A Thursday play day at home

We haven't had any sort of schedule at all this summer, so every day has been catch-as-catch-can around here. Today I had to forego attending my quilt guild meeting, as Roger had to be up at his college in Ukiah for business matters, so Caroline and I decided to experiment with painting with dye.

We spread fabric that had been soaked in soda ash solution onto large plastic trays and then painted on them. Here's Caroline, smearing the dye dribbles on her tray in preparation for doing a print onto another piece of fabric:



Here's some our work, spread out to dry on the lawn. Bet you can tell which are mine and which are Caroline's!



Caroline has decided she wants to sandwich hers and practice free motion quilting on them. She calls that "Crazy Quilting" and it's her favorite thing to do with the sewing machine.

Meanwhile, we had Gemma keeping us company. She's now about 5 months old, and doing great.



If you think that's an adorable puppy shot, get a load of this one:



You'll notice that she's rather wet in this shot. She loves to play in the sprinkler, and in the wading pool that used to be Caroline's sandbox (and, most recently, home for a bunch of giant tadpoles that were fostered until they became frighteningly giant frogs and I insisted that they be returned to the creek before they learned how to open the screen door and come into the kitchen).

Gemma keeps us entertained, that's for sure. For some reason, she has become very fond of an old beach bucket of Caroline's, and loves to carry it around the yard with water in it.



You should see how proudly she struts when she's carrying it! Here she is, resting happily with the beloved bucket:

Ring Around the Web Ring

I'm pleased to announce that the Artful Quilters Web Ring currently has 83 members! Can you believe it's grown so fast? I think we'll have to have a virtual blog ring party when we hit 100 strong. I'll bring the champagne!

As I was cruising through the ring this morning, I was struck again about what an interesting and diverse group of talented women (no men, yet) on this ring. I so enjoy reading about your work and your lives. I really love how we're able to communicate with each other, share our work, vent about our frustrations, show our occasionally tidy work areas (and delight in the messy ones)... You all are a great source of entertainment and inspiration to me.

Although I read blogs on the ring daily, it's only occasionally that I take the time to work through the whole ring. When I do, I confess it's for the "businessy" reason of making sure that everyone's code is okay and the ring is working right. I'd appreciate it if from time to time, each of you would do this simple task: Check the "list" of the ring members (from the "list" button on the ring box), and see whose blogs are supposed to be before and after yours. Then, hit the "next" and the "previous" buttons on your own blog page to make sure that your code is taking you to the right blogs!

As you all read through the ring, please email me if you find any blog that doesn't have the code or isn't working right. Also, you should feel free to email that blogger directly to politely encourage her to fix her template. Sometimes, we make changes to the blog (or, inexplicably, the blog host software changes) and the blog owner isn't even aware of the problem.

Thanks, everyone!

Sometimes life is just full of synchronicity. I just got this book, "Nature's Studio," by Joan Colvin. And, aside from having lots of photos of gorgeous quilts, it amazes me how directly it addresses some of the issues we've been blogging about in the "blue teapot" discussions.

The book discusses a number of very relevant topics. There are actual section headings: What is a recognizable style; Are you ready to develop a style of your own?; Choosing a familiar subject to begin; What do you want to say about your tree?; Making the process fit your needs, and more.

But I was especially struck by Colvin's discussion of realism:

"My style is a kind of realism. I do not assume you will want to work the way I do. Consider this: if you have some large, simple colored shapes before you and they are gorgeous as is, you may wish to fasten them down as a wonderful abstraction. If a group of fabrics gets you thinking of something in the known world, and a little bit of detail will show this (that is, direct the viewer to the same conclusion), then your work becomes less abstract. Or the shapes may become recognizable but not in the usual context (symbolism). As the shapes gain more definition, the option for assigning meaning to them becomes narrower, and you can see how we get to realism or representational art. Should you get even realer than real, I call that surrealism.

"Now, we can work backward, too. Beginning with real objects or ideas, placing them in settings, removing detail, simplifying shapes, seeing essences -- here we come all the way back to the beautiful simple shapes I first mentioned. Nobody but you cares where you begin or end."

It's unusual for quilting books, but I find the text in this one as enlightening and interesting as the photos.

Chicken Salad Days

On hot days in the summertime, I don't want to eat (or cook!) a hot meal. And one of my summer staples for dinner is chicken salad sandwiches in pita bread.

It doesn't sound very exciting. But years ago, when I lived in New Hampshire, I was lucky enough to get to spend a number of wonderful vacations on Nantucket Island. It's my favorite place in the world, and you can bet that I'll buy a house there the minute I win the lottery. Anyway, there used to be this great little gourmet deli there, called Que Sera Sara, and I happened to have the perfect chicken salad there one day. The minute the owner of that deli came out with a cookbook, I snapped it up and have been cooking things from it ever since.

Anyway, I make that chicken salad recipe all the time and we all love it. A batch makes enough for several meals. Here it is, the perfect, simple salad:

3 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached until just tender and cooled to room temperature
5 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups seedless red grapes, cut in half
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder (fresh garlic is too overpowering -- don't use it here)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 - 3 cups Best Foods (or other good quality) mayonnaise (I use the light and it's fine...and I confess, I don't measure so I'm not sure how much I use. I use enough to keep it all together but not so much that it's gloppy.)

1. Cut chicken breasts into 3/4 - 1 inch chunks, removing and discarding any tough tendons

2. Toss chicken, celery and grapes together in a large bowl. Add seasonings, and bind together mayonnaise.

3. Transfer to serving bowl and chill for at least an hour before serving.

Makes 6-8 servings.

---
To poach the chicken breasts, put them in a large pot of water, add a few splashes of white wine, and scatter in whatever left over veggies you have around: onion, celery, carrots, parsley. Add a dash of salt and a grind of pepper. Bring the pan to a full boil, boil for a minute or two, then turn the pot off and let the chicken finish cooking in the hot water. When the water has cooled, remove chicken to refrigerator. (You can save the stock for soup making, if you like.)

However, having made this wonderful salad several times so far, the other day I made another salad from the same cookbook, just for variety's sake. It was unusual and delicious, and I'll make it again. So here's an interesting variety, in case you become obsessed with chicken salad:

Chicken and Apricot Salad with Double Mustard Mayonnaise

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, poached and cooled
1 cup dried apricots, cut into narrow strips
1/3 cream sherry
3 ribs celery, coarsely chopped
4 scallions, trimmed and sliced
1/2 cup slivered almonds, lightly toasted
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

Mayonnaise:

2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons grainy Dijon mustard
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup honey mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut the poached chicken breasts into 1 inch chunks and place in large mixing bowl.

2. Place apricots and sherry in a small saucepan. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the apricots with liquid to the chicken.

3. Add celery, scallions, almonds, and rosemary to the chicken. Toss to combine.

4. Prepare the mayonnaise: In a food processor, place egg yolks, lemon juice and grainy mustard and process for 10 seconds. With machine running, pour the oils in a thin stream through the feed tube to make an emulsion. Add the honey mustard and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Bind the salad with the mayonnaise.

5. Transfer to a serving bowl and chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

** When I made this, I discovered I was out of olive oil and so used all canola oil. It turned out fine. I think I used about a cup of oil, total, not the amount here. Also, next time I might try omitting the sherry and just simmering the apricots in a bit of water. But this was very tasty. The fresh rosemary really made this.

If you try these recipes, I'd love to hear how you like them. And check out Sarah Leah Chase's "Nantucket Open House Cookbook" -- it's wonderful.

From Photo to Fabric Art

Deborah pointed to Ellen Linder's site, and there I found this illustrated series of how she did a still life quilt of a grouping of apples. This is pretty much what we did in the teapot class I described. How great to have it illustrated so nicely! Thanks, Deborah!

Pictorial Quilting

Gee, posting that teapot and my comments about how people use Photoshop seem to have engendered some interesting discussion! I got this email from Melody (which, she warned, resulted in part from general crankiness about not getting time to work in her studio) and I excerpt it here with her permission:

I agree that you could do this without Photoshop but that Photoshop offers other options that the artist can use or not.... Here’s my rant:
What is it with all the pictorial quilting! Geesh! Must we make everything into a quilt? Why can’t just stop at the drawing/painting/photograph?
If we must make a picture, can we please remove it a few more steps from the photographic level? Can we bring something original and new into the imagery. Something of ourselves? Something one step above representational? Or two steps?
It all seems to be an exercise in making fabric into pictures that end up just being recognizable. SO???
That to me is like adding 2+2 and getting 4. Formulaic, certain, predictable, finite.

Good questions, yes? How would you respond?

Here is my reaction. Why NOT pictorial quilting? Isn't that like asking "why still life painting?" Isn't there art in creating something in one medium that fools the eye into thinking it's something else? Isn't there artfulness -- beyond the skillful technique -- in using fabric or paint to create an image of an object that looks so faithful it could be mistaken for a photograph? I've seen "pictures" that I thought were photographs, until I stepped closer and realized that it was a painting. And that surprise, along with appreciation of the skill it took to create that illusion, always delights me.

Maybe the point of Melody's comment is that whatever medium you work in, you need to make it say something original, and not just have the result be a copy (however faithful) of the original thing. I agree with that. But to my mind, it's valid to have the statement be "here's an image that reflects stillness and peacefulness through ordinary objects" or "a peach sitting on a table is beautiful." I'm not a trained or educated artist, and I suspect that those of you who are have thought about this stuff far more than I have. But that's my reaction.

And as for translating this sort of thing into fabric, I also think that this sort of work plays an important role in moving public perception about quilt-making into recognition of art quilts. We've all encountered people who think of "quilt" as something their grandmother made to throw on the bed, and who can't grasp the concept of "art quilt" or imagine how fabric can be used to make art. Maybe a still life or pictorial quilt rendered in fabric presents those folks with a recognizable "artistic" image, while expanding their concept of how fabric can be used.

For me, personally, I love seeing realistic images rendered in fabric. It delights me and causes me to marvel over how versatile fabric is as a medium, and now there is such diverse talent out there doing such amazing things. Actually, my favorite images are the ones that do in fabric what Melody was suggesting: they depict something real, but they say something more, too. (Ruth McDowell's quilts come to mind.) But hey, I'm just learning. This teapot was an exercise in trying something new, and seeing how to make a real thing look fairly realistic with fabric. As an exercise, it's fun, and I'm happy. I'm not saying this is big art.

In the workshop, Daniele looked at my fabric choices (mostly stuff I've dyed myself, which I chose thinking it would add a glow of light to what might otherwise end up being sort of flat looking) and said "I'd like to see you go home and try this with printed commercial fabrics." I couldn't help but let out a snort, as I'd love to have the time to do that sort of thing too. Life these days isn't permitting much art time. But I think her suggestion was to encourage me to step away from fabric that created a more realistic look, and try using fabrics that would force the picture to become something else. And while it struck me as virtually comical in light of all the unfinished things I have in my studio, not to mention all the other things in my mind that I want to start, I did recognize the suggestion as an appropriate effort to move me beyond being satisfied with something that just looked real.

I have to add here (as long as I'm rambling away) that I don't have a style. Melody, Gabrielle, Pam, Liz, and all sorts of amazing quilt artists have an identifiable style that shines through their bodies of work. I feel like I'm just doing all sorts of things and trying all sorts of techniques on the way to figuring out what I like to do, what works for my working style, and what helps me express what I want to say. For the moment, "Hey, look! I made a shiny blue teapot!" is enough for me to say.

What do you think about this subject? Does using photo software seem like cheating? Are realistic images art?

Blue Teapot

Over the weekend, I took a still life class offered by a woman in my guild, Daniele Todaro. (You can see her work here.) The class was to do a teapot... and here's mine, so far. There's nothing sewn in this picture...So far, it's all just tacked down with glue.

I'm not a "still life" sort of person, and don't plan to make more. But I was interested in this artist's technique for translating photos into fabric art. She uses a very mechanical process, working with a photograph in Photoshop to separate colors and then translating those into color/fabric swatches as a printer would do. I was surprised at how mechanical it was, but it certainly makes working that way very do-able, if you're conversant with photo editing software.

As I said, I'm not a "still life" sort of person. And Daniele's are very still. She tends to use very muted, realistic colors...attractive in their way, but too static for my taste. I think she was taken aback by my bold blue, and she tried to steer me away from the orange background. But hey. I was there for the process, not the result...Even so, I'm rather pleased with this for one day's work.

I'll have to stitch it and then see how to crop the finished thing. I don't intend for it to just sit there floating on that big orange field, in case you were wondering.

Blender jars

Teri asked me to explain how you use canning jars to mix dye with a blender, so here is the illustrated explanation.

Here is my cheapo blender (purchased for using only with dye) and a typical canning jar. (Note: the wide mouth ones don't work--just the standard Bell/Kerr ones do.)



Here's the blender base assembly taken apart. There's usually a blade part, a rubber washer that fits on the blade (see the grey thing) and the blade base that screws onto the blender pitcher.



The blade sits in the screw-on base, like this:



Now, that whole part screws onto the jar, like this:



If you were mixing dye, you would have put the dye powder and water into the jar and then put the blade/screw on base on TOP of the jar, like you were screwing the jar's lid on. Be sure to check that the blade/base is screwed tightly onto the jar, that it's threaded correctly...because you're going to turn it upside down and you don't want any leaks.

Voila! Mix away... then, take the blade/base off of the jar, put the original jar's lid on the jar, and you can store the dye in the jar and mix more dye in other jars. I bought a case of 12 quart-sized jars at the hardware store for $8. They have smaller jars, too. And I'm told you can find these at yard sales for way cheap.

A Day to Dye

I've been pretty quiet here lately, mainly because family activities and work have kept me away from doing much worth mentioning here. But I had a very fun day last Thursday with my buddies Pat, Janet, and Gerrie, when we experimented with pole dyeing a la Robbi Joy Ecklow.

We set up on my patio, which has a large expanse of concrete and a cover which makes being out there quite pleasant on a hot day. I bought 6-ft. lengths of PVC from the hardware store (they cut them for me right there) and I rigged them by duct-taping them to the tops of patio chairs. I put large plastic trays under the poles (to catch the drips)...and Pat came with the plastic tray thingies they sell for wall paper. I learned that next time, I'll spread plastic tarps under the whole area, as we were a pretty splashy, spattery bunch. You can see the photos in progress here, on Gerrie's blog.

My goal for the day was to try some different colors than what I usually do. I typically head straight for fuschia, turquoise, and bright yellow, and mix the gorgeous clear colors that I love to work with. But I wanted to stretch my palate and create some different pieces...so I tried all different things, including chartreuse, avocado, bronze, royal blue, and more.

I've got a few pieces left to iron, but here are a few of the results:






The process was very fun. And, knowing we'd go through a lot of dye, I invested in a dye-mixing-only blender (from my local drugstore for $12.99) and a box of canning jars. Did you know that the basic canning jars will fit directly onto the blender, so that you can mix right in them? It definitely made the dye mixing process faster and easier.

I definitely need to make time to use some of this gorgeous fabric!

Still LIfe with Puppy

There's no picture, because there's no such thing as a STILL life with a puppy around. (Get it? Harhar.)

I'm pooped. Walks twice a day, racing around on the lawn, playing fetch, not to mention following her around to make sure she goes potty in the designated potty area of the yard, and doesn't carry things like shoes that certain children and husbands left lying around.... I'm thinking that this could lead to a book called "The Puppy Diet." Who needs a gym?!

Originality

Interesting thought for the day:

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.
-- Howard Aiken

Distractions, and other distractions

I think I'm just going to have to accept that I don't get as much art done during the summer.

Caroline and Roger are both home from school, so it means that my day is spent playing with Caroline, arranging playdates for Caroline, taking her to and from stuff, and just doing nice family stuff with both Caroline and Roger. That's lovely, of course. But instead of grabbing a quick sandwich and eating while I read blogs on the AQ ring, now I'm making lunch for three and having a sit down family chat lunch.

Plus, a new puppy in the house is a huge distraction. I'm making sure she's tired and happy and we're doing regular walks and play sessions...Hugely entertaining, but not conducive to long hours in my studio.

June 30 is the end of my bar association's fiscal year, which means I need to finish my continuing legal education requirement by then. So, I've arranged to do two online seminars, which stream over my computer. Last night I was able to sew a bit while listening, but they do make you get up every 15 minutes or so and click a button to continue--thus ensuring, I suppose, that you don't just put the thing on and go to bed and get credit for material you never heard or saw.

Hmm, maybe this would be a good time to put the sewing machine on the dining room table...

On another note, I attended the lecture given by Phil Beaver at my local quilt guild. His website is interesting but his quilts in photos leave me cold. Seeing them in person was something else entirely--rich detail, gorgeous stitching, and accomplished technique. He was also a very entertaining speaker. So, I'm glad I went and came away inspired. He talks a lot about using what's around you to inspire you...He lives in Indiana and showed how he translates the things he loves about his home into art. While I do appreciate the beauty of where I live, hearing him made me see things in a new light. I'm going to have to start taking my camera with me when I take Gemma for a walk.

Reasonable doubt

It's been virtually impossible to avoid the news about the verdict in the Michael Jackson sexual molestation trial. I didn't follow the actual trial very closely -- Michael Jackson repulses me, even in his "normal" behavior -- but the ongoing trial news, too, was hard to avoid.

But seeing how I've been hearing a lot of news commentary about the "not guilty" verdict, I thought I'd throw out my thoughts on it.

Without my having followed the trial that closely, I think that the "not guilty" verdict was a sound one. That's because, reading what I've read about the evidence, I can understand how the jury could have had "reasonable doubt" about whether Jackson commited the acts alleged by this kid.

In a criminal trial, the crime must be proved "beyond a reasonable doubt." We hear that phrase all the time, but lawyers, judges, and jurors have to pay close attention to how that phrase is defined in the law. I'm sure that the Jackson jurors got a long, formal jury instruction about what "reasonable doubt" means, too. Here's the standard California jury instruction on "reasonable doubt":

"Reasonable doubt is defined as follows: It is not a mere possible doubt; because everything relating to human affairs is open to some possible or imaginary doubt. It is that state of the case which, after the entire comparison and consideration of all the evidence, leaves the minds of the jurors in that condition that they cannot say they feel an abiding conviction of the truth of the charge."

So, in light of the extent to which the boy and his mother appeared to have given contradictory statements and had such a history of making claims for monetary gain, I can see how those facts, right there, create some reasonable doubt that what they were alleging was true.

Now, do I think that it's LIKELY that Michael Jackson has molested some kid at some point? Yes, I think it's possible and maybe even probable. But probable isn't the legal standard here. Also, even if you believe some other boy when he said that Jackson did molest him (that youth minister guy) or did not molest him (McCauley Culkin), that may have some bearing on Jackson's propensity to molest, but it doesn't prove what he did or didn't do with the particular kid at issue. He wasn't on trial for those acts in this case.

Anyway, even before the jury came back, I suspected that it'd be a "not guilty" verdict, and not because of Jackson's race or celebrity status. It was because, in light of the legal definition of "reasonable doubt," I saw reasonable doubt when I heard how the evidence was unfolding.

I've watched a few interviews with jurors from the case, and I've been impressed at how calm and neutral they seemed. Yes, some said, Jackson seemed eccentric. Yes, he showed poor judgment. But, they noted, those things aren't crimes. Sleeping with boys -- alone -- is weird, but not criminal. With all the evidence together, did the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the acts alleged? No.

I do have a very different view about the O.J. Simpson trial, but that's a whole other story.

We did it!

Well, we did it. Gemma is now a new member of our family, and a very cute puppy she is, too. Very social, very friendly, very people oriented, surprisingly calm (or just exhausted from the exitement, it's hard to tell) and smart. She's already headed to the back door to ask for her own urgent haircut.

At the moment, she's in her crate happily chewing on a chew toy and listening to CNN in the family room. I'll head to bed and check on her in a few hours. So, she'll be fully updated on the Michael Jackson verdict and can answer all my questions.

We probably won't get a ton of sleep over the next few nights, but we're in love. The cats are wary, but staking out their turf.

Nola, the rescuer/foster mom, left the puppy's collar on her when she left. At one point, I took the collar off to let her neck breathe and see her without it...and she picked it up in her mouth and trotted (in that loose-limbed puppy way) around the yard with it, looking extremely proud. I'd forgotten how funny puppies are. And at one point, when I was reaching into the crate to spread out a towel and make things neat, Gemma chose that moment to try to get in too, under my arm, which of course squished us both in there ridiculously and made me laugh out loud.

Ah, for the fun of a warm puppy.

St. Dale

I wanted to say a few words about a very different and interesting book I finished recently: "St. Dale" by Sharon McCrumb.

I've never been into NASCAR racing. But, as my dad and my brother are huge racing fans, I've grown up around racing. That's another element of the soundtrack to my childhood and adolescence: the weekend whine/roar of cars racing on tv.

So..."St. Dale?" The premise of this novel is that to a lot of fans, Dale Earnhardt is or should be a saint. The novel tells the story of a bunch of folks on a Dale Ernhardt memorial bus tour, traveling from race track to race track in the south. A minister, escorting a very sick little boy on a "dream come true" trip; a newlywed couple, in which the wife is honoring her new husband's wish to get married on the infield of a race track; three girlfriends who are race-obessessed; a young Manhattan investment banker who never knew his father, but learned after his death that his father loved Dale Earnhardt...well, you get the idea. Each person on the bus has some personal connection to racing, and how they connect and what he meant to each one of them is diffferent and surprising and interesting.

I guess I picked this up because I've heard the racing names for so long, and still managed to absorb almost nothing about racing. And I didn't need to know about it, but still enjoyed this story. Definitely something different to read. This may end up in my brother's birthday goodies this September.

Quote for today:

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life." Mortimer J. Adler

How cute is this puppy?

How could anyone resist this puppy?

I couldn't. We're meeting her tomorrow, with the view of adopting her from a local puppy rescue organization.

We've been thinking, for some time, of getting a puppy. More specifically, I've been clearly eager to do this for some time, and I've finally persuaded Roger that it's time. After all, it's the beginning of the summer, we're all home to take care of it, and Caroline is here to enjoy playing with it.

So, I've been poking around the animal shelter and dog rescue sites on the internet for some weeks now. Roger and I both like the idea of a mixed breed, depending on the mix, and we definitely want to give some homeless dog a happy home.

This cute little girl is a 4 month old black lab mix living in a puppy-rescuer's foster home. She is, by all accounts, accustomed to cats (which will be good news to our two young-adult indoor cats) and loves children and is very mellow.

So, she's getting microchipped at our local shelter tomorrow and then we'll meet her. This could be the next member of our family! I'm very excited.

Dyeing on a hot day

Recently, Robin of the blog "Quilt Antics" showed how she dyed fabric on the floor of her garage. Well, what a lightbulb moment for me! Here we have this nice big expanse of concrete on the patio just waiting to be used that way!

So, this morning it was clear that the day was going to be very hot and sunny. I figured it was the perfect day to try out this method. I headed to the hardware store, where I found this huge roll of black plastic (6 ft. wide by about 200 feet on the roll) for $11.99. I took the dyes I mixed from the last session out of the fridge, and Caroline and I had a grand time squirting dye onto fabric.

Her results (you cam probably pick them out -- she did 3) look more like splotchy tie-dye...Me, I had fun brushing dye around. I haven't yet been able to resist smearing my gloved hands around in it. Anyway, it was very fun. Next, I want to try Robbi Joy Ecklow's method of draping long lengths of fabric over a length of pipe or broomstick, to pour it down for a beautiful streaky effect. What a fun way to spend sunday afternoon!

Today's Quote

"I myself have never known what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."

--- Rebecca West

Koi Pond

I've got several projects in progress so I haven't anything new to show, but I realized that I haven't shown "Koi Pond" here before.

I made this about 9 months ago, and recently had it out to exhibit at my local guild's quilt show this past weekend. I was inspired by some gorgeous fabric I found with koi swimming through rippling water. It was one of those fabric purchases I made when I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I just loved it. The fabric sat in my closet for a few months, when I stumbled on the same rippling water fabric (obviously a fabric coordinate) but without the fish. I bought another hunk, and figured I'd use them together, somehow.

After some mulling, I decided to fuse rings of the fish fabric in alternating circles to the plain water fabric. I loved the effect, but then had to let the result sit on my design wall while I contemplated border possibilities. My friend Janet spent a long morning with me, one day, trying almost every fabric in a local store to see what would work! Even then, I ended up using something totally different so that even Janet was surprised when she saw the finished piece.

This picture isn't the greatest and doesn't show the quilting detail well, but I quilted it by stitching in the ditch around the rings in the center of the quilt. In the border I continued quilting concentric circles out from the pond circles, overlapping as they would in a pond.

Hello again, old friend

Do you recognize this album cover? It's "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver, released in August, 1972. I started high school in 1972. And I vividly remember the day I went over to my friend Heidi's house, and she put this album on. We sat on the floor in her bedroom and listened to it...and played it again...and again. In a way, I think this album was the soundtrack to my freshman year in high school.

I hadn't really thought about John Denver or his music in years. I used to own quite a few of his albums, and I'd played them a lot through high school and college. But I moved on in my musical taste, and haven't listened to any of his music (other than a favorite Christmas album that I bring out ever year) for years....decades, even.

So, while cruising around ITunes for music to download to my beloved Ipod, I stumbled onto something by him...which made me think, "Hmmm, maybe I'll download a song or two." And that got me started on a musical trip down memory lane. As I clicked on songs and listened to excerpts, I realized what a big part of my adolesence his music was. I guess his optimistic, idealistic style really touched something in me back then. So hearing bits of songs brought it all flooding back. I ended up dashing over to Half.com to buy some cheap, used CDs of my favorites, and two arrived in the mail yesterday.

I'm surprised at how familiar they are. Without thinking, I know what song will come next, all the lyrics... The album covers, the inner liner notes, all the photos--they're all so familiar. And I'm struck, again, at how beautiful some of this music is. I love a pure voice singing along with an acoustic guitar.

Anyway, I've been listening to this music and feeling like I'm spending time with an old friend I'd forgotten about.

Whether that's John Denver, or myself as a high schooler, it's hard to tell.

Important Parenting Moment, #1

I had an IMPORTANT PARENTING MOMENT (hereafter to be known as IPM) this past weekend. You parents know what I mean: it's one of those flashes of insight or sudden realizations that hits you, and you recognize that you've learned something important about your child, and probably about yourself, too. I'm not sure if the fact that I have these from time to time means that I'm especially insightful, or that I'm typically oblivious and I should have realized whatever it is that is hitting me, long before. In any event, one occurred this weekend.

Here's the history. My 9 year old daugher Caroline takes a horse-back riding lesson every Saturday. She started riding when she was about 6 1/2...not because Roger or I wanted her to, but because she just wanted to and talked about horses and asked for lessons until we decided to give it a try. We signed her up for 3 lessons, and to be honest, I figured that she'd get up close to a horse and realize how a) big; b) smelly; and c) dirty it was, and that'd be that.

Boy, was I wrong. She was extraordinally intent during that first lesson, and has been ever since. She loves riding...in fact, her lesson is routinely the highlight of her week. So, recognizing that it was an activity that sprang from her own deep-seeded passion, Roger and I decided to pursue it. Since then, she's had a weekly lesson, and pony day-camp weeks on various vacations. Her interest hasn't waned; if anything, it's grown exponentially.

So, there I am, at the stable for Caroline' s lesson almost every Saturday. We arrive at 9:30, so she has 30 minutes for grooming and tacking up, her lesson is from 10 to 11 AM, and then she untacks and grooms the pony again, and we leave. Most of the other kids untack, brush their ponies, and are out of the stable by 11:15 or 11:20. Not Caroline. She'll groom that week's mount carefully and lovingly, feeding it carrot after carrot while she works. She especially loves to pick the hooves--go figure. Then she goes around and feeds carrots to the other ponies. She always asks the "big girl" counselors (high school girls who help out at the pony school to earn their lessons) for more chores, and usually ends up filling water buckets and sweeping.

I generally sit and watch her lesson, and I used to follow her from the ring back to the stable to watch the untacking/grooming. (One thing I like about this place: they actually send memos home saying "Please do not carry saddles, tack, or with other grooming chores. Horse care is part of the lesson and is your child's responsibility, not yours.") But standing around watching Caroline untack and groom and sweep and such is extremely boring. Now, I to back to the car and read or listen to NPR. And the whole time, I'm hoping she'll hurry up so we can get out of there. Yep, I've even been known to nudge her along impatiently ("C'mon, it's time to go...")

So, this past Sunday, there was a "schooling show" at the pony school. That's basically a tiny, learning horse show for kids. Caroline was eager to ride in it, not because she's competive about the riding, but because it's one more opportunity to spend some time on horseback. She was signed up for 2 basic equitation classes, where she'd just walk, trot, and canter. We arrived and were setting up our camp chairs in a shady patch when Caroline's teacher Nora, the owner of the pony school, approached Caroline and asked Caroline to follow her. (Caroline threw me this look, sort of wide-eyed and nervous, like "Is this OKAY?") I nodded my approval, and off they went. At the end of the class, Nora took Caroline into the center of the ring, and announced that Caroline had won the pony school's Grooming Award, for being the most dedicated and careful groomer of all students who ride at the pony school. She raved about Caroline's dedication and presented her with her OWN grooming kit. Caroline was clearly dumbfounded, but very pleased. She spent pretty much every minute she wasn't on horseback examining her kit, stroking the brushes, and looking proud.

So, here's my IPM: Sometimes others see great things in your child that you forget to notice or appreciate. All that time while Caroline was grooming and hoof-picking and brushing and filling water buckets, while I was wishing she'd hurry up and come to the car so we could leave, her riding teacher was seeing Caroline's extraordinary commitment to riding and her love for the ponies and her responsibility in caring for them. I'm so proud of Caroline for earning that award, and I'm sheepishly ashamed of myself for not seeing and appreciating her effort.

By the way, she did great in her classes: an 8th and a 5th place. Most importantly, she had fun.

Vanishing Acts

I just finished reading an amazing book: Vanishing Acts, by Jodi Picoult. It's going onto my life-time list of favorite books.

I don’t want to give away the plot, but here’s how Publisher’s Weekly described this book:

"Delia Hopkins was six years old when her father allowed her to be his assistant in the amateur magic act he performed at the local senior center's annual Christmas pageant. "I learned a lot that night," recalls Delia, who is now 32, at the start of Picoult's absorbing new novel (her 12th, after My Sister's Keeper). "That people don't vanish into thin air...." She has come to know this even better as an adult: she makes her living finding missing people with her own search-and-rescue bloodhound. As she prepares for her wedding, however, Delia has a flash of memory that is so vivid yet so wildly out-of-place among the other memories from her idyllic New Hampshire upbringing that she describes it to a childhood friend, who happens to be a reporter. Soon, her whole world and the world of the widowed father she adores is turned upside down. Her marriage to her toddler's father, a loving but still struggling recovering alcoholic, is put on hold as she is forced to conduct a search-and-rescue mission on her own past and identity."

The novel explores so many rich and resonant ideas: Are the memories of childhood that you carry with you real, or have they been constructed out of what you want to have happened? What makes you feel safe? What would you do to protect your child? When you find out something new about your own past, does that change who you are?

I found myself struggling to read this book more slowly, because I felt so immersed in these characters’ lives. Also, Picoult’s writing is so gorgeous, effortless seeming, but with amazing echoes as metaphors and concepts loop back and connect up with other ideas.

When I finished this yesterday afternoon, there were tears running down my face. I’m reluctantly returning this novel to the library tomorrow, but I’ll be at the bookstore buying my own copy. This is a book I’ll want to read again, and again.

By the way, I also highly recommend Picoult’s other novels, all of which I’ve read. She seems to specialize in finding an ethical dilemma and unravelling all sides of it through the eyes and voices of compelling characters. "Keeping Faith" has been my favorite, but I think it’s a close second to "Vanishing Acts." I highly recommend this novel.

Where inspiration comes, and goes

Gabrielle raised the subject of inspiration, and how to find it, in her blog the other day. She's said some provocative things, and I thought I'd add my two cents to the subject.

First, I want to respond to the concept that you have to put yourself into the studio every day, inspired or not. I can see the value of that, truly. But here's the thing: I think that "working" artistically isn't always an outward, active process. It doesn't alway need to mean manipulating fabric with one's hands. I think that time contemplating, thinking about ideas, relaxing and really looking at things around us to find images or shapes or colors that speak to us, are all part of the process of working on art. It's a level of awareness, perhaps, that allows you to see things in any setting and any circumstance as fodder for creativity.

Simply put, if you're in the studio slogging away day after day (pushing yourself to do the "outer" art), how do you have time to feed the "inner" artist?

I'm just thinking out loud here (well, in print, anyway) so maybe I'll disagree with these thoughts tomorrow. But I know that, for me, some of my most fertile and inspired times come after I've not been able to do (or I've not beein the the mood to do) in-studio work. Being away from the studio makes me think and feel differently, or approach things in a new, fresh way when I do return. And maybe this is my own contrary personality: if I feel that I *have* to do something, that feeling can often seriously dampen the happy creative energy I feel when I'm doing something simply because I *want* to do it.

I'm reminded that I've done some of my best work under pressure, when I've committed to produce something for some (usually self-imposed) deadline. So, I know all too well that there is something valuable about pushing forward that can release unexpected, unseen wells of creativity.

But you know that feeling of trying to remember something that is on the tip of your tongue, and how the harder you try to actively remember it, the more distant it feels? When I let the conscious effort go and let myself relax, the concept often floats right to mind. There's something about creativity and inspiration that is like that for me. Trying too hard to be creative can be frustrating and unproductive, sometimes. And sometimes, for me anyway, giving myself permission to let the effort go can be the most helpful thing I can do to find new creative energy.

So, I've learned that it's important for me to listen to myself, and give myself the time and space to rest, re-energize, and find new, quiet places for creative inspiration to grow. Here's a quote that expresses what I mean: "So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient, happy idling, dawdling and puttering. " -- Brenda Ueland.

I don't mean to sound like I think that inspiration just strikes out of nowhere. I don't think it does, and I do think that the old saying about inspiration being 90% perspiration is a valid one.

Bear in mind that I don't come at this from the perspective of someone who is trying to make a living as an artist. I consider myself an artist (and in the novice category, at that), but it's not the way I earn income. So, I'm not coping with the pressure to produce a constant stream of new, different work. That probably makes quite a difference in one's approach to this subject.

Because my professional work is in a different area, I don't have the feeling that Gabrielle expressed, that "In this time of production is everything...you are only as good as your last quilt...and we have to make x number of quilts a year to be viable..." But I did want to note my disagreement. I don't think that an artist is only as good as his or her last work. Do you think most people really think so? I think that an artist is viewed by his or her body of work over time, and some pieces are better or more successful than others. I guess I take the long view on this creative process, but maybe I have the luxury to do so because it's not my living.

I'm glad Gabrielle raised the topic, and I'm enjoying reading what others are posting about it.

How to weigh yourself...

...and get the most accurate result:



I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.

We must get the word out.

(A friend sent this to me in an email and I just had to share it here....Just doing my part to spread the vital news!)

I love my Ipod!

I love my Ipod. It is an amazing device. It's small, sleek, friendly, and -- when dressed in an Ipod cover (mine is a happy turquoise) it's colorful.

But best of all (and you don't need an Ipod for this part) I love Itunes. It's Apple's downloadable software that allows you to purchase and download songs and/or albums on line for 99 cents a song. I don't even have a MAC, and all this works perfectly on my PC.

I came pretty late to the MP3 revolution. But I'm a convert, albeit a technologically-impaired one. And despite that, I've managed to get it all working fine.

On Itunes, you can cruise around searching your favorite artists, listening to excerpts of songs for free, and poking around "IMixes" which are collections of songs other Itunes users have created to make playlists of their favorite songs. It's a fun way to remember songs you used to love, and to discover new songs and artists.

You know how sometimes you've gone and bought an album (er, a CD...I'm dating myself, here) because you love one song, and find that it's the only song on the thing you like and the rest are pretty bad? (The Blues Traveler song "Run Around" comes to mind...from 1994, as I now know from Itunes...Great song, on the radio all the time, I went and bought the cd "Four" only to discover that the other songs were all horrid.) Well, with Itunes, you can simply go get that ONE SONG. For 99 cents! You can download the song to your computer, and play directly from your computer, and/or load it to an MP3 device, and/or burn it to a CD!

I've been having a grand time with this. I've especially enjoyed it because music is so evocative of memories. A song can bring me right back to a place, or time, or event.... Here are some of the individual songs I've downloaded and have been listening to lately:

Ripple, by the Grateful Dead (flashes me right back to the law school dorm hallway, and standing around yacking after contracts class...)
Picture Book, by the Y0ung Fresh Fellows (this is that very catchy song on the HP commercial where the boppin' guy is printing out photos on his HP printer and putting them over his head with VERY cool graphics...)
Landslide, by the Dixie Chicks (a refreshing take on the Fleetwood Mac hit)
Somewhere over the Rainbow, by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (You've heard this on numerous commercials...It's so happy and will keep you humming it all day long)
She, by Elvis Costello (the swooningly romantic song used in the movie Nottinghill)
How to Dream, by Sam Phillips
As I Lay Me Down, by Sophie B. Hawkins (the rest of the album really did stink, IMHO)
One of Us, Joan Osborne (a very thought provoking song)
My Perogative, by Bobby Brown (an oldie but one of those beats that gets you moving)
Goodnight and Go, Imogen Heap
That's What Friends are For, by Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder and others (it's hokey, I know)
Garden Song, by John Denver (it makes me happy when I'm planting in the garden, what can I say... John Denver music is another guilty pleasure and brings me right back to high school and early college days.)
Walk like an Egyptian, by the Bangles (it just makes me smile.)
Daughters, by John Mayer
New Slang, by the Shins
Kiss Me, by Sixpence None the Richer
My Little Corner of the World, by Yo La Tengo

The Itunes/Ipod software lets you create "playlists," groups of songs that you can play together, sort of like creating your own album...er, cd. (There I go again.) I have an exercise music playlist, of songs with a driving beat to keep me going on the treadmill and such, and I even created a "dentist" playlist of loud, happy songs to drown out the sound of annoying drilling when I'm in the dentist chair. Weird, probably, but it works for me.

Don't even get me started about how great this is with downloading spoken word books, radio programs and other stuff from Audible.com... That's worthy of another whole entry, it's so great.
Here's wishing you happy music to listen to today...What songs make you smile when you hear them?

Photo transfers

I have a friend, Mary Lou, who is trying to transfer photos to fabric...and she's having trouble getting a result that doesn't fade dramatically when washed or rinsed. (She wants to make sure that her project is washable.)

I've only used the printing-on-fabric process for labels, so I'm not at all expert at this. But here's how I do it:

1. Soak the fabric in bubble jet set (I use a cookie tray with a lip--a jelly roll pan, I guess -- to soak the fabric flat, then after I wring out the fabric back into the pan, I use a funnel to pour it back into the bottle.

2. Hang the fabric outside to dry.

3. After it's dry, press it to get rid of wrinkles. Then, iron it to a piece of freezer paper cut about 9 x 12". Make sure the freezer paper is adhered well to the fabric.

4. Trim the freezer paper/fabric to 8 1/2 by 11. (The trimming after the ironing on makes sure that the edges of the freezer paper are well-connected to the fabric and it won't come apart in your printer.)

5. Run the sheet through your printer to print what ever you want on the fabric.

6. Let that sit somewhere for 24 -48 hours to cure. After that, peel off the freezer paper, then iron the fabric with a hot, dry iron.

7. Rinse the fabric in Bubble Jet Rinse, then iron again.

If you've used the computer transfer process successfully to make fabric that doesn't lose its image with a wash or two, is this the process you've used? How would you do it differently to make sure it works?

I (and Mary Lou!) appreciate any help here! Me, I'm printing labels to go onto 4 quilts before they go off to the local guild show this weekend...

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day, everyone.

Here in northern California, it's perfect Memorial Day weather...clear and sunny, warm (estimated to get up to mid-80's) and pleasantly breezy. Perfect picnic weather.

I've spent the morning working in the garden, feeding drip irrigation lines to the flowers I've planted over the last week. And, as Caroline is off having a playdate with her friend Sarah and as Roger is occupied with his work, I will spend the afternoon getting a bit of legal work out of the way.

But late this afternoon, our friends Laura and Matt, with their two sons Chris and Trevor, will come over for a casual outdoor dinner. We've not had a chance to catch up with them in a bit, even though Chris is in the same grade at the same school as Caroline and we often pass before and after school. Laura's on the PTO board with me, so we see each other there, too. But things have been busy for all of us lately, so it feels like a long time since we've just hung out for fun.

Inspired by my trip to the Scharfffen Berger chocolate factory, Caroline and I made brownies from scratch this morning, to have for dessert tonight. The recipe is a new one, but sounds wonderful. Here it is:

Triple Chocolate Brownies

2 Tb unsalted butter + more for greasing
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 lge eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8 or 9-inch pan with butter, set aside.
Combine the chocolate, water, and butter in a medium heavy pot over low heat, stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is just melted, turn off the heat and add the cocoa powder. Stir until combined, and set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Add eggs, sugar, and vanilla and stir until well-blended. Add flour, baking soda and salt and stir until no flour shows. Stir in chocolate chips (and nuts, if desired).
Scrape batter into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until top feels firm and brownies pull away from the sides. Remove from oven and cool. Cut into small pieces (they're rich!) and serve.

Sounds chocolatey and yummy, don't they?

The actual meal will consist of grilled fish sandwiches (we're on a grilled fish sandwich kick -- grilled mahi mahi or orange roughy, on a soft french roll with mashed avocado, louie dressing, and slices of iceberg lettuce) for the adults, grilled hot dogs for the kids, potato salad (our local small grocery store makes their own and it's fabulous) and coleslaw, from this recipe:

Asian Coleslaw

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons oriental sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
shredded cabbage
chopped celery
chopped onion
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk first 6 ingredients in large bowl to blend. Mix in cabbage, celery, onion. Season with salt and pepper. Chill at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours to blend flavors, tossing occasionally.

Margaritas will, most likely, be consumed as well.

Apparently I'm in a food sort of mood. (I heard a new term on tv yesterday: "foodgasm." Self explanatory, yes? ) So I'm looking forward to a nice evening, eating outside with friends.

I hope you're all having a festive holiday, as well.

A Delightful Day

I had the BEST day on Friday. We "fab five friends" (minus one -- Rita is away visiting her daughter and having fun without us) spent the day in Berkeley. Janet, who used to live there and knows the area well, was our activities director. She arranged for us to start the morning with a tour of the Scharffen-Berger Chocolate Factory. Ah, Chocolate: the perfect start to any day!

If you haven't heard of Scharffen Berger chocolate, it's a relatively new (since 1997, I learned) gourmet "artisanal" chocolate, from a tiny company begun by two guys, a wine-maker and a retired physician. They went to Europe and learned the old, artisan-style method of making chocolate. They make all of the chocolate at their tiny Berkeley factory, using vintage machines from the 20's and 30's. The factory is also in an historic building, made in 1906 (just after the big earthquake) from local bricks. So, outside the factory, you stand and gaze up at this lovely old brick building and see this sign, and inhale the incredibly strong, rich smell of dark chocolate. It's just wafting through the air everywhere there. Heaven.



As it turned out, the tour was fantastic. (And that's saying something, given that we had to all wear dorky hairnets AND I had to wear THEIR clog shoes as they required closed-toe shoes in the factory and I was wearing sandals that day. (What strange things would YOU wear to get free, gourmet chocolate?!) It started with a talk about the history of chocolate, how and where it is grown, and we got to see, feel, and even taste bits of the chcolate bean. Have you ever crunched a chocolate "nib"? That's the roasted inside of a cocoa bean...sort of a non-sweet, but cocoa-ish walnut texture. Very interesting. Then, into the factory, to see the chocolate actually being made (unlike the Hershey tour, where you stand behind glass and watch a demo of how Hershey makes chocolate, somewhere else).

Here is the cocoa bean roaster, which is basically a coffee been roaster. There's even a little sign stuck on saying where this batch of beans comes from (Costa Rica).



You can't see the beans in there, but trust me, they were there. Then, on to the machine that crushes the nibs and eventually breaks them down to a gooey chocolate mass:



Yep, that's chocolate goop coating the two grinding wheels. It was sort of intoxicating to peer into that machine and see that mass of whirling dark chocolate while smelling that rich, dark smell. One could easily swoon and topple right in!

Here's a shot of newly-formed chocolate bars coming down the line...very exciting. Those little dribbled bits at the end of the line drop into a bucket and are eventually dumped back into a vat, melted, and then formed back into perfect bars. Chocolate can be re-melted, tempered, and formed over and over, so if the find mistakes or bubbles in the bars, they just remelt, re-temper, and re-form them. Darn--no seconds at this factory.



Here's another shot of this conveyor belt with more chocolate. And see those people in the background? Wearing the dorky hair-covering nets? That's what we were wearing and that's pretty much how we looked. (Janet wouldn't let me take a picture of them.) One bearded fellow even had to wear a special beard-covering net on his chin which was very amusing.



But I digress.

Here's a lady whose job it is to pop lovely, dark bricks of chocolate out of their molds. That white tub in the foreground is full of them! Yummers!



And here's where little chocolate items get bagged. It looked like she was putting chocolate covered cranberries or some such delicacy into bags, here.



By the way, Sharffen-Berger has a cool website where you can take a virtual tour and see better photos than mine. And, just so you know, you can order chocolate online here!

After the tour, we made a trip through the gift shop and all bought souvenirs (edible ones, for the most part). Then, surprising, we were hungry. Fortunately, there's the Cafe Cacao right on site! We had a gorgeous lunch there (and no, we didn't have any chocolate there, although the desserts looked fabulous!) Many of the items on the menu featured chocolate in some form: a chicken mole pressed sandwich (which Pat and Janet had and raved about), a salad with cocoa nib vinaigrette... I had a lovely pressed ham and gruyere cheese sandwich with a delicious tomato and apricot chutney. The perfect salty/tangy combo to offset that chocolate lingering on my palate! It really was a lovely cafe with delicious food. We all agreed that we'd highly recommend the tour to others. (And, by the way, most of the people on the tour were visiting from out-of-state.)

From there, we ventured to 4th Street, a great shopping area in Berkeley with some terrific little shops AND a Crate and Barrel outlet! We all found good bargains there: I came away with Sunbrella (you know, that outdoor fabric that doesn't stain or mildew or fade in the sun) cushions for our patio chairs, a great deep red rug for in front of the kitchen sink, and a wire window-box planter for my sister's birthday in a few days. Score!

After that excitement, we went to our favorite Berkeley haunt, a wonderful fabric store called New Pieces. It's especially fun because, besides the great fabric they always have, they have a gallery a few doors up the street where they hang collections from various quilters. This month, they were featuring a group of quilts made together by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston, two of my favorite quilters.

In case you're not familiar with their work, Freddy is famous for her use of bright colors interspersed with black and white prints for a very lively look. (You can see a bunch of them, here.) Gwen is known for (among other things) her "liberated quiltmaking" style of wacky, free-form versions of traditional blocks. I especially love Freddy, because I consider her responsible for getting me back into quilting after I'd been away for it for so long. I started quilting in college, when we used cardboard templates, carefully pieced dull little calico prints... and back then, I thought it was fun...but I went on to law school and then work and didn't have time or energy for it. I happened to stumble onto Freddy's book "Freddy's Houses" just when Caroline was entering preschool, and it was seeing her exciting and happy quilts that made me realize that traditional blocks didn't have to look traditional. I was electrified by the possibility of using all that color and pattern. Lucky for me, Freddy lives across the bay (on the Berkeley side, in Orinda) and she teaches at local shops. I was thrilled to get to meet her (I gushed and gushed at her, at how I loved her quilts, and how they made me see a whole new world of quilting, and how she'd changed my life...until she probably thought I was some strange and overly emotional stalker type.) Anyway, since then I've taken numerous classes with her --not becuase what she teaches is difficult, but because she's such a lovely and fun person and her classes really are wonderful fun. I think I'm a Freddy Groupie.

Oops, I'm digressing again. But that's why I was excited to see this collection of Freddy's latest quilts, with Gwen. Here's a photo of a typical one:



Now, a lot of people might think this sort of quilt is garish and wacky and bright. But actually, what I love about them: they are, well, garish and wacky and bright! I love that traditional blocks are livened up with wild color and nontraditional design. Note the amazing border on this one above...Freddy makes great fun borders.

Here's another one I really liked, which shows off Gwen's "liberated" baskets perfectly with Freddy's color:



And this one, titled "Little House in the Big Woods," is my favorite.



See that little tiny house block in the middle there? I love it. You can see more of their collaboration here.

I was excited to find the perfect backing fabric for the polka dot quilt I'm working on...you'll see it when the quilt is finished. And I came away with the book from the 2004 Visions Quilt Show, which is full of amazing and inspirational art.

It was a fabulous day, and Gerrie, Janet, Pat and I have such fun together that we didn't even mind the traffic on the way home. I got back to find that Roger had grilled mahi mahi for fish sandwiches (on good rolls, with Louie dressing and lettuce) and sweet potato fries on the side and a chilled glass of white wine...the perfect end to a perfect day.

What nice teeth you have...

This sort of sums up my day yesterday.

I spent much of the day, from about 11:30 am until about 5:30 pm, in the dentist chair. My dentist took me at my word when I asked if I could just be sedated and have him fix everything at once before I get braces...so, yesterday was all of the work on the left side of my mouth. He replaced old fillings, prepared for 2 crowns, and removed a tooth to make room for my crowded front teeth to be gently (?) adjusted via orthodontia into straight, lovely teeth.

I came home heavily drugged, slept, and today am remaining pleasantly spacy on pain medication.

I am having interesting dreams, including one in which I learned that my mother decided to grow marijuana plants in her backyard, and another in which I found myself driving around in a VW bug with Niles Crane. Go figure.

I'm not operating heavy machinery, or even light machinery, today, so no sewing for me.

I am, however, contemplating a tooth-themed quilt!

Sunny Sunday

Here's what I did on Sunday.



I planted this flower bed, and an identical one that you can't see, which is out of the picture to the right. Now, this probably doesn't look like much...but trust me, this was HARD work. The main problem is that our soil is hard clay. I'm convinced that if you grabbed a ball of the stuff and put it in a kiln, you could bake it into a hard, unbreakable ball. We spent a lot of money amending the soil two years ago when the backyard went from a big expanse of bare dirt (which is how it was when we moved into our newly built house). So, this is the improved soil, which isn't saying much. Trust me, using a trowel to dig out holes for little six-pack flower starts is murder. I've bent several trowels so far.

Still, the yard is shaping up, if I do say so. I planted cosmos, petunias, verbena, and lobelia. And see that rose bush there in the middle? It bears pink AND white roses! It's some sort of fancy grafting, but it's very cool. See?



A pink rose, and a white one. On the same bush. Caroline loves this.

Also, I've told you about the lilac hibiscus plant that I love because of the way the flowers swirl in amazing spirals. Here's what I mean:



An opening blossom...


Partly open...And here's one wide open:



Gorgeous, aren't they?

A Very Shibori Day

What the heck is this lady doing, you ask?

This is Joy-Lily, a shibori artist who taught a guild workshop last friday. Here, she's demonstrating how to make a "nose" (and you were thinking of a different part of the body, weren't you?!) which will result in a circular pattern when dyed.

Here's Gerrie, concentrating on wrapping her silk. It's HARD, all that wrapping and twisting and tying.



See, Janet and Pat are wearing serious faces of concentration, too. I was glad to try this, but I'm not sure I'm gonna do much. For the effort, the scrunching is more my speed (fast) and my style (slapdash).



Still, the results are pretty and fun. These were from others in the class whose pieces dried pretty quickly.



And this is Pat, Janet, and Gerrie looking happy and pretending they made these.



I'll post my fabrics when I have them ironed. I did one silk piece, which is pretty but not colors whose final result surprised me, and a piece of cotton which took a lot of work to wrap but is interesting looking. All said, it was a fun day, but not a great class as classes go. If you're ever inclined to take a workshop from this woman, email me and I'll tell you more.

By the way, this picture cracks me up, because it's a picture of Gerrie taking a picture for HER blog. Taking a photo of a blogger in the pre-blog process amuses me no end!

It's going to be a good day...

I know it's going to be a good day, because...

1. The first email that arrived in my inbox this morning informed me that I've won 1.5 million euros in an international lottery. And I'm feeling so fabulous that I won't even claim the money. Or perhaps I'll be very generous and assign my claim to the winnings to that fellow in Nigeria who keeps writing me to ask for help.

2. I'm off for the day to take a shibori dyeing workshop with artist Joy Lily, along with my good friends Gerrie, Pat, and Janet. Fun ahead!

3. My sister is picking Caroline up for school, so I don't have to rush home! I'm free!

4. Later on, Caroline, Laura (my sister) and I will have a girl's movie/pizza night to watch A Series of Unfortunate Events together. (If you haven't seen this movie -- which you should because Jim Carey and Meryl Streep are incredibly funny and clever in it -- it's worth renting it just to see the title/credit sequences. Sort of Edward Gorey-esque but with a different edge, very artful.)

5. It's sunny, and promises to be warm, which means we'll probably dye fabric outside on the courtyard.

6. My heirloom roses are blooming and they smell heavenly!

Hope you all have a nice day ahead!

Stripping fun

I've been having such a good time with my mindless paper piecing project! First, I pulled out all of my bright polka dots and arranged them. Don't they look pretty?



Here are the "lights."



I'm paper piecing arcs for my circle project...Here's one.



And look! I've done a whole bunch!



They're very fun and happy. And, as I keep saying, totally brainless. Gee, I have so many strips cut, I'll just have to keep going...and going...and going...

Email as Fiction

I got into bed last night with a new novel from the library. It's called "Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend" by Laney Katz Becker. I'd pulled it off the shelf because it promised to be the story of a friendship unfolding between two women as they corresponded with each other. I love books written through letters and journal entries.

Anyway, I got about half-way through and only put it down because it was midnight and I was too tired. But I wanted to keep reading. The novel involves a woman who posts a message on a breast cancer internet message board because she discovers a lump, and the email relationship she develops with a breast cancer survivor who answers her. The story unfolds through their emails.

It's easy reading -- as easy as reading email! -- and it's interesting, poignant, and personal. My sister has survived breast cancer, as have several friends, so it hits subjects and emotions very close to home.

And it reminds me of how surprisingly easy it can be to make friends -- even close friends -- through email. I'm so glad for my friends, and the new ones I've made (and am making) through the Artful Quilters Web Ring.

Studio Confidante

Do you have a Studio Confidante? You know, someone who lives in your studio and keeps you company and makes you smile?

I have two. Above, that's Hilda Haagen-Daas, and I love her. She was made by my friend Elaine Benjamin, who makes and sells the most gorgeous art dolls. You probably can't tell too well on the photo, but Hilda has a tiny copper moon face, and hair made of copper nails. She has wooden ice cream spoon hands, which explains the --shall we say, comfortable? -- proportions of her "figure 8."

Here's the other:



I've had this lovely wooden mermaid for many years. I got her on Nantucket, where I was drawn to her and couldn't leave the island without her. Her waist and tail are hinged, so she's sort of posable. But mostly she lounges on the bookshelf, gazing peacefully down at me.

I was inspired to show you my Confidantes after reading Stephanie's wonderful blog. (Stephanie, by the way, is one of two amazingly creative daughters of my buddy and our fellow ring-member Gerrie.) Her blog pointed me to this site, where you can see a whole slide show of various folks' Studio Confidantes.

I'd love to see yours! If you post yours on your blog, put a comment on this entry so people will know where to look!

Wanting a Piece O' Cake

No, I didn't make this. Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins, of "Piece O' Cake Designs," did. It's in their new book, "Quilts with a Spin," and it was also on a cover of a recent Quilters Newsletter Magazein. I love those circles!

You see, I’ve been in the mood to sew something easy and mindless. You know, where you can sit at the sewing machine with good music or tv in the background, and just grab fabric and sew without making decisions.

This sort of mood is generally reflective of having to think too much in my non-quilting life! I have a lot of work on my desk... I did finish that appellate brief, and on time without any “all-nighters,” so that was good. Now I have three simultaneous projects: an intellectual property case, a criminal case in which I have to do some motions to exclude evidence, and a products liability civil case involving a defective cement form hoisting mechanism. They’re all fairly interesting (well, I guess interesting is a relative term...trust me, it could be far worse) and I like the variety.

But as a result of all this thinking, I want stress-free sewing. As much as I love the design wall designing process, in this sort of mood I don’t want to have to constantly decide what I want where. I need slapdash, spontaneous stuff. No thinking, just sewing. Do you ever feel that way?

At times like these, I often pull out the large rubbermaid full of scraps at the bottom of the closet and sew crazy log cabin type blocks, which I then use for quilts to donate to a local children’s shelter. They’re fun, happy, and mindless. But I’ve done a lot of those in recent months, so I’m up for something else.

A month or two ago, Quilters Newsletter magazine had a quilt on the cover, made by the Piece O’ Cake ladies. It features circles that have 3 rings in them, and each ring is paper pieced with gaily colored stripes. It’s happy and whimsical and it looks mindless. So, that’s where I’m headed today. I copied the paper piecing foundations, and I’ve pulled out happy fabric to mix with the scrap strips I have, and that’s my plan for the afternoon.

And no, I'm not gonna do any applique, on the border or elsewhere. I do have my limits.

Happy weekend, y’all!

Cleopatra graced our home last week. Actually, although she appeared only on Thursday and Friday, we talked about her all week long.

The occasion? Caroline's third grade teacher assigned them a book report on a biography, and each student had to dress up as the subject and deliver an oral report as if she was the subject. Don't ask me why, but Caroline chose Cleopatra...Other kids chose people like Elvis, Hilary Duff, Michele Kwan and Kobe Bryant. (Now, that's a report I'd have liked to have heard...wonder whether the kid explained that little rape accusation...)

Anyway, Caroline brought a book home from the school library about Cleopatra, and although it was written at her reading/comprehension level, it was complicated. To explain the high points in Cleopatra's life, you have to explain Julius Caesar, and the Roman Empire, and Mark Antony...no small feat. So, all week, we talked about Cleopatra and a highly condensed version of her life. Roger and I both learned more than we knew about her originally, which was pretty much nothing beyond the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton movie.

Caroline rehearsed the story over and over, and was very prepared although extremely nervous about having to say that Julius Caesar and Mark Antony both fell in love with her...She just KNEW that the whole class would shriek "Eeee-eeewwwwww" when she mentioned the L-O-V-E word! But she survived (they didn't shriek) and did great. (Roger actually went to watch so we have the event on videotape.)

The only question during the class Q&A period? "Where'd you get that cool rubber snake?" These kids go right to the important stuff.

I mention all of this because a) I love the picture, and b) it took a lot of MY time and energy all week. It made me think a lot of my friend Paula, whose kids were in elementary school when I was a brand new, single lawyer. Paula used to write me about what her kids were doing, and although I never would have said so to her face, I was always rather irritated that I wanted to know what SHE was doing and all I got were reports of what her kids were doing. It's taken me a long time (and a child of my own) to realize what that is: What the kids are doing, at this young age, IS what the mom is doing.

So, although Caroline was the one with the assignment, Cleopatra became my assignment, too.
Who'd have thought.

It's a miracle!

I finished my contemporary double wedding ring quilt! I'm calling it "Ring Cycle." Here it is, hanging over the master bed.

It turned out amazingly flat, considering how it was when I sandwiched it with the batting and back. I did ditch-stitch quilting at first, then a lot of tight stippling on the background to mash that all down, then I blocked it. And when I say blocked, I mean "stretched the heck out of it!" I really worked and worked to keep mushing it this way and that and pinning, pinning, pinning, until it was flat...THEN I quilted the rings. And, astonishingly, it turned out fine. I thank god for Kathy Sandbach and how much I learned from her in her machine quilting class! (The amazing things that blocking can fix being one of them.)

Here's a detail shot to show how it's quilted:

Binding interruptus

I always look forward to sewing the binding onto a quilt. Partly, it's the knowledge that I'm almost done. But it's largely that I use it to indulge myself with a particularly enjoyable binding ritual. I plan time during the day, in the morning, preferably, find a good movie or something otherwise engrossing on tv, and treat myself to a few hours to sit and sew in front of the tv. It's peaceful, and I love it.

Apparently, this ritual of mine is jinxed. I wrote a while ago of my frustrations trying to bind one quilt. But today was worse.

Having stretched and blocked the heck out of my contemporary double wedding ring quilt, and quilted it profusely until it actually was flat, I was delighted to get to the binding stage. I planned to use this morning to sit, watch a movie (I was aiming for Bridget Jones 2) and sew. I've enjoyed making this quilt, but it's had various delays while I've pondered how to solve a few problems that arose. So, coming to the end of it is especially satisfying and worthy of indulgence.

No sooner did I sit down, thread the needle, and get the movie fired up did the phone ring. Now, I'm no fool. I figure that if I'm going to be indulgent, then I'm going all the way. I let the phone ring until the answering machine picked up.

Uh oh. I heard the voice of Bob, the attorney for whom I do research and writing. His message? "Just wanted to make sure that you're on target to get the brief filed on Monday."

BRIEF? WHAT BRIEF? Talk about taking the fun out of the morning. I lunged for the phone, breathlessly pretending to Bob that I'd just come in from outside... to learn that somehow his secretary had neglected to send me a copy of a scheduling order from the state supreme court stating that MONDAY is the deadline for filing an appellate brief I'd agreed to do. I knew the appeal was pending, but had no idea that the court had issued its schedule. Geez.

So, the quilt is unbound, Bridget Jones 2 remains unseen... and now I'm writing an appellate brief for the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Not a small task. Still, if I put my head down and just work straight through until Sunday night, I think it'll get done and be okay.

So, if you don't hear from me until Monday, you'll know why.

But on Tuesday, don't call me. I'm gonna sit and watch a movie and sew.

What I'm reading...

Reading is a huge part of my life. I've always been an avid reader, and I love to get book recommendations from others. That's why I enjoy seeing "what I'm reading" lists on blog sidebars. It fascinates me to find out what other people read, and I often end up going to look up books I might not have heard about otherwise.

When I set up my blog, I was excited to find a site called allconsuming.net, which allowed you to mark books you were reading and then link them to your blog so your blog was always current. However, the amazing programmer who set up that site has had various problems it and it hasn't been functioning well lately. I haven't found anything else like it (if anyone has any recommendations, I'd be eager to hear them) and I'm too lazy to update my whole blog template every time I change books...which do every 2 or 3 days. So, I'm going to just add a "what I'm reading" from time to time, just in case you want to know.

And you might want to know what I'm reading now, because it's a fascinating book. It's called "The Dogs of Babel," by Carolyn Parkhurst. It's a very well-written story of a man whose wife has died under circumstances which are mysterious to him. He becomes obsessed with teaching their dog, the sole witness, to talk so he can find out the truth about her death --was it accidental or did Lexy commit suicide?

Guess the sitcom character

Just in case you're sitting in front of the computer, you've read all your favorite blogs already, and you have nothing to do (or, in that unlikely event, you're looking for other things to do while you're not doing all the other things you should be doing), you can check out this entertaining site:

http://www.smalltime.com/dictator.html

It's a silly game where the computer guesses which sitcom character or dictator you're thinking of.

That's right. Sitcom character or dictator. Don't ask me why. But it works.

And it's more fun than cleaning the bathroom.

Time for a miracle

I have spent some time this weekend working on quilting my contemporary double wedding quilt, which looks like this:



Well, the top seemed nice and flat at the ironing board...but in the sandwiching process, I discovered that -- probably due to all those curves and biases -- the top wasn't as flat as it should be. Still, I forged ahead... when in doubt, keep going. That's my motto, which does not always serve me well.

I ditch-stitched around the circles. Egad...it REALLY isn't flat. So, I've done tight stippling all over the blue background, and have decided to put my faith in the miracles that a good, damp blocking can work. I will block it tomorrow, flatten out (I hope) the somewhat puffy rings, and THEN add minimal quilting to them.

Wish me luck. I'm pinning my hopes on a miracle blocking experience.