Thoughts on Pilgrims

Tomorrow, we like so many other Americans are going "Over the River and Through the Woods" to share Thanksgiving with friends. As much as I'm going to enjoy this, I'm going to regret not having leftover pumpkin pie, turkey and dressing. I'll probably make a pumpkin pie, and perhaps a turkey sometime later, but my husband always rolls his eyes when I do because I always boil the carcass for broth and he hates watching me do it.

My contribution this year, as it was the previous years we've visited these particular friends, is home made brown and serve rolls. I usually make them with about 30% whole wheat flour...sometimes I feel they taste like dog biscuits, but if you slather enough butter on it, anything will taste good.

While shooting these two photos, I kept on thinking about russet...obviously because of the wonderful reds in both of them... The little dots in the center of the euphorbia at left are water droplets.

When I think of the word russet...I almost always think of the Pilgrims. Ask any school child what colors the Pilgrims wore and they are likely to answer "black, brown and grey." In reality, the Pilgrims wore colors which were described as "sad colors." Sad colors didn't mean black, brown and grey, but were often used to refer to colors dyed with woad, most often shades of blue, often quite brilliant.

Sorry...you just stepped into a history lesson. Because of my interest in textiles, one of my very short papers I did for Professor James Axtell of William and Mary was on Puritan clothing. Professor Axtell assigns his graduate students short research papers. We had to research the topic fully, but the papers could be no longer than three pages I think when finished, including references.

Research indicated that at the time, the Puritans (and therefore the Pilgrims) described themselves as wearing sad colors, which included russet, red, browns, blues and other colors. I can't remember at the moment if any of the descriptions referred to them wearing green and I can't remember at the moment where I placed this 28 year old paper.

Since most of these people were not from the upper echelons of English society, it is unlikely that they would wear clothing which would show dirt or wear readily. Textiles were expensive and clothing changes were few and far between. Aprons or smocks, were necessary to protect garments while doing dirty work (men generally wore smocks while working in the fields).

Most importantly, people were to "dress according to their station." Only the wealthy were allowed to wear lace, and only the upper ends of society (i.e. nobility) were to wear lace of gold. If a servant was found wearing lace, they could be whipped or fined...or both.

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays I really like because it doesn't matter what religion or country you come from. You can always find something to be thankful for, even it at times you really have to think about it. My neighbor recites things she is thankful for everyday before falling asleep. She says it relaxes her and puts her to sleep.

Great idea and one we all should practice.

On Fire

Today and yesterday have been whirlwinds. I'm approaching one of those times when I feel I'm almost out of control...kind of like this fire. My neighbor was burning the tomato vines and other dried, woody material from his garden, and I just had to snap this picture.

Yesterday, I made some yo-yo's and worked on some other small quilty projects. The yo-yos are for the stack and whack for my mom to use.

I had hoped to get into the sewing room today...and I did go in, but it was to pack up my Bernina to take to the shop as it isn't working right. Then it was a mad dash to take my daughter to meet with a photographer. She's trying to decide between two photographers to take her senior pictures. Both are very artistic and both have asked her to be "ambasadors" (read: sales rep in her school). If you could help, she and I would both appreciate it. Please leave a comment telling us which of these two photographers you like best. Ty or Jon. I'm not kidding...the more feedback the better as we both are on the fence...


Here are two more of the textured pieces Liz Schneiders did for our MVAQN texture workshop. These two pieces were made by poking the fabric through some hardware cloth, dampening it and drying it to maintain the shape. Pretty cool!

More Texture

As I reported on an earlier blog (here), our little sub-group of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network has been meeting and exploring different elements of design and techniques in art quilting.

Liz Schneiders led this workshop on texture. All of these pieces are hers and I think they are pretty cool. She did some experimentation with three dimensional pieces, this chartreuse pyramid I think is my favorite.



But this is pretty neat too.



















This piece should probably be oriented in the opposite direction, but I thought it was pretty neat too. She used fleece and sewed it together, then cut it apart and resewed it.









Even the back of it has really neat texture.












Of course, whimsy is quite evident here in the frog with the yo-yo eyes. This inspired Lori Gravely to do a quite elegant piece which she posted on her blog here









In this piece, Liz simply wove strips of raw edged check through a piece of fabric she had cut slits into. Also quite effective.


So, where's my art for the day? Well, my creative tallent was spent working in the garden, planting the last (thank goodness) of the tulips, daffodils and Camas lilies as well as going through some of my fabric and quilting arts magazines. I also thought I was pretty creative in the patterns in which I vacuumed my rug.

Tomorrow will be a more productive day I hope. At least it will be part of the day when I'm meeting with the MVAQN group of stitchers at Appalachian Quilts.

While I was working in the garden and thinking about the Art Every Day, I was thinking about a conversation I heard when I was 16. I was working on a piece of pottery at the Battle Creek Art Center and the two instructors, who were young women probably about 25 at most, we talking about a third woman. The third woman was somewhat older and she set aside a portion of her day every day to paint. She structured it so it was the same time every day. The two instructors I was hearing as I worked decried this and said that she wasn't REALLY and artist because she worked at the same time every day, not when the muse moved her or for as long as the muse moved her.

I have remember this all these years. At the time, I thought that they were wrong. Today, I know that they were horribly wrong. As other responsibilities come our way, whether children, a job, or whatever, sometimes we have to set aside a certain time and hold it sacrosanct...this is our time for creativity. Sometimes we can sneak it in other times as well, but at least we have this one sacred time. I suppose that the two instructors thought that it became too much like work...but I think that the third woman was very wise. While I usually shoot photos every day, and am creative (or at least try to be ) in the food I prepare and certainly my gardening is very creative (if you ever want to talk color and texture in gardens, then I'm your gal). However, sometimes the time I am able to spend in my sewing room or with my paints is short indeed.

The BIG GAME: OSU vs. U of M

When I first moved to Ohio, I couldn't figure out what the inflatable figure I saw in front of so many houses in the fall. After asking around, someone said "OH! That's Brutus Buckeye!"

Who? Brutus Buckeye is the mascot for the Ohio State Football program. Ohio's state tree is the Buckeye (Aesculus glabra) and there's a lot of history and legend about the Buckeye. You can read all about the tree and the stories and how that came to be here. Of course, it sort of amuses me that someone who moved here from Connecticut (the Nutmeg State) wound up being in the Buckeye State...but I digress (no surprise here, I know!).

To say that Ohio is heavily into football is a major understatement. Everywhere you see people wearing Ohio State University clothes. Houses have OSU emblems on their mailboxes, flags and even driveways.

However, I was a bit amazed when I went to the local grocery store and saw this.

A silver Volkswagon bug decked out as a helmet of an OSU player. The white stickers are a method for rewarding players on game day, ONLY if they win. The number of stickers indicates how valuable the player is. This program started in 1968 and has continued every year. For more on this phenomina, check out this. Riddell is the manufacturer of the helmets.

The side emblem on the car is Ohio State University's "block O", a highly controlled licensed emblem.




I thought that the owner must be REALLY into OSU....when I walked into the grocery store, I had no problem identifying its owner from among all the shoppers. Here he is. OSU visor, sweatshirt, and OSU lounge pants..... I have to note, this wasn't even a game day, but a Tuesday!

Ohio State has a long standing rivalry with the University of Michigan. As you can tell from my moniker, I'm originally from Michigan, but football doesn't stand for much in my family. I still have to quickly respond that I turned down a scholarship to U of M lest I be considered an enemy of the state...

Today is THE BIG GAME. It's one of the longest standing rivalries in college football. People are all decked out in their Buckeye paraphanalia. Even to wearing necklaces made out of drilled horse chestnuts and plastic pony beads in grey, red and white.

When we first moved here, my daughter and I were amazed. We were the local Meijer's store (something like a Target) and you could hear people shout "O-H" on one side of the store, and it was answered through out the store with "I-O". If you shout this anywhere in the world, and have it completed by someone else, you know you've found a Buckeye. In addition, you can do the arm movements....something like the Village People doing "Y.M.C.A", only a heck of a lot easier....

For this Michigander...errr Michigoose, it is an oddity as growing up in Michigan, I never saw this much furor over the team. In fact, it's not a good time to have a car with Michigan plates anywhere near Columbus..... Go figure.

Now, I have to sign off so I can call my friends Martha and Bob who both graduated from U of M...just to say "Go Bucks!" and....beware the nut...which one, I'm not sure.

Another Quilt , another two day art post!

Yesterday I finally finished (except for the binding) my Entry for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge....you can look on that blog to see my struggles with making it....The topic for this challenge was animals....I had several ideas, which I'm also going to pursue, but I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out which of my many ideas I was going to do. I ended up trying to do a picture of moonlight reflecting on a goldfish pond. I was inspired by a Chinese watercolor painting I saw a while ago.


I used layers of tulle, Angelina fibers and the sheet form of Angelina, along with the hairy yarn...I can't remember what it is called as I don't knit! I have a couple of other small projects to finish. While quilting it, I discovered that my machine is acting up. I'm going to have to take it in to be cleaned and gone over...I'm not looking forward to it as I know that the shop is going to have it for at least a month and I am not thrilled with the going price for cleaning around here.



The goldfish were my post for yesterday. Here's my post for today...hens and chickens.....

Sunday and Monday...still playing catch-up!

Sometimes I swear that my computer has gremlins in it....Yesterday, Photoshop was refusing to open...telling me that I needed to un-install and re-install as there was a licensing bugaboo....right. So...yesterday didn't get posted.

Yesterday and today was very busy. I had the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network, a meeting with a potential photographer for my daughter's senior pictures (and I'm still struggling with that one), and getting ready for the Vietnam Vet's pick up of things I wanted to donate (read: clear out).

I needed more voltage than what was going through these boxes I fear.






Or maybe I'm just a cracked pot.













Today, I was bopping around in Tipp City, Ohio, a cute town just south of me. Tipp City is really Tippecanoe, of the Battle of Tippecanoe and "Tippecanoe and Tyler too!" campaign slogan. The battle didn't take place here, it was named for it though.

It was one of Ohio's Canal towns, and is home to Spring Hill Gardens, and Tipp of the Town tomato canning...Trophy Nut and a number of other small, light industry.

The best part of it is downtown though...it's filled with small antique and specialty shops. The Hotel Gallery is in an early 19th century hotel and is home to a variety of artist studios and arts and crafts. This is actually a little enclosure between a florist shop and the back side of the Hotel Gallery.





A willow tree hanging on to it's last leaves.


These two will definitely find their way into a quilt somehow...Gem City Ice Cream...yum! The Gem City is Dayton.



This is another oddity which will find its way into a quilt... It is the fruit of the Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) also known as the "hedge apple."

They are sort of attractive, but not edible....at least no one eats them. The poor lady who lives around the corner from me fights her Osage oranges every year. Her large tree dumps lots of them on her yard...They are about the size of a grapefruit.

While I'm not about to plant one, I am fascinated by their color and texture.....definitely the mark of a quilter I suppose!

Art Thursday, Friday and Saturday, OH MY!

While I practiced the discipline of art for Thursday, Friday and Saturday....I didn't have a chance to post it until today, so you're going to get a lot in one fell swoop.

Thursdays are one of my quilting days. I meet with friends, we bring in lunch pieces to share and quilt and talk for about four hours. So, I spent the day working on my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge which isn't being too fast as I'm over thinking it and trying to get it right. NOT what it is supposed to be, but oh well...


When I came home, I planted 30 more tulips and 10 more daffodils. After I finished that, I started taking some photographs in the garden. Since we changed over to daylight savings time, sundown is about 5:30. Since it was about 5:00, it was dusk. Here are two shots of a miniature spirea I have. One is with flash, the other is with available light. I think it is interesting how the flash made the bronzes and yellows come out more, while the natural light gave us more blue and purple tones.



Friday was also a hurry up day....I had lots of errands to run and I also had an evening meeting. So, here are my garden shots for Friday. Photography isn't the only thing I did, however, as I also painted some Tyvek so I could melt it to make some "rocks" for a small quilt I'm working on.

At left is an Icelandic poppy which is still putting out blossoms.













This is a geranium, I can't remember right off the top of my head which it is, as I have several.










I'm not sure which shot I like better. Votes will be happily taken.














Today, I spent the day at Hartzell Propeller in Piqua, Ohio. Hartzell graciously allows us to meet there when I sign up the room for the day. The local Troy Quilt Guild has two of these sponsored "stitch ins" per year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

One of the things I did was look at this piece and try to figure out whether I should finish it or not. This is in answer to the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's challenge "Triangles." It was an idea I had to do a series on crop circles, this being number one.

The only problem is, every time I look at this, I think nuclear hazard.... I was going to use pearle cotton on this and stitch around and in the triangles. Originally I thought I'd do it in golds and greens to represent the flattened and standing crops. Then, when I kept on looking at my nuclear issues, I thought perhaps I would stitch over the tops in purple, turquoise and red-orange. However, I'm not convinced that this would look good. In addition, I haven't been able to get the pearle cotton in purple locally.

So...this is where I could use your help...should I ditch it or try to do something with it? Or am I just being too critical?

I was also trying to do another thing with triangles I had an idea for, but I wasn't achieving what I was thinking about. I began to wonder if the problem is that I am just too much a representational sort of person and when I tried to do something else, it doesn't work. I don't know.

I also came to the conclusion that perhaps not all things should be finished.