Riding the Orphan Train Once Again

I had the most incredible day yesterday. First off, for improving my mood, was the glorious sunshine. Add to that a fabulous friend, a trip to an interesting museum to see what turned out to be great tribal art, and a delicious Italian antipasti salad for lunch. As if it couldn't get any better, Will showed me some works in progress, a couple of her older quilts, and we talked, talked, talked fabric and quilts. Ah, perfection. I did take loads of photos from the museum, but you're going to have to wait for that post because I did some sewing today for the first time since arriving here.

I pulled the Orphan Train blocks back out and got to work. You can see what this work in progress looked like when I left off in August 2005 here. I arranged the blocks without matching how I had them previously. I moved that long area with the purple and black from out of the right middle and up into the left corner. That way the Trip Around the World fragments lead down into the main body of the quilt.

I added my log cabin blocks. (Begun for a bed quilt way back in June 2005. I like the blocks, but they weren't quite what I was after. I'll start with a smaller center AND have the logs finish 1/2" instead of 3/4" when I try again.) I zigzagged the blocks up in the right corner.

I'm an idiot and deleted the pics of how this quilt looked at the beginning of the day. Anyway, this is after a bunch of piecing:

I love how it looks, but it's top heavy, isn't it. Does adding a row of log cabins along the bottom like this help? I think so, but how does it look from there? If you notice anything horrible, tell me now before I sew it together. (And hopefully I won't have already done it, like Joyce and Bonnie always manage to to do before I've had a chance to respond.)

I'm happy with my progress. Not so happy about my allergies freaking out on me. Of course the cats made the day interesting. Pokey decided that one of the blocks had to die, wrapped her front legs around it and just starting digging at it with her hind claws. I obviously thought it more endearing than endangering since my first instinct was to grab the camera.

Play, play, play:

At least Howler just slept on it:

Pokey wore herself out and retired to the blocks on top of the cutting table:

Cute as all heck, but so in the way. I picked her up and moved her three times from that spot. Of course her new one was the sewing chair...

I was a brave girl today and made appointments with an endrocrinologist and a dentist. Or at least a dental hygienist with a "visit" from the dentist. Hmm okay. I HATE making phone calls even in the States where I know the language, so this was an accomplishment. Holly, you understand, right?

It's time to make dinner, so I gotta run. Ya'all take care.

p.s. sorry about those entries reposting yesterday. Thought I was doing it properly so that wouldn't happen, but I guess not.

What is Going on in There?

The front loading washing machine is a source of entertainment for the kitties. Here's Lily utterly entranced:

I've been washing all sorts of laundry lately, including the lap quilt that Howler decided to make his own, if you know what I mean and I think you do if you've read my previous posts. Darn cat.

I found a fun site yesterday, Expat Blog, where expats from all over the world can register their blogs to make them easier to find. The blogs don't even have to be in English. I know some of my readers could register here too.

I got a semi-surprise in the mail: the newly-released DVD set of Kitchen Confidential. It wasn't a surprise, in that I knew theoretically it might be coming. I was contacted by a member of the show's production company and asked if I'd be willing to watch it and post a review on my blog. I had caught their attention with my numerous posts about Anthony Bourdain and his books and tv series.

Hmm, a tv-series based on Tony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential, starring Will Tippin, Xander Harris and Sam Weir? I'm totally in. I e-mailed my address without a second thought. Only later did visions of endless junkmail and phishing expeditions enter my head. But as it turns out, good things can actually happen in this world. I've enjoyed the three episodes I've watched. Woohoo. I'll let you know how it progresses.

Anyone wants to send me DVDs or books to review, I'm in. What a great job. I notice that the company who did Kitchen Confidential also does Bones and My Name is Earl. I promise I would give great reviews of those shows - I already know I love them.

The production company does Stargate Atlantis too, but gotta say I'm not nearly so enthusiastic about that one. My sweetie and I finally watched disc 4 and I am disliking the show more and more. It's too preachy and I swear one of the episodes was based on the Star Trek episode that had Frank Gorshin in it. (You fellow geeks know which one I mean. The one guy was half black and half white and his combatant was half white and half black.)

Back to SG Atlantis: Dr McKay is fantastic - love love love that character and he almost makes the whole thing worthwhile. But why add the character of Ronin? Dull and brooding. boring. I want more of Lt whatever her name was that got stuck in McKay's body - the interplay between the two of them is great. Stargate SG-1 is so much better than this show, so why did they ever cancel it?

I've admitted previously what a tv addict I am and living here is killing me. In Cairo our satellite company had all sorts of english-language programming with subtitles in arabic. Got to watch British cookery and detective shows and the top 10 programs from the states (although they'd be 1-2 years behind). Here I get endless repeats of the Inspector Lynley shows and Mutant X in english and that's about it. Mutant X? That's what they choose to let me hear in English? You've got to be kidding me.

And the French Sci-Fi channel never ever has an English option. I hate them. I'd love to watch Sliders although Seaquest does nothing for me.

A Bit of Egypt in Paris

I took a long walk yesterday afternoon in the sunshine; I even got a bit sunburned. I took 140 pics (I looooove digital cameras) and even tossing half as outright awful still leaves me with a lot of pics to choose from. Decided to divide them up over a number of days so I'll have something to post about even when I'm playing hermit. I'm going to post thematically, not geographically... Today is a bit of Egypt in Paris.

This was my initial objective: Cleopatra's Needle down at the Place de la Concorde. Yes, a real Egyptian obelisque here in the heart of Paris.



And this looks rather foreboding doesn't it:

I forgot to take my guidebook with me (d'oh) but just followed the tourist hordes into the Jardin des Tuileries. It's not as pretty as I was expecting. I'd call it a park, not a garden since there was little in the way of flowers.

This statuary with tiny creatures (cherubs? - I don't know, I thought they were rather creepy, especially the one sitting on the big dude's shoulder) and a sphinx caught my eye. This looks far more Roman than Egyptian. A cornucopia? Not something seen in Egypt.

Nonetheless, it is titled: Le Nil. I can't believe how old this is - finished in 1692 if I'm interpreting this sign correctly.

And how about this sphinx I found on the Quai d'Orsay:

She's cool, but Egyptian sphinxes are breastless. The Egyptian name for them is "Abu Hol" - father of terror. Not a fitting name for this babe.

While eating my sandwich at the Jardin, I read a bit of Eric Maisel's A Writer's Paris. I love reading books about writing and dreaming that some day I will be a writer. I of course have many things going against me in that department: sheer laziness and procrastination being the top two. I've come to accept that I like the dream better than the reality.

A Writer's Paris is illustrated by Danny Gregory who inspires a whole different dream of having gorgeous drawings in a wonderful journal. I keep using the excuse that I need a moleskin journal to do it properly, because who wants to do all that work on a spiral bound notebook? I want it to look pretty...

I need more sunshine. Geez louise and this is June.

A Peek Into My Bedroom

We now have the Masterpiece Quilt up on the wall in the master bedroom. I think it looks great, if I don't say so myself. I set up the tripod and got the pic with natural light, so this is actually a good representation of this quilt. And that's the Sunshine and Shadow quilt on the bed - I showed you the details of the quilting last post.

Judy, thanks for asking specific questions on my hand quilting motions. I'll have to sit down and really focus on what it is I'm doing with each finger and thumb and then try to write it all down clearly.

I've been terrible, absolutely atrocious, about keeping track of the links I want to share with you. Every time I moved house this year I got discombobulated and forgot that I have to write things down or I'll forget them. Well the brain is slowly getting back in gear and I have a list.

Did you see Siobhan's incredible antique maverick quilt? It's one of my absolute favorite quilts ever. It's made up of orphan blocks and sawtooth squares and is so inventive.

The wonderful Kim of Force Majeure Farm has posted instructions for adding pics to the Free-Pieced Quilting Group at Flickr. Any of you who have played with making the letters or houses or anything off of one of my tutorials is welcome to join and post pics of completed tops or quilts. If you're computer inept like me, then Kim will even post the pics for you. Which reminds me that I need to flickr some new pics myself. Thanks, Kim!

Check out Sue's blog, From the Magpie's Nest. She's a fairly new blogger and has been working more improvisationally these days. She's currently working on a wonderful African fabric piece for a very worthy cause. And check out her Journal Quilt #1 and Hugs and Kisses for Reilly which combine wonky letters and beading.

I have more links to include but not enough time. It's a beautiful sunny day so I'm taking a walk down to the Place de la Concorde to visit Cleopatra's Needle. Later!

First Quilting Stitches

I played around with the Blogger template today - have to say the new system is much easier to use, no need to play with HTML, which I don't know anyway. I also started adding labels. I apologise to all of you who have a subscription service - I didn't realize it really was going to repost all my old entries when I added labels to them. And I might just have to do a few more, so fair warning. Also please let me know if any of the links don't work.

One of the quilts that arrived in my shipment from storage was one of the very first quilts I ever worked on, a Sunshine and Shadow. For more about that, read this post. Anyway, this is the quilt I learned to hand quilt on, in a frame, which was horrible. My mom and I both quilted on this in one direction and then the quilt came off the frames and I did the rest of the quilting over the next several years with no frame and no hoop.

The difference is obvious between my first quilting stitches and the later ones.


I have my Alphabet Sampler up on the wall now too. It was one of the first quilts I did with the freehand fans. I notice that my fans were much flatter then than they are now - the difference in practise. I convinced a friend of mine to do the freehand fans and she was a bit discouraged that they were coming out flat, but hopefully this will help her take heart:

More rounded fans aren't superior to flat ones. Just different. I love them all. Speaking of variations in the fans, have you been reading Tanya's blog? She had a great entry about a Japanese sashiko quilting design that is the same as the fans. Go read it here.

Kristin, I hold the quilting needle in my right hand and do a rocking motion, gathering multiple stitches at a time. In my left hand I hold a fold of the quilt and that hand stays steady. I don't put any kind of tension on the quilt sandwich.