Crochet Art, made just for me!

Sarah Meyers is an artist (and young mother of 3) who makes all sorts of things, including crocheted mandalas. She made one for Lorna and I loved it so much that I commissioned one for myself! FYI: she is willing to more commissions—if you are interested you can email me (becky.pieceocake@gmail.com) and I will give her your email address.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I chose acrylic yarn because I expect to wash and dry it in the dryer. I chose a color palette and OK’d the yarn choices and it’s a kick to see how well it turned out! It’s colorful in a way that is so different from the quilts I make. It is going to be wonderful to cuddle with when the weather turns cooler.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s really tactile, and 3-dimensional…

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Again, if you are interested in commissioning a crochet mandala, email me (becky.pieceocake@gmail.com) and I will give Sarah your email address.

Wednesday Giveaway

Pamela Erickson is this week’s lucky winner and she will be receiving a raccoon scissor charm! Scissor charms make your scissors cute AND they help you know how to pick up your serrated scissors so that the smooth blade is on the bottom as you cut (watch the video below). Click here and scroll to the bottom of the scissors to find more scissor charms on my site.

I’ll be back next Wednesday with another Giveaway. Happy stitching!

RaccoonScissorChar

Mile High Chiffon Pie

My very good friend, Laurie Mealy, shared her grandmother’s recipe with me. I made it today. Mine is lumpy (no, that isn’t corn!) but it tastes great! It wasn’t particularly hard to make and will be a lot easier the next time. Here’s a link to the recipe:

Laurie’s Grandmother’s Mile High Chiffon Pie

MileHighChiffonPie.jpg

And here’s the recipe as a JPG. Below it you will find the original recipe. Laurie’s grandmother obviously knew what she was doing. My recipe has more instruction so that the next time I make it, I’ll have a better chance of it not being lumpy :-).

Lauries Grandmothers MileHighChiffonPie.jpg

Lauries Grandmothers MileHighChiffonPie.jpeg

It’s hot…

Times being what they are, some of you believe in climate change and others do not. I’m married to a scientist and I like data, especially when it is presented in a way that is both visually interesting and understandable.

I read this article in the Washington Post on Tuesday that shows various ways that data visualizers are representing temperature increases. We all recognize hot and cold days as we live in them, but these visualizations put daily temperatures in a longer context.

Dr. Ed Hawkins is a climate scientist in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) at the University of Reading. His visualizations resonated with me. This one could be printed on fabric, if only what it represents wasn’t so concerning.

F32NHXGN6IYVXLFUBEDJLQE6OQ

by Ed Hawkins

The climate spiral, below, is in the WaPo article, and you can also find it here. This is a photo of the final spiral, but if you click this link you can watch the spiral grow from cooler, bluer rings to where we are now.

Screen Shot 2018-08-29 at 9.16.48 AM

by Ed Hawkins

I’m sharing this because I find it interesting. Some of you might be poised to tell me why you think climate change is made up. You can, but please keep it pleasant.

We need to be able to have conversations, that include listening, about topics on which we might not agree. Most of our collective conversations happen on flat, glass screens. If we were looking at each other, face-to-face, we would likely respond differently than we do on a keyboard. Pretend we are in the same room :-).

Link to the article in the Washington Post for those of you whose links above don’t work:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/08/28/climate-change-switchboard-shows-every-country-on-the-planet-turning-red-hot/?utm_term=.0c7e3a34808c

 

Show and tell…

Linda Anderson sent me this photo of her very first hand appliqué project. Isn’t it great! I Love the way the gray backgrounds and sashing set off the colors of the leaves. Linda, well done!

FYI: this is Blowin’ in the Wind from our book, the Best-Ever Applique Sampler. Click here to find the book.

LindaAnderson-BlowinInWind.jpg

Linda started her quilt in a class I taught two years ago at Crazy Quilters, Emmaus PA.

Wednesday Giveaway

This week Adele won a set of Clover’s Black Gold sharps. There are 3 needle sizes included (even though the photo just shows one size). I like having needle size options :-). Black Gold sharps have a really sharp point and I love them!

If you aren’t Adele and still would like to try these needles, click here.

BlackGold-9-10-12

I’ll be back next Wednesday with another Giveaway. Happy stitching!

You can always find this and more at pieceocake.com!