China - The Country, not Dishes

The Quilt travelled a good long distance to visit the country of China. It was a fascinating trip; filled with beautiful sites and places.

Temple of Heaven

天壇

The ancient emperors came here to pray for a good harvest and peace.

Mao's Tomb

毛主席紀念堂

The body of Mao Zedong is on display in this tomb. We heard that perhaps it is now only a plastic replica and that the actual body has been moved to a safe location.

Tiananmen Gate

 天安門

Tiananmen Gate - Gate of Heavenly Peace - is decorated with a portrait of Mao. The gate is on the northern end of Tiananmen Square and marks the beginning of the Forbidden City.

Great Wall of China Badaling

The Great Wall lived up to all expectations. It was absolutely amazing. The Quilt had heard that the wall could be seen from space, but this is only a myth, it can not be seen from space nor the moon. 

At the Great Wall, the Quilt climbed to the highest section in order to have this portrait taken with the Chinese Flag. The Large star is for the communist party, the other four stand for the four classes of people: Peasants, workers, bourgeoisie and businessmen

Water Cube

北京國家游泳中心

Beijing National Aquatics Center

This was one of the most exciting things to see, the inside of the Water Cube where Michael Phelps won all his gold medals. The texture of the building was very photogenic.

Bird's Nest

Beijing National Stadium

The Bird's Nest was a bit of a disappointment, don't know what we were expecting, but it didn't live up to the hype quite the way that the Water Cube did.

View of the Oriental Pearl Tower from the Bund

外灘 东方明珠塔

Shanghai was a wonderful city. The view of Pudong from the Bund was great, especially at night when everything was all lit up. The Bund was also quite nice at night all lit up.

Overall, the quilt was quite impressed with its visit to China, it was grateful that it didn't have to eat!

Quilt visits Door County, WI

Two weeks after visiting Vegas, the quilt decided to take a more sedate trip with a visit to Door County, Wisconsin. The trip included great hikes at White Fish Dunes State Park and the grounds of the Chanticleer Guest House.

Beach at White Fish Dunes

The Hike at White Fish Dunes begins along the beach. The quilt loves this hike because of the variety of eco-systems.

The pine forest

The deciduous forest

Birch trees on the back of the Chanticleer property

Quilt visits Las Vegas and Environs

This past July, the quilt made a trip to Nevada to see Las Vegas and the surrounding area.

The quilt feels welcomed

While it wasn't completely sure whether Vegas was to its liking, the quilt absolutely loved the surrounding area; visiting Red Rock Canyon a couple of times and making it up to the Valley of Fire. Of course, what visit to the area would be complete without a visit to Lake Mead?

The Rock that gives the name

New art visits pre-historic art

Hoover Dam from above (Lake Mead)

Fiji

January into February, the quilt visited Fiji. I have waited to make this posting to give myself time to have some distance from the trip and put it into a better perspective.  I will say nothing negative.

I can sum up Fiji in 3 words..... Rain..... Rain...... and Rain.  This first photo sums up the vacation perfectly.

Rain in the pool

The quilt seemed to be a little shy this trip. So I feel that I must supplement the quilt photos with a couple of birds. Forgive me.

Collared Lory

Multi-colored Fruit Dove

Tropical islands with lots of rain have lots of waterfalls.

The International Date Line passes through the island of Taveuni. Here I have one foot in today and one in tomorrow, or was that one foot in today and one in yesterday???

Orange Dove

Christmas Table Runner

For the family Christmas grab bag I thought I'd make a quilted table runner. We have a $25 limit and I figured that I'd be able to make something nice, and stay just over the budget. I settled on a Blooming 9-Patch (a pattern that I had always called Bleeding 9-patch) in Christmas colors. The patches are set on point and the colors from the solid blocks appear to bleed into the adjoining 9-patch blocks. The binding done in the matching forest green batik.

The top turned out beautifully. It seemed too special to use as a grab bag gift, but alas, that was the plan. I went to the quilting store to have it quilted and found the perfect pattern: Holly Leaves and Berries. In my excitement, I neglected to inquire as to the price. Imagine my surprise when the quilting alone (without factoring in cost of fabric, time, etc) cost almost four times the grab bag budget limit. I will say that the quilting is absolutely beautiful.

The sticker shock soon wore off and I realized that instead of a grab bag gift, I was holding a potential family heirloom. I remember a sunny spring morning. We had grabbed some pastries from Panera Bread and gone to my brother's house. Inside, the dining room windows were open wide; outside, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and all you could see was green ... the rustic dining table made us feel as if were were eating patisseries in France. That table is where this runner belongs. The decision made, it would become my sister-in-law's Christmas gift.

On the back, in a lower corner, I did something I usually don't do... I initialed and dated the piece. MLP 2011 Christmas.

I had to postpone making this post until Laura received her gift. I hope she likes it and that it graces her Christmas table for years to come.

Christmas Time Once Again

Here's the quilt with the Christmas Tree. I'm posting this picture because I was looking back at earlier posts and saw the picture of the quilt with the tree back in December 2007. Check out that post. The quilt was much smaller then. This quilt is certainly a life lesson. If someone tells you that you must prepare 9000 hexagons and then sew all 6 sides of these hexagons together, it sounds like an unsurmountable task. If you work a little, work a little, slowly over time, the project doesn't seem quite so overwhelming.

Thanksgiving in New York

The quilt travelled to New York for the Thanksgiving holiday. It did NOT want to get roped into another game of Bingo!

One of the most enjoyable things we did was a circle boat tour that made a complete circuit around Manhattan. Here is a quick visit to the Statue of Liberty

The quilt visited the birth of the gay rights movement: The Stonewall Inn.

In New York, we stayed in a condo found on VRBO, Vacation Rental By Owner. Here is a view of the Empire State Building from the condo. The view was truly amazing.

What would a visit to New York be without a visit to the New York Public Library? Here we pose in front of one of the lions in front of the main library with the branch in the background.

After seeing the Empire State Building from the window of the rental condo, the quilt insisted on visiting the top floor observation deck. Here we see the Chrysler Building in the background.