2015 New York Trip Part I - Opera, etc.

As you probably know, I was in New York City for the last week.  Ostensibly to see some operas, which I did, (top photo is the curtain call from La Donna del Lago at The Met) with Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez.

 To the left is their glorious proscenium arch and the rows of balconies and boxes taken before Don Giovanni began.

I was lucky enough to see a  probably once-in-a-lifetime Carmen (yes, it was really that good) with Elīna Garanča (Carmen), Roberto Alagna (Don Jose) and Gábor Bretz (Escamillo).





Even the view from my hotel room window was pretty nice.  Definitely way above brick-wall status, and I have to say I had a wonderful trip all in all.




 While I was there I saw not only the 3 operas referenced above, but 2 musicals and a play on Broadway.  Kinky Boots, Chicago, and It's Only A Play.  They were all really good, and I'm glad I got the chance to see so many productions.  Originally I was to leave Sunday, but my flight was cancelled because of weather, and so I had Sunday to see It's Only A Play.

I did some shopping besides fabric shopping, although I didn't do much buying other than fabric, etc.  There will be a couple posts on fabric, and most of it is still en route to me since I had it shipped.  Saves weight in your luggage.

A Gala Evening

Here is the promised photo. Norm, Patti, me and Rhonda at the Lyric Opera's Opening Night. Tales of Hoffman was great, the people-watching was very good, and we finished the evening with a tapas dinner. It was just a lovely evening.

For those of you who know Patti, a small disclaimer; I do have her permission to post the photo of her. Isn't her dress gorgeous? I think that should be her signature color.

One other thing, Patti gave me a rare treat that I forgot to mention. On Thursday afternoon, I got to sit in on the graduate-level statistics course she's attending at Northwestern. I didn't want to make trouble for her by putting this on the blog since I know everyone will be clamoring to go too. Honestly, it was very interesting, and the professor, Bruce Spencer, was most gracious to let me sit in.

Home tomorrow.

Chicago Fiberly Trip

I've spent the last 4 days in Chicago having a marvelous time with other fabulous sewers. Patti put it all together, and we had the best time. I got here Thursday morning, Patti drove us directly to 2nd Presbyterian Church where we viewed the Tiffany stained glass windows and other magnificent artworks there. This is truly worth a special stop if you're anywhere near there. That evening Patti, Norm and I went to The Chicago Symphony and Chorus's concert performance of Verdi's Otello. It was the return of Riccardo Muti, the soloists were fantastic, and it was simply a wonderful performance. I thought the soprano was especially good, and when I read the review, I was glad to see the Tribune's reviewer agreed with me.

"By far the best was the Bulgarian soprano Krassimira Stoyanova as the wronged heroine, Desdemona. Hers is a rich, gleaming lyric soprano with ample colorings and spinto thrust where needed. She sang with ravishing depth of sound, never more so than in the "Willow Song" and "Ave Maria," floating their soft, high-lying phrases so purely and poignantly as to have one hanging on every phrase. She did not need stage direction to bring out Desdemona's innocence and faith that pure love will be her salvation."

Following the performance, the weekend became purely textile-related. KayY (The Sewing Lawyer) and her husband Don came in, then Ann (Gorgeous Things) and Nancy (Nancy DaQ). Unfortunately, we were missing Linda, who was scheduled to come, but didn't make it.

Because Friday's weather here in Chicago was very foggy, both Ann and Nancy's planes were delayed, so Kay and I went to Vogue Fabrics in Evanston, Don tagged along and hit the 'trilobite shop', and Patti gathered Ann and Nancy as they arrived. We all met for dinner at Addis Abeba that evening.

From Chicago Fiberly 2011

Saturday morning, we met Cenetta at Fishman's and shopped there and at the Chicago location of Vogue Fabrics. Lunch at Manny's, an Architectural Walking Tour, dinner at Tapas Barcelona, and then more chat late into the evening rounded out our day.

Sunday we met Patti and two new friends, Karen and Adrienne at the hotel, walked to the train station, then made our way downtown to the Holiday Inn at the Merchandise Mart for the Haute Couture Club's luncheon and Fashion Show. It was a great day with probably 70 outfits in the show. Cenetta had quite a few, Rhonda Buss, whom we met before the show had multiple outfits as well. Altogether we had a lovely time. Nancy and Ann left us at the Mart and headed to their flights.

From Chicago Fiberly 2011

Patti, Norm, Kay and Don gave me my first experience of Indian and Nepali food as we went to Mt. Everest in Evanston for a light supper. Very nice. What a congenial group this has been, and I think we all had a marvelous time. It was just so much fun getting to meet and talk with longtime on-line friends. Everyone was just as nice as I'd thought they would be, and it was a most pleasant weekend to say the very least. And yes, I did buy fabric, but it's being shipped home, so you will just have to wait to see it. I was pretty circumspect in my purchases, but I have to say that between all of us, we made some fabric stores pretty happy.

There's Always Something....

Isn't that the truth?

I traded cars on Monday. I was driving a Ford Explorer, and I don't need the 4WD feature much anymore, plus it really cuts down on the mileage you get. I now am driving a Suzuki Kizashi, and so far I really like it. I think it's a cute car, too. I can't believe the major room I now have in the garage, which used to have both the Explorer and the Lincoln TownCar in it, as well as everything else one usually finds in a garage, and then some.



The bad news is that Tuesday evening I sprained my ankle. I was carrying some things from my Mom's house downstairs here, and I missed the last step and fell onto the landing, right on my foot/ankle. I've never actually sprained anything before, and I don't think this is as bad as what I've heard described by others, so I'm hoping it will heal quickly. I've been doing the ice/rest/elevation thing, and along with an Ace bandage wrapped around it, it seems to be improving. The swelling is moving down toward my toes now a bit, and the actual ankle and above looks perfectly normal. Just when the gardening season is beginning to really heat up, here I am, hobbling around. Oh well, at least it's not permanent.

I am hosting the Mu Phi's Tuesday night (my music fraternity) but luckily I don't have to make the dessert. My brother's going to come over and get the folding chairs out of the basement for me, and I think I can do everything else, albeit slowly.

I'm doing a program for the Omaha chapter of ASG on the 20th, and I had a lot of plans that I was working on for that which may have to be slightly modified, but it should be a very nice evening anyway. They've asked me to speak about Wardrobing/Sewing with a Plan, and to show some of my covered shoes as well.

Susan Avila Workshop

I attended a workshop,Building a Three-dimensional surface with Solvy & Stitching, at UNL this week, as I mentioned before. The presenter was Susan Taber Avila. You can see her above showing us the digitally-printed chiffon behind her piece, Garden Metaphors. The top layer is the negative pieces left after cutting out the leaves for the largest work in the show, Garden Wall.

We didn't get quite so conceptual in our samples, but I was surprised how many of us found ourselves telling a little story in our work.

The main technique she discussed and demonstrated was creating a 'fabric' of thread and scraps using Solvy as a medium to keep it all together until the stitching is done.

She suggests drawing a grid on the solvy and stitching it over a few times, then beginning to attach your 'stuff'. You can use literally anything that can stand getting wet (since you will be dissolving the Solvy in water). That included paper, thread, serger trimmings, dryer lint, etc. She said she almost literally never throws anything away, and many of her large projects are done with materials that someone was going to throw away.

We each were sent home with a large piece of Solvy, and told to create 3 identical 8"x8" pieces, and bring them back.

The range was very wide since there were no other instructions. Just to use your machine, the solvy and whatever else you wanted, probably with free-motion stitching, although in one case, that didn't happen, and the result was quite nice, and not noticeably different from the rest in that respect.

Technically, it was hard to stitch the grid without its drawing up and getting smaller. Stitching in a hoop made that easier, but of course it's easier and faster to stitch without a hoop. It turns out that those of us who had to 'patch' our Solvy anywhere with an extra layer, found out that 2 layers (or more) made it much easier to stitch in general.

Once the grid was done, attaching things was easier for the most part. Susan makes a point that perfect tension is not nearly as interesting or desirable as 'bad' tension. This is a definite plus when you're new to this, and if, as in my case, it's been a long time since you did any free-motion stitching. Even some quilters in attendance who do free-motion stitching all the time with ease had trouble with this. I think it has a lot to do with the single-layer you're stitching on a lot of the time. A machine guy told me once that machines are not made to sew on a single layer and don't do it well because there's nowhere for the stitch to form. It usually takes place between the layers, and there isn't any between here.

Once you're all done, you dip it in water of any temperature, and the solvy dissolves. Then we blocked the pieces to the required 8".



Back in class last night we took time to view and discuss everyone's work, and then we passed one of our pieces to the people on either side of us, and took one each of theirs. We had to merge all 3 pieces into a pleasing whole. We had about an hour to do this.


Susan taking photos of the finished work.

It was not as easy as you might think to come up with a good idea quickly enough to have time to work on it. It was a little intimidating to realize that you were possibly going to have to cut up your own or someone else's work, too.

Here are the 3 pieces I had to work with. My original 'creation' is in the center. The next photo shows you what I finally ended up with when I put them all together,






Mine is the one about in the center. I cut my original piece into a long, garland-like piece and used it around the outside of the heavier piece on the right of the first photo. It was made of upholstery fabric and was quite heavy. The center lines are very thin copper foil. The piece with the black lace around it was also cut up, but more into groups of 4 squares that I then stitched onto the base. I cut the upholstery base in a few places and stitched them back together giving it a bit of 'elevation'. It doesn't lie flat anymore, and that's what we wanted.

This was a very fun workshop, and I enjoyed very much the cutting up and putting back together, which surprised me, although I've always thought that one of the interesting parts of quilting was the piecing and then cutting up to get something completely different. I think this was a little like that in effect. One of the nicest things about the class was the people taking it. Everyone was great fun to get to know a little bit, and there's always shared experience when you're with a group for a specific niche purpose.

Here are a few more finished (3 part) pieces from the group.



Tonight it's the opera. I'm going to Hansel & Gretel at Nebraska Wesleyan University (my alma mater) with 2 good friends. It should be fun.

Home Again, Home Again

Photo Link

Yes, I had a wonderful time in Chicago, and I thank you all for your good wishes, and many suggestions. We saw 2 concerts in the Northwestern Winter Chamber Music series, The Merry Widow at the Lyric Opera, and Ramsey Lewis in a MLK Day Performance. All of the music was just what you'd wish when you go to a concert, and I have many lovely memories.

The fabric shopping was TDF of course! I knew you'd be most interested in what came home with me, so I put it first.

Clockwise from Left.
Pink wool crepe & washed Rose Duppioni was a gift from Patti. (!)
Autumnal knit with bias stripes of a lacy knit from Vogue Fabrics.
Olive Jersey from Fishman's.
Olive/Black Crossdye Superfine Mohair/Wool from Fishman's.
Terracotta/Blue 'holey' knit from Vogue Fabrics.
Blue-green Animal print knit from Vogue Fabrics.

The knit with mesh lacey diagonal stripes in autumnal colors is something I hadn't seen before, and while they were cutting it for me, another clerk came to see what was left, as a customer had noticed it and wanted 15 yards, so I guess it was appealing to at least two of us. The terracotta/blue marbled print has narrow oval-ish 'holes' filled with a sheer mesh. The effect makes me think of columns. It looks holey, but it isn't really.

I am very excited by all of these pieces, and I am planning tops out of all the knits, with scraps heading for the lingerie-ready pile. The wool/mohair is slated to be pants. There were so many great fabrics at both Vogue and Fishman's that it was difficult to make choices. Before I got there, I had decided to attempt to limit myself to things that I was likely to make up very quickly and wear right away. I don't think I'm ready for a major project yet, but my wardrobe is lacking in certain things. These fabrics/garments should fit in very well.

We had such a great time just visiting as well as shopping and going to cultural events, and meeting Patti's friends was a great pleasure. We attended a weaving retrospective which had quite a few interesting and inspiring items. I have photos, and will put them into another post, or perhaps a couple.



Finally, the Peep was glad to have me at home again. My brother very kindly came over to make sure he had cat food, etc. while I was gone, and Peep was glad to see him, but apparently seemed puzzled over the sudden change of routine. Cats like everything to stay the same, and he'd never been home alone for more than a day before.

A Blast From the Past

Lately, every vintage pattern on Summerset's blog brings back some memory for me, but this one is special. The sleeveless, long version of this dress was what my college choir wore to perform. We all professed to hate these dresses with a passion, but they were actually amazingly well chosen for their ability to look fairly decent on everyone, no matter what size or shape. The skirt was very graceful, and the style was very forgiving. We didn't know enough to realize it at the time. I think I still have my dress, although it's unhemmed now, since after graduation I loaned it to a new choir member even taller than I am, and when I got it back, the hem had been carefully taken out and pressed flat. They used these dresses for at least 15 years.

The other real beauty of the dresses was the fabric. It was just a medium blue polyester crepe, but it was indestructable. I still remember being in Hawaii on tour. We sang in a bandshell right across the street from Waikiki Beach, and we wore our gowns and the guys wore their tuxes. We were staying at a local college (it was Christmas break) and we didn't want to have to go all the way back to change, so we girls all wore our bathing suits under our dresses and when we were done singing, we took off the dresses, popped them and our shoes into a tote bag, and sauntered over to the beach. Meanwhile, there were about 40 guys with tuxedos in garment bags looking disgusted. Once in a while, we get the better deal.

Anyway, you could leave your dress crumpled in a bag all day and when you took it out, it looked just as good as before. Hooray for polyester! It certainly has its uses.

Hepburn as Chanel

Now that's an intriguing title, isn't it?



I listen to lots of audiobooks and podcasts while I'm sewing and knitting, or doing housework or whatever. One podcast I like is called ScreamAndKill by Stella Maria Krazelberg von und zu Brabant. It's billed as an Outrageous Operatic Podcast, and it certainly lives up to its billing. It's great fun, and the music is wonderful. A recent edition is called "Glitter and Be Gay", an obvious reference to Bernstein's Candide, and the aria is included.

What I thought pertained to sewing/fashion was a completely unexpected song sung by Katherine Hepburn. I don't think I've ever heard her sing before, and she's no songbird, but of course puts across a song with verve. (Her friend, Greta Garbo described her as sounding "like Rose Kennedy". Hepburn was about 63 at the time.) She played Coco Chanel on Broadway in the musical Coco in 1970. You can hear her sing "The Money Rolls in Like Freedom" at about 32 minutes into the podcast. It's quite an interesting song, as much about women's freedom as jewels, although costume jewelry plays a humorous part in it.