Budapest Inspirations part 2

In Budapest, I spotted many inspirations for quilt designs. As we strolled through the streets on the Pest side of the Danube, I noticed these stone carvings (above) on a church. Of course they made me think of quilt borders, as did these (below) in the archway of the same church.

Across the Danube on the Buda side, we spent some time in the 700-year old Matthias Church, the scene of several coronations, including that of Charles IV in 1916, the last Habsburg king. It is one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.

The tiled roof was especially appealing.

And the interior of the church was covered in colorful stencils. Here are just a few examples:

On our last morning we went to the Museum of Ethnography.

I spent a lot of time in the needlework areas. Above are some of the original tools they used.

How about this chair (below) for storing threads?

I loved these embroidered turkeys.

And I thought I was the only one who went overboard when embellishing!

The photos in the museum were fascinating. I'll end with two that really struck me. The first one reminds me of making pastry for strudel with my mother and Hungarian grandmother - this is exactly how we did it, and how my mother is teaching my daughters to do it!

And I'm including this one because I love it - what better reason do I need?

Back to work on the book after a rejuvenating and inspirational holiday!