things

Well... I seem to have fallen behind, with the whole daily posting of things made. It was been very busy lately, ofo course. I have been making a lot though. I promise.
here are somethings:

Here is my bubbie reclining in a comfy new necklace that I knit her...





I think that I got the itch to make things for the pups from Pamy who has always made little garments for the boys...



It has become very important to make things that are not stressful, not related to sales.... not for show, but for my more intimate life. little things for the dearest of the dear.

My friend Despina has started this really cool thing on Facebook called MAKE PER MONTH. Everyone in the group makes something for another person each month...

this is what I made for Despina:




my friend Kendall made me this beautiful little quilt.... which I lost the picture of... check back soon.

Along the lines of studio excitement, Cayewah gave me this awesome old thread spool holder!






It has lots of pegs and other storage places for my threddys and other sewing stuff.
We don't know who made it, but someone did, probably in New Mexico, maybe 50 years ago.

...and the persuit of happiness

This incredibly beautiful op-ed piece by Maria Kalman was recently in the NYT.


http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/back-to-the-land/

certainly worth a look!

we are making making making here. almost time to hit the road!

Here is the set up of the wonderful thanksgiving block party that we went to!
the 1200 block of e. 49th street was blocked off and the table was made up in the middle of it all!



can I please move to your neighborhood?

another day

Pam and I have this on going discussion about how when your dog wakes up in the morning their mind is filled with nothing except, "oh my... another day...." -- none of the worries or other complicated thoughts that creep into our heads shockingly soon after awakening. Somehow, in these days off, I am trying to be like that too.

so here is what happened in this day (with out any particular effort, plan)











and tomorrow will be another one.

don't want to think about what i don't have. just wanna worry bout what i got...

look at this cute thing that Jill found on swiss-miss.com!

I'm listening to the nields, slowly resurfacing from finals week + the compiled madness of it all.

Today is to be the beginning of a (hopefully productive) pretty exciting work week, before Riva and I head to MA. Pamy is flying back to the USA from France right now, so little Wiley will be heading back to the isalnd soon. I will be missing him! But it is going to be incredibly good to see Pamela! Lexi got back yesterday too!


Today, after we go out for a nice long walk will be a YMCA work day. We are planning to bring LOOP to two more locations in January... I need to start that process. Today, I'm planning to swing by the Gadsen Elementary School and the Hodge Memorial Daycare center. Both are near the YMCA and would be great places to build a materials center and give classes! (fingers crossed, about all that...)

Also, these next few days are for the making of as much as possible. We are having TWO holiday shows.

The first is DECEMBER 5 at Sarah and Hosie's
The second is DECEMBER 13 at the WICKS!

Every day is for the making of as much as possible, but especially the next 5.

one of the beautiful Gee's Bend Quilters said, "take what you have and make what you want."

one hundred million lights on the darkest night

"I don't believe in the wasting of time.




and I don't believe that I'm wasting mine" - Fiona Apple said that

just look how much fun we're having down here...

Little Topo Sunshine

Keeping me on track in the studio...

1-2-3 Vacation's OVER!!!!

Today was the first day of school, here in Savannah GA. Lynsey and I successfully made it to our 8am History Of Fabric Class. I'm pretty excited about it, Pam once said to me that History of Fabric is just a collection of stories about people and their fabrics.

I spent this afternoon at the YMCA, starting to get things organized. I'm trying to get all the 2009-10 Loop It Up promo stuff done THIS WEEK! we just got our very own email address: looplinktangle@gmail.com - this will also be the address for the materials center.

The Y is doing this really great thing. It's called KaBOOM! Design a PLAYGROUND. It's a program thru Home Depot, the kids get to draw and design their own playground and the materials are donated by Home Depot. AND then in one day a volunteer crew comes to build it!

Look at this AWESOME picture of Kendra!


And cute little Vandell in the background!

When I got back here a few weeks ago, Peter at the Y said to me, "welcome home."
My heart will never be homeless. that is for gosh dang golly golly sure.

some quilts

These are two quilts that I made in Pamy's class - THE ART QUILT. We finally got out the Camera yesterday!

The Heart song quilt, fabrics collected from assorted people and places



This is the back side of a pieced quilt top from the class... all the fabric is from Smera's family fabric/ sari business in India. BEAUTIFUL STUFF, i could use it forever.



*** go listen to "Tiger Mountain Peasent Song" by the Fleet Foxes.
xo

beaucoup de gâteaux

Today I had a good day of resting. I think that I went out twice all day, both to walk RIVA! Otherwise, napping-- trying to kick a NASTY summer cold, and making some new cards! I feel like these look like the birds eye view of some very fancy and ornately frosted cakes! They are made of fabric bits and enchanting machine embroidery from the stitch bank of WONDER on the Pamy Machine.

Gateau One. Front + back, too






Gateau two, front. back




Gateau three. front, back




It's been a good day, sometimes you have to get sick and feel really really yucky in order to realize how good you normally feel!! Back to my sweet little girls tomorrow.

surprise!

*** Not really sure how I came across this, but apparently there is a bakery/ children's charity in Illinois called MOLLY'S CUPCAKES. How fitting, right mom?

feeling thankful for :

- a sunny day today

- the friendly people at the Vet... even though we spent $150, it was a nice experience

- little drop in visits from Elena, Cheyanne + Rita

- Mary Calucci offering to help Cayewah and I with the Loop It Up grant proposal

- Cayewah taking my scribbling and ideas and writing a beautiful concise something or another (she always does this! I have a pile of them in my bottom desk drawer)

- A lovely burrito night with Kait

- Pamy Wiley giving me a sturdy leg to stand on when ever I lose both of my own

- my sister is coming home this weekend

- My mom and dad

- another shot,again and again every blinking blooming day

this really broke my heart a little bit

just had a good long talk with Pamy. learned many things including one sad thing which is that some guys broke into the Y last week and when they couldn't find any money, they just trashed the place. I have never been sure if I believe in god or not, but anytime that I do it is because of my friends at the Y and how truly good they are and how much they work on doing the right thing.

I think that the next work will be about devotion. There is true love and devotion in a lot of places that we don't always realize. I hope that we can teach eachother and ourselves to have better eyes so that we may one day see it.

do yourself a favor and listen to "The Way I am" by ingrid michaelson. it's a sweet sweet song and it will make you fall in love all over again.

july, JULY, JU-LIE-I-I-I

Well, we've been up here for almost two weeks now!
I've been nanny-ing for some very sweet girls, Talia and Charlotte. They are seven and four and perfect. Right now we're making a quilt out of some of those STUNNING imitation Chinese silks that they sell at Joann's... you know the ones!

I've also been working a lot on my beautiful new sewing machine, which was a gift from Pamy Wiley. Every time I sew on it, my heart hums a little. And that is a good kind of heart humming. Making lots of quilts and experimenting with the million stitches that are on the machine... what a treat! up there is a little tiny thingy-ding that I made yesterday for our friend Elisabeth, her birthday is soon.

*** We're planning a winter trunkshow! stay tuned about that one. hand made for lovely you + your lovely home.

We have applied for a big grant for LOOP IT UP! I'm waiting to hear news about that. If we do get the grant, I might get to do this -- teach + coordinate the program/materials center for my JOB! which would be SPECTACULAR! fingers crossed for that one. Next week (Vacations OVER!!!) I'm going to start writing a little curriculum, mission statement/philosophy ... good stuff that will make Loop It Up more accessible and easier to pass along to other people in other parts of the community.

Very happy to be here, with my family and good friends. very excited to get back to SAV. not much is better than having good work to do, many things to make, a fabulous apartment with LYNZ + JILLY + BUB + THE WILEYS and the sun shining almost every single day when we wake up.


Ingrid Michaelson says, "I'll sew on patches to everything you tear. Cause I, love, you more that I could ever promise..."

House Guests!

***The Wiley Boys (Goodie + Topo!) making them selves right at home.




The Boys are staying with us for a week this summer while Pamy is away with her family and then they'll be back in the fall when she goes to france with the department. lucky us!!!

Bub loves being around a couple of sweet pups who are as mellow as she is!



It was another good week at Country Day, this time teaching a paper sculpture class!

On the first day everyone made "a place" out of paper.

Wyatt's neignborhood


Shannon's Garden


Gabe's Factory



Austin's little house with a fence around it!


Evan's Playground, with swings that actually swing.


On tuesday everyone made a jack-in-the-box. the bulk of the morning was spent figuring out how to make a container that would stay closed.



Morgan decorating her box with some block printed elephants!



EGG DROP!
can you make a structure that will keep a raw egg from breaking if we drop it from the two stories up?????

STURUCTURES





Gabe got very involved with this project, he worked quietly all morning, without talking to any of the other kids.

"these round tubes are going to be the shock absorbers, they catch some of the bang when it hits and I drop it. The long wing things are like second absorbers that fly out to slow it down and then make it better when it hits. The egg goes in the bed on top of it."



Gabe and Sarah Beth getting ready to drop!


3-2-1-DROP!!!!

Did it break?? did it break?


oh yay! it worked!!!



Evan and Josecline get teady to drop!


oh bum,it broke!


Everyone looking cute, with my lovely assistant Sarah Beth!