What Do You Do with Old Magazines?

I'm cleaning out closets and the basement in preparation for our renovations. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I saved every Martha Stewart Living since the charter issue in 1990. I am even more embarrassed to say I really never opened any of them once they were shifted from the coffee table to the basement.

My mother was an inveterate reader and saver of magazines. Our house was often overrun with them -- Woman's Day, Better Homes and Gardens, National Geographics from the 1930s on(I'm ashamed to say I have about ten of those very same National Geographics sitting on the counter where I keep the recycling . . I am having a difficult time actually putting them in the recycling . . .) Every now and then she would decide to go through them before tossing them out. She'd rip out interesting articles as she went along and then she'd stick them in an envelope and send them off to one of her four daughters. No letter, no photos, no "Love, Mom" on a post-it note -- we'd just get an article or a recipe or directions for knitting a scarf.

My sisters and I joked about this habit of hers for years. Then we started doing it ourselves. Just last week I ripped a picture out of a Martha Stewart Living and stuck it in an envelope and sent it off to a friend. It was totally unnecessary, since I was meeting the friend for coffee a few days later, but I couldn't resist the act of putting a magazine page into an envelope and sticking the stamp on. It was, in a sense, an homage to my mother. I really loved getting those envelopes from her when I was far from home. Although she didn't always write a long and newsy letter, I knew she was thinking about me and we'd share our love of reading even though I was a thousand miles or more from home. Such a little thing to do, but so very powerful. I didn't appreciate it enough when she was alive, but I surely do miss it now.

So back to my Martha Stewart Living problem . . . I did what any good McNamara woman would do -- I paged through every single magazine, ripped out what I wanted to keep, mailed some of it out, and then passed the magazines on to a friend. What a relief -- my basement is a lot cleaner and I feel like I have paid tribute to my mom. Great, right? Well, I went to my rug hooking guild's Christmas party last night (you can read about that here) and told them what I was doing. My friend Sue's eyebrows shot up and she said, "You know, people have paid up to $150 for the charter issue of Martha Stewart Living!" So I could have sold the one issue and had enough cash to hire somebody else to clean my basement . . .

A Giveaway from Trudy at Bits of Wool

Trudy at Bits of Wool is having a Christmas Day giveaway. Why not join in the fun? Just visit her blog here and add a comment.

I Love the Internet

I've been working on some balsam pillows, needle-felting designs on wool, and was looking for a way to make a pattern of a perfect 5-pointed star. So I googled "5 pointed star." The very first site listed was titled "5 Pointed Star in One Snip" and it worked! Apparently -- this was how Betsy Ross made all those stars for her flag. . . Thank you, Betsy! And thank you ushistory.org!


Here's the pillow top, not yet sewn to its bottom. What do you think?

17th Annual Country Parlor Holiday Home Sale

Today's the day! If you are out here on Long Island for Thanksgiving weekend, be sure to stop by!

Friday, November 28, 2008 9 AM to 3 PM
Saturday, November 29 9 AM to 3 PM
Sunday, November 30 10 AM to 2 PM

The Grange
Sound Avenue at Church Lane in Riverhead, New York

The Eclecic Artisans Web Show

It's cold here in Greenport today -- it actually feels like snow. I've built a fire in the wood stove out here in the studio and I've got Christmas carols playing. Cairo is curled up on his cushion. I have to finish up my piece for the TEA show which will held starting November 24th. Just click on the button in the right hand column to get there. I've seen a couple of pieces already and they are delightful.

100th Post

I just realized that I have finally reached 100 posts. I know that in crafter blogland that usually signals a giveaway by the blogger. I am too deep in shows and architects and stuff like that right now, But I am hoping that by the first week of December, I'll be able to announce a giveaway. So stay tuned . . .

In the meantime -- I'd like to wish my husband Peter a very Happy Birthday -- it was yesterday. He was born on Friday the 13th, and his mother always says that is her lucky day . . . We had our wonderful friends Paula and Ann over for dinner -- they make everyday a celebration. I made Tortilla-Wrapped Fish, Aztec Quinoa Salad, Bok Choy, and a green salad for supper. The recipes are from Mesa Mexicana -- a wonderful Mexican cookbook by Mary Milliken and Susan Feniger. It has the best recipe for guacomole, too. For dessert: a Spiced Chocolate Cake with Almond Cream from a very old copy of Bon Appetit. Yummy. I'm looking forward to leftovers for lunch today.

Rug Hooking Road Trip: Green Mountain Guild Rug Show, Shelburne, Vermont

Barb and I hit the road again last Friday and headed to the Shelburne Museum -- one of my favorites -- for the 13th Annual Hooked in the Mountains Rug Show. It was a less than stellar trip in terms of food, accommodations, and driving, but the show itself was fabulous.

The show is being held in the magnificent round barn on the Museum grounds. This is the second or third year that the show is being held in November and I have to say, the barn was a lot warmer on Saturday than it ever was when the show was held in the spring. There were many fewer rugs this year, which made for a better show. (Amy Oxford photographed a couple of the shows for books, which made every rug hooker from here to Alaska enter every rug they had ever made into those shows, no matter how bad they were. That was sensory overload.)

This year's show is called Expect the Unexpected and features the rugs of Diane Kelly and Rae Harrell. Diane's rugs were enclosed in their own room, with a sign outside that said "Diane's House." The room was set up with furniture and rugs on the walls -- very charming.





Rae Harrell's work is a little more unexpected. She is obviously interested in eastern religions -- she had a hooked piece with a beaded figure that was quite striking. I imagine her stacks of what look like crocheted stones with eyeballs at the top (they reminded me of E.T.) are somehow tied in with the mystical as well.





She also had some braided pieces, including a web-like installation made of braids. My favorite of Rae's unexpected pieces were two dioramas, contained in little painted boxes with small holes that you had to bend down and look through with one eye -- very clever. While some of Rae's more experimental pieces don't always speak to or engage me, I certainly appreciate her spirit of adventure and her willingness to take rug hooking to places it hasn't been before. Her more traditional hooked rugs, which often feature women, are always striking. Peg Irish pointed out to me that Rae often hooks with a particular black and white off-the-bolt wool -- you can find it in almost every piece she hooks.

Speaking of Peg Irish -- she had an interesting piece in the show, too. She abstracted one of the Unicorn tapestries into a small hooked piece. In the photo you can see a picture of the tapestry as well as the finished piece. This rug was done for a class peg will be teaching at the Brookfield Craft Center in Connecticut.



I found this rug really interesting. The color was striking and the hooking was beautifully executed. I'm sorry to say, I didn't get the artist's name.



I didn't get the name of the woman who hooked this little colorful mat either, which presents an unexpected subject matter instead of an unexpected technique.



A few years ago it seemed that everyone was hooking self-portraits in shades of blue -- perhaps now we'll have a rash of colorful hooked male body parts . . .

I liked the border on this rug a lot -- looks like an oriental rug.



Here are a few others that I admired, either for their design, color or technique.






More on the show to come . . .

Hooked in the Mountains XIII: "Expect the Unexpected"
featuring the Hooked Rug Art of Diane Kelly and Rae Harrell.

November 8 – 16, 2008
Round Barn, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont.
Exhibit open 10 AM – 5 PM daily.
Opening reception 5 PM Friday evening, November 7.