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Before I get to my “Topic of the Week”, I want to mention an upcoming event. I’ll be teaching at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show this week! It’s taking place at the Bloomington Convention Center in Bloomington, Indiana.

The show runs from March 5-7. I’ll be teaching all 3 days along with a great list of talented instructors. If you live in the area, or want to get away for a fun adventure, you can click here for all the information! Maybe I’ll see you there!

And now for “the Birds”!

Last summer after we spent months cleaning out my parent’s condo, we spent quite a bit of time cleaning out their cottage too. My dad always referred to himself as a “depression baby”, and that was his excuse for keeping everything!!! Since emptying their condo I’ve become quite good at tossing or donating stuff. Mike, on the other hand, has a little of my dad in him (please don’t tell him I said so 🤣). On the cottage’s screened porch I found 3 stone birds with parts missing. The cardinal and blue jay no longer had beaks, while the terra cotta bird was missing it’s head. I took them home to dispose of them, and the next thing I knew they were standing in front of the garage. I gently mentioned to Mike that I didn’t want to keep broken bird statues ~ to no avail. So there they sat. After about a month I placed them around a bush on the north side of the garage. At least they weren’t the first things I saw when coming home.

A week or so later they disappeared. Mike said they must have flown away. The next day I went down to sew in my studio and was a bit startled when I looked out the window.

Mike had painted the broken spot where his beak was supposed to be, attached a greeting, and placed him on our overturned canoe. It made me smiile. A week or so later as I started the hot water for a relaxing bath, I turned around and was surprised to see the headless terra cotta bird ~ “peeking” at me from behind the Victorian tissue box holder..

This one really made me laugh out loud! Now where would I find the cardinal??? I waited for weeks, and Mike claimed innocence. Months later, on the evening I returned from Italy, I went in the master bathroom and was greeted by… you guessed it… the avian welcoming commitee:

My parents always said that the secret to a good marriage was to keep it funny. My husband certainly does this!

So what does this story have to do with quilting? Nothing really (unless it counts that the blue jay was outside the window of my studio). But it’s a good segue into bird quilts. Have you made any? I have a lovely vintage quilt from the 1940s with embroidered blocks of the State birds and flowers:

I’ve also made a number of bird blocks in classes I’ve taken with other teachers. They ended up flocking together in one of my Modular Memory Quilts:

I made this next quilt when we moved from Sun Prairie to Dousman in 1994. As a birthday gift many years ago, Mike and the kids built me an aviary post with feeders hanging from it and a bird house at the top. I loved it, but couldn’t take it with us when we moved because it was set in concrete. Sew I made a quilt about it using my Repliqué technique. I call it: “The View From My Window”:

The squirrels always make me smile.

And I think you’ll enjoy a fascinating video I took of a group of birds while in Rome. Will and I had just finished dinner and were walking back to our hotel from the Colosseum when we noticed everyone around us looking up. There we saw what I now know is a murmuration. We walked on for a while and the murmuration continued. At first we thought it might be some sort of drone thing. But when we realized it really was birds – starlings to be precise – I had to take a video. Here’s a photo, but it doesn’t give you the full effect. To watch the short video click here.

To learn more about starling murmurations click here.

Do you have any bird quilts you’d like to share? Please send photos to me at: .

A number of photos and stories have been accumulating in my blog folder. They hadn’t made it into a post until a recent retreat completed the collection. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

I met Pat years ago when I taught for her guild in Janesville, WI. Each time they invite me back we reconnect and she always has something interesting to show me. This time she presented me with a lovely gift. She made this “catch all” (I think that’s what she called it) from vinyl on her embroidery machine.

It has snaps so that it can open flat for travel. Sew perfect!

It’s very clever! I love it and enjoy using it. Thanks Pat!

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A few months ago I met Kristin when I was teaching for the Willow River Piecemakers in northern Wisconsin. I presented my Journey With a Compass workshop one evening, and the following day everyone in class made a compass for themselves. I was able to stay with my cousin Kathy, and she was in my class too. What a fun adventure! A week later I received an email from Kristin with these photos:

She wrote:

“The one I did in class has not been appliqued on yet, but it is to show what it might look like. I wanted to reinforce what you taught and try something different – as my husband encouraged me to do with sewing, so I made that rectangular compass for the placemat challenge due at next month’s meeting.” 

WooHoo! I love her husband’s idea! And her compass placemat turned out great! She later sent me a photo of a pillow she made for her daughter. I think she’s as hooked on this pattern as I am.

I’ve taught my mariners technique a number of times recently and I hope Kristin’s work inspires some of my students to try a new shape or two while it’s all fresh in their minds 😊.

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After my post about silk cocoons, my friend Patti sent me these photos of a small art quilt she made by dying cocoons, cutting them into flower shapes, and peeling apart the layers. I knew silk took dye well, but just look at how beautiful these cocoon pieces are in this tiny 12″ square quilt!

And here’s a close up:

Such lovely, precise work. Patti ~ you are truly an artist!

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And now for our recent retreat. I’m blessed to spend time at the lovely Cattail Retreat Center near Poynette, WI with dear friends three times each year. This time we had two new quilters join us. Vicki and her sister Cheryl were a wonderful addition to our group.

We stitched, laughed, talked, feasted… and had a wonderful time. Stay tuned for the story of the tote bag I’m holding – and the new “lady” who helped me to make it!

And for my final photo, I snapped this one of a hanging at Cattail:

Isn’t it charming? I’d love to have a sampler like this to refer to when I can’t figure out what stitch would work best in a particular project. Now to find the time to start stitching one!

Life was a bit crazy after I returned from Italy. Not only were there snail mail and emails to go through, but the jet lag was real. On top of that ~ while I was gone Apple deleted everything on my iphone calendar!!! I don’t know how it happened, but I hadn’t looked at it the entire time we were traveling and I was shocked to find it empty when I finally did. Everything was gone ~ past and future. My inability to recover it has a lot to do with my lack of savvy in backing it up. But now I think I have it recreated as it should be, and I hope I don’t end up missing something important – Ugh.

These all add up to the reason why four days before my cousin’s daughter’s baby shower I realized I HADN’T MADE HER A QUILT! A slight panic ensued, as I’d made her sister a quilt for her baby shower last year, and I couldn’t not make one for Carly (plus I really wanted to 😊). Sew ~ I went in the studio and started looking through my stash. The fabric that grabbed me right away was a lovely floral I’d purchased from a designer who had a booth in Paducah last year (I wish I hadn’t cut away the selvedges, because I don’t remember her name). I needed to make this quilt cute but simple. Using the fabric as my inspiration, I drew a fun flower.

The baby girl’s name is Reagan, so I decided I needed to make one block a pretty “R”. All the blocks would be made with my repliqué technique because it doesn’t use fusibles which make the quilt stiff (click here to read about my Snuggle and Learn Quilts for Kids book). Colorful fabrics were chosen for the petals, and the stitching began: straight stitching from behind for the first step ~

And then trimming and satin stitching to cover the edges for the second.

These blocks were alternated with blocks of the feature fabric in a 9-patch set, and borders were added. I layered it with batting and Shannon Cuddle™ in a lovely soft aqua. I quilted around the appliqués and spiraled the backgrounds. Then, in the alternate squares, I cut a flower from freezer paper, ironed it in place, and quilted around it.

The soft back was turned to the front as a binding and it was done at 10pm the night before the shower!

That’s when I looked at the shower invitation and discovered that the theme for the baby’s room is “wild flowers”. God is good 😁!

I can’t wait to share a photo of Reagan with her quilt sometime soon.

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And one more thing…

Penny sent me an email and photo recently, and this seemed like the perfect post in which to include another Repliqué project!

“Hi Chris, I took your class last year with CVQG in Gardnerville, NV. Just wanted to share this with you. Just finished this using your technique instead of applique. I’m very proud of it & think it turned out pretty good. Blessings to you and Your family for 2026. God Bless.”

Don’t you love the little animal appliqués too!?! Well done Penny! Thanks for the photo!

This week it struck me that it’s been one year since my dear friend Evelyn passed away. So many memories came flooding back (please click here if you’re new to my blog and would like to read my tribute to her from last year).

Then I thought about her daughter Gwen, and how difficult it all was for her. Evelyn’s passing drew Gwen and I together for a span of weeks, but then we lost touch. I felt compelled to pray for Gwen, as this must be so hard. It occurred to me that I should visit Evelyn’s Facebook page and see if there were any new posts. This is what Gwen wrote:

“This is Evelyn’s daughter, Gwen. Next Tuesday is the one year anniversary of Mom’s passing, and I want to do sometihng special to remember her in joy instead of sadness. Those who knew her, if you could post a special memory on this page over the next week, I would be extremely grateful. I miss her more each day.“

I was happy to add a few photos, and I mentioned to her that my mom is currently on hospice care (Mom is still with us, but I’m quite sure she’ll be with her Savior soon). Gwen sent me a lovely email after that, and told me that she still has some of her mom’s quilts available on Etsy. Evelyn was a very talented quilter, and I enjoyed seeing some of her pieces once again. I thought that some of you might want to visit her Etsy page too. Click here to link to quilts by Evelyn Link 😁. This is just a sampling from that page:

I’m grateful for sweet memories to get us through the times of missing those we love.

And now on to some newly made memories! Last month I had the wonderful opportunity to teach for the Colorado Quilting Council in Denver. It was cold and snowy when I left Wisconsin (-17 with windchills at -40), while the weather in Denver was much milder… 10 degrees above zero! But the quilters there were warm and welcoming, and I had a great time. My class and lecture went very well, and I had a wonderful time getting to know these dear ladies.

On many of my teaching trips I’ve been invited to do something special by program chairs who go above and beyond in their care for me. A few months ago Amy took me to see Lake Tahoe on my non-teaching day with her guild – WOW! (click here to read about that adventure). On this trip Susan took me to the:

Denver has one of the largest Stock Shows in the country and Susan is very involved with it. She was a wonderful guide! I must admit I wasn’t really sure what a Stock Show was, but I’m always up for learning new things – and I enjoyed every moment of it. We began our time there by getting pulled pork on Texas Toast sandwiches at a food truck, and watching the judging of wagons with 8 horse hitches (I hope I’m saying that right). They were beautiful!

Then we watched judgings in other arenas. The show was held in the Denver Stock Yards, and it was huge! They even had a beautiful new building that housed an amazing collection of western art by local artists ~ which was inspiring.

I especially enjoyed watching the long horn steers. The winner had horns that measured 130″ from tip to tip! That’s wider than a king sized quilt!!!

Thanks to Susan and everyone at the Colorado Quilting Council for a memorable time!

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And I’d like to share a recent photo. The very cold morning before I left for Colorado I awoke, pulled up the blinds, and this was on my window. It was about 1 1/2″ across – and beautiful!

I’ve seen a lot of God’s frosty artwork on our windows in the past, but this was by far the prettiest!

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So… I thought that was the end of this week’s post, but yesterday Mike and I decided to go for a ride. We ended up in Cedarburg, WI and were able to see the current exhibit at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. The Japanese quilts from Quilt Nihon were amazing!

They are only there until March 8th ~ so time is short if you decide you want to go!

In the entryway of the museum they have some of the winning miniature quilts from the exhibit, and they alone were worth the trip. This was my favorite ~ the logs were 1/8″!

There were so many quilts I’d like to share, but I only have room for a few more. This bed sized hand appliquéd, hand quilted piece was incredible:

After seeing the miniature with the tiny logs, I thought the maker of this next bed sized, pieced quilt must be crazy. Upon closer examination I realized she was just clever. The triangles are made of striped fabrics! What a great illusion!

The appliquéd circles in the next bed sized art quilt were made of silk, and stuffed trapunto style. Yet I couldn’t see a single stitch! And the hand quilting was some of the tiniest I’ve seen.

I saved my absolute favorite for last. I’ve always admired Baltimore Album quilts and we know those amazing blocks are typically placed in a horizontal set. This quilter created wonderful hand appliqués and then set them in fan shaped, curved blocks. Her color palette was also atypical ~ and then she bordered them with Hawaiian style appliqué in a gradation of fabric! What a feast for the eyes!

And her hand quilting was as well done as her appliqué.

I highly recommend a trip to the show if you’re able to go!

I found the traditional dress and wool yarn twisting from last week’s post so interesting, but that was just the beginning. Next Antonia went to her refrigerator and pulled out a folded towel. She unfolded it to show us that attached to the inside were the silkworm eggs she was keeping for the next season. These eggs have a spiky outside that grabs onto the fabric.

The egg packet was kept some place cool (Antonia had them in the frig) until “they became the size of a little mouse ear” and then, to keep them warm so they would hatch, the young girls would tuck the packet inside their blouse!

The packet remained there for 7 to 10 days while the girls went about their life – eating, sleeping, working… continually. Each morning they’d check to see if anything was happening and one morning the eggs would be white, and next to each of them would be a little black caterpillar – about the size of an eyelash. They were then placed on trays with mulberry leaves and from that moment on all they would do is eat ~ for the next month. Until they became very chubby caterpillars (I took this photo from Antonia’s website).

As they grew they were placed on shelves which hung from the ceiling in the girls rooms to keep the ants from eating them.

When the silk worms were ready to make their cocoons, branches were hung all over the shelving structure. The worms would climb to a good spot and the cocoon making began.

The silk threads come out of the caterpillars much like a spider, but unlike spiders, the silkworm uses her saliva to glue the fibers together. The first thread she makes anchors the cocoon to the branches. This makes the outer portion of the cocoon, and it yields a lower quality silk thread. These were used for the tassels instead of the embroidery. Then the silkworm spins one kilometer of inner thread non-stop (yes – one kilometer!) Silk is the only known natural fiber that is made this long. All other threads are made as shorter pieces that need to be twisted together. That is why silk thread is so strong ~ and it doesn’t need to be spun.

Once the caterpillar has transformed into a moth, it breaks free of the cocoon, mates quickly, lays her eggs on the cloth, and dies.

This photo is of cocoons Antonia’s collected but hasn’t made into thread yet.

The saliva that glues the threads together is water soluble. So to extract the thread the cocoons are placed in very hot water. At just the right moment a whisk type instrument is swished through the water to collect a few of the threads that have been released by the hot water. They are then pulled upwards and wound around a rolled piece of fabric. To watch the video this photo was taken from click here (the phone being held in the lower portion of this photo has the flashlight on so we can see the fibers coming out of the pot).

There is still some glue on the threads at this point, so it holds them together as they are wound and they can be used as is in a needle if no color is desired. If the silk thread is to be dyed the threads need to be carefully washed so that they will take the dye.

Antonia then explained about the collars. Light colored embroideries are for girls and young women, bright red is for the first year of marriage, as the woman ages the colors get darker and darker, and dark purple is for grandmothers. When a woman is a widow they dye the collars black.

It is said that “if a woman wore all of her embroideries she had a great life”!

Once Antonia’s demonstration was over we went down to her shop and I couldn’t resist purchasing a silk embroidered Christmas ornament (which I forgot to take a photo of before I packed away the Christmas stuff).

Prior to our trip Will and I talked about which shore excursions we wanted to take. There were two that interested us in Dubrovnik. One was just of the old walled city, and the other included Antonia’s studio. I told him I wanted to hear about silk production and he said he could “skip it”. That’s when I pulled the grandma card and said we were doing it. So imagine my delight when Antonia finished her talk and Will turned to me and said “that was amazing. I’m so glad we did this!” I had to agree.

Here’s one last photo from our trip, with the walled city of Dubrovnik and the beautiful blue Adriatic Sea in the background.

Thanks for joining us on this journey!

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And one more thing! This past week a fellow ThreadBender and I (thanks Sandy!) hung two of our challenges at Sew Much More in Waukesha, WI. They have a lovely exhibit space in their classroom. It’s a great shop – so please stop by and enjoy 😊!

Greetings from Denver! Yes, I’m traveling again, and this time I’m teaching for the Colorado Quilting Council. It was 17 below the morning I left Wisconsin, and I arrived to 16 above ~ quite an improvement! I’ve had a lovely visit so far, and I’ll share some of the fun in a future post. But now, as promised, I’ll continue my series of posts on my recent trip to Italy and Croatia with a port I know you’ll enjoy reading about!

(just a short note for those of you who are new to my blog this week, my grandson and I recently returned from a cruise. This is my third post about the sites, art and fiber we’ve seen. To read the previous posts please click here and then here!)

Prior to this trip I didn’t even know where to find Croatia on the map. After visiting two cities there I’ve added it to my list of favorite destinations. The Sea Organ in Zadar is one reason, but the traditional fiber art of Dubrovnik is at the top of the list. We began our day there with a fascinating tour of the old walled city of Dubrovnik. Our guide Lydia actually lives in an apartment that is on the second, third and fourth floor of a building there that’s been in her family for generations. She led our tour with the passion only a native can have.

Next we headed outside the city walls to Konavle and an atelier owned by Antonia Ruskovic. Atelier is a French word for the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts.

Antonia is not only an artist in her own right, but she is preserving and sharing the traditional folk arts of her area, and the visit to her home and studio is a memory I will long cherish. Upon our arrival we passed through the shop on the ground level and climbed the stairs to find a warm and friendly room where Antonia served us muffins and tea.

Then she began to explain the traditions of the women in her town. Traditionally they began to sew the items they would wear for the rest of their life when they were in their early teens. They began by making a “shirt” (we’d call it a dress), and it was made large enough to wear while pregnant, and accomodate any size they might become as they matured. This dress was then cinched with a wide and then a narrow belt that were both tied tightly.

Next came the apron, and when the corners were tucked into the tightly secured belt, they had a “bag” for anything they needed to carry.

She then explained the “staff”. These were made by the young men of the town in order to attract a girl. When she chose a boy as a suiter he gave her his staff. And why was that such a big deal? You’re going to love this! The staff was tucked into the belt at the girl’s side. She could then take a clump of wool roving in her left hand and hold it against the back of the staff. With her right hand she would pull a bit of wool out through one of the decorative holes and twist it into a yarn as she walked around town. This is something the women would do throughout their lives. Nothing was wasted – not even time.

And here are some more of the staffs and a sample of the wool roving:

The wool would be knit or woven into clothes for the cold winter months (which we were experiencing that day in Croatia).

At this point you may have noticed the collar with tassels Antonia is wearing, as well as the framed collars hanging throughout the room. She told us that the women wore these embroideries all the time, and the girls would make them for every season of their lives. The colors and patterns are very specific and they depicted many things: their marital status, stages of motherhood, celebrations, times of illness and even mourning. They were all hand embroidered with silk threads ~ and that brings me to the art of silk production in Dubrovnik. But I’m afraid this post is getting a bit long, so I’m going to leave you wanting more 😊.

Join me next week for “silk production in Dubrovnik!

Oh, one more thing. I hope you’ll find this little extra story interesting. Atonia said that these women were very superstitious and that many things needed to be done with odd numbers ~ like the number of stitches in the collars. Then she told us the women would make great big pots of stew from grains for gatherings, and it was important that there was an odd number of grains in the pot. A pot of stew could hold hundreds of grains and most of these women were uneducated and unable to count very high. So how did they do it??? They put all the grains in a pile and whisked them into the pot two at a time with their fingers. When they got to the end of the pile they could add just one more to make the number odd. Brilliant!

Last week’s post included a number of different ports we visited at the beginning of our trip to Italy. This week is about just one. The last port of call we toured was Venice. We knew we’d have two days there, so Will and I decided to take a boat tour to the nearby islands of Murano and Burano the first day. Francesco was a wonderful guide who spoke English well and had a great sense of humor.

Murano was our first stop. It’s famous for colorful glass and became known for this centuries ago when the glass blowers on Venice were made to move because their ovens were a fire danger to the city. The variety of glassware we saw was extensive and every piece was beautiful!

We watched an amazing demonstration by a master glass blower.

He created this horse right before our eyes!

They didn’t allow photos in the store attached to the studio, but trust me – it was beautiful! From there we got back on the boat and headed to Burano, an island known for it’s colorful houses. The story is that this is due to the fishermen years ago painting their homes in bright colors so they could spot them in the thick lagoon fog. The government later required this to “maintain distinctiveness and family identification – creating a unique, vibrant, and picturesque island”. I think it’s really because the tourists like it 😊.

This was my favorite shop:

Burano is also known for lace making and this is the shop where we learned all about it.

It is another art that young people are not willing to put the time into learning because it is so labor intensive.

And after watching the demonstration I can understand. This dear lady expertly placed each tiny stitch. The rhythm of her hands knotting the very thin thread was hypnotic. What a talented lady!

I was able to photograph this sample. As I understand it the bottom gold striped fabric layer gives the piece stability while being stitched. The thin waxy paper has the pattern printed on it and the green paper prevents the stitches from going through to the fabric layer. Everything is peeled off when the work is completed. To read an interesting article about Burano lace click here.

After wandering through the lace shop we went looking for pizza – and it was delicious. Then we returned for our final night on the ship. The next morning we moved to a hotel on the mainland near Venice, took the train back into the city, and began to walk. There is NO motorized traffic allowed on the island of Venice, and the story of how it was completely man made in the lagoon is fascinating. Click here for a good explanation. As we followed the walking path on Google Maps we found ourselves facing the grand canal with no bridge, but there was a gondola ferry. For 2 Euro each we got a gondola ride!

And a short walk later we were in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) looking at the Basilica, the bell tower and off to the right of the tower – the Doge’s Palace.

The tours of St. Mark’s were sold out, but we were able to go to the top of the bell tower. It was windy and cold up there – but the view was amazing!

Next we did a self guided tour of the Doge’s Palace. Again – the history is so interesting, but this isn’t the place for that. What I do want to share was some quilt design inspiration 😊. The floors!

And even the staircase. Will took this photo of me

taking a photo of the fronts of the steps.

As we neared the end of our walk around the island of Venice I actually found a fabric store! It was filled with lots of men’s suit fabrics and, as is common in stores like this in Europe, it was staffed by two men who stared at me as I looked at the fabrics. There was an area of colorful cottons and silks. I didn’t feel comfortable taking a photo inside, nor did I see anything I needed to add to my stash, but I enjoyed touching and feeling some of the beautiful bolts on the shelves – and I snapped a quick photo from the outside (please pardon the reflection on the glass).

The following morning we flew home. It may have been the end of our journey, but it’s not the end of my posts about our adventure. I think you’ll really enjoy my next two posts as they are about the part of our trip that excited me most as a quilter and fiber artist. Stay tuned for wool, silk, and stitching in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

PS At the beginning of this post is a photo of another view of Venice from the Bell Tower. You may have noticed a red arrow in the top of the photo. It’s pointing at our ship! What fun it was to realize we could see it from up there.

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And one more thing…

Mr friend Lisa emailed me in hopes of finding out some information about a mystery quilt she participated in in Madison years ago. Here’s what she wrote:

“I’m hoping you might be able to help me with an odd request. I know that your blog goes to a lot of Wisconsin quilters, especially those in the Madison area. I’m trying to locate the directions for a mystery monthly quilt along that Mill House Quilts did in the early 2000’s.
I have quite a few of them from back in the day, but cannot locate the one that belongs with a fabric pull I have set aside since 2005/2006. The monthly clues got lost. I don’t even remember the name of the mystery QAL, but know it was either by Debbie Caffrey or a Thornberry Mystery as those were the two designers they used back then.”

If you have any helpful information for Lisa, please email her directly at:

Welcome to my first post after my recent trip to Italy. What a fantastic adventure it was! As I mentioned a few posts back, My husband traveled for his career and really isn’t interested in doing so in retirement. I however have loved to take groups of quilters on tours and, even though I’ve reached the point where I’d rather not have the responsibility for leading the tours any longer, I still love to travel. Mike and I agreed a nice compromise would be that I’d take a grandchild on an adventure their senior year and he’d stay home with the dog 😊. This year was Will’s turn and it couldn’t have been more wonderful. We flew into Rome the day after Christmas, checked into our hotel, and walked over 38,000 steps in 1 1/2 days!

He was fascinated by the architecture and the food – and this was true for the entire trip. The afternoon of the second day we boarded a cruise ship and set sail for Naples. We only had a day there and decided that our choice of shore excursions would be the ruins of Pompeii. It was amazing. To think that these walls and roads were completely covered with 23 feet of ash, debris and earth that needed to be painstakingly removed.

One of the things I found most interesting was the condition of the frescos in some of the buildings. Fresco is a type of mural painting done on wet plaster, and our guide said that the term comes from a combination of the words “fresh” and “stucco”. I’m not sure how true that is, but it sounded good. Just look at the examples that survived, after being buried for centuries.

The fresco that really grabbed my attention was this one depicting cherubs working with fabric… yes… fabric! And isn’t the intensity of the colors mind blowing?

That night we set sail again. This time for Messina, Sicily. It was difficult to choose what to do with our limited time in each port, but this time we both agreed on a bus tour that took us to the village of Taormina located on the top of a mountain. The landscapes were spectacular as we traveled up and up, and the village was even more fascinating. At the top of the main street (another goodly walk) we came to a theater that was centuries old and had been built and occupied at different times by both the Greeks and the Romans. What a view!!! And please don’t miss Mt. Etna in the background. It began to “let off steam” just a few days before we arrived there.

We had free time after seeing the theater and decided to try some local pasta on our walk back to the bus. It was delicious! And almost pretty enough to be the inspiration for an art quilt 😋.

We definitely didn’t have enough time there. Our next day was at sea as we made our way around the boot of Italy, through the Ionian Sea, and up the Adriatic to the port of Dubrovnik (this map is not of our exact cruise, but it gives perspective).

Our time in Dubrovnik proved to be the most interesting for me as a quilter, as I learned about local fibers and small scale silk production (it deserves a post of it’s own and will get one next week). So I’ll conclude this week’s post with our next port of call: Zadar, Croatia. Because our ship was smaller than many cruise ships, we were able to dock close to the best points of interest, and this was especially true in Zadar. The old walled city sits on a small peninsula protected by islands along the Adriatic. We docked along the end of the peninsula next to the Sea Organ (our ship was where I’ve drawn the thick red line in the lower left and the Sea Organ is just to the right by the musical notes).

What, you may ask, is a Sea Organ? Well, it’s a natural musical instrument, seventy meters long with thirty-five organ pipes built under concrete. It was created by a Croatian architect in 2005 as part of a reconstruction of the Zadar shoreline. The waves flow into the organ pipes and create a haunting melody that increases and decreases with the intensity of the weather. Click here for a video that captures the sound and feel (please watch to at least the 11 second mark so you can see/hear the “music” and the waves). I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it, and wandered off the ship a number of times to sit on the curved benches along the organ that look like a piano keyboard, and just listen.

As the sun was beginning to set I made my way back to the ship, only to find a small group of young people swimming off the stone steps! This was all the more surprising because the temperature of the air was about 42 degrees! When I got back to our cabin I found Will on the phone with his girlfriend. When I told him about the crazy swimmers he responded (you’ve probably already guessed this) – “can I?” I held his towel and took the photos. Crazy kid! I did join him in the hot tub afterwards 😊.

As the sun was setting the other part of this lovely shoreline became the star attraction. The same architect who designed the Sea Organ also came up with the “Greeting to the Sun”, a solar installation that collects the sun’s energy during the day and than creates a light show at night that dances with the sound of the organ. It was truly amazing – and the best place to view it was from the top deck of our ship. What a blessing! Please click here to watch the video I took (it was quite windy, so you won’t hear the sea organ, but the light show is pretty nontheless).

This brings my first trip post to an end. I can’t wait to share more with you next week. but I do want to share one more thing…

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I was invited to teach a class at the AQS show in Paducah this year and registration for members has opened. Registration for non-members begins January 20th. The class is entitled “Quilt, Slash, Create” and you can read about it in a post from November by clicking here!

Click here to register for my class – or to see what other instructors are offering. Don’t miss my friend Lori Dickman’s classes too!