What a storm!

(Photo by Pete Stasiewicz / August 4, 2008 Chicago Tribune)

I am back, but boy what a night! The tornado sirens went off downtown at 8pm and we ran down 5 flights of stairs to get to the basement garage to ride out the storm. I lived in Texas for 6 years and thought I had witnessed some intense lightening storms, but I never saw anything to compare with the two storms that blew through last night. Think strobe lights with insanely bright bursts with a few seconds of darkness between. Now, they are not calling this a tornado, straight line winds and micro burst are the terms I have been hearing, but the tv warnings were for a tornado. We really took it seriously when we started hearing city locations and times with us in the path. Hearing the sirens really triggered the adrenaline. Indiana had terrible damage as bad as a tornado would make. Here in the city there are lots of downed trees and power lines.

Going to Atlanta

I am leaving for Atlanta tomorrow to do two workshops at Fiber On A Whim. In the meantime I have been working on a project for RIT dye. This will be for a segment they are doing on Quilting Arts TV taping at the end of August. This is a little teaser for you, I will tell you more about it later after I get back from Atlanta, but for now, look at all that color.

Talented knitting friends

Tony Limuaco and I met as students at what was then called the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles, back in the early 80's. (Sometime between then and now the two schools ended their affiliation) After graduation Tony went to NYC to make his way in the world. Thanks to the internet I was able to find Tony and reconnect by Googling his name.

Tony was in New York on 9/11 and to deal with the trauma and stress resulting from that event, he took up knitting. He got a knitting group going in a local bar, and has since become an amazing knitwear designer.


I love those lace panels in that shirt. Tony has a great post with more photos and details about this shirt he designed based on the traditional tropical mens shirt his father always wore.

Tony has had a few patterns published in Vogue knitting, I am so impressed! This beautiful lace shrug was in a recent issue with a focus on lace. He designed this shrug for a friend to wear with her wedding dress.

Tony has also designed a messenger cap, it is sooo cute and now you can buy his pattern for the Mercury Cycling Cap on Ravelry or with Paypal here.

136 Years Young

I wonder what this building has seen in the last 136 years. Chicago has some of the coolest buildings, this one is a block away from ours. It has had a sign on it that it would be renovated for as long as we have lived here.
I am amazed at how many old buildings and factories sit empty in Chicago. I guess as industry has moved out of this country many of these buildings are no longer needed. This lovely buildings eventual fate will be another condo in the neighborhood. Who knows what will happen to all those empty brick factories and warehouses I see on the west side of Chicago.

Thread and chihuahuas don't mix

This is what happens when a chihuahua finds a spool of thread that has dropped on the floor. She tugs on the top of the spool creating a lovely flower effect, she never eats any thread just makes a mess of it.

This is what happens when you have a son with the mind of an engineer.

This has happened a few times before. I usually end up unwinding half the spool into the trash, because the thread no longer comes off the spool properly on the sewing machine.

Women Packing Irons Reception

Here's Anne, Frieda and I before the reception started. Ann and Laura were off teaching and Emily had not yet arrived. There was a very good turn out and I was too busy chatting to remember to take other photos. The Quilt National Exhibit is really good, one of the best collections of work I have seen in several years. If you are in Illinois, I would highly recommend getting over to Bloomingdale to see the show.

Sonoma County

I took these photos at a friends home in California a couple years ago, they have a lovely property filled with fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

Sunday, I am off to the Chicago School of Fusing opening in Bloomingdale, IL.