Nashville Stitch N Bitch

the new phonebook is here! the new phonebook is here!

It came on publishing day to my mailbox, and by golly if you haven't heard about it already you are BEHIND my friend. The blogosphere is abuzz with news of the Mason Dixon Knitting Book. What an awesome book! Wonderful patterns, funny, inspiring. I haven't even scratched the surface of it myself yet, and I already think it's fabulous.

And LOOK!

That's the polo blankie I made there! Kay sent me a big box of shirts from her son and husband (son's are one one side, husband's are on the other). I then took a valium and a big shot of ouzo and proceeded to cut her memories up (I'm talking paint stains on little Joseph's preschool 3T shirts! awwww!) with pinking shears (kidding about the valium and ouzo, but I did take a picture of me pretending to take a valium and a shot of ouzo while drunkenly cutting but I wasn't sure if they would appreciate it so much given their state of deadline stress). Then a few million emails back and forth with Kay where we veered wildly off course one Friday night. I think she might have bought a $5,000,000 Denyse Schmidt quilt somewhere in there on my recommendation, but I can't be too sure because of all of that valium and ouzo.

This afternoon here in Nashville is one in a million. Sunny, 75, the husband stayed here this afternoon to work while the kids rested and I drove too fast with my sunroof open in my 91 Volvo wagon (just so I can take the edge off of any cool that you might have cultivated about me) playing the music too loudly and thinking of cutting class and just drinking margaritas for the afternoon. I settled on the quilt store.

The quilt store here is in an historic part of town with wonderful boutique-y shops. My favorite one is a gardening store that just sells really cool contemporary and antique stuff. Whoopsie! I parked my car in front of it today and they happened to be having a little sidewalk sale. I got this piece of linen there - not sure if it is old or new, but it's definitely hand done, for $3. I think I'll frame it and put it in the room with our quilt when I finish it since when I got home I found that it was in exactly the same colors. Hey, at least I'm consistent.

So a big shoutout of a hug to my knitting sisters Ann and Kay. May your books fly off the shelves and your yarn be tangle-free. Now go have that well-deserved shot of ouzo and a valium!

xo

quilt-y memories

I am 2 SQUARES AWAY from being able to sew my big ol' king quilt together. 2 squares! 2 squares. But really guys, between working on a king quilt and working on a knitted afghan, it's making for tough blog material around here. How much can you say about all of the square-ness a' goin' on here before you drive yourself and others crazy? I mean, I would love to tell you ALLLLL about Square 3 and what INCREDIBLE difference there is between that and Squares 1 and 2 but I think my husband would throw himself on my keyboard to stop me from subjecting you to what he has had to endure so I'll wait until there's something new and exciting to show you before blathering on about squares.

But they are cool.

Meanwhile (and quickly, by God I have to get those 2 last squared finished!) I'll tell you a little story about some quilts that we have. Spring is a special season around here because of so many things, but mostly because it's when both of my kids were born - Maeve in April and Truman in May (Truman and I share a birthday as well, I had him on my 35th birthday). When both of my chillen were born, a friend of the family did the most awesome thing. She made a quilt for each out of Jim's dad's old shirts. Jim's dad died in 1993. He owned an International Harvester dealership in Sherman, TX and so most of his shirts were of the workshirt variety. You wouldn't think workshirts anything special, but for some reason when you cut up workshirts and refigure them into squares (there's that word again) they take on a beauty their maker, I'm sure, never intended for them.

The one up there I think is my favorite. (I am completely blanking on the name of that block pattern up there, so if you know it off of the top of your head, just leave it in the comments). That one is Truman's and it hangs on a rack where his cowboy hat also hangs. It's very very flat (which I love), I love the colors of it all and the stripey patterns). I think it's machine quilted but the binding was hand sewn. It's small - smaller than a crib quilt. The back is also pieced in a stripe pattern and (she did this on both quilts) the maker added a pocket from one of the shirts that has Jim's dad's initials on it and she added to that the kids' names and birthdates. I love it so much.

Maeve's quilt is another pattern that I don't know the name of (if it has one). The batting on this one is a much higher loft and it's just quilted with some crossing diagonal lines. The back is a brown and white gingham and also has a pocket. It's bigger - crib size. Machine quilted with hand sewn binding again. My favorite part of this one is a coffee stain still left on the part of the shirt she used. I always wonder if she meant to leave it there? Was there not enough shirt fabric to avoid it? I love it, but I'm odd, so it's hard to say. If it was a mistake, I'm thrilled for the oversight.

In our next episode of Quilts About The House: an antique Sunbonnet Sue and feedsack quilts.

xo

P.S. - I am SO going to this. Is anyone else?

spring break

I totally forgot that stephanie tagged me for this a while back, and since it's spring break and not much crafty stuff is getting done around here, here ya go:

Four jobs I've had in my life:

* bartender
* film production assistant
* Victoria's Secret salesgal
* graphic designer

Four movies I would watch over and over:

* Dazed and Confused
* Sixteen Candles
* Easy Rider
* Swingers

Four places I have lived:

* Nashville, TN
* Knoxville, TN
* That's it people!
* Sad, but true

Four TV Shows I like to watch:

We're not big TV watchers, but we like(d)
* Six Feet Under
* The Daily Show
* The Colbert Report
* I honestly can't think of another show we regularly watch

Four Places I have been on Vacation:

* San Juan
* St. Thomas
* San Francisco
* St. Maarten/Martin

Four Websites I visit daily:

* weather
* Bloglines
* Google News
* Netflix

Four of my favorite foods:

* pasta
* chocolate
* thai
* Japanese

Four places I would rather be right now:

* asleep while there are no other people in the house
* quilting while there are no other people in the house
* gardening
* on vacation

We're spending this wet, cold, sad spring break of a week here trying to work on the little kiddo and the potty which means a lot of nudity, a lot of watching out so that he doesn't pee on the furniture. It also means a lot of time where you can't really get involved in anything, but you don't exactly want to constantly stand over him. So here are my Top Potty-Watching Internet Finds of the Week:

female merit badges via idea du jour. What a fantastic idea.

mixed grill wrap from Monster Crochet. Brilliance as always.

gee's bend quilt stamps from the USPS!

Happy Spring Break!

xo

P.S. Tag to sibyl

cranky

and wendie

spring fever

Since we're closing in on the first day of spring, what could kick it off in a happier way than this showing up in one's mailbox from cia's? Now... what to do, what to do with them? I can tell you what I won't do - a king size quilt with asymmetrical log cabin squares. You can bet yer ass on that one.

It has taken me three holy schmokin' weeks to get square number 2 done and I am not officially finished with it. Then I still have square 3 to cut and sew, then all of the squares to piece together, then the quilt back to piece, then the basting, the quilting, the ever lovin' binding that I for some reason am foresworn to hand sew because I am having such issues with machine sewn bindings (my own, not with machine sewn bindings in general). People, we could be talking about this thing this time next year. I may have to stop and make a bag. A mind-clearning spring bag.

Meanwhile, I knit.

The euroyarn mom brought me from Italia last year is slowly but surely being knitted into a Four Seasons Throw. It's filati bella, si, but it sure is a bitch to wind. It's some knot-prone stuff and takes me for ever to just get into a ball state. So yes, slow, but sure and surely nice when finished.

Since I don't feel we have thoroughly explored the celebrity brush topic (har de har) I remembered a couple of more to tell you about.

My mom reminded me that I used to date the brother of the guy who the guy angel on Touched By An Angel, AND! And. This is a big one. Probably the biggest one yet. So big that people should all band together and send ME oven mitts just for sharing... sibyl reminded me that I have met cooter. And THAT concludes our Brush With Fame exploration.

xo

and the winner is...

The love of a good celebrity run-in and the need for an oven mitt collided this week and brought me endless emails of celebrity fun! It's good to know that at least some cities have access to celebrities who don't wear cowboy hats. Not that there's anything WRONG with celebrities who wear cowboy hats, but one does wish to mix it up now and again.

Some I forgot but remembered this week:
1. Betty Witherspoon (Reese's mom) was our nursery nurse when I had Truman at Vanderbilt
2. I went on a blind date with Cybil Shepard's brother and boy was he not a fun date.
3. I went to the first Clinton inaugural and at the ball I met Stone Phillips who smelled like whiskey.

There were just so many great ones that I narrowed the winners down to 3 instead of 1 (and even those were tough to choose). Let's have an Oscar moment - a montage if you will - of some of the best celebrity run-in entries. I give you:

THE BRUSH WITH FAME SUPERLATIVES

Best Whaaaa? Factor - lisa c. who was forced to wait for an airplane because Little Richard had a toothache.

Best List of Sightings for Social Change - Linda who had a huge list that included Madeline Albright and Gloria Steinem and her sighting of vegetarian Natalie Portman in a burger joint.

Best Brush By Proxy - julia whose dad taught Ray Price how to play the guitar

Best Sighting of a Celebrity Who Lived Up To His Name: Andy Dick by sarah

Best Celebrity Line Overheard: anne who overheard John Kerry drop the F bomb.

Best "Thank God I Didn't Actually Have To Meet Them" Moment: Simily with living next to Hank Williams Jr. (but never actually meeting him) and Montgomery Gentry (who ran past her, but she didn't actually party with contrary to rumor)

Closest Bathroom Proximity to a Celebrity: april who peed next to Reba McIntire

Best Hawwwwt Brush: ann who spoke on the phone with JFK Jr. 3 times

Best Domestic Run-Ins: liz who runs into members of the Old 97s at Home Depot., stood in line behind Charlie Pride at Burger King, did her laundry with Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls. Also, teresa whose mom worked with the girlfriends of Motley Crue members at a Vons, and elaine who saw Alice Cooper in a mall in Scottsdale, AZ. "He said 'Hi' to me and I said 'uh-huh'. I am a great big dork."

Best Brush With an Octogenarian Celebrity Who is Either a Little Person and/or Partially Nude and/or Pinches Your Ass - gale who says: "I spent a weekend in Chittenango NY (birthplace of Frank Baum) with the last 8 surviving Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz, to do a group portrait of them for an entertainment mag. The most charming octagenarian midgets I've ever met, but one of them pinched me on the ass! He copped a feel higher up too,but it was disguised as an accidental brush. How can you yell and act indignant at a horny little old man that is sweet as can be and is less than 4 feet tall? And fer gods sake was a real original movie MUNCHKIN? In another celebrity incident, while photographing Phyllis Diller, we didn't like the prim setting at an inn and decided to fill the bathroom's huge tub with bubbles and percht her on its edge. She put a big robe on over her undies, but the edge of her bra was showing. I kept asking her to shift around. Finally she roared her famous laugh, stood up, handed my assistant her robe, stripped off her bra with a flourish, handed it to me and said 'OK, how's' that.' I stood there thinking 'I'm holding Phyllis Diller's bra! And she's almost naked!'. "

Most All Around British Encounter: jane "My favourite celebrity encounter was watching the British magician Paul Daniels buying a Rumtopf. However, that's probably invalid outside the UK. Hmmm. I met the very first ever guy to play James Bond (Bob Holness) when I was in London at a music competition. Hmmm. I've seen Prunella Scales (Sybil, in Fawlty Towers) drunk. I've seen Barry Manilow outside a hotel. I've made out with a member of the Arlenes, and used the loo on the Levellers' tour bus."

Best Naked Celebrity Encounter: Mim who saw Julia Louis Dreyfus in the buff

We mustn't leave out:
Crafty Brushes: Jennifer sat next to Kate Hudson at Purl in NYC. "I was getting help on a knitted bear, and she asked me 'did you get it all figured out?' and Susan - I got Bob Pollard (Guided By Voices, anyone?) to TRY to knit a row on my bar scarf last year at the GBV Hoot Night at SXSW in Austin. I even got a picture." emily says, "Mine is a NYC moment as well. My husband and I lived on the Upper West Side for awhile and several times saw them shooting Law and Order. (I sat across from Chris Noth on the subway once) but that was not THE time. "THE time" was when they shot a scene on the sidewalk DIRECTLY BELOW our apartment. Jerry Orbach, sitting in a chair, one floor below me (we lived on the second floor). Well you can bet your britches I was hanging out that window watching for as long as I could. But I had to go to work. I had a quilt hanging on the wall, you could see it from the street, and I left the light on in the apartment so that if they were shooting into the evening, my hope was that my quilt would make it into the shot, and of course I'd be totally famous." Good thinking Emily.

Most Cosmopolitan Celebrity Encounter: jessica was introduced to Princess Margaret while at a party on Mustique and also saw Mick Jagger and Nick Rhodes at at a dinner with bunch of models who all kept running to the bathroom to do coke. Pattie was a swimwear buyer and Princess Di was shopping and bought 2 swimsuits. "I had an armload of files to take out and was passing through a swinging door at the same time Princes William and Harry were coming in and there went the files! They were very nice and helped me pick them up after getting a mom look from Diana and they called me ma'm."

Weirdest: from jen who says, "I worked at an Outback Steakhouse in the 90s...the Hagar twins from Hee Haw were my regular customers. They always called me 'Lovey'."

Best Total List of Celebrity Run-ins: larissa whose list included a run in with wrestler Hillbilly Jim at Denny's.

Finally we come to... HONORABLE MENTION:

1. Cindy! Sterling Marlin changed her tire!
2. Julia! She ran into Rod Stewart at CVS buying peanuts (the same day she had tickets to see his show) but he denied that he was Rod Stewart. She asked his bodyguard if he was Rod Stewart and the he said no, "but he gets that a lot."
3. sheila! who was serenaded with Happy Birthday by Frank Sinatra.
4. cara who told Martin Scorcese to "keep up the good work."
5. and heather whose dog mauled Heath Ledger and who talked about tampons with Madonna.

AND THE MITTS GO TO:

1. Susan! "Robin Zander (cheap trick) walked in on me while I was trying to teach myself how to play "Surrender" on the guitar. I only knew 3 chords at the time ... so he showed me the "easy" way to play the song as he kindly sang back up to my extremely slow chord changes. We went through the entire song 3 times. When it was all said and done, I looked up at my friend, Dave who had just witnessed the whole event ... I guess I was smiling a little too gleefully ... because he proceeded to asked me never ever to attempt another cheap trick song on my guitar while the band was in the studio."
2. Nina in Nashville! "When I was a kid, my mother and I ran into Billy Carter (his brother was president at the time) and Tom T. Hall having an argument about which cold cuts they needed at the Franklin Kroger deli counter. Bizarre."
3. libby who didn't put this in the comments but just sent it to me a few minutes ago in an email conversation we were having: "There was the time I dumped coffee in Martha Stewart's lap, and then tried to make a joke out of it (I think something along the lines of 'That's not a Good Thing')"

Hurray! What a fun week. You 3 send me your addresses and I'll get those oven mitts to you pronto!

xo

P.S. to Ann, who claims that "My brush with fame is the fact that the above-commenting Ann talked to JFK Jr. three times, and she and I have the same name. That makes me practically a Kennedy." Ann honey, we need to get you in a new social circle here. You are totally missing out on the Tom Wopats of this town.

long arms and a contest

I am so disappointed in this picture. I am so disappointed because you don't get to see the gigantic hugeness that is this monstrous long arm machine. You heard me, I bought a long arm.

I was listening to Annie's quilting stash and some of the show discussion was on the Brother PQ1500s and what a fab machine it was. Lo and behold I had a paypal savings and wow! lookit that! there was an ebay auction with a refurb machine for much less than retail. My machine and I are still getting to know each other - it's quite a monster - but we'll keep you updated. The machine and I.

Since I have spent the week with my new machine - oiling it, looking at all of its parts, taking it for long walks - not much craft news to report. I did, however, have a big brush with celebrity.

I live in Nashville which is one of the weirdest towns on earth I think. Landlocked, but for some bizarre reason became a gigantic music town. Not just country like you would think, but everything. Everyone comes here to record at some time or another, and a lot of non-country celebrities have homes here. Bizarre ones. Not necessarily cool ones either. It's also not a gigantic city, so your chances of rubbing up against a celebrity are pretty good. In honor of this week's celebrity brush, I give you my

TOP 10 NASHVILLE BRUSHES WITH FAME

(I used to be a bartender when I was a youngster in a restaurant near music row so a lot of these come from there)

1. I took the phone to Barry Manilow one time.
2. Glenn Frey once called me "honey."
3. Along those same lines, during the American Airlines strike I sat in the airport and had a conversation with Don Henley.
4. I went to a Christmas party with Donna Summer AND bonus points, I sat behind her at a movie recently.
5. Neil Young came in to my bar one time.
6. Tom Wopat was a bar customer, and lived down the street from me and actually stopped by our house one day.
7. I was friends with George Jones' stepdaughter and used to go to their house. I played Fascination with George Jones one time.
8. One year at Fan Fair I got to get on Bill Monroe's bus and meet him and then watch as he and George Jones got on the stage and played Blue Moon of Kentucky together.
9. Combo of nameless, faceless celebrities - I used to work at a rock and then later a country radio station so there were always parades of country stars of all kinds, and I worked in film and video for a while so I was even in some music videos, and around here you always end up going to school with or dating or making out with some country star's son or daughter, and through some odd turns of events I've been backstage at the Opry a few times and met more aging country stars than you can shake a stick at, AND I used to design CD covers so usually I would have to meet with the person eventually that the CD was for. I particularly like to taunt kay with my John Prine brushes.
10. Damn! 10 isn't enough. I waited on Mark Knopfler.
11. I took aeroboxing at the Y with Emmylou Harris.
12. The one that happened the other day - I saw Tipper Gore at Target AND I followed her around like a stalker paparazzo (a? i?).

Post your celebrity brush here, and my favorite will win a wunnerful, handmade by me, oven mitt. An oven mitt! Post 'em!

xo

P.S. - Not an actual meeting, our '76 Caddy was in a Dolly Parton movie and our '55 Ford Truck was in a Billy Ray Cyrus video. We didn't actually meet the celebrities, but we did put our butts where theirs were.

crypotmanology today

In this issue:

Wild Man Found Alive In Nashville, TN
Married! Living in 60s ranch home and self-employed!
Studies Reveal: Capable of limited speech. Says: "I don't want mushrooms on my half." "I did remember to turn on the dryer, honey." "I love that Volvo."

Cryptomanologists are baffled at how what has now come to be known as the Wild Man of West Meade came to his present location. Once known for his rock and roll escapades in Los Angeles in the early 90s, the Wild Man has now been captured on film putting a sewing machine table together for his mate. He did not try to escape when our cameras approached. He did extend his middle finger in what we can only assume is some form of primitive communication.

More as it comes available.

Blah blah blah blah squares blah blah blah. I can't even talk about these things right now.

xo

P.S. A big shoutout of love to my husband who spent his entire Sunday morning putting together my new sewing table. (well, new as in, it was a Christmas gift that we are just now getting around to putting together)

if life was like garter stitch

If life was like garter stitch, the days would go smoothly, and you wouldn't have to give much thought to them. They would be compact and easy to manage. But, well, they would be long and symmetrical and without much variation too. Sure, there would be bumps, but we would make it sound cuter and call them "ridges." That's what life would be like if it were anything like garter stitch.

My 365 Stitches a Year perpetual calendar yesterday announced that it was March 1 with the grand fanfare of garter stitch. Why March 1? Why not January 1? It actually puzzled me all day yesterday. I mean, it only makes sense in a calendar that gives you all kinds of lace and bobbles throughout your year, that they would only start with the foundation of all knitting - the knit stitch - on January 1. Does it seem more like a spring-type stitch? Is January already too heavy a month to burden it with a bore like garter stitch too? I guess we'll never know because I won't ever bring myself to like, well, write anyone to find out or anything. And I don't mind the notion that the question pops into my mind a little more regularly than what you would call "normal". I also don't like the instructions to "Knit every row." The starkness of it kind of gives me the creeps. It feels pushy. I feel cornered and like I need to rebel and maybe purl a row, but then I'd be doing stockinette and that wouldn't be much of a rebellion.

A thing I have almost learned about myself this week is that I'm just not a lace person. I like lace, and I'm not against it at all, or against those who make it or wear it, and I try to do it fairly regularly myself. But I'm a TV knitter - specifically a movie knitter. One of those who has to wait until 9 until the kids go to bed before I can even think about really knitting because invariably someone will tangle themselves in my yarn and keep asking me questions until I can't keep up with where I am anymore. It's best to wait until after kid bedtime around here to touch anything that you actually feel like you might need to concentrate on.

But when the kids are down, out come the Netflix movies and the knitting - my favorite combo. But to pay attention to the movies, I can't be staring at a chart. After working on the same pattern in about 8 different kinds of yarn from wool to silk to soy for close to one year now and having ripped every single one of them out after about 8 inches because I just CANNOT keep track of it and watch Six Feet Under Season 4 disc 5 at the same time, I am thisclose to throwing it in. I still have small hope. I still buy tiny yarn and long for a lacy wrap, but I'm not sure it will be accomplished until we run into a hell of a lot more free time and I can stop hobby-combining.

xo

An added P.S.: Forgot to add, my friend Becky asks this to the worldwide knitting community: "I'm about to line a knit bag with fabric, do you have any experience with this? Should I seam the fabric before attaching it to the knit piece? Do I sew the fabric to the knit part with just thread? I'm making a messenger bag in a pattern that I am making up so it comes without instructions. I hate sewing by hand."

Anyone have any ideas?