There Goes Santa Clause

Mia's mom Lori sent me this picture of Mia in the snow. Could she be any cuter? Thanks Lori!


















Our Christmas was pretty great. Here's our Christmas piano, all loaded up with presents.














Josh is showing Mia her new "Ugly Doll."






















Lori gave Mia some yogurt for lunch. Yummy yum yum.

Dreaming

The view from our living room window:

Dreams of a white Christmas have come true.

Merry Christmas!

Smooching the Snowgirl

Today, I decided to make a new friend.

And I do mean MAKE a new friend.!











Then Jim caught me smooching her up, and he snapped this pic.

Oh the Weather Outside!

Here's what our copper rain chains look like today.
























This is the front of our house yesterday.















This is it today.















And here's the view from our deck in back.

Beeeutiful!!!

Sew and Snow

I've been doing more frayed edges in my folk art pieces. I think it has something to do with frayed nerves that are my habit during this (and every) holiday season.

Hopefully the edges will soften with time.
















Miss Phoebe is enjoying the snow in her warm leopard coat.












I've just about finished the "white-white-and-more-white" quilt.

I've been using various thicknesses of white thread to hand quilt it, and it's already taken more hours than I can count. It's the perfect job for these beautiful snow days...a great excuse to stay indoors.

Snow, Stitches and Silliness

Big fat snowflakes falling like downy feathers from the sky.

Out front.



















Out back over the river.









A good day to stay in, stitch something silly, and gaze out at the snowfall.

Easy to forget any troubles.

Nooks and Crannies

Of late, I've been hand quilting the multi-whites quilt. I'm using pearl cotton mostly, and I love the way it makes the fabric pucker and dip. The shadows make another whole element of texture on the quilt.











A life, dips and shallows,
shadows and bright spots,
slow work and long.

Travel Treasures

I photographed this piece when I was in Nancy Crow's timber frame studio last year. She has many incredible objects from her travels.

This morning, I found this quote on the blog "Exot" done by R. Nemo Hill
and Julian Mendez Perea
It made me think of all the places I've been, and the beautiful things I've gathered along the way. Here it is:

"The map to treasure is decorated with dozens of directions. There are the ways forward and the ways back, the places we pass through, the places we only pass by, the places we remember, the places we forget. The treasure, too, is manifold. There's destination, there's detour, there's what we bring and what we leave behind, there's what we lose along the way, there's what we find. And finally, there is what we carry back with us to that part of the map we call home."


Sir Richard F. Burton wrote: "A traveler's legs are like blossoming branches, and he himself grows and gathers the fruit."

Vintage Fabric Bliss

For the past few days, I've been sewing together some of the pieces I talked about in my last post. And I've been appliqueing them to some shot cottons.

I plan to stagger thirteen of these blocks with varying sized strips of other solid colors...hopefully more shot cottons.








I want the old fabrics to be the centerpiece of this quilt, and I think the solid colors of contemporary fabrics will let that happen.








































I haven't stitched this green one yet, but you can get the idea.

I'm almost breathless with excitement. I gritted my teeth this morning to go to downtown Salem to meet my friends Bonnie and LeeAnn for fabric shopping, a cup of coffee, and a chat...right in the midst of Black Friday mahem.

I decided to stop in an antique store while I was downtown to look for vintage clothes or textiles that I might be able to use in my latest folk art quilting binge.

In the back of the store, under a shelf full of table linens and doilies, I found a cardboard box full of fabric pieces, some hand sewn together, some cut in repetitive shapes but not sewn, and some just miscellaneous scraps. I took the box up to the counter to see how much they were (thinking I'd buy a few pieces if they were maybe 25 cents each). She said I could have the whole box for $35! Wow!

There must be several hundred pieces, not many duplicates, and all quite old (I'm guessing from the 1930s). I happily paid for the box and now that I'm home and have a chance to look through them, I'm even more thrilled.

Here are a few of them.

Yesterday was a pleasant Thanksgiving in Portland. Jim took some pics of our adorable granddaughter Mia, and I just had to post them here.
























Here she is with her daddy...my baby.

Whites and Books

I've been working on a new quilt that has been mulling in my brain for some time. I wanted to find as many different white fabrics in as many different textures as I could, and piece them into one quilt with just bits of color. I had some scraps from old quilts, but I also found some stuff at Goodwill...white linen shirts, a soft thin white pillow case, etc...that I was able to cut up and use.

I've quilted some of it with my machine, and now I'm doing a bunch of hand quilting with varying thicknesses of white thread.

Yesterday, I had all the River Bookies book women over to my house for lunch and book discussion. My book was "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion. It's a good book, and it made for a wonderful and varied reaction.





Here is (from left) Nina, Karen and Carla. The tapestry on the wall is by Maximo Laura, a Peruvian weaver from whom I was lucky enough to take a workshop when I was in Peru.












Here you see Lucky, Jo, Cretia and half of Norma.

















And here, Carla, Pat, Carol and Naomi.

Oh, how I do love these women and our book club.

Creative Colaborative Concoction

Yesterday, my fellow traveler on the road to quilting nirvana (Bonnie) and I spent most of the day in my studio doing some fabric piecing. We worked independently, but toward a collaborative end.

Here's what we ended up with after we put everything together to form one fabulous whole. Pretty nifty huh?!? We started with some basic parameters...12" x 9" blocks...two basic sections for each block (one detailed and textural, and the other linear and spare), and colors to coordinate with the flower print pieces.

What fun we had! Now all we need is to do this a bunch more, and we'll end up with something we can really write home about.

Buttons and bones

This is an old carved box that was my mother's. I'm pretty sure it was made in Mexico, but I don't know how she came to have it.

It's one of my favorite possessions (a thing I'd grab if I had to evacuate in a hurry).



And this is why.

It's chock full of her old buttons, collected over many years of sewing. I love looking through it.

And I love thinking of stuff I can use them for.









Today, I made a girl dog out of socks, and used old buttons for the nose and eyes.




Note the dog bone tattoo on her rumpus.

FUNdementals of Organization

Today, I'm trying a checked fabric, using the fabric itself as a grid for goofing around with some stitching ideas.

I like the idea of using the grid lines to give some organization to the piece, but also to draw attention to stitching that doesn't fall within the lines.

Perhaps another parable?: Be organized to an extent, but remember how essential it is to keep doing stuff that's unpredictable, unconventional, and fun.


















Here's the stitching area where I relax and play.

As you can see, I really do make some disorganized messes. But at least I can cover it all up, do something regular...like cook...and then return to plunder through my threads and stash once again.

I'm In Stitches

Today was such a wet and rainy day, there was nothing much to do, so I finished quilting and binding a couple of unfinished quilts that have been niggling at my conscience for months.

I left myself a bit of time to work some more on my hand stitched little pieces. It seems like the more stitching I add, the more I like the looks.


I guess that's sort of a metaphor for my life these days...stitching all the frayed edges in an attempt to make something beautiful.

Backs and Fronts

My latest quilting bender has been along the lines of hand piecing and hand quilting my version of folk art.

This is actually the back of a quilt that I think I like better than the front.

I found a panel of fabric with several versions of "Our Lady of Guadalupe," so I used one of them here. She holds a familiarity to me because I grew up on the Mexican border in Texas. The Lady of Guadalupe is a big deal to the Catholics there. Her image appears on pendants, rosary charms, church walls, etc..

I think I'll use more of the panel pieces in an upcoming Guatemalan inspired piece I have in mind.

Alas. So many ideas, so little time.


Here's a piece that I just finished, done completely with hand stitching. I decided to let myself keep adding to it for as long as I had the energy, so it's a bit busy, but I like it anyway.

OBAMA Won!!!!!

It just doesn't get any better than this! An African American elected President, that even the "whitest" Americans can support.

The horrifying history of blacks in America is finally going to go in a different, better, more tolerant direction.

And he's so articulate! Won't it be great not to have to mute the sound when the President comes on TV to bungle the English language? And he is so well-educated, so able to really see all sides of the issues, so able to get astute advice when he needs it, and then make well-founded, educated decisions.

I'm so stoked, thrilled, excited, hopeful. He's going to be great!







It's been raining here, but we still enjoy going for long walks and photographing (Jim's forte) the beautiful countryside.