My two favorite things to do

We did so much fishing over the Memorial Day weekend! We didn't have a lot of success, mostly just a few small bass and panfish. John caught the biggest bullhead he, Chris, or I had ever seen. It was huge and really fat. I wanted to get a picture, but he let it go too quick. He also caught a really big turtle. Fortunately it was just barely hooked, so I held it while John got the hook out. The turtle was pretty pissed off and kept making these really awful hissing noises.I think if he could have reached back far enough he would have bit me. There is a nice picture of Chris with some random stranger in the background at Lake Tampier.

I also had the pop up virus from hell, it was awful and I couldn't use my computer for a bit til John was able to reformat it. That's why I didn't blog about the fishing til now.

I had my first natural dyeing experience with cotton today; in the past I've always used wool. Today I used crab apple leaves from the trees right outside our gate. I knew I would end up with either green or yellow; I actually suspected it would be yellow although I was hoping for green. I had just over half a yard of natural muslin and I used alum for a mordant. It is a pretty bright yellow, but I want to find something that will make a nice green. I could see how much yellow was in the crab apple leaves, but I went ahead and used them anyway. I might dig up some wild strawberries and use the roots and see if I get anything that even comes close to red.

We talked about mom going to Nfld. She doesn't want to travel alone, and I would love to go with her. It's just that I'd be able to afford it a bit more in Sept. John said maybe we could figure out something so I could go in July. I'd actually rather go in Aug or early Sept. it's just a nicer time of the year. Plus maybe I could talk Carla into going then.

Catching up

I haven't written anything lately, I've been kind of busy with packing and still trying to keep up with some sewing. I sold a skirt to a regular customer, here's a link to her Etsy store:http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=47116 She makes really nice jewellery, I have bought some from her and it's quality stuff. I have posted a pic of the skirt, I really wasn't sure if I liked the colors, but it turned out nice.

ABC science made and released this Australian documentary. It gives the history of oil, where it comes from, how it was formed, etc. in a very understandable and interesting way, and then goes on to talk about humanities dependence on the stuff, the peak of oil production and how we have changed the earth and it's climate through our use of it. There are also some interviews on the site, which I haven't watched yet, from people in the film like Colin Campbell. http://www.abc.net.au/science/crude/ It was first released a couple of days ago on the 24th of May. It is a very good documentary; I don't know why we don't see more of this kind of stuff on tv here.

It's also been a big week for political news. The Democrats caved to the White House on the issue of funding for the Iraq war. I think a lot of people were disappointed, and the Dem's have been making some noise about how this is just the first step, wait til Sept., blah blah. We'll see. Melissa and I didn't quite agree on this issue, she thinks it was right to pass the bill as it is, and be happy for the increase in minimum wage and the other domestic spending. I think we have just payed for the lives of many more American soldiers and Iraqi people with a wage increase that could have been tied to some other issue and still passed. There's also been some buzz about a presidential directive from May 9th that some are saying gives the President what amounts to dictatorial power in the event of a national emergency.http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html I read part of it, and I'm adopting a "well, maybe" attitude. On the one hand, I would put nothing past this administration; on the other hand, in order to assume those sorts of powers you would need a military force to support you. The military is currently tied up in Iraq, and even if it wasn't, I don't think they would support something like that. That doesn't mean that I don't think Bush&Co. wouldn't make some sort of bid to maintain power, but I just don't see that it would work.

Yesterdays News

Well, the biggest piece of news yesterday was Jerry Falwell's death. Now I do realize that the man had a family, and I'm sure they are grieving for him, and I feel sorry for that. But I really feel that the death of a man who was such a hypocrite, such a preacher of hate and division; a man who made his money from the old and sick and poor; yeah, I feel that his death is a good thing. He was a racist, he supported Apartheid, he preached hatred of gay people and feminists, he took advantage and controlled his congregation with fear. According to his beliefs it was ok that millions of people were going to burn in hell forever. As I said to John yesterday, if there is a hell, I'll bet old Jerry was really surprised when he found himself there! Fundamentalism in any religion is very often just a thin disguise for hatred and narrow mindedness. From a personal perspective, it has caused divisions in John's family that may never be healed. Anyway, I think the world will be a better place because of this, although there are plenty of people out there ready to pick up Jerry's beacon of narrow minded thought. They may have a harder time than in the past, though. I really feel that this war and the way the current administration has acted like they can do just about anything with no repercussions, has changed the tide in this country, and that people are more and more upset every day. I think the last elections proved that, and I think that was just the beginning. They say things run in cycles, and maybe the reaction against far right thinking has begun. I certainly hope so.

On a personal note, I was looking on E-bay yesterday, and was surprised to see a set I sold last summer being re-sold by the person I sold it to. I don't have a problem with that, but she was selling it as new, and never mentioned that she hadn't made it. It pissed me off just a bit, so I e-mailed her. She said she was sorry, and re listed it saying she had only worn it a bit, and that she had not made it. So that was ok.

I am actually going to sew today, I have a skirt to finish and list.

New Link

This is a great new Peak Oil site with lots of video: http://www.peakaware.com/
This has also been an interesting news day, but I'm too tired to blog about any of it now. I will tomorrow.

Promising Article

I've been behind on reading oil news lately, but there's a link to this article over on the Energy Bulletin: http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/press/2007/07035-PC_Tools_Boost_Oil_Recovery.html
If it turns out that this is a technology that really works, we could be buying ourselves at least 50 years. If we don't continue to waste this precious energy on stupid stuff like shopping we could buy ourselves a lot longer time. I don't really trust the DOE's estimates on what's actually left that is recoverable, but I know there has to be something, and it could be enough to get us to the switch to other viable forms of energy. It's nice to read a hopeful article every once in awhile.
On a whole different topic, we had Mother's Day at Chris and Rich's yesterday since I was working today. It was a great day, it always is when we all go over there. Mom, Carla , and I went and bought plants at Prairie Feed Co. I Got all my veggies, and 8 strawberry plants. Anyway, Carla had a new bag she bought at some shop some where, it was made with a vintage earthy colored floral curtain or upholstery fabric, with a pleat that had shantung in it, and a velveteen lining. A very nice purse made by a fiber arts person in Calif. She paid $160 for it. Not what I would pay ( I can make it myself anyway), but a nice return on probably about 3-4 hours work and $20 or $25 in materials. I am going to make one, if I can find a fabric that I think would be nice. I figure I can sell mine for between $100 and $120.I wish I had taken pics if it, I had the camera with me but I forgot.
Chris got me a new mp3 player, and Melissa sent me a check to buy plants with and some really cute turquoise earrings that are birds from Albuquerque.

Catch up

I have been so busy packing I haven't had any time to sew. I have been listing stuff that I had hanging in the closet just to keep new things going in my Etsy store.

Siobhan took me out for breakfast on Monday for Mother's Day since she will be gone this weekend, and bought all my flowers for me. We planted some of them when we came home, and then I planted the rest this morning. I had a lot of big pots and I put them in there. It's been so nice I think I'm going to move all the house plants out today, too.

Mom's birthday was yesterday and we went to visit her. My Mothers Day present from Melissa was over there, she sent me the prettiest pair of turquoise bird earrings, and a check that I am going to buy all my vegetable plants with.

Mr. Checkers came down with a respiratory infection and had to go to the vet. Siobhan and John took him on Monday. It was hard to tell how sick the poor little guy was, he was still eating some, although he was pickier than usual, and sometimes he would perk right up. But some of the time on Sunday and Monday he would just look so listless. He lost a little weight since the last time he was at the vet, so he gets a special peanut treat to help him put the weight back on, but he has to be segregated from the other piggies until his antibiotic is gone. He's cuddling with Siobhan in the picture.

I'm a little blue today, I think I am going to make something just to cheer myself up. I should pack more, but what one day?

Hat

TA-DA! I finished the hat with the yarn I spun. I think it's pretty cool! Joanie modeled it for me, which was only fitting as it was her grandmothers wheel. I started spinning the purple/blue roving from yesterday, I might make a hat with that, too.

The last of the roving

I dyed the last of the roving that was here. At first I was going to do just purple, but instead I used 3 dyes: Cushing's cherry, blue, and purple. I like the coloring of this roving, I poured the dye on more along the lines of the fiber rather than in blotches this time, and then kind of squished it all together. I could have used more purple, but this is still nice.

Spinning!

I made yarn! It isn't the greatest yarn, it is definitely uneven, but it gets more even as I go along. There are also some spots where I have too much twist, although from everything I've read this happens a lot when first learning to spin.I spun about an ounce and a half. It takes quite awhile, I spun for a couple of hours yesterday after I got started. I also started a hat with the spun yarn. I think I'm going to dye the purple roving today. I made a second drive belt from some hemp I have here, although it stretches so I had to tie it really tight. The original was made from a twine of some sort, maybe linen. It is a double drive wheel, though, so I need the second belt for tension. I am going to order new ones if I can find ones that fit.

More dyed roving

I couldn't help it, the roving has been here for well over a week. Siobhan wants me to dye some purple, and I will but I love these warm autumn colors. I used Cushings medium brown, old gold, and orange for this. The pictures were taken with the new camera, on the second highest resolution. They look pretty good. The first one was taken using the zoom from the upstairs bathroom window.

I also got the treadle and footman connected on the spinning wheel. It goes quite nicely. If I can get maintenance info on the internet, I might give it a try. It has to be easier than using a drop spindle, I never could get the hang of that.

Finished wildflowers

I finished quilting the landscape this morning. The piece I dyed for a border is off enough to tell the difference, so I didn't use it. I have enough for a binding, although I'm not sure what I'll do yet. The background is the best, I think that piece dyed so well. The quilting is more meandering than actually stippling, it's kind of farther apart. I guess the piece is ok. Maybe I'll turn it into a pillow. I didn't use the new camera, John has it set on 3.2 and that's what the old camera is, so I just used it instead. I'll play around with the new one today and see what I can do.

New Camera

I ended up not quilting at all yesterday. John, who is not with the only buy used program, found a Fuji camera on sale at Best Buy that was a lot better than the one we have, and a lot cheaper than we paid for the first one, and he decided to buy it. He said I could take better pictures for the blog and Etsy store. I'm sure he's right, but I have to learn to use it. I took a couple of fishing pictures yesterday, but I haven't read how to take them of the camera yet. We hung out at Chris and Richards for awhile, Rich bought Guitar Hero for his PS2. I totally suck at it. Then we went fishing, and back to Chris' for dinner. I started quilting this morning, and I'm about half way done. When I finish I'll take pics and post them.

This and That

I found directions online how to assemble a Kromski Mazurka spinning wheel, it shows how to attach the treadle to the footman. I'm not going to try and use it til I get it oiled, though. Everything I've read says that wheels need to be oiled fairly often, and I'm sure this one hasn't been oiled in years.
I am going to try and dye some more of the blue fabric to be a border for the landscape piece. I had a bit left, but I don't think it's enough. It should be pretty easy to recreate, I used 1/4 tsp. of dye in 1 c. of water. I fused the flowers down yesterday morning; I'd like to get it finished today and tomorrow. I have some boxes of stuff that can go to Irene's today, and I'm going to make John bring them over there. I think Chris is painting today, but if he's done in time, maybe we can go fishing. When I came home from Joan's yesterday there was a bucket of minnows, John stopped for them on the way home. It's nice to have the little fridge downstairs now, we can use it for bait. There will be a lot of little things I miss about this place; mostly the closeness of the stores and the wetlands right behind here. I'll still come over sometimes, especially for the raspberries and the dyeing materials. I still believe it's the best thing though. It will be good for Irene to have us over there, and it will be good for us, too. I'd like to think we can save a bit by being there, although as I told John, we can pay most of the bills, his mom can buy her food and pay a bit of her mortgage and maybe if she calls Mary or Linda; but we can pay the bulk.

Spinning Wheel

I spent the afternoon with Joan, and I feel a bit guilty. I didn't help her do much of anything and I brought home her grandmothers spinning wheel. It's a castle type, it looks like it was well used, the wood is wearing away on the front of the treadle. But it still turns quite nicely. I have it all together but haven't hooked the footman to the treadle, I can't figure out how. It hooks right on to the fly wheel, but I can't figure out if it ties on or what. So I am going to look for directions. Anyway, I'm anxious to get started now. Joan said we should all dress up in costume and bring the spinning wheel, the loom and a treadle down to work for our sidewalk sale. We can all dress up and do little demos. That would be fun, if I learn to spin by then.

Problems

Well, everything started out pretty good. I found a print that was in the fabric I got from Bonnie last year that had bands of grass interspersed with other landscape elements. They were only about half as wide as I needed, but I just overlapped 2 bands that I cut from the fabric. There were also some stones in the same fabric and I put bits of them at the bottom of the quilt. I had some really nice pink daisy print fabric and some tiny narcissus on another piece (again, both from Bonnie), which also looked nice. The flowers were too big in the piece I was originally thinking of. I had a green batik to use for some grass and flower stems, and I cut the stems on the bias so I could bend them when I put them down. I got everything arranged and glued in place, and started sewing. When I got to my first flower, it frayed. I didn't use fusible because in the book they recommend not to, although I know I've heard of fusing the elements down. I wish I had now. The only Wonder Under I have is heavy duty, I'll get some regular tomorrow. At least I don't have a lot to take off, only the flowers. I'll just cut out new ones and fuse them on.

Getting Started

I've read everything I can get my hands on, and I think for a practice piece I am going to do something like the Black Eyed Susans quilt in the book Landscape Quilts. I realize I don't know much about shading and light, and if I recreate something, it will give me a feel. I think I am going to do just a bunch of different flowers, though, instead of just the Black Eyed Susans. I have a piece of fabric that has a lot of different wildflowers on a black background so I'll start with that. Then I'll start going through my stash for leaves and grasses. I need one other fabric for the bottom foilage, I may not have one. The sky will be the blue I dyed yesterday. I have to find my fabric paints, I have some somewhere; I haven't used them in so long I'm not sure where I put them. What I don't have is a glue stick and some really sharp small scissors. When John comes home we need to go to the post office anyway, so I'll get them then. I'm pretty excited now that I know what I want to do. I'll take pics and post them as I go along. I also may do a bit more dyeing this afternoon.

Just What I Was Looking For

I did a search for landscape quilts and found this wonderful blog from a Nfld. quilter. And she has a nice worksheet of tips on her blog, too. http://seastrands.wordpress.com/ This is going in the sidebar, too. Her work is amazing!

Hand Dyed Cottons

Well, I tried the hand dyeing technique and I'm pretty happy with the results considering this is the first time I've done it. I posted some pics of the process, and there are a couple of things I'll do next time. I did 2 pieces of white fabric and one of grey.I should have used a bit more dye and I think my colors would have been a bit more brilliant. These are ok, especially the blue over the grey; I think it will make a nice background for an evening sky. The lighter grey and magenta reminds me of dawn a bit, too, so I can probably use that one.There are bits of yellow like maybe the sun is starting to come up. The pinky magenta came out ok, too, I'm just not sure what I'll use it for. Anyway, next time I'll use more dye. I also could leave it to set a bit longer. She said in her directions that an hour is enough, but I know when I've tie dyed, the longer the dyes react with the fixative, the brighter the color. I mixed turquoise, magenta and a smidge of black for the blue dye, and poured some of it over all 3 pieces of fabric. That's all I did to the grey, but one of the white pieces got some yellow poured on it after the blue, and the other got some magenta. I can definitely see where the blue dye started to separate back into the colors it was made from. Next time I'm going to go for a bit more brilliance, and see if I can't get a bit more control on how the end result turns out.

Here's another really cool thing: http://www.wired.com/culture/design/news/2007/03/100milesuit0330

Another Dyeing Technique

I'm trying this in the morning. http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/lowwaterimmersion.shtml I think I can get some nice backgrounds for some landscape quilting experiments. If it wasn't so late I'd try it tonight.

Landscape Quilting

I had a tour bag I was working on that I was going to finish up today, but I screwed the buttonholes for the casing up so I put it off to the side. I will have to remake the patchwork band for the casing and I don't have time before work, so I'll do it in the morning.

I was listening to a song by a Newfoundlander called Salt Water Joys, and as often happens, one line from the song just kind of stuck as inspiration for something else. The line is "The ocean smells are perfume to my soul". It conjures up so much for me. I thought of what I could do with those images and feelings as far as a mat goes, but last year I ran across an article in QNM about a quiltmaker from St. Johns who does these absolutely wonderful landscape quilts. She has the ability to create the imagery down so perfectly. Her name is Karen Colbourne Martin, and a search for her on the internet brought me nothing, as did a search for Nfld. quiltmakers. Anyway, I took pictures of the pics from the magazine and that's what I'm showing here. Her work is fantastic and shows outport life in such detail. They look like pictures, not like quilts.I do not for a second believe I can do anything anywhere close to this, I am thinking maybe something on a much smaller scale. The article says that she projects pictures onto muslin and draws a full size design, and then makes her patterns from that. I am going to take a look at some of the photos I have and see what might work. I bought a book about landscape quilting quite awhile ago, I'll dig that out too.