Calamity Kim

Quilting on My Mind

As I sit and sew,  random thoughts float through my head. I recognize the color scheme as Fall and think of the Sugar Maples that grew on the street where I grew up. Pushing the peddle I can feel the breeze ruffle my hair as I mentally ride my bike at top speed down the hill to the crossroad, where turning right takes me around the corner, past Ruby's Flower Shop. Turning left goes down a bigger, more thrilling hill that ends at the bridge over Flat Bottom Creek. I always turn left.
Leaves tumble under my presser-foot.
Pushing hard to get back up the hill is never a problem and I smile at Mrs Ham out in her garden of flowers as I go by.
What-A-Jolly-Street it is!
People on their front porch swings, mowing their yards, raking the leaves.
The smell of Fall in the air.
These are happy and relaxing moments.
The design bugs all worked out after days of doodling and wondering and mulling it over.
It's always there at the back of my mind, like the worms in the apple trees I used to climb- well, the worms were in some of the apples- not the trees!
Puzzling it out until I know I have it right.
The look I wanted to achieve.
Next is the layering with batting and pinning and then some stitching...needle into thread...my favorite therapy.
I hope your day is rich with memories and smells of something good cooking. I bought baby back ribs and marinated them overnight. Now they are cooking slowly over low heat and then The Mr will bar-b-Q  them up right on the grill. Yummm. The house smells great and I have 4-5 hours of sewing time...it doesn't get any better than that!

Oh, the Calamity

I made some tags for the giveaways and now I am taking pictures cause they turned out so neat! It is a lovely day here- so cool that we opened the windows. The yard sale went well, my Brother made a fortune on Fri but Sat was slow for both of us and I started to get grumpy so I started taking stuff down and packing it up earlier than I probably would have, but I was just worn out! Thats hard work! Pricing, hauling, setting up...my back was screaming by Sat night and so Sunday we just relaxed and watched some movies.

I went to Renaissance Video - which has everything ever made, it seems, and got an eclectic mix: House Boat, Mogambo, Blood Tea & Red String and my new favorite- Mirrormask. Ahh, I started reading a book of Neil Gaiman's over the weekend- and I already have a copy of Wolves in the Walls...but this movie was so cool- like a Collage.

Like what salvador dali might do if he had access to a computer or Jim Henson's Magic. Very inspiring. Very visual. Like a Fairy tale for modern times. Like Alice and Dorothy- this girl is lost in a strange land and must find her way. All the great stories are like that, aren't they? The strange enchanted creatures that they meet along the way teach them lessons through tricks and riddles...Fred thought it was strange but to his credit he stuck it out with me.

The crap I expose that poor man to- here Honey, you'll like it! It's ART. *teehee* anyway, I am packing up all the giveaway items plus something I sold at Etsy and then I shall be listing some things of my Brother's on Ebay and then hopefully trying to sew a bit! Amanda and I are going to take the Tie One on Challenge and make an apron in Tandem with the Pocket theme..

It will be blogged on both our blogs and oh how fun it will be! We have our coffee in the morning and IM with each other on Yahoo. It helps to inspire me but she is growing into quite the Tar-baby and some days I can barely break free to get busy! Hahaha! It is fun though and I enjoy the process of sharing and linking and yakyaketyyakking each morning with her.

I am glad she is healing up from the surgery and getting her mojo going. I think there are so many things each day that can hinder our best efforts to create without even thinking about illness or surgery. I am trying to stay on course and get some things made. I am enjoying reading though, which I haven't done in a long while. I gave up books so that I could sew more- reading only craft mags, books and Country Living etc mags.

I went to the bookstore on Sat and sat there with all of the latest Somerset Studio Mags in my lap and felt as if I might have died and gone to heaven. The new Cloth, Paper, Scissors with Ruth Rae's jewelry and collage by Anahata...It helps me to think I could get published if I were to send off a quiltie or an art apron to the mag..If I were to be brave and try...so I have several new Challenges for myself up on the Inspiration wall. It feels good.

I may not be on the computer as often but won't it be great when I can show of my stuff in another format?? venue? Like Boundin...that jack a lope & sheep  story from Pixar...just gotta keep bounding....

Zippidty DooDah! Zippitee A!!!!

OK, So It's Saturday!!!!! I survived waiting through Amanda's surgery yesterday and whew! I am as glad as she is to have that behind me! I was working on her doll to the utmost exclusion of anything else and now I am happily back on track finishing some other pending mending that has been set aside. This small doll quilt for example...Very primitive in it's quilting- I am working on it...but my Grandmother could do 10 stitches per inch..she would probably make me get the seam ripper out and try again!! Ha ha! Too bad Grandma is in heaven teaching the angels a thing or two! Anyway, it is just a sweet little quilt with a few of my favorite things...gnomes...bikes...cupcakes...ladybugs...goldfish...roses..you get the picture...Anyway, I had to go over to Heather Bailey's blog to get another peek at her binding tutorial and this time I just printed it out to tack up on the sewing room wall.

I started cutting the bias binding before we went to the mall for an early movie this morning. The 11:40 am show is only $4.00 apiece so it is a great deal, plus we were up and at em early and then we went to Quiznos for lunch and since we were practically next door I asked very sweetly to please go visit the new quilt shop. What movie did we see so bright and early? Well, it was The Pathfinder. I enjoyed it a great deal- with Clancy Brown and all those Indians, and it was entertaining- the editing wasn't all that great but it was enjoyable all in all. Those nasty Vikings....anyway, after some delicious  sammies we went to Sew Worth It where I met Sue, the friendly owner after she complimented me on my quilted bag. She used to have a summer house near Asheville so she is familiar with where I am from and after taking a quick peek around her lovely and spacious shop I thanked Fred for his patience and resolved to return soon with perhaps some class outlines for the purse or some wee doll quilties or something...maybe she would like to see some Art Aprons...

I just bought some of the Folklorico fabrics online and couldn't believe how quickly it arrived! I think it will be a great addition to my ever growing stash of fabrics..I also found some timeless treasures petite fours fabric that I ordered from The Virgina Quilter I had found it on eBAY but it was in Australia and that is just too far for me!!! I have some of the Timeless Treasures Cupcake fabric which also looks very real! These will be awesome appliqued in an apron or some of the Shabby Dabby Doo Chenille Quilts I am planning. Now that I have started to cut the chenille bedspreads, it's getting easier and easier to chop em up!

So I am going to go add the binding to my quilt- hopefully with a minimum of cursing and swearing! Then I will have to make a wee label for the back and she'll be all ready for the 6TH Month Blog A Versary Extravaganza Give-Away!!!! Yippee Yahoosee!!!!! Ya'll get on out and enjoy you some of this gorgeous Spring Air! Go smell some flowers!! Hold Hands!!! Walk your Dog!!! Cheer the kids at Little League! Sit in the shade of some big trees and snooze or read a good book or watch the clouds.....I think I have Super Fred talked in to a walk on the beach for sunset.....Have a Happy!

You won't find it there

I belong to 2 Quilt Guilds: The Friendship Knot Quilters Guild of Sarasota and The Venice Quilt Guild. They both have quilt shows every two years and this year is the Sarasota Guild's turn.
The show will be March 9th & 10th in case any of you are visiting and will be held near the Van Wezel at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium.
There will be over 200 quilts in the show with lots of small quilts to bid on in a silent auction.
We also have a boutique, a merchants mall and a lovely raffle quilt. I am volunteering to sell raffle tickets on Saturday morning! I will be taking pictures of course and submitting them here for you all to see and attend the show virtually.
I am still searching for my camera disk that I used last night at the meeting- i took it out and Fred popped it in his computer and said- here lets look and then I had it in my hand and as I laid it down I said to myself: "you'll never find it there!".
So guess what- today I can't find it!!!!I have walked the house, looking everywhere and nothing....maybe it is with Fred?
He cleared his computer junk off the piano where he had been copying cd's to put in windows media player  ( a very sweet thing to do for me. When I first saw him copying all my music, I have to admit, I was worried it was a sign of the end- I just knew he was going to throw me out!? Not that he has any reason to- I just immediately suspect the worst! I am not used to someone being that nice to me- and thoughtful, did I mention thoughtful?  How low does my self esteem go? Pretty low! LOL!!!) I am listening to my play list of Dave Mathews and Colin Hay but it isn't soothing my ruffled feathers due to complete memory loss and failure.
I play that "last time I saw it game" and nothing! I laid it somewhere unusual and when I do find it I will go, oh yeah, that's where I put it! Ok- I just called Fred and he said he found it on the dresser and moved it to the top of the laptop and when I lifted the lid  (without wearing my glasses) It slid to the back onto the desk and I saw another disk sitting beside the laptop and thought that was it! At least I haven't  totally lost my mind!!! He moved it!!
The pictures I wanted to show were of the quilts made with the Celebrate The Spirit of Sisterhood, A Common Thread competition using the shows theme. We got to vote on our favorite and the one that best displayed the theme. We also had a show n tell, which is usually a high-light of every meeting! There was a quilt that was appliqued that took the creator 3 years to finish!
It was splendidly awesome! You know that applique is French for "really hard to do", right?
So for now, I  can't find my pictures, but when I do I will add them to this post. Be patient. I am addled apparently.
We did enjoy some Heroes last night though, there was some plot progression that was way cool! PETER PETRELLI IS PISSED!!!!! Did you see his face? Did you see him do something suprising !! YeeHaw!!! WOW!!! Maybe next week we can get some answers from Claire's Father! I saw in the credits were Stan Lee was going to be in the episode and I said what if he is Linderman? Fred said cool idea but then there he was- driving the bus that Hiro was getting on!
Maybe Linderman will be someone like Rutger Hauer or Clancey Brown! That would be sweet!
I think Linderman is Claire's Dad's boss. He is the puppetmaster pullin that guys strings and I just can't wait for them to show him!
Ok, I am going to put forth a more extensive search for the disk- it has to be here somewhere! A post without pictures is like a leopard without spots- just another cat.

So I hope I didn't ruin that post so terribly that you are all just sitting there shaking your heads. Sorry. Somedays are like that! I invite you to use the link for Flickr and see more of the quilts from last night with some explanations and details. Also- if you click on any of my pictures on my blog they should pop up and give you a larger pictures- better details!

A few stitches more

A few stitches, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

Maybe a few buttons and some silk ribbon flowers. Hey- maybe some YOYO'S. hahahaha

Maybe an apron bib?

Maybe an apron bib?, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

She's getting better...

Charlotte?

Charlotte?, originally uploaded by calamity kim.

On the nights when I'm not too tired I have been adding some crazy quilt stitches to little red.....