Well it has been a busy week, or three, but Mom is now moved to MAINE! WOOOT! I’ll post some pics in a while, but just a bit of internet surfing for your entertainment today. To make a long story short, my dear 89-year old Mom has just made what we all hope, for her sake, will be her last major move….since she’s gone from Wyoming (birth), to West Virginia, to Japan, all over the Orient, South America, Europe, back to South America and finally to California in 1964. Anyway, now she’s here and we are all starting to de-stress. On our last day in Marin, we went to lunch at Insalata, in San Anselmo (the town I lived in from 7th through 12th grade). My beloved sister in law Joyce came up to help with the moving days… the first photo is of Mom and Joyce, the second of me with Ma.

One good way to de-stress is by surfing the internet, so here are some tidbits for you which I’ve visited in the past few days:

Alicia Merrett is an art quilter in the UK. I particularly like her Shakespeare and Sonnet 18 series–click on her Gallery tab, then scroll down and click on the link for that gallery.

Color Chart: Reinventing Color Since 1950 is on the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) site, and I’m putting the link here in this blogpost so I don’t lose it… I want to go fritter some time away playing with it!

I also got myself on the e-mail list for Folkwear Patterns... I’ve been a fan for 25 years plus (as in from the beginning!). I’m so thrilled they still exist and have expanded their line. I must have at least a dozen of the patterns, and have made and worn most of them. They don’t have to look costume-y or outlandish… it all depends on how you select your fabric and wear them…. you can go funky, hippie, or just artsy chic! Anyway, the Photo Gallery I hadn’t seen before, and there is some real inspiration here.

More anon… it is REALLY good to be home!

A thousand years or more ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was young, I attended San Domenico School. The school is not so much larger in terms of students, but my oh my the opportunities for those kids! The lower school is now co-ed, tho the high school is, for a while longer, still all girls (I think there are plans to change that in time, and I’m OK with it!). I’ve been able to donate my piddly little donation every year, while Mom was able to endow a music scholarship for the outstanding classical music program; in another time and era, mom probably would have loved to be a professional musician, but as a child of the Depression, earning a living came first and foremost. All photos in this post are clickable to view larger in a new window.

Sure wish I’d been that talented back then and then had the next 30+ years to improve on that foundation!

On my recent trip to California (by the time this publishes on the blog, I’ll be back for the last one, to get mom moved to Maine!), Mom and I were able to attend the Virtuoso Program concert. In the Faith France Lobby next to the auditorium, there is always a wonderful art display, this time by the students of the Upper School (high school). I am always so amazed…. and wish I could take the classes with them! I think the photo above, of the pomegranates, and the one below of the tree are my favorites:

Here’s a picture of mom with the two girls who currently hold her scholarship…one is a violinist and I think the other is a cellist:

Then here is more of the art:

Well folks, it’s that time of year again: WRESTLING season for the middle schools in Maine. And coincidentally, I’ve had a couple folks ask (thank you!) how Joshua is doing after that nasty accident last summer (if you’re new to my blog, he was on his bike, got hit by car, 3 weeks in hospital with badly broken leg etc–lots of blog posts after July 17…). Well, I’m thrilled to say, not only is he healed, but he WON BOTH of his first two matches of the season! WOOOT WOOOOOT WOOOOOOT!

You could tell by the look on his face from the moment he walked on to the mat (photo above, start of first match) he was determined to win. (As an aside… if you look at the side of Joshua’s left leg in the photo above, you can see the shorter of the two scars he has on both sides of the lower leg…wicked!) Before he left the house (it was a home meet so we had an easy day getting there!) Joshua said he WAS going to win all his matches today, and he did! The first one was fairly easy—here’s Joshua pinning the other boy (who was clearly younger and less experienced)

But the second match was supposed to be a tough one–The Camden-Rockport coach said he knew Joshua’s opponent and it should be a good match. As you can see, the boys are similar in size and build, tho I thought the other boy looked a bit more muscular than Joshua.

Hah! Here’s my boy (typed proudly) moving in straight away:

Joshua pinned BOTH opponents in the first round (matches are 3 one-minute rounds, scored on points, unless someone gets a pin sooner).

I must say, it does reduce a mom’s stress level to see a pin in round one versus a win on points at the end of round three! And after three seasons, I FINALLY got a good picture of Joshua with the hands-up for the win pose!

Thanks again to all who sent good wishes and good thoughts our way during Joshua’s ordeal last summer. The blocks many sent are waiting for me to have time (after  my mom is moved to Maine and the book is done) to make his new bed quilt (will be ready in time for cool fall weather I’m sure, I hope…..famous last words?), and we are all so incredibly grateful that he is alive and well — and rocks at wrestling!

My mom lives still (for a few more weeks–she should be here in Camden, Maine by mid-March) in the county where I grew up: Marin County, California, at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. I was out there the past ten days to help her prepare to move. We moved to Marin in January 1964, shortly after President Kennedy was assassinated (we were in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when he was shot but moved back to the US a week or few later). I attended first and second grades at Bayside Elementary School in Sausalito, California, where we lived (it’s the first town on the north side of the bridge). Daddy didn’t always know what to do with me after school, so he used to take me to the beach at Fort Cronkhite. (PS…all photos in this post can be right-clicked to open up larger in a separate window or tab.) The old one-lane tunnel (thankfully retro-fitted to better withstand being smack dab on top of the San Andreas fault) is still there, and is one of two ways to get to the beach:

At the time, it was still an active military base (along with Fort Barry, just inside the bridge, and Fort Baker, between the bridge and Cronkhite on the outside). I can remember sometimes seeing the Nike missiles pointed skyward for periodic tests. The picture below is from the crest of the hills to the south of the beach.

You know all those car commercials with San Francisco (aka “the City”) in the background? They are taken from the road that skirts the coast, sometimes from a dizzying height and drop-off. This photo was taken from one of the few pull-outs. I don’t think there is a finer view of the city from anywhere:

Since I was a kid, the entire Marin Headlands area has become part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the first such “park” in the nation. I get goosebumps to think of the legacy Teddy Roosevelt gave to us all when he created the National Park system, and that this area which I have always loved so much is now a part of it. I love the red-wing blackbirds that populate the marshes and lagoon! Until I was in my 30s I never new that most red-wing blackbirds have yellow on the wings, as the ones at Cronkhite are a small subset with red only (others have red+yellow or red+white). One of these days there will be a redwing art quilt!

When the military bases were decommissioned, the area became even more accessible to the public. Eventually, the California Marine Mammal Center opened to help rescue stranded and injured pinnipeds (and I think the occasional small cetacean)–seals, sea lions, and also otters I think. After a few years the privately funded and volunteer-staffed center dropped the “California” to help folks understand they didn’t get state funding. They are now building a new facility (no more gift shop in a second-hand single-wide!), and I’m proud to say that Paul and I have given a modest yearly donation for 19 years now! Here’s a photo of the new facilities from across the valley.

I’ll share two more posts about this glorious area… come on back! And thanks for surfing in today!

Yes, I am alive. Yes, I have been working like a madwoman. Yes, family life happens (and means you don’t get to blog). Yes, I have been teaching. Yes, I have been quilting!

Earlier this week I came across a post on the quiltart list by Sonja Lee, and a link to her blog, Art Textilian, with her contribution to the World Beach Project. WOWIE ZOWIE! Instant inspiration! The Beach project is sponsored by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, and a collaboration with artist Sue Lawty. Immediately I wanted to participate, despite the bone-shattering cold this week

So on Friday at sunset when it was about 12 degrees Fahrenheit (minus temps in Celcius) with a nice breeze blowing to make it feel chillier, Eli and I went to town to buy Pigwidgeon (the pug)  a birthday present (a new bed), go to the post office, and just before dark (well, as dark was happening at 5 pm) make our piece on the beach. The photo above is of the beach below the library and amphitheatre park. You can see the schooners wrapped for winter and the ice (yes, ice) on the beach at low tide at sunset.

I guess I didn’t read the instructions too well, because the project is supposed to be made of stone, and ours is made of mussel shells, a few rocks, and tumbled, broken bits of brick (so it is totally New England!). When I asked Eli at breakfast if he wanted to do this with me, he asked if we could make the yin and yang if we could find white and black stones, so of course I said yes. Well, he didn’t remember what it was called, but I knew he meant yin-yang. When we got to the beach, he decided red and blue of brick and mussels would be better.

Anyway, I don’t know if our project will make the V&A website since it isn’t exactly mostly rock, but we had fun anyway. It got so dark in the 20 minutes or so that we were freezing our fingertips (some of the shells were frozen to the sand and we had to scrabble to pry them loose!), so I had to photoshop / lighten this last picture so you can actually see both the harbor and our project.