Woven Rectangles Become Garments

Most ethnic clothing is based on simple design. Take a simple rectangle and you can make many different garments with either no cutting or only a few cuts for neck and arm openings and have beautiful results. The colors and design of the fabric becomes the emphasis, not the intricate cutting and sewing.  While I love watching "Project Runway" ( and I have to say that "Project Runway All Stars" was "FABULOUS  Darling")  I still marvel at the simplicity of using a rectangular piece of fabric to make a beautiful garment.

Check out this video on just that concept.  The Sari is just one long piece of fabric wrapped around the body. No cutting or sewing is involved, just a beautiful piece of cloth!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQbZ011qy6w&feature=share

RED SOX WIN!

Ok, I stayed up late to see the Red Sox win the World Series. How 'bout those SOX!!!!!!

Congrats to Boston's favorite team - The Red Sox Rule!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats also to "my guy" Mike Lowell who was named MVP!!!!!!! They have to sign him for next year.


WAY TO GO SOX!!!!!!!!!!!

Pusey Room Red

OK, who remembers the color I used for the office wall in my studio? Anyone? If you guessed Pusey Room Red you were right. Well today I got to see the original Pusey Room at Memorial Church at Harvard. The walls are painted this beautiful red color and the portrait of Dr Pusey hangs on the wall. I only wish I had my camera with me to take a picture for the blog. Next time I'm at Harvard I'll be sure to get a picture.

So in case you are wondering and I'm sure you all are (!), there are only 3 places that this color exists, at Memorial Church at Harvard, at Peter Gomes's (Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard) home in Plymouth, and in my studio office! Thank you Peter for sharing the color. I love it!

Weekend Inspiration

I am getting ready to go to the NEWS conference. NEWS is the New England Weavers' Seminar. It is held every other year and is put on by the weaving guilds in the New England area. It will be 4 days of workshops, lectures, exhibits, networking, meeting other weavers, spinners, and dyers, and of course the "shop till you drop" vendor hall! Yahooo00000!

I look forward to these events because it is always a wonderful source of inspiration to me to see what others are doing and to be a part of the great exchange of information that takes place. I am always amazed at the number of weavers, spinners, and dyers that are out there and we all converge for this long weekend. It is also a time to connect with friends I've met over the years and do not often see. We get caught up on each other's lives and what we are weaving now.

Discussions of warp and weft, loom brands, number of shafts, drafts, ends per inch will go on all weekend. It's like a secret coded language will be spoken! And I love every minute of it!!!

Hopefully I will have pictures to post when I get back.

I can't believe it's July!

I can't believe it's July! The summer is almost half over and I feel like I am just beginning to enjoy it. I haven't been to the beach as much as I would like and I am just beginning to enjoy our back yard and deck after planting all the flowers.

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July. We had a 4th celebration on the 3rd! The painting crew who helped me with the studio came and had a cook out and then we all went to the beach to see the bonfires and fireworks.

We initiated our new fire pit by cooking s'mores. Yum!!!!!! Remember those from camping days?!






We had a lot of fun and it was nice to share this with everyone.



It's been a busy week here as we also had friends from PA come and visit. We all went to a Chinese Red Egg and Ginger Party for the baby of mutual friends. Our children played together when we lived in PA years ago. It was a great reunion but I have to say seeing them all grown up and some with children of their own brought back memories of raising them. They are now close to the age that we were when they played together. Do I feel old!!!!!!! OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!


Here they are all grown up!!!

The party was fun. The food was great! And seeing old friends was even better!!!

My Home Town

I had the great experience today of going on a whale watch. Boats go out from Plymouth Harbor spring, summer, and fall. My son is visiting and we decided to go whale watching before too many tourists hit town. We didn't realize that this would be prime time for school field trips!!!!! We must have had about 100 elementary age students on board. They were pretty good until they became sea sick! One by one they went to the deck below to try to get a smoother ride. That left a clear upper deck for us to view the whales! A blessing in disguise?!

We were fortunate enough to see 6 humpback whales and 2 fintail whales. They truly are majestic! One of God's marvelous creations. And to think they are in our home town waters just off Cape Cod Bay. Wow! It makes me remember that we are caretakers of this earth and we must make sure that these magnificent creatures are protected and survive.

I attempted to take pictures but was only able to capture a small portion of the whales as they came up or down in the water. It's hard to spot, snap, and capture! Anyway here is my humble attempt. See if you can spot the whales. One picture has 2 whales which were swimming in tandem.

Here is my Home Town and America's Home Town.
The portico you see to the left is over Plymouth Rock.