Stars for a New Millennium

My needlepoint group (Polly's class at Amy's Golden Strand) is gearing up to stitch Tony Minieri's wonderful design, Stars for a New Millennium, beginning in January, 2012.  Here is the colorway chosen by the designer, based on an overdyed thread by Silk 'n Colors called Plum Honey.

The stitch guide includes thread choices for twelve other colorways that were stitched by Tony's original group.  Of course, you can choose your own colorway and threads and that's what one of the stitchers in our group did when she made this piece several years ago.

The color variations are endless.  I've set up a Pinterest board and will be pinning up different versions as I come across them.  You can check it out HERE.  Note that you have to be a member of Pinterest, but it's easy and free to sign up.  This site is such a good idea!  It's like an electronic bulletin board.   Once you sign up you have an icon on your toolbar that says "Pin It."  As you see images that you like on the internet, you just click on the image, then click on pin it, and it saves to whatever board you choose for yourself.  And the pinup includes the source website, so you can go back for more info if you want to!  Totally excellent.

I'm currently stitching another Tony piece called Les Rubans Anciennes, aka French Ribbons.  Here's what the finished piece will look like:

Here's where I am this morning on my French Ribbons piece:

See those two diamonds in the lower right side?  They're two threads too high!!!  So this morning I will be ripping them out and redoing them…my own fault.

I'd like for my Stars to coordinate with French Ribbons so that I can hang them together.  I'm in the process of choosing my threads now.  I think I'm going to play off of a Threadworx floss called Romanian Forest.

These same colors are in a Gloriana thread called Harvest Grape, which has more teal in it than the Romanian Forest.  I tried to upload a photo, but you can't really tell anything.  I'll keep you posted.

Morningside Quilt Squares

An update on the quilt square project on Morningside Drive:

Judy Petrie's was the first.  She's working on another one for the front of her house, but this one is on the side:

Judy Petrie house

Judy Petrie closeup

Judy was first attracted by the pattern; she wanted something with triangles and squares and other shapes.  When she saw the name of the pattern - Peaceful Hours - she was sold.

Debbie's square is called Traveler's Star and she chose it because it's asymmetrical:

Debbie Lindenmuth house

Judy Carr has the other completed quilt square.  She had never done any painting whatsoever, but Judy Petrie helped her lay this one out and she did it!  The pattern is called Summer Winds.  She chose it (1) because it was easy to lay out and (2) man, do we have winds here in Blowing Rock!

Judy Carr house

Judy Carr closeup

We're hoping to encourage everyone on our street to put one up!  So Morningside neighbors, if you want one and need some help, just contact Judy Petrie, Debbie Lindenmuth, or me.  We'll be glad to help.

You can read about my quilt square here.

Quote - George Bernard Shaw

No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means.

• Our Theatres In The Nineties (1930)

Critter Central

This summer I started hearing noises coming from the fireplace.  Chirps, flutters, that sort of thing.  We surmised that birds had built a nest in the chimney - how sweet!  But then those darling babies hatched and began making their presence known.  Sometimes we couldn't even hear the television!  What a dilemma.  Who wants to kill baby birds?  We decided to let nature take its course, the babies would mature and leave the nest, and we would then replace the cap on the chimney, which had obviously disappeared.

Then in August, more ominous noises:  scabbering in the walls.  Yuk.  Early one morning the noises were particularly loud and as I walked through the living room I happened to glance up at the skylight and saw:

yes, raccoons!  Double gross.


















I called a company in town called Critter Ridders and a very nice man came out, surveyed the situation, laid out a plan that sounded great, and then told me it would cost - are you ready?  $2500 plus a contract for the next year for another $800!  Seriously?

So I tapped into the friend network and two people recommended Have a Heart Animal Control.  Another very nice man (Jody Dyles) came out, laid out a plan, and said it would cost $500.  I was sold.  He started the evacuation plan that very day and it has worked like a charm.  My house is nice and quiet now.  The nasty raccoons have moved on to some other unsuspecting landlord.  I'm happy.  Jody's number is 901-757-0756 if you need him.

Education in Memphis and Shelby County

In the midst of all the turmoil over Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools and charter schools and private schools and school boards and school administration and teachers...well, you get the picture, this quote from the scholar and educator Edith Hamilton is appropriate:

"It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life.  to be able to be caught up into the world of thought - that is to be educated."

Finally, the quilt square is installed

Our neighborhood in Blowing Rock is so awesome.  Lots of creative folks there and everyone looks out for everyone else.  So when my friend Judy Petrie said we need to do quilt squares for our houses, I was in.

Quilt trails are a phenomenon in several areas of the country.  Western North Carolina has the Appalachian Quilt Trail.

Because we recently installed a meditation labyrinth in the small woods behind our house, I thought that a labyrinth design would be appropriate for our quilt square.  I found a design I liked on the internet.

The first decision was size.  The quilt squares were originally painted onto the sides of barns, so they were huge.  Too big for my house.  The one that Judy did for her house was 2x2, and she has decided that it is really too small.  She's thinking about redoing it in a 3x3 size.  But the area I was thinking about on our house is larger than Judy's, so I ended up making ours 4x4.  This meant that I would have 4 of the squares on the labyrinth quilt to paint onto the plywood.

Walter and I went to Lowe's and bought a sheet of 4x8 plywood, which they cut in half for us.  We took these pieces of plywood to my son Chase's house, because he had some sawhorses set up in a carport that would be perfect.  I sanded the plywood, then primed both pieces with white exterior latex that he had on hand.  (Chase later cut one of the halves into 4 2x2 pieces for future projects.)

The weather got real hot and I didn't want to work outside, so I brought one of the pieces home and lugged it upstairs to my studio.  Then I started playing with colors.  I did a couple of color studies, but didn't like them - the bold colors seemed too harsh to me.  So I switched gears and went to more pastel shades.

Judy (and all of the directions I read) said to tape off the design to make the painting easier.  Well, I guess my brain is haywire, because I couldn't keep the design straight in my mind!  I ended up marking the entire piece into 2 inch squares and just started painting.  I put on two coats of each color, then put on two coats of a water-based varnish.

Here's the finished painting in my studio:

Can you tell that the lines are not perfect?  Me, either.  And I saved hours of taping time by doing it freehand.  

Now for installation.  We made a frame out of 1x2's that was slightly smaller than the painting.  We found the center of the wall and screwed the frame to the side of the house.

finding the center

attaching the frame to the side of the house

Note that there are three guys working on this!  And Walter thought he could do it by himself...

Here they are screwing the painting to the frame.  Walter predrilled all of the holes in the frame and in the painting so they wouldn't have to do heavy drilling from the top of the ladder.  Very smart.  That's Greg on the left ladder, Walter on the right ladder, and Sherman on the ground.  All good guys.

screwing the painting to the frame

And the final product!!  I couldn't get a picture without a shadow at that time of day because of the overhang.

Now we have two quilt square houses on Morningside and my friend Debbie is working on hers.  I'll post a picture of hers and of Judy's after my next trip.

Food for Thought - Noise

Light Chaos by kevindooley

Some Sundays I read every part of the New York Times, other weeks I don't get to it.  But when I do, I generally find something interesting and this week was no exception.  In the Sunday Style section this week was a book review of The Information, by James Gleick, called "There's No Quiet Without Noise."  Noise, as used in this article, is defined as anything, anywhere, that disturbs the harmony of the moment.  The thesis of the article is that we need noise, some disturbance of equilibrium, to have peace.  As Mr. Gleick puts it, "A piece of music is boring if it's completely predictable, and boring if it's completely unpredictable...what we respond to is a mixture of order and disorder."

I don't pretend to understand chaos theory, but my idea of it has been that there is an underlying harmony to everything, even if it's not detectable at the time.  Maybe the pattern is too large to see from the current vantage point in time or space.  It's my philosophy of life that everything works out for the best, that everything that happens is part of some larger, mysterious "plan" that will eventually resolve itself for the good of everyone concerned.  In my own life, the events that were tragic at the time may have closed one door, but allowed the opening of another, better one.

The thought that there is discord just for the sake of discord is, well, jarring to me.  Or maybe it's the shot of lemon juice that forces us to make lemonade.  Because our lives are really up to us.  Each of us has to take the cards we're dealt and arrange them into the best hand possible.  If every once in a while, there's an extra ace, or a joker, we still have to deal with it.  And that's what makes life not boring, isn't it?