Hooray, hooray, it's Family Day!

In our house, August 19 is Family Day. That's the day we officially adopted Caroline in China, and we celebrate it joyfully every year.

It's hard to believe that 9 years ago today, Caroline officially became part of our family. Really, until then we were a couple. And Caroline made us a family. Don't we look blissfully happy?



That picture was taken at the orphanage in Chongqing, China, the very day we met her.

The events that led us to adopt Caroline weren't easy. We dealt with unexplained infertility for some time, and explored some domestic adoption situations that didn't pan out. It was an emotional time for Roger and me as a couple. But when we learned about the process of adopting a child from China, it seemed like the clear and right path for us.

In retrospect, it seems like the time flew by. But that wasn't how it felt at the time, of course. It felt like the paperwork was endless, and complicated. We sent papers all over the US to get them stamped and sealed as necessary, and then were in awe when they came back to us from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, stamped and sealed some more, with impressive Chinese characters and a red satin ribbon attached. We were so frustrated we could have chewed nails when the federal government shut down for 4 or 5 months over a political budget mess...Remember that? Our papers sat on someone's desk at Immigration all that time, and there was nothing we could do about it.

During that time, it seemed that I saw heavily pregnant women everywhere, and I felt pregnant as well...I even gained a few pounds!

Finally, after our papers went to China, we got our "child assignment" and received this picture of our as-yet-unseen daughter:



This was our first glimpse of Caroline. I framed it in this frame, and kept it on my desk at work. We made zillions of copies, carried laminated ones in our pockets, and sent them to everyone we knew. (It's funny to me that I see that same serious, contemplative expression on Caroline's face at times, even now.)

And then we waited for clearance from the Chinese government to travel to China. If I thought the waiting was hard before, it became harder when we had a specific child to picture and wonder about!

Roger and I handled things differently, not surprisingly. He got into the excitement of traveling to China, and he researched sites to see and read all about the places we'd be going. Me, I didn't care WHERE we'd be...I bought tiny clothes (pink, pink, pink!) in various sizes, as we didn't know how big she'd be by the time we got there. Would she be on the small side? We knew she was going to be around 6 months old, but we didn't know whether she'd be underdeveloped. I took clothes and diapers for 3 months, 6 months, and a year. Would she accept normal formula, or be lactose intolerant? I took regular and soy. Would she be sick and go through extra diapers? I took enough diapers so she could have diarrhea for the entire time and I wouldn't run out (that's a LOT of diapers). (We were told we could not count on being able to find powdered formula or disposable diapers.) Would she need medication? We took a medical kit (an amazingly complete little pack put together by an international adoption agency out of Texas) that had sterile hypodermic needles, various creams (for lice, scabies, etc.) and antibiotics. We even took duct tape, hearing disaster stories of luggage tearing. We were well prepared and well stocked.

We arrived in China on a Sunday, met up with the other four families we'd be traveling with, and got to meet our babies on a Tuesday. It was an astonishing emotional day, as you can imagine. But every child in our group was beautiful and healthy.

From there, we had almost two weeks of official errands to run to process the adoption... A visit to a health clinic for the most cursory medical exam you could imagine, official photographs for Caroline's passport, interviews with officials, and last, the interview at the American Consulate in Guangzhou so Caroline could get her visa. In between, we did some site-seeing and marveled at our new baby.



We also tried to nap whenever possible. China time is exactly 12 hours off of east coast time (we lived in New Hampshire when we adopted Caroline) so our bodies were in shock. Plus, guess what: babies wake up in the middle of the night!



But she was the cutest baby in the whole world. She gazed thoughtfully out at the world from her stroller as we pushed her around the streets of Guangzhou.



We tested her as a future hat model, but she wouldn't have it and second after every hat picture, she'd ripped it off.



Our day at the American consulate got us the papers to bring her home with us. Note her patriotic red, white and blue attire (well, the blue is hidden in this picture). (And isn't it cool that they had cribs in the American consulate waiting room? Baby swing chairs, too!)



Ah, it was a wonderful experience. I came home feeling that if I could travel in a foreign country with a brand new baby for two weeks, I could do anything.

And here is Caroine now: big and beautiful and smart as a whip.



I simply can't believe it's been NINE years.

We're processing papers to go again, and get a sister for Caroline. So we'll have TWO family days to celebrate, and two beautiful daughters to enjoy.

Meanwhile, we're celebrating. Chinese food for dinner, of course!

Getting in Touch with Your Inner Fabricholic

When I've seen my friend Rita lately, she's had a calm and happy smile on her face. Wondering why she looked like the proverbial cat who ate the canary, I asked what's she's been up to.

"I've been getting in touch with my fabric," she replied, grinning.

Rita explained. She's got several workshops coming up: a trip to Art Quilt Tahoe in late fall, and our fall retreat at Bishop's Ranch in October. In preparation for them, and before she headed out to shop for the materials on her supply lists, she decided to take stock with what she had in her stash. She's been sorting and stroking fabric. She was having such fun fondling her fabric that she decided to wash and iron it all so she could stroke it and gaze at it some more.

"I love what I have!" she announced, happily. "I've found stuff I forgot I had, and I still really love it!"

So, she hasn't sewn a stitch, or designed any new projects, or fused any fabulous quilt tops. But she's having a marvelous time.

Gee, I wonder what's in MY closet? And can I get Rita to come over and iron it?!

A Word about Thread

I've been quilting on my butterfly quilt lately (I know, I know, you want pictures... SOON.) And I've made another discovery, late to arrive at knowledge that others have long known.

I've been using Libby Lehman's "Bottom Line" thread in the bobbin. And it's wonderful! And a bobbin lasts FOREVER! I'd swear this thread has magical properties which make one bobbin just go on and on and on. It's great stuff! I'm going to have to stock up on colors.

On the top, I've been using Aurifil thread. Having been turned on to Aurifil thread by Kathy Sandbach a few years ago, I've ordered it since then from That Thread Shop. Now, a few of my local shops carry it in some colors, which is handy. I buy large cones of grey Aurifil thread and use that for most piecing projects. It's 50 weight, but it feels thinner to me, which I like. And it's virtually fuzz-less, so it doesn't mess up the bobbin case nearly as much as other thread does.

I know a lot of people use heavier weight thread for quilting. I do too, sometimes. But these days, I find myself liking a finer quilting line, so the texture of the quilting shows somewhat more than the thead itself. That's what's working well on my current project, anyway.

Today, Caroline is home sick again (and miserable about missing pony camp for another day), the dishwasher repair guy is due, the bathroom demolition guys will be back shaking the house as they rip the tile off of the shower... and my teeth feel like they have steel bands wrapped around them putting pressure on my whole head. (Oh wait, they DO!) So, it's clearly not a day to concentrate on legal reseach. I'm going to give it all up and just quilt.

B-Day

No, that's not because it's my birthday..."B-Day" is "Braces Day"... the day I've been counting down to for the last few months, as I've squarely addressed various dental issues.

You may not appreciate what a big deal this is for me. I've had a rather severe phobia about dentistry for all of my adult life. But over the past two years, I've managed to overcome a lot of it (thanks to a great dentist and his willingness to sedate me and otherwise accomodate my fears) and I've gotten everything that needed doing done.

Now all that's left is to straighten my teeth. Sigh. I grew up with very straight teeth. As an adolescent, I had great, straight teeth while my friends suffered through years of braces. I guess I was smug.

Because, during my late 20's and all through my 30's, my teeth suddenly started migrating forward as if their goal was to leap right out of my mouth. Some of the movement is due, I know, to the years when I nightly ground and clenched my teeth... The stress of my trial lawyer days acting itself out on my poor little teeth.

Anyway, I was weirdly excited for today to come, because it marks the beginning of the end of dealing with something that has become a big issue for me. And they're on! It's a very strange feeling, this mouth full of metal. I'd take a picture, but the wires look all twisty and crooked because my teeth are all crooked! You'll see the final result if you hang around for about 2 years.

So, smile for me, and then go brush and floss!

Dog Days of Summer

Gemma had a great day today. Her friend Sadie, accompanied by her friend Connor (who is exactly Caroline's age) came over to play this morning. Sadie is a "Golden Doodle," which is a cross between a golden retriever and a standard poodle. She's very charming.



Sadie is also the same age as Gemma (approaching 6 months old now), about the same size, and about the same energy level. Conveniently for all of us, Sadie's owners live around the corner from us so we get together frequently for doggie play.



They are well matched in their play. Sometimes, Sadie pins Gemma...



And just as often, Gemma pins Sadie.



They do take frequent breaks for refreshments.



They're always a constantly-moving blur of running, rolling, and romping...But if someone opens the screen door coming out of the house, they freeze. Can't you see the thought bubbles over their heads, "FOOD?!"



They're such friendly dogs that they decided to help Connor tie his shoe.



So, a good time was had by all. I got to sit, watch, and read my novel a bit, which was quite pleasant. We sent Sadie and Connor home tired and happy. (I did have to call Kim, Connor's mom, to apologize for sending Sadie home with muddy feet and brambles in her fur-- they had one big romp session back against the fence, in the bushes, until I got them back out on the lawn.)

Gemma was exhausted. And remember the novel I was reading? Gemma spent a bit of the afternoon enjoying it, as well.



You'll notice that she's the type to go straight to the end of the story. Wouldn't you know...she couldn't have chewed up the pages I'd already read!

Ebb and Flow

In these phases, when my non-quilting life consumes most of my time and I'm not getting any quilting time, I never quite know what to write about here. When I write about family stuff, I worry that the quilting folks among you will be bored silly. (As if you aren't most of the time here anyway, but I ignore that worry.)

Unlike some folks -- whose inner artistic contemplations I admire -- I don't typically have interesting philosophical thoughts and revelations about the artistic process. I'm thinking about what to make for dinner, whether Caroline has outgrown her school clothes, how I'll find time to finish the motion I'm supposed to be researching, whether the puppy needs more exercise and should I take her to the dog park, why that laurel bush in the corner of the yard has yellow leaves, and the question that almost always lurks in the back of my mind: Can I take a nap?

I try to remind myself that these outwardly unproductive times can actually turn out to be productive. The inability to find time to work on quilt projects seems to make my mind more eager, and I find myself coming up with new creative ideas and even, sometimes, solutions to creative problems that have been plaguing me. So, I guess I should consider these periods in my life as part of my own creative process. If not for the ebb, there wouldn't be flow.

I'm always drawn to new quilt books, and I'm lucky enough to belong to a guild with a massive library. Last week, I borrowed Velda Newman's two books and I've been reading them with great pleasure and interest. I've been thinking (in a general way, not a grand philosophical way) that LARGE quilts have huge impact. See? Not a huge revelation, but a small thought that if I'm going to take the time to work on something that I want to have a big impact, perhaps I need to consider the final size a bit more. Velda Newman's work is an obvious example of this...her work would be stunning even if smaller, but huge, it's breath-taking.

Remember my quilt "Smoke Signals?"

I really like how this turned out, but it's not that powerful. It's small, 29" x 38". I keep thinking I'm going to enter it somewhere, but I haven't...and in part, I think, it's because it doesn't strike me as big enough. Not just in size, but in impact.

Last year, I had a quilt in Pacific Quilt International...which was a big deal to me, as it was the first time I'd entered anything in a juried show. It was "Red Threads":

This is another quilt I'm proud of. It is one of my first wholly original designs, and it was my first effort at something realistic. It's also not very big, about 39" x 41". And, while I was thrilled to have something hanging at PIQF, I was disappointed to see it hanging. At that show, and most others, they hung the small quilts all together, fitted together almost like mosaic tiles on a long wall. There were tons of great, smaller quilts. But in that setting, you lost the impact of any one of them.

So, I'm thinking that the next quilt I do needs to be bigger.

And while I've been pondering that small but useful thought, I went with my friends Pat, Janet, Rita and Gerrie to hear a talk by San Francisco quilt artist Marcia Stein yesterday. You might know her work...she does wonderful, graphic portrayals of scenes and images that are realistic yet simplified in a dramatic way. Here are a few of my favorites:

In one of those synchronistic moments, she mentioned in her talk that she was heavily influenced by a class by Velda Newman and decided to make her quilts large to give them a strong impact.

Well, okay. I think I'm getting the idea. And I'll be ready to work on it, any minute now, as soon as I have time to turn on the "flow."

So much for solitude...

I've mentioned here how summers, while they're lots of fun, are stressful for me.

In summertime, both Roger and Caroline are at home all day, every day. And, while this has some nice advantages, it also makes me crazy. You see, I work from home, so my work schedule is totally thrown out of whack. Plus, I'm the sort of person who needs some quiet and alone time...and the lack of it makes me stir-crazy after a while.

So, I've been looking forward to next week. Roger starts school on Monday, and Caroline is signed up for an all-day pony camp, which will give me from about 9:30 to 3pm at home alone to get work done and get a bit of time to myself. (Just between you and me, I was planning to celebrate the occasion by avoiding all work on Monday and spending the day quilting my butterfly.)

But some things are not meant to be. This morning, workers started tearing apart our master bathroom, to repair a construction defect that has caused leaking and requires replacement of the shower and flooring. That means there will be workers in the house for two weeks, they estimate. Perfect.

That's okay, I thought, I can still spend the day sewing on Monday.

Not.

Turns out a work issue is rearing its ugly head, and I have a conference call that promises to be a 2-hour thing. And tuesday morning I get my braces put on, so that morning is shot.

Sigh. There is nothing to do but just deal with it. And enjoy it while it's happening, yes?!

One Thing Leads to Another

Do you ever have one of those days where you set out to do one chore -- one simple, little, easy chore -- and before you know it, you've made a huge mess that overwhelms you? That was my day today.

I set out to clear off the top of the dryer in the laundry room. Our laundry room is upstairs, which is handy for all sorts of reasons, but it ends up being a sort of "catch-all" place for clothes I don't know what to do with. Usually it's stuff that Caroline has outgrown, or needs mending, or the like. Well, as I was doing that, I decided to take advantage of one of the cupboards over the dryer, which held a bunch of stuff I'd decided to give to the Salvation Army.

So, there was this nice, empty cupboard...which seemed like the ideal place top put the batting that is sitting on the top shelf of my closet. So, in the process of pulling the batting down, I pulled a bunch more stuff down too, which led to a cleaning of the entire walk-in closet. It all exploded out into the entry to the bedroom, looking like this:



And of course, I had to sort stuff, so it all spread to the bed:



Well, as you can guess, the day was shot. I got it all put away by about 3, and loaded a whole bunch of shopping bags full of clothes and shoes into the car to take to Salvation Army...

I was tired but happy with my progress. And I'm pleased to have found a good, out-of-the way place for the batting. However, if I start complaining about needing batting at some point in the future, will one of you please email me and remind me to go look in the cupboard over the dryer?!

Butterflies in my Stomach

Remember this butterfly wing I was working on a long time ago? It's been sitting in my basket of UFOs in my office/studio, waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. I'd attached the butterfly wing to the green background, but there it sat.

And suddenly, last week, the solution became clear. My uncertainty about how to border it -- indeed, whether to border it at all -- evaporated. I had a clear plan, and lots of excitement.

But no time. It's been frustrating.

But today, Roger drove off to take Caroline to her riding lesson...I worked for a bit and got another project done and sent off...and then cleared the table and got to work.

I'm very happy. It's coming along nicely and I'm ready to put the layers together and start quilting!

But I'm not going to show you until it's all done. Besides, it might change some between now and then. Still, it's been a happy experience to have ideas and rough concepts gel into a "yes, THAT" decision, and then finally get time to execute it.

My favorite things

What with work obligations, and family activities, and the post-vacation catching up on things like garden and laundry and such, I've not had any creative time and I've not even dug my digital camera out of my backpack where it nested while we were in Tahoe! So, I apologize for the picture-free series of entries here. I'll get back to normal shortly, I think.

In the meantime, I'm posting this list of some of my favorite things...because Caroline was watching "The Sound of Music" earlier this evening and the song stuck in my head. Please post on your blog, I'd love to see what you'd say!

So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorite things:

The sound of a rainbird sprinkler on a hot summer day

A hot bubble bath

Clean cotton sheets on the bed

The smell of library books

Stencilled and calico china buttons

Japanese quilting magazines

My waterman fountain pen

Watching Caroline riding horseback

Tulips

Peanut butter and rasberry jam sandwiches

The view from our bedroom window, across a few rooftops to vineyard-covered hills in the distance

Rainy days

The crunch of snow underfoot

The smell of chocolate chip cookies baking

Playing "yatzee" with Caroline

The scent of the summertime air in Lake Tahoe

Shiny red dishes

My round, pink teapot

Listening to Roger play his guitar

Scones with orange marmelade, and earl grey tea

The hum of my sewing machine when I'm free-motion quilting

Gemma's wild tail-wagging greeting in the morning

Sparkling water, cold and blubbly

A fresh, juicy peach at the peak of summer


I could go on and on. What's your list?

Still Waiting

"Still Waiting," by Sharon Malec

A few months ago, I bought this gorgeous small quilt through the "Keiko and Friends: Art Quilts" exhibit curated by Laura Wasilowski. I simply couldn't resist it. Sharon Malec is a very talented quilt artist who is known as "the Dog Lady" because of her great dog quilts and designs. And this one really called out to me.

My sister, Laura, has had a wonderful, quiet black lab named Libby for about 13 years. She rescued her after Libby was found, staked to a tree behind an empty house. It was apparent from her behavior that she was a young dog, and sweet, but that she'd been badly abused. So, for the past 13 years, Libby has been my sister's shadow. For quite a while, Laura had a job where she could take Libby to work with her. Libby rides "shotgun" next to Laura in her truck, and where ever Laura is, Libby is curled up quietly nearby. When Laura had to travel, we or my parents would keep Libby for her...and this quilt represented what we usually saw, then--Libby's back, as she sat gazing at the door or a window, waiting for Laura.

When I bought this lovely quilt, I wasn't sure whether I was going to keep it or give it to Laura. I really wanted to keep it -- but, after all, it's an amazing likeness of Libby (especially since Sharon Malec has never seen her). I've had it tucked away, and figured I'd decide at some point.

Well, this past week, Laura had to have Libby put to sleep. Libby's been pretty frail for a while now, with back problems and doggie delirium setting in. It was looking like she had a brain tumor, and things were going to plummet fast. So, we all had our sad goodbyes. Laura's doing okay, but she misses her so much.

And of course, it became very clear that Laura needed this lovely art quilt. I gave it to Laura tonight, and we both had a good cry and then went out and threw balls for Gemma.

I've sent my deep thanks to Sharon, for creating something that has become so meaningful to both me and my sister.

Summer Sunday

I tried to warn you when the summer started. Life has no schedule or structure...which can be good, and it can be frustrating. I find I'm not getting a lot of some things done (I'm LONGING for time at my sewing machine), but I'm spending a lot of time with Roger and Caroline. So, that's good.

I woke up to cool, slightly foggy weather this morning, and as I sat outside and sipped my coffee and threw the tennis ball for Gemma, I figured that it'd be good weather to fill in some of the perennials that have died. We have a very young garden, and I'm still filling in spaces. I'd really like a crowded English cottage garden, blowsy with flowers and bumble bees and butterflies...I'm about 1/2 way there, I'd say, maybe a bit less.

Well, by the time I got breakfast stuff cleaned up (our dishwasher is acting strange, so I had to -- gasp -- wash dishes by hand!!!) and went to the local hardware store for plants, it was sunny and warm...and by the time I was outside on my knees, trowel in hand, it was HOT. REALLY hot. I got stuff planted (all except for one little black-eyed susan that I set in place but forgot to actually plant) and then I couldn't wait to get inside and take a cold shower.

I have to say that it was pretty amusing that every time I dug a hole, Gemma was right there to stick her nose in there. Canine companionship is a delightful thing, but geez, there's such a thing as TOO CLOSE.

Inspired by the foggy morning, I'd put country-style pork ribs in the crock pot with a favorite asian-style sauce. So the house smelled yummy all day, and when it came time to have dinner, and I was too tired to cook, I didn't have to. I do love that crockpot, as utterly suburban house-wifey as that sounds.

I was going to write the other night about the grand, productive time I was having printing out the foundations for my Cinco de Mayo paper-pieced quilt. A while back, I ordered a ream of unlined newsprint on line (really cheap, from a school-supply place...ask me if you want to know where I got it and I'll hunt it down). So, I loaded up the printer, popped in the CD-rom I'd gotten with all of Karen Stone's quilts on it from the EQ5 people, and away I went. I was so thrilled that I was making my own foundations on easily-tearable paper... When my printer started making this horrid, screeching sound. After much experimenting and online research, I determined that the motor has burned out. This is, actually, no huge surprise as it's a very old printer and I've churned out massive quantities of paper on it. Goodbye, HP 4L...you've been a good little printer. (And I managed to print out enough foundations to keep me sewing for a while!)

Still, that launched me into more research into what printer to buy next. I do tons of text stuff, but want to do some color occasionally so I'm shopping for low-end color laser printers. I've read so many reviews and opinions that NONE of them sound good any more.

Ah well. Does Bermina make printers?

Another Meme

Here’s another one of those "meme" things. I’m volunteering for this, after seeing it on one of my favorite blogs, Little Birds. Like Stephanie, I won’t officially "tag" anyone, but I’ll leave it to anyone who wants to pick it up and run with it.

10 years ago: Roger and I were newlyweds, living in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. I was working full time as a trial lawyer, immersed in a messy, massive property fight after a divorce. We were getting ready to head up to the wilds of Canada for a lake-side vacation at "Kenauk," a wilderness resort outside of Ottowa, where we had the funniest and one of the most fun vacations of our marriage.

5 years ago: Roger and I and Caroline (age 2 ½) had moved back to California, and were renting a nice suburban house with a great big backyard in Healdsburg. Caroline was about ready to start pre-school, and I was struggling with the transition from New Hampshire lawyer to full-time, stay-at-home wife and mom...which was not the easiest adjustment, to my surprise.

1 year ago: Roger and I were spending the summer working hard to landscape the backyard of our new house. Exactly a year ago, we’d just returned from a week in Lake Tahoe! Apparently we’re very predictable!

Yesterday: I spent most of the day sitting at the computer writing a motion for summary judgment. Not exciting, but productive. And not a bad penance for a lovely vacation. Had a refreshing dinner of cold chicken salad (with grapes in it! Yummers!) on pita bread.

Today: Played games with Caroline this morning, did laundry, pulled weeds in the garden, threw the ball for Gemma over and over, then went out to a Chinese food lunch with Roger and Caroline, then more laundry folding, tidying my office, getting ready to actually get to the sewing machine.

Tomorrow: A day for household errands, taking Caroline to her horseback riding lesson, taking Gemma to the vet to get antibiotics for an apparent case of kennel cough.

5 snacks I enjoy: chocolate, salty chips, chocolate, salty crackers, chocolate, and chocolate.

5 bands/singers to whose songs I know most lyrics: Loggins and Messina (and Kenny Loggins), Crowded House, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, James Taylor (is this dating me?!)

5 things I would do with $100,000,000: Buy a house on Nantucket, buy a house on a lake in the mountains, donate a hunk of money to our school district, buy Caroline a horse and make boarding arrangements, send money to an orphanage in China

5 locations I’d like to run away to: No need to run away– I have a great life! But I’d love to take long trips to Nantucket, London, Japan, Australia, and western Canada (Banff, Jasper, that sort of place)

5 bad habits I have: Procrastinating, starting projects and not finishing them, eating at my computer after dinner, not saying "no" when I should, spending too much time reading blogs and doing other fiddly, unproductive stuff at the computer

5 things I like doing: Watching Netflix movies with Roger, playing "Toontown" with Caroline, hanging out with my quilting friends, making quilts and fondling fabric, spending time with my sister

5 things I would never wear: A midriff-exposing top, clothes with lots of jewels or sequins, ruffly white eyelet, 5" heels, a tube top

5 TV shows I like: The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Project Runway, the Apprentice, Simply Quilts

5 movies I like: Anything with Fred Astaire in it, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Local Hero, any Katherine Hepburn movie, Sleepless in Seattle

5 famous people I’d like to meet: Hmmm. No one comes to mind as a burning desire, but there are lots of fascinating people I’d enjoy talking to: Oprah Winfrey, T. Berry Brazleton, John Grisham, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Hilary Clinton

5 biggest joys at the moment: Sitting in the living room in the middle of the afternoon reading a novel, working on quilt projects, taking quilting workshops, listening to Caroline read outloud, sitting on the adirondack chair under the tree in the backyard and reading magazines

5 favorite toys: My Ipod, my computer, my Bernina sewing machine, my Juki (the fastest machine ever), my digital camera.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

I have to apologize, belatedly, for my silence over the past week. I've been on vacation at Lake Tahoe, and as I left immediately after coming home from my workshop weekend with Karen Stone, I didn't have time to post a message here!

In any event, we had a grand time. We stayed with Roger's sister at the vacation home she has there, and met up with her and Roger's brother and his family for a short sibling reunion. This was our third annual reunion trip, and we have developed the tradition of progressively decorating the photographs of any other family members who opt out of the week! This year's subjects were Roger's other sister, Doreen, and her son Dash...so their pictures were decorated with tatoos, facial hair, jewelry, and assorted other additions...We posed their photographs on floating river rafts, on lounge chairs on the beach, eating dinner with us, and in various silly and/or compromising positions. That ought to teach them to show up next year!

I'll mention our only bad experience here as a precaution to those of you with little children...One night, after we'd spent the day at the lake, Caroline complained of a severe headache with what sounded like migraine symptoms: extreme sensitivity to light, bad headache pain, nausea, vomiting...But she has had migraines before (they're not uncommon in kids, I've learned) and she didn't respond as she usually does to her medicine and her continued extreme pain was really concerning to us. So, I called our doctor and learned that cornea sunburn is a common occurrence in kids who've been outdoors and around water all day! He advised to give her ibuprofin and benadryl, to keep cold compresses on her eyes for the night, and to keep her in sunglasses -- even indoors -- all the next day. She'd be fine, he said, after that. And, in fact, she was! The next morning she reported a slight feeling of scratchiness in her eyes but she was otherwise perky as all get out... and 100% fine the day after that. But who knew? For all the "Parents" magazines I've read and weird-injury stories I've heard from parents, I never knew about the possibility of sunburning corneas. So, parents and friends of little ones, beware--keep your kids in sunglasses or goggles on the water!

Mostly, though, we sat on the edge of the lake and chatted and read, and then went in to swim or float or search for crawdads under the dock...you know, that sort of strenuous activity that requires a margarita before dinner and an early bed-time. The house has a wonderful back deck and a comfy futon out there...so as much as I could, I hung out there to read or nap or stare up at the trees. Heaven.

Then, for excitement's sake, we ventured the hour's drive east to Reno, Nevada for two nights. We stayed at a very nice and reasonably priced casino hotel...and had fun watching hotel room movies (Robots is worth seeing for the amazing creativity in the robot shapes!), playing slot machines, swimming with Caroline at the pool, and just watching the fascinating slice of humanity that walks through a casino. My personal thrill was winning $600 while playing a PENNY slot machine! I am a very timid gambler -- hence the penny machine -- and I had to look really hard at the cash-out slip to convince myself that I'd hit a jackpot that paid 60,000 pennies!!

We got home this evening and did the usual unpacking and piling-of-laundry-to-be-done in the laundry room. Life as usual will resume tomorrow, after we reclaim our sorely-missed puppy from the Puppy Camp where she has been boarding in our absence.

I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging life and finding out what all the AQW Ringers have been up to!

Another Beauty-ful Day

Yesterday (well, today...I haven't been to bed yet) was day 2 of my Karen Stone workshop, and what a great day it was! It started off with room service breakfast in my hotel room ... something that always delights me. I think it's the decadence of having a hot breakfast brought to my room, where I can eat in silence with my book for company. I do adore breakfasts accompanied by Caroline's lively chatter and Roger's commentary on the daily news, but occasionally, a silent breakfast feels like heaven.

Then, a day of sewing. After most of the day yesterday was spent defining the palette for our quilts with some tips on block construction, today was sewing.

I'd sewn a long time before I'd ever taken a quilt workshop and sewn among a group of women. (Not since my high school sewing classes had I had that group experience.) That first time, and today, I find sitting in a room full of sewing women to be a real delight. There is something about working intently on one's own project while surrounded by others working on theirs that is very satisfying. Plus, I've met some delightful people and had some very enjoyable conversations. Once, a discussion about Martha Stewart and her jail time led to almost every woman in the room sighing longingly for "house arrest" with nothing to do but sew. "Do you think they let you have a rotary cutter when you're on house arrest?" pondered one woman.

Anyway. It's ironic that Melody should choose today to post her "why piece when you can fuse?" commentary, while I was spending the day enjoying piecing very intricate blocks. Maybe I'm scattered, or a woman of diverse interests, but I like fusing AND piecing. And even though it took me more than a full day of sewing to sew two blocks, I loved it...and can't wait to do more.

If you read Melody's posting, you'll see my reply to her in her comments. But basically, I said this: Some of us like the challenge of piecing intricate, curvy, or pointy, or curvy AND pointing, complex designs! It's that simple! Fusing is fun, but piecing is, too! And just because it's hard doesn't mean it's bad or to be avoided! (Unless you hate it, and then why do it if you hate it?)

Unlike Melody, I don't think it's a matter of process obliterating design. I think that for some people, the challenge of taking the limitations of the process -- any process -- and seeing if they can be stretched to accomodate a given design is fun and exciting. I guess the trick is to find the process that works for you.

And -- as Melody knows because she and I have had this conversation at length before -- it's not just a matter of fusing OR piecing = same result. I see a very different look in a pieced quilt than in a fused one. Not better, not worse, just different. For some designs, I might want the pieced look...for others, the fused one. It's okay to prefer one or the other, or even both and use and enjoy both processes.

In color...and more color

Here are the promised pictures from the workshop with Karen Stone. Karen is a delightful woman and excellent teacher. She's charming and funny, self-deprecating about her artistry, encouraging with students. I highly recommend a workshop with her.

I mentioned that Karen likes to spread her quilts out on the floor and talk about how they evolved. It's easy to get up close and personal sitting around a quilt, and you see good details that way. Here she is, telling us about how she made "Lady Libery Goes to Hawaii."



Here's another shot from the discussion part. I forget what this quilt was called, but it was astonishing in person. Great fun! It features wacky stars and spirals fused onto a pieced background, then wildy embellished. The border was a sort of "boa" effect made from bits of yarn and ribbon stitched on loosely.



Here's a close up section of Karen's Cinco de Mayo. (It's featured in her book and is on the cover.) Again, it's amazing in person--great color and intricate quilting in wild, fun designs.



Here are the two blocks I made in the workshop:



I was working with batiks, mainly, and plan to put some white and black in each block. Note how I broke out of my usual color palette and chose a restrained, soft, sophisticated look. *SNORT*

As in many workshops, it was especially fun to see the color choices others made. Here is an assortment of the wonderful work done by others in the workshop:

Good and Bad

The good news: I found this really, really cute dog bed for Gemma to put in my office. And it was on sale, too!

The bad news: I've apparently underestimated how large this dog actually is.

New York Beautiful Days

Today, I spent a wonderful day in the first of a two-day workshop taught by Karen K. Stone. I'm taking the class at a wonderful fabric store in Walnut Creek, California called Thimble Creek. So far, of all of the stores in which I've taken classes, this is my favorite. The classroom is well-lit, spacious, and has plenty of outlets and and design wall space. The store staff is friendly and will run a tab for you in case (ahem) you need to add to your supplies during class.

I've always wanted to make a New York Beauty quilt, and I've long been dazzled by the gorgeous color and design of the ones made by Karen Stone. So, I was thrilled when this class came up on Thimble Creek's class list...It's to make the quilt shown above, on the cover of Karen's book, called "Cinco de Mayo." I figure that if I'm going to do a New York Beauty Quilt, I might as well start with the most complex one I could find, right?!

The day has been very instructive. Karen spent the morning spreading her quilts out on the floor, and walking us through her design and color process. (By the way, I took pictures but forgot to bring the cable that connects the camera to the computer so I can't upload them from here. Sorry 'bout that!) That sounds pretty boring, but it was really interesting, especially as she talked a lot about how her color and fabric choices evolved. Then, she demonstrated with one woman's stash of fabric, and showed how various selections could lead to really different quilts. This sounds simplistic to explain it here, but it was fascinating to explore how adding one new fabric to a palette of 30 changed things a lot. The goal was to work on coming up with an exciting and unusual palette for a quilt that really "sang" when sitting in fabric hunks on the table...The theory being, of course, that if the fabrics look dynamic together when you're in the fabric-choosing stage, you can't go wrong when you sew them into blocks.

Then, we learned some tips about Karen's paper piecing method. Not much new to me there, although she did demonstrate how she put an edging on a shape that you couldn't ordinarily do by paper piecing. And late this afternoon, we actually started sewing.

I'm having a grand time, so far. The color exploration was really fun, although I'd brought a selection of mostly batiks in jewel tones and I'm working on making the palette less-than-predictable. The blocks are complex, but that is what will make this a satisfying project in the long run.

So, now I have a lovely evening all to myself at the local Holiday Inn. I had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen -- a delicious waldorf salad with chicken -- and after some blog cruising, I'm actually going to do a bit of work before I go to bed. But think of me tomorrow...I'll be happily paper piecing!

Away from Home

You can't tell, but I'm having an amazing and new blogging experience. I'm sitting in my local Healdsburg Starbucks, and feeling smug because I've just installed a wireless network card into the laptop, connected to T-Mobile, and set up an account so that I have wireless internet connectivity.

All this, with a Frappuccino, too.

I'd love to sit here, sipping my refreshing coffee beverage and reading blogs. But I have to go home and pack for vacation activities, finish doing laundry, etc.

But I'll be online on the road! How cool is that?!

Handwork, anyone?

Okay, y'all...I need suggestions. We are headed next week up to Lake Tahoe, to spend the week hanging out with Roger's siblings and their families. Roger's sister has a very comfortable vacation house in Tahoe City, and we'll all stay there and spend the days being at the lake, hiking, and generally relaxing.

Here's my dilemma--I need a hand-project so I can be doing something during the "sitting around talking" time. It makes me crazy to sit around that much doing NOTHING, and while I enjoy the visiting and talking, I get bored and want something to do while I sit on the couch looking interested.

I do most everything by machine. And, while I'd like to bring the machine, I'm not going to do that. So I don't have anything in the works that requires hand sewing. Quick--I need to come up with something!

And no, Melody, I'm not gonna bring my little iron to do little fused projects...

Flexibility: the Pros and Cons

I have a flexible job that allows me to work at home. That's the good news, and the bad news.

You see, although I live here in Northern California, I'm an attorney admitted and practicing in New Hampshire. I lived and practiced law actively in New Hampshire for 11 years (also remembered nostalgically as "the single years," "the thin years," "the well-dressed years," "the years when I watched late-night television" and "the years when I had an adult life on evenings and weekends other than parenthood and collapsing into bed as early as possible.") Family needs brought us back to California, and for a while I worked for a number of California attorneys doing bits and pieces of appellate and other contract work. But a year ago, Bob (the attorney I used to work for and who remembers me as thin, smart, focused, and able to form and express a coherent thought... even though I haven't been like that in a while now) asked me to officially rejoin his firm and commit to just doing his written work and litigation support stuff. So, that's what I do.

All that is to explain how it is that I can work at home, wearing my bathrobe or sweatpants or shorts or whatever I want, and how I can keep pretty much whatever hours I choose, as long as the work gets done. As you moms know, this is ideal because I can work in Caroline's classroom, be around to hear the after-school tales of her day, go on field trips, observe her gymnastic classes and horseback riding lessons, and otherwise be actively involved in her everyday life. To be able to do that AND hold down a well-paying job is a huge, good thing.

But that also explains how it is that at midnight, I'm at my desk pouring over a binder of purchase orders and engineering drawings to sort them into some semblance of a chronological story so I can write the "facts" section of a big pleading due soon.

At times like this, I think longingly of the days when I could watch tv or a movie after dinner, or get into bed with a good novel and read the evening away, or do other similarly relaxing things. It's the down-side of a flexible work schedule--all that flexibility has to get made up for some other time.

I know I'm fortunate to have work that I basically enjoy, that keeps me intellectually challenged, and that pays well for the time spent. But gosh, I'd really rather just go to bed.

Another New Look

Well, if you didn't happen to be cruising the AQ Web Ring and visit my blog on Sunday afternoon, then you missed the red polka dot template. It was, frankly, garish. And distracting. And it contained a wild jumble of fonts. But, for a brief period, it was fun.

Clearly, I'm ready for the blog to have a new look. But the polka dots didn't cut it, so here's the current one. It's calmer. I seem to have a thing for aqua these days, and have been contemplating painting our living room a Martha Stewarty shade of pale turquoise. Maybe painting my online living room will get it out of my system.

Gee, don't you want to check back tomorrow to see if I change the look yet again?!

A new look

You might notice that things look a bit different here.

I decided it was time for a change. I adore polka dots, but that soft green color just isn't me. And I'm seeing that template too often on other blogs and I want to be different!

Is it too busy? (That's a rhetorical question--don't tell me even if you think so). For today, I like it...and red polka dots make me happy.

Don't ask me how I did this, because all I can tell you is that I opened the template and messed around and used the "preview" repeatedly until I liked it. And yes, it took WAY more time than I have to do stuff like this. But I did it anyway.

Sometimes, you've just got to have red polka dots.

Sushi, anyone?

Last night I surprised Roger with a Mystery Date Night. He kept guessing our destination as I drove down to Santa Rosa. "A movie?" "Nope." "A play? A concert?" "Nope." "Dinner out?" "Sorta."

We pulled into the parking lot of our brand new, gorgeous cooking store "Sur La Table" and he was still confused, so I revealed the surprise to him then: I'd signed us up for an evening cooking class on making sushi!

He was pleased and surprised and, most importantly, willing. And we had a grand time. We learned a lot about sushi ingredients and tools...Did you know, for instance, that the soy sauce you dip sushi into is very different from the kind you use for cooking? And we made a TON of sushi. We ate throughout the class, and still everyone had a plate of sushi to take home! I was wishing I'd brought my camera to record the fun, and then figured I'd take a picture of my artfully arranged plate of sushi when I got it home. But I turned my back to wash my hands at the end of class, and the guy next to us accidentally took MY foil-covered plate instead of his own! Rats!

But trust me, it looked a lot like this:



Really! We made sashimi and maki, the rolls... and learned how to keep that sticky rice from sticking to your hands as you rolled everything. It was great fun.

Although, having stood all evening doing that, Roger and I agreed that we won't be rushing out anytime soon to buy stuff for at-home sushi making. We will, however, be more appreciative when we sit at the sushi bar and watch the chef!

A Thursday play day at home

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

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



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



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

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



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



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

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



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

Ring Around the Web Ring

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

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

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

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

Thanks, everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chicken Salad Days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Makes 6-8 servings.

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

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

Chicken and Apricot Salad with Double Mustard Mayonnaise

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

Mayonnaise:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Photo to Fabric Art

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

Pictorial Quilting

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

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

Good questions, yes? How would you respond?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blue Teapot

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

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

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

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

Blender jars

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

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



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



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



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



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

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