Category Archives: personal

oops, late- interview Sunday

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one day late! Here is week 4.

Week 3, week 2, week 1. One more segment left.

On Saturday, Ben and I drove down to Southbridge, Connecticut to go to an opening in this amazing building called the Flat Iron building-

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It is a town where the store fronts look like they got caught and stuck somewhere around the middle of the last century. After the opening, we drove over to Sturbridge, Mass. and went to a favorite store of mine (I’ve blogged about it before in 2005 and 2006), Vintage and Antique Textiles. Since I was with Ben instead of a group of doll makers, my time to shop/explore was limited, but I managed to find some treasures. I love these tiny shoe buttons. They are glass.
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I got some other buttons too, some rayon seam binding, hmm, oh, and some little lingerie hardware for future robots. I met the owner for the first time. She now has a website and asked me if I’d include a link- which I am happy to do. I’ll go back and add it to the old posts as well. She said to tell everyone that she has tons of lace!

And about the open studios- here is some more info.

busy week

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First of all- Thank you, thank you for all the positive response to mr. naked robot! I’ve been glowing!

It was one of those weeks where a lot was going on that kept me away from the sewing machine. I have a friend that works at Harvard in the African Studies Department. They were having a special event this week which included a workshop lead by Oyenike Okundaye, on Nigerian fabric dyeing. It was fun to get out of the house and get a glimpse into several worlds I’m not part of- African textile arts, Harvard and their academic arts, and people in general who end up at a workshop like this, mostly somehow connected with Harvard, which I am not.

The first night we did what I think of as tie-dyeing. She showed us a variety of traditional ways to fold the fabric before tieing (actually we were using rubber bands). These are the ones I did-
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and this is what the floor looked like by mid-evening-

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We also did some work with wax and dye and also a technique that involved stitching and pulling to gather the fabric. What I did the second evening-

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I think I’ll be able to use some of what I was playing with when I dye my wool fabrics… which I do every once in a while. Lots of fun!

Also- I think I worked out the twisting leg problem that was bugging me on the naked robot guy- I did some ripping stitches out, adjusting and resewing- better now- phew!

Week 3- interview

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And now for week three of the interview. Week one is here. Week two, here. To review- there are 5 tracks and I’m posting them on consecutive Sundays. Carley wrote a post about the interview here.

And some links-

I love a reading list and I was very happy to find this list over on Rebecca’s Pocket. I’ve taken notes and can now bring it along to the library when I am searching for audio books.

And did you see Karen Nicol’s incredible embroidery site? I found this link over on Kim’s blog and wow! Blow my mind! Some of my favorites- blue roses, white garland, wisteria?

Interview

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Last September, I was interviewed about my work by Carley out in Utah. It was fun to spend an hour on the phone talking to her. She recently sent me the interview- I was really nervous to listen to it… you know that feeling you get when you hear your own voice? And, of course, I was worried about what I’d said- did I sound like a complete idiot? Well, I listened to it and survived. I needed to know if I should post it, so had husband, then daughter listen. Consensus?- go for it. It is in 5 sections. I will post a segment a week x 5.

So- hear Mimi talk- (approx. 8 minutes)
Part 1 of the interview

weekend doings

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It is a beautiful day here in Boston today. I took a walk and happened upon a neighborhood yard sale- very unusual for a weekend in March in New England. The person in charge must be an eternal optimist, and and lucky too. I’ve been on the look out for some tea cups to make some more pin cushions and was very pleased to find these. So, I was lucky also! It is amazing what a sunny, warmish (relatively) day, with spring in the air can do to lift the spirits. Even when you have to leap over icy, rock hard snow banks to cross the streets.

We watched Bride and Prejudice last night- Fantastic! So, so funny- and as true to the story as most movies. I loved it enough that I might have to watch it again before it goes back. I keep thinking of funny scenes and laughing again!
Here are some etsy shops where I’ve spent money recently- Novembermoon and Sara Lechner Fiberart. Beautiful artwork.

Lots of comments on the hidden button hip joints- I will do a post to show what I’m talking about. I need to go take more photos though.

:-) heart

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Happy Valentines Day everybody. But that isn’t the big holiday this week around my house-

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Yesterday was my third year blog birthday- and considering how much this blogging thing has enriched my life, it is most certainly worth celebrating! I am hoping for another wonderful year of meeting new people, swaps, round robins, feedback, exchanges of information- the community. That’s been the best part.

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It’s a snow day today. Peter has no school. In our town, they blow a very loud horn when school is canceled or delayed. Seems so very old fashioned.

I managed to get a lot closer to being done with my blanket this past week.

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When we were visiting Eleanor this past weekend, we sat around and talked and I knit… It is now 47 inches long. I have 2 more color stripes I want to do. I ran out of brown (the constant stripe color)- grrr. I thought about buying some more, but no, the whole point of this project is to use up what I have. So, the last stripes are black. I doubt anyone will complain.

A clarification of sorts- I start tons of projects that don’t get finished. It’s just that the blanket project is in my head in a different category from what I think of as my “art” projects. The blanket is a home project. I have a long list of home projects I want to get done. Curtains and throw pillows for our new futon sofa are at the top of the list. It’s these home projects that I am trying to keep under some control. My personal rules are VERY complicated with oh so many exceptions, footnotes and extenuating circumstances. Good thing I can make them up as I go along!

Hey, I won something!

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Look at that! I won a prize! My contribution was chosen for the ACA award which means that next winter, my art will be on the cover of the catalog- I got a call on Thursday to tell me that I’d won and it made my day, my week, maybe longer! There was an opening today where they made a presentation of prizes. They said very nice things about my piece and asked me if I had anything to say… which of course I didn’t- I froze- uhhhh.

And here are flowers that we were suppose to give to Eleanor. We were down in New York for Friday and Saturday.
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Eleanor directed a play at school and this was performance time. It was fantastic! Sorry about the flowers though…

On another topic- I am so sick of my knitted blanket project. I am pushing to finish it because I have all these other things I want to work on but don’t want to start until it is done. One of those personal rules things.

blog related stuff

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so are you seeing my new banner? So much better!

And, there is now a link in the sidebar to click on if you’d like to receive my blog postings by email. Good if you don’t use a blog reader of some sort. It works. I’ve tried it.

And on Friday I spent the morning hanging out with Abby of While She Naps. We have gotten together a few times before, but I am always amazed how great it is to see her in person, see her work and just chat about what we’re doing- sewing, blogging, etc.
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I have had only wonderful experiences meeting up with fellow bloggers. It is so easy. There is not all the explaining to do… “what do you do? why would you do THAT! what is that blogging thing anyway? why would you do it? … So much of what makes meeting a new person hard/ weird/ scary for me- we’re already past that. We have connected through our blogs. I put myself out in the online world in a take it or leave it situation. If you don’t like what I’m doing, easy. Don’t come back. The people who are interested, stay. When I meet up with someone I’ve connected to through blogging, there is no need to prove that what I do is valid, interesting, art, worthwhile or anything. We have already gotten past that before we met. So, phew, one more thing I love about blogging!

Now, a question. When you click on a link in a posting, do you like a new page to open up or is that annoying? I like having a new page open up but what about you?

deflated balloon

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That was how I described my creative drive at the end of last January- one of the good things about blogging is the record of such things. Now I can chalk it up to a yearly cycle and feel as though I am making progress if I get back to my studio before the end of January!

Hard to believe, but I’ve been gardening- doing the fall clean-up that I never got to in the fall. It was 70 degrees outside yesterday- which is just too very strange for Boston. I guess I can’t use the too cold up in the attic excuse for not working.
A few things that the blogging world brought into my house over the Christmas season-

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Shobana‘s wonderful knitting book- lots of inspiration in it. Knitting often gets me past a slump- I should start a project…

and this wonderful pin cushion from Betz White–

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I love pin cushions!

I was excited to see that Forest Rogers has a new blog. Her work is amazing, the faces especially. And beautiful photography.

So I’ve got a question- is this blog working better for you, oh reader? Are the photos showing up? Is it unbearably slow? Better then before or worse? It is better on my end, but I have to admit I don’t know how badly broken it has been… I kept finding new problems over the last 6 weeks. Feedback would be very helpful.

Some things I’d like to get to this coming year-

-write up and publish at LEAST one pattern.
-make cards, probably through cafepress shop
-go back and finish the many unfinished dolls sitting around my studio- they are all untouched since I showed them here and here. For the most part, they need clothes.
-teach a class- wool dolls
-more linking, more commenting, spend less money, make more dolls, go on a real vacation, laugh more, garden more, make a new friend, worry less… I’m sure there is more but that’s all for now.