Beautiful blues

November 30, 2023December 18, 2023 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

Red and gold leaves, yellow corn stalks and orange pumpkins are the colors we typically think of in autumn.

But on a road trip this month, I decided to take a break — and a walk — at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky. And there, I fell into the blue end of the rainbow.

I’d passed by the signs for the museum a few times before and I finally followed them in April. It seemed to me that by November exhibits would have changed. And I was right.

I love wandering around the halls of the museum, stopping to admire the designs and the stitchwork in so many of the quilts. The museum is dedicated to contemporary quilts, though some are traditional looking and others quite modern. These crafters consider fabric their art medium, and they express themselves in unusual ways.

I saw a few familiar quilts from the permanent collection, and there were, as I suspected, a few holiday pieces on the walls. But they weren’t the dominant theme. In November, the primary displays included works of a married couple, as well as a mother-and-daughter pair of quilters. Quilts by an individual artist filled one room, while another featured the work of the museum’s “Block of the Month Club,” and the largest hall was devoted to a show by a group of quilt artists.

Detroit fabric artist Carole Harris’s work, including the three at the top of this post, comprised an exhibit called Time Pieces. The quilts are (from left) Wall Remnant, Blues in the Night, and Woven Remnant. She explains on her website that her work “relies on improvisation. I am fascinated by the rhythms and energy created when I combine multiple patterns and textures. I let the material and colors lead me on a rhythmic journey.” I believe this exhibit closed in November, but you can see some of her art on her website.

The mother-and-daughter team of the Black Renaissance exhibit are Lola Jenkins, mother, and Precious Caroll, daughter. Their creations, remaining through early March 2024, include a lot of small quilt portraits of famous and ordinary people. Lola Jenkins’ colorful portrait of BB King and Precious Caroll’s young girl in, “Lighthouse by the Tree,” are just two examples of their work. Most of their quilts are roughly the size of a small painting and I can imagine them mounted on a wall behind a couch or in a bedroom.

Jenkins, on the quilt museum website, says, “Using fabric as paint helps me to understand and express my feelings and … helps to make me feel whole.” Carroll, also on the website, explains she moved from Delaware to Nebraska “with the primary focus to learn my mother’s quilting techniques… .”

Reese created the left four quilts; Brueggenjohann, the right.

The other team — wife Jean Brueggenjohann and husband James Reese — also create smaller pieces, but draw their inspiration from natural and imagined worlds. Brueggenjohann uses traditional quilt piecing techniques to lead viewers through stories. Reese previously worked with metals or in digital media, seels his fabric images and playful mixes of color, pattern and design to create stories. Their show called Divergent Paths — Altered Realism & Abstraction will also be featured at the museum through early March.

The images of Reese’s four-part story, clearly science fiction in nature, are called (from far left, top to bottom) “They’re Back!,” “Where No Cat Has Gone,” “They’re Here,” and “They Don’t Stop Anymore.” These quilts are all from 2023.

Brueggenjohann makes scenes from nature in her 2022-23 quilts “The OtherWorld” (from mid left, top to bottom), “The Garden,” “The Sea,” “The Forest” and “The Polar Night.”

One of the smaller galleries included quilts that are part of the museum’s “Block of the Month Club.” Quilts from Round 4 of the challenge, in my “panoramic” shot illustrate the interpretations quilters gave to the theme. They were scheduled for exhibit through early December. And there were lots of blues.

The theme for Round 5 is Exploration/Exploring/Explore. Seeing these quilts made me wish I knew how to sew. But I started thinking about ways I might be able to mimic the look in the needlecraft I know–crochet. We’ll see. But for folks with actual quilting skills, check out the challenge on the museum website.

Another blue that caught my eye was Annette Kennedy’s “Mountain Chapel” from 2008. It was one of the more traditional in appearance, but I guess the Longmont, Colorado, resident might have been influenced by views near her home.

But the exhibit that I found most fascinating on this trip was the exhibit from Studio Art Quilt Associates titled “Primal Forces: Wind” that will remain through Jan. 9, 2024. Not only was it full of blues, it also featured a huge variety of fabrics, quilting styles and interpretations of wind.

Dorothy Raymond of Loveland, Colorado, created the free motion, appliqued quilt she called “Turbulence” (left) in 2022. Signs in the museum remind visitors not to touch the quilts, but I had a hard time keeping my hands off the silks, cottons, wools and other fabrics of “Turbulence.” The quilt created for me a sense of waves rippling wildly across the surface of an ocean, and I wanted to dip my hands right into the “water.”

Victoria Qutierrez of Reno, Nevada, created “Winds of Change” (right) in 2022. Can’t you just see the hurricane approaching the sandy beaches and forested shores of two islands? That’s what I see in the cotton, rope, wool roving, Angelina fiber and glass beads in this quilt. It is so much more vivid than any of the weather maps that illustrate these massive storms.

As a Midwesterner, I couldn’t help being sucked into Cat Larrea’s “Tornado” (left) from 2022. The hand-dyed cotton quilt with fused applique makes me want to head to the basement. I was surprised to learn that Larrea is from Anchorage, Alaska.

There were so many beautiful images in this exhibit I could find dozens more to share, but enough is enough. If you happen to be passing Paducah on any road trips in the next few weeks, I encourage you to follow the signs to the National Quilt Museum and see them for yourself.

In fact, I urge you to do as I’ve done: Make it a regular stop in your travels. There will always be something new to see.

A virtual trek

October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

Last October, my friend Marsha and I decided we were going to make a virtual trip along the Mississippi River. Virtual because we were inspired by a walking program that pops up on social media from time to time. It gives real medals (and inspiration along the way) to people who walk or bike the same distance as famous paths — El Camino Santiago or the Appalachian Trail — without having to travel to the actual location.

We both wanted to get more exercise and it seemed like a fun idea. Walking the Mississippi appealed to us, in part, because we grew up within its watershed, both of us close enough to get to it in an hour or two by car. She was going to walk up from the Mississippi Delta area in Louisiana, and I was going to walk down from the source of the river (a place I actually visited once way last century) in Minnesota. And so, we started.

Neither of us did a great job keeping track of our progress initially. I got a pedometer, but was never sure how to translate my steps into miles. And my old exercise bike didn’t have any bells or whistles. I could have kept track of how long I was on the bike, but there was no way to turn that information into miles..

The old bike broke and I got a new one with a measurement labeled ODO. I didn’t have to read the instructions to get on and pedal, so I just ignored that measure and tried to remember to record the mileage when I spent time on the bike. This week, though, I had a sudden realization that ODO might be short for odometer. So, I looked it up. Lo and behold, the bike has been keep tracking of my mileage for me.

Now, I’m not a daily biker. And I don’t get on the bike for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes just 15 minutes between commercials if I’m watching TV. But I have a record since I got the new bike late last December. Hmm, I thought. I could do some math and extrapolate an average since last October, but that’s actual mental work. So I figured I’d just go with what I know and count it toward my journey down the river.

I also popped for a new smart watch that translates the steps I take each day into miles. Yay! More math I don’t have to do. Yes, I still had to add the daily figures. And I tried to convert my steps over the past year into mileage amounts. And any biking I did before I got my new bike at Christmas are a complete wash. But …

(Time out to do the math)

By my calculations and estimates, I’ve put in 455 miles since we started our challenge last October. And that’s roughly the equivalent of going from Lake Itasca, where the Father of Waters starts in Minnesota, all the way to Potosi, Wisconsin! Home of the National Brewery Museum and two of my friends from high school. We spent some time together there this June. But that’s another post.

It also means I’ve made it to about 85 miles from home, which is way farther along than I expected to be when I got the notion to figure out how far I’ve “traveled” in the past year.

Now all this math only serves to reveal that I’m still way too sedentary, but somehow, now that I have real data, the challenge is feeling less theoretical and more empirical. And, remarkably, it also feels possible! I think I’ll try to pick up the pace a little now.

As for medals, we aren’t going to have any cast for us when we meet in the middle. But maybe Marsha and I will find a way to have an actual dinner together somewhere along the river. I’ll bring the Potosi beer.

Driftless in Decorah

September 25, 2023October 21, 2023 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

Hotel Winneshiek in downtown Decorah, Iowa. ^{(Sharon’s pictures)}

In the past few years, I’ve become fascinated to learn the geography of my home in north central Illinois. I learned more than twenty years ago that my house sits on the edge of the Driftless Area. Last year, I spent time exploring the Lansing, Iowa-Ferryville, Wisconsin, area, and the Dubuque, Iowa, environs. This year, I made a trip to Decorah, Iowa, and found a marvelous little town with a vibrant business district and a historic hotel.

My intention was to visit a few parks in the area, but I’m a heat wimp. The temperatures rose to the 100’s while I was there. I slowly strolled part of downtown Decorah and gave myself an unplanned writing retreat instead. I’ll have to go back for the parks, but I fell in love with the north central Iowa community.

The Driftless is an area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa along the Mississippi that was simply missed by the several glaciations eons ago, from 120,000 to 11, 500 years ago. The region’s name comes from the lack of debris — what geologists call drift — throughout this part of the Upper Mississippi. In the flatter lands around it, there are random boulders, gravel, sand and clay brought by the glaciers and left when they receded. You can learn more about Midwest glaciers here.

I enjoyed my room at Hotel Winneshiek, a lodging that has been part of Decorah for more than 100 years. The current hotel was begun in 1904 and opened for customers in 1905. Much of the hotel remains as it was when it opened, although amenities have been upgraded as needed. It holds meeting rooms and an opera house for local theater and other events. I loved the view from my third floor lobby balcony. The skylight is beautiful, and the old portraits and other art in the hallway are lovely touches from the past.

The shops downtown are a mix of what you need and what you might like — grocery, pharmacy, souvenirs, arts, crafts, clothing, books and more. I loved Driftless Botanicals. I was tempted to buy a plant, but it was still pretty hot and I had stops to make before I got home. I didn’t want anything wilting in the car. But I found a great, leafy tote bag there.

And don’t forget the ice cream shops. You could spend an afternoon doing a taste test at the different shops. There are also shaded seating areas along the main street, like the one near the deer sculptures, where you can rest as you roam.

Also downtown, there’s the Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum. There are also a couple of places to orient tourists. Say hi to the helpful folks at the shared space called the Decorah Visitor Center and Chamber of Commerce. They have lots of take-away maps, brochures and magazines. But if you miss the hours there, there are also plenty of outdoor stands with literature.

You might think a town in the middle of Iowa would have limited restaurant options, but you’d be surprised. In part because it’s also home to Luther College, you get food options that seem to follow the professors who may come from anywhere in the world. I had dinner at Koreana Japanese restaurant one night, and spaghetti at Mabe’s Pizza another. I think my favorite lunch was at Magpie Cafe and Coffee House. I also enjoyed an afternoon snack at Impact Coffee (where the ice tea was not too bad). I was going to try Don Jose Family Mexican Restaurant, but that was the day the heat broke and there was a 40 minute wait. I walked back across the street to the pizza place instead. Next trip I believe I’ll try to get to Don Jose’s, and to the Rubaiyat Restaurant, which bills itself as “modern American fare in a historic place.”

II found the town charming and do hope to go back. But I probably won’t go again in August. Too hot for my taste, although there were a few hardy bikers taking off from near the hotel. In any case, it was a success as a research trip. I have some book characters who will be stopping by Decorah.

If you want to know more about the Driftless, here are a couple of resources:

The Allamakee (Iowa) County Driftless Center

Decorah, Iowa Driftless Information

Backyard beauty

May 31, 2023June 1, 2023 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes the museum right “next door” is one you forget to visit. But I’m glad our recent painting party with Barry Treu turned out to be small enough that he could host us at the Freeport Art Museum. We had fun creating variations on his “rainy day” picture of flowers in boot vases, we were literally sitting in the midst of the 19th Regional Juried Exhibition.

Featuring artists from throughout the Midwest, working in a variety of two- and three-dimensional media, the show will remain at FAM through July 29. Perry Eden, Linda Vietmeyer, Sheila Welch and Kathleen Wilken, all of Freeport, are just some of the artists whose work is featured in the regional show.

Before we left, we also had a chance to wander through the museum to see some of the other items on display. They are immensly varied. One of my favorites may not be intentional art, but it appeals to my (possibly weird) sense of humor. The “Please Do Not Set Anything on the Piano” sign — set on the piano — strikes my funny bone.

But on a more traditional note, I liked the dyptich — two-panel painting — called Pelican Island by Tara Keating.

I also liked the late 17th century Samurai helmet and mask, and the flirty statue of peasants, carved in marble by Ferdinand Vichi.

No matter what is shown, its well worth a trip to enjoy the art in our midst at the Freeport Art Museum. And admission is a bargain at $3 for adults, $2 for senior citizens and students, and $10 for a family.

The museum is at 121 N Harlem Ave. Learn more at https://www.freeportartmuseum.com/

Back on the debate trail

October 27, 2022October 28, 2022 ~ sharon ~ Leave a comment

^{Charleston (left) and Galesburg, Illinois, debate sites. (Sharon’s photos)}

A couple of months ago, after I finally took a few photos of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate site in Ottawa, Illinois, and the second one in Freeport, I said I was going to put the seven sites on my “to visit” list. Well, I ticked off two more this month on the way home from a southern road trip.

I stopped at Charleston, site of the fourth debate, and Galesburg, site of the fifth debate. No, I’m not taking them in the order they happened. This was the order that worked for my route back home to northern Illinois. I figure I’ll try to do three, six and seven on my next trek south.

And I don’t expect to log as many miles as Lincoln did while he was on the debate circuit. There’s a map of the whole route, including details about how many miles Lincoln covered via train, boat and wagon at the Charleston museum. (Apparently Douglas didn’t keep track as closely.)

My only advance research for the sites was finding them on my GPS. I was expecting small parks, like the surroundings of the two sites I’d already seen. Each of those has some relatively new signs explaining what went on back in 1858. But neither of these sites is in a park.

Charleston’s debate site is at the Cole s County Fairgrounds, and its statues of the debaters are the most accessible of the ones I’ve seen so far. They stand at the corner of a little museum that features some hands-on exhibits, as well as a little theater that shows a short film at the press of a button.

The political nature of the debates is clear, with red white and blue bunting and colors throughout the room. But the location was considered especially friendly to Lincoln, where his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, and other family members still lived. The local hospital bears her name.

In Galesburg (also the home of Carl Sandburg, but that’s another story), the debate was held outside Old Main, a building that was finished in the summer of 1857 on the campus of Knox College. There are no statues to commemorate the debate, but on the east side of the building large, bronze plaques of each candidate frame doorways into the building. (The handicapped entrance is on the west side of the building.)

Inside along the hall, several signs and photos illustrate the history of the college, as well as the significance of the debate. And in a small room on the left from the debate doorway is the Lincoln Chair room. The chair is the one Lincoln sat in while waiting for the debate to begin.

The room also houses a collection of memorabilia from the debate, as well as from the life of the 16th president. Across from the doorway sits a detailed miniature of the law office Lincoln shared with William H. Herndon in Springfield, Illinois. There are also a variety of images — posters, photos– and a small statue of Lincoln on a bookshelf.

Historical note: One of Knox College’s graduates was Hiram Rhodes Revels, who would become the first African-American U.S. Senator and the president of Alcorn University in Mississippi.

To the left of the miniature, is the window Lincoln and Douglas climbed through to reach a platform that was built for their debate. It blocked the door between the plaques, making the window the only access for the debaters. The effort, according to a small sign near the window, led to Lincoln’s remark, “At last, I have gone through college.”

À bientôt!