Weekend Wanderings

On the road again.... Where this weekend??? Ithaca, NY - home of Cornell University where my niece is a junior and home of - - -

the Ithaca Farmers' Market - an incredible market here in the land of the locavore. I love my farmer's markets and will travel to experience the best. My sister-in-law has been begging us to join them in Ithaca for the market ever since her daughter's freshman year. Ithaca is, after all, home of
the Moosewood Cafe - with over 15 cookbooks in print, and reason for my many years of vegetarianism - I eat meat now, but go meatless many days a week.
Here we are at the market - it's an open air market covered by a pavilion.
First stop - The Piggery - yup - no more vegetarian for me. The Piggery raises free range pigs - pork the old fashioned way - this pork is not the other white meat - it's beautifully marbled and dark.
Old McDonald was at the market - e - i - e - i - oooo! And brought all of his veggies - - -
Almost too pretty to eat - beautiful produce.
I love the look of Brussels sprouts - alien-like.
The market had amazing bakery vendors.
And, since Halloween is just around the corner, the vendors had lots of pumpkins - none as beautiful as these.
The stems on these pumpkins were massive - I've never seen anything like it.
So what did I buy at the market (I brought an ice chest the size of a coffin along to hold all of my goodies) - I got Tuscan kale, giant leeks, purple kohlrabi, celeriac, fennel, paw-paw, watermelon radish, honey nut squash, poblano peppers and obese carrots. In addition to produce we brought home a fresh rabbit, bison strip steaks, mutton stew meat, a pork roast and fresh ham from the Piggery, a block of sheep's milk Tomme cheese, and jumbo eggs.
I needed a cup of coffee to get my energy back for the rest of the day - tomorrow we'll stop at Ithaca's quilt shop - just voted one of the top 10 quilt shops in America - don't miss it.

Boo - - - Fusi-Boo

Lookie what I found - a new fusible batting from Fairfield, Fusi-Boo. It's made with bamboo (boo!) rayon and cotton, and contains a water soluble, heat activated resin. I tried it out on a small project yesterday and am so far quite pleased. As with the other fusible bat on the market, it works best with a backing in place (when I work small I like to quilt just the top and bat) - without backing in place the bat is tacky on my Lucite sewing surface. I'll let you know what I think after I wash it.

Don't you love the fabric - vintage (2002) Alexander Henry called dr. frank's laboratory!
I bought yards of this back in 2002 - I loved it then and I love it now - I've only got a yard left - oh, what to do???

Posters for the People

I attended an interesting discussion and exhibit last week featuring posters from the WPA - Works Progress Administration - an agency formed during Roosevelt's New Deal administration. The agency employed millions of Americans in an attempt to get Americans back to work - buildings, bridges and roads were constructed, literacy was addressed, and the arts, in all forms, were spotlighted.

The poster project was started as a form of social awareness propaganda. Over 15000 posters were created during the time to address a multitude of issues - you name it, there was a poster produced. Unfortunately, since the posters were not considered fine art, they were never cataloged and retained. The group, Design for Social Impact, is now collecting and archiving posters from this initiative - thus far they have amassed over 1600 posters in the collection - only slightly over 10% of the body of work.

The posters are a glimpse of life in the era of the New Deal - educational, health focused, some somber and serious, many excellent examples highlighting our national parks (a strong initiative of Roosevelt's), playful and comical views of everyday life, and more. Originally they were done by hand, but later silk screening came into play. The graphics are captivating and the fonts are fantastic! Have a look at a few:





If you're interested in checking out the exhibit it is at the Penn State Great Valley campus through the end of December. Watch their website to see future exhibit sites.

New Store Alert

Have you heard about Remnantz??? Remnantz is a new knitting / sewing store located in Douglasville, PA. It's a bit confusing to tell you how to find it - no fear - their new website will be up any day now with precise directions for their location.

They have walls of gorgeous yarns.
Not to mention an Eiffel Tower bursting with a colorful array of fantastic fibers.
The owners have a unique knack for artistic display - here an antique pram is the perfect resting place for a collection of baby yarns.
I learned about a German line of clothing patterns for children - Farbenmix de - the styles are adorable - the are the only local retailers of the patterns.
Special arrival for the season - pumpkin hats!
Fabric is not the focus at this shop - they carry minimal fabric - a small selection of predominantly Amy Butler quilting weight and home dec, and this collection of laminated cottons. They are holding sewing classes for both children and adults.
Looking for friends to sew and knit with??? They host bi-monthly sip and stitches - - -
although I could think of something else to put in this glass at a sip and stitch.When you visit Remnantz make sure you fit in a stop at Ladyfingers Sewing in Oley - it's only about 10 minutes from Remnantz.

Blog Update

Like they say - ask and ye shall receive - last night I forwarded the link for my blog post on Art Gallery fabrics over to the owners of Art Gallery, Walter and Pat Bravo. If you remember I requested they explore making a quality line of solid fabrics - well guess what - they are!!! They are showing them in Houston next week and will be in stores early 2011 - can I get a Hallelujah!!! Bravo Bravos!!!

Another update - last week I posted some photos from the Berks quilt guild and felt horrible that I didn't know the maker of some of the quilts. Well I contacted Janice Petre, the coordinator of the show and she provided me with the quilt makers names. Not only is Janice a fantastic guilt show coordinator - she's also an amazing quilter - this is the quilt with absolute precision piecing - every triangle has 3 pointy points!
Triangle Tango by Janice Petre
I loved the unexpected color combination in this quilt.
Angles and Strips by Anna Adams
My personal favorite was this beautiful little piece.
Gingko Seasons by Deb Lorah
And this fantastically quilted whole cloth quilt.
Baby Stella (wholecloth) Nancy Cawley

Autumn Apprehension

Don't get me wrong - I love autumn - it has the biggest and brightest skies of any season. The mere thought of the fall season evokes a peaceful resting time - a respite from the busy summer. And as the days grow longer autumn ushers in crisp, cool weather - and so begins my issue with autumn - the cold. In truth, it's not the cold I oppose, but rather the heat, the drying heat of the house furnace - sucking every drop of moisture out of the air, and out of me! I'll do anything I can to delay the start of that furnace - my husband compares our home to a meat locker. Well this morning when the bedroom struck 53 degrees there was no holding back - on with the furnace!

It may be turning cold outside but this collection from Art Gallery Fabric says anything but cold. Art Gallery is a relatively new fabric manufacturer to the market - and Pat Bravo is the creative force behind its success. Here is a taste of one of her collections - Paradise - the designs are beautiful!

Here it is paired up with two of the companion fabrics - intense color saturation.
And what you can't see is what your hands need to touch - the hand of this fabric is exceptional - sateen-like, dreamy! "Feel the Difference" - it says so right on the selvedge! The selvedge can tell you more - look at all of the colors in this one design - the sign of a first rate fabric.Now I had to invite some solids to this garden party - notice a resemblance between the selvedge dots and my solid fabric choices??? My only issue here is fabric quality - the Art Gallery fabric is so luxurious that I'm concerned my solids will detract from the overall feel of the quilt. We quilters really need to demand a serious line of high quality solid fabric. Hmmmm - wonder if we can talk them into a line of solids??? Hope the folks at Art Gallery are listening in!
In addition to fabric Pat has also designed a line of thread for Signature Thread - the colors are fantastic! These three are going to look beautiful with my project - it involves lots of top-stitching!
If you haven't seen the Art Gallery Fabric Collection you don't know what you're missing. I've seen it in many quilt shops locally - check with your favorite quilt shop - if they don't have it, ask them to give it a try!

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Let's start with paper - scissors - - - this is an amazing stop-frame animation using paper, created by Maurice Gee for Andersen M Studios titled Going West. It's scherenschnitte on steroids - be prepared to be thoroughly awed and entertained.

Rocks - oh, I've got rocks - in my head. Yesterday was a stunner - crisp, cool, invigorating. Off to Hawk Mountain - but not the easy route this visit.
Today we picked a relatively challenging trail at Hawk Mountain - River of Rocks - here at the start of the trail is a 700 foot steep descent.
Here's looking up at our descent - this trail demands intense concentration - you need to keep your head down at all times to watch where you're putting your foot - and this is nothing. . .
See this . . .This is the trail - notice the red trail makers on the tree - most of the trail is exactly this - 4 miles of this - not for the balanced challenged.
Why is it called River of Rocks??? Here it is - the river of rocks - a boulder field formed about 10000 years ago during the last ice age.
Here's my husband out in the middle of the boulders - he was like a little kid on those rocks!
The boulder field is massive.
We did see more than rocks - take a look at this log - if only I could have carried it out on my back - but, you saw the trail.
It was so interesting.
We were hoping to see some of autumn's technicolor color show - but it's a bit too early here in eastern Pennsylvania - and, after our very dry summer we're not expecting a grand display this year. This beautiful fungus added a lovely color accent.
Autumn leaves floating on sky reflecting pools of water.
A forest floor cathedral constructed out of a decaying tree stump - love the lighting in this photo.
What goes down must go up - a 700 foot descent means a 700 foot ascent - oh my aching thighs!
Every great hike ends with a great beer. Don't you love this tap pull - - -
Delaware's Dogfish Head beer - Analog Beer for the Digital Age - yum - we earned this!