angry chicken

my attempt to share more personal information

This is an amazing picture of my mom and me, circa 1973. It's on my fridge and I look at it every day. And, here's a bit more about me (excluding political issues for the time being-except I can say I am very liberal)

random bits:
My husband and I starting dating at age 15. Hence, we are very immature together.
my favorite band of all time is Yo La Tengo (huge statement, but true)
I thought I was going to be a film director when I grew up
I want to write a novel (who doesn't?)
I really love orange juice-a lot, drink it all day.
I'm good at sports and can run really fast .
I prefer the forest to the beach, fresh water to salt water
I have a horrendous (some might say creative) potty mouth - like my mom

Things that make me crazy (in a bad way):
glycerin soap
eating while standing
movies by david mamet (although parts of State and Main were really good)
my car being really dirty on the outside
polar-fleece (and synthetic fabrics in general)
ruining a baking project

Things I am into at the moment:
creatures with eye patches (in a non pirate way)
the idea of someone printing their own money or starting their own bank
finding the perfect punch bowl

grrrr

my recycled monster for this month of softies from an old t-shirt

he's a kind of mutated monster-that Sadie insists is actually a kitty.

I got the donkey bag!

swap-swap this week. I got this wonderful handbag from Laural of Thimble fame (what an amazing resource her site is! I love it!) and 2 mix cd's (which I love, thank you!) Sadie is really into "her" music, which is really good, don't get me wrong-but anything can wear on you after the 1000th time (as grammie can vouch for, she actually threw out the batman album my brother and I loved)

So, Laural also sent this little pin ( you know the 80's kind that are coming back now, and I feel old about it, but cool at the same time) with a photo of a little freaky lookin' chicken. You can barely see it on the bag, so you will ave to use your imagination.

oh-I really want this book

I saw this book in The Pine Needle (a great quilt fabric shop) yesterday and had never seen the inside before-oooh. It was so pretty. This book was written for young girls to learn sewing skills by making doll clothes and other fun things. SIGN ME UP. Jane Eayre Fryer has a lot of other books of the same nature, all written in the early 1900's. So, grammie-this is a not too subtle hint for my b-day (may 24th, you'll all be hearing more about that later) here's a original copy of one of her books-

and there are more-she has books about gardening, first aid, cooking, knitting. Oh my!
Does anyone have these? They all look wonderful. I actually have few vintage first aid books-I really love them, so this one will have to be added to my collection.

my goaty friend

I need to figure out the manual setting on my digital camera-

these are on our fridge-taken with my lomo back when that was all I used-I was cooler then.

dolls, animals, and business-oh my!

     

I was looking for a kit to do after this week-I'm pretty tired of "designing" right now-King Pod is about a week away from being updated and I'm craving to just do a project where I can follow directions and not be so CREATIVE. I dug in my pattern box and pulled out a kit from Gail Wilson, a mini dress form for doll clothes. (I never seem to make dolls only doll accessories) I was curious to see if she had a website-and boy did she ever! I get a little CRAZY for all the mini doll sewing notions, quilts, pin cushions,ironing boards, etc. I sort of bugged out last night about all the goodies she has. Not to mention the bunny and animals patterns above.

 

These are all available as kits (most supplies included) and I am super impressed with all the information she provides with how to's, supplies, and biographical information on her site. Wow. When you have a bit of time-it's really worth a look-even if this style isn't your cup of tea-tons of great doll/animal making info. Also-very cool business ideas like-

1.she does ONLINE classes, which sound very interesting and beneficial
2.sells finished dolls, patterns, and kits, so she can attract any level of crafter.
3.offers licensing agreements for people who want to make and sell her designs.
4. travels and teaches workshops all around
5. offers "clubs" which are monthly patterns/kits sent out with a good price break

I'm always looking for craft/art business models and this site is full of ideas from someone who seems to have a clear vision, design aesthetic, and general nice vibe. She's also been doing this a long time-and I have a soft spot for catalogs that have all drawings, no photos, like hers and Magic Cabin.

Pete had a good point too, when seeing the site-he said "you always want to buy things from people who are willing to give so much away for free" and he is so right. The generosity of how-to's (like the free download of a sample online class!) and accessibility of the craft-person/artist is so great-a very inspiring site for me to find.

quilt monday

I was going to show a dyeing tutorial today, but that will have to come later in May-so for now. . .

Here is my first ever foundation pieced quilt. And it is my first ever small quilt (despite what I may have said in earlier posts, I tend to be a liar) It's about 12" x 9 1/2". I remember I got a mini rotary cutter, a mini cutting board, min pins, all for this project. Not necessary-but really fun.I could fit everything for this project in a ziplock abg. It was so pleasing. I hand quilted this one, you can't see it in this photo-and always intended to frame it-but never did, and now it seems to float around the house. The small people love it. It's really a big doll quilt.

Using this foundation technique (which is quite old, I'm told, sometimes called English paper piecing) was a HUGE breakthrough for me because I was/am not super accurate at cutting and piecing and this fool-proof method really gave me so much confidence. So-the deal with paper piecing is that you sew your fabric strips/blocks to a piece of paper that has your sewing lines marked for you. You sew on a piece of fabric wrong side down to the paper block, flip and iron, and then do it again-then when you have sewn all the pieces in order-and you join your blocks, and rip off the paper. You can make one block, perfect for pin cushions, embellishment on clutches, or handbags, you name it-or make more and make a quilt out of the blocks. You can even go big, and make a standard size quilt with this method, like grammie did here (although paper piecing an entire big quilt involves lots of paper removal, not a fun thing to do.)

 

I love the scale of these together-what a huge cat!

Here is a tutorial and here is a great resource site and here are some free patterns you can print from home! (house and cat above plus more) I can go on explaining this technique for a long time-but these sites do it better. Also- you can design your own-very cool possibilities.
I have 3 tips to add:
1.THIS IS EASY, so if it seems hard at first, stick with it.Once you have the light-bulb moment, you will be happy. If it seems way too hard you are doing it wrong (I do this all the time!)
2. This would be a great first quilt project. You can do a mini quilt with the top, batting, and binding, and practice all the techniques for putting a quilt together and not have to spend a ton of $$$ and time (also, the precise nature of the foundation piecing method makes tiny quilts super easy)
3. Don't do what I do-I get a bit "frugal" and often cut my strips too small. This is a horrible thing to do because it makes the whole thing a huge struggle, and I have to change seam allowances, and it's a huge headache. Leave yourself plenty of room.

 

trying to make me fat

We were all at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and I had the most amazing curried carrot soup from their hot food section. It was the perfect thing for that rainy day-a big bowl of the best soup and a lovely piece of corn bread. So, I went back over when we were done to check the ingredients , so I could recreate it at home, and shit on stick! The second ingredient was HEAVY CREAM. Now, don't get me wrong, I have no problem with fat in food, but COME ON! it's so easy to make soup creamy with out 2 frikken cups of heavy cream-or however ever much they used-so I made my version at home that night-and I swear it was even better-and better for the size of my HINEY.

curried carrot soup
-Saute 2 diced onions in olive oil with 2 tps. of curry powder (less if you are afraid) and let them get nice and golden, about 10 minutes. My favorite curry powder is from dean and deluca, which I got at Whole Foods.
-Add about 4 chopped peeled carrots (all I had were the baby peeled ones, I used half a bag) saute another 5 min and then add veggie broth. I use the stuff in the carton-the whole thing.
-Cover and simmer 30min. Blend with a stick blender until nice and smooth and add 1 cup of canned evaporated skim milk (you could also use coconut milk if you are feeling crazy) add cilantro and blend more, the blender chops the cilantro for you. Salt and pepper to taste.
-serve with a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprig of more cilantro.
yummy!! And It's even better the next day.

happy links

wow-it seems like in the last 10 days or so there as been a FLURRY of amazing things out there in weblogville. What excites me so much is that there is so much creative energy out there-not about buying cool things, but MAKING cool things. Ahh the power of organized crafters-we could move a mountain, I say! Here are some things that have made me so happy-

-The craziness of Japanese craftbook collecting-which has been well organized by Hillary, Kelly, and Maitreya-(who has listed all the latest contributors, thank you)
-wonderful tutorial on needle felt flowers on Craftlog (I can't wait to try)
-check out the bird coin purse over at Bella Dia (she sure works fast! and it's BEAUTIFUL)
-zipper pouch tutorial at thimble
-the amazing softie at six and a half stitches

my vintage aprons

#1-nice bias trim on ruffle hem and pocket

I've been meaning to photograph and show n' tell my aprons for so long now, way back when I saw this over at buzzville-and then I went to Mama Unraveled 2 today(wonderful weblog) and that was it! Time to show and tell! so there are a lot of these, and yup, I'm gonna show them all. Minus this one and this one, which I've already shown. (I'm adding #'s for easy reference)

#2-plain jane work horse

#3-hostess apron-sheer organdy sides, sheer pocket right side, zig-zag finish on diamonds

#4-hostess apron-sheer organdy and gingham with tons of cross stitch! (thank you Rebbecca!)

#5-plain jane red rick-rack on hem and pocket. Nice gather center hem detail

#6-hostess apron-lined in red, scallop hem-Christmas party fun

#7 A personal favorite-patchwork (!) with bias covering all seams

#8 hostess apron-prized piece-you can see why. sheer organdy ruffle-oops,my feet.

#9-plain jane

#10 unbelievable! first pair of apron pants I've ever seen (thank you Heidi!) perfect for the capris. These are sooo cute on.

#11 hostess apron-sheer, notice rick-rack on hem and in center of pocket

#12 work horse-my only other full apron, tattered, but loved

#13-Sadie's new apron, not vintage (from anthropologie) but love the details-dig that sweet pocket, lined with the main fabric and tied in a knot! that would be a cute detail on a handbag.

Whew! and we are done.