Hello,
Happy Chinese New Year to you! It is the start of the year of the Ox tomorrow and the beginning of the Spring Festival. With the new moon tonight, it is also the start of the lunar new year.   Add to that, Valentines Day on Sunday, and one has a lot to celebrate in the up coming days. I find it interesting that all of those holidays include a lot of red in their celebrations.  I guess we are getting a bit tired of the grays, blacks and whites of winter.
I had a few Zoom meetings this week. The Retired Art Teachers meant and we enjoyed the talk as we are all spread out now and some  gals live in  FL and South Carolina.   They joined us  in  this meeting. The Pixies also talked this week. Zooming is a real pick me up for me, but  I do miss the social contact of live meetings.
The Textile Artist Stitch Club project is going well. I do not think I will have the handwork done before I get the next assignment, but I am not too worried as I tend to complete projects. Good thing that is one of my better habits as I keep staring things due to the hand operation. The fact that I can not rustle the big projects under the machine means I just get to a point and I must stop. The UFO pile is really building up. I hope that the Dr gives me the Okay to go forward on Monday and I can finish up a few things.

Progress Report:  Lap Quilt – Glyph    This is the only project that I completed this week becasue it is small.   It is  37″ X 46″  .   I enjoyed working to finally put these  stenciled  squares into a work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt IV I am using my hand dyed as a starting place for this project. It is layed and I have stared the quilting in the ditch work on it. I am sure I will finish it in the next day or two.

 

 

 

 

Scarp Happy Quilt I am assembng the back of this project now. It is a great way for me to use up bits and pieces.

 

 

 

 

Murder of Crows I finally put this work together this week. It too is at the stitch in the ditch quilting step. I can manage these smaller works under the machine even with the hand limitations.

 

 

 

Sisterhood of the Scissors Challenge- Three Sisters The assignment is to do something with portraitures with a Picasso influence. I am going for the cubist period. But this is awful! Too much of a good thing I guess. I will dismantle it and start again.

 

Thread Painting – three birds   I did these birds, a Chickadee, a Finch and  a Cedar Waxwing thinking I had three felted backgrounds on the shelf. When I pulled the backgrounds out, I discovered that only two would work and the felting step was only just started. I will  make one more background and  work at getting them all felted properly.

Daily Project I am on the second piece of fabric in this nightly handwork series. It is a very calming way to end my working days.

 

 

 

Childhood- Jr High continued
I continued to play my clarinet after we moved and all through high school.  In eight grade I befriended a tall, some-what gangly, awkward gal named Margaret Dunn. She played the drums and bells . Our friendship was a powerful influence in my life. She is the only person I am still connected with from high school . She now lives in Rhode Island. She and her husband travel all over the world judging Kite Competitions and teaching folks everywhere how to make kites. Both Margaret and I took part in the school musical, “When Our Hearts Were Young and Gay”. We were in the choirs, so we had lots to time to talk and enjoy the event. We were also together in Science class with Mr Davidson. I will admit that when the class dissected a frog, I was not impressed. It was smelly and colorless, a bit of a let down after Mom’s rabbit the year before. My lab partner was thrilled. Like Mom, Mr Davison had ways to add points to one’s grade. He had a big collection stamps of wild animals and one could enlarge an image for extra credit. I took out my colored pencils and got busy. I did several, although I only recall doing the Sage Grouse with his tail feathers all fanned out and the chest wattles enlarged. Mr Davidson also sponsored early morning bird watching walks. Margaret and I arrived at school at 6 on several occasions to accompany him along with other kids to spot birds. Dad let me borrow his binoculars and that made the project more enjoyable .
> A brand new class for me was Home Economics. There were two Home Economics teachers . One taught sewing and health/hygiene . The other taught cooking and nutrition. I remember learning how to make Tuna Salad with hard boiled eggs and making cookies. In the sewing class our first project was a felt pajama bag shaped like a cat’s head. The skill the teacher was shooting for was how to put in a zipper. My experience with Grandmother Ester helped me in that class. I did get a speeding ticket in that class, for running the sewing machine too fast. Our second project was a straight skirt. She stressed that we all needed a good set of sewing scissors. I got some with Singer printed on the side and I still have them. I selected a pattern with a skirt and shell and then picked out black and white plaid corduroy fabric to use. Matching the plaid was a lesson I will never forget as I had to rip out my seams several times. I created a separate challenge for myself by making the shell reversible. That was the start of my career of making one garment do two jobs. I don’t know how many costumes I made using that trick. In Hygiene we learned how to wash our faces using little circular motions. We did craft projects in that class too. In Nov. I ordered a kit to make Mom a ceramic tile tray for Christmas. It came and I assembled it according to the instructions. Mom loved it and the tray sat on its side on the counter under the china cabinet for years. I also remember that we “learned’ how to knit a flat tie under the chin scarf/ hat. I did learn enough to get the job done, but the practice did not stick ! I was over fifty when I felt I could call myself a novice knitter.
> I was becoming aware of popular culture. There were two popular TV shows about Doctors at that time- Ben Casey and Dr Killdare. People seemed to like one or the other, but not both. Dr-like shirts were all the fashion that spring. Mom knew I liked Dr Killdare, but she refused to purchase me a trendy bit of clothing. And she was correct, by the next fall no one was wearing them any more. Another TV star that was popular was Carol Burnett. I was thrilled that she and I shared the same first name. I had a job at home ironing clothing and I would often set up the board and watch “Frances Farmer Presents” old movies on TV in the afternoon when I got home from school while I ironed. The family watched lots of westerns together and my favorites were Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel and  The Rebel with Johnny Uma.

I hope you have good TV show memories too.

Stay safe

Carol