Italy inspired me with Street Art and Fabrics

A Word From Zoi.....
"Wait just a "dog-gone minute mom...........before you start blogging away I have a question. How come you didn't buy me these special stuffed toys? I think we can add a few to the bazillion I have already, right? You're always saying "those" words to me when we go outside!! Ok...I feel better now that I got that question out. You can go back now to telling everyone about all the neat stuff you saw in Italy...and mom? Are you ever gonna make "me" a quilt????




Thanks everyone for that little Zoie interuption....she's quite good at it.....but then again, puppies do think the world is all about them!

OHHHH....The Fabric in Florence...yummy!
So, here I was in Florence for a beautiful day out to taste the cuisine, take in the beauty of the city, the Duomos, the sculptures and without even looking, a fabric shop popped up in front of me. It was of course, the fabric in the store window. I had to go in of course, and think I was going to walk out with fabric....haha. It was just to expensive for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself looking at what was offered. The shop workers were pleasant, and were enthused to learn that I was a quilter. Yep, they knew what a quilter was......well of course they would, quilting is virtually everywhere now. I especially loved the tapestries, needlework and couture in this store. Cotton wasn't plentiful, but the silks were to die for. I left a very happy girl only to discover many more treats for my eyes.....



So......I wondered how much a small piece of fabric like this would cost. Um....way to much for my pocketbook. But then again, the US dollar wasn't doing well. Inside this shop was this amazing quilt. It was stuffed (trapunto) and the stitches seemed like they carved out this amazing scene!

Fabric Shop by Accident
Don't ask me where this shop is! One of the many surprises that happened to me in Italy was running across this fabric/quilt shop in northern Italy. The quilt of course is what caught my eye. It was like a pulsating magnet that pulled me to the window. Do you know how badly I wanted to go inside and talk "quilt" with the people??? It was not going to happen that day, the shop was closed.....sniffle.

Young Artists in Tuscany
While I was in the Tuscany region of Italy, I could not believe how lucky I was to be in the presence of some truly amazing young artists. Here they were, in their own little space in the middle of "everything". People bustling all around them, and they were just purely in their "art zone". I could have stayed all day and watched them. I began to think how sad that all their work would be washed away with rain or from people walking over them after they finished and went home. But then again, how lucky we all were to have such an experience of witnessing such talent right there and then. I wonder how they felt about their work vanishing at any given moment, or maybe it was that unselfish part of the artist who is happy to share their hearts in the colors they painted on the walkways.






















































Where is everyone? Where's "my" boots? Can we go outside now?.....sigh...I'll just wait and take a nap until mom's done doing this blog thing for all of you. She says she has more designs for quilts from Italy, but that's for another blog post......Zoie

Need a little more fix on Italy and Quilting? Go to my website and click on "Articles". You can read about Quilt Italia and the wonderful quilters and their quilts when I taught for Quilt Italia's Quilt Show in Modena, Italy! http://www.lindampoole.com