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Archive for the ‘Progressive Politics’ Category

Send in the Clowns

Thursday, March 23rd, 2017

I have been working on this piece for an exhibit at Trinity with the theme The Circus of Life. I just had to do this piece because I feel as if Washington DC is a circus with a bunch of clowns trying to govern. Here are details:

I printed resistance words for the background.

It is very therapeutic to work on a piece like this. I am so frustrated with all  the bad stuff being done to our country. I worry about how we will ever get back to normal and doing things that are actually good for people and the planet.

I have been having fun teaching my wool felt stitching class on Wednesday nights at Trinity. Here are some photos of the designs they are working on.

I made this rooster to demonstrate adding the decorative embroidery stitches.

So you can see that I have been busy. I am having some trouble getting around because of plantar fasciitis in my left foot. I miss being able to take Scooter for long walks. Today, I went to REI and bought some New Balance walking shoes and orthotics. I am noticing a difference tonight. But, dang, they are kind of ugly shoes and I so want to have warm weather and to be able to wear sandals again. Hope springs eternal.

Oops! I’m Back

Monday, March 13th, 2017

Well, I haven’t been anywhere, but I have been busy, busy. We had a visit from our California peeps at the end of February. We had lots of fun family time together. Here is Paige at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).

I also got wrapped up in getting my resist piece done. First, I made the letters, using some snow dyed fabric in my stash.

Then I cut up a whole bunch of my pink and fuschia fabric to make one of my collaged backgrounds.

I used some of my own photos and found other copyright free photos on Flicker of the Women’s March in January. I printed these on Jacquard ExravOrganza sheets.

I collaged and fused them to the pink background. It is now ready to be trimmed and backed and quilted! I am quite happy with it. I am going to tweak the colors in the resist a bit with some paint or color pencil.

Here is a detail shot with a photo of Mr C and I.

As you know, I share studio space with my daughter. She is amassing quite a body of work.

The other thing I have done is finish samples for my wool stitching class at Trinity Cathedral.

The first class was last Wednesday. I have two young boys, 8 and 10, a teen-age girl, 3 guys, and several women. My assistant got sick so it was a bit daunting to work with everyone by myself. They had a bit of a problem getting the idea of making a freezer paper pattern for each part of their chosen object even though I demonstrated it with the piece I am making along with them!! It was fun and time flew by.

 

 

 

Political Rants Return to Crazy for Fiber

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Because, I am too upset not to address the larger audience of this blog. All I can say is: Uppity Women, Unite!!

Here are a couple of e-mails that I have received today.

To my dear friends:

This Sarah Palin thing is infuriating. It’s so deep under my skin: I am just about to burst, like my head is going to explode. I am pissed off and need to rant.

Forget that her positions are so asinine (anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-anything reasonable, on and on for every single issue I’ve looked into), even just putting all that aside, she’s just mean.

Yes, I do judge her on the level of her heart and soul.

I judge a person who can lean out the side of an airplane with a rifle and shoot animals in the wilderness. To kill them, for sport. I judge that.

I judge a person who drips with condescension and divisive language directed toward anyone different from herself.

I judge a person who manages her own reproductive and family affairs the way it suits her but then wants public policies that would manage other people’s personal affairs also to suit her.

I judge a person who openly lies on the public stage. She is still lying in her stump speeches– about her support for the “Bridge to Nowhere,” about Obama’s tax policy, and so on.

I judge — yes, I admit it — I judge a person who attended six colleges in five years to get a journalism degree and then wants to be Vice President. Yes, goddammit, I want my leaders to be smart and educated people. We’ve had enough of leadership by a mediocre thinker. I don’t judge anyone for their educational path. I judge Sarah Palin for her educational path AND her belief that it is sufficient for her to be VP. It’s beyond asinine.

And about the Republican Party and McCain:

I judge them for their divisiveness. McCain was surely aware in choosing Palin that he would reignite the culture wars. Once again, Republicans play to people’s worst instincts, their fears, their insecurities. They divide, they split off votes whenever they can.

I judge them for their racism. What was it, five black delegates at the RNC? And can you imagine if Obama’s daughters were a bit older and one of them were pregnant? The Republican spin on an unmarried pregnant BLACK teenager certainly would not be about family privacy and the beauty of “choice.”

I judge them for their sexism. The choice of Palin was the most blatant tokenism imaginable. I judge them for thinking women who supported Clinton will support Palin just because, as someone said to me the other day, “any old vagina will do.” They truly deeply honestly believe that women are stupid, and yes, I judge them for that.

I judge them for the way Palin can spew pugnacious, condescending and fact-free attacks on Obama but if he retaliates then he’s sexist. I judge them on the level of hearts and souls for that.

I judge them for their elitism. Yes, elitism. There’s a new elite: the “normal person.” That person has to be wholly uninterested in public affairs, undereducated, deeply religious (but only in the right religion) and part of a nuclear family unit. If you are not part of this elite, then you clearly hate everyone.

I judge them for engineering a political climate where it’s impossible to make any of these points publicly.

Please feel free to forward anywhere. I am damn furious.

That was a well written rant. I couldn’t have said it better. I am suffering from the virus that Mia brought to us this week-end, so my brainis like mush. Here is the second.

Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farce-on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate-that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she attempted to ban books and fired the librarian who refused), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of experience.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin’s political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we’ve so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly.

Therefore, we invite you to reply here with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command for our nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called “Women Against Sarah Palin,” which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please send us your reply at your earliest convenience-the greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

Sincerely,

Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
New York , NY
womensaynopalin@gmail.com

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in the next hour, you could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns seriously. Stranger things have happened.

I hope you will e-mail your response to this. Here is a link to their blog Women Against Sarah Palin. I noticed that blogger has flagged their blog: “This blog is currently under review due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations.” You can still open it – no problem. Hmm! has McCain gotten to Google, too?

A Pretty Good Monday

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Yesterday found me in a funk (Sunday that is). Perhaps I spent too much time vegging with sick Mia. The parents picked them up in the morning. I went for a nice long walk while Steve was still at church. In the afternoon, we went to Obama’s headquarters to get some training in voter registration. The training was: here is your clipboard, here are the forms, here is a pen, get out there and register some voters. I was not prepared to spend 2 or 3 hours in the hot sun (it was still pretty hot in the late afternoon) so I begged off until another time. I think I will try the Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, if I have time. Mr C went to the nearby Trader Joe’s, with his Obama emblem and clipboard. He got thumbs up from the TJ crew. He stayed for 2 and half hours and registered 7 people!! One African American gentleman said he had not voted in 20 years. They were blown away by his success at the headquarters. I am very proud of him. We have decided that this election has taken a turn that requires action. This may be our last chance to save this country.

While he was gone, we had a 2 hour power outage so I couldn’t get out of the garage to do my grocery shopping until 6:30. I sat on the porch and read.

Anyway, I am feeling better today. I saw my dermatologist this morning. I had to have one little zapping on my upper forehead where I forget to put sunscreen. The good news is that I don’t have to go back for a year!!

This afternoon, I got busy in the studio. I was going to work on the 12 X 12 challenge, but I got sidetracked. I put 2 of my Liz Berg class studies together to make this piece that I call Line Dances.

Do you like that orientation or this one?

Someone requested that I let you know the size of my pieces. This one is 10″ X 15.” The Black and Red Construction piece is 10 1/2″ X 12″.

Tonight was Back to School night, as our EFM class restarted. It was good to spend time with our friends. Next week, we start on the Middle Ages — a dark time in church history.

I am looking forward to some quality time in the studio tomorrow. And look, the farm is still thriving.

That Crazy Woman Named Geraldine

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

The content of this post has been moved to my new political blog. The comment from my very good friend June has prompted me to find a more “appropriate” spot for my occasional ranting.

I just want to say that perhaps I lost it when I wrote that post, but I am not alone. I recommend taking nine minutes of your time to listen to the commentary by Keith Obermann last night.  Or, read this editorial on the Daily Kos.