Finished!

I've finished my 'place' alphabet - yippee!

Here are Y and Z just to tie things off.

Y - is for Yellow Cabs - one of those iconic movie images of NYC.

Z - how lucky there was Zabar's, a fabulous deli with delicious things

And here's how I put it together. A wee flip book in a way; a really nice way to flip through the memories.

Ac couple of the letters, not all of them...

Almost there...

I am pretty much there with my alphabet - I have two letters to go and the finished product to pull together, but at least this time around I worked out what I wanted to do with the pieces before I began.

Here are my next 8 letters from New York City ( I am going a way soon so have had to speed up the process a touch).

Q - Quilts - we saw some fabulous contemporary quilt exhibitions whilst we there, just mind-blowing and a real highlight.

R - Raspberries.  We feasted on raspberries every day, mostly because they are so much more affordable than here at home. I always remember raspberries...

S - Snow.  We were lucky to see Central Park banqueted in snow, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.  The snow fell on several days and my memories of it inspired the quiet white of this alphabet for an otherwise busy and colourful city.

T - Toby's Estate. Only other Australian coffee lovers will understand what it is like trying to find a good coffee in the US. Toby's Estate is an Australian company and we tracked down two of their stores and enjoyed our coffee sooooo much!

U- Upper West Side. Our home away from home on W108th St. Our one bedroom apartment in this great locality near Columbia University - fabulous food and book stores.

V - Versace. The window displays of Versace stay with me (along with those of many of the other designer stores as well).

W - Watches. Might sound odd, but we visit the Garage Antiques markets each time we go, and one guy sells lots and lot sod old watches and watch parts. we bought  plenty for Barry to use in his steampunkish work; and I just love having them to use in books as well.

X - Xmas. Lucky for us we were there for Christmas and got to enjoy the snow, the lights, the trees and the window displays...

Only Y and Z and the book to follow!

New York New York

So my place alphabet is like others', coming along in fits and bursts.  Here I have managed to complete a further 8 letters, and with a month or so of travel ahead I am trying to get in front a bit.

I - is for Inside-Out, the most amazing exhibition of rusted steel sculpture by Richard Serra at the Gagosian Gallery. By pure serendipity we became aware this show was on - and it took our breath away. A real highlight.

J - is for Jennifer, one of my best blogging friends. We met in person the first time we visited NYC, and this second time, J made the time to come down and see us again (from Connecticut) even tho her life was full and overwhelming at the time. Special.

K - is for knitting which is kind of weird, but my favourite shop Habu often tempts me in a crazy way to become a knitter. They have such lovely knitting!

L - is for Laughing Man, a coffee shop in Tribeca owned by Australian actor Hugh Jackman. We mapped our way around NYC via Australian coffee shops and this is a wonderful tiny corner shop with good coffee.

M - is for the Met of course. One of THE galleries of the world for me, we spent an amazing day there again seeing some pieces that will stay with me forever.

N - too easy really and a bit cheeky - New York itself!

O - is for the Opera Shop. We spent a fair bit of time in thrift stores checking things out and by far, my favourite was the Opera Shop, proceeds go to support the City Opera, and the clothes were so gorgeous and stylish and fabulously presented. I could have left my suitcase at home and kitted my self out there for reasonable money and looked great!

P - ahh Pizza. One of our lasting memories is losing track of where we were and what we were doing and accidentally ordering a Large pizza. It took up our entire kitchen table and lasted for three full meals - it was ENORMOUS!

It's quite good fun remembering New York all over again...

My place, New York, is coming along well

Things are going along quite well with my place alphabet - the embossed map of New York City and letters for things that are wonderful memories form our last visit there.

E - is for Empire State Building; such an iconic symbol of New York and a glimpse against the skyline always makes you smile.

F - the Flatiron building - we wandered past it several times this visit; and again it's quirky style just makes me happy.

G - "Girl with the Pearl...." is how I refer to Vermeer's painting "Girl with the Pearl Earring". We were fortunate that it was on show at The Frick Museum whilst we were there, and to stand in front of her and gaze at her was a magical moment indeed.

H - the Highline. One of my favourite parts of New York City - the old disused railway high above the streets down near Chelsea.  It is now a garden and a walking path and place for people to gather and enjoy. There are great views from up there and it's a bit surreal to walk above the hustle and bustle, yet still be nearby.

my place alphabet .....

Hello everyone,

I have been such a poor blogger this year and just realised that I posted on my last letters of my first alphabet on my tracemarks blog and not here.  One I have finished the book I will make sure to be back here posting on the results.

A beginning has been made on my second alphabet - my PLACE - which will literally be about the place in which I live.  I am working on larger pieces in the same vein, or will be in the future, as I have in mind a large project on "My Place".  You will even recognise some of this imagery in my latest collaboration with Fiona.  

I am showing you the preparatory work at this point because I don't want to actually emboss the letters onto each piece until have have done all twenty six letters as I am going to make a quilt book and want to arrange the pieces before I decide what letter I will attribute to them.  Because this will be a hanging piece, I will need to work both front and back of my little squares.

Here is my beginning!  I will post about the middle and the end too!

This year has seen me a little time poor (probably because I am working on so many things in the studio) and though I have not been leaving comments, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching all the wonderful alphabets emerge.

Fiona's first four letters

 So having embossed my paper and cut my squares I have started to write my alphabet.

I was thinking of words as memories of our time in New York City and sometimes I found it hard to choose which memory to use!  Here are my first four.

A - the Apple store. It is such an iconic building and a whizz-bang kind of experience. It feels like an "only in New York" kind of place.

B - Bagels. we love bagels and where we stay is just around the corner from one of the best bagel stores in the city. We visit every day.

C - Centra Park, what can I say? A magical place and last time we were there, a winter wonderland of white beauty.

D - Downtown, we head there a lot!

Fiona's place alphabet begins...

It didn't take me too long to work out a place I really enjoy that could use letters.  New York City is a place where most letters of the alphabet can be found and I do enjoy visiting, so....

I am embossing  a map of Manhattan Island, then chopping it up and writing letters on it. Plan A.

Here is the beginning

And some lovely 7cm x 7cm squares chopped and ready to go. Already it feels nice to me. I love the look of white embossed pages.

Next...some letters!

Map letters for June

Finishing my map letters from places around the British Isles.

W-Waterloo (station)

X- I couldn't find an X town, so I opted for a place in Kent where there were a lot of X marks for railway crossings.

While making it, I remembered that Exeter is on the River Exe, So, the Exe might be better qualified because it says the name of the letter X.

Anyway, we have 2 for X!

Y-York

Z- Zouch

and the backs

from the area in Kent

from the area near the Exe.

I have some ideas for presentation, but also have several deadlines for end of June, so I will try to do the presentation as soon as possible. I have ideas for the other letter set, so will take it on holiday with me in early July to get it organised.

Map Letters for May

I got a bit behind on the letters because of events and deadlines for other things in May. So, I completed these yesterday. Places around the British Isles.

S-Slough

T-Thirsk

U-Uxbridge

V-Vale

There were plenty of other V places, but I decided to look to the Channel Islands as we went to Guernsey 2 years ago for our 25th Wedding Anniversary. So, I saw on the map the little village of Vale.

And the backs

 

Map Letters for April

Places around the British Isles.
Apologies for the photos. I am finding the coating on the map pages make it difficult for my camera to focus.

N-Newbury

O-Oxford

P-Porthmadog

 

in Wales

Q-Queen's Bower

I could find very few Q places in the British Isles and those were little villages. Which surprised me.
Quite interesting to find that to be the case in a place where 2 Queens have reigned over 120 years between them in the last 177 years!

(I muddled up the attempt to give the place name a green box like the other letters have. But it isn't so bad if you aren't doing a close up photo!)

R-Reading

 

And the backs

 

Map letters for March

I decided to hop across to Ireland for the K. I was trying to choose places where the place name was enlarged on the map.

J-Jedburgh

K-Killarney

L-London

M-Manchester

and on the reverse

Sorry for the blur.

Map letters for February

February's letters I kept to the plan and made a letter each week.

and on the reverse