Denmark

Our big trip this year was to Denmark. I would have moved there if my Danish were better. (I can say hej.) Although I will say everyone's English was fabulous. Even the guy working the register at the grocery store spoke English well enough to make a joke about the dude being British and me being American ("That's one way to keep an eye on the colonies.") (Seriously he could not have been any cuter.) Also, if they needed stewardship in higher education which they do not because they don't rely on the largesse of the super-rich to fund education. But I digress...

 So our fiber tour starts right in Philadelphia! At our gate were three incredible felted wool projects. They were in glass cubes, so I did my best to avoid glare in the photos. These are by Heidi Bleacher, and you can read more about her work in the airport here. (She will also replicate your wedding cake in felt!)

When we first arrived, we headed to Christiansborg Palace to see the public rooms. Then we made our way around to the back, recognizable to the Borgen fans, and I pretended I was the fake prime minister by posing with a bike that was parked there. (I'm a dork.)

(The Danes are dedicated to bicycling. There were at least five rows of bike racks out of that photo. There were cykelkælder at all the metros.)

Inside the public rooms, you can see the weavings that were done for Queen Margrethe's 50th birthday. (And I thought a trip to Tanzania was an amazing gift!)  The 17 tapestries illustrate Danish history from the Viking Age to "the future." They were designed by a Danish artist, but woven in France over 10 years by 60 weavers. (And I thought my stitching took a long time!) Anyway, they weren't mounted until her 60th birthday. (Phew. I thought I was bad giving people late gifts.)

I put the dude in to give you a sense of the scale.

Close up. I have so many pictures of these tapestries but I don't want you to end up like these two.

 We visited Frederiksborg Castle, which is amazing, filled with treasures. (Including a 400 year old organ that they play once a week, which coincided with our visit!) They had an exhibition of clothes that were knitted based on a design found somewhere in the castle. It was fascinating! I couldn't take pictures with my camera (stupid flash) so I used my phone and the pictures aren't great, but you can see how stunning this pieces are.

We also visited Kronborg Castle. This is the castle in which Shakespeare set Hamlet. I was so psyched to go here because during the summer they have actors staging Hamlet in the place where it was set! Oh, I was in heaven. But then it turned out they only did some of the famous speeches, on a timed schedule. It seemed somehow cheesy. And then during the "To Be" speech, Hamlet said an extra word. DUDE, IT IS IAMBIC PENTAMETER, YOU CANNOT THROW IN EXTRA WORDS. NOT ONE SYLLABLE.

But then I looked around. The castle is nearly empty. There are only a handful of rooms with period furniture and some paintings. (So, the opposite of Frederiksborg.)

And my mindset changed a bit. This was a set. And the cheesiness was part of the experience. It is totally camp. And then I decided it was pretty awesome. Our tour ended in two rooms displaying photos of actors who had played Hamlet at Kronborg, and all seemed right with the world. 

In a little bower off Queen Gertrude's room, they had this frame set up with crewel work. I think you could try it out. Nice touch. 

Our Airbnb in Copenhagen had this piece in the bathroom. I'm guessing the Google translation is missing some nuances, perhaps idioms.

"Here I have been sitting so many days/
And dreamed the happiness of the world/
Here I have deceived my mind behind/
And dump it all a piece."

I am going out on a limb to say that "dump" has the same double entendre as it would in English.

From Copenhagen we went to Ribe, Denmark's oldest city, but I didn't take any fiber-related photos there. From Ribe, we went up to Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city. The ARoS Art Museum  was fantastic! We liked it even better than Louisiana. As you can see from this photo, there is a giant fabric sculpture, er excuse me, textile installation, hanging right in the middle of the museum, Valkyrie Rán by Joana Vasconcelos. You can watch a video about it here. She has 50 people working in her studio. (No wonder I get so few projects done! Where are my minions?)

Anyway, I was quite taken with it.

So was the dude.

From Aarhus, we went up to Skagen where you can go to the very end of Denmark. There I am standing between the North Sea and the Straits of Denmark.

We went to the Skagen Museum. Skagen (pronounced like you are trying to say both vowels in skein,as in yarn) produced some amazing artists, known as the Skagen School. They say there is a quality to the light, particularly at dusk, but since we took a picture of the sunset at 10:10 pm, we weren't seeing the beach at dusk. However, we did see this felt installation.  (There was another one at the Denmark Design Museum, but I am finding no information about who did it. Both were in places where sound would be a problem, and I would not put it past the Danes to do something like this for acoustics.

On our train journey back to Copenhagen, I got a text from Delta that they were offering a weather waiver if we wanted to change our flight. The weather on the east coast of the US was supposed to be super bad last Friday, the day we were set to fly. My aunt works for Delta, so I texted her. She said, "Do it NOW." So we had an extra day in Copenhagen. We went to the aforementioned Danish Design Museum. There was a ton of Danish modern stuff, which the dude duly photographed. (Me looking at chairs, mostly.) But they had a room that included needlework.

And below the display, drawers and drawers of needlework. I only photographed the cross stitch, but there was lace and whitework as well.

(This piece from 1733.)

1784

That fabric is dyed black!

Memorial.

There was also a wonderful exhibit of  Erik Mortensen a Danish designer for the French fashion houses Balmain and Scherrer. The exhibit was called "I am Black Velvet," but you know how well black velvet photographs.

The absolute highlight of our trip was the Dine with Danes program. For a fee, the organization matches you up with some Danes. You go to their house and eat dinner and chat. We're pretty introverted, so we need this kind of extra help. The couple we were matched with were a little older (recently retired) but we had much in common otherwise. I can't say enough about this experience! We should do this everywhere!

And good news, people, I stitched!

Take a Trip with Me

At the beginning of June we went on a little trip. The dude hadn't been anywhere since December, and he needed a break. I planned a long weekend to Pittsburgh. I know it doesn't sound glamorous, but it was a great trip. I'm enamored with the city.

We visited a number of museums and the like: The Mattress Factory, Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Natural History (great dinosaurs!), The National Aviary*, and the Andy Warhol Museum. At the latter, I took two photos for you. I always take textile photos for you!

The first is a national costume worn by Andy's mother. You can tell someone's region by the costume, but I'm only expert enough to know that much and not which area she was from. (Although it probably said somewhere on one of those little cards.)

These pants were embroidered by Claes Oldenburg's then-wife on the occasion of Warhol's first exhibition. I love that she has "exhibition" written right where it counts. (In the cabinet she's only identified as "Patty," but her name was Patty Mucha). (In fact, she sewed a lot of Oldenburg's soft sculptures.) (Which means she did the grunt work. Trained as an artist and she did the grunt work. Sigh.)

If you are looking for a good restaurant, go to Tako. 

On our way out of town, we went to Fallingwater. I've wanted to go for forever. It was awesome, and now I want to go to other FLW buildings. (I'm up to three including Hollyhock House and the Guggenheim Museum.) I am, however, glad I did not have to deal with Frank Lloyd Wright as my architect.

* I did not know there was a national aviary (bird zoo**) in Pittsburgh. In many of the exhibits the birds are loose and flying around you or walking right up to you. It is awesome, you should go. 

** I'm sure you don't need the help, but I kept saying we went to an aviary and people gave me the puzzled look, so I started saying bird zoo.

Smithsonian Yarnbomb

(or, "Best Pal Made It Tuesday")

I've had a special request from best pal. We both hope you will share this information widely.

She worked on the yarnbomb of the Smithsonian! How cool is that?

The project was in aid of Japanese performance and installation artist Chuharu Shiota's new installation at the Sackler Gallery. "Haunted by the traces that the human body leaves behind, the work amasses personal memories of lost individuals and past moments through an accumulation of discarded shoes and notes collected by the artist." If you look at the photos here, it will become clear why the yarnbomb is done all in red.

This exhibit will be on view through June 7, 2015. If you are in Washington, DC you should go. And if you can't get there, you can read about the shoes here. But you should go. When was the last time you went to D.C.?

So We Went Away

Walking in Stanley Park

The dude and I went up to Vancouver. We hiked, ate loads of Asian foods from across the continent, and relaxed. We had a fabulous time! I got some stitching done on the flight out but I'm afraid I had my nose in a book the rest of the time.

Precolumbian!

If you ever get to Vancouver, you should head out to the University of British Columbia. The campus isn't much to look at; we took a picture in front of the chemistry building and captioned it, "Sentenced to four years at UBC." However, MOA (the Museum of Anthropology) is unbelievable in the depth and breadth of the collection. There are hundreds of thousands of ethnographic and archaeological objects from native peoples from all over the world, with a special focus on the First Nations of the northwest. An extraordinary number of items are on exhibit or available to see when you pull open a drawer (there's glass). I bring you a photo of Precolumbian textiles. Let that sink in. Precolumbian...textiles. How are they not completely disintergrated? The dude pointed to the big, stripey fragment in the middle, and said, "Kate Spade." True, but hilarious in that the dude is so not a brand name guy. But just when I think he is paying no attention, he surprises me. Family lore says we are part Cree, so I used the available computer database to find some of the Cree items in the holdings. I guess I was awestruck by the beadwork because I didn't take any pictures.

I hear the university also has a nice botanical garden but we were at MOA all day and had no time to spare for that. (It's okay, we went to Butchart Gardens and the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden instead.) I hope you've been making exciting summer discoveries too!

Reports from Around the Web

Coral, our South African (former?) blogging friend sent me this link about a giant Star Wars tapestry. She was put off by calling it a tapestry since that is weaving and this thirty foot Star Wars embroidery is done in cross-stitch. Tapestry is weaving. However, since the Bayeux Tapestries are embroidered (and thus not technically tapestries) are the most famous tapestries going, I'm willing to cut some slack. Also 30-foot Star Wars embroidery. Also, $20,000.

CinDC, our friend at Pencils Crossing, sent this story of a recently unearthed stitchery. It's incredible how it brings together the dude's interests (19th century workhouses) and mine (embroidery).  Also the embroidery was found in County Durham, where the dude is from. You can read more about the Frayed exhibit here. And if you are in or near Norwich, why haven't you gone to see it yet?

Our Long Russian Winter

This is the Deruta Biscornu, as charted
Started Thursday

I am dragging today. I think it's the weather. I am tired of winter, and even though I tried to break up with him, he's stalking me. I know there are people who have it worse (like Minnesota and Michigan, among others) but it's all what you're used to, right? And I am not used to having this many days back to back that don't even get above freezing. I suppose at some point in my life, I was, but all those years in Los Angeles taught me to love the sun. But I sound like my grandmother (the boring one, not Maggie) going on about the weather like this!

Good news...I wrote a note to the shop that didn't send me an order confirmation, (they had a good reason) and they are giving me a refund for the patterns I double-bought. Yay!

This weekend was busy-ish. On Friday night, I went and stamped. It was just a tiny group of us, but I did stamp some masculine birthday cards this month, as I promised I would. (Photos someday.)

On Saturday, I was out in the snow talking to a prospective volunteer for my animal group about our marketing department but it turns out she doesn't want to work on marketing. (So glad I got out of my pajamas for that.) Then I just hunkered down. Even the dude is done with winter. He called the snow "white poop" and was ranting and raving. It was hilarious, only because he is normally so even-tempered about everything (even the things that should make him rant and rave) (and I don't think I've ever heard him use the word "poop"). I managed to start Two Fine Houses, by Hands to Work. I enjoyed working on that.

Sunday, we headed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my niece to see the Vermeer, Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, which is on loan from a private collection. This was her Christmas present--with a Vermeer book and the Girl with a Pearl Earring novel. I think she was a bit disappointed because she didn't get to see Girl with a Pearl Earring. (The heartbreaking thing about that is she was actually in New York on the last day the Girl was at the Frick.) Nevertheless, I think she enjoyed herself--it's so hard to tell with teenagers.

But! Because I seem to attract museum-goers with bad manners, I saw a man rub his hand on a  500 year old painting. I'm assuming that hundred or even thousands of people manage to acquit themselves properly in a museum, so how is it I witness so many of these transgressions? (I reported him. I was prepared to point him out, but the guards were way more concerned about the painting than the patron.)

So how was your weekend?

Silk Road with Felt Feet

Today was the dude's other "use it or lose it" holiday. Instead of the movies, we took in the Silk Road exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropolgy, the exhibition that almost wasn't.

Of course, this was the visit that almost wasn't. At about 4:30 this morning, Stella fell out of her bed (a chair and ottomon in our bedroom). Anyway, I was worried she'd been injured, perhaps too injured for daycare, since she retreated to her crate and kept licking her elbow. We went in anyway and they promised to watch  for signs of injury and have some private play sessions with her if she was unable to run with the big dogs, as it were. I'm so glad I didn't stay home. She dragged the keeper to the play area as if she'd slept the whole night in her bed, and no one ever noticed a problem. (Right now she's laying next to me, and she hasn't moved in the last four hours.)

The mummies-- including the "The Beauty of Xiaohe"--were supposedly the big draw (btw, that guy's not a mummy, but he is wearing some serious threads) because they exhibit Caucasoid features. It was so interesting to learn about the Tarim Basin where 28 different languages were used and a host of religions were practiced side by side with people coming from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa to trade. The cultural exchange was remarkable (according to what they told me in the audio tour anyway).

I was completely fascinated by the textiles. (You can see some of them here.) They had a couple of interactive displays about fabrics, one where you held fabric under a shelf and it appeared on a screen as if you had it under a microscope. We looked at the the silk  brocade, two types of wool, and some felt. Then just for giggles, I held various pieces of my own clothing under it. I don't know why I was so fascinated. Actually all of the interactive displays turned adults into curious children. You should have seen this older man in a business suit playing with the computer that demonstrated the evolution (movement, exchange) of words important on the Silk Road. On the other side of the room from the fabric microscope, they had a little comparison of silk and wool felt (the two main types of fabric found in the burial areas). Which would you rather wear on your feet in the winter? You could lay the fabric swatches over this square of unusually cold metal to determine the answer. But what would you rather wear to protect yourself from prickly things in the forest? They had both fabrics laid over some kind of bristly material. Beyond that, I saw dozens of textiles and pieces of clothing that were between 2000 and 4000 years old. Like this wall hanging that had been sewn onto a pair of trousers. Or a little child's dress, which would be totally fashionable today, that had been resewn to make it bigger. (Today's upcyclers can bite it--that was invented ages ago.) I could babble on, or you could read this article (pdf) about the textiles written by a real expert.

I've got to catch up on the sleep I lost worrying about a dog who fell out of bed.

That Piecework Biscornu

You saw that biscornu that won the PieceWork Excellence in Needle Arts Awards pincushion contest, right? (If not, it's over there <---.) Well, the new PieceWork has the directions for a companion piece, the Blackberry Truffel Tuffet, which I like a little better because it's a little less gaudy. Just a smidge.

You might want to put your thinking cap on because they've announced the 2009 contest: brooches. I can't find the rules online (duh) but I seem to recall that the deadline is April 1. Or thereabouts.

Also they reminded me that you should come to Philadelphia. PMA is exhibiting quilts from Gee's Bend. This exhibit has traveled across America, but this is the last stop. It closes December 14. PMA also recently opened a whole new building devoted to costume and textiles. (You should look through those pages because there is a lot of interesting information about how they created the new storage for the bags and hats and textiles that textile geeks can deeply appreciate. You will also see how absurdly some project conservators dress. Pay attention. There will be a quiz.)

While you're here, you can take the short trip to Lancaster to see Rags to Rugs: Pennsylvania Hooked and Handsewn Rugs at the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum; there's lots to see in that area for textile enthusiasts. And eat.

Sneaking In

Although we had the wrong map for Winterthur on Friday, we did manage to get there on Sunday, the last day of the quilt exhibit. We were disappointed to learn that the exhibit was sold out when we arrived twenty minutes after they opened. It was also the Garden Faire, so the place was packed. We decided just to tour the house and then check out the fair.

Because of the special event, the house was open without tour guides. Each room had a docent, and you could spend as much time in each room as you wanted (unlike on the tour). DD is a curious soul and she comes up with lots of great questions. When we were in the Empire Room talking to a docent, an older woman (mid-sixties) picked up a piece of china that was on display to check out the mark on the bottom. In a museum! She touched something! Everyone noticed and when the docent saw the looks on our faces, her head practically spun off her neck, "Ma'am, ma'am, you cannot touch that!" The woman puts the place setting down and with a flick of her wrist says, "I know." Apparently, you do not!

Later, in the dining room, we were asking the docent about the china (okay, it was all DD). "Is there any American china?" "Why yes," the docent tells us. "Tucker porcelain was made in Philadelphia with Pennsylvania clay for about ten years in the early nineteenth century. We have some in the Empire Room--it's laid out for tea service." "Oh that's the one that woman picked up!" "Someone touched it? I have never touched anything in the museum! That is going to be all the talk in the lounge." No kidding.

When we were disappointed that the quilt exhibit was sold out, they told us that there were over 40 quilts we could see in the exhibit hall. They gave us some convoluted instructions, so we sent the dude upstairs to see if he could find them; "up here," he calls. So we walk through looking at quilts; admiring them all; explaining to the dude the difference between piecing and quilting, how a quilt is made, what a whole cloth quilt is, etc. I kept thinking, "this is more than 40 quilts." Well, it turns out, we snuck into the quilt exhibit! But I don't feel very bad about it at all: we didn't touch anything! You'd think I'd just be talking about the woman in the Empire Room, but no. We also witnessed a pair of women flip up one of the quilts that was displayed on a bed and rub their grubby hands all over it. It was like they wanted to leave their DNA. They were really going to town! What is the matter with people? Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? You can tell the stitchers, though; they want to get real close, to point with their hands millimeters away from the fabric, but they do. not. touch. Not at all. No greasy finger gets near other people's fabric--even when the other people have been dead for years.