Back from our romantic getaway for two, I’ve got the itch to get to work on projects that have been set aside. I find flickr to be a great source for inspiration and that is where I found this tutorial on a simple quilt pattern. My squares are bigger than the instructions but it seems to have come out evenly.
I don’t know if it really is the right arrangement for this project. Eh, I will leave it on the floor for a couple days and think over…it seems a bit busy.
Lately, it seems, that I can’t have a day go by without listening to Lady Gaga. I know I’m a little old to be a fan and I’d never claim to be a little monster…out loud. Well. Ok, maybe I am one, what of it? She is GREAT. I wish there had been a musician with a similar message when I was a teenager. Every song on Born This Way speaks to me, the present and the past me. And it is a fantastic album all the way through. Sure I struggled with a few songs at first but as a whole it’s one of my favourite albums of all time.
Seriously. OF ALL TIME. That is alongside Prince, Zappa, The Who, Zeppelin and assorted musical soundtracks.
And you know what flipped me from being a casual admirer to a hardcore fanatic? Her performance on Howard Stern. Yep. Her interview was great but her lead in story to performing Edge of Glory, how and why it was written, and then singing it as a ballad (unlike the album version which is poppy and uptempo, like she did on the MTV video awards) was seriously emotional. It moved me. And I’m very confident that it wasn’t just me, I know that there are many Howard fans that love Gaga too now. If I knew how to see the embed code on this stupid iPad I’d make a link, but if you search “gaga Howard stern” it is the top result. The other song she did, Hair, was also great, a fantastic song.
Ok. So I’ve outed myself as a Gaga fan. What else do I love?
Oh yes, I love Arrested Development. It is the funniest series I have ever watched. The stupid thing is that I missed it entirely when it originally aired. I mean, I caught a few episodes here and there on satellite when I was living in Windsor, but it seems to me that it really needs to be seen beginning to end because there are a lot of jokes that carry from one episode to the next. Thankfully, all three seasons are on Netflix, that was how I watched it, basically on repeat, for a few months. Then I got these tattoos. I wanted them to be obvious to fans of the show (like the couple that was giggling behind me at the petting zoo at the CNE) but no super blatant like other AD tattoos I’d looked at online.
The first one, on my left calf, commemorates Buster’s pet turtle, Mother, that he got in a misguided attempt to make his own mother jealous. Mother dies from eating Uncle Father Oscar’s marijuana stash.
The second is the seal that was from GOB’s wife (Crindy?) that he used in a magic show but had to be set free as it had gotten a taste for blood. Buster went swimming in the ocean against his mother’s wishes on his way to army and meets up with the loose seal (see? Loose seal=Lucille) who bites off his hand.
I think I might get a few more, I have a bunch of very silly and hilarious ideas (jorts with analrapist on the banner maybe) but we will see. Oh, and darling Glennie did these at Pearl Harbor in Kensington Market in Toronto. She is super talented and fun and makes you feel like you have a new best friend at the end of your tattoo appointment.
I saw this card last time I was at Magic Pony but I was so distracted by miniature sushi and Southpark zipper pulls I forgot to buy it. Lucky for me it was still in stock when I returned this afternoon. Can’t say that for the sushi.
Has anything sillier ever existed? I can’t take it out of the plastic wrapper until I have a frame for it so I won’t get damaged by spit takes. Seriously, it’s pretty much the funniest card ever.
Well. See, I said card, not picture. Nope. As of right now this is the funniest picture:
Haha!
I spent last weekend in Kinkardink visiting with my dear friends Ashley and Scott (and their hilarious and sweet children) and remembered that the John Lennon piece wasn’t the only cross stitch I’d ever made. Nope, there is this one too.
Silly.
I’m planning on blogging more, I’ve got a great post about my latest obsessions brewing. Honest.
When I went to Montreal with my sister a couple summers ago, we went to see an art installation by Yoko Ono about her life with John Lennon. It was incredible and had me near tears several times; what an amazing person she is. John, of course, was so great on all levels.
I’d picked up cross stitching (and put it down again, probably permanently) and after a couple small pieces, made this. The word are from his song “God” and the image of John is an iotacon.
How different the world would be had he lived. I believe that with every fibre of my being.
At the CNE, we wondered where her arms were. I guess there are worse things than having full glasses of beer for appendages.
Funny, when you keep a secret for SO long and then the pressure comes down and everything seems to happen so quickly after grinding along for so long.
I made my sister a quilt. I told a lot of people, friends and co-quilters (and I think I posted progress on twitter, which it turns out she subscribes to, eeek!) but couldn’t blog about it until now. And because she visited last week I had a lot of work to do. The grunt work. Making the back, putting the sandwich together, doing all the quilting and finally the binding. And I got some printer fabric so I made a nice label that had to be sewn on too.
Needless to say, she loved it, thank goodness. I was pretty sure, when Jana gave me a collection of fat quarters, that I’d be using them for a sister project. And I’d wanted to do a full quilt of half-square-triangles (not daunting at all!) so I got coordinating solids (Kona) from the workroom and a couple extra fat quarters as matchy as possible and got to work. The back is thrifted gingham and a pieces from the front. I quilted the front with glow in the dark thread!
It’s not huge, only about 56″ square, but big enough to snuggle under. The best part of quilting is saying goodbye to the project!
There are 5 complete blocks but only 4 fit in the picture. This is just to give you a better idea of where all that yellow is headed.
So far so good. I’m one fifth done and worried I’ll run out of fabric. I suppose I’ll have a better idea after the next stack of five. If worse comes to worse it will be a 4×5 rather than 5×5 and I can live with that too.
I went to a quilt show this morning in St.Catharines. I think it was my first ever so I really didn’t know what to expect. There were lots of…quilts. Maybe I’m spoiled by hanging around the workroom and admiring fantastic quilts on etsy and flickr, but it seemed to me that a lot of what I saw was out dated. Yes, the workmanship was amazing, no doubt about it, but the colour choices and fabrics themselves seemed dull and uninspired. I’m really no fan of earth tones or pastels and those dominated.
For me, the best part was the antique corner showing off beautiful work from women in the area made around 1930. The first one is a hexagon quilt, pretty much my favourite thing there. Each hex was about 1″ across, all hand pieced.
The next one is tiny silk diamonds with fancy hand embroidery. So pretty!
And my absolute best quilt of the day, tiny squares with the red and white border. This one really spoke to me, the colours, the pattern, everything about it.
Perfect.
I found another dinner size plate yesterday, not by Johnson Bros, but close, it is Stafforshire. It’s a dark brown transfer and the plate is in pristine condition.
I also got these on a whim. Well, more as a knee jerk. I mean, for $1.99, how could I resist?
Amazing! No, they aren’t Lacoste alligators, they are dragons, and I believe they are the Canadian version. The cooler version.
And after some very careful consideration, I’ve decided to sew them onto everything I make, as a tag. I don’t know how many there are but I do plan on counting them, right after my coffee.