Suzani from Central Asia

I bought this embroidery on eBay, where they called it a Suzani. It is a beautiful central flower with vines coming off it. I have not tested the backing or the fibers, but I think it is silk on cotton. There are two stitches used in the embroidery, chain stitch and packed back stitch, done by hand. I don't think it is newly made, there is some fading in the color between the front and the back.



It hangs in a protected corner of my office; I don't want it to fade any more. It's not symmetrical, more of the flowers in the top half are trimmed with yellow, in the bottom half more are trimmed with blue/green. It is a very elegant textile.

I had a couple of days off of work this week, and had a wonderful time. I went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens with my family. The gardens are breathtaking. I took tons of pictures, they don't do justice to the gorgeous views around every corner. I'm just including a couple of my favorites. There was a display of bonsai in one of the courtyards. They were amazing. This tree is so perfectly proportioned you would think it was hundreds of feet tall without the person (my dad) included for perspective.




This is a walkway between the rose garden and the English gardens. The kids (my grandkids) aren't very far away, but between such towering trees they look so tiny!



Nothing in the gardens is a "happy accident." Everything is planned and refined... and beautiful! I'm hoping to go back, since we saw a very small section.

I'm happy to announce that my granddaughter was able to take "Isabella" home with her. Isabella was staying with grandma until her new owner could be a "big girl" and that happy event was this past week. This is a picture of Isabella coming out of the box. C got to play with her every time she visited grandma, but now she got to take her home. C. is having a wonderful time with her.



Grandma is having fun making doll clothes. Stay tuned for pictures!

Cambodia Batik

This batik looks a lot more traditional to me than the map batik from last time. From what I can tell by looking at it, I think the resist was used first, then the light blue, red, and green were painted on, those colors were covered with the resist, and then it was over-dyed in the dark blue, and then the green/gold was painted on over the top.



There are so many details that I like about this piece. I like the fish on the side of the basin, symbol of Christianity. I like the fact that Peter's foot seems to be "walking" on the water (not immersed in it). I like the colors, and the plaid towel, and I like the legs of the chair where you can tell the artist had a hard time making up his mind how long to make them.

We had a lovely weekend. We had a birthday lunch for Parker. His sister is getting a little put out that he has had 3 birthday parties in a row, and she hasn't had any yet. This is a picture of them at the zoo in Michigan City, in a tunnel that goes under the otter pool. Life is just so full of wonderful things!



After the birthday party, our daughter took us out to Soul Restaurant, and treated us to supper! She is so proud, because her firm did the decorating. It is a lovely place, the food is excellent, and of course the company could not have been better. We sat right in this corner. (At one point Jen had to lay out the light fixture on the floor to demonstrate how it actually went together; and she designed the "drum" light fixtures.)



We will be going back there!