Sunday, December 4, 2016

IN WHICH WE ARE JUMPING UP AND DOWN!   
He did it again! And so beautifully with a stunning queen sacrifice. 

Since the advent of computerized chess so much of chess play has been defensive. Computers have taught the effectiveness of defensive play: of always thinking solely of ways to prevent your opponent from making progress than of thinking  how to make progress yourself.  Now Magnus is a genius at both offense and defense but loves offense.  His opponent only does defense-granted he is a genius at it and almost brought down our hero.  But Magnus blew him off the board with an incredible QUEEN sacrifice giving his opponent only two moves both of which were death.  It was so creatively beautiful and such a stunning victory.  We were hysterical in our amazement and joy! 

We have seen Magnus play in St Louis two times.  St Louis is becoming the US chess center largely because a very wealthy man there has set up a chess center.  He rehabbed a lovely old home in a historical part of St Louis near  Forest Park which is a cultural center of St Louis.  Each year Mr. Sinquefield hosts a tournament with a million dollar prize and invites the top 10 world chess players.  We go to this tournament each year and get to see chess played at the highest level.  It is quite a privilege.


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On the quilting front, I have enrolled in a craftsy class:  Wild Quilting taught by Christina Cameli. 



I love wild, free form quilting such as that sewn by Christina or Kaylee Porter with her graffiti quilting.  So I am learning some techniques and know how.  Here is my version of what we learned in lesson one.


You would have to take the class to know  the assignment of lesson.  Just suffice to say that this is my original design to carry out the assignment.  Divide and Conquer.  This was a bit of a departure for me as I did not do much planning on the quilting or censor myself or do much marking.  I just let it flow for better or worse.  The quilting is pretty good, awkward in places but that was not the point.  I don't think you can do wild quilting if you censor yourself and try do to it correctly.  

I have also been working on the infernal epp triangles for Saucy Strawberries  which seem guaranteed to cripple my hands.  I will post an update on them soon.  I think I will work on them slowly and devote most my time to FMQ practice and beginning the quilting on Chuck Susan and Me.

Well, that is all the excitement in my week!  How has yours been?

HAPPY QUILTING!
Linking to:
Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog,
Patchwork Times,  Em's Scrapbag,
Esther's Wow, Let's Bee Social,
Free Motion by the River, Whoop Whoop,
and Off the Wall Friday.           

Magnus Carlsen photo from Slate on line magazine which has a great article attached if you are interested.




4 comments:

  1. I love what you've done with the quilting assignment! Absolutely gorgeous.

    When I was in high school, I played on my school's chess team and played in my free time with other students when I was in law school, but haven't played in years. I did enjoy it when I played.

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  2. Pam !! Thank you for your inspiration and link today to the Show and Tell Monday !! Hug Bambi

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  3. Pam I love your wild free quilting it is Totally wild and just pulls me in. So glad you have found such an exciting new part of quilting Cheers Glenda

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  4. Oh Pam, you are so talented. FMQ is not easy and this piece is beautiful. I keep making a mess of it when I try it...completely unnerves me that I am in total control not the machine. So this is me, tipping my hat....

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