Patchwork in Florence

We are home again after our vacation in Paris, Rome and Florence, turned out to be the coldest winter in Europe in almost 30 years. We missed the snowfall in Rome but found some snow in the small medieval town of Siena about 2 hrs north of Rome. We didn't stay there long but really enjoyed the narrow streets with lots of shopping and good food in the local restaurants also know as Osteria's. As we moved onto Florence about 1 hr from Siena we found it cold but no snow. Florence and Siena are very similar only Florence is a lot bigger. The weather didn't stop us from enjoying both towns. Walking around the streets is amazing with something different around every corner. A twenty minute walk from our hotel in Florence we found a quilt shop called Agomago.

This shop had a bit of everything, lots of pretty floral fabrics, Japanese books and fabrics to go with the books. I didn't buy much fabric as the prices were very expense at $28 per meter. It's fun to find such a sweet shop while traveling.

You'll find lots of FQ's and notions along this wall.

The shop window display is very pretty. I found all the dress and shoe shops had wonderfully put together displays in the windows, the store fronts are very small and they make the best of it. I wish I'd take more pictures of windows.

The shop also carried knitting and needlework supplies.The hearts in the window caught my eye right away. So it feels very good to be home after seeing some fantastic cities and all the history that goes with it. I think I've seen enough museums and sculptures to last me a while. I'm looking forward to getting back to regular sewing and playing with fabrics.

Happy Quilting.

Weekend Get Away

I've been meaning to post about our weekend getaway ALL week, DH and I got away to Harrison Hot Springs for 2 days of sun and soaking in the hot springs. It's only about 1.5 hours from home. On our way we stopped at a farm called The Back Porch, they offer fresh roasted organic coffee, pottery, free run eggs, many types of garlic, hand made baskets and antiques. I just love this place with all the out buildings dotted around the grounds.

Here is the little antique shop in the garden area .Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I forgot my camera and was using my cell phone.

A garden bed, I brought one of these frames home for my garden.

The chicken shed, we are enjoying the eggs these girls laid for us. The first egg I tried had 2 yolks.

This green house is amazing....all made of old window frames, I would absolutely love this in my backyard.

A real working john, just in case. The iron fences were all over the gardens and for sale, I would love these for my front yard but a bit expensive.

It was a fantastic weekend relaxing, we are lucky to have a place like Harrison so close to home, I love how soft my skin feels after soaking in the natural hot springs. 

I'm working on a fall quilt using homespuns and a panel, I don't usually like panels (they are never straight when cutting) but I like the designs of black cats, pumpkins and sunflowers. I still need to add the borders.

Happy Quilting.

Aloha Home Again

It's taking me a few days to get back in the swing of things.....not :-). It sure was wonderful to be out of the rain and cold for a whole week. We had a fantastic time in Kauai soaking up the sun and playing in the ocean, the snorkeling was great and we could just walk to the beach. We stayed in the Southern part of Kauai called Poipu, I'm already planning to go back again.

A local botanical garden gift shop had a couple of Hawaiian quilts on the wall, don't know if there were for sale or not, I didn't look. Could you imagine doing all the needleturn applique.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful, I was amazed at how the orchids could grow outside in between the lava rocks with there ever so delicate looking flowers.

Now back home and I still haven't sorted out what projects I was working on before going away, my head is still somewhere on the beach in Kauai.

Views of Paris

A few beautiful photos of Paris to share with you. Every street we walked down was something new to discover. Paris really is a walking city but if your feet get tired there is always the Metro to take you a block or two. I won't say much other than I hope you enjoy them.

Seine River runs right through the middle of Paris. Lots of pretty bridges along the Seine.

View from the top of Eiffel Tower.

This became our new best friend when we needed a rest.

Paris Flea Market.

Paris Flea Market.

Gold statue on one of the many bridges crossing the Seine.

Canal Tour, it was a very pretty boat tour through the canals, part of the tour was under ground.

I think this must be the only hill in Paris, walking up to the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. Also, known for being the home of famous artists.

Fleas markets open up along the Seine.

Doesn't that look like a flower? This shop made all the cones this way, didn't matter how many people were waiting they all looked so pretty. My sorbet cone with mango and raspberry, it was the most delicious sorbet I've every had. And this place was just around the corner from our apartment, we even went twice in one day.

Well that's it for vacation photo's. If you are interested in seeing more, I have a web album and could send you the link......just ask. But remember to leave me a way to contact you.

Now back to being a quilting blog, I hope you enjoyed my little vacation. My DH is already asking where we are going next.....PARIS....do you really need to ask.  For now I'm just happy to be at home.
Bye for now,
Wendy

Views of Egypt

I'll show a few pictures of Egypt in this post and then the next post I'll share some of Paris, it was hard to only pick a few photos...I have soooo many. Then I'll get back to quilting posts, after all this is a quilting blog. The Great Pyramids are incredible, DH went inside one of them, apparently I didn't miss much.

View from the front of the Sphinx.

Egyptian cat taking a rest.

This temple was on an island, they had to move the entire thing when the Dam was built.

Spice market.

Abu Simbel, this temple was almost completely covered in sand when it was discovered.

Our camel ride in the dessert, those camels do nothing but complain the entire ride.

Taking a rest after a long ride.

Can't remember the name of this temple.

Egyptian script.

Interesting sign.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.
Until next time.

Home Sweet Home

Bonjour,
It's good to be home after 3 weeks of busy traveling around Egypt and Paris. We were very lucky the volcano didn't interrupt our vacation one bit, we arrived in Paris only hours before the airports closed and by the time our departure flight came along the airports were opened again. We heard some pretty bad story's of people trying to get home for as long as 8 days or more. The first 10 days of our trip we tromped around Egypt visiting some amazing temples and pyramids. It was an experience like nothing I've ever seen or done. We sailed in a Felucca, cruised the Nile, went for a camel ride in the dessert and slept 2 nights on a train. Egypt is an amazing place but it also has it's downside with Cairo being so crowded and noisy. Can you believe a city with 40 million people and no controlled intersections? I took a picture of one traffic light we saw and it was broken. I could go on and on about this place, more in another post.

I LOVE Paris, we had another 10 days to stroll around Paris. It's even more beautiful and romantic than I imagined. We rented an apartment for the entire stay and did day trips around and about the city. Our little area was one block from the Seine river with it's many bridges and right in the middle of some of the best shops, Brasseries, Patisseries, tea shops, chocolate shops, everything was walking distance. The streets are amazing and every day we found new places to walk and things to discover. For the trips farther away we took the Metro. Paris has one of the oldest subways in the world with 14 lines and we found it easy to master even with having few mishaps with getting through the turnstiles. We hit the record for the number of pictures taken for this trip, I think we hit over 1,400 pictures. I won't bore you with all of them, maybe just a few.

Anyway I'm still exhausted from the flight, we got in late last night which would have been 6am Paris time. It'll take me a couple of days to feel normal again.
More in the next post. 
au revoir

I'm BACK!

Warning: Lots of beautiful pictures and very long post.

We are back from our 2 week holiday in Portugal. What a fun time we had touring around the country. We took the train to different areas around Portugal. Our flight was into Lisbon and we stayed for 3 days before taking the train West to Sintra (my favorite place in all of Portugal, you'll see why soon). Isn't this blooming tree so beautiful, it's so full of flowers you can't see any greenery.

There are little cable cars to take you up to the St. George's castle that over looked the city, it dates back to the 6th century and was fortified by the Romans. We didn't take the easy way up, we walked up the narrow windy streets making a guess that we are going the right way. This was the start of many walks UP HILL and hoping we are heading to the intended destination, why is it that you can count on the place you want to go to always be uphill.

So many narrow streets to follow. We had to watch for coming cars because they couldn't be seen until they were right at the corner and cars in Lisbon don't watch for pedestrians anytime.

Oh look we found the St. Georges castle at the top of the hill. Here's a glimpse looking down at the city.

Other view of the city. One house seems to be added to the next and it just keeps on going as far as the eye could see.

Incredible views in every direction.

These were some stairs that went down to the main shopping streets, I guess we could have walked up these stairs instead of the street. I didn't go down to see, I was too afraid I would have to turn around and come back up all those stairs.

A fountain in one of "many squares" around the shopping district.

Isn't this the cutest train station, we are now in Sintra the most beautiful romantic place in Portugal, even the train station is lovely.

That's a little restaurant on the corner of the building, there is a cute little table with 2 chairs sitting outside. We tried to get that table for dinner but wasn't successful.

I was amazed at how narrow the streets are, see the handicapped parking, there's barely enough room for a car to get by never mind the pedestrians walking. See the clothes hanging out the window. I swear they don't have dryer's in Portugal, everywhere we went the laundry was hanging outside the windows. Even the 14 storey high rise apartments had laundry hanging outside the window. There seems to be a standard hanging line attached to all windows for drying clothes.

The castle of moors in Sintra, was built by the moors in the 9th century. And of course the castle is located in the high hill over looking the town, do you see more up hill walking for me. The next picture shows the town below and the castle on the hill.

See how beautiful and romantic this little town is. DH wanted to walk up to the moors castle and it really isn't as far as it looks in the picture but this time I had to say we are taking the bus as the incline is very steep. It turned out to be a good thing since we walked all the way around the castle walls, up stairs and down stairs. You can see in the picture above this one how the stairs are all the way around, I think it took us a couple of hours to get through this castle.

Another picture of the Castle of Moors.

This street is in a small town North of Porto, I know I've skipped ahead. I can't seem to get Picasa to load more than 4 pictures at a time and I've got some pictures a funny order....sorry I'm getting off topic. This small town is called Guimaraes, we took a 3 hour train from Porto to get here. This is one of the medieval streets we walked around.

I thought this sign was pretty funny, good illustration of what is expected when you have a dog. I wish some of my neighbours would do this.

Another castle, this one is a 10th century medieval castle with 8 towers 92 ft high. Again there was more up hill walking and we also walked around the castle walls. Every day we did about 10 to 12 km of walking. The food was awesome in Portugal and we sure ate well after all the walking we did. Sometimes ordering food was a challenge because most menu's were not in English and most people didn't speak English either. I was able to pick out the word salmon and ordered this I think at least 5 times.

I don't know anything about this church, I took the picture because of the blue tiles. The tiles were used extensively through out Portugal both inside and outside of buildings.

I think this is enough for one day....I hope I didn't bore you too much.....time for bed, I'm still trying to adjust to the 9 hour time difference.

My next post will have more Portugal pictures and I also have some stitching to show as well. Train rides are a good time for stitching.

Thanks for visiting.
Wendy