Books!

I'm taking a class in Byzantine Religious Art and Architecture in Southeast Europe at the the university this semester for fun and as part of my A&S 50 challenge. (It's helping me fulfill the persona challenge and it has been amazing so far.) I've also used it as a valid excuse to get more books on the topic, since they are requied reading! I now have the two volume set of the Theology of the Icon by Leonid Ouspensky and Byzantine Women and Their World by Ioli Kalavrezou. It's wonderful to take a class when it is solely for personal enjoyment!

No photos, but progress!

If you look back two posts, you'll see an almost finished quilt top. Since then, I have finished the borders and started assembling it. I decided it was just too big to machine quilt on my standard machine. Hand quilting didn't even bear thinking about with the lack of free time I have these days! So it's being tied. Over the past weekend, I managed to get it completely pinned together, including turning the back for binding, and to tie about a third of the top. When I just couldn't stand making knots anymore, I shifted over to the last embroidery on Edith's needlebook. That's done, so now I just have to do the final assembly. I may even get to it this week. Fingers crossed!

I'm anticipating Saturday, because we're having our next "Let's start the SCA in Bulgaria" meeting at my house. Thanks to my SIL (who found the most delish recipe), we'll be eating lovely rissoles while we talk/plan/scheme. Nom!!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Autumnal Equinox and Happy Bulgarian Independence Day to all and sundry. I had a lovely day off today, with lunch in the garden of the Tsar's Club, then a great walk around town in the awesome fall sunshine, and a coffee at the Plaza. I also got in a little gardening and cleaned up all my window boxes for the winter. And I even managed a bit of embroidery! Too bad it's back to work tomorrow!

Here's the view of tonight's waxing moon from my bedroom balcony. Sweet dreams!

Sewing and Embroidery - both!!

It's been a miserable week in terms of the amount of work at my office, but I was determined that this weekend was going to be all crafts and no work. And I succeeded. Woo hoo!

I've been carrying a little embroidery project around since July. It's a kit I picked up in Virginia at the Newmarket Battlefield Museum shop while on vacation with my mother (Hi Mom!) and it's a simple bookmark with four quilt patterns in cross stitch. Finished that up during the week and it looks pretty good after travelling many miles in purse, suitcase, and carry-on bag.



The big weekend project was getting some serious work done on a quilt that I started many, many years back. It's been so long that I don't actually know where some of the components came from anymore. It's a 1940's style embroidered piece featuring blocks with the state birds and flowers of the US. I either got the blocks from a yard sale (which I think may be the case) or from a family member, but I honestly don't remember. At any rate, the blocks are embroidered in a naive style and I spent much time trimming floss ends and squaring them off. They are now assembled into a bedspread top with dividing sashing in coordinating fabric, lacking only the borders (which are cut out and I'll put them on tonight) and eventually batting and tying, rather than quilting. It's just too big a piece to contemplate handquilting at this point in my life and my machine is too small to machine quilt something this bulky.



This photo doesn't give a real sense of the size. That's a queen size bed and you can only see six rows of blocks. There are nine in total, plus the borders. It will cover the pillows and still hang to the floor at the foot of the bed when it's finished. I hope the day of completion will be Tuesday, since it's a national holiday and I have the day free. Fingers crossed!

Still no sewing

If I don't get a minute to myself fairly soon, I may have to change the name of this blog! It took me weeks to finish the posts about a short trip around Bulgaria because I was so busy with work. I have another excuse for this weekend, even though the first week of classes is over and things should be a little calmer. Two of my favoite alumni were married yesterday and I travelled to Pazardjik for the ceremonies and the reception. (No, that is not a typo. There are two ceremonies here - one civil and one religious.)

The bride was beautiful and the groom handsome, they were surrounded by friends and family and the weather was delightful. There couldn't be a better start to their new life together!

First the civil ceremony in the Ritual Hall:


Then the religious ceremony at St. George's Church:



Then the reception!





All the best to the newlyweds!

Balchik, Aladzha, Shumen, Preslav, and home. Phew!

After Varna, we headed even further north up the coast to Balchik. We saw the University botanic gardens and Queen Marie's Summer Palace. Marie was Queen Victoria's granddaughter and the Queen of Romania, not Bulgaria. At certain points in history, this section of Bulgaria (know as the Dobruzhda) has been part of Romania.


This seems to be the classic place for people to pose. Every time I've been here, I've gotten at least one shot of somone in front of this urn!



This is the part of the complex where Marie actually stayed. She allegedly built the minaret to honor a Turkish lover.



After the hordes of Romanian tourists (all grumbling about the state of the Palace grounds (which I thought looked pretty good!)



and about the fact that some of the buildings were being used as guest houses (which was their original purpose, after all.), the quiet at Aladzha was pretty nice.



I declined to climb the tower up the cliff again (Been there, done that - several times), so I sat and drank nice cold mineral water in the shade while my friend slogged to the top to see the frescos. Glad I didn't bother, because since I was last here, the frescoes have basically vanished due to weathering. At least I have my memories and photos from earlier trips!

Back on the road to Shumen next. We saw the pametnik, the fortess, the university (Hi Genny!)





and spent the night in a nice little hotel with an excellent restaurant.




In the morning we headed out bright and early for Veliki Preslav, because it would be a long drive back to Blagoevgrad after seeing one last museum. After a long drive through town to the Archaeological Reserve and several bouts of asking directions, ("Excuse me officer - do you know the way to the museum?")we found the place and the museum complex was great! I'm only sorry it was too hot and time was too short to spend an entire day hiking the site. We were the only visitors in a place that was set up for large groups, so it was echoingly empty, but lovely.




The Preslav Treasure more than lived up to its reputation and the curator was eager to open the safe room (Really - two massive doors, four keys and two combination locks!) and show us the display. Couldn't take photos, of course.

After that, it was just the long drive home via the Sofia highway and the E79!

On to Varna!

On the way north from Nessebur, we passed this lovely, but abandoned church. The architecture is very similar to the medieval ones further south, so we speculated that it might be of a similar age.



The beach at Varna was excellent and the fact that the center of the city along Blvd. Kniaz Boris is being pedestrianized was a bonus.



We did a lovely walking circuit of the city, including the ethnographic museum,



the roman baths,






the cathedral,



and the archaeological museum. Once again, we found that the museum had been updated and was lovely to visit. My friend was eager to see the Preslav Treasure, which was advertised as on display at this museum along with the Varna Gold. Imagine her dismay when it wasn't there. She asked where it was and the reply "oh, we sent it back to Preslav last week" made her look at me and ask "We are going to Preslav on the way home, right?" Of course, we did. That will be the next post.