my sweet cherry blossom

In Loving Memory

2011-05-16T12:03:00.009-05:00

My beloved cat Emma died at the beginning of March which has made for a rather sad spring around here. We affectionately called her Big Kitty and she brought so much joy to our daily lives. She was a gorgeous blue eyed sweetie of a kitty and both Adrian and I miss her terribly. I knew from the minute I got her that she was going to be one of those once in a lifetime pets. The kind of pet that is so perfect and wonderful that you know without a doubt that he or she is going to be the best pet that you will ever own in your entire life. Emma was that pet for me. She was the sweetest most loving kitty and I was extremely devoted to her. Her loss has really devastated me, as I knew that it would. She got sick last spring and it has been a year of worry and bittersweet sadness knowing that she wasn't going to be with us for much longer. I tried to prepare for the grief, but in the end there was nothing to do but endure her loss the best that I could. Our house is terribly empty without her and for a while I really lost my vigor and joy for life. But spring has finally arrived here in Minnesota and the migrating birds are flying through and my garden is waking up and it's time to look forward to all of the good things that the future may bring.My sister Sandra sent me this lovely stone a couple a weeks ago. It weighed a ton! She had it made for my garden as something to remember Emma by. I put it by the pond, next to a lone viola plant that sprouted up this spring. I always plant violas in my yard, it's one of my favorite flowers. I am always amazed when one or two little plants pop up in the spring.

I have been bouncing around from one project to the next for the past few months. The first thing that I knit after Big Kitty died was this cute little bunny:My friend Carmelita came over the next week, took one look at Miss Bunny and fell in love. She was having a bad day so I sent the bunny home with her. I then knit a Mr. And Miss Bunny for myself. The pattern is from fuzzy mitten. I love her patterns.

I also knit and felted a few nests this spring. The pattern is by Marie Mayhew. I absolutely love her patterns and if you have been reading my blog for a while, you will recognize many of the things that I have made from her patterns.I also dusted off some New York Beauty quilt blocks that I had not worked on in years. I began this project several years ago and it was one of the projects that got set aside after I broke my neck. I wasn't able to sew for over a year and it's amazing how easy it is to forget about a project when it has been out of your mind for a year or two. My friend Robin was visiting in March and I pulled out the quilt blocks to show her. I decided that it was time to finish up the blocks and get them ready to make into a quilt. Once I got back into making the blocks, I remembered what a pain in the butt is is to make the New York Beauty blocks! They are all paper pieced and some of the arcs were really difficult to sew accurately. I got all of the blocks on my design wall, remade a couple of blocks that weren't working and fiddled around with the block placement for a week or so. Then I had to put it away because I had to get cracking on a graduation quilt that I am making for my high school pal Nicole.

So that's what I've been up to this spring. I did cast on a new sweater last week, I'll share it with you once it looks like more than an orchid colored blob of yarn. I'll have the graduation quilt done soon as well. Nicole wanted the quilt to be the colors of sunshine. I've had fun buying lots of yellow and orange fabrics, two colors I really don't quilt with too often. It's impossible to be sad when you are sewing with such vibrant and happy colors. Have a great day!

Birds

2011-03-02T10:27:00.008-06:00

Last winter I decided that I absolutely had to do something about my quilting fabric stash. It was in a terrible state of chaos that made it nearly impossible to start any new projects. So I hauled all of the wire drawers out to my living room, upended them on the carpet and began sorting and folding and organizing. It took three long days, but by the end of the process my fabric looked so pretty and organized that I dragged anyone who entered my house back to the sewing room to show it off. One of the best parts of the organization was rediscovering some of my favorite fabrics. I decided that I wanted to make a quick little project out of some of my favorite batiks and after some thought, settled on sewing up some little birds. Well, as some of you may know, when I really get into a project, I never end up making just a few of anything. The baskets of felted hearts, the crocheted acorns and the flock of felted sheep are all evidence of my ability to become just a tad obsessive with my craftery. This typically happens just with the small projects. I can't help it, I am enchanted by tiny, palm sized things... little dolls with littler clothes, tiny pebbles and sea shells, wee hand bound books, petite mobiles hanging from the door jams, small woven baskets. If you were to come to my house, you would discover a lot of tiny things. Anyway, getting back to the birds...before I knew it I had made a flock of them. I am pretty sure that there were over 30 of them. I thought to string them together with beads at some point, but for the time being they sat in my living room clustered in a basket. This fall about half of the flock got turned into ornaments and went up for sale at a holiday art show that I participate in. I also gave away some as gifts for Christmas. My flock had dwindled down to ten so I decided it was time string them together with beads in between. So I gathered up some beads and thread and got to work. I really love how it turned out. It hangs from the wooden archway between my living and dining room. Every time the heat turns on or someone walks past it, the birds twirl in the breeze. I love being reminded of the projects that I made with some of the fabrics. A summer shirt, a quilted handbag, a hand bound journal, a turtle quilt...Some of the fabrics have yet to be used for anything other than the birds. It's fun to think about what I might make with them in the future.

Igolochkoy

2011-02-28T12:33:00.013-06:00

Every so often I get a hankering for igolochkoy. It's an amazing dish made from dried beetle shells, horseradish and fermented brussell sprouts. It's great with ketchup. Nah, just kidding...igolochkoy is just the fancy pants Russian way to say punch needle embroidery.
I usually have a punch needle project going at any given time because it takes me forever to complete them. They begin as travel projects and it's anybody's guess as to when I finally finish them. They get tossed aside and forgotten once the vacation is over and rediscovered months later in my sewing room under a pile of other abandoned projects.
Anyway, I completed my most recent forgotten punch needle project over the weekend and I thought I'd share it on my blog. Ha! Like people actually read my blog. I know for a fact that my dearest loveliest mama is my one and only reader. So I'll just go ahead and address this post to her directly.
Hi Mom! How's the house search going? Make sure you get a house with a huge sewing room so that we have plenty of space to play when I come visit. Adrian says he will build you another water feature if you have room in your new backyard. Here's the my latest punch needle project: I started it last summer on a camping trip. It was when Sandra (my sister) came to visit and we went to Crescent Lake. Sandra started a punch needle project too which I know for a fact that she hasn't finished. She ran off with my Cameo punch needle tool and now it's lost forever in the wilds of Alaska. Mom, will you tell her to give it back?Here's a few other punch needle projects that I've done over the years...This one I started when Adrian and I were staying on Molokai one winter. The hibiscus flowers were blooming and there was a lime tree right outside our door.
I made this next one an a road trip one summer from Minnesota to Oregon. It was Adrian, Sandra and I on this journey. We camped along the way and got to experience a herd of bison take over our campsite in North Dakota.The heart reminds me to always love my sister even though she turns into Senorita Cranky Pants after a sweaty three day car ride. Being rudely denied a bathroom by an over zealous camp hostess at the John Day Recreation Area did not help the situation one bit.
I made this next project while I was in a neck brace and recuperating from a broken neck. Mom, when you came out to stay with us it was a life saver. Adrian always says what a relief it was to have someone help him change my diapers. HA! Just kidding, I didn't need diapers. But I certainly know how very lucky I am to not be in a wheelchair right now. DMC had just come out with their variegated embroidery floss. I love that stuff for punch needlework.
I've already shared this one, but here it is again. I made this one on another trip to Molokai. My sister Sandra was with us and she wanted it badly (she loves turtles). I gave it to her to remember the trip by and to ease the horrors of the mutant tropical rodent that was living in the kitchen of our rental house. I really liked this one, it was my first all original punch needle design, so made myself a replica. The one I have is way better that the one Sandra has. Anyway Mom, call me when you get back from Boise.
Love,
Pammie

Specs

2011-02-25T16:46:00.003-06:00

It was just a matter of time. My eyes have finally aged to the point where I need reading glasses. Particularly at night when I am embroidering or beading. I was having a really hard time threading my needle and I was starting to get headaches. Last weekend I was working on an embroidery project and I asked Adrian if I could borrow his reading glasses. Holy Cow! I couldn't believe how great it was to see my stitches close up. So I decided to take the plunge and go buy a pair of my own. Adrian frugally suggested the dollar store. Come on!! My eyes may be getting older, but I haven't lost my mind. All of my girlfriends have really funky and fashionable reading glasses and I wasn't going to settle for some ugly cheapo dollar store glasses.

Anyway, I was at The Three Kittens Needlework Store on Wednesday spending my grocery money on Caron Watercolors thread because it was on sale and what do you think I found in the front display case??? These fabulous turquoise reading glasses and they were BEDAZZLED!!!
Best of all they were marked down from 40 dollars to a mere seven bucks. Bazinga! I had found my reading glasses. I decided that they needed a fancy case and I knew just the fabric to use. My beloved Micheal Miller koi and lilypad bark cloth. So I cut a square along with two layers of batting and some pretty pink polka dot lining fabric and free motion quilted them together. Next I cut it into a pocket shape and added some pretty ric rac trim. I stitched it all together and added some green gros grain ribbon to bind the top and voila! I had a spiffy new glasses case. It is the perfect thing to hold my new fancy bedazzled eyeglasses.

Taste the Pretty

2011-02-18T14:41:00.004-06:00

I am just about finished up with all of my frivolous knitting projects and I am getting ready for something fun and new. We've had a bit of a thaw here in Minnesota this week which got me in the mood to work on something with spring colors. Also, decorating those little felted hearts totally made me hungry for an embroidery project. So I took a long look in my cigar box filled with my favorite size 8 perle cotton and all I saw was a bunch of dark saturated colors. Bummer. What to do...what to do...hmmm. I clearly had no choice but to take a little road trip to the nearest needlework store.
So off I went today to Three Kittens Needle Arts. In addition to being a great little yarn shop, it is also a fully stocked needlework shop. One of the best things about Three Kittens is their friendly and welcoming staff. There are a couple of other needlework shops in the area that are so snobby and high falutin' and I do not tolerate their snooty pretension very well.
Like most needlework shops, Three Kittens seems to cater to the needlepoint and cross stitch crowd. But there are oodles of wonderful threads for the non-canvas embroiderer like me. I went looking for DMC perle cotton and was delighted to find Finca perle cotton instead. I really love Finca thread. It's made in Valencia, Spain and it comes in so many lustrous colors. I was so happy to find a local source for it. I also snagged a couple of skeins of Caron Watercolors hand dyed thread. I am crazy about this stuff as well. I use it single ply and feels similar to size 5 perle cotton. Again, there are so many colors and I want one of each. Three Kittens was having a sale on the Watercolors for 2 bucks each which is a really great sale and it goes to the end of February. I'm heading back there next week with my grocery money to stock up.
Next week I'll share the embroidery projects that I am starting over the weekend. Here's a sneak peek at one of them and here is another. Have a happy weekend!

Croc-a-doodle-doo

2011-02-16T15:58:00.007-06:00

Almost every Friday I get together and knit with my pals Beth and Sue. We have the best time and sometimes even manage to knit while we are together. A couple of weeks ago Beth glanced down at my ginormous black Crocs and said: 'You know Pam, I think that there is a pattern for knitted Crocs liners out there somewhere'. Prior to this announcement, I'm pretty sure that I was whining that the fleece liners that the Crocs came with were all squished and linty and flat.
Anyway, the rumor of this pattern immediately intrigued me as I am always looking for a completely frivolous project to squander my time on. So I did a bit of searching on the Wide Wide World of Web and found not only a knitting pattern, but also a crochet pattern as well. I settled on the knit pattern even though it was for a pair of size 8 liners and my lined winter Crocs are a size 11. I figured that I could adapt the pattern to fit and what the hey, the pattern was only a buck anyway.The pattern was quite easy. You knit a garter stitch sole, pick up the stitches around the sole, knit a few rows, shape the top of the sock and finish with some rows of k2 p2 rib. It reminded me a lot of knitting those stay-on baby booties that I think everyone has knit before. I tweaked the pattern a bit to get a better fitting liner with more room in the instep and to avoid some pesky short rows in the ribbing that the pattern called for. I also made my liners left and right foot specific, something that the pattern did not do. It was a great pattern to use as a jumping off point for customization. Or you could not be an obsessive compulsive wench like myself and just knit the damn things exactly like the pattern instructs. But where's the fun in that, right?
So I knit up a pair of robin's egg blue liners first. I knit them with Lion Brand Cotton Ease yarn. It's a cotton/acrylic blend that I thought would wash well (and it does!).
After completing the first pair and dancing about the house in them for a few days, I decided to test out my revamped pattern to make sure that everything was written down correctly. So I knit another pair in the same yarn, different color. This time in a lovely key lime green.I have to say that these liners are the absolute bees knees. They are super thick and squishy because you knit with two strands of yarn held together. They keep my feet toasty warm whether I am wearing socks with them or not. This is a really wonderful thing because the wooden floors in my house are absolutely frigid in the winter. In fact, my ice rink floors were the reason for me buying Crocs in the first place.I am quite happy with this little knitting project. I am happy, my feet are toasty, and now its time to move on to the next completely frivolous project to squander my time on....

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T13:00:00.005-06:00

I have been doing a bit of frivolous knitting these past few weeks. This time it's tiny hearts that have captivated me. It began with the purchase of Mags Kandis' latest book called Gifted. On the cover is a bunch of the cutest little knit and felted hearts that you've ever seen. The hearts alone enticed me to buy the book and I am so glad that I did. There are some really great projects in it. I rarely purchase knitting books and prefer to check them out from the library, but this book is definitely a keeper.
Anyway, I got the book last fall and knit up a few of the hearts. They are the ones pictured above, in the bowl of crocheted acorns. They turned out okay, but in my opinion (which means absolutely nothing), the pattern was kind of fiddly. I really don't want to criticize the pattern because it is really quite clever and is a brilliant work of engineering. But I just didn't like knitting it and I wasn't perfectly happy with how they turned out after felting them in the sink. I still really wanted to make some little hearts so I did a search on Ravelry for another pattern. Lo and behold, I found a pattern called Little Hearts by Teresa Fox. The pattern was absolutely wonderful. Teresa included some really useful pictures as she knit the heart and best of all, the pattern is a free download. I found it an absolute breeze to knit and I easily memorized the pattern after knitting a few hearts. The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn. Because I wanted my hearts to be a bit smaller, I used 2 strands of fingering weight on size 7 needles . I also did not use Teresa's figure eight cast on. I did a long tail cast on of four stitches and divided them on two needles. I felted my hearts first before stuffing them. I did it by hand with hot soapy water. It took about a minute apiece. The yarn I used is called Palette by Knit Picks. Knit Picks has super affordable yarn which is perfect for frivolous knitting projects like the little hearts. As with many of my frivolous knitting projects, I got totally carried away and knit a zillion of them. I intended to embellish them all with stitching and beads and such, but that will have to wait for a bit as I am kind of burned out on hearts at this point. I did manage to embellish a few during the Superbowl last weekend.I have another frivolous knitting project that I completed last week. I'll share that next....

Meet Claude

2011-02-01T13:01:00.006-06:00

This is Jean-Claude. He is french and he used to live in Paris....on the left bank, of course. He spent his days writing poetry in his flat above the boulangerie Poilane on Rue du Cherche-Midi. He had to flee the country after an altercation with a Bulgarian juggler. That's how he came to be living with me on Rue de Eustis in Saint Paul.This past Christmas Adrian and I decided to give each other toys. Just toys, and nothing else. He got an tiny flying indoor helicoper and a knex build-a-monster-bug-robot kit. I got shrinky dinks, hello kitty lip gloss, a hypotrochoid art set and a knit-a-monkey kit. Adrian was really unsure if I would like the monkey kit so he got me a robins egg blue Chantal tea pot just in case. He did not need to worry about me not liking the monkey, I absolutely adored it and I had a total blast knitting it from beginning to end. There was a great deal of giggling as I knit the long gangly arms, legs and tail. This was one of the best gifts ever. I used some self striping sock yarn to crochet the scarf. I made the scarf really, really long, just like Dr. Who.

Winter Vacation

2011-01-30T17:50:00.010-06:00

For me, one of the best parts about living in Minnesota is the glorious winter. The skies are blue and the pale sun is always shining. The snow sparkles and the frigid air takes your breath away. I absolutely love it here in the winter. I wake up smiling and look forward to the day ahead.
Unfortunately, this past week the skies overhead have been gray and dreary. The temps warmed up and the snow was alternately slushy and icy. It totally threw me off my game and I had a really hard time getting motivated. So today I am going to take a break from the gray skies and re visit a quilt that I made last spring.I made this quilt for Alex, one of my most favorite girls, who was graduating from high school last May. I wanted her to have something pretty that she could take to college with her this past fall. I've known Alex since she was a tiny baby and consider myself so lucky to have been able to watch her grow up into an amazing young woman.
Over countless sleepovers at my house Alex learned to sew and knit and be creative. She took her first canoe trip with Adrian and I when she was still in diapers and learned to paddle my kayak on a trip up to the Boundary Waters. We've has so much fun together over the years and it goes without saying that this quilt was stitched with a great deal of love for it's recipient.Because I wanted this quilt to be special, I decided to use my beloved stash of florals from Westminster Fibers. Most of the fabrics that I used are designed by Kaffe Fassett or Phillip Jacobs. The pale turquoise pansy fabric in the above picture in probably one of my all time favorite fabrics. It came in several different colorways and I confess that I bought every single one. The nine patch block is one of my favorite quilt patterns, I love it for it's simplicity and versatility. The blocks are six inches square and alternate with solid florals and nine patch blocks. I free motion quilted a loopy pattern with variegated thread. I finished off the quilt with a hand stitched tag on the back:In December, when Adrian and I went to visit Alex at college and I was happy to see the quilt scrunched up on her bunk bed in her dorm room. It made me happy to think of her sleepy and warm, curled up underneath the quilt that I made for her. Covering up with a handmade quilt is like a big fabric hug from the person who made it.

A Fresh Start

2011-01-27T09:23:00.009-06:00

It has been over a year since I put anything up on this blog. I guess I just got lazy or bored or maybe a little bit of both. It could also be because I felt really bad for using my blog for evil last year when I shamelessly begged for votes when I entered a contest at Marx Foods. The blog just didn't seem like much fun after that little debacle. But I think a year is enough time to slack off, so I guess I'll try my hand a blogging again. Plus, my mom said I should start blogging because she likes looking at the projects I've been working on. Well, I can hardly say no to my dearest loveliest mama.

This little pillow is something that I made earlier this month while I was recovering from the black plague. I got the pattern from my friend Phyllis. Phyllis lives in Sisters, Oregon close to my parents house. She and my Mom are good friends who share a love of quilting. Whenever I am home for a visit, my mom and I get together with Phyllis for a day of fun and creative inspiration. She's one of the most talented and amazingly creative women that I know. Just hanging out in her sewing room is like a shot of creative adrenaline. When I was home in October, I noticed a darling little yellow wool pillow in Phyllis's sewing room. There were four little quail appliqued on it and the best part of all was that they had googly eyes! I was immediately smitten and asked about the pattern. Phyllis said that she saw a quilt on a tv show that had quail on it and that's where she got her inspiration. She very kindly shared the pattern that she made with me.The pillow is about 16 inches wide by 11 inches tall. All of the felted wool is from my stash that I've collected over the years. I used DMC broder medicis wool floss for the applique and embroidery. Broder medicis has been discontinued and it breaks my heart every time I think about it. I love that thread and wish that I could find a good replacement for it. I didn't have googly eyes so I used some white flower beads for the eyes. I like Phyllis's googly eyes better. If you look closely at the bottom of the pillow, one of the stems of sagebrush is missing it's little french knot flowers. I didn't even notice that until I was editing the photos of the pillow. I must have just spaced that out in my nyquil and benadryl induced delirium. I really did make this while I was recovering from a nasty bug. I felt good one day and managed to get the pillow top assembled and my embroidery supplies organized. Then I had a relapse, was sick for a few days and then I embroidered this while wrapped in quilts on the couch. Once I was feeling better I sewed the whole thing together. It was a really quick, fun little project that kept me amused while I was stuck in the house. Thanks, Phyllis for the inspiration!

Scones and a Sweater

2010-01-10T11:03:00.006-06:00

There was a new episode of The Barefoot Contessa on the food network yesterday. I think I must be Ina Garten's number one fan. Well, maybe not number one because that title might be reserved for a stalkerish nutball ala Kathy Bates in the movie Misery. But I sure do love Ina's recipes and I wouldn't mind having a bite of lunch with her at a Paris cafe. Anyway, thanks to that new episode, Adrian and I enjoyed fresh maple oatmeal scones for breakfast. The recipe is a keeper for sure but I recommend halving it because it makes a butt load of scones. In the future, I think I might play around with the amount of whole wheat flour and baking powder in the recipe (I always like to try adding more ww flour to my favorite recipes). I used a heart shaped cutter partly because I'm a romantic sap and also because it's a scientifically proven fact that everything tastes better when it's heart shaped.
This past week my former sister Brenda rebroadcast an essay that I wrote for her podcast, Cast On. It was an essay about the first sweater that I ever knit. I thought I'd post a few pictures of that sweater here. If memory serves, I think that I knit it five years ago or so. It took along time to work up the nerve to buy all the yarn for it because I was terrified that I wouldn't have the perseverance to finish it. Then I'd be stuck with this shaming pile of yarn that would heckle me and remind me of my failure. Thankfully I had my very own sweater coach who cheered me on and encouraged me as I went along. That role was filled by my former sister Brenda, by the way. She was great about keeping me motivated even though sometimes I had to remind her that the phone call was supposed to be of the 'Yay, Pam!' variety and not a venue for Brenda to tell me all about what was going on in HER life. In fact, most of our conversations include the phrase "Enough about you, let's talk about ME". The pleasure of who gets to utter that phrase depends upon which of us is yakking the most at the time.Anyway, the facts about the sweater are these: It's adapted from a pattern in an Aran Knits book put out by Knitter's Magazine. I knit it in this wonderful dark blue/purple color. The yarn was Lopi light because I happened to have a half a skein of it in my knitting basket and that's what I knit my swatch out of. I had never knit cables before and I wanted to see if I could do it so I grabbed the yarn and knit a swatch. I liked the look of it so I went to my local yarn shop and ordered the 4000 skeins that it would take to knit this sweater. (Bonus points to whoever can name the tv show that always began with narration by Jim Dale and the phrase: 'the facts are these'.Naturally, like everyone else who has knit their first sweater, I was immensely pleased with myself and I spent a good amount of time thinking that I was the cleverest girl on the planet. I wore (and still swear) my sweater a lot that first winter, and it's still my sweater of choice for cross country skiing. But the problem with Lopi light is that it's itchy as hell. Also, I discovered that my delicate moon flower of a face does not like itchy wool rubbed against it so I have to make sure that I wear a heavy turtleneck with the sweater. Also, Lopi light is a single ply yarn. I don't know if this is true about all single ply yarns, but my sweater has been growing steadily ever since I knit it. Though it's not quite down to my knees, it could almost be considered a dress at this point. I know it's just a matter of time before I have to breakdown and shorten it, but I am putting that thankless chore off for as long as I possibly can.

If you want to hear more about my sweater, pop over the Cast On and listen to the episode. Also, in case you were wondering, my former sister Brenda gave me to her partner Tonia because Tonia wanted a sister of superior quality to call her own. So now I am officially Tonia's sister and Brenda is now known as my former sister, Brenda.

Brown Sugar Shortbread

2009-11-23T15:54:00.005-06:00

Often it's the simple things in life that provide the greatest pleasure. For me, a plate of brown sugar shortbread is definitely one of those humble delights. There's nothing fancy about this cookie: just butter, sugar and eggs. But the addition of a Tahitian vanilla bean transforms these unassuming little cookies into the sublime. The vanilla infused raw sugar on top is a delicious crunchy contrast to the crumbly melt in your mouth cookie. For a real treat, pair these cookies with a glass of Port. Simple and delicious.

Okay, I was totally channeling Barbara Stanwyck in Christmas In Connecticut when I wrote that. That has to be one of my all time favorite movies. Barbara plays Elisabeth Lane 'America's Favorite Housewife' who writes a popular food column in a ladies magazine. She supposedly lives on a farm with her husband and baby where she makes delicious food all day long. The reality is that she's single, living in New York and can't cook to save her life. It's a wonderfully charming movie that I watch year 'round.

But here's the real reason that I wrote that description of the cookies: Marx Foods, a super cool specialty foods shop had a contest where they'd send you vanilla beans so you could cook with them and photograph the finished product. Or you could just photograph the beans. I got the beans on Friday afternoon with a deadline of Saturday midnight to send in my photo. So I whipped up a batch of shortbread, created a still life and snapped a few shots. Now, I've never entered a photography contest in my life because my photo skills are moderate at best. But I can bake a pretty darn good cookie if I do say so myself.

Anyway, the contest runs until Wednesday November 25th and I am BEGGING anyone who reads this blog to please, please, pretty please vote for my photo. I know that I will not win, but for goodness sakes, I don't want to look like a complete doofus with only one vote!!! The truly pitiful thing is that I totally voted for myself (excuse me while I go to the mirror to check my forehead for a giant L for loser). Another point of embarrassment is that all of the other photos are all foodie/artsy and mine looks...well.... sort of quaint. Kind of like paint-by-number in a room of Van Goghs. Or a chicken pot pie on a table of sushi. So help me out here folks....have mercy and vote for my silly little photo PLEASE!!!!! Let's show the world of fine foods that quaint is cool!!! That knitters don't mind a little fuzz in their cookies!!! (the fuzz thing was in reference to the felted pumpkins in my photo by the way...).

Here's the link. Vote for Pam!!!!!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart....

Oh, here's the recipe for all you cookie bakers out there:

Brown Sugar Shortbread

1/2 cup raw sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 tsp. salt (if you've used unsalted butter, otherwise omit)
1 tahitian vanilla bean (marx foods vanilla beans really are fabulous)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (I use Penzey's double strength vanilla)
2 cups flour

Cream the butter, sugar and salt until smooth. Slice open vanilla bean and scrape out the flesh and seeds. Add to butter/sugar mixture. Add flour, mix until dough forms. Divide dough in half and roll each into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for several hours. Slice dough into rounds and bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. While still warm, dip the top in vanilla sugar.

I make my vanilla sugar like this:

1 cup of raw sugar plus the insides of one vanilla bean (again, Marx Foods vanilla beans are terrific). I blend it in a food processor and store it in a glass container along with the skins of the vanilla bean. It lasts forever and tastes fabulous in baked goods or stirred into tea.

And don't forget to vote for Pam!!!!!

Autumn Joy

2009-11-02T12:24:00.007-06:00

What started out as a lazy Sunday morning of coffee, music and newspapers turned into a day of outdoor fun. Our backyard was a sea of golden maple leaves in dire need of raking so we decided to end our lazy morning at second breakfast instead of cruising our way through elevenses in our pajamas. While Adrian hauled our first load of leaves to the composting site near our house, I took advantage of the nice weather and took some pictures. This past month I took a break from the sweater that I'm knitting to whip up a patch of knitted and felted pumpkins. They are from a pattern by Marie Mayhew, a local knitter who has some of the cutest knitting/felting patterns ever. The pumpkins range in size from about 7 to 3 inches. They're knit with worsted weight wool yarn and felted in the washing machine. I tweaked around with the pattern a bit to get the different sizes and shapes. I used several different brands of yarn and they all worked great. The brands of yarn all felt up a bit differently which also made for a wide variety of sizes.
My crocheted acorns are an ongoing project that I still work on when the mood strikes. They are as addicting as potato chips and I've made handfuls of them. This fall I've collected a pile of acorn caps for the future because it's kind of hard to scout for acorn caps in the dead of winter with a foot of snow on the ground. The yarn is mostly odd bits of sock yarn lovingly donated to me by my favorite knitting sister Brenda, who has a really excellent knitting podcast called Cast On. You should listen to it, it's terrific. It never ceases to amaze me that the delightful person on the podcast is the same bossy older sister who used to tickle me as a child until I peed my pants.After a long day of raking leaves, Adrian and I treated ourselves to a lovely little bonfire. We settled into our log swing, sipped on Apfelcorn and relaxed in the golden light of the late afternoon sun.

Ribbons and Things

2009-09-30T12:04:00.019-05:00

Holey moley it has been ages since I've last posted anything on my blog! I should get a prize for blogging slacker of the year. And speaking of prizes.....I entered a bunch of my handmade things in the Minnesota State Fair this year....seven handmade things to be exact. Lo and behold, I won some ribbons.....seven ribbons to be exact!
But the most rewarding thing for me was sharing the stuff that I had made with others. The Creative Activities building was packed full of gorgeously hand crafted things: jams, cakes, pickles, quilts, knitting, crochet, carved wooden things, stained glass, doll houses, beading, embroidery, sewing and all sorts of other wonderful hand crafted treasures. I loved being a part of the greater creative community in Minnesota. I loved that so many people were willing to take the time to enter something that they had made so that they could share their accomplishments with others. It was wonderful to be a part of the generations of women and men before me who stayed up late working on a quilt or perfecting a pickle recipe so that they could exhibit something at the Minnesota State Fair.

I think it is a wonderful accomplishment for anyone who takes the time to make things with their own two hands. I truly feel that everyone who creates things should be proud of what they have made. Whether it's a simple loaf of bread, a knitted hat or a quilted masterpiece, anything that is made by hand has value and worth. I also think that sharing those things with others is important as well. It's not about getting your ego inflated or winning ribbons, it's a matter of making that connection with others who appreciate handmade things too. It's about sharing ideas, learning new things, teaching others what you know and exchanging feedback. It's about becoming a part of a creative collective, a group of people who are proud of what they have accomplished and who chose to share their creativity with others.

But enough of the philosophical stuff, let's take a look at the handcrafted goodies that I entered in the fair....
This is actually four of my Bead Journal Project pieces that I grouped in a frame. It won a second prize ribbon. If you want to see the pieces close up, I've got tons of pictures of them in previous blog posts.
I also entered three of my dolls which won two first place and one third place ribbon. The fairy doll from a few posts back won a ribbon as did these two dolls....My dearest lovliest Mama and I made Santa dolls together a few years ago. My Mama made a beautiful patchwork jacket for her Santa and I made a penny rug wool jacket for mine. The plaid fabric is from pair of wool pants that I found at the Goodwill. I ripped out the seams and then washed the pants in hot water so that the fabric would felt up. Santa (or 'Santy' as he's fondly called in my house) also has a handknitted hat, mittens and sweater. In addition to winning a third place ribbon at the fair, Santy also won an American Swedish Institute award for, I suppose, looking like a Swedish Saint Nicholas. After I found out that I was a recipient of a Swedish award, I immediately renounced my Italian/Basque heritage and now consider myself 100% Swedish. I am guessing that I am the only black haired, olive skinned, garlic loving Swede in the state of Minnesota.

This sweet little doll is an antique reproduction Greiner style doll.... She came as a kit that I purchased from Gail Wilson Designs. I hand painted her molded papier mache head, arms and legs and sewed and assembled the cloth body. I also made her clothes which are edged with wee hand crocheted lace. She's a tiny little thing, less than six inches tall and she fits so nicely in the palm of my hand. I am very fond of this doll and was delighted that she won a blue ribbon. Gail Wilson's doll kits are absolutely charming and are a great way to get started with making antique reproduction dolls. The instructions are very detailed and everything included in the kit is very high quality. I've made several of her dolls and have so enjoyed the the process as well as the finished result. Another Gail Wilson doll that I made won a blue ribbon at the fair last year.... She's a reproduction of an early American doll and is named Charlotte after Laura Ingalls' rag doll that her Ma made her for Christmas (I love the Little House books.)
Look who also won a ribbon....
My flock O' felted sheep! The judge wrote that they lacked personality without faces so I was bumped down to a second place ribbon. I happen to love them without eyes, I think that they feel more like folk art without their facial features. I love making these lambs, they're such compact, wooly little treasures. I'd love to add some embellished sheep to my flock. I think one of the little white ones would look very sweet with embroidered silk ribbon flowers, leaves and vines. That might be a fun winter project.
I also won a blue ribbon for this embroidered wool table runner....I hand dyed a lot of the wool myself. I use the 'lazy girl's microwave method' of dyeing wool. It's a piece o' cake and relatively mess free. I used Procion MX dyes with vinegar as the mordant. This punch needle turtle won a third place ribbon.... The judge didn't like the beaded border and said that she found it to be 'disturbing'. That comment kind of stung a bit but Adrian did a wonderful job of making me laugh over the fact that I had created something 'disturbing'. It is now a running joke in our house that many of my handmade things have a disturbing quality about them. I'm okay with that and as a matter of fact, I'm trying to think up something really and truly disturbing to make for next year's state fair. Anyone have any good ideas?

Rainforest Dreams

2009-07-15T15:34:00.013-05:00

This is one last piece inspired by my trip to Kauai last winter. This time I left the sandy shores and took a journey into the lush tropical rain forests. I began my beaded journey by creating a tapestry of twisting tangled vines... Next I created the pink flowers to remind me of this plant... The pink beaded blossoms also remind me of the rambutans that I ate for breakfast everyday ....There was an abundance of unfamiliar plants and flowers to discover on my tropical journey...Each one of those beautiful flowers flourished in my beaded rain forest as well....
Sometimes the vines and branches would part to reveal the unexpected. A cascading waterfall, a giant fern or a humble spider weaving it's web. It was all part of the magic in the rain forest.
I will never forget the time that I spent in the rain forest, wandering and wondering about the beauty that surrounded me. I hope that I was able to convey in my bead work the awesome beauty, overwhelming excitement and pure wonder of the magical days that I spent in Kauai.

Faerie in the Garden

2009-07-15T11:29:00.011-05:00

Look who visited my garden today! She stopped by to rest up after the early morning thunderstorms. She seemed to like the violas....She splashed about in the stream a bit and then leaned against the sweet flag to let the sun dry her off....She flew over to the moss rose.....
to watch the chipmunks eating seeds that had fallen from the bird feeder...I wish that I had an outfit like hers....
Curly magenta hair might be kinda fun too....Sigh...the truth is that even though I'd really like to believe that there are faeries in my garden, I haven't actually seen one yet. Well, I did see a big luna moth once that looked a lot like a faerie until I saw the ugly proboscis tube thingy sticking out of it's head.
I while back I took a faerie doll making class at my favorite quilting store called Colorful Quilts. It was taught by Rick Petersen, a very talented local doll artist. Unfortunately CQ closed down a few months ago which is a loss that I've yet to recover from. CQ was the perfect place to rev up my creative mojo and I learned so much from the wonderful people who worked and taught classes there.
Anyhoo, I took this class, then naturally became completely obsessed with making faerie dolls. The face and body were made from polymer clay and armature wire wrapped with yarn. The wings were made from wire and fused iridescent angelina film. The arms and legs were wrapped with lovely hannah silk and the corset was made from wool felt. The skirt was made from silk flowers and her shoes were painted on. Her curly hair is sheep fleece that's hand dyed by my Seester who is a spinner. So that's the real story of how the faerie came to life in my garden.

Sweet Treats

2009-07-14T10:28:00.012-05:00

Here are a few more handmade wee pastries of the non-edible kind. A while back I wrote about my new favorite Japanese craft book called 'Cakes Made of Felt'. I have to say that making these felt treats is as addictive as eating the real ones. Please help yourself to a tiny tart-let.....I used little fluted metal tart pans to mold the felt for the tart shells. The creamy filling is a gathered circle of satin fabric topped with a puff of organza and a berry or glass leaf. Perhaps you'd like a raspberry cream tart....The berries were made from clusters of size 8 beads. The sugary crust on the tart shell is glitter. Maybe you would enjoy a key lime or lemon cream tart....
The felt cake-let is very similar to the one that I made for my dearest, loveliest Mama for Mother's Day. I used ribbon and rick rack on the side of the cake. Try the cream puff on top, it's delicious.... I am thinking that the wavy edge around the darker pink piece of felt on top of the cake needs some embellishment. Maybe some wee beads or embroidered french knots. Go ahead and pluck a strawberry slice off of the top, they're ripe and juicy...
I love making the little fruits and berries that top the pastries. Currently I'm working on banana and kiwi slices for the next batch of treats. They're the perfect portable project to work on outside where I can enjoy the birds and flowers in my garden. My goodness, writing this post has made me hungry. I think it's time for tea and a snack. I believe I have some ripe cherries in the fridge......Ohh! Felt cherries! I'm definitely making those next!

New Friends

2009-06-30T19:13:00.008-05:00

My friend Carmelita brought her lovely young granddaughters over for a visit today so I had the splendid fortune to spend the afternoon crafting with them. I thought that making wee flower fairies would be a fun craft for the girls so I pulled out my stash of fairy making supplies. Out came the bins of flower petals, acorn caps, wooden heads, chenille stems, embroidery floss and felt. I had such a great time watching the girls select the colors of floss and flowers that they wanted to use. The fairies are modeled after the ones created by Salley Mavor in her fabulous book 'Wee Felt Folk'. I absolutely love this book. I bought it when it first came out in 2003 and since then I have lured almost everyone that I know into to the world of flower fairies. This charming girl is Emma and she is holding the flower fairies that she made today. Emma loves pink. A lot. I love pink a lot too, so we became good friends right away. The purple fairy on the left crashes into things when she flies because she is temporarily blind. (I ran out of painted wooden heads so her face is blank until Carmelita can paint her). This is beautiful young woman is Kaitlyn but I'm not sure that I spelled that right so let's call her Kate 'cause she goes by that too. Kate is an amazing Manga artist. She brought her manga drawings to show me and I was absolutely blown away. I am seriously in awe of her talent and creativity. We became friends right away because we both love the color purple and think the Twilight books are dumb (vampires DON'T sparkle!). Kate's fairy is a lovely purpley plum color and her curly fairy hair is styled into a tiny ponytail.
I am sad to report that I did not finish my flower fairy (and neither did Carmelita!). But I had such a wonderful day crafting with my new friends Kate and Emma that it doesn't matter. I hope that they'll come visit again real soon for another day of conversation and crafting fun.

Shoreline

2009-06-28T14:23:00.012-05:00

This is the second month's BJP that was inspired by my trip to Kauai this past winter. A few of of the shells and bits of coral in this piece were collected as I lay on the beach, idly sifting handfuls of sand through my fingers. I spent hours looking at all of the teeny tiny bits of wonder that had washed up on the shore. There were impossibly small shells , fragments of coral and minuscule broken bits from the invertebrates that had once inhabited the coral reef. I loved the meandering patterns that the waves had made upon the sand. A lacy line of foam followed by a scattering of shells, coral and debris that transitioned to smaller and finer particles of sand. I had such a wonderful time beading this piece, which as a result did not take long to complete. I began by gathering up an assortment of shells and treasures that I've collected from a lifetime of beach combing. I glued down some of the shells to my base fabric which is a piece of batik sewn to light weight card stock. I added the twisty lines of white beads to represent the lacy ripples of foam that wash up on the shore with each wave. The rest was purely improvisation. The limited color palette certainly made things easier. I sewed on pearls and stones and baubles, followed by rows of my favorite size 14 seed beads. I listened to Hawaiian slack key guitar music as I beaded and it kept me in a mellow beachy mood. There was no frustration or indecision about where to sew down the next bead. I just let the blissful beachy memories flow from my mind to my hands to the shells and the beads.
Ahhhh, pure beachy beading bliss....

Oceania Pacifica

2009-06-20T12:02:00.020-05:00

I love the Pacific Ocean. From the warm turquoise waters of Hawaii to the turbulent seas of the Oregon coast. A perfect day for me is being in or on or near the Pacific Ocean. I love the unpredictability of the ocean. It can be calm and inviting or reckless and fierce. I am respectful of the ocean’s power and grateful for it’s gifts.

This past winter, Adrian and I had the splendid fortune to spend time at a beach house on Kauai’s North Shore. While the ocean delighted us with its incredible beauty, it also never failed to remind us of its remarkable intensity. Here are some of the memories that provided the inspiration for my February BJP….We spend our days swimming. We dive beneath the powerful waves and fling our bodies over the smaller swells. I am a confident, capable swimmer and my body feels light and free as I am tossed about in the warm turquoise water. Our good friend wants to go snorkeling with us for the first time. A few years ago, her mom died in a tragic diving accident in Costa Rica. We drive to the other side of the island to a sheltered bay where the fish are plentiful. We all have a wonderful time and I am so proud of my friend for facing her fears. Afterward, as we rest on the beach, lifeguards pull a man out of the water. He had drowned in a shallow bay filled with snorkeling tourists. We drive back to the North Shore in sorrow and silence.I sit in the shallow water watching Adrian snorkel. Suddenly he veers toward the shore, his fins flapping as he swims madly toward me. An unfamiliar fish has swum too close, startling my darling, silly husband. I laugh and kiss him and ask him if he wants me to beat up the big bad fish for frightening him. I return to snorkeling, holding hands with my beloved as we float above the coral reef.There is a roadside memorial decorated with palm fronds, ginger, flowers and fruit. Last year a local boy drowned off of this beautiful beach. He was an expert surfer and the close knit community mourns his loss.One day we snorkel with sea turtles. Graceful and patient, they allow us to observe their undersea dance. I am completely enchanted.The ocean is fierce and wild today. We acknowledge the ocean's power and postpone our beach plans. We go hiking instead, enjoying the endless blue from the cliffs high above. Today the ocean is calm and as smooth as glass. I float peacefully for hours, caressed by the gentle sway of the big blue sea.....

Treasures from the North

2009-06-12T09:20:00.008-05:00

My friend Carmelita and I drove up to Duluth yesterday to attend the Minnesota Quilt Show. We had a fabulous day (as we always do when we spend the day together) and we hunted and gathered some fun new supplies and pretties to add to our stashes. I picked up some fabulous over dyed silk kimono fabric from Laura Murray Designs and a really fantastic rubber texture plate to use with my Shiva paint sticks and polymer clay. Look! The pale pink fabrics has cherry blossoms on it! I also picked up a couple of fun fabric fat quarters, a stencil (another Laura Murray original), some odd bits of fiber and a few packets of embroidery needles from France. This gorgeous rayon ribbon was hand dyed by Wendy Richardson a local fiber artists of exceptional talent. Her booth is a tactile and visual feast as is Laura Murray's booth. Laura and Wendy are such generous and talented artists to chat with and the products that they sell are wonderful. We are lucky here in Minnesota to have such creative people in our community.
I love going to quilt shows. I am always so inspired by the wonderful quilts that people have made and it makes me want to rush home and start creating myself. I'll admit that the shopping is always nice too and it's great to have pretty new stuff to inspire my latest creative endeavor.

Galadriel's Closet

2009-06-10T12:34:00.014-05:00

It all began with a conversation with my gal pal Carmelita Fantastica. She wondered if I had seen the latest issue of Stitch magazine. ( 'Stitch with the Embroiderer's Guild' is an amazing British magazine that never fails to knock my socks off with each and every issue. I am more than willing to drive 25 miles to buy it at the nearest bookstore that carries it, in fact I'd drive further for my bi monthly fix of creative inspiration).Anyway, Carmelita noticed that there were little mini corsets on the front cover of the current issue and she knew immediately that my future would be filled with little mini corsets. She knows me well, that Carmelita. She's experienced first hand my obsession with tiny and impossibly intricate needlework projects. Carmelita told me to get busy creating and that she would be expecting a mini corset ATC by the following week, thank you very much. I've always wanted to try my hand at Artist Trading Cards and this seemed like a good opportunity. I've made lots of fiber postcards and journal quilts, but have never worked with the 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" size of the ATC. Considering my love of all things wee, it's strange that it took me so long to jump on the ATC bandwagon. Right away I thought about creating fanciful corsets that could be worn by diminutive fairies. I tried to imagine what kind of wardrobe I would want if I were a small fairy and the title Galadriel's Closet popped into my head. Hmm, I could create corsets for a fairy named Galadriel....Excellent! But I still felt like I needed a little something else for inspiration.....I absolutely love going to textile exhibits that feature historical clothing. Exhibits with names like "A Parisian Ladies Boudoir" or "Lace from the Closet of Madame Bouvier" make me swoon with delight. So I decided that I would create a series of corsets as if I were preparing to exhibit them in a whimsical fairy museum. I thought I could write up descriptions on the back of the card about where and when Galadrial wore each corset. Like this: "Lady Galadriel first wore this embroidered corset for the Autumnal Equinox Feast and Dancing Gala. It became a favorite outfit of hers when hosting elvish dignitaries from distant lands....".The corset shape is cut from two pieces of Peltex fused together. I covered each of them with fine ultrasuede. I gathered up small bits of lace from my stash and painted them with alcohol inks. I've found that alcohol inks work wonderfully on small bits of fabric and lace. The colors are rich and vibrant and they dry super fast. The pieces that I thought were too saturated with color, I washed in the sink with soap and water. This really helped to soften the colors up a bit. I glued on the lace with FabriTac and added some ruffles with bits of organza fabric and ribbon. Next, I pulled out my favorite size 14 beads and gave the corsets a bit of bling. The card itself is made from silk dupioni fused to Peltex. I zigzagged trim around the edges of the card to finish it off. I printed 'Galadriel's Closet' on fabric and I colored them with watercolors. The corsets are glued to the card with FabriTac.I am in no way finished with my adventures in fairy corsetry. I envision creating a series of corsets using some of my favorite needlework techniques. How about a set of embroidered silk ribbon corsets? Or a set of bead embroidered corsets? Or maybe a set of teeny tiny crazy quilt corsets? I suspect Galadriel's Closet is going to to be expanding very soon.So....now that I've made some ATC's.... does anyone wanna trade with me?

Sweet Treat

2009-05-05T15:20:00.009-05:00

This silly little confection may look pretty, but all you'd taste is fuzzy wool felt if you bit into it. I just finished making this today and I swear I still have a sugar high from creating such a sweet little cake-let.
The inspiration for this came from this incredible little Japanese craft book that I bought at a quilt show a few weeks back. My Mom, Adrian and I road trip to Chicago every spring for the International Quilt Festival. Along with the many wonderful quilt exhibits there is a massive shopping area that can best be described as mecca, Valhalla and heaven for anyone obsessed with all things fiber artsy. The show always lands near my birthday so I usually have a pocket full of birthday cash to spend on wonderful treasures. This year I came across a booth that nearly took my breath away. The company was called Sunfelt and the entire booth looked like a lilliputian patisserie. There were dainty plates of the most amazing felt confections every where you looked and the quirky young Japanese entrepreneurs who staffed the booth were delightful. I immediately purchased one of the books and a lofty stack of really fabulous wool felt. The book is written in Japanese, but it doesn't really matter because there's so many great pictures detailing each step. It's called 'Cakes Made of Felt' and is published by Ondori. The book is a great jumping off place for the ambitious craftster who doesn't like to follow directions that much anyway. I came up with my own pattern for the cake and sort of followed directions for the strawberries and cream puff. The berries I came up with on my own.
This little cake was so seriously flippin' fun to make that I wanted to do cartwheels, tap dance and sing the whole time I was stitching. It's a tiny little thing too, smaller than an average cupcake, maybe the size of a Hostess Hoho. I am going to have to make another one very soon because I didn't get to play with it nearly as much as I would have liked. As soon as I completed it, I packed it up and sent it off to my dearest, loveliest mama for Mother's Day. I hope she is as charmed by it as I am.

Al Fresco Knitting

2009-03-23T10:34:00.007-05:00

Yesterday I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather we've been enjoying here in Minnesota and carried my current knitting project outside for a bit of al fresco knittery. It was sunny and warm enough to sit outside without a jacket, but breezy enough that the sweater I am knitting felt cozy and warm draped across my lap.
The sweater is a top down raglan cardigan knit from cascade 220 summer sky heather. The lace pattern is simple and was easy to memorize. I had done quite a bit of knitting on it last week so by yesterday I had just three more inches to knit until the sweater body was complete. Unfortunately, one row of a top down raglan takes a long time to knit. Since the sweater is knit in the round, the row consists of the entire circumference of the sweater. This would not take too long if you were shaped like a heroin-chic supermodel, but my body is shaped more like the iconic venus of willendorf and therefore requires substantially more knitting to complete a sweater.
So I spent yesterday afternoon in my lawn chair, enjoying the sun and knitting away on my sweater. I was determined to finish that afternoon and as it turned out, I needed less than two inches of knitting until the sweater was long enough. It was a lovely surprise, finishing early, and if all goes as planned I should be wearing my new sweater by the end of the week.

I Heart Bryophytes

2009-03-13T14:04:00.007-05:00

I was looking at some old photos today and I came across some shots that I took while I was up in Alaska a couple of years ago. I went for a hike in this amazing coastal rain forest. The cedar trees were enormous and the plant life was wonderfully diverse. The fecundity of this magical place was evident by the rich, spoungy, bryophytes that carpeted the rocks and trees and forest floor.Bryophyte is a fancy high falutin' scientific name for mosses and liverworts. I think it's just about my favorite type of plant life, although I am rather fond of lichens as well. A lichen is a cross between a fungus and a green algae and it often grows on trees and rocks. Mosses look much more plant-like than lichens and if you look up close you can see that mosses have tiny stems and leaves. I didn't take this picture of the gorgeous red moss, but maybe this year I'll be able to take a similar one with my fancy new camera and the macro lens that the birthday lizard will hopefully be bringing me this year. Does the birthday lizard visit your house? In my family the birthday lizard always delivers wonderful gifts to all who are worthy. The birthday lizard is kind of like a cross between Santa and the Easter Bunny, but in reptilian form.There's something magical about mosses. I feel like if I look close enough I'll be able to see an entire world that lives within the the soft, spoungy landscape. I'm sure there are tiny fairies living in the moss land. I haven't actually seen them, but I'll bet they are there. I mean, if you were a fairy, wouldn't you want to live in the moss, in a coastal rain forest with enormous cedar trees?

Granite and Ice

2009-02-18T13:00:00.008-06:00

At long last my December BJP piece is finished. I began beading on December 1st hoping to get a head start before the holiday madness set in. I always feel like a crazed lunatic by the time the last bits of holiday craftery are completed and the last package is mailed off to my loved ones. I seem to never have enough Christmas spirit to get me through December and I am always left feeling stressed and exhausted.In an effort to counter balance the holiday craziness, I planned my escape into the bead world of the peaceful winter landscape. One of my favorite things about living in Minnesota is the stark beauty of the winter landscape. The layers of sparkling snow and ice offset by the pale blue sky and highlighted by the cool grays of stone and bark. The land lies in wait under her quilt of snow, drowsy and introspective. She is resting from the seasons of growth. On clear days, the sun warms and the snow melts. If you listen carefully you can hear the whisper of water weaving through the granite on it's way to mysterious destinations far below. At night the water freezes and swells, working it's way into fissures in the stone. Pressure builds until the rock splinters and cracks, reminding us that the landscape is always changing. Quiet and still, the land subtly shifts underneath her blanket of snow waiting patiently for the rebirth of spring.

I Heart Pink

2009-02-17T15:11:00.013-06:00

Last week I returned from a wonderful winter get away. Coming home to a cold and cloudy Minnesota was a bit depressing. I think the gloomy weather had an effect on my ability to get over my jet lag. I've spent the past week feeling moody and tired and sleeping way too much. As a result, Valentine's Day came and went with very little fanfare or celebration in my house. Valentine's Day as a holiday has never really been all that important to me, but I do love the colors. Well, it's mostly about the pink for me. Pink balloons, lush pink roses, fuzzy pink sweaters, cupcakes with thick pink frosting and heart shaped sprinkles. I love the color pink. It's romantic, charming, girly and sweet. The color pink makes me smile. So here's a tribute in photos to one of my favorite colors:

I saw this building in Ireland and fell in love. I wanted to lick the wall to see if it tasted like birthday cake. I wonder what kind of shop it is?
My buddy Sammy and I crocheted these sweet fuzzy bunny slippers for her a few year's ago. I'll bet she's grown out of them by now.
This luscious quilt was made by the featured quilter at the Sister's Quilt Show a few years back. I wish I could remember her name. The quilt was huge, this photo is of the center block. There were Japanese cherry trees in the backyard of the house that I grew up in. In the springtime, I used to lay on the grass underneath the trees and look at the beautiful blue sky peeking though the pink blossoms. It's one of my favorite childhood memories. I ate a rambutan for the first time a few weeks ago. Rambutans are a hot pink, fuzzy fruit that grows in the tropics. To get to the edible fruit, you peel the rambutan like an orange. The flesh has the constistency of a peeled grape. It's wonderfully sweet and tastes kind of like a concord grape or a lychee:
Here's a close up:Last but not least is my fabulous new hairbrush. I about had a fit of the vapors when I saw this in the store. I knew at once that I must have it or die. My sister Sandra does not understand my deep and abiding love of Hello Kitty. But she did manage to swipe my favorite pink shirt that I took on vacation.

Wee Weasley Sweater

2009-01-24T10:00:00.007-06:00

In further continuation with my obsession of knitting and crocheting wee things, I spent some time before Christmas perfecting a tiny top down raglan sweater pattern. Most of the sweaters that I knit for myself are top down raglans. I love how top down raglans fit, how they can be knit in the round and how easily customizable they are. Making one in miniature was just a simple of matter of knitting a tiny gauge swatch and doing the math. I found some lovely dk weight Jamieson tweed yarn in the half price bin at my local yarn shop that I thought would make perfect little sweaters. I am a big Harry Potter fan as are many of my friends and family so I thought it would be fun to create some wee Weasley sweater ornaments. For those of you who are 'non cosciente', the Weasley sweaters are the ones that Mrs. Weasley gave to Ron, Harry, Fred and George for Christmas in the first Harry Potter book. In the movie, the sweaters were lovingly hand knit by Mrs. Weasley in a nubbly tweed yarn and had each boys initial on it. I knit up a couple of sweaters in a variety of fingering weight sock yarn until I had the pattern tweaked. These are my first sweater samples: As it turned out, I got so busy making other things for Christmas gifts that I only had time to make one sweater that I gave away. The rust colored Weasley sweater went to my friend Sue's daughter Andrea who is delightfully obsessed with Ron Weasley. The initial was embroidered on the front of the sweater with sock yarn .
I would love to make myself a full sized Weasley sweater. I'd knit it in a lovely dark plum donegal tweed yarn. But I would have to work it into my busy schedule of making lovely, frivolous things like crocheted acorns and piggy ipod cozies. I'd also like to knit up a stack of these little sweaters in variegated sock yarn to hang in my sewing room on small laundry line with wee clothespins.

Pig In A Pod

2009-01-24T08:31:00.007-06:00

I really have no idea why I am compelled to crochet things like this. What sane person in their mid forties would pick up a crochet hook and some pink yarn and create an ipod cozy that looks like a pig? The answer is the same person who made a purple monkey ipod cozy last year. The insane part is that I crocheted them for myself and not as a gift for a small child. The pattern came from the book The Happy Hooker- Stitch and Bitch Crochet. I used sport weight cotton yarn instead of the worsted weight that the pattern called for, so I pretty much winged it and fit the ipod to the cozy as I went along. Crocheting the ears was the trickiest part. There must have been a dozen little ears in various shapes and sizes strewn across my living room carpet by the time I figured out a pattern that I was happy with. Figuring out the shape of the ear was like working out a little geometry project. Since I happen to like math it was kind of fun trying to work out a shape that would wrap around the corner of the ipod, have a nice cupped shape to it and a little point at the tip of the ear. For the nose, I settled on two crocheted circles stacked on top of each other. One circle was too flat and I wanted the nose to stick out a bit farther. My knitting buddies Beth and Sue helped me select the right size of googly eyes for the piggy. I think the larger sized googly eyes bestows an appropriately insane look to the pig.The screen cover on the back of the ipod cozy is made from heavy gauge vinyl. I punched holes around the edge of the vinyl with a Japanese hole punch. It's this wonderful little tool that punches lovely perfect holes in a variety of wee sizes. I use it mostly for paper and cardboard, but it worked beautifully on the vinyl. Unfortunately, it also worked beautifully on skin as my poor chopped up fingers can attest to. That little hole punching puppy is sharp and is not for those who are dexterously challenged. Once the holes were punched in the vinyl and the Hello Kitty band aids were applied to my fingers, the project proceeded with no further bodily injuries.
My new little piggy will get her public debut tomorrow. Adrian and I are traveling to Hawaii for some fun in the sun. This little piggy that plays music will be my companion on the hideously long plane ride.

Treasured Family Heirloom

2008-12-14T12:23:00.003-06:00

This antique tinsel tree is a vintage family heirloom that has been passed down for generations to the third daughter of the first son of each Ehlers family for as long as anyone in my family can remember. It was lovingly brought from Germany by my immigrant ancestors who traveled by boat to America in search of a new life and new opportunities. Even when times were tough and my penniless ancestors almost starved on the mean streets of New York, they never ever sold the tree. Ahahaha! Gotcha!!! I totally made all that nonsense up. The sepia photo of the 'vintage' tinsel tree is courtesy of Photoshop. I'm not sure who those immigrants are, but I am pretty sure that my ancestors would be the sort of people that would sell not only their tinsel tree but their children as well for a hot bowl of soup. In reality, this hideous lime green holographic tinsel tree was purchased last week at Micheal's. It came pre strung with Grinch green lights and when I saw it, I just about died. Be still my heart, it was one 0f the most hideously wonderful things that I had ever seen and I knew that I had to have it for the kitsch factor alone. Thankfully it was on sale and marked down quite a bit because for some strange reason no one wanted to buy them! It also came in barbie doll pink, put I opted for the grinch green one. When I took it from it's box, Adrian's first words were "Oh......My". But I do think that it's growing on him. When the heat comes on in our house it blows on the tree and the tinsel shimmers and flutters. It's only four feet tall and in no way will it replace the lovely fragrant live tree that we get every year. It's more of an addition to our existing holiday decor. I am not sure how I want to decorate it yet. It completely clashes with my naturey Christmas theme that I have going on in my house. Lime green holographic tinsel does not go particularly well with pine cones, acorns, greenery and mushroom birds. I think it needs a theme of it's own. Maybe I'll make up a bunch of kitschy vintage ornaments for it. It's bare nekkid right now with nothing but a length of neon green 'Cat in the Hat' fabric to adorn it's base. Does anyone have any good decorating ideas?

Christmas Acorn Addiction

2008-12-13T13:10:00.010-06:00

After I completed the last batch of autumn colored acorns I vowed to put away my tiny crochet hook and get busy making my holiday gifts. Well, that vow lasted for about a month until my girlfriend Carmelita Fantastica joined me at my house for an afternoon of movies and crafting. I pulled out my bag of oddball yarns to make her some acorns while we enjoyed watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. By the time all of the brides were married to the brothers I had completed a nice little assortment of acorns for her to take home. Unfortunately, I got addicted again to making what has got to be the crack cocaine of the crafting world. So I spent the next couple of days making up another pile o' acorns but this time in festive christmasy colors. Once again I couldn't stop at making a half a dozen or so. I began to worry when the pile grew to fifteen and by the time I made twenty eight I knew that I had to put away the hook or I'd be lost forever. I do believe that I had even more fun making these ones than the last batch. Probably because it was all snowy outside and the bright festive colors were such a feast for the eyes. The bright red acorns are made from some stunning hand dyed sock yarn that was leftover from a pair of sympathy socks that my sister Brenda knit for me after I broke my neck last year. I absolutely love the socks but that yarn is so incredibly scrumptious. I am going to try really hard to not unravel the socks so that I can have more of that yarn to play with.
This time around I used a darning needle to poke a tiny hole in the acorn cap to add a wee eye pin so that I could hang the acorns.
I never thought it was possible, but I began to run out of acorn caps. I have collected so many of them over the years that I was sure that I had a lifetime supply. Since the ground is frozen and covered with a blanket of snow there will be no more acorn cap gathering until next year. I am not sure what I am going to do when Valentine's day rolls around and I want to make pink and red acorns. And what about springtime acorns in lovely robin's egg blue? I am going to have to find someone who lives in a snow free world and who is willing to hunt and gather for me.So how is everyone's holiday crafting going? What projects are you frantically working on in order to get them done by Christmas? I hope that everyone in having a festive holiday season and is managing to keep the holiday stress level down to a manageable level. I am trying to enjoy more and stress less about the whole thing. So far so good.....

The Unexpected Farm

2008-11-30T22:32:00.016-06:00

Adrian's cold from a few weeks ago finally caught up with me so I spent the long holiday weekend feeling miserable and whiny. By Sunday I was starting to feel a bit better so I spent the day finishing up my BJP page for November while curled up on the sofa and enjoying a Harry Potter movie marathon. I finished sewing the backing on the piece by the time Harry had defeated the dementors, rescued Sirius and rode off on his Firebolt.It seems as if my November page took a very long time to complete. Probably because it's sort of an extension of my beading in October or I should say my lack of beading in October. I was in a terrible blue funk for the entire month, depressed and stressed over the cost of groceries, the economy, the impending election and a whole list other things. I started and abandoned three separate pieces of beading. I desperately struggled to bead about the autumn landscape in October, something that usually brings me great joy. It's my favorite month here in Minnesota and I usually spend it camping and hiking and enjoying the gorgeous fall colors. But my heart was just not into beading about it and by the end of the month I decided to put October's beading away for a while and get a fresh start on November. With the election over, I began to think more positively about the future and I was able to shake the gloom and anxiety that I felt in October. For my November BJP page, I wanted to bead about the farmlands of Minnesota. I was thinking about the harvest and Thanksgiving and gratitude for all that the land provides for us. I envisioned beading a stark oak tree with rows of fields behind it. I wanted to convey a sense of closure of the growing season. So I began my beading and guess what? The piece fell totally flat. It was boring and ugly and I hated it. At this point I began to panic and I was worried that I'd never be able bead anything again and that I'd have to hang my picture in the BJP hall of shame. I know, I can be a total drama queen, but it thankfully doesn't last very long. So I took a deep breath and bravely started over. I laid one bead down, and then the next one and the next one. Before I knew it, my piece was coming together in a most unexpected way. It looked absolutely nothing like what I'd imagined and it seemingly had nothing to do with farmlands or harvest or anything that I had originally intended. But I liked it anyway and I kept at it, adding row after row of beads until one day I glanced at the almost completed piece and there before my eyes emerged something totally and completely unexpected:A crazy, funky beady farm! I saw beady rows of crops and beady barns and strange shiny silos and beady rows of trees. I saw bee hives surrounded by clover, a crazy round chicken coop and apple trees heavy with fruit. It was a birds eye view of a busy little farm! Okay, so maybe it's a farm that you'd see after walking through a field of poppies on your way to Oz, but it's my farm and I love it. It's the farm that I will one day live on and it makes me insanely happy. This crazy funky unexpected farm may not represent any farm that you'd see in real life, it's more like a landscape from my imagination. It's a place that builds and nurtures and grows for the future. A place where you can be thankful and smile with gratitude for all of the wonderful unexpected joys that life brings.

Journal Quilt Class

2008-11-19T14:15:00.009-06:00

Last week I went to my last journal quilt class for the year. It was by far one of the best classes that I've ever signed up for. The class was was taught by Susan Stein, owner of Colorful Quilts and Textiles. Colorful Quilts is my favorite place to shop, take classes and to get creatively inspired. The journal quilt class was held once a month for the past nine months. Each class started with a show and tell, moved into a demo of a fiber arts technique and ended with us playing and experimenting with the particular technique. The idea was to learn a technique and then go home and make a small quilt using that technique. Several class members came up with a theme for their quilts such as castles or stars or leaves. Susan's journal quilts had a wonderful southwest theme that she carried through by using particular colors and fabrics and images. I had no theme and as a result my quilts were all over the place in terms of colors and images and fabrics. Next year I will most definitely attempt to unify my designs. Even if my quilts didn't quite all match, several of them did look pretty good together. The reason for this is my obsession with the color purple and the fact that on any project it's the first color I reach for in my fabric stash. Here are some of the quilts that I made over the past year:I learned how to make silk fusion fabric for this quilt. It involves using silk fiber and textile medium and results in a lovely shimmery fabric like paper. One classmate added feathery seeds from a milkweed pod to her silk fusion. It was fabulous and I must remember to do that sometime.I learned how to print on fabric using texture plates for this quilt. I used iridescent jacquard textile paints for this quilt. I liked the technique so much that I printed up a big stack of fabric and made a long wall hanging that I hung in my dining room.This quilt was made with sun printed fabrics. I used Setacolor paints which are light sensitive. I painted the fabric, laid leaves over it and let the paint dry in the sun. You have to do this on a very sunny day or your images wont be as sharp. The hearts on this quilt are cut out of sheets angelina fiber. Angelina is a shimmery shredded fiber that melts to itself when you iron it. I added a layer of misty fuse fusible web over the hearts and topped it off with a piece of sheer magenta organza. I love the look of organza over fabric. It makes everything muted and ethereal. The misty fuse holds everything in place beautifully. I used the same technique for this quilt:I found a light blue shimmery organza with glittery silver beads in the prom section of the fabric store. I thought it would be perfect for the night sky. I cut out a piece of greenish bluish batik for the aurora borealis and laid it on dark blue batik fabric. I covered the fabric with Misty fuse and the organza and ironed it all together. I cut out the mountains out of the same dark blue batik. All that was left was to quilt the sky and add some snow to the top of the mountains. I love this quilt but I wish that my mountains weren't quite so triangular.We learned a very cool technique in class last week that I haven't worked into a quilt quite yet. This a piece of fabric printed using meat trays and jacquard fabric paint. Yep, you read that correctly. We printed fabric using styrofoam meat trays that hold the ground beef and steaks you buy at the grocery store. You can make all kinds of designs on them using a regular ball point pen or pencil. I decided to use the images and words that were already printed on the trays because I thought it was neat looking and besides, why do work when it's already done for you, right? I scored a few extra lines around the printed stuff so that I didn't look completely lazy and dabbed on some paint. I think it's pretty flippin' cool if I do say so myself. It looks like hieroglyphics or alien writing. I am most definitely going to be playing further with this technique. Dang, I loved taking this class. From the artwork that other classmates shared, to the demos, to the hands on playtime, it never failed to inspire me. I always came home energized and excited to try new things. What a totally fun and worthwhile class this was. I can't wait until next year!

There were never such devoted sisters....

2008-11-18T20:46:00.018-06:00

My sister Sandra emailed me today wondering why I hadn't put anything new on my blog lately. She wondered if I had bloggers block. The answer to that is no not really....maybe....I'm not sure....kind of....or maybe I'm just feeling lazy. How about all of the above? Or none of the above. I guess I'm really not sure why I haven't put stuff up on my blog for the past few weeks. I intended to slack off for a week during the elections and then get right back to blogging, but then that turned into two weeks and now we're heading into the third week. I am thinking that blogging is like keeping an up an exercise routine. If you skip a few days it's very easy to totally slack off. Come to think of it, I've been slacking with my exercise too. Baaaad Pam!!!!! Time to get back on the computer and back on the treadmill!Anyway, it was great to get an email from Sandra. She lives in a small Yupik village in Alaska where it's dark all winter long and you can't drink to drown your sorrows because it's a dry village. A couple of years ago Sandra had someone in the village make me an ulu which is a traditional Yupik knife. I love it and I use it all the time to skin ptarmigan and cut up eels for stir fry. Nah, I mainly use it to cut veggies and herbs like the parsnips in the photo.
Yesterday I received a fabulous package from my other sister, Brenda. She lives overseas so her packages always have a lovely exotic flair to them. Okay, so she lives in Wales, not Marrakesh, but it's still exciting to see the foreign postage on the odd silver plastic packaging. In this latest love offering from the UK there was a big box of tea. Years ago Brenda introduced me to strong British tea and now I am hopelessly addicted. Like any good opportunistic pusher of addictive substances, Brenda knows that I am hooked and will do anything for the goods. This is why I am often running errands for her and mailing packages of things she can't get in rural Wales. She gets her Vogue patterns and seam rippers, and I get my tea. When I opened the package, out wafted the most wonderful smell ever. The scent came from the best smelling little candle tarts in the world. You melt them in an oil burner and they leave the house smelling heavenly. The tarts come from this company called Dame Candles that no longer exists which is tragic. The owner, Wendy, came up with the most amazing candle scents you can possibly imagine. She was seriously olfactory gifted. I am completely in love with one of the scents called Pan. It's a blend of amber, cedar, sandalwood, white lilies, lavender, cloves, patchouli, vanilla and musk and it's to die for. Brenda shared some of her little candle tarts with me which is as generous as you can get. I plan on hoarding these until Dame Wendy comes to her senses and starts making candles again. Hahaha. Get it? A scented candle maker coming to her senses! I crack myself up. Along with the tea, candle tarts and some divine chocolates was a bag of oddball yarn. I love knitting small projects so Brenda sends me her bits and bobs of leftover yarn. Sometimes she throws in some fun hand spun stuff. As I was pawing through the bag looking at the fibery treasures, I came across something bizarre that left me speechless. Why Brenda why? The only logical reason I could come up with was that maybe she suffers from a rare infliction where in the middle of the night she is compelled to knit teeny tiny undergarments in her sleep with no recollection of doing so the next morning. To be fair though, I'll confess to making crocheted bikinis for my growing hair Velvet doll so perhaps knitters in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. So if my sister wants to knit teeny tiny underwear that's fine by me. Plus I've been knitting some teeny tiny things myself this past week. I'll share them tomorrow. I really am going to get back to blogging on a regular basis.

And the winner is.....

2008-10-30T18:30:00.002-05:00

Tracey N. you are the winner of the Cold Comfort Farm contest!!! If you'll email me your address, I'll get a lamb sent out to you. Just let me know which color you want!

And remember...There will always be Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm!

Acorn Obsession

2008-10-29T16:56:00.014-05:00

Okay, so I am seriously obsessed with making these little crocheted acorns. They are the brain child of Margaret Oomen who writes the most wonderful blog called resurrection fern. I can't believe there is someone else out there who enjoys rocks and lichen and naturey goodness as much as I do! Her artwork and creativity is beyond amazing and her photography is absolutely gorgeous. A few weeks ago she had a little tutorial for making these crocheted acorns and I was immediately smitten. I already had a container full of acorn caps that I had collected over the years and thanks to my sister Brenda, who gives me all of her odd bits of leftover yarn, I had a great assortment of sock yarn. Last weekend I gathered up my supplies and began crocheting a few acorns. I thought I'd do maybe six of them or so, but that took hardly any time at all. So I did a few more, and then a few more and before I knew it I had crocheted 27 of the little beauties. They only took a few minutes to crochet and were so addicting to make. I mean SERIOUSLY addicting, like eating Cheetos or collecting agates or knitting wee felted sheep. I used mostly self striping and variegated sock yarns so each one turned out different. The acorns are stuffed with a bit of wool roving and the caps are glued on with hot glue. I think that they are utterly charming and it was one of the best little projects that I've done in a long time. I was thinking of making a couple of embroidered wool felt oak leaves for them to rest on. Or maybe I'll tie thread to the caps and make a mobile. Or maybe I'll just keep them in the little wooden tray so I can fondle and play with them whenever I want.

The Church Pew of the Quivering Brethren

2008-10-28T18:26:00.010-05:00

Today was moving day at the casa de cherry blossom. After a summer of restoration in the garage, the pew finally made it's way into the rectory, I mean living room. It's the perfect piece of living room furniture for a lapsed Catholic like myself.
The pew is originally from a church in Ketchikan, Alaska. My friend Cyndy was living there a few years ago and she found it at a rummage sale or something like that. She gave it to me when she moved back to Minnesota last year. It was in pretty rough shape so Adrian and I decided to restore it. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of it before we disassembled it. It was was really grungy and rickety. The two side pieces were actually split in two and had to be glued back together. The arm rests were a total disaster so my Dad made me two new ones out of ash. I spent the summer striping the old finish off of it with an orbital sander. What a handy tool that was!
After I stripped the old finish off, Adrian and I stained the pieces. We used an all in one walnut stain/varethane finish. I found out after the fact that it was probably not the best thing to use on old wood. The wood sort of soaked up the stain unevenly so we had some streaking in some places. My clever woodworking Dad said I should have put a coat of pre-stain on it first. Oh well, live and learn. After my initial dismay, I decided that I didn't mind the uneven finish. The pew is handmade and is really old. It has dents and dings and dark spots on it from a lifetime of butts sitting on it. It has tons of character built into it. People pay good money for furniture with a distressed look to it. After we stained the pieces, we reassembled the pew. Of course we dinged it up in the process so we had to apply one final coat of stain to it to cover them up. We finished the pew off with the wooden buttons to cover the screws and a final coat of polyurethane. As you can see on the sides, there is a lighter circle up toward the top. That's where some decorative little circles of wood get glued on. We'll get to that this weekend. We are also going to give the backrest a quick second coat of polyurethane. We noticed some dull streaking on it, probably because it was a really cold day when we painted it. We'll let the wood warm up and paint it in the living room. Maybe if we inhale the paint fumes we will have spiritual visions.So here's a contest for anyone who reads this: Can you name the movie that features the Church of the Quivering Brethren? How about a fabulous prize for the first person who names the movie. I will send the winner one of the lambs from my flock of felted sheep. This contest is NOT open to anyone with the last name of Ehlers or Dayne. The movie is a family favorite and I am pretty sure we could all recite the entire dialog from it.

Another Felted Bag

2008-10-28T16:39:00.002-05:00

This is definitely the last felted bag that I am going to make for a good long while. I mean, just how many felted bags does one person need? I think I've made three new ones in the last couple of months.
The first one was a modular knit bag that used up most of the left over odd balls of lamb's pride worsted from all of the felted clogs that I've knit over the past few years. The bag was freakishly huge before I felted it. I know that most felted items are huge before you toss them into the washing machine, but this thing was a monster! After I felted the bag, it was a reasonably normal size, but the bag is so thick and heavy! It weighs about six pounds. The I cord binding along the top edge was too tight and the straps felted all wonky so I had to cut them off. I intend to add fabric trim to the edge and make a couple of nice straps for it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. So that bag resides on my sewing room floor and functions as a fancy felted feline futon for Big Kitty to lay on:The next bag was the felted Fair Isle tote which I use all the time. I used up some stash yarn for that one. I wrote about it a few blog posts back.
The third and final bag was an impulse project. I saw the pattern and sample at my local yarn shop and fell in love with the simplicity of it. I bought new yarn for this project from Knit Picks. I used 10 skeins total of Wool of the Andes yarn in the colors avocado, fairytale and blackberry. The fairytale yarn is really more of a dark berry color and not the weird hot pink that shows up in the pictures. Knit Picks has really affordable basic yarn and I buy from them when I am feeling frugal. Wool of the Andes is great yarn for felting and is similar to Cascade 220 or Brown Sheep worsted . The pattern is by Theresa Gaffey and is knit in modular garter stitch squares. It's a really easy pattern and has some fun design features like a cool mitred bottom. The pattern called for putting the bag into a pillow case before felting it in the washing machine. It was the first time I'd done that and I must say it worked beautifully. The bag felted really fast and there was no fuzz to shave off. I just wish I didn't use a white pillow case with dark yarn though. Well, at least now I have a designated felting pillow case! I really do love this bag. It will be a great library book bag or knitting project bag. I still need to find a fabulous button for it.I'm not going to start any new major knitting projects for a while. I'm kind of in the mood to knit silly and frivolous things that take just a few hours to make. I do have a sweater that I want to finish up and maybe I'll knit myself a new hat, but for the most part I am going to work on fun little projects knitted from my stash of oddball yarn.

Farmer's Market

2008-10-27T12:30:00.008-05:00

On Saturday, Adrian and I went to the Farmer's Market with his parents. We all wanted to pick up a few last things before the market closes for the season in a couple of weeks. It was a chilly, blustery fall day so there were not very many people there. It was great to shop without the usual crowds. Adrian and I picked up some raw wildflower honey from our favorite local honey farm. I tried samples of both the spring and fall wildflower honey and it's amazing how much of a difference there is. The spring tastes very smooth while the fall has a bite of sharpness to it. I liked them both. We also got a couple of pie pumpkins, some carnival squash, the last tomatoes of the season, yellow peppers, 5 pounds of honey crisp apples, apple cider and some spicy Italian sausages. I love buying locally grown food and supporting small farms. The prices were affordable and there were some end of the season bargains to be had. Snow was in the forecast for Sunday and I think that the farmers wanted to sell their produce before then.
This goofy blue penny rug is one that I made a few years ago. I think that it was one of my first wool felt embroidery projects ever. I worked on it while I was visiting my Mom and Dad out in Oregon. Every year in the fall I put it on my dining room table. It reminds me of my Mom. She gave me the pattern and the hand dyed wool for the leaves. I think she was working on this penny rug too. Did you ever finish that, Mom?
I wish that I owned a small hobby farm. I would keep chickens and grown tons of vegetables and have bee hives. I would have a root cellar and I'd can and preserve all kinds of good things to eat all year long. I would have a greenhouse where I could grow lettuce and tomatoes and herbs in the winter. I would have a few sheep and a border collie to keep them in line. I love the idea of being able to grow and raise the food that we would eat on the land that we'd own. I think that I was a pioneer in a former life. Or maybe a Beverly Hillbilly.

Crazy Chicken

2008-10-23T08:37:00.010-05:00

This crazy chicken wall hanging is probably one of my all time favorite things that I've ever created. I made it a few years ago and it has hung on my sewing room door ever since. There's so much joy and color in this quilt that it always makes me smile. I can tell that I was really happy when I worked on this. I am my harshest critic and it sometimes shocks me that I created something that I like so much. The pattern is adapted from one by Sue Spargo who designs the most amazing wool applique quilts and patterns. I absolutely love her style and creativity. My Mom took a class from her earlier this year and she is having a total blast making and embellishing wool appliqued quilt blocks.I hand dyed the wool for this wall hanging in an all day crazy microwave dyeing session in my kitchen. I dyed fat quarter pieces using procion mx dyes and vinegar for the mordant. It was great fun experimenting with colors and I wound up with a drawer full of pretty dyed wool. My kitchen smelled oddly like wet sheep and vinegar for a day or two though!I think one of the things that I loved about this project was that it combined so many fun techniques. I got to play mad scientist with dyeing the fabric and then I got to select all of the fun colors of beads and fabrics and embroidery threads.I absolutely love doing embroidery. Even the simple blanket stitch in this project was fun to do. The feather stitch is one of my favorites as well. I used size 8 DMC perle cotton.I gathered up all of the size 6 and 8 matte beads that I had in my meager bead stash. The beads are one of my favorite parts of this quilt. I am crazy about matte beads. They look like candy and I would eat them if they were made of sugar and not glass. Check out the purple head feathers. Purple is my favorite color. Wouldn't it be great if there were chickens that really looked like this? I'd love to own real chickens, just a few of them. It would be wonderful to have fresh eggs. This chicken would lay eggs in lovely shades of magenta.

Ornaments in October

2008-10-22T11:51:00.016-05:00

This year the Christmas season began early at the casa de cherry blossom. I've got my tree up and it's all decorated. Nah, I'm just kidding....that would be completely creepy and weird and certainly not the good kind of creepy and weird either! But I did work on a holiday project this past week. I am participating in the ornament swap hosted by Handmade Parade so I got into the Christmas mood very early this year. I wanted to make something with a vintage look so I put on my Charlie Brown Christmas cd, did some creative brainstorming and decided to make little candy colored glass ornaments. I did some Etsy surfing and found the cutest vintage images to use. They are taken from vintage Christmas cards and were the perfect size for my project. The Etsy shop where I bought the images is called cachecache and I picked up some great vintage fairy images as well. I love that cachecache sells her images as digital jpegs that you download. I was able to print out the images just a few hours after buying them with no shipping costs and no waiting. I love that!! I used microscope slides for the glass in this project. It's super lightweight and really easy to use. I got the microscope slides courtesy of my geeky science lab hubby, but you can find them on Ebay too. I cut the slides to the size of the image and they were ready to go. I used my Olfa wavy blade to cut the copper foil. You can buy pre-cut wavy edged foil, but it's expensive and I am a the queen of cheap so I did it myself. I used 3/8 inch foil that I cut in strips and took my wavy rotary cutter to the edges of them. I love the look of wavy edged solder. It reminds me of rick rack trim. I always use lead-free solder on my glass projects which is a bit trickier to use than regular solder, but it's safer and worth the effort. I added wee jump rings to the top and bottom of each piece. After I cleaned and polished the pieces I went shopping for beads. Ideally, I wanted to find beads that looked like little pieces of old fashioned Christmas candy. Naturally there was no such thing at this time of the year, so I settled on the pink and green glass beads that had a vintage look to them. I thought they sort of looked like already sucked on candy. I strung the beads on eye pins, attached them to the glass pieces and added a ribbon hanger. Then I made a quick little hang tag and they were ready to go!These ornaments were really fun to make, but I'm glad to be done with them. They are getting shipped out tomorrow and should make it to their destination with a few days to spare of the Nov. 1st deadline.

Multi Tasking

2008-10-13T15:35:00.004-05:00

It has been one of those days where I can't seem to accomplish the things that I really need to get done. Plus it's been pouring rain all day which made running errands a misery. I was really tempted to take to my bed with a good book this afternoon, but I had yet to do my afternoon exercise. It one of two things that I do every single day without fail. The other thing I try to do every day is to get out of my pajamas. Sometimes the two events happen within minutes of each other. As the weather has been cooling off, my daily exercise of choice has been to hop on my treadmill. Today I discovered that it's possible to knit, sing along to John Hiatt AND walk briskly on the treadmill all at the same time. I was only working on a small garter stitch project so it wasn't too hard, but I did manage to change colors of yarn while maintaining an elevated heart rate. I don't think I'd want to knit an afghan or complicated cables while jogging, but I think I'll tuck an easy knitting project into the handy water bottle/yarn caddy that's on my treadmill. It might be just the thing to keep me motivated.
Here are some pictures of the completed Fair Isle Bag that I was knitting and wrote about a few weeks back. Once the knitting was completed, it was lightly felted in the washing machine. While it was still wet, I slipped it over a cardboard box to give it some shape while it dried. The bag maintains it's boxy shape with the help of the plastic canvas and heavy duty interfacing that's underneath the pretty batik lining. There are four handy pockets on the inside of the bag.The handles are made from rubber tubing from the hardware store. I filled the tubing with an assortment of beads and sewed them to the bag with upholstery thread. I wrapped embroidery thread and a few beads around the tubing to finish it off.I don't know if I'd do another Fair Isle felted project again because the pattern became quite blurry after felting. But it could have been the hand spun yarn that I was using. My friend Sue made this bag using the recommended yarn and her Fair Isle pattern isn't as blurry as mine. I've been using the bag as a small tote to carry my knitting project to and from my Friday afternoon knitting group. I love the pockets, the lining and the color of this bag and it's really sturdy too. It would take a hurricane force wind to topple this baby over with all of the interfacing in it.

Tin Fish

2008-10-11T17:34:00.008-05:00

Today was such a beautiful fall day here in Minnesota that Adrian and I took a break from our weekend chores and went out to lunch with his wonderful parents, Myron and Maria. We went to a fun little place right on Lake Calhoun called Tin Fish. They make all kinds of fishy wonderfulness ranging from fish and chips to walleye tacos. The restaurant itself is really nothing more than a funky counter where you place your order and a bunch of outdoor tables clustered on a patio overlooking the lake. It's the perfect place to stop for a bite to eat while out for a walk or a bike ride around the lake. Adrian and I both had the walleye tacos with fresh salsa and we thought that they were wonderful. The crispy fries were well seasoned and the coleslaw had a tasty sweet-tart vinegar dressing on it. We washed everything down with fresh squeezed lemonade. We were mad with hunger when we arrived and we left with our bellies full and very happy. The Pavilion at Lake Calhoun (where Tin Fish is located) is such a great place to people watch. All walks of life seem to congregate there. There's everyone from blue haired old ladies in leopard print pants to young parents with their chubby babies to bald guys in flip flops who should have really kept their shirts on. There are plenty of dogs to look at as well. Everything from teeny weenie dogs to great slobbering bull dogs. Some people carried their dogs in baby backpacks and others were pulled along at a fast trot by their unruly beasts. We had such a fun time as we watched the wispy blue sky turn silvery gray with approaching storm clouds. All in all, it was a terrific way to spend the afternoon: Great company, great food and a gorgeous view.

Faeries in the Garden

2008-10-06T19:53:00.005-05:00

If you want to invite a faery into your garden.....You will have to make them a pretty chair to sit on.... The chair should be made from the best materials you can find: twigs from a rowan tree, silk fabric, tiny glass beads and the finest embroidery thread.Tuck the chair into a corner of your garden....and maybe....if you're lucky....a faery will take a fancy to it and will decide to live there.

Another Pair of Hagrid Slippers

2008-10-04T11:31:00.010-05:00

A few years ago I came across this pattern for felted clogs. So I knit myself a pair and wore them all the time. Next, I made Adrian a pair and then I made my sister Sandra a pair and then my Mom a pair. Every time someone came to our house and saw us wearing the felted clogs, they wanted a pair. One Christmas I knit so many pairs that I crippled myself. I got knitter's elbow for lack of a better term and it took weeks to heal. Finally I broke down and replaced my size 13 bamboo needles with Addi Turbos. Then the felted slippers really flew off my needles with lightening speed. My family began calling them Hagrid slippers because they're incredibly huge before you throw them in the washing machine and felt them. Hagrid slippers are wonderful. We have wood floors in our house and the basement is uninsulated. The wood floors get incredibly cold during the winter months and the double soled slippers keep our feet nice and toasty. Our good friend Jim was one of the first recipients of Hagrid slippers. I knitted them for him many years ago. A couple of years ago when the soles began to wear out, instead of having me fix them, he foolishly put glue on them. I chastised him for his idiotic behavior and pronounced him not worthy of a new pair. Then I knit his wife Patrice a pair to taunt him. He continued to wear the slippers with the tacky glued sole.It was Jim's 50th birthday this week. Adrian has known him since they were young lads participating in Ukrainian dancing. I've know him since he came to visit Adrian when we were living in Hawaii in the early 80's. In honor of this lifelong friendship and his milestone birthday, I decide to forgive his past transgressions and knit him another pair of Hagrid slippers. His last pair were green and black. I opted for navy blue and charcoal for this pair. I do know one thing for sure, if Jim puts glue on this pair he's going to have to wear them until his 90th birthday.

Pam, the Shepherdess

2008-10-04T10:06:00.006-05:00

I have a small flock of sheep. They are surprisingly low maintenance little creatures and they bring me much joy. Okay, so they're not real sheep, which is probably why they're so darn easy to care for. They are little felted sheep that I knitted from wool yarn. I found the pattern at my library and I though it was charming and that maybe I'd knit one some day. I copied the pattern, shoved it in my knitting file and forgot all about it. Last year after I broke my neck I was looking for some small knitting projects that I could do while I recuperated and I came across the sheep pattern. The pattern is really intriguing. You begin knitting the sheep at the hind legs, work your way over the butt and back of the sheep, knit the head and then finish up with the belly until you reach the hind legs again. It's kind of like skinning a sheep but in reverse. You wind up with this floppy little sheep skin minus the carcass. Not that I've ever skinned any animal before. Gross! I can barely handle raw boneless skinless chicken breasts without gagging.After you knit the sheep, you toss it in a washing machine filled with hot water and it felts into a lovely little sheep skin. Then you stuff the sheep with polyfil, shape the ears and that's it! I was absolutely enchanted with my first little lambie. It was just so darn cute! So I knit another one.... and another one.... and another one....and another one and the next thing I knew, I had a flock. I gave some of the sheep away to good homes and the rest reside in my living room where they graze on the snippets of yarn and sewing thread that litter my floor.
I thought my flock was looking a bit small so I knit up a couple of new little guys this week to add to the menagerie. Five sheep is a good size flock for a small house like mine. I swear I'm not going to kit anymore. Then again, maybe one more dark gray one....or maybe an all black one....or a larger light gray one.... or a brown one or......

Pesto!

2008-09-30T09:38:00.006-05:00

Last Saturday was the annual pesto making day at our house. I make up a year's supply of pesto for us to eat and to give away as gifts and bribes. The bribes are usually to entice our friends to feed and play with Big Kitty while when we're out of town. A couple of jars usually make their way up to a Yupik village in Alaska where my sister Sandra teaches school. We share the pesto with our friends and the rest we eat all year long on pasta, pizza or chicken. It's great to add to tomato sauce and soups as well.This year our crop of home grown basil was a bit skimpy so I had to supplement with basil from the Farmer's Market. Adrian assisted by plucking the leaves from the stems and washing all the leaves. Here's my recipe:

4-6 cups basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 cup grated parmesan/asiago cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
8 small cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp pepper

Dump everything into a food processor and give it a good whirl until everything is blended together. And that's it! I make many batches of this and dump it into a big glass bowl. I fill my jars once I've used up all of my ingredients. This year I made about eight or ten batches which resulted in 12 cups of green basily goodness. I use heavy lexan plastic 1 and 2 cup nalgene jars for my pesto because they don't retain odors, are very sturdy and work great for freezing. I ordered them from a laboratory supply house and I use them year after year. Friends and family know that if I don't get my nalgene jars back after they've eaten the pesto they will be cut off the following year. I am quite fierce about this. The jars of pesto go into the deep freeze and last all year long. I keep a jar in my refrigerator which can last several months without a problem. Adrian and I are going camping next week and we need someone to watch Big Kitty. I've got a 1 cup jar of fresh pesto for anyone who is willing to watch her!

A Sense of Place

2008-09-27T19:49:00.032-05:00

I've joined the 2008 Bead Journal Project and will be making a piece of bead work for each month starting with September. This is my first year participating in the BJP and the first piece of bead work that I've worked on in nearly 18 months. I am really excited to be participating in this project and I'm looking forward to a years worth of beading.After I signed up for the BJP I began thinking about what types of bead work that I wanted to do for the up coming year. I am currently participating in a year long journal quilt project and my work for that is all over the place in terms of style and technique. I've had a lot of fun working on the journal quilts but I think that as a group, the quilts lack cohesion. I don't really mind this because I've learned so much with creating each piece, but I will likely come up with a loose plan for next year's journal quilts. For the BJP I wanted to come up with a way to unify the twelve pieces other than the just size of the piece. I didn't want to plan out all of the pieces in advance, but I wanted to have a topic or color scheme that would help to keep my work cohesive.Eventually, I decided that I wanted to bead about the different geographic places that are special to me. Over the years I've developed strong attachments to particular locations and I feel connected in many ways to these places whether it's from the experiences that I've had there, the beauty of the landscape, or the emotions that the place evokes. Feeling emotionally attached to a particular location is sometimes described as 'having a sense of place'. If you are curious to learn more about a sense of place you can read about it here. So my theme for the upcoming year will be A Sense of Place and the circular shapes will create little porthole views of what that location means to me.For September's project, I decided to bead about the north shore of Lake Superior. Adrian and I had a camping trip planned for the middle of the month so I decided to start my beading then. I wrote about that trip a few blog posts back. I also wrote about my fretting over the bead work a few days ago so you are welcome to read about that bit of neurosis if you want to as well. To be honest, I was a bit anxious when I began this piece. It had been a while since I had done any beading and it was daunting to see that blank circle of cloth with just a line or two of beads on it. I had completely forgotten how to relax and trust that the bead work would evolve naturally. Once I quit being panicky, I really began to enjoy the beading. I beaded the blues and grays of the water first, added the greens around the lower edges and then worked on the rocky shoreline. Adrian found the little heart shaped piece of basalt while he was hunting for agates on our camping trip. I wanted to be able to see the rounded edge of the heart so I decided not to use beads hold it in place. Instead I glued it down with Fabric Tac glue.
Here's how I finished the piece:First I removed my outline basting stitches and tore off the excess paper around the bead work. Using a double strand of nylon upholstery thread, I sewed a length of running stitches a half inch away from the bead work and all the way around the piece. I cut out a circle of mat board and glued a piece of cotton batting to it. For me, bead work is a tactile thing as well as visual. The thin batting gives the bead work a slight convex softness and makes it wonderfully touchable. I gathered the bead work around the mat board and secured the thread with several back stitches. I pulled the upholstery thread quite tight to help stretch and smooth the bead work out on the front of the piece. Big Kitty pondered the meaning of life as I finished off the piece with a row of size 14 beads around the edge. I glued leather to the back of the piece and signed it. Big Kitty gives it her approval by laying on top of it. I call this piece Love on the Rocks. You can read more about that in my blog post of the same name. I can't wait to begin my October piece!

Little Fish, Big Fish

2008-09-26T16:53:00.019-05:00

A several years ago Adrian and I dug a big hole in our backyard....Weeks of sweaty manual labor transformed the hole into a pond....We went to the store and got some little koi fish to live in the pond....
After much deliberation, we named the three little orange fish Orangie, Spottie and Cappie. The spotted black fish we named Blackie. I know what you are thinking...the lamest names EVER! But all I can say in our defense is that we were delirious from digging dirt and hauling rocks for weeks on end. Later on I wanted to change the names of the orange ones to Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire and Count Olaf for the spotted black one, but Adrian would have absolutely nothing to do with that. If you don't know who the Baudelaires are, I strongly encourage you to read these books. They are insanely clever and delightfully macabre (the books, not the fish).....When the pond looks like this....We hack a hole in the ice, scoop out the fish and move them to a fish tank in our basement for the winter where they watch me feed the cat and wash clothes. As the years have gone by, the pond plants (which also spend the winter inside) have grown....And the garden plants have matured.....And the little fish..... have turned into bigger fish....big hungry fish...very hungry fish...

September Sunflower

2008-09-26T15:00:00.014-05:00

This is another one of my quilts from the Journal Quilt Class that I am currently taking at Colorful Quilts and Textiles. A couple of months ago, our class teacher Susan Stein showed us some really cool samples of what you can do with the cheapo sheets of acrylic felt that are available in every craft store on the planet. The technique involved distressing the felt by melting it with a heat gun. So I went out and bought a sheet of felt and it sat untouched in my sewing room until the day before the next class. This quilt is the result of what I did with the felt.
First, I tore up some random pieces of printed scrapbook paper and glued them onto the felt with watered down PVA glue. Then I glued down two layers of crumpled tissue paper on top. Next I painted the tissue paper with dyna flow paint in shades of yellow and gold. I let the felt dry and then I pulled out some rubber stamps and stamped all over the painted and papered felt. I wound up with a stiff piece of felt paper that looked like this:I cut petal shapes out of the felt using my soldering iron, which gave the edges a neat melted look. For the center seed part of the sunflower I used a tyvek mailing envelope that I painted, sewed and steamed with my pressing iron. Tyvek is cool stuff to play with. It takes paint beautifully and melts easily with a heat gun or an iron. I set a pressing cloth over the back of the tyvek and pressed with my steam iron for a few seconds and voila! The tyvek bubbled up to form three dimensional 'seeds' (or gecko skin in the case of this quilt). I used some fabric that had I dyed earlier this summer for the back ground and leaves. I quilted the blue background first, added the stem and quilted that and then added the leaves and quilted them. The stem and leaves are fused to the background using wonder under. I wanted the sunflower seeds to be dimensional so I layered several circles of cotton batting underneath it before I stitched it to the quilt. Next came the petals. I began laying them down and stitching them onto the quilt, leaving some space in between the petals. After the first layer of petals was stitched down, I tucked some petals under and over those until the flower began to look dimensional. My sewing machine was not very happy with me as I was sewing down the last few petals. It balked at stitching through several layers of glued and melted felt paper.I glued some fuzzy yarn around the center of the flower to cover up the edges of the petals and then added backing and binding. Lastly, I colored the center stitch lines on the petals with a brown ochre water color pencil. I am really happy with this little quilt. I am so glad that I didn't blow off the melted felt technique and not experiment as I was so tempted to do. This class has been very good for me. It has helped me to think outside the box and to try new techniques that I wouldn't have otherwise. Normally, when I read about a clever fiber arts technique in a magazine or a book I'll think 'how cool, I need to try that!'. But then I never do. With this class, I always experiment with the techniques at home because then I have something for show and tell the following month. As an added incentive, if you bring show and tell to class you get to put your name in a basket to win a fabulous prize each month. So there you have it, dangle a reward in front of my nose and I'll try anything! I am the quintessential Pavlovian dog of crafting. Bribe me with a treat and I will perform. It just occurred to me that I have yet to win the monthly prize and the year is almost up. I wonder if Pavlov's dogs turned on him when he failed to reward them? This could get ugly....

The Lads Are Back In Town

2008-09-24T15:11:00.012-05:00

I woke up insanely early this morning because I was fretting about the bead project that I am currently working on. With September almost over, I am feeling a sense of urgency to get this project completed. This is the first month that I am participating in the Bead Journal Project, and I really don't want to finish this month's piece late. Definitely not the ideal way to start off a year long project! I began the piece while I was camping but I put it away after a couple of days in a fit of beader's remorse. I had been using mostly size 11 beads and the piece was looking flat and uninteresting. I wanted to mix things up with some smaller size 14's, but I didn't bring any with me and there was no ready source of beads out in the woods. In 'Pam's Perfectly Perfect World' there would have been a gypsy bead peddler camping down the trail from us!
Anyway, I was doing some predawn beading in my sewing room this morning when I heard Adrian beginning to stir. These were the first words out of his mouth: "Today's the Day"!!! I knew there was only one thing that could cause such excitement in his voice at five o'clock in the morning. NHL Hockey. Yep, tonight is the first pre-season game of the Minnesota Wild. The season is starting bit late this year because the hockey arena in St. Paul hosted the Republican National Convention a few weeks ago and they needed to bring in a voodoo priestess to help eliminate the political bad juju from the place.
Adrian has season tickets to the Wild so what this means for me is that between now and next April, I get to spend fifty some odd evenings alone. Which is a good thing because I usually love my alone nights. I listen to music, drink wine, work on projects and generally enjoy having the house to myself. It also makes me really happy that Adrian has an activity that gives him so much enjoyment. I mean, the guy lives for hockey. He spent the entire Republican Convention in a state of fear that someone would plant a bomb in the arena and ruin the hockey season. So... Today is the day!!! The Lads are Back in Town (for some odd reason, we fondly refer to the the hockey team as The Lads in our house). The photo is of Adrian, my Dad and Adrian's Dad decked out in hockey regalia. They went to a game last season when my folks were visiting us last year.
By the way, the predawn fretting turned into a morning of peaceful zen beading. I'm over halfway done with my bead project. The water part is done, now I need to work on the land.

Love on the Rocks

2008-09-21T19:06:00.019-05:00

One sunny, breezy day Adrian and I hiked down from our campsite to our little private beach cove for a picnic lunch. I brought along a bead embroidery project that I've been working on for the Bead Journal Project. The piece is inspired by Lake Superior so it seemed fitting to work on it while I was sitting on the shore. The sun was hot and the waves were crashing as I sat there contentedly working on my bead project. Adrian, after a brief snooze in the sun, wandered along the shore hunting for the elusive Lake Superior Agate.
I had an idea that maybe I could incorporate a few small rocks from the beach into by bead work. So I called out to Adrian, much the same way that Princess Buttercup called out to Westley: "Farmboy, fetch me that pitcher". Except that I said: "Farmboy, look for a little flat piece of basalt that I could put in my bead work." Naturally Adrian replied: "As you wish". The fact that Adrian can quote from one of my all time favorite movies and also knows exactly what a flat little piece of basalt looks like makes me love him like crazy, but would you just take a look at what he found?
I know, it's so bloody perfect it makes you almost want to barf.I absolutely love geology. Call me crazy, but words like alluvial fan, paleomagnatism, migmatite and obsidian make me giddy. I think rocks are the coolest things and I'm always on the hunt for new ones to add to my haphazard collection. The truth is, I've been a rock picker since I was a grubby little kid searching for agates on the beach at Fogarty Creek in Oregon. I used to spend hours combing through piles of rocks and sand in search of treasures. As I've grown older, not much has changed except that instead of picking rocks with my sisters, I have Adrian to help me hunt for agates and other cool stones. We love finding a good beach to explore and on our trip up north we found a great one. In addition to many little agates, we found quartz, granite, rhyolite, basalt, chert, jasper, chalcedony, anorthsite, carnelian, thomsonite, amygdaloidal rhyolite, gabbro, diabase and lintonite. These are some of the prettiest ones that we found and I find them absolutely mesmerizing. I'll use a few of them in my bead project, and the rest I'll keep in a jar on the mantle over the fireplace so I can take them down and play with them when no one is looking.

Dog Days of Summer

2008-09-21T17:03:00.010-05:00

Adrian and I are back from a week long camping trip along the shore of Lake Superior. We went to Tettegouche State Park and camped at a lovely site overlooking the lake. From the campsite, a short steep path led down to our own private beach cove. The trees along the lake were still quite green, but some of the maple trees off the lake had already turned astonishing shades of red and orange. It was lovely, relaxing and a whole lot of fun hanging out in the woods. The breeze off the lake was a bit cold at times, but a warm fleece jacket, a hat and a campfire took care of most of the shivering. When we weren't hiking or hanging out on the rocky beach, I spent most of the time swinging in my hammock, which is the most comfortable hammock in the whole wide world. It's made out of parachute nylon and is by far the most relaxing place to be. It's pretty hard to be ambitious once you settle into the cocoon of joy, but I did spend some hammock time knitting and reading and working on a beading project in between naps. This was the view that I enjoyed while swinging in the breeze:
One warm day we took a hike to some lakes a few miles inland. The day was picture perfect, the sky that luscious color of blue you only see in the fall. We stopped at an old logging camp and I would have gone swimming if I was wearing fur like this crazy dog was. Her name is Summer and she is the beloved dog of my friend Cyndy. I call her dog Spazeline (rhymes with vaseline) because she's a spaz dog extraordinaire. As we rested from our hike, we watched Spazeline fling herself off of the dock in pursuit of a stick that Cyndy was throwing into the water. This crazy dog, despite her semi advanced years would play fetch for days if you let her. Once on a canoe trip down the Namekagon river I threw six pieces of wood into the water to see how many she'd pick up before she was swept down stream by the swift current. Much to my amusement, she got every single one of them. Then she climbed panting and exhausted out of the river, shook water all over me and dropped her sticks by my feet ready to play 'drown the dog' all over again. On this hiking trip, Spazeline entertained us with belly flops for a good half hour before she abandoned the dock in favor of the less vigorous shoreline entry. She would have frolicked for hours in the water, but my hammock was calling it's siren song from miles away so we coaxed the dog out of the water and trekked back to our campsite.

Checking into the Clown Motel

2008-09-13T09:21:00.014-05:00

Adrian and I discovered this motel a few years ago on an epic road trip west. We came across this vacation hot spot in the middle of nowhere. We had been driving for most of the day across miles of open range land in Nevada and when we first saw this sign were convinced that it was a mirage. Then I wondered at the marketing strategy behind this. Why would anyone think that attaching painted wooden clowns to the motel doors would act as a lure to potential patrons? Or perhaps the owners were clowns. Or maybe this is the official motel for the International Convention of Clowns. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this was a chain of motels like the Red Roof Inn or Best Western? You could travel across the country staying in Clown Motels. Maybe business would be so good that the owners would branch out and open a few upscale Jester Hotels. Or maybe a quaint Mime Bed and Breakfast out in the country.

Unfortunately we were on our way to Yosemite National Park and did not have time to stop and take advantage of all of the wonderful amenities offered at the Clown Motel. We were also a bit confused by the sign. Would our mini pets indeed be welcome at the Clown Motel? Or did the sign mean that after an evening of free HBO in our clean room, would we only be offered a mini breakfast in the morning? And what exactly is a mini pet? A ferret? A tiny pony? Or what about a mini breakfast? If it meant that we'd be served mini donuts I would have made a U turn and checked right in to the Clown Motel, that's for sure. I would have been staying all by myself though. Adrian was frightened and wanted to put as much distance as possible between him and the Clown Motel before nightfall.

I think this picture of the Clown Motel should act as a universal 'Gone Fishing' sign for bloggers. When you read the words "I'm checking into the Clown Motel" it will mean that the blogger is going on vacation, will be out of town on business, is having another psychotic episode or just doesn't feel like blogging for a while. As for me, I'll be checking into the Clown Motel and will be gone all week. Adrian and I are headed to the shores of Lake Superior for some camping fun. Hopefully it will be a clown free holiday.

No Fear

2008-09-12T15:56:00.027-05:00

Every Friday around lunchtime I get together at a coffee shop with my friends Sue and Beth and we knit or crochet. We've been doing this since January and we always have a most excellent time. We laugh and chat and discuss Project Runway and sometimes we even get some knitting done. Currently, I'm working on a smallish Fair Isle tote that will eventually get felted. The pattern was a freebie from this great shop. For the base color I'm using some dark purple blue lopi lite left over from the very first sweater that I knit. The pattern originally called for using the lovely Noro Kureyon for the contrasting yarn which produces a wonderful variegated wave of color. Since I wanted to knit this bag from yarn that I already had, I'm using two odd balls of stuff that my sister Brenda hand spun and sent to me. They're a sort of medium periwinkle blue with bits of other colors thrown in. I am pretty sure that she spun them quite a while ago because there are some odd bumps and thin patches in the yarn. It's the perfect yarn for felting. Now, should anyone jump to the false conclusion that I am dissing Brenda's spinning skills, I must state that the yarn she spins now is a flawless work of art. She has gifted me with some loverly hand spun yarn that, were I not such an exceptionally fine sister, I would not be worthy of. Brenda told me today that she's sending me half of her massive yarn stash and her collection of Addi Turbos next week. Not really, but she did promise to send me some tasty alpaca yarn.
Back to the felted tote....the fair isle pattern is super simple and since it's knit in the round, it's a perfect project for someone new to working with two colors of yarn. My friend Sue completed one of these bags in less than a week and she had never done two stranded knitting before. But then again, she's a knitting wizard. Last month she knit a scarf the length of the Great Wall of China while watching the summer Olympics. Not really, but she was a mad knitting fool for those two weeks!
Today before we went to meet Sue at the coffee shop, Beth and I went to The Yarnery to look at yarn and fondle the fabulous sample projects in the store. When Beth picked me up at my house she noticed the treadmill that I have in the entryway. I said that Adrian and I had bought it after I broke my neck last year so that I'd have an easy way to get some exercise. I mentioned how after my accident things like walking on icy streets and going down steep stairs made me kind of nervous. Beth, in her wise, matter of fact way, reminded me that do I have two titanium rods bolted to my spine which makes my neck plenty strong because it's re-enforced. It's certainly not going to break again with all that metal attached to it! I laughed because she was absolutely right, but later on when I was thinking about it, I had one of those wonderful AHA! moments. The truth is, the accident shook my confidence and made me feel physically vulnerable. I do still have some bad days and the pain can be frustrating, but I think that it's time for me to let go of some of that fear that I've been hanging on to. Today I accepted that my neck is strong and chances are pretty darn excellent that I am not going to re injure myself. Which is why I've decided to go cliff diving this weekend. Not really, but I am going camping next week and I will try to go on a few challenging hikes.
Beth is amazing. She could have very easily said "Get over your fear Pam, it's time to move on with your life". But she would never ever in a million years do that. Instead she said something that prompted me to reach that conclusion on my own. Beth is all about letting people be in charge of their own life and their own destiny. Clever woman, that Beth. She's running for president this year and everyone should vote for her. Not really, but I'm really lucky to have her as a friend.

Fresh Fish

2008-09-11T12:16:00.018-05:00

I've been taking a journal quilt class at Colorful Quilts and Textiles for about six months now. The class meets once a month for nine months and is taught by the talented Susan Stein, owner of the shop. The purpose of the class is to learn a new fiber arts technique each month, go home and play around with that technique and hopefully create a small quilt block. Some of the techniques we've learned in class have been mono printing, fusing angelina fibers, sun printing, fused fabric beads, misty fuse sandwiches and coloring with Shiva paint sticks. I've tried to push myself to experiment with all of the techniques, even the ones I'm not quite sure about. There have been times that I've procrastinated until the day before class to experiment because the technique didn't initially inspire me. Surprisingly, some of those last minute creative sessions resulted in a few of my favorite quilts. Here's a couple of quilts that I've recently made:

Fresh Fish

The techniques we learned in class were photo transfers on fabric and rubber stamping on fabric. All of my quilts are 8 1/2 x 11 inches and start with cotton batting fused to a sheet of peltex (a heavy weight interfacing). The table cloth is stamped with red paint using a stamp that I made from an eraser. I took photos of one of my plates and silverware and printed them on fabric sheets. The neon fish is a sign from the public market in Seattle and was printed on fabric as well. The big gyotaku fish stamp is made by the very cool Fred Mullett. I love his stamps! After stamping the fish on fabric, I thought it needed some bling so I embroidered the fins and added a sequin to the eye. I satin stitched around the edge and stuffed it with polyfil. I glued the fish to the plate and that was it! I hung the quilt in my kitchen and have enjoyed looking at it, but I thought it needed a companion piece which leads to....

Sushi Bar

We made fabric beads in class last month so I decided to try making some sushi beads at home. To make the guts of the sushi I rolled up scrap pieces of felted wool into round cylinders about two inches long. To make the rice I wrapped white wool yarn around a piece of cardboard and ironed a piece of fusible web to it. I cut the yarn off the cardboard and cut them into two inch strips. I wrapped the rice around the guts and fused it in place. I used a dark green piece of fabric for the seaweed, wrapped it around the rice and fused it in place. The sushi logs were about two inches long so I cut them into half inch pieces with sharp scissors. I painted gloss medium around the edges so they'd look shiny and then glued the sushi to the lime green fabric plate. I have some leftover sushi and I think I might make some magnets for my refrigerator.

The Talisman Scarf

2008-09-08T15:56:00.023-05:00

This little scarf has more memories knitted into every stitch than any other project that I've ever done. It's made from a lovely pale gray baby alpaca yarn that's soft as a kitten. It's by far the single most petable thing that I've ever knit. The scarf started it's life on an epic road trip that Adrian and I took in May 2007. I selected the scarf for a travel project because the yarn was yummy, the project was small and the cables were complex enough that I wouldn't finish the project in one day.
My friend Cyndy was living in Ketchikan, Alaska at the time and she needed someone to drive her new truck from Minnesota to Alaska. Adrian and I thought it sounded like fun so we volunteered. We'd road tripped west many times and the thought of another trip across Montana didn't appeal to us so we decided to drive across North Dakota and up into Canada. We love camping so we decided to pack our tent and camp along the way. The journey was pure magic from start to finish. We traveled across some of the flattest country I've ever seen, drove up through the Canadian Rockies and into British Columbia, one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We took a ferry from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan, hung out with Cyndy for a few days and then began our journey home. We rode the ferry from Ketchikan to Bellingham WA, a two and a half day trip. At night we slept out on the deck of a nearly empty ferry and had lovely sunny weather during the days. We spent an afternoon in Seattle running around playing tourist and then hopped on the Amtrak train in time to watch the sunset that evening. We arrived in Saint Paul 36 hours later, looking kind of grubby and a bit tired but really happy from our adventure. Through out the trip I knit on my scarf. I knit in the truck, while we were camping snowbound in the Rockies, during a rainy day in Ketchikan, outside on the deck of ferry and on the train across the country. When I touch my scarf I can remember parts of the road trip as vividly as looking at a snapshot. I didn't quite finish the scarf during the trip so I unpacked it and set it in my knitting basket where it sat for a couple of weeks.
In early June I took a terrible fall and wound up with a broken neck. I am incredibly lucky that I wasn't paralyzed or worse. Thanks to my clever neurosurgeon Dr. Kim, I have two titanium rods bolted to my spine and a wicked Frankenstein scar running up the back of my neck. I spent some time in the hospital and then headed home for a summer of painful recuperation. The first few weeks of my recovery were really awful because I was physically helpless and in a lot of pain. I remember the day that I picked up the scarf to try knitting on it. I was home from the hospital maybe a week or so and able to sit up for short periods of time. My life had become so scary and complicated and I cried all the time. I desperately wanted to do something that would make me feel normal again. I had to hold my knitting needles up high in order for me to see the stitches over my neck brace. I think I knit about five stitches that day, but it had a huge emotional impact on me. It gave me hope that things would be better in time and that I'd eventually get my life back.
From that day forward, the scarf that already had so many wonderful memories knit into it, became a healing project. I taught myself to knit the cables without a cable needle because it was easier for me to handle and considerably less fussy. Sometimes I'd knit just a few stitches, other times I'd be able to knit a few rows. I worked on the scarf all summer long. I healed and became stronger with every cable that I knit and the scarf grew longer until I ran out of yarn. I completed the scarf in time to take it on our first camping trip after the accident. It was early October and we camped on the shore of Lake Superior. It was an extremely careful camping trip, with slow, gentle hiking and long afternoon naps in the tent. I wore the scarf snuggled around my neck on the chilly nights in front of the campfire. The scarf was no longer a road trip project or a healing project, it became my talisman, a knitted memento of both the happy and sad moments over the past five months. My soft, gray talisman scarf was knit with absolute joy, confused pain, determination and bittersweet acceptance of the unexpected challenges of life.

The Beaded Mermaid

2008-09-07T16:07:00.019-05:00

This is one of the items that I entered in the State Fair this year. I made her a couple of years ago while Adrian and I were stranded in Hawaii for a couple of months. Adrian had planted a winter crop of his research corn on Molokai and due to bad weather it was way behind schedule. We arrived in early January and the corn was only about six inches high (it needed to be about six feet high with emerging tassels in order for him to work with it). So we got to relax, snorkel, fly our stunt kite and enjoy the laid back pace of Molokai for a lot longer than we anticipated. I had brought along a small stash of beads thinking that I might have time for a quick beaded project, but thanks to our extended stay, I decided to do something more complex. I drew out a pattern and traced it onto a scrap of batik fabric. I stitched it by hand using nymo thread and very, very small back stitches. I stuffed it with coarse Molokai sand and a wee bit of polyfil that I filched from a throw pillow in the house we were renting. I thought the fabric looked a bit dull so I painted it with watercolors before I began beading. This was the first time that I had beaded anything that wasn't flat and I learned later that many people bead the piece first and then sew it together. I really liked having her pre-stuffed though. The weight of the doll in my hand as I beaded felt really nice and I enjoyed beading around her curves. My mood while beading her was happy, content and peaceful and I think that it's reflected in the bead work. I listened to some very mellow Hawaiian slack key guitar music while I worked on this piece. The mermaid suffered one injury due to an annoyingly tenacious mouse that had set up residence in our rental house. In addition to nibbling on our papayas and stealing our bars of soap, the mouse decided to take a bite out of my doll. I woke up one morning to find her on the floor, leaking sand and missing a few beads. I shed some tears, stitched her up, repaired the mouse damage and kept her safe in a drawer from then on. By the time the corn was ready, I had completed beading the bottom half of her as well as the heart on her chest. Then we worked like dawgs out in the corn fields for 10 days and flew back to snowy Minnesota. She sat for a few weeks until I decided what to do with the top half. She looked pretty good faceless and I almost left her that way. But I have this press mold for polymer clay that makes face cabochons and I was fooling around with it one day after I had mixed up some green, black and translucent clay to emulate jade. Once the face was baked, I painted it with a wash of black acrylic paint and then rubbed most of it off with a paper towel. It gave the face an antique, aged look and I really like the imperfectness of it. The face seemed to fit her peaceful hawaiian mood and I think it's a lovely reflection of how I was feeling during my time on Molokai. Her hair is made from a feathery variegated yarn called Paton's Cha Cha. I bought it at the time when everyone was knitting those ridiculous fluffy scarves and the stores were infested with this kind of yarn. The yarn is light and fluffy and when it's all spread out, I think it looks like her seaweed hair is swaying with the currents of the water. I highly recommend using sand as a stuffing medium. It gives such a lovely, substantial weight to the project and it was very easy to bead with. I was able to sink all of my thread knots inside the doll with no visible puckering of the fabric. I used mostly size 11 Japanese seed beads and she's about six inches tall.
I am delighted to say that my mermaid doll won a second place ribbon at the State Fair this year! The other items entered in this category were so flippin' amazing that I think a mistake was made that allowed me to sneak away with the second place ribbon. There are a lot of extremely talented beaders here in Minnesota and bead work that was exhibited at the fair was mind boggling. Prize winner or not, I am very pleased with my little beaded mermaid. She brings back such happy memories of my extended stay on Molokai. Adrian and I are going to Kauai this winter and I think I might make a beaded sea turtle for my mermaid to swim with.

Gecko On A Stick

2008-09-06T18:28:00.018-05:00

Here's one of the items I entered in the MN State Fair. The category was 'quilt on a stick' which is a tongue-in-cheek homage to all of the goodies you can get at the fair that are on a stick (pickle
on a stick, deep fried candy bar on a stick, alligator on a stick, etc...). There were almost 100 submissions which is amazing because this was the first year for this category. My entry, gecko on a stick, was not a winner but it did make it into the top 25.
The gecko skin was made from a tyvek mailing envelope. I painted it, stitched on it, shrunk it with a heat gun, painted it some more, fused it, cut it to shape, and stitched it onto the fabric. The feel of the tyvek is very leathery and the metallic paints give it a lovely shimmer. I gave the quilt some bling by adding a few of my coveted ceramic buttons that I bought in Prague from a street vendor.

The quilt is finished off with a handle made from an ordinary paint stirring stick from the hardware store. The colors are typical Pam colors of purple, lime green and turquoise. One day, when pigs fly, I will make something in brown. There were some really cool quilts submitted and it was fun seeing all of the creative things that everyone did. My friend Carmelita Fantastica entered a quilt in this category too. She made a beautifully embroidered red heart on a white background. Hers was in the top 25 too. Way to go Carmelita!!!

The State Fair Affair

2008-09-06T10:53:00.018-05:00

I entered some things in the Minnesota State Fair this year. It was the first time I've entered anything in any competition. I am a highly skilled procrastinator so naturally I waited until the very last second to sign up. I entered a beaded project, a handmade doll, a knitted scarf, a small quilt and a knitted sweater. I knew that the chances of winning a ribbon for the sweater were nil because Minnesota has an abundance of wickedly clever sweater knitters. I also knew that the small quilt wouldn't have much of a chance because rumor had it there were literally hundreds of entries in that category. I thought I might have a chance at maybe winning a ribbon for one of the other things. The fair awards modest cash prizes for first, second and third place in most categories so my goal was to win enough money to buy a corn dog at the fair (it didn't have to be foot long corn dog even, a regular one would be fine).
Anyway, on the first day of the fair my friend, Carmelita Fantastica, and I headed straight to the Creative Activities building to find our stuff (she entered a gorgeous little quilt too). It was kind of like a treasure hunt because everything is arranged randomly in many glass display cases. I won't go into the hilarious details of our search, but suffice it to say, I squealed like a little girl every time we located one of our items. I believe there may have been some very excited jumping up and down and a bit of giggling as well. It was a total blast and I am happy to say that I was able to buy that corn dog (a foot long!) with my winnings. I took Adrian to see my award winning stuff later on in the evening and by the time we finished looking at everything my ego was huge. Adrian predicted correctly that I was going to be difficult to live with. Actually, I was just really, really happy to have won a ribbon for something that I've made. It was so much fun and I had a huge grin on my face for days.
Now I have to gush about another state fair winner. My pal and crafting buddy Alex won second prize for a silk corset that she made! What's so amazing about this is that she's only sixteen years old and the corset was a complete work of art. I taught Alex to sew many years ago and I am so incredibly proud of her progress. She selected the project and fabric earlier this summer and she worked on it at my house during a sew day-sleepover. I assisted her by being her ironing lackey and pattern interpreter, but she sewed every single seam on the entire corset. This is no easy task for such a complex garment and it requires a lot of precision. She did a bang up job and the corset looks and fits spectacular. She looks incredibly gorgeous in it which, I think, makes her folks a tad nervous. Alex is an incredibly brilliant and down to earth young woman and is my all time favorite sixteen year old on the planet.

Not So New Year's Resolutions

2008-09-04T14:32:00.017-05:00

Hello! I think I'm practically last one in the entire universe to create a blog, but better late than never, I suppose. Starting a blog was on my list of New Year's Resolutions for 2008 so at least I didn't wait until December 30th to begin this. My resolutions were all about crafty things and have nothing to do with losing weight or sticking to a budget or cutting back on swearing. Here's some of them:

1. Make new creative friends.
2. Take classes and learn new techniques.
3. Start a new embroidery project and work on wool crazy quilt block.
4. Buy one craft book per month. Just one.
5. Craft it forward. Teach creative things to others so that they can have fun too.
6. Join a creative organization or group and go to the meetings.
7. Start a craft blog and/or a craft zine.
8. Enter something I've made in the Minnesota State Fair.
9. Carry around a craft journal to record ideas and projects.
10. Complete some unfinished quilting projects.
11. Buy more beads and do more bead embroidery.
12. Sell or donate old craft books and supplies I'm not using.

The most important thing I wanted to accomplish this year was to be less of a creative recluse. Usually I spend much of my creative time alone, which suits me just fine and I usually assume that most of the projects I'm working on and the ideas that I have are of interest only to myself and a few tolerant loved ones. This year I decided that I would take some classes, join some groups, meet some new people and try to be more social with my crafty self. I've been having a really great time accomplishing my crafty resolutions and the very best part has been developing wonderful new friendships with some fabulously creative women. I still don't carry around a craft journal though and sadly I have purchased just two beads the entire year. I bought two cabs on etsy last week. Does a cabachon count as a bead? Who cares, they're gorgeous. The Lake Superior agate is a bit smaller than a quarter, the other one is a Botswana agate.