fibers & beyond ~

Click on the poster above to go right to the guild’s website for details about the sale.

Each year the Whatcom Weavers Guild puts together a wonderful event called Fibers & Beyond. This is a show and sale of members’ work and should NOT be missed!

For the last few years I’ve worked on the pr for the event and (with fingers crossed) we will have a small article in Entertainment News NW ~ a wonderful arts and entertainment full-color glossy magazine published in Bellingham, WA.

They let me write the article for the last couple of years, and we (guild members and community) are lucky to have a publication of this type around.

Here’s a taste from last year’s sale.

And of course we have security! Girl with gun ~ well, almost.

inky…

Fun, yes, but very inky. I’ve had very colorful hands during the last week. I kind of went stamp cutting crazy. You saw the beginning of my linocut stage at the end of August ~ since then I’ve been cutting and stamping and doing some all around messy stuff with ink.

Now I have about 80 bookmarks all stamped up and tasseled with beaded handspun yarn. I’m afraid I can’t stop! This has mostly been a late night activity since they days have been very busy. Next I’m going to make a bunch of gift tags in themes (fiber arts, bugs, generic designs, and maybe birds).

All of this stuff will be for sale at the next Whatcom Weavers Guild sale on October 16 and 17 in Bellingham. This is the 10th year for the sale and only the 4th for me. I hope I can make a bit of cash to fund the upcoming Judith MacKenzie McCuin workshop offered by NWHandspun Yarns ~ it will be another three-day brain bending fiber filled workshop.

Here are some gift tags in the works.

Below are some images I took at last Wednesday’s guild meeting. Guild member Sheri Ward came up with a great idea/challenge for members. She suggested that people find a mug and make a companion mug rug over the summer with the creations and mugs being donated this fall to one of the shelters in town that helps battered and homeless women. The mugs and rugs are to be given to women who are moving out of the shelter to their new homes. Thanks Sheri for such creating a “kind gesture” project for the guild.

Bookmark anyone?

isn’t she charming ~

I grew up with her just like my mom did. She was sophisticated and had a strong sense of style. She was both modern and classic. With her tattered corners and frayed edges, she still knew how to hold a pose and was a timeless figure.

Grandma’s brother Cliff’s first wife Genevieve clipped her first. Probably back in the 20s and 30s. As a matter of fact, Gen looked a lot like her ~ that may be why she saved her for all those years.

Known to most as Toots’ cousin, never the main character and far from being the star, we loved her the most ~ ………………………………… …..… Mabel Charming

Mabel was a part of the Toots and Casper strip created by Jimmy Murphy in 1918. I don’t know when Mabel first came on the scene, but she was was most likely there for the duration (which looks like it was a full 40 years). Sometime in the early 1930s, Murphy started to add a paper doll to the strip ~ a “cut out”. This “cut out” usually appeared in a box to the right of the top part of the strip.

Mom told me that Mabel Charming was her favorite paper doll of Gen’s. Gen then made a copy of Ms. Charming including all of Mabel’s stylish clothing. Traced and cut from the original newspaper clippings (this is way before the days of photocopying), Mabel Charming was treasured by mom.

This is the “Mabel Charming” pose I remember.

Not knowing Ms. Charming’s history, I did a bit of a search on the web and quickly discovered that there are bits and pieces out there about Toots and Casper (the strip’s main characters), but no real mention of Mabel. There are a few relics for sale on the web ~ I found these:

This version of Mabel may have been a later edition since her arms are modified. By drawing her with her arms tucked in, she could wear a variety of clothing drawn with the arms in place. So clever!

Below is a close up which shows Mabel being credited as Toot’s Cousin Mabel Charming ~

Here, Mabel’s clothing has been cut to expose her hand. Could these dresses originally belonged to a different character doll?

The lovely and charming, Ms. Charming, was paired up with the cool Danny Hoofer on these “Lucky Bucks”. Hummm…was somebody getting lucky?

Gen’s hand-drawn Mabel Charming has been treasured so much that she was hiding in a “secret” location at Mom’s house. A call to Mom this morning and a long discussion about the last time we had seen her initiated the search…. I said Mabel Charming was in a box that had a Cupie Doll on it ~ Mom said she was in a box that had strawberries on it. Now, two hours after I initiated this post, Mom called. She has been located!

Ms. Charming was high on a shelf in a old hat box containing bits and pieces of memorabilia ~ my “little girl” white Easter gloves, Mom’s old celluloid toys, and a box with a cover illustration of a Cupie doll lookalike surrounded with fruit including strawberries ~ yep, we were both right.

Mabel Charming is now on the “bench” waiting to be picked up later today. I’m so lucky! Mom just told me I can have Mabel Charming ~ she’s so charming!

feeling up to it…

           

The last few days have been a challenge.  I told Steve that you can tell if I’m not feeling well when I don’t even try to at least knit a few rows.

No knitting today, but back to some other stuff.  A few weeks back I was in the mood to do some block printing.  Not having the needed supplies, I made my way up to the university book store to only be disappointed in the selection and price.  I did pick up what I needed along with a few other toys.

I found that my dollar store erasers worked just as good as anything else when carving out little stamps.  I first carved a "twill” pattern just to get started digging into the erasers.  I was feeling okay with the tapestry bobbin, but my weaving shuttle needs a lot of help.  The tapestry beater is strangely okay.

This is all a work in progress since I haven’t made an actual linocut since high school.  I massaged a picture of Mabel and cut her out this afternoon.  I don’t have any printing ink and my ink pads just won’t cut it.  Mabel needs to be fully inked up.

Here are some pictures of new friends I made the other week at the fair.

camping ~

…camping, camping you say.  Friday’s word of the day was camping?

Is that “musty smelling tents” or “glitter and rhinestones”?  If camping is a verb, why can’t it be a verb also defining “one who presents ‘camp style’”. I much prefer that.  The idea of being in a tent on the ground is very unappealing to me.

To address how I see “camping”, Saturday’s word of the day will once again be camping ~ but with a twist.

Wikipedia describes it as ~ Camp is an aesthetic sensibility wherein something is appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value.

Camping = Bad Taste

Bad Taste = dead animals, fur collars, face distorting winks

….this camping is NOT appealing….

time ~

In a blink ~ June was gone.  In a wink ~ July went too.  August, well dear August, we are in a stare down…

 

This should be a new post…but just indulge me here….

I’ve noticed some things, odd things lately.  I recently noticed that odd things are bringing me joy.  The oddest of all is the fact that I am so pleased to head into my usual stall in the ladies room at work to find the toilet seat up. I know, I know ~ you are thinking ~ What?  No woman in her right mind would be happy to see the seat up.  But remember that I said “ladies room.”  That’s right, there is nothing like being there first after the restroom cleaning.  Nothing like being the first in line.

Hummm…..In the photo above, doesn’t it look like I have one eye drifting off to the right (your left).  And then there is my nose which I cut off ~ it looks as if it could be HUGE. 

I don’t think my eye drifts…..and I don’t think my nose is HUGE.  I’m hoping this photo is just distorted and not my face ~ well, any more distorted than what I’ve grown accustom to in the last 44 year.

And just for fun….

 

Captured in the shopping cart at Pay ‘n’ Save in downtown Bellingham.

      

Steve’s mom cut his hair ~ Mr. Bowl Head.

And then there were the cool teen years….Definitely Mr. Trouble during those days.