Our Saturday

Someone asked me recently whether she was going to have to wait until it was really hot here in Marrakech before she saw some more photos of Marrakech on my blog. I took that as a hint; not a very subtle one.

It has indeed been a while since I put the fabric down and picked up my camera. To be honest, I have had a bit of a downer on Morocco for a few months.   However, today I was meeting real life friend Elizabeth and her husband Robert who were visiting from New York. Elizabeth used to live here and is an incredible photographer and can capture the beauty of everyday life. She blogs here, here and this is her dog Buster's blog.  Shhhh. Don't tell Archie. Oh yeah, she's a prolific blogger.

Perhaps a couple of hours walking in the souqs with Elizabeth could inspire me to take more photos. After a coffee, we went for a walk through the souqs and I tried to capture some of the beauty, colour and interest of Morocco which once held me captivated.

I think Zaki and the chameleon fall in to the interesting category...

...as does this huge tub of  fresh snails. Mmmm.  Not.

These baskets are definitely colourful!

As are these pink painted wooden tables.

...and these big balls of yarn (Zaki was placed for scale)

These tiles are beautiful, colourful and interesting and look like perfect inspiration for quilt blocks.

I love these bowls too.

Some of these fossils are really colourful and Zaki would definitely put them in the interesting category!

Pretty sparkly sequined baskets...

...and pretty sparkly lighting glimpsed through a pink archway while standing next to a pink bicycle.

Every day street scenes still capture my interest even after 11 years, like this woman cycling through an  archway...

...or this fruit seller and his cart...

...and I love this hand of Fatima painted on to the side of a building to ward off the evil eye.

...and even when we have reached the silly face time of day, I still find this little guy beautiful and interesting.

 

Thanks Susan for the kick up the photographic backside and to Elizabeth and Robert for a lovely walk through the souqs. I hope you enjoyed it too. Here's a very short video I shot as Zaki and I were leaving the restaurant where we had lunch.

Good Intentions

It seems I'm not the only one feeling less than creatively inclined at the moment.

If I couldn't sew then perhaps I could get my camera out.  It's a holiday here today and so Zaki and I headed in to the old town for a wander round the souqs.  Armed with a new SD card, I had grand intentions of taking lots of photos but it was quieter than usual and my people watching was being watched by other people.

Taking bread to be baked at the community oven 'faran'

Then I spied a sign on the wall stating how rude it was to take photos of people without their permission (which I guess it is).  And that was it. My photographic mojo would have needed one of those little blue pills to do anything else...

Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop

It's my turn today on the Travellin' Pic Stitch blog hop - the brain child of Katy and Laura who have just returned from their own hop through national parks in the US.  If it's your first time here then welcome - I hope you'll take a look around!

I am a Brit but for the last ten years, I have lived in the Moroccan city of Marrakech in N.Africa. If I'm not sewing then I love to get snapping. Living here is incredibly inspiring and a bit of a sensory overload. You either love it or hate it. Some days I love it...some days I...miss the old country.

Take a look at some of the tile designs I found...you see them everywhere here...see what I mean about the inspiration?

I love those clamshells! That's my son there...when he was aged one and half.

So when Laura and Katy invited me to join them on their blog hop, it was a no brainer. Especially given that I had discovered English Paper Piecing (EPP) in the summer with this project. My 1" aqua, orange and grey hexies.

Aqua, orange and grey hexies

In Marrakech, all the buildings are painted a pinky red colour and it's known as the Red City or Rose City. So I chose this photo I took in a vegetarian restaurant to show you the type of  interior you might find here and the red/pink coloured walls I mentioned. The lantern, ornate railings and low seating are typical.

The Earth Cafe, Marrakech

Using a palette builder at play crafts, I created a palette for an EPP block. Play Crafts is incredibly easy to use.  You simply upload a photo and within seconds you have a palette which can then download it.

After pulling some suitable fabrics, I used some of Lynne's lozenge templates to create the bathroom tile block from the Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters book.

The original block pattern was on point but I think I prefer it this way round.  After appliqueing the block to a square of Kona Regal, I trimmed the corners so that it became an octagon - the shape of many of the tiles you see here in Morocco.  I'm not so sure this looks like a Moroccan tile as the prints are too large - perhaps a 1970s Moroccan tile? I would like to try this block again using smaller geometric patterns.  I think they would look great.

This post is part of the Travellin' Pic Stitch Blog Hop.  

From 1st October - 30th November we are hopping all over the world EPP-ing in some fantastic locations.  Check out the full list here and be sure to check out the other participants.

On 30th November it's over to you to link up for a chance to win these fabulous prizes! You'll need to take a photo, create a palette and do some EPP using it.

Thank you to the fabulous sponsors Paperpieces.com, Fabricworm, Pink Castle
Fabrics ,  Marmalade Fabrics, the Fat Quarter Shop, WantItNeedItQuilt, and Aurifil!

Full details of the competition can be found here.

Tomorrow, be sure to hop over to my lovely bloggy friend Sarah at Narcoleptic in a Cupboard. She is a fabulous quilter and lives in the most beautiful part of the world!

Don't Diss the Quilting Gods

Step away from the machine...put the cutter down.  That's what the quilting gods were saying to me this weekend.  Yesterday was a bad quilting day.  I had the idea that I would make progress on my Mouthy Stitches reversible tote, which is due to be posted to my partner in a week's time. The quilting gods had other ideas.

I should have stopped when I went to pick up my ruler and hera marker to mark the quilting lines and picked up my ruler and rotary cutter.  Sadly I caught myself just in time and it was another painful hour or so before the tote front was mullered. I quilted it to death and then some.  Too much to unpick and so I'm back to Square 1.

To avoid a bad case of cabin fever, Zaki and I went to our old favourite today - The Majorelle Gardens.  I have blogged about this place many times but despite the fact that it gets busier every time we visit, it has the world's most expensive cafe and is in danger of losing some of its charm there is still some to be found.

The book shop has a beautiful painted ceiling but any attempt to capture it is squashed by the attendants at the gardens.  Why?  Here is a glimpse through the window.

Well I hope to have some significant progress to share soon!  Don't mess with the swap mamas either - they are in their own way a little like quilting gods.

Hope you have had a great weekend.

Weekend Whim

A huge thank you for all the brilliant suggestions as to how I should quilt my Lark quilt, which I got all basted up on Friday.  I particularly like any suggestions for 'organic' quilting as my quilting is quite naturally wonky organic.

We had surprise visitors of the family variety over the weekend and so I still haven't gottten to the crucial quilting decision yet. I make no secret of the fact that I really don't enjoy the quilting bit.  I'm a patchwork girl and love the piecing process...and I guess that's why I have so many unfinished projects!

With it still ridiculously hot here, we went up in to the foothills of the Atlas mountains yesterday for lunch and some relief from the heat.

The simple cafes make the most delicious tagines and in the summer the tables are placed in the glacial stream so that you can kick your sandals off and get cool.

Here's my handsome boy leaving a sulk on some steps down to the cafe. He is so difficult to photograph now as 'we' have entered the silly photo face season. I'm reliably informed that this phase lasts quite a long time.

And here are some jolly musicians crossing the wibbly wobbly foot bridge.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Lakeside

No, not the shopping centre! So yesterday, my husband took a few hours off work and we went `en famille` to Lake Lalla Takerkoust for lunch, a reservoir 30 odd miles away from Marrakech. After a dry winter, the water level looked low. As we left Marrakech, we had passed 3 golf courses being constructed in a space of 10 kilometers.

With it being a gorgeous day and a holiday I thought the lake would be busy with day trippers and pic-nickers ...

...but apart from a few boys swimming and a lone pedalo, a very squeaky pedalo, it was deserted...

We ate a simple lunch at a simple little restaurant.  Zaki seemed happy enough..

.
but was a little nonplussed by the arrival of the salad. Perhaps it was the orange slices? Nope. Vegetables.

Later, I sliced in to the pink and orange fabrics Jennifer sent me for a Siblings Together quilt.

I`ll show you how I got on tomorrow.

The F.U.N.C is in town!

Oh yes, he`s come a knocking on my door.

The F.U.N.C in Marrakech

Handstitched Treasures indeed. The lovely Leanne was thoughtful enough to send it to me all the way from Alberta, Canada.  It is the brainf***child of the inimitable Rhonda.  I admit to having to have asked what F.U.N.C stood for.  If you are in any way unsure as to its meaning you can read all about it on Rhonda`s blog here.  Rhonda chucked it to Hadley who flung it to Susan who lobbed it over the Irish Sea to Judith who hurled it at Leanne.  And now he`s here.  There is something inexplicably odd about holding something that has passed through the hands of people who you `know` and somehow you don`t.  Ghostly almost.

Where will he end up next I wonder? I have to ponder that one but he`s off to the post office tomorrow for sure.  Trusting they take good care of him.

Getting My Head Straight

...or should that be wonky?

I have struggled today. I had a newsletter I had to write this morning for an American Women`s Association I`m a member of here and it took forever.  But job done.

I then pieced the blocks for the back of my pouch for the Mouthy Stitches swap.  I`m waiting for my linen to arrive before I can go any further but I`ll be ready to go once it arrives.

My partner`s mosaic showed pouches fairly simple in design.  There will be a star on the front and I`m going to do a little hand-stitching in perle but this is not a complicated design.

So I then moved on to playing with my solids for the For the Love of Solids swap.  My partner, while not chatty, is a serial swapper and loves improv. designs.  My improvisational designs so far? Um. Zilch.  While I`m playing, I`m not getting very happy with anything I`m producing and meanwhile my stack of solids is slowly evaporating and I`m left with this.

So I`m going wonky I think and I know my partner loves wonky log cabins...the wonkier and crazier the better. I`m still finding it hard to let go...

Thank you for all your anniversary wishes...we had a very low key day.  We had lunch a deux a trois at a place a few kilometers outside Marrakech.  The setting was beautiful and it was a great way to celebrate.

...and to cure me of my snow envy, we could eat lunch while gazing at these...

Nosey Parker in the Neighborhood - Marrakech

Today I`m linking up with Kat`s Nosey Parker in the Neighborhood so that I can give you a little taster of where I live - go on, make yourselves at home and have a good snoop around.

Question 1: About my home...

About 9 and a half years ago, we moved to Marrakech from London where I was a partner in a law firm.  A complete turn around culturally and professionally.  We came here to set up our business - a B&B in the old town.  Yes, I`m a B&B landlady! I live here with my husband Youssef and our son Zaki.

Marrakech is in the N.African country of Morocco.  It`s the second largest city in Morocco with a population of just over 1 million.  It has an old walled city (the medina) and a new one, which was established by the French protectorate.  Marrakech has mild winters and very hot summers with no rain for 4 or 5 months and has an average of 10 hours of sunshine every day. Like Kat, we do a happy dance when it rains and take photos.

The view from our old house

Marrakech depends on tourism and every year almost 10 million visitors come here often staying in traditional houses (riads).  The place on everyone`s list to visit is the main square where you can see snake charmers, magicians, soothsayers and monkeys.

Question 2: What are the houses like in my area...

We live in a residential area in the city centre and here`s a photo of our street.  The Moroccans call these houses `villas` although they are not what I would call a villa as they are not free-standing. They are typically 3 or 4 floors high with a basement and maids` quarters (garconnier) at the top of the house. Our house is to the far left of the image - you can just see our front gate.  Opposite our house you can see the local corner shop (where the red `Coka` crates are) `hanout` where you can buy pretty much everything apart from fresh meat and vegetables.

Our house is on a corner. Here`s the neighbouring street at night.

In the old walled town, the streets are a tangle of traditional courtyard houses.  The houses look deceptively ordinary from the outside but once inside the rooms face onto a courtyard garden.

Question 3: Some of my favourite places...

One of my favourite places to visit is the Majorelle Gardens.  Until recently, we lived just around the corner from it and it was a great place to take my son as it`s fairly small and he can run around.  It`s a botanical garden owned until his death by Yves Saint Laurent.  The green plants work beautifully against the cobalt blue pots and tiles.

A wander round the souqs can be fun too although it gets busy at peak times and the vendors can get hassly.  They also speak good English now and were taught naughty expressions by that cheeky Jamie Oliver when he visited a year or so ago and I don`t appreciate the call of `fish and chips` as I pass by!

 

If I want to escape the city for a day then one of my favourite places to visit is the old Portuguese coastal town of Essaouira, put on the map by Jimmi Hendrix and now famous for its Gnaoua festival and surfing.

...or a trip up into the foothills of the Atlas Mountains where there are blue skies, verdant hills and red earth.  One of my favourite places to stop for a drink is Richard Branson`s Kasbah Tamadot where the views from the terrace are truly stunning.

Zaki and me October 2010

Question 4: How do most people travel around the city?

Don`t get me started on transport in this city so I`ll keep it brief. Marrakech has a pollution problem.  The main form of transport is a mix of scooters, cars and petit taxis, which are plentiful and cheap.  I drive here every day and it puts me in a bad bad mood.  No exception.  On a 10 minute car journey, I find I have an average of 4 -5 near misses. Trust me - I`ve counted and I consider myself a pretty good driver who drives defensively.  A more leisurely way to travel around the city is by caleche (horse carriage).

Questions 5: Is there a type of food Marrakech is famous for?

Yes, like the rest of Morocco it`s the tagine but there is a speciality common to the area and that`s the tangia. It`s always cooked by men.  In a pot, a mixture of meat, spices, preserved lemon and garlic is placed before the pot is sealed and left to cook in the ashes of the local bakery fire. Bakeries are usually next to the local hammam as the fire heats the water for that as well!

Hope you enjoyed your nose around.  Head over to Kat`s and have a snoop around other people`s neighbourhoods!