New July Giveaway

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO AUGUST 3.

The ribbon embroidery giveaway didn't pique anyone's interest, so I've pulled it. This may spark more interest. It is two charts by Dancing Needle Designs: Woodland Delight and Fruit of the Oak. Both designs are primarily cross stitch.

Woodland delight makes a sewing pocket.

Fruit of the Oak is a sampler and pillow and features a drawnwork section.

To enter, please a comment on this post by 9am central time the morning of July 31, including a way to get in touch with you.

Holiday Weekend 2

We had a perfect day Monday--lovely weather, dry and sunny, not too cool or too hot.

I love our family get togethers. We have good times and I really like my family and being with them. As with holidays everywhere, we feasted. I have a sense that our eclectic feast is generally typical--most 4th of July feasts are made up of the traditional and favorite foods of that particular family, whatever they may be.

My brother made these baguettes and, oh, yum! N picked the wild black raspberries. I'd never had them. They are really good! Little bursts of flavor. We had cherries, too, and some strawberries. Fresh picked lettuce and herbs. Homemade tomato sauce for pasta.

I think it's probably an American law written somewhere that you have to grill for the 4th of July. We grilled chicken and brats and packets of veggies in foil went on the coals (zucchini, summer squash, onion slices, pepper slices and cherry tomatoes). Most of us had a hand in the grilling. C&N brought home grown corn (frozen from last year, but still so sweet!). We had the bread with butter, with olive oil, I added a basil leaf. My sister had made a tasty spread with cream cheese, chopped green onion (salad onions) and chopped dried cranberries. It was really good on the bread.

And our family tradition...tinned black olives. When we were kids at every family holiday meal the can of black olives would be carefully drained and served in the nice dish as a rare and expensive treat. For a really fancy dinner mom would add carrot and celery sticks and maybe some green olives and sweet pickles, but mostly the black olives were the staple.

And to this day, at every family holiday meal, one of us turns up with a can of olives to serve. With the olives, our feast was nearly complete. For my family, dessert is a main part of the meal!

I bought mini-cupcakes with poofs of icing and colorful sprinkles. My brother brought a few homemade truffles and flourless peanutbutter cookies he'd made. N showed K and me how to smush a truffle onto a cookie for a true delight. After feasting we sat around and talked (segregated, as seems to be tradition. This time the guys were on the porch and we ladies sat inside). D (in the shorts above) took us for boat rides on the river. It was perfect weather for a lovely cruise. The scruffy guy in the jeans is my sweetie. (C is off the the right out of the picture, the porch wasn't quite big enough for me to get all three into one shot.) We got our calendars out and planned our next girls day out (end of July for K's birthday!)

We drove home (it's about 60 miles) with the windows down, enjoying the perfect weather, feeling replete and very happy.

Holiday Weekend 1

The lovely long holiday weekend is over. It was a good time. I ran errands, did chores and shopped at Jo-Ann's on Friday (where I ran into World Embroideries and most of her family, there to get more loopers for the potholder makers). Saturday was rainy all day, but it was a nice quiet rain. I enjoyed it. I suspect all those who had picnics and parties planned were less enthused.

I pulled this pillow project from my UFO pile and stitched on it off and on over the weekend. It's no longer spring, but the umbrella fit. I also worked on the crazy quilt stocking ornaments and completed one (the picture came out too blurry to use). I worked a bit on the knitted lace sachet. Don't try to knit lace late at night when upset--it doesn't work at all well and ripping back lace isn't easy if you don't have lifelines strung. sigh... I've set that one aside for now. I used the quiet time on Saturday and Sunday to do more stenciled and silk screened felt pieces for Camp Quality (more on that later this week).

The rains stopped Saturday just in time for the fireworks. We grabbed chairs and strolled up the block to sit and watch. Our town puts on a very nice display. I absolutely love fireworks. Each year I think how so very lucky we are that these loud flashes and booms and bang engender "oohs" and "aahs" and not fear.

The big news for me this weekend was that I completed the Bayeux Tapestry piece, purchased backing fabric, and got it backed, trimmed and DONE! I dug out my limping sewing machine and put it together on Sunday. All I needed was for it to sew forward and it still does that.

The fabric it's sitting on is the leftover of the backing fabric I used, from the upholstery department. (If you need a piece let me know, I have half a yard by, probably, a yard left with no plans for it. It's a medium-weight fabric.) The wooden hanger came with it, I made a pocket on the back to hold it.

I'm rather pleased with the edge trim. I couldn't find a cording I liked and didn't want to make one from the wool thread (my usual trim), so I bought a hank of round brown leather cord from the upholstery department. I whipped it on with the dark blue wool. I also used a length of the leather to add a hanging cord to the rod.

While I had the machine out, I stitched the lining for a stocking I'd begun long ago as a holiday challenge that never made it. It now will get it's beaded fringe around the top. (Another UFO nearly done!)

On Monday we had our family get together. I'll write about that tomorrow.

R. Buckminster Fuller

image from the Encyclopedia Britannica

This week I took a bit of a trip back into my past. When I was in my twenties, Bucky Fuller was my guru and this week I visited a lovely retrospective exhibit about his wide range of work at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. Sadly, the exhibit closes Sunday, so I can't encourage everyone to go.

If you've ever seen a geodesic dome, then you know of Bucky Fuller's work. Those huge buildings with the roofs suspended from poles and cables? derived from his work. Ever heard the term "Spaceship Earth"? Fuller again.

R. Buckminster Fuller lived before his time. Long ago he talked about affordable housing, sustainability, working together, feeding everyone, weaning ourselves from fossil fuels and nuclear power, working together so we can all live and prosper on this planet. Sound familiar? He was talking about these things in the 1930s and into the 80s.

A true renaissance man, he designed cars, houses, wrote poetry and prose, illustrated, drew, sketched, painted and did amazing things with three-dimensional geometrics (and much more).

I discovered him while in high school, through his dymaxion globe. A cardboard fold up globe that could be laid flat and showed the continents together without the distortion of a traditional map. My dad gave me the globe and I kept it for many years.

Later, in college, I experimented with geodesics, tensegrity, synergetics and was fascinated by his suspended modular houses and the dymaxion car. The latter were from the 1920s and 30s--way before their time. I could barely comprehend some of it in the 70s--in the 20s it must have seemed outrageous and impossible, the stuff of science fiction!

In the 70s many of his ideas and principles were picked up by popular culture, especially us hippies, and saw the publication of the Dome Book (which I probably hadn't seen since the 70s), the Whole Earth Catalog, and Shelter. In the late 70s my hubby and I heard him speak at a local theater--it was so energizing--he was so enthusiastic and full of ideas.

While many of his ideas never saw fruition, like the really cool "needle" sculling pontoon craft, and others were relegated to "hippie stuff " (dome homes), if you look around today you'll see a lot of geodesic domes around, suspended roofs, and triangulated structures. Perhaps it's finally time for the rest of his ideas about sustainability and living together to see fruition.

You'll have to enlarge the quotes to read them, but I think it's worth it. Some links:

Fuller Institute The Bucky Fuller Traveling Miracle Medicine Show

I don't know how to embed videos, but there are several of him, here's a link to get you started:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-938394498520786588

From ``How Little I Know''

by R. Buckminster Fuller

It is understood

That if you know that I know

How to say it "correctly''

(The exact meaning of which

I have not yet learned)

Then I am entitled to say it

All incorrectly

Which once in a rare while

Will make you laugh.

And I love you so much

Whenever you laugh.

But I haven't learned yet

What love may be

But I love to love

And love being loved

And that is a whole lot

Of unlearnedness.

I haven't learned yet

What laughter is

But a mother told me

How surprised was she

When an undergraduate first

Belly laughed in her

Alma mater

Dormitory.

Clay swap and giveaway

World Embroideries is hosting a swap and giveaway here. If you already use polymer clay or have thought about trying it out, check it out!

Bayeux tapestry project update

I've been working on this piece and it's sailing along. I'm even further now than when I took this photo and hope to have the embroidery done by week's end.

As I'm working on this, I'm gathering things for the crazy quilted mini-stockings (shown here). So far I have a bag of floss, some charms, beads, sequins, and some laces and trims. I want to be able to pick that up and get going on it once this is done.

July Giveaway

Pulled due to lack of interest. See July 10 for new giveaway.

This giveaway is three older issues of Creative Needle magazine, full of smocking and delicate embroidery projects, and two patterns for silk ribbon embroidery for vests (I think they would look nice on jacket lapels, too).

This giveaway will end at 9am central time Wednesday July 15. Please leave a comment with a way to get in touch with you on this message to be entered.