Tag: Chicago

  • The visual feast of SOFA Chicago

    The visual feast of SOFA Chicago

    20 years ago I met Julie Lynne (formerly Upshaw) and Vickie Hallmark when I lived in Austin, Texas and we were all making art quilts. Fauna is one of the many group quilts that we made together. Fauna panels left to right: Frances Holliday Alford, Kathy York, Vickie Hallmark, Julie Lynne, and me. Julie and…

  • My trip back to the third coast

    My trip back to the third coast

    I flew to Chicago to give 2 lectures and teach a day and a half Tea & Ephemera workshop for the Prairie Star quilt guild in St. Charles, Illinois. Before heading out to the burbs, I reunited with a group of good friends that regularly met for dinner at my old loft. Our group initially started meeting for artist play dates, and a potluck…

  • Texture and color in the city

    To change things up a bit I’m posting images from a photo safari I took with my daughter Indigo to an area just west of my neighborhood in Chicago, underneath the Metra train tracks. I like how this graffiti artist worked with the structure of the staggered block wall. I am particularly entranced by the…

  • A day out with my sister

    Over the weekend my sister Deb came to visit me from Maine for Thanksgiving. With finances being so tight we haven’t seen each other in 2 years, but a month ago we were able to find a flight on JetBlue for $80 roundtrip from Boston to Chicago to split, so this holiday has even more…

  • A Sunny Day at the Antique Market

    After getting rained out last month, it was so nice to spend a sunny day walking around the antique market down the street. I love living in the city! This was the day for seeing lots of awesome type, this thrills the graphic designer in me to no end. When I was 18 and a…

  • Unusual clouds over Chicago

    Last week we had some amazing clouds pass over Chicago, they were very ominous and threatening and had that slight greenish tinge that no one feels comfortable seeing, unless maybe you’re a storm chaser. It was really wild to see the undulations and circular rotations in the clouds. I couldn’t help wondering what might come…

  • Hitting the road to St. Paul

    I have been busy for the last week, packing supplies for teaching 4 classes at the Minnesota Quilters Show and Conference this week. I have never been to Minnesota before so I am looking forward to seeing a little more of the midwest. Now add to this pile 2 more suitcases for clothes for me and Nina…

  • Rained Out at the Chicago Antiques Market

    Nina and I went to the Chicago Antiques market down the street this weekend. Shortly after we got there it started raining and didn’t really stop for the next 36 hours. We did manage to get a couple photos outdoors before we had to make a run for the inside part of the venue. I…

  • Paper and Paint

    My daughter Nina gave me a lovely sketch/scrap book made with banana fiber pages. I love the speckled natural color of the paper. I really want to spend more time drawing, I used to be really good about keeping sketchbooks. Funny how once kids came into the picture, that sort of slipped away. I want to get…

  • The last week of April

    Last week was an interesting one, so I thought I would share a few images from it. On wednesday President Obama was next door at Harpo studios. Several news vans were outside with cameras set up to document the arrival. I watched the motorcade drive up and into the studio garage, there were at least…

  • A Day at the Antique Market

    Yesterday Nina and I went to the Randolph Street Antiques Market, it was the last one of the year. These rolling pins made me think about Kelli Perkins. The joy of paint by number… When I was little I remember there was one of these Magic Brain Calculators at my grandmothers house. I thought it…

  • Street art in the neighborhood

    One of the things I like about living in my neighborhood is finding bits of interesting street art when I am out walking my dog. This is one of the newer pieces of street art by Banksy a well known, street artist from the UK.

  • An Urban Naturescape

    I have lived just west of downtown Chicago almost 5 years now and I am always amazed by the things I see. While walking my dog this butterfly flew right into my hands then fluttered out and landed on me, staying there for several minutes. My neighborhood is an industrial area of old brick factory…

  • The calm after the storm

    We have had some crazy turbulent weather this week. Yesterday evening around 5 we had a front come through with powerful thunderstorms churning up tornadic activity in many parts of the Chicago area. It even set off the sirens for a short period downtown, which doesn’t happen too often, but also happened on friday. Luckily,…

  • A day at the Antique Market

    This weekend my kids and I walked over to the Chicago Antique Market to have a look around. There are always so many things I see that I would love to have including this old tool box. The top three tiers open up for drill bits, but I could see filling those with colored pencils…

  • Brrrrrrr…..

    Brrrrrrr…..

    No I haven’t dropped off the planet since finishing the quilt, I have just been working on trying to stay warm and catch on the things I put off while working on it. Our heater died wednesday, I woke up to frost on the windows (on the inside) thursday morning when it was 2° out.…

  • Chicago Antique Market

    Chicago Antique Market

    Sunday, Nina and I walked down to the Chicago Antique Market, it takes place about 8 blocks from where we live on the last weekend of each month from April through September. This is the first weekend I have either been in town for it or did not forget to go and unfortunately it was…

  • Looks like Oprah’s back

    Looks like Oprah’s back

    I looked off the balcony just now to see what the noise was and noticed the O show obviously has started taping the new season. These are all the happy audience members grabbing cabs after the show. You can see by the price on the parking lot sign across the street why many take cabs.…