doll jones

I am scratching the doll making itch in a new way and knitting a doll. This is a change from my other dolls. I am using double pointed knitting needles for the first time and so far I am liking the results. It should be cute when it is done and I am sure I will have no problem finding a home for it (her?). The pattern, from Oat Couture, also has knitted clothes but i am not sure how much more I am going to make for this doll. I bought it from Angelika's Yarn store and there are others......to tempt the latent doll maker in you.

Give aways

Giving stuff away and swapping are a great way to make friends! I swap birthday siggies DJ siggies fabric ATCs postcards noodles.
Jen from Crafty Giveaways is hosting a give away on her blog of the same name.
I have made four (8) six inch blocks to share with my new swap buddy in NH. I am looking forward to our easy going exchange.
I spent all day making a keynote -practicing. Maybe I should get of the couch now?

I am a nigela What Flower Are You?

alas!

Nothing to report. I am woefully unmotivated and undisciplined in my stitching and writing and painting. Full time work will do that to a body.
I have started a new one to one Dear Jane Block swap with Phylils in New Hampshire and I am looking forward to that! I have done one block. The idea is, we each make one block twice, and send the other the double. It is a very good way to make progress and friends. I have twenty something already from a block swap with Tilde and I am looking forward to resuming my Dear Jane stitching.
I am woefully behind on my birthday siggies. Need to catch up on those tomorrow morning. I have all of the envelopes labeled and waiting to be filled. It won't take that long to be up to speed.
And I am desperately trying to hold of beginning any new knitting projects but they are screaming like sirens at me. I have to finish Mike;s hat and a shrug I began two freakin years ago. Must finish must finish... If I finish those first I will not feel too guilyy about starting a new project and I will have two Christmas gifts done.
and now of to work
another day another nickel

morning coffee on the back porch in July

Monkey

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

The monkey is done. It was my thread for today. We are going to dinner for a belated anniversary dinner. Maybe sewing some blocks for DJ later. I am feeling tempted to begin another swap, but maybe making a few blocks will save me!

so many things

I want to do so many things and I am feeling just incapable of doing anything. I want to paint and draw and write and sew and take classes and go kayaking. All these things are available but I do not have the time to do them all. How do I choose?
There is not enough time in two lifetimes to finish all of the quilts that I want to make. Why do I want to make them? they are not high art. I am not chilly. I will not sell them.
I wrote a couple of pages in the doctors office. That will have to do. The boobs are scanned and there are no new or worrisome things. Good to go for another six months. The writing is mundane and boring. What else to expect while waiting for a sonogram of your boobs.
We visited the nieces yesterday and they are always a joy. They are pretending not to want to have their pictures taken.
I will sew some today and wrap some things for mailing and that will be my afternoon...

fun with leaves and poetry

Every summer I want to do this and I wait till the leaves are too dry. I have been saving the rice paper and have plenty of paint-I am a hoarder of paint-so today I just did it. Make prints while the sun shines. Mike was concerned that I would use too many leaves and Bailey thought it strange that I just got up and began doing this with no discussion. Little did they know I had been scheming for many summers now.
Mary Oliver wrote a poem with a line that says,
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
Read by Garrison Keillor, on his podcast called The Writers Almanac, available for free on Itunes, or from this link.

Sky through the southern window

Swaps and murmerings

I am working on my swaps. I have received a cross stitched square from Cyndi and it was so nice that I have not been able to finish the one I am doing for her for fear it will not be good enough. I am also doing birthday siggies. All of my christmas siggies are ready to mail. I need to get them to the post office. I am almost caught up with birthdays tho ~~so that is good.
I have not worked on my tris in a week and I want to do seven different DJs. in seven different colors. I also want to write a book a poem a movie and paint portraits of strangers applying lipstick in the mall food court.
I almost had a picture but then she moved.
She was murmuring softly to herself in between applying the inner color and the outer lip liner color. She had a protruding mole on her upper right lip which she covered with the liner. And a little mirror that had a clip which hooked around her index finger leaving her other fingers free to hold the lipstick cases as she inspected her work.
her heavy cleavage was exposed and she was dressed entirely in black~what used to be called a twinset , black pants and shoes. all black except for for her bright red lips whose color was probably named after a wine, or a flower or mythological beast.
She was entirely oblivious to the cacophony of the food court as she sat stock still before her tiny mirror.
o the promise of the perfect color of lipstick.

This is fun

I don't know if I could do 725 of them like Janyce did for her prize
winning quilt at the vermont quilt festival . But a couple or three
dozen would make a cool wall hanging or baby quilt.
Minka has a picture on her blog of the whole beautiful thing. I used a cd to draw the circles on my nickels which left a less than quarter inch for a seam allowance-which was plenty.
Hanne shared a link with a tutorial in pictures....

Tris on the wall

untitled

I have seen the curvature of the earth
from the air
from the sea
on the different parts of your body

I have touched the sky
dreaming in a different dimension
felt the earth beneath me
solid
and rocking and spinning wildly

I see the curvature of the earth
in your body, feel the earth
beneath me
solid
rocking
and spinning wildly.

breathing

I have this thing about breathing. Sometimes when I breathe in and out and pay attention to my breath-attend to it, I remember that I am breathing the same air as did my brother: the same air as as inhaled and exhaled by Jesus, by Gandhi,by the Buddha and Mohammed and Moses.
We all exist in the same thin, fragile, uncompromising, exquisitely beautiful layer. We are all born from some part of each other, however elemental science has rendered that concept. We all must breathe the same air.In and out. Together.

Beads!! by my aunt Suzy

As a lover of the needle arts I find that there are some things that are indispensable. One is my close up work specs. Mine are prescription to compensate for a stigmatism (one eye is worse than the other). I only use these when I am sewing on small things like this thirty two count Jobelan fabric, which is almost microscopic as far as my eyes are concerned. With out my specs I could not do it.
And there are my scissors. I am a lover of good scissors and treasure the ones that I have. Very few things are more frustrating to a needlewoman than mediocre scissors. When I take my sewing on the road-which I always do, I am at a loss for where to put my scissors. There is no good place to set them down in the car. There is no place to set them down at work, and there is always the chance I will forget them-yes dear readers, I am forgetful.. so..I am using Suzy's beads which were designed with name tags in mind (think quilt show) to hold my precious scissors. I do not wear these unless I am sewing to prevent pokage! I keep them in my sewing kit, on the beads, along with my specs.
They can also clip on to a Clover thread cutter if you are flying on a plane (rather than on your broom). And Suzy also makes beautiful 'leashes' for your glasses. I do not use these since my glasses are always perched upon my nose..and my favorite use is as a worthy holder for my beloved thimble in its thimble cage. The lobster claw closing keeps it from opening and it can be worn without worry. And you can even wear beads for the pure joy of ornamentation! There are many strands made with semiprecious stones and silver and gold........and lady bugs ......and yes Calico, those are cats.
So for those of you who may be curious, or in need of a gift for a freind or secret pal, ...or a special teacher or even your own self, never fear I did not bring home her entire inventory ~and Suzy has an Etsy shop. Tell her I sent you.

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playing with wacom - couched.
such overwhelming talent!

more pictures....maybe I missed my calling?

avisiting

Tricetera

I have sewn together 24 more tris to make a hex. My strategy is to sew one together and then lay out the tris for the next one. I leave the un sewn pieces one on my sewing table and sew it together the next time and so on and etcetera or tricetera. The new name for my scrappy triangle quilt. Maybe from dinosaur scales? maybe from from latin etcetera meaning , and so on? combined with tri~ I guess I missed my calling as a lexicographer! what a shame for the literary world!

dressed in red

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

Mike's dresser drying in the sun. I love this color red. Paint is enamel and very smelly so I hope to leave it outside for a while then move it to the basement for a few days before we reinstall it in the bedroom.

the boardwalk

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We have a great place to ride our bikes in the summer.
Why do I suspect Mike's mom as being the anonymous commenter in the previous post?

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

gratuitous mike picture for Else

Tri progress

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

I am mesmerized by these tris as they arrange themselves in diamonds and hexagons. I have a bunch in my bag to carry to work, in case I get some time to stitch at lunch and I have a pile on my sewing table to machine stitch.
I am arranging the tris in hexagons-easier than rows for me to put together because my "design wall" is only four feet across. You can see that I tend to bunch colors together. I am not sure if I will try to change this or not.

I felt like painting

Spent most of the day in my sewing room and now I will go off and have a bike ride- Would feel virtuous except for the pizza I just ate.
Doc says I must get some exersize which is hard when it hurts to walk so I will try to get some biking in this summer. I used to ride alot. Got lost in the deluge I guess.
It is hard to drag myself away from sewing once I finally get down to sewing. I am one of those people who likes to marathon sew. I could sew for days on end. today I took this picture which made me want to paint. But I was engrossed in cutting up my squares into triangles. I wish there were more daylight hours in the day...This would be nice in a watercolor. So I was going to do it in Adobe but I went back into my sewing room instead.

New Blogs

I read alot of blogs! I think I will add them to my side bar if any one is interested....ok I have added some. Enjoy.

process

I wanted to write a little about my process and then I realized that that is my process -writing about it-funny how that works. I make lists, lots of lists, some on sticky notes, some on my computer, many years of lists in my journals. I love lists! And I play. I fold paper, I make tiny books that have no value whatsoever, I visit museums and bookstores and I carry my camera with me to collect and filter my ideas. And I collect fabric and paint and tear pictures out of magazines and I have toys and stones from india and vermont and the housatonic river on my window sill. And I spend my non working hours in the company of only those who are important to me. Mostly Mike. And I listen to audio books in my studio......I could spend days in there, emerging only for chili.
I am painting another dresser. This one is going to be red. deep red.
And I am making a scrap quilt. And I am doing a wonderful Sue Garmon BOM.
all this on my days off:)

Heavens

We saw the Blue Angels practicing at Jones Beach today.They are here for NY Fleet Week. It was an amazing dazzling performance. The geese were unimpressed. Probably wondering what all the noise was about.
After the show we went to Whole Foods where I treated myself to sour dough bread and Stilton cheese. Heavenly. Again. I also bought Greek yogurt and some berries for dessert later-chicken chili with roasted veggies on the side.If you like yogurt and you have not tried the Greek stuff, I tell you, it is the real deal. Try it and tell me what you think.
Tonight I will be working on my Square for my partner from Fair and Square, a stitcherie swap...no pictures. I do not want to ruin the surprise. I will save the scrap stitching for work.
My plan is to make enough chili to last for three days of lunch at work. If I don't go out for lunch at the mall, I eat better, have time to stitch and save a bundle.It is a crime that the fast food places charge double at the mall what they get elsewhere. I am rebelling against mall food!

equilateral triangles are awesome!

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

right now: there is the drone of airplanes reverberating overhead. my computer clicks and pings and tick tocks with the ikea clock on the wall. a duet. there are some birds -cardinals -out in our tiny back yard. a car rolls by on the wet road.
Spring has blown in on a sea breeze, wet and windy. The lilacs have come and gone. The bush is now home to the cardinals, who no longer are worried by the cat.
I sit on the corner of my brown leather couch with the wide arms, upon which rests my sewing stuff. I stitch, I write. I read a few emails. A project is launched. A morning passes.

siggie top

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

Completed May 2008 from siggies from the Dear Jane list from 2004, 2005 and 2006. This will definitely be sent out for machine quilting!

I lov this and I am sure I heard the angels singing as I put all the blocks together. My dd's boyfriend Steve calls it the Nobel Prize quilt.

Dutchquilts and high scrapiness

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Originally uploaded by martha_bilski

Scrappy!

Years ago when I first began my Dear Jane adventure, I ordered fabric from Den Hann & Wagenmakers in Amsterdam. I had come across a tiny blurb in the arts section of the NYTimes about businesses that only sold one product. And I was off on a tangent. I found the Dear Jane book on their webste and I ordered a fabric sampler and with my order they sent some photos and some plastic templates. And then there came the Dear Jane internet list, hosted by Brenda Papadakis, and that was my first internet connection with other fiber obsessed people. And I am happy to say that my passion has grown and taken many turns and it has been wonderful. So, thanks to Al gore for the internet.

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And I have 'met' many friends, among them Tilde from Copenhagen, who has issued a summer challenge, or invitation , if you will, to make a quilt of scraps found in your sewing room. This triggered a memory for me of a quilt that I had seen from a certain Danish website and I went a'hunting in my sewing stuff, and lo and behold, the Den Haan & Wagenmakers scraps and templates were unearthed, or unboxed, as it were. If the truth be known, I did have to yell for help to get down of the table onto which I had climbed in search of the box with the templates...never fear, Mike was available for the rescue.
These are the photos sent to me from the Den Haan and Wagenmaker store. And I have always thought I would want to make one and this is the perfect opportunity to make one and -Yes I will use the template, and the fabric, and other fabric from other places. I had thought that I would limit my palette and then was reminded that scrappy meant scrappy. I am sorry I just cannot explain it better than that. So I will not be (consciously) choosing colors or excluding others, and I will beginning cutting fairly soon-just as soon as I clean up some loose ends and sweep some threads under the carpet....

Alicia~

Alicia cuts my hair at her place. It is a comfortable, warm shop-no snootiness, no airs- and she always does great work! Her husband Rudy even goes to get their elderly customers and brings them to the shop as a courtesy-and there is always coffee and cookies. And Alicia loves my iphone:)

on the design wall

Siggies are finding their place on my wall. Going is slow. I am in no hurry. The next row will be purples, then blues and greens.

Siggies-D-13 Field of Dreams

Siggies are a fun way collect blocks and share this quilt making passion. I have been in several international swaps over the years and I have collected hundres of blocks. Now it is time to assemble them into a top. It is amazing to handle each one of these little bits of hope and good will. I can feel the spirit of the people who made them, each one dreaming about how the recipient would react, and anticipating receiving theirs in return, dreaming of their own creations.

Mother's day feast

...and a good time was had by all.