Soutache in Chicago

One morning during my visit to Chicago, my friend Sara Hochhauser took me on a wonderful fiber tour of the city.

Our first stop was at a charming little shop called Soutache which carries a diverse collection of ribbons, trims, buttons and bows.

The ribbon wall is a true rainbow of luscious colors .... I wanted a snippet of every single hue!

This small corner features my favorite display of buttons and more elegant embellishments - perfect for bridal events, perhaps.

Don't you  love the display cases?  Beautifully finished accessories and hard-to-find 'hardware' to make your own pieces are tucked inside the different drawers.  The flower blossom pins made from exquisite bias silk (on top of the round table) look simple to make, if one has the right ribbon.... so I had to buy a small bit (which now lingers in my growing ribbon collection ...).

Another absolute favorite item to browse through are the many many many buttons.  How does one select which to buy?  Button jars fill this window, and more button containers, baskets and bins fill cabinets and line the walls.  I narrowed it down to a few buttons, now tucked into my wee bag of delightful treasures, sweet petite items to remind me of this delicious shop.

If you are going to be in the Chicago area, be sure to pop by Soutache located on Damen Avenue.  They have a Facebook page (doesn't everyone?) and are rebuilding their website at this time.  You will "Step into the Magic"  when you visit this fine establishment filled with lovely embellishments, believe me!

Waves ...

This is a small piece, approximately 12" square.

I started this piece years ago, when my Beyond the Borders bee spent time exploring exercises from Color and Composition for the Creative Quilter by Katie Pasquini Masopust and Brett Barker.  My plan was to finish this aging UFO for the upcoming ALQS#7 swap (whose deadline is fast approaching).

This detail shows the echo quilting of the seagulls far off in the distance.

This detail shows the rippling waves both in the applique shapes and the quilted lines.

Upon seeing this finished piece, my husband promptly claimed it for his office.  So this small quilt will not be appearing in ALQS#7 after all.  I must look at the other design studies from that day with BTB to see if there is another one that I might finish for this swap.   I plan to explore more of the exercises described in the book, too.  Masopust and Barker have devised a simple 9-patch system to teach composition.  I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring color and composition found in all quilts, both traditional and art quilts.

For more on this book click here. 

Note:  It is available in digital versions, too.

Fabric ice-dyeing

Have you ever tried this funky technique of dyeing fabric using ice?  My friend Laurel Cull (and fellow member of our Beyond the Sunset quilt bee) has made not one, but two great videos that I must share.

In the first one you can actually see the ice melting, one drip at a time.  But no worries, she has sped up the actual film time 10,000%!

The resulting colors are extremely vibrant - I have got to schedule an ice-dyeing playdate with Laurel soon!

This second video compares two ice melting techniques:  plain ice vs. ice with soda ash frozen inside.  Can you guess which is which (hint: look at the finished products revealed at the end of the video)?

Endeavour over San Francisco

I love the photos of the space shuttle Endeavour flying through Houston, so I looked and found more striking images taken in San Francisco, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

(AP Photo/NASA, Carla Thomas) Photo: Carla Thomas, Associated Press/SF

In this photo provided by NASA, space shuttle Endeavour and its 747 carrier aircraft soar over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco during the final portion of its tour of California, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. 

 

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Photo: Ezra Shaw, Getty Images/SF

"Look, up in the sky!  It's a bird!  It's a plane!... No, it's ..." the Space Shuttle Endeavour! (not Superman this time).  I love the city's horizon with a hint of the Golden Gate Bridge.

[Note:  The editors at the San Francisco Chronicle converted this image to black and white.  It does give the image a classic vintage look, don't you think?]


Thank-you to the San Francisco Chronicle for sharing these photographs.

One last photo to remind us of the true travel that the Endeavour was built to make ... and its original piggy-back partner.

Space shuttle Endeavour helped restore confidence in manned space flight after the 1986 Challenger disaster. Photograph: Scott Audette/Reuters

Endeavour's last trip to Houston

I love NASA and its many successes in space, and I do wish that the one of the space shuttles would reside in Houston permanently.... sigh....

Photo Credit: (NASA/ Sheri Locke, & Pokey Bolton's blog)

The Endeavour made its way across the country this week, passing through Houston on its way to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.  My friend, Laurel Cull, paid her respects and captured its take-off (piggy-back style) from Ellington Field.  See her video below.

My favorite astronaut is Greg Chamitoff (a friend of mine).  He was the Mission Specialist of Endeavour's last space flight, and was at Ellington Field for its early take-off on Thursday morning, September 20, 2012.

Laurel's husband with Astronaut Chamitoff (photo by Laurel Cull)

Greg is a fascinating individual (aren't all astronauts?).  Click here to read an interview he gave in 2008.



The Endeavour's last trip  across Houston skies appears in Pokey Bolton's blog, "Pokey's Ponderings," today.  I must share a quote from Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan (a book on my "must read" list) which Pokey mentions.

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space 

our home - the planet earth - simply "a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam"

Pokey mentions that Sagan's book inspired her to make her first quilt block in the 1990's.  I have made a few pieces inspired by NASA and the shuttle myself. (click here to see more NASA posts). 

"In honor of NASA"

"In honor of NASA" is a beaded embellished piece commemorating NASA's 50th birthday, July 29, 2008.  It is 4" by 6", a standard postcard size.

"My US Space Shuttle"

"My US Space Shuttle" is one of many quilts made for the Dream Rocket project and has been on its own tour across the country.  It is 12" x 12" and is part of a quartet of quilts about man's effort to reach the stars.

Chicago

I wandered north this summer to Chicago, Illinois - a place I have never been to until now.  I fell in love with this amazing city and am especially fond of the amazing architectural treasures there (who knew?  not me, but now I do!).

A "Must-Do" for every first-time visitor to this city is to take an architecture boat tour.  The tour guides are well-versed in many facts and details.  They do enjoy telling the "world's tallest building when it was built" stories (there are several!) too.


Here are just a few of my favorite sightings in and around Chicago this summer:

 

The first image features the Wrigley building (in the center), the Tribune building (on the right - both were built in the 1920s), bridge entry points and a smattering of other buildings too (can anyone identify these for me, please?)

a detail of the Wrigley clock tower

 

one angle looking up the Tribune

 

MichaelAngelo greeted us each time we left our hotel.

 

a close-up of this great faux-art portrait/sculpture

This is the Chicago Water Tower, built in 1869. Not the only surviving building from the Great Chicago Fire (rumors saying this are all false), this is the second oldest water tower in the United States (click here for the Wikipedia listing).

 

Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor

More often called "the Bean", this public sculpture was built between 2004 and 2006. Located in Millennium Park, it is a favorite crowd pleaser.

Last but not least is Wrigley Field, the home stadium for the Chicago Cubs baseball team.  Great news:  they WON the game that we attended!

P.S.  Chicago has sandy beaches too, so don't forget the beach towels....