Hard Frost, Maple Leaves, Daffodils, and A Floor Furnace

It's been very cold lately; hard frost overnight. I will try to post some pictures. Yet today when I walked from downtown Berkeley back home (after leaving my car to be repaired and my dress boots to be waterproofed), there were daffodils in bloom, and a wonderful pink magnolia.

Then I puttered around the house and waited for the PG&E serviceperson to appear. By 4:30, I phoned, but they said someone was on the way. I realized I'd better replace the porch light bulb, so I got the tall stepladder out of the garage and was just finishing up the job when Joe from PG&E arrived. He looked at my heater for a while in the basement, came up and tinkered with the thermostat, then went to his truck, put on coveralls, and went down to the basement again for a LONG time. But now I have heat!! It's an old fashioned furnace, sunk into the living room floor (in someone's stroke of genius, right behind the front door); I have spent half an hour standing on it warming up my icy hiking boots and feeling the warmth rise around me.

-- Rachel

A Business Idea progresses, and I have car trouble

I've posted a new website: Firsthand Life, for my planned interviewing service. The site is very simple, but at least I think folks will be able to navigate without trouble.

Went to a lovely holiday party hosted by my quilting friends, and came home with several nice pieces of fabric, some terrific patterns, some fun Mary Mashuta stationery, and gift certificates for fabric. I'd driven through a pouring rainstorm and was glad the car wasn't acting up (Thursday morning it had refused to start, which garnered me a $36 ticket for being in the wrong spot on a street cleaning day).

But Sunday, after nicely running 2 errands, the car refused to start. Well, actually, it would start. But it would never continue to run for more than a few seconds. Luckily I was in a safe spot -- a store parking lot -- and it wasn't raining. But all you get when you call tow services on Sunday evening is answering machines. Many hours later, and $80 poorer (so much for the high-value BART ticket I had planned to buy), the car was towed home and I fell into bed exhausted.

Fuel line problems? Fuel pump going out? When I revved the engine at startup, it seemed to get extra gas. Clogged air filter? Some hiccup left over from the previous days' rain?

I tried the garage this morning and they weren't open yet; by the time I got to work (late) I was too busy to remember to even phone them again. Good thing I can commute by bus.

-- Rachel Holmen

The ONLY way to cook a Turkey

Found a turkey recipe online that I had used for the very first turkey I ever cooked, one Christmas back a long time ago.

http://sewayoleme.wordpress.com/2006/11/14/a-turkey-tale/

My oven wasn't up to the task of cooking the turkey while having its door opened every fifteen minutes for the basting required by the recipe above, so dinner was VERY late. I had invited after-dinner guests, who had to wait while I fussed with the turkey, wait while the early guests ATE the turkey, and then got to witness my drunken boyfriend sit on the lighted Christmas tree, knocking it over.

Well, it was a memorable day at least.

And knowing what I now know about alcoholics, I should have moved out the next day. But that, as they say, is another story.....

Happy Thanksgiving.

-- Rachel Holmen

Tree-trimming equipment.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Kids in pony carts.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Big green tractor
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Coordinated gymnasts.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Green tractor driven by greenshirted man
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Red tractors. Green tractors.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Truck carrying steam engines (I think).
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Fliver
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

One of the fun old cars in the Upsala parade.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

The sky never looks flat from an airplane. Here were some amazing clouds as I flew from the San Francisco Bay Area to Minneapolis in August.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Clouds from a plane
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Something about this log-cabin (or perhaps courthouse-steps) quilt in yellows and golds, really appealed to me. From the Marin quilt show.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Sydne Bortel recently sent me email and said she was the maker of this quilt, based on a Kaffe Fasset design in the book "Passionate Patchwork". She'd seen a similar quilt in a New England museum and wanted to make her own.

Somebody told me that if you go to the DMC website (DMC makes a huge variety of fine threads for needlework) you can find a chart that cross-references Pantone standard printing colors with DMC colors. There are other charts that cross-reference Pantone colors to computer colors, and lots of gadgets to help you color-calibrate your computer monitor. This isn't a Pantone chart, it's a Procion chart of all the colors of dyes that they make. Now we just need to get somebody to cross-refer the Procion chart to the DMC chart and the Pantone chart. (And I suppose the ultimate cross-reference would be to spectral wavelengths.)
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

I liked the technique so much, I immediately made a pocket tomato -- or a tomato pocket, anyway.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Last, you reach in and turn the whole tube inside-out. Press the eyelash against the potato fabric, and you'll see that the rust fabric completely encases all the raw edges. Now, of course I still have to deal with the raw edges at the sides and bottom; for pockets, I'll just turn these under and sew them down to the garment or totebag that I'm making.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Then you fold the rust fabric AROUND the rolled-up potato fabric, set it on top of the eyelash with its raw edge matching all the others, pin, and sew with some reasonable seam -- a quarter inch if you're stingy or short on fabric (if so, zigzag the raw edge to improve the seam's staying power), or maybe 3/8 of an inch.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Now you roll up the potato fabric until it's just below the eyelash.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Here I'm starting to layer the fabrics. I have the rust fabric on the bottom, facing up. Then I have the potato fabric -- ALSO facing up. You don't want these fabrics to face each other. Last, I lay down the strip of eyelash. All the raw edges are lined up and held together (facing up, in this case).
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

I've learned an interesting way to make a pocket. (Actually, this technique might work in a number of situations where you'd like a finished edge.) I started with 3 fabrics -- the main fabric which has potatoes on it, some contrastring trim which I folded and pressed and used as "eyelash" piping, and the rusty border fabric.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Carol Mann's sister Jennifer is also a quilter. Here is one using the batiks she loves.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Laureen, who brought Bogart (she doesn't own him, she's his dogsitter) and rides a purple Yamaha motorcycle, made two matching quilts for two cousins. This one featured pigs on motorcycles, and I had to catch this shot of Elvis for my friend Raven.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

I caught this amazing shot of dew on sunny grass, early one morning recently during my morning commute.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

A pair of unfinished pockets, this time done in thirties-style buttonhole embroidery. The flowers and the basket come from Morning Glory Creations, which doesn't even seem to have a website -- they create wonderful authentic thirties-style designs (then modernize them with a layer of iron-on), and die-cut them and sell them in packets at my favorite quilt shows. I'm looking forward to adding to my collection in a couple of weeks when Pacific International Quilt Fest is held in Santa Clara.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Here's a classic Berkeley bumper sticker. Not only is Berkeley full of those crazy long-haired radicals you've heard so much about, it also has AMAZING ethnic food. Injera is a light, soft bread that is cooked in huge sheets, and then used to scoop up Ethiopian food. Probably my local favorite is Blue Nile on Telegraph, but I bet there are others equally good.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Bogart brought his favorite teddy bear and came to visit us at quilting one evening.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Here's a slice of buckle. I'd never heard of this rather unusual pastry -- its name comes from the way the surface develops cracks and fissures as it bakes. The bakers swear to me there's no added sugar, but the fruits embedded in the dough make it VERY tasty. This is becoming a regular weekend tradition. From Sweet Adeline's, a fabulous new bakery just south of Alcatraz Avenue on -- ADELINE.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

The whole quilt -- it's not very big, but this pattern is rather difficult. And while it's fun to pick the fabrics, it's also pretty tricky if you want to achieve the illusion of steps.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

My friend Carol Mann made this amazing quilt using the "tumbling blocks" pattern. There's a larger view, too.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

A beautiful traditional quilt from the Marin show -- though the red and white Hawaiian floral is not exactly typical.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Fascinating use of a complex print behind a solid, sewn mola-style. From the Marin quilt show.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Umbrellas are featured in this quilted wall hanging.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Smaller version
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

This quilted wall hanging almost looks like an Oriental woodblock. The photo on which it's based is seen below the block.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

Giraffe quilted wall hanging, and the photo which inspired it. From the Marin quilt show.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

On Sept. 10, my beautiful cat Maria Callas had stopped eating. I tried to tempt her with salmon -- usually her favorite -- but even after I put a little shred in her mouth and she swallowed it, she wasn't interested in more. Monday morning when I woke up, she was standing next to her water bowl and gave me a sad bleat, as if to ask, please help me. I cried and cried, then phoned a friend who drove us to the vet. She probably had kidney failure, he thought, and didn't even suggest making any effort to save her. He just shaved a little patch on her arm and injected a sedative. She was gone a minute later while I petted her.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

I've been experimenting recently with creating both art deco and freeform images using iron-on fabrics. WonderUnder is cheaper, but I find that I like Steam-A-Seam2 better. Of the small sample images here, only the dark purple one is sewn. I intend to embellish them with embroidery afterwards. Most of them will probably become pockets (probably on tote bags).
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen

The Marin Needle Arts Guild usually hosts the season's foremost local quilt show, with cash prizes for top entries. But this year, they handed the show over to a vendor, and filled the fabulous Frank Lloyd Wright hall with a slightly different show: an expanded set of booths selling fabrics, patterns, embroidery patterns, and other wonders; and quilt exhibits from smaller groups. The Mount Tamalpais quilters had a fine display, a group of friends showed off their "fire" quilts (they plan, in successive years, to show earth, air, and water as well); there were some lovely small journal quilts. One of my favorites was by Maureen Nass, describing old age. Another nice set showed photos and then small quilts based on the photos: here are four. The artists are Pat Dicker, Ancella Toldrian, Joanne Berry, and Maureen Nass.


I spent a lot of time the rest of the weekend working on my own quilt designs, and came up with this wall-ful of ideas (most based on Craftsman-era textiles). These won't be finished until I add some embroidered details to them; then each will be separate, used as a pocket or in some other isolated way.


-- Rachel

Upsala Parade

My father, sister, and I went to Upsala, Minnesota, where he was born, in mid-August. We loved the 2-mile parade through the 1-mile town to celebrate Upsala Heritage Day. We also had a great visit with my cousin Ted at the cabin his father had built in imitation of traditional Swedish log cabins. The weather cooled off just as we arrived, so we never swam in the lake next to the cabin, but we enjoyed several evenings in the screened gazebo, watching the sunset.
-- Rachel

Home improvements

First you notice the new mailbox. At least now my crazy mail lady will be out of excuses for holding, tearing, and returning my mail. Anyway, that's what I hope. She'll probably think of something -- she's quite creative in her resentment of the people who provide her paycheck.

In the back, I finally put up my folding clothesline -- the kind that's sort of like an umbrella. I bring it in every night, but especially with this weekend's hot weather, it did a dandy job of drying my clothes without making me use a drop of electricity.

The strawberry pot I bought a few weeks back has also been planted; I hope the snails don't wipe it out too quickly. The instructions called for a piece of PVC pipe with holes drilled in it, run down the center of the pot to aid watering. I used flexible clear plastic tubing, with notches cut into it with my roseclippers, the whole tube spiraled through the pot and sticking a little out the top.

And the gardenia's about to be in bloom, another boon of hot weather.

-- Rachel

Lawnmower headaches

I should ask Will Shortz -- is "lawnmower" the only English word that has "wnm" as a consonant cluster?

Anyway, mine won't start. Bought a new sparkplug. Didn't do it. Emptied the gas tank and let it dry overnight (since there did seem to be, um, WATER in the tank, and surely the mower wouldn't be happy about that). Refilled the tank with fresh gas. Didn't do it. Bought some Gumout and poured it in, left it overnight. Didn't do it.

Came home last night, and my neighbor in a combination of annoyance and helpfulness had mowed my driveway (taking out several nice flowering plants -- a platycodon and a California native with nice coral flowers) that had been engulfed in weeds, and leaving a 6-foot-high hawkweed [giant dandelion to you, city boy].

-- Rachel

A cute car

I rode last Friday in a Honda Element. One of my friends thinks they look "too boxy", but then -- my current car is a Volvo station wagon (1982, with almost 350,000 miles on what I assume is the original engine) -- and didn't somebody parody Volvo ads a few years back by teasing that their company slogan was "Boxy but good" ?

I was in the back seat, which was elevated just slightly so that I could see easily out of the front window. The driver says this is called "stadium seating". The ride in back was a bit stiff but basically quite comfortable -- MUCH better than riding in the back seat of an Aerostar van I remember, where it seemed like the back seat was part of a totally separate car.

The other thing I really liked was the lack of a centerpost on the passenger side of the car. The front door opens from the front -- duh -- but the back door has its hinges at the BACK of the car, so when both side doors are open, there's a HUGE opening at the side of the car. I assume one can move seats in and out to configure the vehicle for passengers, cargo, camping trips, etc. And the overall length seems quite short, so I assume the turning radius is pretty good. I may take one for a test drive, not that I can afford anything right now. It's always good to do ... RESEARCH.

-- Rachel

Octavia Butler died in late February

I was in awe of Octavia Butler, and now we've lost her. See my writing blog for more information. I'm very sad. -- Rachel

Write SFF

A nice photo of Octavia, taken by Beth Gwinn:

A comment about creating art

I heard a lecture yesterday by Fran Skiles, a textile and collage artist. Her work is nothing like I would ever create, but I found her comments on the creative process, its anxieties and rewards, to ring true.

Towards the end of her talk, she was asked if sometimes things just didn't come out right. She gave an unexpected response: "I believe in ruining work. But I wasn't getting anywhere!" The whole audience, familiar with trying to balance perfection against the need to grow as an artist, laughed with her.

Gallery in Santa Fe that carries Fran Skiles' work

-- Rachel

FilmLoop -- one of my MacWorld faves

Another booth I really liked at MacWorld was the FilmLoop folks. They make an easy-to-use product that puts a slideshow on someone's desktop; no charge. (The hitch: one ad per loop -- but a loop can be 200 photos.)

Mac and Windows versions (though I can't run the Mac version since I don't have system 10.4 yet.

http://www.filmloop.com

-- Rachel

MacWorld 2006

Once you fought your way past the 40-odd booths selling iPod cases, there were still a few actual computer software and hardware companies at MacWorld.

I was particularly taken by two logos of apples done in metal (actually, of course, these are probably only DRAWINGS of metal apples).

I've posted them on Picasa, now let's see if I can add them to this message....


Two different vendors at MacWorld had visions of metal apples. This was the most detailed, a beautiful image of an armored apple, with a leaf reminiscent of a shoulder greave.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen


And the other hardware apple, from a maker of protective cases. This one's more like a brassbound steamer trunk.
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen



Nikon has cameras that will send their photos by WiFi.
News photographers must love this!
Photo by Rachel E. Holmen