April Travels

If you were looking for my April blog and found there wasn't one, there was a very good reason. For most of the month Iwas travelling with family in Italy, with a week in London at the end of the trip.

What an experience it was! I'm still trying to mentally process everything I saw. We travelled from Venice south and west to the Bay of Naples, Pompeii and then north to Rome. Everywhere we went we saw treasures of art and architecture dating from hundreds and in some cases thousands of years ago. Of the many things that impressed themselves upon my quilter's mind were the marvellous designs of mosaics in marble, stone and glass that decorated churches, palaces and the homes of the rich as far back as the first century! Some of these patterns were reminiscent of quilts and some of the elements are still used by quilters today.

The two pictured above (the mosaics not my husband and I!) were preserved in the ruins of Palazzo Teodorico in Ravenna. But we saw similar and even more elaborate designs in Pompeii and Rome.

After the excitement and riches of italy, London might have been a bit of an anti-climax if I hadn't already booked tickets to see the exbitbition "Quilts 1700 to 2010" at the Vicotria and Albert Museum. After two and a half hours of looking, reading, and listening I was exhausted, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to see sucha wide-ranging exhibition and one I will never forget. (For more on this check the website of the Victoria and Albert Museum. You will find more there than I could ever tell you.)

So now it's back to my own quilting, with a mind buzzing with ideas for future quilts.

Good luck with yours!