Spring Imperative

April is National Poetry Month and I have not put any poems on this blog, some are on my Big 7-0 blog.  Mostly I have been writing poems. Here is a very recent one - not about this morning, but this morning the same thing happened.

At 3:30 -- believe it! --
Birds were loud.
Not a hint of dawn
for a full hour, yet

they were full throat
into their mating calls!
I pushed myself up
onto an elbow to squint
at the red LED number.
So long and hard has the winter
been they must be desperate
to recoup and preserve
their species.

The Barbie Project

 I'm calling this the Barbie Project.  Lynn, the woman hiding behind the bird cage (there's a feathered Barbie in the  cage) was gifted -- reason a mystery-- 32 naked Barbies. She asked our group which does various sort of crafts and creative things to each take a Barbie and "do something" There were seven of us -- three didn't get into the photo. But we all followed the directive and dressed (or didn't -- in the case of the Barbie sitting in a tub of bubble bath). Perhaps I will add the other Barbies  tomorrow. Tonight I haven't time to write much or add more photos.  The Barbie in turquoise tulle is a "Spirit of Spring" Barbie.

The Barbie below spring in my Barbie who has gained 50 pounds now that she's 56 years old (she is wearing an "invisible fat suit" hidden by the house coat I made for her.  She's had a not at all good hair cut and her hair has turned gray.  I'll explain the other Barbies in another post. But I'll say that Beverly --in gray sweater and hat -- wrote a monolog for a Barbie who spent her money on cosmetic surgery and I wrote a monolog for a Barbie who has come into self-confidence now that she's over 50.  But she still seeks her fortune and fame at the hands of a powerful man. She does lip service to feminism but doesn't, in her heart of heart, choose to be a fully realized person.   I am thinking that there is more to this story.  I will write about the other Barbie transformations tomorrow.

In the photo are Lynn, Beverly, Helen and Miriam.

Started something new, having fun

I saw a selvage quilt like this on the Selvage Blog (see side bar here and scroll down a few days). It had a red center star but when I got the selvage triangles sewn I saw a scrap of blue on the table, so I used it. And liked it and pulled out a few other blues and light purples.  The design will be a spider web of selvages when several blocks are put together. 

The block Karen showed on her blog was in process so I could see how it was put together. I made my own template out of cardboard after making a careful drawing of the block on some cheap paper. To my delight the template was right (added 1/4 inch for seams).  Putting the block together was a bit of a puzzle, it's done in halves which are triangles, instead of the usual block within a block method.  A tad harder than usual because of the biases but not difficult.

I love working with selvages.  For these I used drier sheets as foundations, a favorite foundation not only for the sake of frugality but the residual bit of perfume.  I'm not sure how large the final quilt will be, probably not bed size unless I just can't stop sewing selvages. I find it very fun to work with them and I like the idea of stars in these various shades of blue and purple.