heat and dust

I returned to the hottest NJ summer in eons -- temps in the high 90's F and humidity in the same range.
There are all kinds of heat warnings for old people (over 65) to stay inside this week.  Hahahaha.  I am going into NY city this afternoon to the City Quilter Gallery to see the exhibit of Maya Chamovich's quilts and hear her gallery talk at 6:pm.  Afterwards, I am going to dinner with my cousin Rahla so we can catch up on family stuff -- so I'm looking forward to it, despite the heat.

They say you are not supposed to water your plants in the morning - that evening is better.  But it is so awful that I am doing both.  My postage-stamp garden looked so much better a couple of hours after I soaked it, that I had to take pictures.  Before I left for Oregon I sprayed the daylily plants with anti-deer stuff and it worked!  I didn't expect that these late-bloomers would wait for my return, but they did.  The daylilies and echinacea look splendid to me.

Also, before I left I brought all the herbs upstairs to the master bath, which has a skylight. They did very nicely and now I am bringing them out again.  Such lovely basil!  I am drinking water with ice, lime, and crushed basil and it is divine.  Better with gin, but since it is so hot I am drinking water to stay hydrated.  Aren't I good??

More later or tomorrow, depending on how tired I am when I get home from walking several miles of city blocks later on.

Modern, modern, modern

This morning, before leaving Sisters, OR, Jean drove Laura Wasilowski, Amy Walsh, and me to Five Pines to look at 35 of the quilts that had been at QuiltCon.  They were hung amongst the trees and wildflowers in a beautiful setting and it was a treat to see them there.  I couldn't photograph all of them but here is an overview of what is happening in the "modern" world.

Cool, huh?

Sisters is a wonderful place to teach and a super place to take classes. Now, as I sit at SFO waiting for my Red Eye flight to Newark, I am feeling mellow and happy at having had such a good experience.

It is almost time to walk to the other end of the terminal to catch my flight (don't ask -- a two hour delay made me miss my connection out of SFO and I hope to land in Newark at 7:am.  Even more, I hope I can catch a couple of hours of sleep on the way.

xo

Aha - the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!

We had glorious weather for quilt show day -- air was cool, sun was hot, and the result was, so they say -- the best weather they have ever had for the show.  The sun was so strong that it was really difficult for me to get good pictures, but I'll post some anyway.

This is a charming town that actually reminded me a bit of a movie set.  I took this later in the day, when the sun was not so strong - but the quilts had already come down.  Imagine quilts along all these storefronts!

Here is the Stitchin Post, hung with quilts.  How did they get them all up there???

The Teachers' Tent was really a great place to be. It was shady and those of us signing books were able to meet a lot of the quilters and talk to them.  Fun.  I took some not-great pictures, but here they are anyway.  

Laura Wasilowski next to her much-more-vibrant-than-it-looks here, quilt.

I think this is by Tonye Phillips - don't you love the way she puts all those patterns together. 

You couldn't mistake this for anyone but Sue Spargo's.  Her wool quilts are amazing and no picture can do them justice.

Another of Tonye Phillips' pieces.  Fun!

This amazing piece is by Kathy Doughty, who lives in Australia and makes highly interesting and vivid quilts.  She gave a talk on Thursday night about the history of Aussie quilts and it was great!

There were a couple of pieces that caught my eye as I walked around town.  This is one.

And this is another.

In my next post, some of the modern quilts on exhibit that had been at QuiltCon.

The variety is overwhelming - day 2 of Deconstructing the Screen

So organic!

       Wish I had printed these!

Rubbing plates give a whole different feel, don't they?

This one has a very tribal feel.

Could go on and on - but this is a good sampling of  results.  All used the same process and got totally different results because their work reflected their own sensibilities and personalities.

Now, the challenge is to use these beautiful fabrics and I hope to see pictures from my students one of these days!

Friday in Sisters

Last night, so exahusted from laughing at Laura Wasilowski's hilarious slide lecture, that I fell into bed without talking about yesterday's class: Deconstructing the Screen.

Here is the first print from one of the screens -- and the piece got even better after that.  It was so exciting to see the results!

I did make a discovery yesterday that will help in the future: the sodium alginate from Dharma is not the same as the sodium alginate from ProChem, and my recipe for mixing up the print paste will make the paste much too thick with Dharma's alginate.  If you live on the west coast, cut it down at first to 2 Tablespoons of powder to a quart of water and go from there.  It will thicken anyway as it sits, but good grief -- it is unusable unless you keep adding water so it is the consistency of yogurt.  After a lot of trial and troubleshooting, here are some of the results of yesterday's class:

Can't wait to see what happens in class today!

Wordless Wednesday

Monday in Sisters

 First day, first class, which was Carve Original Stamps/Print Original Fabric.  An enthusiastic group of artists (most of whom claimed never to have done this before) had so much fun carving that they didn't want to stop and print.    Nevertheless, the made the sacrifice and printed a remarkable amount of fabric for the first day.  Just a few examples...

Tonight Jean Wells Keenan and her adorable husband John hosted all of the teachers at their home for a fabulous dinner. This picture doesn't begin to do justice to the lavish spread -- 

nor can this picture begin to convey the slice of heaven we looked out on as we ate.

It was good to meet colleagues I had not met before and of course, to see old buddies!

Lynn Koolish (my editor at C&T) was here to teach dyeing, and Laura Wasilowski is teaching several different classes in her inimitable style.  Notice how color-coordinated Lynn is:-)).

And you can tell from this photo what a terrible time Rosalie Dace and I are having this week. 

We're looking forward to another day in our classrooms and more unwinding time tomorrow evening.

It sure felt good to sit down and put our feet up after having been on them all day.