Chintz: Table Ware, Fabrics, Interior Decoration

Chintz has always held a slight fascination for me from the time I was a little girl.  I remember chintz wallpaper (cabbage roses) on our Texas farm bathroom walls.  Maybe my chintz (as opposed to "chintzy" as in "frugality") interest started there.

From Collecting Chintz:

Over the last few years, the price and popularity of this china have experienced unprecedented growth. Collectors worldwide seek this charming floral tableware which seems to attract more and more devotees with each passing day.

The term "chintz" has its origins in India (the Indian word was chintes) where colorful patterns including richly-hued flowers and brightly plumed birds were printed on cotton fabric and imported into England from the late seventeenth century.

Amazon has this book, Antiques Roadshow Collectibles, which gives this brief explanation of chintz ware (click to enlarge):

This is a cream and saucer chintz ware set my mother was given years ago, and which I sometimes use now:

Those tiny flowers have detail in their blooms and petals, and I love the contrasting colors and depths of shading in the chintz.  Just darn pretty!

But, wait.  Chintz is not only for the table.  It was very popular in fabric a while back.  Designer Laura Ashley brought back chintz fabric in the 80's.  Do you remember your Laura Ashley dresses for both children and ladies?  They were the cat's meow then.

Examples of some chintz fabrics from Schindler's Fabrics:

More about chintz from this post by Martha B. at Nibs:

(30 years ago)

Chintz is a cotton fabric that can be either a solid color or a beautifully printed floral or stripe. But what makes it desirable is the finish which allows it to be wiped clean. In the 1980’s everyone wanted the English Country look with rooms filled with it. Laura Ashley sold millions of dollars worth of the fabric! But like many good things, its appeal came to an end until now. It’s back... with restraint.

(now...updated with less fabric in the room)

Martha B. has a blog here and you can see lots of information about interior design there; nice pictures, too.

Now that the sewing machine is dusted off, maybe I'll make a few chintz blouses for the spring.

KKCO 11 News and Libby's Entre into Fame on Local TV

My husband is clever. Really.  He is clever.

A local television station here in Grand Junction, KKCO 11 News is having a contest that is all about barks.  Dog barks.  The station needs a spokesdog for their coupon advertisement with a dog as their mascot.

Our younger dog Libby (yeah, that same one that has so many links on both our blogs) gives Gene the WHAT FOR each time she comes in from a walk.  She barks for her treat after doing a good walk.

The husband recorded that bark for the contest of barking dogs on 11 News.  Wish Libby luck on being selected for the News11 Dog Bark.

Scrabble and Tournament Scrabble and the WPGO

Yesterday was the regular Wednesday Scrabble® :Day with friend Allen at my dining room table.  We have been playing and competing against one another since 2003, generally on a weekly basis.  That is a lot of games.  I have a book containing all of our games including the date played, scores against each other, and number of bingos per game per person per game for over seven years.  Really.

To further gild the lily, I have a spreadsheet on the computer compiling all those statistics.  And you think that is odd?  Scrabble® players are very strange, generally speaking, so it should not be a surprise about our keeping obsessive/complusive track of our games.

Allen showed me a game he had recently played with a different opponent, told me all about his word plays, and then showed me his high score on his score sheet.  This will be considered his pictoral history of his 635 point "high game:"

(Allen)

Of those four games we played yesterday, we each won two.  That is pretty typical (although Allen would say he generally wins most of our games, and reluctantly, I would have to agree).

When one of us has a "bad" Scrabble day and the tile gods have not been fair, this is how you might see the outcome:

photo from Calvin & Hobbs

My next Scrabble tournament will be in February in Phoenix.  It will be the 11th tournament I have attended in Phoenix at the Barbara VanAlen and Larry Rand Directors' tournament.  It will be about their 17th annual Phoenix Winter Tournament to host.

A list of upcoming Scrabble® tournaments can be accessed here.   More information about the new Word Players Game Organization can be accessed here. Scrabble Resources can be found here at the bottom of the listing.

Try competitive word play. You might like it.

Dang! It Didn't Fit

Using vintage pillowcases and old lace pieces, I tried out a shirt pattern to ensure the fit for The Tribeca Shirt from Sewing Workshop.

It made up well, but did not fit.

So what was next?  I gave up and went to bed.

(picture from One Yarn After Another)

Just a Pair of Socks

How easy is this from Instructables?

How to Make an Envelope Laptop Bag

My new little HP netbook needed some padding to protect it when it is carried.  So an internet search on how to make a laptop cover came up with a LOT of information about how to craft one.  A detailed yet applicable site I found for my needs was here at Instructables.  But it sure looked like a lot of trouble.

Modifying the materials of what was needed to make my laptop case sans cardboard, foam padding and buckles, this is the resulting list of necessary items for an envelope case:

1/2 yard of quilted fabric (quilted material takes the place of extra padding)
Sewing machine
Thread, scissors, velcro and adhesive for velcro

This is a picture of a laptop pattern from Instructables (you can go there and look through all those instructions):

But all I really needed was a sort of "envelope" for the netbook. And I wanted to make it look sharp, updated and personalized.

In comes a small piece of needlepoint that my mother completed in the 70's.  Finally, I found a use for this piece that would be just right for using on the front of the case:

8" x 6"

And I bought a half yard of this quilted Amy Butler fabric for the casing from the local fabric store:

Also, I found a previously used leather identification tag to adhere to the back of the case.  In my notions stash was an old ribbon belt just the right colors to match the quilted fabric. That ribbon belt is actually old enough to be called vintage! So the belt was cut up and used for the front and back closing flap finishing.

This is the resulting envelope laptop case that was quickly sewn with right sides together, taking into account the 10 inch by 7 inch by 1 inch size of the HP netwook (the needlepoint was appliqued on by machine).

This is the back of the case showing the id tag, velcro closing, and belted ribbon for extra jazz:

Final picture of the back of the case with flap closed:

Better get cracking and quit playing with my new laptop because Libby needs her face washed, needs her walk, and then must get dressed for her hospital "therapy" visitations today.  (Her dog master even bought her a new purple leash and lead to match our purple hospital volunteer vests!)

Crafting Every Day

Came across KatKnits and her video of all the crafts she attempted and finished in 2010.  You can see it on her blog.  Kat says:

My goal is to spend time everyday working on something handmade for a year & photograph it. 

And she pretty well did it!

Here is a new challenge Kat mentioned that sounds fun from Iron Craft:.

Welcome to our 2011 craft challenge!
Crafting connects us. Glitter glues our friendship together. If we embark on a quilting expedition, we will put on our pith helmets, and do it together. Across the miles, we admire, advise and sympathize.

Here’s how it works:

Every Thursday one of us will post a creative challenge to be completed by the following Wednesday. The challenges maybe as specific as a particular pattern or as vague as a theme. They'll cover the gamut of crafting skills: knitting, sewing, quilting and so on. Every Wednesday we'll spotlight the results of the previous Thursday's challenge from our Flickr group. We'd love to have you join us for the year of what we hope will be a lot of fun.

Entry details can be found here.  Are you up to it?

Kaffe Fassett Collective Fabrics & Sewing Workshop Pattern

Here are samples of two Kaffe Fassett fabric purchases recently ordered from Sew, Mama, Sew, a favorite blog.

Each of these fabrics were ordered online because our one local fabric store in town does not carry this line.

Kaffe (pronounced "kay") Fassett is well known in the knitting world for his use of unusual color combinations.  He has expanded into books, yarn lines and fabrics from his London base.  He has a huge following in the fiber world.

This is the pattern I'll be using to make blouses with these fabrics:

It is the Tribeca pattern from The Sewing Workshop that Linda Lee owns. Each blouse requires 2.5 yd. of 45" fabric, plus notions.

More about Linda from her bio:

Linda Lee is the owner of The Sewing Workshop Pattern Collection, a group of patterns for distinctive garments using innovative sewing techniques. She is a licensed interior designer and member of ASID since 1974. Linda is featured in the Bernina "Portrait of the Artist" national advertising campaign.

Linda travels the country teaching fine sewing techniques and the art of combining beautiful fabrics and distinctive design in garment creation and home decorating creations.

Ms. Lee creates very loose clothing that is fashionable; and the clothes do not bind.  I became interested in her construction techniques because skin that is sensitive to touch requires looser clothing.  (If you are interested in reading about skin sensitivity, especially as it relates to clothing, this site is about the only one I found dealing with the topic, although there were no answers there about dealing with skin sensitivity.)

Have a look at all Linda Lees patterns.  It's something I really like.

Let's Have a Wonderful Life in 2011!

It is MINUS 4 degrees Farenheit in Grand Junction as I wish you all a Great New Year!

Lunch today includes Hoppin' John, ham, roasted potatoes, and Apple Charlotte for dessert.

Photo from Michael Ruhlman's blog

Try This On For Size

Ten stitches made all the difference.

The fingerless mitt on the left had a 60 stitch cast on with size 3 US needles.  The one on the right had a 50 stitch cast on with the same knitting needles.

My husband claimed the left mitt and the other one is mine.  Now I have to make two more in the same (differing) sizes.

Maybe I can find us purple matching polyester running suits, and then we can wear them with our mitts when we walk the dogs. 

On second thought...not.

Moebius Cowl

This is my second knitted moebius scarf with the free download of the Cat Bordhi pattern found here.

One skein of a chunky yarn and a 47" circular cable was used (thanks, Natalie, for the use of your cable).

Here is some information from the Berkeley Lab about the moebius, which has no beginning and no ending:

Möbius symmetry, the topological phenomenon that yields a half-twisted strip with two surfaces but only one side, has been a source of fascination since its discovery in 1858 by German mathematician August Möbius. As artist M.C. Escher so vividly demonstrated in his “parade of ants,” it is possible to traverse the “inside” and “outside” surfaces of a Möbius strip without crossing over an edge.

Once the cast-on is mastered, it is just a matter of knitting in whatever pattern you like; infinite possibilities, of course.

Here is Bordhi's video explanation of the Moebius cast on:


 I'll definitelyt knit this pattern again.

A Christmas Thought on Being Thankful

What is it all about?

Go here for a ponder.

Rudy Favard, 17, cradled Sammy Parker, 8, as he carried him upstairs. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

Christmas Blessings to all, especially to the caregivers among us who often give more than gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Father Plough Shares at Christmas

This is taken from a series of homilies written and compiled into a spiral bound book "Father Plough Shares" by Fr. James Plough of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Grand Junction, Colorado:

...What did Joseph and Mary hope for on that first Christmas?  Remember that they were on a journey; they were away from home  They faced an uncertain future.  They lived in darkness.  The story of Bethlehem inevitably suggests a comparison between that moment and our own.

Our moment is a time of darkness, to be sure.  We face an uncertain future from weapons of mass destruction and shadowy networks of international terrorists.  Has the world ever known a more dangerous time than now?  The holy family had less to fear from the wicked King Herod than we do from today's radical extremists.  The holy family trusted that God's word to them would be fulfilled, that Mary would bear a son to be named Jesus.

...The story of the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, taken in a particular place and in a particular moment of time, reminds us each year that our personal lives and the communal lives of nations are also journeys, moving always into an uncertain future, remembering the past and renewing its wisdom, but never simply repeating the past, a journey made in faith and trust, confident that the final word of the story will be one of light shining in darkness and life triumphant over death.

Hey! Granny Square Afghan Finished

...and I am not even a grandma!

In all its glory:

The husband does not like all the colors.  And I can just hear my mother saying "...if you would make one in off-white and beige, it would look better with my decor"...  But I like it because it makes me happy.

Awkward Family Photos

Some of the best Awkward Family Photos can be found HERE.  You must, absolutely must, peruse this site for plenty of guffaws.  They are even having a "Best Family Photo Submission with Holiday Spirit" that is open for submissions until midnight December 22, 2010.

A few holiday favorites:

by Brad

Shhh..I'm just about to scare the crap out of this nice little girl

My submission the the 2010 Awkward Family Photo Contest (my daughter in 1971 on the lap of a boozy Santa):

Another priceless photo can be seen on my husband's blog found here.

We laughed for an hour over these photos. 

Merry Christmas !

Useful Dog Tricks

Thanks, Ronn!

Carving on Cottonwood

The man of the house has been encouraging me for several years to take up carving.  He may be wanting me to try this new hobby because a while back, he gave me a Dremel tool set that has not been getting much use.  Brother John bequeathed me wood carving tools and a heavy hand turned solid wooden mallet from a white elephant exchange a few years ago, so why wait further to begin a new hobby, right?

Having all the appropriate paraphernalia (including several pieces of tree wood, the Dremel set and wood carving tools, sandpaper and paints), inspiration was all that was needed.

My first thought was to try and carve a forest gnome from this "raw branch" from the wood pile we use as fuel for our fire pit:

But wait!  My analytic side said that a web search on wood carving was also needed.  A refresher course on the Dremel tool for wood carving was found here; carving on wood information was found here; more basics on how to carve were found here.  And finally, rules for carving faces from Gene Graham were found and can be accessed below the page break.

This rescued branch had an outgrowth of small twigs growing from it. After a bit of finessing with the Dremel sander and various small drills, it began to resemble an open mouth. Those twigs were filed down and refined and lo and behold, they began looking like big old teeth!

This is what the "Christmas deer" or gnome, or dog is looking like, but he still needs lots of work on his ears, forehead and temple.

It is a warm Saturday, so more carving refinement might be on today's agenda.  And it will need paint!

To read more about carving heads from Gene Graham:

A Christmas Angel from Nebraska

This is a Garrison Keillor writing appropriate for the season:

...My own Christmas vision appeared three days before Christmas, in a deli on 10th Avenue in New York, where a rather elegant young woman was managing a herd of eight teenaged boys, ordering their breakfasts from the lady behind the counter. The boys spoke Spanish, which the young woman translated into English for the counter lady. I'm standing there, waiting my turn, observing. The boys are docile, cautious, soft-spoken, and then it dawns on me that they are so because of brain damage, mild retardation, however you want to put it, and the young woman is their hired shepherd. A teacher's aide, perhaps. Probably minimum wage. She is lovely, green-eyed, dark hair spilling down on a puffy parka, red wool scarf, and her English sounds very Midwestern to me.

The boys want muffins for breakfast except one boy who earnestly desires a sesame bagel, toasted, with cream cheese, but the deli is all out of sesame, and this is a cruel disappointment to him. He really was counting on it. When you are 14 and so desperately vulnerable in the big city, you do pin your hopes on certain small pleasures. His face crumples and he is about to melt, and the elegant young green-eyed woman puts her head down next to his where he sits slumped on the deli stool. Her pale cheek against his cheek, she murmurs to him and a string of his enormous tears runs onto her face and she wipes it away and says something in Spanish that makes him laugh. And then I notice at the end of her red scarf, the word "Nebraska." Nobody would wear this in New York except a Nebraskan.

I might've asked her a few questions, but she had turned her street face toward me, and so I didn't bother her. A girl from the prairie using her Spanish to care for damaged boys in a callous world where, contrary to everything the Savior said, the poor and powerless get short shrift -- in the U.S. Senate and elsewhere — and she is sharing the tears of the sesame boy and making him laugh. She's my Christmas angel. I hope she gets to go to a party and sing and dance until 3 a.m.

Granny Squares Galore

Having chosen nine different colors of yarn that roughly mirror the colors in the painting previously posted here, granny squares are being crocheted.

This free pattern for a granny square afghan requires 30 granny squares with dimensions of 9" x 9". So far, I have 14 finished.

A few pictures of some completed crocheted squares:

Then the question of how to join them together comes up. How to do this?

Mikey knows! (method 1, the single crochet, is the favored method):

saga to be continued of Granny Squares Galore...

Heifer International and a Podcast Drawing

Listening to Clothed in the Lamb on her recent podcast, subscribers learned that Janeen not only talked about her "fiber adventures," but also gave an incentive for those contributing to Heifer International.

Janeen says about this program:

What Heifer International does is they give animals to impoverished communities. They teach them all they need to know about how to raise the animals, breed them, and use and sell the products of the animals. I’m talking about goats, cows, pigs, rabbits, chickens, bees, llamas, water buffalo, and of course sheep!

Here’s what they do with, say a sheep. They go into a community and choose a family to train about how to care for sheep. When the family is ready, they give them a healthy female sheep, making sure there is healthy breeding stock nearby. Through the next year, the sheep provides the family with wool which they can use to clothe themselves or which they can sell. In time, they breed their own sheep, and give one or more of the offspring to another family in need. This new family agrees to do the same, and so it continues. With the gift of one sheep, a whole community is helped.

The Recycled Lamb in Lakewood, Colorado is the sponsor for this yarny give away.  So how about helping out Heifer International and join in with a sense of community spirit?

All the details about the contest can be found here.