Orphan Auto Picnic

One of my favorite summer events is the Chicagoland Corvair Enthusiasts' Orphan Auto Picnic. I like the picnic part more than the auto part, but they do get some amazing and unusual cars to come out for the day. It was held on shady river-front property in a western suburb of Chicago.

In the spirit of the Studio Journals class, I took photos of hubcaps and made a mosaic of them. Most often the more unusual cars had less interesting hubcaps. One little car had the motor in the middle and no side doors but the front opened as did the back. You kind of climbed in and slid under the steering wheel in the front and the back seat faced back. My husband was quite taken by a three-wheel car.

This site has a ton of photos of this year's picnic. If you look hard you can see me in my hat sitting with my stitching in the back of a couple of the photos. (we sat next to a white tent in the picnic area, not amongst the cars)

Take a look at this!

Is my sister-in-law an awesome knitter or what? I found this sale cotton yarn and after having it for a few years realized I'd never do anything with it. SIL knits so I'll give it to her. Never dreaming... The minute she saw the yarn the gears began turning--it was amazing to watch. You could actually see the light bulb go on over her head as she began designing it in her mind immediately. She'd been teaching a top-down bias pullover/ cardigan and adapted that. She took my measurements and took off knitting.

The secondary colors were her choice and really spark the design. The dragonfly design is also her original design. She knows I'm quite partial to dragonflies. I'm just too pleased for words.

I think I brought the yarn by in April. She had me try on the sweater, on the needles, in July. And here it is, complete, for my birthday! (and it's not even a major birthday, just a usual one in the midst of a decade) I've completed the back of a sweater for myself and the front is languishing, half done, in a pile. I knit hats and scarves and posies and fingerless gloves--not sweaters or other big items. And not originals at all.

The front has a button band and I need to find the perfect buttons for it. I think the design is so striking I may stick with simple plain solid color buttons. But who knows what inspiration will strike in the button aisle!

Thanks to the best SIL ever!

August Take-It-Further

I haven't come very far with this. I'm still having lots of thoughts about balance and how to achieve it. I'm watching the Olympic gymnasts balance on a narrow beam (and leap and flip on it!) with admiration and awe. I have issues with vertigo and balance is a big deal for me physically as well as emotionally and just in general.

I made a Photoshop image of one of my ideas. I've discovered that after taking the Studio Journals class, now I keep asking "what if?" and am having trouble on settling on a design and getting down to work.

My image for the line--the fine line we all walk--is a cord wrapped with thread in rainbow colors. Now I'm thinking I might like to make the background fabric an inkblot on fabric rather than a plain solid. I'll post more as the idea evolves

Birthday weekend

Well, I have some catching up to do here. Last weekend was loads of fun.

Friday members of Needle Artisans of Northwest Indiana EGA chapter paid our annual visit to Camp Quality Illinois. It’s always fun. This year I have to admit we were not terribly popular. Not us, I don’t think (I hope--those that came and did the project seemed to enjoy it). I tihnk it was more that the campers were all cooped up in the crafts building all of Monday and Tuesday due to storms. Friday was beautiful weather and the outdoors called. I’d never seen the crafts building so empty. We did have a few avid stitchers join us to make an Eiffel Tower bookmark (the theme for the day was France).

One enterprising young lady even made two! The mix of stitchers always amazes me—boys and girls both tried their hands at it, some younger some a bit older.

They always do so much for the kids at the camp and think of every detail. I'm putting my mind to thinking of a fundraiser to do for them.

On Saturday several members of my other stitching group, the Homewood Embroiderer’s Guild, drove out to Mishawaka to visit Needle Nest. It’s a great shop and we had loads of fun choosing fibers, colors and projects. Everyone was very helpful and friendly. I bought this kit—it came on the frame!—and finished it up Sunday night. It will be a holiday gift for friends.

After we shopped, we replenished ourselves at a fun Mexican restaurant across the way from Needle Nest, Hacienda Mexican Restaurant (thanks, Leila, for the name—I never can remember those things!). After lunch we rolled back to the car and went to stop number two, Erica’s. It was a spur of the moment stop for the quilter in the group.

Wow! This place has it all. It would be incredible for machine embroiderers or machine quilters—they have a nice variety of machines and loads of examples. I love quilt shops just for the array of fabrics and colors. And Erica’s has an amazing variety of fabrics. But they also have knitting, felting, cross stitch, embroidery, beading, wool embroidery, quilling, locker hooking (I just learned what that is, thanks, again, to Leila), oh, and all sorts of other odds and ends. I was enchanted and my now empty pocket book shows it!

Oh, but the fun didn’t stop there! Sunday was my birthday. Steve gave me a lovely bouquet (three bouquets actually!) of carnations that is only becoming fuller and nicer as the week goes on and some chocolate. Myrn knit me not one but two soft and cuddly neck warmers. They’ll get a lot of use come winter. And Jenny sent an embroidery kit of roses with bluebells.

The weather was perfect on Sunday and we went to the Midwest Buddhist Temple’s Ginza Festival, up near Old Town in Chicago. We used to be regulars and hadn’t gone in years. We shopped (they bring in master artisans from Japan), ate (veggie sushi and edamame—they’re known for their teriyaki chicken and it is good but it’s messy) and watched some shows. I love Taiko (drumming) and we saw two troupes..one from Milwaukee and the other a youth group from MBT. We also saw a Hawai’ian ukulele group and a kendo demonstration. (My favorite taiko group is Kodo. You can hear the music in the listening room but there's nothing like live taiko!)

The whole weekend left me with a golden glow and lots of warm fuzzy feelings. I’ve been watching bits of the Olympics (I can sit and watch it endlessly but Steve has his limits) and working in my journal and stitching. That is, when I’m not at work or going to and from work.

TIF thoughts

After the award, this feels like a most uncreative week. I haven't worked on my journal, although I have been gathering materials for a collage or two, and I haven't done much on this month's TIF.

I have, however, thought a lot about it. My first thoughts were that this challenge comes at a perfect time for me because I'm feeling out of balance and perhaps this will help me regain it.
I've been writing in my journal all week about being in and out of balance and came to the conclusion that being in balance, at least for me, it not a steady state. I tip one way and come back and then tip the other and come back and in the middle of all of this tipping and tottering, there are brief moments of balance.

It rather reminds me of going to the chiropractor (which I haven't been doing lately) and she puts my spine back in balance. It doesn't stay there but it feels great while it is aligned. And each time it seems to stay a bit longer or go back into alignment easier.

And that reminded me of meditation, where you focus on something and as your mind drifts you gently bring it back, over and over, to the point of focus. (which brings me once more to my "word" for the year: focus.)

I spent some time looking at images of gymnasts on balance beams and tightrope walkers but nothing was exactly right. So I began thinking about the balance point--the rope. That sparked a whole variety of textile and embroidery-related ideas for my journal page this month.

Today Sharon B's blog linked to an article on design and composition. In the discussion they touched on balance, including symmetry and reflection. And a note about how ink blots, such as those used in psychological testing, are symmetrical and balanced. Which got me thinking about all of the psychiatric aspects of balance.

The dictionary definition added more food for thought. The meaning I thought of first is the last one listed! (with 5, 6 and 7 running close behind)

bal·ance
Function: noun
1 : an instrument for weighing: as a : a beam that is supported freely in the center and has two pans of equal weight suspended from its ends b : a device that uses the elasticity of a spiral spring for measuring weight or force
2 : a means of judging or deciding
3 : a counterbalancing weight, force, or influence
4 : an oscillating wheel operating with a hairspring to regulate the movement of a timepiece
5 a : stability produced by even distribution of weight on each side of the vertical axis b : equipoise between contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements c : equality between the totals of the two sides of an account
6 a : an aesthetically pleasing integration of elements b : the juxtaposition in writing of syntactically parallel constructions containing similar or contrasting ideas
7 a : physical equilibrium b : the ability to retain one's balance
8 a : weight or force of one side in excess of another b : something left over : REMAINDER c : an amount in excess especially on the credit side of an account
9 : mental and emotional steadiness

So I'm off for a long weekend. Tomorrow a group from my EGA chapter is teaching at Camp Quality--always a fun day.

Kreativ Blogger

I must apologize because I've neglected this for a while. On July 25, Leila (Stitches of Life) nominated me for the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you very much; I am honored.

There are so very many wonderful blogs out there that I had a difficult time to choose just five! A whole slew of new blogs came to my attention through Sharon B's Studio Journals class and, of course, I had to check them all out and go back a few times...

Here are the rules of the award:
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3. Nominate 5 blogs.
4. Put links to the blogs.
5. Leave a message for your nominees.

My five nominees (in alphabetical order) are:
Art, Tea, Life for lots of inspiration and step-by-step photos.
Elaine for her always thoughtful posts.
Nichobella and Ruth for all they added to the Studio Journals course (and other great stuff).
Sue for boundless creativity and generosity.

July TIF done

For some reason I just could not get going on this one. I sampled and experimented and gathered materials but didn't take a stitch in the project until July was gone. The I sat down on August 1st and pretty much did the whole thing.

The intensive needlework was likely a reaction to going down to my cousin's memorial service. I often find I channel my grief and other emotions into intensive stitching. This first picture is how the page will look in the book.

I wanted the effect of a mossy milestone. It looks more like that in this vertical picture. The past is darker than the future and has a bit of a golden glow. The future has more of a pink tinge; I like to be optimistic. I stitched the edging using the Glove Stitch from Country Bumpkin's (Inspirations Australia) A-Z of Stitches, book 2. The outer edge on the future side is stitched with a Needle Necessities overdyed perle 8 with some sheen to it. The past edge is stitched with a darker and duller Wildflowers from Caron.

The moss is needlefelted. I drove my husband nuts sitting there, endlessly poking the needle through the felt into a foam block for hours on end. The letters are cut out (carved) and needlefelted, as are the borders and edges.

The leading edge--today--has lots of colors in it.

I'm late in getting the August challenge--balance--and also in getting lesson 6 of the journals class. I just am getting them now. I think the balance theme may be a real challenge. I'm feeling very much out of balance right now. It's good and hopefully will help bring me back into balance--if I ever figure out what it is.