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.

Missing time

Where did the week go? I know I was here. But what did I do?

Funny, how some days (and weeks!) are like that...I can pass the time doing all sorts of things and feeling busy, but at the end of it I'm not sure what I've accomplished. So, here's a shot at a list of what I've done this week:

1. Recovered from 5 hours of dental work (fixing everything on one side of my mouth and extracting a tooth, in preparation for braces) (Hmm, now that I think about it, the 36+ hours on pain medication probably explain my feeling of fuzziness about what I was doing earlier in the week...)

2. Planted rose bushes in the garden

3. Made a start on researching a memo to suppress evidence in a criminal case, and on researching statute of limitations issues in an appropriation of trade secrets case

4. Figured out why the chapters Roger sent to his editor kept coming out on her computer with strange characters, and fixed that nasty problem (for which I was rewarded with Haagen-Daas chocolate peanut butter ice cream, my favorite)

5. Sorted out the clothes in Caroline's dresser to pull out the ones that are too small

6. Attended my art quilt group, The Pointless Sisters, got the new challenge underway, and came away inspired

7. Had lunch out with buddies Janet, Gerrie and Pat

8. Went to my book club dinner (known as "The No Guilt Book Club" because we refuse to feel guilty if we don't get around to discussing the book or even reading the month's selection in the first place)

9. Took Caroline to the new park in our neighborhood numerous times

10. Tried a new recipe: boneless chicken breasts stuffed with green chiles and jack cheese and baked in enchilada sauce... A keeper.

11. Cut out pieces of Guatemalan and American striped fabrics for a Kaffe Fassett style quilt to send to my friend Silvia in Guatemala (photos to come when it's together)

12. Sandwiched my contemporary double wedding ring quilt and decided on the quilting design (I'm hoping I'll start on the actual quilting tomorrow).

13. Enjoyed a "family movie night" with Caroline and Roger as we ate chinese food and watched "A Series of Unfortunate Events" (which we all really liked).

14. Did a bazillion loads of laundry.

There. I feel better... I did do something!

Colors of the Mind

The other morning, I was laying in bed listening to NPR's "Morning Edition" before I had to get up, and a particular story caught my attention. It was about a condition called "synesthesia," an apparently rare condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as an additional sense, such as sight. The story featured a female musician who hears colors, in that to her every note has a particular color associated with it.

The reporter went on to interview a researcher at Vanderbilt University, whose specialty is studying people who perceive distinct colors associated with numbers, letters, and words.

And here's what startled me about this story: I didn't know that everyone DIDN'T do that. All my life, I've seen particular colors associated with numbers, letters of the alphabet, days of the week, names, etc. It's totally involuntary and unconscious. It's never been a matter of my deciding what color a word or letter reminds me of...it just "is" the color in my mind. For example, Monday is a reddish burgundy. Tuesday is green. Wednesday is yellow. One is white, two is blue...you get the idea.

It never occurred to me that this is unusual. I can't even imagine having a black and white alphabet.

I polled my family. My sister does this as well (although she has different colors for things) but my parents don't. I haven't yet encountered a friend who does this, although one friend says that she "feels" colors when she gets a massage. I think that may be a variety of synesthesia.

Here's an article explaining synesthesia, basically. Fascinating, isn't it?

Do you have involuntary color associations? Or other cross-sense perceptions that may be synesthesia?

More quilt studios

In case you haven't seen enough of other quilters' studios, here's a link where you can see more:

Online Studio Tour

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.)