Project Quilting 3:1 Architectural Elements

I was excited about this challenge because I knew immediately that I would choose an inspiration piece from my Paris photos, little did I realize how hard it would be to choose one (and find time to actually complete the piece)!At first I wanted to make a piece using Notre Dame as inspiration, but as the week sped past I realized I did not have time to do justice to that project right now, but it will have to go in my "someday" list. Then I started looking for something a little more realistic with the amount of time I had to work with. I decided that this picture of the underside of the Arche de Triomphe would be just the ticket. At first I planned on doing nine squares, but piecing all those strips on took longer than I thought, so ended up settling for just a little 4 square quilt.
I dug through my stash for some nice tans and happened across that nice brown stripe that I thought would work perfectly for my dark strips. The small center blocks were a fabric that I loved and had just a little strip left, but enough for this quilt! The inner and outer light strips are the same fabric, and I used a brown print for my dividing strip and binding.
Isn't the backing perfect? It really reminds me of the inspiration photo!
I love the way the yo-yos worked for my flowers. I made them early Saturday morning and sewed them on half asleep because I had to go to a Dance Competition for my daughter and wanted to finish and post my entry so I didn't miss the deadline.
I would love to do this project larger and add pretty quilted borders to mimic the detailing in the arches. This was a really fun project to make - if you look at the flickr group there are lots more fabulous entries! Check them out and leave some comments - it's always fun to see what other people think of your work.

Have a productive week!

Pamela

Paris - Monday Morning Meandering

What a thrill it was to wake up on my 50th Birthday in Paris! Both my daughter and I had slept well, and since we had a pretty low-key day planned we both slept as long as we wanted. The plan for the day was to go pay a visit to "Les Puces" - the Paris flea market! Then we thought we would pay a visit to the Bon Marche, and just generally spend the afternoon getting acquainted with the city before changing for a nice dinner at the George V restaurant on the Champs Elysees. The rest of the week we meant to cram in as many museums, monuments and churches as we could fit in, so we thought a nice quiet day would be a good way to prepare ourselves for our sightseeing.



After we got showered and dressed we headed down to the hotel lobby and got directions to the nearby subway station (since we had not managed to make it the most direct way when we first arrived!) We zipped up our raincoats and headed out, anticipating a wonderful petite dejeuner in a french cafe. It was raining, but our spirits were high as we merrily set out for the subway. Unfortunately we had not realized that french streets do not meet as neatly as ours do, and turn left at the first street, walk two streets then turn right for one block might sound easy, but when five streets come together, what is straight? Unfortunately we once more took the wrong path and missed our station. We walked on, thinking that eventually we would have to either find a restaurant or a station, but found neither. We did find this beautiful church:





With this statue in front of it - we recognized Joan of Arc immediately!


Onwards we walked through steady rain. Eventually we got to where we could find where we were on the map and made our way toward the Arc de Triomphe, figuring that there should be nearby restaurants as we were getting quite hungry and it was almost time for lunch! It was a very quiet morning, not a lot of traffic or people about. Finally we neared this landmark, and I could not resist framing it in the trees. We continued walking, smelling food and eventually found a street with several restaurants to chose from.

As it was my birthday, I got to chose our dining spot - and after looking at several places, decided to stop at this one! Isn't the decor wonderful! Definitely a one of a kind place, very unusual and though we were too late for croissants and coffee we dined on a very unusual pizza for our lunch. We had the deluxe pizza - and it came with a most unusual ingredient - a very lightly cooked egg right in the center! Neither of us could finish our pizzas, and we were in awe of the french girls seated nearby who practically inhaled theirs - how in the world do those French girls stay so skinny, we thought. Well, during that week, we definitely found out!

I hope to figure out what the name of this restaurant was, but I will always remember our meal there!

Next week I will tell you about the flea market!