FACEBOOK LIVE with Mark Lipinski and Mr. Electric, October 16, 2017

If you missed our last Facebook LIVE live video, here it is!  Please feel free to leave a question or comment below.  All are answered.  xoxom

Here are the links to the subjects we spoke about in this episode:

ORGAN RECITAL

la bandeau

So, we’ve returned to Facebook Live and I’m on home dialysis, so I have a little more energy.  I now have a hookah pipe tube of sorts implanted in my  stomach, and I exchange fluids from my body four times per day, seven days per week.

Here’s the\ ‘bandeau’ that I had to purchase to wear around my waist to keep the tube in place and from accidentally being damaged or pulled out.  Charming, I’m sure.  You can order yours here: https://www.walmart.com/ip/No-Boundaries-Seamless-Bandeau-Bra/49056321

Don’t forget that you get a free pair of Yarmulkes with every bandeau you buy!

I’m still in need of a kidney to save my life . . .  Statistically, the average life span for people on dialysis is about 5-years.  Maybe I’ll be one of the lucky ones who can be on dialysis for years and years, but you never know.  

QUESTION

 

EATS

Easy Wesson Oil Pie Crust 

2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. Wesson oil
1/4 c. cold whole milk

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Pour oil and milk into one measuring cup, but do not stir. Dump into flour mixture; mix with fork until cleans side of bowl. Form into ball; divide and roll between two pieces of wax paper.

Mark’s Tip:  Find an old slab of granite or marble and use as a cool rolling surface for pie crusts and cookies.  I find it makes a huge difference in my baking experience. 

Mark’s Tip:  Roll using POWDERED SUGAR instead of flour for pie crust.

Mark’s Tip:  Dissolve a teaspoon of sugar into warm milk and brush it on your raw pie crust to get a golden brown top. 

EMBROIDERERS’ GUILD OF AMERICA

I joined my local chapter of The Embroiderers’ Guild of America !

EGA is a national organization, that is broken down into Regions of the country.  I live in the Metropolitan Region which covers from Princeton, NJ to Albany, NY, including Long Island, NY, Fairfield, CT, and the Pocono Chapter in Pennsylvania

I belong to the Skylands Chapter. Our meeting at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, Succasunna, NJ on the First Sunday of the month, at 1:30 p.m.  It’s a nice, healthy, and talented group of stitchers with a lot of needlepointers, cross stitchers, knitters, and 1 male quilter. 

I shared my copy of, Needle Arts, which is the quarterly publication of The Embroiderers’ Guild of America in which you will find articles on the history and preservation of embroidery, information about correspondence courses and other educational projects that might interest you, national and chapter news, and other assorted items of interest. A subscription to the magazine is a part of your annual dues. 

The Embroiderer’s Guild of America offers a wonderful variety of programs that are not only educational but interesting and fun. The education catalog, which you will receive as part of your membership describe each of the programs in detail. There are tons of all online courses so that you can have availability to classes on your own schedule. Offered recently were classes and goldwork, stump work, beating a crazy quilting. Course instructions and/or supplemental instructions are posted online and each group has its own password protected discussion area for lessons questions/answers for the participants.

EGA also offers group correspondence courses in various techniques like beating, campus, white work, blackwork, stumpwork, crewel, tamari and many other techniques. Each quarter, several of these courses are selected as Lightning Rounds which allows individual members to sign up and take the course of the group of one! You will have 4 to 12 months to work for lessons and at the end of that time, you have the option of sending your piece to the teacher who will evaluate your work, comment on pieces you have done well and make suggestions for those pieces that could be better. If you completed the piece and sent  it for evaluation, you will receive a Certificate of Completion. Lightning Rounds are announced in the inside EGA section of the Needle Arts magazine.

Have you ever wondered what blackwork is, or Brazilian embroidery, or hardanger, or any of a number of other techniques? Check out the 60+ petite projects on the website under the members only site, once you join. These projects are original designs that are donated for your use. Each one is designed for a class of 2 to 3 hours although some will take longer. You will learn the technique through stitching the project. There might also be historical background, finishing instructions, etc. It is a wonderful and easy to try out techniques that might not be familiar to you.   

Contact: www.egausa.org to find a chapter in your area.  

LOCAL ARTIST’S GROUP

I joined the ARTMATTERS group at my local library, The Washington Township Public Library located in Long Valley, New Jersey.

It’s a nice sized fine arts group based at the Washington Twsp. Public Library (Morris) NJ, and artists of all levels meet exchange ideas, and plan art activities.  Most of the members are painters, and they will thrilled to have someone who works specifically in fiber.  I explained, however, I just bought my first set of Acrylics and I want to try my hand at painting.

Due at the first meeting in December is art for a new ARTMATTERS exhibition (which changes locations every couple of months) which are pieces inspired by “WHITE.”

I think I’m going to enter an orginal cross stitch design, of white floche embroidery floss on cream evenweave linen.

It’s not too big and I could probably whip it out in a week or so.  I’m going to have to check out to see if I could find white and off white variegated threads.  That might look terrific on a creamy or ice blue background.  Maybe I should just stitch white on white?   What do you think?

If you’re in the area stop in.  Check out the ARTMATTERS website, here: http://artmatterswt.yolasite.com

EMBROIDERY AND POETRY

I was lucky enough to take a short workshop at the Hunterdon Museum in Clinton NJ a few weeks ago (the stone building on the right is the museum) that combined embroidered lettering and poetry with artist, Iviva Olenick.

Iviva and Hunterdon Poets, Kasey Jueds, Vasiliki Katsarou and MaryAnn Miller led this very special workshop that combined the art of embroidery with the art of poetry.

The workshop was divided into four segments, starting with a brief embroidery lesson; followed by a poetry reading while participants embroider select words and phrases; a lesson from the poets on drafting personal verse; and finally, participants embroidering their own poems. Participants may also embroider imagery.

At the end of our stitching we were given 10-15 minutes to create an original poem to read to the group (GULP).

Well, girl, I ain’t no poet but other than reciting ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ I had to come up with something quick.  

So I allowed the angry creative to spring forth . . .

Well, lucky you.  We only had scraps of paper to write our poetry on and I’m guessing I must have (for the first time in my  entrie unorganized life) trashed the scrap of paper along with the poem I had written on it.   Now, fall on your knees and thank the gods that you have been spared. 

Poetry Workshop

On November 16, there will be a poetry reading/workshop held at the Hunderton Art Museum, led by one of the poets who presented at the embroidery workshop, Vasiliki Katsarou.  

Vasiliki invited me to come after our stitching, and I committed, forgetting that I have to give a lecture that evening.  I could make both with no problem but for that darn dialysis.  Maybe I’ll look for a private space I can use for about a half hour, between the workshop in Clinton and the lecture in Frenchtown?  

Here’s the link if you’re interested in attending or want to learn more about the Hunterdon Poets Workshop (to start one in your town, perhaps?):  https://hunterdonartmuseum.org/portfolio-items/sunday-afternoon-drop-poetry/

MR. ELECTRIC’S NEW BOOK 

Mr. Electric’s SECOND book, “Who Am I?” has finally launched and is available in bookstores (local and big box, like Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.)  and other booksellers (even Wal-Mart, etc) around the country!  If you would like an autographed copy of his book (personalized to you or yours) order yours here:  http://bit.ly/2nI6Rj6  Who Am I?  is the follow up to his first book, Who Broke the Vase? 

 

Overview

Who Am I? by Jeffrey Turner

A rabbit pretends to be every other animal—pig, owl, tiger, mouse, frog—anyone but who he is really is, in this imaginative and inventive story.

Jeffrey Turner, the author and illustrator of the witty and wonderful Who Broke the Vase? returns with a story about a rabbit who believes he can be anything he imagines. But when he meets a bat hanging upside down from a tree, he finds out he’s not the only one who thinks that way!

This clever tale is a little bit Duck Rabbit mixed with a little bit of Not a Box, two bestselling books about imagination and make-believe. This fresh and original, boldly illustrated story also acts as an interactive game with a new animal

Here’s a little inside  . . . 

 

 

 

And hold on . . .

November is  NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH

Why not write your story?  Just write a little every day and complete a novel by the end of November.  I’m going to work on my memoir.  On our FaceBook Live I posed the question:  Just how ‘intimate’ should I get?    What say you, kids? 

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. 

On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.

Here’s the NaNoWriMo website will all of the information and support you’re going to need:   www.nanowrimo.org

WHAT I’M DOING

I’ve been invited to be interviewed on the Crafty Planner blog.  It’s not a live interview, but I’ll be sure to let you know when it is available to download.   In the meantime, go listen to the interviews of some of your favorite stitchers, quilters, and makers.  You might learn a thin or two!   Here’s the website:  http://www.craftyplanner.com

THE COURTHOUSE QUILTERS

I will be speaking at the Courthouse Quilters Guild in Frenchtown, New Jersey on November 12 at 6:30 PM.  It’s kind of my local guild, and I’m planning on joining this year just to hold me accountable and I may get some quilting finished.  

I’ll be presenting my lecture on The Slow Stitching Movement.  

For more information on this lecture, location, directions and the Courthouse Quilters (who put on an ultra-fabulous quilt show, I might add) please visit their website at: www.courthousequilters.org 

By the way, if you’d like to learn more about The Slow Stitching Movement, you can find a taped eVersion of the lecture at:  http://www.fonsandporter.com/blogs/back-by-popular-demand-mark-lipinskis-slow-stitching-movement

WHAT I’M READING 

I picked up a copy of the new Just Cross Stitch Ornaments issue.  I have every one every published.  Decades worth, and I have yet to make any ornaments.  While there are always several designs I would like to stitch I wish I had for my tree, I have yet to ever stitch one.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t love the magazine and devour every one. Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I’ve turned the old hound corner, but this isn’t my favorite issue in the bunch.  I think it’s less about the actual ornaments, and more the art direction that turns me off.  Where’s the vibrance? 

The color in a lot of the pieces (and that’s what you’re selling, guys) is washed out.  The ‘cool’ light or white backgrounds do nothing to help the ornaments pop so they look bland and grey.  

On the display page, like the JOY TO THE WORLD section, the rich green with the light ornaments pop the designs and adds to the homey, warm, holiday feeling.  

The same is true of HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS spread, although it’s a textured white, the background doesn’t distract from the ornaments although the color is wiped out in several of the examples.  

I also love to see the photos of the individual ornament designers, along with a short paragraph about how they spend the holiday and their favorite holiday recipe.  I’ve found some great designer family recipes over the years.  

Maybe next year the art director will shoot individual, well-lit, saturated color images of each ornament,  then Photoshop the individual pieces onto the background?   Anywhoooo, not my problem.  And collectors of this issue will buy it anyway.  I know that will.  It’s a $10-buck magazine. 

You can grab a copy from your local stitchery shop or contact Deb at the independent shop  Stitches n Things in Michigan and her mail you a copy.  

Leafing through my copy of Better Homes and Gardens, I stumbled across a project page for 3 different 3-D Felt Pillows!  None of them are difficult to make and they all look really fun.  I especially love the folded then sewn example.  Sorry, I can’t just give you the information because it’s under copyright, but head to your local library (they ALL seem to carry BH&G) and grab the September 2017 issue.  The DIY article and DIY tutorial begins on page 76.  

You know, I thought BH&G became really tacky several years ago and wasn’t worth the scratch they were charging for it.  Something’s changed and I have found lots of inspiration for both quilts and needlework in their pages – only it’s $3.99 now.  Subscribe.  You can get a year’s worth for like $5-$7 bucks. Holdout  for a special rate.

MYSTERY SOLVED!

Thank you, thank you, Janie Z Bowman for the amazing Greek cookies and breads!