Aluminum Loaf

13 December 2014

Quilting "Golden Light"

After the success of the first experiment with printing one of my mom's photographs on fabric and quilting it last July (see Quilting Fuchsia), we selected seven more images and had those printed at Spoonflower's largest possible size (about 27 x 40 inches without distorting the image). I've since shipped and carried those pieces of fabric all around the United States and even into Canada, twice. Two weeks ago, I finally managed to find the time to sit down and start to quilt again—truly one of my very favourite/favorite activities.

This is the resulting quilt that I created from the photograph "Golden Light" by Elizabeth Root Blackmer (you can see the original image in the middle of her Frozen gallery at BrootPhoto.com). The image is bubbles of air trapped in the ice of a frozen pond.

GoldenLight_Front

First of all, I had to find a fabric store. I was staying at my house in Nova Scotia when I finally found the time to quilt, and although I have spent extended periods of time here at the house over the past seven years (I took over the family home), I had never tried to find a place to source fabric here. I mentioned to my farming neighbour/neighbor that I need to ask his wife about a place to get fabric, and he looked at me like I was utterly obtuse. He said something along the lines of: "Everyone goes to Avonport Discount Fabric Centre over in Avonport, up behind the school—how do you not know that?" LOL.

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Posted on 13 December 2014 at 05:45 PM in Art, Fabric, Quilting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (0)

12 July 2014

Quilting My Mom's Fuchsia Photograph

My mom is an amazing photographer. She captured this image called Fuchsia:

Fuchsia

And this is what I recently turned it into: a quilt!

FuchsiaQuilt

FuchsiaMom

That's my mom there, Elizabeth Root Blackmer, holding the finished product.

She's printed on paper, glass, silk, and aluminum over the years, each with amazing results. The aluminum prints immediately below are absolutely stunning in person, and the silks below that were beyond ethereal.

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Posted on 12 July 2014 at 04:12 AM in Art, Fabric, Quilting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (1)

17 May 2014

Badger Afloat Again (2014 Edition)

Hard to believe, but it's already been two weeks since I dropped my husband off at his ship and said farewell to him for the summer and beyond. He's off again aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter HEALY—north into the seas and oceans around Alaska. This is the last picture I took of the cutter, as I stood on a beach in Washington in the pouring rain. She was sailing north and out of Puget Sound ...

140504_HealyGoodbye

I've been tracking the ship since, which is one of the very cool things you can do with this particular Coast Guard cutter (a truly appreciated rarity). She left Dutch Harbor, Alaska just a few days ago on her first mission, and it looks like she is now entering the Chukchi Sea. You can track their progress from this link:
http://icefloe.net/uscgc-healy-track-map

HealyTrackMap0517

This first research mission—which runs through late June—is to study the under-ice bloom. It's fascinating stuff if you're interested in plants or ice or biology:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ocean-bloom.html

The two other missions this year will study "Moorings" and "Oil Spill Technologies." Those are the main topics, but many other scientists are aboard as well, doing other very interesting research.

They are already in the ice as one of the recent images from the hourly camera feed from the top of the HEALY shows us. You can track the photos here:
http://icefloe.net/Aloftcon_Photos/index.php?album=2014

HealyAloftCon _0516

This blog post is really just an update for those of you who want to track the HEALY and her progress in 2014. We have a whole list of other posts we are supposed to have done already (some of which we will yet do, we promise), but the past few months have been especially busy with work and also filled with trying to pack in as many adventures as we could together before he sailed away again ...

As a teaser, here's one of the images that Badger took of himself with the HEALY last year during Ice Liberty somewhere in the Arctic Ocean:

2013_BadgerIceLibertyHEALY

___

Here's the post on (roughly) the same topic that I wrote about a year ago when they deployed. It includes some additional details about the ship and about my sweet husband:
http://aluminumloaf.com/2013/08/badgerafloat.html

Posted on 17 May 2014 at 12:56 PM in Coast Guard, Envelopes, Epistolary Adventures, USCGC HEALY | Permalink | Comments (0)

27 February 2014

Alice's beads, repurposed … again!

A few years ago, my Beloved Aunt Alice (my father's older sister) parted ways with the living. She was an amazing woman on so many different levels, and she touched each of us in special and unique ways; leaving every one of us believing that we had her absolute attention (and maybe rightfully so, as she had a huge heart and so much to give). We miss you Alice.

A few months after her passing, a number of us received packages in the mail that included an item of jewelry from her collection. The piece I received was a necklace that I wouldn't myself wear—I don't really wear gold-colored stuff—but after just a few minutes of looking at it, I knew what to do, and I sent an email with a photo of it to my very favorite jeweler: Jen Burrall in Portland, Maine. She replied that the red beads did look like carnelian and agreed to do a closer inspection of the piece to see what she could do with it for me. I figured that if I could wear the beads in some way, that I would be honoring Alice, but if the necklace sat in the back of a drawer for the rest of my life, that it would be sad and pointless.

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Posted on 27 February 2014 at 09:12 AM in Art, Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (1)

24 January 2014

Catching Up ...

CatchingUp

Oof ... I cannot believe how quickly the past few months have flown by—2013 is long since gone now, and 2014 is already in full swing. And although we have done an enormous amount in that time on both personal and professional levels, as usual, I am running behind on getting out our annual New Year's Notes. For the record, it usually takes me at least the first third of each year to write all the personal bits in them and decorate the 225+ envelopes, but I really had thought that this year would be different (as I do every year; so who am I kidding?). Anyway, I am working on them today. No, really I am. I think I have finally even frozen the design (yeah, right!).

I had three different clients slip scheduled project deliveries to me today, which means that I'll be working all day and night on Sunday, but it also means that because I had blocked most of the day today to work on those particular jobs, I instead found myself with a few precious hours of unassigned time. WHA? I could have picked up one of the [literally 20] other, more-flexible-deadline projects, but I just couldn't face yet another client file when my personal piles of stuff are literally falling over with their own weight. Plus, husband is away this week/weekend so I have all those other hours to myself as well. Some would nap or take a bath or read a book ... but me? Nah. I decided to spend the time doing the most important thing to ME on my extensive lists of shit-to-do. For me, that's working on my correspondence—something that has so sadly fallen to the wayside during these insane few months. What I really should be doing is working on writing that masters thesis, but that will have to just hold its horses for one more day. I need a break!

I am sorry, peeps, for not yet responding to your lovely letters. I have a few here from early-2013 that I've been transporting around in my bag for almost a year now—very well-traveled epistles. I'll try to do better in 2014, but the fact is, I already know this will be my most stupid-busy year ever. Sigh.

So, I'm working on them ... and that's what I hope to spend my entire night on—decorating envelopes and thinking about all these beautiful letters sitting here before me from all you beautiful people.

And as I just posted to Instagram: You know it's been way too busy when you have to measure your personal as-of-yet-not-replied-to mail by the inch (this is more than two inches when squashed as tight as possible). I live for the mail but I was a terrible correspondent in those last months of 2013. Sorry guys; I'm on it!

Mail-by-the-inch

Posted on 24 January 2014 at 05:13 PM in Art, Blackmer Maps, Envelopes, Epistolary Adventures | Permalink | Comments (0)

01 November 2013

The Other Airstream Bench Seat Gets New Fabric (Finally!)

I've had one last Airstream fabric project hanging over my head for quite some time: covering the bench seat that Badger sits on. I've had the fabric for months and months, but was squeamish about sewing around all those curves and corners. Today, in a period of just over an hour, I did the entire project from start to finish. Months and months of avoidance and it only took me an hour and twelve minutes! That'll teach me to procrastinate (*grumble*).

So ... here's what it looks like now: Awesome!

BenchSeatCovered_8

I had already covered or removed all of the other unfortunate blue-and-white-striped fabric in the Airstream, and replaced the (dare I say awful?) palm-tree curtains with new white ones, but this project eluded me. I dislike that stripey fabric so much that I had even kept a piece of black fabric draped over the seat in question for the past few months just so I didn't need to look at it. But then, because husband is away for many months, somehow various projects got assigned to The Bench where they languished ... but in a fit of cleaning and reörganizing over the past few days, I cleaned them all off and away. Then I could see those blasted stripes again, and the ridiculous blue bolsters. Arrrrgh! So today was the day.

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Posted on 01 November 2013 at 10:01 PM in Airstream Upgrades, Fabric, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (3)

19 October 2013

Quilted Octopus & Matching Blanket

When Makeshift and I went to Alaska last month, we met an awesome octopus in Seward at the Alaska SeaLife Center, and we've been octopus-obsessed since. We'd been tentacle-crazy for years, but they were usually Cthulhu-related experiments, not necessarily octopus-centric. However, once we were home again, the infatuation didn't wear off, and one morning last week we got it in our heads to make a quilted octopus, and a bunch of hours later, Makeshift had one of his very own! Granted, it is a temporary ownership in that the octopus is actually a baby gift. But for the nonce—and until I managed to make the matching quilt—Makeshift had a new tentacly companion.

Makeshift+Octopus

I'd never even considered the idea of how to make a quilted animal before, but it seemed reasonably straightforward. The biggest problem I had was that I only had a single fat quarter of the olive fabric (I later secured more of this fabric) which I wanted to use for the underside of the tentacles, and I had a very limited amount of the onion fabric (and that was the very end of it after I reserved the piece I needed for the matching baby quilt that I planned on making), so I needed to use every possible inch and not mess up. I was only going to get one shot at this.

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Posted on 19 October 2013 at 04:47 PM in Art, Quilting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (2)

18 October 2013

Friday's Fantastic Fabric Fandango

You know how when someone you know says something like "Hey, you should check out my vintage fabric collection—I've got kind of a lot of it," you smile and think, Hey, yeah, that's cool, I have a few boxes too. But politely and excitedly say, "Yes, sure, I'd love to check it out. And yes, sure, we can barter the thing you want of mine for a few vintage scraps."

Well, Stacy weren't kidding. I was literally speechless when I walked into her vintage fabric room. Truly awesome!!!

131018_Stacy+Fabric

The sheer volume of awesomeness was overwhelming at first, but then I enthusiastically dove in ... only to find that there was even more fabric than I first believed; layer upon layer of incredibleness. I had just been reading about inspiring workspaces in my new issue of Uppercase magazine, and wow, did this space inspire me! I wanted to go get my sewing machine, bookshelves, comfy chair, and quilting/crafting supplies, and move right into the middle of it all!

So, thank you Stacy for the incredible Friday afternoon adventure. And thank you for the inspiration and the awesome barter.

Here are the amazing fabrics that I got out of it:

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Posted on 18 October 2013 at 08:18 PM in Art, Fabric, Quilting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (0)

09 October 2013

Scale Model Airstream Quilt for Badger's Birthday

So, Badger's birthday came around last month while he was still off sailing the Arctic Ocean and stomping around on ice sheets to his heart's content as part of the crew of the US Coast Guard Cutter HEALY. I knew that I would be taking a trip to Alaska to join him for a week soon after his birthday, and I wanted to make him a special quilt. I'd started quilting in June, shortly before he left, and he's missed a few of them since he got underway, so this one had to be extra-special. It took me a few days to figure out what he most loves/misses about being out to sea, but it soon came to me: HE MISSES HIS AIRSTREAM! (Duh.) So I spend a number of weeks in September working on this two-sided, openable, scale model quilt of our Airstream. I gave it to him while we were together in Seward, Alaska a few weeks ago, and he and Makeshift felt right at home beneath it. It has since been installed on the ship where it is having the trip of a lifetime (or rather, the first of what will be many to come).

AS_Badgers-2

Here are a few more pictures of what the final reproduction looks like. Our Airstream is 25-feet long and this quilt reaches five feet from tip to tail—a one-fifth scale model. It has flair that is specific to port and starboard sides; logos, lights, awnings, windows, water, refrigeration, furnace, outside shower, electricity hook-ups, outdoor outlets, hot water heater, et cetera ... (even the blue pull-tabs for our gorgeous blue-striped awnings are there if you know where to look). I apologize for the somewhat rumpled look, when we took these pictures the quilt had been in a very tightly-packed travel bag for a number of days.

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Posted on 09 October 2013 at 03:59 PM in Art, Makeshift, Quilting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (5)

04 October 2013

Cthulhu Quilt [Hat/Helmet] for Dad's 70th Birthday

Dad+Cthulhu3 Dad+Cthulhu4

Happy Birthday Dad!

My Dad is a very difficult man to buy presents for. He'd say he isn't because he has an Amazon Wish List, but he's going to buy that stuff for himself in the end anyway (if he still wants it). I did very well last year with the Mystic Order of the Elder Gods fez; it's a thing of beauty and a tribute to American craftsmanship, and he wears it very well!

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Posted on 04 October 2013 at 10:10 PM in Art, Quilting, Sewing | Permalink | Comments (6)