Harapan dan Cita cita: April 2011

Jumat, 15 April 2011

May Your Reds Never Run

Today is Saint Hunna's feast day.

She is known as the Holy Washerwoman and is the patron saint of laundresses and washerwomen. Other names for her are Oona, Una, Uma and Oonaugh.

She might protect you from bleeding and fading dyes.

Woman washing clothes

in camp during the Civil War

Woman Ironing by Degas

As a child raised by nuns I believed there was a saint for every cause. I've often needed the intercession of Saint Hunna. I've made several shrines to her with collage and Photoshop.

I am not the only one who needs some help with the reds. Here's a quilt from about 1910 when reds were absolutely unreliable.

So to celebrate St. Hunna's day: Prewash some reds and be grateful for recent inventions like the washing machine.

Federal photographers recorded this

Texas woman doing laundry in the 1940s.

Here's a book comparing painters's views of laundresses to that of this artist Jean Baptiste Greuze

Buy this book by Colin B. Bailey by clicking here:

http://shop.getty.edu/product368.html

See some disasters by clicking here:
http://juliebagamary.blogspot.com/2011/03/ugh-bleeding-fabric.html
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-fabric.html

And check out Jane Davila's post on Willie Cole's art inspired by the iron.
http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/01/09/willie-cole-by-jane-davila/
Here's more on his work that he calls Scorches
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=66215
See my Print on Demand book with more Saint collages from Blurb.com by clicking here:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1836309

Kamis, 14 April 2011

...is right here in my backyard, which is called New York City.
As a couple of hawks make their nest in prime real estate, overlooking Washington Square Park, down below, in the park itself, there is another kind of wildlife. And it's not half as civilized as those peaceful birds.
To wit: I met a friend from abroad and we had a lovely conversation in one of the benches. Later, in my house, she realized she had forgotten her cellphone in the park. I called the number and someone answered. For a split second I thought a decent citizen was about to give us the phone back, but the voice on the other end quickly disabused me of the notion.
"You gonna pay for it?"
I could hear it was still in the park because I heard someone playing the trumpet.
"Why should I? It's my phone".
He hung up.
I called back.
"Hey, you have my phone".
"Yeah. How much you willin' to pay for it?"
I, oblivious to the notion of negotiation with an extortionist, insisted that I should not pay for squat since the phone belonged to me.
He hung up and turned it off. My friend wished I had bargained.
It was already dark and we started looking for any of the many homeless denizens of the park that all look like they were run over by a particularly gnarly steamroller. I profiled anybody indigent with a cellphone in his hand, of which there were several.
Then I heard the trumpet player. So we followed the sound. He was serenading a couple who looked blameless. I asked a very tall guy with two phones and camo pants. I got screamed at in that menacing way that some Black people use to scare White people.
So one of his friends tells me to pay him no mind, he is a drunk, but he himself happens to know who has my phone and he feels our pain and he can get it for us, but the guy is going to want money for it. Yep. And I'm from Missouri. I was ready to go to the police, but my friend was willing to pay a forced reward. So she bargained from 40 bucks to 20, to 30. The guy left (I am convinced he had the phone in his pocket the whole time) and then after no more than five minutes, came back with the phone. But my friend only had two twenties and I had not brought my purse, so he went to give the money to "the guy" and came back to tell us we could go get the change ourselves, pointing at some other dude who was walking away. When we balked, the good Samaritan turned on a dime and became extremely aggressive, a studied but convincing performance designed to scare the hell out of us. It didn't scare me, but I was not about to find out whether he was hamming it up or really meant it. I wanted to go to the police camper parked next to the park, because the principle really bothers me. I don't care if your ass is full of crack, I just hate to be taken for a fool. But my friend, a peaceful soul, a believer in the healing power of positive energy, was just happy to get her phone back. I wish he gets such an enormous feast out of his $40 worth of crack or whatever it is he takes to be so dumb and so smart at the same time, that his brain explodes. Karma.

Rabu, 13 April 2011

"Exquisite Selections" May 14, 2011

Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts plans a one-day forum that "explores the creation, history, interpretation and care of whole cloth and pieced quilts."

Exquisite Selections: An Exploration of 18th- and 19th-Century Quilts will be held Saturday May 14, 2011.

From their website:

Join Linda Eaton, Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles at the Winterthur Museum, and Historic Deerfield staff for an insightful look into this decorative, practical and symbolic form of needlework. This day-long event will take place in Historic Deerfield’s White Church Community Center and the Flynt Center of Early New England Life, and will feature examples from Historic Deerfield’s own outstanding collection. Participants will also have the opportunity to view quilts in the historic setting of the Wells-Thorn House. Eaton will sign copies of her recent book, Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection.

For more information or telephone registration, please contact Julie Orvis Marcinkiewicz at 413-775-7179. jmarcinkiewicz@historic-deerfield.org
Or click here:
http://www.historic-deerfield.org/events/exquisite-selections-exploration-18th-and-19th-century-quilts-historic-deerfield

Pieced, cotton friendship or autograph quilt
HD 96.059.4 from the Historic Deerfield Collection

If you can't go take this opportunity to buy their 2004 catalog

Telltale Textiles: Quilts from the Historic Deerfield Collection

by Lynne Z. Bassett

Click here:

http://www.historic-deerfield.org/products/quilts

Minggu, 10 April 2011

Look at Moda's Home Page

Because I am all over it. When you click on some of the frames it directs you to my stuff.
Click here:
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage

Fort Sumter block by S. J. Gilbert

The blocks are from the Civil War Quilts Flickr group

Click here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/

I'm pretty proud of that home page! Thanks, Moda!

Which gives me the opportunity to give you some links to some actual Civil War Reunion footage on You Tube.

Fox & Geese by Carmen Maria

Two views of the 75th Anniversary of Gettysburg, one with Franklin Roosevelt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUd4txQ8X_g&feature=related

And footage from the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJaxu3w4-U&feature=related

Little Blue Basket by Theresia B.

London Square by Australia Sue

Today On I've Had It With Hollywood

My personal homage to Sidney Lumet.

Sabtu, 09 April 2011

Photos - Rakhi Sawant Posing hot on sets of Comedy Circus

Photos - Rakhi Sawant Posing hot on sets of Comedy Circus:

Photos - Rakhi Sawant Posing hot on sets of Comedy Circus

Pics - Madhuri Dixit & Sanjeev at Foodfood Mahachallenge press meet

Pics - Madhuri Dixit & Sanjeev at Foodfood Mahachallenge press meet:

Pics - Madhuri Dixit & Sanjeev at Foodfood Mahachallenge press meet

Strange Days

I've been doing some strange things lately that I want to share with you, my dear readers:

• I went to Cinema for The Ear, a screening of movies without images at Lincoln Center. The theme was horror, and several composers created aural movies that were very cool. We all sat, some of us blithely munching on popcorn, in the darkened theater with no images coming out of the screen, just soundtracks in surroundsound. Many of them sounded eerily similar, compositions in dark keys but in good taste.
But there were some that stood out. One in which the voice of a soprano was mixed and layered into a disturbing soundscape of wails and shrieks and ululations, another one which took the sounds of people in movies in moments of extreme turmoil and the final one which was the soundtrack for a short of Poe's The Tell Tale Heart without the images. Spooky!
I wish the theater was pitch black dark. Spookier!

• This is so out of character for me, I'm slightly worried. I am currently watching, since yesterday, the live Hawk-Cam from Bobst Library at NYU, where a pair of red tailed hawks have built a nest on exquisite real estate, overlooking Washington Square Park and Fifth Ave. Most of the time not much happens, but yesterday about 6 pm, I tuned in and saw the man of the house relieve the mom, as she flew away for a pedicure or yoga class or something, and he sat on top of three pristine eggs, continuing to incubate them. It was awesome! Being a male, he fidgeted much more than his wife, who seems to be in a placid state of zen for hours, warming up the little eggs. It is utterly fascinating.

• I made ceviche.

Katrina Kaif are shooting near Taj Mahal

Pics: Sneak peek at Katrina, Imran in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Katrina Kaif, Imran Khan and Ali Zafar are shooting near Taj Mahal , Agra for Yash Raj Films' Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.

A wedding sequence for the film was shot on Tuesday, in which Katrina had to ride a horse in Mehtab Bagh, close to the Taj Mahal.

A big crowd of onlookers gathered as the cast shot the wedding scene.

Shooting will continue at Mehtab Bagh and other locations in the city for the next 10 days. Katrina reached Agra late Monday evening and is staying at the Jaypee Palace hotel, reports suggest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLAKEAEHurs

Collections for a Cause from Moda

I'm certainly not the only designer at Moda who does reproduction collections. The boss Mark Dunn has done several Collections for a Cause that are based on antique quilts in the Moda/United Notions collection.

Collections for a Cause: Faith is in shops now. It's based on the English medallion quilt at the top. You can buy a kit for a reproduction or a project sheet with the pattern.

Here's the reproduction on the left at last fall's Quilt Market.

The collection if full of pinks and browns.

The document prints in the original from 1850 or so.

You know those colors go together like strawberries and chocolate. They'll make a terrific addition to your mid-19th-century scrapbag.

The antique

I'm putting this photo in again because I want to point out the miniature house in front of the quilt. It's a French antique, perhaps a garden ornament, and it looks much like the Moda Home logo, a French country home.

See more about Mark's new line by clicking here:
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_Collections_Faith.pdf

Katrina Kaif Without Clothes & Without Makeup

Katrina kaif heads to London to get over Ranbir

Katrina Kaif has had very little luck in love. After splitting with Salman Khan, she found solace in Ranbir Kapoor. But apparently Ranbir's refusal to marriage has left her heartbroken again and the actress headed to London to deal with break-up stress. While Kat's friends insist she
was in London due to professional commitments, buzz is that her family asked her to stay with them for a while so that she can get over Kapoor boy, reported Mid Day.
Katrina restricted herself to home during the visit. "She is heartbroken. She needed time to recover from the depression. Her family's concern was obvious and they ordered her home. Even before she left, she remained confined to her house," Kat's friend told
the tabloid.
The fact that both her relationships with prolific stars haven't worked out "is hurting her to no end," added her friend.
However, Katrina denied these reports. "I was in London for an event of an airline I endorse," she informed the tabloid.
The actress is now back and is shooting in Agra for Yash Raj's Mere Brother Ki Dulhan.