Make a Smilebox slideshow

We had a great trip to New Orleans recently. Enjoyed great visual feasts and awesome culinary ones as well as finding great people with terrific spirits and the stories that come with them...

In the culinary world we went to Muriel's, Stanley, Stella and Irene's. Interesting that they are all people names. The food was at least good and at best mind blowing. Stanley has THE Gumbo of Life! It is the flavor you are looking for in the world of gumbos. I then had a version of 'eggs benedict' with soft shell crab that was so yummy. Our waiter at Stanley was Nate. Nate is a great waiter. The kind of waiter who spoils you for any other. Knowledgeable about the menu and passionate about food and the whole of New Orleans. That night for dinner he waited on us at Stella (Stanley's big sister). At Stella we had a culinary experience that included tasting things I THOUGHT I had had previously, but their preparation made me question that -- Foie Gras and Marshmallows (not together). The former had a completely different texture and taste than I had had before, the latter literally melted in my mouth. The entire meal was a culinary orgy of delight and new flavor couplings. The staff was friendly, courteous and beyond efficient.

Our last night was the trip to Irene's, a little Italian place which fulfills every picture you have of that "little Italian place." Great Crab au gratin, a caesar that was what cesars are meant to be, and osso bucco. Need I say more?

We meet great people like the woman at 'The Idea Factory' (http://www.ideafactoryneworleans.com/) or the proprietress of The Magic Box (http://www.magicboxneworleans.com/) or the weaver at Louisiana Loomworks (http://customragrugs.com/). Great people and terrific merchandise.

Hope you enjoy the images from the trip and visit some of these places on your trip to the French Quarter.

I though I would share some of the work I have created over the past several years. From portraiture to abstract, from artsy to traditional there is a thread woven through it all!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Isn't SmileBox great!

Contours

In an effort to increase my aptitude in drawing I thought I would turn to a standby, Contour Drawing.

For those of you who have forgotten or blocked it out of your memory - in elementary school we drew our hands without looking at them. That was called a blind contour drawing. It produces weird drawings that rarely look like the object that was drawn. The idea is not recreating the object but rather to study and look at it, especially the edges. For me trying to move my eye and my hand at the same rate is the challenge. And on a domestic sewing machine so I am in effect moving my paper...

If you are thinking that it looks good that is because after doing three blind contours I did a contour drawing looking at the object. Here are the first three. (above is three blind contours and a drawing)

From an etching book. Three blind contours and then coloured pencil

A tulip from a magazine ad. Three blind contours, a drawing and then fabric paint. Seed stitching fills the background.

This Summer has been busy.

A new irrigation system was installed just before the rainy season...

I gave a presentation of my work to Uncommon Threads, my quilt guild in Memphis (actually Germantown) and as Challenge Chairperson I gave a class for all participants of the challenge.

Amidst all this a few friends and I got together and dyed fabric. Twenty two yards is what I dyed that Saturday.

Pictured at right is Marge laying her purple graduations out to rinse on Arlene's awesome rinsing rack! What an ingenious way to rinse.

One thing new I tried was a 'parfait' from Ann Johnston's book "Color by Accident"

http://www.annjohnston.net/

This parfait was done with first one yard of fabric in a bucket with red dye then a second yard and blue and finally a third yard and more red. Each colour sat for twenty minutes before the next was added and no stirring occurred until the end producing mottled and varied cloths.

I took those three fabrics along with white and made a quilt for Quilts of Valor. They give quilts to all returning service men and women.

Check out their website

http://www.qovf.org/

Here is the second figure that I made in our class with California 3D Quilt Artist Susan Else. She (figure) in only pinned together at limbs right now -- going to play with her gesture a little before committing to a pose...

Here are the creatures we made... (from left to right) my little mole guy, Jodi's green horned creature, Christopher's dragalope and Susan's creature melding into the background at right...

I recently attended Quilt National at the Dairy Barn in Athens Ohio. The trip overall was terrific. The whole point was to see Quilt National before it closed. I am so glad I went. Here are some links to artist work I saw and was inspired by. These few pieces out of the whole lot of awesome work spoke to me in a very particular manner about my work...

Leisa Rick has a beautiful piece, "My House Is Built On Sand" whose playfulness and line drawing was very cool.

http://tinyurl.com/kv8hrx

Marianne Burr, "Spin Out". I had seen her work on the cover of American Style Magazine and was captivated. Seeing this work in person made me pause. The dense hand work used to make this piece -- it was humbling. And yet the impact had nothing to do with that, rather just the sheer beauty of the movement and shapes, especially the rhythm created by the repeated stitches.

http://tinyurl.com/l9w4w5

Nelda Warketin, "Meadow Pine". I am captivated by images superimposed upon each other. Her use of materials, thread and paint created a subtly undulating surface of layers to be seen through.

http://tinyurl.com/mhbaet

Inge Hueber takes the quilt inside out with her "High Tide/Low Tide -- Broadstairs, Kent 1". With seams meticulously created and put on display on the exterior front of the quilt her colour work not only recreates her experience of a place and time, but placement of those colours create a movement reminiscent of tides coming and going.

http://tinyurl.com/kss6wl

Mary Louise Learned, "Street Dance" at a distance has movement you would expect from a piece with a title about dance. Upon closer inspection however a whole world of texture opens up. The lines are given feeling with wool roving, or wool before it is spun into yarn. The surface is a riot of textures that begs to be stroked and experienced (yet alas there is not touching the art!).

http://www.mllearned.com/

Margery Goodall's quartet, "Earth Suite: Saltland, Pindan, Dune, Fire Ash" created with tiny pieces cut from pieced fabrics sewn into stripes with mottled yet solid fabrics create these sparkling surfaces that compel you to look closer. Stunning.

http://tinyurl.com/nn9wb5

Daphne Taylor's "Quilt Drawing #9" was the simplest most elegant thing... A lithe sinuous line of black slicing through a cream silk surface with tiny black stitched lines placed so close to one another as to create a block. Emerging from under the block is a mass of flowing cream lines dancing out from behind the grid. So simple yet so beautiful.

www.daphnetaylorquilts.com/

Lastly there was Kathy York whose piece "Little Fish in a Big City" was brilliant and poignant. A statement about dependance on the oceans and out need to protect them still has a sense of humor and great visual interest from little geometrics quilted into the indigo ocean to the 3D buildings and fish taxis.

http://tinyurl.com/lt4gcl

All told the biggest lesson learned is seeing in person is vital. I have seen images of some of these featured artists work. Despite the deftness of the photographer the subtle nature of a quilt is diminished. Standing in front of them was something magical and inspiring. Definitely worth the drive!

Another note -- sorry for the lack of images, but these are working artists and their images are their property. I did not aquire permission to use them here so I did not. Please respect others and get their permission before pirating images from books or on-line. Thanks

Listening

Listening is something that anyone would argue they do. Most people listening to them argue would probably say the speaker does not listen. Indeed most of us do not have the experience of being listened to.

Yesterday I posted on Craigslist to advertise a class I am hosting. On all of their postings the viewer sees a statement about not contacting the posting part for solicitation. What sit he first response to my listing? You guessed correctly: solicitation.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, "But if he is listing there he should expect that!"

Sure I will give you that. And what about other places and occasions? How often do you speak to a customer service person and all you hear them saying in response to your claim is they are sorry and can do nothing. This is because they are not really listening to you. They hear every word you say, but more often than not they are concerned about what is happening in their life not about your issue.

More frequently the people in our lives don't experience being listened to because we listen through our history of them. When I ask a friend how they are I already know that they are having aches and pains and a rough day because that is how they are. So when one day they are excited about something I miss it because I know they are miserable.

If I expect to be listened to I need to practice listening.

Who have you not listened to today?