A series of fun potholders

Recently, I made up a bunch of fun, funky potholders to list on Island Retreat, my etsy site.  You can see the whole collection if you click on the Island Retreat Etsy thumbnails on the sidebar.  They're just joyous little mindless artsy pieces with insulbrite sewn between the layers or foundation-pieced on insulbrite, for kitchen chores.  I use them to take cookies out of the oven, or as a drip pad in front of the coffeepot, because you can toss them in the washer and have a fresh one every day.  This one has pyramids made from prairie points, and Oklahoma in the sky.  Check an earlier blog if you would like to learn how to make prairie points.  They are easy and fun.

The Latest News on Milo Piddlewhiskers

Here's a 'teen' pic of Milo Piddlewhiskers.  He was the first of 3 kittens born December 7th and is the handsomest young fellow.  His eyes are turning more golden each day, like his parents.  They are pictured at the link above, so you can see that Milo takes after his father, Route 66 King Arthur of Piddlewhiskers & Snugglesworth.
Milo is a blue Selkirk Rex.  Blue is the name of his color, and Selkirk Rex is his breed.  When parents like his have kittens, about half are curly and about half are straight-haired like a normal cat.  So in developing the curly breed we say he is a "Nonstandard".  However, he is definitely a Selkirk Rex, even though he looks almost exactly like a British Shorthair except his tail is a bit long and his shape is just slightly less cobby.  He's going to be beautiful-- with his father's sleek thick light colored fur and his mother's intelligence. 

Milo is the guy who always comes to peep into the dishwasher when I'm putting up the dishes.  He has a fascination with that dishwasher and sort of listens to it run.  He lets me bathe him gently.  We sometimes find him sleeping on the foot of the bed when we wake up in the morning.  And he to my office to explore and be petted.  Occasionally, he wants to see some place he cannot reach-- the bathroom dressing table, inside the shower stall where Gracie and Arthur's 'big cat' litter box is, etc.  I help him out in getting to places that one day he will eventually be able to reach on his own.  He's a little bit shy and hides when company comes over.  He loves to play around my quilting area and tussles around in the quilting strips or watches the sewing machine intently.

We'd like to get to know someone who would like to have Milo as a permanent family member, an indoor cat who will be neutered and current on his shots when he comes to you.  If you ever decide you cannot keep him, then we would like to have him back because we want him to have a great life.  He's so precious, sweet and cuddly. 

If he takes after the Brit side of the family, he'll be an aloof  king of the house, presiding over everyone and everything, calling the shots and letting you know when he will permit you to pet him.  Actually, his father Arthur is a bit more easygoing and approachable, even coming in to remind me when it is bedtime so he can take his post at the foot of the bed until we fall asleep.   Arthur is intrigued by toes.  He wants to lay by them.  He wants to lick them.  And it tickles.  Thus far, Milo has not developed his father's fascination, although Dudley likes toes.

(Our previous Brit, Shadow, was a bit of a curmudgeon in his elder years and would whip his tail around spatting in displeasure--- either just for fun or if he was offended because the water bowl was not quite fresh enough.  Any number of things would merit his indignation.  But it led to running a tight ship just as he liked it around here.)

Milo is named after my great-great uncle Milo Johnson, who had a brother named Dudley also.  But we've held off on registering the litter so his new family can give him a different name if they prefer.  His champion bloodlines on both sides of the family are just amazing, and he has some famous ancestors.  He is of course trained to use the litterbox, current on his shots and will come to you disease-free and neutered.  We would like to find a family for him who is settled down and can make a committment to a pet for 15 years, and we'd be especially happy if he could end up in a home with one of his brothers or another cat so they could be companions.  Please contact me at 918-696-3175 if you would be interested in becoming his 'forever' family.

Mad Hatter Scarves

Last year, when Alice in Wonderland came out, I made a Mad Hatter scarf that was purchased by a friend in Missouri.  Recently, I was asked to make another one by someone who is preparing a Red Glove Review costume for the Mad Hatter.  The center scarf was sent to her.  But I love this design and made a couple more at the same time using a soy wax batik technique.  Black is a difficult color for silk dye, if you use the common Procion dyes rather than a custom silk dye (which I didn't have in black).  You get a dark purple range of colors, and the bright yellow hardly takes overdye.  But it gives a bright and varied colorway.  These scarves are available in time for Valentine's Day, $18 each including shipping if you email ktibbits at lrec.org .

Daphinous Buttercream Piddlewhiskers Kitten Born December 7, 2010

A few days ago, I posted one pic of this little sweetheart kitten in blogging about her mother, but now she gets a blog article of her own.  She's the most gregariaous of the Piddlewhiskers babies.  She was born December 7, 2010 and opened her eyes just about December 21, 2010, which was the date of the Winter Solstice and Lunar Eclipse.  Who would not want to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for an occasion like that!  A desireable breeder Cream Selkirk Rex, she carries her mama's genes for agouti, red and black, dilute, and I think shading.  (If smoke is recessive and takes 2 carriers, because she has a full-blood sister of shaded smoke).   She's the beauty.  If you are interested in having her for the Selkirk Rex breeding program, please do contact me.   Both her British Shorthair sire and Selkirk Rex mother have amazing pedigrees to multiple champion blood lines, and she has the most amazing type, disposition and form.  Right this moment as I write, she is sleeping in her mama's kitten nest (a big wooden treasure chest by my desk), yawning and having kitten dreams while she grows. 

Smokey Jasmine Piddlewhiskers, Blue Selkirk Rex

Jasmine Piddlewhiskers, Smoke Blue Selkirk Rex, Born December 7, 2010

This darling little baby girl was born last and is the sweetest and most delicate kitten of Gracie Piddlewhiskers' three babies.  She's a smoke.  That word describes a cat whose fur is dark at the tips and light at the base close to the skin.  When you run your finger across her fur from back to front, you can see that her base color is lighter and the tips of her fur are darker.  She is just way barely opening her eyes in this pic.  Yesterday (Solstice and eclipse) she began to open them.  Here she seems to be really concentrating on the bright sheet she can see.   Jasmine is not as stocky and big as the other two girls, so she might be less 'typey.'  The idea in the Selkirk Rex breed, is that Selkirks would be outcrossed with other pedigreed cats so that by 2015, they would have more genetic diversity and also look thick, cobby and plush.  Jasmine is 100% official Selkirk Rex breed, but her genes include ancestors of Persian, British Shorthair, and Exotic.  Today, Selkirks are being distinguished as Long Hair, Short Hair, Straight and Curly.  Not sure but she seems at this time to be a short hair straight.  She is for sale, $250 and when 12 weeks old she can go to a new home as a neutered family pet Selkirk Rex with papers. 

We'd like to feel assured that she will get a great lifetime home and be treated like royalty.  When you choose a kitten, you are adding a new family member and we want to make sure that it is a totally positive relationship all the way around.  If you are interested in adopting her, reach ktibbits@lrec.org . 

Lilac Selkirk Rex

Lilac Selkirk Rex of Piddlewhiskers & Snugglesworth

While searching for the time to launch our cattery website for Piddlewhiskers & Snugglesworth, here is an updated pic of this sweet little female Selkirk Rex lilac.  We're assuming she is a female, that is.  And we are also assuming she is a lilac, for she has the soft wispy color more like her father who is a lilac British Shorthair.  Her new family can give her her real official registered name, and for now I am informally calling her Lilly Piddlewhiskers.  Her registration name will begin with Piddlewhiskers.  She is beginning to open her eyes (12/22/2010).  She is the curious one, who approaches everything to investigate, on wobbly legs.  Well, it is more like she raises up and falls forward or rolls to the side.  I think she will be walking soon.  Her nose is dark purple but her paw pads are bright pink.  If she were a brit, that would meet the lilac color category at TICA (The International Cat Association, Inc.).  She is officially a Selkirk Rex, or will be when the litter is registered.   She has her daddy's smile.  And she has thick long, long whiskers like her father, too.  Maybe her name should start with an M because she has an M on her forehead.  She carries for dilute, smoke, red, black and white, agouti.  Her ancestors are Brit and Selkirk, Persian and Exotic... and of course a famous ole black and white curly barn cat named Oskar No-Face Kowalski.

The Good Mother

Lyriccurls Gracie Piddlewhiskers, Selkirk Rex

Gracie's litter of 3 chubby baby kittens were born in December, and she seemed surprised when she had them, but has taken to motherhood with amazing skill.  This pic is rare because it shows her curly whiskers.  That's how you know a Selkirk curly at birth-- and one of her 3 babies does have the characteristic curly little whiskers.  Two, we think, will be "straights" or darling fuzzy kinky pet kittens but just not so curly that they'll be suitable for carrying on the Selkirk qualities.

Buttercream curly female.  Buttercream isn't an official breed quality, but it best describes the colors of this sweet pudgy lil female, and she has the curls.   She is Gracie's special one, and almost intuitively Gracie holds her close under the paw.  I think they say that Tomcats sometimes try to seperate away the kittens that they think are not their own.  The time will come that we will have to part with these darlings, but for now we're delighting in having a kitten family.  She is going to have Gracie's prominent cheeks and pointed chin.



Announcing Selkirk Rex Kittens

On December 7th, 3 new kittens were born in our family.  The mom is Lyriccurls Gracie Piddlewhiskers, a registered Selkirk Rex.  The father is Route 66 King Arthur of Piddlewhiskers & Snugglesworth.  The first was the blue cream ticked or spotted  agouti.  See how the one on your right has a bicycle handlebar light mustache?  It is probably a girl.  Next was a cute little curly cream, which looks like Gracie's sister Daphne.  The youngest was this little dark smoke, shown on the left.  Before this one was one stillborn with long smoke blue straight fur.

I'm writing this on Day 3.  Each kitten is developing a unique personality, or perhaps already has a unique personna that we're beginning to notice.  The cream-colored kitten  is Momma's Favorite.  Gracie holds her between her arms when sleeping, gently, warmly and protectively.  The spotty blue cream one has a big wide head like Arthur, and will carry more of the cobby type of a British Shorthair.  This is a characteristic that breeders are encouraged to develop by mating Selkirks with Brits.  And the sweet little smoky dark one is the most easly satisfied.  At the moment it is having a bodacious milkfest, having awakend from a nap underneath the creamy kitten. 

They seem to be interested in seeing the world but just can't quite open their eyes.  The first day, their little ears were pinned down and now those cute ears are 'flowering'  but still look like the ears of an American Curl.

Gracie is a Selkirk Rex, registered with CFA.  Her heritage traces back to Oscar No-Face Kowalski, the first generation from the first curly cat:  Miss DePesto.  Gracie's sire is Merlin (Kurlipurrz Merlin), a Blue Silver Tabby Longhair.  He was named #1 in the TICA Southwest Region as a kitten.  Gracie's mother is Kurlipurrz Josie Blue Belle.

Arthur is a Lilac British Shorthair and is registered with TICA.  Piddlewhiskers & Snugglesworth, our Cattery is also registered with TICA.  TICA stands for The International Cat Association.  Arthur's sire is Alcmena Smokey, and you can see his picture.   Arthur's mother is Anahata Evelin (known as Misty to her family) and her baby pics are here.  You can see her pedigree, too.

These kittens will be for sale. Their gender has not yet been determined. The cream curly kitten will probably be $1,200, including breeding rights. The "lilac" blue cream will be about $800, including breeding rights if curly, or $250 if straight. The sweet darling little smoke will be a precious pet, neutered, about $250.  It is customary to reserve a particular kitten before it reaches 12 weeks of age and can go to its new home.  We want to make sure that our kittens will have good homes, because they are our family members. 

The Steampunk Desk Accessory

Steampunk Desktop Card & Letter Organizer

I love to find old abandoned wooden things in the thrift stores with good sturdy bones, so I can give new life to something that might otherwise have gone unappreciated.  When I found this neat old letter and business card holder, how could I resist punking it all up with femo beads and watch parts, twisted wire and copper edging?  This lil sweetie is shown featuring my business card which says on one side, "Make Bad Problems Go Away."  (I am an attorney).  This desk piece will be available at my Island Retreat etsy store in a few days.  If you'd like to visit there, click on one of the pictures under the Island Retreat Widget and you'll be swhisked away to my lil store.

Its Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras Picture Frame

It is always Mardi Gras at Fluffy's Compleat Boutique.  I made this fun happy picture frame using stuff from my Mr. Collage kit and flowers for my mother.  Its a stand-up fabric covered commercial frame, recycled to make a nice 4x6 inch tribute to someone who graduated or somebody's birthday, or for a child.  Don't let little kids eat the parts, though.  This frame is going to be listed for sale at etsy.  Click one of the pictures on the Island Retreat widget at the righthand side of my blog to explore this and other items in the housewares and art end of things.

Mardi Gras Picture Frame

Funky Little Photo Creche

Funky Little Photo Creche

Today (Friday) it is storming, so for some reason this blog is refusing to justify left.  See this delightful little creche?  It is made from a gold thing and a little crate (about CD size) that I got at a thrift store.  I love recycling found objects, especially rusty metal things crushed by cars.  This one, though, is not made with a lot of crushed metal.  It does have a couple of steampunk swirls on top.  I thought it would be nice for those tiny 2 by 3 inch photo frames.  It has some cool femo clay beads that I made, which look like eyes and a heart.  It has feathers and stuff, too.  This piece would be ideal for a girl's room or your darling one who is going off to college.  It is available for purchase via Oklahoma Food Cooperative.  Coolest of all, I love to do custom pieces reflecting the personality of the person that I'm making the creche for.  If you are a girley girl and want girley stuff, then I'm your girl.  If you need a Father's Day tribute to your supergreat man, I can make art for guys... which is kinda hard to find.  Want to commemmorate the birth of a new child?  The celebration of Grannyhood?  A special thank you thinkpiece?  Reach me if you'd like an affordable and fun custom assemblage.

Mudme Natural-Dyed Scarf

Mudme Natural Dyed Scarf

Mudme is a Thai technique for making great multi-colored tiedyes, by coloring bound objects which are then removed.  You can see I used a roundish shaped object (a rock) for the tie on this one, and instead of the traditional multi center, I used a soy wax resist to keep the white silk.  It is an imperfect process, and that is what makes this work so very intriguing.  Each scarf is a work of art, unlike any other.  There are so many uncontrollable variables which are interdependent.  For instance, the Madder Root dyestuff I was using had been reheated several times and was almost dust and twigs in the bottom of the pot when I sat it outside.  Then it rained and I thought for sure I'd get pale tones because the root was both exhausted and diluted.  But no.  You never know.  This one came out bright and just the color of fresh salmon.  Was it because oak flowers had fallen in?  Who knows!  There is a huge amount of serendipity in the process, and that's fun!

Silk, hand-dyed with natural madder root using vegan soy wax resist in a nontraditional mudme technique.  This scarf will be for sale at Oklahoma Food Coop and perhaps on etsy.  To buy it you can notify me by email.  $18 and that's a bargain!

Cedar Apple Rust Fungus Scarf

 

Cedar Apple Rust Fungus Scarf

For some reason, this picture refuses to permit itself to be centered.  Maybe it is because the scarf comes from way off in left field.  I mentioned to The Oklahoma Forage Ahead Yahoo Group that I was using natural dyes, and moderator (and forage guru) Jackie Dill wondered if it would be possible to use those bright neon orange "starballs" of cedar-apple rust fungus for dyeing.  I'd never considered it, although I have a funny story about hunting for dyeing mushrooms.... so I'll digress:

One day Dennis and I were going to split the yard-mowing chore.  He did his half and turned the mower over to me.  I had only made one sweep of mowing down the hill when I ran across some interesting-looking mushrooms under the peach tree, so I stopped mowing and started getting them ready to see if they were dye mushrooms.  It turns out that they yielded a pale golden dye when extracted with 100-proof  grain alcohol.  I got so distracted that at the end of that day, my mower was still down in the far end of the yard and I never went back to it.  He now kids me about that.

Anyway, on Saturday it happened to be perfect weather for gathering cedar-apple rust fungus, and I had plenty on some little cedar trees that had popped up in my former garden spot, so I made up a batch of dye and this interesting scarf is the result.  It has a parchment or marbled look, and is made of sheer habotai silk.

It was set with alum and heat, so I think the color will be permanent... but it is my first such experiment thus I can't guarantee it to be color fast after extended periods in bright light or harsh detergent.  Best to just hand wash gently and dry it on a towel.  (It was machine washed thoroughly to remove any traces of the original material--- although I'm sure the vodka did its magic in sterilizing it, also.  

This scarf will be listed for purchase with Oklahoma Food Co-op in the May order cycle, $18.  If you'd like to buy it for Mother's Day, email ktibbits@lrec.org and I'll take it off listing and send it to you.

Adventures in Natural Dye Methods - Rose Madder Scarf

Silk Charmeuse Scarf

Soy Wax Resist Batik,

Hand-Dyed in Natural Rose Madder

Oklahoma Food Coop is full of fun people, and this month among my co-op orders was a request for natural-dyed bamboo socks.  I've dyed bamboo, and it is my favorite type of sock because these socks wick better than acrylic but have the same level of softness.  Like cotton, only better.  So, I was up for the challenge to create hand-dyed socks using Madder Roots.  Trouble is, every fiber takes dye differently, and with natural dyes the results vary from wildly unpredictable to extremely unpredictable.  The socks made from the same batch of madder roots were a softer pinky salmon in final colour.  I had hoped to list this scarf earlier during co-op's order cycle, but with taxes and all I just tossed it into the Madder Root for an experiment.

Silk scarves are tough for a couple of reasons.  Long skinny things don't wash by machine very easily.  Um, silk hardly is machine washable at all because silk is delicate.  It must not get too hot in the natural dye batch, which has to simmer but not boil over 2 hours in a process that takes about 24 hours from start to finish.  Add batik wax, and that's not only slow and likely to give a resist failure... but also clog the plumbing with wax.

Those are just some of the reasons that I was so pleased to produce this first natural dyed scarf from madder root and soy wax.  It has a delightfully uneven shadowy color tone, and the wax held up fine.  (No comment on the plumbing.  I'm the plumber these days my own self.)

This gorgeous silk scarf will be for sale in time for Mother's Day on Island Retreat... click any item in the Island Retreat Etsy gallery to see everything there.  It will be posted in a few days, or call me for direct purchase 918 797 5016, about $18. 

Madder Root is a natural plant root.  It doesn't seem to be indigenous as a Cherokee dye plant... Cherokees used a different root which is rare and sacred with a beautiful flower.  I don't dye with the Cherokee red plant because it is reputed to be a cancer remedy and I think it should be preserved in the wild for this more important purpose.  Dyeing clothing and accessories takes plenty of roots, unlike dyeing basket reed which takes far less wild flower medicine plant roots.  I like Madder because they say you can twist the shade depending upon what you add to the roots.  And I've heard it does not require a mordant.  I use Alum to presoak and Cream of Tartar to balance the PH so the molecules form a chemical bond.  You may have Madder Root in your paintbox, for it is the precursor to Alizarin Crimson... my favorite red in oils.

Today, Madder isn't used because analine dyes have taken the place of these older colors.  I love it because I know it is a part of the color rainbow of centuries past.  Its use dates back to the Pakistan area B.C. and is common widely around the world as recently as the 1900s.  How nice to know that women in Chinese silk wore this color for more than a thousand years!

Nickel Silver and Brass Lightning Bolt Light Fixture

Art Deco Lightning Bolt Fixture

Eureka Springs was one of the earliest cities to get electricity, but by the 1920s electricity was common in many cities, although it had not yet come to rural Cherokee County, Oklahoma.  While in Eureka Springs, AR last weekend, I photographed this wonderful light fixture because I love the design elements.  It was $465 at an antique store by the Spring near 1881 Crescent Guest House, lovingly restored.

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.

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.

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.