All is Well

Here is a picture of the attic before I started emptying it. Scary. 

Please notice the paper attached to the rafters in the next picture. I think this was someone's idea of insulation. It has an aluminum (?) backing on it. It is very brittle and comes off in small pieces. On top of this, there is quite a bit of soot and dust on the paper. I'm sure a new roof was put on when that paper was there. When you pull it down, what a mess. I thought I was going to get black lung. I filled 2 large contractor trash bags with the stuff.

Now, the one side of the attic is clear, but the other side is totally crammed. (The attic is divided in half by the stairs.) The rest of the house is a disaster, too.

I have such high hopes for using this space as a studio. Joe says he will put up sheet rock and heat the place. The fact that I will have no real walls is a drag, but I will make do. Stay tuned.

I did a ton of work on the two quilts I have going. I think I can have them both up on Etsy within a week.

Finally, I have received 2 of my art quilts, and I am quite pleased with them. Show and tell soon.

A New Project

Here is a thing I am starting to mess around with. I have hand-stitched some of the componants together. The shells you see are not sewn on yet. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to arrange them. I also need to do whatever quilting I'm going to do before I sew on any embellishments. I have 3 things ready to quilt, but I can't seem to get myself down the basement. It really is a crummy space. Most people would not put up with it.

I was thinking of buying one of those sheds, that they can plop right down in your yard. I saw one,I think it was 10'x16', with big windows and french doors for $3000.00. My first thought was, well, forget that, but, I did spend $1200 just on my sewing machine. I could save for it! It would take up a fair amount of yard, and then it would have to be heated. Joe could do it, he said so. (He's a plumber) Then I started thinking maybe it would be better to finish half of the attic. We would have to sheet rock and insulate it. I can't imagine being up there in the summer without air conditioning. (We don't AC our house at all in the summer) Then, of course, it is that attic shape, with the pitched roof as the walls. I don't know. There just doesn't seem to be any great solution. I'm pretty sure my bonus is going to be crap this year, so I can't rely on that. I will keep thinking about it.

In other news I had another sale on Etsy. I made a wall hanging out of an old flour sack from the Beacon Milling Company. (Egg Mash) I liked how it came out, but then everyone that I showed it to remarked on the stains. They are pretty bad, but it never occurred to me that it would be a problem. I mean, the thing has probably been in a barn since 1948! I put a close up picture of the stain in the listing, and made note of it in the description. I figured it would never sell. I even lowered the price. Well, surprize! The woman who purchased it is from Beacon, NY. You never know!

Up the Main Stream Without a Paddle

I'm home sick again. I can't seem to shake what I have. My husband says that if I don't rest, he's going to restrain me. I'm glad he's at work himself and can't see me blogging. I really do feel pretty terrible, and when I'm done I'm going to lay down. 

I mentioned Cloth Paper Scissors an Sew Somerset yesterday. I love these magazines, yet they annoy me. I did not buy Somerset this time, because it is $15. Why is it so expensive?  Just because we will pay it?  Or do they have a small readership and the advertising dollars are not much?  I don't know. I did buy Cloth Paper Scissors. In this issue, someone pointed out, in a letter, something that has bothered me for a while. Tiffany Harris writes, "I must be honest, I'm a bit over seeing whimsical mixed media creations of tea/coffee cups, and birds with text... same with cute houses!" You and me both sister!  I think there are worse things in these mags. I ask you, what the hell would some of these artists do if they suddenly could not use any old photographs of their grandmother, aunt or other sepia-toned female portrait? How about if they were not allowed to put wings or a party hat or crown on anything???  But the thing I loathe the most, the way artists are always putting the word ART on their creations. Like, they need to let you know, in case you might think it is just paint spilled on a photo of your grandma in a party hat. To her credit, Tiffany concedes that it must be hard to come up with fresh content every month. But I suspect what is really going on is that the editors are just giving the people what they want.  In my previous post, "Who the Hell is Amy Butler?" someone commented that while she agreed with me, she could not help but notice that when she used Amy Butler fabric for her Etsy items, and mentioned it in the title, she had 4 times the hits she would normally get. It just makes good business sense.

I feel like I am constantly out of the main stream loop. I don't like most things that are very popular. Life would be a lot easier if I could just like what everyone else likes. Just as an example, the less I watch TV, the more I can't stand it. People at work will say, "Did you see American Idol? Did you see Survivor? Did you watch Heros last night?" No, I have not seen any of them. Ever.  I have had the urge to be entertained while I have been sick. The only thing I could stand to watch was Turner classic movies. The other day they were showing some string of movies set during WWII. They were not really that great, but it is always interesting to notice their clothes, hair, interior decorating, and their expressions. I'll say to people at work, "Have you ever seen the movie Grapes of Wrath? It Happened One Night? Cold Comfort Farm?" They have not.

But I digress. I do end up buying these magazines to get ideas of how to construct things, ideas for surface treatments. It is helpful to me to see people do crazy work, with wild stitching and thread hanging all over the place. I still am influenced by years as a traditional quilter. Sometimes I will find myself saying, I'm going to make something like that!" (Whatever it is) but I never actually get a round to making something like that. 

I have to lie down for a while, or I'm going to be blogging from the hospital with pneumonia.

Cocktail Quilt?

I like to find strange and wonderful old textile bits, and use them in art quilts. I found this seriously bitchin' tea towel on a recent excursion to Roller Mills Antique Center in Lewisburg, PA. (Possibly the largest Antique mall I have ever set foot in.) My interpretation of this towel, is a housewife doing the dishes, longing for a cocktail. Maybe an early version of desperate Housewives. Pretty funny, and I love the graphics. I just found what I consider to be coordinating fabric, at least in spirit. We've got cocktail glasses with clocks in them, all stating the time to be 5 pm or later. I've been staring at this combination for a couple of days, and I'm still not really sure where to go with this. It's almost as though the towel itself is so perfect it doesn't want or need anything else from me. Stay tuned...