Back Pain, Quilting, and Spain!

First things, first, let's talk quilting...  I love machine quilting.  I prefer it to piecing most times.  Unfortunately, I have had a wake up call these last coupla months, and realized something has to give.  Over the last couple years I have managed to gain (back) about 20 pounds that I had worked so hard to lose three years ago.  Now, I know, for some people 20 pounds may not be much, but for me it is a lot, and most importantly, it has really affected my back.  I now have a hard time standing for more than a couple hours without  back pain.

Do you have back pain?  How do you deal with it?  Has back pain affected your quilting time?  I would love to hear from you.

I work full time outside the home, so there is only so much time leisure time in the day, right?  Add to that my kids, husband, and grandkids, and some serious exercise, and there isn't much time left for quilting and blogging.  So where am I going with this?  Well, nowhere, just my ramblings, but maybe a personal commitment that I MUST spend more time strengthening my core, and trying to lose those 20 pounds so I can lose the back pain.

I am so jealous of the many bloggers who can quilt full time, but that isn't the cards for me...yet.  It really isn't a big deal if I don't blog every day or every week, as this isn't a business, and I am guessing that I may only have five people who read my blog on a weekly basis.  I will have to spend less time online and more time exercising, or less time quilting and more time exercising.

Okay, enough with my ramblings. I was gone almost six weeks this summer!  Wow!  One of the exciting destinations was a trip to Spain and France!  Yep!  Here are a couple pictures to pique your interest, hopefully.  I find the textures of old Europe so fascinating, and of course, I find quilting ideas in the bricks, stones, architecture, too.  Here we are in Vilanova, in Catalonia, just 40 km south of Barcelona.  

 The marble, and other stone floors and walkways are so incredible.  When you compare their plazas to ours here in the United States, it is like and day.

Pictures from our hotel, El Ceferino.  Beautiful and reasonably priced, too.

 Look at the design in this little table top, diamonds, I am going to quilt that out soon.  Oh, and the drinks?  It's cava, THE drink of Catalonia.  It is everywhere.  It is similar to Champagne.  I drank quite a bit of cava with my tapas.

 Here I am (on the right) with my friend, Jan, from Denver on the left, and our new friend, Mama, from Senegal who sold me a beautiful bone bracelet.  She was really fun.  They weren't supposed to be vending to tourists, but we invited her to sit at our table, so it was okay.

Hopefully soon I will show you some quilting projects I am working on, and the commissioned quilt I just finished.  I have to wait until after the wedding to show you that one.