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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

My 3rd Trip to Switzerland and visiting Jakob Schlaepfer Couture Fabrics Designer in St. Gallen

Lucky me on May 3, 1985 after finishing my sewing creation of cut out cotton voile couture fabric that I got gifted by our Swiss friends, after visiting the famous Jakob Schlaepfer in St. Gallen.
On April 02, 1985 we had traveled from the USA to Amsterdam and next we flew from Düsseldorf/Germany to Zürich/Switzerland where we rented a small Mercedes 190 and drove to Herisau.
It was great for seeing Hans-Jörg and his sister Barbara with husband Max again!
We went on to Austria by car to visit the Sohm family, see previous post below.
Back to Waldstatt where we had supper at Max & Barbara's home and talked till 23:00, mainly about the mushroom business...
Next morning breakfast at 7:00 and Pieter went with Max to the mushroom farm and in the afternoon they both took us on a tour at Jakob Schlaepfer in St. Gallen.
BAMBOLA, the Boutique for Fashion-Enthusiasts
Jakob Schlaepfer & Co AG, Teufener Strasse 11, CH-9001 St. Gallen
The famous Jakob Schlaepfer company's own embroidery boutique. It exports St. Gallen embroidery worldwide and supplies Haute Couture fashion houses.
Having studied fashion design before ending up in the mushroom business, of course I was having a ball!
By the way, Jörg Kuhn, Barbara's Dad also had been in the textile industry before starting into mushroom growing, using the old textile building first.
Jakob Schlaepfer is listed 2nd from the top on the left, among the leading Couture fabrics.
Some other famous Couture fabric brands...
Since 1904,  the Swiss firm Jakob Schlaepfer has produced couture fabrics for Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix, Marc Jacobs, and Prada, among others. However, last year the company created a collection of couture-worthy textiles specifically for the home. For Jakob Schlaepfer's new Décor line, artistic director Michele Rondelli and his design team created 22 opulent patterns that offer all of the detail found in the company's regular fabrics but have been adapted for use in the home. Standouts in the collection include Evaliia, with embroidered metallic flowers on delicate tulle, each studded with a pearl or Swarovski crystal; Bojan, which is adorned with hand-embossed sequins densely overlapped like fish scales; and Amurpaille, a gold brocade woven with metallic thread, overprinted with a floral pattern, and covered in embossed clear sequins. The collection, available in the United States through Savel, is priced from $ 57 per yard for plain tulle to $ 690 per yard for the more intricate Bojan pattern.
This map also gives you an idea of where in Switzerland in the north east St. Gallen is located.
After first getting a guided tour where they explained the different weaving procedures, we ended up at this famous Bambola Boutique where I became the recipient of a fabulous piece of cotton voile with lace embroidery.
We thanked our friends again for such a regal gift and drove back to the airport for our flight back from Zürich/Switzerland to Düsseldorf/Germany and driving to The Netherlands where we arrived by 22:15.
Mauzie, my Dachshund girl, was as happy with the result as I was on May 3, exactly one month later.
It was quite a challenge for cutting out the embroidered edging. 
With a very sharp, small special scissor I got that done.
Did create a kind of a cummerbund, for wrapping around the waist with buttons and loops in the back.
On September 3, 2000 I'd altered the length in a more usable length.
Still have this Couture gem!
Even the Queen of England used Jakob Schlaepfer for her Golden Jubilee 2012...

From the link below, about Mushroom Friends in Austria on April 15, in 1987, husband Pieter had gotten up at 4:45 for fetching his American Campbell Soup colleagues and driving to the Düsseldorf/German airport for their 8:00 flight to Zürich/Switzerland.
By 9:30 my youngest brother Jan called and told me that his boss needed to drive there by car, in the afternoon, for delivering a new engine...
So I quickly called him and offered for being his chauffeur instead. He gladly accepted.

Jan Thielen picked me up by 11:45 and with his lunch, he took a beer, after asking if I would do the driving. 
So I drove in his BMW to the destination of Full in Switzerland where the Kuhn compost business is located and arrived there by 18:30. 
Hans Jörg and his Dad Jörg Kuhn were a little surprised, Pieter had told them that maybe I would come along as well. By 19:00 Pieter arrived with his colleagues and we had a good dinner at the Bahnhof hotel all together.
Happily snuggled up with Pieter under the down duvet...
Next morning breakfast together at 7:15 and Pieter went on to the Sohm/Austria company, as I went with Jan Thielen to the mushroom farm in Full, and via another stop at a customer in Herrenberg, below Stuttgart/Germany. 
Via lunch in a farmers town by 14:45 heading for Horst, The Netherlands.
Did drive that day a total of 600 km and at a speed of 170 km/hr or 105 mi/hr and reached home by 20:30 where Pieter just had arrived at 20:20...

Some fun trip and for me it was my 4th Swiss visit... Both of us drove once more in 1995 to Switzerland for a visit and on to Italy but no photos, only video...

Related post:
Mushroom Friends in Austria and their Mushroom God Statue | After arriving in Switzerland we drove to Austria 
Previous posts:

Monday, March 29, 2021

Baroque Abbey of St. Gall and Library, UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

On Friday, April 27 of 1984 we went visiting St. Gallen and went inside this UNESCO World Heritage Site Baroque Abbey and its equally high Baroque Library
In the morning, while Pieter went with Max to the mushroom farm, I joined Barbara to Appenzell for grocery shopping and buying some Appenzell cheese; famous from that region.
Had to capture this typical home...
It is the façade from HAMPI FÄSSLER APPENZELLER SENNENHANDWERK seven generations!
In the afternoon Barbara and Max, Pieter and I visited this UNESCO site for a guided tour.
Inside the Abbey of St. Gall and view to the high altar.
Abbey of St. Gall Baroque choir chairs...
Inside the Convent's Library
That was oh so impressive to see work as old as from the 8th century.
This library is one of the richest and oldest in the world and contains precious manuscripts on parchment.
Short informative 2:36 video Convent of St Gall (UNESCO/NHK) Click Watch on YouTube!!!
After our visit inside the Abbey and the library, Pieter captured me on Gallusplatz square.
To the left on the building you partly read the text GASTHOF SCHWANEN...
The huge tree I was standing next to is seen here in its full summer beauty.
Above you see very well the GASTHOF SCHWANEN and building that Pieter captured with me near huge tree.

Stay tuned for more...

Previous posts:
Pieter Co-Speaker at ISMS in Amsterdam-Wageningen 1965 | Mentioning Jörg Kuhn Visiting A.G.
{My Hand Knitted & Hand Embroidered Sweater} | About the Hand Embroidered Sweater that I wore
Husband Pieter Doing it ALL | manager August Enzler and Hans Jörg Kuhn on new patio in May 1985

Saturday, March 27, 2021

My First Cross Country Skiing and Special Gift for Pieter's Years of Consulting

 

Skiing makes for a very happy Pieter!
We did not travel with ski gear of course... but it worked well.
My very first time cross country skiing on April 26, 1984 and of course falling – but laughing!
Pieter of course knew...
We're having a great time together!
Team Vedder is now better synchronized...
Friend Max and photographer...
Had to close my jeans jacket as we went higher up the mountain...
Friend Max made great photos of this event!
Hans Jörg did bring them to our home on September 19,1984 when he stayed with us for 3 nights.
Precious gift and a valuable memory of great times with Barbara and Max!
Barbara and me as we are more in the wooded and shaded area.
We even heard an avalanche from a distance!
Pieter looking back
We really enjoyed our time together!
They let Pieter drive back home in their Volvo wagon due to Pieter getting easy car sick in the mountains.
We all changed for a formal dinner with the entire family.
Jörg Kuhn himself was still at a meeting but he joined us later at the restaurant where his wife Leny, daughters Marianne and Barbara and Max, husband from Barbara and son Hans Jörg and also the manager from their mushroom farm August Enzler and his wife had come together.
We started out with a regional specialty of Bündnerfleisch with melon.
A thinly sliced dried beef from Graubünden, Switzerland.
At home we did toast on both Barbara's upcoming Birthday, followed by Pieter's.
Pieter got presented a parcel that contained the above Swiss Rado DiaStar watch!
He'd shown it to Hans Jörg when he visited us for dinner in Dublin, Georgia/USA, on January 22, 1984.
Seen in a magazine and Pieter uttered the words: 'If I ever have money, that will be my watch!'
Having just moved into our home with a 15–year 12.5% mortgage, that of course was not possible...
Now, Jörg Kuhn senior presented it to Pieter with the words: 'Here, you have never asked for anything when driving down to Switzerland, from The Netherlands, for solving mushroom related problems, all those years...!' 
Pieter was overwhelmed and shy as a little boy but of course oh so happy with such a regal gift from his mushroom friends!

Pieter still wears it with pride.
Stay tuned for more...

Related posts:
Pieter Co-Speaker at ISMS in Amsterdam-Wageningen 1965 | Mentioning Jörg Kuhn Visiting A.G.
Husband Pieter Doing it ALL | manager August Enzler and Hans Jörg Kuhn on new patio in May 1985
{Are YOU for Cross Country Skiing or for Sun Vacation?} | my 2nd cross country skiing adventure...

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Happy Reunion with Swiss Kuhn Family & United States Consulate for our Permanent Visa

 

On Sunday, January 22 of 1984, Hans Jörg Kuhn, the son of Jörg Kuhn whom Pieter knew for decades, was our guest.
I'd cooked a delicious dinner, according to Pieter's writing in our diary...
We surely enjoyed our time together!
Hans Jörg Jr. was visiting Dublin to see the new Campbell farm, that Pieter designed, in operation. 
On April 20, 1984 on Good Friday, we both flew with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Amsterdam, The Netherlands and friend Jan Thielen picked us up at the airport.
Both of us stayed with Pieter's eldest brother in Horst and walked to garage Timmermans for picking up our rental car.
It was Easter Weekend and on Tuesday, we did rise early for catching the 5:50 train to Rotterdam for going to the United States Consulate in their new building, across from the eye surgery hospital where Pieter was a few years earlier for his 1st implant lens...
We first went to the Dutch G.G.D. (Municipal Health Services) for having lung X-rays made. We had to wait for the results and got the images as documentation. 
By metro to another doctor for medical examination and blood tests. 
By 13:30 with these results back to the United States Consulate. By 16:30 we were done after lots of questions, finger prints and solemnly swearing that we had filled in the truth. 
Finally our long day got rewarded with a heavy, sealed parcel, for our Permanent Visa with a bill for 800 Dutch Guilders!
That was the start for both of us to become a United States Citizen but only after living here for five more years, and paying all our taxes and keeping a clean record as everything got checked.
This was during President Reagan's time, with still very strict rules for becoming a United States Citizen!
We never could vote all that time; now all rules are out of the window...
On April 25, 1984 we both flew from Düsseldorf, Germany to Zürich, Switzerland after first driving one hour...
Jörg Kuhn's daughter Barbara with her husband Max, came to pick us up. 
We had lunch at an old restaurant, high in the mountains with beautiful view.
My FIRST introduction to Switzerland was breathtaking.
Wearing my hand knitted and hand embroidered sweater...
Arriving at the home of Barbara & Max in Waldstatt, Switzerland.
A perfect sunny day... 
Don't you love the lush green meadows, right behind their home?!
I've always said, that IF I have to reincarnate as an animal, I want to be a cow for grazing in the Appenzell area of Switzerland – it almost made me want to stand on 'all fours' for grazing...
With some borrowed shoes we all went hiking...
Resting on a bench...
We climbed up to where snow was still on the ground...
Barbara & Max had somebody pick us up at the road, so we did not have to walk the entire stretch back home!
Doing the hike, poor Pieter got attacked by a German shepherd that tried to bite him!
He managed to kick him off his trouser legs; scary as those were Pieter's ONLY trouser that he'd taken as he'd left his suits hanging on the armoire at his brother's home. 
We got up a bit too late and had to rush, rush...

My 1st day in Switzerland; stay tuned for next post.
Barbara's brother Hans Jörg did stay with us in Dublin, Georgia on September 18 till 21, 1984.
In May of 1985, Hans Jörg Kuhn with their manager August Enzler were our guests in Dublin, Georgia
So we certainly did stay in touch!

Related posts:
Pieter Co-Speaker at ISMS in Amsterdam-Wageningen 1965 | Mentioning Jörg Kuhn Visiting A.G.
{My Hand Knitted & Hand Embroidered Sweater} | About the Hand Embroidered Sweater that I wore
Husband Pieter Doing it ALL | manager August Enzler and Hans Jörg Kuhn on new patio in May 1985

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Hats and Leather Coats get a Rest

 

Bye Winter and no more leather coats and hats...
How much I love to wear this buttery soft Escada coat from the Outlet!
Also the wool flannel pants from Escada
Do you own a leather coat?
Husband Pieter loves my tweed newsboy cap!
That's why he captured me and in return I captured him in his tweed jacket with leather elbow patches.

Do you wear any hats or caps?

Sunday, March 21, 2021

Welcome Spring and Goodbye Boots

Happy Spring to all and glad that we can say goodbye to our winter boots...!
Also goodbye to thick woolen sweaters and leather skirts... Love wearing this one from the Escada Outlet

Yeah, wait till I'm really TALL!
Entire outfit is Escada...


Friday, March 19, 2021

Medieval Werdenberg, Sankt Gallen Switzerland

Werdenberg in Canton Sankt Gallen, Switzerland on the border with Lichtenstein
This is the Montaschinerhaus in Werdenberg, oldest wooden settlement in Switzerland at the foot of the feudal-glorious castle, of the same name, dominating the landscape. Densely built town with picturesque alleys and a concave lake front, above it a steep vine slope; on the hillside the suburb. 
In the distance you can see Mount Säntis.
As with most of our Swiss photos, there is very little information in English.
Here you can view the 800 year old history...
Werdenberg kleinste Stadt und älteste Holzsiedlung der Schweiz a 1:14 min video showing this tiny town of approximately 40 homes, all in wood; Werdenberg smallest and oldest wooden settlement in Switzerland is the English translation from the German video title...
Arial view from the Werdenburg area.
Mount Säntis to the left and Appenzell Innerrhoden with Austria (Österreich) and Liechtenstein to the right.

Hope you liked learning a bit more about beautiful Switzerland!


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