A Final Walk in Malmo….

On our last day in Sweden, Michael spent the day out in the boonies again and I decided to explore another area of the city, heading to the Malmo Castle first.

It was an eclectic place with a moat……

…..a fashion gallery…..

…..an architectural gallery….

….a natural history museum……

….an aquarium……

….and an art gallery that sported a Warhol…..

“Mao Zedong” by Andy Warhol

The paintings in the gallery were not really my style, but I did enjoy this one…..

“Surprised” by Ferdinand Fagerlin

To truly appreciate it, you have to see the look on the older woman’s face…..

I think that is priceless!!

I moved down the street to a Science exhibit and enjoyed seeing quotes from famous Nobel laureates, especially enjoying this one…..

I moved further down the street and entered a huge park, including a wonderful community flower garden…..

This was an area broken into individual plots and each plot was tended by one person. The diversity of flowers was astounding.

I stopped for gelato….

….. and enjoyed it while watching the boats glide down the canal.

I began my walk back to the hotel, first following this path through the park…..

…and then walking along one of the residential streets. I enjoyed photographing the interesting things that I saw, including this fun apartment window…..

And finally, here is a tour of our hotel. It was built from 3 different buildings and was truly a rabbit warren inside. This is how we got to our room……

It was a sweet place to stay and helped to make our trip so enjoyable!!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

The Modern Museum of Malmo

I suddenly realized that I never finished my posts about our recent trip to Sweden. IQF sort of got in the way!!

On one of my forays into the city of Malmo, I ended up at the

….a modern art museum!!

It was fairly small and had two exhibits currently running. One exhibit was not really my taste….

…but the other was wonderful!! It featured the paintings of Lotte Laserstein (1898 – 1993). She was German born, but in 1933 she was declared a “three-quarter Jew” and her art was banned from the public. In 1937 she had an exhibition in Stockholm and that provided the opportunity to leave Germany. She lived the rest of her life in Sweden.

I love the calmness in this painting….

“Winter in Stockholm”

But, man does it make me feel cold!!

If you remember, I was looking for pieces that had the “Pantone Color of the Year”….

…so I was drawn to paintings that had something similar.

This young boy is so poignant…..

“Boy With Teddy Bear (Mats Billing)”

…and this woman has a sadness to her that you can feel in the painting….

“Jewish Girl in Red”

…while this stylish woman looks at peace with herself….

“Lady in a Fur”

This next painting reminds me a lot of my mother as a young woman…..

“Nora Bigner”

This was my possibly my favorite. I am amazed at how she captured the definition of his fingers….

“Young Man in a Blue Jacket (The Painter Gottfried Meyer)”

Finally, I loved this self-portrait…..

“Self Portrait at the Easel”

This museum sported an amazing creative area, but that is for another post!!

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Quiltmeva

Can you guess what the first I did when I learned that we were going to be staying in Malmo, Sweden?

I searched for a quilt shop!!

And guess what…..

I found one that was less than a mile away from our hotel…..QUILTMEVA!!

When we arrive in another country, with our body time ALL messed up, our mantra is to STAY AWAKE until bedtime. That helps us to avoid jetlag.

The best way to stay awake is to stay on your feet so Michael and I headed out to discover the city of Malmo.

We took a few obligatory photos of the area…..

….of a cool church……

…and of ourselves…..

By then, Michael was ready to head back to the hotel to relax.

I knew that if I went back to the room, I would immediately go to sleep, so I headed for the quilt shop!!! (And not sleeping was not the only reason)!!

As I opened the front door and climbed the few steps up the shop, I knew that I was in the right place…..

The front room was awash with gorgeous fabrics…..

….and the door led to two more rooms that held goodies galore…..

I started talking to the shop owner, Eva…….

….and we had a marvelous time exchanging stories….as quilters are wont to do!!

Since we were to meet our hosts for dinner, I didn’t have a lot of time to stay but promised to come back later in the week.

On the following Friday, Michael was in the woods and I was alone in Malmo…..WHAT TO DO????

Head for the quilt shop of course!!

When I arrived, Eva greeted me like an old friend and told me that she had a class in progress. Each month she holds a technique class and quilters come to learn something new. She shows the project and then they choose whether to do the project or work on their own things.

Today they were making Rag Quilts!!

Eva showed me her samples. This one is just a simple one-patch design……

…but look at this great idea for pillows……

How cute are those??

Since it was lunchtime for the class, Eva and I had a few minutes to talk and we compared notes on patterns, fabrics, machines and shows. It was so much fun!!

The hard thing about visiting overseas shops is that it is difficult to find items that aren’t regularly available at home.

So, I was excited to see these thimbles from Prym (a German company)……

They seem to fit my arthritic fingers pretty well and I am excited to give them a workout!!

The other thing that I found were these two rulers for making small and REALLY small Dresden plate blocks……

I have a Dresden quilt in mind and these are perfect….even if I could have bought them in the US. Stand by for more about this upcoming quilt.

Finally, I am a fan of Gutermann thread and I had never seen these variegated varieties…..

I can’t wait to try them out!!

It was such fun to meet Eva and her customers and the morning outing was perfect!!

And made even more perfect as I found a food trailer in the park and enjoyed a MAGNIFICENT burger and fries……

I love that quilters can be immediate friends, even if they have never met before!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!