crosstalk cycad sparkman

I believe that adversity and negativity can be an amazing fuel towards personal success. (Jonathan Adler)

I got a little carried away yesterday with the chocolate art, then obsessed looking for Sam Adams 'Chocolate Squirrel' beer (not available in this area!).  Anyway, I took Pepper to the studio to give him a break from thinking he was being stalked.  He's really good once he gets there, just follows me around plopping himself down wherever he would be most in my way if I should move.  He watches out the door for marauders or UPS delivery guys, and lies on the cement, not on the rug-  an odd little fellow.

We arrived early and I worked the whole time, no coffee, no internets, just sewing.  I set up the extra machine for straight stitching and the older one for free motion and worked between them.  I got it backed and the binding sewn on.  Tomorrow I will spend a bit more time quilting around on the background, and perhaps finish a side or two of the hand work on the binding.  All in all, it's so close to being done I can feel the freedom at the end of my tunnel!  Pictures?  As soon as I get the edges on.  Home by 3, and I wouldn't have left except I felt guilty leaving Molly alone in a thunder storm.

The Connecticut-based artist Dalton M. Ghetti carves mind-glowingly small sculptures atop the tips of pencils. Bored with carving larger objects, the sculptor invented this delightfully miniature medium to draw the eye to the pleasures of the minuscule; in a world where bigger is generally thought to be better, his work reminds us that sometimes the most magical things can spring forth from right under our noses. Ghetti uses sewing needles and razor blades as carving tools, and he works by holding the pencil steady beneath a direct light source like a lamp. Due to the required precision and effort, a single piece may take months or even years to finish.

makes my head spin.

fabric design patterns, Germany 1933, five anonymous pieces of pattern work, because, even though it is right that creative work should be apportioned to the individual artist concerned, it is also important that pattern should be celebrated as an outward projection of all of us, of the human species. Pattern is one of our contributions to the world. We see and admire the world around us and then translate that wonder through the funnel of our own creativity, producing another perspective of that world that is totally and uniquely human. It is something that should be endlessly celebrated, but rarely is.

A massive quilt, which has woven together the most treasured memories of the people of Derry/Londonderry, has been unveiled for August Craft Month. After seven long months in production, the multi-coloured, handmade quilt, made with the help of hundreds of local people, is now on display Bedlam Building, Pump Street. The City of Culture Quilt, which is approximately 50ft by 20ft, has been a real labour of love for the people of the city and for well-known children’s knitwear designer and crochet tutor Aine Clarke of Hansel and Gretel.

I don't think I need squirrels today, we just might have one here anyway!

Y&R New Zealand turns manly beards into cute animals for Schick's "Free Your Skin" campaign, which takes a bold anti-beard stance in this golden age of hirsute ruggedness. Of course, sneering observers are all calling the Schick models hipsters, so maybe the ads also tap into a sort of cultural exhaustion with all things bearded, buttoned-down and knit-capped.