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We arrived back in Indiana yesterday morning after a very uneventful flight, the best kind. There is much laundry and cleaning to be done, but I'm patient about that. Here are some pictures of Paris, all taken on my favorite place, the Pont des Beaux Arts. There are beautiful views from all directions: to the south the dome of the Academie de France (behind my husband), to the east Ile de la Cite with the spire of Notre Dame visible in the background and the Pont Neuf to the left and of course me in the foreground, and to the west the next bridge over the Seine (I think it's the Pont Royal) with the Musee D'Orsay on the left bank. To the north is the Louvre; somehow I don't seem to have picture of the outside of the Louvre, so here's the courtyard. From the bridge you would see the other side of the tower facing you.



The Pont des Beaux Arts is a footbridge, and on warm evenings it's full of people picnicing. Most of them are young, but not all. A great people watching spot, and fun to drink a bottle of wine too. As I said, not everyone there is young.

Next time, I'll try to post some "daily life" photos.

A Quick Post

Every mindful of running up the internet cafe bills, as Jane Ann mentioned, I'm just doing a quick post. I'm in a place called Cyber Cube just off the Blvd. St. Germain near St. Michel. I'll give them a plug since they're so nice here, even with a bunch of English keyboards, which is a real plus. I will have to save pictures till when I get back, because I really don't know how to post pictures from a cafe, and I can't get my husband away from his computer at work long enough to post. And even he doesn't have a steady hook up. We're sort of squatters, you could say!

We went to the Louvre yesterday and paid respect to the old favorites, including the Mona Lisa; it wasn't even as crowded as sometimes, so the viewing was good. Viewing the people is part of the fun as well. The variety of nationalities and types there is truly amazing. Then after a light dinner in the apartment we went and sat in a cafe for a couple of hours, people watched some more, and drank some more wine. A nice life, and I know it! Now I'm going to do a quick catch up on other people's news.

Hello from Paris

Thanks to everyone for all the kind "bon voyage" responses to my last post. I can't answer individually but I truly appreciate understanding of my trip jitters. We have been in France a week now, Paris since Monday, and all is well. Our apartment is a bit bigger than the one we had last year, although no more elegant. Since the euro is $1.36, I am doing lots of cooking, and we go out for coffee or a drink after dinner. The city is not particularly crowded at the moment and the weather is cloudy and cool, quite pleasant actually. Tonight is a free night at museums all over Paris, and after dinner we plan to go to Quai Branley which is, I think, a sort of anthropological museum, a good thing to see free.

I think of all you needlework/fabric people all the time! The shop windows are full of beautiful bags, blouses, jackets, even shoes with needlework and embroidery embellishments. Jewelry is even bigger than it has been, beads everywhere, and the hot color for spring seems to be a bright green. Turquoise seems to be over, a good thing IMHO. I haven't made it to Le Vouvray fabric shop yet, but intend to, although I won't buy much, if anything.

Au revoir, a bientot

Tomorrow we're leaving for our four week stay in Paris, so I'll be posting only occasionally since I don't know how to post pictures from an internet cafe, and the place my husband works isn't really conducive to one more person hanging out. I hope to read blogs enough to keep in touch, however. So everyone keep up the interesting work! Give me lot of interesting news and WIP.

I couldn't get an idea of what sort of handwork project to work on while I'm away, so I finally just took two small pieces of hand painted fabric that I THINK have an interesting design, layered them, and plan to hand quilt them heavily, with the hope of enhancing the design. It might even give me a reason to spurge on beautiful thread and beads in the needlework department of the Bon Marche.

I'm not really excited about this trip: partly that's my gloomy disposition, partly unresolved issues here, partly an aching back which makes me worry about the omnipresent stairs in Paris, and partly regret that I didn't work harder on improving my French. But how ungrateful to complain about a trip to Paris, so I'll just post this picture to get everyone in the mood!

WIP and a Weekend

Last Thursday I went to stay for a long weekend with my friend in the D.C. area, and my husband surprised me by flying up on Saturday. We did lots of sightseeing and shopping, and on Saturday had lunch with three other women from our high school class who live in the area. There are about half a dozen women, and they get together regularly to touch base; this is about the third time I've been able to join them. It's a strange thing that although these were not my best friends in high school, there is a real bond in coming from the same roots, and the get together is always enjoyable. Here we are, a Virginia state official, a NSF administrator, a former youth minister writing children books, and two retired teachers.

Sunday Jean, Don, my husband and I drove to Barboursville Vineyards in the scenic Virginia countryside for a wonderful tasting and Italian lunch. Although we look a bit strange here, the tasting had just begun.


A bit of scenery (the horses are a must for proper atmosphere in this part of the state):



Yesterday I was able to finish the top of the baby quilt I started with the alphabet panel a few weeks ago. I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. In theory, I thought that color combination would work, but as I worked on it, I had a few doubts. I'm going to have to put it aside until we come back from Europe in a month, but it's good to have some progress.

What WIP?

I've been away from Blogger for a while and am going to do a quick catch up. I visited my mother and sister in Missouri. My 92 year-old mother has returned from Louisiana sister to Missouri sister and I went to see them and hoped to be helpful in the settling. It turned out there wasn't anything to do really except help my sister choose jewelry, shoes, and fabric for an evening wrap. She is going to a MAJOR EVENT, and needs to glitter. We found sheer fabric and trim for the wrap; now she gets the fun of sewing that slippery stuff. Better her than me. We also bought jewels to glue on the straps of the sandals; apparently if you want glittery shoes three-inch spike heels are part of the package, so she's dressing up the plainer, sensible heeled pair.

I'm off tomorrow to visit a friend in the Washington area for the weekend. We've known each other since grade school and are getting together to celebrate our joint landmark birthdays. I made her this card:



Crappy zig-zag stitching, and too bad I didn't try to retouch my skaggy bangs (vanity dies hard).

My other sewing projects are gathering dust at the moment, which is frustrating. But I've enjoyed looking at what other people are up to.

Chicago Quilt Festival

Here are a few favorites from the Chicago Quilt Festival.













I seem to prefer blended color effects over strong graphic designs, and do I love the Japanese quilts! Their intricacy, subtlety, and lack of formal balance just knocks me over. The best part of the show was the Husquavarna Challenge exhibit, and another special exhibit called In Fine Focus, consisting of small pieces, less then 10x 12 inches. A great deal of variety of style, technique, and subject was present in these two exhibits. No photographs were allowed in either one of these so I can't share, but if anyone has a chance to see either one, don't pass it up. The $100,000 Challenge winner was also on display in the vendor's area. I was glad of that since the white wholecloth doesn't photograph terribly well. It's a beautiful quilt, and I have no quarrel with it being chosen but I heard some negative comments. I think some people don't appreciate the skill and artistry required in that kind of machine quilting, not to mention the design.

Debbi at Dubiquilts has posted many more photos, complete with information. She's much more organized and patient than I am.

I enjoyed the show more this year than last. Last year included a large exhibit of Amish quilts, which seemed rather ho-hum to me, and decreased the space available for other work. This year seemed to have a good balance of tradition and innovation with something for everyone. And of course, there were vendors, and more vendors, and more vendors...

My Hoffman challenge quilt is finished! It's labled, sleeved and put away for now. What a good feeling. I now have been "commissioned" to make a baby quilt for a young colleague of my husband's. I bought this panel cheap at Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago, and then came across the coordinating solid blue. I really intended to just do a quickie with wide blue sashes around the squares, but some sort of pride wouldn't let me do that. After trying several settings, I remembered the Children's Delight block in Quilts from the Quiltmaker's Gift, so I'm using that. The color scheme is a little odd for a crib quilt--hope these people like it. I THINK I do. But isn't it too bad that manufacturers don't make the fabric between the blocks wide enough that you can use the original as a bit of a sash too? I wonder why they don't.



Ignore that sideways letter--I'm just auditioning here! The cornerstone will finish up as a 9 patch with another chartreuse polka dot square.

Check out my Weather Pixie; yes, it is snowing and 21 degrees. So much for spring. The daffodils that I picked last week are probably the only ones I will have because all the others are not only lying flat from the cold, but now buried in snow. It will be interesting to see what happens to the bluebells that I naturalized on the edge of the woods. How ironic and unfortunate that this freak weather had to arrive at the same time as the UN report on climate change, since it makes sceptics reluctant to believe there is a problem.

Thanks everyone for kind words about my quilt. It is now finished and blocked, just waiting for the label and sleeve. I'm now off to church to hide Easter eggs--happy Easter everyone.

Wednesday

I've almost completed the challenge quilt. After the binding is finally done, I will rinse it, remove marks, block, and think of a title for the label. Getting close.

On another subject, I want to put in a plug for this company which advertises on the Quilt Studio list page. I ordered one of their "No See 'Ums" quilt hanging systems and love it. Brackets attach to the wall either with adhesive or with screws, and then a rod goes into the quilt sleeve, and a hook slips through the fabric (no damage) and attaches to the wall bracket. Slick--nothing except the quilt is visible. Worth checking out the website for a clearer explanation. They have more traditional hangers too, but I like this one because it doesn't hide part of the quilt.

Happy Spring

Daffodils are my favorite flower--until the tulips bloom, and then the peonies, and the iris... But daffodils have the advantage of being totally low maintenance, which is why I have lots of them. The double ones came from bulbs I dug out of my grandmother's abandoned garden. They must have been there 75 years. It took several years for them to grow enough to make many blooms, but now they will probably be good for another 75, if the developers' bulldozers or global warming don't get them. You have to love something so tough.

It's Boring Here...

After reading a few blogs showing felting, dyeing, beautiful stitching, I had to share the exciting work I'm doing. How about lots of piping and bias binding on a curved edge? Why did I think this was a good idea? I'm counting on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me and other Saturday morning radio to get me through. As for the little critter in our front yard, maybe he's bored too? He stood there, posing, long enough to think it over.

Miscellaneous

Just some random stuff, a break from only posting on Wednesdays. Create a Connection recently published the idea of looking out your front door and taking a picture, first to the right and then to the left. So here goes.




It is finally spring here; in fact yesterday was an all-time record breaking, global warming kind of day with high of almost 80. So those daffodils at the edge of the woods will be open later today, and the crocus will be gone. Unfortunately, spring means all sorts of yard and garden work which I do not enjoy at all. Spring cleaning is okay, raking, weeding, etc., no.

I went to a guild meeting last night and found it surprisingly enjoyable. I took the QOV that Deb Geyer quilted and it was well received, always gratifying. The program was on hand applique, not a topic that interests me, but the presenter did a terrific job, giving everyone a little kit to work on, and sharing some tips like how to make a quilter's knot. It was also interesting to see how other people who already know a great deal about applique handle various tasks. So I learned something and used the time to do some hand sewing chores I had been putting off. Also I had the pleasant surprise of discovering that my old Hoffman quilt which I put on display at a local quilt shop in January won best wall quilt, so I've got a little gift certificate to use. The owner told me she had a sale offer which she declined on my behalf. I think I'm sorry about that.

Time to clean, walk, maybe study French for my class tomorrow, and then quilt the aqua Hoffman. Life is good--who needs excitement.

WIP Wednesday

I have sewn together my class project, choosing the more realistic of the ideas I was playing with. I'm trying not to second guess myself about this. Now I'm mulling over how to finish it. I could either finish it simply with no border at all, just a tight close-up effect of the flowers, but I'm also auditioning a few fabrics for a border of some kind. I think I want the plain finish, as it's more dramatic, but I really love the way the batik on the right looks with the design. There's plenty of time to think about this, because I'm now starting the very tedious process of marking, layering, and quilting the Hoffman challenge quilt. Since it's very traditional, I'm just doing a close grid in the center and parallel curved lines in the border. This is something I can do without problem (knock on wood), and should fit the design. I must say that after a break from the Hoffman, it doesn't grate on me as much as it did--not not quite so Awfully Aqua.

Return of Winter

Here's a picture I took from my dining room window this morning--I was using color film, but the world was totally black, white, and grey. Incredibly beautiful. When I went for my camera there was a crow perched on the top of the tree, the perfect finishing touch, but he was gone when I came back. I love winter, and although it's good to see more daylight and more green, I was glad for one more touch of wintery beauty.

Workshop Creation

I have started trying various compositions for the shapes I made in my workshop last week. The pictures aren't quite right because I was trying to photograph the layout on a table. First I tried the vertical arrangement, but the way the flowers are floating bothers me, although I know this is too literal.


Then I did the horizontal, flower arrangement one. Very conventional, I think.

Then I tried this one, the least realistic, with all the shapes radiating out from center. It looks a bit like you're looking straight down from above. I've been leaning toward this one. Try to imagine it without the distracting background--I don't have a big enough piece of fabric for this at the moment.

Service Project Kids Quilt

Here's the kid's quilt I just quilted and bound for the Quilt Studio service project. Debra, Jen, Julie, and Barbara were also involved in this. Isn't it a striking, masculine looking quilt for a boy? I quilted it with 12 weight thread in a pattern to echo the nine-patch design; this makes it even more graphic. A value of this project to me was that I did something way out of my comfort zone. I would never have put these fabrics and colors together, but I like the way they turned out. I'll be sending it to Amy next week to go the Children's Campus in Bethesda.

Since I got back from Bloomington I've been dealing with a sick husband and two sick cars, so it's been hectic to say the least. It seems like things may be looking up now however, and also Blogger has decided to work for me, so here are a few more pictures from Jane Sassaman's class at the IHQS.

The idea of the class was to choose a flower, sketch it in several different ways, and finally produce a very abstract version of it. When the flower is basically reduced to shapes you can then decide on a composition and then finally move to the sewing. In a two day class we only did the sketching and shape cutting. The first picture is of the shapes I had by the end of the class. Although I like the colors, the shapes are not finished, not even satisfactory, and just sort of thrown on a dark background. I need to do something with the flying saucer-like thing on the left, and the leaves need more detail--they currently resemble sting-rays. (I do have a plan for both these steps.) My flower is something called astrantia major which most people, including me, had never seen, but it's a very interesting plant with pointed petals surrounding a large puffy center. I can't even think of another flower to compare it to.

The second picture shows a classmate's work, much farther along, even with a good composition. And the third picture shows Jane helping someone refine her sketch/shape. I loved doing this and am looking forward to finishing the project after I get some other work out of the way.

IHQS and J. Sassaman class

I had the greatest time in Jane's class at the IHQS! A wonderful teacher, delightful person, and interesting classmates, all of whom were way above my head in terms of artistic ability. But as I told Jane, one advantage of being old is that you don't really embarrass easily any more, and I just enjoyed myself tremendously. The quilts at the show were less interesting this year. Many of them I had seen before, either in reality or in pictures, and many more looked like something I had seen before.

Here's the Best of Show, made by Linda McCuen, who apparently also won the $100,000 quilting challenge for another quilt. This piece is lovely, amazing machine quilting. It's a traditional applique pattern with original quilting and trapunto designs. She used a ecru innerlining to make the trapunto darker so that it stands out. Linda was in my class; see, I said these were talented people.



The winners are on the IHQS web site, so these other quilts are just ones I liked. This is a striking portrait quilt; although it's not as intricate as many are, I thought the features and expression come through well. N



I have always loved the Carolina Lily pattern, but it's often very stiff. This setting is much more contemporary than usual, and I think gives it new life. Too bad about the blurry picture.



I did this part of the post yesterday and had to stop. Now pictures of the class and of any other quilts will have to wait until Blogger recovers from its current problem. Also, Firefox won't show me the letters in the visual verification thing, but won't let me post a comment without entering them. What's with that?

It's Wednesday again--

1. My Hoffman challenge top is in its final throes. The word choice should give you an idea of my feelings for it. Of course, now I see ideas everywhere I COULD have done, but I'm not making another.

2. I have one of the kid quilts for the Quilt Studio service project that I will quilt soon. Barbara pieced the top and you can see it at this link. (It will be a warm-up for the delight of quilting the Hoffman.)

3. I'm leaving tomorrow for the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show in Bloomington, Indiana. It's a very good, small show, and although not juried, the quality of the quilts is high, and it attracts fine quilts from all over. The teachers are well known too. This year I'm taking Jane Sassaman's class, and looking forward to it with a bit of nervousness. I hope to have some good pictures to post when I come back.

Miscellaneous Tips

Housekeeping: The best thing I've found to pick up threads, fabric bits, etc. from your work table, ironing board, or sewing machine area is a piece of medium or coarse steel wool. You just LIGHTLY brush it across the surface (lightly, not like you were sanding, but like you were dusting), and it picks up all the junk and doesn't redeposit. In fact, you can use the same piece almost indefinitely. I like this better than those micro-fiber cloths. They always look so dirty even after washing, and are too expensive to throw away. Steel wool is cheaper and lasts longer without looking hopelessly cruddy.
Who else has a secret?

Movie: My husband and I just spent two evenings watching an Italian movie (originally a TV miniseries, I think) called The Best of Youth. It's the story of two brothers over the decades from 60's to 2000's showing how their lives change with the turbulent times. I know that six hours--yes, six!--of a film in Italian with English subtitles isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if anyone likes that sort of thing at all, you should try this. The characters are fascinating, one of the actors (Alessio Boni) is amazing, there are beautiful shots of Rome, Tuscany, Sicily, and it's fun to see those excited Italian conversations and know what's going on. The last hour is a bit slow, but we were totally enthralled by this, even my husband who can't sit still for much.

WIP Wednesday

The last issue of Quilting Arts announced a challenge called "What's in a Name?" where you are supposed to make an art quilt interpreting one of the phrases they provide. One was "the devil is in the details" and to me that immediately suggested all the "great" ideas that don't get done because they don't work out somehow. I thought about how to express this, and came up with this result.

I never really thought I'd finish this, so I didn't take pictures in early stages and I'm sorry I didn't because the process was interesting and very unlike what I usually do. I usually have a plan, but this time I started with the idea of cutting up an orphan block and using that, then went to the four skewed nine patches and one perfect nine patch. That was boring, so after sticking it under the table for a couple of weeks, I tried what Libby Lehman calls "pot-luck applique". It's really reverse applique using a pieced fabric underneath, stitching the design on a top layer of fabric, and then cutting away, not really knowing what will show through. I was a bit hesitant to do this, but Nellie of Nellie's Needles had done something similar and encouraged me. That change made the background more interesting, but even after some thread embellishment it was drab because of all the dark colors, so I stuck it away again. Then last Sunday I got it out for one last look, intending to pitch it. Then I remembered the batik flower-garden patches I made two years ago, and when I put them on top, the thing came to life, IMHO. I glued them on, leaving the cardboard and the basting (not sure that was a good idea) and then put net on top and quilted around them. The silk and fleece flowers sort of jumped out of my ribbon and flower embellishment drawer and wanted to go on, and so did the pieced binding (but that doesn't show up much in the picture.) This was fun--totally no rules, and I like the result. I hope it suggests the way ideas pile on top of one another, unfinished and maybe poorly conceived, but sometimes turn into something interesting after all.

I'm calling it "The Devil is in the Details": a Quilter's UFO's". Even former academics love subtitles.

Friday Collage

One of my favorite paintings is "Love of Winter" by George Bellows, American, 1913. I visit it every time we go to the Art Institute of Chicago. I'm not sure what I like so much, but I think it's the colors: the dark blueish greens, and that one splash of bright acid yellow. So today I tried to abstract it, emphasizing the blocks of dark and lights and the colors. I just pinned the pieces to fleece, layered net on top, and did a minimum of stitching to hold everything down and to try not to successfully to capture the random splashes of yellow Bellows scattered in the background. I don't think it's too bad, although about half way through I almost trashed it. Needs more stitching to give depth I think, but that's it for now.

WIP Wednesday

I have been making cards. Two valentines:




And a birthday card:



In addition, I am almost finished with the border blocks of the Hoffman; next of course is the tedious business of putting them together with the points matching "perfectly" and then hoping the border will fit.

Friday Collage

Here's another snow scene. I tried to capture the look of the countryside north of my house last week during a near whiteout. I used a piece of yellow net over the sky to reproduce the eerie glow you get when the sun is actually shining through the snowstorm. I put Angelina fiber over the whole piece to represent the snow, and that makes it very hard to photograph. This week's lesson: think about the finishing. I used the pillowcase method for this because I was hurrying, and forgot that you can't press after you put on the Angelina. Hence the very wonky edges.

And here's the aftermath--ugh.

Fast Friday Collage

I cheated on this. I used this design in a Christmas card, but it was smaller and had no stitching, just fused fabric. So I enlarged and tried some stitching. I don't think I added much... When I made this in December it looked nothing like a view of this area because we had no snow. Things have changed!