Marmots, houses and dyeing…oh my!

It has been a busy week on the creative front. I had to paint a marmot (looks like a groundhog) onto fabric for a flag for my BIL. My MIL came up yesterday so we could work on it. We had a great time hanging out and the flag came out great.  When I took the photo last night I got some blue shadowing on the image that should not be there.

I completed my 6 house blocks for a block exchange. I did Halloween houses. These blocks were only 6 inch blocks so part of them had to be paper pieced. Now I have to send them out.
 
I have been taking a silk dyeing class at QU. I have some really beautiful fabrics. I want to incorporate silk into my art quilts. In fact I think I have an idea for the red-orange silk velvet already.

Speaking of fabrics… my fabrics from Spoonflower arrived on Saturday. I think they came out great. I can’t wait to create some more fabrics.

The one with the moon is one that I created in a Create NJ class using citrasolve on National Geographic magazines to alter the pages. I then made a collage with the papers, took a photo of the collage and had it made into fabric. I will be using this fabric for my upcoming 15 by 15 challenge. The reason I took the class was to get images to be used to create fabrics and have them printed at Spoonflower.

The one in front with the tree was created by taking a photo of a fabric that I resist painted. I actually changed the color to blue and then added the layer of the tree photo taken by my daughter.

The orange and blue one was something I designed on my ipad.

The blue-green one was a forest scene I changed drastically in photo shop.

We have been back from our vacation to Paris for about 2 weeks now, but I can’t stop thinking about it. The top 10 highlights of the trip for me were the following:

Visiting the Musée de l'Orangerie and seeing the Monet water lily panels. We went there twice.

Visiting Monet’s gardens at Giverny.

Seeing the stained glass windows at Sainte-Chapelle.

Going into a cheese shop where no one spoke English and trying to buy cheese. We asked for blue cheese which the owner understood. Then he brought out plastic figures of a cow and a sheep to ask us which we wanted. We bought sheep’s milk blue cheese. It was the best blue cheese we ever had.

How friendly the Parisians were. There were quite a few times that we were standing there looking at a map and people asked if we needed help.

The camembert baguette sandwich we had outside of the Louvre for lunch. Best sandwich ever. The baguette was crunchy and chewy. The cheese was soft and gooey. Close second was a salmon burger we had for lunch, but not sure where that was.

Sitting along the Seine at the Paris Plage (sandy beaches created along the river) and drinking beers and eating Coulommiers cheese on a baguette our last night in Paris.

Walking just about anywhere yielded wonderful things to see. Loved seeing the Eiffel Tower from many locations in the city.

The rum raisin ice cream we had at Versailles and the lemon ice cream we had outside Notre Dame. Real rum, real lemon, and real high fat cream.

Getting all the photos that I wanted for quilt inspiration. I loved the roof top shots as well as the photos taken in the town of Vernon. Loved the gargoyles on Notre Dame.

I loved everything about this trip, but these are the things that will stay in my mind forever.
Thanks for reading.
Chris

Last of the Paris photos

Well here is the last of the photos from Paris.

We visited a church near Notre Dame called Sainte-Chapelle. The stained glass windows were amazing. As soon as you walked in you were overwhelmed with their beauty.

Not sure what church the following photos are from. I think it might be from inside Notre Dame.

I want to go back!

Thanks for reading

Chris

Monet’s gardens

Our only trip out of Paris was to go to Giverny to see Monet’s gardens. It was a 1.25 mile walk to the train station, a 45 minute train ride to Vernon, and a 3 mile walk to the gardens. Of course we had to do that both ways.
The gardens were beautiful and the weather was perfect.








Thanks for reading. The last picture is me and hubby on one of the bridges.
Chris

Windows, doors, street scenes

I love old windows and doors as well as looking down a street at all of the old buildings. Some of these were taken in Paris and some were taken in a small town called Vernon on our way to Giverny to visit Monet’s gardens. I was surprised to see so many tutor style houses in this town. The ivy covered buildings were actually in Giverny. I see a lot of potential quilts in these photos.

  


  Thanks for reading. Tomorrow I will post photos from Monet’s gardens.
Chris

Roof Top Quilt Inspiration (Even More Paris Photos)

My goal for taking photos for this vacation was to take photos that might inspire future quilts.
I love roof top shots and got lots of them. I think that is because we climbed so many steps that we managed to get many views looking down at roof tops!








Chris