More ATCs… They’re keeping my ass off the streets!

Been busy making these little thingies. I’m pretty much obsessed, except I have taken time out to work on an altered box for my friend Penny. It’s a mermaid theme, with a cool focal image of “La Sirena” from the Loteria fabric by Alexander Henry. In fact, most of the Day of the Dead fabric I have is by AH, too. Here are some pictures of two more ATCs for the Dia de los Muertos swap that I’m doing with Swap-bot.

Egad. My photography sucks big time. These things are actually a very precise size, but you’d never know it by the camera angles that I manage to get. Even though my camera has an “anti-shake” feature, I think I must just drink a “LITTLE” too much coffee to have a steady hand. Perhaps I’d better rig a little setup just for ATCs with a stand, some decent light and maybe use my tripod.

These are from a swap called “Thread Embellished“, in which I did my hardest to adapt a temari design to a flat surface. I think they turned out nice, but I think I like the temari balls better. Much more fun to make.

I am scaring myself a little, cause I’m making these things all the time and not working on things I should be doing. I have three quilts to finish in the next 3 weeks, plus a bunch of other stuff. My quilt guild is having its annual quilt show, and I would like to have at least one quilt hanging. Guess it’s no big deal if I don’t.

This is from a swap themed “Rainforest“. It’s machine embroidered and beaded. I sure hope whoever gets these appreciates all of the work.

Artist Trading Cards (ATCs)

Dia de los Muertos ATC Swap

I usually try to avoid being a part of anything that has the word “Artist” tied to it, but I may have found my new favorite endeavor… at least until the next one comes along! So far it’s fun, and I want to do a bunch of them.

Joined Swap-bot and signed up for 3 ATC swaps, so I’d say I’m on my way. They swap all kinds of artsy-fartsy stuff on that site. People make up and organize their own swaps, so there’s all KINDS of different things going on there. If you’re into that stuff, you should check it out.

I was thinking a few weeks ago that I wanted to take a break from making quilts, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to play around with instead. Shrink plastic? Sounds like fun. Papier Mache? Yes, I’ll try some of that. ATCs? YEAH!!

Above is the first of 2 cards that I am making for a Day of the Dead swap. I love this theme, and I’m currently working on a “Dia de los Muertos” quilt for my daughter. Lots of leftover fabrics, so I used some of them to make this. Do you realize how little material was needed for this? MINISCULE!! Plus, I get to play with beads and trims and sequins!

I think I have found a happy home.

My friend Insomnia says: “I’m Ba-a-aaaack!”

The all too familiar scene of waking to some dreaded thought, with the inability to do anything but lie there and hope it all goes away so that you can get back to the wonderful comatose state of sleep. Of course it never happens for me (the getting back to sleep part). I should know better than to think it might. I guess it’s been awhile and I’m out of practice. What I figured out when I had bouts of insomnia before, is that you GET UP and start doing something… anything that will take your mind off of whatever horror it is that woke you.

Yeah. Fat chance of that. It’s fucking deja vu for the eleventy-seventh time. Remembering the Future. What a perfect description. You gotta love the French.

There are so many things I don’t have figured out. I’m definitely no mental giant, but I AM a thinking person. I surely don’t have all the answers, but I do try to understand why things are the way they are. I pretty much question everything. It seems there aren’t really that many of us around. No one THINKS for themselves. Are they just lazy, or are they incapable? They think whatever their husband thinks, or whatever Rush thinks, or whatever they overheard that someone in the checkout line thinks, or what their friend’s brother said. Lots of women believe anything a man says… ANY man.

Maybe their beliefs are what their priest said last Sunday, or what they heard on Fox “News”, or maybe hold-overs from what their parents thought. What irritates me the most is that they defend their “belief” steadfastly, but can’t discuss it because they don’t know WHY they believe it. When a woman I know was ranting about Hillary Clinton, I asked her why she hated her so much, and the only reason she had was, “Because I just DO!”. This same woman told me that my “main” problem (I guess she has a list) was that I was “too educated”. Hmmmm.

Let me just say right now, I never thought I would want to write about anything political on this blog, even though I am vastly interested in what goes on in the world. I thought this blog would be a “politics-free” zone, with quilts and sewing and knitting and creative endeavors taking the lead. So much for that with this post. Waking up in a cold sweat pushed the fabric and yarn right out of the window.

So yeah, I wake up with a sense of dread. The RNC is having their convention right now. I don’t watch it. I didn’t watch the DNC either. It’s bullshit, and I don’t need an overload of that. No speeches, no applause, no attacks, no soaring rhetoric… it’s all such crap. But who can escape Sarah Palin and her “American Story”? “I’m just like you!” ?? They drag the “Shotgun Son-in-Law” to the convention to stand there with her pregnant daughter to prove that they are “just like us”???? Oh PLEASE!! Are people really that easily manipulated? I know the answer is “yes”, and it makes me so sad. These are the same people who can’t tell you what the “Support the Troops” sticker on their car means.

Someone on CNN actually DARED to ask a question about Palin’s record as governor, and then McCain cancelled his interview on CNN with Larry King?? Shit, Larry King’s not going to ask any tough questions. Yeah, and so much for wanting “the people” to get to know much about her that actually matters. What are they afraid of?

I want to scream. If this isn’t a Karl Rove orchestration, I don’t know what is, and I just KNOW in my heart of hearts that this is going to work for them. It makes me so sad that our nation actually has a chance to do a turn-around, and he’s going to make sure it doesn’t happen. Just like 2000. Just like 2004. Of course it will take some rigging of the elections (Hello paperless Voting Machines!) and some of his evil minions working on some “Swift Boating” tactics, but he will stop at nothing. He made a spoiled, rich, yankee, cocaine-sniffing preppie, D-student, drunk-driving, bumbling mama’s boy into a cowboy (who can’t even ride a horse, but clears some MEAN brush!), and everyone (well, not EVERYONE) wanted to have a beer with him and make him president… TWICE!!

Karl Rove. He’s got a lot on the line, so he’s fighting to keep himself out of jail. Payback just might really BE a bitch (or make him one), so he’s going to make sure he doesn’t have to find out. Makes a win for the Republicans just about a sure thing. He’ll stop at NOTHING. He’ll sacrifice ANYONE. He is like the Terminator, and the people who won’t stop to think for themselves don’t think a thing of it. People where I live don’t even know who he is, and I’m sure that’s how connected the general non-thinking public is. If ever there was an evil in this world that showed itself in a human (?) form, Karl Rove is that. Even the fate of our nation comes down to how evil and underhanded can he be, and how evil and underhanded can he make John McCain and Sarah Palin be. With John McCain, I think he sold his soul a while ago. Don’t know how long ago it was for Palin.

God, I used to love that man. He was like a ray of sunshine on a dismal day. Now his “respectful campaign” is just a Karl Rove free-for-all, and John is in there slinging the crap with gusto.

I do have to say that the “Original” John McCain that I liked so much peeked out the other day when he spoke of Bush’s meeting with Vladmir Putin, when Bush famously “looked into his eyes and saw his soul” (gag). John said that he saw something in his eyes too, “the letters K-G-B”. Now, if that isn’t classic McCain, I don’t know what is. What happened to that man? Did they send him back to the Hanoi Hilton and put the “fake” John McCain in his place? So sad. Bring back the “real” John McCain. Let him pick a running mate who is a free thinker too! We just might have a chance no matter which party wins! Ooops. TOO LATE.

So now I have to toughen up and put on the steel underwear to get ready for the non-thinkers once again to decide the fate of our country. It’s going to happen. It’s 2000 all over again and then some, because our country is in such more pitiful condition. It can’t survive another snatch-and-grab administration. Our nation is on the brink, and all of the people who don’t care, and the ones who cant think for themselves, and the “I’m just like you” believers don’t have a clue what’s in store.

And I wonder why I have a depression problem.

Do I really want to be a Apiculturist?

The absence of Honey Bees and Bumble Bees this summer has really made my backyard a sad place.

Just yesterday I was noticing the clover all through the grass in the backyard, with not a single bee to be found. When I walked toward the back of my yard to look at all the Queen Anne’s Lace that was growing on the other side of the fence, what do I see bouncing between the flower heads instead of my bee friends? A GIANT BLACK WASP!! I was so creeped out I came inside and closed the door. It was like something out of a horror movie.

So, today I ventured back out there with Steve and the boys (cats). There are tomatoes ripening, and Holy Moly (mole?) chilis almost ready for salsa. Yumm.  I was standing next to a couple dozen tall purple Gladiolus, and WHAT DO I SEE???  YES, IT’S A HONEY BEE! He’s all by himself, but he is there nonetheless. He likes those purple flowers!

I told Steve that I had to share my excitement and post about the lone bee on my blog.  Yesterday I was thinking that if I want any bees, I would probably have to raise them myself.  Still might have to, but it does my heart good to see that there is a bee in my yard today. I probably should have taken his picture. I’ll keep my camera handy in case he or one of his buddies comes back.

It has been a good day.

Grandmotherhood… Oh My!

My daughter Mona is having a little girl sometime in November. Everyone is excited about it, having thought it would never happen. Her husband has always wanted a child, although I think she just came around to the idea in the last couple years. She’s 39 this year, so maybe she heard that tick tick tick. Do you know that they call any pregnancy over 35 a “geriatric” pregnancy? Sounds like she should be using a walker and soaking her false teeth.

ANYWAY, I just resigned myself to thinking that my only grandchild would be my daughter’s big Black Lab, Nightmare. I was okay with that, as he is one of the sweetest and funniest dogs I’ve ever known. My other favorites are my friend Donna’s former and current Service Dogs, Pettis and Heinich, a Golden Lab and Golden Retriever respectively.

So, this little baby is coming, and my daughter is simultaneously happy and afraid that she won’t be a good parent, which I think is something every expectant mom wrestles with.  She’ll be a fantastic mom, and I think their (Mona and her husband Eric) baby will be one happy kid. Both of them have playful ways about them, and I think that should carry over to their child. If your parents are goofballs you probably will be one, too.

When Mona had her first sonagram (is that what they are?), she scanned it and sent me a picture, as we are separated by 500 miles. She lives up by Lake Tahoe, and I live in the Willamette Valley in Beautiful Oregon. The sonagram picture showed this tiny little thing with teeny little fingers forming and eysockets and the skull being quite defined. To be entirely honest, if she  had on a scraggly white wig, she would have looked just like the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt.  Even though Mona laughed when I told her that, I’ve noticed that I’ve never received another sonagram pic. Perhaps some things I should just keep to myself.  You think??

Quilts

Recently I made a quilt for a traveling exhibit “Living Colour” for the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, called “Joya de la Selva” (Jewel of the Jungle). It’s of a giant leaf hopper that I saw in my friend’s backyard in Quintana Roo, Mexico, near the Belize border.

The entire leaf hopper is beaded. It took forever! Then I sewed vertical lines with some slightly shiny silvery thread that made it look like rain, and then for the raindrops I sewed some clear faceted beads with an AB finish on the leaves and flowers, and along the top of the green vertical inner border. It looked so cool. Sort of like looking into a jungle through an open window.

I didn’t want to send it off, but I did. It will be auctioned off (along with 49 others) to benefit the guild’s operating budget. I hope it makes mucho mulah! It is beautiful.

I am also making a quilt that I designed called “Tea is for the Birds” which I will be entering into their 2008 quilt show in Seattle. This quilt show has previously taken place biennially, but this year will be the first of the now annual event. It’s a great show. I’ve been to many of the large shows: Houston, Pacific International, Road to California, etc. and none can begin to compare with the class act that the APNQ
(Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters) manages to put together for the Northwest to enjoy.

Here is a picture of the quilt I hope to be entering:

Here is a detail of the center block:

It took me forever to piece the backgrounds for the applique and the borders. I must be crazy, because I HATE piecing! I’m trying really hard to embrace it. I’m even taking a class to make a quilt that is entirely pieced. We’ll see how long I last!

Understating the Exaggeration

I thought I was exaggerating about those polymer granules, and I was actually totally minimizing their ability to absorb water and swell. I said they would swell to 50x their original size, and it’s really 400x!! They actually get cooler as they evaporate, and will keep cool for 2 or 3 days! The neck coolers sound like a really good thing for the soldiers, so I’m going to make a BUNCH more.

Some Very Cool Stuff

Today we spent the day sewing up neckbands for the Marines who are currently sweltering in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bands are about 40″ long, with the back 16″ of the neckbands sewn into four-4″ compartments. About a half-teaspoon of those polymer granules (the ones that you can put in soil to retain moisture) are put into each 4″ compartment. When they are soaked in water, the granules swell to something like 50 times their size (I might be exaggerating here, but they do swell up a lot), and help the Marines to stay cool. The temperatures there are consistently over 100 F degrees, and have you seen all the gear they have to wear?? I can’t even imagine wearing all of that in ANY kind of weather.

We’re also making 7″ round-shaped thingies with the same stuff in them so that they can put those on top of their heads inside their helmets. Those should feel pretty nice, or at least give them a little relief. What a job they’ve got, huh?

That our soldiers (and soldiers from the “coalition of the willing”) should be dumped right in the center of harm’s way by a bunch of privileged cowards who never served in the military makes my blood boil. I hope they are all tried for war crimes in the Hague. Or for treason right here in the good ol’ USA. Assholes. And 4000+ of our brave soldiers have been killed for such a pathetic president’s legacy? I hope history is as brutal to him as he, his rich friends, Halliburton and all of the corrupt lobbyists have been to our country.

Uh… I think it may be time for another chill pill.

I Love Oregon

Every time I walk outside, I am amazed all over again how beautiful it is here. And it’s not because my memory is gone, either! When California and the southwest are in a drought, here it is green and lush and the Cascades are full of snow. I heard today that all of the ski area are going to be opening again! There just might be skiing until summer.

As much as I love seeing the mountains white again, I have to realize that it’s not quite normal, and I wonder if things ever will be again. Yes, and George Bush is still waiting for the science to come in on global warming. What a crock! The guy is an idiot. You know, a hundred years ago, someone with eyes that close together would in all probability be locked up. Back then they thought it was a sign of a psychopathic personality. Or maybe it was a sociopathic… Wow! They may have been right!

Some more of the patterns I ordered at Quilt Market in Portland came in today at the shop where I teach. I will be making several… one for a shop sample, and one for ME!! Of course this is another Sue Spargo pattern. I really like her designs. Lots of wool applique and antique/vintage-looking fabrics.
I also really like the fact that she uses BUTTONS on this tote.

It is made primarily of upholstery fabrics. My friend Peggy was given many discontinued samples from one of the local furniture stores, so I’m going to hit her up for a few. With most of the samples we made tote bags for the ladies that come into the local womens’ shelter to escape spousal abuse . That way they at least have something to carry the few items that they managed to escape with. Often they had to use garbage bags.

From My Heart to Your Hands

Although the name of her company, From My Heart to Your Hands, is a mouthful, Lori Smith is my current favorite applique designer. I hadn’t seen her work until I went to Quilt Market in Portland a few weeks ago. Spent quite a bit of time in her booth, and there was A LOT to look at! She uses the same palette that I’m always drawn to, so maybe it was the familiarity of what I saw that made it so appealing. Needless to say, I bought lots of her patterns while there.

Here is one of her little applique patterns that I’m working on right now.

Lori’s was just one of the many booths I visited, as I was given a task to find applique patterns for the quilt shop that I teach at, Finally Together Quilts in Lebanon, OR. It was SUCH a chore! The owners gave me a big wad of money and let me loose! Fun, fun!

Market was great. My friend Penny flew up from San Jose, and we had a great time. Thought at some point someone would escort us out of the building for causing too much trouble, but we lucked out. I met lots of new people, saw lots of old friends from Santa Cruz, and saw so much neat stuff! It was quite an experience.

Some of the other booths I “discovered” were Sue Spargo’s Folk Art Quilts, The Laundry Basket, and Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop.