Big Bag KAL Questionnaire!

Oh my goodness, I'm so excited! I just mailed out my Scavenger Hunt swap box, and felt all sad because I needed a new swap, and look what I found! The Big Bag KAL swap!! Yippee!

Here is my questionnaire, and my answers to each question:

1. Do you knit, crochet, or do both? For how long?
I really only Knit, I crochet quite badly! I do remember knitting a Barbie scarf when I was 6


2. What other crafts do you do, if any?
I sew everything, quilt, bead, paint, screenprint. I make sterling silver jewelry (with a torch!)

3. What are your favorite colors? Colors you loathe?
I love purple with acid green or yellow or gold; I love fuschia and black; I love the colors of pansies; I adore apple green...I loathe only beige, and even that can be beautiful in combination with other colors! Or if it's linen-beige, I lvoe linen!


4. Favorite yarn brands? Fiber types? Yarn you can't stand?
Right now I am loving Jo Sharpe DK wool, and also anything alpaca. I love Cascade 220, and varigated yarns. Just not sock yarns, unless I'm knitting lacey stuff with it.

5. What is your favorite type of item to knit/crochet?
I like to knit in the round, and knit little toys, food, objects

6. What kind of needles do you like? (i.e. circular, straight, metal, bamboo, etc.)
I love bamboo, circular or straight...where is that #8 circular??

7. Any knitting tools you lack but crave?
My #8 circular!! 16 inches long, 24 inches long, whatever, can't find it! Can't find the double-pointed 8's, either!

8. Patterns you've been dying to get but haven't yet? Ooo, no, I pretty much get the patterns I must have when I see them, I am unfortunately very impulsive in that way....I need to be more productive!

9. Do you drink coffee, tea, cocoa? Flavors you love/hate?
Love coffee, love cocoa, love mint, lavendar, green teas. CANNOT drink chamomille (allergic)

10. Favorite sweets & snacks?
Chocolate, Chex Mix, Doritos, peanut-butter filled pretzels!

11. Any pets, kids, spouses? Spouses that act like pets or kids? (j/k)
I feel like I have a house full of 3 year-olds, when really its a husband, a 17 yo daughter and a 4 yo cat!

12. Favorite things to knit/crochet for the above, if applicable?
Lots of skull-covered hats, mittens, scarves!

13. What kinds of books do you like to read? Favorite authors or genres?
I like vampire/sci-fi...I love Laurell K Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, Katie MacAllister, Orson Scott Card, Ursula K. LeGuin, Kim Harrison, Sherrilyn Kenyon...you get the idea!

14. Do you collect anything? (besides yarn! LOL!)
Fabric, books of all sorts, 1940's kitchen stuff, Hello Kitty, Chococat stuff

15. What, if any, are your non-craft related hobbies? I'm an artist, so I try working on my stuff; I like to grow herbs;

16. Scents you adore? Scents that make you gag?
I love lavendar, rosemary, thyme, mint, patchouli, vanilla but am really allergic to roses

17. What is your idea of a relaxing time?
I like to curl up on the couch with a cat and read. Or I like to have the husband build a fire and watch Dr. Who, or the movie Fifth Element, or Underworld!

18. Oh yeah, are you on Ravelry and if so, care to share your Ravelry ID?
In Ravelry I'm redpanties, of course!

new Band updates!!

So, I am singing backup for a band called "Lucy's Maze", featuring Michelle on lead vocals, Brian on guitar, Doug on percussion, Trista on harp (yes, harp!), and Stephen on acoustic bass.


It's nice to sing backup, and not be stressed out at all! Michelle writes all the lyrics and music for the group, and is really very talented!

You know you want to come see us, right?

Feb. 29th: Rhumba Cafe, Columbus (Hudson & Summit) around midnight
March 7th: Espresso Cafe, Powell 7-8pmish

Other gigs coming up:

Honk, Wail and Moan on April 27th at Dick's Den, and again on May 30th, Dick's Den (High Street, Columbus)

Quilts to share, quilts to scare

When my daughter and I got back from our pilgrammage trip to Italy in 2005, I had a disk full of over 700 photos, blisters all over my feet, and a killer tan! So, when I had the opportunity last year in February to exhibit at a gallery here in town, I decided that after a year and a half, it was time to use the experience to create new work. In 2 weeks, I had 10 new pieces, including 4 specifically dealing with the trip.

I started going thru the pictures and my (HUGE!) fabric stash, and pulling together elements that really spoke to me. This first piece is called Shroud I (full view on right) and combines fabric that I hand-dyed in a workshop at the Quilt Surface Design Symposium, as well as commerical fabrics, fabrics I purchased, and a lot of machine quilting.










The fabric I dyed really reminded me of a chest x-ray, so I wanted to echo that in my machine quilting. The screen printed fabric I bought was part of a big scrap bag, and it says "the same underneath" over and over in small letters. To me it was the missing piece of the puzzle, and tipped the scales!! I couldn't work fast enough.

After this was complete, I had to do another piece, Shroud II, that includes photographs taken in Italy. There is a photo from Pompeii, of the casts made 100 years ago from the empty spots left in the ash where people had died.


The only thing remaining was the space their bodies left when they decomposed, and in some instances, their skull and a few bones. The bottom photo is of Pope Innocent, where he lies under one of the altars in St. Peter's in Rome. Again, I used my hand-dyed fabric, and the screen-printed piece that says "the same underneath".

I was very pleased with the way these pieces turned out, and this year I'm scaling up, planning much larger pieces in the same theme.

and yet More Panties!

Oh yes, there are more! This is the latest in the panty series, featuring a photo I took in Italy, when I was hanging my laundry to dry in the window of the beautiful villa we stayed at in Florence. The socks belonged to one of my roomies. This is titled "What's Italian for Panties?". Because that's exactly what I asked our Deacon at church after a service last year. He's a doll baby, from Italy, and he went on the trip with the youth group. Thank goodness he was there! Anyway, as part of the text stitched into the quilt, the correct phrase, according to Deacon Felice, is "mutadine da donna"

I didn't mention it, but when I exhibited the first 3 quilts (shown in the last post), the reactions were great. Men pulled me aside, asking "what.....?" Men are almost afraid of panties, did you know that? They're fascinated and transfixed! Women pulled me aside to tell me their own panty stories, which has led to another whole series of Red Panty Stories quilts. These tend to be rather sad stories, about discarded and abandoned underwear, rather than the affirming messages from the Panties of Power quilts. I designed a logo that I have silkscreened onto T-shirts, one that says Panties of Power, one for the Red Panty Stories. Very few, very special limited edition. I'm still collecting these stories; have any to share?