Quilt Blocks

I'm almost done with the blocks for the quilt top. I was a bit worried about getting them to all square up to the same size, but after talking to Joan at work, who is putting the show together, I realized that I don't have to be. I can do strips in between the blocks that is different than the actual fabric I am using to frame each individual block. I'm starting to think twice about the fabric I chose for the border, it's a wave print, in blues, white and a bit of grey. I'm not sure, I'm going to look again and see if we have something that's better. Anyway, I want to finish the blocks up today and maybe start assembling the whole thing. I have cleared off the big table in the basement to quilt on, I'll probably just back it with white muslin, I have lots of it on hand and it's cheap.Plus, you won't ever see the back of this quilt, it will be hanging against a wall. I'll get some pictures up later.

Baby Dress

I stopped working on the quilt long enough to make this custom baby dress, I think it's really cute. It's supposed to go to a person who bought a skirt from me on E-bay, I sent her the pics.
If she doesn't want it I'm sure it will sell.

Newfoundland Heritage Quilt

I started the quilt for the quilt show. I printed up some of the blocks on Thursday, and started assembling them today. I think they look pretty good. Our scanner isn't working so I can't scan any more pics, but I'm going over to Chris and Richards tomorrow, and I can use his. I have a lot of pictures, my problem is which ones I want to use. I am using 5 different shades of blues/aquas for the sashing, and changing the sashing sizes block to block, just so they all equal around 12 inches long. I will probably have the width be about 11 inches or so. Anyway, I'm posting some of the blocks here. When they are all done I want to lay them out on the big cutting table at work so I can arange them the way I want. Now that I am finally working on it, I'm pretty excited.

Elephants and Great Big Sea

I made this elephant applique, he was inspired from the book John got me for Christmas. I think it turned out quite nice, I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet.
Great Big Sea will be here the 16th of March, Siobhan and I are going for sure and Chris said he wanted to go, too. They are at the Riv, and the tickets are general admission so I want to get there really early so we are up front. This show should really kick ass, since it's the day before St. Paddy's Day. It's a Friday, too, so that's even better. Last year they were here during the week.
I am going to spend the rest of today putting blocks together for the Nfld. heritage quilt I am making for the quilt show.

First Etsy Sale

I had my first Etsy sale yesterday, I sold a little eyelet trimmed strip skirt. I also sold the corduroy skirt on E-bay; I made more money yesterday here at home than I did at work. I'd like to do that every day. I am planning a dress which I am going to put on E-bay; if it doesn't sell there then I'll put it in the Etsy store. I also have a pair of pants I am going to work on. I ordered 3 ydds of cotton/hemp blend from Hemp Traders, and I also ordered their $5/lb scrap bag. I can't wait til it gets here.

New Bag

I made this backpack as a proto type for bags to sell. I like it, I need something bigger anyway. With a couple of changes it will make a great backpack.

Valentine's Chatty

Ok, I had to do this. I bought the fabric and spent one morning making this sweet little outfit for Chatty. When I put the Christmas stuff away I realized that she had nothing except Christmas clothes. So I dressed her for Valentine's Day. She's the only one that has a Valentines outfit. If I have time I might make one of the other dolls one too.
I didn't start my other bag because I need a piece of black corduroy and it turns out I have every color in the world except black.Siobhan, Chris and I are going out later today and I'll get some at JoAnn's. We don't have any at work either, plus it isn't on sale there and it is at JoAnn. In the meantime I am almost finished with a crocheted bag that I started the other day to use up some of the cotton yarn. I am going to line it and then list it on Etsy.
On a stranger note, there was a murder here in Oakbrook Terrace on Christmas Eve, mom heard about it and told me. Well my boss said he heard that the last murder here was in 1979, and when he drove me home the other night he asked where 16th street was. 16th street is the one that runs along the woods and wetlands that Sio and I pick berries in and look for dye plants. Well, turns out that back in 1979 those woods are where they found the body of the person that was murdered. It's kind of eerie, I kind of feel like we shouldn't go back there. John said that the body being left there is different than if the murder had actually taken place there, and I guess he's right, but I still feel as if it's kind of an intrusion. I don't go back there by myself much, anyway, and I don't go into the woods alone, mostly if I'm alone I just go right in the field inside the fence or over by the other townhouses where all the sumac grows. Anyway, it's just kind of eeirie and I wish he hadn't told me.

The World's Greatest Rock Band

Every once in awhile I go into an all Zep all the time mode, and I think I am in it now. I'm not sure what happens to get me there either; earlier I was listening to Yonder Mounain String Band. I downloaded some Flyleaf, Chris, Jeremy and Lindsay do a cover of one of their songs, which is quite good. Maybe that reminded me that there will never be another rock band, in my opinion, that has the stature of Zep. Without them rock music today would look very different. So I just put my Zep playlist in Winamp and have been listening to it. They are as good today as they were 38 years ago. Holy Shit, I can't believe that Zep I is almost 40 years old! Wow, that's just amazing! And there are kids still listening to them! There was a kid learning how to play guitar in the store not long ago and he had on a Zep t-shirt, he and his mom both said they are their favorite band. You can still buy Zep t-shirts at the store where Sio buys her clothes. Anyway, some time ago I saw a pair of pants somewhere, (I don't remember if it was on E-bay, or on a website) that had the ZOSO symbol up one leg. I save the picture, they are made from black corduroy, with ZOSO appliqued in a silver grey corduroy. I was thinking about doing something somewhat similar, but I want to use all 4 of the symbols. I could applique them all except Plant's feather, I would either embroider the whole feather, or at least the detail. I might do them on the flap of a messenger bag instead of pants. I have been thinking about doing something ever since I saw those pants, but I don't want to copy them, so a bag or a hoodie would be cool. I worked on enlarging the symbols tonight and got them to the right sizes. Tomorrow I'll pick out fabrics and start it before I go to work. I will probably not be able to sell it, I told John yesterday that I need a new bag, I guess this will be it.

Etsy Shop

I opened a shop on Etsy this morning. I only have 2 things in it right now, but I have a few things to list later on. I am going to list some of the pillows that never sold on E-bay and then bags as I make them. It's a lot cheaper than E-bay, it's only 20 cents to list an item, and then a 3% fee if you sell it. The store is free.It costs me over $1 everytime I list something on E-bay, and if I want to open a store it's $20 or $25 a month, I can't remember which, the fees over there keep going up. Anyway, at 20 cents I can afford to list a lot of things, so I'm going to. If I end up not selling anything, at least it hasn't cost me an arm and a leg like E-bay can.

Off Topic

I have been reading a book by Thom Hartmann called Screwed: The Undeclared War on the Middle Class and What We Can Do About It. It's actually a really good book.When it comes to politics, I realize that I am not as informed as Melissa and Gregory, or John. But I really think Hartmann is right on track. He makes the argument that without a strong middle class there can not be true democracy. Instead there is what he calls a "corporatocracy", which is dressed up as democracy, but which is not really democracy at all. When the situation is such that a person can only run a succesful political campaign when funded by more money than most people have or ever will have, it's no longer a government chosen by the people, for the people. It's a government chosen by big business. Actually he goes so far as to compare it with Mussolini's Italy, and quotes the Encyclopedia Italiana which said "Fascism should more appropriatly be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." That's more and more what we seem to have today.I haven't gotten to the what we should do about it part yet, but I have some ideas of my own already. Now I have always been a proponent of restrictions on big business. I think that businesses should be taxed to the hilt once they have made a certain amount of money.At one time I believed they should be nationalized after they had grown past a certain point, I'm not sure that's the way to go anymore.I also think that the hemmorahging of good paying American manufacturing jobs overseas has to be stopped dead, and if you choose to manufacture offshore than you have to pay a price. Now I am a good Democrat, I voted for Bill Clinton, but NAFTA was a bad thing. I think if you are going to take your jobs somewhere else then you better be prepared to pay a high price to import your goods back into the country. And I mean high, impose all kinds of tariffs and duties on them. I know that Americans are pretty much spoiled, we want $10 jeans at Wal-Mart and a job that pays $20 an hour. Well, that just doesn't work. We have to pay a price, too, and part of that is paying more for goods so that our friends and family members can be guaranteed a living wage. We need to look back to a time not so long ago when we were the biggest manufacturer of goods in the world, when we had a strong middle class that made a decent wage and could afford to buy the goods we manufactured right here in this country.I think businesses believe that people won't ever be willing to do that, but I don't know about that. I think this last election for the first time in a long time people were saying "Ok, things need to change". We are Americans, push us too far and we might be having another tea party.
Another thing I think we need to do is reform the tax system. There can be no tax breaks for the very wealthy. None. Period.If you make over certain amount of money than you are going to be taxed big time. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY needs billions,or even a billion, dollars to live. Sorry, you will be giving that back to society, whether you want to or not. And you'll be glad, and say thank you that you live in a country that allows you to make lots of money in the first place and if you aren't then get the fuck out. Tha's how I feel about that.
And the other thing that I think is really important, and that I can directly do something about, is to clean up the way political campaigns are run, better known as Campaign Finance Reform. Illinois does not have publically funded state elections; some states do. John and I were talking about it and he heard someone say that it has to start at the grass roots, and be changed state by state. Once enough states have adopted public funding for thier campaigns, it will begin t0 change at the Federal level. I think that's right. I don't really know that much about state legislation but I'm going to find out. There must be someone I can write to, and I'm sure there is at least one group in the area I can join. If campaigns are funded by the people than it just seems like more of the elected officials would really be the peoples choice and not big business. And it would address the argument of people not voting because they feel that they are just voting for one scoundrel bought by corporate money instead of another. They still might not vote, but at least they couldn't use that as an excuse. But I think more of them would vote, because it trully would be there choices who are running.

New E-bay stuff

I put the drawstring in the skirt waistband this morning, and I really do like this skirt. The applique came out really well; I almost screwed it up with all the twists and turns. The pictures are a little dark, I'll take more for E-bay.I hope this sells, I've had 89 people look at the GD pants so far, but no bids. Maybe the colors are too light for winter.
The blue patchwork bag I did kind of like paper piecing, I sewed single patches and groups of patches right to each other and onto med. weight non fusible interfacing at the same time. The strap is hemp, it's not quite finished yet. This turned out pretty well, too, I am going to make another one in browns.

Memory Quilt

I forgot to mention that I have committed to making a memory quilt for the quilt show at work this year. It is scheduled for sometime in mid-Feb, I don't remember the exact date. I've decided to do a kind of Nfld. heritage thing. There are some pics of people; I have mom and dad, Nan and her daughters, my great grandmother, etc. I am also including some place pictures; Bull Cove, Brigus (historic and modern), the Newfie Hotel (where mom worked), etc., as well as some more general pics, I have a picture of Indian Harbour, Labrador; some unknown fishermen squid jigging; the Kyle and the sealing fleet in St. John's Harbour from about 1907. The reason I am including it is because the SS Southern Cross is one of the ships in the picture, and when she was lost in I think 1914, my great grandmother became a widow. I had some other older pics scanned before but I seem to have lost them from my hard drive, I am going to go over and get then from mom again, probably on Thursday; we're supposed to go out to lunch. I've been thinking of doing something like this for a long time so I'm pretty excited about it.