Erster Tag in Stuttgart

Our very first day and we filled it to the brim!

The temps are just below freezing during the day, but the sun was trying hard to make itself known and be seen and the sky was mostly blue which just brightens everything up so much!

This was the view from my seat in Aby’s car!  We drove to the train station and parked, and took the train into Stuttgart to do a bit of exploring. It’s a very nice city with interesting shops and things to see and do!

 

 

Town scenes from the train. You can SEE that the sun is trying to come out…but it was cold, just hovering above or below freezing.

There was a valley below hat you can’t quite see, but the roadside nature is beautiful , and is what it looked like today as our train flew past!

At the station, there are shops and vendors and all kinds of things to look at. Of course the ones that catch my eye are the baked goods! OH MY! Look what this cookie vendor had:

Aren’t these fun? If someone gave me one with a message on it, I’d have a hard time eating it…well…maybe for a day…

 

The next thing we did was go up in to the tower at the train station and out onto the roof where we could look at al the surrounding lands! There is chain link fencing, so all my pics are taken by sticking the lense of my camera through the wire!

Stuttgart is the home of Mercedes..and right there on top fo the tower is the spinning logo…had to get a pic of that!

and these pics were taken all around the rooftop to give you an idea of the city

Stuttgart feb 22 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Though it is Winterscenes, you can see where there are places for vinyards on the side of the hills. We had a great time wandering the market places and saw lots of flower vendors, fruit and vegtable stands, and some others….

the pics of those are on my PHONE and I don’t have time to edit them down right now…I’m off to bed…it’s a quarter past midnight and my body clock is struggling

More next time!

Germany Bound!!

It’s a travel day for me, so I’m setting this up to post while I’m in the air!

I’m FINALLY FINALLY headed off to Stuttgart to meet with the Black Forest Quilters, the Schoenaich Quilt Guild, and a workshop day at the Nadel & Faden Quilt shop!

I'll also be meeting with Birgit Kaller. She writes for a prominent quilting magazine in Germany, Patchwork Gilde Deutschland.

She lives near Munich and she has heard about my visit to Stuttgart and wants to see me in action over the weekend (she works during the week.) Besides observing a workshop, she wants to interview me for the magazine! This should be very very interesting as "Meine Deutch ist nicht gut!!" ((And I probably just proved that with this sentence!!))

I was able to meet Lissa for a drive-by-quilt-drop-off curbside at DFW, packed that Virginia Bound quilt back in the quilt duffels, and off we went!

This is just a short short post, travel days don’t leave much to write about, but look at this, I thought this was funny!

Here I am standing in a LONG line waiting to go through security and there is this little kiosk where you can mail items home you forgot to put IN your checked luggage!

On the little chart, it tells you how much it is to ship each item home….in most cases the price of shipping your item is MORE than the item would cost….

With all the things they ban these days, I thought it hilarious that they would single out SNOWGLOBES. ((!!!)) But look….you can ship a snowglobe home for only 5 bucks more from over seas, than you can domestically….so if I really wanted to get my money’s worth, I’d let it fly all the way home from Europe

SNOWGLOBES?!? REALLY!??

Look at what I saw at MODA!! Ooooohhh…look at these beauties! Lissa let me pet them and unfold them and take pictures!!

Wouldn’t you love to just paw around in here? Each fabric was so wonderful!

And what really blew me away were the catalogues:

See that date on the spine? These are fabrics from 1891!

antique fabrics at moda_2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Lissa also held the quilts for me while I took pics…I was so excited I had a hard time holding the camera still, so pardon the blurry ones…

		Antique Quilts at Moda_2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There were more, many more, but we were short on time!

I had a great time…..and what is so funny is that I think Lissa and I could honestly pass for twins. Seriously Same height, same coloring, same everything..we even graduated highschool the same year! In fact, someone asked her at the lecture if she was me. Isn’t that fun! Have you ever been face to face with someone where it was so much like looking into a mirror? What a cool experience!

So….the next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Germany! What adventures we will have to share!

Virginia Bound Workshop in Denton, TX!

I tell you what, I have had some workshops in some mighty interesting places lately!

The Denton Quilt Guild meets for their workshops in a firehouse conference room! And when you walk in, you are greeted by a wonderful museum of collected artifacts going back into the 1800s……interesting items to look at, newspaper articles to read about earlier fires, and sadly the memorials of those firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty. It was a wonderful tribute, and also a great way to teach the school kids as they come through for tours and field trips to the fire station.

Here are a few of the interesting things you can see in the museum side…there were big windows and it was a bright beautiful day so, sorry for the reflections going on!

Denton Firehouse_2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The pic you see at the beginning of the post is of the room we sewed and sewed and sewed our brains out in!

We were also lucky that Val’s hubby loves to come spend his time helping the quilters, and actually made us DESSERT after lunch! Look at this apple cranberry cobbler! YUM!

It didn’t matter that we had just eaten a wonderful fish taco lunch at Fuzzy’s…the smell of this baking was too much to pass up! Believe me, it was every bit as good as it looks!

Along with sewing our brains out…..I got some pics of other interesting things! I just love the ingenuity of quilters! Look at this:

This is Brenda’s machine. Do you see how her snips are hanging? She stuck a command strip hook to her machine and now she never has to dig around for her thread snips! COOL idea!! Especially since the command strips are removable if she ever decides to do so….In the little basket are her bazillion gagillion 1/2 square triangle units for her Roll Roll Cotton Boll…she is assembling them as her leaders and enders. Atta Girl!

So on to the blocks! Oh we made such a huge mess, and we had such a great time!

		Virginia Bound Denton TX_2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Another thing I love is when *I* get to SEE some show and tell! I was really inspired by this denim/flannel log cabin…it looks SO great, and I can see where it is the perfect drag around and love it up quilt!

Isn’t this gorgeous!? And she will have to excuse me, but I’m already brain dead on names from all those that I met this week, but it belongs to the gal in the pink shirt…and I can only remember her sister in law’s name is Lisa!! ((Sorry sorry sorry!!)) But I love this quilt!

See the different widths of logs?! FUN!! And it was as heavy and warm as a sleeping bag with a flannel back on it as well. She said it used EVERYTHING!! LOVE IT!

After the workshop, I had a special trip down to Moda/United Notions with Lissa Alexander! And would you believe I did the STUPIDEST thing!? I left the Virginia Bound quilt in the back seat of her car! I was so overwhelmed with the tour, and the antique fabrics I got to touch and catalogues of old old samples I got to thumb through, and old quilt tops I got to unfold and pet, that when she dropped me back off at my hotel….I went BRAIN DEAD!!

So Lissa, sweetie that she is, is MEETING me when I am dropped off at the airport this morning to give me the quilt back…I need it when I am in Germany this next week, I’m teaching it twice! Wouldn’t do to not have the demo quilt with me, now would it?!

I took lots of pics from my visit with Lissa, and I’ll do that next post…I’ve gotta pack it up and get to the airport!

Dear Texas, You will always hold a piece of my heart! It has been a wonderful wonderful week with you, and I’m looking forward to coming back!