Quiltcontemplation

Made this in 1967?

2012-01-28T14:51:00.001-05:00

Older than most of the people I know. First try at hand stitched button holes. Waaaay in the back of the closet.

Sheep wool!!!!

2012-01-14T14:47:00.001-05:00

Will be knitted into a sweet sheep blankie.

2012-01-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

I am planning to knit THIS! I have the pattern and the yarn is being contemplated. Do I knit the wonderful shetland un dyed gorgeous colors as shown? Or do I go crazy colored all over the place. Stay tuned...
I love to plan projects like some people plan vacations. I pore over the patterns and read them line by line. I print them and highlight and make notes in the margins. I count the long lines of stitches and write the numbers on the charts and put the pages in plastic sleeves to keep them safe. Just in case I do not have the pattern printed, I email it to myself and put it on my iPhone and my iPad. Just. to. be. sure.
Shopping online for yarn is a great pleasure. It boggles the mind to have the resources that we have on the interwebs. I can order real shetland yarn from Jamieson and Smith in the UK or find a substitute in the US of A. Or I can go to one of many superb yarn stores in NYC- or- if I am very patient, I can wait till one of the yarn and wool festivals within traveling distance in the coming year.
The J&S shetland supreme 2 ply for this Blanket is also available here in the states at Yarns International (They do not charge shipping!) They also carry the J&S dyed shetland in the event that one does want to added a colorful ram or three to above referenced sheep blanket.
Once it arrives, I wind the yarn into balls and find the needles and stitch markers and life line supplies if I am knitting lace, and put it all in a zippered bag to be picked up at my leisure. Don't laugh. I have some leisure. Socks and small things I can bring on my commute, but bigger more complicated patterns I leave for home knitting. This will begin at home but it looks like it is also a commutable pattern.
Quilted projects also have their planning stages. But many times when planning a quilt project, I let it take its own course. Maybe it is a product of having done it for much longer than I have been knitting, so I have a more relaxed approach. But many is the night when I drift off to sleep counting colors and patterns and not sheep.

2012-01-07T08:17:00.002-05:00

Tiny houses from scrap:) I kind of edged into this side ways telling myself that if I finished my other stuff first I would allow myself a few little houses. I have a thing for houses. This is my third house project. My first was a huge denim monster from the days of Georgia Bonesteel and it is truly a monster but I adore it and the second was a wall hanging from the same era, all in blue calicos.
But these! these are just bitable. I have not found my perfect method yet. I have tried paper piecing and strip piecing and just plain old eyeballing..of course this ensures that they will not be uniform: that they will, in fact, be wonky, and I accept this. I have not yet hand pieced any and I am dead certain that this will be the most precise and perfect method-but I am more inclined to allow for imperfection, so as to actually get some done. Jeanekke has all of her pieces lined up in a partitioned box which is very alluring, making me want to go out and find the perfect box and spend hours arranging my sections but then you see I would not have time to sew any together. So I resist, telling myself that if the perfect box exists for me, the universe will present it, in the fullness of time.
I find that I can use very small scraps for these ( the window square is less than an inch) and they will be scrappy and I will not need to buy anything for them and that is the perfect recipe for tiny houses. Be sure to visit Jeanekke's blog for lots of info as this is her project and there are about 800 people worldwide who are doing the "a tiny house a day" project.
It has always been a dream of mine to build an actual tiny house but this may have to do for now.

Cleaning the sewing room

2012-01-03T22:29:00.001-05:00

As usual, not much cleaning got done, but I found a bag of 2.5 inch squares that I was saving.
*updated to add**This pattern was down loaded ten years ago for a website called Aroundoz and it is called Ann's scrappy quilt. Although the website looks the same I did not see the link to this pattern. But I wanted to make sure to give credit where credit is due. Thanks Chrissy! **

Oh my yes

2011-12-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

Bluemoonefiberarts-Hotlips!

2011-12-24T16:13:00.002-05:00

Do you see what I see???

2011-12-24T09:20:00.001-05:00

everything but the kitchen sink soup

2011-12-20T15:06:00.000-05:00

Alas it befalls me to tell the tale of lunch. It is one of those days wherein lunch must be made. Mike is, again, sleeping. I should point out here that Mike is not lazy. Rather, he works while the rest of us sleep and so must sleep when we are up and about in the day time. Anyway, It was the middle of the day. I am still recuperating from a violent bout of asthmatic bronchitis or as I like to call it, pneumonia. And yet I am hungry. I think that some of the meds make me more so.
The fridge is a fright. There- it is out. There are things in that crisper that should never be named. I beheld the spectacle with woe (and hunger) and no small amount of fear. And then, armed with the ever present fat free half and half, and left over chicken broth, I resolved to make the soon to be famous, 'everything but the kitchen sink soup.'
There was asparagus and garlic and broccoli. there was a pepper and some grapes. No silly, I did not use the grapes. One does not add grapes to the soup unless one comes from the west coast. There were a few desultory apples. There was a longish portion of baguette left from the once and former accidental potato soup, which might make rather nice croutons if coated with some olive oil, mustard powder, onion, dried basil and dusted with parmesan.
And the carrots were still crisp enough to be lightly steamed and served just so.
And behold: there was lunch.
While I was about lunch, I found some prehistoric filo dough in the freezer and resolved to make use of those three slightly shriveled apples to concoct what can loosely be called dessert. I am no master of filo dough and my hat is off to the chefs who make it look easy to roll up some chopped apples and hazelnuts with nary a shred in the fine leafs and make it look wonderful. But I will say it was not actually on the plates long enough for us to bemoan its lack of gustatorial beauty.
And so you have the tale of lunch. And the fridge is clean.

accidental soup

2011-12-18T15:41:00.002-05:00

Recipe for ~~roasted~~ burnt garlic and potato soup

I was hungry. I was sickly, trying to get over a tenacious debilitating upper respiratory infection. Mike was sleeping. We were down to a few old potatoes ( the ugly ones that no one wants to bother with, too puny, too gnarly). I may have been running a fever.

Are you feeling sorry for me yet?

So I peeled the potatoes and began the boil. Found half an onion in the fridge, some garlic in the garlic keeper on the counter and tossed it all in the pot. After the potato softened I drained the pot, leaving a little of the original water in it and added the chicken broth left over from who knows when

and then! the coup de gras ...fat free half and half.

I put it on a low flame and went back to the couch and forgot about it.

Until Mike woke up and asked what I was burning.

I leapt from my nest and ran to the kitchen-about four feet, and found my soup in a near burned condition, thick and browning at the edges and just barely salvageable. and it was the. best. soup. ever.

Have I re-invented the twice baked potato soup of some once and former time? It is delicious. The burned garlic makes it so. The onions are indistinguishable and the consistency is of mashed potatoes and extra gravy.

The first time, since I burned it, I did not need a roux. I was tempted to add butter but declined. Mike added pepper. I could imagine left over ham, or capers and anchovies or indeed even a de chickenifed vegetarian version. I suppose you could pre roast the garlic, make biscuits from scratch and add sherry, if you are so inclined, but I am satisfied with the simplicity of my accidental soup.

It is the hit of the season! A humble soup. A gratifying fare, and as I bake the pillsbury grands rolls from a tube to go with it, and consider an extra dab of butter, I thought I would share this story of my new re invention.

Welcome to our winter table.

on lists and to do's

2011-12-18T10:01:00.000-05:00

For me a list serves as a kind of placeholder. Once i write it is like a mental bookmark. I am more likely to remember it! Like Marilyn, I often loose them. Like Theresa, my list making has changed over the years.

I keep journals and sometimes make a list in them and I use computers, spreadsheets and iphone reminders and pencils and pens. Like I said, it is soothing to me and gives me some sense of order-I can put something on a list and let it rest there for a while. It is safe. I will not forget it. Sometimes I even make a painting out of it.

You might even say I love list making. It is an extension of my writing and it centers me. So much for the lofty side of list making. I poke fun at myself. My lists are optimistic. They are a look at what I would like to accomplish but I do not use them to beat myself up.

It is interesting to see all of the different approaches and methods and opinions of lists. I like it when the conversation is lively. Being sick has given me a chance to participate a bit more.As I get back to work I will not have this much to say.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas , Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Solstice, New Year and all that your wishes are fulfilled:)

Here is a copy of a list I made in a spreadsheet in 2009. Some things have been done and others are still in progress...and some other things were accomplished and never made the list!

I will be making a New Years list. Will you?

this time

2011-12-17T08:24:00.000-05:00

I made a list of twelve things I would like to finish.
I decided to split them between quilted and knitted things, six of each.
I know I have more things buried in my stash but this is a good place for me to begin. Some are already mostly done.
One quilt needs a binding.
Two are ready to be sent to the quilter. I have two shawls that are nearly done and just need a border.
Then I allowed myself a couple of new items-more later.
and I added an entry for 'guest finish'. I crack myself up.

I am feeling better. Still out of work for the week due to this bronchial infestation but today I have not coughed at all and that is a relief after three weeks of constant hacking. Thankful to modern medicine.

This year I have put up no tree, done no baking-yet, done zero shopping. Just made neckwarmers. As always I feel like it is not enough. But my kids are adults. And we are all able bodied working folk, so none of need to be showered with extraneous stuff. Each year I think I do not need to over do ( And mind you with four kids and various spousi there are a lot of stockings to fill)
and I plan to scale back and always I feel like I am not doing enough. This may be the year I do not reneg on my promise to myself and let go of the mania. Just this once.
m

December poem

2011-12-14T06:46:00.004-05:00

I have used the nine or so lives of this house.

they are neatly crossed utensils lain just so on an encrusted plate,

In a glance I recall exactly what was there

and what was used to create it

and who made the art and what it is made of and

I know where the light switches are

on which side of the wall when you enter the room

and what the wall feels like

and the smell of the paint as it dried lingering for days until it became cool and powdery to the touch

and the first flaw and the layers that compounded

and the when it began to look like it needed a new coat and the time it became apparent that there would not be one.

how many steps to the stairs and which way to turn to go up and the table by the door that must be avoided so as not to leave a nasty bruise on the thigh.

I have used this small house and it has been a theatre for the dramas of my company

each actor performing simultaneously in their own private act.

Sometimes the effect was cacophony and poly rhythmic

and other times a quiet as the ticking of the clock on the wall-the one that stopped at ten past two and was not restarted for years.

and when it finally resumed its tick tocking,

the cat was alarmed and strove to get to the closest point on top of the adjacent wardrobe to investigate. She nearly fell off. I took a picture. the things you will see if you watch: all happening right in front of you and all around you and inside of you.

all combined until you think you are one with it and then it vanishes

and all you have are your own thoughts tick tocking

and it is enough

Buttons

2011-12-11T16:39:00.000-05:00

these- I have three

or these.. ! have four.

2011-12-11T15:43:00.001-05:00

The thing about being sick enough to stay home from work, is while you are home you do not have the energy to actually do all of the things that you would like to be doing at home. I would like to be accomplishing something more than napping and coughing but I am not likely to be doing so for the next few days. So this is me, upright for the moment, wishing I were doing something more constructive and trying to be patient while the body gets better.
**I did find a few buttons**

Graybar Building ceilings

2011-12-04T20:21:00.001-05:00

Binding

2011-12-03T22:44:00.000-05:00

About 2500 stitches in a little over six hours. Binding accomplished.

no news is good news.......

2011-12-01T19:10:00.001-05:00

Gratuitous cat picture...33 inches, and not even trying.

Macy's Window.
Very steam punk.

Not much Quilty news here lately. I have been commuting to the city and enjoying the holiday atmosphere.

Hmm a new Apple Store in Grand Central Station.......

Traveling, a winter poem

2011-11-28T10:15:00.001-05:00

I was that one youth

sprawled in the subway train

one leg cocked up against the pole in the

center of the car

whose body was so unconscious of its display

as to actually draw attention to itself.

I was not the one with the orange lipstick drawn on in broad strokes

and a jaunty perfect linen buttoned vest and the collar peeking out just so,

who throws back her shoulders and says

I do not feel old,

and then turns to me

and furtively asks, can I learn this?

I was not the girl lying on the floor behind the sub way station ticket booth, young and laying with her coiffed head upon her small purse,

with a coat draped over her legs, be-stockinged in aubergine.

I was shocked to see her there. she did not have the gray aura and odor of the homeless.

She did not have a big sack of belongings with her.

I looked closer at her face and I was surprised to realize she was looking back at me.

I was not her, although I could have been.

or the tall sturdy almost plump one in the pink wool empire waisted coat

with the pink scarf tied tightly around her throat twice,

with the knot squarely in the center of her long neck-

her determined boots echoed in the subway tunnel,

and she felt me watching her and stared straight ahead.

I imagined she felt exposed.

I have felt that way.

I may have been the guy who was gracefully perched against the tiled wall

in the 42 st ‘n’ train stop.

He was beautiful and all the way across two sets of train tracks so I could safely gaze upon him and I imagined him to be a dancer or an actor on a stage.

he was sitting there so serenely,

unconscious of the filthy loud station. or of my notice.

or maybe that was a part of his performance.

when the autumn day is a bit cool and hazy,

as the warmth from the earth meets the cooler air,

and the mist causes water droplets to form on my skin-

then I feel the swirling of my ghosts around me and I am

pulled inward to a place which exists only in some inner dimension

and not in any present tense

and I realize

I am still looking for myself,

seeking my history, my bond with these people

who I see only from the outside -though

I rise and fall on their stance and posture ,

and I dance and sway on their words

which I recall in my own conversations

from elsewhere

and possibly in another time.

I feel no shame in observing them thus.

by necessity, I am a voyeur.

I was excluded from their table. I did not partake of their horn of plenty.

I was shunned. and

no one looked into my face to see me looking back.

As I watch the people

in their orbits

and measure their response,

and participate in their trajectories,

I realize I am looking for an opening

into my own understanding.

I am looking for a way back in.

Oh yeah...

2011-11-26T09:36:00.001-05:00

Train Knitting

2011-11-19T14:07:00.001-05:00

And now back to our regularly scheduled programing...
Bonnie Hunter, the czarina of scraps has come out with a new mystery and I am in!!
It is called Orca Bay and I am going to try very hard to use only what I have on hand. Since the quilt uses special rulers, I was hesitant, but I found them in a polka dotted suitcase that I brought back from Florida. Both Rulers. Right there. In the black and white, polka dotted, linseed oil smelling suitcase that was specially designed not to get lost and/or stolen in the airport, by none other than my mother. I imagine if she added charisma to her many talents, we would be reading about her in Vogue. Be that as it may.
So the hunt is on. I will be entering the dragon's lair to pluck some feathers and sequester some fabric to begin. It has been many months since I braved the cool environs of my sewing room. Armed with Netflix and a cuppa tea, I go.

If I am not out by six, call the mounties.

amongst the dragons

2011-11-13T11:38:00.001-05:00

Cecil sweeps
with vigor
and purpose-

no dust bunny is safe,
nor dragon,

nor passerby.

He will likely not meet your eye unless invited.
Say hello Cecil.
Hello Cecil.

Cecil channels energy,
tai chi,
he says.
He is always courteous,
mostly,
adroitly making his way.

He sometimes smiles wryly-
the humor of the situation amuses him. He gets it.

We are all Supreme Beings, Cecil,
channeling chi,
observers of comings and goings,
learning new rules with humor and grace,
striving for balance,
heroically wielding our brooms against
the bloody dragons.

11/11/11 Markham Military Men

2011-11-11T06:05:00.001-05:00

Note to self ;

2011-11-08T07:31:00.000-05:00

Note to self ;
If the Muse visits in the middle of the night and you do not wake to greet her
You may still see vestiges of her presence in the morning when you wake:
Hair on the pillow,
An empty glass with her lipstick on the rim, and you may hear the far off tinkling of the keys,
But you will never remember the words that she spoke so clearly then
Quatrain. Sestina.
Verse.
In the morning light
they are but dim
silent stars.

Martha

Finished nonibag

2011-11-05T14:02:00.001-04:00

Bought kit in rhinebeck, finished knitting on halloween, added hardware today. Must be some kind of record.

Birthday breakfast

2011-11-05T11:09:00.001-04:00

November poem.

2011-11-04T07:17:00.001-04:00

We did not take care of each other
As women must.
Ignoring your need,
We bent to our own lives and turned away from your outrageous pain.
And now your keening fills up what little silence we have left
And your dreams inhabit our sleep
Insistent querulous demanding.

As I walk downtown
Past galleries and shop
Windows filled with colorful baubles
I think how sad it is that I cannot share this with you. I take notice of a picture and deep in the recesses of my thoughts I am having a conversation with you about it. I regret that you are unable to see it with me , that we wasted what small chance we had. It is from you that I have this discerning eye. It is from you that i learned to see.
Yesterday described a woman to me
Her nails were a mess
You said
And I thought how much worse it really was for you,ludicrous really, coming from
Who had nothing
and yet it bothered you enough to notice that some ones manicure needed attention.

I made mental note to write this down. To preserve this thought so I could remember it for later. to try and understand it better, to decipher the code, balm the dried lips of the lie-
this certainty of our failure to heed what we needed to heed.
To learn what must be learned
to protect each other.

Those women whose sad songs we sense rising from the ground are the bodies of our failures.
Maybe the biggest failure is that we do not learn from each other's histories and return time and time again to models which as women do not serve to unite and protect us, chattel , whore, mistress, wife, prostitute-all iron maiden degrees of ownership and shame and claim.
How have we helped each other to create more gentle nurturing shapes of safety, solace and fellowship and love.
those women whose bodies are found half buried in the eroding wetland dunes, how did they come to be there if we did not ourselves turn from them because they did not fit into the paradigm of worth that we subscribe to. how did we give away our power thus and submit ourselves to the murderous intent of a sinister model-one that we both abhor and create,
allowing ignorance to be our teacher and fear to be our arbiter.

Martha

Unfelted to felted

2011-10-30T10:03:00.000-04:00

finished knitting 10/29

So this is the New York Bag By Noni Designs, before felting. I will add another picture, post wash, to show the difference in size, and then I will go knit something else. p.s. the blanket covering my feet is one I crocheted when pregnant with Jen, 31 yrs gone by. That acrylic yarn certainly holds up!

Before

Felted and wonderful! needs to dry before adding handle and feet and closure.

Jen and Saul on the way to Arlene's Grocery

2011-10-28T18:32:00.000-04:00

George and Diana.

2011-10-22T20:36:00.000-04:00

2011-10-22T12:34:00.003-04:00

Many of you will remember Hersheybar from the Dear Jane list. Well she has finished her Dear Jane!!!

She says she made it for her Grand daughter who is now 14 and she will give it to her when she is married and old enough to take care of it. Linda also kept a journal of the process to leave her grand child. What a wonderful gift!I have seen these blocks up close. They are all hand pieced and each one is perfection!
click on picture to enlarge.

Why I do not need to go to Rhinebeck

2011-10-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

Artists do need palettes and I do support my creative self. I was all set to go to Rhinebeck this year, and then decided to do a photographic inventory of my actual yarn stash. This little collage represents part of it. My eventual plan is to attach all of it to needles and projects with charts and manage it in the consumer database program called Bento. So you see how it has taken over my life. I need a database program to organize my hobby. But since I like actual collecting and organizing and Bento, I guess I can call it all a part go what it is that I do with this creative energy that I have in good supply.

My palette

Commute

2011-10-14T07:59:00.000-04:00

2011-10-05T22:44:00.001-04:00

Night, Steve.

some zoo pics

2011-10-05T19:04:00.002-04:00

from the porch step...

2011-10-05T08:23:00.002-04:00

Still green but def autumnal

A visitor of the raptor family. looks like a young hawk.

Interested observer

Cat cuteness

2011-10-04T11:01:00.000-04:00

Yum

2011-09-28T16:58:00.001-04:00

Today I was a domestic goddess.

Warm autumn foggy morning

2011-09-26T07:58:00.001-04:00

Poppet on the chair

2011-09-22T10:14:00.001-04:00

Leaf painting=happy face

2011-09-08T18:28:00.000-04:00

Boardwalk walk

2011-09-07T11:11:00.000-04:00

Look!what is that strange thing Mike has?

2011-09-06T08:38:00.001-04:00

My miles since I started on may 13.

2011-09-04T20:12:00.001-04:00

Dutchess County Fair

2011-08-24T17:14:00.000-04:00

being that this is a blog about quilting....

2011-08-21T07:33:00.000-04:00

Do read Tildes blog post. It is a worthy epistle (Tilde will know what that is) and in this case I will let her speak for me. Ms. Aloi's post on the Huffington Post has raised the hackles of many a stitcher. Beware a woman with sharp objects--and liberated women at that. In a generation and demographic of women who do not even know what it is like to be oppressed, we need to remember that freedom is what liberation is about -freedom from constrained expectations and media flotsam is a good place to begin. Sookie Stackhouse? really? barf. that is all.
Go read the article, and please read Tildes' response. there are a lot of great comments too. Especially the one that states' you can have my knitting needles when you can pry them out of my cold dead hands.' hahaha

back or front?

2011-08-18T18:08:00.001-04:00

It is often the case that I like the backs of quilts better than the fronts. Which is ok, because they can always been flipped to show the reverse side. today I decided just to make the back the front. I will probably just back this in plain muslin. Or maybe something wild. Like blue fish or something. That is Katy in the background.

The plan-should me busy for a while

2011-08-18T11:10:00.002-04:00

Japanese fabrics from Pinwheels-what say I serge them together for a top? there are already a bunch of nine patches done.

Gratuitous cat photo, Poppet

Knitting projects in various stages of completion-ready to get to work

progress and new starts

2011-08-17T18:41:00.000-04:00

Knitting Like Crazy KAL modified-waiting for inspiration to hit me for a border- and looking through my books.

PI shawl going round and round until I run out of this loverly hand spun yarn .

I have received my spectacular yarn from the Knitspot Fall Knitting in Color Club. It is called Autumn Aurora. I love the name! The pattern, called Long Shadows now in August, is a creation of the amazing Anne Hanson and I am going to cast on in the next 24 hours.
So I will be very busy:)

Goals

2011-08-16T10:14:00.000-04:00

If I write them down does it make them real?
I have taught classes in goal setting and done a whole lot of research and reading and practicing. I usually do set them on paper and revise them from time to time. I find that just this act does set things in motion. Now we have the internet to use also.
I am interested in how other people think about goals. are they private? do you get the support of groups? are they written, prayed over, left out? Do you make lists? journals? collage them? Blog? FB tweet? video? podcast?
are these things mre of a diversion than a tool?
My plan this fall is to restart the Artist's Way workbook and at least begin the morning pages. Any one want to join me? we could start a new members only blog and support each other..... just thinking it might be a good time in my life to commit to paper.

Out in the wilds of northwest Florida.

2011-08-10T11:39:00.001-04:00

Graffiti on the train and trestle-

2011-08-08T16:56:00.000-04:00

Sweet home Alabama

2011-08-06T20:42:00.001-04:00

My cousin and I took a road trip and went back to the farm where we all wish we grew up. Lisa calls it Laurel's farm,

and it is paradise. Lisa spent many happy years here and it is beautiful. Just beautiful. Enjoy some pictures.

Beautiful day..That's Laurel. Her farm. They make it all happen. Pecans, blueberries and grapes, sunflowers-different things to pick as they ripen. This is the Americana that mr Lauren tried to distill. Nice try, but I prefer the real thing.

Untitled

2011-08-04T14:45:00.001-04:00

This jukebox at the Waffle House plays 78's. Way cool...check out the selection.
The house is the former Florida Hotel where my great grandmother was the manager..

Pensacola

2011-08-02T16:10:00.001-04:00

Suzy's porch

12 th avenue oak tree canopy.

I am here in Pensacola, where I began. Is it redundant to say it is hot in Florida in the summer? I am glad to be here.

I am totally knitting this!

2011-07-26T09:12:00.000-04:00

Wool People

I am totally in love with this object du wool, designed by Anne Hanson for Shelter wool. I think it would look stunning in the Faded Quilt (blue) color way. Yes? I think yes. Do go have a look.

There are other many patterns there to tempt and delight and you can buy one! or buy all -instantaneously with the speed of lightening or at least the internet-- whichever works better for you.

But the blanket will be perfect to take to the beach and wrap around us while we watch the sun come up. yes it will.

Summer Lunch

2011-07-24T12:51:00.001-04:00

Lazy Sunday morning

2011-07-24T11:20:00.001-04:00

Random picture from the city. It is so hot here. 90 degrees f in long beach and it is not yet 11 in the morning. I have been reading and writing some. Not expending too much energy. I may try to find a bookshelf in local tag sales. Maybe go out to lunch with my sweetie. Do some financial updates ( pay bills) and hope to see one or more of my children today.
O- and make some defiled eggs. hahaah deviled eggs ..

I am saddened by the mass murders in Oslo and all such despicable acts of violence against innocent people. I add my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all of the victims. I will light a candle tonight in their memory.
I am also saddened by the untimely death of the talented Amy Winehouse, a victim of the disease of drug addiction. Another painfully and often fatally misunderstood affliction.
And, as I continue to live, I will practice love and kindness wherever my path leads me today, For it is these things that I wish to grow in the world. This is the life I will choose to live for as long as I am able.

Mike and Poppet snoozing on the couch

2011-07-20T13:14:00.001-04:00

I am trapped under a cat!

Happy mailbox

2011-07-19T14:38:00.001-04:00

I love receiving gifts in the mail. Even if I order them myself. Both items from knitpicks.com

Siggie quilt

2011-07-19T09:54:00.001-04:00

One of the bonuses of the Dear Jane group has been the siggie (signature blocks) swaps that take place over the years. This quilt is a collection of three years of swapping with quilters all over the world..

It has yet to be quilted and I think this is the next one to be sent to the long arm quilter.
I am getting the hang of this blogsy app...I may have to get a new iPad when three comes out .. I could learn to love it.

Blogsy test

2011-07-19T08:40:00.001-04:00

This will be a test post to blogger using the app "Blogsy "

Blogging from iPad.
Today is my day off. May have to find an adventure..I look forward to days off for knitting and sewing but then when the day arrives I want to be out and about. So far I am sipping coffee and playing with this new app..
May go to the Astoria graffiti and sculpture garden wit Dave and Frank. That could be a plan.
So far there is steep learning curve to this app. I want it to be less digging for how to and more posting. Now let's see how it posts .. Ready set go

cutting the herd

2011-07-14T15:51:00.000-04:00

I am thinking of selling some of my small herd of antique sewing vehicles. I have a couple of nice ones in cabinets and a 221 that I love but are just taking up space. I do not want to hold on to things any more. Maybe I am having belated spring cleaning syndrome.

2011-07-09T22:29:00.000-04:00

Summertime has arrived

2011-07-06T08:38:00.000-04:00

word of the day, from a personal series of observations

2011-07-04T10:39:00.000-04:00

june 30, 2011

word of the day is measure

there are many things to count

and weigh and sort and tally

units of measure can be drafted and drawn and drifted on a chart

visualized and color coded and valued and redrawn and reframed

and marginalized and massed

you can count up things and count on things and recount things and even counter things

and there is an underlying belief that all things can be enumerated and weighted and bartered and assigned

valued and deflated and scatter charted and indicated and collected and hoarded and saved and preserved and allocated and divided and added and projected

however

there are somethings that defy standard methods of measure. beyond scope, counter to widely held notions, they are immeasurable.

and they shall and should remain so.

one cannot measure chance, weigh prevention, contain happiness or sorrow.

while you may measure the velocity of water against skin as your fingers trace a path in the water as they dangle from a white painted row boat on a brilliant still summer day on a deep blue lake,

you cannot count or capture the ergs of bliss that it brings.

Busted!

2011-07-01T08:58:00.000-04:00

Podcasts for commuting

2011-07-01T08:09:00.001-04:00

As I drive to work, (an hour and twenty minutes each way, forty nine miles one way. yes that is a lot of driving) I often listen to podcasts.
Many students at my job, where I teach lessons in how to use Apple computers, do not know what a podcast is. I tell them it is like a recording (pod) of a radio broadcast (cast) that you can listen to whenever you wish.
There are thousands of podcasts on the itunes site and the majority are free! You can listen to one episode or you can subscribe. You can listen on your ipod, ipad, iphone or computer.
Free.
My all time favorite is Garrison Keillor's A prairie Home Companion, Tales from Lake Wobegone, from National Public Radio. I also listen to the New Yorker Fiction Podcast. And the Moth Podcast. And the Etsy Podcast. Whatever your interests are, there is a podcast for you. Check it out and let me know what you find~

Bought myself some shoes

2011-06-29T14:46:00.000-04:00

and had lunch at nordstroms with my date.

Stitch markers

2011-06-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

First tomatoes

2011-06-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

Perusing Barbara Walker's knitting treasuries

2011-06-09T12:42:00.002-04:00

Not a bad way to pass the time on a hot summer day.

it is already in the high ~~eighties~~ nineties here and the plan may change to sitting under an umbrella somewhere, sipping ice water and knitting on my shawl-which shawl is now in need of an alternate border plan. I am not enthralled with the one that came with the pattern ( or maybe I just cannot execute it properly but I have unknit it at least two times and it is bugging me that I cannot get it right sooooo) and I am barely good enough to create my own, so I have been scouring my lace books and thinking about it. A tough job, but someone has to do it.

Breakfast

2011-06-09T10:15:00.000-04:00

signs

2011-06-07T09:33:00.001-04:00

When older children are home, you are likely to see signs of their presence in the house
before you have an actual appearance.

stoupe

2011-06-01T17:06:00.000-04:00

images from my stoup
\

Where do you sit in the summer? in a yard? on a beach? in a park? on a stoup?
I think I will be sitting here for a while. there is a nice breeze and my bones are barking after hitting the boardwalk with my body when my bike took off without me. Actually I stopped to take a picture and lost my balance as I tried to stop. I can't really remember how it happened but I landed on my backside and at first i was afraid I had broken my tailbone or at least my head which I also banged. I am glad I landed just west of aforementioned tailbone and nothing feels more than slightly bruised.
Fortunately I am a very well rounded person. and there was no blood or gore. Scads of people stopped to help me gather my camera and gear which had been riding in my basket( i love my basket!) and they applauded when I decided to get up. I bowed.

Lunch

2011-06-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

KAL update

2011-05-23T13:46:00.002-04:00

What I learned from knitting

2011-05-16T15:51:00.001-04:00

5/16

what I learned from knitting

if something is going to bother you every time you look at it, then you would be wiser to unknit and fix it. that in the end, it is worth it.

and that you can fix things in your knitting

it is very forgiving, it can be undone,

unlike unkind words or actions. or omission.

and the smell of wool can be transporting

and the wonder of its fiber is an amazing gift, almost as if it were designed to be spun into fiber and linked into shapes

unlike wood or glass constructions, you can undo your stitches,

you can reknit a sweater or a shawl or sock or mitten

without solder or nails, or scars.

And there is always more to learn and fill your mind with wonder and amazement

to follow the maze and learn the sequence and find the prize

of beauty and grace and elegance.

and of utility of

the humble twist

and sometimes love ~

a glimpse of the expansion of creation laid out right here on your lap

And the grace of good tools, the wisdom not to waste my precious time and energy on inadequate or even inelegant tools. Beauty of tools is worth attaining. It adds dignity to the process.

and membership

fellowship with the sailors on moonlit nights knitting knots and nets and realizing they were more than useful

they were also beautiful and

crones and tantes gathered round the stove dreaming of the next delicate lace they would knit as soon they darned another sock,

membership.

and shepherds in the fields where they lay-

belonging is what wars are fought about

kingdoms countries realms

places to belong.

when you knit you belong to a greater society

and that one stitch after another after another

and patience and marriage to persistence and perfection

can yield great monuments of cloth

and cloth

gives shelter

and cloth gives beauty

and these things,

not war and poverty and oppression,

are the foundation of civilization

the hallmarks of our race

the human race

KAL

2011-05-08T16:04:00.000-04:00

Nuther one. From knitting like crazy. A mystery knit along. I am using green mountain spinnery wool cotton blend in silver. I added some yarn overs on the wings.

Beginning a new ...

2011-05-03T10:03:00.001-04:00

Shawl. Pattern is 'Rock Island' by Jared Flood of BrooklynTweed. Fiber is 'Helen' in Grand Street Ink, by Lornas Laces. All I can say is, divine. This yarn is Divine. I have unknotted so many times while "swatching" and it does not lose its beauty. I have joined the knit along on Lornaslaces rav page. Come along!

Drawing

2011-05-02T10:04:00.000-04:00

april showers bring roof leaks

2011-04-23T11:45:00.000-04:00

traffic over the bridge on a rainy day

Long Beach looks like a true coastal town when it is raining.

lesson in procrastination

2011-04-16T15:20:00.000-04:00

I will begin by writing for ten minutes. I will set a timer. If I can commit to ten minutes, it will be a beginning. It will break the logjam of procrastination. I read this in a book on procrastination, (The Little Guide to Un-Procrastination, by Leo Babauta) and how not to.

Found here on Etsy

First I think I will need a timer- the perfect timer. Not the one I have on my phone, or my stove or the t.v. Perhaps I can locate the timer on Etsy. Preferably a vintage-possibly mid 20th century, bakelite. Not red, for that would be too distracting.
Once the timer has arrived, I will set it upon my writing table just as soon as the room is a comfortable temperature. It must be daylight so no disruptive shadows fall across my page, and then, I will set the timer. I will not procrastinate.
Of course, I must needs find the right pen, and a journal whose pages are clean and uncluttered, whose size is not too constrained ( one's creative flow will not therefore be likewise constrained) and which page is not so big as to be morally daunting, and then I will begin, just as soon as I can make the page lie flat.
If I can just make the damn thing lie flat.

out walking

2011-04-13T17:22:00.000-04:00

documenting beginnings

2011-04-13T10:56:00.000-04:00

Chart b row 14 of 44 with life lines and markers

backing beginnings

these are the active projects. still in the beginning stages both. I like beginnings. still motivating, still fun.
I am taking a break in my creative endeavors to take a walk with Violet and Alex.

Ravelry project page notes.. Juneberry..

2011-04-09T08:33:00.000-04:00

on chart B:-using lots of markers-

restarted chart 2 jan 30 -still using lots of markers. I am a beginner but I am persistent.

recommend reading: Eunny Jang's "majoring in lace".

restarted again on April 8. did I mention that I am also a perfectionist? I finished first chart in one night. This is encouraging. Maybe I am getting knitting chops. Maybe I am just lace chart junkie with a huge habit and the monkey on my back is Brooklyntweed!

BTW I am going to join the KAL in Lorna's Laces rav group page for Jared's new shawl, 'rock island'.

p.s. I am marthab on ravelry.
Some of you will know what this means. For the rest of you... take heed!

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

the city - birthday trip

2011-04-07T11:05:00.001-04:00

It was a beautiful day to take the Long Island Railroad into the city. Temperatures were in the forties and sunny-perfect for walking!

We bought matinee tickets on line for the Broadway show "the Addams Family" and hopped on the train a couple of hours early so we could walk around a bit. We actually left the house minutes before the scheduled departure, and drove as close to the station as we could find parking (it is only half a mile from the house) and RAN!!! to the catch the train, arriving on the platform with seconds to spare. We had assembled a picnic breakfast ( cadbury eggs and scones made earlier in the morning-from at tube- and a shared egg sandwich, bought when Mike had gone out earlier to the atm), and happily munched as we congratulated ourselves on having made the train! ( me running-now that's a story for another day- note the cadbury eggs included in the breakfast menu.)
We did walk from the Penn Station to Broadway and stopped at a button and trim store in the garment district along the way. No purchase, just gazing, or gawking, upon row after aisle of shiny things. I was tempted by some velvet rick rack trim and some handbag handles, but did not buy them because I did not want to be hauling them all over the city. Oh, and I have no immediate use for them for (but there is always the future) and there were the zippers and buttons and rhinestones and I don't even like rhinestones. and there was a tiara.....

There was a time when I liked clothes and being in the city awakens that affinity. Passing window after window of glamourous overpriced undersized fashion inventory, makes me think about once again wearing nice clothes. Alas, I do not have to think about clothes anymore. My job requires jeans and a t-shirt (and no hats). That is about the extent of the dress code. Over the years I have not paid any attention to my wardrobe and what is left of it is not wearable for any number of reasons(note the above ref..cadbury etc). I could probably just chuck the whole of it out the window and start anew. I once enjoyed sewing clothes.....but lets not go there! I do not have room in my house for another do list!

The play was a funny witty musical and I am not a critic so I will not attempt a critique, but we enjoyed it and our expectations were exceeded. I would recommend it if you are in the mood for a fun afternoon in the city! We left the theatre and it was raining. Even so we walked to Grand Central Station and perused the most excellent market and found a pen store where Michael got his Birthday Pen. We walked back to Penn Station in a light rain and if it did not mess up my glasses, it would have been refreshing! It was not cold and we arrived at the train station with a minute to spare. It was a lucky train day. By the time we got home we were rested enough for dinner at a local establishment and were too tired for dessert. A Hammish MacBeth dvd was the finale` ~ and there you have another birthday passed into history~

2011-04-05T21:37:00.001-04:00

On my commute I see the forsythias in riotous bloom.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Northern state parkway

2011-04-03T08:42:00.002-04:00

Funny posting from the road on my iPad. I may add some more blocks to this quilt. It is an unsung hero. Today I am supposed to account for my time hour by hour. Hour one. Get ready for work. Hour two drive there. Hour three through eleven work. Hour eleven through fourteen meeting. Hour fifteen drive home. Hour sixteen plotz. Hour seventeen. Well I guess that will be all. I am ambitious enough to bring my knitting, so some knitting may take place.
***no knitting ocurred***

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:From the highway of my life.

One thread

2011-04-02T08:43:00.001-04:00

Comfy?

one or three threads on Pindigo before work

Turn a square hat

2011-03-31T19:23:00.001-04:00

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

Ipad app for Infinite Variety!

2011-03-31T10:07:00.001-04:00

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

2011-03-31T09:32:00.000-04:00

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.

Acquisition

2011-03-23T11:57:00.000-04:00

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.

Milestone

2011-03-16T12:58:00.000-04:00

Poppet is at the Vet

2011-03-11T09:47:00.002-05:00

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.

False starts that have led me here

2011-03-08T10:28:00.001-05:00

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.

Just right

2011-03-03T21:51:00.002-05:00

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

2011-03-03T18:45:00.000-05:00

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

2011-03-03T17:40:00.000-05:00

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.