More Gaudi & Packing Again

I spent Easter weekend visiting my father and sister in Waterloo, and now I'm packing to hit the road again. Sunday I am leaving for Vancouver and spending several days next week with the Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild in Delta/Surrey, British Columbia. I've worked in a few days of vacation too. I understand the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. I hope to find out where the best places to view them are and capture some photos.

Part of getting ready is lining up my artist pencils and sharpening them. It is good colour therapy. I'm also bringing Caran d'Ache Neocolor 2 Water Soluble Wax Pastels, InkTense Pencils, and Tsukineko Inks, for two days of Surface Design fun.

In addition, I am teaching a one-day class of "In Full Bloom". I've dyed and packed all the kits. They sure do add weight in my suitcases.

Here's keeping my fingers crossed that everything fits into two check-in bags that are each under 50 lbs.

Of course there are quilts in those bags too because I'm giving two lectures, one for their morning meeting and one for their evening meeting.

In the mean time, I thought I'd share just a few more photos of inspiration from Barcelona.

On our way to take a tour to Montserrat (more on that tomorrow), we accidentally got to visit two more buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi, the architect who designed the Sagrada Familia that I spoke of in my last post.

Even the benches along this street are Gaudi inspired.

La Padrero is an apartment block that Gaudi designed , that was constructed between 1906 - 1912.  

Apparently there is not a single right angle on this building. It is designed in that wonderful curvacious style of his.

A bit further down this street you come to Casa Batllo, considered another of Gaudi's masterpieces. Both La Padrera (above) and Casa Batllo have received UNESCO World Heritage site designations. The area that contains both these buildings (on Passeo de Gracia St.) is a location where Barcelona's most important families set up home in the early 1900's.

Joseph Batllo granted full creative freedom to Gaudi in his redesigning of this building.

Unfortunately we did not have an opportunity to view the insides of these buildings because we ran out of time. There is just so much to see in Barcelona.