bits and pieces

It has taken me a few days to find the time to post about our lovely day on Saturday. Late morning we headed to the Michener (as in James) Museum in Doylestown, PA to see Kaffe Fasset's exhibit.  I had seen it in Houston, along with Kaffe's lovely lecture -- but as it was a nice day and I thought Phil should get more acquainted with quilt art, we headed out.

Doylestown is a terminally charming town, where people really live and shop.

 I wish we had had more time to wander, but we did find a small, elegant place to have lunch.  Actually, brunch because it was a weekend.

Afterwards, we went over to the museum, which is a lovely place. It used to be a prison, but i don't think we were in that wing. i love when an old building is repurposed.  Not in New Jersey, where they tore down the local county jail and built condos -- and where they are shortly going to tear down Doris Duke's 67,000 sq foot home on the estate because they allege that it costs to much to fix it. Tragic.

So off we went to see the exhibit of Kaffe's quilts, along with the antique quilts that inspired his reinterpretation.  My photos were sporadic, but here are some.  This one shows wonderful use of fabrics, interspersing the floral with the solids so that it is looking like a garden through lattice.

This quilt on the left is the original antique piece that inspired Kaffe's interpretation on the right.

I was crazy about this antique quilt, so had to take a photo of it. it's one I wish I had in my own collection.

The museum also had some other quilt-like art; an exhibit of quilt-like wood pieces, the next one of which was apparently inspired by Kaffe's quilts.

And a totally unexpected group of pieces by James Michener, which fit perfectly into the exhibition. Go figure!  Who'd have thunk?  It was a lovely surprise.

Finally, as part of the exhibit, there was a room with interactive design walls and a pile of pile of fabric pieces people could play with and make their own designs.  

i would have played but by then, we were tired and ready to leave.  However, if you are within a couple of hours of Doylestown and did not see the exhibit at Houston, it is worth the drive to see the quilts -- and to have a lovely lunch in town.  

it might be autumn

 It's still relatively warm but today was grey and wet.  A soup day. A day to stay in and sew. And iron.  And read.   And post this if I can, because Blogger is acting strange.

     

  I had a most wonderful time in Philadelphia, making new friends -- really!  And teaching a class of people who amazed themselves with what they could do in only one day with "what if?" and no ruler.

Tonight, I played around with another "what if?"  and ended up with two experiments that are a germ of an idea which may or may not be successful.  I'll work on it in Florida.

time to sign off -- Blogger is still being weird. (see what I mean??)

a colorful day

So after the fiasco in the pouring rain at Houston when all the color washed out of my hair and down my face, I decided to have it done right.  If you've seen my Facebook post, you already know that when I went for a haircut this morning I also asked my hairdresser to give me a couple of streaks of color -- treated myself as an early b.d. present.

I had blue streaks in July 2012, when my granddaughter Rebecca was here visiting and encouraged me to do it myself.  Here we are.  I actually went to a wedding like that, but then it washed out and that was that.  

Here I am this morning, a little more blonde, a little more turquoise, and a bit more subtle - maybe.  I am happy, no matter what my daughters think! 

I have been working for weeks, ten minutes at a time, quilting a piece I started last month. Finally finished with that part -- just as the spool of yellow thread ran out.

I have something else I've been playing with and I'm not really happy with it but after having taken it apart because i put it together in the wrong order, I decided to stick a fork in it.  I started quilting it tonight but am too tired to do any more. 

 Have a busy day tomorrow and the one hour time difference is making me hungry and tired an hour earlier than I should. G'night.