Artelicious

Christmas in February

2012-02-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

A new home for books, fabrics and threads from a friend who is downsizing.

Yesterday turned out to be a day of goodies ... but with no calories! Sue and I met at noon at a friend's house. Our friend has moved into a smaller place, so her daughter was selling her quilting/fiber arts stuff to prepare the bigger house for rental. Our friend had taken many of the same local fiber arts/quilting workshops with us, so it was like old-home week, with hand-dyed threads from Ellen Anne Eddy and hand-dyed fabric from Hollis Chatelaine. Sue meandered quietly into a back room, and came across tons of Mickey Lawler's hand-painted "Skydyes" fabric. Lucky Sue!

The books, some of which I've always wanted, were free. These included many of the small but pricey Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn booklets from Great Britain, covering surface design and embroidery but on a cutting-edge level. At 24 pages, they normally sell for $20.95 -- no Amazon discount here -- an extravagance I never allowed myself. Lucky me -- eight of them for free!

In the photo above, you can see that our friend marked her books well with so many sticky notes upon notes they look like bristling, neon hedgehogs. It will take me a while to process these notes and remove them. But, through them, I'm getting to know our friend a lot better.

I was happy to come upon our friend's hand-dyed fabrics, packaged into related colorways.

Our friend, despite some serious physical challenges, was a talented and prolific hand-dyer. Although I also dye fabric and was recently given tons of new Procion MX dye powders and supplies (Thanks, Ruth!) ... I wanted to buy at least a few yards of our friend's work because a) it's awesome, and b) to remember her by. These related assortments came to $.50 a bag, containing a few yards each. Wow!

Mandelbrots, anyone?

Perhaps the most unique items I picked up were these "Cyber Fiber" pieces. Computer printed on lovely silk crepe, they depict fractal images. The one on the very right will make great bird plumage, don't you think?

But Wait: There's More!

When I returned home to my husband Andy, who had suggested I take a wheel-barrow for all the fabric I'd be buying (nice guy, I know) ... he surprised me with some goodies from his Dad's vintage electronics stash.

Can't Resist the Resistors

I picked out a few resistors, some cool knobs, diodes, washers and some ultra cool vacuum tubes. I'm not quite into Steampunk, but these might perk up an altered book or even a quilt.

This Analog Needle Gauge Measures Stuff

Andy was praying that I wouldn't claim the whole carload. He had promised our friend Ariane, who builds art assemblages, that she could help herself. I showed restraint, however. Besides the small stuff, I only asked for this cool aluminum box, complete with a latch (far right). The gauge is very sensitive. Where it will end up in my world of art is any one's guess.

Happy collecting and creating to you!

A New Book from Ellen Anne Eddy

2012-01-31T20:03:00.000-08:00

Just when I thought I could take a break from holidays I've found a new cause for celebration: C&T Publishing has just published a brand-new book by Ellen Anne Eddy: Thread Magic Garden.

Finally, Ellen's created a new wellspring of thread magic and inspiration!

I love Thread Magic Garden for many reasons. But first, a bit of background.

About 16 years ago, I wrote computer books and articles full time. So did my husband Andy; he still does. To break up our day, we'd often head to a nearby bookstore. Andy beelined for the computer book section, while I gravitated to the fiber arts shelves. At the time, my deadlines kept me too busy to actually experience quilting or fiber arts workshops. But I could buy books, and I did.

One title in particular, Thread Magic: The Enchanted World of Ellen Anne Eddy, changed my entire approach to stitching with thread on a sewing machine. I became fearless!

Thread Magic gave legions of readers and class participants a sense that they, too, could do this!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Computer writing slowed down, and I found more time for fiber arts. Soon, at a workshop with Joan Colvin, I met Sue. It didn't take us long to learn that we also shared a love for the work of naturalist thread painters Annemieke Mein and Ellen Anne Eddy. Sue was already experienced at organizing workshops with nationally acclaimed fiber artists/quilter teachers, and offered to bring Ellen to San Diego if enough of us showed interest. (Annemieke, being from Australia, was out -- at least for our guild's budget!) Naturally, we clamored for a workshop with Ellen.

Once she arrived, Ellen taught us how to work with rogue threads, glitzy and otherwise unquilterly fabrics, and everything else she knew. That session included a wild and messy "Dye Day" where we learned to build those bodacious backgrounds.

Metallic threads were no longer scary as I worked on my nudibranch.

But the thing I loved best about her book and her spirit was that she wasn't all, "This quilt shows the egrets on Lake Ever-Calm at twilight." No ... her captions and life stories vividly described a relationship's end (the quilt picturing two fish staring each other down ... ); or how a frog quilt expressed her feelings of isolation at a certain party. And then there's the egrets!

Being a fan of personal and real, I related to Ellen's book and her classes immediately. I think she related to me, too. So much so -- maybe it was some sort of a karmic thing -- that we ended waking up the morning of a workshop to watch, right there on my living room TV, the Second Tower getting smithereened on 9/11. You see, for the second time, I was hosting one of her workshop stays here in San Diego.

We made some phone calls. Most of the class members voted to get together despite the horrific attack -- feeling that our common bond with art and fiber would allow the healing process to begin. And it did, although poor Ellen finally had to ride a Greyhound bus in great discomfort to return home to Indiana.

Years later Thread Magic sold out, going out of print. But the demand for it among fiber artists and quilters was so high that a different publishing house reprinted it. One thing I do know a little about is the trade book business -- and having readers clamor for -- and get -- a reprint is pretty rare.

Well, now there's a new Ellen book to celebrate: Thread Magic Garden. Like her previous book, this one covers her art form with detailed, beautifully photographed instructions. New techniques have appeared since then, however, like Angelina fibers and "thread globbing," providing exciting new coverage.

Another big difference between the books: the galleries of quilts in Thread Magic served as pure inspiration, a jumping ground for the reader's own ideas. After all, who would want to copy someone else's art quilt? But in the new book, Ellen rightfully assumes the reader may want to learn how to best represent a given flower. Thus flowers are placed into categories based on their general shapes, each showing its components before construction, the finished composition before thread painting, the finished, stitched flower and leaves in huge close-up, and a photo, often taken by Ellen herself, of the actual plant.

These pages also include a bit of lore on each flower: some mythological, others from the language of flowers. Ellen has the gift of succinct writing so these tidbits never become overdone.

Repeated throughout the book is a compact chart on the main stitch types and their various effects: Slanted for Shading, Straight for Smoothing, etc. These charts are a valuable tool, proving that this somewhat daunting art form doesn't have to be. Finally, the last few pages provide how-tos for frogs, dragonflies and other creatures. It wouldn't be an Ellen book without them.

Lest this sound too much like a rave, I found one drawback: Ellen's Hosta page didn't show the leaves. Would-be English garden people who live in arid areas, like me, can't grow many of the plants she gives us: but now we can stitch them!

Incidentally, over the years we've collected a nice selection of Ellen's quilts. In my next post I hope to share some of these with you. In the meantime, happy stitching or whatever helps your creative juices flowing.

Good Reads in 2011

2012-01-08T12:09:00.000-08:00

Normally I'd describe or review books in the right-hand column, like my previous reviews. (Scroll down and look to the right of the page and you'll find my other reviews, in a long column, if you want to read them.) Blogger calls this a "list," however, and it's inconvenient both to write in and to view. So here, in sort of an order, is a blog post covering some of the books I've enjoyed in the past few months.

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, by Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson.

At first I feared this would be another story about a Western woman awakening from a fling with a handsome Middle Eastern foreign student, to find herself married, spirited away to over there, and confined to lifelong purdah.

Instead, the witty and determined author tells a true story of heading to Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission ... as a hairdresser. As the mission team goes around the circle introducing themselves as doctors, medics, nurses, administrators and whatnot, Rodriguez is sure the others will heckle her when she reveals her particular skill. Instead, they rush her in gratitude -- anticipating a decent cut or color job without flying to Kuwait or somewhere.

The story gets gritty when she learns more about the culture. Ding! A light goes on, and her true calling there reveals itself. The Afghan women she met, in complete subjugation to husbands or cruel mothers-in-law, suffered a paralyzing life scope. Plus, due to the economy of war, their husbands were often unemployed, and the women, with no skills or autonomy, had no way of bringing in some desperately needed extra income. Rodriguez uses her head (and her client earnings), and opens a beauty school. It turns out that the Afghan culture is big on massive, elaborate weddings -- with the attendant need for massive hair, nails, and makeup.

A true story, sad at times, but ultimately uplifting (and thanks to the narrator's spunky inflection, super fun to audit).

* * *

I never realized the physical strenuousness involved in being a field biologist. The next two books spare neither backaches nor death-defying feats!

Condors in Canyon Country, by Sophie A. H. Osborn

This beautifully written book describes the joys and sorrows experienced by the field crew working for years to reintroduce the California Condor to the Grand Canyon region.

The magnificent vultures, sporting nine-foot wingspans, have flourished in that region since the Pleistocene era, but modern times have seen their extinction there -- thanks to DDT, lead bullets in their prey, random shooting and/or persecution by hunters and ranchers, and their own tendency to bring garbage and trash up to their nestlings. (You wouldn't believe what some of the x-rays reveal!)

Because Condors are the only species where every one is trapped, numbered, and (most) equipped with a radio device, this book delves deeply into the antics and personalities of each bird as an individual. It's obvious that Osborn, a head biologist there, was deeply passionate about her work -- and the birds. She longs for the day when a condor can fly free, their plentiful numbers ensuring the birds won't have to be wearing numbers.

Much of the biologists' work involves constant monitoring, which sometimes leads to "hazing" the birds. This is where the feats of daring come in. "Hazing," or scaring the condors, is necessary when the birds come too close to humans, when they perch in an area too accessible to coyotes and other predators, and when they must be flushed from their nest so trash can be removed and nestlings assessed for health and progress. At times, this involves all-night hikes into remote areas; primitive camping; and, when needed, scaling the red cliffs and towers to reach a bird or nest site. Whew: It got this acrophobe's skin tingling!

Featured are beautiful, full-color photographs of the stunning Grand Canyon region and the incredible birds. Plus the book is clearly written for the layman, yet with passion and pluck. I loved this book. Andy even read it! (He doesn't get much time for reading non-computer books.) Check it out from your library (don't audit it or you'll miss out on the photographs).

Ravens in Winter, by Bernd Heinrich

Once I got past the introduction, this book seized my imagination and I couldn't put it down. Intrigued after watching the most intelligent bird species interact with its fellows, Heinrich decides to make a study of their habit of food sharing.

Most species don't go and recruit others of their kind to come share a carcass or other food source, but Heinrich suspects that's just what some of these corvids are up to. I won't go into too much more detail -- the back of the book's filled with graphs, charts and such, so he was pretty serious about his research. I won't give away his conclusions, either, except to say that reaching them involved many years of hauling dead sheep and cattle, piles of organs, carcasses -- even roadkill -- up a steep hill in the punishing Vermont winter snows. Oh, and there's freezing in his uninsulated cabin, climbing that mondo-tall pine tree in order to retrieve chicks for marking, and more. Yikes!

A fun read if you already enjoy science-oriented non-fiction.

Orxy and Crake, by Margaret Atwood

A harrowing vision of the future, and a compelling love story, this is the best speculative fiction I've read lately.

Actually, I enjoyed the audio book, downloaded gratis from my local library. (Try this!) The narrator is having fun reading this book and goes into character very convincingly. A must-read/hear.

* * *

I guess books do open new worlds, after all. Good reading to you in 2012, and stop to drop me a line and tell me what's on your bedside table or audio toy.

Design Wall Monday: A Tour of My Studio (a return post)

2012-01-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

Another Design Wall Monday has rolled around. Today, my post literally will be about my design wall, and the rest of my studio. So come in and take a peek. (It will never look this tidy again.)


My worktable, two elevated tables covered with a huge cutting mat atop a melamine surface.Andy installed a track light system above: some spots and some floods. Nice and warm!

Salvaged closet shelves store books; cutting rulers and rotary cutters on walls. Art supplies stored on the corner bookshelf; paper craft supplies like stamps, inks, stencils and other stuff live in the green and white bins under my Little Prince clock.

Under the worktable, a chest of drawers stores non-cottons (glitzy stuff and tulle), my hand-dyes and others', and ethnic fabrics, topped with ironing supplies.

Under the other side of my worktable, stacked bins hold longer lengths of yardage.

To left of machine area, this Chinese inlay chest stores beads, and beading books and tools.

One-half yard lengths and fat quarters of quilting cottons, sorted by color or genre (Japanese-type, edibles, etc.), and filed into Ikea Trofast bins. Atop, my collection of Dover books and Quilting Arts magazines, along with some sewing mags and photos.

To the left of the fabric bins, a smaller Trofast unit stores UFOs (Unfinished Fiber Objects).

My back wall serves as a design wall. I can stand pretty far back from it to get a better idea of what's going on.

To the left of the design wall, my file cabinets, a scanner and a yoga book/mag collection.

Here are my trusty computer, two printers: laser and ink-jet, plus a land-line phone to the left of the file cabinets and books.

My pressing station, with a Big Board, a large, padded board that fits on top of a regular ironing board. I can raise it all to make a surface that's level with the worktable. That's handy for pressing stretchy fabrics you don't want dangling off the ironing board -- or just for some spare room to lay out stuff.


The "heart" of my room: a strangely angled corner with my Bernina sewing machine, and cabinets holding my serger, threads and other supplies.


To the right of my sewing machine is a small, shorter table I use for spot pressing, rotary cutting small bits, or raising tomato and pepper seedlings (see the grow lights on pulleys above). Usually the table holds my netbook and speaker, and plays my current audio book. In the room's closet, my rayon machine embroidery threads and arcane supplies.


The other side of the closet holds clear bags of yarns, trims, lace and hand-embroidery threads. The chests of drawers hold my collection of clothing patterns. On the top shelf I've stacked my way too large collection of garment fabric.

Thanks for visiting my studio. Although I'm sure to get great ideas as I view the studios of other fiber artists, I probably won't be able to do much about it: this one's stuffed to the rafters!

An Homage to the Birds

2012-01-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

More and more, as we continue to explore nature with avid birders' eyes, we seek out regional parks and nature reserves. Most of these tend to publish leaflets, maps, and bird lists. These have piled up on our coffee table:

An abundance of information, but a bit cluttery.

So, as it's obvious I haven't been spending my time decking the halls and trimming the tree, here's what I've been working on. I'm covering a sturdy shoebox with hand-dyed fabric, and cutting out bird photos and drawings to collage on it. I figure I can store all the maps and checklists and brochures inside, and it might even look a little better than piles of papers strewn all over our living room.

Once the blue fabric's down on the shoebox (left), I'll add some of these cut-out bird photos.

You've probably heard my inner debates about whether I'm a hoarder. Well, the other day on Freecycle, someone was giving away a set of old encyclopedias. Who could resist? Somehow (probably because the books lived in Nestor, down near the very birdy Tijuana River Valley Regional Park), Andy agreed to drive down with me and pick up the 24-volume Collier's Encyclopedia set.

The "B" volume, containing the Birds article with pages and pages of vintage illustrations by Douglas Howland, is shown above, right. I thought the 50's era books would be perfect for cutting up and using in collages, altered books, decoupage or even art quilts. But who can bear to cut up such a cool old book?

Sigh. I see the future, and it's a New Year's resolution: to use up my art supplies without guilt and/or hoarding!

I wish you all the best in 2012.

Ho Ho Hummm, and Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T23:16:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wanted to skip the fuss of a holiday? Me too. Usually, I'm compelled by outside forces to do the traditional thing. But this year's Christmas was different.

Deck this.

We almost got a real tree, like the one below. It's our custom, well before Christmas, to head to Portreo, a small town in SE San Diego County -- close to the Mexican border. Once we hit the tree farm, we roam the rows with grave countenances, marking our favorites with fallen bark or branches. Finally, we narrow it down to The Tree. The pretty drive out into the back country makes it a tradition we enjoy.

Remembrances of Trees Past ...

This year, however, our friend Sue had spent the night, which she used to do much more often before she bought her home in Ramona. As is our habit when we get together with Sue, we eat, enjoy wine, and watch a movie or two; this time True Romance, written by, but not directed by one of our favorites: Quentin Tarantino. Rent it now! Of course we slept in the next day, and thanks to our late start, we decided to show Sue our favorite nearby birding spots, instead. No tree for 2011!

We took Sue to the 'Drip' at Cabrillo National Monument, on the tip of Point Loma. A previous visit revealed six more California Quail joining this group: chubby, bluish balloons.

If you had/have a tree, I hope that it was/is wonderful! If you celebrate a different holiday, I hope your particular celebration was full of joy -- or, if you don't celebrate any particular holiday at all, I wish for all of you a year of contentment. Most of all, I hope that all of you have a great New Year. Here's to a peaceful 2012.
Love,
Tina

You Never Know ...

2011-12-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

With bird watching, you never know what you'll see. Nature, being nature, is unpredictable. And, let's face it, she's a little cruel at times, too.

We didn't have much time to spend Sunday with Gabriel, my cousin. We decided to bird close to home, on an older residential street that's heavily wooded with large, usually birdy trees. We didn't see the migrants reported by others on the San Diego Birds List, but we had a lovely stroll. Then, as we were walking back to the car, we all heard a huge "thwoomp." But Gabe happened to be facing back the way we'd come, and alerted us to this.

This red-shouldered hawk made a giant thud when landing.

Then we saw this smallish hawk pick up his prey.

Heavy baggage!

We gasped as the drama unfolded just feet away. It seems as if the hawk had been perched nearby, just waiting for us to walk by the scene of his intended kill. When he had poked his head up from the brush, he might have been making sure we didn't mean to compete with him for the delicious rodent.

We weren't sure if the raptor could clear the ground clutching such a heavy prize in his talons.

Forgive the blurry shot, but Andy had only seconds to grab these. Will the hawk make lift-off?

We were still in awe as the hawk gained altitude.

Looks like he'll make it.

With relief, we saw it soar into a nearby tree for cover, and to enjoy a well-deserved meal.

Victory!

I wonder how long it will last him?

May your week be full of serendipity and adventure, wherever you may find it.

A New and Different Raptor for Us ...

2011-11-29T23:18:00.000-08:00

We spotted this wonderful hawk in a tangle of branches far above the canyon to the west of Balboa Park's dog park. We're still new to bird watching, however, and would like some help with identifying it, if you can shed any light for us.

We think it's either a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk. They're very similar, but the latter's smaller. I was struck by the small size of this hawk upon walking up on it, which is why I'm leaning toward the latter. Andy think's it's a Cooper's, because it seems to him at least 16" tall. Either way, we think it's a young adult, inbetween juvenal and adult plumage.

Thanks in advance, and enjoy this wonderous world of ours.

Grandmother's Thanksgiving Soup

2011-11-28T23:37:00.000-08:00

Delicious turkey soup is a blank canvas for whatever you have on hand.

Some years we use every last bit of the Thanksgiving turkey, carcass and all. Other years, we snooze and lose, tossing it when it gets too old. This year I was inspired by the "Dave's Leftover Turkey Soup" recipe in the Anderson's La Costa Nursery e-newsletter. I wanted to ensure we turned our turkey's carcass into a nice, simple soup this time. I guess Andy thought the recipe was a little too simple, so he came up with this delicious version. I hope you still have your turkey's bones, and maybe some leftover meat around.

We call this "Grandmother's" soup because we ended up using leftovers and what we had on hand, instead of running out to buy red potatoes and whatever else Dave's recipe required. We had some extra sliced squash we had prepped for a not-so-crusty side of Crusted Butternut Squash; lots of wild rice, prepared for my Wild Rice and Cornbread Dressing (Fine Cooking, Nov. 2000, No. 41); and staples like carrots and celery. Using what we had on hand, we felt, was what Grandmother would have done.

Stock Talk
The day before Thanksgiving had served as our major prep and cooking day. While making my dressing, I'd added the turkey's neck, gizzards and heart to some four quarts of store-bought chicken stock, to far exceed the one cup needed. To us, stock is like the heart of our culinary souls, and we almost always make and freeze a variety of homemade types: beef-heart, chicken, chicken feet (super-gelationous, check your Asian market for chicken feet); demi-glace (super-reduced, brown the bones, first); and even shellfish stock. Alas, this holiday we'd run out of homemade chicken, thanks to trying to blow through our frozen foods before being tented for termites. So we amended the organic stock-in-a-box with those turkey parts, instead. Still, it came out delicious, I think.

To the leftover stock, Andy added the turkey carcass and simmered it for several hours. After an overnight in the fridge, the next morning he simmered it another hour, removed all bones and skin and giblets, strained the stock twice, then added a few peppercorns and two bay leaves.

A Handful of Chicos
Andy also added an ingredient that might be a little unfamiliar: chicos.

Chicos, dried corn, add that special glow to a soup or stew.

Similar but different to canned hominy, chicos are basically dried corn, bought in bulk and much adored in Taos and other northern New Mexico locales. Maybe they're beloved in regular Mexico, too; I'm not sure and I'm sure not going there. Chicos add pizazz to any type of soup or stew. They're toothsome, chewy and provide great fiber. It's pure and clean food, if you know what I mean.

I'll bet you can find them at your local market if you look in the Spanish or Mexican section. Andy added just a few tablespoons, but they enhanced the equally toothsome wild rice, below.

Wild rice adds a nutty and chewy quality to a simple soup.

Wild Mushrooms
Andy had on hand a small packet of dried mushrooms, below, from Mycological Wild Gourmet Mushrooms' "Northwest Mix." He reconstituted these in a cup of hot stock. After 30 minutes, he strained it all through a coffee filter and added the stock to the soup. He rinsed the mushrooms, chopped them up, and added them to the soup, as well. Fresh wild or everyday button mushrooms would also serve well.

Dried mushrooms provide variety and tender flavor.

The Fresh Veggies
Then Andy added to the strained stock two or three cups of the leftover butternut squash strips, one rib of peeled, chopped celery; and one peeled carrot, in 1/4" rounds. After simmering it all for an hour, he sauteed a small, chopped onion and about four minced garlic cloves in a bit of olive oil, just until translucent, pouring these into the soup.

Adding the Turkey
While the squash cooked to al dente, he chopped the leftover bits of turkey meat into half-inch cubes, added them, then let it all simmer for another half hour. Finally, to season the soup, we added the juice of one lemon and a pinch of salt and pepper. Take this last step at your own pace: We love our lemons.

Serving the Soup
We spooned some of the already-cooked wild rice in the bottom of our bowls without bothering to heat it up (to keep it from getting mushy). Then we ladled out generous and scrumptious helpings of soup on top. A few drops of Tamari (aged, organic soy sauce) provided that elusive umami to our simple but delicious supper. We ate it again tonight. Yum!

Happy Holidays!
I hope all of you had a beautiful and delicious holiday -- full of family, friends, and your own cherished dishes. Did you manage to do something interesting with your turkey leftovers and/or carcass? Are you thinking of using any or all of our ideas? Please comment -- link to your own blogs and recipes, if possible ... and share with all of us.

Night Garden, critique on block placement, please

2011-11-19T22:16:00.000-08:00

Would you mind taking a look at my color/value placements, now that I've finished the sashing blocks, and moved every main block around at least 20 times? Please leave me an email (tina@tinarathbone.com) or a comment. You are all so appreciated. Thank you in advance.

"Night Garden," plastered onto the design wall.. Does anything jar? Need moving? Sorry about the file cabinet on the bottom left: can't move it. Thanks!!!

Late Fall Flowers Prove Healing After Termite Tenting

2011-11-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

Simple flowers add the crowning touch after moving back home.

We just returned from the pet forgiving, but rather yucky motel room we rented for three nights while our home was tented for termites. Back at home, once we cleaned the shelves and stowed everything in its place, I felt the Domestic Goddess urge and created the above arrangement out of ornamental plum and bouganvillia. To me, it says Late Fall.

The "vacation" wouldn't have been so bad if we could have left the room, and maybe gone birding or visited a restaurant. But we wanted to stay and reassure the very freaked-out kitties. Despite an abundance of food, water, toys and their sandbox -- and most important, their loving people -- Chevy and Lotus pretty much hung out under the bed the whole time. Cats, I've concluded, are not like dogs.
Dogs: "Cool! New smells! I love an adventure."
Cats: "What was that noise? I'm going to die."

Chevy and Lotus enjoy their home away from home.

Knowing we'd be stuck in the room, I packed various "fun kits" which also required moving: my ukulele and some music; my birder's guide and binoculars; a netbook computer and little speakers; and a sewing machine and supplies. We also passed the time enjoying old movies on TCM, like "Shanghai Express" starring Marlene Dietrich. I wonder how many suitcases she had?

Keeping busy during the Big Wait.

Most people live in regions with cold winters. Termites, if any, freeze. Or, in warmer climes, people move every ten years or so, and don't have to go through this ordeal more than once in a given residence. Well, when someday I do move out of here, they're carrying me out in a box! It's not so much that I'm attached to this home, although, after 12-some years, I've grown to love it. It's just the act of moving that brings me down. Yikes!

Any plant slated to live had to be wheeled on a dolly up the U-Haul's ramp, by Andy.

Days before the tenting, we worked like ants: boxing up our spices, the pantry, freezers and fridges. Out came our wine cellar, our meds, toothpastes, my lipsticks ... you name it. What's worse, our garden's on a patio, shown above, that is covered in slate. All our plants are in containers. But the patio had to be tented too, because its wood foundations attach to the house (patio and house are on stilts, off the ground). Anyways, all the moveable plants had to go ... so we rented a U-Haul and stored them inside it for three days. They fared pretty well, despite having no light. But many other plants, like our lemon tree, center, were simply too big to be moved. Oh well ... maybe with time it and the others will revive.

With all of that, I have very little spirit left for cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I'll probably rally, though. And how was your week?

Design Wall Monday: A Spring Jacket (ugh)

2011-10-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

I selected this princess line pattern for a Continuing Ed. class on Spring Jackets

I've always enjoyed making clothing. When I noticed a class on making a jacket in the Fall Continuing Education catalog, I jumped in, even though a late return from our vacation forced me to register a few weeks into the semester. Kathleen Swanson, the teacher, uses a method called "tissue fitting" instead of making a muslin to ensure the pattern fits. I've never tried this before, so am stretching my skills a bit here.

To tissue fit, you reinforce the pattern's curved areas with tape, then cut slashes just to the seam allowance (the line you sew on, on the fabric). Then you pin the seams together and try on half the jacket paper pattern. A sewing buddy (in my case, the teacher) makes sure that key parts of the pattern fall where they should: notably, the Center Back, the shoulder, the bust point, Center Front, etc. If not, you adjust the paper pattern by cutting and spreading, then taping additional pattern paper under the spread (to enlarge it).

Butterick 5393 on an actual model.

With me and projects, "complicated" seems to be the byword. On a normal pattern, you would extend the side front panel to make the necessary enlargement for my body. But look at those pleats! I'm avoiding enlarging my pattern, even though the teacher wants me to add 1 1/2 inches, because I'm not sure whether to pin the pleats together and then slash, or what! Here's the culprit side-front panel:

Pleats increase the complexity of my jacket's pattern.

I think what I'll do is trace the pattern piece onto a new pattern paper, and experiment making that adjustment. If you have ideas, please comment!

Needless to say, this one never saw completion.

Of course, I've always gone for the complicated. Above is a pattern I bought for my second sewing effort, at age 12 or so. Naturally, I chose a ravel-prone silky fabric for the skirt. Now the project lives in a box in my shed. At size 10, I'm sure that's where it will stay.

What's cooking over your way? Oh, and Happy Hallow'een!

Stunning Sunset at Sunset Cliffs ...

2011-10-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we birded late into the evening and drove over the hill to see this stunner:

This vista greeted us on our drive back from birding Famosa Slough.

I'm back and blogging. Tomorrow I'll do a "design wall" post and write more about why I've been away. In the meantime, don't forget to eat your persimmons, pomegranites, and pears. Yum!

My Design Wall This Week

2011-08-31T16:04:00.000-07:00

I think I preferred it when she only 'helped' with quilting projects.

This week, I'm trying to finish sewing a Swing Top pattern from an indie pattern company, Hot Patterns. I'd like to wear it on our annual pilgrimage to the Wine Country Ukulele Festival.

Hot Patterns' "No Sweat, Easy Sew Poetry in Motion Tops": I Can Do This!

I usually get into quite enough trouble buying too many of the "Big Four" patterns -- often more mainstream and usually much cheaper than indie companies' -- but this one was being discontinued (read: at deep discount), and is right in line with my "non-form-fitting" current figure.

Is it possible to keep a sewing assistant from assisting?

Lotus is holding down the obstinate fabric I've chosen for a "muslin": a rayon plaid with a crinkle texture. The word muslin describes an inexpensive, plain cotton fabric, but it also means the result of sewing a mock-up or trial run of your given pattern. Many muslins are/were made of muslin, hence the name. But because my fashion fabric is a light, drapey rayon voile, I found it best to sew it in a similarly drapey fabric to better fit the pattern, or work out any kinks.

After making sure the plaid top fits, I'll make it in this fabric.

Was it really necessary to make a fitting muslin for such a loose top? Well, I'm a member of PatternReview.com, a helpful, free website where other people review patterns you might own. By all accounts, HP105 runs very large. So I'll try it out first in the plaid. It, too, will make a nice top.

Speaking of fabric stashes, this is how I organize my garment fabrics:

A fabric swatch, each on its own index card, is grouped and ring-bindered.

Because I purchase garment fabrics in longer lengths of yardage, it's inconvenient to cart them around town trying to find complimentary fabric for a top, bottom, or trim. So I cut a small swatch from each, staple it to an index card, write down whatever info I can, and punch a hole in it. Then I use a simple binder ring to group them, by storage area or by fabric type: the group on the right are all knits, for example. This is an easy way to keep an eye on what I already own, too, instead of heading back to that fabric store! And, when leafing through pattern catalogues, you know if you have enough yardage for a given view.

Happy sewing -- or pursuing whatever gives you that creative thrill!

This Week on my Design Wall

2011-08-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

We've slowed down the bird watching just a bit. At one point we were going out twice a day! And look what we saw on a morning when we met some very dedicated birders:

This guy has a swell bird photography setup!

With more time in my studio, I'm plugging along with the Star Flower quilt, which I've decided to name "Night Garden." Only seven more blocks remain to be made to complete the bottom row of star flowers.

Working on the final row of "main" blocks for "Night Garden," based on the "Star Flower" pattern.

Critique time: Please play along!
Generally, I cut my fabrics a little at a time until I'm pleased with the colors and values. Now, in deciding on my final blocks, I hope to add another of each of the blocks that read as beigy-green. (Top row, second in from right. Bottom row, third in from left.)

If I add those lights, will I lose the effect of dark fabrics almost fading into black?

My final need for feedback involves the brightest block: If I add another bright orange/magenta hand-dye like the one in the center, would it be too obviously "two"?

Is this guy too lonely? Is two too many? Three would probably skew the quilt to my usual "brights" palette, something I'm trying to get away from here.

Once the main blocks are done, it's time to design a cool sashing block to fill in those white spots you see. The pattern calls for a diamond in a square, but given my love of this quilt, I may just design my own thing. To see what's on other design walls, head on over to Patchwork Times and look for the "Design Wall" post. Happy Quilting!

Is That a Horse?

2011-08-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Driving up to our first visit to San Elijo Lagoon (yes, we're both from San Diego and have never known about the walks, the visitor's center, the wildlife) ... we saw this as we looked left from I-5 to Fiesta Island:

Forty or so horses, complete with elegant trailers and other transportation, cooled off at Fiesta Island.

I'm like, "Is that a horse?" We soon saw many more, maybe 40 horses in all. We headed west to circle Fiesta Island, like all of San Diego's Mission Bay a man-made heap and channels carved into native estuary, but recently created from what was once, long ago in the '50's, a dump site. Long before that, Mission Bay more resembled the salt-marsh, estuarine environment of Famosa Slough. (We naughty San Diego kids still call Fiesta Island "Fester Island.")

Being me and endlessly curious, I got out of the car (parking far away from the horses, who are prey animals and very skittish [no duh!]), and asked if there was a special event going on. As it turned out, people bring their horses to this area all the time, to cool them off. Most horses here live in East San Diego county, where it gets hot ... poor guys.

Stay cool! Hugs,
Tina in San Diego

The Bird is the Word

2011-08-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Gentle reader, I'm sorry to have left you for so long with such a cranky previous post, but we've been dabbling in birdwatching! When our drive back from Asilomar this spring yielded sightings of more than 30 species and images like those below, our excitement about birds was kindled. Indeed, bird, bird, b-bird is the word!


American Black Oystercatcher, Pt. Lobos, CA, taken through binoculars by Andy.


Cormorant and chicks, unidentified, Pt. Lobos (also taken via binoculars by Andy).

After arriving home, we ordered a Peterson's Field Guide to Birds of Western North America, and a birding basics book (Sibley). It's been a whirlwind of feathered friends ever since. Since June 25th, we've photographed and listed 30 species in our little pocket Life List book. This probably does not count as astronomical among more experienced birders, but we're having fun. And, as the minuscule progress on my quilt shows, we're getting out a lot more -- a good thing.

At least 30 such Great Egret nests in a huge eucalyptus tree, at Lindo Lake, Lakeside (Andy).

A fun aspect about birding is that you can combine it with photography, sound recording, sketching, hiking, and even quilting -- just about any of your other interests. (Okay, Andy: maybe not extreme cooking.) So when a Big Birthday rolled around for Andy recently, he treated himself to a digital SLR camera and a nice zoom lens -- no more need to shoot through binoculars with my humble point-and-shoot.

We spotted this poor Budgie, an outcast among a huge flock of sparrows, near Dog Beach.

My favorite part of birding is coming home, hooking camera to TV, and viewing some beautiful birds close-up. Being such rank beginners, being able to look at our images and then consult our bird books means an easier time of I.D.'ing the sometimes maddeningly similar sub-species. Fortunately, the little guy tagging along with the sparrows, above, was pretty easy to identify! And no, at this point, we won't even attempt to I.D. the sparrow. There's gazillions!

Another fun aspect of birdwatching is meeting nice people. We recently drove to the nearby San Diego River Least Tern nesting area, just east of Dog Beach, where we met Brian, also photographing birds. We were facing away from the river, above, when he said, "Look, a Skimmer!" Andy managed to get some shots in what was by then very low light, but we probably wouldn't have seen our first Skimmer without Brian's cue.


A Black Skimmer, unique with a bigger lower beak than upper, skims for a fish (low light, Andy).

Finally, our new hobby gets us out to the most beautiful places. I've always considered La Jolla's Seven Caves coast walk, perched high above La Jolla bay, a personal sanctuary. So we were thrilled to find that it's also a wonderful sanctuary to our local and migrant birds.

After Andy captured this scene, this Western Gull flew off and its mate landed with a fishy meal for the chicks. Unfortunately, the anchovy was way too big for the little ones. Try again, Pops!

As with all of my photos here, feel free to click on them to get closer-up. I hope you're having fun this summer, too! Hugs and love.

Design Wall Monday, Piece N Quilt's "Star Flower": A Poor Excuse for a Quilt Pattern

2011-07-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

I'm not a whiner. I debated for weeks before posting this critique. But Piece N Quilt's Star Flower pattern is sub-standard. Yes, even if I won the pattern. So, here goes:

My progress on Star Flower: after becoming dispirited, not so good.

On first opening this pattern, I found a color picture on the front and four small pages inside. The diagram for putting together the main block, above, was pretty clear, although there were no suggestions for pressing. (Quilt blocks go together easier when their seam allowances are pressed in two different directions and then abutted. It's worth it to think this through before you go to the ironing board. Most patterns include suggestions.)

More crucially, the pattern included no diagram at all for making the "Diamond Blocks," that row of green-dot diagonal squares under the main blocks on the pattern's photo, below. Worse still, the instructions for these blocks, just three short sentences, were plain wrong.

See those green diamonds? Don't try to figure these out based on the pattern's instructions!

After spending an anguished weekend trying to contact the pattern's creator, Natalia Bonner, she sent me back a link to a tutorial that had nothing to do with the pattern's instructions. A couple of weeks later I met with the Brownie Troop, my small quilting group: where four quiltmakers who'd been pursuing this art form for an average of 30 years each couldn't make sense of the pattern's instructions.

I spent most of my career life as a technical editor and writer, and then ran technically oriented magazines (personal computers, and then supercomputers). I am appalled that Natalia didn't take the time or energy to draw a simple diagram and explain the 'sashing' blocks better -- either in her pattern or in one of the many email responses I asked for. Based on her tutorial and the directions on the pattern, you will end up with a 3.25" block instead of the 4.25" block required.

All in all, the patterns from Piece N Quilt are better left on the shelf.

In happier news, we spent a wonderful weekend at the first annual San Diego Ukulele Festival. More about that in my next post.

Again, please forgive my silence here, but I was so conflicted about posting lest I say anything negative. After all, the pattern maker is probably trying to find a career where she can stay home and work. But, that is no excuse for a very frustrating experience for her customers.

Peace out, dear readers. And happier quilting to those of you who love this art form as I do.

Design Wall Monday: Star Flower

2011-06-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hi again! This is what's on my design wall today: a quilt called Star Flower that I'm making for a dear friend. It's one of three patterns I won during the Blogger's Quilt Festival. Instead of the "Modern Quilt" look on the pattern, shown below this photo, I'm going for moody, dark colors. They suit my friend's home much better.

Star Flower, in moody colors.


The Star Flower pattern by Piece'N'Quilt.

One thing I love about the version shown on the pattern is the way the lightest blocks disappear into the quilt's white background. (You can click any of my photos to make them bigger, if that helps.) So I pulled some very darks, hoping they'll blend into my version's black background.

More of the fabrics I'm considering for this quilt.

See the black batik under the yellow rotary-blade cover? Do you think that will make a nice blendy disappearing value? Hope so. To see more design wall sharing, head to the wonderful Patchwork Times website.

Oh, and before I forget, a shot of my Quality Control department.
Happy Monday! Gotta go teach me some yoga!

Back From Asilomar Vacation!

2011-06-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings, devoted Reader. I'm sure you've gazed long enough at the bedraggled, wet parrots in my previous post, but I've been away from my blog, on my annual trip up to Asilomar Conference Grounds.

A room with a view ...

Asilomar is a state beach situated on a wild stretch of pine and cypress forest fronting the Pacific ocean south of Pacific Grove, on the Montery Peninsula. At any given time, Asilomar hosts conferences ranging from firefighters to rangers to religious groups. My particular conference is organized by Empty Spools Seminars, which organizes five week-long sessions, each offering workshops with your choice of one of ten or more world-class textile/quilt artists. All meals are included -- that means more creating and less cooking.

Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer and my table-mate, Dee. Notice the wonderful Arts and Crafts details in our building, the Merrill Hall assembly room.

I chose to study with Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer. Jeannette's a true teacher, in the studio school of the Oregon College of Art and Craft, and a real philosopher --she loves to talk about science and creativity. Fascinating, strong, talented and funny, she brought our group together to the point where we're still exchanging group emails and sharing our work, resources, and encouragement. Thanks for a super session, Jeannette! And thanks to Gail and Suzanne for yet another great Empty Spools.

Point Lobos, mid-June, wildflowers abounding.

Jeannette's class was part of Session V, the latest in Spring I've attended. I've never seen so many wildflowers! On our way home, we drove a short distance to Point Lobos, which landscape artist Francis McComas described as "The greatest meeting of land and water in the world." She was not exaggerating.

This guy's enjoying beautiful Carmel Valley.

After that, we chose to take a longer route, through Carmel Valley, back to Hwy. 101. We've never counted so many species of birds and animals, including the fine fellow above.

Good work on The Beard, Andy!

It's funny, but during the seminar, the other attendees, mostly women, kept asking Andy if he was keeping busy enough while I was working on arty stuff. He told them all that he was working on his beard. He did a good job, too.

Wet Parrots, and I'm a Winner, Again!

2011-05-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

This pair, and several others, braved the drips and drops in our unseasonably wet Spring.

Last year, just about this time, I blogged about the flock of parrots mating in the eucalyptus trees outside our living room windows. They haven't been back for that specific activity, but we did get a few waterlogged visitors the other day. Wouldn't you think they'd find a more sheltering tree? They just kept shaking off the rain and looking a bit miserable, at least as miserable as such a funny animal can.

One of three Piece N Quilt patters I won. Simple, fun, and at home with my contemporary home.

In other news, Saturday I received an email from Amy telling me I'd won one of the prizes on Blogger's Quilt Festival. Quilting must be lucky for me. This time, I won three patterns of my choice from Piece N Quilt, an indie pattern/quilting company up in Utah. I have a few quilts to give for various occasions, and these modern designs look perfect! To win a prize from one of the many generous vendors on Blogger's Quilt Festival, one needs only to leave a comment when they post their quilt photo. So if you didn't get around to posting a quilt on the Festival, think again for next Fall's Festival. And, Amy, thanks again for all you do for the community.

Andy and the Xoom, sketch

2011-05-18T23:51:00.000-07:00

Andy, relaxing on the couch with his Motorola Xoom

Am I daring enough to attempt a human sketch? I guess so! Of a relative? Yeah! A Husband? Wayy. I'm not going to put this down, at all, at all, at all ... really is it so half bad? It's awful, I know, but I'm going to plead "out of practice." And quickly sign up for a life-drawing class.
Love and hugs, and happy hump day to you! Sketchbook Challenge, here I come!

Space: The Final Frontier

2011-05-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

My studio's closet wall has needed pegboard for years.

The most recent art supply to enter my studio? A box of #10/2 perle cotton thread, on cones, in irresistible colors. A former weaver was moving to another state and donated about 20 huge, black garbage bags of the thread to Visions Art Museum's Spring Cleaning Sale -- on the very day I was there for my Visions Member's Critique Group. It was only right and just to support VAM, right? I bought tons.

Once home, the cones found their way into a large bin, and onto the floor. Did I say the bin was Large? When the clutter factor drove me a little berserk, I asked Andy to help me hang some pegboard in my studio's closet. He shopped for my pegboard hangers and accessories, and we spent a fun evening hanging everything. By the way, click on the Visions Art Museum link to see some of the outrageous entries in the current show, "Fashion Without Fabric." A black licorice evening gown, anyone?

Sketchbook Saturday: The Paris Review

2011-05-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday's Sketchbook Challenge entry, "The Paris Review." Prismacolor pencils, Pigma pen.

I've been trying for a sketch a day. It's probably not going to happen in this lifetime. But the idea of sketching everyday things appeals to me. And, so, I submit, "The Paris Review." Andy has stacks of them, being a long-time subscriber. I found the one at top right, from 1956, at a garage sale. It's number 12!

Blogger's Quilt Festival: "Wrapped in The Kiss" wedding quilt

2011-05-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

My entry for this spring's Blogger's Quilt Festival is a Blooming Nine-patch quilt called "Wrapped in The Kiss."

My former yoga teacher Sean traded Andy and me surfing lessons for a king-sized quilt he could give to his sister on her wedding day. I based it on colors from Gustav Klimt's famous painting, "The Kiss."

"Wrapped in The Kiss," by Tina Rathbone, June 2004

Somehow, this very large quilt looks more vibrant in this view on my living room floor:

Floor view gives a more realistic sense of the color play.

I used a combination of gold and white African fabric, an Asian crane print, and some shiny spandex/lycra fancy stuff for the center:

Center of this Blooming Nine-Patch quilt, "Wrapped in The Kiss"

Here's the label, which I printed with an Art-Nouveau typeface:

Label to commerate the wedding quilt

And last, but not least, two detail shots give a better view of the rather eclectic fabric combinations:

Detail, from center pinks out to greys

Detail 2, from florals, greys, golds and greens to binding, R

Thank you, Amy, for hosting yet another fabulous "Blogger's Quilt Festival," and thanks to all the participants for providing another round of endless entertainment, friendship and inspiration.

Sketching, with Resist

2011-05-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

The May Sketchbook Challenge theme is "Can't Resist This." I've already done a pile of garlic heads, something I can't resist adding Way More than a given recipe calls for. Rick Moore, my boss when I worked as a grad student in the Communications Office at San Diego State University, once called my pesto "Liquid Garlic."

Yesterday's sketch used a more literal interpretation of the theme: a physical resist applied to the sketchpad, and then painted over.

I used an empty sheet of Visions Art Museum stickers to create a resist. Fast and fun!

I volunteer at Visions Art Museum from time to time, working the desk and enjoying the visitors. We charge a $5 dollar admission fee to non-members, and when members show up or visitors pay the fee, we give them a round Visions sticker to wear. During my last desk duty, I noticed what a great resist the empty sticker sheet would make, and asked Sheila, the board member on duty, for permission to take it home. Major score! I'm going to try painting on fabric through it next.

I'm grateful for encouragement from websites like The Sketchbook Challenge; I'd forgotten how much fun it is to lose yourself in the moment of seeing. Whatever your particular art form, enjoy yourself during the creative process. And please, tell me all about your creations in your comments.

I'm a Featured Quilter on Amy's Creative Side website

2011-05-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, Amy of Amy's Creative Side, host of the Blogger's Quilt Festival, sent me some interview questions. I filled them in, and promptly forgot all about it.
Click here to see more of my quilts and get to know me a little better.
Thanks, Amy!!!

Oh, and get ready to photograph your latest or most favorite quilt: A new Blogger's Quilt Festival starts May 13th.

Sketchbook Saturday

2011-05-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

I spent a happy afternoon, and perhaps way too much time, sitting in front of a pile of garlic heads.
I wanted to try out my Inktense Pencils, and I reached out here with a bit of collage in the middle of the garlic head with the roots: some handmade paper I found, plastered on with Gel Medium and then scribbled on. Some of the pencil, especially the shadows, were either regular PrismaColor or Turquoise plain old graphite pencils (both not water-soluble, unlike the Inkense Pencils).
Here's my result:

Garlic atop a striped placemat.

I could totally dis' this and tell you everything that's wrong with it, but I'm a better person now ... and "I'm good enough, strong enough, wise enough, and People love me."
Hugs, and have fun creating, whatever medium, art form, food inspiration, home decor or anything else you're up to. Tell me about it all!!! If you comment, we can, like, interact and stuff!
Tina

Art Supplies: 100th Anniversary at Dick Blick Today: 25 % off Everything!

2011-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

A quickie post: Today I wandered into Blick Art Materials, needing some Soft Gel Medium. Lo and behold, they were giving away free t-shirts, waters, snacks, demos, eco-shopping bags, markers, and more! It turns out today is Blick's 100th Anniversary, so everything in the store is marked 25% off.

Here's a hint on what's currently on my Design Wall and why I needed more Gel Medium.

Thanks to the sale, I loaded up on a few other supplies, but of course, I ended up buying the wrong type of Gel Medium -- Regular instead of Soft. Anything to do with acrylic media -- even the paints -- confuses me. You should see all the different types on the shelf: They even carry a Gel Medium that adds a pebbly texture to your surface.

By the way, Blick's is starting to carry a lot more stuff to interest the fabric artist, including Soda Ash for dyeing, every form of Jacquard fabric paint, stencil brushes, unique and wonderful collage papers, and more. Sadly for me, Blick's stocked hardly any Setacolor (I need yellow).

Anyways, if you've been eyeing something and want to get a good and rare discount, get thee over to Blick's!

Addendum: Derwent Inktense Watersoluble Ink Pencils work supremely well for drawing/coloring on fabric, according to Quilt Visions Critique Group members Trish and Dave Charity. I watched a demo at Quilter's Paradise during the Cruisin' Quilters Shop Hop, witnessing vibrant results. I'll let you know how I like mine! Sets of these pencils are expensive, so maybe today's the day? :)

Sketchbook Sunday

2011-04-24T12:58:00.000-07:00


Morning Glory Climbing the Drink Cart

Yesterday I spent a pleasant afternoon with my sketchbook, a pen, some Caran d'Ache water-soluble crayons, a waterbrush, and my watercolors.

I sketched "plein air", from life, but took a photo during the sketching session.

Finally, I used my new "nice" Moleskine sketchbook -- the one I didn't feel I was "good enough" to use in my previous sketchbook post. Silly, huh? I'll make this my April submission to the Sketchbook Challenge. It's free and lots of fun, so join up: especially if you think you can't draw. Everyone can draw!

This month's theme is "Branching Out/Out on a Limb." The idea is to stretch yourself in some way. I stretched by using my Caran d'Ache crayons with water for the morning glories; also, the composition branches out. I'll try to work on more sketches for April this week.

Art supplies can be baffling, I know. So much is out there! So here's a photo of some of my favorites, and a bit about each one.

Some favorite sketching supplies.

From top, a collapsable water container, with a handle, gives a nice quantity of water for those long outdoor sessioons. A very reasonable set of brushes, from Dick Blick, serve well as a starter set. Above the red brushes sits a water brush. It's super convenient while out in nature -- or anywhere you don't want to deal with a water container. The messy looking thing in the center is a folding palette; your thumb goes in that thumb-shaped hole. It's small, but serves very well. A fan brush, a hake, and a feather can all add texture. A small set of water-soluble crayons and a waterbrush make for a lightweight sketch session, used alone. To the left, a set of Pigma Micron pens, with varying line widths, give a calligraphic quality. Under that, a water-soluble pencil, by Derwent, can smear and smudge nicely. It's pointing at some grey Prisma pencils, a Conte charcoal pen, a really sturdy pencil sharpener, and a kneadable eraser. A blue and brown Prismacolor duo, great for quick sketches, and, at bottom, some Conte pastels, round out the mix.

Cheap Fun

2011-04-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

If I had to name the most beloved cat toy around here, it'd have to be the yard of icky, black nylon netting I bought from the local craft store.

Lotus vanquishes the Net Monster, again and again.

A project called for some transparent fabrics, so I picked up a yard of this super-cheap, stiff netting. Later, I learned it was better to work with something called tulle, a finer, wedding-weight (okay, maybe not in black) netting. So the original, stiff netting ended up on the floor, as so much seems to around here. Soon the one yard piece had been shredded into two half-yards, and they promptly turned into vehicles for the cats to ride. If you want a new cat toy, or to be endlessly entertained, head to JoAnne or your local craft/fabric place and get some. Variations include dropping a puff-ball or toy mouse inside, where they have fun trapping, hiding, and pouncing on it; also, you can pick up the corners and drag the cat around inside the Net Monster. Hardwood floors are a boon for slip and slide action, especially if the cats can 'take off' from an adjacent carpeted area.

And, so you can get your Chevy fix:

Chevron, the newest sub-atomic particle.

Where have you all been?
Seriously, I've missed blogging and will try to be better about getting more posts out. The following is no excuse, but I've been involved in the type of art-quilt class that has proved a real stretch for me, and sometimes a source of real frustration. Let's just say that I don't feel I've been working to my strengths, so I'm not getting much done. Anyways, I've missed you and hope to be BACK! :)

Design Wall Monday: 2011 Cruisin' Quilters Shop Hop. I won!

2011-03-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

I love it when my friends ask me along for the San Diego Cruisin' Quilters Shop Hop. First of all, there's the camaraderie: good friends, fun times, a great lunch, and sharing all the quilts and excitement. Secondly, these gals are super-organized and very driven. Finally, I get a rare chance to shop.

I don't buy much fabric anymore. I have pretty much a "legacy" stash: Many of my friends are older quilters, who have downsized and need to get rid of lots of fabric. So I've benefited from their $1/yard fabric and $1/book sales. As a result, I have a dynamic and far-flung fabric collection, but, dare I say it, a lot of my fabric looks a bit dated. So when I crave the new batiks or the current fad, say, the modernist prints, I save up for the annual Shop Hop.

Found a Cozy chair, midway through the first Saturday of the Cruisin' Quilter's Shop Hop

I'm not suggesting that older fabrics aren't conducive to exciting quilts. Fiber artist Lori Lupe Pelish, for example, creates stunning, moody representational quilts using even the ditsiest little calicoes and the unlikeliest fabrics.

Sandi, Sue, Bonnie and I managed nine shops on the first Saturday. I told you they were driven. Kerry and her lovely daughter Kendyll joined us midway. I decided to be productive and select batiks for my second Judy Niemeyer quilt, The Crown of Thorns.

A quilt for my next Lakeside retreat.

I hit a couple of shops during the next week, alone. When I entered the parking lot at Quilt in a Day, this sign marked Eleanor Burns' spot:

Don't park here, whatever you do!

Sue kindly accompanied me for the next weekend's, and final, Hop, even though she'd already completed her "passport." Here's how it works: Each shop you visit stamps a "passport form," and if you visit all the shops, you turn in your passport to be entered into the Grand Prizes drawing at the end of the Hop.

Sue, in her element!

Sandi, left, and Bonnie look happy.

My haul: fabric, thread, tools and books and my first set of Bali Pops!

Well, Guess Who won the Grand Prize? Yes, on Saturday, I received a call from Daniela Stout, the owner of Cozy Quilt Shop, offering me the Bernina 350 PE, a beautiful, Swiss (need we add, precision) sewing machine. I was pretty excited (okay, overjoyed), emailing my fellow Cruisin' Quilters and calling my family, so by the time it came to go to bed I couldn't sleep! When I awoke at 7 a.m. to teach my 9 a.m. Sunday class at Frog's, I was so tired I forgot to pour a cup of coffee.

Continuous line quilting by treating the group of diagonal blogs and connectors as a circle.

So much for yogic detachment. Oh, and to adhere to the true Design Wall Monday theme, still trying to finish Morning After the Storm, I thought up a way to free-motion quilt the dark diamonds and intervening connectors without having to double-back or move the needle at all. I'm considering each group of diamonds as a circle, so not all of the sections you see are quilted; they'll be quilted in succeeding circles.
Thanks for visiting, and as always, your comments light up my day.

The Book Surgeon

2011-03-10T23:12:00.000-08:00

"Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed.:"

You MUST see this guy's work:
Brian Dettmer

Design Wall Monday

2011-03-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

Morning After the Storm, ready for the diamonds to be quilted in a sea-grass design.

After a short break, I returned to free-motion quilting the shells on my storm at sea quilt, Morning After the Storm. Also, in this photo, for the first time, you can see all of the trapunto'd (stuffed) sea creatures in the larger, darker squares ... finally completed. Of course, I will knot and "pop" the threads you see (if you click on the quilt for a closeup) between the quilt's layers where they won't show on front or back.

Now I need to come up with a simple quilting design for the dark diamonds. I'm thinking wavy lines to represent seaweed or sea grass. I was going to do Seahorses on the vertically oriented diamonds. Andy found me a really neat stencil collection in a Dover Nature Stencils book, but this quilt is getting a little busier than I'd hoped. When is enough enough? I'll also quilt in some filler in the areas around the shells and the diamonds ... not too heavily. I don't want to flatten the surrounding areas as much as around the sea creatures ... just something wavy, loose, and sea-like.

I'm chomping at the bit to get to yet another UFO (unfinished fiber object, for any non-quilters braving my blog). It will be my Torrey Pines quilt, which I can't wait to show you. Hey, as always, peace (for quilters, piece) and love, and thanks for visiting and commenting.

So Close, Yet So Far Away ...

2011-03-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

Lotus enjoys a little inter-species visit.

At one point, four or five ravens perched in the treetop right outside her perch. When Andy caught this on camera, only this last interloper remained. When they caw and cackle so noisely, it's fun to watch Lotus slyly skulk up to the window seat and dig down to watch. Happy Hump-Day!

Craft Fail Sunday

2011-02-27T16:07:00.000-08:00

Click on Photo for a Closeup of Our Failed Marbled Ornaments: a Craft Fail Supreme!

Behold, my first submission to the hilariously entertaining web blog, Craft Fail.

Anyone who frequents craft stores like JoAnne, Michael's or Beverly's must have seen them back in November and December: an end-cap display loaded with boxes of clear glass ornaments. I saw them everywhere in the weeks leading up to the holidays.

Well, my local Beverly's also displayed an array of the ornaments after being decorated. Some were filled with little shiny things or edible sprinkles. Others sprouted beads or were wrapped in ribbons. But the ones that caught my eye were the glorious, perfectly marbled ornaments. Next to this sat a collection of little acrylic paint bottles, in reds, greens and whites.

If you've seen my home, you know that bright red and green just doesn't go well in here. As I possess aqua, purple and white furnishings, my idea of a Christmas-y red is more a magenta; for green, chartreuse. So I headed to the paint aisle and picked up a handful of more congenial colors. Two boxes of ornaments later, I was good to go.

My cousin Gabriel was visiting us at the time, and I thought marbling some ornaments might make a fun "family togetherness" holiday project. Also, our tree was on the smallish side, so I pictured it dazzling every guest with its collection of gorgeous and perfect balls.

Well, the paint was thick, and as we poured it inside the glass balls, it didn't move. We swirled, spun and gyrated madly, to no avail. I had the brilliant idea of pouring rubbing alcohol in there to thin out the paints. Bad idea. Glitter paint only made them worse. The paints turned too thin, and poured out. We poured it back in to no avail. New paint did not take, either. Some puddles remained, so a few days later I set them outside to dry. Then it rained on and in them. Voila, my spectacular Holiday Craft Fail.

If you ever need a laugh, visit the Craft Fail site. Just be careful not to sip your morning coffee or other beverage of choice while you're reading!

Have a great time at the Oscars this evening! Those gowns and tuxes are no craft fails! Hugs to you all.

In Search of ... Seashell Motifs

2011-02-21T23:57:00.000-08:00

A fine old book, with separate tissue paper sheets tucked in between images that face each other.

I like to frequent my local library's book sale shop. Often, I come across obscure and old cookbooks, which I collect. This particular library branch also abounds in very nice art books and coffee table books. Nope; I'm not telling. :)

The shell book held a surprise under the dust cover: a group of embossed shells.

In search of a few small shell motifs for free-motion quilting the squares-within-squares on "Morning After the Storm," I opened up the coffee-table book on seashells, above, to find a surprise under the dust jacket. Embossed on the dusty navy cover sat a group of shells in various shapes and sizes. Eureka!

My crude self-carved stencils, using X-Ray film. The black dots are "bridges" so it doesn't fall apart.

With a soft grade of colored pencil (Prismacolor, my favorite), I took a rubbing of two ideal shells, changing them a bit to my liking. I then outlined them in Sharpie marker, and traced them onto X-Ray film so I could carve them with an X-Acto knife and my smallest rotary cutter into rather crude stencils.

Quilted shell image from a rubbing off of Sea Shell book, modified to suit free-motion quilting.

Quilted shell from a second rubbing off of art book's cover, modified to suit a free-motion quilter.

My design, an Art Deco shell, free-motion quilted.

I think I'm going to enjoy finishing the smaller "sashing" blocks on my quilt using these shells. If anyone out there wants to carve a quilting stencil and has questions, please email and I can share my experiences.
Hugs, and please comment if possible! Your comments are my fave part of the day!
Tina in San Diego

Carving Quilting Stencils

2011-02-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

Stencils for marking the remaining blocks in "Morning After the Storm"

As you'll remember, I was rather bummed about my progress in trying continuous curve quilting around the straight lines in "Morning After the Storm." Instead, I decided on some nice organic seashell shapes. I did rubbings of two shells off the cover of an ancient seashell coffee table book, and designed the third myself. I decided that carving my own design would take forever. Instead, I carved into X-Ray film the other two shells, making crude stencils (see above). As I seem to have better luck machine-quilting curving designs, maybe this solves the problem.
Have a very fine weekend, everyone!

Okay, I Figured It Out!

2011-02-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

So it turns out I'd caught a terrible cold from Andy. I tried to brazen through his all-night coughing sessions for the last five days, but it finally caught up with me. That's the reason for last night's self-pitying post. Usually I tend towards the chipper side, and I should have realized that last night's needy part was coming from my acute need for bed and rest. I even was sweaty and freezing cold, yesterday, at the same time ... Sigh. Do we ever become more tuned in to our 'stuff'? Anyways, those of you who follow my blog, please excuse the last post as an anomaly. :) And Love to all of you ... and anyone with any recommendations for sore-throat and cough remedies, please comment! :) Oh, but still, any recommendations on quilting the "Morning After the Storm" sashing parts are very very very welcome :0

Raving on a Friday Night ... (and not in a good way)

2011-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

"Bromeliad Beauty," 23.75" by 22.50", c. 2000

When free-motion quilting on organic, natural subjects, or even trucks, I seem to do alright. Ellen Anne Eddy taught me to be fearless with machine free-motion, and Hollis Chatelaine, in whose class I started the above quilt, taught me her exacting quilting methods, which she, in turn, learned from Caryl Breyer Fallert.

"Hawaiian," 15" by 15", c. 2003.

I enjoyed learning how to paint with thickened dyes from Hollis, and so on a play date with Sue, I drew and painted, then subsequently quilted, "Hawaiian," above, a beat truck from a vacation photo I shot in Hana, Maui. I think the free-motion machine quilting came out great.

I even like the quilting on "Morning," below, even though it's a UFO that will need a lot more hand-stitching ... and more something, anything (suggestions, Please!) ... before the dancer and the heart are suitably defined. Yet the quilting, energetic, emotional and playful, works for me.

"Morning," 21.25" by 17.50," c. 2006

"Morning After the Storm," still in progress.

If I'm okay at free-motioning subjects in representational quilts, then why can't I quilt a simple curved line around a square within a square? I seem to go all limp when trying to quilt geometric blocks, as, for example, the diamonds and squares within squares (click twice on the image to see closeups on the blocks in question ... fellow quilters will know that as the "sashing,") ... on my "Morning After the Storm" quilt, a venerable pattern known generically as "Storm at Sea," above.

As with my previous quilt discussed in Artelicious, "Night Star," the straight lines and perfection really get to me. Even Leah Day, kindly, as she is a Quilting Goddess, wrote me back with some suggestions, but -- have you seen her quilting? She's a force of nature! I ended up ~~begging~~ asking Kerry to finish Night Star's quilting, especially the black squares and quarter triangles of its background ... barely but beautifully making it to its debut deadline at the Critique Group Member Show at Visions Art Museum.

What is the message here that I'm missing? I guess I'm a fake, no-talent, quilter wannabee ... so the next time I talk to you about art or quilts or -- anything-- you can just laugh in my face. Many of the super-intense quilters I know own longarm machines, giant contraptions that take up an entire room and make it simple to quilt a large quilt. But I don't have room for that. In fact, I should give up my nice studio to Andy for his office ... Andy, who actually earns a living wage around here ... and move to a garrett, where I will live on nothing but Wonder Bread and San Diego tap water and Edith Piaf ballads. Argggghhhh!

Tuesday's Salady Something

2011-02-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

Peppie misses his other half.

I made a yummy black bean salad and wanted to share it with you. I was in the mood (okay, craving) two things: romaine lettuce and black beans. (I know, most people's cravings involve chocolate, but I'm weird.)

On the way home from work I stopped by the local co-op, Ocean Beach People's, and picked up a can of unsalted black beans; an orange bell pepper, christened Peppie, above; a tomato; a cuke; a bunch of cilantro; a small bag of frozen corn; a romaine lettuce; some taco shells; and some salsas. All organic. I drained the canned beans and dumped them into a large bowl. I chopped the tomato, a nice, ripe one, and added some lovely sherry vinegar and plenty of Kosher salt and pepper, then dumped that in, too. Then came half the pepper; half the cuke; half the cilantro bunch; lots of lettuce; a small grating of mozzeralla cheese, and a teensy portion of braised duck breast, courtesy of Chef Andy. Mind you, this is for two people, and we ended up with leftovers. You would probably double the amounts for a family portion, or for a potluck offering.

A tiny drizzle of olive oil, a bit of Balsamic vinegar, and a tad more salt and pepper finished it off: then a hand tossing to mix it up (fun 'cause you get to lick your fingers afterwards!). We heated up the taco shells -- normally I would have used plain old cheapo corn tortillas, but never go shopping when you've just taught a vigorous yoga class and you're starving!

Andy pronouced it yummy and didn't even put any salsa on it. I put way too much extra-hot La Salsa Chilena on mine but loved every minute of it. No duck breast? Use a bit of leftover cooked chicken or even some high-quality canned or fresh tuna. Vegetarians can leave that out ... vegans will leave out the meat, of course, and the cheese, as well. A sprinkling of "nutritional yeast" would add a cheesy flavor for vegans. However you make it, enjoy!

Saturday's Sketchbook Challenge

2011-02-05T13:49:00.000-08:00

Lotus nestled in Love Blankies, 2011

Behold, my first submission for The Sketchbook Challenge, an ongoing stimulus to art that my friend and mentor Barbara told me about. I really love to draw, and haven't done any for too long, so I thought this would be a good way to practice. I started this one in the dark: Andy was still asleep, and Lotus sleeps between his legs. (Andy calls her the "hot spot.") I fleshed out the main shapes, and once cat and Andy left the scene, I played with some water soluable crayons to add color.

Because I felt so out of practice, I used my "everyday" sketchbook, which doesn't take water with very good results. Sure, I had just treated myself to a beautiful Moleskin watercolor paper sketchbook, but I didn't think I'd be "good enough" to use it for my first sketch in, literally, years.

Does this sound familiar? I went to an art critique group the other day, and almost every one who showed their work apologized in some way or another. I'm not immune: If I'd had something new to show I probably would have offered up apologies as well. What is it with us?

Yesterday, the artists of the new Counterpoint exhibit at the Visions Art Museum spoke to us volunteers about their work. Jeanne Lyons Butler recounted a great story about how we tend to let our artist materials become too "precious." As a young art student, her professor told the relatively poor students to go out and purchase the most expensive paper they could afford. Back in the classroom, holding her gorgeous bamboo paper, she was shocked to hear the prof ask them to throw the papers on the floor and step on them. Even wipe their feet on them. A great lesson!

Maybe I'll do a little series and get up enough courage to use the nice, watercolor sketchbook to actually be able to wet these lovely patches of Love Blankies. Sigh.

Orangutan and the Hound

2011-01-26T09:22:00.000-08:00

Orangutan and the Hound

I hope you find this as heartwarming as I did. Being doggie-deprived, I'm a bit envious, too.
As always, have a beautiful week. And thanks for visiting!

(Finally) Leaving Las Vegas ...

2011-01-23T15:38:00.000-08:00

Leaving Nevada, the Silver State

We've dallied in Sin City for quite awhile. Sorry about not updating sooner, but have you ever met an inanimate object that hates you? My blazing star quilt hates me and doesn't want to be quilted, at least by me. I and my trusty Bernina will overcome.

Pin-basting helpers on "Night Star"

January is a blockbuster month for me. Not only do we have the usual "New Year" holiday, like everyone else in most of the Western world, but then comes my wedding anniversary, and hot on its heels, my birthday. Lots of new beginnings to celebrate, or at least commemorate (in the case of my birthday).

Robin sent these gorgeous b'day flowers

At 55, I'm now officially a speed limit. Okay, a former speed limit, but still. When one of my yoga-in-the-park students mentioned that now I'm eligible for the senior discount at Denny's, I did a little backwards somersault and cried, "I can't believe that I'm having this conversation!" A consolation: a quilter student added that I'm also eligible for a discount at Beverly's, a fabric store. So, not all bad. And considering the alternative, permanant savasana, (corpse pose), life's pretty good.

Anyways, all of these milestones can tend to make a person a little philosophical. Lately, my personal load to bear (literally, too) has been avoiding hoarding STUFF. So when I found a site called the "100 Thing Challenge" on the web, I felt a chill run down my spine. This guy, Dave, I think he's called, challenges people to pare down their stuff to only 100 things. For a family, I'm assuming that's 100 things per person. Amazing!

We took the doors off this cabinet to personalize our kitchen, displaying our cookbook collection

Gosh, I own more than 400 cookbooks. I have friends who must own more than 200 pairs of shoes, and I don't run with a fancy crowd. So imagine my horror mixed with envy when I read more. These must be the people who can fit their lives and possessions into the tiny cottages here in Ocean Beach!

I kept reading. Uh-hunh. One guy listed his library as one item. Hmmm. I extrapolated. My clothing: one item. My fabrics and sewing supplies: one item. Hey, I could do this, too!

Sunset at Sunset Cliffs, January 2011

Dear Reader, I leave you with my most precious gift, a sunset captured a day or so before my birthday. We are all so lucky to be alive ... speed limit or not.

More Vegas

2011-01-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

Bright lights in Downtown Las Vegas

At that point (we're still in the dark alley, right?), I turned the car around, turned on the emergency flashers and dashed out near the alley entrance to a neighboring jewelery store, where the owner broke away from a conversation with a beautiful woman in a black, full length mink (?!) to give me directions to the Nugget's entrance. North Las Vegas Blvd., right on Carson: imprinted on my brain forever more.

Besides fusing fabric, my purpose there was to support Andy as his taxi service. When he called me to come and pick him up, however, he could hear the frazzle in my voice and offered to grab a cab to our hotel. Did I mention I'm married to a very sweet man? Hopefully the taxi driver had no trouble finding the entryway to the Golden Nugget.

Chowhound Rules!

The next day didn't hold any press events of interest for Andy, so we decided to have a really nice lunch, after sipping Champagne in bed for breakfast. Oh, did I mention it was our 20th wedding anniversary? We had dinner reservations at Bouchon, a very fancy place, but I urged Andy to cancel, arguing that his CES schedule included some rather important events that evening -- and that we could always celebrate another time. Besides, I could think of plenty of better ways to spend upwards of $400, after wine and all. Like fabric stores (yes, I'm evil!)

Instead, I went onto Chowhound, a website where you can look up a region or city and find dining establishments recommended by foodie residents and fellow travelers. I found lists and lists of must-lunch places, all of them off the Strip and very reasonable. We settled on Mint Indian Bistro, with a top-notch, $9.99, all-you-can-eat lunch buffet featuring Himalyan, North, and South Indian specialities. Yum!

After dropping off Andy at the LV Convention Center I headed back to the Golden Nugget, to fuse. I enjoy high-tech, so felt lucky to tune into a 60 Minutes segment on dot-com luminaries like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Bill Gates and Paul Allen, (Microsoft), and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, of Google fame. Is it a coincedence that it all coincided with CES?

I'd picked up some fab Kibbneh, spinach pastries and baklava from Amena Bakery and Deli, a Nazarine/Israeli bakery recommended on Chowhound, so I enjoyed a light and delicious nosh while fusing -- even managing to save some for Andy. But the real excitement came on the next day.

Never got a chance to peruse the button collection ... sigh.

Heddy, so nice, and so helpful, and with such a big stash!

Heddy's Fabrics

While in San Diego, researching our trip, I'd come across a website for Heddy's Fabrics, where the floorshows' and headliners' costumers shop. The website didn't make it clear if they sold more than glitzy Spandex, but I saw some readers' feedback that mentioned all their other fabrics. I made it my first stop that Thursday. Well, what a find! I spent a happy three hours there, researching the yardage and fabric types of some recent patterns I'd purchased, and buying some great, really useful everyday goods. I found bamboo knits, soft as down; and some crisp bamboo shirting, perfect for a neat shirt. Some nice bottom-weight knits completed my haul. Three tops, two pants, a skirt -- sewing marathon, here I come!

Meanwhile, here's what awaited me at home:

Chevy, holding down the fort back at home on a ready-to-quilt Night Star.

All in all, our trip to Las Vegas ended up being lots of fun, despite some minor frustrations getting settled down. Everyone at the hotel was super nice, and I enjoyed the more low-key ambiance of the older district. We loved the vintage neon signs dotting the Fremont Street Experience, too. Heddy's was ultimate; so was our meal at the Nugget's Italian joint -- which became our real anniversary dinner.

Part of the Las Vegas Neon Musuem

Just a bar, but great neon!

Buck'em, Trigger!

That's what the AmEX logo used to look like.

A motel, complete with refrigeration!

Once I got home, I realized I'd brought my favorite things, all which needed airing out from the smokey atmosphere of our room. My DKNY "little black dress" I wear to everything; our CostCo down pillows; my beautiful Bolivian alpaca sweater; my Austin Powers-channeled Escada suit; my North Face down boots; my Carol Gardyne hand-painted silk ruana; all that fabric ... our love blankies ... well, it was a busy week getting everything washed or aired out!

Beloved, but too warm for San Diego sweater from Andean Software, in Taos, New Mexico

Sunshine, the great healer.

Shag, baby!

Vegas, Baby

2011-01-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

Fun (?) at the Fremont Street Experience

We are not people who would choose Las Vegas as a vacation destination. So, when Andy finally got a press pass for CES, the Consumer Electronics Show held last week, I prepared by gathering lots of stuff to keep me busy.

Not that I can't play poker. In fact, last time we did, my host glared at me after the game where I won, gave Andy my chips, then won again, taking home the pot. I guess he thought I was a novice. We haven't seen Jachin since.

Anyway, the point is that I work very hard for my paycheck, in a strenuous, physical sense (I'm an Ashtanga yoga instructor). And I don't find gambling pleasurable at all -- especially since they got rid of all the "one-armed bandits." Andy and I used to head to Las Vegas each January to cover Comdex, the now-defunct computer trade show which was arguably the world's biggest convention. It spanned almost every hotel/casino and convention center. Thus, I made it a point, somewhere in the day, to stick a quarter in a slot in each casino. Sometimes I'd even find a coin or two on the floor. Fun!

Now the casinos are full of chirping, blinking video machines. Does anyone understand how these annoying things work? Actually, my friend Jane, one of the Brownie Troop, is the video machine maven. When she had to relocate to Vegas for a couple of years, we visited her. Much to my surprise and amusement, soon she had us waltzing down the aisles of the Red Rocks Resort, a very nice casino, where she pointed out all her favorite machines and showed us in mind-boggling detail how to play. The attendant didn't want to give me a card for just a quarter, though, so I think we lost about ten bucks with Jane that day.

I digress. So, when I pictured myself cooped up in the hotel room for two days, I decided to bring fabric and Wonder-Under, a fusible webbing that makes fabric stick to other fabric, to prepare for my upcoming landscape workshop at Asilomar with Sue Benner. The workshop involves lots of fusing, and Annette and Barbara, two of my Brownie Troop friends who've taken Sue, warned me that it really helps to pre-fuse.

I also brought sketching materials, a good book, and my netbook computer.

Non-Smoking at the Golden Nugget

What I didn't prepare for was that our suite reeked of smoke, even though it was a "non-smoking room on a non-smoking floor," according to the front desk person who answered my anguished phone call.

Normally, I would have arranged for another room. But, since we drive everywhere now, we'd brought our Love Blankies, our pillows, a duffle bag of all that fabric, my computer stuff, wine ... plus the usual luggage. I'd already tipped the bellman accordingly. No way.

Plus, just finding the hotel after dropping Andy off at the press event had been frazzling enough. If you ever find yourself booking a room in the older part of Las Vegas known as Downtown, know that Fremont Street is closed off to encompass The Fremont Street Experience, a sort of giant outdoor mall with hourly, night-time sound-and-light shows and a large assortment of people wandering around clutching beers and cocktails.
Well, the map said the hotel was on Fremont, so there I was, going around in circles until, at one point, I ended up in a dark, dead-end alley. Shudder.

To be continued ... gotta go teach me some yoga!

Love Blankies, Redux

2011-01-08T16:29:00.000-08:00

Redux. It means brought back. How is it pronounced? Is it "re-doo," as it would be in French? "Re-ducks," as I always say? Just wondering.

Either way, I've been lax in posting. Some bloggers post every day, no matter how brief the text or ho-hum the topic. I like to save posts for when something really gets me thinking -- when I can make connections or ponder a point. How do you like to blog? Would you prefer to see an Artelicious post every day? Please leave me a comment.

I have a few more Love Blankie photos to share with you before I get to the truly meaty post about this week's trip to Las Vegas.

A Love-Blankie for Alice, Andy's Mom

Sue made me a Love Bankie in my greens!

When Andy's and Wendy's dad, Rhett, passed away, I used some of his flannel shirts for Wendy's quilt. I even added some pockets.

Alice and Mommy made this one for me, in colors to compliment our Nelda Warkentin quilt.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who visit here, and to wish you a peaceful, healthy and successful new year.

Love Blankie Number Nine ... or Twelve...

2010-12-21T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the twelfth flannel Rag Quilt I've made -- with tons of help from Mom and Alice, Andy's mom. Mostly I make them out of a need to give a fuzzy, warm fabric hug to family and friends: despite the fact that each time I finish one, I say, "Never again!"

This weekend's Love Blankie, the most "neutral" colors I've worked with. Thanks, Mom and Alice!

It's all Betty C.'s fault.

Okay, that sounds a bit harsh. I should say, when Betty introduced the flannel Rag Quilt to our Brownie Troop small group, I fell in love and immediately wanted to make one for Andy's Valentine's Day present. In reds, pinks, plums and blues, I pieced dots, checks, wild prints and just everything. To this day, Andy's Love Blankie remains my favorite. Even the blocks on the reverse side are different, another "Never again."

Andy's Love Blankie, my first and I think, my most joyful.

Dr. Susan's Love Blankie, in a rare palette for me, blues.

A birthday blankie for Ellen Anne Eddy, from Sue V. and me.

A "just because" gift for my astanga yoga teacher, Sean. He took forever picking out the fabrics. When he was killed in a freak car accident at age 32, I asked for the quilt back, as a remembrance. His mom said she gave it to the Goodwill. Sigh.

A quilt for Mommy; she says it's the prettiest of all the Blankies. (unsnipped).

Cousins Gabe and Joe, up in Taos, N.M., where the warm and cozy quilts will be welcome.

Why "Never Again,"? Well, the piecing is easy; but it's all the snipping along the seam allowences, that you keep to the right side of the quilt. After snipping (where you engage friends, family, random acquaintances ...) you wash and dry as many times as you have patience for. A great result ... if you can recruit for the snipping process.

Four quilts are still missing, photo-wise: Alice's, Tim's, Chris' and Wendy's. But I'm sure you get the idea. If you want a tutorial on how to make these crowd-pleasers, please email or, better yet, comment.
Happy Happy!

Design Wall Monday

2010-12-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

Note to self: In the odd event that I find myself hand-piecing ever again, know that squaring up the quilt with the rotary cutter will delete all those nice little finishing knots, causing the seam tips to work their way open.

Instead of blithely sewing on the final borders on my star quilt, which I have elected to make public here, I am machine-stitching reinforcements onto the seam ends.

Coupled with the fact that the sewer-line repair going on outside my studio features a jackhammer that perfectly mimics sniper fire ... and we have a bit of a mood going on this morning.

Not to mention that my cold seems to have returned, with an early-morning coughing jag to beat the band -- causing me to call a sub for my yoga class. And I love teaching my yoga class.

Thank goodness for quiltmaking! Or any form of creativity, for that matter.

Without any more ado, I present Night Star. I've entered it into the next Quilt Visions Critique Group show, but it's larger than most of the art quilts entered, so I'm not going to be too attached to getting juried-in. I hope to finish the quilting by the late January deadline ... if I ever get those borders on.

Night Star, by Tina Rathbone, c. 56" x 56', 2010

One tip I can share for sewing a border onto a quilt that seems ruffly is to sew pretending it's a collar on a shirt: sew from the middle of the border out to each end. Also, why not baste it, first? The bottom border needs to be enlarged a bit, then sewn on, and finally the top border (so please imagine it in place).

The inspiration for Night Star came when I observed a huge pile of leftover strips from my king-sized quilt, Joie de Vivre. In one of my books, "String Piecing with Style," I saw a string-pieced star, and was motivated to design my own Star quilt.

Another tip: Never, ever use tracing paper as your foundation, especially if the quilt is destined to sit in your UFO pile for several years -- unless you have a thing for tweezing out tiny fragments of paper. (Thanks, Gabe!) I chose it because it was an expensive, archival (acid free) paper, but still. My friend Sandi recommends lightweight interfacing for string piecing, that she just leaves in. Sounds good to me for my next Lone Star.

Yeah, that'll be the day!
Thanks for visiting, and please leave comments. I love your comments!

Quality Control

2010-12-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Most of the quilters/art quilters/fiber artists or whatever you want to call 'em of my acquaintance are super arty: dye-painting and sun-printing their fabrics; beading and hand-stitching them into shape; embellishing with vintage earrings and vintage pajamas, etc. The ones who prefer strip-piecing seem to be buying their strips pre-cut, in lines of fabrics from a single manufacturer, like Hoffman or Moda. Then they buy quilt patterns that use that size of strip.

They are all having fun.

These people are smarter than I am.

Tonight, December's first Friday, am I attending a fabulous soiree? Dining under candlelight? Listening to an obscure jazz quartet? Walking on a deserted beach with the one I love? Swilling eggnog? Nope; I'm cutting 1.25" strips from questionable fabric way-left-over from this UFO. And most of it qualifies as scraps, i.e., off-grain. That means ruffly to you non-fiber people.

My girl kitty, Lotus Blue, decided to step in for some much-needed quality control.

Finally, a quilting angel has walked in

Let's give a nudge to the left!

Now that's looking a bit better!

Hugs, Love, and Happy Holidays to all! Oh, and because we're on the kitty topic (what, again?), remember Carl Sandburg's classic poem where "the fog creeps in on little cats' feet." Or something like that.

Fog bank off Sunset Cliffs, December 3rd, 2010

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T16:55:00.000-08:00

I've finally jumped the shark: I'm hand-piecing a quilt. And I'm actually enjoying myself! I don't really get the part about skipping the seam allowances, though, so if any of you readers know about hand-piecing, please shout out!

As I'm still trying to keep my quilt secret, however, I can't show a picture. Instead, here's a shot of this evening's sunset for your viewing pleasure:

Sunset at Sunset Cliffs, 11-24-10

I hope every one of you has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I'm grateful for you, who visit my blog. It's been such fun, writing about and showing my art and life.

A Busy Friday ...

2010-11-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

Tip: When you find yourself humming the theme song to "Mr. Ed" over and over inside your head, it's time to put on some music.

Of course, it beats the "Green Acres" theme song hands down; which Andy and I sing to each other with great vim and vigor more often than it's safe to admit. (We have it down.)

But life is not all about early '60s television theme songs.

I know I've been lax in posting here. I mean, just how many sea urchin videos can a person take in? But a new deadline has lit another fire under my butt, and of course I had to clean my studio from top to bottom before I could begin. (I don't do piles.)

The Quilt Visions Member Critique Group has been invited to submit quilts for a new show -- we open sometime this Spring at the Visions Art Museum down at NTC. In order to qualify for getting juried in, however, our quilt must be ready to photograph by December 3rd. I just found this out last week. Eeek!

As my entry's sooper-secret, I can't show it here. Instead, I'll show a quilt from our collection: one "Salmon Flash," by Nelda Warkentin.

Notice how Salmon Flash changes with the light of day? Nelda's from Alaska, where I guess they know all about salmon flashes.

We purchased this stunning art quilt from the big, biennial Quilt Visions show held back in 2006, I believe. To see a more recent quilt by Nelda, and other contemporary quilt/fiber art from around the globe, don't miss the current show, Quilt Visions: No Boundaries, at the charming Oceanside Art Museum.

Surprise!

2010-11-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

Sea Urchin present and accounted for.

Haven't posted much here lately: I've had a terrible cold -- missing all the fun -- and these early fall months are all about fun. Sadly, I'm unfit for public display. And therein lies the root of today's tale.

Maybe you've done it, or maybe someone's done it to you: You tell someone to close their eyes, hold out their hands, and you'll give them a surprise. Well, I haven't been doing much cooking lately, by popular choice -- in fact, no one will even let me near the kitchen, gross as I am right now. And spouse Andy has been pretty busy building websites and such. Thank goodness for takeout. So when he went off to shop for our upcoming Croatian Festa and dinner blowout, I asked him to bring me some veggie selections from Ocean Beach People's deli counter.

When he arrived home I ran over from the couch (it was 12:30 p.m. and I was starving-- I don't do breakfast) ... where I was hand-sewing the binding onto Tropical Sundance. He bade me close my eyes and hold out both hands. I did so, with gusto. Of course I was expecting my palms to be filled with little containers of tofu something-or-other and a salad. When he plopped a baggie-wrapped parcel into my hands, it wriggled on my palms! Then I opened my eyes. More parts wriggled.

It was spiky, black and alive. I screamed. Then I started crying.

My husband had given me the worst scare in my life. A large, very much alive sea urchin, its spikes digging through the baggie into my flattened, outstretched palms, was not quite what I'd expected for my lunch surprise. Andy seemed rather deflated at my response. Strangely enough, when I went downstairs, sobbing, to check on the kitties' response (I thought they'd be scared to death, as I'd managed a rather loud and blood-curdling scream), they sat non-plussed on the bed.

What I want to know is, since when have I become such a ruddy crybaby? I'm the girl, who, at Hospitals surf break, over near La Jolla, walked into the tidepools, pried off a living sea urchin, broke it open with my thumbs, and ate the raw, lovely, unctuous meat right there and then, chin to the sky, in my bikini. That was only 32 year ago ... how can I have changed a bit?

Happy Lunch Surprise?

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Joie de Vivre

2010-10-30T12:34:00.000-07:00

Joie de Vivre, Tina Rathbone, c.2000

For my entry into this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival, I submit Joie de Vivre, another quilt of many "firsts." Completed in 2000, it marks the first time I participated in a quilt block swap, my first log cabin, my first king-sized quilt, my first professionally quilted quilt, and my first quilt to be displayed in a small quilt show.

The Brownie Troop, my Wednesday quilt group, comes up with group projects from time to time. One of our members, I forget who, suggested this block: a log cabin with a starter square in grey and then alternating black and white strips in any width, with a colored strip stuck in somewhere. We each made 12 of the same block, and I was off! Of course I needed many, many more blocks to get up to king-sized, so I solicited blocks from other quiltmakers, from my guild and beyond. They riffed on the idea by adding more than one colored strip per block, and soon each block became a story in itself. So many of my friends contributed blocks, with such an astounding variety of black and white prints: I could gaze at it for hours, and often do.

We ended up showing our Black and White quilts in a little show at our guild. Here are some others, and Brownies, please email me and tell me which one is yours so I can add captions and give you credit for your marvelous creations.

Aren't I lucky that the Brownies let me hang out with them? :)


The Brownie Troop Does Black and White, 2000

Design Wall Monday

2010-10-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Judith Lasater in Tree Pose

Andy says I'm great at making large or intricate, two-year minimum quilts. When it comes to quickly producing one, however, it's never happened. So when Quilt Visions announced its "Leaves and Trees" member challenge, I pictured myself whipping out the requisite 12-inch quilt within the deadline and dazzling Andy. Well, it didn't happen. The Catalina trip came up, but that was only a week long, so that's no excuse. The real reason for not finishing it was that I think my concept was too corny.

I was a writer long before I was a quilter, so often the title precedes the quilt. For my "Leaves and Trees," my thought was to applique a person doing the yoga "tree pose" onto a Palm Leaves background. Get it? Leaves and trees. Yeah, it's corny. Should I even continue with it? I am an Ashtanga yoga instructor, by the way. Here's my yoga-related website.

A start on stitched yogi, with redwood bark for inspiration

The stitching at left is just the foundation for a very densely worked free-motion embroidered figure, to be cut-out on the outline and sewn onto the background. The bobbin's there to give you a sense of scale.
I wanted texture, by adding dyed cheese cloth and maybe some yarns, to give the figure a tree-bark feeling. The piece of redwood was from some firewood we bought and took to our campsite, by the way.

In the image below, you can see the Palm Leaves background. It reminds me of the brilliant fall treetops and bright blue sky we saw at Big Sur.

A block comprised of four Palm Leaf blocks

To give you an idea of how the finished figure will look (if I go on with this), here is a nudibranch I free-motion embroidered, inspired by a class I took with Ellen Anne Eddy, a wonderful and fearless quiltmaker. To see a fabulous photo gallery of actual nudibranchs, click here.

My earliest free-motion machine embroidery, awaiting an environment of its very own.

As always, thanks for reading, and please subscribe to my blog! Comments are most enjoyed and welcome.

Free Tuesday in the Park

2010-10-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans ..." I've often heard this, thinking, 'Oh, just another slogan.' But, like many cliches, it's true. I'm sincerely trying to finish the epic Wine Country Ukulele Festival post, but in the meantime so much other stuff has happened. Like sailing to Catalina ... and Tuesday's adventure.

That morning a romantic sprinkle descended on our home. A look at my calendar told me that this "Free Tuesday in the Park," Balboa Park's salute to locals, was my favorite mix of venues: the Mingei International Museum of Folkart, Craft and Design; the Japanese Friendship Garden; the Museum of Man and the San Diego Museum of Art. Admission's free to local residents.

I slept in late after my [yoga] teaching week, but with jolt of Andy's coffee, I was ready to head to the park -- rain or no rain. For awhile, we dithered. After seeing the first raindrops on the patio, I was willing to settle in and munch my Serrano ham and "Three Cheeses" (sheep, cow and goat) sandwich -- a new taste from Pato Negro, our favorite Spanish food purveyor -- with a crisp glass of Albarino.

We rallied, however, arriving at the park around noon. We thought the soggy weather would discourage most people and make parking a breeze; apparently, the rest of San Diego thought so, too. Say, have you walked in the rain with the one you love lately? Of course it's romantic, but there's also a certain sense of heightened perception. The darkened skies send a signal for the flowers and trees below to go neon. We shared an umbrella; Andy wisely bringing his, and me saying back at the house -- "Oh, I never carry an umbrella." Well, after today's steady downpour I just might mend my ways.

Our first stop was the Japanese Friendship Garden. Even the eaves are slatted, so we had no real shelter ... but the koi were so magnificent that we braved giant raindrops in our entrancement. Koi fish really do grow to three feet in length!

Next, we trooped over to the Mingei to check out the Romanian folk art exhibit, "Between East and West." The costumes were great, and even the rooms wore clothes: intricate hangings on walls and beds, in every possible form of needlework. The real surprise, however, was across the hall: the Zandra Rhodes installation. For some reason I thought it was coming later this year, but no; and Go, go, go! This designer got her start in London's hippie heyday, but I mostly know her through her work with the San Diego Opera. She designed a fanciful set and costumes for a fun production of "The Magic Flute," and later did an even more magical job for SDOpera's "The Pearl Fishers."

We encountered a wait for lunch at Prado, so decided to buzz through The Museum of Man while the crowds died down. We were both soaked, chilled and hungry, however, so after a desultory pass through the paleoanthropology displays, we made a beeline back to Prado, where we enjoyed one of the best meals (and waiters: ask for Scott) we've eaten in a restaurant. Tip: ask Scott about his favorite Malbec. And so ended a perfect rainy day; we never made it to the Toulouse-Latrec show over at the SD Museum of Art, but free Tuesdays come every week, and we'll make it next month.

I'm Back, and Blogging!

2010-10-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

You'll never believe this: We went somewhere else! Our dear friends Bud and Gaynor phoned us while we were camping in Big Sur (a chapter we haven't even gotten to yet), inviting us on a unexpected, sudden and spontaneous sailing trip to Santa Catalina Island on their beautiful J Boat, Rum Funny. Duh! Of course we said yes. Did I mention it was unexpected?

Bud and Gaynor en route to Santa Catalina Island

That's why I've been absent -- and thanks to all the friends who've called, concerned. We're safe, we're trying to catch up here around the house, and I'm itching to finish the Wine Country write-up so I can get busy telling you all about Catalina.

Background for my "Leaves and Trees" challenge quilt

Right now, however, I need to work on my entry for the Quilt Visions Member Challenge, "Leaves and Trees." The deadline's tomorrow! Ack! So far, I've created this "Palm Leaf" background, inspired by Peggy Martin's "Cactus Tree" quilt. See the brilliant fall foliage as you look up to a blazing blue fall sky? Paper-piecing really eased the process. I've never worked in a 12" by 12" format before: it seems a bit cramped. Also, this challenge requires embroidery, and I have a plan. Stay tuned!

Day Two of our Vacation: Paso Robles

2010-09-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

I always intend to bring a Spanish/English dictionary with me on road trips. So many of our California place-names are Spanish, and I hate it when I can't figure out what something means. Originally, Paso Robles was called Paso de Robles, or Pass of the Oaks. Yes, I looked it up. There must be some connection between Live Oaks and good wine soil; it seems that Live Oak trees are everywhere in wine country. But no place has as many as Paso Robles.


California Live Oak, dripping with Spanish Moss

Wisely, we chose to eat a proper breakfast before our day of wine-tasting, so we headed to the food website Chowhound for recommendations from fellow travelers. Everyone seemed to like Chico's Cafe, right in the middle of the town's plaza with a view to the park. Andy opted for a fruit bowl instead of bacon; it was beautiful as well as delicious.

Chico's Cafe: highly recommended

We decided to put off wine tasting for a walk in the park and a brief tour of the Paso Robles Historical museum, housed in an old Carnegie Library building, where we shuddered at the sight of an 1890's surgical saw.

Our next stop was the Chamber of Commerce for an up-to-date winery map. As the fastest growing wine region in California, Paso Robles offers repeat visitors a constant round of new tasting rooms. This time I wanted to focus on the zinfandel varietal. While on Chowhound I'd learned of a young woman who has restored her Italian grandfather's 80-year old vineyard; where formerly Dante Dusi sold his grapes to other winemakers, now Janelle Dusi creates her own wines. The staff at the Chamber were so helpful, directing us to the Zoller wine-tasting room as a possible source of J.Dusi wine.

We lucked out, because Zoller is open only three days a week; we met the winemaker, Signe Zoller, who makes wines under the Zoller label but also works with other growers who want help blending their wines. They didn't stock J.Dusi, but Signe made a quick phone call and discovered that we could buy it at the 15c wine shop, down in Templeton next to the Trader Joe's. How nice was that? We ended up liking Signe's wines very much, walking out with a fragrant '09 Twin Coyotes Vermentino, an '08 Zoller Primitivo, and an inspired '07 Gr8ass (ha ha) Cabernet.

Andy "checks-in" on Foursquare at Zoller

Another stroke of luck: we'd already planned to hit Trader Joe's next to stock the cooler for lunches and snacks. Apart from buying a J.Dusi zin, the day's only other goal was to taste once again at Justin, where we used to be wine club members.

The 15c Wine Shop and Bar was all about celebrating Spanish food and culture. Ali, the owner, flitted between helping two Spanish women create tapas to serving her customers. Her wine selection was local, enormous and fascinating -- but a J.Dusi Zinfandel was not in the cards as Ali had sold her last bottle the previous night. We promised to return on the way back home, but tucked a bottle of J.Dusi Carignane '08 into our cart just in case.

Our next stop was Turley Wine Cellars, a specialist in old-vine Zins. Some of their tastings came from 100+ year-old vines! And how wonderful they were. A bonus: our server was a quilter. We found a "Dusi"-vineyard Zin, made not by Janelle, but from grapes from her uncle's vineyard. The Dusi family seems to have deep roots here in Paso Robles.

At Jada we enjoyed some delicious wines. At $50, my favorite, the '08 Hell's Kitchen, a blend of estate syrah, grenach and mourvedre, was beyond our budget. Instead, we ended up with the most delightful and powerful Rose, the 1149. Onto Opolo, where Andy's Droid X phone told us we could check-in through Foursquare and recieve free wine tastings. (Most tastings cost from $5 to $10, in Paso -- much more in Napa!-- but generally you taste for free if you buy wine.)

Lindsay, our delightful server, had the gift of gab. We enjoyed many delicious samplings, although a bit of confusion arose as we told her about the free tasting with the Foursquare check-in and she thought that meant a check-in at their little inn. Apparently she hadn't been kept up to date on the tech-guy's Foursquare promotion. We came away with a fab Cabernet Franc, a Zin, and a Sangiovese, two of which we enjoyed with meals on the rest of the trip.

Justin, our final stop, proved as lovely as ever.

A plus: we managed to finagle a dinner reservation at their highly regarded, five-table restaurant. I happened to have a change of clothes with me, so traded my dusty shorts for my Hawaiian dress, but Andy, ever the good sport, ate in this elegant restaurant in his t-shirt and shorts. They assured us over and over that casual was just fine with them, and made us feel more than welcome. We went nuts over their '08 Orphan, a wine made from, shall we say, leftovers. At only $20, it was a steal.

Enjoying the ambiance at Justin Winery

After a romantic, star-lit drive back to our motel, a deep sleep proved to be the perfect cap to a wonderful day.

Santa Ynez panorama, by Andy Rathbone

2010-09-23T19:34:00.001-07:00

Santa Ynez panorama, by Andy Rathbone

Yesterday's post featured a rather anemic version of the panorama shot. Thanks to flickr, you can click the photo now and it appears on flickr; click it again to see the gorgeous, large version. It's worth seeing! More about the trip to come ...

We've Been on Vacation!

2010-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Breaking news: The Rathbones allegedly left their house and took a vacation! Film at eleven.

I joke, but clearly we don't get out as much as we should. Our recent road trip to the Third Annual Wine Country Ukulele Festival, packed with picnics, wine tasting, scenery, good eating, heaps of ukulele, and camping, was just the getaway we needed. Oh, and we survived the Bates Motel (Hitchcock's setting for Psycho), too, but that's another story.

We don't do airplanes. Andy's mom, a constant traveler, thinks we're Luddites. But at this stage in our lives, fortunately, we're not needed anywhere we'd have to fly, so we confine our travels to places we can drive. Maybe country music star Ray Stevens puts it best: "I don't think God intended for man to fly. It says right there in the Bible, 'Lo, I am with you always.' It don't say nothin' about high."

With us, it's not exactly fear; instead, we feel that flying the unfriendly skies has become demeaning, uncomfortable, tense, tedious, and just no fun anymore. So we drive.

Day One:
Usually we get a late start because there's so much to pack into the SUV. We always bring food and provisions: a cooler; a burner; a casserole for our first night's dinner in our motel room (usually a boeuf Bourguignon, the classic beef/wine stew); dishes and cutlery, and wine. This time, we also schlepped a tent, sleeping bags, and things like tarps and axes, hoping to sample some campgrounds on the way back home.

This trip, amazingly, we were ready to head out by 9 a.m., until our white kitty, Lotus, proved impossible to find (they're indoor cats). We searched, cruised the neighborhood, and notified our neighbors and mail carrier. We called and cajoled. We shook treats harder than Brian Jones on the tambourine. Our moms drove over to help search. Three hours later we found her on a closet shelf we must have missed. She stared back at us, like, "What's the big deal?" Cats!

So it was that we passed Santa Barbara pretty late, around four p.m. At the shortcut suggestion of Andy's Droid phone, we spurned our usual coastal route and turned east on 154 just north of Santa Barbara. I thought it'd be strip malls and ugliness, but as we headed through the San Marcos Pass into the Santa Ynez valley, we were stunned at the wildness of the place. Another lesson on not giving into my expectations, as we found it so unspoiled, and such a beautiful hour to be cresting the pass.

Heading toward Los Olivos via the San Marcos Pass

We decided to make time for the vista point shortly ahead. Andy's phone has a panorama feature that can "stitch" several photos together, so he captured the scene below, looking north back towards the coast.


View of coast (to left) and the Santa Ynez Mountains

As the sun started to set, we arrived hungry in Los Olivos. We settled on the old stagecoach hotel, circa 1886, now Brother's Restaurant at Matteis Tavern. We shared two soups: fresh corn, and a wow! heirloom tomato; then sipped a glass of local Brander Sauvignon Blanc with our pear/pecan salads. Did I mention the huge plate of at least six types of home-baked breads and butter that came with the table? Mmmmm. Duly fortified, we headed on up the road to Paso Robles, a surprisingly longer journey than I'd pictured. Stay tuned, and please leave a comment.

Design Wall Monday

2010-09-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

Eccliastes 3 reminds me that: "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."

I guess that means there's a time to make more subdued quilts after flaming, "grab your sunglasses" quilts like Tropical Sundance. But following on Sundance's tail, my next UFO to finish, "Morning After the Storm," seems so ... plain.

Morning After the Storm, 2010, in progress, Tina Rathbone

This traditional quilt pattern, called "Storm at Sea," is one of my faves. I've always loved the way the squares and diagonals link to give a sense of circles within circles, and even hearts — adding motion that probably inspired the "storm" in the name. Can't see the circles? Squint.

Three years ago, the members of my Wednesday group, the Brownie Troop, voted that each member would pick her dream quilt and the other members would make blocks for it. Much hilarity and delight ensued as we added more blocks for each quilt with every new meeting. I chose paper-piecing as Morning's construction method, because accuracy is important for this particular quilt, and it is said that no two quilters have the same idea of a quarter-inch seam allowance. I found a free pattern on the Internet; after photo-copying the three main blocks I passed them out to my fellow Brownies, along with a sheet specifying the fabric "mood" (sea-life) and also the values (placement of lights and darks).

"Mysterious Sea Creature" trapunto design

When all was assembled and it was time to quilt, I chose to add trapunto, a stuffing-within-a design technique harkening back to the Italian Renaissance. I took advantage of an ingenious, quicker method developed by author and designer Hari Walner, using water-soluble thread and double layers of batting.
I know the quilt was already pretty busy before I added the trapunto but I wanted to try this out, so I drew up four basic designs: "Mysterious Sea Creature," "Clam," "Seaweed," and "Sand Dollar." A few blocks still remain to be quilted around the raised, stuffed portions, using a fine (#100) silk thread, and a tiny (#60 sharp) needle to enhance the dimensionality.

"Sand Dollar" stuffed trapunto design

Now that it's back on the design wall, I'm thinking of doing an extreme paper-pieced border, showing sunrises all around the quilt. In keeping with the "Morning After the Storm" theme. Stay tuned, and please, comment with your feedback.

My All-Time Favorite Quilting Tool

2010-09-03T14:13:00.000-07:00

These two...

Chevy, bottom, and Lotus Blue, top.

...are the reason why this ...

My lint roller, most-beloved quilting tool.

...is my sexiest, all-time favorite, most-revered quilting tool. Any questions?

Oh, it also comes in handy for removing cat fur from clothing: Lotus, the white kitty, favors a nap under my long black skirts. Chevy likes my white shirt shelf. It's a conspiracy.

It's funny, but Lotus, the original Captain Courageous, jumps off the work table when the lint roller gets rollin'. Steam irons, vacuum cleaners, precipitious heights, scary crows, annoying trash trucks on Monday mornings -- nothing fazes her more than the lint roller. Maybe she's protesting that she's taken care to adorn my fabrics with her precious DNA and I'm undoing all her hard work?

Don't tell any of them, but the members of my Wednesday group, The Brownie Troop, are getting a lint-roller five-pack for gifts. Usually, when a member travels, she brings back fat quarters for all. I never go anywhere (I'm not complaining: I love my home); but when I do travel, I end up in countries with lousy fabrics (i.e., Costa Rica; Mexico, etc). Instead of fat quarters (a quarter-yard of fabric, but cut on the width instead of the length, 22" by 18") I try to give little gifts now and again, or make a nice lunch here and there, when it's my turn to host. Now if only we could become the Pizza Troop! :)

Tropical Sundance: Finished and ready to quilt

2010-09-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

By now, gentle Reader, you're probably wondering if the title of this blog shouldn't be changed from "Artelicious" to "Tropical Sundance." Here's one last view of my latest quilt, now that it's all sewn together and awaiting a session with a longarm quilting machine. (There's no way I'm gonna try and drag this sucker under my home sewing machine: Bernina or no Bernina.)

Tropical Sundance: Finished and ready to quilt, 2010, 52"x 64"

As long as we're on this Tropical Sundance thread, I can tell you a story about it. Years ago, I bought the pattern at the urging of several friends, who all decided to make it and swap fabrics for it, too. For some long-forgotten reason, I didn't get in on the swap, and left my quilt in my UFO (Unfinished Fiber Object) box until just this June.
Anyways, let's see what the other quilts look like!
Here's Sue's:

Sue's Tropical Sundance quilt, 2005

Here's Sandi's:

Sandi's take on Tropical Sundance, Kollaboration, 2005

Here's Kerry's version; she enlarged hers to become square:

Kerry's version, called Jungle Dance, 2004

And here's Darlene's quilt:

Darlene's rendition of Tropical Sundance, 2005

I love them all! I'll miss working with these bright colors, but I'm happy to be moving on to the next UFO.

Design Wall Monday

2010-08-30T15:26:00.000-07:00

I've almost finished Tropical Sundance! Just finished cutting out these border rectangles/squares, and I'm cogitating on their placement. For now, they're just smoothed onto the flannel design wall. Any suggestions?

Tropical Sundance, awaiting the border strips to be placed and sewn together. Please click on the quilt to see a larger image. And please, comment! :) I'd love your feedback.

Get a Load of Those Tomatoes!

2010-08-24T10:41:00.000-07:00


Finally, our tomato harvest begins. From upper right, clockwise: Yellow Pear, Black Cherry, Yellow Oxheart, Costoluto Genovese, Saxon's Black, Yellow Trifele, and my absolute fave: Pink Boar (the greenish black ones next to the yellow pears).

One of Sue's lavish gifts to us this Christmas was a collection of heirloom tomato seeds. Apart from Mortgage Lifter, a gangbuster variety we grew last year, I'd never heard of any of them. The names alone take you back to the rosy past when most people had a "Victory" garden: Pink Boar, Saxon's Black, Yellow Oxheart ... and so on.

Anyone who lives in San Diego can affirm that this year's weather has been just plain bizarro. In fact, our summer was the coldest on record in 70 years. This spring, as our poor tomato seedlings shivered in the damp chill, we despaired of seeing an actual harvest. It didn't help that I started way too many seeds, too early, under growlights in my studio. Last year's starts were way more vigorous, so much so that I ended up transplanting them into newspaper pots before putting them in the ground (photo below).

Seedlings in pots made from old newspapers

Observant readers will note that those are not tomato seedlings but pepper plants in the newspaper pots: specifically, Andy's beloved Padrón peppers. He sautés them in a dash of olive oil and a whiff of garlic, and after a pass with the salt and pepper grinders, they are divine. Luckily, we didn't attempt them this year. It's just too cold.

Design Wall Monday: Tropical Sundance!

2010-08-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

Hoping to continue the productivity surge that resulted from my quilting retreat earlier this summer, I've joined a blog ring called "Design Wall Monday." Simply put, you photograph what you're working on and post it each Monday.

Tropical Sundance, in progress, will be 52" by 64"

Tropical Sundance is one of only two purchased patterns I've made. To me, this type of quilting is every bit as valid as the art quilts and wearables I've designed myself. The designer, Judy Niemeyer, uses paper-piecing as a way to make all those curved seams and pointed rays available to the average person. Plus I love her layouts.

Extreme piecing!

The blocks above are only pinned to my wall; I still need to finish sewing the inner circles to the outer "sun" shapes. At left, I've pinned the two pieces at the top so you can see just what a daunting task it is to sew the outer black edge to the inner orange sun. Plenty of clipping involved!

The bottom left photo shows the reverse side of a finished block. Normally I'd baste the pieces first, when sewing a shirt collar or other tricky garment part. I considered basting this, but naaah. A longer stitch, around 2.2mm, works better than shorter.

Clips, notches and pins help a lot.

Sometimes I agonize over the dumbest things. When I decided to rescue this quilt from my UFO pile for my retreat project, I figured it would go quickly, and be easy to sew while chatting and having fun. Yet I wondered whether I was "selling out" by sewing someone else's design?
No!
This type of sewing is therapy itself; and plus, I'm going to be hanging a fantastic, colorful quilt on my wall when all is said and done (and stitched).

More Home Dec Fabric Sample Books ...

2010-08-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

My friend Gloria visited the other day, and quickly homed in on a pile of stuff near the top of our stairs. "What's all this?" she exclaimed. Gloria, having down-sized into the most gorgeous condo in my favorite part of the Earth, is understandably clutter-averse. Having read my blog-post on hoarding, Gloria, like any true friend, also tries to call me out on my own tendencies toward clutter magnet-tude.

Well, "all this" happened to be a box packed with fabric sample books from Gaynor, another neat friend, who has an interior designer buddy. "Fabric samples" does not do my latest pile 'o' stuff justice: these goods are drop-dead gorgeous.

Imagine 12 color-ways...(Click to enlarge)

People live like this? No cats!

That's one out of ten or so books; two or three others showcase sublime embroidered textiles. When I saw their splendor, I quickly emailed Gaynor, asking her if she was sure she didn't want them. Happily, she said yes.
The nattering nabobs of negativity (don't you love it...one of Nixon's speechwriters, William Safire I think, came up with that) may say, "But what will you ever do with that stuff?"

Actually, I've been the happy recipient of other sample books, from our favorite upholsterer, Patsy Carter. A few years ago, when I was invited to be part of a wedding album for Dana and Trevor, our teachers at Infinite Yoga, I asked if I could embellish the photo album's cover. I chose home-dec samples in Indian colors, because our lineage of Ashtanga Yoga comes from India. Click below for more detail on the album cover.

At front, right, I carved the OM stamp and burned it into the velvet. Same for the sun, top left. I machine embroidered Shiva as Nataraj; also the Shisha mirror. I like the back, left, where the couple looks back. I hand embroidered the front to resemble a crazy quilt.

Here's our page in the album.

Gloria didn't arrive for her visit empty handed, by the way. She gave me a great big bag full of lovely yardage from Provence and a New York designer. Hmm. I think she's sending mixed messages.

Again, Thank You, Gaynor ... and Gloria!

So Shiva!

2010-07-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Perhaps collage suits me, for apart from my hippo, the only other Asilomar project I've started and finished is the Shiva vest begun in Rosemary Eichorn's class.

"So Shiva," front. Hand-dyed; commercial fabrics circa 2004 (Click to make larger.)

If you've read some of my older posts, you might remember seeing the hippo quilt, Bracelet of Kingdom, started in Susan Carlson's class.

Each year, in several consecutive week-long sessions held at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, Empty Spools hosts 60 or so renowned quilting and fiber-arts teachers. Atendees sign up for a class and stay with it for the week, and it's heaven. Three big meals a day await you in Asilomar's huge dining hall, and you walk from your room to class to meals and an evening program along tiny paths carved between tall grasses, windswept cypresses, and wild iris. Deer, woodpeckers and racoons abound. Many attendees take advantage of the boardwalks out in the dunes, enjoying their morning walks out near the rough sea. With your normal routine suspended, you feel you have nothing but a week of creativity and joy ahead.

While gathering my supplies for this class, I decided to create a vest honoring Shiva, a Hindu deity who brought us Hatha yoga. Fabric picturing Shiva is rare to non-existent, so I found some copyright-free images on the Internet and printed them out on fabric using my bubble-jet printer.

"So Shiva," back

As you can see, the main process is to collage elements cut from flowered and other fabrics in a pleasing manner. Here's sort of a creepy/cool story about the back of this vest: I made this vest in 2004. I attended my first yoga teacher training intensive with Tim Miller in 2005. In an expansive mood one day, Tim told us the story of how yoga came to humankind. Shiva was explaining yoga to his wife Paravati by the shores of a lake. A fish swam up and listened to the story. Meanwhile, Paravati had fallen asleep. When Shiva asked her if she was still listening, the fish answered "Yes." He then transformed to a human (some think the human was already inside the fish, like the Jonah story) and went out to bring yoga to ease our suffering. So that's why we have Matsyasana, and other fish poses in yoga today.

But here's the creepy/weird part: When I was putting together this vest, I hadn't heard that story, and didn't know about the fish. I added the fish because I wanted to use the mottled green "swamp pond" fabric that I'd painted in Micky Lawler's class years ago, so I created a lake with a fish in it that Shiva gazes at, and surrounded the lake with my swamp pond fabric.

When I told Tim, and he inspected the vest, his jaw sort of dropped. "You didn't know about the fish?" Do-do-do-do. (Sung to the Twilight Zone tune.)

"So Shiva," reverse, back, foiled Indonesian batik

The vest is reversible; here is Shiva dancing, as the Nataraj.

Fourth Annual Stone Sour Fest, 2010

2010-07-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

I think of myself as the Black Hole of Hip. With a couple of notable exceptions, I've always been pretty far behind every trend. Chances are good you can name a current cultural movement or sub-culture and I'll be stumbling upon it, wide-eyed, in the next five years or so. And so it has been with the Craft Beer movement.

Sure, I gave Andy, my spousal unit, a beer-brewing kit fifteen years ago. But that belongs in another blog entry: the Dismal List of Failed Presents post.

In a tiny stab at defining Craft Beer (and I'm already out of my element), I believe that beer crafters -- whether hobbyists or commercial breweries -- take an artisanal approach to beer making. They research styles from far and near, past and present, and concoct mixtures with a wide range of of hops and grain varieties. Most (and notably the Americans) are not afraid to experiment. When I quaffed my first craft-brewed IPA, or India Pale Ale, I found heaven in a glass. Full of green, hoppy flavors, and very refreshing, it was a beer I could hardly wait to tell my friends about. They were kind, to say the least. No one yawned or said, "What else is new?" or "What planet have you been on?"

Roughly two weeks after my first IPA, we met Brett and Suzy, our beer friends. Sure, we have plenty more in common than beer; Suzy does yoga with me, we sew together, hope to paint together, and Brett and Suzy are incredibly knowledgeable about food.

Suzy and Brett enjoy the Stone Sour Beer Fest

When Andy's not writing computer books, he delves into what I can only call Extreme Cooking. (You can visit his blog: http://andyrathbone.posterous.com. Vegetarians, be forewarned. Perhaps even non-vegetarians should be forewarned.) Well, whenever Brett and Andy get together, they fire off tips about rare and exotic fruits, sausage making, and anything to do with time-consuming, delicious cookery. And pork.

With me, Brett's claim to fame is that he brews his own beer. And, he's a certified beer judge. So imagine the patience he mustered when, not even a year ago, I raved about my first IPA. A few months after that, they invited us to a beer festival, part of San Diego's Beer Week, held at the opulent Qualcomm, Inc. There, you could taste a slice of hand-raised pork that was nourished on the spent hops that had gone into the beer they served with it. Here was a sub-culture that had been going on for years ... that I knew nothing about! Beer Week was an eye-opener, to be sure.

When Brett and Suzy invited us to the Fourth Annual Sour Beer festival up at Stone Brewing Co., we didn't hesitate. The event was nicely spread out over the lush, one-acre beer garden; well-spaced beer stations poured tastes of various drafts or bottles. Located in sweltering Escondido, Stone made sure to provide plenty of chilled water stations so patrons could beat the heat and pace themselves. The event ran from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., but rumor had it that attendees had started lining up at the entrance as early as 8 a.m. Speaking of lines, everyone waiting for their next pour seemed so nice. Often people would offer a taste of their glass; I gave a few tastes myself. Casually dressed and extremely knowledgeable, the crowd was there to have a nice, mellow time.

Andy enjoys Sour Beers at lovely Stone Brewing Co.

Overall, I found I enjoyed the more intermediate-level sour beers, but didn't care for the super-sours styles like Gueuze (think, aspirin held in the mouth too long); or the super-fruitys like the Raspberry Lambic that tasted like flat pop.

I'm sure the Beer World is waiting with baited (beer?) breath for my favorites: I liked the Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge; the Deschutes Bender Weiss; the Grand Teton Sourgrass; the Rodenbach Grand Cru; the New Belgium Tart Lychee and their La Folie; -- and then I stopped writing them down. A $40 admission ticket bought 15 tastes; about a quarter-pint each. Many of these brews will be hard to find; you won't come across them at the local Von's.

Quite a few of the taps had run dry by the time we arrived at 1:30 p.m., including everything from The Lost Abbey, a local brewery. Here's a factoid for you: San Diego County holds the distinction for being the USA's center of the Craft Beer movement. That's about right for me: a trend I never suspected, and right in my own back yard.

A Block Keeper for Sue

2010-06-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

When my quilting buddies Ruth and Judy showed me the Block Keepers they'd made, I knew I had to make one as a gift for my friend Sue.

First, a definition, for those non-quilters among you. A block keeper is like a big folder, lined in flannel, designed to store hand-applique quilt blocks in-progress. Applique is worked by hand sewing flower or other shapes down onto a piece of fabric. The term applique comes from the French appliquer, to apply. There's machine-applique, too, but that's something you don't need to carry around with you in a folder.

My clumsy definition hardly does justice to the art of applique. Applique quilts can be among the most stunning of quilt styles. The quilt below, made about 1850, shows applique's very different effect compared to pieced quilts (which you've seen elsewhere in my blog). Each of the red and green shapes were hand-cut, then pinned onto the white background fabric. The quiltmaker then appliqued the shape down, patiently turning under the colored fabric using the tip of her (or his) needle just a scant quarter-inch ahead of each stitch, invisibly blind-stitching it down. Of course, this quilt has been hand-quilted, too. (Here, the hand-quilting shows up as those tiny running stitches on the white background, giving the quilt a marvelous textural effect.)

Acorn Quilt, by Catherine Outwater, c. 1850, 76" x 91", QNM, Issue 97, Dec. '77

Sue, a cool-colors person, loved her block keeper!

Here's a link to Sue's Baltimore Album Quilt; I hope her new block keeper will encourage her to keep up with her beautiful applique skills.
Sue's Baltimore Album Quilt

Traditional Quiltworks

2010-06-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

Recently, I unearthed five boxes of old quilt magazines from our storage shed. I'd assumed they were all issues of Quilter's Newsletter. As it turned out, the stacks of mags strewn about the bedroom floor and bookshelves (perhaps they were better off in the boxes, Shandy?) comprise several titles, including Country Handcrafts, Quilt World: A Quilter's Dream Come True!, Quilt Almanac, Quilting Today ... and many more.

My favorite of these is called Traditional Quiltworks. The earliest issues give only template outlines to trace onto template plastic (or an old cereal box) for cutting out each little patch that makes up a block. Back then, quick-piecing with a rotary cutter and ruler was just a gleam in some quilt genius' eye.

Upon closer reading, the old magazines revealed some timely social concerns. A few issues featured professional quilters who claimed to be "getting back to the land" through quilting, crafts, canning, and gardening. Some of the Editor's columns mention feminism; a few other columnists talk about how happy Grandmother was with her traditional role on the farm, so what's the big deal about equal rights for women, anyhow? That caused quite a kerfuffle in the Letters columns for some time. Happily, the editors decided to get back to quilting.

I love the photos of the traditional quilts: eternal patterns like Winding Ways and Palm reveal the mind-boggling creativity of women (and some men) who possessed little art training and fewer resources.

Winding Ways, by Judith C. Youngman, 76" x 93"

Palm quilt, maker not credited, Issue 25, 84" x 104"

One of the things about traditional quilts that inflames my passion is the stick-to-itivness shown in completing such large quilts. The Palm quilt shown above involved many hours of cutting long, bias pieces and sewing those perfect points without ruffling. Today's quilter would simply go out and purchase a set of pre-printed papers to sew on, a technique called "paper piecing." Piece o' cake!

A bonus for me was stumbling upon the Design Challenge column by Sharyn Craig, a local quilter and pioneering quilt teacher. Her column urged quilters to liberate themselves from preconceived notions of color, design and execution -- promoting the flannel design wall, strip-piecing (using the then revolutionary rotary cutter and acrylic ruler), and drafting in order to combine like blocks for new effects. Each column featured coloring charts so a quilter could play "what if" and find the literally hundreds of variations in the same blocks just by changing value placement. The best part was that she'd illustrate her column with quilts by many of my friends, members of local quilt guilds.

Wow, you guys jammed more than I ever suspected!

"Bracelet of Kingdom" Quilt, Finished at Last

2010-06-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

I've always maintained that there's nothing like a deadline to set a fire under one's butt. You know, the way your house or garden never looks as nice as right before your party?

For me, that deadline came due when Beth, our new executive director at the Quilt Visions Gallery, called to say they needed a photo of the quilt I entered in our upcoming show. The hippo quilt I'd started in Susan Carlson's class two years ago was almost finished, but still bereft of a binding and a hanging sleeve.

Susan, Hippo and Me, Asilomar 2009

Well, finished at last, I'm proud to announce the birth of Mama Hippo, inspired from a photo I took of her underwater at the San Diego Zoo's most excellent hippo exhibit in the Lost Forest.

"Bracelet of Kingdom," Tina Rathbone, 29.5" by 20.5," c. 2010

I daresay she was worth the long gestation period.

Come and visit her in person: Quilt Visions Critique Group Show, opening Friday, July 2, reception from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.

A note about the critique group and how useful it was in the making of my quilt: I asked the group if I should include a spark of white on her pupil, as most animal and human eyes viewed in daylight have a highlight there. They agreed that would look nice, and David stuck a bit of sticky note on her eye as a visual.

I eventually decided against it, since my photo was taken underwater, where her eye has a membrane over it and there is no spark of light to speak of on the photo or on her. But it was great to be able to bounce ideas such as that one off the rest of the group. As an aside, that's why her face is all squeezed in and compressed: she's not breathing underwater.

A Gillian Moss Quilt Added to Our Collection

2010-06-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

I'd just met Gillian Moss for the first time an hour before, and now I was asking her to sell me her quilt. She showed it at our critique group that meets in the Quilt Visions art quilt gallery. (She's the group leader, but had missed the meeting that I first attended.) It was love at first sight. Simply put, the quilt made me happy. It was edgy, yet so cheerful; such a loose, free-spirited thing.

Gillian politely demurred about selling it, and rightly so! After all, the quilt wasn't even finished, and she wanted to display it in a show later on down the road. Of course I agreed, feeling that I'd been rather bold, and a bit embarrased about that, too. It's just not like me to be so brash. (Of course, all my dear friends and family members reading this will probably snort out loud: "Yeah, right.") Either way, I emailed her telling her so, but much to my happiness, she emailed back that she was willing to sell me her quilt!

For years, a blue teapot painting occupied this space: a wonderful work indeed, by our own San Diego artist Dorothy Annette. Yet it had been up for as long as we've lived here, over ten years, and we've always talked about wanting to rotate our art collection.

This seemed like a nice transition into summer.

Quilt collectors, Gillian Moss is someone to look out for. For the Rathbone family, her quilt makes a cheerful and happy enhancement to the room where we spend the most time: our kitchen.

Bottom, closeup (Click the photo to see it enlarged): Her quilt is absolutely square; my photo isn't! :)

"Full Blown Chrysanthemums," 18 3/4" by 19" Gillian Moss, 02/2010.

Am I a Hoarder?

2010-05-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

One of my close relatives, who shall remain nameless but whose name rhymes with "Shandy," called me a "hoarder" the other day.

True, I had hauled home yet another bookshelf the day before, donated by my friend Jack who's soon moving away (sigh ...) to Montana. But, I argued, I was clearing out our shed, emptying three or four moving boxes of our art supplies, and putting them where we could access them and USE them. To no avail. Even I had to admit, when looking around my over-stuffed studio, that I'd saved every sewing pattern I'd ever bought, and that anyone else had ever bought and given away to a thrift shop or yard sale, too. It was partially "Shandy's" fault, I pondered. After all, his mother had just given me the most delightful gift: an entire box of mid-Sixties to early-Seventies clothing patterns. A treasure, every one! Who could resist?

I continued to survey the scene of the crime. Quilting cottons, although neatly ~~hoarded~~ stored in bins, filled an entire studio wall plus the whole area under two 8' by 4' Cost-co tables.

The room's closet revealed an entire wall of shelves devoted to thread. On the other side of the closet hulked two large dressers, underutilized, but with piles of my garment fabric on top, stretching up to the uppermost closet shelf.

My paper arts collection ... stamps, inks, dies, papers ... was growing with each weekly coupon from JoAnne or Michaels. Formerly stacked atop an Ikea shelf/bin of unfinished fiber objects (UFOs), the nicely arranged Ikea storage boxes were now arrayed atop my two tables (see above), newly displaced by the new art-supplies shelf.

Being a "hoarder" is a relatively new concept. Formerly, I had heard the term in reference to people who rescue many more animals (and keep them) than they can care for in tip-top fashion. Then, one of my quilting friends said she couldn't have our quilt group over because she was a "hoarder," diagnosed with a psychological condition that fills up one's house.

I decided to try and redeem my reputation with "Shandy" by heading to our storage shed and getting rid of any unnecessaries. Hmmm. My eye fell on four big boxes packed with every issue, from day one, of Quilter's Newsletter magazine, given to me by a fellow quilter (when no one else in our group, wisely, would take them). History in the making! The entire collection, a treasure!

Any takers?

My First Quilt

2010-05-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

After much agonizing about my first entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival, 2010, I decided to show my first quilt.

A new member of Canyon Quilters, my local guild, I was frozen with fear about creating a quilt after seeing the other members' fabulous creativity. Happily, a Quilt Challenge un-froze me. We were asked to do a Road to Oklahoma block and then embellish it in any way we liked.

Having recently endured a gall-bladder surgery, I chose to base my quilt around this experience. The words "You Are What You Eat" were the very first stamping I'd done; the embroidery surrounding the Shisha mirrors to reflect the viewer was the very first embroidery I'd attempted. The beads hanging off the mirrors, my first attempt at beading. And the piecing and machine quilting, you guessed it -- my first. Those large beads hanging from the middle mirror are four of seven gallstones they removed. Ow.

The fairies in the fairy fabric must have inserted the stones inside me; the doctors said they didn't know what caused them. The stoney, red fabric goes without saying; the hand-painted, Shibori-like fabric a favorite I created in Mickey Lawler's class. The rest: Food and cooking charms of silver and other metals; shisha mirrors; thread; alphabet stamps, beads, monofilament thread, ink, batting, backing, and perle cotton. Oh, and gallstones. :)

When Life Gives You Lemons ...

2010-05-21T12:39:00.000-07:00

When the lemons started falling off by themselves, we knew it was time to harvest the bounty from our patio's Dwarf Meyer lemon tree. Mom's tree was equally laden, so we decided to team up and can a few jars of our favorite lemon relish, the Hot Lemon Pickle (Elumichai Urugai), from "Dakshin: Vegetarian Cuisine from South India."

Redolent of chilies, fenugreek, ginger, mustard seeds and sesame oil, this pickle perks up Indian food and just about anything else this side of dessert.

I actually can it, processing for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. If you're lucky enough to get a jar from me, be sure to store it in the fridge once it's opened.

We still had dozens of lemons, and we'd been curious about preserving lemons in salt and lemon juice, Maghreb style. We found a great recipe in Paula Wolfert's iconic "Couscous and other Good Food from Morocco."

Written back in 1973, this book helped to revolutionize the way Americans thought about cooking and eating. It's still in print today, although I think Wolfert is revising it for a 2nd. edition.

This recipe went against all my beliefs about preserving foods: you don't boil the jars after filling them AND you leave the jars on the kitchen counter for a month or so, turning them upside-down every morning. ACK!

Here's a link to a web how-to on just what to do with your preserved lemons once they're done. Some delicious ideas! More about Moroccan Preserved Lemons

Pillow Talk Redux

2010-05-19T22:59:00.000-07:00

For my next pillow, I wanted a nice, big one. Stumbling upon some nice Merrimekko fabric, vastly reduced at the Crate & Barrel outlet store in Carlsbad, I decided to do a mid-century modern treatment, left, with linear quilting and some fused organza napkin fabric in little, very fiddly circles. The fabric was rather thin, being a cotton sateen. Of course it needed some quilting to strengthen the pillow. This was actually a pain in the pincushion.

Bottom: I went wild with curly free-motion quilting, hand-embroidered chain-stitch, and more of those fused, fiddly circles. I call the piece "Two Sides to Every Story."

Pillow Talk

2010-05-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I decided to contribute as an act of service (seva) to pass on the art of sewing to younger women of my acquaintance. After teaching yoga, or at other gatherings, I offered free lessons. As my new students arrived with armloads of clothing, with alterations in mind, I proceeded to walk them through some ... alterations. Hmm; that wasn't quite what I had in mind, but ... to be more yogic about it, I should not have been harboring expectations or attachments about the experience in the first place.

For a future project to teach everyone to actually sew something from scratch, I hit upon the novel idea of a ... drumroll please ... pillow cover. Banal, perhaps, but simple, and hopefully something one could finish in one session and regard with some sense of satisfaction. So I decided to make a couple on my own; first, to practice up, and to give myself a place to practice free-motion machine quilting -- always needed.

I took a hand-painted, sun-printed bit of yardage from a Micky Lawler class, and worked some free-motion machine embellishment in gold metallic (Madeira FS). Then I filled in the background with my trusty rayon thread (Maderia No. 40).

You machine quilters will note that the filling stitches on one side are more successful (bottom photo) than on the other side (top photo). By the second side, after many bobbin thread experiments, I remembered that the top thread was polyester, not rayon (Superior's Rainbows variegated line), so I switched the bobbin thread to a very thin poly called "The Bottom Line," by Superior. Perfecto!

--- Before Epiphany ...

-- After realizing what bobbin thread to use ...

Spring Fever!

2010-05-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

Today, after the end of my early a.m. yoga class, I asked the group if they'd been enjoying the springtime birds lately. No sooner did I arrive home and start eating lunch when ear-splitting screeches reached the table. Chevy, our shy kitty, was outside, so I was a bit worried whether he'd be frightened at the prospect of about 20 wild green parrots making such a racket. It seemed at first as if they were fighting -- but wait... they had all paired off and appeared to be mating, in surprisingly close branches of the huge eucalyptus grove to our north.

Loud always, today's shrieks were different: much more frantic sounding. Maybe they were stimulating each other to mate, a reason for the lack of privacy. Hmmm.

Often, one parrot hung from the beak, and then the talons, of the other, both heads downward towards the ground, trying to bring critical body parts together while smooching (biting?) beaks and breasts. Often a branch prevented contact between the critical body parts, causing much awkward scrambling in the operation. Or, a third parrot would fly down, creep near and bite the toes of the paramour, causing either one or both of the pair to lose grip and plunge to another branch. (This last development I noticed only after grabbing the binoculars, feeling a bit voyeuristic in doing so.)

Soon things had quieted down, and the tree transformed from a feathered fantasia to a perch for grooming. Andy claimed the mates were having a cigarette.

From AvianWeb: The Red-crowned Parrot - also known as Mexican Red Head Amazon or Green-cheeked Amazon (Amazona viridigenalis) - is an endangered Amazon parrot native to the lowlands of North-eastern Mexico to Northern Veracruz.

Apparently they mate for life; Andy suggested we "leave the windows dirty" so we can watch them without scaring them away. Sounds good to me!

Spring ... it's for the birds!

Speaking of Recycled Art

2010-05-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ariane stands in front of one of her art assemblages.

The Encinitas Public Library, in San Diego's North County, recently opened a fascinating and timely Recycled Art show. It runs through June 6. You can expect every medium from wood and found object assemblages through bottle art through textiles. I especially loved an haute couture, hand-dyed and beautifully tailored women's coat, made from an old sheet.

The opening reception was deliciously catered, but decidedly un-green, as it offered water in those irksome tiny plastic bottles. In fact, a troupe of performance artists covered in such trash ominously shook their bottles at everyone -- making it hard to talk to fellow art lovers.

Look for art by two of my friends, Ariane Brittany and Irv Simpson. Plus, the library building itself is a work of art.

Encinitas Branch Library
540 Cornish Drive
Encinitas, CA 92024
1-760-753-7376

A silk purse from a sow's ear

2010-05-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, perhaps just a greeting card collaged from elements of an old magazine ad and some teapot instructions. But I love the idea of using up my saved paper stash.