More Blocks Done

I haven't done a lot of piecing since I've been here. I just can't seem to get set up in a way that I'm comfortable. When I came out here I was in the middle of 5 BOM projects. Four are pieced and one is hand appliqué (the Thru Grandmother's Window blocks that are all complete, even if the quilt is not). The past couple of weeks I went through each BOM one at a time and cut all the pieces for the remaining squares. Since my sewing table doubles as my cutting table, I'm hoping that by doing this I'll be able to spend a lot more time piecing now and a lot less time converting back and forth.

It seems to be working. The past couple of days I've finished the last blocks for a BOM called Woven Ribbons. There are two of each of these 9" blocks:

Even though all the blocks are now done (there are a total of 18, I'll post a picture of all of them together at a later time), I won't be able to finish this one for a bit. The pattern comes from the book Better by the Dozen by Susan Teegarden Dissmore. The pieced sashing is a little involved and I don't yet have fabric for it. It's a long story that I won't go into here. Let's just say that I'm not happy with my LQS for abandoning this BOM before it was all complete. 

Azalea Blossom Watch at the National Arboretum

I mentioned at the end of my White House Garden Tour post that I love azaleas. So naturally I had to go to the National Arboretum for Azalea Blossom Watch 2009. They have an incredible collection of azaleas that I had just found out about a couple of weeks before when I was there to look at the cherry blossoms. The first azaleas start blooming in early April and others are blooming as late as July, but the "peak" period for this year was the last week in April. Rich and I walked the trails for over an hour. It was just so breathtakingly beautiful. I've posted a few pics below, but you can see all of them in my Picasa album.

Witches Boot with Candy

Finished another block for Happy Hauntings. This was a fun block to work on. The sole and heel of the boot blend in with the background a little more than I thought they would though. I'll probably embroider around it in an outline stitch in black thread to differentiate the two fabrics. Even though I'm making quick progress on these blocks, I still don't think I'll get the quilt done in time for Halloween.

White House Garden Tour

The White House opens its grounds to the public twice a year for garden tours. I missed the fall tour, but it couldn't have been as spectacular as what Rich and I saw that day. Even though the tour is free, timed tickets are distributed early in the morning on a first-come, first-served basis much like when we got tickets for the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. The big difference is that this event isn't nearly as popular and people weren't camping out since the night before.

We were there about an hour before ticket distribution and there were only about 30 people in line ahead of us. We got our tickets and then went and had breakfast while waiting for the tour time. We got in line about half hour before as instructed, went through oodles of security, then entered the grounds from the southeast gate onto the paved driveway that circles the south lawn of the White House.

We were only allowed to walk along the paved driveway. If you stepped off the driveway onto the grass even by a foot (you know to get a picture, or pose for one), you were immediately yelled at by one of the many secret service agents stationed about every 20 feet or so. Let me tell ya, they are not kidding around. I saw an agent yell at a little girl that couldn't have been more than 8 years old when she stepped off the driveway onto the grass to get a closer look at a picture of Bo, the Obama's new dog.

We saw the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.

We saw the Rose Garden. (It was still too early in the season to see any roses, though.) This garden and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden are the only formal gardens on the grounds.

Many of the trees were planted to commemorate a person or event. The oldest that I saw was a Southern Magnolia planted by Andrew Jackson in honor of his late wife in 1830. I got this picture of the plaque on the tree, but was standing too close (and couldn't leave the pavement) to get a picture of the tree. I meant to get one from a distance after we'd walked a bit further along the path, but forgot. (D'oh!)

We saw the brand new playground that the Obamas installed for their daughters. It was crazy the way people were snapping pictures of this like they'd never seen a playground before. Then, I realized I was one of them. It's tucked away so that it can't be seen from the viewing public. There are also tennis courts, a pool (which we couldn't see), a basketball hoop (not a full court) and a small children's garden also tucked away.

While it was fun, I would really have liked it if the tour were held a little further into the season so that there were more flowers in bloom. There were azalea bushes all around the children's garden, but the buds hadn't even started to open yet. I'll bet that's a sight to see. I love azaleas.

It's Derby Time!

Roller derby, that is. Have you been to a roller derby match? You should go. At least once. I'm not sure if roller derby is considered more of a sport or entertainment. I'd say it's a bit of both. The women were certainly athletic, but with the provocative names, garish make-up and lots of fishnet stockings, I'd say there's a "spectacle" component as well.

The league here is called DC Rollergirls and their motto is "With Liberty and Justice to Brawl." We watched the Cherry Blossom Bombshells take on Scare Force One. Never having been to a roller derby it took a little bit to figure out the scoring. Luckily, tucked into our program was a scoring cheat sheet. A match is divided into jams which last up to two minutes. Five players from each team line up for each jam. Here they are lining up:

It's kind of complicated to tell you what happens after that. But, they skate around, blocking each other, bumping each other off the track, trying to pass, etc. Most of my pictures look like this:

And this:

With less than ten minutes to go, the Bombshells were way ahead and people started to leave. But during the last couple of jams before time ran out, Scare Force One poured it on and tied it up. The Bombshells ended up winning in double overtime. It was exciting even if you didn't know what was going on.

The best part was the crowd. Not a huge crowd, but so into it. If you have a roller derby team near you, check them out. Just once. For fun.

Tally-Ho!

Okay, maybe that phrase is only used in fox hunting, but that's what I thought of every time I saw these guys. On the recommendation of an office manager where Rich works, we went to the Middleburg Spring Races to see the oldest sanctioned steeplechase in Virginia. I know absolutely nothing about steeplechase racing other than that horses need to jump over obstacles like this:

It was a pretty big affair. I found a little hill to stand on to try and get an overall view of things. You can see the tailgaters. They had some amazing spreads laid out. The course was a beautiful, lush, rolling lawn only interrupted by the obstacles that the horses had to jump. You can see some racers lining up for a race in the pic below. They don't really have an exact starting line, they just kind of line up and take off when the starter gives them the signal.

After the race, the owners can choose to have their horses cooled down, like below. The area there in the background is where the finish line is. There are several races of different lengths. They start in different places, but all finish there. The cars parked there belong to sponsors, patrons, owners, etc. They pay big bucks for the privilege of parking there.

I don't know how long this rock wall was. It stretched for what seemed like forever. There's absolutely nothing holding those rocks together. It's completely dry-stacked. I checked. :-)

There were seven races which were going to take most of the day. The races themselves aren't that long, but there's a lot of time in between each race. We watched a few races and then left. It was fun, but I don't think I'd go again. I like horses, but don't exactly enjoy watching them race whether it's steeplechase or on a track. Maybe, being from the southwest, I'm more of a rodeo kind of girl.

National Acrobats of China

Rich and I went to see the National Acrobats of China at the George Mason University Center for the Arts.    What's surprising is that they don't have their own website. They have a management company that represents them and you can see a few pictures here from their website. I tried to find some videos, but all the ones that I saw on youtube were of really poor quality. Anyway, they were absolutely amazing. This troupe of jugglers, gymnasts, bicyclists, contortionists, plate-spinners, and martial artists performed non-stop for about an hour and a half. They were amazing and fun to watch. I can't begin to imagine the amount of training and rehearsing that goes into performing these acts.

GMU was not that far of a drive and they have a wonderful arts center with a really great schedule of performances. I wish I'd heard about this venue sooner. Sigh.

Finally Putting the Pumpkins Together

The night before Mom and Tín left I brought out my pumpkin squares to show Mom and ended up arranging them on the living room floor. I decided to leave them there and kept rearranging over the next couple of days until I was happy with the arrangement. I was only able to leave them there for so long because Rich was out of town. Normally he doesn't care when I leave things arranged on the floor, he realizes I need to live with it for a long time couple of days before I'm happy with it, but here in the apartment it blocks the way to the bedroom. I had them all put together by the time he got home. I still need to appliqué leaves and embroider the vines and tendrils. I just may have this one done by fall!

The Civil War at Ford's Theatre

Ford's Theatre just had a grand reopening in February after being closed for quite some time for renovations. The reopening was timed to coincide with the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. There are a lot of special Lincoln exhibits and events going on to celebrate.

Instead of just taking a tour I wanted to get tickets to see a performance there. While Mom and Tín were here the musical The Civil War was going to be playing and I got tickets for all of us. It's not a musical that tells a story, but a series of songs inspired by the stories of people from the time - Union and Confederate soldiers, slaves, abolitionists and veterans.  The vocalists were phenomenal. The music is contemporary, performed by a band which sits prominently on the stage. It felt like going to a concert. Unfortunately, none of us really cared for it. I can't really put my finger on it, but it just left me lukewarm.

The theatre is beautiful. I think I will go back and take a tour before I leave. Here's a picture of the Presidential Box where Lincoln was assassinated.

Cherry Blossom Festival Parade

Yup! Another parade! I just can't get enough of them. Even though it was a rather blustery day, there was a pretty huge turnout for this one. Luckily, I had gotten tickets for bleacher seats for Mom, Tín, Rich and me. Especially since Mom's knee was still somewhat weak. Standing in the cold would not have been fun. We'll get right to the pics.

Alex Trebek was the Grand Marshall and started off the parade.

One of the fun things about the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade are the balloons. It was so windy that they had to hold this one low to the ground. It ended up being the only one we saw because it got so windy that the rest of them couldn't be carried along the parade route. Too bad.

Here are all of the festival princesses. There's one from just about every state. The festival queen is chosen from among the state princesses. Hmmm... I don't see one from New Mexico.

That's because the princess from New Mexico was chosen to be the queen! Well, one of them anyway. There are two queens. One from the US and one from Japan. 

There were the usual - marching bands, a few production numbers (we weren't sitting in a good spot to get pictures of them, but they were pretty spectacular), sponsor floats,etc. This Shriner clown was hilarious.

Just about every parade has an old fire engine or two, but how would you like to have to put out a fire with this?

Even the Easter Bunny made an appearance!

Cherry Blossoms at the National Arboretum

Another place to see a lot of cherry blossoms is the US National Arboretum. The day was a little cold and dreary (a minus) and there weren't very many people there (a plus). While there aren't as many cherry trees, there are a lot of different varieties of cherry trees. The blossoms range from white, to pale pink, to deep scarlet. And, the trees themselves have different characteristics. One of my favorites is a weeping cherry tree. There are some with white blossoms and some with pink blossoms. Not all of the varieties bloom at exactly the same time, but we did get to see quite a few different ones. Here are some pics.

Kennedy Center Tour

I've been to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts several times, but never seemed to be there at the right time to take a tour. I really wanted to see the inside of the Concert Hall and Opera House. Up to now, I'd only seen the Theater Lab - a small experimental-type theater, and the Millenium Stage - basically two stages at either end of the Grand Foyer. The tour covers the history, the theaters and the artwork that has been presented as gifts from around the world. Here are a few pics:

This is the Grand Foyer. There are 16 crystal chandeliers each weighing a ton. They were a gift from Sweden.

These chandeliers are in the Concert Hall and were a gift from Norway.

This is the Opera House Chandelier and was a gift from Austria. It's 50 feet across and has about 200 bulbs. To replace the bulbs and polish the crystal they need to use a cherry picker.

This is the President's Suite at the Concert Hall. See the Presidential Seal on the wall? Through that door are seats for the President and/or his guests. I don't know if President Obama has been here for any performances yet, but I heard that his mother-in-law has been here several times already. There's also a Presidential Suite for the Opera House.

We got to see a lot of artwork and sculptures as well. This wall structure was a gift from Switzerland. The artist exploded dynamite on both sides of a sheet of steel, then chromed and polished it. Standing in front of it was like looking in one of those carnival fun-house mirrors.

None of my other pics came out good enough to share. If you'd like to see more of the gifts from the tour you can see them here.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

I'd been wanting to check out this museum since shortly after we moved here. I just hadn't seemed to get around to it. It was on Mom's list of things to do, so that worked out well. It's so much more fun to go to a place with someone else than by yourself. Well, someone else who also wants to go anyway.

The museum is housed in a building previously used as a Masonic Temple. It underwent extensive renovations and with white marble staircases and crystal chandeliers, it is just beautiful and so sophisticated inside.

I love this open space (I think it's called The Great Hall) with a mezzanine going all the way around.

I don't know the architectural term, but this was a panel in the ceiling.

The focus of the museum is to recognize the achievements of women artists. In addition to the permanent artwork that was on display, we also saw a couple of photography exhibits and an exhibit by American fashion designer Mary McFadden. I like that the artwork encompasses a lot of different media. I would have liked to have seen more sculpture and textile work. These have been featured in past exhibits, I just came at the wrong time.