Happy New Year!

I hope your year goes well, with the ups higher than the downs are low, with dreams fulfilled and warm, loving people surrounding you.

2011 wrapup:

Clamshells: mostly unchanged since my last update - shameful.  Will get back into it once my Clammy Mojo returns!

Hexagons:  Some progress this year - 3 completed "flowers," one mostly done, 3 to go.  It's more work than it appears at first - that last round on each finished flower is 60 hexies!

 

And this year's "stock" handmade ornament - from Sarah's tutorial last year.  Note to self: stop agonizing, pick ONE pattern, and start earlier next year!  These were given out as fast as I could finish them.  They are very lovely but take lots of time, so start in September or October if you want to make these in bulk!  I made several more that did not get photographed but you get the idea ...

I already have several Must-Do's for 2012 but am going to make an effort to be more restrained about leaping into every online quiltalong just because I adore the outcome.  I need to finish some of my ever-growing stack of UFOs, many of which are the direct result of the aforementioned weakness! 

Having said all that, I'm enrolled to take a class with Jackie to make Judy Niemeyer's Total Eclipse quilt, and I'm totally stoked!  Thanks Hubby, what a wonderful present - it's a wise man who buys his wife the exact gift she suggests. I'm drooling over batik-y goodness and dreamily visualizing the outcome. Hope you have something yummy to dream about as we start yet another year.

Garden Pleasures

The Heuchera is winding down but still lovely. I know I take this same photo every year, but I love the bright pink against the pale fern.

If there’s anything in the whole world cheerier than a patch of daisies, I don’t know what it is.  That's my hydrangea tree behind them, one of my sister's got-it-for-two-bucks-at-Home-Depot finds.  She's a true green thumb and can spot a revivable plant from a half-mile away.  This one was pathetic but now in its second year seems to be bouncing back nicely.

A volunteer! I didn’t have pansies last year, where did you come from?!?

An unknown vine. At first I thought it might be morning glories, then I thought green beans, then I thought it was the dreaded “mile-a-minute vine” but it doesn’t seem to be any of those. Can you identify it? It grows very quickly and looks like it will soon have tiny white blossoms.  It's almost certainly a weed but it's new to my yard and I haven't been able to identify it yet.

Hydrangeas. Last year I had 2 blossoms; this year the shrub is covered with buds.  I know that the pruning of hydangeas is a huge hot-button issue with gardeners.  I don't prune mine at all, but merely remove deadwood each late winter/early spring.  It's fun and provides good swords for playing in the yard (like daylilies do - you swordfight with the spent stalks too, right?).



















Anticipation: if any of you have grown Brugmansias, you know they’re tropical (hardy to zone 9 or something like). I cut mine down to the trunk and store in the cellar over the winter, then drag it out again in the spring. This bud will take 2-3 weeks to bloom and when it does the blossom will be spectactular.

And finally, a stitchy experiment. The ORBC group is currently making Karen Griska’s Asterisk Quilt. What.a.blast. I’m toying with two sets at the moment, neither of which is like this combo of solids. I made two play blocks into a biscornu pincushion. As always the biscornu corners are a little tricky. I used crushed walnut shells to fill this one but if I was to do it again I’d pre-stuff the corners with cotton balls or fiberfill since the shells are so squishy.  It makes a terrific paperweight!

End of School Year Madness

It's the usual mayhem as the school year winds down.  Concerts, plays, art shows, picnics, the works.  I wish they'd hold some of these activities in March, but the last six weeks or so are always chaotic as the schools and all extracurricular interests cram their celebrations and last-minute tasks in. 

I gave up making teacher gifts a couple of years ago - there are so many of them!  But this year we have two special retirements, and I always do something for the bus driver (he's very cool). 

For the girlchild's librarian, who has provided some terrific recommendations and who, I'm told, is "into shoes:"  a pair of singlet-style-shopping bags and a tissue holder:

I'm not generally into "girlie" fabric, but this is wonderful stuff, isn't it?

I did the same items for the boychild's art teacher, who encouraged both of my kids all through their elementary school years.  She's been a great influence, always enthusiastic and encouraging.  They're a little less wonky than they appear here, the wind kept trying to steal them!

Complete with home-made card; the boychild is ready to say "Goodbye" tomorrow!

The bus driver is a collector of cars and motorcycles, so I figure he's probably a bandanna kinda guy.  I took two 21-inch squares and double-hemmed them - I'm not proficient at a rolled hem so I simply folded a teeny hem down twice and stitched.  I love that pirate batik!

I've been working on lots of other things, but no finishes to show.  The GFG hexagons continue - I'm at the Plodding Stage, so probably won't take any more pictures until it looks like something worthwhile.  I've started to play with clamshells but haven't gotten serious about assembly yet.  Just finished a picnic quilt top and a baby quilt top - photos soon!   

Baseco Bag – DONE!

Dawn Hay is selling a pattern for her “Baseco Mahal Kita” (“Baseco I Love You”) bag. The pattern is cheap, arrives within minutes of order, and proceeds go to benefit the peoples of Baseco. Here is her original version, complete with darling sititchery:

Here is my version:

My modifications: My stitchery is not fit for public viewing so I skipped it, and I didn’t have any twill tape so I used buttons on the corners. Look at the packaging, they were purchased in 1961! My friend's Mom would probably be pleased to know that her notions are being put to good use even so many years after she’s passed.  Both the large (really-truly-Mother-of-Pearl) and the small buttons came from her button box, which my friend gifted me last year.

I inserted a couple of pockets, ‘cause I hate a bag without.

Go on over to Dawn’s house and give her $4.00 for Baseco’s citizens. You’ll be doing a small Good Deed and will get a very pretty bag pattern out of it!  Oh, and there's a giveaway for several bag kits if you purchase the pattern too!

Alice Flowers

This weekend I went as one of the chaperones/designated drivers for a group of 17 (eep!) teens to see the new “Alice in Wonderland” film. The friend who organized this specializes in the Huge Sleepover; she has more patience and grace than I could possibly muster!

Many of the kids dressed for the occasion; it was a terrific time. I figured the Drivers probably wouldn’t do full costumes (I certainly wouldn’t, since the characters I resemble most closely require horizontal stripes and I haven’t worn those since I was twelve!) so I decided to make some Alice Flowers instead. I loved the digitized flowers with faces on the promo stills for the film so I thought they’d work well. I started with the following pattern and added petals.

They’re a little wonky, and way more cutesy than I’d intended, but they seemed to go over well. Remind me next time how much I dislike working with tiny fiddly things!








p.s. – the film? Well, it’s not Burton’s (or Elfman’s) best effort, but it cruises along nicely (as long as you accept that it’s not a retelling of the original) until the last few minutes and captures the wonder and unease of the original tale pretty well I think. The best bit? Johnny Depp‘s outstanding recitation of “Jabberwocky.” I sat there with my jaw hanging open, it was that wonderful. Go see it for that one short scene, if for nothing else; you’ll be glad you did.

All You Need ...

In my house, this is what Love looks like on a typical Sunday morning:

Fresh coffee cake and time to dawdle over the newspaper.

Today, it looks like this:

Hubby and I have a little tradition wherein he makes me something out of paper for Valentine's Day.  I usually try to find a unique card and inscribe it with something appropriate.  This year I found him a cool card via the CraftHope etsy shop, and he made me a stuffed heart out of tissue paper and aluminum foil.  Look, he sewed for me, I'm swooning!  He even did a bit of needle sculpting for the top of the heart, and thoughtfully sewed in a thread hanger for the back so I can hang it in my funky desk with the others.  Single gals, marry a former Boy Scout if you can manage it, they're very handy! 

 

One of the fun things about the holiday is crafting with the kids.  The boychild is still in elementary school so he had to come up with something for all of his classmates.  Here's what we did this year - clearly the boychild would rather have been mass-killing zombies online than working on this project with me!  It's a far cry from Corrie's elegant version, but there is "love in every stitch" and a few Hershey Kisses inside as well! 

Hope your day is filled with Love.

p.s. - sorry so long between posts; I got sick for a bit there and seriously lost my Mojo.  But it's back now;  I'll have a new quilt to post later this week when I'm sure the USPS has completed their delivery, and I'm nearly finished with the boychild's blocks.  Off to the sewing room!  Thanks for stopping by.

2009 Gift Crafting, Part II

Happy New Year!  I hope you are all relaxing and thinking about starting fresh new projects.  My first major project of the year is a re-org of my work space.  I have a room that started out as my dream library, later became a library-cum-playroom, later still became an office, and now serves as my crafting space as well.  It's not a huge space, and each new use was tacked onto the old rather than relacing it, so it's probably no leap for you to understand it's a right mess.  I will have to re-prioritize some things and leave the non-negotiable stuff (such as office space) as is.

I made this patchwork puppy for a niece - it was a little fiddly at the corners but I was thrilled with the results.  And guess what?  That funky red that I didn't know how to use?  Turns out it's Dog's Tongue Red!

I made a mess of Pink Penguin's fabric baskets and loaded them up with crochet washcloths/dishcloth for family members.  I made nine baskets and filled them all. 

Some were plain squares, some mitered squares, and some circular - all done in Tuinisian crochet over the course of the year (I went through three cones and I don't know how many individual skeins!)

Finished just-in-time for the last family gathering: a table runner for my Mom, to go with the Christmas Tree Napkins I'd given her on Christmas Day.  Simple diagonal quilting on Fly Foot blocks.

Finally, my 2009 progress on my hexagons.  Doesn't look like much I'm afraid!  I have 1500+ hexies basted and ready to go, and have assembled one large flower (13" per side) and two partials.  I am hoping that now that the Year of the Dishcloth is done I will spend more evernings working on my hexes!

2009 Gift Crafting, part I

Our holidays continue, with multiple celebrations as family come and go.  I can share one gift that has already been given:  a set of 14 napkins for my Mom.  I used this tutorial for them; they were easy-peasey aside from the need to make lots of little snips for the rounds.  My wrists don't care for snipping so I had to take my time with that.

I did most of the cutting in a hotel room recently. I had to go out of town on business and I hate hotels; I end up flopped on the bed watching television and eating junk more often than not. This time I set myself up for production by packing a second bag with project materials and I brought my sewing machine along!  The clerk did give me a funny look when I checked in, but I think I'll plan to do this each time I have to travel alone; it was nice to have a few quiet hours dedicated to crafting. 

I also wanted to share with you the "Stock Kid Gift" I got this year for the large family gathering on my husband's side.  I never know how many children will show up, so I try to buy a single item in bulk to give to all the kids.  It's HARD to find something to suit all ages!  This year's choice was a Message in a Bottle Kit; it's beautifully packaged, the bottle is heavy (I'm thinking it's recycled glass), it comes with a gorgeous certificate for the kids to fill out and also wax and a tealight to make a watertight seal. Fun!  I do hope at least one of the kids gets a response!

BTW, the site from which I bought the kits is terrific; they've shared several neat items recently and I've got them bookmarked for future reference. 

A Product Plug - travelling handwork

When I went to BeadFest Philadelphia with my beading buddy, we did lots of shopping. Natch. I bought a product there that I simply have to share. It's meant for beaders, but I've been using it for a couple of months now to ferry my hexagons around and it's fabulous. Take a look:

See? It has a lovely velveteen mat that folds around a zippered compartment. There's a nice wide elastic attached to hold it together when travelling. The mat is meant to be a nonslip surface for beading but it fits nicely across my lap for hex-ing. Because the velveteen isn't glued down you can keep extra pins and needles there too if you don't carry a needle case. (I did suggest to them at that time that they add another small patch of velveteen for this purpose.) I bought it as a set, which has the mat plus 3 zippered compartments: I carry my GFG hexies in one, my crochet in another (it fits a crochet hook roll plus, and if your yarn is really smooshy you could probably fit a full skein in it) and I use the third for off-the-cuff projects. If I want to carry something different the compartments come off the mat very easily with two large sturdy snaps.

And you can stuff it way full:

I plan on taking this to Maho Bay with me next week; it will hold enough hexies to keep me busy all week!

If you want more information, go to The Well Done Experience to take a closer look. I am not affiliated with them in any way, but am a very satisfied customer and think they're very sweet besides.

My Mom Rocks

This is how hard my Mom ROCKS:




She embroidered this fabulous dishtowel from an Andrea Zuill free embroidery pattern for me for Halloween! Ain’t she terrif?? I love Badbird’s designs, and to have one executed by Mom’s needle is giddy-making.

I should have ironed it, that's a fold that makes her dress look so floofy. But it's cute floof, isn't it?

Bountiful

Doesn’t look like much, does it? Not to you, perhaps; but to me, she’s the sweetest tree anywhere.

Some years after my grandmother died, my Mom said something about missing Grammy’s black walnut cake. A friend of mine had a tree in her yard and was thrilled to have me come collect the nuts – apparently those who mow lawns and do not bake *hate* the suckers!

Have I mentioned that they are very aromatic? I go up to the tree and sniff the fruit regularly; it’s a very evocative scent for me and for others too. One of the most tender moments of my adult life followed that first harvest, when I brought home the nuts from my friend’s house. I brought them into the house in a paper sack and told Mom to close her eyes. I opened the bag and instructed her, “Smell.” She said a single word: “Mom.” I nearly cried.

The following spring, my friend's walnut tree had a baby – its first ever – and she offered it to me. She was convinced that it bore solely because I gathered the fruit - it knew it was loved and needed. The sapling lived in my folks’ yard for two years, then moved here when we bought our house. She's 18 now, with love in every leaf. Last year was not so good for fruit production, but lookee!

I will explain the process I use for them when I have harvested! Not only does she give me fabulous nut meat, but as the bottom branches die off I have been using them for other purposes - as you know, Black Walnut wood is beautiful and very hard, ideal for many kinds of projects.

On the stitching side, I’ve still not completed the Zig Zag, but I’m about halfway done with Phase Two quilting. I still will not trust my seams I’m sure, but I have a deadline and that will help me toward completion! I gave up on renaissance Faire dress after what the girlchild calls “an Epic Fail.” At least I have a lovely new nightgown now! I did make a couple of pincushions using Janet’s lovely tutorial. Cute, huh?

And lastly, ‘cause I know you like prettiful things:

I admit it: when my sister told me this was a perennial begonia, I laughed at her. We’re in New England, and delicate beauties are not our specialty here for perennials! I planted it though, and this year it came back and is just now blooming!

I Just Flew in From the Coast ...

...and boy are my arms tired!

Quilting is WORK. Anyone who says otherwise has hired a longarmer to do the work for her. But it’s coming along – I’m doing diagonal lines, very wobbly and wonky but that’s what I get for being too simple to find chalk that isn’t meant for the driveway. There will be LOADS of thread-trimming to address here – I’m only doing short spans. And after 40 minutes or so my shoulders want to leave the premises – of my body. I sort of wish my cute little Janome had less in common with my Great Aunt Mildred and more with Linda Lovelace.

This past weekend (what – it’s Thursday already?!?) we went to a celebration for one of the girlchild’s best friends who had her Bat Mitzvah celebration. It was terrific – I’d never been to the Temple for a celebratory event and it was a genuine treat. Long, but so casual and joyous! Afterwards there was a marathon party at her house. My husband set up a Stonehenge replica made of pavers in the yard, and though nobody danced around it we had fun with it anyhow. There was a face-painter, a DJ, snowcones galore, and loads of fabulous food.

As a gift, I strung a necklace for the Bat Mitzvah – it’s a Chamsa, or Hand of Miriam, or Hand of Fatima, an ancient symbol used to ward off the Evil Eye. Shared by both Jews and Arabs as a talisman, it’s becoming a symbol of peace between the tribes, which gives it a little extra “oomph.” I got the pendant from Shymali and added garnets, darkish tigereye beads and sterling spacers.


I like it - the combination of garnet with tigereye is very subtle, in artifical light you can hardly tell the difference and in sunlight the tigereye gleams beautifully against the garnet's deeper glow.

...A Brand New Bag

I made a bag! I used a pattern I found online for the Masa Bag; it looked perfect for Tunisian crochet (and for a newbie - its just a rectangle folded in a clever way).


I should have used cotton to keep it from being stretchy, but I couldn't resist buying this yarn at the LYS - it's a 50/50 mohair/lamb's wool blend that is just lovely and it was on sale! I did double up the handle and used a Tunisian join on it - geeky, I know - so the handle is pretty stable.


I need to decide whether to felt it or not - I think it kind of wants to be felted. Do you think felting it would increase its strength or just make the holes seem smaller?




And a pic of my heuchera blossoms (and my favorite fern), just 'cause it's Spring.

A Tree Grows, Part 3

I have finished my Tree! A little sandpaper and a few polyclay leaves and I'm ready to call it done.

I made it to hold the lovely Wizard of Oz ornaments I got for my last birthday. I didn't like the wire trees available, so I made one.

The ornaments (six of them!):

And here it is "in situ" on my funky desk:

And because it is so lovely here in southern New England during this freak heatwave, here's a shot of my outrageously-gorgeous-even-though-it's-still-a-baby weeping cherry:

Lots Goin' On, Nothing to Show For It

I’m doing stuff but not finishing stuff. The Tree continues to evolve, DD’s quilt is pin-basted but has to be rebasted ‘cause I’m a dork, I have started cutting the fabric for her shades but do not have the pieces together yet. I DO have an almost-rectangular object from Crochet class, so that’s excitin’. It may make an acceptable (to me) scarf. DD made a granny square, so she’s definitely a Giant Step ahead of me! I just can’t get excited about it right now with so many other interests – I’m spreading myself too thin to give it the attention I should.

My GFG continues to plod along steadily – I’ve been aiming to baste 10 hexagons per day and have stuck pretty close to that; I have 900 basted, so only another month or two before I think about layout! All my hexies from leftover bits of fabric so it will be very scrappy – I figured the traditional flowers would not work given that I have some bits large enough only for one or two hexies.

All of a sudden there are Too Many Projects. One non-crafty project is very time-consuming with an absurdly tight deadline so that is eating a LOT of hours. DS’s birthday party is this week and I’ve done little preparation; it’s not going to be an over-the-top party! A friend and I have been trying to arrange a Girls’ Weekend (just us and our daughters) for a couple of months now, and it looks like it might actually happen! So there’s lots going on, and some actual progress, but not much to show for it yet.

And just so you get pics – a few years back my daughter wanted a “China” themed birthday. I made this Dragon Dance dragon for her. I know he’s very silly. I used to love doing overblown parties, the kids had such fun! Alas, the kids are older now - they'd rather hang out and have fewer structured activities.

The kids:

The grownups:

I still have the head and the pearl – the rest got frogged for someday when I want to torture myself by making something out of now-tiny pieces of cheap brocade.

Materials: LOTS of brocade; chair cane for the frame; styrofoam balls for eyes; paint; beads; yarn for whiskers; felt for teeth; dowels for handles .... etc.