One more note. I think I bought 8 yards of the pima cotton. What was I thinking?!? After ripping off a 3 yard hunk, and then a 2+ yard hunk guess what - only a couple yards left. Duh.
Silly girl - I think I'll look in the hancock catalogue and see if they sell it by the bolt.
Silly tired girl.
Written at:
7/31/2001 10:51:00 PM
Backings are done.
Last night I honestly don't think I slept at all. I was zipping around still at 2 (mentally) and even though I normally cork off once I lay down, well it just didn't happen. Add to that mix the fact that there were countless cats walking around thinking "my, it's a bit nippy tonight, isn't it?"
So today I'm feeling a little droopy.
So's the dryer - the motor runs, but the drum doesn't move. Hopefully won't be too expensive to fix. meanwhile the clothesline will be fine. Nothing like 90F days to dry clothes.
In the moments before I did go to bed last night, I had a thought for a new quilt. More on that as details develop.
Got an email with interview info from Apple. This time - the Ramada lobby!
I am currently working on backings. Let's just say, I did the first one without trouble and screwed up the second one by not watching what I was cutting. ooops. Nothing major. Just a little more piecing than I'd hoped for.
My major accomplishment today was probably grocery shopping. I bought good things to eat. Even bought some gladiolas on the way home at a local farm stand. Sent Ron a page to say "steak for dinner if you're interested." And he showed up, cracked open some beers and ate with me for a change. Maybe I should send him page messages more often!
Which brings me to the "shots of the day." They're not really about local views, but more like the view in my kitchen today. But I am quite pleased with them so I posted them at photographica. Sometimes the view is all about seeing what you're looking at.
I have always thought this - that much of the world is beautiful and worth looking at. But you have to look.
I think it's interesting what Jerome wrote as a comment for these photos "She sees a photo while washing fruit... I love that. " What happened was I was washing the nectarines and the sight of them in the white china bowl, in the sunlight was almost beyond belief. I could hardly break away to get the camera, but I knew I had to try and capture that beautiful set of colors and textures and light. And if others look at them and think - wow, how beautiful nectarines can be, or - look at the skin of those or - how the drops sparkle, I think it was worth capturing.
Jerome's comment has given me a lot to think about. Especially since the idea of SEEING is what my grant is really all about. Seeing what's in our own backyard. Or kitchen as it were.
Written at:
7/30/2001 10:54:00 PM
whoooo hoooo!
I finished the last border, mitered corners and all on the second October quilt tonight. It's been interesting to me to see all these tops together - they are a pretty cohesive group. Even with this new little fern quilt thrown in - my first adventure in fusing - they will all go pretty well together hanging en masse.
I'm pooped - stayed up too late last night putting photos onto web pages and updating the grant site. STILL can't figure out why some of the photos won't load, or stall consistently. Maybe I'll send an email to someone over at Tripod to see if this is a general problem. Could be I'm just not seeing the problem but a syntax check doesn't show anything either.
Went for a walk today too - was VERY much hotter than I expected and there were a lot of deer and horse flies out. Cool sighting of the day - saw one of those sphinx moths that impersonate hummingbirds Fascinating to see, tried and failed to get a photo.
I'm not really posting twice today - the last post was really "last night."
Today I had an interview. I'd really LOVE to get this job. OK, wish it could pay even a few K more, but I'm in it for the learning opportunity. No doubt some young college grad with an art history degree will get it and think it swell paying, but I'm crossing my fingers on it.
Then I bought yet MORE fabric at Alfred's - for backings. Cheap. Really cheap. $2.88 a yard sort of cheap. $5 a yard for 60" wide white pima cotton. Hmmmmm I should buy some of THAT to make gift pillow cases out of. It's luxurious feeling and doesn't wrinkle like some cottons do.
Stopped at the Nassau Library on the way home and chatted with Pat the librarian. Let her know where I stand in terms of number/sizes of quilts and what I'm thinking in terms of postcards for publicity mailing. I really only need to know how many to print - I don't mind if the Friends group mails them or at least labels them.
Next week I should get in touch with a couple more exhibit possibilities so one postcard cn list several dates.
Written at:
7/27/2001 07:12:00 PM
What I started to say yesterday was that it's interesting how things go. You get one nibble for a job and suddenly others look more appealing. You start hoping that the first one will turn you down and one of the others will say "you're the one!"
Years ago after ditching a boyfriend who would not have called me for say MONTHS, the moment I went out for a first date with a new guy the previous guy would call or write me. I swear this is true! The day after I became engaged to marry, the previous fellow called to ask me out sailing. I politely declined. Hung up. Called him back to say why.
As soon as I left a job of 20 years and started a new one, I started getting canvass letters for a civil service exam I'd taken 9 years previous. No kidding.
My revelation yesterday that the moment I have a sentimental thought about a relationship, that's the moment I'm set up to get slapped with just a little, how shall we say, reality check about it. Never fails.
On the other hand, I had to rummage through the MANY photos of Tripod today for a snapshot that Gail wanted. Found it, but had to see way too much of the fun times we had there. Yes there were cranky times, hard days, mutterings - as there are with all jobs. But what can you say about a place that had weekly exhibits of weird stuff people collect, or potluck lunches, or matchbox car championship races? I even miss my cubicle at times.
It's been 13 months of being unemployed. Must be time for someone to say "you're the one!"
Bet as soon as they do, either someone better will ask me out or someone from my past will appear from the mists.
I had an interview yesterday. Didn't think it went all that well, but on the other hand it wasn't the interested hiring party doing the interviewing. This was an emergency, first round interviewing because the person lined up to start the job decided not to. Beautiful place to work though - wow. Great art work and molas on the walls. Cotton Hill Studios
Come home and get a phone call from the art gallery at the Albany International Airport
In the meantime, today in the sweltering heat, I managed to sew the remaining rows together for this little pink and green quilt. So far the title is "Apple Dapple" because that's what started it - thinking of looking up into a blossoming apple tree.
The cats and I spent most of the day shpritzing as they say, although cats don't admit to sweating. They just fall over a lot. Besides sewing I did domestic things like laundry and dishes and a bit of cleaning.
Found this great logo tonight while searching for something else:
Planet Pink Slip DO check out their tshirt logos at the top of the page. I might have to get one of these.
Went to MacWorld Expo yesterday with Ron and had a good time wandering around looking at Mac stuff. All the Apple employees were very cheerful. Wow. went to a talk about iMovie and another about OS 10.1. Both were well done and presented. Talked to the Epson folks about color printers.
We went to B&H before the trip home. Didn't get what I wanted, but what a store!
Today - more on the grocery cart contents. The folks in front of me - couple of out of control kids who kept going MAMAAAAAAAAA, - had boxes that looked like kraft macaroni and cheese but said "Shake and Bake" or something similar. A LOT of it. animal crackers in mylar type ziplock bag.
The young man behind me had: a strip of three yeast packages, bread flour, a muffin tin for small-sized muffins, 2 boxes of ramen noodles - one each chicken and beef - so that's like.... 16-20 packages? Uncle Ben Rice Bowl. I couldn't help but ask about the muffin tin - they're so cute with the small cups. He said he was making a bread recipe that you make in small muffin cups and serve with fruit and syrup. OK. That explains the flour and yeast. I said - oh, like Babas (au rhum)? no response. Must be in Martha, I bet!
What did I buy? everything on my list: olives, tabasco, crushed/chopped hot pepper (jar), mayo, frozen lemonade, half and half, cottage cheese, cheese - both cheddar blocks, and american and swiss slices, some deli meat for ron. Two bags, a little heavy on the dairy.
One of the things that makes grocery shopping bearable is being nosy enough to notice what other people have in their shopping carts. Eeeks! The things people buy.
--disclaimer-- I am not a totally raw, unprocessed food purchaser myself. But compared to what I see in the carts of others I could probably get stamped "organic" LOL! --disclaimer off--
OK so the lady in front of me in the check out line had bottled water, quite a few of the ??arizona?? Rx teas - stress relief etc, and a bunch of instant soup things. I thought, with water out of the tap, you could make lots of tea or drink the water. There was a bunch of other stuff too that was really strange.
Other things that jumped out at me - huge boxes of multicolored cereal. Single serving soup in bottles or cans. This totally puzzles me "Suddenly Salad" - apparently makes a pasta salad. How sudden can that be? Would this be with dried vegetables? mmmmmm
What did I buy? Cans of tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes for making sauce. Vegetarian baked beans for a quick dinner side. Tuna. A brisket to make BBQ beef. coffee. A beef kielbasa in case I want to make soupy stuff. Romaine, celery, green beans. Some pasta. Some cheaper pasta for macaroni salad (with tuna probably). Rice (which it turns out we didn't need yet) Beef hot dogs (recent guilty pleasure for when no one else seems interested in dinner).
Lest I sound too pure - I replaced the bottle of Bombay Gin and Sue's bottle of Parrot Bay Rum.
Now it's all put away and it's time to go sew.
Written at:
7/14/2001 04:06:00 PM
Exciting times in Brainard. My alter ego appeared unexpectedly.
And I played with some left over pieces. Here's what they look like at the moment.
I volunteered at WAMC on Wednesday, had a meeting with the new president of the Rensselaer Co. Regional Chamber of Commerce and today had a job interview with Apple. what a week. I'm pooped, but energized by all the quilting too.
All those big hunks finally came together. And without too much trouble actually. Looks better really than this funky photo of it, mounted somewhat precariously on the only blank, large wall of our house. See more
Last night I had "post-top-completion anxiety" or something and rumbled around in the sewing room until I realized around 11 pm I was just exhausted and went to bed. (night before was a toss/turn sort of exercise). I did manage to pull out a lot of colors for an amish-style quilt but was too braindead to do any math. Still had enough sense to realize that I was too braindead though, and enough sense not to try rotary cutting anything.
Suppose I should spend sometime looking at the sunday want ads today. Busy week coming up - Wednesday I'll be volunteering with WAMC radio station's fund drive then a meeting with Pat. Thursday Pat and I have a meeting with the new prez of the regional chamber of commerce. Friday is my interview with Apple for the new Apple Store in Guilderland.
Guess I should schedule some more time with OS X, but I've been busy actually working rather than needing to putter. As I told Ron, when he sent me a "great web URL" for programming languages - maybe HE should get this job and leave me alone. He's not getting that a job at an Apple Store is retail, not programming etc. Yes they want you to be Mac savvy etc but it's not programming. And I don't want to do programming.
There is hardly anything that feels as good as starting to join major hunks of a project. See it coming together here
Not a bad day overall. Finished the last two sashing bits, and went for a walk. Yesterday I took some really far out sunset photos, some of which you can see here on photographica Great view from my own roof.
I've uploaded some photos I took at the Vermont Show, without web pages, but if you want to work through an index page, here you go.
Spent most of yesterday putting things away, grocery shopping (oooooh food, whatta concept) and so far have spent most of today on the phone. Madonna phone doesn't seem to be working. ick. Makes it hard to be on hold. Shouldn't $60 last more than a couple months for an electronic device like a phone?
went to the vermont quilt festival and got a red ribbon for "elegy" as well as a special award "most elegant." That was very exciting. Mom got her first vermont ribbon this year for her union star quilt and she was very psyched.
We had a very nice time, met some new folks, hung out with lots of quilts and quilters and survived heat and thunderstorms and the trip home.
