We’re nearly home and I’m looking through a few of the photos I took thinking that you all might be interested. These matted photos below were part of a much bigger piece of art. I liked the way the photos float inside the openings in the matt, sometimes on torn black paper. Nice look.

I have no idea what this is. Looks like a huge upside-down water glass. It was on top of the MOMA.
A big part of our trip included a stop in Baltimore where Jeff (our youngest son) lives.

There are lions guarding the entrance to the NYC Public Library. These guys are resting where the ones in front of the Art Institute of Chicago are in mid-step… but they are about the same size. Notice the pigeon on this fellow’s head.

We did more people watching in Times Square. It is my sincere hope that I am not nearly as interesting to look at as many of the folks we saw are.

If the trash is from a store with pretty boxes, it can be a little bit festive… This pile made me think of Christmas.

There is an installation piece at the MOMA by Song Dong called “Waste Not”. Turns out that these items all came from his now-deceased mother’s house. That is the skeleton of her house with the items. Seriously, if this doesn’t get you get rid of the junk in your house, what will?

I enjoyed the look of the empty toothpaste tubes but I am not going to make my own set at home.

And I shopped for fabric in the garment district! I am very lucky that Steve was with me and carried my purchases all day long. I found out where to go from a page on Paula Nadelstern’s web site. The shop in the photo below is N. Y. Elegant Fabrics (not on Paula’s site but it’s near the shops that were). Oh my, it was huge and full of luscious stuff. I did buy some cotton (great big red dots on white), and some etched fuschia velvet. It made me wish I had time to make more garments.

We got to NYC in time to see a bit of the Gay Pride parade. It was colorful and festive and no one minded having their pictures taken.

We went to see the very fine exhibit of Paula Nadelstern’s quilts at the American Folk Art Museum. The quilts were marvelous and the setting was perfect for them. Go see this exhibit if you get a chance. Next we went to the MOMA. The art was good, but I had almost as much fun people-watching. These three ladies looked nice together…

I love this photo…

On our way from Vermont to Connecticut, we stopped at the King Arthur Flour Baker’s Store. I’ve been buying my chocolate from them for a while now and it was really fun to stop and find even more great baking tools. We found the hot pads we’ve been hunting for for years – oh happy day.

Then we went down the road to Simon Pearce. I had not heard of Simon Pearce before but this is a well-respected source for hand-blown glass in the northeast. These are photos of the outside of their home base. The waterfall you see generates much of the power that they use.


I loved the wear pattern on this rock…

Steve took the photos above from this covered bridge…

I did try to resist, but I just didn’t do a good job of it. We bought one glass bowl, the smaller Corinth bowl. It’s going to look lovely on our dining room table. Steve thought so too – although later he said that really, as long as I loved it, that was good enough. I think our table without a bowl would suit him just fine. But we decided that if we managed to stimulate the economy a little bit on this trip that that would be OK so there you go.

I have stimulated the economy by buying fabric on this trip (and some other stuff too but we won’t go there right now). This is the fabric I managed to buy during my 2 hours at the Vermont Quilt Festival show. I was teaching and the show was off-site so I didn’t get to the show very much. This first fabric I got at the Woodstock Quilt Supply booth. These are mostly (or all) from Westminster and are fabrics that I think I don’t already own.

Isn’t their fat quarter label wonderful!

I spent a lot of time and money at the Quilters’ Express to Japan & The Beckoning Cat booth. The Japanese fabric was worth the money.

This fabric is one cut off the bolt. The pattern changes at the fold – positive and negative designs on each side of the fold. Very cool.

The background colors behind the swirly black print changes across the width of the fabric. There were more fabrics like each of these.

And, last but not least, Handloom Batik had a booth. They have beautiful fabric and scarves and batik stamps and more. That gray piece of fabric with the light berries on it – I’m going to find a special place for it!

My last class ended at 11:30 on Sunday. It was such a good few days! The ladies in my classes all did so well and a good time was had by everyone. As a quilt teacher, it always makes me happy when my students leave happy and confident that they can applique anything. Good job ladies!

Kayoko, one of my students, gave me an origami winged dragon that she made. I love it! It folds flat so that I can travel home with it. It will live in my studio. Thank you, Kayoko.

Steve and I drove to Stowe for a couple of hours. Steve hiked and saw quite a bit of Vermont while I was working so this was my chance to see some of the state. We took the scenic route and found this spot in the road. The rocks are HUGE and the road is narrow and winding. Very scenic.

These flowers were in Stowe. I should know what they are, but I don’t. Let’s just call them pretty.