mmm.... coffee.....

throw the baby out with the bathwater

i wore my artschooldropout necklace the other day.  i actually bought it for my sister around christmas, but ended up also getting her a damned dollie & a gimmick necklace (with matching cufflinks for jo) from johanna so i kept this for myself!  (sorry lee)  as planned, i've been doing my tiny sashiko quilting in gold thread, i carry the quilts around with me & take them out when ever i have a free moment.  much work is being done & much more will get done this weekend.  see:

i wanted to show you all how long my hair has gotten.  when i tell people i've grown my hair out they say, what? like 2 inches?  oh no, it's like a whole 6 inches now!  i really need to decide what i want to do with it, get it trimmed or something...  any ideas?  even though it's frustrating to have to "do" my hair in the morning, i'm not ready to cut it all off.  and yes, that is my real hair color, i had no idea it was so brown with only a little grey.  remember when i was tow-headed, mom?

would i be good enough to lean on

i just spent several cold rainy days happily cutting & sewing in my studio.  i *should* be making more vinyl merchandise, but, sorry, the little quilts were calling to me.  they are making me feel better, more inspired, they're so very expressive of my emotions & everything i've been dealing with.  and besides, there's always next weekend, right?  pshht, i've got plenty of time before the alumni sale, i just need to sleep less!  here is a little sneak peek of two small ones that i made, i want to do some gold stitching on the green one & i left a swath of black to do a bit of sashiko on the red one:

while hunting for sashiko patterns, i found this book & i so dearly want it!  i hadn't quite gotten into the whole japanese craft book coveting thing, i have a few ones i cherish, but i think this one may finally pull me in.  also totally cool, my sister sent me a set of incredible paper from design within reach, it's designed for wrapping, but instead imagine a gorgeous photo box or album lined with something so fun & graphic!

but my gosh, don't you just know it

not much time for chatting, i've got to finish getting the lab ready for whitney to bring her class by tonight!  i'll have to miss craft night, but it will be fun to show my space & my work to an inquisitive bunch of library students.  here is a little pick-me-up i made monday & finished last night, the quilt is about 14x20" and will probably be 9x14" after putting it on stretchers.  it says "you are here" in gold thread, i'm not sure why, but that's what it wanted:


i fell & skinned both my knees over a week ago & bruised them up pretty badly, it was pointed out to me that this quilt matches them: one knee is still purple & the other is quite green!  i was thinking of the springtime & tulips, but who knows what my subconcious decided...  the other inspiration for it comes from "letters to a young poet" by rainer marie rilke, i've had it a while & never gotten around to reading it until this weekend.  besides being a beautiful looking new edition, it is a truly wonderful read, i think the book was just waiting on the shelf for the time to be right.

i'm getting sick of janie's latest kick, she's headed for her own decline & fall

i know i promised pretty pictures of crafts last week & i'm sorry it took me so long, but hopefully this will make you happy!  i know it cheers me up immensely - things have been hard lately, i haven't been my upbeat & happy self.  but now that spring is here i've been doing more sewing & came up with some new cuff styles, too.  here is a sampling of the cuffs i will have at my many upcoming craft fairs.  (there are quite a few more that you've already seen like feathers, clouds, slugs, leaves, etc)

my friend scummy is in town & it was my roommate's birthday on friday so we had a little party full of tasty vegan food from Melanie's Vegan Eden.  i had no idea that vegan hot wings were so damn tasty.  i was especially excited to discover that they have the old arkanoid table from checker's pizza & it works & it's free & i'm still terrible at it!  i'll spare you the details of the night & just share these two photos i took with scummy on the left & mike on the right: