Thursday, March 20, 2008

Grand Palais Lions

These lions are at the entrance to the Palais de la Decouverte, a wing of the Grand Palais devoted to scientific discoveries. I was tempted to write "guard the entrance" but these lions look too friendly and serene to be guards. That and they're surrounded by roses and cherubs.




The lion on the other side of the steps. I love his face.



My friend Susan arrived on Tuesday for a month-long visit. She's an easy guest since she's lived in Paris before and speaks French. Yesterday we went out for a fantastic Indian food lunch and a trip to the Musee d' Orsay. It was really cold - felt like winter was back.
After some initial skittishness the cats have all adapted really quickly to having her here. I don't know if it's because we just had a guest last week and nothing bad happened to them or if they actually remember Susan - she's visited them in three different countries.
I got a package in the mail yesterday from Tanya all the way over in Japan. She sent me these letters. I think they're all left over from her marvelous wonky words quilt.
These ones in particular are amazing. They are Japanese words. Tanya has done great work getting these characters just right. I'm sorry they didn't find a home on her quilt, but I feel really honored to have them for one of mine.

By the way, if you've sent me letters or other quilt blocks and I haven't acknowledged you, please remind me. I am the queen of the scatterbrains.

Some quick links. Jessica just finished an adorable little wonky house quilt with a wind-up bird. Plus you can learn the dangers of having extra fabric while you're machine quilting.

Cheri is in the zone making free-pieced letters. Instead of having to double-check the procedures, she's got it all internalized. See, this does get easier. Look what a great job she's doing on her fun Stroop quilt.

Eileen Paulin is the founder of Red Lips 4 Courage which published the Collaborative Quilting book by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston. (or should I say Eileen got Sterling/Chapelle to publish it - I'm not quite sure how that works.) Go check out her blog post about Freddy, Gwen, and Collaboritive Quilting and read about their new book. Even better, leave Eileen a comment and tell her thank you, thank you, thank you for publishing these two wonderful quilters.

It is entirely possible that there was something else I meant to write about here, but can't remember it at all. Just bear with me for the next six weeks or so. I'm going to have guests, touristing to do and a quick trip to Florida is in the works.

16 comments:

jovaliquilts said...

It does get easier! I made most of my letters into word blocks last night. Fun!! Tanya's kanji are just awesome -- it's amazing what you can do with this technique. See what you started?!?!

Enjoy your visitor!

zizzybob said...

Florida? Anywhere in my neck of the woods, Ft Lauderdale?

Katie said...

Roar.... probably not. Do lions purrrrr? These are just the neatest. Thanks again for sharing more interesting blogs to read.

Kathy in Seattle said...

Hey Tonya....Its Kathy from Seattle checking in after a long absence.

Gwen sends her love!!! I'm here at Asilomar with Freddy and Gwen having a blast!! I've got my clown quilt from last fall that I'm bordering with your letters. She recognized them and told me she has the set from you.

Today I'm making up a bunch of liberated stars and I'll post my quilt when I get home. I just got new idea for what this new quilt will say! I'll check my e-mail later if you want to send Gwen a message....

Kathy in Seattle

Clare said...

Lovely lions. Very calm and gentle.

You take care - get plenty of sun and come back revived and ready to sew up a storm. Say hi to the possums for me. Lucky Susan to be sleeping in the same room as Terms!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quilting For Less said...

Loved the "lion" pictures! The quilt blocks from Japan are wonderful! Especially the (I love You) ones!

Love reading your blog!

Susan

YankeeQuilter said...

Yikes don't tourist yourself too hard! Love the lion photos.

Tanya said...

I'm glad the letters got to you. I didn't know how you were going to incorporate the Japanese syllables (called hiragana) but you can keep them on hand and let hour mind stew on them awhile.

Those lions are just big kitty cats!

Magpie Sue said...

Awww, who *designed* those lions?! They're fabulous! Lions and cherubs and roses! Who thinks of those things??? Maybe it was someone with an especially lovely cat at home...

Now I know why you haven't repsonded to my emails about the summer class. No worries; have fun!

Susan said...

Love those stone cats! I wonder if they wanted to eat those flowers? LOL! Thanks for the tour of the doorway. I love those Japanese letters. How fun to think of wonky letters in other alphabets.

Holly said...

Fantastic letter/words from Tanya. Sounds like a busy six weeks ahead. Relax, have fun, let your hair hang loose :)

julieQ said...

Gentle Lion faces...just love them! Have fun in your upcoming..coming and goings! Like those letters!

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh they look like little pussy cats!

Lea said...

OMG! Japanese in Tonya's letter method!!!*S* I LOVE IT!

mouse (aka kimy) said...

love those wonky words!! the japanese characters work wonderful too!

speaking of loving thing, love the lion pics from the grand palais.

ah to think exactly a year ago I was in your fair city - paris is so beautiful this time of year. here on the north coast of the u.s. we still are having snow!

Angelines Artero said...

beautiful japanese letters, regards from Spain.