A little bit of spring!

On Tuesday, Aby and I went to visit downtown Stuttgart….including a little walk about through the market place….we barely made it in time, as this was the cold cold day, and the market was folding up by 1pm…

But there was a little bit of hope for spring everywhere….especially in the array of potted and blooming bulbs that were on display!

You’d never know it was freezing outside by the look of these beauties, would you?

These were so lovely to see, and the hyacinths were so fragrant! One of the things I love about Europe is the “normal” indulgence of having fresh flowers in the home just because they are pretty. I don’t do this often enough for myself, but I think I should! When was the last time you brought in some flowers just because they made you smile?

Here is a bit of the market place with some of the stands set up. Don’t you just love those buildings?! I love the clay tile roofs..

There was also a display of wonderfully different jams and jellies……take a close look at the labels and the lids:

Though it was so cold out, the sun had started to break through the clouds, and you can see how it is so beautiful shining THROUGH the jars! Aren’t those lids fun?

The indoor market close by had wonderful breads

And Cheeses!!

And slabs of hand made chocolate! I love the white one with the cranberries!

Aren’t these beautiful? All kinds with or without fruit or nuts added!

Packaged beautifully for gift giving! Although….I had to decline myself as my bags are already at weight limit ((A good excuse, eh?!?))

There is so much to see and do, and not enough time to do it all, but it has been a dream to be here!

I finished the second Cathedral Stars workshop today, and we have a trunkshow with the Black Forest Quilters tonight! The adventure continues!

PS..if you didn't get yesterday's post, you'll want to click back to it and leave your comment on that post to be in the drawing for Cheryl Lynch's Fiesta Quilts! I'll be drawing for that freebie when I return home from the states!

It’s a Quilt Fiesta Give-Away!

Have you ever walked into a restaurant or public building and thought to yourself that the tiles would sure make a gorgeous quilt pattern!?

You “KNOW” that I have…I’ve posted pics from my travels of tile floors, tile table tops, tile counters…even tiles found in a Taco Bell Bathroom that would make a great border design! I’ve taken pictures of tile designs all across The Netherlands, and Paris, The Carribean, Mexico – Anywhere I can find quilt-inspiration!

A few weeks ago Cheryl Lynch contacted me to participate in her blog tour for the release of her new book Quilt Fiesta! Just one look at the cover and I knew I wanted to spend some time with this book.

It is splashy and fun and fresh and makes me OH SO READY for spring and summer!

There is applique, piecing, wonderful color, cute projects large and small, and INSPIRATION!

It’s like a history lesson and a quilt lesson at the same time. There are images of actual tiles, the process of the painting and designing and from there how they end up in Cheryl’s delightful quilts!

I remember the first time I sat at a tiled table in a Chili’s restaurant…just captivated by the colors and designs in the tiles. I know you’ve thought it too! Now Cheryl will show you how to take those designs and turn them into your own tile-inspired quilts!

So here we are with another Give-Away! I’ve got a SIGNED COPY of Quilt Fiesta here for you! All I want you to do is leave me a comment on why you want to win this book! This post will be open for comments for 5 days ---We will draw for the winner on Thurs, March 3rd! ((I think I should be over my Germany Induced Jet Lag enough to draw the winner and mail it on by then!!))

Also, please feel free to visit these blogs who are next in the line up after me on their given dates, and you can sign up for a free copy there!

http://amyscreativeside.com/ 2/28/11
http://therootconnection.blogspot.com 3/1/11

http://quiltinggallery.com/blog-posts/ 3/2/11
http://CherylLynchQuilts.blogspot.com 3/3/11

And of course, please drop by Cheryl’s Blog, and leave her a comment saying Bonnie sent you!

So many picutres, so little time!

It’s well after 10pm here in Germany as I write this, after a very very full day!

We started the morning out with a visit to Birgit’s quilt shop, followed by a stop at an antique store for some browsing, and yes I found some goodies! ((And took lots of pictures)) and then to the bakery for some lunch items and goodies ((and yes I took more pictures!))

And then we were off to Ludwigsburg to visit the castlle—fabulous tour! It took more than 1.5 hours, and we got to go through more than 65 rooms!

By the time we got back to Aby’s house, there was just barely a chance for a little rest and a bite of dinner, and then we were off to visit with the schoenaich quilt guild…what a great time we had! I was so nervous. My German is pretty limited (to about 10 words, maybe!!) but we had some translating going on, and you know, Quilting is a universal language right? We all enjoyed each other very much and I’ll be spending the day with them tomorrow!

Since this is a quicky post….I thought I’d send in a couple fun ones! What was the first thing that Aby and I did upon my arrival? Dropped off my bags, headed to the grocery store to stock up on Ritter Sport bars to take home to the guys, and treat ourselves to some gelato in the mal!! LOL! ((You know this girl will never pass up any ice cream of any kind!))

Aby with her wild berry concoction!

And myself with some butter rum cookie crunch thing that was so un-believably good!

Seriously. I have been taking pictures left and right, and find myself with no time to edit everything down! By the time we get back to the house, I’ve got 100 emails to go through……contacting family, etc, and I’m so tired I can scarcely keep my eyes open!

Tomorrow is no different, we have the second Cathedral Stars class, and then a lecture/trunkshow in the evening. Here I thought I’d be posting left and right with cool things, but likely I’ll have to catch up when I get home!

I trust that you are all well and good and quilting away…and I’ll be back in touch as soon as there is a spare moment to post more

Quilt Show Wednesday!

I was emailing back and forth with my editor Jenifer talking about different book things! One of the things we were talking about was the “Directions At A Glance”, a brilliant idea she had for Scraps & Shirttails II that turned out JUST super…

Here is what the directions at a glance look like:

Those of us who have been quilting a while, don’t need all the wordy descriptions, but a short-cut-quickie glance gives us the info at hand to guide each step!

I received an email from Charon who writes:

I also wanted to tell you that the "Directions at a glance" in your new book is genius. I propped it up on a cookbook stand right by the machine and it makes it so easy to make sure that the little parts are turned the correct way. Love it! I sure hope that you use it again.

Have a great day!

Charon in Tennessee

Charon, I sent your comment to Jenifer and she is thrilled that you like it, she said she has been on pins & needles waiting for reactions and hoping they would be good rather than bad! We never know what the reaction will be when we put something new in print, and I’m glad you like this one! I like it too, and yes we will use this format again!

SO back to Jenifer! Not only is she my editor and my friend, but a Kansas City Star author herself!

She writes a blog called Forty-Two Quilts, and once a week she is doing a “Quilt Show Wednesday” Where you can email in your photos of your own quilts and she will showcase them on her blog!

And, tada! Since today is Wednesday, she asked me if I would share a quilt with you! Head on over to Forty-Two Quilts and view the quilts and see which one I chose! ((**Hint** You know how I love my tri-recs rulers?!? GUESS!)) Pop on over and enjoy the show and tell, and be sure to leave a note that Bonnie sent you!

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!