Art-Filled Morning

I met two friends today to see a special exhibit at Baylor's Mayborn Museum.  The exhibit is called "Sacred Texts, Holy Images" and is an extensive collection of works by Georges Roualt and Marc Chagall.  The Roualts are his Miserere series; the Chagall's, his Bible series.  Words are inadequate to describe either one of these collections.  After about 20 minutes, I realized that to do them justice, I needed to come back and spend much more time than my friends and I had allotted.  In fact, I left the Roualts at that point, having seen perhaps only a fourth of them, and moved to the Chagalls.  Having just been steeped in recent Bat Mitzvah services and activities in our family, I found that these etchings and lithographs resonated powerfully with me.  (Not that the others didn't, but the Roualts were so moving and often disturbing that I felt I needed to be alone to take more time to ponder them.)  The links I've provided are excellent; the one for the Chagalls has a slideshow that includes most, if not all, the ones on display at the Mayborn.  Likewise the link for the Roualts has many of the Miserere series, too.

From the Mayborn we went across the street to the Martin Art Gallery.  Patty had seen a notice of two exhibits there that sounded intriguing.  Well!  What a surprise.  I had not heard of either artist, but all three of us were blown away by them.  One of the artists who had works exhibited was Makoto Fujimura.  His huge, abstract, brilliantly colored works were an anecdote for the black and white etchings and ink paintings in the other museum.  The other artist was Dornith Doherty, who currently lives in Dallas and teachers at North Texas University.  Her works are primarily photographs, but photographs unlike any I've ever seen.  Again, words cannot capture what she produces; only going to her website or Googling images of her works will suffice! 

Of course, photography was not allowed at either museum, so I have no pictures taken by me to display here.  I did, however, scan the brochure from the Martin Museum, which I will add below.  But these small images don't do justice to either artist.  Please click on the links to see much better representations of their works!

Our Halloween Baby: TWO Journal Quilts Honoring Her!

Forty-six years ago this week we were impatiently awaiting the birth of our first child.  She was due on something like October 15, so by this point, she was nearly two weeks overdue.  My mother had come on the due date to help out after we brought the baby home from the hospital, and needless to say, she was getting impatient, too!  Finally on Halloween night, our baby girl Kathy was born.  It was fun for all of our family through the years for her to have a Halloween birthday!  Many, many combination Halloween and birthday parties resulted.  I like to say that all three of our children have "special" birthdays.  Our son and youngest daughter share the same birthday, with Susan arriving on Rob's 5th! 

This year I decided to commemorate both Halloween and Kathy's birthday with a journal quilt.  Actually, the third try has proved to be the charm for this little quilt.  The first one I made, I goofed up by using a damp press cloth while fusing down some ink-jet-printed appliques, and of course, the ink ran and ruined the little quilt.  The second one turned out too"busy" and confusing looking, with just too much going on in such a small space.  But today's worked out just fine!  Actually I used ideas from each of the failures:  the printed words from the first one and the cupcake and little girl witch from the second!

The third journal quilt--my favorite!

After writing this, I checked my emails.  Several friends to whom I sent a picture of my journal quilt #2 seemed to like it!  So I am posting a picture of it, too, for comparison.  I told them that the picture looked better to me than the quilt in person!  I did like what one friend wrote:  Halloween is such a busy, fun-filled holiday, and the "busy" background on this quilt seems to capture that spirit!



The 2nd quilt--first rejected, now included!



Halloween Fabric Postcards

I wrote a post a month or so ago about how to make fabric postcards that didn't need any sewing at all.  I decided today to follow my own directions and do an assembly line production of 4 postcards for my 4 grandkids.  I wish I had timed how long it took me to make these four, but I didn't.  But the task seemed to be done in a jiffy.  I varied my technique a bit, because I had much more fusible fleece than I had Steam-a-Seam sheets.  So I put the fusible fleece on the back of one of the two fabrics on each card, and then I put the Steam a Seam on the back of the other.  (This latter product has the fusible web on both sides.)  Other than that, I followed the steps in my former post.  I still prefer sewn cards.  Of course, I could always go back and top-stitch or blanket-stitch around all edges.  But under the pressure of a deadline and for something quick and easy, these worked out well!
Here are the results:



Here, first, are the fronts--messages written but not yet addressed to the children.  The yellow striped fabric is the same for all four,  but I accidentally stamped the wrong side of one of them--no matter!  (The "beary" pun on Lia's
card refers to the fact that she plans to be Winnie the Pooh for Halloween!)



My favorite one is the purple one, perhaps because I fused a larger motif
onto the rather plain background--a motif cut from the
orange fabric that I used for the two postcards at the right.

Quilts in Our Home

I’ve made between 75 and 100 quilts, ranging in size from three-block table runners to one king-sized quilt, one queen, several double-bed quilts, and many wall hangings and baby quilts.   (I’m not counting my raw-edged journal quilts in this tally). Most of these have been gifts to grandchildren, children, nieces, nephews, great-nieces, friends, etc. But some few of them I made for us. Today was a red letter day, since my last big art quilt, Jubilation, (which has been the subject of several of these posts) was finally hung in our living room, high on the wall in this two-storey room. I am pleased with how it looks!




Picture taken from the upstairs "bridge" that overlooks our living room.



The hand-quilted, whole-cloth quilt in the dining room



Aqua in Abstract

The Stone Arch Bell quilt

Others of my quilts in our house are white quilt in the dining room; a traditional quilt above our bed in the master bedroom; a quilt of my own design that I made for Bob’s 70th birthday in the living room; and the first “art quilt” I made, the Stone Arch quilt in the landing of the stairwell. (This quilt won a red ribbon in the Temple Quilt Show last year.)

My second art quilt, Aqua in Abstract, also a prior subject of a posting, was hung today as well, above the television set (I’m running out of empty walls!) in our bedroom. I’m in the process of slowly—very slowly!—making a king-sized quilt that uses all of the aqua and turquoise fabrics that are in this small quilt, in addition to many others.

The star quilt above our ged

The star quilt in the bedroom is composed of two different star blocks, the Friendship Star and the Sawtooth Star. In these stars, no fabric is used more than once; and every star is different from its fellows. I made this quilt in a class taught by my good friend and quilt-buddy Patty. It won a red ribbon in the Waco Quilt Show one year.

Bob's 70th birthday quilt

Bob’s quilt features stars that are associated with various states in the union significant to our family: Texas, of course, (my birth state and that our daughter Susan), Arkansas (where Bob lived most of his growing-up years), Tennessee (his birth state), Georgia (where our two eldest children were born, Kathy and Rob), Michigan (where two grandsons were born), and California (where our granddaughter and her brother were born).

Ugly Dolls and Embroidery Lessons

Locke's stuffed animals and Ugly Dolls, all ready to
go to sleep with him and me!  (The pink-eared one was
the last doll I made for him, last summer when he
visited us!)



Locke with the latest Ugly Doll



Lia's snail embroidery



As soon as I arrived in California, grandson Locke announced that what he wanted to do with Grandmommy was sew, and with Granddaddy, play baseball.  He certainly did a lot of the latter!  When I asked him what he wanted to sew,he said another Ugly Doll.  So I've worked on one off and on ever since.  This afternoon he and I stuffed the doll, and above he is sitting with the doll.  Not so good of Locke, but a good picture of the doll!

I could tell that Lia felt a bit left out, with my spending so much time on this project with Locke, not to mention all the games we played. So I asked her what she wanted to do with me, all my herself, in my remaining time today. She was most interested in the embroidery that I am doing for my great niece, so she asked for an embroidery lesson. I had her draw a picture of something she'd like to embroider, and she drew a really cute snail. Then she copied it onto a piece of yellow felt, in pencil. I showed her just the simplest stitch, the straight stitch, and off she went. I sat beside her to help her with threading needles and knotting threads, but she put in all but perhaps three of the stitches in the little snail above.

Tonight, with their Dad out of town, Lia is going to sleep with her Mom, and Locke, with me!  I hope I can squeeze in with both Locke and the gigantic menagerie of animals and Ugly Dolls now residing in my bed, as you can see from the picture above!

Lia and her embroidery.

Rogers Gardens and a Soccer Game

One of the hundreds of hanging baskets

An exotic plant, unlike any I've ever seen!

Rogers Gardens is within walking distance of where my daughter and her family live in California.  It is a magical place, the most beautiful gardening center or nursery I've ever seen.  I've visited it for every major holiday--Easter, Christmas, of course, and now Halloween.  Yesterday the two grandchildren, their dad and granddad, and I walked first to a nearby shopping center where we sat outside and ate either fast food Chinese or pizza.  From there we went to Rogers Gardens.  The children were most interested in the over-the-top Halloween exhibit rooms, with every sort of Halloween decor one could imagine.  Every where we went, there were piles of pumpkins of all sizes and varieties, including some that were white and some, almost red or certainly pinkish!  Bob and I walked all through the gardens, marveling at the exotic plants and especially enjoying the most beautiful hanging basket I've ever seen. 

The Christmas decorations are already displayed, too, with several rooms filled to the brim with huge Christmas trees, all thematically decorated.  Locke took me to see the nutcrackers, of course!  I was shocked at some of their prices.  When I said to him, "Well, these make your Target Nutcracker look pretty plain and simple in comparison," he said, "But I'd be afraid to own one that cost THAT much!  I like to PLAY with mine!"  Lia loved the nutcrackers which also had a music box on which they stood; oddly, these were affordable, much less expensive than the "collectable" ones!

Before our Rogers Gardens adventure, we all went to watch Locke play soccer.  Sadly, his team lost for the first time this season, but he played a super game as one of the two main defensive players!

Here are pictures of our Saturday doings:

Lia and Locke at Rogers Gardens

Locke in front of his team sign, at the soccer game

At home, ready for the game!

A nutcracker Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit

Of Animal Caps, An Umbrella, and a Nutcrakcer

I'm sure lots of grandparents follow the habit of bringing small gifts to their grandchildren when they visit them!  I certainly dol  This time I brought the two grandchildren Halloween shirts from Target, adorned with Jack o' Lanterns.  I brought them two extra gifts, too:  a nutcracker for Locke (to add to the collection I started him a few years ago--this one a Cowboy), and an umbrella for Lia.  This latter gift is timely, since it has been misting rain for the last three days.  When we were in Colorado together in August, I bought Michigan grandson Malcolm a knitted cap that was a frog's head;this was a birthday gift, for his 9th birthday, which we celebrated there.  The other three loved his cap so much, that I subsequently bought all of them animal caps.  So here are Lia and Locke in their moose and beaver caps.  Also the umbrella and the nutcracker! 

China Dolls Bee

I've been a quilt guild member for some time now, but I've always wanted to join a bee.  Finally I have, a new one, just starting up; our first meeting was today.  There are six of us quilters in it, and it promises to be a fun group.  All seemed to be rather "project oriented."  So I think that most of the time we'll be working on joint projects (items to sell at our Guild's next show, in the bazaar) or charity quilts.  On occasion, like next time, one of the members will demonstrate a technique and teach it to the rest of us.  We plan to meet twice a month, alternating houses, so that eventually, all of us will host the bee.

We first made our plans, and then our hostess gave us a house tour, showing us many of her quilts that are displayed, her quilting spaces, etc.  Then we had a delicious lunch.  Here are some pictures that I took before the batteries ran out in my camera!  [There's a big gap between the picture of Rita and two other pictures that I posted, a gap that I can't seem eliminate, so keep scrolling down for the last two pictures.]

The quilt above the bed in the master bedroom

Here a Teddy Bear naps, wrapped in
perhaps a doll quilt, atop a mirror!

table-runner sized quilt, at the end

of the bed

This Dear Jane quilt hangs in the living room; it is one of several that Rita has made!



Another Dear Jane--this one, made of
30s reproduction fabrics.  The other was
made from Civil War reproduction fabrics.  I was
in Rita's Dear Jane class, but dropped out when
my fall last year became too hectice!



Here Rita, our hostess, is showing us a "double-sided" quilt.  She

promises to teach us this method, in which a block is made and quilted before

it is sewn into the quilt, and the quilt then become reversible!

Jinny Beyer design, paper-pieced, that
Rita is currently working on.

Close-up of the quilt Rita is showing us above.

Cruise Journal #8--Kristiansand, Norway

The "white city" of Kristiansand

We docked at Kristiansand, our last port in Norway, on August 9th. Three years ago we also visited this port, and Bob, our travel companions Jo and Ray, and I all recalled especially the open air museum we saw on that visit, one of the cruise excursions outside of the town. This time we decided to stay in town and explore on our own.

Almost as soon as we got off the ship, we came to a location quite familiar to all of us—one where we had walked in the afternoon on that other cruise. Another fish market! But this one was enclosed, and it was in an area of most attractive shops and restaurants, built around an inlet where ducks peacefully swam.

Bob admiring lobsters!

Check out the slipping
trousers on this troll!

From there we headed for the City Center. Kristiansand is built on a grid, and thus it is easy to find your way around. Along the way we came across a display of impressive sand sculptures.  In addition to the sand sculptures, we immediately identified a "real" sculpture and knew it must be one of Vigeland's; sure enough, we found a plaque that proved us to be correct.




boy riding a polar bear, by Vigeland



Kristiansand Domkirke

In the main square in town was an imposing cathedral, Kristiansand Domkirke, which faced a lush park with many lovely flower gardens. This cathedral is the fourth to be built on this site. It was completed in 1865, after a fire five years earlier.

Posebyen

From there we sought out the area known as Posebyen. In Kristiansand’s early days as a fortress and garrison town, the soldiers lived in private houses in what has now become the best-preserved part of the old town. The name Posebyen stems from the French reposer, meaning to rest (French was the military language of the time.) These small, attractive, white houses have survived several fires and the threat of demolition. Nowadays, Posebyen is a fashionable place to live, and the historic houses are maintained in pristine condition by their inhabitants. The popularity of white-painted houses here has led to Kristiansand’s nickname, “the white city.”

We were in Kristiansand on a Monday, and we were amazed at how many residents seemed to be not working, but sitting at ease in the many sidewalk cafes, shopping, relaxing in the park. Soon a sign informed us that this day was the beginning of a weeklong Summer Festival, Sommerfesten!

The next day we sailed for Copenhagen and our long flight home, after a wonderful 18 days spent cruising in the Lands of the Midnight Sun!

After many days we finally saw another sunset!

Cruise Journal #7--Bergen, Norway



The Edvard Grieg house

Our next-to-last port was Bergen, one of my favorites of the cruise. We took a ship’s excursion to visit the home of Norway’s favorite-son-composer, Edvard Grieg, and also one of the fast-disappearing “stave” churches. Both were well worth our time! We wished we’d had a longer time to spend at the museum at the Grieg house, but our guide unwisely advised us to see the house first and then the museum. She didn’t realize that at least two bus loads of tourists had gotten there before us, so we had to waste many minutes in a slow-moving queue.



Grieg composed his
music in this little
building, which is down
a steep incline from
the yellow house.





At the Grieg location, this was the first sod-covered building we saw on this visit to Norway.  In 2007 we saw many more!

Inside the Stave church



The little door at the left was used by the pastor to serve Communion to those of his parishioners who had leprosy!

 

Exterior of the Stave church--the rain made getting a clear picture a challenge!

 



The church was lovely with all the natural wood and its unusual architecture. It was cool and rainy on the morning we went to these two out-lying destinations, so taking the tour ended up being a good way to spend our time.

That afternoon the misting rain had stopped, so after lunch on the ship we walked into Bergen’s Old Town. One of the most distinctive trademarks of Bergen is the area called Bryggen, formerly a warehouse district established on the northern side of the harbor by the German Hansa traders. Long after the days of the Hanseatic trading in Bergen, the warehouses became a trading center for fish and fish products. On several occasions the medieval gabled buildings have been ravaged by fire. The last in 1955 left only 10 gabled structures standing. Today this area is a center for artists and restaurants.

I tried to get photos of Bryggen that would duplicate the postcards that clearly show how the buildings seem to be tilted to one side, much like men standing shoulder to shoulder, all leaning in the same direction! Alas, I couldn’t get the proper distance away to get this perspective, so my pictures don’t accurately depict this charming aspect of Bryggen.



Bryggen



We visited the open-air produce and fish market, too. The latter seems always to draw Bob! Jo, Ray, and I all recalled vividly how we practically had to drag him away from the sights and SMELLS of the gigantic inside fish market in Athens, Greece, when we were there in 2003!



Bob's favorite--the fish market!