Quilt festival Groningen 2

Woodwork in the old churches with Lions,  two-headed Eagles (on the other side, you cannot see it here),  Cherubs and Griffins (I think they are)

You might think it a privilege to sit in these benches, but they're just as hard as all the other ones: it's to keep you awake during the sermon! Which is why so many people brought their own cushion (and left it in the church till the next Sunday)

Even in death I'm still important, don't you forget it!
I hope that you can see some of the family arms: I think this shows the complete descent (ancestry) of the person who died. Yes, this is to commemorate the death of 1 person!  They're called mourning boards (in Dutch).

 

and quilts 

 

As the rich were buried inside the church (and dead people don't tend to smell very nice) in Dutch the rich were called: stinkin' rich

 

and quilts

Organs

Here are the cherubs and griffins.

And here's the organ in a Mennonite church; quite a contrast ...

And quilts

So young and already interested!

 

I hope you enjoyed it even just a little bit as the Mister and I did.
More pictures of quilts you can find in the Photo Gallery here.

Have a great (quilting) weekend.

Quilt Festival Groningen 1

The weekend following the (FQCR) retreat in London I visited a quilt festival.
For the second time it was organised in different venues, mainly very old and small churches.
So lots to see!
And I don't know what impressed me the most: the woodwork, the organs, the (richly decorated) benches, the tombstones or the quilts. It's probably the combination!

Church at Breede, a hamlet near Warffum (above)

 

On the left the church tower was built separate from the church, but close by. The church on the right has extra support: the tower started leaning outwards ... The extra support was built in the year (that in the UK the king brought back partying*) 1660.

These birds are made of all kind of fused bits of fabric. On the right of the organ is a quilt of 8 separate pieced or fused quilts. This was made by a quilter who lives in the same village as I do. Here's her website (in Dutch).

We weren't allowed to take any pictures of a lot of modern quilts by Nancy Crow and her pupils/followers. I bought the book accompanying this part of the festival: International Invitational of contemporary quilts; Curator Nancy Crow.  We especially loved the quilts made by Bonnie M Bucknam. (Google them both if you'd like to see pictures: I cannot show you any. Esp. Tangle and Bramble)

Wow, so many shapes, colours, quilting in straight lines and free motion.

Even some knitting was on display: don't you love these?

 Churches in this part of the Netherlands are very basic, very simple. The really old ones, like these still have the ornate woodwork in benches where the rich or the noble would sit. They're about the only ornate decorations.

I'll give you the rest tomorrow, because I'm having trouble uploading pictures ...

See you then.

Happy quilting to you!

* thanks to Horrible Histories, my favourite BBC programme