practicing blanket stitch

Mary stitched - Unfortunately, paint and pigma pens 'ruined' front side

Winter session class - table

class mascot

Audition for ‘African patchwork’ by Leslie… beautiful scraps, beautifully arranged.  She has since dispensed with the black borders, and butted all the African prints up together.  I love how it looks above, but I’ll admit to preferring her later version.

Desert Town quilt in progress - Leslie

house landscape WIP - Mary

As you can see, we are having fun in this class.  Last week, we worked on embroidery stitches.  This week, we’ll continue with a few more stitches, look at binding ideas, and continue with works-in-progress.

Find a great stitch reference here:  arts and design needlecraft glossary.

Took it to the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center and quilted a little during the four hour wait for C’s 4×400 relay.

It may be an exercise in frustration.  No glue, no tulle, no basting –  just me and my lazy girl pin job.

My strategy is to work the places that can easily be worked first, always making sure that where pieces meet, the fabric will lie down properly.  Pretty much means working edges inward.  It helps to have two needles going, sometimes.

I am doing a combination of folded-under applique and raw-edged.  Probably, with the possible exception of that red velvet, this quilt will be entirely hand-quilted.

You may remember this bleached red plaid from the Happy Hut Quilt that I made for D. (that red plaid flannel was used, one December not long ago, to make his pj bottoms – a traditional Christmas Eve gift in this house (though I will admit to buying the pants in the last couple of years)).

I finished that quilt, by the way (above).  The Ghost House version is in a lull.  Down in the cold, cold basement on a pinboard.  It will wait.

Anyway, I just came across this quilt.  See how important it is to date your work?!  I would have guessed “2008″ as the time frame for this poppy, but stitching reveals that it was made in 2002.

I keep wanting to ‘get back’ to poppies and keep finding that I don’t.

Do any of you, dear readers, have themes or images that you developed/loved and that were well-received and that you keep saying you will ‘get back to’ and then don’t?!!

Why, I wonder.

Maybe it’s not enough to go back to something just because other people liked it.  Not sure.  Ideas, responses welcome!

Today’s the busy day – writing class in the a.m. (Yikes! must bathe! Must eat breakfast! Must do Morning Pages (writing class is so much better if I do them first)) and then my quilting class (here, thankfully) in the afternoon.

This wall-sized map and cool 3-D wall hanging are from the hall outside.  It is so much fun (“Miss Dee!!  Miss Dee!!! Can you help?!! Can I make a mouse? Does this look like a coffin?”) and so good for me in so many ways, that I’m surprised it keeps slipping out of my mind.

So, forget the laundry, dog walking, the progress made on three small quilts, the prep for tomorrow’s class — forget cooking dinner, packing lunches, making smoothies in the a.m., forget the dentist phone calls and the three conversations with my sister… the little stint with two third grade classes was enough to call it a good day.

Stumpwork poppy – beauty!

After I replaced the sky (remember? I cut it out?), there were more layers than before, and too many to permit the translucency that I liked.  So I cut up into the overlap where I could without jeopardizing the quilting.

And here are some winter colors, winter jewels, really –

You can see the colors that informed the little quilt.

I don’t know if you can also tell or not, but I took these close ups with my trusty new tripod!

I certainly can tell.  Much better definition.  I think that’s called ‘being in focus’ !!

C. if off to track.  K. is at work already.  And, D. will probably sleep for another three hours.  I am making roasted baby turnips and brown rice (with scallions and sesame seeds) and marinated tofu today for a friend that I haven’t managed a visit with since Christmas, somehow!

And, must FIND ‘Wishing for Snow’ in order to sign and mail off to Long Island Artist’s Coop Gallery.

Now, the cold is here.  Just when I should be walking the dog, I am curling up with a heating pad and quilt, instead.  Hard to get motivated to do much of anything.  “It’s Sunday,” I tell myself.

Yesterday, took my sister grocery shopping and the place was an absolute mob scene – supposedly because of the football playoff game that would be aired later (Okay, Mr. Pious, kneel down and thank god for THAT!).  It took me the rest of the afternoon to recover.  I hadn’t planned to sit with K. and watch the game, but he lit a fire and I had my fat, fat novel to read (“1Q84″) and so, it was nice.

And today?  It’s one of those days where I can’t remember WHAT I’ve done, or even, if I’ve done anything at all.  Crossword puzzle.  Drug store run.  Pages.  Prep for Thursday’s class.  Wandering around studio looking for something.  Somehow, it feels like a whole lot of nothing.  Perhaps if I make the chicken stew I have on the menu for tonight, and the ‘Wellesley Chocolate Cake’ recipe I picked out, there will be something more tangible (and delicious, hopefully!) to point to.

I HAVE been making some of the world’s most delicious winter salads.  Really.  What makes a good winter salad, in my humble opinion?  Some crunch (cabbage shreds, radish slices, celery, for example), some bitter greens (frisee, arugula, to name two), something onion-y (diced shallots, if you’re feeling fancy, or diced red onion or chopped scallions) and then your filler (usually, chopped romaine in this house) all dressed with a super-tangy vinaigrette (I have long been a fan of 1/2 olive oil and 1/2 acid — lately, I mostly use white vinegar — and then of course, garlic, mustard, and S&P).  One night, I added sunflower seeds (raw), along with dried cranberries and Granny Smith chunks (heavenly!).  So, so, good.  Last night, with both boys out and having had a heavy (but delicious) tortilla pie for lunch, K & I had a Winter Salad, Sweet Potatoes, and Green Beans and Brussel Sprouts for dinner — yummmmmm.

Well, maybe that’s all the day needed – to talk about food for a minute.  Definitely perked me up!

I am reminded, posting a drawing, that this time last year we were bombed by a snowstorm, and I spent Martin Luther King Jr. day getting my Sketchbook Project well underway.  I can’t imagine having that kind of energy tomorrow, nor can I imagine being bombed by a snowstorm.  I can hope, right?

1. Joan(MadMenInspired)HandspunFinished-11-15-11 055, 2. Nocturne no.6, 3. S7300200, 4. sketchbook project 2012, 5. drawing room001, 6. your calling is calling, 7. Empty nest syndrome. These shelves need refilling. So many characters have found new homes but now it is time to create more., 8. new..altered .., 9. HOUSE COLLECTIONS 004, 10. Flaneren over het strand, 11. American Avocet, 12. untitled done, 13. New Felt, 14. Untitled, 15. mailart365-Day 235, 16. BURROWING. owl, 17. Studio-Old library shelves, 18. 空, 19. Wer dieses Tor durschreitet, wird Stille finden, 20. wpd12bc, 21. Ever’s mouse!!, 22. Shattered, 23. Nuno Felted Scarf, 24. Pinwheel Path Lamp, 25. Driving in France, machine embroidery painting

Yesterday, I spent the better part of the morning having a love affair with my new tripod (now, now, don’t even picture those dirty things!).  Truly, I am having so much fun.  To prepare for tomorrow’s class, I made a new felt hut and documented as I went.  A total first stab at a still-life tutorial — here.  It runs just shy of a minute, so I hope you can take a peek.  Criticism welcome.

Meanwhile, the moon has been peeking in my window.  This is roughly the view from my bed.  Aspidistra and beech limbs talking in lines while the moon makes an illuminated beauty spot, a little like Peppy Miller, and her “little something extra”, in the movie ‘The Artist’.

Digging up and documenting and noodling.  Part of my gift to C. for his quickly approaching 18th birthday, is a collection of journal entries about him (I am already way behind schedule!)  The picture below goes back much further, however, to a batch of illustrations created for book of poems written as a freshman in college (1975).  I’ll spare you the poetry.

Meanwhile, my plaster friends probably have at least another season in them.  They certainly will keep themselves entertained.  I suspect they are talking about me, here.

Although perhaps they, too, are taken with the moon, rouging them up to a feminine pink here.