Be*mused

New roof blues

A head cold complete with sinus headache, ringing ears and sensitive teeth
                                                 +
                               one's house being re-roofed
                                                 =
several (continuing) long days of crankiness and a short attention span.   

But that's not always a bad thing.

I made some progress on these...

did a little blocking...

and traced & cut a bunch of little triangles.

And then, because I need another interest, this arrived this afternoon.  Some Coopworth roving to use with the drop spindle I picked up at the Woolfest several weeks ago.  That no one there could figure out how to demonstrate.  Did that stop me?  No, I'm fearless.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it (besides patting it).  All of you spinners out there, be honest.  Doth this roving have charms to soothe the savage beast (whilst the hammering continues overhead?  Yes, they will work all weekend.)   Or is this just going to throw me over the edge?  Any drop spindle book/article/online references and tips from personal experience will be most welcome.  In any case, enjoy your weekend!

The one that got away

Seven years ago while planning my second trip to Japan, my friends in Nagoya asked if I'd be interested in joining them on a day trip to Tokyo for World Quilt Japan 98, an international quilt festival.  (Hmm, let me think about it.)   Of course, we went...my first bullet train ride. One memorable incident that day involved seeing a lively, distinctive quilt in one of the exhibits and then, while in the vendors' area, coming across a book about the very same Japanese quilt artist and her work.  And then putting the book down and walking away.

Now, if you'd ever had the chance to witness my lack of restraint in the face of any shopping opportunity in the country of Japan, or for that matter any quilt/fabric/fiber venue anywhere, you wouldn't believe it. I don't believe it!  But for some reason that day...heat & humidity, already-bulging bags, exhaustion, some fleeting, vague sense of fiscal restraint...I walked away without the book.  The one that got away.

Since then, this quilter has popped up regularly in issues of Quilts Japan and Patchwork Quilt Tsushin, but never identified in English.  So the other night (what took me so long?), armed with my Japanese Character Dictionary and fortified by the last bit of yokan that Molly brought me in August, I sat down to figure it out.  (Cue the Jeopardy music.)  It took me a good 20 minutes to decipher it (the Nihongo-proficient roll their eyes and shake their heads), whereupon I dashed to email Molly & K for a quick refresher course on using the Japanese language function on our computer.  Immediate responses from each.  A bit of fumbling around.  Bingo!  All sorts of hits on a Japanese search engine, including (drum roll) the book!  Out of print but possibly available.  And a new one, as well.

So now, let me introduce you to Eiko Okano and some examples of her *high energy* work.

Small pieces

Framed

Detail from larger quilt

Another detail

I love this loose, colorful work, so different from how I've always worked and so visually appealing!  (Now where'd I put those buttons?)   

Time keeps on slippin'

Despite the ever increasing time I've spent reading blogs this week, I've pried myself away on occasion.  This afternoon I cut and sewed and added some content to the design wall.

Usually I play around more with color and fabric choices but I like how this is turning out so I think I'll continue on this track.  Maybe a little less pink, maybe a little more pattern in the large dark triangles.  I'm pretty much on cruise control now.  It's at this point, if not compelled by some deadline, that I often start to stall out on a project.  But I want you to know that I'm counting on your nagging to keep me with it.  (Thanks.)

Your nagging and perhaps a 12-step program to wean me away from the computer.  Is this a common problem out there?  There are so many interesting blogs and websites that I find myself losing more and more time to clicking links.  And although I initially thought Bloglines was a great idea, I'm rethinking that now.  Each time I jump online to quickly check something, that little B* beckons and I am often powerless to resist.  Self-bargaining ensues...'just a couple of quick updates while I finish my tea' and the next thing I know it's an hour later and worse yet, I've added several new links to my Bloglines!  Last night, in an effort to rein myself in a bit, I *unsubscribed* to a number of blogs on my list.  My growing-by-leaps-and-bounds list.  (But don't worry, not yours!  Never yours!!)  Do I just need a timer by the computer?  How do you control this time eater?  Any tips?

It all started...

...when I walked into the closet this morning to hang up some shirts.  I moved aside a suitcase which hadn't found a permanent place and one thing led to another and there I was, rearranging the closet that has become a convenient drop off point for all things which don't yet have a permanent place in this house.  Like this little bureau.

My first (and last) foray into painted furniture.  It was 1980 and we had just spent some time on Cape Cod, where I'd come across the studio shop of Nancy Whorf, an artist who had painted furniture with Peter Hunt for many years.  I could only afford to purchase a small angel (that hangs on our Christmas tree each year) but fell in love with her folky furniture and decided to try transforming a piece on my own.

The bureau started out as a very nondescript hand-me-down.  I painted it for the baby (who's now in graduate school).  It got passed along to the second one and then was moved from a spare room to a porch to its present location, a walk-in closet.   It's filled with family odds and ends (more things that didn't have a permanent place) and has been sadly ignored over the recent years.  One of those family items that at one time was so special and then fades to background.  That needs to be dusted off before it's ready for a blog worthy photo.

Today for some reason, I gave it a second look.  I noticed a few little scratches and I think before it disintegrates past saving, I'd like to touch it up and give it a protective coat of.........something.  I haven't painted any other furniture and although the word *polyurethane* comes to mind, I'd like some specific suggestions if any of you have done something like this before.  Do you have a favorite brand?  A preferred method of application?  Have you done something like this and it was a disaster?  Any helpful tips would be most appreciated.

But now I have to get back to that closet.

*The skies are gray, gray, gray here today, but here's a late afternoon sky in my neck of the woods last Saturday.  For Sandy, of course.

 

Auditions

Auditions were held today and the production is looking promising so far!  I knew that I wanted to incorporate the colors from these little (unfinished project) blocks while maintaining the strong, dark zigzag pattern that attracted me to the original quilt design.

I cut a small number of triangles from a limited selection of fabric, enough for 7 or 8 blocks.  This gave me enough to play around with...test my templates for accuracy, figure out the best sewing sequence and which way to press the seams.  And, finally, decide if I really wnt to make a quilt's worth of them.  Based on past experience (an estate sale treasure trove's worth of in-progress, unfinished projects...earlybirds will be shrieking EUREKA!! when Molly drags this stuff out to the driveway after my demise), I would strongly suggest this step when planning a quilt.  Sometimes the piecing of a design's more difficult than initially apparent.  Too many points meeting at one spot, too many bias edges.  If it's a small project, a fiddly block design may be worth it, but not for a bed quilt.  Not for me.

I didn't have a lot of time for this today, but I got far enough to know that I'll continue.  The proportions work and I'm happy with the colors.  My challenge will be trying to mix in a variety of styles of prints so that it doesn't look like a reproduction 19th century quilt.  Stay tuned.

On the knitting front, I'm just chugging along, finishing up a few straggler projects before I sink my teeth into something new.  (Don't want to send those estate-sailors completely over the edge with baskets full of yarn, too.)  The new television season will help there, although is it just me or is each new season more pathetic than the last?  If you're a knitter and watch Survivor, you'll want to hightail it over to Emily's place to participate in her Survivor contest.  Fun!  Prizes!  (Yarn which may start with the letter K!)  Blackbird, you may have to take up knitting.

Cat tongues

The cat may have Sandy's tongue, but I've got the cat's tongue!  These dainty little individually wrapped cookies translate as 'white chocolate cat tongues' and they are a melt-in-your-mouth, addictive specialty of Sapporo.  A gift from K upon his return in late August, I had squirreled them away and forgotten them.  I love when that happens!  Because then on a quiet day like today, I can pour a cup of tea and indulge in a real treat while I contemplate another quilt. (It's ok to drink tea from a Starbucks mug, isn't it?)

I already have a bunch of projects in progress.  But my bed needs a quilt.  I started one a while ago but the blocks were too fussy.  Ocean waves.  What was I thinking?  So I've been considering several designs, graphic with larger pieces.  Something folky.  I like folky.  When I'm thinking about a new quilt, I start pulling out bookmarked books & articles and weeding through boxes of quilt photos, torn from discarded magazines.  And I consult all of the photos I've saved from eBay auctions of memorable quilts that show up for a week, are purchased and then disappear.  (I was surprised to notice that in one of Kaffe Fassett's recent quilt books, one of his designs is called 'Ebay On Point Quilt', because he mines that resource as well.)

These two quilts are my starting points.

The cover quilt on a favorite quilting book

A quilt that I came across on eBay

I've decided on colors, made up some templates and am sewing audition blocks this week.  Will they make the cut?

High hopes

Saturday dawned sunny and bright.  A warm, beautiful day with high expectations.  We were headed for a wool festival!  M is often looking for an excuse for a weekend outing and after the hectic pace of summer, it was the perfect day trip for an early fall weekend.  I wasn't going to look for anything in particular (no snickering!), except perhaps a bit of consolation that I'm not going to Rhinebeck.  So we consulted a map, packed the small cooler and headed east.  Two hours east.   

If I was a superstitious person, I would have taken the thick, gathering clouds as a sign.  But we continued on, M driving as I jotted down quick pattern notes to tuck in my bag as reminders.  Finally we arrived.  Now here, I am faced with a dilemma.  Hmm...let's just say it was a little *thin* and leave it at that.  Maybe some photos.

High expectations

Wondering if the creative anachronism is the Red Heart crocheted afghan
(Slap me)

Gratuitous sheep shot

I feel compelled to add that I did meet some very friendly people.  And when we left, my wallet was very, very happy.  Verily.

So.  There we were.  Since the day was still young, we decided to abandon the highway and travel home via the back roads.   There was a whole lot of this:

intermittently dotted with one of these:

This particular town is historic Cambridge (all of it), known for its many antique shops.  Where, of course, we had to stop to poke around.  Quite an eclectic array of goods!  Have you ever seen one of these?

...neither have I.

This quilt was hard to leave on the stand, especially at half price!  ($42.)  So folky, with that thick red quilting and the strawberry border.  *sigh*

But I behaved.  I kept that wallet in my bag except for these buttons (a mere $4.00)...one little indulgence!  (If you don't count that drop spindle.) 

Channeling

Throughout my busy week, I've written numerous posts in my mind.  If you've been *channeling me*, you're probably astonished at the variety of topics I've covered!

While I was working on my current edition of bi-monthly postcards that a group of us fiber art friends have exchanged for a number of years, I told you about the genesis of this project and these friends and the accumulation of wonderful mail art that has resulted and how it has chronicled our handcrafted lives through moves, family situations and personal change.  I think I mentioned my rubber stamps, that have been sitting boxed and untouched since I taught paper arts at a stamp store but were pulled out this week and moved to be more accessible.

When I was unpinning the shawl from its blocking, were you surprised at how easy I thought it had been?  How I was slightly embarrassed that I had even suggested I was apprehensive about this?  I'm sure I mentioned that it was all quite a relief since I'm already halfway through a second Leaf Lace.  Christmas is only 100 days away.

Straightening up my sewing room yesterday, I stopped to thumb through some Japanese quilt magazines, hoping to find a pattern for that pincushion that was a gift but caused such a commotion in my last post.  And I came across the issue I was in, with my friends, from that first trip to Japan eleven years ago.  Oh, the unwritten post I composed in my head about that supposed 'once in a lifetime' trip that turned out to be the beginning of so many things!  How I returned and studied Japanese for several years to be able to better communicate with my new Japanese quilting friends, friends who were studying English. 

That post went on and on as I pulled out my Japanese fabrics and reminisced about each piece...the women who gifted them to me, the days at the flea markets.  The friendships that continue...their visits to the U.S., my subsequent visits to Japan, their children who moved here, my children who moved there.  Had you heard enough?

I just didn't have time to write them all down.  Maybe another time, when I can elaborate.  For today, a question for the spinners.  From your experience, which style/brand of drop spindle would you recommend for an absolute beginner?  And, hypothetically of course, what kind of roving would be a good one to start with?  Just wondering.  Of course.

And last but not least, something that made me smile last night....the charming Monsieur Loup!

*Tutorial request!  Why is my LLS pop-up link enormous?

Some small progress

Ack!!  It's only Tuesday yet I already feel this week is slipping away from me.  I've been making some headway, though, on several projects that have been sorely neglected recently.  I sewed up a few more teacup blocks, but need to get some handles appliqued before I can continue.

And, inspired by (cajoled by? challenged by?) Molly's recent shawl knitting/blocking experience, I finally bit the bullet and blocked my Leaf Lace shawl this morning (appropriately, on her bed).  If you haven't seen her Ene's Shawl, go take a peek...it's gorgeous! 

Finished pieces from the new fall Knitty are starting to pop up here and there.  If you want a laugh, check out Terhi's recent post of her finished Bubby...but make sure you read through to the end.

Mental block

Everyday cardie  (Remember that knitalong?)

Caryl's Kerchief

Leaf Lace Shawl

So what do all of these things have in common?  (Other than color family. Hmm.)  They were all perfectly enjoyable knitting projects until they came to a screeching halt when it was time to...block.  Confession time.  I've never blocked.  Tell me I'm not the only one.  Tell me that there are others who tuck an almost completed piece back into the project bag until they *get around to* blocking.  I'm sure it's not a big deal.  I'll find out this week because last weekend I hit the huge sale at JoAnn's, armed with multiple coupons and a list of odds & ends that I've needed (or needed to replace) and T-pins were on that list.  (As an aside, so was a new rotary cutting board. Although I've had several, I never had the *official Olfa green board* until now.  It stinks...literally. It smells like there's a skunk in the house.  Anyone else notice this?)

Before I moved last year, I had donated most of my accumulated batting to a friend who runs the Project Linus group in Cleveland. (And as I link to them here, I see that they, too, are accepting quilts and blankets for Katrina victims.  I shouldn't be surprised.  They are a wonderful group...  check them out!)  So while at the big sale, I stocked up on quilt batting to cut up and use in donation quilts.  I finished this quilt yesterday with some random blocks and strips left over from a previous project.  I think it took longer to work with these odd pieces than if I'd just used straight yardage so I may make subsequent pieces *from scratch*. 

Liddle kiddle quilt

It's been good to see so many imaginative Katrina relief efforts springing up on the blogs this week.  I'd like to highlight one that you may not have seen.  Christine (BigPinkCookie) is a Houston knitter whose knitting group is collecting *stash* yarn, knitting needles and patterns to provide for evacuees at the Astrodome to help them pass the time.  I love this idea!