Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Souvenir Pyramids

Here's a good picture of the three souvenir pyramids that you could see buried beneath the crumbs in my last post. Those are scarabs there in front of them (a previous post on scarabs can be found here).

These souvenir pyramids are quite common in Egypt. Cheap but very heavy to stuff in your suitcase (thank goodness for wheeled luggage). I have no idea if the heiroglyphics actually mean something, or the carvers just went for pretty images - personally I'm a big fan of the bee. There's a great bee on the leftside of the middle pyramid.

Vera, yes, I would recommend a trip to Egypt. A lot, and I do mean a LOT of tourists come to Egypt regularly with no problems. Hate to say it, far more have been killed in bus crashes and car accidents than by bombs. (Don't travel outside a major city at night and certainly never ever never rent a car and drive yourself.)

If you want to read up on the threat level you can read the U.S. State Dept's assessment here. I safely lived in Egypt for three years and no one I knew was ever in any bad situation, and believe me we were going to the pyramids, the Khan al Khalili market and especially Tentmaker Street (a destination every quilter in Egypt needs to get to), and all over. I was going to add more links, but I got tired... You get the picture.

Speaking of Tentmaker Applique, a friend sent me a link to pics of an exhibition of these works down in Australia. Lovely.

I've gotten more crumbs done. Just working on this a little at a time.

I'm thrilled to almost be done quilting HCL's upper border and then I'll hit the homestretch. Fingers crossed the next disc of The Wire is out in my mailbox so I have something entertaining to watch.


11 comments:

Sassenach said...

Heh. Those 'glyphs probably translate into something quite rude. :-)

Donna said...

that's going to be one beautiful bright crumb quilt!

Candy Schultz said...

They are gorgeous but myself, I watched Babel last night and I am never leaving the U. S. unless we move to Canada.

Paula, the quilter said...

Thanks for visiting my blog! I couldn't reply via email because your email is set to no-reply. I love all the bright colors you use and am planning to try your wonky letters soon.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh yes, I love those Tentmaker applique quilts. And there are some beauty's on that link, but none I think as wonderful as mine!!! :)

Oh and I love your pyramids, they are really cool.

Unknown said...

Tonya, thanks for the link to the australian site - the blue and amber coloured one behind the man's head is to die for - I can feel my right arm coming off as we speak to offer in exchange :o) Awesome!

Joyce said...

Egypt has always been a place I have wanted to visit but never have. It's such a interesting culture. Your crumbs are looking great.

Clare said...

The photos in that link are fantastic! I thought the second one looks like that original tent you found covering the scaffolding and as for the third one - wow! And the blue one behind the guy's head is to die for. Thanks for sharing.

Sarah said...

Tonya - I can't believe Angela and I missed the tendmaker appliques - we were right there in the market - they are gorgeous. Angela has now moved to Argentina so I/we will have to scout out quilty opportunites there when I visit her sometime in the next 8 months.

Tazzie said...

Wonderful to catch up on so many posts from you Tonya. For some reason my bloglines hasn't been updating you, and I was thinking how much I've missed you!
How rough that you're kinda allergic to fabric ... at least you've got your quilting to fall back on in the meantime!
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)

Finn said...

Hi Ton, I love the 'faking' crumbs aspect...LOL. What a great way to approach a quilt...*VBS* Leave it to you to think of that.

Glad you are beginning to feel more like your old self. I have a new top planned here to use the free form fans on...just a small one, but I'm looking forward to it.
Hand in there, Hugs,Finn