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Honey Bee Fabric

April 15, 2012 by Clareannette

One of the women in my quilt group works with honeybees in a government lab; she likes bugs. When there’s a birthday in our group, that person gets a piece of fabric (generally a fat quarter) in their favorite color or style. Diana requests fabric with bugs. I totally spaced out her birthday last year, so I thought I would try making her something this year for this week’s meeting.

First I drew a bee with pencil, so I could make a thermofax screen:

Here you can see a piece of my hand-dyed pink fabric pinned down to some foam core out on my patio; I’ve just screen printed the honeybee shape on the fabric, and you can see the small and rather sloppy screen–with a “frame” made of duct tape– off to the right. I’d say the bees are about 3″x5″.

To make up for missing last year’s birhtday, I also screen printed a similar-sized piece of orange fabric using fuschia dye this time:

I kind of sponged around the areas where I glopped on some dye paste during the printing process. Sloppy! I figure this fabric could come in handy for some picky-piecing, if one wanted to highlight bees for some reason in one’s quilts.

Posted in Art Quiltmaking Design, Art Quilts, Screen Printing Fabric | Leave a Comment »

End of a the Whirlwind Visit

April 12, 2012 by Clareannette

This is the yummy lasagna I made with Sebastian last week. He told me not to post any of the photos I took of him as we put this together. The kale and carrots are from my garden.

Luckily, there were no similar restrictions for our trip the following day to Sonoita, where we spent Easter weekend with my parents. I was going to post all of this earlier but I had a 2 day migraine that set me behind. Plus, I felt sad that my visitors had to leave to go home!

Anyway, as for the last few days of my visit with Kasia and the kids….there were battles with carrots…

…and sticks. I still have sore knuckles!

This is a nice photo of me, my mom and Kasia:

My dad read a fairy tale–The Tinderbox–aloud after dinner; I saw Sebastian’s eyeballs roll once, briefly, but he really got into it. That’s a good story.

Damian read aloud himself, when his mother told him he had to read a book before bedtime he took it upon himself to share. For a kid nearly 7 he reads well above his grade level. Sebastian, in the back, is always reading:

The next day we went to St. David, on Easter, to have lunch with my mom’s 2 brothers. This is a greenhouse where my Uncle Christopher grows vegetables; he also has a swimming pool and here you can see what a good sport I am, to hop in the pool with the boys and get clobbered.

Here they are in front of the chapel which my grandfather built at the Holy Trinity Monastery:

Here’s all of us, except Kasia, who took the photo:

And, finally, isn’t this the cutest photo?

Posted in Aylward/O'Neil family | 3 Comments »

Grand Canyon Whirlwind Trip

April 5, 2012 by Clareannette

With my nephews and ex-sister-in-law along for the ride, I recently completed a 38 hour trip from Tucson to the Grand Canyon!

We started at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday and stayed on the interstates to make good time, but took scenic 89A through Sedona to Slide Rock State Park for a more leisurely pace and a lunch stop:

The state park is famous for it’s super popular swimming hole. We had a lunch of fresh fruit, bread, cold cuts, potato salad on a picnic table under an apple tree about to bloom;  the park  is located on an old homestead with an apple orchard. One of the trees is a century old, which is quite remarkable in this state:

Unfortunately, it looks like bark beetles have gotten to it:

Highway 89A climbs out of Oak Creek Canyon (what you see in the distance, below) …..

…and ends in Flagstaff. We spent the night in Williams, Arizona, just west of Flagstaff; and the next morning we took the tourist train–the Grand Canyon Railway–for a day trip to the Grand Canyon. The train has goofy tourist stuff like folks in cowboy costume playing bad music for tips; they walk up and down the carriage cars. It’s perfect for those who have a) little time and b) small children and c) a budget.

Obviously, the Grand Canyon is an archetypal image of not just the American West, but of what we think constitutes an awe-inspiring natural landscape. So, in short, there are plenty of photos out there of the Grand Canyon and most folks can readily call an image (albeit a likely weak and inadequate one) to mind.

This can help jog your memory, or improve your mental stock photos:

I was impressed that on a very busy day–we were there during peak Spring Break traffic, which several park service employees told me rivaled peak summer traffic–we could walk a few miles  along the 14 mile Rim Trail and easily find many spots where we easily could  sit down, undisturbed, and quietly watch the enormous panorama before us:

This a great shot of my nephew Sebastian, not just because it’s the Grand Canyon, but because he’s a teenager….and he’s smiling!

This morning we were all in a just a minor state of recovery from getting home late. My mom and my brother Eric came by today for lunch; here we all are, it’s so much fun to eat and talk together!

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon before and am already looking forward to my next trip. What a blast!

Posted in Aylward/O'Neil family | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

My Life as a Temporary Tourist

April 2, 2012 by Clareannette

My newphews Damien (7) and Sebastian (13) are visiting from Madison, WI with their mother; they’ll be here a week, and today we went to the world-famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I am generally not keen on zoos and seeing wild creatures locked up, especially when the humans watching them aren’t really doing much to preserve wildlife habitat.

But, when guests come to town you do what you have to do.

Here is Damien by the Bighorn sheep enclosure, just before he put his hand out to cover my camera lens in protest; I should mention that he doesn’t like baseball and doesn’t know anything about the cap he’s wearing:

Here’s Damien and Sebastian taking turns being a tortoise:

One popular event at the Desert Museum is their daily Raptor Free Flight demos, where raptors are allowed out with their trainers to demonstrate their flight and behaviors in their native habitat. It’s very cool, and in the afternoon the Harris hawk family comes out to wow the hundreds of people who gather to watch; here’s one of the hawks as it perched directly over my head, they come quite close to the crowd and are very beautiful:

Tomorrow we’re off to a train trip to the Grand Canyon; you’ll see those photos real soon!

Posted in Sonoran Desert | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Machine Quilting Set-Up: More Adjustments

March 28, 2012 by Clareannette

This is my new Gidget II  sewing table; it’s very cool in that it’s light and portable, and it has a drop in the middle so the sewing machine sits at table height, instead of on-top-of-table-height.

An acrylic template cut the same size of the sewing machine keeps the machine flush with the tabletop; these templates are all made special order from the local Bernina shop that sells the Gidget:

While setting up my new ergonomic sewing/quilting area in my studio, I solved the very annoying problem I’ve had with my new Juki 2010TLQ: the machine quilting feet sold with the machine are TERRIBLE.

Here’s one of the quilting feet that came with my machine; as you can see, the giant clunking thing attaches to the machine with a screw through a fixed hole in the foot. This means the foot is stuck in one vertical position; and the default position is very close to the machine top, almost touching, which means that any quilt under this particular quilting foot gets tightly squashed, making quilting impossible.

I was so annoyed when I tried to do any free motion quilting. When I called the store where I got my Juki, Ed Raichert’s, (see my enthusiastic post here), and told Jason I thought my machine wasn’t working because I couldn’t machine quilt, he was of very little help. I was surprised he didn’t know he was selling a machine that couldn’t quilt right out of the box; not because the machine is bad–quite the contrary, it’s amazing–but because the accessories are awful.  Call me crazy, but I actually expected my machine to come with a functioning machine quilting foot. I was very disappointed in the service.

I did some searching online, and I remembered that Sharon Schamber has a machine quilting foot she sells, it looks like this–and check it out, it’s about 1/5 the size of the foot that came with the machine:

I borrowed a Sharon Schamber machine quilting foot from a friend from my quilt group. I really like it and it WORKS. Unlike the other foot, this one has a U-shaped area where you attach it to the machine, letting you customize the height of the foot for quilting!

I should mention that I also borrowed a Leah Day quilting foot, and I didn’t like it as much; that said, someone else might find it useful, and her website is full of great advice, especially this bit on different machine quilting feet.

Being not very smart at times, it took me a while to figure out why my old Riccar, along with it’s custom-cut acrylic insert–didn’t fit in the new table; see how it seems kind of warped?

I actually went back to the store to ask why. I was told I needed to adjust the height of the drop, which can be done by removing the screw attached to the chain on either side–see below–of the drop, and either shortening or lengthening the chain.

So that’s my new project tomorrow, to adjust the drop so my Riccar can sit flush with it’s insert. I’ll probably cut a few layers of cardboard to put in my drop to raise my Juki when I sew with that, so it won’t be too low.

I’m very excited about my new ergonomic set up!

Posted in Art Quilts | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Arizona Spring Training Trip

March 20, 2012 by Clareannette

Today I took the day off and went up to Suprise, Arizona, where the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers share a spring-training facility; I went with my friend Abe, with whom I work. He’s a walking baseball dictionary. I know a fraction of a percent of what he knows about baseball. We had great seats along the first base line.  Here we are at the ballpark, in the middle of a game between Kansas City and the visiting California Angels. Or Anaheim Angels. Or Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles or whatever it is they are now.

This season California will be a big contender in the AL West with their celebrated acquisition last year of superstars Albert Pujols, shown here at bat….

…and C.J. Wilson from Texas, who pitched 6 innings today and was really hot. Wow. I can see what the fuss is about.  I guess I was expecting more of a relaxed vibe from the players, but the game was actually played really well and the pitching was excellent: I don’t really have a chance to see that sort of thing up close that often so what a treat!

Surprise Stadium is very comfortable. I look forward to the regular season starting soon, Opening Day is just around the corner.

Posted in Baseball | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

BICAS Build A Bike Class

March 19, 2012 by Clareannette

I took a great class the last 9 weeks, every Monday night, called Build A Bike and taught at BICAS, a local bicycle non-profit that offers a wide selection of bike-related services:  a huge basement full of salvaged bike parts, access to tools and mechanics to help with your own bike repairs, classes, parts and of course, bicycles to buy. It’s a very creative, hip space.

I am a complete klutz with tools or mechanical things, so this class was a challenge for me conceptually, but once I got going and thought about it I was able to complete all the bike tasks.  We split up into pairs, were given an old wreck of a bike, and spent 9 weeks taking it apart and fixing it up.

This is a lovely old Campagnolo road bike, probably 30–40 years old; it’s all Italian, super-light and very classy. This is how it looked today in it’s bike repair stand, waiting for the last minor repair: replacing the tire on the rear wheel.

I think I had the best partner in our class, this is me and 12 year old Preston, the only kid in our class; he was really smart with tools, friendly and not driven by ego, as some adults are when it comes to bikes. Here we are with our finished, rebuilt Campagnolo road bike:

I was wearing my work clogs, but still was able to barely hop on this bike and ride it down the street; it was so light, slim, narrow: compared to my big get-around-town bike, this one was light as a breeze.

On my way out of class tonight, I had a flashback when I saw this pair of 1973 Schwinn 3-speeds propped in a corner and ready for sale; the ladies’ 3-speed looked like the one I rode when I was 7, which was in 1974. My mom had a purple Schwinn 3 speed, it was the first grown-up bike I could ride (I was tall for my age) and the first bike in which I completely crashed and had to get stitches, also when I was 7. These bikes tonight looked kind of small, but I remember the Ladies Schwinn 3-speed as very large and representing the grown-up world.

It was funny to see that bike again. Only somewhere like BICAS!

Posted in Bicycles | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

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