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David and I recently returned from a three-week trip to Europe, much of the trip in Croatia, but starting in Hungary and with stops in Montenegro and Bosnia.  Friends asked us, "What did you like?  What did you learn?", questions that have been more helpful to me for thinking about the trip than "How was the trip?"  Here are some thoughts and photos. Why this trip?  After our 2015 trip rafting in the Grand Canyon , I was eager to do another rafting trip, and sent David links to other OARS trips in the U.S. and Canada.  He was up for another rafting trip, but noticed that OARS also had a trip in Croatia, and he was very interested in a trip to the Balkans.  So, our compromise was made:  outdoor/adventure segment at my instigation and cultural/historical exploration in Eastern Europe and the Balkans at David's.  The OARS multi-sport trip was 9 days in Croatia and Montenegro. As long as we were incurring the travel expense of plane fare to Europe, w...

 A couple of years ago, I was sitting in a local church, waiting for a concert to begin, noticed a pleasing pattern in the wood panelling on a side wall of the church, and made a sketch. I turned the sketch into a quilt pattern based on rectangles and squares, and posted it as one of a dozen or so pattern options for some friends, for whom I was making a housewarming quilt.  They chose this one. I added a couple of extra columns, to make it wide enough for the couch they planned to put it on.  They chose colors to complement their living room colors.  And they helped decide on placement of lights and darks.  The fabric is my hand-dyed. Voilà! For the back, I did a scrunch low-water-immersion dyeing of the rust color.

I posted this a few days ago on my "In the Kitchen" blog by mistake.  Repeating here, where it belongs. I finished the blocks back a few months ago, then put them aside, knowing it would be a good project to bring with me to my annual quilting retreat in the Chicago area.  Here's the completed top, which I like very much.  Only after it was completed and up on the wall for a while, did I notice that one of the blocks is off in the piecing. The mistake was also visible when I had the  blocks on the design wall , but I didn't see it.  No problem, though--I like it even more with this bit of free spiritedness. Even though I haven't posted anything for a while, I have been finishing some things up and starting others.  Perhaps I'll do a few more posts to catch up.

All the blocks in this quilt came from this one lovely fabric by Alexander Henry, a very successful choice for the four-patch posie pattern . Here's a close-up of the blocks.  You can double-click to see how I varied the stitching from block to frame to sashing. And I like the back too.  I had just a tiny bit of the main fabric left, enough to make small cornerstones.  I used more of the solids for plain solid blocks.    Each cornerstone is different.  This quilt has been given as a wedding present to a special person.  Seems perfect for the occasion.