Happy Halloween

Beware!!!

Art Giving

Inspired by Calico Cat, blog of Amy, I am offering a small piece of fiber art to the first five people who ask in the comments. I think this is a wonderful way to build community and have fun creating too!
Here is where Amy got the idea.
http://debraspincicdesignstudio.blogspot.com/2006/10/arty-meme.html
I don't know what I will do yet. But I have an idea that it will look like a postcard!
In return, you have to give away five pieces through your blog too....
My fear is that no one will ask!!
*****Hi all I have five takers but only one snail mail address from Emmy! So yes to all of you please go to the profile page and send me your addresses>>>oxox

denim beast

Begun in the eighties , from a pattern in an old Georgia Bonesteel book, made from old jeans and flannel-a beast to stitch through. It has at least three kinds of quilting including big stitch, in the ditch, and machine quilting-which messed up the timing on my machine.
It is now bound and given to Katy since it is the only one of my creations she has ever liked.Now that it is finished I really like it alot.
I am thinking my next project will be my Moondance quilt froma bom a couple of years back...Beth Ferrier is the designer. I have the top almost sewn together, awaiting applique embellishment which may or may not happen. Alas my camera is out of juice so there are no photos till tomorrow.

Finished and ready to go

I am as pleased as punch with this quilt and I am happy to be done and finished. A turkey is done, I have heard, and I am not turkey so I guess I am finished.
Dined on sushi from a new sushi spot in the west end-----way way good. The sushi was excellent and the tiny restaurant was lit only with candles, no more than six or so tables and at the bar at the end of the room was the behatted chef deftly making delectables if you cared to watch. I alway like eating in places where I can watch the action. Alas Mike is not a sushi fan, so we picked up a slice of pizza for him in the pizza place next store, and drove home to eat by the light of the tv.
The winds are gusting outside. ("Gusty" is a word used in the seventies, in the Northeast, by cool teenagers, a shortened version of 'disgusting'. Specifically used by Dana Good, now dead some years, of cancer. Hi Dana. I am remembering you. People deserve to be remembered. Dana had a couple of false teeth in set in a bridge in his mouth and he used to take them in an out as he conversed with you. It could be somewhat disconcerting if you did not know him. And he wore converse high tops even in the bitter Vermont winter. I last saw him in 1978, when he came to visit me in Hartford. We were not lovers . Good friends. I wept when I heard he died. As you age you realize how few of us there are. Survivors, creatives, friends.)
Ramble ramble ...one of those memory manholes that I fall into every so often.

Sampler Swap blocks and Pumpkins

Pumpkins by Bailey, KateLynn and Kali

I am enjoying doing these wonderful blocks for my self and a friend. They are, so far, a selection of Dear Jane, Dear Hannah, and a Heart and Hand Applique pattern. I love the fabrics. I love making them and I love getting hers too! It is a win win situation. It is a magical math when you do one for you and one for a friend. It seems like you get two for one and then you get some in the mail. And who doesn't love getting mail? Very gratifying. And the amount of blocks -one for you and one for her-is very managable and pleasant. I recommend this peaceful way of swapping.

untitled

we are being pulled along this worried frantic manic current
navigating with all the other bobbing heads
through the streaming headlights

in a becalmed sea I could have been marooned by silence

I have been the emotional mainland I say and I hear my voice as though I am not the one who speaks

the shoreline
is subject to change
the weather
the bloody endless changing tides
i am always

giving
always giving and conforming to the changes
losing parts of my self in the process
uninventoried
i believe I will come back later to recollect myself
but the current never, ever reverses

maybe what we get to keep is the stuff of dreams that
elude
these things which we thought we were lucky to have escaped
that stuff which has imprinted the pillow lines on the face
visible
even after coffee and subways have been
played through
left in the backwash

maybe that is all we get to keep
everything else is swept away in the bustling current

there are things that make you want to stop and look and and touch and examine each one
and carress the soft cheek, inhaling and memorizing it
to incorporate into your own version

but there is no time for that
your attention is diverted
wrenched away

and damn i have hit a snag like
seaweed that is caught in the rocks
or does it originate there

and there is always another storm at sea

whadya want for dinner and
I need some money to replace the book I lost

it wasn’t mine

it wasn’t ever even mine
it wasn't a part of that dream

Friday happenings

Got a cool post card from Sue In Washington. Love the little ghostie and the bat, o and the castle too.
Passed a buffalo herd in Riverhead which I had to share. These guys were younger but there was a huge bull in the back who looks twice the sizze of the others. Is he the daddy? Don't know much about buffalo.
The girlies got their dollies and duly appreciated the toostie roll pops! Go figure. I am glad they were happy:)

Ready to roll

We are off to points east, to visit and enjoy the spectacular autumn day. This is what I am taking with me. My Janome, in the cooler, is going in for a lube job. Meg Swansen knitting book from the library, Martha Grimes novel , also from library and my knitting, in the bag I bought it in. O and my huge straw bag, made in Madagascar and bought from a jewelery shop in Southampton, whose name escapes me. He had a beautiful dog with the most amazing blue eyes, who was friendly. In the bag I carry a journal, chapstick, camera and wallet, case for my glasses, phone, hat, and sometimes a snack and or a water bottle. O and I should make sure to bring a head lamp in case we come back in the dark and I want to read or knit in the car.
So lets get started. Vroom vroom

Dolls with quilts

Here are the raggedies for our nieces, with their faux quilts.

And one more wedding picture with all of us.

weighty matters

Today my son told me that he has hypertension. He is twenty three. In our family he have a history of diabetes and high blood pressure. Not a good combination... so I have committed myself to lose weight with him. And so has his dad and his sister and even my lanky husband who has put on that middle aged twenty pounds since we first met.
For me it is back to weight watcher to lose thirty five pounds. I have been so unhappy with my weight lately.More from vanity than from health reasons. There was not on ephoto from my daughter's wedding ,of me, that I liked. (Worse even) I was always one of those young skinny types and now that fifty looms I am not skinny nor young. And while I have no desire to turn back time, I can lose weight.
My plan:
1.Go to weight watchers tonight. I have put it on my calendar as a weekly event and I have put a two hour reminder on it so I don't "forget".
2.Buy good walking shoes. Because of my weight and possible arthritis in my feet and knees and back, it is so important for me to have good shoes, not, alas, sexy ones, but sturdy and comfortable ones, because if my feet hurt, I won't walk and if I don't walk I will stay fat and if I stay fat my knees will hurt and so it goes. So I have ordered myself a pair of hikers from a catalog called Title9 For those who may not know, title nine is the law in the USA that entitles girls equal access in school to fitness and sports programs. When I was a girl this was not the case.
So, I will be counting steps and points and I hope I will not be too cranky, but don't count on it.

loop-d-loop

we took a ride to Greenport on the North Fork of Long Island and visited my favorite yarn and fiber art store Now and Zen Fiber Arts
and I bought some Cascade 220 to make some flowers to put on a felted bag and I bought one little skein of silk mohair yarn with sparkly nylon things in it to make a lace ascot And And And I bought this book, Loop-d-Loop,
because I love the patterns and have the yarn to make a couple and this was a Good Day.
On the way back east we stopped at Wickhams
Farm stand and bought Stilton cheese and apples and apple cider and a loaf of wonderful artisian bread baked with rosemary and olives ( and other stuff I am sure but it is long since eaten), and we bought some cheddar for Mike , who will not go near Stilton, and we went back to Else's and feasted upon our purchase. And this was also Good.
This morning I re ironed the freezer paper bits to the right side of my fabric, the correct side since it is not actually the right side, as it were, and hope to do some wonderful calming hand stitching today.
Daughter Jen is coming over with the wedding pictures!!!I get my own DVD and I will post some later. Happy day!

Ogres, Wips and Innovation!

Things on my design wall. The Dear Jane blocks will be scanned and altered (for fit) and printed onto a sheet of fabric for the Raggedy dolls. That way, the dolls have a quilt and no one has to worry about them being too precious. There was a lady on my Dear Jane list, Linda H, who said she was doing this for each block to make a whole quilt. This was the seed for this idea. If you can do it block by block-why not a mini quilt for a doll? then you can resize it in Photoshop and make it like a journal quilt and you are done in time for Halloween. Thanks Linda!
The Ogre is the 30's nine patch variation. It is an ogre. Nuff said. I am using the idea from Quilter's Newletter magazine.
The Turkey Red blocks are for a one to one swap with a Freind. This is my Wip for October.
I am so sick today with sinus infection, chills headache nausea.....and the news of the shootings of children is making me so heartsick.
Just so very sad

Little Raggedies without dresses

Aren't they too cute? This is a Gail Wilson pattern for eight inch dolls. I did them yesterday and sometime before the end of the month, I will make their clothes and send them to my nieces for Halloween. I may make them witch hats to make them Halloweenie. I also made some postcards for a swap but I can't show them yet but I can tell you I made a collage/painting and decorated it with stuff I bought at Michael's. Then I photographed it and printed it on to fabric and added some beads and a binding and Viola! a postcard is born.
I listened to "Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion. Very moving and so sad , a memoir about the death of her husband. She is an amazing writer.