what I am doing today (and yesterday)

Just a peek into my inner fabric addict. I am having so much fun with Inklingo and Ping. Both hand sewing. Tell me again why I have so many sewing machines? Actually the Tumbling blocks are partially assembled on my machine. I stitch the first two diamonds of the cube by machine and then when I have a bunch, I sew the inset seams by hand. I am sure there is some kind of rule against this but it hasn't stopped me yet.
And there is the ill fated BE wreath which I started before I began machine appliqueing the other blocks. I rescued and I will finish it- and you know, I think I will finish it and it will blend ok.
O and the string block, inspired by Patti and Hanne and Bonnie Hunter on her Quiltville site. I do have a tub of bright strips but I am rarely in the mood to do them. If I do one a month.....in a couple of years I will have used all my strips.
My sampler blocks are waiting for a setting. Perhaps on point with and alternating plain block. I will have enough of the collection of fabrics to make the setting blocks with. Perhaps in a square in a square color set...hmmmm. We are drawing to a close with this and I have so enjoyed it. It will be such a pleasure to have this quilt in my life:)
So -a good combo of hand and machine, piecing and applique. A healthy variety for the ADD queen apparent.-o and there is that other tumbling block that i keep looking at on the wall -but I really do like the one with the one inch sixty degree triangle...also in Linda Franz' Inklingo Collection.
And I am swapping neutrals with my nickel swapping and swapping strips of one inch diamonds with my Inklingo group this month and should be getting back someDear Jane Spring Fling blocks in a month ....ssssooooo there you have it--from the woman who said she was going to swap no more.
So that is what I am up to here in cloudy NY. Going to the east end for the afternoon, a little shopping a little eating a little visiting.
I have been keeping up with the Finding Water reading and the morning pages-a few lapses here and there. I am really enjoying reading Julia Cameron again. I find I have alot in common with her. The twelve weeeks are going by very fast. I wish we could spend more time on each week. I may slow it down so I can savor it. But I have so much to do...I am hoping I did not forget...o yes the dolls, tba at a later date.....
bfn
bye for now-m

12by12by12 March

Thaw. This image is the Lady of the river, thawing in the spring. You can see the bits of vegetation still imbedded in the ice and all around the world springs to life.Made with fabric bits, lace,netting, a block from Dear Jane, crayon and thread coloring.

checking in and Thursday pic day

Did morning pages. That is about all.
All my spare time has been spent in my sewing room which is how I like to spend it.Between work and sewing I do not have alot of idle time. I am not generally an idle person.I mailed out all the stuff I needed to mail in the last week so I am feeling pretty unencumbered.I still have dollies to dress but I doubt if I can make the deadline of April one for the contest. Maybe if I spend Sunday working on it.
Basil thinks he belongs upon me when I sit here on the couch with my computer. Note how his arm is wrapped around mine. Usually, when I am talking to you, this is where I am. This picture is for Thursday's Create a Connection-picture day! I am a little late as usual. It is nice place for bloggers to meet and make connections. Each month there are swaps and different hosts to keep it lively. Link is in title.
Another create a connection exercise:
1-Jana's create a connection stuff:-Random things-I am allergic to cats, my first job was filling up pill capsules used to make swirly designs in bottles(think lava lamps) in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1969 and once I stepped barefoot on a frog. I can't think of anything more important.
2- I hate board games, I read voraciously and have a pretty keen memory though not photogenic-is there such a thing as audiogenic? I hear your voice once and I will remember it. I collect lots of things! Sewing machines( I have ten) fabric paint yarn thread glass tea friends experiences books paper books, books books......books ideas children hahaha
3- I love to try new things all the time so if there is an art medium I have not tried, hmmm , maybe architecture or spaceship designing.
I love to paint and write and make quilts not necessarily in that order.
how-to website? www.quiltville.com, www.quilterscache.com

to hershey bar

Linda can you email:)me- your address is bouncing!! Thanks for stoppong in a visiting my blog!

Baltimore Elegance Block

Crossed stems with slightly wacky yoyo roses.
Fortunately I am not a perfectionist but as the day progressed and I finished the stitching and made the roses and centers I began to really like this block inspite of its flaws. It is an earnest sort of block-a block that means well. And I do like it . Really I do.

Pussy willows survived the freeze!
Will look for hyacynth and daffodills later when I actually leave the house. My plans to embark on a journey to the post office and beyond were abbreviated when Mike came home and we had lunch together. I do love lunch and procrastination. Anyway later we will go and do errands and flower hunting.
Last night a friend called me and asked me if I would let her treat me to breakfast for my 21st anniversary. I had actually forgotten I am 21 years sober today-and it is spring and life does not get any better than this.
My daughter has told me that her some of her friends talk about their parents drinking and she does not share that experience.She says she understands that I can not drink. O but I can! I tell her, but I choose not to, because I love my life the way it is. When I was 26 I decided to change the path that my life had taken and I never looked back. May all your lives be as blessed.
My friend Hedy, who still remembers my anniversary.

icy garden

The snow was hardened so that I cold walk across the top and not break the crust.
Icy bunny and pussywillows

crock pot

Onion soup-five onions and up to a stick of butter-eight hours later, the onions are carmelized and you may add the add the beef broth.I buy the kind in the carton and use one carton. Cut up french or italian bread and greyere cheese or use swiss if you must and pour the soup over it- and melt it all together in the micro wave. If you wish you may broil it to make the cheese melt but it works just as well in the microwave
II
one cut up chicken (you can remove skin if you like), chicken broth (canned or carton does not matter) to cover, jar of pasta sauce, canned mushrooms (i use those tiny cans and the whole mushroom caps since this allows dh to remove them lol, if you like
six or eight hours later, make pasta and serve chicken cattiatore
III
beef cubes-bottom round or bought stew meat, carrots and onions-some peas if you want to add at the end-
can of tomato sauce, worsteshire sauce and ketchup(how much is up to you-we like it spicy) -six to eight hours
make egg noodles and you have goulash with a kick-add jalepinos if you really like it hot.
You can also delete the veggies and used chopped meat and call it sloppy joes or josephinas.

favorite things post

List your favorite(s):
Flower to look at:peony, black eyed susans, cone flowers, roses tulips, forget me nots clematis lilac thymus rosemary chives
Feature of your favorite animal:purrrr, paws
Item in your kitchen: italian pocelain sky blue tile
Item of comfy clothing: (or outfit, if you feel the need!)pjs
Thing to recieve through the mail:blocks from my swap friend
Color on your favorite animal:grey
Food to cook: (be forwarned, we may be asking you for the recipe if it sounds good! lol) crock pot stuff!
Ringtone style:vibrate
Wild animal (or fantasy creature, if you're so inclined):elephant
Outfit to dress a little girl in:what does she like?
Thing to do with snow:walk in it
Weather:autumn crisp but not to cold or cold drizzly days to saty inside and sew.

pincushions that make me smile

I have been keeping up with morning pages-even writing them in the car as I am being driven there- and artist dates. I have been working way too much. My artist dates have been very boring. I admit I haven't been taking them very seriously. I did not get to making my Faces page this month. Things just piled up on me and I had to jettison a few of my projects or go bone crazy. I think I am invincible sometimes and I am really quite sensitive and fragile.
I am so annoyed that blogger is not working for me. I think it has to do with this picassa thing that they are incorporating which doesn't work on a macs. I haven't been able to upload pctures which makes me ornery. Will I have to resort to changing blog hosts? Are they kidding me???
The title link will take you to a really really really fun pincusion site. I hope you like it. Makes me want to go buy embroidery (which I remember giving away by the bundle heehee) thread. Maybe I will hold off on the thread.
I am going go to sulk now.

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media

The Writer's Almanac from American Public Media
awesome podcasts...omg this is awesome! Follow the lnk for free podcasts from itunes-if you love Garrisin Kiellor check it out. I am enthralled and thrilled. I MISS poetry, I MISS being around other writers.
The chapter from finding water this week is about allowing ourselves to be supported by friends. Well if you have ever been in a Nar Anon meeting you will hear what happens to your friends when your kids starts using. You can kiss life as you know it good bye and that is about all I am going to have to say about that. For now.
So I need to find a writing group, preferably poets, preferably women, who don't question why my stuff is so sad. I write about what I have lived. It is not fiction. I do not write to make any one else sad. It has been how I transform pain into art which=joy.

Another one of my mother's paintings. It is stored at my grandmothers house with some others. I guess I should have brought it home with me but I could not carry it. I could not bear the awful weight of it. Today we received an envelope from her with a video tape called "the Santa Tapes" in it. A black and white video remastered interview from 1975 of a department store Santa. Well I just cain't wait to see this one. She does not enclose a note, nor salutation. She spells my name wrong. With a Y.
I thought I was going to have Friday off so I could sew some sampler squares but I have been asked to work and I can use the money so I will be working straight through the weekend until Monday. Man o man. I hope I can hold up:) However I have printed up some freezer paper patterns and I will get to them one of these days..
Sentimentalstitches
a fun new web site with lots of great links and free patterns for those of us who think we will live long enough to actually make all of the quilts we think we need to make.

Love these blocks!

Aren't these the finest blocks! They just cheer me right up. How can you have a bad day if you get these blocks in the mail?

home at last

Blooper sampler blocks. The middle one was done with water soluble foundation paper and it left the block wrinkly and shrivelly looking. The outer blocks were the second attempt at a block using Seminole strip piecing and I could not for he life of me get the dimensions right.The middle sections are supposed to be equal and square! So all three go onto the blooper pile.
The hearts are keepers. The one on the right has been embellished using my machine decorative stitches. I think it looks way cool. The leafy one is not yet stitched, just fused. I think even simple stitching adds to the block.
On Friday I will do some more sampler blocks. I got my February batch from my trade partner and they are stunning and I think they deserve a whole post to admire them.Coming soon....


Home from work, home from errands. Bloody cold out the wind is howling and I have to go out once more to pick Jay up at the train. Then I am in. I did not do my morning pages, nor pick up a needle tonight and I did not cook either because Mike wanted Chinese food. One of those low energy days, tho I did go to work and that is sometimes all a body can do.

the past-a peek

On the second shelf is my great grandmother's hat block. I credit her with my interest (actually more of a passion or obsession) in sewing. At least the seed was planted, as I watched her make me a jumper for swimming. Apparently I had arrived in Florida with out swimming attire and she set about to fix that. She told me, as I watched her, about ironing the seams open and even about matching gingham checks. It was a blue and white garment, shorts on the bottom, strapped shirt on the top. One piece, like a kids overalls. and it was lined. I think I must have found it beautiful because it has stayed a clear memory all these years. Anyway, my mother, whose little painting you can also see here, gave this hat block to me.
Some one made hats. Was it my great grandmother or her mother? I am not sure, but it was somebody and this is their hat block. Now people probably use plastic ones, or styrofoam. This one is solid heavy wood, perhaps from a hickory tree. Ladies generally don't even make their own hats any more, for church, or gardening, or just to walk down the street, capped by the artfully arranged chapeau. No. Ladies do not wear hats to the same extent as they used to wear hats, as a statement of their station, as protection from the sun, as an elegant and delicately balanced (pinned in place with one of those long and potentially dangerous hat pins) accoutrement. But I wander. My thoughts have a mind of their own. (Groan, ouch, hahaha.) I have not seen my great grandmother in many decades and I do not recall if she ever wore a hat in my presence. But I can recall her voice, reminding me to always, always iron open my seams.

On the design wall

Here are the blocks in progress from 'Ping' and my 'Baltimore Elegance' (or maybe I should call it 'Altantic Elegance'). The two fused blocks , the ship and the hearts, are waiting for me to do the machine applique and the ping is needing to be hand appliqued to the back round. Tonight I am basting some more petals and threading my needles for tomorrow. And waitng for Bailey to get home from her school trip.

2003 poem december

It is dark still when we awake
just the tip of sunrise in the eastern sky

hard to rouse them
from the warm cocoon of sleep
wrapped in compelling dreams
and the safe insulation of unconsciousness

it is dark still as they rise
mind and bodies struggle to the surface

the lightening sky in the east makes an urgent invitation

morning ablutions done barely done
then out the door
down out street braced against the
icy atlantic wind

they say we are expecting a nor'easter

down our street, the wind at their backs
it is light

done for now

Another top finished and ready to be quilted. I have one more UFO to be pieced and I will have three for the year. I don;t know whither these tops will goest but at least they are at a resting stage. When I determine what to do with them I will be motivated to do the quilting, either by myself or by someone else. This one was designed by Judy Laquidera for her One Hour a Day challenge and it was fun to follow along and see how quickly it went to together. My squares in the border did not match perfectly because I trimmed the squares a bit smaller than the design called for, but I had all the triangles and squares cut from another project and I was determined to use them. I did buy new fabric for the borders, from the new Laurel Burch collection. And that is that.

Not your average baltimore album

I decided to use some of my photos of our own stuff to make some images to mix in my Baltimore Elegance. After all is that not what the baltimore ladies did? her are some pictures of altered photos that I'll use for block patterns. The ship is one of my paintings, the hutch is in our dining room and the heart is from one of my paintings also. This will be fun! and since I am not a tradtional appliquer i will not need to do all of the tradional blocks It feels very freeing to suspend the rules. Or maybe it is just the fever talking heheheh.

email blues

My notes, made with glass tippied pen and brown ink. Love that brown ink.
Well, Yahoo doesn't seem to be delivering my mail to my quilty groups so I am adrift on a sea of no mail.
I am sitting on the couch and my energy is coming back but I am still grounded due to germs. I want to run out to Pier One and look see what's on sale. In my morning pages, which today were ornery pages, I keep coming back to things that I want and I want a bedroom that is in keeping with my designer sensibilities. Right now it is just a mess, with laundry in baskets because we cannot fit the stuff into our inadequate storage places, The dressers are cousin Shirley's cast off and Peggy's from when she moved. And mine is inaccessible. In order to open it I have to stand on the side (because the laundry baskets are in front of it) and grasp the ugly pulls-old fake colonial style with one side dangling free of its screw hole- and inevitabley I strain my already fragile back and I am just so tired of it. Yes just so tired.
And the closet is just a catastrophy, a scary dark hole inhabited with shadowy creatures who thrive on disorder and lounge upon the cobwebbery. Before I go in it -which is rare because I usually make Mike do it, I mutter incantations and surround myself with healing energy. Until I try to wrench some forgotten article of clothing from its wire hanger and pull the whole pile down on top of me, only to find out that the d***d thing doesn't fit anyway anymore. And what was I thinking when I bought that? Well it would have been much worse with out the healing energy I can tell you that!
I know this is whiney and that is a good description of how I feel, trapped inside this helmet of congestion and plagued with poorly decorated room, lol. At least I entertain myself.
If you stop by, leave a comment , would you? and send some healing energy because I have used up all mine,

mostly loafing

Mike made this cross section of a wing while he was in school.I love the shape of it and I can almost hear the wind whooshing over the wing, giving it lift: the Bernoulli's principle. I want to put it in a collage. Haven't figured out whether to photo shop it into a collage or put it in an actual collage then photo shop it. When did photo shop become a verb?
I keep thinking I am going to get ambitious and go sew something but my head cold prevents me from actualizing my ambitions. Even though I really really want to, the energy is not flowing in that direction.
Tomorrow I am staying home. I already called work. I don't want to share my germs with anyone and I feel lead headed.Today felt like a total waste.
Things I did do: some Finding Water excersizes. Put some batteries in my camera. Drank a liter of ginger ale and cooked a passable dinner even though I can't taste a thing. Cleaned the crud off the stove and shined my sink. Made a chocolate pudding pie for Bailey. Made some notes for a doll I want to make-or a series of dolls, for the Gail Wilson contest. It is fun to think about even if I can't get around to doing it. Half the fun is in the scheming.
O yeah I took Katy shopping for clothes so she has a few things to wear for her new job. Did NOT want to but I had promised her that I would and I decided to load up on decongestants and just do it.
She has dyed her hair brown! In exchange for peeling potatoes I cooked her some rice-a-roni, I drive a hard bargain. And I got talked into letting her drive around a little. So now, the dishwasher is gurgling in the back round and the tv is off. I may find a few minutes to sew, now that Mike has left for work and there is no more kitchen work to do.

Things that are beautiful: My Murano glass pen, an owl in the branches of a leafless tree, the cross section of a wing, a shiny stove and a day off. and of course, my Katy.