Today on the Quilt Art list, the hot (no pun intended) topic was the weather – world wide. Someone said Gore was right. Then someone talked about making a quilt about global warming and talked very seriously about this problem. Then someone called those who are worried about the environment – Gorebots.

That made me mad. first of all a comment like that just ends any intelligent discussion. There are, by many estimates, about 20 – 30 % of the population of the US who will follow the Republican Party line no matter what. They will not listen, they will not discuss – they are Bushbots!! They are not patriots because they don’t really care about the welfare of this nation or the people who live here. They are party loyalists. Party loyalists are the precursor to fascism. More on my fear of that in another rant.

Now back to the environment. I found this article, Chicken Little was right; Al Gore, too by Alan W. Scarth here. In it he says:

British scientist James Lovelock offered us a first-edition manual in 1979, called Gaia,
his name for the planet’s operating system, after the immeasurably
fecund Greek goddess. He warned us that if we overloaded the operating
system with carbon, it would break down. We ignored him. Our planet
seemed to be running well enough, and we were more interested in his
former specialty, exploring the possibility of life on Mars. The
possibility of diminished human life on Earth seemed a stretch.

Now, at 86 and with his Gaia system recognized by scientists
worldwide, Lovelock — named last year by Prospect magazine as among
the world’s top 100 global public intellectuals — offers us an updated
work, which he calls The Revenge of Gaia. As the title
suggests, his thesis is that despite his warnings, we have gone and
done it: We have overloaded the system with atmospheric carbon, and we
are at the point of irreversible breakdown; the evidence of hurricanes,
melting ice and increasing drought is all around us.

This is only one of many scientists who have researched this topic. They are not right or left – they are looking at facts. I, for one, am scared. I thought this might happen some time in the future and now it looks like I will live to witness the mess we are making of this planet.

The idiots running this country are too busy taking care of their rich buddies and waging an illegal war to pay attention to the important things.

I am currently reading Anne Lamott’s Plan B Further Thoughts on Faith. Oh my goodness, I love her writing. It is at times poetic and at times like a knife cutting through the crap. These essays were started after Bush was elected, and she says this to which I can so relate.

Everyone I know has been devastated by Bush’s presidency and, in particular, our country’s heroic military activities overseas. I can usually manage a crabby hope that there is meaning in mess and pain, that more will be revealed, and that truth and beauty will somehow win out in the end. So much had been stolen from us by Bush, from the very beginning of his reign, and especially since he went to war in Iraq. I wake up some mornings pinned to the bed by centrifugal sadness and frustration.

Hadn’t the men in the White House ever heard of the word karma? They lied their way into taking our country to war, crossing another country’s borders with ferocious military might, trying to impose our form of government on a sovereign nation, without any international agreement or legal justification and set about killing the desperately poor on behalf of the obscenely rich. Then we’re instructed, like naughty teenagers to  refrain from saying that it was an immoral war that set a disastrous precedent ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù because to do so is to offer aid and comfort to the enemy.

She goes on to talk about how do we get through our days with this mess hanging over us. She gets advice from a Jesuit priest: "Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe." A kind of mediation as we wander through the current desert.

I must give her credit for taking part in protests. And as a product of the 60’s, I’d sure love to see some mass protests again. I am sad that the younger generation seems so apathetic. And I have babbled on for long enough.

1. Surf the web looking for things that make you laugh. For instance, is Condoleeza Rice wearing hand me downs from the Bush twins? Or is she hanging out at the White House so much that she gets to raid their closets? You decide – here.

2. Design a t-shirt motif and find out your wide printer has dirty rollers and so you waste several sheets of expensive transfer paper.

I am going to my fiftieth high school reunion soon (August 5th). We were thinking about getting t-shirts, but to do such a small number was very expensive so I said I would do it. Today, I started printing the design and got a couple ironed on. I bought some special transfer paper from Dharma which does not have the icky rubbery background. They are 11 X 14 sheets which I am printing on my Epson 2200 large format printer.

The design uses a photo of us in our caps and gowns. Here it is folded:

Me, wearing it – no face to be seen – HA! Best of all, I am wearing a large not an XLG!!

And, here is the back! This was our class slogan – we were a wild and crazy bunch!!

3. The best thing to do – hang out with M & M, take them to Burgerville for supper and strawberry milkshakes. They are now sound asleep and their mom and dad are enjoying an air conditioned room at a swanky hotel in downtown Portland.

First, about the lack of a smile in my last post. It is very serious business trying to take a photo in a mirror – one must concentrate on what they are doing. Maybe I should have cropped my head off as Stephanie did in this photo she took in the apron. And doesn’t it look fabulous on her? So to placate all those who want to see me smile, here you are:

Today we gave Stephanie a respite and took Mia and Miles to  OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This is a wonderful place for children of all ages to explore and learn about all the fields of science. There was a special exhibit of Robots. But M & M particularly love the exhibit where young children can learn about wild life through interactive play.

Here some memories of the day. (Photos are clickable for a larger view.)

On our way:

Some Robot friends:

Playing chipmunks and making friends:

Earthquake house (duck and cover) and the space shuttle:

Some other cool photos. Nice legs on Mr C, eh?

The last photo shows the Willamette and the Hawthorne Bridge through the windows. I loved the geometry of this shot.

Today was a good day. I was up and out of the house before 10 am. Steph, M & M and I went to June Underwood’s front porch to look at her free fabric. She also had some for sale. Stephanie found some wool in wonderful colors for the softies that she makes. June had lots of treasures for Mia in addition to the fancy fabric that she found. Even Milo found fabric with space ships, sports and fireworks. He also found a pattern for teddy bear clothes which he put in his bag for his mom. I went for the stuff with a price tag. Here is what I brought home: some hand dyed/painted fabric, some batik pieces and some painted silk organza:

I grabbed this little pieced gem to turn in to a post card for Fiberart for a Cause.

And I also took this children’s quilt top to finish for my Santa Rosa Guild’s Community Quilt program. It is an Old MacDonald had a farm theme quilt.

You can see more of June’s sale on Terry Grant’s blog.

Lisa called tonight and she has won 3 individual golds, 1 silver and 3 golds in relays. Wheee!! That’s my girl. I want to thank everyone for their support of Lisa and their abhorrence of the protesters. My good friend Liz Berg made a very heartfelt post about this kind of hate on her blog today. You can read it here.

She sent me a private e-mail in which she kicked my butt a little for not getting back in to the studio. So this afternoon after puttsing around and playing solitaire on the computer, I got up and went in and got to work. I had to get rid of the leftover silks covering the cutting table so that I could cut some fabric. Then I made this:

What is it, you ask? Well, last month, the Columbia Stitcher’s had a wearable art teacher here as the guest speaker. This is one of the pieces she showed us and gave us a diagram for (not written instructions!).

Now, imagine that I am 6 feet tall and much thinner and this will look better. Now, quit your snickering, I am doing the best I can with the what I have to work with.

This is for my tall, apron loving daughter, Stephanie. It apparently is a design of Issae Myaki and he borrowed it from some Japanese women  on some little island. Anyway, this asymmetrical apron is easy to make and quite attractive. I will have to adjust the measurements for myself! I know this wasn’t art, but it got me back behind the sewing machine.

Just for fun, here is Maggie wearing a pirate hat that Milo and Mr C made for her:

Now, I m going to watch Project Runway!

I have been busy with family stuff. Mark and Jayme were in and out. They flew in Thursday night and left on Friday for Seattle where Jayme was a bridesmaid. They came back yesterday and we had a family dinner with Steph, Jack and M & M.

We spent this morning eating and playing with the kids.

After lunch, we headed to the Japanese Garden where I was working at the High Fiber Diet Annual show and sale. This is the group here in Portland that is affiliated with the Columbia Stitchery Guild. Every July, they have an Asian/nature themed show in the Pavilion at the garden. I could not take part this year because I had not been a member long enough. Yesterday, Steve and I went to the artist’s reception and it was really crowded! Quite a bit of  work had been sold since the show opened on Tuesday.

Terry Grant and I worked the show today and again, I was impressed with how many people came through. We sold $875 worth of merchandise this afternoon. Photography of individual work is not allowed, but I took some long shots to give you an idea of the size of the show and the beauty of the room:

You can see Terry in this shot, hanging a new piece to replace one that was sold. Whrn the work is sold, it leaves and there is additional work stored away to be brought out. I was impressed with the variety and quality of work at the show.

Mark, who is a landscape designer, took lots of photos of the garden with my camera. Here are some thumbnails. You can click on them to see  a larger version. It is a beautiful, zen experience to walk around this garden.

A big Hurrah! for Lisa who is at the Gay Games in Chicago where it was 112?Ǭ? today. She is a master’s swimmer, and she has won 2 gold medals and one silver so far. At the last meet, two years ago, she was the most medaled woman at the meet. The downside is the ignorant protesters who stand outside the facility with ugly signs like these here and here. I wish these people would get a real life and mind their own business! Tuesday morning update: Just talked to Lisa – she won another Gold medal late yesterday so she has 3 golds and a silver!!!