Fiber and Pulp

Hah!

Well, I beat it. Big grins! :) I drafted my own template (don't know why the one sent didn't work - they are almost identical) .... starched the fabrics, cut carefully, sewed with my #57 Patchwork Foot ... and got a winner. Well, at least I got a 32 blade Dresden Plate of the specified color arrangement that lays flat and tidy. 

Tomorrow morning I will applique it to the allotted background fabric and mail it off to its Daddy. Grin.

I have Wool Club in the afternoon at Springwater Designs ... Faithful Circle guild meeting in the evening ... and gotta pack 'cause I'm leaving on Tuesday morning to see my sweet grandson (and my daughter and son-in-law, of course:). I hear he now smiles back - gotta get some of that for myself. :)

Also going to swing by Kansas and visit my niece Amy, her family, my other three nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews ... family is wonderful. 

:) Linda

Spring?

The big problem with not writing here for a while is that I have so much to catch up with. :) Spring is slowly, sloooowly becoming a reality here in Maryland. (sigh!) The crocus above were flowering in my Mom's front yard in southeastern Ohio when I was there last week. I have snowdrops flowering in one corner of my yard here in Columbia, but no crocus. Maybe the winter killed them? The daffodils are about six inches tall by my front step and in bud ... but no blooms, yet.

I spent most of last week in Ohio, dealing with things for estate settling - searching for the land survey that my Dad supposedly had done in the mid 80's, before he bought the small farm we have on the market now. NO luck there - I think we may have to pay for a new survey. (sigh) Also succeeded in finding the key for the storage unit Mom has been paying for each month all these years (took two round trips and much fussing with oil on the lock and such) ... maybe four hours or so of effort but we did find and use the key to get in (security lock on the unit would have been hard to remove if we didn't find the key!).

The final review and completion of the probate efforts is scheduled for late April. I have to do some paperwork yet to ammend the record (to show things I've paid for since last December when the last recording was made). Hope it all gets done ok!

As I was doing my land survey detective work, I found a new-to-me barn quilt in the backroads of Jackson County, Ohio:

I should have had the good sense to note the address but I didn't - driving was taking most of my attention (yes, I did pull to the shoulder to take this photo:).

 

I took a wrong turn on my way home from Ohio so got to photo some extra bridges this trip. :) Bridges - I'm pondering quilt designs to play with these structures:

Interesting how varied they are in material and design. :)

 

I did manage to go to the Baltimore Heritage Quilt Expo (annual show) last Saturday (with my friends Patty and Barbara) -- even though I did not go to the AQS show in Lancaster, PA (didn't think I had enough walking endurance for that one). Saw a lot of really nice quilts at the Expo! I haven't been in several years so it was a treat to see so many people I know - former customers, former employes, friends. :)

Here are some of the quilts I enjoyed (by no means all of the great quilts I saw!):

I admire the gilding work on this heron - lovely use of patterning!

This is a close-up of a quilt with lots of surface design and thread work - and my favorite subject, too. :)

 

'Fireflys' - beautiful imagery and color palette.

 

Fibonacci and other numbers - this one appeals to the statistical aesthetics and science parts of me. :)

I've always liked 'jar' quilts - I've seen fabric used that features bugs, food, sewing notions - but I had never seen this use of different sizes of jars. Nifty. :) Someday I'll make one of these quilts - probably long, long after everyone else had quit. :)

 

My former staff did not get together during this long winter so when we did meet last week (on Wednesday, at Peace-a-Pizza in Catonsville), we had lots to talk about and some GREAT show and tell. :) My apologies up front for the photos  - was using my iPhone indoors and backlit at that. :P

Alice I. has been learning English Paper Piecing at Springwater Designs quilt shop. Alice loves mid-19th century reproduction prints and she's working on the embroidery to border this pretty GFlower. :) I 'helped' her find some buttons for flowers after lunch during a visit to The Stitching Post. :)

Alice M. made a nifty portrait quilt of her uncle? who passed away last year. I loved her clever use of fabrics and the patchwork background. She has also been expanding her fabric dyeing skills with thickened dye painting:

Also some more beautiful shibori immersion dyeing:

Daria P. finished the top of a star quilt for her Star Wars loving spouse - very apt. :)

Libbie R. is recovering from her health issues and has managed to start back sewing (you can appreciate how much trouble this was for her when I tell you that she will be having cataract surgery soon). Libbie is a supreme precision sewist, so this is a huge and gratifying step in recovery for her! :)

Patty S., energizer bunny sewist that she is, had lots to show us (not all of which I got pictures of - this quilt was gorgeous, sorry it is out of focus!).

This is Patty's version of the Grand Illusion quilt - she made a smaller quilt than most and used the extra parts she sewed to do several baby quilts.

This is the upper section of a queen-sized rainbow colored quilt Patty is making for the St. Louis church raffle (for 2016?) - I LOVE the positive/negative use of color. :)

Robbyn R. is finally getting her Baltimore album quilt back under production. This is her "New York" block, in honor of her state of birth. 

This is the "D.C." block, for her husband's place of birth. 

This is her "Marriage" block - the paper labels show where/what she will ink once the applique is complete.

Robbyn is an excellent hand quilter (as well as excellent hand appliquer, as you can see:) - she is now teaching hand quilting at Cottonseed Glory in Annapolis. The photo above is a close-up shot of her class sample. She is also teaching basic Baltimore applique, I _think_.

Of course, I took my three Millefiore quilt rosettes to show ... and we all shared around photos of grandchildren. So much fun to chatter and catch up! :)

 

I have been trying to work on a block for a community quilt that Thomas Knauer is coordinating and I am abashed to admit that I am having troubles with it. Sigh! The block is a large 32-blade Dresden Plate ... something is wrong with what I've done (I'm pretty sure the mistake(s) are mine and not that of the original pattern) ... I am going to have to draft my own templates 'cause I think there is something 'off' with my printing out of the given templates ... even with careful cutting (of well-starched fabric) and sewing, my half-circle _isn't_:

I share this just to show you that even experienced quilters can have problems with their skills. Sigh! I have to get back to making this today as I now have more pressing items to work on.

 

I saw a quilt at my 'traditional' guild's meeting on Thursday morning that I really liked - don't know how I missed knowing about this design, called Rose Dream, but there it is:

Great amounts of fussy cutting opportunity with this design! :) I'm officially putting this one my want-to-make list. :)

 

 

The fabric kit for the Gravity block of the month quilt I am going to teach at Springwater Designs FINALLY came  and I have to get cracking on making that! :)

 The next few days will be busy for me - have to get started on my Gravity sewing, have to finish the Dresden Plate block and have to make a name tag for the swap in my 'modern' guild ... before packing up and leaving for Wisconsin/Kansas on Tuesday. Wish me luck!!

 

:) Linda

Spring?

When my alarm went off this morning, I woke up laughing. I was dreaming that I lived in a tiny house/trailer pulled by four elephants ... and I needed to find a place to feed the elephants. Neighbor's grass would not do (neighbors? in the trailer camp?:) so I had to take the four of them on a long meandering walk to find the local park. :) I should be so lucky. :)

I managed to get a fair bit of sewing done over the weekend. Saturday my friends Patty and Barbara and I went to the Baltimore Heritage Quilt Guild's annual Quilt Expo in Towson, MD. So much fun! Nothing like a wonderful local guild where I know lots of folks. :) I saw two of my employees as well as many favorite former customers. Also some very nice quilts!

It was raining all the way up and back ... and gray, gray, gray. No wonder I spent time that afternoon sewing on the bowtie baby quilt - lots of bright happy color there!

I think you can see the narrow gray print sashing strips I sewed in between the vertical zigzag rows of bows? I thought the rows needed a little bit of separation to show off the pretty colors of ties. :) Today in the afternoon I went to Springwater Designs and bought a nice piece of fabric for the back (I had several pieces in my stash big enough ... but none that seemed pretty enough to me:). I will baste and quilt the piece when I get back from Ohio later this week (even made the binding - but Jan promised to put it on for me:).

I also worked on finishing my rosette #3 for the Millefiore quilt:

Sunday afternoon was Sew & Tell monthly meeting. I took my three rosettes along to work with - I managed to get the largest (first) one basted for quilting ... and took out a lot of glue-basted papers from the other two. Today I managed to machine quilt the first rosette ... but the light was not good enough for me to get a decent enough photo of that to show off the quilting. I am sooooo enjoying the color play with these motifs! :)

I also unpacked and took a look at the next top I have to work on for my traditional guild's round robin:

This is a really happy piece (no surprise - the theme fabric is that yellow print you see in the stars). My assignment is to add a border that has at least three colors of fabric and curves/circles. Gonna be a challenge to keep it from getting too busy! I _think_ I'm going to applique solid colored circles or half-circles onto the theme print ... but I'm letting that compost in my back-brain for now. :)

I took my husband's car to the auto body place this morning and got the rental car I will use meanwhile. They gave me a bright red sedan. Sigh. I really do not care for red as a car color. (shrug) Guess I won't lose it in the parking lot. :P

Tomorrow I have to get up early and drive to southeast Ohio to see my brothers and tackle this land sale problem. I have to find the farm survey my Dad paid to have made when he bought the Wilkesville property ... either in my Mom's papers or maybe at the survey company. If not, we have to pay to resurvey the farm. :P I also have to go take a look at the storage unit my Mom has been paying for all these years and see what is actually inside the thing .... maybe have to pay for a couple months' rent? Will see, I guess. I hope to get a start on sorting through Mom's personal effects, too (clothes, jewelry, etc).

I hope to be home by Friday evening - the modern guild is having a sew-in on Saturday to celebrate National Quilting Day and I'm in charge. :) I will most likely be quilting the baby bows.

:) Linda

More Hexies and Sunshine

This little bit of Winnie the Pooh always cracks me up. :) A quilting friend posted it on FB which reminded me again of the aptness of the story. :) No earthquakes here ... but we got sunshine yesterday _and_ today:

This is the view yesterday in the early afternoon, out my living room window. As you can see, my house leaks warmth - creating the energy to make those icicles. Sunshine made them sparkle. Sure hope they didn't represent an ice dam in the works, shoving water up under our shingles. :)

I spent most of yesterday and part of today sewing on rosette #3 for my Millefiore quilt. It has been a voyage of discovery - the way I like best to work. I have a project box of fabrics (mostly fat quarters with a few half yards) from which I draw whatever grabs my interest as I am working the rounds. Here is how my rosette looked at the end of yesterday:

Sometimes I get kind of silly as I am sewing (after all, I do have to keep myself entertained, right?:). Here is how those bright outer hex units looked as I was making them - I think they look like a shuttle craft docking with freight modules:

When I had attached these units, I realized that I could create a large flower with the alternate units, if I colored them correctly.

 

Can you see where this is going? Here's the result, by the end of today's sewing:

I am debating whether to replace the six yellow diamonds on the outside of those large pink petal shapes ... maybe with green? That would confine the yellow to the inside of the large pink petals and make a more obvious echo for the central yellow flower. :)

I got tired of sewing around 7:30 p.m. and I haven't looked at the rest of the design very carefully. I know there are parts of at least two more rounds. I get so excited to see what fun I can have next! :) I do admit that I'm easy to please. :)

I also finished the Snowdrop scarf I have been crocheting yesterday and managed to block it today. I decided to try Barbara's suggestion and took it outside to stage some photos. The yarn I used for this was a ball of Zauberwolle in 'ombre' - the colors morph as you cross the scarf and I _really_ like the results:

I got to wear it today when I went out in the early afternoon to run errands. Unfortunately, one errand had an unpleasant result - a gentleman backed into my car as I was leaving the Home Depot parking lot (he was very obviously at fault - I doubt if he even looked before he backed out 'cause I was big as life and bright blue). Sigh. More phone calls. :P

I did accomplish all my chores, though. Managed to talk to my daughter Eva twice this afternoon, via Face Time. Baby O is looking cuter than ever and Eva is having fun creating her own shawl pattern with the Fibonacci series. I can't wait to see the results. :)

Tomorrow is the monthly meeting of the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild - I am soooo looking forward to it!

:) Linda

 

Snow Day, Go Day

This was the view out my front window this morning when I went downstairs for breakfast. Can you tell it is still snowing? It has been snowing all day ... not sure how much accumulation we have so far, but the height of the new snow is even with my front step. :)

As is traditional here in Maryland, snow days mean stay-at-home-and-play days. :) So, I sewed all day today. Happy me!

Here's the view out my living room window:

Closest to us is the under-eaves part of the yard space (you can tell, the snow is shallower:). These bushes generally provide cover for lots of small birds. I went out right after I took this photo and spread some black oil sunflower seed around on our front step and under the eaves (to the right of this photo) - way, way too much snow to slog off away from the house to spread seed. :)

Most of what I worked on today was the start of rosette #3 for my Millefiore quilt:

As you can see, it is nothing like perfect...but I'm happy with it. :) I'll add more pink and orange and green in the next round.

I also managed to wash dishes and watch several episodes of Walking Dead today. I am watching WD on Netflix, starting from the beginning. I hate to come into a series in the middle. I did skip the last three episodes in season 2 - got really bored of the town's weasely commander. I'll go back and watch those parts of the story later, when my tolerance for bombast has increased. LOL.

Likely to be home tomorrow, too. Doubt they'll get around to plowing our little cul-de-sac until late in the day (it's still snowing out as I write this). Skip is enjoying his time off by playing new computer games.

:) Linda

Yet More Gray

Yesterday I had an scheduled appointment with my cardiologist (Dr. Lily Barouch of Johns Hopkins Cardiology). I quite like her - she is a very good doctor. Not just because she knows her 'stuff' about hearts and physical things but because she involves herself in the whole patient.

The last time I saw her was just as I was closing my store, so she was interested in how 'retirement' was going, how my life situation has changed. We talked a bit about my displacement behaviour (that's how I see much of what I am doing right now - avoidance of what I _should_ be doing which is cleaning and decorating my house)...and she had some really excellent ideas about how I might tackle the problem in ways that would work for me. :) Very inspiring.

In addition, she decided to send me for a routine echocardiogram since it has been four years since I had one. She also changed the dosage on one of my blood pressure meds since it doesn't appear to be working very well. (sigh) 

Lately I am much more concerned with my arthritis issues than my (in my mind) non-existent heart problems. I am having quite a bit of trouble with my neck and 'pinched' nerves - I have an almost constant low-level head ache and my arms/hands are going numb from time to time, depending on how I sit. :P Gotta ask my GP about that next time I see him. As I said, it's allatime somethin'. :P

The weather had been gray and gloomy again today - and wet. We've had cold rain, sometimes freezing, most of the day. It is supposed to transition to snow sometime in the middle of the night with a possible accumulation of 8" or so. March already!!

The positive side of the weather is that I did not have to go out today and was very happy about it. :) I spent my day sewing, eating, petting my cats, and sewing some more. With some tv watching in between. At the top of this post you can see the two Victoria's Star blocks I made for Cat in the Scrappy Bee with BMQG. She asked for green and white blocks so I chose a variety of greens. Mostly yellow greens 'cause those are my favorites. :)

The pattern was done with foundations and the outside grain lines actually are pretty much straight. I decided to starch the blocks anyway, after I removed the papers, because that should keep them stable and non-stretchy. Hope Cat doesn't mind. :)

The rest of the day I worked on making a border for my Faithful Circle round robin piece. The project came to me with four blocks set on point and arranged into a runner length. My assignment was to make a 5" border using triangles and more than three fabrics. I don't have a space large enough to photo the whole thing (and was _not_ going to try to take some one else's top outdoors to take pictures in this weather:) ... so here is the left and right half:

It took me a chunk of yesterday and a couple of hours today to make and attach the borders. I am so naive sometimes. I measured and measured and calculated carefully ... and even so, when I got to the sewing on part, my border didn't fit correctly. One short end of this piece is longer than the other so the border fitted fine at one end and was too short by 3/4" at the other end. Major sigh! I decided to just make it wider by adding another piece of the theme fabric (that sunflower batik):

You can see where I split the big central triangle above. Same with the long borders ... my calculations failed somewhere and the triangle units I made came out slightly wrong sized so that I had a smaller one at each end on opposite corners:

See the small purple triangle at the lower right above? There is a similarly small yellow triangle at the opposite end corner. Sigh.

I spent a lot of time and money, actually, making this border and so I decided, after some thought, to leave it as it is. I like the way the five colors I chose worked - I think the colors look good with the body of the piece (and I chose them from the theme sunflower batik so they match well). I think the triangles generally perk up the runner and give it some 'oomph'. So I hope the owner won't be too unhappy with my unbalanced solution to the border. Sigh. I just failed to take into account how many variations come up with so many people working on a single project. At least it is flat and smooth (despite my photos of it draped over my sofa:).

I also went back to gathering fabrics for the Income Inequality project - I got the block background fabric from Thomas K. I also got the papers for my rosette #3 for the Millifiore, which is what I want to work on tomorrow. Skip will probably be home all day as he just saw that Goddard has declared a code red (center is closed due to weather) already due to the predicted snow accumulation.

:) Linda

 

Quick Notes

 

Today was sunny and warm-ish (for recently) at about 38-40 degrees F. I managed to get myself up and showered and dressed, eat breakfast and such, well before time to go to Grad Class. Unfortunately, when I sat down to read my email with my last few minutes, I discovered that the meeting had been cancelled. Apparently the north side of Baltimore got a fair bit of ice/snow last night. Sigh.

So, I took myself downstairs and sat on the sofa to read the headlines on my iPhone (I generally read the BBC news ap - I find it generally less slanted than US news sources ... .or, at least, the slant the BBC might have makes no sense or difference to me in the US:). Next thing I knew, my son was waking me up - I had falled back to sleep (no surprise there!) and was happily snoring with my elderly lady cat on my lap. :)

I did go out in the early afternoon. Went shopping at Walgreens for household stuff and then dropped by Springwater Designs to get fabrics for the round robin border. I ended up choosing five batik fat quarters in colors to coordinate with the theme fabric (this round's project is made with all batiks). The sunshine was lovely and the temperatures weren't too bad - the snow was melting, anyway. :)

I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening making my border subunits. I got half of them trimmed to size before I got too tired to be careful. Tomorrow I will trim the other half and sew the border together. With any luck, I'll get it attached to the body of the project so I can take a photo.

I have to go out to an appointment with my cardiologist in the morning - hope I can get up at a reasonable time with as much ease as I managed this morning. Big grin!

:) Linda

Sewing In

Sure is a good thing I enjoyed the sunshine yesterday and Friday 'cause there wasn't any today. :) We got about an inch of snow before early afternoon and then freezing rain and drizzle the rest of the day. Great day to stay in and sew!

I managed to make one of my two blocks for Cat for the February (due in March) scrappy Bee in the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild. Brat chose a design called Victoria's Star and provided a link for foundations to make it with green and white fabrics. I got one made (had some issues getting accurate sized print outs but finally managed that, with some help from my Wizard spouse:).

Cat didn't specify what kind of green to use, so I went with my favorites. :) The white I chose is glow-in-the-dark but I doubt she will notice that. Grin. Gotta make another one tomorrow (I forgot I needed to make two when I was sewing or I'd have done it then). I hope I can find four other greens in my pile easily - it _is_ supposed to be scrappy. :)

I also started working on the Income Inequality project from Thomas Knauer. He is working on two group quilt designs right now and I chose the I.I. one - this is an issue that I feel sympathy with...he has chosen a large (20"?) Dresden plate design for this quilt and I am making block 16 (lowest right corner block) - each block is supposed to represent a different country but I haven't heard which one my block is, yet. I do have the chart showing what colors each of the 20 blades needs to be and the templates. I made a reinforced paper template for myself for the plate blade and the center circle. I also chose my one, lone green fabric. Now I have to find 16 blue, 3 purple, 5 red and 7 orange prints (each blade is to be different). Rummage, rummage.... :)

Tomorrow is Mimi Dietrich's Grad Class at Bear's Paw Fabrics in Towson ... if the weather cooperates. I haven't looked at the forecast and I need to touch base with my friend Barbara, who usually drives, to see whether/when we are going. If we get there, I will take my Faithful Circle round robin project with me to buy the border fabrics (the piece is made of lovely batiks - what a wonderful opportunity to shop:).

:) Linda