Poetry

I've always been afraid of poetry.  But guys like Shel Silverstein and Pablo Neruda and Billy Collins (just learned of him today) make it more approachable for me and even enjoyable. 

When you get a poem [in a public place], it happens to you so suddenly that you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school.” (Billy Collins)

Check out Billy Collins' TED Talk.

Journal Project

What a great idea!  I wish I'd thought of it.

P.S.  I was just reading through the comments.  She has a world-wide blogger audience (e.g., New Zealand, Slovakia, South Africa, Bolivia, Israel, Japan, Sweden, Poland, Austria, many states in the U.S.) and many of them are sending their addresses to be part of her journal project.  

Sweater and Bear

This is a sweater and bear that I knit for Crystal's son.  He's a big kid now.  I think she found the pattern when we were roommates and of course I had to have a copy.  Since she found the pattern worthy to tear out of a magazine, I figured that she'd like it for her son.  

The bear pattern came from Debbie Bliss's Toy Knits, one of my all-time favorite pattern books.  I added the matching sailboat on the bear's sweater.  As I look at it, I'm not too crazy about the blue bear - it's too matchy matchy!  I think the matching bear sweater would've been enough.

In Crystal's 'thank you' note she mentions 'Lucy and Ethel' moments.  She was Lucy and I was Ethel.  The memory that comes to mind most often is when we first started rooming together.  My brother set us up as roommates - I was moving back to San Diego from San Bernardino and she was moving from Los Angeles to San Diego.  

Right off, I noticed that she really liked to cook and bake.  She would go on kicks.  I remember a muffin kick.  She made a gazillion types of muffins, all in the same week.  I don't even remember what she did with all of them.  We managed to stay slim and trim in those days so I don't know who was eating them all.

Anyway, there was the ice cream kick.  One day she was making some custard for an ice cream recipe.  Her double boiler was a glass bowl over a boiling pot of water.  I didn't think anything of it - of course now I know better.  All I remember was a loud explosion that left blobs of custard and glass shrapnel all over her and the kitchen.  I remember wondering, "What did my brother get me into!?"  She ended up being a lot of fun, very entertaining, and a great cook.  Go here to read about one of Crystal's more recent Lucy moments.  I promise you won't regret it!

Quilted Jars

There are two challenges for March's Long Distance Quilting Bee - the garden one and the jar one.  Amy, the Bee coordinator, wanted the standard jar pattern without the bottom strip.  The first jar I made for her is filled with strawberries, the only fruit fabric that didn't make it into the fruit salad blocks that I made for her last year.  

My husband thought the other block was a sand art jar.  I wish I would've thought of a clever idea like that!  Look below to see what it really is.

 Broken Butterfly Wings

By the way, I started to wonder how people make those sand art jars.  It's pretty amazing.  Check it out.

Paper-pieced Butterfly

This has got to be one of the most complex quilt blocks I've ever made.  One of the challenges for March's Long Distance Quilting Bee block was to make something related to gardening.  I got the pattern from this book, the same book that the kimono and crane came from.  The pattern calls for this block to be 6" x 6".  That's just loco!  Fortunately Joy wanted bigger blocks.  Check out the amazing points you can get with paper-piecing.

Butterfly Guts

Thistle Toe

Thistle and lavender

plus a purple pump

plus a big mess

equals THIS!

My favorite part is the thistle toe bow!

I had the challenge of making a centerpiece out of a shoe for the Brentwood Women's Club fundraiser.  A friend gave me the brilliant idea of making it about Thistle Farms.  Why didn't I think of that!?  I love how it turned it.  It's very Mother Nature-y.  And the best thing, someone at the fundraiser actually wanted to buy it!  Someone wanted to buy something that I made.  That's a great feeling!  It wasn't for sale though.  I'll be taking it over to Thistle Farms in the near future.