mmm.... coffee.....

now i go out alone if i go out at all

done!  i worked through a migraine yesterday afternoon to hand-stitch the binding down on the wedding ring quilt.  it's actually my favorite part (& it helped to distract me from the pain) i enjoy the methodical & meticulous blind stitch & pride myself on making it disappear.  i do not recommend making your quilt top out of silk dupioni.  seriously.  i did my best with it - zigzagged the binding on & lined the binding itself with interfacing.  i'm confident in my work, i'm not as confident in the strength of the silk itself.  it's well-made, but i didn't go too crazy with it.  in book repair i learned that it's important that your repairs are not stronger than the book itself, otherwise it will tear itself apart.  the same goes for sewing.  we have some really old family quilts & the ones that are made out of a mix of clothing scraps have ripped themselves apart because some fabrics are stronger than others.  this is why i enjoy making "art quilts" that aren't going to be used or washed, i can mix & match & not worry about wearability!

i've been meaning to make myself some little felt pincushions for a while now & finally stitched a few last night.  i seem to have lost my good pins, i'm hoping they'll show up now that i have these adorable pincushions to stick them in...  i'm going to need them since i got into the Foundry Artists Sale in addition to the Bazaar Bizarre Boston & the RISD Alumni Sale!  so i'm basically not allowed to leave the house for the next 4 months.

pretty much as good as two or three cups of that other coffee

my 3-day weekend (mostly) in photos:

only $7 at the farmer's market saturday morning


i finished the hand-work on stacey's quilt & am now tackling the binding


drinks & board games & music with two friends


poppy seed chiffon cake with lemon glaze


it's a shame i didn't take a photo of the finished cake - i baked it in a Williams-Sonoma's bundt pan shaped like a rose. (oh my, when did they come out with that sandcastle pan?!)  it was for our block party which i look forward to all year.  we got rained out on sunday & had to have it on monday when the weather was lovely.  it was a lot quieter this year & ended rather early, but it was still quite fun to reconnect with my neighbors & meet a few new folks, too.

my roommate has gone home for a couple weeks which means i have no excuses to keep me from finally finishing cleaning my studio.  tonight i will pull out everything i hastily shoved in there & make a huge mess of the kitchen, mwhahaha!  then i will have the space to finish the binding on stacey's quilt & then slowly reorganize everything.  how long have i been saying that?  shhh.

well, one of us smells like a tart's handkerchief

you know those little italian ices that come with a flat wooden spoon?  and if you were really careful you could seperate it from the sides, flip it over & eat the ice crystal bottom?  that's my favorite part.  i always turned mine over & ate the bottom first.  last night i ate Ciao Bella blood orange sorbet & when i opened it there were ice crystals on top!  mmm-mmm.

it may not be a nice holiday to celebrate (those of you not living in RI are probably thinking what holiday?) but i had a lovely day off from work yesterday.  i have a new secret project that's been distracting me lately - cutting up old t-shirts & resewing them into cute new tees.  the first one was kind of wonky, but the second one is quite wearable...  i spent most of my afternoon & evening hand-quilting a small quilt for someone.  it's a scrappy appliqued double-wedding ring & after sewing around the rings, i'm quilting various little circles all over.  i like how it's coming out, but the silk is tricky to work with since it keeps shifting around.  also my fingers are getting rather sore because my quilting technique is terrible!  i'm still really happy with it, though, & i think the woman it's for will like it, too.

watch the people right outside my window

(aside from being woken up early by my neighbor's dog) the past few mornings have been lovely.  i made incredibly delicious coffee with the french press & sat by myself on the porch.  maybe i worked on the crossword, maybe i just stared into space...  i also discovered that, despite my talent for killing even  spider plants, one of the mysterious green plants is having babies!
 
i stayed up rather late last night making this 10x17" quilt for Chris, one of the guys that's been working with me this summer.  i went for my blue fabric & found this one piece of batik that was just the right blue with some green in it & well, here:

i quilted it sparingly - just a few swirls spilling over onto the green.  i even signed this one, i always write my name & the date on the stretcher bars, but i embroidered a little e. on the quilt itself.  i'm really happy with it, even though it came together really fast & was given away so suddenly.

i spent some time watching julie work on a new quilt that i had bought her some fabric for & it inspired me to use a few of my sillier fabrics, not just the batiks & asian style prints.  like that spotted one that also cuts ups the middle...  it seemed just right.

i rode my bicycle past your window last night

there's where i spent all of my mom's money: the Busy Thimble's booth (from Litchfield, ME) my source for gorgeous brown & pink fabrics.  and where i spent all of my money: Quilter's Express to Japan (Lewisburg, PA) i think i spent hours unfolding all the incredible japanese fabrics in Susan's booth!  photos of my fabrics coming soon, but i did make an album of all the quilt photos that i took at the Maine Quilt Show!  (it's just to the right on this page)  i included the quilter's name & dimensions of the quilt, if you have the booklet from the show you can look up each photo yourself because their title is "MSQ" then the # they were assigned.  perhaps when i have some time i'll add the titles...  sorry for the poor quality of some of them, they're meant more for my reference, but i thought some of you'd appreciate seeing them, too!

now you're older and i'm wiser, we design synthesizers

i'm not so sure this all needs an explanation...  it's maine.  and i love it.

on the shore path in Bar Harbor & across the new bridge from bucksport

my friend bob & his cabin & his beach & town band playing in bar harbor

inside On Board Fabrics & mary & my mom at 2 Cats for breakfast

mary & my mom before we left & julie showing my mom her lurid quilts that refused to be photographed clearly...  there's so much more, i'll be back soon with it - i have almost a hundred shots of quilts from the quilt show in Augusta & i still need to photograph the fabric i bought.  (besides the show, we went in about 7 different quilt shops around route 1!)  i didn't get any photos of mike & marsha, but i did get to visit with them & have some tasty Coastal Coffee, i have photos from the library picnic & swimming at art's on friday, a shot or two from patricia's bbq on saturday & tomorrow we're showing wonderful things from the collection to our students so i'll probably take more then...  wheee!

what we need more of is science

<-- tasty post-sale breakfast at the brickway with teresa followed by shopping & buying of silly shoes.  i fell asleep at 7pm after the alumni sale saturday & didn't wake up until 7:30am the next day!  it was actually a pleasantly un-stressful event, i was prepared & didn't stay up too late, just a little bit.  the day was fun & i did quite well.  those two jellyfish clutch purses didn't last long, i will definitely be making more of them.  i sold the green & purple quilt which made me very happy.  we had a gorgeous sunny spot for as long as the sun was out, my quilts looked like glass with the light behind them:

after all the crazy varied weather reports all week there was only a spatter of rain just at the end & i put my quilts away, but the vinyl didn't mind.  we were lucky to be between a very nice jewelry artist & the fabulous bob & ginny of Orange Bags!  bob can be seen lurking behind the tree by their table, i didn't get a picture, but they had some awesome new bags.

i need to find the proper venue for selling my quilts.  any suggestions?  the street sales aren't really appropriate, i find that either people are confused as to what they are, are completely in love with them, or are fascinated, but it a confused way.  and then there are the quilters who admire & respect them, but i understand why they don't buy!  i dream of having a gallery show of my quilts some day soon, i need to create more or track where they go so they can be borrowed back.  do you have one?  oh, that would be amazing!  a whole show of my quilts...  mm...

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.