pictures from out east

Pixie climbs into my bag as soon as I come home.

the girls

not much fibery activity taking place around here. too much time at work and in the car. My commuted has pretty much tripled and I am taking it day by day.
but the kittens are really cute.

the ritual

Things are preternaturally quiet here with no kids in the house.
We are performing the ritual of "cleaning of the child's room when they leave for college" today. Bailey's was not nearly as bad as the others!! I am left with several loads of laundry which may or may not be clean already but since it was wadded up into a little ball and left in a pile, who knows?
....And a couple of bags of non kitten friendly debris-but nothing too alarming. (there have been other children (plural) who shall remain nameless, whose rooms needed to be dug out with a shovel while wearing a hazmat suit but we shall not go into the sordid details here).

I have made an order from Mz Kathy Smith -do you know her? email me if you would like an email address. She supplies me with all of my notiony needs! I am ordering, "The Farmer's WIfe Sampler and cd" from her. What can I say the picture looks awesome!! I am also ordering some ginghers from her because I have been wanting some for a long time and I work!! so I can treat myself once in a while and stay away from big box places (except when I need jeans,) and support my small enterprises who work hard to compete against the wally worlds and tarjays. etc. end rant.

Yahoo woes

Hello out there! Apparently yahoo has decided I am a persona non grata which pretty much eliminates my email activity from my fellow group members. So if you are out there, I am still here, just unable to post! either on the web site or from my own email server.
sigh, life without email.

selfie

day tripping

...into my sewing room. Audio will be "the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", on CD. Task at hand: to make serious progress on my Jane Austen Patchwork top. It is possible that I could finish the large diamonds part of the center today and then i will have to decide if I have the stamina for the 2500 tiny diamond border. Only time will tell. I am not making any promises.
I also have a physical therapy appt for my shoulder. A good tme for a break in the machine piecing activity.
I am in denial that Bailey is leaving in spite of tripping over her packing detritus every time I walk through our tiny house. How quiet it will be when she is at school. It will hit me next week I suppose when I am not seeing her each day. Twenty nine years of parenting people. Do I get a crown or something?
I did cut out a Mimi Kirchner doll and some gloves (this month's issue of Threads has a glove pattern. How cool is that?) with the wonderful felted wool that Val sent me I cannot wait to stitch on these, but I will wait till I have made some hay on the JA top.
And yes Ms. Calico, I will surely use the wonderful hand dyes that you sent to me, I was THRILLED when I opened the box and saw them along with the wonderful kitten fabric! The hand dyes will be a part of my Piano keys blocks.
And finally.......drum roll or french horns or something.... my Bird fabric. I cannot tell you how much fun this was! right up there with getting my poetry published by (someone else). One of the reasons I love my kitties is because they make us smile. Sometimes we forget how. This fabric also made me smile:) if you have ever thought about trying it, go to the Spoonflower web site and give it a whirl.It is not hard and there is a lot of inspiration and help on the site. Best 21 dollars I have spent in a while.
Just so you all know, I do not get paid for any endorsements. I only share things that I use and like. sometimes love.

Hoarder

Am I a hoarder? when did I become a hoarder? It seems to be a common thread, if you will excuse the pun, amongst quilters and knitters. I think I became this way in the same way one becomes fat. You prepare for lean times, you stock up the larder, the stash, in the same way, to forestall that inevitable time when you will not be able to get to the fabric store, not be able to find the perfect thread, notion or color. Or dinner.
I was bone thin for many years and also fit most of my belongings in a foot locker. And now-not so much. I am much rounder and have a house full of supplies to create my every whim and yet I still shop for more, rather than enjoy using what I do have. I have every kind of pencil, pastel, paint, glass, fabric, fiber, needle, cutting implement, support, gesso, journal, and container for the afore listed.
And by shop I do mean spending hours on the internet- just looking .But even the looking is a waste of that most priceless commodity: time. I do not often buy now. I have stopped collecting and now wish to decrease my stash, my girth, my corporeal weight and as I do I find I am less interested in holding on to the possessions that I have accumulated. I long for minimalist clarity.
I pass by people's tag sales and I do judge. Usually I think "what a bunch of (&*^^%.". Honestly why does any one think anyone wants to purchase their old junk. The lamp with the ladies in fruity hats dancing on the base, the three legged chairs, the bedding that they bought at the church charity sale and never opened, now encased in sticky yellowing plastic.The stuff you want to throw away but hold onto out of some misguided moral compass heading.
And then I buy something. Out of guilt maybe, for being so judgmental, so unkind in my thoughts, I once bought a book about the history of Virginia as told by rodents because I felt sorry for the author at the book signing. (It was a series, no less). yep. add that to the list of noggin thumping ways of thinking.
And now I think I will go plan for my yard sale.

plans for vacation!!!!

Make a six inch dove in the window block using english paper piecing
print out some shapes for the piano key blocks
work on Jane Austen top!!!
Cut out another mimi kirchner doll
clean my house...
at least a little...after Bailey leaves-there will be a path.
take bailey to school-boo hoo
walk every day at least once maybe bike too
physical therapy for shoulder 2x wk
make fabric designs---mine has shipped! I can't wait to see it!
paint walls pictures floors anything
cook healthy meals (poor mike needs a break from the kitchen)
post some poetry to new blg -more will be announced later on down the road.
Picture is at Allman bros concert

Mimi Kirchner

I have written here before about the wonderful dolls of Mimi Kirchner.I even made one with the pattern that was published on PurlSoho. Now she is having a giveaway on her blog. Stop in and see her Tiny World pin cushion.
It must be the season for giveaways, but I am going to end with this one:)I promise.

Frummie's giveaway too!

Frummie is having a giveaway too!!Click herefor details!
I am entering both!

Civil War Fabric giveaway

Elaine is having a giveaway of Civil War fabrics-go check out her post here
or just click on the title! She has had many posts in her comments but don't be shy.

dawn on the beach

I went to look at the ocean this morning at about six thirty. I brought my coffee and my camera and my knitting, of course. It was low tide and there weren't many people there when I walked onto the beach.
After Mike came home we went down to the beach again. The waves were huge and the tide was coming in. The jetties were completely covered and the surfers were arriving en masse. The life guards were meeting at the end of the boardwalk and I imagine that swimming will be banned. The waves looked as big as fifteen feet and the rip tide was very powerful.
Now it is noon and I want to take a nap. Twice to the beach in one day. That is more than the whole summer.

spoonflower

I just did something I have always wanted to do. I sent in a drawing of mine to be printed out on yardage. Kind of like self publishing a book except you can make a quilt with it. I am giggling with glee. I only ordered one yard because I want to see how it comes out. If I like it I will do another one. I have known about this site for a while and I have often thought about doing it but never took the time. Today I was looking at the book"The Patchworks of Lucy Boston," by her daughter Diana Boston and I noticed she had many black and white fabrics in her works so I decided to give it a whirl. What fun. I am terrible at keeping secrets so I will show you the drawing-just a doodle really...The book is very beautiful and I am patently unable to resist beautiful things especially when they come from the Linda Franz collection of beautiful things. So. I hope you enjoy the unveiling of my first drawing for fabric design: Bird in MaryJanes.

summer sky

Last weekend I downloaded the new Inklingo file for these blocks and prepped them to take with me as my car project. I did get one done and plan to do the second one tonight. I tacked them on to piece of freezer paper so I could keep the shapes together in a sleeve.
I have had these fabrics for a while, years even, and this seems to be a good place for them. I am still in the stage of trying to figure out the colors. Part of me wants to make a controlled color study which gently drifts from one shade to the next using subtle color and light shifts. More realistically I will just have a color party as I almost always do. See? its happening already.
The weather seems to have changed from oppressive heat to bearable beautiful summer evening. I may venture out to the back yard, but I dread the bugs. My ankle is still swollen from the green fly bites I got in my last communion with nature. But who can resist a field of Queen Anne's Lace?

Octagons in a farm field

Some might say I need a life:)

the art of attachment
and illusion of independence
polarities creating gravity
or hilarity
depending on how you are wired

different sides of the same coin,
love and hate are: what you are not you cannot hate nor love.
even einstein said it and said it and said it

damn you
i tell you it is all the same
there is no division
there can be no me without you
and no heaven
but that we yearn for it
dream it into being
earth bound

kittens knitting and bloopers

Since my knitting is mainly self taught using books and the interwebs, I do alot of unknitting. Alot . I am just letting you know that . I have three things in progress-well maybe four that are in different stages of undoing. and still I need more yarn, more needles, more things to carry them around in. I am a fiber junkie but I have gotten me to the point where reading about stuff and putting it in my virtual shopping basket are enough to tide me over. I trick myself into believing I am in the act of procuring these items and them I stealthily walk away. Just flat leave my shopping cart in the middle of the virtual super store. I guess it is the opposite of shop lifting. It suffices.
I have been doing weekly Inklingo Sampler blocks and also the attendant bloopers. I have not yet decided if they will go into the actual quilt. I have made a small painting, I knit a few rows here and there. With out consecutive day off it is hard for me to accomplish work on the scale that I used to do. But it suffices. Word for the day. Suffice.
Here is a complimentary kitten picture.

outside

Music by Joni Mitchell
Flowers by MIke
Nature by God
not necessarily in that order

meet the girls

We met them in a cat rescue booth at the boardwalk craft fair. Mike brought them home from the vet today where they were waiting in a cage for someone to come along and bring them home. They have all their shots and have been spayed and certified vermin free.
They are running around like maniacs and climbing up the curtains and stuff. Bailey says that one is Pixie and I think the other one is Tink. But this may change. I may call them Speedball and Sgueegee.

I am in the road again on the way to Virginia. I have packed enough
handwork to keep me busy till Christmas 2010.
I unearthed my kit of 4.5 inch lemoyne square shapes and I will be
working with them to add to my sampler quilt. Mostly pinks which blend
into the brights well:)
Stitching on the road makes me happy.

Summer sampler salad

These are all nearly six inches. Now the tricky question is do I add the other blocks I have made and make it truly a sampler-ones that are octagonal and ones that are diamonds? I will have to pull all of them out and see how they look. In the mean time I am happy with this tossed salad.......

jen and jay

photos mostly from my iphone-the one in the center is not
fonts "you are loved" from dafont/ by kimberly geswein
brush from brushezy, by debh945
from tutorial by jessica sprague
Jay is flying off to california today for his job.
Jen will stay here in ny.
for a month or so they will be bi coastal.
bye Jason:)

twill make a lovely mitten

more spragizm

Another lesson courtesy of Jessica Sprague. I am really enjoying these bite sized forays into photo editing. These photos are from my iphone, heh heh. the quality is not great but they do the job. If I stick my chin far out enough it hides the wattle.:-))

socks of the blue moon

Some of you may remember my Socks that Rock socks that I started last year. I believe I may have made Blue Moon fans out of one or more of you. Sadly I am reporting that I am still working on the same sock.It seems that one has to knit significantly looser to allow for enough stretch to be drawn over certain ankles. And the ankles in question are not getting any thinner. It has been un knit several times and is now threatening to become a mitten. Not that I have anything against mittens.... I'm just saying....
and I cannot find the book with the charts. I know it is here somewhere. But the yarn is so beautiful. It is such a pleasure to use that I continue to knit and I am now researching thumb holes. I will not be thwarted:)

That is the update from here on sunny summery long Island where I sit, on my, um couch, with my ice pack (bike spill - well I never actually hit the ground-don't ask-nothing serious, no no really it is just a rotator cuff issue--just a small tear-and the doc said stay home, get pt, use ice, take pills get shots, six weeks of physical therapy-are you kidding me?? I don't have time for that!) and my trusty mac book. So I am off for a couple of days. Hoping to heal quickly.

lavender dreams

Lavender by the bay

We had to get the longest one they had

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

Going whaling

textures day 6

I rather like the way this one turned out.

day 4 -2

jessica sprague's wonderful classes. Day 4

I love this picture so I am reposting. I did some effects and framed as per the tutorials combining day three and day four.
Today I have a day off and so I am doing this at my leisure and may even do some more later.

day three

I decided to do this before I leave for work:) this morning, since Jessica so kindly has the lesson in my mailbox bright and early. More brushes and frame, a filter or two. I don't really know what I am doing but I am having fun. These are two dolls I made some time ago. Prudence and Earnestine, (Gail Wilson Kits) I did this lesson in Pixelmator. One big difference I notice so far is that you don't have as many options to save-they may be there but I have not discovered them yet. There is a thirty day free trial on their website.

day two

Hard to believe it is July. June was a blur. And rainy to boot.
This is a picture of the old marina in Greenport New York. It was a cool, overcast twilight and we were amongst the few who were walking around outside. Fortunately the weather has changed for the better and the boardwalk beckons.
Tutorial by Jessica Sprague.

jessica sprague's wonderful classes

New Class with Jessica Sprague! am taking an online class with in photo shop phun. Here is my first home work picture using her png files to create the over lay frame and word art. I know I have not been posting here much and I plead exhaustion. I have been doing very little sewing or knitting-infact I think I havebeen unknitting more than I have been knitting.. that is my process. I think I would still use fiber as a meditative activity even if I never did finish anything.
But I do. I do finish things.
The dress was off the rack at Jessica McClintock.