My Lovely Sam-Soon

It's a K-Drama Katastrophe!

What is it with me having to go of town during the very last episodes of these?! Why?! Regular readers know that I love Korean dramas on AZN. The latest and even better than the rest has been "My Lovely Sam-Soon." One of the highest rated shows all over Asia (and Hawaii!), Sam-soon (actress Kim Soon-Ah) is a 29-year old pastries chef. Slightly overweight (by Korean standards I guess, since I think she looks fine), outspoken, and constantly teased about being an "old maid," she is dumped by her boyfriend during the Holidays. In danger of losing her home, she agrees to be a fake girlfriend to rich guy Jin-Heon (actor Hyun Bin) to throw off his mom and pay the debt. Toss in an ex that comes back from the States into his life and the supercute hottie doctor who loves her, and the hilarity ensues. Sam-soon's down to earth and truly speaks her mind--more than any other female lead character I've seen in a K-drama so far. This is a hilarious, well-written (and subtitled) show. Imagine a Korean "Bridget Jones" and you'll understand why I love it.

And, darn it, I'm going to miss the first episide of the new one "Full House!"

Quiet Peace In the Country

I was down at my family's country house this weekend with my grandmom and great-aunt, which is always relaxing. We talked non-stop. I am very close to both of them and enjoy my time with the two of them. They put me--who is a very non-domestic type--through some hard manual labor, lol, washing dishes after a big dinner for an hour and hoeing and raking the family cemetery. I didn't mind at all though, as I didn't want them doing it, even though at one point I joked about "following the drinking gourd."

I brought Nicole (my best friend from college) with me--as I thought she could use the getaway, lol. I always like to share the peace and quiet that is being down there. The way the leaves rustle through the trees. The stars scattered across the night sky. The breezes and freshness of the air. The deer bounding across the field. The visits from our neighbor's dogs. The sense of being on land that my ancestors have had for generations.

She took full advantage of it by reading, writing, or painting outside on the porch or on a blanket under our plum tree. I know she just went through a bad breakup recently and hope that she found some healing solace in it all. Everything's so familiar and comforting for me there, that I'm glad that she got to feel like that too.

New Podcast Episode! Quilting Hang-ups and Emotions

The second episode of Sew Chick: The Podcast is ready!!

I sat down with psychologist Dr. Cynthia Sparrow and we chatted about how to deal with clutter (I've seen your studios and stashes out there!), procrastination, self-doubt and envy. We also talk about entering shows and dealing with rejections.

I had a lot of fun talking to her and I hope that you all enjoy the interview!

I Love You Janome Sewing Machine & Table!

That's it. I'm leaving my husband for my sewing machine and extension table. I love you Janome 6260QC and extension table. I LOVE YOU! LOL!

D. knows that I'm joking, but even he sat down at it (and pushed the foot pedal for a moment before jumping up and running) and admitted that my spankin' brand new Janome extension table is as "ooooooo" and "ahhhhh" as I couldn't stop saying. I can thank Mrs. Mel for that as I saw hers in a photo on her blog and it sparked an accessory envy that was so bad that I had to have one for myself. I twitched all through a Janome factory backorder, but it came. My supercool table finally came. Ooooo y'all. All sorts of creative ideas are floating through my mind to put it through its paces.

What also came was some very cool Nelson Mandela fabric that I ordered from Kyra Hicks, the author of Black Threads: An African American Quilting Sourcebook. It's a heavy cotton canvas from South Africa. It's pretty eyecatching, huh?

Back from Princeton

I was in Princeton for a chorus seminar for work. It was pretty cool...

Okay, a comment in Monday's posting led me to thinking: Do we associate rejection letters with being rejected? My poster says we shouldn't , as it can lead to different thought, and I agree.

Although they don't make me feel bad or rejected, I think many of us do. How do some of you cope with them?

Addicted to Korean Dramas

Those of you who regularly read this blog know that my husband and I love Korean dramas that come on the AZN network. I don't know, we find the characters engaging and enjoy the peek into Korean culture. Pretty well-subtitled, they only run for a few weeks--about 20 episodes--just enough to leave you wanting more.

On "As You Wish" (Ruler of Your Own World), Bok-su (played by actor Yang Dong-Geun) is a charming, young pickpocket who finds out he has cancer and goes about trying to live his life to the fullest. We get to follow his adventures (and trials) as he does so. Not a downer at all, it particularly focuses on his relationship with Gyeong (Lee Na-Young), a musician who sweeps him off his feet, and his ex--the bossy, fiesty Mirae. I thought it was funny, thoughtful and well-written.

I'm going to be in Princeton and miss the very last two episodes after not missing one at all! Sigh. "My Lovely Samsoon" starts next week, LOL.

Reviews and Rejections? "Fffft" on That!

I've been reading Anna Deavere Smith's Letters to a Young Artist. So inspirational for creative folk. Pick it up!

I thought about how rejections and negative critiques and reviews can be so hurtful to our creative psyche. I once asked a well-known symphony chorus conductor how he felt about reviews and how he dealt with negative ones. He raised an eyebrow, looked at me and grimaced. "Fffft!" he practically hissed in disgust. "I don't. I just can't pay attention to them. I think about how I discuss and disagree with my colleagues. Imagine if we were writing the review--you'd have one person who loved it and another who hated it. It is too subjective. It is also scary that one person can wield that much power." I agreed.

As a writer, I deal with rejection letters and that constant nagging "Oh crap...do I measure up?" little voice in my head sometimes too. As art quilters, we deal with those same things, just like any other creative type: rejections from shows, envy, self-doubt, fear. It's how we actually cope with this that makes all the difference.

Art Sewciety Bleach Discharge Day Photos!

Finis (ABOVE) picks up her pre-bleached fabric...
Elle lays bleach gel over plastic canvas
Bennie and some of the supplies...
Elle's stitch resist before the bleach dip
Winifred spraying bleach over gingko leaves


I'm sorry everyone! I thought I posted these already! We had a great time experimenting with different bleach discharge techniques. We used 100% bleach for dipping, 100% in a spray bottle, diluted in a spray bottle, tick and thin versions of bleach gel, Ajax-style cleanser, and bleach pens. I even went Jackson Pollock and poured/threw bleach onto the fabric!

Enjoy the pics! You can hear what happened on the Podcast!

The Sew Chick Podcast is Ready!!!

OOOOO!

The first episode of Sew Chick: Art Quilt Adventurer--The Podcast is ready! You'll hear me chatting about how I got into art quilting and then it's a sound visit with the Art Sewciety as we had fun with bleach discharging and talking about art quilting.

I'll be posting about the Art Society tomorrow and you can see what a good time I had.

Enjoy the show!!!!

Retreats and Discharge and Apples, Oh My!

This week's going by really fast for me so far. I can't believe it's already Thursday. I've been under the weather so I haven't been creatively productive at all lately, which isn't good, you know? However, Saturday might change that...

A few of my guild members branched off to form the Art Sewciety, which focuses on aspects of art quilting and techniques. One of its members went to an art quilting symposium given by Juanita Yeager and she's going to share bleach discharge techniques with us. I haven't tried that, so I'm pretty excited. I'll be recording some of it and talking to some of the members for my podcast (yay!), which you should look out for this weekend!

I'm also excited about the possibility of getting in a really good dye day next month. I'm going down to my family's country house (see the pic below), to spend some chill time w/my grandmom and great-aunt. I think I'll try to get some dyeing done, maybe even experiment with sunprinting too. Hmm. My best friend from college might be coming with me to "get her art on" and I'll make her assist me. She'll probably get a kick out of it--being a painter and all. Ohmigod, maybe they'll make us apples for breakfast! I love when they do. Ooooo...this is going to be fun.

Sew Chick: The Podcast!

Oooo! What's that link on the right?

That's right! Sew Chick's going audio and diving into the world of podcasting with Sew Chick: The Podcast! I thought it would be fun to have a companion podcast so check it again soon, as you'll be able to enjoy my explorations of the art quilting world! And, don't think I might not call upon my fellow AQ'ers to be in on the journey!

Solo Show?

I am so excited...talks are in the very very early stages, but I might have a solo show happening next March! I am so tickled that I don't know what to say right now!!!! I'm going to cross my fingers that this all works out!

From One Extreme to the Next!

Do I live in Vegas? No. Do I live in Arizona? No. New Mexico? Nope.

I live in D.C., so why, why, why was this the temperature outside today--at 5:45 pm!

First the rain, now this, LOL!!!

Project Runway's BACK!

Okay Deb and all of you Project Runway style mavens! It's baaa-aaaack! One of my fave designs is Michael's above--out of coffee filters!

I think this season's designers are better technically all around from what I've seen of the show so far. Last year's had quite a few dicey ones and I didn't think they were as good as the first season's. What PR has proven time and time again is that if you are not technically proficient--as in, you can't actually construct a garment--you will not make it through this show.

I love PR. Tim Gunn is the man.

Shows

I'm thinking about entering Quilt National in Sept., which means I need to get crackin' now.

I have some ideas swirling around. It's been a while since I've entered a show, and those of your who are regular readers know how I feel about them. It's like a necessary evil or something. I figure I'll enter ones that I feel are worth it to try. You've got to at least try, you know?

More from the Textile Museum

I had a good time at the Textile Museum.

It's a small museum and seems to have rotating exhibits based upon its collection, but there were cool examples such as this Peruvian piece from the 15-16th c. It is made of feathers! How cool, huh?

Yup, that's me peering through a magnifying glass (provided by the museum) at a piece from the Greek Isles/Crete embroidery exhibit. Such detail! There were so many other cool pieces. Like us, I imagine the textile artists who created these spending so much time and effort to create these pices of beauty--often serving functional, everyday uses and not given a second thought to it. Once upon a time, your sewing or embroidery skills were prized. It was something to be passed down. These traditions are being lost as new generations don't even know how to thread a needle in this disposable society.

We have to keep these traditions alive...

Indigo Dye and Textile Museum

Okay, I finally made it to the Textile Museum! Fantastic place! I had a lovely time there!

I was there for a presentation called "True Blue," which discussed the use of indigo dye in cultures worldwide. It was very interesting. Trade routes sprang up along centers of its production or natural plant growth. "Crocking"--when it rubs off on the skin is considered great in some parts of the world as it imparts status. However, in India, the color blue was once associated with lower castes, and the printing and dye processes were passed down patriarchially. In Japan, it was considered a protection from snake and insect bites--which could've been due to the nautral ammonia in the indigo. Celts used a form of indigo (woad) for their blue skin coloring. In Nigeria, a pit method's used where the dyestuff lasts for a year and they add more plants in to maintain the color. There, the dyeing's done by women in the South, and men in the North. Sadly, the younger generation is becoming disinterested in the process, and these dyeing methods could eventually be lost. The only place indigo wasn't native to was the Americas--where logwood was used for a rich deep blue instead. Man, I hope I got all of this right, lol...I really did learn a lot, lol!

After the main presentation, textile student Johanna Buschmann, from the Univ. of Kansas, gave us all an indigo dyeing demonstration. She specializes in shibori and in the pics above you can see her examples, demo'ing a shibori technique using a little stand with a hook, and an indigo resist piece from Cameroon. It was pretty cool. For all you dyers, she was using synthetic indigo...

Quilting and Art

These are illustrations I've done. When I draw, I'm not worrying about where the line goes, or what colors to use. It just comes to me and I do it. When I first started quilting, I read so many books and websites about how to do things the "right" way--which I soon realized wasn't right for me at all. Piecing and precision just wasn't my thing. I figured, "Hey, I don't draw like that, why should I quilt like that?" So I started quilting like I draw and it started coming to me. So what if my stitches aren't perfect, or this part's a little crooked? It's what I intended. If someone else doesn't get it--it's on them. When I was a Corcoran art gallery intern I saw plenty of art that I didn't understand. I realized that it all boiled down to how I felt about it. Isn't that what art's all about?

One thing about doing art quilts is that we seem to feel as if we're always walking that line: "Is it a quilt?", "Is it art?", "What do I call myself?"

Easy--An artist whose medium is quilting. It's really that simple. It's no different than pencil sketches or watercolors. It's all art in the end...

Really Rain...Go AWAY!

Rain gets to a point where it's not helping to make the flowers pretty and the grass green and relieving droughts anymore. What we're having right now is crazy day-after-day, nonstop rain and storms that are causing flooding and standing water everywhere and snarling an entire region. This is nuts! D.C. and its Metro area are having a hard time right now. A tree even fell over in the front of the White House. It's just...wow.

I'll also admit that when we had our basement mini-flood, one of the first things I made sure was high and dry was my sewing machine (and that's only because I tended to the computer first!) LOL.

Rain Rain Go Away!

It has been raining and storming like crazy for the past couple of days! Thursday night, a crack of lightning so loud and bright woke me up. It was a pretty scary storm with lightning touching down everywhere and the thunder booming. I don't get scared by storms, but this one was pretty unnerving. Just flashes of white over and over again. When I spoke to other folks about it, they all said the same thing, that they had been awakened and it was very scary. Wow.

Our home had a mini-flood in the basement earlier. I just happened to be walking by our back room and saw the water flowing in. I screamed "Water!" and my husband and I sprang into action and caught it just in time. And they say it supposed to keep this up for a few more days. Yikes.

Summertime!

Summer is officially here! Break out the sunblock! Time for me to switch over to my hot weather hairdo as blown-out naturally curly hair + D.C. humidity = scary frizzy mess.

All I can say is that it was 95 degrees here today. Chock full o' humidity. My car showed me so. Just. Plain. Oppressive.

What will August be like?

(Can you tell I am not one with the sun? LOL)

Nataal Series

Thanks for the insights everyone. I personally found the judge's comment hilarious. I believe that it's so subjective (judging) in the end, does it really matter? I don't think so and it doesn't stop me from creating.

Right now, the new machine (it hasn't been named yet) and I have been cranking along on the Grandma quilt, remember that one? It'll be part of a series I've named "Nataal", which is the Wolof word for "portrait." I already know who the next two will be. I was really influenced by the Masters paintings that I saw at the Prado and Louvre while overseas. The guys and I spent hours and hours at those museums. One thing that I realized is that at one point, these painted portraits were their "photographs." We know exactly what Felipe III or his daughter or Marie Antoinette or Velasquez himself looked like because the paintings so consistently portray their features. I thought I'd create some portraits of my own and that's pretty exciting to me.

Judges & Comments

Me at Barnes & Noble with the latest book I'm in--face out! YAY!

Yummy sundae with brownie and caramel at Ye Olde Fashioned Ice Cream Shoppe! YAY!

I had entered the NQA show just for the fun of it, since "Tish Groove" is one of my earliest machine-quilted pieces. FedEx finally got it back to me yesterday, and I didn't expect to have judges comments come back to me with it too. Let's just say that they weren't bad at all, if anything, one was a touch perplexing, LOL. I'm sure that sounds famililar to a lot of you, lol.

Now you've all seen "Tish Groove" by this point. The one comment that irked me was "Effective layered composition, although artist's intent is not apparent."

What in the world does that mean? LOL! It's based upon an illustration that I did of my cousin, LOL! That was the intent. Good Lord. Does art have to necessarily have an intent beyond its creation? Heck, sometimes you really do create art for art's sake! You're really feeling something that day or inspiration's triggered or you've got some emotion just just needs to come out in your work or you just...feel...like...creating some art!

Anyone else have any perplexing judging comments like that--that make you alternately want to scream or throttle someone? LOL!

Unity in Harmony Quilt--DONE!

Well, I have sold my first quilt and here it is! "Unity in Harmony" was created for and auctioned off at the Chorus America annual conference. It was inspired by photos of The Hartford Chorale and The Washington Chorus. I was both machine- and handstitching away like crazy, down to the wire, in my hotel room.

As I said yesterday, this has been an inspiring week for me. It made me reconnect with a part of my life that was shelved. Years ago, I was a member of the citywide D.C. Youth Chorale and singing was a very, very important part of my life. I also sang in school choirs from grades 2-9. Rehearsals from M-Sat.--no fail--and I think I only missed them when I was extremely sick--like the chicken pox or flu. I could read music and was a very high first soprano. I just loved to sing. It was a constant in my life and a source of stability. I didn't care what others thought about my singing in the choir. I loved it, and it made me very happy. Unfortunately, my high school had no chorus or music program and everything stopped. I was devastated and didn't sing again for 17 years--and that was three days ago at our opening session's "morning sing" with Sweet Honey in the Rock's Dr. Ysaye Barnwell. And then, 2 days later, when Alice Parker did hers, I realized that I could still read music! All of this was such a revelation to me and it felt good.

That is why "Unity in Harmony" being bought by Ms. Joyce Garrett was so special to me. Who is she? She is the former head of the Eastern High School Choir here in D.C. She's legendary to me. With her Excellence Without Excuses philosophy, she took students from a rough school, often with rough lives themselves, and gave them hope and dreams--such as travelling to Vienna, performing with major celebrities, and singing for every U.S. President since Reagan. She gave the students a future to aim high for. She is now the founder of the new Washington Youth Choir, something I wish I had in the 10th grade. The idea that even more students will have a chance to love singing like I did, makes me so happy that she is my first sale and my piece will grace her home.

My Janome and the Chorus America Conference!

Hello all! I've been away at my job's annual conference all week and things have been crazy! I did have to let Ol' Singer go, and I bought a Janome 6260QC. I got a great deal on a floor model and I'm so happy with it. My husband was right...my slide rule days are over! LOL. I love it! It came with me to the hotel and worked beautifully! And yes, that's Wonder Woman, Yoda, and Ben Stiller w/braces, lol.

I can tell you where I work because I'll end up on their homepage and it'll be public knowledge anyway, lol. I work for a wonderful arts organization called Chorus America, and we promote/support choral music in the U.S. and Canada. All week long I have been exposed to beautiful choral music, including a rare performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") at the Kennedy Center. It's rarely performed because it usually requires 1000 musicians. At this performance, there were 500! It was fabulous and moving to be surrounded by the chorus and the orchestra. I could literally feel it! It culminated with a major performance in conjunction with the NEA called "America Sings!", which is kicking off their choral music initiative and covered over 300 years of American choral music.

I also got to hear some of the best local and national choruses, such as The Young People's Chorus of NYC, VocalEssence (from Minneapolis), The Washington Chorus, The Heritage Signature Chorale (D.C.), The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, and so many more! It was fantastic!! Support your local choruses! You won't regret it. I'll talk more about how inspiring of a week this has been for me (and the fate of my quilt) tomorrow. I'll just say that Alice Parker, one of choral music's most beloved figures, loved my quilt and helped me pin it up for the display. I'm so tickled by that, but it's even more meaningful to me who actually ended up buying it!

Oooo...The suspense! The excitement! Can't you feel it?!

R.I.P. Ol' Singer

Sunrise: January 1996
Sunset: June 2, 2006

Like her canine namesake, I had to put Ol' Singer down yesterday. Her foot pedal shorted out and she wouldn't stitch. Combine that with skipped stitches left and right and I was at wit's end. I'm on deadline for the "Harmony" quilt. I knew I couldn't continue on her. Tomorrow, I'll have to buy a new sewing machine.

O.S. has been with me for so many years and I've created some of my best work on her, but it's time to let her go. She's served me well. My husband's joke is that it'll be like someone who's been working with an abacus being handed a computer. Ha.Ha.

Harmony Quilt--In Progress

Well, all the pieces are ready for the "Harmony" Quilt. I have to adjust the size on one, add their hair, folder straps, and the white cuffs, but otherwise than that, this is pretty much ready to be fused tomorrow. Above, you can see the "before" sketch and the "after" pieces that are ready.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today has been a great birthday!

Got to work and there was a vase of flowers from my staff there and although swamped for the conference, the whole staff (there's only 9 of us and an intern!) took a bagel & muffin break to wish me happy birthday. So nice!

My hubby and I went to see X-Men 3. It was okay. I normally love Marvel movies, but it left us a little unimpressed and being fans of the comics--confused at the end. Ugh. Unsatisfying movie. I always go to the bookstore and treat myself on my birthday. I buy books I've been really wanting for a while.

Given our love of the Korean drama/soap Rooftop Room Cat, my hubby surprised me with dinner at a local Korean restaurant. It was fantastic. Our entire table was covered. First, they brought us about 7 little dishes. I've read that it's called panchan--like Korean tapas. Pickled veggies, tofu, radish, seaweed, tiny silver dried fish, and 2 types of kimchi--fermented, pickled cabbage with a kind of tangy spicy kick. I LOVE kimchi. We had yummy fried dumplings and I had a noodle soup and the yummiest beef spareribs. My husband ordered the tolsot bibim bap, a rice dish with veggies and a fried egg on top. The staff seemed to enjoy our enthusiasm over the food, so they were giving us tips on how to eat it, such as stirring up the bibim bap to get some of the crispy rice from the bottom and adding a red sauce to it. Yummy! Add to the list little dishes of steamed rice, a light, frothy steamed egg and soju--sweet potato liquor similar to sake--and you can see we had quite a feast!!!

I had a great birthday!

Plugging Away on Harmony Quilt

Got home from work, ready to get to crackin' on the Harmony quilt and realized (after much moaning and groaning about it) that I was out of Wonder Under. I braved the 93 degree weather again and went out to the fabric store, grumbling all of the way. While in the store, I ask for the rest of the bolt and the cutter is measuring it out, when a section comes off. She looks as surprised as I am. "Um, do you still want it?" I sighed and took the 7 1/2 yards, lol.

Hey, Pellon folks, if you're listening...I don't know what's going on with your darn Wonder Under right now, but it's screwing me up. It releases badly, it's coming off the paper at the store, I mean, craptacular! What is up already? I thought the bad batch was over. Ugh.

Anyway, I did the best with what I have and cut out the pieces from my freezer paper drawing (that I cut up to use as a template). I made sure to trace it with that mega tracing paper first though so I won't be looking at it crazy later like, "This goes where?"

I think it's shaping up. The faces and hands are painted and the major parts are cut out. Woo-hoo!

Quilts & Auctions

This quilt I'm working on will be autographed by choral leaders on our Board, and auctioned off during a silent auction. My boss thinks it'll be popular with choral conductors. Normally, I don't take a buyer into account--either they'll like it or they won't--but this time, I chose subtle colors for the background, something that could fit into anyone's home. I usually don't care, but we all know that people who are unfamiliar with art quilts do seem to take a "will this match my home" approach to buying, being unfamiliar with what it's really worth, and I want this to go for what it's valued as quilts tend to be bought under value at auctions like these.

Not to denigrate traditional-style quilts, but those who are unfamiliar with art quilts just don't always "get" it.
Do you find yourself having to explain that "Hey, this isn't a bedcovering?"

Fabric Painting Frenzy

Now that I've resolved my uploading issues, I'll show you pics of the fabric I painted. The top one's the copper and gold flecked background fabric, but my fave is that golden fabric. It just shimmers.

And you also get to see what happens when you threaten your hubby with a dye squirt bottle!

Rooftop Room Cat

Okay, why are my husband and I addicted to this show??? It comes on in the evenings on AZN, a network of Asian American programming. We love this show! Rooftop Room Cat (Attic Cat) is a Korean drama/soap opera about a spunky, hardworking young woman named Jung-Eun, who lives in a rooftop apartment in Seoul and somehow ends up with cutie law student Kyung-Min as a roommate. He's immature and can be quite a jerk. Add in manipulative rich chick Hye Ran and Jung-Eun's cool-as-a-cucumber boss Dong Jun, and it's way too fun (and funny!) to see them all stumble through their relationships with (or against!) each other.

Can you tell that I love this show?

Post-Show and Pre-Quilt

Well, Chesya has gone home and the BookExpo is now over. We had a great time. It was HUGE. Every publisher you could think of in a football field-sized area. Chesya and I were so tired and laden down with free books that we were dragging. I thought you'd enjoy a pic of me with Dora the Explorer and views of the Expo.

As for the quilt, I am laying it out. I've got the fabric on my drawing board to get started. The larger piece is laid out on a table with sketches on freezer paper. This is going to be a quick turnaround. Yikes. As soon as I resolve my picture loading issues with blogger, I'll post pics.

Get in Gear

I turn 32 in about 1 1/2 weeks and I recently heard my mom talking about all the medications she's taking. All I could think was, "I'm not bouncing back as fast as I used to myself and yikes, is that me in the mirror?" Soooo...I joined a gym earlier this week. Let's be clear. I don't like gyms. At all. And I've always said that I'm not running if someone/something's not chasing me, but this has become absolutely necessary for my future health.

I prepped the fabric for the new quilt and it's taped onto the drawing board, ready for me to work some magic. I won't be able to do anything for the next 3 days though because my good friend, supernatural suspense author Chesya Burke, is coming up from Atlanta and staying with me this weekend. "Grey's Anatomy"'s Dr. Bailey always reminds me of her--in both looks and personality. LOL. (Chesya's gonna kill me.) We are going to the Book Expo America 2006 together. Woo-hoo! It is the largest book publishers event in the country. Publishers and authors and book folks, oh my! This is also her first time in Washington, D.C. too, so we'll try to squeeze in a little sightseeing.

A Little Birdie

I had to post this morning because I saw something happen on the way to work that really made me sad...

As we're driving with our windows closed, I saw a flutter to my right and a very young bird hit the window. I yelped, surprised. I said, "Wow! A bird!" It was gray and still somewhat fluffy with down. It just sat there stunned and perched on our window's casing. It must have still been pretty green with its flying skills. My husband said he was relieved that our window wasn't open, because it would've flown right in. Still disoriented from the impact, as my husband slowly pulled away with the light change, the bird struggled to take flight and fell off the car. In my side view mirror I saw it fall to the ground and the car behind us ran it over. I started to cry, it was so horrible to me, and we both said it out loud.

I feel so silly in a way, given of all the bigger things happening in the world, but one little bird has me a bit shaken this morning.

On Commission...Kinda

My organization is having a big conference next month. Okay, early next month. I was asked about donating a quilt to their auction. It is a vocal arts org, so the theme of the quilt will reflect a vocal music theme. I'm pretty excited about it, as we're discussing having it signed by luminaries in that field. I'm also glad to do it, as being a part of a choir was so important to me as a child. With so many music programs being dropped in public schools, a generation of kids are not being exposed to the performing arts or musical instrument and voice instruction. It's so sad, because it's a wonderful thing to be a part of!

I am entitling it "United in Harmony" and the pics above are some inspirations for it from different choral groups such as Cantare Chamber Ensemble and The Washington Chorus. I'm inspired by the uniformity of the B&W of their cuffs, pearls, formal shirts, sheet music and music folders. I'm still playing around with ideas.

Oo! Quilt show stuff!

I am so tickled. I've never been in a major, traditional quilt show before and I got my quilt ID and packing stuff for the NQA show next month. The only bad thing?

I can't go to the first major, traditional quilt show I've ever had a quilt in! :-(

I found out that of all the weekends in the year my great new job's big annual conference is on--it's that one!

If anyone out there is going to Columbus, could you please take a picture of it for me? It's called "Tish Groove" and I would love to see it hanging there.

Thinking About Peace

I love to travel, and in my travel downtime I enjoy watching travel shows such as Globe Trekker.

On an episode today, the American female host traveled through Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, so I got to see Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and places in-between, such as the desert in the west. I seems so beautiful there, with the green-blue water of the Persian Gulf and the starkness of the desert. Modern, and filled with futuristic buildings, Dubai is such a spectacular place, and like so many places in that region, a place of fantastic wealth. I couldn't help but think about the state of women in that entire region though. They seemed invisible, sometimes the host being the only one around--and I'm sure the presence of her cameras helped to shield her from a lot of things. I was really surprised that this was filmed in 2006.

I want to visit the Middle East someday. To see these places for myself. It seems like a place of such beauty with friendly people. It is too bad that the current situations going on make that seem like a trip that might have to be on my back burner for a very, very long time.

TV That Cracks Me Up!

I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but all I want to say is that right now I LOVE the following three shows:

1. My Name Is Earl ("How am I supposed to get you a TV? I live in snack foods!")
2. King of Queens (if only for the "jumpball" episode alone, LOL!)
   
3. The Office (I know it was British first and I loved that one too, but Dwight, LOL. Dwight.)
   

I have had some truly gut-busting laughter while watching them...

A-ha!

I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to mark my quilt. Since it's painted, I didn't want to use anything that needed to wash out. No water, you know? Time-sensitive ones don't work for me either as I might not get to it right away. So, I bought a large pad of tracing paper just like the one above (My 12-year old cousin: "WOW. That's huge!") and I'm going to draw the design on there and use my hera marker instead. Ta-da.

Problem solved. Maybe.

I'll let you know how it turns out...