I must be having a nightmare!

6:30 a,m

Today is Sunday, February 27th, and I live in Scottsdale, ARIZONA. This is what greeted me this morning at 6:30 a.m.

What is this white crap doing here?? I do have to say it is beautiful though. It is melting pretty quickly.... at least we won't have to shovel it.

7:00 a.m

Our Courtyard

An unexpected surprise

.... in my mail yesterday! I found a package by my door when I got home yesterday... I didn't recall ordering anything. I opened it up and found a wonderful book... "Twelve By Twelve" The International Art Quilt Challenge. I scratched my head for a bit trying to figure out who sent me such a lovely gift as I had just listed it on my Wish List on Amazon.... but I had only done that the day before! I was going to order it and another book ( I didn't want to pay the shipping) but hadn't decided on the 2nd book yet. Then I remembered that I had signed up last year to review books for Lark. I am thrilled.

This is going to take me a bit the get through, but at first glance I know I am going to love it. It is the contribution of 12 art quilters who each created a 12" x 12" piece that represented a particular theme every 2 months for 2 years. I see that each piece is explained by the creator as to how they arrived at the choice they made for the theme and a description of how they made each piece. There are 144 marvelous quilts for me to drool over. At first glance this is my favorite...

Passion and Colours by Francoise Jamart

I have just started to do some small pieces in this style myself, so this was really a treat.

I highly recommend this book even though I haven't had the time to go through it in depth. This one is a keeper! And to think I was about to order myself a copy. I must have been a very good girl!

February is Pamela Allen month

Some of us got lucky (again) and Pamela Allen decided to do another online class this month. First assignment was to find a piece of art one liked and using the same palette of colors copy it... Ok.. no screams here.. we are using it for a lesson! The 2nd step was to use the same fabrics and make an abstract design, and the 3rd step was to make a still life using the same fabrics. I used a piece by Ovanes Berberian called Sunset 1.
The still life is still a work in progress but I am finally doing Something after a long hiatus.

I also decided to go through my stash of my own fabrics and get rid of those I probably will never use. I am going to be doing more dyeing in March ... I will need more room! They are up for sale at http://fieldofcolor.blogspot.com/

The last of the Indian goodies

.... arrived today. After the past couple of weeks I needed this lift! We ordered 2 hand made Dhurrie runners for our hallway and they arrived today. They are gorgeous. Enjoy.

I think I can breath now (this is NOT quilt related)

Nope, I haven't been blogging. It is said that trouble comes in three's but I think we exceeded that limit in the past few weeks. It all started with a hail storm back in October. The hail was larger than golf balls and sounded like rocks hitting the roof. We didn't see any apparent damage and thought nothing of it. Fast forward 6 weeks and we were thrilled when the goodies we ordered in India arrived. I knew I was going to have to rearrange some art work on the walls but was waiting till everything arrived to do anything. Ned and I walked around the LR to decide what was being moved where. I took down one piece that hung on an outside wall only to find that the wall had buckled behind it! Yikes! We had a leak that came down through the ceiling and the wall. OK, I have to admit we rarely use the LR and almost never turn on the lights unless we are having company. We called the insurance company and the next morning they sent a crew to look at the damage and do what ever was necessary to stop further damage. They went up on the roof (we have a flat roof) and found we had holes from the hail and they could see where the water seeped in. They did a temporary repair and pulled off the sheetrock and the very wet insulation. They treated the area for mold and mildew and sealed it up with heavy duty plastic. The furniture got moved around too. The adjuster arrived later. We have an open floor plan and there is no way to stop a paint job without doing most of the house except for the closed rooms. Did I mention that we upped our deductible last February from $1000 to $5000??? Good planning. We also had to replace 2 A/C units and their air handlers ( new laws on the type of freon used), the roof needed refoaming and sealing, and there was damage to the stucco on 2 sides of the house.... outside needed a new paint job. This little leak turned into a massive pain in the ass. I will say that the insurance company was generous in their estimates and we did not have to fight for anything. Only downside is that there was enough damage to trigger an inspection from the mortgage holder (for which they have the balls to charge) which we are waiting for. Since Thanksgiving my house has been turned upside down with furniture having to be moved and art work taken down, although most of that was done by the painters. It was still stressful. During this time we had to put Sammy down. Of course since this was holiday time AND the fact that there was a lot of roof damage throughout the area, we could not have the roof repaired until January. Nothing else could be done before that was fixed. No problem fixing the roof and the painters who did the inside did a fantastic job and were very neat. All I had to do was to direct where things went. They took pictures of everything and put it all back exactly where it came from except for some changes I made. The air handlers and A/C units were put in and I decided to go to CA for a few days to visit a friend... I had a free ticket I needed to use up and Ned was out of town. My neighbor was going to check in on Lucy. Before I left, my GF asked if I could stay longer... she was going in for surgery and could I lend a hand. Not a problem. I was away for a week. They painted the house while I was gone. While I was away the weather turned cold and I noticed when I returned that our bedroom and bathroom seemed much colder than the rest of the house. Turned out one of the air handlers was not on. No breaker seemed to be tripped and the thermostat was working. We call the HVAC guys back and they scratched their heads BUT, in the area where the AH resides are 2 sets of outlets. They opened up the one that it was plugged into and found that it was part of a series.... this was weird. They plugged it into the other set of outlets and it turned on immediately. Now we got worried. We decided it was time for the electrician. Turns out the top outlets where it is now plugged in was the dedicated one for the air handler. After some more head scratching, he figured out that the other outlet was part of the outside set of outlets that has a ground fault wired to it. The ground fault had tripped but never tripped the master in the breaker box. That mystery cleared up, I was not so nervous about an electrical malfunction and the bedroom was now warm. This sense of well being was not to last long. We had a really cold spell here with a hard freeze. Nighttime temps about 22 and daytime in the 40's Brrrr. That is not usual out here. Next day the house got really cold.... I mean really cold.We had gone to have dinner with a visiting out of town cousin and got home about 9:30 and the heat is not coming on. Now we think there is again something wrong with the air handlers but their lights were blinking like they should. Ned went out with the flashlight and saw that our propane tank was empty. We called the emergency number and left a message. No one ever called us back that night! We bundled up and closed off all the rooms of the house and hoped not to freeze to death. It was too late to check into a hotel... one who would also take a kitty. I should now preface this by saying that we had some issues with the propane company a year ago... they had new drivers and a new system and somehow we slipped under the radar and ran out of propane... but it was not in the winter. They are suppose to check at least once a month. They promised it would not happen again so we trusted them. The company has been sold and the new routine is to check every 2 months except no one bothered to inform us!! We were really pissed off, especially since no one bothered to call us back. Ned made another call in the morning when the office opened and they were surprised that the person we left both a voice mail message with and a text message never got in touch with us. As far as I was concerned they were now history except that the new company I contracted with could not be here for another 5 days... they have certain routes they do and could not get here.... since we were not their current customers. We got a partial fill with a reduced price and now I am waiting for the new company to fill the tank up. They claim they check every month, but I think from now on we will check ourselves. It is finally starting to warm up and I took all the sheets off the plants. We lost quite a few in the freeze.

I hope we am done with all this crap.  Sorry, I had to get this all off my chest.

miz Lucy

So why would I want to sleep on my toys when I can sleep on Mommy's toys?

Wordless Wednesday

Happy News!

Word came today that we are having a grandson! Now I can start buying in earnest.. hahah.. guess I need to pull out the embroidery machine as well. When my daughter decides on colors I will start planning a quilt. Baby is due 3rd week of May.

The other baby in the family is adjusting well. Her name is Lucy... also known as Princess Lucy. She doesn't stand still to take a picture!

Our new fur baby

We were in the right place at the right time and will have another Tonkinese kitty on Sunday. She is a real cutie but did not want to be still long enough for me to take a picture

Happy Holidays

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my blog and commenting.. both here and on private emails. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.

Pictures of my gift

Front Cover

1st page

 

 

 

 

2nd page

3rd page

4th page

5th page

back cover

This book is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much Carole. I am still in awe.

Special Friends

I am not a particularly religious person, but there are times I think there is someone out there there watching over me. I have been very lucky in my life to have made some wonderful friends and recently that has expanded to cover internet friends as well. I "met" Carole in an online class a few years ago and we really hit it off. We were lucky to have had an opportunity to meet for lunch last year when I was in her neck of the woods and it only confirmed what we already knew. We have been trying to make plans to spend some more time together, but life has conspired against us and all the plans we made have had to go on the back burners. In the midst of all her family issues she found the time to make me a fantastic gift to help me get over the loss of Sammy. Carole has been making paperbag books which are drop dead gorgeous. I received one in the mail today and it actually brought me to tears. First off, it is stunning. Second, it is made with so much feeling that it practically jumps off the pages. I could not wish for a better gift and it has come at a perfect time. Please go visit her blog HERE. She forgot to take photos before she sent this off and I will do so as soon as I have more time. This is truly a work of art and of love. Thank you so very much Carole. For icing on the cake, she even ordered some of my fabric! I am very lucky indeed.

More on textiles

I am a sucker for bright colors and comfortable clothes. I love that leggings and tunics are back in style and I have been wearing shawls for the past 9 years. If you have followed my blog for any length of time you will have seen my wall of shawls. Ned has been bringing them home from his trips to India and China. They are mostly the inexpensive ones and I have built up a collection of close to 100. Indian clothing is bright and it is comfortable.... so of course I succumbed!
The most popular and most identifiable Indian clothing is of course the Sari. The old traditional sari's were 9 meters of fabric. The more modern ones are a mere 6 meters. The history of the sari goes back more than a thousand years and was initially made from the cotton that was grown in the area. It was just wrapped around the body. It was not until the British arrived that an underskirt and a blouse (called a choli) was worn. Poor British sensibilities! You first put on what looks like a tube skirt and the choli (more on that in a bit), then you start to wind the fabric around and pleating it as you go. The fabric has a border along the bottom and sometimes the top as well.  As you pleat , you tuck in the edges into the underskirt to help hold it in place. This is a learned skill! Safety pins come in very handy. You continue to wrap and pleat till you get almost to the end. The end of the Sari is usually more decorative than the rest of it. This part is tossed diagonally across the body and over the shoulder. The most beautiful of the sari's are woven out of silk with gold threads in the design. Special sari's, like those for weddings can easily be encrusted with additional embroidery and beading. They get very heavy and of course very expensive. Sari's are made out of just about anything these days and cost can be a few dollars to thousands of dollars. Hand loomed ones take anywhere from a couple of months to 2 years to weave. Choli's can be plain or also embroidered and run the gamut from a simple blouse type to fancy styled ones... some pretty sexy and risque.

I love the look of the sari and would love to walk around in one.. alas, I would look pretty silly here in the U.S... But I did buy one... I am going to cut it up and make something else from it. I bought this at one of the street markets and bargained it down to about $12.00. It is raw silk with lots of gold (not real) beads. The front end has open lace work as well. One of my many bargains!




My real favorites though for comfort is the Salwar Kameeze with and without Dupati (shawl). This consists of a tunic top which can be long or short and a pair of leggings which also come in different styles. They can be out of a cotton stretchy knit or a trouser with a tube bottom for the legs either in cotton or silk. The leg part is very long and is meant to pool at the ankle. The other style is like a harem pant that narrows at the ankle.  So I went a bit overboard... I bought 10 such outfits including a tunic jacket made out of a Pashmina. Some of these I picked up in the market stalls and some in real shops. Some were dirt cheap ($8), most were inexpensive ($25-40), a few a bit more ($75) and I splurged on the jacket .... $100... but the matching pants were $8. Other than the real cheap ones, these were all 3 piece sets. Here is the eye candy:

Long silk tunic, cotton pants, silk shawl

Long silk tunic, cotton pants, silk shawl

long hand embroidered silk tunic, harem style cotton/silk blend

pants and silk shawl

short cotton top with hand embroidery, cotton leggings

Long silk tunic, silk/cotton harem pants, silk shawl

short cotton tunic, leggings

Pashmina tunic

Some of the other outfits I was wearing in photos so no need to add them here.

Varanasi or Benares is renowned for their textiles. Many of them are done with gold and silver threads and are gorgeous, but because of the prices for gold these days, these have become pretty pricey.  Besides saris, they make wall hangings, table runners, shawls, and throws. They also make non  metallic fabrics woven in gorgeous designs as well and these are more to my taste. We bought a table runner in a silk and wool blend as a gift, and here is where I picked up my silk yardage ( see previous post). The photo of the runner is not true to color. The red is really a much deeper wine color. The interior design is a small paisley. This is only half the runner.

There are some other pieces that I cannot post as yet because they are being given as gifts and the recipients do not have them as yet.... after Christmas I will post those.

This last piece is the my most favorite as art. It is going up on a wall. It measures 79" x 100" and is an antique piece. It is made from old silk fabrics with heavy metallic embroidery, mirrors, stones (not sure if glass or semi precious). There were 3 of these in total but in other colors. I wish I could have afforded them all... not to mention I have no place to put them. I have pictures of the others....These were priced by weight... and they are heavy.  I am putting up an overall but a slide show of some of the detail works. I just have to figure out a way to hang it. It's OK to drool on the screen :-).

Back to some Textiles

I purchased some trimmings. Not sure what I am going to do with them but they are lovely. These we got in Ahmedabad.

I don't usually buy touristy type stuff but I succumbed to one piece... it is hand made and it was cheap and it really epitomizes what people expect. I bought it on the street in Mumbai. It is just this side of tacky but I will put it somewhere.  You will notice that some of the pictures are against my lavender shag carpeting. I do not have another area in my house big enough to spread out some of these and I did not want to deal with shadows.


I bought 2 vintage silk quilts. They are made from old sari silk and all hand stitched. One has been given as a gift. They are over 50 years old.
They are about queen size.

I love shawls and throws and I love Pashmina. Pashmina wool comes from the pashmina goat which is indigenous to the high altitudes around the Himalayas. They are hand spun, woven and embroidered traditionally in Kashmir and made from fine cashmere fiber. Pure Pashmina is very gauzy and fragile so now it is blended with 30% silk. Some are 50% silk but I did not get those.  Because of all the unrest in the Kashmir area, many of these craftsman have moved elsewhere and are part of cooperatives. We visited the showroom of one of them.. and I went a bit nuts.  I bought 3 king size throws and some shawls. By Indian standards these were very expensive. By our standards they were cheap.... and I know where to get more. We had most of this stuff shipped home. Some of the big name international designers have been contracting for these throws. They are ordering 80 in each design and colorway. It takes a weaver 2 months to make one so extras are made in case something goes wrong. Each weaver has his own "hand" so someone else could never fill in and finish it up. Each is slightly different from the others. The extras are sold for a fraction of the price the branded ones. I bought 2 designs by Etro and one who I have now forgotten. I love paisley.

The third one looks like the style of Klimpt who I also love. I had to stand on a ladder to photograph most of these!

Next were some shawls. I had a very hard time choosing. One was more gorgeous than the next. At least when I need my next fix I know where to get them. They will photograph and ship!

This next one I really splurged on. It is made from Vicuna and was designed by the store proprietor. It is sooooo soft.











I did of course by some inexpensive silk and cotton blend scarves to give as gifts.

And of course some silk yardage.

To be continued!

Earrings

Yikes! Besides the comments left, I got a bunch of emails asking to see the earrings. So here they are. These are pretty simple by Indian standards.

Agra, Day 21

This is our last day in India and unknowingly, I saved the best till last. It was a very long day that started early in the morning and left us at the airport at midnight for the trip home on the first of our 3 flights leaving at 3:15 a.m.

Again we got up at the crack of dawn but I forgot to ask for a breakfast box to go. We were really tired and cranky from the night before after having to sit for 3 hours in the airport waiting for our flight back to Delhi. We had hoped for an early and relaxing dinner. We had to arrange for our bags to be picked up that we had left at the previous hotel figuring we would get them on the way back from the airport. Didn't happen that way and we didn't get to bed till after 11:00. We had to pack everything up and we had a 5:30 a.m. pickup to take the train to Agra where we would be met by our guide and car. At least the weather was nice.

Not a bad train ride.. a bit over 2 hours and our guide was waiting for us. Sunil was really good! First stop was a good hotel so we could use the facilities. I guess I forgot to mention bathrooms... in many places they were just holes in the ground... I have run into this before so it wasn't a shock but I am not as young as I used to be and not as flexible. ( if I recall correctly, the top of the Arc D'Triumph in Paris had one of these ).I passed these up. Some with toilets were also not the cleanest, but I run into that problem here in the U.S. as well. We managed.


Our first stop of the day was the Taj Mahal. I don't care how many pictures you have seen, they don't come close to doing it justice. Besides being drop dead gorgeous, it is also massive in size. It is  very deceiving unless you see it in person. The setting is beautiful.

Gateway into Taj Mahal complex

Agra became an important city during the reign of Akbar in the 16th century. He built what is now Agra Fort and created one of the richest kingdoms. It was in the 17th century that Agra reached its peak during the reign of his grandson, Shah Jahan. It was Shah Jahan who expanded the Fort and built most of the buildings in the city, culminating in the magnificent Taj Mahal. It is made of white marble and is a mausoleum to his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal who is said to have died in childbirth delivering her 14th child. It took 22 years and 22,000 workers to build from 1631-1653. The complex of the Taj consists of the tomb, mosques, gardens, gateway, and fountains.The Taj Mahal sits on a platform that is almost 22 ft high and covers an area of more than 1000 sq. ft. Four minarets are at each of the corners and stand 136 1/2 ft high, each set in such a way that if there is an earthquake they will fall out rather than in. Each side of the Taj is 185 ft long. The stone inlay work is incredibly intricate and is made from precious stones. The technique was passed down from father to son and remained in the family. Women were not allowed to know how it was done for fear they would pass it on to their new husbands family. These skills are being kept alive today and a few family's still create the most gorgeous inlaid marble pieces. We bought a small piece.. they are expensive and heavy, but worth it. Photography was only allowed of the outside of the Taj. We wound up buying an "official" book because I wanted pictures of the interior. The intricate work of the inlays and the lattice is simply stunning. The gardens are serene and peaceful and we didn't want to leave. The only disappointment is that renovation was being done on the waterways and fountains so they were empty. I am so glad we did not see the Taj at the beginning of our trip.

Main entrance to Taj

Inlay with semiprecious stones

Our next stop was one of the local marble cooperatives where we were shown a demonstration on how they created the beautiful inlay work we had seen. It is a very tedious and exacting skill. Lunch in one of the good hotels was delicious... Uh Oh, I was really getting use to and liking Indian food! I never thought that would happen.

small piece we bought

detail

Our next stop was Agra Fort. Most of it is off limits as it is being used by the Indian Army. It is no small complex. Shah Jahan spared nothing when he expanded the fort area. The Palace is built of the same white marble as the Taj. The red is the sandstone. The details of the inlays are exquisite and said to be done by the same artisans who did the Taj Mahal. It sits across the river from the Taj Mahal. In his later years, Shah Jahan was overthrown by his third son Aurangzeb and imprisoned in the Palace in what is referred to as the Jasmine Tower. He died 8 years later in his daughters arms looking across the river at the Taj. He was buried next to his beloved wife.

Fatehpur Sikri entrance

Next on our agenda was Fatehpur Sikri fort which sits about 39 kilometers from Agra. It was the first planned city of the Mughal emperors and was constructed by Akbar. It took 14 years to build but was soon abandoned as it did not have enough water to sustain the population. It was built to honor a Sufi saint who predicted the birth of a son to Akbar. The construction shows the influence of Hindu, Jain, and Islamic styles. Local lore has it that Akbar had 3 wives.. one Hindu, one Christian, and one Islamic. Each of them had their own areas in the complex and some of the designs here would seem to support this. This was the end of our official sightseeing, but not the end of the day.



As I had mentioned in previous posts, our guides were very tuned into my interests. Sunil was no different. He took us to a place that did Zardozi embroidery. This is a 3 dimensional technique where the artist builds up layers and layers of stitches and then adds gorgeous colored silk threads, gold and silver threads, and gemstones to produce very rich and intricate pieces. It has the look of trapunto but it is not. This art form was patronized by the Mughal emperors but because of the price of gold these days has become very expensive. You can see this type of work on evening bags, saris, and wall art. I forgot to take pictures! The pieces were beautiful, but not my style. 

Since the beginning of our trip, I wanted to buy a pair of earrings that were Indian in flavor but not big. Most of the places we looked were either geared for tourists or just did not have what I was looking for..... and I didn't want to haggle. Gold is expensive these days and I did not want to spend another fortune on something I didn't really need. Sunil is engaged to be married in February and he took me to his mother's jeweler who was nice enough to stay open a bit later for us. Most jewelry in India is custom made.... you buy the weight of gold you want and then you design the pieces which are made from it. We walk in and first thing we see is a guard sitting with a shotgun in the vestibule! We had seen this in other places but they were large stores that catered to more mass market. I really did know what I was looking for and unlucky for Ned, I found a lovely pair of earrings that were well within the budget I had set. It was a nice way to top off a fantastic last day in India.

I asked Sunil lots of questions about Indian weddings and customs and he was more than willing to answer my questions. His is an arranged marriage as are most Hindu marriages, however, both the prospective bride and groom had to agree. I suspect this is not the case in the outlying villages. I wish them both a lot of luck.

He dropped us off at the train station for our trip back to Delhi where we were picked up by the local representative and taken to the airport for our trip home. If you haven't figured it out yet, we loved India and had a fantastic trip! I intend to go back.

Next posts will be of the textiles we bought. Some won't be till the end of the month because we bought some as gifts and I would like there to be some surprises.

I know many of you have been following our trip and I thank you for taking the time out to read the posts, and a special thank you to those who have left comments and written privately to me. I really have enjoyed writing this up. I have never kept a journal before so this is a way for me to have something besides pictures.