Spanish Experience

At long last, five minutes to sit down and show you some of the photos taken on our trip to Spain, but I suppose better late than never!

Our journey took us down  French Atlantic coast as far as Bordeaux , a beautiful city which deserves its World Heritage site status and which is also the centre of one of France's main wine  producing areas.  Strange to think that if you go back in history this area one was part of the British Isles (together with Brittany itself!).  A quick dash inland towards Toulouse and a  glimpse of the walled city of Carcassone   put us well on our way to the Mediterranean coastal highway.

Our overnight stop was at Coulioure , a very pretty town practically on the Spanish border and one we visited a couple of years ago. Unfortunately by this time the light wasn't too grand and the photos area bit dark

See the fortress on the hill top ?

    

We were luck enough to stay at the  Madeloc Hotel as we did on our last visit, and this was the view from our balcony - not the sea unfortunately, but a lovely jumble of rooftops caught in the early  morning sunlight ( just pretend the wires aren't there!!)

A quick breakfast then off to the border and into the land of olive trees and orange groves....

.......dried hams....

............ colourful rugs.....

....not to mention churches!

I don't usually take photos inside churches, but in this little one  I  was practically ordered to do so by the caretaker!  He was obviously very proud of it and quite rightly so,  and so's not to cause any offence, I took his photo too!

As this is turning into a picture heavy, long post,  perhaps I should stop now and  come back another day with the rest of the photos - oh yes! there are lots more :-)

From Beauties to Basics.......

.... and it doesn't get much more basic than 9s & 4s does it?

This latest finish couldn't be more different to yesterday's quilt, but in its own way just as pleasing.  The pattern was one I found on the Web some time ago, but can't remember  exactly where, so  I'm not able to give credit to the original . I think it might have been one of the major fabric companies, possibly Windham , all I do know is that it is very pink in the download pattern but unfortunately no sign of a name anywhere!


Finishing at 58" x 68" it's a reasonable size lap quilt and used up quite a lot of my scrap bag pieces, which is always good :-)  Would you believe that I took it to Spain to finish the binding - maybe not such a brilliant idea to have a quilt draped all over you given that the daytime temperatures were in the mid 30s, but it certainly came in handy later in the evening when it cooled down !!

Late Entry!

Almost missed getting my entry in for the Bloggers Quilt Festival Spring 2010  thanks to a flying visit from DD and DGD! We had a lovely long weekend with them filled with glorious sunshine, but as usual the house is VERY empty now that they've returned to the UK.

I think this time I have to choose the Vintage New York Beauties quilt I made a little while ago from Valori Wells  book 'Radiant New York Beauties' .

Why this one - well, because it was a number of 'firsts' for me!

My first (and probably last) paper pieced quilt.
My first attempt at applique using the  freezer paper method - something I will try again as I did enjoy it
My first attempt at free motion quilting that wasn't stippling - came out not too bad in the end luckily

So,  all in all,  even though it took  me ages to finish and at times drove me almost mental -  it is a quilt that I am proud of now .

AWOL ...

....and a change!

Way back when at the end of last year, I booked us a break in a milder part of Europe during February to break up the winter months.Unfortunately, things went a little off course when DH's health took a turn for the worse, but luckily I managed to change our booking without loosing any money, which is always a bonus, and this time we actually made it to Spain!Almost 3 weeks in glorious sunshine with nothing to do but relax, read and a  do little stitching !

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A sea front apartment complete with balcony where we could watch the world go by when we felt too lazy to walk the 50 yards or so to the beach, and with good restaurants also within a couple of hundred metres - what else could you ask for ?

Naturally there are lots of photos, but just for the moment the washing machine seems to be taking up all my time, but not to post without a single one, just a little taster :-)

View from our balcony - not bad, eh ?

The change - well, it must be a reaction to the lovely Spanish sunshine, but I thought that I would brighten up the Blog with a new template, do you like it ?

Before I forget, Amy is hosting another Blogger's Quilt Festival next week,  it really is good fun with lots of eye candy and prizes too so why not join in !