At my house....

 

"the one who seeks to pluck the stars
will miss the jewels at his feet"

(from "the Power of Love" on the album "Tao" by Rick Springfield )

Leaving Mass today, I found this butterfly wing on the ground.

How beautiful, and new to me. I don't remember ever seeing this type of butterfly before. The colors and pattern are just fabulous! I picked it up and turned it over, and to my surprise, found that it was the back of a common Monarch wing. Who knew?

As my Father would have said. "Just another one of God's throw-aways", meaning that it will soon be gone, so enjoy it now, like a sunset; there will be another one tomorrow, but never the same one.

I still miss him every day! Appreciate today while it's here!

 

I wish everyone a good and happy school year! I'll be starting over again this year, as I change to middle school, grades 6-8. All foods classes, though. No sewing classes :( 

2 new private sewing students start this week, though!!!

Enjoy!

What's happening at your house? Jump over to Lou Lous and play long!

To my Australian friends, have a wonderful Father's Day!

Hip to be......rectangle?

In my Creative Space this week... Updating the Granny Square.

The humble, and ever-evolving granny-square. Back in style!

Why even bother to update it?!?

Well, after making so many straight forward, plain, knitted and crocheted, 7"x 9" rectangles with my beginning students for Warm up America! afghans over the years, one of my students decided she wanted to make her block as a granny square, but was confused about how to go about it. We were just not happy at all with adding bands to 2 ends of the squares; it just looked bad.

So, how would you do it? You could add more stitch groups into the center ring, rather than the usual 4, but that only made the center pull wide open. You would still need to hold the center of the ring together between the sides that each had two, or more, stitch groups somehow, or it would end up as a ring, not a rectangle. 

So, how do you keep the same look, but stretch the pattern into a rectangle?

 

Well, after a few trys, I think I came up with a good method of turning a granny square into a granny rectangle, which provides the original effect of the granny square (above), but makes it a rectangle, of any length you like.

What do you think? I think I got it right!

Now, I need to plan the afghans with all these little squares and big rectangles!

Still need to make lots of blue and green squares to add to this bunch of yellow and pink.

 Here is my original afghan plan, before the rectangles were available,

and my original stitch diagram for the starting row of the rectangle, which is very illegible here! 

I'm going to have to find the paper and rewrite the instructions so they are legible; they didn't photograph well.

I'll write a tutorial as soon as I unearth the directions. Now to try a Triangle!

Happy stitching!

Check out the other creative spaces at Kootoyoo!

At my house...

At my house today, I'm still unpacking from a movie shoot this week with my son. I was hired on to be the wardrobe and continuity department for his 10 minute short film for the Project Twenty 1 film festival in Philadelphia, Pa. We shot on Tuesday and Thursday, and I'm still not unpacked; I don't want to jinx it as they edit this week. Have to be ready to reshoot if needed.

Project Twenty1 is a contest for independent filmmakers from all over the world. They are given an element on day one, and they have 21 days to write, make and submit a 10 minute movie. This years' element is "between the lines" and the deadline is Aug. 21. I'm not allowed to post anything about the plot till October(!), when all the films are screened!

In the photo, Jeff is the one in gray, crouched down in the left of the picture. Handsome guy, and a good actor, too. He wrote the screenplay, from the story he and the Director, Jason (holding the Boom), wrote the day before. He is also Assistant Director on the film. No title yet.

[MARK C. PSORAS/THE REPORTER Drop the HAT Productions team members, from left, Jeff Orens,  Mike O'Donnell,  Tim McCombe and Jason Heffner shoot scenes for their film at a location in the Lansdale Business Center.]

Also in my house today, my beautiful daughter, Jennifer, Surgical Nurse, turned 29 today! 

But, with her schedule, I didn't even get to see her for this birthday. Evidently, seeing Sir Paul McCartney is more important tonight then coming home. 

Hmmm, I probably would have made the same choice, if it were Rick Springfield.

 Happy birthday, Jenny!

What's up at your house? Play along at Lou Lou's

 

Color choice

I've narrowed it down to four colors. The rug is gray, but seems to be to the blueish side.  Now comes the big choice. Which would feel more soothing in a large room?

Color Palettes

Emeril's Watermelon Salsa

OK, I know that this has nothing to do with sewing, but it has everything to do with color palettes. This just looks light, delicate and absolutely summer. Watermelon, peach, kiwi, red onion (yup), red and green Thai chilies (yup, yup), and fresh mint. I put it on small slices of Angel Food cake. It came out just as great as the recipe sounded, enough so that I had to take a picture to prove it!  I think next time I will make the angel food as muffin tops. They need to be stiffer and hold the salsa. Try it, you'll love it!

My Creative Space- is ReDecorating

Well, what do you think of the new web background? Too green?

I was getting too tired of the full white screen and blogger came out with a tool to format the view that was easy enough for me to use! That's a good thing.

My youngest moved out into her own home 2 months ago, and now that her room is cleared out (well, mostly) we are in the process of painting the smurf blue walls. Primer went on today. Now to pick a color. 

This room will now be a combination workout room for us and a fitting room for my clients. No more fittings in the living room and clients putting on wedding gowns in the bathroom. Woo Hoo!

Here's a palette posted on Pantone that I like. I like the the first color in the strip, but its very close to the color in my hall and living room. Maybe that's too much? But the hall is right outside the bedroom and connected to the Living Room, so maybe it would work? Gotta go pick out paint tomorrow.

 Hotel Monteleone