I Finally Got Into Blogger

I've been bouncing back and forth between two computers and growling the whole time. Since I'm finally here, I'm going to write a quick post and then I'm going to get back to my real life.

Teri posted a comment to my last post about writing fluff. Oh my goodness... don't get me wrong. I love fluff. I certainly did not mean to pressure anyone into become a heady artist type. Those folks can be dull dull dull. I think we can talk about interesting topics when we feel like it and we can be thoughtful and insightful, but still not feel brain drain.

It sounds like lots of folks are having trouble posting comments or even getting into Blogger (including me!). I hope it all smoothes out soon. I miss you all.

Am I Really A Blogger?

Debra Roby had some great thoughts and questions on her blog today. It was mostly about our Artful Quilters Ring. She says she reads through the whole ring every day. Wow! That's a lot of reading. Last I checked, there were 51 of us.

I read through the ring every few days. I stopped used the pitiful "next" button. I go straight to the list and just click right on down the list. Of course, there are a few I check every day. Those are the ones that really delight and inspire me.

I have a blogrolling list on my blog at the bottom on the right. It is also pitiful. For instance, Southeast Main never makes it to the top of the "new" list though I know there is always something new from June and Jer. In fact, I think I'll delete that list. Besides, there are some blogs in the ring that have not been updated in several weeks. And that's fine with me, but I don't need to have them on my list for now.

One thing I'd like to see more of is discussion of big picture topics.

Sonji wrote a very interesting post about pricing. I would love to hear what others think about this topic. I'll be writing about it myself soon.

Melody's link about How to Be Creative is brilliant. If you took time to read the (very long) link, you've got lots of meat to chew on, so you can tell us how it tastes on your blog.

There is a very thoughtful post about blog ethics on In A Minute Ago (you have to scroll to March 27 to see it, I think). It includes some questions about posting pictures of children which I have certainly considered and I'm still not sure I know exactly what is right for me. (Though, as you can see, I continue to post pictures of my kids in the mean time.)

I try to keep of list of topics I'd like to write about. Sometimes I wish I made more time to be really thoughtful, well-written, slightly snarky, and without misspellings and dumb errors. If I set the bar that high, I'd never post anything.

And I love the occasional short post about just what's going on -- food, blooming plants, pets, American Idol. You can see my guac recipe below. That's just for fun.

Easter Pictures

Carrot cake for dessert on Easter. Jeff got me beautiful tulips. You can see them on the table in the background.


Benjamin dyed all his eggs green. He was not the least interested in any other color. He also put all green hearts on his valentines and all green beads on the bracelets they made at school.


Claire made a beautiful rainbow of eggs. I must say I am a bit nostolgic for the days when the kids didn't care if I dyed 10 eggs and let them do 2. I didn't get to play with eggs and dye at all this year. Neither kid was willing to give up any of their egg canvases. Oh well. It was delight to just watch.

Easter Celebrations

Happy Easter.

We had a wonderful day -- and actually a good weekend over all.

I think this may be the first Easter in more than 30 years that I didn't go to church. And that's only because the last Sunday of the month is my day to volunteer to help out in the nursery. So, I spent my church time with 19 little ones all dressed in Easter best. Including one boy with a ridiculous puffy shirt, peter pan collar and little short trousers that the shirt buttoned into. That is so not my style. Our son wore a rugby shirt in bright springy colors and cargo pants.

I am a rare breed of cradle Episcopalian. My dad is an Episcopal priest which makes me a PK -- preacher's kid. Some PKs stray. I never did. Even in college I went to church very regularly and I find great spiritual growth in being a member of a church community. My husband and I met through the church and that identity is definitely a part of our family foundation. All of these are my most treasured blessings.

Anyway, Alleluia The Lord Is Risen!

And a little bit of Allelu, Allelu, Allelu, Alleluia -- Praise Ye The Lord. Squat down on the "Allelus" and jump up on the "Praises!" Anyone else remember that from church camp?

We had friends over for dinner. It was fun, slightly chaotic evening -- as is always the case when you mix young kids into the event.

Baby quiches for appetizer (from the frozen food section)
Chicken Caprese (mozzarella and pesto wrapped in chicken breast with chopped tomatoes on top)
Roasted Potatoes
Bag salad (not really needed, we should have skipped it)
And Carrot Cake

Actually we haven't had any carrot cake yet. Our guests left a bit early. They have a daughter who is 16 months and the line between delightful and disaster when it gets close to bed time is quite sensitive. We sent them home with a big piece. And actually, I'd prefer to have dessert a bit later after dinner has settled and the kid's are in bed anyway.

Yesterday I made dilly bread. That was the biggest success in the kitchen if you ask me. I've mentioned dilly bread before. I think Melody even requested the recipe. I'll post it soon.

Carrot Cake... before it began to list a bit. Yikes! And you can see the lovely tulips that Jeff sent me on the table in the background.

Benjamin colored all six of his eggs green. He also put all green hearts on his valentines and all green beads on the bracelet he strung at school.

Claire explored all the colors. I miss the days when the kids were little didn't care if I colored 10 eggs and let them do 2. No one would give up an egg for me to be artsy with. Oh well. 

Is there a secret...

What's up with Hello? It seems like when I post a picture or two in Hello and then I try to come back to Blogger to add text to the post, I lose the pictures. This doesn't happen all the time, but when I'm irritable. Does anyone else have this trouble?

Under the Arch

Just a quick post of what I'm up too. Not working on the sky as you can see. I must get back to that today or tomorrow.

I had to post the picture separatly. Scroll down to see the arch and a detail shot.

I started another arch. I'm having a lot of fun doing it.



Here's a detail of the beading I did last night while watching tv.


I'm really pleased with this beading. I like the effect of the outline. It's pretty time consuming, so I don't intend to do much. I have discovered that I really like the effect of a mix of beads. On the other arch I did all gold bugles around the leaf shapes and that was fine, but I mixed about 5 or 6 kinds of seed beads for this project and I love the effect. They all read generally the same, but still have texture and interest. I don't have too many beads, so I just gathered a bit from here and there. Lots of little tiny packs that various people have included with swaps I've done. I just may have to go to the real bead store and create my own seed bead soup if I intend to do much more outlining. (Which I don't. But I still might have to go to the bead store.)

Another repost 

Repost hopefully 

Benjamin's Birthday Party

I feel so lucky to have a little band of art quilters reading my blog. But there are lots of friends and family too. For them, I must post pictures from Benjamin's birthday party. After postponing twice, it turned out to be a great day.

Wow! My mom is a super fantastic cake decorator. She's also a super fantastic shopper to have found this cool t-shirt which fits both the theme and the age!


Here's me and Claire and Daddy with the cool goal they got me. It's says "goal!" when ever you kick the ball in the net.


We all wore soccer gear. Lots of my friends did too.


Dad rigged up the Dora pinata to fit the soccer theme since we couldn't find a soccer ball pinata with the pull strings. (Each kid takes a turn pulling a string and one opens the magic door and all the candy spills out. So much better than beating the thing with a stick which always takes forever and gets a bit dangerous. At least that's what my mom says.)


I am mezmorized by the flaming three.


That's what I'm talking about... licking the candle!

Upcoming Show

I can't believe I haven't written about this before considering what a big deal it really is.

The Frayed Edges are having our first show beginning next month!

The Frayed Edges is my small art quilt group. There are just four of us and we have only been meeting for a couple of months, but it's been an amazing collaboration.

We are all in the beginning stages of moving to the next level with our art. Whatever that means...

Kate stopped by the new Little Dog Coffee Shop in downtown Brunswick, ME and saw that they had some nice artwork displayed and for sale. (One artist who did everything from collage, to sketches, to oil paintings and were priced between $150 and $300). Kate asked the Little Dog people if they were looking for more art and they said, "Yes." And she said she might have some friends who would be interested in showing our stuff...

I had been to The Little Dog myself, but didn't feel like I could approach them with my art because I feel so "green" and I don't really have enough quantity to fill the space. But with a group... wow! That feels doable.

We had originally planned to hang our work in early March, but the Little Dog people are very new to this and we had some miscommunications and now we've reschedule for mid April.

It's a good match -- since we're new to this and so are they. I think we'll learn a lot from the experience. Plus, they are only taking 15%.

The previous artist, who still has her work hanging, did not sell anything as of the last time we talked with the Little Dog people. We think smaller, less expensive art might have a better chance. I'll keep you posted.

We're also having a "Meet The Artists" event on Saturday, April 30 from 4 to 6. (Please come!)

The Frayed Edges all promised not to stress out about this endeavor and I think we're doing well in that area. But, here are the things I need to do for my own prepartions:

• Put a label and hanging loop on Blessings Arch
• Finish designing our annoucement/invitation to send out to friends and family
• Notify local papers for their gallery listings
• Make a few more smallish fabric collages
• Gather together the stuff we need to hang the quilts.
• Pick out something fabulous to wear to the Meet The Artists event

All That Talk About Little Dog Reminds Me Of...

Our beloved Isaac


He certainly wasn't little, but he was a great dog. Worthy of having a coffee shop named after him. Or maybe a quilt studio. Here he is with Claire and Grma and Grpa roasting marshmellows. He passed away in January of 2004 -- a sad sad day.

And since I think almost all posts should have pictures to accompany them, here he is.

Keeping Up With Sonji

Have you been reading Sonji's blog? Wow, so many faboo pix, funny stories, interesting thoughts and general brilliance. And she posts a lot! More than once a day even. (And still making art too.)

Of course, she is my FRIEND. We connected through a yahoo group set up by Alma Stoller who recently began publishing The FAZ (Fabric Arts Zine). It's a great self-published, creative, edgy "zine," and the yahoo group is full of artsy types who ask interesting questions and have interesting answers. There are tons of challenges and swaps, many of which I participated in (but have since taken a break from since they take a lot of time and keep me from making my own stuff).

But... I was lucky enough to get several pieces of Sonji's handpainted fabric in those swaps and I emailed her personally to gush about how wonderful they were and we've been emailing ever since. We encourage each other's art, talk about how great our husbands are and hash out the general goings-on of our life. (Which are hardly "general" considering what talented and brilliant women we are!)

You can see some of Sonji's fabric that I turned into a totebag here.

Sonji suggested I should write about my goal of becoming a better curator. Alyson Stanfield's recent newsletter talked a lot about curating and it was really interesting. As I'm building a body of work, I could definetely keep better track. So, my plan is to make a simple Excel template to list all my work.

I want to include title, size, price, date of completion, where it has been shown, awards, publication, info about when it was sold, etc.

What else should I include in this document? I also posted to the quiltart list asking if anyone had already invented such an document. I haven't heard anything yet, but I'll keep you posted.

Blessings Arch 

What's Going On In The Studio?

I had a set back with the self portrait this week. I worked for almost two hours doing the final construction of the sky piece and then I decided it looked like crap. Arg. This is a piece of fabric I hand painted, then measured over and over, quilted, beaded, shaped, pillowcased, pressed…. And then looked at it. Yuck. The shape just doesn’t really say what I wanted it to. The color doesn’t keep up with the rest of the quilt. There was a time in my art-life that I would have pressed on with it. But, I really want to learn some things from this project and I know I need to come up with something better and “trash” this sky piece. (Of course by “trash” I mean put it away until it finds a better use.) I’ve got some ideas and I’m going to make some sketches, but I think what I really need to do is move on to another project for a bit.

One of the big challenges with this sky piece is that it must accomodate a 5 inch sleeve. And I want to leave those two triangles on each side of the "roof" empty. So that means I can't do exactly what I want... not that I know what I want, but this sleeve requirement is annoying me.

Self Portrait with Sky Added



I started working on this instead. I was inspired by a collage in Paper Quilting by Bridget Hoff. I just love that arch/portal shape. I'm going to do more embellishment and hand stitching then zig zag the edges. I'm so pleased with it I think I might make another of the very same layout in a different color scheme. Muddy batiks maybe.

Blessings Arch in progress

Avocados Were On Sale

Normally, avocados are $1.49 at our grocery store. They are on sale this week for $.99. So, that means fajitas and guac go on our weekly menu. I always get raves for my guacamole, so I thought I'd share my recipe. No words required: see picture below. That's it. I know the spice mix makes it far from "authentic," but I don't care, it tastes great.

We enjoyed our Mexican meal yesterday (St. Patrick's Day). I promise to have corned beef on Cinco de Mayo.

Guacamole

Shopping in Portland

Even though Benjamin is only in school for three hours, I was able to grab a Caramel Latte from Dunkin Donuts and drive 40 minutes to Portland and go to Michael's, AC Moore and Target. This is luxery for me.

Here are my art-related purchases: cheap foam stamps, silver-tone letter beads, "washer words," leaf skeletons in GREEN and PURPLE!

Shopping...


The washer words are:
adventure
explore
search
destination
journey
discover

I'm making some more fabric collages... so all of these will be added inspiration.

I didn't figure you needed a list of items purchased at Target (underwear, laundry soap etc).

Blogs and Bananas

A couple more things I like about blogs:

I like interesting items in the side bar. Like: What I'm Reading, Works In Progress, etc. You'll notice I have no such thing on my blog because I am an html dolt.

I like in-progress pictures and pictures showing me whether you are going to choose this background, or this one, or this one...

______________________________

Have you noticed that any fork, knife or plate that comes in contact with a banana must be hand washed? The dishwasher is a complete failure at cleaning banana slime. This annoys me because we all like bananas and I especially like them sliced into what my cousin Cailey calls "banana coins" which means there is more surface area of banana on the plate making more slime to be hand washed.

Benjamin's Clothes

I started working on Benjamin's Clothes quilt yesterday.

When Claire was almost three, I was pregnant and found out we would be blessed with a son and would have no need for the stacks of plastic boxes full of ready-to-hand-down girl clothes. I decided to cut them up and make a quilt.

I uploaded a picture of said quilt, but as many bloggers have noted of late, Hello is on the fritz. I'll try to include a picture in a separate post.

Claire's quilt includes some of the outfits she wore when we went to visit Daddy in Italy and Iceland, the outfit she wore when he came home from deployment, first Christmas dress, the dress she wore to Auntie Kris' wedding, a Black Dog t-shirt from Martha's Vineyard, etc etc etc. It's amazing how many memories you might associate with what you were wearing. So, it's a real treasure and she and I both really love it.

Of course, this means I'm obligated (and delighted) to make a similar quilt for Benjamin. And since he celebrated his third birthday (with no party), it's time. Besides, we Must Clean Out the Basement, which includes more stacks of plastic boxes filled with his clothes waiting to be slashed, pieced and quilted.

I began by cutting up some pieces, noting the interesting design elements like pockets, tags, buttons and firetruck appliques. Next I've got to stabalize everything since lots of it is stretchy material. Then I cut in all into squares and rectangles divisible by 2. Then piece it all. Then take Benjamin with me to the quilt shop so he can pick out the backing fabric -- probably something with frogs. Then we'll have a quilt -- and a clean basement.

Stay tuned this will take several months.

Claire's Clothes: See Post Below! 

Free Motion Quilting

My friend Sarah made a really funny comment in a recent email about the challenge of free motion quilting. She said it's even worse than a four letter word, it's an eight letter word: PRACTICE. So true.

I'm pretty pleased with my quilting, but I have only a small selection of designs I always resort to. Until yesterday when I came up with a newish design. I like spirals, but in the past, I have always been frustrated by the inaccuracy of spiraling in and then trying to guide myself back out and keep it looking uniform. So, I thought, what if I spiral in, then go out on an entirely new path crossing over the original lines? Jackpot. I think they look like little rosettes.

So I used my new creation to quilt what will be the sky panel of my self-portrait quilt. It has to accomodate a five inch sleeve. And then I did some beading while watching The Last Avatar with the kids last night. And Ice Age with the kids this morning. (We're snowed in, remember?)

Sky panel in progress

More Snow

At least another foot on March 12.


Lots of bloggers have been publishing pictures of blooming plants of various sorts. Not so much in Maine. And yes, this means we had to postpone Benjamin's birthday party AGAIN. It was supposed to be Saturday, March 5. But several rounds of vomit of Friday, March 4 made that date impossible. Twelve to twenty inches of snow today made for another bad choice. We're trying again next Saturday.

What I like about blogs

• I like blogs with pictures.
• I like blogs that update fairly regularly.
• Since I mostly stick with the Artful Quilters Ring, I like blogs that have the AQR icon somewhere near the top of their blog.
• I like it when I click the "next" button and I am actually taken to a blog I have not yet visited in a particular stint of surfing. (This never happens. I'm not sure what the point of the next button is anyway. It always seems I'm stuck flitting around about 5 blogs when I use it.)
• I like it when I can read the comments easily.
• I like it when people comment on my blog.
• I like it when my blogroll list actually seems to reflect the order of blogs with "new" entries. Or at least I think I'd like it -- it's never actually happened.
• I love the comraderie, community, like-mindedness, creativity, humor, inspiration, idea-generating, support and helpfulness that seeps into lots of what we do, share and write!

Recovering

I have strep throat. Yuck. Actually, I'm on the antibiotics and am no longer contagious and I feel much better. So do I still technically have the crud? Or am I in remission? I'm not sure.

There are lots of things I want to blog about. I think I'll just name them for now and maybe write about them later. (Maybe not.)

Things I do and don't like about blogs.
The latest Frayed Edges get together.
Anne Lamott.
Progress on the self portrait.
Our upcoming show at Little Dog.
Jeff and Benjamin's birthdays.
Snow/Spring.
Three picture day.

In the mean time, I'm eating a decent breakfast, drinking a decent cup of coffee and catching up on blog reading and email. So, check back soon.

Which is better? Book of movie?

I really enjoyed watching Their Eyes Were Watching God on cbs last night. Like the reviewers said, it was a bit slow and long. But still delightful.

I thought Halle was great. It's been awhile since I read the book. I should read it again since I often say it truly is my favorite book. I have reread the beginning several times in recent years, but I only got to the end when I read it in college. I remember weeping, but had forgotten the details of the ending. But, I thought it was an amazing scene in the movie.


Of course, it's really not a fair comparison: book vs movie. But, since Claire was extolling the details of her class's "compare and contrast" The Cat and the Hat" book vs. the Mike Myers movies, I was thinking a bit about Zora Neale Hurston's book. I think she would have been pleased.

We can also compare the "covers." I adore the cover that I posted below. I just love that wood cut style and the mood and the colors (purple and green, OF COURSE!)

And what can you say about Halle with the long sensual hair? It's also a thumbs up.

book cover 

The Third Pancake

I'm trying to post a bit more regularly and though I have nothing new to report (other than the brithday party got postponed after Benjamin threw up and spiked a bit of a fever), I thought I'd share the third pancake theory with you.

I read it somewhere. I'm not sure where. Maybe the "Do This" newsletter. (If you can attribute it more accurately, please let me know.)

Your best idea, the really great one that works on all levels, is like the third pancake. The first pancake (or first idea) is under done in the middle because you tried to cook it before the pan was hot enough. Then the second pancake gets burned because the pan was too hot from when you turned up the heat to try to rescue the first pancake. By the time you get around to the third pancake, you have found a bit patience and the right temperature and you achieve perfection. Now for some real maple syrup and a great cup of coffee...

What's going on in the "studio"

Frayed Edges (my small art quilt group) meets on Monday. Yippee!

We all purchased the Meech book recently and agreed to do Excersize #1 and share the results at our get-together. The assignment is to find a picture you like, isolate the meaty part of the picture, pick out the 8 to 10 colors from the picture, fill those colors into the bar on the worksheet in the porportions they appear in the picture, then fill in the grid in a smiliar manner. The next step could be to use fabric to weave or collage an additional layout, again exploring the color arrangement and porportions.

You can't see my picture too well. But there is a fuschia/purple bush poking out of one of the building at the horizen. For me, this picture is all about the purple bush and those five small arch cutouts on the side of the wall. I have to review and think carefully about what I really learned about lifting images and ideas. That sounded very heady... what I mean is... I'm not sure I like this. Now what? I did take those fabric that are stacked up in the picture and cut strips and wove them together. That was fun and I like the idea... not thrilled with the colors.

Excersize #1 from Contemporary Quilts by Sandra Meech



Here's a close up of the quilting I'm working on for the self portrait. I did just the top and the batting and I'm going to pillow case the back. This is an experiment in construction.



And here's the pieces together so far. I'm liking it. I had to go buy more thread to continue the quilting.

Big Three

Early Birthday Celebration for B... a trip to Chuck E. Cheese!



Pancakes and Hot Chocolate on the birthday morning. Hmmmm, should I try to spill syrup and melted marshmellows all over my shirt? Yes, definetely.



Wow. Grpa T and Grma M sent a big box with fancy decorations. What could be inside?