Sewing for the 21st century

My mother was my sewing teacher. Although she had a critical eye for detail, her work does not quite measure up to the finishing polish of some of today's seamstresses. Possibly the modern tools and materials make much of the difference.

The samples of the modern craft in this post were on display at the downtown library recently, courtesy of the American Sewing Guild. The intricate folded pieces (above) formed the border for the Japanese lady (below). Also in the picture: a custom-made fashion ensemble and bed jacket.

The exhibit included the beautiful old fashioned machine (above), a modern version (below)...

...as well as the carrying case for yesterday's Singer, at left. The old fashioned doll's dress is just one of hundreds of possible projects for the seamstress.

Here are others: a dress and handbags (above); cute quilted goodies (below).

Me? I haven't sewn anything major since I began my working career. One exception: four years ago when I threw out a lifetime's worth of boring white bedclothes to make way for vivid and wild colors, it was necessary to make three or four pillow slips to fill out the color palette I had in mind. Besides: bet that not many of the modern whiz bang dressmakers know how to make a classic bound buttonhole; I still remember that art from my mother's lessons.

Linkage: There's still a world in which time is a servant, not the master ... where, if you've got 10 years, you can grow a bridge across a stream using aerial tree roots. In our world, where we're still waiting for a proper monsoon season to arrive, we can keep up with weather wonkery focused on the west at one of the Accuweather blogs.

Granddotter does the library

As I mentioned yesterday, the house is now full! Grandchild #3 is now here, tagging along after the teen-age pair. But this morning, the dotter and I took her over to the library to meet Tippy in person (she's had a letter with pictures of the various persona that Tippy has worn over the year). Doggone, she was disappointed. She expected Tippy to be much bigger! Maybe like the dinos she met out Iron Springs Road a couple of years ago. That's what comes of cropping in on one's pictures -- the subject looks bigger than life! Now I happened to like Rodeo Tippy, ready for a week of big doings.

On the other hand, the Blue Hair Challenge caught her imagination. The idea is that if 1000 kids/teens sign up to read 15 minutes per day every day until the end of July, the children's librarians will show up in blue hair at the final day celebration. She signed up, even though she won't be here for the finale. (FYI, the Challenge is already over-subscribed.)

And then proceeded to do her 15-minute read.

Next, I just had to show off the horney toad and the lion. I think the lion was a bigger hit with the dotter than with the GD.

On the other hand, the little bronze girl in the garden really scored. FYI, she reports that there were no words in that book, just lines running across the pages.

What's up overhead at the library

Once again, it's quilts, courtesy of the Thumb Butte Quilters' Guild. The library calls the venue its "Look Up" Gallery. I call it the impossible-to-photograph location. Too bad -- as ever, the quilts represent topnotch craftsmanship and are great to look at.

If you wonder about the weird angle, credit the lights that are quite in the way for straight forward pix of most of the quilts.

In case the dotter doesn't recognize it, this quilt celebrates a trip to Alaska. Now that I look closely, I see many orcas as well as tall trees and a glacier. All that's missing is the volcano.

I think the zinnia quilt was my favorite. That or the chickens.

Serious Links: Normally, my linkage deals with the interesting, the beautiful, the amusing. For a change, some heavy-weight stuff. Let's start with our local foreclosure blog, which reports a fact that hasn't made the front page of our daily paper -- the Prescott metro area (i.e., Yavapai County) ranked #25 on the nationwide list of metro areas hardest hit by foreclosures in the 1st quarter of the year. You may have seen comments by Boonie; he has changed the focus of his blog from travel to brief essays, such as a commentary comparing the green movement to a religion. For a dose of the current economic bad news in interactive graphics, visit Slate's Disappearing Jobs map. Then there's Fred, who bemoans the evolution of the newspaper city room from a smoke-filled home of hard-bitten, hard-news cynics into a sanitized, polite, non-smoking and tedious environment. Amen! I started my own journalism life as a copy boy on the old Chicago Sun. Dropping into Kappy's Bar & Grill to get whisky in a paper cup for one reporter or running the latest handicaps over to the Daily Racing Form for the slotman on the copy desk as well as sharpening handfuls of soft lead pencils and interleaving cheap yellow copy paper with carbon paper to make "books". Back then, type was set by wandering linotype operators who 1) could spell and 2) were sharp in a way that only the self-educated can be . Too bad that world has vanished.

Corn Story

Tippy the saurian isn't the only reason to carry a camera to our downtown library. Art abounds on the walls as as well as in the courtyard guarded by that wonderful bronze cougar. What I am showing today is a series of sculptured sand paintings by Susan Popko, acquired in 2007. They depict the corn story, which suggests that Popko is Hopi or other puebloan. I quote from the plaque that accompanies the sculptures.

When the rain fell, breezes were soft and the sun warmed the earth, corn seeds were planted.

Corn seedlings had to be protected from the raiding birds.

The corn crop also had to be protected from the hungry deer.

After a good harvest, as night approached, the tribe danced in celebration.

Children's art at the library

Today was the third Friday of the month -- meaning a free concert at the local library. No, no musical instrument pictures this time -- my battery supply gave out well before the music started. Besides, a picture of a violin being bowed is much the same, whether it is playing Telemann or Dvorak. However, inasmuch as the concert venue is on the same floor as the children's library, I always peek in to see the current displays as well as Tippy the dinosaur's current costume.

Currently, the feature is a series of shadow boxes and/or mobiles by students at Skyview School depicting scenes from popular children's books. Unfortunately, I'm not up-to-date on the current crop of kid lit, so can't make informed comment on the art; however, I thought that my readers might find it fun.

Apparently, the Warriors series, about cats, is quite popular nowadays. The author of this display made small clay models of all the lead felines in the books. Not all are even showing in this picture...

This month, Tippy the dinosaur is masquerading as a dog; that's what 61 of the children voted for, apparently. Note the tongue, ears, canines and spots, all sure indicators of dog-ness.

Today was also a day to find out about the story teller that always sits on one of the shelves. Turns out the Hopi mudface family was made in papier-mache by Joyce, one of the children's librarians. Very popular, clay story tellers will be found in most Southwestern Indian art and tourist shops.

The dinosaur for all occasions

It must be a blast to be a children's librarian. Where else would one's job description include turning an everyday dinosaur into a mermaid? I forget on which occasion I found Tippy, as the saurian's name turns out to be, swathed in green, with a gorgeous blonde DO to complete the illusion. Snap, I took a picture at once. Found out that Tippy regularly changes his persona to suit the season, holiday or special program.

For instance, I stopped by the children's library on Friday as I was heading to the chamber music concert. A totally different dino -- he was, ARGHHH, a pirate. Note the details: a parrot to say "pieces of eight" and a miniature treasure chest, plus big boots, a sword and a skull and crossbones. The idea behind this costuming evolved because one of the librarians lent a family treasure -- an old sea chest -- to hold prizes for kids taking part in the month-long winter reading program. Naturally, the treasure chest said "pirates" and Tippy was outfitted accordingly.

The librarian showed me the picture (above) of Tippy meeting Santa during the Christmas season so I boldly asked if any other pictures existed. Just look at the wonderful images I got in the email that evening:

Tippy as Cupid for Valentine's Day (above) and as a goldfish (below).

Dinosaur-go-braugh for St. Pat's Day...

transformed into an Easter bunny-saur (above) and, with added ears and trunk, into an impressive elephant (below). Maybe he was promoting the book, Dumbo.

I'm curious what he'll be wearing the next time I stop by.

Baroque without the Bach

In case you were wondering, the portrait is J.S. Bach; it resides above the electronic piano in the front room. My LH, who played a mean partita, clipped it from a magazine, popped it into a frame and up onto the wall. So you can understand that when I received notice that this month's chamber concert at the library was all Baroque, I made sure to be there. No Bach, but very good listening, nonetheless.

The LH would have loved this beautiful harpsichord; I would have loved hearing his music.

The music included a flute/violin sonata as well as a sonatina for viola and harpsichord...

plus a Corelli sonata for cello and keyboard...

and a double concerto for two cellos and harpsichord by Vivaldi. Musicians at the event included George Friedman, Dianne Holmgren, Anne Badger, Karen Giglio, Diana Hart and Beverly Chesterby.

I couldn't help noticing the lone old-time westerner -- the only hat in the audience; he was very much into the music.

And as a coda to my musical afternoon, this enthusiastic bongo player on a bench at the Square.