Nashville & Graceland

My stay in Memphis was overshadowed by my recovering from food poisoning from my last evening in Nashville. The hotel we stayed in, The Peabody was a luxury for us with a beautiful room. A welcome place to rest after my awful last night in Nashville. We arrived in time to see The Parade of the Ducks. What a hoot! The hotel makes quite a productions out of their entrances and departures, with a grand master dressed in a red coat and cane to give us the patter about the ducks. At precisely 5 pm on red carpet the 5 ducks leave the fountain and march to a waiting elevator to go to their rooms. What fun to watch.The next morning somewhat recovered we packed our bags, and drove to Graceland which is not very far outside of Memphis.

A shuttle bus takes you from the parking lot to the grounds and house. The house is not large, which was a surprise. The tour though is self guided with a audio cassette and takes about an hour. The house has been preserved just as it was when Elvis lived there. Photos were allowed, and we were able to tour the ground floor, basement rooms and some out buildings.

My favorite part of the tour was have a chance to view the costumes that Elvis wore through out his career.

One disappointment was that the audio tour only gave a very brief overview and I never gave a sense of who Elvis was beyond the performer.

This photo of Elvis's Aloha Jumpsuit which includes belt & cape that could be yours for $3400.00. There was no lack of Elvis memorabilia for sale at Graceland's shops.

After our tour finished we headed north and home. The first leg of the journey we crossed the Mississippi twice and drove through 4 states Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky where we stayed the night.

It's good to be back.

Music City - Nashville

I have some very mixed feelings about our visit to Nashville. The people that we met were warm, helpful and friendly. The city had some wonderful architecture and certainly wonderful

music. So what did I not like, it was not a city to stroll around, not many shops, or cafés. It seemed to empty out at night except for the tourist strip. Most of the nice shops, restaurants were in the suburbs in Malls.

Our hotel was the Union Station, a converted train station. The ceiling in the photo above was made out of stain glass and magnificent.

We also found the hotel staff to be terrific. And if you are ever in Nashville I would recommend staying there.

On our first day in the city we took a bus tour, stopping at the Parthenon. The Parthenon is a replica of the original in Athens and the statue of Athena is covered in gold! Quite a site!

I had to take a photo of the door into the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was surprise to see along with no smoking or loitering that you could not bring in your weapons !

A highlight of the stay in Nashville was a visit The Grand Ole Opry in Rymans Auditorium to see and hear a county music show. The show was delivered as a radio show along with commercials in between acts.

I spent part of another day touring The Andrew Jackson Center. Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and a controversial figure. A movie that was shown at the beginning of the tour gave a good overview of his life both the good and not so good.

The house and ground have been restore and are in excellent condition. I was impressed with the beautiful floating staircase going up to the second floor. We were given a audio guide for the grounds for self touring .

And a guided tour by volunteers inside of the house. The guides were in traditional dress of the time and were extremely knowledgeable The perennial garden was in bloom and just lovely with shaded walkways and bed with roses, peonies & iris all in bloom.

Below is a photo of where Jackson and his wife are buried in the garden . I thought it was interesting that on his gravestone it states that he was Grand Master of the Tennessee Masons before President of the United States.

There and back again

I'm home again after a very successful 10 day road trip to the southern US. Our first stop was Paducah, Kentucky. A town that the main industry seems to be Quilts and Quilters.

My first stop was Handcocks of Paducah. Wow! I don't think I've ever been in a shop that had such a huge selection of cotton fabrics. It was overwhelming to look at row upon row of bolts of fabrics.

I don't have any projects planned and only bought a few pieces of fabric. It was very tempting to buy more.

Another stop was the National Quilt Musuem. Unfortunatly they don't allow photos to be taken inside. The quilts on display were wonderful. From traditional to very modern with a lot more glitz in some of the quilts than I expected. My very favorit was a quilt that won 1st prize at this years Quilt Show in April, it was a scene from The Lord of the Ring machine and hand quilted. Just spectacular. I do wish I could have taken a photo.

Our next stop was Music City Nashville. But thats for another post.

And now another one

I decided after printing out the last layout and having a good look at it, that it did not have enough colour. So back to the drawing board and I reworked it. I think after spending another hour it does look better. Not perfect but better.

Photoshop

I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to teach myself how to use Photoshop Elements. Finally gave in and purchased a series of how to videos last week. Money well spent and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Above are two of my attempts, the green layout I followed step by step instructions, and it took ages to complete. The pink layout I did on my own without instructions, quite pleased with myself I think it looks just fine!

Spring Garden

Spring has certainly arrived in southern Ontario. My garden is starting to burst into bloom at least 3 weeks earlier than usual. We have had the warmest April on record and the driest.

As you can see the garden is quite a odd shape, we like to think of it as the bow of a ship. When we arrived here 5 years ago it was a waste land of weed trees and no grass. It's changed over the years and now a pleasure to watch as the seasons unfold.

I took a introductory class yesterday for my new machine. It was well worth taking and has given me much more confidence in using it. Today I made a handbag, using the walking foot and also the stitch regulator for free motion quilting. What a joy to use both feet, I though my old Bernina was just about perfect, but this new one is even better.

I did it!

After twenty something years I have purchased a new sewing machine. I've been happily sewing on a Bernina 1230 which has been working perfectly fine for years. But for the past year I have been looking at a Bernina 430 with a Free Motion stitch regulator and trying to find a good reason why I should purchase it. I finally took the plunge last Friday and convinced myself that I really should have one even if I did not have a good reason. It's all set up now and ready to go. But it's going to take a bit of getting use to and some learning on how to use all of those bells and whistles that it comes with. You can be sure I'm not going to retire my old machine quite yet. The shop where I purchased the machine offers some introductory classes which I have signed up for and that will be a help. More to follow over the next weeks.

2 Projects finished

I have been preoccupied with family matters over the last week. I had a quick and sad trip to New York for a family funeral. My Aunt who was just short of her 102nd birthday passed away. She was a remarkable women and involved in the world until the end. We will all miss her.

I have posted photo's today of projects I've been working on for the last few weeks. Above and below are photos of the Knot Garden Pin cushion. This was made from a pattern out of a old issue of Stitch Magazine and is hand embroidered. The fuzzy hedge is made with the turkey stitch. Which felt like it took forever to cover the area needed.

The two photos below are of another scrappy journal which I will be using on a trip to Nashville and Memphis next month. I normally tend to work in Jewel tones but this time I felt spring like and worked a a soft pallet. I'm quite pleased with the outcome. I used mostly silk fabric for the cover with a bit of hand died velvet that I made ages ago. I just love the way these scrappy journals use up bits and pieces I have in my stash for both the cover and the pages inside.

Landscape

I took a class a year ago with Sylvia Naylor which was to be a cross between machine and hand

embroidery. I decided I want to do a landscape and at Sylvia's suggestion did a mock up first using paper cut from a magazine .

Next the background fabric was painted and I added some bits of batik to create the mountains and hills. After the two day class ended I did a bit of machine stitching at home and became stuck. And my landscape gather dust in my studio for a year.

Yesterday my good friend from LA was visiting and I showed her what I had done and why I had not worked on the piece again. After some very good suggestions, I started working again and finished it today. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out, it's my first totally machine embroidered piece. At this time I can't decide if I like the finish piece with more sky (at top of post) or less. I'll live with it a while before I make a decision.

A tisket a Casket

Tidying up yesterday I came across this Casket I made last summer. The casket was inspired by a article that I read in the June/July 09 issue of Stitch Magazine from the UK written by Janet Humphrey.

Instead of using the pattern provided in Stitch, why make life easy, I pull out a book I've had for ages Embroidered Boxes by Jane Edmonds. I reduced the size of the pattern in the book adapting it to the techniques given in the magazine.

The base used is Pelmet Vilene which is then dyed. Silk and sheer fabrics are bonded to the Vilene, free machine embroidered and hand embellished. I used lace that I had dyed myself and the lining is silk. Painted wooden beads are use for feet. With great intentions I had planned to make 2 more in a larger size for my little grand daughters. That has yet to have happened, but as they are only 3 I do have some time until they would have a use for it.

Rock sculpture on the Beach

Although I live in a large city I am very lucky to have access to a beach and boardwalk a few minute drive from my home. We decided today to have lunch and a walk on the boardwalk even though it was cool and overcast.

We came across this man building rock sculptures next to the boardwalk. We stopped to chat and asked what he used to attach the rocks to each other and was amazed at the answer which was "nothing is used". Balance and finding the center of gravity, and thats it.

Some of the rock were quite large and in the photo above you can see one of the items used was a cement block! At the end of each day he knocks the sculptures down to prevent any accidents.

What a interesting way to spend your spare time!

I loved the roots of this tree and can see potential for a embroidery here. Lots of ropy texture. The on line class I am taking,Studio Journal, has me looking "with a artist" eye and taking lots of photos for future inspriation.

This photo is of the life guards perch. It looks so gray and desolate today. Below are houses that face the beach, I think how nice their views mus be any time of the year with the park and beach in front of them.