Quilter's Sunset

Working on getting a bunch of memory quilts ready to give for Christmas from my father and I, I've been keeping the trail beat down between Stilwell, Oklahoma and a quilt shop in Jay, Oklahoma.  It is about 58 miles one-way to go up there and spend a day working on a rented long-arm quilting machine.  Despite the drive, it has been worth the trouble.  I have saved my father a few dollars that we'd be paying out for a machine quilter's time.  I have been able to personalize the quilts by freehanding some dates and other secret messages into the quilting thread patterns, and... I was privileged to catch this gorgeous sunset on camera.  While driving.  I took a series of pics, as the sunset changed from moment to moment.  Here I just hit it with one lil edit fature.... blacking out some headlights at the bottom.  All of the sky colors are au naturale.

Geocaching

Geocaching, Found It!

Geocaching is a fun sport, or activity, or lifestyle.  Did you know there are about one million hidden signature logs or little treasure boxes all over the world, which you can find using a Global Positioning Satellite receiver?  When you find one, you log your visit and sometimes (if the container is big enough) you take a trinket and leave a trinket.  Here I'm showing that geocaching will melt your hair if you do it at noon in the Summer in the woods.   Its good exercise and uses your creative sense, because these are often hidden in very good camoflaouge.    (Camo, as I like to say since it is hard to spell.  )  

Children especially love it.  Last week, we took a friend's daughter who is about 8, geocaching in downtown Tahlequah.  Several people wanted to know what we were looking for as we circled around and around a park bench downtown.  We were looking on the underneath side of the bench for a magnetic little micro-sized keyholder-type container.  But we guessed wrong about the size.  It turned out to be just a teensey lil bolt-sized magnetic log to sign, and we were off about the location too.

Some of the best geocaches are big hefty ammo boxes hidden deep in the woods, where you have to hike and there are no trails.  We call it bushwhacking.  We lunge thru the greenbriars, startle the deer, watch for the snakes, roll over the big rocks, climb the cliffs, and whatever else it takes to navigate the terrain.  We like the woods, and this gives a purpose to our trek.  We lap up the exercise and the activity away from our desks.  And as we go, we have a sense of adventure and accomplishment.  We've found about 175 geocaches and we have hidden about 15 geocaches in different places for others to find.  We've helped about a dozen people go geocaching for the very first time:  Gail Ross, Sara Cordle, Ed & Terri Fite, Ray Goldman, Katy & Josh Brinkley, Terra Bellamy & Family, and others.

About the treasure:  Sometimes the best geocaches are only published to premium members at geocaching.com because those are the more serious geocachers and they don't want "muggles" to stray upon their boxes and loot the treatures for trade.  When you take something from a box, you have a duty to put in something for trade which is of equal or greater value.  Some of our best trades have been for a picture from the grave of Jack Kerouac, gold coins, pretty feathers, and gear like caribiners, insect repellent wipes, coozies, bungee cords, etc.

Read some of our adventures by searching for "Fluffy & Friedrick" at http://www.geocaching.com/ .  We encounter snake dens, rock climbing tasks and more. 

Steampunk Train

Steampunk Train

When my kids were little, I was a big Dr. Who fan, mostly because my son was The World's Biggest Dr. Who fan.  Today, he can still tell ya what actor played Dr. Who in sequential order.  So, couple that with Douglas Adams and Hitchiker's Guide the Galaxy, Metropolis, Dark City, Boys from Brazil, Mad Max and Tank Girl---- who wouldn't be fascinated by trains and steampunk.  Heck, I even bought an espresso machine so I could produce hydrogen in my own kitchen.

So, I found this dinky sad broken little train in the junk store, and recycled it into a thing of art.  This steampunk train is about 11 inches long and has a cargo area for Things.  A 1980 RCA TV transistor circuitboard fits perfectly over 4/5ths of the top, if you wanted to use it for ink pens but only had 5 ink pens.  And as I was remaking it, I wondered if  Thomas the Tank Engine looked like this when he grew up.  This little assemblage will be available via Oklahoma Food Cooperative.  Check it out at http://www.oklahomafood.coop/ .

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. 

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.

Urban Trends

In Europe, more people live on every square mile of land than here in America.  In Jamaica, there are vast unoccupied areas of beautiful lush jungle habitat, and yet people there also surround themselves with an intentional urban landscape.  It is a beautiful and functional landscape. 

Not too long ago, I stayed at a little cluster of cottages in Jamaica.  The owner’s dad was sitting on the step one morning as I went for a walk to find a vendor selling nice local Blue Mountain coffee.  “124 mangoes ripe,” this elder gentleman (in his late 80s) informed me.  He gestured toward the big fruit tree which shadowed overhead like an umbrella, and to the ripe fruit all around on the ground.   He was inviting me to breakfast, in a Jamaican casual way.  There was something verdant and abundant about a tree lavishing big ripe mangoes for as many as 124 passers by.  Fruit trees are like that.  

(My daughter, sitting outside Mikey's at Green Leaf Cabins in Negril, Jamaica.  Local men sit around and play dominoes there, faster than I can do the math.  If you visit Seven Mile Beach at Sun Beach, stop by and see my tiedye fashions for sale in Jennifer's Gift Shop there at Green Leaf Cabins, on Norman Manley Boulevard.  And don't miss one of the best roadside jerk chicken grills called "Best of the West." ) 

By urban landscape, I’m not talking about skyscrapers and utility lines, and parking lots.  Outside of America, most of the people living in fertile regions with a moderate climate, surround their homes with an edible, or otherwise useful, landscape.

Driving down Mexico’s Emerald Coast on a road trip, you can still see people living in modest little homes who use horses or mules to press sorghum in their front yard.  The animals, strapped to something like the horse exercise carousels in Oklahoma, go round and round.  This cinches and presses the canes, which are like bamboo, to crush out the juice.  A family member or neighbor with a big paddle stirs and cooks the sap over an open fire in the yard, making the sweet and iron-rich molasses which will be used for cooking or as a table condiment.

Further South, visit the Mexican village (now a city) of Papantla and you will find a culture of vanilla there.  It is grown by many.  Seller after seller features their vanilla beans in the local farmers market.  Some grow extra, and trade it for other needed things such as tools and labor.

Other places yet, one may find an informal guild of  weavers or potters, silversmiths or luthiers.  In families and among neighbors they hand down the technology of their craft. 

In America, we have some analogies.  SPIN farming is small-plot intensive gardening.  It is a new trend in Oklahoma.  People share learning so they can grow food on small patios or in a small but rich deep garden plot.  Even smaller, one can  buy a little kitchen nanogarden taking up less than 2 square feet of space and capable of yielding fresh herbs year round.  And in rural places dotting the Oklahoma roadsides and backroads, the landscape still has vestiges of subsistence farming from the past— some farmhouse amidst fruit trees often with the signs of a past garden plot.  These are landmarks, whispering a bit of the history of the past or future. 

Revitalizing urban homesteads, I predict, will grow more popular as more and more people  reach a point of change and authenticate their consumer consciousness.  We seem to be ‘regionalizing and localizing’ in our preferences.  Local food.  Regional music.  Shopping as an adventure to find unique and individual things instead of things mass-produced machine-made disposables.

 

Maker Fairs are springing up as a weekend happening in large urban areas.  People go to see Indie artisans and gadgety inventor geeks at work and play.  Visitors can sometimes pay to make their own stuff there onsite at some of the booths.  What girlie girl would not love to make herself a purse which illuminates inside with LED lights when opened?  At a Maker Fair, Guys can punch leather, rig a little robot for the coffee table, or make a bookshelf that appears to have no visible means of support.  There, you might find  a floating MP3 speaker inside of a mylar balloon.    

Sooner or later, we have a hankering to live in a world with our imprints.  Learning to do cool stuff is a dividend in customizing an intentional lifestyle.  

Resources:  Read about the pole diving religion of Cempoala Totonacs at http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totonac ;   Yardify your food at okspinfarmcoop, a yahoo group.  Make stuff:  www.instructables.com .  Get bits here:  http://store.makezine.com/  See that speaker:  http://makerfaire.com/pub/e/554