blue, oh so lonesome for you.

well, here's a look at the blue boy:

I can hear some people cringing about the cat being present through this process, but honestly, I didn't feel like arguing with a 20 pound cat that growls. The recipient has pets, so she will understand.

Martin Luther King Jr. arts contest... thing

ta da!


the result of over 40 hours of toil and labor, sweating and bleeding fingers. The black stuff in the upper left corner has stars on it- I bought it a few days before Halloween, hoping I could use it for something. Obviously, not a great picture, I really need a shot of each block besides the whole piece, but something is better than nothing. Most of the fabric was lying around the house. I did the applique with wonder-under, to keep it stationary. This was one of those times I wish I had a serger- the machine applique would have gone better and looked nicer. The little people are all hand appliqued. The sun is machined, but the beads (if you can see them) in the center of the sun are all hand done. I put a knot every three beads, in case one got pulled off, they wouldn't all come off. Also not really visible, some of the quilting and applique was done with variegated thread, to mirror the rainbow children.

I hate describing what I intended it to represent, because every time I've shown it to people, I get a slightly different response every time. My grandmother said the people were "the children of the world", someone else said they were the freedom marchers. So, it's up to interpretation I guess. Obviously, the rainbow people could be any one, at any time, from any place. It is my hope that it's obvious the top right is "day" and the top left is "night", that the jumbled stippling in the bottom indicates chaos, and that there is no chaos in the upper panels. The people are separated from the new day above them because they are not there yet- the New Day is when all peoples are truly free, not just in word but in deed. It is for that same reason the people are not to the gold rectangle: We're not there yet. The observant (okay, any one who can actually see the quilt) will note that nothing grows from anger hate and fear, but peace, joy, mercy, tolerance, and hope. I was going for a sort of Faith Ringgold feel, sans painting- that would have required gessoing the muslin, and I have no gesso, and I couldn't find my acrylic paints. So I did what I could with the materials I had on hand. Which is obviously a ridiculous amount of fabric. I'm sure the prof has absolutely no idea who Faith Ringgold is.

Right now it is in the hands of my professor, and I am more than slightly concerned for it, as it was not packed for traveling very well, and he seemed to treat it as one of those "oh, that's nice dear but I'm not really impressed because it's * insert a word indicating inferiority *". face turns red with rage I worked just as hard as the person who turned in the song, the casting or the graphic design, just in a different way, so please don't treat it as a quaint, cutesy, folksey project. I refer you to Michael Kashey, an Edinboro resident who won the National Quilt competition in Paducha, Kentucky. I have no idea if the prof is going to pass the quilt on to the contest or not, but I got an A in the class, the requirement category the quilt filled was something like 15% of my grade. Hurray.

festivus for the re'stuv us

The semester ended well. Very well, considering I had two lingering contagious diseases in the space of three months, plus a musical. Plus a pizza delivery job, a church choir gig and full time course work at the local university. All A's, yes, even in French, and a B+ in piano, for lack of a jury.

Best part of the semester? Being able to make a quilt for class. I beaded, appliqued by hand and machine, and finished the sucker of with some hand quilting. This project was brought to you by the History professor, who, if he liked what you handed in, was going to pass it on for consideration in a Martin Luther King Jr. arts contest. I am slightly peeved at the thought that my quilt, which is about half the size of a crib, is sitting around his house being shed on… all this AFTER I read an article about submitting quilts to judges which included all kinds of shipping advice like acid free tissue paper between the folded layers to discourage wrinkling, double bagging, writing the full address of the maker on the quilt, et cetera. *headdesk* I have pictures somewhere*… *addendum 12/30/07 here's a picture



Every time I find the camera, I can't find the card reader... ugh ugh ugh. Now I can't find the camera. The latest quilt I'm working on, since no semester break can be with out a quilting project, is a simple charm in shades of blue, thank you eBay. The blocks are 3 1/2" finished, set on point with a piano key border. It is for a friend who is having open heart surgery this summer… again. Not sure if I want to quilt or tie it, but it will have batting, as soon as I can get to the store for the fluff stuff. It has been pet tested and approved. There are copious quantities of purple charm blocks, 7 1/2" that have to be dealt with yet, and the pieces of the ocean waves that are stuffed in an Amazon box that also require attention. The summer kimono is done, and I finally found the obi fabric, so that will be finished (finally). It turned out very nice. Mom said something about making a short one for dad, but I highly doubt he'd appreciate the crap load of work I'd have to put into it, let alone where'ma going to find quality black silk for the sash without having to sell my kidney on the black market?

Last but not least, I figured out how to cable this semester, and made mom a cabled scarf to match a hat she bought at a craft show years ago. I originally started out with three cables, but it was more of a baby blanket than a scarf, so I ripped and settled on two - worked out perfectly. And she loves it. Two skeins of Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick n Quick. Again, when I can find the bloody camera, I'll provide some pictures.

Quilting goals for 2008:
quilt the jewel box
finish the ocean

be be or not to be... mmm yeah. totally to be.

so I announced my intention to be a theater minor. they want me to be a major of course, but I seriously don't think I can squeeze out another two or three or four semesters. I really want to move on with my life, go to grad school maybe... some place far away from this guy in the department that... well, he's into me and I'm not into him... and it's awkward right now, to say the least. I have to reach a point that I'm not creeped out being around him to tell him how I feel. Which could take a while, because we've been through this before. I'm not sure how our friendship is going to weather this, and it isn't as though there's another guy I am interested who is reciprocating the feeling... When did this turn into a blog about the emotional messy stuff? Agh!

I started the Irish Hiking Scarf in Lion Brand Wool Ease Think n Chunky "fisherman" because it would work fast, and my mom has a hat that it will mach. I need another two skeins (at least, maybe four), and I had to take out a couple stitches because otherwise the darn thing would have been a baby blanket and not a scarf. Live and learn. It will be ready for Christmas. Now if only I can keep it a secret...

long silences

September 27 was the last known communication from me... And I can totally explain.

I was in a show on campus. Not just a show, a musical, whee!! "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd" We had a great time, we got nominated for some awards, fantastic-ness. now if I could only convince the assistant sage manager I am not interested in him...

I started working on the Irish hiking scarf about a month ago as something to do while sitting around during rehersals. The first eight inches or so were fine, but by the time I added another ten inches, the sides of the scarf had begun to curl. Hmm... Not entirely happy with this turn of events, I ripped the whole thing out, and have started a hat with three baby cables. I had made myself a baby pink wool hat a few semesters ago, and a matching scarf, but it has gone missing. No doubt one of the school mates took a shine to it. Back to the scarf, I'm going into the city today, and I'm going to stop at the store and try to pick up coordinating yarn for a new scarf to match a hat that we already have lying around in the coat closet.

Much better than personal projects are school sanctioned projects. For a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at my school, there is some kind of creative contest. The prof said we could do what ever we wanted, as long as it expressed something to do with MLK Jr. and what his work means to us. So I'm making a quilt. Soft sculpture.

the next greatest thing

Two posts in one day, what is the world coming to?

I haven't got OW completely pieced, and I have my next project all lined up:

http://www.jasa.net.au/quilt.htm

OMG, gorgeous…!!! doesn't hurt being a Jane Austin fan either!

with a will...

I have a history test in an hour, and I still have to pull myself together for that...

Am very excited about stage craft- we're starting our first project on Friday, huzzah! Power tools are so much fun!

Ocean Waves is stalled right now beause I have been super busy with, surprise, the musical on campus. I have one half of the quilt finished, it's just all in random shaped rectanlge and square pieces waiting to be put together. Somehow in this process I have lost every single straight pin that I own so at the tale end of the last work I did on it, I was using sharps and very large tweeners. What a pain. Somewhere I saw pins with glo-in-the-dark heads, and I think that would be genious, especially given my track record.



The professor for the aforementioned test has a list of public service/community awareness things we have to do, and if I get this quilt done, I might just enter it in the art contest he's got listed. I don't remember all the specifics, but it has something to do with anti-racism. I would probably have to submit something with the quilt about why I submitted it, and I have a few good reasons for that. I just need some time to do it! and some pins...



I also just joined the Irish hiking scarf knit along. next time I get into town, I'll have to pick up some supplies. Oh darn, that means yarn shopping...

The missing piece

It's a little crisp this morning, but that is to be expected in September in the Northeast.

I started out the sewing machine to patch a pair of jeans initially. they're pretty worn out, and I need a crappy pair for Stage craft anyway- we're doing a "lab" with power tools today- and why wear a nice pair that doesn't have holes? Now they look like those trendy ones you can by brand new that are already distressed, the kind I don't have money for, and wouldn't want anyway. The hard work was done! There's no great story involved like, well, the rip in the knee was from this hiking trip... anyway, I digress.

I was poking around in the scrap bin and what should I find but the large sea foam triangles that went missing a few weeks ago. Huzzah! Production can begin again.

And I found the fabric for the dog bed. That'll have to wait for another day.

the end of completion

I was leafing through my photo album last night, looking at all the empty slots for pictures and thinking that now the England and Paris scrap book is over, I can fill in the pages with other stuff from school, like my senior recital and all that stuff, sort of a photo portfolio, plus programs of the stuff I did, if I have extra (since performers really should have a portfolio, just like art majors…) and I discovered the White Tower… and the Tower Bridge, and… could that be the tower housing Big Ben and the Houses of Parlaiment?, and oh no, there's the Beef Eater tour guide and Traitor's gate. Looks like it isn't done after all. Alas.

I miss London. It's such a beautiful city. Much cleaner than Paris. Paris got nasty gross.

So that meant stopping after an appointment at the craft store, where I got extra page protectors… and then I saw all the little Jolie's and I though oh why not, I'll just grab some stuff and start my senior recital page; the piano with the lights and the sheet music, the sparkley music notes (why can't they just be black, eh?) and a little white dress, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be a flower girl's or a bride's or something, but mom and grams always said I could get married in that dress anyway.

And then I saw that they had music paper. Ugh and a sigh. This project means an e-mail to my lovely accompanist, to see if she has any pictures, and a new scrap book…

Go Jane!

My best friend A was in town this weekend, she's been off and away at the Grad School. So the two of us spent Saturday together doing what we do: going shopping and watching Chick Flicks. I had to get material for my obi, and I settled on a pale orchid purple. I got a few other pieces, too, that I didn't exactly need, and enough paper to keep a doctoral theses alive. The yukata jst needs to be hemmed, and the obi sewn, and it will be finished.

We saw Becoming Jane. It was wonderful, fairly accurate and slightly depressing. A was certain that the amount of kissing that went on in the film wasn't the least bit accurate for the time. I argued that it was improprietous, née scandalous, to mention anything concerning, heaven forbid, a fiery romance. Just because they didn't write about it doesn't mean it didn't happen. Case in point, the two of us were living and breathing, the details of which, especially at that time, were not polite for conversation, civil or otherwise. A laughed and said I was probably right. I knew that Austin had never married, and I was very glad that the film makers decided against changing history. As Wistley said, the good seldom have a happy ending. Sigh.

We interrupt this regularly schedueld program…

stop the presses…

…it's yukata time

toasty toes

classes have officially started. I have one, maybe two more to add, and I'll be up to 16 credits. Not terrible. I have two part time jobs also.

About a year ago I was visiting a friend who lives in the Cleveland OH area, and i was knitting my first pair of socks at the time. I was keeping my yarn and needles in a cigar box to keep everything contained. Aparently, I left it there by mistake, and they just found it, because it appeared on my front porch. The yarn is self striping... I think it's called Sassy Stripes but I don't remember the company, it started with an M. I gave them a look over and realized I was doing a very bad job of knitting these socks, so I've ripped them apart and will start them over again. It's a nice project to do waiting for class to start, or sometimes ...mmm, never mind. Sufficit it say, it won't, no, shouldn't take too long to get them done. If I find my needlework book, I may even work some kind of fancy stitch in.

Now if only I could figure out how to read and knit at the same time...

fa la, fa la

hah! got the camera to work!

so that's one of the corners, and the result of 4 months of toil at the cutting board and sewing machine! I do have a few other, larger pieces, the other corner to this end for example, but the front porch isn't big enough to lay everything out.

yay!

ocean waves is lying in pieces about the living room. Doc says I have bronchitis, so all I'm good for momentarily is coughing and laying around in my pajamas. Thank God school hasn't started yet, or I'd be dead.

I had two other projects I wanted to do this summer, and I'll be darned if I can find either of them. The one hasn't even been cut yet, its still in the yardage phase. I got two pieces of batik fabric in England this summer, and I can't find the rest of the batik stash. The other project was a purple charm quilt. It was a chain letter, and I did it because I love getting *not* junk mail, and for the fun of seeing where the fabric might come from. I know some people look down their noses at such things, because "God knows where the fabric might come from", ie, not from an exclusive designer like Moda, God forbid trash be run through the pristine bernina or viking. But seriously. Prewash it. Re-cut everything if you must, sew it up and give it to Project Linus, or the local women's shelter, or donate it for a raffel to benefit a cause you support. Someone, somewhere in this world would love to have a warm blanket. Or a quilt, even though they know nothing about the craft. I understand the why and the what concerning quality fabric. However, I'm a college student. I worked part time this summer, and the only thing those wages will cover is my books. College tuition went up almost 50% since I started four years ago. Where is my money going?! The college professors are complaining they aren't paid enough while climbing into brand new volkswagens, or bmw's. I don't have money to spend on fabric that's $15 a yard, because that $15 dollars just heated the practice rooms in the music department I attend. I'm using my mother's 35 year old White, and yes, some of my fabric came from wal-mart, or Jo-Ann's. Some of it I have no idea where it came from because people gave it to me.

This is something like what I wanted to do with the purple fabric. I've been buying remnants for sanshing and binding... but I don't know where it got off to either.

Doc says I have bronchitis! Icky!

The sewing machine was acting a bit lurchy, so I had to take a break for a while.

I brought home two pieces of batic fabric from England. I have a whole stash of it, in all colors of the rainbow… but I have no idea where it is. I have no idea where my purple squares are either. Some one sent me a chain letter last summer for a purple charm quilt, and I passed it along. I got fabric from, effectively, the I-90 and I-80 coridor, all the way out to Wyoming! I thought it was a really neat project, and I've been buying up remnants of purples to use as sashing and binding. I was going to stitch it up this summer, but I can't find it anywhere either. It was all togetherin a box or a bag, something.

progress progress progress

the ocean waves quilt is definitely coming along. I'm not entirely sure about the directions though.

for a while I was keeping track of all the patches I had done on a scrap of paper. The case my machine sits in has a cubby off to the side, so I kept a pencil and the list in there, and every time I got something done, I'd make another hash mark. One day I went gang busters and finished an entire group of patches, just so they would be done. I keep trying to make an example using Apple works, but some genius in their programming department decided you shouldn't be able to draw and paint at the same time, so I'll just have to wait till school starts and borrow someone's camera. Grumble grumble…

What I shouldn't have done was start to piece the middle together before I got all the sashing things done. Sashing is certainly not the best word to describe the outside half row of patches, but it's the best I can come up with. There were no yardage specifications in the directions, so I sat down and tried to figure out exactly how much coordinating fabric I'd need for the center squares, and two rows of sashing. I'm pretty sure I'll have to find something else to use for binding, but as long as the colors are close, I really don't care what the calico is. The fabric I bought is a sea foam color - appropriate, eh? - that almost exactly matches the carpet in my parent's living room. I had everything laid out in pieces one day, and accidently left some of the sea foam squares lying on the carpet. It has a light print on it that looks like crackled glaze, so it blended right in like camouflage. Anyway, about the yardage…

The first yard I bought covered all the center squares, but as I was trying to figure out the half squares, a 2 1/2" and 6" floater sashing, I got completely confused, as there is going to be a flying geese sash between the two floaters(yeah… went a little crazy with the foundation triangle patches, so I have tons extra and even more loose triangles floating about) , and I couldn't remember how wide that was going to be, or what the seam allowance was supposed to be if I wanted such and such a size sashing… I even drew myself a diagram, a big rectangle with 45" at the top as a reminder of how wide the fabric would probably be, and hashed out the squares, writing in the pre-sewn size as I went to have an idea of the cutting lay out… and I still got screwed up. So I went to the store and just bought that one yard, said a prayer it would still all be there when I went back for more, and went home to cut out squares. A week later, after I'd gotten that all done, I went back to the shop and bought the rest of the bolt, all 4 1/4 yards. I still have no idea how much I'm going to need for this project, since I couldn't keep the seam allowances straight in my head or on paper, so I just bought the lot of it. The guy- yeah, a guy, working at a quilt shop, he does the free arm quilting, and it's gorgeous...- told me that moda redoes it's line every six months, so if i ran out of fabric, I'd be able to find it on the moda site only if it wasn't popular … gulp. As it turns out, I ended up with a strip of fabric from the first yard that is 2 1/2" wide- don't remember if it goes selvage to selvage or is all selvage on one side, I'd have to look at it. I think it's 2 1/2" wide, it may only be 1/4" but what ever it is, that's going to be my first floater sash. Waste not! So that's all folded in my sewing machine cubby waiting to be attatched.

And what am I doing right now instead of cutting out large triangles, pinning finished squares or sewing more dog eared trianges together? blogging about it! I've been really busy at work- there was a wedding two weeks ago that I worked, and a craft show with my dad last weekend. I work at the college cafeteria, and there's three shifts a day that are about 2-2 1/2 hours long, with about 2 hours in between. Working several shifts in a row is sort of like riding the bavarian swings and and not giving yourself enough time to stop being dizzy. For example, I worked breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday and today, and I'm doing it again tomorrow. All I've done in the last 72 hours is sleep and work, and during the down time I've been working on the quilt, because I'm really not a napper. Napping just doesn't like me or something. I just finished a 22 hour week, I have another 22 hour week starting tomorrow, and school starts again in less than two weeks. I really hate school. I can't help thinking it is terribly inefficient and that there has to be a better way to prove to the world I know my stuff… maybe it's test anxiety, but I'm pretty sure I amaze people with my retention rate. My fellow students sure are amazed. Most of them memorize for the test and forget it all the next day. I, on the other hand, completely bomb the test because I can't remember half the stuff on it, but by God ask me theday before and the day after day, or two years later, and I could give a dissertation on the subject. Its great, people look at me like I just sprouted turquoise pigtales out my ears. I actually had a teacher tell me in a suprised sort of way that here they thought I wasn't paying attention in class.

Right now, I really just want to go to bed, but I'm pet sitting for a friend, and they live across town. It's dark, and I'm tired and I don't want to ride my bike because it's dark and up hill the whole way to their house and my mom has the only working car at a meeting somewhere. So I think I'll make myself a cup of tea and pin some more things together. Hopefully she'll be home in the next half hour, and I can go feed the cats before I fall asleep sitting up.

28 days left

it's a rock and roll kind of day. i didn't listen to green day or the goo goo dolls in high school, I was the one listening to public radio and james taylor. i still tune in quasi religiously for a prairie home companion, car talk and what do you know.

but today, definitely a day for goo goo dolls and flogging molly.

the stool with the paisley and green paint looks great. there's just a few more places on it that need sanded and scraped. i don't know what comes next.

the ocean waves quilt has been the only top this summer to consume my sewing energies. it's totally scrappy, except for the center squares, which I haven't cut yet. I'd always thought the pattern looked really cool, but the idea of set in seams really turned me off. then I found these directions at quiltville.com and off I went. i thought for sure, naively, that i had enough half triangle squares sewn, but no, half the time spent on this top has been purging odd size and cut pieces of fabric from my stash and cutting them down some more. it's really been a great stash buster, since i get a lot of random pieces from people that came from their sewing projects, mostly clothing. since a lot of the pieces i had didn't exactly finish out into triangles, I've been saving any usable scraps bigger than an inch on either side for ugly quilt. more on that later, it's truly hideous, but I'd rather not ship fabric off to the land fill that I don't have to.

so I'm following the directions from quiltville, and I'm down to sewing together wing triangles and half squares. I also just figured out that I need, if i did the math right, 1.45 yards of fabric from which to cut the triangles larger than 1 1/2" and the squares for the middle. that doesn't count a border. I'd like to do a 1.5" floating border, the pin wheels ( or something) and the 6" border, because with all the movement in the piece, it gives the eyes a break. i really don't do math, but I have to figure out the borders now, since there were no remark es on the website about how much yardage was used. ugh. i don't want to buy something until i know exactly how much a need, because I've gone and bought things before that end up crazy popular, and when i get back tot he store a day or so later to get more, they apologise and say "oh, gee, we don't have anymore" ugh ugh ugh.

and in 28 days, i want my room clean, i want the top finished, i want the stool finished, i'd like the chair finished, but i doubt it, and i want the hutch for my desk done. to the lumber yard. and... go!

ocean waves

I've created a mess on the front porch. It looks like my fabric stash blew up, and while I like it that way, as I can see everything at a glance and know what I've got, my mother is not such a fan. And yes, I can't blame her. Progress is slow on many fronts.

the green stool is no longer green. I got most of the paint off it, there's just clumps here and there that are stubborn. Its coming, I just wish it were done already because I've been working on it all summer.

my cousin sent a photo of the baby quilt I made her son. I thought I had that taken care of, but I wasn't able to find and evidence of it. whoops.

I got binding for the Irish quilt. This weekend will be the perfect time to take care of that. Craft shows are just such fun...

And then there's the ocean waves. I did a quilt last summer in scraps and odd pieces

antiqueaholic

I just bought a chair. Two chairs. why? WHY??

College students don't have money to spend on stripper and paint brushes and chemical resistant gloves, masks, sand paper, finishing wash...

But it was so cute. Little rush bottom chair. Abused. Negelected. $3. In need of a good sanding, a new rush bottom, some stain and finish. It has amazing potential. I know nothing about rush work. Zero. Or refinishing... sort of. I got a Hoosier cabinet a few summers ago that I've been stripping red bunnies off of with citrus stripper. It needs a new bottom, and new hinges for all the doors.

The other chair is a little less sorry. It just needs new uphulstry. I have a lot of homework to do now.

sigh…

if my friends ever want to know why I don't have an iPod, or a music or dvd collection, this is why.

rewind

I was interrupted last time. I already have a blog elsewhere. But it's not specifically for my work, it's more a log of life. I've been trying to update it with my journal from England. I sent post cards home, I wrote of trains and Paris galleries. Now if only there was a special someone to drag over there with me... alas.

I bought a skein of yarn from a shop in Wells, Somerset, England. It's raspberry pink, it's wool, and it matches harmoniously with a scarf I bought the first day I was there. England was experiencing some unseasonably warm weather, but I used that scarf the whole time I was there. The body is raspberry pink and black celtic knots, and the pannels at the ends are cream and tan, zoomorphic birds. The wool is for a hat to match, as one cannot possibly live near Lake Erie and expect to survive the winter with out a hat. Or five. I'd like to try intarsia, but I may get too cold or too impatient and just knit the hat and be done with it. I paid £1.25 for the skein, it was in the bargain bin.

There was a fabric shop in Canterbury, Kent, England. It was just a chain store, not like the yarn shop in Wells, but they had fabric, and they had a remnant table. I couldn't afford anything at £10 a yard. There were two pieces of blue batik that I couldn't leave sitting there. Collectively, that bill came to £5 something. I try not to think in terms of the American dollar, which meant I had paid $10 something American for fabric I probably could have gotten here in the States for a lot cheaper… but how often are you in England??* $2.50 for a skein of high quality wool is a little easier to swallow. I'll make a kitty pi with the left overs.

Just what is kitty pi? http://wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm. That is kitty pi.

looks like this is going to be cut short again…c'est la vie.

*don't answer that question of you have family you see there every summer, or you are swimming in money and can afford to go on a whim.

premire 2007

ahh... summer.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year when I don't have summer. Summer is quilting season. And by quilting I don't mean from start to finish, I just mean tops. Last summer I made... oh now let me see... Irish Sticks and Stones, Postage Stamp, Denim Rag, Star Struck, and a Triple Irish Chain. Oh, and there was that other one, what was it, Jewel Box, I think. This litany reads like a coffee house bill of fare or the list of ice cream flavors at the dairy shrine. Jewel Box actually looks like pink and blue cotton candy, or Superman ice cream... I love Superman more than coffee or french roast or latte or what ever the company happens to call their flavor, but coffee ice cream is easier to find than Superman, so it's still my poison of choice.

Fall and winter are knitting season, and if there's space, that's when I quilt, assuming I have the top, the back and optional batting. My mother put a proverbial hex, taboo and padlock on the sewing machine case and forbid me from sewing during the school year. I was never fond of algebra. Don't ask me to figure out sales tax or percentages in my head it's just not going to happen. I understand the abstract concept of numbers, but to hold them and manipulate them raw in my head doesn't work. Geometry was heaven.