Slowly but surely

Yeah, I know that looks like a mysterious mess, but I thought I'd share the beginning stages of a new project. For my design workshop, our next challenge assignment involves the concepts of balance and threadwork. My inspiration piece is a textile design by the Scottish artist Charles Rennie McIntosh, of stylized tulips, and I adapted it and fiddled with it and messed around with it in Photoshop until I got it where I wanted it. Then (putting my new inkjet printer to the test) I printed it out on tracing paper, laid it out on fabric, and sewed over the whole thing.

I tried this sewing-through-tracing paper-technique on a small project, by the way, and it worked fine. Pulling the tracing paper off at the end was no more difficult than removing paper foundations after paper piecing. Although I think I should stock up on some water soluable stabilizer -- it'd be nice to just dampen it and have it melt away. At any rate, this is sort of a fun way to transfer a design and get the quilting done in one swell foop.

So, the threadwork defines the lines of the design and acts as the quilting lines, too. And now, I'm painting in the spaces with Lumiere paints -- a very fun and relaxing process.



It's frustrating, though...after doing the design work and drawing and stitching, which took a fair amount of time, I was so happy to get to the painting part... And I haven't had time to get more than this little corner done.

Once again, real life gets in the way of serious fun.

Oh well, it's there waiting for me.

Book Review: Foolproof Machine Quilting

Free motion quilting is one of those things that quilters seem to either love or avoid. I know a number of quilters who've been pretty intimidated about free motion quilting, and I know scads of them who simply aren't interested in learning it. They'll hand quilt and send a quilt out for professional long-arm quilting before they'll drop their feed dogs and hook up the free motion foot.

But one of the best things about quilting is that there is room for every taste and technique here. Those people who don't want to quilt using free-motion quilting -- or those who do but want a different alternative from time to time, will want to check out "Foolproof Machine Quilting" by Mary Mashuta (C&T Publishing, 2008).

Mary Mashuta is an internationally known quilt maker and teacher, and pretty much a legend here in Northern California. She excels at using contemporary and unusual fabric choices with traditional quilt patterns to create innovative and striking quilts. And if you've ever examined them or had a class with Mary, then you know that Mary just doesn't do free motion quilting. Instead, she's developed a way of designing elegant and relatively simple shapes to complement the blocks she quilts, all sewn with a walking foot and a straight stitch.

This book lays out Mary's thoughts, processes, and tips about walking-foot quilting. She tells you how to use thick threads (even #8 perle cotton), and how to select the right needles and batting for your project. Most importantly, she shows how she creates her own quilting templates, using freezer paper or contac paper, to make repositionable quilting guides in any shape you choose. There are lots of illustrations in this book showing variations of quilting shapes and even creative uses for decorative stitches in the quilting process.

My one disappointment about this book? Far too many of the quilts shown in this new book are ones already shown in other books by Mary and C&T. In fact, the cover of this book is a detail shot from a quilt featured in Cotton Candy Quilts (C&T Publishing, 2001), where you can find almost the same picture. You all know how much I love quilt books, and you won't be surprised that I really do look at them over and over for inspiration. Sometimes I'm studying color, sometimes quilting designs, sometimes just general ideas. So as I looked through this brand new book, I was dismayed to find that many of the quilts weren't new to me. To be honest, it felt too much like I was looking at the Mashuta books I already have. Maybe if the book were subtitled or marketed as "an up-close look at Mary Mashuta's quilting using her body of work" -- with some clue that you're going to see a lot of older quilts here, not new ones-- I wouldn't have been so disappointed. I couldn't help feeling a bit cheated as I turned page after page to see quilts I've seen in her other books.

Still, the information here is clear and very useful, and the images do provide good illustration of attractive quilting designs. The images are all about the quilting designs, so I recognize that the use of those same quilts is for a different purposes than in the previous books (where they were generally shown for the pieced block designs).

All in all, I guess I'd grade this book a "B" (can you tell we're in back-to-school mode?). The content is good and the instruction is very clear, even if you may have seen a lot of the quilts before. This book, and the walking-foot quilting ideas taught here, are good ones to have in your quilting bag of tricks.

Watching the River Run

I have not been able to make it to my ongoing Practical Design workshop in several months, due to vacations and family events and such. So this Sunday, I'll be getting back to it and I'm really looking forward to it. I've talked about it before, but basically we work with an artist/leader and she guides us through work on various design concepts. There are assigned themes each time, which we can choose to do or not as time and energy permits. And because I've been gone so long, I was determined to complete a piece for this class.

This month's topics are line and applique. Another ongoing aspect of the workshop is that we select artist mentors who have worked in other media -- I chose Andy Goldsworthy because I love how he uses organic shapes and natural objects and simple designs to create striking pieces of art.

Luckily, I just happened to have this little piece I'd done for another exercise. I love the fabrics and the line shape, so my challenge to myself was to turn this into something.



As you can see from the result above, I bordered it with some other fabrics -- which required some creative piecing, as I didn't have enough of the graduated hand-dyed piece I wanted to use and was determined to make it work. I fused and machine appliqued "pebbles", and then continued the theme with machine quilting (which was VERY fun to do.) You can see a detail here.



I really enjoyed this exercise and am very pleased that I managed to turn a little UFO into something I really like. Very satisfying! Oh, and Francoise, the size is 26 x 28 inches.

The Good Life

The other night, Roger and I were lingering at the kitchen table after dinner. Caroline had gone upstairs to immerse herself in a drawing project, we'd fed the dog so she had stopped chasing her tail to get our attention, and we were enjoying another glass of wine and quiet conversation. The sun was setting, and as the sun shone into the room across the table, we noticed an amazing shadow on the kitchen wall.

We ran for our cameras, and I captured this shot. Nothing was posed or changed in photoshop-- this is really the shadow that appeared.

Magical, I think! Just yesterday, I happened upon an interview with psychic James van Praagh, who said something like "Coincidence is God's way of remaining invisible." And that thought sprang into mind when this shadow appeared. Roger and I remind each other at times that, although we so easily get bogged down in the day-t0-day-ness of school and work and childrearing and house maintenance and such, we live an amazing life in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

To have our dinner scene reflected back at us, to show us the beauty in the moment, was a lovely gift.

Between

I'm continuing to enjoy experimenting with my Nikon D80 camera, and I'm having great fun (and learning a lot) posting and viewing pictures on Flickr.com. One of my favorite things there is a group called "7 Days of Shooting". It's a photography challenge group, essentially -- different themes every week, and different aspects of shooting that theme every day. You can post pictures that suit the day's assignment as you choose. It's a great motivator to get out and shoot pictures of things you wouldn't (well, I wouldn't, anyway) think to photograph. And with all challenges like this, it's totally fun and fascinating to see how other people interpret the theme.


I took this picture (a view out a side window in our bedroom) for the theme "Between," when the daily task was black and white. It's my take on the theme because there isn't a lot of space between the houses in our development, and this picture exaggerates that even more.


And today I learned that my picture was selected to be featured in the 7DOS blog. A thrilling recognition for a beginning photographer like me!

Rayna was Right

We are trying to enjoy the last few days of summer vacation (school starts this coming wednesday) so Caroline and I decided to have an art/play day. We broke out Rayna Gillman's book and went to work making gelatin prints. The picture above shows the pieces we made laid out on the patio table to dry.

Yep, this is the very technique that sounded too bizarre and icky to me to want to try, until I read Rayna's book. And it really did seem like the very tactile sort of art that Caroline loves. So last night I mixed up two pans of gelatin per Rayna's instructions (which took all of two minutes), and this morning we were good to go.



What fun this was! The picture above shows my very first print, with the fabric laying on the gelatin after I'd laid it on the painted and textured slab of gelatin. The front side came out darker but I really love the back side. I used a baby's bath cup and the lid from a can of shaving gel to make the texture.



Caroline did this rainbow one, blending colors and texturing with a flower-shaped hairclip and a plastic fork. I just love this one.



As Rayna explained would happen, the gelatin started developing cracks and softening (because of the heat, maybe -- it's HOT HOT HOT here today) but that just added to the texture. This print resulted after I rolled on black paint, stamped all over with a finger-print textured rubber stamp, pulled a print, then stamped the stamp AGAIN onto the gelatin.



And as we were tearing fabric squares, I had lots of thread ends that I dragged through green and yellow paint and then laid on the gelatin which had been painted with dark blue paint. I really got into these thread-mess prints and made a bunch of them. (Hint: do not try to roller paint on tOP of the thread -- as that leads to getting thread wound all around your brayer.)

It was pretty fascinating to work with the gelatin, I have to admit, and not as weird as I thought it would be. It was quite firm, but soft enough to take pressure in an interesting way. I was surprised at how easy it was to wipe it down with a damp paper towel to change colors, too. At the end of the process, Caroline gathered up her gelatin hunks and went outside to fling them on the driveway (I'm guessing that's what Rayna has her students do after her workshops, don't you think?) to watch them explode and then dissolve when it was all hosed down.

So, a good time was had by all and now I've got some very fun fabric to play with.

Thanks, Rayna!

Fifteen Years and Still Counting

Yesterday, Roger and I celebrated our 15th anniversary. My gift to him was this little quilt (it's about 10x13) and I had such fun making it.

I converted a wedding photo into a brown monotone, and then printed it on silk. (I used Jacquard's pre-treated inkjet silk sheets for the first time --very easy to use.) Then I had fun layering this little composition and doing simple quilting.

We got married on 8/8 -- and I stitched two infinity symbols which just happen to be sideways 8's. And the three mother of pearl buttons are for our family of 3. It was a simple little thing but very fun to make and Roger loves it.

To celebrate, we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Zin. We had wonderful food, a great bottle of wine (Raymond Burr's 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, to be precise) and then came home to watch the amazing opening ceremonies to the Olympics. It was wonderful to talk about how it showed important aspects of Chinese culture, heritage, and history with Caroline.

It was a lovely day.

Let the Games Begin!

Well, the Olympics have officially begun, and in honor of our Quilting Olympics Mathea has designed a button to advertise your participation on your own blog! You can find it here and even choose which size you like.

To put the button on your blog or website, right-click on the image, choose "save this picture as", and save the image to your own harddrive. Then you can upload that image to your blog or site as usual.

You hardcore Olympians may start and finish a project during the Olympic games... me, I'm just gonna piece and piece and piece. I'm just working on accumulating a big ol' pile of tumbling block blocks. As I said earlier, it's all about endurance.



Happy 8-8-08 to you! (which is my 15th wedding anniversary, btw... a lovely date evening is ahead for us!)

Book Review: Create Your Own Handprinted Cloth

I've long had the same feeling about the idea of creating my own fabrics with various surface design techniques that I had about learning to dye fabric: I was afraid to start down that road out of the fear that I'd get so entranced with even MORE ways to add fabric to my already-stuffed shelves that I'd never get anything finished. So, while I read Rayna Gillman's blog regularly, I've avoided getting very involved with printing, screen printing, and other surface design techniques.

But earlier this week, a copy of Rayna's new book Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth (C&T Pub. 2008) landed in my mailbox, around the same time I'd been laid low with a nasty sinus infection. I retreated to bed with my antibiotics and this book.
And, I'm afraid to say, I was smitten. Dang it, I knew this would happen. I really want to try some of these techniques.
First, the book itself is really pretty to look at. There are tons of vibrant pictures. Each page has great visual appeal, so it's a pleasure to read this book even if you're not going to rush off to paint fabric right away. I'm much more likely to want to use a book if the pictures are vivid and interesting (shallow, I know, but what can I say?) and this one definitely fulfills my visual criteria.
But for someone like me, who doesn't like making an enormous mess and who doesn't have a dedicated "wet" studio area (I'm left to the kitchen and the patio) Rayna's instructions make these techniques seem feasible. I'm leery of melting wax to try batiking, and I tend to think of screen printing as something complex that trained artists need big expensive equipment to do. I'm impressed at how Rayna explains how these techniques are accessible and easily achievable with relatively inexpensive and/or found items. It's a small thing, I know, but I really liked that Rayna explained how to make a portable work surface to use when trying these techniques. That's the sort of basic information I need.
A lot of different surface design techniques are covered here -- stamping and stenciling with found objects, "random" screenprinting, gelatin plate printing, discharge printing, soy wax batik, and more. And as I read each section, I not only could see myself trying the techniques I'd not yet used, I actually wanted to try them. Rayna's text is very encouraging and she takes a lot of pleasure in the simple concept of experimenting. I've had people tell me about gelatin printing, for example, and the idea of printing with "jello" sort of grossed me out. But Rayna's instructions and pictures made me think again. I really want to give this a try, and I figure it'll be a good mom-and-daughter project one of these days.
One of the parts I like the best in this book is "Can This Fabric Be Saved?," where Rayna shows some examples of pieces she made that she didn't like, and how she changed them with additional surface design treatments to make them better. That was encouraging too for the non-confident among us.
Scattered throughout the book are pictures of art quilts made with various personally-created fabric, by Rayna and others. I would have liked to see more, but of course I realize that the point of the book is simply making the fabric ... once made, it's like any other fabric in terms of how a quilt artist chooses to use it.
I'll confess that that leads to my other vague discomfort about getting on the "surface design" bandwagon. I have the impression that, as surface design techniques are being taught and used more widely, more people are making cloth, adding quilting to it, and calling it "art." I feel like I'm seeing more and more pieces made to simply show hunks of hand-created fabric, without (to my eye) good composition, thought to artistic principles such as balance, focal point, etc. Wrongly or not, I've concluded that a lot of people who delve into surface design end up falling in love with the fabric they make and then can't bear to treat it as actual cloth to cut up and integrate into anything. I can see that making the cloth is an artistic process, but to me, that doesn't necessarily make the resulting cloth "art" in and of itself. I appreciated that the title "Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth" makes clear that it's about making the cloth, and then you're left to use that cloth an element in your art. But I'm digressing. That's my own pet peeve about the subject.
In short, I'm very impressed with this book and how accessible Rayna makes these techniques. I think I'm going to give a few of them a try ... I guess I'd better make a bit more room on my fabric shelves!

Quilting Olympics

Four years ago, knitter and blogger-turned-author Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka Yarn Harlot) came up with the brilliant idea of participating in her own knitting olympics while the actual olympics were on tv. Her challenge back then was to choose a challenging knitting project (because, after all, the olympics are all about pushing oneself to accomplish one's best feats), cast on during the opening ceremonies, knit during event-watching, and finish by the closing ceremonies. The whole thing became quite the knitting event, with international "teams" starting up all over the place. And yes, I managed to get sucked in and indeed knitted a lace shawl during the process...The first and last one I shall ever, ever knit.

In any event, with the China Olympics starting just days from now, I've decided to embark on a Quilting Olympics project. I'll be working with batik scraps (of which I've got many)and I'll sit in front of the tv hand-piecing tumbling blocks. You know, these:



I know, it's not an extreme quilting sort of event. But it's all about endurance --c'mon, HAND piecing? I'm a machine lover, through and through. So I figure this is like the marathon run. I'll be hand-sewing all those Y-seams for miles and miles and miles.

Wanna join me? If you do, then figure out what you're going to work on during the Olympics, and post a comment here (or link to your blog) and we'll see what happens.
Let the stitching begin!

Book Review: Simply Stunning Woven Quilts

If you haven't stumbled onto this book -- Simply Stunning Woven Quilts by Anna Faustino (C&T Pub. 2008) -- you'll want to take a look at it. I've been meaning to review it for a while now, because it's one of the most innovative books I've seen in a while.

Here's the thing that impresses me the most about this book: it takes a basic concept (weaving) and shows you how to do it in increasingly complex and amazing ways. And truly, Faustino's instructions lead you from the basic principles into more interesting and unusual and complicated ways to use weaving. The pieces that result are the sorts of ones that you'd stand in front of at a quilt show or art gallery, looking closely and thinking, "How the heck did she DO that?"

And, even better (for those of us who like relatively instant gratification) it's fused. And while it is very much like the weaving we all did as elementary school kids with strips of construction paper, Faustino's spin on it is much more appealing. If you could do that construction paper thing, you can do this.

The photos and illustrations provide very clear examples on how to cut and assemble to get the eye-popping woven results. Faustino shows how to use the woven technique in both subtle and bold ways, for a very different background or a main feature in a piece. There are woven log cabin pieces that are gorgeous, and woven circles of graduated color that make my fingers itch to start cutting fabric.
As I read this (over and over -- and it amazes me every time) I'm impressed at how Faustino has come up with an easy technique for a complicated look, and then figured out all sorts of different ways to use it, AND she's sharing it all here.

I'm very eager to try this out. There are innumerable possibilities for using this technique.

It's illuminating!

Finally, after a brief blogger glitch, over at Twelve by 12 we've been able to reveal the quilts for our August 1 challenge. Brenda chose the theme "illumination" -- another great theme with lots of possible directions.

It took me a while to figure out where I was going to go with the concept, and as usual the idea I started with in mind is not what I ended up with. I had grand ideas about "illumination" as knowledge and I even played for a while with a photograph I'd taken recently, trying to incorporate it to say something about how parenting is a constant learning process, with a whole string of those lightbulb, "aha moments."

But too many ideas confounded me. I tend to get so stuck in my head thinking about the ideas from a left-brain angle.

So it was with a lovely flash of delight that I stumbled onto a photo of chinese paper lanterns. I've always had a thing about lanterns and in fact have collected images of them with the thought of making a big quilt one of these days. Duh! This was pure fun to make and didn't get all balled up in my head with deep meaning.

I dug out a bunch of silk dupioni fat quarters I'd bought at a quilt show a long time ago, and away I went. I had fun stitching the spines and pleats of the lanterns with heavy thread. And last, I got to use my favorite Neocolor II crayons to make the lights inside the lanterns glow through. I'm very happy with this little quilt, and have called it Happy Lanterns. It just makes me feel good to look at it.

As always, the Twelveby12 group's pieces are stunning, and different, and reflect such a variety of ideas and techniques and personal styles. Terry Grant also used the paper lantern concept (which surprised us both!) but still, her interpretation is quite different from mine.

Head on over and take a look at them! And don't forget to click on the "friends of Twelve by 12" on the sidebar to see how others played along, too.

The next theme is "shelter." Hmmmm.....

To the Coast

We are headed out this morning to spend a few days in Mendocino, visiting family and hanging out at the beach and (for Caroline's highlight) visiting a miniature horse ranch. I've packed up my Nikon D80 and am looking forward to taking lots and lots of pictures.

In preparation for this little outing, I've been working away at the stuff on my "must get done" list. I emailed off a bunch of work documents last night, which felt darn good.

And I have a quilt ready to quilt! Remember the red and white house blocks I was working on ages and ages ago? The top has been sitting in my closet waiting for the final borders to be sewn on. So, last week I got that done, pieced the back (why do I dread that task so much? It's never as bad as I think it'll be), and basted it all together while Caroline watched the much-advertised Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana 3-D concert on Saturday night. (Yep, she wore the 3-D glasses, even.) So now it's all ready to go and is sitting on my sewing table providing a comfy resting spot for a cat while I decide how I'm going to quilt it.

I also had the great fun of indoctrinating a newbie into the Great Quilting Cult last week. My friend Jane has been wanting to learn to make a quilt, so gave her a stack of books to peruse. She made various choices (lots of choices!) and we settled on one that is a good first project -- a basic snail's trail pattern in batiks. Ooh la la! Jane has great taste. Then we spent a day fabric shopping -- very very fun -- and selected a gorgeous assortment of fabrics. I was amused at how quickly Jane grasped the concept (and importance) of having a stash ... she kept adding fabrics to the pile, saying "If I end up deciding not to use it, I'll just add it to my stash." See? She's got the right spirit for this sort of thing. Next week we'll get together for cutting and the beginning of sewing. It has been fun to consider things from a newcomer's point of view ...and, not surprisingly, it has made me want to start a new project. Because i don't have enough started, you see.

Before we head up north, we have to stop at Caroline's school for a uniform sale. This will be her first year attending a private school and doing the plaid skirt, logo shirt uniform thing, and she is less than thrilled. And, not surprisingly, she was up at 5:15 am, standing by the side of my bed to say she was nervous about starting at a new school. Ugh -- remember that icky feeling? I can't blame her, and who wants to start thinking about school when it's still a month away? We'll get the uniform stuff done quickly (I hope) and then try to have wild beachy fun to put it out of her head.

Okay... time to finalize the packing and get the dog ready for her doggy camp. I'll be back with (I hope) stunning pictures and sandy shoes and a refreshed attitude. Later!

It really is Sew Easy.

One of the great side-benefits of attending workshops and retreats is that you see your fellow students using tools and products you'd not discovered. And I made a great discovery at my workshop with Laura Fogg a few weeks ago.

My friend Diana was using these quilting disks, by "Quilt Sew Easy," as she did her machine quilting. I'd not seen these before but I'd seen something similar somewhere, and I just didn't think they'd make much difference. But Diana insisted I try them, and I was amazed. Truly amazed.

The white part is hard plastic, and the blue surface (which sits on the quilt) is sort of dense foam but with enough texture that it grips the fabric. I know, it simply doesn't seem like it'd be a big deal. But they make machine quilting WAY easier. You don't need to grip or wear gloves or clutch at the fabric.

I was totally sold after using them for 10 minutes, and I ordered them for myself when I got home. They're around $12.00 (or more, depending on the retailer) -- I ordered mine here.

Trust me. They really work!

Because I can't get enough talk about reading...

One of the reasons I enjoy Deb's blog as much as I do is that she loves books and reading as much as I do. She just posted a great book related meme, and so I'm snagging it to share here. Do feel free to blog your answers -- and if you do, let me know in the comments so I can go and read your answers!


So, here we go...


One book that changed your life: There's this pretty old book called "Greensleeves" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, about a girl (college age, I think) who is uncertain about what to do with her future so she takes a job in a diner and pretends to be someone else. Her "diner" character allowed her to be social, snappy-witty, and other things she wasn't comfortable being in her real life. Well, that's how I remember it, anyway -- lord knows what it was really about. But I just loved that book as a junior high schooler, and read it over and over. The idea that you could create who you wanted to be was a new concept to me. Also, "Beloved" by Toni Morrison had a huge effect on me, in terms of thinking about race relations and slavery and history and just good writing in general.


One book you’ve read more than once twice: Oh boy, there've been tons of them. There are books I read for comfort when I'm ill, because they make me feel like I'm wrapped in cozy flannel. (Rosamunde Pilcher's "The Shell Seekers" is one of those.) There are books that were so mind-bogglingly wonderful and beautifully written that I want to start over the minute I finish them. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd was like that for me.


One book you’d want on a desert island: Can it be an island with a well-stocked library, please?


One book that made you laugh: The one that comes immediately to mind is "Neither Here nor There" by Bill Bryson. Bryson, a 40 year old American living in England at the time, decided to retrace the European trek he'd made as a college student. It's simply hilarious ... as is much of what Bryson writes. I also love "Im A Stranger Here Myself," his essays on returning to the US after living away for years.


One book that made you cry: "Final Payments" by Mary Gordon. I read this on a long airplane flight, when I was seated next to a harried mom and her squirmy toddler (I wasn't a mom then and didn't realize the extreme sympathy she deserved for her plight). I buried my nose in the book and was not only swept away, but weeping copiously by the end.


One book you wish you had written: I can't narrow it down to one book, but I can name writers who make me wish I could write like them: Joshilyn Jackson, Elizabeth Berg, Anne Rivers Siddons. I love everything they write and how they infuse their characters with such believable, normal complexity.


One book you wish had never been written: I can't think of any I'd put in that category, but I admit to wondering how in the world certain authors ever, ever, ever got published and why in the world people read them. Those "The Cat Who..." books? Yikes. The one I tried to read was so poorly written I was appalled. I just don't get it.


One book you’re currently reading: "If You Lived Here" by Dana Sachs. It's the story of a woman waiting to adopt a baby from Vietnam, her friendship with a vietnamese woman who has not been back for 20 years, and the results when they travel together to Vietnam. Lovely story, well written.


One book you’ve been meaning to read: "The Quincunx" by Charles Palliser. I picked this up in a bookstore one day because it looked intriguing and different, compared to Dickens' "Bleak House," but I've not managed to get to it. It looks like a winter book to me, dense and heavy.

Summertime Relaxation

Doesn't this look like a lovely spot for an afternoon of relaxation? Chatting with a friend, reading a novel, sipping iced tea.... This beautiful scene is at the Bishop's Ranch in Healdsburg, California. I swear, just looking at this picture changes my blood pressure and breathing rhythem.

And look at the summery color palette this photos yields, courtesy of Big Huge Lab's "Palette Generator":

I'm heading off for a weekend alone with my husband -- boy is that a rarity! Before I go, a few random thoughts:

I'm so happy that Project Runway is back! But c'mon -- if you knew you were going to be a contestant, wouldn't you think about previous challenges, and have some idea of what you'd do if faced with that challenge? I'd be thinking -- "what would I do if we had to use materials from a grocery store...a hardware store... a florist... a Walmart... a thrift store..." How could those people be faced with a grocery store challenge and have no idea what to do?

I just finished a delightful novel, called "If You Could See Me Now" by Cecelia Ahern. The premise is great: What if there were a group of invisible people whose job it was to befriend kids who need a bit of social support? So when a kid talks about his "imaginary friend," what if those "friends" were REAL, just invisible to everyone but the child? The novel is told from the perspective of such an "imaginary friend" whose perspective on life is amusing and entertaining and poignant. He hates being used by parents ("Fred LOVES broccoli and says you should try it, too!") and he just loves having fun. It's a charming novel, well written.

Now, off to the weekend fun...hope your weekend is relaxing!

My, your dog is handsome...

I am trying to carry my camera with me every day (or at least have it in the car) so I can take pictures when I see something that captures my eye. And the other morning, I spotted two gorgeous Weimaraners waiting patiently outside Starbucks while their owner was fetching coffee.

I'm not yet brave enough to ask people if I can take *their* picture. But it's not hard for me to approach strangers to admire their dogs ... and asking if I can take the dogs' pictures was an easy step from there.

So here are these beauties. I love how these dogs look so calm and regal (unlike a certain tail-waggy, rambunctious lab at my house...)

So remember I mentioned the 2 day workshop I was taking with Laura Fogg? It was really fun. Here's what I have so far after those 2 days. It needs a lot more work, but I'm happy with where it is so far.

Turns out Laura has a website, www.fogwomancreations.com, where you can see a lot of her work. She's a terrific teacher.

The process involved starting with a photograph, then building a collage with just raw cutting and placing the pieces on a batting background. Once you've created the picture you want, you lay a layer of tulle over the top and sew it all down with machine quilting. And, once that's done, you can add more detail and embellishment on top of that. Laura showed us how to add borders and then add a foreground elements (and a lot more embellishment) that carries into the main image...you can see great examples on her website.

So, I have a long way to go with this, but it was very fun. And the process was very freeing, just cutting and putting bits down.

The image I'm working with is a photo I took of a scene I pass every day between the house and C's school. When the plum trees are in bloom, it's just spectacular. But I've not managed to get a really good photograph, so it's fun to work with it in fabric and see where I can go with it.

Now I can't wait to get back to it.

At last -- back to fiber

After what seems like a long, long non-fabric stretch, I am excited that finally I am going to spend the weekend playing with fabric. Through a small art group I'm in, I'm doing a workshop with Mendocino quilt artist Laura Fogg. Laura is known for her fabric collages, and her name may be familiar to you because she is one of the Mendocino Quilt Artists whose groups of quilts have won the AQS group challenge a few times.

At any rate, I've got my goodies packed up, I have my inspiration photos ready to go, and I am looking forward to a fun and free time cutting and placing fabric. (And then we smack down tulle and sew. Fun!)

I've packed my camera and hopefully will remember to take pictures!

List Friday: Summer Reading!

Yay! Yay! It's List Friday! My friend Loretta over at PomegranatesandPaper has resumed one of my favorite bloggerly traditions, "List Friday!" And c'mon, who doesn't love a good list?!

This week, the topic is one that is dear to my heart: "Summer Reading." (Followed closely by fall reading, spring reading, and cozy winter reading...) Summer is all about reading for me, ever since I was a child and our summer vacation was punctuated by trips to the library ever two weeks to get new stacks of books to fill our voracious little minds. Now, I'm at the library every week or two, filling my library basket with a new assortment of novels to take me away and entertain me.

I'll tell you what I've been reading (and what I'm about to read) in a second...but what are YOU reading? What's on your nightstand? What book have you read lately that you just loved? What book will be the first one in your duffel bag when you head to the beach? Give me your suggestions in the comments or use a comment to link to your blog. I'm always happy to find new suggestions for future reading....

Okay... first, what I've read lately that I've really liked:

The President's Assassin by Brian Haig (he's the son of Alexander Haig, and he writes political thrillers with a sarcastic funny hero and lots of plot twists)

Magic Time by Doug Marlette (a guy who grew up in Mississippi in the 60's goes home and the effects of the civil rights turmoil are leaking into present day, where learns things about friends and family that shock him...)

Wit's End by Karen Joy Fowler (an intriguing and unusual mystery involving a writer who makes a miniature dollhouse featuring a murder scene for each mystery she writes, and her granddaughter who is sorting out which mysteries tell real family stories and which are fiction...)

Footprints in the Sand by Sarah Challis (Two cousins travel to Africa to scatter their grandmother's ashes, and don't know why she wanted them to go there...)

And here's what's ahead on the summer reading list:

Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (I LOVED LOVED LOVED her first novel, Garden Spells)

If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

Palace Council by Stephen L. Carter

The Way Life Should Be by Christina Baker Kline

I Was Told There'd be Cake by Sloane Crosley (just the title alone makes me want to read it)

The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and other small acts of liberation by Elizabeth Berg

Feels like just yesterday

You know how with really good friends, a long hunk of time can dash by without your seeing each other, and then you DO manage to get together, and it seems like no time at all has passed and you were just hanging out yesterday?

I've just had the wonderful experience of having a few days with my dear friend Carol, who was visiting from New England. She and I worked together in a law firm back east, at a time when there were only three of us females in a sea of males. So we banded together and relied on each other and giggled over lunch together and complained about the work together, and all in all made the whole thing bearable.

Carol and I hadn't seen each other in [gasp] ten years. It hardly seems possible. Still, time flies when you're doing what you're doing... and here we are.



Carol was the first of my close friends to have a baby and for me to watch her experience new motherhood up close and personal. I was the first non-parent to hold her daughter Elise in the hospital, and I still remember Carol saying, "I still have this weird feeling like 'When is this baby's mother going to come and take her away?!" I watched (as a single professional woman) and commiserated and fought for her (as the only woman partner in the firm) as Carol confronted the struggle of balancing motherhood and work, in a group of men who had wives at home full time to take care of their kids, and didn't have to worry about how they'd get the trial brief written and the laundry done and dinner on the table.

And, some years later, when Roger and I adopted Caroline, so many of Carol's wise parenting words guided how I handled things with Caroline, and the whole juggling thing.

But "baby" Elise is 17 now (gulp) ... Carol and I have each had different jobs, she lost a husband and I gained one, and we live on opposite sides of the country. But we still look young (or is that well-preserved?) and we still laugh together and have a grand old time. It was just simply delightful to be with her again.

Of course we talked nonstop. But when a visitor comes to Healdsburg, wine tasting is on the top of the list of things to do. So I took Carol to one of my favorite local vineyards:



Yep! That's the same Raymond Burr you're thinking of.



And for us lawyers, being able to taste wine AND experience Perry Mason memorabilia is downright thrilling.

(I have one lawyer-friend who, having watched Perry Mason reruns as his method of procrastinating his studying in law school -- on the theory that it was SORT of research -- just about fainted with sheer excitement then they let him hold one of the Emmy Awards that Burr won playing Perry Mason.)



And, Perry Mason and Ironside paraphanalia aside, the wine is delicious (the cabernet sauvigon especially) and the vineyard is gorgeous. It's the perfect place for a picnic.



Because it was 104 degrees AND the air was still so hazy from the numerous distant fires, we opted to head indoors to another winery up the road, Amphora Vineyards. Far healthier to stay inside and drink wine, don't you think?



Carol departed early this morning, but I'm still smiling and thinking of how great it was to see her.

A hot time in northern California

Life in Northern California is very weird right now. For over a week, the sky has been filled with a grey smoky haze, and the smell of fire is constantly in the air.

The map shows the current fires raging in Northern California. See where it says "Santa Rosa," right near the number 128? I live just north of there by about 20 miles. We're not in any fire danger (thank goodness) but it's no wonder that the air is so smoky. It is so odd, not to see the sun but to have this smoky heat. Everyone I know is hoping and praying for a good long rainstorm.

As you can imagine, most people are trying to stay indoors as much as possible, to avoid breathing air that is undoubtedly full of unhealthy particulates. The local tennis courts and parks are a lot emptier than they usually are at this time of year.

We've been hunkered down inside, alterntately working and then tiring ourselves out with our new Nintendo Wii (a combo 6th grade graduation present for Caroline and Father's Day present for Roger). Playing tennis and swimming on that thing is actually pretty darn tiring! My personal favorite is the disk of Winter Olympics games we got -- the downhill skiing is very fun (plus there's the psychologial pleasure of seeing snow and hearing the SHHHHH of swooshing over it in this heat). We all get pretty hysterical when we try the ski jumping -- we have not yet mastered the skill of landing on our feet, so we freqently reenact "the Agony of Defeat" as our virtual body slams onto the snow.

I won't be trying that in person any time soon.

So, if you are somewhere where the sky is blue and the air is fresh, take a big gulp next time you are outside and enjoy it for me.

Just Holding On

I took this picture in the backyard the other morning, loving how one vine had reached over to hold onto the tendril next to it. And when I was thinking about how, for some strange reason, I feel like I've been having trouble holding onto all of the bits and pieces of my life these days, I thought of this picture.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I've been feeling so scattered. I mean, there's the usual stuff of daily life: ferrying Caroline to and from activities, trying to get work done, keeping the house clutter to a reasonable state, throwing a load of laundry in from time to time.... And we've all had colds here over the past two weeks, that hasn't helped... But somehow, I'm not managing to get time for quilting, or getting together with friends, or making it to a quilt guild meeting now and then, or doing a bunch of things that are important and fun and I've managed to make time for before now.

At any rate, my goal -- starting now -- is to remember what's important in terms of quality of life and DO THAT STUFF. Yes, work and laundry and such have to get done, but still.

And when I'll be doing that fun stuff? I'll try to blog about it, too. Things have been a little sparse here, I know.

With that said, I'm going to go get to work on a an idea for a quilt that's been haunting me for a while now. No time like the present, eh?!

Need Color? See Kris.

Are you in need of color inspiration? Need a smile? Want something so light your creative spark?

Well, then go look at Kris's Color Stripes. Yes. Right now.

Kris is a an artist and fashion designer who has an amazing eye for color. And she shares her simple, elegant view on a blog where she just extracts color from images that catch her eye. What a simple concept, right? But the images she chooses, and the colors she pulls out of each picture, are just perfect. I think it looks easy, but each gem of a set is so RIGHT that I know there's art and talent at work here.

When I look at her blog, I feel like I've had a little art-spa time -- relaxing and energizing at the same time.

So go douse yourself in color. (And tell Kris I sent you.)

One thing inevitably leads to another...

So, remember how back at Christmas time, I got this great new camera? It's a Panasonic Lumix dmc-fz18, in case you're wondering. Roger and I did a bunch of research, and debated about whether to go the full-out digital SLR route, and I chose this little guy. My thinking was that it's small and has an amazing zoom and because it was small and light, I was much more likely to carry it with me and actually use it.

I had a grand time using it, and became addicted to Flickr.com. And then the zoom function started being weird. So, off the camera went to the Panasonic warranty repair place. No problem. A few weeks later (eek! no camera!) it came back. I happily took it out to shoot some flower pictures... But wait! The zoom problem was still there.

I crankily sent it back to Panasonic, after an exhausting and irritating time navigating thru the Panasonic repair phone tree -- which, I'll tell you now, only leads you to a recording instructing you to send the thing to the service center. If there is a way to talk to an actual human at Panasonic, I wasn't able to discover it.

So off the camera went again. Meanwhile, I used Roger's camera and pondered whether I wanted to just demand a refund and get a full digital SLR. My weeks using the Panasonic made me realize that I really like taking pictures and I really, really like the Photoshop post-processing. (And I was already realizing the limitations of a smaller point-and-shoot style camera and how at times the quality of my images was sacrificed.)

After more reading reviews and shopping, I jumped in head first and got this gorgeous Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. It's bigger, and heavier, a real grown-up, big girl camera.



In fact, it's way more advanced than I am and I know that I'll be growing with this thing for a long time.

Meanwhile, no word from Panasonic about the little FZ18. I sent a few emails (ranging from polite inquiries to increasingly angry ones) and finally emailed the president of Panasonic North America simply because he was the only individual name I could find. I told the whole story, pointing out that in my brief period of owning the camera, Panasonic had had it in its possession longer than I'd had it in mine.

And you know, the VERY next day I got a phone call confirming me that they were sending me a new camera.

Coincidence? I think not.

So now I have a little FZ18 which, I think, will live in the car for those "I need to take a picture of THAT" moments. And maybe it'll be the one Caroline can use when we go on family walks.

The especially amusing thing (yes, NOW I can chuckle about it) is that with all the camera talk, my dad decided to upgrade his camera, which meant that he ended up passing his camera on to my sister to replace her really ancient one. So out of my camera agonies, I ended up with two cameras and Roger, my dad, and my sister ended up with new cameras too.

Maybe this is kind of like how people end up with multiple sewing machines (which I never understood until I added that second one...)

Just too cute

I know, pictures of fluffy little kittens are just too precious. But life around here has been dull lately ... lots of work, making my way through my 12 hours of continuing legal education, pruning the overgrown shrubbery in the yard, other mundane things like that... Hardly blog-worthy events.

So, I thought I'd post a few of the pictures I took yesterday at the ranch. I tell myself I'm not going to take more kitten pictures, but they're just so dang adorable.



Some of them are very timid around people, but still curious...



... but if you sit still long enough, they come out and get distracting by anything moving and then have to pounce.



This rather cranky guy just watched the kitten shenanigans from his royal spot in a tub of dirt.



(C'mon, confess, those kitties made you smile, didn't they?)

Stopping and Starting

Here's a shot of the quilt I've just finished machine quilting, which I call "Bali Dreams." Some time back, my MIL gave me some pieces of batik fabric she'd bought in Bali years ago (that rust and black one in the lower right corner and the gold one with a black linear design in the upper left corner). I mixed them with some other batiks and can now give her a lapwarmer quilt for when she sits to read or watch tv. She's always cold, so I hope she'll enjoy this.

But now we are entering into a few transitional weeks around here. Funny, how some periods of time are all about transitions, isn't it?

I am vowing to wean myself off of CNN so I stop getting riled up about politics ... I will try to just enjoy the knowledge that there will be an excellent, smart, compassionate liberal in the presidential race. So I'm mentally shifting gears in that arena and will just enjoy the ride. YES WE CAN. (See? I can!)

[OH! Guess what? I got an actual PERSONAL EMAIL from Jeffrey Toobin after I emailed him to comment about some stuff he said on CNN. So now, when ever he appears on screen, I refer to him as "my good friend Jeff." He's in my email inbox!! Because, you know, we're just TIGHT like that. But I digress.]

I'll be taking down the quilting frame, so we can replace the carpeting in our master bedroom, due to a little (ahem) problem one of the cats had with incontinence (or purposeful, vengeful urinating) when we got the dog. (Yes, that's the same cat who chewed thru the cord on my Juki foot pedal and recently did the SAME DANG THING to my Bernina foot pedal cord. If she weren't my daughter's "familiar," I'd throttle her.) I've also taken the opportunity to buy a new bedspread and so that room will get a makeover. I'm looking forward to refreshing the room -- literally and figuratively.

Caroline will finish 6th grade in a week, so we are officially transitioning ... she into the world of middle school, Roger and I as parents of an adolescent. And we are entering the world of private school, which already (judging from the emails and meetings and uniform-buying sales) feels rather different from the public school world to which we're accustomed.

With Caroline and Roger both home from school, we have our annual summer transition -- beautiful family time, some strain of all of us home all the time ... but we have learned to retreat to our own corners when we need private time, a concept we all respect.

As the weather gets warmer, we will be heading to the pool more, and maybe I'll get myself going in other areas of the health club, too. Let's figure that this will continue my post-gall-bladder-removal-healthier-living transition.

I'm transitioning away from my point-and-shoot Panasonic camera (which I love, if it weren't for the fact that Panasonic repair has now had custody of it for longer than I've owned the thing) to a big-girl, grown-up Nikon DSLR camera. It's fun but it's a lot more complicated. So I will be making my way through the learning curve.

So, some changes, but lots of the usual, ongoing, comfortable, life pleasures. Wonderful family and friends, solid and thought-provoking work, good books to read, fun things to sew, pretty fabrics to fondle...

I'm Not Ready to Make Nice

There are an awful lot of us who know what it feels like to live with the double standard of being female in male-dominated environments. We’ve earned less pay for doing the same work as men. We’ve been criticized for leaving work early to care for a sick child, while the man down the hall is praised as a "great dad" when he leaves early to watch his son’s softball game. We’ve been interrupted by men more often, and we’ve had our opinions disregarded because we speak with softer voices. We’ve been told we’re too friendly with the secretaries, and we’ve been criticized for being cold or snooty when we don’t join in the girl talk in the lunch room. We’ve fended off comments about appearing too feminine or seductive at the office, and we’ve been mocked for trying to dress "like a man" when we downplay the shapes of our bodies or wear more practical pants suits. We’ve been passed over for raises or promotions in favor of the man in the next office, who "needs" the increase "more" because "he’s supporting a family." We’re weak and hormonal if we cry, and we’re cold and unemotional if we don’t. Having seen how men behave in the workplace, we emulate their behaviors and are called hard and emasculating and bitchy.

We know how impossibly hard it is to be a strong, smart, outspoken, and competitive woman in a setting men are used to controlling. It’s an uncomfortable and difficult balance to achieve, especially with constant grace and humor and level-headedness. Most of all, we know how it feels to be expected, without question, to sit down and be quiet and stop complaining and instead defer to a man sitting next to us at the conference table... even if he is younger, less qualified, less knowledgeable, or less experienced.

So it’s no wonder that a lot of us are angry as this primary race is coming to a close. It has been discouraging and saddening to watch this same double standard play out so plainly as two qualified, ground-breaking presidential candidates have made this primary race one of which we should have been proud.

Tonight, even as Barack Obama was being feted for being the first african american to win a major party’s candidacy – which to be sure is a momentous, wonderful, historical event – I cannot help but chafe at the open hostility directed at Hillary Clinton for her failure to give in, sit down and shut up.

As journalist Steven Stark pointed out recently in the Boston Phoenix, a candidate has never been vilified for continuing a candidacy the way Hillary Clinton has. To the contrary, past candidates have been praised for their perseverance as they’ve taken their fights all the way to the conventions. As Stark summarized:

"• In 1988, Jesse Jackson took his hopeless campaign against winner Michael Dukakis all the way to the convention, often to great media praise.

• In 1980, Ted Kennedy carried his run against Jimmy Carter all the way to the convention, even though it was clear he had been routed.

• In 1976, Ronald Reagan contested the "inevitability" of Gerald Ford all the way to the convention. Few, then or since, have ever thought to criticize Reagan’s failure to step aside and let Ford assume the mantle.

• Also in 1976, three candidates — Mo Udall, Jerry Brown, and Frank Church — ran against Jimmy Carter all the way through the final primaries, even though Carter seemed more than likely to be the eventual nominee.

• Even in 1960, Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson fought the "certain" nomination of John F. Kennedy all the way to the convention floor.

In fact, until this year, it’s been an axiom of American politics that candidates are allowed to pursue their runs until they decide to drop out — which is usually, by the way, when they run out of money. Even Mike Huckabee kept running against John McCain in this campaign long after it was obvious he had no hope of winning the GOP nod."

At the culminating point of one of the closest races in modern history, the election results aren’t official. The delegate count has been affected by bizarre, unprecedented "guess-timating" wholly unrelated to actual vote results, a certainly troubling and possibly unconstitutional result with far-reaching implications for future elections.

And nevertheless, people are expressing outrage that Hillary Clinton didn’t see fit to "give the night" to Barack Obama.

I’m proud that our country (the democratic half, anyway) can put forward a smart, passionate, and idealistic candidate like Barack Obama, and I recognize that it’s a significant and hopeful moment in our country’s race relations.

But I’m angry and sad and ashamed that so many in our country can’t celebrate the rise of the first significant black candidate without simultaneously (and almost gleefully) trying to stomp the first significant female candidate down.

We’ve come a long way, baby ... but apparently we’re not good sports if we expect to make it over the finish line.

A Watery Day

It's "reveal" day over on the Twelve by Twelve blog for our latest challenge, on the theme "water." And all 12 quilts are already up! Once again, I'm amazed and delighted by the variety of directions people pursued, and impressed by the talent of these artists. They're gorgeous, all of them.

Mine is above, called "Music from Across the Water." I based the image on a photograph (with the artist's permission). I had grand plans to do this with reverse applique, but quickly realized how hard that would be for a 12x12 inch size. So, I opted to do it via painting.

First, I created a line drawing.

I laid white cotton over it (Hoffman's PFD pima cotton, actually) and started in with the Tsukineko inks.

I had a grand time painting... I just love these inks and the little pen applicator thingies that come with them.

Then I quilted, faced it, and voila.

I can't wait to find out what our next theme will be!