Summer Adventures

Travels

This summer really is filled with adventures. June and July were marked by two European trips. In June I traveled to France. After one night in Paris I took a train to Nantes and met with my friend Anne Bellas who is an amazing textile artist. The same day we joined a few others and settled in a beautiful house in the French countryside. The idea of this meeting was born when we were taking a workshop with Leah Higgins in Manchester, England two years ago.

The weather didn’t treat us well but still we had a lot of fun learning from each other and visiting close by places. One of them was the Jean Lurçat Contemporary Tapestry Museum in Angers.

Another big thing was visiting The Château d’Angers that houses 100m long Apocalypse Tapestry

I received another wonderful lesson of medieval history when visiting Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou. The history of the abbey itself is amazing and there also is a tomb of English king Richard the Lionheart.

I celebrated my birthday by walking through Nantes with Anne.

My other trip abroad was with my family to Germany and The Netherlands. In The Netherlands we stayed in Domburg, Zeeland. There were 4 generations of us: me, my son, his daughter (my granddaughter) and her daughter (my great granddaughter). Despite the rainy and cold weather, we had fun. They were kiteboarding and I was sitting on the beach and watching them.

Every summer my daughter and I have an adventure of traveling in Lithuania. Usually it is just one day trip. This year we visited Rokiškis, a remote district center that impressed us with its authenticity. It is amazing how people managed to save historic marks through the years of the Soviet regime. Even a monument to 10 years of Lithuanian independence, built in 1928, survived. Thanks to Lithuanian patriots!

My last trip so far was to the Baltic Sea. I spent 5 windy days there but still I liked it. It was very relaxing and on the last evening I was rewarded with a beautiful sunset.

Quilts

Quilts also bring adventures to my life. I received some good and some bad news about my quilts. The bad news was that my quilt Red Fan Coral didn’t get accepted into The European Patchwork Meeting contest Ocean.

The good news is that my other quilt, Color Play, is going to SAQA global exhibition Abstract: Textural Elements that will open in Heidelberg, Germany in September. Even better that my quilt landed on the front cover of the catalog that just came in the mail.

In mid July I attended the Lithuanian Quilt Festival- just kidding. That was the 14th meeting of Lithuanian quilters, organized by Aldona Tamonyte Dority. It always is held in her beautiful garden. Quilters bring their creations to show and tell. They learn from each other, look through the books, enjoy snacks. I was asked to give a workshop and I introduced gelli plate printing. For that I made 4 gelli plates from agar agar and glycerine. The best recipe I found was one by Claire Passmore. After the workshop I gave them away because I have my own synthetic gelli plate. We made some really good prints.

There was also on display Vilnius 700 years anniversary quilt that each quilter made one block for and Aldona joined them into a quilt. Lithuanian capital Vilnius celebrated 700 anniversary in 2023.

And last but not least is Book #4 quilt for The Fifteen by Fifteen challenge. I followed my book #3 quilt and made another piece inspired by the same Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It is The Well, the place for the main character in the book where he goes to experience dreamlike moments, where he reaches deeply into his subconsciousness trying to understand problems in his personal life and find solutions. The well becomes his escape and the place where real life intertwined with mystery. 

This quilt is madeing fused reverse applique.

The summer is not over yet and I am sure more adventures are awaiting for me. Let it happen!