Patter from Patti

The Wedding

We had a wonderful time helping celebrate our daughter's wedding in Brussels, Belgium.  It had rained the day before, and rained the day after, but Saturday, Oct. 25 was perfect.

Heidi's best friend, Laura, flew in from California to be one of the bridesmaids.  She's the blond on the far left.  Next to her is our other daughter, JB, holding our grandson.  She and her family  flew in from Florida.  The two flower girls are our granddaughters.  Next to Raphael is his brother Jeremy.  The other groomsman is his cousin Edward.

Our six-month old grandson, Kayman was the "ring bearer".  Of course, he couldn't carry the rings down the aisle but did go down with his mommy.  The pillow was made by me using some of my wedding dress for the "something old".  That's me holding Kayman.  Isn't he the cutest?  All of my grandchildren are the best out there!

John did the traditional dance with his daughter.  In the background is his sister, Linda watching on.  Linda and her family drove from Germany to be with us.  We are presently in Herford, Germany visiting them.  They've lived here for 23 years and we've never visited.  Terrible of us!.   It seems we all get so busy we don't take time to be with our families.  We've all promised to not let that happen again.

I wanted to share just a few photo's of the beautiful wedding.  Heidi and Raphael will continue to live in Brussels.  Both work at the International School of Brussels and want to remain there.   We thoroughly enjoyed meeting his family and can see visits often. 

It will be hard leaving, but we have to get back to our lives in California.  We look forward to our next trip to Europe.

England Report

October 2nd saw my arrival in London then a train trip to Torquay.  I arrived early enough that Sylvia and Carl made sure I saw some more WWII sites.
One of my uncles was involved with the preparation for D-Day.  Slapton Beach was used as a training beach.  Thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes to protect their lives.  It was a difficult time in England's history, but an important exercise. 

Several  years ago a tank was discovered on the bottom of the sea. It has been lost when a German U-boat snuck into the middle of the exercise.  It was brought up and placed here at Slapton Beach as a memorial to those who came, trained, and even lost their lives.

That is Carl standing by the tank.  He was there the day they brought it out of the sea.  My times with Carl seeing the WWII sites has been extremely special.  I can't thank him enough for his research and time spent showing me around. 

Sylvia has a fabulous studio where she holds workshops.  Mostly beading ones.  Laura McCabe had been there before me.  I love this place.  Sylvia has beads to buy, and fabulous samples up on the walls.  This trip the group chose my Alchemy Treasures box.  Here we are with our various "tops".  I'm holding the traveling doll from Dollstreet.  More on that another time.  It is so fun seeing how everyone interprets a pattern.  We all used the same "woman" but each person brought their own personality into their project.

The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in London was especially exciting this year.  Many amazing exhibits.  As you entered you knew you were in for a supreme time as you were greated by this amazing piece of artwork - sea anemone's knitted and crocheted by people from all over the UK.

Ray Slater was a special guest.  She had her truly remarkable "dolls" from her new book "Cloth Dolls for the Textile Artist".  If you haven't seen this book, hurry to your local book store, quilt shop, Amazon and get it. 

Other people with special exhibits were Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn, Richard Box, and so many more.  I caught up a bit with Dale & Ian Rollerson of The Thread Studio from Perth, Australia, and so many people.  I love this show.

But, I shall close for now and update you all later after a few more classes at Rainbow Silks.  That is where I am now.  In the beautiful village of Great Missenden and hanging out in Caroline's fabulous store and studio.