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.

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.

Hey Good Lookin`...

...what you got cookin`?

I`m guesting over at Karen`s today as part of her {friendship} february series.  Well I say `guesting` but actually she`s got me hard at work in the kitchen.  Still it`s warm and I have beautiful views over the Causeway Coast.  There`s some delicious smells coming from the stove as I`ve got a winter warmer for you.  So pop over here and draw up a chair.  I`m sure there is room for a little one.

Morocco Monday Part II - A Spring Festival

So here is Part II of my Morocco Monday post.  From the beautiful town of Oualidia, we drove an hour east inland to my parents-in law`s house.  They, like all Moroccans are fantastic hosts and always greet you like you are a long lost relative even though you may only have seen them a couple of days before. My mother in law hugs like no other. The mantra goes that it is your home and don`t dare admire a single thing for it is likely to be thrust into your hands for you to keep.  I learned this lesson the hard way and have since disciplined myself to keep my mouth firmly shut.

My son loves visiting his grandparents, where he spends inordinate lengths of time in their garden chasing the chickens and collecting snails for newly discovered pockets.  There were certainly signs of spring...like this cherry blossom..

and this burgeoning fig tree...

...a lemon tree...

...a bee doing his work on the orange blossom...

...hens of the free-range variety...

...and a single poppy.

Admittedly, this poppy looks a little sad but when the poppies flower (we passed fields of them on the way and they were in no way sad), it signals the start of a special week long festival or moussem to celebrate the start of spring.  The festival includes a fantasia - a competitive tournament where riders dressed in traditional costume sit astride magnificent horses with harnesses pierced with gold and embroidered blankets swishing under the saddle.  Complete with gunpowder muskets, the riders line up...

and charge at full gallop in a straight line with muskets held aloft...

...before coming to an abrupt halt inches from the facing audience and firing their muskets at the same time in a deafening boom and a cloud of dust.  Despite this being repeated over and over, the audience never tire of this spectacle and the noise of the guns get you every time...

While most of the riders are men who are more than happy to pose and who love sashaying past you...

in a demonstration of equality of the sexes,women participate too...

...but after one bang too many, especially for little Z...

...it was back to the house for some lovingly prepared chicken couscous...

Hope you`re celebrating the first signs of spring in your part of the world and that your week goes with a bang!

Morocco Monday Part I - A Blue Lagoon

After almost 3 weeks of feeling decidedly under the weather or as the French would say - not in my plate, I was suddenly much brighter.  With this in mind and my mother here for her annual spring visit, my husband suggested we all go away for the weekend.  He suggested here...the beautiful small coastal town of Oualidia.

When my husband proposed almost twelve years ago I accepted immediately. He said we would honeymoon here - in Oualidia. We would swim he said, eat fish and run on the beach. For those who know me well, they will be able to tell from these words that my husband and I hadn`t known each other long! You see, my husband runs.  He`s slim and built for it. I`m not. I do not run. In the end, we didn`t honeymoon here but have spent several weekends and summer days in Oualidia.  Known for its safe swimming for children in the lagoon, oysters and bird watching, it`s where my husband came as a child every Sunday with his father.  Still relatively unspoiled and undiscovered, it`s where Moroccans holiday as well as a few in the know.

So on Saturday, we took the road from Marrakech north west. It`s really not a good idea to take short cuts in Morocco.  Stick to the main roads.  We took a `short cut` and ended up adding an hour to our journey. There were however compensations...we took in the simple unhurried ways of life in the country...

You`ll see from this last photo how bad the roads were...and this one wasn`t the worst.  No matter, because we ended up here...

Oualidia has a beautiful blue lagoon which provides safe and warm swimming in the summer. Just the other side of the houses in the distance are rough waves for the more adventurous.

Small pleasure boats provide rides...

to the sand banks that appear when the tide is low...

 

...and a fisherman messes with a bucket...

So we inspected the catch of the day (sea urchins (?!),mussels and oysters), ate fish, enjoyed fragrant gardens..

and basked in the sun but there was no running...it was just what I needed.  Part II tomorrow.

With a renewed sense of energy, I hope to have something creative to show you  - very soon!