Home and Happy

I was awake this morning to the surprise of my daughter who rarely gets to see me upright and in the process of dressing as she is getting ready for her work day. When she immerged from her room I was dressed and eating a bowl of Cheerios and sipping on my first cup of coffee. "What's with you?", she asked, looking a little concerned.
"Not a thing." I replied as I continued to scoop the cereal into my mouth.
"Are you sure?" she said looking back at me over her shoulder as she made her way toward the garage, passing by my studio space as she went. "Is some one coming by"
"No, why?"
"You picked up your studio. I was going to DO IT FOR YOU this morning, (Was she glad I was home too.) but you've done it already. she said and added. "What's up?"
She didn't notice because it wasn't noticible, but I had run the dust mop through the rest of the house as well while waiting for the coffee to brew.
"Nothing" Scoop. Chew. Swollow.
"I'm fine." I said to assure her. "I'm home. I'm happy. I have no where to go until January." God willing I thought.

Home is where the heart is and my heart I realized this past week is in Columbia. This house is truly home to me now.
For weeks now I have had some ideas running aroud in my head that I have not had long concentrated periods of time free of committments that I could devote to exploring these ideas. Now I do. Last night and into the early morning I was pulling fabric from my stash of my own hand dyes, those Marti and I had produced MONTHS ago before I moved and not wanted to use until now. They are all somewhat muted or less intense in color than my usual pallete but defininately in keeping with the colors of Autumn, which I've noticed too that my work seems to minic the colors outside my windows more often than not.
Here are some images from last week in Durham, NC. A look at the Kathie(y)'s . Kathy and my slices of our birthday cake, compliments of Maccroni Grill where we had lunch. Sadly, the best thing about our cake was the lighted candle. I have a very, very severe wheat allergy I discovered last summer and Kathy who's birthday is three days before mine hates the smell and taste of chocolate and never eats it.
I ate a scoop ice cream in leu of the cake and the Kathie(y)'s shared a a piece of lemon cake.
I've loaded into the computer the images from last week but can't seem to get them to load into the blog site.
I want to get to the studio and will try to let you see them when I have more time to wait for the process to work.
Be happy and have a great day.

Where the rubber meets the road

so goes the Goodyear tire company's commercial. Well in my case that's true since I have a set of their tires attached to my blue Jeep Liberty in which I am often doing in excess of the speed limit. My grand children (the boys says of me) "My grandmother is cool. She does not drive like a little old lady." I must say here and now that IT IS ONLY by the grace of God I have never been stopped, warned or ticketed for speeding and not because I have some sixth sense or early warning radar devise onboard.

Here is the answer to an upcoming question I was asked yesterday:
I traveled by air quite often for many years in my first life’s career as a Registered Nurse when I worked for 25 plus years for a non-hospital employers like the University of Louisville and a major cigarette manufacturing company that I don’t want to give free advertisement to in this or any other format. I know there are many who have heard me say I don’t like to fly because I have said it a lot of times over the last 15 years since I stopped working as a RN. I have been told by both friends and family that I have to get over this reluctance to fly. But why should I want to get over it when I don't want to.

My reasoning for not wanting to fly was never about a fear of flying because I like the most dangerous parts of flight. The take offs and the landings. My reluctance to fly is all about the time I am in the air, sitting next to strangers, confined and bored. That's part of what bothers me the most is that I have given over to strangers control of part of my life. Not that I am a total control freak. Presently, to some degree it is now about the 2 hours you have to be at the airport before your flight time and the waiting and searching and the anxiety you get waiting for luggage you pray didn’t sent to a destination that was not yours. Or the ineptness of companies that say your luggage is lost forever and you ago out and buy a new wardrobe, or wonder of all wonder it is found just in time for you to get on a plane for home after having spent several days in the same clothes and wearing damp underwear that you hand washed and dried over the shower curtain rod each night.

Its about those little thin plastic glasses of something to drink that are never enough to quince the thirst induced by the dry germ filled recycled cabin air, salty nuts, crackers and chips they give you to nibble on. Of course I can see their point. They do not want to hydrate the passengers on board to the point that they all want to go to the sardine can size privy on board and certainly not all at the same time, creating a waiting line that extends the length of the plane.

An aside thought: I’ve often wonder while in one of those tight place doing what the little place was designed for, how anyone could be so sex starved that they would attempt to get a sex fix in a privy aboard an airplane. Jesus, it’s got to be a myth and if it's not please spare me learning how you know it isn't.

I got home yesterday after spending the better part of 5 days away from home; 2 days teaching, 4 nights in hotels and 1,866 miles on the road to find Lyn my oldest daughter had prepared a very good birthday dinner for me and my oldest grand child Joshua who shares my birth date. He turned 20, was born on my 43rd birthday. You do the math if you really want to know how old I am now. (I don't mind aging, the alternative is not what I wished for when I blew out the candle on my slice of cake yesterday)

Now for the question:

With her business mind and number crunching tendencies Lyn did the math of my trip and asked why I don’t fly to my teaching engagements. This was asked after she heard my report on how well the class went and on how much I enjoyed teaching to that group of ladies and one young man who keep addressing me as Mrs. Yeager.

Had I flown, I would have been away from home 3 days instead of 5. Part of me thought how nice, she missed me. But at my age do I really want to rush through the rest of my life. NO. Did I want to miss seeing all the wonderful fall folage in colors that I saw on the way from Missouri to North Caroline that left me amazed at the art of God's hand and pondering if I could achieve the same colors in my next quilt. If I had flown I would have missed all of it.

Making art is all about seeing. I saw. I was inspired.

Did I want to miss the opportunity to sit down to dinner with my friends Marti and George, once again and eat some fish that George had caught in Canada, and cooked for us on his grill that evening when I drove through Louisville on the way to North Carolina. Did I want to miss seeing the line drawing for her newest creation and her last finshed piece. NO. I would have missed all of this had I flown over the city.

Did I want to miss having dinner at one of my favorite restaurants with the Katie(y)s on my way back through on Sunday. NO. Did I want to miss celebrating part of my birthday day with them too, where I received from Kathy another elephant for my (who me collect elephants-No-No-No dispite the fact I have hundreds)collection. NO. The elephant she presented me with is soooooooo cute, I could not not help embrace it and want to add it to the herd that already resides in our home.

Driving myself gave me the uninterrupted time to listen to several books on cd that made the miles and time fly by. Unlike driving with someone who you feel you have to keep up meaningless chatter with or who is likely to nod off on you leaving you to your own thoughts which can be dangerous in some cases. I was entertained the entire time. A pleasant voice reading to me interesting books was simply ahhhh.

I take several books with me, generally two more than I think I have time to listen too just in case. I learned on this trip that I like the sound of the male voice best, even when they are imitating the voice of a female. I hated listening to the female person who read the Dianne Mott Davidson book I had taken with me even though I love the author's who-done-it series when I read them myself. So I didn’t get past the first chapter of that book before ejecting it from the cd player. Irritation I didn't need or want. Reading and listening should be all about the pleasure of it. I also like books written in first person when read, while I on the other hand prefer the book I read to myself to be in third person. I know you can listen to book while flying but as I have aged my hearing has aged too and for me to hear a book, the person sitting next to me is going to hear it too. Maybe not loud enough to understand every word, but loud enough to be annoying. NOT GOOD.

Then there is the music of ones choice. Country to Opera in my case. Loud, sing-able, even dance-able as long as movements doesn’t effect the gas peddle and the steering wheel is great. I sing with abandon in the theory of "Does a falling tree in the woods make a sound if there is no one around to hear it." Well I sing out really loud with abandon like there is no on listening, because there isn't. I took plenty of those cd’s with me too. All in all I love traveling by car. Have always done so since Phil (my dearly departed)and I made our first long distance trip together way back in the early 60's. I have developed a great set of driving muscles and reflexes which I had no reason to acquire until after his death. I do not fear night driving. Phil and I did a lot of that during our years together. A sleeping child or multiples of them is the easiest way to travel with them. But most of all I do not fear being alone with myself in an auto for hours on end or anywhere else.

Of course a good map and the ability to read it along with , no reluctance to get off the road to ask directions if my smarter self says warningly" I think you are going the wrong way is a good thing to have.

A selection of munchies, my favorite drinks (including a few bottles of water at hand; plus being mindful of the signs along the road indicating how far away the next hopefully clean potty is makes taking a driving trip for me great fun. Might I suggest to those who are up for this type of adventure, a potty break tote is a must have take along. In the tote should be a roll of paper towel,(I hate those hot air hand dyers) a bar or little bottle of liquid soap, (there is no guarantee that there is soap in the dispensers) a box of Huggies babies wipes,( public bathrooms all have the most awful paper to wipe ones bottom with) a tooth brush and tooth paste or mouthwash might come in handy and a little money and an extra set of car keys too, just in case you get the sense that it might be safer to leave your purse locked securely in the car when you set out of it in only well lighted and people aplently place. DO THINK OF YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY FIRST .

Tomorrow I will show pictures of the ladies and one gentleman in my classes taught in Durham, NC. Go to for some different shots taken by the University during my Bowling Green class

My latest trip: "The fast and the furious".

I was back home from Bowling Green , KY for about 60 hours before I was on my way back to Louisville for a visit that would last less than 48 hours. I checked into my hotel at 8:PM on Tuesday night and was up the next morning by 7:30 AM.

The purpose of my trip back this time was to help jury entries for Form Not Function 2007, the third annual art quilt exhibit at the "Carnegie" which is short speak for a longer title; The Carnegie Center for Art and History, which is located in an old Carnegie Built Library building in New Albany, Indiana.

This small museum's board and staff has been very supportive of the art quilt and fiber arts community in Louisville and Southern Indiana. Because of that I can not help but do my two cents worth to assist their efforts.

Besides I got to see the Katies(y)'s and my art quilt buddies, Valerie , Kathleen , Marti , Joanne and Pat. Speaking of travel and people just getting back to Louisville, Marti was just back from a tour of Western Europe which included Budapest and Vennia. We got a quick review of her trip over a fast lunch break. Joanne very recently back had taken a tumble while in New England on vacation two weeks ago and came home with a fractured right angle and a fractured left wrist, which prevents her from driving, but not doing administrative work in her office. she was relyiing on her retired husband to be her driver. Valerie too had just gotten off a plane on Tuesday having been in Boston on a business trip with her hubby and then on to New York City for pleasure where they saw the stage production of the Color Purple. Jet lag, pain and other life stress, we six do seem to have busy feet as well as busy hands and busy minds.

I was up at 7:30 on Thursday morning to meet the Kathie(y)'s for breakfast at Bob Evans before they both went off to work. From there I stopped at the Jewish Community Center art gallery to take a look at our (River City Fiber Artist) collective exhibit. As you can see from the images it is not a very large gallery, but the gallery does get a lot of traffic.

As a last stop on my way out of town, I picked up my oldest and soon to be 20 years old, grandson Joshua from his friend's house. I gave him the car keys and plopped myself in the shot gun seat where I proceeded to take a short nap and then knit my way back to Missouri while he drove.

Joshua has inherited his grandfather's driving philosophy. "Can't we just get from point A to point B without all this stopping?" God must have given men bigger bladders than women and selective deafness. I thought this when I was younger and I had to tell my husband four exits before despiration set in that I had to go in order to get to the potty before it was way too late. His excuse, "I didn't hear you." While Josh hates stopping he is NOT DEAF. I am never despirate when we stop.

Here is my right foot in my very first socks and yes there are two of them. .
Pretty good if I have to say so myself.
Here is the start of another pair and what I got done on the way back to Missouri while Josh drove. It is a hand dyed washed wool which I don't seem to be allergic to. The last time I was at Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe here in Columbia
I brought two ballls of Regia, which is a wool, cotton and polymid blend and Wildefoote, a washable wool and nylon.

Here is a half finished sock I started with the Wildfoote wool and nylon blend. When I tried it on I didn't like the length of the leg portion and I will need to FROG it but didn't want to deal with it now. Hence the reason for me starting a sock with the hand dyed wool.

Here are some images from the Jewish Comm. Ctr. Art Gallery.
The Corn pieces were done by Joanne , The two pieces with the irregular bottoms are mine. The one between my two is by Valerie The grey fractured piece is by Marti.


Pat did the images of trees as well as the images that is on the signage at the entry to the gallery. I must admit I AM THE VERY PROUD OWNER OF THIS PIECE.
The pieces in the glass case are by Valarie and Kathleen.

The lighting wasn't really great so some of the shots I took did not come out to well and I am still getting used to the complexities of my new camera.

Some More Shots from Saturday

Here are some images from the Western KY Museum's Floral Quilt Exhibit and my class.

I'm back in the saddle again

toting my new digital camera.
My oldest grandson accompanied me back to Kentucky on Friday. We shared the driving which made the trip no seem as long since I got to knit a sock for 250 miles of the trip. Had dinner with my friend Kathie when I got to Louisville and got caught up on what she was doing face to face, which is always better than by phone. She only sends me jokes by e-mail. My other friend Kathy was in New England for a son's wedding.
Arrived in Bowling Green about 10:00 PM and was in bed and sleep by 10:20 it had been a long day made longer by returning to the OHIO VALLEY and getting reaquainted with allergies. The sinuses were not happy.
Was late to class eventhough I had left the hotel in PLENTY OF TIME. What is it with cities that try to make getting from point A to point B impossible. All was forgiven. As it was two of my students arrived after I did, having had the same problems. The class was held in the Western Kentucky University Museum. The museum has over 200 quilts in there permanent collection and for the next month are so they are showing about 25 of them that have a floral theme. Although I don't do traditional, I love traditional quilts especially those with floral themes. So at the end of class I took a look at what was on exhibit. Loved the fact that they had placed three quilts on beds. The beds themselves were wonderful antiques also from their collection.
I had a mixed bag of students, mostly ladies of my age. It was wonderful to see them smile at the results they achieved using the techniques I was teaching.

CAN NOT

wait to show you the pair of socks I finished.
Can not wait to show you the quilt I finished.
Can not wait to show you the fabric I recieved from a friend as a tit for tat gift because she adopted a dozen sets or so of double pointed needles that I no longer needed or wanted once I'd taught myself how to knit socks with one circular needle. Knitting in the round with one circular need is WAY EASIER than dealing with 4 or 5 double pointed needles; which if I have to say so myself, I was very good at using.
Can not wait to show you how far I have progressed on my next pair of socks. Can not wait to show the yarn I brought for more socks.
Can not wait to show you the progress on my newest quilt project. Let me assure all of you who was having a moment of concern wondering if I have given up quilts for socks, have no fear. NEVER!!!!
Can not wait to do a lot of things that have to do with first taking digital images of things, people and places I want to share with others.
I have been looking on-line for the best price for a new camera that has the features I want and not have too many more than I care to learn how to use.
I spent several weeks looking before buying the camera my dear daughter lost. And this is the last time I say this because I love her and she is far more important to me than a THING.

I am driving back to Bowling Green, Kentucky on Friday to teach a class at the Western Kentucky University Museum on Saturday. From Louisville to Bowling Green is an easy shot down Interstate 65. Taking barely more time than it takes to drink a large cup of coffee. Bowling Green is a long trip for a one day class, but I had agreed to teach the class long before I had made up my mind to move to Missouri.

I'll make the 6 hour drive home on Saturday after the class is over at 3:30 only to be home for 3 day before returning to Louisville on Wednesday to help jury from slides an up coming art-quilt exhibit.

While in Louisville, I hope I have time to make a trip to the Jewish Community Center's Gallery where I have three pieces on exhibit until the end of November. I I do that and have a camera, I'll share them with you too.

A friend called today

to see if I was doing OK. She said I hadn't blogged for a few days and was concerned. It made me feel really good to know that someone misses my musings.
If you have miss me too let me say that I had a spell of nothing to say and being someone who tends not to small talk I just did not blog.
Just so you know that I am doing something.
I finished knitting one sock of the pair I started several weeks ago after knit testing several yarns to see if I liked the way they knitting up. I have started on the second one after the joy I felt when I put the finished sock on and found it fit my foot and leg better than any sock I've ever brought.

I went back to the library and got more books on cd and I have designed a new quilt that I haven't started yet. I have been quilting on one of the tops that I left undone last spring. It is now about 3/4 quilted. If I stay up to my usual late hour and can bring myself to stop knitting this top will be finished by this time tomorrow.

It might be some time before there are images on my blog spot again. Why you ask?

I lent my digital camera to my daughter Lyn for her business trip to California with the admonishment of "don't lose it." Guess what? IN LESS THAN TWENTY FOUR HOURS SHE LOST IT. Boooo hoooo!!!!

A thought for what it is worth all because I went today to get a Missouri drivers license and find out how to get my car tagged in MO. I still have a valid Kentucky tag and drivers license. Both by law I can keep as long as I hold property in KY. Which I do. My drivers license is good until 2008. My car tags expire at the end of this month.
Because of the Patriot Act in order to get my drivers license in MO or any other state I have to have some proof that I am who I am. Proof is my birth certificate and my marriage licence if my name is not the same as my birth certificate or my passport if it is the name that is on my KY license.

Now neither one of these things is a problem for me to put my hands on. I have them all. They are in my DO NOT THROW AWAY Under penalty of depth FILE, but my problem with having to provide this proof is that I feel that anyone who want to get into this country and live here to do mischief they already have the papers they need.

Do you really think anyone who is up to no good is going to wait on line for hours and go through what an honest citizen has to go through to get a license or renew one? NOT HARDLY. Who does Rumsfeld think he's fooling.

And for the poor who hardly have money to pay for their license they now have the added expense of obtaining birth certificates and or duplicate marriage licenses, etc to prove that they are who they are. Here in Mo the courts said needing this documentation in order to obtain, non-driver ID after having to pay for the ID in order to register and vote was unconstitutional.

Has anyone determined how many illegal aliens actually attempt to vote? Has their votes changed the direction of our country for the worse? Some parts of me want to say what the fuss about. If we "real Americans" do not see the value in our right to vote and DO IT, maybe having these non-citizens who do see the value and the priviledge having then turn out to vote possibly is not a bad thing.

I know 9/11 was a shock to all of us. And I know what it feels like to have someone you love profiled. It happened to my husband more than once; him being stopped for a (DWB) Driving while Black, in a new sports car. But did all common sense go out the window on that day and on all the days and months and years since that day?

I'm off my soap box now. I have decided to keep my KY license and my car registered in Ky for the time being and consider myself having duel residences. Like the people who go south for the winter. I decided I like going West best.
Besides, I still have not sold my condo.