It's fall here. The wind and rain are wreaking havoc with the foliage and by the end of the weekend, it will probably be a thing of memory. Enjoy the warm winds and apple picking and carving those pumpkins...before we move into that next season that's already starting to show up in the stores. That's just wrong.

Projects and Progress

I've had a hard time trying to decide whether or not to write this post, but decided I would, mostly so you'd know I really am up to something besides building a house and making 20 decisions a day that have nothing to do with sewing. The reason behind this hesitation is this: when I look at this piece, which I made for an animal shelter fundraiser called Woofstock, I get sad and mad...and then I think, lesson learned. The lesson is this: know your audience BEFORE you make something worth more than it will potentially go for. Start out with a minimum bid. And let it go. Which I will do once I get through with this post. Some lucky person walked away with a really cool 2'x3' folk art dog and owl for $30. Yuk.

On a happier note, our house has windows and a roof to date. No front door yet, but that will be soon. And no pictures because, really, the inside is just a bunch of 2x4's. But as soon as the siding is on I'll start boring you silly with lots of progress pics. Like pictures of the bathroom tile, and the concrete countertop I've chosen, or maybe the garage doors. Bet you can't wait for that one. But I will show you a progress shot of this:

My new studio space. Exciting!

Summer Mittens with Citrus

Our "top chef" competition this year during our family vacation was another big hit. The secret ingredient, which had to be featured in each course, was citrus. It always manages to show up in the clothes everyone wears, or the music played during dinner, or the color of our fingernails.

We're not quite settled after a busy summer, but by Labor day life will be a bit more stable. We've been traveling from borrowed house to borrowed house until we can get into the winter rental on the coast we wanted. And this is the reason for all the upheaval:

Our new house has VERTICAL WALLS! Very exciting after waiting so long.

I've been dong a bit of sewing, but mostly by hand since my studio is in storage for the forseeable future. I've been looking at a lot of art though, in galleries and museums. I love these first friday (or every friday) night art walks in so many towns. What could be better than checking out all that inspiration with a glass of wine in hand and fellow art lovers surrounding you.

Location, location, location. Wonder how much his taxes are?

Fish Galore

I apologize for neglecting my blog for a few weeks. Unfortunately, it's probably not going to get any better until the fall. House stuff. But, in the meantime, I have these beautiful pictures to share with you. This sculpture was done by elementary school students, from kindergarten to maybe 4th graders. The smaller ones, done by the younger kids, are at the top and get larger as they hang down.

The making of this project was coordinated by one amazing art teacher. It was a year long in the making and hangs in the foyer of the Camden Elementary School.

This years project was installed in the Middle School and is a mural made of 47,000 small tiles.

Both of these are on my to do list...find out HOW (to tile), WHAT (are those fish made of), and then DO!

A new little wren, done on a scrap of silk picked up at the landfill. I'm still working on the rest of the background so no pictures of that part yet. Maybe later. I do love the way these little birds hold their tails so straight up in the air. I'm trying to learn the different sounds the birds make, but I don't seem to be able to keep them straight. I remember the easy ones, cardinals, jays, ospreys, the ovenbird, chickadees, and maybe even a house wren, but the warblers, vireos, the sweet little titmouses and nuthatches I can't keep in my brain. I guess it doesn't really matter, but it does make it a bit more enjoyable to know which birds are talking to me or scolding me for getting too close. After a long, cold, quiet winter, it's so nice to have these singers back.

After an early morning hike up Mt. Batty last week, these two aliens appeared out of the fog to greet us.

For all my loyal blog readers (and I know there are a couple of you out there), I'm still here, though not there any more. Our second Sunday in our new temporary hometown, Camden ME. Temporary for the next few months until our house is completed. It's a lovely spot and very different from what we're used to. It's kind of fun to be able to walk downtown for breakfast, or to the art supply store which is no more than 5 minutes downhill. I have a new little wren I'm working on which I'll post pics of soon, a bit of fiber duff. In the meantime, I'm wondering if I have the expertise to do this beautiful eye justice in fabric.

Changes

My life these days is a bit topsy turvy. Spring is beautiful here and so are my gardens, but, unfortunately they're taking a back seat to the rest of my life, which is this:

Empty rooms. And boxes.

What to put in storage for the next 9 months until our house is built, and what will we need to move to our rental house. One more week and all the hard work of moving will be behind us.

In the meantime, maybe we'll take a day and chill. Wine beside the water. Sounds perfect. Enjoy the weekend!

Dartmouth Natural Resource Trust

...and a visit to the daffodil field. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful flowers growing in a magical setting. Worth the 4 hour trip to southeastern Mass, but then of course that wasn't the main reason for my weekend trip. Visiting with a lifelong best friend is worth driving any distance.

Happy Easter!

Family time. Lovely.

New pillows

After 2 years and 2 months our house is finally under contract. (Loud cheering and jumping up and down here). And since then, our agent happened to mention she's had several more calls from interested parties. Go figure...where were they 2 years ago? Probably hiding under a rock waiting to see if they were going to have any money to spend in the future...

We are planning on building a new house, so of course this new development has set in motion lots of things for the last minute. Like find a place to live for the next 6 to 9 months. Packing 40 years of accumulated living. What goes into storage and what comes to temporary digs. Of course, I've tried to think what might I REALLY need from my studio, and ended up deciding I couldn't live without most of it. Thank goodness the house we found to rent has 4 bedrooms and a huge finished loft area. So, in the meantime, I really am cleaning out things and making trips to the dump (sorry, landfill)(sorry, transfer station). Like the other day when I took a whole car full of stuff, and as I was leaving I passed our 'recycle area' and my eye caught at least a dozen fabric swatch books someone had left. For about one second my mind said NO but only for a second. There were satins in lovely shades, silks, sheers, you name it. Of course I had to take them home. I did have this little talk with myself though as I left. It went something like this: "Okay, you're going to take these books apart and take ONLY WHAT YOU REALLY THINK YOU'LL USE. Then you're going to take the torn apart books back to the dump. THEN, you're going to sit down and actually MAKE something with some of these, right away, before you forget why you took them in the first place." And I did.

It was a good distraction from decision making.

Spring Tulips

Here is a piece I finished a month or so ago. I say finished, but after a critique from my Frayed Edges friends, there's one more thing I need to do. Bring this line of white seed stitches down about another inch or so.

I'm really loving using grays for a ground (as I did in Tilly). It makes any other colors used 'pop'. The flowers are pieced with hand dyes and then enhanced with some fabric paints. I'm waiting patiently for my tulips outside to pop...but Mother Nature has given us back the liquid lake so it won't be long before the spots of snow in the woods will disappear too.

Frayed Edges

My small quilting group got together yesterday at Kate's house for sharing and for food. Some day's there are a lot of quilts to share, new books to look at (not so many since Hannah left us :) and always food.

Yesterday was food and catching up with each others lives. We started out with sticky buns, Nana's roll recipe dressed up in brown sugar and pecans. I'll do that again. I've never met a sticky bun I haven't loved. I showed off my Tillie quilt which I posted earlier, and one other I had made of pink tulips on my windowsill...sorry, no picture yet. I left it behind by accident. Memory is a fickle thing when you hit...older. But there was the beautiful spring green tablecloth Kate had dyed from an old white linen one. Not to mention the spanakopita and green salad.

And this is the real color of the cloth, not washed out by my camera.


Talking, eating, catching up. All good.

Really???

I mean REALLY?? i don't often stick my neck out to comment on the latest fashions that appear in my inbox, but, come on. WHO would look good running (or doing anything) in these? Am I just too old to appreciate 'designer?' As my friend Betsy would say, "I wouldn't wear these to the barn."

Making Nana's rolls

My grandmother made the best rolls. As she got well into her 80's, some forward thinking daughter of hers asked her how to make them, and by doing so, preserving the recipe (and memories) for future generations. Like me. It takes all day, but they are so worth it. I remember watching them rise and she would always let me taste the warm, yeasty dough. I've had several flops, once when I killed the yeast and they never rose. Once I forgot the salt.

My favorite days to make them are the overcast and cold ones, when I can get the cookstove going and let them rise in it's heat. Those rolls are the best, always soft, with that delicious yeasty taste. And the bowl; I've used the same one since I've been making them...it's part of the ritual. I bought it for $16 at the home of Shard Pottery when they were still in business, not far from here. On the second's porch. I still haven't found anything wrong with it that would make it a second, though.
So, if anyone wants to try these here's the recipe, word for word. Here's to family recipes!

Nana Flanagan's Rolls

In saucepan heat to just below boiling-

1 cup sugar
1 stick oleo
2 cups milk
level soup spoon salt (1 TBSP)

Cool.
Crumble yeast cake in warm water- (I use 2 pkg. dry yeast and about 1/4 cup warm water)
When milk mixture is lukewarm add to it one beaten egg and yeast mixture- then add sifted flour until right consistency- I think it's about 6 to 8 cups- get it so you can knead it without it sticking to your fingers. Cover with plate-wrap it up and put in a warm place to rise- cut down after 2 hours- let rise again. Roll out and put in pan. Let rise again.
Bake about 20-25 minutes at 350 or 375 degrees.

Tillie Lays an Egg

A while back I posted an in-progress picture of Tillie and a link to my granddaughter's favorite book. Well, she has many favorites, but WE (she and I) like this one. By Terry Golson, who generously gave me permission to use the name. Now it's done and I will cross it off my list. Hope you like it.

A Little Project

A 4x5 inch birthday book. Why are circles so appealing?

Spring is coming....right?

On my afternoon walk the other day I was treated to the sound of glassy wind chimes as the wind blew these ice covered branches. And today more snow, but I just know we're headed into something good. First step on Sunday morning: turn the clocks forward!

Little Birds...

...that have nothing to do with math.