I dyed but I'm still here...

I've been trying to think about how to describe my experience in Carol Soderlund's Color Mixing for Dyers workshop this week, and I've already said that I can't find sufficient superlatives to cover it. But you want more than just wild raving, don't you?

I figured that this workshop would give me a good foundation in dyeing, in contrast to the slapdash low water immersion fiddling I've been doing. But I am so pleased at how much I learned this week. I now actually understand how the dye process works, what the various chemicals do, why it is that pretty much every different book on dyeing you pick up has a process different from the others, and how the different parts of the process affect each other. We not only talked about but experimented to test what happens when you presoak with soda ash and don't, you use salt water or plain water, you manipulate your fabric more and less, you start with dry fabric versus wet fabric, and more.

More importantly, though, this class taught me how to control the dye process (well, as Carol says, "control" isn't really a word you can apply to dyeing...) to get closer to what I want. We learned how to get the hue we wanted, and also the value of that hue, and how to create color gradations, and even more. The first two days of the workshop were spent dyeing fabric in teams to create hundreds of colors for a massive color book. That was fun and educational and of course, the swatch book is gorgeous. But Carol has a really impressive system with the colors we dyed so that it'll be possible to dye and overdye and manipulate color and value so things come out the way I want them to.

Here, Carol T. sorts gradations for the color swatches. Can you believe that this is only a portion of the hues we did? There were piles like this all over the room.



The cool part of all of this is that it isn't just about saying "I want THAT blue" and measuring it up. It's also about selecting hues and values and shades that can be used improvisationally to create fun surprises, but with ME being able to predict more closely what the results will be, color and value-wise.

The class was also an amazing way to study color theory. Talk about hands-on exploration of color! Mixing and dyeing so many colors was such a great way to see how certain yellows changed certain blues, and how manipulating variables really changed things.

Although I don't generally work with solid fabrics (and don't anticipate dying them to be flatly solid) we did some interesting experiments to see how much manipulation was necessary to get which degree of "solidness" , and that was interesting. Here, Ann and Karen show their attemps at low-immersion solids.



And here are Louise, Suzanne and Linda with theirs. We all loved Louise's green result (and now we all know how to get it!)



Don't think that all we did was dye flat color. We played with low water immersion techniques and ways to get different textures. Here are Barbara (a first-time ever dyer!) and Marilyn with gorgeous pieces.



And look at what Marilyn, Ruth and Mary did! We learned about how to increase or decrease color separation, as we would like.



We also did multi-color dyeing, but didn't get a chance to share the washed-out results. (Mine are in the dryer as I write this...can't wait to see how they turned out!)

Carol herself is an absolute delight. She's funny and really nice and very clear in her information. I don't think I've ever had such an organized teacher, which is what allowed us to do so much and get so much information in those five days.

I'm so happy I figured out how to bring Carol to California for this class. It was purely selfish on my part so I could get this workshop, but everyone in the group seemed thrilled at how much we learned.

I simply can't recommend Carol and this workshop enough. I'm already working on scheduling Part II! Meanwhile, I'm excited to go forth and dye brilliant colors!

Dying to Dye

Look who I've been spending the last few days with! This is Carol Soderlund, dyer and teacher extraordinaire. I simply can't rave about her enough, so I won't try.

We are working straight out, dyeing and learning and having a great time. I come home each night and pretty much fall into bed, dreaming of colors.

And look what we did in the first two days!



Yep, this is just PART of a stack the whole group dyed in teams.

Here's another shot of some sorting going on.



Tomorrow's the last day and today was a very full one...so I am off to bed to rest up! More soon.

But if you ever, ever, ever get the chance to take a class from Carol, RUN and sign up. She's amazing.

Ho, Balclutha!

Well, the school quilt is done. It's always a relief to finish this sort of project, I find. It was fun, but I'm glad it's finished. I made this quilt to commemorate the overnight field trip my daughter's 5th grade class on the Balclutha, a sailing ship now permanently docked in the San Francisco Bay. Preparation for the trip and learning about sea life, terminology, and the era formed a big part of the kids' curriculum this year.

Every kid in the class drew a candidate for the class flag they'd fly during their time on ship. So, I took each drawing and incorporated them into this quilt. It struck me while I was working on this how much my process used "new" technology and techniques. I scanned the kids' drawings and printed them onto fabric; I used photoshop to blow up my drawing of the ship and make a final-sized pattern; I used freezer paper to cut out the shapes and spray starch and machine applique to sew them down, and I used good old Wonder Under to fuse other elements. This quilt will be auctioned off at a big school event in a few weeks. Hopefully there are a few 5th grade parents who'll want it badly enough to start a bidding war.

Meanwhile, thanks for all of your nice comments and emails to commiserate and/or offer suggestions on the sleep issue. It's clear that this is not an uncommon issue! I'm beginning to understand why sleep deprivation is used as torture! I know I'm fortunate that I don't have to get up and get into an office at 8am every morning, so that's a plus. (I've been pretty whacked out and watching a lot of movies lately, instead!) I'm trying some different things -- including exercise and diet -- that I hope will help.

And this weekend, I'm launching into a 5 day intensive fabric dyeing workshop with Carol Soderlund that is sure to exhaust me! So I figure I'll be dropping into bed every night and hopefully sleeping like a rock. I've been planning this for a while so I"m very excited that it's coming right up. I set up the room and pick up Carol on Friday, and then Roger and I will take her out for a nice wine country dinner...and Saturday, bright and early, 20 of us will gather to dye yards and yards of fabric.

Facing Demons

I've had a rather odd week.

Over the last several months, I've been experiencing insomnia. I've always been a happy, sound sleeper, but in recent months I've been waking repeatedly during the night. It's not due to stress, or anxiety, or anything specific. My doctor tells me that for women "of a certain age," shall we say, insomnia is the number one complaint... before hot flashes, even.

I've been going along, getting tireder and tireder, until I hit a point where I was getting sort of crazed. So, last week my doctor prescribed some sleeping medication for me. The good news? I had the first, sound, through-the-night sleep that I'd had in ages. The bad news? The next day I had a whopping headache and blurry vision. I tried the medication again the next night, with the same result the following day. Okay, the side effects are worse than the insomnia. Scratch that.

Then he proscribed another option. I tried that, and not only didn't sleep but spent the following day feeling nauseated and weirdly spacy and wobbly. Scratch that.

Now, I'm just gonna try to exercise enough every day to make myself tired, and not take anything...except maybe the occasional nap! But today's the first day I've felt actually normal in a long time.

Which leads me to the sea demon above. In one of those "Why did I say that?" moments, I volunteered to make an auction quilt for my daughter's school featuring flags her class drew to commemorate their overnight fieldtrip on a sailing ship in the San Francisco bay. So now, pleased to be feeling back to my tired normal self, I'm working on my "Balclutha" quilt. Thank goodness for freezer paper and WonderUnder!

Remembering Shereen

I woke up this morning thinking about my friend and mentor, Shereen LaPlantz. Shereen was an amazing artist and teacher who introduced many of us to the world of artist books. Her book Cover to Cover is still the best and most inspirational book on the market on making books, and her second book, The Art and Craft of Handmade Books, is equally as gorgeous. (And you can find some work by yours truly in that one!)

I had the great experience of working with Shereen in a 3-year artist book program. Over the course of those three years, twice a year I and 11 others would travel up to Humboldt County in northern California to spend a 3-day weekend in Shereen's studio learning new techniques and book structures. I'd never experienced such visual stimulation and artistic excitement as I did on those weekends. It was then, for the first, time, that I started to think of myself as an artist...or, at least, someone who had the potential to become an artist.

Shereen was an incredibly generous teacher. She would teach you anything you wanted to know, always with a positive and encouraging attitude. One wall of her studio was lined with plastic drawer units, all filled with handmade books of every kind. There were books she'd made, books she'd been given, books she'd bought... And in between work sessions, we were free to poke through the drawers and look at books and figure out how they were made. It was like having an enormous treasure chest at your disposal, with the freedom to explore at will.

We remained friends after our class ended, and I went up to visit her several times before she died of a particularly pernicious cancer. The most significant thing I learned from her, I think, was how to cope with illness with courage and spirit and determination. I've never seen anyone more determined to appreciate every day left to her.

Shereen loved typography, and ampersands in particular. So, to celebrate Shereen's effect on my life, here's an Ampersand mosaic.

Do you have a significant art mentor in your life?

Random thoughts

It was a hodge-podge weekend around here. And in keeping with that theme, here are some miscellaneous things on my mind:

1. Did you know you can get a great deal on replacement rotary cutter blades on Ebay? I need new blades, and was going to send off my used ones to that guy who sharpens them...but I nixed that plan when I learned that even that costs $3 per blade. There are lots of deals on Ebay where you can get brand new Olfa replacement blades for around $2 per blade. Bargain!

2. In the new guilty pleasures file, I have just discovered "Tori and Dean: Inn Love" on the Oxygen channel. I find this show hilarious, and mostly unintentionally so. It features Tori Spelling and her new husband as they move "to the country" (ie, Temecula) from LA to open a fancy, cool, trendy bed and breakfast and live a "quiet" life. There are lots of vastly entertaining moments, where the rich city girl discovers life as normal people know it. ("What? There aren't any restaurants that DELIVER?") I think I find this so amusing because it reminds me of my college dorm experience, where I lived with a bunch of girls straight from Beverly Hills High School. I remember writing home to my mom within the first few weeks that I'd met a girl who didn't know how to make her bed. And frankly, Tori seems a lot nicer and more practical (in a very impractical sort of way) than the girls I knew.

3. I got to watch the Kentucky Derby while I was mid-way through Dick Francis' newest novel, Under Orders. I felt like a racing insider with all my Dick-Francis-acquired racing knowledge. I looked at the race in a very different way.

4. I'm listening these days to a lot of Alice Peacock. If you don't know her, she's sort of a cross between Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan. If you want to sample her music, go here and scroll down to listen to a few songs. My favorite right now is "I'll Start with Me," which is a wonderful political statement that I find inspiring. And check out "Parallel Life," and "Leading with my Heart."

5. A little boy in our neighborhood, age 6, keeps dropping in to see if Caroline can play. The funny and rather adorable thing is that he pronounces "C" as "T." So, when asking for Caroline, he says "Tan Taroline tome out and play?" He's a very articulate kid, in terms of vocabulary, and he's really earnest in his delivery. He stopped by the other day, when Caroline wasn't home, and said "Tell Taroline I won a tontest!" Cute, cute, cute.

6. It's hot today, supposed to be up in the 90's. I think this means grilled fish tacos for dinner. I'll grill some fish and serve it with chopped lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, and spicy ranch dressing. And maybe there'll be a margarita involved too.

Happy Monday!

Good news, bad news

You remember I told you about the great deal I got on a used Hinterberg stretch frame? It turns out that this is a huge, cosmic exercise to test my patience. I am gritting my teeth, taking a deep breath and being patient.

First, it became clear that the poles the seller had were simply too big for my space. So I'd need to buy new poles. Okay, fine. Then, I learned, you can't take the pole end hardware off of the original poles without probably damaging the hardware and certainly then making the 10' poles unusable in the future (and lord knows, I may need to quilt a humongous quilt one of these days).

So, I sent off an order to Hinterberg for the pole end hardware. No big deal, right?

Then I set about reading online to learn about preparing the fabric leaders (or hunks of fabric the quilt pieces will attach to on the frame). I ordered the appropriate striped fabric (the better to line things up straight, which is key) and a zipper system which SOMEDAY IN THE DISTANT FUTURE will allow me to save time. Ahem.

So, the leader supplies arrived on Thursday, and I spent an enjoyable afternoon making them (after just one call to the zipper set company because their instructions were so dreadful).

Anticipating the arrival of the pole end hardware, I also got my local hardware guy to cut me 5 pieces of the right sized metal conduit. I love buying weird stuff at the hardware store.

I was in a patient mood. I was zen-like in my calmness.

Then, this morning, the pole-end hardware arrived. Yee haw! I had everything I needed to get it all set up! I was on my knees, whacking the hardware into the poles in a heartbeat. And, some time later I had the frame assembled. I was impressed. My husband was impressed. Look, here's an end of the frame.



Then I set the sewing machine on the carriage, and realized there was a problem. I wasn't sure what the problem was, but something wasn't right.



See how the sewing machine is way out over the edge of that back pole? It's not supposed to do that. I simply couldn't figure out how to set the machine in the frame so that it'd work the way it was supposed to. Did I have it assembled wrong? I studied the pictures. No, the pieces were where they were supposed to be.

I pored over the pictures in the book. I called my buddy Angie, who had this frame, and got suggestions from her.

Finally, I took pictures and posted them on a Hinterberg discussion list, and asked for help. And patiently waited for some experienced Hinty frame user to figure out my problem.

Thanks to a lovely and helpful soul, I learned a fact that is not disclosed anywhere on Hinterberg's website: Hinterberg makes one frame for typical machines and another variation for people who want to use a computer-assisted quilting system called PC Quilter. Between those two frames, there are two parts that are significantly different. And if you have the PCQ one, it won't work with a normal machine without switching those pieces.

Guess which one I have?

SIGHING PATIENTLY.

I suspect that the seller, who bought the whole shebang from her friend, didn't even know that there were two different frames, so she didn't know to warn me that this was the PC Quilter one with a somewhat limited use. And given that the Hinterberg site doesn't really talk about this different one, I didn't know there were different ones to even ask the question. I guess this is one of the risks of snatching such a deal, eh?

Still, this will be easily remedied. Hinterberg will sell me the pieces I need, and the bargain I got on this frame was sufficiently fantastic that I'll still come out way ahead of the buy-it-new purchase price. So, really, it's gonna work out. I just have to WAIT.

Now, I will wait patiently until those new pieces come. In the meantime, I can clean the poles and apply the leaders so they're properly centered and ready to go.

I am patient. I am calm.

I think I need a big glass of wine while I wait. And some chocolate.

Liberal Patriotism

I've cut the pieces for a red, white and blue quilt, and I realized something about it: I'm embarrassed to be making a patriotic quilt.

It started when I got the top for my red and white house quilt together, and had a lot of red and white prints left over. Then I learned about an organization called Quilts of Valor, which provides quilts to physically and psychologically wounded soldiers returning from Iraq. Jan, a member of my guild (and a fellow quilty blogger), has spear-headed collecting "wounded warrior" quilts from members of my quild, so I've seen some lovely red, white and blue quilts through the guild's show and tell. And then, cruising the Artful Quilter blog ring last week, I saw that fellow AQ blogger Debra is collecting quilts for wounded female soldiers. Links led me to this article in the Washington Post, which really moved me.

So, I decided to gather some blue fabrics to add to my red and white scraps and make a donation quilt or two. And as I've been working with this fabric, so many conflicting thoughts have crossed my mind.

I've never supported this war, and I still don't. But from what I can tell, the soldiers who've fought and been injured or killed in Iraq are victims of something bad. Even while they've believed that they were fighting for justice and democracy and other important principles, we've learned how this war resulted from so many lies and has been bungled from the outset, jeopardizing soldiers' lives and innocent people and our country's reputation in the world. And then there's the continuing horror of the poor conditions for injured soldiers in veterans' hospitals, not to mention the way war veterans are underpaid and ignored by the governent once they have returned from war. It's deeply troubling, and very very sad.

So I've been cutting these red, white and blue fabrics, and contemplating what it means to me to be patriotic. I took my fabric to a quilt retreat this week to cut pieces, and I realized when people asked me what I was making how much I felt I had to explain, lest my use of red, white and blue be deemed support for what this administration is perpetrating in the world. Every single time someone asked me, I felt embarrassed.

Wearing or displaying red, white and blue is usually viewed as a sign of patriotism. But right now in this country, the concept of patriotism has been co-opted by the Bush administration. You're patriotic if you agree, and you're unpatriotic if you don't. And isn't that a shameful state of affairs in our democracy?

I'm proud to be a liberal who can't wait to see Bush out of the White House. I love my country, but I detest this president and his policies. I feel for the soldiers who were injured in Iraq, and I'm angry that they were sent there in the first place. I can write letters to my representatives in Congress, and I can speak loudly with my votes.

And I can make quilts to show I care.

If it's an art quilt, does the back matter?

I'm a regular lurker on the Quilt Art discussion list and find a lot of interesting ideas and information there.

Recently, someone complained that a judge had given her quilt a negative comment because the back of her art quilt wasn't as neat as it could be. This led to a discussion of why quilt show judges even look at the backs of art quilts. One guy disagreed with the analogy between art quilts and paintings, suggesting that quilts are 3 dimensional objects while most paintings are meant to be 2D. Then a number of people replied to disagree with him, supporting the position that the backs of art quilts shouldn't be the subject of judges' comments.

I couldn't help jumping into the discussion, and because it's one of those interesting art quilt "controversies" (or storms in a teapot, really) I thought I'd post what I said here. What do you all think on the subject?

I'm probably expressing an unpopular view by saying this, but I'm going to anyway: I think that by making art in the "art quilt arena," you have to at least acknowledge long standing QUILT traditions. You may not buy into them, you may want to change them, you may disagree with them. But many people's (and judges') perceptions about what a QUILT should be aren't going to vanish just because some artists think they're not important. If an artist wants his or her work to be judged by traditional "art" standards, totally divorced from quilt-related standards, then I think submitting them to judged "quilt" shows doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes, I know that putting avant-garde fiber work in quilt shows educates and surprises and pleases a lot of viewers. And that's a great thing, I think. But to complain that the judges aren't judging them fairly because they're looking at both sides of the work seems simply silly to me under those circumstances.

And I agree with Scott that the quilt tradition (from which art quilting has evolved) is different than the traditions of painting or drawing. Quilts ARE generally viewed as 3-d objects, and all of their dimensions have been viewed as aspects of their beauty. We've probably all seen art quilts hanging in shows or galleries to display both the front and back, and where the beauty of the back (even beyond a fantastic front) has drawn crowds of admirers. Even though many of us don't want to do that sort of work or don't have the technical skill to do that sort of work, it's nevertheless impressive.

Now, I know that some artists don't want to worry about that. And I understand that there are artists who want the work to be judged ONLY on the front. Some artists want their work judged only on color/composition/design and not on the technique and competent use of the media. Again, I think that's ignoring a long piece of quilt tradition (and quilt ART tradition) and I think it's potentially selling yourself and your work short. Quilt artists work in a medium that has benefits beyond painting and collage. I think quilt art would be advanced, not diminished, if artists acknowledged that the dual-sided aspect of it is one to enjoy and exploit. And, just as traditional art elements such as color, design, composition, etc. are significant, so are how the media is manipulated in conveying the subject of the work. Does the back always need to be stunning? No, I don't think so. But does it need to be passably neat? If you're entering a "quilt" show where you're submitting your work to be judged, then I think that yes, it should.

And, I'll confess, when people protest loudly that only the front of the quilt should matter, I can't help wonder why they're protesting so much? Is it the inability to improve their technique so the back is passable? Is it that they just don't want to bother with the detail aspect? They're not open to learning how to improve their technique? They don't think technique matters?

I really do see all sides of this issue. But to me, CONTEXT matters. Call your work "fiber art" and enter it in a art show, and the back will be ignored. Fine. But call your work "QUILT art" and enter it in a quilt show to be judged? The resulting suggestion that aspects of technique or the back could be improved don't seem inappropriate to me.

I've been framed

Well, I've taken possession of the Hinterberg Stretch Frame, and I woke up ready to try to get it all together.

But, probably like most other home frame system users, I realized that there's a fair amount of preparation to do before I can get it all going. So, despite my excitement and eagerness to see the thing actually standing assembled, I decided to be patient and do it right.

The frame came with 10' poles all prepared with "leaders," or the fabric pieces to which you pin your quilt top and back so you can roll them around the poles as your quilting progresses. And that's great, in case I ever want to quilt a really huge quilt.

But it's amazing how big 10 foot poles look when they're lying on the floor in the dining room. They're -- well, you know, TEN FEET LONG. That's like two people tall, depending on the people! So, I decided that it'd make way more sense for me to buy a set of shorter poles (and I've settled on 7 feet) which will still be big enough to quilt most things, but three feet smaller will mean I can set it up in the bedroom without it taking up the whole width of the room. (Roger's incredibly tolerant, but I don't think he'll want to crawl under the frame to get to the bed every night.)

But you know, now when I hear that expression "I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole" I'll actually know what that is. And I'll have the poles not to touch things with.

I've found two incredibly instructive yahoo groups (one for Hinterberg products and one for home quilting machine systems in general) and I'm sorta overwhelmed by the vast information. Probably just as well it'll take a bit of time to get everything I need to get the frame up.

And gee, maybe I can finish a few of the kid quilt tops I have going for donation to my favorite shelter, and work on those when the frame is up...

More fun ahead

Well, I am very excited about tomorrow.

It started last week when I had an orthodontic appointment. (Yep, more braces adjustments and a new PINK rubber band chain to yank my teeth around even more.) But I got talking with my favorite orthodontic assistant Shelley, a single mom with 2 kids. And she announced with a big smile that she has re-entered the dating pool by placing a personal's ad on Craig's List.
(The whole conversation reminded me of how glad I am to be married to an all around nice and easy-going guy, and how really really glad I am not to be worrying about dating. Remember how much energy that took?!)
Anyway. I got laughing pretty hard at some of her date stories, but she is now dating a guy she likes a lot and things are looking good for her, which is rather nice.

But that, I guess, planted Craig's List in the back of my brain. I never go there. I think I've looked at the site twice in my whole life. But, for some inexplicable (and fateful!) reason, last Sunday I was at my computer and popped over to Craig's List. And, don't ask me why, I searched "quilting." (Well, what else would I search? Did you think I was going to say I searched the personals and I have a date tomorrow?!)

And there it was: an ad for a Hinterberg Stretch machine quilting frame, for sale for a really, really bargainous price by a quilter who was moving and was going to upgrade to a big old professional machine when she relocated.

I have this thing about long arm machines. I want one. I don't want to quilt professionally, and really, we don't have the space (not to mention the huge hunk of money those big ones cost). But still, it looks like so much fun! I always try them out at quilt shows. A friend in town who has one gave me lessons on hers and lets me rent time, but I'm sort of self-conscious about working on her machine, in her garage, and I feel compelled to rush so I don't leave something on there overnight. So I've not used it much.

I took to lurking on a great yahoo group about home quilting machines hosted by my friend Angie, to learn about the various smaller machine systems that are becoming available now. And, a while ago, I decided on what I'd get if I could get one. You know, just in case.

My system of choice? The Hinterberg stretch machine quilting frame with Hinterberg's Voyager 17 machine. Just hypothetically speaking, you understand.

You see why that ad for the Hinterberg frame leapt right out at me. AND such a bargain! I called Roger to the computer, we looked at the Hinterberg frame info, we looked at the ad, and he said "Go for it!" (See? Just what one wants in a husband...)

I called Angie, to pick her brain about questions to ask, then called the seller...and 30 minutes later we had a deal.

So, tomorrow I'm going to pick THIS up:



The beauty of this frame is that it is take-downable. It doesn't have to be up all the time. So I can put it up to do a few quilts and then take it down for storage in the garage. (The manufacturer claims it can go under the bed...but they haven't seen how much fabric I have under there.)

It doesn't come with the machine, of course. I'll use my zippy Juki TL98e on it, which won't be as ideal as a bigger machine, but which will work wonderfully I'm told.

And now I'm gonna have to pop into Craig's List more often to look for a bargainous Voyager 17.
Ooh, I can hardly wait!

Calling all Artful Quilters

I am finally getting around to some maintenance work on the Artful Quilters Blog ring. I'm astonished to find that the ring has almost 250 active members! And because we have a lot of new blogs on the ring, I'm proposing a challenge for you:

Every day this week, take a minute to use the "random" button on your AQ blog ring box to go explore a new Artful Quilters blog. (If you're bounced to a blog you already read regularly, bounce again to find one you don't typically read.) Leave a comment to let the blogger know she's had new company. I bet you'll discover some fun new work and interesting people!

One thing I do from time to time (which gets longer, as the ring gets bigger) is work my way around the ring to make sure that the ring is working right. It's kind of amazing how mixed up things can get, really. But as you poke around, do email me if you find a ring blog that is missing its code, doesn't bounce "next" to the right place, or hasn't been updated for over a month. With all these blogs on the ring, it's helpful when I'm pointed to blogs that need a bit of tweaking.

Also...you can check your own blog to make sure it's working right. Go to the ring list (either from the "list" button on the blog ring box or from ringsurf's page) and see what blogs are directly before and after YOUR blog on the list. Now, return to your blog, hit the "next" and "previous" buttons on your ring code, and make sure you go to the right blogs. If not, let me know and I can help you fix it. It's always an easy fix, actually.

Okay. Go, read blogs and explore!

Yummy Food Ahead (or in my case, behind)

I don't know how y'all do it...take pictures of stuff while you're cooking, and before you eat your gorgeous creations... I guess keeping the camera in the kitchen would be a start. But I get distracted enough while cooking as it is ("Mommy! Come see my drawing!") and by the time the food is ready, I'm ready to eat!

So. Last night my mom and dad and sister came to dinner, so I made one of my favorite dinners: a fast and easy Shrimp Creole recipe from the Desperation Dinners cookbook.

By the way, it's ironic that when I was a single, full-time working trial lawyer, I read Bon Appetit from cover to cover every month, cooked gourmet dinners and tried all sorts of complicated things. I just knew that when I had a family, I'd be cooking wonderful food all the time. And now, I work from home, I have a husband and daughter to cook for...and I'm cooking meals from Desperation Dinners and Rachel Ray's 30 minute meal repertoire. Sigh.

Anyway. Here's the yummy shrimp...and it IS delicious.



Now, I know it's not REAL shrimp creole, or anything like the real thing, probably...but it IS delicious. And fast. And easy. Here's the recipe:

Desperation Shrimp Creole

1 tb olive oil
2 medium onions (for 1 1/2 cups chopped)
1 medium green or red pepper (for 1 cup chopped)
1 medium rib celery (for 1/2 cup chopped)
1 tb worcestershire sauce
2 tsp bottled minced garlic
1 tsp Cajun or Creole seasoning blend
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp Tabasco
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes
1 8 0z can of tomato sauce
1 cube fish flavored bouillon
black pepper to taste
1 pound already peeled medium raw shrimp

1. Bring 2 1/2 cups water to boil in 2-qt saucepan. When water boils, add rice, cover pan, and remove from heat until ready to serve.

2. Heat olive oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet. Peel and coarsely chop the onion, adding it to skillet as you chop. Seed and coarsely chop bell pepper and ad to skillet, stirring. Chop celery into bite sized pieces and add; raise heat to medium-high.

3. Stir vegetables well, then add Worcestershire, garlic, Cajun seasoning, bay leaf, thyme, and Tabasco sauce, and stir well again. Reduce heat to medium and add tomatoes with their juice and tomato sauce. Cut off one half of fish bouillon cube and crumble it into skillet, then season with black pepper. Simmer sauce for 2 minutes, stirring from time to time.

4. Add shrimp, raise heat to medium high, and cook just until shrimp turns pink, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Serve at once over bed of rice or linguine

Serves 4.

We had that with caesar salad, crusty sourdough bread, and a crisp Sonoma vally chardonnay. Perfect.

And for dessert? Another ridiculously easy dessert...courtesy of Rachel Ray.



No, it didn't look this pretty. But close.

So here's the recipe.

Buy a pre-made angel food cake at the grocery store. Buy 2 jars of lemon curd (which you can find in the jam section.)

Empty the lemon curd into a sauce pan, add a splash of water, and about a tablespoon each of lemon, orange and lime zest. Or whatever you have.

Cut the angel food cake into 3 sections, crosswise obviously (so you have 3 layers).

On the bottom layer, spread some lemon curd and sprinkle liberally with sweetened coconut (straight from the bag). Top with the next layer, and repeat. Add top layer, spread a light layer of lemon curd, and sprinkle with coconut.

Voila! I served this with sliced fresh strawberries, and it was heavenly. And made in about 10 minutes.

Odds and Ends

I'm doing odd chores at present.

Yesterday, I blocked my Moon over the Mountain quilt. (This patch of sunlight really changes the contrast...I'll post a final picture when it's done so you can see the real colors).



I had a plan when I started to quilt this quilt, but as I started free-motion quilting, my quilting was denser than I'd originally planned. I was worried that I over-quilted this, which makes me realize how important it is to stitch on practice fabric before I really dive in. (If I'd done that, more than just a few lines of stitching to test the tension, I'd have realized I needed to leave more space.) Anyway, it looks fine now that it's blocked. Binding to follow.

I've also got custody of the Pointless Sisters' contribution to our guild's raffle. We've made an opportunity quilt called The Farmer's Market, and it landed in my lap for final binding and sleeve-installation. This quilt is stunning, I must say. One of our very talented members, Linda Morand, designed it and executed quite a bit of it, and coached everyone on using Shiva paint sticks and other fabric-painting tools. The quilt hasn't been officially revealed to the group yet, but I'll give you a few peeks...





Looks pretty good, huh?

So, it didn't need a binding, to my view, and I decided to put a facing on it. And that went fine, but I was a bit stumped on how to finish the corners. I hunted through my books, and searched the internet, and didn't find any good trick for how to get the corners nice and square and tight. I finally just winged (wung?) it and it looks fine.



But I'll bet there's a trick. If you know it, let me know!

So, today is prepping for a visit tonight from my mom and dad. I'll tidy the house, then go shopping for ingredients for dinner: shrimp creole pasta, salad, crusty french bread, and lemon coconut angel food cake. Yum!

More prickly things

Pincushions! Do you know they're very trendy right now?

I had a grand time searching Etsy.com for them to see what fun things people are making. And here are a few.

(And you know, it occurred to me...it's no surprise at all that we quilting types like these photo mosaics. Grid. Color. Pattern. Repetition with variety. Duh.)

But they always make me smile.

My opinion

Responding to my post from a few days ago where I mentioned my dismay over the poorly-reasoned decision by the Supreme Court validating the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, one reader left the following comment:

I don't get how anyone, being either pro-life or pro-choice can be for partial birth abortion. It doesn't even make sense to give the excuse of being for the woman's health, since the child is killed by the doctor as it's actually exiting the birth canal, so I'm not sure what it saves the woman from except having to birth a live child. Have you actually read how it's done? It's a horrific practice, if everyone in this country had to see the procedure done once I'm sure it would be stopped immediately. I understand that the fear is that if ANY rights are taken away, then it's one step closer to stopping legalized abortion. I don't ever see that happening, but I hope that partial birth abortion is done with forever.

Because I believe that there are a lot of misconceptions about this issue – intentionally furthered for political reasons by those who want to undercut a right which profoundly affects women’s lives – I’m going to explain why I hold the view I do. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I feel strongly about these matters. I don’t want to open up a pro-choice/anti-abortion discussion. If you don’t agree, feel free to speak out on your own blog. I’m not inviting contrary opinions. I’m explaining why I said what I said.

First, the term "partial-birth abortion" is not a medical term. It is not recognized in medical literature, nor is it used by doctors who perform second-trimester abortions. "Partial-birth abortion" is a political phrase designed to inflame the emotions. Period. In fact, the medical community refers to the procedure as "dilation & extraction" ("D&E") or "intact dilation and evacuation." Right out of the starting gate, I have a problem with defining the discussion in terms of the "partial birth abortion" because that term is so biased to begin with. That’s why I also have a problem with Congress purporting to legislate about a medical procedure while framing the legislation in such obvious inflammatory and biased terminology. The wording of the law alone suggests motives which are contrary to the expressed intent of the law.

You’ll remember that the foundation of the right to abortion was stated by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. The central holding of Roe is that up until the point at which a fetus becomes "viable," (or potentially able to live outside of the womb), a woman may lawfully choose to have an abortion for any reason. The court tried to balance the competing interests of women and the government by using trimesters to define the relevant rights: during the first trimester of pregnancy, the state cannot restrict a woman's right to abortion; during the second trimester, the state can only regulate the abortion procedure "in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health"; and during the third trimester when the fetus is deemed to be viable, the state can restrict or ban abortion as it sees fit.

The discussion about the D&E procedure takes place in the context of second trimester abortions, for that is when they are used. But D&E is used rarely, overall: between 85 and 90 percent of all abortions performed in the United States take place during the first three months of pregnancy. So, when people talk about this procedure, they are talking about mid-pregnancy, PRE-viability abortions. And why, you wonder, wouldn’t women wanting an abortion do it in the first trimester? Well, there are significant reasons. Research suggests that adolescents and poor women are more likely than other women to have difficulty obtaining an abortion during the first trimester. Minors may be unaware they are pregnant until relatively late in pregnancy. Poor women’s financial circumstances often prevent them from finding services early in their pregnancies. Further, some women choose to abort their pregnancies when they learn of severe fetal anomalies or confront serious health problems in themselves or their fetuses. Many of those problems cannot be diagnosed or do not develop until the second trimester.

Remember that in our country’s long-standing legal framework, the government may only restrict abortions during the second trimester to protect the health of the woman. A significant number of medical experts say that the intact D&E procedure has been determined to be medically safer for the woman (in certain circumstances) than the alternatives available at this stage of the pregnancy. So, a law which wholly bans this procedure not only runs contrary to Roe v. Wade and subsequent cases, but it also leaves a woman subject to the less safe alternatives. Banning the D&E procedure doesn’t save a single fetus. It simply eliminates one of the safest methods, leaving women exposed to procedures that pose greater medical risk and are, frankly, equally as unpleasant in terms of what happens to the fetus.

And there, I believe, lies the crux of the issue. People react with horror to the concept of "partial birth abortion" because it seems cruel to the fetus. The details of the procedure are horrid... as are the details of every abortion procedure, really. And it’s true: if the standard is cruelty to the fetus, then all abortions are cruel to the fetus. Indeed, the purpose of an abortion is to terminate the life of the fetus. That’s a brutal fact. Any abortion is a horrible act. So, how, logically, can one draw a line? Which abortions are less horrible? The fact that legislators are trying to make these distinctions divorced from medical evidence raises serious concerns because the next logical step is the conclusion that all abortions are cruel to the fetus and must be prohibited.

And that comes back around to the issue of the rights of the woman. In the face of substantial medical evidence that the D&E may be the safest medical alternative for women in certain circumstances, banning the D&E procedure because of its cruelty to the fetus puts the welfare of a pre-viable fetus ABOVE the welfare of the woman carrying it. That thought process not only runs counter to the fundamental principles underlying long-standing law, but it has troubling implications for women.

So, I have a problem with trying to choose which abortion procedures are "good" and "bad" when that judgment is based on the treatment of the fetus, and not on what is safe and medically appropriate for the woman. I have a problem with legislators pretending to protect women, while in reality they’re ignoring substantial medical evidence, not acting based on what is reasonably necessary for the woman’s health, and chipping away at significant rights. I have a problem with the Supreme Court ignoring long-standing legal principles, disregarding medical evidence, and cloaking moral judgment in bad legal reasoning.

And to address the comment specifically, I don’t think anyone is actively FOR "abortion," let alone FOR "partial birth abortion." Like many others, I am for the right to choose whether to bear a child. I am for the availability of safe medical procedures that permit women to control their own bodies. I am for keeping government out of the decision about whether a woman will or should carry and bear a child. I’m also for letting medical decisions be made by medical professionals. I believe that doctors, not legislators, should be in charge of determining which medical procedures are safest and most appropriate under the patient’s specific circumstances.

To me, saying one is "against" this procedure is like saying one is "against" lobotomy, or amputation, or organ removal. They’re all brutal, unpleasant, difficult procedures. No one would choose them if they weren’t necessary. Of course I know what the D&E procedure involves a fetus. But I don’t believe that a non-viable fetus has a right superior or even equal to the right of the woman carrying it.

I know that these are controversial, emotional matters. These are my opinions. And we are all entitled to our own opinions.

Light (pink! sparkly!) out of Darkness

I have been working out my crankiness by quilting my Moon Over the Mountain quilt. I don't know whether I'll ever be able to look at this quilt without thinking of the Virginia Tech shootings, as I was working on it while watched Wednesday's convocation ceremony. I'm thinking I'll call this quilt "Even in darkness, there is light."

But I am off today to do some cheering-up things. I'll stop at the library, where I'll pick up a big stack of books (I love how I can access the catalog online to retrieve books from other branches, or put myself on waiting lists for new books). Then it's over to my sister's house for lunch and a bit of chat and stitching. I'm schededuled for a manicure later this afternoon. And tonight is pizza-and-a-movie night, where we get delicious pizza from our favorite place, rent a family movie (lately we've been introducing Caroline to the original Peter Sellers Pink Panther movies) and eat in front of the tv. Decadence!

Oh, and I'm wearing my $3.99 pink GENUINE PINK GEMSTONE ring. (It looks a little darker in this photo than in real life, but it's still pink and sparkly.)

Calgon, take me away...

I am feeling deeply dispirited today.

It's due, undoubtedly, to the news. I've intermittently heard more news about the Virginia Tech shootings, which is so horrifying and sad that I can hardly bear to listen.

And then there's the Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, in which by a 5-4 decision the Court upheld the validity of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. You can read the full decision here, if you're so inclined, but be prepared to be discouraged. At least there's the well-written dissenting opinion authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and joined by Justices Stevens, Souter and Breyer, which you can read here. Yay for those four thoughtful justices. If there's ever an example of how much damage a bad president's bad judicial appointments can do, this is it.

Alberto Gonzales gets a double role in my bad mood today. He not only promotes the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and is the named plaintiff above, but his testimony today was simply incredible. It's sort of like listening to George Bush Senior in the Iran-Contra hearings...either he's lying or he's so incredibly stupid and forgetful that he has no place acting as Attorney General. It was vaguely gratifying to hear virtually every senator who questioned him sounding skeptical and at times flat out incredulous. But as an indication of what is being allowed to happen at the top of our government, it's disgusting.

I'm going off to soak in a long bubble bath and read my british mystery novel. If there was ever a day where escape to another time and place was warranted, this is it.

Make things!

Don't you just love art supplies?

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Oh, and by the way, I also love making mosaics at flickr.com.

I'm thinking...

Some months ago, The Thinking Blog named 5 blogs that made him think...and challenged those 5 bloggers to identify 5 bloggers who made them think. Well, today I got tagged by Gerrie as one of the 5 blogs that make her think...and for that I'm quite honored!

Now it's my turn to nominate 5 blogs that make me think. When I think about "thinking" blogs (you can see there's a whole lot of thinking going on here) what come to mind are not so much the blogs that are filled with gorgeous pictures, but the blogs with content I love to read. So, here they are:

Crazy Aunt Purl. Laurie's a wonderful, funny, warm, witty woman exploring life as a newly-single divorcee in a Southern California suburb. Her blog covers the territory of her life: her workplace and her awkwardness with the people there, her cats, her neighbors, and knitting. Lots of knitting. She makes me laugh, and she makes me want to hang around with her to knit and giggle. Oh, and she makes me think about things differently.

Faster than Kudzu Joshilyn Jackson knows how to write. There's no question. And through her blog Joss shows how she crafts her amazing novels, raises two adorable kids, struggles to keep her mental illness quotient down when her husband is out of town, and negotiates borderline hostilities between Bagel, a dog whose abiltity to clean up the grossest of messes had me laughing harder than I've ever laughed at a blog entry ever, and her grumpy cat. I'm charmed and fascinated and amused by this blog, and always in awe of Joss's talent.

Kristin La Flamme I love Kristin's blog. I love her art, and I'm always excited to see what she's working on and what amazing process she's using. I'm fascinated by her life raising her family in Germany and exploring European life and culture.

Althouse Ann Althouse is a professor at the University of Wisconsin law school who blogs about legal issues, politics, celebrity, culture, and everything else. She's concise and smart and she makes me think with a capital T.

Pink Sneakers N'at Sarah Louise (which is not her real name but sounds so friendly and charming) is a librarian blogging about "life outside the stacks." Her blog topics are eclectic but always interesting and well written. She likes books, and I love following her links.

Go...read...THINK!