Quilting Interlude

I have more stuff to add about the camping trip, but since this is a quilting blog I thought I'd quickly post pix of the only quiltmaking I've had time to do lately. It's a really fun, easy pattern called Disappearing Nine Patch.

First you make a nine patch with large squares, I used 4 inch squares:

Square it up, then cut it into four squares like this:

Turn two of the squares like this:

Sew into a new square:

Sew lots of squares together! I haven't gotten this far, these are a few to show what it will look like. Hope to have more to show soon!!

Oh My Gosh, what happened to June??

Whoa, over a month since I've posted. The kids got out of school and my chaotic life went into overload!! It's been so busy with summer activities, three kids in baseball, Mark coming and going. . . . But, I have some cute pictures from a camping trip last week, and I've decided I'm going to get blogging again this weekend or else!










We went to Whitewater State Park July 1 to 3. Mark was supposed to be in town then but ended up not able to, and Liana had plans at a friend's cabin. So, it was me and the three musketeers. And Radar.

It was hectic getting ready, of course. Camping is so much work, unless you do it all the time and stay packed up. And for one adult to do everything, ugh!!! But we left by 9am, which I was very impressed with myself about. Got to the park around noon, started setting up camp. AND. . . . we had the tent but the poles were missing. AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!! So we decided to get back in the car, at which point Radar escaped and went running thru the campgrounds for about half an hour. Finally got him, drove into Rochester about 30 miles away, and bought a new tent. Got lost in Rochester. Finally back to camp, got the tent up. I was hot, tired, and frustrated. We went to the river for a swim, actually wading and splashing as at that point it's a fast, shallow creek. There is a concrete bridge sort of thing that crosses the river, with spaces between the pilings so the water can go through. The kids love to play on it. They also played with sticks, which of course turned into guns. Finally, things were getting good. Then Danny stumbed on the bridge and landed right on his nose. He screamed, stood up with blood gushing from his face, I couldn't tell if it was nose, mouth, or what. My first thought was, we're going right back to Rochester, to the Mayo Clinic! It turned out to be a bad bloody nose with bruising and an abrasion. After a while the bleeding stopped. At this point I'm thinking, why did I only bring 4 beers for 3 days???

More soon........

Now Available on Amazon.com!!

My first book Thank You for Giraffes, is now available on Amazon.com.

www.amazon.com

Search for it by title, or by my name, which was Vivian Husnik at the time it was published. It's a beautiful, high quality colorful book, which I illustrated with quilts. Price is $15.00.

If you would like to be notified when my two new books are available (Goodnight Toes, and The Mouse Yawned), please email me or post a comment!

A Good Day to Dye

The aforementioned beautiful weather yesterday turned cloudy, windy and cold. But Danny and I had decided to dye fabric so we donned our coats and dye we did. I had not dyed any fabric for months. I love doing it, every time I do I think, why haven't I done this in so long? It's messy of course, but I think I tend to overestimate how much work it really takes to get things going. Just mix up some soda ash solution, some urea water. So anyway, I just love it. I love the spontanaeity, the mystery of how it will turn out. I usually don't try for a specific outcome, just a general idea, and I'm usually happily surprised. Maybe it's the lack of precision I enjoy so much. In my work I have to be precise all the time, so I need to let loose! That, and I LOVE COLOR.

Danny loves color too. He is such an artist. Here's a picture he drew of a porcupine. I think it's so creative and has great use of color. I love children's artwork anyway, but it seems to me that usually at his age (6) kids are aiming for realism, and he seems to go for abstract.

The fabric we dyed is for a quilt inspired by the colors of the Caribbean Sea on my and Mark's honeymoon last month. It's going to be a snail's trail, or monkey wrench pattern. I need a lot more colors, but I ran out of fabric. An e-trip to Dharma Trading Company is overdue. I think I will break down and buy a few more colors of dye. I've tried to be a purist with only red, yellow and blue. But I need some lilac and tan colors for this quilt, and I can't seem to make good ones from scratch. Brown is really hard, always turns out too orange or too green, and purples turn out gray. At least I tried, I really did!

Nathan Stromberg

It's a gorgeous Minnesota early summer day and all of my neighbors are in their front yards. We don't see eachother for six months after we descend into the gloomy tunnel of winter. When the warmth returns, we venture out and catch up our friends' lives. People emerge with new babies that we didn't even know were gestating. Which is what happened today. My neighbor Kara was out holding her newborn Greta, so I had to go see! Her husband Nate was watching Ben, almost two, toddle around. I found out that they had another surprise--Nate just published a children's book with his father. His father Bob wrote the book, Miracle at Stinky Bay, based on a true father-son fishing story, and Nate illustrated it. This is the cover art. Isn't it beautiful?

I have been diligently working on a website on which I will sell Thank You for Giraffes, Goodnight Toes, and a third book that will be debuted (is that how you spell it?) on this blog very soon. It is titled The Mouse Yawned, and is illustrated by Stephen Richardson. I am planning to feature Nate's book on my site as well.

The universe is so cool, it just blows me away.

That's Ava, A-V-A

A few weeks ago I was doing a check up on a beautiful four year old girl. I asked her if she likes to eat fruits and vegetables. She told me, "Yeah, because if you only eat junk food you will just get little again." I had to think for a minute. . . . Junk food makes you little? I thought it makes you fat. Then, child psychologist that I am, I figured it out. Her parents must tell her that if she wants to grow up strong and heathy, she needs to eat good food. So, by four year old logic, if you eat unhealthy food, you will do the opposite, turn back into a baby.


I told her that I am writing a book for children and parents about staying healthy, and I asked her if I could put what she said into my book. She didn't skip a beat, just said, "That's Ava, A-V-A." Aren't kids amazing???

I thought I would use this story to re-post my favorite quilt, as it has gotten buried in old blogs.

On Mother's Day

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, and I got up at 6am to make gun turrets. Now, I could say what a sacrifice this was, but in truth early morning is my favorite time of day, especially when I don't have to go to work. On Mother's Days past I have patiently stayed in bed, pretending to sleep and waiting for my cold scrambled eggs and shells. But I knew the kids would sleep in, we'd stayed up late watching a movie, and I had too much to do. Oh yeah, back to those gun turrets.

My 11 year old son Peter had a big project due the following day, about the HMS Hood battleship. I mean battlecruiser. He had been working hard on the written report, and his dad had cut the hull of the ship out of wood. Together Peter and I had been adding to the hull, but Sunday was crunch day. We had most of it figured out, except for the gun turrets. I finally hit on the idea of making them out of homemade play dough with wooden skewers for the guns. But I knew they'd need a while to dry, thus started making the dough at 6am. So I shaped 4 turrets and got them drying in the oven.

Once the kids were up, shipbuilding began in earnest. I had bought a drill but couldn't figure out how to get a bit into it. I was about to curse in frustration, when my neighbor, a furniture builder, rang the doorbell. His son had pink eye, and he wondered if I would write a prescription for him. I said only if he would teach me how to use the drill.

We took a mid-afternoon break to visit my mom in her nursing home. She is only 67, but has been debilitated with multiple sclerosis. Here we are with my mom, my sister and her kids.

So we were drilling, cutting, gluing, spray painting most of the afternoon. We had gone to a junk store and gotten all kinds of dooleydads and diddlybobbers that looked like miniature battlecruiser parts, also used a lot of styrofoam, wooden dowels, wire. Mid afternoon, we glued the turrets on, even though they were a bit gooey on one side. In the evening, we had to tip the ship on its side to paint the hull red, and the turrets fell off. So they went back into the oven for a while, and were re-glued in the morning.

The next morning. . . . TADA!!! Didn't it turn out great? Peter was so proud, and his teachers and classmates were very impressed.

Prom!

It's a mom's right to brag, isn't it? Tonight my daughter Liana and her boyfriend of 2 years, Eric, went to prom! Don't they look fabulous? They are both juniors. Probably most parents would be concerned about such a long term relationship in kids so young. They are planning to go to college together and eventually get married. Of course there is so much life ahead of them and who knows. But I'm not worried, because they are best friends. They seem to know eachother better than most married couples I know, and they support eachother through all the challenges they face. They admire and respect eachother, they never put eachother down. When they disagree, they talk it out and find a solution. Eric is doting and loving and would protect Liana to the ends of the earth. I couldn't ask for more, if they were 27 instead of 17.

Goodnight Toes

About 17 years ago I was a new mother, a new doctor, and I was drenched in anxiety and having panic attacks. My therapist taught me a technique called progressive relaxation, where you concentrate on relaxing different parts of your body. This helped me a lot, and when my kids had trouble falling asleep, I tried it on them. Which led to my latest book, Goodnight Toes. Progressive relaxation for the toddler set.

I thought I would give you a teaser, like they do on the news--"Did you think that bubonic plague was a just a disease of the Middle Ages? Well, think again. The deadly spores of bubonic plague may be germinating in your own refrigerator. . . . Tune in at 10."

So here's my teaser, the first and last verses of Goodnight Toes:

Goodnight toes. Goodnight toes.
I'll cover you up as the sun goes down.
We squished in the mud and ran through the grass,
But the day has at last come to an end.
Goodnight toes. Wiggle and stretch.
We're cozy in bed for a little rest.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Goodnight eyes. Goodnight eyes.
Can you imagine what lies ahead?
At morning's first light we'll begin to explore
Rainforests and mountains, meet a dinosaur.
Goodnight eyes, close heavy lids.
We'll see in our dreams all the fun things we did.

Book Covers

I finally found these images, saved on a disc after my computer crash of 2006. Goodnight Toes is my next book, and is being illustrated by my good friend and amazing artist, Julie Annette Meyer, in oil paintings. The model for the paintings is my daughter Cara. I'm noticing that this picture is a little fuzzy, I'll have to scan in a new one soon. We are hoping to have it out by this Christmas.

Thank You for Giraffes

These are quick photos of a book I wrote and illustrated with quilts. I have some better pictures without the glare, but can't find them on my computer right now. This is the text of the book:

My daughter Cara loves giraffes. When she was two years old, she always included giraffes in her prayers. One evening her usually long list of blessings ran a little short. Her prayer went something like this: "Thank You for my home. Thank You for my family. Thank You for our food. Thank You for giraffes. . . . . . and more giraffes." After she heard me tell this story to several people, that phrase became part of every night's prayer.

My prayer is that all children, to whomever they pray, have much for which to be thankful.

thank you for giraffes, and more giraffes

thank you for food

thank you for water, and otters

thank you for wild

thank you for calm

thank you for sunsets

thank you for dawn

thank you for home

and places far

thank you for the moon and stars

thank you for animals big

and small

but most of all,

thank you for love.

The book will be for sale soon on Amazon.com. Please check back!!

The Softest Bed in the World

Mark is out of town, as is often the case, and I decided to do a "While you were out" makeover in the living room. I bought a new rug, painted the walls (a golden yellowy color like in the center of the quilt), and started this quilt for a wallhanging, picking up on the diamond pattern in the rug. At this moment, it's further along, but not quite ready for another picture.

Have you ever noticed that cats think the softest bed in the world is an unfinished quilt? Particularly if it's in many, many pieces on a design board. (I have given up on putting my design board on the wall, it inevitably gets knocked down....) The thing about cats, though, is that they can lie on it and just coat it with hair, keeping it intact. Radar, our rat terrier, can't understand why Jack and Jill the cats can lie on the quilt puzzle but he can't.

A Little Romance

This is a quilt I made after my "first" date
with my husband. Well, my first date with him this century. Mark was my first love, when I was 13 and he was 16. He liked me too and was about to finally ask me on a date (by then I was 16), and my family moved to another state. We kept in touch by letters (whoa, that dates us, doesn't it?) and saw eachother occasionally, and then dated for a year when I was in my residency. For reasons unclear to me, I broke up with him, and we were out of touch for 18 years. Then he "googled" me, we wrote, talked, and he came for a visit. We went out to dinner, then went to Minnehaha Falls, a beautiful waterfall in Minneapolis. We kissed under a full moon. So, back to the quilt. I named it "Full moon, waterfall, kiss." Later, I told Mark that I was making a quilt for him, and that it was about our first date. He said, then it must be about a full moon, and a waterfall, and a kiss." I know it's unbelievable, but he really did! I think that's when I decided to marry him. How many men would have said that? I gave him the quilt, and he loved it. Then I married him and got it back!

Happily Ever After, Finally

Earth Day 2007

I remember exactly where I was 17 years ago today. I was in the hospital with preterm labor, had been there for 3 weeks. (At the time I didn't know that my total stay would be 2 and 1/2 months.) I was watching Earth Day programs on TV. I was about to have my first baby, and I felt hopeful about the world she was going to inherit. There were many problems, but people were looking for solutions, and everyone was enthusiastic and passionate.


I made this quilt in November 2004, a few days after George Bush was "re-elected," feeling despondent. Our beautiful home was being sold to the highest bidder to do with as they pleased. Global warming was "just a theory." Scientists who said otherwise were being told to shut up.

In this picture the quilt looks pretty crooked. I think it reflects how depressed I was!


2007, the tide is beginning to turn. It took being caught in how many lies, who can even try to count, to convince America that Bush is not protecting us, on any level.

The quilt is called "On Thin Ice." I guess that's self explanatory. If something is not done about global warming, polar bears might be extinct by 2050.

Today is Earth Day, every day is Earth Day. Let's all think of what we can do to save our lovely planet. Small things like recycling, taking shorter showers, walking instead of driving when we can. Bigger things like electing leaders who have a plan for the environment. We're smart, we can turn this around. If you want lots more ideas, go the the Environmental Defense website. www.environmentaldefense.org. They have a wealth of information and many ways to get involved.


By the way, my baby who was so anxious to be born turned out healthy and wonderful. She is a beautiful young woman with energy and ideas to make this world a better place. Things are looking up.

Radar smiles.

Mothers' Hearts

It's been a long week and I feel more like showing than saying. I made this quilt a couple of years ago after I found some beautiful fabric with moms and babies from all over the world. Each mom and baby is framed by fabric that looks like it might have come from their part of the world. I did actually use some woven fabric that I bought in Guatemala when I was adopting my son Danny. You can kind of see the machine quilting, it's all hearts. I have this quilt hanging in my clinic. I see families from many parts of the world, and that's part of the reason I made it, but mostly it's to symbolize that mothers' hearts are all the same. There is so much suffering in the world today, and I think that many people numb themselves to it by telling themselves that those people are different. But I know, absolutely know, that mothers in refugee camps in Darfur, mothers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Iran, mothers everywhere, love their children as fiercely as I love mine. Fathers too, but there weren't fathers in the fabric.

Some pictures to go with the quilt--three of my kids on a recent trip to St. Louis, a baby Emporer penguin who dwarfs his mother, at the St. Louis zoo, and my grandmother cuddling my baby Radar.

Pictures of the San Juan Islands

I can't see any rhyme or reason to how the pictures show up. Oh well, baby blog steps. The tree is called a pacific madrone. It is very beautiful. The bark sheds, and underneath it varies from mahogany color to green. I don't know what the flowers were, they looked kind of like small yellow poppies.

Work in Progress

This is a quilt I've been working on since last summer, when we returned from our "family-moon" in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. A family-moon is a honeymoon where you take the kids along. We had a wonderful time, roaming the beautiful island, going orca watching, visiting the lavender farm and alpaca farm. I decided to try my first landscape quilt with pictures I took there. This is about half of the quilt, you can't see the orcas or the sculpture garden, or the snow capped mountain. And it's not finished, but a fellow quilter on a quilting website wanted ideas about landscape quilts, so I got mine out, and now I can't wait to start working on it again! Here are some of the photos I've used to make the quilt:

Well, I can't get them to go onto the page in the order I want, so I'm going to post and come back. I'm a cyber-genius, if you haven't figured it out.

Play With Your Food

A few years ago a book came out called "Play With Your Food," and it looked like something I would have thought of, so I loved it. Tonight as I was fixing a salad, I noticed that the green pepper had a nose, mouth, cheeks and even a chin. So I gave him some googly eyes. Ummm, he was good.