thelmasmith

I found a two foot cut of Barley Cloth in the box of whites to dye.  Still have not found the card for the other piece.  I expect it is closer to ten yards.  I’ll weigh them to let you know.  Here’s the image of the weave.

Hope this helps.  Next up, once I find the post office information, will be one year and/or multi year sets of magazines that will include free shipping.

In spite of good intentions to write weekly, I’m about ten days out.

Spent the last week in Mount Vernon, Washington.  I went to attend my son and daughter in law’s yard rave.  Wonderful music, skillfully mixed, mashed?, overlaid, and selected was provided by Berto Ross.  He got a big thumbs up from me for taking The Stones You Can’t Always Get WhatYou Want with a heavy drumming back beat from another group of artists.  Lots of good music!

Deirdre,  the mother of my beautiful grandchildren, is an artist in her own right.  I’m sure if you search the link you will find some lovely images.

My daughter, Gabrielle Windsor, was at the rave. Check out her résumé and if you can provide her with a contact, please do.

Her two nearly grown sons did not travel with her.  Check here for lots more images.  She grew up in Port Townsend, Washington, and was one of the original participants in the Great Port Townsend Bay Kinetic Sculpture Race.

The Mediocrity Award  seemed the best way to reward the artistic efforts at the beginning in 1983.  It remains today.

Enough of old memories.  The Northwest always does that to me.  I am grateful for the years I spent there.  I learned a lot.  It’s nice to visit.  I don’t need to live there any more.

Actually, I need, spiritually and psychically, to live exactly where I am, here in Ventura.  I spent the end of last year and the beginning of this year searching the Pacific coast for just the exactly right small city to live in.

That I found an apartment with an ocean view is a bonus.  I came here willingly and will, no doubt, leave the same way.   No pictures today, the iPhoto says 82 remaining to import.

OH! ! ps,   I will be offering things for sale, here, on the blog.  For the first offering:

White Homespun Barley Cloth

This is 100% cotton; each thread will remind you of kite string.  It has one inch hems on the 92″ wide ends; one selvedge and one zig zagged edge.  It is seven and one eighth yards long.

7 ₁⁄₈  yards

 This  is a spongy drapery cotton.  It is normally used hung crosswize for seamless curtains or made up into drapes.  Homespun House no longer stocks the barley cloth weave; the monks cloth is the closest match.  Barley cloth, originally twice as wide, has more depth and texture.

Contact me if you would like to buy this.  I will scan a sample next week.  I will post the image.   Remember this was originally 110 inches wide and has been washed down to eliminate the shrinkage.  Price is $110 for the whole cut.  Shipping cost (FedEx Ground) will be added.  This is quite heavy; shipping may run as high as $35.  I will charge you my cost plus the cost of the container.   I do take paypal through my website; scroll down from the link.

Sorry for the long sales ramble.  That’s what happens without preplanning.  Keep in touch.  I have a second piece of barley cloth that is similar in size; I’ll have to find the card for that one.

Hello, everyone,

I’m going to see if I can manage the self discipline to write on this blog at least once a week.

I have moved from the Sonoran Desert of Arizona to the Pacific Coast in Ventura, California.  Check out my view:

The days when we have strong sun the view is even better.  Some days we can see all the Channel Islands.

We are really struggling.  The fog comes sweeping in.  Forget little cat’s feet.  This is a theatrical curtain.  Summer comes in bits and spurts.  Some days we have six or eight hours of glorious sun.  Some days it’s cloudy.

I count myself very lucky to have such a wonderful view and such a mild climate.  The desert was a place of extremes.  Being ten blocks up the hill from the ocean is a dream of temperate consistency.

Since I moved from a three bedroom house with a three car garage to a one bedroom apartment with A parking space, the adjustment has been interesting.

I’ll try to begin posting quilt books and magazine collections for sale in the next month.  I would like any feedback and inquiries if you are looking for a specific book or magazine.

Recently, a colleague asked me if I could republish some of my Sonoran Desert landscape commissions.  Let’s see what I can find on this disk I dugout.

Book Reading & Signing of

Big Sycamore Stands Alone

with

Author Ian Record

Saturday, March 7th at 7:00 p.m.
Dinnerware Artspace
264 E. Congress
Tucson, Arizona

About the book:  In a groundbreaking debut of its New Directions in Native American Studies series, the University of Oklahoma Press announced the release of Big Sycamore Stands Alone: The Western Apaches, Aravaipa, and the Struggle for Place, a trailblazing ethnohistory of the Western Apaches, a place called Aravaipa, and the event known as the Camp Grant Massacre.

Called a “powerful and moving work,” the book represents the culmination of a decade of collaborative work between author Ian Record and the San Carlos Apache Elders Cultural Advisory Council, a tribal organization which works to sustain and strengthen traditional Apache culture and knowledge for the benefit of future generations of Apaches.

Book will be available for purchase at special discount price of $32 (20% off).

Refreshments will be provided

For more info, call Wendy at 808-9237.

end of press release

I know where Aravaipa is.

It’s quite a way west of Patagonia Creek that runs through the Patagonia Mountains to the east of where I live.  The title, Big Sycamore Stands Alone,  instant called to my mind the big sycamore standing in a pulloff from the highway along patagonia creek.

Sadly, this is the best image I can find of the work that features the sycamore.  I have no idea what I have done with my source photographs.

It’s a special place to me.  I know that it must be as special to the, Chiricahuas, the Mescalero, the Tohono O’odham, and the Pasqua Yaqui.

A century and a half ago these tribes, while not friendly collaborators, roamed southeastern Arizona. They foraged not only for food and game, many foraged for the materials to make baskets and containers for daily life.

Although I have not met the author of the book, I know that the reseach backing it has the impramatur of the University of Oklahoma Press.  That alone recommends it to me.

Let’s see if I can find the whole image of the Patagonia Mountains.  It will give you some, faint, view of what this land looked like in the nineteenth century.

Sadly, my digital files and my print files are not in the same place.  They do not duplicate each other.  The best I can find this morning is this WIP, on the wall.  It does not have the fauna nor the sky.  The size and resolution are minimal.  It’s at least a glimpse.

Grants Opportunity: National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grants- NEH challenge grants are capacity-building grants, intended to help institutions and organizations secure long-term improvements in and support for their humanities programs and resources. Funds may also be used for one-time capital expenditures (such as construction and renovation, purchase of equipment, and acquisitions) that bring long-term benefits to the institution and to the humanities more broadly. Deadline for applications is May 5, 2009. For details see http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/challenge.html

Call to Artists: Request For Qualifications Number:  OP 09-143 —Submission Deadline: March 18, 2009 Materials and/or Services: Artist Services for artwork for the City of Goodyear Public Works/Water Resources Administration Building Contact: George Bravakos, CPPB 190 North Litchfield Road, Goodyear AZ, 85338  Phone: (623) 882-7845, Email: gbravakos@goodyearaz.gov. Submitters are strongly encouraged to carefully read the entire Request for Qualifications Package.  RFQ packages can be obtained by downloading from the City of Goodyear’s web site: www.goodyearaz.gov and following these instructions: Click on box titled BUSINESS, click on left hand column Vendor Services, click on left hand column Solicitation Opportunities, click on OP 09-143 and follow links.

Grants Opportunity: NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops for School Teachers As part of NEH’s We the People program, the Landmarks of American History and Culture program supports series of one-week residence-based workshops for a national audience of K-12 educators. The workshops use historic sites to address central themes and issues in American history, government, literature, art history, and other related subjects in the humanities. Deadline is March 17, 2009. For more information see http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/landmarks.html. For Community College teachers see http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/landmarks.html

Call To All Arizona Artists! Arizona Biennial ‘09 Deadline March 20 This is the oldest running juried exhibition featuring exclusively Arizona artists and will be on view at the Tucson Museum of Art July 11 – September 26, 2009.  The prospectus is now available online at www.TucsonMuseumofArt.org/exhibitions/future.php. New this year! The fee structure is a flat fee of $30 for up to three (3) works. For more information, please contact: Julie Sasse, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art 520- 624-2333 ext. 125   JSasse@TucsonMuseumofArt.org

Call to Artists! The University of Arizona Union Gallery is currently accepting applications for the 2009-2010 school year.  The first deadline for applications is March 6th, 2009.  Applications are reviewed year-round but scheduling priority for 2009-2010 will be given to those that meet the March deadline. The Union Gallery is a professional space that is constantly searching for new artists, new ideas, and exciting community programs.  For an application, visit our website at http://www.union.arizona.edu/csil/gallery/exhibiting.php or contact curator Holly Brown at 520-621-6142 or brownhb@email.arizona.edu.