Montreal's Architecture and Statues

I'm home from Montreal now, and ready to get back to work sewing and blogging.

I walked a lot with my brother Paul, and did a lot of walking on my own while my mother was at her painting class.

Here is some of the beautiful architecture and statues I saw in the city.

This is the Westmount City Hall, taken from the inside of the car when it was raining.  It looks like a castle!

A beautiful church in Old Montreal.

This is also Old Montreal, the road is made of cobble stones.

Can you imagine someone being serenaded from this balcony?

Lots of copper on this edifice!

Even though Montreal is a large city, there are still lots of green parks.

We had our backs to the St. Lawrence river when I took this photo.

This is St. Jacques Square, the heart of Old Montreal.

 The weather was beautiful :)

That's my brother Paul from the back, he knows the history of all the buildings and statues in Montreal.

Corinthian columns and lots of detail.

Paul said that the gold building with the clock tower is his favorite.

In the distance, do you see the spires of the Cathedral Notre Dame?

Paris, France, gave part of their Metro gates to the city of Montreal as a gift.

We're out of Old Montreal and into the heart of the city.  

The building to the extreme right is called Place Ville Marie.

There is an underground network of shopping malls and restaurants under these buildings that goes on for blocks.

It's great in the winter when it's really cold and you don't want to go outside.

Take the underground metro and shop and live underground :)

Another church with many saints on the roof.

This is me and my tour guide and baby brother, Paul.

I love this photo of my mom, I took it on the sly!

This is where my mother lives, a beautiful, historic building in Westmount.

 Every year, their flowers are a different color :)

My mother's apartment is pretty spacious and has lots of character.

I hope you enjoyed my little mini tour  of my favorite city :)

Food, delicious food!

I am visiting my family in Montreal, Quebec.

My brothers Paul and Wayne, and our mom, Elizabeth.

This photo was taken at Miss Italian, a pizza restaurant we frequented, growing up.

We ordered an extra large with veggie on one half and pepperoni on the other half.

I was the bright one who said "extra cheese"!

I'm not kidding, each slice had half a pound of cheese, gag!!!

Despite the cheese, it was extremely yummy!

Only one and a half slices for me thank you ;)

Schwartz on St. Laurent has the best smoked meat in Montreal!It isn't pastrami, it's closer to corned beef, but not really.....it's Montreal smoked meat. You have to taste it to believe it!

At Schwartz', you have to share a table with other people, the atmosphere isn't very good, and they only accept cash. I have a secret to share with you... Directly across the street is a restaurant called "The Main." They serve the exact same smoked meat and fries, and you get to sit at your own table, and the ambiance is a little better. The Main accepts credit cards too.

Mom and I went to "The Maharaja", an East Indian restaurant. They have a huge buffet, with every type of Indian food you can imagine, even desserts!

Paul and I went on our annual walk together, which means miles and mikes of brisk walking, looking at all the architecture and historical landmarks. We are luch at a creperie in View Montreal, called "Chez Suzette". The crepe was good, but definitely not the best I've ever had.

 

Walking through CN station, I snapped some photos of this bread!

I have a thing for Macarons. These beautiful pink ones were huge and instead of frosting in the middle, there were raspberries! Yum!

Loved seeing all of these cinnamon rolls :)

 

Nothing beats Mom's cooking! She made some delicious soup for us!

I hope you've enjoyed my food experience with me. Maybe someday you'll be in Montreal and remember these restaurants :)

Au Revoir!

 

Autumn Decor

It's definately not autumn weather in northern California yet, but I decorated for fall/hallowe'en/Thanksgiving anyway.

This decor will stay in my home until Thanksgiving is over, then I'll decorate for Christmas.

Here's a little nook.

I always have my flag from Brazil displayed to remind me of my son, Sean (Elder Horst).

He is serving a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

He will be coming home at the end of April :)

This is the mantel over the fireplace.

I love my pilgrim and native american, my mother gave them to me years ago.

This is my "flower garden", but the photos are outdated and I'm missing two of my little grandchildren.

This isn't a photo of a family member.

Turn a little sideways, and.....

.....he turns into a "scary guy" as my grand daughter Charlotte would say!

I love this little antique table, we bought it years ago in Arkansas, for $50.

My daughter Lindsay made the beautiful table runner for me.

I made this wall sampler with two very dear friends, Nanette and Liz.  

I told the story about it here.

I love this table runner, and my mom gave me these little pilgrims too!

This little display is beside the sectional couch in the family room.

The sun was streaming through the window.

Lindsay made me this table runner also, it's reversible.

Last but not least, I just relocated this beautiful quilt to the family room.

It is one of my favorite quilts and you can read a newspaper article about it here.

It's called "A Tribute to Joseph", celebrating the sesquicentennial of the birth of Joseph Smith.

I will blog about this quilt at a later date.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my "autumn decor".

Patchwork Please! Triangle Patchwork Box Pouch

I finished Ayumi's "Triangle Patchwork Box Pouch.

I posted a tutorial of the paper pieced triangles here.

This is the fun book that is full of goodies!

I love the triangles!

Look at all of these delicious colors!

I really like the grey chevron bottom :)

This is a view from the top, I like the contrast of the red zipper and the blue Amy Butler fabric.

A bird's eye view of the "sew cherry" lining.

The lining was hand sewn to the pouch.

The pouch wasn't a quick sew, partly because of the paper piecing, the zipper and the hand sewn lining.

I really enjoyed making it because the end result is so cute!!!

North State River Run, continued...

I finished the shop hop, it was a long day.

I drove the back way there, stopping at all the shops on my way to Redding.

I made it to Redding, only to face the 3 hour drive home.

There was one quilt shop on the way home that broke up the time.

I arrived in Sacramento just in time for bumper to bumper rush hour traffic.

I was pretty tired when I got home.

My shop hop passport was full, and hopefully I will win one prize!

This was a cute Hallowe'en quilt I saw.

The fabric was colored with fabric crayons.

I've always loved this quilt, I've seen it in blue and in black before.

Look what I found, a whole shelf of "Sew Cherry", Lori Holt's first line of fabric.

I found a treasure, Sandy Klopp's American Jane "Wee Play" from 2008.

I have a little collection of American Jane fabric, so I bought some fat quarters.

I bought 2 fat quarters at almost every store and these are my purchases.

Thanks for sharing the quilt shop hop with me :)