Jacquie's Journal

Run, Fat Boy, Run

You know how often in the movie theatre there is someone who laughs out loud, sometimes even when it's not even appropriate?  Well, today, I am afraid that was me!  We went to see Run, Fat Boy, Run directed by David Schwimmer and starring Simon Pegg and Thandie Newton.  It was just my kind of humour.  I am going to have to see it again because I am sure I missed bits because I was still giggling from the last funny bit.  Look out for cameo parts by David Walliams from Little Britain, and Stephen Merchant from Extras.

It was in complete contrast to Margot at the Wedding, that we had out on DVD starring Nicole Kidman and Jack Black, which was also supposed to be funny.  The whole thing was shot in such gloomy lighting that we totally failed to recognise anything amusing.  And it ended abruptly in the middle with absolutely nothing resolved.

My Greek Goddess of Hope in Pandora's Jar idea for March's QAL just wouldn't work out in my head, but then I had another idea that just manifested itself straightaway.  It was a much simpler idea - luckily as I was fast running out of time.  I did The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Juno and Mags and Needles

On the day of the Oscars we finally got to see Juno.  I hope it wins some, we really enjoyed it, it was funny and although it deals with the usual "what to do about an unexpected teenage pregnancy" dilemmas it does it in a fresh way I think.

I have been very impressed with a couple of magazines lately.  The first is CRAFT: , the sister magazine of MAKE:.  It's jampacked with fun little projects including some knitting and sewing ones.  The more I look through it the more I find.  The latest issue has cute Japanese juggling balls to sew filled with short grain rice, a chicken/egg toy to knit, sturdy cardboard chairs and a reversible wrap skirt to make amongst other things.  I am making the chicken/egg toy and will post a pic as soon as I have finished it.  Amy O'Neill Houck of  The Hook and I  has very kindly posted on their blog about my KnitChartMaker which is exciting.

The other magazine is a UK magazine that Carolinne has very kindly given me a subscription for for Christmas.  It is Selvedge and is about all kinds of textiles.  I just love the whole look and feel  of this magazine - it's printed on nice thick paper - and it has ads but they are not as obtrusive as in some magazines.  It doesn't  have patterns, but it has lots of articles about designers and there is plenty to inspire there.

Gary bought me the KnitPicks Options Harmony Wood Interchangeable Needle Set for Valentine's Day and they arrived in the week.. They are so pretty and really lovely to use.  The cords are much thinner than the Denise ones so the knitting doesn't stick on them and they are nice and pointy.  Luckily the tiny keys are just there for leverage to tighten the join and any pin that will fit through the hole will do, when I have lost them both!

Speaking, as I was two paragraphs ago, about my chart maker, I am in the final throes of testing the new version and desperately trying to fight the urge to add more new features  that break the existing code.  It's difficult to know when to stop, but I know some Mac users are having problems with it and I hope the new version will address those.  I am sorry if I haven't got back to you with an answer to your problem - the simple truth is that I don't have a Mac to test on so it is difficult to diagnose and fix.   I will do my best to research the matter with Applets on Macs generally and see what I come up with.

More Kiss

Here is my completed block for the Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns Quilt-along:
I have really enjoyed making it and have been looking very carefully at some of his other paintings with the idea of designing a few more things on the motifs he uses.

It suddenly came to me yesterday that it wasn't Calculus that I failed at college, but Analysis.  I don't know why I thought it was Calculus other than I must remember so little about Analysis that I have no idea what it was even about.  Anyway I have been quite enjoying brushing up on my differentiation and integration!  I will save Analysis for another month!

The Kiss

In case you have been wondering if I have been doing anything other than work and whinge about the weather,  I have actually been doing some sewing!  I explained in a previous post what my plan was for the February Crafty Threads n Yarns quilt-along and I have progress to show.  It is based on Klimt's The Kiss.
The circular flower motifs are on her dress and the border will use elements from his cloak which is a patchwork of gold, black, white and grey rectangles.  I don't know what Klimt was like, but I hope he wouldn't have been too snooty about my interpretation.  Come to think about it I am  making something in fabric from a painting of fabric - if you see what I mean :)  The finished block will be around 12 inches square plus a half inch seam allowance all round.  It has all been done using fabrics from my stash.  The section from the painting was done by cropping the faces from the picture, which I found online, enlarging them a little, and then printing it out on the special transfer paper you can by in all good stationery stores, and finally  ironing it onto plain white fabric.  I rather stupidly folded it across the middle to find the centre and its flaking off a bit, but never mind.  She also looks a bit green around the gills as though he has eaten a bit too much garlic!

Look What We Woke Up To This Morning...

It has mostly gone now and most of the rest of the day was beautifully sunny if a little chilly.  One of the amazing things about the Salt Lake valley is that, like today for instance, it can be perfectly clear blue sky on one side of the valley and dark snow laden clouds on the other side (our side of course!!).  It's probably the cue to think about putting away the garden furniture and battening down the hatches for winter.

Thank you everyone who wished me well for my new job.  It has been a bit strange because the company are moving and don't want to shell out for new desks or anything so I have been "virtual" desking, going wherever there is a space because someone is out for the day.  On Friday I finally got my own temporary table.  Tomorrow I think I will feel like I can start being useful.  I still haven't decided on the optimum route to work and back and have been a different way each day - all pretty horrible in the rush hour as only to be expected I suppose.  Some people are just not nice when they are in a hurry to get home!

I joined in a pincushion swap on Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns  - we have had some great swaps this year.  This is what I received from loobyj.  They are both beautifully made and I have an "every day" one and a "festive" one.  The "festive" one is going to go on the tree once my festive projects are done - it deserves its chance to shine!

My contribution was a kaleidocycle
  This is the prototype or "proof of concept" piece.  I made the one I sent on the machine and fussy-cut the diamonds so that the pattern matched up on each colour.  Although it wasn't as tight as the paper version it spun really well and I think had a nice feel to it.

Our swap this month is an Autumn Swap and I have been putting a package together that I hope my swapee will enjoy.

Finally, a gratuitous cute kitties picture.  I think they are just about grown up now, but they are still very soft and fluffy and naughty.  I spent some considerable time making them a special cat toy which of course they have studiously ignored.  Then I knit a swatch to try out some ideas for a sweater and Desi carries that around everywhere with him.  I have no idea why one appeals and the other doesn't.

Just a Quick One

My visitor count went way down on Saturday - were you all reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and trying to avoid accidentally finding out what happened too?

So much for waiting until we go away to read it :eye roll: - I ended up buying a third copy in Barnes and Noble so we could all read it at the same time.  I have finished it now but read the last few chapters in such a rush (it was getting late but I couldn't stop!) that I really need to go back and read them again in case I missed anything.  I can tell you it was quite an emotional roller-coaster ride that was worth the wait, but won't elaborate further.

What will we have to look forward to now - apart from the remaining two movies of course?  Oh and the theme park in Florida in 2009?

Everything else was set aside over the weekend, but today I have to finish my skirt.  I need to take it in at the waist quite a bit.  It has ten gores so just taking in 1/8" on each seam will take out over two inches.  Trouble is I have already attached the waist facing (no waist band)  so I am going to have to find my seam ripper to get that off again first - funny how they always go missing along with tape measures and scissors in this house.  I think I made a reasonably good job of putting the zipper in lapped-style.  I don't think I have ever done one that way before. 

One of the reasons I am scared of my new machine is that I think I accidentally threw away the instruction booklet and I have no idea what a lot of the attachments actually do. I was condemned to only ever doing straight sewing until I hit on the idea of looking on line to see if you can get copies of instruction booklets - and you can.  Usually I still don;t get my hopes up too high at this point because usually there will be instructions or whatever I am looking for for everything except my particular circumstances - but this time I was lucky and a brand new instruction booklet should be with me any day now.  What do you bet though that I will find my original instructions within a week of the new ones arriving?

Now I have read HP and the DH what shall I do while we are away?  I still have a good way to go on the wedding gloves which need major concentration so that is one candidate.  And I have a couple of other smallish sewing projects that I could get to a stage where I could take them.  Both of them are kind of secret so can't tell you what they are, I am afraid.

So, Jacquie, Have you Actually Made Anything at all Recently?

Well I do have a couple or three projects on the go. One is very secret - it's not a secret from the recipient but it's part of her wedding ensemble so musn't be seen by the groom who I am told does read this occasionally!  If you know any of my other haunts you may be able to find out more about it.  Another is a birthday present for one of my nephews - see if you can work out what his name is?
It's an ambigram for Scott.  It's a cushion cover and he already has the innards - I ordered it on eBay.co.uk and it was delivered next day.  I have to make the back and sew it together.  Then it will be ready to send off to him.  I love the batik fabric - the colours in it are just out of this world especially with the gold stars on it.
I participated in the Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns Bookmark swap.  I was pleased with my contribution - a double ended book thing made from a Chinese medallion, red and black beads and a dragon charm.  I also sent a set of stitch markers using the same beads, but promptly forgot to photograph it before I sent it.  I can however show you the lovely bookmark I received:
It is scanned onto high quality photographic paper from an original piece of needle felting made by CraftyBernie.  Her inspiration was my favourite photo taken by me - my Hummingbird picture.  While you are over there check out her amazing tiny, tiny doll's house baby clothes - incredible!

I have made no progress with the khaki skirt I started making past cutting out the pieces for the lining.  I made the pattern my self based on another skirt I have that I really like and thought if I made the lining first it would be a good test for fit before cutting out the real thing.  I don't know why I haven't done anything on it except I think I am still a bit scared of my new sewing machine.

Whatever happened to Beady Buddies?  When Edward was little when we first moved here, he used to enjoy making these animals from pony beads.  They came in kits from Macs (no longer here in Utah) and were a perfect first craft project for a young child being educational (counting, sorting colours, following instructions, quick to do, and something useful at the end of it) and fun.  I promised my niece, Mia, that I would send her some for her birthday, but we couldn't find them anywhere.  I have managed to find all the separate bits - a book of instructions for beady animals, the large pony beads, the satin cord, and the lanyard clips - but it's not quite the same!

I love beads too!  I can see stitchmarker-mania taking me over for a while.  They are so pretty, and there are so many different kinds, and they are so much less expensive than good yarn. 

The kittens are doing well and being very entertaining apart from the vampire bite I have on my arm where Desmond laid into it when he got a bit scared because Charlie came a little bit too close, and the scratches I have on my ankles from where they like to play with my shoe laces.  They are not so nervous of Charlie now and Charlie puts on this kind of bemused expression when they are around and tries to ignore them as best as she can.

Just When You Thought....

This is my May contribution to the Nagfa Ambigram Challenge.  It is supposed to say "Shark Attack" and is a reflection rather than a 180 degree rotation that is the normal ambigram style.  It really isn't very good as an ambigram - the words certainly don't jump out at you - or even slowly pull into view like a stereogram.  But it was fun to do something so gruesome as dismembered arms and legs and blood in applique which is normally associated with pretty, happy, sweet things like flowers and song birds and cute furry animals.  And the way the shadows fall in the photograph I think make the underside of the shark look quite realistic!

Safe Asset...

Rhymes with Kaffe Fassett!  Last night was the big night when Lucy, I, and lots of SnB grrls as well as  2 or 3 hundred other Salt lake knitters and quilters convened at a local school to hear Kaffe show and tell on the subject of "Kaleidoscope of Colour".  Actually it was a two-fer as Brandon Mably was there too - he operated the PowerPoint slideshow and interjected occasionally.

Kaffe told the story of how he got into knitting and then quilting and needlepoint from starting out as a painter.  The slides showed places and things that had inspired his use of colour - anything from Japanese tattoos to a stack of multicoloured whisky barrels -  and the pieces that resulted - a mixture of quilts, needlepoint, knitting, rugs, and ceramic mosaics.

Then there was a question and answer session with some interesting questions like "Do you do all the work?" the answer to which was "Yes, Brandon and I do all the work, except for a lot of the sewing!"

I had bought a couple of books before the talk Kaffe's "Quilt Road" and Brandon's "Knitting Color" and after the show I lined up to get my books signed first by , who was sitting at a table pen in hand after a 10 minute wait and then by Brandon, who was just sitting on the stage steps and had to ask to borrow a pen, after a two minute wait.  We had quite a long chat with him - they had come to Salt Lake because of the Quilt Convention at the weekend and had been persuaded to do a couple of workshops and the talk while they were here.  Elaine's Quilt Block has recently started stocking Kaffe's fabric collection so that is why they were hosting them.  They are going to New Zealand next and he was worried about what was going to happen to his garden back in Hastings as they would not be returning to England until July. He was very easy to talk to and a very nice guy.

I do have one little moan and that is about certain members of the audience.  I don't know if it is a Utah thing or a US thing, but there was a constant burble of conversation going on in the audience throughout the talk.  I find it incredibly annoying, not to mention disrespectful to the speaker.  What makes these people think that what they have to say is more important than what the speaker we have all paid to hear has to say?  If they are not interested in what the speaker has to say, why are they there?  It wasn't just last night, it happens everywhere, except surprisingly at the movies.

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that too much.  All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and I am so glad we went.  Lucy took a couple of pictures with her phone that I hope to be able to upload at some point in the near future.

Fox

I don't know if you have noticed but a few Fox programs have someone or something named Fox in them:

1. X Files - Fox Mulder
2. Prison Break - Fox River State Penitentiary
3. Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader - host Jeff Foxworthy

I thought I would email Fox and ask them if this was deliberate - I know, I should get out more!
They replied within 2 hours to say that it was just a coincidence.  Oh well!

I made another ambigram today.  It was for a competition set by Nagfa and to be judged by John Langdon who designed the Angel and Demons ambigram for Dan Brown's book.  I am not sure if I got my entry in in time - he said 22nd March but he is in Singapore and they are a good few hours ahead of us.  Anyway the word we had to do was "Singularity"  I have interpreted this to mean The Singularity - the point in time when super artificial intelligence takes over from humans at controlling the world - here is a reference Wikipedia Singularity  There are other interpretations, so I hope this one is acceptable.

Here is the ambigram:
I have tried to show neurons (yellow) connecting to logic gates (the red bits) and circuits (gold thread).   It has taken ages to get the design so it has the motifs and the ambigramminess and be readable.  I cheated a bit with the applique and attached iron-on interlining to the back of the  letters .  The only thing keeping them in place is the gold stitching.