Just to keep today's post art-related, here I am at the London Contemporary Quilters' Coffee Morning, about to put my stamp on the cloth.  Hilary Gooding took this picture and sent me a copy. Thanks, Hilary!

So you see me smiling in this picture. What you do not see is a picture of me in tears today while I was on the phone with Verizon. Yep, again.

They are digging up and redoing the driveways in our development, and they're replacing the carpenter ant-ridden railroad ties that divide some driveways from their neighbor's front gardens.

They are working on the driveway next door that abuts my sorry patch of what passes for a garden. Here it is today, with the railroad ties dug up.

What you also do not see is the underground telephone wire that the backhoe driver told me he had cut accidentally. Swell. No phone or internet again!  He had already called Verizon before I got home around 1:00 and judging by the slow response last week, I was in tears of frustration.  Fortunately, the guy's wife works for Verizon wireless and she has a contact at the land line group, so the Verizon tech was here within 2 hours instead of 2 days like last time.  It's who you know, folks.

Here is the Verizon guy splicing my wire so it can work and it will stay above ground till they come and do a repair or replace the underground wire. 

Verizon has told me they will give me a large credit for both phone and DSL; I'll believe it when I see it.  But in the meantime, life is back to what passes for normal around here.

Saturday in the park

The weather has turned hot here and Sat afternoon was too gorgeous to stay in the house, so we headed up the street to the park.  As Marty and I walked around the upper part of Verona Lake, we passed this bird-statue. And then it moved. Looks like something I saw in Florida but I don't know what it is called. An egret?

A little further along we spotted this guy - his color seemed appropriate to the scummy stuff on that end of the lake. I wouldn't go out with him.

When we were home again, I got busy cleaning up this sewing room.
Look at this wonderful collection of European quilt exhibition catalogs!  I have not had time to sit down and peruse them, but at least I got them into a neat pile.

In a bold move, I took the printer from the floor and put it on the bookcase.  Now I have a place to pile the catalogs. Brilliant.

I got rid of two bags of papers and old files, although it is hard to tell. Then I had time and room to sort the fabrics and look at the ones I brought home from England.

 These two are Marlene's.  We split them as a challenge.

And here I am already auditioning to see what works.

I put a sleeve on a quilt I am sending off to a gallery in Kansas and I am in the throes of finishing the stitching on this small piece.

I have stopped, however, as I wait for a fabulous box of threads to arrive. And since Blogger is being pissy tonight about letting me upload more pix, I shall say goodnight.

back in the zone!

My own time zone, that is. After 5 days at home this is the first night I haven't gone to bed by 8:pm. Hooray - it's almost midnight on the Right Coast!  All is well.

On the way home from Birmingham, we kept passing these signs. I couldn't figure out what "Any Veh" meant. I could only hear my grandmother's voice saying "Anyway" but pronouncing the w as a v.
 

 Marlene thought it was hilarious that I couldn't figure out it was an abbreviation for "any vehicle." Still makes no sense to me.

Suburban London has its architectural charms and I photographed a few during my last two days there.

Where else would you find a drinking fountain and cattle trough? I guess it hasn't been used in a while.  This shop window was a jewel

       and I couldn't resist the bouquet of slippers in front.

I honestly didn't remember that the underground had upholstered (and very comfy) seats.  There has just been a contest to design new upholstery fabric so at some point, these will be replaced. Imagine!

 On the way home from the tube stop we walked past this delicious garden.

I was pretty busy tonight but will continue my post in the a.m.  I think it's time to heed my yawns as I write this.  'nite.

Without phone or Internet (DSL) I was unable to post here after I got home (although I could post on FB from my iPhone)-- but after 3 days the phone company threw a switch and our dead line came back to life.  Don't ask!  No wonder people are getting rid of their Verizon land line service in droves.

The last day in London, Marlene and I took her adorable grandsons to see the Picasso exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery. Work was from his Mediterranean years. They did not allow photos but here is part of the exhibit on their website.  It was terrific because with the exception of 2 pieces (which are in a Picasso poster book I own) I had never seen any of the work on display.  Much of it was whimsical and the kids enjoyed it, too.

My fabric ironing, in an attempt to clear the decks in my sewing room, stopped and then started again at 3:am when I woke up (still on U.K. time, I suppose).  I have been working at home for a variety of reasons and have brought home tons of fabric that normally reside in my studio.

Marlene and I had a little time in her wet studio - and did some printing and a fabric exchange to see what each of us would do with the other's fabric.  A challenge I look forward to...when I come up for air.

In the meantime, this room looks almost neat and I am going to reward myself by putting my feet up to read for a while.  I'm in the middle of Pat Conroy's South of Broad and it's one of those books I don't want to put down and don't want to finish.

later

The last day of class, everybody showed their favorite and least favorite pieces of fabric. Here are some of them. Cathy's favorite, below.

Sharon shows her favorite at the moment, which was the last piece she had printed.

I think this was Pat's least favorite but I suspect she will put another layer on it and will like it better.  On the wall, her fave.

Wendy's favorite is on sheer fabric on the wall to her left. She is holding the one she liked least, although the rest of the class felt differently.

Later, I went out to an Indian restaurant in Birmingham's Balti Triangle with  Laura Wasilowski, Frieda Anderson, Helen and Dennis Conway and Lisa & Peter Walton.  We laughed a lot.
 Below, Laura and Helen - obviously enjoying themselves!

Frieda Anderson and a greatly amused waiter off to the side.

Below, Lisa Walton.  I didn't get a picture of Peter and Lisa at dinner.

Yesterday morning at a SAQA coffee, I met Eszter Bornemisza and Charlotte Yde - both absolutely lovely to talk to, not to mention that their work is wonderful.

Marlis Egger, who had just taken a photo of me taking the photo above.  My iPhone didn't do a very good job, but it is better than no picture at all.  Marlis and I kept running into one another all day at the exhibition.

At last night's international dinner I had a wonderful time with Marianne Bender and Cécile Trentini.

And this morning, Marlene and I had breakfast with Inge Hueber - also a delight.  Now, off to another coffee and if I can get WiFi when I get back to London, I'll post more.

See 'ya!

will check in later

No time to blog - off to the International Dinner and will catch up either late tonight or tomorrow.  Meantime, Liz Plummer stopped by to say "hi" yesterday after class and I was so delighted to see her in person.  Zowie, this is fun!!

Later.

the next day...

Tuesday night, Marlene, Susan Shie and I went out for a delicious Indian dinner and laughed a lot.  The waiter kept trying to take away the chutneys but we insisted they stay on the table while we nibbled on them through the meal.  Apparently not the thing, but we didn't care.  The waiter said we were confusing him - whatever that meant. LOL.  The food was excellent.

Yesterday's class session hummed along while everybody worked, going back into what they had printed day 1 and creating new cloth.

Sandra printed (above)and then made a ghost, which is often more interesting than the original because there is more texture.  Great to do when there's more paint than you need on the fabric.

Here are a couple more pieces from yesterday's class and then I'm off to the convention center again.

see you later!

printfest

Yesterday's first day of class was an enthusiastic group who took to printing like experts, although two of them had never printed before.

Here is Cathy, early in the day with one piece in process-- and later, some of her work on the board.

I wish I had taken a "before" of Sandra's piece because it was a perfectly ok first layer.  However, the second layer made it into a smashing piece.

Sandy was hard at work with her screen and was ultimately delighted with her first-layer results. I expect that these prints may change today.

That's it for now: more later.  In the meantime, I am off to class for day #2.
I'm having a great time meeting people whose blogs I read (Sandy and Sandra, for starters).  Ta ta for now.