Christmas for the dogs

Our Christmas was full of dogs!! We had 14 people and FIVE dogs at my niece's house. It was wild and always hectic and usually very funny. And there was a dog for everyone to hold and talk to to or do something with. Three dogs keep our good friend Lynn warm while she reads her book.

No dogs in this picture, but doesn't he look comfortable for Christmas morning?

Official Christmas portrait of the dogs. We really couldn't get them to all stay at once. Daisy the little dachshund on the end was the alpha dog of the house, and George the black and white on the other end hated her. She always was up in the person's lap that George wanted to get in. So they stayed away from each other. You have to admire her though, because she was very persistent, a good lesson in getting what you want, if you pushed her down she would just come right back until she got in your lap and wiggled her way under your arm. She and George tangled the first day, and we had to make sure George didn't just beat her up. A bloody little dog at Christmas just doesn't make for a festive holiday.

Renwick Gallery

Going West! Quilts and Community (Renwick)Now through Jan. 21, 2008

Going West! Quilts and Community reveals the essential role that quilts and the making of quilts played in the lives of women on the frontier. The exhibition features 50 quilts from the first quarter of the nineteenth century to the 1930s—on loan from historical societies and museums in Nebraska—that were brought on the journey as cherished memories or made once women established homes on the prairie. Going West! includes a wide variety of quilts, from the familiar log cabin and lone star patterns to variations of the fan and wagon wheel to crazy quilts, doll and children’s quilts and community signature works. Each quilt reveals the extraordinary creativity of the individuals who made them and help to tell the stories of Americans who forged west and of the country's pioneering spirit.

We stumbled upon this exhibit our first day in DC. The quilts were quite wonderful and truly inspiring. These are just a few of the 50 on display.

This black and gold name quilt was made in and before 1907 and alot of it was machine quilted. All the names in this square are done on a sewing machine. Beautiful work.

I really loved the pattern and vibrancy of this quilt. What fun.

Museums

The American Indian Museum was my favorite this trip. It is a beautifully designed and visitor friendly museum. The displays were gorgeous, unfortunately I don't have any pictures from inside as my son had the camera, but trust me if you go to DC this is a must. All the textiles that are here are fantastic a real treat for the eyes.

These are the glass doors to the AIM with symbols etched into them. They are very heavy and quite beautiful.

Sculpture from the Hirshorn Museum of Modern Art. It's always important to have your hands on a naked lady.

Henry Moore is by far my favorite sculptor. I have a picture of me in 1975 in front of one of his sculptures in London, I'll see if I can't dig it out.

More of our Capitol

The Supreme Court Building

Two lawyers in front of the doors to the Supreme Court, probably as close as they will ever get to being in the Supreme Court

The Library of Congress

Our Capitol and a future lobbiest

Washington at Christmas

Visiting George

Visiting Abe

Remembering loved ones

Visiting the first George

We visited my niece this Christmas who lives outside of Washington DC. I am ashamed to say my kids had never been to our capitol, so we spent several days in the city doing the tourist thingy. I am really glad we did this on several accounts, first of all there were very few other tourist, so it made touring the sites a real pleasure. Secondly it made all of us incredibly appreciative of being American. OK the patriotism overwhelmed us and I am proud of our country and our countries accomplishments. Thirdly it was great to be on vacation with just my kids and spending quality time away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, viewing our national monuments. We had a great time and saw marvelous sites. After spending the day being inspired by our countries achievements it was also great to go back to my nieces house and hang with other family members.

Holiday Good Cheer

Judy Perez, Nina Perez, Ann Fahl and Jane Sassaman all enjoying chocolate cupcakes brought by Judy after a lovely lunch salad.

Laura always takes a good picture!! The hostess with the mostess.
Emily is never without her knitting, you can view her new yarn at her itsy shop!!
Happy Holidays from the Chicago School of Fusing. Missing Anne Lullie and Melody of course!

Quilters Party

We are having a quilters party at Laura's today. I will post pictures later.

I was asked to participate in a book by an English author several years ago. It is entitled
Quilted Planet: A Sourcebook of Quilts from Around the World
by Celia Eddy
I had never seen the book. But about a week ago Melody
emailed to say she was at her local library and came across the book and was looking through it and saw my quilt. So that prompted me to go to my library and request the book.
The quilt that is featured in there sold years ago and I haven't seen it in person since. It is entitled "Walks in the Woods" and is in the section on contemporary American quilts, it is pieced and measures about 60" x 70".

I enjoyed seeing the book and think it is an interesting account of the history of quilting. I may just have to buy it from Amazon for Christmas.

This is so Weird

I am back. I recently lost my gmail and blogger access because someone stole my password. I have to admire google because even though they don't have live tech support I did get my accounts back after a five day wait. I had become impatient and created a new blog and email. When I went in to delete the new blog it also delete my old blog, so after being thrilled to have everything back I had to rebuild anyway!! Well it will be a new year soon, so I will start fresh and clean. The morale of the story is to change your passwords often. I suggest you all go into your account right now and change those passwords!!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to investigate if I was safe and home. It was a real eye opener to see how many of you out there pay attention! It was also very heart warming to have so many people check up on me we are all very loving and caring people.

Now back to quilting and wrapping Christmas presents.