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quilt_artist

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Passages [Nov. 15th, 2010|12:38 pm]
quilt_artist
[mood |contemplativecontemplative]

Two months past her 87th Birthday, my mother Margaret Palmieri, died here in Columbia MO. She was ill for about 6 weeks and passed quickly and fairly quitely. I miss her very much. I took care of her for the last 4 years and we became great friends. She was:
A coal miner's daughter, a WWII Rosie the Riveter, a dancer, a mother, a wife and partner, a builder and a compassionate lover of all things and all people. She even put up with me when I was my very bitchiest. And above all, she was a helluva' broad.
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A proclaimation [Jan. 9th, 2007|01:46 am]
quilt_artist
According to Mike Dooley of TUT, I need to acknowledge and embrace thte reality of my life AS IT WILL BE, AND HOW I EXPECT THINGS TO GO.
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(no subject) [Oct. 14th, 2006|10:05 pm]
quilt_artist
[Current Location |My Studio, deciding what to pack first]
[mood |aggravatedI'm really sick of this sh#t]
[music |Me and Bobby Magee]

My last entry was about taking Husband to the ER. Now I'd like to put him in one.

In August, off he went to a mock Medieval war encampment in Pennsylvania (Pennsic for those of you who speak SCA). He had such a grand time that being married is suddenly the worst possible fate that could befall him. His new girlfriend/lover/soul-mate agrees.

So, at 51, with two dogs and my 83 year old mother Maggie in tow, I am moving to the mid-west and starting all over. I am in shock because I never saw this coming. But there is a valuable lesson here that I should have learned at 4 or 5 years of age: NEVER change who you are or compromise your beliefs just so the cool kids will like you. They won't like you, they won't respect you and you eventually won't respect yourself either.

We moved every 2 to 4 years with the military while we were together (14 years) and this was supposed to be our home for the next 10 to 15 years. I planted roses and bittersweet to climb up the porch, Star Magnolias (only 8 inches high) in the backyard; we were settling in for the long haul. Now I'm digging up the roses (he thinks they will be too much trouble to take care of) and I pulled up the magnolias and tossed them. He plans to live in the basement and rent out the upstairs to college kids. His emotional peers.

I am rapidly discovering how much of my autonomy I relinquished. I don't have the phone numbers or addresses of our mutual friends, I have no credit in my own name - I lived like a 1950's bubble headed space cadet. Maybe the therapist I started seeing can help me figure out why I did that.

My ex will be thrilled of course - he had to wait 14 years for the I-told-you-so to kick in but it has.

Damn, this really sucks.
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Curves Ahead [Mar. 14th, 2006|11:48 pm]
quilt_artist
[mood |satisfiedsatisfied]

Saturday I started an exercise and diet program at a local Curves for Women. Much less intimidating than a Health and Fitness Center. Actually Saturday I PAID to start an exercise program - haven't actually made it there yet. But its been a helluva week already.

3 am Monday morning, Hubby Ric says, "Honey, you need to take me to the hospital." Because I was very soundly asleep, my response was, "Huh?" "H-O-S-P-I-T-A-L" he spells at me. Now fully awake I find out he is having chest pains and shortness of breath. At that hour of the morning there is no traffic, so between getting us both dressed and driving to Walter Reed, we were in the ER by 3:45.

Long story short - 45 year old men should not dead-lift heavy furniture lest they pull ches muscles and scare themselves to death. AND they get to spend 10 hours in the ER, have multiple blood tests and do impromptu stress tests in order to reassure everybody that things are A-OK. Just a pulled muscle and a little too much stress.

One room left to paint, quilt will be back this week and I leave for Vegas in a week. NO stress here!

My Granddaughters will be two on the 29th of this month and my mother and I get to be there. This also means I get to see my ex after 11 pleasant years of not seeing him.
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Not exactly Picasso [Feb. 27th, 2006|11:01 am]
quilt_artist
[Tags|, , , ]
[mood |busy]

I have spent the last two weeks painting. Bedrooms! All in antici-pation of my mother moving in with us in April.

In the midst of all the painting, furniture moving and dithering, our dear friend Irina came to visit. She lives in Northern Maryland and used us as a way station for a trip to Las Vegas and Estrella War. We had very nice visits coming and going and it was good to get to know her better. She pointedout that at Pennsic I came across as "abrassive" which would explain why some of The Family thought I was not Brother material.

On the Home front, we finally got all of Sandy's stuff out of her apartment. Now our basement will be a mess until she gets a place to keep it. I promised to drive it down to Mississippi on my way to pick up my mom but so far she has made no arrangements to have a place to put it. This would require one of two things: getting a job and an apartment, or asking her mom if she can store the stuff at the house in Lucedale.

On the QUILT front: Jim and Sara's anniversary quilt is being quilted as we speak by a very nice lady here in College Park. All I need to do to finish it up is to add the binding and it will be good to go. The consolidation and set up of my studio went well but I haven't had time to do anything in there. Once mom moves in I will have time to get organized an get back into a production mode. Right now I do my best design work in my head as I a falling asleep at night. The really vivid images stick in my head and I sketch them out when I wake up. For a while that may be as good as it gets....
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Not exactly Picasso [Feb. 27th, 2006|11:01 am]
quilt_artist
[mood |busy]

I have spent the last two weeks painting. Bedrooms! All in antici-pation of my mother moving in with us in April.

In the midst of all the painting, furniture moving and dithering, our dear friend Irina came to visit. She lives in Northern Maryland and used us as a way station for a trip to Las Vegas and Estrella War. We had very nice visits coming and going and it was good to get to know her better. She pointed out that at Pennsic I came across as "abrasive" which would explain why some of The Family thought I was not Brother material.

On the Home front, we finally got all of Sandy's stuff out of her apartment. Now our basement will be a mess until she gets a place to keep it. I promised to drive it down to Mississippi on my way to pick up my mom but so far she has made no arrangements to have a place to put it. This would require one of two things: getting a job and an apartment, or asking her mom if she can store the stuff at the house in Lucedale.

On the QUILT front: Jim and Sara's anniversary quilt is being quilted as we speak by a very nice lady here in College Park. All I need to do to finish it up is to add the binding and it will be good to go. The consolidation and set up of my studio went well but I haven't had time to do anything in there. Once mom moves in I will have time to get organized an get back into a production mode. Right now I do my best design work in my head as I a falling asleep at night. The really vivid images stick in my head and I sketch them out when I wake up. For a while that may be as good as it gets....
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New year [Jan. 4th, 2006|12:09 am]
quilt_artist
[mood |satisfiedsatisfied]

Happy new year -- new car, new sewing machine, new attitude. So far, so good.

Visited friends over the weekend. In a 15 by 70 ft. mobile home they have 4 adults, 5 cats (one a pregnant stray), a room full of rescued tropical birds and a hyper pug named Wilber; we added us and our dog Twiddles and it was really interesting. Twiddles was very greatful to get home to her nice, quiet house.

Drove my new Jeep around today and got bunches of erands done. AND Ric brought me roses tonight. Damn, life is GOOOOOD!
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Project report [Dec. 28th, 2005|10:20 am]
quilt_artist
[mood |stressedstressed]

1. Birthday gift for son, James, ready to mail. (Due out yesterday!)
2. Top for anniversary quilt ready for border and to go off to be quilted. (For end of March)
3. ASPCA quilt ready for a label and presentation*.
4. Brother Joe's Hawaiian quilt awaits a batting - using iron on batting and machine quilting it myself. (For January/Road to California time-frame)
5. Frieda wall hanging needs quilting and embellishment - I found some great bone skull beads!
6. Hot hotair balloons needs quilting.
7. Mosaic "ruins" quilt needs a border and a quilt design added before it can be quilted.

*ASPCA quilt is in honor of, and as thanks to, my medical team at walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC for not letting me die this summer.

Etc., etc., etc....
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Holidays [Dec. 24th, 2005|12:38 am]
quilt_artist
[mood |artistic]

No place like home for the holidays, Toto!

No relatives, no obligations -- just me, the husband and the dog. And lots of quiet time for cuddling, quilting and recovering from a couple of rotten winter colds. Ric's dad is in the hospital with the flu so we have a bit of worry, but the teen-ager is in Mississippi for the holidays so stress levels are very low.

Working on the Hoffman Challenge, the Keepsake Quilting Challenge, my bro's birthday quilt, and my son and daughter-in-law's anniversary quilt. Also will try to get together a Wine/Lyon quilt for the World Expo in France. I'm seeing a lion with Bacchus overtones. RRRRow....

This is my year to enter challenges and get more people to see and perhaps enjoy my art quilts.
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