The Lost Weekend: Perpetual Motion

Kathy, dear friend of 40 years, wrote to ask why she cannot find my recent blog postings. Only while madly sewing some blocks for Katie's Project Hope quilt did my brain catch up to this query to realize that a few days have elapsed since I have posted. Apologies. I don't want to lose my followers. :*)

Granted, there was the birthday party uno for Hannah at our house on Friday, the grandchildren sleepover, the Cambridge Art Association book group discussion on Francis Bacon at 10 the next morning, Hannah's class birthday party dos on Sunday at a gym with 25 lovely children, getting my new website loaded (not yet posted), locating a fast-to-make block pattern for the quilt, then real life. What is missing is a trip to RISD to see the Pat Steir show!

To post something quickly before I head to the wonderful Quilters' Connection tonight, I am uploading my five nautical blocks. Katie's Project Hope theme is the ocean this year. Several of us will contribute blocks made from fabrics provided and Katie will do the difficult work of turning it into a quilt. The fast and easy pattern is called Perpetual Motion. Like the ocean it is and fitting for me.

Hannah's 6th: a quilted birthday card

Each year I hope to make a birthday quilt card for the grandchildren. I love the softness that one can hold in hand, and the beads to say it is special.

Erika's 4th you can find in the March 3, 2010 archive and here. Today at beading, I finished Hannah's except for the binding, which may be a bit gaudy.

Hannah picked out the Alice in Wonderland fabric from my stash and the letters/numbers novelty fabric (thinking Kindergarten) that I used on the reverse side. I toned down the loud graphics with the gold see-through stripes. These huggable cards are about 9 inches, similar to my journal quilts.

Sun Also Rises: a journal quilt

After lots of snow, abundant rain and cold weather, a hot sun came out shockingly fast! Corduroys and sweaters were not the perfect outfit. Had to think and move quickly to find and organize for fit some cooler clothes. Not easy, even yet.

However, there were two other memorable events for the journal quilt not captured: earthquakes for friends in California and daughter-in-law Beth's special surprise of the grandchildren's first Easter items she had saved.

Scanning a face

This is so exciting. My new scanner is up and running. I phoned Epson to make sure I was doing everything correctly. I was told to put a document on the scanner and click. This funny face is the result. My first new scan.

Yupo paper and Hobein Duo Aqua water soluble oils are probably the media. I found Yupo paper at Blicks art store, and water soluble oil paint are obviously fun for not needing turpentine. Hope the face doesn't scare you.

2010 Easter Day

After the thrilling Easter service (a brass quintet and two choirs) the grandchildren arrived excited for the hunt. Joe cavorted with them in the sun like an intoxicated Easter Bunny, as dozens of eggs were hidden, over and over again, one more time! Bike and toddler car weather, chalk inviting, we could not have asked for a better day and three more excited children.

That was good, since because of the menu, cooking was miserable :*) fennel soup with ouzo, roast leg of lamb butterflied, rubbed and tied, baked tomatoes w Greek flavors, spanakopita, and braised potatoes and olives. The picture in the Boston Globe was enticing; the labor-intensive results, thankfully, worth the pain.

At the last minute, I baked a white cake in two round pans; and we put together a bunny: a) one pan for the head and b) carved out of the second, a bow-tie between two ears. I spread icing on the cake, while Erika and Hannah mixed drops of red and green food colors w shredded coconut in zipped baggies, squeezing the bags around to tint coconut for the grass and ears. The girls continued to color any cookie in sight w leftover icing (pigment by Hannah, flair by Erika).

PomPom sugarless eggs

Sometimes the first grandchild's protectors say, "No sugar," for the Easter baskets; and five years and three grandchildren later relax to, "The children are excited about the candy for Easter."

But to perform my duty and behave that first year, I came up with Elmo and his buddies for the eggs, using a white glue and four sizes of pom-poms. The faces fit perfectly inside the plastic eggs.

A thoughtful mother had saved these and showed them to me tonight over Matzo ball soup, after a hard day's raking on my part to get the grounds ready for the hunt.

Time Out

The sun is out and I want to play. Setting up the computer, with quilts and reading assignments hanging over my head, makes me want to escape:

Let me show you the first picture I took on my new machine using a surprise App I found in my toolbar, Photo Booth. You can Google instructions on-line as how to get this Warhol effect without Photo Booth.

The other photo with colors of the season is of nephew Alan’s car, wall-papered with Stickies, an aesthetic alternative to rolls of paper in the trees. Alan is the featured artist in my blog Double Drawings, now an older, handsome high school student.