Cultural: A look at a Warsaw trip from a quilter's point of view

Yesterday I went with my nephew into Warsaw as I needed to take care of something at a Copy General in downtown Warsaw  - something for our ministry. While I was at it, I had a copy of one of my quilting books made into a spiral bound book.  I have wanted to make Judy's Snake River Log cabin quilt ever since I first saw it (2011 ish).

Then, while we were downtown, I found some goodies at EMPIK - it's fabric, of course.  I .thought you'd like to see their charm packs, fat quarters and half meter pieces.  There were no patchwork magazines of any type, however. (Empik is a bookstore, for those of you who don't know.)

The overall display isn't all that big...but it's something!

A little closer up:  The current zloty/dollar exchange rate is about 4/1.

These packages are 5" squares - 20 in the package.

These are half meter packs:

More eye candy.  It's as much as I got today.

I did let 4 pieces come home with me.  There were half meter pieces and cost about $6 each - the quality about like Cranston print works - not soft and silky feeling at all.

After we ate, we went into a store called Saturn, where they had 3 sewing machines. These are definitely "supermarket" machines - but this is what the average person can easily pick up any day of the week.

The first one is a Husqvarna,  698 zl, which at today's exchange rate is $173.

The next one, a Redstar (I've never heard of it) is $132.

The last one I can show you today -- a Polish machine, Lucznik, is $296 at today's exchange rate.  As you can see, they are all pretty popular hobby type machines. The throat is pretty small - making it difficult to quilt a larger quilt.

I stepped into the bathroom and they had this interesting tidbit on the inside of the door of the toilet stall.  I'm sure you wanted to know this!

Since I was with my nephew, I made him stand and smile.  You can see the Marriott in the background here as we head towards the mall.

As we rounded the corner to head to the mall, Zloty Tarasa (Golden Terarace), the Palace of Culture becomes evident.  This was a gift from Stalin to Poland.  They've made it into a place where they have conventions and conferences.

After the mall, where we ate and saw the sewing  machines and fabric, we went to visit Old Town, Warsaw. Here is the big square we came to first.

This is part of the original wall. Most of "Old Town" in Warsaw isn't really all that old as it was destroyed in teh Warsaw Uprising.

I left a little money for this singer. He was selling his cds - folk music - and was actually pretty good.  

We caught a bus to get us back to the train station.

Here is Peter so patiently posing on the train. This is actually on the way into Warsaw.

After we got off the train, I saw this lonely bike parked outside the train station. 

We made a couple more stops on our way home...but that's it for today.  Check back tomorrow for another adventure.

Maybe some day I'll actually make it into Warsaw to the couple of fabric shops I have heard are here (that carry quilting cottons, that is). There are lots of fabric shops in the area - but mostly they carry dressy fabrics.