Saturday, April 16, 2016

Est-ce que je peus avoir une théière, s'il vous plait?

I am still in France attending the SAQA "Two by Twenty" and International Threads' exhibition at the Biennale Internationale d'Art Textile. it runs for four days (Wednesday to Saturday, today is the last day), and it has long hours (9.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.). With very few visitors in the earliest hour and the last hour - it would be much more congenial to the vendors and exhibitors if the opening hours were a little shorter! I have done a blog post on the SAQA presence at the show, one on the International Threads blog, and a bit on my German blog, too. To be honest: I just don't feel like writing more about and uploading pictures to give an impression of the show.
It has high quality and I am impressed with the standard of exhibits, it's wonderful to be here. But I don't really like doing those 'all around impressions' posts of quilt shows. One never does complete justice to all the exhibitors, one can't communicate the atmosphere, and after having done three of them already, please forgive me if I don't indulge in this one here!

I did manage to get some stitching done on my new slow-stitch project, as the quieter hours provide time for that.


And I acquired a new little lamp which is so fabulous - folding, very light, with USB plug and normal plug, well-suited for traveling - that I think I will try to add that to my stock for when I go to market with my fabrics.


Apart from that I have refrained from shopping. Too much to carry anyway. And I do have enough knitting yarn, although I was very tempted to buy a silk-merino combination... but definitely no, even not today at last minute!

But as the audience is made up of almost only French people, my basic French is increasing rapidly. I can now produce the pretty much standard sentences explaining what SAQA is or how International Threads works in an almost fluent fashion. People are impressed with my ability to speak French - until they ask a question in their normal speed and I don't understand much at all. But I have learned one important new vocabulary item at the hotel on my second, where I was getting annoyed at having to get up for every single cup of tea at breakfast (and I drink a lot of tea) and went to the guy at the desk to ask for a tea pot. He managed to understand my gestures, and kindly provided the item itself, and the vocabulary item to go with it. Now I can cooly ask for 'une théière`' every morning, and it saves me a lot of getting up again. So this trip has definitely been an enrichment.
And my Spanish teacher is adamantly convinced that it won't completely upset or delete my attempts at mastering the basics of the Spanish language, to which I will return next week.
One more day now, and then all of International Threads' quilts will be packed back into the red suitcase. Which, I fear, is on its last journey as the extendable handle seems to have jammed and does not want to come out any more. It wouldn't be quite as bad if it were jammed in extended position. But it is not extended, unfortunately. Oh well. I'll get home somehow!

3 comments:

  1. Look after yourself then! Hope the handle comes to the right position just when you need it!
    Sandy

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  2. Find the strongest and least wonderful dirty garment in your bag. Twist it into a rope. Put the rope through the handle of your suitcase so you can drag it more easily. Bon voyage!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for that tip. I managed to get it stuck in the other position, so it all worked fine enough!

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