I am writing this Saturday night before I pack and go to sleep – I am flying home from the Netherlands early Sunday morning. After attending the quilt festival in Nantes France ( and a few more days up the river in the Loire Valley), I finished this long trip with a few days in Amsterdam, corresponding with the wild annual festivities known as King’s Day. My impression is that every college student in the country came to Amsterdam to party. I posted a couple videos on my personal Facebook page if you are curious. There is a lot of singing, dancing, and cruising around the canals on party boats. And everyone is wearing orange. I managed to score a lovely orange scarf from a street vendor. I spent most of King’s Day at the Van Gogh Museum.
Friday I saw the Vermeer exhibit at the Rijksmuseum. Then we saw the Rembrandt wing, including the Night Watch which is encased in a giant glass cube. I saw the Night Watch in 1975, two weeks before it was slashed. Then it was out of view being repaired for several years, so I felt lucky to have seen it then. It is now being scanned on a microscopic level and that digital scanning machine was at work when we visited. New chemical imaging techniques are being used, that will show not only the surface, but underlying layers. A fascinating new chapter for this 380 year old masterpiece!
Today we drove 90 minutes out of Amsterdam to a warehouse for our new Dutch Wax Print source. I hand-picked some luscious and very colorful prints, to add to what we already have in stock. I tried to order some prints that had sold out but they informed me that they do not reprint – they just keep coming out with new designs. So if you see something that catches your fancy in the Holland line, don’t wait to snap it up! Next we visited the world famous Vlisco compound, where the very expensive Dutch Wax prints are produced mostly for the high end fashion market. I was excited to see the murals on their main office building – created by artist Simone Post. (The largest mural in the Netherlands).
sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul
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Travel/Quilt Calendar:
May 27 – Dairy Barn, Athens OH – Quilt National – Art & Activism Lecture
June 8-10 – Quilt Canada – Halifax, Nova Scotia
August 18-24 – Bear Camp in Alaska
