TUESDAY again

The pool was reasonably comfortable today.  This in contrast to yesterday when I thought I would freeze; something about the pool heater that works slower than the cold front moving down from Canada. Twenty minutes was my limit - had to get to a hot shower.
Today was much better; yes it was cool getting in but once activity began I became accustomed to the water.  I keep forgetting that the reason I avoided swimming for decades was that I really do not like being a) wet or b) cold. As the season gets cooler and cooler it stands to reason that I can expect the pool to be a colder experience but what's the idea of a "heated" pool if you are shivering?

The challenge of learning to swim before the year is out may not happen. Try as I do to float, kick and stand up - I have some obstacles to over come. Can put my head in the water and float IF I'm holding on to the railing. Can float off with a kick-board if there is 'push' room to glide and stand up.  At first I could push off but was afraid of stopping to land. Now I can land but the push off is scary. Well, not scary exactly - I can head to the wall or rail but pushing off to 'nowhere' floating free in the water is terrifying. Why? That I cannot tell you. I can push off from the teacher's one-hand lead but doing it alone is a whole other story. Sometimes I get confident and think I can do it, push off from the wall and stand up when I need to breathe. Losing balance and not getting my feet to the floor fast enough spells disaster; never seems to happen the way I planned. Due to schedule conflicts I did not have a Monday lesson this week and have a few more days to practice before next week's lesson.  Can I do it?  Stay tuned.

Meantime I had a getaway to Wrightsville Beach, NC for the 2013 TMQG Quilt Retreat.  Missed last year and was anxious to do it again. Took way more projects than I could possibly finish is two+ days; less the shopping time in Wilmington.  Besides the bright color & white scheme I began to do some random string-piecing on the diagonal so I'll have some blocks to use in a donation quilt.

Bright hues for a baby's blanket.

Diamonds for a new project

Diane's grey scheme

Diane at work.

Becky busy with triangles.

Who goes to a quilt retreat and forgets white thread? Moi!
So what to do, find local quilt shops of course. There happened to be TWO with a short driving distance and within a couple of hours the thread shopping had only cost me about $70. Must have lost focus???

Just as I felt I was making progress catching up with soon to be due quilts, disaster was happening in the Philippines. My quilting partner Cissa who helped with a quilt for the Japanese Tsunami quilt has moved to Houston so I guess I'm on my own for this disaster.  Perhaps I can convince Spoonflower to host a "Philippines Quilt Sew Date" to take scrappy blocks and make up some donation quilts. That is once I establish a reliable relief resource to distribute the quilts to survivors.  The Nine-Patch made out of 4-patches that I took to Retreat and did not touch would make a good beginning.

Grey seems to be the color of the moment - not only have I seen lots of grey-neutral print fabrics but my pregnant 2nd cousin wants a grey & white color scheme for the baby's room.  Who am I to argue? But my scheming involves lots of pure hues against white - that should fit into an otherwise neutral room.  Quilter Diane found a herringbone pattern in a graduated grey that was striking. Makes me wonder about the backing fabric for the baby blanket - maybe grey so in case they don't like my scrappy blocks they can turn the quilt over and go with the grey.  Maybe.

The Blockade Runner offers great views of the harbor especially at sunset - unfortunately I got only about 20 minutes of sunset time one night and none the next. Did enjoy a delicious dinner at 22 North, a mere .4 miles north of the hotel where 10 of us had dinner Saturday evening. Before I realized the time was flying by it was Sunday morning and time to check out of the room, gather up the sewing tools in the ballroom and reload the car for the trip home. Much as I love my life at home it does a soul good to step out once in a while and do something else.

Reality again and tomorrow - pool practice at 7:30 a.m.
Another try to conquer the free-float.  bb

Back Again

Has it been since March 15th?  Apparently so because I just found that my blog site has been deemed "obsolete," (?).  Not on purpose but perhaps there should be a better way.

We are selling our house. Or perhaps I should say we are living in a "magazine ad."  That's because I cannot mess up the kitchen (no cooking - not bad), cannot mess up the office (that's more limiting), and positively no messing around with quilting, sewing or any textile endeavor. That's Bad!  I am in fabric-withdrawal and paying the price.

The Attingham Trust just contacted me via E-mail to see if I was still living, I suppose. There are not many Attingham alums this far South and I have been out of touch for far too long. Wanted to update their directory information and could not remember my blog address (?). Wonder why?  Fourteen or fifteen weeks is apparently enough of a hiatus that the blog-managers deem you obsolete. Must remember that.

Our house has been listed since before Memorial Day, got several lookers at first but since the temperature rose over the 90-degree mark and with the humidity close behind, traffic has been slow. But we have high hopes for the fall - this town is lovely in the fall and the house will show better when the trees turn color.

After the family commitments and travel of 2010 we are going nowhere this year. Except the gym, the grocery store and once in a while to get new fabric but do not tell my husband. Theoretically I am in a fabric-moratorium until we move but that's really hard to do. The truth is I do buy fabric but just make sure he does not see it until the project is finished. Am I bad?

Speaking of fabric and projects, look for me at the TMQG* Retreat in November 11-13th in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Since my sewing has been severely curtailed for the summer I look forward to the opportunity to dig into my fabric stash.

This isn't much of a continuing thread I admit, many gaps in the journal of my days but with summer heat upon us and my lifestyle so curtailed for the foreseeable time I hope to amend that situation.
later, BB

*Triangle Modern Quilt Guild.

MARCH BEGINS

Exactly two months since my last post. Have really tried but chaos is not easily managed. At this moment DH is enroute to the storage unit (one of two), where more of our treasures are stored. The interior painting is done but now the exterior painting begins (if weather cooperates). Our move date is late in 2012 but selling a house in Chapel Hill may take that long and we cannot begin too soon.

Next event: Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida. http://www.durhamsavoyards.org/
The director of this year's production is truly making it "out of this world" by staging it off planet, far in the future. As to plot, Princess Ida was engaged as an infant to Prince Hilarion. However, she is interested in women's rights instead of marriage and starts a women's university - she thinks "a man is only a monkey shaved". Hilarion and two friends disguise themselves as women and sneak into the university to try to win the princess, leading to the comic singing of "I am a maiden" describing what kind of "girls" they are.

Meanwhile, Ida's father and burly brothers have been clapped in prison by Hilarion's father. Discovery of the true identity of the male intruders leads both to flirtation and eventually to battle between the forces of the Princess and the Prince. Does love win in the end? You will have to see for yourselves.
STUDY REFERENCE:
Ancient playwright, Aristophanes, whose works, with their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo, effectively define the comedy today. Aristophanes lampooned the most important personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen...in his racy feminist anti-war farce Lysistrata.

Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War. Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace — a strategy, however, that inflames the battle between the sexes.

ALSO: "In Like Flint" staring James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb and Jean Hale.
[The film] posits an international feminist conspiracy to depose the ruling American patriarchy with a feminist matriarchy. To achieve and establish it, they kidnap and replace the U.S. President, discredit the head of the Z.O.W.I.E. intelligence agency and commandeer a nuclear-armed space platform, all directed from Fabulous Face, a women's spa in the Virgin Islands.
And remember La Cage Aux Folle? where two gay men disguise themselves as women to escape creditors and then the 'women' disguise themselves as 'hetero-men" to avoid further detection? continuous confusion of the sexes.  G&S stage the age-old 'battle of the sexes,' confuse gender identity and promote women's rights - all in comedic farce. This is going to be fun!

Sunday 3/13 found me at the Triangle Modern Quilt Guild meeting at Thimble Pleasures for the first time. What a exciting group! Thought I would be the oldest quilter there but there were a couple of oldie goldies like me. Finally got my photo up on the member's list so one can identify who I am.  

WHY, you might ask, have I joined another quilt guild when my entire sewing studio has been dismantled and my stash has gone to storage (?).  I am so in textile-withdrawal I cannot tell you. One of the many attractions was the Guild's May meeting is to be held at Spoonflower in Durham, http://www.spoonflower.com/welcome. Then I made the connection that the TMQG's treasurer is none other than Kim Fraser (Mrs. Spoonflower in person). IF I was 25 years younger and still working - I'd be at Spoonflower in a flash. 
The general appeal is that of a younger, techno-savvy crowd of women with design skills, Facebook, webpages and an awareness of internet resources that makes me look like a beginner. For one the webpage http://trianglemodernquilts.ning.com/, is really a mini Facebook for members and I am loving it.
My skill-set is way beyond many of the younger quilters but I am unable to create demos or tutorials as I have little to work with and less time to create anything. But...there is always hope and once this move is completed and I have a new studio - look out!

Item of interest:
Fab Lab is coming to Durham. Check out this story....
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/12225077/article--Mobile-Fab-Lab--to-visit-American-Tobacco-Campus?instance=main_article
Scrap artists, 3-D designers, theater and set designers and jewelry crafters take note. The tools you have always wanted and could not afford are coming to town.

Quote for the week:
Author David Brooks, The Social Animal, writes: "Adult personality is forever defined in opposition to one's natural enemies in high school." Wonder if he was in my class - that feels so right.

GLOBAL NEWS:
Quilt friend Cissa sent an email after a 32 hour flight from Australia - what punishment! Heard from Becky in Osaka that life continues but all residents are asked to unplug appliances and there are rolling power blackouts every few hours. Got a call from Kazuyo in Tokyo Sunday night (Monday there) who had arrived at her office in downtown Tokyo after 2.5 hours of traveling on a slow train that is a normally a 30-40 minute commute. And Noriko, my PT/trainer and aquacise instructor, heard from her Mother who is safe in northern Japan but has no power or water supply. We learn from tragedy how interconnected we are to the Far East.
We pray for those we know and all we do not know.