Getting ready to go home!

I have not posted since June, where do July go? We have been in Romania for almost 3 months and it is time to go home. We will be leaving on Friday and I am really looking forward to being home.

I have managed to quilt a bit and even finish (except the borders) my Double Delight (a Bonnie pattern) quilt top. I will have to post pictures when I finish it.

We took a week off to go to Austria. We stayed in Vienna at a lovely old hotel and visited 3 other countries while we were there. Each night we fell into bed, exhausted from our day, but I would not have missed this trip for anything. Budapest (Hungry) is a a wonderful old city with lots of history. Of course I can say that about Prague (Czech Republic), Bratislava (Slovak Republic), Vienna and Salzburg also. Each city has wonderful old buildings and stories to go along with them. I was very surprised to find that most of Vienna's old buildings are 'rebuilt' new - old buildings. Vienna was bombed so badly in the war that a good portion of the city was devastate. Most of the building were re-built to look the way they did originally.

If anyone is planning a trip to Vienna, I can strongly recommend using the Vienna City Tours to book day and half day guided tours. They were wonderful and their tour guides speak several languages which was very interesting. The buses were very comfortable and the history lessons were great.

I do have loads of pictures and have posted some on my face book page. Here are just a few from out Austrian vacation.


The first one is the parliament building in Budapest. This was taken from the other side of the Danube. The second one is a Mozart monument in Vienna. There were many monuments in each of the cities that we visited.

Stormy Weather

We had a really bad storm last night. The hail was very large and the wind was just howling. On top of that there was heavy rain while it was hailing. Here are some pictures that we took.The rain was so heavy that you could not see the buildings very well. They look like far away mountains in this picture.

Just look at the size of the hail stones. I know any of you in Texas are probably saing to yourselves that they are small, but for Romania, these are really large. Thank the good Lord there wasn't any real damage around the campus or the power plant. We didn't even loose power during the storm, although the lights flickered so we up plugged the computers and T.V. and my sewing machine. No sense in taking chances on power surges. We already lost 2 T.V. sets to the surges since we have been here.

Been a long time

A lot has happened since I last posted. We traveled home on May 2nd. It seemed that we were gone forever, but of course, it had only been 3 months and with the internet and phone there is contact with home folks. I wonder what it was like without the telephone. I remember when there was no internet or e-mail and SKYPE was unheard of. We seemed to get along just fine way back then. If you haven't used SKYPE I can recommend it. There is a free version that you can download from the internet. With SKYPE you can talk to anyone who also has SKYPE using your computer. You need a mic and if you and whoever you are calling have web cams you can see each other. I am still amazed who technology has made the world a much smaller place!

I was in the States for 4 weeks and during that time I traveled to California to visit my children and Mom. I made 2 round trips from Green Bay to San Francisco, the first one with my youngest daughter and the 2nd with my Mom. She came to visit for a week. My Mom is great, she is 86 years young and shares her home with my brother, his 3 children and his 6 grandchildren. It is a very full house!

While in California we had a wedding shower for Melissa, my middle child. She is to be married in September when Bruce and I return home and yes, her husband to be is a real sweetheart. I couldn't ask for a better son-in-law than Allen. This is one of the pictures that we took at Melissa's shower. The first row from left to right is Melissa, Leah, Manda, Bonnie and in the back from left to right is Jenn, Me, Mom and Karen (my older sister). Melissa, Leah, Manda, and Jenn are 4 of my 6 children and Bonnie is Karen's daughter.

We are back in Romania now. Today is our 18th wedding anniversary. We will be going out to dinner tonight to celebrate. I love to go out for dinner, not just because the food is good (and it really is good) but also there is no cleanup afterward! Good food - no cleanup, who could ask for more.

BTW, I am still working on Bonnie's quilt pattern, Double Delight. I will finish it, but I don't know when. I am also working on several other quilts at the same time. I will get pictures posted when as soon as I can.

Until next time - blessings to you all.

Telcea, Romania

Well, no more sewing until I get home in May. The transformer that I use to convert my USA powered sewing machine to Romanian power fell and broke. This means my Double Delight quilt is at a stand still. I have already ordered one to be delivered home so when I come back in June I will be set again.

We spent last weekend in Telcea which is on the Danube Delta. We had such a good time and got some very good pictures. The only problem with a photo from a good trip is that it never really captures the feeling of wonder as seeing first hand does. We took a cruise on the Danube and were the only two people on the boat as it is off-season for them. This part of the delta is protected and there were so many birds that the noise they made was incredible. Some of them took off from the water and looked like they were running across the river. They made little wakes behind them until their legs cleared the water.

We went to the Museum of Natural History and were very impressed. They have an aquarium on the lower level which was really nice. The posters that told about the different exhibits were is 3 languages, one of which was English. Ass together, it was a delightful weekend.

I have been busy

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted, but I have been busy.

I have completed 2 quilt tops, but have to wait until I get home to quilt them. I was also the winner in the draw for my online fabric learning Yahoo group. I am receiving one of Shirley's original landscape wall hangings. I know just where I can hang it so the sun won't fade it and everyone can see it. I still can't believe I was lucky enough to have my name drawn.





















Bruce and I went for a drive to take some pictures for a landscape quilt that I am planning to do. I just needed the perfect picture of our town here in Romania to use as inspiration. I do have several that I think will do. I took them at the Train Station looking across the Danube Canal. I like the way the town is built on hills and it should make an interesting wall hanging.

I also have a photo of the Danube River that may work. I may have to do two quilts. Since Shirley gave us a class in landscape quilts my way of looking at my photos has changed. Now I can see a landscape quilts everywhere! Thank you Shirley. Please go to Shirley's blog and see her wonderful work. She has some good tutorials on her blog as well as other information.

One of the Romanian Holidays is March 1st

This is what I found on the internet about the holiday. "The first day of March is the celebration of MARTISOR (mar-tsi-shor), a day when gifts of small objects--plants, shells, flowers, animals, snowmen or tools--as well as a red and white ribbon symbolizing life and purity--are given to young girls and women. The little gift brings good luck, it is said, during the month of March and throughout the year ahead. Overall, Martisor signifies the end of winter and the arrival of spring."

The men in my husband's office gave little trinkets tied with red and white ribbons to each of the ladies in the office. The men explained to my husband that a man gives these trinkets to all of the women in their lives that they admire and care about. I like these special holidays that are strictly Romanian. Look what my husband gave to me. I didn't have a container that was large enough for the flowers so as I always quote 'necessity is the mother of invention " and the water jug makes a very good vase. Ieven received chocolate!

Quilts and Snow

It snowed yesterday here in Romania, well not as much as we get in Green Bay, but it was very pretty. I love snow days because everything gets really quiet and I have the desire to quilt. Making a quilt warms you twice, once when you are working on it and then you get to snuggle up under it. I love to see the patterns, sometimes it is not what I expected but the secondary pattern is usually interesting. The real fun comes when I get to 'play' with the blocks. I get a different pattern depending on how I set them together. It is a delight to twist and turn the blocks to see which pattern I like the most and how the finished quilt will look.

I have been working on Bonnie Hunter's Double Delight Mystery. Wow, what a lot of blocks I made and still have a bunch to make. They are 3 inches finished. I peeked, I could not wait to see the finished quilt. It really is worth the work and I can't wait until I am finished. I just love all of Bonnie's patterns and best of all, they are free. She is such a gracious person. I have put a link on the side of my blog to her instructions, but I would encourage you to look around her web site. She has a blog and there is a Yahoo group to discuss her quilts.

This and That

These are my Valentine flowers from my best friend; my husband. They were bundled like a sweet nose gay. The housekeepers here at the flat in Romania tell me that they are the traditional flower that is given on Valentine's Day. I am blessed to be married to my best friend.

We did some sightseeing this past weekend. We went down to the railroad station and were lucky enough to see a train pull in. Wow, you have to be fast to get on or off as the train only stays in the station for a minute or two. There is a platform but you have to cross some of the tracks to get to it. This is me outside of the train station. Cernavoda is the town we are staying in while we are in Romania. It is about a two hour drive from Bucharest and thirty minutes from the Black Sea . It was very cold but we still had fun poking around town. The town has a bunch of stores, but no department stores or mega markets as we know them in the States. The stores are small but carry everything you need. I found a lovely store that sells fabric (a necessity for me as a quilter), thread, yarn and laces. I had to buy a few meters so I can make a quilt with Romanian fabric. The fabric is a very nice weight cotton. It is fun to poke around in each store to see what they have.

February already

Here we are again in Romania. It felt a bit like coming home as we drove from the airport to our flat. We will be here for 90 days this time.

I brought the small sewing machine that Bruce gave me for Christmas so I plan on finishing several projects that I brought with me. This little machine (Janome Sew Mini) has straight and zigzag stitches and weighs less that 5 lbs. I also brought my little 10.5 inch lap top which is great for traveling. I took a picture of my lap top and sewing machine with Bruce's red 15 inch lap top to show you how small the machine is. Don't be fooled by the size as it sews like a dream. I know it won't quilt through many layers, but for piecing it truely is great. I had no difficulty getting it through airport security at home or in Europe. I had to take the lap top out of the case, but not the sewing machine. I just love technology, don't you?

Square Dance Quilt

I belong to the Learning Fiber Arts Yahoo Group. This group holds on-line classes and this quilt top is the result of one of the classes. There are many different classes held through out the year and all of them are free. I highly recommend the group if you like to learn new skills.

I do hope 2009 is a great year for everyone.