Crazy Crazy Crazy (pillows)

My cousin, Katharine, is an artist.  This is one of her pictures (taken at an angle because of glare.)  Hostas.  You should see more of her things at her blog, under Katharine Harra.

 Her latest blog jiggled my creative stuff loose!  And I've got 3 crazy pillows going on in my head.













The first pillow is beginning to take shape.  I always start with "stuff" and then the "stuff" takes on its own life.  

Here's the stuff:

The tapestry is 17th century French.  I've been waiting for the right pillow to incorporate it.  I think the finished one is not going to have that much lace; at any rate, it'll look different than all of this!

  I don't know what Andy Warhol is doing in here, but maybe he does.

And you know that phenomenon that when you're supposed to be doing one thing, a whole lot of other things get done instead?!?!?!?  This is what I'm supposed to be doing:

PRACTICING BEETHOVEN!

It's Christmas!

First of all, I made these towers of Christmas goodness:

 using these:

Then I made another.  They're outside my front door now, looking very happy.

Then it was time to tackle the angel costumes for St. Thomas Christmas Eve Pageant.

The beginnings looked promising.

When they got put on the angel costumes Lou made, they looked adorable.  I hope the powers that be at Church like them too!

Pillows Pillows

Oh, I haven't blogged in a long time.  So much has been going on.  But in between there have been PILLOWS.

I did this quite ordinary one, pretty though, for my sister-in-law.  The embroidery alone took a long time to do.

  

Then I had to get a little crazy of course, because I do call my pillows Crazy Pillows.  

D had warped his loom with some lovely linen and I had some gold thread, so I started with this:

I made a kind of grid.   Some time ago, from Paris, I received a vintage cloth with birds on it in a lovely blue.  The grid just kind of found its way on top of one of the birds.  

The snapshot doesn't show the real color.  It's a vibrant blue.  Because the bird was behind bars, I added some free standing birds...

Only I cut them out more substantially and then glued them in place where they could look in.  I don't have a picture of the finished project.  It seems a little oppressive to me.  Usually I gift my crazy pillows, but because of the nature of this one, it didn't seem appropriate.  It is lovely though, in the study.

The current Crazy Pillow is for my granddaughter and is not oppressive at all.

I started with this:

It's a design from Austria from a book that my daughter and I got on our Memory trip there.

I added a calico that I'm french-knotting the heck out of:

And then, again from Paris, I had vintage laundry tape with her initials on it.  Wow.  Does that pop against the blue!  I only have 10 more rows of initials to put on.

I like the blue and the red and the freshness of it all.  

This is when the fun begins.  I have to have it ready in a couple of weeks.  Then I'm beginning a CP with all roses on it.  Already excited.  That is, after I finish a huge sweater project for my grown nephew.  Ahhhh.

Boo!

We had a memorable Halloween this year.  Our neighborhood is the Go-To choice for hundreds upon hundreds of children every year.  Last year was our first Halloween here and we ran out of candy early.  So this year, I

bought 22 giant bags of candy to be ready.  That's A LOT OF CANDY!!!!!

But what made Halloween even better was Rudder.  He wore an actual costume this year.

Like it?

Here's another view:

He was so proud and happy.  We had him out on his pillow on the front porch with us, and all the children (hundreds, maybe even a thousand) loved on him and admired his costume and petted him.  At one point I thought he might be getting cold and tried to move him inside, but he gave me THAT look.  

My Bacon Dog!  (maple kind)  PS:  We ran out of candy the first hour.  Next year I guess it'll be 44 bags.  

Oh No!

Every once in a while, I have to kidnap D.  (That's the "Oh No" part of this.)  When he has some free time, which is seldom, I whisk him away.  Yesterday was one of those days.  D loves planning and schedules, so it's a real stretch for him to just go with the flow, not knowing where we're going or how long we'll be gone, etc.  I do tell him what to wear...


Yesterday was so beautiful, I took my water-loving D to

East Fork Lake, to swim.  It was absolutely heavenly.  Nice beach.  Not too crowded.  I went for a walk while he swam, and then sat in the shade of the shelter, listening to some really soft pretty Spanish being spoken by the women at the next table.


Here's D walking back to the shelter.

When we left there we went to Renaissance, a lawn and garden ornament shop he knew about in Oakley.  Got a little bubbly fountain for our deck.  Fun!!!


Although D was still algae-covered, our next stop was  

Cumin, an amazing restaurant on Erie Avenue.  From the 

cool New York lighting, to the

Sous-Vide halibut, to D's

Macaroon dessert, the meal was fantastic.  All together a successful kidnapping.  We felt as if we were on vacation!!!!!

Rudder Budder Peanut Butter

Wednesday last, Rudder got his staples taken out.  2 and a half weeks after having major lung surgery (open chest surgery).  He's 13 1/2.  He had to wear a shirt after surgery to keep the wound clean and to keep him from licking.  Never once did he try to lick the wound; never once did he scratch; never once did he have to wear the hated cone.

We knew he'd be better when several things happened.  


When he could climb the steps without falling down.  That happened.


When he would once again try to get the cake mix out of the pantry.  That happened.


And most recently, we knew he was well, when he finally "brought" again...his beloved

All's well with Rudder!!!!!

Back at it

A year and a half, that's how long it's been since I've made one of my Crazy Pillows.  Just before we moved to Kentucky would have been the last one.  


Whenever I'm working on one, I have the next one in my brain and kind of laid out, so I can be thinking about it too.  So a year and a half ago, I had pulled fabric and drawn a diagram.


Finally--in the last couple of days--I've begun work on it.  And this one is a challenge.  I'm taking a Shaker Tree of Life that I embroidered

and adding some Swedish material that I LOVE, which I also embroidered

And am putting those two together with some costly silk that I'm in my madness trying to pleat.  

This is where you tell me that it's going to be okay...that I should persevere...


The next Crazy Pillow?  It's using some antique French laundry tape that has the initials B H on it, so guess who it's for?!?!?!?!  Yip...Bethie!  It could be for Ben, but I'm not sure he'd appreciate a Crazy Pillow with antique French laundry tape.  (might be wrong).