Sewing a Garden

It's 34 degrees and raining so I'm grateful to be inside sewing.

I'm making Black-eyed Susans for the motif swap we're having at the Adventure in Crazy Quilting next week.

I've made 12 flowers and I have 21 more to go.

Today, my to-do list says: Make flowers

That's not a bad day at all.

Lots of preparations still to do and many more flowers to sow before I sleep...

Happy Moo Day!

Like many of my fellow Adventurers, I am knee deep in preparations for the Adventure in Crazy Quilting being held in Glastonbury, CT next week!

I've admired these Moo cards on many of the scrapbooking blogs over the years but never taken the time to have my own printed.

Until now...

Moo cards are about half the size of a business card and are printed on both sides and come in sets of 100 cards for about $20. I chose 50 images from my blog and ordered two sets to use as calling cards to give away to my fellow adventurers.

I was very pleased with the overall results but I think that the simpler pictures turned out better in this super small format.

Also, the pictures printed a little darker than I expected so brighter pics turned out better. All that being said, the paper quality was exceptional...it's much more substantial than a typical business card.

Here's a discount code in case you want to get your Moo on. They arrived within 5 days of my ordering them.

My nieces were over this weekend and they loved them. They're already dreaming of making their own...which leads to lots of thoughts about how to use them...

Royal Knitting

Doesn't this just make you smile?

Thanks to Needleprint blog for introducing this new book to me!

Knit Your Own Royal Wedding by Fiona Gable is a delight for the senses and for your funny bone.

I absolutely love the zaniness of a knitted royal wedding party...

It's one of the most creative ways to commemorate the big event that I've seen.

And it truly tickles my funny bone...though I really have no desire to actually knit the royal wedding party myself.

That being said, you corgi lovers might be tempted to knit a miniature version of your pooches...

Fiona Gable has a great sense of humor and is famous for her knitted holy family published in Knitivity as well as a book of knitted monsters. She cracks me up.

She even includes a knitted spoof on the famous engagement picture...

I think she nailed the famous wrap on Kate's dress.

And just to make you smile even more and send you into your weekend just a bit on a light note...

Take a couple of minutes and watch this video put out by the publisher Ivy Press (you'll be happy to know that the corgis are prominently featured -- turn up your volume)...

Happy happy weekend everyone!!

Sunny Inside

It's gray and rainy outside but I don't care.

Thanks to a heck-of-a lot of Rudbeckia...

Making flowers is good therapy. If you're in need of some therapy yourself, you can find the pattern here on Ravelry.

And if you are on Ravelry, I'd love to know about it. You can friend me here.

Happy Day...no matter the weather...

I get by with a little help from my friends...

My Crazy-beautiful friends came over this past weekend. We intended to make a surprise for the other Adventurers who will be attending the Adventure in Crazy Quilting in Connecticut on April 7.

Well...we had a great plan but I completely underestimated the time needed to complete our task. Enter Plan B. In the meantime, they spent three hours of their lives helping me get my motifs started for the Motif Swap we are holding as part of the event.

I have to make 34...and because of all of those beautiful friends, they have already cut out all of the petals, sepals and centers for these Black-eyed Susans. Now I just need to sew them all together and do the final touches.

If I do three a day, I should be able to make it...

But only thanks to my crazy-beautiful friends. You'll get to meet them over the course of the next few weeks since we're driving up to the Adventure together.

Happy Monday everyone!

FOCUS Falls to Distractadon and Procrastinatrix

I have so much to do. And my Achilles Heel is trying to finish the cleaning up of all my sewing areas, primarily my dining room.

So, I do what all right-brained, visually-oriented people do...I buy an organizing book thinking that by buying the book, I will get organized.

I actually really found this book incredibly useful. I'd always felt disorganized when reading most other organization books....

That's because most of those books are written by linear thinking, left-brained people who organize everything in alphabetized files and have everything put away in its place.

But this book explains that those "out of sight" files and drawers and cupboards are largely unsuccessful for right-brained creative types. We like to see everything.

The problem come in when everything is out in plain sight and too much clutter accumulates --it can become a hindrance to finding things eg. my dining room.

So yesterday, I was bound and determined to tackle the task of clearing up my dining room (aka my sewing room), and to follow the FOCUS method described in the book.

FOCUS = Follow One Course Until Successful

OK.

The "One Course" = Clearing the Dining Room

The "Problem" = Those horrible beasts, Distractadon and Procrastinatrix

You see, if you're visually oriented, you are tempted with each and every "sighting" to do a different task, instead of focusing on what you're already doing. The book recommends keeping a list nearby to write down those additional tasks with the intention of doing them later...stick to the one task...cleaning up the dining room. The other idea is to treat yourself as your own employee...and you, the boss, will evaluate your performance over a fixed period of time on the ONE task. OK. I can do that.

Well, yesterday I completely blew it. Distractadon and Procrastinatrix were here in full force.

While cleaning, I found this old Remains of Alice journal cover with the little bits and scraps from my Alice project last year.

To be honest, I had stopped working on it because it was really ugly. But there it was, Distractadon...challenging me to make it better.

My sewing machine was up and out. All the threads were out too. I would just spend a few minutes trying to improve its condition.

Four hours later, the journal cover was still not finished though it does look a bit better...AND the dining room did not get cleaned up...AND that journal cover has nothing to do with my immediate task list. Procrastinatrix.

So I suppose I should fire myself for poor performance yesterday? I did the next best thing...I admitted to Jim and Jack last night that I had a failure of a day. And, after four hours of working on my project, though no longer an ugly duckling, the project was not yet a swan. AND, this journal cover, on a scale of importance from 1 to 10, is a "0"!

Jack said, "I don't care about that Mom. You cooked an awesome dinner!" (His favorite -- corned beef, cabbage and potatoes).

Maybe it wasn't a complete bust. I think I'm beginning to like this journal cover...it was inspired by an online class I took with Maryanne Moss called Remains of the Day.

The idea behind the class is to re-purpose scraps of paper, envelopes and magazines that would normally be tossed out, into a useful journal. The cover is made over a card stock pattern and will fold up with the "book" inside. (You can see lots of beautiful examples here.)

I was so inspired by all of them. Something about using the Remains of Alice to make a journal that I could use and carry around, really appealed to me.

This will become a swan. I just know it. It has to...because this little Alice traveled all the way across the Atlantic from my friend Carol Ann in England just to be charm on the end of its bookmark.

I still have a way to go. But today is a new day and I'm back to being my own boss. And today, I have a new chance to alter my bad behaviors.

Today, I will FOCUS.

Right after I finish writing this blog post...

The Fridge Magnet says it ALL.

Have a great weekend!

My Irish Heritage

My Great Aunt...Margaret Francis Flahavan

May your pockets be heavy—
Your heart be light,
And may good luck pursue you
Each morning and night.

And Luck pursuing you is a heck of a lot better than my Aunt Margaret!

(You can't say I didn't warn you...)

Meeting Elizabeth!

Elizabeth Woodford and I have been blogging needle friends (BNFs) for a couple of years now and we finally had the chance to meet each other in Alexandria, VA yesterday.

Since the Woodlawn Needlework Exhibit is about halfway between the two of us (Elizabeth lives in Virginia and I'm in Maryland), we decided to meet there and see the exhibit together. We spent a few hours touring the show, eating lunch and talking non-stop.

It's funny to meet BNFs in person after you have gotten to know them so well online. We know so much and yet...so little. We have knowledge of the other through what we each have chosen to share with each other on our blogs. But that leaves the whole rest of someone's life to get caught up on!!

Well...I'm here to tell you that Elizabeth and I had one heck of a first date!

Elizabeth has to be one of the most upbeat, positive, and supportive friends I have online. Her work is exuberant and full of life. Whether she's teaching felting to school children (LOVE this post), making art quilts, dying, journaling, jewelry making...she happily does it all...and does it well.

Check out this beautiful scarf that she Nuno-felted using a silk crepe de chine blouse from the thrift store, some lace from a garage sale and a little bit of wool roving...!

She just whipped it together on Sunday so she could wear it to our date on Monday! Love the colors...Elizabeth also loves gardening and flowers.

Today she taught a Beaded Cuff class. Each cuff is unique to the maker and her classes are getting rave reviews. I LOVED this cuff...and "Happy" is most definitely Elizabeth's signature.

After lunch, Elizabeth took me to her favorite bead shoppe which was only 10 minutes from Woodlawn...Beads Limited. Oh, it's a "must see"!

This is the owner Rosalie Lamanna or "Ro"...she's a joy.

And she has filled her store from floor to ceiling with stringed beads...many of them vintage. Even the back of the door was covered!

It was a wonderful shop located inside of an old brick apartment building complex -- not a "normal" location for a bead store but it works! And it's only 10 minutes from the Woodlawn needlework show! It was an added bonus to an already terrific day.

And if that's not enough, Elizabeth gave me a collection of her sun prints which I have coveted for years. I LOVE her sunprints! They are gorgeous and I cannot wait to use them...And for her to teach me how to make them...

We may get to see each other again for the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival the first weekend in May. Fingers crossed. We just need our pocketbooks to recover from the bead debt we incurred yesterday...

If you haven't met Elizabeth, give yourself a treat and head over to her blog, Elizabeth Creates, and say hello. And thank you Elizabeth for a great day -- I'll get in trouble with you any day!

See you tomorrow for more adventures...

P.S. Here's the bead store info:

Beads Ltd.

1801 Belle View Blvd., Suite A-1

Alexandria, VA 22307

(703) 768-9499

Hours: Sunday 1:30 - 6:30pm

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 11-6pm

Hearts and Hands for Sendai

Hello everyone, it feels good to be back here writing a blog post again.

Like many of you, I am deeply saddened by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. So much anguish and sorrow. It makes me wish I was able to fly a helicopter to rescue survivors or deliver supplies. But, since I can't fly a helicopter (yet *wink*), I feel like I need to do something.

So..., when I read about the Hearts and Hands for Sendai project being generated by the Crazy Quilt International Yahoo Group, I was eager to participate. Putting my heart and hands to work sounds like something I can do...(though I'm not ruling out helicopters in the future)...

The project is dedicated to helping those affected by the earthquake tsunami disaster in Japan and is inspired by one of the Crazy Quilt International members and fellow bloggers, Hideko Ishida, who lives in Sendai.

To participate, you must pay a small donation of $10 and make an 8" finished size block using either crazy quilting or sane quilting techniques. The color palette is "jewel tones" and the blocks will be assembled into quilts to be exhibited in Japan where money will be raised by viewing the quilts. The quilts may be eventually auctioned but this will be decided at a later date.

You can view all the details of participation on the Crazy Quilt International blog, on Facebook or here on Leslie's Pinyon Creek Stitchin' blog. If you can't make a block, direct donations will be accepted through Paypal to icqa4u@yahoo.com and will be forwarded to Hideko to donate to the charity of her choosing.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the great day I had meeting fellow blogging friend, Elizabeth Woodford of Elizabeth Creates...

Until then, good night everyone.

Nothing serious...just in need of a little down time...

Tokens of Love

The exhibit Threads of Feeling at London's Foundling Museum closes in two days on March 6. However, if you cannot make it there by then *wink*, there is a wonderful online video and slideshow that you can virtually experience. Which is what I did. And I had to share. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Image © Coram from the Foundling Museum

The time period was 18th century London...a time when life was very hard for the working class. Many women were forced through severe hardship to give up their babies and would take them to the Foundling Hospital in hopes that their child would gain admission. Sadly, not all did.

When leaving the child, sometimes the mother would offer a textile token...a piece of the mother's dress or the child's clothing...in order to identify the child should circumstances change and she might one day come back to claim the child.

Image © Coram from the Foundling Museum

The scraps were placed in ledgers together with the registration document and kept in the records in case the mother's fortune did, indeed, change. The museum has over 4,000 scraps of textile, Britain's largest surviving collection of 18th century textile history of the ordinary citizen.

The collection gives clues to the translation of fashion to the working classes...Working classes were unable to afford the richly embroidered and woven Spitalfields silks popular at the time. So the working class tended to imitate these expensive woven materials by wearing fabrics that were printed with flora and fauna.

Image © Coram from the Foundling Museum

Another interesting thing to note was that there was no distinction in dress at the time between boys and girls (pink=girl, boy=blue didn't appear until two centuries later).

Boys sometimes wore cockades on their bonnets, while girls wore a bow with streamers called a TopKnot.

Image © Coram from the Foundling Museum

You can read more about this here at the Austenonly blog. There are a number of these cockades and ribbons as part of the textile collection.

Sometimes the scraps of fabric were embroidered specifically for the occasion...

Image © Coram from the Foundling Museum

If you are as interested as I was, I recommend you watch this BBC video here first...

Then go here to see an image slideshow of the exhibition.

I couldn't help but be moved by all those notes and bits of fabric. My favorite was the story behind this piece...

Image © Coram from the Foundling Museum

Explained by the curator in the BBC video.

Happy weekend, beautiful bloggers.

Heart-Centered Stitching

This morning I opened up my email to a free monthly newsletter I receive from Creativity Portal...and found my way to this article written by Naomi Rose in 2006 titled Listening Your Book Into Being.

As I read, I found myself substituting the title "Listening my Needlework into Being"...

And substituting the words "writing" and "write" with the words "stitching" and "stitch".

What does it mean to learn to listen to yourself? Especially when it comes to stitching...

Here I took the liberty of paraphrasing and making the substitutions....

To learn to listen to yourself when a project first comes and knocks at the inside of your heart’s desire requires a “willing suspension of disbelief,” as Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it in the 19th century — only in this case, it’s suspension of disbelief in yourself, and in what is coming forth and how it’s telling itself to you. We have come to believe that stitching comes in fully formed, organized with subheads, logically developing from one point to the next. But stitching from the deeper Self has more unique, custom-tailored, mysterious ways of telling itself to you. So for this — to hear the wisdom, beauty, and translucence that is wanting to make its way up and out into your awareness, that you can begin to move with it and create something beautiful from it — you need to be able and willing to listen.

I love this thought. For a long time I have known that my projects do not progress in a linear fashion. But they come to me...little bits at a time...over time. All the time.

My ideas start as small seeds, and some of them grow and gain weight and others do not.

The first thing I do, is write down that little starter-seed of a thought...and sometimes it sits in the notebook for years.

For some, I create a collection box for the materials that will go into my project...threads, fabric, quotes, images, beads...anything really...all collected as fertilizer for my little seed...until it gains momentum and bursts into a full-blown sprout.

And sometimes it lays at that state for some time...until the next piece comes along. Often I will pause working on a piece because there is something missing. And I know I have to wait, and listen, until that something comes to me. And sometimes, it takes me a great deal of time to find it. But I have great patience for this waiting.

Today, I have opened a collection box that has been waiting for about two years now. It's for my husband. And it comes from my heart.

I'll be using Allie's freezer-paper curved-piecing method to kick start this project into blooming.

And so, I guess if you have ever wondered why a project dropped off the radar of this blog for a while...it's because I'm waiting for something to present itself.

I am in no way linear. And feel no pressure to complete one project before I start another.

To me, I am always working on all of them...

I'm feeling Spring coming on...and you may see lots of things blossoming. But there may be some jumping from one project to another. Please bear with me...It's part of who I am.