About 5 years ago, my sister-in-law bought a blue polka dot teddy bear at at garage sale when she was visiting us.
She gave it to me, and I had an idea….
For years,
my sisters in law
had been giving each
other the same
cardboard box
back and forth
back and forth
at Christmas time.
That little box
held many gifts
and many memories.
It got shabbier and shabbier as the years went by, but, it became more precious even, than the gifts it contained.
We all would look for ‘the box’ to see how it was holding up.
Well, when the polka dot bear came in the door, I thought… ‘Hmmmm, what if …read more

How could I have not heard about this glorious tapestry before now?
My dear friend pulled this incredible book
out of her bag and asked:
Have you seen this?
Quilt of Belonging-
The Invitation Project
by
Esther Bryan
and friends,
published by
Boston Mills Press
2005
is a spectacular book
that chronicles the creation
of a 263 block tapestry
of needlework techniques
made by people
who have immigrated to Canada as well as the many numbers of indigenous peoples who were here before immigrations began.
Esther Bryan is a fiber artist who conceived of this dazzling project and co-ordinated the vast number of people who were integral to creating the Quilt of Belonging. She tracked down an immigrant …read more

What with one thing and another, there’s always something magical happening in my studio- but this totally takes the cake!
FOUR blossoms on one of our Night Blooming Cereus opened all at once tonight!
I have been watching the
Night Blooming Cereus
plants with anticipation,
delight and awe.
At one point,
we had 13 flower buds on the
two plants.
Sadly, they didn’t all survive.
There are now 6 buds on one of the plants
and 2 on the other…..
This photo was one Wednesday night, when the buds were reaching to the full moon.
I have been taking pictures
as the buds have been progressing.
This afternoon,
I thought…
okay….
this is it!
Tonight is the
night!
So, when I …read more

Sometimes, it takes us a long time to get from one place to the other.
You see… it’s garage sales. And, oh yes, yard sales. And, um, well, yes… our favorite thrift store, too. They’re all so appealing!
We love having a little schmooze -
there is something so fascinating about looking into the
artifacts of people’s lives…
but… sometimes,
peering into boxes can get  a person into trouble.
Take for instance, a box of free stuff at the yard sale in front of a church……
My first response when I saw these pillows was to reel backwards, and say… wow… those are AMAZING!
No wonder they were in the …read more

There I was, working away at my new book (I’ve been working on this book for months and months…. well, years, really) and was feeling absolutely delighted that I am rounding in on getting it ready for release- when suddenly, I noticed that something smelled absolutely gorgeous.
Wowsa! The Night Blooming Cereus is blooming! Omigosh! scramble madly for the camera!
I’ve been watching the buds on the Night Blooming Cereus in the studio for about a month now…. and started taking pics a several weeks ago when the buds started getting big enough to show up in pics:
I thought that it would …read more

We all know that clutter is a big no no these days.
Say it all together: ‘We must not clutter! We must be sparse, we must be spare, we must be oh so organized!’
Okay, so my tongue is in my cheek when I poke gentle fun at the ‘gurus’ who have laid down the ‘no-clutter’ laws…
and I agree- I drive myself crazy with mis-placing stuff in my layers and heaps in the studio.
But, gee, sometimes, just a leeeeeeeeeeeeeeetle bit of clutter can be so much fun!
I was telling my friend about the oh so neat vintage Japanese silk reeling thingies …read more

Jane Eborall is one of the tatting world’s favorite designers and all round delightful luminaries.  I first learned of her work when I joined a delightful tatting group on Yahoo.
Jane is a very funny and charming woman who just knocks me out with her delicious and wry comments.
I am dazzled by her ability to ‘draw’ with tatting. Just look at this incredible Kangaroo:
I asked Jane some questions about her work, beginning with where she lives:
I live in a famous town in the centre of England.  To give you a clue – the most famous writer in history was born here!

1.  …read more

One of the members of the Tatta-Tat-Tatters group on Ravelry was exploring options for attaching tatting to fabric.
Lots of suggestions were made, and at one point, with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, I suggested that he use duct tape to attach the tatting.
Immediately, that brought up all kinds of crazy ideas and one thing lead to another…. and, well, before you know it, I had issued a challenge.
It’s an odd one….. How can you combine duct tape and tatting in the same piece?
There are no rules, (well, there is one rule: You have to combine tatting and duct …read more

It’s so easy to add a little touch of springtime to your sockies! So…. why have plain jane socks?
You can add a little embellishment to socks that you have knitted or crocheted,
like these ones that I just finished knitting.
Or, you can dress up purchased socks by stitching on purchased or crocheted or tatted
lace.
I tatted super simple flowers onto these socks…. it took 4 attempts to get the sock
edging right.  I found that I liked it best when I cut the self striping yarn into colorways
that made sense for the flowers.
The flowers are rings of 3 ds, p, 3 ds, p, …read more

2009 is the year of the Natural Fiber.
Now, this may not seem to be all that important, but believe me, for MANY reasons, it is VERY important.

You’ll be hearing about this a lot in 2009!
It’s really expensive to maintain a herd of fiber animals!
B U T- here’s the great news!
You can help support a lovely fiber farm  in a truly concrete way,
AND you get a luscious treasure from your goodness…..
Read all about it at: Hudson Valley Fiber Farm Co-op
Image source: Original drawing by Noreen Crone-Findlay copyright and not to be reproduced without permission