Another Mat

I started a hit or miss scrap mat with stars. Each square is 6 inches and the mat is 4x3 squares so it will be about 24x18 inches. It should go pretty quick. Siobhan said she really likes it.

I also joined a group that makes quilts entirely by hand. I don't know if I'll actually ever make a quilt all by hand, but at least the blocks will be easily portable.

Watch This!

I watched this video and I have to say it is excellent! I couldn't embed it, but this is the link:
http://www.workersoftheworldrelax.org/

Finally Finished

The sheep mat is finally finished! I had 1 strip left over from the wool I dyed for the sky; talk about cutting it close! I was afraid I was going to run out. Sio had the idea to use white yarn for the clouds, and while I wasn't sure at first, once I started hooking the blue sky around them they blended in perfectly. Anyway, I really, really, really like this mat. It is my favorite thing I've hooked so far. I'll get some rug binding this week and sew the edges down, and then what should I do with it?

More Sheep!

I have gotten in a few hours of steady hooking over the last couple of days; it's been so nice out I've brought everything outside and sat in the yard. All the hills are done and I'm almost done with the ocean.I'll hopefully finish that today and tomorrow start on the sky. Both Sio and John said it reminds them of Newfoundland, which is good because that's what I'm looking for. I can trust Sio for an honest critique; she says I need to work a bit more on color choices if I want a more realistic look. She asked me if I have colors planned out before I start dyeing, and generally I only do in a broad kind of way. I don't know how realistic I'm trying to be though; I like the primitive style of rug the best.

The Corrs

Here's a lovely video of the Corrs doing a song called Silver Strand. What a lovely, haunting melody.

Update on Sheep Mat

I haven't spent as much time as I wanted to on the mat because I've been working on the star quilt and I've been pretty busy, too, with one thing and another. It turned out I needed to do another dye run in greens, so I finally got around to doing that yesterday. I hooked for a while yesterday and today, and this is turning into my favorite mat so far. The hill right in front of the barn is pretty close to how I want my hills to look. There is some contrast, but not too much. The foreground, and especially the middle hill, just have a bit too much. I'm not redoing anything, because over all, it's a very nice mat; but there's always room for improvement.

Hooking Rugs with Deanne Fitzpatrick

One of the things I need to do before I die is take one of Deanne's workshops. Her work is fabulous.

Northern!

John, Chris and I fished at Blackwell yesterday. There are 2 lakes out there, and we had been there last year fishing in the main part of the big lake. Johns friend at work told him that he's had success in the smaller part of the big lake, so we went there yesterday. John almost immediately hooked a decent bass on a minnow, and then another one on a leech. He and Chris were fishing with rattle traps too, and they both hooked small bass on those. I put a leech out but didn't catch anything, and John and Chris weren't catching anything else, either. John moved about 10 feet away from where we set up, and threw a minnow out. He got a nice hit, set the hook and pulled in a northern pike! It was the first northern he's caught since he was in Canada many, many years ago. Chris moved over there, and he caught one too; that was his first northern ever. So of course I took the last minnow and moved over there too, and after just a few minutes, WHAM! He attacked that minnow! I was fishing about a foot and a half or 2 feet down, but he splashed like crazy when he grabbed it and jumped partly out of the water. I was so excited! I didn't land him though; there was a line of weeds about a foot or so from shore, and I lost him in there. I should have set the hook harder, or twice. Anyway, it was still a lot of fun and we are fishing there again tomorrow.

Fishing and Baby Ducks

The baby ducks are hatching on the pond by Chris and Richards house, and they are so cute! There are 2 families that I saw and I got pictures of both of them. I also got a picture of John with a decent size bass, maybe around 12 inches. We have been paying attention to the lunar tables, and yesterday the best fishing time was between noon and two so we were out then Chris came too. John caught 5 fish, 4 bass and one very big bluegill, I caught an ok bass, a bluegill and this tiny little bass that was only about 6 inches long. It was so tiny, there was no way it could have swallowed the minnow I had on the hook. Chris didn't catch anything . We are going again today unless it's too cold.

We had Mothers Day at Chris and Rich's too. Rich barbecued hamburgers, Italian sausage and veggie stuff for Sio and Carla. I got a nice pic of mom, Sio and Carla too. Sio made a tasty strawberry pie, and I made brownie hot fudge sundaes.

I fixed the rug frame and pulled the sheep rug out. I am going to finish it in the next couple of weeks. I'm still working on the string quilt, too. I want to get a couple more blocks done so I can take them with me and do the handwork at the hospital tomorrow while mom is having her tests run. I saw another string quilt that was probably made in the 20's or maybe a bit before that. It was mostly shirtings, with a few solids thrown in and a couple of calico looking prints. The prints look earlier than the 20's. Anyway, it was about 6 inch squares sewn into 12 inch blocks and sashed with a medium blue solid. Overall, it was a light, summery looking quilt and I need a lighter weight one for summer. too. I might make it and just do the quilt top with a flannel back and just tie it

String Star Quilt

I have been thinking about a new quilt for our new bed ever since we got it before Christmas, but I just couldn't make up my mind about what I wanted. I finally decided on this String Star pattern. I have the pattern in a few different magazines and books, but this particular size diamond is from an old 1977 issue of Ladies Circle Patchwork Quilts. I am using paper diamonds to stabilize the bias edges and everything goes together very nicely. I am machine sewing the strings onto the paper, and then machine sewing the diamonds together, however I am sewing the muslin corner squares and muslin triangles in by hand. I may sew the blocks together edge to edge, or I might use sashing and a border. I was thinking of making the sashes out of scrap strips too, I don't know yet. The blocks will finish up at about 14 inches. This has been a popular pattern through the years to use up all those strips and strings left over from other projects. I am going to try and make this entire quilt without purchasing anything except a bit of off white muslin because i don't think I have quite enough. Every once in awhile muslin shows up at the resale shop so I'll start by looking there. Maybe I'll get lucky.

Intermission

Well I wonder how scared the population will run in the face of the swine flu threat, and how long it will keep peoples eyes off the other real crisis which is, of course, the continuing collapse of the world economy. I don't know if people even realize that a pandemic could be the final blow to an economy already on life support. I do have to say that I don't believe it will reach pandemic stage though; I don't know why I think that, but I do. I do see it as being a momentary reprieve for the big bankers. While people are afraid of getting sick, they won't be buying pitch forks or soaking old rags in tar and kerosene to make torches with. It's only momentary though, like intermission at the theater. The next act will start pretty soon and I don't think it's going to be pretty. In the meantime, there is this excellent post by a fellow blogger: http://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr09/obamas-secret-plan04-09.html
If you believe that Obama has something else up his sleeve ( and I usually do, I mean the man has shown that he's really smart) then this plan makes perfect sense. Read it and make up your own mind, but I gotta say, I think it would work. He's always said he was a grass roots politician, and this is a grass roots plan.
On a different subject, the bass are really hitting now over at Chris' pond. I caught 4 Sunday; all of them 10 to 12 inches. Not huge or anything, but lots of fun.

Good Fishing

Went fishing over the weekend (of course!) and the crappie fishing is pretty good right now. We had minnows over on the pond by Chris and Richards house and caught some nice ones. We also caught bass on minnows, and on white spinners over at Westmore Woods. John caught a nice little bass on a white plastic grub looking thing, too. Chris couldn't go Saturday because they were auditioning bass players for his band, but he, John and I went yesterday and the fishing was still as good Saturday. It was raining a bit, but not too bad. Friday is supposed to be fabulous, 75 and sunny. Chris has off and I think John is going to take the day off and we're going to head down to Braidwood or LaSalle.

I also went to the thrift store early on Saturday, and the early bird really does get the worm. I found 4 curtain panels and valances with a mushroom print straight from the 70's. I also got a linen skirt that I am going to remake with a braid patchwork inset for me, and another pleated linen skirt with a blue floral stripe that I took apart and has yielded a lot of fabric. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I have 2 projects in the works, one is a recycled mans shirt I'm turning into a tank top with appliques, and the other is a pair of random patch shorts.

Update

I haven't blogged much lately, but I have been pretty busy. Mary was here for a week, she left last night. Plus there have been a couple of nice fishing days. John and I went to Westmore Woods and caught a couple of nice little bass on white spinners. They were only about 10 inches, but it was the first one for me this season. We tried over by Chris' house but were skunked again. We are going to Hidden Lake this afternoon.

Sio had a piece accepted for an art exhibit at COD. It will be displayed til May 16th, and we'll be able to go over there anytime and see it. Carla is coming over tomorrow and she might want to go depending on how long she'll be here.

I haven't stopped sewing, even with the company and the fishing. I made a cute apron top, I did a patchwork inset called Braid or Prarie Braid. It actually is pretty easy, but I think it's high impact. Sio is going to try it on tomorrow so I can list it in my Etsy store. I also made a random patch reversible headscarf and crochteted a dreadie headband. I sold a patchwork scarf and a zipper pouch too, so that's nice.

Quote of the Day

I've been catching up on Thom Hartmann's shows today and this past Wednesdays is not to be missed. His podcasts have gone back to being free, and you can down load them here:
http://www.620kpoj.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=hartmann_nationwide.xml

Anyway, his Wednesday show is where I got this quote:
"There are two novels that can change a bookish teenagers life, The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obssession with it's unbelievable heroes leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood unable to deal with the real world. The other one, of course, involves orcs."

I read Tolkien in my young teens , and Ayn Rand in my young 20's. I guess that's enough said.

Finally The Shisha Top!

As promised, here are the pics of the shisha embroidered top which I think came out quite nicely! Siobhan looks so cute in the pictures! I am working on another shisha piece that I'm almost done with, I think it will probably become a bag. I also think I'm going to make a little drawstring bag with a Celtic knot. If it turns out really well I might take it over to the Rampant Lion; maybe she'dd take a few on consignment.

Sugarland

This has become my favorite song lately. I like Sugarland a lot, but posting a country video is a bit different for me. However with lyrics like this:

Ain't no rhyme or reason
No complicated meaning
Ain't no need to over think it
Let go laughing
Life don't go quite like you planned it
We try so hard to understand
Irrefutable, indisputable fact is
PssshIt happens

How could I help but liking it a lot?
This is the best live video I could find over on youtube, I might replace it later if I find anything better.

The Best Laid Plans

I was actually going to take pics of my shisha apron top and make a mola today. But Chris messaged me and I'm going fishing in the DuPage River instead. We fished yesterday, too, and I was the only one who landed anything, even if it was a little bluegill. At least I know I can land a fish.

The pictures are of a reversible bandana I made from a thrift store like new napkin and a piece of vintage cotton for the other side. The applique was inspired by a piece of Afghan needlework I saw recently. I really like it.

Windmills and Karma

Yesterday, John Chris and I went to LaSalle to fish. The lake is really big, bigger than the Braidwood lake. We had never been there before ; John and Chris were looking up fishing conditions in our area and the report said Braidwood was really good right now for striped bass on chicken livers. So John bought chicken livers and we got up before 6 am yesterday and headed south. It's not too bad a drive, but the directions from MapQuest were totally wrong once we had gotten off the express way. We spent a little time being lost, but after getting directions (and breakfast) at Burger King we finally got there. As you are driving up the road towards the lake you start seeing windmills, just set in the farm fields as far as you can see in the direction across from the entrance to the lake. It was so cool! I had never seen a wind farm before, I didn't realize how big the windmills actually are. They were just kind of slowly turning in the wind, generating power for the power plant I'm guessing. LaSalle is a cooling lake too, and we could see the power plant from where we were fishing. Maybe someday there will be enough power generated from the windmills they'll be able to shut the nuclear plant down.

As far as the fishing goes, it was pretty good for some people; unfortunately I was NOT one of them. John and Chris were both catching stripers and catfish, and Chris caught a little hybrid bass, but I caught nothing. I don't know what I was doing wrong; it took me a couple of times of loosing my bait before I figured out how to get the livers to stay on the hook, but once I did I was getting lots of hits, I just couldn't land one. I did everything I could think of, I switched to a smaller hook, I used smaller pieces of bait, I set the hook sooner, and then I waited and set it later. I thought I was setting it harder but maybe it still wasn't hard enough. I don't know; there was no reason I shouldn't have landed at least one of those fish. I think it's bad karma; I was trash talking so much last year because my year started off so good that I'm paying for it now. I can't think of any other reason. John told me not to worry about it; anyone can have an off day.

Melissa went home Saturday evening. We went to the thrift store Saturday before she left and I bought a few things. More and more people are going these days and it's really essential to get there before everything is picked over. I can start riding my bike again with the warmer weather and can go first thing in the morning as often as I want.

Catching Up

We had St Patricks Day dinner last Sunday at Moms; we didn't have it in on St Patricks Day because it was on Tuesday and the kids wanted to go to Punky's anyway.
Well Rich called and said he had gotten hung up and was going to be late, so we started eating without him. We had finished except for dessert when he showed up with Melissa! John, Mom and I were so surprised! Siobhan knew she was coming, but I didn't have a clue! She's been here for the past week; she goes home tonight.

I've been pretty busy all week.I spent time with Melissa, although she spent time visting friends in the city while she's been here. Chris was off last Monday and John took the day off so we went to Braidwood where we caught several small catfish. Every one out there was catching them; there were a couple of people fishing for walleye, but I didn't see anyone catch any. I think we are going again tomorrow, or we might try LaSalle.

Melissa, Sio and I went with Carla and saw Jimmy play with his band the The Telepaths last night. I had never seem them before, and I really had a good time. They do some of their own material and a little other stuff. I really liked a song they wrote called Area 51, that was the last one they did and it was pretty good. A lot of the original music was commentary on current issues and I liked that. I've never seen Jimmy play his electric guitar before. The whole band was pretty enthusiastic; it was the last night their drummer was going to play with them. Carla said he was leaving because he was getting married. I'm guessing he'll be asking to come back after a few months if that's his reason. You can't repress your creativity just because you are getting married.

On another musical note, I went to the Rampant Lion in Villa Park yesterday and bought Dervish Decade. It is excellent, and I love Kathy Jordan. For anyone who reads this post regularly, the Rampant Lion is THE place to go for Irish music.

I also worked a very nice piece of shisha embroidery which I am going to turn into a top today. Once it's finished I'll post pictures. Things seem to have picked up a bit on Etsy, Sio had 2 sales in the past couple of days.

Pants

I think the pants made from the bedsheet came out really cute! I used a brown and cream stripe cotton from my stash for the bands on the bottom; it looks plain brown in the picture. The total cost of this particular pair of pants was under $3.50. The bedsheet was only $2 to start with, and I still have enough of it left to make a knee length skirt. So lets say I used 2/3 of it, that would be about $1.35. I used about 3/8 of a yard of the contrast fabric for the bands and drawstring, so that was about $2. They didn't take very long to make either, just over an hour. I am going to sell them for $15 I think. I made them a medium and they are a little tight on Siobhan.
I also saw a great idea for a picnic blanket over on Etsy's top tutorials for last year. You take 16 really big squares of fabric; the directions say 16 inches. You sew them together into rows of 4 squares, then you sew the rows together. You sew it together with a backing, you can tie the layers together or put in a batting and quilt them, which is what I'm going to do. Then before you bind it you add little triangular pockets to the corners on the underside, then you bind it. When you take it to the park or beach, you can put stones in the pockets to keep it anchored. I just think it's the greatest idea and I want to make one.