Where am I?

I’m not sure where the last month went, but I can tell you it wasn’t spent blogging.  I think it was partly spent spring cleaning.  Yes, I love opening the windows, cleaning the stuffy winter smell from everything.  There was a very busy week involving a bus trip away in there. But then I made the mistake of saying “gee, I got thru the entire winter without being sick”. I know better.  Two days later the sore throat started but I pressed on.  Two more days and I was down for the count.  6 boxes of Puffs later and I’m back among the living.  But oh wait, meanwhile in the middle of this my eye problems worsened so I made an appointment to see my ophthalmologist about two issues, as soon as I was well.  Well, turns out it was fortuitous that I made the appointment, because the issue that caused me to make it wasn’t the critical issue, but rather what I thought was a minor issue turned out to be a retinal tear which required immediate laser surgery. Whew! I was very lucky.  

So I’m hoping I’m done for a bit.  I did get a few tangles done in between, and am still busy working on my new red and white quilt which I’m not showing until it’s done.  We are experimenting with homemade ice cream because we want to have control of what’s in it.  It’s not cheaper, just better for you. So I may pass along some things I’ve gleaned from others, specifically my pal ice cream Queen Denice. 

Until then, here’s a few mandala Zentangles® to share:

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and drawing……

Yes, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m wearing green of course.  And shortly I will put my favorite meal in the oven….roasted corned beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and of course cabbage.  It was my requested favorite meal throughout my childhood, whatever the event or celebration.  My hubby…..not so much.  He grimaces even as it cooks.  He prays it shrinks up and disappears in the pan so there won’t be any left overs.  Not me…..I’m happy to see it show up in a Rueben sandwich, or hash in the upcoming days.  

I’m drawing again. Yes, took a slight detour from the black and white of Zentangle land and decided to incorporate some color.  Yes, I’m still doing them daily like a dog on a bone, but I pulled out my colored pencils…..Koh-I-Noor woodless and Faber Castell Polychromos and got to work.   I love them both, but wish the woodless came in larger sets as they are my favorites.

A friend pointed out a while ago that I’m a seasonal colorist.  About this time each year I go ‘brights’….I mean clothes, painting, quilting, food……whatever I’m working on and whatever offsets the dull gray winter colors.  It’s not that I don’t love the cool purple gray shadows on the show, it’s just I’ve had enough about mid-March.  So it is with my colors today. 

But what I discovered (big surprise on Pinterest) was a nifty trick to add some depth or saturation to my colored pencil work.  I love the ease of use colored pencils give but sometimes I want richer, almost oil like effects but I can’t get them with color pencils.  I want lush sunlight, somewhere between watercolors and oils.  By adding a delicate wash of baby oil on top of the pencils, they blend better.  You don’t see the colored pencil marks as much.  Some are more dramatic than others, but I think you’ll see the difference:

Before and after (yes, stacked up shamrocks!)

Before and after

Before and after

Before and after

And it gives off the most interesting shade when held backwards to the sunlight.  And not to be forgotten, the baby oil smells nice.  

National Pancake Day

Happy National Pancake Day.....okay, I admit, it’s been a very long and colder than normal winter so…..cut me some slack.  This is the time when you need to look long and hard for reasons to get out of bed.  As I write this, there’s white out conditions outside……again.  You see, we live in a region that experiences what some loathsomely call LAKE EFFECT.  In the summer this can be a benefit as the temps are usually 5-10 degrees cooler than 15 miles inland. 

But for the better part of the winter, it rages.  And I mean RAGES.  So today I decided to find a reason to have happy thoughts.  And what brings happy thoughts out more than comfort food……hot off the griddle slathered with warm maple syrup old fashioned buttermilk pancakes.  None of those fluffy cakey like discs, real old European style pancakes.  Best part, they are fast and simple to make.

My mother called them German Pancakes, as they came from her immigrant grandmother who by strange coincidence was German.  But for today…..to avoid being politically incorrect or inciting a war over recipe ownership, I am calling them ‘old fashioned’.  Whoever wants to attach any other authorship to this old recipe, knock yourself out.  So here it goes…………..it doesn't get easier than this.

Old Fashion Buttermilk Pancakes

1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup regular buttermilk, not low fat

Whisk egg and buttermilk in a medium size bowl

Sift dry ingredients into wet, mixing only until blended.  Don’t over-mix.  Mixture may seem lumpy

Spoon ½ cup of batter onto a hot greased griddle.

Flip when the edges are slightly golden and the steam bubbles begin to pop.

Cook on the second side until browned and steam stops.

Serve immediately with butter and warm maple syrup and your favorite sausage, bacon or ham.

WHY QUILTS MATTER....and the Modern Movement

This morning my inbox had a link to a new interview with Marianne Fons, of Fons and Porter fame, from one of my favorite sites WHY QUILTS MATTER, the Kentucky Quilt Project blog.  For those not familiar, they independently produced and funded the 8 part series Why Quilts Matter: History, Art and Politics documentary series that ran on PBS thru independent distributors.  It was so well done, and informative!

I enjoy Fons and Porter, even visiting their shop in Iowa with a friend of mine on a cross-country RV junket a few years ago.  The interview tells how she got her start, and how her partnership formed with Liz Porter.

The most surprising part of the interview was about the modern quilt movement.  I’ve been researching this segment for some time, primarily asking myself one question………….how are aging baby boomer quilters going to ensure our love of quilting is passed down to the following generations?  Recently I joined a group of local ladies to create a new quilt guild (members at 85 and climbing already) and this became one of my tops concerns.

Marianne was asked what she sees are some of the greatest changes in the quilt movement in the past five years.  “I’ve been totally pumped by the ‘modern movement'. Many of the quilters attracted to the ‘modern’ aesthetic are youngish, and I have enjoyed the infusion of energy brought by young quilters, especially in the industry side.”

Meaning…..new fabric designers, and their emerging styles. Tula Pink, Joel Dewberry, Denyse Schmidt, Parson Gray to name a few….plus those more familiar names Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler, all deeply entrenched in the modern movement.

You can see what I wrote about the modern movement in previous posts.  You can also ‘Google’ modern quilts, modern quilt books, and modern quilt designers to see lots of wonderful examples that help explain what this exciting category is.  They are fresh and beautiful!  Or visit QUILTCON and the Modern Quilt Guild, the national organization devoted to the modern movement.  

I feel pretty safe that the future of quilting is in very good hands with the many younger people involved in this movement.  My only regret is I won’t be around in a hundred years to see how things have evolved, but I suspect quilts will still VERY MUCH matter.

For more information:

www.whyquiltsmatter.org

www.quiltcon.com

www.themodernquiltguild.com

Red and White Quilts........the Joanna S. Rose collection

Red and White quilts

Back in March 2011 three centuries of red and white quilts were on display at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.  Sponsored by the American Folk Art Museum, the exhibit brought together 650 red and white quilts from the single collection of Joanna S. Rose, the largest single exhibition of quilts ever held in NYC, free to the public no less.  The magical, spiral method to display the quilts was spell-binding. Hard to imagine one person collecting 650 quilts let alone all red and white.   Google it to learn more........

I’ve been captivated by this effort…the quilts, the display method, one single collection ever since.  I traveled to NYC for work on a regular basis, but missed the exhibit by a day due to a rescheduled customer meeting.  Many regrets on this one!

The minute we launched our new quilt guild last September….BIG RED QUILTERS GUILD, I had this idea swirling in the back of my head to do some type of guild wide project along these lines.  Perhaps a year-long challenge, followed with some type of exhibit, connecting our guild name to the red and white category.  I presented the idea at one of our board meetings.  The consensus was yes, we should do something. Naturally, it will be much smaller.

Details have been finalized, and will be announced at our next meeting.  Knowing the details, I couldn’t wait.  I began pulling reds from my stash, planning, organizing, etc.  My quilt is traditional, my original design, involving 26 scrappy shades of red.  Civil wars, modern, batiks....you name it.  If it reads 'red', its auditioned.  

When finished it will have 1,050 hand applique leaves, over 90 feet of 1/3” bias tape red stems, on a white on white background, and who knows how many hours of stitching. I have some time to decide if I will hand quilt or do my own machine quilting, but you can bet I’m tossing it around in my head.

Here’s a snippet to tease your red and white sensibilities…….the many fabrics and bias tape I made up ready to go.   I’ll be sure to post when all the quilts are done.  Maybe a teaser in between………but if you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know what I'm doing! 

More.…..Valentines Zentangle®

VZ…..Valentines Zentangle®

I seriously can’t stop.  Perhaps I need a 12-step program.  Maybe later…….

VZ…..Valentines Zentangle®

No offense to Hallmark or American Greetings, but sending cards on special occasions is getting, well, cost-prohibitive, so sad since many of us enjoy sending all those pink and red cards, slathered with all sappy and sticky sentiments.

Those of us of a certain age may remember our elementary days celebrating Valentine’s Day.  A few days before our party we’d decorate paper lunch sacks with crayons and stickers and white paper doilies, with our names BOLDLY reminding the cute little boy we had a crush on which bag was ours.  God forbid he could accidentally put MY card in the wrong bag! 

We’d secure our bags on the tack board, or on a rope along the wall, or perhaps right on our desk.  The day of we’d break in the afternoon for our party.   Everyone proudly deposited their secret cards into each bag.  We’d enjoy freshly baked and brightly colored cupcakes, more simple than today’s versions along with boxes of warm milk.  We hit the mother lode if someone gave out boxes of candy hearts with cute sayings, or boxes of red hots.  Or better yet….chocolate foiled wrapped hearts.  And then we’d painstakingly read through every card to be sure that one special card in fact was there. 

Hearts could soar, or be broken in an instant.  Whichever side of the coin toss you ended up on, it’s a wonderful childhood memory.  I loved it.  I wish I could decorate a lunch sack today and have it filled up with mushy poems of love.

This year I decided to opt out of the purchased option replacing it with functional cards of a different kind.  So here I am…..tangling up a storm inside while it’s blowing snow and cold outside.  I decided to design Zentangle® bookmarks in lieu of cards.  The tools are simple and on hand….heavy vellum card stock, pens and markers, along with the sleeves for the finished product.  I still need to pick up a bunch of red corded ribbons that hang off the ends. 

So here they are, handmade, crafted by hand…..minus the ribbons, ready for Valentine’s Day.