I’d like to ask you to consider supporting a funding drive to complete a documentary on the Tentmakers of Chareh El-Khiamiah.  The fund drive is being held on Pozible (here) and they will accept any donation.  Even if you can donate only a few dollars, every bit helps.  Let’s get this documentary of textile art funded and made.  Today, Tuesday the 19th February, the total pledged is $13250, and 160 made a pledge – but they still need to reach their target of $20,00 by the end of February.   I hope you will find you can to support this important project with at least a small donation and by passing this on to some of your friends. Please feel free to link to this post and borrow from it to help support this project!
For more information, read on!

An Egyptian Tentmaker’s hanging in the collection of Alison Schwabe

Several years ago Jenny Bowker, a fabulous Australian art quilter and teacher, moved to Egypt while her husband served as the Australian Ambassador to Egypt.  While there, she came to know and love the land, and especially the Tentmakers.  In that culture, beautifully decorated tents were used for special events, but with the rise of machinery and the modern era, the art and craft of tentmaking was fading.  Jenny was so moved by this beautiful textile art, that she began to share it with the rest of the world.  I first read her posts on her blog and on the QuiltArt list.  Later, I attended a lecture at the International Quilt Festival in Houston where I sat with tears in my eyes as she shared the appliqued textiles they make and what she has done to bring pride and respect to their art.  She has since been able to bring a couple of the tentmakers and many men’s work (the tentmakers are men) to Australia, the United States and Europe where their works sold like hotcakes and impressed many.  The quilt above is one of two  in Australian quiltmaker Alison Schwabe’s collection (Alison’s website is here). Here is a detail photo:

Detail of the quilt at the top of this post.

And Alison’s other textile:

Egyptian tentmaker’s applique work, in the collection of Alison Schwabe

Detail photo

After the “Arab Spring” that began with demonstrations and protests in Dec. 2010 and continued through spring of 2011,  Jenny was involved with an exhibit in the UK; one of the tentmakers–having seen what is going on in our international quilt world from previous exhibits–had broken with the traditional imagery of their craft, and made a piece depicting the demonstrations in Cairo.  This was the first personal expression of this sort Jenny had ever seen, and I still get goosebumps remembering when Jenny posted to an internet list that the piece had been purchased by a Museum in England!  How utterly wonderful.

AQS then hosted the tentmakers for an exhibit here in the US and published a book about these pieces.

Alison and Jenny have written some detailed information which I will share here so you can follow the links.  Thanks Alison for allowing me to re-post your message!

From: alison schwabe al>
> Subject: The Tentmakers of Egypt – please read at least !
> Date: February 17, 2013 7:32:31 AM MST
>
> Dear Friends –
> You all know me as a textile and fabric artist – a quiltmaker, an art quilter – however you think of me, you know of my intense interest in things in fabric and thread. Because of this, I hope you will read and find interesting some of the material in this recent email from one of my close friends, prominent Australian textile artist and quiltmaker, Jenny Bowker.
> Jenny spent several years in Egypt where her husband Bob was Australia’s ambassador. When we visited in 2007 Jenny took as to several textile places (in addition to the pyramids, valley of the kings and other wonderful places around Cairo) and we found the time we spent in the Tentmakers' street in the old markets quite wonderful – its hard to describe the marvellous times and experiences there but, as just one indication we had to buy a suitcase to get what we bought there back here! If you are a Montevideo friend please remind me sometime you’re here that you’d like to see the magnificent 2m sq pieces of their art we have in bedrooms on the first floor…
> Jenny’s letter is frankly to explain and support the current appeal for funding to complete a quality full length documentary on this textile art with an ancient heritage stretching back over 800 years… but her words are far more authoritative and comprehensive than mine, and so I am copying her letter in full and sending it to you, hoping that by the time you’ve looked into some of the links, you too will feel able to pledge a small donation (or a large one, of course) to ensure this project goes to completion. To me, the importance of the project ranks up there with films I’ve seen on The Bayeux Tapestry, the quiltmaking of the Amish, the Overlord Embroidery and some of the many lacemaking and knitting traditions.
> I invite you to read what Jenny has written below, and if you are pressed for browsing time to follow links, I recomment the short videos and the pinterest images. And, please contact me if you want further details – I’ve been posting things about int on my facebook page and blog, but you may not be a FB friend or might not follow my blog ( but I hope you will sometime go there for more insights to what I do and what things influence me and my art)
> But, now over the Jenny Bowker., who wrote:
> “The Tentmakers are a group of men in Cairo who make spectacular applique. Nowadays most of what they make is intended for the walls of houses or on beds, but in Pharaonic, early Islamic, and Ottoman times it was intended for the inside walls of tents. With canvas behind it which formed the outside wall, the rich appliqué glowed with light on it, and was intended to amaze visitors to a leader’s tent. Did you know that Cairo was originally called Fustat – which means the big tent? In pharaonic times the tents were appliqued leather, now all the work is cotton.
>
> You can read more text about them here:
> http://www.jennybowker.com/tentmakers/
>
> You can see pictures of the work here:
>
> You can see a short video made by Bonnie McCaffrey for Luana Rubin here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHzWRui7Kjk
>
> And a longer one made by Bonnie as one of her wonderful vidcasts here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zkCcQqWp0
>
> And if you go to my Pinterest board on the Tentmakers you will see a lot of current work – and some that is much older and also some of the truly old tents so you can see how they were used.
>
> http://pinterest.com/jennybowker1/tentmakers-of-cairo/
>
> I think almost the best if Kim Beamish’s Facebook page for the film as he is putting up constant new images, and there is a lot lot of historical input as well.
> https://www.facebook.com/CharehElKhiamiah
>
> The art has been slowly dying. Big pieces of cheap, badly registered, printed fabric made in China have poured into Cairo and people buy this rather that the real appliquéd pieces. On top of that disaster – tourism has stopped with unrest for the last two years. Without the work sold in to exhibitions that I have been arranging in other countries they would all be gone by now – instead – stitchers who left are coming back and young ones are learning again. I am thrilled with the progress we have made and very happy with the AQS (American Quilters Society sic )who committed to them for three years. But – it is still hardly documented at all. There is not one piece in the Cairo Museum or even in the Cairo textile museum. The best article I have ever found is in the Uncoverings magazine and there are no books. Older stitchers are dying and no history has been written.
>
> Kim Beamish is an Australian friend who – when I took him to visit the street on his third day in Cairo – picked up the baton I offered and ran with it. He is making a film about the Tentmakers in these difficult times. He has given most of five days a week for the last seven months – or more. He has paid his own way to shows in England, and has had to pay for three more that have not even happened yet in France and two in America. He has become part of the street and the men are used to him and his camera. He has two young children and a wife who works in the Australian Embassy in Cairo. They have to pay a nanny so that he is free to film. He is, like I was, a trailing spouse. He did not choose to live the ‘cocktail parties and bridge’ life, but has chosen to go out on a limb to tell a very moving and necessary story. I know that at the moment he is on the bones of his behind financially and simply cannot afford anything else.
>
> The movie will not be made without funding for the essentials – the long and boring stages when the filming is done and the hard work starts. Editing, top level translation and the rest has to be done by experts and paid for. Please help. Even a little bit from a lot of people will add up to a lot – that is what crowd funding means. The link is now open and working. If he does not get to his total he gets nothing. Kim will spend the month hovering over the site and biting his fingernails.
>
> The work is really special and the film is essential.
>
> http://pozible.com/tentmakers – this is the link to support the Film – The Tentmakers of Chareh el Khiamiah. If Kim Beamish does not get this money the film cannot be made. Even tiny donations will help and big donations will help more. Please.
>
> If you use PayPal it will ask you to preauthorise. It sounds odd but it simply means that when the total is reached the money will then be taken from people’s accounts so it has to be done this way. Kim gets nothing if he does not reach his total and that is the way that Pozible works. He is a bit worried at the moment as only about 29 have helped in three days.
>
> I am hoping a lot of people will have read this far and be willing now to help us. PLEASE send this on to as wide an audience as you can reach. The moment the total is reached the project will be assured. Until then it looks as if it might be dead in the water.
>
> Thank you
>
> Jenny ”
>

Last night we heard a sound in the driveway that wasn’t wind.  Alex!   We wondered how he would manage with his plow.  Well, he didn’t.  He called in his big guns:

Alex to the rescue—with the frontloader. So nice to have a neighbor-plow guy-town road commissioner with BIG stuff in addition to the big plow on his big pickup truck! Love this photo because it shows how hard the wind is still blowing, lifting snow out of the bucket. And notice that vast mound between the edge of the porch and the driveway….

I just stood in the kitchen looking out the window and laughed!    The “plow” pile grew so huge the big bucket on the frontloader (or is that a backhoe?  or two-in-one?) couldn’t reach over the top!

He’s actually driving UP the plow pile to try to dump over to the back side.

And bless that man.  Remember that DEEP drift (about 3 1/2 feet deep) between the front door and the driveway in the first photo?):  Lookit what that nice man did….

Alex came in with the wide bucket empty, set it down gently about 4 feet from the edge of the deck, and then dragged all that snow back out to the center, then scooped it up to dump on the ginormous pile. That meant LOTS less shoveling for us! When the snow melts its gonna be a serious mudfest getting over to the garage!

Made us a wide clearing so we wouldn’t have to shovel as much.  DEFINITELY buying a snow blower before next winter!

This was the view out our bathroom window this morning.  Notice how high the drift is by the entry windows on the left.

And looking back at the house. The photo above was taken from the window on the far left. I was standing just uphill of the ginormous snow pile for this photo.

It was a glorious crisp morning! I love the strong shadows and the blueness of the snow and the wind-carved ridges in the snow.

Love those wind carvings so much I kept taking pictures. As I tell my students, there is quilt inspiration everywhere!

Eli spotted this cool overhang: yes, that is a “corner” of snow hanging on the uphill side from the wind!

Eli scraped the snow away under his feet to stand on the ground next to the drift from what blew over the roof. He’s almost 5’10” tall. Love how the wind whips a channel next to the house. We saw little tiny critter tracks in the snow near there.

Eli, Me with Widgeon, and Paul. We got the gas grill back up on the porch, then set the camera on timer. For once I was going to get into the picture, too, as we aren’t likely to see anything like this again for eons. I mean…snow as tall as the eaves?  It may be routine in the mid-west, but not in Maine!

Eli hoists the King of the Mountain, as said king’s leggies are too short to get him up to the top of the hill!  Eli also needs to go back up there and retrieve the shovel he left up top!

And the storm clouds have cleared and we have that GLORIOUS view back. Yes, the towns of Freedom and Liberty are off in the distance as we stand in Hope! I LOVE MAINE!

And yes, I really DO have art and quilting to share…stay tuned!  First post is tomorrow.

And a PS:  our neighbor is wonderful, but plowing is part of his business!  He gets paid for plowing, but he does it well and responsibly and promptly every snowfall.  It can snow overnight, and when we get up at 6 am the driveway is already plowed most often!  Lots of folks here in Maine have 2 and 3 jobs, including seasonal ones.  The landscaping folks work the earth when it is visible, and plow in winter, for example.  And MANY people buy a plow for their truck and then earn extra money plowing in their neighborhood.   It’s the way life is here in Maine, and I expect in most of the northern tier of the US where snow is prevalent.

Hi everyone! I thought I’d give you all a vicarious blizzard experience since luckily we still have power, and a snug house, food and entertainment.  There’s a YouTube video as well as still photos.  If you live in New England, never mind…just go outside!  It’s still blowing with sustained winds about 25 mph here, with gusts to over 50! This first bit is some video I shot this morning. This is the first time I’ve ever tried to narrate, so apologies for any (all) mess-ups with the audio!

I have NO idea how neighbor-and-plow-guy Alex is going to plow the mountain of snow, and it is simply too windy for him to come out, as he usually does, and make multiple passes every time another six inches falls.  Besides which the wind would just blow the snow all over anyway!

The weather stations tells us what we already knew: it is cold and blowing lots of snow!  That is air temp of 8 Fahrenheit, -14 wind chill, and a momentary lull in the wind…only 17  mph!

Eli decided to take the dog out as I got ready to take pictures and video.  The dog was NOT amused.  He got 2 1/2 of his feetsies outside the door and promptly turned around to come back in.  Eli got him out:

Eli is excited. Widgeon is NOT.

Eli “encouraged” Widgeon to check it out (ie. dropped him into the snow). Widgeon is NOT amused.

As you can see, coaxing the dog to go pee by the pine tree (protected from the wind by the tree) wasn’t successful either, as the snow is much deeper than Widgeon is tall.  I think he’s saying “MAMA!  Come rescue me! HOW could you make me go OUT in this????”

And the before and after pics, first looking at the view (or what is left of it):

The view in mid-December 2012

In the beginning, there was an inch of snow over the previously bare ground. This was taken on Friday morning.

Twenty four hours later…

Saturday morning, couldn’t hardly see the trees at the bend in the driveway, let alone the hills beyond. It is maybe 1/10th of a mile to the trees. I promise, they are still there. In the blowing snow.

Then the garage, before:

Light fluffy stuff came down on Friday during the day, coating the roof and logs for next year’s wood burning.

and after:

Saturday morning, Feb. 9, 2013. All that coating on the roof and logs is now blown uphill and the snow is coming down heavy and blowing sideways.

The woods to the west of the house when the snow began.

And this morning. When I looked out the bedroom window in this direction when I woke up all I saw was white stuff going sideways.  In the lower left you can see where the wind has blown down to grass, yet other spots have 4 foot deep drifts.

And now I’m going to clean up the dishes and shower while we have electricity; if power goes out, so does the water pump! Then a cozy day at home reading and working on my watercolor class!  Hope you’ve enjoyed the blizzard…we are!  Joshua and Ashley are also home–most businesses (almost all?) are closed down, and texting works!  So we are snug in our home, together.

Just checking in! Have been really busy working on that quilt I can’t share until April and new handouts for my Quilting Design class which I’m teaching in a few weeks in Venice, Florida, hence the lack of posts! But thought I’d share the storm for those of you who prefer your snow vicariously!

The view from the kitchen sink window this morning

The snow has begun.  Camden and Hope are predicted to get 15-24 inches.  They cancelled / postponed the statewide wrestling meets (will happen next weekend, but at 3 high school venues instead of the Civic Center in Augusta which is booked).  We have buckets with water in the bathrooms for flushing (if the power goes out, so does the pump for the water) and will have in the kitchen for food/tea/etc.  The heavy stuff isn’t supposed to hit until tonight, but it is already coming down light and fluffy and thick.  School is cancelled (YEAH!) and we’re looking forward to a nice day at home.  I’m thinking scones for lunch and a movie with Eli; if we lose power, at least we’ll save the reading for tomorrow.

Last night about 5 pm. I meant to take the photo earlier in the day, but you can see the (how weird!) meadow/lawn area with NO SNOW. In late January/early February. In MAINE???? Wha’ happened to winter? I guess Mother Nature decided to deliver it in one whopper of a storm this weekend.

This morning, after the “school is cancelled” robo-call, we looked out the window to the west to see the snow coming down lightly, thickly.

And the view from the living room deck…the most beautiful view ever (well, maybe our view on San Juan Island was equally beautiful!).

Rather than the usual Winter Storm Warning, there is a Blizzard Warning in effect.  For the latter you need not just lotsa snow, but lotsa wind, and we’re gonna have it.  They are predicting some coastal flooding due to the winds–here in Hope winds are predicted at 23-31 with gusts to 55.  It’s odd because usually it doesn’t snow a lot when it is this cold–currently it is 5 with a wind chill of -2 or thereabouts.

The weather station shows that it is currently 5, which is cold for getting snow, usually it is in the teens or 20s to get snow. Just a slight breeze brings it down to -2 wind chill. By tomorrow morning it will be as cold but winds will be high!

Paul says the NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) reports 1-3 inches today during the day, 7-11 more inches overnight, the wind kicks up, and then another 6-10 on Saturday before it peters out.  Old timers are saying this sounds like the storm of ’78, so if it actually is, you know it’s gonna be a big one.  LOVE our snug, warm, wood-stove-heated house (we also have thermostats and baseboards, but love the wood which also costs less than fuel oil) and gas range (the oven doesn’t work during a power outage, but the burners do).  So we will be warm and well fed.  <Beam>

Here’s the garage. I’ll use this view and the one from the living room to show the progress of the storm. Now there is just a dusting of snow, maybe an inch or less in this photo.  Note the huge logs on the right:  that’ll be our heating for the winter after next.  In spring our wood guy will come and chop and split the wood, then we’ll stack it in the wood storage area on the right end of the garage.  The third garage bay is for the lawn tractor and (to be bought) snow blower.  After building the garage, we decided we’d shovel one more year before spending more money on the snow blower this year.  Next year:  fix the drainage on the driveway and the snow blower.

Stay tuned.  I’ll take photos and, if we have power, post the course of the storm.

Have been busy with Eli’s wrestling meets and working on a quilt (which I can’t share until about mid-April), but wanted to check in, and to share the best moment from the Super Bowl:  The Dodge Ram commercial.  Eloquent.  True.  The spirit of America.  Will be back soon with more. In the meantime, enjoy:

PS: My Uncle Eddie was a true cowboy, a ranch hand, in a small town up in the mountains of Wyoming north of Yellowstone; this commercial makes me think of him. He literally rode the fence rails on horseback in driving snow to tend the herds. He died last year at the age of 98, and I shall miss him. I loved that he would call me around Christmas every year after receiving our annual newsletter–it was such a joy to hear his voice strong and true even up in his 90s and know that someone old could still have all their marbles and keep in touch. RIP Uncle Eddie. And thanks to all the farmers and ranchers and every day folk like Uncle Eddie who make our country great.