Skip to main content

Tuscany Returned!

Incredibly, it's been a month already since I returned; and I am fairly confident my mind is now back in my own Zip code! It is difficult to leave the glorious memories and return to my usual stateside routine (which is hardly ever routine!) Besides the "recovery" and unpacking stage, Thanksgiving was fast on my heels. In our family "Thanksgiving" entails much more than what the average family expects! Our granddaughter was born on November 24 and our wedding anniversary was the 25th. This year it would have been 50 years! So all together, it makes for a wonderful, memory-filled weekend!

The Crafting and Crocheting Tour to Tuscany with Lily Chin was  a complete success! Sure there were a few minor glitches; but overall, I was so happy with everything during the 13 days I was gone.
Being together with avid crocheters and crafters of all kinds was a great choice for me to take my first ever "tour."

Our expert crochet teacher was Lily Chin; and we had two evening crochet classes with her. Daily excursions, all nearby in the Tuscany region, filled our time when we weren't crocheting! Since the majority of my blogging centers around crochet and since I journaled during the trip on my Facebook page, I will keep my emphasis this time on just the "yarny and crafty" aspects of the trip

No Lie: It was Fabulous!




Our home base, The Gran Hotel La Pace in Montecatini Terme, was an inspiration in itself!
Our Group of Eighteen

Ceiling: Grand Hotel La Pace


Agnes
Our tour guide, Agnes was from Ireland and an avid crocheter and quilter. She enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed her!

Our first excursion out of town was the Medieval village of San Gimignano-try pronouncing that! Small boutique shops abound there for great shopping!
Design Inspiration in San Gimignano


ball-o-yarn pasta

Venturing out another day, we visited an Italian Yarn Factory where we were amazed colors, texture and process.







After the tour, we shopped to our hearts' content!

Near Florence, we saw how an ancient craft is still one of Italy's treasures when we visited one of Italy's last surviving Mosaic Studios.


Materials used for mosaics



Carefully cutting stone material







I am having difficulty with captions, so I will just include the info in this narrative:
-overlooking Florence with Janet, long-time CGOA member.
-Florence
-El Duomo
-Street Chalk Art (2)
-Even our baggage at leave-taking was colorful!

VIVA ITALY!









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Craft vs. Fine Art: How is Crochet Blurring the Lines

I was awakening to the world of crochet in 1972,a time of immense artistic expression through fiber arts; and crochet was not the “ugly stepchild” at the time. In fact, Ferne Cone Gellar who I admire as a successful fiber artist said in “Knitting: The Stepchild of the Fiber Arts?” ( Fibercraft Newsletter 1978), “Has knitting been slighted among the areas of the fiber arts? The very word ‘knitting’ evokes images of the little old lady in tennis shoes. Over the years, I’ve learned to ignore all those jokes.” Cone Gellar went on to publish Crazy Crocheting in 1981 and encouraged her readers to create more than bedspreads, providing ideas such as “things to play with or to display on a shelf or hang on a wall.” A photo of single crochet from bread wrappers served as inspiration.  In 1972 in her book, Creating Art from Fibers & Fabrics , Dona Meilach wrote: “Why are fibers and fabrics becoming increasingly appealing to artists? Most artists agree

Wartime Crochet With Attitude, Part I

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Karen Ballard and I have a mutual love of free form crochet. We met for the first time in a class taught by Prudence Mapstone of Australia at the Chain Link Crochet Conference 2011. I admire Karen's vast knowledge of needle work history and am grateful for her willingness to share with us as my guest blogger this week. Karen wearing a World War II-era knitting hat with stubby needles on top Karen's Heritage Heart,  with flowers symbolic of her heritage, is currently on tour with Prudence Mapstone's traveling "Hearts & Flowers Exhibition" in Australia and New Zealand   World War 1 Attitudes About Crochet by Karen Ballard In 2008, I coined that term, "Workbasket Campaigns" to describe the organized efforts during World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII) coordinated through the American Red Cross {ARC} and the Navy League to create needle crafted items.  These items were mostly knitted but also sewn, qu

What is Free Form Crochet?

Monday, January 6, 2014 This topic came about from the title of my article recently in Fiber Art Now magazine.  "Crochet As Art: A Conversation with 5 Free-Form Crochet Artists." Yes, the 5 artists I wrote about, all of which are in  my book  The Fine Art of Crochet , are free-thinking when it comes to their creativity. They are free-wheeling with the hook and use unique fibers in many cases. Once you read the article, tell me what  you think? Are these artists doing free-form crochet? In order to define free-form crochet, we must look way, way back to it's origins: Irish crochet. A brief history of crochet, including the Irish method, written by Ruthie Marks is available through The Crochet Guild of America . Unfortunately, there are no images on the site. On her blog, Nancy Nehring has a beautiful montage of Irish Crochet in reference to a class she taught in 2013 at Lacis . I wrote an article in Old Time Crochet Magazine (Spring 1998), "History of Irish Croc