Hello,
Happy Earth Day 2021. I got up to a fresh dollop of snow this morning. The Hosta were just coming up outside my window and now they are covered in white. Mother Nature and Old Man Winter are at odds I guess. It is a good time to consider how important this planet is to our existence. We do need to care for it as there are no alternatives.
QuEG’s, FAD, and Pixies all got together via Zoom. I am happy to be saving the fuel it takes to go to meetings, but I do miss seeing folks face to face. I did use my paint brushes that I had created for Pixies. Here are a few of the more successful ones.
Progress Report- Lap Quilt #9 This work is 37″ X 63″. I used mostly my altered fabrics on this piece. There are only two commercials. I am enjoying making these little works as there is no pressure from anyone to do them.
Twilight Crows I finally got this top all assembled. I used several pieces of my hand dyed along with commercial fabrics here. There are also several types of silks and syntheticts in this top. I will layer and quilt it in the next few days.
Coral Reef II This hand work piece is nearing completion too. I enjoyed adding the fish as they give it an extra feel of life. The fish ar cut from metallic ribbon so they do not fray and need lots of stitching.
Poppy Field I did the grass the other day. Then I felt defeated. There is not enough contrast and from a few feet away it looks like nothing is going on. I was ready to toss it. But after talking with Liz, I have a few things to try to see if I can save the work. Only time will tell.
Daily Practice This work continues to grow each evening. I have learned that I do not want to do another piece for this project that is this large. If I have another base this big I will tear it in half before I begin working. It is too difficult to see all of the surface at once in ones lap.
New Work I started a new lap quilt today. This is the first step were I lay out colored blocks in places I think they might work in for the piece. I will add strips in 2.5″ and 4.5″ around these blocks to unite them and build the top.
Childhood Memories- Sophomore Year
In the fall of 1963, I started attending Muncie Central High School in downtown Muncie, Indiana. That change presented me with lots of changes. For the first time I caught the bus at the end of our driveway and went for a 20 minute ride to school. To my mind, the building was huge- it took up a whole city block. It was crowded as it was the only high school in town. A new high school called South Side opened the following fall and cut way down on the crowding. I was the last stop on the bus route and the first one off in the evening. My best friend Margaret Dunn however was the first one on and last off in the evening. She often saved me a seat near the front of the bus. Her ride was an hour and a half and she often was done with homework when she got there. She calculated that by the time she ended high school she had ridden the bus 12 days going to and from school. The first day started by going to a home room of fellow Sophomores and we remained together for all three years. We were selected and seated in alphabetical order. I was seated between Mike Merl and Marla Miller. Marla and I became friends and we were initiated into Honor Society together. As it turned out she and I were both commuters at Ball State and in the same class of 350 freshman there in the fall. We agreed to sit in the front row to make sure we stayed awake as the class was at 7:00 am three days a week. When class was over at 8 we went together to the Music Library to study and hang out until our next class. There is more story there, but I will hold that until later. In the first home room meeting we filled out lots color coded cards. Name, add, phone number, date of birth etc……. Then the teacher collected them ; the white card, the blue card, the canary card, the violet card and the salmon card . We got locker cards and we were given our class order assignment after she went over the rule handbook with us. We also returned to the same room for standard tests and to get class assignments and fill out the same cards in our Jr and Senior years. There were few changes over the three years, but a few folks disappeared. I did not have class with any of the folks in the home room or any of the friends from Middle School. I wrote in my diary that I was not happy about that.
The Geometry class that Dad had insisted that I take was my first one every day. I remember the yellow paper back book that we used. It was complex, but logical. I do not recall needing help from Dad either. I think I got mostly A’s and B’s in that class. My second period class was World History. There was lots of geography in that class too. Period three was Art class. I recall that there was much more Art History in this version of art class. We studied Cubism and did paintings in that style. Later in the year we studied Alexander Calder. We made big mobiles out of the big metal cans from the Calfeteria. I remember making a Mandolin out of one of the cans and punching holes with a nail to outline the hole and the edges of the instrument. I used wire to show the strings. I also make a bunch of flowers out of wire and balanced those elements with others to make my mobile. It was huge. When the teacher hung them from the lights , mine was quite low and some one attached a note to one of the flower stems that said “ Take me down!”
Fourth period I had Nursing class with Mrs Webster. The only thing I recall from that class was learning about Syphilis. The images of its effects were so gross, that I swore I would never kiss any body in my life. She did scare us straight- for a while at least.
Stay safe,.
Carol