Fine. Merry Christmas.

I didn't think I'd want to decorate for Christmas this year. I skipped halloween due to overwhelming busy and figured Christmas would be the same.

Just a wee bit of cheer for me... (and the tippling elf)



I wanted to display my vintage ornaments and my shakers seemed just the thing...



My feather tree in the living room...



A deco Christmas...



Hurrah for Christmas cheer!

Ignorance goes a long way

There was a recent blurb online that ranked Cleveland as one of the worst places to relocate.

The top negative attributes, according to the survey, were environment—climate, park space, natural resources (58%); health and safety (45%); and image (42%).

Excuse me, fool?

Park space?
Honey, please...
And might I add, suck it.

Natural resources???

Have seen our lake?

When your oceans and streams have all run dry, you'll come weeping your dry tears to us - but we're smart enough to protect that resource from being abused by the kind of people who rank image as a reason not to move to city that has pretty much everything you could want from the urban experience for 1/3 of the cost of other cities.

You have no idea what you're missing - but I guess that just means more parks, water, medical research, world-class arts and culture and cuisine for me!

Early Winter Knitting

Winter is here and I can't seem to stop knitting.

I'm finally getting pretty good at trickier, nitzier things and projects are fitting closer to size (instead of 2x bigger - gah!)

***

My Nerdy-nerd Sweater Vest - in which I learn that I have a love/hate relationship with color work.



Me wearing the Nerdy-nerd Sweater Vest - in which I learn that I need to clean my mirror.



Monster pants for a baby butt - in which I learn that I love making things for the wee charming man named Lance.

Fall knitting

I've been knitting up a storm since I finished the Apple-picking cardie.

The "Gonna Turn My Swing State Blue" sweater vest - finished on Nov. 4 and worn to celebrate Nov. 5. I believe that good juju goes into things that are made by hand, so this was my small effort towards change.



I want to get started on this Snapping Turtle skirt - so I swatched it out - love the handspun and hope it will look half as good as the one in the link...



Loving the blue vest (and loving snugglie vests in general), I frogged the way-too-big grey vest from last Christmas and decided to stripe it up at the bustline...



It's further along now - mostly done actually, but I'm avoiding weaving in the ends by posting. Too lazy to photograph it, even.
I need hot chocolate now.
*yawn*

The world is barren enough

The most heart-rending comment on Prop 8 via MSNBC.

I could not get the video to embed, but do try to watch it - text is provided in link.

Inheritence

I spent the day at my grandmother's and came home with a box of whimsical, charming early twentieth century fabric love.

I always knew there was a seamstress and a quilter in the family, but I never who, when or where.

During the depression, my grandmother and her mother lived with the previous generation - the seamstress and the quilter. My great great grandmother, Ella Armstrong Coon made quilts from the fabric scraps left over from Clara's (her sister) work making clothes.

Clara started this quilt in the 20s, my great grandmother worked on it in the late 40s, my grandmother has worked on it on and off and I'm bound to finish it...










When she gave me the remainder of the fabric, it came from a box filled with other piecework...

Most were done by Clara, but we think these two were done by Ella, who would see something in a magazine and do it, just to see if she could.

Each piece is hand-stitched and many were done in the evening by kerosene lamp - grandma told she remembered sitting by the radio in the evening with them and working on quilt tops.








Other pieces weren't as well stitched, but the color play is amazing and the fabric itself is beautiful.



In the box were pieces that were almost complete...



and pieces waiting to be put together.



We have about 20 of the above pattern - and I think I'm going to hand-wash each one and mount it on padded muslin that can be framed - with the story about where these pieces came from for each of the descendants of these women.

We number about 20 - so I think there is more than enough of these brilliant pieces to shared.