Patchwork Underground

I’ve been a busy bee working on my application for Oregon Country Fair this year!!!

My application is due in the office in Eugene, OR by Wednesday of next week…so I have to be done on Friday, take pics on Sat and have it out that same day.  Yikes!!!!!  Just like me to procrastinate to the last minute.  I plan on making this one big one and 2-3 smaller ones.  Anybody know a good (cheap) photographer in Portland?  Here’s the start of the “big one”…..

Taken from this sketch….which was taken from one of my woodcuts I posted on here ages ago….

I think I like it so far….still debating on what kind of framing/border it needs.  I’m thinking a solid dark thick border with a thin line of crazy patchwork running through it…

My sewing room is looking a lot more lived in…

I even hung some things on the wall, like this awesome vintage fold-out for broomstick lace projects.  I like to imagine what these ladies’ lives are like.  (The two college girls on the right are totally lesbians, right?)

Unpacking my stuff, I found this little felty virgin I made 2 x-mases ago….I hung her in the corner of the room that kinda freaks me out.  I think her red eyes will scare any nasties away!

Before I send this vintage doll kit away to my dear waldorf-obsessed friend, Lara, I thought I would take some pictures.

’scuse my flash…

I think Lara’s gonna love it. Safe travels, Rupfenpuppen.

My favorite thing about visiting Santa Rosa is the thrifting. There’s tons of thrift shops here - even the old-school “bins” type where you get to dig around in massive piles of unsorted, unwashed clothes. Ahh…heaven. So meditative.

This week, I scored two amazing vintage macrame magazines. Macrame is one of those dying art forms that our moms barely remember doing through the haze of the 70’s. Did you know you could macrame a table or a chair? Me neither. Check it out….

I think of two women when I think of macrame:

First, my good friend, Lara, who is not only cool enough to have found a macrame owl necklace but also wear it regularly.

Second, my grandma. She had a huge macrame hanging pot-holder thing. It holds a big raku urn/pot that she made (she was a full-time potter). It hangs big, dark and low to the ground and the macrame part is all kinds of chunky jute. Even though she’s gone now, her giant macrame thing is still hanging there in her Eikler’s atrium, visible from all angles because like a lot of Eiklers, the atrium was in the center of the house and the glass walls go right through to the family room…that’s a seriously classy piece of macrame, grandma!

I’ve macramed a sampler or two in my day but never something giant. Maybe it’s time for a macrame come-back? And no….I don’t mean macramed iPods cozies.