A Day with Friends in Barcelona

My previous post was labelled "First Day in Barcelona", when actually it was our second. I confess that on our first day I was a tad tired and engaged in some retail therapy. Our hotel was situated right across from a wonderful shopping centre called Las Arenas. It even had a fantastic food court and grocery and health food store in the basement.

Did I mention that we did a lot of walking in Barcelona? Before we learned how to take the subway we walked everywhere. These are just a few photos I took on the walk into the old part of town.

We were very fortunate to spend an entire day with friends Cecilia and Merce Gonzales. We met these two textile artists (also sisters) in 2013 when they and I were both exhibiting at Quilt en Sud in St. Jean de Luz, France. Their shared web site is Desedamas. Cecilia and Merce live just outside Barcelona.

From left to right in both photos, Merce Gonzales, Cecilia Gonzales, and me.

We were guided on a walking tour through part of the Gothic quarter. The arches you see to the right date back to Roman times.

We walked through the El Born region, a charming quarter housing many artist studios, shops and restaurants The streets here are much quieter than in the tourist areas.

We saw the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar, built in the 14th century. This church is built in the Catalon style.

We ended our day in the seaside neighbourhood of La Barceloneta. This is the area on the waterfront that was once known as fishermen's wharf. Now it is a place to surf and sunbathe in warmer months. It is also in close proximity to where the 1992 Olympics were held. We had a fabulous and leisurely meal at a seafood restaurant in that area.

Textile Art of Desedamas / Today's Workshops

Today I taught my second (and last workshop) at the Quilt en Sud Patchwork and Textile Art Biennial. Teaching in the class next to me was Merce Gonzalez, who makes up one half of the two-sister team of artists known as Desedamas. The other half of the team is Cecilia Gonzalez. These two artists live near Barcelona, Spain. I had the pleasure of seeing their exhibition at the Festival yesterday and loved it. Today I am sharing some photos.

Merce works with transparent fabrics, mostly organza. She has created designs on some of them with batik. Me on left, Merce on right.

Cecilia works with a variety of fabrics, including hand-dyed cottons and velvets. Each piece is heavily textured with free-motion stitching.

At times I managed to peek into Merce's class to see how students were piecing together sheer fabrics. It certainly looked like a fun and informative workshop. It was especially of interest to me, given all the hand-dyed organza I have amassed!

In my class students were learning about depth and value while using my poppy pattern. Here is our class photo. To my left is our translator of today: Joseph.

Yesterday I had my first dog ever come to my exhibition, and today it was the first dog ever to come to my class. Sophie's husband picked her up with little Maya in tow.