Travels | Crazy for Fiber

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Archive for the ‘Travels’ Category

Day Two in Tacoma

Monday, August 29th, 2011

I forgot to show this quilt yesterday. Perhaps it is the farm girl in me, but I was very taken with this quilt which uses an antique quilt from Iowa as the base. It is then embellished with corn stalks, oak leaves and other flora. The damage to the old quilt has been incorporated into the design. Be sure to click on to get a better look.

On Saturday, we decided that we had seen enough of the quilt show and set out for other venues. Terry, Beth, Jeri and I took the free trolley to the end and then enjoyed a nice walk to the American Art Company where they have the 11th Annual Art Quilt Invitational.

Tacoma is trying to reinvent itself into an arts community. I liked this outdoor sculpture.

The show at the American Art Company was very nice and hung very well, giving the pieces lots of space to breath. I have several friends who have work in the show. Here are the pieces that I was particularly drawn to.

This is Nest by Erica Carter. Click on the image to see a larger version.

I love the way Janet Kurjan arranged the blocks of color for this piece titled, Light Ray.

This incredible piece by Toot Reid is titled, “September 28, 2010 – March 8, 2011”. Here is a detail:

After leaving this venue, we went down to the Tacoma Art Museum. Three of us perused the book store while Jeri went in to see Chihuly’s Pendleton Blanket collection. We had lunch at the museum cafe where I enjoyed looking up at the ceiling.

I had fun at the quilt show doing a little shopping.

I got thread, pre-wound bobbins, titanium needles and soluble stabilizer from Superior Threads.

My friend, Judy Bianchi from Sonoma County, creates gorgeous fabrics. I had to purchase some. This is a cotton/linen blend with a lovely color block print.

This is a gorgeous silk/cotton bend.

Judy has been doing a lot of soy wax batik. This is done with brush strokes. I see tree trunks!!

It was a fun trip. I want to give a shout out to my blog readers who recognized me and stopped to say hi at the show. I am so happy to just be home, now. I only left the house to take Scooter for a walk. Tomorrow, I have my pre-op appointment for my cataract surgery. The right eye gets done on September 8th.

Be sure to check in here on Wednesday as I am giving away a copy of Masters of Art Quilts, Vol 2. It is a gorgeous book.

Posted in Quilt Shows, Quilting Friends, Stuff I Buy, Travels | 5 Comments »

Technical Difficulties

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

My best laid plans went awry while in Tacoma for the APWQ quilt show. My brand new USB camera cord stopped working so I could not upload photos so I did no blogging. Truth be told, I was so sleep deprived and jet lagged, I am not sure I could have done it anyway.

It was a lot to ask of my aging body to get off a plane from the east coast, get reorganized and get on a train to another venue and not have some rebellion. I keep waking up on New York time even though I go to bed on West Coast time.

Anyway, we had a lovely train ride to Tacoma, all eight of us. Our first activity was to explore Tacoma a bit and so we walked around the Tacoma Glass Museum where you can see a beautiful icy looking installation,

We had drinks and dinner at a restaurant on the water — lots of fun.

We hit the quilt show the next morning. I have mixed feeling about it. I think the quality of the work that was entered and juried in to the show was not up to the quality of previous years. I had mixed feelings about pieces that were given ribbons — made me wonder what the jurors were looking at, especially in the art quilt categories.

This is a piece by my friend, Pippa, from Canada, who is a faithful blog reader. We were roommates at Art Quilt Tahoe one year. The title is — there is an elephant in my garden. I love it.

I also liked thi quilt by Cynthia St. Charles which was drawn with gel glue resist and then painted.

Theere were many other quilts that I loved, but I was to blotto to remember to take photos.

In the downtown area, we found this word game in a plaza.

There were some pretty funny sentences put together. Here is one that Terry, Beth and I did.

Tacoma is a place of architectural delights — a place where old meets new and manmade meets natural as in this photo of the modern bridge with Mt. Rainier in the background.

I am happily tired tonight. I had fun putting together a grilled salmon dinner for two of the twelves and their spouses — Terry Grant and Karen Rips. And, of course, I forgot to take photos, just as I forgot to take photos of our meet up with Nikki at the quilt show.

Anyway, I am off to bed. I will post more tomorrow.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Quilt Shows, Quilting Friends, Travels | 4 Comments »

Family Celebration

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

It was a beautiful day for a wedding on Saturday. We gathered on a hilltop overlooking the beautiful central New York landscape.

The flower girls were adorable.

And the ring bearer was charming.

At the reception, we ate great food and danced and enjoyed seeing family and old friends.

The bride and groom are Yankee fans and went to NYC to see a game for their honeymoon. She called today, all excited, because they met Dennis Leary and had their photo taken with him. The groom is a fireman, thus the presence of the fire truck for photos.

We were happy to have our daughter, Lisa, come out for the festivities

It has been a wonderful time. Yesterday, my sister hosted a brunch here at her home for a second chance to spend time with extended family. Tomorrow, we drive back to NY and turn in our car and fly home to Portland.

Posted in Family, Travels | 1 Comment »

MOMA

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

We spent a good part of today at MOMA. We walked there from our hotel and joined the throngs of people from all of the world to enjoy modern art.

I took tons of photos which I will have up on Flickr soon, but it is difficult to do the upload on the iPad! Some of my favorite photos were taken out the windows.

Here is one of my favorite paintings.

I loved this Calder mobile in a stairwell.

I love taking photos of the urban landscape, too.

When we came back to the hotel, I discovered that we are just a stone’s throw from Chelsea so on our way to dinner, we stopped by the City Quilter where I made a purchase of Cherrywood cottons.

We had dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Chelsea known for it’s lobster. We are both whooped from our fantastic day in the city.

Posted in Art Dates, Travels | 2 Comments »

A Long Travel Day

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

We have had a long travel day and now are in our hotel in New York City. We flew from Portland to Dallas and then to JFK. We picked up our luggage and took the air train to the Long Island Railroad and into Penn Station. Our hotel is nearby the station. After a short walk, wrangling our luggage through pedestrian traffic, we found a small, but lovely room waiting for us.

We found the employees at the airport and the train stations to be very courteous and helpful. It was a lot of fun taking the train into the city

We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and took a walk around the area.