Gems From October 1958 Good Housekeeping

I have been so lax in writing here and I haven't done any crapting whatsoever. Heck, I haven't even done cross stitching, which is really lame on my part. So, in order to not be so delinquent in blogging I've decided to draw attention to some amazing items I've recently read in an old Good Housekeeping magazine from October 1958.
Here's the cover of that issue. Sad little puppy eyes. Sad little girl eyes. Not sure why they chose such a somber looking picture, should be sub-titled our other dog got run over'.

I bought this and three other Good Housekeeping magazines (1949 - 1958) off Ebay and also purchased eight Ladies Home Journal (all 1961). I'm reading them as research for a fiction book idea I'm writing. It's still in the planning stages but I think it could be a lot of fun.

Anyway, two great items from the Keep Up With Medicine article of Good Housekeeping:

"A review of the records of 200,000 Worth War II veterans points to a 32 percent higher death rate among men who smoked."

Wow! You think there's a connection?!

The second one is about psychotherapy's help in averting abortion (I assume they mean miscarriage). Do you know what type of woman is most likely to have a miscarriage according to the doctors of 1958? "... the frail, clinging vine girl and the independent career woman." So, you're not supposed to be clingy but you don't want to be independent either if you want to go to term with your pregnancy. I'm not quite sure where that leaves a woman and how so many kids were actually born!

More great 50's and 60's tidbits tomorrow!

One Over One Done! New Project Begins!

Finally, after much frustration, much angst and so many mistakes, I have finished the one over one water lilies on Jane Greenoff's Monet's Giverny Garden. I also added the butterflies (and in typical crapter fashion, backstitched using two threads not one. I realized my mistake with about two backstiches to go, so zen approach, I left them).
I tried a buttonhole wheel and it was a disaster. It started out fine but after about three progressions on the circle it just fell apart. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong as I feel like I'm doing it right. Go figure. I don't know what to do if I can't figure this out as there are about twenty buttonhole flowers to do!

I also dragged out the sewing machine this morning. I've had some cheap baby blankets hanging around for the last four years and have been wondering what the hell to do with them. Well, I got an idea. I sewed bits of them together in a crazy quilting kind of fashion. Here is the lookI wanted all the stitching to be seen and I purposely threw in as many different kinds of stitches as my machine allows. The next step is to thumb tack it to a stretched canvas. Next, I'm going to mix some paint with some gesso and paint it all over the fabric. After that, you'll just have to wait and see. I'm pretty excited about it! I hope it turns out okay but as Lucretia Mullbery would say "crapt is in the eye of the beholder"

New Sewing Interest Proves More Difficult Than I Imagined

I've developed a new interest. Vintage patterns. Now, along with my belief that I should be a natural at drawing, I also have this unfounded belief that I should be able to sew. But, the truth is sewing a straight line can prove daunting to me unless I sew very sloooowwwlllllyyyyy.

This interest, however, didn't develop from a yearning to sew. I was looking at Ebay for some cheap patterns that I could use for mixed media collages. This was the first one I bought: When I actually got it in my hands, I realized that I'd never be able to cut the pattern up and paste it to canvas. It was too cute. It occurred me that I should sew it. In fact I should make lots of clothing from vintage patterns. It's so retro. Thus started my current obsession. I have always admired clothing pre-1970. I especially love clothes from the 1950s. In fact one of my favorite clothing movies is The Best of Everything with Hope Lange from 1959 (based on a Rona Jaffe novel). The clothes in that movie are a marvel and even though I hate heels and I'm basically a jean and t-shirt kind of person, I'd love to be kitted up in some of those outfits.

I looked all over this Vogue pattern but I cannot find a copyright to date this particular look. Anyone have a guess? I'm guessing from the hairstyle, it's early to mid sixties but I'm not sure.

My next purchase I was completely excited by and was definitely planning to make. Here it is:
Once again, I can't find a year and I'm not quite sure when this would be. 1950s? Anyone know? The mailing envelope is pre zip codes and the postage was .02. But, anyway, I thought when I won it on Ebay that even with my minimal experience I could whip this right up. Wrong! I couldn't even understand the instructions. "Baste interfacing to wrong side of BAND FACING. Turn in and baste seam allowance on straight notched edge ..." Huh?!!! What you talking about Willis?!

For some reason I bought this pattern (probably because it was cheap):Very Harriet Nelson. It's dated 1953. I doubt I'll make this one. I think I just got caught up in the spur of the moment bidding.

The last one I've recently acquired is this:

Simplicity from 1965. I love this simple dress. I might be able to make this one. It does say Simplicity after all.

Actually, I just looked over the instructions and it's like reading a book on do it yourself plumbing: "bias seam binding may be used to encase inner edge of facings." Okay. I have no idea what you're talking about. Still, I think I'll give it a try and if worse comes to worse, I can always glue the pattern pieces on to a mixed-media collage! Very resourceful!

Time Flies When You're Not Crapting

It has been far too long since I last blogged, but laziness, a vacation (England and Italy) and a working at home husband has put the computer our of my reach. I also have not been crapting due to laziness, vacation and the ever present husband and kids (it's a NYC apartment not a McMansion). Honestly, I don't know where the time has gone but I need to throw myself back into the world of crapt. A Cloth Paper Scissors arrived awhile back and I still haven't opened it, so that will signal the return to crapting. I will open Cloth Paper Scissors. Tomorrow.

I actually had a thunder storm going on in my brain for the week after we returned from our trip. Lots of thunder claps of ideas for paintings (with the underlying theme revolving around Goldman Sachs, which was my obsession that week) and I dutifully made little sketches of each idea in my "art journal" (more words than art since I can't draw - yet) but the storm seems to have cleared and moved on.

So, the only creative endeavor involving my hands has been trying to finish up Jane Greenoff's Monet's Giverny Garden. Here is my progress as of today:

I'm currently doing the one over one water lilies and it has been a nightmare. I've put the thing down so many times, but now I'm holding a hammer over my head and forcing myself to behave. I made a mistake in back stitching in the far right pad and after one attempt to get it out and nearly ripping out the other stitches I gave up. I'm going to believe no one will notice. Can you? If so, tell me where and if you're right, I'll say very nice things about you in my blog.

I've developed quite a Zen approach to my cross stitch these days. Before, I would have festered on errant stitches, the thought of them taking over my brain until my entire head became a giant X in the wrong color and then I would have frogged the whole damn thing and started over. Now, I choose to ignore and move on (sometimes easier said than done, I still think of a mistake I made in Tracy Horner's Tanglewood, which I stitched two years ago).

After the water lilies are done (a pad a day is the goal) I have to do french knots (pure, utter torture), buttonhole stitch (which I've never done but look forward to), bullion knots, which terrify the hell out of me (if it takes 15 attempts for every one French knot, how am I going to get through the bullion knot stage?!) and then beads, which I like and look forward to as well. According to Lucretia Mullberry one should always end a project with a bit of cheer! And that's just what I plan on doing with my beads!

Paris Pillow Relaunch

A few days ago I received a package from Hand Dyed Fibers with my linen of the month, a few colors for a new project I'm going to start stitching soon (which I will write about in a day or two as I need help picking colors) and the always highly anticipated detritus bag of floss. Here is the floss from the detritus bag: I love the coral and the pinkish one and the variegated at top is really cool, but I must admit to a bit of disappointment with the black/gray. It wouldn't have been that bad if there was just one skein but there is two and that is a heck of a lot of black! Honestly, I'll probably never use it. But out of four or five detritus bags I've received, this is the first one that mildly disappointed, the rest were pure fab.

After sitting with my crapty Paris pillow for quite sometime, wondering if I should proceed to make it into a pillow or proceed to toss it in the garbage, I decided to embellish it. I have taken the variegated floss from above - I'm not sure what colors it is, green, coral, pink - and put some Algerian Eye stitch across the top. I'm using four strands of floss and let me tell you, four strands is very difficult to thread . One little sucker always decides to hang back and chill!

Here is my progress so far:Kind of cute though I'm wondering (the crapter always second guesses themselves!) if I should have stitched half over the postcard, half above the postcard. I think I probably should have but oh well too late for that.

I'm currently looking through Judith Baker Montano's Embroidery & Crazy Quilt Stitch Tool for other stitches to add to the piece. I'm a big fan of the classic Feather Stitch but I need something interesting for the corners. Any suggestions?

A Long Due Note

I haven't posted anything in quite awhile. Out of town guests, other obligations, laziness and the need for sleep have all kept me away. Add to that my utter lack of crapting for two weeks and really what do I have to talk about without going into personal foibles?

I have, however, read two books: Mrs. Lincoln, a biography of Mary Todd Lincoln by Catherine Clinton, which was interesting and Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which was stunning. If you haven't read it, read it. It's intense, sobering and I don't want to give anything away but at the end it had me doing something that rhymes with nobbing. Truly a classic. Also a classic: the movie UP. I really enjoyed it and also nobbed a few times here as well.

So even when I'm not crapting I'm usually pretty good about stitching. I usually find time everyday to at least do a little bit, but I failed these past two weeks. I've gotten in kind of a rut on Faith Hope and Honor. I'm so close to finishing, you'd think I'd just go ahead and steamroll my way through, but those couple of broken threads (mentioned in earlier post) have really bummed me out and put a damper on my progress.

I did take out one of my WIPs, Monet's Giverny Garden by Jane Greenoff. This was a chart from Cross-Stitch & Needlework's May 2008 issue. I'd started it sometime after receiving the magazine and made quick progress but then came upon a section that is one over one. One over one, for those unfamiliar with cross stitch, is literally stitching over one linen thread instead of two. It's a nightmare.

But, having just been to Giverny and forgetting about the one over one, I pulled out the piece and started to stitch but quickly gave up. It's just killer to see what the heck you're doing with one over one and making it even worse in this case is that the floss for part of it is practically the same color as the linen. Oh my eyes! I had no idea what I had stitched or what I needed to stitch. So I ripped it out, which let me tell you, ripping it out is probably harder than stitching it. But this frustration and agony was why it took me two weeks to return to it. I'd sit across the room from it, staring at it, loathing it. I felt like it was heckling me - you can't do it! You can't do it! Finally I broke down. I feel tremendous guilt if I don't do something while watching television. So I gave myself permission to skip the one over one until the very end. So I did the half Algerian Eyelet and the stitches below those and here is my progress:
The picture is blurry isn't it? It never looks blurry on the camera! Anyway, so the one over one are four lily pads that fit in between the blue half Algerian eyelets. I counted the rows in between those two lines of blue about a dozen time to make sure I haven't miscounted. Each time it was the correct amount but being a crapter, I'm convinced that it's probably wrong and I'll reach the end of the piece and realize that it is all utterly and completely wrong! I'll keep you posted!

Drawing -101

I've decided to teach myself to draw. I have no ability whatsoever, which has always been frustrating because I get the concept of drawing and I can see the lines or shapes involved in objects but I can not get my hand to put down what my eye is seeing. There is a total disconnect. Now, I have tried to teach myself in the past using the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. I've owned this book for some fifteen years, have started it at least three times that I can remember and always stop by about page 50 because, quite honestly, I get bored.

I pulled out the book again and picked up where I had a bookmark stuck from the last time I tried to do it. I really couldn't bear to do that upside down drawing or other stuff again so I began with pure contour drawing. And after only doing two exercises I'm very close to putting the book down again. I can't go as slow at Ms. Edwards wants the budding drawer to go. I get so fidgety. But I did persevere and here's my first exercise:

The exersise was to draw your hand without looking at the paper. You were to follow the lines of your hand moving very slowly. It looks like a hand, I'll give myself that but probably the fattest hand in existence. Here's the real thing:

Not as chunky. I've also done the second exercise which was drawing a flower without looking at the paper.

It started out okay but fell apart. I tried my darndest to really get into it and at certain points I felt like I slipped over to the bright side but it only lasted a few seconds. I'm so impatient and I've no ability to turn off my brain. I can not stop thinking. I'm not saying I'm thinking of anything particularly deep and meaningtul, usually it's about noting more complex than when I'm going to have my next snack, but still it is an intrusion. I also have crazy floaters in my eyes so the more I try to focus the more the floaters zip by and distract me.

I will try and keep learning. I'm telling myself just 15 minutes a day. I really think I could be a decent artist if only I could draw. Anyone else want to do the book with me?