To Dublin, Berlin, and Back (part Berlin)

October 9, 2018June 27, 2026 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

As I mentioned in the last post, this is a visual sampling of some of the patterned surfaces and interesting places that caught my eye while in Berlin, not an exhaustive travel write-up.

The first full day was the Berlin Marathon, with 40,000 runners and a record-beating time. Because of this, we had more access to the Gate and enjoyed seeing it all lit up.

Berlin Brandernberger Tor Station — Underground stop for the Brandenburger Gate

I made my way to the former East Berlin, where Frau Tulpe’s shop was located, and ended up buying some fabrics of her own design.

It was a fun place with lots to look at.

A lot of times I’d go to look at a sight the guidebook suggested, then wander off course and find interesting places like this: the Berlin Craftsman Association building, with wonderful light coming in through that back double door:

You can hear the Singing Lesson in this IG video clip.

This was seen on one of my many bus rides. I’d climb up to the top level of the bus, try to sit in the front and have my own private tour.

Every day at 4 p.m., the hotel would put out treats for “Chocolate Hour.” I could see this happening at a quilt retreat, although we’d need a lot more.

There were two main locations to see the Berlin Wall, and this one had paintings on one side. I had two favorites. This one showed the crush of ecstatic East Berliners, finally allowed to cross through their oppressive borders. I can recommend the book, Forty Autumns, if you want a taste of this (previously recommended).

And I like these women, who reminded me of women from the turn of the century.

While in Frau Tulpe’s, someone recommended this store, Karstadt, which called for another bus ride.

Couldn’t believe that I was seeing Free Spirit, and at a bargain price! (about 8 bucks a yard)

Everybody needs a wash day while traveling, and I brought my stitching along.

Another place we saw fabric was at idee. This one was next door to KaDeWe, a big, fancy department store, but I also saw idee. at the Mall of Berlin, next to the two-story slide.

Climbing up the Reichstag Dome presented so many interesting shapes and patterns, all with a view.

This building reminded me of a quilt pattern. It was across from the entrance to the Berlinischer Galerie (yellow tiles). It had several wonderful exhibits.

Grill (above) and floor tiles (below) from the Neues Museum, which housed antiquities.

The Bode Museum had room after room of red-and-white patterned floor tiles. I’m sure the guards thought I was a little bit dotty when surrounded by beautiful art, I was snapping photos of their floors.

My husband is always photographing the interior of domes (above); I followed his example in the Old National Gallery (below):

But one of the most fun days I had was meeting up with Evelinde, and going to lunch and seeing one of her local quilt shops. We met on Instagram, and I was so blown away by her being willing to meet up with a stranger and spend some time out of her busy schedule. She’s so lovely, and shared stories with me, answering so many questions. While there are many negatives to social media, meeting quilters halfway across the world, or the states, is one of the positives, for me.

We did Show and Tell in the restaurant; this is only one of her many fabulous pieces. I only had the pathetic little screen on my phone. She is inspiring!

She took me here, to Hobby and Handarbeiten (Handicrafts).

I rarely buy fabric overseas anymore, but I always like to look and see. I loved the embroidery floss–mine is always in bins and tangled up, and was generally impressed with the range of fabrics they carried.

Since we try to travel cheaply, I purchased my husband’s breakfast (for the next day) when I was out and about, and I thought you’d like to see what I had to choose from. I also supplemented with yogurt and juice and fruit from the local grocery store. And we ate great meals at night, mostly from small places near our hotel:

Lastly, I leave you with the sight of this beautiful plaza, Babelplatz. The caption is found on the Instagram video. Click to see my farewell to this great city.

Travels

To Dublin, Berlin, and Back (part Dublin)

October 5, 2018June 27, 2026 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

I’m dividing this into two posts: first up is Dublin. As a quilter, I didn’t know what to expect in the surface decoration, the patterns of everyday life in Dublin. Certainly we all are familiar with Celtic knots and crosses and the like, but I have never been that enamoured of those style of quilts (maybe it’s because I couldn’t face appliquéing all those linear feet of bias strips), so was looking for the “flavor” of Dublin that might interest me, a quilter. So here follows not a travelogue of the two cities I visited, but instead, a sampling of visual pattern and a nod to fabric shops I encountered.

Christ Church, in Dublin, is undergoing renovation in certain areas of its property so they erected these fun, bold passageways to usher the visitor forward. I thought it was just genius pulled out of thin air, until we entered the cathedral:

The designs are pulled from its floors. My husband is thoroughly trained as a Quilter’s Husband, so he started snapping photos, too, knowing how I would love the designs.

This is a panorama of one section of floor, and I recognize so many designs, as do you. You can do a search on them, and find lots of material and more illustrations, but the tiles were either original to the 13th century, or 19th century copies.

If I lived in Dublin, these would be my preferred snack. They are nothing like American donuts–maybe a little like the filled ones, but their flavors and combinations were addicting. I could see bringing one of each to a quilt retreat.

Lots of flowers, lots of green.

We went to the National Library of Ireland, in Dublin, after I saw photos of the reading room. No photos were allowed, so I grabbed this one from the web:

What a color palette!

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, also in Dublin, brought more eye candy to this quilter:

Christ Church still is the best, I think, in terms of floor tiles.

Two shops: Hickey’s and Cloth. I zipped right into Cloth and brought home a tote bag (like I need another tote bag, right?). I smiled when I saw their floor tiles.

Other decorative surfaces were the tiles design at the Garden of Remembrance, with coving on the side of the pool that imitated the laid tiling:

Lastly, hexagon stamps…which I admired, but forgot to purchase.

Next up: Berlin.

Travels

Inspiration: Okano, Manzanar, Etc.

April 5, 2018June 28, 2026 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

Eiko Okano’s exhibition of quilts is up at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum. (Someday I want to go there.) I first saw Okano’s quilts long ago and at that time wanted to buzz into her studio and be a fly on the wall as she created. Unlike our quick-study Instagram world, where quilts are being produced at the rate of 300 a second — or so it seems — I imagine her process would take a bit longer.

I love the wild, dancing rick-rack scribbles in the border of this quilt, and those buttons!

I want to hang this one in my kitchen. These photographs are all taken from the IGSC website, where more of her quilts are shown.

Ballard Street MOJO — *Ballard Street cartoon*

In charging up my creative batteries, which often we speak of as “mojo,” I found this series of ten videos from 99U, which are about the creative process.

I intrigued by the concept that this one gives us, that — believe it or not — springboarding off of things that others have done, is a time-honored path to creativity. Notice I said “springboarding.” No one likes to have their work cloned, unless maybe you are making a pattern or something that is designed to be cloned.

I watched this in process with the release of Sherri McConnell’s quilt, “Flower Garden,” in a magazine this week. It’s the old hexie flower you have come to know and love, but Sherri gives it a modern twist, a new spin, and now I want to gather up hexies and start making my own. She started this several years ago, once again giving me hope for my own long time lines for some quilts.

And, as usual, after a spurt of creativity, I take time to clear off my workspace, find the floor again (stacks of fabrics often migrate there when I am looking for a “certain piece”) and plan out time in my calendar.

A change is as good as a rest, my mother says, so this past week we took a break from calendars and sewing machines and usual activities when we drove up to Manzanar (about a four-hour’s distance), to visit this National Historic Place. The memorial is evocative, terribly sad, and enraging, all at once.

The Mt. Whitney mountain range is stunningly beautiful, and we took some time that night to enjoy the sunset and rising moon.

On the way home, we stopped at Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch, a Mojave Desert attraction, all built by Elmer, a man who gets up in the morning, fires up his welding torch and gets to work. Unless, of course, he doesn’t want to.

I have a re-cap post on the Mad for Solids 2018 coming, but I wanted to thank you all for the efforts you made to put my quilt design and curated stack of solids in the Winner’s Circle. I enjoyed getting to know new quilters and their creative worlds, not only those who also had stacks, but you quilters, with your IG and FB and blogging sites. Keep up the good work of interacting and supporting and cheering each other on. I love this quilty world!

Something to Think About · Travels

Escape to Texas • March 2018

March 16, 2018July 17, 2026 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

We escaped to Texas last week, to visit our son and his family, as well as head to San Antonio, where my husband participated in a scientific conference.

Pico Iyer, a well-respected travel writer noted that “The urgency of slowing down — to find the time and space to think — is nothing new, of course, and wiser souls have always reminded us that the more attention we pay to the moment, the less time and energy we have to place it in some larger context. “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries,” the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century, “and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.” He also famously remarked that all of man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”