Globetrotting, block 5: London (video 4)

Today is the last video of the London block from Pat Sloan's Globetrotting block of the month.

Here's my block:

And here's my plan:

Today's video is more free-motion quilting -- Ribbon Candy!  It's probably my favorite quilting design.

My finished block:

I hope to get caught up soon.  It's July and I just finished quilting May's block!  

Meet me in St. Louis?

Globetrotting, block 5: London (video 3)

Today I have another short video of the quilting on the London block from Pat Sloan's Globetrotting block of the month.

My block:

My plan:

For today's video, I'm doing some straight-line stitching in the purple squares.  I am working on Hazel, my sweet Sweet Sixteen and Hazel doesn't have feed dogs.  I use a longarm quilting template, the Handi Quilter Mini Scallop template with Handi Grip   to keep it from slipping.

Are you ready to quilt?



Here's the block:

Stay tuned for another quilting video.

Hotel Tour of 2014 -- Night 71

Oh, London... what a day I had!

I started in Westminster Abbey:

No photography allowed inside (the horror!), so I will be researching online for months to come.  Oh, for a small photo of the fabric behind the Quire!

Lunch had to be my absolute favorite meal here in the UK.  Steak and ale pie:

It was delightful.  The chocolate cake at the Patisserie next door was quite nice, too, or so I've been told.

My travel partner wanted to visit the Natural History Museum.  I have no words to describe how much I like looking at dinosaur bones.  No.  Words.  My experience changed once I saw the building.  It had columns:

Arches:

Ceilings:

And the occasional dinosaur:

This is my favorite Natural History Museum.  Ever.

After that excitement, I felt the need for a consulting detective:

And then I felt compelled to walk across a street:

This photo is edited as my Facebook profile picture, but I wanted to show the raw footage.

Abbey Road was PURE CHAOS!

Cars were driving and honking while people were jumping into the street for photos.  It was the most unintentionally hilarious part of my trip.  I have a video that I might post later when I get home and have decent upload speed.  If I lived there, I would definitely find another route.

My hotel internet isn't very fast, but it is a nice hotel.  The first 6 inches of the hotel room have a lot going on:

Above:  keycard power supply (or whatever you call it).  Also a room light and two bathroom lights.  All switches are backwards of what I expect in the US.

Below:

There is no room next to the door for a chain lock, so it is on the adjacent wall.  This hotel room is EFFICIENT!

I am resting up for another adventure-filled day tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

Hotel Tour of 2014 -- night 70

I walked my feet off in London today.  I remembered to "Mind the Gap" and to "Look Left" and to "Look Right" and made it safely home.  Phew!

Oh, the places I've been:

After I ran the London 10K (or at least avoided the traffic delays), I took a boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich.  I get a lot of blog comments asking how I get so much done.  I travel all around the globe, logging 37,000 miles in April alone and being in the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western hemispheres all in the same month.

Today, however, I was in the Eastern and Western hemispheres AT THE SAME TIME!

After I pulled myself back together, I took another boat ride to the Tower of London and then walked the Tower Bridge:

This city is forcing me, a petrified-of-heights gal, to walk across a bunch of glorious bridges, just to say I did it.  Extra chocolate is required.

I walked around Buckingham Palace:

GORGEOUS!

I spent some time walking through St. James's Park.  It was a perfect afternoon!  The ducks here were showing their... um.... better (?) sides:

I am not a flower child.  I have no idea what plants are called or what they are supposed to look like, but...

... this was One.  Gorgeous.  Flower:

Future quilt alert?

They grown swans big here:

This swan's neck was as big around as my arm and its head could have reached my chin.  HUGE!

At the end of the park, I saw this:

I was waiting for Cinderella to show up, but then I learned that it was the Whitehall Facade of the Horse Guard and maybe Cinderella didn't live there after all.

I walked on to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus and took all of the appropriate photos.  Before I took the train back to my hotel, I ended my search for chocolate.

Carpo.  Wow.

I had a grande hot chocolate:

This is liquid love.  Pure bliss.  Dark, dark, dark, dark, and DARK!

Since I am a guest in the UK, I try to conform to all traditions and customs once I learn what they are.  Is it considered rude here to jump into a cup of hot chocolate and lick it clean?

Since I wasn't certain, I refrained.

Back at the hotel again, I had a disagreement to solve.  Do you see the bar at the top of the shower?

One of us thinks it is for a missing shower curtain, but the other one of us thinks (knows) that it is simply a brace to hold the glass wall in place.  Now that we both know I am right...

The shower dials were different than I've seen in the States:

Top knob is for volume and the bottom knob is for temperature.

Several weeks ago I mentioned how difficult the paperwork for a visa to the UK was.  It was; I meant that.  I know now, however, that it was TOTALLY WORTH IT!  My students at The Cotton Patch were amazing and I'm having so much fun on my holiday!

I need to rest up for tomorrow's adventures.  Stay tuned!

Hotel Tour of 2014 -- night 69

Another day, another hotel room.  This one is in London (the one in England):

Super small rooms have super-small baths, but they are so cute!

The very first thing we did in London was to stop at a pub.  We shared this lunch:

Is there much more traditional than fish and chips at a pub in London?

I'm glad we ate that, because odd circumstances led us to eat BBQ for dinner:

We were walking along the Themes, looking for somewhere to eat dinner.  We walked past a BBQ restaurant.  My husband loves BBQ and we were debating how awful it would be to eat BBQ in London when the first drops began to fall.  We ducked inside to avoid the rain and ate a yummy, non-traditional dinner.

I saw a bunch of gorgeous buildings from afar:

Hopefully I will see some of them up close tomorrow!

Hotel Tour of 2014 -- night 68

I taught my last class at The Cotton Patch (Birmingham, England) today and I am so sad!  This is an amazing shop and their students are so incredibly creative.  I was humbled to have these artists in my classes!

The folks here treated me like a celebrity.  They fed me treats daily and ended the week with a healthy dessert:

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm is for mango.

The lovely folks at The Cotton Patch gave me a present at the end of the week:

Chocolate and Hello Kitty -- they know me so well!!!

Since I am checking out of this hotel tomorrow, I have to show the rest of my "hmmm, I didn't know that" hotel pics.

The shower handles are a bit different than the ones at home:

The left is for volume and the right is for temperature with 38*C being marked by the dot.

This lightswitch is next to my bed.  The left is for the room light and the right is for the bed light:

The question is... which one is on and which one is off?  The left one is off (up) and the right one is on (down).  That takes a little getting used to.

So long, Birmingham.  I can't wait to come and see you again!

Hotel Tour of 2014 -- night 67

Another great day in the UK!

After receiving much advice from my students on the proper way to eat a crumpet, I started my day with tea and a hot buttered crumpet:

Much, MUCH better than yesterday's Marmite!

Class today was So. Much. Fun!!!  For the morning half of my Mark My Words class, students chose a word or phrase and then stitched it out with blended-thread free-motion embroidery.  

They were rewarded for their hard work with tarts:

I ate a chocolate tart (obviously!) and it was wonderful.  I would never own up to eating two tarts so I will only pass on the rumor that the orange tarts were also swoon-worthy!

After the delicious lunch, my students created background designs that enhanced their word or phrase.  Today's students were MARVELOUS!!!!

One quilt said:

This quilt referenced the TV show Inspector Morse.

Another quilt read:

This phrase is a private family joke.

Another quilt quotes:

The background will be quilted with clock motifs, moon phases, and other timely motifs.

Another quilt says:

This student apparently has a hobby in addition to quilting!

Another quilt reads:

This is written in Welsh.  I spent my afternoon trying to correctly pronounce the ending sound of "bach."  I don't think that my mouth was meant to speak Welsh.

A quilt teacher's life is a case of "Water, water, every where; Nor any drop to drink."  We teach about quilting, watch stuents quilt, look at quilts, think about quilts, but rarely do we actually GET TO QUILT!  My students were hard at work and I was trying to keep out of their way, so I found a spare Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen and did a little stitching of my own.  

I photographed a chair from a recent hotel room and have been dying to quilt something based on the fabric design:

How would you turn that into a quilting pattern?

Here's how I saw it:

I look forward to getting back to my studio and playing with this design some more!

I am resting tonight, preparing for my final day of classes at The Cotton Patch.  I've had so much fun that I'm sad to see the week end!  

Globetrotting, block 5: London (video 2)

I'm making progress on my London block from Pat Sloan's Globetrotting block of the month.

Remember my block?

And my plan?

Well, I changed that plan a little bit in the last video.  The continuous curve that I drew in the cream squares were switched with the swirls I drew in the green squares.  If the quilt talks to you... LISTEN!

Today's video is all free-motion quilting, so no tools required.

Here we go:



A view of the block after all of the swirls are stitched:

Stay tuned for another video!

Hotel Tour of 2014 -- night 66

I spent another wonderful day teaching my Take A Chance class on the Sweet Sixteen at The Cotton Patch in Birmingham, England!

I powered up for the day with an English breakfast.  I was brave and tried Marmite:

On toast:

And how did I like it?  Let's just say that I won't have to make room for a jar in my suitcase.

Liz bought mini bagel with salmon for lunch to make this New Yorker feel at home:

Yummy, but again they didn't quite remind me of home.

My students serenaded me after lunch:

That's my favorite song!

My waitress tonight was also a chocolate fan and insisted I eat the Cookie Dough Brownie Sundae:

I gave it my best shot, but the Sundae was bigger than I was and I couldn't finish.  Such a shame!

I'm now resting up for tomorrow's adventures.  I'll be teaching "Mark My Words."  I wonder what words the students will choose?