More Houston

But no pictures today - sorry - I forgot to put the card back into the camera, so the few pictures I took today are on the camera's internal memory and my USB cord is at the house...so the pictures of my perfectly mitered corner on a small piece will have to wait.... It is a very interesting experience participating in an event along with 55,000 other people - and some of the classes and teachers are so inspiring. Today I took "Finishing Techniques" with Philipa Naylor - someone who has won many awards and is an extremely entertaining speaker - she was very charming (maybe because she's British) but she also was very personable and shared her experiences - both in quilting and in her life. I really enjoyed it. Here's to tomorrow...another fun-filled day!

Houston...What day is this?

Getting tired!! Today was basket-making day (see pictures below for the various stages) and then we went to the fashion show - some of those pictures came out, but I'll have to put them in my scrapbook pdf since I don't think I'm allowed to put them on the internet in a blog. Am having a good time and I'm learning a lot...but I miss my husband and my dog and my bed...tomorrow is finishing techniques for quilts, so we'll see what I learn there!

Houston-Day 3

Today was Fabric Postcards! I had a wonderful class and really learned a lot. It was also waayyyy cool that I was able to sew all day at the new Huskvarna Viking Diamond Design machine (read that as the $9,000 HVDD machine....on sale here at the show for only $7,000). It was really a fierce machine...did everything but make coffee for me and that may be an attachment I just wasn't made aware of!!

I think my postcards came out really well and I really look forward to finishing a couple that need more embellishments and making many more.

Houston-Day 2

Today I spent the day in a Ginny Eckley class and I had a great time...we spent the morning dying silk material and then spent the afternoon silkscreening, printing, and painting on the material we made that morning...here I am with several of my pieces...I thinkt they came out terrific and I definitely learned new techniques... Tomorrow I spend the day making postcard-sized quilted pieces and smaller ones the size of business cards. I think that is going to be a lot of fun too. I'm so glad I did this!!

Houston Workshops -Day 1

Today, Michelle & Lu and & came down to Houston in my van to take a week's worth of workshops and what a fabulous day it has been! The drive down was easy and uneventful and (best of all) took less than a tank of gas. We all three took the first workshop together..Painting and Uses of Lutradur...a substance that acts like fabric and paper and looks like dryer sheets!...what fun...here is a couple of samples of my painted sheets, as well as the result of transfering images using gel medium...pretty cool. after that workshop, Michelle and Lu went off to dinner with friends...I grabbed a quick bite and headed for my next workshop, Journal Binding...where I was able to use some of my painted Lutradur sheets as signatures...so now I'm off to bed so we can get up at 6:30 and get ready to go to even more workshops....fun fun fun! More tomorrow!....

DSL Woes

We are still without DSL at the house and...boy, what a pain. This should all be resolved Monday when AT&T is scheduled to come install their version of this magical apparatus! We'll reserve judgement until we see how well it goes...poor Dave will have to deal with them on his own, however, because I'll be at the Houston Quilt Show all week taking workshops ("yayyy Me!" as London Tipton says....)

I'm happy to report that I've begun reading Book 4 of The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott...to understand what a great thing this is...I have been reading these books for approximately 4 years - a few pages at the time - and for someone who has read an entire Harry Potter book in one day, wellllll...how sad is that? They are only paperbacks, but OMG parts of them are soooooo boring. The British in India. Oh well - I do admit to skimming the parts about the structure of the government (both British and Indian) and the parts about troop movements during WWII.

Also have been busy working on the Boston pictures as well as some small art quilts based on my picture of Connie's pet chicken...I probably won't get back to those until after Houston.

COMING SOON....HERALDRY IN BOSTON....Stay tuned....

Howdy Folks!

We had a great time at the Texas State Fair - I've put a pdf on the list so you can see the majority of the pictures, but here's a little taste: I did underestimate the creepiness of Big Tex up close... I'm still working on uploading videos (I took some of the North Texas Caledonia Pipe & Drums) but.... still hasn't worked out (I guess I need editing software to make them smaller....) There was lots to see and we had a good time even though we were really tired yesterday!

Thought Adjustment

I just stumbled onto Ragged Cloth café (http://raggedclothcafe.com/) - and read a posting about a whole cloth quilt made from a computer-generated photo - the writer was so disappointed that it wasn't the great innovative quilt she thought it was from a distance and got angry - her first reaction being that it was cheating... I found it a fascinating read - I had exactly the same reaction several years ago when I went to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. I had taught small classes in Blackwork Embroidery for many years when I was able to go to London...here was my chance to see those lovely pieces of embroidery - caps, gowns - and those wonderful Elizabethan matched sleeves!!

...well, not only did I get to see actual sleeves that were partially embroidered, I also got to see the brass plates - etched with the design and then used to stamp the line drawing onto the fabric... "Those cheaters!" I thought. Here we had been told that artists had carefully handdrawn each design onto the fabric and then it was carefully worked...but...stamped fabric?? simple backstiching with black thread over black lines? no counting of threads? huge knots on the back of the work??? "my 6-year old granddaughter could do that!!" (actually, at the time, I think I attributed that my dog could do it…but the no opposable thumb thing has made me rethink that statement…). …so 400 years ago they made a technological step forward and 400 years later I get angry because the embroiderers purchased kits from artists and made sleeves from them....as if the effort to make them was somehow less than my effort at stitching. In further thought about those sleeves, I realize they were probably worked by candlelight (if there was no time to sit by a window during the day…),

someone had to spin the thread first…and dye it…or wait for it to be shipped from France or Asia (where someone else spun it and dyed it)

….there were rushes on the floor (read that as bugs everywhere)

…and the privies were, well…privies.

And I've certainly never invested the time to make matching sleeves and I'm sure it wasn't quick work even with the pre-stamped cloth… Lessons learned: >Their work is no less valuable because it was a kit.

>The time and effort to create it was just as viable as the time and effort it takes me to complete anything.

>Lighten up and just enjoy the process of the embroidering and not be so compulsive about counting threads.

>Remember these lessons when we go to the State Fair tomorrow and see ribbon winners that I know in my heart are not original works of art….

Happy Anniversary to Us!!

Happy Anniversary to us,

Happy Anniversary to us,

Happy Anniverrrrsssaaaaarrrreeeeee tooooo uhhhhhhhsssss.

Happy Anniversary to us.

15 years - not bad...not bad at all.

We have a great time together.