Friday

We are back to the lake tonight, THANK GOODNESS, as this week has been filled with doctor appointments and driving lessons and organizing details and phone calls and emails and papers, and being puzzled about things, and waiting for long periods of valuable time. Thank goodness for knitting, which keeps me sane in such situations.
I do appreciate our health care system for it's many good qualities, but waiting over 2 (TWO) hours for a 15 minute appointment (albeit valued and helpful) is fecking ridiculous.
On the bright side, we went to see Julie and Julia last night, and enjoyed it, though the Julie character is a pill. We couldn't decide if it was a badly written character or if it was the annoying mannerisms of the actor...either way I frequently wished I could give her a good smack. Streep, however, was enchanting as always. Now So wants to get out her M.T.A.O.F.C and make Bouef Bourguinon. Bring it on and Bon Appetit, I say!

Great Blue Heron

On the riverbank today, just behind my apartment in town:

Mixed Media Egg Pendants

Lampwork glass eggs, enamel on fine silver, freshwater pearls, sterling and fine silver:

Tin Pendant

Mixed materials pendant: copper, brass, sterling, fine silver, mica and a panel cut from a c.1950s biscuit tin:

"In the garden of memory grow the sweetest flowers"

The Great Tablecloths to Togs Caper

I believe I own most of the vintage and antique linen damask tablecloths in Southwestern Ontario! There are always several in every boxlot of antique linens I purchase, it seems there may have been a law at one time that no one could set up housekeeping unless they owned one.
I'm not sure where exactly the idea came from...Veronica and I had planned on doing some needle felting and she was going to try her hand at lampworking. But somehow or other, we found ourselves turning over the mountains of linen, gleefully buying fabric dye and plunging into the delights of constructing clothing without patterns!

Part of the linen mountain:
Dye packets and lovely pastel dryer lint!

Pure linen damask dyed in meltingly lovely colors:

Dusting off one of the sewing machines. Since this was an impromptu sewing session, I realized to my chagrin that I had 2 sewing machines, dozens of spools of thread, and ONE bobbin. This slowed us down a little but we persevered!

Veronica starting her skirt, I was cutting out my pink dress using a favorite old dress as a guide. We had to work on projects of the same color at the same time so we could share the machine!

Ancient sewing machines are best...solid metal, sews like a champ, heavy as a tank!

Pinning the free form tucks onto he skirt:

Snipping tuck threads!

Work in progress just outside our atelier!

Of course Valentine was on hand to assist. You can tell just how thrilled she was with her chic ruffle.

Dinner break

Posing carefully as there were about 100 pins on the dress holding the tucks!

Voila! Pintucked dress, with wrap kimono jacket.

Veronica's pink tucked skirt

Veronica's green top. She did not like it!

The ecru shawl with drawn thread work from the original hem,and torn ruffles. I made pants to match this but they need to have the waist re-designed. They made me look like a sack of potatoes!

Veronica's pants were MUCH more sucessful! Aren't they great? They were made of unused linen pique, probably towel fabric from around 1920.

Mother of pearl buttons on the tiesWe had soooo much fun!

And some day we will do it again!

Connected

You know there is a connection when your So asks you "Is this the same thing as the other stuff to put on the grey thing?" and you know what they are asking, pretty much!

Log, Log, Log, Log!!!!

I've been wanting a log, and the universe (in the form of Dwight) provided! I wanted it for a hammering stand, a super solid heavy base for my anvil and dapping set and vise. Dwight had a cherry tree on his property in the country that needed to be cut, so I now have a splendid piece of freshly cut-to-order Bing Cherry. The perfect height for comfortable forging and dapping, so solid that it weighs more than I do, and it's also beautiful, and smells good!!

I just love it! And yes, my anvil is pink. Ya gotta problem with dat?
Thanks Dwight!!

See you tomorrow when I will blog about the great vintage tablecloths-to clothing escapade of July 2009!!

More From the Garden Show

The "Orphanage"!
Satake twisties for demos:

One of Diana's delightful cushions! There was a nekkid lady under those buttons!

We had a lovely, relaxing dinner at Veronica's on Saturday which gave us all a chance to catch up and visit a bit. I had brought The Big Necklace to show it and it made the rounds for try-ons.

Anne, looking rather impish as she contemplated how best to slip it into her pocket...

Carol, enjoying the armoured qualities!

Veronica, trying to decide where on the wall she would hang it...

And Diana, dazzled by the bright lights of the paparazzi!

I always regret coming away from Veronica's house, not just because we are leaving, but because I've never managed to take the hundreds of photographs it would take to show you her amazing house. It's a tiny post-war bungalow, stuffed full of art (her own and that of many others) in every format, as well as miniatures, vintage treasures, chintz china, wonderful textiles, delightful little vignettes, found objects not limited to heart shaped stones, driftwood, bones, and odds of ends of all kinds. There is a stuffed owl in the sitting room, and the studio is crammed with objects of whimsy and inspiration. Everything is arranged and displayed with a great deal of thought, nothing is jumbled and it does not feel the least bit cluttered. It's a peaceful place full of fascinating things at every turn.

Next time I will take pictures. The time spent there seems to go so fast it's a blur!

We met up with Christopher and Visnja for dinner on Sunday. Christopher and I go back to the dawn of time (cough) so it was great to see him again, and to meet Visnja...who we loved! They helped us pack up and load our vehicles, as did the home school kid crowd, and we were packed so quickly and neatly that I was flabbergasted! Christopher told me that what I was experiencing was the joy of roadies and all I can say is, bring on the roadies! They rocked!!! We even packed in my log!!

To be Continued...