Family Stars

     Before my baby brother Steve and wife Lynn arrived from Texas, I needed to make our house habitable. I found lots of treasures. One was unused fabric from The City Quilter showing the constellations in NYC's Grand Central ceiling. I took off an afternoon to make sausage pillowcases. I made three regular size pillowcases which fit perfectly across the top of a king size bed welcoming one to heavenly sleep. Not only do I LOVE homemade pillow cases, but I have three grandchildren that might enjoy them on sleepovers. Also, the stars remind me of my Amarillo reunion in NYC where one day we toured the Grand Central. I love reunions.

     

      I have blogged on these pillowcases before, but I still made mistakes after watching two excellent YouTube tutorials and taking notes.Never give up! I cut the body of the fabric 23 or 24 inches by whatever the width of the fabric is (approximately 45"). I cut the accent strip 2 inches by the width of the fabric. The cuff is cut 12 or 13 inches x 45. Google "sausage pillow cases" or click on these links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAomYjHzUQk

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLnrC9yo8tY.

Note how rested Steve and Lynn look!

        Last summer their children came from Texas and I sketched them on the Summer Shack paper table cloths. Lynn reminded me of other sketches I had made with Alan: See my blog archives, March 23 2010, August 6, 2013. This month and last year went by fast!

     

Museum Weekend in NYC: Met and MoMA

       Some people go to Florida, but we drive to NYC. I wanted to see the Matisse: In Search of True Painting at the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has  Selected Highlights, videos and much more up at its site. Matisse painted the same subject, people and scenes, over and over in search of the best painting, the best expression of his emotion, not precise realism, but simplification. You will enjoy viewing the highlights. I want to try those series myself.

      After also visiting the City Quilter for fabric and the Neue Gallery for their apple strudel and coffee. we hobbled home to recover for a visit from the grandchildren the next day. Beth had suggested we go to MoMA for their interactive opportunities. Immediately on admittance to the Museum of Modern Art, the three children donned free audio guides and blissfully sought out numbers on paintings to learn more. They LOVED the modern art., even the conceptual. After lunch we went to the interactive education area where they made their own art.

       Later, I picked up my English art magazine at the Hudson stand, took the kids to buy a book at Postman's and got two art books What is Art? and The Visual Language of Drawing: Lessons on the Art of Seeing. With this lovely snow blizzard I should be able to get in some reading when not on my Wii :-)  I had no idea how out of shape I was after walking the streets of NYC.

Note: Artist friend Kathy Borkowski-Byrne arrived in NYC just as we were leaving and mailed me the Met photo at the top of the page!

Click on the photos to enlarge.

P.S. How could I forget! (EASY)   We stopped off in New Haven to see the recently fabulously renovated Yale art galleries and the museum of British art. What a gift shop at the latter.

Arts/Crafts: Before and After the Frankenstorm

Chelsea Market carvings

El Quiote supplied the sparklers! 

    Last week, in NYC celebrating Joe's 75th birthday, the grandchildren were a big draw. He and I also went to Neue Gallery, the super Andy Warhol show at the Met, the Morgan Library, Chelsea Market, and I, the City Quilter thrice. We enjoyed El Quixote in Chelsea that is mentioned regularly in Just Kids, the book for Cambridge Art's book club. It is fun when a book you are reading covers the ground you are visiting. Things are different in that Lower Manhattan now, but the marathon was canceled and electricity has, thankfully, returned to son's place!

  

    This week, the evacuees, that same little family, are here in Boston, with other son Bill's working out of the Boston office. The children enjoyed Halloween on our street. What do you do with three children, ages 8, 6 and 3 for days (weeks?) when school like their electricity is OUT in NJ:

Live Pumpkin, Fireman and Goldfish

      So far, Hannah's picked up the ukulele fast. I hope to capture her on my new free Apps: Video Star and VideoFX Live. Check them out! (Fast and Easy) Both girls made headbands using ribbons. David and I played kazoo/piano duet train songs. Erika learned to knit.Today all three worked with  polymer clay that wore me out with the pasta maker's being used by the three to condition the clay. But I made myself some beads for a necklace! Joe took them swimming;  and tonight, while they were visiting old friends, I set out the sewing machines for projects tomorrow. Watching Hannah on the uke, I decided it is time for her to take her Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine home. She is finally ready to figure out what to do to solve problems that arise. You might know I gave it to her when she was four.With a twisted ankle I will skip the quilt show in NH. Next. the election! Click photos to enlarge.

Stitching on the road: a Sashiko in color

    When Joe and I drove four hours away to see the grandchildren in ballet recitals, I put on a British mystery CD for us to listen to and I stitched away while Joe drove through the heavy rain. Ellen had showed me her pattern for a multi-colored Sashiko piece and how to braid Sashiko embroidery thread to make it easy to pull out a single color to work with. Debbie said Erika Wilson also taught about braiding the thread.

(Click to enlarge the photos)





     This piece is about 12" x 12." It is fun to have something one can finish. I bought a quarter yard of several deep colors from green to red and purple to create some Sashiko coasters or little sachet bags using  plain white or off-white Sashiko embroidery thread...a modest task only for the road. I got this idea at The City Quilter!

     I also found this fine panel to make something for the children. Maybe I could add batting and a backing and the girls could do their own hand quilting if they felt comfortable doing so.  I came to the conclusion on this trip, that I should make up some SMALL projects ahead of time for them to play with. Usually they want to create something enormous like a quilt from scratch for brother David;  and that is not realistic. Hannah says she is ready to deal with her Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine. 

Craft for the Car: Sashiko coasters

     Sashiko is meditative. Sashiko is satisfying. Like quilting, it puzzles my family and friends why I do it. Maybe I wanted something I thought the granddaughters could sew easily. Perhaps friends who want to craft, but say they cannot, could enjoy this. I do hope I develop good muscle memory to one day hand-quilt,  rather than machine stitch, a quilt. I always start with the most complicated patterns because they are more interesting to have, should I quit. I will pad, back and stitch these to the proper size for coasters, but they were so easy to handle while Joe drove the car.

      Sashiko kits are available online. I got mine at the New England Quilt Museum and the City Quilter. I bought the thread and needles, and that is all one needs. The blue fabric is marked with stitching guides that wash out. I kept poking myself as I loaded many stitches onto my needle so I bought some stick-on thimbles. After wearing one, I found I never stuck myself again. I find it easy to pull the thread through, but people also use wider rubber bands or finger protectors from the drug store to pull the loaded needles through the fabric. 

         

     When I first got interested in Sashiko, I bought books and tools to print my own designs on navy fabric. Ellen showed me the beauty of the colored threads and how to start and end without knots. There are preferred paths to follow when stitching, but it is not imperative. 

      

      I picked up 12" x 12" pillow forms at JoAnn's half price last week. Needle-pointing coasters and knitting are great travel crafts, but Sashiko coasters are a new one for me. Click to enlarge the photos to see mistakes that happen when you hit potholes or before one learns all the rules! In all honesty, I take out my stitches a lot so it may not be so easy for children. I believe perfection doesn't happen for me, even in easy tasks.

Sweet Dreams: a "sausage" or "tube" pillowcase

    When I joined Quilters' Connection, I kept hearing that BUSY people make pillowcases for gifts, for children and friends. I didn't know that could be fun and FAST. A visit to the City Quilter in NYC introduced me to the sausage/tube pillowcase tutorials on-line and sold me this fabric. I liked the YouTube visuals.

    This afternoon, Susan and I printed on our Gelli plates, but when I got home, I still had enough energy to make this fast pillowcase to surprise son, who is in town to close on his house. He loved super heroes, and was a devoted collector, always improving the manufacturers' costumes to make them more realistic. I hope he enjoys the surprise.


     I first washed the fabrics and watched the tutorials at You Tube. I cut 3/4 yard (27") for the main part (assuming about a 45" width). Most suggest cutting 9" x 45" or so for the cuff. The piping is 2"x 45" or so. Iron the piping and cuff lengthwise down the middle. Open up the 9" cuff and place it face up on the bottom of this pile. Open up the main part and and place it atop, also face up. Next, do not open the 2" piece but align its raw edges with the the other two at the top. All sides should have been trimmed at some point to match. Roll the bottom of the main part toward the pinned top and once it is within the space of the cuff, gently lift the bottom of the cuff over the roll to pin all five raw edges together. Don't pin the roll but you know that if you watched the tutorials. Once pinned carefully, sew carefully. Next, reach inside to pull the tube out either end. Fold right sides together and stitch down one side and the bottom using straight stitch, zig-zag, serge or French seam. Iron to admire. I am making a toddler one tomorrow and I highly recommend. Again, watch the tutorial link in the first paragraph for clarification!

In the Beginning...a Journal quilt

     When the Journal Quilt Connection met, they decided to let each member choose a theme for a month of the year for members to quilt. We decided to start in July, and members pointed at me to choose a theme. I said, "That is my birthday month." "We'll do 'birthdays' then...birthdays apply to lots of things: people, nations." Later I suggested "beginnings" to avoid cliche.

       Although the "Beginnings" theme starts in July, this is my third in June. I seem to compulsively enjoy making one a week. This too will pass, I feel certain.

In the Beginning...

        Joe and I went to New York City this weekend where I always get so many ideas, I hardly know where to start. We get our Metro Card and hop on and off the buses and trains at museums, book and crafting areas. This weekend we hit the Morgan, the Folk Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Met and MOMA, and Montclair Art Museum on the way home. I also got to The City Quilter 3 times and the beading area on 6th Avenue near the New York Public Library. The Strand and the book store in Grand Central were not missed either. Plus, I discovered near Rein's Deli, on the drive down, another fabulous quilting store where I got the pencils. It is Quilting by the Yard on the Hartford Turnpike, in Vernon CT.
        I think this pinwheel journal quilt with no area to rest the eye shows the exhaustion, chaos and excitement of searching out new ideas from books, places and art before I finally get to work in many new directions! In the beginning is chaos, stitched in the ditch, bordered and backed by the wrapped yellow brick road. The dots are my brain and the subway lines you see as well if you click to enlarge.

     

New York Decision: a journal quilt

   Backtracking on my journal quilts, of one a week, I am posting about our recent trip to New York City. It is such a treat to stay in first son's beautiful home to visit art galleries and museums while he is on vacation. This time it was a joy to visit the other son's new work place, the Chrysler Building near Grand Central. We were so excited for Bill to make this move but the decision making was harrowing to observe!

     We ate well and visited museums and libraries and, of course, The City Quilter where I got this fabric. The fireworks are from another piece of material, machine embroidered. I machine quilted quickly around the basic structures but some bead embellishment would add.

"The Chrysler Building

This quintessential art deco skyscraper is an icon of the extravagance and dynamism of New York in the Roaring 20s. The tower architect William Van Alen designed for auto tycoon Walter Chrysler features stylized hood ornaments, wheels and hubcaps. Its height was altered several times in a well-publicized race with the Bank of Manhattan Trust building. The needle-like spire was concealed until the last stage of construction to put it over the top to become the world's tallest building in 1930."   I found this information on a postcard at MOMA in a collection of postcard models...with tips on construction www.buildyourownnewyork.com for the crafty. Build Your Own New York Postcard Models  Scale: 1:3000 Wurlington Brothers Press

click to enlarge

Keys to the City: a journal quilt

   Thanksgiving weekend allowed our household some time in New York City where we have generous hosts. Thoughtful Jim phoned our car speaker from Miami to see if we had the keys to the condo. We have never before forgotten the keys, but this time we did. Just outside New Haven, we didn't panic, for we could have seen the show at the British Museum and returned to Boston. However, perfect son told us exactly where to find another set, and we drove on up to his place where a free parking spot waited to calm us.

   For this journal quilt, I wanted to show the lively NYC fabric I picked up at the wonderful City Quilter on 25th. The keys could have blocked our way but were a gate to a good time for Joe, Farley and myself. Joe and I saw shows at the Morgan, Neue, Guggenheim and MOMA museums. Farley has never met so many dogs to whom he was so polite. And I went to the City Quilter twice. Love that place!