7.31.13

Remember I said I liked ties last week? I have a long list of "stuff" I like. I would like to hand print a silk tie with fish 
 

Oops, wrong style but still pretty cool. Already sold HERE

Makes me hungry... Silk for under $25 HERE

and then I would tie it using the fishbone style. I found this picture HERE.

I think it is properly called the Eldredge Knot, but it looks like fishbone stitch to me. 




Watch the video  below and learn how to tie your own.

7.30.13

Tea Time Tuesday
Probably a chocolate pot but...

Oh. Oh. Oh. I think it is my favorite thing in the whole virtual collection.

7.29.13

Monday Mantra

Damn it. It is hard to let go of enjoying being right.

7.28.13

I have this. I have two skeins of it. I am in love with it.

It is called Malabrigo Mecha, the colorway is ARAPEY, and it is a Bulky weight. It is 100% superwash merino, and there are 130 yards in each skein. Want some? THIS will link you to WEBS.

7.27.13

This is what I am trying to knit.
Knitting Pure and Simple Women's Cardigan Patterns - 294 - Summer Open Cardigan Pattern

Not me. Would I EVER wear that color? NEVER EVER.

The above will link to Jimmy Bean's Wool which says they have every Knitting Pure and Simple Pattern in Stock. This is the second time I am knitting this. I am using the same yarn as the first time but this time I am using different needles and a different size. Perhaps it will fit. I took pictures of how it looked before I completely unknit it. I may show them to you but probably not. I would hate to cause anyone to laugh so hard they could not catch their breath so they expired.

This is the yarn I am using is Mirasol Sawya, which is  60% Pima Cotton/25% Alpaca/15% Silk. It is a worsted weight and has a strong resemblance to pure cotton but handles so much nicer.  By the time you are reading this, maybe I am finished!I chose white but look at this luscious color.

They call it GOLD at Webs, where the above link will take you. At $3.79 for a 92 yard hank, it is quite a good deal for a summer jacket.

7.26.13

I have run across some interesting phenomena. Before and after different activities, my weight seems to fluctuate with no logic whatsoever. Before you tell me to run and check my scale, you need to know I have used FOUR different scales.

For instance, just the other day, for fun, I weighed myself, disrobed, and weighed myself again on the same scale. In that 10 seconds, I gained TWO POUNDS. 

Saturday morning, I weighed myself, drank two cups of coffee, and then lost EIGHT POUNDS. I don't know what kind of coffee THAT was, but I'd like to have a cup of that once a week.

Lets see...ONE cup, ONCE a week @ 4 lbs a week and I should be at my target weight at dark-thirty on the 32 of Juvember. Check back and see how I did.

7.25.13

I love ties. I even look for them in thrift stores. I have a handful of silk ones.  I do not know what I am going to do with them. If I wore them, I would go to THIS site and learn to tie some unusual ones like this Trinity Knot.

Or I could practice with this video.

7.24.13.2

Today's photos by Ben Harrison

Today's photos by Ben Harrison

I can grow DAY LILIES! I have waited over a year for this sight. I had no idea what color they would bloom, but I am very pleased with this coppery glow.

Today's photos by Ben Harrison

Except this one.

Did I show you my hydrangea? This picture was taken a couple of months ago. My QuiltyFriend (the Original) cut me some sticks to try to root and THEY DID!

7.23.13

 Tea Time Tuesday

Look what I found? It is my most favoritest iced tea ever. I discovered it at a TARGET, and I don't EVER want to run out. Well, in the summer, I always want to have it on hand. It is so good, I do not even want sugar in it.

7.22.13

Monday Mantra

Today I vow 

NOT TO LET THE LITTLE ANNOYING THINGS BOTHER ME.

The secret is to find a friend and TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS.

7.21.13

Do you remember where you were 44 years and one day ago?

I was lying on the floor of the family room in front of the television in Titusville, Florida.

7.20.13

Another mystery wildflower from the Track Rock Trek. It grew about a foot off the ground. 



These don't seem to have the same color leaves or upright presentation. The leaves look different, also. The colors were very pretty shades of lavender.

7.19.13

Wild flowers from our TrackRock expedition.  These grow wild near our house, too. They seem to look like azaleas and have a yellow friend that blooms near them sometimes. I am not convinced that they are the same plant, though. I will take a closer look next spring.

7.18.13

Did you know there are petroglyphs about 10 minutes away from one of my quilting locations?

Maybe you have never seen petroglyphs before. They are rock carvings and these, at TrackRock, Georgia are estimated to be POSSIBLY as old as 8,000 to 1,000 B.C. Or possibly the early 19th century A.D.? You would think they could get a little closer in the date.

In 1867, conservationist John Muir traveled nearby and met a mountaineer who said, "It is called Track Gap ... from the great number of tracks in the rocks – bird tracks, bar tracks, hoss tracks, men tracks, all in the solid rock as if it had been mud."
 
 I think it is just as easy to imagine they were early Cherokee reactions to extra-terrestrials.

7.17.13

KNITTING. It makes everything better

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately. It is amazing to me that I cannot seem to do a little knitting, a little quilting, a little basketry, a little reading, a little doll work, a little jewelry each day.

 I seem to get immersed in one or another.

7.16.13

Tea Time Tuesday

Tea KETTLE. I can't find it ANYwhere except on Pinterest. I LOVE it!

7.15.13

Monday Mantra

Well, I disagree with THAT sometimes. I guess that comes from a long career in public education. 


“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
― George Bernard Shaw 
 
Now, THAT, I can agree with all the time. It is a two way street, isn't it?

So, what should my thought for the week be? I think I will go back to my old favorite...

It is okay to have an unexpressed thought.

Sure wish I could remember that. Communication would be MUCH better if some of the time participants shut up and listened. I will try to keep that in mind.

 

7.14.13

Jacobean Terraria is by Cleo Berry Ward. She taught this as a Block-of-the-Month class. In her version, you can see she used leaves to unite the blocks with the borders and give the quilt an "all of a piece" kind of feeling.

Look at close ups of some of her work. BEADS!

ORANGE!

BATIKS!



HAND QUILTING!





She says the pattern is from the book Jacobean Applique Book II by Patricia Campbell and Mimi Ayars. The pattern name is Romantica.

At the East Cobb Quilt Show2013,  I wanted to know where her ribbon was for this beautiful work.

7.13.13

I have been doing two things a LOT lately. No, make it three things.

I have done a lot of reading--mostly detective mysteries. I am enjoying them and always on the look out for a new series although I prefer to start with book ONE and move on through. It IRKS me to have to read them out of order, but I will do it rather than read a book I only half-like.
Also, I have been wishing to see the new Star Trek movie. I am sure I will get to see it one day, but I LONG to see it.
Lastly, I have been knitting. A lot. I have three projects that are front and center right now, and I am doing my best to finish them before beginning something new.

7.12.13

This was a most interesting piece. Sherry Steinway's Fish Basket has a lot of beads and embellishments but does not at all look overdone. The creel in the middle has a "caught" fish. 

I tried very hard to get close to it to take a better picture, but the people backed up in front of another quilt spilled over in my way. I had to quickly snap this between shoulders. The East Cobb Quilt Show had a variety of artists and offerings, but for the life of me, I cannot remember anything about the quilt that drew all those people and kept me from getting close to THIS one. It has a lot of embellishments including what I think may be serendipitous needle lace as the froth. There are shells and beads all over. 

The fish give the impression of being removable, but you KNOW I would not touch it to find out. The quilting is lively and adds the texture that the three dimensional creel and fish require for balance without taking away from the central theme. You can see the muddy bank and then the texture changes immediately to sinuous water ripples with bead "bubbles". The coloring of the water runs vertically, opposed to  the gentle water undulations. This gives the impression of reflections from the further bank.

On that other bank, at the water's edge, are frothy lace and beaded vegetation with dimensionally quilted puffs of pale color.

Instead of rewriting the artist's statement, I will show you the picture I took of it so you can see a close up of some of nearby embellishments.

 

7.11.13

Robin Meyer made this quilt, using dark gray cloth from Uganda. She says the design is from Elizabeth Hartman's book Modern Patchwork.  

The blocks themselves have tremendous potential. 

 

Meyer chose to put birds in her houses. Some of the fabric she used is in my stash, waiting for me to be this creative.

The rooflines are not all the same and yet all the houses have a sameness. 

The birds are not all the same and yet they are all birds with the same background. 

The houses are not all the same color, but the ones that are, are composed with the same fabrics yet in a different arrangement. 

Alike and different. Contrast. Meyer chose an interesting binding which underscores her contrast/comparison theme.

I really enjoyed this quilt, and I am enjoying it all over again while analyzing what makes it successful. 

7.10.13

 Here you go, another East Cobb Quilt. This one got a ribbon. It is modern, geometric, and colorful.  Of COURSE I liked it!

It is called Red Stix and made by Nancy Perkins. She says she made it at a quilt retreat and was inspired by a quilt in one of Gwen Marston's books. 

The quilting was done by Paula Wexler and is the perfect counterpoint.

Some of the things I admire in addition to the quilting decisions are about the colors. Perkins chose several shades of red and scattered them on a "background" of the darker red. Sort of contained chaos. 

The stix themselves are solid except the white. The addition of the black print on the white softens and sharpens the overall effect at the same time.  Magnificent.

7.9.13

Tea Time Tuesday

It is a TOMATO, but I like to imagine it as a pumpkin. It is an antique and the website that showed it has taken it down because it sold. Not to me! Don't worry. It is part of my VIRTUAL collection.

7.8.13

Monday Mantra

I do not have to be what I have been.

I can be something MORE.

7.7.13

This is Beverly Alter's Miniature entry in the East Cobb Quilt Show. I have Storm at Sea on my Quilt List. It has been there for a long time. After seeing this, I am energized. I love the fluid movement and the unexpected color choice for this pattern.

She writes that it describes the changeable weather in Georgia. She made it with paper piecing, which sure makes sense to me. Look at the centers, they are pieced four-patches.

To give you an idea of how small this is, I took a picture with my finger about 2 inches in front of the quilt--NOT TOUCHING THE QUILT SINCE I KNOW BETTER-- and you can see at what scale she was working.That makes those center four-patches about the size of my thumbnail. Remarkable.

7.6.13

 Before I went to the 2013 Pieceful Mountain Quilt Retreat, I was lucky enough to attend the Eat Cobb Quilt Show. I even bought a souvenir from one of the vendors, Little Quilts. I saw some wonderful quilts executed with great enthusiasm and technical skill. Some quilts had both. I photographed what struck me and since I already told you I judge a book by its cover, you can pretty much guess that I made instantaneous decisions about what to snap.

Since you know I am interested in the Modern Quilt Movement, I am sure you looked at the picture above and said to yourself, "Well, it has orange and lavender and geometrics. Bet she took that picture because she loved it." You would be right. I show you a close up of  COLOR SERIES by Tycoa Noble. She writes, "I am drawn to yellow and gold colors. It makes me feel happy inside creating positive energy.  This color series quilt was created intuitively and pieced spontaneously using an assortment of hand-dyed fabrics, creating a quilt with color into Art."

The linear stitching--perfectly vertical and horizontal lines give a physical and visual structure to the haphazard appearance of joyful strips and blocks of color. (My words, not hers) I would give her a Ribbon of Success for accomplishing her goal.