Travelogue: Barcelona

Michael and me on the roof of the Cathedral of Barcelona

Right after the semester ended Michael and I left on our anniversary trip to Europe.  We feasted our eyes (and our stomachs too) in Barcelona, Nice, and Florence.   I'm sure part of it is that everything was new to me, but I kept seeing one strikingly beautiful thing after another.

One of the first places we visited was La Boquería market where produce, candy, meat and fish were artfully arranged and very photogenic.  The colors and textures were very seductive and we ended up taking bags of goodies back to our apartment.

Griffins (?) on the roof of the Maritime Museum

Barcelona is an old city, founded by Roman soldiers around 15 BC as a military outpost.  Remnants of the original city wall, built in 350 AD, can be seen in various places in the old city.  Different styles of architecture from diverse periods in history can be seen side by side.

Doorway in the Barri Gotic

Sculptural medallion on the Teatre Principal

 I'm a closet history buff, and the history of Barcelona is fascinating to me.  One of the best museums we saw was the Museu d'Historia de Barcelona on the Plaça del Rei, next to the Cathedral.  They have an extensive excavation of a Roman site under a medieval palace, and you can see the way one era's structures are layered over another.  Interestingly, part of the Roman ruins included a textile dye works, weaving equipment, and a laundry: yes, the important stuff.


Upstairs, in the palace part of the museum, was an exhibit on the importance of calico or "indianes" production to the economic development of the city. 

Cathedral of Barcelona

 We visited the Cathedral of Barcelona twice.  It's an imposing structure begun in 1298, and built over several centuries.

The interior is almost completely accessible to tourists, unlike other major churches we visited on our travels.  The video screens you see in the picture above remind visitors how to behave in church.  No kidding.

We took the elevator to the roof for a panoramic view of the city and for a close-up of the spires of the cathedral.  

Among Barcelona's architectural  claims to fame is the Modernista movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Modernisme is Catalan Art Deco.  We went to a concert at the Palau de la Música Catlana, an excellent example of the style.

Ceiling detail, Palau de la Música Catalana

Ceiling detail

You gotta love people that decorate their buildings with flowers.

detail, Casa Lleó Morera, Lluis Domenech i Montaner, architect, 1864/1902

Another architectural bauble

And of course there were many Madonnas. 

Here's my favorite of the Barcelona bunch: Mare de Déu del Carme, taken in Santa María del Pi church. 

I'll be back more regularly now, with more stitching and with the rest of this travelogue. 

April CQJP

I finished my April block, only a few days into May.

The green seam is zig-zag chain stitch, and the flowers are straight stitch and French knots.  The yellow seam is plain old cross stitch.

In this photo the blue seam is wheatear stitch, the TAST stitch from two week ago, with orange French knots.  The orange seam is fly stitch with some tiny silver beads.  The pink seam is the TAST crossed buttonhole stitch for this week, accented with some tiny heart buttons and detatched chain stitches.

I used outline stitch, satin stitch, and stem stitch to embellish the center image of the hummingbird.  Tahlia sent me some retro-reflective thread from Textura Trading Co., which I combined with two strands of cotton for the bird wings.  The retro-reflective thread has a sparkle which is hard to see in the photo, but which gives the wings a bit of sheen.

In the right upper corner I put a little black bird like the ones that stand in the grass next to my house.  It guards some silk ribbon fuchsias. 

I'm going to put this project on hold for the rest of the month.  I'm wrapping up the school year and then Michael and I will go on vacation.  I may post some other projects in the meantime, but I'll pick up the next block in June, when I hope to catch up with the rest of the Tuesday Stitchers group.

French Knots

When my friend Catherine gave me the lace Madonna I used in last month's block, she also gave me these two small medals, which the merchant gave her as a gift when she bought the lace medallion.  These are images of St. Francis and St. Clare, and I added them to this month's block using shisha embroidery.  The medals are surrounded by some fern stitch and French knots, this week's challenge stitch.

The image of St. Francis has birds flying over his head.

These accents fit nicely into the block.  I see I'm going to have to step it up a bit to fill the remaining empty space before the month ends.

More TAST and April CQJP

The middle of the month was getting very close when I finally sat down to  work on my April block. 

Once I began I got in the groove.

In the top left corner I feather stitched a vintage robin patch.  The seam treatment is herringbone stitch accented with lazy daisy and straight stitch.

I put on my big girl pants and tackled the whipped wheels, the TAST from a few weeks ago.  This composition also has the stem stitch for this week's TAST. 

The leaves are woven picot stitch from Pat Trott's book Three Dimensional Embroidery Stitches, which has a lot of great floral designs I'll probably dip into again.  These cool little leaves are detached, which adds to the textual element.

A Brief Aside

All I've shown this year on the blog is embroidery, but I have kept the knitting needles going behind the scenes.  I'm perhaps a bit obsessive as a knitter.  I like its rhythmic nature, plus I get to wear the results.

Lately I'm especially enamored of garter stitch.  The repetition is meditative: it's knit stitch on both sides, and no purling, plus the fabric made by knit stitch is thick and cushiony.  I knit this shawl from a free Ravelry pattern: Kay's Tess D'Uberville Shawl by Kay Meadors.  It's blissfully mindless knitting, and I used leftover fingering weight yarn from the Faire Isle vest I made for my mother last year.  The color changes synced up nicely with the increases in the pattern.  I've noticed that I have a minor fascination with stripes these days.

When I wore this shawl to work, one of my colleagues was very complementary and also let me know that her birthday was coming.  I was happy to take the hint and to reward her enthusiasm for knitwear.  Over the Christmas holiday I made her this shawl, the Ridge and Furrow Triangular Shawl by Sue Grandfield, also free on Ravelry. 

Although not entirely knit in garter stitch, the ridges are garter.  This shawl was made from some reclaimed raspberry tweed wool, and the stripes are made from a skein of Noro Kureyon, a beautiful Japanese yarn with long color repeats.    My colleague was very happy with her shawl.  When she wears it to work she stops by to show me.

I decided to make myself another shawl with some leftover wool and alpaca blend yard that I had in my stash.

The pattern, 22.5 Degrees by Martina Behm, is also free on Ravelry. 

I've made this pattern before, but this time I made it extra long to wrap around my neck.  It's a garter stitch feast, soft and drapey. 

I'll return to the embroidery needle next week.  In the meantime, I'll curl up on the couch with some knitting.  Happy Easter and Happy Passover to those who are celebrating this weekend.

March CQJP

My March Crazy Quilt Journal Project block is finished.  I had left about half the block for the last few days of the month knowing that I'd have extra time to finish up.

This seam is a combination of Maidenhair stitch with Lazy Daisy and beads.

I used two bird charms that came in the swap box that's making the rounds between some of the Tuesday Stitchers group members. 

I finally stitched the morning glory motif in the upper right corner, but tearing away the stabilizer distorted some of the satin stitches.  I pulled them on the back side to straighten them after I took this picture. 

This lace Madonna motif was a gift from my local friend Catherine, who brought it to me from Assisi when she went to Italy last year.  She asked me if I was going to use it in this piece, and at first I said no.  I intended to save it, like a lot of very special things, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it really needed to go in this project.  Assisi, of course, is the home of St. Francis, and Catherine's gift is one of the inspirations for this whole project.  This very special accent is appliqued down and accented with French knots and Lazy Daisy.

Thanks again Catherine for your thoughtful and inspiring gift.

TAST Week 12: Barred Chain Stitch

I skipped week 11's Whipped Wheel stitch, which I'll probably come back to later.  It may not be destined for this particular block, but we'll see.  In the meantime, I added this week's Barred Chain stitch in brown there in the middle and accented it with a brown button.

The pink and blue stitch combination on the left is Chevron stitch accented with pink buttons and French knnots, and blue Lazy Daisy. The curved vine with purple buds is a hybrid of some stitch combinations in a Judith Baker Montano book.

She has several pages of floral stitch combinations in this book.

It also include instructions for a number of basic stitches.

Here's the block so far.  I'm saving that blank spot on the lower right for a special accent I'll add when the seams are done.

TAST Week 10: Running Stitch

I had an unusually busy weekend, but I managed to fill in a few spots on my March block.  I found a bit of sparkly thread to interlace with running stitch, and I added some fly stitch to the center image of the block.  I  used outline stitch to sew the doves motif, which I found in this old embroidery pamphlet I've had for awhile.  Since it has 55 cents penciled in on the cover, it must be a garage sale or thrift store find.

The pamphlet is undated, but it brags that, although it it written in English, it was printed in France, and it has the imprint of Thiriez & Cartier-Bression of Lille-Paris.  It also announces that a series of these "albums" is available "in Stores, Habersashers' and Ladies' Needlework shops."  Oh my.
 

The designs are charming and not snooty at all.

It gives illustrated directions for stitches, and some sweet projects.

Some of my favorite on-line sources for embroidery motifs are: Vintage Transfer Finds, where florecita has started posting again, and the mother lode: the Hoop Love Vintage Transfers site on Flickr, which you have to join to access, an easy process.  Once you're on the site, be prepared to spend some time browsing.

Have a great week everyone.  I'm on Spring break this week, which means I'm doing my taxes, car maintenance, and other deferred projects.  

TAST Week 8: Chain Stitch and Week 9: Couching

The February CQJP block is done.  I added more fly stitches to mimic feathers on the blue jay, and along the base of the tree as leaves for some blue French knot flowers.

I used chain stitch to create a vine for the tree trunk, and gave it some red berries.

The March block has an image of flying geese at the center.   I couched a wooded bead with Coral Zig Zag stitch right above it.
 

With some tiny beads, this became a fancy beetle.

I've picked some morning glories and some doves for the patches opposite the beetle.  Onward, onward.