Tomato + Blue

As I drove away Monday evening, I waved to Kit & Ana, who were heading up our walk. Ana was carrying a big blue bowl. They gave Clark these tomatoes from their garden. Yesterday I had tomato salad for lunch; Clark made a tomato sandwich for dinner.

River quilt, step 5

When I woke up I realized I had the wrong blues -- too rosy. The river is supposed to slice through, but it should look like it belongs in the same quilt. My river was a little off, so I moved toward green-blue. Now it all flows.

It took several days of trial & error to get this far. I wonder & cut & then reject several fabrics for each little part. I was fussing over how long it takes me. Picasso would have had this done already! "What's the hurry?" Clark asked. He's right--especially since I love the process.

River quilt, step 4

It's been a week since I started back on the river quilt, & I thought it would take a day or two to get all the pieces in place, but I was wrong. Tuesday I loved it, but when I saw it Wednesday, as it is here, I could see that something was wrong. I didn't know what.

Quilt Surface Design Symposium class in action

Here is a QSDS 5-day session with Cynthia Corbin. It's called "To Be Continued." Cynthia said I could take the photo, & the students said fine, just don't interrupt our creating.

Quilt Surface Design Symposium

This is the view from our dorm suite at QSDS at the Columbus College of Art & Design. Through the shade you see downtown Columbus on a gray morning. Last weekend I was a student in Cynthia Corbin's "Small Conversation" class. Simply, we made a handful of little designs & then enlarged one. Cynthia's presence, comments & refinement gave us two days brimming with inspiration.

Feather signal

Friday Susan & I (& Zing!) were walking where Lake Jackson used to be before it got sucked down a hole; I noticed a red hankie tied to a bush by the path. Susan saw the feather.

Olive oil cake

Olive oil & oranges sound Mediterranean to me. The doctor might even recommend this cake from Epicurious. It's simple, but needs a shopping trip, for semolina flour & fruity olive oil. (I bought one that said fruity on the label.) Instead of honey syrup, I made a simple syrup, 1:1 sugar & liquid (water & orange juice). The top looks bumpy because I stabbed it all over with a fork.

River quilt, step 3

Eeek! I started top left, when I wanted to start with the river. But I might do some felting on the river (Maureen again is my encourager!), so I was saving that for last. But it's impossible; I've got to do the river. So -- a day fussing with fabric -- then rejecting all. I enjoyed it.

River quilt, step 2

Second, make a pattern. With an ultra-fine black Sharpie I drew the lines of the little cloth model onto white letter paper. I traced this onto a transparency. Then, using an overhead projector, I enlarged it (to a 38" square) on the wall, where I had pinned a big sheet of drawing paper (from a 48-inch roll by Utrecht). Maureen lent me her projector, the kind I often used as a teacher. It's a simple machine, but my hands were shaking at first.