Do You Wanna See My Scars?

Since surgery on Monday I have spent most my days in a Vicoden fog. Its a great drug but it makes a normal life almost impossible. On the TV show House, the lead character uses Vicoden like candy to combat his pain and still manages to solve great medical mysteries. I, on the other hand, couldn't seem to get the energy to shower or even change clothes without a huge effort. My days have been running like this:

• wake up
• check the time
• is it AM or PM?
• look at wounds
• wiggle out of bed or off couch
• feed the dogs (scatter required amount of dry food around each of their bowls)
• water the dogs (pour water from a pitcher at the bowl and hope it makes it)
• drink something
• take a pill if tummy is sore from getting up and feeding and watering the dogs
• turn on TV/PC/radio
• snuggle down to watch movie/read e-mails/listen to NPR
• fall alsleep
• repeat

Paul has been a bit of a saint through all this. Although he is working extended hours, he has been here in the evening to make sure I eat something, giving the dogs some much needed loving and running errands. I sent him out on Tuesday to buy some fusible fleece for me so I could try out a couple of patterns I picked up at the Quilt Festival. I don't know what I was thinking as I didn't use it until today.

Today, I decided to stop the pain meds as this morning I actually got out of bed without yelling out in pain. As long as I don't do anything crazy, such as bend over to pick up the dogs or run the lawn mower, I can handle the occasional twinge. I actually did some sewing today and completed a swap package.

Things are returning to normal but I think I will still be taking a couple of naps every day for another week or so until my system returns to normal. I missed the neighborhood group meeting that meets the second Saturday of the month as I napped through the time I should have been showering and getting ready to go there. I had already sent my regrets and I know I couldn't have stayed awake long enough to drive to the meeting but I really missed being there.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I will post my swap package and what I have been working on today on Sunday... if I stay awake long enough :-).

Medical Update

I'm back from surgery and all went well. I do feel like someone with very pointy toed cowboy boots had their way with my ribs but the pain medication seems to be taking the edge off of it. I am to avoid lifting anything that weighs over ten pounds for the next week which will make it tough on me when I am trying to get the dogs to bed at night as only Kelis weighs under that magic number. Paul and his girlfriend were here last night and all day today to fetch and carry for me. They went home this evening but Paul has promised to return tomorrow to help out around here. I hope that the pain goes away soon so I can stop taking the pain meds and get on with the projects I want to begin.

International Quilt Festival - Part B

The Quilt Festival continued on Thursday but I didn't really do much. My friend from up north had an all day class while I browsed the sales floor. I was continually amazed by the great number of products offered for sale plus the variety... fabric, kits, antique quilts, beads, crystals, jewellry, clothing, knitting wool, shoes, furniture, dinnerware and the list goes on and on and on.

Friday was a different story. Besides more shopping, the Wearables Walk About Luncheon was held. This is where Quilts, Inc. gets a chance to get an up close and personal look at potential participants for the Bernina Fashion Show. Most of the participants were showing individual jackets that didn't fit very well but were embellished to within an inch of their lives. A couple of examples of some of the embellished garments are shown below : a magnificantly embroidered crazy quilt jacket, a jacket with many examples of using bleach as a discharge on black fabric and a lovely felted wool jacket.

A couple of the more amazing garments were the jacket made out of pin-tucked dupioni silk constructed by a member of the Houston ASG chapter and a beautiful suit embellished with metal key rings from an Ace Hardware store. Another suit by a local ASG member made from felted wool made me want to move back north so I could wear something like this.

After the fashion show I got a chance to view some more of the quilts. I seemed to be attracted to those with more linear details. But check out that Moon over Snow one. It makes me cold just to look at it.

I also checked out some of the garments from the Bernina Fashion Show from the evening before. Here are two examples of great concepts gone a little wrong. The gorgeous dress on the left (and sideways... sorry!) did not have a lining and the model apparently showed almost everything on the runway when she adjusted the skirt. The dress was a very impressive garment, totaly wearable and beautifully made.. too bad about the side show. The other one below featured a huge knitted collar on a short jacket. The model wearing it at an informal modelling event mentioned that it was very heavy and itchy but you would never know that from the big smile on her face.


Later I helped to man the ASG booth, looking for new members. The location of the booth stunk and by Friday Evening we had processed only two renewals. If we can't get back on the sales floor, our participation should be limited to a table with brochures rather than tying up so many people's time manning the booth.

Saturday began with a new event - Bag Lady Day. Eight of the faculty presented eight different bags or techniques for constructing purses. This event was a lot of fun for me but some of the projects presented were pretty lame. Linda McGehee of Ghee's, was there and presented a very professional little seminar on inserting zippers. Quilters are very skilled sewers but zippers sometimes defeat their formidable skills. I know that everyone who heard her information came away with the confidence to make more bags with zippers.

We attended the luncheon on Saturday where Charlotte Angotti presented an hour long talk called... 'Why don't you make more quilts?'. My friend is part of Charlotte's posse which meant I got to sit with some of the group at a table right at the front of the hall. Charlotte has a wonderfully easy going style and, although able to complete the most complex patterns, she prefers to work on quilts with simple elements but great results due to creative fabric selection and unique block placement. If you ever get a chance to participate in one of Charlotte's mystery classes you will not be disappointed.

Sunday I was paranoid about the time change and ended up waking up my friend for her plane an hour before she needed to get up to head for the airport. Was my face red! I had a class on using Shiva Paint Stix which was a bit of a bore but I did get a chance to try out various techniques for using them. I plan to use them in a future project that I will share on this site.

With that class, and a further browse through the sales floor, the International Quilt Festival ended for me for this year. I am incredibly weary and my head is spinning with all sorts of new ideas. I will sleep well tonight before my surgery tomorrow. I hope my recovery is swift as there are so many things I want to get going on. I'm just glad I'm not working these days or I would not have any time to accomplish any of the projects I want to complete.

International Quilt Festival - Part A

Wednesday, my first day at the International Quilt Festival this year, was a lot of fun. I took a class with Traci Bautisti, of Collage Unleashed fame, for a day of playing with fabric to create a wacky, large tote bag. Mine is not finished, actually not even half finished, but I see possibilities. The day began with us painting, stenciling, scraping and using Traci's full repetoire of fabric altering techniques. This took most of the morning. She brought an incredible amount of materials for us to use and was very generous in distirbuting them among the 20 or so stidents in he class. The afternoon was devoted to taking the manipulated fabric, adhering it to fusible web and adding them to our fabric scraps to create quilted exterior for our bags. Here is a look at some of the work done that day.

One woman in the class is someone I think any of us would like to spend some time with as she seemed to be very creative and wore it on her sleeve! She wore a wonderful fabric collaged jacket, pictured below, and, not pictured, is the bottom edge which was cut to echo the flowers ... a really beautiful treatment. In addition, she had painted her shoes to look like bare feet with painted toe nails. Her fabric choices were just as wild. I wish I had had a chance to spend some non-class time with her to hear about her creative process.

Wednesday evening was when the non-winners and the rest of us learned about the winners in all the quilt competitions. One of the quilts really impressed me for its originality. This quilt was created by piecing four large triangles of hand-dyed shaded fabric that was quilted into a one inch grid. The corners were appliqued with wonderful flowers and corner lace details. The applique was particularly spectacular as they were all created out of double layers of white fabric so that the base of dark gray fabric would not show through the designs. Here is a picture that I took trying to capture the beauty of this wonderful quilt. More winners can be seen at http://www.quilts.com/fqf07/enVivo/ .

Today, Thursday, was the first full day of shopping and, surprisingly I did not over indulge. One of the highlights of my day was meeting Mark Lipinsky of Quilter's Home fame. He autographed a copy of the magazine for me with the comment 'Quilt Nude Dude'. What a guy! If you are looking for a different kind of quilting magazine, check out Quilter's Home. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Beautiful Sunday

What a gorgeous day it is in Houston today. When I woke up it was around 50 degrees, now it is about 75 , the sky is clear and the wind is light. A beautiful day all around.

Today I took Alex and the girls to a fund raiser for Dachshund Rescue of Houston. The theme was The Wizard of Oz and many of the dogs and humans came dressed for the theme. The girls and Alex went with fabric ruffs. Kelis's lasted about 10 minutes, Kemora's about an hour while Alex's lasted until we made it back to the car. Paul and his girlfriend came as well and the dogs were ecstatic to have them there. When he's around I might as well not exist! There were about 50 dogs there that ran the gamut of sizes from a sweet seven pounder to a hefty 25 pounds. Two actually got adopted at the party and everyone had a good time playing with the dogs.

It was fun to watch other owners with their dogs. A few would not let them on the ground to play with the other dogs. Where they afraid they would get dirty? The other extreme was Alex and I ... I let him off his leash most of the time and he just loved finding dropped food, chasing a green tennis ball, sniffing rear ends and generally making himself a bit of a pest. Fortunately everyone was very tolerant of his antics. All three crashed in the car, barely moving until we got to within a couple of miles from home.

And before you ask... I FORGOT MY CAMERA... I do not have one picture of all this playfulness. I hope all the other photographers will be posting their photos on the web site so you can see some of the wonderful puppies that were there (Alex and the girls included!).

I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Now I need to get myself in gear to get ready for company during the Quilt Festival. I think it would be nice if my company had a bed to sleep in and a clean bathroom to use. On the other hand, with all the shopping and quilt viewing that we will be doing, beds and bathrooms seem irrelevant. Have a good week!

Fall Swap

I completed a swap I am involved with today and I think it turned out well. It is in the mail but I am not sure if it made it in time for tonight's mail. Here is a photo of the goodies I sent out (a Little bright - sorry!):

I started with making a brown fabric box with copper ribbon trim. Inside the box I added a yard of hand dyed fabric from Just Imagination, a soy tart that smells of pumpkin pie, an orange and brown Craft Leftovers kit for a cocheted dish cloth, 10 yards of various fall type trims, an assortment of copper/brown beads, sequins and adornments, a covered note book, a brown beaded pen and a small watercolor kit. It seemed like every thing I included in this package came from a separte city that I have visited. Not exactly true but there are things from Barcelona, New York City, Washington DC, Washington state, Dallas and Houston. The parameters of this swap were pretty wide open.... essentially to put together a package with Fall as the theme. My partner is a skilled purse maker and said that she loves fabric and trms. I hope she likes this package!

I have another swap that's due out by November 8th that's organized by the Free Paople Clothing blog. The theme they are looking at is 'Dark Fairy' that is based on their recent catalog. I'm not completely sure what I will include in that package but I think I will start with a sewn box as well and go from there. My partner in that swap likes nature related things and I am wondering if the ideas percolating in my skull will come to fruition... only time will tell.

The International Quilt Festival is in Houston next week and I will be there most days I am looking forward to seeing friends I only see at the festival and, of course, all the beautiful quilts. I think I will be taking a lot of pictures and I will post them when I can.

Have a good weekend and keep those cards, letters and comments coming!

Giveaway

Anyone want a free ticket to Stitch Austin on November 10th? Leave a comment and, if I get more than one, I'll randomly give it to someone in a drawing. If only one person comments, then its yours. Comment (by November 2nd) letting me know if you are listening.

Why am I giving away my ticket after waiting almost a whole year for this event? Well....

I just found out today that my Gall Bladder needs to come out... actually I've known this for many years but have just put up with the pain and nausea. My last attack was about a month ago and it really spoiled an otherwise perfect day with the dogs and my son as it lasted almost 20 hours. A couple of weeks ago I had an Ultrasound and it showed quite a few stones. Today I saw the surgeon and she agreed that it needed to come out, preferably as an elective surgery, rather than having it done during an attack. Since I have to go clean out my Dad's Florida apartment in early December, sooner, rather than later, is the mantra today.

The surgery is scheduled for Monday, November 5th and Paul has been volunteered to stay with me the first day or so to make sure everything goes well. I may be in great shape by Saturday the 10th but I just can't ask him to dog sit (again) during the busiest time of year for caterers. He works for the premiere caterer in Houston and is currently working seven days a week and some days are very, very long .. not a good situation for Alex who is very needy for human companionship. My Mom guilt over both Paul and Alex has come to the forefront, again, so my ticket is available if you want it.

Don't know what Stitch Austin is... here is the link to their blog - http://stitchaustin.blogspot.com/

Let me know if you would like my ticket and keep those cards, letters and comments coming.

Hand Embroidery Part Two

Today I had the opportunity to follow-up on the crazy quilting session I had with the Spring Branch neighborhood group back in September. Although only a couple of people completed the challenge from last time (to use the materials I had given them and make something from the bits and pieces) eight people came for the follow-up. This time they were given only a piece of muslin, a piece of 28 count Edinburough linen, a piece of cotton floss, a piece of silk floss and a couple of beads. I provided lots of scissors, embroidery hoops and needles that needed to be returned to me, the rest was for their stash.
We reviewed the prior work (stripping floss, loading needles and samples of my work) then proceeded to practice perfect french knots, easy bead stitching and laying silk threads for satin stitches. We ended up with a few minutes of discussion on how to work with even weave fabrics. I don't know if anyone else had fun but I certainly did! I enjoy passing on knowledge to others even if they only use the skills a few times. I forgot to take pictures of the completed projects from last time but they were very clever in using up most of the materials I had given them.
I will be doing a crazy quilt class for the Kingwood neighborhood group in January and I wonder if I should do the same class I did for Spring Branch or do different sitches. I will probably do the same stuff as it would be easier for me but it would be fun to add some woven stitches or complex knots. Fortunately I have a while to figure that out.

Brain Scanner

Try this one out - http://brainscannr.com/ Not sure what it means but mine came out with a large angry sperm shaped thing surrounded by blank space with shocked and puzzled happy faces around the edges... don't think I like what its saying about me! I also tried it with my first and last name and with my middle name as well and it still came out weirdly. Then again I may be misinterpreting what I am seeing.

Austin Maker Faire

I went to the Austin Maker Faire this weekend. This is the first year it has been in Austin so it was my first opportunity to participate. I had been anticipating this for many months and, like a kid on Christmas morning, I was both pleased and disappointed with the whole event. Here's a run down of what I think was the good, the bad and the ugly of this event.

Location - The Faire was held at the Travs County Fair grounds. This is a large area where Travis County has its annual Fair. There are three large buildings - one is an arena that looks like a space for hockey games, one is a smaller modern exhibit space and one is a large animal show barn. The first two were air conditioned while the latter was not. Most of the electronic, geeky stuff was in the arena. The Make and Craft magazine store was in the second building. The more hands-on crafty stuff was in the barn. The grounds were full of tents for exhibitors of alternative housing, local food providers, a human sized mouse trap game, a watermelon catapault launcher, two music stages and a huge area where the largest kites I have ever seen were flown. The location gets a mixed review. The sales space was great, the arena was crowded and very noisy. The barn was unacceptable. The barn floor was dirt and the walls were open to the elements. As the temperatures were around 90 both days it was truly uncomfortable. Maybe they can find a different space for next year.

Pictures above are of the human sized Mouse trap game, a distant view of the Mentos and Diet Coke fountain and a look at the grounds with a view at the human powered ferris wheel free-wheeling it over the grounds.

Swap-o-rama-rama - This clothing swap and clothing re-design area was in the barn. I brought a couple of shopping bags full of stuff and was surprised that I only saw two pieces on the tables for swapping. One was an old white turtle neck and the other was a light weight wool shirt. The shirt actually ended up on a mannequin of one of the local designers being refashioned into a sleeveless cropped jacket. There was very little sewing going on. The most action was at the tables where the silk screeners were busy adding embellishments to the mounds of t-shirts that people were decorating. The fashon show at the end of the day had nothing to do with the action during the day as the clothing shown was from the designers assisting in the Swap and not from the participants. This was a disappointing experience for me as I was hoping to see a lot of action here. I did find three denim skits for myself that were my size but I did not re-fashion them as they were great just the way they were. Maybe next year the designers will be more pro-active in helping people select and redesign the available clothing. AND the location sucked... an open air barn with a dirt floor is not the best place for this kind of activity.

Other Crafty Exhibitors - I really enjoyed seeing some of the people that I regularly visit on the web. A little hut, from Kingwood of all places, had a nice exhibit of recycled art and did a demo on her work at the store building. I also saw a Roomba vacuum reworked into a random painting tool. And check out the great drawing of classsic horror movie villans on on a dirt covered car.

Geek heaven - The arena area was wild. I made a circuit board that played sounds when connnected correctly, listened to a lecture on catapaults, chatted with a woman who makes robots and who also demoed hand quilting, and enjoyed the robot band that used plastic baby doll heads as a key design element.

The robot and hand quilter booth, the lecture on catapaults with a list of the 10 favorite things to fling including dead bodies, snakes and rejected messengers, and the baby doll head robotic band.

My circuit in action, a fussy vew of the robotic Perry Como and a view of the exhibit floor in the arena.

The Store - Being the most modern building with the nicest bathrooms made this a great location. I did do some shopping and ended up with a new pocket knife specifically for electrical work. The label on it was 'bomb diffuser' and both my son and I decided it is the coolest tool in my collection. The editors of both Craft and Make magazines did a lot of demos in this space. I stopped to rest my feet and ended up watching a demo on making paper beads. The demo only took about 10 minutes with the balance of the time taken up with the Craft editors trying to prove that even a child could make them without much help... they were proven wrong :-).

Overall I enjoyed being at the Maker Faire. The location was not as user friendly as I had expected but I spoke to a lot people that I admire and saw some incredible work. I certainly had a chance to try out things I would never do on my own. I will go again next year but wear more comfortable shoes.

Several people have asked if the American Sewing Guild should participate in such an event. I definately think there is a place for us but this is an event where you can't sit back and wait for people to show an interest. The most successful booths had displays on their back wall with interactive areas on the aisle, inviting people to sit down and participate in some activity. The weavers, spinners and lace makers all had successful booths. The local ASG chapter did participate and were making comfort bags for a local hospital. It was not as successful as some of the other booths but they had some incredible garments on display.

Now I had better go and batten down the hatches as a cold front is coming and the temperatures are expected to drop into the 50's before the end of the day. Yahoo!