On the road in Michigan...

I taught at the Columbine Quilt Guild (near Denver) and at the Little Traverse Bay Quilt Guild in northern Michigan last week. It was a lovely trip. I didn't manage to take pictures in Colorado but I did get some fun shots in Michigan.

I stayed with Jackie C (hi Jackie!) and she managed to squeeze in a lot of sight seeing on the way to the various guild events.

Classes were held at an old elementary school that has been remodeled into an amazing public library in Charlevoix, MI. It was lovely and the classrrom (which I did not get a photo of) was amazing! Lots of space and light.

The sculptures outside the building were fun!

There was a very definite Frank Lloyd Wright/Mission/Craftsman feel to the place.

We drove past the Charlevoix water tower several times. Isn't it festive?! 

This part of Michigan is known for its cherries. I came home with 4 lbs. of dried cherries and they are pretty special. The "world's largest cherry pie" is right there in front of that great water tower.

I took more photos and will post more of them soon.

My son the chef!

Our youngest son, Jeff (23, working on a PhD in biostatistics at John Hopkins), cooks. This is not unusual in our family since my husband is the cook in our house. I make desserts but you cannot live on dessert alone. He does the grocery shopping too. I am a very lucky woman!

Back to the story of the day. The biostat department at JH has an annual chili cook-off. Jeff is for sure the only Texan in that department and so felt honor-bound to win that chili cook-off with real Texas chili. He got his dad's recipe, added 3 new ingredients, and came away with the prize - a sombrero! It is his to wear until next year. His father is very proud.

Celia made cornbread muffins with cheddar cheese and peppers that were also a hit. I"m going to have to get her recipe...

Cool Clipboards

I always seem to have papers on my desk. Often they are in piles. It's true that they are usually small, tidy piles - but they are still piles. At some point I have to deal with them so that I have room to work. 

I ran across this idea in Martha Stewart Living. She says to put those piles on clip boards that hang on the wall and get them off your desk! She gives decoupage instructions for covering them with pretty paper. Her site is packed with good ideas!

I admit that Marha's are cuter than mine. I think I need more clipboards. But you can't see the rest of the room - I'm not sure my wall can take much more. 

I'm happy to say, though, that my desk is already cleaner and I do like that!

Aunt Catherine's Chair

My mom and sister have been weeding out their furniture. I was up at mom's 2 weeks ago and she sent me home with a chair that came to her from my Aunt Catherine. I think that's Catherine, 2nd from the left. My grandmother, Nan (real name Mabel), is 2nd in from the right.

The chair had a very red mahogany stain and burgundy fabric on the seat. The finish was not in the best of shape. I should have taken a photo, but forgot.

Steve volunteered to strip the wood for me. After looking at it I decided that the chair would look a lot better painted than re-stained. 

Once I decided that white was the best choice for the house we decided that spray paint would work just fine. He hit it with a primer coat of Kilz, and then sprayed on 3 coats of gloss white. We sanded it a bit after each coat with steel wool for a smoother finish. The steel wool took some of the paint off at the edges but I like the subtle look of wear that that gives the chair. 

I chose fabric for the seat from my stash. Regular quilting cotton seemed too light weight, so I used a heavy, woven silk that I bought last March from the Talbot's tie outlet near Monterey, CA. Like all quilters, I buy fabric and usually have no idea where it will end up. It looks good in our bedroom in from of the quilt, Everyday Best.

Henry Winkler at Austin College!

Henry Winkler was the speaker at Austin College's opening convocation Monday night. One of the perks of being married to the dean of the sciences is that Steve and I were invited to the dinner beforehand in Henry's honor (or should I say Mr. Winkler? That seems so formal!)

We were all seated before Oscar Page (AC president) and his wife Anna Laura came in with Mr. Winkler. It was amazing - Henry came to each table and said a quick hello and shook hands with each of us! Nine table, four people per table - that's 36 hello's. I can speak for Steve and I and say that this was not a perfunctory hello, this was a really friendly hello! What a way to start! I do have a photo of Henry at our table but it's not particularly flattering of any of us so I'm not going to post it :-).

The speech he gave at the convocation was truly inspiring - and funny too! Mr. Winkler is dyslexic and he talked to the audience, that was mostly made up of freshmen and seniors, about how important it is to value what you have to give. That every individual is gifted in one way or another and that we all add something to the world that no one else can. This is a message that we should all take to heart! If you ever get a chance, go hear him speak.

I should also add that he is an author with Lin Oliver, of a series of children's books called Hank Zipzer: The Mostly True Confessions of the World's Best Underachiever, published by the Grosset & Dunlap imprint of Penguin Putnam. They sound wonderful!

Cacti at NorthPark...

I went shopping a week or so ago at NorthPark Center. It is an upscale mall in Dallas. It was built by Raymond Nasher who, with his wife Patsy, was a great collector of modern art, mostly sculpture. The Nasher Sculpture Center, also in Dallas, is an amazing place and a must-see if you find yourself in Dallas.

There are some sculptures from the Nasher collection at NorthPark. They add a lot to the space. But I especially like the seasonal decorations at the mall. This spring they planted beds with cacti and succulents. This is one of the bigger beds. The rows have a quilt-like quality.

I don't know the names of these plants. Some of them look like they could have come from outer space, or from under the sea. They look even better in these neat, tidy rows. The pink pots under the pink-tinted plants are a nice touch.

Sewing with Elanor...

A few weeks ago Celia, my almost daughter-in-law, downloaded this pillow pattern from Amy Butler. Scroll way down the page to find this one. Celia made a couple of them. You know how little girls are... Elanor saw them and wanted to make one herself. I said "later". She remembers these things so later turned into today!

I didn't keep the pattern so we drew a similar one. Elanor and I picked out fabric. She especially wanted to use some big dots for the eyes. Notice that one eye is bigger than the other? That's Elanor. I was skeptical but it looks way better than if she had made both eyes the same. The girl is good!

I got the mini Boden catalog in the mail recently. It has the cutest kids clothes you've ever seen! We bought some for Elanor, but couldn't buy them all. However, Lorna was inspired to add some fused applique to some of Elanor's plainer t-shirts. 

Lorna had not fused before but, as many of you know, it's an easily acquirable skill. We both spent some time sewing around the edges of the applique with a straight stitch to ensure that everything stays stuck. I didn't get a picture of Elanor modeling, but I will soon. The shirts turned out very well!

While we girls were working, Jack was doing what babies do. He napped a bit, he ate, he drooled like a fountain. We were in my studio and when he wasn't playing with the cat toys or trying to get into the electronics, he played with spools of thread. I had to keep an eye on him to be sure the thread stayed locked on the spools. Didn't want him to eat a bunch of un-spooled thread.

Eventually he settled on this one big spool of blue thread. By the time I got it back the thread was more than damp. I won't be sewing with this. This is now Jack's spool.

Making your table slippery...

Some of you may remember that my wonderful husband, Steve, made me a new sewing table this summer. The top is smooth, the front edges rounded and also smooth. He sanded it, painted it, sanded it, polyurethaned it, and buffed it with steel wool. It felt perfectly smooth. 

Until I tried to sew on it. The fabric did not glide across the surface of the table. This is not a good thing when you are trying to sew. And I knew it was going to be particularly awful for machine quilting.

I remembered hearing about silicone spray. You spray it on your surface to make it slippery. But 1) I couldn't find any and 2) everything I read about it said the vapors were bad for the environment. And it's not cheap. I procrastinated until I really had to do something (which was sew my chair cushions, see below).

I went to Lowe's in search of silicone spray and thankfully I couldn't find it. I asked a man working at the paint counter and he said, no don't use that... use floor wax! 

He took me to the SC Johnson Paste Wax, said that's what they used in the military (and on the counters at Lowe's), and it would work for me.  He knew more about it than I did so I bought a can and waxed my table. Darned if he wasn't exactly right!

I have no memory of waxing furniture or floors. I do have memories of commercials going on about the scourge of cloudy wax build up so this is not a product that I ever would have considered. But I'm here to tell you, if you find yourself with a not-so-slippery sewing surface, keep the paste wax in mind.

Making chair cushions...

We bought two of these Danish-modern teak chairs for our living room last year from Century Modern, a store that specializes in mid-century modern  furniture. 

I love these chairs but was never crazy about the neutral upholstery on the cushions. I'm a quilter, not an upholsterer but I looked at those cushions and figured that I could make new ones.

I found the perfect fabric for the chairs Saturday when I was shopping with my sister-in-law, Deborah. 

The large circles on the brown print are 4" in diameter. It's perfect for the room color-wise — and it has dots! 

I chose the other fabric for the piping cord for each cushion. This fabric is really pretty ugly (it was way back in the sale room) but it was the only thing in the store that had colors that worked with the both the brown print and the rest of the stuff in my living room.

Here are some of the cushion parts in progress....

...and here is a finished chair! It took me about 7 hours yesterday to make the cushions and get them on the chairs. I had the original covers in hand to use as a guide which helped a lot. So, quilters, let me tell you that this was not hard and you, too, can recover cushions! You will, however, need to locate the 1/2" seam guide on your machine. I never did get used to using it.

The chairs really do need to be stripped and teak oiled but we are saving that for another day. for now, they are just fine.

Design blogs...

There are some wonderful "design" blogs out there. I have posted links to my current favorites on this very blog. (Look over there on the right, under "Design Blogs.")

What can a quilter find on these non-quilty blogs? I find a lot! For instance on Design Sponge I enjoyed looking at the way the photos were cropped in the "in the kitchen with: fred flare {red devil’s food cake}" post. The photo at left came from this post. The photos are great and the cake recipe looks good too. You know we love cake!

I enjoy seeing what other people think is good design. I very much enjoy seeing the hand-made projects that are featured on design blogs. 

We quilters are constantly making decisions about what colors to use, what kinds of patterns make us happy. You never know when you might be inspired by what others have made. Blogs are a great way to keep us all current. Now I just need more time to read them all! 

Who is that?

OK - one more shot from the ship. After I got done looking at the container ship I switched to the other side of the boat. It took me a while to see the lady peeking over the top of the building in the distance. I didn't have my glasses on (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it) and I could not for the life of me figure out where I had see that image before.

I asked Steve, who looked at me as if he thought my mind might be slipping, and he said "Starbucks". How could I not have put that together?

How we get "stuff"...

I had a chance to really look at a container ship while we were docked in Seattle waiting to disembark our cruise ship. 

This ginormous container ship was being unloaded and loaded at the same time. When one stack of containers is removed, another stack of containers replaces it (one at a time). The crane moves and the process continues.

The stacks of containers go down into the hold of the ship. Each container is packed full. Just imagine all the stuff that this one ship carries! Multiply that by all the container ships that are out there. I find it to be both amazing and scary. 

I live in the middle of the country and a very large part of what I consume comes to me in containers, via truck. As energy gets more expensive this stream of goods is bound to be effected. I can't help but wonder how that is going to change all of our lives. It's not hard to imagine buying less of the stuff I don't really need. It's harder to imagine having trouble finding things (like food and fabric) that I really do need.