another sun day

I'm still getting used to my schedule and can never remember what day of the week it is. Last night, I was sure today would be Saturday BUT NO.

anyway - we're having a sunny but not too hot summer here in Portland and it is lovely.  Tomatoes are out of control (good way). The rest of the garden is out of control (less good way, but the bees don't mind).

In other news, my sister gave me a bunch of fancy sewing patterns for my birthday and the first one is coming together nicely. Excellent. (Mr. Burns hands.) I'm almost done with the tunic but I want to make a bunch of dresses because it's so easy to wear. Pockets!!! (although I'm probably going to take the pockets off the tunic because they hang down below where I want to hem it, which is not the look I'm after.)

sewing challenges

I think you know where this is headed.


see the lump underneath? It moved all around, chasing its tail.

This is the quilt I'm trying to finish - my big challenge will be getting the top, the back, and the batting all pinned together with the help of my enthusiastic kitten assistant. He's very hands on.


Busby often observes from above. All the better for pouncing.

it surprised me too

I finished the quilt! I bought the fabric just after Christmas and finished it 2.5 weeks later, which is a record for me.  It was a simple pattern (simple in the good way) and not that big (perfect for reading on the couch), but DUDE: I got it done!

I used the Wonky Simple Math instructions provided by Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson. She writes very clear instructions and also  often has cat helpers in her pictures. I feel a certain kitty sympatico.


For example? Here Busby waiting for me to move so he could help in the crucial quilt sandwich stage.


Of course once it was done, I noticed squares that I would move, but that would have happened no matter how long I'd taken to do it. I'm so pleased I got it done!


I love the backing fabric, which is a little more olive and a little less brown than it looks in this photo. It was on SALE, which made it even cheaper than the solid fabric I'd chosen to begin with.


Front, back, binding  - I'd never machine quilted something this much before. (I'd only machine quilted one other time!) It was so fun! I'll definitely try it again.


This photo is a little washed out (especially on the bottom), but I wanted to get this up tonight. Because WOO HOOO!

In other news, I've got to get outside more. I had to run to the grocery store this afternoon and the sun was low and bouncing off the dark clouds onto the fir trees and it was AMAZING. They looked like they were lit from within. Then I was sitting in the parking lot (not scenic at all) looking over the gas station, and a flock of gulls flew through that same light and it just made me so glad to see. It enlarged my tiny little winter heart. I don't know what it was, but I felt lucky to witness it.

quilting kind

Today was the day I got all the blocks done on my new quilt -  an all-time speed record for me! Tonight after dinner I went out to get what I needed to finish: backing fabric, batting, thread, and safety pins. I'm going to try machine quilting it, which I never do. Never! (well, I did once and not since then.)  !!! I'm excited. I hope it doesn't make me cry or spit nails or pull the whole thing apart She-Hulk style. (fingers crossed!) I might even get it done this weekend. I'm already plotting the next quilt.  

I don't yet have any pictures of Busby helping me make this one (although he's been as helpful as ever), but the photo at the top showcases his assistance on last year's quilt - he was helping me remove the plastic wrapper from the ruler, and also protecting the fabric from the deadly rotary cutter.

Busby's help this year is mostly in the form of helping me lay out the blocks to determine placement. Here's how it goes: I put them out one by one on the carpet, and he waits until there's a good row or two. Then he sits in the middle of them and starts behaving like a dragon guarding a hoard of gold. If I attempt to move any blocks already in place, he will slap at my hand with his razor sharp claws.  He would breathe fire if only he could breathe fire. This isn't the limit of his participation, however. He also likes to chew on thread, be the rotary cutter inspector, and walk back and forth in front of me until I have to quit what I'm doing. I'm sure it's just to make sure I get OSHA mandated work-breaks. 

I just realized I've not taken any pictures at all so far in the new year. That's weird. I'll have to get on that… 

just like a car (friday list)

1. I laugh out loud every single time I see John Malkovitch punch Brad Pitt in the face during television ads for Burn After Reading. Every single time! I don't know why. I'm not sure what it is in particular that makes it so hilarious to me. I'm not one who automatically thinks face punches are funny; I neither hate nor love Brad Pitt. I think maybe because you can see the gum in his mouth? A COMEDY MYSTERY. Or maybe not. Maybe there's a name for what kind of crazy you are if you think it's hilarious to watch John Malkovitch punch Brad Pitt in the face and I just don't know it.


2. I am finally getting my state fair pictures uploaded. Here's one that's even weirder than I remember: this was in the 4-H pavilion, and I believe this girl is fulfilling some requirement by cooking something in front of an audience while in a glassed-in kitchen. (is it bulletproof glass? is it to protect her from heckling?) I think, I HOPE, most of those people are related to her. But maybe they're not! Maybe there's a whole subculture of 4-H cooking requirement fans who travel from fair to fair and judge (as laypersons) how well teens boil pasta. (although looking at the picture I see they're all watching some scandal unfold to the left of the kitchen.) But!!! That's not the weird part I didn't notice until now. That would be the banner hanging to the far right of the picture. I love the regional specificity of two GIANT STUMPS in front of a grove of cherry trees, the rolled up river (Roll On, Columbia, Roll On) and the words "The Power Of." The power of what??? Now I'll never know unless I go trolling flickr for a picture that has the whole banner. I probably won't, so I guess I'll have to make up my own answer. (Cheese? Love? Chainsaws? Applique?)

3. BUSTED: Several weeks ago I was walking at the park and had a fist full of fallen leaves and whatnot (like I do), and one of the park regulars -- the one I call "The Professor" in my head because he is always smoking a pipe -- asked me if I was the one who put the leaves in that tree. (I've been leaving little bouquets in a notch in a tree for almost a year.) I had to confess because he's probably seen me do it and it's kind of silly to deny it when I have a handful of evidence, but I was still reluctant to do so. I said yeah, (I usually have my ipod on when I'm at the park, so I don't get involved in a lot of chitchat), and he said that he enjoyed them very much and further confessed that he was the person who was sticking found feathers in various trees. My reaction was layered (running the whole pleased to pissed spectrum) but has returned to a place of equanimity. I'm glad to know that it brightens someone's day, and as long as I don't have to have daily chats about it, I will survive someone knowing my secret Leaf Leaving identity.

4. I mostly made a Duro Jr. dress yesterday! I still have to do some hemming. It went like my projects always do -- I go from great guns enthusiasm to dead certainty that I have made some error from which I can never recover, then I try it on and it's fine. I even added piping! Now we'll have to see if I actually wear it. (I think I will! It looks fine barelegged, and the fabric I used will go great with my paprika-colored tights when it gets to tights weather, which I'm sure it will sooner than I think.) Maybe I'll take a picture if I get it done today.

5. it is time to replace my ipod, which is 5 years old and has a much diminished battery life. I was all ready to do the smart thing and get a new ipod classic, but damn, those new nanos are ADORABLE! I want one in every color!!! It's so silly. (but the larger capacity nano has almost twice as much memory as my current ipod...) I guess it gives me fodder for a good internal debate. I'll probably get the classic, not because it's the most reasonable choice, but because I will be unable to choose a color.

6. T.Rex Jeepster! I heard this out on my walk the other day, and it's so weird but wonderful. The lyrics range from WTF?! ("just like a car you're pleasing to be hold") to poetic ("you've got the universe reclining in your hair"), but I think the contrast is part of why it's such a great song. (of course he could probably sing the alphabet and it would still be a great song, but whatever.) Here's YouTube to the rescue so that you might decide for yourself:

it drove the women of my family insane

BEST quote without context from today: "I experienced only one hour of menopause. It's a good thing, too, because historically it drove the women of my family insane."
everyone else in the room: "..."
reply: "No, really."

BEST thing to wear on July 31st, 2008: RADISH SKIRT! I hadn't worn it in forever, and it cracked me up all day! It also seemed cheering to other people, which made it even better. "Are those radishes?" (this picture is weirdly distorting -- the skirt comes just below my knees, which is not two inches above my ankles like it looks in the photo.)

BEST place to eat lunch today, even though the trees were having some sort of tree pollen confetti party: Laurelhurst park, where I noticed that someone has started a bizarre collection of lawn creatures on the little island in the middle of the pond. There is a plastic chicken, a flamingo and an assortment of garden gnomes. Where do they come from? How do they get there? Do they move around at night when nobody's looking? Are the turtles that live on the log in the pond somehow involved? (I feel certain that they are...)

BEST bicycle seen today: one of those crazy welded together two-story bicycles ridden by a guy who I'm pretty sure walks around in stilts when he's not on his bike. Someone who eats fire for breakfast and swallows swords for snacks. In my imagination he would be a charming but tedious neighbor: "I get it! you're a fire eater! Yes, you've mentioned you're going to ride your weird tall bike all the way to Burning Man. Neat. Do you think you could you maybe stop with the arc welder and carnival techno after midnight? THANK YOU. p.s. your chickens got loose and crapped in my rain barrel again." (in imaginary reality he probably works in a bank, is still going to ride his weird tall bike to Burning Man, but doesn't weld after 10pm out of thoughtfulness for me, his imaginary neighbor. his imaginary chickens are too well behaved to crap in my imaginary rain barrel.)

BEST change in weather: this morning it was overcast and hazy, but after about 10AM it started getting sunny, sunnier, sunniest. Then it took a turn back to clouds and will probably rain tomorrow, but those 8 hours of sun were really sweet!

and now I'd BEST get to bed because I'm really freaking tired! I was going to have some blah la la about how this month went (mostly good, with a few pinches of misery for old times sake), but I'm tired and well aware that it's not exactly breaking news.

... and because I uploaded it so why not, here's a picture of what my unfinished project I found in a box looks like when I lay it out on the floor:

everything crooked and wonderful

I have finished painting! Mostly. I mean, I still have to do boring parts like put all the faceplates on and stuff like that, but the part where I'm in danger of backing into a wall of wet paint is OVER. huzzah! It looks really good -- say what you will about painting as a method of cleaning, but it does the job! I was going to compose a list of helpful painting hints, but I find that I don't want to think about it anymore. Maybe sometime soon. (they were really helpful!)

In other project news, I had a visit today from Weird Cousin Bonnie -- she's actually my mom's cousin, and she's not really weird in a pejorative sense. She marches to her own drum; at the time the "weird" was applied to her name, the drum insisted on a pantaloon jumpsuit. (what can I say? I think I was fifteen when I first met her and if I could have taken a pill to be invisible I would have. A pantaloon jumpsuit was faaar from my comfort zone.)

She's just started quilting and brought over what she's been working on. It was very nice -- much nicer than my first quilting projects, which were extremely boring because it hadn't quite occurred to me yet that they didn't have to be. I really liked what she was doing -- she has a great sense of color, but it was fairly rigid and from a pattern (her mother in law is a very precise pattern quilter). I had to make sure that she knew there were other Accepted Methods! (it's a delicate balance between being helpful and supportive and being obnoxiously bossy in craftland.) So I told her to do a google image search on Gee's Bend quilts (source of the photo in this post) -- I did it as I was telling her about it, and I forgot how much I love those quilts. I get the same wobbly legged feeling I get when looking at certain paintings. Everything is crooked and wonderful.

Anyway, a lovely side effect of the visit (beyond the Gee's Bend google) is that she caused me to run all around and assemble my recent(ish) quilting projects. I realized that I have finished more than I thought. This is a rare feeling!

I found one that I had started in the one and only quilting class I ever took. My former employer used to offer remarkable classes until they cancelled their education program, went bankrupt then insane. I continued to work for them for six more years. But I digress! I took one quilting class. Long story short, my quilt was never finished. Looking at it now, I can see that it is the antithesis of my natural quilting style -- lots of fussy little pieces, and HUGE. But today I had an epiphany -- I still really love the fabric and I have a bunch of squares already put together. If I just make 9 more, I'll have enough for a good sized lap/bed quilt (it would lay on top of the bed, but not hang over) and that would be fine with me. I think it's a much more versatile size, not to mention the joy of finishing a project bleepety years old! Updates as warranted.

In the meantime, here's a video I came across via d.Sharp. (I came across d.Sharp via angry chicken, who I came across via Posie Gets Cozy, who I came across because I really liked her shop. What do these three blogs have in common? Well, besides being well written by funny craft goddesses, they are also all from Portland!)

But back to the video! I hadn't heard of this song or Thao and the Get Down Stay Down until this turned up in my feed reader. I love the rambly shambly charms of the song (it turns out I like singing the words "bag of hammers"), but I also really dig the 8 panel photo collage effect in the video. BONUS: there is a claymation video for the same song, if you'd like to see it with brightly colored clay-people with little clay guitars.

it's never too late to revise

Today was the day that I finally started getting some pictures uploaded and organized from my last little trip. It wasn't very long ago, but somehow due to compressions and expansions of time or gravity on the milky way or bad weather or something, seems like it was no less than a thousand years ago. (interesting weather side note: The Blue mountains, where I was a little less than a month ago, just got TEN INCHES OF SNOW! Does that seem right to you? It is freaking JUNE. side note to my side note: if I hear one more person say "junuary" I am going to strangle them with a sweater.)

Today was also a day for some sewing! I sewed up a pattern for a top that I've not made before. There are some fit issues, but nothing to have a scissor throwing tantrum about. I think I will only have to take out about six inches of stitching and adjust the thing and all will be well. I love the fabric -- it's a rayon I've had forever that I think is best described as a mod arctic zebra design. My plan is to get it adjusted and finished tomorrow. I think this will be a good pattern to work with over and over once I make the necessary tweaks. Woo hoo!

To celebrate having some pictures where I can get to them, here are a couple of my favorite signs from the first two days of our trip. I'll do them in chronological order:



First up, the side of the old theater in Toppenish, Washington, a town which is apparently well known for its murals. (most of them are very lurid and feature BEAR ATTACKS. Okay, at least one does, and I think the bear was probably just misunderstood.) But anyway -- it is very fun to come up with photos to collect on trips like these. My mom got us hooked on county courthouses (it's a great excuse to drive around town); I find carnegie libraries are also a good thing to hunt for since many of these small wild west towns have them; heritage trees are on my shortlist of things to look for next time -- but this picture is from my slowly growing old movie theater collection. (note that the windows on the front of the building are also painted on!)



Here's a bookstore cowgirl from Ellensburg, Washington. (Ellensburg was entirely delightful.) I think she looks like Jane Russell, except blonde. (Maybe it's Jane Russell playing her own evil twin/country cousin!) Anyway, cheeky lasso cowgirls are not uncommon on signs in central Washington.



This was from a drive-through in Wenatchee, Washington. More on beautiful Wenatchee in a later entry (I will tell you now that it is the Apple Capital of the World). I saw this sign the night before during a wrong turn to Dairy Queen -- but how can it be wrong if we ended up with ice cream AND this sign? My traveling companions were kind enough to go back the next day so we could take pictures. I know some of the letters are falling off and there's an apostrophe missing, but as the sign says in fiction or in life, it's never too late to revise. All I can tell you is that seeing this sign made me very happy on top of my already good mood. It's never too late!