Nantes, Paris and culture.

GOn our day of sightseeing in Nantes we had an enjoyable day visiting Chateau Des Ducs De Bretagne and the Le Musee d' histories de Nantes. The tour through the museum takes a couple of hours and an audio guide in English is available. The castle has been restored to it's true magnificence and the redisgned museum is well worth a visit. During the tour you learn about the history of the city, this Breton fortress with its 15th and 18th century buildings testify the history of the city, built by Francois 11, the last duke of Brittany and continued by his daughter Anne of Brittany, twice queen of France. The castle fortifications enclose a renaissannce  palace with exquisitely carved facades and loggia.

Footbridge entry over moat, to Castle.

Anne of Brittany statue.

Artifacts in the museum

Gorgeous paintings, headpiece depicted from the early 1500's

Gorgeous toile, patterns are done with blocks.

Nantes being a shipping port, naval artefacts are displayed in the museum.

French posters

Intricately caved biscuit box

Inside the courtyard of the castle.

After our visit to the Castle we ventured down the streets of Nantes, visited some second hand shops, vintage fabrics, lace etc.

Cosmopolitan streets in Nantes.

After our stroll through the streets we visited the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral 

Gorgeous dome on top of a restaurant and novelty shops in Nantes.

Next day time to catch our train back to Paris

Time Flies, when you are having fun.

Time is moving on we have under 4 weeks to go for our Quilts on the Down show. Signs will be displayed shortly, flyers have been circulating for months, Council sorted, menu sorted, wires hung to display the quilts, trade tables sorted. Quilt entry forms are rolling in and thank you to my blogger friends for advertising Quilts on the Downs. Staffy Rescue have also advertised on Facebook. 

 It has been 7 weeks since our return from overseas, since then it has been head down and bum up. I have purged, sorted and culled like a mad woman, it is time to move unused items onto a good home. This has been the perfect opportunity for me to get my act together to sort through my fabric stash and unused notions. The thing I love most about quilt shows are the  trade table, where you can buy fabric scrap bags and little handmade treasures.  In amongst the scraps there is always a gorgeous bit of fabric that can be used for the centre of a table runner, fussy cutting and or hexagons.

With this in mind I am attempting to make some items that will be for sale at our Quilts on the Downs days in September, being close to Xmas, hopefully we will be able to buy some handmade Xmas gifts.

Boxes of fabric for sale, their will be  a $ 1, $2, $3, $ 4 and a $5 

Quilts for sale!

Handmade goods, have been donated for sale, profits to Staffy rescue as well.

Patterns and stitchery's will also be for sale.

I have made some diary covers, and recipe Xmas notebook covers, which would make great Xmas gifts , just buy a diary/ A 5 book, insert into cover and give as a gift for Xmas. 

Also some Xmas decorations!

Great to include with a wrapped Xmas gift or to hang on the tree.

Plenty more on sale, we have six other trade tables as well, with lots of goodies, a great time to stock up on Xmas gifts.

On another note, what have I been up to besides sorting and organising a quilt show, the start of a new quilt, a peek preview! time to move away from reproduction fabric and play with Kaffe !

My occasional dabble into jewellery making! What do you think Chris Jurd?

Next holiday is planned.....

DH and I are booked for the Houston Quilt show, a great year to visit as 2014 is the 40th year anniversary and we plan to visit Dallas, San Antonio, Fredericksburg and Houston, this will be my second visit to the Houston Quilt show and I plan to do some classes this time, cannot wait.

Time is getting close, hope to see you all at this event, there will be at least 50 quilts on display from the quilters of Windsor Downs, as well as 20 quilts from our guest quilter, Chris Jurd

See you on the 6th and 7th September!

All quite on the western front, down and deep with Lucy.

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged, due to a very determined effort to try and get Lucy together. I am amazed at how long it takes to prepare and sew 1 inch squares together. 15 days later let me share with you what I have achieved.

The 56 blocks on my design board.

My completed 56 squares, after a suggestion from a friend to do the 24 elongated hexagons in a variety of lights, this is what I ended up with. I used a lot of shirting prints and a variety of lights. I am quite excited that after 18 months of sewing the 56 squares, it is now time to put it all together. The challenge of fussy cutting, colour matching and what shirting  being placed on the surrounding square, was part of a wonderful journey that will soon be at an end. This has been a very enjoyable project. 

Four rows together, four more to go! Not much else being sewed at the moment.

Reserve the date!!! Heathton  Creations is bringing to you, a quilt show featuring the ladies who quilt from Windsor Downs, more will be revealed  in coming blogs.