Making Progress

I was home all day, except for a quick trip to the Post Office for some Christmas mailing. I was determined to get this central part [the 900 pieces] of the sunburst quilt together. It literally took all day but I'm feeling pleased.

I added the narrow deep orange border and an equally narrow dark green. This will be the dividing section. There will be a border [another 400 pieces] of triangles from the same pattern as the inside of the quilt -- the size of the deep blue triangles in the center, all the way around. I think I need about forty. I've had an internal argument most of the day saying, I could just add a 3 or 4 inch fabric border. But I immediately say, no, no, no. That wouldn't feel right. It will get made in the next few weeks I hope. And then, of course, it'll need to be quilted -- simply in the ditch. That makes me tired thinking about it. BUT it's not hard, just time consuming.

Christmas and the Economy

Before our quilt guild meeting yesterday I was part of a big round table -- women, all at or near retirement age -- and someone moaned, "I'm really being careful with spending this year for Christmas gifts". Everyone nodded. The conversation went on in this vein. One woman said she retired five years ago and felt good about being able to pay her expenses and have a couple of hundred dollars "to play with." But that's not true any more and she's beginning to look around for a part time job. Others, including moi, said they planned to work as long as possible.

Said one woman, "I've been never in a group like this and talked about these things before -- sometimes with family but for this to be true for all of us ..." Yes, the headlines are very close to home these days.

There was a general disconnect as the meeting's main activity was an auction to raise money. I have in the past skipped the December meeting because it is always a fund raiser in some way and I think that is extremely bad timing. We enjoy the guild, we want to help it continue it's very good meetings [the venue is quite expensive, as would be any in NYC large enough for us] and the upcoming show is very expensive to mount although we hope to make some money from it. Still I feel December is not a time when I want to be cajoled into purchasing items for myself -- oh, all right, I did buy a coupe pieces of fabric. Still the auction was a bit forced although the donated items were very attractive and some sold for very good prices. Somehow it seems to belay the holiday spirit.

Lap Quilt

When I measured the quilt with the disappearing parrots on it I discovered it was larger than I thought -- so large that it would be difficult to keep it safe from becoming tangled with wheelchair wheels. So I sent this quilt or Lisa who is shown here in front of a newly decorated Christmas tree in the residence where she lives. I also sent a second one that is a bit smaller which is a picture window design with African animals in the "windows.

I add ties of grosgrain ribbon that I had that actually matched the binding fairly closely. And on the top back made a couple of loops of the same ribbon through which the long tie ends could be threaded and tied in the middle to be out of the way when the quilt is not being used with a wheelchair [ties are tied behind wheelchair when in use so the quilt stays in place] Leslie sent me this photo - which is nice. I don't have pictures of other quilts being used by their recipients.

Oldie, but ...

"In the dark, all cats are black." We've all heard that. It's also the name of this quilt which I re-discovered in my weekend of closet sorting and quilt discovery. Of course I remember making this quilt and I liked it back then. I had just found out about strip piecing, which I did on the background of this quilt. I had a batch of patterns for appliqued cats which I had used somewhere else and liked. So this was the result, there are 7 or 8 cats total on this quilt. They are not meant to be immediately visible although they have noticeable eyes that draw one in embroidered in gold, green, or yellow.

I had not forgotten that I made this quilt. I took it out of the batch and put it on the bed. I think I'll live with it for a while but I might also decided to send it to Leslie who is a "cat person." She called delighted a couple days ago to say she was cat/house sitting for a week -- Okay. Those of you with dirty minds -- notice the slash there, I did not write cat house -- PUL-EZ!1 Get your mind out of the gutter.

I cannot think how to make this idea work better. Whatever design the background might be, the cats must recede into the darkness and not be noticeable except upon careful scrutiny. Anyway, the cats and I are sleeping together for the time being. It's good to review one's accumulation. I have given away quantities of what I've made and will continue to give away or swap or, perchance, once in a while, maybe sell what I quilt. Still, for me the pleasure is in the idea and then making it. And sometimes in sleeping under it.

I have learned a thing or two

>

I have [or had] quilts stashed on top shelves of closets that I had not seen for ten or more years. During the last two days I've been pulling down bags of quilts, taking them out, photographing and measuring. A couple of quilts surfaced that I haven't seen in a VERY long time and only dimly remember making. A couple were downright embarrassing. I made THAT! Oh, good heavens! There was a reversible Amish-style center diamond, hand quilted quilt -- so bad, even beginning Amish children surely would have made it better. I must say my photograph makes it look better than it really does -- which is the opposite of what usually happens with my photography.

The heartening side is that I have learned a lot about quilt making through reading and through the doing and through thinking seriously about what I was doing. But some of the newest remind me that I have not mastered corners of the binding. My Achilles heel, along with various other weaknesses. It's been an enlightening experience. A quilt I knew was there somewhere appeared and is now the wall quilt in the living room -- not "pretty" just squares but each hand quilted in a different geometric pattern. The arrangement of colors of the squares a close approximation of an Ellsworth Kelly painting. I don't understand why a fine artist chose that arrangement [and now why the original sold for thousands of dollars]. So I'm going to give it some attention for a few weeks and see what is satisfying about these colors in a pattern I never would have, with my less sophisticated artistic eye, arranged this way. NOTE: I have been trying to move the image down to here but it's stuck at the beginning of this post. Sorry about that. At least you can see what I'm writing about.

At the same time, I've tackled the rest of the contents of the closets and now have my mailing envelopes neatly arranged by size which they weren't before. And I can actually see a portion of the floor of my coat closet for the first time in aeons [I use the old fashioned spelling to show how long it's really been].

I wouldn't call the bottom of that closet chaos but it certainly was a very haphazard collection of stuff and now makes sense and is far neater. Such order making is good for the mind, body and even soul, I think.

Finding a home for a quilt -- or two

Finding homes for my quilts is as satisfying as finding homes for a litter of puppies that you know you can't keep but they're all darling and you want them to be loved. Leslie called last evening and said one of her handicapped clients is in need of a quilt. The client is wheelchair bond and was looking shivery and chilly yesterday.

I remembered this quilt which I made last spring. I like the colors, but as I wrote back then, when I decided to jazz it up a bit with a number of fused parrots along the top, I chose ones that were too near the same colors. As a wall quilt the parrots disappear from a dozen feet away. However, it's large enough to be tuck-able around the client's legs and if the parrots are in her lap. they well be close up and personal. So as soon as I find out which blanket bag it's stacshed in, I can mail it As I told Leslie, maybe I will also discover some other quilt I have forgotten and send it along too. [Click photo, it will enlarge and you can see the parrots]

Leslie requested I add "apron strings" to the top corners -- that is pieces of binding, or maybe ribbon long enough to tie at the back of the wheelchair -- her clients are both physically and mentally handicapped so they need as much help as they can get. I think I will see if I can figure out a method with snaps so the ties can be attached to the back to avoid dangling and tangling when not in use. The idea in my mind will be worked out when I get the quilt in hand.

How satisfying to know that a quilt made just because I wanted to see how the colors and patterns would work will find a good home. Certainly I have more than enough wall quilts and plenty of lap quilts as well.

Beautiful light

Lo, many, many a year ago, when I was a high schooler who found a book or two in the local library about great artists I became interested in their miracles of perception and representation. But educating myself was difficult; there were very few books and no art museums to go to, and SOOO much to learn. Gradually I began to learn. I was about 20 when I first was able to spend an afternoon in the museum in Chicago. But even later when I had seen many of the great museums of Europe in a kind of whirlwind honeymoon/grand tour, I found I did not understand why artists seemed to make such a fuss about "light." Not just enough light but certain light. I couldn't see a difference.

Not until I went to Greece 15 or so years later did I realize you don't see light until you really SEE it. The light in Greece was different. I saw for the first time what happens when the sky reflects the blue of the sea. I was astonished. Ever since I've been looking at light. Here in NYC we have a very special and wonderful light in the autumn and winter which is especially beautiful about 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon. I think the word for it is "lambent." It turns gray and beige stone facings on building various shapes of pink. The above photo is not a wonderful skyline -- it's just what was visible from the third floor of the Apple Store at 9th Ave. and 14th St. It IS that afternoon light and when I see it I am enchanted.



This is a different kind of ocean light. It is early morning on Cape Cod facing the ocean. The grand house, one of many along that stretch probably from the early 20th century when there were big families with lots of servants, faces a channel or inlet and then the spit of beach on which I was walking and behind me, not very far, is the ocean. It was a calm morning, the sun had a new, just risen feeling, the light seemed to have some of the crisp air's coolness but there was a clarity that was astonishing. I truly hope the people who live in those big old houses and the one who live in a batch of much newer McMansions appreciate that they not only own prime real estate but are treated every sunny day to light many an artist has come to Cape Cod to revel in.

And, not to do with this light in particular, but the day before when Rachel and I went to the Cape Cod Cinema in Dennis where she had not yet been, we discovered that the barrel ceiling had been painted with sun, moon, stars and many Greek gods by Rockwell Kent [and apprentices]. A landmark that the Town of Dennis surely appreciates and that all theatre goer can also appreciate for while waiting for the movie to start. What a nice discovery!