Global Spin » Karen

Sometimes I love Britain

Karen — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:25:02 +0000

Okay, so a lot of the time I love Britain. It’s a me thing. But in this case, it’s specific. Agencies controlling food standards and safety have ordered baby milk (formula) manufacturers to stop putting claims like “next best thing to breast milk” on their packaging. They can’t say, “Helps support the immune system.” They can’t say, “helps growth and the immune system.” Even if these things are true they cannot print them on their packaging because it may be undermining the push toward greater numbers of breastfeeding moms. Yay!

because I know you want to go

Karen — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 02:34:29 +0000

…to Poseidon!

Yup. I’m torn between “err, it’s kind of resort-y” and “Oh my Gosh,
it’s keen! We each get personal submarines! We can feed fish at our
room window by pushing a button on our control console! Each suite is
independently able to be lifted to the surface in case of emergency!”
Everything is exclamationy.

Because you know you want to.

Finished!

Karen — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 06:58:34 +0000

Look at me.� I’ve got that yellow tape across my chest from bursting through the finish line.� My story’s not quite done, but the NaNoWriMo folks don’t care:� I hit 50,000 words and they gave me this keen icon.� Wasn’t that nice?

Now, to finish the story and find a nice dark drawer to put it in for the next year, or maybe ten…

It’s all good.

Karen — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 03:58:49 +0000

It’s Senegal, plus India, plus Brazil, plus biofuel. Everyone works together. It makes me happy. I know, I’m easily pleased. Link Now I’m off to find out what jatropha is…

Awash in a Sea of Other Stuff

Karen — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:35:44 +0000

… finally, I bring you the next installment of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Covers quilt. Yes, it’s a stupid name but it has stuck. So be it. Want to see more? Here’s a quick teaser:

For even more (what? Didn’t that tell you everything you needed to know?), read on.

So, you know you want to see it again:

Skulls! On! Fire! Fayah, baby! (Yes, that is the actual name of the fabric. Minus a few exclamation points.)
Okay, it’s out of my system now. Actually, since we last drifted past one another the quilt has undergone quite a lot. This, for instance:

Many pieces add up to many strips. Ben thought it made a keen maze and wanted to step on it, but Chris wouldn’t let him, so instead he jumped from hole to hole. Ah, it took me years to understand negative space…

Then I put them together, the motley crew of ‘em, into a quilt top (which took a while) and began roping them in with Skulls! On! Fire! Um, actually, ~~sculls~~ skulls on fire became the inner border. And to finish with something totally not nautical, the outer border is Supernovae! Really. See?

Supernovae and Skulls! On! Fire! Warrant well for a newlywed nuptial quilt, don’t you think? I do.

So then I thought, why not show you the whole completed top? Okay.

What’s that, you say? Looks odd? That’s because it’s the underside! Ah ha! This is my exploratory voyage and you don’t get any quickie endings. You have to hang out with me until the end, when it is all quilted and bound and such, before you see the top of the top and the bottom of the bottom. Leviathan, bring it on. Deana and Glen have their love and Skulls! On! Fire! to keep them warm and you at bay. And Supernovae. They are warm too.

Sailing calm waters

Karen — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:47:03 +0000

Yes, among many other doings there comes an update to the 20,000 Leagues Under the Covers quilt! (Deana and Glen, there are more photos on my Flickr site.)

The work on this quilt is done in fits and starts, but I think it is really striking when a new stage is finished. Yay! The fishie path is a difficult one, but to those who can keep the faith the reward is quite nice.

Textiles can do good, doing well

Karen — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 17:21:07 +0000

Just when you were beginning to think that it would never do anyone any good, voting with your dollar makes a difference. An effort by textile companies and the government of Lesotho has brought the textile industry back from near disaster to near fighting strength again, in large part thanks to the “government… working hard to become a destination of ethical choice”. Makes you renew your faith in checking labels.

Congratulations, Steve!

Karen — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:40:42 +0000

Our own Stephen Frost graduated from UCSD today. Yay! He looked rather dapper in a cap and tassels. Congratulations, Steve!

Evolution

Karen — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:39:06 +0000

From small things:

Two small bits of stuff meet, greet, and make something bigger (perhaps better?) than their own small individual selves. Turn a corner, new perspective, trim off the unnecessary, take on new partners, become something larger or sleeker or more useful or stronger or more likely to survive. A 3″x3″ scrap of fabric may be destined for the scrap pile, a bird’s nest, or the trash, but a 3″x3″ piece may join others to become a 14″x24″ piece which joins others, and that is just too big to toss. And too pretty. (Who says beauty isn’t an evolutionary trait?) Warm is nice too…

Seaweed

Karen — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 22:44:19 +0000

So, the decisions have been made and Deana and Glen’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Covers quilt has been begun in earnest. It’s all been cut up into eensy weensy bits and I’m beginning to put them back together. See?

Fabric was, in fact, harmed in the making of this photo. I admit it.

Don’t you like the way the strips curl up on themselves as they feed through? Like seaweed, curled and waving in the water as your submarine slowly drifts down past it. DIVE! DIVE!