Yankee Doodle Dandy

One of the other places I've been lately is Cloud Nine. Melody reminded me that I haven't yet posted anything about the Husqvarna Viking announcement. I got a call this week from Sweden to say I'd won second prize in their special exhibition that opens in Houston the end of this October. So it was a very nice surprise to find out I've won a Viking Quilt Designer II sewing machine. And to make things even better, the next day I got a call from Houston to say my airfare and hotel to the Houston festival and awards ceremony would be paid for. Now I'll get to see what all this Houston hysteria is all about!

It all makes me very anxious to get back to the studio and get to work. Here's part of a drawing I'm working on for a quilt called "Yankee Doodle Dandy." I thought of the idea on the Fourth of July, but only now getting started on it. I'm still doing research and sketches for the rest of the design -- by the way, does anyone know any common names for Iranian men? Don't worry, the quilt has nothing to do with terrorism. It's about one of craziest summer jobs I ever had...

A Tisket, a Tasket...

So where have I been for the last couple of weeks? One place is Lincoln, Nebraska. We visited our friends Karen and Robert Duncan and got to see their new house and the most fabulous personal art collection I've ever seen. I hope they won't mind me putting these photos that Russ took on the blog, but they do have a book being published about their house, so I guess they're used to the publicity.

The house is surrounded with about 40 acres of amazing landscape and sculpture. This is a Louise Bourgeios spider sculpture which looks great in front of a formal garden of trees.

Karen has a collection of Ikebana baskets that made my heart skip a beat. I could have sat in this room with the baskets for a whole day to appreciate them, but there wasn't time... This collection has been shown in museums.

On a another couple of walls there is a collection of contemporary baskets. Baskets made of thorns, of ticket stubs, clothpins, toys, wire, grasshoppers, feathers -- anything you could imagine actually.

Of particular interest to me was this one. I think it was made by Kay Kahn. I've been facinated with her work for a long time, but have only seen photos until now. It was a real privilege to be able to study this "teapot" up close and for real.

After the tour and lunch at the Duncans, Robert took us to see the International Quilt Study Center that has recently been in the news because of the new building in progress at the University of Lincoln. This was an unexpected interview with Michael James! I had brought some of my quilts to show the Duncans, but had not anticipated this surprise arranged by Robert. A little nerve-racking, I felt like a student going into a critique. But the response was positive.

Tsuru for Good Luck

I finally got a photo gallery of our family reunion posted. It's been held every summer in a different west coast city for the last 30 years, and around eighty to a hundred people usually show up.

Next year my cousin Mari will be the chairman, and the reunion will be held in Portland, Oregon so that everyone will also be able to attend Mari's wedding. She's in the Portland Taiko group and her fiance is a jazz musician, so it could be a very musical event which I hope very much to attend. Mari is talking about sending out wedding invitations with a tsuru (Japanese origami crane) which is a symbol of good luck, longevity, and peace, so I found this drawing I did of a tsuru several years ago.

Amazing Flying Dog Trick

Here's Mochi's new trick -- the Amazing Flying Dog Trick. Russ plays tug-of-war with a training buoy, and as Mochi has gotten stronger, she holds onto the rope ferociously. And so the "Amazing Flying Dog Trick" has evolved.

This trick goes very fast as Russ spins around, so I had to use the rapid-fire-shutter setting on the camera to capture the action. Since Russ is a former gymnast, he understands the mechanics of tricks like this, and has been able to teach Mochi. At first she was able to do a 360, now she's able to do a full 720.

The Crucible

Just down the street from Bruce's studio in Oakland is The Crucible. It's a huge building with an amazing array of community art classes including metal, glass, neon and jewelry. Some of the more interesting offerings include fire dancing and fire eating. Someday I'd like to see some of these fire art performances at a Burning Man festival.

Bruce Beasley Retrospective

We also went to Oakland for an afternoon. Bruce Beasley is a sculptor friend who was having a 45 year retrospective of his work at the Oakland Museum of Art.

Although the museum was closed on Tuesdays, Bruce got us privately to see the show an take some photos. There were over 60 sculptures in the restrospective.

Cosmos at Legion of Honor

Thanks to Gerrie's tip, we went to see the ArtWear: Fashion and Anti-Fashion exhibit at the Legion of Honor while in San Francisco. It was a super exhibition and will be there until October. I have no photos of the exhibit inside, but you can buy the catalog which is well done.

Morning Newspaper

Dog training in progress... Mochi getting the newpaper. Now the trick it to keep her from chewing it up once she gets back to the house.

A side trip through the grass is a bit of a struggle because the paper is actually bigger than Mochi.

The Rose Nursery

Looking back at my last entry, it seems a little Six-Feet-Under-ish but that was certainly not the intent (although I do like the show). The reason there are always a lot of roses at our family events is because of the Ninomiya's nursery.

For many years, my cousins have run a huge rose nursery business just outside of San Francisco, but recently retired. When I was little, I would visit the nursery, and I loved walking into the coolers that were filled with a wonderful scent of thousands of fresh cut roses.

At its peak, the nursery included over a million square feet of greenhouses under glass.

Although the Nimomiyas have retired and are selling the land, when we visited there were still fruit trees, vegetables, and orchids growing everywhere.

My cousin Alice teaches my niece how to look for ripe strawberries in the family garden.