I was in Bourges

Yesterday I was in Bourges , a beautiful town in the Center of France, about 80 km from where I live.
The town has a medieval quarter with a lot of timber-framed houses.

There is also the St Etienne cathedral, with stunning windows.

At the end of the alley you see the cathedral!

Next to the cathedral is a 17th garden 'le jardin de LArchevêché'. In the garden you have a magnificent view of the cathedral .

Ib the center of the garden is a very old music pavilion, in summer they organize animated afternoons.....

Bourges is a town full of surprises, it's an elegant town with lots of shops. It's long ago that I saw such an amazing bookshop. Everywhere were piles of books, books on shelves and more piles of books, on 

the tables under the tables.....

In the center of Bourges you can visit ' les marais de bourges', these are marshlands full of rivers and canals. There are small paths to walk and breath some fresh air and hear the birds singing . The surface of the marshlands is 135 ha. You also take a small boat to visit this place. Is'n this amazing ?

Have a good weekend.

And the good answer of the question in my last post was : the small animals are hedgehogs!

Small things......

I need some small presents for a group of ladies, something from France and something handmade...
Finally I decided to buy some donkey soap (i have two donkeys, male so no milk for making soap!)
And I crocheted  small flowers to decorate the soap. the pattern is from Lucy, Attic 24. I changed the leaves because I did not like hers. It's a very easy and quick decoration.

I also made some decorations for the market in the beginning of may. 

The idea is from Inge, there is no pattern or tutorial so you need some creativity. 

Do you know what kind of animals these last ones are???? Yesterday I asked a friend and she said: fishes. It's not the right answer....

Today two weeks ago it was my birthday. I am 66 years old now..........

Here are the earrings my Thom bought for me in Paris! 

My Union Station quilt top!

No words , only pictures!

And thank you all for your best wishes, I feel better now...

I think it's my turn......

I am not feeling well, I have a clogged nose, I feel shivery, I have a toothache.........I think the flu is attacking me!

I promised you some pictures of the finished Union Station quilt but for the moment I only have this picture of my lovely cat Bibiche  curled up under the quilt.

I also want to show this beautiful photo made in Paris yesterday! 

She gave me permission to publish it.

Do you want to participate in the second handmade JOY exchange?

The second handmade JOY exchange is hosted by Anne. I mailed her to count me in!
On her blog I found the rules for this exchange: and here are the packages that were send in the exchange.

How this will work:

1. You email me (anne at mygiantstrawberry dot com) with your name and mailing address. If you have a website or blog, send that, too, so I can pass it along to your exchange partner.

2. I match you up with someone (this will not be the same person sending a package to you... that will be a surprise!).

3. You make something for your exchange partner. What sort of something is entirely up to you. Paint, crochet, knit, sew, draw, photograph, bead, embroider, sculpt, write... there are no requirements other than you make it and it brings you Joy!

4. You send off your piece of handmade Joy.

5. You receive a package full of Joy.


This exchange is open to everyone no matter where you live or what sort of art or craft you like to do. You don't have to have a blog, either, so don't let that stop you from joining in.


Dates:

The exchange is open until March 11th. On March 12th I'll send you the name and address of the person you'll be sending your package to. I'm requesting that we all finish our pieces and get them posted by March 27th. If you photograph your creations and email me the photos, I'll include them in the blog post I write after everyone's received their packages (take a look at the post from the first exchange and visit the links to all of the participants posts as well). 

Spring is in the air .......and what I bought in Paris and Holland

A friend of mine told me that last week  bird catchers counted  20.000 cranes going from south to north.  Where I live you can see and hear them every day flying over.  Everybody here in the center of France talks about the first cranes they hear,  it's a sign that spring is in the air.......

I promised you to show the things I bought last week.......

In Paris I bought two skeins of  the very soft pure Alpaca yarn from Cascade Yarns in pumpkin color

I think I wil knit this shawl with the yarn: It's the Shaelynn pattern by Leila Raabe, you can find it on Ravelry.

I Le Rouvray i bought some reproduction Fat Eights and a beautiful piece of Toile de Joey.

I also went to the patchwork shop in Zwijndrecht (Holland), Aztec Rose.  There I bought some Japanese fabric. I needed a new impulse for continuing the Yoko Saito Mystery Quilt. When I saw the finished quilt in the december number of Quiltmania I was disappointed . I did not like how Yoko finished the quilt. I did not make the last block because I was not anymore inspired.

When I saw the red/purple fabric that Karen sold in her shop, I  immediately knew, that fabric will be my border for the Yoko Saito quilt. On the picture the fabric is more brown than purple but in real the color is very vivid! 

Today I started quilting my Union Station.....  pictures next wednesday!

  

I was in Paris

On my journey away and back to Holland I had several hours to spend in Paris;
Oh, how I love to be in Paris. To walk in the small alleys in the Marias, sitting on a terrace on the Ile St Louis , buy some delicious food in the shop of Florence Kahn in the rue des Rosiers..... I bought their Jewish cookbook with  their family  recipes!
Here I  am on the terrace , looking out over the bridge of the Seine. The heaters on the terrace made my hair more red than it is in real. Do you see the blanket over my legs, there were several on the chairs to keep your legs warm while sitting outside...

When you stood on the bridge you saw this:

Nearby was the famous quiltshop Le Rouvray.

Inside were several antique quilts, this one was my favorite....

I did not find there the fabric for my Union Station which I was looking for.....

I also went to a yarnshop in the beautiful, very old ' Passage du grand cerf'.

While looking for the metro station I saw this cowboy shop! I did not need any cowboy stuff but if so , be sure they have everything cowboy related!!

I'll show you to soon what I bought in Paris and in Holland.