Don’t you just love quilting retreats?

In my town of Healdsburg, there’s an amazing retreat center owned and run by an Episcopal diocese called Bishop’s Ranch. It’s out on a vineyard road, next to a big dairy farm dotted with black and white cows, and it’s one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been to in my life. It has gorgeous views of vineyards and farms, and wide vistas of blue sky... It’s really lovely.

Anyway, a bunch of fun and talented quilters have run a twice-a-year quilt retreat up there for some years, and I first went last October, which was wonderful fun. Many of the same women were there for the April retreat last week (including Gerrie, in hiding after publishing her incendiary political statement) and although I wasn’t doing the retreat, I did go up on Wednesday to visit and have fun and be inspired. It worked! I had a really lovely, relaxing afternoon hanging out with them. While they slaved away at their machines (if you can call it slaving with all that laughter) I sat and hand-sewed the hanging sleeve onto a friend’s quilt for her.

So here are the pictures: happy women, hard at work doing what they love, in the company of people they enjoy:

Rita, making crazy log cabin blocks in her new Janome Gem


Pam, constructing crazy log cabin blocks which have the most charming dog fabric centers


Sidney, making a ballerina quilt for a child-friend (I couldn't figure why she was making fabric panty shields -- turned out they were the bases of ballet slippers!)


Janet, tracing a pattern (and looking happy that I was doing her hand-sewing for her)


Gerrie, quilting away on her "I've Got Your Number" quilt. I love the masking tape exclamation point over her head! Aren't I a talented photographer to get that in there?


There'd be a picture of my friend Pat here, but she was off getting a massage at the time. A quilting retreat with on-site masseuses...decadent, yes? I'm counting the days until October!

Studios for real people

We all know that making art is not a tidy business. Still, some of us continue to labor under the delusion that our art-making spaces should be neat and clean. Personally, I love it when my studio/office is tidy and well-organized...and for those rare few minutes, I feel so smug virtuous. But most of the time, when work is in progress, it’s pretty much of a mess. And, really, that's okay with me. As I used to say to my mom when I was a teenager (quoting a poster I saw once), "A creative mess is better than idle neatness."

I love seeing pictures of other quilters’ studio spaces. I’m fascinated to see how they organize their supplies, how they set up their ironing stations, what machines they have, what their design walls look like. And, thanks to the wonder of the internet, there are lots of places to see pictures of people’s sewing and art studios. Many books offer glimpses of quilt artists’ sewing spaces, too... always beautifully decorated and looking wonderfully clean and uncluttered. Those studios always look so appealing (Freddie Moran’s comes to mind – oh, the time I’ve spent pouring over the photos of her amazing, colorful house!) But c’mon, let’s get honest here. How often does a studio look that clean? Where are the scraps on the floor? The piles of fabric heaped on the table? The half-empty soda cans, water bottles, and coffee cups? The spools of threads and bobbins that have rolled off in every direction?

I want to see REAL sewing rooms! So, I admit that when I look at photos of other quilters’ sewing rooms, the photos I absolutely love to see are the ones showing them in their full messy glory. It makes me feel like a member of THAT club... Look, I think to myself, her pile of fabric is as messy as mine! Or, even better... Her pile is MESSIER than mine! She has MORE stuff on the floor than I do! Seeing the real-life, every day messy studios makes me feel like I’m in good company.

As a public interest, I offer the following list of links you can follow to see other people’s less-than-pristine studio spaces. (You can find the clean ones yourself, but trust me, they're not as interesting.) If you’re not on the list but want to share how your studio looks in real life, feel free to email me a link or include it in a comment! It’ll cheer me up no end to see your mess, really! In fact, I'm liking this idea so much that I think I'll collect these and make a sidebar of these links! C'mon, show us your creative clutter!

(By the way, while I think that the mess is a sign of active creativity, if you're offended that I've listed your studio picture here in the messy category and want the link removed, please let me know and I'll remove it post haste!)

My mess (here and here)
Gerrie's studio
Melody's mess
Alison's studio (but she needs more clutter)
Carol's studio
Cathy's studio
Claire's sewing area (a bit too neat, but I'll include it anyway)
Deborah's studio
Dijanne's studio
Debra's studio
Deborah L.'s sewing table
Elle's workspace
Jenni's studio (dangerously tidy)
Jo's work area
Kimberly's studio area (not only mostly tidy, but she posted this at 5:24 AM!)
Laura's studio
Liz's studio (here and here)
Liz B's studio
Lynne's work area
Mandi's studio
Melanie's studio
Teri's work area

Enjoy!

Well, I tried a whole host of different backgrounds for this butterfly wing. Who knew it'd look so different, with different fabrics behind it? I finally settled on this mottled green hand-dyed fabric. Photoshop has been a big help on this project...I was able to import fabric swatches copied from online fabric stores, and then super-impose the wing over them to test them as backgrounds... I've also been able to play with cropping to try different effects, such as this:

A great tool for trying out different looks. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll find time to layer the quilt and maybe even start quilting!

Are you lovin' it?

If you want a good laugh, take a look at this!

My favorite room

When I decided it was time to throw out another question into blog-land, the question "what is your favorite room in your house" popped into my mind. Just like that. But I myself haven't been able to answer it, because I'm not sure.

I'm tempted to say my office/studio. I've posted pictures of it before (here and here and here). It's a good haven in the house, where I can come and shut the door and retreat to sewing or computer or work. The shelves are crammed with my favorite quilt and art and writing books. I can always find something to do in here! But because it's my work space, it's not a stress free place... always, lurking near the computer, there is a stack of files pertaining to the current assignment. Some days, that stack rests happily, snoozing and letting me play. But other days, it whimpers and casts a black cloud into the room, warning me that I'd best attend to it before it gets seriously cranky.

The bedroom is another great place, really. In the corner of the room, right next to a window that looks out to the front of the house, is an antique wicker chair that I found years ago at the Canterbury Antique Fair in Canterbury, New Hampshire. I spruced it up with fresh paint and adorned it with comfy cushions, and it's a favorite spot to sit and read or leaf through magazines.

At a certain point in the middle of the morning, the living room is wonderfully peaceful. We have a tall living room -- two rooms high, really, with windows up above that we can't reach to put coverings on... and we wouldn't want to, because we always have a view of the sky, even when the roman shades on the lower windows are closed for privacy. The sun streams through and leaves patches of sunlight on the couch and loveseat, creating wonderful warm spots for cats to curl up in (as they do) and for people to sit in and read, if so inclined.

But my favorite room is the back end of the house, where the kitchen and eating area and family room all link together into one long room. It's where our family hangs out most of the time. I have a lot of bright quilts in the family room (and am planning to paint a few walls red and/or cheddar yellow), and we have a wonderful bay window that looks out on the backyard where right now everything is starting to bloom. It feels like the center of our home and family: Caroline hangs out in the family room watching tv and drawing and building with legos, or at the kitchen table painting or doing homework... I can be cooking in the kitchen or fiddling in the family room, and Roger will sit and read the paper. Our two cats keep watch from the top of the couch, and we're also accompanied by the Breyer horses and plastic dinosaurs that live in the doll house in the corner. It's a happy, lively area.

A Safe Place

This morning I woke up to find Caroline sitting in the family room, counting her money. She has quite a stash of bills, which she keeps in a red velvet-covered box. She is hoarding saving her money to buy a horse, which she plans to keep in the backyard. I remind her that the city would not allow us to have horses in the backyard ("Not even a miniature one?" she asked, wistfully) but she is undaunted. She saves every penny.

I reminded her that Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Gregg and his fiancee Kitt are coming over this afternoon for a visit so she needed to pick up her toys and put away her money. "Why? It's not like it's the mayor coming, or anything." For this retort, Miss Smart-Aleck was given a talk on a) the appropriate tone for talking to one's mother; b) the appropriate response if one wanted to receive one's allowance and c) the appropriate tone if one ever had a hope of getting within 15 feet of a live horse until she is 21. I ended by adding "and you better put your money in a safe place."

This caught her interest (as my other comments may not have). "But this is our HOUSE," she replied, "Isn't it safe HERE?'

"Well, sure, our house is safe," I back-tracked, "You just want to put your money away where it won't be around for people to take or anything."

"Grandma and Grandpa would steal my money?" She looked truly alarmed.

Geez, I'm not making things better here. "No, of course not, they'd never steal your money."

Caroline was still alarmed. "Uncle Gregg wouldn't either, right? Or Kitt?"

"No. I just mean that you don't want to leave it lying around. It's safe, but you just want to be careful." Caroline scooped up her money, acting with a speed tinged with desperation, and headed up to her room.

"Where are you going to put it?" I called after her.

"I'm not telling you," she answered, "I want it to be SAFE!"

Life timelines

I’ve had an odd week. Actually, it’s been a typical week, in the sense that family life has been rolling along and I’ve been doing what I usually do: a bit of legal work, lots of family stuff, playing with Caroline, ferrying her to and from various activities, hanging out with Roger at home, trying to find time to get to my studio for art time...that sort of thing.

But this week, a particular confluence of events has caused me to think about life schedules and where my life is, right now. And, I have to say, it’s sort of comical.

First, I’ll admit to you all that I’m beginning to feel signs of menopause...or, as my doctor friend Laura (who is the same age, and feeling the same symptoms, always reminds, me) PERI-menopause. That sounds nicer, somehow. So, although I’m generally a non-sweaty, person, I’m suddenly finding myself waking up at night with a wave of heat washing over me, feeling quite sweaty. This has caused me to abandon the stack of blankets I usually favor, and replace it with a poofy and light down comforter. It’s an odd thing, this feeling of heat just rolling over me so suddenly. Some of you know what I mean, I’m sure.

Second, over the past year or more I’ve been on a program with my dentist to do some major restoration with my teeth...It’s sort of a long story, but I’ve had a rather extreme phobia of dentists for many years. That, plus the fact that in my full-time trial lawyer days, I clenched my jaw and ground my teeth constantly all night from the stress, and that caused my teeth to move around a lot in my mouth and put a lot of stress on old fillings, etc. I’ve come a HUGE way in conquering the fear of dentistry (thanks to a great dentist and his use of drugs to keep me relaxed and happy in the dentist chair). But last weekend, I bit into a raw carrot and managed to crack off the side of a tooth, where the old filling had given way. Yuck. I rushed into the dentist, and found myself having to make all sort of decisions about options to deal with this broken tooth. That situation has resulted in my shifting the overall plan of attack on my teeth around, so that within the next week or two I’ll be getting braces on my teeth. Strangely enough, I’m feeling like that’s a very good thing.

Third, I’ve talked about my daughter Caroline on this blog, and some of you know that Caroline is from China. We traveled to China to adopt her when she was 6 months old. In the past, Roger and I have wavered a bit about whether to adopt a second child from China, but we decided a while ago that we’re definitely going ahead... so we’ve been working diligently on preparing our paperwork to go to China, so that our agency can process them and we can have a child assigned to us. It’s nerve-wracking, now that Caroline is old enough and independent enough to allow Roger and me a bit more of our "own" time... we know adding a toddler to the mix at this stage will change our lives pretty significantly. But we really want to do it.

So, there I was, lying in the chair at the orthodontist’s office, gazing up at the kid-friendly decorations, and thinking how weird it is that I’m starting menopause with braces on my teeth and a new baby in the house. I was joking with my friend Rita that they ought to make braces impregnated with hormones for us menopausal orthodontic patients.

The unexpected turns in life are amazing, aren’t they?

In search of the right background

I'm still playing with backgrounds...Here's one possibility...



I like this multi-colored one, but this is only a swatch blown up from an online fabric site, so it's hard to guess what it will look like in reality:



This is too pale.




I may just have to take the wing to my local shop and wander around...

Butterfly wing, in progress

I really enjoy seeing the steps of work in progress, so I thought I'd share what I'm working on currently.

A few months ago, I made this block for my art quilt group's exchange block project.



It's about 10 inches square. I liked it so much that I wanted to try making something like it only really big. So, I found a photo of a butterfly to work with. Here it is:



I adjusted it with Photoshop by cropping it and tilting it, just to make it easier to work with:



Then, still using Photoshop, I used a filter to find the edges of the shapes and came up with this:



I made this the large size I wanted (about 45 inches square), then printed it out on separate pages. When I taped them together, this is what it looked like:



From this point on, I used a technique I learned from Julie Hirota. (She describes this technique in detail in her new book, Art Glass Quilts.) Basically, I taped pieces of freezer paper together to make a large solid piece this size, and then traced the shape onto freezer paper. Then, I ironed the freezer paper onto Pellon ShirtTailor fusible interfacing, and cut out the white spaces, leaving just the part that shows as black here. I ended up with a lacy piece of interfacing to use as the template for the black wing structure. (Sorry, I got involved in these steps and didn't take pictures.)

Then, I fused the ShirtTailor "lace" onto black fabric, so the result looked like this:



Then, I was ready to reverse-applique the colors into the blobs that show here as black. You can see that in the upper left corner of the wing, I've already appliqued some of the white dots. I used the applique technique from Julie too. I cut away the center of the splotch, leaving about a quarter-inch around. I clipped the curves, dabbed spray starch onto then, and then pressed the edges open...Here's where the ShirtTailor does its best work, because the stiff edge of the interfacing supports the edge as it folds back, and creates a nice clean edge. Then, using Roxane's Glue-Baste glue (you can also use a glue stick) I laid the white fabric over the black outline (on the backside) to hold for later machine applique stitching.

Here's what the back looked like after I did a lot of the white pieces. I decided to do all of the white (which was tedious) and then reward myself with the large areas of bright colors.



And here's what it looked like from the front at that point:



And here's the finished wing, with the colors filled in with fabric I dyed myself! This is the first time I've used something I've dyed, so it was rather exciting to cut into it and apply it.



Looks cool, huh? Now I just have to attach it to a background. I'm undecided. I wanted to use a sky-ish blue, as I did in the small block. I tried dyeing a piece, but it's too turquoise:



Plus, the background is too flat...not enough texture. I tried another piece ---



But it's too dark. So it's sitting on the design wall, waiting for the right background. Maybe green, to look like background foliage? Maybe something pieced? Or a fused collage look? I'm not sure and will mull it over.

A few words about wine

Roger and I finally saw "Sideways" last night. Have you seen it? It's a wonderful movie--a quirky plot, beautiful scenery, much humor, and the feeling of REAL characters. Plus lots of wine stuff.

Although the movie takes place in the Santa Barbara area, which is the central coastal region of California, the vineyard views look very much like what I see every day. It's breath-takingly gorgeous. In fact, even as I watched the movie and felt an instant recognition of the vineyard scenes, I also found myself thinking about what an amazing thing it is to live in wine country.

You see, we live in Sonoma County, California. Major wine country. Our town, Healdsburg, has 53 wineries in it. (I kid you not...you can check them out here.) And that's just the town...Sonoma County has many more. Among our friends, we have winemakers, grape growers, grape buyers, restaurant sommeliers, tasting room employees, wine salesman, winery owners, and even a few "wine lawyers." ("Wine law" sounds pretty exciting until you discover that it involves contracts for buying/selling grapes, labor law, and compliance with the vast array of regulations involving alcohol. ZZZZZzzzzzz.) When we first moved to Healdsburg and rented a house, we discovered that we had several winery owners around us...next door, across the street, up the block... Since our little tract house had a concrete foundation and no cellar, Roger declared that if we didn't have a wine cellar, perhaps we could just refer to our "wine crawlspace."

In any event, wine is a big part of life around here. So all the dialog in "Sideways" about wines and tasting sounded quite familiar. Yep, people we know really do swirl the wine around, stick their noses in their classes and sniff loudly, and say things like "chewy" "licorice essence" and "heady" to describe wine.

It seemed odd to me when we first moved here, and sort of pretentious. Within our first month here, one of Roger's faculty colleagues invited us to a benefit wine caution and we just about fell off our chairs to see the prices people were bidding for bottles of wine.

But now... well, the more good wine you drink, the more you become accustomed to good wine! Our tastes have grown more sophisticated, in spite of ourselves. One of our favorite annual outings is the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, where you can taste wines from Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino counties under one roof...We usually go around and use our tasting tickets to taste the gold medal winners and stuff we could never afford. We still drink wine that is around $10 or under a bottle, but we make sure it's GOOD wine in that price range, usually something more expensive on sale. (Tonight's wine was chardonnay from Hop Kiln Winery, in case you're wondering...)

Anyway. It's funny to me that "Sideways" presented a small slice of our Sonoma County life. Think of me (and Gerrie Congdon, another Sonoma County art quilt blogger) when you see it!

By the way, you can join the "Sideways Wine Club" and have the wines referred to in the movie delivered TO YOUR HOME. How funny is that?!

Guilty Pleasures

I'm so enjoying getting to know other members of the Artful Quilters Web Ring, and I thought it might be fun to throw out a question to ring members from time to time to see how folks answer it. It's totally optional, of course. But today I'm thinking of "guilty pleasures" so that's the question I threw out to the membership: "what's your favorite guilty pleasure?"

This is on my mind because my copy of People magazine arrived in yesterday's mail. Yep, that's one of mine...sitting down (or preferably, lying on the couch) to read People. It's totally devoid of any value but it's relaxing and fun. I read it in about 20 minutes and then pass it along to my friend Jenny, who reads it and passes it on to her friend Sue. So, we get good use out of each magazine! I should mention that if I can nibble at a piece of milk chocolate while perusing said People magazine, I'm in heaven. Cheap thrills, I know, but it makes me happy.

Actually, reading in the middle of the day is general guilty pleasure. I guess I have this inner voice (sounding suspiciously like my mother) that daytime is for cleaning, working, cleaning, cooking, cleaning, shopping, finishing more work, and other productive and exhausting chores. So, sitting around reading a novel during daylight hours is indulgence indeed.

Happy Saturday, y'all!

Bees' Secret Details

Several people asked for detail shots from my "The Bees' Secret" quilt, so here are two.

I'm rather proud of the quilting on this piece, as it adds to the bark-like look a lot. You can see some here. I even quilted in knot-holes and irregularities, which was very fun. This was also a stretch because I had almost NO brown fabric in my stash, and had to search out browns for the tree. Once I started looking at brown fabrics, I was surprised to find that I really liked some of them, especially the rich, earthy batiks. I really enjoyed working with the variety of browns in this, which makes me think that I should explore brown a bit further.



Here's a close-up of the edge. As I really wanted to keep the irregular edge, I had to figure out how to do this. Melody, if I'd known about the satin-stitch edging technique, I might have tried that, but to be honest I'm not wild about how that looks. It's too unfinished looking for my taste. (But I don't like clothes where they do those sort of seams on the outside, either...just one of those things.) So I did my own pillow-case method, with lots of careful trimming and clipping to get the corners. When ever I do this sort of thing, I realize that my high school sewing and tailoring classes paid off. It was fiddly -- required time and care and patience -- but it came out looking the way I wanted to, so I was pleased. I fused the "turning" hole on the back closed and covered it with the hanging sleeve.

This year's challenge is "The Sound of Quilting", with the idea to make a small quilt that illustrates or is inspired by a sound or noise. I'm mulling that over... What would YOU do?

The Bees' Secret

Today was the deadline for entering our local quilt show. I only remembered this late in the afternoon, and as a result I had to scurry around to get photos of the quilts I wanted to enter and fill out the form so I could deliver them to one of the sponsoring guild's meetings tonight. Last year I managed to miss the deadline entirely, distracted as I was by a massive work thing...so I was determined to put a few things in it this year.

Which brings me to this quilt, which I've not shown here before. It's one of the ones I'm entering, so it's a new photo. Last year, our guild's challenge was to make a quilt inspired by or illustrating a book. I'd just read "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd... a truly wonderful, thought-provoking, and charming book. I did this with a freezer paper applique type method and rubber stamped the bees...it was a fun project that stretched me as I'd not done anything like it before. I love the irregular shape of it.

I had a marvelous time today, working all day planting new plants in the front yard. I added two plants which will hopefully grow up and hide an expanse of fence: a lilac hibiscus that has the most mesmerizing, spiral-unfolding flowers...and a bright pink climbing rose bush called "social climber." And I planted a tiny, red-leafed japanese maple at the corner of the house... I love japanese maples, and they're SO expensive. This was the largest one I could justify buying, so it's pretty small...but still elegant. Our soil is clay, studded with rocks and nails and concrete bits from the not-so-tidy construction crew when they built the house, so digging is downright nasty. I can't even tell you how many trowels I've bent. But I'm persevering and our formerly bare, new, blank yard is starting to look almost lush with flowers and shrubs.

Here are the results of the rainbow dyeing experiment. We mixed Dharma's fuschia, turquoise and bright yellow to get this luscious range of colors!

Oh--and here's an assortment of fabrics that Silvia brought me from Guatemala! I'm going to mix these with other domestic stripes for something fun. I'm thinking an experiment with Tumbling Blocks, but who knows...

The DaVinci Code as Sin and other Reflections

I was talking recently with a friend about the death of the Pope. We were talking about the process for selecting a new Pope, and the subject of the novel The DaVinci Code came up. I asked her if she'd read it. "No," she replied, "The church says it's a sin to read it." Clearly, my friend was familiar with the concepts in the book and our discussion continued, but her comment stayed with me and I've been pondering it ever since.

How can reading a work of fiction be a sin? How can exposure to an imagined idea be a bad thing? Does the church not believe that its followers can think independently about the ideas in a novel?

I guess I understand the concept, generally: if you start from the proposition that the ideas are the work of Satan, then turning away from them and not letting them into your head (and not exposing yourself to the temptation to believe them) is the preferred course. I guess. You can see I'm not convinced.

I consider myself a spiritual person, although I prefer to keep my beliefs about God to myself. They feel very private to me. I'm not a church-goer. I was raised Episcopalian. I've also had lots of exposure to the Catholic church, as my father's family is Catholic and we frequently attended ceremonies and masses for various purposes. I've also attended other churches in my explorations...but to my mind, the organization of religion is a separate matter from inner spirituality. I understand the importance for many people of the church community, and I deeply admire the people I know who are truly and positively guided by their religion. But I have not had an easy relationship with the group experiences of religion I've explored.

So, the flurry of news stories about the Pope has got me thinking again. I know some people who believe in the precepts of the Catholic church, and follow what the Pope says, as a matter of faith that as the leader of the Church he knows what's right. Like my friend who didn't read The DaVinci Code... She was told not to, and she won't. I couldn't do that -- I don't believe that any one person has a direct line to God which is superior to anyone else's -- but I have deep respect for the faith that guides them when they choose to follow what the leader of their religion tells them.

But I know lots of other Catholics who simply disregard the Church's precepts when they disagree with them. And that puzzles me. If the Church is based on the foundational concept that one person is the leader of the church and sets its dictates for the entire religion, and you choose to be a member of that religion, how can you reject some ideas and accept others and still consider yourself a faithful follower of the religion? Doesn't that mean that you ulimately don't trust the judgment of your church's leader? Honestly, I don't understand.

I don't mean any disrespect to anyone by these questions. I truly don't understand how people can consider themselves Catholic while disregarding basic tenets of the Catholic faith. Is it the belief that what the Pope says about birth control, for example, or abortion, or homosexuality, or the role of women in the church, isn't considered applicable in American culture? Is it the inner belief that one has to find one's own direction from God, regardless of the Pope's instruction? But doesn't that conflict with the idea that as a Catholic, you're bound to follow the Pope as the leader of the Church?

It's hard to raise these questions with my Catholic friends without sounding like I'm accusing them of hypocrisy, however subtly. And I don't mean to do that. I just don't get it. How do they reconcile their beliefs when they contradict the church's, when the church itself says you're not permitted to pick and choose?

Regardless of my own beliefs and disagreements with the Catholic church about a whole host of issues, it's difficult not to react to the Pope's death and solemnity of the occasion as Catholics mourn and prepare to elect another Pope. It's amazing drama.

What I did on Spring Vacation

Spring vacation week is ending well for all of us in the family. Here are Caroline and her favorite pony, Chips, at the end of pony camp week. Notice that Chips looks sleepy but Caroline does not! The riders performed an end-of-the-week horse show, the highlight of which was the girls going over small double jumps. Very impressive! Caroline's already looking forward to pony camp during the summer.

And in between ferrying to and from the stable, and between dyeing fabric and sewing with Silvia, Roger and I have been test driving cars. I think we've narrowed our choices down to two vehicles: The Mercury Mountaineer (which is sort of a comfier version of the Ford Explorer) and the Honda Pilot. Here's the Mountaineer.



And here's the Pilot:



They each have pros and cons. We driven each car twice and I'm thinking I need to drive the Pilot again as my main feeling last time was that the driver's seat was really UNcomfortable for me. Not a good thing. Sigh. Car shopping is not a fun thing. I think the Ford/Mercury salesman (who seems like a lot-key guy on the lot) has left about 3 messages on our answering machine each day. Perhaps just to torture him I'll call him back and say we're test-driving VW Bugs, too. That ought to confuse him.

My blogging philosophy

I've been thinking lately about this whole blogging thing. I love that through blogging and through the Artful Quilters Web Ring, there's a community of artists and quilters sharing online journals so I can peek into their lives, their creative processes, and their work. And since I began my blog at the end of last year, I've enjoyed the blogging process. It gives me a place to vent my thoughts about things, to share my life with others who might be interested, and it opens me up to comments from others which encourage, help, and inspire me. It makes me accountable to myself, in a way.

But here's a core belief I have, for myself about blogging: I do this for me. It's fun to share the efforts of my blogging and to have readers, but if I start shaping my blog to please others instead of myself, then I lose my own identify in the blog.

So, I know that a lot of people like a lot of pictures in blogs. I do too. But the reality is that I don't always take pictures. And I'm not going to stress about whether people like or don't like my blog because of the pictures. Sure, it's fun to have a reason to take pictures and the blog is a good incentive to document through photos what I'm doing. But I'm not going to make my life more stressful over it. Do I talk too much about my daughter and my family life? Some people don't want to read about people's family lives. On the other hand, this blog also serves as a connection to friends and family far away... and I want to share that stuff with them. The only thing I can do to make sure that the blog reflects me and my life is to write what I want to say, without regard to what some unseen audience wants to see.

I find that I’m attracted to the blogs where I feel a connection to the writer. I’m drawn to the blogger’s personality, as it is reflected in what he or she chooses to post. Sure, I enjoy good photos and nice artwork. But more important to me is the sense of the person that comes through the entries. I develop an interest in and fondness for the writer, and it’s that feeling that keeps me returning to see what he or she is up to. If she’s too busy to quilt, or has detoured into gardening or painting or baking, I enjoy learning about that, too. I guess I like getting a glimpse into whatever it is that the writer chooses to share in the blog.

Others may feel differently. And that’s okay! One of the great things about the world of weblogs is that you can read, or not read. You can follow a blog every day, or you can pop in from time to time and just read what interests you. So, that brings me back to my conclusion, that the key thing is to make your blog yours by writing about whatever you want, from your own point of view, in your own style, however you want. Don't worry about what others want to see or what you think you SHOULD post. It's your journal, after all.

As for the AQ Web Ring, I think that the goal is not to write your blog to fit into the ring, but to write what ever you want because the blog is for you. The ring collects like-themed blogs, but it's a loose affiliation of people with really different lives, different interests, and a common love of art quilting. If art quilting is an important part of your life, it will come through in your blog. If it’s not, it won’t. And again, that’s okay!

I’m reminded of a piece of advice I once heard from a very experienced and successful trial lawyer as his number one rule for how to succeed in front of juries and audiences: "Be yourself, unless you’re a complete a–hole, and in that case be someone else." Kind of sums it up, doesn’t it?!

Too much fun!

We are having so much fun! Here is my good friend, Silvia, with the result of her fusing today! AND the inner squares are made with the fabric we dyed yesterday. We've been two busy women!

Silvia and her husband Paulo are in the US for two weeks, with Silvia playing while Paulo is working a short-term project. We met them when Caroline started school and she was in the same class as their daughter Daniela. Then they rented the house up the street from us, so we became neighbors which made it that much easier to develop a friendship.

Our families have blended well. Daniela and her sister Paulina play well with Caroline. Paulo and Roger have a great deal in common, especially a love of high-tech gadgets. And Silvia is a very talented artist with a love for fabric. She trained in fashion design in Guatemala, and has only recently discovered quilting (within the last several years). She was just developing a healthy obsession about it when they decided to move back to Guatemala. Silvia is also a talented water color painter, and we have several of her paintings in our home.

So...I was excited to see her again, and I knew we'd have a great time working on projects together. Yesterday, after a long talk over coffee, we mixed dyes and experimented with tray dyeing as demonstrated by Melody. Since we had no idea what we were doing, it was quite exciting to see how the dyes flowed and colors mixed. We were using these big plastic trays from Dick Blick... they're big, but not big enough to hold a full half-yard of fabric. So we scrunched the fabric and did some fat quarters and had a grand old time.

Silvia hadn't been introduced to the wonders of Wonder-Under, so that's what she wanted to play with today. I told her about Melody's block creation method and strip sets, and she played with those. Then, she was eager to try quilting on the Juki so she could experience the thread cutter and knee activated presser foot. She's debating whether her current project needs more quilting, but she's close to done.

So, it's been a very fun two days. Tomorrow we have separate chores to attend to, but we're planning to meet Silvia and Paulo for sushi for dinner, and Silvia will return for another playday on Thursday!

Little girl dresses

I may be getting desperate enough to start sewing clothes again.

This afternoon, Caroline and I went shopping for an Easter outfit. I know, I know, it was terribly last minute...but I figured we'd either find something or we wouldn't and she'd wear something she has. She's just had one of those sudden growth spurts that kids do, and many of her clothes are too small. So, after her riding lesson, we stopped at the mall.

The good news was that the Eastery dresses and skirts and tops were on sale. The bad news was that they were horrid! On average, clothes for 3rd grade girls (out of the toddler cute stuff and too young for the teenage clothes) are appalling. I wouldn't let a 16 year old wear some of the stuff they sell for 9 year olds. I guess they're marketing to create lots of baby Brittany Spears. Gag.

We did stumble onto a very charming lavender dress that doesn't look too little girlish and even has a sort of sophistication to it. On sale for half off, even. If we manage to get a picture tomorrow, I'll post it.

Then...shoes? Is there a Manolo for kids? We scored with on-sale rainboots, but we're making do with the navy school shoes for Easter footwear.

We're off to Sacramento for the day, to have brunch with our good friends Beth and Tim, Pat and Pia, and their family of dogs. We're doing brunch at a riverboat restaurant in Old Sacramento, which should be great fun. And a backyard Easter egg hunt, of course. Now I'm going to go dig out my Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it...

Happy Easter, everyone!

Interviews, etc.

A few days ago, I replied to Karoda's interview blog entry and she sent me interview questions. I think I messed up by failing to carry on the interview chain... So, I'm picking it up again and will carry on:

1. If you want to participate and receive interview questions, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

So comment if you want to play!

Another update: I posted a few weeks ago about my good friend Gerrie and her mastectomy. You may know from reading her blog, but I wanted to report that she is doing GREAT. She's active and quilting and when I saw her a few days ago she looked positively sparkly. It makes me very happy to see how well she is doing.

I've been talking lately about running out of room for fabric. So, I thought I'd show you a picture of the closet behind my sewing table. It's all fabric on the left side...behind the closed door is a bit more, although there are other things on that side.

Here's my other main storage area. I bought these cubicles and baskets from a catalog a year ago, and I love them. They didn't clear up all the mess, but they help a lot. Those three top baskets are filled with projects in progress. Long-term progress, that is.

I'm free!

I wrote some time ago about how procrastination pays off for lawyers. Well, it's been reinforced for me again.

I've had a long list of projects to do for Bob, my NH law partner...research on a bunch of different issues, revising pleadings, scripting depositions, starting trial memos... But as none have had immediate deadlines, I've been inching forward on them. I've done a bit each day, but I've been making time to do other things (like dyeing fabric and figuring out new places to stuff it around the house). But I was thinking that the crunch was coming, and I was planning on next week being a busy work week for me.

And then, this morning, I got an urgent email in my box: "The case has settled; stop all work!" Yahoo!!!

So, I'm feeling free. Yes, I have other work to do on a few other cases, but all small stuff with faraway deadlines. And with Caroline busy at pony camp next week for spring vacation, I'll have time to quilt! And play with Silvia, who will be visiting from Guatemala!

I tell you, it always works out in the end.

Questions from Karoda

Karoda sent me personalized interview questions (another meme!) so here they are with my answers:

1. What was the impetus for starting the AQ web ring?

I started reading blogs, and found I couldn't stop! When I found a blog I liked, I'd use that blogger's links to find other fun stuff to read...and along the way I found that the ring buttons were a great way of linking like-minded bloggers. I started to read a few of the knitting blog rings, not for the knitting content (I'm merely an occasional knitter) but for the wonderful sense of community they provided. When I started blogging, and obsessively reading Melody's blog, it occurred to me that I wanted us quilters to have a ring as warm and interesting as the knitters, but with content about the quilt world. So, not knowing anything about HTML, I jumped in with Ringsurf and have been feeling my way through. And now we have 50 members! We should break out the champagne!

2. What do you enjoy the most about the ring?

Ooh, "most" is hard. I love the feeling of community with other quilters exploring art through quilt making. I love seeing what others are making, and learning about how they go through their processes. I'm greatly encouraged by hearing about others' stops and starts and frustrations on the way to making great stuff! And as I'm getting to know the ring members I enjoy learning about the variety of lives we lead. One of my favorite days was finding this entry by Dijanne Cevaal showing kangaroos on the lawn of a cottage she was visiting! It brought home to me in such a shocking way how different our lives are. I'm really loving finding new friends through this ring.

3. Do you plan to enter Smoke Signals in a show? explain

You know, I think I will! Entering shows is new for me... Aside from county fair and local quilt guild shows, I've only entered something once into a big show, Pacific Quilt International. And it got in! I was very pleased. (You can see Red Threads here.) Until then, my biggest claim to fame was winning a "Best of Show" at the Cloverdale, California Citrus Fair, where my quilt was featured in a room where the other big attraction was -- I kid you not -- a HUGE model of the Titanic done in citrus fruit. (Just the thought kinds of leaves you speechless, doesn't it?!) I was just perusing this great listing of upcoming quilt/art shows posted by Lyric Kinard, to find where I might enter Smoke Signals. Suggestions, anyone?

4. What art quilt(s) have you seen that just floors you, leaves you breathless? Yours or one of others?

Yikes. There are many. Melody Johnson's "Matchstick Moons" enthralls me. I love anything by Keiko Goke, like this, for example, and this. I also admire the elegance of Liz Berg's art quilts...her composition is always excellent.

5. As a quilter, what do you do well?

I think I have great ideas and a good eye for imagery. I also feel good about my color sense. But there's so much more to learn and explore!

Too much stuff!

I've been in a strange slump lately. I have a whole host of things to do, and I"m not in the mood to do any of them. It's rainy, and I'd really rather just curl up on the couch and read. And read. And read.

It may be that I've suddenly overwhelmed by the clutter around me. I had a big fabric dyeing binge (which was wonderfully, excitement-making fun) but then I found myself overwhelmed by the piles of fabric that I'd dyed. Where to put it all?

I've also had a large, ongoing legal project...So one side of my tiny office is piled with papers and my file drawers are full...On the other side of the room, my sewing table is heaped with fabric.

I've made inroads... I've folded piles, sorted and reorganized to make room for more. But the truth is, I just have TOO MUCH STUFF. And that includes too much fabric. (Now, I know there is really no such thing as too much fabric, but I mean too much fabric for the storage space I have.) Trust me...there is fabric under the bed, fabric in my office closet, fabric in the drawers in the hall... I have no need to buy fabric for a long, long time. And for those of you out there who shop with me from time to time, REMIND ME OF THAT next time you see me pick up a piece to buy, would you please? It's time for "catch and release" shopping, as my friend Rita calls it. Pick up the bolt, admire it, stroke it, and then put it back on the shelf.

I've also sorted the unfinished projects I've got around here, filling two of the six hefty baskets in my basket/shelf storage system. Most are scrappy things I started to use up scraps with the plan of donating them to the children's shelter. They're fun to work on, mindless sewing for tv watching or child accompaniement. So over the next few weeks I'm going to work on finishing those.

AND there are the quilt tops I have finished, which are sitting here unquilted. Two are Halloween ones I did for fun, two are more ambitious projects that will take some time to decide what to do. So those are also on the to-do list.

See? No wonder I'm overwhelmed. But I think I'm going to work on getting some of this STUFF out of the way, and I'll feel better. Next week is spring vacation for Caroline and Roger. We're staying here, so we can see our good friends Silvia and Paulo who will visit from Guatemala, so Roger can make some big inroads on his soon-to-be-finished textbook, and so Caroline can do pony camp. That'll be a good time to make some progress on these projects.

Today I'm off to the Pointless Sisters meeting, a gathering of our art quilt group. Maybe that will inspire me.

I've been a dyeing fool. Here is one batch from the end of last week, before I ironed them, even. It's so fun seeing how the colors and blends turn out! However am I going to use them all?!

Friends

Caroline, in third grade, is having playground problems.

She's hit that age, I think, where friendships start to become more complicated. Those innocent days of everyone being happy to play with everyone else (ah, for the preschool play-yard...) are gone, apparently. So, each day as Caroline as come home from school, I've heard about how one friend of hers, S., is trying to get Caroline NOT to play with another friend, C. And Caroline is torn between the two. Personal politics start young in a few of these kids. As I hear Caroline's stories and watch how her playdates go, I see that one girl, S., is a sophisticated and skillful manipulater. Yep, at age 9. She'll pick one "chosen" kid to play with on a given day, rejecting the other kids and making them feel miserable, and making that "chosen" kid feel special and wonderful...Until the next day, when the chosen one is rejected and someone new is favored. Caroline and her long-time buddy C are not sophisticated in this way, and they're left bewildered and confused, yet fascinated by S's power.

So we've been talking a lot about friendships. It's hard to figure out how to help Caroline steer through this...and of course it conjures up my own feelings about the 3rd grade playground and my own childhood friend and nemesis, Francine.

How to put the concepts of personal relationships at a 3rd grade level? Geez, I still struggle with these things myself sometimes. But here's what I've figured out to say so far:

1. A friend is someone who makes you feel good when you're with him or her. If that person does things or says things that make you feel bad, then maybe that person isn't a good friend for you.

2. A true friend will like you for being yourself.

3. A friend won't tell you not to tell your parents about stuff that you do together. (As you can imagine, I've emphasized this point.)

4. A friend is someone you can trust to keep your secrets and keep promises.

5. You can be a good friend to someone by behaving the way you'd want a friend to behave to you.

I sure do understand that attraction of the hard-to-please friend. It's a powerful feeling, to feel that you've won the attentions of someone whose attitude can be so variable. It took me well into my adulthood to really understand how destructive that push-pull thing can be. So it's hard to watch Caroline as she is drawn to S, and then hurt by her over and over again. But we'll keep talking, and I think she's coping well. She announced that she played jump rope with other girls at recess yesterday and really had fun.

Friends are so important. Talking with Caroline about these things makes me realize how much I've learned since 3rd grade, and how I have such wonderful friends. I'm grateful for them all.

Dyeing Question

I had such a good time dyeing fabric on Sunday that I'm eager (dying?!) to do more. But I have a question for you folks who dye all the time.

Do you dissolve your dye (procion) in plain water? urea water? salt water? If you use urea or salt, what proportion of salt/urea to water?

I have several books and they all say different things. One says salt is a MUST to get the fabric to absorb the dye, and urea is for paint on dyeing, but not immersion dye.

Another book says salt is optional and urea makes colors more intense so always use that.

At the class on Sunday, I don't think we used either.

Any hints or advice, guys?

I've Dyed and Gone to Heaven!

My first hand-dyed fabrics!

Well, I knew I was going to like it...but I'm addicted already.

On Sunday, I had my first experience dying my own fabrics. I took a class with Judy Bianchi and Carlene Keller, whose hand-dyed fabrics are sold by New Pieces in Berkeley, Fabrications here in Healdsburg, and at other fine establishments. Judy's been inviting me to come and trying dying with them for a while now... but dates never worked out. Finally, Sunday was free and away I went.

Carlene has a great set up for dying fabric. She has large tables in her garage, with a utility room right off with big sinks and plenty of counter space for mixing and rinsing. We started by making gradations of one color, then did blends. I had such a grand time and couldn't stop... I came home with 28 tubs, each containing a half yard of fabric soaking in dye!

I learned that next time around, I'll need to manipulate the fabric more. These came out quite blotchy, almost tie-dyed in placees. And because I put the fabric in the same way each time, I ended up with a similar pattern on a few pieces...maybe I'll find a way to work that into a project.

So, it was much fun and I can't wait to do it again!

No Faces

Today, as I am driving Caroline and her friend Sarah to gymnastics, I hear Caroline say to Sarah:

"Except for the no faces thing, what does it mean when you're Catholic?"

We have just picked Sarah up from her school, the local Catholic school. Several of Caroline's friends go there, although she goes to the public school a few blocks away.

I was puzzled by the no faces thing, but opted for silence.

"Well, I like my teacher," Sarah replied.

I couldn't contain my curiousity. "What do you mean, 'no faces'?"

"When we draw pictures of people, we're not allowed to color the skin on the faces or the arms or legs," Sarah answered.

"And when you draw animals, you have to draw them their true colors, like you can't make a blue horse, right?" Caroline added, having heard the coloring rules from her friends Lily and Selena who also go to the school.

"Right."

I had to interject again, still puzzled. "Why can't you color the faces or arms or legs?"

"Because," Sarah answered, with exaggerated patience, "there are people in the world with skin that is different color from ours and we don't want to make them feel bad."

We are all silent as we ponder this concept. I'm thinking, so you leave everyone white? Then Caroline (with her beautiful asian skin) jumped in. "I'm glad I don't go to your school. I want to be able to color animals any color I want, even blue."

Sarah turned to Caroline. "Do you believe in God? Catholics believe in God." She's 7, by the way.

"I'm not sure," Caroline answered. "I know one thing..." I started to cringe in anticipation. "I believe in horses."

Healing thoughts for Gerrie

I have spent much of today thinking of my good friend Gerrie, who underwent a mastectomy this morning.

I met Gerrie through my quilt guild. When I joined 2 years ago, I wondered whether, in a room full of white-haired older women, I was going to find anyone that liked the sort of quilting I liked and who didn't care too much about quilting rules. Well, early on I met Gerrie--she wasn't hard to miss, with her red hair, red eyeglasses, lime green attire, and big smile. And as time passed and I saw the quilts she brought for show and tell, I knew that she was my type of quilter! She invited me to come to the art quilt group, where I found my "real" quilting home. Anything goes there, quilt wise, and Gerrie has done a lot to keep the group open, welcoming, and sharing.

Gerrie has a quick smile and an energy I envy. She's eager to try new things, and she's got a very positive attitude. She's passionate about her art, and she loves to talk about what she's doing and what she's learned. She eagerly shares ideas and tips and, most of all, her enthusiasm about art quilting. She just keeps growing and learning and having fun. She's a great role model.

She's also a very happy and devoted mom, grandma and wife. I can honestly say I haven't ever heard her grumble about her husband Steve, which is rather amazing (as you wives will acknowledge). She's SO proud of her daughters Lisa and Stephanie and her son Mark. And she tells very funny stories about her grandchildren Mia and Miles!

So...as Gerrie is having a medically intense day, I've kept my thoughts with her. She's a strong person, and she has approached this recent diagnosis with an amazing practical optimism. I know she'll come through this difficult time and be smiling on the other side of it.

I have no doubt that Gerrie will be up and emailing and sewing in a few days, if not sooner. She's probably been lying in the recovery room planning the quilts she'll make and how she can translate those drug-induced images she's been seeing into fabric!

Do me a favor, please? When you get into bed tonight, say a prayer or send a healing, happy thought out into the universe for Gerrie.

Smoke Signal

Here's my latest project! It's been a fun fusing exercise... I started out with one thing in mind, and ended up here. I was happily cutting and fusing away, when I realized that the texture I was creating was reminiscent of Melody's "Matchstick Moons." I was unintentionally inspired, I guess... But I'm happy with this.

Pressing matters

It all started, innocently enough, with the end of a bolt of muslin that was hanging around the laundry room. For totally mindless sewing, I like to make crazy log cabin blocks with my scraps, which eventually become quilts to donate to a local children's shelter. And my preferred method of making those blocks is on top of a muslin foundation. Last time there was a big sale at JoAnn's Fabric, I bought a bolt of muslin and I've been slowly working my way through it.

I decided I'd better preshrink the rest of the bolt, as this stuff shrinks horribly and I know these quilts will be washed.

Then, bearing in mind that commercial fabrics fuse better with the sizing washed out of them, I threw a bunch of fabric into the washer for future multi-purpose use. Philosophically, I'm of the "preshrink everything" school, on the theory that it's better to be safe than sorry. But practically, I've been too lazy and/or impulsive to preshrink anything, knowing that I haven't been making any functional quilts anyway. I figured I'd start washing fabric by bin (as they're sorted by color) and I'd get caught up AND get to organize my fabrics.

Well, next thing I knew I had a massive pile of ironing to do. Like 3 laundry baskets full....packed full. It's rather amazing, how a little folded stack of fabric can expand to such a huge, wrinkled wad in the dryer. So, I set up the ironing board in front of the tv and I've been standing there ironing for hours at a time. I'm down to one ironing basket left, and boy, am I sick of ironing.

It occurs to me that this was not a good idea.

If I'm going to pursue this avenue, then I have a LOT more fabric to wash and press. And if I don't, then I'll have bits that are preshrunk and others that are not. At present, the newly washed and ironed fabrics are segregated in a separate bin. So now I either have to move forward with this plan or forget the whole thing.

At least there is mexican food ahead...We're meeting our friends Noriko and Alan, and their daughter Lani, for dinner at a terrific local spot. This feels like a good reward for a hard day at the ironing board.

Worth pondering

Over coffee this morning: "So, mom....How's your life going?"

Little indulgences

Today was a day of small indulgences. You've all heard me complain about how much work I've done lately, so today was another day to celebrate a bit and not do to much. I treated myself in some lovely little ways:

* An extra cup of Kenya coffee while watching the next episode of The Gilmore Girls this morning

* An excursion to have my hair trimmed and a fun chat with my talented hair stylist Maria at Elle Lui (we talked almost nonstop about Project Runway.)

* A detour for a quick lunch at the new fast food Chinese place, for "firecracker chicken" which was delicious

* Lunch was especially delicious because I ate while reading a new mystery by Ayelet Waldman called "Murder Plays House" (her heroine is the utterly human, funny, and very pregnant mother of two toddlers and wife of a Hollywood screenwriter... )

* Work out at the health club while listening to the new Maroon 5 cd because they were nominated for Grammy awards and I was curious to hear them

* Home to experiment with a new fusing project, still in progress (and puzzling me on the design wall about where to go next)

* Ratatouille from the Moosewood Cookbook for dinner...which fresh parmesan cheese grated on the new Microplane grater my friend Pat told me I couldn't live without.

* An evening of blog reading...now, off to bed.

A very, very nice day.

Orange Burgundy Chicken

By popular request, here is the recipe for Orange Burgundy Chicken I mentioned in a recent entry. I find a lot of crockpot recipes sound good but end up tasting bland and boring...but not this one. It was simple but quite delicious:

Orange Burgundy Chicken

2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken pieces
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt

Remove skin from chicken. Rinse and place in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

See? Couldn't be simpler. I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts and they were fine. Next time, I might consider adding even a bit more cornstarch in the last 30 minutes of cooking to thicken the sauce even more, but as is this was good. I'd also strain the sauce at the end for
company presentation.

(By the way, from the ingredients, this sounds like it might be syrupy sweet. But it wasn't. The wine and the lemon juice balance that out, I guess.)

New work!

Well, here's what I did this afternoon. Finally, a bit of time to relax and play with some of the fabric I wonder-undered a few weeks ago. This isn't done, just fused together as a top. But knowing how time gets away from me and life intervenes, it'll probably be a while until I get it assembled and quilted. And it's been so long that I've had anything new to show here, that I wanted to post it.

Having finished my big work project yesterday, I decided to take the whole day off. I put dinner in the crock pot (a lovely "Orange Burgundy Chicken" recipe that turned out to be delicious..this is definitely going into the "keeper" file), and settled back to watch the episodes of Project Runway that I'd missed and then was able to tape when they ran a marathon last weekend. I had a lovely time watching past episodes while thumbing through old quilting magazines to rip out the articles and photos I wanted to keep for inspiration... My favorite Runway episode was the wedding dress one, by the way.

So, about lunchtime, I figured as long as I was indulging myself, I'd go whole hog and watch the 2-hour finale. I prepared my lunch (a Trader Joe's burrito and apple slices, in case you're interested), pressed "Play" and settled back.

Wait. What's that corny sitcom doing on MY tape? I fast forwarded. Still the sitcom. I stabbed at the fast-forward button more urgently. Still, just sitcom.

Oh my. Either I forgot to set the channel when I set it to tape, which is possible, or Roger turned the tv on and turned the channel not realizing I was taping something, also possible. The dreadful result: NO PROJECT RUNWAY.

Well, lest you worry that I am finale-less, I posted a message on the Quilt Art list (knowing that fellow fabric-aholics would have been engrossed, too) and within minutes I had an offer of a tape from someone. Phew.

So, that freed up 2 hours and I was able to fuse.

I tell you, a bit of sleep and a creative project and I feel like a new woman.

Ring around the web ring

I am in a much better frame of mind today. I attribute this to a really fun outing on Friday with my quilty friends (the fab five fieldtrip group) which not only was fun for all sorts of reasons, but also because for an entire 24 hours I didn't think about the work project that has been hanging over me.

And that meant that when I sat down on Saturday to finish, my mind was clear and I got so much more done. Today, the only thing left to do is proof read and then email it across the country so Tammie, the diligent secretary, can do final assembly on the exhibits and send it off to court.

And then there's the cleaning of the office, but that'll actually be fun... to put something fun on tv (I'm saving my tape of the Project Runway finale to watch -- and yes, I heard who won even tho I was trying not to, but don't tell me any more), put all these papers away, and reclaim my sewing space.

But I did want to point out with pride that the Artful Quilters Web Ring that was born in January already has somewhere around 35 members! If you haven't tried exploring other art quilt related blogs by using the ring box on the left to navigate, you're in for some fun! Get yourself a beverage, sit back, and be prepard to meet some delightful and talented artists!

For info on how to join the ring and get the button for your blog page, see my entries click here and here.

Don't look behind the curtain

You've probably noticed what I've been trying not to mention.

I've tried distracting you by posting photos of other people's quilts.

I tried posting nice photographs I've found online.

I've tried inserting lots of links in my text, so you'll go see colorful pictures in other places.

But you noticed anyway. I'm not posting any pictures, or words even, about my own art.

Fine, then. I'll just blurt it out. I'm not doing any. Can you tell I'm cranky about it?

At the moment, my office (which is one side of the small bedroom that holds my studio on the other side) is covered with piles of paper. They're on the floor, on every horizontal surface, even on my sewing chair. I'd take a picture, but I can't find the camera under all of this paper. They're stacked on the printer, so I have to move a pile somewhere else before I can print out another pile.

The cause? A bunch of back-to-back massive pleadings in the piece of litigation I'm working on. Normally, I love being the writer, researcher, and hunter-through-documents. I think it's the wanna-be-detective in me. But all this work, and all this paper, and these long hours ...it's getting ridiculous. And tiresome.

And it's making me cranky.
Good think I can't find the camera right now! You don't want a picture of cranky.

They're starting to come together...

You might remember the ongoing saga of the challenge blocks that members of my art quilt group, The Pointless Sisters, made. At our January meeting, we met and exchanged all of the blocks. (You can read the specifics of the challenge here.)

Anyway, the Pointless Sisters met again yesterday, and a few diligent folks had managed to assemble their blocks into quilt tops. (Mine are still in the box where I put them after the Feb. meeting. No surprise.)

Here is my good buddy Pat Marabella with her vase blocks. (Pat is one of the "fab five" field trip friends and the good sport who sits in the "way back" without complaint, every time!)



Didn't she do a fabulous job? She worked in pieces of Jane Sassman fabric to balance the spots where there weren't blocks.

And here's my friend Janet Shore's quilt top. (Janet, by the way,is the senior-most of our field trip buddies so she usually gets the front passenger seat.) I love the non-gridded arrangement of the blocks. Her choice of background fabric works well with these, too.



By the way, I'll mention here that Janet Shore is one of the most amazing women I've ever met. She's over 80, but you'd never know it from looking at her. She's energetic, physically, mentally, and emotionally. She's always smiling and has the funniest sense of humor. She's also direct, and she'll tell you if the border you put on your quilt doesn't look right or your fabrics are too blah. (She's always pointing out how important value is in a quilt, and she's always right.) Janet was one of the founders of the East Bay Heritage Quilters in Berkeley and it seems like she knows pretty much everyone in quilting....AND she's still learning and sewing and laughing and curious for more. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Thanks to Sandy Chan-Brown for remembering her camera (unlike moi and sending me her pictures!

Too much work, too little quilting

It's been a quiet week in Lake Woebegon.

Well, not so quiet. Caroline has had the past week off from school as "ski week," but as Roger's college is still in session, we weren't able to go anywhere. Although we did think longingly of Roger's sister's house in Tahoe, sitting there empty amid all the lovely snow. I just had too much work to finish to take Caroline up there on my own.

Here's what we've been doing:

1. Made a big fort in the family room, complete with aluminum foil chains guarding the entrances (Caroline)

2. Learned how to put together a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, with animation even (which is pretty fun, actually) for a big upcoming hearing (Me) (I'll digress to say I put our side's arguments on slides with a pleasing blue background color, and the opposing side's arguments on a neutral but basically unappealing tannish/peachy color, which caused Bob (who I do this stuff for) to say "I love that vomit color for the other side's positions," then followed by our lovely blue slides for rebuttal.)

3. Sewed pre-cut blocks into a little quilt top, to be made into a donation baby quilt for the neonatal preemie unit at a local hospital (Caroline)

4. Fused Wonder-Under onto a bunch of fabric for future fusing sessions (me)

5. Went to the quilt guild meeting where Caroline couldn't wait to show off her quilt top but was then totally mortified at the attention from all those ladies (Caroline)

6. Enjoyed a delightful and wacky presentation of quilts by guest speaker Cynthia England (Caroline AND me)

7. Had a girls' dinner out for Chinese food when Roger had a late night at school (Caroline and me)

8. Played a lot of Yahtzee (Caroline AND me)

9. Complained that she was bored (Caroline)

10. Searched for my last shreds of patience (me)

11. Lost 9 pounds so far on my new healthy eating/exercise plan (not all in one week, of course)( ME!)

Miksang Photography

The Good Eye

Have you ever thought about looking at the spaces between things, instead of at the thing itself?
Yesterday morning, as I was sipping my coffee and doing a bit of channel surfing, I flipped to the "Wisdom Channel." I'd never looked at it before, but my sister Laura mentioned it me as something she watches from time to time because of its unusual and peaceful programming.

On that channel, I stumbled onto a really interesting show called "Miksang Photography." "Miksang" is a Tibetan word that means "Good Eye," and it describes a type of photography known as "contemplative photography" developed by photographer Michael Wood. Here's the official overview on the Miksang site:

"The "good" part is that our world, just as it is, is inherently rich and vivid. The "eye" part is that working with the practice of contemplative photography, we can tune into these qualities of our world. This journey is actually quite simple—to see with our eyes wide-open and our awareness right there. Once we have a moment of fresh perception, vivid and clear, there is a natural desire to communicate that experience. "

The photographs shown on the program, and on the website, are stunning in their simplicity and peacefulness.

The website also future airing dates and times for the program "Miksang Photography." I recommend it.

Making a difference, one football team at a time

Monday

"Can girls play football, mom?" asked Caroline as we were riding home from school in the car.

"Sure," I replied.

"Then how come no girls ever play football with the boys at lunch time?"

"Maybe no girls have ever asked to play," I answered. "Do you want to play?"

Caroline looked thoughtful. "Yeah, but I don't know how."

"Maybe if you ask them they'll tell you how to play," I suggested.

Caroline gazed out the window, silent. Then "After I do my homework, can I have a popsicle?"

Tuesday

"Simone and I are going to ask!" announced Caroline, as she slammed the car door shut when I picked her up from school.

"Ask what?"

"Ask the boys if we can play football!" She bounced excitedly on her seat. "We're going to ask them to show us how to play and we'll be the first girls to play football with the boys on the playground."

"Great!" I hope the boys are kind...but with third-graders, you never know. And I'm thinking they wouldn't be playing tackle football...would they?

Wednesday

The door wasn't even open when Caroline started to tell me the good news. "We did it! We did it!"

"You did what?" I thought it was the football thing, but -- having made this adult-assuming-she-knows-what-the-child-is-thinking mistake before -- I replied cautiously.

"Simone and I asked Scott and Lucas and the other boys if we could play football with them! And they said yes!"

"That's really great!" I answered.

"Well, actually, Simone asked and I ran away." She's honest, my daughter. "But they still said we could both play."

"Are they going to teach you how to play?"

Caroline wiggled with happiness. "Yes! They said we could start on Friday!" She rolled down the window, sticking her face into the wind and opening her mouth to catch the air. "Oh, and mom? I'm gonna have to wear my jeans on Friday because I think I'll get lots of grass stains."

Thursday

On Thursdays, my friend Ann and I take turns driving Caroline and Ann's daughter Sarah to gymnastics class. Thursday was my day to drive. On the way, Caroline suddenly turned to Sarah, who is a year younger:

"Guess what! Simone and I are going to play football tomorrow!"

Sarah was puzzled. "Football?"

"Yeah! The boys at school always play football at lunchtime and Simone and I want to play with them and we asked and they said yes!" Caroline was excited and proud. "We're going to be the FIRST GIRLS to play football at lunchtime!"

Sarah paused. "Why do you want to do that?" At Sarah's school, according to her, the girls chase the boys and try to kiss them, and if they actually catch and kiss a boy, the boy then becomes a "girl" and has to be on the girl's team. Football plainly doesn't appeal to her.

"Well, it looks like fun," answered Caroline. "Plus," she added with a serious tone, "we want to make a difference for ALL the girls."

I just kept driving, silently, feeling very proud.

Friday

"So, how'd it go today?" I asked as Caroline climbed into the car. No grass stains on the knees of her jeans, I notice.

"Fine," she said, in that "nothing happened" sort of way.

"Did you play football today at lunch?"

"Well, sort of."

"What do you mean, 'sort of'?"

"Well, they're giving us lessons. So today we started and George was teaching me how to throw and catch a football."

This is interesting. George has been in Caroline's class since kindergarten, and he's a nice, smart, but very challenging kid. Caroline normally steers clear of him.

"That was nice of George," I added. See how good I am at those non-commital mom statements? "Was it fun?"

"Yeah. It's sort of hard to throw a football," she answered. "Mikey was teaching Simone while George was teaching me. I think we're gonna get to play the real game next week." Long pause. "Can I have some popcorn when we get home?"

Later, at bedtime, I said to Caroline, "So, how'd you feel about playing football today?"

"I felt good." Caroline rolled toward me on the bed. "But it wasn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be."

"How come?"

"I don't know. "

"Well, you're just learning. Maybe it'll get more fun when you've learned how to do it better. Do you still want to play next week?"

"Yeah. Simone and I are going to keep playing. We agreed."

I wondered what sort of motherly advice was required here, if any. "Well, you know, sometimes it's good to know you CAN do something, even if you decide later that you don't WANT to do it."

Caroline looked solemnly at me. "Yeah, that's what I think, too."

High Tech Tucks

Finally. The finished "high tech tucks" quilt that I made for Roger's birthday! He loves it, and is excited to finally have a quilt he can hang in his office at school. Up 'til now, each time I've made a smaller quilt, he's asked "Can I have it to hang in my office?" and I've refused, mean wife that I am. So-- He's quilt thrilled, and I'm quite happy to be done with the dang thing.

By the way, it doesn't look square because I pinned it quickly up on my design wall. But the corners really are square.

This is from a pattern by Caryl Bryer Fallert. Having made this one, I learned all sorts of things about what NOT to do. Fallert's pattern is fine. It was my (ahem) short cuts that made life harder.

My lessons aren't going to do me any good, because I'm not making any more of these. But in the interest of education, I'll share my lessons in case anyone else is inclined to take a perfectly good pattern and wander off into their own "I'll just try this instead" detour:

1. Do not piece the foundation from left-over bits of interfacing...go buy a big piece. You will think you are saving time and money and being clever. But you need this foundation flat, flat, flat. You'll think your pieced foundation is fine. Ha. Think again.

2. Think carefully about using a very linear background fabric (like stripes or checks) because trying to make sure the horizontal lines really do stay horizontal isn't fun.

3. When you've made your tuck strips and laid them out in the right order on your table, don't turn your back because inevitably a cat will jump up and disturb them, and the phone will ring, and while you're on the phone a creative child will wander into your studio and decide that those colorful strips look so fun that she'll have a grand time rearranging them all.

4. When you've arranged your tuck strips AGAIN in the correct order and pin them up on the design wall, pin them high enough so that cats can't reach the dangling ends and pull them down again. Enough said.

5. After you've gone ahead and pieced the foundation anyway despite my good advice (yup, I know your type) and after you've sewn the tucks on you find that it's slightly distorted and not flat (see #1), do not cut the foundation stabilizer apart. Trust me.

6. Do not think that you can straighten it all out by sewing it onto the batting alone, and you'll worry about the backing later. NO! Worry about the backing now, take the time to figure it all out, and then sew everything together. I don't even want to talk about this step any more.

Other than that, it was a breeze. Now, don't get me wrong...it actually was fun. The tucks are a clever idea and the illusion they create is quite interesting. For my goal to do a quick (ha) project that Roger would like and that would be impressive, this fit the bill.

Still, I'm happy to be on to other things. And Roger is happy to have this colorful piece to hang in his office.

The Dilemma

This arrived in my email in box today and caused me to ponder very deeply:

Here's a dilemma for you...what would you do?

This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. Please don't answer it without giving it some serious thought. By giving an honest answer you will discover where you stand morally.

The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation, in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Thoughtfulness is important for this evaluation to be meaningful!

Ready? Begin!

You're in Florida...In Miami, to be exact... There is chaos around you, caused by a hurricane and severe floods. This is a flood of major proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper caught in the middle of this great disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water.

Nature is showing all its destructive fury. You see a man in the water! He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken away with the water and debris. You move closer.

Somehowthe man looks familiar. Suddenly, you know who it is... it's George W. Bush!

At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under, forever. You have two options. You can save him or you can take the most dramatic photos of your life. You can save the life of George W. Bush, or you can shoot a Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men.

Now, here's the question (please give an honest answer).

Would you select colour film, or go with the classic simplicity of black and white?