Planet NilknarfApril 2015Welcome to Planet NilknarfThe first two rows of my Inspiration Carousel of Friendship quilt are finished!

Colouring books provide an endless source of resources for my work. In addition to my own Design Your Own Carousel Horses book which I've created with plain horses for everyone to decorate, there are a variety of pictures on line and I have a stash of carousel-related colouring books accumulated from my travels as well as ordered from assorted websites. There are a variety of subjects I'd like to tackle in addition to carousels even though the subject of carousels alone inspires a variety of themes.

For example, I want to make a quilt with horses all decorated with lilacs:I also want to make what I call the Primer White quilt:As you can see, these are embroidered entirely in white on a white background so that the emphasis is on the detail and texture of the stitching. Originally, my New Year's resolutions were to

Not start any new projects until I've finished my backlog of old projects

Not make anymore transactions on my VISA card until I've paid off all my debts

Try not to swear so much.

But, of course all these have been broken one way or another. At least I managed to put all the rest of my projects on hold until I FINALLY completed Joey's project. This is how it looks above her kitchen window.

And then I finished Jan and Fede's quilt before I completed the second row on my latest Big Quilt that was shown at the beginning of this issue.

However, yesterday and the day before, I got out all the old Carousel News & Trader magazines as well as several of my colouring and carving books and spent many hours tracing assorted carousel creatures onto 12-inch squares of broadcloth for the next onslaught of carousel quilt creations. I've set aside several armored and other elaborately-detailed horses for my Primer Whites quilt, and I've herded up as many County Fair style horses for the first quilt in my Carousel Art Trilogy. There are three styles of carousel art: County Fair, Coney Island and Philadelphia.

County Fair horses are fairly plain and simple for easy transport on portable machines, although some of them such as C.W. Parker's Lillie Belle and his patriotic steeds are quite fancy. I rode a Parker Lillie Bell in Kansas last year:County Fair artists include C.W. Parker, Allan Herschell, Armitage-Herschell, Herschell-Spillman and Dare.

The next style is Philadelphia. These include Dentzel, Muller and Philadelphia Toboggan Company as well as its predecessor, E. Joy Morris. Their style is usually quite realistic with few jewels.These are from Fredrick Fried's favorite carousel at the Please Touch museum in Philadelphia.

Last but not least, my personal favorite, Coney Island:

This is my square with the M.C Illions workshop logo and one of his majestic steeds on the right from Charlotte Dinger's collection. If I had to pick I would have to say Illions is my favorite carousel artist. I have always been partial to the glitzy, flamboyant manes and elaborate floral embellishments. Coney Island artists also include Carmel, Looff and Stein & Goldstein.

Each of these trilogy quilts will only be a dozen squares large. This makes the hard part trying to decide which ones to say no to.

Cover StoryThe Comfort ZoneIn light of all the events these past few months, I've been inspired to create a new Facebook Group in order to promote and brainstorm ideas about a Healing retreat place:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1712071119019853/1712073529019612/?comment_id=1712075549019410&notif_t=group_comment

The picture on this month;s cover is of the beautiful nature trail Janette and I enjoyed wandering along when we were in Guelph last summer. This had to be one f the most peaceful places we've EVER experienced. Guelph had to be one of the best vacations we've ever been on together. We had a nice, plain simple hotel room with user-friendly amenities and the only time we ever experienced drama was coming and going. Other vacations we've taken within the past year or two have had their unfair share of drama. In fact we've often wished for a vacation to RECOVER from our vacation!

The Comfort Zone would be a peaceful resort with comfortable suites that have user-friendly amenities; the RIGHT number of buttons on the phones, NORMAL faucets on the bathtubs, BATHTUBS, of course! In fact water would be a very important part of the experience. There would have to be a pool, hot tub and sauna.

Art programs would be central to the Comfort Zone's mission. Guests could arrange to stay at the Comfort Zone for a weekend or up to three weeks. During this time they are welcome to participate in whatever activities they want to. But you don't have to be an overnight guest to participate in the programs. Art groups and workshops could be on a drop-in basis.

Counseling would be provided if you need to talk to someone who is compassionate and non-judgmental.

Emphasis is on peace and quiet. Emphasis is also on being taught to entertain oneself with no need for television and as little computer use as possible. Life is too short for staring at screens. Hands-on creative activities are good for the soul. I can teach people to embroider. Anyone who wants to can come in and draw and paint.

However there is an age limit. Not EVERYWHERE has to be family friendly. There HAS to be sacred places where you will NOT hear THIS SOUND!!!

We would try to keep costs down by having as many things donated to us as possible and by using recycled materials for our art projects. Papier-mache can be inexpensively done with newspaper and flour. And the Dollar Store provides a great wealth of resources and materials.

Much of our facilities would be done by dedicated volunteers. Artists selling their works are encouraged but not obligated to donate a portion of their profits. We want people to think of this as their home and family.

Some parents probably think I am a mean witch with a capital B for enforcing an age limit but the emphasis has to be on peace and quiet. I'm not the only one who has sensory issues to certain sounds and guests must respect one another and be sensitive to each other's feelings. If guests are being inconsiderate and their noise is bothering people in the next room or overhead they will receive two warnings. If they cease to comply they will be thrown out. If staff members receive complaints for being condescending and ceasing to be compassionate they will receive two warnings. If it happens a third time they will be fired or at least suspended until they've learned how to change their attitude. The last thing an unhappy visitor needs is a lecture about his or her attitude.

And all visitors will receive follow-up letters asking them if they enjoyed their stay and inviting them to any upcoming workshops or programs that might be of interest.

The Slow Painful Death of My New Year's Resolutions

Even the simplest rules end up being broken. I started to talk about breaking my first one in my first article this month, but of course ended up going off on yet another one of my famous tangents. My first resolution was to NOT make any further transactions on my VISA card until I was paid off. The only extenuating circumstance was if Culture Club were going to reschedule their tour and Janette and I want to see them in concert.

Unfortunately, Life had other plans. I realized that I was faced with a catch-22. If my second resolution was to finish off my unfinished craft project, I would HAVE to have quilt batting! So I ordered two bundles from Connecting Threads. Two bags of Hobbs polyester king-sized would probably cost less than what I pay at Fabricland anyway and besides I had no way of getting to Fabricland at the time.

Then Janette's father passed away. So Janette and I HAD to go to Niagara Falls. We couldn't NOT go. There was NO WAY she was going back to her depressing room back home. We HAD to escape to get through this painful transition. Even if she offered to pay for all the major expenses such as the bus fare there and back, food and hotel, it is IMPOSSIBLE NOT to shop when you're at Niagara!! Going to Niagara without shopping is like going to the pool and NOT SWIMMING!!! I ended up spending over $80 at the Hard Rock Cafe gift shop and close to a hundred at Rock Legends. It is the TAJ MAHAL of KISS merchandise!!! And patches! Look at them all!!Of course, not ALL of them came from the Rock Legends gift shop. The British flag came from Hard Rock Cafe and the oval Niagara Falls patch as well as the maple leaf crest and the patriotic little kid came from various other gift shops around the area.

And then about a week or two ago I was faced with the dreadful emergency of needing a new MP3 player because the battery on mine refused to charge up properly anymore. Dave's MP3 player was doing the same thing. And his is a few months younger than mine, has less music on it and only gets used once a week. Mine is pretty much FULL and I use it EVERY DAY! The idea of leaving the house WITHOUT it puts me in a state of SHEER PANIC!!! So I phoned up Staples and asked them if they had any and when they said yes I dragged myself there.

I had a homework assignment due too so there was NO WAY I could put off buying printer ink any longer either!

Unfortunately, when I got to the cashier, my fucking credit card was nowhere to be found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to go all the way home. I was worried sick!! This COULD NOT BE HAPPENING! And there couldn't be a WORSE time!! I cried and swore but at least I didn't launch into a full-blown meltdown.

At least when I was home I was almost set to phone the VISA office and report it missing when I saw it peeking out from among the clutter in front of my computer desk.

And of course I broke down and bought two new books from Amazon.com prior to that. You've already read the reviews in last month's issue. I needed the Gene Simmons book for school anyway. (Suuuuure!)

So, go figure, although I paid off $250 on last month's VISA bill I ended up racking up another $400 altogether. SOMEBODY PLEASE BUY MY QUILTS!!!!!

Of course finding my card missing made me swear. And so did Kerry's Place canceling their Managing Meltdowns workshop yet AGAIN!! Only this time it was much worse because they gave me no advance warning. Janette spent $20 to take the Go train all the way from Toronto to Oshawa and I wasted $20 altogether on the round trip to and from Trent University. To add insult to injury, the security guard was JOKING with us telling us it was canceled until he found out it REALLY was. Can you blame me for being livid?

This experience has given me a feeling of deja-vu all over again! This is why I end up giving up on people. It's the damned carousel committee thing all over again!!

When I got home I left an angry message with Kristine. I still haven't heard back or received any kind of apology and I have a good mind NOT to go to the next meeting!

Of course they have rescheduled but there's NO WAY EITHER of us can make it!

A. Neither of us can afford to fork out another $20 for transit fee andB. It's at ELEVEN o'clock! HELLO??!! I'm still in SCHOOL!!!!

And I have NO INTENTION of missing any more days. I already missed the day I had to get my new MP3 player and the Thursday the week before that because I was violently spewing from both ends. I was convinced it was BEETS again. There is beetroot powder in those damned Veggie Stix snacks and I was violently ill on the night of Thursday the18th. I managed to drag myself to school on Friday but Sunday night I was sick all over again! It turned out to be a bug. A lot of people have had it. If it had been simply beet-related it would have been over after that first bout.

But this was like that flu my parents and I had over Christmas of 1991. The kind that when you think you're okay it comes roaring back with a vengeance! 1991 goes down in history as our Worst Christmas Ever! I was so sick I didn't even want to open my presents. I wanted to wait until I was feeling better but my mom insisted I open them then and there. I just tore everything open so fast I barely even looked at what I got just so I could hurry back to bed.

My Christmas quilt might not be an advent calender after all. I have exactly NINE reindeer to make a smaller square. And I really don't have to be in that much of an urgent hurry to make more quilts because I have at least seven or eight for this year's upcoming Bobcaygeon show!

However I do want to do my Carousel Art Trilogy series before I resume work on my book. That's been put on the back burner because I have better ideas for the next draft!

Links Worth Sharing:

I see nothing wrong with this! Why should kids have ALL the fun??http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/grownups-pay-big-bucks-attend-nyc-adult-preschool/story?id=29701836&cid=fb_wn_sf

It is ridiculously expensive though.

And here's another wonderful idea...!!!http://ocatecliffs.org/

I'm not really into outdoor physical labour though. Too much like Katimavik.If I were going to help out with the construction I would wait awhile and help with painting. In the meantime I've shown my support by ordering a T-shirt. I was delighted and impressed with how fast it got here. I will be sure to wear it when I go to THIS PLACE....!!!

http://www.livingroomcommunityartstudio.org/

I can tell you more soon after I've actually BEEN there!!!

The Greatest Thing to Happen to this TownAnd now I have been there!!! I went to The Living Room on Friday, March 20th for the first time and LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT!! It's easy to get to and I felt right at home. The first thing I did as I got acquainted with my surroundings was allow myself to play around with the scrap-booking materials and create some cut-and-paste pictures. I admit they're probably not my best but the important thing is that I had a lot of fun:

One idea led to another and, of course, I ended up decorating a couple of my carousel horses using some of that scrap-booking paper.This, of course, lead t the challenge of embroidering them for my latest quilt...I will definitely be going back to the Living Room tomorrow. To see all the other cool stuff I make as the rest of the upcoming month progresses, tune in here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.542203629252736.1073741868.100003893116310&type=1&l=53b5ec057a

Here's how I first found out about The Living Room....

Be Your Own BossClass Field TripI have been taking an amazing class at Durham Continuing Education; Be Your Own Boss. We have had many interesting guest speakers and one day we went on a walking tour to visit three local establishments; The Table, The Gift House and Smoke's Poutinerie.

The Table is this unique new restaurant downtown where instead of individual booths or tables, everyone gathers around one big table that seats about 30 people. This is to encourage interaction among the community. The place has a warm, friendly ambiance and a European feel to the dcor, which displays works of local artists. I haven't eaten there yet as I'm not exactly comfortable with the idea of sitting with a bunch of strangers, but I'm willing to give it a try one of these days, provided I go with a small group already. Caroline, the lady who owns the place, told me all about the Living Room.

They also have a guitar for anyone who wants to play; free lunch in exchange for dinner music! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDZ9o6JyySY

Our next stop was The Gift House. The lady who owns this store also owns the chain of Rexall drug stores. What I liked best was the selection in the back of all the miniature villages. There were several Christmas Villages and one Halloween town:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMUAs2M1M8c&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQWOQqiDK3I&feature=youtu.be

The last place we visited was Smoke's Poutinerie. We were there plenty early and I have to admit that I was kind of disappointed that nobody else in my class stayed for lunch. I did, however, because I had a major craving for their Hogtown!! Smoke's Poutinerie has over 30 different kinds of poutine and you can get it with a variety of toppings. The Hogtown has sausage, bacon, mushrooms and caramelized onions. Many of their dishes are named for the region they originated in or are sold in. One of these days I've got to try the 'Schwa-Some and the Schwiggedy! They are also plannning on opening a place called The Weinery where they will be selling a variety of different kinds of hot dogs, and Gangster Grilled Cheese. This new place basically uses Texas toast so I can hardly imagine it being as good as my beloved Grilled Cheese Hideaway in Bobcaygeon! Grilled Cheese Hideaway offers a choice of different breads, the marble rye being my personal favorite. But that's another story. I am looking forward to trying both Gangster and Weinery. They will all be in that area across the street from Regent Theatre and just around the corner from the GM Centre. Great places to stop for a bite after a concert or the big game! I was amused to learn that the manager of this particular franchise went to his first Smoke's Poutinerie after a KISS concert! WOO-HOO! My favorite band! ;)

Carousel of the MonthJane's Carousel, PTC#61, circa 1922

See You Next Month!!