Not so long ago I shared the results of the Coastal Quilters’ Art Quilt Challenge, to take Dwight P’s photo of ropes and buoys and make a 10 by 10 inch art quilt. I decided to crop the photo tightly on the buoys and make a piece with the same values (light and dark areas) as the original photo, but in entirely different colors. I couldn’t decide whether to go with blues or with something wild, so I decided to make two! First, I enlarged the cropped photo to the desired size, then traced the outlines by taping tracing paper over my computer screen and, with a pencil, lightly marking the outlines:

The first is in blues (click to make larger):

The second is in pinks and purples:

After the group quilts have been displayed at the statewide annual show, Maine Quilts (in Augusta the last weekend in July), I’ll mount my two pieces on stretched cloth the way I did with the crane (below) and offer them for sale. (The crane is for sale, too….. write me if you’re interested or go surf the for sale gallery on my website). The instructions on how to mount works this way is included in the Creative Quilting With Beads book for my second project. Hmm… don’t think I’ve shared that one yet, have I? Guess that’s a new blogpost! Anyway, hope you like the style (click for larger view):

Well, I was tagged quite a while ago (Susan and Marie), but I’m only now digging out from underneath enough to come play! So here goes….and if you want to know why this photo, you have to read to the end (yes, I’m wicked! <grin!>)

So, according to the instructions I am supposed to

• post the rules (which I’m doing now)
• tell you 7 things about  me that you might not know
• share 7 favorite blogs (as usual, I didn’t follow the rules)
• tell the 7 people I tagged (and I’m also telling them since many of them have already been tagged, they don’t have to keep on keepin’ on, if ya know what I mean!)

Seven things you might not know about me:

1. I come from a very small immediate family, and we are rapidly diminishing in number! My dad was born in 1899 and lived to be 96. He married and had two sons, divorced, married my mom, and had me (well, mom did the hard work on that one). My mom, older half-brother’s wife Joyce, and I are the only ones left in the immediate family. So, I am amazed at and intrigued by large families!

2. I learned to speak Spanish before English (my parents lived in Madrid, Spain, when I learned to speak), and then when I was little also learned French (while living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and attending the Alliance Francaise school). When we returned to the US, a few weeks after Kennedy was assassinated and when I was 6, I decided I was American and was going to speak only English, so forgot it all (but learned both languages again in high school).

3. In high school I could have chosen to become a professional ballerina. I was taking lessons at the San Francisco Ballet School at that time, but was 5’5″ and change (tho I still maintain that at 5’5 1/2″ or 3/4″ I can really say I’m 5’6″). At that height, I was too tall and heavy for the guys to lift, so would have only ever been corps de ballet, not a soloist. I decided college was better than too old, washed up and with bad feet at 25 (typical for a dancer) facing a life of teaching kiddie ballet. Good decision.

4. I wanted to work in the arts out of college, but due to extreme parental pressure and a bit of practicality, majored in the Humanities in International Affairs and did something practical that paid regularly and reasonably well. Now I’m 50 and finally doing what I WANT to do! Art! WELL….. when I can fit it in when family stuff permits.

5. I ‘ve always wanted cats. When I was little, my friend Mary Farkas had Siamese cats which they bred and sold the kittens. One time, Lapsang Suchong (the mom) got out at the “wrong” moment and met up with a randy alley cat. So that litter they were giving away. One kitten, Ivanhoe, used to follow me around her house like a puppy. He slept with me when I spent the night. They wanted to give him to me (he was charcoal grey with a white blaze on his little chest), but my dad absolutely refused. So as soon as I got my own place after college, I promptly went and adopted Cassy from the Arlington (VA) Animal shelter. She is one of the best cats ever to have lived, and I have been owned by cats ever since (they even consented to my insane travel and living abroad!).

6. Ummm…. OK… does anyone really have ANY interest in all this drivel???? Well, I’ll keep on….

I love to read, too! One summer in High school I earned all of $37.00 cleaning houses (my parents mostly wouldn’t let me work, but I filled in for a friend who had cleaning jobs and needed someone to cover for her). I spent $35 of it on ONE book (hardbacks sold at the time for maybe $5): a leather(ette?) bound Lord of the Rings Trilogy which came in a slipcase. The hardest part about living on a pension is not being able to buy books at will, tho having an Amazon visa card (you can spend the rewards on books!) and now moderately predicatable (albeit modest) income from quilting means I can indulge this passion a bit more.

7. Ummmm…. what else could you possibly want to know? OK, I now have two pairs of lime green shoes. One are sneakers and one are new, the Merrells at the top. I decided to wear one of each for the photo! Since I wear SO MUCH blue, and since we know it is nearly impossible to get blues to match, it is much easier to wear lime green. Fun too!

Seven bloggers you should know:

1. Marie! Aka Marie Johansen, My best friend, who always amazes me at the caliber of her art, her creativity, her prolific output (I’ll confess to being a tad jealous!).

2. Susan Brubaker Knapp, who tagged me for this….keep your eye on her… I KNOW we’re gonna see more of her work in the top echelons of quilting.

3. Dijanne Cevaal, a textile artist originally from the Netherlands, living in Western Australia, frequently travels to Europe and the Middle East, and whose work always intrigues and inspires me.

4. Jinny Bowker, also Australian. I first saw her work in a sewing machine company ad in an Australian quilting magazine and have been following her ever since. THEN I learned we share something else… diplomatic service! Her husband has been Australian ambassador to assorted places, most recently Egypt.

5. Planet Textile Threads isn’t a person, but a selection of interesting blogs… I like it (and not just ‘cuz I’m included)… it really is about textile artists literally all over the world. Cool!

6. Deborah Boschert is one of the first art quilters I met in Maine, became a dear friend (and I really miss having her here… she now lives on the far side of the universe, aka the Dallas metro area), and a fun and interesting blogger!

7. Kathy Daniels is another dear friend here in Maine and a totally amazing artist. When Deborah and I started talking about getting together a mini-group, Deborah wanted to invite her friend Kate (who alas doesn’t blog as she is WAY too busy), who wanted to invite Kathy. WOW what a group! We have since added Hannah (who is beginning to blog, but I still don’t have her blog address… AHEM! Hannah? Are you out there? Link please!), and we are the Frayed Edges!

8. Since #5 isn’t really an individual, I really wanted to add Terry Grant here. I love her work, I love her blog, I love sharing her life and art.

Thanks Susan and Marie for the honor of including me in your lists! And I hope I haven’t bored you all to tears… I promise, quilty content IS coming (I’ve actually QUILTED something this week~! Even if it IS a class sample for Paducah, I really like one of them a LOT!)

My friend Jacquie the QuiltMuse sent me this and of course I had to share…. I used to live in DC and one of the highlights of the newspaper year was when these definitions would come out…. they are ALWAYS hilarious. Just goes to prove that bureaucrats and politicos (well, some of them) DO have a sense of wit!

Here is the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. —-some of the winners:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
3. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
4. Bozone ( n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
9. Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
10. Decafalon (n): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido: All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic Fit (n): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.

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The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, (n) An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

For the most part, I try to stay away from politics on this blog, but I’m about to break that self-imposed sorta-rule. To give away my leanings at the start, here is a wonderful YouTube clip, which I saw on Deb Lacativa’s blog, and she had seen it on Terri Grant’s blog….:

“A Woman’s place is in the House, and the Senate.”

Back then, it was still a radical concept…I’m pretty sure the only women senators were either widows of sitting Senators who died in office or Nancy Landon Kassebaum, daughter of Alf Landon and heir to his political legacy. There were a few women in the house, but FEW.

The other t-shirt read “God Bless Chocolate City and its Vanilla Suburbs” with a picture of an ice cream cone with one scoop of chocolate and two scoops of vanilla. There were still burned-out buildings down in the H-street downtown area from the race riots that scorched our country in 1968. I was stunned–as a middle class white girl from California–when on the bus from Dulles Airport to downtown DC the black bus driver announced “now you smokers, you got to sit at the back where I used to have to sit.” I had never encountered overt racism in my life, and here was someone who had lived it, and fairly recently.

So I have to confess, I am bursting with pride. We have not one, but TWO non-white-middle-aged-male candidates who are the leading contenders for the Democratic nomination for President. Who would have thought than in 33 years from the time I arrived in DC for college, it could happen. Of course our country still has a long way to go, but my how far we have travelled!

I had uncharacteristically thought of writing to Obama….but instead I’ll write here what I would have written to him….

I am happy that the three leading contenders for the presidency at this point are all honorable people who have chosen to serve their country. Although my politics differ markedly from those of Senator McCain, I respect him and his dedication to our nation: he could easily have chosen a different path, but instead he served in the military, survived years in a North Vietnamese prison and triumphed over those years, and has continued to serve the people of the United States. So I give him my thanks and respect.

Senator Clinton served this country in her role as First Lady, first of Arkansas and then in the White House. Although it is an unpaid position, there is no question about how much is asked of the First Lady (or First Gentleman, one of these days), and that it is a position which serves the people of the United States. She then went on to fulfill some of her own political ambitions. If she becomes the Democratic nominee, I will be happy to vote for her.

But I really want to vote for you in November, I want to vote for someone that I truly believe can LEAD, can inspire, can bring us together. Presidents are always held to a higher standard, and being who you are, who will likely be held to an even higher standard. I believe and hope that you can not only meet those standards, but exceed them. As with any administration, there will be the inevitable errors and stumbles, but I want to vote for someone who can lead, inspire, and help restore our country to a position of respect in the international community. I want to be able to speak of my President with pride, not shame and disgrace for what the incumbent has done to destroy our economy, our pride, and our international standing. I believe that you are the person who can best do this, so I’m looking forward to voting for you, and to having a small part in a sea-change in the course of our country. You embody the saying “be the change you want to see.” Thank you!

In a new Christmas miracle (ahem), I actually got our annual “Christmas” newsletter written, printed, in the envelopes and INTO THE MAIL before Christmas! Some years, this event has occurred the week after Christmas (last year), in early January (several previous years), even February. One year, I thought since I was so late I’d make it an Easter newsletter. That holiday came and went, and by June I decided I was SO LATE I’d just skip it and try to do better the following year. So you can see that this is no small feat! Of course, I will never, ever be able to match my friend Gayle, whose letter and card always arrive shortly after Thanksgiving! I may try, but she’ll always beat me, and I look forward to seeing how early she gets ’em out every year <ggg>.

I thought I’d share some of the newsletter here…. the photo above is the one at the end of the letter and was taken a couple of evenings ago. I probably should have included one of the umpteen-zillion other shots taken trying to get them to sit still and behave…. how many years until they do? At least a dozen I think… For regular readers, you’ll recall all these events, as I think they’ve all been in the blog!

The Smith Family Chronicles, 2007 edition

We are looking forward to 2008, since 2007 has been a roller-coaster-ride. The year started out well, with Joshua coming in 5th in the state in his weight class in middle school wrestling, Eli earning his green belt in Tae Kwon Do (Korean) karate and yellow belt with stripes in Isshinriyu (Okinawan) karate, Paul starting out as a white belt in the Isshinriyu dojo, and Sarah’s quilting career taking off quite nicely. In March we added a new member of the family: the world’s most adorable pug, Pigwidgeon. Eli has always wanted a pug, and for his birthday he got one! ‘Widgeon is named after the hapless Weasley family owl in the Harry Potter series, and he makes EVERYone grin — the whole neighborhood loves him.

Just a few weeks after summer vacation began, things took a decided downturn. Paul had torn something in his shoulder and was scheduled for rotator cuff surgery on Tuesday, July 17th. An hour after Paul’s pre-op appointment on the 16th, Joshua decided to dash to the library. He tore down the hill to the T-intersection at the bottom; when he tried to slow down, the brakes didn’t work properly. He cranked the handlebars to make the right turn as hard as he could, but gravel at the bottom of the hill made things worse and he veered across the yellow line, directly into the front left quarter-panel of a Jeep going the 35 mph speed limit.

Miraculously, and probably with the help of an entire host of angels, he suffered only a severely broken left leg—all three major bones broken, the tib-fib into a compound fracture—a gash on his head (he was NOT!!!! wearing a helmet!) and scrapes and bruises. A friend of Joshua’s who lives near the accident scene heard the crash and called to tell us Joshua had been hit. Paul and Sarah flew down the hill in suspended terror until they saw Joshua sitting up, clutching his left leg, surrounded by helpers including a nurse practitioner who was passing by who was phenomenal—and we don’t even know her name to tell her how much her competence and calm helped us all.
After what seemed like eternity, an ambulance with a patient in the back stopped and dropped off an EMT. The EMT took one look at Joshua and before even kneeling down to examine him, got on her radio to call Life Flight to helicopter Joshua to a regional emergency center since the degree of injury was too much for a local hospital. The poor young woman who hit Joshua was devastated—Paul and I both went over to let her know he would be OK. Later, her dad told us she said her eyes and Joshua’s locked over the hood of the car—terrifying! Fortunately, Joshua only remembers thinking “oh this isn’t gonna be good” as he saw the car approach, and then sitting up and the pain in his leg—he has no recall of being hit.

To make a long story a bit shorter, Joshua endured four surgeries in seven days, including the seven-hour operation two days after the accident to insert a rod into his thigh and apply an “external fixator” to his shinbones. The “ex-fix” was six screws about 6 inches long drilled into his bones, with rods on the outside to keep the bones in position. The pressure from the swelling tissues was so great the surgeons had to do two fasciotomies, basically long slices from knee to ankle on both sides of his shin; without this, the pressure on the tissue would have caused it to turn gangrenous and die. Paul and Sarah rotated spending the night at the hospital: one of us was with Joshua 24/7 for the 3 weeks he was in hospital. Eli was a major trooper throughout this ordeal, and was always helpful and cooperative despite having to ride to and fro for 3 hours nearly every day.

After nearly a week, Joshua slept all day. Between the morphine and other heavy-duty IV drip painkillers and blood loss, he had become severely anemic. He ended up needing two transfusions. After a second week, it was time to close up the fasciotomies, requiring a skin graft from Joshua’s left thigh. Another week of rehab and healing followed. Once the skin graft was pronounced “good to go”, Joshua was released to home, three weeks nearly to the hour after the accident.

August was quiet except for Paul’s surgery and being able to go to the Maine Air Show (in September) and see the Blue Angels aerobatic team—awesome! After two days home, Joshua got fed up with the slowness of the walker and gutted his way to walking with crutches and healed with the speed of youth. Paul’s recovery has been remarkable, amazing his physical therapist and doctor! The local quilters were awesome, several coming to us with meals to feed an army, but instead we ate them with appreciation for their love and compassion. And quilters around the world (on Sarah’s e-lists) sent get-well quilt blocks to Joshua, who will have a huge new quilt as a result.

School began, life assumed some normalcy, and Eli played on his first soccer team. He proved to be a quick study once again—his proud Mom and Dad think he can excel at anything he sets his mind to! And we’re proud he was selected for Horizons, the gifted student program, for the fourth grade. Eli also competed in Maine’s biggest martial-arts tournament as an Isshinryu student and took 2nd out of 26 kids in kata (forms), and 4th out of 26 kids in fighting—way to go Eli! Joshua’s leg hardware came off in early November in his sixth and hopefully final surgery (there could be one more in about a year if the rod inside his femur bothers him and needs to come out). He will heal completely!

Sarah’s quilting is going gangbusters! She had two articles published in Quilting Arts magazine this past year, the top quilting magazine for art quilters. As well: two projects were selected to be in a book to be published in May 2008 called Quilting with Beads, the Frayed Edges (Sarah and four friends) had a month-long show in the gallery space at the beautiful Camden library, and (drum roll please) she got a contract from AQS (one of the three largest quilt publishing houses) to write a book! The book is tentatively titled “Unraveling Threadwork,” and is about using thread on the surface of a quilt: appliqué, embellishment and quilting by machine. She had hoped it would be out in Fall 2008, but the hurly burly of the summer may cause the date to slip. Sarah’s teaching is also taking off, with three big-time teaching gigs in 2008 including at the HUGE AQS Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky.

In early December, Sarah traveled to California for her mom’s 89th birthday! We are all hoping that Nana will be able to move to Camden (on the waiting list for the retirement community there) in 2008. Joyce, Sarah’s beloved sister in law, came up from L.A. Sarah’s half-brother Tom J. passed away at the age of nearly 75 in late June, and Sarah had been scheduled to go out in July for the celebration of his life. Joshua’s accident changed those plans, so we were all thrilled that the three remaining “Maleady’s” were able to be together.

So that’s it for a crazy year! We are all looking forward to a less-eventful 2008!

With love, cheer and good will,

Paul, Sarah, Joshua and Eli
And the many critters:
Zeus, Tyger, Hannah, Thumper,
Yeti and ‘Widgeon