Fiber and Pulp

Still Raining

The iris flowers are blooming everywhere in our area right now. My mother loved iris - she had a large bed along the front of the farmhouse, some of which her sister, Janice, dug up before we moved away. Those got planted around Mom and Dad's gravesite.

When I was a child, Memorial Day was a time for family to go home for cleaning up and decorating graves. I can remember with clarity spending Memorial Day weekends at each grandparents' places (alternating years) so the graveyard ('cemetery' is apparently not a southern word?:) would get cleaned and spiffed up. They never took us kids up to the burial areas, though - I'd be hard pressed to find the graves of my ancestors on either side of the family.

The weather was a bit hotter today (high 70's to low 80's) and very, very humid. Just about an hour ago (as I write this) a string of thunderstorms rolled through and dropped yet more rain on our neighborhood. Lotsa, lotsa water around here!

I spent a fairly quiet day today. Failed (yet again) to wake up in time to go to my guild meeting. Sigh. Did manage to do some sewing, though. I walked out to get our mail this afternoon - have several small packages coming from various orders. In today's mailbox was my order from FarawayRoad - three fat quarters of Outback Wife barkcloth fabric. :)

I love the texture and hand-feel of bark cloth! These Outback Wife patterns remind me (I think) of my grandmother's house - I have vague memories of curtains made from similar prints. :) I took advantage of a holiday sale to buy these three fqs (can find this fabric nowhere nearby in local quilt shops). I had definite uses for all three in my mind. :)

The first one above, the blue and white Bindi design, I sewed up into a One Hour Basket immediately as soon as I opened the package. :) Except, as I worked along, it morphed into my own version. As usual, I did not read the directions very carefully. I wanted my basket to be quilted so I did that with all the pieces before starting the construction - and then read the directions. :P

I ended up doing a Hong Kong binding on all the inside seams to tidy up my product. I wanted the blue and white for my basket to match the blue and white Japanese porcelain dish that sits in the middle of our kitchen island. The basket is for holding the equipment for my allergy shots - needles, needle disposal, my Benedryl, alcohol swabs, etc. That way everything is in one place for me to use - the liquid that I inject has to be kept in the refrigerator, so the kitchen seems the best location for my dosing.

I'm quite happy with my basket even though it did take more than one hour to make (not the tutorial's fault!:).

The other two bark cloth fabrics are destined for drawstring bags to hold my Featherweight supplies. The fabric is sturdy and should last a long time in that role. I don't know whether I will need both fq's for this or not. If not, the other may get made into other bits for Blue. :)

I also sewed my two temperature blocks for today - today's and the one for May 12th (I think:). My rows are getting longer, day by day. :)

The next four days promise to be All Sewing, All The Time which I am looking forward to doing.

:) Linda

De-Stuff-ing

I saw lilac bushes blooming today as Hugh and I drove to the county landfill/recycling center. Wish I had been on foot - I LOVE the smell of lilac bushes. :) I tried to grow some when we first moved into our house but the area with sun I planted them in was apparently too wet, they all died. Sigh. My love of trees interferes with my love of flowers. :)

Yesterday afternoon Hugh and I loaded up my Dart with oodles of cardboard boxes and paper for recycling ... along with two old computers and a dead bread making machine. Today we drove it all to the west end of Howard County to the recycling center near the county landfill. It took some time to empty the packing styrofoam from the shipping boxes and take each category of item to its own places ... but I always enjoy going out there to dump stuff. Makes me feel virtuous to get such stuff out of my house! :)

Once we got home (each of us puffing in our own ways - he's still sore from our monumental shifting on Monday and I'm not a lover of humid weather), I ate lunch and then sat down to sew for a while.

I made my temperature block for today (here it is, on the right, sewn to yesterday's block) - it is cooler today but just as damp and rain-threatening:

I also made a block for May 11th and sewed that to its row. Progress, one day at a time. :)

Then I was dithering over what to sew on next (procraftinating the sewing to finish the octopus:) ... and _finally_ after God alone knows how long I've been thinking about the matter - sewed a no-slip pad to put under my sewing machine's operator foot! I'm eager to see how this works on my slippery wood flooring:

This pad is about 6"x9" or so - the Bernina foot control is larger than most, I think. Here it is in situ:

Please ignore the dust and litter (those are fractured dried flower petals from the peonies I brought in:). I think this will work pretty well. I'll give it a week of use to see if I want to change anything ... then I am going to make one for Blue's foot pedal, too.

After I finished that, I ran out of sewjo and wandered off to fix dinner. I've been reading blogs and playing solitaire this evening as a mindless form of entertainment. :) I'm off to read my latest book (The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters).

On the whole, a nice peaceful day.

:) Linda

Working For Fun

Gotta laugh at yourself if no one else, right? :) Click on the photo above to see some silly jokes about allergies. Not such a funny subject if you have allergies, though. :P

Today I had my third in-person appointment to get allergy shot training. I aced the entire thing (and did not have my usual 'ick!' feeling ... so progress:). My appointment was for 1 p.m. .... and, of course, instead of getting up when my alarm went off at 10 a.m., I slept like the proverbial rock until I awoke at 12:45! Leap out of bed, call as I'm jumping into my shoes and out the front door, rush off to the lab. Sigh.

For the next month, I have to give myself two shots every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (one in each arm). Then another check up to be sure things are going ok. Whew!

After my date with the needle, I did drive-through to pick up some lunch for myself and Hugh (he's earned some extra attentiveness for his hard work yesterday:). I spent the rest of today sewing, sewing, sewing. :)

I led off with my two daily temperature quilt blocks - one for today's weather, one for May 10th. Those took about an hour, I think, interspersed with eating lunch. 

Yesterday it occurred to me that I need to make more bingo quilt blocks for the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild ... made blocks for special quilts numbers one and two before I went away on trek. Now there are quilts number three (that's me and Kathy Schwabeland) and four.

I made two for quilt number four which I will (snail) mail off to Katie (the project mom) tomorrow - so they don't get lost here in my chaos:

I did take these blocks outside but it was overcast and damp again today ... so not great light. The center pale fabric in these two blocks is a piece of vintage (machine) embroidered fabric.

Then I set about making blocks for quilt number three. We had previously chosen a featured block from the national modern guild website that we both like. Here are the blocks I made:

It took me about two hours to make these eight blocks (each is about 7.5" square, untrimmed), including choosing and cutting the fabrics. We had chosen 'warm, Autumnal' as our color/fabric theme for this quilt (bingo is on September 21st:). I really, really enjoyed making these blocks! SO MUCH FUN to sew ... and so cute. :) I could make a whole quilt like this ... what am I saying? I AM going to be making an entire quilt's worth. LOL!

Just one tip for those of you who are making blocks for this project - be sure to snip off the corners of the narrow slice insert like this before sewing the outer 'background' triangle onto the block:

Here's the narrow strip sewn onto the background print ... 

 

Here's the little edge triangles snipped off the narrow strip ...

As long as your stitching falls into the notch between the narrow strip and the smaller corner triangle, the block will be lined up correctly. :)

I hope this makes sense! If not, grab me at the next meeting or email me - I'll try to answer all your questions until it _does_ make sense. :)

By the time I finished all this sewing, I was tired and went off to eat supper and read my blogs. Happy evening!

:) Linda

PS. Sharing at Midweek Makers. :) Also with Off The Wall Friday. :)

Working Holiday

Yesterday, Sunday, was very wet and rainy. Sadly, it was a day for us all to remember why we have a Memorial Day as at least one brave emergency responder is missing.

Ellicott City, MD is the county seat of Howard County, where my town (Columbia) is, too ... and yesterday, after 8" of rain fall in 6 hours, there was a flood down the center of the main street of the historic district. The photo above shows the beginning of the water wash down the hill - if you click on the photo, you can go read the article and see at least two videos taken during the flood by people trapped in upper stories.

There was a flood in 2016 in exactly the same area and for the same reasons - in fact the remediation work to correct the problems is still under way. :( The flood this time looks to me to be much worse than the last - one can only guess how the businesses along that street will deal with a second round of losses.

We had quite a bit of rain here at my house, too (we're less than 10 miles away from the flooded streets) - I don't know how much exactly as I don't have rain gauges. There was thunder and lightning and lots of rain fall. The whole day was overcast and humid. Not nice weather and a very good reason to stay indoors. I did some sewing - worked on doing sections E, F, G, H and I for my octopus:

This piece of the octopod is about the size of my hand ... and had five sections in it.

I also sewed two more blocks for my temperature quilt - yesterday's and the one for May 8th - and joined them to their rows.

Today was another matter. Yesterday my son, Hugh, asked me if we could work on his bedroom today. His bed has been a twin-sized daybed with a very nice wooden frame. Late yesterday afternoon one of the metal struts under the metal mesh mattress support broke - simple metal fatigue from what I can tell.

As it happens, he does have a 'real' bed that I bought him way back in 2001 ... but we had never built/installed. It is a nicely made oak platform bed I had built for him at Columbia Oak (which I _think_ is now Oak Tree Furniture?).  A series of incidents might explain why it never got built, if I could remember them. :)

Anyway, today we moved his old/broken daybed and built his sturdy oak double bed. It took hours of moving parts, cleaning, clearing pathways, and earnest inspection (we had no directions, only parts and ideas:). We did, however, succeed!!! Here is my son, exhausted and enjoying his new bed:

He has every right to be exhausted, too, as his was the most of the physical labor for moving and construction. I was mostly a helping hand and morale booster. :) We had the thing almost built and decided that we had put the bottom support section together the wrong way around ... and had to deconstruct and turn 180 degrees and reconstruct the whole thing. Whew!

There are four drawers beneath the mattress area (as well as storage inside the headboard) ... but he'll only have two to use as there isn't enough space in his bedroom. The two drawers on the far side of the bed can only open about four inches. :)

That quilt folded  up at his feet is one my mother made for him with the help of my Aunt Jean (her sister). It is a hand-pieced fan quilt, hand quilted. The sheets have cloudy blue skies on them. I'm sure the mattress is more comfortable than the one he has been sleeping on (which desperately needed replacing). :)

So, I am worn down, too, but excited to finally get some substantial improvement done in my house. Lots more to go!

Late this evening I decided to sew today's temperature block and also the one for May 9th. I am planning to make two each day until I'm caught up - it only takes about 30 minutes to make two blocks, now that I've got a 'system' in place.

:) Linda

PS Sharing on Let's Bee Social. :)

Saturday Shopping

Remember I mentioned my Guinea Fowl Tree wool applique project yesterday? Here is a quick snapshot of it - at the state it is in right now. Eventually that tree should be filled with leaves and flowers in many colors. :) Here you can see some of the embroidery I did yesterday:

I added to the white wool leaf (the central glittery vein), made the purple and dark blue flower/seed pods in this section ...

I added to the guinea fowl's head plumes, embroidered the two round floral elements just above the bird's head and created that white mess just above his beak which will have to come out. I was working on that when I realized it was time to leave Barbara's house ... and the stitch suffered from my hurry. :)

Here, too, is the wallet that Caren made for me:

It's a trifold card wallet as you can see above - I like how she made the pockets out of contrasting fabrics so you can see each one clearly. :)

Again, here is the outside fabric and the tres chic closure button. :)

I got up late today - treated myself to a lie in to listen to my audiobook (I'm listening to Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett). Once I had eaten breakfast, I set out to do two errands.

First, I was on a mission to get Blue back into sewing condition. :) The best local sewing machine repair wizard I know is Brad at Normandy Sew & Vac in Ellicott City. I drove up there happily, despite the nasty humidity and heat outdoors.

I'm so grateful that our carport is shady (even though it ends up covered in yellow pollen every spring morning:)! Getting into a sun-heated car is extremely unpleasant - and May seems too early in the year, to me, to have to endure the partial baking I get running errands. :P

Lucky for me, the very helpful sales floor clerk at the sew and vac shop was a Featherweight owner, too (she told me she has five). She knew right away what I had done. When I took off the throat plate to clean Blue, I failed to realign the bobbin hook correctly. She showed me how to fix it in about 30 seconds. Done! Wow.

I did buy a new carry bag for Blue that is a little larger than the one she came with - a little more space to get her in and out and room for her tools. I will use the original bag to carry my supplies for retreats and such so it certainly won't go to waste. :) I also bought some new (empty!) bobbins for Blue. Never know when I will need them. :)

I was so excited to get her sewing again, I (almost) did not mind how hot my car got sitting in the parking lot. :P

After that success, I drove back south to go to BJ's to shop for household stuff. Generally my husband does the grocery shopping but this week he forgot to buy toilet paper ... and I needed to get alcohol wipes to set up my shot-taking station. :P I also discovered Flonase (which I take daily) for 35% less than my usual cost. No wipes, plenty of toilet paper ... getting my car filled up and cooled off was unpleasant.

It was sooooo nice to get back home to the air conditioning! I did stop by our mail box and extract the week's pile of (mostly) advertisements and bills. I so rarely get any 'real' mail - cards, letters, anything personal. How about you? No wonder the post office cares so much about delivering 'junk' mail. :P

After I managed to cool off and eat dinner, sort through the mail and chat with my son (about how he'd like to rearrange his room while we are working on mine, too) ... I did a very little sewing. I joined the first seven May blocks of my temperature quilt into a row. First I had to trim them to correct size (unfinished they are measuring 6" ... so 5.5" finished). I'm pleased with how this project is going.

Oh, in the pile of snail mail were the last two solid fabrics I ordered (fast service!!) so my 'legend' of color is now complete. I don't know if I will catch up with May before Monday is over, but I _should_ catch up next week sometime. Depends on how much persistence I can find. LOL.

We had a raucous thunderstorm in the late afternoon - fairly rattled the windows downstairs where I was reading. It is supposed to rain off and on all holiday weekend. I expect to stay in tomorrow and SEW.

:) Linda

PS Linking my embroidery to Slow Sunday Stitching. :) Also on Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By The River. :)

Friday Fun

Today was another beautiful day weather-wise - warm but not hot (except when getting into a closed car), breezy, sunny. Early summer weather. We are supposed to get thunderstorms and overcast for most of this (holiday) weekend. Sigh. Luckily, our family tries to avoid traveling over holidays - neither Skip nor I can stomach the traffic load. :P

I did not manage to get up as early today as I did yesterday. Shrug. I met my friend Barbara for lunch at La Madeleine near my house. Ordered her suggestions - a salad sampler with Cranberry Pecan Field Greens, French Onion soup and Strawberries Romanov. UMMMM. :) Of course I made a huge mess by tipping over my drink glass before I even sat down. Can't take me anywhere. :) Both of us noted that the place really needs more staff - the tables were not very clean (even though the staff was bussing away all the dishes) and the wait staff at the ordering station were in short supply. Good thing the food is worth waiting for, eh? :)

I took my Guinea Fowl Tree wool embroidery piece along to Barbara's house after lunch (I'll have to take a photo of this, too). I found it recently in my sewing area and really want to finish it. Sadly, I did not take along any more wool pieces (I'm working on leaves for my four seasons tree right now) so I ended up adding quite a lot of embroidered embellishment to what was already there (and correctly flaws:).

Barbara was working on her next Jo's Floral Sampler block - choosing fabrics, cutting out pieces and then fusing them down (she will finish the edges with hand embroidery). She got the entire block finished as we sat and chatted.

Later in the afternoon, our friend Patty came over. She brought me a wallet made with the cool science-themed fabric at the top of this post, made by our mutual friend Caren (of Fitzies). I need to write Caren a thank you note (even though I bought this wallet from her:) for doing such a smash-up job. The button closure is gorgeous. I did not think to take a photo so will try to remember tomorrow. It was good to see Patty - I have not seen her since I got back from my trek.

I had to leave Barbara's house around 3:45 as I had another appointment with the allergy clinic for shots. This time the technician made me give them to myself (yuk) and quizzed me on the info she taught me last time (about storing the materials at home, how to recognize adverse reactions, etc.). I think I got it all correct. :) I still think this process is faintly icky ... but the shots don't actually hurt much and I will likely get over it all. Certainly it will be good to get rid of these annoying itches and swellings. :P

By the time I was done at the doctor's office, it was too late to take Blue to the repair shop. I plan to do that tomorrow first thing (well, once I wake up, whenever that is). I really want to go back to sewing with her. :) 

Other than that, my plans for the holiday weekend are to clean a little and sew a little for three (hopefully) happy days. :)

I managed to get more work done on my Octopus (sections G, H and I) and on my temperature quilt. I now have the first six days of May sewn up. I still need to trim them to size and then I will sew them together. I am thinking to have the high temperature squares run horizontally and the low temperature ones vertically ... or vice versa. Long as I do keep them together! Here are my first bits:

The first week in May started off cool but pleasant here ... and then devolved into days of rain with gray skies.

:) Linda

Thursday Fun

The weather has been wonderful today - warm but not hot (low 80's), sunny, breezy, many beautiful blooming things. The two photos above are of the Golden Chain Tree (Laburnum spp.). These are flowering now beside the roadways and look wonderful!

This is a flowering black locust tree, many of which are blooming away in the verges as well. So pretty. :) Locust trees are fairly common - the wood does not rot so fence builders of old loved these medium sized trees. I don't know whether the species is native to the New World or was brought here from Europe by settlers.

I went looking for native-to-Maryland plants to consider growing in my (ahem, much neglected) garden. Most of them I've found so far are annuals or need full sun. Sigh. We only have half days of sun in the far back quarter of our yard (too far away to enjoy).

I managed to get up at a 'normal' time today (9:30 a.m.) and go to the weekly daytime meeting of Faithful Circle quilters. I haven't seen most of these folks since it was winter - was a great day. I took the 30's embroidered flowers quilt top I just bought to show/share. Lots of happy quilt chatter, show and tell, and lunch afterwards. A group of nine of us went to a local Tex-Mex place called Mi Casa. Food was good, conversation was delightfully invigorating. :) 

After lunch I drove south to visit my local quilt shop, Springwater Designs. I was searching for more solids for my temperature quilt. I found a very nice blue for 'sky' and an agreeable light green ... but no dark blue (not even navy, which I do not want) for the low temperature end of the scale. 

It was nice to see my Wool Club leader, Carrie Castro there - working on the long arm ... and helping/cheering on Alice Magorian, a friend and former employee, who was quilting a very nice (large!) flannel quilt on another long arm (Springwater rents long arms and is an active sales center). It was good to see Alice since I missed another luncheon of former staff members while I was away. :)

Once I got home, I sat down and sewed two more sections of the Octopus (J and K) - if I make only two a day, I have three more days of work to do yet. :) I thought I would make more temperature blocks, but after I had added the two new prints to my legend chart and ordered two more solids (pale silver for 'partly cloudy' and dark royal blue for 'low temp'), I wandered off to my computer upstairs and started doing other things. :)

I rented Thor: Ragnarok tonight from iTunes and enjoyed watching it while my husband went out for his first evening of summer league bowling. He was chuckling when he got home later - usually, summer league bowling is for pleasure and not very competitive (compared to winter, at least:). He managed to bowl a 209 average tonight and so will be spending all season trying to live up to it (I think his usual average is closer to 185 or so:).

Tomorrow is mixed pleasure and pain. I'm looking forward to taking Blue to the fixer, seeing Barbara for sewing in the afternoon ... and getting my second alergy shots (not!).

:) Linda

A Little Biology

Before I went away on my spring trek westward, I had allergy tests. I've been bothered for several years by itchy, runny eyes and itching in my ears ... so went for testing. Now, I've had allergy testing twice before (years ago) but my Mom had the sort of reactions that got worse as she aged (one of two common patterns for allergies). I tested allergic to cats, black molds, timothy and wing scale grasses (those are common rural weeds). Today I went for my first allergy shots.

The theory behind the shots is that you get increasing doses of the thing(s) you are allergic to over time (about two years) and your body gets less sensitive to the allergens - eventually not allergic any more. Sounds good to me! The process is lengthy and somewhat aggravating - shots every other day for two years. :P Worth the sticking out if you can identify the things that bug your body. (fingers crossed here - that's my assumption:).

The shots themselves are intramuscular -  in the upper arm muscles - and with a tiny needle. Didn't hurt as much as a bee sting. Shrug. The first three sets you go to the clinic to get (they want to be sure you are correctly trained to give them to yourself) ... after that you do it yourself at home. I'm hoping I can manage not to be too squeamish. :P

The weather was mild today - mid 70's and mostly sunny with a pleasant breeze. Driving to the pharmacy (to get the needles and other supplies) and then the clinic was nice. :)

When I got home, I decided to give myself a day off from sewing tentacles. I poked around a bit and chose to start on a project I've been 'incubating' in my back brain all of this year - a temperature/weather record quilt. I created a color key for myself from one I saw online:

As you can see, I have two gaps still in  my fabric array. I ordered a nice set of solids (some are from Moda - Bella solids - and some from Benartex) before I left on vacation ... and they were here waiting for me when I got back. Hmm, this photo doesn't show the previous page which has the legend for Sky colors (blue, gray/cloudy/rainy) and precipitation (rain/snow). I also need to find a nice sky blue fabric.

Maybe I will get a chance to shop tomorrow. I have guild meeting in the morning but can go to my local quilt shop in the afternoon. :) I am going to try hard to get to guild - I want to see my friends and need the camaraderie. :)

Anyway, I had not settled on a pattern for my weather quilt until today. I knew I wanted to record high and low temperatures and sky color with precipitation (if any) for each day. Most of these quilt projects I've seen online are simple flying geese designs where the 'goose' is the high temperature, the 'sides' are the lows ... and maybe there is an indication as to whether it was warmer or colder the next day with the orientation of each f.g. block. 

I sat in front of my computer drafting software for a while considering designs ... I had tentatively thought about a square-in-square arrangement previously ... and today I refined my idea. I settled on making a four patch with two squares the high temperature color, the other two the low. This would be surrounded by four triangles that show sky color and (if relevant) precipitation. Here's how my first two blocks look:

This is the record for May 3rd and 4th. I am creating 6" (finished) squares. I am still dithering over exactly how to lay out my blocks but I am thinking of arranging two weeks across the quilt (i.e., 14 blocks) and how ever many rows (24? 26?) I need for the year. Obviously this is going to be a two-sided quilt 'cause all 365 on one side would be way too big for our bed (queen sized:).

I'm pleased to have finally started. I have been keeping weather records ever since the beginning of the year but I decided to start sewing with May 1st. I don't want to feel to 'behind' so I don't get discouraged. :) My records may run from May 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019. :) We'll see as I go along how much of the past records I can stand to sew up.

Otherwise today was quiet and pleasant. Saw a number of birds at my feeder today. The demand for seed has diminished as spring has come on and more natural sources are available - but the birds are still coming. I expect it is easier for them to eat while they nest.

:) Linda

Perseverence

In the spirit of that quote, I've been plugging along at my tentacle sewing. :) I _think_ I am about three fourths of the way done with the sections needed to be sewn. My son observed that in addition to sewing together a jigsaw puzzle, I'm making the puzzle pieces first. :)

Here's what I have added:

These are sections L and M.

Finally starting to look like tentacles. :)

I can only make two sections a day - this is truly tedious sewing at its best!

I had a podiatry appointment this afternoon. I'm going every other month or so right now. It costs me about $60 each time to carve off the callouses and hardened skin on my poor feet (sort of like an expert pedicure without the polish:). One of the more difficult (for me) parts of aging has been how much maintenance my body needs to stay healthy. Sigh.

While I was waiting for the doctor, I watched a big bird fly gyres above the tree tops out the (fourth floor) window of the exam room. I think it was a vulture - but whether the common Turkey Vulture of the less-common Black Vulture, I could not tell. It was maybe a mile away from me (in a straight sight line).

I watched it flying in high circles - maybe twice around while looking at the ground really well, then the next circle would move a bit farther away .... over a ten minute period it covered a LOT of ground/sky. I watched it until it was too small for me to resolve with my eyes. Seemed like a very thorough search pattern! The natural world is endlessly entertaining to me. :)

Other than my appointment and my sewing, today has been quiet. I started a new book (having finished the others) - Bluegate Fields by Anne Perry.

Hmm, did I mention I also read An Obvious Fact by Craig Johnson? That's one of the Walt Longmire books - I so much enjoyed the TV series, I went and found the first of the books ... and am slowly working my way through them. :)

It was damp and drippy again today. Not a bad temperature at 73 degrees. Everything is lush and green in Maryland.

:) Linda

PS. Linking to Let's Bee Social on Sew Fresh Quilts. :)

Warm and Humid

It is sunny and thus warm but very humid outside today - all that rain is still around. :)

I walked out to collect our mail for the week and got a pleasant surprise. Earlier this week, I bought a vintage, hand-embroidered quilt top from Mary Stori who is selling a collection online for a friend. The top came into my home today and I got to unwrap it - soooooo pretty! Very high quality background fabric (this is _not_ one of those sleezy cheesecloth muslins that poor housewives had to make do with during the Depression) ... and wonderful stitching. Here are more photos that I took to show the designs a little better:

I am really excited about this top. As it is, the size is about sofa/generous lap big ... so I'm debating whether to finish it as it or to add some kind of fabric border before having it quilted. Either way, it will be lovely. :)

Yesterday the Columbia area group of Friends Who Quilt from the Baltimore modern guild got together at Joann's to sew for the day. I managed to show up around 1 p.m. (just as everyone else was leaving for lunch:). I took my Flower Sugar quilt, the roll of binding I had made for it, and Blue. The quilt has been sitting around since January, waiting for me to finish it at long last. ;)

Now, I have not sewn on Blue since February some time ... but she's just been sitting in a corner of my living room, minding her own business ... and worked very well the last time I used her. Sadly, yesterday, I could not get her to sew. I cleaned her out (had to go onto the sales floor of Joann's and find a lint brush and machine-sized screwdrivers as I didn't have any in Blue's tool bag) ... rethreaded and scoured the manual thoroughly to try to figure out the problem. All I could tell is that the bobbin race is not catching the top thread correctly to make a stitch. Sigh. I will have to take her to be looked at soonest.

Luckily for me, Janet Schoenfeld came to the sew in and had to leave in the afternoon to go shopping (for work clothes). She very generously let me use her Janome (Gem?) while she was gone ... I worked hard at it and managed to sew the entire binding onto my Flower Sugar quilt (queen sized, finished by machine with a stitched chevron pattern in dark red thread). Hooray!! I got to put it on my bed last night  -  I'm so happy to be sleeping under it at last!! :)

Today I decided to persevere and go back to working on my octopus foundation project. Teeny tiny slivers of fabric were sewn (slowly) in between doing dishes, retrieving snail mail, and cooling off. I have about 1/3d or so of the beast sewn now. Here is how I left it for my next sewing session:

I've sewn sections X, W, V, R, P, Q, O, and N already. :)

Tomorrow is another day to dig into my messy second bedroom and work on clearing space for a sewing area.

:) Linda