Fiber and Pulp

Getting Hot

Today dawned bright and hot! The high was 95 degrees F - sure a warmish end to the month of June. :) 

My son rescued my de-starchified fabrics from the basement for me this afternoon. As usual, after I put them in the dryer yesterday, I forgot about them. :) Above is the charm square package of blues and the tiny charmlet bunch of Basic Grey prints. I was amazed that I did not lose any of either of those sets, truthfully. :)

Also showing is another set of the Meraki squares I bought when I did my big errand run this afternoon. The sleep demons did me in last night - I did not wake up until 1:30 this afternoon. Boo! Hiss! Sigh. Once I got upright and dressed, I set out to retrieve my day.

First I drove over to King's Contrivance Village Center to the cobbler's shop to pick up my sweetheart's revitalized shoes - new soles and heels. Buy good shoes and take care of them, right? :) _This_ time the cobbler was actually ready for me.

Then I struck out toward Frederick and drove to Shab Row again to re-visit Charlotte's Cottage. They were very nice when I called on Thursday afternoon - apparently I'm not the first person who has over-soaked their haul with a leaky bottle of Best Press from their shop. :P While I was there, I bought another set of those tiny charms. I decided that I needed enough of them to make nine 9Patch blocks - there are 42 in a set so I needed 81 (9x9), hence two sets. :)

My temperature blocks have taken a hot turn since Wednesday. Here is Wednesday and Thursday:

Went from gray and rainy on Wed. to hotter and bluer on Thursday. Then ...

Friday was about like Thursday (at least by my temperature scale colors:). But today ... definitely hotting up! I guess most of the country is getting this uber-summer weather right now? This is the time of year I get cabin fever from hiding out in the air conditioning. :)

Oh, I promised to share those other prints I bought on Wednesday while we were out larking:

I am a soft touch for text prints of all kinds. :)

This one made me giggle with the animal sounds. Probably end up being something kid related.

Definitely had farm on my mind - and bought an entire two yards of this one (that is extravagant by my standards. :)

Text and science-y too - covers all the bases. :)

Once I got home and cooled off, I started sewing. First I finished my temperature blocks (see above) ... then I set in to procraftinating (am supposed to be finishing my Jacks Chain piece:). I used those Meraki bits to make nine 9Patch blocks:

Yes, this is only eight of them - when I sewed the ninth block using the last left-over bits, I thought it was so ugly I didn't want it to mess up my pics. :)

The whole time I was sewing these blocks, I was debating. Remember, easy sewing and my mind goes off to Planet Linda. :) I had originally lain all these out thinking I would do the usual deconstructed nine patch thing by cutting each block apart at the vertical and horizontal centerlines. Then rearrange and resew them to create a nice table topper or small wall hanging (or really large pillow).

As I sewed, I debated whether that was what I wanted to make ... or I could cut them diagonally ... or along each side to create sashed nine patches ... or go looking through the Missouri Star videos to find some other nine patch idea. By the time I finished sewing them all, I chose to stick to my original plan.

Could not find my ironing pad (sigh - so seriously organizationally challenged), so left it all right there. Tomorrow I will take them with me to Sew & Tell meeting and press them ... then chop them up and resew them in some pretty way. :)

I know the photos make the darkest squares look like they are black, but they are actually deep brown - think dark chocolate. :) 

I watched a dvd from Netflix this evening (The Return of Xander Cage) and otherwise have been pretty quiet today. Reading when I need a break (Shadows Over Baker Street, a collection of selected short stories that meld Sherlock Holmes with Chthulu).

:) Linda

Highs and Lows

These past two days have been filled with conflicting emotions. I am not a person to enjoy confrontation - in fact, I try my best to avoid emotional conflict. Sigh. When I was a young mother, I did learn to hold my temper (usually) and say what I really wanted to teach my children instead of blurting out whatever came into my mind first (took quite a lot of self control). I used that skill even more during the 15 years of operating my quilt shop - retail business gives one more than ample opportunity for conflict resolution. 

Yesterday (Tuesday), our hvac company was _supposed_ to come install a new thermostat - which involved moving the one we have now to a new location where now-correct and necessary wiring could be connected to make the thing work correctly (we are having more than usual problems with regulating the temperatures upstairs and downstairs in our house). They said 'between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.' - and I could not go anywhere anyway (still without wheels as my car is in the shop waiting for them to find a part). 

I don't like being interrupted as I work apparently as I could not settle down and think for even a few consecutive minutes as I waited. I kept jumping from one task to another, getting nothing much done. :( As the afternoon wore on, I got even more restless. Eventually my husband came home from work (around 3:30) and I was relieved - he could deal with them so I didn't shout at the technician. Grrr. By the time 6 p.m. came, it was clear that no one was going to show up (and of course no one called). I was well and truly pissed.

In fact, I was so distracted and disturbed that I completely forgot that yesterday was also the designated date for voting in our state-wide primary elections. I make such a big deal about the responsibility to vote to my kids ... I was even more annoyed (think _really_ grumpy) when I realized that the polls had closed. (That noise you heard was my teeth grinding.)

I did finally manage to sit and sew long enough to make yesterday's temperature block. That's all I made, though. Went to bed grumpy (trying all the while not to let it all leak over onto my son and husband, neither of whom were at fault).

Today I got up early (for me) at 8:15 a.m. and ate a real breakfast. Got my shopping bag and my cold drinks together and was picked up at 9 a.m. by my friend Barbara to go off with her and Patty on a Row by Row jaunt. It was looking like rain as they came driving around my cul-de-sac but the birds were twittering in a hundred different cadences (probably all saying 'cover your nest, watch out, rain's coming!':).

We had a great day, despite the rain and traffic. Drove out to Hagerstown first to visit Traditions at the White Swan. Wendy and Dick have a very nice shop right on MD Rt 40 ... focused for the most part on antique reproduction prints and wool work/applique. It was pleasant to meet their new dog, Ollie, though he was fearful of my cane and did bark a bit at us. He's new (though not a puppy) and Wendy finally had to come out and chastise him and properly introduce us. Was good to chat with Wendy, too. One of my favorite shop owners. :)

I bought a few things there, most of which I cannot show you at the moment (more about that in a minute).

Then we drove back east to visit Charlotte's Cottage, Shab Row in Frederick. Again, this shop mostly features antique reproduction prints but there is a gentle leavening of modern prints to make it interesting. Here is where the low of today started.

One of the things I picked up in Charlotte's shop was a bottle of Tea Rose scented Best Press - my favorite fabric 'starch' solution (I think it is actually some kind of sizing). Also some other prints. The shop was busy - there was another group of five or six ladies out shopping in front of us - and the clerk did not pay attention as she was bundling and bagging  up my goodies.

Yes, you guess it - the entire bottle of liquid leaked out all over my fabrics on the way home. :( Major grumps when I discovered this (taking out my pretties to photo them preparatory to sharing them here). 

Here's a post-accident photo from when I tried to just rinse out the excess spray stuff. Didn't work so all these pretties (including one charm square and one mini-charm square packet of many little pieces) are downstairs washing in the machine as I type.

Besides having to wash all those fabrics (I don't usually prewash my material any more), I now have no Best Press, either. Sigh.

Not knowing any of this aftermath, yet, we went on to visit Patches in Mt. Airy, with a stop for lunch at Cracker Barrel (campfire luncheon with beef roast, potatoes, carrots and corn on the cob:) and dessert at Rita's. The food was good, anyway. :)

I did get a few photos of fabrics - the ones that were in a separate plastic bag from the Best Press:

I am attracted to perky flowers right now. :)

I am slowly amassing a collection of bee-related prints and patterns. My father (and his father before him) was a beekeeper - I have many happy memories of summertime honey gathering and watching out not to step on the many bees in the clover with my bare feet. :)

I have no idea what I will do with this print - other than make something for my grandsons - but I thought they were cute, cute, cute!

Patty found this print for me - I am thinking to go back and applique a raindrop shape on the corner of each of my temperature blocks when it actually did rain.

Another perky, bright floral.

Barbara found this bicycle print for my project ... my friends were doing a bang-up job as purchase enablers today. :)

When I got home and found the very wet mess in my shopping bag, I cleaned it up and then sat grumpily in my corner reading the new magazine I picked up at Patches:

I really like this design on the cover (though I have no particular desire to make a saguaro). There were a number of great articles in this issue but this one really twitched my switches:

I can really picture myself making something similar to this one. :)

 

Tomorrow I have some unpleasant phone calls to make (at least two) ... but I will put on my polite, positive but firm hat and deal with it. Get out of this on-and-off grumpy state!

 

:) Linda

Cooler at Night

It is finally Day Lily Season here in Maryland. I love daylily flowers - their bright orange (wild type:) faces shine from the roadsides everywhere these days.

This is a type of red daylily. If you click on the photo, you will go to site that explains how to plant and grow day lilies. :)

Today was a peaceful day for me. I had Wool Club this afternoon but, of course, forgot that my car is in the shop so neglected to seek a ride with someone in the club. Sigh. 

Instead, I spent an hour or so writing up birthday cards and letters and two small packages. I couldn't go to the main post office (maybe 1.5 miles away and too far for my feeble body to walk) ... but I remembered that our local fast shop store (used to be a Highs) has a postal substation. Yeah! I _can_ walk the quarter mile to there. Well, I thought I could. :)

The weather was warm (but not as warm as yesterday) and humid but not hot and sticky. Nice breeze - pleasant walking on the whole. I made it to the store with little trouble ... stumping along at my own (slow) pace. :) On the way home I stopped to breathe under a sidewalk tree ... and an acquaintance stopped her car and offered me a ride home. How nice! I had not seen her since my daughter graduated from High School in '99 (was surprised she recognized me:). Had a pleasant chat as she drove me the remaining three blocks homeward.

After I cooled off back in the a/c, I set about my sewing for the day. Today was the last block in this two week row of my temperature quilt. Here's at the bottom right is today's block (cooler background color than yesterday) ... joined to the whole which is now four rows long.

It took some time to assemble the sashing and join the new row ... so I ate lunch afterwards. Then I piddled about, trying to get myself to sew the last Jack's Chain circle ... unsuccessfully. I don't know why things seem so difficult sometimes and fly under the needle at others. Shrug.

Instead, I started in on a new small project - a sock animal for my new little grandson, Theo. Here is the photo of the project (click for a link to the free pattern):

I thought he was really cute so I ordered some small kid sized socks to make him up. They finally came this weekend and in I started. Here is where I left the job today:

Tomorrow I will stuff and assemble him. :)

I've always made such things by hand sewing in the past. Since I was sitting at the machine while I worked, I sewed it on my Nina today. Was not as easy and fast as I expected. Those are fuzzy socks I'm using and the machine objected to the thickness - sewing was slow going and I had to be careful because the knit socks are stretchy. Easier to sew by hand, I think. ;)

Other than that, I filled my bird feeder (the birds are busy feeding their babies I think - they ate their way through a whole feeder-full of seed in one and a half days!) ... did some dishes ... ate two meals ... generally got along with things at home.

The memory foam sheeting I ordered was delivered this afternoon so tomorrow I hope to cut out two pillow forms and finish making chair pillows for my husband's desk chair and the living room's rocking/gaming chair. :)

My friend Patty called this evening (I completely forgot to go to my quilt guild meeting tonight because I got so wrapped up in making the stuffie) - she invited me to go Row by Row adventuring with Barbara and her on Wednesday. Fun! 

Tomorrow the heating technician is supposed to come move our house thermostat to a new location where there can be better wiring. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly.

:) Linda

PS Sharing on Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By The River. Also with Let's Bee Social. :)

Thinking While Sewing

Like the Bear of Very Little Brain, I often think while I am doing other things - repetitive things that don't take much attention, like washing dishes or sewing by rote (that is, just pushing fabric under the needle:).

Sewing like making my daily temperature blocks is great for thinking ... there's my surface brain cutting, measuring and sewing together ... and then there's my back-brain, pondering larger questions. One issue I see already as I am about to finish my fourth row of blocks (one more day to go:) is the colors. 

When I chose a color scale for the temperature gradients, I arbitrarily broke it into ten degree increments from 0 to 100+ degrees. That means that a lot of the daily differences in temperature (for example, 82 degrees one day and 89 degrees the next) get smoothed out - both those temperatures are represented by the same color as I have the scale set up now. Hmmm.

I think it would be more revealing if I had, instead, set ten degree increments below the usual and above the usual, and five degree changes in the more usual temperature range.

For example, anything below 30 degrees would be by tens (0 - 9, 10 - 19, 20 - 29) as it is unusual for daytime temperatures to go below 30 in the winter (though it does happen, especially at night, so there has to be _some_ assigned color for below 30).

Likewise, I could choose temperatures over 95 to go by ten degrees (96 - 100, 101 - 109) and those between 30 and 95 to go by five degrees somehow.

On the whole, that would give more colors to use (might be a challenge) but I could go dark, medium, light with each step for more range of prints. It would make these days that change apparently little in temperature have more range, too. I feel like my quilt is mostly green and gray with a bit of yellow thrown in and the very occasional spark of orange (90 - 99). :) 

I will be working on a Fall/Winter quilt (there are so many blocks that a spring/summer quilt, which I'm sewing now, and a fall/winter quilt is probable) and I think I will try arranging a finer step-wise color scheme with that one. Might run into what colors are available ... but there is a broad range of solids available these days. :)

I slept late today (guess I was tired?). Once I got up and dressed and ate breakfast, my sewing was first thing on my mind. :) By way of warming up, I sewed my day's temperature block (note that I chose blue surrounds because it was sunny when I sewed my block; as I type this there is thunder and rain falling outside my window ... a whole day in one color choice is kind of 'iffy' here in Maryland, apparently).

Notice that it is warmer today than yesterday ... that blue should have some gray cross-hatching, eh?

I also sewed my daily Jack's Chain circle, and include yesterday's circle here, too (I only have one to go:).

I'm eager to get these circles together. I must say that I am getting more proficient  as I make these (practice has to be good for _something_!:).

After I finished those items, I decided to work on a bee block for one of my guilds. The assignment was to make a 9.5" block of Twisted Herringbone in gray, white, aqua and mustard. Hmmm ... dug through my pile of 'unassigned' prints and found some of each (miracle!) - though I don't have any white solids so 'low volume' has to do.

There was a link to a tutorial given with the instructions so I made this block after examining the tute:

What's wrong with this picture? Hmmm. This is a quarter log cabin, NOT a herringbone block.  Back to look at the tutorial again. OH! Now I get it ... sigh. Made this one:

Then I went back to my first (wrong) block and figured out how to cut it up to make a correctly-oriented herringbone block:

Aha! Made two to donate. :) I stay-stitched all the way around each of the blocks as every. single. edge. is. bias. (and I could not find my spray sizing:) :P I don't envy whoever is putting these blocks together!

I thought I would sew more after I ate lunch ... but I ended up feeling so comfy in my cushy armchair that I read all afternoon instead (Icy Clutches by Aaron Elkins:). Played a little solitaire. Went upstairs and balanced my bankbook (two months worth) so I could pay for my fall quilting retreat in good conscience. Wrote some birthday cards. You know, life.:)

:) Linda

Rainy Day Lark

I struggled yet again today to wake up - it was gray and looked like rain when I looked out my window around 11:30 a.m. As you can see from today's temperature block on the right above, it was cooler today (high of 71). Definitely rainy - rained off and on all day.

The little birds were flocking around the bird feeder all day - chickadees, house finches - taking advantage of close by food to avoid flying too much in  the rain, I'd guess.

My friend (and neighbor) Patty called around noon to see if I'd like to go with her to visit the quilt shop in Annapolis, Cottonseed Glory. Of course I said YES. :) I haven't been to Cottonseed since the Quest last November and it is always worth a visit. Since I still have no 'wheels', Patty drove (bless her! Was not very pleasant driving - lots of traffic _and_ rain).

I have to say that the shop was looking really fine! Bright and airy, heavily rearranged, with great fabrics (as always) - batiks, moderns, some repros, a nice selection of 'beachy' and 'boaty' prints, great pattern selection ... fun! Of course, I found some goodies to bring home with me:

 

This is their Row By Row kit for this year - a Fiddler crab on a pieced background with a great crab print for border. :) I don't usually buy kits but I liked this one (it has potential as a bingo prize, I think, too:).

I bought a whole yard (extravagance!:) of this print - I expect at least some of it will get used in my bicycling quilt.

This is a digital print of a shibori dyed snowflake pattern - it's about 10" or so wide. I have been gestating a snowflake quilt for years and this print really goes with that idea. :)

When we finished at Cottonseed, we started back toward home but quickly decided not to take the same route. The roads were really packed with backed up cars going west on 50 and up onto 97 north toward Baltimore. So, we took the 'local' roads to MD State 450 ... and decided to visit Tomorrow's Treasures in Crofton since we were going right past.

I have not been there for some time, either. The place is packed with fabric and there were only two workers so it took a little patience. We ran into some former customer quilters and had a fun chat. I must have had blue on my mind heavily because this is what I bought - some as fat quarters and some as half yards that Patty and I shared:

I don't know if this is the same collection as the big snowflake I bought at Cottonseed (I didn't look) but they look wonderful together. That shibori dyed patterning that I love so much. :) These will go straight into my 'blue' pile. Happy sighs! :)

We stuck to the 'backroads' all the way home - was much quieter. In places (like where we crossed route 1 for a couple of blocks) there were an incredible number of cars on the road. I have no idea why - summer? Friday afternoon? Sure wasn't the nice weather. :P

I did manage to sew a half of one of my Jack's Chain circles when I got home ... but half was all I could muster the interest to make. I have several errands to run tomorrow (since I will have a car:) ... and then it will be back to Planet Sew.

:) Linda

Summer Solstice!

Happy, Happy Day! I always look forward to the summer solstice every year. It's the longest day and the official beginning of summer. :) My s.a.d. revels in all the light. :)

Today was mostly cloudy here in eastern Maryland - looked like rain all day and I think it actually did rain part of the day (at least I heard plinks and plonks on the steel chimney tube aside our house that sounded like rain falling on it:). 

I made my (one!) temperature block for today. I decided earlier last week that I would change my pattern slightly with the solstice for something a bit summer-y-er. LOL. Here's what I chose:

A little more like a pinwheel and maybe flower-ish ... I like this block as a summer time pattern. Too much repetition is hard for me to endure. :) Notice that the temperatures have gone back to yellow (80's) and green (70's) for day's high and low .. and the skies are (surprise!) gray. Hmph. Still a 6" block.

I got up this morning to an automated call from my pharmacy telling me to come pick up my filled prescriptions. I got dressed immediately and started toward the downstairs, thinking I should get that chore done before it got hotter or even rained. As I got to the top of the stairs, ready to descend, my memory woke up and said, 'Whoa! You've got no wheels, remember?'

When I went out to drive to my friend Barbara's yesterday, my Dart's clutch pedal went straight down to the floor (yes, it's a standard transmission:). No shifting gears. So ...

I called up AAA and had a tow truck come haul my little blue car off to the fixers this morning. So much for picking up my meds. Sigh.

Once that was settled, I ate breakfast and started in sewing. Yesterday when I was at Barbara's house, I spent a couple of hours carefully cutting out pieces to make what Jinny Beyer is calling a Roselea Garden setting for my pretty 3" nine patch blocks in blue and green. Here's the idea:

I know this pattern by the name Jack's Chain and have always liked it. So, I counted my little nine patches and I had enough to make seven circles - like a Subaru (Seven Sisters) block, this would make one chain circle in the center and six around that for a circular-ish quilt.

I was so excited that when I got back home from Barbara's yesterday, I sat and pieced two of the circles as a test-of-concept:

I am thinking that this circle will be the central one.

I decided to try a different background for the outer circle of chains. 

There is a lot of slow careful piecing involved in making these blocks - a bunch of Y seams in each one (no, I don't want to count them all!:). So, if I make two a day, I'll get done in three or four days. Today I pieced two more:

As you can very well see, all the piecing is not perfect ... but it is pretty good for machine piecing, in my humble opinion. I'd get pretty darn close to perfection if I hand pieced these ... but I don't want to do that much slow stitching on this project. ;) I am eager to see how this works up ... and my machine piecing is acceptable enough. 

Other than those two blocks and my temperature block, I didn't sew anything else today. I seem to only be able to manage two or three hours of sewing a day. Otherwise, I putter - tidy the kitchen, read, play cards, laze about. You know, the retired life. :)

Skip and Hugh went grocery shopping today ... which is nice since the fridge was getting pretty bare. Now I have cold seltzer to drink, fruit to eat and fun things to sew. Life is good!

:) Linda

PS Linking to Off The Wall Friday. :)

Getting Dimmer

Today started off with sunshine but a bit cooler temperatures than yesterday (mid 80's). By early afternoon it had clouded over - I was sewing along in my own zonal reality and suddenly noticed that the house was darker than I remembered it being the last time I came up for air. LOL. I don't think it actually rained but it sure looked like it might.

When I sat down for my sewing session, I was intent on finishing up with my Amy Friend workshop block. My idea was to quilt and finish this block as a pillow to donate to the modern guild's fall bingo (for a prize:) ... but that changed as I will tell you. :)

Above you can see the brown leafy border I added and some of the quilting I decided to do - I used orange variegated thread (some of the Signature brand I won at the last retreat). I really like the effect of the variegation ... and the thread quilted beautifully. I don't think I've ever used Signature thread before so it was a pleasant surprise. :)

Here's another photo of the quilting:

As I was just finishing up the quilting, Hugh came in and admired the block ... and reminded me that I had promised a better (sitting on) pillow for the rocking chair in our living room where he and his Dad sit to play on the game machines. We decided together that the autumnal colors on this block would suit our living room very well ... so much for a donation. Will have to make something else! (When my son or husband venture any kind of positive opinion about anything I'm making, I listen:).

In order to fit the chair seat, the block needed to be enlarged from its current 16" square to about 17" x 20" (my son even rustled up his tape and measured the chair for me:). I decided to do that by adding some small stars on one side.

Here they are cut out:

Since these were such small scale (finish 3" square:), I used a different and slightly softer green ... but the orange fabric is scraps I had left over from the larger block. What is there about tiny/miniature things that makes them so adorable? :)

Hugh and I were laughing about that and he shared with me that he had read about an experiment online - someone scanned elephant brains while they looked at pictures of human beings. Reportedly the same parts of their brain lit up with activity as the parts of a human brain that get excited when we look at photos of kittens or puppies. That made me laugh right out loud! I have no idea whether the study is real or just another of those urban myths. Still, for some reason the idea that elephants might think people are cute made me laugh. Maybe small = adorable is a universal mammalian trait?

Anyway, I finished and attic-window sashed my tiny stars and then quilted them, too.

I thought about quilting lines in the crossing direction but left them in one way only at last. I think it echoes the outer quilting lines on the larger block pretty well. :)

After I quilted this addition, I sewed it onto the bigger block and added another sash to make the whole up to size:

I like the way this looks quite a lot. I ordered a piece of 4" thick memory foam to cut up for the pillow (I believe in pampering one's tush whenever possible:). Until that arrives, I can't finish the pillow. Hmm, guess I"ll have to go buy some large zippers, too. 

Once I get this one finished, I think I will make one for my husband's computer chair. That chair's pillow is pretty flat after years of use. :)

My friend Barbara invited me to sew with her tomorrow this week instead of Friday (she has an appointment). I think I will take all those pretty green and blue nine patch blocks I made a while ago and play with layouts. At the meeting I missed this month (had to be in class with Amy Friend:), Jinny handed out templates (gasp!:) to make the Jack's Chain pattern which I have always liked.

:) Linda

Summer Weather!

Today dawned very bright and hot - the projected high for today was 94 degrees (F) which is hot by my personal standards (though by Maryland standards 'hot' means above 95 degrees as we have a number of days every year over 100). I woke up before my alarm went off at 10 a.m. for the third day in a row (yeah!:). I had a number of errands that needed doing so I got dressed quickly and set out to finish them before the mid-day heat descended. 

I had to take my husband's work shoes (leather penny loafers) to the cobbler for new soles/heels ... drop off (and later pick up) a prescription at the pharmacy ... mail a letter at the post office ... and drop in to my LQS Springwater Designs.

I took along my four-in-a-block piece from the Amy Friend workshop and the brightly colored small quilt I pieced a few days ago - to look for borders and/or backing prints for both. Springwater shelves hold an eclectic mix of fabric types ranging from batiks to reproduction to modern prints.

I managed to find a fabric with rows of books in stripes for the border of the Modern Marks charm square small quilt (see photo above). I thought the print appropriate since this quilt is destined to be donated to the early reading project. :) I dithered over whether to use that print or another one in light green/red with a windowpane check as the backing - so I bought both (can always use another piece of fabric somewhere else, right?:). I'll make up my mind about which backing to use when I decide whether I'm going to quilt the baby myself or take it to be long-armed (with a bunch of other small quilts).

For the 'flower' block I made in the Amy Friend class I chose more of the brown-with-leaves print I used on the outer border (hmm, I see I have not shared a photo of the bordered square). I intend to make the block into a pillow for the modern guild's bingo. 

It was hot as I moved along doing my errands (thanks be to God that someone invented air conditioning and that my car has its own and that it works!). It took me a little while (and two large glasses of iced water) when I got home to cool down again. :P If I am this miserable so early in the season I might not survive this summer in Maryland. Sure to be much, much hotter before Autumn comes!

I also managed to finish sewing that last seam for the temperature quilt project AND took it outside to photograph. I'm pretty sure the handyman working at my neighbor's house (trimming and mulching the front yard) thought I was crazy. Grin. Here are the photos I took (don't poke fun at my poor quality front yard's greenery - we have six trees in a tiny pie-shaped yard and I'm not a gardener despite growing up in the country:)

This represents the daily high and low temperature and the sky color from May 1st until June 15th (I think). Notice how few blue sky days we had? Sigh. Also the one really hot (orange) day in early May.

My quilt will be queen sized so the top three rows are kinda long ... and of course I did not manage to lay it out straight. Shrug. The sashing colors represent the median temperature for the two weeks above ... slowly getting warmer as June continues. :)

As I have worked on assembling this piece, I pondered the blocks and whether to correct the various (not awful) 'errors' I found. I find repetitive piecing (like dishwashing) a good opportunity to think quietly about things. One thing that became clear to me early on is that my ability to cut and sew accurately varies from day to day. Major chuckles! I think this piece will be as much a journal about my state-of-being as a temperature record. I finally decided to leave my blocks as I found them by way of a record to myself. :)

My husband and I went out to a pleasant (local) restaurant for dinner. Since then I've been reading blogs, writing emails and generally fooling around. :) The pleasures of summer evenings. I wish I had a nice porch so I could watch to see if there are lightning bugs rising, yet. That was one of the prime pleasures of late summer evenings to my little girl self!

:) Linda

PS Sharing on Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion By The River. :) 

Weekend Delights

This has been a pleasant weekend, filled with 'doing.' :) As I think I mentioned in my last post, Saturday afternoon my modern bee (Quilting With Friends - Columbia) met to sew together from 1 - 9 p.m. at JoAnn's ETC. in Columbia Crossing shopping center. The classrooms at JoAnn's are comfortable, medium sized rooms with great counters and spaces for sewing. There were five of us (I think:) there to sew yesterday (some were away on vacation) and we solved the woes of the world (as one does:) while we sewed up a storm.

I decided to take the block kits for my temperature quilt along to sew up - that is reasonably mindless sewing that I can do while chatting and visiting with friends. :) (Also, I could not find the dratted pattern I bought to make my husband's new lunch bag). I managed to sew all but four of the blocks while I was there (eventually, I hit a wall and just cannot sew any longer - I finished and packed up around 4 p.m so three hours seems to be my limit right now:).

It was warm and sunny yesterday so the car was hot, hot when I got outside to the parking lot to go home. By the time I got home, the heat was really getting to me (the temperature peaked around 86 degrees according to my weather ap ... but my car's thermometer said it was 96 outside!). I had to rest a while, eat and drink a big glass of ice water before I could drag Blue and my blocks bag inside.

I did manage to sew the other four blocks before I gave up yesterday evening. YEAH! On my way to catching up. :)

Today the Mother Earth's birdseed store was having their 27th anniversary sale and shindig - the bird photo at the top of this post shows one of the several raptors that were visiting. Hugh and I went into the store to buy another 20 pounds of black oil sunflower seed (and some suet) ... then went off to enjoy the birds. 

The group was called Adventures With Raptors and struck just the right note of friendly information and hands-on fun. Of course, not all the birds there would allow themselves to be touched! Here are some photos I took (don't ask me which birds were what - not sure:):

I _think_ this is an Owl Eagle; it was hand-reared and very comfortable with people - here it has flopped down in the grass to rest. :)

This little raptor was tiny - smaller than a pigeon.

Here is the Owl Eagle again, letting some kids pet it.

The same tiny raptor, from the other side. I think it is lovely.

I'm pretty sure this one is a burrowing owl.

This is some kind of small 'horned' owl, being held by hand.

Another, different, small owl.

A different small raptor, again smaller than a pigeon.

The crowd was friendly and full of questions. We enjoyed our (short) stay! :)

When we got home and had refilled the bird seed and suet feeders, I sat down to sew again. All the blocks I had sewn yesterday needed to be trimmed square/even and then sewn together. I sewed for about four hours today (with two rest breaks) and am ALMOST finished catching up - I just have to sew the last seam joining together the first six weeks of my temperature project (even made today's block!) - hopefully I can take a photo of my first section tomorrow. When I 'hit the wall' I have to quit (or risk making gazillion errors:).

Other than my sewing, I've spent time reading, eating and sleeping. On the whole, a completely satisfying weekend!

:) Linda

Cutting It Up

Have you heard of the Great British Sewing Bee? Apparently you can watch it on YouTube (click on the photo to get the link). I will be checking that out. :) I found the reference while googling 'sewing with friends' - I got a lot of hits on that search. Other ones were less successful ('cutting with friends' brought out some unpleasant links to helping friends who cut themselves or advice on how to cut fake friends out of your social media life). Never know where you will go on the great web!

Yesterday was fairly peaceful. Hugh and I loaded up a pile of charity/donate stuff in the Dart and took it all to Goodwill. Feels good to get _something_ out of my house. :)

Once we got back, I spent some more time playing with my charm squares of the Modern Marks prints. Forty-two 5" squares come in a charm pack so I decided on a 6x7 square layout and played with color. So. Much. Fun! :)

When I got done I took my little top out to the driveway to catch some rays and photo the pretty bits - please pardon my big toe, it was windy and I really did not want to be chasing my pretty colors across the cul-de-sac. LOL.

Now I need to find a pretty print for a border and backing. I think this will become a donation quilt for the Reading Project at East Baltimore Head Start. Maybe I'll even do some big stitch hand quilting on part of this - the rainbow colors sure make me feel mellow. Grin.

 

Today was a lovely day - if the weather were like this all the time, I would be living in California (or Paradise:). High 70's and sunny, gentle breeze, humidity pleasant. Very nice. :) 

My friend Barbara and I went to lunch together at El Azteca in Clarksville. It was early in the lunchtime cycle when we got there (about 11:30 or so). OOOH, the food is good! I had something new (to me) today - Pupusas. The wiki has some interesting cultural details but the photo doesn't look much like what I had (presentation, you know:). Delicious barbecued pork with grated cabbage slaw on top, sauce, guacamole, black bean soup. Mouth-watering. :) Just the right amount of food for a good lunch (not too much:).

Afterwards we went back to Barbara's house and worked together on fabric-y stuff for the afternoon. I took my temperature quilt notes and fabrics and spent two hours cutting out all the fabrics for the blocks I am behind - I have a nice stack now and I think I will be able to catch up quickly. My blocks don't take long to make, one by one.

I also struggled with the arithmetic calculator on my iPhone to figure out the median temperature for each row of the quilt - I will use that temperature color for a sashing between rows. I have to say I was astonished by how very many gray or rainy days we have had in the past six weeks! No wonder there are mosquitoes everywhere. :P

Barbara picked up some goodies for me from the freebie table at our FCQ meeting yesterday morning and I had fun looking through those, too. Pretty laces, ribbons, threads ... treasures. :) She was working on sorting out big piles of fabric today. She worked her way through two tall piles of prints - first she sorted maybe 14" or so of novelty prints into broad categories (people, clothing, scenery, celebrations, etc).

Then, once those were archived, she brought out a similar pile of prints with multiple colors (but mostly no definite patterns) to sort. I talked her into sorting them by value (dark, medium, light, pale) since that's how _I_ use such things when I'm doing patchwork. We had some lively discussions as to what pile some of the prints should go into - it is really, really easy to get color confused with value. :)

Since I got home this afternoon, I've been reading (Fellowship of  Fear by Aaron Elkins), eating dinner, reading blogs and generally relaxing. Happy sigh. :)

Tomorrow afternoon my Quilting With Friends - Columbia modern bee is meeting to sew together from 1 to 4 p.m. I hope to work on making a new patchwork lunchbox for my sweet hubby (his is literally threadbare:). Maybe I can even get it finished? Also Hugh is insisting that we go buy more sunflower seed for the bird feeders - the critters have consumed 20 pounds of seed since early March (with some help from the squirrels on the cleanup squad, of course:).

:) Linda