Monthly Archives: November 2015

Thanksgiving in NYC…

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I am thankful for Thanksgiving, this one in particular. We got to visit Jeff in his city—New York City! Here are a few of the things we saw and did, not necessarily in chronological order…

Steve held my tea as I took photos pretty often. He is such a good traveling companion :-).

We went to see the balloons tied down the night before the Macy’s Parade. The weather was crisp, but nice and my oh my did the people come out for this event. It was really packed but there you go. It was a fun experience!

The balloons look a lot bigger up in the air.

We went to both the MOMA and to the Whitney museums. I enjoy the art. I enjoy watching people look at the art. I might actually like the people watching more than the art watching.

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I also enjoy the people who guard the art. They watch people looking at art all day long.

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There are great outside spaces at the Whitney where you can look out at the city…

We walked the High Line where there were still a few flowers blooming. I thought that was amazing for this time of year.

Jeff cooked a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I went to see the Rockettes! Steve and Jeff went to the northern end of Manhattan to see ‘nature’. We shopped and walked and visited Central Park. This is me, taking pictures of the leaves falling that didn’t turn out.

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I hope each and every one of you had as nice a holiday was we did. Right now we are in the airport, waiting to fly home. While we are sad to leave the kid, we are still smiling from the time spent with him.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade…

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We walked a few blocks from Jeff’s apartment to 64th Street and Central Park West. We got there an hour before the parade started and there were already lots of people there. None of us are committed enough to parades to have gotten there in time to be in the front row.

Anything below head level was hidden from us, but luckily most of the good stuff is tall or floating. The Macy’s stars were first…

Followed by a turkey float…

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My favorite was Adventure Time…

Jeff is in the kitchen cooking. I have been decorating their Christmas tree, and Steve is having a nap. What a great Thanksgiving!

NYC and MOMA…

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Jeff and Steve and I went to the Museum of Modern Art today, mostly to see the Picasso sculptures. 

  
This very early piece that’s almost not a sculpture was perhaps my favorite out of more than 100 pieces. 

  
This orangutan was also kind of fun. Picasso did a lot more with found objects than I remember from art history classes. You can’t miss the toy car….

  
But here’s the thing. A whole lot of what I saw did not pass the ‘garage sale’ test. Meaning that if I saw this for sale at a garage sale, would I buy it? In many cases, no. I’m a Philistine. 

I really love looking at people looking at art, whether that is a stranger…

  
Or if it is Jeff and Steve…

  
 We did more today. I shopped for a new lens at B & H Camera. I’ve shopped with them online but never in person. Such a cool photography store!!! I got a 14-150mm lens for my new micro four thirds Olympus. I have to stop lens shopping now, darn it!
I baked pies in an unfamiliar kitchen. I think they’ll be good. Jeff cooked dinner and now we are back in our hotel room on 54th Street. Life is mighty fine :-). 

A big (almost easy) quilt…

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Lorna and Chris have a king size bed and Lorna needs a new cover for it. Not a pieced quilt, but still a quilt. She fell in love with two fabrics that I have (had) on the bolt—one is Tula Pink’s huge dot (printed on wide fabric) and the other is a floral print by Amy Butler  printed on sateen.

After much thinking, I decided that it would be best to make this a quilt without binding. Instead we would layer the top and back right sides together with the batting against the top, sew the edges, turn it inside out, and then quilt it. It was not nearly as easy as it sounds.

We cleared out my living room and vacuumed. Then we placed the batting on the floor. After a few false starts, we did manage to use basting spray to stick the the top to the batting. It took more than an hour and I did let slip a few choice words.

Lorna trimmed the batting even with the edges of the top fabric. Next we placed the backing right side down on the top. I then pulled out all of my mats and many rulers and we squared up the outer edges.

Lorna used Clover’s basting clips to hold all the edges together. I took it to my machine and sewed all the way around this monster, leaving an opening at the bottom to turn it through. This quilt is a lot heavier than I thought it would be.

The walking foot came in very handy.

Lorna had to leave so I trimmed the corners and then turned the whole thing inside out which was surprisingly satisfying.

I tidied and pressed the edges, finished the opening, and top stitched all the way around, 1/2″ from the finished edges.

It’s not done yet because it has to have some quilting. Otherwise the batting will fall apart with use and washing. Steve is going to do a little basting on it this weekend to help keep everything together during the quilting process.

Lorna wants to quilt it and it will be quite a job for a new sewer. We’re thinking of a diagonal grid, between the big dots. I may try to get some of the longest lines sewn for her if there’s time before my foot surgery on December 3. Otherwise I’ll be shouting encouragement from the other room while she sews :-).

Show and tell…

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I love show and tell! Today I have two quilts to share with you… should it be show and tells? First up is Sharon Hendrix’s version of Lorna’s Vine…

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She wrote:

I recently completed one of your patterns, Lorna’s Vine, from your book Amish-Inspired. I hand applique and hand quilted the quilt. Thru the years I have completed many Piece O’ Cake quilts.

My piece is hand quilted by me in Gutterman thread in a lime green color, it reads very neutral against the red fabrics.

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Sharon, you did a fabulous job! I love the change you made to the wheel block. I don’t know that I would have thought to use lime green thread but it definitely works.

Next up is Lynn Tubbe’s version of A Walk In The Mountains, made with wool…

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Lynn wrote:

This quilt hung at the Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) last year, and was awarded Best Use of Embellishment in the traditional category. I really enjoyed modifying your pattern in order to highlight all my wools.  I thought the plaid leaves were especially fun.

This is also a spectacular quilt! I want to congratulate both Sharon and Lynn—very nicely done, indeed!

You learn something new every day!

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I am in Tyler, TX, visiting the Quilters Guild of East Tyler. My lecture is over, I’ve shopped for fabric, and now I’m working on the computer in my hotel room—where no one is bothering me. There are times when I want to leave my studio and go to a hotel just for this reason :-).

Anyway, I took a break from doing what I’m supposed to be doing to check email where I found a link to this video showing how to tie your shoes. I tried it on my sneakers and it does make a pretty knot. The trick is remembering step 2. My shoe laces are thicker so I did fiddle with the knot a little more than is shown in the video to make it pretty, but it works!

Click here or on the link below if the video does not open on your screen.

http://www.bloomberg.com/api/embed/iframe?id=E9_eL3MHTzCCUCqCDWahdQ