Local Quilting Artist

Ms. Cindy Grisdela is a fabulous artist - making incredible quilts that have nothing to do with what your grandmother made. She has all hand dyed vibrant fabrics and she free forms the stitching. Mostly it is geometric, but she did have a few which represented flowers. I thought her geometric and swirled pieces were the best, but art is an evolution, isn't it?

Ms. Grisdela works in Reston, VA. She makes me think of another artist I featured Ms. Judith Trager, though the colors are different and Ms. Trager's are not confined to the rectangular shape. Ok, ok, maybe the only similarity is that they are quilters....!

I saw this piece at the Washington Craft Show over the Halloween weekend this year. The colors are incredibly vibrant and the amount of stitching is impressive.

Here is what she says for herself on her own web site:

I’m intrigued by color and the way colors interact with one another. Color is such an exciting part of life--the red of a perfectly ripe strawberry, the deep blue of a summer sky, the russets and golds of fall leaves--all enhance our experience of the world. I like to use fabric the way a painter might use paint to create a mood, develop a contrast, or explore an idea.

Much of my recent work employs improvisational cutting and piecing techniques where the design evolves organically as the process unfolds. Because there's no pattern to follow, seeing the interplay of color and design is integral to my creative process. Fiber art is exciting to me because it offers a tactile quality beyond the color and line of a design. Once I’ve played with the colors and the fabric in the pieced top, I have another opportunity to add dimension to my work by quilting the layers together with whimsical free motion quilting—a process I like to think of as drawing with a needle and thread.

I use vibrant color and bold graphic design to create contemporary art quilts that have a strong visual impact as art for the wall.

I hope you enjoy your visit and come back often. I update my blog regularly with news and new work in process.

My work is represented by Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ and Chasen Galleries in Richmond, VA, and I have studio space at the Artists' Atelier at 1144 Walker Road, Suite G, Great Falls, VA. Open hours are 12-4 PM Wednesday and Saturday, or by appointment.

Home decor and gift items, like pillows, journals, and eyeglass cases, are available through my shop on Etsy.com.

Contact me if you are interested in commissioning a unique wall piece for a special place in your home or office, or if you're interested in having me talk about my work to your group.

Heirloom Pieces of Jewelry

I have chatted about things that I have that were once owned by family members and not knowing what to do with them. I have discussed the problems of shadow boxes and silver here. Well, I have found a solution for pieces of jewelry which seem dated, not timeless.

Marianne Hunter made a presentation at the Washington Craft Show. Given I was not looking for jewelry at the show, I was very happy that I listened to her present what she does. I will confess that I do not love her 'Kabuki Kachinas' - but they are precious, beautiful pieces of art. You can see one standing on top of a beautiful wooden vase created by her husband - William Hunter. Marianne is primarily an enamelist, but she also works in gold and precious gems - and gems which she takes from estate jewelry.

Ms. Hunter indicted that she will do commissions - so an old piece of family jewelry can be re-imagined into something current and also meaningful. She indicated that for one commission she took several family pieces and incorporated them in to a collar for a client - using her enameling skills to tell the story of the current family.


I took this from her web page. This shows a piece she made from a client's pin - she made the rest around the original pin which one can see in the heart of the piece.


Here is an example of her Kabuki Kachina - but I guess this one's colors spoke to me more than some of the others, though they are all exquisite.


This is her card - but it shows a piece of gold from World War I illustrating the need to are for the orphans left behind because of the war. She used diamonds to hold the medal in to place.

I loved her solution to estate or old fashioned jewelry.

Day Light Savings & Poslam Ointment

Poslam is no longer made - it seems to have been for rashes.
I assume Paul Knox is someone he knows, but might not be overly fond of. Or maybe he is famous, I just don't know.
The firm is Pomeroy Case, on Wall Street.

April 30^th (1918)

Dear Mother

I don’t see just why you don’t hear from me more often. It certainly is never five weeks between my letters. At any rate “no news is good news” because bad news always travels fast enough from here.

I got your letter of March 31^st yesterday. The first mail I’ve had in about two weeks, so I expect there will be a lot of it coming in pretty soon.

I didn’t know they were going to have daylight savings in the States. Of course they’ve had it here in France for some time. The clocks were moved ahead about March 1^st here. It really does save daylight, too, because its still quite bright almost up to nine o’clock in the evening on a clear day.

I wish you would keep up on sending me the parts of the “Sun” that you sent before – the magazine and pictorial sections. The record I don’t care much about because you clip the stuff about people I know. I was glad to see that Tom is getting along all right – but he certainly did get an awful smashing up – didn’t he. One thing pleased me – they got the honorable Paul Knox in the draft. It just tickles me to see some chaps like him get dragged in.

Please send me a box of Poslam ointment. You can’t get it here + it comes in very handy. It comes in a little tin box enclosed in a manila envelope and you can put it in one of your letters. By the time you get this it will be about time to send me some more tobacco, too, because what I have will have run out.

By the way, do you hear from the firm every month? You haven’t spoken of it in some time. I've written two or three letters to Mr. Friedman + expect to write again this week. However they’ve probably been delayed just like yours. I’m anxious to hear from him how business is now that I can’t drop in the office + see for myself.

The weather has improved a bit lately but it’s still pretty rainy. I’m in my usual good health. In fact, I never felt better – haven’t had so much as a slight cold.

Love to all,

Herb

The Red Baron and friends & family

Presumably Herb doesn't know this, but the day before he writes this letter the Australians shoot down the famous Red Baron.  The History Channel tells it this way:

In the well-trafficked skies above the Somme River in France, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the notorious German flying ace known as the Red Baron," is killed by Allied fire on April 21, 1918.

Richthofen, the son of a Prussian nobleman, switched from the German army to the Imperial Air Service in 1915. By 1916, he was terrorizing the skies over the Western Front in an Albatross biplane, downing 15 enemy planes by the end of the year, including one piloted by British flying ace Major Lanoe Hawker. In 1917, Richthofen surpassed all flying-ace records on both sides of the Western Front and began using a Fokker triplane, painted entirely red in tribute to his old cavalry regiment. Although only used during the last eight months of his career, it was this aircraft with which Richthofen was most commonly associated and that led to an enduring English nickname for the German pilot—the Red Baron.

On April 21, 1918, with 80 victories under his belt, Richthofen led his squadron of triplanes deep into Allied territory in France on a search for British observation aircraft. The flight drew the attention of an Allied squadron led by Canadian Royal Air Force pilot Captain Arthur Roy Brown. As Richthofen pursued a plane piloted by Brown's compatriot, Wilfred R. May, the Red Baron ventured too far into enemy territory and too low to the ground. Two miles behind the Allied lines, just as Brown caught up with Richthofen and fired on him, the chase passed over an Australian machine-gun battery, whose riflemen opened fire. Richthofen was hit in the torso; though he managed to land his plane alongside the road from Corbie to Bray, near Sailley-le-Sac, he was dead by the time Australian troops reached him. Brown is often given credit for downing Richthofen from the air, though some claimed it was actually an Australian gunner on the ground who fired the fatal shot; debate continues to this day.

Manfred von Richthofen was buried by the Allies in a small military cemetery in Bertangles, France, with full military honors. He was 25 years old at the time of his death. His body was later moved to a larger cemetery at Fricourt. In 1925, it was moved again, at the behest of his brother, Karl Bolko, this time to Berlin, where he was buried at Invaliden Cemetery in a large state funeral. In a time of wooden and fabric aircraft, when 20 air victories ensured a pilot legendary status, the Red Baron downed 80 enemy aircraft and went down in history as one of the greatest heroes to emerge from World War I on either side of the conflict.

On smaller matters - I don't know who Aunt Ann might be, nor do I recognize Miss Pearsall, but I can follow my cousin Chuck's lead and do a little Ancestry.com research for folks living near by. And we have another mention of Marine... I suspect she is younger than Herb by a bit, but who is she? Apparently she is important enough to have had her photograph sent to Herb, mentioned here. Might she be a friend of Margaret or Olive?

April 22 (1918)

Dear Mother,

Just a few lines to let you know that I am quite all right. Everything I just as usual very quiet – and one day is quite like another. I guess Spring must have come because many of the trees are partially leaved out and some of the fruit trees are in bloom but it still continues pretty raw and rains most every day.

I had a post card from Aunt Ann a few days ago and a letter from Karolyn but none from you for ten days or so. I wrote to Miss Pearsall the other day.

We are getting the Paris edition of the London Daily Mail every day now so I’m keeping up on the news. The war seems to be going very satisfactorily, but Lord, I do wish it would move faster. This life seems to suit some of the boys very well, but I’ll never be happy till I see the well known Statue of Liberty looming in to sight.

How’s Harry making out? Have him write me + tell me all about it. You know I wrote him when I thought he was still in Indiana but I suppose by the time that letter arrived he was back home.

Love to all,

Herb

That letter from Marine was a peach. Tell her to write me some more.

Herb

French toothpaste and a new 'Bunkie'

According to the History Channel, the Germans capture Helsinki during this week. And while Herb is writing this letter, the British are evacuating Passchendaele Ridge. I read a little about this area here. Apparently for some, the battle to win the Ridge is as infamous as the Somme. I am learning new things.


April 15th (1918)
Dear Mother,

I haven’t had any letters in a week or so but day before yesterday the mail man very kindly brought my package of tobacco all intact. I certainly was glad to get it, too. Nothing could possibly be more acceptable.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary routine around here. The weather has been very bad lately – rain every day and mud everywhere of course. I don’t have to be out in it much so it’s not so bad but a little sunshine would be very acceptable. However May will soon be here.

The Sector has been very quiet lately and there have been very few wounded coming in, so we don’t have very much to do.

I have a new “Bunkie” now, the French clerk. He’s an awfully nice chap, a Parisian and we get along together very nicely. He speaks very fair English, too, and we are helping each other out. A few weeks ago he went to Paris on leave. While he was there the trains that take men on leave back and forth were discontinued and he spent a bad two weeks returning. He certainly was glad to get here, so there must be lots worse places than this. I’d certainly rather be here than in some American base camp. A month of that was enough for me. Of course it’s nice to be with a lot of Americans and the Y.M.C.A.’s help a lot but up here we’re much freer in every way.

By the way the next time you send me a package of tobacco or anything send a few tubes of toothpaste. I’ve enough to last quite a while but I don’t want to have to resort to this French stuff. It tastes all right I know, because I’ve sampled it but it doesn’t clean.

Love to all,
Herb.

Mail caught up and Herb has some news from home

Harry and his bad fortune. It would be interesting if I could learn more about Harry from another source. I wish I had my great grandmother's letters to Herb.

Bunco - is that a dice game? I have a friend who really enjoys it. Wait, but a Google search suggests that bunco is "a swindle or confidence trick."

I wonder why Karolyn had to leave nursing or X-rays in Bridgeport. Hmmm.

We learned lots about Thomas M. Nial here - thanks to my cousin Chuck.

April 10th (1918)
Dear Mother,

I’m well up on news now because the mail man brought a sack full today. I got eight – three from you and five from Karolyn. However, no packages, but now that we’ve gotten our back letters I have some hope.

I was frightfully sorry to hear about Harry’s bad fortune. He certainly has tough luck, poor kid. I do hope that it won’t discourage him. At any rate, he isn’t to blame. I seem to remember that Bob Enfield of whom you spoke though I haven’t seen him since I was in High School. I’d like to have the scoundrel who works that bunco game by the collar. The postal authorities ought to camp on his trail. Still that doesn’t help matters any for us. However, that much bad luck can’t last forever, and it does seem as if Harry has had enough for a while. I hope so.

Karolyn writes that she is in the Arsenal office though of course you probably know that. I’m glad she has something to do because she took it pretty hard that she had to leave Bridgeport.

Have you ever heard how badly Tom was hurt? I certainly hope that his recovery won’t leave him crippled in any way. Remember me to his mother when you see her, and ask her for his address for me. I’ll write him from here.

I am looking forward to a letter from you with account of Chas’s visit. What ever did persuade him to take a vacation?

I’m glad you sent me some papers. Nothing could be more acceptable. Any sort of English reading material is priceless here.

Things here are just as usual. There has been lots of rain and wind but my hip boots are a good protection. Every week we get a hot shower bath and that’s a great comfort. The food is uniformly good – much better than we used to get in the States. The great battle is still going on somewhere west of us. I hope it will be the last. So far I think the Germans have won nothing to compensate for their great losses of men. It certainly looks as if they were staking everything on one last play. The French are grave but confident. Paris pays little attention to the shells which continue to drop in the city.

There’s no telling when I’ll ever be able to go on leave. At any rate I shan’t be allowed in Paris so I won’t see Mr. Rankin’s friend.

Love to all,
Herbert

Charcoal's Gourmet Burgers in New Orleans

Charcoal's is a fun little burger joint on Magazine Street. Upstairs there is a balcony overlooking the street, which on warm nights (and Mardi Gras), I should imagine is quite pleasant.

I particularly liked it because one can get burgers made of animals such as bison, antelope, deer (venison) and elk - not to mention the 'normal' burgers such as shrimp, salmon, beef, turkey, etc.

They didn't blink when I asked for my burger to come without a bun and even suggested making it a lettuce wrap - which I thought was quite decent of them. (Obviously chefs and waitstaff are running in to people who are trying be eat gluten-free.) They also have alcohol-free beer for those of us who are not yet gluten-free, but are also trying to cut out alcohol. What a cluster F, eh?

Anyway, they can be found at 2200 Magazine Street. Good for a casual, but different burger.

Birthday for a member in my German Family Tree

Auguste Louise Henriette Charlotte Busse

A 2nd cousin 4 times removed....

But today is her birthday.

I am trying to include her family tree, but it may not be working...

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Discussions of War and a request for more magazines and tobacco

See below for what I found on the History Channel web site about this time in 1918. it also seems that Ferdinand Foch became the supreme Allied commander at this time, too.

Herb is still in Bouvancourt, Marne, France.

April 4th (1918)
Dear Mother,
I skipped my regular letter day this time because we’ve been cast off from mail communication through some mix up – I don’t know just what. Now the mail goes out but none comes in. so I haven’t had your letter telling of Tom’s accident nor my package of tobacco. However I expect the mail will come any day now.

There has been little or no activity on our front. Every energy has been excited on the main battle of which you have read. It certainly must have been terrific. Let us hope that it may be decisive.

A few days ago the French anti-aircraft guns brought down a German plane which was attacking a French observation balloon. “Sausages” the French call those balloons because that’s what they look like. The German plane was completely wrecked and the driver was killed, of course. It all happened fairly near here but of course I was all over in a few minutes. No one felt sorry for the Boche because on Good Friday one of the German long range guns dropped a shell on a church in Paris during services inflicting frightful damage.

As for myself, I am as usual, well and still getting fat, I guess. We’re getting really good food, fresh vegetables and everything. The government makes us a good allowance and we can buy whatever sort of food we like – and can get.

I wish you’d send me a supply of tobacco about every five or six weeks. It’s practically impossible to smoke the French article and entirely impossible to buy any American variety. As for reading matter, I can use all the magazines you can send.

Love to all,
Herb

I took this from the History Channel's web site about March 30th, 1918:

On March 30, 1918, British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the German offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies.

After launching the first stage of a major spring offensive on March 21, 1918--masterminded by Erich Ludendorff, chief of the German general staff--the German army swiftly pushed through the British 5th Army along the Somme, crossing the river on March 24. Their attacks were less successful to the north, however, around the crucially important Vimy Ridge, where Britain's 3rd Army successfully held its positions. Determined to push on toward Paris, Ludendorff threw his troops against the town of Amiens. To Ludendorff's distress, although they came within 11 miles of the city, the Germans had great difficulty capturing Amiens and its railway junction, which the British and French were told to hold at all costs. Lacking sufficient cavalry, the Germans also had problems delivering artillery and supplies to their front-line troops; those troops also received no relief, and were expected to sustain the momentum of the attack all on their own.

By the morning of March 30, the Germans had occupied Moreuil Wood, some 20 kilometers south of Amiens. On that day, an Allied force including British and Canadian cavalry and air brigades confronted the Germans head-on. By the end of the day, the Allies had managed to halt the German advance at Moreuil Wood, despite suffering heavy casualties.

The events at Moreuil Wood broke the momentum of the German attacks. While the operation had technically been successful, resulting in a gain of almost 40 miles of territory and inflicting heavy losses on the Allies; 177,739 British troops died or were taken prisoner during the battle, at a daily rate of 11,000 men, while the French lost nearly 80,000; German troops had also lost over a quarter of a million men to injury or death. The casualties included Ludendorff's own stepson, a German pilot shot down over the battlefield during the attacks. Ludendorff called off the attacks on April 5; the next stage of the offensive would begin just four days later.

By early April 1918, both the Allies and the Central Powers had entered a crucial period of reckoning. A major German victory on the Western Front would mean the end of the war, in their favor. As British Prime Minister David Lloyd George told the leaders of the British Dominions in a speech on March 31: "The last man may count." The Allies, at least, could count on fresh infusions from the United States, which increased its troops in France to more than 300,000 by the end of that month. For their part, the Germans were prepared to wager everything they had on this spring offensive—the last they would undertake in World War I.

On the actual day Herb was writing his letter home and missing his mail, the History Channel claims this was occurring:

On this day in 1918, German forces in the throes of a major spring offensive on the Western Front launch a renewed attack on Allied positions between the Somme and Avre Rivers.

The first stage of the German offensive, dubbed "Operation Michael," began March 21, 1918; by the first days of April it had resulted in a gain of almost 40 miles of territory for the Germans, the largest advance in the west for either side since 1914. After initial panic, the Allies had managed to stabilize and strengthen their defense, stopping the Germans at Moreau Wood on March 30 and continuing their hardy defense of the crucial railroad junction and town of Amiens, France, just south of the Somme.

With a bombardment by more than 1,200 guns and a total of 15 divisions sent against only seven of the enemy's, the Germans attacked in force at Villers-Bretonneux on April 4. Again, British and Australian troops reacted with panic in the face of such an onslaught, but soon rallied to drive back their attackers. At the same time, French divisions made their own advances along the front running between the towns of Castel and Cantigny, to the south of Villers-Bretonneux.

Also on April 4, German military officials announced that their attacks in the Somme region had claimed a total of 90,000 Allied prisoners since March 21. The following day, Erich Ludendorff, chief of the German general staff, formally closed down the Michael offensive; the second phase of the attacks, "Georgette," would begin four days later in Flanders.

New Orleans, Genealogy & Fiber Art

I was walking down Magazine Street in New Orleans when I saw a couple dresses in the window of an Optometrist. And they were spectacular dresses - silver silk painted with images of Paris, if I remember correctly. Drew me right in. A very nattily dressed man with fabulous frames and maybe even white buckskin shoes was standing outside. He and I started chatting and he was incredibly friendly. I mentioned this stroll down Magazine earlier in my post here as I discussed Theordore B. Starr silver.

I'm afraid this happened in March of this year, so I don't remember all the details, but it made an impression on me. That is when I learned that New Orleans has a burgeoning fashion week - which in 2014 was in March. But I digress.

I was charmed by the fashion and I was charmed by the artist's name - Starr Hagenbring. Starr claims that she is not aware of having Starr as a family name in her family; in fact, it was a family friend from Philadelphia, if I recall. So, drawn in by that too....


One can see the art in Ms. Hagenbring's creations - they are magnificent pieces.


Ms. Hagenbring loves silk organza - a fabric I have not yet screwed up the courage to use.


Here one can see some of the painting she does on the fabric.

She is a spectacular artist with studios in both New Orleans and New York City.