Look at this new way to rearrange a disappearing pinwheel block! To me it looks like a wrapped piece of candy. One of my students made it in the class I recently taught at HelloStitch. I’d like to see four of these blocks in rotational symmetry. (Isn’t that a good word?)
I know nine ways to rearrange this one. Here are a few more.
This is the tile floor of an Indian restaurant in Berkeley called Nameste. It’s also a quilt pattern called the exquisite. I think it’s more interesting when it’s made in a wonky fashion with the triangles all different sizes.
I’m surprised to realize that I let a whole month go by without a single blog post. We arrived home from France on May 1st. We dashed to pick up our guinea pig, Milkshake, from where he was being boarded. He must have caught pneumonia there. By the end of the week he was gone. We buried him in the back yard under a large heart shaped stone, found years ago on a beach. He was at least 6 years old, which is a lot for a guinea pig. Here’s a photo of Milkshake:
He was a wonderful piggie, with a lovely loud purr when he was being held. I worry that I’ll never find another one like him. Many guinea pigs don’t like being held.
The photo above is from the wall of a couscous restaurant, on our penultimate day in Paris. It has my favorite 8 pointed star.
Heres another. Same star, different pattern, from the same restaurant.
This was part of the sidewalk. I stopped to take a photo of the chocolate store across the street. I looked down at my feet, and there was this lovely pattern.
Here’s the chocolate store I was taking a photo of.
I saw this in the Musee d’Orsay. It was an example of using images from nature in art nouveau. Note the octopus on the bottom in the middle. It was in a display in the stairwell.
Both of these are tile floors at the Paris Opera Garnier. I enjoyed seeing my favorite 8 pointed star there. There’s even a nine patch! And here’s the ceiling by Chagall, just because.
Today I went to the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and saw a retrospective of Sheil Hicks’ work. She has taken tassel making to a whole new level. I’ve only used tassels once in my current work, on Traveler’s Mizrach. You can see it under Quilt Gallery 2013, above. She also had small tapestries, which I neglected to photograph, as well as other sculptural pieces. These ones using the wrapping/tassel technique were my favorite.
Here are some more photos of the retrospective.
The one above gives you an idea of how tall these pieces are. 
Here’s a tile floor from the castle at Azay Le Rideau. Very quilty!
How about this window from the same castle?
Or this window, from the abbey we visited yesterday? Also quilty.
It was because we saw this amazing roof in a book that we decided to visit this abbey. Isn’t it wonderful?
This is a tile floor from the abbey where Eleanor of Aquitaine is buried. If it were a quilt we’d call it snow balls, or robbing Peter to pay Paul. Here’s an effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine, reading a book!
Below, is the wall of a building, across the street from the chateau of Angers. I think it would make a wonderful quilt!
Below are more tiles from the Abbey.
Here’s a nine patch, growing in the garden.
I Love these multi headed creatures from a 650 year old tapestry in Angers. I think Hagrid would want one for a pet.
This is the beginning of sewing in the penultimate triangle.
This is the last triangle of this mini quilt. I’m almost done!
Here it is, finished. I had to take a screenshot of it because my phone was misbehaving. But I’m really happy with how it turned out. I forgot that I used to do a lot of hand sewing, and got good at it. And that I used to like hand sewing. It’s been really great to have a hand sewing project to do on this trip.
This is a tile floor from the abbey on Mont Saint Michel, in France. It looks like a streak of lightning setting for triangles. The way the color is worn away, it looks like “scrappy fabric” choices. It would make a nice quilt.
This is what it looks like from another place on the same floor, where the glaze hasn’t been worn away. I also took a photo of a wooden floor that looked quilty to me.
This the floor of the AirB&B we stayed at in Caen, France. Doesn’t it look quilty?
I can’t resist adding a photo of Mont Saint Michel, which has been on my bucket list for years. It is only an island at high tide. I’m so glad I finally got to go there. It reminds me of my ceramic sculptures which frequently had small houses or castles on them.
