Today!! fabric giveaway!!

Welcome to the New Jersey stop on the American Made Brand blog tour!  Be sure to leave a comment -- you could win a pack of beautiful solids in fat quarters!

 I mentioned a while ago that I was invited to redesign New Jersey's license plate, along with 49 others who were invited to redesign their own states' license plates using AMB's gorgeous solids (grown and made in the U.S.)   It's been fun to see what the other participants have done - and now it's my turn.  

I had a lot of fun redesigning NJ's boring straw-colored license plate with the black letters. Ugly, yes, but when the state tried to improve it with a pretty blue plate and straw letters, it was so low contrast that it was difficult to read.  So back to the straw and black one.  I understand that new ones won't even have raised letters -- just printed ones.  Cheaper.  Uglier. Bah!

NJ used to be known for its truck farms; where I grew up, there were farms all around.  There was a dairy farm in town where we went for ice cream -- and it is still there, although I'm not sure about the cows.  Applegate Farm had wonderful ice cream and my father would always let me get a double dip cone.  What a treat!

Where my kids grew up, there were farms in town.  All of these are housing developments now and the last working farm in my county was sold last year.  

But there are still farms in other parts of the state, and this state is famous for one particular food, which is still being grown - in farms, in gardens, and on patios.  And you can find Jersey Fresh produce in farmers' markets all over the place.  So I've changed the tag line and brightened up the license plate with something delicious!

Many people who drive through this state from north to south  see the industrial landscape, which many think is ugly. I think it is beautiful; I love the grit.

and this view when I take the train into NY.

 The tv image of this state leaves something to be desired.  I've never seen the show, Jersey Shore (nor do I want to) but have spent plenty of time over the years down the shore.  That's what we say in New Jersey. Not "I'm going to the beach," or "I'm going to the shore." We say " I'm going down the shore."

If you're going to Atlantic City, you can drive through NJ's treasured, unspoiled Pine Barrens (where our governor wants to run an oil pipeline). ARGH.

But I grew up in Essex County, NJ - home of the Sopranos.  The assisted living place where Tony's mother lived is about three blocks away from me.  The exterior of his house is about a 10 minute drive from my house...

The landmark Tick Tock Diner has been around forever and I pass it frequently on route 3.

We stopped watching the program because it became too violent for our taste, so we never saw the final episode that took place in Holsten's ice cream parlor.  That was the place to go after the movies, for an ice cream soda or sundae. I spent many evenings there as a teenager; Marty and I used to go there for ice cream once in a while and I passed by it last night on the way to the Greek restaurant down the street.  It's just a regular place with a soda fountain, great hot fudge sundaes, good chocolates -- and it hasn't changed in 60 years.

Please leave a comment and tell me what comes to mind when you think of New Jersey!  I'll randomly draw a number later this week, based on how many comments there are and you could be the lucky winner!  Besides, I'd love to hear your take on my home state!

Airport

So here I am in the United club at San Diego airport, recharging my batteries before the flight home.  Red eye, supposed to get in at 5:30 am.  I am not counting on it, but maybe it will be on time.  I napped on the flight out and am hoping for same this round.

I am the luckiest person on earth.  Another delightful group and not only did they have fun, so did I. 

Some of the class members brought In their normal work to share and it was not only fabulous, butc completely different from what they did in class.  They stretched and played and here are some of the in-process pieces on the design walls.  Strips and squares:infinite variations!  I hope to see finished pieces.

After class was over,I headed over to the Visions Art Museum to a beautiful high tea they had to showcase their special new blends of  loose tea created just for them and available only at the museum.  I finally met Lisa Columbe, whom I had corresponded with years ago but had never met.  And best of all, I got to give a hug to the wonderful Del Thomas, who had driven for hours to attend the tea.  It was so great to catch up with her, since I have not seen her in a couple of years.

The museum does not allow photos,but the did letmetake a picture of this sign.  And here is a bas sort-of selfie (my arms are too short and the flash didn't work, so it is fuzzy).

 

Time to wander off to the gate so I can board on time. Del exhorted me to post more often,

And I promised I would try, despite my mostly boring life.  In a few days I will post my redoof the NJ license plate and one of you lucky commenters will win some beautiful solids in my giveaway.

Onward!

Business and pleasure

Now that the week is almost over, I am finally on west coast time.Sigh...next week, I work the time warp backwards.

It's been a wonderful week in San Diego county; I arrived a few days early so I could visit with my cousins here, whom I have not seen in three years, an aunt I haven't seen in six years, and other cousins from L.A., one of whom I have not seen in a decade.  What joy! Tuesday, we headed for Del Mar -- a favorite place for me with very happy memories.

 This is the view from the deck at Pacifica restaurant where my cousins and I had lunch. Ahhh....peace.

 After lunch, we walked along the path in the park near the ocean and came across this strange looking squirrel.  You can't tell from the picture (I couldn't get too close) but he was spotted.

Very different from the NJ squirrels, and apparently somewhat tame.

On Wednesday, some time in Solana Beach, wandering in the design district.  In one place I fell in love with this wonderful sideboard but I neither had room for it nor could ship it home even if I had needed it.  It reminded me of the photos in Sean Scully's book, The Color of Time.

And looking more closely at the surface, I realize how much my own work has been influenced by those photos.  It is a book I treasure and which is out of print.  I brought it home from my studio and am reminded now that I need to look at it again.

Thursday morning I spoke at the guild meeting and in the afternoon, my hostess and I took a trip to the Visions Art Museum.  Since I rarely get to Southern California, I had never been there -- but oh, my goodness, what a wonderful place.  I used to be a member years ago and knew I just had to become a member again.  I wish I could get there more often.  Those of you who live within driving distance are so lucky to have this beautiful resource nearby.

Today was day #1 of my class, Strips and Squares: Infinite Variations, and tomorrow I'll post pictures of what magic is being made there.  The class is being held in the room at Quilt in a Day, Eleanor Burns' shop.  She was teaching another class so I didn't have a chance to meet her, but I did have a chance to spend more $$ than I meant to on some amazing fabrics that were $6/yd and batik pieces that were $12/lb.  There is a lot of fabric in a pound, so I'm hoping my suitcase won't be overweight with the 5.5 lbs I bought.  Good grief -- am I crazy?? (rhetorical question).

One more day of teaching and then the red eye home tomorrow night.  Stay tuned.

a few relaxing days

Iin Despite the fact that my air conditioning has decided to spew hot air and the house is 82 degrees, I am surviving.  Yesterday was a bit uncomfortable but today it was cooler out than in, so I kept all the doors open and there was a decent breeze.

I had promised my daughter I would make throw pillows for her, since she was not in the mood to pay someone hundreds of dollars to do the job.   Really?? I wonder why.  Got one done and another cut out, which I will sew together tomorrow. And probably do the third, as well.  There is nothing like a deadline; Jessica and Miss Emma are coming out to visit on Sunday and I need to get these done.

With all the rain we have been having, my postage stamp garden looks pretty good.  I just have to keep spritzing  it with deer spray every other day, after it rains so they don't eat my daylilies.  I shudder to imagine they will all have been decimated when I get home from my next trip.  Leaving for the left coast.  Going a couple of days early so I can spend time with my cousins, who live there.

I have been on a binge of reading every book written by Jojo Moyes, and this has been as good as taking a vacation.  Sprawled on my mother's sofa, which replaced the huge sectional I never liked because t was too soft and deep for me, I have been in heaven.  Almost.  It needs to be reupholstered after 40 years, along with my father's club chair.  That will happen when I get back.  I am going to lose the skirts for a more contemporary look and ditch the turquoise for something neutral and textured.  

Meantime, back to the throw pillows I am making for my daughter...

quilts, food, and miscellaneous

Today's mail brought me a lovely surprise: two small quilts that have been traveling for so long that I had almost forgotten about them. They were part of C&T's surface design trunk show and If you've seen my business card, you will recognize the fabric from this one, photographed before I used it to make a small quilt. 

This is the front of the other one, which I really had forgotten about.

and here is the back.

Seeing these two after about five years makes me think about printing again -- but not until I use up more of my fabrics.

In the meantime, I've been puttering in the kitchen again.  The market had a deal on tomatillos, so I couldn't resist.  I have a pot of cilantro on the deck, limes in the fridge, and on Monday I made one of my favorite things - fresh salsa verde.

 Tomatillos may look a bit like green tomatoes, but they are not.  The tomatillo (front and center) is covered with a paper-like outer layer. Once it is peeled off, it looks like the ones in the center of the cutting board.

I cut up about ½ lb of tomatillos, a small onion, a clove or two of garlic and threw them into the food processor with salt, a handful of cilantro, and the juice of a lime. You can find any number of recipes on the Internet, but I just estimate and use my judgement.

Here's what the salsa looks like after I've processed it.  Then I season to taste (more salt? more cilantro? more lime juice? - all of the above, probably).

And serve it with some tortilla chips (I like Trader Joe's the best).  Perfect with a drink on a warm summer evening.

Tonight's puttering was the result of an article in the NY Times which mentioned halvah ice cream. HALVAH ICE CREAM?? What a concept!!  I just happened to have about ½ lb of marble nut halvah in my fridge that has been there for maybe six months. (It doesn't go bad).  And while I didn't have cream, I did have low fat yogurt and my lactose-free  low fat milk, sugar, tahini, and all that halvah. 

 I threw a cup ofyogurt, a cup of milk, about ½ c. sugar, some vanilla, a spoonful of tahini (optional) into my Cuisinart ice cream maker and crumbled the halvah into the mixture.  Threw in a few pistachios for good measure and  ran it till t'was done. Oh, and I added a little vodka to keep it from freezing solid.

Delicious!!  It would probably have been to die for if I had had cream instead of yogurt, but at least I feel somewhat virtuous as I go to the fridge for another helping.

Oh, and before I sign off, please click on the blog tour icon at the top of the sidebar. All of us in the tour have reinvented our state's license plates to make them more fun/interesting.  And we all have giveaways for those of you who leave comments.  My license plate will be up in June.  If you can't be bothered to go to the top of the sidebar,

here's the thingie that will take you to the blog tour links and schedule.  

Catch up with the first ten and have fun!  It's amazing how creative people can be.

challenging the muse

I don't do theme challenges any more but I remember that it used to be a good way to stretch when I was first starting to move away from traditional quilts. There are a couple I remember specifically.

Our original crit group, formed in 1997, met quarterly at the beginning, and each quarter, we had a challenge based on a quote or a phrase each of us pulled out of a hat, so to speak. I pulled this phrase:

 The past is over; the future hasn't started yet, and as you

experience the present it becomes the past. All you have

is this moment: all you have is now.

Carpe Diem

About the same time (actually, 1998) the guild I belonged to threw out a challenge for a special exhibit at their quilt show.  The theme was "flora and fauna"  and the pieces had to be, I think, 18" x 18" or some such size.  Immediately, an image came to mind and I had a wonderful time making my piece.  It was the only one that did not depict plants and animals. It still makes me giggle (and I wonder where the whimsical young woman who made that piece has gone.)

Flora and Fauna Give a Party

While I don't like themes or challenges set by other people, I still believe it is a good way to wake up the sleeping muse if you close your eyes and pick a phrase or a word from the newspaper and do some free association.

How do you feel about themes?  Do you find them helpful or annoying, or both?

Blog Hop!!! Begins Monday, May 19

One more thing has been keeping me busy in the past couple of weeks. I've had a lot of fun participating in the challenge sponsored by Clothworks, maker of American Made Brands (farm to fabric).  Using fabrics from their beautiful new solids collection, Clothworks invited 50 bloggers to reinvent our state's license plates. 

My schedule is so crazy that I didn't think I'd have time - but I managed to design a license plate block I think is much cooler than the boring New Jersey one we have now!

Every day, for the next 25 days (starting next Monday the 19th) two blogs will feature their redesigned blocks -- along with a giveaway, of course!

Go here to see the schedule and stay tuned for all the giveaways.  There will be a link on my sidebar that will take you to the blogs with the funky redesigned blocks -- all with a giveaway.  Should be fun!

taking a deep breath

Yep, another busy week.  Last Thursday I was supposed to fly home from Burlington, VT, where I had been teaching. But, of course, there was "weather" over Newark.  My flight was cancelled and there were no other flights to EWR. Flights to NY and Philadelphia were delayed -- 22 flights backed up and waiting and  only one runway open in Burlington. I was rebooked to a backed-up flight to LaGuardia, a $100+, hour and a half ride home. No thanks.

So, like any sensible person, I rented a car and drive the 5-½ hour, stress-free trip to my house. Nice weather, sparse traffic, and got there before I would have, had I taken the 2 hours late rebooked flight.  

Friday morning, drove to Bethesda and had a wonderful weekend at my granddaughter Abigail's bat mitzvah.  Perfect, because I got to spend it with my kids and most of my grandkids.  Except for Abby and Lesli (her mom), who were busy with last-minute party planning, all the "girls" got together for a photo.

With me - daughter Hilary, granddaughters Kayla and Emma, daughter-in-law Nancy, daughter Jessica, daughter-in-law Anne Marie.  It is rare that we are all together -- and the grownups went downtown to have mani-pedis on Saturday afternoon. A pre-Mother's day gift to ourselves:-). 

Monday was a studio day and it was a joy to be there.  I had been working on a piece and spent the afternoon arranging and re-arranging my strips. Here is how it looked when I decided I was done for the day.

But when I turned the photo 45 degrees, it became a different piece. 

 Hmmm...now I know what I have to do when I get back to the studio. A couple more tweaks and it might be done.  Of course, it is not what I had in mind, but it has a mind of its own.  Isn't the camera the best tool??

A few long weeks ago

I was in Boston.  Last week I was in Vermont.  Now I am in Bethesda for a family event. 

In between...

-my email was hacked from A foreign country where they can't even spell Viagra correctly.

- my email server was closed down due to 100,000 spam emails-- about 1,000 of which clogged my inbox.

- had more email issues after that.

-Worked like crazy to clean out my mother's apt because it was finally sold.

- dealt with lawyers, realtors. for closing.

-closed!!!!

- worked on article, tight deadline and still unfinished.

- taught two classes in Vermont and when my flight was cancelled due to weather in Newark, I rented a car and drove back to NJ.

The list of what I did not do is twice as long and three times as boring.

Vermont, where I was teaching, has been a partial vacation.  I arrived on Saturday and had a wonderful Sunday, full of sightseeing and good company, before Monday's Cindedella Quilts class.

More, later.  This post has been too long in the making.