Saturday, March 25, 2017

March Mudness

Yep, let the wet and wild windy weather of March fall down upon us, melting snow pack, seasonal streams bubbling up and slick as snot boot sucking mud cover the landscape. What's not to love?

Just like I stupidly bought a new car in January, I decided to replace comfy chairs in March, also a month famous for mud hooks. That would be the condition of the front paws on most of the dogs. Terriers gotta dig and apparently mud is like ambrosia after a long white frozen winter. A doltish decision, but check out that chair and a half for the new comfy chair. We have two new chairs because the first one, electric and supremely comfortable for a human was only a 3 dog chair.



It was just too pitiful looking at the two dogs that use to be able to snuggle in the old chair, sitting on the floor longingly and also too uncomfortable when they tried to make the 3 dogger a 5 dogger chair. Hence this half price 1.5 butt recliner in light beige!



Yikes. Let me tell you the places that sell recliner slipcovers are abysmally slow.

In other news around the mountain, Cindie and I got together for a little Kitchen Store shopping last Thursday. Mostly I picked stuff up for my Mom's new place. We branched out and had some fun at a few other stores too. As always, it's a treat to go out and visit a good (and creative!), friend.

I have been threading for pillowcases. I'm treating Shrek the Baby Wolf like a Macomber, removing the front beam and dropping the beater.



 It's tight, but with an itty bitty stool I can thread pretty easily.
Of course that didn't stop me from making a grave error on heddle spread and had to pull all ten inches
of threading out to start again. We are back to nine inches right now.

Sewing for the most part was more summer than of the season. Just what do you sew for mud season I wonder, yellow rubber?

These two sleeveless makes will do summer beautifully and of course, add a sweater for now.

Leftover 1.25yards of cotton

Voile Mississippi Ave top. Snow yesterday
I just had to get the hedgehog fabric made up into a fun tunic. Cotton linen blends have a bit more body but are not terribly heavy fabrics. This should take me into summer and come out again in the fall.



The trim on the pocket is a band I wove BTW. And a little hanging tab on the back.



DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?

Russia, Russia, Russia! So many orange threads lead to the Kremlin.

And it appears if you disagree with Putin at all, your life is at risk.

But if you are sick of Russia, you can skip on over to Cyprus! Do a little banking.

Lastly not news, but a really well done commercial with a conscience. Trust me, it's good. There's a dog. ;-)

Parting shot: What dogs in chairs wasn't enough??!
Miss Marigold at 14.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Goody Procurement Department

Over the last year I've had to find different sources for my fabric habit. While Fabric of Vision has had some awesome little pop up sales of some special and unusual fabrics, they are not the bread and butter of my sewing.

Coral leather and some very special gauzy linen
 Cotton and linen remain the mainstay, with some wools thrown in when needed. Natural fibers. I ran into a FOV alumni last week in the grocery store. She didn't really like the fabric stores she found online and wanted to know where I had been buying my fabrics. Etsy! I have plumbed Etsy and found some wonderful sellers. She was going to go home and give it all whirl. I hope she did!

For those reading, here is a list of my go to sellers.

Spindle and Rose. Alexa is a lovely seller to deal with, and who doesn't appreciate a beautiful thank you card with their sweetly wrapped order.

FABRIKSHOP. Not the largest collection but some really fun Japanese fabrics. I got my lovely flannel raccoon fabric here. It's been a favorite tunic this winter season.

Fabric Supply. Mostly, if not all Japanese fabrics. I like her index too. I've bought a fair amount of fabric here through the year.

Pink Door Fabrics. This is one of my newer discoveries. She sells new fabric coming out on pre-sale and I like that. Some pretty cute quilt patterns I might add and some good sale fabrics too!

JAQS Fabrics. They carry a huge inventory and offer free shipping over $50.00

For linen I have one source and it is Fabrics-Store.Com  I have used just about every weight and color of linen offered. Their IL019 line of mid-weight linen is the staple pant/jacket weight for me. Their finally woven IC64 makes the best tunics and the heavier 4C22 line makes great towels and bedding along with heavier garments. I've ordered a lot of yardage from them and have never been disappointed.

So there you have it, you have been enabled!
And here is some eye candy of recently curated fabrics.

The foxes are a linen cotton blend and the moths, a cotton lawn.

Check out those raccoons. The fabric is called "Snacks"!
And let's whiplash into ...

Did That Just Happen?
Rep King, I think you have America all wrong or maybe you are what is wrong with America.

For the life of me, I can't understand why we wouldn't want everyone covered under a single payer system, but barring that, why not just fix the ACA instead of this?

I wonder just how we will explain how we turned our backs on this in the coming years.

And little tempest Stella gets her own perfect storm. My Northeast friends, stay warm and safe.

Parting shot: Happiness is....

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Mission Accomplished

My Mother is finally out of the big cottage and into the cozy apartment. It's actually quite roomy and everything fit and fit well. She is in the main building and has but an elevator ride to get to many services and restaurants. They have four of them BTW. Since she has a whole staff at her disposal I am taking a much needed break. She has new friends to meet and new routines to make and I just need some time to myself.

The pre-move weekend did find some fun weaving stuff going on. I managed to finish up the Crabapple pink linen towel and move onto a turquoise one with cotton weft.



 This is the fourth towel on a 12 yard plus warp. I want to get a few more colors out of it. I watched one of the Harry Potter movies while I wove. It was easy enough to fold the loom up and slide it from the studio to the family room.



 Upstairs Baby Wolf Shrek is getting the pillowcase warp. I installed a second simple warping valet for this warp.



 It was long and it was sticky.



While this Henry's Attic 10/2 cotton is very soft and will be lovely for those cases, it is also very fuzzy and grabby. It was a bugger to wind on and took me quite a bit of time.

Martha, can you see Jack in this pic? ;-)
 I had measured out about 10 extra ends and it is a good thing I did as there was breakage during the beaming on. Drat those pesky fuzzy grabbers!

I did receive these two wonderful books this week from Susan Foulkes.



 These are self published via Blurb.

While I was working on Shrek, there was discussion going on about a nylabone.



 Like most things in this house, it was a lot a noise about nothing. After about 5 minutes it was obvious a mediator was needed. I asked Spike if he really needed that bone.



He said no, so we gave it to Robin to shut him up. Spike got to nap, I got to go back to working in relative peace and quiet and Robin got the bone. Win, win, win.

I can't decide if the "Did That Just Happen" portion should be renamed WTF? In any event, lets get to those little blips from this past week.

DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?

Okay, so Trump pissed and moaned for the whole campaign that jobs numbers were fake, false and lies.
President Obama handed over a pretty good economy, certainly one MUCH better than the one he got.
So lets's talk about the continuing hypocrisy of Trump here in this report about jobs.

I personally think women are empowering themselves and it's about time! Just look at these Native American women from Standing Rock fighting for water because even a child knows, water is life.

I'm sure you've all read about wire taps, Flynn, Trumpcare, who knew what when, there, there and of course the drip drip drip of information about Trumps collusion with Russia. Makes me wonder if the CIA dump from Wikileaks was from the WH, but that's a story for the coming days. This one is for today. Honestly, this crap, this harassing of our own citizens because of color and religion has simply got to stop. Will we all have to carry our "papers" soon? More bomb threats and destruction at Jewish day schools, cemeteries and synagogues. Never has a President brought so much hate and fear into our country and spoken out so little against it. Don't buy into folks, look at North Korea. That's what happens when a dictator closes their country to the outside world (to keep it safe of course!), and instills hate and fear about all others.

Parting shot: Another dental surgery victim in recovery.


Friday, March 3, 2017

Goodies!

We had some Internet issues on the 1st, and dog issues after a dental on Tuesday but it's been all smooth sailing since then. My 59th birthday came and went on the 1st too and a lovely dinner out with Gene, my Mom and good friend Sandi.

Scallops! Yum!
Beignet's! Even Yummier!!
Some great B-day goodness to share. This awesome quilt, handcrafted by expert quilter Sandi,

covers the king sized bed I might add
 a beautiful new cookbook from my Mom

The recipes are simple and beautifully presented.

All veggies. The growers markets can't open soon enough.

 and look at this awesome surprise card and goody from dear friend Cindie.



 Foxes (and JRT) do, after all, rule!

I'm told Ikea is keeping DH gifts hostage and I'll share the new yarn containment cabinets as soon as they arrive and are assembled. Today though is a little shopping spree at the Webster's.

I did manage to get a perfect fit on the Indygo Junctions Asymmetrical Tunic pattern.



 This would be Version 3.0, complete with inseam pockets. This will work as a jumper too BTW which is how I'm wearing it out today!



 I used a mid weight Japanese linen/cotton fabric I had bought last spring. I had a hate love relationship with this fabric over the last year, but now that it is made up, I not only love the fit and feel of the garment, I'm loving the fabric pattern all over again.

I was on an Indygo Junction roll. I wanted to raise the neckline on this Urban Tunic.



 It was just too low for me to feel comfortable in, so I did a summer version with a substantially raised neck and am MUCH happier with the pattern.



 It also offers a boat neck but I know very few people that one is particularly flattering on. Certainly not me! The grey linen pants are a new addition to the closet also.

The usual amount of cutting went on and very little weaving. This next week is going to be busy. My Mom's big move from cottage to apartment happens. There will be packing for a day or two and then the unpacking. We have pared down a lot. Some rugs and artwork will be coming here, and the rest with her. Busy, busy so if I don't touch base next week, you'll know why!

Did That Just Happen?!

You know I have to say, the hypocrisy is DC is mind boggling. The GOP not even giving Obama's moderate Supreme Court Justice pick a hearing for almost a year and then crying foul when the Dem's talk about slowing down their pick. Here is another instance. Where is the outrage that was directed at HRC for doing the exact same thing?

OMG, the flipping Russia thing and all it's little slimy fingers feeling their way out of what appears to be a very dirty WH. WE really do need an independent investigation and quite possibly one into the dealings of the FBI. We also need to see some tax returns, don't you think? And this all needs to be done before permanent damage is done to the environment and our contacts around the world, with like our real friends....

Let's wrap this up with something enjoyable. The Smithsonian's 14th Photo Competition. Some stunners there!

Parting shot: Post surgery R&R, new quilt and all.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Inkle Loom Winner

Susan in Upstate NY is the inkle loom winner.
Congrats Susan, please contact me with your shipping address.

To everyone else, I wish I had a dozen more to give away and even if you didn't win, maybe you'll drop and extra buck or two in a donation jar somewhere. ;-)

I would make this longer but we are having internet issues. Better post when things are back to normal.