anniversary travels

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Greenport Tea Company for tea.I had ginger lemon and mike had raspberry something. His was better. The afternoon tea for two comes with a scone, some tiny sandwiches of cucumber, raisin bread and cream cheese tuna and ham and swiss, some fruit and confections on a pretty three tiered cake stand. Of course I should have taken a picture before we tucked in. But we were hungry.

We passed this display on the ride home and had to turn around and see what we could see. The chairs were teak and foldable and made with no metal hardware. Cool, heh? Unfortunately the guy did not accept plastic and we did not want to go back to town which was hot and choked with traffic. In an unexpected gesture, the seller said to take the ones we wanted and send him a check. So we did.

And here is a picture of a bug. In the wind.

happy anniversary

Storm At Sea

I do not do things in small increments. My process is to spend hours
and hours immersed in my room. I am planning to make thirty blocks but
twenty five may suffice. I may make thirty and then jettison the ones
that I don't love. These blocks are both hand and machine stitched
which means I actually do do things in small increments. I am full of
contradictions.

from Latin acquiescere, from ad- ‘to, at’ + quiescere ‘to rest.’

Inside, we don't feel so old,
although our children are (mostly) grown
and their conversations amongst themselves seem banal.
We still wear the same clothes
think the same thoughts-
The same feelings seize our nervous systems & flood our cells
with the same hormones-
some more than others.

And then on one occasion
or more than one occasion,
we are passers by, or
in,  the ebb and flow
of our daily travels, our daily travail,

and we catch a glimpse
of what others see.
And this glimpse, more than all of the peering into the mirror and counting wrinkles
and the counting of the scars,

it is this glimpse that makes us feel our age
and we acquiesce.

Doodles

Another kind of summer sampler

From the book "Knitting Lace, a Workshop with Patterns and Projects"
a book by Susanna E. Lewis.
Wherein I decided I will learn to make lace and actually practice a
small thing before leaping in lock, stock and spinning wheel.

What the post brought

A quilt hug from a distant friend and yarn that is made with camel
hair and cashmere. The timing is perfect.

Design wall

Sand scuptures on the beach

Ready

Nachos at Aye Carumba.

Our intention was to order salad. Do you see any salads?#dayoffdiet

Morning stroll

things on my wall.

in my few spare minutes, during lunch and in the morning ,
I like to play with fabric.

Progress

I decided on nine patch setting squares an it is beginning to shape up b

Blue bag

Work in progress.

Wall of shame

So here are the sampler blocks and I am pondering how to connect them.
I can do white or an assortment of whites and off whites or I can do
one color family or I can do a riotous cacophony of interspersed
blocks. Any thoughts?

butterscotch twist

Today I was browsing Etsy and happened to espy some wonderful wool batts named after angels  and they were calling my name like the sirens of spinning.
I peeled myself away and plugged wax in my ears and spun a couple of previously stashed batts, all the while, lashed to the mast.

Well really there was no mast and no wax but I did spin some. Bailey is home from school and tries to look ferocious when I point my camera at her.

Taking shape

Dailey threads add up.

Storm at Sea, preparation with Inklingo

Busy morning here at the cat ranch. The girls were very busy guarding the yard. Every noise brought them to full alert.
Cutting shapes for my Colors of the Sea quilt. I am very happy with the way I can cut many shapes layering just one printed piece on top of several layers. I do not get the benefit of stitching lines on each shape this way but I can manage a quarter inch seam allowance:) This will be a king sized quilt for us.

To do list

I am a list maker. I find that if I make a list that I actually accomplish things and that if I do not accomplish the "list thing", well then, those things were just not that important.
Do you make lists? My lists are mainly a mix of things I want to do and things I must do. The reason I make a list may be because I am trying to remember all of these things or more likely I want to give the activity some emphasis and hold myself accountable.
Sometimes my lists are wishful thinking and sometimes I make them pretty-which usually circumvents their effectivity because I spend more time making the list and admiring it than I do on the list items themselves. Even writing about lists makes me want to break into prose. or sometimes profanity. will you share your list?
I am thinking there may be a prize for the one that I love the most.
No rules, anything goes. Send a link or a picture for me to post and I will come up with a prize.
BTW this is purely subjective and selfish. Just saying.

Book for a gift

With thanks to pastiche knits dot blogspot dot com for the tutorial.
I suppose I should be studying but then again this is a Very Small Finish;)

Road knitting

Tea Table

Pics or it didn't happen:)

Just a mite short but a good first try. I used one skein of cascade
two twenty. Next time I will use more and add an inch to the height.
Now I need the perfect button. On with the search.

Less than productive

I began the day with the best of intentions but decided midway to
detour to California Pazza for lunch with MIke , then on to Target to
pick up a couple of things-love those four packs of chapstick, which
gives me an extra one to lose or melt in the dryer (oh and I did get a
haircut!), then home to read my email and blogs and generally waste
time balancing my budget and all( I have exactly 19 dollars to last
for two weeks if I am a good girl and pay all my bills on time)(which
means no more big boxes of yarn:O). But thanks fully I did find these
very wonderful Liberty of London flip flops from Tarjay! Can you
believe it? What a score!

Knitting break

I am not a speed knitter and I have to take a break once in a while to
give my hands and shoulders a break. Here is ipad case so far...hope
to finish it tonight.

behold the bag....

Finished in one week! I am very happy with the way this turned out and I am already thinking about the next one....
***No pattern I just cast on and crossed my fingers for a good result. I used two hanks and a hundred stitches (easy to remember) of cascade 220 -doubled-Judy Becker cast on so there is no seam. It is simple grocery bag construction. I knitted magic loop style till it got too big then then two circs then back to one plain ole in the round, once it got big enough.
On the lower third I added a stripe with fancy yarn called Ozark Opulent that I bought at Purl Soho-created by David Gentzsch--beautiful. made the whole bag imho. And for the top I did an applied I cord, ala Elizabeth Zimmerman-in red.
Hershey I am working in Smithhaven mall apple store-close to you? I do not have your email --please send- we could have lunch if you are in the area. Did you finish that stunning DJ???

lovely lilacs and a kitten

Happiness is Purl Soho

round up

Gloria Lee, dad 's cousin

Got this deck from a box in dad and annette's attic.
















I love the composition of this photo of Annette and her sisters.

6 am on the van wyke - really?

Threads in the car

On the way to see Else. Have sewing kit will travel.

Multimedia message

Ipad cake

Juicy Bruce

http://www.juicybruce.com/
you can hear Jen and alex on the band's website.

just thinking

I thought about a new blog just for writing. Is is possible to have too many blogs? Or am I compartmentalizing myself -one blog for social networking- from my phone no less, one for fiber y pursuits, one for poetical ramblings. Does it never end? Shall I make one for baking scones and yet another for custards? It is hard to tell. A difficult, if not critical, question. One does not wish to burn the candle at both ends, wear one's self too thin ( little danger, dears), and avoid at all costs, putting all of one's eggs in a basket. Or is it putting too little of one's eggs in a basket? Oh never mind.

The writing blog has been created. It has, at present, no content. It is a hollow vessel. A ghost ship, a mere shadow of its once and future self. (well did you expect it to remain empty once it was announced...?) As I consider it going out on a limb, to share ones fragile inner musings on a blog, an internet, very public, type of journal, I have named it "Escarpmenting", as in stepping out onto a an overhanging cliff. (the more curious among you may wonder, "Overhanging what?". Do not be so cynical.)


As I ponder which missive with which to make my maiden voyage, I will leave you with a photo that I snapped whilst speeding along the high way during my daily predawn commute. I will not respond to questions as to who was actually at the wheel. It may have been Mr. Quiltcontemplation.

Portable lunch kit.

I am packing sewing tools and getting in a few stitches at lunch. It
is a healthy and cheap alternative to buying lunch in the mall food
court. So I save money, eat better and I have some blocks made. Win
Win .
Pictured are inklingo blocks in progress from POTC collection. And as
you can see some one's bunny made an early visit.

Hummingbird Nest Cam

Check out this video on UStream:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/Hummingbird-Nest-Cam

Martha

New Dresden plate block

I love this dark blue back round, but it may be too dark.
O well love is love. I am going to give it a go.

Second Dresden plate from the fancy inklingo collection

Spent some time playing with needles and thread.

humor in a darkened room.

When they do breast needle biopsies they insert tiny magnetic chips in the incision so that they may easily find the site in the event that they have to revisit. At last count I had maybe eight of these.But the mind recoils at such counts and I really do not remember how many i have had done. O'Ryan, the nurse, say about forty thousand.
So last night, after work and a long commute home, I am on the table in a darkened room (did I mention this was maybe nine o'clock?) with the doc and nurse and the ultra sound operator.
Dr. B. asks the nurse for the chip. I say, " Will this trigger security at the airport?" ( I always ask this question.) With no hesitation, Carol, the ultrasound tech says,
"No. At midnight Doctor B will sound the call, and all of his women will stream out onto the street in their nightgowns with their arms out stretched....."
"Ok then, I ask, will this procedure make my boobs saggier?'
"Au contraire!" says the doctor, now they will point north!"
giggle snort.

Technology

How festive