What is this?

Does this look like a teabag to you?

I've been starting to experiment with digitizing my own machine embroidery designs.  And this is my very first one.  Why a teabag, you wonder?  Well, I have set myself the task of exploring the theme of tea in a series of small art quilts, and that led me to thinking about tea bags, which set me on a course of drawing them... and then I decided to turn a little sketch into something that could be embroidered repeatedly. 

It has some wonky aspects to it that need adjusting in terms of stitch density ... but does this say teabag to you?  Or does it just look odd? 

(My husband thought it was an iron.)

Inquiring minds want to know.

A new paradigm for education

It is way past time to change our thinking about education. This is really worth the 10 minutes it'll take to watch:

My Cornwall Escape

One of these days, I'm going to get to Cornwall. I've had a fascination with it since, I think, I first read The Shellseekers by Rosamunde Pilcher years ago. And I love watching British tv series. So imagine my delight when I discovered "Doc Martin," a BBC television series set in Cornwall in the charming fictional village of Portwenn.

The premise is that Dr. Martin Ellingham, a surgeon from London, has recently developed a revulsion to blood and can no longer do surgery. He retreats to his childhood village to be the general village doctor, where his daily life is populated by quirky people and curious medical mysteries. Interestingly, the brusque nature and social ineptitude of Doc Martin is obviously Asperger's Syndrome. But even while his dreadful bedside manner is a key aspect of the show, the story is not about a doctor with Asperger's -- it's an unfolding story of a withdrawn individual who slowly comes to life and becomes a vital member of a small community.

The first four seasons are available on Netflix via live-streaming. (it looks like some are available on Hulu.com, too.) I was sad to realize that last night I watched the last episode of the show. But today, thanks to IMDB, I discovered that the series has recently resumed after a two year break, taking off where the last 2009 episode left off, and there are some 6 episodes that have aired on British tv so far. I'm not sure when Netflix will have them, but I will look forward to returning to Portwenn in the future!

Azalea Encore

So here is where I am with this piece.  I'm still listening for the quilt to tell me whether it is done or not.  Apparently it's speaking too quietly or I'm not paying attention closely enough -- so for now, this is where it sits.

If you click on the photo, you can see that I added a lot of machine quilting.  My friend Loretta commented on how painterly this looks, which was gratifying as I'd been thinking of that fabric texture as impressionistic paint strokes.  I'd sketched and doodled and tried to figure out how to add stitch to emphasize that.  My conclusion was that it'd be best to suggest flowers and leaves and let the fabric texture create the brushstrokes.

But once I got the quilting on, it just sat there on all of that texture and seemed to compete in a confused sort of way.  So I pulled out my new Inktense pencils and started highlighting petals and leaves with more color.  I tried to add color while flowing with the direction of the fabric texture, again to use the fabric but also define the shapes more.

I think I'm venturing into the "Stop torturing this poor fabric" territory so I will put this away for a bit.  I tend to like it more when I first see it walking into the room -- and maybe that sense of jumbled color and the suggestion of flowers and foliage is the best this can do.  I'm not sure.

I still feel like it NEEDS something.  But it won't tell me what just yet.

I tend to get stuck in my head when I'm making a new quilt, so this week I thought I'd try something different and just experiment, without having a meaning or image or plan in my head.

It started with this streaky fabric, which was the result of an ice dying experiment last week.

I wanted to try to exploit the linear designs, so in  an experimental mood I cut it up into bias squares, so that the linear design ran diagonally across each block.  And then I started putting the blocks up on my design wall. 

This was the result of just putting the blocks up randomly.  I liked the texture, but I was feeling that there was no focal point.  So I moved them around a bit more, thinking to put the lights in the center and work out into darker tones.

Um, no.

Then I thought, well, I'll just group the colors together in  columns and see how that looks.  (Of course, it occurred to me that the original fabric had colors in lines so why did I cut it up, then?)  But I liked how this looked sort of landscapey, if you turn your head sideways to the left.

See what I mean?  I actually like that, so I sewed the squares together.

And then I sat and stared.  What to do next?  How to quilt?  I started in yesterday, stitching and trying to keep the streaky elements I like, and trying to respond to what I thought the quilt was saying it wanted to be.

There was a big period of time where I think the quilt was telling me it wanted to be wadded up and stuffed into the trash.

So, it's in the works.  I'm not sure whether what I'm doing is making it worse or better.  I realize that without a specific intent about the quilt to begin with, it's harder to decide where to go.  I guess I just need to trust the process. 

Seasonally Challenged

Because it is September, I've shifted into autumn mode.  I've put flannel sheets on the bed, and when I dress in the morning I put on a cozy shirt and jeans and slip my feet into my fleece-lined clogs.  I make myself a cup of tea and contemplate whether to put the fixings for chili or soup in the slow cooker.  Then, I open the door to the garden and realize that it's going to be another Indian Summer day over 80 degrees, and more likely over 90.

I could tell you that this is an aberration, but truth be told, I've always been a bit out of synch with the weather.  Even though I was born and raised in California, I think I'm a New Englander at some deep core level, and I'm living with their seasons no matter where I am.  Which explains why, when I was in college in Southern California, I showed up at my friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner wearing a turtleneck sweater and wool skirt and knit tights -- when it was 75 degrees out.

I do not know what mental climate zone my daughter lives in.  All she wants to wear are tank top, shorts and bare feet.  All year round.  I am frequently accused of over-using the motherly "Aren't you cold?" comment.


At any rate, I'm feeling decidedly Septemberish.  Perhaps I'll go outside and look for some leaves to rake.

Blocks of love

I've been making quilt blocks this week for a commissioned quilt. Well, maybe that's a stretch.  My daughter is the client, and she had very specific requests for a new quilt for her bed.  In fact, when we first started talking about what sort of quilt she wanted, her descriptions were so specific that we got onto Equilter.com and she chose the fabric, she sketched out for me how she envisioned it going to gether, and then we laid it out on Electric Quilt software so I could make sure that she was going to like the look of what she was describing.

I do love technology. 

I have to confess that before I started sewing these, I had a general reluctance about it.  I returned from Festival of Quilts with so many ideas in my head that I want to explore -- but I felt that I had to get this done before I can explore any of those.  This just didn't feel like any reflection of my own creativity.

But I started cutting and sewing, and at some point it dawned on me that I was really enjoying it.  I was thinking about Miss C, and how much fun it had been to see her choose fabrics, and how excited she was about seeing what she envisioned become real.  And so even while this isn't reflective of MY creativity exactly, it's reflecting hers, and that makes me quite happy. 

So this has really become a labor of love.  Funny how easy it is to lose sight of the joy of doing something for someone you love.

Ice Dyeing (or the dyeing you can do during hot flash season)

In the current issue of Quilting Arts magazine (Aug/Sept 2011, #52) there's an article by Lynda Heines about "ice dyeing."  When I read the issue, I read the article and thought, "That looks fun, I'll have to try that some day."  And I promptly forgot all about it.

But then about a week later, I went to my monthly Practical Design group, and two of the women there showed fabric they'd dyed using the Ice Dyeing technique.  It was gorgeous, just gorgeous.  And they bubbled on about how easy it was -- so I was inspired to go home and get it going the very next day.

Here's the thing about this method:  you don't have to mix dye solution ahead of time.  Now, I know that's not a huge task, and of course once you mix the dyes they keep for a while.  Still, when I'm in the mood to play with dyeing, I want to get to the dyeing and having to do all that advance preparation discourages me some.  Silly, I know, but there you have it.

At any rate, the beauty of this method is that you don't pre-mix dyes. (It also means that you have to be MORE careful about wearing a mask and not exposing yourself to dye powder carelessly.)  But basically, the method is this:  You set up a rack over a tray or tub, put soda-soaked fabric in a flattened wad (or folded bundle) on the rack, put ice cubes on the fabric, and then sprinkle a bit of dye powder onto the ice.  As the ice melts, the dye powder dissolves and contacts the fabric.  You let it sit for 24 hours, then wash it all out. The specific details and instructions are illustrated beautifully Lynda Heines' article.

So away I went.  And the results have been exciting and very fun.

In fact, this is so fun and easy it's hard to stop.

So far I've dyed half-yard pieces.  Today I'm going to try a bigger piece and see what happens.  But I highly recommend experimenting with this -- it's very  fun.

Swift Success

Last night was the long-awaited Taylor Swift concert. The Teen adores her and last winter, when she indicated she might be willing to brave the noise and crowds to try a concert, we obtained tickets for the one concert in our area. At Miss C's request , it was a girls only night, so our party consisted of Miss C, me, and our dear friend Beth.

Beth and I were in college together and are both in our 50s now. So although we attended many a concert in our young and adventurous days, it has been some time since each of us had been to a concert other than the reunion tour of some middle-aged guys singing to a nostalgic middle aged audience. So, that explains why last night was surprising and fun for us -- ahem -- more mature ladies, too.

The Teen knew what to expect. She's been working for the past week on a heavily glittered sign to wave at key moments. Unlike us, she was not at all astounded by the masses of pre- teen and teenaged girls with their hair artfully ringleted like Taylor Swift's and wearing country girl dresses and cowboy boots. Beth and I, however, were amazed at the number of girls dressed alike and/or adorned with Taylor- inspired sayings and images and glitter. Lots and lots of glitter. Were we just not sufficiently motivated groupies back when we went to see Kenny Loggins and Neil Young and John Denver? Dressing alike and waving signs just didn't occur to us back then.

Of course, part of Taylor Swift's appeal is the ordinary-girl-who- created-a-fairy-tale-for-herself thing. She sings about being outside of the popular crowd in high school, the importance of being true to yourself, of finding a love who will love you for who you are. They are messages any mom would approve of and messages, it is heartening to see, that many girls seem to heart. The fact that Taylor sings them while dressed like Cinderella doesn't hurt either.

The most surprising thing, to me and Beth, at least, was how for the 12,000 teens in attendance anyway, being at the concert seemed to be less about listening to Taylor Swift sing and more about screaming and shrieking and singing along with every song. Really, we could hardly hear Taylor. It made me wonder if that's what those early Beatles concerts were like, with so much screaming that you couldn't hear the actual music.

As far as Miss C was concerned , the event surpassed every expectation and she came out with a beaming smile and eyes glowing and talking a mile a minute. For me, seeing Miss C happy and singing along and clearly enthralled was truly wonderful. (And, I couldn't help thinking, it was a testament to the power of willing participation and focus, for if surely there was ever an event designed to bring on a migraine or Aspie brain overload, it would be an arena full of screaming teenagers, loud music, and bright flashing lights.)

So, it was a success all around. But it did make me feel old, or certainly rather sedate. Maybe I need more glitter in my life.

Meeting the Beatles

While we were in England, one of our "must-do" items was going to Liverpool to see the Beatles sights there.  Roger is a hardcore Beatles fan from way back, and I was happy to see what there was to see.  For Beatles fans, Liverpool is pretty much Beatle Mecca.

So off we went to Mathew Street, an alley of a bunch of small bars and pubs and clubs. Here, at The Cavern, was where the Beatles first played regularly and were "discovered."  By the way, I think I took this shot at about noon.  By 4pm, there was music blaring out of most doorways, the strong smell of beer permeating the place, people spilling out of every doorway with drinks in hand and cigarette smoke clouds above their heads, and mobs of people passing through.

Here's the entrance to the actual Cavern --

but wait, we learn that it has been rebuilt, albeit with the ORIGINAL Beatles-soaked bricks.

Everywhere you look on that street has a Beatles reference.

 

There were some funky artistic tributes...

And of course there were shops for Beatles merchandise...

(Disclosure:  Certain T-shirts may have been purchased.)

Around the corner, out of the alley, was The Hard Day's Night Hotel which took the Beatles theme from funky/seedy to posh and expensive.  We roamed through, looking at the photograph-covered walls inside, but to my mind the best thing about that place was its logo:

It was said to be an image of the guitar frets and finger positions for the first, great chord of "Hard Day's Night" AND also the position that the Beatles stood in when performing.  (That'd be Ringo, back there.)  A clean and appealing logo, don't you think?  Not obviously Beatlesy but referential nonetheless. 

Our day in Liverpool inspired my response to the current Twelve by Twelve challenge, which is "Orange."  It will be revealed on Thursday, Sept. 1 on that blog, so you'll have to pop over there to see how!  

Print Play

I'm rather a novice in the surface design department.  Sure, I've bought a lot of books, and I've got a lot of supplies -- but I don't get in there and actually DO it all that often. I chalk that up to laziness, really:  I don't have a convenient set up, so I have to store everything in the garage, then pull it all through the house outside to the back patio when I want to experiment.  So the spontaneous "I'll just print up a quick piece of cloth" doesn't happen around here.

(And yes, I KNOW there are industrious artists who are making exquisite pieces of cloth in their bathroom sinks with 4 square inches of counter space.  So I am glad to have the patio, even if it means that a few garden plants take on the cast of whatever colors I'm working with for a few days.)

So.  Last week at Festival of Quilts (just last week!) I bought a few thermofax screens for screen printing.  I've done that once, and it was, as they say, dead easy.  And I've got this orange quilt to make for Twelve by Twelve, and I'd been thinking about background fabric, and it dawned on me that I could PRINT the background fabric... et, voila!

I was experimenting with printing a big-textured screen and then over printing with a small textured screen.  It looks weird here as a piece of cloth but I think it could have interesting possibilities cut up.

My happiest surprises involved printing on fabric I'd dyed previously and hadn't liked all that much.  I had a batch of weird maroon-ish shades and I screened some Decolourant on that, then set it out in the sun for the afternoon ... and I really like the result.

They are still not colors I'd be inclined to use, but at least they are now in the category of "might use" instead of "Yuck - never." 

I even discharged onto some old dye prints I'd done last summer, and they turned out well, too.  (The only one I photographed looks a little weird, but you get the idea....)

All in all, it was worth the hauling stuff back and forth.  And it might even make me want to do it again.

Introducing Alice Fox

I can hardly believe that I was at Festival of Quilts a week ago ... give or take some hours that I gained flying back to California.  I'm still dazed from the whole wonderful experience.

One of the things that was quite different from American quilt shows was the existence of gallery stalls for artists and fiber art students.  They were about the size of vendor stalls, but they were constructed of clean white walls which defined the art gallery space beautifully, and in each stall an artist displayed work, showed sketchbooks or sold books, and was available to chat with visitors.

One of the galleries I couldn't stop staring at belonged to a fiber artist named Alice Fox.  Mark that name, because she is amazingly talented and her pieces were unusual and stunning.  I think the work that she was showing in her gallery space was the work shown on her website as "Fabric of the Building."  The pieces there were mostly in neutral colors -- soft creams and whites and greys with touches of black, and they incorporated stitch in a lovely, restrained but always necessary way.  The work was understated but compelling.  I just loved it. 

I didn't realize until I was reading Alice's blog after Festival that Alice had a miniature quilt which was awarded a "Highly Commended" rating in the show, and that she also won (as co-winner with another student) the Graduate Showcase bursary.  She won a hunk of money to further her work and a space at next year's Festival.  I am not surprised.

I wish I could be there to see what she shows then.  I still can't stop thinking of the elegance of her fiber work.   

The Cumberland Pencil Museum

You may recall that I have a thing for pencils. In fact, I've used them in quilts from time to time, as here in a Twelve by Twelve quilt (the challenge color palette was purple and yellow)

and here, in this quilt (which I apparently never photographed finished, so you are seeing the top here) called Daily Detritis:

So you can imagine how excited I was to learn that when we were in England in the Lakes District, we were near the Cumberland Pencil Museum, "home of the world's first pencil!" Helen happened to mention that there was a pencil museum in the area and I suspect she is still puzzled about why I was so eager to go there.  I guess you have to have the school supply/stationery store obsession to understand.

In any event, on one rainy day when we'd planned to visit Castle Howard (where Brideshead Revisited was filmed), we abandoned an afternoon of walking around sodden gardens in pouring rain in favor of an indoor visit to the pencil museum. I was thrilled. 

I will apologize now for the poor quality of the photos.  It was dim enough inside that I had to use the flash and although there are probably some Photoshop tricks for removing those horrid flash glare spots, I don't know them.  But look past the bad photography at the exciting PENCILS!

There is something about items lined up that appeals, too -- so this display of a variety of very old pencils just enthralled me.  The museum had exhibits about how, in the Cumberland mines, they discovered graphite and started using it to make pencils, and there were exhibits showing the machinery that formed it into tubes, inserted it into wood blocks, and carved it all into an actual pencil.  You can read about how pencils were made here, on the Pencil Museum's site.

If you are now thinking, "this woman is a weird pencil geek!" I understand.  And I agree.  But that's okay. 

But back to the pencils.  They was a wall showing pencils from different periods.  It's kind of astonishing how little pencils have changed over the years, isn't it? I guess a good, functional design is worth keeping.

And look: pencils "thought to be" the world's oldest colored pencils!

And those nifty flat pencils:

and old advertising signs:

and displays of vintage pencil tins, including one produced to commemorate the marriage of Charles and Diana:

There was even a display of pencils arranged like a quilt block, don't ask me why.  (I looked for the explanatory placard and didn't find it.)

As this is the company that makes Derwent Fine Art Pencils, there were art displays featuring the uses of Derwent colored pencils - even a limited edition colored pencil portrait of Will and Kate that came with a beautiful wooden box filled with all of the types of pencils Derwent makes, for the low price of about £500.  (I was tempted, but I resisted.)  

I learned that one of my favorite Christmas books and movies, The Snowman by Raymond Briggs, was drawn with Derwent colored pencils.

And then there was a gift shop, with discounts and pencil seconds. After much consideration (and contemplation of the baggage weight allowance issues), I purchased a very nice box of Derwent's Inktense pencils.

The other item I couldn't resist was a necklace made out of colored pencils.

It has a very pencilly smell so when I wear it, I flash back to that very fun day.  Isn't it funny how the oddest side-trips can turn out to be vacation highlights?  I loved this quirky place, and my family and Helen and Dennis all admitted that it was more interesting than they thought it would be.

Even if you're not quite as pencil-obsessed as me, you might find this an entertaining outing if you're nearby.  There were lots of great kid activities there too, with a hunt-for-information game and a drawing station so they could try out all of the supplies.  Oh, and there was a cafe for tea and cake!

Honestly, what more could one want?  History.  Technology.  Art Supplies.  And cake. 

Home after Festival of Quilts

I am home from the amazing experience of being at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England with the Twelve by Twelve quilts.  Click HERE to read and see more pictures on the Twelve by Twelve blog -- I'll write more soon but I am too jet-lagged today and am headed to bed!

To Festival of Quilts, hurrah, hurray

At some point, probably once I am back home in California, I will get a chance to catch my breath and calmly summarize all of the wonderful things I have been doing here in England. But that time is not now, because I am headed down to Birmingham where I will be at Festival of Quilts.

This is down right exciting for a host of reasons. First, all 144 of the original Twelve by Twelve quilts will be on exhibit there. Seeing them online is very nice indeed ( if I do say so myself) but is nothing compared to seeing them in person. So if you are in the vicinity, do pop in.

Second, I will be there with two other Twelves, Helen and Françoise. I have not met Françoise in person before so that will be a highlight of the trip for me. And we will be hanging out at our stall at the show to meet people and sign books. How fun will that be?!

But wait, there is more! I will get to meet, finally, my City and Guilds tutor Edwina MacKinnon. She has been a lovely and encouraging tutor by email and I am enamored of the work she shows on her blog. So that will be quite nice.

I have tickets to several talks which promise to be interesting and inspirational. One is by Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably about working in Kaffe's studio.

Another is by my idols Linda and Laura Kemshall, who will talk about their creative process.

And another is by textile artist Fiona Wilson, whose work mesmerizes me. Helen and I happened on one of her quilts in an exhibit at the Quilt Museum in York last week, and I could have stood there all day gazing at it.

Oh, and there's a quilt show going on the whole time too. So that means lots of quilts to look at and vendors' stalls to visit.

And all of that fun goes on for FOUR WHOLE DAYS.

After that, I will spend a day in court with the Honorable District Judge Helen Conway which, for an American lawyer like me is no small thrill.

Then, I shall drop into my seat on an airplane with happy exhaustion and head for home. So if you don't hear from me for a bit, you will understand why.

More fun in England

I can't even begin to describe the wonderful time I have been having here in England. Helen and Dennis have been delightful and patient hosts and have arranged to show us a number of their favorite places. We've been on the go so much that I've not had much time to fully absorb it all. Before falling asleep each night, I've made a quick list in my journal of the various things we've done and places we've been, which is a good thing or I would surely be mixing things up already. But I've taken a lot of pictures and once I'm home I'll be able to organize it all.

In the meantime, here are a few photos to show what we've been doing:

Helen and I went to a pottery festival on the grounds of this gorgeous stately home, Hutton-in- the-Forest.

While in the lake district, Helen's mum and dad toured us through the hills.

Having realized how close we were to the Scottish border, Roger, Caroline and I took the train to Edinburgh for the day. What a gorgeous city with ancient buildings in every direction. We'd walked the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh castle and along the way I took this picture of the Governor's House.

We took a side trip to the city of York for a few days where we found more gorgeous old stone buildings.

While in York, as part of Helen's birthday celebration we had a deluxe afternoon tea at Betty's, where they apserved the most perfect raspberry tarts I've ever seen.

Which brings us to today, where all of us are camped out on lovely squashy couches at a cafe called Cedar Farms Cafe. Here is Helen on the couch beside me, reading a bit of the Sunday paper.

And now we are off for more adventures. AND after all of this, Festival of Quilts next weekend in Birmingham. I am a lucky, lucky woman.