Men--Again!

I don't usually laugh at my husband publically, but I can't resist this story.

Yesterday morning he was eating breakfast on the deck while I was in the kitchen getting ready to leave for my Monday volunteer job.

Suddenly, "No, cat! Don't eat that cicada! The cat is eating a cicada!"

Clearly, I'm expected to step in here, but I ignored this except to say, "Don't let him in; he'll vomit it back up."

"No, cat! You can't go in! No! I can't stop him from coming in! He's in. I couldn't stop him."

I left at this point. Picture a 250-pound man unable to keep a pathetically scrawny, geriatric cat from coming through the door. Clearly this cat has powers no one suspected. Sort of a metaphor for asymetric warfare, isn't it?

Beware of Men Emptying Trash!

Somewhere I heard the wise advice that you should never empty your sewing room trash until a project is completely finished. Usually I follow this, just because no one empties the trash regularly in this room anyway. But last night, I had two overflowing wastebaskets, and my son took them away after I had gone to bed. (His method of emptying trash is to move as fast as possible.) So today when I looked for my leaves to fasten loose threads and do the finishing, they were gone! They must have fallen in the trash since they're nowhere to be found. Much moaning and fuming, because these took time to make, and even worse, one leaf used the "Ugly" fabric required for the challenge, and I had only a little left. But now two hours later, I have redone the blasted leaf, and am starting on the final assembly. Picture 1: where I am now, and Picture 2: the finished layout.





This was going to be a table runner, but now it seems to be a mat--or something. Anyway, it's small about 20 inches square probably.

Blogger Question Answered

Thanks to Debbi at DubiQuilts I was able to add a list of books I've recently enjoyed to my sidebar. Thanks so much, Debbi.

I used to read constantly, but lately I have a hard time finding something that holds my interest. So these recent titles have been an exciting find. Boomsday is light reading, very funny, and The Yiddish Policeman's Union is basically a police procedural although it's set in a kind of alternate reality. It's an entertainment with literary merit, something hard to find. The two non-fiction books, Team of Rivals and The Omnivore's Dilemma, are fascinating, as engrossing as the best fiction. The Ministry of Special Cases is an amazing book, a combination of comedy and heartbreak, unlike anything else I've read. Approach it with care; it's not light and fun.

Blogger Question

Does anyone know what happened to the button on the Templates/Page Elements part of Blogger that allowed you to add a Page Element? It seems to have disappeared. Am I missing an obscure (or maybe not-so-obscure) button somewhere? Or do I have to go to the HTML? Any help would be appreciated.

And Now for Something Truly Tedious...

For the last three days I've been working on the medallion to go in the center of the prize ribbons at the guild show. (This does not count the hours I spent several weeks ago messing with Adobe Illustrator to get the spacing of the letters and basket correct.) I can't believe I'm doing this; do people really care what their prize ribbon looks like? The ribbon itself is the good thing, right? I could editorialize about guilds again, but I've done that, so here's just a short summary of the process.

Step 1: Glue a cardboard circle to batting. Then cut around the circle and batting.

Step 2. Glue fabric to batting. Clip edges and turn them to the cardboard side and glue in place. That's easy. Now the fun part.

Step 3. Cut out all these little basket pieces. You could use any block pattern, but I'm not dumb. I chose something that could be made in one piece.

Step 4. Glue basket to batting, and then cut around it, AGAIN.


Step 5. Glue fabric to batting/basket, cut around it (keeping track of all the cutting?) and then turn the edges under, gluing them in place. If you think mine look pretty messy, you're right. This project was not assigned to the person with the necessary skills. I think I failed gluing in kindergarten.

Step 6. Glue finished basket to backing.

Done, EXCEPT, that I thought these things looked dumb without words on them, so I now have to print name of show, etc., on a piece of fabric, cut that out, and carefully fuse it on so that the words will show in the space under the basket handle. Then I'll glue the basket on. (I don't THINK that glue spot shows in reality. Must have been the flash. :) )
Someone else will be making a ruffle to go around the medallion and the fabric/ribbon tails to hang down, and then we will meet to assemble them.

This is not really more tedious than making an equal number of quilt blocks; I guess I just don't like the results as well.

Vienna

Like several people around the ring, I haven't posted for a while. I'm back from a rather quick trip to Vienna, Austria, with my husband where he attended a meeting and I did the "accompanying member" thing of sightseeing, smiling at conference affairs, washing out travel clothes, etc. Vienna is an absolutely wonderful city to visit. There's as much art and splendor as Paris, and in some ways it's more pleasant since there's much more English spoken and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. The fact that I don't know any German was actually a plus, since I felt no pressure that I should know what was going on and just addressed everyone in English. There's an excellent public transportation system and the city is clean and apparently quite safe, although tourists need to be careful anywhere, I think. And mustn't forget the food--delicious although heavy.

The downside for us was that Austria was in the middle of the worst heat wave in its recorded history. It was in the upper 90's for the entire time we were there, and one day it was 102! We had an air-conditioned hotel, but many hotels are not air-conditioned, the meeting venue was not, and neither are restaurants, shops, trolleys, and buses. The heat really hurts the sightseeing, since I didn't have the energy to go many places that I might have otherwise visited, (like some of the famous Vienna art nouveau buildings which are a bit off the beaten track), and the food and famous coffee didn't even appeal (although beer is good in the heat--). I saw air conditioned museums in the afternoon, and did the walking around part before noon.

Most of my pictures are still on my husband's computer, but here are a few.


Part of the Hofburg, the winter palace for the Hapsburg emperors until 1918, and now home of many Austrian government bureaus and the president of Austria.


Part of the imperial china and silver on view. This is the imperial napkin fold, only used at state dinners, originally when the emperor was present and now when there is head of state. Supposedly how to make this fold is a closely held secret, known to only two people even now. Isn't that a stitch? I bet some of you out there could figure it out...


The interior of a famous coffee house/ pastry baker. As I said, not as appealing in the heat as it looks in this picture.


This is the Cafe Central, a perfectly splendid cafe with painted ceilings, gilt, live piano music, delicious schnitzel, and best of all: air-conditioning! (If you see a few brave souls outside, it's because I took this picture early in the morning.)

Believe me, I haven't even scraped the surface of the beautiful things in this city!

Thanks!

I truly appreciate all the kind comments about my Hoffman quilt! I'll keep my fingers crossed. To add to the saga, when I logged on to the Postal Service website today to "track and confirm," I found that the package had been "missent" to the wrong zip code! This was not what anyone wants to hear! Supposedly this will be corrected, and it will be sent to the correct place, Fort Collins.

I'm off traveling again for a week or so; hope to do some reading, sight seeing, maybe a little hand work.

Challenge Met?

I've met the Hoffman challenge of making a quilt with the challenge fabric, but I've once again failed to meet the challenge of making one that I like, that somehow expresses me and my tastes. Why is that? Other people can. I find it difficult to think backwards from the fabric to the design, and although the challenge fabric is intended to be very versatile, to me it usually suggests one avenue only, not necessarily one that I like. This fabric looked rather retro to me, even feed sack-like with its busy floral, so I went with a very traditional design, the kind that my mother would like. Hence the name "If Grandma Made a Hoffman". It was extremely difficult for me, because I don't like balanced, symmetrical designs, and I don't like a limited number of fabrics. The fewer fabrics, the harder the choice, because each one becomes so important. In this case, I changed the light color around the baskets three times, and I made the aqua triangle squares before I decided that they were too bright, and ripped them apart to use the back of the fabric. I'm glad I did. I'd REALLY hate this thing if I'd had to look at that garish color for so long!

The pattern is Grape Basket, and when I was trying to think of a way to set it, I happened to see an article in Quiltmaker about another traditional block called Grand Right and Left, and got the idea of putting the basket block inside the Right and Left Block. The border block is called Scrap Basket, and I liked the way it seemed to add some movement, but the design was still very static until I had the lucky inspiration of the curved edge. I'd never done that before, but it wasn't actually very difficult at all. To break up the flatness of the too-solid fabrics, I used a higher loft batting than I usually do, and quilted heavily. That did help; it has lots of texture, and the close quilting adds to the traditional look.

So I'm sending it on its way this week. Whatever happens I don't think I'll enter this challenge again; too much time making something I don't really like when it's done.

Projects, good and bad

I've got three need-to-do projects; one seems attractive, the other two do not. Here's one: I must make 18 more of these little center-of-the-prize-ribbon medallions for a guild show in September. (I've started early because they're such a pain.)



Then here is one of two kits I bought to make twin baby quilts for the grandchildren. I have always said I'd never buy a kit, but these were simple, the right colors, and something I thought my son and daughter-in-law would like. They're basically just squares with appliqued numbers and letters on top of the patchwork base. I'll make the bodies the same, and vary the appliques and the backing.




And finally the one I find most interesting. It's an Ugly Fabric challenge for the guild. The Ugly fabric is that brown Thimbleberries piece. It's not ugly, just rather basic, so there's not much challenge to using it that I can see. I'm going to make a table-runner size piece with oak leaves, acorns, and I think bittersweet berries on a deep greenish blue background, using Jane Sassaman's applique technique again. Now this I'm interested in!

Seven Facts

Laura at Diva of Quilts tagged me to give seven facts about myself. Prepare to be underwhelmed.

1. Big news! In October I'm going to be a grandmother for the first time--twin boys. This has still not quite sunk in, although I've known for a while, obviously. I'm not sure the true impact on the parents to be and their two-income-no-kids lifestyle has registered for them either.

2. I took piano lessons for SIX YEARS as a child. Can I play now? No. My mother later told me that she gave me the lessons because I was so totally unmusical she thought piano lessons might help. Thanks, Mom. (Many people in my family are musical, so I guess my total lack of talent was painful to her.)

3. I qualify to be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, but don't plan to apply, although when I was teaching I used to laugh that after retirement I'd like to be one of the old ladies from the DAR who came around and give citizenship awards. Maybe when my hair is blue...

4. And while we're on childhood experiences, I belonged to 4-H for over ten years. That's how I learned to sew, and believe me, the quilt police have nothing on those 4-H fair judges. I used to hide to avoid having to finish my sewing project. Funny, unlike playing piano, sewing is something I'm glad I learned how to do. Mitred corners, curved seams--piece of cake!

5. Almost twenty years ago, my husband and I built a "green" house. It is a super-insulated house, with very thick walls, and we have no furnace or air conditioning. It is designed to be heated by a Norwegian wood stove which is built in and looks like a fireplace, and some electric baseboard heat as a backup. We have 15 acres of woods so the wood for the stove is no problem, as long as Bob stays able to cut it. So far, he enjoys it, but down the road we will obviously have to make other plans. Unfortunately, 20 years ago, global warming was not on the horizon, and so our house is better suited for the cold northern Indiana winters of the early 80's than the hot summers of the present. The insulation and shading works well as long as nights stay cool, but with increasing nightime temperatures, there are times in the summer when it's uncomfortably warm. But I don't have to come "out of the basement" too much.

6. To borrow one from Laura, I also find TV boring. It seems to move slowly and the quality of the "look" (I guess "production values" is the correct term) doesn't make up for that, so I lose interest very quickly.

7. I used to be a voracious reader. I have two degrees in English and taught for almost thirty years, and I used to read for hours on end. Can't do that anymore. My mind has other agendas. Age? I hope not; maybe a passing phase.

There you are Laura, and anyone else who's interested. I think I'll pass on the tagging though. But please, someone pick it up. These things can be fun to read.

I have this piece I began in Jane Sassaman's class at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show in March ready to quilt. I had an incredibly difficult time deciding on a border, considering that this one I settled on is extremely simple, even obvious actually. The creative process is a strange thing. Now I am debating about the little triangles I scattered in the background: whether to leave them, take them out, add more. Other than that, I like this, and definitely want to try something else using the technique. Everything is backed with fusible interfacing, which gives wonderful body to the top, making it easy to work with. Jane's book, The Quilted Garden, gives a good summary of the process. The class was one of the best experiences I've had as a quilter--a delight from start to finish.

I intend to keep the quilting simple, outlining and accenting the shapes (veins on the leaves, for example), probably with diagonal lines in the background.

Family Quilts

Since I don't have anything of my own work to show at this moment, I'm taking the opportunity to do something I've intended to do for quite a while, post some pictures of family quilts. My mother, grandmother, and my husband's mother and stepmother were all quilters, and I've inherited a collection. There are others that my mother still has, many of them in the real made-for-daily-use category, but some are interesting.

The first was made by my mother. It's hand pieced and hand quilted (of course--she still turns up her nose at anything else). The pattern is Dove in the Window, I think. I don't know when it was made, probably the 60's, but Mom always used scraps from clothing or from her stash, so the fabric could be any era. Mom's work isn't as good as the other two ladies here, but it's still nothing to be ashamed of.


The appliqued basket quilt was made by my mother-in-law, sometime in the 40's or 50's, I think. It was apparently from a kit. She did beautiful hand work. It's odd-- I used to think these colors were so weird, but they look fairly stylish now, thanks to some of the retro color schemes you see around.


The last one, and my favorite, was made by my father's mother. She was a real quilting star. My mother says she always bought fabric just for her quilts, very unusual at the time. Another thing about my grandmother's quilts is that she had a rather sophisticated eye for color and fabric and her quilts do not look at all like other quilts of the time. Although I guess red, white, and blue is fairly classic, that yellow separates it from the common herd, IMHO. If you click on the close up you can see the quilting stitches. There's an unfortunate stain in the upper right hand corner, but this quilt is still a treasure.




I still talk quilting with my mother although our tastes are very different, and I often think about my grandmother and mother in laws, wishing they were around to talk to also. Anyone who still has an older-generation quilting friend, appreciate it!

A Paris Morning

Life in Paris is not all croissants and cafes, foie gras and champagne. Sometimes you have to do the laundry. So I thought I'd share my walk through the streets to do this little chore, and show some not-typical shots. They aren't glamorous, but they're different, and so unlike life here that perhaps they'll be interesting.
Here's home: on one side of this church building on a corner of Blvd. St. Germain are flats the University rents to visiting students and faculty:


Here we go down Rue Jacob on a rainy Monday morning.

It's the day after Pentecost, a semi-holiday in France, so there aren't many people around. We're going all the way down the street and around the corner for several blocks. Rue Jacob is a fairly typical street in this part of Paris: a few hotels and cafes, lots of shops selling expensive jewelry and clothes, decorators, and art galleries. The street originally ran along the northern wall of the Abbey of St. Germain de Pres, which took up most of the land in the area until it was shut down during the French Revolution. Except for the church and the Abbot's Palace the remaining abbey buildings were torn down during Napoleon III's major urban renewal project in the 1860's.


This building predates the destruction of the Abbey, because according to the placque on the front, in this building in 1783 John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and representatives of Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution and establishing the United States.

Now we see some glamor shops: sorry, pictures don't show too well.






Off to the right: Rue Echaude--this used to be the eastern wall of the Abbey. Obviously street widening did not happen here. There are more lovely expensive galleries and shops up there.


Here's the destination. See that little maroon sign? It says "Laverie" (laundry), but the windows are almost hidden by posters, and of course the garbage can in front for pick up doesn't help either. Two years ago, I came with precise written instructions from a friend about how to find this place, but I couldn't find it. I looked for a week, and then--there it was! I hope you can see why I had trouble. (No, it wasn't sideways--blame that on Blogger :))



Here's the inside view. This is it, in its entirety except for three chairs at the front. It takes a lot of patience, good manners, and "pardons" to manipulate laundry through this space. One pays at another machine in the front, not at the machine, which means more siddling back and forth.


After I put the laundry in, I usually went and bought a copy of the International Herald Tribune at this shop. Too picturesque, isn't it? Usually there are so many people around that you don't notice.



And then back home dodging some typical urban hazards:



This round-trip is almost a mile, and I carried laundry in my handy-dandy L.L. Bean tote bag. Then I usually went out again to do the grocery shopping, carrying groceries back the same way. Did I mention we lived on the third floor, no elevator? THAT'S why French women don't get fat.

Home

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...