Steam Punk Quilt Top

Today's post is a fun quilt top that I made in late October.  I found steam punk image fabric and designed the remainder of the quilt around these nice pieces with themes of time and travel.

I was attending the Governor's Water Conference and took my sewing machine, so I would have something to do in the evenings.  When I travel without Dennis I miss him, so quilting is something I can do while I am alone.

This fun quilt is just a top thus far, and can be made up with any solid or print backing in Standard, Queen or King for $400.00 complete.  It can be custom quilted with names, initials, secret messages and the like, in any color(s) of thread.

Pensil Fairy Organizer

The Pensil Fairy

The Pensil Fairy works in the wee hours of night, carefully timing her visit during REM-stage sleep so as to avoid human detection.  She sets about the business of sharpening your pensils and *plink* restoring the erasers on the top.  This is her busy time of year, because so many people have been doing their taxes.  Pensils are in sad disarray across this vast continent.  But she's undaunted.  It does not bother her that she has to work in a crown of modge podge flowers with a corona of lindor ball chocolate wrappers, nor that she does her work gloved in a jaguar hand.  It is a privilege and an honor to be the Pensil Fairy, though it is a burden to have the weight of the world's pensil inventory maintenance on her delicate, almost Viscorian shoulders.

That is why I thought I should make it easy on her by creating the Pensil Fairy Organizer.  It is dually useful.  It can be a recycled tin to hold your pensils.  Or you can buy it for The Pensil Fairy Herself as a labour union meeting hall where she can change the whole Pensil system by training apprentice Pensil Fairies and journeyman Pensil Fairies in a proper Division of Pensil Labour.  It is truly an Organizer of Pensils and Labour. 

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Today is the birthday of my grandmother, Mary Eliabeth Ross Carter.  She was born in Treat, Arkansas and is interred in Tahlequah City Cemetery.  She played the banjo, and sang gospel songs.  She moved her lips when she read the newspaper to herself, and she made great biscuits.  She had red hair, and after my grandfather passed away, she became a driver for the blind, and a nurse aid.  She kept an extremely tidy house and worked hard.  Later, she married a man who loved wrestling on TV.  I saw the moon landing at her house.

Cyrus Conrail, Railroad Tycoon Murder Solved

I was just in Eureka Springs because as railroad company nurse, my duties require that I travel where the railroad needs me.  I'm Nurse Saidie Ratchet.  Pictured here with me is Old Roger, after he came into a rather sizeable settlement for injuries incurred while working on the line to Eureka Springs.  We settled into 1881 Crescent Cottage B&B for a Murder Mystery weekend on Friday evening.  Old Roger cleans up purty nice.  When he arrived at the celebratory dinner gala on Friday, he was attired in his dowdy, stinky usual duds, but I took him shopping.

We hobbled all over Eureka Springs looking for clues to solve the murder of Cyrus Conrail, stopping to quench our dehydration at a little underground pub called Jack's.  I implored Old Roger to sing karaoke, to which he finally resigned himself.  Its kinda funny to see a 1908 railroad laborer performing Carlos Santana's "Smooth" with a cane for playing air guitar.  It reminded me of one of the Soggy Bottom Boys from the movie 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' 

It was our first time to stay at a B&B.  And Old Roger solved the mystery!  He also won "Best Male Characterization" for his character portrayal.  Old Roger was part Slingblade, part Joker from Dark Knight, and 100% outsider smart aleck.  I, nurse Saidie, was worried that I had treated Mr. Conrail too rough with my whips and chains 'alternative' therapy a few days before his untimely denoument, but was glad I happened to have my handcuffs with me because they came in handy.  

We loved Eureka Springs, and it happened to be Diversity Week, so there was a wonderfully eclectic crowd in town-- bikers and gays, not the least of which.  I'd love to live among so many artists in a community with so much community spirit.  No place else has so much public arts and aesthetics infrastructure.  We tried a delicious meal at Garden Bistro, a cafe specializing in local food.

Murder Mystery Weekend

Dennis and I are headed to Eureka Springs for a Murder Mystery at an 18th century bed & breakfast cottage this weekend.  I forget why I dread leaving home--- I was taught that one should always clean house before going.  So I've swabbed the toilets in case the cats knock over both water bowls, vacuumed in case we need to send someone into the house while we are gone, done up the dishes to deter pests, washed all laundry, put away Winter quilts, packed clothes and Edwardian costumes, and carried out the trash.  Well, OK, I am going to carry out the trash next.  Changed the litter box, put out food for all the critters, watered the plants and erased excess email.  Now I'm so tired that I'll welcome to adventure with no regrets!  Hope to have some cool pics to post when home, about Monday.

1909 Charm Afghan

1909 Charm Afghan

Despite rumors that I was a little girl in 1909, this is not one of my creations.  This afghan was purchased.  Always ask when you buy an old textile item, because often you can keep the info about its history which adds an interesting factor.  This afghan was made by Berta Conklin Alteres, who was born in Fort Smith Arkansas.  She lived in Wagoner County Oklahoma, and this afghan was purchased in Wagoner or Cherokee County, Oklahoma in the 1990s.  I love the wool crocheted ruffle, although there are some raggedy places in it.

"Charm" textiles are made with scraps and surplus.  They tend to be less "patterny", more random and funkier than perfectly planned textiles.  I like to see the random or raucous color combinations.  It is a delight to see how women Skwooched things together to make them fit and become orderly despite limitations such as mixed quantities of different wool.  This one is all wool.  Crocheters will attest-- using wool takes more finger power than acrylic yards today.  Wools are dyed differently and take color less evenly than acrylic. 

The person who sold me this afghan thought it was made in about 1909.  But as usual, I have a red flag question.  One square is varigated, and I'm wondering if varigated commercial yarn was invented back then?  But maybe, it wasn't commercial yarn and Ms. Alteres or someone else dyed it ombre/varigated herself.