A.K.A……my studio (work room…place where I hide, create, zone…..whatever you call it). It is the “bonus room” over the garage, so has a lot of square footage on the floor, but less when you stand up. Still, it is a wonderful room. The back end, over the garage doors, is the “guest room,” and houses the antique four-poster hubby inherited from his dad. At first, I didn’t want to share the room with it, but then realized it solved handily the solution of where to store the quilts–under the duvet, of course! (protects the quilts from the cats…)

A lovely woolen “Window” from Frances Caple (my very first piece in my collection, so far still small, of textile art!) hangs on one of the very few bits of flat wall in the room. Going from left to right, you can see the edge of the Hoosier (more in a sec), my sewing machine cabinet, the bed behind it, a rocking chair that is used mostly for dumping stuff and alas not for reading, and some of my collection of quilt and art books. Want more bookcases for the far wall so I can unpack the rest of my “friends!”
If I stand hunched in the corner under Frances’ Window, looking toward the door, I see my design wall (with the red quilt on it–the design wall is 2 inch thick pink insulation wrapped with a flannel sheet, then velcroed to the wood walls…didn’t want nail or screw holes in the wood). On the other tiny bit of vertical wall space I have some etchings…don’t ask me why such a color fiend loves etchings…maybe it is the use of line?

My worktable is the old kitchen / dining table with drop leaf. I built a platform for it out of 3/4″ plywood and added moulding (the kind they use to make the transition from baseboard to floor.. a sort of extended quarter-round) and casters. I made “L” shaped things out of wood which I screwed in place from the bottom. They hold the table on top of the platform and keep it from sliding off…then I added plastic drawers and other bins underneath for storage. When I need a longer space (say for basting a quilt), I just open up the gate-legs and they are suspended in air to hold up the drop leaf.

Here’s “command central,” aka the sewing machine–my wonderful, wonderful, I LOVE it, Janome 6500–and cabinet. Having a large flat surface was about the single best thing I ever did for my quilting! The hoosier has proven to be the perfect sewing storage unit. Patterns fit perfectly in the tin-lined bread drawer. Rotary cutters and scissors are in the knife drawer. Spools of thread nestle (along with other stuff) in the spice rack. On the end are some needlepoint pieces my late Aunt Mary M. made for me when I was a little girl, and I used a leftover piece of the pink insulation board from the design wall for a “bulletin” board near my machine. And, wonder of wonders, I took the antique spool chest I bought back when I had a professional’s income out of the living room to use for…drum roll…..storing thread! My dream is to FILL it!

My mug from National Theatre in London, 1978.

Not late getting it up….late switch on mugs. Was using one of the mugs previously shared, when hubby put it in the dishwasher, so nabbed this one. Got this one in Spring 1978 when I spent a semester at Goldsmiths’ College (and at the time had NO idea that it was a treasure trove of experience on textiles…sigh…). I barely attended classes and did the work. Instead I learned by going to museums, theatres, and travelling every possible moment. I practically lived at the National Theatre…would go up around 4 pm after classes with my books and queue up for “rush” tickets….they’d sell remaining seats for the equivalent of about $2 for the equivalent of Broadway shows. I’d buy the cheapest sandwich and soda at the bar for dinner, and then enjoy the show. I can’t believe I still have it and neither the cats nor I have managed to break it…..

Log-Cabin-to-Be….the colors will make me happy in mid-winter

Was taking some pictures of my “studio” / work room, and decided to tease you all with the colors…..it will take me a while to get it made (it has taken since early June to cut the strips!), but this quilt is going to make me happy!

Well…..no pictures because I was having too much fun window shopping! Yes, I realized that my Mom’s Escape Day last Thursday—let’s memorialize it, October 27th, 2005–was the first time since 1997 (when we left Washington, DC, and moved to San Juan Island, Wash. state) that I have been able to just wander and browse and window shop in a city! Here’s what I got to do…

Drove to Freeport (80 minutes south), home of LL Bean, and picked up a shirt for Joshua to wear as a mime for Halloween. It was my first visit there without hubby and kids, so guess what…I BROWSED! And bought TWO shirts for myself! What a treat! They have this new “ultrasoft” cotton-lycra blend that is unbelievably soft. I want more for Christmas! Then drove south to Biddeford, another hour plus or so on the interstate, to test drive two new Janome sewing machines. Unbelievably, I sold 14 patterns at wholesale to the owner of the shop! So on Friday I spent it all on thread by mail order LOL…my package should be here in a week, so I’ll take pics then.

Finally, I drove north to Portland and just tootled around the Old Port area. Portland, Maine, is an old city, full of old brick buildings, still some cobblestone streets…it is being rehab’d and renovated, and is wonderful. I SO missed being on the East Coast when we lived in Friday Harbor, Wash. Friday Harbor was beautiful, clean and safe, and we’ll never have a view like that again (out the front windows to 180 degree view across the straits of Juan de Fuca to the Olympic Mountains), but the only way to the mainland was by ferry, which was expensive (and is worse now). And there were no reservations, so you always had to race to get to the ferry to get home, so tootling about and browsing, then heading home when you were ready just didn’t happen.

In Portland, I had lunch at Fuji restaurant and—joy of joys!—they have Chicken Katsu! This is a chicken breast cutlet breaded with panko (Japanese variation on the theme of breadcrumbs) and fried, served with rice and “bulldog” (after the brand name / logo) sauce. When I worked at the US Consulate in Toronto, I had chicken katsu every Thursday night (the daily special at the stand near my apartment). The ladies would see me coming and toss a piece of chicken in the fryer before I even reached them to order, and always gave me extra rice. I’ve only found it twice since….pork katsu (don katsu) is much more common. So not only do I get to be home on the East Coast, but I get chicken katsu only 2 hours away from home!

I finally drove the 2-hour trip home, tired, but very happy, with my two new shirts, some extra income (soon to be spent!), and glad I’m back where I belong. This may sound awfully boring and pedestrian and common to many of you, but it’s the first time in a long, long time for me, and it was nice. I think I’ll make it a back-to-school tradition…when they boys are in school, away I’ll go! Heck, maybe even TWICE a year…the other one in late spring, after the last threat of snow is gone but before the boys are underfoot for summer!

I’ve been busy, so hope to have something to post before too long. And thanks to the two ladies from the quiltart list to tell me they purchased two of my cards donated to Virginia Spiegel’s cancer fundraiser at Festival…one sold on preview night (!!!!) and the other to someone well connected with a big quilt magazine, so I’m really flattered and happy all over again! Life is good.

Today’s mug is my favorite for the past couple of years. Oddly enough, I bought this cool mug at cutesy Daisy Kingdom in Portland, Oregon. I think it was about 3 1/2 years ago. Or was it 2 1/2? How time flies…..

Spring Quilt Market was in Portland, the first time it had been on the West Coast in at least six years. I was thinking of starting a line of patterns, and thought it would be the ideal chance to “check things out” without incredible expense. So my best friend Marie and I went to Portland! We both fell in love with the city…the not-so-tall old brick buildings reminded both of us of the East Coast cities we love. We stayed at this incredible hotel that we lucked into thanks to expedia or one of those low-rate on-line reservation deals; the Hotel Lucia is a “boutique” hotel, and is probably the nicest place I’ve stayed in the past decade! Plus, they told us if we wanted to come back to just skip Expedia and they’d give us the same rate again…Waaaaaay below official price! They even had a “pillow menu” so you could pick firm, medium, soft (all down) or hypo-allergenic!!!

While there, in addition to going to Market, we did a bit of shopping (duh) for fabric, books, and at the heavenly Whole Foods. You have to understand that at the time, I lived (and Marie still lives) on rural San Juan Island. Our “big” grocery would fit in the corner of most suburban grocery stores, and selection was limited, though they were doing better on bringing in the natural and organic foods in the past few years. Anyway, I had seen the Mexican Modernists exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum a few months earlier, fallen in love with some of Frieda Kahlo’s lesser known works, and was reading about her and husband Diego Rivera when I fell in love with his calla lilies. Then, we walk into what is usually the terminally cutesy Daisy Kingdom store (which also has way cool bridal fabrics…tulles, sheers, laces) and there was this mug.

So I love the mug because of the calla lilies, and that trip, because it reminds me of going places with Marie. Now we e-mail a lot, and are saving to meet at Festival in Houston next year (neither of us could afford it this year….so we’re already saving up…).