Here you can find all earlier parts.
Memories of my mother – Part 1 – 12
Mom and Dad have the opportunity to buy this house at Bloemendalstraat no. 2.
Dad worked very hard there for a long time and when we moved here in 1965, a lot had changed and in the near future it became more and more the place for Dad, Mom and us.
We got a private room. There was a real playroom, where we played school and mother and father with oat flakes, cocoa powder and sugar. There was a courtyard with a sandbox and swing and slowly the front garden as many people know it emerged. We made trips to the Steiner forest and, when Mom got her driver’s license, also to Köningswinter, alternating with the big ones (Frans and me) and the little ones (Marion and Jan). But we also all went to Phantasialand and much more.
Mom’s driver’s license was important to her and she had to work hard to get it. Her first car was the red Daf and she made this cushion, which was always in the car and now here in our living room.
When I went looking for threads to embroider it on the next felted page, I found the bundle that she embroidered the original with at the time.
Mom embroidered flags for associations such as the KAVO, the Sjwatze Sjömmele and Schutterij Saint Paulus. She made the flag for the Schutterij about 45 years ago and is still used with a number of adjustments over the years.
Mom did this work on a voluntary basis with or without compensation for the materials. But she really appreciated it when she was honored for it, as in the photo with the certificate of the Schutterij.
These pages for the memory book are 21 x 21 cm. That is very small for a flag. That’s why we printed the patron saint and the bird on felt. The narrower gold lines are embroidered with the prehistoric stitch because the ribbon is also too large in this size.
Again material from Mom’s own stash.
This is where my childhood continues. Mom and Dad work hard. Parties are celebrated in a big way, whether it is birthdays, Carnival, Sinterklaas or Christmas. We grow up with German television and schlager. Dad worked for the municipality and Mom also worked at Wasserij Jardon. In addition, the boarding house was created, to which mom and dad, but also all of us, contributed and also had fun things, such as trips with the guests.
Mom was always busy with textiles. On Wednesday afternoon there was a children’s craft club at our home, where we made toys and all kinds of things and brought them once a year to Huize Eschberg, which was then a children’s home.
I learned embroidery from Mom. I remember one day they made a piece of cloth, drew circles on it with a glass and showed me the stem stitch to embroider it.
Yes, I definitely inherited her golden hands.
Mom loved music. Enjoyed playing the organ and also took lessons from Tom Janssen. She sang in various choirs and also loved listening to music. She was a fan of Los Catastrofos and Bläck Föss.
Carnival remained her hobbyhorse over the years and her great wish was that Frans or Jan would become youth prince of Vaals.
Frans really didn’t like that, but Jan became youth prince in the Jubilee Year 2x 11 years of the Grensülle.
Mom would have loved to make Jan’s prince costume, but it was not approved. But she was allowed to make Jan’s prince’s cap and she embroidered the emblem. Also she made a miniature prince. This one is still with Jan.
This was her first prince’s cap and her first miniature.
After this she made, I think hundreds of prince’s suits, dance marietje costumes, hoods and miniatures.
The prince’s wagon for the big parade was a tribute to Dad, with the pond and the obelisk, where Dad always cared for the ducks.
The Floralia transformed our house into a real sea of flowers.
The stylistic prince’s caps I designed on my next felted page is another example for ‘My favorite embroidery stitch book’, part 3 – Old techniques in a new guise.
In Jan’s princely year, Mom’s craft club ‘nie foetelen’ was founded, mainly with the ladies of the children’s committee.
I found this embroidery in a photo frame once made by my sister presented to Mom. I am sure that she will have been very hapy with it.
To be continued!