Beijing visit and a quilt

We have just come back from a few days in Beijing, visiting our daughter. We were very lucky this time with the weather as it was sunny and cool and the sky was blue. The last couple of times when we visited it was either terribly polluted or it was raining.

Although we have been in Beijing a number of times, there's always something new to explore. This time we "climbed" a little hill behind the Forbidden City to get a bird's eye view.

We also visited the "Bird's Nest", the Beijing National Stadium as it's officially called, which was built for the 2008 Olympics. We have seen it before but only from the outside and it was interesting to go inside. As we were living in China in 2008, we remember all the hype about the Olympics and especially the Bird's Nest. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which happened to be from my home town Basel.

A stroll along the Houhai Lake in the Hutongs

The Lama Temple was also on our to see list and it was well worth a visit. We were lucky as it wasn't too crowded.

 

Cute kids everywhere. 

We walked under these beautiful ginkgo trees and as usual I had to pick up some of the leaves and take home.

They will go from this to this:

The leaves are painted with silver art clay paste, then fired in a kiln and then polished. 

I brought along a quilt I made recently for my daughter's college friend who just got married last weekend. Said daughter is going to visit the States in the summer and will be able to hand the quilt to the happy couple. I got the inspiration from Pinterest (where else?) and found an excellent tutorial here.

The backing is Flower Lattice, a very early and rare Kaffe Fassett print which has long been discontinued. I adore this fabric and have been hoarding it for a special occasion, just like this. 

I even put a label on, something I've been neglecting recently. 

The Binding is a  Riley Blake Designs called "Red Flutter Stripe".

I hope to get back to you soon with progress on my Auntie Green's Garden. And don't forget to come back next week for the SewMamaSew Giveaway Day. 

Till then, take care.

Vreni x

Three Little Birds

Rise up this mornin'; smiled with the risin' sun.
Three little birds pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs of melodies pure and true; saying,
"This is my message to you-ou-ou.”
Lyrics by Bob Marley



My three little birds are not sitting by my doorstep but on a flower pot of sorts. I've made this little wall hanging for "Another Little Quilt Swap 4". The pattern is very much influenced by Kellie of "Don't look know". I've used raw edge applique (I followed Kellie's tuition) and machine quilted it.

On other news: we're off to Shanghai later this week to visit the Expo as well as to see the kiddos (not necessarily in that order). By chance both our kids are in China at the moment; DD and her young man in Beijing where they are both working and DS in Shanghai where he is doing an internstip. He will go back to Boston in Autumn for his last year at Uni. It seems our timing is really off considering we only moved from Shanghai about half a year ago. Oh well, at least we are all on the same continent for once.

Have a great week ahead.

Vreni