I entered an essay contest to win a 170th anniversary Singer sewing machine. It was to celebrate the 12,000 subcribers to a YouTube channel called Cow Country's Vintage Sewing Machines and Restoration. We were to write a fictional story about a town called Calico. There are a few towns by that name here in the U.S. and I chose the one in California that is now a ghost town. 

I found out today that...I WON!!!! I am beyond thrilled. So anyway, I thought I'd write that story here so anyone can read it.

                                                      Grandmother's Legacy

     One of my favorite things was when the delivery wagon stopped in front of Lane's Mercantile here in our little town of Calico, California. I'm not sure who gave this rough and tumble little mining town it's name. Whoever it was must have looked out over the hills and valleys surrounding the mine and been reminded of a colorful piece of calico cloth that was worn by a pretty girl they once loved. When the sun shone high in the afternoon the surrounding land took on the look of a patchwork quilt.

     Nestled in a little valley was our little town that had sprung up out of nothing. Many folks moved here because of the mine and the chance to strike it rich with the silver found here. Two years ago when Uncle Joe and I decided to settle here there was already an assessor's office and a saloon. Uncle Joe knew the town would need a general store that would carry all the things folks would need as they settled here. He and my Papa had run a general store back in Boston before my Papa died. They both had a good head for business and did very well with their store. Uncle Joe inherited the shop but was not happy working there without Papa as his partner. Uncle Joe wanted to start fresh somewhere new and that's when we made our move to Calico

When Uncle Joe and I stepped out onto the porch of the mercantile, the delivery driver was already untying the ropes that held the parcels in place. The two horsed hitched to the wagon snorted and stomped anxious to get a little treat. After so many deliveries to our store the came to recognize me. I gave them each a couple of sugar cubes, an apple and a scratch behind their ears. Then I had to take my turn bringing in the parcels we had ordered. I managed all the smaller and lighter packages that I could carry and piled them up onto the counter inside. Uncle Joe and the driver hoisted boxes and barrels of supplies and carried them to the back of the store.

     There was one item on the wagon that was carefully wrapped in a thick blanket tied with rope. It wasn't very big, but it was too heavy for me to lift on my own. Uncle Joe lifted it from the wagon and carefully placed it on the counter inside. Just then our friend Scott Geller arrived to see what had just been delivered. He owned the Cow Country Sewing and Repair shop just up the street. He was almost as anxious to see what was inside the package as I. But I already knew what it was.

     It was both a sad and happy moment as we unwrapped the package. Grandmother had passed on a few months earlier and many of her belongings had been sold or given away. Except this one. She had stated in her will that it was to be handed down to me. I stood in awe as the wrapping fell away to reveal the beautifully polished walnut cover that, when removed, revealed the shiny black and gold sewing machine that was my grandmother's most prized possession. My grandmother was a skilled seamstress and took great pride in the things she had sewn during her lifetime. She taught me how to sew during the time I had lived with her. My eyes welled up with tears of those memories as I ran my fingers over the glossy black finish and golden swirls decorating this wondrous machine. It could be cranked by hand using the pearly white handle that made the needle go up and down through cloth that would become something wonderful to wear, frilly curtains or a patchwork quilt. My heart was filled with pride knowing that this lovely machine was now mine to use and I could continue on with my grandmother's legacy.

                                                                   An excerpt from

                                                          Sarah Lane Mulchay's diary

                                                                      May 5, 1884

I thought it might be time to give my blog a little update. Not sure if I'm crazy about what I did-but at least it is a bit different. I decided to start adding some pictures of my latest things I've been working on. I have been needle felting more critters. These are in progress and still have a long way to go.

Wow-almost 2 years since I've been here. I've been filling my retirement days with lots of needle felting. I taught a class and used the parts I demonstrated with to make this "cute" little witch. I named her Ezmerelda.

Wow, this little blog has been sorely neglected. I spend more time on Facebook than I should. I hope to remedy that. I plan to catch up on all the poor neglected things around me now that I have all the time in the world. It still doesn't seem possible that today is the first day of my retirement. I don't think reality will sink in til I have more than a week's worth of vacation time off. I plan (that's a really big word) to get loads of stuff done and then hopefully post all the fun stuff I'm doing. We shall see how far I get. Gotta figure out some sort of schedule or I'll never get things done.

Good Luck on Friday the 13th.

I had a day off work-that made it a GREAT Friday the 13th.  I got out all the stuff and recipes for making an indigo dye vat.  I used a 5 gallon bucket out on my deck and dyed anything I could grab.  I had some older skeins of yarn I had spun and wasn't crazy about the color-and I had some I purposely spun up for this project.  I had some fabric pieces from my stash, and a T shirt, a white cotton shirt and an old faded denim shirt to throw in the pot.  The results were amazing.  I plan to do more.  I happen to have this 5 gallon bucket now that's full of indigo.  Anyone want to come by and do some dyeing?

Dyeing on a Dreary Sunday

It's a gray and dreary day, time to break out the dye pots.  The weather is messing with my sinuses and my mood, so I figured I needed some bright color to cheer me up.  It began with two skeins of white wool (no idea what kind-its from ages ago) and two cakes of Lion's brand Fisherman's wool.  I decided to dip dye each end of the skeins in two separate pots-Jacquard turquoise and hot fuchsia.  I let the ends soak about 15 minutes and had poured a bit of each color up to the middle. I was pleasantly surprised when the combination came out to a wonderful shade of purple.  For the cakes I dipped half in each color-holding them there for only a few minutes each. Then I set them in a bowl and poured a little of each color over to mix them up. I then nuked them in the microwave for two minutes.  Gorgeous color, and great mood lifter.  Unfortunately it did not help my sinus trouble.

Art Studio Tour

It's been a long time since I've added anything new to this blog.  I've been either too busy, or too lazy.  BUT, in the meantime I did manage to gather up enough stuff to have a pretty good presentation of my "stuff" to set up for the Art Studio Tour back in October at http://www.glasshausonline.com/.  My brother and sister in law own the studio and had me there as a guest artist.  It was a very nice weekend.  We had a good amount of people come through, but not a lot of sales.  I enjoyed talking spinning to people, and some ladies were very interested.  But being that I live pretty far from Green Bay I couldn't help them out.  I guess there's a really nice spinning group in that area.  I told them all about Ravelry and YouTube videos.  Two great places to learn all about spinning.  This was also a great experience in finding out if all my stuff fit into my new car-it did!  With a little room to spare.  So If I ever get to be in a show somewhere I know I can pack up and go.

Another Two Days of Wooly Fun

The whole reason for the weekend

Eco dying class-picking out plant materials

rolling up the silk scarf with plants

steaming silk bundles

my finished scarves

We also did some flower pounding, which was great fun but very noisy.  Not sure I will do this at home, but it produced some interesting results.  Now I have to wait another whole year to take more classes and overdose on all the wonderful wooly goodness that is at Wisconsin's Sheep and Wool Festival.

2013 WI Sheep and Wool Festival

I LOVE Woolfest!!  I took a felted bangle bracelet class this morning from a Milwaukee felt artist-Jan Falk.  She did a fantastic job and she's such  nice lady.  One of the other students was in a class I took back in April at the WI Spin In.  Small world.  We talked all about felting, of course.  I definitely learned some new techniques to make more felted jewelry.  At least I have all the tools and a ton of supplies for these new projects. (Although, it did not keep me from buying more wool.)

And here's today's haul that will help keep my fiber addiction going for a long time.

The finished felted bangle bracelets-the first of many more to come, I'm sure.

Good Clean Fun

I ventured into a new hobby yesterday-Hand Made Soap.  I was felting soap one day about a week ago using soap I bought at the dollar store.  A little voice asked me if I could do this with hand made soap, and I could not stop thinking about making my own soap.  So...With a trip to the dollar store for tools and supplies, and Wal-mart for oils and such I was armed and ready.  I just happened to have a jar of lye left from my adventure with indigo dying so I had all I needed.  The internet is such a wonderful tool-I think I watched every You Tube video there is out there, read a zillion blogs and websites and then found the Soaping 101 group on Facebook.  I got the confidence to give it a try.  The dangers of using lye scared me a bit.  But I took all the safety precautions and just plowed ahead.  It was fun to make, I felt a bit like a chemist, and I even got the bonus of a good cleaning of part of my kitchen for the project.  So after getting each batch in a mold I had to wait overnight for the reveal--TA DA!!-I have soap!!  They came out of the cheapo molds I used and cut up very easily.  They now have to air cure for about 4 weeks before I can use them.  I'm already thinking of what I can make next.

Hand made paper

Yesterday I tried my hand at making some denim paper. I had help from Sophie and we chopped up some denim from and old pair of jeans into teen tiny bits, threw them in the blender with some torn up envelopes from junk mail and made 18 sheets of really cool "jeans" paper.   Then today I spent most of the day making more paper.  I had an old catalog made from really cool paper that I wanted to recycle and then just added some dye to get some different colors.  It took a while to perfect the method-but putting the pieces on my french door's glass to dry worked just great.  I love the results and can't wait for them to dry.  Not sure when I'll do this again-I'm all pooped out.  I'll just sit now and try to design some cool paper jewelry to make with my new creations.

Finished

Here is the most recent work I've finished-a shawl for Sophie.  She specifically asked for those colors and wanted it made just like one I had made for myself a while back.  She's such a ham for the camera.              

Never pass up a bargain!

It all started with an innocent shopping trip to my local K-Mart to get a birthday present for my granddaughter, Sophie.  After finding a couple cute outfits for her, and looking at all the Barbie's, I took a stroll down the sale aisle.  Well, there they were, a bunch of boxes of  Easter egg dye on sale for 19 cents a box.  Insanity took hold and I grabbed them all.  Eighty boxes!  I apologized several times to the checkout lady who had to scan and punch in numbers for each one separately. I did tell her, and several people around me, that it was all for dying wool.  What else?  Certainly not eggs.

Another wheel??

Yup, I got another wheel.  I saw an ad on Craigslist for a wheel for 40 bucks in a town not far from me.  I had to check it out.  It was love at first sight.  She doesn't appear to be very old, and seems to be handmade.  I had to make a new drive band and attach the footman with a leather lace.  Cleaned and oiled really well and started spinning.  She spins just great.  She's double drive which can be a little tricky-but she goes really fast and smooth.   So the total now is 4 wheels.  I think I'll be needing spinning wheels anonymous pretty soon.

Easter-2013

Happy Easter!  As usual, I spent a little time with the dyepot this weekend.  I first colored a few eggs, and then filled my jars with wool.  I used 4 tablets of color for each jar, water, vinegar and about an ounce of wool in each.  I boiled it all for about 45 minutes and then just let them sit to cool.  I got some super bright colors to ply with.  Then, of course, I had to use the fluff to do a little Easter decorating.

fun with fiber

I've been spinning, spinning, spinning, but not your regular old skeins of yarn.  I have a pile of glitzy, textured, colorful strands of soon to be necklaces.  I made several different wild rolags with my new blending board and found that they spin into some interesting yarns.  I decided to ply the yarn back onto itself and really liked the look.  I hope they will make really cool necklaces.  I still need to finish the ends and add some wire clasps and closures.  Making these is very addictive-so I hope to have plenty and maybe sell some when I'm done.

New Tools

Wow it's been a while since I've done any blogging.  I've been distracted with so many other things I forget to post.  One of my latest distractions has been joining a group on Ravelry called Rollin Rolags  that has been making rolags on blending boards.  These kinds of boards have been around for many years, but there's a new resurgence of them being used by fiber artists.  Some major companies have added them to their lineup of fiber tools.  I and a few others in the group found them to be a bit out of our price range-so we started a DIY group.  So I ordered some carding cloth through the co-op, shopped around to find the right board and proceeded to make my own.  I used it for the first time and rather enjoyed the process.  Now I just have to start spinning the rolags I'm collecting and see how they come out.

Who'd a thunk it?

So, who would have thought of making earrings out of recycled elephant dung paper?  Me, of course!  I managed to find some paper made from elephant dung.  I think it's from Thailand.  When I go back to buy more I will pay closer attention to that part.  But...I have been having fun using my laminated paper technique  to make several pairs of earrings, and the paper beads that go with them.  It's even more fun to see the reaction of people when I tell them what my earrings are made of.  I hope to get these all on their own earring card holders and eventually sell them.  Till then I'll enjoy playing with the elephant poo...paper.

Gel Printing 101

I've been eyeing up the new gel printing plates out there for sale-but they are a little pricey for me.  So...the cheapskate side of me found a recipe for a home made plate and I managed to make it and even get it right.  I boiled 2 cups of water and added 8 packets of Knox gelatine.  I stirred until it was totally dissolved and then poured it into a little square pan lined with plastic wrap.  It set up really well overnight just sitting out on the counter.  Tonight I gathered together some things to make marks, stencils, and masks and proceeded to print with plain old craft paint and a brayer.   It wasn't hard to do and was fun.  I need to make myself a bigger work space for the next round of printing.  I'm thinking of cutting the plate down to ATC size and printing each card separately.  I think I'll be saving my pennies to get a larger store bought one to make bigger prints at some point in the future.  

Happy Holidays

I haven't been blogging much lately.  I've been too busy with the holiday madness-or maybe just lazy-no- let's go with too busy.  I did manage to spend some time Christmas day spinning up some art yarn.  It was a while since I had done any spinning.  It felt good.  I have a New Year's resolution-more time spent spinning-less time nodding off in front of the TV.