Thread Rack

Here it is, my muse.

This thread rack caught my eye on day when I was talking on the phone. I was really enjoying both the color runs & the occasional  'misplaced' spool. 

On the vertical edges of this piece I added three rows of skinnier swatches to stand for bobbins loaded with thread.  I quilted it by machine sideways to stand for the horizontal thread wrap.

Later I found the quilt a super home.
My friend Joan Bennet, knitter extraordinaire, has just moved &, I thought, needed a housewarming present for her knitting studio. You can see why I would think of this!
So here is Thread Spools & Bobbins in its new home. Joanie sometimes helps me with my knitting projects.

And here is Joanie on a trip we took with her & her husband in Alaska. 

                                                            That's it for now.

Nice Girls/ Good Women

When I was growing up there were a few things we were cautioned about.

"Nice girls do not boast."

One of the worst things you could say about a girl was, "She is so conceited." I never wanted that said of me! And I would say it of others with much scornful disapproval.

So doing a blog is a complicated thing for me because it really is a kind of boasting, & someone could say I am conceited. I worry I have put myself on that path. I talked with my sister Lynne today. She has the same problem. She doesn't dare price her paintings too high, lest someone think she is conceited! We had a good laugh about it.

I have to trust that I will not be "punished" for this blog entry for what might be seen as tooting my own horn too loudly.  

I believe this caution wasn't part of the boys' training, not the boys I grew up with. I think they must have been trained to toot their own horns. That's what their fathers did! Indeed, I believe the Women's Movement tried to undo some of that tendency! We Women tried to get Those Men to listen better & boast less.

So today, in honor of being brave & not shy or conceited or boastful, I thought I'd post some self-portraits that I have done in the last year or so. Just for fun! 

So tell me, what's the difference between conceit or boastfulness & the celebration of enjoyment of self?

That's it for now.

Cross Play

I have just finished a new piece today, Cross Play.

The upper left orientation [below]was how the layout was oriented during the design process. But I grew to be uncomfortable with the imbalance of it, so I tried all the possible positions to chose the one that felt better &, as it turned out, most stable!! 
                 

                                            

                                            

So which better is "better"? Is there a "best"?

                                                            That's it for now.

Going East Again

I was very nervous about being in New England in the Winter-- even for 6 days. I worried about driving dangers & getting caught in a blizzard. I needn't have.

The weather was sunny, crisp, and there was snow on the ground, & the roads were fine.

My decision to go was based on my offer to Sal Warren, my dear friend from babyhood days. Really! We were in diapers together when our parents were young marrieds & neighbors. Sal's son had died in mid-November. It was a terrible unexpected shock. She said she'd love to have me there to see her through the memorial gathering weekend.

I hadn't been in a New England winter since the sixtes. That's a lot of years ago. It was sublimely beautiful. 

I didn't do much photography, but I did stop to collect just a few shots of snow-on-roofs.

How could I resist?

When the snow comes off these metal roofs it is with a great thundering for those indoors. 

I also found my eyes gravitating towards pastels: particularly light aqua, light blue & pale yellow & peach,  peach like in this wonderful house:

I really want to try something in cloth with this palette.

And finally a wonderful Robert Frost that was read at the gathering:

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I rued.

And Sam with his parents last year.

                                                        That's it for now.