Ending the year on a tired note

I would not say 2008 was the worst year we have lived through, but it has been exhausting. Sometimes in a good, "sure have accomplished a lot" way and sometimes just in that regular old bone-weary way. I won't elaborate—you've seen some of it here and some just doesn't need to be elaborated on. But in a few hours 2008 will be history and the slate will be wiped clean. (Isn't that a great image? If only it really worked that way—)


We have been at the Oregon Coast for the past three days. We rented a house and invited Emily and Cayo and Sofia and their Ecuadorean visitors. Andy was invited, but had to work. The house was wonderful. We cooked a lot and ate well and read and walked a bit on the beach and worked on a puzzle. Some of us were sick and some didn't sleep so well, but it didn't matter really. We relaxed mostly.

When I was a child we visited the Oregon Coast every few years with my grandparents. I remember once, standing at the edge of the water, looking out at the Pacific, the thought occurred to me that I was at the edge of this huge continent and it was all right behind me. My back was to everything—all the people, all the cities and mountains and rivers and monuments and this vast society. I was standing right on the very edge of one huge thing and facing the beginning of something else. An odd thought for a child, I guess, but I have never gone to the beach since then, that I wasn't struck by that same thought. This morning I had that same thought, standing at the waters edge and also the thought that on this last day of the year, it, too, was just behind me and the beginning of something else right ahead.

And sew it goes.

Happy, better, stronger, more peaceful, more hopeful, more rewarding, more love, family, laughter, and good stuff, New Year to all of us.

Christmasy cuteness and cookery

Christmas Eve is when it all happens in Ecuador. On Christmas Day life goes on as usual. Stores are open, people go to work. The Christ child, he was born 'round midnight last night, and today Mary and Joseph are just getting on with learning how to deal with a baby. So we celebrated Christmas Eve with Emily and Cayo and Cayo's family who are visiting from Ecuador.

We were met, on our arrival, by two very excited little girls, babbling and giggling and swirling around us in their red and white party dresses, sewn by their Ecuadorean grandmother. Sofia and her same age Ecuadorean cousin couldn't have been cuter. A veritable blizzard of cuteness we decided. Here is a rare shot of both standing still for a few seconds.

First a wonderful dinner that included freshly made tamales along with ham and all that goes with it, then opening of presents.

I know you're all saying, "can she really be big enough already to ride a tricycle?" The answer is "almost" and look at the nifty steering handle for the supervising parent. It also came with helmet and knee pads.

Christmas Day was my turn to be the hostess and handle the American Christmas part of our holiday. I was so busy I neglected to take any pictures except for one. We'd had pie the night before, and besides, it seems that Ecuadoreans don't really "get" pie and much prefer cake. So I made the Yule Log cake I haven't made in years. It is a chocolate sponge with whipped cream and crushed peppermint candy rolled up inside. Really fancy cooks will make meringue mushrooms to decorate the log. I went for the much easier option of decorating with a little greenery and some powdered sugar "snow".

I have to say it was really delicious and a big hit with everyone. Emily said, "I remember, you used to make this at Christmas!" Andy said, "I don't remember ever seeing this before." Guess which one of my children adores chocolate and which one doesn't.

I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Paper tree #10. I saved my favorite for the last, not knowing just how appropriate it would be! There are icycles hanging from the eaves and the trees this morning as the snow begins a slow (we hope) melt. Power was out for a little while this morning, but it came back on in good time and we are finishing up with Christmas preparations.

My sincere wishes for a very Merry Christmas or wonderful celebrations of whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year. It has been a year of great Hope and a year of huge disappointments, but it has been a year that has reminded me that we all need to take care of each other and keep on just doing the best we can.

Peace.

Love, Terry

There's snow place like home for the holidays

After yesterday's post, I dug my old boots out from under the bed, suited up and went out to enjoy the scenery and take a few pictures. Today's newspaper confirmed what I had suspected. This is the most snow we have had here in Portland in the 16 years we have lived here.

This is one of my favorite pictures I took yesterday, looking west on Rigert Road, from the bottom of our driveway. If you can stand anymore snow pictures, you can see the rest of my pictures from yesterday here.

The weather has consumed us this past week. I forget that many people take such weather for granted and live with it for months on end. Our trip to the grocery store yesterday was epic. We crept along in my Suburu, which handles very nicely on snow and ice, but has its limits. Once we got down to the main drag (Murray Blvd. for you locals) the packed snow had become ice, polished to a glassy sheen. Most cars crept cautiously along, but a few sped past us and a few were sliding and spinning into the curbs. The Portland bloggers are posting photo after photo of the snow. It's certainly all we're thinking about around here. There are some beautiful shots taken from the overhead tram that goes to the Oregon Health Sciences University at this blog.

I appreciated T's suggestion in yesterday's comment, to see if I had a can of condensed milk in the pantry for my coffee. I would never have thought of that and in fact I do have a can, but fortunately we made it to the store for supplies. Helen's suggestion to have groceries delivered was good, but useless in this weather. No deliveries happening, of any kind. We didn't even get a mail delivery yesterday. So much for "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". But now I find out that the US Postal Service never even said that. It was Herodotus, 2500 years ago.

Enough, already!

Snow, I mean. I know, I know, this is nothin' compared to what some of you are dealing with, but we're not used to a solid week of snow and I'm getting cabin fever pretty bad and we're running out of things like milk and bread. I should mention that here in the Pacific Northwest we do our best not to drive on snowy roads because considering the way things work here there is generally a layer of very slick ice at the bottom. Having grown up in Idaho I know that cold, dry snow is really not that slick and not bad to drive on, but here where there is a fine line between rain and snow and the temperature hovers right around freezing, the stuff is very, very slick. But ice, or not, I think we are going to venture out of here a little later. (I can't drink my coffee without milk!)

View of the front porch railing, taken from inside the house. Under that cute little cone shape of snow is a geranium in a terra cotta pot. They usually live through the winter here. That's why it's still sitting out there. Bet this one is a goner!

End of whining.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day in my studio. I was still feeling a little bit inspired by the snow and made these.

I have had this idea to do some "drawing" with my sewing machine and this was an opportunity to try it out. The trees and the fence were done freemotion with the sewing machine and I'm happy with that process. More of that to come, I think. And another perfect place to use my great little bargain polka dot stamp! (first seen here) I was going to trim these to neat squares when I finished stitching, but liked the uneven edges and left them. I put them on a dark background to photo, but may eventually mount them on something. And because I know someone will ask— they are each 9" square, more or less.

Tree #9

The Penultimate tree. I think Disney cartoons infiltrated my brain and made me believe that birds could decorate a Christmas tree, draping it in ribbons. Well, maybe they can.

It is the morning after the big snow. I'm still in my robe, drinking coffee and reading blogs. I am planning an inside day. I may even do some art. The snow, outside, is beautiful, but I am content to enjoy it from inside.

I made little gifts for my STASH friends. I had planned to give them at our Christmas lunch on Thursday, but we cancelled due to the weather. So I planned to give them to them when they came to our party yesterday. Only one was able to get here. So they will get them sometime in January. I made each a coaster to sit next to their sewing machine. Use it for pins or your warm beverage or whatever works for you. I am happy with how they turned out.

I selected several of my quilts for the images and had nice color copies made at Kinko's, then decoupaged them to the bottom of heavy glass coasters from IKEA. (They are actually made, I think, to set a candle on) Then I added a round of self-stick cork to the back so they don't scratch the surface they are on. Done.

They won't be a surprise now, but my friends can guess which one is theirs. (I selected the design especially for each person). I hope you like them!

Come on over—

We're having a party!

The candles are lighted, the music is on. There's lots of good food on that table back there, and wine in the kitchen and hot cider and pretty red plates and festive napkins, and—hmmm, where are the guests?

Not out in this. We're getting phone calls and emails cancelling left and right. "Sorry, snowed in", "can't get the car out of the driveway", "no snow tires", "not goin' anywhere" and on and on. Can't blame them and I'm not surprised. It's brutal out there.

But wait! Two couples arrive. Old friends who are all accustomed to winter weather. One couple lived in Alaska, the other grew up in northern Montana. A little snow? Piece of cake! We eat, we drink, we visit, we laugh. We hug each other several times and stand in the kitchen and marvel at the snow falling and falling and falling. Later our daughter and son-in-law and his mother and sister and two little girls in parkas and fancy outfits arrive. Sofia's same age cousin is visiting from Ecuador. More food. I reheat the cider. We talk, we laugh. The girls play with my stash of toys and clatter through the house and dance in their shiny party shoes. A small party, but one of our best, I think. Thanks for coming, guys! We missed those of you who couldn't get here. We'll see you soon, I hope.

The dishes are done. The food is put away. (And if we're snowed in, we can eat for a week on what's left.) It is nearly midnight and the snow has stopped for now. Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Tree #8

The swan tree. When I made these little trees, so many years ago, we were living in Ashland, Oregon. That is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Black Swan Theatre and Lithia Park, where swans swim in the peaceful pond. Swans seemed to be a feature of Ashland, so I made one of my trees surrounded by swans. This is one of my favorites. Two trees left to reveal. Thank you for all the nice comments about the trees. It has been fun revisiting them.

Treat Yourself

My friend, Karen Miller, who lives in Corvallis and is a fellow member of High Fiber Diet, started a blog a couple months ago. Karen is an artist who uses the traditional Japanese art form called Katazome, which involves cutting the most delicate, intricate stencils which she uses to print silk fabrics. Treat yourself to a visit to her blog. It is exceptional. Her most recent entry is really especially beautiful. http://nautilus-fiberarts.blogspot.com/

Where to put the tree

Do you put your Christmas tree in the same place every year? In our old house we moved it around several times, but pretty much settled on the "best" spot for the tree eventually. I'm not sure we have found quite the right spot in the new living room, but we'll try it out this year and remember how well it worked (or didn't) when we do this next year.

One of the nice things about where we have it is that you can see it well from outside. Driving up to the house in the evening with the lights on the tree burning, it all looks festive and cozy. Ray pointed out that it is also nice that at night it reflects in the big windows on the opposite wall, so we almost get an effect of two trees in the room.

I have a friend who told me that when they built their house she used the floor plans to figure out exactly where her furniture would fit and where the Christmas tree would go and had the contractor make a small adjustment of the placement of one door to accommodate the future Christmas tree. Other people have told me that when they have bought houses one of the things they look for while house hunting, is a spot for the Christmas tree. I'll bet Miles chose his house, knowing where his Christmas tree would go—after all he admitted that he has a spreadsheet set up to keep track of his ornaments! You must go to his blog and see what he is doing with Walmart Christmas Village stuff. I'd love to see his house in person. I hope he gives us a blog tour when he is finished decorating.

I have to admit that I am not very organized about Christmas decorating. It's all a mishmash of stuff from many years and some gets put out every year, but not all. When we moved I got rid of a lot of Christmas decorations. A few days ago I wrote in that Christmas meme that we use colored lights on our tree. Guess what? When I opened the box all I had were white lights. (And, of course my beloved bubble lights) Sometime last summer I must have decided against the colored lights and got rid of them.

OK, I am blathering. Enough. I need to go do some Christmas shopping.

Paper tree #7 and a sunny day

They used to put candles on Christmas trees before there were strings of electric lights. I've always been enchanted by the idea until it occurs to me how incredibly dangerous that must have been! This is tree number seven. Three more to go.

Are we still in Oregon?
For many years Ray and I believed we would move back to our home state of Idaho when we retired. Things changed and we are here in Oregon to stay, but I still think about living in Idaho, especially in the winter. The winters were certainly colder, with more snow, but in Idaho the sun shone in the winter. I can think of little more beautiful weather than a clear, cold winter day with a blue sky and the sun shining so hard that the snow sparkles like fine glitter. In Oregon the skies can be dismal gray for weeks on end. The sun we do see is a weak, blurry ball that is barely visible through the gray. But not today. The sun is shining, casting long indigo shadows across the snow.

And the sky! Is that a Portland sky? Well, today it is.

I'm enjoying it while it lasts. A new storm is headed our way, due here tonight.

Paper tree #6 and a snowy day

Santas carry a tree, loaded with decorations. You can see those staples here pretty clearly.

And today we woke up to this.

Mid-morning I ventured out to the grocery store and took a few pictures on my way to the car.

It has been snowing steadily all day. There is a lot more snow out there right now and it's still coming down. This kind of storm is so unusual here, but if you don't have to be anywhere and you aren't worrying about someone who is traveling, it is peaceful and beautiful. (I may change my tune if it goes on for days—) Emily and Cayo's family from Ecuador arrived last night ahead of the storm and Emily had a big dinner today. I'm so glad we now live so close to them. It really was a lovely day in so many ways.

Paper tree #5

Oh, yes. There are more trees. You'll see a new one every couple of days until Christmas.

Little Angels decorating a tree with stars. How heavenly!

I am borrowing this holiday meme from Gerrie's blog. Feel free to copy and use. Fun to read what others do for their holiday celebrations.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? If those are the only choices Egg Nog, but, really, our favorite holiday drink is a Manhattan on the rocks with two cherries, served in an old-fashioned glass. (Cherries must have stems.) My Dad used to make these at Christmas and the taste and smell is a wonderful memory of Christmases past. I think this was the first alcoholic drink I ever had. Great with a handful of cashews or mixed nuts. Extra nice enjoyed in front of a roaring fire and/or Christmas tree. Put on a Christmas CD. Sip slowly and savor.

Does Santa wrap presents or set them under the tree? Well, duh, he puts them unwrapped under the tree to be found on Christmas morning.

Colored lights on tree or white? Colored lights and bubble lights. The gaudier the better.

When do you put your decorations up? I start putting up some decorations after Dec. 1. The tree goes up about a week before Christmas. I'm not a fan of early Christmas decorating.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? A really good ham. It's about the only time of year I buy one.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? It was a process. I pretended to believe long after I really did. But I remember being about 6 or 7 and skeptical, then one Christmas morning before I was out of bed I heard my uncle arrive at our door bearing gifts. He said to my Dad, "It was a long night. Santa didn't finish at our house until 6 this morning." The fact that I was hearing this exchange and they didn't know I was listening seemed like proof of Santa's existence and kept me going for another year or two.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We used to open everything on Christmas morning. Now we open some gifts on Christmas Eve, and some Christmas morning as our son-in-law's family tradition has been blended into our family's.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Ornaments collected over many years. No theme, no rhyme or reason to them. The angel on top looks like a gypsy. Like I said—gaudy.

Snow! Love it or Dread it? If it's going to inconvenience me, or we are planning to travel I dread it. If I can stay at home and enjoy it I love it.

Can you ice skate? Yup.

Do you remember your favorite gift? My first bicycle. That was a snowy Christmas I didn't appreciate!

What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family, memories.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Fruitcake. I love it.

What is your favorite tradition? Silly presents. We started this when our kids were old enough to figure out an appropriately ridiculous present for someone in the family.

Which do you prefer, Giving or Receiving? Mostly giving, but receiving a gift that really tells me that someone loves me is pretty special.

What is your favorite Christmas Song? Good King Wenceslaus. "Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,You who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing." He really was a good king. And the tune is catchy.

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? I can take 'em or leave 'em, but I love peppermint stick ice cream.

Ever recycled a Christmas present? Heck no! How tacky.

Paper tree #4

This tree is a bit different from the others. I used a different paper than the others, which were all the shiny, coated paper I mentioned before. This one seems to be drawing paper, perhaps because it was a bit bigger than the coated paper and this tree, while the same height, more or less, is considerably wider that the others. My memory has lost the details of what I had in mind here, but I probably just wanted a squatter shape for variety. I seem to have run into a little trouble though, because the base, in order to let it stand up nicely needed to be as wide as the widest part of the tree, but was cut so narrow and delicate that it tends to buckle under the weight of the tree. The poor bunnies look a little nervous about the whole balance thing. Those are not relaxed ears. You will see more bunnies later and they look a little more confident.

The Columbia Stitchery Guild quarterly meeting was this morning. I usually love these meetings. The programs are usually very good. This morning we had our second annual silent auction, which is a benefit for the quilting program that the guild sponsors at the Women's Prison. Great program. I was the chairperson for the auction this year. It all went well, but I was glad to have it over with. I think I used to be really good at organizing and managing projects, but lately I feel so scattered and distracted it is not good. Sales were a bit lower than last year, but I think that is a reflection of the economy. I bought a very cute corduroy and fleece jacket for Sofia, beautifully made by one of the members. We voted, this morning, to change the name of the Guild, which makes me a little sad. This guild is made up of some of the most talented and interesting women, including fiber artists and weavers and knitters and embroiderers and basketmakers. I had heard of this being such a great group long before I moved to Portland and was looking forward to joining. Now the feeling is that the word "stitchery" sounds dated and doesn't reflect the diversity of work that is done by the members. Maybe. I voted not to change. I was in a very small minority. Everybody else wants to change. I thought the name had a lot of charm.

Scrooge and the Scissors

I found a copy of the Scrooge design that I mentioned in the last post. Cut from paper. The words were also cut from paper about 20 years ago. It was a very dark production. Spooky, eh?

In the comments SuSaw asked what kind of scissors I used to cut the trees and if I used a pattern. No pattern. No drawing. I just started cutting.

The scissors I used, and still use for fussy paper cutting, are medical scissors. Nothing special. In fact I think they throw these away after one use in the hospitals now. The thing I like about them is that they are comfortable in my hands, have fairly small blades and one of the blades is a nice sharp little point that works well to pierce the paper for inside cuts. If you know someone who works in a hospital or for a doctor they can probably get you a pair cheap or free.

There are special scissors called "scherenschnitte" scissors that are made especially for intricate paper cutting. They probably work even better than the medical scissors. I have never tried them.

added:

More answers to more comment questions

Lisa asked about the weight of the paper. It was a packet of coated paper that I had. The weight was slightly heavier than 20 lb bond, but the coating makes it nicely opaque and crisp. Anything very heavy is too hard to cut all four layers together. No, I don't remove the staples. They don't look great, but are essential for holding the layers together. I actually had a better idea after I'd made a few. Instead of stapling, I folded the paper to get a line, then stitched the two layers together on my sewing machine, using white thread. And to answer Lisa's last question. Yes, when I get them all put out together it is kind of a forest!

Paper tree #3

Perhaps another Christmas-y tree will restore a little Christmas spirit here at And Sew it Goes. My Saturday post about the blogging award was a little snarky. I could blame the weather or the stress of the season, but no, it was just me being a little "snippy" as my mother would say. Sorrrrry. (hangs head in shame)

I think this tree must be a Douglas Fir, with its tall straight trunk. They always seem to have a bare branch or two at the bottom. Little boys read their books with their backs against the tree. In yesterday's comments, Nellie said, "I've found that cutting shapes is easier and more expressive than drawing them. The drawing process allows more room for reworking and overworking an image." This is really true, unlikely as it sounds. I once took a class from Roberta Horton (or was it her sister, Mary Mashuta?) where she demonstrated this by holding up a magazine photo of a vase with flowers and had us each cut from paper, with scissors, what we saw on the page. The paper cuts had such character and charm. I once was designing a poster for a production of "A Christmas Carol" and the director wanted a very dark, menacing image of Scrooge on it. I made drawing after drawing and was just not getting it. I finally picked up a piece of black paper and cut out the face. Just what he wanted! And it is still one of my favorite illustrations I have ever done. I wonder if I still have a copy somewhere . . .

Another good movie

We watched Under the Same Moon last night and loved it. It is in Spanish, so you must deal with subtitles (unless you understand Spanish!), but it is so worth it. The little boy, Carlitos, above, lives in Mexico with his grandmother. His mother, an illegal, lives and struggles in L.A. She has called him every Sunday morning, for four years, from the same phone booth. When his grandmother dies suddenly Carlitos sets out to get to L.A. and find his mother before the Sunday call, so she won't worry when he doesn't answer. His journey is the story. This little actor, Adrian Alonso, is incredible and while the story has a few flaws and tugs, occasionally rather shamelessly, on your heartstrings, it is moving nonetheless.

Your reaction may be affected by whatever your personal feelings are about immigration and especially illegal immigration, but, for me, it is an important reminder that behind the politics and rhetoric the issue is really still just about a fellow human being striving to improve her life and the life of her child.

Blog award

Lisa Flowers Ross nominated me for the above, Kreativ Blogger award. I love Lisa's blog and I appreciate her recognition. Thank you, Lisa. But this got me wondering, not for the first time, where these things come from. Obviously someone, sometime, somewhere just made this thing up and started nominating people and directing them to nominate other people and on and on. I googled "Kreativ Blogger award" and, of course, found scads of blogs displaying the award graphic and nominating others, but nothing that indicated where it began. Not surprised.

And while the sentiment is great—I'm all for celebrating creativity and passing on the love to other bloggers—I've got to just say it. This is the ugliest darn graphic I've ever seen. I kind of wonder if it wasn't some graphic designer's idea of a joke, what with the creative spelling, the extreme font abuse and the gaggishly sweet combination of print and pattern.

I think the graphic has to die. So though I am flattered, I am not nominating any of the many wonderful, creative blogs that I so love to read. Sorry.

Paper tree #2

Here is another of my paper trees. This one reminds me of eyelet embroidery material. Christmas is coming so fast! I'm not ready at all. Are you?

The red shoes

When Beth and I walk we talk about all kinds of things. We are coming to the end of our 6th year of morning walks together, which is quite amazing to me. It was a New Year's resolution that we have really kept! After 6 years we still find lots to talk about as we walk.

This morning Beth was telling me that she had seen the old movie The Red Shoes on TV this week. What a memory that brought back! When I was a pre-teenager this was my favorite movie. It was an old movie then. But the ballet—the music—the *sob* romance! And then there was Moira Shearer's red hair and her teeny, tiny little waist. It was the stuff of pre-adolescent dreams. If you haven't seen the movie you should watch the trailer at the link above. It will give you a little idea of the flavor.

The movie was based, loosely, on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, also called The Red Shoes. The HCA story is pretty gruesome, actually. About 10 years ago I made a quilt based on that story for an online challenge with a fairytale theme. This afternoon I dug around and found it.

It was probably the first quilt I made with a human figure in it and I was flummoxed by how to do the face. I ended up drawing the face and leaving it unquilted. It's pretty bland. While she was supposed to look like she was in a trance and, really, in agony because the shoes would not stop dancing, she looks more like she's asleep.

She is totally overwhelmed by the strong border I put in there, thinking it gave the piece more of a "fairy tale" feeling.

I also added a quote from the story that is too subtle. You have to get very close to read it.

It was a fun quilt to make—not altogether successful—but I learned a lot from making it. It was an incentive to try to figure out how to make faces in fabric that worked better than this one. Do you like this one better? I do.

Paper trees

In moving, I have come across several things that I forgot I ever had. One was a manilla envelope with some trees I cut from paper many, many years ago.

I remember that I saw a picture in a magazine of white trees, cut from paper that seemed so clean and pure in their design that they traveled around in my head until I could no longer resist the need to try to make one. I folded two sheets of paper together and stapled them together, then took a little pair of surgical scissors and started cutting through all four layers. No drawing. No plan. Just cutting. And to my utter amazement I had a pretty little tree with a star on the top and birds on its branches.

For the next week, every time I had a spare moment I was cutting trees. I threw the duds away, but I kept the best of the bunch. They decorated our mantel that Christmas, then I folded them up, put them in the envelope and only remembered to take them out a few times in the ensuing years. One year I decided to try making more and all were utter failures. Then I forgot about them completely until they turned up during the move.

I hope I'm not bragging when I say there was something kind of magical about those trees—all cut in the space of a frenetic week or so, never to be repeated. Over the next few weeks I will share the rest of them with you. I hope you enjoy them. I almost feel like someone else made them. A gift from my much younger self.

...........................................

I hope you all have spread the word about the danger of small children swallowing batteries. Sandy's grandchild is recovering, but has been very, very ill and is still in the hospital. This was not trivial. You can read the details on her blog. This was a wakeup call for us to assess our house for this and other dangers.

Mathematics

Today was the reveal for the 12 x 12 group's new set of 12 quilts. The theme is "mathematics" and the pieces are fascinating—really! As you can imagine, 12 artists don't think of math in the same way that 12, say, rocket scientists do.

Here is my contribution. I won't tell you anything about it here. See if it speaks for itself. Do you see the math connections? Now go on over to the 12 x 12 blog and look at all the quilts. There you can read what was in my mind when I designed this piece. And no, it doesn't mean "talk to the hand!"

A warning

I just read Sandy Donabed's blog entry about her baby granddaughter swallowing a small battery. She is in the hospital with damage to her esophagus.

Those darn little batteries are everywhere, in everything these days. For all of us with children or grandchildren, especially little guys that put stuff in their mouths, this is a frightening thing to read. Read Sandy's post. Let us all send good thoughts for baby Hazel's recovery and inspect our own homes for any such hazards and tell our friends. Yikes!

Thanksgiving—40 years ago

I first posted the story below in 2006. This morning I was thinking, again, of that Thanksgiving, now 40 years ago. This is the song that came to mind, from one of the albums we played over and over that weekend. The memory of music is so powerful. I have seen and spoken with Kathleen and Gary a couple times since I first posted the Thanksgiving story. They are well and it is good to connect. I hope they are having a good Thanksgiving and wonder if they ever think about that one 40 years ago.

Thanksgiving 1968
After posting my wedding picture and reference to my friend, Kathleen, who loaned me her veil, Kirsty jokingly asked me if I still speak to Kathleen. The truth is I very seldom talk to Kathleen, who lives quite far from me now, but I think of her and her husband, Gary, every Thanksgiving.
Kathleen and I grew up together, nearly like family. Our mothers were best friends and our families shared many Thanksgiving dinners.

In 1968 Kathleen and Gary moved to Connecticut to go to graduate school at UConn in Stoors. I had graduated from college the previous spring and I was working for my sorority (Alpha Omicron Pi) as a traveling chapter consultant. We were all far from our Idaho homes and discovering new worlds.

I spent the week before Thanksgiving visiting the chapter at Northeastern U. in Boston. It was a sad and dispiriting week. The chapter was one of the oldest existing AOII chapters in the country with a wonderful legacy of outstanding women, but it WAS 1968 and the world was blowing up in a lot of ways, both good and bad, and sorority life was becoming a symbol of elitist, old thinking and the chapter was suffering badly. The few remaining members wished to return their charter and close the chapter with some dignity. The alumnae, for whom this chapter had meant so much in their lives, were distraught and in total opposition. I felt for all of them. And I really had nothing to offer. So, at the end of this sad week, Kathleen and Gary drove to Boston to pick me up and we went back to Connecticut for Thanksgiving.

What I remember most was how happy we were to see each other, how homesick we all were, how beautiful Connecticut was and the music. Three albums. During that long holiday weekend we played these three albums over and over and any song from any of them will instantly take me back to that Thanksgiving. Gordon Lightfoot, The Rascals and The 5th Dimension. When was the last time you heard of any of them? In 1968 they were all at the top of the charts.
We cooked our first Thanksgiving dinner away from home and family, together. Kath didn't have a pie plate, so we divided the pumpkin pie ingredients into the compartments of her muffin tin. Then we forgot that we probably should adjust the baking time for these tiny tartlets. They came out of the oven looking like black hockey pucks—inedible. We made way too much stuffing but Gary held the turkey steady while I crammed every little bit into the bird. It is a wonder it didn't explode. We invited another Idaho State grad who was also going to school at UConn, whose name may have been Allen—I have forgotten—to join us. We drank a lot of cheap wine, lighted candles and sat on the floor around the coffee table (which may have been crates) to eat our feast. We laughed a lot, called our families and bravely held back our tears at the sound of their voices.

When I left I could see, from the plane window, Kathleen and Gary standing just inside the waiting area. Gary had his arm around Kath's shoulders and she was crying. I was sitting on the plane crying just as hard.

I was so thankful for those friends. I am still thankful for that memory.

Random craftiness

I have a thing for pinecones. About a year and a half ago we went to Lake Tahoe and stayed at this great place called Camp Richardson. There were these large, wonderful pinecones lying all over the ground there and I couldn't resist picking up some of them. Somewhere on that trip I saw this pinecone decoration next to a door and I liked it.

Not too hokey or decoratorish, I thought, and thought maybe I'd attempt something similar. In the move Ray came across my bag of pinecones and asked if I wanted to pitch them or if I still wanted to do something with them. No, and yes. Here's my version:

Now that I look at it I see I could probably stand to add some more pinecones. But I like it. My friend, Muriel, gave me the little "Welcome" plaque for our new home.

I like having a small project of some kind to work on if we are watching TV or a movie in the evening. I found this by way of Laura's blog, and was intrigued. It is called a Kusudama ball. Lots of little folded squares of paper glued together.

It's pretty, isn't it? But far too fiddly and took hours and hours, so I am not planning to make a boatload of them.

Both of these things look like they could be Christmas decor, but they're not. I plan to leave the pinecones up year round and hang the paper ball somewhere to amuse me.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving. Ours will be small, but good. No out of town company or extra guests this year. Just family. We will be missing those couldn't make it and hoping you are feeling full and thankful wherever you are. Get well, Jess. Hope you are feeling up to some turkey and pie!

Sunday, Sunday!

Beautiful day today, so I took the opportunity to photo a couple of things. The first is my finished "Laurel" piece. It is 12" square

You may remember that it was going to be part of a larger piece and it just didn't work. Once I realized it would stand on its own and took the larger piece apart I knew it was the right thing. Someone else thought so too, because it has been sold and I will be sending it to its new owner this week, so I wanted a good picture for my own record.

The other piece I photo'd today is my 12 x 12 "Mathematics" themed piece. They will be revealed on December 1. I can't show it to you yet, but here is a tiny detail.

The original, larger Laurel piece was to be my piece for the High Fiber Diet "Line Dance" show, so after it was taken apart it no longer fit the criteria for that and I was back to square one. I think I have an idea for that, however. Remember when I was making little 2" square pieces from my scraps? (You can see some here and here and here) I am playing with the idea of using some of them with the green line and I like what I am seeing so far.

I think this has possibilities.

Anniversary quilt

I woke up yesterday morning with a new attitude. I decided that life was going to get back to normal—the sooner the better. We've spent a year working on houses, trying to sell houses, trying to rent houses. The old house is rented, the new house is home. Time to move on. Life as normal. (Except with a lot less money, ha!) I decided I need to start working on more art and posting more interesting things on my blog. Have you seen anything interesting here in awhile? No, I didn't think so. OK, so here's something, if not interesting, at least art/quilt/fiber-related.

Now hanging in our den/cave/TV watching/vegging room is the quilt my brother, sister and I made for our parents' 50th anniversary. We wanted to give them something really nostalgic and something a whole lot of people could participate in, but kind of hated those quilts people make where everyone makes a block and the whole motley assortment gets pieced together. Also, not so big on the ones with tons of old photos printed on fabric. I like the old photos, but better in an album. So here's what we did. We chose a block pattern with lots of small "background" triangles. We marked the triangle sizes on unbleached muslin and sent bunches of them out to family and friends, along with a brown permanent marker and asked them to write on them and send them back. Some wrote good wishes, some related favorite memories, some just signed their names. My sibs and I did a bunch with memorable phrases, names of family pets, addresses where Mom and Dad lived, family activities and memories, etc. and then we worked in the names and dates of the three of us, our spouses and children throughout the quilt.

The three of us pieced the blocks when we got all the muslin pieces back—yes, even my brother, who had never sewn before—and I put it together. I did most of the hand-quilting, then we took it to give to them when we celebrated their anniversary with a big family get together. I had left some unquilted areas, so everyone, including all the grandchildren could put a few stitches into it.

click for a closer look

Mom and Dad loved it. They spent hours poring over it and reading all the stuff on it. It hung in their hallway until they died and I brought it home. I still love to read what everyone wrote.

And speaking of anniversaries—I noticed the date this morning and realized that yesterday was Ray's and my anniversary. Thirty eight years and we both forgot. Geez, we're dotty these days. We went out for margueritas and Mexican food last night. Had a good time, but didn't realize we were celebrating our anniversary. First the shoes and now this. I worry about myself. Ray has always been forgetful.

And good news on the money front—got an email this morning telling me I won 450 million Euros in the European lottery. All I have to do to claim it is send all my personal info, bank acct #s and SS#!