Telephoto at the Zoo

I love taking nature pictures but I often get comments about them from my family - usually "Where is the animal?" It is a longstanding joke and I keep trying. Well, thanks to a lovely Mother's Day gift I have a very nice Canon camera with two lenses - a regular zoom and a telephoto zoom. I've used the telephoto a little at horse shows so I know it is nice. But today was the true test. DD the elder and I went to the National Zoo and I finally have some nice close-ups of the animals.

I love orangutans. (be sure to click on the pictures and get the full screen view)

And gorillas - this baby was born in January and the mother seemed to know the best spot to hide her from the view of the zoo visitors. Of course babies won't sit still so she peeped out now and then to the delight of everyone.
While not terribly impressive, this panda was at the back of the enclosure so it really is good - usually I just get a black and white dot.
And the telephoto is great for zooming in on elephant parts, because you really don't need a zoom to get an elephant.
I love otters too!
Now, I think I need a macro lens for the flower close ups!

BTW while we were in DC we went to some other museums (how could we not) and we saw a small but excellent exhibit Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration and the link is to an excellent online version - better in some ways because you can sit and really drink in the illustrations. Of course it is wonderful to see the original. Just like seeing some of Alan Bean's original space paintings at the Air and Space Museum is exciting.

Ginkgos and geckos

There must be a warp in the time space continuum of my life because I can hardly believe that it is nearing the end of June.  Despite reducing my expectations for what I want to accomplish this summer, I suspect I need to reduce my list even further.  But I have finished a pillow.  After getting the squares stitched down I decided on a palette of threads to embellish the pillow.
Here is the final pillow all sewn up, but without the pillow form inside so you can see the squares.  It is not heavily embellished since it must cater to all the tastes of the household.  DD the younger doesn't like it, but she may just be trying to bug me.  I carried the ginkgo leaf theme to the middle left burgundy square.
I was really pleased with the way the burgundy outline worked on gold in the corners
Because I mixed up ginkgo and gecko one time while trying to explain the design, I decided a gecko should go in the plain square, but then it needed some background so I used more ginkgo leaves.
As it turned out, the pillow was too small and the colour not quite right for the couch it was meant for, but it looks perfect in one of our chairs.  Of course, I make the girls take the pillow off the chair before they sit in it.
Here is our collection of baby geckos by the way - Baby 1, 2a, 2b, 3a, and 3b.  Clutches 4 and 5 are in the incubator and we will soon find out if New Caledonian crested gecko females can store sperm!

Just when I thought I had decided

I have a bit of a break from going into the city for work this week because of school exam schedules and early release.  So I'm puttering around the house doing all sorts of things.  Today I decided to reduce my stash of fabric by actually making something.  I mentioned to DH a while back that I should make pillows for the couch because it might detract from the dingy old couch - it is over 17 years old but it is still sturdy and it is a sofa bed.  I'm not quite ready to try my hand at recovering the couch, but colourful pillows I can handle.

So today I pulled together a pile of fabric that seemed to go with the living room and started a pillow.  I decided to use some green velvet from old curtains as the base for the front and also the back of the pillows.  So after some playing around I came up with this.

With the help of DD the elder, we decided that the greenish pieces in the middle of the top and bottom would help tie things to the back fabric.  But then I decided that I really liked the side pieces and tried it with all four center squares the same, but with a brown back.

I really like this one!  I like the original as well, but I love the burgundy and gold batik fabric so much that I think I'll stick with the second colourway.  Of course that means I've totally covered the green velvet, but maybe it will survive in the second pillow.

The ginkgo leaf piece in the center is a mystery to me.  I purchased a huge stack of fabric squares at my EGA guild silent auction last year so DD the younger had some interesting things to quilt with.  Well, since that hasn't happened yet, I went through the stack and found the gold leaves.  So I can't tell you anything about how it was made.  But it is really nice.

Altered tin ta-da

I've finished the president's challenge for my embroidery group - early!  Somehow this past week I had a few quiet evenings (don't ask me how) so I glued the top and finished the inside pillow for my Elizabethan embroidery altered tin.

Here is the top, done mostly in silks and gilt silk twist.
Here is the inside.  As mentioned in the last post, I chose flowers based on a Shakespeare verse, so I stuck a copy inside the tin lid, using a lightened flower photo as background.  The bottom embroidery is made up as a very thin pillow to set the pin on, to keep it from sliding around.
And this is the finished rose pin.  I will be making another rose, in a different colour, although I don't know what that will be.  I'm going to take photos for those who are interested in the process, since I forgot this time, I was just so keen on seeing if it would work.

All in all, I'm very happy with how things turned out and I think it will be appreciated by the recipient. 

I still don't have a photo of the science fair project.  It hasn't come home yet and I couldn't get a good photo at the science fair.  But DD the younger seems to have explained it all well, despite her blase attitude going in, and received a 3rd place in the chemistry division.  Which I figure is good for somebody who says she hates science.  I was personally quite amused by all the 'specialty school parents' - a subset of soccer parents - who were trying to outdo each other with stories of applying for the various specialty schools offered in our county and state.  Neither of my girls was willing to give up horses in order to deal with the longer bus rides and mounds of homework - which I'm actually quite happy with since it means they have a life and I do too - because who do you think would have extra work driving and supervising and buying supplies?

This and that and the other

This, is a wonderful mini reef embroidered paperweight from Paula at The Beauty of Life.  She sent it to me as a Pay it Forward gift.  I will decide soon how best to pay it forward.  In the meantime, if you want to make an undersea garden of your own, check out Paula Embroidered Paperweights post.





That, is another needlefelted creation.  I forgot to include this in the last post.  DD the elder made it for their riding instructor.  It is made to look like the filly we saw born last spring.

Finally, the other is another altered tin, this time for the president's challenge for my EGA chapter. I'm not done with this, but it will be the top.  I've based the tin on a quote from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.  "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows...
The top has thyme and oxlips.
Inside, are violet and woodbine (aka honeysuckle).  I will finish this as a cushion.

And the cushion will support a rose/eglantine pin in a posy holder.  I tried a new technique with the rose.  There are 10 petals and I didn't want 10 or 20 wires, so I worked around all 5 petals in each whorl at one time, leaving me with only 4 wires.  This had the added advantage of making it easy to embroider and bead the center of the rose.
DD the younger is still writing up her science fair project, but I think I can safely say it is not a good idea to dye anything with koolaid unless you won't be washing it.  I'll post more later.

Needle Felting Dogs

As promised, here is some artwork from my daughter.  DD the elder has been slowly refining her skills at needle felting and we finally got her some glass eyes so she can really get creative with felted animals.  This is our dog, made with real hair from the dog.

What was especially nice about this, aside from it being a wonderful tribute to our dog Candy who died back in November, is that even though I knew she had made the dog, the girls kept the whole gift a secret.  DD the younger sewed up the dog bed, and DD the elder used micron pens to add the pawprints, just like the real bed.  DD the elder made the book they used as a photo album at school, but said she had to leave it there so I never knew what it looked like.  They printed the  photos and card while DH and I were at a Christmas party, after asking for dog photos on the pretense of needing a couple for a school project. You can see the complete gift below.  I purchased the leather dog collar that holds the album closed but DD the elder said it was for an art project. My SIL took them out to get the engraved dog tag though, so I didn't have the wool pulled over my eyes on that one.
DD the elder also made a felted basset hound for my SIL.  This one is wearing a t-shirt that says 'bad to the bone' because the real dog loves wearing dog clothes and she is rather bad.

Terribly cute post

I finally came up with something to complement my woven baby blanket, which is a good thing since the twins are due any day now.

I tried to knit a blanket back in December but my heart was never in it.  I don't mind knitting, but I don't love it, and the knitting never really took off.  Then one day I was in Michael's with a 50% off coupon and I saw some baby afghan cloth for cross-stitching on and it was perfect.  I went through my various pattern books and pulled out 8 designs.  I simplified the colours and changed a couple of things - a zebra pattern became a horse motif.  I had lots of fun, and finished fairly quickly, so now the blankets are ready to send to Canada.

Here is the blanket:

And here are all the motifs close up:







I did make a really lovely ornament for exchange at my EGA chapter holiday luncheon back in December, but forgot to take a photo.  It was our Gentle Pursuits hand logo, with holly and mistletoe at the wrist, holding an angel charm - like a hand ready to trim a tree.  But I didn't take a photo so you'll have to take my word for it. 

I have a couple of things my daughters have done to show you soon.  Some excellent needle felting and a science fair project testing the colour-fastness of food dyes on wool - which should be of interest to those of you thinking of doing your own dyeing at home.

And I'm the recipient of a Pay-It-Forward project, so I'll write more when the package arrives and I decide on what and how I will send on to others who want to participate.

Family Gatherings

Being Canadian, I don't have the same baggage about family gatherings at Thanksgiving as my American friends.  But I do enjoy family gatherings and we will have some extra company as well. One friend from Brazil and 2 from Malawi. 

One of my favourite Thanksgiving memories is from my time at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York - a while ago now, since I was pregnant with DD the elder at the time.  I was put in charge of the Lab Thanksgiving because my husband and I had no family around so we were the perfect people to organize things.  It was a communal feast for all those who were far away from home, or in some cases, who didn't want to cook.  The food services people provided turkeys and pies and a few other dishes, and everyone brought food, usually dishes from home, so it was an international feast.  Imagine if you will, a nice, large dining room (the building had been recently renovated) looking over the Harbor.  Lots of food and talking and good smells.  Everyone gathered around loading their plates.  My husband was in charge of carving one of the turkeys.  At one point, he looked down and realized he was about to cut somebody's fingers because they were picking out a piece of turkey!  He was horrified to think he might have cut somebody and looked up to see it was James Watson - the Lab director and Nobel prize winner for his DNA structure work!  The turkeys were carved with no injury and no further close calls, but I still remember that day.

With our closest family member 7 hours away, we do sometimes miss going to family gatherings.  I especially like the time after a meal when we can all sit around and talk, since before the meal, somebody is in a panic getting all the food out.  But it seems to me that with computer technology, I can get some of that time back. 

It all started when Candy died and my husband put an album of photos of her on his Facebook page.  My mother joined Facebook to see the photos and she started having fun checking things out.  Then she found my niece on there - I had only been using Facebook for work and never thought to look for family - what was I thinking?  And then we got another family member to join, and found another one online, and so on...

So now we are leaving comments, sending gifts, and playing Wordscraper (very addicting) and now I am enjoying family gatherings online, albeit over several days.  I agree that sometimes and hour long phone conversation is great, but some days, a stolen few minutes here and there to add a comment or view a status report or play a word are all I can manage, and those moments keep us in touch.  I remember reading an article a while back* about texting and Twitter sustaining long distance relationships, and my husband and I have discovered that texting during the day is a great way to keep track of things, and I guess using the same tools to keep up with family on a day to day basis is a good way to feel a part of their lives.  And when you know some of what is going on in a person's life, you can ask more questions when you do talk on the phone.

So this year I am thankful for all sorts of family gatherings.

*yes I am a librarian and I should have a citation here for the article, but at this moment I can't remember where it was at all and I have to get back to work, so maybe later I'll put it here, but in the meantime, you'll have to trust me.

Photo: see the original post

The best dog in the world

Our wonderful and much loved Candy lost her battle with cancer over the weekend. She really was the best dog, both as a companion to the family and a playmate for our daughters.

Here she is, starting as a puppy in 1999 'til just this past fall.

Libraries and needlework

As you can see, last week was a great time to visit West Virginia.  This is the view from my hotel room - don't ask me to spell the name of the river - but it was flowing through Morgantown and starts with M.
This is the view from the new medical library.  The library was really great as well.  I had a bad case of library envy.  I did not expect to encounter any needlearts on the trip, but this amazing set of quilted panels was hung in the medical science building. 
Of course, being a librarian, I had to ask for information so I could tell you about it properly.

Here is what the plaque says:

"A quilt of mountain colors created by Sally Rowe, Cottageville, West Virginia, for The Health Science Center at West Virginia University to celebrate Research, Education, Health Care and Service to West Virginia, 2007"

It was commissioned for the space - a large two story atrium and the panels must be at least 8 feet high.  And the pieces that make up the quilt are small so it was an labour of love for sure.  There is lots of lovely natural light which highlights the beauty of the quilt.  The door to the library is opposite the piece, so you see it every time you leave the library.  Lucky people.

Amazing videos

I'm afraid there isn't much stitching going on here.  I've been applying myself to work and so far I'm  happy with the results.  My genetics wiki is up and running, and I almost have my poster ready for next week.  After the meeting in WV, I should have some time to stitch again - notice I say should, not will.  I don't want to jinx myself.  We've also been busy looking after our very ill dog.  She is in the middle of chemotherapy treatments and we're all hoping she'll go into remission for a while. Here is her shaved belly for ultrasound.
I also have something to share with you.  While not needlework related, I think it is art and really cool.

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

What if ...?t for life

I jumped back into work at the university right after returning from a visit to family in Canada, so I never really got to enjoy the end of summer.  I was thinking last week that I really wasted my summer, but then I actually sat down and listed what I had been working on and realized that while I may not have done what I thought I wanted to do, I have done many, many things.  I have woven a baby blanket and two linen table runners, I have taught a couple of groups (ornaments and mini-memory tins), I have written an article on the mini-memory tins, I have altered a wedding dress, I have attended a wedding in WV, I have visited family in Canada for a week,  I have had carpet installed, I have kept up with the laundry, I have worked at least twice a week at the barn, and most importantly, I have supervised the girls all summer.  It doesn't seem so wasted when I review it all.

For photo relief, here is the dog going to the wedding.  She is not a great traveller, but she does like fast food.
The summer has also been a time for me to contemplate how I spend my time and energy.  As much as I love needlework, I also love being a librarian, and I have opportunities now that allow me to be home for the girls while seriously pursuing professional goals.

On one hand I am inspired by Spirit Cloth and The Beauty of Life, especially Paula's fruit book ( I have been contemplating a cloth florigium book for a long time).  I want to stitch like crazy and make wonderful new things.

On the other hand, I also keep up with the science and library blogs, and I'm very excited by all the innovations in teaching using web 2.0 and the ideas of open access for all research.  I like to test all the new interfaces for MEDLINE and other geeky sorts of things.

I realized the other day that I haven't felt compelled to stitch every night.  And I realized that the work I've been doing, creating teaching materials and wikis and presentations, has been fulfilling so I don't feel the need to stitch.  Back in August, I had already cut back by finishing up at the weaving studio.  I could see the dates for lectures and meetings piling up  in my date book and knew I had to start focusing on work.

So what should I do with my time?  It came to me yesterday, What if...I put the same creative energy into my library work as I have with my needlework?  What if I threw myself into each project with the same excitement I have for a stitching project?  What if I looked at my materials (computer programs and reference sources, say) and thought creatively about new projects?  What if I started a library blog to share my ideas and get feedback and reach out, just as I have with my needlework blog?

So that is where I'm going now, to focus more on work.  I will still do needlework and blog my progress, but there won't be so much going on.  But I will keep up with all the blogs I've been following, because I enjoy seeing how all my stitching friends are doing.

This is my current project, the Tanja Berlin mouse I picked up at auction.  It was started by somebody else at a class so there are lots of starts where there were special instructions.  But I have gone back and started at the beginning.  I've learned so much about this type of work from watching Elisabeth.  I commented one time that I would have just started the animals in a piece she was working on, but she patiently explained that she was following the order in the instructions because it was important to the look of the piece. (I'm not sure the exact phrase, the message is on the old computer).  So I have done each stem and leaf and now wheat-ear husk in the correct order and I can see the layers starting to show.  By the way Elisabeth, best of luck going pro - your stitching deserves to be seen by a wider audience.  I can hardly wait to see your future work.

Finished table runners

Last week I was able to finish my second table runner and take the warp off the loom.  I'm especially pleased with this project since it is really the first weaving that was totally my style.  The first two projects were made with materials provided by the Visual Arts Center, so I was choosing from a limited pool of colours and materials.  My third project, a baby blanket, had appropriate colours for a baby.  But this time, I was doing exactly what I wanted so I chose a wonderful linen, Louet 20/2 variegated linen in lichen, and a couple of huck lace patterns from Anne Dixon's book, the Handweaver's Pattern Directory.

Here are the two table runners, hemmed and wet finished and ironed.
Here is the close-up of the two patterns.  It is so hard to get a photo to show how really nice these look.  The depth of colour just doesn't show up.
Despite the selvage flaws and the odd mis-treadle here and there, I'm pleased with my work and I loved doing it, which in the end, is how it is supposed to be.

We had a laugh over that in the class I helped teach over the weekend.  We all just do embroidery for fun, and yet sometimes it can be very frustrating.  One woman mentioned how her husband reminds her she is doing it for fun when she gets upset with a piece.  Of course some people are able to recognize when it is no longer fun and give up.  I have a wonderful Tanya Berlin needle painted field mouse to work on because somebody in the group decided it wasn't for her and put the whole kit in our silent auction.  Little did she know that I have been dying to work on a Tanya Berlin embroidery.  And yet there is such a fine line between giving up too soon, and recognizing that you can't really do something.  When DD the younger was doing the metalwork jewelry she wanted to quit after the first day. I encouraged her to give it another chance and she tried again and really enjoyed it, although she loved beading from the moment she started it.  Of course if your embroidery/weaving/painting, etc. is your work, that is another story.