Fiber and Pulp

Little Fires

These are gladiolus flowers (also called Sword Lilies). My Mom loved them - they come in many colors and create a fairly long-lasting bloom stem. I haven't seen many growing here in MD but they are pretty common in southern gardens. I always think of Mom when I see them. :)

I have been tending to small, minor sewing projects over the past two weeks. Barbara, Patty and I have been shop hopping in the East and West Central Regions of the Mid-Atlantic Hop ... which has taken much of my energy. Between those days out and dealing with my brother's care and worrying over my husband's health, I have not had much motivation to sew. Sigh.

I have worked on a few things. I moved my paper arts working to my brother's condo and have managed a couple of sessions there. I took a picture of my body evidence for the work (I am a klutz with my art media and tend to get them all over my body:).This was left from my work with Posca paint pens.

The Baltimore Modern quilt guild met on Sunday afternoon for our monthly get together. Our program included making little chickie pincushions. Here are some of the results:

Following the activity, the interested makers did a blind swap with their chickens. I liked mine well enough to keep the one I made for myself, though. :) It was fun - we free-hand cut the combs, beaks and tails from felt and several members brought machines to sew the bodies together. My friend Kathy Fain and I made little walnut shell containing weights to stuff inside so the pinnie would sit soundly (they were stuffed with fiberfill and so were a bit light). Fun!

I've also been working on blocks for the Faithful Circle round robin bee which is a row-along. Each maker created a row of blocks for their beginning and included a yard of some focus fabric(s). Every other maker must create a row of equal length (but block sizes can vary) that 'go' with the original row.

The first row I got to work on had six cute patchwork farm animals. I have made three more blocks to finish my row since I last wrote here:

a fluttery butterfly

every barn needs a cat

a free-form rose; flowers are good to grow, too!

I turned that package in last Monday at meeting and picked up the second one to work on ... this one has stars in it and I'm having fun with them. I decided to make five pointed stars as they are a bit different than the usual. The first go around I tried improv piecing a la Buggy Barn stack/whack/shuffle to make 6" square blocks:

I was not happy with these results. This improv technique yields 'wonky' designs but these stars were more jagged than I wanted. So, I went looking for foundation pieced five pointed stars and found a pattern that included many sizes of star. I was much happier with the results:

This 4" star dances on a frame

This star is only 3" square so I could let it dance inside a floating frame.

I have several more to make and am looking forward to playing with other bright colors for the blocks. :)

Tomorrow I have to tend my brother - lunch out, grocery shopping, one doctor's appointment. Wednesday my friend Patty and I are going down to Virginia to get stamps in two shops - the ones I missed because I forgot my passport book on one of our treks. :P I am looking forward to visiting the two shops (Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria and The Quilt Studio in Fairfax). Hope the traffic gods are with us!

:) Linda

More Construction

August is my personal marker for the flowering of many so-called weeds in the verges of highways and fields. The one above, Goldenrod, is a widely distributed late summer flowering plant and the state flower of Kentucky (probably among others). Since I learned my state history in KY, that's the one I'm most familiar with (well, MD is Black-eyed Susans; VA is Dogwood). Many people are allergic to goldenrod pollen and when I was a child this was the 'hay fever' month (my Mom was allergic to several late summer flowering 'wild' plants, as was her mother).

I haven't seen any goldenrod blooming in our neighborhood ... but it has been so darned HOT that I have not been out walking much. Today is was raining great gushers when I did go outside, around 2 p.m., to drive to my brother's apartment. I had ordered the finishing (I _hope_) parts to my new 'paper arts' corner at the condo and wanted to install them.

The new under-chair mat I ordered was really, really tightly rolled up ... Kevin and I painfully rolled it out flat and weighted it down with furniture (an armchair, ottoman and side table) to try to get it ready for use. It will be interesting to see how many days under weights it takes to tame the beast. :)

The other thing I ordered was another organizational structure to hold files, paper, etc. It came with tiny printed instructions - pictures only - for assembly. I had to have faith in the good engineers' assumption of average housewife construction skills ... and peer carefully at the drawings to make sense of the thing. It only took me about two hours to build and did not require Kevin's help so I guess it was easier than the last rolling structure. Here it is:

It fits very nicely right under the side board of my drafting table and rolls easily on the carpet. So, satisfying and DONE. :)

I spent another hour unpacking another two grocery bags (um, big grocery totes) full of 'paper art' supplies I had brought from home (still working on cleaning my under-desk accumulation). Not sure that the way I am sorting things out will be the final method, but a good start is fine for now. :) 

Maybe the next time I go over I can actually MAKE something, eh? :)

Hugh and I made chicken soup in our crock pot this morning before I went out so the house smelled wonderful when I got home around 5:30 p.m. Such a nice thing to come home to eat. Tomorrow is the monthly meeting of Mimi Dietrich's Grad Class group but I cannot go. I foolishly forgot the meeting and made an appointment for my brother, Kevin, to go to the new dentist at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Sigh. Gotta be more careful with my calendar.

:) Linda
 

Que Passa?

(With thanks to my friend Leeanna for the funny!) I spent three days last week and at least two more planned in coming weeks on quilt shop hop road trips. Fun! Barbara, Patty and I decided to try to visit each of the shops participating in the Mid-Atlantic Shop Hop for the east central region (the one we live in). We will likely visit many of the shops in the west central region, too. 

I did not take photos of the goodies I bought ... or of the insides of the shops (most owners object:) ... but I DID take pictures of the lovely flowers we saw. So pretty! See the end of this posts for photos.

The day of Mimi's Grad Class we visited Bears Paw in  Towson and Domesticity on Harford Road in Baltimore. The next Tuesday we went to the shops on the Eastern Shore  - starting with Vintage Pink and Green in Snow Hill (highly recommended) ... through Serendipity  and Church Street Quilting ... to Delaware Dry Goods. On Thursday we saw Tomorrows Treasures in Crofton, The Crabby Quilter in Annapolis and Covenant Quilting in Easton. Busy, busy!

That regimen pretty much exhausted me last week. :) I've also been working on building myself a paper crafting corner in my brother's apartment (partly to move it out of my house and partly to give me an excuse to go see him more often ... and WITH his permission). Here is the result of one full day's construction with his help:

This is a sturdy metal drafting table that took four hours to build.

Here is the desk with a side organizer basket/shelf unit to hold tools and art media. I have a mat for under the rolling chair and another small organizer with shelves for paper on order.

I've taken two trips already to ferry my bits and bobs of stuff over - and have cleaned off the top of my desk here at home in the process. :) Still have stuff under my desk and in the sewing room corners to move over. I did sit and work in my art journal for a while on Sunday afternoon. Kevin seemed to enjoy my company and I needed the break. I guess it amounts to a mini-atelier away from home, eh? :)

The only sewing I've done in the last ten days is constructing blocks for a round robin I'm in with my guild, Faithful Circle Quilters. It's a row project - you must make enough blocks (between 6" and 12" wide) to fill a row as long as the foundation beginning (the robin is anonymous so I don't know whose row package I have). The one I have to work on now is a 36" long row of farm animal blocks. I expect it will be a baby quilt when it is done. Here is what I've made so far to add:

These carrots are 3"x6" each. A free block by Leila Gardunia.

This piggy made me giggle. Also a free block, by Linda Worland.

Here they are as I have joined them together:

I have more blocks to make (a rose, a cow, a butterfly and wheelbarrow) and those will get done in the between-road-tripping days. :)

I have to get started on my plans for a trip to Wisconsin for the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show in September soon. I am meeting a very long time friend from my undergraduate days, my daughter and her mother-in-law for more fabric fun (not to mention hugs with my two grandsons and my son-in-law:).

:) Linda

PS Pretty flowers:

 

Holidays?

This is the deep dish pizza that my son, Hugh, and I made for dinner on Thursday night (the 4th of July). Happy tummies! :) We did not go to the fireworks - have not for many years. Used to go when the kids were young but the multitudes of crowds and traffic are too much for us now. :P

The weather has been blistering hot here (sometimes literally). Our air conditioner quilt working suddenly on Friday afternoon. Luckily we could get a repair tech here on Saturday morning and get it repaired - there was a capacitor blown out in the heat pump that needed to be replaced. I think God every day for all the people that worked on creating air conditioning!! I do not think I could bear to live here without it and I truly pity the people who don't have it when we have this kind of nasty weather. :P

I want to share some more pretty pictures here. First, I finished my block for the Measure For Measure project and want to document it here:

This block is about 12" square (a bit more, with the current raw edges). It will be finished into a page by the project coordinator, Suzanne Coley, who is the artist in residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library in D.C. Here are some closeups:

I deeply enjoyed working on this block. One of the reasons for all the photos is that it will not belong to me. When it is finished, it goes to the Folger for permanent display (along with all  the other work that Suzanne gathers). I still have to write up my 'artist statement' and make a cushioning  cover for the block.

Another project we are pursuing in Mimi's Grad Class is a group Baltimore album style quilt. I shared here before which block I had chosen and my fabrics:
This is the front (right) side of the block, mostly. I have now applied deep red pieces inside each long oval 'slit' in this design. The middle will get cut out, too:

This shot shows the back (wrong) side of the block - the white bits are my pattern template. If you look carefully, you can see the inside lines where I will cut away the middle of my block. 

I had been fiddling with and trying to baste the edges on this block for most of a month, without success. At our meeting this past Monday, Mimi gave me permission to fuse the edges of the design and hand embroider the resulting raw fabric edges to cover them and attach them permanently. I intend to ink the National Aquarium in Baltimore in the middle space as it is my favorite place in the city. :)

We did finish one group project for Grad Class recently:

We made a retirement quilt for Mimi. :) The block second-from-right in the third (central) row is the one I made. Two members of our group coordinated the project, collected the blocks and made the quilt. All within two months (from conception to presentation)!

Tomorrow I am hoping to sew some - I have to make a starter row for a round robin sew-along that is being run in Faithful Circle quilt guild. Got an inspiration at the Annapolis quilt show and ran with it. Might be a wild ride. :)

Linda

 

Homebody?

This is White Dutch Clover blooming. It's a common plant that grows wild nearly everywhere on the continent and is my personal signal of 'Summer' arrived. If you click on the photo you can go read about the benefits of growing clover as a cover crop or mixed into your lawn. :) There is lots of it abloom in my neighborhood right now. I have not personally seen the pink variant growing here, yet, but I'm sure it is. Bumblebees and honeybees love the stuff and I ran barefoot over fields of it (sewn and grown by my Grandpa Hampton for his bee hives) as a child.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon doing family chores for my brother at his apartment. He complained of the early morning sunlight coming in his windows and shining on his TV screen so I ordered him some light blocking curtains and a rod. Yesterday he helped me install them in his room:

The entire operation was a comedy of errors, starting with the delivery. I _ordered_ royal blue curtains ... but medium gray was what came. Grr. Kevin decided that they were ok so I did not go through the return/reorder travail. :P Then we had to find and get out the cordless electric drill and bits to make the mounting holes for the rod.

Took forever and two referrals to YouTube videos to figure out how to change the bits in the drill (what was in it was a screwdriver bit - was the right size for the mounting screws so I imagine the bit had been there for at least a year, since we put up the curtain rod in the other bedroom). After crawling up the two steps in the short ladder and marking the hole placement, I drilled out the holes in the wall (scary - reaching over my head to drill and teetering on the short stepladder). 

I don't think I drilled them in exactly the marked places. sigh. Of course, marking them included finding the level and yardstick to make sure they were horizontal. Then, having drilled the holes, I had to hammer in the molly bolts (I _think_ that's what they are called - plastic sleeves for the screws as the holes are just held up by dry wall and aren't into studs). That meant finding a hammer - which turned out to be  included in the kit that held the level - a cute little handle-less hammer which worked fine.

Then I had to change the bits in the drill back to the screwdriver bit to mount the curtain rod holders. Kevin kept saying he thought they were wrong ... took us forever to decide that he thought the two end holders were supposed to be hanging down with the same hook orientation as the center support bracket. :) Kevin is pretty stubborn and it's hard to convince him that he's wrong - was gratifying to let him figure it out for himself and I actually got an apology. :)

THEN, having put up the brackets, we had to figure out how to screw on the rod - first on the left side, then weaving the curtains in and out of the rod, then finally on the right side. Not feeling very confident about whether the rod is secure, but it all held up (so far). Gratifying!

I'm sure my husband could have done the chore in less than half the time it took us two newbies ... but we did feel triumphant with success afterwards. LOL.

I had intended to spend today working in my sewing room to tidy/sort ... but it is pretty hot in our upstairs (I am convinced the a/c unit we bought several years ago is not large enough for our house as the upstairs is always hot in the summer). I am going downstairs in the cool to do hand quilting until evening when it will be easier to work in my sewing room.

:) Linda

PS. Here are some more photos from our Sew&Tell meeting last Sunday a week ago:

This is Amy with her finished charm quilt made with Liberty of London lawns - all from various Hello Kitty collections.

Another Liberty fabric collection used in a quilt by Amy.

A beautiful top made by Barbara using a GE Designs pattern.

Yet More Catching Up

We have arrived in summer with very hot weather this week - upper 90s and humid. Pretty general Maryland summer except that we had what I think was a fairly cool spring with lots of rain so no one is mentally or physically prepared for this heat. :P I myself am spending a bit of time indoors in the air conditioning. The daylilies have been blooming for a couple of weeks now - I love them! So do the deer, sadly, as I'd like to plant a stand of them (but they'd just be another serving in the deer smorgasbord that is our yard).

Just before the heat wave started (of course) I decided to try container gardening on my back deck and bought a small window box and three little plants - two Caladiums and a Lantana. So far they are doing well despite (or because of?) the heat. I will see how they do for this year. IF I succeed in keeping them alive and prosperous, I'll expand my collection next summer. Maybe into herbs. :)

I'm so far behind in writing here that I've kind of lost track. I think I will start with my most recent outings and makings and work my way backwards.

This past Friday I went to the annual Annapolis Quilt Guild show with my friend Barbara. I saw a lot of quilts I really liked but I'm only going to share a few here in the interest of not boring anyone. :)

I was really struck by this quilt. First because I love improv, then because I particularly like the plus sign motif (to me, it stands for inclusivity), then because I am acquainted with Judy Shapiro (she used to teach for me in my quilt shop) and had no idea she did patchwork as the only works of hers I've seen have been Baltimore-style applique designs. :)

This quilt speaks to my mothering heart. :) I also admire the photographic quality of the design - one type of quilt working I have not attempted (yet).

I adore this quilt! I like  'bugs' to start with ... and the collage-style applique technique used with this design. Would love to make something like this one. :)

Well, that's only 3 quilts but it was a good show and there were many more I enjoyed. :)

Sunday this past weekend was the monthly meeting of Sew&Tell and there was a little bit of show and tell after our lunch break. Unfortunately I'm having trouble with our internet connection and I cannot seem to get my photos to load decently right now - will have to try again another time.

:) Linda

Busy Sewing

Today was a happy, inspiring time! It was the monthly meeting of the Repro Club at Springwater Designs quilt shop (my LQS). The geese above were two different families with goslings strolling around the fields beyond the building where Springwater is located. So cute!! :)

Today's topic at the club meeting was English Paper Piecing. Lots of great inspiration there! :)

First, Heather (the facilitator) shared two blocks made with the day's mid19th century reproduction prints (we get two fat quarters at each meeting):

The green and light red prints were today's selection. :) I did not photograph everything shown/shared at the meeting - only the things that caught my attention.

Here is an EPP block (a Bloomfield flower pattern) made by Dawn (shop owner) in soft colors:

The block had been basted to a background square but not yet appliqued down (hence the little 'dog ear' flags on the star points:).

We had wonderful show and share items - most of the club members have done EPP, some quite a lot of it:

I found the meeting quite inspiring. :) I did buy some new notions ... and some soft&stable for a bag-making project I have in mind. 

I spent the rest of my evening doing house chores and making supper (Hugh and I made deep dish pizza from scratch). I am reading my way through Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books right now and enjoying them enormously. I first met Phryne with the television series from Australia. So much fun! :)

Tomorrow is my weekly meeting with Barbara and Patty to Sew Together. Afterwards I'm driving straight to MITAGS in Linthicum for the first of two days with Baltimore Modern quilt guild's Make May Modern retreat. Took me forever to decide what to take to work on ... having more trouble than usual concentrating this spring. :P

:) Linda

This Past Week

This was a pleasant week in the fairly-uneventful life of me. :) The azaleas and rhododendrons are still blooming. The pretty deep pink one above was flourishing in the beds outside my doctor's office on Thursday afternoon (more in a sec). It has rained a fair bit this week so I expect the Azalea and Rhododendron gardens near Brighton Dam are muddy and maybe a bit delayed in blooming - usually exceptional in time for Mother's Day. :)

I forgot to share a couple of photos I took at my guild's quilt show week before last. I gave  up taking photos except of things I want to remember for my 'make this!' list. :)

This quilt by Linda K. of my guild excites me (I think she and I might be hidden tribe members as this is not the first thing I've seen of hers I'd like to copy:). I have thought about making this quilt ever since the book first came out but have been cautious about the matter - I'm not sure I have the persistence to make this many small blocks of the same pattern. :)

Linda used fabrics from her extensive Halloween themed stash which I especially love. :) There was another quilt of this design in the show (forget who made it) - but the maker set the blocks horizontally in rows. A different take on the theme. :)

I don't know where this pattern came from (do you?) but I love it. Autumn and pumpkins are among my favorite themes ... and using William Morris prints to do this just caps it off for me. Great idea! Sadly, I neglected to record who made this quilt.

This past Monday was the monthly meeting of Mimi Dietrich's Grad Class at Bear's Paw quilt shop in Towson. Mimi was still out (knee replacement) so we had a good chin wag about the Measure For Measure project for the Folger Shakespeare Library. I worked on my block during the meeting and got the rest of the crazy piecing almost finished (one more triangle block left to add:). Attendance was down a bit (the weather was wet and gray) but we had fun, as always. I bought some more 'leave in' English Paper Piecing templates and a very pretty panel of a gray hawk.

I did go to the evening meeting of Faithful Circle on Monday evening (the first Monday of the month is always a loooooong day with two guild meetings:). We took the hanging sleeves off the Linus Project charity quilts so the quilts could be donated soon. I also delivered the two quilts of my friend Kathy I picked up from the guild show for her as well as the raffle basket she won. :)

Tuesday I took my brother Kevin to lunch at Taco Bell (his choice) and grocery shopping at our local Giant. I enjoy my afternoons with him - nice to have family nearby. Unlike my usual, I went into the condo with him to help put away groceries. I had promised to make him some cinnamon rolls (from a can:) and baked them while I worked on my jigsaw puzzle. At the rate I am finding pieces, it won't be finished before fall. :)

Wednesday I pretty much slept through the day. Was not feeling well - just draggy and sloooow. Probably a result of the weather which was continuing to be gray and dismal.

Thursday afternoon I had an appointment to see a new eye doctor for my every-two-year exam. Well, really he was an old doctor - I went to him for some time and then he moved his offices and I started going to someone else. Now I'm back to him as I figured out where he moved to. :) I like him (Dr. Sirotkin). Got to see the azaleas I pictured at the top of this post (although my image was much blurrier than what my camera saw - dilated eyes you know:).

Today I had thought to go out but it was rainy and cool again. NO ambition at all in me. :P I did some sewing in the middle afternoon and otherwise just laid about and read, trying to stay warm under my quilts. Brrr! I did have a nice FaceTime call with my daughter this evening.

It is supposed to rain quite a bit this weekend and be in the 60s. Not my idea of great May weather. Think I'll stay in and sew!

:) LINDA

Daily Doings

When I went off to search on 'daily life' I had no idea what a rabbit hole I'd fall into! There were any number of images I could have chosen (statistics in daily life, science or chemistry in daily life, many good quotes to ponder:). Getting down to the basics, though, the quote above is my 'brass tacks' saying. 

I keep this blog to be more-or-less a dairy of my life. I am dysgraphic (as they labeled my son in early elementary school) and find handwriting a chore. All the diaries I have ever tried to keep before this blog fell by the wayside after a brief time for this reason. This blog allows me to type (yeah!), share photos, and has been going on since February 2006 ... so I'd say it has been a better platform for my personal history keeping. :)

I find however that I only note the highlights of my time - the things I am making and special events I get involved with. I often forget to record the everyday ideas and actions that make up most of my life. Like cooking dinner with my son ... and housework (what very, very little I actually do) ... and routine grocery shopping ... and my solitaire playing at night before bed ... and various anime shows or video games I watch with my beloved. Chores I have to deal with - like calling the manufacturer of the life-time-warrantied bird feeder the squirrels chewed to bits. Just small joys. :)

This past five days has been one of those too-busy-to-breathe times for which I am deeply grateful. My guild's quilt show gave me a volunteer job for four hours each on three days ... including May the Fourth which was the hard-for-me-to-deal-with first anniversary of my niece Kimmi's death. I have shed many tears over the loss but I can't shed any more right now; I just feel sad and regretful and 'down.' Having to deal with other people (especially quilting friends) was a blessing in many ways!    

Today was a very quiet resting period after three busy days. I got in a nap and some book reading. Cooked dinner. Generally 'laid low' and relaxed. Tomorrow is the regularly scheduled meeting of Mimi Dietrich's Grad Class at Bears Paw quilt shop in Towson, MD. I look forward to seeing my applique friends there.

:) Linda

MidWeek Dithering

When I did a 'midweek' search on images online I found this one - a vintage Sami (reindeer herder) image of father and daughter (?). Do you have certain cultures that you are drawn toward? Maybe due to your family genealogy, maybe you like their iconic designs ... I certainly do. The Sami are one of my favorites. I think I should have been born a nomad. :)

Anyway, this has been a quiet week so far. The weather had been lovely ... 80s and sunny. We did have rain last night - and one thunder clap that woke me up so hard I almost fell out of bed. Scary! I took my brother Kevin out to lunch (Chipotle) and grocery shopping on Tuesday. Two well-spent hours of family time. :)

My 'traditional' quilt guild, Faithful Circle Quilters, here in Columbia is having our bi-annual show this week. I am planning to volunteer in various spots from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I look forward to this every time. :) It's always an excellent show - lots of quilts (350+), good vendors, pretty things. :)

I noticed as I was leaving my brother's condo on  Tuesday afternoon that the azaleas are blooming there, too. Here are some neighbor's houses (through my car's window, sorry about the reflections):

Maryland is so pretty in the spring! We are supposed to get rain for the next three days. I hope it doesn't cut into the attendance at our show! Highlights later.

:) Linda