Good Deed Nearly Done

I had a pretty good weekend where getting things done are concerned. The Good deed Quilt is totally quilted and the binding strips are on. I just need to hand-sew them to the back. I'm generally pleased at how it came out and VERY pleased to be nearly finished.

When I was finished machine sewing the quilt, I decided that enough was enough and I had to get control of my underground lair. I am a terrible slob and it was becoming difficult to work. So I put everything away, and straightened up my stash. As I did that, I got a flash in the brain and long story short, I now have a new top to quilt.

I'm making steady progress on the Great Depression quilt. I worked on that while watching Turner Classic Movies last night. I saw Wuthering Heights and another movie called Devotion. I've always had a little trouble with Wuthering Heights, the story is just so miserable. I also don't much care for the 1940s Hollywood treatment of these period films, but I did watch it. Devotion was actually about lives of the Bronte sisters. I think some of it was fabricated, but, good outfits, anyway. Ida Lupino was really beautiful in that film.

I also did a lot of work on the vacation photograph book. I just want to proof it again and I can place the order. I've never done one of these and I'm afraid of missing some stupid mistake. I want to give this to Joe for his birthday, which is September 30.

I've got Art Club on Tuesday, and I am getting all of my stuff together for that. I think I mentioned that we are making magic potion bottles. I have been scrubbing the labels from wine bottles. I remember, back in the day, I used to leave a wine bottle soaking over night and in the morning the label would have floated to the top, completely in one piece. Then you could decoupage it or collage it, or whatever. Not so any more. Some of these bottle have such tenacious glue that nothing but Goof-Off will get rid of it. I still have 4 more bottles.

Starting Out Weird

It is not even 7 am and already this is a weird day. I woke up in the middle of the night to my husband getting out of bed. I thought to myself, I will pee next when he comes back. He never did come back. I woke again, realized that fact and finally did pee. It was 5 am and I was wide awake. I assumed that Joe went to sleep on the couch, something he will do if he feels restless, or if I am restless and keeping him up. I didn't want to disturb him down stairs, so I busied myself in the bedroom, going through drawers, de-cluttering and rearranging. Finally at six I thought it was sort of reasonable to go down stairs and maybe quietly go on the computer. I made coffee as silently as possible. While it was brewing, I went to the back door to have a look at the day, and I see that the back door is open. I looked in the living room and Joe was not there! Another thing he does sometimes is go sleep in the garage. So, all that being quiet for nothing! He usually sleeps on the floor of the garage, with some scavenged foam as a mattress, but recently he garbage picked a Sigmond Freud-style Dr's office couch to put in the garage. We always joke that mice are going to run across his face when he sleeps in the garage. This thing will at least elevate him above mouse-level.

Anyway, a few minutes after I discovered he was not in the LR, he came into the house and announced that he had been up since 3:30 am and was working, not sleeping, in the garage all that time. He is now upstairs sleeping.

So, I did go on the internet and check out everyone's blog, and now I am inspired to sew! It has been raining hard for 2 days here. YES, MORE RAIN! This time tropical storm Danny is to blame. Yesterday I noticed that some of our windowsills had mildew growing on them. So gross.  The point is, good day to sew. I have gone against my own decree and I have started a new piece. I will go take a picture...

I bought these bits, the aqua linen napkin, the pink doily and the other  thing, at the same time. I loved the pink against the aqua, so the concept was instant. Maybe you can see that I anchored the crocheted doily down with a bead at each stitch. I am also doing some insane stippling by hand, so this should be finished by Christmas. No doubt this will end up on Etsy. I never know how to title a thing like this. Any ideas?

What Day is It?

LAMBS!

Three in a row

I'm real busy, what can I tell you? It's definitely cutting into my posting time. I used to squeeze in some blog prep in the morning before I left for work. I'd write the post and e-mail myself the pictures (They upload much easier at work) Recently I decided it was in my best interest to begin exercising in the mornings again, now that the weather is less obnoxious. This morning it was in the 20s, so I decided to not walk just this one day. So, I am posting.

I got over to the cemetary in Clinton finally on Sunday and found myself some excellent lamb tombstones. I also took the time to observe and record a situation that I find in nearly every old cemetary I see. That is the presence of similar gravestones, as if it became all the rage to use a certain type when a loved one passed on. The trend in this cemetary was markers that look like beds. I think I'm going over in a month or so and plant some flowers in those lamb beds. They are all from one family and none of those kids made it to 5 years old.

I was fooling around in Photoshop and isolated just a lamb image and printed it onto fabric for my quilt. I had been making my own printing sheets using unbleached muslin with crack-n-peel sticker paper adhered to the back. At first it seemed like a miracle just to have an image on fabric, but really it doesn't come out very clear, and I was treating the fabric with bubble jet set, so it was time consuming. I splurged on some fabric printing sheets. I was trying to avoid the expense, but the results is much better. So now I've got me a nice lamb plus I printed a larger lamb to use for some future project.

It's "Finally Sewing" Saturday

Can you see the wooden chair part? I'm figuring out a way to use that to hang this quilt. 

The white fabric is in the shape to fit the chair, but isn't actually attached to anything yet. The other pictures are details of the quilt. It's mostly finished, i just have to sew on a million more beeds.

Wisconsin Death Trip

This is the now cult classic book "Wisconsin Death Trip." This book was published in 1973 and compiled by Michael Lesy who put this together for his college Thesis. I discovered it a couple of years after it had first come out. As a young teenager I was seriously creeped out by it, but yet really attracted to the images and stories. I remember forming the thought that rural poverty is arguably way worse than urban poverty. I've gone back to my home town library to find it several times over the years, and finally decided I needed to own my own copy. (That's when I really started appreciating Amazon.) The book is all 'factual' and filled with newspaper clippings of things that happened in Jackson County and other parts of Wisconsin in 1880's into the early 1900's. They come from the local newspaper and are written in a strange matter-of-fact way. Some of the stories are so outrageous, it shakes you out of any kind of idea that things were better in "the good old days."

All photos in the book are by Charles Van Schaick, who was a well-known photograher from Black River Falls, Wisconsin, in the late 1800's to early 1900's. It's hard to say why Michael Lesy chose the photos he did, out of thousands of images. I always wonder if any of the pictures are of the people in the news stories.

Lesy was apparently trying to make the point that this place, Black River Falls, was way weirder than most small towns of that time. If you surf around on the internet, you find a lot of criticism of the book. Whatever the case, it is endlessly fascinating to me. (By the way, there has been a documentary film made based on this book. I was underwhelmed by it. It was OK, but does not have the impact of the book.)

Of all the images in the book, there is one that I really love. It is a woman who's hair is a crazy mess, and the expression on her face is positively other-worldly. (See below.)


I've used her in my art before, but right now she is in a fabric collage I'm working on. The one I have been complaining about. The scanner I used isn't wide enough to include the entire collage, but I think you can see enough of it. I have tried to create a sense of suffocation with all of the lacey bits closing in on her, as if she is being smothered by the late Victorian mores she labors under. I intend to add a lot more embellishments to this piece, but right now I am struggling with quilting her face. First I quilted around the edge of her face, and it popped out like a bubble. I quilted over her features and ended up altering her expression. Then I took all of that out and tried it in black thread. Major mistake. It ended up looking like eye-liner, she seemed glamorous, which was, once again, way wrong. I had to pick all that stitching out again. Now I was in danger of starting to shred the fabric. I quilted again, in white, around her features, and it is better. Still not great, but better.

I'm going to give you some excerpts from the book:

"Mrs. Lizzie Larson,of Merrillan, was adjudged insane and taken to the asylum at Mendota last Friday. Poverty and the loss of her husband were the causes which brought about the sad affliction. She raves about religion and imagines she is going to die. At times she has been so violent that it took 2 men to keep her from injuring herself and others. She has 4 children that are in destitute circumstances."

"Some time ago, the family of Julius Semrow of Freedom, father, mother and 3 choildren, were mysteriously poisoned twice within a week's time. Since that time... Under Sheriff Mitchel went to Freedom and arrested Alma Glimm, 16 years of age who had been an employee at the Semrow household. She was accused of having put 'Rough on Rats' in the food."

"Admitted May 9, 1899, Town of Garden Valley. American. Aged 21. Unmarried. lives at home with parents. First symptoms noted on December 28th, 1898. Religious mania. Thinks she has the power of saving people. Maniacal. Delusions and hallucinations. (Mendota State Mental Asylum record book, patient #8149)

"Aristide Griffel, known as 'Frenchy,' was arrested at La Crosse in the act of firing a barn on the North Side. He confessed to a multiplicity of incendiary fires that have occured in North La Crosse during the past 2 years. At least 50 fires can be laid at his door. Griffel had a mania for excitement, and this kind suited him best. He had always been the first at the fires and took great interest in the work of putting them out. At home he would keep the alarm clock continually ringing."

What the hell...?

One more.

"A woman who gave her name as Wilson died at Chippewa Falls from a criminal operation performed upon herself. Her parents live in Eau Claire... her brother took charge of her remains. The woman was young and pretty and visited every physician in Chippewa Falls to accomplish her object, but without success."

Just sad, sad, sad. I just don't think I can give you the real feel of this book. (And let's face it, most normal people would want to avoid this.) You just have to read it for yourself. When you absorb so many stories like that you get this feeling of compassion for all humans; maybe it is knowing that life is hard no matter when or where you were born and we all go through the same trials, some not so successfully. I also think of all the people who are gone and just fade into obscurity. I have so many photos of people that I bought for a dollar at antique stores. Who are they? Well, we know who 'Frenchy' is, anyway.

UFO!

I've been seeing a lot of UFOs in people's posts lately. My husband has been trying to find the slides from his trip to England in 1985. (FYI, we did not get married until 2005, although I have known him since I was 13.) No luck yet, but he did dig up a UFO I had forgotten all about. I'm pretty sure this is the last fragment of a conventional quilt I ever worked on. I can't see finishing it, not really big enough to be anything, but  I can imagine using it in some other quilt. I guess it will just go into the collection, waiting for some inspiration.

It was a pretty nice day here in New Jersey. After weeks of 20 degree weather, it was in the 40's today, which felt spring-like to us. Joe and I went out to breakfast, and then went over to Lambertville. It's the premier charming river town in NJ (Frenchtown is one of the other ones) but I think the place has turned the corner and is now a tourist trap. We went to an antique mall we've been going to forever, and realized it is now a bit upscale for us. You know of my fondness for old and weird textiles. Well, the "Housewife Craving a Cocktail" tea towel cost $8 and I winced when I paid it. Today I could find no towel under $20. I just wasn't into it. I saw what looked to me like a rag made of velvet. Had some interesting flowers on it. I'm looking to try to get away from using only cotton in my work, so I thought this might be cool. Turns out it wasn't a rag, it was a "tapestry" and cost $45. I did find some nice embroidery and an interesting silk handkerchief. 

 

Quilt Mode

I only have one sewing machine, so rather than switching feet all the time, I stay in "quilting mode" for a while. I have a few tops that are ready to be quilted. This one was up next, which I did yesterday. (despite the fact that my left foot was freezing the entire time.) I don't exactly know what this is, a color experiment maybe. I bought a fat Q of that craa-zy base fabric. Stared at it for a while. Then decided that solids or near solids were needed to calm it all down. Anyway, I like it. I 'm going to bind it in red.