back to yogurt & fruit

Other people take pictures of elegant meals or gorgeous desserts. I tried, but the only one that came out was this one at the left: The Owl Diner's excellent corned beef hash, 2 eggs over, etc. My favorite breakfast - five mornings in a row (although without the extra potatoes). I must admit that these hearty breakfasts keept us energized till well after normal lunch hour and then we ate light lunches. But tomorrow - back to the usual fare: low-fat, healthful, and guaranteed to have me noshing by 11:00 in the morning. Maybe there is something to this big-breakfast theory.
After breakfast, a few of us waltzed over to see the traditional quilts . Just in case we were in danger of forgetting what we were going to see, here was a reminder.

Then, in the afternoon, art quilts. Yesterday's opening of Art Quilts Lowell was mobbed, with yummy Cambodian hors' d'oeuvres catered and sponsored by Misty Fuse. As usual at these affairs, I was so busy chatting that I almost forgot to take pix. But here are a few - posted with the permission of the artists, who were warned that these were going up on my blog. This is Diane Wright in front of her piece. Shelley Baird and Judith Plotner, enjoying themselves. And Penny Myles, along with the three models for her piece. After this morning's breakfast,a kind stranger snapped this picture. L-R: Helene Davis, Rachel Cochran, yrs trly, Laura cater-woods, Shelley Baird, Corni Forster. I hope we are all safely at home by now. I have unpacked, done laundry, re-packed (sort of) and will be leaving again on Tuesday.

are we having fun yet?

Marlene Cohen, Corni Forster, me, Laura C-W-- and I think this was BEFORE dinner and drinks, so you can imagine! Friday night, Marlene had just arrived, and we had not all been together for a couple of years. Can it be?

I always find Lowell a photographic goldmine - but don't always have my camera ready. Aside from the Owl Diner, there is another diner straight out of the 1930's that sits across the street from the Brush Gallery. I could never get a straight-on shot for one reason or another, but this is the best I could do. I love this place and am always afraid it will be gone and replaced by a McDonald's.

Another shot I couldn't resist. Any guesses?

You don't have to guess about this one -- it was my batik-with-paints demo piece. I coveted the wooden batik stamp that one of my students was using and now I own it! Yum. As IF I need another one...

This is probably enough for tonight. I took my mother to the doctor in NY and then visited my uncle in the hospital in NJ. Tonight, my feet are happy to be up and I am going to turn on my classical music and read. I just bought Alexander McCall Smith's newest book - Espresso Tales - and am going to make myself a cup to go with the title. Then I will be in the studio working for the next 4 days. But that doesn't start till tomorrow.

lost sleep & found friends

I seem to be viewing the week in a rather disorganized manner, but it is probably a result of my still being fuzzy-headed from lack of sleep. At 3:am last Tuesday, the fire alarm in the hotel started ringing and didn't stop. Trudged down 5 flights and out into 100 degree heat/humidity while they tried to figure out how to turn the alarm off and inspected the building. After they finally finished, we trudged back up because a cast of thousands was waiting for the elevators. At 5:am - it happened again. So much for Tuesday night. Tues and Wed. I audited Laura C-W's 'Idea to Image' workshop, which was a huge success with all the participants. Thursday and Friday, she sat through my 'Surface Design Taster' workshop and even played a bit at one point! Here she is, screening with found objects - in this case, leaves.Donna Johnson's alder leaf prints were almost larger than life and would be spectacular on paper, as well. In addition to screening, we did batik. Leslee came all the way from Las Vegas to take the workshop and this piece was so successful I had to take a photo! In fact, I could fill a page with all the beautiful fabrics that came out of this workshop. To be continued...

Last full day in Lowell. Marlene Cohen and I spent a lovely day -- first, breakfast at the Owl Diner. Then, we revisited yesterday's exhibits to see them when there were not hordes of people around. We also went to see the Quilt National segment that was at the Textile Museum: we agreed with the Boston Globe critic. QN did not hold up, with one or two exceptions as far as we were concerned. This is especially true because the Textile Museum had painted the walls in primary colors and displayed the work on those walls. Yeccch. Imagine Elizabeth Brimelow's transparent work hung on a BRIGHT BLUE wall. I had seen QN '05 in Ohio and there were some head-scratchers there. But seeing only one segment of the exhibit only served to emphasize the question "WHY???" about some of the entries. And it also emphasized the importance of displaying the artwork properly! The same could be said of the work at the Whistler. There were more pieces than could be comfortably displayed with enough space between them. Here is Marlene with her triptich. You can see that the next work is fairly close to it.

Art Quilts New England/New York at the Brush Gallery was better: there was more room between the pieces, but still not enough. Nevertheless, it was a strong show.

Off to bed to catch up on my lost sleep from the week: if I remember, I'll tell you tomorrow what that was about.

more Lowell

Last night, Laura Cater-Woods and I went to the opening of the Ayer Lofts exhibit, which I must say, was a terrific show. Here is the glamorous and talented Elizabeth Poole, who was there - and it was great to see her. She posed in front of her piece, which of course, precludes your seeing what it really looks like. But I think it shows up on the left of this photo of the two Lauras: Laura c-w and Laura Gawlinski, a hugely talented artist and delightful person. Earlier in the day, I taught day one of the two-day Surface Design Taster at Friends Fabric Art and we had such a good time! More later. I am off to have breakfast and start the day.

Lowell

It's Thursday. I have been here since late Monday afternoon and have not had good enough Internet access to post. Tuesday and Wednesday I sat through Laura cater-woods' Idea to Image workshop, sort of auditing and doing my own thing while I listened/watched her in action. great class! Today and tomorrow, I'm teaching my own class: Surface Design Taster, which is covering a number of ways for putting your own marks on cloth -- or paper. What a fun group! BLOGGER is not cooperating tonight in terms of uploading photos, so I am giving up and going to sleep. Polite language precludes me from discussing the Internet access at this Doubletree Hotel in Lowell. We shall see what happens tomorrow.