OK, so I’m not really part of Self-Portrait Tuesday. Haven’t signed up, etc., and keep forgetting to take the dang photos and post on Tuesday. But saw Rachel Kitterman’s cool photo, and Squished Piggies Don’t Squeak, so took these.

DebR–did you see I added my red slippers to your Frappr map? And to go to the other end…who ever knows what the back of their head looks like, so I decided to find out! Here’s me, drum roll, at the computer! By the way, that’s not white or gray…those are my sparkles! I do crinkles and sparkles, they’re so much more fun!

Debra asked me what the quote was, as she enjoys Orson Scott Card’s work, too. So, I decided to copy it here. The first book of his that I read was “Enchantment“, which Sue Reno mentioned on the QuiltArt list a couple of years ago. I LOVED it….it’s about the origins of the Sleeping Beauty legend, and involves time travel from current day (or thereabouts) to 9th century Kievan Rus / Ukraine…..

I just finished reading the Ender’s series of books: Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead, and Xenocide. OK…scratch that…I thought I had read the series, but in looking up the hotlinks on Amazon I now find (yippeee!) there are at least four more… Anyway, the quotation was near the end of the second book, on p. 370:

Olhado, who is essentially Ender’s step-son, was blinded as a child and has metal “all-seeing” eyes that can record and download events…sort of like an eyeball video-camera. He and Ender (actual name is Andrew Wiggin, nickname of Ender came from his older sister when he was an wee thing, but she couldn’t pronounce Andrew) are talking about the crisis at hand. They live on a planet called Lusitania, which is more or less a Portuguese Catholic outpost of the Hundred Worlds inhabited by three sentient species: humans, buggers and pequeninos. Andrew–the titular Speaker for the Dead–came to the planet to “speak” the death of Olhado’s father, Marcao. However, several millenia earlier, Ender had saved Earth from certain destruction by the buggers (that’s what Ender’s Game is about) –details omitted in case you want to read the stories. If I go into more detail I’d have to re-write the books, so if you’re curious go check it out…it’s way cool!

Olhado begins:

“It’s funny. Before you got here, the Bishop tried to tell us all that you were Satan. Quim’s the only one in the family that took him seriously. But if the Bishop had told us you were Ender, we would have stoned you to death in the praca (plaza/town square) the day you arrived.”

“Why don’t you now?” (replied Ender / Andrew Wiggin)

“We know you now. That makes all the difference, doesn’t it? Even Quim doesn’t hate you now. When you really know somebody, you can’t hate them.”

“Or maybe it’s just that you can’t really know them until you stop hating them.”

“Is that a circular paradox? Dom Cristao says that most truth can only be expressed in circular paradoxes.”

End quote.

So there you go. Which came first — the chicken, or the egg? And if the universe is finite, what’s on the other side? How can there be infinity, if the known world is finite? Isn’t there always something on the other side?

And my brain is now sufficiently addled, that I’m bidding you all good night!

THIS MACHINE WAS SOLD.

Hi all….apologies for the total tackiness of this, but it’s another way to get the word out. I’ve decided at long last to sell my Pfaff 7570 sewing machine and embroidery unit. It’s close to criminal to have such a good machine sitting in a box, so time has come to let go of it. Here’s the info:

New, this machine cost me about $3800 in late April 2001 (it was top of the line at the time)–one on-line source says the sewing machine retailed at $3500, plus $800 for the embroidery unit, plus $300 forthe PC Designer software (total of $4600).

I’m selling it plus all the”stuff” that goes with it (listed below–maybe another $200 worth of inserts, bobbin case, etc.) for $1700 plus shipping (I’m guessing about $100 or so in the continental US).

If I end up having to post this on eBay (ugh) I’ll probably have a higher reserve or BuyItNow price, but I’d much rather sell it to someone on the list and have life be easy.

–Pfaff 7570 sewing machine
–Pfaff 7570 Embroidery unit –used once in the class, please don’t ask me
what it does ‘cuz I don’t know LOL! These two photos are of some of the large programmed stitches…you can see the scale in inches on the one scan.
–extra bobbin case
–extra presser feet including cording foot, several pintuck feet
–about 20 bobbins (most of them empty)
–PC Designer software–never opened, so please don’t ask me how to use it! The photos are what I scanned from the front and back of the box, which I’ve never opened or used! I’m guessing it has probably been superseded by newer software, but it should still work; includes cable, etc.
–the included #1 Embroidery card–the picture with the two flowwer motifs, dinosaur and hedgehogs are four of the included designs on that card. At the end of this post the Lilies of the Valley and Lettering are also from this card.
–Manuals for both sewing machine and embroidery unit
–TWO Dream World plexiglas inserts (to fit Sylvia Cabinet with 7570)…it
would be really easy to cut a few pieces of 2×4, add velcro and make these
free-standing sewing extension tables–you’d have one plus a back-up.
–original packing boxes for shipping

here’s a link to some info on the 7570 that I turned up using google:
http://www.epinions.com/hmgd-review-14EA-4654AA-38C94F18-prod4

This machine has the integrated dual feed. When I bought it, I was doing a
LOT of home dec sewing for hire, and that built in dual feed that I could
use with the *zipper* foot as well as the open toe embroidery foot, the
quarter inch foot, etc., was essential. I used the 7570 for everything
until I got the Janome 6500 two years ago. I’ve had the 7570 serviced
regularly, up until I switched over to the Janome. The time has come to let
go of the Pfaff, wonderful machine that it is–there’s no point in letting a
good machine sit in a box in my studio! If you’re interested, please
contact me. Thanks!

Cheers, Sarah

PS–here’s the one and only thing I ever did on the embroidery unit, in the class to learn how to use it. I used two threads, I think…a variegated yellow and a vareigated green, plus the green for the lettering. Despite the fact that I’m totally not an embroidery person, I rather like this one….

https://www.sarahannsmith.com
blog: http://sarahannsmith.blogspot.com/
17 Pleasant Ridge Drive
Camden, ME 04843
e-mail: sarah@sarahannsmith.com

Recently, I –at the last minute– participated in a quilt-swap that started on the QuiltArt list, then moved to a Yahoo group. The results of the swap were just posted and I can’t WAIT to get my quilt, and will blog about it when it arrives. But for now, you’ll have to just look at my contribution.

Circular Paradox was inspired by a passage in Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card, a sci fi novel that has been around for a number of years, but was new to me. Even though I thought I wouldn’t be able to participate in the swap, the idea popped into my head for circles and the moon rabbit and planets on a dark blue background and I knew I could get it done in time for the deadline. I’m so happy with the result that I want to make at least one more “circular” quilt, maybe several….. The full shot is above, and I promise one of these days I’m going to get a better digital camera.

The detail shots below were done on my scanner (and hopefully got down-sized in the upload process for those of you on dial-up!), but really show the quilting much better. The background is a commercial print, the nautilus is Bali Fabrics batiks, and the rest are my hand-dyeds. I had a BALL playing with the variegated thread I’ve purchased from Superior Threads.

The Moon Rabbit is from a 2-piece wood puzzle I bought in Japan in 1996. Instead of seeing a man in the moon, the Japanese see a rabbit. Go look. Once you see the rabbit, you’ll wonder how anyone could see a man’s face, since the shapes look a lot more like a rabbit than a face. The rabbit is stitched in Superior’s “Silver” variegated, but it has gold and copper and cool colors in it. I love it because it is a mama and her baby bunny (at the time I only had one son); I’ve always loved rabbits (well, until the voracious hordes savaged my garden in Friday Harbor, but once the foxes moved into our neighborhood that wasn’t such an issue, and they were still cute!).

On Thanksgiving Day, we had our first snow. When I went out to “walk the dog” before going to bed (and if there is ANYthing in the universe stupider than walking in circles until an animal pees, I have no idea what it is…..%^&*!@#&*, especially at night in the dark in the cold…..), there was just a dusting, and the fallen leaves on the driveway were beautiful under their crust of snow. Alas, it has melted. I’m waiting for the first good storm, with little wind, when you get 3 inch ridges of snow perched on tiny twigs and branches and the air is sharper than crystal……