this beautiful city

We awoke this morning to a lovely street scene, and it was so still all day the snow continues to hang on the trees. It has stayed cold enough that the snow covers the slush and pot holes.
Tonight I was at a party along the north branch of the Chicago river, and got the second picture with the Sears Tower in the background.

snow day bargello

I had a snow day Friday and used it to work on my bargello.
Like Bonnie, I am a thrift store plaid shirt fan, and a popular class here is when I have a simple pattern and a plaid exchange. People come with at least 4 whole shirts, I have a table for each shade and have my plaids scattered. People mix and match and come out with a wonderful assortment. I am always amazed at the variety and wonder where those shirts were when I was at the thrift.
My strips were up on the board and l liked how it looked with one set uncut so I left it that way--added an asymmetry to the whole thing.
I am not going to put on borders--"engaging the edge" (a phrase from Weeks Ringle).

Bible Story Theater 2008

Another year of Bible Story Theater, this year celebrating its 30th year at St Pauls UCC in Chicago. This year, it was a review of the past thirty years of productions, called "the wHOLYe Bible". People came from around the country to reprise their roles.


I worked mainly with the "Bookettes". I thought "shopworn chorus girls" in planning their costumes. A wonderful theater person came up with the plan for the sandwichboard Bibles. I had a great millinery shop going with church women making the pillbox hats.


I also worked with the Unclean Spirits. Always fun!


Eve was a John the Baptist groupie, a Beehive. My friend Sharon Sikes made her dress.


The Beehives in rehearsal. We had a parishioner who wore a beehive back in the day help organize the hairdos.


My Seth the Baal worshiper strikes a pose.

fish border

I had this as a stack of blocks for a while, then as the center for another long time until I found this fabulous fish fabric for the border.

black-eyed peas

Happy New Year!
We are eating Black-eyed Peas for luck on New Years Day.
2 lbs. black eyed peas, soaked in cold water overnight, drained and rinsed well and put into my large crock-pot with 4 of the smallest ham hocks I’ve ever seen from the market. I put in some concoction of herbs and spices Seth came up with in his laboratory. Cover with fresh cold water and cooked on high for about 4 1/2 hours. Remove ham hocks, let cool until you can handle them, remove and discard the rind and bones, return meat to pot along with 2 medium sautéed onions. Stir in a 6 oz can of tomato paste. It needed salt—tasted great—I think the good luck associated with Black-eyed Peas is that you know you’ve eaten, must have felt good in the cold days in the past. I'm lucky my family likes peasant food.

Seth found a stone in his peas--no, mom, I didn't sort them carefully. I told Seth it meant he had extra good luck this year.

My other New Year’s tradition is to clean one or two drawers/cupboards in my kitchen each day in January, putting many extraneous things into the good-will box and broken items in the trash. Where do these extra spoons/utensils come from? I may run them by the neighbors. Also, how come in a household where no one drinks coffee do we gain 6-10 mugs a year?

merry christmas

delectable mountains

My parents are here for Christmas. My mother and I love to do handwork together, so I have 9 (!) quilts at the handwork stage for binding. Some are Christmas presents, so they may be given with pins in them. My kids, seeing a quilt on the davenport, always ask if there are pins before they sit down. Experience does teach them something.
I worked on the binding of this delectable mountains variation of the buzz saw this week. Another plaid shirt quilt, great use of lights and darks.

stair sled run

There is snow in Chicago and time again for one of my favorite urban traditions--turning your front steps into a sled run. Seth and neighbor Cole set up ours; it takes them out into the street if the car isn't parked there, and if they don't hit the tree.

machine quilting

I am a very basic machine quilter--I cannot free motion. My handwriting is awful, so I blame a neurological connection for this problem. About 2 decades ago I came up with an idea for a stitch regulator--should have patented it!
I can use the walking foot well, and have adapted its use to do some quilting styles that work for me.
This one is quilted in channels, method similar to the one a few posts ago of an advent quilt.
I use the wavy line pattern on my Bernina 1530, lengthen it to a 5, narrow it to about a 3, and quilt in channels, sometimes the width of the walking foot, sometimes another marker. Works well on primitive looking quilts.
This is one of my dragon teeth quilts, the backgrounds are all shirts.

last minute potluck ideas

This time of year has potlucks several times a week. I enjoy cooking and baking, but the timing isn’t always right.
Here is a short list of how to survive the potluck season with class when you don’t have time to cook.

Presentation is everything—now is the time to haul out all those pretty glass serving pieces that sit in your cupboard. If you don’t have any, or worry you may have to leave the dish behind, head to a thrift store and buy something for very little money.

Blackberry Salad
Toss one large container of pre washed salad greens with some bottled poppy seed dressing. I use T Marzetti’s. Put into a beautiful glass bowl. Scatter 1-2 boxes of blackberries on top. They will look like jewels on top of the white/green salad.

Mustard and pretzels
Buy a pretty jar of German mustard. There are some really cute little ones in a variety of flavors. Buy a package of matchstick pretzels. Arrange on a tray with the jar of mustard.

Herring
Buy a jar of either the cream or wine herring or both if I am going to be there. Put in a beautiful glass bowl, top with some chopped parsley. The people who love herring will love you. The people who don’t won’t touch it, leaving more for those who do love it, who will love you even more.

Iced Tea
There are never enough good non-alcoholic beverage choices. Make a pot of good tea, whatever variety or flavor you like, and bring it as a pitcher of really good iced tea.

Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil Salad
If you can find decent tomatoes, buy a few along with some fresh mozzarella and large fresh basil leaves. Slice the mozzarella and tomatoes into ¼ inch slices, alternate them along with a basil leaf, drizzle with olive oil and a bit of rice wine vinegar and top with fresh ground black pepper. This is really pretty and Christmas colors! Hold the vinegar if you have to make this ahead as it will darken the basil. It is still good with just the olive oil.

Bread and butter and jam
Buy a good loaf of bread, some artisanal butter and a good jam. Something so simple and good. Here in Chicago, I like D’Amato’s on Grand or Palermo on Harlem, Amish Roll Butter, and blackberry jam.

my irritating family

Something that is important to me is to take a family snapshot each year to include in our Christmas cards.
I have them together in a book where I can watch us all age like Dorian Gray. I don't like it when friends send pictures of just their children, I want to see my friends themselves.
In our annual photo shoot, I always tell them they have to look good on all of them, because I am picking the one where I look best. They laugh, start pinching, and so forth. You can put the photos together into a flip book and see me getting more and more irritated, with them looking better and better.
It used to be funny.

another advent quilt--in time for advent!

This advent quilt is for Eve's confirmation sponsor. Eve chose the buttons--some from my grandmother's button box.
Eve was confirmed in May, so this gift is a bit late, but it is finished before advent, so in my twisted sense of time, it's just in time.
I quilted this one in channels, with a variegated rayon thread.
(Seth didn't want me to get his face--he didn't say anything about his foot)

stamps

The Christmas stamps this year were designed to warm a fiber lover's heart. The knitting details just make me smile--the stamps are on an aged white background. And the draping of the Madonna and Child's clothing on the Luini painting is lovely.

I give books of Christmas stamps to my children's teachers--something consumable and something they may not have time to get to the post office to purchase.

classes and ethics

I have been pondering Bonnie's and Judy's frustrations and heartaches with use of their designs without attribution.

I have been teaching for about 10 years now, and have tried to do so ethically. Most of my students are new to quilting and are there not so much to learn a pattern as to have their hands held as they try new things. My weekly classes are with 3-8 students who work on individual projects with my assistance. Many of them are using commercial patterns, or something they have gotten from a magazine, book or the internet. I don’t believe this interferes with copyright as my class in not to teach that pattern, but to assist the student’s interpretation of it.

I try to use traditional blocks in my workshops, drafting my own patterns and instructions, and including a list of websites and books where students can look up related/similar patterns for future use. I encourage people to purchase the patterns or books themselves, to not copy another’s.

On occasion, I have an out of print magazine pattern I do copy, and I am afraid, this does infringe on copyright law. I don’t know if teaching for a non-profit educational site gives me any coverage for this or not. I’ve taken a workshop on creative use by a quilter/lawyer. It answered many questions, and brought up many more.

halloween curmudgeon

My sister and I were listing the reasons we really dislike this holiday. Not all parts--I like jack-'o-lanterns and skeletons. But, there are parts that seem to irritate me more every year.

#1 irritant: trick-or-treaters
First, we did not grow up trick-or-treating--on the farm; there was no place to go! We would carve a pumpkin, make caramel apples, and that was about it. Also, being reformed, the whole thing was about Reformation Day and the 95 theses.

Now I get over 300 trick-or-treaters every year. I run out of candy no matter how much I buy and how much I appropriate out of my kids' take. A few of us neighbors have sent out our too old kids out to trick-or-treat just to refill our own bowls! When I put out my light, they keep ringing my doorbell. Our dear departed Rudy the Beagle hated this day as much as the 4th of July.

#2 irritant: costumes
When Paul was 3 I made a brown bat costume for him. He wore it several years before he figured out he could dress as something else. I pulled the same thing on Eve and then Seth. That costume was worn at least 9 years.
Beth hates costumes because, as a teacher, they only led to problems in the classroom.

#3 irritant: ghoulish decorations
I'm ok with skulls, bats, and spider webs. I don't get the blood and moldering flesh and especially, a body hanging from a noose. My neighbor Anne's boys had a mask that would squirt blood--after scaring her daughter one too many times; she punctured it and put it in the trash in the alley.

So, is there an equivalent of Scrooge for Halloween?
The only thing that could get me out of this rant would be someone coming along with a Twin Bing from the wonderful Palmer Candy Company in Sioux City, Iowa.

avoiding projectiles

Seth and Andy have been busy building the only working trebuchet on the block.
This house turns 100 next year, and this lovely lamp has lasted that long on the newel post. I don't want it to be destroyed on my watch, so all trebuchet launches are directed down the hall.

pink strings

I am organizing my guild's challenge this year--they got 1 yard of a wonderful pink batik and the only rule is they have to use it up on the piece. It has to be visible on the front, back, or binding, and if anything is leftover, I requested they use it in a few blocks for the pink strings project.

Phyllis, how is the rabies quilt coming?

The Office this week combined two favorite topics--crazy cat people, and a quilt, devoted to rabies.

chiclets

This doll quilt is for my guild's silent auction at the Fine Art of Fiber show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.
http://faof.home.comcast.net/
Since going to a heavier work schedule, I have not had as much time to sew, and am grateful for those UFOs in my stacks that I can pull out and finish. They are like money in the bank!
This one was a small class sample. I didn't have enough of the yellow binding so I added a piece of blue. Finn has her orphan blocks, I have my orphan bindings!
The blocks were left from a larger quilt I called 'Chiclets" because the pieces looked like the shape and colors of the gum.

loaves and fishes

And all ate and were filled. Matthew 14:20

This quilt is for the Good News Community Kitchen benefit. I hope they make a lot with it. The Kitchen serves meals every day of the year.
http://www.gnck.org/

I showed the top several months ago. It is made of shirt parts--from the collars and cuffs and pockets. The logs are spliced to use up every bit of fabric.
I like to have a few tops ready for donation to a good cause that comes up. My quilter, Suzette Fisher, turned this around to me in just a week. She is wonderful.