Are you Kaftan ready?

I was catching up on thewomensroomblog.com and this catchy title caught my eye. Why yes thank you. I think I will.

not me-pic from thewomensroomblog.com

This fabric was once a bed spread but I think it will do. I used part of it for something else but I can probably wrangle a shortish kaftan out of it. Ttyl.~ m

i crack myself up

so here is the long verson and it resembles nothing so much as a pillowcase. So I did shorten it quite a bit. the whole exercise has been sewing by deduction. It does look better with a shorter bodice as well as skirt but it is still pretty wide. I may leave it as is because it is supposed to be baggy and it is wearable as a beach cover up. . . but I may trim it. in either case it is a finish for the month of June.

Japanese X shapes from Inklingo

FInish 15

I love marimekko fabric and have done ever since I first saw it at the Design Research store in Brattle Square in the 1970's. It may have been my first fabric crush. Decades later, overcome by a wave of longing I searched the internet for a source in NY and found a little store on the second story of a buidling in Manhattan and dragged Mike there to see what I could see. The trip resulted in a purchase of five yards ( that was all they had left!) of  black and white fabric that was intended for the windows in my kitchen. But I was shy.  The fabric lived on alone in its bag for several years until I could come to terms with who I am, and announce my love to all. 

polka dotted seam binding

Some time later curtains were born, lined with some Ikea curtains and trimed with polka dotted Japanese bias tape from Purl Soho. The curtains cover the bottom three quarters of the window which gives us privacy from our neighbor who is right across a narrow driveway and the top is left open for light. I was surpised and pleased that I had any left over. 

Back into its bag it went until.......Kate Davies created her Tea Towel which was a graphic representaion of her sweater designs in black and white. Lovely. I sent for one and it was shipped all the way from Scotland and I had no idea what I was going to do with it but I knew it would never be a dish drying rag. 

It was far too elegant and beautiful.

Kate Davies Tea Towel Knitting Bag showing selvedge drawstring because who does not love a marimekko selvedge?

showing yarn guides and red zipper

Along came a swap in the ravely Knitspot group that I am in, and my swap partner allowed as to how she did like knitting bags from which you could draw two separate strands of yarn without tangling them. And back to the internet I went to find a pattern I could make for her. I found the SockSack pattern by Ramona Rose  on Craftsy which included guides for separate balls of yarn. ok . still here? 

I made two in Kaffe Fassett fabrics because she said she wanted bright summery colors and off hers went in the post, along with some self striping sock yarn because she said wanted some easy mindless knitting and I hear and obey. 

And self striping sock yarn is pretty cool stuff. We also discussed which Anne Hanson sweater we would knit and I began to think I am going to need a bigger bag. 

And then I was struck by a bolt of inspiration and thought wouldn't a bag made with that Kate Davies Tea Towel be awesome ? and then, what should I line it with? At first I was contemplating brights and then remembered that I had the remainder of the marimekko fabric tucked away in the original bag, and would that not be fabulous?

And so it is. 

I may need another tea towel.

June project

  Last winter my quilting mojo became knitting mojo and I barely sewed at all. Well, at least not a lot for me. Since I have been out on disability for my foot I have taken the time to get back into my sewing room. Just a little at first, some new kitchen curtains and a few bags. 

Then I started to work on works in progress, getting a feel for what I need to do to get them done. 

I finished one top, started sewing the strips on another set of blocks that were pinned onto the wall, did some hand quilting on a quilt that I am doing by hand using my beautiful thimble and sewing kit that were a gift from a distant friend. Thread by thread things are progressing and I am using up what I have. 

For a long time, while working and commuting I have been purchasing supplies  for "when I get to it". Mostly that never comes. 

   While I still buy the occasional book and skeins of wool, I have slowed way down on buying fabric. 

Yesterday I decided to start a new quilt project using Inklingo and inspired by Carol Muse Skinners wonderful Japanese X quilt 

Anyone want to join along? 

  I have cut the freezer paper into 13.5 by 8.5 inch sheets in order to take advantage of the combo printing options and I am going to print all of the blocks first. This is new for me. I am taking a page out of Cathi Godwin's blog:) She prints all her shapes ahead of time. This makes sense to me!

My bin of Kaffe Fasset  fabrics is out and ready. I will make my quilt 105 inches square and maybe add a border if I have the inclination. I think I will make matching pillow shams as well. 

So -what are you working on?

I am embracing

failure,

having no prospects.

no burning desires, 

no urgent calling

no purpose.

I do not look my best 

I do not dress to impress

I have no need to win friends and influence people

and I have no plans to change this.

I am stopping to smell the roses

I am being here now

listening to the sound of one hand clapping

Finish 11

This little quilt is backed with plain flannel. There is no batting. The blocks were left over from my aunt Suzy. I stitched them together and added a few to fill it out and there you go. I machine stitched the binding on many moons ago and just now got around to hand stitching it down. It is a nice little Luke sized light weight quilt.

Finish 10.

Top down in the round tee shirt with Tillie Tomas yarn.

Ruminations on who you are

I learned that beauty is not about physical alignment of features.
More so it is about if you can feel the emanations from someone else's heart and that you can get your eyebrows singed by being to near the flame be it a flame which comes from a physically beautiful person or from a body whose physical attributes flaunt convention. It is not the maleness or the femaleness but if you can trust that person to look beyond look through your brand of beauty and be kind to whatever they find there ~ then you travel in life with them for as much time as you are allotted.
Some will travel alone for a very long time and others will have many partners.
The most startling bit is that they are a mirror. And what strikes at you about who they are is nothing greater or lesser that who you are.
When you can be gracious even when someone is practicing evil arts on your reflection then you are earning your own evolution.

meditations

to do list:
breathe in deeply
breathe out
repeat.

praying for willingness.
embrace the vision
imagine the result
be gentle with your self
right after this snack

breathing in

breathing in
there is a neutral colored prius
cruising ahead in the middle lane

it/he/she is driving slower than the traffic in the lanes to either side
and their blinker is on indicating an impending right turn.

you slow,
driving behind them
waiting for them to make the move into the adjacent lane
as the distance between you is lessening

and it seems like you are moving in slow motion
even though you know you could not run this fast
or ride a bike this fast
but if feels like you are moving slower and slower
as the cars on both sides of you are PASSING you
and you feel the blood begin to pound in your head and
you scream silently in your head --TURN ( curse word removed )!!!

the prius maintains a steady speed as the distance between your two cars gets shorter and shorter
and their blinker is still blinking at you
taunting you

until you pass them
breathing out.

Eat the cookie to stem the tide of your grief.

Eat the cookie to stem the tide of your grief.
Even the best wound plans
tangle and knot.
Take the time to meditate on them.
Which way would you go if you were a twisted cipher?
What would convince you to lay down your coil and unbend?

Eat the cookie and contemplate.
The chaos will always be there laughing at your attempt to lay the lines down in an orderly arrangement.
Just eat the damn cookie.

Everybody helping.

Bunny: finish number nine

Finish #9 in February. Almost slipped through the cracks. Pattern by Susan b Anderson. Yarn is bluemoonfiberarts left over sock.

Sandy Survivors

Magnolia 

Last year this magnolia bush did not bear leaves nor flowers. in fact many of the bushes and trees and flowers that we were used to seeing return year after year (are those annuals? or perennials? I always get them mixed up) did not return. I lost my lovely upward climbing blue clematis, which I have since learned is a member of the butter cup family, and the fragrant viburnium. The lilacs lost their lustre and the thyme  lavender in the herb patch completely withered and died.
We did not replant or even dig up the lost plants. We ignored them and figured we would get to it when we got to it. Other things took precedence.
     We were pleasantly surprised to see this lone magnolia flower at the base of the once and former tree. It is a cold weather bloomer and there are no others, but it means that there is still juice in the stems and maybe, with some patience and benign neglect, it will return again next year with some more lovely perfumed blossoms. Have you ever smelled a magnolia blossom?
     A couple of weeks ago Mike and I picked up Else and went to the Peconic River Herb Farm in Riverhead and I decided to buy another clematis to plant in the garden. We never took down the trellis and it stood naked and forlorn last season. But when I looked there today don't you know that there is a clematis vine beginning again. So I will look for another place to grow my new vines this summer. And wait for the three summers that it usually takes for a clematis to bloom. They will not be rushed. I wonder if the old-new one will bloom this year or if it will be slow to reacclimatize.
    We also bought some new lavender and some seeds for kale and nasturtium. Looking forward to some colorful salads.
    And sunflower seeds. Mike loves sunflowers.
    Hurricane Sandy took its toll on us in many ways. It was not the worst thing that has ever happened to us. But we are still feeling the effects and dealing with the financial aftermath. Like many many others we found that our insurance was a myth.
    But today, I will not dwell on the losses of yesteryears, but plant some hopeful seeds and celebrate renewal.

Biggie cowl in alpaca finish 8

Finish # 8 in 4/2014

Finish number seven-Biggie Cowl

Happy birthday:)http://www.ravelry.com/projects/marthab/biggie-cowls

Finish five and six Mythical creatures

Keeping track of every little finish. These are both things that I started in the past and finalized this week.

Finished a top

This one has been a BoB for a long time. I finally mustered the wherewithal to pull it together. I will do a pieced backing and it will be a nice twin bed cover. I won't call it a finish until it is quilted.

Paper
I am starting a new project and a journal is required. We live in a world where this conjures a maze of choices. Does one use a looseleaf binder? A scrap book with lovely ten inch square pages ? Watercolor paper? Moleskin? Lines or unlined? Small or big? Digital?(God forbid- but anything in a pinch)(auto correct can be a plus)(although it did just change the word auto to soot).
To the uninitiated this question may smack of self absorption. It may be thought that the author must have bigger problems. Surely there are more important subjects upon which to ponder. And surely right now there are, but I am choosing to indulge in this most enjoyable persuit.
For those of us who do know the benefits of hot pressed v. Cold pressed, flax v. linen, hand made or mass produced, it is serous business. For we know that paper can indeed inform the process.
Legal pad or drawing pad, sturdy enough for water media and collage? or sufficiently elegant for the delicate scratch of a glass pen dipped in brown ink? These are the questions that are occupying my mind this morning as I am hurtling through space on a Saturday morning in car number #### on the Long Island Railroad.
As I write this I am reminded that we are indeed blessed with multitudinous abundance. Jane Austen wrote her manuscripts first from left to right and then from top to bottom in between the horizontal letters to preserve precious paper. Solzhenitsyn memorized thousands of pages in his head while in a Russian prison camp before being able to commit them to paper upon his release.
And so it is with gratitude and with those writers and others in my thoughts that I embark on this most luxuriant and yet not frivolous journey- to find the next blank book in which to collect my thoughts and perhaps to capture some poetry on the fly.
Or maybe I can just look on my desk ( those who know me are snickering by now ) and find that it is already there.

Filene's

Suzy sent a hundred dollars
with which to buy the items on the list they sent from the school where I was sent to escape her sister.

To be plucked from the ever increasing velocity of her maelstrom to land on the solid granite of Vermont's most ancient guardian mountains was the gift of salvation, a chance for sanity.
Sanctuary.
Until it wasn't.

Betsy, the youngest of the three sisters only six years my senior and also my other aunt,
who lived in Boston in 1969 with her lover Tim - their apartment
so close to Fenway that they could hear the fans cheering wildly
if the wind was blowing in the right direction-
took me to Filene's Basement where we swept through the bins of
seconds and thirds and bought me my first ever set of sheets.
They were avocado green and floral and polyester. My father and his wife had the same pattern on the bed in their guest room. I reckon they are there still.
We bought a lime green cardboard footlocker to carry my new belongings- and I kept that footlocker through that school and the next and through college. For many years to follow everything that I owned could be stuffed into that ugly green thing.

I never did have all of the things in that long list. I also never had the lace up boots that I coveted or warm mittens-until the ones that Rebecca knit for me (and thus instilling in me a life long love of knitting ) - or new underwear from elitist department stores, like the other denizens of the boarding schools where I more or less attended, but I was damn proud of that set of new sheets, and the purple towels that I would hang on my cement dorm room walls just to have a splash of color.
And I will always recall fondly that day in Filene's Basement when Betsy and I pawed through the bins in Filene's basement gleefully spending Suzy's hundred dollars.