Welcome in the New...

Its the beginning, again.  Where does the time go?  Above is an unfinished piece that I am working on entitled Exhale....it has been photoshoped and enhanced to provide a New Years wish to all..  What promises will you make in the year to come?  What have you left unfinished? 

In this New Year, I vow not to promise to do anything more, better, different, etc.  Instead, I intend to continue on this journey.  Implementing things that I have learned, while seeking new skills and talents to further develop.  This stage of the journey, I am choosing to Exhale....I am releasing all that is bottled up, all that has been unseen, all that desires expression, I am exhaling to breathe in again.

This year, 2011, marks some pretty cool milestones...and I have been preparing for them.  I have had the Freedom to Reveal all that needed to be released.  I have learned to Embrace Love...and I charge forward into this new season with Joy and Strength. 

I wonder what this year will bring.  Stay tuned...Lets discover what my GGI  (Goddess of Good Ideas) has in store.

Have a Blessed New Year.

12 Reasons I love this City during the Christmas Season...

12.  People are inspired to speak to you.  "Happy Holidays", Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas, Warm Wishes, etc....

11.  I get to watch all of the Christmas shows I watched as a kid.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the specials that were produced in stop motion animation such as - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, the Little Drummer Boy, The Year Without a Santa, Santa Claus is Comin to Town, the animated Frosty the Snowman and so many other wonderful shows...

10.  The street corners are filled with jinglers, salvation army workers, Christmas Tree sellers, and your occassional gift and/or Holiday ticket hawkers.

9.  Everyone is ladened with packages, so they are less inclined to bump into you or get annoyed if you bump into them.

8.  The food shops try to compete with the next best Holiday Flavored something...Pumpkin Latte's, Gingerbread Cocoa, Holiday Hamburgers, etc.

7.  Its one of the few times of year, next to Halloween, that people choose to dress silly...Red Floppy Hats, Glittery Toppers, Beards, and all of the Holiday Cheery Apparel -- Sweaters included smiles.

6.  Most buildings are wrapped and decorated for the season.

5.  Holiday tunes can be heard just about every where you go, consistency...smiles.

4.  The Holiday markets at Bryant Park, Columbus Circle and Union Station to name a few.

A Christmas Season loving friend on the ice...smiles.

3.  Holiday themed outings with Friends and Loved ones.  Ice Skating on "The Pond", the tree lighting, Alvin Ailey Seasonal Performance.

2.  Trying to figure out which stores will stay true to the Christmas spirit and be closed on December 25.

1.  You can feel the spirit of Giving in the air and the feelings of good Tidings as New Yorkers and Tourists alike descend upon the shops and windows all covered with Christmas Joy.  The Big Apple seems wrapped in warmth as people donate to coat drives and charities and exemplifiy the true meaning of this season...the Gift of Giving...

Hmmm why is my Guest/Sewing room so Clean.....

I have not had the elves in here since the week before the arrival of my guests...So the floor is clean...the futon is uncluttered...so then where did the elves go.....

I found them....so I wonder when they will return to their rightful place....smiles.. Happy Quilting...

Time Flys By....

So, I prepped, and prepped and prepped for their visit...and before I looked up the week flew by.  I am happy to say that lots and lots of cocktails were had by the adults in my house...."Salud" as it is called by the little one...

The little one assisted oh so wonderfully with the few items that I managed to work on last week.  He even helped with the placement of the fabric on my tree skirt.  No it's not quilted, nor has binding been added...and I am not sure it will survive in the manner it currently is in...but hey you never know...I like my fabrics and colors.   But, I have not gotten around to making the ornaments for the tree...

Stacy's Bootcamp LOVE IT...Yes outside when its cold

I am addicted to the outdoors and now I have a great excuse to be out in the snow, ice, cold, lovely winter season.... Its called "Boot Camp".  I must say that Stacy Berman is an amazing instructor and motivator.  I started late June on a whim and have been attending ever since.  Now due to the discovery of a long standing knee issues...I have been informed that I MUST do strength training, core building, and quad work outs and not run, etc...so this was perfect timing.

Now, why do I mention this you may ask.  Well, the park in the morning is the most awe inspiring place.  I see beauty all around, nature, and architecture, images, etc.  All of these things invoke my GGI (Goddess of Good Ideas - Created by Queen BumbleBeans herself).  So, quite often when I am crab crawling, bear walking, jump squating, planking or buddy leg lifting, my mind drifts to images of Quilting.  So I often create during my work out...and then sketch my thoughts to hopefully return to at a future time....

Tuesday Morning...at Bethesda Fountain, while laying down performing buddy leg lifts...I looked up and noticed the ceiling for the first time...

Imagine this pattern all over the ceilings...it was stunning...absolutely stunning. And it made me come up with an idea for NYC Metro Mod's February Block...smiles...I love this city...

I Do is almost I Done..

I took this great class, at my favorite shop...City Quilter with a great teacher Emily Klainberg...it was waaaayyy more difficult than I anticipated.  Difficult by way of planning and color selection and positioning...It is called the "I Do" quilt.  60 x 66 inches...unfinished... So this is my second class ever.  (I began my Quilting life with a Dummies book "Quilting for Dummies" and a group of folks.)

So now that the Christmas season is in full swing...My guests have arrived (yippee) and suddenly all of the angst in preparing for their arrival (having to make MY SEWING ROOM livable with all of Santa's workshop items in full flow..) has dissipated.  I placed a machine in the living room, my projects in a few plastic bins in the living room, covering my other machine (so the little 3 year old hands wont be tempted) and Voila...Guest room ready with the cushy Full size Futon, chairs..and lovely lighting..

Jayden is one of the most brilliant three year olds that I know...He says..as I am sewing in the living..."Auntie rom...I will help you.  Cooperation makes the project go faster.  Team work, thats it." as he holds the ends of the blanket that I am stitching until it feeds through the machine.  I was tickled pink.  So a week of bliss, and not so much stitching and thread...but lots of Cocktails will be sipped...smiles..

Beauty abounds in the City....

I was walking down the street the last week of November and this caught my eye.   One of the things I love about New York City is its architecture.  Although, I do prefer the older buildings with its scroll work and detail, I am starting to appreciate the more modern look that is cropping up all over the place.  Anyway, this got me thinking about my current "works in progress".  (Santa's workshop is in overdrive now because I have out of towners coming in for a week...Love the company, but yikes for my christmas gift making timeframe.)

Okay, so back to the architecture and the buildings.  This blog thing can help to perpetuate stream of conscious flows...lol.  Yes, I crack myself up at times.  Okay, focus...the buildings.  So, while at my favorite City quilt shop....I found this fabric in early November and had to have it...this is what I have come up with thus far... They will be tote bags, similar to the other NYC one that I made and posted on NYC Metro Mod quilters blog...

The dimension and depth in the fabric is simply awesome...and I just love love love it...the additional fabric reminds me of old time graffiti, circa 1970s, 1980s NYC.  So of course when I saw that snowflake atop the building I though about my fabric at home.

Figuring out the design

Okay, as I am knew to this world.  I am trying to figure out how to customize my site.  I like the color scheme and all, but I need help trying to work out the templates.  I am not sure how to alter it to suit my needs.  If anyone out there knows, if anyone is reading...lol i crack myself up...comments would be helpful...

Signed,

Brand New Blogger

Gobble Gobble..

Okay, this is probably my most favorite holiday...THANKS + GIVING...it spurs on my creativity to create things to give during the pending holiday season...

So I will take a tour through some items that I have gifted this year...and others that were meant for gifts but never made it to the give away block due to incompletion...smiles...

Donated for Project Enterprises's Auction

WEST COAST GIFTING

Former New Yorker Gift

                                       The Dinosaur Quilt for the litte Papa

My in lieu of a Duvet Cover

House Warming

FOR MY BootCamp Instructor

UFO

Relapse....

I really don't recall when the addiction to fiber began.  Perhaps it was my early childhood when i was forced to craft for fun. (Actually, it was not that bad.) Whenever the weather was bad and we were stuck in the house for the weekend, we had to find ways to entertain ourselves.  There was no nintendo...I think Atari and Collecovision came out at some point.  But....we did not have those luxuries...However we did have the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the Childcraft series that came with it.

There was a volume known as "Make and Do"...so I did.  It had every type of craft that you could imagine. Everything from papermache, to popsicle stick bird houses.  Anyway, I digress....It was during my childhood that my grandmother introduced me to knitting so that was fun for a while.  Then I got the wonderful idea that I would make my clothes.  (I had a great aunt named "Aunt V" that lived in Jamaica.  We would visit some summers and she would make whatever I drew on a piece of paper...so my fashion illustration was born.)

Now back to the making clothes....I did not have a sewing machine, so my first attempt was at a pair of pants, all sewn by hand.  It was from here that the addiction began.

In recent years, since about 1997...yarn took the center stage of my craft crave.  I ended up getting real good at it...right around the beginning of the knitting/fiber arts craze in early 2000.. Started teaching it...craving it...and then I became a Yarn Snob.....

(Note:  This was not the yarn for this coat...the coat was Koigu Merino Crepe, doubled throughout and special hand dye...)

It was at that point, about 3 years ago, that I realized that I needed to make a concerted monetary shift in my addiction of choice.  I could have a skein of yarn (silk, cashmere blend..) for $30 a skein that would barely net a scarf...or oodles of fabric that could make a multitude of things.  So, I opted for fabric and slowly switched my drug of choice to the wonderful colorful world of fabric.  (Wise decision according to my pocketbook.) 

And then....I was hooked...sewing clothing, making quilts, and pillows, and art quilts.  Suddenly, I realized that I was unable to throw away the smallest piece of fabric...for fear of it being wasted.  I would carefully and pain stakingly cut out each piece to within a millimeter of its size, because afterall, I could not waste one shred of fabric. 

Then I realized, its just fabric...and you can part with the slivers and strips....but i still kept the scraps. At this point I had only gathered a cube filled with scraps.  So I was on a roll, able to part with tidbits...and was indeed guilt free....and then....I joined NYCMetroMod Quilt Guild, then Empire, and met these great people, and discovered 15 minutes of play.  And now I have relapsed into saving every single strip of material.  I thought I was cured. I finally got to a point where i got rid of pieces that were less than an inch in width and or length.  However, the challenge has begun, to get your play on...smiles.  and now i have lots of this...

That I am turning into this....

And with all that is good, I hope to turn it into something wonderful....I have Relapsed into the scrap psychosis..

Wow!!! im a blogger now. ;-)

Welcome, Me....

I am going to try this blog thing out....It seems interesting and time consuming. All be it a method of transparency...

So, where do I begin. Clearly, I have awaited this day, that I would venture into the blogosphere. Thanks to the guild's for this push....I will take this opportunity to begin to explore the world inside of me...

Now, although it is entitled Cocktails and Thread, I am by no means a heavy drinker. I came up with this name about 5 years ago, when I took a sewing class, and met a group of women from all corners of the globe. We used to bring drinks to class, and go out for dinner and cocktails when we were done. So i coined the phrase, "Cocktails and Thread".

I always refer to my love of crafts in this manner. Whether it is a "Sip N' Knit" or just a quilt shop hop or a Yarn crawl, followed by drinks. So now that I am back into the threads, my blog is aptly named....

This is a quilt in my office. I created it over a weekend in August 2008.