Quilters Show Creations and Eat Candy At the Same Time

Last weekend, my quilt mini-group held its annual Christmas party.   Some members brought quilts they're finishing up, and you get a preview in this post.

Most of these quilts will be shown in "Voices in Cloth," the East Bay Heritage Quilters show on March 19-20 next year.












Here we are, quilters ranging in age from our early sixties to 93:

The No Problem Quilters, 2015.  Missing: Claudia, who took the photo, and Marion, who couldn't make it.  Visiting: Sue and Alice, daughters of our oldest member

On to the quilts.

Here's Ann's latest masterpiece:

Ann is holding the right-hand corner.  On the coffee table but out of sight: a box of See's candy that served as an hors d'oeuvre.  (Why not?  It's Christmas).

Claudia with her latest top

 

Peg, our oldest member

Angie hiding behind her quilt, with a bird flying over it

Alice, Peg's daughter, with an applique quilt her mother worked on for years. Alice finished it, and Angie quilted it.

Detail

Mabry (standing) with a quilt she finished for her great-grandson.  He chose the fabrics.

Merry Christmas!

Daycor Trends You May Not Know About

For the past few months, I've been dipping into home decorating blogs.  Most are written by women in their 20's and 30's, so I'm dropping in on another demographic, and, boy, do I feel it.  It's all been news to me.

I've identified some trends.

1.  Beige is out.  Gray is very in.  In fact it's everywhere.

 Note the sign over the range.  More on that.

An example of a "before" room:

A color found all over my house.  The blogger replaced the beige paint with gray.

2.  You can use the word "décor" in a completely un-ironic way.  As in "I picked up a few things to add to my decor today."  Or "a lot of decor is on sale." 


3.  You can paint a chair:

 This chair went from crimson to gray with something called "chalk paint."

4.  Target, Pottery Barn, and Crate and Barrel are the stores of choice for home decor, depending on  income.  I've seen one gray and white  pillow from Target, below right, umpteen times.  (I bought it on sale in coral.)

At right: the pillow seen everywhere

5. Laundry rooms are tarted-up.  It's not unusual to see a chandelier.

 They'd die if they saw my laundry room.  We're talking bare bulb.

6.  Monograms are popular, especially in the South:

 Even on the front door

Multiple trends: Gray and a monogram

7.  Signs are big (see #1), always directive re happiness.

 

8. "Pops of color" are still in style:

9.  Pillows belong on any and every chair and bench:

10.  Everybody wants a mudroom (above), although sometimes it's just a closet with the doors removed:

That pillow again

 Boots as decorative element.  Chevron design appears on pillows, rugs, bed linens.

11.  Wedding dates can be converted to Roman numerals and used as art:

Even in the bathroom

I never leave comments on these blogs, but there's one I'd love to: "Could 'fun' be used ONLY as a noun?  Please?  Not as an adjective?"

Signed, Crone

A Wall of Denial

 Jerry and I still talk about an encounter I had in New York City in 2006.  He wasn't with me--I had taken a train from Washington, DC, where we were staying, to Manhattan to go to art museums.  First, to the Museum of Modern Art, then to the Whitney, and then, tired but game, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  All in one day.

Didn't quite trust the map

The Metropolitan Museum is only a short walk from the Whitney, but I hadn't been to New York for years, and I was a bit confused about where I was going (cross Fifth Avenue, turn right).  Walking up Fifth Avenue, I saw a couple who were easily identifiable as tourists:  Overweight and dressed in shorts on an October afternoon.

"Is this the way to the museum?" I asked.

"Yep, we think so," the woman said.

We walked along.  They were jovial and talkative.   They told me that they were from Florida.

I'd just seen Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," and I remembered that Florida was particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels.  I asked them if they were worried about that.

"No," said the woman.  "We're red-staters."

That was probably the first time that I realized science could be seen solely through a scrim of politics.

I offered that my husband was a scientist and that every scientist he knew believed that global warming was a fact.

"We live 30 miles inland," the man laughed.  "If it happens, we'll have an ocean view."  

There was really nothing more to say.  We climbed the steps of the museum and went our separate ways.

When I got back to Washington, I told Jerry about it, and he was both disbelieving and amused.  It was one of the best stories he'd heard yet on the subject, he said.   Over the years, we've joked about that couple getting their ocean view.

 Now it doesn't seem so funny.

This came to mind when I read Paul Krugman's column  today's New York Times.  The deniers are still out there, even with shrinking polar ice packs, extreme weather, and rising oceans.  Sometimes I wish I could ask the Florida couple what they think now--is it still a political ploy?

Something tells me they'd still say yes.

* * * * *

I can't even address the matter of gun control.  Guns kill, but that's something to be denied, too. 

A telling fact: I've had a frivolous post ready to publish for over a week, and each day I plan to click on "Publish," there's another mass killing, and it seems insensitive and utterly beside the point to go through with it. 

I'm taking BART to San Francisco today,  and, honestly, I'm a little worried about being on public transportation.  Is this what it's like to live in a war zone?

Travel of any kind feels more perilous these days