Again with the Swapping...

One of my favorite things from my time employed at Penn was the Robert Indiana "LOVE" statue right on the Locust Walk. I was so shocked to find one there, at first I thought it had been moved from Love Park. How could I have missed that in the news? But no, the City of Brotherly Love has two of these statues. The image was one that struck me back when I was a kid in Pittsburgh and it was on the stamps I licked for all my mom's Christmas cards.

I signed up for a fabric postcard swap on my new favorite site, Swap-Bot. My swap partner is in Germany, so I thought I would use one of Philly's iconic images as my inspiration for my postcard. (Sorry, Mr. Indiana, but you really should have copyrighted the image.) And also love, or rather the lack-there-of, in my life has been much on my mind lately. Pretty damn cute isn't it for someone not so hopeful about the subject. I hope that it arrives in one piece.

Did I mention, that the Ken-Doll (former boyfriend) showed up drunk on my doorstep yet again? A classic, this time he was there to apologize for being a dick and showing up on my doorstep drunk a year ago (strangely almost to the day). Oye! What is it with me and seriously damaged men? Please any one who would like to introduce me to a nice sane non-alcoholic man, please do so...pretty please. I even promise that I won't whine if he leaves the seat up.


This is the postcard I received yesterday from my swap partner. The underlying material is really cute with its "Mischievous Monsters." She has machine appliqued flowers on top, some of them with beading. Unfortunately the beading had some damage, I think it got caught in a machine as it was a bit dirty there too. I love that she gave the tiny blue monster in the upper right corner a bouquet of flowers.

In the last few weeks I have also participated in a few CD swaps. Those swaps were ones with multiple swap partners. In both I had one partner who was a dud. It was quite disappointing. In the second swap one of the people I sent a CD to sent me back a copy of his mix that he sent out to his partners. I love generous cool people, and his mix kicks ass!

Well this is what came out of the washing machine. Everything is nice and dry and my apartment no longer smells like a barn of wet sheep. I am completely in love with the entrelac bags, the colors are just mind blowing. The temptation not to send off the pink/orange one to the fair is huge. I am really pleased with my improvised striped bag. The stripes were set using the Random Stripe Generator . If you haven't played with this nifty program yet, what are you waiting for? And while not being a huge fan of novelty yarns the red cellphone bag with the long fringy eyelash yarn is really growing on me. It has been dubbed the muppet bag.

Felting this batch of little bags has confirmed a suspicion of mine. Knitting and felting swatches is a waste of time. These little guys felted at a far faster rate then the larger bags I have done. Oh, and much smaller, I might add. Some of these came out barely big enough for my flip phone, much less my monster iPod. I am pretty pleased with them, but they could have been a bit bigger...sigh.

This entrelac bag was knit with merino and an interesting novelty yarn. A complete gamble, because the pattern was designed to have the body in wool and have the base, handles and top band in alpaca. The alpaca felts down much more than the wool and gives the bag a slight bubble shape. I didn't quite get the bubble shape, but the bag is still very cool looking. Two of my favorite little purses are here, the stripe one and the brown one. The picture does not do the brown one justice. Labels are all sewn in and the bags are ready to head off for Virginia. Lets hope I make enough money to pay for my bus fare down there.

Mama is a swap-ho

Today started out happy, as I boxed up my aqua and red swap package for Jennifer. It was quite the scavenger hunt around the office looking for bubble wrap, etc. All packed up, in the mail and me, extraordinarily happy that I hadn't done my usual procrastination thing.

Sadly, my day went to crap from there. The second sales meeting that I had planned for this fall was cancelled too. Even though it is through no fault of mine, my Calvinist guilt overcomes me and I had an awful time psyching myself up to deal with the canceling at the hotel. Maybe because our folks had put off signing contracts and hey, the meeting was supposed to be the first week in October. And then there was the merge letter from hell. I have done a million of these, and yet today I ran into issues I had never seen before...boss' signatures that are suddenly in red? Whaaaa?

Enough whining!!!! Cause when I escaped and got home I was plunged back into that happy swap glow. This lovely plump envelope was waiting for me...all the way from Israel. How cool is that? Artemis of course got the right of first sniff and gave the package a complete once over.



Inside was a trove of goodies: cool barrettes (one handmade), candles, Israeli candies, stickers, a bag of itty bitty ladybugs and a big ladybug stamp, spools of ribbon, felt squares, beads, a wee fuzzywuzzy notebook. I think this is the most fun I have ever had with an envelope! The chocolate strawberry candybar will be tonight's first victim...yum. Thank you so much to Ilil for making my first Swap-bot experience such a success!!! I hope that she gets a fab package from her partner.

Oh, and Marissa...you got a lot of postin' to do

Good Times

I have finally jumped into the swap craze. A link to Swap-Bot was on someone's blog as I was cruising the web. Next thing I knew I had gone from a swap virgin to a swap slut...hehehe. See... I should have had sex again before my 42nd birthday, none of this would have happened. Now I am committed to a handful of swaps in the next few weeks. Yow.

My first swap has an aqua and red theme... anything in those two colors. I have been running around acquiring some uber cute objects for my swap partner. While I was putting together my Santas for the Waterford Fair I noticed a bunch of aqua and red scraps in my bag. So I gathered them together and whipped up this little bag for my swap partner. I hope she likes my first swap package!

Two of the other swaps I have signed up for are music swaps. One is a mix CD of cover tunes and the second is a CD of random shuffle music. The cover tune CD has been really fun to put together.

On the topic of music, last night a gang went to World Cafe Live to see the amazingly cool band, Nouvelle Vague (pronounced vog.) They do rockin' covers of 80's new wave to a Bossa Nova-ish beat. They brought the house down with their cover of Bauhaus' Bela Legosi's Dead. Check them out, they're infectious.

Prezzies and Progress

This post is dedicated to Marissa who reminded me at knitting tonight that I was being a very bad blogger. Hey, it was a busy summer and I never seemed to have a good clean surface to photograph on. How could that ever happen?

Any way I am starting off today acknowledging two fab presents from my knitting buddies. Thank you so much Marissa and Sherry, you ROCK!

Marissa brought me back this adorable bag from her vacation in the Phillipines. It makes the best do-dad bag, it already is filled with scissors, a row counter, darning needle, blah blah blah, oh yea, it also fits a set of DPNs.

Which brings me to the fabulous gadget Sherry made for me. She had fashioned these clever point protectors for DPNs. Your needles are kept neatly together and better yet your stiches don't scootch off the needles!

As you can see, there has been some progress on the toe-up socks. They are taking a break though while I knit like a fiend on other things.

In October I am going to be selling some of my handiwork at the Waterford Fair in Virginia. Like a total boob, I miss read the inventory request they sent me. Now I am trying desperately to catch up. There has been a lot of stash reduction, which is a great thing particularly the wee amounts that I cannot bear to throw away. These are some of the smaller cellphone/iPod purses that I have been cranking out. Hopefully they will be popped into the wash this weekend and have the crap shrunk out of them. I am going to have a dining room table full of soggy stinky wool. Yipee.

These happy little fat guys will be Christmas ornaments, also for the fair. Why, oh why, do I procrastinate like this?

Studio Friday - Who?!

"I am curious to see/ hear/ read who everyone takes their inspiration from - an artist of traditional media, multimedia, craft world, living or dead. Who would we like to have the chance to meet and speak with, or to thank for inspiring us? " ~ Jo

For a gal who did so miserably in Geometry, it dominates my creative endeavors. Who knew?

The Amish, the ladies of Gees Bend, Denyse Schmidt and Kaffe Fassett are my primary inspirations when working on one of my quilts. Each brings something different to the party...unmuddied jewel tones and near perfection...joyous primitive utility...uncluttered imperfection...riotously unabashed loud prints.

Years ago I was very attracted to Gustav Klimt's paintings because of their mixture of realism and geometry.

More and more, I now find my daily inspiration in the blogs that I read. The people I would like to meet, have tea with, giggle with and quilt are Jane, Jan, Alicia and Blair.

Montreal Part Deux

These awesome Adirondack chairs were part of the street fair at the comedy festival. I thought, "This is an awesome photo-op!" Ann and Missy were less than enthusiastic. On the second pass I finally cajoled them into a photo with big blue chair. I found out at dinner tonight that I was quite the pain in the ass about it...moi? But hey girls, what did I tell you? Great photo, even if you wouldn't climb up and have a seat.

Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go to Montreal

...or so the t-shirts say.

Bonjourhello! It was time for the girls weekend. Ann, Missy and I jetted off to Montreal for a few days. We headed off for Canada to escaped the heat and humidty of Philadelphia, but of course we took it with us. Still it was nothing that couldn't be cured with shady decks and pitchers of sangria.

Montreal was a blast. We hit the International Fireworks Festival; gold and white weeping willow shells are my favorite. We went to see Dimitri Martin at the Juste Per Rire Festival and after wandered the street fair packed with performance artists, mini comedy venues and people playing games...pure fun.
We did the obligatory drinks at the Swelligan...ooops Nelligan, with the shi-shi people.

Best of all in Montreal were the men, oh my! Yes, they were short. But, heavens they were something to look at. I think the three of us agree that the award goes to Steve at Eggspectations where pancakes were served with a wink and a cheeky smile. We were three puddles in a booth. And of course a special mention to Sam at the desk of the Cantalie, who took flirtation to an all new level.

Yup, I think that Montreal is worth a second visit!

Studio Friday - Sidekick(s)

This week at Studio Friday, we were asked about the sidekick(s) that keep us company in our creative spaces. Well, these two have been the topic of previous postings for Studio Friday. But as an adoring adopted mom, I had to share more pictures of my babies, Artemis and Tosca.

My girls look a lot alike, but have very distinctive personalities. Artemis is the older queen bee of the household. She is way too smart for a cat and has a distinct talent for vengeance. My friends and I like to rile her up sometimes so we can get a good laugh over her growling hissy fits, she has quite a temper. She loves it when I quilt; nesting in all the cut pieces, using my lap frame as a kitty hammock, and having lots of doo-dads and spools of thread to casually push off the edge of the sewing table. Most fun, but slightly anxiety producing, is watching her daintily picking glass head pins off of the magnetic pincushion and dropping them back on, plink. She does not have much appreciation for knitting, although she has made off with several skeins of Reynolds Odyssey. Maybe she realized I was losing interest in the project and was saving me from the guilt of a UFO. But as I said she's a vengeful creature and she has gone to great lengths to get to projects and chomp off the yarn, just to show me that she is not too old or fat to get anywhere.

Tosca, aka Toscabelle, is the baby of the family. She is very petite and still has the impossibly soft coat of a kitten. She is the opposite of Artemis in temperament, relentlessly sweet, dumber then a stone, and truly able to leap tall buildings at a single bound (I suspect that she has been aiding Artemis in the stealing of skeins of yarn hidden in high places.) Tosca is a knitter! She loves to curl up on my lap while I knit and knead away at my knitting. I have seen her so enthralled with kneading a skein of slippery cushy yarn that she started to drool as she purred away. She never bites the yarn, just lays on it and kills the tension...sigh. Tosca's second passion is napping on the laptop...so what if my keyboard is jammed? It's so nice and warm.

I don't know if they do much for my creativity, and do tend to leave way to much of a hairy imprint on my work; but there is nothing better in a moment of stress than scooping up a warm sleeping kitty and burying your face in their fur.

Sock it to me...

...I don't think that this is what Goldie Hawn had in mind. Have to say that other than portability I have never seen the appeal of knitting my own socks. It is so much easier to pop into the Gap and pick up three pairs for $9. But, I am weak and susceptible to peer pressure. If all your friends were knitting socks, would you? Duh...

So, when Lisa from Rosie's announced that she would be teaching a "Toe-Up" class, I caved. And I started dreaming about socks.

On Sunday we gathered to knit socks from the toe-up. My knitting buds Sherry and Marissa were there, along with some other very nice ladies with sharp pointy DPNs. Only one other gal was a sock virgin.

Marissa and I picked the same colorway of Sockotta. Look Marissa...finally a blue stripe!!!!! Our skeins started in different places and it looked like we were knitting on different yarns. Her's was all blue at the beginning, no green; mine was all green, but I picked the yarn because of the blue.

This is the second start for this sock. My first attempt was too big and the stitches too loose. Now my stitches are fab, but the sock is still a wee bit big. Oh well.

My first toe is pretty, let's see how my first heel turns out.

Studio Friday- Family

"Family history, things that have been passed down from one family member to the next, family values, all influence me as an artist, whether I'm consciously aware of it or not. I wonder how others are influenced or inspired by their families---either past or present. What family treasures might be found in others' studios?"

This pastel portrait of my paternal grandmother hangs on the wall across from my work table. My father and uncle called my grandmother "the Duchess" behind her back. She thought that "the Duchess" was a close friend of her sons- she never suspected. When my grandparents passed away her portrait came to reside with me.

I love it. She looks so glamorous in it. And my friend Harold has identified from whence my "look" has come from. The "look," unfortunately not being her smashing sense of style, but the "I cannot believe you just said/did something soooo stupid look." I have never seen the look myself, but apparently Harold has... heh heh heh...many times.

I also inherited the Duchess's Canton china collection. The basic blue and white china is so classic, but I have been told quite toxic. Does anyone know if orchids can get lead poisoning? Can I blame its refusal to bloom on that, and not my dismal gardening skills?

My life was blessed with three grandmothers, with two of them I had very loving affectionate relationships. But the Duchess didn't do warm and fuzzy well. I always knew that she loved and was proud of me, but personal displays happened rarely. It was made clear to me how much, when in her final days I went to sit with her in the hospital. My grandfather had brought to the hospital some of her favorite things, a needlepoint pillow I had made for her as a child and a picture of me.

Does the Duchess influence my art? Not sure about that, but I often think she is looking down from the wall with a look of approval at my latest creation, if not my gardening skills.

Tag-o-rama

I have entered my first swap. The wonderful Dacia Ray is running a gift tag swap and was wonderful enough to let me play along, even though she had closed the roles. Dacia's tags are here, Joanne of StarDustShoes's are here and Alicia P. of Posy fame are here. I am waiting my return package with great anticipation. All the tags I have seen on other blogs are all so creative, each special with different techniques.

I thought long and hard about what I was going to do for this challenge. Our family has very limited experience with gift tags. Even at Christmas, the tags are basic at best and ball point pen right on the wrapping paper is the family favorite. Santa's reindeers also give us Christmas presents. How those eight tiny reindeer manage to hold those ball point pens in their tiny little hooves, I'll never know.

So, tag-impaired, I tried to think of something inventive to do for the swap. I thought about knitting little tag cozies. That would be cool- so off I went to the stationary store to purchase blank tags. It was Sunday, they were all closed. None of the drug stores had tags either, so I grabbed poster board as an option. Then knitting with wire and beads hopped in my mind, the bead store was closed too. ( I have gotten there since and picked up supplies...maybe some silver knit cuffs are in my future?)

Back home and all I had was a sheet of poster board. I thought maybe I could do some of my mini foundation pieced flags on the tags. While searching for my paper patterns I came upon a bag of unused log cabin squares from a quilt I had made while mourning the death of a dear friend and sorority sister. The yellow centers represented hope cutting through our sorrow. There were coincidently eleven squares, the number of tags I needed. I stitched these on to the poster board, gave them fabric ties and embellished with buttons from my collection.

Handling these squares again brought a flood of memories and a bit of sadness. I am happy that they were incorporated into such a fun project, hope triumphs! I hope those who receive one of my tags in their package feel the love that pieced these squares.

Space?!?!

Space? Space? You would think that living alone, all that space is mine. No one else's wardrobe to contend with...Only my shoes... Only my books...Only my hobbies. And yet my home feels amazingly crowded.

They invade every nook and crany of my home. Everywhere I want to be they are- on the couch, in the bed, laying on the laptop, on the work table, oy, even drinking out of the toilet (foul disgusting habit, bad gross Toscabelle!!) How about in the suitcase (ok, zipped in the suitcase while I went to Houston. Bad mommy... stupid stupid Toscabelle. At least Artemis was happy being a single cat again for the day.)

I love my two fur balls, but what I wouldn't do for a smidge of space to myself.

Studio Friday- Contrast

"...something about contrast, or juxtaposition. it could mean something concrete, like a contrast in colors, textures, or lines. . .or something more symbolic." Laura

This week's topic was a no brainer for me. This past fall I had the opportunity to be on HGTV's make-over show Mission Organization. The subject of the make-over was my living/sewing room.



Yup, I needed help. After a lot of hard work and creative space planning, this is what I happily ended up with.

Treats

It was a nice treat. It was a really nice treat. My parents were in town for the weekend and I spent Mothers Day with my mummy for the first time in ages. Traditionally, Christmas is really the only holiday we are all together and do really well. I cannot recall the last time I got to give my mom a big hug and kiss on Mothers Day and let her know in person how much I love her.

The other treat was brunch at the Four Seasons. Brunch was scrumptious, the service impeccable, a most civilized event. Even the occasional shreiking child could not ruin it.

Two other unprecedent events occurred...in a family noted for extending the giving of birthday presents to the months following the date, two birthday presents were actually given early! One was the lovely Clapotis my mom has artfully draped over her shoulders. It was knit using the Silk Noir in Plum Loco from Great Adirondak Yarns. The drape on the scarf/shawl is wonderful, an ideal weight for cool summer evenings. The color of the Clapotis is much much better in person, the photo really doesn't do it justice.

Present number two was an early birthday present for me. My mom brought back from Arizona a lovely bundle of fat quarters for my stash. The colors are those of the Sedona Desert, all are handpainted or batiks.

Studio Friday- Robot

What robot can we find in your studio? And what does it do? Maybe you even have more than the one?

I used up my entire memory card on my camera taking my first-ever movie clip. It was breathtaking cinematography. The plot was riveting...would the automatic buttonholer make a perfect button hole? Would it choke? Would the thread break? Would the movie clip crash the laptop? OH YEAH! Crashed like a ton o' bricks.

My other favorite automated function in my studio is the updating of the podcasts that I subscribe to on i-Tunes...Craft Sanity...KnitTunes...Knitty D and the City...NPR Story of the Day.


But this wasn't really fun, so I did a little coloring with my buddy, Jake. I tutor Jake in reading once a week. We took a break from the longer words and longer books we are now reading and drew cool robots for my studio. This is the robot Jake made for me. He's a dancing fool robot, grooving to the tunes on my iPod, under the sparkly disco ball. Yes, even eight-year old Jake understands about me and sparkly things! This dude is going to break hearts, seriously.

And here is my robot, he's a whiz with scissors and always cuts the fabric to perfect dimensions. He also measures twice and cuts once. I obviously had nothing to do with writing his programming.

I have survived

...my first outing to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. Off I went to Baltimore with two bus loads of knitters from Rosie's Yarn Cellar for a beautiful day of yarn gorging. I approached the event with a certain amount of anxiety for such a fun day...what should I buy? how much should I buy? would I oversleep and miss the bus? and most importantly, would I attempt the Koigu mill ends booth?

And why you might ask would a visit to that booth promote anxiety attacks? They sell the mill ends of Koigu for cents on the gram and has consistently resulted in something of mythic proportions...knitters gone wild...when knitters attack...the tales would curdle your blood. As a first-timer I didn't know how I was going to approach the situation. My competitive side wanted to jump right in. My cautious side said to hang back, watch the yarn brawl from the side lines and maybe take photos of my normally mild mannered friends in a Koigu-induced frenzy.

I got to the booth, my cautious side was rudely pushed aside, and my competitive side started grabbing Kiogu with joyous abandon. I even worked up a sweat. Happily though a lot of budgets were busted, there was no pulling of hair or blood shed. I have no photographic evidence of the carnage at the Koigu booth- just a pic of my own haul, not bad for a virgin.

The festival was a wee bit overwhelming. After displaying such a shocking lack of discretion at the Kiogu booth I became a real commitment-phobe. Beautiful yarn all around me, but nothing to make my Lady Eleanor. And lots of adorable livestock...sheep, of course...llamas

and my favorites, alpacas.

Unfortunately that is the one rule of the Rosie's bus, no bringing home livestock. Plus I guess they don't make ideal apartment pets. Wonder if they can be trained to do stairs or use a litterbox? Their faces are so sweet, not the silly supercilious look of camels.

I did manage to commit to one lucious yarn before the day was over. This lux hank of lace weight silk and kid mohair is destined to become a Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls. I bought it from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farm. They'll be one of my stops again next year.

Now, what the hell am I going to do with all that Koigu?

Studio Friday - Sounds

What are the sounds in your studio? Sit quietly and listen. I am sure you'll be surprised at what you hear!"

The obvious that anyone will hear are cars, sirens, people walking by chatting and laughing, and the squealing brakes on the Penn bus when it stops at the corner. Listen a little closer, you can hear my wind chimes and Artemis and Tosca chasing each other back and forth through my bedroom.

What I hear is my stash whispering to me, "knit me"..."sew me"..."oooh oooh I'd be a great scarf"..."we'd look great together as a bag"..."quilt me"..."grandma's garden please"..."lets try a Kaffe." Wow, what a needy, whiney stash I have.

And then there is the rail o'unfinished quilts, "Ahem...Claudia will be too old for a baby blankie if you don't hurry up"..."just been hanging out here for years" ..."don't you love me anymore?"

Good lord, who knew listening to your studio space could be so guilt inducing?

And now for the bling update, checked the window at the eyewear store and somebody bought my sunglasses! I know I said, "if they are still there when the income tax return comes...blah blah blah." The hell with all that, check still is not here and eBay had them for almost half price. The bling is mine!

Studio Friday - Playtime!

This week for Studio Friday we were to have fun...doodle....make a mess...free flow....with our drawing implement in our mouths? Geez, I don't know about this one. I thought this was supposed to be fun, not fraught with anguish. Where do I begin?

1. My doodles on a good day are linear, overly controlled and uptight.
2. An inventory of my art supplies is pathetic...paint pens are dried up....tossed my wee watercolors pallet in a clutter clearing frenzy....cannot find a paint brush that isn't more suitable for painting woodwork...oh and chalk pastels in the mouth, blehhhh!
3. Cool, found a brand new tin of Caran D'Ache colored pencils stashed away. Pretty colors, yipeeee!
4. Flat on the table or hanging on the wall? Either way I couldn't put enough pressure to get a good line. And I have a huge psychological hang up about pencils with teeth marks in them...super ick.
5. I was just about to resort to using the ugly coral lipstick that was a free gift with purchase when I found a few markers that weren't past their prime.

Consider me stretched! And fully aware of how pitiful my selection of art supplies truly is, sigh.

Studio Friday- Sparkle/Shine or Shimmer

This week's topic for Studio Friday asked us for things in our space that Sparkle/Shine or Shimmer. I had a wee bit of difficulty with this since I work mostly in feltable wool yarns and cotton textiles. Not really a glitter girl in my knitting and quilting. Odd though, since I am quite the sparkley girl...sparkley earrings, sparkley shoes, sparkley barrettes, oh I could go on.

My glass beads have a nice bit of sparkle. And my brand new Addi Turbos are quite shiny. Sadly, the photo does not do their shininess justice (but the future entrelac bag...yummy. )

And just as I was dispairing my lack of dramatic bling in my studio, these little darlings caught my eye. Walking home from work, I passed a store front that always catches my attention for their fab, uber-curant eyewear. There hanging in the window were these sunglasses. A bit excessive, yes, but I just love them! Hhhmmm, when the income tax return comes, if they are still there they are mine.