6.30.13

ninth in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

See some sports. I might go to Wrigley Field. 

 
 

I would like to see a Sox game but the thought of going to a place called US CELLULAR? Ridiculous. 



 

I wouldn't mind going to Soldier Field. I would be pleased to meet Ditka, but I would probably have to go to Connecticut to do that. Ditka is ... the only individual in NFL modern history to win a championship with the same team as a player and a head coach.  Ditka was the only individual to participate in both of the last two Chicago Bears' championships, as a player in 1963 and as head coach in 1985.~~from his Wikipedia page.


So sorry, Bulls. I can't bear basketball.

6.29.13

eighth in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Simply HAVE to visit the Sears Tower on a day that it is not cloudy.  Last time I was there was 1985  and we could not even see the top of the tower due to clouds. We decided not to go up.

We flew in  and landed at O'Hare and then made our way to Grand Central Station. Or was it Union Station? I would go and visit it again. In fact, I would gladly "TRAIN"-in to the station.

If it was the right time of the year, I would drag my companions to the Old Town School of Folk Music to the Square Roots Festival and Craft Beer sampling event. The school has a lot going on and a lot of different activities.

I think I would be remiss if I did not go to Hull House. That would, of course, necessitate rereading the Jane Addams biographies. Maybe I would choose a more scholarly one than the last I read in 1966.

6.28.13

seventh in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Bread Basket Class

Finish up at the Art Institute of Chicago and search out the Chicago Weaving School. They have $40 weaving sessions and have the supplies available for their classes. This bread basket costs $5 for materials. I think I would be here for every workshop. I don't need the class to do this one but to pick up the supplies and hang out with people who enjoy what I enjoy? WOW. 

Market Basket

Look at this one. I don't need the class for that, either but the materials are only $10 and the class takes two sessions ($80). I could gift it when I was finished enjoying making it.

Then there is this little beauty. Not terribly functional unless you have a lot of roving to store artistically next to your spinning wheel. I wouldn't need a class to do this either, since I have a little bit of experience with this style, but still. A two session class ($80) and materials fee of only $10? Spending the time with other basketeers? Count me in.

6.27.13

sixth in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Go to Quiltology because I try to visit as many quilt stores as possible.

Try to get into a meeting at the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild.





I would probably spend some time on THIS PLANET PATCHWORK website to find as many quilt shops as Chicago offers.

Basket by Fujinuma Noboru, Master of Bamboo

Then, I would probably, I would head over to the Art Institute of Chicago and do my best to see as much of the textile collection as possible. No doubt, if I found the baskets, I would have to find a place to stay nearby so I could make an in-depth study.

6.26.13

fifth in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Nice "hometowm" library

Get a library card so I could check out books at the largest public building in the world, the Harold Washington Library.

Very "quilty" looking window.

 Stroll along the Navy Pier and enter the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows. After all, I was a frequent visitor to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum in Winter Park, Florida, home of the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany and have been present for the lighting of the windows during the Christmas Season. 

Pick up my companion from the LandShark Beer Garden, where he was no doubt happy to wait for me and then I would proceed to the Chicago Postcard Museum.

6.25.13

Tea Time Tuesday

Read about this marvelous gas station in Zillah, Yakima County, Washington.
You can bet if I am ever in Yakima County, this will be why.

6.24.13

 MONDAY MANTRA

This woman reminds me of at least two ladies I know.

I don't know who that young lady is but the sentiment is worth thinking about. Fear of the unknown is kind of arrogant, don't you agree? First, you acknowledge that there is an unknown. Then, you judge that it is harmful or judge that you do not have the strength or skill to deal with it. Or that you would prefer to remain ignorant! It smacks of prejudice to me! Is there anything more arrogant than prejudice?

I try to be curious about some of the unknowns around me but I have to admit I remain arrogant about roller coasters (not entirely prejudiced, I have been on one or two), and spiders (never EVER EVER curious enough to learn more).

See my new FOLLOW ME button? Google Friend Connect is biting the dust so I have joined bloggers all over the world and become a part of Bloglovin'. Basically all it means is you follow the blogs you like and they send you an email with the posts from those blogs everyday. You use it as a sort of design your own magazine. My magazine, of course, is quilting and such. Don't fear it, try it out! Any topic that interests you is available in blog-land and you can easily keep up with them all via one of your email addresses.

6.23.13

fourth in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

 See the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio
and then I would go to the Smart Museum of Art and look at the Frank Lloyd Wright dinning room set.

© 2002 Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Scottsdale, AZ / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

and then hop over for a visit  at the Robie House and admire the The Frank Lloyd Wright interior restoration project. If you want to take a virtual tour, start HERE.

6.22.13

third in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Go to Chicago Shakespeare in the Park. I would pay for a great seat the first time, then arrange to be a docent so I would NEVER EVER miss a play.

13th Ballad, an installation by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates

Stay for hours at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
I would probably spend hours looking at the Theaster Gates offerings.

Dan Peterman's Running Table made of recycled plastic extrusions

Arrange to follow a walking tour of public art and have lunch at Dan Peterman's Running Table.






 

6.21.13

second in a series
If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Go to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  It is too late for Global Fusion which would be my first choice but there is a concert called the Tchaikovsky Spectacular. Too bad it is sold out.

Go to the Adler Planetarium. Who doesn't love a good Planetarium Show?

This one looks interesting but I haven't read the reviews.

Definitely try to see a show at Second City.

6.20.13

These next few weeks I will be on a quilting retreat, entertaining company again, and then going to a family reunion which will keep me away from my usual routines until mid-July. I have prepared a few posts ahead of time but I may miss some days of posting. Here is the beginning of a series I will call If I lived in Chicago

 If I lived in Chicago, I would...

Visit UNEXPECTED CHICAGO  at the Chicago History Museum and look at  a Comiskey Park baseball signed by Babe Ruth and commemorating the inaugural Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1933.

Olympia Marble. Notebaert encourages VIRTUAL butterfly collecting!

Go to the Notebaert Museum and take a Butterfly Yoga class.

Emerald Starling

Visit the Lincoln Park Zoo and look at the songbirds in the McCormick House. It is free and open everyday.

6.19.13

Karen Nyberg is one of my heroes. After I wanted to be an anthropologist, and while I was being a teacher, I wanted to be an Astronaut. 

I completed the application process when they were looking for teachers to send on the Challenger. It was not my destiny to make even the first cut, so I decided to be a mother. Fifteen days after I had my first son, the Challenger made its last lift-off. It was a monumental tragedy.

Nyberg's quilt for her niece

That rested my interest in space for about 20 years. I am thinking I would again like to become an astronaut. Not enough to train and apply, just to think wistfully about it. Now I can enjoy it via Karen Nyberg. She went. She docked with the Soyuz TMA-09M. And she has fabric (only four fat quarters!), thread, and I hope, scissors. She was limited in what she could  bring with her but since astronauts on the space station discard their flight suits once a week, she may be able to cut some pieces of the fabrics before they are jettisoned to burn in the Earth's atmosphere. 

When asked what she would miss most aside from family and friends, she said she would miss drinking coffee from a cup instead of a bag! I raise my mug to you, Karen Nyberg.

6.18.13

Tea Time Tuesday
 A book by Kathy Hatch.

6.17.13

Monday Mantra is a call to action for me. 

I have to get going on my retreat packing! The Pieceful Mountain Quilt Guild has their retreat this week and I will be back sometime Friday. If I get organized, I will be posting along while I am actually at the beautiful Hinton Center. At the writing of this post, I have not decided what projects to bring. I decided not to take classes but just work on some things that have to get done. 

The classes looked interesting. One is a quilt from a jelly roll (42 strips 42 inches long by 2.5 inches wide) and the other is a fabric coil style basket. I had planned to do my own jelly roll quilt (hopefully for AwaySon who is now away in Chicago so it will have a wool batting) and I will probably spend some time on that. The other thing I have to do is replace the binding on a quilt my mother made for HomeSon. Poor thing probably wonders if I will ever get around to it.

6.16.13

SUNKEN TREASURE DISCOVERED in 2000  a Franck Goddio Project click to see his site.

If you had a wish and a magic lamp? Would you wish for wealth? Would you wish for eternal youth? I might wish to spend a few weeks on an archeological dig--even if I had to don scuba gear! 

Thonis, an Egyptian city founded in in about the eighth century BC, sank into the Mediterranean probably in the eighth century AD.  It was a port for the Greeks and was called by them, Heracleion
There are about 80 pictures and a few videos to watch. You can click the link above or THIS ONE from the Huffington Post.

I had thought I would like to be a cultural or physical anthropologist. There surely were not very many jobs available when I was choosing a career. I have always enjoyed studying clothing of different periods as well as jewelry, household tools, baskets, and ceremonial customs. 

I enjoy thinking about the similarities in languages and the physical characteristics different groups of people have in common. I like to think about migrations of early humans when our continents were arranged just a little closer in some areas.

 

A fascinating thought. You can see this map HERE Go and read about the results of DNA and ancestry told by National Geographic. How I would have LOVED to be part of this study.

6.15.13

I presented some of my dolls and bears at the big guild (Misty Mountain Quilt Guild) in May. I was a little nervous at first thought of such a thing but I managed okay. 

A handful of people were asked to show some of their other ineterests. There was a jewelry maker, a card  and assemblage art maker, a vintage clothing maven, a painter, a sculptor, and I am afraid I did not get farther down the line than that. 

A doll my mother made for me sits in the center.SHHH. That was a secret.

They rounded out the afternoon with a real live auction by one of my quilt buddies who went to auctioneer school. She was very good. Of course, it was the first and only auction I ever attended. I have been to and supplied items for dozens of silent auctions but this was my first REAL one. 


I made a new doll friend,
M.A.T. We are going to have a day of dolling sometime in July.

All the dolls and bears I brought were mine (except one!) and I only scratched the surface of the ones I have made. Many have moved on to other homes, but I still have a large number. Guess I had better get busy and finish off a few more so I can sell them at the Quilt Fest Boutique!

6.14.13

I belong to SmallTalk, a Yahoo Group of small quilt enthusiasts. We had a mini exchange and I sent this quilt, in feedsack reproduction fabrics, to my partner, KT, in Indiana. It is a pattern by Kathy Tracy. I also tucked in a bear I designed and some fabric pieces--three coordinates. This is my current favorite pattern and LK at Country Stitches talked me into the sashing fabric. I was not sure if I would like the diagonal lines but I really enjoyed it. She also helped me pick out the backing 

which is quite pretty. I chose solid green cornerstones but they looked a little plain so I selected some of my favorite buttons for the centers.

KT says she usually does Civil War reproduction pieces and had not many fabrics from the Depression Era but might like a quilt featuring their cheery colors. She received it a few days ago and said it went very well with a little cabinet she had from the 30s. I really enjoyed making this little thing.

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6.13.13

Winter 2013

Winter 2013 is what I have decided to name this little mini. We kept having snow long after winter was over. This reminds me of seeing my little flowers come up and then being snowed on over and over again. You may remember it as my design for the March challenge for the Southern Appalachian Modern Quilt Guild. At 8 X 13 inches, it is a little longer and narrower than a standard sheet of printer paper. I hand appliqued, did some hand embroidery in a variegated green perle cotton, then machine stitched the rest of the "channels". The batting is what makes it look a little formal. I used a hunk of leftover fusible fleece so the filler is denser yet thinner  than the standard batt.

It is here again today to "link up" with The Modern Mini Quilt Challenge I read about at Ellison Lane.

6.12.13

I had better get that worm!

I remember as a child hearing the old John Ray proverb (1627 – 1705) and immediately making the connection. I think it was on a children's show. Maybe Captain Kangaroo? I have mostly been an early bird all my life but I am still a procrastinator. I am continually working on that character defect. I have been SORT of following FlyLady, although, admittedly, I have just been deleting the daily emails lately. It has been constant company  at our house since early May with down time only for meetings, physical therapy, groceries and laundry.

One of FlyLady's sayings is "I can do ANYthing for 10 minutes.  I plan to make a list of 10 things to do for 10 minutes a day and see if I can make some progress. I need to start with 
                     1. clean off the ironing board and studio work surfaces                  
I think maybe I can put some things on twice, at the beginning and the end of the list.  While you are reading this, I am at a meeting for which I should have a handful of quilt blocks to show. They just are not ready. I think I managed to cut them out, though. I am writing this four days in advance but I doubt I will have time to do much more than make the list before Thursday's post. 

Well, I have number 1 ready, anyway.

6.11.13

Grommit? Put the kettle on? There's a good boy.

 

You can get the knitting pattern for this wonderful cozy (cosy--it's Aussie) at RAVELRY.  I absolutely heart everything Wallace and Grommit. I am tempted to buy the pattern myself since I already have the Brown Betty Grommit is warming.

6.10.13

Monday Mantra

Found that via Pinterest and it linked to THIS WEBSITE. Also, it said "You are your own source of happiness." 

What happens when you give that power to other people? They are already doing the job for themselves...

6.9.13

Definitely NOT what I am looking for in a paper clip

Moving along with the UFOS--or works in progress. I have three of the six place mats for the UFO club's May selection but I am not caught up for my Friendship Group. Maybe I am working on that right now! No, really I am working on a list of things to look for when we leave for our end-of-the-month vacation. You know, things I just can't get here unless I order online. Like my favorite Stash Tea. My grocery stores carry a myriad of Stash Teas, but no long stock licorice. 

  
When we used to eat croutons, we could only buy them on vacation. Now that we don't eat them anymore, our grocery stocks them regularly! 

 I would like to see if I could find some "soy nuts". My grocery has them but they are very pricey. I bought pumpkin seeds instead.
Really, there is very little if anything, that we NEED but can't get with an hour's drive and some planning. 

 It would be nice to have a choice of binders, paperclips, and printer supplies, but those can come via the mailbox. 


I would like the opportunity to use my Michael's and Joann's coupons without paying shipping, but really, what do I need? I think I might like to get my camera adjusted. Maybe next time when we go to Florida I can arrange a trip to Colonial Hobby.