Trip North with Andrea

     We have had two studio days with Susan Shie....very interesting person.  We have so much in common on political thinking...partly a Generational thing, partly an artist's state of mind thing! We are learning quite a bit...I like her approach to creative process. She starts us out with 10 minutes of drawing time ....sketching silently about whatever! Then we go to the theme of the day, preset by decision of the group from a list we created together.

     First day was "Time"...

My sketch...morning time/evening time, time in a bottle, the persistence of time, time is like a river flowing to the sea.

Show and tell of painted surface so far.

     Today, we elected the theme "family" to work on for tomorrow. And this evening, we went to a lecture at Wooster College with the author, Amy Tan....very interesting!

Memory Monday # 74

      Any girls who lived on campus, in dorms, had some pretty strict rules.  We had "hours"; we had to be signed in to our dorms by 10:30 Sunday-Thursday and 11:00 on Friday and Saturday...and all Freshmen girls HAD to live on campus.  We had sign out/in cards and at the given time to be in, the doors were locked.  Of course, someone stayed on the desk to unlock the doors for latecomers and if someone was late it was noted.  I don't remember the exact number of late minutes you could accumulate before getting detention, but it was meted out...the number of minutes one was late was noted and tallyed.!  One did get four "late nights" a year/ two per semester.  If there was a big dance or something, you could apply for a late night...it had to be done ahead of time and approved, so if you had too many late minutes, it might be denyed!
     I knew no one when I went to Mizzou but I made some pretty great friends who became lifelong buddies!  Even though we didn't always see each other in later years, we kept in touch at Christmas and followed each others' marriages, babies, and in later years, deaths.
     Most of the girls I got to know, with the exception of Mary Jane, were from either St. Louis or Kansas City.

My buddy, Nancy-St. Louis

Sue-St. Louis

Pat-Kansas City

Susie-St. Louis

And I had already posted pics of Mary Jane from South Dakota and Sherri from Kansas City.   There will be other friends added as time goes by, but these six were kind of my core friends from the dorm.

Day Two of Trip North

      Andrea and I are having the best time! We have just laughed ourselves silly several times as only we can! Once not the best timing as I was driving, had just stuck a caramel in my mouth and was in traffic! But we made it!

     Andrea drove from Little Rock to Memphis where we stopped at an information center right on the river.

     There was a festival going on at Mud Island, and we could here the Memphis music wafting across the water.  Statues of two of men who brought fame to Memphis...Elvis and BB Ki. Nice  visit!

     Then I drove the rest of the day...we made one more full stop at the Casey Jones' house and museum.

We had thought to get a bit of lunch but the food was buffet style  and not very appetizing so we just settled for ice cream! Will just go on through to Bowling Green to spend the night. Had a really long traffic back up on the North side of Nashville. But we survived!

Trip to Ohio and Points North

    My daughter and I are on a trip to Ohio to attend a Susan Shie camp for a week at her house. Very excited to learn her techniques! We are driving...it is over 1000 miles from our homes in Texas...so we are taking a couple days to get there. Our first destination, about a third of the way there is Little Rock, Arkansas. 

     As we were making good time, we decided to see what special venues were available to us there. Thanks to good ol' Google we discovered LR is the home of the Bill Clinton Presidential Library. It was not out of the way to our motel so we stopped for a visit. And just our good fortune that a Dale Chihuly Exhibit is currently in display. 

The library is beautiful and all the displays are nicely laid out. The building is located overlooking the Arkansas River. There is an old bridge spanning the river which is now a walkway/bike trail across the river. As we had been driving all day, it felt good to get to stretch our legs!

TVQG Show 2014

     This past weekend was the Trinity Valley Quilters' Guild annual show.  This year we held the show for only Friday and Saturday.  Venue where we hold the show seems to get more expensive to rent every year, and Sunday attendance always has been pretty light.  Thus the decision to cut out one day!  So we will see how that worked out when all the totaling is done!

      I had entered four quilts...one for the Members Only Challenge, and three in the Art Quilts category.  And I had donated two small quilts for the scholarship auction.  I was pleased to say I received two ribbons! The Members Only Challenge is designated by the theme of the show...this year the theme of the show was "Holidaze" so we were to make a wall hanging size quilt that depicted our favorite Holiday!  Of course, we were encouraged to do unusual holidays to make it more fun!  I had been wanting to do some wool applique for quite awhile which I have explained on a previous blog, so that was my entry in the challenge..."Celebrating the Flower"...and to my surprise, I was one of the five winners!

My "Celebrating the Flower"

And another real surprise was when they announced my name for one of the three ribbons given for the miniature quilts at the Scholarship Auction!

Miniature Paper Pieced Log Cabin

I had several friends who were winners too...many from my art quilt group!

My friend Kay won first in the Art Quilts with her hand-dyed.

Wendy won second place/Art Quilts also hand-dyed fabrics

Heather won third place with her "A New Riff"

And Wendy also won an Honorable Mention with her "Calligraphy"

     So all in all, we had a very successful show!  Now time to get started on quilts for next year! And I do have an idea working in my head!!!

Memory Monday # 73

     Because I went through sorority rush, I was in the dorm room before my roommate who did not go through rush.  When we applied for rooms, we filled out an interest sheet and I think they did try to match us up with things in common.  My roommate and I were both Catholic; both were from out of state; and both smoked!  Mary Jane and I became life long friends...she was from South Dakota and DROVE to Mizzou in a 1948 Ford which we dubbed Milton.  Freshmen girls were not supposed to have cars on campus, but because MJ was coming so far, she was able to get a pass.

Not "Milton" but a close facimile!

     We didn't use Milton too much, but it was kind of nice to have "wheels" if and when we needed to get some where!

My roommate, Mary Jane standing in the hall of our dorm...going to a formal!

Memory Monday # 72

     I missed writing my Memory Monday last week because I wrote my blog for the Around the World Blog Hop...so here goes for this week...Freshman year of college!

     After WWII, 1945, many military men were coming back to go to college on the GI bill so colleges had to build temporary dorms to house the influx.  Mizzou was no exception...but some of those "temporary dorms" lasted longer that anticipated.  So in 1958, as I entered college, Mizzou was in the middle of dorm growth.  There were three "hi rise" dorms being built...top of the line, but unfortunately not completed by the time the semester was to begin! So those of us who were to be assigned to the new dorms were assigned to the temporary, barrack-like dorms! This picture is not the dorms we had but they are very similar...wood frame, one story...ours were a little longer and there were only two sets of them side by side.

Temporary dorms

   Actually it was pretty cool...because they were to be torn down once the new dorms were finished, we could do about anything we wanted to them...paint the walls, hang anything on the walls, etc.

I am painting our names on our door! That is my desk by the door.

Sherri painted her walls and ceiling

We had bunk beds!  Pretty cool, huh?

Radiators for heat...and we each had a dresser and shared a closet.

     Another pretty neat thing was our cafeteria was the same cafeteria where the ROTC guys ate!  Of course we did have to walk to it in all kinds of weather, but that meant about 60 Freshmen girls eating with every guy on campus in ROTC!

Around the World Blog Hop

     A few weeks ago, my friend Heather tagged me to write a blog for the "Around the World Blog Hop".  I was supposed to post today...and here it is 11:PM and I am just now getting it done!  The idea is to tag two or three other other bloggers and answer four questions in this blog.  So hear goes!  I just tagged one person, Kate North; Kate lives in England and we have shared blogs for several years as well as a  couple of internet exchanges.  She writes a delightful blog....full of all kinds of ideas! So be sure to check out her blog...she will be writing for the Hop in a couple of weeks!

       What am I currently working on?

Quilt for my granddaughter

My granddaughter is going to a different college this year and needed a new quilt with the school colors!  A fun project!

Modern Quilt Guild-Attempt #1

A few months ago, I joined the Modern Quilt Guild International, then the local chapter here in Fort Worth.  One of the challenges was to make a modern quilt using a selection of Michael Miller fabric. Above is my first attempt...I really didn't like it so I tore it all apart and redid it.  Below is my final version, which I am entering in to my local quilt guild show.

Modern Quilt Guild-Second and final attempt..."Round Peg in a Square Hole!

     And I am also entering my guild's challenge for this show which is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Each year we have a members' only challenge...this year in keeping with the show theme...Holidaze...we were to depict a holiday.  My holiday is "Celebrate the Flower"; it is a holiday that some Unitarian Universalists Churches celebrate in the spring, renewal of the earth, and to show diversity in Nature.

My background which is also part of an other challenge done in my Creative Art group, studioQ.

The beginning of my wool applique; my stylized branches...I have admired wool applique for a long time and thought it would be  a fun thing to try on this challenge.

Then I added the wool circles to represent flowers ....

Then added black buttons for the centers...final product!
"Celebrating the Flower"

I am also entering two other quilts in the Art Quilt Category. So I have been busy with bindings, embellishments, and labels!

"Blue Fin Tuna"

"Afternoon Delight"

Both of these were also for my art groups' "Color Chip Challenge" (see previous blog).

 How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Well, I am not sure how to answer that....I really don't have an identifiable style that I know of...I just like to try different things...I want to do it all..so that's why my projects are so varied in finished product!

 Why do I create what I do?

As I said in the above paragraph, I want to try new things..any technique I see, I want to know how it is done and try it out.  Of course, sometimes that spreads me a little thin...the old adage.."Jack of all trades, Master of none"..could fit me very aptly!  Maybe when I grow up, I will settle on a specific style/technique!

What is my creative process?

There again, I have no one way that I create.  Sometimes I sketch out an idea; sometimes I see an example of what I want to do, then change it to put my own stamp on it; and then sometimes I just jump in and start putting fabric together! And of course, I couldn't work with out my design wall and my digital camera...I can rearrange  shapes/blocks...and take a picture each time then step away and think about it.

Memory Monday # 71

      It is 9:30 PM on Monday...and I forgot to write my memory for the week!!  So here goes!
      I last  wrote about the summer after high school graduation/before college!  Getting ready for college; last time with friends (for awhile); having to say "good bye" to the current boyfriend....on the eve of departing for school, I spent the night bawling my eyes out...my mom and my cousin (one of the three closer to my mom in age) packed my last minute stuff and packed the car! I had previously stated that my mom felt very strongly that I experienced the total college scene so that meant sorority rush.  Back in  the '50's at Mizzou, sorority rush was the week before school started.  So the "young ladies" experiencing this event would show up earlier than the other students.
    Ah, Rush Week!  So many of the girls going through rush were in high anticipation of being selected by the sorority of their choice...to the point of being hyper anxious!  Ignorance can be bliss...I had no expectations as I had no idea what any of them were about...I did not know there were some sororities that were considered to be of higher esteem than others.  All I knew was my gut feelings...the first day, we were ushered around to all the sororities for a brief introduction.  And from that I did get a sense of a couple whom I thought were not for me...a couple (which I later found out were "the top") seemed way too artificial and snobbish to me!  So that evening, when we got invitations to the second day, we had to make decisions based on that one introduction on which to accept.  Little did I know that I had declined invitations to those two premium houses!
     Day Two: We are once again herded to the houses that we have been invited back and accepted invitations from.  At this point, we are getting to be in groups with girls who we will roam with more frequently. And of course, we are all in great discussion about the sororities from whom we have been invited. That evening we once again get invitations to those who want us to come back for day three. Now it begins to get a bit cruel...there are the girls who are cut from the sorority of their hearts' desire and girls who do not get as many invites back as others. But again, I as well as many, have to make some decisions.
    Day Three: Only five parties to attend...at the end of this day, I think we are down to three for day four....again that evening same routine..some broken hearts...some decisions to make.
     Day Four: A big day! More lengthy parties!  The active members are really knocking themselves out to try to appeal to the girls they really want!  How to choose??  Well, I am very influenced by those who seem to be having genuine fun; I am impressed by the interior design of the houses; and I meet a Senior who is also from Illinois...a very fun redhead!
     Day five: We receive bids (invitations from the sororities who would like us to pledge with them...again some have decisions to make and some girls only get one bid so...no decisions! We send our one acceptance back...and that afternoon, we are picked up by the sorority of our/their choice!

The Zeta Tau Alpha Crest

     And my choice was Zeta Tau Alpha!

They impressed me as a fun bunch; very down to earth; not pretentious...at least the majority; and I 

liked their colors!  Turquoise and white...the living room where we were rushed was a lovely white with turquoise accessories...and there was that red head who became my pledge mom!

     And one more word on Zetas....today, my granddaughter just completed her last day of Rush...and she received and accepted an invitation from the Zetas on her campus!!! A continuation of the experience!