A Nifty Idea

I saw this video tutorial on this blog I look at regularly, Craftzine, about free-motion embroidery t-shirts made by a woman who has a site called Girlpopcorn.com.  Apparently, she finds a picture of the thing she wants to embroider, puts it through Photoshop to make a line drawing of the object, traces the drawing onto water-soluble stabilizer, and then uses the stabilizer as a template to stitch the object onto a t-shirt.  

I may or may not fool around with this idea, but for now the inspiration button is all lit up on my dashboard..

Some Crochet Content

Granny square pouch for my mp3 player

Crocheted Free-form bowl

That urgent need to create thing struck again, prompted by necessity in the case of the pouch for my mp3 player.  The bowl was a frogged scarf, which I started but thought better of completing.  The yarn is itchy (what is it?  wool?  acrylic?) and I would never wear something itchy around my  neck deliberately.  So, thinking it would stitch up pretty stiffly, I decided to try and make a bowl.  In the not-too-distant past, I was often amused for hours by making fabric bowls, and so it was a natural to try and crochet one, especially since one does not wear a bowl, itchy or not.

I must comment on my lack of entries lately, if only to get back on track.

I started this blog, having an intuition that this year I would need to be reminded again and again to be grateful for what I have.  I was so right.  I need to be reminded again and again. In trying to create a good habit, the opposite has happened.  I have been a very grumpy curmudgeon, feeling very put-upon and not at all inclined to see grace or beauty in my life.  Most days it has been difficult to feel grateful for anything.  

Well, I am endeavoring to turn my eyes outside of myself and my poorly-attended pity party, and to blog something, anything, that I can be thankful for.  The content might be a bit light at times.  But I intend to keep trying.  

So, today, I am thankful for second chances.  Even if it's the 50th second chance...

Spring Break

Spring Break began on Monday, and my daughter and I started it with new haircuts.  We both look fabulous.  But, seeing that I usually do my blogging before I shower, I will post pix later.

My husband is away until Wednesday, so us girls are looking for fun things to do.  Maybe we'll spend some time down at the pool today, if it doesn't rain.  

Tomorrow we go to see an apartment for rent that probably wont suit us, it doesn't have enough bedrooms or bathrooms, but we'll look anyway.  We have less than 3 months until we have to move out of our current place.  

Beautiful Soup

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup from Scratch

This started with a rotisserie chicken I bought at the grocery store.  After we had eaten all the meat off of it that we wanted (just the breast, really), I proceeded to boil the rest of the bird in a dutch oven for several hours.  I kept intending to add carrots, celery and onion to the pot while it was boiling at this point, but was distracted by many things.  

Anyway, about an hour before I wanted to serve it, I strained the broth.  I then let it cool enough to skim the fat off the top.  While it was cooling I sliced carrots, celery, onion and fennel into a pot.  I added the skimmed broth, some water and a half of a bouillon cube and returned it to a simmer.  I put in some diced chicken breast, fresh thyme, a little salt and fresh noodles.  After the noodles were done cooking, I turned the heat to low and added a little fresh cream.  For the finishing, I sprinkles some chopped celery leaves.  Very beautiful and delicious!

The reason I was inspired to make this soup is because both my daughter and husband are on antibiotics!  We don't know for sure, but since one of my daughter's friends was recently diagnosed with micoplasma (walking pneumonia), and this is highly contagious, it seemed like they might have it, too.  Fun, fun, negative fun.

Organization, Part 36

Hanging Storage System for My Fabric

For my fused fabric, that is.  Previously, all this fabric was in a bin that wasn't wide enough.  Well, it was just a mess.  I saw this solution on my sister's blog, and then I saw it in person and really liked it.  So, when I went to Howard's Storage on Friday (I think it's at a mall called Parkway Parade - on the east coast), I knew I had to keep my eyes peeled for one of these.  It's actually for shoes, and it's got the pockets on the back, too.  But I didn't need to use those.  

So, this is perfect, and I can see all my fabrics so I don't have to dig in a bin.  Woohoo!

What I haven't said

Tete-a-Tete

What I haven't said is that I finished this quilt, sometime over a week ago.

I'm really pleased with this, and feel that I have reached a certain level that I was aiming at. Unfortunately, reaching that level then sent me into a tail-spin.  Now what? was all I could think.  

I wont go into all the self-abusing thoughts that then ensued, because that isn't helpful.  But I kept going back to Tete-a-Tete, and thinking about the experience of making that quilt.  It was tedious, in that I actually made pattern pieces for almost every piece of fabric used in the quilt. But there was something zen-like in doing it that way; it brought me, mentally, to a different place.  I was in the moment, not trying to hurry up and finish.  I was taking my time, and enjoying it, so that in that sense, it wasn't tedious at all.  I realized I was enjoying the precision of the process.

Precision was a word I grabbed onto.  What connotations does the word have for me?  It was then that I discovered a new direction for my quilts, and made this sketch:

Now, this sketch is small - under 12 inches square.  And it came from an earlier sketch that included many more fiddly bits. I cleaned up that sketch to create this composition, which has just the right amount of fiddly bits to suit me.  I was particularly fascinated with the idea of machine parts and tools going into the composition of a quilt.  It seems like boy things going into a girly craft.  Just seems, I said.  Don't get all weird about that comment.  So, here it is all made up:

Artwerk #1

Fun Weekend

I just spend a fun weekend with my family.  We didn't do anything tooooo spectacular, but we were very silly all along the way.  There was a walk-a-thon at my daughter's school, very well organized event, and afterwards we took a dip in our pool - we were so hot.  Sunday after church we went downtown and saw the Spiderwick Chronicles - very good movie for kids.

But it was also a weekend where we said things that were silly, and then repeated those things all weekend long, getting big laffs each time.  My favorite sayings were: (from my husband to my daughter) "Does my thumb fit in your armpit??"  And there was something about a lumpy koala that kept coming up.  And, "you go hungry, bow bow bow."  Inside jokes all, I know, but it's so nice when everybody is in such a great mood that we just laff and laff.