Happy Birthday

...To Me! 

As one of my good friend says..."you are responsible for making your own fun." 

I ventured to a new quilt shop. Ines Patchwork. The website looked very promising...Hoffman batik Bali Pops at the top of the front page. Here was my first glimpse of the real thing.

It actually looks like a quilt shop!

It was crammed full of fabrics...even batiks by the meter. The batiks were 19 Euros a meter...$24.57 in US! Yikes! But I did a lot of looking and touching. 

They had a great notions' wall...and that's where I spent a lot of time. I forgot to bring straight pins and a measuring tape from the US. They also had freezer paper...can't find that anywhere else in Paris! And I also went ahead and bought some Hobbs batting so I can tackle an appliqué project here. Just trying to support my local quilt shop.

There were two ladies working in the shop...one spoke pretty good English. I am finding when I do a mix of French and English I get a lot of appreciation for trying to speak French...even though my pronunciation stinks.

Editor's additional remarks added the next day. 

More Details about the costs...all prices converted to US: Appliqué pins - $11.13,  Straight pins - $12.52, 60" tape measure - $11.82, Hobbs Cotton Batting Queen - $51.39 and a 50' roll of  Reynolds freezer paper - $16.60. 

It was a bit of an adventure to get there. It was in a part of town I hadn't been to yet and I had to decide whether to switch trains three or four times to get the most direct route or take the long way and only make one train switch. I opted for the long route. I came out right by this beautiful church, Saint Ambroise. It was built between 1863 and 1869. The neighborhood certainly built up around it...hard to get a photo!

Here's a side view. There are many lovely churches like this scattered throughout Paris. I love it when I'm walking about, turn a corner and there's a beauty like this in front of me.

I had to decide what route to take home. The skies looked a little threatening so I thought it might be smart to ride a train that would put me near the Seine and then get my exercise for the day and hike back to the apartment...but when I got to the train stop by the Seine I changed my mind and jumped on a train to the Louvre. There is a great little shopping center under the Louvre...not big but some fun shops. Mostly...I needed to resupply our Sumatra coffee bean stash...can't beat the ones we get a Starbucks. And right across from Starbucks is a Swatch watch shop. I'm a girl of the '80s...I've been collecting Swatches since then. 

There was a new Swatch...a Mona Lisa Swatch. She came home with me!

I did walk home from the Louvre...only took 30 minutes of brisk walking...and I did get a few sprinkles along the way.