Ronda

Hola!

The trip from Granada to Ronda was our longest so far. We mostly used the smaller roads along the cost "Costa del Sol". Our lunch break was at the fishing harbour of Marbella where we had wonderful seafood.

Than we came into mountains again and to Ronda.

The view from the terrace of our backpackers is spectacular.

 One day we went into the gorge. From down there the depth of the cut is more obvious.

There were only three meters like this  but it looks so professional I had to post it.

The shower is just vacant, I have to grab it before it is occupied again.
Adios!

Granada

Today I'm really tired from hiking in the Sierra Nevada, so I will give you only a few pics from our stay at Granada. Tomorrow we will drive along the Costa del Sol (Malaga and Marbella) to Ronda.

Alhambra

View over Granada

In the Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada

Cordoba

We are on the road!
Our trip through Andalusia started with Cordoba.

 On the way to Cordoba we visited the beautiful village of Carmona.

Cordoba is an amazing town. There are still many roman artefacts and even more arabic ones. Expecially the Mezquita Cathedral is outstanding. Several arabic caliphs built a huge mosque (and included roman pillars).  When Cordoba was christian again, the spanish rulers built a rather ugly renaissance church inside the mosque. Hence the building is nowadays a grotesque mixture of different building styles.

 

Citylife is also very nice here, though more touristic than in Sevilla. 

Everywhere we have been so far the people are very nice and helpful. Communication is difficult though, since most spanish people speak neither English nor French. So we have to work with hand and feet which doesn't always lead to the results wished for. Two days ago we wanted to eat some tapas, looking forward fresh vegetables and ended up with this:

 It still was yummy. Guess next time we have to take our heavy tourist guides along. 

Today we are heading off for Granada.

Sevilla

I`m in Sevilla and it`s blazing hot 35ºC. It`s very beautiful here. We have a little appartement in the centre of Barrio Santa Cruz. It`s lovely and we can have breakfast on the large terrasse. In the evenings we enjoy the spanish lifestyle and have tapas and cervesa in bars that are litteraly on every corner.
Here are a few photos to give you some impressions:

The Cathedral with Giralda

A bridge by Eiffel for the World Exhibition 1929

The view from our terrasse

Real Alcazar

In the garden of Real Alcazar

A fountain in the gardens of Real Alcazar

Some Tapas look like paintings

The garden with pool we went yesterday

Tomorrow we will be off to Cordoba.

Yay! Summer!

Finally! School is over, the last few weeks have passed in a frenzy. This weekend was all catching up with the house and garden work.

I even managed to get some sewing done:
1) The July Blocks for sew.quilt.give

 

2) A Wallet-to-Tote for Sandra:

 I had conveniently forgotten how nerve-racking this pattern with all the zippers and curves is. But I got it done (at 1 o'clock in the morning)!

I'm off now for my trip to Andalusia. So see you back then!

Projects

June is always "heavy duty"-time at school. Hence I didn't manage to proceed with my projects.
Nevertheless I have enough plans to keep me busy until Christmas.

• Of course I want to finish my Quilt N°1 as soon as possible.
• Before I leave for my holidays I want to make at least one more "wallet to tote", because they're cute and so very useful!
• Some presents for summer birthdays: a dog leash (for the dog, not the owner ;)) , a bag I have already made for myself (tutorial planned)
• I'm looking forward to host my month (august) at the sew.quilt.give bee. There is just the cutest and easiest block tutorial here. I have already sewn a few testblocks.
• A secret present for my sister.
• A quilt for my grandparents using california girl by moda with this tutorial:

 

• Some additional and even  more secret presents

Ok, let's see what I have accomplished by the end of the year.

Quilting Bee

When I started to look for quilting tutorials on the internet I soon stumbled upon virtual quilting bees. It's such a great idea to work together and meet new people all around the world! If you're interested in quilting bees you can find a very good summary by Elizabeth Hartman here.
I found my first bee over the flickr group mentioned in Elizabeth' post.
It's called sew.quilt.give . As you might guess by the name it's a charity bee. The finished quilts will be given to homeless women with children in a shelter.
Jennifer, who organized this bee, was the first to host a month. She asked for a disappearing nine patch.
These are mine:

Block for girls

Block for boys

They were far more easy than they look. So much fun!
I also finally came around to sew the kitchen curtains I had planned since easter...