orchardatwillard

May Turned into August

Well, so much for making resolutions about blog-posting. But I'm back with an up-date on Ali's recent (and less recent) sewing hijinks. Updates on my own activities are not photographically documented due to a tragic fall on the part of my camera. I'm undecided whether to replace the body or have it repaired; the two cost about the same.

Ali and I are each capable of great creative productivity. Above, I give you a photo that I've titled "While we were on the phone" because that was the gist of the email that accompanied it to me from Ali. This is not the first time I have received such an email from Ali, though all previous instances were of embroidered or cross-stitched bits and bobs that later appeared in other projects.

Somehow this time I didn't even realize she was using the Husqavarna while we were talking. (Apparently those rumors of my self-absorption are quite true.) Yeah, so this time she decided to mess around with HSTs and the making of stripes. In my recollection, I responded with great enthusiasm to this little sampler. I'm still liking the contrast between the black and white polka dots and the super-saturated color palette of Soul Blossoms.

Sadly for the piece above, thus far, this summer has been one of WIPs and not much getting finished on either side of the lower 48. But for Ali, that ended today. Me? I've done a lot of sewing but simultaneously on several large-ish to genuinely large projects. The consequence of this practice is that nothing gets finished, even though I sew a lot.

I digress. But, before I un-digress, I'm going to digress further because there's a topic here that's quite central both to creativity generally (at least for myself) and to our irregularly on-going series "Keepin' It Real" (cue awesome music).

The truth is quite simple. I simply am not consistently creatively productive. Shoot, when it comes right down to it, sometimes I don't think I'm particularly productive in any aspect of my life - but that's not the topic at hand.

When creatively stymied, Ali often turns to acheiving new heights of organization in her personal space. Exhibit A - the most thoroughly organized drawer I've seen in quite some time. This pet project occupied Ali for several hours since it included a trip to buy some small boxes so their lids and bases could be used to partition her home office supplies. (Watch out for those binder clips! They're breeding like stinking bunnies in there!)

I tend not to shunt my productive leisure tendencies into other categories. (I mean look at the way the stamps are placed! So creative!) Actually, I tend to use that energy to lament to myself and, on occasion to Jack, how I'm not sewing nor knitting nor painting nor drawing nor........ And, after or as part of the lamentations, I get angry at myself for not engaging in the activities that I already know make me feel happy. (And truthfully happy whether or not I finish any given project.)

Contrary to what some might think, that anger does not motivate me off my keister and back to my machine or needles or brushes or.... That anger also doesn't motivate me to pick up something new. Say, for example, you were out for a morning run (right there you know this whimsical aside is not about me) and you stopped to pick up your dry cleaning on the way home, and you took sharp notice of that guitar shop nextdoor to the dry cleaners'. Say you decide that you've been meaning to pick up guitar for far too long now and carpe diem and all that! You might just rush in and ask the shopkeeper about "guitars appropriate for early mid-life crises" and that man might not bat an eye as he shows you your way into a spiffy little acoustic such as the one pictured above with an (at the time) unfinished, over-sized pot-holder that was included in the photo as a way to prove to your co-blogger: "No, really I own a guitar now."

So, not only am I mad at myself and not doing any of my current and beloved hobbies, I'm not even teaching myself guitar from a book. In fact, that anger actually makes it feel impossible for me to do anything creative at all. And I don't mean just that it feels impossible in that moment, I mean it feels impossible forever and ever and then longer still.

This psychological equivalent of an adrenaline-junkie riding "It's A Small, Small World" at Disneyland only compounds on itself, particularly if I'm not feeling very productive in other arenas of my life. So what then?

Where goes the mojo and whence does it return? That's not a set of questions I can actually answer clearly, even for myself. However, now at the tail end of what has been one of my most creatively productively weeks in many months, I know one thing for certain.

I know that I cannot return to creative productivity until I stop being angry at myself for not being creatively productive. Is that a teleological mind-feck or what?

It might be tough to figure; but, it's the truth. As long as I'm busy thinking mean-spirited and straight-up mean things to myself about myself and anything I create in any medium, there's no chance that I'm going to remember how I feel when I sew or draw or paint or knit. And, for me, the impetus behind the urge to create is that feeling - one of serenity, fun and balance. Because when I am being creative, I'm too busy feeling calm and happy to get upset with myself.

And, in that spirit of calm & happy and back to creative pursuits, I present Ali's new pillow.

A stunning combination of red chinoiserie and purple Woodcut from the new Joel Dewberry line, Heirloom. Let's take a closer look:

Here we have a detail image that also shows the linen backside with co-ordinating Heirloom bias edging on the envelope pocket. If I am not mistaken, these are cell phone photos and thus I owe you gentle readers an apology for their sub-standard appearances. However, before I do that, here's one more for good measure:

That's right, it's Jack & his pal Weezer posing so sweetly by the roofing sample cards at the country home of our generous friend & host, also known as the human owned by Weezer.

With that, then, I bid you sincere apologies for posting cell phone photos (and 3 of them at that!) and also I bid you not to stray too far from these scintillating pages as I hope to remedy my camera situation and thus post about things I haven't finished. Remember friends, progress is the first step of production. More anon.

 

 

 

Are you missing any fabric or thread?

 

Have you noticed a large orange tabby drooling on & kneading your newly-purchased fabric? Possibly licking it as well?

When you take fabric from the dryer, do pieces disappear?

Trimming threads from freshly-washed fabric usually results in a pile of tangled threads. Do yours seem to evaporate?

If so, you may be the latest victim of FabriKat. He has a passion for threads and he'll get them any way he can. It's another sad story of unchecked addiction leading to a life in the criminal underworld of Ali's apartment.

So, if you see this kitty looking shifty-eyed and you have fabric or threads lying around, act quickly, because his strike is faster than lightning. Next thing you know, you'll find yourself chasing his royal tabbyness around the apartment trying (vainly) to retrieve your fabric and thread before he eats them whole.  No one wants a visit to the emergency vet.

 

PS: Regular blogging will now resume, medical issues on any given day notwithstanding. Sorry for the lengthy interruption. Ali has been up to much sewing and I've done some stuff too - probably, if I look around.

Ali is the hunter AND gatherer for this blog!

(Jack is neither a hunter nor gatherer. He naps, belly-up with his paws like a little bunny.)

It's all over the crafty blogs, the Denyse Schmidt fabric line for Joann's Fabrics. Ali is out buying a stock of selected favorites at the Bay Area Joann's Superstore. So if you're out 'Frisco way and wondering where to go for a DS Quilts fabric hit, Colma is your destination.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, also known as the 1-bedroom apartment I live in, I'm still under quasi-medical house arrest, so I live vicariously through Ali's adventures in the world beyond the windows. I do also live vicariously through my back neighbors and their lively brunch on the deck this morning. It's kinda socializing if you can hear the conversation's highs and low like a sonata of human voices. I'm calling it proximal socializing - I'm near people who are actually socializing, ergo.... you get the idea.

Anyway, it's been a tough week here at the HQ of medical house arrest but not all boring. Sewing is challenging when sitting up for longish periods of time causes searing head pain, but knitting - well there's been knitting and lots of planning and lots of dog-themed activities. For example, the photo above shows the apartment's carrot stash. Said stash belongs to Jack (lately called Boo-dog).

Jack loves his carrots. See him chomp away? Chomp, chomp, chomp. What Jack doesn't know is that he's on a diet as per the vet's instruction that being slightly underweight will be better for his ailing left hip. So carrots are not only his chomping treat; they are also good for him. (Chomping is hard to photograph without blurring; it's a vigorous activity.)

On the knitting front, I'm nearly finishing with the darning of Steve's Bolivian sweater. Every time I think I've gotten all the holes, one more shows up. Occasionally I think I should have simply grafted an entirely new sweater to the hull of the old one, rather than graft all these mini patches on. On the plus side, I'm getting better at this rarely-called-upon skill and might start going around secretly putting holes in people's knitwear solely to offer my services as a wool grafter.

Next up is this little pink ditty. It's the February Baby Sweater from the incomparable Elizabeth Zimmerman. I started this a while ago (as in years I think) for a baby that was supposed to be due in February. That ship sailed and said baby is no longer a baby. But, the awesome thing about babies is that more show up if you're patient. So I finished this little sweater and it's been waiting for a baby to fill it. Lo and behold, I recently heard of just the baby for it.

The colors of the yarn are proving difficult to catch with my camera. In the picture above, the pale pink is too pale and yet the green is a bit too neon. The button photos are closer to the actual.

I have to give the little sweater a wash and a blocking. Then the last step will be sewing on the buttons. I offer these options for you to vote on. Which combination do you prefer? 

So, Al (and all our readers), tell me which ones you prefer. The green and white flower buttons with the little gold dots are new. The dome ones and the flatter flowers are vintage. The metal bits on the flat, white flowers are because I pulled them hastily off their paper. Once sewn on they'd show a little pink yarn.

Last but not least, Ali & I are taking the Naked Bed Challenge (see right sidebar for official badge). We pledge to make queen-sized quilt tops for our own beds. I'm most likely going to tackle a version of Denyse Schmidt's Proverbial Quilt using some of my brother's poetry. When I last spoke of this pledge to Ali, she sounded unsure of the prospect. But readers!, I know you can cheer Ali on.

What is Amy doing?

So, while you were away for work, I got put on "medical house arrest" due to chronically low blood pressure. One might wonder, how I'm passing my time? Here's a peek.

I took this photo by holding the camera above my head and pointing down. It shows that I'm knitting - only a few more holes to darn in our friend's Bolivian sweater. (I'll post an FO when I'm done.) And, that big black area to my left in the photo? That would be Jack doing his thing, maximizing his contact ratio. Here's a wider view for more detail:

So this photo shows more fully what I've been doing. The knitting is there; the dog is more clearly evident and it shows how I've been loafing around in yoga pants and sweatshirts. Also, grabbing sunshine rays whenever they come through my windows.

And, Ali, for your pleasure, you can see, bunched up at the foot of my bed, my duvet in its new(ish) cover with the beautiful, albeit subdued in color peacocks with blue flowers. You can also catch a peek of my knitting stash shelving with the books across the bottom and the baskets of yarn.

Most importantly, you can see my laptop on my bed. Why is this important? Well, it's been my main link to the outside world while I'm here under "medical house arrest" - which means I'm only supposed to go out for doctors' appointments until I can see a specialist in fainting on Tuesday.

So here are a bunch of annotated links that have been keeping me amused and which, perhaps, you might also enjoy....

Baby Bald Eagles on a live webcam! So this is a link to an organization called Raptor Resource and all their webcams. You'll see all their "nest cams" on the left sidebar, but the one to watch is the Decorah Eagles. There are three baby eagles, one of whom just hatched on the sixth! You can tell which one because it's a little smaller than the others.

Despite my INSANE vigilance to this webcam (I've been leaving it up and on as I did things like knit in the sunbeams shining on my bed), I missed this hatching. I must have been at a doctor's appointment. (Grrrrr) Thankfully the kind people who are behind this camera saved the tape of the third hatchling and turned it into a youtube movie which you can access very easily from a link in that sidebar.

Since you are on the West Coast, I want to remind you that these eagles live in Iowa and while there is some sort of dim lighting for nightviewing of the Eagles' aerie, daytime action is WAY cooler.

Also, I have been spending some time on Flickr and you might want to see the new additions I made to our favorites there. I went through a real hexagons thing. Anyway I added heaps.

Okay, now, may I suggest for your listening pleasure that you consult the website and podcast of the radio program called Radiolab. This show is produced here in my (current) hometown NYC at the local NPR-affiliate, WNYC. It's a great show. The two guys on it look into various themes with some stories. The homepage will give you access to recent episodes and then they also make "shorts" that never go on the air.

Knowing you, I strongly recommend listening to the episode I was likely listening to when I took the above photos. It's called "Animal Minds" and it looks into empathic connections across species, specifically humans & other mammals. There's a follow-up short about a leopard seal that I also highly recommend. Call me if you don't really know how to subscribe to podcasts. I listened to both pieces twice yesterday. And, I'm listening to a different podcasted episode even now as I type!

Now here's two links to other people's blog posts. First a tutorial posted on the blog Cluck Cluck Sew. It's to make a "Sprocket Pillow". I'm really liking it; it's like a pillow yet a stuffed animal. I'd have a photo here except I've been too ill to sew and I haven't asked for permission, yet I want to send you this post. So just check the link.

Here's another link to a blog post that I find fascinating. It's an explanation of the British "carboot sale" from the British blogger verykerryberry. My question to you is why aren't these going on in the US? And, given that they aren't, why can't we get together on weekends and look at other people's stuff, particularly their old sewing-related cast-offs? (Distance apart not-withstanding)

Okay, this post is too "text heavy" but I haven't been doing much that's photo worthy lately (as the above photos attest). However, I have another post in the wings about how we're going to take the Naked Bed challenge!

NYC Metro Modern Quilting Guilt Meeting!

Remember when you sent me this picture of the block you made from the fancy Italian upholstery remnants you snagged fresh out of the snooty furniture store's dumpster? And, how it was to help me get motivated to make my stripe blocks for the next NYC Modern Quilt Guild meeting? Well, it worked; it just took about 3.5 weeks to do so.

Here are my finished blocks all squared up. They don't really look square, but they are. I used the wonky piecing method from the Improv Patchwork workshop I went to at Denyse Schmidt's studio last year. I cut my solids and my black pin-stripe fabric into random strip sizes and then picked randomly from piles as I sewed pieces together. Obviously I didn't mix my solids. They're a bit wacky, but very much me. So I finished them on Friday afternoon and went to my first guild meeting the next morning.

It was great. Lots of interesting people with various and interesting ideas about quilting, fabric, art, craft, handwork, machines -- you name it. Here are some of the amazing pieces from the show and tell portion of the meeting:

Ever since I stopped teaching, I've become awful at remembering people's names. So sadly, I can't remember the name of the woman who made this amazing quilt top, but I will try to figure it out from the guild website. The colored stripes are parts of her deceased grandfathers' ties. Isn't it awesome? Apparently both of her grandfathers died the same summer and she took all their ties and made pillows for many of her relatives. But the two dapper gentlemen had such tie collections that she had lots of left-overs and decided to make them into this quilt to keep for herself.

I don't know if you remember, but when my mom's dad died I took a bunch of his ties and make a pillow cover that is unfortunately still in the UFO box. Now that I see her masterpiece, I wish I'd taken all my Poppy's ties. He had so freaking many.

Another quilttop to blow your mind with inspiration:

As the only man at the group and one who is very quick with the witty comments, this quilttop is one I can credit. The man at left is David and he was getting frustrated with his bags of scraps so he started sewing them into blocks (see the sets of 4 at the center of each of the larger, sashed squares. He told us he now has tons and decided to make them into a quilt top. So then he added the triangles and sewed a group together - voila. I'm not sure if he intends to add more or not. But it's inspiring to see what he designed with his "left-overs".

This group also does round-robin quilt tops which means that someone might bring something they feel is partially finished and hand it off to another person who adds to it. There were 3 such quilttops at the meeting. Here's my favorite (a.k.a. the one I have a decent photo of):

So the bottom portion was done by David and then the starburst-sort of top portion was added by a second person. I can see her face in my mind very clearly (she's behind the quilttop in the photo) but I can't remember her name. I will scour the guild's website and see if I can figure it out. She said that David's piece reminded her of stained glass so she wanted to make the starburst at the top. It was her first go at large-scale paper-piecing which she said was a pain in the neck but look at the result, so worth it.

She & David both offered it up to whomever wanted to next add on but the group consensus was that it was complete so instead another member offered to quilt it. It really was pretty.

The stripe blocks were for the group quilt; apparently there's one for every meeting. They get assembled (by various volunteers) and quilted and bound (also by member volunteers). Here are all the contributed stripe blocks assembled randomly on the floor.

See if you can find mine. After lunch break/ during lunch break, there was much re-arranging of blocks into varying arrangements of attraction. It's really not so easy to arrange such disparate blocks into a visually pleasing set-up. Ultimately some solids were introduced to break up the stripes. If you looked at it for too long, you could get quite dizzy. 

The quilt you can see to the left is a completed (quilted, bound, etc) group quilt from an earlier meeting.  The plan is for a group show sometime in the fall at which all the group quilts will be on display and also each member can submit one small quilt (15" x 20" - a doll quilt really) to be displayed as well. I said I would contribute one. There's plenty of time.

It was a fun morning/afternoon and I'm glad I went. You should give your chapter a try when your schedule allows. I came home brimming with energy to sew lots of things immediately. I did a little sewing but then started to feel ill and I've been sick every since. You might think that being sick and sticking close to bed and in my apartment would make it more likely for me to write posts for you, but today is the first day my eyes can stand the light of the computer screen.

And since no post is truly complete without a picutre of an animal.... I give you a photo you sent me of Boocat since I know you're away on a business trip and probably missing him a lot.

Always on the look-out for threads to nom. Green-eyed beauty that he is. More anon.

Yarn Along....a day late

Ali, today I'm linking up to Ginny's blog small things and participating in her weekly series, Yarn Along. Since you're not (YET) a knitter, I'll explain. The series is a photo of one's current knitting project & one's current reading material. See mine here.

So here's my current (main) knitting project and my current two reading things. I'm darning our mutual friend's beloved sweater from his time in Bolivia . HIs sweater was viciously attacked by moths. I had patched it with felted pieces of another felted sweater, but those patches had no stretch at all. And, since those vicious moths did their chomping mostly in the body of the sweater, I decided to find another way to repair it, so I carefully clipped my stitched patches (except at the elbows). I'll do a post with more pictures to explain what I'm doing, but suffice to say for now that this is my current knitting project.

As for reading, I'm catching up on the little pile of New York Times' Sunday Book Reviews and, on the bus, I'm reading a novel by Julia Glass I See You Everywhere. I started it yesterday so I'll let you know how it is when I'm a little further along.

More anon. Have a great day. (It's cold & raining here, but at least it's not the "wintery mix" that the meterologist on the radio last night predicted. Anything is preferable to wintery mix - even hail or blizzard.

Coaster-mania

This post is devoted to the exploration and explication of Ali's obsession with coaster-making. Coasters were Ali's gateway back into the world of sewing. In high school, for amusing diversion, Ali worked on a blue velvet, strapless dress with a boned bodice. It helped that her mother knew her way around a sewing machine. But my point is that Ali has a history with sewing at an advanced level (though she might pipe up here to say that she never actually finished said dress - but I was impressed with even the idea).

Anyway, when Ali decided it was time to get back to sewing and to give quilting a try, she pulled out her giant old Singer and a copy of Joelle Hoversen's Last-Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts and decided that the "quilted coasters" project was the one to cut her teeth on.

When Ali decides she's going to do something and master it, there's no stopping her. She will work it and work it, until it is perfect. And that's perfect as per Ali's definition; none of my namby-pamby "good enough" stuff.

So Ali worked the Singer & the coaster production. She greatly admired the even rectangular spiral quilting on the coasters shown on the glossy pages of the beautiful book. But this was Ali's very first attempt at any kind of free-motion quilting. Early attempts came out too "wonky" for Ali's ideal. In fact, the old Singer proved so inept for the job of free-motion quilting, that Ali had to up-grade her machine level.

Back in December, I convinced Ali to pull out all the coasters she had that were in-progress. Pictured here is the assembly line of the partially complete coasters that Ali started ironing so that she could finish them. There's no fooling around here. If you're going to make something, make it right and make it repeatedly until you get it right -- that's about how to sum up Ali's coastery devotion.

However, I started to wonder about whether Ali's devotion to the science & art of coaster production hadn't shifted subtly into a coaster-mania whereby everything she made (see earlier posts on her cross-stitching) got turned into a coaster. Basically, everyone Ali knows has some coasters. Her own tables & counters were runnething over with coasters.

Thus, my parting comment to Ali at the end of my visit last year was "no more coasters." I told Ali it was time to move on, she had mastered the coaster - moved beyond the guidelines of the project she originally was doing. I told Ali that 2010 was perhaps the year of the coaster, but that 2011 needed to be the year of the non-coaster.

Sadly, last weekend, after the rousing victory of making her nine-patch into a little pillow rather than another coaster, Ali relapsed into the coaster-making abyss.

Above are 6 of the coasters Ali worked on last Saturday. Ali's coasters have now become samples of various free-motion quilting patterns. Here's a close-up of her practice pebble-stitching on some lovely Castle Peeps.

And, another shot of last weekend's coaster-age, in the beautiful and perfectly-sized green dish.

As you can see, Ali's skills are ready to move past the coaster level. Al - it's time to go to the big game: the Mug Rug. And, luckily enough, there is a Mug Rug Madness going on in the blogosphere. The link above is to the summary page (updated daily) for the many tutorials & informative posts on the whats and whys of mug rugs; the madness is hosted by  the awesome blogger behind two more seconds.

So, Ali, it's time to protect furniture everywhere not just from a glass - oh no - it's time to protect everyone's furniture from both their mugs of hot beverage & the crumbs of their snacks. Go forth, young woman, and make ye some mug rugs!

Finally, for everyone who's been wondering what Jack's doing. Here's a photo. I actually took this particular photo two weekends ago; however, there is no need to take a new photo today since he is doing this EXACT same thing right now. It's like I'm live blogging here - but only about my dog.

What have you sewn for me lately?

Ali, the blog has been wondering what we're up to since I haven't been telling it anything in many days. Sorry, blog, I haven't always been feeling so well. But, here we have real live sewing content from both Ali & myself! Shocking, but so true...

A while back, Jenny from Cut.Sew.Iron.Repeat., put out a request for red cross blocks for a quilt she's assembling as a raffle item for an AIDS benefit event. These are the blocks I sent in - cut, sewn, but, obviously, not really ironed all that well. Jenny has made a terrific layout of all the blocks she received. Ali, if you're feeling bored at work, yet seeking a brainless challenge, you can check out her final layout and play Where's Waldo for my blocks. 

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Ali used some of her sewing time this weekend to turn her 9-patch into a non-coaster item. I present to you the little 9-patch pillow.

It's completely adorable, if I do say so myself. (Not that I made it, but, you know Al, I'm proud you resisted the coaster urge -- at least for one evening. Prepare yourselves, dear readers, as later this past weekend, Ali succumbed to her coastery ways, but that's for another post.)

Also, note the robust health of Ali's jade plant. Perhaps another day (when the sky isn't completely freaking gray here) I will photograph my jade plants for comparison. They are not looking nearly as robust. Indeed I might have to have my houseplants as the next subject for our series on "Keeping it Real". Exciting, I know.

Finally, I finished the pillow part of the cross-stitched anti-smoking message I worked on at Cross-Stitch-a-Palooza.

I was chasing the setting sunlight around my apartment to take this picture since I finished the pillow about twenty minutes before I was to give it to its intended. It's nearly impossible to tell here, but I the dark red is actually a flange around the central panel. I had a vague memory of reading this tutorial from Julie at Jaybird Quilts; but, rather than take the time to look it up and follow, I just winged it. It worked out fine and gives some texture to the otherwise rather plain pillow.

As per your fine suggestion, Ali, I tried to "jazz it up" a bit with the back. It's a simple closure with a flap. Note that normally on a rectangular pillow, one would make the shorter end of the flap closure on the outside - just for ease of taking the cover on & off. I didn't do that - though I did think about it and, I have to admit, I did not realize what I had done until I was trying to cram the pillow inside. The other "design" element visible (sort of) in this photo is that I did 5 rows of stitching on the edge of the flap to make it "interesting".

That provides a lovely transition to enumerate what I learned about my sewing self in the course of putting this pillow together. Some of these things are already well-known to myself (and to you too Ali) and are unlikely to change, but perhaps other lessons will be learned; it's hard to know for sure.

I don't enjoy the measuring the cutting portion of any sewing project. I embrace "wonky" because the word is an apt description of myself. Even when I make a big effort to measure properly, etc, I often end up with things not quite right. And, yes, sewing perfectionists, I do measure twice, cut once. It's just that if you measure incorrectly twice, it doesn't matter once it's cut.

So the front of this pillow ended up 1 inch too short and I had to cut an additional strip of black fabric and add it to the bottom. I tried to photograph that, but given that it's black & I had dwindling natural light, the photos really didn't come out.

Another lesson is more easily captured on film here:

Yea, the light is crap, but it was a setting sun and I took this picture at my sewing machine. See those bits that look like staples? Those are the pins that I put to keep the flap on the back closed while I sewing the front & back together. So, when it came time to turn the pillow right-side out, the pins were damn near impossible to remove. In fact, I advise anyone who wants to prick the crud out of their finger tips to do this every time they sew an envelope backed pillow. It took me an embarrassing amount of time to get these out.

This would be no big deal except I took the excellent beginning sewing class at Purl when none other than Liesl Gibson was teaching it and she taught us how to do this properly (ie, not so that you couldn't remove your pins after sewing). And, not only that, but I took the class TWICE!

True this is no disaster and the pillow was well-received by its intended. She laughed and hugged it & declared it her favorite pillow ever. Perfect!

Finally, no post would be complete without an animal pic. Here's Boo still loving that box Ali's birthday present came in, even though Ali has received larger boxes since and those larger boxes have been offered to the Boocat.

 

Fear not dog-loving readers, Jack is alive and well - and currently barking VERY LOUDLY - and he will grace the next post, promise.

Ali's weekend update (now on Tuesday)

By popular demand, we are now having a weekly (theoretically) post in which we get updates from the West coast on weekends, when Ali's job isn't taking up as much of her daylit hours. Since I'm still the writer on this here blog, you get Ali's update & photos but using my words. Thus, it will even be news to Ali! Isn't that clever?

First, Ali did indeed remember the name of the woman who made her beautiful terrarium. It is none other than Chandra Abel. She is a floral designer in Southern CA and her website shows her amazing skills with all kinds of flora. If you look here, you can see beautiful photos of various terraria she has done. She doesn't seem to be selling them online, so if you want one, you'll just have to come to a West coast Renegade to get one.

Ali is truly in love with hers. She reports that the plants are growing and it still looks great. She has trouble restraining herself around it. She wants to do more to take care of it or tend to it, but it simply doesn't need anything. Despite the photo above, the Boo generally doesn't bother it and Ali is chomping at the bit to buy another one at the next SF Renegade.

 

Second, Ali explained the smoke detector problems she has beeng facing in her apartment. In the above photo, she kindly labeled the shoe box she uses to cover her smoke detector & gave the short answer to why that shoe box has to be there. Ali's smoke detector is so sensitive that it reacts to boiling water. Ali admits that at first, it was causing her such agita that she had to pull it from the wall. And, that's how she discovered it was wired in. No battery screech issues there! But the cunning electrical design made it very difficult to live with. So Ali covered up the pulled-out-of-the-wall and insanely sensitive unit with a shoe box.

Recently Ali got someone to come fix the smoke detector. This person was able to put it back in the wall, wires and everything. However, he also shared the somewhat distressing news that there was no fix to the mechanism's sensitivity. In fact, everyone in the building had smiliar problems. His suggestion was to buy a cover which he said was available at hardware stores.

Ali told me she finds this absurd. Why make something so sensitive that you have to cover it, thereby rendering it perhaps not as helpful as it could be were it simply not reactive to steam. In any case, Ali opted for the above solution when cooking, though she did write on the box purely for our readers' edification.

Ali has been stitching up a mini storm out there in SF. She has encouraged me to make better use of my cell phone's headset such that I can stitch while having delightful conversations with her. In fact, the above heart was done while talking to me. The photo is slightly overexposed, but its value lies in the way the variegation of the Weeks Dye Works floss shows in the heart. Ali and I both adore using the Weeks flosses and we harbor a secret (not anymore) dream of going to visit the dye works and learning their over-dying art. I believe that the floss Ali used for the heart above and the one below is called "Louisiana hot sauce" and runs from dark red through orange with some pops of magenta.

Above is yet another heart Ali stitched while on the phone with me. In fact she did this one on Saturday while we were chatting (and I was collecting information for her weekend update too). I warned Ali that she needs to move away from the coaster as a final product and so instead, she turned her pretty heart into a 9-patch block. Here's the entire block:

Ta-da! It's not a coaster. It may end up as a coaster for a giant or it may end up part of some larger patchwork project. Its fate is unknown for now. But Ali's pleased with its non-coaster-ness and with her fussy cut of the matryoshka dolls too. Both heart designs can be found in that most delightful of books A Rainbow of Stitches.

And, finally, Ali received her birthday present. What did Boo think?

He's so very happy that I remembered to include a box for him. 

Button nerds unite!

For many years now, I've been an avid collector of vintage (and not-so-vintage) buttons. Actually my button obsession began before I even started sewing. I was already a knitter, but if I were being honest with myself at the time, I would have admitted that my button-mania had nothing to do with the number of buttons I needed (or might ever need) to complete a sweater.

I think that my Nana (maternal grandmother) can be credited with giving me an eye for buttons. She kept a terrific button box and let my sister & I make necklaces from her stash when we were kids. Years later, at a New Year's Eve party during high school at Ali & my mutual friend, Melissa's house, Ali showed up with her mom's button box & a lot of dried pasta. The plan was to make New Year's Necklaces! (Ali, you remember this, right? Senior year in high school? Part of New Year's Eve spent coloring dried pasta with markers? Ring any bells? - and for any non-Ali readers out there, you should know we were completely sober and thrilled that Ali brought a craft project to the party.) Anyhow, that night I made a button necklace from Ali's mom's box and I took that necklace to college & still have the buttons from it today. Ahhh, memories.

So anyway, I'm working diligently on turning Ali into a vintage button  hoarder collector and earlier today mailed (finally) her "starter kit" of buttons from my absurdly vast collection. Since I neglected to take a picture of it before I sent it to her, perhaps she will oblige when she receives it. I believe strongly in the use of clear glass jars for organizing and displaying one's buttons, especially the empty jars from Bonne Maman jam so that's what your "starter kit" is coming in, Al. My collection has mostly out-grown the jam jars, though I still use several; I've had to graduate to large class jars suitable for the canning of VAST amounts of jam. Still, it makes me happy, just to look at my jars. You aren't going to see my full collection today because my apartment is a mess and I'm a bit pressed for time so I can't clear the right space for a good picture. But soon my buttons will move to their new shelves and I will share a photo that will make me glad I have that deadbolt on my front door because Ali, you are going to want to come and snatch those babies right up.

Instead, you get to see the TREASURES I got when I bought a pound of buttons from  lil fish studios' button destash in her etsy shop. I have bought so many random boxes, tins, jars & bags of buttons on ebay, etsy and in various junk or vintage shops, I couldn't even begin to count. Sorting through buttons makes me happy. It's nerdish & perhaps down-right odd of me, but it's true. At times when I've been bed-ridden ill, sorting buttons on a tray has been my favorite way to pass time. It's so very Montessori of me, but I just love to sort them by color, shape, size - you name it.

Without further ado, here are the pictures I took recently (on a rainy day because I got impatient waiting for the sun) of my latest haul....

Above are the buttons in my one-pound bag that was artfully topped with the sweet button flower that's in the lower left corner of the picture. This is not a skimpy pound; that is for certain.

These are my favorite of the many large (think tres chic wool coats from 1968 and earlier) buttons in my pound of surprise. The photo doesn't so them justice. The one below the top red button has a mother-of-pearl center that is to die for. And, the one near the center of the photo has a faux-tortoise strip that is quite marvelous.

Not to be out-done, here are my favorites in the medium category from my pound of fun. Once again my photography skills are not doing my subjects justice, but you get an idea of the wide array of styles and the terrific colors. I hope I'm not making you too jealous.

Last, but certainly not least are these, my favorites of the small buttons. The variety of materials in this pound is just awesome - a variety of plastics, glass, metal, some wood. I have a real weakness for small-to-tiny white mother-of-pearl/ shell buttons. I'm hoarding them up for a project I have imagined will be stunning (if I ever get around to trying it out). The clear glass buttons in the foreground of the photo are difficult to see but they are carved with great geometric shapes.

And, the winners (and candidates for best-in-show) of the three categories are these buttons below - my all-around favorites.

Indulge me if you will (as if you have any choice, Ali). This photo is particularly poor but I had to show my favorites and now I have to tell you about them, even the two that you can't really see well. At center we have a wonderfully chunky, creamy yellow-white button that makes me so happy to look at. I don't need fancy in a button, people, just a certain je-ne-sais-quoi and this lovely lady has it.

Just above and to her right is a marvelous button that I think might be bakelite even. It's an angled tube with the front facet carved to have a vertical raised piece. Below him is a petite metal-edged mother-of-pearl shank button. You can't see it (but I can because it's my button) but the metal edge has a delicate pattern of lines carved in it around the button.

The trio of wee buttons in the foreground are all made of glass. The one you really can't see is a multi-faceted black shank button and the red and green ones I think speak for themselves. Finally, the other button you can't see well, but oh if you could, you'd steal it! This is a dark green plastic button with a basketweave pattern across the center and the sides - well you can see the top edge and that same pattern is repeated at the bottom.

Ali, I'm sure I'm embarrassing you with this level of detail about buttons I bought. Well, just you wait until I get my button collection up on their new shelf - then there will be another button post and it might be even worse. Every button has a story to tell and you know how I like to tell stories..... a woman of few words, I am not.

But, the fun doesn't end here.... ohhhh no! "Why not?" you ask. Well, because I also bought a small bag of just green buttons from lil fish studios' destash etsy shop. Intrigued? I thought you might be. Here they are all heaped up together:

Are you falling deeply in love with them, Ali? You really should. This batch of greens has the same variety of materials - glass, several types of plastic and metal as the big pounder bag. See below my favorites culled from this collection (it was hard to limit myself, but I managed).

Aren't they marvelous? Note the metal one just right of center in the photo; it's an old Girl Scout button (eek! so exciting!). And that one in the upper left? I've named it "the olive button" both for color and shape (it was tough to balance). Geometrics, florals - they are all terrific.

I bet you're very excited about buttons now, right Ali? Well, there don't seem to be more bags of buttons for sale in the lil fish studios destash shop, but I'm going to convo her and see if maybe she would make one up so I can send a bag for you to sort through. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get you as addicted to vintage buttons as you've gotten me addicted to cross-stitch and its other embroidery friends.