How to Lose Weight

For years now, I have been wishing to lose 35 pounds.  This would put me at a respectable body mass index and restore my age-appropriate  weight.  I did lose that much under doctor supervision about 8 years ago, but then I gave up flextime for a more standard 8 to 5 schedule, and shifted to less-creative work that kept me pinned down to a desk daily.  Writing, editing, photographing and interviewing on my own production schedule was a better 'fit' for healthy eating habits.  More recently, desk work has been instrumental in creating a big soft natural pillow on my rump.

I could take a lesson from my daughter.  Her husband is a personal trainer and she has taken off 15 pounds residual to her pregnancy and December delivery just in the past two weeks.  She does it by restricting caloric intake and following a muscle-mass building regimen.  So, she's actually losing more than the scales show, since muscle outweighs the fat that it rubs and washes away.

I do best when I can recreate.  Usually at best my recreation is aerobic housecleaning, but best I love hiking, kayaking and playing music.  Each morning I weigh myself and write it down. My weight fluctuates and one can almost detect the day after a double dip ice cream cone, bedtime popcorn or a heavy dinner.  Snacking 5 meals a day is my style, but I cook formal meals now and it has taken its toll, adding 5 pounds every year since I married my darlin' meat-and-potatoes kinda guy.

I'll make this a monthly report to force myself to do better.

Is Barack Obama Cherokee

I'm researching Cherokee quilts, 1780-1830.  In doing so, I ran across an article asking whether Barack Obama is Cherokee.  It seems there is a story in his family that he has some Cherokee ancestry.  So, I followed the link (above, if you click the title to today's blog) and found some likely surnames to research.

Payne is one surname, and I remembered the famous Andy Payne, who ran the Bunion Derby across America.  There's a documentary film about Andy Payne with historical footage.

I was most intrigued by Sarah Bunch, who shows up at age 77 in the 1870 Newton County AR census, and who claimed to be from Virginia.  Her age would tend to make her a Cherokee Old Settler from the period 1812-1817 in the original Old Settler domain stretching from Batesville to basically the AR River at Fort Smith (ish).  But I see a householder in the census who might be a son (if he was born when she was in her 30s) born in TN about 1830.  I suppose it is possible that she came West after 1830 (perhaps on the removal) and settled with relatives who were thereafter deceased by 1870, in the former Cherokee domain.  By 1830 most Cherokees had moved on to Indian Territory, or become assimilated into Arkansas which was I think by then a state.  Some Cherokees remained in AR and gave up their Cherokee affiliation by attrition and assimilation, in order to keep their land in Arkansas.  An earlier AR census shows that Sarah was probably married to Nathaniel Bunch.  In 1850 this family shows up with many more householders.  A characteristic Cherokee name is Larkin, and that is a name of one son in 1850 living with the family.

Creekmore is a prevalent Indian name, but I think they are Creeks or Chickasaws and this line of his family lived in the Chickasaw Nation at, if I recall, Ada..  Christopher Reeve, Mariel Hemmingway, and Lyndon Baines Johnson are among some of his far-remote relatives, albeit not necessarily Cherokees.

Merely clues for further speculation and research.  As for Justin Timberlake... read the enclosure link.

Announcing: 7-Point Cherokee Star Quilt Kit

Finally!  After years of wishing, some clever quilter has designed a seven-point Cherokee Star quilt.
Get it fully finished, $1,130 or in a kit for the star part only, $35.

Cherokee Quilt Concept- In my DNA

I just finished these wonderful marbled Cherokee Syllabary strips.  Each strip is 45 inches long.  Starting with a plain white cotton, I use soy wax batik to creat a resis, and then practice my Cherokee syllables along with the pronunciation.  Long ago, young girls would learn to embroider by creating an alphabet sampler in satin stitch or cross-stitch.  I've employed the same learning tool to help my ability to read the Cherokee language.

At present, this is not yet a quilt top.  I was just so excited about the pop-art effect that I had to share it.  The calico between hand-dyed strips gives a 3-D depth effect.  This one will be a corker to sew, if those starry little dots don't hold still! 

This top will be $100 as a top only, in the bed size of your choice.  Or it will be $450 fully finished with custom machine quilting, several options for loft and batting content, a choice of stiff like those nice quilts our grandmothers had which lay beautifully or puffy like a comforter, and any cotton backing that you fancy.  This quilt would make a wonderful "Going Away To College" quilt for some special Cherokee student who needs the hug of home while out there in the big old world.  So if you have a May graduation gift to choose, contact me at ktibbits@lrec.org for details.  Yes, you can make payments. 

Gracie Discovers Mudme

 

It makes a world of difference to be able to create hand-dyed fabrics during the day, when natural light helps with color decisions.  Last week I was preparing  fat quarters for a custom order, and found that I had stockpiled some white cotton squares.  It was news to me.  I'd forgotten that I was prepping them for the dyebath.

When I had leftover chemicals that I didn't want to waste, I made up these great cheery color squares.  They are not sewn together... they are just laid out in a possible pattern for a quilt top.  Buy all 9 for $40 and sew them together yourself as a weekend project.  Or pick out which one you'd like for a quilt focal point, just $4 and mailing costs of $1.75.  Note that these are not fat quarters... they are squares, about 21 inches.

My cute lil model is Gracie Piddlewhiskers, our Selkirk Rex female teenager cat and art muse.  She's always nearby to help with art projects.  Your squares will be again prewashed before mailing, so you don't have to worry about allergies.

Look for these squares at Island Retreat or via Oklahoma Food Cooperative, or email me about purchasing.

Steampunk Fiddle

 

Here's a steampunk fiddle I created into a collage.  It started out as a fiddle that had been last mended by Sam Mouse (how Cherokee is that surname?)   in 1982, but which would not hold tuning.  It had been just hanging on Friedrick's wall five years ago when I moved here.  People would take it down and try to play it.  The sprockets are sort of a nonverbal sign saying, "Um, I don't think this fiddle is a serious musical instrument any longer." 

Anyway, it is featured among the 1,000 in an art book about 1,000 ways to recycle.  Some day I will post a a link and review of that book.  It is chock full of great art.

50's Style Ultimate Kitschen Apron

 

Here's a length of extra skirting that is similar to something I featured in my blog before.  Check out the wonderful stripey waistline piece that extends a bit into the ties.  It is long enough in back to make a bow.  This apron features a convenient left-hand pocket, banked to the inside, because if you've really got a pocket full of snow peas from the garden, you don't want them tumbling out when you bend and stretch.  Its an old physics trick that I learned from trial and error.

When I was a child, my grandmothers were big on aprons.  One grandmother wore an apron as the top layer of her clothes whenever she was at home.  She wore full aprons of the top and bottom kind, usually, and would take them off when going to the store.  They were handy for popping grease as she fried morning bacon and made gravy.  They had big huge pockets for holding lots of clothespins for hanging laundry on the line to dry in the outdoor sun.

My other grandmother wore aprons also.  She wore frilly aprons for serving lovely vanilla sugar cookies.  These cookies were usually pressed out by a granddaughter and sprinkled with white sugar, then served with coffee or milk.  

Both of my grandmothers sewed.  My maternal grandmother, Bigmom, had a dry cleaners and tailoring service.  She had the most amazing interesting things she made from fabric scraps.  She had woolen quilts made from pant-legs of the mens wool suit pants that had been cut off.  She had raggedy towels sewn together in layers to make pads the size of a fat quarter.  These were little footstool or ottoman pads, or to step out onto from the bathtub, or for wiping feet inside the back door, or for babydoll blankets.  When my daughter was a little baby, this grandmother is the one who made me promise not to use disposable diapers, saying they were gross and miserable for babies.  When she passed away, I inherited a wonderful twin sateen quilt top that she had made in pastel blocks in mint, pink, dreamsicle orange, baby blue and lemon yellow.  In her aprons, she looked like Lucy Ricardo... perky and frilly.

My grandmothers' aprons are my inspiration for making fun aprons.  I've taken quite a few to the stomp grounds for kitchen use there.  This style of mixed calicos and pinch-pleats is new.  In old times, our corn dance was performed with the women wearing aprons of simple thin 60-thread or 100-thread count plain white cotton.  These aprons were scant and tailored, and they reminded me of when I was a little girl and my mother would put a bowl of  starch (and sometimes the whites to be starched and ironed) in the fridge.  (Starch and bluing.  Do people even know what that is today?)

There is something practical about an apron.  You drag in from a tough mind-numbingly cerebral day at the office sitting in a chair for eight hours.  You're hungry for something delicious, but still in a black or navy colored suit.  If you cook in it, you'll have more work ahead at laundry time, making sure there isn't any gravy on the tummy.  So, throw on an apron to break the serious mood.  Voila!  You're Samantha, making perfect barbeque sauce from scratch and whipping up something divine in quick time.  Remember... when you are too tired to fix dinner, a magic apron will give you the strength and energy to cook up some strength and energy.

I'm listing a few new things in my online shops, so this apron will be showing up in one of my etsy storefronts for $18 or you can email me if its the perfect match for your cooking and entertaining adventures.

Citrus & Raspberry Charmeuse Silk

 

Citrus & Raspberry Charmeuse Silk Scarf

I have mixed feelings about silk.  I love the texture and it is divine to hand-dye because one never knows what will happen.  It is unpredictable--- or maybe I just have not worked with it enough to know what to expect.  I've almost never had a bad experience with it.

But then, it is made from the destruction of silk worm cocoons.  I've bought them before, the pecan-sized white cocoons that would pass for papier mache.  Unwind the threads or tear them apart, and inside is a withered little caterpillar.  That's the creepy part.  How can something so beautiful come from a background of destructiveness?

So yes, I do wear silk sometimes.  And I work with it professionally as a textile artist.  But somehow the ugly little secret about silk's origins is always there as a sadness in the back of my mind.  Shifting to vegan products is certainly a possibility.

This gorgeous silk charmeuse scarf is big and wide.  I'll be listing it soon at etsy, if I haven't already.  It is $15.

Mad Hatter Bandana, Inspired by Alice in Wonderland

 

Here's a quarter-section of detail from another Alice In Wonderland-inspired fun piece of wearable art.  It is a soy wax batik resist cotton bandana in a dreamy kaleidoscope of colors.  Everyone should have a bandana.  tie it on your backpack or day sack and you'll always have something to carry pretty rocks in.  Stop by a mountain stream and wet it down for a neckerchief cooler that is good as an air conditioner in the backwoods.  Gather radishes and baby greens in it.  Clean a geocache with it.  Summon a helicopter when lost.  Wave it at a Saints game.  Wear it to Alice in Wonderland.  Pull your hair back.  Or, if you don't have hair, then the curls on this bandana are a colorful suitable alternative.

One only.  $15 includes shipping.  Artisan original.  Look for more items of this nature at Fluffy's Compleat Boutique in the Oklahoma Food Co-op.  Or visit some of the 3 etsy shops by clicking one of my items for sale in the righthand margin of this blog.

Mad Hatter Scarf, for Alice in Wonderland

I'm a big fan of Johnny Depp as an actor, because he brings so much depth to his roles.  Thus I'm in major suspense until Alice in Wonderland comes out, in early March (about the 5th).  Again he teams up with Helena Bonham Carter, who was just delightful in Sweeney Todd.

So here, we tried to make up costumes for Halloween last fall, based on the film trailers that had just come out for the movie.  But alas, a costume error on my part for the Red Queen costume plus dreadful weather and not enough time... and we gave up our plans.  However, I did manage to simulate that great Mad Hatter bowtie in a china silk scarf.  It was batiked with soy resist and then hand-dyed.

I am going to be listing this great little ditty at my Island Retreat etsy site when I get around to it.  If you'd like it, email me at ktibbits@lrec.org .  It is $15 and can be hand-washed in warm water and towel dried.

I love to hand-dye custom pieces, so if you have an inspiration, just let me know and I'll make it up for you.

Teaching Our Baby to Read

 

 When I saw the ad for teaching babies to read on TV, my granny genes kicked in, and we ordered up a big box of the most fun early childhood development tools.  It goes like this.  Baby Kai and his mommy watch the DVDs with words like "EYE" and then do interactive stuff.  Mom touches her eye and blinks and says eye.  Then she says eye and touches Kai's eye.  They say that the more senses we can involve in learning, the better and faster we learn.  Kai is a wonderful sweet little guy.  What could be more fun than babies reading?

Nancy Newton Carter

Here's a wonderful old picture of my great-grandmother, Nancy Newton Carter.  Her husband, Enoch Carter is in the background.

She was born, if I recall, at Rabbit Trap in Adair County.  A lot of her ancestors are buried at Hope Cemetery North of Westville.

She lived her adult life in Carter community.  In the 1950s when Lake Tenkiller was built, part of that land was changed by the lake.  Today it is called Carter's Landing.  There was, long ago, a Carter Schoolhouse.  There was a post office at Carter community, named after the postmaster Bud Chronister.  The mail came to Chronister, Oklahoma and some of the old birth certificates of babies such as my father show the birthplace as Chronister, Oklahoma.

I published a family history of the Carter women's side of the family in 1995.  Today it is out of print, but I plan to publish it for sale online soon.  Leave a comment with your email address if you wish to be notified about how to purchase this book. 

It contains a story passed down in our family from the Civil War about Nancy's mother, Laura Newton when she was a teen.  She lived back East in the Cherokee homeland of Tennessee.  Raiders came to the home.  They took anything and everything, at gunpoint.  She pleaded with them to let her keep her wedding dress, and they left without taking it.  Another time, she went down the road to a neighbor's homestead to borrow a cup of sugar or flour.  But as she was walking along, she saw a man or men hanged from a tree in their yard.  War must have a terrible toll on the psyches of the people who live thru them.  Laura Newton, all of her life, recounted vivid and chilling stories of these events and she never got over it.

Cherokee Syllables Quilt Top

Back in Fall, on a beautiful sunny day, I took this quilt top outside for a natural light picture.  It is comprised of commercial cotton print strips and hand-dyed discharged batik strips with Cherokee Syllables and the pronunciation of each syllable.  Cherokee language has about 84 syllables, so this is just a sampling.  I've made quilt tops of all the letters, and I have posted a sister to this quilt.

[This one is twin, $75 as a top, and can be expanded with a couple of border strips in a color of  the purchaser's choice.  It is $350 fully finished if you'd prefer, with the buyer's choice of batting, backing material (solid or print), thread and choice of whether freehand quilted or quilted with a recurring pattern.] 

*********************************************************************

To my Sweetie, Friedrick:
(You know him as Dennis)
Happy Anniversary!  Five years ago today, we stood on Sun Beach in Jamaica at sunset, and vowed to cherish each other for so long as we both shall live.  Never have I regretted loving you, and every day I love you a little bit more.  You're my best friend and partner, my confidante.  I thrive in your love, and I thank you for being the kindest and most tender, funny, talented person I know.  Don't turn 'roun the vehicle... we've got a ticket for the Strange Loop!  Life has many fun adventures for us yet.
~Luv Fluff

Hopscotch Quilt Top

In Summer after 2nd grade, my mother was a college student at Northeastern State College.  (Today it is Northeastern State University).  There, I attended a Summer School program, the students of which were mostly comprised of the children of professors and the children of students.  My mistake-- I traised my hand when they asked which students were third graders because that is what I was going to be.  Apparently, that got me into the class of students who would be moving along to fourth grade.  For a couple of days I attended in the older classroom, and then realized I was in with the older kids, so the teachers moved me back to my age mates.

That was the summer that I learned to play hopscotch.  We'd draw boxes on the sidewalk of the Old Bagley Building at NSU, and hop as many squares inside the lines as we could.

This is a quilt top I named Hopscotch.  See the alternating footpath?  Our hopscotch grid was never this simple or regular.  This top features a good bit of fun hand-dyed cotton fabric.  Imagine that each square is sort of a full-color rohrschach test.  I see one that looks like Earth, Cherry Fudge Sundae, Stormclouds, Looking Into Water.  I make up names for the tiedyed and hand-dyed panels and strips that I create.  It helps me to keep them straight about what might go where when I am quilting.

(This small quilt top is for sale $75 as-is.  If someone would like to buy it fully-finished, the price would be $350 to include a choice of batting, backing, thread color,  machine quilt pattern (or freehand) and shipping.)

Nukes or No Nukes

I have this girl friend, Jessie Collins.  I learned of her "on paper" before I met her.  I was a T.U. Law School Student and (OK, I'm a nerd) was reading Atomic Safety Licensing Board Hearing decisions in the library there.  One was about Sequoyah Fuels nuclear facility, about 50 miles from my home town.  In that decision, hairdresser Jessie DeerInWater had challenged the NRC on relicensing the facility, citing a history of  safety violations.

While still at TU, I helped Gary Allison with the CASE challenge to Black Fox I & II, two Nuclear Power reactors planned for Inola Oklahoma.  It was natural that I'd fall in with Native Americans for a Clean Environment when I graduated and started practicing law in Tahlequah.

In January 1986, a bad accident at Sequoyah Fuels sparked public outcry against the facility, and my law office was among those working for citizen groups to oppose the facility.  About 36,000 pounds of uranyl nitrate went airborn  when a uranium hexaflouride cask ruptured, creating a radioactive footprint around the plant for miles.  Travellers driving I-40 were in a traffic jam from the smog, and got doses of the stuff.  Residents nearby got it too, and the cancer rates soared thereafter.  Eventually, many neighbors sold out to move to safer havens, leaving lifelong friendships and kin behind.

So last week Jessie called me and said that the Unitarian Congregation of Tahlequah would be having a forum on nukes or no nukes this  Sunday.  I'm going to make up my mind.

In some respects, things have changed over the years.  More mouths to be fed on Earth than ever before have stretched the demand for energy.  And we know what fossil fuels are doing---   trapped as greenhouse gases, they are warming Earth's atmosphere.  This melts the polar ice caps, sending polar gusts in new patterns that spark severe weather.  This causes habitat changes for Indigenous communities far north.  It changes the world of the polar bear.  And we know that to change the course of the global climate, we must turn down the thermostat before we hit the wall because the indicators lag and the response time of  effecting change is a longer horizon of time than human brains have historically needed in past generations-- many folks may not be genetically predisposed to think so far into the realm of systemic consequences.

So then, is nuclear power the answer because it is far less a contributor to greenhouse gases?  Or can we find a way not to exchange the devil we know for a devil we don't know?

Amory Lovins in Soft Energy Paths written about 1978 seems to be fairly well born-out in his views that a nuclear energy future institutionalizes facism.  Even if benevolent nations (and one could argue that the United States of America is such an example) can somehow find solutions to policing against terrorism, there will always be ill-intentioned nations remembering that nuclear power is but a step away from using atomic weapons.

It seems that in the past we had simpler choices.  But perhaps, I was seeing it all with simpler mind and was less inclined to appreciate the ambiguities and subtleties.  When younger, I might have said that nations have had cold wars for time immemorial, without seeing any injustice in, for example, the U.S. lording it over Iran about developing nuclear power for its people's energy needs.   Back then though, I was a student at OU where hundreds of middle eastern students studied nuclear engineering without so much as a blink of concern by the U.S.

After fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and rise of the fundamentalist Khomeni religious revival in Iran, and especially when U.S. hostages were seized in the U.S. Embassy during the Carter years, the U.S. seemed to shift toward a conservative foreign policy which did not  treat other countries as equals, and the cold breath of isolationism and fascism began to blow.  We fought secret little wars in places like Nicaragua, El Salvador, and in the Middle East.  The French gave Syria nuclear capability.   Middle Eastern politics began to triangulate against an ever-Christianizing West.   Until today, nuclear power is just seen as a subset of  capability of atomic destruction for ideological hegemony.

So yes, I could accept the risk assessments of nuclear power, even after my own friends have died of cancer from it.  How many others lived because their ventilators breathed from the power?  How many others didn't freeze in winter?  And, looking into the future.... how many others might live because we'ved curbed greenhouse gasses?

I'd propose that we vote it a different way:  Let's cut back on energy consumption with robust conservation.  Let's apply policies that reward small families and small energy footprints.  Let's avoid the nuclear proliferation by our individual actions.

I'd propose it, except that it doesn't address the basic problem which Lovins pointed out.  Nuclear power only works in a secure world with secure neighbor-countries.  It only works in peacetime.  For warring societies, it is far too easy to take a bite of the apple, and produce weapons of mass destruction.  Few weapons are as formidable as nukes for destroying entire populations of people, and sickening others to die slowly from the long-term contamination.  There is a genie in the bottle.  It would be so easy to uncork the lid.

So, I am left wondering whether it is better to make personal sacrifices and live in a fascist police state for nuclear power... or whether it is better to not go there.  President Obama this week unveiled taxpayer subsidies to take us on the road to a nuclear future.  At least in the last fifteen years, that was a road which had been closed and was growing over with saplings while the Bush Administration held back nuclear competition to favor the petroleum industry. (It is odd that we find blessings in the most unlikely places.)

Or is it best to insist, for everyone and not just myself, that we bank our future on solar PV technologies that consumers are too mind-boggled to learn, and on wind generators that have their own noise and avian flyway harms, and on small localized or home power units which are diversified into a patchwork quilt of solutions.

The best answer I see is to take nukes out of the hands of governments altogether.  It prevents them from being terrorist targets and we eliminate that vulnerability.  Then we need to do the hard learning that is needed to shift to soft energy, diversified energy, local energy, neighborhood energy.  Instead of big huge grids, we need a million micro-grids.  And we need to apply the same standard across the board from nation to nation so that no one country is judged by external merits-- No Nukes everywhere.

I encourage your comments.

Road Trip

After my mother passed away, it seemed important to take a little road trip to visit my former Mother In Law, and Katy's grandmother.  We just got home from a road trip doing just that.

Sometimes it is difficult to find the time to go for a visit with loved ones.  We had such a marvellous visit, and I'm glad that Katy's grandmother and Kai had an opportunity to spend a bit of time together.

One Square Comes Lately

 

After making a fun quilt, its just as fun to photograph it, because you can see it in a different context. This quilt, I had no intention of creating a pop art effect on. But look at the square on the right hand side in the middle of the picture. See how it looks dropped-in later or on top of the rest of the quilt? Its an optical illusion. Working with stark contrasting colors gives that dimensionality sometimes. This is just a quilt top, but if someone wants it finished instead of doing it themselves, I'll consult with you for an appropriate thickness, batting fiber, backing color and fiber to match your room, and thread in matching or contrasting vivid colors--- which ever you might prefer. Quilt Top $100; Finished Quilt for any size of bed $450

I Heart Tahlequah Quilt

Here is a fully finished quilt with custom freehand machine quilting by Lindy Mahaney at Front Porch Quilt Shop in Stilwell.  I made the top of white cotton fabric which I hand-dyed and then screenprinted with my original Eye Heart Tahlequah design, in spots.  These panels were experimental pieces, as so much of my work is.

The picture isn't too clear, but in the next week I will be listing this quilt for sale at Island Retreat, Etsy and will make a clear pic of it so viewers can focus on the details... which are the whollop on this quilt.  Each square has some colors in applique.

If you get this blog by email, try clicking the link and visiting the blog page for a better view.  I understand that in some browsers, the layout is overlapping.  This quilt is $450 and can be purchased by contacting me direct, or via Oklahoma Food Coop in the next future (March) delivery cycle, or via Etsy Island Retreat.

A Geocaching Adventure

Geocaching is secret, so the uninitiated will not find and destroy the cache.  That is why is it always best to have a good excuse for wandering around with a GPS device, usually on public property.

One day, we discovered that a bunch of brand new geocaches had been announced over the state line in Arkansas, so we quickly grabbed our gear and went to find them, hoping to be first and get the honor of "First To Find."  We found a couple of them, but one was kind of hard to find.  It was some place along the fence row of a rural community center called, I think, Illinois Valley.  This little building also doubled as a place for church meetings.  It was a hot summer afternoon with plenty of sunshine left but a storm was moving in, and the cloud cover was interfering without GPS satellite reception.

I was scouting the back yard of the community center and Friedrick was working along the fence row, looking for some clue of the hidden treasure.  I heard him talking and came around the corner.  An elderly lady was holding a box of Ritz crackers like a book in her arms, and asking what he was up to.  "Oh, we are just having a look at this fence."  She must have thought we were surveying for an insurance claim, because she said, "That farmer who owns the fence... his tree is down across the property line."  She was tattling on him for not cleaning up after the winter ice storm of January 2009.  She told us his name and so I dutifully wrote it down.  And she sort of confessed, "Our church uses this community building for Vacation Bible School.  It starts in just a few minutes."  That was when Friedrick said, "Are you ready to call it a day?  We can come back and finish up some other time."  I nodded, then inquired about a good restaurant nearby.

We headed to the truck and loaded up.  That was when I was stung by a wasp and squealed in a most undignified way.  As this particular wasp was now down the armhole of my blouse, Friedrick was helping me retrieve it.  And we realized we looked more like a married couple than two insurance surveyors or engineers working together.  By then, the parking cone and reflective safety vests that made up a part of our "cover story" didn't jibe with the fact that we were both sitting in the truck groping after this wasp that was crawling on me.

We quickly solved the problem, buckled up and pulled away, just as a man was walking up to the car for a visit, as if we didn't see him just about 20 feet away.  When we got home  and logged our "Did Not Find" we discovered that we were not the first ones there who had been scared off by VBS volunteers that day.  Those poor VBS volunteers must have wondered why all the suspicious strangers were showing up with GPS units in hand!

Geocaching

Here I am, spilling the beans.  See, there's a secret hobby.  It is called "geocaching."  Here's how you do it:
1.  Get a GPS receiver.  (That's a global positioning satellite receiver.)  Best is a Garmin.  But you could use the Tom-Tom in your vehicle that you use for finding addresses, if it is portable.  Check your cellphone.  If it is like my Droid Eris, it has GPS built-in and you can download a cool little application used to input latitude and longitude coordinates.
2.  Visit www.geocaching.com and register.  Answer some questions (such as your address), and you can search for geocaches in your town, or some place you plan to visit on vacation.  There you will find that on Earth, there are over 800,000 hidden geocaches.  Some will be tiny little microcapsules hidden in hollowed-out tree-knots, and others will be huge geological features, such as a certain geological uplift around Tahlequah.

Voila!  Usually, a geocache will be a hidden ammo box containing a jumble of fun souvenirs ranging from carabiners to compasses, Happy Meal toys to school supplies.  Always, (except, ie geological uplifts) you'll find a log to sign, proving you found it.  Put it back exactly as you found it, and make note of what you take-- always leaving something of equal or greater value in the cache for the next adventurer.

Why do we like to geocache?  Its an adenturous way to get exercise, visit some place interesting, and log a "smiley".  At geocaching. com you can log your find and it will keep track of your game.  Some people program their phone or computer to alert them at the first posting of a new cache, and make it a game to speed around being the first person to visit the cache.  That way, they get the best "first to find" prize.  Just different people create and hide the caches.  Friedrick and I have hidden a few.

That's the background for this cartoon which Friedrick made for me.  To get it, let me add that our Tom-Tom has a feature where the driver can set different voices, such as Homer Simpson or Mr. T, for giving the verbal directions to a location.  Ours happens to be Wardley, a Jamaican voice.  And when you pass up your turn, he alerts you by saying, "What kind of idiot business is this?  Jah no say he want me to tell you again.  Turn round the vehicle."

What's secret about it?
The reason you have probably never heard of geocaching is that it is a secret hobby.  It is secret, so "muggles" or those who don't know about geocaching, won't pilfer the caches and take the treasures.  Occasionally a muggle will happen upon a cache and take it or just the contents.  There are caretakers for each cache, and sometimes trusted muggles are clued-in about a cache so as to help protect it.

Dance Skirts

Cherokee women look for a couple of things when they make a skirt to wear to traditional dances.  For one thing, a skirt should have the ruffle beginning at the knee.  That's so you have room to move around and you're not constrained by the size of the skirt.  The main part of the skirt should be loose enough to sit in comfortably, with an elastic waist for bending, twisting and moving-- snug enough to hold up the dress and loose enough to breath and stretch in.  The ruffle can be short or long.  If it is short, it is more likely to get caught on your legs if they have something on them.    A deep or long ruffle gives a better fit.  In choosing the best skirt length, I tend to prefer a skirt that hits at about mid-calf.  Shorter skirts are found among Mvskoke and Natchez dancers, and longer skirts are more characteristically Cherokee or Loyal Band Shawnee.   Shorter skirts are better for carrying the sounds of shells and cans.  Longer skirts look better and are warmer.  The dust ruffle can be sewn-in, or it can be sewn on top.  Dust ruffle gathers can be regular or 'chunky' and irregular.

I sometimes make skirts for dancers and guests.  I like to keep a couple of  extra skirts on hand, to give to friends who come to dances.  I just enjoy making them.  Sometimes, a bolt of fabric just "jumps out at me" and I think, "That would make a pretty skirt."

One skirt in this picture is black, grey, blue and white with circles and hearts that make lines.  In first grade, my grandmother made me a dress from some of  the same fabric that her grandmother had.  And this reminded me of that old black, gray and white machine-printed bolt cloth.  Its 28 inches long.  The waist fits 28" to 38".  It is modest and rather short.

The second skirt is dusty rose with dime-sized roses, a maroon border and flounce dust ruffle.   It is about 29 to 30 inches in finished length.  It can be almost any waist size from womens' Medium to Plus, because the elastic will be added when it is gifted or sold.

I have been asked to make skirts like these for Cherokee tribal citizens, and usually charge $50.  If you find them for sale in retail establishments, they will be more like $75 due to retail markup.  There is a certain time of year when all women get a new skirt... either by gift, purchase or making a new one.

Labyrinth Quilt Top

 

Puzzle Garden or Labyrinth Quilt

Here's a cheery quilt top, recently finished.  Some tops, I just put back into the closet to save until someone chooses it, so I can have it finished to suit the new owner.  This one is made of commercial fabrics with black and white accents.  It is called Puzzle Garden or Labyrinth because it reminded me of those cool formal gardens in England where one could take various twists and turns to arrive at the middle.  It is available for sale, if anyone is interested.  $100 top only, or $450 fully completed with your design decisions in any bed size, and that includes shipping or delivery. 

In Memory of Bertie Kirk Carter

I've learned something about cancer this year.  I thought all cancers were kinda alike.  It turns out that some grow slowly, or are more capable of treatment than others.

After Christmas, my mother, Bertie Carter felt tired and listless--- even to the point of not being terribly clear-headed.  When my father and sister finally talked her into going to the ER, they kept her and gave her five pints of blood for anemia.  It turns out that her hospital visit led to tests which led to a visit to the cancer treatment center in Muskogee, where capable Dr. Vasseraddi (sp.) told us, "She has acute, or fast-growing, myopathic leukemia.  Statistically, the 10 to 15% who do live five years out from a diagnosis, are not those who are 72 years of age.  There is treatment-- chemo-- but it would not be successful for you."  The next week, we embarked on Nana's first week of dacogen.  She had four hour-long IV injections of it, but on Friday there came an ice storm and everyone was snowed in.  By Monday's treatment time, she had passed.

So many people have expressed their regards and offered to assist us in this time.  I speak for all of us in saying that we have felt the loving bond with so many friends and family over these few days since Monday, February 1 when she passed.

It has been a journey of less than three weeks, but a very hard one.  Words can't encompass how capable, funny, sweet, beautiful, compassionate, tirelessly energetic, creative, patient and clever my mom was.  She left behind two girls with advanced degrees, 2 at OU, one with an NSU degree and a grandson who loved her very much.

She got to know her first great-grandchild for a bit over one month before passing.  This pic is from November at El Zarape, where she always ordered the chicken lime soup.

The last night, Sunday January 31st was a turning point for her.  I had called her before bedtime and our plan was that I'd drive her to chemo in Muskogee in my truck with four-wheel drive, since snow and ice were still packing some of the streets, highways and bridges.  "OK, Sugar-Babe.  I'll see you at 9:30.  Love you," she said.  We've never been shy about saying we love each other.  My father went to bed early with her.  At 1:30 he noticed she was gone, and found that she had gone to the other bed but was breathing shallow, perspiring and ill.  He stayed awake concerned, but she fought him to keep him from calling an ambulance.  At dawn, he called my sister who came over and called them over Nana's protests.

She was frail but polite going to the stretcher, and thanked the medics.  On the way, her blood pressure bottomed and she was resuscitated-- and again after arriving at the hospital.  She had tubes everywhere when I went in to see her.  The doctor had braced me for it.  Her heart flatlined as my sister and I  sat holding her hand and kissing her forehead.  Now she could be free of the pumps and beeping machines, the painful pricks and the aches and stinging.  She could be beautiful again and free.

When I think of her, my favorite (recurring) image is of a coifed 60s mom, age 30-something in pink lipstick wearing a shorts set and holding a trowel from having just planted roses.  She wrote all over her final instructions "Closed casket, please."    And that was so others could remember her from better times.

In our family, we're not weepy nor regretful nor angry.  My little sister says it like this:  "We just put on our Big Girl Panties and deal with it."  We know Nana is over the pain.  At the memorial, Dennis sang, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."  I like to think of her as a flitty little sparrow, who has flown away because she has important sparrow business to take care of, and she has done her best to give us the tools in life to carry on with things earthly. She was never just ours anyway--- she belonged to NSU, to the Hospital Board, the town's Planning and Zoning Commission, the sick, the elders, the children, the teens who needed chiffon-dreamy gowns for Prom, the mentees, the exchange students, the pastor's crew, the pitch players and domino players and golfers and History Day students, the intern teachers and the local beauty pageants and fashion shows, the renters and grandchildren.  The pastor remarked that her accomplishments were so great that the Energizer Bunny would be giving up and waving a white flag in concession to her.

Bertie Kirk Carter was b. February 6, 1937 at Braggs Oklahoma. She attended school at Stone Chapel, Boudinot, and Bagley, and perhaps other places.   In 1955 she married Eugene Clinton Carter at the home of Reverend Krouse at or near Welling.  They made their home in Tahlequah, having built a house in Boone Addition.  Then they built a house in Monks Addition at 601 Victor Street.  They had two daughters, Kathy Jean Carter and Karen Jane Carter.  She succumbed to Leukemia on Monday, February 1, 2010 just sixteen days after having been diagnosed.  Donations to NSU foundation will support scholarships in her honor.

Experimental Cherokee Quilt

 

Experimental Cherokee Quilt

by Kathy Tibbits 

I'm sharing this quilt in my personal collection.  It was originally intended for a quilt show, but I didn't have time to quilt it.  Since then, I've applied it as a back to a kitschy crazy quilt, simply batted with an old fuzzy nylon blanket like we used to use for electric blankets.  Like that, it could never be a serious entry into a quilt show.  (It is now outsider art.    )

It is made of sixteen fat quarter panels, each individually hand-dyed by me and discharge dyed.  I interpreted a Cherokee dance on each panel.   I like the way some panels are like rippling water, and others are like sky or night sky. It looks all wrinkley and rough because it gets hard service here at the Island Retreat all of the time!

You're invited to become a follower of my blog and get an email each day with a trailer line to let you know if you'd like to read the day's post. 

Join the Oklahoma Food Cooperative

Several years back on a snowy winter day we held a startup meeting in Tahlequah for Oklahoma Food Coop members who might join in the NE part of the state.  Now today Coop has thousands of members and once a month, from all across Oklahoma, producers deliver to OKC where goods are sorted and go back out to several thousand folks who ordered fresh Oklahoma-made goods.  Producers offer a vast variety of foodstuffs and other useful things.  You can get buffalo, lamb, and in the past you could get rabbit, deer and tilapia.  Great free range chicken is available, plus nice organic meats and veggies in season.  In Summer, feast on soft fruit from peaches to figs.  In winter, you can still get squash and prepared foods which have been put up all year round in waiting for the lean season.

 

Co-op Instigator, Bob Waldrop Checking the Bread at one of our very first Co-op Board of Directors Meetings.  Food is a big part of the Co-op-ing that we do. 

One of the most amazing things about the Coop is that it runs on volunteer labor.  Volunteers do the sorting in OKC and they do the sorting at the delivery sites.  The producers prep their goods and enter their own products online, and consumers buy online a week before delivery.  It is exciting when orders first open, because everyone tries to get there in time to get some of the first dozens of eggs or a limited quantity of fresh butter or heavy cream, greek yogurt, or cowboy cheese, washing powder.  So, I'm opening it up to ongoing discussion, and maybe some of the coop members will drop by and post his or her favorite item.  Today my fave is the shampoo soap, because it makes my hair so soft and curly!  I used to get very expensive nice Aveda hair products, but I can't leave this soap alone.  Today I cooked chocolate bread with the organic chocolate from one of the coffe companies in the coop.  It made for rich bread that is not sweet but very sophisticated in flavor.  I love the coffees too, and shop from all 3 coffee producers each month to stay in stock.  The statewide Annual Meeting is a food and friend-making extravaganza, taking place soon.  If you join in time, don't miss it.  

Details:  Visit www.oklahomafood.coop  Members join for about $50 (one time) and pay each month for their buys, picking up at the closest location of which there are many statewide.

At Oklahoma Food Cooperative, find Fluffy's Compleat Boutique listings for tees and clothing in sizes for adults, children and babies.  You can find quilt tops and quilts made of hand-dyed fabric by artist Kathy Tibbits which are not available any place else.  Some hemp and hemp/cotton tees and skirts are sold via the co-op.  Organic cotton shirts are occasionally available there.  Gourmet kitchen goods from Fluffy's can be purchased at Oklahoma Food, from time to time.  This usually includes potholders or hot pads, and sometimes chef aprons, kitchen towels and dinner naps, placemats, and refrigerator magnets. 

Friedrick Zaps The Satellites

 

Friedrick zaps the satellite dish with his super tight Illinois River Squirt Laser 

Last year at the end of January, we experienced a major ice storm, where we were without power for 12 days.  It was fun!  Friedrick and I read books out loud to each other by flashlight and oil lamp.  We hiked to the neighbor's, who was stranded by downed trees, and took her some supplies.

This year, we're calling the new ice storm the 2010 Brinkley Memorial Blizzard because when it happened at the same time last year, our daughter Katy Winbray was getting married.  We stayed at the Canebrake the night before the wedding (Canebrake gets five stars from Fluffy!).  That way, we could fix our hair and I could put on my makeup in the light.  The wedding at Canebrake was  gorgeous and very gracious and elegant.  We hardly cared that the patio dance was moved because of solid ice!

This years' ice storm has been just four days long,  and after one day without internet and TV (because the satellites were iced-over), Friedrick and I started coming up with ideas for how to clear the satellites.  My "cold wet garden hose" proposal led Friedrick to a better solution:  We have these water pistols for playing when we float the Illinois River.  You can pressurize the water and it shoots a long way.  So we filled it with rounds of hot water, and melted the ice without having to climb a ladder or get wet.