Quilts And Other Stuff From Frances

Time for the complement... Color that is

2012-01-26T19:57:00.001-05:00

On Thursday, I had yet another day free so I spent my time in the studio, and my thoughts turned to the complementary color that is required by the challenge.

But before the color addition I had one other decision to make. When I placed the plants on the background I had allowed several of the leaves to fall off of the quilt and my original plan was to chop them off when I finished the top. Having said this, I kept wondering whether or not I should put a fabric on the back and allow them to float free.

I had posted a photo of the top on Facebook and one of my guild friends (Madeline) commented that she liked the way that I had “violated” the borders of the quilt. Well, that word….violated…..was enough to convince me that I should do it!!! So my first step was to fuse a backing fabric to a few of the leaves.

OK….that decision made…..now onto the color…..

When I first started thinking about this piece, I found a picture of a tree frog that was green with bright red eyes.

My first idea was to simply have this tree frog in the middle of the piece with borders of green jungle leaves. The problem arose when I realized that the finished quilt size was a 40 inch square and that was simply too big for one frog!

So over time the idea developed into growing a Rainforest with a few frogs inserted….the red eyes were a must.

I had been worried about these frogs from the very beginning. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get the colors right, that I wouldn’t be able to fuse all of the small pieces and that, if I was able to make them, that they wouldn’t look good with the piece.

So, with fear and trembling I took my picture…..

….turned it into a line drawing and started previewing fabrics. I had an “A..HA” moment when I realized that I didn’t HAVE to use the exact colors and could make it any colors that I wanted.

Here is my finished, fused frog…..details will be added later with thread…..

And I LOVED the eyes!!!!

Once again I was stumped about where to go next. Do I add more frogs with requisite red eyes or do I go with a red flower or do I leave it with just the one frog.

What to do……what to do……

Answer….bring my husband in and ask him. He looked at it and said, “why don’t you put red berries on the stalk in the middle of the quilt.”

I was planning to put green berries there but had entertained the thought of making them red, so this was the confirmation that I needed.

Here is the finished top…..

And here is the state of the room…..

Maybe a little clean-up is in order before starting the stitching!!!!

Oh, by the way, in the middle of all of this, I heard a funny sound from my laundry room and found that our water heater was spewing water out of the top. So, a fast call to the plumber, an outlay of a fair amount of cash and a new water heater is in place!! These things happen!!!!

Jungle Growth

2012-01-26T06:43:00.001-05:00

Today I was able to spend the entire afternoon in my studio working on my Rainforest quilt.

At the last post, I had added a bunch of plants but really didn’t like the way that the right side looked…..it needed something else!!

I stood there for a long time, staring at the design wall and trying to figure out what it needed. I got the idea to head to the Internet and do some more searching and found these two pictures….

Seeing these made me realize that I wanted to add some spiky fern-ish leaves to the whole thing. I removed most of the plants on the right side of the quilt and started building ferns…..

I have done much of this piece using raw edge applique, placing the pieces on the backing using a spray mount. But, I figured that these small pieces would be problematic, so I ended up putting a fusible on the back of the fabric before I started cutting.

I finally relaxed enough to enjoy free-form cutting these pieces. I tend to be very “pattern” oriented so it was a stretch for me to free cut even these small bits..

After I had finished with the ferns, I placed the other plants over the top. Here is the final look of the day…..

Since I was using a spray glue and didn’t want to spray it in my studio, I set up a spray area in my garage and kept walking back and forth with my pieces. It was very hard to hold them once they had been sprayed and I finally thought of placing them on a piece of paper, placing the paper on my spray mat and then carrying the fabric back to my studio while still on the paper. It was MUCH easier this way…..

Now if any of you remember the reason for this challenge….it is a complementary color challenge, and you might well be thinking “shouldn’t there be another color”. That’s up next….stay tuned….

Uh-Oh!!!

2012-01-25T08:42:00.001-05:00

The splash of color is nice, but doesn’t this Daffodil know that it is only January!!

A Rainy day in the Rainforest

2012-01-21T19:44:00.001-05:00

Today was a warm, rainy day and was the perfect setting for a day spent in the studio. At the end of the day, my personal rainforest looked like this…..

Lots left to do and no Saturday’s free between now and the due date…..feeling a little stressed!!!!

Coloring the challenge

2012-01-19T15:11:00.001-05:00

Now came my favorite part……adding color!! Since it was MLK day and an official holiday, I decided (at my husband’s urging) to take the day off from work and spend it in the studio!!

I first pulled all of my green fabrics that seemed appropriate….

but alas, there wasn’t an appropriate fabric for the dark background that I was envisioning.

So, I went shopping!! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find what I needed in the chain stores and our local shop has now closed (BOO), so I moved on to plan B. A phone call to Anita told me that she had appropriate greens in stock so I headed for a little shopping on her shelves, and came home with these….

…..AREN’T THEY GORGEOUS!!!!

The fabric that I had chosen for the background wasn’t quite big enough…exactly 4 inches short on one side so I picked another fabric (after many changes) and added uneven borders on the sides…..

….sorry the colors in the photo are not good.

Next I drew the bamboo poles onto freezer paper and got ready to iron onto the selected fabric. Unfortunately the fabric wasn’t long enough to make the entire stem so I glued the pieces together, making sure to place them in areas where there will be additional thread work…. I cut out the pieces….

….added a few leaves and voila….. Next came the rubber plant…..

Some funky leaves……

and I am out of time for the day, but it sure was a FUN one!!!

This should be good incentive to work hard and fast this next week so that I can get back to this project!!!

No fabric, but still a challenge….

2012-01-17T16:45:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, I decided to get a good start on my Challenge so I cleaned off the design wall, including removing all of the strings…..

Next was to mark out the mandatory 40 inch square (I learned this simple technique from Elizabeth Barton)….. WOW….does that look like a lot of empty space!!!!

OK, now to put something on the wall.

I will be the first to tell you that I CANNOT draw, but I do know how to use the available technology and that is exactly what I did.

First I scanned the drawings that I showed on yesterday’s blog, selected the plant that I wanted and printed it out using the poster function on my printer (the larger pieces were printed on the 3x3 format)….

I started with the rubber plant…..

….and look, the size doesn’t look so vast.

Next came the bamboo……

….but not side by side. How about overlayed….. ….Better…..

Now to add some other funky leaves (after I used the photocopier to make smaller and larger versions of them)……

….Looking good….lets add a few ferns and maybe a few large leaves…

Hmmmmm….it’s looking pretty good. I bet that I can fill it in with other smaller leaves.

Next step….fabric!!!!

Feeling Challenged

2012-01-16T19:50:00.001-05:00

OK…for the last few ~~weeks~~ months, I have been complaining on this blog about not feeling creative and not having any motivation to work in my studio.

It seems that all it took was a good challenge!!!

My quilt guild has issued a “Complement Me” challenge where we are to use two different techniques and two complementary colors. The size has to be 40 inches square. Oh, by the way, it is due in 3 weeks!!!

I have spent the last 4 months lazily thinking about the quilt, but decided to get down to business last week. My first step was to search the internet for inspirational photos. I started by searching “purple and yellow” and found a wonderful purple daisy that would have leant itself to beading, but the size was just too big. Then I found a green and red tree frog but the problem remained the same…..40 inches was just too big for the subject.

However, this got me to thinking about rainforests and the photos that I had taken in China and the ideas just started flowing. I spent the next few days searching the internet for pictures of rainforest plants and leaves.

After I had collected and printed a good number of them, I started tracing out the ones that appealed to me. To do this, I used a piece of transparency film and a fine point sharpie.

Here are the resulting sheets…….

Also this week, I have been reading a new book that I purchased a few weeks ago….

In this wonderful book, she talks about making a quilt based on a photo and talks about three different forms of applique.

The first is turned edge……no way (especially not in three weeks time)!!!!

The second is fused edges…..been there, done that!!!!

The third was raw edge …..definite possibility!!!

Her technique for raw edge is to draw the design on freezer paper, iron it to the front side of the fabric, cut out along the lines, remove the freezer paper and have the perfect shaped piece ready to glue to your backing fabric…..interesting!!!

……more to come……

What a difference a shelf makes…..

2012-01-11T20:40:00.001-05:00

Well, my week has not started out great in the creative department. It got off to a bad start when I had to have my eyes dilated early Monday morning and couldn’t see for the rest of the day and it was NOT a day that I wanted to sit and “watch” TV. Since then I have been trying to get caught up and studio time has not been in the cards.

I did however make a wonderful discovery. For years I have fought with finding a place to put my shoes. I have a small closet and had initially put a shelf in the bottom so that I could have more room. But, when push came to shove, the shoes were stacked up on top of each other, thrown in the floor of the closet and the door was never closed.

The other day I started looking in the closet and realized that most of my clothes are pants, skirts and tops. I no longer have a bunch of dresses that need the full length of the closet. So, I went out and bought another shelf to sit on top of the first one.

MAGIC HAPPENED……

There is now a place for every pair of shoes, I can see them easily, it is super easy to put them away, and I can close the door whenever I want to!!

Silly…..yes, but OH so satisfying!!

Still working

2012-01-07T18:01:00.001-05:00

Today I had a few hours to work in the studio so I enjoyed finishing the piecing on the Archway piece.

Sorry for the crooked photo!!!!

I am thinking that I will cut off the top border (and maybe the bottom) a bit more but I want to think about it a bit first.

I have also been working on a scrap top that I saw in a book that I got for Christmas. After putting together a few simple blocks I decided to lay them out and see how they looked.

Here are two of the options that I came up with……

Blocks without sashes….

Blocks with navy “sashes”….

But I actually like it better vertically…

Neither of these are what the actual pattern calls for, and I am not sure that I actually like either of these, but there is a LONG way to go.

The really good thing about this project is that I started out with my 3-1/2 inch drawer looking like this……

And it ended up a lot emptier and tidier at the end……

Glad to have a few more Baby Steps behind me……

Baby Steps…maybe that will be my “word” for the year!!!

2012-01-05T10:24:00.001-05:00

In continuing with my theme for the year…….

We actually started the year out wonderfully at Barnes Noble, with a cup of tea, Oatmeal Raisin cookie and a set of inspiring Quilt Magazines…..

When I have had a few minutes, I have been sewing on this top which was started at the Elizabeth Barton workshop back in November……

I picked this one to start on because it was heavily pinned to the design wall and I was not excited about the thought of taking it down.

I have managed to spend 30 minutes sewing on several days, although today’s “sewing” was actually re-sewing one seam three times and finally taking it out again!!!!

I have also spent a bit of time learning how to make an embroidered “Featherstitch”. This new aspect of my education is thanks to the “Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST)” challenge issued by Sharon B. at “Pin Tangle”. If you want to learn more about the challenge, click on the TAST button in the right column.

I sewed TWO seams!!!!

2012-01-01T19:59:00.001-05:00

The above statement might seem a bit of an understatement, but I am thrilled to have actually "touched” fabric today.

It is the start of my desire to try to do something fabric/art related on most days of 2012!!!!

Here’s to a year of creative fun!!!!

Welcome 2012!!!

2011-12-31T22:20:00.001-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

2011 Choices

2011-12-30T06:25:00.000-05:00

Remember back to my posts at the beginning of the year when I mentioned that instead of making a New Year’s Resolution, I was going to pick a “Word for the year”. And, my word was “Choices”.

I had visions that this would mean choosing to spend time in the studio, happily creating and blogging afterwards…..but life had a different idea in mind!!!

I have found this year that my choices had to be different. They tended more to taking care of family, helping clients that were in need, working in the yard, and on and on. Instead of trying to do everything, I chose to miss certain events in order to participate in others.

The biggest and most important choice was to not get angry because I wasn’t getting into the studio, but instead to enjoy what life was bringing along, even if it wasn’t what I had planned!!

One of the many perks of these new choices was that I have been so very relaxed during the holidays, organized early and actually able to have a nap on Christmas Eve afternoon…..something that has NEVER happened before.

Now don’t get me wrong, I hope to spend many wonderful creative hours in the new year, but it is so relaxing to take that out of the “must” column and put it into the “choose” column.

A friend shared this quote on Facebook and I think that it fits here……

I am looking forward to a new year of choices, chances and changes!!!!

Keeping Mom Busy – part 3

2011-12-26T20:53:00.001-05:00

My Mom quickly returned the blocks that I had sent her. They look great with her wonderful blanket stitching around the edges.

Now it was time to finish up the designs so I spent a fun day working in my studio, once again pulling out every piece of fabric that I owned!!!! Here are the resulting blocks…..

I changed the last block some and had to add a few blossoms and leaves to make it fit the double size block, but I think it worked ok…..

I laid all of the blocks out just to see if the colors would work…..

…..and then wrapped it up in Christmas paper and sent it to Mom as yet another present for her to open!!!

My task in the next month will be to decide how to set the quilt together and what kind of border to put on it. I have been thinking about doing a flower vine around the edge with lots of the different flowers on it, but I will need to see how Mom feels about sewing MORE flowers!!!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

From me and my family to you and yours…………

MERRY

CHRISTMAS!!!!

Another Ducky…..

2011-12-22T18:40:00.001-05:00

I showed the first of my “Rubber Ducky” quilts a couple of weeks ago (check HERE for the post).

The day before I was due to return to the Charity Bee I had an extra hour and thought “why not make another one”!!!

This time I took some of the leftover squares and rectangles of Ducky fabric, added squares and rectangles of a coordinating fabric, sewed on a border and voila……

Another top to be quilted and given to a needy child!!!!

A Stocking for Amber

2011-12-21T18:48:00.001-05:00

Eighteen months ago our son Brian married Amber, a wonderful young woman!!! It dawned on me this year that I had not made her a Christmas stocking so I set out to rectify that.

The first step was to come up with a design to use. Our family stockings were made when we were living in Australia and reflected that time of our life…..

I knew that I wanted something that would fit Amber but also wanted to keep the same design of the previous stockings.

Since Brian and Amber are recent cat owners, I started looking for a Christmas kitten pattern that would work. The first that I came across was this needlepoint design…..

I covered it with a transparency and traced the general outline…..

I realized that he needed to face the other direction to best fit on the stocking so I simply turned the paper over, being sure to mark which was the front.

I then placed the transparency on the light box, placed a Teflon pressing sheet on top of the transparency and began to build the design. It was very easy to see where the pieces were to be placed….

After I ironed the design onto the Teflon sheet, I peeled the entire picture off in one piece and placed it onto the stocking…..

The final step was to outline all of the pieces, quilting at the same time…..

The final embellishment was to add a bell for the kitten to be pawing at.

I am looking forward to filling this new stocking with goodies on Christmas morning!!!!

Happy Blog-i-versary!!

2011-12-18T17:45:00.001-05:00

As of yesterday, I have been writing a blog for 3 whole years. When I started I didn’t know if it would endure, but I have truly enjoyed my time of communicating with friends, old and new, and from all around the world.

There hasn’t been much quilting going on in my life as my DD had major shoulder surgery this past Tuesday and spent three days in the hospital. She is now at home and functioning mostly by herself, but my husband and I are still on call at any time, day or night.

The upside of this event is that, knowing this was coming up, I am the most prepared for Christmas that I have EVER been. It is a wonderful feeling to be a week out and know that everything is in order.

At our last Fiber Frenzy meeting, Shirley brought out gifts for all of us….she always comes up with something fun!! This year it is a “Just Do It” hanger for our studios. She said that the first stitch or cut is the hardest to make in each project so this is our reminder to…..

Maybe I will get the hint!!!!

Keeping Mom Busy --- part 2

2011-12-08T20:44:00.001-05:00

Since Mom finished up the House blocks so quickly, I immediately began looking for another project to get her started on.

I suggested that we start making a quilt together. The plan is that I will put the fusible applique’s together and she will do the blanket stitch around the shapes. The blocks will return to me and I will put them together into a quilt top. Then we will discuss whether she will hand quilt it or whether I will machine quilt it.

When it is finished we will decide exactly what we want to do with it. It may be a donation to the West Texas Rehabilitation Center or it may be a gift for someone, or WHO KNOWS…….

SO, I started looking thru patterns and remembered this one from “Piece O’ Cake Designs”…..

As I started pulling out fabrics and trying to decide what color way to use, I came across this wonderful piece of fabric……

…..and decided to make it the basis for my quilt, and to cut each of the pots out of this fabric.

Here are the first four blocks that I put together and sent off to Mom…..

Hopefully before Christmas I can get the next 8 blocks ready to go to her and also spend some time thinking about how I am going to set this together into a Queen Size Quilt.

Incidentally, I am always amazed at just how messy things can get when I am in the planning stage of a quilt…..

Keeping Mom busy –part 1…

2011-12-06T21:06:00.001-05:00

As I have mentioned before, my Mom is 87 years old and has been quilting since she was 13!! She still enjoys doing hand work, but finds the planning and piecing a bit hard to do.

When I was visiting back in October, I found a “block of the month” quilt that she had started a long time ago. She had appliqued three cute blocks but then had lost interest. I told her how cute I thought they were and encouraged her to finish them up. Well, a month later I received a package containing the following…..

So now I have yet another UFO!!!! I will start trying to come up with a quick, but effective method of turning these into a cute quilt!!!!

Sewing again….finally

2011-12-04T20:12:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been quite a while since I have either had time to quilt or had the desire to quilt!!! I have definitely been in the doldrums when it comes to being creative!!

As a result, I have a large stack of partially finished projects that I should really be working on…..

So when I finally found that the mood was on me, what did I do……started another project!!!

I had visited with our guild Charity Bee this past Wednesday and was handed some scraps of a cute “Rubber Ducky” fabric, and it got my creative juices to working.

I first picked out a few coordinating fabrics….

And then set out to add strips to each of the rectangles to form a large block….

….the next step was to cut out the blocks, setting each at a slight angle. In order to get them all the same, I cut the first one and then put masking tape on top of the ruler…..

When I had the top together I showed it to my husband, telling him that I needed to figure out a way to make it larger…….

His first words were “why don’t you put it at an angle”. A PERFECT idea. I first added a small border and then found the perfect green fabric to make the border from. Fortunately, there was JUST enough to cut two wide strips and then cut the angled pieces….

The final top is so cute and was just what I needed for a quick Saturday afternoon project…..

The top will now be given to the charity group to be quilted and given to a needy child!!!

Maybe this will be the piece that primes the pump…..we will see!!!!

Words of advice from Lyric Kinard……

2011-11-12T14:06:00.001-05:00

I subscribe to the Lyric Kinard newsletter and loved this post from her about creative slump……

“When you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done. You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Every once in a while you need a change of pace. You feel that you are in a slump, are feeling blue, or you’re just plain tired. Too many deadlines, too much pressure, too much on your plate. You feel creatively blocked. It happens to the best of us once in a while.

I believe it’s part of the process and part of life. Energy and enthusiasm can wax and wane.

It’s what you do with yourself once you hit that slump that matters.

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping stone in the pathway of the strong. ~Thomas Carlyle

Go for a long walk. Breathe. Look up at the sky. Notice beautiful fallen leaves or fascinating cracks in the sidewalk. Take your camera. Getting out of your narrow environment and looking at the wider world can work wonders.

Try something new. Take a class in an unfamiliar medium. If you are struggling with portraiture, try a wild abstract. If your usual palette is earth tones, do a quick exercise using only saturated brights. If you only machine quilt, pick up a scrap of cloth and some embroidery thread and randomly stitch by hand for a bit.

Clean your space. Methodically clear the clutter away and make space for new ideas and new projects. You will find materials you had forgotten that will inspire you. Cleaning might also become more unpleasant than the making of art - so you’ll want to get back to it.

Wait. Sometimes, it is best to just wait it out - Continue to just keep doing. Let the ideas stew in your subconscious. Studies of creative people show that many brilliant ideas come not during the period of intense study, but in the quiet resting time afterwards when the ideas have had time to mix and mull in the unconscious.

Stop. Sometimes, if you are still blocked, it is time to make a change and leave what you were doing.

There is the possibility that you will emerge a different, a better artist. Don’t wallow or fret - slumping may be a natural part of your growth process. Look up, look out, grow!

I’d love to hear what you do to “un-slump” yourself.

All my best wished to you!
~Lyric

Lyric Kinard, Artist, Author, and educator, can be found at www.LyricKinard.com.
You can sign up for her monthly newsletter there.
© 2011 Lyric Montgomery Kinard. All rights reserved.

How to Face a Quilt

2011-11-06T08:38:00.001-05:00

When I was at Arrowmont, Elizabeth Barton gave us a fantastic demonstration of a different method of facing a quilt. I used this as I was finishing “Wheatley”. Here are the steps……

- Cut four, 6 inch squares of the facing fabric. Mark 2 inches in from opposing corners and free-hand cut an arc between the two marks…..

- Cut a 3 inch strip from the facing fabric. Fold in half lengthwise and press.

- Measure the sides of the quilt and subtract 11 inches from the measurement. cut the strips in lengths equal to this.

- Lay out the facing as shown…..

- Sew each of the pieces together using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Note that the arcs are slightly longer than the strips.

- Place the pieced facing (face down) on the top of the quilt and pin in place…..

- Sew around all four edges and then clip the corners…..

- Gently turn the facing to the back of the quilt….

- Press the edges straight, turn under the bias curves, matching them to the pieced strips. Pin in place and then stitch by hand…..

The finished piece lies flat and the corners are square …..

…..and it is SO SO SO SO easy to do!!!!!

How to hang a quilt….

2011-11-03T09:26:00.001-04:00

I love to make wall hangings to give to friends and relatives, but I always worry about how they will hang them. A few weeks ago, Susan Brubaker Knapp posted a tutorial on her blog about how to hang a quilt on a nail (just like a picture). Here is my version ……

- Cut a piece of fabric that is the same width as the finished quilt and about 2/3rds of the length of the piece.

- Fold all four edges in 1/4 inch, the fold them again and stitch in place…..

- Place the piece on the back of the quilt, approximately 1/2 inch from the edges and top. Pin in place…..

- Measure 1/3 of the way from the top of the finished quilt and draw two lines, one inch apart. Repeat on both sides……

- Hand sew around the sides and top of the sleeve, leaving the 1 inch area between the marks open.

- Cut a piece of foam core board slightly smaller than the width of the sleeve, and about 2/3rds of the length of the finished quilt.

- Carefully insert the board into the sleeve making sure that it doesn’t bind or stretch the quilt.

- Insert a pencil in the openings on the side and mark the edge of the board…..

Use this mark as a reference for where to punch the hole.

- Remove the board from the sleeve and use a needle to poke a hole thru the board. I stuck a piece of Duct Tape on the front and back to reinforce the area….

- Cut two pieces of picture wire, each the width of the piece. Thread each piece of wire thru a hole and twist off the end to secure it.

- Place the board back into the sleeve, running the wires thru the holes….

Tie the wires together and twist the ends to finish….

Now it hangs easily on a single nail and is flat and square and makes a wonderful addition to my husband’s office!!!!

Fiber Frenzy Color Challenge

2011-10-31T18:15:00.001-04:00

Now that the October meeting is well past, I guess that it is time to blog about it!!!

Two months ago we issued a color challenge where we each picked a color from a hat. The original idea was that there could be no trading, but that didn’t work out quite as planned. There were a few trades (including myself and Deb), but the results were wonderful….

We started the show with Sue’s grey piece. You will need to enlarge it to see it well, but the wood nymph is great!!

Cleo presented this pink quilt with fabric beads that were made in a previous FF meeting…….

We all felt that Madeline’s offering was one of the best……. She said that a Burkha was the first thing that came into her mind when she saw that she had picked Black. It is a really stunning piece!!

Faye channeled her Yellow inner child with “Sponge Bob”…..

Jodie picked White and is making a snow scene inspired by a tree photo… Pat’s green and cheery pink was a great addition to our color wall…..

Nancy had this great red fabric and jus started cutting out shapes until she came up with this rose bush….. Francyne is a self-professed “non-purple” person, but she did a great job with this quilt…..

This is Deb’s brown offering that was inspired by the leaf fabric on the left. She has used wonderful textured fabrics and 2 fabric beads…..a great start!!!

And this is my orange offering….

I wanted to try doing a piece with only thread, and it looked great….from 2 feet away. Unfortunately, if you got any further way, the quilting just disappeared into the fabric!! I decided to use a pen to accent the design and went to Hobby Lobby to buy one. As I looked at the $7.00 pens, I noticed an orange Sharpie for $1.99 and decided that it would work fine….and it did!!!!

I hope to finish the piece with some additional quilting patterns as a border!!

You may notice that many of the pieces were not finished and that is one thing that I love about our group. We are all busy people and have agreed that there is NO pressure to finish any of the challenges.

Wheatley

2011-10-29T19:19:00.002-04:00

As a present for my Son and Daughter-In-Law’s first anniversary, they adopted a cute, cute kitten named Wheatley. A couple of months later Amber sent this photo of little Wheatley looking at himself in a mirror……

I immediately fell in love with this photo and decided to play with it and a bit of thread painting!!!

After blowing the photo up to the needed size, I drew a line drawing , cut out the basic kitty fabrics and let the fun begin…..

I was SO encouraged with how the reflection kitty looked!!! It amazes me that I have never been able to draw anything, but I found it amazingly easy to “draw” with my needle!!

I love the expression on the reflection kitty….

I am very pleased with the final result and cant wait to give the finished product to the happy couple!!!

This is my entry into the Blogger's Quilt Festival - Fall 2011. Click here to view all of the entries.

A trip to Texas

2011-10-29T08:05:00.001-04:00

This past week, I flew to Texas to spend a few days with my Mother. We spent our time working on a crossword puzzle, talking, getting together with other family members and enjoying each other’s company.

I didn’t take many photos, except for the food……

When I arrive in Abilene, there are a few places that just MUST be visited….

What-a-Burger…….

Fried Chicken……

Mexican Food……

“Jack and Jill” Donuts……

and, lastly, BBQ Brisket……

Now for the diet to begin!!!!

Smoky Mountain National Park

2011-10-21T10:39:00.001-04:00

On the final day of my week in Gatlinburg, I enjoyed a slow drive thru the Smoky Mountain National Park, punctuated with multiple stops for photo opportunities. I entered the park about 8:00am and it was gorgeous as the sun was coming up.

The trees were just starting to turn beautiful colors…..

And the views across the mountains were wonderful…..

As my husband says…."They call them the smoky mountains for a reason!!!”

It was the PERFECT ending for a perfect retreat!!!

More about Arrowmont

2011-10-19T22:11:00.001-04:00

As you have seen, I have enjoyed a wonderful week at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, but thought you might like to know a bit more about it.

The school was opened in 1912 and was initially funded by the Pi Beta Phi Sorority as a “Settlement School”. I have since learned that one of the purposes of the school was to give the local women a place where they could express their creativity.

It currently has classes all through out the year and bring in teachers and students from all over the world.

In my session, there were wood-turners……

….potters…..

….jewelry makers…..

….and painters/drawers…..

The studio’s were huge and well supplied. This is our fiber studio after we had cleaned up. I wish that I had climbed up here and taken a photo during the workshop…..

My room was in the “Teacher’s Cottage”….

which I shared with two of my friends, and 7 lovely women from Louisiana who were there for the pottery workshop.

The campus is gorgeous, with views of the local mountains seen everywhere….

There were pieces of art distributed around the property, including two totem poles…..

….and temple bells……

I walked thru an exciting art gallery each morning to get to class. There had recently been an “Enamel Conference” there and the pieces were so inspiring.…..

…but my favorite were these miniature bathroom fixtures…..

It was a fantastic environment that encouraged creativity of all kinds….

Arrowmont – Days 4 and 5

2011-10-14T20:36:00.001-04:00

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about the last two days of my week at Arrowmont.

I spent most of the days working on my archway piece, slowly auditioning the fabrics for my design. The biggest problem that I found was that I had LOTS of medium and light values but not many darks. I mentioned this to Elizabeth and she advised that either I had not been using enough dye or I didn’t have the water hot enough.

The first step was picking fabric for the archway. I had several fabrics but couldn’t see which one to use. I finally cut out a “window” to look thru and decided that I really liked this design……

One great tip from Elizabeth was to use string (she uses torn off selvedges) to mark off the expected size of the finished quilt. It really does help you to better visualize the design that you are preparing……

I pieced the first few bits and then decided to lay out all of the fabrics before I continued with the piecing. This was my final mock-up at the end of Friday…..

At the end of the last day, we each walked around and critiqued our designs. There were some wonderful pieces.

Elaine wanted to work with a simple shape and was so pleased with the way that the delicate shibori fabrics added to the design…..

Linda wanted to get the feel of the show covered fields from home (Maine) and used a faintly lined shibori to achieve the look. She dyed this piece by picking up a piece of cord that someone else had used previously in a dye bath. She simply wound the cord around the fabric and dunked it into a vat of water…..

Pat is using this as the background for a potential three-dimensional piece…..

Cleo is working from a photo of a tree stump. Don’t you love the way that the shibori fabric gives depth to the limbs….

Finally, this is Rosie’s piece…… She has spent the last six weeks at Arrowmont as an intern and was desiring to combine several of the things that she accomplished while there. She has done a remarkable job of including weaving, shibori and possibly some some jewelry pieces as well.

Two of our number left early so I didn’t get a photo of their work.

It was so wonderful to be in a workshop where everyone was happily working on their own projects, with the instructor simply offering suggestions….and not being at all concerned if you chose not to do it her way!!

New blog on the block……

2011-10-08T21:23:00.001-04:00

I am very proud to announce that my husband, Mike has started writing a blog as well.

The title is "Flaneur" and here is an excerpt from the first paragraph.......

"I am always prepared to be a flâneur when visiting foreign places. In his book A
Writer’s Paris – a guided journey for the creative soul, Eric Maisel defines the
[French-invented] flâneur as “an observer who wanders the streets of a great city on a mission to notice with childlike enjoyment the smallest events and the obscurest sights.”

In this blog he plans to write about some of those small events and obscure sights that have punctuated his life. He is a wonderful writer and has the great talent to make you feel like you are right there with him!!!

So, if you have a few minutes, click HERE and have a read......

Designing women…..and one man…..

2011-10-07T07:41:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday morning, we met first in the auditorium and Elizabeth showed us a wide selection of work done with Arashi Shibori Dyed fabrics. We all oohed and aahed as each piece flickered on the screen, each secretly hoping that our work will turn out as well…..wishful thinking!!!!

When we returned to the studio, we were told to start with an inspiration photo or idea and begin sketching. Now this is the part that I was NOT looking forward to, especially since I have not done much drawing and have no confidence in it. I ended up retreating to the library and starting looking at photos of the Roman Coliseum and drawing arches of every shape and size.

We met again as a group and showed what we had done and Elizabeth’s suggestion to me was to pick one arch and develop a simple design around it. As she saw this inspiration photo……

…….she said “ooh look at this one…..it already has an archway with rectangles around it!” Enough said….that became my new design!!!

I started by sketching it several times, adding and removing bits each time. This was the original design……….and these are my modifications. The final choice is on the right……

Next we talked about shading and were instructed to photocopy our final image several times and use three or more shades of black to color the design…..and to repeat this a bunch of times.

I think that I am going to go with the far left one.

The final step of this process is to pick out the fabrics that go with our shadings. At this point most of us realized that we didn’t have quite the right fabrics, so there was a mad dash for the dyes just before dinner. The problem is that you add the dyes, then wait an hour, add the soda ash and wait another hour, then soak for a time period (various persons wait from 15 minutes to 12 hours) and then wash in the washing machine.

I got my last set rinsed out just before 9:00 and called it a day. The final wash can come in the morning!!!

Another Dyeing Day

2011-10-06T07:23:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday morning we began by washing out and ironing the fabrics that we had made on Monday. Elizabeth discovered that the Fuchsia dye that we had been using was not the correct type which explained why all of my pretty red accents had mysteriously disappeared!!

Here are the final fabrics that were dyed on Monday…..

The second workshop day began with Elizabeth showing various other methods of “resisting” the dye. She then told us to go to our tables and get started.

I tried lots of different methods and came up with some fun results. My first (and easiest) piece was simply folded lengthwise in a concertina fashion, and the folded into a small rectangle. I applied three rubber bands…..

….added dye to the edges (red on the corners and brown in the middle) and placed in a bath of water. The result was magnificent…..

Another easy design was made by folding the fabric into large triangles and then clipping various bits together using clothes pins.

It was soaked in a brown bath and came out with a wonderful symmetrical design with some blue highlights…..

The Turquoise and Orange make a wonderful brown, but apparently they dont “play well together” because the will often separate out into the two separate colors. This makes for some very interesting dye patterns!!!!

We also used clamps and tied bits with string……

….that came out like this….

We clamped folded fabrics between boards…..

….that looked like this…..

…..used machine stitching to create a line of resist……

…..voila…..

I love the air-pocket bubbles that formed.

…..and ended the day by making gradation dyes.

At the end of the day, I had washed out 6 pieces and had 21 more soaking a ready for the final wash. Here is the sum of 2 days of dyeing……

I want to tell you more about Arrowmont and will do so in a future post, but first I want to tell you about the bears!!! Almost everyday someone has seen a bear or had a bear amble out of the forest and visit the porch of their house. SO, as I walk back and forth before the sun comes up or around dusk I am constantly aware of my surroundings.

Now look at this photo……

Doesn’t that stump look like a bear cub…..especially when it is almost dark and you are already on “bear alert”!!!! I think that the person who put this here has a VERY sadistic sense of humor!!!!

And finally, what happens when you dont realize that there is a hole in your rubber glove????

….until tomorrow…….

A Day to Dye For!!!!

2011-10-05T06:40:00.000-04:00

Monday morning dawned bright and beautiful as we strolled from our house to the dining hall, where we feasted on Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Grits, Oatmeal, Yogurt and Banana Bread!!!! I LIKE how the day is taking shape!!!

In our first session with Elizabeth Barton we started to learn the process of Arashi Shibori dyeing, with Elizabeth talking us thru the process …..

She then turned us loose to start creating our own fabrics. The process is surprisingly simple when you look at the wonderful designs that come out of it.

First step is to roll a fat quarter of fabric (from corner to corner) onto a 2 inch PVC pipe…..

You hold it in place with a rubber band and then proceed to twist and squish the fabric to the middle and then rubber-band it in place at each end and then scoot the whole thing down to the end of the pipe…..

Place it into a zip lock bag and start adding one or more colors……

Next step is to add warm water to the bag until the fabric is completely covered…..

Find a stable place to store them and wait for one hour….

Cleo had the wonderful idea to bring cut-off half gallon milk cartons and we used those to put our bags into.

One of the problems that I had with the first piece was that I kept pushing it off of the end of the pipe. So, after redoing it twice, I thought about creating a bumper at the bottom of the pipe. I took two large rubber bands and wound them just at the end of the pipe. IT WORKED…. the bands formed enough of a barrier that the fabric didn’t slip off of the end!!!!!

After soaking for an hour or so, we added an activator that increases the ph of the water and causes the dye molecules to attach to the fabric molecules. Then we wait for another hour…..

Then comes the magic!!!! When you first pull the fabric out of the dye it looks like a dark blob……

But as you start to pull the fabric off of the pole, you gasp as the first bit of color shows and then grows and grows…..

A bit more rinsing and you get to see the finished piece…….

This one started with the original orange and yellow that I showed earlier but was rolled in the opposite direction and over-dyed with navy and black.

Unfortunately, the colors will fade by a couple of shades as it dries, but I am very pleased with it.

This one was folded in half to begin with and was wrapped on the straight grain. I added string to hold the pleats in place. Here is what I saw as it was coming off of the pole……

And here is the final (although the color is a bit off……

This was the last one that I pulled at the end of the day…..

The design was made by painting blue and green stripes on the scrunched fabric and then soaking it in a much lighter green.

The final step in the process is to soak the pieces overnight in water with a little bit of soap in it. So this is where I left them last night……

It sounds kind of wimpy to say that I only dyed 2-1/2 yards of fabric in a day, but it was SO SO SO much fun!!!!

….more to come……

Arrowmont here I come……

2011-10-04T07:33:00.001-04:00

I have a wonderful opportunity this week to travel to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and spend 5 full days in class with quilt artist, Elizabeth Barton. Now I have known Elizabeth for over 20 years and knew her when she was piecing very traditional quilts and quilting them by hand. But times have changed and now she is known for art made with her gorgeous hand dyed fabrics. This week we are starting with plain white fabric, dyeing it and then using it in a fiber composition…..I AM SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED!!!!

My traveling companion ended up not being able to attend so I packed up the car and headed North. As I looked at all of the stuff I had thrown into the car for “just in case” it was obvious that she and her stuff would never have fit anyway!!!!

The drive North is beautiful especially as the trees are just beginning their dance of color as they turn from lush green to orange to brown.

The trip was fairly straightforward as you follow one road the entire way, but things got a bit more exciting as I entered the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The speed limit is 35 in most of the park so cars were moving at a fairly leisurely pace with everyone enjoying the views.

I rounded a corner and there were 20 or so cars lined up along both sides of the road with people walked around them. My first thought was “car wreck?”, but I wondered how a major crash could have happened with the lowered speed limit. I slowly realized that people weren’t upset, but were smiling and had cameras out. Then I saw the Elk!!! Two beautiful 10 point Elk were grazing along the side of the road, totally oblivious to the “two-legged” fauna that were following them.

I took a few photos out of the car window as I slowly drove past…

but, when I passed an easy parking spot, I pulled in to park and hopped out to enjoy with the rest of the crowd…..

So on I drove, stopping to take photos and enjoy the scenery…..

When I came up to another group of people standing beside their cars I knew immediately what to do and grabbed the first parking place that I could find!! I crossed the road and found that they were all taking photos of a Black Bear that was ambling thru the gully beside the road. I watched him for a few minutes and took a few photos….

….but as he started heading back toward the road, I decided to return to the safety of the car and continue Northward. As I drove off, two park Rangers arrived to make sure that things didn’t get out of hand.

That was the end of the wildlife sighting and I drove out of the park and into Gatlinburg. So far the city looks like any tourist area with people strolling on both sides of the main road, looking in shops with evocative names like “Cherokee Trading Post” and “Totem Pole Crafts”!!!

I arrived at Arrowmont, checked in and started meeting others who are here for the week. After a delicious dinner we met for our orientation lecture and then on to meet with our individual classes.

There are five different classes going on here this week, including, jewelry making, wood turning, pottery, painting and fiber. We are encouraged to drop in to the studios and see what they are doing, so hopefully I will be able to show lots of pictures of things other than fiber.

I am very excited about this trip and am hoping that it will firstly, give me a bit more time to relax, but more importantly, I am hoping that I will be energized to get back into a creative frame of mind…..I guess time will tell!!!!

Sometimes things happen for the best…..

2011-09-13T20:50:00.001-04:00

If you haven’t noticed, I have been a bit lackluster in my blog posting for the last couple of months. The reason is that I (and my husband) are just TIRED!!!!! Over the last two years, we have spent 16 weeks overseas, married off a son, done some major home renovations, I have co-chaired a Quilt Show, been thru two hectic Income Tax Seasons, and have just generally been busy.

For that reason, Michael and I had decided that we wanted a vacation where neither one of us had to work or do anything that we didn’t want to!!!

After some thought we decided to rent a house on Green Turtle Cay, part of the Abaco Island chain in the Bahamas. It was a two bedroom house about 100 yards from the beach and our plan was to relax, snorkel and drive the golf cart to the local restaurant each night for dinner!!

Then Hurricane Irene came for a visit and sat on top of Marsh Harbor and our little island. Our house wasn’t damaged, but the amenities on the island were, so we cancelled our trip and started thinking about where else we might go.

For many years our “go-to” relaxing place has been Snowbird Mountain Lodge just outside of Robbinsville, NC .

In the past we have stayed in the main lodge but this time we decided to splurge and stay in one of their “cabins” that overlook the mountains. Each comes with a king size bed, huge living area, Gas-log fireplace, whirlpool tub, and private deck complete with hot tub!!!!

We were scheduled to arrive on Monday, but woke up Sunday morning and wondered why we were waiting another day. We called to see if the room was available, packed and headed North!!!

Now there are many things to do around Snowbird, and on our first visit, we hiked on the Appalachian Trail, rode horses and walked thru neighboring Joyce Kilmer National Forest. On subsequent visits (all nine of them) we never left the property!!!

So the itinerary for our five days is this…..wake up around 8:00, eat a gourmet breakfast, sit at the lodge for a few hours and talk/work/stare at the mountains. We eat our bag lunch, then move back to our private deck where we talk/work/stare at the mountains. Then back to the lodge for a drink in the bar, a gourmet dinner and more time on the deck where we talk/work/stare at the mountains!!!! (when I say “work” I am talking about planning and working on fun and creative things)

So far we haven’t found time to take an afternoon nap, but that is mainly because we dont want to lose time from talking, working and staring at the mountains!!!!

Now, I hate that the people of Green Turtle Cay have been hurt by the hurricane, but I am so thankful that we were not able to make that particular trip.

This is absolutely what we needed in order to recharge our batteries!!!!!

So goodnight from the beautiful mountains…..

See you in the morning…….

Class Time

2011-09-04T20:57:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I took a two session class at my local quilt store (Dragonfly Quilt Shop) about doing hand applique. It was taught by my friend Cleo…..

and she proceeded to teach me several new techniques!!!!

The first thing that she taught was how to applique a stem…..

…. Cut a bias strip that is 1 inch in width.

….. Fold in half lengthwise.

….. Pin the folded edge to the inside curve

….. Applique into place

…. Use sharp scissors and cut away 1/2 of the underside layer of the stem fabric

…. fold the wide fabric side over the smaller one

…..pin in place and applique!!!

This method provides a smooth and thin bias strip for stems etc.

Now, my friends cant believe that I am actually planning to do some hand work, so my photo had to be taken…..

Now I just need to find times to actually practice the technique!!!!

The joys of “H-Mart”

2011-08-28T16:24:00.001-04:00

On Friday, we drove to Atlanta to take my son (Brian) and his wife (Amber) out to dinner. Much to our delight, they picked the food court at “Super H-Mart”

With their encouragement, we ordered from the Korean diner and enjoyed a spicy soup that was filled with strips of beef, leeks and wonderful mushrooms…..

Brian was determined to not let a single bite go to waste….. ….and ended up making “a happy bowl” (at least that is what we called it when the kids were little)…..

Afterwards, we walked thru the store which specializes in Asian food….mostly Korean. It reminded us so much of our shopping trips to Carrefour in Kunming, except that there was a LOT more English!!!

There was the typical aisle of rice…..

…..HUGE bags of red pepper…….

….and who knew that they made SPAM “Lite”!!!!

We bought several items that we don’t normally find at home, including a bag of “Sweet Rice” which is used to make one of the desserts that we loved in Thailand.

I did some “googling” and came up with a recipe for “Sticky Rice With Mango” and we had a fun time preparing the rice and the coconut milk based sauce. It was great with Mango…..

….and even better the next day served with sliced bananas!!!

A fun weekend revolving around food!!!!

Oh, there was a bit of sewing going on as well, but I cant share that yet!!

Fiber Frenzy – Part 2

2011-08-25T20:01:00.001-04:00

At our last Fiber Frenzy group the program was about making Deconstructed Screen Printed fabrics and was presented by Anita and Mary Ann.

They started out by showing us how to make a screen. First step is to place objects under the screen, only using things that are fairly flat…..

Next you use a squeegee to cover the screen with a thickened dye……

Lift the screen up, remove the objects and allow the screen to dry.

Next, place the dried screen on a piece of PFD fabric and squeegee it with print paste…..

Lift the screen and see what has happened…..

Move the screen over, apply more print paste to release more dye…..

As you keep going, more and more of the dye releases, causing the print to change……everyone is a bit different from the previous one!!!

Here are two more examples….this one was made with thin spaghetti underneath the screen……

…..and this one showed the progression as more and more of the dye began releasing from the screen……

THANKS Ladies for showing us such a fun technique……

I am FINALLY sewing…..

2011-08-22T08:34:00.001-04:00

…..but I cant show it to you!!!

IF it turns out ok, it will be a gift so it has to stay a secret for now, but here is a TINY preview……

I am having SO much fun!!!!

Art by Aling

2011-08-21T19:04:00.001-04:00

When we were in Kunming, China, we visited with a previous acquaintance by the name of Aling. She is originally from the southwest part of Yunnan Provence, close to the Burma border.

HERE is the post from my first meeting with her…..

She is a master of many crafts, starting with making bags, then turning to jewelry, and ending up with photography and painting. Some years ago she started using the scraps left from her bags to make mosaic fabric art and this is what captured my imagination!!!

She uses a paste made from rice flour and water to stick the snippets of fabric to a stretched canvas, making a very durable art form.

This is the third time that we have visited with her and each time have brought her some fabrics from the US.

On this trip we learned that she had opened a store to feature her wonderful work. It was there that we saw this piece……

Well, Michael and I both fell in love with it and decided that we had to have it.

Aling and her husband were visiting the US in July to put on a show, so they shipped the piece along with the show art and then sent it on to us when the show was over.

It arrived on Thursday and we are SO enjoying having it hanging above the piano. It is in the perfect spot so that I can view it while relaxing in the living room.

AND….it even has a bit of one of the Kaffe Fasset fabrics that I took to her…..

It is a fun and colorful reminder of some of the good times from our trip!!!

Fiber Frenzy Report

2011-08-19T19:55:00.001-04:00

Last Friday was the meeting day for our Fiber Frenzy Group. We had a wonderful 2-1/2 hours together. As a matter of fact, we all looked at our watches and realized that we had over-shot our ending time by 30 minutes!!!!

The first thing that we did was present our “Leaf” challenge projects. I did not prepare a challenge piece this month, but had a wonderful time seeing what everybody else came up with.

Mary Ann was first to share and brought out this delightful piece….. Anita showed this piece that was made by stamping the fabric with a leaf that had leftover paint from a deconstructed screen printing project…..

Nancy prepared this thread painted fern leaf….cant you just see it unfurling…..

Jodie wasn’t there but sent in her fused leaf collage……

Shirley (who never makes anything small) brought in this delightful applique. She is debating about adding more to it and turning it into a queen size quilt. I love the fabrics and colors….makes me think of Autumn and cooler weather!!!!

Finally, Madeline blew us away with her leaf…..

She said that the piece used a smorgasbord of techniques ranging from paints, paintsticks, thread and anything else that she could think of!!!!

It is such fun to see what everyone comes up with!!!!!

Charity Donation Quilt

2011-08-17T18:49:00.001-04:00

Today I have been working on a donation quilt that our guild is giving to a local organization. They will raffle it off to raise money for their work.

We ask our guild members to make parts of the blocks and try to stay with pieces that can be made too big and then cut down to size. We have found that 4 patches and half-square triangle squares work the best for this process.

For this quilt, we didn’t set a color way and instead just went for “all-out scraps”.

I was worried that there were too many colors in the pieces, but as you can see the pattern carries the diverse colors……

and it actually looks better in person….the camera doesn’t give it much depth of field. In person you really see the squares formed by the triangles…..

So we just have to add borders, get it quilted and send it off to Interfaith Hospitality!!!!

Congratulations Mrs. Arnold….it’s a boring quilt!!!

2011-08-15T20:26:00.001-04:00

Ah….it didn’t start out to be boring…..

The idea was really good. While in China I took the following photo of a group of bamboo trees…..

….and my creative juices started working overtime.

So, when I had some time to play in my studio, I pulled out the green and yellow fabrics and off I went.

The first step was to make paper patterns that were approximately 3 by 6 inches and the paper piece them in alternating green and yellow stripes…..

When I had twelve of them finished I started playing with how to put them together.

As I fiddled in EQ7, I came up with an arrangement that looked something like this…..

My husband particularly liked the way the blocks floated on the background so I proceeded to lay out the blocks and start piecing.

I found that it was easiest to piece in long strips and had fun trying to figure out the best way to make it work.

At one point, I realized that I had pieced one strip incorrectly, so simply moved it to another spot so that it would fit.

Here is the final quilt top…..

Now the problem…..it looks BORING!!!!! I am going to have to add something to it to spice it up a bit, but the question is what to add????

I have thought about painting bamboo leaves, using Shiva Paintsticks, appliquéing leaves, layering net or mesh leaves.

PLEASE help me make this quilt un-boring…..what are your suggestions??

More Produce Boxes

2011-08-11T19:58:00.001-04:00

We have been enjoying our produce boxes for the last couple of weeks. This one was a doozie……

It included eggplant, lettuce, micro greens, potatoes, tomatoes, figs, sweet peppers and Edamame.

I spent the first night looking up recipes for some of these items. We started out with potatoes, onions and red pepper cooked in foil packets. The “meat” for the night were fried eggplant slices that had been dipped in egg and bread crumbs, and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Dessert was made by dipping sliced figs in sugar and then sautéing them until they had caramelized. It was excellent served with ice cream!!!!

Planning for the second night meant that I had to find out exactly what Edamame was!!! A quick Google search taught me that it was Soy Beans!!!

I started trying to shell them and found that it was incredibly hard. So, back to Google, and found out that you should cover them with boiling water for 3 minutes, dunk them in cold water, and the beans pop right out!!!! Hurray for Google!!!!

We used these the next day to make fried rice using onions, carrots, soy beans and rice. We seasoned it with soy sauce and red pepper. We fried more eggplants and enjoyed some of the yellow tomatoes as well.

OK….so much for our dinner menus!!!

Hopefully I will someday again write a post about quilting!!! I am doing a bit, but dont have anything to write about just yet!!!

Thanks for hanging in there with me……

Another new purchase

2011-08-05T20:52:00.001-04:00

While we were traveling, I realized the need for a smaller camera……not that I am going to give up my Digital SLR but sometimes you want to be surreptitious and you just cant do it with a camera that size. During our recent trip, I used my cell phone as my “sneaky” camera and also for videos, but the quality just wasn’t quite up to par.

So, once home I started researching various small cameras. After talking to a lot of people and reading a lot of internet reviews I opted for the Sony Cybershot……

It is a 16 mega-pixel camera with a 10x zoom. There were several features that I really liked about it, including a great panorama feature.

The next day we left for a few days at the beach with our friends Roy and Diane so it was the perfect time to put it thru it’s paces.

Here are a few of the things that I learned…..

It works well for the “hold the camera out and take a photo of yourself” shots….

The zoom really ZOOMS……

The “Macro” feature lets you get up close and personal……

Long distance scenery shots are great……

By the way, this shot was taken at Cumberland Island….only 300 people on the entire island and many of them were out bird watching so that meant a VERY empty beach!!!!!

The panorama feature is amazing……

And it will even let you do a little bit of playing with it……

It takes great stained glass shots and believe me, those are sometimes hard to get…..

It handled the low light really well……

I also used it to film a video of some of the shore birds and loved the quality of the video but also the quality of the audio.

But the best part of the camera…….

This great photo on our last night!!!!

Who let the dogs down….who….who….who????

2011-07-31T20:18:00.001-04:00

I have always been told that you MUST drop the feed dogs when you are doing Free Motion Quilting.

BUT, the other day I quilted an ENTIRE piece before I realized that I had forgotten to drop the dogs. AND, I had already noticed that my tension and stitches looked better than normal.

Then, while reading my blog-roll I came across a post by Leah Day about just this subject…..read it here.

She mirrors my thinking …..maybe you dont HAVE to drop them to achieve good FMQ……

What do you think?????

A great purchase

2011-07-29T16:04:00.001-04:00

A good while ago, I was reading a blog post by Mary Ann M. (check out her blog here) and she was displaying some wonderful felted and embroidered pieces. One of these caught my eye and I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase it from her.

I used my easy framing technique and it now hangs proudly in my studio.

Mary Ann also teaches classes for this process and I hope to be able to take one in the future!!!!

I am VERY proud to own an original MAM!!!

What’s In Your Box

2011-07-25T20:15:00.001-04:00

When Michael and I returned from China, we wanted to try to improve our diet by eating more fresh vegetables and fruits. The problem that we had was two fold….firstly, it is not very easy to get good fresh vegetables here and secondly, we didn’t grow up eating lots of fresh vegetables and simply didn’t know how to cook them.

Enter Michael’s colleague Daniel!!! He is part of a local produce co-op where you get a box of miscellaneous fresh “stuff” each Tuesday. And, as fate would have it, he was going to be gone on the day that it was to be picked up, so he offered it to us.

We were SO excited to see all of the goodies for the week…..

Doesn’t this look wonderful. We had a Cantaloupe, blueberries, potatoes, garlic, lettuce, Baby Bok Choy, sweet pepper, mixed green beans, heirloom tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes!!!!

Now what should we cook!!!

For our first meal we decided to use the potatoes and green beans in a stir fry, starting first with a bit of chopped red pepper in the vegetable oil. We decided to julienne the potatoes and then add the beans…..

It had a light, slightly spicy flavor and was the perfect accompanying to a grilled chicken breast.

I also made a Blueberry Crumble (with double the amount of crumble)…..

Now for the second day we wanted to use a couple of pork chops that we had, along with the Baby Bok Choy. We started out by stir-frying the pork chop slivers. Next we added the chopped Bok Choy….starting with the thicker portions and then added the shredded leaves.

The final touch was to add a splash of Teriyaki sauce. It was excellent….

The salad was made using the fresh lettuce and the heirloom tomatoes. Don’t these two look great….

A splash of olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar finished the side dish…..

We enjoyed these vegetables so much that we have now bought into the co-op and will start receiving our new box each Tuesday……CANT WAIT!!!!!

Look what I found….

2011-07-24T20:30:00.001-04:00

A couple of months ago I was shopping at Sams Club and, from a distance, spied this book cover…..

And look at some of the fun designs inside…..

I DEFINITELY feel an applique or quilting project coming on…..

NOW…..fast forward to yesterday…….

The first project that I wanted to work on was to quilt this top…..

Click here if you want to read the post about the making of this quilt….

As I sat and looked at this quilt and tried desperately to figure out how to quilt it, my eyes wandered to the book shelf and the Mandala coloring book, and fireworks went off!!!

I am quilting every other block using the Mandala’s from the book! I LOVE it when I actually use something that was a spur-of-the-moment purchase.

Back Yard Inspiration…..

2011-07-22T20:16:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago we had dinner at some friend’s house and they had a wonderful Clematis bush in their back yard. The flowers had already bloomed and in it’s place were these exciting structures…..

My Hubby, the Botanist, tells me that these are actually the fruit of the flower.

Where did you find the value guide?

2011-07-20T19:39:00.001-04:00

My friend Francyne asked about the “shade guide” that I showed in the previous post and I realized that I had intended to give you the link…..

I would encourage you to check out the website www.toadhollowstudio.com which is run by Carol Rosinski who describes herself as a teaching artist. Her website is full of drawing tips and techniques and I have intentions to spend quite a bit of time on this site when I get a few minutes .

The value/shade guide is found at ….

http://www.toadhollowstudio.com/value_scale.html

Go by and check out all of her information….

Lines should be straight

2011-07-19T09:08:00.001-04:00

This is a post that I wrote before we left for our China trip, but I didn’t want to interrupt the travel journal to post it……so here goes……

In June our quilt guild presented their “Zoo Challenges”, so, I can now show you what I made before I left.

The Challenge was in two parts…..first was to focus on the word “Zoo”. Secondly, we were to incorporate something that our last show judge said about one of your quilts.

Now, this judge had one BIG bugaboo that went something like this…."long lines should be straight and corners square". I REALLY got tired of hearing her say this during our judging days.

So here is my interpretation of the challenge….entitled “Lines should be Straight”….

As with many of my quilts, it started with a web search for photos of a zebra. When I found this one, I knew that it would fit my plans perfectly….

I printed it out on paper, and then traced it onto an overhead transparency. In all honesty, since the photo was so simple, I probably could have just enlarged the photo and cut out this step…..

I used by photocopier to enlarge the drawing to the size that I wanted.

Now it was time to pick the fabrics….black and white, right!!! Not so easy!!! As I was tracing the outline, I began to realize that there were several different shades of black, grey and white in the piece.

I had found a “shade analyzer” on this great blog and used it to determine how many different shades of black and grey I would need. (In the final analysis, I cut out a couple of these shades)

Here is the photo with the shading strip at the bottom…..

Here are my selected fabrics, with the shade guide on top.

The zebra face was worked on white fabric, with the black pieces being drawn onto Steam-A-Seam, fused to the black fabric and and then cut out and fused to the white. Much of this part was fused in one large piece.

For the body, I chose to use another black fabric as the base and to fuse the lighter grey shapes on top.

I decided to carefully topstitch the shapes in place using a matching thread.

Final step was to pick a border. While staring a the boxes and boxes of fabrics, this one caught my attention…..

….and of course it is PERFECT for the theme of the piece.

I love my Zebra and my husband has already claimed it for his office so that makes it just perfect!!!!

Upgrades are GOOD things….

2011-07-17T18:26:00.001-04:00

On Monday morning, we headed to the airport to catch our flight from Beijing to Seattle. While we waited at the gate, we got to wondering about our seats for the Seattle to Atlanta flight, so Michael fired up his computer to have a look.

We were surprised when we got onto our itinerary because it showed us sitting in seats 4E & 4F on the overseas flight, but we were holding boarding passes for 20A and 20B!!! The mystery was solved when we checked in and started to board the plane. A woman came running after us and told us that we were being given a complimentary upgrade to Business Elite…..if we wanted it!!!! And, boy did we want it…..

When we were first flying, I looked out the window and couldn’t figure out what this was and finally decided that the small patches were small villages. They were so evenly spaced….

The flight was wonderful and we greatly enjoyed…

….real Diet Coke served in a glass……

….complimentary wine…..

….dishes of honeyed nuts….

Appetizers of grilled shrimp served with mustard sauce and couscous……

…..loved these cute salt and pepper shakers…..
For dinner, I chose steak with oven fries and asparagus….

while Michael had chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and spinach…..

but when the dessert cart arrived, we knew that we were onto a good thing….

We did find a few things that we might want to complain about….

First of all, the seat in front was SO far away that it was hard to reach your complimentary water bottles or your food and drink menu!!!!

Secondly, there were just TOO many buttons to control the seat positions…..it was confusing!!!!! The ice cream was so hard in the chocolate sundae that we had to wait for a full 10 minutes before we could eat it!!!!

There was almost too much of the deliciously sweet port wine. Don’t they know that it is better to leave the table a little bit hungry!!!!The complimentary shoes were too soft….And finally, there was no silver teapot for my cuppa….the attendant actually did apologize for this!!!!

Even with all of the “problems” the flight was memorable…..

….at least for Michael….I remember very little!!!!

It was fun to see Mount Rainier in the distance as we landed…….

It was also fun to see Michael spend a few special moments with his I-Phone that had been out of service for the past 5 weeks!!!!

The good things continued when we arrived in Seattle and found out that we could hang out in the “Sky Club” which served complimentary drinks and food and had internet access!!!!

The final flight was comfortable and fast. We traveled thru some amazing thunderstorms and the cloud formations were beautiful….

We landed in Atlanta and were met by Brian and Amber. The drive home was uneventful and we were soon happily ensconced on our comfortable couch and recliner!!!

The best part of the day was waking up that night and wondering where I was and then the bliss of realizing that I am at home in my OWN bed!!!!

“Welcome to Chinese”

2011-07-17T18:14:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, our final day in China, we set out early to visit the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

There were reminders everywhere that this was a special weekend for China….

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square and it was that…..a big open area with TONS of people….. There was a huge video screen that was showing Nationalistic images….. Our first stop was to get a bottle of water and were thrilled when it was almost frozen solid…..

The only area of the square that was not crowded was this monument, but unfortunately I never found out what it was a monument to…… The color red is very important to the Chinese people, as evidenced by this photo….red flags AND red hats…..

It was even crowded to get OUT of the square…..We crossed the street and, accompanied by many other people, and watched by all of the video cameras on the light poles, we walked to the Forbidden City.

The entrance to the city is dwarfed by the huge photo of Mao Zedong, one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party.

Now, let me stop here and say that were not that impressed with the Forbidden City, but that may be partly because it was so crowded…. and partly because of what it stands for.

The city was made up of several gates and halls……

Each area had a special name, including……

- Gate of Supreme Harmony

- Hall of Preserved Harmony

- Gate of Heavenly Purity

- Hall of Union and Peace

- Hill of Accumulated Elegance

There were a few photo opportunities that we liked…..

There were lots of school groups visiting and one young boy (maybe 10 years old) said hello to me and told me “Welcome to Chinese”!! It was my favorite part of the day!!!

I laughed at this police officer stationed under the umbrella. He had LOTS of company as everybody tried to find a bit of shade….

Speaking of shade, the weather was gorgeous and the smog miraculously disappeared for the day!!

We continued to walk thru the gates and past the halls and found our favorite part of the city….the garden at the back…..

As we exited the city, there were a huge number of vendors selling slices of melon (similar to a cantaloupe) on a stick. They looked really good…..

We hailed a taxi and headed for the Lama Temple (Yonghegong) which is the largest temple in Beijing.

I laughed as we stood in line to get our tickets. The ticket window next to us was closed and the sign indicated that they were at “Rest”…..

As we walked in the gate, this huge bell was just to our right. People were paying to be able to go into the enclosure and ring the bell…..

There were also many prayer wheels around the compound and most were being spun by the passersby.The complex is about 1/2 kilometer in length and is made up of 5 main halls that are separated by courtyards.

Each courtyard has pits for burning incense and areas for prayer. People would first use a small pit to light the incense.….

They then waited patiently in line to step up and present their incense and prayers. Most people used three sticks of incense at each of the altars……The incense pieces were then put into the big pit to burn out…..

These scenes were repeated in front of each of the halls.

I loved the sign that reminded you that you couldn’t take photos inside the halls….

…although you could take photos from the door…..

Each hall contained one or more Buddha statues. The most interesting one was housed in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses and was 26 meters (about 80 feet) tall. The coolest thing about this Buddha is that it was carved from a SINGLE piece of White Sandalwood. It has actually been included in the Guinness Book of Records!!!!

This hall was filled with benches for the monks to sit and pray and chant….

I always like the colors that are seen in these temples…..

And it is good to know that monks are living in the modern world too…..

We left the temple and took another taxi back to the hotel. After cooling off and relaxing for a bit we asked the concierge to help us get to a music instrument shop. When the taxi driver stopped, he pointed vaguely in one directly and we started walking that way.

Our first stop was into a fun music store and we ended up buying Brian a Ruan (Chinese guitar) which we then had to carry around for the rest of our shopping trip.

After we left the instrument shop, we walked down a street that was nothing but art shops and calligraphy shops and book shops!!! We spent about two hours exploring the artistic side of China!!!

For dinner, we had made reservations at the hotel restaurant and had reserved a Peking Duck (well, actually 1/2 of a Peking Duck). Because it takes about 45 minutes to prepare a duck, you have to order them in advance!!!

This time we were seated by the dessert and chocolate station!!! This woman was making the banana dessert that I had enjoyed on Friday…..

The duck was brought to our table by an “aproned” and “hatted” chef and he began to cut the wonderful, crunchy skin off of the duck and bring it to our table. The second and third platters contained more of the duck meat as well, but the skin was the best….

It was served with small tortilla-like round on which you would put some duck, a couple of onion and/or cucumber slices, some garlic, sugar and/or chili sauce. Then, roll it up and pop it into your mouth….

We added a vegetable…..slivered potatoes, chilis and onions!!!!

At the very end of our dinner, we were served this duck soup. The soup was fine, but I really liked the wooden container that it was served in….

The evening ended with dessert and wine up on the 17th floor and then to our room for our last night in China!!!!

The Wall Is Truly Great….and so is the hot pot!!

2011-07-12T12:59:00.001-04:00

OK….we have been home for a week so I guess that I should get this trip journal finished up!! It is awfully hard to find time to sit down and write when there are SO many things here that need to be done…..

But, here goes……the story of one of our favorite days in China……

On Saturday morning, we met our tour guide for a trip to the Great Wall of China. We had set this up thru the hotel and had specifically requested to be taken to one of the less popular areas so that there wouldn’t be as many people.

We were met by a driver (in a REALLY nice car) and James (our guide) from Gray Line Tours. We had about a 2-1/2 hour drive to our section of the wall so we settled in for the ride.

James gave us some interesting facts about Beijing. The city has 20 million people (just 2 million less than the population of Australia), and 5 million vehicles. To curb traffic in the city, a car is only allowed to be driven one day each week (based on the license plate number). However, on weekends all controls are off so traffic is actually WORSE.

He also told us that the Great Wall is 6700 kilometers in length (about 4000 miles) and was built to protect China from Mongolia.

We were glad to have a driver since on of the turns was navigated by exiting off of the highway, into a gas station parking lot and then up another smaller road!!!

When we arrived James purchased our tickets and we started walking down a long road heading to the wall. And then we saw it in the distance…..

Now let me say here that I was NOT thinking correctly about the wall. I had visions of climbing up to the wall and then walking on the same level for miles. NOPE…..because the wall follows the contours of the hills it is constantly up and down.

There were a few areas that were undeveloped, but most of the trip was climbing stairs of various heights. The steps varied from 3 or 4 inches high to over 14 inches in height....

And some areas were more rustic than others…..And there were plenty of signs reminding you to be careful….wonder what happened to this one….

The only problem with this was that you HAD to keep looking downward so that you wouldn’t stumble when you really wanted to be looking up at the wonderful view…..

The good thing was that we had to take lots of stops for photos……

and a few for catching our breath……

These cut-outs in the wall were perfect for stopping because the breeze would barrel thru the opening, providing a great air-conditioner.

As the morning got hotter, we were desperate for something to use to clear the sweat from our foreheads. I looked into my purse and found a pair of socks that I had planned to wear on the plane yesterday but had never put them on. These became our sweat rags!!!

So we went up…..

…and down….. …..rest and repeat!!!!

Here are few of our favorite photos…..

It was fairly hazy when we first arrived, but it gave the place an ethereal feel. When we ere leaving, we realized that the sky had cleared considerably.

The woman in this next photo was a vendor who had climbed a LONG way to sell her goods, including bottles of suspect looking water. By this stage we had depleted our water and were ALMOST tempted to purchase hers.

It was interesting to see how the vendors/hawkers/con-artists worked up here. First of all, I was amazed that they would climb so far, but I guess that their “clients” were in a compromised position too.

Most of them would start talking to you in English and give you information about the wall or “help” you in some way. After a while they would either ask for money for their help or start showing you their “artwork”.

We had one section of steps where you had to scramble up a small area of rocks rather than stairs. This one woman grabbed my arm to help me up the rocks. The only problem was that she moved MUCH faster than I would have and I felt like she was dragging me up. She stayed by us for a while, much like a loyal dog, but when she took out a fan and started fanning me while I was trying to look at the scenery, I finally told her to GO AWAY@!@!@!

We kept on walking, saying at each turn “we will go to that next fort and then stop”….

We finally gave up and headed back home, but had to have a photo first. If we both look a bit strange, it is because we were standing on a STEEP slope and were having to balance ourselves….

On the way down, we decided that we HAD to make some phone calls from the Wall…..the first to Jenny (who I knew would still be awake) and one to Michael’s Mama (who wasn’t home to take our call)!!

I loved this photo because it looks like there is a picture of the wall hanging on the wall!! The lighter colored bricks at the bottom of the wall are from the original wall, while the upper ones have been restored.

Parts of the wall were fairly deserted, but as we got closer to the place where a Cable Car dropped people off, we started seeing more and more. I called them “The Cheaters” as they hadn’t walked the same distance that we had!!!

We came across this fun group of students who were from Hong Kong. In this photo they are all yelling “Hello” to the Americans…..

And then we looked back and saw them posing for this acrobatic photo…..…..proving that teens are the same ALL over the world!!!!

This is our favorite photo of the wall…..

I loved that you could look all along it’s length and see the towers as they dotted the tops of the hills. It was truly a spectacular sight!!!!

As we came off of the wall, we were both dying for some water so James called our driver and he met us at the car with ICE COLD bottles of water for the return trip!!!!

Thank you James for taking such good care of us!!!!

After a wonderful shower and rest time, we headed off to a “Hot-Pot” Restaurant that the hotel concierge had suggested for us. We had a bit of trouble finding it, even with the concierge directions, but finally found it on the SEVENTH floor of a shopping mall. We just kept going up the escalators and looking for something that looked right.

We asked on the 6th floor and were pointed upward one more time. When we stepped off of the escalator we figured that we were at the right place since all of the windows were covered in steam!!!

Our reservation was for 6:30 and even with the trouble of finding the place, we were about 5 minutes early. This caused all sorts of problems because apparently our table wasn’t ready yet so they sat us at a small table, gave us some lemonade to drink and brought out a tray for nibbles.

We had only been there for 3 or 4 minutes when they came and motioned for us to follow them to our table.

The table has a propane tank under it and a square hole in the middle.

We leafed thru the 10+ page menu (which fortunately had some English sub-titles) and finally ordered our food, starting with the “Affectionate Couple Hotpot”!!!

A divided metal container with one clear broth and one milky broth was brought to our table. Then the server cut open a plastic bag of wonderful spicy red sauce and poured it into the clear broth.

The propane burner was turned on and we instantly had bubbling, boiling liquid at our table.

Our server knew a few words of English and was able to get the point across that we were to go to a bar to make up our own dipping sauce. I added onions, garlic, sesame paste (tasted more like peanut) and my favorite addition….”Fragrant Spicy Cow Sauce!!!! Not sure exactly what it was, but it WAS good!!!

The meat and vegetables (pronounced weggetables) were brought to our table and we were off. The waitress placed our meat choices (beef and lamb) into each of the hotpots

We then added mushrooms……

….spinach…..

….and sweet potatoes sticks (no photo) to the pot.

The waitresses brought us appropriate attire for the evening…..red aprons!!!!

Before we started eating, one of the waitresses came running over with forks in her hand but we thanked her and waved her off.

The process of the evening was to…..dip into the hotpot and pull out whatever you found……

….dip it into your sauce and enjoy…..

We left quite a mess at the end of the meal…….When it came time to pay, we happily shelled out the $32 and tried to give our waitress a tip. She frowned, slapped her hands together and said “NO!!!”.

We regretfully took off our aprons and started out the door, only to be chased down by the waitress because I had left my notebook sitting on the table!!!

We returned to the hotel and started looking for someplace to have dessert. We remembered that we were welcome in the lounge area on the 17th floor of the hotel and that there was a Happy Hour going on until 8:00. We arrived there about 10 minutes prior to the ending time so the attendant told us to load up our plates before they started taking the food away.

It was mostly “finger” food so we each picked our favorites and enjoyed sitting and relaxing…..

….the chocolate wasn’t bad either!!!!!

In Kunming…..again!!!

2011-07-07T19:53:00.001-04:00

Early Friday morning Michael and I caught a taxi (in pouring rain) from the hotel at XTBG and headed to the airport in Jinghong.

This airport is very small and only a few planes are ever there at the same time.

When we checked in, our bags were checked to “PEK”, the Beijing airport, but the board for our flight said Kunming. This confused us but we finally decided that we probably had a layover in Kunming.

We had an hour wait in the airport and settled in to wait.

We had a laugh at the status board as once a plane took off the status was listed as “Fly”!!!

We had watched MANY people taking photos of themselves as they walked to the plane so decided not to be outdone……

We settled into our seats and were dismayed at how tight the space was. There was barely enough room for our legs and there was no way that the person in front could lean back.

We took off and, sure enough, we landed in Kunming…..again!!!!

As we were exiting the plane, we asked the attendant how we caught our next flight to Beijing and she told us to check with the flight counter in the terminal. So, we dutifully exited the plane and climbed onto the bus that would take us to the terminal.

We stood there for several minutes, waiting for the doors to close and for us to take off. Then a man came to each of the doors and yelled something into the bus. On his second pass by the doors, Michael heard the word “ Beijing” so he stepped up to try to figure out what was going on.

The attendant looked at our boarding passes and proceeded to motion us to a smaller bus that was parked to the side of the plane. OK…..so WE were the reason that the bus hadn’t left yet. We could just hear what the other riders were saying about us!!!!!

We rode, along with 4 other passengers, to the terminal, and as we entered the gate area we were given new boarding passes. Our next flight left in 30 minutes!!!

Michael headed off to buy coffee and asked if I wanted anything. My answer was….CHOCOLATE (I had gone for FIVE days without it)!!!!!

He walked immediately to the closest kiosk and came back with FOUR Snickers…..perfect!!!!

We boarded yet another bus and drove back to the EXACT SAME plane, which we boarded and sat in our EXACT SAME (uncomfortable) seats!!!! Couldn’t we have just STAYED on the plane???

Fortunately, the flight to Beijing went quickly and we soon landed. I love this mural that appears above the escalator in the airport…..

Our taxi delivered us at the Grand Hyatt Beijing, our home sweet home. We checked in and were shown to our gorgeous room……

Sometimes a bit of luxury is a wonderful thing!!!!!

I love the special touches that a nice hotel have, such as these beautiful flowers in our room…..

We went downstairs to have dinner at one of the hotel restaurants and were told that, since we didn’t have a reservation, we would have to sit in the “loud kitchen area” and that we would have to be finished in 1-1/2 hours!!

We loved sitting by the kitchen and spent a fair amount of time watching the chefs as they made dumplings and noodles…..

…..or stir-frying wonderful dishes in large woks…..

Our favorite menu item was a spicy Lamb with onions……

We also enjoyed these freshly made spring rolls……

The most fun food of the night was my dessert….banana slices drizzled with chocolate, and wrapped in a mixture of coconut and crunchy noodles. It had an excellent flavor and was wonderfully presented!!!!

Tomorrow…..the Great Wall!!!!

Rain Forest Finale

2011-07-06T20:58:00.001-04:00

Thursday was our last day in Xishuangbanna so Diana and I decided to make yet another foray into the town. This time we walked thru some different streets and enjoyed seeing some of the local stores……

I loved the design of the pipe here…..

Here is the local home improvement store……

The tank in the center is a Solar Hot Water Heater. Many of the homes and apartments are outfitted with one of these on the roof. It is fine as long as it is sunny, but we have heard that on cloudy days you can run out of hot water. And, since this is the tropics, there are LOTS of rainy days!!!!!

We passed this furniture store……

As you can tell, their furniture is very simple and functional, but we have learned that many of the items are not comfortable!!!

We passed the local scooter dealership with many of the cycles parked out on the sidewalk…….

I loved the shelves of bowls in this store……

….and the fact that bowls were used to keep the balls from rolling off of the shelves in this store……..

Then there were the “Sponge Bob” dolls next to the shoelaces and Buddhist stuff!!

This clothing shop had a great selection of styles…….

But my favorite shop had a cabinet full of trims and stuff……

I spent quite a bit of time here!!!!!

We could easily tell where the school was and that it had just let out……

We walked along beside two young girls and talked to them a bit in broken English. I asked if I could take their photos and one said not, but this little girl smiled shyly and gave the traditional “V for victory” pose……

During the lunch hour, there were lots of groups of men and women playing games and enjoying each other’s company….. These are two water pipes……originally designed for smoking opium!! Now they are used for cigarettes which are placed in the side appendage…..

I call this next photo…..”Restaurant in the Making”. All they have to do is fire up the grill and set out the table and they are ready to go……

As we left the town, we decided to walk down the river a bit. The first thing that we encountered was…….

We happily skirted around her and into a commercial area by the river…..

As you can see, it was virtually deserted. Apparently there used to be tons of small shops and restaurants in this area but they tore them all down and built this new area which is obviously NOT liked!!! It seems such a waste.

We decided to walk past the town and re-enter the park thru the farthest bridge. On the way we passed some of the houses of the village…..After about 20 minutes of walking we ended up at the other bridge, which also happened to be the main entrance to the park. Then came the rub…..they wouldn’t let us back into the park without buying a ticket!!!!! We tried to explain that we were staying at the hotel and that we had walked from the other bridge. She said “yes you are staying at the hotel”, we hopefully answered “yes” and she said “you must buy ticket”!!!!!

OK…..so we retraced our steps and returned to the garden via the footbridge.

While crossing, this fishing raft floated under the bridge……

And….one last photo of a plant in the garden…..here is a wonderful banana tree…..

In the evening we were supposed to go to a Dai village for dinner, but unfortunately the restaurant had flooded the night before. So, one of the students made a reservation for us at another local eatery.

We walked to our destination….enjoying the dusky scenery…..

Unfortunately, the person leading the party missed a road so we ended up taking a short cut down the slope to the river……..

A short walk past the dump truck……

A quick peak into the kitchen……

…..and enter into the dining room (hut)…….

There were three tables set up for us, each loaded with wonderful food and drink. We first unwrapped the banana leaves and marveled at the wonderful flavor of the paste inside. We asked what it was so John asked the cooks for us. He then turned to us and said “Are you sure that you want to know?”. NOT a good sign. We assured him that we did and he answered…..”Pig Brains”!!!!! Oh well, they were tasty!!!! We were joined at our table by Taylor Lockwood who is a renowned expert and photographer of mushrooms!!!!

A good time was had by all!!!!

Photographer’s paradise and “Western” food

2011-07-05T07:09:00.001-04:00

When Diana and I met on Wednesday morning, she told me that we had been invited to meet Bonnie and have lunch with her, which sounded like a fun plan. We were meeting at the “Exotic” Plant garden, or the “Distinctive” Plant garden….depending on which sign you looked at.

On the way we, of course stopped to take some photos…..

These Spider Lilies were gorgeous and there were huge bushes of them all along the road……

Here is an “up close and personal” view of the flower structure and pollen anthers…..

When we saw these, Diana leaned over to smell them and came up with yellow blobs of pollen all over her face

This water lily was near the edge of the water and I thought that it was wonderful…..

…..and this flower tickled my fancy as well……

The “Exotic Plant” garden contains some very rare and interesting plants, but this one was, by far, the most popular. It is called “Dancing Grass” (Codariocalyx motorius) which is sensitive to certain voices and will “dance” when sung to. Here the tour guide is singing to the plant and making it dance, however it is a bit hard to tell if the movements was because of the people moving or not……

SO, I ended up in this garden by myself later in the day and decided to perform an experiment. I used my I-Phone to play Kool and the Gang’s “Celebrate” and watched the plant carefully. Sure enough, after a minute of music, the plants started to sway slightly and small leaves started to visibly move. Even all of the botanists present couldn’t explain it!!!!

I would love to set up speakers around the planting and see what happened when the music was broadcast from all sides!!!!

These exotic plants are prolific in the garden and are present in shades from red to yellow, to this gorgeous orange…..

Here are few of my favorite photos from the exotic garden…..

Most of the “natural” wonders that we have seen had at least one area where “un-natural” bling had been added. I feel sure that there is a tradition or superstition associated with this practice……

One other gorgeous (and unknown) plant was a vine that produced huge (12 inch in diameter) flowers…….

This cool “bulbous” appendage was found on the back of the flowers……

We met up with Bonnie, her three kids and 3 MORE children who lived in the compound. We stopped so that they could all swing in this enormous vine….

At one point, a sweet Chinese couple walked passed, looked in the tree and said “Oooooo” and started taking photos of the kids. Once again, WE were the exotic wildlife!!!

We took the tram to Bonnie’s house and enjoyed a lunch of salad and fresh baked bread. The bread is quite a delicacy as there are no ovens in any of the houses. Bonnie accomplished hers by making use of a bread maker and some “imported” wheat flour and yeast . Chocolate Chip cookies were baked in a small toaster oven!!!! Delish!!!!!

The food was excellent, but was trumped by the conversation. I hadn’t realized how much I was missing conversation taking place in English only!!!!

The conference attendees were eating dinner at the research center and then the talks were continuing, so I decided NOT to join them for the event. Instead I headed outside with my camera and my map and was determined to see some new areas of the gardens.

As I walked out of the hotel, I realized that there was a trail leading into a dense jungle-ish area just across the road, so that became my first area of exploration.

The first thing that I noticed was the deafening “buzz-saw” noise of the Cicadas as they cycled thru their calls. Noticed next was the intense heat under the canopy!! Since my camera had just come from an air-conditioned building, I had to keep cleaning the lens for the first few minutes.

The colors and flowers were gorgeous and I spent about an hour wandering slowly and taking copious photos. Here are a “few” of my favorites…..

Even these TINY mushrooms were interesting……

I came out of the area toward the back of the hotel and found two VIP rooms called the “Miracle Fruit” room and the “Sorrowless Flow” room!!!!

I continued down the road, stopping occasionally (well, ok….really I stopped ever 30 seconds) to take another interesting photo…..

Then I came upon a palm three that was putting out new branches. They look so much like fern leaves, except that they are thicker and stronger.

This is the view from the top that shows where the leaves are coming from. The slender green stems radiating out from the sides are the older leaves……But, what I really liked was seeing how the leaves looked at the different stages of their development into huge palm leaves.

Needless to say, I spent a long time photographing this one plant!!!!

I continued on and ended up on this pond that had walkways across it that were made of glass.

It was fun taking photos from the “middle” of the pond….

By this stage it was time to return to the hotel for dinner but I looked at the map and realized that I was closer to the village than the restaurant and I was sure that I could hear the Rice/juice restaurant calling my name. SO, it was back across the bridge and a visit here…..

….the place of fine dining!!!!

This restaurant has ONE menu that is in English and it is comprised of 5 or 6 loose, laminated pages and it takes a while to read thru everything. The problem is that, as soon as the menu is received, the waitress stands next to you, at the ready to take your order. This causes a bit of stress and normally means that I order the same thing. However, this time I did go for Spicy Chicken rather than pork!!!!

We have also discovered that just because it is listed on the menu doesn’t necessarily mean that it is available. Many of the dishes use fresh fruits and vegetables so the available menu depends on what they have found at the market that day.

She left the menu on the table after taking my order so I was able to peruse at my leisure. I found a Fried Rice section that contained “Chicken Paw” and “Pig Skin” and another category called “Rice covered with other things”. Under the “Deeply Fried” section there was bananas, pineapple, apple, pear and sweet potato”, while “Water-Ice Drinks” contained the flavors of Red Bean, Green Bean, Jam and “Kinds of Fruits”.

I ordered fresh pineapple juice which was so refreshing although it was served over ice and who knows what water was used to make it!! Oh well, I just repeat our mantra…..”We have antibiotics!!!!!”.

The rice is served with a small spoon, and on other occasions we have asked for chopsticks. However, tonight I realized that everyone around was eating with the spoon so I joined in!!!

For desert, I ordered bananas from the “Deeply Fried” menu. They were served with the obligatory (and tasty) drizzle of Sweetened Condensed Milk. …..

This is the napkin (toilet paper) holder for the table. Isn’t he cute……

On the return walk I passed several construction sites where they are in the process of tearing down some old apartment blocks. There are a few machines used, but most of the labor is done with a pick axe and lots of hard work.

Once the rebar had been picked up it was being loaded into this truck by four workers…..two on the ground throwing the rebar up to the two in the truck!!! The others are just standing around for the sheer enjoyment of it!!!!

I returned to the hotel, checked my email, had a refreshing shower and waited for my hard working husband to return. What a wonderful day!!!!!

Just another day in paradise

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On Tuesday morning, Michael dutifully headed off to his workshop and Diana and I walked back into the village (easier since we knew where it was this time). The walk is about 1/2 mile and you cross a beautiful suspension footbridge just before coming into town…..

The town of MengLun seems small and primitive but we were told that the population is around 40,000, which means that we are only seeing part of the town. Most of the people here are from the Dai ethnic group.

I had to laugh that the first shops that you see after the bridge are wedding shops featuring elegant dresses and suits……

Of course I was enamored with the Dai clothing and fabric shops. The fabrics were mostly gorgeous silks with gold brocade designs worked into them.

They would not sell a length of fabric but would only make it into a garment. I could have spent all day sitting here and watching this woman draw the design on the fabric. She was working from a written pattern that told the dimensions of the pieces that she needed to cut. All of the machines are treadle…..

….and the garments were gorgeous and were made from vibrant colors with touches of sparkle…..

Even the children’s clothes were wonderful….

…..and look at this elegant dress……

We walked a bit further down one of the main streets and came to our next shopping place…..the agricultural market……

The two little girls in the right lower corner followed us around and giggled for about 10 minutes!!!!!

This was the local yarn vendor. When I first saw these skeins, I thought that it was wool roving, but on closer inspection it was a very fine cording. I am guessing that it was made of silk….

Note that this fiber vendor also sold…..shoes!!!

We watched as a small truck parked in the back of the market and started bringing out HUGE baskets and bundles of vegetables……

Dont these look gorgeous…..

As soon as a basket was unloaded, people would rush over and start picking out their vegies. I figured that these may have been the restaurant owners selecting their menu for the day.

Having said that the vegetables look so good, I will add that the Chinese have no regulation over the use of fertilizers and pesticides so these are quite possibly covered with both. When we first arrived, there was a epidemic of exploding watermelons where too much growth hormone had been used and they were popping open in the stores.

One person commented that it was best to buy the buggiest and worst looking fruit that you could find because, “if it was good enough for the insects, it was good enough for you!!!”

These balanced baskets were a popular way of transporting goods. Doesn’t it make your shoulders ache to look at it!!!!

We came across this fire stove in the back of the market and the lady tending to it was putting a type of green bean into the door on the left…..

At the back of the stove was this vat with a distilled beverage siphoning out of it. It was then poured into the empty water bottles on the left and sold in the local stalls. We were served some of this later in the week and it proved to be VERY, VERY strong!!!

We came across several pans of these interesting looking delicacies, but could never figure out exactly what they were. I am thinking that they are a type of cooked egg, but the texture was very gelatinous. Oh well, they are still cool looking…..

This next photo is actually one half of a grand table that was filled with spices. Each little bin held a different spice or dried herb. The smell was intoxicating…..

When leaving the market, we spied the local supermarket and, because we were on a hunt for chocolate, we had to go and visit.

I loved walking down the snack isle. You could choose from marshmallow bears……

…..dried and spiced whole fish……

……or bags of chicken feet……dont these look yummy!!!!

They eat very little chocolate, but love these little packages of Jello-like concoctions. I didn’t eat one, but were told that they were fairly gross…..

This supermarket also sold some clothes and I really liked this section of women’s shoes. This particular style is very popular and you can see from the photo that most of them have some sort of “bling” as well….

The one thing that kills the fashion statement is that they wear ankle high nylons with these which reminds me too much of old women with their knee-highs rolled down!!!!

We found a bit of chocolate….I bought a pack of cookies that l0oked like Oreos (sadly, the resemblance did not extend to the flavor) and was also excited to find cans of Coke Zero.

Diana and I had lunch at our favorite Fried Rice and Juice restaurant but enjoyed our Cokes with the meal.

By the way, much of this morning’s trip was done under umbrellas as there were consistent “pop-up” showers. It was very refreshing to have the rain roll thru and it felt good to have it splashing on our “tropically” hot legs and feet.

After a walk back to the hotel (and a quick nap), we walked to the trolley station and caught a ride to the research building where the meetings were being held. After they finished with the talks, we took a ride around the garden and it was fun to see other areas that needed to be visited on future days.

We ended up at the “Rain Forest Lodge” which is an open-air, covered deck and were greeted with this lovely sight……

So you can get a little perspective, the table is about 2 feet tall and the stools sat a mere 12 inches above the floor. It made for an interesting experience with our very long American legs!!!!

About halfway thru the dinner, various women, dressed in gorgeous costumes, started coming out of a side room. They were to be our entertainment for the evening. I laughed at one of them madly taking photos of US as we were the curiosity there!!!!

We found out that they were a group of Dai dancers and that they were going to perform some of the dances that were native to their people. The women were gorgeous and their costumes were delightful…..

It was fun to realize that we had seen many of these dances at the “Dynamic Yunnan” performance that we had seen in Kunming. Obviously these were not as professionally performed, but it was so much fun to see their faces and expressions as they danced. In the introduction, it was said that they were not professional dancers, but that their smiles were genuine.

After the first dance, they came to our tables and tied a red string around our wrists, saying that we were now “tied” to Xishuangbanna and would have to return again.

Here is their rendition of the “Peacock Dance”. I was interesting that the costume was almost exactly the same…..

…..and this dance was performed in almost the exact same manner as in “DY”…..

Sometime in between songs, the waitresses started to clear the table, and then brought out MORE food. These were mostly meats cooked in the Dai Barbeque style.

Once again, the food was wonderful, but were all too full to eat much of this surprise second course.

In between the songs we ~~endured~~ enjoyed Michael’s and my personal hell…..karaoke!!!! First some Chinese songs and then a bit of John Denver. Since then we have talked to another person who loved the song “Country Roads” and he said that it was very popular after Denver visited China. It is obvious that he made a lasting impression on this country.

The final dance of the evening was the dance of the “Long Fingers”. It was very cool how they used the “fingers” to add motion and interest to the dance.

Of course, the only thing that I could think of here was …..”Stop….in the name of love”……..

The last song brought out all of the dancers and of course the invited speakers had to participate too. It was NOT a pretty sight and apparently there are some blackmail photos out there that haven’t yet surfaced. I am thinking that we will be willing to pay GOOD money to cover them up!!

Walking to the local village….well almost!!!

2011-07-01T18:00:00.001-04:00

On Monday morning, Michael headed out for his conference, while I had a bit of relaxing time at the hotel and spent some time catching up on blog posts!!

At 11:00 I met up with Diana and we started walking to the local village…..at least we THOUGHT that was the way we were heading!! We greatly enjoyed strolling along the roads and stopping to take copious photographs….

This is a Jack Fruit tree and the fruits are HUGE. I would hate to be underneath the tree when this one fell……

This is one of the rubber trees in the area. They cut the tree in a spiral pattern to allow the latex to run out. The “coconut” shell that you see is positioned upright in the holder and the liquid runs down the plastic spirals and into the cup.

The tree will live for about 15 years with additional cuts being made each year. It will then die and be replaced by another seedling.

I loved the canopy that the palm leaves provided…..

This is a date palm tree and these are baby dates…..

We walked out of this gate and onto a mountain road that had large construction trucks traveling on it. At this point we decided that we had indeed gone the wrong way and headed back up the road to the hotel…..

Have you ever seen bamboo growing this tall?

It makes me worry even more about the bamboo that our next door neighbor has planted next to our fence!!!!

I loved the colors and spiral shapes of these leaves…..

I loved these flowers with the mountains in the background…..

And these cool, dead flowers…..do not know what they were….

We saw a few animals as well. This chicken was standing so still that I had just about decided that it was stuffed…..

This little guy was cute…..

And Diana’s sharp eyes found this pea-fowl resting in a tree……

These fruits were huge and we could never figure out what they were. We found one on the ground that was partially rotted and you could smell a slight lemon flavor…..

I had a wonderful time getting to know Diana. She was born in Russia and immigrated to the US in 1992. It was fascinating to hear her story and to realize how easy my life has been.

We had a free time for dinner that night so a group of 10 of us walked into the village….this time with a guide who knew how to get there!!!!

We wanted to eat at one restaurant, but their only seating was outside and it was pouring down rain so we passed on that one. Then we went to another restaurant and the owner informed us that it was “Finished!!!”…..ie the cook had closed the kitchen.

So, we ended up at a small place that specializes in Fried Rice and Juice …..interesting combination!!!!

Here is the kitchen…..

Manuel went next door and purchased the drinks for the evening…..

along with a bottle of green liquor. Here is Diana posing expectantly…..

however the taste was very strong and not very good. While trying to figure out exactly what it was, Manuel read on the label that it was “Disposed” Wine (rather than Distilled) and we decided that said it all!!!

We had a spicy cucumber dish that was shared by the table. Michael ordered “Thai Acid Rice” which was VERY hot. Mine was Spicy Pork Rice and it was excellent. My favorite were the fried yams that had a sprinkling of sweetened condensed milk.

Diana ordered a fish soup that came with spoons to share…..

Several people wanted to eat with chopsticks so Bonnie “signed” chopsticks by moving her fingers in a scissor motion, and they brought out……scissors!!!! The waitress laughed when Michael found the chopsticks and pointed to what we really wanted!!!!

They finally kicked us out so that they could clean up and go home!!!!!

The walk back to the hotel was wonderful!!! It was raining AND dark and it was such fun to listen to the rain and forest sounds all around us!!!!

Another night of peaceful sleep ensued!!!

Xishuangbanna

2011-06-29T21:31:00.001-04:00

On Sunday we climbed down the 5 flights of stairs for one LAST time and caught a plane to the Xishaungbanna (pronounced Si-shwa-bah-nah) Tropical Botanical Garden. This area is at 21 degrees Latitude and is part of the tropical rainforest areas of the world. It is easily the most beautiful place that I have ever visited!!!

But more about that in days to come….first about the trip…..

The flight from Kunming only took about 45 minutes so we pretty much ascended to altitude and then started descending!!

As we looked out of the windows, we could see huge mountains and lots and lots of green!!! On the mountains you could see terraces built into the side and each terrace was filled with plants….mostly rubber trees.

The river in this photo is the Mekong, although it is not known by that name here.

We landed at a very small airport and walked across the tarmac to the terminal. The first thing that hit us was the heat and humidity. It seemed stifling at the time, but we have quickly become accustomed to it and it doesn’t seem to bother us now.

We were met at the airport by 3 graduate students who put us and our bags on a small bus and told us that we were traveling to a restaurant and would be met there by three other students!!

When we arrived at the restaurant, we met Jeff, a scientist from California. We looked at the menu which contained a lot of Western foods, but decided instead to have Thai food. Michael had a Massaman Curry but asked for extra peppers. They said that they couldn’t add more peppers, so instead they poured chili sauce over the top!!!

I ordered Chicken and Cashews which was not spicy but was SO good.

And, of course, we ordered a bottle of local beer…..

All of the beer here is very light and doesn’t contain a lot of alcohol. Consequently, it is very refreshing!!!

We were there for a couple of hours, waiting for other scientists to arrive on various planes. The next to come were David and Diana. Diana is NOT a scientist and was very glad to hear that I was not either.

After everyone arrived, we returned to the bus for the one hour drive to the Tropical Botanical Garden.

The first part of the drive was in the small city. I never found out the name of the city but I would love to have a couple of days to explore it. There were sculptures on many of the corners and the landscaping was wonderful.

I took the following photo because of the two ladies with red hats on the corner, but when I looked at it, I really like the auto-rickshaw driver who is laid back and taking his afternoon siesta…..

I loved these structures, but I am not sure if they are houses or part of a temple complex……

In this photo, you can see the terraces along the hills.

As we got closer to the mountains, you could see that there were not only rubber trees, but also corn and other crops.

Many of the valleys were filled with rice paddies….. As we had seen before, they do not waste a single inch of land!!!!

We arrived at the garden and were driven to our hotel. It is fairly old and, if you really look at it, the structure is decaying. However, the room is clean, has air conditioning, and there is internet in the lobby….I mean, really, what more can you ask for!!!!

And, this is the view from our “deck”……

There was a “mixer” for the conference attendees on Sunday night and we enjoyed meeting people from all parts of the world. We met up again with Chuck and his wife who spend 3 months a year here and the rest of the time at Texas Tech. We also made new friends with Manuel and Bonnie (from University of Virginia) who are here for three months with their THREE kids.

We fell into bed and reveled in the air conditioning, the quietness of the room and the softness of the bed!!!!