Let's talk some more French:)

 It kept on raining while we followed the Loire, so we decided to head south towards another river, the Dordogne. Sunflower country!

 Our campsite on castlegrounds..

 Medieval little towns everywhere..

ánd the area where the people lived 17.000 years ago!! Lots of caves with original pre-historic wall paintings. I visited Lascaux, one of the most famous. Actually the replica of Lascaux cave. The original was closed in '63. Visitors caused mold and fungus on the drawings. But....impressive still!

 Next campsite!Is that a castle :)

And the small town where we got stuck. After 2 flat tires, the radiator broke. We were on hold for 6 days, waiting for car parts and repair :(
The Dordogne was beautiful, the castle campsite perfect, but after six days of waiting and again lots of rain (and no means of any transport!) we were NOT as happy as in the beginning!!

On the other hand: it was raining back home too and the view from my own house is by far nothing like this.

Tour de France 1

This was my home for over 3 weeks :) There IS a life after motorbike-holidays and we talked about buying a small campervan ("when we get old"....) for years. We rented this one to learn if traveling like this is something we wanted.

Plan was to tour France and first stop we planned were the D-Day beaches. Visiting a cemetary isn't very "holiday-like" but both DH and I were really impressed and touched at the US buriel site near Omaha-beach

On to happier things! We passed and visited Mont St Michel, an abbey on a rock during low tide. High tide means the sea is all around (including the camper parking space)

After that we met the river Loire. This means castles, castles and...CASTLES!!

 No wonder Perrault got the inspiration for his "sleeping beauty" story in this area! (no, dear readers, sleeping beauty is not written by mr. Walt Disney *lol*)

The last one is Chambord, a royal castle. I have never seen anything like it. This is a picture on/of the roof

Between the castles we came across lots of medieval villages and ofcourse we stayed at a campsite on castlegrounds.
Don't think this post can handle more pics, so more tomorrow:)

Checking in...

..to tell you that I'm back home after touring through France for over 3 weeks.
Yep, we did our own Tour de France, not by motorbike this time, but with a tiny campervan.
We had lots of rain, car troubles, flat tires and a lot more.
First things first and that's doin' laundry, groceryshopping and uploading pictures to my laptop. I'll be back soon with some story's , pictures and quiltprogress :)!

Home sweet home quilt

I didn't do much sewing lately. It's holidaytime here and I finally had the energy to clean my house, sort out some very messy cupboards and do other chores.

Ironing is done, windows are sparkling clean..in short: I was the perfect housewife for once :)

I did finish 2 borders on the HSH project. The cornerblocks on the second row gave me a little headache, since they were very timeconsuming! Lots and lots of patches for one block!

I think that the outer border might be a bit to heavy. It's more  "red" than I thought it would be. I did that part rather quickly on the machine, so if it realy turns out  too much, i can always sew another one!

Next border is green hourglasses.......

Statement!

While Quilting DD is making lots of progress,  I'm behind struggling.  I had the day off today and since it was perfect piecing weather (rain!) I set myself behind the machine.

I really do not know how you all manage to get pretty perfect points, corners, blocks by machine. I CAN do squares and rectangles but no decent triangles, let alone a complecate pattern like the Home sweet Home pattern, we planned to sew.

I can sew accuratly by hand; by machine nothing seems to fit. I'm irritated by unintentional wonky seams, measuraments that do not add up and chopped off points.

So....I give in. The relatively easy parts, like a border of squares and a log cabin, I'll machine sew. The rest? I'll do it by hand, happy and relaxed. No seamripper needed and all points match.

I am a handpiecer.

Pfew!

Today I did something I absolutely hate..:I washed a quilt. I'm still traumatised from the last time: DS' Skulls and Bones quilt came out of the washingmachine PINK , in spite of all the precautions and in spite of lots of colourcatchers. 

I got most of the pink out eventually, but it'll never be as "fresh" as when I made this  pic.

This time Baking DD's quilt needed some cleaning. She brought it down from her room because I wanted to draft a new pattern from my house (the middle block)

The new project "Home Sweet Home" is going to be my new and improved  houses-quilt and will get my own home in the middle as well.

DD's quilt was a bit dirty, had a few stains and smelled "dusty". After all, it lived in her room for more than 5 years (!)

I was só relieved it came out of the machine fresh, clean and no bleeding whatsoever!! Good for another 5 years :)

A while back I came home and found Baking DD on the couch, after a apparently tiring day..

Yikes, if this quilt is going to be used, it'll need a wash too someday and I promised myself this one is never ever going to be laundered.

Better to be dirty than to be pink!

The castle, the knight and the quilts.... part 2

 

More scenery and our delicious midafternoon snack :)

The interior...

On the bed a 17th century quilt..

The kitchen is situated in the cellar. There were lots of quiltshops there too!

And what did I take home with me? Some fq in red and green for the new project, quiltingthread, a white on white, a "kit" for a mushroom pincushion and some fq's for DD (she posted them on her own blog).

And last but not least (I promised to post this pic and didn't get any fabric in return this time *lol*):

The robber knight and I enjoying the sun and having a talk about all his evil deeds

The castle, the knight and the quilts...part 1

Prepare yourself for an overload of pictures of our day out to the castle of Cannenburgh yesterday!
We had such a great day; excactly as I predicted....lovely weather, good company, beautiful surroundings and fabrics+quilts within reach.
Pity that it wasn't allowed to take pictures IN the castle, not even from the displayed quilts. But...I found some from a few years ago ánd bought postcards.
Last quilt'event' there was 4 or 5 years ago. Since then the castle has been closed for restauration, refurnishing and they restored the parc on the castle grounds. they did a great job for sure!
Okay, here we go!

There was a quilt on the castle wall, a boat with quilted flags in the moat and the robber knight himself invited us to sit down and have a chat. Quiltshops in knightlike tents in the quiltshoplane:)

Lunch and the lunchspot! DD (in her red dress close to the moat with C beside her)

Lots and lots of treats to choose from accompanied the free coffee!!

The views from our lunch spot...and around the castle.

That's it for today...Enough pictures for one post and I don't want to overload Blogger:) More pics of the interior, with and without quilts and... the knight and I..!

Ascension day

To enjoy the beautiful sunny weather, I suggested to DH to go for a ride on our day off. He promised me lunch at the end of the ride..:)
We drove along small and winding roads to Belgium, to an old monestary just across the border.

The monestrary dates back to the Middle ages and even older. It has always been nearby important crossroads and on of its tasks was to take care of travelers.
The monks also have a huge herbal garden with every herb you can think of..

This is one patch of many more.

Lunch and cappucino were delicious!

Lots of people had the same idea as we had, but there's álways a parkingspot for a bike or 2, (3,4.....)
Tomorrow another trip is scheduled: the three quilters (C, DD and I) are going to a quiltshow+market in the former home of a real robber knight. It's a castle with a genuine moat around it and a drawbridge.
The weather is looking good for tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to :coffee in the park in the pleasant company of friend and daughter with quiltsshops and quilts within reach.. That sounds excellent, now doesn't it??