I wish I had a pencil thin moustache...

I ran across this website the week before last on Something to Say and got a big kick out of this hat! For those of you who are fans of "The Thin Man" series, can't you just see Nora wearing this hat... with icecubes concealed underneath?

Red and Pink

As you can see by the cute little button on the side of the screen, I have signed up for "Project Spectrum". I've got plenty of inpiration for the month of March -- in fact, I've got a crazy amount! And now I have a deadline, so I'd better get back to it.

What flower am I?

You are an Iris:

You are logical, analytical, dignified, and wise.

You are studious by nature and may prefer

books to people. You tend to be a serious

person but are capable of making others laugh

with your dry sense of humor. Friends always

benefit from your advice.

Symbolism: Over the centuries the iris has come to

symbolize faith, wisdom, hope, and promise in

love.


Which Flower are You?
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Tea for Kaffe

And now I can post the 50% done Christmas/birthday/housewarming/welcomebacktoVirginia wall hanging I'm working on for my friend Angie. She's a very giving person who has made countless numbers of quilts for her friends. She's also a GREAT cook who hopes someday to have her own tea shop so when I saw this pattern in the Sep/Oct issue of Quiltmaker, I had to make it for her. Please excuse the angle at which I took this picture -- it's been a long day:
And of course it's no where near finished until Charlie sits in the middle of my masterpiece and cleans his knee. You simply can't get very far in life if you don't keep your knees clean...

WoooooooHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I got a new camera for Christmas.... Most of what I seem to have taken pictures of are the cats.Not to mention a couple of videos of Charlie playing in his water dish with a piece of broccoli. I've promised him I won't post those on the 'net.








I've also taken a few pics of all the nice fabrics I got for Christmas. Some in my stocking and some by virtue of a gift certificate.











Thanks Mom and Angie! And thanks to Joyce for having such a lovely selection in her shop....

Lest ye think I'd forgotten...

Before I left town and started getting very involved with Christmas makings, I did have the chance to work on this little bit of craziness:

Manitoba

And speaking of Manitoba, my friend Linda took me to Ram Wools. I wasn't really going to buy anything, but all this turquoise yarn just started leaping off the shelves at me. Haven't decided exactly what I should do with it, but I'm kinda thinking I want to crochet something.

In the grand scheme of unfinished stuff

Here's the scarf I would have finished on the plane but for loosing one of the balls of yarn. It turned up at my friend's house later but as it was Paton's it was easily replaced:

Here's a close up of my crazy colour choices:

I started this yesterday and am not sure if I want to finish it in time for Christmas or not. I can tell you that at the very least it's going to have a big fat spider web on it, perhaps copied one in the "Virginia Quilt Museum" by Carter Houck.

Just a hint

I've been working on something for another member of my family but since she may be reading this, the best I can do is hint.

All play and no work

I just got back from an extra long weekend in Manitoba. My boss (bless him) gave me the rest of the week off so I've been working on my Christmas making. So far, I've finished putting together a necklace for my sister-in-law using mostly beads which I inherited from my grandmother. Only the onyx disk medallion is new. I'm not sure that she has any other jewelry from my father's side of the family so I decided this was the best way to pass some on.

My little baby kitty

My littlest baby is getting so big!


And he's getting to be quite a lot of help around the house....

I was beginning to wonder....

.....why it was that I have attracted so many Tom Waits fans over the years. This explains it:


Tom Waits... charismatic story-teller with a
penchant for freaky people and unusual
settings. You thrive on the concept of the
underdog coming out on top.


Which fucked-up genius composer are you?
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My camera

FYI, I again apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I'm using a rather archaic Sony Mavica, so what you see is what you get. If you want a more detailed look at anything I've published, let me know and I'll see what I can do based on the camera's temperment. I think I'm going to get a new camera with my next bonus....

Crazy for bags

It's Sunday and I've been hit hard this weekend with the sinus issues -- I should be used to it by now. Yesterday when I was still thinking I might possibly think about sewing a Halloween costume, I started sorting through one of my tubs looking for velvet and pulled out a bunch of velvets, brocades and silks. This morning when it became apparent I wasn't going to have much of anything to do with operating heavy machinery, I pulled these fabrics together for making a "crazy bag".


The brocade in the top left is something my grandmother had while the floral fabric on the right originally covered a Jacobean reproduction armchair. The other bits and pieces are fairly recent purchases of my own.








As I was checking out the usual blogs earlier today, I saw that Allison Aller has just scored big with a very nice purchase of lace. Coincidentally, she's got it displayed on a nice piece of green dupioni. As promised, here is what I was thinking of adding to this little number lace-wise:

Besides the lace, I think I'll use a bit of metallic thread and perhaps a very light touch with the beading.

SOMETHING TO SAY: Wicked Little Pumpkin

SOMETHING TO SAY: Wicked Little Pumpkin


Its this not just the best?!?

And so this morning I dragged out the iron

And did all the fiddly bits on my little garden wall hanging:

I want to embellish it with embroidery like that in one of Bella Dia's latest finds....

The Italian Job

A bit further on, I came to the Italian Garden which was in a riot of late summer/early fall colour. One of the pics I took was of some tall spiky flowers. Not sure what variety they are as they were so profuse they covered up the marker. They reminded me of one of the bits of fabric I paint-dyed the other evening. Now I'm really getting ideas....

The bit where I got a sunburn on my nose

Yesterday I went to Maymont. I don't ever remember a time when I didn't thoroughly enjoy going there and when all is said and done, it's one of my favourite places in the world. I'm very glad it's here in Richmond. Anywho, I took my trusty little digital camera and got a few shots just for ideas.

Just above the hill where the black bears live, I found a ginko which was starting to turn. I played around with the leaves like so:

What I did otherwise....

I've got a head cold so I skipped Joyce's hand dying class but since I had a nice little chunk of me time in my day, I hauled out some old fabric paint - the 99cent variety which Sonji says are the bee's knees - and did a bit of experimenting. So far, so good. They're not 100% dry yet, but I can envision creating a moon out of this one:




And perhaps a lovely little spring garden out of this one:


















As a side note, I'd like to let everyone know that Charlie the kitten is so pleased as Punch with all of this that he has fallen asleep with his little chin on my right hand. I guess I'm not going anywhere for a while....

Almost there

Remember this one from way back when? One big square and a pile of bits and pieces? I'm almost finished.... really. All that remains is for me to figure out how to set my sewing machine properly to do free-motion stiching and I'll have it quilted before you can say Malibu sunset. I'd practice doing it today, but I think I've had enough of the sewing room for now.