Back in the saddle

Well, it's been awhile since I've been in the sewing seat and today I finally sat for a spell. I can't say that I created anything complex -- I just whipped up some dish towels but hey, it was something. Last week I got some of Heather Ross's latest fabric from "Far Far Away III" and am smitten. I couldn't bring myself to take the scissors to it quite yet so I settled for making some towels with some of her "Far Far Away II" line that I still have on hand.

Now I just need to take some decent pics of the finished towels so I can list them in my etsy shop but it seems the sun went down and the weekend got away from me!

Twenty thousand leagues under the sea and other ramblings

The Nautilus Passengers

Illustration from "20,000 Leagues under the Sea"

by Alphonse Marie de Neuville

It's good to be back in blogland! Hope your summer is relaxing and inspiring. Speaking of inspiration, I just got back from an annual family trip to a coastal island off of South Carolina. We stayed at a rental house where I picked up a copy of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Science fiction isn't really my thing so I've never read it before but I was hooked from the beginning! I can't believe it was written in 1869. If you've never read it, you should do so. Unfortunately I started reading it and wasn't able to finish it before I left (yes, I did think about taking it with me but my conscience won). Upon returning home I searched my usual used book stores but it seems it's required reading for students in these parts and none were left! Next stop: the library.

Anywhoo, reading the book has got me inspired to do some sort of tribute quilt. The imagery described by Verne is so fantastical. It brought back memories of the first times I went snorkeling and scuba diving. It was an epiphany that this other-worldly place exists on earth that I had never seen the likes of. I'm thinking lots of sea-related applique is in order. We'll see.

Oh, Little Rabbit, a seller on Etsy has the most awesome screen-printed flour sack towels with sea themes that evoke those fantastical images from the book, including these lovelies:

Before now, The Old Man and the Sea has always been a staple summer beach read. Last year I added Treasure Island to the list too. Love them both.

Got any favorite books you like to read at the beach or during the summer?

Jamaica

It's good to be back working in Jamaica for a short time. In addition to doing some work, I've been stuffing my face with mango, as predicted in an earlier post as well as other yummy fruit. The house we're staying in has several fruit trees in the yard including a lime, avocado (called pear in Jamaica), two types of  mango (okay, technically not in our yard but limbs from a neighbor's tree hang over into our yard :) and a grapefruit.

On the work front, we've been jointly running an archaeological field school with the University of West Indies and have had good luck locating some sugar plantation buildings we were hunting for using old survey maps. The crew had fun macheting our way through bush in order to uncover some of the overgrown treasures.

All this is providing a little break from the sewing machine and though I find myself twitching a little and sewing in my sleep I think it's probably a good thing :)

Quote Tuesday

I'm participating in Pepper Stitches' "quote Tuesday" this week...

Ten years ago I left my job in Georgia to drive out west to Washington state, stay with some friends and find a new job. It was short lived (I ended up coming back to the east coast in three months) but it was fun nonetheless and I got to drive cross-country twice! A friend in Georgia painted this lovely gourd as a going away gift and wrote the following on the bottom:

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.       ~Aristotle

It always makes me smile when I turn it over.

The Owl and the Pussycat and David Sedaris

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!’

Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?’
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

‘Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?’ Said the Piggy, ‘I will.’
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

"The Owl and the Pussycat" poem by Edward Lear

The fabric lines by Kokka based on artist Heather Ross's illustrations are irresistible. I especially like the Far Far Away collections based on fairy tales and other stories (Far Away I and II have been out for some time with III scheduled to come out this summer). The Owl and the Pussycat is from Far Far Away II and makes me smile (especially in plum, pictured above :). I made some tea towels out of it for the show I did a couple of weeks ago.

Lear's poem makes me think of David Sedaris's essay about the Squirrel and the Chipmunk, another unlikely romantic pair. He writes,

"The squirrel and the chipmunk had been dating for two weeks when they ran out of things to talk about: acorns, parasites, the inevitable approach of autumn."

You should check him out if you haven't. He's a humorist and writer who does book tours and recently came to Charlottesville during one. I was lucky enough to get to see him with some friends this April. My belly was sore the next day from all the laughing. He's hysterical.

P.S. The Kokka fabric is also really nice to work with. It's a heavier-than-usual quilting weight and is a cotton/linen blend. It's got good hand.

Thank me later Thursday -- a mango detour

watercolor and colored pencil by my friend, Leslie Pierce

I'm scheduled to go to Jamaica in a couple of weeks for work and cannot wait to get my hands on some juicy mangoes. Here in the states we tend to only get a few of the varieties but in Jamaica there are more than you can imagine.

Originally from the Indo-Burma region of the world, a serendipitous event involving a captured French boat with seeds onboard in 1782 brought the first ones to Jamaica. Many varieties were introduced during the nineteenth century from India and later from other Caribbean islands. 



my watercolors from a trip a couple of years ago--can you tell I was obsessed?

A few of the Jamaican names for the different varieties:
Tie-tie, Cedot, Amelie, Jacot, Mazagan, John crow bellyful, Cashew, Busha's wife, Ladies' fringe, Yam, Saltfish, Miss Cuskett, Dandy Williams, Duckanoo, Grandfather and Bees' box, Zil, Julie, East Indian, Bombay, Graham, Haden, Kent, Robin, Long and Black mango, Keitt and Tommy Atkins (to name a few).  Some are simply known by numbers.

The textures, shapes, colors and taste of different mango types vary. Hmm. Maybe it should be my goal this time to try them all. My absolute favorite is the Julie, so juicy and delicious. It would be hard to top it.

Tip: If you get them here in the states, you can buy them when they're green (they're usually varieties from Mexico) but have some willpower and wait until the skin changes to splotches of gold and red before you eat it. That's when it's ripe and delish!

Read more about Jamaican mangoes here.

Inspirational detours

"We quit smoking after 40+ years"

Fiber portrait by artist Susan Lenz.

"I forgive those who look at me with hate"

Fiber portrait by artist Susan Lenz.

"Just like the day I was born"

Fiber portrait by artist Susan Lenz.

"Mastectomy over chemotherapy"

Fiber portrait by artist Susan Lenz.

"At 15 I hitch hiked to NYC"

Fiber portrait by artist Susan Lenz

On my way to South Carolina last week I took a detour through a town called Salisbury, North Carolina to see an exhibit called Decision Portraits by fiber artist Susan Lenz. Two rooms in the Salisbury Waterworks Visual Arts Center are filled with an amazing display of embroidered portraits that represent a decision made in each subject's life. Some are sad, some are amusing and some inspirational. All are evocative.

Each portrait is made from a photograph transferred onto cloth and each has stitched words as well as lovely embellishments including beading and other mixed media. It is definitely an exhibit worth seeing and made that detour off I-85 a good decision indeed!