One x One x Three

I finished knitting this Sweet Feather Fan Shawl/Wrap for my Mom over the weekend. It is a blend of alpaca from Misti Alpaca and two skeins of locally dyed and spun yarn that I 'found' at our very local Farmers' Market. I am very pleased with how well the two play together!




We enjoyed lunch at our favorite noodle house on Saturday, and I thought you'd enjoy one of the signs outside their door.

Barker waited patiently in the shade on the patio while we dined.









Later, we walked down to Midtown Art and watched 'Julie & Julia'. I think we must have beenthe last two to see it, although the theater was full!! I wonder if anyone else out there cried during the movie, or am I the only sentimental fool? And this is something I hadn't witnessed in a long time: at the close of the movie everyone applauded!! Meryl Streep was fabulous, wasn't she? I just loved it, and can't wait to see it again!!!

Yesterday afternoon we took in Cotton Patch Gospel at the Balzer Theater. We saw the original, starring writer/director Tom Key 20+ years ago at the Alliance Theater, and we were equally as entertained by this new production. If you click on the link, you can hear some of the musical pieces (written by the late Harry Chapin) and also portions of an interview with Tom Key.

PEACE TO YOU!!!

Honoring Ted Kennedy

If you want to help do your part for health care reform, go here and sign the petition honoring Ted Kennedy!

PEACE TO YOU!

Details

Several of you emailed me with questions about Alabama Chanin's wonderful Over the Arm Pin Cushion that I wrote about yesterday. So I'm furnishing another picture of it, stretched out so you can get a better idea of just how versatile it really is. As you can see, there are pockets at each end, which go over the arm of your chair, and then there is the pin cushion in the middle. What you cannot see is behind the little tool pockets are little sections that are stuffed with grains of rice (uncooked, of course!). As you can well imagine, the rice weights down the entire pin cushion assembly, and it really stays put on the arm of the chair! I love mine and need to make several more!!!





So last night I put my new pin cushion to good use and did some handsewing on this little wall hanging that I began in a class with Pamela Allen several years ago. In my personal "One x One" quest, I hope that this piece is next at the finish line!

PEACE TO YOU!!!

One x One x Two

Well, I've finished another WIP (work in progress) that I started months ago! YAYY!!! This is the Over the Arm Pin Cushion from Alabama Chanin's book. I love her designs and techniques, and have really felt the need for one of these pin cushions for a long time. I meant to bring it in to my chair in the den, but have already been using it in my sewing room! Hmmmm: maybe I'll need to make another?


Here it is this morning as I was just sewing up the little tool pockets and attaching the pin cushion.....you can see a bit of the wool batting that I was going to use for stuffing.



And voila, here it is in action!

Oh, by the way, if you don't know about this: it is made from recycled t-shirts. The white one is from my husband and the black and green ones are from the thrift store. Chanin works only with recycled tees! How cool is that!!!



As for the wool batting, my good friend Molly's Mom, also named Judy, raises wonderful sheep, and I love to use her wool batting....it is so soft, and the lanolin is great on my hands!

Do you remember back in May when we were having some interior painting done on our house? I was a bit devastated as I had to cut down my 'monster' rubber tree which had been happily growing all over the wall in the livingroom....it is difficult to paint around a tree, I admit! Well, when we got home from vacation, this is what we found:



It has sprouted new growth at the top of one of the two 'trunks' that I left behind! My dilemna is how I am going to get it back up the pillar and onto the wall again. I'm thinking of how nice a copper support would look...........but it'll probably be bamboo, knowing the price of copper these days!

PEACE TO YOU!!!!

Volunteers

Blogger is giving me fits this evening, so please bear with me while I attempt to complete this post!

In a former life, I was a fervent gardener, and would spend most days weeding, pruning, fertilizing, and simply enjoying the fruits of my labor. Fibers, dyes, and warnings about sun exposure from my Dermatologist have totally changed my life. That said, I must tell you that our realtor friend Michael and my blogger friend Elizabeth are rekindling the old gardening flame! We walk past Michael's glorious Midtown Atlanta garden every chance I get, and it keeps me energized to see what he can do right there in the city! Then I see Elizabeth's beautiful flower pictures on her blog, and I'm further enchanted. She and I email frequently about her gardening techniques, and I vow to get out there and dig in the dirt! She wrote recently about using coffee grounds, egg shells and banana peels on her roses. Well, I took her quite literally and began to make a rose 'tea' by blending our morning banana peels, coffee grounds and the occasional egg shell. It works!!!! My roses are loving it, as evidenced by the new shoots on this rose!

C and I have been composting for as long as I can remember, and during the summer months, we eat so many fresh veggies and fruits that our compost pail is full almost every day with the corn cobs, silks, bean ends, etc. So, the rose tea is a good way to slow down the ever increasing pail occupants and to love on my roses at the same time.

Our compost is always giving! This Spring, I moved a potted croton plant outdoors to the pool patio for some added sun and topped off the pot with a bit of compost. About a week later, I noticed several tomato plants sprouting around the sides of the pot. Now we are enjoying the juciest Roma tomatoes from those little volunteers:


And then there are the 'squash vines' that sprout annually from my compst bins! A few years back we had wonderful pumpkins just in time for Halloween....and I didn't have to pay a cent for them! This year I couldn't wait to see what developed from our 'squash' vines....and you can see that we have gourds!








How cool is that!!!
So, I won't have to buy ornamental gourds this Fall!







One of my favorite volunteers is this beautiful Sweet Autumn clematis, which has just started to bloom on the fence leading to my studio. When I purchased its great grandmother, Greta (the nursery owner) snickered and asked why I would want to purchase such an invasive plant....I guess you can see why! Oh, and Barker seems to like it too!





We were away for a day, but now that we're home and I'm back in business, I hope to have some fiber shots for you tomorrow or the next day! Thanks for coming by to visit!

PEACE TO YOU!!!

One x One

This was our view of Squam yesterday morning, as we were packing up to leave. The rain came in showers, just enough to cool us as we walked. We had airplane troubles in Boston, which I suppose might be considered the good kind, in that they were detected before we took off! Nonetheless, our arrival in Atlanta was delayed by several hours. Barker was delighted to see us, and kept nuzzling us all during the night. It's great to be home! We had a fabulous vacation and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our daughter and son-in-law, but it's great to be back home!


I'm going to attempt something new for me: finishing projects before I begin new ones! YIKES!!! Did I just say that?
I'm calling this my Squam Tee, as I did so much hand embellishing while we were at the lake.


Here's a detail shot of the front:












This is the back, which I really adore















My blog buddy Elizabeth encouraged me to go visit her New Hampshire fiber artist friend Patti while we were on vacation. So K and I took an afternoon off to shop. I wanted to go to Patti's shop, Badger Brook Farm in Gilmanton, and K wanted to find an old map of Sandwich at the town's historical society, so we set out last Tuesday afternoon right after lunch and spent some quality time together. K got her map and then we met up with Patti, had a great time buying all sorts of specialty fibers in her fabulous shop, and then she took me upstairs to see her private studio: man oh man, what an inspiration! So, how did we get from the subject of the Squam Tee to Patti's studio??? Well, lemme see now..........I used some of her yummy hand-dyed embroidery floss to embellish my tee and I viewed a gazillion antique MOP buttons in her studio.....but they were not for sale!

PEACE!!!

Rainy Day in Paradise

Today is our last full day of vacation on Squam,
and also our first day of rain.
We were lucky to get our
exercising in this morning, before it all began.
A shot through our bedroom window:

The nice thing is that I've gotten a lot of
reading and knitting accomplished.
It's really lovely to have a quiet day!

PEACE TO YOU!

Peaceful Days on Golden Pond

We're enjoying lovely, peaceful days here on Squam. K and I took a little road trip the other afternoon, visiting a few shops of interest to both of us. C and I drove over to Portland, Maine yesterday to visit his best childhood friend, and we also enjoyed lobsters and clams. K & D ran in the camp's 5K road race this afternoon; she came in first in the ladies division and D, who actually finished 2 minutes ahead of her, was third in the men's division. We are very proud of them both! They have been working away on this puzzle during their leisure time, and hope to finish it off tonight.

C has finished reading one book and a couple of New Yorkers. I've been reading a bit, knitting scarves, swimming a lot, walking some, and working on this tee that I dyed a few weeks back.

It's nice to have some handwork in the evenings!

PEACE!!!

Circles of Life

While I walked yesterday, I was thinking about Jude's recent post about circles, and so that was where I pointed my camera. Hope you enjoy!

PEACE!!!

Morning Walk at Squam

It's a glorious day here on Squam! We played "Mexican Train" (dominoes) until bedtime last night, and laughed until we cried. Family fun without the all-intrusive TV. Yes, we have wifi, but both Dave and I were able to set aside our laptops and actually socialize! C and I fell off to sleep, serenaded by calling loons and the lake lapping against the rocky shoreline: pure bliss. And this year I can actually smell the pines!

We awoke early, with the sun rising over Red Hill, so there was nothing better than a quick dip in Squam and a hike up Rattlesnake. I snapped pics along the way, just so that you can see what a paradise this place is. Here is the old laundry, now housing the history center:

the ice house, still in operation, with its wheelbarrows waiting patiently for their morning blocks of ice (harvested from the lake in Winter and delivered to each cabin every morning during Summer):


sunflowers along the trail
a rather shy Daddy Longlegs..........but I was patient and waited for him to come out from his hiding place:
the view from Rattlesnake's rocky face:
there are a few charming Squamy ways that keep me coming back year after year, and I just suppose that this patched screen on our porch is one of them!

PEACE!!!

It's All for Paul

........well, actually, it's all for the Piedmont Park Conservancy! Paul McCartney will be appearing in concert tomorrow night at Piedmont Park, benefiting the conservancy. How grand is that? The park is just a couple of blocks from our condo, so we walked down there this evening.






the stage is enormous.........I don't think you can get the full perspective in this photo

just a few of the liquid refreshments:

what goes in, must come out:
I finished constructing this silk/linen blend dress yesterday. I had waxed, dyed, rewaxed, and redyed the fabric, and then it sat for about a month in my sewing room.


It's very comfy and the fabric (from Thai/Exotic Silks) is terrific!


since you only got part of my Barker in the above picture, I thought I'd give you a better view:

Looks can be very deceiving: Barker is the sweetest, most lovable dog I have ever known, but until he gets to know you (and in this case, the camera!) he won't give you the time of day! We are on our way to New Hampshire for a week of vacation, so Barker is at home with our faithful and most capable housesitter. They love eachother dearly, so I know that he is fine, but I am missing him tonight! WAAAA!!!

While everyone else is going to see Julia and Julie, we took in 500 Days of Summer this evening at the Midtown Promenade Cinema. It is really good: C said it would be a chick flick, but we are both now thinking that it was more of a guy flick. C and I came away with differing opinions on the sentiments, but we both enjoyed it, the soundtrack, and the different approach to the screen play.

PEACE!!!

Fresh and Local

We are blessed with many farmers' markets in our area, and our local fruits are in great abundance this year. We've been enjoying the Geogia Belle Peaches for a couple of weeks now, and I picked up the wonderfully sweet and succulent white watermelon at the market at the Cathedral of St Philip in Atlanta on Saturday.


I hadn't seen one of these for many years: the last one was purchased by my brother-in-law Jacinto while they were visiting us back in the 80s. And this one is every bit as sweet and juicy. I've been adding slices to my morning yogurt: MMMMMMMMM, splendid!

PEACE!!!

Bizzy Bizzy Bizzy

It seems that I am totally losing myself in the dye pots and at the sewing machine lately! I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what I'm going to do when the new day finally breaks, and then I dream rather impatiently about these projects for the remainder of the night. It's a wonderful addiction: this fiber art!

Here is a Dharma silk cami that I dyed last week, using a couple of layers of wax and color:


These camis are terrific for sleepwear and I do wear them until they literally cannot be worn another night. They are so soft, and it seems that they are warm in the winter (in Georgia and under a down comforter) and then they are cool in the summer under our little cotton matelaise.

This is "Barker's Bungalow"


I made it for the Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit, which Lynn Krawczyk sponsors every year. This year the proceeds go to Bernie Berlin's "A Place to Bark", a non-profit organization that finds loving homes for abused and orphaned dogs and cats. You can read more about Bernie's work here. You can read more about the Breaking Traditions Art Quilt Exhibit here.

This is a silk scarf that I have made for a redheaded friend of mine who has been so kind to lend books to me over the past several years

here's a detail shot:


And do you remember this fabric that I painted a month or so ago using Melly Testa's technique?

It is a very light and yummy silk/cotton blend which I have sewn up into a nice light summertime top. I put rolled hems on the bottom and sleeve edges, and I am looking forward to wearing it for another month or two.

Lastly, here are two of C's recycled t-shirts, which I have dyed and intend to make into a skirt and top. You need to hold me to this!


Hope your days have been bizzy and funn!!!

PEACE!!!