Fiber and Pulp

Back and Forth

I managed to finish a scarflet I've been crocheting on for the past two weeks and I thought I'd share a photo of it (so you can see that I actually _do_ finish things once in a while:) ... but I don't think this photo of me wearing it shows much of the scarf. :) It's a soft combination of what I call 'mauve', pink and red with a bit of warm gray thrown into the mixture. It's very very warm and I totally love it. I was unsure how the color would look on me (I am an 'autumn' coloring and the pink/gray aren't supposed to be 'me':) ... but I love it. :) For a considerable time, orchid red purple was my favorite 'neutral' color. :) Of coure, I totally forgot to take a photo of the scarf laying out on a table. Grin. It's made with some lovely wool I bought at Cloverhill Yarns (next door to my shop) and a pattern from Ravelry called Snowdrop Shawl.

I have been working on the second version of my shop's Quest quilt for the past week, alternating with finishing up the patchwork from the Improv Log Cabin workshop I took with Jackie Gehring. I so love improv piecing! :) Here are some photos of my results: (the bit that looks bright yellow in these photos is actually a pale apple green)

The other project I've been working on is the 'baby quilt' top using my nine hand embroidered applique Reel blocks:

You might be able to see the blanket stitching (with bright colors of variegate thread) on the bottom two blocks. I am looking forward to quilting this little treasure - I'm trying to resist doing matchstick quilting. :)

Today I said good-bye to one of my two manager (Libbie Rollman) at the shop. We had a small luncheon-with-cake with all the remaining staff members. Libbie has been working for the store longer than I have owned it ... and I think we will all miss her!

:) Linda

Stimulation!

I have been wildly busy the past few days - since Sunday - and have just started to get my 'act' back together. I took two workshops with Jackie Gehring this week. On Sunday I studied Improvisational Stitch-and-Flip and on Tuesday I took Improvisational Log Cabin. Oh, and there was a Trunk Show/Lecture sandwiched in there on Monday evening. :)

I've been following Jackie's blog and her work for about two? three? years. There are several of her quilts that I really like (and one I wish _I_ had made:) ... so I was very happy to be able to take the workshops with her (despite that I did not really expect to learn anything substantial:). What a joy it was to get to spend time with her (and a room full of other students)! And I did learn some things, too. :)

You can see the photos I took during the two 'shops on my flickr page.

The photo at the top of thise page shows a wooly bear catepillar I saw on Tuesday afternoon, crawling its slow way across the parking lot. Poor thing - I wonder if it ever made it to the other side? I am not afraid of 'bugs' - but I did draw the line at picking the thing up with my bare hand and helping it onto the grass (even supposing that I could lean over that far). :)

I got to wear another new pair of earrings the other day - I quite like the way they look:

I know it is hard to tell from the photo - they are made from sterling silver and a green-ish turquoise. :)

I've been working on a small (probably baby) quilt using those hand embroidered blocks from my friend Barbara. Here's how much I've gotten done so far:

This shows the layout of six blocks along the bottom.

Here are the other three, which will be along the top. Pretty soon I'll have the entire top together to show. :) The background print is a very soft blue print with swirly scroll shapes. I worked on it some tonight when my friend Barbara came to sew ... won't be much more that needs doing on it before I can start quilting it. :)

Tomorrow I have to finish the border for my second Quilter's Quest charm square quilt top ... and arrange for the box lunches for our shop's bus trip during Quest.  Never any end to the details of daily life, eh? :)

:) Linda

Life As Usual

Life has calmed down a bit for me ... This patchwork is a round robin flimsy I worked on most of the day on Saturday (it was due to move onward to the next sewist on Sunday:). The assignment this month was to make two borders 4" wide that featured stars. I decided to do applique five pointed stars from a medium gray solid fabric on a background of yellow (two different yellow prints) - shown above on the left and top sides. After I took this photo, Robbyn talked me into putting one more star at what is the bottom left corner on this photo (but I neglected to take a pic of that:).

Sunday was the monthly meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild and I was glad to be able to attend (thanks to my willing co-worker, Alice, who held 'down' the sales floor without me:). This group has happy, noisy meetings with oodles of great show & tell. :) I got to hand in the Wagon Wheel/cowboy quilt I made - and to see about half a dozen other late baby quilts from other members. :) Two different people brought in free-to-a-good-home fabrics/patterns/magazines to give away and I helped myself to a nice piece of red plaid wool and several issues of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. 

One of the things I am trying to do as I diet/lose weight is to re-train myself to stop using food as a reward. I bought two pairs of earrings for myself from The Silver Heron on Saturday evening (I had to go to Columbia Mall to get pick up a set of earphones I ordered at the Apple Store:). Here is a photo of my ear with one of the pairs - not my best 'side' to photo, but I think you can see the earring clearly. :)

I haven't worn dangle earrings for years - I had forgotten how much I enjoy feeling them with their tiny swing at my lobes...they make me feel more feminine, somehow. :)

Jolene Mosley gave me a lovely lace shawl that she knit and I decided to try to take a photo of it - I am standing in front of the large mirror in the staff bathroom at my shop (hence the ironing board on the back wall:).

As usual, the photo is a bitt blurry - too much hand shake, but it can't be helped. (sigh)

Today I managed to sew together the rows of blocks for the second of my Quest quilts and chose a green inner-border print. Tuesday and Wednesday I am OFF (love my days off!:) ... and Thursday I have to attend an owners' meeting in Mt. Airy at Patches Sewing/Quilting. My car is still in the shop, so Skip and I debated different ways for me to manage to drive there - he wants to save money so I think he will stay home and let me use our one working car...I suggested that I could rent a car for the day. LOL!

:) Linda

Charity

 

This is the back of a charity 'baby' quilt I just finished. Here is the front:

Sorry about the blurring in this photo - I am still dealing with intentional tremors in my hands. Even though the camera tells me the object is in focus, I guess my hands shake too much to be compensated for. Sigh.

The Dresden Plate on the front of this quilt is fairly large (22" across). It comes from an antique quilt top that Kathy Schwabeland divided and gave out at a meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild several months ago. The block reminded me of a wagon wheel, especially with the medium red print that was framing it - the print looks like lassos to me. :) 

I decided to make a little boy person quilt with my block - hence the Cowboy/Cowgirl and bandana prints on the back. :) I had Daria Phair quilt it for me and just finished binding it today. I plan to give it to our charity project, the East Baltimore Head Start program. :)

A FINISH, no matter how small, is GREAT!! :) Now to get back to my preparations for Quilter's Quest!

:) Linda

Jiggety Jog!

When I was a really tiny girlie, my Grandma used to give me a ride on her bouncing foot singing - 'Home again, home again, Jiggety Jog!' I always giggled like a loon when she did that - I guess little babies are predictable that way. :)

Today I finally got back to my store after 15 days away ... and it felt a bit like riding the bouncer. :) I have a GREAT staff and they really came through while I was gone (whew!). Now I get to figure out where all the dangling threads (real _and_ metaphorical) belong and try to weave it all together into reality again. :)

The photo at the top of this post was a sight I saw while driving down the main street of Lancaster, Ohio (on my way to the hospital where my Mom was being helped). There was a really tall old tree in front of a large pink stucco(?) mansion - and as I was driving up the street the man you see above was cavorting through the tree, aided by several guy lines to a large crane, cutting off branches. Big crew on the ground catching the bits he cut off and then grinding them up. Quite a show! By the late afternoon when I drove back the other way, the tree and its stump were completely gone and there was just a few small piles of sawdust by the curb. :) Pretty good day's work, I'd say! :)

I did actually manage to visit a quilt shop while I was in Ohio. The area where Mom lives is in southeastern Ohio - very, very rural. I don't actually know the population of the county she lives in ... but I would be willing to wager (a very small bet) that it and the two contiguous counties I passed through every day on my drive to and from the hospital have a lower population than the village I live in Columbia, MD (and there are ten? twelve? villages in Columbia of the same or larger size:).

Lots of up and down windy roads. I was surprised when I saw a green 'official' road sign announcing the Pumpkin Ridge Quilt Shop along my way! So, one day (day ten maybe?) I decided to stop and check this shop out. I'm glad I did! :)

Right across the highway from the Vinton County airport is Pumpkin Ridge Quilt Shop. Nice place - lots of new fabrics, great patterns, the latest tools and gadgets. :) Very nice lady and her husband operating it from a large-ish barn looking structure. The fabrics she carried are what I would term American mainstream - very few 'modern' bolts, only a few batiks, but lots of beautiful colors and plenty of enticing patterns. I bought two panels of a beautiful floral print in soft colors and some go-withs from that collection ... as well as a truly funny comic-book-style print featuring Quilt Girl (to share with my staff). :) Well worth the stop!

I made the trip back and forth from the hospital with Mom to my Aunt Jean's house twenty times so I got pretty familiar with the scenery. One thing I noticed a lot was the number of abandoned farm lots and buildings. Here is one example:

This is a pretty typical old no-longer-inhabited dwelling. There were a number of others I saw that were just piles of lumber - some large piles that were probably barns, some smaller piles that were likely outbuildings or houses. Eventually I might do some kind of art quilt series about those places. 

Just like the last time I traveled west-ward, I kept seeing story seeds all around me - the names of roads and rivers (Goat Run, Hocking River), of farms (Stonehouse, Stifle Ranch) ... stories everywhere. Not necessarily riveting stop-the-presses stories, but authentic tales of making a life I think. :)

My husband managed to mangle my car while I was away (he has to pay to fix it - which the dealer told him would be around $2600 this morning; still cheaper than buying a new car:) ... so I will be wheel-less and dependant on others for a ride for the next few days. Sigh!

:) Linda

PS Went to my weigh-in this afternoon. I gained 8 pounds while I was away - back to focusing on my diet. Was hard to do on institutional food!

Endless

I have been in Ohio since last Tuesday (9/25). I came to take my Mom to her first appointment with an arthritis specialist (I have inherited my arthritis issues from my Mom:). I planned to drive to Mom's farm in southeastern Ohio on Tuesday, see the doctor on Wednesday and then drive back to MD on Friday or Saturday.

I am still here in Ohio, becoming very well acquainted with the 50+ mile route between Lancaster (where the hospital is) to Union Ridge (where my Aunt Jean lives). The weather has been lovely and the trees are just beginning to be touched with fall's paintbrush. My Mom has been very sick ... And had her gall bladder taken out yesterday. Hopefully that will put a stop to the current streak of illness!!

I have seen a half-dozen barn quilt signs but have been unable to photograph ant of them. The narrow country roads I am traveling have no shoulders to idle on for taking photos ... And the sight lines are so short, with all the rolling twists in the roads, that I haven't dared just stop in the lane.

The countryside here is lovely. But I can see the evidence of old abandoned farms as well as more prosperous modern ones (hence the photo I share). The very nature of farming has changed over the past hundred years! Small family farms are rare here.

I am hoping that Mom will continue to improve enough to be released tomorrow or the next day. I am beginning to miss my own bed and things. :)

Linda