studio 78 notes...

Is this art??

2008-06-30T21:45:00.011-04:00

Looks like an installation to ME. But of course, it is Philadelphia street art. Look how nicely they set up the display. My cousin Edmond, ever-vigilant, since I made him liberate some construction fence for me in Paris several years ago, pointed this out as we walked around Philly last week.

No sooner did I get home from QSDS than my French cousins, France & Edmond, sont arrivés et nous sommes partis pour Philadelphia en vacances. Marty and I were celebrating our 26th anniversary - and what better way? The night of our anniv, I had made reservations at my favorite restaurant, Fork. The meal was fabulous and the manager of the Penns View Hotel where we stayed, bought us the bottle of wine we had ordered with dinner. What a lovely surprise!

We made the rounds of the historic sites, since Edmond wanted to see the Liberty Bell and the actual constitution, etc. But then, enough was enough and we couldn't resist gelato and espresso outside this place on Market St., near the hotel. I mean, what French people could resist a place with this name??
Since we spent only two days in Philadelphia, we didn't have time tp get to any of our favorite places, like Snyderman Works or South Street. But we did go to the Philadelphia Museum, where our cousins wanted to look at contemporary American art. They were extremely impressed by the museum's excellent collection of Degas, Cézanne, and other late 19th-early 20th c. French Artists. I, on the other hand, was more captivated by what was below (or adjacent to) my feet as we walked around the city.
I was so busy having fun that I didn't take many pix. But Edmond did get this shot of R&M in front of the wall outside Ben Franklin's final resting place.
Aren't we glamorous with our sunglasses? The next day, back to real life with a vengance.
But we're looking forward to seeing our cousins again soon - maybe next time in Paris!

what a week!

2008-06-21T09:33:00.016-04:00

I got home to still no Internet -- and no tv (which doesn't bother me). Comcast can't come till Thursday, so I am hijacking a neighbor's signal when I can. It is sporadic and frustrating beyond words.

The week at QSDS was wonderful! Print Original Cloth - Make Original Quilts was a 5-day journey that yielded amazing results.As always, the diversity of results from random screenprinting was astonishing. Everybody who came into the room to see what was going on was bowled over at the cloth on the boards.

Chef Susan's work was playful and of course, had a theme dear to her heart. Here is only one of her many fun pieces.
Diane Abernathy created this with freezer paper resists.
Cécile's pieces included these.One group of 3 sharing a table decided to share screens and do a round robin. They all used the same 3 screens and these were the results. What a great idea!

Later in the week, the assignment was to take the piece of fabric they liked the least and use it to make a piece of art. Big groans and lots of mumbling under the breath later, some spectacular pieces emerged. Here's Connie with the piece she thought was ugly.

And here, in process, is what she did with it. I wish I had a picture of the finished piece.

These are some of Dorothy's fabrics (her least favorites. Why??)
In any case, she used some in this piece.
Kevin cut up a piece he had printed with soy wax over the weekend and here is the in-process result.

And there were many others that I didn't get good pictures of. Believe me, cutting into fabric you have printed can be traumatic. But if you start with a piece you really don't like much, it's a lot easier.

Blogger is making faces at me and threatening to stop uploading my pix. Besides, my French cousins are arriving tomorrow and I have to get my beauty sleep. Next week, the studio.

meanwhile...

2008-06-19T06:56:00.016-04:00

This week has sped by so quickly that I can hardly believe we're almost at the end. I've been teaching since Saturday, almost nonstop. And by the time I'm back from the evening's activities, too tired to blog. Sorry 'bout that. The soy wax batik was a big hit, and the class did some very cool work. There were 25 people, so lots of variety -- and they just couldn't get enough. Once it stopped raining, it got hot and we were able to dry our pieces outside on the ground or on the line. I showed the class how to steam their fabric and we had the pot going for a couple of days. The steaming took out a lot of the wax and set the dye at the same time. Here's Connie opening her package!

Here are some other pieces, done and back on the wall.

Sue Kavanaugh batik'd her t-shirt and came to show it off the day after class was over. How cool is this?? She was delighted with the results and so were the rest of us.
Some of the students from the weekend class remained for the next class, which I will get to later. Off to breakfast!

hello from Columbus

2008-06-13T21:59:00.003-04:00

No pix. I am happy to have Internet after 3 days of intermittent power and 3 nights of NONE. Horrendous storms, trees down, a fire in the transformers - bleh. Yesterday at 4 pm the electricity went again while I was in the middle of putting on the facing to the therapy quilt I was bringing with me. I would have used my treadle machine but there were no lights, either. No phone, no Internet, no air conditioning, and the smoke alarm kept screaming all night. Power was back at 4 this morning and by 6:am I was at the sewing machine. By the time I left for the airport, everything was back but the Internet.

Raining in Columbus - and of course, i have no umbrella or raincoat. But tomorrow, classes start and all will be well. I'll take pix and check in tomorrow when I can.

moving right along...

2008-06-10T21:55:00.008-04:00

The tile guys were here today and my backsplash is up. Yay! Tomorrow, they are coming back to do the grout, and the electricians will be here so I will have more than one working outlet. Meantime, here is what we have been living with:
When the tile started to go up I had some trepidations because it was such an unconventional choice for a contemporary kitchen. But, surprise!! We love it. The picture doesn't do it justice.
We are getting there.

am I food-obsessed?

2008-06-09T00:04:00.014-04:00

Where has the day gone? I'm still thinking about yesterday, which was nonstop and delightful. While I've been doing the kitchen renovation, some of the most helpful people have been on the Garden Web Kitchen Forum. Yesterday, a dozen of us gathered for brunch at Nice Matin on the upper west side of Manhattan and met in person for the first time.
What a lively group! It was fun to put faces to the screen names and on-line personalities. And we all had a great time. Marty came with me (you can see him in the foreground while I am yakking in the back). We have always driven in, but he's not driving these days till his eye heals and I don't drive in the City unless it's Sunday morning - so we took the bus in and the subway up to 79th. When we got to the Port Authority, Marty couldn't resist getting in line with the rest of the commuters in George Segal's famous sculpture. After brunch, we caught the 3:30 bus back to NJ and had a brief respite before we left for Kerr's. She was having an opening for an artist who was her very first assistant and it seemed like a nice thing to do on a Sat. night. The gallery was packed and was about 100 degrees, which is probably why I was fixated on the ice sculpture. Kerr's in the background saying goodbye to some guests.
These yummies were the next best thing to the ice: pignoli tarts that were so good, I have to figure out how to make them myself. They were from an organic bakery run by friends of the artist.

thunderstorm that brought down the temperature just in time for us to leave for home. We had a late (for us) dinner of the delicious spanikopita and taramosalata we had bought on 9th Avenue earlier in th day, before we ran for the bus. Joyva halavah for dessert - marble nut (pistachio) that we are rationing because it is impossible to find anymore where we live. In the store on 9th Ave, I pointed to the huge piece and said "THAT." It was 2-1/2 lbs of THAT. This is half.and this is the skinny piece I just cut for myself after I took the picture.
Heaven. If you are not acquainted with this confection, you can read about it here,
I have already located a source for it by mail and might have to buy it for Marty as a gift for his next birthday.

Worked all day today on the "therapy" sewing project but it is almost 2:AM, so I will leave it for tomorrow.

color, color, everywhere

2008-06-07T22:16:00.009-04:00

I couldn't resist sharing a photo with you of this colorful contents page from the (one) book in my possession.

Pam commented I never mentioned here that my book was a finalist in the 2008 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Consider it mentioned. It was a big surprise (since I didn't know there even was such an award) and I am thrilled that it made the short list (6) out of the thousands of books that are published each year by independent publishers like C&T.

I am still waiting for the books to arrive so I can get them out to you if you ordered a signed copy. They should be in the bookstores soon.

This has been a good time for me to do what Helene Davis calls "therapy sewing." I imagine we all need the no-brainer stuff periodically while the REAL creativity germinates. Some people make ATCs, collages, or postcards. Some sew strips. I seem to return to my own version of square-in-(or on) square, working in brights and quirky color combinations. This time I am cutting up a few of the bazillion yards and scraps of my own printed fabrics and pairing them with the gorgeous Indian fabrics from Handloom Batik. Today's assignment is to finish what I have started. It is 94 degrees outside, so staying in is a good plan.
Usha will be at QSDS vending this year and I will be thrilled to see her there. I just CANNOT let myself buy any more of her fabrics - if you are there and see me even thinking about it, stop me!!!!!

For now, before the day gets away from me, I'm back to the above project. Later I will tell you about yesterday's activities.

a printing day

2008-06-05T00:01:00.008-04:00

This afternoon I spent a few hours in the studio. I seem to be at a creative impasse - you know the routine: nothing comes together. So I took the opportunity to go back into a couple of pieces of fabric to see if I could improve them. This one was easy. Dyed, then discharged, it looked like a big nothing.

I don't normally buy other people's screens but at market, I saw this one and could not leave it there. It was just right for this space.
By the time I took a picture of this next one, it had been dyed, discharged, and printed. I hated it.
So I got out black dye and covered it all up. After I wash it out, it will undoubtedly need another layer or two.

This raucous fuschia on pink was beyond help, so I got out the syringe and went to work. Can you interpret how I was feeling?
Ditto this one. If you look closely enough you will see my mantra for this week:

LEFT TO THEMSELVES, THINGS WILL GO FROM BAD TO WORSE.

where was I? or where am I?

2008-06-03T23:50:00.007-04:00

The week started with great promise: Monday I spent all day in the studio. I had brought most of my fabric home a couple of weeks ago because I knew I would have to be here playing nurse. Monday, I took it all back and spent most of the day putting fabric piles back into bins. I took some particularly egregious pieces and discharged them. This is my high tech drying system: the wet fabrics pinned to portable print boards are facing the open window and the fan is blowing. Very effective. Do you think I should patent it? I took this photo of an audition; in the category of "what was I thinking?" - but as long as I had the picture, I figured I should post it. The screen is a photo I took several years ago of some kind of grate or manhole cover or something similar, in Europe - I can't remember where.
I love the screen and will have to play some more with it. Today, I never got out of the house. My boxes are finally ready for UPS to pick up tomorrow -- well, one of them, anyway. The other one I'll finish in the morning and I intend to hit the studio again tomorrow afternoon.

evening stroll

2008-05-29T20:46:00.006-04:00

After several weeks of staying in, I thought that it would be nice if we went out for dinner tonight. Understatement. I figured it would cheer up the patient if we dined elsewhere (i.e.- not in our kitchen, lovely though it may be). And it was bound to cheer up Nurse Rayna immeasurably. Indeed! It's soft shell crab season - and what could be better than that?? Saute'd in garlic, white wine, oil and served with a side of linguini - aaaaah.

After we got home I called Elinor, my friend next door, to go for a walk. Marty and I had walked earlier today and I knew I had to go back with my camera to capture this vision of loveliness, courtesy of our esteemed U.S. Postal Service.
In our condo development we have these cluster mailboxes. This one is in particularly sad shape and obviously, the USPS has gone to Home Despot and purchased a couple of horses and some 2x4's to solve the problem. It seems to be a permanent solution, since it has been like this for many months. How reassuring to know that our taxes are not being squandered on new mailboxes.

On another subject or two...rumor has it that my books are en route - whatever that means.
I am almost finished packing supplies for teaching at QSDS, and am still ironing fabric and trying to find a creative path. Have you ever noticed that when you are under pressure and trying too hard, nothing - but NOTHING happens?

I am tempted to make some Thermofax screens, just to distract myself.

blogarithm sold

2008-05-28T22:21:00.002-04:00

If you subscribed to my blog (or any blog) with blogarithm, you know that it has sold itself to somebody-or-other. So far, the buyer has not come through with any blog-update e-mails, except for one horrible unreadable one that was full of text. They promise to get their act together, but meantime, I have put a FeedBlitz thingie on my blog. You can sign up with Feedblitz for updates.

No ironing tonight.

why I need to iron

2008-05-28T14:55:00.016-04:00

When I am at an impasse and absolutely nothing is happening on the creative front, I know it is time to iron my fabric. Last night was one of those times.

First, I moved my table, which was against the wall, so it sticks out into the room. Not as space-efficient but at least I am facing the window. Last night, I ironed for about two hours and this is how far I got.
I realized that if I did nothing but iron my bins of printed fabric 24/7 for the next year, I would still not make a dent. So why am I still printing? (rhetorical question).

But back to the topic at hand: every time I iron (and I am sure I am not the only one) I see combinations I hadn't seen before and I start auditioning - throwing cloth at the wall to see what sticks, what works, what looks terrible, what has potential, and what I should throw into the - GASP - trash.

How do you work? This is how I work - and it is a slow process. If I'd taken pictures of all the possibilities I had with the fabric on the left, you'd fall asleep, so here are just two versions.

Then, I always find double-sided fabrics because I had not liked what I had printed, turned it over, and printed on the other side. These are always a revelation. Here's what I consider to be the front. The first layer, from what I can tell, was gelatin printed. Then I screened over it and it looks like I used a hand-carved stamp.

Here is the obverse. Looks like it was stamped with found objects and then I went in with the syringe.

And I came across this piece of fabric, stamped & stenciled with household objects and then syringed. Oh, how cute: what was I thinking? This is the other side.

It was obvious to me that this needs to be horizontal. But now what? Guess I'll have to play with it. But for the time being, it is in that pile on my table and tonight, it will be joined by whatever I iron after dinner.
Today I am packing supplies (for a change) and I think my much-needed break is over. For those of you who asked, Marty's eye is coming along and things are improving a teeny bit every day.

retro

2008-05-23T18:05:00.015-04:00

I love this quilt. It was 1993 and I had just quit the job from hell. I hadn't made a quilt since 1984, but the first thing I did after I left that job was to make this piece. It has polyester batting and it hangs over the bed in my guestroom. I saw an antique quilt with coffee cups - white with blue cups - in Jonathan Holstein's The Pieced Quilt (1971) and it was the most comforting thing I had ever seen. I needed one.

There was no pattern for it, so I drafted one on cardboard (I CANNOT believe I did that myself) added 1/4" around all the pieces, and went to work with scissors. If there were rotary cutters and omnigrids, I hadn't heard about it. The three on the first vertical row and the middle red cup (red striped seersucker) came from a blanket cover my grandmother had made from scraps she had brought home from the dress factory where she worked. I needed to give Nanny's old fabrics a new life. The rest I just filled in with whatever I had hanging around: some chintz, some calico: scraps. Here is a very bad picture of the 1910 quilt in the book that was the inspiration.
While I was looking for this book, I came upon 3 others that I highly recommend. One is Merikay Waldvogel's Soft Covers for Hard Times. Those depression quilts are quirky and wonderful - and if Ruth Clement Bond's quilts aren't ART, I don't know what IS. The book seems appropriate reading for today's nouveau depression, especially considering the amount of redwork and retro fabric I saw at quilt market.

The other two are about fifties fabrics. I seem to remember buying them in Lancaster one year, along with some bark cloth I was going to use but never have. It's in my trunk, along with antique blocks and who-knows what other fabric treasures. You'll see that everything old is new again. These books will make you smile.
Tonight, it's back to the fabric stash to see if I can pull anything out of it and put it together so it makes visual sense. But first, I am going to make a cup of coffee to toast this quilt that was the precursor to where I am today.

well, it didn't take long

2008-05-23T00:45:00.008-04:00

for my home studio to get back to normal - or what passes for normal around here. Ahhhh - this means I'm working. It has been so long since I've looked at and handled my fabrics that I am actually rusty. It's like speaking French or riding a bike: it takes a bit of time for it to come back and feel comfortable and instinctive.

This delicious pile of fabrics is my attempt to audition various pieces so I can make a few small things. But I think I am too tired now, at 1:am, to make decisions. I already sewed facing to the front of a piece that has been sitting here since the year of The Flood...and I sandwiched another piece that needs to be stitched and photographed. So, I feel I have accomplished something tonight.

more on market

2008-05-21T23:06:00.008-04:00

What a happy piece of fabric! I printed this spontaneously (how else?) as I was demonstrating some surface design at Market.
Pam Ronan had spotted the Crafter's Workshop stencil booth and I went over to see what was what. Wow! Not quilt stencils, but stencil stencils - and some with wonderfully abstract designs. I took them to class and then to the Checker booth to play with, and this was the result. I am not a stencil person, but I love these. I used them with paint and with Paintstiks.

For a gorgeous eyeful of Spring Market, go to Susan Brubaker Knapp's blog. She took pictures of the best displays at the show...not to mention having her picture taken with a regular rogue's gallery of who's who - LOL. Her report is totally different from mine and I'm sorry I had to leave a day early. Oh, well, I might have to go to Fall Market in Houston. Here is a picture of Susan and me after class; the pieces in the background all illustrated how hand prints can be combined easily and effectively with regular commercial fabrics.I didn't get too many pix at market because I was working. But I had to snap this picture. You can't see the whole quilt but don't need to. I just wish someone would explain to me why anybody needs to buy a pattern to make this quilt.
Meantime, Marty's eye surgery was an adventure (no, actually, the patient after anesthesia was the adventure) - but all went well and he is recovering. Thanks to all of you who left messages and e-mailed. He won't have any vision in right eye for about 3 weeks, by which time I will be leaving for QSDS. EEEEEEEEK.

Every morning has been early-to-rise; tomorrow we do not have any appointments. Do you think I will be able to sleep late?

Art to Wear

2008-05-20T07:29:00.004-04:00

You MUST go to Joanie San Chirico's blog and look at the images from Seams: Contemporary Art to Wear, the exhibit she curated for the Noyes Museum of Art! It is a feast for the eyes. Read her curator's statement first.

In the meantime, we are off to the eye surgery appointment. Thanks for all your thoughts.

home

2008-05-18T20:38:00.004-04:00

Landed in a rainy NJ late this afternoon but by the time I got home, the sun was coming out and I was happy to see my postage-stamp garden looking colorful.

Marty has a detached retina and lost fluid, so we don't know what the prognosis of the surgery will be. But I am home and we'll just manage it together.

Time zones are funny things. I was not in Portland long enough to accomodate and was still going to sleep at 9:30 and getting up at 3:30 or some such weird schedule. Now, it is almost 9:pm and I am ready to go to sleep in NJ. Will I wake up at 3:am?

Tomorrow, I will go through all my paperwork and sort the cards I collected so I can follow up with people i promised to contact. Tonight, just resting feet after all those convention center miles on concrete floors.

a.m and p.m.

2008-05-18T01:46:00.007-04:00

View from my hotel room this morning at about 5:30View from another part of town tonight around 8:00.
Either way, it is beautiful here. Between dawn and dusk, a full day. Taught a class for shop owners this morning. Many had never done this before and had a blast!
demo'd various fun surface design things this afternoon at a distributor's booth, and tonight - dinner with Jane Davila, Terry Grant, and June Underwood. What stellar company! Here we are, having more fun than should be legal.

L-R - yrs truly, Terry, Jane, June

Are they having fun yet?

Unfortunately, all this merriment comes to an abrupt end as I fly home early tomorrow. Marty has a serious eye problem and needs surgery, so I'd rather be there than here - even 13 hours earlier. Will post from home when I can.

a quick note

2008-05-17T00:49:00.006-04:00

My feet need to soak in a hot bath, but there isn't one here. Walked the convention center floor today and saw the new fabrics at lots of booths, noticed that the batting companies are using bamboo and corn to replace polyester, and that aprons are coming back into style. After a while, all those brown country things blend into one blur and you wonder why anybody wants to buy them. Then you notice that the booths are crowded with shop owners.
The convention center is very lovely.

Jane Davila and I noticed this group on our way out of the center tonight - all dressed the same way,wearing signes on their backs. When I asked if I could get a closer picture, they asked whether I wanted them to pose "en groupe." How nice of them. But I declined.
As I got closer, I saw what the signs said. The young woman in the back had a sign that said "quilter in training." It turned out that these were uniforms for people who all worked in the same fabric store. They don't wear them to work but instead, to "events." Hmmm.So Jane and I went to dinner. All the restaurants in Portland seemed to have broken air conditioning systems, as does my hotel. It is 80 degrees in my room: the window is open and the management sent in a fan. My husband says it is 55 degrees and pouring rain in NJ so I guess I should not complain. Then again, he does not need air conditioning for that weather. On the way back from dinner, we stopped to look at this street sculpture - an actual tree.
Here is a detail.
We attempted to take our own pictures, but they were so horrible we deleted them. Then a passerby offered to take them for us. Still not great, but here we are.
Tomorrow I have to get up at 5:30 to be at work, so I am going to sign off now.

to market, to market...

2008-05-15T23:51:00.004-04:00

The day is over, I am back in my room, and tomorrow morning I hope to sleep late. We shall see. Being on east coast time, I was up at 4:am west coast time. NOT a good thing. Now it is almost 9pm Oregon time and almost midnight Rayna's body-time. (So I don't guarantee anything).

So, this will be short and sweet?. Busy today - but good. Started the day with a bang! A delightful time and a to-die-for breakfas t with the lovely and talented Terry Grant. What a treat! I simply love it when I get to "know" somebody on line and finally get to meet them in person and they are just a s fun and cool as you knew they would be. Don't you love when this happens to you???After breakfast, Terry went shopping and I hot-footed it over to the convention center. I spent the day wandering around and then attending various sessions given by other authors. Finally, I got my chance to talk about my book and then went to dinner with the wonderful C&T people.

I am going to sleep momentarily and hope to sleep in tomorrow morning - but I have the day free and will make the rounds at Market. Will post again when I can.

Welcome to Portland

2008-05-14T15:44:00.003-04:00

I slept for most of the flight, after having gotten up at 3:30 a.m. Happily, the plane was not full and I was able to get an aisle seat in the exit row- plenty of leg room. Even better, the center seat was empty and the window seat was occupied by someone going to Market -- and we discovered we have common acquaintances. Of course!

The weather is iffy here - gray and chilly. Can I believe them when they claim the rest of the week will be in the 80's and 90's? This is the view from my hotel room and I think the sun is coming out.
While I was waiting for my room to be ready I went in search of lunch and an Office Depot, where I could have more business cards printed because I did not bring enough. In a little while, Anna Faustino, another author and I, are going to head over to the convention center to get our badges and say hello to the C&T people while they are setting up their booth. She in napping; I am talking to you.

I called Terry Grant when I arrived and if we can coordinate our schedules, we hope to have breakfast tomorrow before I go over to the convention center.

I am 3 hours ahead so I'll try to adjust before I need to be perky and lively tomorrow! I'll check back with you when I can.

before and after

2008-05-13T21:52:00.006-04:00

Every time I go away I wish the gremlins would come in and clean up my ROOM so that when I get back, it would be neat. Oddly enough, they never show up and I come home to the same mess. Tomorrow, I leave again. And tonight, as I surveyed the scene I saw it was worse than ever. Boxes half-packed for QSDS teaching supplies; fabrics I brought home from the studio to make samples to take with me to market; the supply suitcase still packed from last week's trip; 50 lbs of soy wax in a carton. The view from my chair...honestly, not staged.
I knew I couldn't face coming back to this on Monday morning.

So I got to work...and an hour or two later...

I feel sooo much better. And I know it will stay this way because I am not here.

The alarm is set for 3:30 a.m. and it's almost 10:30 so I think I had better try to get a few hours of sleep. I will check in from Portland.

subliminal color influences

2008-05-12T06:55:00.017-04:00

...are such a part of our lives as artists that we don't think about them till all of a sudden, we SEE. This morning, as I got out my bag of Gorilla coffee (see yesterday's post) I was stunned at what hit me! I had taken back the tile sample but when I saw the package, it made me smile. Coincidence? Or one of those environmental influences that sneaks up on us when we are not looking?

Now I wonder whether my soapstone choice was influenced by the previous color of my kitchen walls.

We all know how much our surroundings (color, light, weather) influence our work: Jette Clover told me that when she moved from the Netherlands to Florida her palette became much more vivid. I haven't asked her whether it has changed since she moved to Belgium, but I would not be surprised.

Here are the colors that greeted me when I entered the kitchen this morning (before I took out the coffee- LOL).
And then I looked outside at the deck and saw the palette that influences some of my favorite pieces.

Everything looks so GREEN with the spring rain- but I prefer the colors of autumn. Then again, that takes me full circle to the backsplash...
How do the components of your environment (color, light, weather, geography) influence the color and timbre of your work? Are you always conscious of those influences or do they just happen and then you see them in retrospect?

a sneak peek

2008-05-11T22:43:00.007-04:00

ONE preview copy of Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth arrived here yesterday and I have to say I am thrilled with how beautiful it looks! We won't see the rest of the copies till June - but since June is almost here, I guess we'll survive.

The next two days will be hectic as I get ready to go to International Quilt Market in Portland. My suitcase is sort of packed but I still have a lot to finish before I leave.

Mother's Day was very pleasant: We went to Brooklyn (I drove, so couldn't take any photos en route) and took my 91 year old mother with us to have brunch at Jessica & Tommy's. Jessica outdid herself with two exceptional fritatte, bagels, fruit salad, and my favorite Gorilla Coffee - roasted in Brooklyn, every day. Happily for me, Whole Foods carries it, but I have also mail-ordered it. It's the best. Especially with dark-chocolate covered pretzels, which we brought as a hostess gift.

Here we are after that lovely meal; a rather unglamorous pic of the 3 generations, but I suspect that someday we'll be glad we have it. I remember a mother's day meal 21 years ago and I wish I could find those pictures: my father died suddenly a few days later.
Jessica had an interesting week -- professional involvements with Giorgio Armani, Marc Jacobs, and an up-close George Clooney sighting ( yes, she says he is to-die-for gorgeous in person). Friday night she attended a party with Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart, and numerous other recognizeable names - and said it was fun. I would think so!

My gift today, besides flowers, was the new cookbook from O Oprah - and Jessica says the recipes are very good. New kitchen, new cookbook - I guess I'll have to get to work. AFTER I get home from Oregon. I just hope the weather there is warmer than it is here. It has been a chilly spring.

it's mating season

2008-05-09T22:29:00.010-04:00

for wild turkeys. This is the time of year. These two were standing around in front of my house, chatting, but by the time I grabbed my camera, they were hot-footing it up the street.
There was a big article in the paper today about how they are hanging around, chomping in the garden, eating from bird feeders, and chasing people around, barking and biting and threatening. They are extremely aggressive and think that humans are below them in the pecking order, so they come after you and expect you to do their bidding. Yell and swat at them with a oom and they will go away and leave you alone. Ever since some do-gooder re-introduced them to NJ, they have multiplied like rabbits and instead of remaining in wild habitats, have moved to the burbs. I counted 16 of them outside the door a few weeks ago. They are scary.

On another subject, I am done. Today, I ordered the backsplash for the kitchen and am happy that one more decision is off my head. I needed some warmth with the cool stainless steel and soapstone and when I finally got around to following my instincts, this is where I ended up.

I just finished sewing down the facing on a piece I need to take to Quilt Market with me, so that's another thing to cross off the list (if I had a list, which I don't). Maybe I should write a list, starting with the things that are already done so I can fool myself into thinking I have accomplished something. But it seems like too much trouble. Do you write lists? Do you actually know where those lists are when you want them?

I loved looking at the pictures of Susie Monday's clean studio. Mine has been neat many times - for about five minutes each time. I don't have pictures of my studio (thank goodness) but here are a few I took last week when I went into the city to meet Joanie and Jette. As always, I am a sucker for urban grit.

view from a high-profile gallery in Chelsea
G'night.