thinking in color

I suppose you could call it therapy sewing redux. Sewing strips; an activity that requires a minimum of thinking.  Whatever you pick up next, you add. No cheating. All this color cheers me right up!

Once I sew enough strips, I decide what to do with them.  Once I know what to do with them, I cut them -- which leavesme with a bunch of smidgen-y offcuts. At first, I was throwing them away. Now I am sewing them to each other. 

So this morning, when I should have been doing something sensible, I sewed these bits together.The color combinations are random and fun.

That's all I have so far. No idea what I will do with them, or when I will do it. But they will go into my inventory.  And I suspect I will add more.  See what happens when you don't plan?

Yesterday morning, early, I hot-footed it over to Bed, Bath, & Beyond.  It's very nice at 9:30 am when they have just opened and have nothing to do.  About 5 different people waltzed over to me and asked what I needed to find.  Uh - paper towel holders?  Over there.

With the new backsplash up,ugly red and white flower print one that I picked up for a song, needed to be replaced with a stainless steel one.  Done!  And then I remembered that I needed a new garlic press; I was still using the terrible one my mother had.  

Oh, joy!  I bought one like this in stainless steel when I was in London in 2013.  My friend Marlene Cohen has one and I thought it was terrific. I have one in NJ. Now I can find them here -- and besides the steel one, they had this beauty!  Just perfect - how could I resist this wonderful color??

It is more of a garlic smasher - I think they call it a rocker.  You put it on top of the garlic clove and rock it back and forth and the garlic comes through those little holes (or not).

More color when I am more awake.  That would be tomorrow, I hope.  xo

where to start??

With the new sewing machine?  I finally got it set up and after having read the manual 40 times to figure out how to thread it, got it up and running.  For the price, it is a very nice little machine. 

There is a lot to like about it. 

THE GOOD NEWS
- It has an automatic threader.
- You can set it to stop with the needle down.
- It has a nice little sewing table.
- The fast-bobbin winder feature is very nice (once you realize that there is such a feature)
- It has a reverse button, which I forget to use.
- The feed dogs work and I can get a nice straight seem if I choose to.


THE NOT-SO GOOD NEWS
- The automatic threader is fiddly. It took me so long to figure out and then to actually make it work, that it would have been faster to thread the needle myself. Except that I can't see, even with my reading glasses on.
- The nice little sewing table is a little flimsy.
- There is nowhere to store your accessories when the sewing table is attached.
- It didn't come with a ¼" foot. I ordered two of them (don't ask me why two)  
- The default needle position is left (why?????) so you have to move the needle every time        you turn the machine on again because it has no memory.
- It is somewhat noisy.
- The lever to raise and lower the foot is on the right.  Every other machine on earth has the lever on the left.  Some kind of zipper foot lever is on the left where the foot lever should be and one of these days I am bound to break it because I keep trying to raise the foot with it.

But I am not complaining.  Just saying.  The best news is that it works and I have been sewing!

Now I am off to meet Bev Snow and Sandy Donabed at the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show.
To be continued...

things are looking up!

So, I went to bed at 9:00 last night to make up for the 1 hour of sleep from the night before, and slept for 12 hours. I was actually alert today.

Did I mention that my vintage sewing machine, which I love dearly, ended up in the shop yesterday?  Threads keep getting tangled in the bobbin case; I spent an hour getting out the mess of thread, only to have it happen again when I started sewing.  Off I went to the fixit man, who has to take the thing apart and won't have it for me till next week. Bah.

I have two other machines down here; one of which has problems. The second one has been adequate, but today it became inadequate.  I think the feed dogs are crooked and the stitch length thing must be broken. Even for me, this is unacceptable.

Naturally, I am having a sewing machine emergency: I am frantically sewing samples for my online class -- or I should say I WAS sewing....  Faced with the prospect of disaster, I did what any sane person would do: I went onto Amazon Prime and ordered a sewing machine, which should arrive on Thursday. 

 Since I had already done tons of research when I was buying a machine for Miss Emma's 6th birthday, I didn't have to do it again.  I just ordered the same machine I had bought for her. Thank you, peeps, for all your advice.  Good enough for a six year old, good enough for her Nanny.

Emma loves the machine and has already sewn pillows for her dolls. Notice the fancy doll house; on the right, several doll-sized pillows.  My favorite is the neck pillow for her bird doll. 

Emma on her 2nd birthday 2012                                Happy Birthday, Emma 2016

Where does the time go??

It was one of those days...

First, I was up all night. Finally fell asleep for an hour, from 6:am-7:am and that was that.  I ran one errand this morning to pay for  my backsplash tile. It only took me a year to decide on it.  I hope it will be installed in the next week or two. 

Then came back to make plane reservations for my May travels.   I am teaching at the
Virginia Quilt Celebration early in May and then spending a week on the Outer Banks lounging around with my friends from college.  A REAL vacation.  Finally, teaching at the Woodland Ridge Retreat in Downsville, WI. from May 24-28.  This place is gorgeous! You have to click and take a look at the photos. I can't wait! 

Sat down to sew after lunch and my trusty new/old machine got so much thread caught behind the bobbin thingie that I had to take it in to be untangled.  Now I have to sew on one of two doddering Vikings for a week.  Oh, well.

Will continue tomorrow. My lack of sleep is catching up with me and I'm off to bed early tonight. Brain totally fuzzy.
'night.

Wide awake at 2:am

Blogger is not behaving tonight.  This is about the 10th time I have tried to post and it is finally letting me type without deleting my words.  So by this time, I have forgotten what I wanted to blog about.

Some time ago I was looking for upholstery fabrics because I need to recover a chair in my living room in NJ.  I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did see a lot of beautiful patterns that I found very inspiring.  Here are just a few...

I imagine I am not the only one who is so wired after having worked all day at something creative, that I can't get to sleep.  Hot cocoa - except that I don't have cocoa, so I had to melt a bittersweet piece or two of a Swiss chocolate bar I have been hoarding.  Seems to have done the trick! I am off to bed.

8 terrific teachers, one online community!

I am really excited to be part of the online teaching community of 8 amazing fiber artists who will be teaching classes.  But this is not just classes: it is a true community you can join that enables you to take classes with all of us!  Our skills and approaches are all different; we complement each other, and you connect not only with us, but with each other.

The Fiber Art Connection is a new concept in online classes. Each of us will take charge for a week and you'll be taking classes with all of us! Our varied skills complement each other and you're bound to discover something new each week.  You can take them as they are released, or whenever you have time, on your own schedule. And you'll have access to the material forever so you can retake them or check something out that you may have forgotten.

We'll be sharing ideas, webinars, live calls, and videos which you'll also have access to from all of the classes. And a private Facebook page where we can all share with each other.
Furthermore, we're available on email for one-to-one conversations.
There's also a bonus week for everybody!  

Here's the lineup of teachers in order of their appearance, and their websites, so you can read about them and see their work.

1. Desiree Habicht – http://www.desireehabicht.com/
2. Candy Glendening – http://www.candiedfabrics.com/
3. Liz Kettle – http://www.textileevolution.com/
4. Roxane Leesa – http://roxanelessa.com/
5. Ruth Chandler – https://ruthchandlerdesignsblog.wordpress.com/
6. Cecile Whatman - https://uniquestitching.wordpress.com/
7. Deborah Babin – http://www.deborahbabin.com/ and - ahem -last but not least
8. ME!! – http://www.studio78.net/

Stay tuned for our planned blog hop, some giveaways, and a lot of fun.  

Registration is open and the first class kicks off March 15th.  Follow this link to read more:  http://www.fiberartconnection.com/what-is-fac.html to read what each of us is teaching.

Any questions for me, holler! 

B is for...

Book review -- as promised

This is the most beautifully written book I have read in eons. It is a vivid picture of wartime London from 1939 on, of the battlefield, and the interpersonal relationships -- on both a deeply personal and cultural/historical level. Best of all, the characters are so strong and well developed that I really cared about them. Poignant, heartbreaking, and wryly funny at points. Couldn't put it down: read it in two nights. This is a can't miss book and I highly recommend it.

Full disclosure: this was a review copy and it will be released May 3, 2016. I have read a lot of pre-release review copies -- many of them, uncorrected galleys, over the last couple of years. Some were so badly written or inane that I couldn't even finish them. Others were quite good. But this is by far, the most outstanding on every level.

On a more banal note - I spent the morning paying bills and the afternoon trying to book a flight. Don't ask! Right now, I have it on hold for three days and am breathing a sigh of relief. I also cleaned off my kitchen island, except for the cutting mat.

Tomorrow, I expect to actually SEW. How exciting! 

Never say "never!"

Ok, I take it back. I said I would never teach online, but there are so many people who have emailed me to ask whether I gave online classes that I began to think about it. And then I stopped thinking about it --until The Fiber Art Connection  approached me with their teaching model.  

I found it so exciting that I said "yes."  It's not cookie-cutter (if you know me, you understand I don't follow rules very happily - LOL).  There are eight different fiber artists, all teaching something different -- each of us in our own style.  So you get to take eight classes for ten weeks, and along the way, discoveries, interactive sessions, community, connections, and personal interactions.  It'll be the closest thing to being in the classroom and we are all very pumped about this different way of teaching! 

 Once you enroll, you'll be notified when each teacher's class begins and the classrooms are open  to you indefinitely. If you don't have time just then, you can take the classes when it's convenient -- and go back as many times as you want to.  All the class materials - handouts, recordings, videos -- stay there so you can always access them.  

So...I've been sewing, making videos, taking pictures, and generally making as much of an embarrassing mess here in the Fla apt as I do at home. I was going to do a video tour, but decided to take pictures instead.

The kitchen island

dining room floor

 dining room table (yes, this is another sewing machine)

 living room chair

 living room floor

And we haven't gotten to the guest room yet!  But that's for another day.  Now I am going to sit down and read more of the most wonderful book I have read in eons.  More about that another day, too. bb

soup weather - even in south Florida

Yeah, yeah - I know it's warm here.  But it is also raining, and to me, rain means soup weather, no matter what the temps.  It's a comfort thing - like ironing.

After I spent an hour browsing through the NY Times cooking app's 1,421 soup recipes, i decided I wasn't in the mood to follow a recipe.  So I grabbed the soup bones in my freezer, got out my pressure cooker, and cleaned out the rather sad looking vegetable drawer.
The bagged spinach was past its sell-by date; the rice was leftover from last night's stir-fry, those cute little peppers were on their way out; the tiny zucchini was dimpled, and there is a lone carrot there somewhere behind the spinach.  That was it!  I grabbed a new onion from the counter, an open bag of lentils, a can each of chickpeas & tomato paste, some garlic, spices, and a hunk of good parmesean cheese to add to the rescued veggies. (I did not use the Chinese eggplant, scallions, broccoli and the baby bok choi I bought yesterday...)

Into the pressure cooker with six cups of water, 

And after 20 minutes in the pressure cooker...done!

Too late for lunch, but I will taste later and adjust the seasonings.  Now it's time to go and iron some fabric.

* Later: tasted it, added some bacon, more spices and salt and simmered it for an hour. Had it for dinner and it was divine.  Whether you're cooking without a recipe or making a quilt without a recipe, you're pretty much assured of getting something at least, interesting - and often, really good!   Best of all, it's never the same twice.

Cheers! R.

weather report

If you saw my Facebook post a couple of weeks ago during a storm that had a funnel cloud hurtling toward West Palm Beach, you saw this photo and can skip this part.  I had never seen a tornado and wasn't planning to, but since we were warned to find an inside room and stay there till the tornado passed, I followed instructions.  Of course, the only inside room here is the guest bathroom, so I settled in with my gin and chips and Phil's transistor radio from the 1950's which still works like a charm. We listened to the reports  while the wind and rain raged outside.

Then all of a sudden it was over.  The sunset was particularly beautiful that night.

Over the past few weeks I have been sewing at the dining room table, which is also where we eat. I have two crappy sewing machines down here and one good one which is great for piecing but I don't really want to quilt on it. NOT that anything is ready to be quilted. Hahahaha. And every meal, I have to smush all the fabric over to one side and clear two little spaces for eating.

I have been doing some "what if?" experiments, which are always learning experiences.  Nothing I can really post because I have two pieces in various stages of -- well, in various stages. Who knows where they will end or what they will be?

Speaking of learning experiences -- I'm going to do some online teaching -- which I have resisted until now.  But this platform will give me the freedom to make an idiot of myself on my own terms :-)) instead of adhering to somebody else's formula. I'm really excited about this - and it should be fun.    More when I have details.   

My cousin Nancy from L.A. was in Boca for a week, staying with my cousin Mimi. Nancy comes every year when I am here so the three of us can be together.  I didn't have much time to spend with her this time around, but when we get together, there is nonstop laughing.  Nancy on the left, Mimi in the center.  We don't look like first cousins but we all have the same sense of humor. It's in the genes.

I finally made a decision on the backsplash tile for my white kitchen.  Hope it will get done before I leave for home.

Today I took my phone when Phil and I went out for a walk.  Did you ever see such an ugly duck?? They are all over the place, hordes of them. Most of them are not quite this ugly, though.

That's all the news for today. Nothing exciting -- just plain old STUFF. Laundry, bills, supermarket -- but in relatively warm weather.  

A work in progress...

 This blog post has taken forever.  I started it about five days ago, was interrupted, and that was that.  I am finally getting back to it and even if I have to stop mid-sentence, it gets published! 


Cold air, at least for Florida.  It is a brisk but sunny 57 degrees here today, but expected to warm up later this week.  Nonetheless, no complaints from this northerner!

The visitors continued through mid-January, with my dear friend Marlene Cohen from London spending a week with me.  We sewed and generally relaxed -- with nonstop talking, lots of wonderful meals, and some nice walks. 

We visited the Norton Museum in West Palm; I love their collection of American art and always find something new there. I can't remember whether I have noticed this Stuart Davis before, but it made me smile this time around.

There was one particularly warm and beautiful day when Marlene and I went into Palm Beach because she wanted to see the ocean.

There was a troop of young women sunbathing and they were all wearing bikinis that were blue and yellow.  We could only assume they were all members of a sunbathing team.  Can't think what else it would have been.

At any rate, it costs $5/hour to park on the street next to the beach and you can only use a credit card in the machine. We couldn't figure out whether it had taken Marlene's card or not, since it did not give receipts.  We felt a bit uneasy about it, so as soon as we saw a police car, we asked for help, explaining that we couldn't be sure whether we had paid or not.  He asked our parking spot number and then said "oh, I just left you a $60 ticket." 

This was our next stop, as we went in search of the Parking Chief to tell our tale of woe.
It was truly a lovely experience.  Alice, the elegant woman who was a volunteer in the parking department, was as charming as could be.  She provided us with two
bottles of water while we waited for the chief of Parking Police to finish dealing with a person who had to go to court because he had been driving an unregistered vehicle. 

To make the story short, I must give the Palm Beach police kudos for pleasantness, politeness, and a real effort to help. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that we left with the water, a packet of tissues, and a voided ticket.  The next day, we went to a different beach, where the parking was free. Thank you, Ms. Brown.  You are truly a gift who went out of your way for me. 

Here is a photo of Marlene and me at the bus station, the day she left.

I am not mid-sentence but I am signing off, nonetheless.  Otherwise this post will become as long as Beowulf.