Taking a brief break from the NYC fun, I thought I’d share some shelves I made for Eli to hang his MANY sports medals.  Eli clearly did not inherit his athletic prowess from me, but he s ure works hard to use all that he has to its best, and it shows.   He had so many medals from Tae Kwon Do, Soccer, Cross Country, Wrestling, and Track and Field, that his lamp started to fall over (He had them draped around the shade.) So we came up with a plan to make shelves similar to what I put in our kitchen here and in the boys’ bedrooms in Camden:  brackets from the big-box store plus pine planks.  To hang the medals, though, I added cup hooks and dowels cut to length:

The shelves installed; they look rather like a shadow, but there are dowels underneath hanging from cup hoods.  Hubby opened up the “C” shape so the dowels can be more easily removed for adding more medals. 

Supervised by the master of the house:

Pigwidgeon supervising installation.  He approves.  He’d approve more if he could have some more kibble.

With medals hung, sorted by sport and year. The wrestling pins need their own display–that’s the next project. And we think Eli is going to put his deceased running and wrestling shoes up on the shelf!

As J.K.Rowling so aptly wrote, “Mischief managed!”

OH MY– I kept walking around saying what a BEAUTIFUL building…the shine of the stone, that CEILING (which numbskull that I am I forgot to take a picture) in the Great Hall, every detail, inside, outside.  We got to see the quilts celebrating Grand Central in the museum, and I got to wander through the market there with the most incredible (and expensive) meats and cheeses and wines and pastries and and and…… Mostly I just photographed the Building, so enjoy:

Quintessential View of the entrance to Grand Central. Deirdre wanted to make sure I got to see the special stuff..wonderful!

And a close up of the clock…what detail! What art!

In the subway, a mural and music

I loved the tile mosaics at each station.  Can you imagine any big city paying what it would cost to do this work today?   I can’t either.  Glad they did it long ago and far away:

Grand Central Station mosaics

42nd Street Station

Times Square Station

Canal St Station, which is apparently near Chinatown

A fancy tile at the Canal Street Station

Look at that color and design–what a fabulous quilt that would make!

The cacophony of the interchanges, this one at Times Square advertising the musical/show Kinky Boots

And the quintessential NYC subway shot–obviously NOT at rush hour!

Next on the NY tour:  BUILDINGS!

Some things never change, and some change slowly, beautifully, unfolding one petal at a time.

Dog walkies must happen. If we simply let him out to run about, this little knucklehead would be gallivanting around the countryside and get lost. So we take turns tethering ourselves to the beloved pug waiting for him to do his business. Ahem. And Smiling at all the smiles he evokes when people see him, including us!

Spring is ssssslllllloooooowwwwwwllllllyyyyyy  arriving in Maine, yes, this late, but it is coming!

The buds on my favorite cherry tree are still tight, but I love them dripping on a sodden day.

And that gnarled, twisted old apple tree that I love so much. So thankful that despite losing half a dozen trees and the tops of another 30 around our yard, this tree survived last winter’s monster ice storm intact.

One apple tree is a bit further into bloom…wouldn’t this be a spectacular quilt?

Ice Storm by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2014, part of the SAQA 25th Anniversary Trunk Show and selected to be among 50 works in the collection of the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky

It pays to check your ISP’s spam folder.  I found the news that my small art quilt, Ice Storm,  is one of 50 selected, out of 407, from the SAQA 25th Anniversary Trunk Show, to be in the collection of the National Quilt Museum!!!  SAQA is the Studio Art Quilt Associates.  Here’s the announcement in the May 2014 SAQA e.Bulletin:

The trunk shows have started traveling!  It was so incredible to see all the pieces together at the conference.  These pieces are from Trunk A: (note:  images not copied since I haven’t asked the artists for their OK).

If your area would like to borrow a trunk show, please contact your regional representative to make arrangements.

Congratulations to the following artists whose trunk show pieces have been chosen to become part of the permanent collection of the National Quilt Museum  in Paducah, Kentucky.  Jurors for the selections were Trudi Van Dyke and B.J. Adams. (List not copied.)

For the full list of selected artists and to see the 8 trunk shows created from the 407 quilts, please go here on the SAQA website. All these quilts are 7 x 10 inches, mounted on black mat-board to 9 x 12 inches. I am beyond thrilled and honored to be selected:  there were SO MANY wonderful quilts.  I wish there could have been more going to the Museum.

I completed this piece in the nick of time–just before the entry deadline, stitching it and sending quick mail to get it there in time!   And let me tell you, it was a bumpy ride to finished! I had just finished viewing and reviewing Diane Rusin Doran’s wonderful Digital Surface Design video workshop (blogpost here, if you are interested in purchasing the DVD or downloading this video, use the link to the Interweave Store to the left in the sidebar) and wanted to try some of Diane’s techniques with a photo from the brutal ice storm earlier in the winter.

In this next photo, you can see how I began to quilt the outside edges.  From the fact that the edges are sliced off you can gather that I DID NOT like the way it looked!

First effort at quilting the outer edges. Yuck. Chop ’em off and figure out Plan B.

I figured rather than pick it out (which would make me miss the deadline), I’d create a quilt on top of a quilt. So I did.  The back of the quilt tells the story:

The back side of Ice Storm.

I printed the photo a second time.  I quilted just as much as needed to be done to fit underneath the new, smaller, nicely bound “top” quilt.  Then I stitched in the ditch of the binding of the top quilt to secure it to the lower layer.   Add binding, call it done, and send it off by Priority Mail without even stopping to take really good photos!  EEK!

And now, it is going to be in the National Quilt Museum, once the trunk shows finish touring that is.  Use the link above to get to the page on the SAQA website where you can see all 407 quilts.  SAQA did LOTS of work to take photos, name them all with the artists name and upload them by the trunk show into which they were put.  Quilts selected for the museum are marked with an asterisk.  I’m in Group A, but those selected are in all of the different trunk shows.

So it’s a good day!  And I’ll close with a detail of the quilting and corner.  Sure glad I worked my tuckus off to get it done!

Detail, Ice Storm, (c) Sarah Ann Smith.

All I need now is more time to play with the techniques in Diane’s workshop–I have this idea…….

For the first time in more than 30 years, I got to visit New York City, thanks to the Northern Star Quilt Guild and my friend Deirdre Abbotts!  On Tuesday of last week I gave my Journal Quilts and Journaling for Quilters lecture to the Northern Star Quilt guild in Somers, NY.  Thanks so much to one and all for inviting me down–I hope I get to return to teach!  When the engagement was booked, Deirdre suggested I plan on staying with her and she’d take a day off work and we’d go to the City and play–So we DID!  FUN!

Cheers! With Luana Rubin and Deirdre Abbotts–see below for more info

The week before heading down, I found and fell in love with Gudrun Sjoden’s clothing, website here, and discovered they have just ONE store in the US:  in New York!  So we went, and I indulged.  No pics of the clothing, and I forgot to take pics of the inside of the store other than this one, but I can tell you I could have dropped four figures on clothing in there with no difficulty.  Fortunately, I restrained myself (a bit).  And I figured out what sizes I take in her clothes, so now I can order online.  <Beam>

Behind the cash register at Gudrun Sjoden’s NYC store–I <3 this line!

Deirdre lives about an hour’s commuter train ride from NYC, so after a brief stop we headed in to the city armed with our fare cards for use on the train and subway.  Because we got there in the late morning, we shopped a bit, went to Purl Soho, walked around Soho a bit (which seems a lot more skyscraper-ish and less Bohemian than I remember from 30 years ago) and went clothes shopping (where Deirdre got the deal of the week on the sale rack).  We then had a late lunch at Le Pain Quotidien at the recommendation of the shop clerk.  SCORE!  Seriously, some of the best tasting food I’ve had in years.  A simple open-faced sandwich, but every component was succulent and savory:

Two “tartines” at Le Pain Quotidien in Soho. The drizzled sauces were incredible…I’ve written in hopes they’ll share some of the ingredients since the place has a website with some recipes given. YUM!

Deirdre had noticed that Luana was in town, so we texted back and forth hoping to meet up for a drink or something after Luana’s business meetings and play (Denzel Washington in A Raisin in the Sun).  Luana thought they’d be out at 3:30, so Deirdre and I decided to subway up to the theatre (near Times Square–what a zoo), but turns out that was intermission time.  So we just HAD to go to City Quilter while Luana watched the second half before meeting her for wine and appetizers at her hotel, near Grand Central.  I brought home a couple of their custom prints…fun!

Cheers! Raising a glass to friendship!

I’ve got a couple more posts with buildings and inspiration!   Stay tuned–here’s a sneak peek:

How lucky we are that the titans of industry 150 years ago poured money into buildings that are art!