Escaped psychiatric patient captured

We were definitely relieved to hear that Garver was captured and it was only 3 1/2 miles from our farm. With the help of    helicopters, search dogs, SWAT team members,  Spokane County deputies and U.S marshals found him a little after 8 pm tonight. Garver,  a survivalist, previously boasted that he had weapons and equipment hidden in the woods in the Forker Road area where he was raised.  He had a history of military style weapons and explosives, and he had threatened to kill anyone who confronted him.

The county used a "reverse 911" phone feature where all residents in this area received periodic recorded calls giving updates on the search and telling us to stay inside and keep our doors locked. We were called shortly after he was taken into custody.  I could hear the helicopters searching all day today and yesterday and had very little sleep last night... so tonight will be a big relief.

Beautiful ribbon in a scary world.....

Well I trimmed the wire edging and soaked the ribbon in boiling water which did soften it enough that it gathers nicely..  It is some kind of poly fiber which will not hold a crease so it limits it for folding....but I love it gathered like this and I especially love the gradation of colors.  Running it past a candle flame seals the edge. It is perfect for this project and now that I see the possibilities I wonder how it languished in a drawer for so many years..

It's a lovely day and I had planned on working outside  transplanting brunnera but when we came home last night there was a message from the county sheriff's office telling us to stay in the house and keep the doors locked as a dangerous fugitive was loose in our area.  I had hoped he would have been captured by this morning but has not as I can still hear the helicopters.  He escaped from a mental institution about 300 miles away and has been spotted near here and they think he's heading toward a stash of weapons in the foothills about 3 miles east of us.  He was found incompetent to stand trial a few years ago and was accused of tying up a 20 year old girl with electrical wire and torturing her to death..  So I'm staying inside until the alert is off.

Decisions, decisions, decisions......

 Tonight was all about decisions and more decisions as this project goes into the final phases.

Goods news is I get to use two things that have been my stash for YEARS and were never just right... First is the wide ribbon...an old thrift store find...  I love the colors but it is not the best quality.  It's a little stiff. Well quite stiff in fact. I might try boiling it to soften it and then I'll try to use some of my newly found ribbon folding skills to make it work...  There are yards and yards of it and it will take time to pull all the  wire.  Second is this jacquard trim...again yards and yards.  I've dragged it out time and time again and I've never found a spot that it would work..  I think I bought this at a closeout sale in a sari shop in Auckland years and years ago.  But it really works with the ribbon.

Should I use the lace cottage as the cover or use one of the pages as the cover and frame the lace cottage?  Decided to use the lace cottage for the cover of the first book.
Won't even think about the cover for the second book at this time.

Should I do laced binding with beads or a flat spine decorated with flowers? Decided to do the flat spine with flowers.  Since I'm dividing the blocks into two books, whatever I don't do with this one I will do with the other.  I had really wanted to trim the pages with tiny prairie points but just don't think I'm up to it.

And I do love this little green print which was serendipity as it was the lining of a pillow sham I use for a chair cover.

Onward with "Cottage"

I'm just doing the finishing touches on the linings for 6 cottage pages.  Like the corset books of CQJP2015 I am dividing the 12 cottage pages CQJP2014 into two books.  I used the same assembly technique for both corset books but have decided I want to use a different binding technique for each of the cottage books.

 

When I did my vest to wear to Houston I originally wanted to use knitted lace on the bottom.. It is so different from crocheted lace and but also very difficult to find... I bought a couple lots on Etsy and then when it was time to use it, I decided it wouldn't work... So I am using it on the cottage books.. There's plenty.  It falls into my category of "casket factor".....  If I don't use it, they'll have to bury me with it.  It does seem to have the perfect "feel" for the cottages...

 

I love, love, love this book by Pam Sussman.... Fabric Art Journals.  There's numerous ways to bind fabric pages in such a variety of creative ways and I've only used a few.  This time I want to use a couple of the more advanced ones.  If you are considering a fabric book I can highly recommend this book.  I'm always guilty of buying books and never using them but I am wearing this one out........ 

 

I'm totally hooked on fabric books ...I love that people can handle my needlework and experience it up close in a way not possible if something is hanging on a wall.

Benny the Bright

In my earlier life I taught school for about 14 years in Alaska in the 70s....mostly kindergarten and loved it.  There were many children who are   delightful memories and Benny Bright is one of them.. Benny was a bit slow but he was such a happy soul and loved by all... On April 1st many of the children couldn't wait to get to class to "fool" the teacher and on one April 1st Benny came running in yelling "Teacher, teacher, there's a moose on the playground.

Not wanting to spoil his joke, I hurried to the window and there upon Benny broke into peals of glee yelling "April Fourth, April Fourth"  Benny would be approaching 50 years of age now and I hope he's had a happy life.....