Wed. WIP

I haven't been able to work on the new baby quilt much, but when I can, I find myself relaxing. So will try to find time to work on it more often, as relaxation is always good. The colors aren't very good- way too yellowy, but at least I have something to post for WIP Wed.

Ugh! I hate the way the color looks, but the ones taken on my design wall with the flash look awful.




The color is much better on this detail taken with natural light. My fingers are all punctured up again from forgetting the finger protectors for the hand on the bottom of the quilt. I find that I also switch fingers and push the needle through with the finger the thimble isn't on as well.



Pieced backs are fun. Working with the left overs and keeping it fairly simple, I often end up preferring the back. But that yucky color...









My days lately begin and end with phone calls and in between...well, little uninterrupted time. The thing I can usually do best with lots of interruptions is - surprise - read. I also am trying to clean house, but frequently have to stop and leave in the middle of changing sheets, laundry, vacuuming. Then when I get home, I don't want to finish! Must be in the mood for house work.

I need a vacation; dreaming of being in a wonderful studio--somewhere else! In the mountains, by the sea, with every amenity I can dream of, and no interruptions. Books for the times I feel like reading, movies and music for the time when I'm hand quilting. A beautiful view. No phone.

Garden pics

Without realizing that Water was nominated for Best Foreign Film, I ordered it from Netflix about 6 weeks ago on the recommendation of Lotus , who reviewed the book made from the movie (a bit unusual) and gave the above link to the movie . I finally watched it yesterday afternoon before going to Laddie's. I'd put off watching it for weeks and went through several Netflix movies before mustering the courage because I'm reluctant to watch sad movies right now. It was sad, but beautiful, and I'm so glad to have experienced it!

It is a gorgeous day here, sunny and warm. I'm hoping to get some yard work done and maybe go for a walk. Spring is here, according to the daffodils.

Garden glimpses

Places to Visit

I thought I'd posted this the other day. I've nothing (interesting) going on in my life and so I'm posting links.

Neat stuff for kids. Erin, Mila would enjoy some of these. Fairy furniture and A Cooty Catcher and much more here at The Toymaker. Thanks to Layers of Meaning for these links!

Quilting

The Art of Quilting will be airing on PBS in March

The Quilts of Gee's Bend

Quilt University

Sewing Projects

Here are 40 Things you would like to say at work. Some of my favorites are

• I don't know what your problem is but I bet its hard to pronounce.
• Ahhhh.. I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again.
• I'm already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.
• It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.

I love this.

For Nina

Tired

I'm worn out! Just got home from spending the night at Laddie's (he has a new medication that needs supervision for a few days). When Katherine got there a little after 8:00, I flew home. Now, I'm contemplating my recliner for a nice mid-morning nap. Don't know if my husband missed me, but Mac sure did, and I owe it to him to cuddle up in our chair and "rest my eyes." Later!

Glasswing butterfly

My brother forwarded these pictures in an email. Aren't these pictures marvelous? I don't know who took them, but they are certainly beautiful. Thanks Marty!

My other brother won another game last night. He coaches girl's basketball at Southwood High School in Shreveport. Since 1995, his teams have won the state championships 9 times, and will hopefully, make it 10 times this year. Go, Steve and Lady Cowboys!

Another Monday

I have the baby quilt all basted and think I'm going to hand quilt it. No hurry on this, and it will give me some hand work for tonight's Heroes and Studio 60--and, well, many more television shows or movies.

Yesterday, after delivering the gumbo to Laddie and visiting for a while, I stopped by JoAnn's and picked up some embroidery floss.

How does embroidery floss work for actual quilting? I have some "thread conditioner" I could use on it...

Just to add to more projects that I don't do, the 40% off coupon went for a copy of Lesley Riley's Quilted Memories.

See the frame Beth gave me? I'm going to try to use it with the baby quilt...although I haven't had much luck with frames. It is old and adjustable, and when I finish with the little quilt, it will make a nice frame to hang on the wall until needed again. I'll find something to put in it and use it like a picture frame.



Here are my only purchases from the Craft show on Saturday: some old type and a rather dirty snowman.






Went back over and drove Laddie down to Raft Bayou in the afternoon. I like this old farm artifact.



This video is a comparison of Europe and Italy. Very funny.

In Preparatinon for the Academy Awards

Amelia is a movie nut. One of the big events of her year is the Oscars and since not all of the movies nominated make it to Shreveport, she and Chris make an annual trip to Dallas each February to catch up on some that she hasn't seen. And that is where they are now, with several friends, catching up on movies.

I haven't seen a movie in the theater this year and never watch the Academy Awards, but love listening to Amelia's enthusiasm.

Last night, Fee and I tried to watch All the King's Men with Sean Penn, Jude Law, and Anthony Hopkins. We didn't make it too far before Fee switched to Law and Order reruns. I can understand why the movie didn't do well: we kept asking each other, "What did he say?" Everything sounded garbled, almost as if they were speaking a foreign language. Not an appealing movie in any way. I've never read Robert Penn Warren's book, so I don't know what changes were made in the screen play, but aside from despising the Huey P. Long character, finding the plot difficult to follow, and difficulty understanding the dialogue, I have to wonder what other desecrations were made. The fact that Louisiana politics have always been corrupt didn't make the movie any more appealing.

O.K. I'm off to take some gumbo over to Laddie and see what he's up to this morning.

More on Bembo

My friend Thomas informed me that Bembo's Zoo from yesterday's post refers to Cardinal Pietro Bembo for whom the type face Bembo was named. His love letters to (of all people) Lucrezia Borgia have been published in The Prettiest Love Letters in the World: Between Lucrezia Borgia and Pietro Bembo.

Cardinal Bembo, Aldus Maniutius (the first typographer to use a semicolon), and Francesco Griffo (the first modern type designer; invented the Bembo typeface and the italic style) are the subjects of one of Thomas' lectures so I Googled to find out more.

Portrait of the young Pietro Bembo by the young Raphael.

I started this post last night, but here I am on a Saturday afternoon catching up. Took Laddie to the Bossier Arts & Crafts Show this morning, then to lunch, then to grocery store, and am back home. Last weekend, we went to the Leyendecker exhibit at the Norton Gallery because he didn't want to make the weekly drive in the country. I was surprised that he didn't want to go today either, but we spent a busy morning anyway. Last Saturday afternoon, we got caught in all of the detours for the Mardi Gras parade, and I'm glad that I'll miss all of that traffic today. They have been lined up on East Kings since early this morning with all of their huge barbecue pits smoking up a storm.

Since Helen is there to make sure he gets supper and his meds, this will be my first Saturday afternoon and evening at home in a long time, and instead of making use of it, I'm feeling quite lazy.

A Mixed Bag

I love the women's styles in clothing from the 20's-40's and both this site and this one offer vintage patterns for sale.

Aren't they wonderful? They make me think of old movies, and I love movies from this period. They range from dowdy to elegant.


































There are also patterns for accessories. And the Blue Gardenia site also sells vintage jewelry.











This article gives some surprising results about how we praise kids. Well, certainly amazing in the sense of how drastic the difference is between the kinds of praise. Results show that praising children for effort yields remarkably better results than praising them for intelligence.

And this site is fun for kids (and adults) - Bembo's Alphabet. My favorites are C and D (for now, 'cause I haven't been through all of them).

The hurrier I go...

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!
















Just to demonstrate how behind the times I am: I finished my Christmas table topper in January and am just now posting it. Not much else has gone on since then, although I've started several projects that don't seem to hold my interest. Not sure what has been the problem lately, but while starting something has been easy, liking it enough to work on it, has not.

So since I have no other pictures, I'm posting the belated Christmas table topper to fill in.



























I know I'm going to be needing some baby quilts soon as both daughters have pregnant friends, and I do have one baby quilt in progress, but it doesn't really grab me. It may be OK, by the time it is quilted, but just hasn't caught my interest. One of those projects one starts just to try to find a way back into a the habit of working.

I've been reading a lot. Books are so easily transportable and can go with me when I leave and be on hand when needed. I could do this with sewing, too, if I could manage something that really appealed to me.

Six Weird Things

Rian tagged me for this meme.

THE RULES:
People who get tagged need to write a blog entry of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says you have tagged them in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I can't recognize makes of cars. Everything is a car, truck, van, 4-runner, Volkswagon, or station wagon. I recognize them by the broader category and color.
   
2. I don't even really recognize my own car; I find it in a parking lot by looking for the license plate with LOL and a dark green color. (Before LOL, it was FYZ)
3. A huge chicken snake once came down our chimney in the middle of the night to get the baby birds that had nested there. There was quite a hullabaloo around our house when the snake hit the bottom. (We used to live in the country.)
   
4. As a result of scoliosis, I have an S curve in my back. I didn't realize this until a few years ago when, after an xray, my doctor said I could have been a couple of inches taller.
   
5. One of our dogs once found a shrew. It was less than 2 inches long. I had never seen one in real life; I've never seen another, but I was impressed.
6. I can't remember the day of the week or what I wore yesterday, but I can quote poetry I haven't read in years.

If there is anyone out there who hasn't done this meme, please give it a try and leave a comment giving the location of your blog.

Amazing art by Robert Gonsalves. I couldn't decide on a favorite, since they are all wonderful.

Yesterday was long and dreary. Two doctor appointments for Laddie. Good thing I took a book; the first one was at 10:00, and they didn't call us in until 11:20. We didn't get out of there until 11:45. Then there was an hour and a half search for a lost letter before the second appt. I didn't get home until 4:00, but got in a lot of reading!

Some Day...

Here is something I'd like to do (in that perfect world where I actually complete projects): create a family cookbook of special recipes. The birthday cake recipe that Mother made and the date roll she used to make each Christmas. My grandmother's pound cake recipe and her marvelous tea cakes -- neither of which were ever written down, and so, lost many years ago. Lists of those dishes or meals that were loved by various members of the family, and the ones they hated.

I'm not much of a cook (not like Rian, who is always making mouth-watering stuff), but there are recipes that were standard when our girls were small that I'd like to include because of the memories associated with them.

My mother-in-law was a wonderful cook and cooked for an army every time. One of the recipes she made that I loved was a white fruitcake that differed from that "other" fruitcake in every way. That cake was always a Christmas event for me, although she never made anything that wasn't delicious. Her cooking was country cooking, not gourmet, and had me staggering from the table after every meal with her.

My husband is a great cook, but his recipes aren't written down either. Still, I might could persuade him to try to record some of them.

The idea of a cookbook like this is to include not just the recipes, but the personal details. I've seen examples that I've fallen in love with over the years, cookbooks that are completely individual to the family itself. This link gives some ideas on the subject, not that I will ever devote the time and energy to create one.

Have any of you done this?

Froggy went a'courtin'

I like this little steel frog. More steel animals here.

This is the coolest couch I've ever seen. Not sure about comfort, but definitely cool.

Just back from having my teeth cleaned; such a refreshing feeling. Love the little dental hygienist at my dentist's office.

Now, on to phone calls, errand, and other mundane portions of the day.

"Red"dy or Not

Kay from outofthebasement emailed me this fantastic article from The New York Times. "How Do We See Red? Count the Ways" relates the various contradictions of red: "Red is the premier signaling color in the natural world, variously showcasing a fruitful bounty, warning of a fatal poison or boasting of a sturdy constitution and the genes to match."

The article also explains how we see red, the way our eyes work, and why we are able to "discriminate among the subtle differences" in shades of red. The last 2 paragraphs about the productivity of people working in a red room are is particularly interesting!

Thanks, Kay, for sharing this article!

I'm not sure how I found Jude's blog, but I've been following for several weeks now and enjoying the process of her latest quilt. When I first started reading, I didn't recognize any of the commenters(but I visited their blogs and found more creative people). In the last week or so, I've begun seeing more familiar names.
Today's post is about the beginnings of her current quilt.

Tuesday Tidbits

A while back I posted (here) about Kris Delmhorst's interview on NPR where she discussed her CD Strange Conversations. Delmhorst used poems by Byron, Whitman, Millay and others as inspiration for her songs. Carla Bruni also uses the lyrics of poems by Yeats, Auden, Dickinson, and others on her new CD No Promises. This New York Sun article gives No Promises a glowing review.

I'm almost out of birdseed. My popularity will quickly diminish if I fail to provide sunflower seeds.

Here is a fun site to waste some time on.




I've finally begun working on a small project. It isn't working out very well, but is giving me some ideas. I'll take anything at this point! I worked on some handwork last night and enjoyed my Monday night television: Heroes and Studio 60.

Potpourri

I've read a little, slept a little, watched some television, taken various medications, and am feeling better. Now it is about time to go back to bed. :)

I love optical illusions and this one is excellent! Here are some more.

Another area of great interest to me is symbolism, and I have several books on the subject. Colors have different symbolic meanings in different cultures. Here is a link to Color Psychology.

Some interesting details from the above site:

The most romantic color, pink, is more tranquilizing. Sports teams sometimes paint the locker rooms used by opposing teams bright pink so their opponents will lose energy. (This article didn't mention it, but years ago I saw a television program about holding rooms in police stations being a certain shade of pink.)

People are more productive in blue rooms. Studies show weightlifters are able to handle heavier weights in blue gyms.

Yellow enhances concentration, hence its use for legal pads. It also speeds metabolism.

Gardener's Movie

I'm in the midst of another round of sinus headaches. My head is so miserably stopped up that I have trouble hearing. My eyes are swollen. I slept most of the afternoon yesterday. Wahhhh!

Ok, self-pity has been expressed, now I can move on.

I watched a great movie the other night: Green Fingers with Clive Owen and Helen Mirren. Based on a real incident, this film was fun and uplifting. If you enjoy gardening and comedy, try it.