I consider myself as a shy person and to do something like this, is a real nightmare for me.

But we have set the appointment and of we go. We drove to the church were the BBQ held there monthly meeting….. And Laura introduced me to the president of the guild. We brought the babies inside and put them in the back of the church. Yes, I know my quilters….. they want to touch the babies and put their nails under the crystals to see if they are really set on the quilts… I’ve seen that happening before in Rijswijk at my show in the Netherlands ;-0

They told me that after the break it was my turn…. What do you mean after the break? Let’s do it now. I’m too nervous to wait after the break. But I have to say everything goes pretty fast and all the ladies have their break with coffee, chocolate and cookies. Too fast, actually..

And then it was my turn.. No escape, no little prayers, no excuses anymore, the time was there.  OMG what should I do!!! I took a deep breath, try to look like a professional quilter and designer, walk to the front of the podium and start.

Bridget and I had made a photo presentation from the last 10 years, and that helps a lot. I started with introducing myself and my beautiful city of Delft, my parents, Mr. Pooky: my extremely spoiled Siamese cat, and my wonderful and beautiful new Greyhound Amy.

And you know, while I was telling my story about them, and how important they are in my life, it turned out very well. I was able to tell some funny and of course, silly stories about BeColourful moments over the past 10 years. I had the possibility to show the quilts and to tell something about it and before I know it, it was a quarter to ten and only 2 people had left the room. Yeahhhh.

They even gave me a standing ovation. Yes, it was such a nice evening that I almost wish to do it over again. Almost…

Love, Jacqueline

Bye Kansas, I'm sorry to leave you...

I have packed my suitcase because Kansas is over. Tonight I fly to Boise, Idaho. What a wonderful week I have had. I loved the space where the classes were held. Mark and Mary were wonderful, Connie, my host was extremely friendly and my students were so very nice.

Yes I hate to leave Kansas. Except for the weather. OMG… how can you live in a country like this…. I would say…. Lets move…yeah.

We have had a very warm sunny day..mmmm, you can walk outside without a jacket and you must put your sunglasses on the top of your nose. It was a wonderful day.

The next day it was a little bit cooler, but they told me there is a storm coming! What do you mean there is a storm coming. Yes and they are right. At the end of the day you feel that the temperature drops many degrees and we were shivering. The weather radio was on to tell people to take care of stock and houses and that the storm could hurt you very dangerously if you were going outside. Well I can tell you, I was not very comfortable that night. But… well hey, I’m Dutch and we are use to pretty bad weather sometimes. It is just a storm…. But I thought I put my passport next to me…. Just in case… ;-0

But the storm went thru and the next day it was freezing cold! And we have snow… hmm, yes… real snow. Where are the sunny sunflower fields Kansas, the beautiful blue skies and the nice little markets that you see on the pictures in the magazines.

 But besides the weather it was so wonderful to be here.

I loved everything you have shared with me: your hospitality, your friendship and your kindness. I hate to leave but I will be back next year and I hope to see you all again.

Love, Jacqueline

PS: Idaho here I come….

Celebrating 10 year BeColourful

After three days being the center of attention, the show is over.  A kind of strange feeling. These 3 days were highlighted, and I enjoyed it so much! Having all my quilts at one place, show you all what I’ve done in those past 10 years! I think you know the feeling,  working to a special date, when something wonderful will happen, and then it’s over. 

It were long days, before the show. So much to prepare, and with all the preparations  done in the days before the show, I wasn't very bright anymore either, because it’s a lot of work! But with an extra layer of make-up I look pretty good.

Back to the show. I really underestimated the amount of work. When the quilts came back  from The States, I've to check them all.... You know: labels, sleeves, are they clean and straight, are there no folds in the center of the quilts, all that kind of check points.

Well….oh there’s one little thingy that bothers me. Most of the quilts are just perfect the way they are, but there were three quilts crying for more attention. Little sparkling crystals are calling my name, they would like to join the show too. So I have to add some Swarovski crystal on my precious baby’s. And there you go, and as it is with anything: once you start, you have to continue and you can’t stop till you are finished. So hands on to the applicator tool, take a crystal  and glue. A new crystal and glue, take another crystal and glue, crystal after crystal after crystal…sigh…

Each crystal takes about 8 seconds before it is securely glued. When you start you think I 'm going to do it… it only takes a few hours! The first quilt wasn't that big: “Bright Star”. I was quite happy the way this one turned out. But the two other quilts that I choose adding some, (well some..) Swarovski crystals were absolutely not small; “Brilliant Beauties of Joy” and “Rainbow Stars”. I 'm going to glue the crystals, hour after hour after hour, night after night, and finally 65 hours later, I was finished. Because that 's the problem, once you’re start gluing the crystals, you can’t go back or stop! However, to be honest,  in the end the result is stunning, and “Brilliant Beauties of Joy” and “Rainbow Stars” both shine and sparkle as I love to see them.

I enjoyed it so much, to see my quilts for the first time in 10 years together, and I enjoyed all the attention so much, the great compliments, the sweet things and lovely words that so many people have said. I would like to thank everyone, who was at the Quilt Show, and everyone who visit our Facebook page to congratulate me, and say those loving and sweet words!

But my special thanks are for my mom and dad, they support me for so long and I’m so happy that they have seen my show, were there and celebrate this special time with me. I also want to thank Bridget and Harm Jan. You both are so important for me and BeColourful. Without you both I would not have the success that I have now. Thank you for all your support and commitment. You’re both so dear to me.

Love, Jacqueline

Note from Bridget: Thank you Jacqueline, for your lovely words. I loved to see all your precious quilts. It was a wonderful and great show and it was fantastic to see all your baby's together. I enjoyed every minute working with you! Love you so much :*

Adventures in Disneyland Paris :)

Finally I have a short break. Yess!
Mom and dad were taking care of Amy, my lovely Greyhound and Mr. Pooky, my spoiled Siamese cat, and off we go to Disneyland Paris . It's only a 5-6 hour drive and with a lot of coffee, cookies, chocolate and sandwiches in my new car, we drove to Paris .

I wrote we, because I went to Disney with one of my best friends: Sandra. I know her for more than 24 years and we are very close friends. She is a friend who’s always there for me. She is the only one who don’t like my colorful quilts. And she said so too. She really don’t like my fabric stash at home, or the bright screen prints that I sometimes show to her in my enthusiasm. I know she want to like them ... but she really couldn’t. She loves the soft color tones and pastels, soft Moda and tiny flowers. Ahhhhh . But okay .... Not everybody has such a good taste like me ;) It 's okay with me, kind of..

At last we arrive at the hotel close to Disneyland, and we park the car in the underground parking lot of the hotel. Checked in, I buy my 2 day ticket.. Yes, only me, and this is a secret that I want to share with you; Sandra is a theme park hooligan. She has bought a ticket last December that’s valid for a year. YES, what do you think of that. She can go whenever she and her children wanted. That’s kind of awesome, right? Okay, we go on and we hop on to the bus in front of the hotel and went off to Disneyland .....

It was a sunny day and the trees in the park were really beautiful . Lots of blossom and magnolias were blooming. But, we didn’t come for the trees or the blossoms, we came to Disney for the attractions. Yes, and we did it all! The scarier the better :D Roller Coasters, The tower of terror, Buzz Lightning… we did it! But also Cinamatique :) I love that, the tea cups and “It's a small world after all...” In those 2 days we went into 25 attractions!!!! And we do have a lot of fun. At the end of the day we were so tired that we take a shower and fell asleep instantly .

The last day we spent on the shopping and outlet mall close to the hotel. Mmmm that’s an attraction  I like, actually... I love it. You always see something you need or want or what you didn’t know you want ;) At the end of the day we drove back home.
But we will be back next year ..... Oh yeah!

Love, Jacqueline