Thirty-eight years ago today, I was very large with child – slighty past the due date!!  We lived in Schenectady. NY, and the temps had been hovering around 20 below for days. The weather changed and we experienced a thaw. We knew right then that we were having a brilliant child who knew enough to wait for decent weather to be born. Elisabeth Ann came bursting into the world with a smile on her face and was dubbed the most beautiful baby by the nurses who did not want to let her go home. She had a temperment to match. Lisa, as we would call her, became the family cheer leader and organizer and was always ready for a good time. But, oh, that smile. As you will see in this photo montage, her smile is radiant.

Lisa is a champion master swimmer and competes in meets throughout the country. Here she is having one of her early swims. (Check out the babe giving her swim lessons!!)

She was always an animal lover:

Here she is ready for the ballet, pretty in pink.

Lisa (in the center) dancing to her own music. (That would be Lisa!)

What was she thinking, but she still is smiling!!

She loved to take part in school and church plays.

Lisa, the pianist.

Still smiling:

Is that the same red bathing suit?

Here she is with her bigger little sister, Stephanie:

Lisa as college graduate with her cool big brother, Mark.

Now for your enjoyment – the Lisa smile times 3!!

Happy birthday, Lili!! Dad and I love you very much.

Oh, and look at the amaryllis!!

You may have recalled my mentioning my almost 82 year old quilting buddy, Janet Shore. She started quilting 30 years ago just as the craft was undergoing a renaissance. She has made some incredible quilts and has been in Visions and Quilt National. She has had quilts travel to Japan and hang in galleries and museums around the country. Today she did her first ever trunk show for the art league of Oakmont, the retirement community where she lives. I finally got to see all of her quilts.

Diane, list mom, and Rita, Pat, Pam and I helped get the quilts to the auditorium and held quilts during the talk. Here they are getting set up.

Here is the ever sunny Janet before the show with Pam.

This is Janet’s first quilt, which is actually a group quilt made in an adult ed class with Roberta Horton. Each person made a block and hand quilted it. Janet won the blocks. Note the 70’s orange!

This is an early quilt of Janet’s that  think show just how talented and artistic she was. It is called View from My Window. She lived in the Berkeley hills and had a view of the San Francisco Bay. That is Rita holding the quilt.

This is another very innovative quilt called Jukebox Saturday Night.

Blue Fantasy Flowers – now, isn’t this just wonderful. It has wonderful hand embroider and beading.

Here  are closeups  of the quilt:

This is the quilt that the East Bay Heritage Quilter’s made her when she moved up here to Santa Rosa. Each of the leaves bordering the quilt was made by a different member. Janet is very fond of sunflowers.

Here is a closeup of a charming quilt made as a memory of a trip to Japan, made with fabrics she purchased while there.

Here is  closeup of Blowing in the Wind. I l love this. I wasn’t able to get the full view. I always kid Janet that it has my name on it.

This is what a lifetime of quilting looks like. I think she had about 30 – 40 quilts. She was a natural and it the talk went very smoothly.

So many people came up  to say that it was one of the best programs they had every had and they had a whole new perspective on quilting. We think that we should start booking gigs for her and send her out on the road!!

Time for an amaryllis update. It is really taking off:

Today was the deadline for purging the studio and the remaining closets  upstairs because Mr. C was scheduled to clean the carpets. We have always cleaned our carpets with a dry chemical system – not wet carpets. You sprinkle down a sawdust-like stuff and then use a machine that beats it into the carpet fibers. You let it sit for 15 minutes and then vacuum and you have sparkling clean carpets and they are not soggy. This is the last time I am going to have carpeting in a studio!! I had spilled black Tsukiniko ink on the carpet and tried to wipe it up when I was working on a quilt. I finally just rolled the sewing machine table over it. I was so relieved today to see that the spot is gone.

I purchased two of Deborah‘s post cards that she had for sale on her new blog. Here they are. Gee, I wonder why I would buy postcards with birds and for whom? (or is it who?) Anyway here they are. Aren’t they bright and cheery. I love the hand embroidery touches.

She also included one of her cool collages:

I also received the contract and down payment for the liturgical commission. It was quite exciting. It is real! I have work to do. Stay tuned for the prototype which must be done in 30 days.

Tomorrow, my buddy Janet is giving a talk for the artist’s group in the retirement community where she lives. It is titled – "A Quilter’s Life". I am going to help her haul all of her quilts to the center and help hold the quilts along with some other friends. I will try to get some photos.

I swore off these for awhile, but I need some help until I get my life back. I kind of like this description.

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a
mystery novel dealing with theology, especially
with catholic vs liberal issues. You search
wisdom and knowledge endlessly, feeling that
learning is essential in life.

Which literature classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I found this on DebR‘s blog. I am still struggling with the studio purge. Here are the journals and sketch books that I have found so far (most of them are blank, some have a few pages done):

Here is an excerpt from  a journal I started on visual observations (lasted for 4 days!!)

Ocean colors change from dark blue green to a pale,pale blue green as the waves hit the shore. Sky is deep blue that becomes softened near the horizon. Clouds on the horizon at first seem to be hues of gray and white but upon observation there are shades of purple and mauve.

At the shoreline as the waves meet the sand, there is an ever changing effervescent quality – bubbles and water splashing, flashes of light, stone and shells pushed to a new location.

This entry was made in October – not sure what year (sometime between 1994 and 1999) – in Wilmington, North Carolina. Back to the final sorting and purging.

It is taking me so  much longer than I wanted or expected to organize and purge my studio. I keep finding interesting stuff, lost stuff, forgotten stuff ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù and then I get distracted and am beginning to feel as if I will never get done. Mr. C is going to get some boxes tomorrow so that we can pack up some stuff and just get it out of the way for now.

Here is a picture of my four line compositions together, as requested by some of you. However, I have not come up with anything as interesting as Kristin did.

Five Fancy Fish Frolic is going traveling. It was juried into a fiber/quilt show in San Jose at Synopsis which will benefit the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles.

One of the things I found is this drawing that I did of Lisa’s beloved Megan a couple of years ago in a class with Lura Schwarz Smith. It is done on muslin using Tsukiniko inks. I think I might have to finish this off somehow for Lisa to have as a keepsake. Megan was a very pale  yellow lab so the muslin is a good representation of her coat color.

Going to bed because tomorrow, I have to finish this mess I’m in.