Fourth, Food & Fun

My family has a long tradition of photographing our food. My daughter, son and I all like to cook and this is a way of remembering some great meals and good times with family together.

Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Blog Gone

I think my blog got lost in Athens, Ohio and hasn’t caught up with me yet.  The SAQA conference was full of great workshops and speakers, leaving my aging brain on overload.  I’m still processing all I was exposed to.   What a trip it is to be around so many incredibly talented people who all speak the same language. 

Athens is a beautiful little university town that reminds me very much of the one I grew up in Starkville, Mississippi (home of Mississippi State where my father was on the faculty).  The downtown area looks so much like ours looked in the 50’s. 

Walking to the campus
Salaam – an Arabic restaurant with lovely
hand stamped tablecloths from Turkey.

The PhotoShop workshop with Deidre Adams was very good .  I am more familiar with Paint Shop Pro and find that I can do many of the things I learned in PSP.  Mainly I think what I learned is that there is so much more to learn.  If I can’t do it in PSP, I can switch to PhotoShop Elements.

The knowledge has come in very handy as my husband and I prepare for our 50th High School Reunion in Starkville, MS.  We volunteered to put together slide and PowerPoint shows from old photos from the yearbooks and photos that people have scanned and sent to us.

Reporting Live from Athens, OH

The past couple of weeks have been very hectic.  I accepted the job of Co-Rep for Texas for SAQA (Studio Art Quilters Associates).  I had not been planning to come to Ohio for the SAQA Conference (and opening of Quilt National), but learned that there would be some training for regional representatives.  It would be a good idea to get some idea of what I am expected to do in this new job so I decided to come.  When I discovered that there was a 3-day pre-conference Photoshop workshop with Deidra Adams, I decided I should take that in also.  Mixed in with a couple of other deadlines, I did manage to get my travel arrangements made and here I am. 

I arrived on Sunday and shared a very enjoyable ride from the Columbus Airport with Ellen Lindner.  The weather and the countryside were beautiful.  We got registered Sunday night and a group went out to China Panda, an oriental restaurant.  Food and conversation were both very good.

I have been using Paint Shop Pro for photo editing for some years, but it seems that most of the instructions or tutorials I run across are for PhotoShop, so I decided to give it a try to see if I need to switch to PS Elements, or whether I would need the full version of the program.  Deidra Adams is leading us through exploring all those menus and I am learning a more systematic approach to editing my photos.  I had been feeling that I was often doing things the hard way.  Another two days of her tutelage and I should have a good tool kit to take back to my work.

I found a delightful Arabic restaurant – Salaam – around the corner from the dorm where I’m staying.  The decor was rich in Middle East textiles, some of which I couldn’t guess the country of origin. The tables were spread with tablecloths from Turkey that were cotton with block prints in many different designs and colors. 

 
On the walls there were some large quilted wall hangings, that I guessed were Pakistani (Rali?), with dense hand quilting in fairly large stitches and some l-o-n-g sleeved caftans or coats like the Dervishes wear.

The special tonight was a delicious home-style lentil and spinach stew with fried onions served with rice.  I’m afraid I dived right in and forgot to take any photos until later.

Now I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep and another day of Photoshop tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: quilts,art quilts

Collage Mania opens May 5. Choose from 384 collages donated by 161 artists. I'm working on my shopping list already for this worthy cause. This will be the last year for Virginia Spiegel's successful funding raising.

Over $170,000 donated to the ACS.

Top Ten Nationwide Fundraiser for the ACS - 2006, 2007, 2008

Preview Now Open



Hundreds of fiber artworks available
by donation to the
American Cancer Society
through Fiberart For A Cause.

Gold Donor Day: Tuesday, May 5
All collages available for a minimum $80 donation.

Regular Collage Mania: May 6 and May 7
All collages available for a minimum $40 donation.

For more information:
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com
and follow the Fiberart For A Cause link.
Goal: $20,000 in three days.

A Handbag for My Manicure Tools

The little bag I’ve used to carry my manicure tools and spa shoes for a couple of years needed to be replaced so I decided it would be appropriate to make a hand bag for them.

The hands are photo transfers of some plastic henna stencils used in the Middle East (I think they came from India).  I have more than a dozen different hands stencils but only put two on this bag. 

The stripes are the little bits sliced off the end of the fabric to even it up before rotary cutting strips.  I’d been saving them for several years.  I just stitched them down the middle onto some canvas. 

Now to trim to size and turn this into a tote bag.  I have the perfect lining for it.

A Day at the Improv

Tuesday I taught a workshop I call "A Day at the Improv"

at the Quilters' Cabin retreat center in Tomball TX.

The ladies from Tri-County Quilt Guild in Cypress
did some great work.
Susie Looney even finished two pieces.

Theresa working away.

Diane Anderson owns this wonderful retreat facility.

She has thought of everything. The entire room is surrounded
with design walls and Ott lights on the ceiling.

Nancy found "doors" happening in her piece.

Pat Marek with one of the two pieces she created.

Houston Area Fiber Artists - annual exhibition

If you are in the Houston area, you are invited to visit the HAFA exhibition at the Archway Gallery, 2305 Dunlavy. The show will hang until April 16.