10.21.12

Although many of the flowering plants are past their flowering time, 

I do have a backlog of photos from the neighborhood. 

These I took at our nearest neighbor's front step just a few weeks ago.

10.20.12

I am told that this lovely lady is a hickory tree. I had the photo setting for this post too large. I think if you click it, it will open in another window and you can see how pretty it really is.

Anyway, back to the hunt for the perfect winter bathrobe. 
Remember? No wrap-tie fronts, wrists covered, ankles at least approached.

The next day after exhausting everything on this planet that would ship to my address, I decided to find a pattern and make my own. Sleeves that are too short can be changed by cutting them longer before the cuff. Length that is too short in a pattern almost never happens but if it does, that, too can also be fixed. The search should not have taken very long except I FIRST LOOKED AT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE PATTERNS. Waste. Of. Time. 

Finally I wised up and checked etsy.com and found a lot of out-of-print patterns that suited me just fine. Here is the one I decided on. Kwik Sew 2726. Then to choose fabric. I want fleece. A non-pill fleece would be just the thing. Maybe at a sale price. 

Fabric.com had a lot of fleece on sale. I picked one I liked, found a website that would show me the back of the pattern, figured out how much to buy and ordered. What do you think?

Sweet, isn't it? I just now noticed the ruler at the bottom of the picture. I thought the cute little double cherries pictures would be about the size of a quarter. Well I was wrong.   
Can you see my photo of the fabric that came Tuesday? Yes, that is my quarter. 

These are going to be some HUGE cherries...

10.19.12

TOTAL FAILure

The weather is getting chillier and it is apparent that I need to make some new winter nightgowns. I have been wearing a summer gown under a winter gown because they have worn so thin. I never thought about it before but in Florida, I probably only wore winter gowns a few weeks out of the year. Here, I wear them a minimum of six months. No wonder they are wearing out. 
Not only that, my favorite chenille winter robe has shed so much of its fluff over the past few winters, it is almost as thin as my summer robe.

NO TIE FRONTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I searched for a robe via the internet for two days. I had a couple of specific criteria: zip or button, not tie; long sleeves not three/quarter; goes all the way to the ground less about 3 inches.

Great sleeves, snap up front, but WAIT. Chilly calves and feet!

The last two specifics--long enough sleeves and long enough overall meant that I would be looking for size TALL.
I am not a tall person. In fact, according to my height, I qualify for petite on some size charts.

OH, NO! BONY WRIST ALERT!

I DO have to buy size TALL long sleeve shirts (ARE YOU LISTENING LLBEAN AND LANDSEND?????) if I want them to come to my wrists. And it is rare that I find any sleepwear that I consider floor length. 

What is it with "WALTZ LENGTH"? I am not planning to participate in Ballroom Dancing. What I AM planning to do is cuddle up on the couch WITH MY ANKLES COVERED.  Poor TALL gals. There is very little available to you for warm sleepwear. 
Check back tomorrow and see my attempt at a solution.




That is better but 
my legs are still cold. 

10.18.12

If you think I am a paragon of virtue and only laugh at the most sophisticated of humorous anecdotes, to preserve this illusion, you should stop reading today's post right now and seek an earlier posting such as this one, or maybe this one. I simply could not bear to shatter your fragile view of the world and the marvelous creatures on it.

LOL
Laughing Out Loud
You may have typed it a billion times but have you ever actually done it? While using the computer?
I just did.
WARNING!! FOUL LANGUAGE AHEAD!!

I laughed out loud all through reading the short piece (linked at the bottom of the page )by Colin Nissan. I will not reprint it here, but you can click link the title to where it was published October 20, 2009, just scroll down when you get to the page.  

If that sort of language had been acceptable in a classroom setting, I probably would have read it to my students. They would have "gotten it". Hey, many would have LOVED it! We would all have laughed. Without further ado, I link to you

It's Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers!

10.17.12

Mrs. Bluebird of Happiness. There she is, perched on the gutter edge of the first floor roof, just below my studio window. She had a grand time looking for seeds and such. One week ago, all on one day, the hummingbirds disappeared, the squirrels went CRAZY and I saw all varieties of birds. Something told them THIS IS IT. WINTER IS ON THE WAY. 
People local to the area say this is going to be one especially cold winter. We have a lot of farmers in the area and whatever it is that tells the animals, the farmers can surely read the same signs, and I believe them.

10.16.12

TEA TIME TUESDAY

I love pumpkins. 
You are not surprised. 

This is the season of pumpkins and the beginning of the season of tea. While I was looking for lovely images to add to my virtual collection, I found this one. I REALLY like this cup and saucer set. For the first time I was tempted to go from a virtual collection to a real collection. It looks like it might be from the early part of the 20th century. It has an Art Nouveau style to it and reminds me of some of the demitasse cups I have that were my mother's.

After the initial excitement wore off, I found I am glad to keep this tea cup as just a virtual part of the collection. It is not at all an antique. 

It does have a tea pot as well as a creamer and sugar set that goes with it. They are certainly not as charming but priced as though they ought to be. 

The top picture, the tea cup took me to happynutritionist on Squidoo. She gave a list of suggested ingredients for making your own pumpkin spice tea.  She mentioned cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, orange zest, and allspice.

Included on the sidebar was a link for these in case you do not want to make your own tea but you do have time to heat some water. I love Bigelow, don't you? Maybe my local grocer has these.

 

10.15.12

Last week--"When sleeping women wake, mountains move." It sure does give pause, doesn't it? Didn't you just run through all the women you know and all the  social change, all the awareness issues, all the causes that needed champions? All the work that needed to be done and all the work that has been done.

This week: "A poor workman always blames his tools." My best sewing machine is not working. It needs to go into the shop. It is easy to say that is why I have not worked on my machine quilting but the truth is, my Bernina 1630 does make machine quilting easier but it could use an extended bed, an actual free-motion quilting foot, and I should probably use the knee lift. I have a perfectly useful Bernina 915, in fact, I call it my workhorse because it does not shy away from sewing through elastic or heavier fabrics. But it does not have an automatic needle down setting and I have grown dependent on that. The stitch length is a little imprecise though I can live with it. If I am to be honest with myself, I have to agree that A poor workman does blame his tools.

10.14.12

Lately I find myself intrigued by Swedish and Norwegian style folk-art painting, like these.

Do you think it is the fact that many of these have roosters on them? Along with chickens, I really to like a rooster motif.

Or the functional object turned into a "canvas", if you will.

Maybe it is because so many of them are pitchers or pots with spouts.

I can't begin to tell you how many lonely pitchers I have been tempted to handle because of the shape of the vessels themselves, the color, or just because I found them charming.

Maybe it is the bright primary palette on white.

If you asked my (original) Quilty Friend, she would say it is because I am really enjoying my applique classes and these designs would be great interpreted with fabric.

Just when I thought I had it figured out, I see this little friend. If I ever see one in a shop, he will have to come home with me.

 

10.13.12

It has been chilly here, lately. In addition to wearing two nightgowns, socks, and my spring/fall bathrobe and occasionally sweatpants, I have been having hot tea again every afternoon. I have come up with a rating system to play around with since I bought two boxes of assorted teas. Here is what I have so far.

Blueberry Superfruit. Four and a half stars out of five. It is not at all tea-like but I enjoyed the flavor very much.

Acai Berry. Four and a quarter stars. Also not tea flavored and almost as good as the blueberry. In fact, I can see myself preferring it somedays. 

Lemon Ginger. Four and a quarter stars. Very good but seems like a tea to have in place of dessert. It really did beg to be had with gingersnaps but since I am not "doing" carbs right now, I had it alone.

 Cinnamon Apple Chamomile. Three and a half stars. It was okay but smelled better than it tasted. Plus, for all that it says caffeine free, I only slept for a few minutes at a time last night. Probably not the tea, though.

  


Licorice Spice. Five Stars. This one is always my favorite. It settles my stomach after a meal and makes me smile when I sip it. It is naturally sweet and so far is the only one I use that I don't add some sort of artificial sweetener. Both of my "quasi local" grocery stores used to have it but I have not seen it lately. I will check Walmart next week. Otherwise, I will have to find another five star flavor!

10.12.12

Oh, DEAR! I spent too much time doing nothing yesterday and I have missed a post! And this one is LATE! Today I go to the Quilter's Cabin at the Georgia Fair again to demonstrate. I will be working on one of my billion handwork pieces next to my friend, Tallahassee Quilty Friend. She is such an upbeat and cheerful soul, I will come away refreshed. Good thing, too. I have BAAAAD insomnia this morning. Slept 20-40 minutes at a time, awakened by loud noises that did not happen and horrible dreams. Even WITH chemical assistance, I was only able to keep my head on the pillow five hours. TIME TO MOVE ON. Maybe I will catch a nap this afternoon. Used to be I would just have to get up and go to work.

10.11.12

10.10.12

Have you met my glass-headed model? I call him THAT'S HEADLEY after Harvey Korman's character in Blazing Saddles. 






 

Here he is modeling a cowl I knit for my Oregon Sister-in-Law following the Ambitus Cowl pattern. The fabric is a wool and bamboo blend. It has a lovely sheen to it and pretty color variations.

Cascade Lana Bambu is a blend of 79% wool and 21% viscose from bamboo fiber. It is not that much fun to work with but it has been made with a nice blend of color. I like all the colorways it comes in but when I was in the shop, they only had two or three choices and I liked Ruby best. I bought it on a whim with no clear idea what I would do with 196 yards but it turns out that at 4.5 stitches to the inch, it makes a nice cozy neck piece to wear under a pullover.

10.9.12

TEA TIME TUESDAY

Today the feature is a pretty Korean made set in a delicate shade of celadon green. I am not sure how I would like to drink from handleless cups. Instead, I will just visit this newest edition to my virtual collection right here.

10.8.12

Monday Mantra

Last week:
"I can choose my own way." It was very empowering. The only drawback was having to accept responsibility for my choices! Isn't that always the case?

So what do you think of this one? Seems like exactly the right thing to keep thinking when needing to accomplish a huge task.

10.6.12

I keep looking for help for the "Why We Get Fat" Gary Taubes diet theory but I can't find much. I have done very well with under 20 grams of carbs each day but I need to keep remembering to drink the bouillon and get two salads in.


DIET UPDATE
sodium--target: about 2,000 mg daily
carbs--target: less than 20 grams daily
weight--first target: 5% by October 1, didn't make it but I am closing in on it!
Drinking bouillon every day seems to help. Headaches are gone if I remember to have at least one cup a day. I wonder how my blood work will look.

10.6.12

COMPANY COMES TODAY! See you Monday.

10.5.12

 I have spent four days trying to make a studio out of my huge gigantic piles. I now ALMOST have things assigned to certain areas 

  
depending on the technique used to accomplish the project. As usual, I have found a billion things I forgot I had. 
That is okay, though. Today there is a sale at the Quilt Shop on Main in Jasper 


and I can get some more fabric that might help finish the billion projects. Or start some new ones.

So if you live anywhere near Pickens County and you are at home in your jammies reading this post, get up, get dressed, get going. This is going to be a great sale.


 


Did you guess that I would be looking for red fabrics? I am also looking for this book by Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley. Our Applique class is headed for stained glass style--not really my cup of tea. While looking for a pattern I might like in stained glass, I found this book. I absolutely DID check to see if my library had it--they did not. 

P.S. I DID find some stained glass style I could live with over at Three Swans Studios. For instance, what do you think of this? Yeah, me, too. Lovely but too fiddly with all the petals on THE SUNFLOWER. I think
  
Original Quilty Friend might like this one. It looks like it has fabrics she might like. I kind of like it, too.Ooops. LEAVES AND BERRIES does not count as stained glass. I guess my tiles book does not count either. Although tiles and this little design have space between the applique, they do not have the black lines that imitate the leading in real stained glass. 

These are more stencil style. Too bad because look what else they have that I like. TULIPS, PINKS, DIANTHUS, and SUMMER ROSES. Check them out under the subtitle, Applique.

If it must be stained glass style, I choose PICES. Isn't it a dandy? The website says, "The design was inspired by a stained glass Pisces from a window in the magnificent 13th century Chartres Cathedral in France." I have seen the original!

10.4.12

Look what I won from INCOMPARABLE BUTTONS!Aren't they lovely? Original Quilty Friend thinks they would look great on a knitted cowl in shades to go with denim. I think she might be right. Or I could use them down the front of a chambray shirt. They have so many wonderful designs I think I feel a shopping spree coming on...

Rushing off to Applique Class. We are working on designing our own Rose of Sharon blocks. I have the palette, chose background, but I can't make myself start. I have so many undone projects. I will take my oak and acorn two color from Pacific Rim.  I am almost finished with sewing down the outer border and a couple of the leaves.

Connie will teach us another method. I never got to practice the last method since I was still back-basting. I probably will not try it. It had mixed results and I can see where other methods would be better for me. I do know how to do it now, though.

10.2.12

TEA TIME TUESDAY

PUMPKINS! Get it HERE.

 

If you are a doll, this is the perfect size for you. But wait before you rush out to buy a set for yourself. I have pumpkin themed TEA TIME all month. Maybe even into November...

10.1.12

It has been two weeks since I posted a Monday Mantra. Last time was Einstein's miracle in the day quote. Today I will continue a thread of thought from Saturday's post. "I can choose my own way." Try it, it is very empowering.