Montréal Old Port and City Hall

On August 17, 1998 in the afternoon we picked up our car in the parking garage below the Novotel Montreal in downtown.

Driving to the large parking area at Old Port of Montréal, from there we walked, with my Burberry umbrella in hand... to Rue Notre Dame.

It sure worked for warding off the rain!

On video you see the Old Port with the Jacques Cartier Bridge over the Lawrence River.

Also visible in beginning of our video is the 1922 Clock Tower, to the right of Jacques Cartier Bridge.

This year the Clock Tower celebrates its Birthday!!!

La Tour de l'Horloge a 100 ans! | The Clock Tower is 100 years old! ←click for short video.

Now we continue to 275 Rue Notre Dame Est, to Montréal's City Hall.

Most Interesting Places at Montreal – Gets Ready ←click link

Montreal – Administration and society ←click link

Such a dream of a building! 

In French it is called Hôtel de ville.

Oui Montréal c'est toi ma ville! or in English: Yes, Montréal you are my city!

The exhibition that was going on was about 50 years of human rights.

Look at the exceptional Fleur de Lys ornaments in the garden design on our video!!!

Also a huge planter filled with herbs, me smelling them...

Incredible garden!

This French culture, including the language, made us feel so much home!

~

Then in the very end in the video, I walk towards a linden tree for seeing its seeds...

Thoughts of Dad came flashing back!

Fond memories of me, in the front seat of his bike, as a toddler as Dad took me to a pilgrimage place in Ommel, North Brabant/The Netherlands. There was a huge linden tree.

I let my tiny hands run through them and Dad did pick some for bringing home from that shrine...

Did mention that very fact in an earlier post: Monticello Gardens of President Thomas Jefferson and Mulberry Row  ←click link

Another fabulous part of our visit to Montréal and hope you enjoyed it as well!

Have you been there yourself?

Related links:

Montréal Windsor Station and Mary Queen of the World Cathedral | previous post by me

Sainte Anne de Beaupré Basilica, Québec, Canada | previous post by me

Cathedral–Basilica of Notre Dame de Québec from 1647 | previous post by me

Canyon Sainte Anne — Québec, Canada | previous post by me

Montmorency Falls Park Québec, Canada | previous post by meFairmont Le Château Frontenac — Québec City, Canada | previous post by me

More PEACOCK CURTAINS Designed and Hung

 It has been already quite some time since I did design these Peacock Hand Crocheted Curtains...

Here I'm sewing on the Brass Lift Rings (found in Roman Shade Artisans).

Sitting in our Veranda Fleur de Lys chair...

This is what I was doing above...

From this 1957 Lily Mills Peacock Buffet Scarf I designed the curtains to be hand crocheted by a lovely Dutch lady, Mia Keizers.

She only used the mercerized DMC threads. 

It was only the peacock that I would be using...

Left underside of peacock with instructions in Dutch for Mia

Remainder of the left peacock till center (midden in Dutch)

Remainder of the left peacock's head till center

Bottom right of right peacock with instructions for working it out into correct size.

The right sided peacock part

Right sided peacock's head...

Yes, it DID fit and I have hung them 'dry'.

They would have stretched to perfection when laundered and hung wet!

Shown are the brass nails that I did sew on and Pieter who hung them for a dear friend, used also brass nails.

Crochet set–up side is tighter and looked perfect.

Pieter working on the brass nails for this long wall with four sections...

Next will be the long wall with one–piece crocheted curtain worked over the 12 cm wide wood supports.

Side sections of four crocheted panels completed.

Long window also done...

Mia worked with a nice pattern on top of the 12 cm wood sections in–between the peacock patterns.

And once more for the side windows four separate peacock crocheted panels.

Wow, I felt so relieved when we had them hanging and it looked good!

That sure was a mega task completed by Mia Keizers.

And luckily, the shipping of such a heavy and bulky parcel was still affordable...

Related link:

Hand Crocheted Peacock Curtains DONE and Hung | previous post of curtains that I designed and crocheted myself

Make you the world A bit better...

In our veranda we enjoy looking at our sun catcher with quote from Edward W. Bok that we purchased at the Bok Tower, highest point in Florida.

Just want to share it with you here:

Click to find it on my Pinterest in: QUOTES & WORDS OF WISDOM with info for ordering it from the Bok Tower Giftshop.

It is hanging to the right, next to another one from the Bok Tower.
Below my Hand Crocheted Fleur de Lys curtains...

A bit more close but still hard to actually catch it well, against the light!
Together with the Delftware houses we collected over the years from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines it looks great!

This is it, looking outside...

Wishing you a lovely day and thanks for your visit and comment!

Related links:
{Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Florida} | previous post about our visit to Bok Tower, HIGHEST point in Florida

{The Kiss of the Sun for Pardon} | previous post about the other sun catcher from Bok Tower
Mega Task Crocheting DONE | previous post where you can see the sun catcher
My 2nd Fleur de Lys Crocheted Curtain is Hanging | previous post by me
{1903 Ladies Home Journal by Edward Bok - The Mother of America & Dutch American Heritage Day} | previous post by me
{Edward Bok Quote} | previous post by me

My 2nd Fleur de Lys Crocheted Curtain is Hanging

Well, by hand crocheting those huge Fleur de Lys Curtains; I learned anew about PERSEVERANCE.

Feeling so very happy to have this 2nd Fleur de Lys curtain up and hanging; after only some 50 hours of crocheting!
On March 14, Speed Crochet... My final 1.5 Fleur de Lys.

After all, it was only HALF the size of the first one I did crochet in about 100 hours.

The crocheted table topper with roses was a gift from my dear friend Ellie.

An elderly lady Mia Keizers, in her 70s, did crochet that one.

The woolen rug also has the Fleur de Lys pattern.

Both of us are very pleased with the new curtains.

Husband Pieter even called it our home's prettiest room. Also with the view we have from here.

Our proud collection of Delfware houses, earned on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

If we only had the time to sit here, relax and read...

Having done this task, I need to catch up on so many other things!

And we are getting slower as we age.

Cannot complain though.

Thanks for your visit!

Related links:
Mega Task Crocheting DONE | previous post by me about the 100 hours of crocheting
{After 40 years Something's Gotta GIVE...} | previous post by me about the reason and the start...

{Our Veranda} | previous post by me
{Fleur de Lys in our Veranda} | previous post by me

Sweet Vet Amanda Came to Spooky's Home

One of our felines, Spooky Boy, dreads going to the Vet. He once got abused by somebody and received a terrible blow to his head, above his right eye. The Vet managed to heal him and we slowly got him to trust us once more. He had been hiding in the woods, a few streets away... Guess he suffered from Amnesia...

But he freaks out when we get the pet carriers for a ride to the Animal Medical Clinic of Laurens County, which is just around the corner.

Last week we had to see Vet Amanda with our eldest cat Barty as he was getting bold spots from excessive grooming himself.

She gave him a penicillin shot and some steroids and in a week time he has improved so much.

So we again discussed the difficulty with Spooky for his Rabies shot and others.

Vet Amanda offered to see him at his own HOME - How very sweet of her.

Here is Spooky after he got his Rabies and other Vaccinations...

He was even PURRING when Vet Amanda gave him his shots!

Maybe he still remembers how she did save his life on April 1, 2016 when he had a urinary track blockage. 

It was real easy this time and he got to stay with me in the veranda where I was crocheting on my 2nd Fleur de Lys curtain, which I finished by the way!

A pensive Spooky Panterino... very sweet and quiet against the Fleur de Lys pillow in our chairs with Fleur de Lys upholstery in Viscose fabric.

Yes, he has a Spanish 2nd name, just like his brother is called Bandido as their Parents were living in Acapulco, México.

Last year he got his ear injured... but it did heal almost perfectly.

He fits well with the little Egyptian cats on the Corian window sill...

We both are so pleased with this option of a Vet coming to our home!

No stress, no trauma!

If our fur babies are happy - we are happy too!

Our Spooky Panterino...

Thanks for your visit!

Related link:
{UPDATE...} | Previous post by me about Spooky's urinary track blockage

Mega Task Crocheting DONE

On Sunday morning, January 22, at 4:30 AM the new hand crocheted curtain was hanging!

Mega Task Crocheting DONE

Photos taken later on Sunday, after I'd slept a couple of hours...

They also are perfectly in length, not touching our Delftware houses that we earned by flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (we got often an upgrade with our Royal Wing cards!).

On January 11, on my sister's 67th Birthday in heaven, I started...

'ONLY' 12 segments with Fleur de Lys to go and crocheting at a rapid, robotic pace without errors would yield one Fleur de Lys every 6.5 hours...

BUT how can a human being work without any errors?!

Impossible and I had to undo many times 2 rows.

You only 'spot' the error on the returning row... Arg.

It teaches patience and concentration!

Since it was such a Mega Task, I was determined though to have it hanging by Sunday!

It became heavy and harder to handle.

See the cone to the left, on the floor?!

Days were dark and the artificial light had to be used.

After breakfast, getting dressed and barely time for doing anything with my hair, I sat there.

Husband Pieter was the Chef for that time... He did well!

Using 2 sticky notes taped together I moved up, row by row.

On the left I wrote: 8 l (lossen in Dutch) for the 8 Chain Stitches it would take to add on.

I must say that the directions were POOR!

Lots of errors in this drawing too. Where I marked with the pen, bottom right, those should be openings for creating that wide V-shaped stitch. 

3 Chain Stitches and 1 Single Crochet done inside the 5 Chain Stitches of alternative rows!

So not 'around' but I did make those Single Crochets inside the Center Chain Stitches!

Harder to do but looking a lot neater.

One X stands for 4 Double Crochet and two XX = 7 Double Crochet etc.

For those that love this pattern:

Starting out on 156+3 (for Double Crochet at the beginning!) Chain Stitches and make your 1st Double Crochet inside the 4th Chain Stitch = 157 Double Crochet total.

At the end for adding XX you make 8 Chain Stitches and insert into the 4th for making Double Crochet = 7 added total.

12 Fleur de Lys done!

I had to sew on the 11 brass rings, that I have from my dear Mom, old ones for curtains that hung from a thinner rod.

Then I proceeded to launder them in short cycle and pressing the pointed area.

Should have pressed the entire Fleur de Lys however...

Had to use the hammer for first putting the 2 lower brass nails on the sides.

So they got hung wet and stretched up into perfect shape.
Love the quality of this 100% Egyptian Cotton by Lizbeth in a 6-cord Cordonnet!

Next day my left index finger and middle finger were still red and very tender from working with that steel crochet hook over 100+ hours!

My tip of the thumb is still kind of numb and index and thumb feel like a mix between callous and blister...

Before I fell onto the mattress, I wrote this for Pieter:

Bid maar voor mij..  In English: Pray also for me... meaning that I would not join him to Church!).

Pieter wrote in Dutch: Jij bent een verbazend iemand! 

Pracht resultaat!

English: You are an amazing person!

Splendid result!

It will take a while before I will create the smaller, half sized one and even that will take 50+ hours.

So happy that I had enough thread and that my design worked out perfect for these windows at this scale.

Hope you like them too.

Catching up on lots of things...

Related link:
{After 40 years Something's Gotta GIVE...} | previous post by me about the reason and the start...

{Our Veranda} | previous post by me
{Fleur de Lys in our Veranda} | previous post by me

My 2nd Fleur de Lys Crocheted Curtain is Hanging | newer post by me

{After 40 years Something's Gotta GIVE...}

Well, life happens and not everything we love will last forever...
It was August 10 of 2016, that I had cleaned our veranda windows and also laundered my hand crocheted curtains.
Next day I would have a group of girls for Etiquette Class so everything would be perfect...

NOT perfect...
All torn up but I hung them up anyway!
There are certain days that we too feel like these curtains look and life goes on! 

But our Delftware houses still stand neatly lined up...

Well, that's how they look after hanging up for 40 years!
I made them for our home in Panningen, The Netherlands, and adjusted them for Horst, The Netherlands and then they went to Dublin, Georgia where they hung and in Cornuda, TV in Italy and back again here in our new home in Dublin, Georgia.
They always did fit; a miracle in itself.
They have endured many hours of sunshine.

It was High Quality Cotton a 6-Cord Mercerized Cordonnet that I purchased from 3Suisses.
One thing I learned to never ever make again those tassels. 
What a job to untangle them after each laundry...

This is taken on August 17, 2016 and showing the short wall, where there are NO holes yet... Only one tassel (not shown here) had come off.
But I got the message.
The search for new high quality Cotton 6-Cord Cordonnet in a similar Mercerized type.
Well, we went to Europe in September so I tried my luck.
NOPE! Nothing...

But I was determined for using a pattern with Fleur de Lys from this very Anna Burda that I'd taken over from my Mom.
Dating from September 1995 and Mom had handwritten 'mooie kantjes' - beautiful laces...
So glad that I bought this over from her!

Mom loved this Fleur de Lys pattern and I was determined to work it into a curtain with some tweaking.
In our veranda there is a theme of Fleur de Lys, see the links below this post.

So I did search on line and found a Handy Hands Lizbeth 6-Cord Cordonnet Cotton Crochet Thread size 3.
I've never worked with a size 3... so I ordered just one 50g ball to work with it for assessing its gauze.

This came in a Scottish Thistle color, a purplish green...

Yep, all what I wanted!
High quality 6-Cord Cordonnet
Mercerized Gas-Singed
Outstanding body that holds its shape
Size 3 thread
100% Egyptian Cotton 
Made in China!

50g = 120 yds

With my 2mm steel crochet hook I managed to work this (black & white photo) only to assess the total weight I would need.
Loved the high quality as it glides on my crochet hook very easily.
So I found one lady in Colorado Springs, CO at DS9Designs Tatting and Beads who just had 3 one kg cones left in white!
As I have assessed by this piece, I would need 2.3 kg total so I needed to order 3.
Today, on my Angel Sister's 67th Birthday in Heaven, it arrived and I'm delighted that it is not a pure white! I'd love an ecru but planned to tea-dye it myself. No need now.

So here it is!
Ready for me to start my Mega Task...

These were the last 3 1 kg cones left!
Will let you know and meanwhile you know what I'm at for the time being!

Thanks for your visits and kind comments.

Related links:

{Our Veranda} | previous post by me
{Fleur de Lys in our Veranda} | previous post by me

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