Folklife Festival Peru... part one

This is the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.
The Smithsonian Museum sponsors the yearly Folklife Festival on the mall. This year they are focusing on the country of Peru.
I took lots of pix for you to enjoy. Please grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy the show.

The Festival covers as much as possible of the culture including architecture, religion, food, crafts, storytelling, lifestyle, language, dance music and more. Many people came from Peru this year to share their lives with us.

There was a lot of mud on this day, so fashion stopped at the feet!
I am standing beneath a balcony with a costumed figure. There is an enormous festival each year and homes are included in the parade as people dress up and become part of the event.
I became overwhelmed so didn't write down the name of the parade but I think it's  Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen de Paucartambo

Some of the things carried by people are represented here.
To the left are enormous candles highly decorated in many bright colors. In fact color is celebrated throughout the country.

Remember you can click on any picture to see details. See the woven mat? It seems to be in every building, and is woven by hand of course.

There are so many similarities among cultures and their festivals. Really that has become apparent over the 20 years we've been attending this Folklife Festival, having seen so many countries and met so many of their citizens, I have noticed the similarities as well as the defining characteristics. Seems like each country has a circle dance that is social. Every country seems to have some kind of dumpling type food. Every country embellishes their workday items and clothing in some way. Each country has artisans keeping heritage alive.

While waiting at this stage for the archery demonstration, a band of musicians and dancers sped through! Surprising all of the on lookers with their costumes, music, dance and speed. As soon as they arrived they left with all of us asking, "what was that!??" The archery demo had been canceled so I suppose they danced through!

Every country has instruments. There is a tent with various instruments as well as many performances where you can listen to folk music from different areas of Peru.

The following picture is a boat, like one recently seen on the tv show The Amazing Race.
I love that these kids are able to try it. I sure am happy not to be on one in the surf!

Seemed like kids all got along. From different families, and different religions, they just played together. You see that a lot at this festival.
This is a shot of a bridge being built in the foreground, with the monument behind at the other end of the mall.
What you see in DC is people from every part of the globe.
You hear many languages, see different clothing. They are all "playing" together respectful and engaged in the experience.
At the end of the warm day we decided to share a drink...

We gave up sugar months ago, so we did not have a Peruvian beer as we would have done in the past. We decided this was just mango juice and ice after all. It sure tasted sweet!
Two more posts to go, with lots of art and craft and color to excite and inspire you.

Start of the Folklife Festival

                                                                     Security Duck
Cole here... with the weather report.
I'll be the first one to admit I don't like rain. Messes up my naturally curly hair, plus the threat of lights going out. That sets off the mommy and no one likes an upset mommy.

Last week I had to be groomed and the less said about that the better. It's enough to say they touched my feet a lot, oy!
Then the guy mowed our lawn (loud) the carbon monoxide alarm went off (loud) it thundered (loud) and the power went out.   This weekend it merely flooded.

It all started off okay.
A light rain, Momma was beading while Dad played the guitar and I sang along.   In my head.

Hey, Dad, do you know "how much is that doggy in the window"?

Then Momma "needed" quilting supplies so we got in the car and drove to a new store.
 

Of course I went. Did I say it was raining?! I wasn't interested in staying home alone with that threat hanging over my head.

I thought I might find a great poodle print for a new bandana but no.

Momma found cool fabric of course, always. And a ruler she wanted. I got to pet the owner of the store
Prints Charming in Fulton MD. GREAT store! GREAT petting!

We then drove to see  a few houses for sale  but the rain picked up, and flooding began and we were lucky to make it out with our lives!! Due to some mighty fine driving by Dad, we drove through several rivers and lakes to get home. The next day I was tired! I didn't want to eat or walk.

I stayed home while the parental units went for another ride in the car.

LeeAnna here, sorry to take over Cole's post but he couldn't go with us to DC because he was creaky and it was hot and muddy from the floods. We went to Peru.
The Folklife Festival is going on at the mall in DC and Cole loves it there but...

This was the order of the day.

Cole would not have been able at 13 to do the heat, the mud, the dogs and kids, the crowds, and all the walking.

We decided if we go down for an evening concert and can park nearby he gets to go because he loves going there.



There were so many dogs there which is lovely that so many people want to spend time with their dogs!

We started the day with George here.

A standard poodle from PA, at least 5 inches taller than Cole, and 10+ pounds heavier.
A massive poodle, and funny and friendly.
No offense to other breeds, but the woman and I agreed  we are poodle people.

George is 2, and able to handle all the dogs and walking. He did make a run for it when another dog passed.

This sweetest golden took his chance to nap during a stage performance.

In the mud, behind his person, loud noise and crowds of people and dogs and kids, smells of food all around and us standing right next to him.

At one point he reached out and laid his head on MY foot!
I love dogs!


We saw just about every kind of breed and mix out there. I'll show you lots of cool pix of Peru this week, but leave you with a picture of this stylish dog, avoiding the gravel and mud with her boots. 

So sorry Cole couldn't go and report back this time, but in the end after all the walking we knew it would have stressed him. He wasn't eating and didn't want a morning walk. It's hard to accept your pup is getting older...

I'll do the dishes!

pattern source  Sew Precise software

"I'll do the dishes",  said noone excitedly ever.... til now!
Maybe I should say, "I'll make the dishes"  I actually made some real dishes when I went through my ceramics/pottery phase way back in the day. Anyway...
I had fun choosing scraps to make into this stack of 8 dessert dishes. If only I had a set of dishes like these!

Tennis rackets, stars, paisley, sweet 1950's checks.

I have a great mix of fabrics because my friends give me their throwaway scraps, always asking the question,
"are these too small" and the answer is usually
"uh, NO!"

Looking at these I think a number of them were actually from my own projects except for the tennis rackets.



Would you like some cream in your drink?

I printed this little fella a bit small but valiantly pieced it anyway. I didn't do all the piecing printed on, I angled off the edges more, and appliqued the handle with the thread on the machine already. I might have to go back in the end and amend that.

Only a few baby blue pieces this month but here they are together.

Blue Flamingos

This was the hardest challenge yet with the RSC2015.
Baby blue Flamingos. I wasn't sure I could achieve enough contrast to look right.
First of all, when I do anything with a color, I automatically put in many shades from light to dark of that color, so when the color is blue, I use baby to dark blue. Then the color for June was announced, light blue.

I had to really dig through the scrap bins for light blues that would contrast with the sky and water fabrics.

I went a bit turqoise-ish for this one.
I love it really!
Yea!

The visual texture in the fabric reminds me of feathers and the mix of sky fabrics keeps your eye moving.


Then there was this one...

I used the same fabric as on my last cow, for this and the fabric looks feathery in this, floral on the cow.
Perfect!

It's all in the placement and shadows of the part of the fabric you use. I kind of ran out and used a more teal one for the head then blended some teal pencil into the neck area to blend.

This time I used the cool aqua/blue batik for water.
It contrasts very well, and the legs really stand out.

I mean if you've got 'em, flaunt 'em! Right?

I still need to go back and do some yellow flamingos.

What I've learned doing these:
1. Color doesn't have to define an object,
2. I am loving seeing a flamingo develop in weird fun colors
3. Contrast is probably most important in definition of line/shape
4. I am already fretting about how I am going to set these critters
5. Those crabs gotta go in there somehow at the end!

All Creatures Great and Small....

Whew! Well, ya gotta laugh...
All God's creatures are recovering today from last night's storm that left us with downed trees, broken limbs, and without power for about 12 hours. Did I mention it was nearly 100 degrees with high humidity all day?
This morning we were happy to see the dawn and went to the porch for our morning coffee...

Well Cole didn't have coffee but was happy things had settled down a bit.

He was so exhausted from his "Very Bad Day" (his post will go up on Monday) that he didn't even care if all God's creatures came out for breakfast....

He just watched this squirrel, the squirrel watched him and the two of them said, "not today"

This squirrel was obviously as shell shocked as we all were. He posed for a pretty picture, then along with lots of birds I've never seen before went within a few feet of Cole's watchful eye in order to enjoy some seeds.

He was joined by a grackle that I swear was dogging him. Mostly the grackles avoid or ignore squirrels but this one really wanted to share a table.

The picture is grainy because I took it through the screen. They weren't far from Cole but there was some kind of unspoken moratorium on aggression this morning.

Then the squirrel, assuming it's the same squirrel... I admit to a lack of ability to tell one from another, climbed up on the A-frame swing and flopped down. And went to sleep.

It was a hard night for us. I can't imagine facing it high up in a tree with no roof to protect you. Seems like all little critters were happy to still be able to wake up this morning even if they might need a little nap later.

I had planned to show you the treasures I found shopping the last week but that will have to wait for another time.
This is filed under home and garden, if you enjoyed it look  for more posts HERE and don't be afraid to look back at the early ones for some great garden pix

Father's day poodle style

Cole here... It's father's day and I am here to tell you I have the very best human father possible.
We went out to lunch at Brio in Annapolis. They have a lovely patio with cool tile floors perfect for a dog to cool their jets on a hot summer day.

 

Momma, Dad and I sat at a great table, the server brought me a bowl of ice water while we looked at the menu.

We started with Shrimp on parm crispy eggplant and I enjoyed the shrimp. I could have made short work of that plate believe me!

Then my people had some salmon salad with asparagus and shoestring potatoes. I'm allergic to salmon so I had a snack of some food Dad brought from home. 

This is a good time to tell you what my Dad does for me. He is my favorite playmate because he gets down on all fours and plays keep away with me, he chases me in the yard, we walk together, he buys my food, lifts me into his car as I can't jump these days, feeds me, bathes me, pets me and holds me tight during thunderstorms.
Sometimes I watch him sleeping at night, standing next to his side of the bed staring at him. Momma suggests I go to bed and stop watching him so reluctantly I will lay down on my bed next to Dad.

After a good meal, and people watching and feeling a warm breeze on my hair, my people enjoyed some iced tea while I took a quick nap

I heard the people come in next to us, but all they said was "he's so good" not come and get a shrimp so I kept resting knowing we'd shop a bit after lunch. We all three hold 4+2+2 paws up for Brio!
After a shopping spree I went home to rest while Mom and Dad went to pick out his gift...

Funny, how did the store get a picture of dad??!!

Here he is trying out a traveling guitar, one smaller so it can be easily taken on trips. Dad started playing guitar at Christmas when he got one from Santa.
He loves it! He plays every day. Now both my people have hobbies, Momma sews and Dad runs and plays guitar.

I often lay outside the office door just listening to his practice and never tire of hearing strum strum strum pause...

Mommy showed me this picture and said if she played guitar, she'd like this one with a henna tatoo!

LeeAnna here
I would like this one, but I already have a ukulele I can't play, and a woodrow (sort of dulcimer ish) a flute, a keyboard that I want to learn first. I am also happy to listen to Drew strum strum strumming.

I would like to learn this someday

mandolins

banjo's

mandolin or banjo would be fun to play!

There are just so many things to learn in this life, so much to try and experience even without leaving your town. Don't get me started on all the books to read, the quilts to make, the paintings to do!

I love that Drew has awakened a love of music within himself. I love that he is the kind of man who continually learns and explores the world. He doesn't need to do dangerous activity to grow as a person.

so we ordered one of these. Be careful Drew or you'll have as many guitars as I do sewing machines!!
Back to Cole to tie up this Father's day 2015 with a bow...

My Dad gives me care, discipline, fun, and love.

He does all the things a good Dad could do.
 I have big shoes to fill!

He is proud of me and he loves me . He provides me with love and safety...
and teaches me to be the best poodle I can be

Here's to you Dad!
Shrimp for everyone! 


Linking to: 52-snapshots-father/

Little Boy Blue come blow your horn....

as the nursery rhyme goes, Little Boy Blue come blow your horn, the sheep's in the meadow the cow's in the corn.
The color for June is light blue at superscrappy and here is my baby blue cow.

pattern source

It was a challenge to make a baby blue cow since I already did a blue one. Also there are fewer light blue scraps in the bin than brights and darks but I managed. I wanted my girl to wear the checkered shirt so I had to piece the scrap! She's just a country girl after all!!

All the girls are made with flower prints, and I wanted to use this one as the soft mix of lavender and turquoise and blue are pretty.

Imagine my surprise to hang the finished block on the wall for pictures only to find the lavender section fell under her eyes making her look like she was up all night playing cow games!

I penciled in some light blue prisma color pencil.

Silly girl! She has to be up with the chickens for milking!

Then I played with the idea of an applique, first the flower, then one crow, then two crows

They are just hanging around now not sewn down, but their staring faces crack me up.
It's just so much fun to laugh at my own quilts!