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.

Finally!

Backtracking a bit - our weekend in London was mostly quiet.  Saturday night was far from quiet: we saw a fabulous production of Sondheim's Into the Woods in the outdoor theatre at Regent's Park.

The daytime rain cleared up, sun came out, and it was a beautiful evening.  Sunday, the husbands hung out at home and Marlene and I went for a walk along the paths at Kenwood.

 We had cappuccinos and admired the Henry Moore, which I remembered seeing the last time we were in London, 5 years ago.

Today, David took Marty to the airport and I am keeping fingers x'd that the airlines take good care of him and that he gets home and safely into bed for a good night's sleep.  Here are the two friends before they had to say goodbye.

Marlene and I arrived in Birmingham mid-afternoon to set up the classroom, but now I have to deal with the fact of  not having sinks large enough in which to wash out screens for the next three days. The NEC people are very accomodating and hopefully will pull off a miracle by tomorrow morning so I can teach my class.

Susan Shie arrived at the NEC while we were there, so we all came back to the hotel together. Later, Marlene, Susan and I went down to the bar and encountered Elizabeth Barton, who joined us.  Alicia Merrett joined us a bit later. Here is Marlene studying the bar food menu.

Elizabeth and Susan were chatting and taking pictures.

and then Hilary Gooding came over to say hi to all of us.

What fun to finally meet her - and I'm looking forward to connecting with many more of the people I've been talking to and blogging with for a long time.

Elizabeth and Dominie Nash have an exhibit here, as does Susan Shie. Today they were just putting up walls.  Here is what the exhibition space looked like this afternoon.  The white walls are the individual galleries for special exhibits; the pipe and drape for the rest.

I expect it to look entirely different by tomorrow. We'll keep our eyes on the transformation. Tomorrow we're up at 6, so I'd better sign off and make it an early night.

Last day in Suffolk :-(

I haven't had as much of a chance to take pix of signs as I would have liked, but this one, inviting prospective guests to "pop in,"  tickled me.

I must say the food here has been terrific.  Of course, Maggie is an excellent cook - but dinner at the Fox was outstanding and today's lunch at one of the National Trust houses was also very good. Here's the plate of starters (or what we in the U.S. call appetizers) we shared.

A trio of mixed olives, ciabatta & balsamic, sun blushed tomatoes and chilli broad beans. Yummy.  A far cry from Wimpy burgers and Lyons Corner House fare I remember from 1963 when I was doing Europe on $5 a Day.

Today's activity was lunch at one of the National Trust homes and then a run through to look at the china, silver, and paintings. On the way home, everything looked so GREEN.

And then, as a bookend to yesterday's pigs -- today we saw sheep.

Much nicer, I think.  They looked as though they had recently been sheared.

Dinner at home tonight with large quantities of wine and much laughter.  The three cousins, who have the same great-grandparents, were last together in 2005. I think it is unlikely they will be together again -- although you never know.

Before dinner we filled in some family history blanks and I discovered they have three more cousins(who are siblings) who are alive and well -- and one of them lives in New Jersey.  Whether they will have any interest in us is another question, but I now have somebody else to contact.  Ironically, it is Maggie and I who married into the family, who are the researchers and are most excited about all this family stuff.  Why is that?

Tomorrow we say goodbye; Norman goes home to Nottingham and we get on the train to London to see the other Cohens (no relation to these Cohens). And I think we've got theatre tickets for outside in London so I hope it stops raining.  Stay tuned.