First Snow: a Magical Time

       Last night we had our first snow of the season. Big flakes! The evening was magical with the cross country skiers, sledders and sculptors out in the dark.

       And what to my wandering eyes should appear, but neighbor Lloyd and his mother's rolling 3 foot snowballs from the top of the block down to their house. This was an engineering trick I had never thought of. Granted, #2 and #3 snowballs had to be whittled down to lift to make a snowman, but Lloyd and Sarah did it! A strand of brussel sprouts left over in their garden made eyes, nose and arms.

      Next, Joe noticed that ten-year-old Katherine on the other side of our house had put up what her dad called "an abstract snowman." I am surrounded by art!

        I keep close at hand this photo of  "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil," the young efforts by myself and five friends in my front yard, teen years, long ago in Amarillo. I always hoped to duplicate it alongside Storrow Drive in Boston someday. I remember being told that Carl Sandburg said the only thing between Amarillo and the North Pole was a single strand of barbed wire. Note: Speak No Evil is having a tougher time of it!

        As of today, we have probably received more snow than we had all last year. This old photo pictures the amount of snow delivered. There has been double that in the past. You can click on the photos to enlarge.

Creating Cake Pops for a festive time

     'Tis the season to do something festive and wish fulfilling with few calories. No snow? Make snowballs. Make snowball cake pops.

      The grandchildren will arrive tomorrow and I am sure they would like snow to sled and ski. Also, I had given my beading group cake pop equipment for a holiday present and I wanted to learn a few more tricks to pass on. It is not a quick craft, so I decided to make the cake pop SNOWBALLS  (vanilla cake, melted Nestle white chocolate chips topped with coconut) before the children got here rather than craft with them.

       I had two kits: Nordic Ware and Telebrands The Bake Pop. I have made the chocolate pops from the recipe on the Nordic Ware box and followed instructions from The Bake Pop to use an ordinary cake mix. Bake Pop suggests you add an extra egg to a cake mix, "substitute milk for water and use half as much as the recipe calls for." You need a baking spray that contains flour and don't skimp. Fill the half spheres of the pan without holes liberally with batter. Use chocolate to glue a pop stick into the cooled cake sphere. Have some styrofoam handy to stick your pops into to move them to the fridge for solidifying the melted chocolate icing. I couldn't believe how long it took because you have to melt the chocolate, thin it a little with oil, wait for it to drip to a thin coating, cool it until solid...a few at a time. Maybe I should have made a smaller batch! 

        I prefer the Telebrands pop sticks but I would have to order them on line. I like the smaller, rather that larger popsicle sticks that are available at craft and cooking stores. If you follow the Nordic Ware and Telebrands links above, you can read up more about cake pops to see if you want to make them. Wrap your creations with about a foot of plastic wrap and they will be delicious for days. It is fun to have a small treat to hand out liberally.

De-stress with yarn, dishcloths, Dust Bowl reads

     Show and Tell at our Journal Quilt Connection meeting ended with Donna Jean's suggestion we mindlessly knit washcloths with Sugar and Spice cotton psychedelic colors to de-stress during the holidays. I am so suggestible. I could not wait to get my yarn (some for the girls), size 6 knitting needles (two more sets for the grandchildren), cast on 40 stitches, to start to knit to de-stress!

      But first I had to relearn how to cast-on before knitting, knitting, knitting. I got out 6 books and looked on YouTube for videos.  I assure you I will teach the girls and use myself, the easiest cast-on stitch. How important it is to practice before teaching the youngsters. How much one forgets. Click photos to enlarge!

     Then I remembered that Trilla had sent me some washcloths she had made along with some guest room soaps to accompany her creations. Of course, I could only admire, never use until I made more. I found I had bought a pattern book, Dishcloths from the Heart, and had already bought psychedelic yarn back then!!  I dug further into my knitting bag (one of about 8 yarn UFOs*) to find Trilla's state of Texas with my Amarillo highlighted. All this happened the last few days when I was heavily into the history of The Dust Bowl, thanks to Ken Burns' movie. May I recommend his illustrated history and Karen Hesse's book, Out of the Dust, a Newbury award winner. It also helps to have a ukulele and The Daily Ukulele (364 songs) sitting by the computer. Maybe a virtual "I'll be Home for Christmas."
    *unfinished objects

4th Birthday Portrait Quilt

   Traditionally, I make a small quilt birthday card for my grandchildren to go with their gifts. Since David's birthday is near Christmas, I use materials I find on hand since time is crowded.

    I found a sketch I had made of David using a marker. It looks as if I may have traced over a photograph which I had enlarged. I made two copies on my copy machine and scanned them to fit a size 8 1/2' x 11" sheet of paper. Of course I used a printable fabric, not paper, of that size to print the line drawing.

     Next, I ironed Wonder Under to the back so I could laminate the fabric with the drawing onto a background. Mistake #1. I had wanted to embroider the lines with black thread but this is not easy to do once fabric has been laminated. I learned that other people use invisible ink for their embroidery lines. Mistake #2. I had used up the Cars fabric, our theme this year. In a hurry I settled for Batman and numbers. Later I found Cars fragments which I laminated, cut out and stitched around. Mistake #3. You can see through the white fabric, but it shows how colorful David is. Mistake #4. It was late. I forgot to change the thread for the binding. It looked messy so I further messed it up more with puff paints. I was distracted listening to Tom Wolfe's new book Back to Blood. But I think the card is lively and cute. I dried it on the radiator and added a cupcake.

      I love it when David says, "For me, LinLin?" I say, "Yes:" and he adds, "Oh thank you, LinLin! My quilt," and hugs it. Most of the time, to get done all I want to do, I can't worry about "perfect."

Grounded Thanksgiving: three stitch crafts

      Colds clobber and cause one to miss Thanksgiving food and togetherness. Driving for groceries wiped us out and so would a drive to NJ and NYC. However, there is no place like home and one can catch up on crafting.

      I took Hannah's web and turned it into a doll quilt, trying to teach myself embroidery writing without any planning ahead. I made Chrissy's birthday present, a portable sewing kit, using a quilted floral fabric. For my journal quilt, I marked the election.

      Hannah had given me that square with her embroidered web (second photo) and I made a back for it. I ran across a note from her saying she would like to make another quilt with me after our first one. I left a corner for her to embroider on my side. So far it says, "read, draw, sew, Hannah's web." I need to learn the proper stitch and write it out ahead, but I am allergic to planning.

       Instructions for the portable sewing kit are at my blog for June 10, 2012. Using this double-sided quilted fabric from JoAnn's makes the crafting even easier! Up high on this blog in the Search area, by the blogger symbol, type in "portable sewing kit."

       Half of my friends and family are Democrats and half are Republicans and we love each other. Shown here are the flag "Bark for Barack," the bandaid for universal health care, and the caught FOX which I felt was destructive by distortions. The confettied flags are a quilted cushion for our country that will need one. Click to enlarge photos.

Material Mavens Reveal Day: 12 x 12 Travel Quilts

      If you were given the theme "travel," what quilt would you make. Yesterday, at the Material Maven blog, our international 12 x 12  quilt group revealed trips down the Nile, Japanese memories in Sashiko, an anniversary gondola ride in Venice, jaunts over Europe and North America as well as trips of the spirit. It is always fun to view the art, the surface techniques and experiments. I hope you can visit the site. Material Mavens  http://thematerialmavens.blogspot.com/

      I always want to have a visual so I am adding my already posted Shake and Fall. I added size 8 orange and red embroidery thread to depict the flight of the harbinger to our earthquake, felt by the Beadsprouts in Waterville Valley the night of the third debate. Click to enlarge. But don't forget to visit MM's site for grander efforts!

Leftover Clay: Bake some Beads

     Can entertaining children also be productive for the adult? When the grandchildren were here last week, we got out the "pasta" machine and the Sculpey III polymer clay. They loved conditioning the clay by rolling it through the Atlas pasta machine that I received for Christmas 30 years ago. I made pasta once, and now I have made beads twice! After the children went to bed, I took the leftover clay to try to make some beads. Of course, I needed more clay, but I was able to create enough for one pair of earrings and a necklace.

Baked polymer clay beads  (click to enlarge)

      I have a copy of the KLUTZ The Incredible Clay Book which is no longer available. Through Amazon, you can buy the book used, minus the clay, and purchase the Sculpey at a craft store. I recommend a variety package.  I have the pasta maker, a thin clay cutting tool and the package I bought. There are other useful tools, but these put you on your way.

      To see how I made the strained "millefiori" beads, there is this terrific YouTube video by Donna Kato.  Kato has also published some handsome instructive books.

      After creating the beads, I used a toothpick to make a hole. I strung them on a wire, made hooks on the end of the wire to hang from oven racks, and baked them for about 10 minutes in an unused oven. Use a vent and do not sniff! They become hard and lightweight. Then at my beading group, I made earrings, or added other beads to string a necklace. Maybe now I will get serious. There are firmer clays for more professional results. I have worn the earrings twice and the necklace once. Not bad for leftovers. I have wanted to do this for 40 years...now, finally!