Thursday, March 31, 2011

Turn a square hat

Pattern from Brooklyntweed dot net. Cascade 220 and noro something er other.

Ipad app for Infinite Variety!

At the Armory, for the Exhibit of the "infinite Variety-650 quilts from the Joanna Rose Collection" Co sponsored by the Folk Art Museum. As an artist, both digital and otherwise, I am always amazed and grateful when technology unites with tradition to create a new expression of either!



They were using an app on the ipad as an audio visual accompaniment to the exhibit. They were lent to the viewers and returned as they left.
Sponsored by the DavidSRose Foundation, who were also the owners of the collection. Very cool. There is also an iphone app which has an audio file for the quilts on it. 
The guy on the left told me they were doing a lot of teaching during the course of the day. Fifteen thousand people had the chance to use the ipad  during the course of this sIx day exhibit which was held as an eightieth birthday present by and for the owner of the entire collection, Joanna Semel Rose!
App is available on the Itunes store Free!
martha

A wonderful day in Manhattan

Rainbow in Manhattan

The Tea and Honey Store where I succumbed to impulse and bought an iced tea maker. (for Mike's birthday...hahaha)
The honeycombed display is built with salvaged materials. A lovely stop along the way. 

Love the red and white one

and that one....

o my!

There is a moose in the window!

The armory is huge!!


Tiffany window at the Armory-his first .

Not bad for a 32 year old "not yet famous designer"

My lovely daughter Jen at Eataly, where we had a fabulous lunch.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Acquisition

Yellow metal chair
Last night I saw this chair sitting with the metal recycling as I rounded the last turn of my commute and I passed it by. I try to refrain from bringing home too many found objects. The house is small. I do not need it. It is not new and shiny. People will laugh at me.
And then I did not even make it into the door before I turned back and walked around the corner to have another look. After all, what is the harm   in looking?
So, laden with my lunch bag and tote- stuffed with my knitting projects, sketch book, Vogue Knitting magazine, empty water bottle and Starbucks cup from my drive - I walked around the block and nabbed it. It would have made a funny picture. Me, having donned my fuchsia leather gloves (because the metal would be cold) and my pile of stuff dangling from one arm, holding the newly acquired old chair, dangling from the other, walking down the dark empty street in the drizzling rain. With my chair.
It is a little beat up and a little rusty- but it is so iconic. This was the chair in other peoples kitchens. The kitchens where peoples mother's cooked. The places of refuge and orderliness that I sought as a kid, whose own mother eschewed the arts of cooking and order for other arts. It seemed a marvel to me. Then as now. So I nabbed it.
It has a perfect place at my studio table.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Poppet is at the Vet

Poppet swallow a pin. It is lodged in her throat. Michael is at the vet with her now.
***updated***The pin is out and they are x-raying her to make sure there is nothing else in her digestive tract. 
* the patient is home and well. No pins or needles found. No permanent damage.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

False starts that have led me here

the beginning of a backing
I have been making many false starts at doing an honest to goodness applique quilt for as long as I have been quilting. I love looking at the stately Baltimore Alblums, and the stories of the bible and other stories that you see in some of the gorgeous quilts I have seen in museums. I have drooled over the New England quilts in the Sherwood book and the Mid West quilts in the Hoover (I think) , and of course the Dear Jane and the Dear Hannah and the wonderful Applique Society blocks and Diane's  applique block of the month blocks. I have made many a running start on these, buying books and patterns and thread and backrounds and different color schemes. And....drum roll please.... I am about to do it again- start, I mean. 

I found the Mary Mannakee patterns that I bought from the DAR museum several years ago( I am a bonafide DAR) and wham!! bang !! boom !! I am starting again. So wish me luck.

I am doing the back for the Storm at Sea, and not sure where I am going with it, so bear with me. Also still thinking of adding a border still but probably will not.

I think I will make kits. My own block of the month kits. Only it will not be of the month, it will be just 'block of whenever I can find the space to sit and stitch'. BOWICFTSTSAS. I think I will do what I do and make them the size I want and I will do it in reds and greens ( since I have them) ( I have already done one 16 inch oak reel which will be included) and may just use the patterns as inspiration. I think all of the false starts have led me back to this , and helped me get ready for this, and so, off I go. 
All artists need to practice. False starts are practice. Do not berate yourself for practicing. It is an essential part of what we do and in no other art form is the expectation there that each piece will be either finished or perfect. Anyway this is what i am dreaming of....

Had my mamo and sono yesterday and today I am seeing the doc for a result. Not expecting anything one way or another. Fifty percent of the tests I get result in more tests, and so it goes. 

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Just right

Third time's a charm. Perfect size for a small project.
Maybe a personal sock of the month club ala the infamous (among knitters) yarnharlot? Who could resist a personal sock or maybe a mitten of the month club with such a chic conveyance?

Take two

Made another kit bag. Sock kit sized. I think I have the hang of it now. Since this is precious dash sacred fabric to me- real indigo- I think I will unsew the smaller one, add some scraps and make it bigger.

A little tool pouch

Used some indigo scraps and batik. I thought it would be bigger but it will be fine for dpns and very small sewing projects. I think I will go make a bigger one. Cheaper than therapy.