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

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….