Little Escap(ad)e: Freising, Germany

 ow long it has been since I used this particular category for a blog post! Almost six years, and reasons must have been the epidemic, for one thing, and work. (Although I now think I could have put the excursion to Paris with my son in there, as well, when we went to see l'Arc de Triomphe Wrapped. I didn't think of that then.)

Now we are living in a new place that is still a bit foreign to us, and I felt the need to get out, see a friend, taste a bit of the world. Last Saturday I wanted to go to Freising and took the train. Deutsche Bahn unfortunately being what it is right now, the train I had planned on was canceled. Instead of waiting around in a cold and drafty station for over an hour for the next one, I hopped onto another which brought me to Nuremberg. That had not been on my schedule, but gave me an opportunity to make a small detour when changing trains, as I had been wanting to take a look at the oldest globe model, the Behaim Globe, on display at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. 

 

Which I may want to use as inspiration for a quilt I am thinking about. It turned out that the globe’s colors are so faded that the digital presentation, which has been color enhanced, enlarged, and turned into an interactive display, is more attractive to look at than the globe itself. But it gave me enough material to keep contemplating the idea.

As I still had time before I wanted to catch the next train, I tried to make my way towards the world-famous Christkindlmarkt, which I had never been to before. That was not a particularly good idea, on a Saturday, and around midday. I didn’t stay long! Travel to Freising was uneventful, and I was met at the station by my friend Barbara, before we proceeded to her quilt group’s exhibition in the Medieval Prison. (I have written about events in this location before on my German blog and here. )

I loved their exhibition, but somehow didn’t take any photos – perhaps I was too excited about seeing all the group members again after sometimes several years? Barbara and I then spent a leisurely evening at a restaurant, catching up on all that has been going on. It was very good to be talking to a friend and be allowed to vent about the entire year and all its miseries.

Next morning I wanted to – and did – visit the Diözesanmuseum on cathedral hill. However, the one exhibit that I came for specifially, namely the ‘Chapel for Luke and his scribe Lucius the Cyrene’ by James Turrell is only open for rather limited periods during visiting hours.  Which I had not researched properly beforehand – I arrived 20 minutes after the morning period ended and would have had to wait for more than two hours if I wanted to catch the afternoon period. My train home was leaving before that, so I decided to just go with the glimpses of the changes of light colors I could see through the passageway that leads into the installation. 

 

 These photos were taken within only a few minutes, and it gave a small impression of how special it must be to look at these changes when you are in the center of the rooms.

That makes for a good excuse to go to Freising again, soon, with a bit of better planning.

Plans.

Have I mentioned before that one of the life lessons I have learned is that plans are there (mostly) to be changed? (I know I have, it’s a purely rhetorical question.)

Another incident has happened recently which has reinforced this lesson. Fortunately, it was only minor, none of the seriously upsetting things as have been happening in this current-hopefully-soon-past year.

The most recent change of plans is related to this year’s continuing challenge of the 20 Perspectives group. Different from our first challenges, we agreed that this year we would each be working three pieces to the same theme, “Conversing with the Earth”. This decision took us a long time, we were considering ‘Conversation with Earth’, but one member thought that this phrase might be copyrighted because a charity of that name exists. Then there were discussions about the article – what difference are we expressing when we insert the article ‘the’ or not?

Once we had decided on the topic, I knew exactly what piece of fabric I wanted to use, and I have written about the first piece in the mini-series before.

Then life took over, I didn’t finish on time for our June group reveal, and I had to start packing up my studio and life for the move. We have unpacked most of our boxes, my new studio has been put into some kind of working mode, even though it is far from well-organized or tidy yet. But I have managed to do a little bit of sewing, including finishing the first piece for Conversing with Earth. (Minus part of the binding at this particular point in time, and the sleeve.)

 

By now I have already missed out on the second reveal in the series, and here is where the change of plans comes in. Originally, I had thought I would make all three pieces with mudcloth. Apart from the piece I used in the first quilt in the series I have a few more pieces that I acquired from a friend and that are similar enough to the piece I had brought home from South Africa. I imagined it would give unity to my three quilts, clearly marking them as a mini series. But when I pinned the fabrics for planning the next piece onto the design wall, their arrangement and collaboration spoke to me so strongly that it became clear within a split second that I could not cut this piece of mudcloth down to the size requirements of the 20 Perspectives series. It is demanding to be something else.

 

There are a few small remnants of the mudcloth, yes, but they haven’t spoken strongly to me yet so that I could come up with a good design idea. There should also be yet another piece around somewhere, in opposite color orientation – a bit of black marks on off-white background, which I remember seeing when I packed up everything. It was going to have been a major feature in my third quilt of the series. However, it hasn’t reappeared from the boxes yet. I could spend hours searching for it by going through my fabric boxes again and again (I have looked into every single one already!) – or I could wait for it to reappear by itself, which, certainly, will only happen after the next and final reveal date.

Hence, a change of plans is called for. I started cutting up a piece of hand-printed fabric I received as a gift from Jan Soules, also a member of 20 Perspectives, last year when we met in California.

Dolores Miller, me, Deb Cashatt, Kris Sazaki, Jan Soules (from left)
at our outing in California last year November

Then I started combining it with another piece that had already been worked on a bit and was included in my mother’s complete fabric selection she handed over to me recently. 

 

Right now it is simmering on the design wall while I had another stint at my work place, I will return to it tomorrow. Curious, what it will develop into.

What a week...

it’s been, that last one. The election in the US, the end of the German coalition government, a football match in Amsterdam gone riot. Excuse me? No comment on either of these happenings from my side. We all have to live with it, and …

I spent a few days at my mother’s place, first celebrating her birthday, then tackling tasks of dealing with the aftermath of my father's passing end of July. There are numerous visits to her place ahead of us in the near future. Donating his clothes to a charity was probably one of the easier ones, although not really easy for either of us. I took some of his shirts, thinking I may use them for comfort quilts. And his hankies, which I already turned into an advent calendar for my son. That now needs to be shipped to Amsterdam when I have found a suitable box ( and no, he did not get caught up in the riots, his campus is far enough away from where things were happening).

Advent calendar for a big boy now out there in the big world...
perphaps more of a comfort for the mother to make it than a necessary gift?

 Now my husband and I are getting acquainted with the situation of being together only the two of us again, an empty nest in a new place. A lot of things still need to find their place and although only a relatively small number of boxes remain to be unpacked (but first we need to get hold of a shelf to be able to put the contents somewhere) and some order has indeed been achieved I would not say that I have developed a real sense of belonging. In fact, I am a bit at a loss when people ask me ‘and have you settled down yet?’ 

We go for walks to explore the surroundings.

The area used to have granite quarries, and porcelain factories,
but most of that has disappeared.

 

I did enjoy the last couple of days of the so-called ‘inversion weather situation’ when I could see in the weather app that almost all of Germany was covered by fog, cold air trapped beneath the higher, warmer layer that we were fortunate to enjoy. 

 

That is a benefit of this place I had not taken into consideration. It used to be that I was the one caught below, under the fog, and that always was a difficult situation for me to bear. 

 

One of the still-not-turned-into-order places is my studio. Smaller than before, fewer shelves, and I just haven’t been here enough to work myself through it all and establish a decent system. But I have sewn a bit, even finished a top already. In the summer I was invited to join the international quilt group Voyage, and although I was a bit at a loss for an idea to sew something for the theme ‘Alchemy’, I wanted to make it a point to participate right away. Once the idea had surfaced it all came together quickly and I have already basted it. Let’s see how quilting goes.

A pre-final view of 'Alchemy of Fabrics', using a number of 'special'
fabrics that have either been treated with a special dyeing method
(indigo, or rusting), or have a special geographic origin
(African countries, Japan), or a special emotional connotation (custom
printed fabric with my son's handwriting from a few years ago).

 Another object that needs to be completed is my first piece for 20 Perspective’s current year-long topic which will eventually count three pieces by each of the members. The first one was due in June, and I did not finish on time. The second reveal within the group took place recently, and I haven’t started the second piece yet, although I do have an inkling where the fabrics might be that I want to use. I hope to be back on track for the third reveal date in January.

(Things are) Moving on

With all the things going on this summer I took a difficult decision late in August and canceled my trip to EPM in Alsace, although I really had been looking forward to it. There were several exhibitions I would have wanted to see, people I would have loved to meet personally, and it was the first time that the EQA exhibition was opening there, even being shown there.  Life then threw another unpleasant thing in my way, and I also had to cancel the workshop I would have taught at my beloved Petersberg. Fortunately, a long-time participant and friend agreed to act as substitute group leader and the workshop took place without me. The group is well established and many of them are so advanced in their patchwork proficiency that they don’t really need me as a ‘teacher’ anymore, and they could easily handle the newcomers. Keeping my fingers crossed that now, finally, things will begin to smooth down and the next time this workshop will be just a weekend as usual without any emergencies and unpleasant surprises or cancellations.

‘On the side’ of all this my husband and I packed up our belongings and house where we had lived for 19 years and 2 months. Our son had already left for Amsterdam in August, and it was our job to sort through too many items and stuff and books and and and… The movers arrived on a Monday and by late Wednesday morning every box and our furniture was on board. A last and final (14^th!) visit to the recycling station after the moving van took off, and then we followed the moving truck, spent a night on mattresses on the floor in the new apartment, before the movers joined us again to unpack on Thursday and Friday. Ever since then we have been working away at boxes. Most, but not all, have by now been unpacked.

 

It took a while before the kettle reappeared and we could make a decent pot of tea. And we were searching for the box with contents of the fridge for several days which somehow had disappeared. When we finally found it – out on the balcony, covered with a plastic sheet to protect it from the rain – the cheese was still edible as it had been a few cool days (although we merely grated it onto a veggie-dish baked in the oven.)

Other things have re-appeared, too.

Project for 20 Perspectives, already way overdue,
and not finished yet.

 

My sewing room is smaller than in the former house, and because the whole apartment is smaller than the house we need to readjust even further.

 First job was to make curtains for my son’s room. Rather idiosyncratic, and certainly not capable of winning a design award, but they do keep the early morning light out when he wants to sleep in a little bit.

And I have put something on my design wall, although it hasn’t progressed far yet.

 

I had a chance to take another look at my Sweater Somewhat Slanted, which keeps changing as it grows. 

 

This time the change was due to the need to re-dedicate the blue handspuns in the bag to enlarge the result of my Tour de Fleece 2024 effort, which had been to spin ‘all my blues’. That ended up with a good amount of 3-plied yarn, but not enough for a complete project. The slanted sweater, however, is so versatile in color placement, it doesn’t really matter what color goes into the remaining length of sleeve 1 and then sleeve 2. 

Still debating how I will fare with the neckline. Not sure yet...

 

And I had the immense joy of meeting up with Kathy (i.e. Kathleen Loomis), who had three hours off the boat on a river cruise in Bamberg, which is now relativle close to where we live. We had a lovely couple of hours in a café, catching up and chatting about what’s been happening in our respective lives. We agreed that it had been too long since we saw each other in person, and that it really was too short a visit, but better than nothing. Hopefully it won’t be quite as long before we get a chance to meet the next time!

 

One day left before Diamond Day

 As every year for a dozen or so years now I have contributed a donation to the SAQA Benefit Auction.

With all the things going on in my life I did not have time to get going about putting out a post "Bid on Me!", as SAQA offers for all donators every year. Nor did I have time early on to publish my Dream Collection, as many other contributors have done and I used to do in other years.

Only today did I take initiative to do so. And found myself in trouble, because how to choose from more than 460 artworks...? At first I thought I might try to find a topic, as I have done before, but that didn't work out for me. Then I thought I might take all members from 20 Perspectives who have donated. But there are more than six of us who have donated, and Dream Collections are supposed to be only six pieces. Of course, this being a different format altogether I could have jumped that regulation, but then I decided to abide by those rules and took six pieces from friends of mine. (Note that, amongst 464 pieces, there are many more from people whom I know personally and admire their work, so the choice to limit myself to six was even harder with the 'friends' category than the 20 Perspectives category. I hope nobody complains about the choice, it is absolutle no indication of the degree of sympathy I feel for the people.)

Here is my 2024 Dream Collection "Works from Some Friends of Mine":

Anne Bellas, Souleil Couchant

Linda Colsh, Narrow Days

Judith Content, One Winter Walk

Dolores Miller, Venice Vessels

Claire Passmore, Neon Upccyle II

Shoshi Rhimer, Reflection

Of course, there is the temptation to include one's own piece in the Dream Collection, but as jurors are not usually allowed to enter a piece in the show they are jurying yet may show one piece of their own, I will add, as a repeat showing, my piece as well.

Uta Lenk, Small Study in Yellow and Blue, p.C.

Diamond Day is tomorrow - any piece may be bought at the initial starting bid of $1000, after that the 464 pieces go up for reverse price bidding in three sections. Do take a look - it is a wonderful way of acquiring a piece of original textile art and supporting SAQA at the same time.

Farewells, too many

 

Waiting for a train last Saturday I strolled around Hambur harbor
for a little bit. Remembering the concert in Elbphilharmonie that was
interrupted by a fire alarm - and today I saw that that had happened again...

It’s all been a bit much lately, as I already wrote about a little while ago. So far, it hasn’t exactly eased up. The weekend before last brought two decisive farewells to go through.  Either of which would have been enough on its own, but both of them within less than 24 hours, and in the wake of all that’s going on…

The first one was the last and final farewell to my father, who had peacefully passed after four long and hard months in hospital. 

Hans Lenk, 1935-2024

 

We took him to his hometown to be buried in a site where he looks across the lakes that were so important in his life as a rowing champion, right next to the church where my parents were married. 

Looking out over the lake from a different angle.

 

The Eight that went on to win the Olympic gold medal in Rome

As sad an occasion as it was, the whole family agreed that it was a very comforting get together, to see each other after sometimes many years.

The next farewell, on the morning after the funeral, was to send my son off to college. The original plan had been that I would have driven him to Amsterdam and set him up in his dorm. As plans had to be changed and I had to go back to work on Sunday, that was not feasible for me, instead, my husband took him there and then continued home on his own. He did a lot of driving that day! (I had told him to stop and check into a hotel along the way, which he didn’t, just catching a bit of sleep in the back of the van and then continuing on, so I’m afraid I don’t really need to feel very sorry for him.)

Hard to say which one of the farewells is more difficult to deal with.

I feel immense relief that my father has been spared further suffering and treatments in the hospital, or even the care-taking situation he might (most certainly would) have found himself in had his weakened heart not finally given up. And I feel rage at all the back and forth he had to go through for almost four months when doctors kept operating on him, he was being shoved back and forth between various hospital wards and receiving more and more antibiotics that weakened his body and enabled an infection to grow so they could not get it under control in the end. It’s bitter to have seen a strong, successful, smart and intelligent person like him diminished into the weak, suffering and sometimes deranged vegetable that he was during his last weeks. And I question the ethics of modern-day medical technology and their ‘let’s do this and try that’, putting elderly people through ordeals that yes, perhaps increase their life span by sheer number, but at what cost of quality of life? (I also see this at work, every single day, and I have had several people my father’s age and older talking to me with tears in their eyes at what was happening to them and why did they have to go through this – well, at least my father was spared their specific kind of medical ordeal. Which doesn’t make it any easier.)

On the other hand, my son, a grown young man now, taking off into the big adventure of studying, moving to a different country, setting out to conquer the world. His arrival in my life happened when we had given up hope that we would be able to have a child – and then the miracle happened after all, completely natural, and he was a fun and vivacious boy with a strong personality, a compulsive and recognizable laughter and a charming personality. 

 

Yes, some issues between headstrong mother and headstrong boy, but no drug incidences (at least none that I heard of), and he spared us the possibility of the tattoo he and his friends were talking about just before their last joint vacation venture (they came back with ugly crew-cut kind of haircuts, which, thankfully will grow out before they grow seriously older). He was a fun kid to have, and as I have been noticing that the covid-lockdown-induced-sullenness seems to be lifting somewhat he has recently been developing into a very amiable youngster, I have also been hearing such appreciative things about him from outside that it truly has given me joy. Even if sometimes parents wish the children would act differently at home, it seems he has been doing just fine outside the house, and what else does one want? I did not get to take him to Amsterdam, but first reports have been positive and buoyant, and we are optimistic that he will find his way.

He left behind his piggy bank into which he had been depositing his small coins. 

 

I sorted through that heap of change, differentiating between 10- and 20-cent coins (my pocket), 5-cent coins (counting towards my next visit to the Munich Readery bookstore for second hand English books) and the 1- and 2-cent coins I will dump into the coin-collector at the local supermarket where the amount will be deducted from your next bill. The pig itself was mine, anyway, which he claimed at some point. It has lost its belly-button-stopper and I need to find a replacement for that, but I suppose I can now claim it back, for a while at least.

I admit, these farewells have left me frequently welling up in tears lately. Still packing up the house – my desk and more of my sewing room are next and highly urgent now. Creativity is still on the back burner, only infrequently do I find time and leisure to sit down and ‘make’. A bit of knitting here, a bit of spinning there.

"All my Blues" is taking all my blue spinning fibers,
these two bobbins remain to be plied.

The next spinning project in preparation: "All my Reds"

The towel somewhat slanted, growing slowly,
with a few more mistakes incorporated.

But I have challenges coming up that I can at least think about and do a little bit of research for. I have been invited to become part of the group ‘Voyage’, which was a pleasant experience. Depending on how quickly I manage to unpack my stuff at the new place after our move at the end of September I may join in with their planned exhibition for March/April (although that would mean a pretty tight timeline for completing the quilt). And there are two more pieces to be made for the current theme of 20 Perspectives.

Life goes on, despite farewells (more coming up, but those won't be as significant as these recent ones) and difficult times.