The Quilting Pirate tagged me to tell 8 not-so-obvious things about myself. No quilting content in this post, so please skip it if you're not interested.
1. I have two birthdays. When I was born, each town in the state of Washington decided whether it would be on daylight savings time or not. Can you imagine how confusing? My dad was in the Army, so I was born on Ft. Lewis (on daylight savings time) at 12:55 a.m. on August 14. However, even though my birth certificate gives the Ft. Lewis time, it says I was born in Tacoma (where Ft. Lewis is), but Tacoma was not on daylight savings time. In Tacoma, it was 11:55 p.m. on August 13. I think I should get to celebrate both days!
2. My family moved when I was 6 weeks old and I've never been back to Tacoma. My dad was stationed in Europe and we traveled while living there, so I visited 18 countries by the time I was 3. Too bad I don't remember them!
3. I'm related to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. I'm sure you don't believe that, but it's true -- when my Irish great-grandparents immigrated to the US, they chose to honor their new country by naming their sons Thomas Jefferson Sullivan, Benjamin Franklin Sullivan, and George Washington Sullivan (my grandfather).
4. I'm training to do a 3-day, 60-mile walk. (12 miles today -- done 8 already!) I am not the least bit athletic and have never done anything like this before. Wish me luck!
5. I used to be a medieval historian.
6. When I was 12 years old, I played the piano on coast-to-coast TV. Not so spiffy as it sounds -- we were living in the Panama Canal Zone, so the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific was only 50 miles. The show was a news segment where I was playing a simple song as an accompaniment to a bunch of 6-yr-olds in a rhythm band. My 15 minutes of fame, squandered!
7. I've written a soyfoods cookbook.
8. I have an overactive imagination. When I was 9 years old, I was completely convinced that if the Russians attacked the US (remember the Cold War?), I would be the first person killed. I had the whole thing worked out and it made perfect sense to me.
I have not been part of the online quilting community for very long, so I don't know who has been tagged and who hasn't. I tag those Q4P members who have not done this to do it now!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Pink & Presents
Whoo! Here's pink, all done in purple. Nothing is joined, clearly there needs to be some trimming, all that will come later. I'm finding that my letters vary quite a bit in size, but I'm not going to do anything about that until I start laying them out. I may like some of them to be uneven, and I've already decided I want the words to be different in size. I'll have to see. I may have to do some letters over.
My kids are home, Jocelyn for a week, Valerie for four. They came bearing lovely gifts! Here are some Asian fabrics, which are hard to get where I live...
...and here are two very fun fabrics -- fortune cookies and cheeses! And the cheeses are classy ones like caciocavallo. Won't these make fun table mats?
And since I live in a land suffering from Trader Joe deprivation, they brought me 2 way cool TJ bags. (Your eyes are fine, the photo is blurry.)
Last but not least, they brought a fascinating book -- The Meaning of TINGO & Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World. I could not have made up the words in this book. Believe it or not, these are real words:
tingo - to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them (from Pascuense, spoken on Easter Island). This sounds like a good prompt line for a short story!
areodjarekput - to exchange wives for a few days only (Inuit)
awawa - the gap between each finger or toe (Hawaiian). This word came to me at the appropriate time, because try as I might, I cannot spread my toes apart. I just started yoga lessons, and there's an exercise that helps you extend that gap, and I'm working on it. Maybe I should take some before photos to check my progress against.
nakhur - a camel that won't give milk until its nostrils are tickled (Persian)
And with that, I sign out.
My kids are home, Jocelyn for a week, Valerie for four. They came bearing lovely gifts! Here are some Asian fabrics, which are hard to get where I live...
...and here are two very fun fabrics -- fortune cookies and cheeses! And the cheeses are classy ones like caciocavallo. Won't these make fun table mats?
And since I live in a land suffering from Trader Joe deprivation, they brought me 2 way cool TJ bags. (Your eyes are fine, the photo is blurry.)
Last but not least, they brought a fascinating book -- The Meaning of TINGO & Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World. I could not have made up the words in this book. Believe it or not, these are real words:tingo - to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them (from Pascuense, spoken on Easter Island). This sounds like a good prompt line for a short story!
areodjarekput - to exchange wives for a few days only (Inuit)
awawa - the gap between each finger or toe (Hawaiian). This word came to me at the appropriate time, because try as I might, I cannot spread my toes apart. I just started yoga lessons, and there's an exercise that helps you extend that gap, and I'm working on it. Maybe I should take some before photos to check my progress against.
nakhur - a camel that won't give milk until its nostrils are tickled (Persian)
And with that, I sign out.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Jeff's amazing photos
So much going on! My kids are home visiting (hoorah!), I've pieced a baseball quilt for Project Linus, finished pink for my Stroop quilt, and planned and started a surprise quilt for someone who reads my blog. I'll post photos of those endeavors soon (though the surprise quilt will have to wait awhile). In the meantime I wanted to share a couple photos taken by my nephew-in-law Jeff. He's daddy to Julia and Andrew, who received my most recent I Spy quilt. Among his many other talents, Jeff is an amateur photographer. Well, 'amateur' in the sense that Olympic athletes were considered 'amateur,' since he earns his living at other things. He's a lawyer by day who transforms on the weekend to Phabulous Photographer-man who treks into the wilds of nature and emerges with a camera full of incredible images.
These two photos are from a recent backpacking trip he took to Kearsarge Lake in the eastern Sierras. They took my breath away! Many of his photos have these beautifully clear, crisply clean lines. I think some of them would adapt beautifully to quilts. If you want to see more of Jeff's photos, check out his photo blog, Fleeting Glimpse Photography.
These two photos are from a recent backpacking trip he took to Kearsarge Lake in the eastern Sierras. They took my breath away! Many of his photos have these beautifully clear, crisply clean lines. I think some of them would adapt beautifully to quilts. If you want to see more of Jeff's photos, check out his photo blog, Fleeting Glimpse Photography.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Corinth
I've wanted to see the Parthenon since I was in grade school. I had a sense of its space, how it would feel to walk through it, what it would be like to breathe the air and feel the sun of Athens. Sadly, today the Parthenon is roped off and the Acropolis is such a mass of tourists (of which I was one) that it's hard to appreciate it. Maybe it would be better in the winter. Athens is also a huge city that grew with no plan, and except for its ancient sites, there is little to recommend it. I was so disappointed. But not too far away are the ruins of ancient Corinth. It's not much, but they are not crowded and there is a lovely little museum with some wonderful mosaics from the old city. I was bowled over by the beauty of some of these. Look at this intricate design.
Here's a closeup of the center.
Some of the borders are intricate patterns. The colors in this one surprised me, and they are used in such a way as to give the design a sense of depth.
The twisted border below is really something -- look how they handled the corner.
There was also some pottery in the museum. I wish I had this pitcher and fish plate!
This pottery is simpler, but the designs are lovely. I especially like the lid in the foreground.
I loved the animals in their art. Look at this lion.
And these mythical creatures.
Here's a close-up of a goat from one of the border pictures above. I was amazed at how life-like it seems even though it's a mosaic. It seems almost painted.
And finally, here's what's left of the Temple of Apollo at Corinth. And take a look at that blue, blue sky. And amazingly, no tourists blocked my view!
Here's a closeup of the center.
Some of the borders are intricate patterns. The colors in this one surprised me, and they are used in such a way as to give the design a sense of depth.
The twisted border below is really something -- look how they handled the corner.
There was also some pottery in the museum. I wish I had this pitcher and fish plate!
This pottery is simpler, but the designs are lovely. I especially like the lid in the foreground.
I loved the animals in their art. Look at this lion.
And these mythical creatures.
Here's a close-up of a goat from one of the border pictures above. I was amazed at how life-like it seems even though it's a mosaic. It seems almost painted.
And finally, here's what's left of the Temple of Apollo at Corinth. And take a look at that blue, blue sky. And amazingly, no tourists blocked my view!
Guilty Pleasures
Floribunda let us all in on some of her secret indulgences, and tagged me to do the same. Here are a few of my guilty pleasures.
1) I love to sing, but can't carry a tune in a bucket. So I act like a diva when I'm driving or in the shower. Remember that scene in My Best Friend's Wedding where the Cameron Diaz character, who can't sing either, goes to a karaoke bar and belts it out, and the crowd goes wild? That's my fantasy. Years ago I took one of those vocational interest tests that tell you what jobs you would enjoy, and my two highest scores were being a performing musician (alas, no talent) or a mathematician (I never went beyond high school math).
2) I like doing whatever I want, whenever I want (me and everybody else!). When I'm home alone for a few days, I indulge in doing just that -- quilt all day, have dinner at 3:30 or 10:30, don't put things away when I'm done, watch stupid TV, whatever. It's absolutely fabulous to do that every now and then.
3) I enjoy really fine wines. I can't figure out whether it's good fortune or bad luck that I've tasted a few amazing -- and expensive -- wines, because now I know how good a glass of full-bodied red can be. I look for occasions to splurge on something really wonderful. I pour a little into a big wine glass and swirl and sniff and look and finally taste. Wow!
1) I love to sing, but can't carry a tune in a bucket. So I act like a diva when I'm driving or in the shower. Remember that scene in My Best Friend's Wedding where the Cameron Diaz character, who can't sing either, goes to a karaoke bar and belts it out, and the crowd goes wild? That's my fantasy. Years ago I took one of those vocational interest tests that tell you what jobs you would enjoy, and my two highest scores were being a performing musician (alas, no talent) or a mathematician (I never went beyond high school math).
2) I like doing whatever I want, whenever I want (me and everybody else!). When I'm home alone for a few days, I indulge in doing just that -- quilt all day, have dinner at 3:30 or 10:30, don't put things away when I'm done, watch stupid TV, whatever. It's absolutely fabulous to do that every now and then.
3) I enjoy really fine wines. I can't figure out whether it's good fortune or bad luck that I've tasted a few amazing -- and expensive -- wines, because now I know how good a glass of full-bodied red can be. I look for occasions to splurge on something really wonderful. I pour a little into a big wine glass and swirl and sniff and look and finally taste. Wow!
Friday, August 10, 2007
Sargamatha Shanti Art Quilt
This is a first for me! My husband just sent me a neat parkour video on You Tube and I decided to see if there were any quilting videos there. Yes, indeed, there are! They have an easy way to post it to your blog, too. I really enjoyed watching this quilt take shape before my eyes. Very cool. Enjoy!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
I love piecing!
There are so many aspects of making a quilt, but the part that really grabs me is the piecing. I love it! There are so many types of piecing, and so many possibilities within each type. I'm doing two kinds of piecing now, and hope to begin a third and then a fourth soon.
First, I'm doing some traditional piecing. I just finished the top (minus borders) of my third I Spy! It went together very quickly, guess I've learned something after making my first two.
I have read several books on stars and hexagons, and none of them has adequately addressed the most basic techniques of joining the pieces together so the points match. A quilt like this needs the points to match, or you lose the flow of the design and piecing becomes a more dreadful nightmare with each succeeding row (don't ask me how I know). On my second I Spy I figured out how useful the little bunny ears can be in matching. But when you press your seams for minimum bulk, those bunny ears lie right along the seam line on every other intersection of every other row. What to do then? I had been putting a pin through the intersection and pinning on either side, and had reasonable success. But it was time consuming and difficult. Suddenly a simpler way occurred to me. Maybe everyone else has figured this out already, but just in case there's a quilter out there who hasn't, this is what I started doing and it works like a charm.
You can see how the alternate intersection on this row seems to be missing its bunny ears. That's because they are lying on the seam line.
But you can use your fingers to flip the seam to the other side to expose the bunny ears. I pin the two intersections on either side first, so that the weight of the fabric doesn't become a factor, and then flip those bunny ears up and place them right on top of each other. In an ideal world the bunny ears would match perfectly when you expose them, but in real life you often have to finesse them just a little. When you get them lying right on top of each other, stick a pin off to the side a bit to hold everything in place. (I can't believe I took a close-up photo with one hand and it actually came out!)
Then let the seams flop back down and stitch away. It works great!
As satisfying as I find this piecing, I've also been playing around with Tonya's tutorials on free pieced letters. I am enchanted by the look of them -- so fun, so whimsical! It's another kind of skill altogether, and for me, it's harder. When my points match, I know things are right. When I do free piecing, I have to rely on my own artistic sensibilities to decide whether it's ok. But it is fun, and I rather enjoy disengaging my perfect-point self and seeing what happens. Now that the I Spy is done (well, the hard part is done), I'm planning to finish up my wonky Stroop quilt.
In in the not-too-distant future, I want to try a small piece using Ruth McDowell's piecing techniques. Her quilts are amazing! I got her book on pieced vegetables even before I started quilting. Her piecing techniques are unique and I think will require a good bit of practice. She is truly an artist -- she can draw, and her fabric choices are unbelievable. If you haven't looked through her books, do. She just came out with a book on piecing, and I'm going to work my way through that.
First, I'm doing some traditional piecing. I just finished the top (minus borders) of my third I Spy! It went together very quickly, guess I've learned something after making my first two.
I have read several books on stars and hexagons, and none of them has adequately addressed the most basic techniques of joining the pieces together so the points match. A quilt like this needs the points to match, or you lose the flow of the design and piecing becomes a more dreadful nightmare with each succeeding row (don't ask me how I know). On my second I Spy I figured out how useful the little bunny ears can be in matching. But when you press your seams for minimum bulk, those bunny ears lie right along the seam line on every other intersection of every other row. What to do then? I had been putting a pin through the intersection and pinning on either side, and had reasonable success. But it was time consuming and difficult. Suddenly a simpler way occurred to me. Maybe everyone else has figured this out already, but just in case there's a quilter out there who hasn't, this is what I started doing and it works like a charm.You can see how the alternate intersection on this row seems to be missing its bunny ears. That's because they are lying on the seam line.
But you can use your fingers to flip the seam to the other side to expose the bunny ears. I pin the two intersections on either side first, so that the weight of the fabric doesn't become a factor, and then flip those bunny ears up and place them right on top of each other. In an ideal world the bunny ears would match perfectly when you expose them, but in real life you often have to finesse them just a little. When you get them lying right on top of each other, stick a pin off to the side a bit to hold everything in place. (I can't believe I took a close-up photo with one hand and it actually came out!)
Then let the seams flop back down and stitch away. It works great!
As satisfying as I find this piecing, I've also been playing around with Tonya's tutorials on free pieced letters. I am enchanted by the look of them -- so fun, so whimsical! It's another kind of skill altogether, and for me, it's harder. When my points match, I know things are right. When I do free piecing, I have to rely on my own artistic sensibilities to decide whether it's ok. But it is fun, and I rather enjoy disengaging my perfect-point self and seeing what happens. Now that the I Spy is done (well, the hard part is done), I'm planning to finish up my wonky Stroop quilt.
In in the not-too-distant future, I want to try a small piece using Ruth McDowell's piecing techniques. Her quilts are amazing! I got her book on pieced vegetables even before I started quilting. Her piecing techniques are unique and I think will require a good bit of practice. She is truly an artist -- she can draw, and her fabric choices are unbelievable. If you haven't looked through her books, do. She just came out with a book on piecing, and I'm going to work my way through that.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Venice
Sorry about the delay in posting the Venice photos! It's been busy -- Sally Collins visited our guild and I took two full-day classes from her and attended an evening lecture. Wow! I'll post more on that later, but for now, here's Venice.
This is from the exterior of St. Mark's (San Marco) in Venice. I have never seen anything like it -- truly amazing. Although I can't say I enjoy standing in line to get in, it does provide an opportunity to look very carefully at the things around you. There's so much to see that it's nice to be forced to stand and look. The pinkish colors in the stones give the exterior such a warm feel. Click on the photos to enlarge them and see the detail.
This exterior is actually part of the Doge's palace, which is attached to the basilica. (This is immediately to the right of the preceding photo.) The brickwork is a patchwork pattern. I looked at the pattern carefully, and every now and then the alternating greys and pinks in the interior of the "blocks" do not follow the pattern. It makes it more interesting, and I am assuming it was intentional.
I love this wall -- it's a quilt in marble.
Here you can see the elegant pillars with the subtle yet stunning colors from the marble.
The most amazing thing about the basilica is the floors. Unfortunately, they don't let you take any pictures inside. I ended up buying a book, The Floors of Venice by Tudy Sammartini, which has both English and Italian text in the same book. It was expensive, but for a book with so many color photos, it was well worth it. I wanted to put a link to Amazon for anyone interested in purchasing it, but they only have scalper-priced used ones. You can, however, order it here for what I paid for it in Italy, although I don't know what the postage will be.
This is a two-page spread from the book. I was thinking how drafting it into a quilt would be a formidable task, but when I looked for the book online, I see that someone has already made it into a quilt. Check it out here. Incredible! [Edit - oops! Just realized the quilt is not exactly this floor, but it's a similar design and is from Venice.]
Here's another photo from the book. The entire basilica is filled with the most amazing floors! It's a quilter's paradise.
Venice is more than San Marco's, of course. I could never live in a city without cars or trees (truly odd, especially at night), but I could visit again and again. The contrast between Amsterdam and Venice was so strong that it was a day before it occurred to me that both are cities built on canals. They could not be more different. I loved them both.
This is from the exterior of St. Mark's (San Marco) in Venice. I have never seen anything like it -- truly amazing. Although I can't say I enjoy standing in line to get in, it does provide an opportunity to look very carefully at the things around you. There's so much to see that it's nice to be forced to stand and look. The pinkish colors in the stones give the exterior such a warm feel. Click on the photos to enlarge them and see the detail.
This exterior is actually part of the Doge's palace, which is attached to the basilica. (This is immediately to the right of the preceding photo.) The brickwork is a patchwork pattern. I looked at the pattern carefully, and every now and then the alternating greys and pinks in the interior of the "blocks" do not follow the pattern. It makes it more interesting, and I am assuming it was intentional.
I love this wall -- it's a quilt in marble.
Here you can see the elegant pillars with the subtle yet stunning colors from the marble.
The most amazing thing about the basilica is the floors. Unfortunately, they don't let you take any pictures inside. I ended up buying a book, The Floors of Venice by Tudy Sammartini, which has both English and Italian text in the same book. It was expensive, but for a book with so many color photos, it was well worth it. I wanted to put a link to Amazon for anyone interested in purchasing it, but they only have scalper-priced used ones. You can, however, order it here for what I paid for it in Italy, although I don't know what the postage will be.
This is a two-page spread from the book. I was thinking how drafting it into a quilt would be a formidable task, but when I looked for the book online, I see that someone has already made it into a quilt. Check it out here. Incredible! [Edit - oops! Just realized the quilt is not exactly this floor, but it's a similar design and is from Venice.]
Here's another photo from the book. The entire basilica is filled with the most amazing floors! It's a quilter's paradise.
Venice is more than San Marco's, of course. I could never live in a city without cars or trees (truly odd, especially at night), but I could visit again and again. The contrast between Amsterdam and Venice was so strong that it was a day before it occurred to me that both are cities built on canals. They could not be more different. I loved them both.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Projects
I had planned to post about Venice today, but it's taking awhile to get that together. Instead, here's what I'm working on.
I am beginning to get the hang of making wonky letters and am getting less nervous about making free cuts in the fabric, so I made the word purple all in one fairly short sitting. Now that I have several words, I'm thinking more seriously about layout. Right now the plan is to add some interest by mixing in some tall, skinny color words and some short, squat ones.
And here's what a stack of 147 hexagons looks like (a mere 2-1/2" tall). It's what I need for my next I Spy quilt, which I'm making for my nephew Andy's two little girls. I had about 80 already cut and finished the rest this weekend. It's pretty time consuming to fussy cut the pieces, but as soon as that's done the rest is just stitching. I like having a project that is straightforward -- something good to fall back on when I'm not sure what to do on a more challenging quilt.
I am beginning to get the hang of making wonky letters and am getting less nervous about making free cuts in the fabric, so I made the word purple all in one fairly short sitting. Now that I have several words, I'm thinking more seriously about layout. Right now the plan is to add some interest by mixing in some tall, skinny color words and some short, squat ones.
And here's what a stack of 147 hexagons looks like (a mere 2-1/2" tall). It's what I need for my next I Spy quilt, which I'm making for my nephew Andy's two little girls. I had about 80 already cut and finished the rest this weekend. It's pretty time consuming to fussy cut the pieces, but as soon as that's done the rest is just stitching. I like having a project that is straightforward -- something good to fall back on when I'm not sure what to do on a more challenging quilt.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Quilting, Croatia, and Harry Potter
Hoorah! Finally got back to quilting today. I pieced purple in yellow for my Stroop quilt and started trimming the template-cut fabric for my next I Spy (aiieee....!). I will post photos later this weekend -- right now my camera is still full of vacation photos, which I've downloaded into iPhoto but Picasa is now available for Macs and I want to see if I can put my photos there, too.
On vacation we stopped in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Here's a photo of the medieval city seen from a nearby hilltop. It's a beautiful city and has become a resort area in the past few years.
I have received two postcards from Dubrovnik in my life -- one in the early 70's from an uncle who was visiting there, and one in 1980 from a good friend who was there doing research for her disseration on Serbian nationalism. Both cards were essentially this same view. When my friend returned from her year in Dubrovnik, which was then still part of Yugoslavia, she was very despondent about what would happen if the iron grip of communism were to loosen. She predicted a bloodbath once there was no one to keep the various ethnic groups from fighting each other, and that is indeed what happened in the 1990's. Dubrovnik was severely damaged during the fighting, but the Croatians have worked very hard to repair it and make it a tourist attraction once again. I felt sad there knowing that just a few years ago the city was bombarded and bodies were lying in the streets -- and that these groups of people still hate each other.
On a lighter note, on the main street of the old city was a bookstore with a big Harry Potter sign -- in English -- in the window.
Tonight's the night! I have pre-reserved my copy and will pick it up tomorrow morning as I'm still too jet-lagged to go to the midnight release party. Coincidentally, when we were at the airport in Rome to return to the States, we ran into some friends from home who were on our flight. They are Italian and their daughter, who was born in the US, was reading her first big book in Italian -- Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale. They told us that volume 7 won't be available in Italian until November, but the English version will be released in Italy (and in Croatia and I guess all over the world) in English as soon as it comes out. Happy reading to all you HP fans!
On vacation we stopped in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Here's a photo of the medieval city seen from a nearby hilltop. It's a beautiful city and has become a resort area in the past few years.
I have received two postcards from Dubrovnik in my life -- one in the early 70's from an uncle who was visiting there, and one in 1980 from a good friend who was there doing research for her disseration on Serbian nationalism. Both cards were essentially this same view. When my friend returned from her year in Dubrovnik, which was then still part of Yugoslavia, she was very despondent about what would happen if the iron grip of communism were to loosen. She predicted a bloodbath once there was no one to keep the various ethnic groups from fighting each other, and that is indeed what happened in the 1990's. Dubrovnik was severely damaged during the fighting, but the Croatians have worked very hard to repair it and make it a tourist attraction once again. I felt sad there knowing that just a few years ago the city was bombarded and bodies were lying in the streets -- and that these groups of people still hate each other.On a lighter note, on the main street of the old city was a bookstore with a big Harry Potter sign -- in English -- in the window.
Tonight's the night! I have pre-reserved my copy and will pick it up tomorrow morning as I'm still too jet-lagged to go to the midnight release party. Coincidentally, when we were at the airport in Rome to return to the States, we ran into some friends from home who were on our flight. They are Italian and their daughter, who was born in the US, was reading her first big book in Italian -- Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale. They told us that volume 7 won't be available in Italian until November, but the English version will be released in Italy (and in Croatia and I guess all over the world) in English as soon as it comes out. Happy reading to all you HP fans!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Amsterdam!
We are back from vacation, and what a time it was! I'm overflowing with things to talk about but since the most dreaded words in the English language are "Let me show you my vacation photos," I'll limit myself to quilt/art-related (in the broadest sense!) photos and a few general observations that I hope you'll find interesting. Today, the 4 days we spent in Amsterdam. This time of year, there are flowers and bicycles everywhere.
I loved Amsterdam. I had been there for a long weekend in 1980 and I worried that the city would not live up to my rosy memories, but it did. Amsterdam exudes charm and warmth; it was foreign, yet I felt at home. The art museums are among the best in the world (the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh), and when you take in the light and atmosphere of that part of the world, it's like walking onto the canvas of a great Dutch or Flemish painting.
There were far more bicycles than cars in the city. The two bikes parked in front of this home show how they can be used for everything -- the first has three children's seats (one in front of the handlebars and two behind the grown-up seat) and the second has a 'trunk' attached in front to carry things in. This is far more fuel efficient, and far more cardiovascularly healthy, than driving everywhere in an SUV!
There are even stoplights for the bicycles. Tourists can rent bikes, but the city is small enough that we walked everywhere. I was also pretty intimidated by the traffic.
I had read about some quiltshops on Laura Jasper's Lola Quilts blog, so of course I had to visit!
Unfortunately, the one specializing in traditional Dutch fabrics was closed for the month of July, but the other -- Bird Blocks -- was open. They had a lovely assortment of fabrics (mostly American, but most were new to me) and I bought two tiny paper piecing kits of Dutch scenes as a memento. I will have to go back in October one year (yeah, right!) to see the Netherlands guild annual quilt show. There is only one guild in the country, and it has 1400 members!
I did enjoy the clamshell quilting look of the sidewalks.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was visiting Amsterdam's 17th century Portuguese Synagogue , which is still lit only by thousands of candles. Next door was a Jewish children's museum that was a blast to visit. The coat rack at the entrance was a delight:
And I loved the cascade of Hebrew letters next to one of the windows. One day I will quilt something like this -- don't know what, but it's percolating!
And in the museum's art room, the table had this saying, which we quilters understand:
And finally, I have to share the stairway carpeting of the hotel we stayed in -- very cool indeed, and it made me smile every time I saw it.
I loved Amsterdam. I had been there for a long weekend in 1980 and I worried that the city would not live up to my rosy memories, but it did. Amsterdam exudes charm and warmth; it was foreign, yet I felt at home. The art museums are among the best in the world (the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh), and when you take in the light and atmosphere of that part of the world, it's like walking onto the canvas of a great Dutch or Flemish painting.There were far more bicycles than cars in the city. The two bikes parked in front of this home show how they can be used for everything -- the first has three children's seats (one in front of the handlebars and two behind the grown-up seat) and the second has a 'trunk' attached in front to carry things in. This is far more fuel efficient, and far more cardiovascularly healthy, than driving everywhere in an SUV!
There are even stoplights for the bicycles. Tourists can rent bikes, but the city is small enough that we walked everywhere. I was also pretty intimidated by the traffic.
I had read about some quiltshops on Laura Jasper's Lola Quilts blog, so of course I had to visit!
Unfortunately, the one specializing in traditional Dutch fabrics was closed for the month of July, but the other -- Bird Blocks -- was open. They had a lovely assortment of fabrics (mostly American, but most were new to me) and I bought two tiny paper piecing kits of Dutch scenes as a memento. I will have to go back in October one year (yeah, right!) to see the Netherlands guild annual quilt show. There is only one guild in the country, and it has 1400 members!I did enjoy the clamshell quilting look of the sidewalks.
One of the highlights of the trip for me was visiting Amsterdam's 17th century Portuguese Synagogue , which is still lit only by thousands of candles. Next door was a Jewish children's museum that was a blast to visit. The coat rack at the entrance was a delight:
And I loved the cascade of Hebrew letters next to one of the windows. One day I will quilt something like this -- don't know what, but it's percolating!
And in the museum's art room, the table had this saying, which we quilters understand:
And finally, I have to share the stairway carpeting of the hotel we stayed in -- very cool indeed, and it made me smile every time I saw it.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
I Spy received, a nice story -- and off on vacation!
My niece Laurel just phoned to say the I Spy quilt arrived and was a big hit! I'm so pleased. Here's a photo of her daughter Julia enjoying the quilt. Apparently Julia was so excited when the quilt arrived that she would hardly let it go so her mother could look at it! I have hexagons cut for 3 more I Spy quilts for my other nieces' and nephew's children. I must be crazy, but when I heard how excited Julia was to receive the quilt, it makes the time and effort more than worthwhile.
With this I Spy quilt, part of my quilting journey has come full circle. I made my first quilt when I was a college freshman for the child my brother and his wife were expecting the following autumn. I didn't know how to make a quilt -- I just cut squares and stitched, some by hand, some by machine, using fabric we had on hand (I don't know why we had it). When I finished piecing it, I knew it needed backing -- I didn't know about batting in those days. So I purchased some flannel and borrowed a machine to stitch it envelope-style to the back. I didn't quilt it -- didn't know it needed it! I proudly gave it to my new niece Laurel. Alas, it fell apart the first time it was washed. Everything shrunk unevenly and the stitches pulled out. I was devastated, and gave up quilting.
Fast forward more than 30 years, to 2005. My husband and I spent 6 months in California on his sabbatical, just a few minutes from where Laurel lives now. I had decided the time was right to try quilting again. Coincidentally, Laurel had taken up quilting, but as a working mother of a newborn, she had no spare time to sew, so she lent me her machine. I took a class at a local quilt shop and haven't stopped quilting since! It feels right that I should make a quilt for Laurel's children -- hopefully, this one will hold together!
And finally, I am beyond excited about leaving tomorrow for vacation -- it promises to be an amazing trip (Amsterdam followed by bits of the Italian coast and Greek islands)! I will be back looking at blogs around July 17, and I hope you come back to visit me then, too. I'll have lots to post! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer (or winter, for you Australians). See you in a couple weeks!
With this I Spy quilt, part of my quilting journey has come full circle. I made my first quilt when I was a college freshman for the child my brother and his wife were expecting the following autumn. I didn't know how to make a quilt -- I just cut squares and stitched, some by hand, some by machine, using fabric we had on hand (I don't know why we had it). When I finished piecing it, I knew it needed backing -- I didn't know about batting in those days. So I purchased some flannel and borrowed a machine to stitch it envelope-style to the back. I didn't quilt it -- didn't know it needed it! I proudly gave it to my new niece Laurel. Alas, it fell apart the first time it was washed. Everything shrunk unevenly and the stitches pulled out. I was devastated, and gave up quilting.Fast forward more than 30 years, to 2005. My husband and I spent 6 months in California on his sabbatical, just a few minutes from where Laurel lives now. I had decided the time was right to try quilting again. Coincidentally, Laurel had taken up quilting, but as a working mother of a newborn, she had no spare time to sew, so she lent me her machine. I took a class at a local quilt shop and haven't stopped quilting since! It feels right that I should make a quilt for Laurel's children -- hopefully, this one will hold together!
And finally, I am beyond excited about leaving tomorrow for vacation -- it promises to be an amazing trip (Amsterdam followed by bits of the Italian coast and Greek islands)! I will be back looking at blogs around July 17, and I hope you come back to visit me then, too. I'll have lots to post! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer (or winter, for you Australians). See you in a couple weeks!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Why can't yellow be spelled like Jello? (or why I sometimes get takeout for dinner)
I guess I could have also called this post "ow"!
The o went together so fast that I thought I was on a roll, but the w ... let's just say I have a larger scrap pile than I used to! It took a loooong time, and now I wish I had made the little inner strokes wider. I had hoped to move on to another color word and if I hadn't made the mistake of checking the time, I would have. I almost did anyhow (love that Chinese takout), but I have been hankering for slow-roasted tomatoes and I had promised myself to get them into the oven for tonight. Brian came home with some amazing bread from Mirabelle's, and that with the tomatoes will be a to-die-for combo. They're in the oven now.
I have been working hard to finish up my I Spy this week, and Saturday we had a Project Linus workday, but my Stroop quilt has been in my mind the whole time. I am now thinking that I will try to make some small color words, too. Should be fun to do and will make for an interesting quilt. The Stroop effect must be pretty strong -- as I was thinking about how to make the w, I kept seeing it in yellow. I remembered that I had made the word red, but I couldn't remember what color I had chosen to make it! Odd, isn't it?
I thought I'd also share these two useful tools with you. Someone suggested using a toilet brush (a clean toilet brush) to pick threads up off the carpet. My sewing space is mostly uncarpeted, but I have one small rug and it gets really thready -- the brush works pretty well. I got the Cotton Picker at the Chicago Quilt Show and it's fantastic -- just swipe it over cloth and all the little quilt droppings (as my husband calls them) stick to it like a charm.
The o went together so fast that I thought I was on a roll, but the w ... let's just say I have a larger scrap pile than I used to! It took a loooong time, and now I wish I had made the little inner strokes wider. I had hoped to move on to another color word and if I hadn't made the mistake of checking the time, I would have. I almost did anyhow (love that Chinese takout), but I have been hankering for slow-roasted tomatoes and I had promised myself to get them into the oven for tonight. Brian came home with some amazing bread from Mirabelle's, and that with the tomatoes will be a to-die-for combo. They're in the oven now.
I have been working hard to finish up my I Spy this week, and Saturday we had a Project Linus workday, but my Stroop quilt has been in my mind the whole time. I am now thinking that I will try to make some small color words, too. Should be fun to do and will make for an interesting quilt. The Stroop effect must be pretty strong -- as I was thinking about how to make the w, I kept seeing it in yellow. I remembered that I had made the word red, but I couldn't remember what color I had chosen to make it! Odd, isn't it?
I thought I'd also share these two useful tools with you. Someone suggested using a toilet brush (a clean toilet brush) to pick threads up off the carpet. My sewing space is mostly uncarpeted, but I have one small rug and it gets really thready -- the brush works pretty well. I got the Cotton Picker at the Chicago Quilt Show and it's fantastic -- just swipe it over cloth and all the little quilt droppings (as my husband calls them) stick to it like a charm.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
I Spy finished!
Just needs a label, which I'll do this afternoon. I don't usually label my quilts, but this is a gift for children and I want their names on it.
Here's the back. A friend suggested using the map, and I think it's a great idea.
We had a Linus workday yesterday and the guild member in charge of our raffle quilt brought the blocks that have been completed so far. (Some still need eyes.) We got permission from Ami Simms to make her adorable Dog-Yeared Calendar Quilt as a fundraiser for Project Linus. Each block has been made by a different guild member. When it's all put together, we'll raffle the quilt.
Here's the back. A friend suggested using the map, and I think it's a great idea.
We had a Linus workday yesterday and the guild member in charge of our raffle quilt brought the blocks that have been completed so far. (Some still need eyes.) We got permission from Ami Simms to make her adorable Dog-Yeared Calendar Quilt as a fundraiser for Project Linus. Each block has been made by a different guild member. When it's all put together, we'll raffle the quilt.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)