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April 29, 2008 in Quilts | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Today I'm wishing I had named my blog "Get off my patch!".
I decided a few years ago that I was "officially" an adult if I could name the nine justices of the Supreme Court. Today I could only remember six, I missed Stevens, Souter, and Bryer. Rats!
Why the Supreme Court? I don't know.
Just a bit of random I thought I'd share.
April 28, 2008 in Quilts | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
The sick tray. Graham crackers, saltines, and sugar and spoons for Malt-o-Meal. Byrd is sick again and it's his own fault for working too much.
No crafting today, but I do have a story. This morning I laid on the floor in front of the stereo listen to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. One of the questions was about the proposed legislation in Florida banning TruckN**z and it made me laugh so hard my eyes ran. Somewhere in the middle Merrick came over and laid across my middle, I guess he wanted to feel me laughing as well as hear it. It was a sweet mama moment and a good laugh in one.
April 26, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
For several years after college I was an enthusiastic gardener. The previous eight years had been spent living in apartments and I was so ready to get my hands into the dirt.
These days my interest is limited to tomatoes in the summer, fresh herbs, and making jam with the fruit from our trees.
I have a shoe box of seeds from 2000-2002 that I could never bring myself to throw away. Today I decided I'd pour all of the packets into a jar, flowers, vegetables, everything, and shake the mix over the patchy spots in our flowerbeds. At worst ,I'll be feeding the birds, at best, we'll have some pretty surprises this summer.
Holy crap, I had a lot of seeds!
Those layers remind me of a sand art jars.
April 24, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
When I was in middle school I loved making friendship bracelets. I made the standard knotted kind, but I also made braided bracelets using a loop manipulation technique taught to me by a friend.
When I took the braided bracelet class I wondered if it might be made using loops because the end result looks somewhat similar,
but the braided bracelet turned out to be a standard braid from this book:
(this book has some gorgeous projects)
See? A basic braid structure.
I was still curious about my original idea though, so last week I pulled out a book I had photocopied in college (I know, I know, that is so bad).
This book is totally insane in the best way. It's 250 pages of braiding techniques, scientifically organized and painstakingly researched. Definitely an academic work. I was thrilled just to find the book, but wouldn't you know it, the loop manipulation chapter was somewhere else. I vaguely remember doing this, but why? I couldn't say now.
I looked everywhere for the missing chapter and couldn't find it, so I broke down and did a google search and discovered that you can order it from several places online. Much better than ordering it directly from the author in Switzerland! 1996 was the dark ages. I was feeling stubborn so I didn't order it hoping it might turn up in the interim.
I had some studio time today so I knotted together some loops of embroidery floss and gave it a go. After all, it was only 20 years ago, I should remember, right? I experimented and mulled, never quite getting it right, and then finally I had an epiphany and checked my "textile" folders,
and there it was, the missing chapter.
I found a ton of inspiring stuff while I was looking through the folder. Much of the best had been ripped out of Fiber Arts magazine, why on earth did I let my subscription lapse?
So, the end of the story is that I had too many loops, 7 instead of 5, and I was pulling the outside loops rather than the inside, so it made two braids at once, and I wasn't using the correct finger sequence. Other than that, I was spot on. Heh.
Tomorrow I'll read the directions and give it another try. Then I think I'll try it with some wire. I have some 28ga silver that's just languishing in my bead bin.
April 22, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I don't think I've shown my binding stitch before. It's invisible, and it's the way I learned from the women in my family. I think a blindstitch is stronger but I'm carrying on a tradition, so I still do it this way.
I hold the quilt edge so it's folded up towards me and starting a few millimeters back from the edge of the binding, I load a few running stitches on the needle with the help of a thimble, pull the needle through, and start again. Super simple. Don't over-tighten the thread when pulling it through.
I loosened the stitching a bit for a clearer view.
I'm feeling brave, I think I'll try stitching binding while Merrick is awake tomorrow. Maybe in a few years I can teach him to do it for me!
April 21, 2008 in Quilts | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)