Greetings from Montevideo, from Alison Schwabe, Aussie quiltmaker

Greetings from Greeley CO, where we have been spending a white Christmas with DD and her fiance, G. The prospective in-laws invited us down to Denver for Christmas Day with their family, so late in the morning, after breakfasting on christmas pudding with sauce so that little grandson #2 wouldn't miss out while spending the rest of the day with his dad, we set off in light snow which got heavier as we headed further south. It was great to meet members of their family and their offsprings, and what with plenty of bonhomie, good food and fun company the day passed quickly, snowing the whole time. As the snow continued into the night, we were easily persuaded to stay over and head home the next day - which was fine and clear. Now, thursday, it's snowing again, but may clear in time for tomorrow's departure east to visit the other family.

Traditionally in north america, many houses are decorated with Christmas-themed collections of objects, dishes, tableware and linen that come out of storage for the month or so. G's parents' place was no exception, several lovely collections of Old Nick and Santa figures, tree decorations, and those little electified traditional houses and buildings from yesteryear set up in dioramas, all collected over many years, one advantage of living in the one place for a long time. This towel caught my eye each time I visited the bathroom - and although of course it is machine embroidered, I just loved it, and decided this should be my textile note for the season - and wish all readers the best for the coming year.

Regular readers will have seen the invitation I posted to the joint exhibition of my work with gold jeweller Petra Eberl. this first photo shows her her work is displayed and the organic finish she achieves in her designs. As it was taken with the glass cover in place, DH caught the two reflections, but look past those to wsee the gold. I'll try to replace it some time without the glass.

Beginning our rental period at 8 am and opening to the public all set up at 2pm, we did very well considering the wedding from the night before went until 5 am and the cleaning up had barely been started when we arrived... but we all pitched in to help despite the staff 's protests - we wanted them and their mops out of the way pronto so we could really get moving on our transformation of the space.

UL shows how the 2.8m cream fabric we bought was hung from existing battens on the ceiling (nails ) and two helpers using the steam vaporiser thing to de-wrinkle the fabric. Compare these pics with the ones below which show the completed installation - Caco and his assistant put up the fabric and all the lights in a masterly well coordinated operation between, effectively 9am and 2pm. It was amazing, all well planned out, I saw his working diagrams - he had been there the week before, thought about things, bought electrical cable and the light fittings, measured and assembled them according to his plan as he went. LL shows Petra filling her containers with paper on which she put fine white gravel - see picture above -and on that surface she then put slices of travertine marble with pieces of jewellery on each - several pieces to each of these large shallow bowls - they are assembled in LR - and each with a round sheet of glass over the top and a small light suspended over each. UR is showing the last quilt to go up, at which time Mike and I left, rushed back to our house, changed into some better clothes and got back just before our first visitors arrived - and giving me time to add a few stitches, LR, to the quilt I had finished only the night before leaving an unquilted area 2" x 2" bang smack in the middle at the classical eye height!!!

Our first visitors arrived shortly after we opened, figuratively speaking, for in fact the doors were open all day and all night - we were blessed with warm dry weather, which was kind - at this time of year it is often hot and very humid, and and therefore rather difficult to endure in a non-airconditioned venue like this, with many of the windows cut off by the false walls!

One party of early visitors, some rels of one of my closest friends here, sailed through the show en masse, and, as if swooping in on a department store sale, picked up the hem of every quilt pulled it up and looked behind at the each of my quilts. If they had been paintings I wonder if they would have done that? (well maybe they might have ...) I was a bit gobsmacked - but didn't say anything, out of deference to my friend - and once satisfied they settled to some wine and nibblies. I couldn't think of anything witty or clever to say, but, I'll be ready for these particular people next time we do this kind of thing....interestingly, they were the only ones I think, who did that. And, although I had alerted everyone in case we were blessed with children sucking sticky lollies or icecreams and sporting itchy little fingers, there were almost no children to be on the alert for.

Labels: exhibition, gold, muestra fusion, Petra Eberl

So, here is the show, Muestra Fusion, all set up finally at a few minutes past 2pm, and with some people shots taken at various times from when we opened to the public UR and UL, to early (LL) and late (LR) evening shots close to midnight.

My goodness Petra has vision; she came up with the scheme to make technical alterations, the hanging of a false wall which hid some of the windows and much of the less than desirable nipple pink walls of the room. And she knew just the right person to do it. It was fascinating to see Caco and his assistant, whose name escapes me just for the moment, working efficiently, measuring everything carefully but fast, they knew exactly what they were doing and in what order - a well planned out series of manoeuvres.

The little downlights were poised over each of Petra's stands holding pieces of gold jewellery, and the larger lights on the beams at ceiling height were directed onto my quilts. They were great. And so was everyone else who helped us, from the friend who came up right at the last minute with the clothes steamer we needed, to the women we hired to serve drinks and sandwiches, empanadas and cheese balls and crackers; the husbands who did various fetching and carrying things particularly Petra's husband Eduardo, my DH was safely out in the campo working until the day or so before.

In the aftermath, we decided we'd do it again together, but never again for one day only, and preferably putting ourselves in the hands of an agent. There is at least one keen on being 'it' and placing both our works during the season at Punta - so who knows where that will all lead, por suerte. It was interesting who came and who didn't. Several people who have said to me many times "I'd love to see your quilts some time, Alison..." didn't take this opportunity; and others, who I really didn't think would be so interested as to come 20 km out, came bringing friends and rels. You just can't tell. We staggered home with the quilts, some leftover sandwiches, part cheese ball and wine, and flopped into bed at 2am, but were on deck again out there to clear out the rest of the stuff at 8-30 am. I was bone weary all day monday, but since then there have been several interesting phone calls as people begin following up on some of our conversations, opportunity is beginning to knock in several different directions. And the additional expense I have recently gone to having designed and printed off some brochures or follettas about my work, in spanish and english with statement "Influences and Inspirations/Influencias e Inspiraciones" some pictures and a selected cv, has clearly been a good move and well received by all who have seen and taken one.

Labels: applique

Dear reader, I am just back from a 2-week trip to Australia, aware that I have not posted in a while -but my internet time was short and infrequent. En route I had to lay over in Frankfurt Germany for about 36 hours. I went prepared for it to be cold - and my goodness was it cold !, Much of the time it was on the verge of snowing and did so just a few minutes after an obliging fellow tourist took this snap of me on one of the bridges over the river Main (LL) All of a sudden we were almost in whiteout, well, blurred-out, anyway, and the hard little balls made soft crisp sounds as they landed on my jacket and the leaves (LR)

Despite the freezing cold I took my hands out of my gloves to snap these stele (UL & UR) in the grounds of the ethnological museum which was my destination. These fabulous. fascoinating objects are from, um, I think it was Ethiopia. I couldn't read the German well enough to give you a clear accurate description, but to me they say something spiritual with some watching or guardian function. Although you may think otherwise, I really took the photo because of their incised markings: the same primal patterns of groups of lines and other small marks that appear in lots of other places and objects from around the world.

I enjoyed my full day there as the flight to Singapore didn't leave until almost midnight, so I had a lot of walking around time, which was good in between long haul flights. An art museum in central Frankfurt was showing Moreau, Turner and Hugo and the rise of abstract impressionism, a very interesting exhibition which I thoroughly enjoyed. I visited several other museums and galleries, learned a bit about the ancient history of the city from the earliest times to the present, and found time to do a little unscheduled shopping there, but found nothing of note specifically textile related despite asking around.