Fiber and Pulp

More Spooks

You might recognize this as a sample of the patchwork bats hanging I made last year for Halloween (still one of my favorite makes:). As part of the Halloweenie Mini Swap on Instagram, participants were to make up a 'mosaic' of favorite designs (to give their partners some hints as to what they like). These bats were one of my choices - I did not make a 'mosaic' image for mine but rather uploaded a bunch of images to look at serially on IG. I don't know _how_ to make a mosaic and didn't bother to figure it out. :) Here are the rest of my choices:

 

I think this one must have some of those tiny lights worked into it? I adore jack-o-lanterns, even hanging in trees. :)

 

This is the essence of Halloween to me - spooky dusk, small kids in costumes, a certain amount of pleasurable fear.:)

I particularly like the ghosty border and the assorted scary trees on this one ... but what's not to like? :)

Love the cleverly shaped Dresden Plate block and the fussy cut coffin inhabitants.

That skellie in the spiffy hat makes me giggle.

 

I think this is elegant and somehow ancient at the same time. Nice work!

This is probably my all-time favorite. I have ambitions to make something similar. (Notice the coffin plate block?)

This design always makes me giggle. We sold many, many copies of this pattern in my shop.

I went on sewing batty blocks the last three days. Sometimes one a day, sometimes more. I'm having a barrel of fun with this. :) Procraftination indeed!

When I get twitchy about too many matching corners and points, I start another foundation pieced block. Here I got carried away with a spider designed by Linda Worland of Paper Panache (and available free):

If you look carefully you will see that I did some fussy cutting to create the spider's thorax instead of piecing the patchwork that Linda designed. :) I love me those pointy spidery legs. :)

I also started a beautiful bat; a similar one is featured in that awesome quilt above (the one with the coffin plate:). I only got half a bat pieced - I am eager to finish this tomorrow (I ran out of sewjo halfway through - I can only tolerate sitting and sewing for so long at a time:)

As you can probably tell, I'm enjoying busy background prints with lots of texts in the project. :) I will  likely have to use some plain fabric squares in my finished mini or the thing will send your eyes to outer space with the sensory overload. LOL.

:) Linda

PS. Linking up with Freemotion by the River. Also with Let's Bee Social.

 

 

Retired?

I've been coasting all week since my several days outing last week. I've been ignoring my housework for the most part and just playing games alternating with sewing. I guess I'm still having trouble balancing my life now that I'm not business-goal-oriented any more. I never thought I would have this problem - I'm pretty much a process person and I've spent many years being self-governed (well, as self timing as one can be as a research scientist and a stay at home mother:) ...  but I find myself rattling around the house trying to achieve a feeling of accomplishment while at the same time being lazy. LOL! Not a productive combination. :)

My sewing this week has been completely directed by thoughts of Halloween. When  I was at Crazy Cousin on our shopping trip last Saturday, I picked up a package of Moda Cupcake Recipe papers and some charm packs of Halloween prints. I've been playing with those this week, having fun remembering my foundation piecing background. Back in the early 90's, I wrote four books with Jodie Davis about foundation piecing:

     

I like to think these were great books - they came out fairly early in the popularity of foundation piecing and I think my approach had some impact on the marketplace. :) I've moved on since then to other kinds of patchwork but, since I developed my f.p. skills by making a zillion mistakes and figuring out fixes, the lessons have stuck to me. :)

Here are the blocks I made with my Halloween prints so far. Uh, I should mention that (besides the fact that I love the holiday:) what made me get onto this theme was that I signed up for the 2017 Halloweenie Mini Swap on Instagram. :) 

As I hope you can see, these two blocks are positive/negative constructions using my Cupcake Recipe Papers. I was impressed with the ease of use - the same pattern will make at least three different block designs (probably more if you experiment). Each page makes one half a block and they are quick and accurate to make. Easy to make but interesting construction - fun! :)

Since I'm still playing with the whole concept, I decided to try two foundation pieced Halloween designs I  bought from the Craftsy  shop of Janeen van Niekerk (Quilt Art Designs). I've admired her designs for some time and own several. :)

I resized the patterns from Janeen's originals, making them smaller to match the roughly 6" square (finished) size of my cupcake blocks. That made some of the pieces really, really tiny and fiddly. Sigh. If you embiggen the cat block by clicking on it, you  might be able to tell that she has two ears and isn't wearing a pointy gnome-style hat (I chose a section of the background print that was too close in value:). I've been thinking of doing some embroidery to outline the hat, though, since a dressed up cat tickles my Halloween fancy. :)

I'm pleased with the way the two blocks came out, even though there were some grumpy words muttered in the making. LOL.

Monday afternoon was the monthly session of Wool Club at Springwater Designs, my local quilt shop. I enjoy this group of people a LOT and look forward to every session. Carrie who is the current moderator is a fun leader, too. While I was in the shop, I bought some more 'Halloween' fabrics (including the background print of my cat block) and another set of Cupcake recipe papers. I had a real laugh when I got home and discovered that it was the same set as I bought at Crazy Cousin. So much for my memory! 

The IG swap is supposed to be a 24" square mini-quilt. Since each of the cupcake blocks finishes 6" square, that could be accomplished by a four by four block array. I thought it might be fun to throw in some of those foundation pieced theme blocks for variety which is what led me off at a tangent with my sewing. :) I'm pondering what other two or so to make, now, so there is more Halloween sewing in the forecast for me.

:) Linda

Row by Row Safari

Saturday I had a  big day out with friends - Barbara, Patty and Caren. We went Row by Row adventuring to southern Maryland and eastern Virginia (see maps above) and hit five different quilt shops along the way. :) Caren had never been to any of them and there were three I had not visited, either. It was another hot, hot day (which did make it feel like I imagine an African safari might be like, though the geography was vastly different:).

We started at 8 a.m. (o'dark thirty in my book!) because our first stop was at Calvert Quilt shop which is almost two hours south of us here in Columbia. :) I had never been there before. It is a funny little shop - half a train store, half quilting. Clearly the owner husband and wife team decided to address their own hobbies full time. :) The place has a very good assortment of mainstream fabrics crammed into a pretty tight space. They were uber-friendly, too, but the service was slow. I would be, too, I guess, these days. :) Here's what I bought:

Those batiks were only two of a really good array - hard to focus, for me. :) The one on the bottom has a color palette that appeals to me so I bought enough to remind me to make a quilt like that.  The Soft Fuse is a good product with a light hand after fusing (very similar to Misty Fuse) - in this packaging, it is cut into computer sized sheets so you can print your pattern right onto it if you want. I just need to be able to find and use it!

The weather report had called for roaming thunderstorms in the area but we had blue skies and a surprising amount of traffic all day. Not sure where everyone else was going. :)

From Calvert, we drove into Charles County to Michelle's Quilts in Hughesville. Again, new to me. Michelle was incredibly friendly and chatty - I enjoyed meeting her. The shop is large but not very well laid out, with a whole central section taken up by the long arm machines she sells. I did find plenty of goodies to buy, but again, the service was slooooow as there was only Michelle to wait on us all. :)

That black and yellow piece at the very top is a Maryland flag scarf. I bought one for my daughter last year and was pleased to find another one for myself. :) I hope to use the Double Gear pattern to make a new cosmetics travel bag for myself (there was a really good array of bag patterns in the shop). The paintbrush print at the bottom is one I've admired several times before but finally fell off the fence to buy - this is new color palette to me and I think I will made slipcovers for my sewing chair with it. :)

By the time we finished at Michelle's, we were getting hungry. Our next stop was nearby at Material Girls in La Plata ... but we went for lunch first. In the same building as MG is Apple Spice Junction cafe; I've eaten here before and the food is always good. I had a box lunch with a Chicken Pear wrap, fresh fruit and a chocolate chip cookie. YUM! :)

Material Girls is one of my favorite quilt shops (I bought my Bernina from them and take it for spa treatments from their technician). The three owners (mom, Robin, and two daughters, Wendy and Amy) are all sweet natured, hard working women whom I feel privileged to know. :) The shop itself is quite large and well laid out with great lighting. LOTS of great fabrics, patterns, classes. What can I say? When I owned a shop, I was grateful that they weren't near my location. Chuckle. I did restrain myself with buying here (on this trip:):

The reason for the restraint is that box at the lower right labeled #72 - it's Bernina's new ruler foot and cost me $90. :) I have wanted one ever since I heard that B was developing one and I'm happy to have gotten it (was actually on my shopping list for the day:). The white background print at the top of the photo features Mah Jong tiles - you may not know that I love to play Mah Jong, the Chinese or Japanese versions rather than the American one. I learned years ago and have played in several tournaments, placing is four or five and winning one. :) Mah Jong is to China what Poker is to the U.S. so maybe I shouldn't boast. LOL. The red print on the left is going to be added to my 'science' fabric pile since it shows DNA strands (remember me, the geneticist?:).

After we left La Plata, we crossed over into eastern Virginia and went to The Crazy Cousin in Fredericksburg. Happy sighs! This is another great shop that I wish _was_ closer to us because I'd be a steady customer. :) The place has doubled in size since the last time I was there and is easy to get lost inside of ... saw lotsa great things I'd have bought if I had all the money in the world (and all the time to be quilting!:). Here's what I did buy:

I actually bought their RbR kit - the pattern is shown at the very top of this photo in black and white. It features an assortment of cute animals riding bicycles. :) I bought some blue fabric charms to use on my 365 quilt (which I am wanting to start; I have decided on a blue and cream palette) ... some Halloween prints to use in my IG swap ... and a cool panel print about astronomy that I might make up for my sweetheart. :) So much to see and do!

There is another small shop (a sewing and vacuum cleaner store) in Fredericksburg which we also hit (since we were in the area). It was small but friendly and I was too tired to buy anything by then. We decided to eat supper at the nearby Texas Roadhouse .... which was incredibly crowded and noisy (in a very happy way:). I had pulled pork with sides of baked sweet potato and corn. Very satisfying. :)

By the time we paid up and left the Roadhouse, the sky was getting dark and the wind was picking up. Patty wanted to stop at Tuesday Morning just down the road and when we got there, the thunder and lightning started up pretty quickly. I had stayed in the car to read a book but Barbara came out to fetch me pretty quickly because the local weather was warning of tornado activity. The two folks working in the shop were happy to keep us busy looking at goodies and chatting while booming loud thunder and heavy rain rocked the building. I managed to find some inexpensive stencils to use for my art journal:

The other three of us shopped happily, too. :) We must have been there for almost an hour before the rain slowed down enough to make us feel safe to go out on the highway. Sadly, the precipitation did not cool off the air, it just added to the humidity. Our drive back home was long-ish but calm. Boy did the a/c in my house feel good when I stepped inside! 

:) Linda

 PS Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Quilt Odyssey '17

On Thursday, my friends Barbara, Patty and I drove up to Hershey PA for the annual Quilt Odyssey show which was held in the Hershey Lodge. The weather was hot, hot - what  better time to go indoors to see beautiful quilts? :) I took some not-so-random photos of quilts I liked ... but didn't take notes about whose they were. If one of these photos is your quilt and you object to me showing it on my blog, please email me and I promise to apologize and take it down, ok? :)

The one above is a pretty recognizable 'slash and stack' but I like the colors - also the fabric banner a the top (wonder where they got that print?:).

I want to just walk into the picture! So charming. :)

This is a Seminole patchwork row quilt - those small bars in each block are only 1/4" wide! Very, very nicely done precise piecing. Also, most of these (maybe all - I'm no expert) are very traditional designs. Someday, maybe, I'll make one of these. :)

What pretty designs.

I love the color palette this prize winner used ... and the theme (those are nautilus shells, meant to be fossilized).

Lovely job!

This was another prize winner. Gorgeous layer upon layer of design. I'm pretty sure some of these motifs are illustrations of Mandelbrot sets which are a kind of fractal. Some closeups:

 

This wall hanging fascinated the structural engineer in me ... as well as the embellisher. :) Notice that the flower centers are a separately quilted layer.

 

This quilt is made from a design called Town & Country by an Australian, Gourmet Quilter. I have this pattern and my friend Barbara and I have promised each other to tackle the project together as a kind of memory quilt of our lives. Each of these blocks is about 4" square and there are 365 of them. :)

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I liked the color palette and the ambitious nature of this applique quilt - pinecones are a favorite motif of mine and not so easy to execute.

This wall hanging was satisfying to my aesthetic sense - the color palette is light and bright (there are a lot of 30's repros in there, though I don't think you can recognize them without getting really close:) and the piecing is quite precise.

The combination of fabric applique and hand embroidery made me like this one ....

I made the mistake of wandering into the exhibit of Bonnie Hunter quilts (well worth looking over!:) and taking photos. Did not even see the NO PHOTO signs, big as life. Duh. A very nice security man walked up and pointed the signs out to me and asked me to delete the one I had just taken. So stupid of me - I guess Bonnie will be publishing another book of her scrappy wonders soon?

I only managed to cover about half of the vendors at the show and didn't buy a lot. Two pretty hand dyed tshirts from Starr Designs:

The only other thing I bought (besides a show bag for carrying my shopping:) was a really nifty portable small ironing board by TNT Quilt Boards. They are from Massachusetts and have not come as far south as us to vend - they've been making and selling these great boards for six years. I was impressed with their products - the boards are rectangular (like Big Boards, unlike more usual ironing boards that have pointy ends for sleeves), made of good quality materials and very sturdy, have folding legs and a handle (all of which fold up flat for storage). I got one with a white-on-gray toile Francophile print ('Paris', Fleur de Lis, etc) but there were an array of choices. Sadly, I did not take a photo - will try to get one tomorrow to share.

We ate lunch at the Lodge where the show was hung (in the Bear's Den). By the time we left, I was plain exhausted - every joint in my body hurt. I found out later why - usually I walk about a half mile a day which is about 2500 steps or so. That day I walked 4000+. I spent most of Friday horizontal to recover. :)

We stopped at Half Moon Handwerks in New Cumberland PA on the way home and I did buy some goodies there:

The two spools of S-Lon thread are to try using with my bead loom. I could not resist the blue and white wave print ... or the dragons! Think I might make a pillowcase with the dragons for myself. :)

We got home around 8 or 9 p.m (left around 8:30 a.m.) and had a WONDERFUL day, even if it was tiring. :) So good to have friends to do things with, eh?

:) Linda

 

 

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Summer, Summer

Good grief! It has been ten days since I posted last. Sigh. Time flows over me like a river! This hot summer weather takes my brains away, too. If you have never lived in a sub-tropical place, you may not really understand the climate here in the coastal Maryland area.

Back in the settlement days (um, 1600-1950 c.e. or so), people routinely suffered from cholera, dysentery, malaria and worse in the summer months. The 'normal' summer weather here is over 90 degrees F. and 75% or higher humidity (which makes the perceived temperature even higher). Pretty nasty weather for me as I am Northern European in ancestry and suffer easily from heat exhaustion. I rarely get so-called cabin fever in the winter (when one is tired of being cooped up indoors) but definitely do in the summer - especially with my car's air conditioning broken. :P

I _have_ been doing things ... just not writing about them. The photo above shows a very simple bead loom I bought recently to try out the idea. I like working off-loom with beads (brick stitch, peyote, etc.) so I thought I'd see how a loom was to work with. Tedious but I like the results. :) Here's a photo of the whole set-up so you can see the scale:

Maybe you can tell by the keyboard of my computer what size the loom is? I used 12 weight Aurifil thread for the warp and invisible thread (Superior) for the weft. The weaving is _very_ simple to do and I like the results. It will be a narrow bracelet when I get it done - haven't decided yet what kind of closure to use, whether to go simple/primitive with knots and tassels or to use a metal clamping finish with a catch of some kind. :) If I decide that I want to do much more of this, I might invest in a more expensive/elaborate loom eventually.

My friend Patty and I have gone out to Photoscraps in Sykesville twice recently to make cards. This month's free class focused on sympathy cards:

 

We went to Demo Day last Saturday and made some more cards, too, of which these are my favorites:

While we were out on Saturday, we stopped at the local Joann's ETC to take advantage of sales on their scrapping supplies - hard to beat 10 sheets of your choice of scrapbooking papers for $2 (the usual price is $.79 - .99 per sheet). :) We went in so Patty could buy some Yupo paper to play with her alcohol inks. I bought some, too, but haven't indulged in play, yet.

I've also been working with my arcs from the Kathy D. class. I decided to intersperse them with plain fabrics and just finish them into charity quilts. Here is the first (and only) entire half circle I made:

If you enlarge the photo, you might be able to see the background print I chose - it is a 'classic shirting' print with a windowpane check in medium blue. I like the contrast of its linearity with the circular arc. :) Here is the finish quilt top I created from this arch:

I'm pretty happy with this little top. I will quilt it (or get it quilted) to donate to the East Baltimore Head Start program, my 'modern' guild's charity project. Each kid who comes to the program gets a quilt to take home to help them create a reading corner in their home. :)

If you look carefully, you might be able to tell that I finished off each 'fan' with a bias band of fabric. In the past I have completed this kind of design by turning under the straight edges of each arc and appliqueing the thing down to a background. This time I sewed the arcs down raw-edged and finished the edge with a double bias strip of fabric. I like the look and will try to do this again sometime.  I still have five more quarter-arcs made up so I guess there will be at least one more little quilt coming. :)

I shared my top and my Flower Sugar top today with my (former) staff from Seminole Sampler. Once a quarter we get together for lunch and today was the day. We met at Little Phoenix in Catonsville and had a GREAT time. I was there, also Patty, Robbyn, Libbie, Alice M. and Daria. Show and tell is always fun. Robbyn is hand quilting a big gift for her daughter, Barbie, using Wonderfil and Madiera metallic threads (I can't wait to see the thing, it sounds _elegant_.)  Daria had a finished small quilt made with blocks she won in a monthly block lottery at Village Quilters  - _very_ nicely quilted, I might ad. (Daria is a longarm quilter for hire.) Alice had a top she finished from Mid-Appalachian Quilters Retreat last weekend .. and a mosaic class project in progress that I was fascinated with. :) Patty brought her finished Row by Row quilt to share which she won with at Bear's Paw in Towson. Sorry, no photos of these goodies - I was too busy eating my scallops with mixed vegetables. :)

Tomorrow my friends Barbara, Patty and I are going up to Hershey PA to take in the Odyssey Quilt Show. I'm really looking forward to it! This is a great show with truly excellent quilts on display and good vendors. :)

:) Linda

PS Sharing this post at Let's Bee Social.

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Educational Weekend

Do you know this woman? She's Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession quilt shop in Sydney, author of several books and traveling teacher on a U.S. tour from Australia. Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild just happened to find out she would be in the area visiting family and hired her (in a shot!) to teach for us. I spent Saturday all day taking a class on making 'modern wedge designs' - and on curating fabric palettes - with her.

I have a long history 'with' Kathy - I've been following her blog since before she authored any books. I find her color sense striking and Australia is (of course:) an exotic location from the eastern US. When I owned a quilt shop for all those years, it was interesting to me to compare notes with her, too. I was delighted to get a chance to meet her (and shocked that she knew my name - apparently my books are kindly thought off in Aus.:).

I took a very few fabrics to the class (held at Springwater Designs near my home) - those seven I bought at Glory Bee's the other day, all of which were Kaffe Collective prints in bright colors. Some people literally brought boxes of stuff to class. It was fascinating to follow Kathy around the classroom, watching her sort and select palettes for each student. Worth the price of admission and then some! :)

I picked up three more fat quarters from the shop (and then four more longer pieces) to round out my own palette ... but never could quite focus in class. I decided to try to make a design (each student could choose their own pattern from an assortment of six or seven she named as suitable) that I like called Culture Blend - she used Aboriginal prints in her version. I quickly found that I just could not get my brain to deal with precision and/or measuring things so I resigned myself to improv and tore strips of assorted widths from my prints and sewed sets of strata from which to cut wedges. I just decided by eye what width to make each strip so duplicating the wedges I made might get dicey. :)

I brought a 15° wedge ruler with me to class and bought a 30° one from the shop (I did not want to buy yet another Dresden wedge ruler as I already own not one but _two_ of those:). These angles yield squares with six wedges or three wedges, respectively. Thus a complete circle of 15° wedges has 24 blades .... while a complete circle of 30° wedges has 12 blades. That seemed like lots of choices to me - and they mix together easily. :)

Here are some of the wedges I ended up making - I sewed two different strata sets and each one gets cut in two different orientations so there are four unique wedge sets, despite that I have several photos (I took these to help myself remember ideas on how to sew them together when I get to sewing them):

I was a bit frustrated with myself and my lack of focus in the class but I was highly satisfied with the teaching and class content. It was a great day!

I had an appointment at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Columbia Mall at 5:30, after the end of class, so I grabbed a quick dinner at a local tex-mex joint and hurried over. Remember that I had my iPhone repaired last Saturday (one week ago) as I had dropped it and broken the glass? Sigh. It has not been working well even though it was repaired so I took it back. Apparently once they've done the glass fix, the assumption is that the phone was also damaged by dropping it ... so they gave me a new phone entirely (covered in the cost that I paid for the glass repair!). I was at the store more than an hour as the new phone had to be upgraded to the most recent operating system and then all my personal content reloaded from my iCloud backup site. Lengthy and boring. However, I now have a new phone that WORKS. Hooray! :)

When I finally got home I was so tired I did not even bring my stuff in from the car (especially since I knew I was going out again today:). I just took an additional anti-inflammatory pill and chilled out. My body ached all over - sitting on a un-backed high stool in the store for 1hour+ was a bit much for the poor old bones, apparently.

Today was the monthly meeting of my Sew&Tell group. We met for the first time at the clubhouse of my friend Barbara's new neighborhood (Walden Woods) which turned out to be a great place with lots of tables, good light, and plenty of space for us all. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find if you are unfamiliar with the immediate area. Members of S&T come from the wider region and several were late. I was really proud of myself because I've only been there twice before (and only drove myself once - with my gps' help). I managed to get there _without_ any help this time so now I'm sure I really do know the way. :)

I spent the afternoon cutting more wedges of "plain" prints. I am going to finish my assorted wedges as large squares to create some small quilts. I'll try again to make something more complex another time (when my brain is up to handling details:). Shrug.

Over the years when I was working in my store, I took a week day or two off instead of weekends as those were busy shopping (and class holding) days. I used to laugh that my life was reversed of most people's in time scheduling. I _thought_ when I retired that I would go back to having weekends with family, like more ordinary working people ... but that often has not been the case. I guess since I am interfacing in a culture where many, many women work during the week - classes and club meetings still tend to be scheduled for weekend times so I'm out then, too. Like other things in my life history, there never seems to be a calm flow. I'm either home all weekend, at odds ends, or gone all weekend and tired by Monday. LOL.

:) Linda

Oh, PS. I finally laid out my Flower Sugar quilt top on the clubhouse floor today and took photos - not very glamorous, fer shure, but telling. I'll get more wonderfully set up shots when the quilt is finished. Just wanted to document it now:

Linking to Freemotion by the River's linky Tuesday.

Also linking to Sew Fresh Quilts Let's Bee Social.

 

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Rainy Travels

One of the issues I had to grapple with when I was in Ohio caring for my brothers was banking with PNC. Apparently the small town bank my Mom and my brother Jeff had dealt with for years was bought out by PNC and they just went along with the same accounts and the new bank. Unlike conducting business based on personal connection, a big bank like PNC has to choose how much leeway to give branch managers vs higher levels of accounting. Several times with different issues I ran into this conflict with mostly annoying results. Suffice it to say that I, personally, will never deal with PNC in any capacity if I can avoid it. Sigh.

What is this about? Today I did find out that PNC corporate can make some decent decisions. The photo above shows the side of a high rise building that houses PNC in Baltimore with a beautiful living green wall  installation. Who knew? :) Each of those horizontal double lines in the concrete you see is a story of the building so this green growing planting is BIG. :) Very farsighted of them, surprisingly so to me. :)

Today was a rainy gray day with, at times, downright deluges. Thursday morning is the weekly meeting of Faithful Circle's day group and I met Barbara and Patty there (along with a number of other quilting buddies:) - attendance was high, particularly considering the holiday on Tuesday. I saw a number of people I haven't seen in a while (I have problems getting to the meeting - it runs from 10 to 12 noon and I often don't wake up until at least 11 a.m.). It has become common for members to bring items they want to give away to a side table at each meeting - I picked up a copy of the classic book Color and Cloth today as I left. :)

Patty and I moved our cars around to the front of the church area where the local Park & Ride parking lot is situated; she was sure that would be a more secure location for our cars to stay. Barbara drove, as usual, on our 'near north east MD' Row by Row adventure today. There were only three shops on our list - Domesticity in Baltimore city, Hoppin Bobbin in Aberdeen and Glory Bees Sewing Center in Fallston (long time readers might remember that this was the shop that took all my fabric shelves when I was closing Seminole Sampler:). I had not previously been to any of these three shops so it was all new and shiny. Grin.

Being a passenger as we drove allowed me to take a few photos along the way - I think I missed more pictures than I captured, though. :) The green wall photo above was one ... another was the rigging of the U.S.S. Constellation as we passed the Inner Harbor:

I had the entire ship in my focal area and a car pulled up to our right just as I took the photo. Shrug. Another place I spotted was the rebuilt power station downtown:

There were lots of downtrodden neighborhoods and city parks and murals along the way that I missed ...  including one mural of bright flowers with an adjacent chain link fence covered in round crocheted medallions (yarn bombing!) that totally escaped. Some people lose fish, I lose photos. :)

Domesticity is a small shop up a steep flight of stairs above a busy hair salon called the Chop Shop - on a street full of newly renovated, bright clean bodegas of various sorts. The woman running the shop (the owner?) was very friendly and helpful. The parking was pretty much nonexistent until you went around the corner to the local Safeway lot (we got lucky and found a spot of the street across from Safeway but Barbara had to exercise her parallel parking skills to use it). I found the climb upstairs a bit stiff but persevered (anything for quilts!:). The shop is really geared more toward garment making but I found some cool stuff there. Barbara did her good duty as an enabler and found some wonderful imported colored wooden building blocks for me to gift my grandson:

I also bought two pieces of fabric for quilting:

... some cute chickens that might end up being a scarf - the fabric base feels like voile to me ...

... and some very nice linen almost-canvas-weight stuff with eyeglasses all over. I think this might become a duffle or other overnight sized bag for me. Sturdy and fun. :) The shop is really small - she has classes but I'm guessing the entire place will be filled up by six people with sewing machines.

On we went, north out of Baltimore city into the county to the north east. We hit heavy rain (it was between downpours when we were walking in and out of Domesticity) just north of town and things slowed down. Barbara is not daunted by weather, though, and we managed to reach Hoppin' Bobbin in pretty good time.

What a cheerful shop! I was greeted at the door by a small Pomeranian doggie who looked very, very much like my Foxy (but was oodles quieter and friendlier:). Of course, Tootsie (doggie) made me happy to shop around after a little bit of cuddling. :) The shop has a good mix of different styles of fabric - mainstream country, some reproductions, a nice batik wall, etc. I bought a copy of the Quilt Sampler magazine that featured them, a tiny tiger striped pair of embroidery scissors, and their RbR license plate. 

Patty was happy (and truthfully so was I) when Barbara's gps sent us along local roads to the last shop. Lots of pretty countryside and small town stuff. :) Glory Bee's Sewing Center is bright and airy and very enticing! Not only is there a really good selection of fabrics but also a knitting corner with good quality brands like Noro and Encore.

I did not let the yarns distract me (will power!) and found my way to the large Kaffe collective corner. I chose seven different prints that I really liked - just ones that jumped off the wall into my arms - and bought a half yard of each. You will get to see them for my Friday and Saturday posts as I am taking a class with Kathy Doughty (through Baltimore Modern quilt guild) and these prints will be my materials to work with in class. :)

I got a chance to chat with Gloria for a while, too, which was fun. Since I saw her last she has retired from her full time job of umpty years (teaching first grade) and can work on her own things now. She was upbeat and happy and it was good to see her. :) There was a really nice quilt in the shop's classroom that I liked and they will call me with the pattern when they get more in stock. I am thinking it will make a good small quilt for the modern guild's bingo prizes this fall.

Our trip back to the park and ride lot was calm but rainy and crowded as the afternoon rush had set in. I drove myself home carefully and unloaded my bag of goodies while being grateful for the roof over our carport. :) I picked up our mail on the way home (we have cluster mail boxes away from the house) and got some goodies there, too:

I have looked at this one a couple of times and finally gave in. :)

As you can see, wardrobe making has been on my mind. :) Maybe once I have gotten my Flower Sugar backing made I will take a break from quilt making for a while to sew some clothes? One can hope.

:) Linda

 

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Making Summer Memories

Sunday afternoon I went south to the Savage Volunteer Fire Department hall to attend my friend Sherry's luncheon. The photo above is of Sherry as a young woman (senior photo? senior prom? I didn't ask), long before I met her. She was most likely in her mid to late 30's when I met her - with two young children, happily married to her husband, Rich.

Skip did not go with me, after all. He has real problems with crowds of people, especially those he does not know (he knew Sherry well but not her family, other than Rich and her two kids, Sarah and Lael). I was alright with going by myself - I wanted to see Rich, Sarah and Lael, meet Sarah's husband Joey and her daughter, Catherine (I _think_ it's with a 'C' and not a 'K').

Sherry was Jewish by culture and had a bat mitzvah, her son went through a bar mitzvah ... but was not very religiously observant. The 'services' the family held were wonderful - very much like those for my other friend, Genie, there was a luncheon laid out with LOTS of food, many tables and a wide variety of people ... family, friends, co-workers. Maybe equal numbers of family and friends - I did not count but I think there were about 75 to 100 people there.  There was a large photo display of snaps from Sherry's life ... and people took turns talking about her and their relationship to her as the afternoon went on.

 Since I mostly spent my time directly with Sherry, I have not actually seen Sarah or Lael for years - though of course she spoke about them often. I recognized Sarah instantly as she looks pretty much exactly like her mother did when I first met Sherry (Sarah's hair is brown instead of black, but she has the same face and smile:). I had to ask to have Lael pointed out to me as I have not seen him since middle school (14? maybe) and he's now about 35. Having spotted him, though, I could see the face I used to know. :)   Catherine is about 3 1/2 and angelically beautiful with long blond hair and blue eyes; she seemed very sweet natured.

Rich and both kids have been struck very hard by Sherry's passing - she had gone in for heart valve repair and never regained consciousness after the surgery. Her heart would not restart even after several days. She was gone. Many tears and much agony. Sherry was a loving person and genuinely cared about other people. I knew her for 30 or so years and loved her. She had a way of making each person she encountered feel special and deeply appreciated.

Here is a recent photo of Rich and her:

I will miss her for sure. I had to leave the luncheon a bit early because I just could not deal with my intense emotions in public. I guess I am just too private and reserved - I dislike public display. Sunday evening I spent some quiet time writing letters and a couple of birthday cards. I felt pretty melancholy and didn't even try to do much.

 

Monday was the monthly meeting of Mimi's Grad Class which I always enjoy. Barbara, Patty and I drove up (well, B. drove). There was not much traffic, unlike the usual - I guess a lot of people either had Monday off for the long holiday weekend or we just got lucky. :) Attendance at the meeting was light, too, but we had a great time anyway. There is always beautiful show and tell - this is a group of supreme needle women after all. :) I did not take any photos this time ... I just didn't think of it. Sorry.

I spent some time shopping and only bought two things - a piece of good pink wool felt (Bear's Paw, where we meet, carries a wide variety of colors) and a book called Toes in the Sand by Jaybird Designs. Julie Herman, the owner, also designed that Gravity quilt that I taught a couple of years ago. I like her designs and her instructions are the most clearly written that I have encountered.

This book is another block of the month design from 2012. I've admired it for years and, since I seem to be gestating an equilateral quilt, it caught my eye. I might already own a copy of it, but I don't know where it might be. Lopsided grins. My Tula Pink Tabby Road prints are heating up in my mind.

 

Tuesday was the Fourth of July, American Independence Day and we had a very low key holiday ... which suited us all fine. The weather was un-holiday-like and poured rain and thunder stormed all afternoon and evening. Don't know when they will hold the city fireworks displays instead. I love fireworks but I do not love crowds. We have not actually gone to the Fourth celebrations for a number of years - the county used to run a special bus service to the downtown area that we rode with the kids each year - so we did not have to fight with traffic. When that was stopped, we quit going. Sigh.

Instead of fighting the heat, rain, humidity and crowds, I spent the day sewing. I managed to get all four borders sewn onto my Flower Sugar top and partially constructed the backing. There's a section of patchwork made from the front leftovers sewn into the backing and I still have to complete extending that into the whole. I bought a Queen sized batting for this quilt but I am thinking now that I might need a King. As you can see from my working notes here, I've been scratching my head over this issue:

No, I don't expect you to be able to read my scribble - it only has meaning to me. :)

 

Today I leapt up, thinking it was Thursday, and flew out of the house. My guild meets on Thursday morning and then Patty, Barbara and I are going off Row by Rowing again in the afternoon. I was surprised and shocked when I pulled into the parking lot at the church where the guild meets to find no cars. After a moment, I had to laugh at myself! Hopefully I will get it right tomorrow!!

 

:) Linda

 

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Hot Summer Days

I'm still knitting on my Watershed vest. I try to make at least two rows everyday. Generally I knit while I'm watching streaming tv shows at my computer desk (hence the need for a comfortable chair). I just joined on the second ball of yarn so I _am_ making progress.

I've also been working a little bit on making the backing and borders for my Flower Sugar top. I haven't made as much progress the past couple of days as I might like because I've been doing household chores and running errands.

Biggest problem with that is the heat. It has been in the mid90's and quite humid every day this week. My poor car has a broken a/c (which we don't intend to fix as the car has 200K+ miles on it and is going into retirement soon:) so driving anywhere on such hot days is a trial for me. I am particularly prone to heat exhaustion so my recovery time once I'm home in the a/c (thank you, God, for clever people who invent a better way to live!!), it takes me an hour or two of just sitting to recover. :P

Hugh and I have made two trips to the landfill to take cardboard, styrofoam, and old cans of house paint to be recycled. I also made a lengthy trip to Annapolis yesterday to turn that duplicate car title application in. As long as I was in town, we also went to Cottonseed Glory to pick up their Row by Row goodies. I got a copy of their pattern and a printed license plate (same as last year's) for a friend AND a kit for their row and a queen sized wool batting for myself. The Flower Sugar quilt will get a nice wool batt (much cooler and lighter than cotton in the summer and warmer in the winter). :)

I've spent a little of my heat recovery time sorting through my e-archives of saved patterns and such and, as usual, found lots of forgotten treasures. :) Of course, there were a number of files I just deleted while wondering what I had been thinking. Chuckle. Among other goodies, I found quite a few 'summer' patterns (beach chairs, sailboats, etc) that I plan to combine with some of my RBR kits to make a 'beach' quilt. I'm really looking forward to that! As much as I dislike hot sun and being hot, I love the beach and enjoy every second I can spend near large bodies of water. If I could hear real surf every night as I slept, I'd be in heaven. :)

One of my more pleasant acquisitions this week is a new hand-made journal that arrived from the Etsy shop of Ruth Bleakley. Ruth is a young artist living in Florida who makes exquisite papers and journals. Take a few minutes to look through her shop - I bet it won't take you long to figure out why I like her work. :) Her prices are very reasonable imho and the product is lovely. I got my new journal with lots of pretty little extras:

See that beautiful cover paper? Ruth did the same kind of shibori I like on fabric but with paper. :)

Here you can see the inside cover, just as gorgeous, and the extras she included (a little journal pamphlet for my purse and a really pretty card:) ... you might be able to just grab a peek of the green mulberry paper back there that the journal came wrapped inside. That paper will go into something pretty in my art journal. :)

I haven't decided yet what kind of journal I will keep with this one ... the paper inside is suitable for pencil sketching, gluing or writing. My hand writing is pretty awful (I am, after all, officially dysgraphic:) and my hand tires quickly while writing ... but I might pursue a written journal after all. :)

Today was another busy errands day with lots of hot - Hugh and I took another run to the recycling center today and I had a Genius Bar appointment this afternoon to get my iPhone's broken glass fixed. The repair took about an hour so I walked around the Mall while they worked, bought and consumed a big cup of real lemonade, and generally watched the crowds.

And it _was_ crowded. I don't go to the Mall very often (I'm sure I have been there sometime in the last year, but I can't remember offhand when it was:) and, of course, this being a holiday weekend, there were LOTS of shoppers. The congestion and noise all got to be a bit much for me and I was glad to be finished and get home.

Tomorrow Skip and I are going to a memorial luncheon for my long time friend Sherry Schneider who died while I was away in the midwest. Sad times.

Linda