In all your spare time between now and tomorrow, you should make one or a dozen of these. Using all my favorite ribbon I put together this show stopper for our festivities tomorrow. I used recycled felt, bamboo batting, and ribbon ranging from vintage to Italian. This thing has got America written all over it.
I've included a slide show of pics with a little bit of a how-to. Just click on the notes for my commentary.
I know that we are supposed to be self sufficient. That we should be able to find peace and happiness just from existence. I'm always trying to do that. I think I try too hard. I think I think that if I do it all my self, if I can figure it out by myself, my life, my reason, my whatever, that I will some how be stronger for it.
One of my main goals this year was to not be an emotional robot. I have been one for years, because I felt like that way I would be less hurt by people, by hard times, by failings... but in doing so, I have separated myself from people who would love, and care about me, and in that I hurt myself...
So, I've been working hard to be better. To except people into my life as good, and dear, and broken, and helpful, and beautiful, and funny, and whatever... and this past week at Squam made me feel like it's all possible. I can be open to all the emotion this little world has to offer, and that's ok. There are enough people who love me in this world that I don't have to be afraid of anything.
I've been putting off this post because I didn't know how to say what I felt, or what it possibly meant to me. I have been changed, seriously changed. Not that I needed a major overhaul, but we should all always be working towards our personal betterment, and I feel like I am a little closer, and a little more grown up for it. I am so touched to have met, and been inspired by so many beautiful people.
So here are some little letters. My best way to express all this right now:
Dear Nirvana,
What a blessing it was to share that time and space with you. How grateful I am that it was each of you. I feel like you all took me in, and I am in your debt. I hope that somehow we can be together again soon.
photo by dreamer Laura Nelkin
To my students,
I can't say enough how impressed I am with each of you. The work that each of you produced in the short time that we had together was mind blowing for me, and I always felt like a proud little mama, when a whole section of the gallery table in the dining room was ours, because you were proud too. Please keep producing. Please take risks. Please keep going, and please keep in touch. Always know that any service I can be of to you, I'm yours. Thank you for letting me cry through class. I was moved by your honesty and commitment to whatever it was that you were tasked with. You're just brilliant, and I can't wait to be with you again next year.
Dear Jen and Jonatha
thank you for making me feel like the prettiest most popular girl at camp. Your love has inspired me.
Elizabeth,
Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for picking me out of a crowd, and trusting me with something that is so special to you. Your faith, and love, and commitment to harboring all of the inspiring events that make up Squam have, and will change peoples lives for the better. Thank you for letting me be a part of it.
photo by new favorite Maya*Made
To all of you,
If you need to feel a little more whole, need a break, want to be a part of something magical, then make the time, and the effort to do this for yourself. Squam happens twice a year. No prior experience is neseccary, just come as you are and leave as you want to be.
love,
lizzy
Dear Peeps,
Camp is great. Everyone is being very nice. The mosquitoes are pretty bad though... but in happier new news, this Saturday, here in beautiful New Hampshire, at the amazing Squam Art Workshop, there will be an Art Fair! Cool thing is you didn't have to attend Squam to attend the fair!
Here are the full details:
Saturday, June 6th
7:30 pm - 9pm
Rockywold-Deephaven Camp (Holderness, NH)
For a map to get to RDC: click HERE
The fair will be taking place in the Deephaven Dining room, building #67 on the campus map. Have no worries about finding it as there will be lots of people (and signs) to direct you in.
There are going to be so many great artist selling their work! I have been truly amazed by my fellow teachers so it's bound to be not only inspiring, but a fun event. For Reals...
I will be selling a couple of books, and my fine art prints! I even have a stack of fabric that I think three people have claimed... we'll see who ends up with it.
If you are in the area and can come, come say hi to me! I'll just love you forever
cheers,
Lizzy!
As promised here it is! When you start reading it, don't be alarmed. You don't have to applique the circles. There must have been some misunderstanding along the way and the pattern instructs you to applique. If you are all about that, then go for it! But if you are not one of those peeps, here is the best solution in the world!
Dale Fleming wrote a book called Pieced Curves So Simple that she released with C&T publishing, and in it she explains how to piece and sew curves without pins! Luckily, Dale did a segment showing how to do the six minute circle.
So I have put together my own slide show of piecing a Marble Champ block. Roll your mouse over the "notes" button to read instructions
I have posted new items in the shop in hopes of luring you into helping me move. As always your support means everything to me... literally.
There is a second edition (and last edition) of Shakespeare's 12th sonnet, for anyone who missed out on the first, and I've created a second print in a series of what will be three prints. It is Shakespeare's 59th sonnet, and I was really pleased with how it turned out. Plus, they look sweet action together.
I hope you enjoy it too.
click here to read the 59th sonnet
I can't even express how happy I am that spring is here, mostly. We wake up to snow about twice a week, but by the mid afternoon it's all gone. March was a cruel mistress in that way, deceptive and rude. But I think it's pretty safe to say, we made it out alright.
like I mentioned before, I am working with Red Letter Day for a bunch of new projects to launch with the lines release, but I couldn't help but show you this fabric. I was cutting it all yesterday, and I have to say it just cracks me up. The ducks, the ribbons, the trees... It's a good way to be when you are cutting fabric for a couple of hours... cracking yourself up. But of course when you have Red Letter Day, and you are cutting for hours, I will be the one who is cracking you up, and know that the knowledge of that is in fact cracking me up right now.
Have any of you read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? If you haven't, you can purchase it here. I have a copy of it somewhere but I think one of my sisters has it. Anyway, the lead character, Oscar, is always cracking himself up. It makes me think of him, and that makes me happy too. For real though, have any of you read it? Does anyone want to talk about it? This is one of those books I could talk in circles about. That's how great my love is for it.
Wow, I have so much to do today, but none of it seems to be getting me down. It's amazing what the sun can do for a girl who doesn't even have seasonal depression.
ps. I am having a little help Lizzy move to Portland SALE, similar to my Help Lizzy with her BFA sale, (which by the way you were all so helpful and instrumental in). My little kitchen kittens will be up for Sale come Friday when I launch the whole thing. New prints, new books, new kittens, and what have you. Come one come all, or I will be sleeping on the floor in my new room in Stumptown.
I just got back from a little trip to Utah! We are talking lil trip. We left Wednesday afternoon, and got back Thursday night! I was amazed at the good it did me. It was like therapy. For free! I traveled down with Carla and my dear friend Kyoung, and it was just perfect. I can't believe all the things we did, and how many people we saw in the short time we were there.
When we arrived we went to Anthropologie where I broke my own heart by passing up this necklace. Not that it was out of control, but I've been a real cheapskate lately with the looming move. We then journeyed to and through Ikea. I am always amazed at the energy and capacity it takes to get through that store. I hadn't eaten in a while (I always eat at the wrong times on trips) and at one point I walked off by myself and forgot who I was with, and where I was... it's like a vacuum.
then I met up with two of my favorite people in the universe, Court and Kurt. We went to dinner at good ol' CPK and then found some Gelati at this sweet little place called Maestro's Gelato in Provo on Center Street. I got hazelnut and pistachio like a regular dream come true. THEN we met up with the presh Cas Barney and went to Glen Roland's amazing antique store Cat's Cradle Antiques and art, just a few doors down from the gelati shop. He and Carla are old friends so he opened his shop for us at 9:30! HOLY COW! What beautiful stuff. I actually bought a great necklace and earrings. They are from the 40's or 50's, and they were a great deal! I also remembered my great skill to pick out the most expensive object in the room/ case/ box. A talent I was born with, and it never waivers. I don't even have to practice.
If you are in Provo, for whatever reason, please stop by Glen's shop. It's on center and next to a hotel and a yarn shop called Hildebrand... or something like that. Again, he has some amazing stuff and some really good deals, BUT, Glen alone is worth going to into the shop for. What a charming person. I am so glad to have met him. Just one of those people that you are grateful to know. So go already, and tell him I sent you.
When we left the shop we went to the Barton's. So good to see Jennifer! We talked and shared new quilts, but then she showed us a fun craft she had been working on with her daughters. She purchased a bunch of bouquets of silk flowers from a dollar store, and pulled them all apart, and then she just rearranges the petals to make flower pins, or hair things! We stayed up for an extra hour making flowers. It was too fun. And what a great idea! Super easy, inexpensive, and a great thing for a party for little peeps, or anyone really. We were having a great time... and we're not so young.
I took out the fuzzy center, mixed about 5 different white-ish flowers, restacked it, added a neat faceted button to the center and hot glued a little clippy on the back! It looked great!
woke up, got ready, and went to BYU for the exchange! It was so great to see Amy! I always miss her so much!!! But it was a cool thing to meet with so many other print makers, and exchange work. I feel really lucky to have been invited to participate.
THEN! we went to lunch at a Korean place. Kyoung is Korean so she was really happy. I'd never had it before, but it was great. I love the little side dishes that they bring you, like the crunchy black beans and then the little egg wraps, but I really loved that the rice was purple.
then we said all our goodbyes to our Provo peeps. And on our way out, we stopped by Wayne Kimball's studio for a couple of minutes. What an incredible man he is. He is one of the very best Lithographers in the country/ world, and it is easy to see why. We got to look through a framed show, sitting on his floor. It was such a neat thing, and then he showed us some new projects he has been working on, and as we were leaving he gave each of us a print! How special! It was a really important experience to me.
Then we headed back to SLC and picked up my sweet Ashlee. She played a couple of songs for us, and she just amazes me. She only continues to get better and better! It's amazing!
Have you heard of this grocery store? It is the epitome of what I was talking about here. Liberty Heights Fresh is a perfect magical mini grocery store. If you go in, try the Castletrovena(?) olives. They are a really bright green, and they are really just dream olives. Also, speak to the owner, because he will be there. What a neat man he was, and he cares so much about what he is doing.
Then we went to an Asian market, and I bought green curry ingredients for the next 15 years of my life. Amazing, and amazing prices. Then we dropped off my little Asher, which is always hard. But we drove right back to Liberty Heights Fresh to get dinner for the road. And then just like that we were on our way again.
We were really fortunate that the roads were clear, and I was able to give everyone a break by driving us home. I keep wanting to say it was a weekend, but it was just a Wednesday/ Thursday. It was so important. And in meeting with so many wonderful people, I realized how important it is to have genuine people in our lives. The sincerity and the meetings of those days filled me up. What a blessing. I'm so grateful to have so many dear experiences and people in my life.
I truly didn't realize how different it is from sewing! But it sure is cool to be done with a quilt so quickly. I had a thought though, what would our ancestors do if they saw a long arm quilting machine? Probably keel over. It would be inconceivable! I have another quilt to do this week. SO MUCH work to do! and all you tricked out acrobat sewers/quilters blow my mind!
I'm trying to make way for some new work so I am having a bit of a sale. Both the Whale Print: Call me Ishmael, and the 2nd Cathedral Print are on Sale. Quite the discount too. Plus, I know how lovely they would be in your home.
help me, help you.
some Valentine treats never hurt anyone.
Ben helped me make the pistachio truffles, then I made white chocolate fudge with cranberry, orange, and almonds... kind of Christmasy in flavors... and heart shaped shortbread. Which was not Christmasy because it was in the shape of a heart.
If you were here I would share with you. But I will share the recipe instead
Pistachio Truffles:
12oz. Semi Sweet Chocolate, chopped or broken
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tablespoon butter
3/4 cup finely chopped pistachios (roasted and salted are best)
In a biggish bowl place all your chocolate, set aside.
Over medium high heat bring the cream to a boil.
As soon as it starts to boil, remove from heat and pour over chocolate.
Now stir it up. Stir it until it is smooth and no bits of chocolate remain unmelted.
Toss in butter. Stir that too, until everything is smooth.
You have yourself a ganache. Now if you have a lot of time you can put it in the fridge and wait for it to solidify. If you have only a bit of time, you can stick it in the freezer. It should take about half an hour...
When it has gotten pretty firm, this is the part where you need a melon baller or a teaspoon or if you are extreme a tablespoon. I always keep a glass of warm water around to dip whatever utensil it is I am using into. Scoop out a little ball, and throw it onto the chopped nuts. Which should be on a plate. Roll it around, and then stick it in the little dream cup of your choosing.
You can eat these right away or refrigerate them for about a week. They also freeze pretty well. But they are best for sharing. The combination of the dark chocolate with the sweet and salty of the pistachios makes a killer truffle. But not killer in a literal way.
