The Winds of Ike...a bad mutha-shut-your-mouth

I'm on-line, the microwave is going, the tv is on, I can use my land line telephone, I have less dropped calls on my cell...do you know what that means?  We have electricity and lines are getting back up.  Sunday the winds of Ike came soaring through here at 80 miles per hour.  Not a drop of rain, just the winds...created the largest black out on record for this area...300,000 homes without power and about half of them still out...another 175,000 homes across southern Indiana...street lights out, lines down, gas stations packed with irritable drivers, trees down, roads blocked, businesses closed, schools are out until next week.  Its been surreal.  A forced sabbatical of sorts.   

Our lights returned yesterday evening.  My parents are still without power but they at least have hot water due to it being on a gas line.  We didn't even have hot water and yesterday afternoon I drew the line and headed there for a shower.  I was beginning to ferment.

Handwork, hand sewing (Hi Jude, Hi Acey)...people who primarily do work by hand would adjust to not having electricity...they're not as co-dependent on the infrastructure (btw, speaking of infrastructure, i'm wondering if budgets for research to advance our infrastructure and maintain it have declined to the point that we all will continue to be at greater risk during natural disasters for a long while in the future ...my way of finding emotional relief by blaming the practices of Bushit), anyways, back to the freedom found in handwork and hand sewing...I didn't do any but instead called 2-3 times a day to see if you parents' electricity had returned so I could finish the quilting of this beast of a quilt...the next one is even larger and I think I'm going to hand quilt the circles.  It would be just too much to squeeze in and out of the bed of the machine.

I'm going to check out some of my favorite blogs and then stop procrastinating from cleaning out the fridge from all the spoiled foods.

It really is about Peace (just waiting for all to catch on but I'm not holding my breath)

We can bomb the world to pieces but we can't bomb it into peace..

Power to the Peaceful!

lyrics by Michael Franti.

I forgot the fun of making these gems

Postcards!  This one came together rather quickly and was a joy to make. 

 

I'm thinking I'll go back into production mode if I can manage them not being a distraction from my central focus.  I really want to complete 4 Poetry quilts by the end of the year.  I'm working on the second one which is a bulldog to quilt.  I can see the lure of a long arm.  This wrestling is making me reconsider working large.  I'm using clips to hold the rolls on both sides of the section under the needle but since I'm quilting in circles using the circular attachment the rolls have to move through the bed and around the needle.  I went online to look at the George quilting machine and became all dreamy eyed just thinking how less difficult it would be to quilt on it.  I printed off a picture and will consider financing one in a year when my car is paid off.  Its a dream, a wish, and a goal...

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And the winner of yesterday's music question is none other than Gerrie!  And I have to admit I have no idea who Orlando Brown is...I'm stuck somewhere around 1999 or before.  I'm just not with it on current singers, actors, actresses, movies...if it wasn't for a few friends and family I wouldn't be able to even buy a clue!

Gerrie, your award will be going out in the mail over the weekend!

 

Will it Go 'Round in Circles

Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky...I got a song ain't got no melody, gonna sing it to my friends...(be the first to guess who sings this song and receive a quilted postcard from me...leave answer in the comments).  This song has been stuck in my head since I started quilting (in circles) the new piece.  (I'm not showing these because I plan to enter them in places...so until I can build up enough quilts, just snippets or studies or prep work).  I'm using a matte thread choice that blends excellently into the background adding jut a hint of shading.  The panels have a lot of depth to them and I love looking at the entire surface.  So, this time, I didn't want the quilting line to stand out.

I started in my workshop at 2:00 and quilted until 5:30 when the circles where beginning to get to me and realizing that I only quilted about 1/6th of it (dense and overlapping circles) I started repeating "slow and steady wins the race" and took a break to do some hand stitching (i.e. piddling) with what I hope to be a postcard (commissioned at that) for a friend.

And I had a lovely, lovely, lovely mail day...when my camera and card find themselves in the same place, I'll show ya what came today.  Now, I'm kinda hungry...gonna go say my goodbyes to my parents and great-niece and head home.

Peace,

 

Productive Piddling

   

It took me two days to put the dye supplies away and I just could not get started on the quilting of the piece I have ready and waiting once I finished.  So I piddled around this week.  Carved the stamp above based on some doodling I found flipping through the pages of one of my journals.

 

And these tiny squares of ink pads are perfect for repetition.  I selected these colours to duplicate the colours of contemporary kente cloth.

 

And this cloth I made has been up for weeks now.  I decided this week that it isn't going to work as one of 3 panels in the up coming quilt...too garrish and muddy on the left and upper right corner.  It felt good to come to that conclusion.  It was something about it that disturbed me after I put the blue/green/metallic circles on it...so I thought the red circles would "brighten" it up...that didn't work so I added foil and left it to stew and stew and stew and it looks like a cheap knock-off of what I had in mind...so I'm moving on and its outta here! 

 

I also covered a makeshift printing pad.  Its foamcore with 2 layers of batting and a denim like material on top.

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The weather is turning cooler and the Farmer's Markets will be closing soon for the season.  Although the cold weather is not my friend I am looking forward to more hearty meals.  I've got a taste for cabbage with onions and green peppers and black-eyed peas in a tomato sauce over rice and some hot water cornbread.  Thats what I hope to prepare tomorrow for dinner. I cook my black-eyed peas in a chicken broth, saute onion, mushrooms, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper then add to the peas along with a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste and finish cooking.  Sometimes I add spinach to it but since I'm cooking the cabbage I'll skp the spinach.  I use to make a spinach quiche that I lost the recipe for years ago and attempts to make it from memory have not worked to my satisfaction.  The crust was made of whole wheat flour, butter, and cream cheese.  The filling was spinach, stewed tomaotes, colby and jack cheeses, mushrooms, eggs, and the Italian seasonings.  I have food on the brain...gonna go see whats in the fridge because today is a "catch is as catch can" kinda day...meaning I'm not cooking so eat whatever you can find.