Fiber and Pulp

Midweek, Midsummer

Isn't this a lovely picture? Apparently midsummer is celebrated in Sweden with vigor. If you click on the photo, you can go read an article about the details.

The weather here has been pleasantly midsummer-ish (for Maryland) - hot and humid. Temperatures have been in the high 80s to low 90s (which is moderate for summer hereabouts) ... and there have been roaming evening thunderstorms some days. The days are long (that is the part that I like best about summer:) and the evenings cozy.

I have been taking a break from sewing and focusing on catching up with my embroidery this week. I am a couple months behind in my snowflake/chicken scratch block of the month project so I've been reveling in the a/c and doing embroidery most afternoons.

I did go out today for a little while to pick up some sports themed fabrics a guild friend cut into block sized pieces for me (thanks, Marcia!!) and to get lunch for Hugh and I (drive through at Chikfila). Luckily my Jeep has a full tank of gas as the prices seem pretty high to me in our neighborhood stations (over $3/gallon). 'Course, I don't buy much gasoline these days as I mostly drive the Bolt (our electric car).

This past Sunday my Baltimore modern guild had an outdoor sew together at a local park. I was annoyed with myself for sleeping late so I didn't get there until mid-afternoon. It was WONDERFUL to see people for real, though! So good to know that everyone is ok and happy to chatter together. :) I took my embroidery there, too.

I think I am going to have to set aside a couple days each month to work on my guild's charity quilt projects. I've been doing the block of the month patterns for our monthly newsletter for a couple of years. Recently the membership decided to change from a monthly lottery drawing for the blocks made to a charity quilt making project. So far the response (number of blocks made) has been good ... so I need to start producing the tops. :) Someone else will be quilting and finishing them. Faithful Circle has an active Love Quilt program and I'm sure they will be happy to receive whatever I make.

Here's the embroidered section I finished earlier today:

I was very happy with that rainbow variegated thread I used for this section. :) Here's a little piece of the next section I started:

I have been randomly choosing colors for my different blocks as whim takes me. Eventually I will have to lay out my finished sections and do some color balancing, I imagine. :)

I talked to my daughter last night. She is growing a great garden this summer - she spent time, money and energy earlier in the spring building raised beds and is happily experimenting with an assortment of heritage vegetable varieties. She also laid out a bed for each of my grandsons so they could play, too. They all seem enthused with the project.

:) Linda

Favorite Fridays

I love the old redwork designs that were used to embroider kitchen towels (above are two examples). The ones I've seen to illustrate 'Friday' are divided between Friday-as-house-cleaning-day and Friday-as-baking-day. 

Personally I look forward to Fridays because that is the day my friends Barbara and Patty meet with me on Zoom (formerly in person) to stitch/sew together. :) Today was a pleasant meeting (with Patty joining in from her husband Jim's hospital room) and I worked on my Chicken Scratch embroidery some more. 

The design is graphed out and I have had no trouble making the first three patterns for this project (a block of the month endeavor). For who knows what reason, I am having real trouble following this month's graph. I've had to mark each block of embroidery as I do it to keep track of where I am. I don't THINK I've made any mistakes, yet, but I am not confident that I could really tell. 

I did decide to use some of that rainbow sashiko thread to embellish my embroidered block and the resulting colors are quite improving my attitude about this block (ready to throw it against the wall, truthfully, before the color injection:). :P I will grit my teeth, persevere and finish it as I do want to create the resulting quilt.

Today's mailbox afforded me a pleasant delivery. I ordered these things from Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, VA:

I enjoy English paper piecing and quite like the various block patterns by Brimfield. This little 'kit' has the acrylic templates and papers enough to make four blocks of the Soleil design. I will probably do at least one block for my Saturday morning sampler quilt (a previous bee quilt project). :)

These fabrics might seem ho-hum to you ... but I have a passion for batiks and for irregular stripes. The minute I saw these, I had to order some (I did restrain myself from ordering every color they are made:). I am hoping that they blend with my Earth Made Paradise prints as I picture these as lovely stems for my applique. :)

Artistic Artifacts is a fun shop and their delivery is always fast. I ordered these goodies (online) on Sunday and they arrived yesterday (the following Thursday's mail).

I have several tasks to complete, sewing-wise, in the next few days:

    Write my block-of-the-quarter column for the Faithful Circle guild's newsletter;

    Write up the directions/tutorial for my block for Stash Bee (I'm the designated August Queen:);

    Design the applique pattern for the central medallion of my Paradise medallion project; 

    Choose and plan out my block for the Faithful Circle guild Halloween block exchange;    

    Various and sundry household improvement chores that are never ending.

Life is never dull!!

:) Linda

Placid

When I think 'peaceful summer day,' this is the kind of image my mind imagines. Placid sounds of water flowing gently, insects buzzing, dappled sunlight, maybe a soft breeze. :) What I'm getting this summer is entirely too much of  our house's interior. :P The weather does not inspire me to be outside during the middle of the day (way, way too hot and humid) ... but I'm sure tired of indoors! Hard to motivate myself to go out ... so I sew or read or nap. (Truthfully, I'm spending entirely too much time asleep)

I'm still working on the Earth Made Paradise central medallion. I have three sides of the first patchwork border sewn on and am making the fourth side now. My sewing time is limited by my body - looking downward right now is aggravating my neck and causing considerable pain. I am reluctantly coming to think it is time to go see my (non-surgical) orthopedist again. :P

I am also making obligation things. Yesterday I sewed together a block for the July Stash Bee (Hive 4) Queen, Mary:

Each of those square unit measures 2.5", finished, so it's a fairly large block. I think her quilt will be pretty awesome. :) In the course of sewing it up, I finished off another large spool of Aurifil thread:

I don't empty many spools so I always feel that it is worth a photo to record the accomplishment. :) That spool was white thread of which I did not have any more when I looked in my thread boxes ... so now I am using light gray.

I also bought a new pattern this week (real copy rather than pdf download). I am eager to try making this one:
I remember the calls of quail and bob-whites (as my Grandfather called them) from my childhood summers on the farm in western Virginia (Wise County) ... fondly. 

I started working on my Snowflake embroidery project again - with Wise Handcraft - since there appears to be a break in the Halloween embroidery mystery patterns (Meg has been issuing them one at a time). Once I get caught up with the chicken scratch, I plan to start working on this quail quilt. A just-for-fun-and-bright-colors project. :)

Time for bed ... and dreams of new quilts to make.

:) Linda

Hot July!

“Youʼre under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago.”

— Alan Watts

 

I don't know whether the weather this July is worse (or better) than last year - I just know it is HOT and HUMID outside. Sigh. I tend to get cabin fever in the summer because I stay in so much. The winter weather here in Maryland is easier for me to bear than the summer. I can always wear more clothing to stay warm in winter but it is difficult to take my skin off when I'm too hot. :) I should complain - if that is the worst thing life has to hand me, I live on Easy Street! :)

My sense of time is still on Covid-float ... the days roll past and I do pretty much the same from one to the next. Today I did something different. I drove my friend Patty to Reisterstown to renew her driver's license at that area's DMV office (where she could get an appointment). I took the easy way out and stayed in the car while she dealt with the bureaucracy and got her new Real ID driver's license. She gave me a lovely two yard chunk of Hoffman 1892 batik ('watercolor' in pale blue) for my trouble.

I had an immediate use for the yardage - as a background for my Earth Made Paradise project. 2 yards won't be enough for the entire quilt but it will make a lovely central body for the medallion. I spent the time during this evening's (zoom) modern guild sit & stitch meeting putting the first border on the center of my quilt. Feeling my way at each stage, like I did with the Aboriginal medallion quilt. Fun!

Yesterday I went to bed really pleased with myself. I finished my fabric covered book project yesterday evening! Ali Manning of the Handmade Book Club led a five day challenge to create this book and I was very pleased to finally take the plunge and work along. Here's my book (there are lots of mistakes - as anyone of you who is a book maker can tell, I'm sure - but it is finished and I can use it:).

 

In a way this was an up-cycling adventure, too. The cover fabric (designed by Laurel Burch) was given to me as a freebie by a fellow quilt guild member. The book board used for the covers was recycled from a broken log book I had (the original was spiral bound and the wire was broken and mangled). The pages were recycled from a school essay paperback book. As you can see, the pages are grid paper (4 to the inch). I will use this book as a maker's journal for my various fabric and fiber projects. :)

Another paper arts project that I finished recently was making four swap pockets to trade with a fellow paper artist named Lydia in California (the swap was arranged by the Handmade Book Club leaders). I thought I would share the pockets I made today and the ones Lydia sent to me maybe in my next post. The idea behind these pockets (which are made from single sheet of paper and then embellished/filled) are that they can be tipped into (added) another book, scrapbook, or other paper project. :)

I haven't done anything I would call 'creative' for a while. It was a real joy to sit and dream these things up and then make them to my imagination. :)

Summer rolls onward. I have quilts to make and things to do before I sleep.

;) Linda

Fireworks Plus

Yesterday I was sitting in my cushy armchair in the living room, eating my lunch and filling in my daily crossword puzzle (on my smartphone:). Suddenly, I heard a loud bang - a bird had bashed into the big glass door beside me. Startled by the noise, I looked to my left to see not only the bird fluttering away into the bush nearby but also the red fox that was trying to catch it! I am pleased that here in suburbia we see so much 'wildlife' that has adapted to living near human busy-ness - squirrels, rabbits, coyote, ground hogs, skunks, raccoon, and now foxes. This is actually the second time I've seen a fox in the daytime in our neighborhood but the first time so near a house. :) The fox I saw was slender and somewhat small. I couldn't tell its sex or age from looking. It/she/he looked disgusted with itself for missing the bird and then walked off through the bushes, obviously keeping its eyes open for more bird-jumping opportunities. I have heard them barking and calling at night (the breeding call of a female fox is an eerie scream like a terrified woman).

Life has a too-quiet-for-me pattern here chez Schiffer. Broken occasionally by trips to the post office or for doctor's appointments, I generally sew or do other hobby working in the early afternoon for two or three hours. I spend the rest of the day reading books, visiting Instagram to look at quilts or playing solitaire on my computer. I have a number of regular weekly Zoom meetings that keep me socially engaged (as well as one can be engaged without face-to-face meetings). Otherwise, I rather feel as if I'm composting. :)

Lately I have been spending an hour or two in the early evening watching my husband play video games and chatting with him. Since he doesn't watch television, it's our only opportunity for screen time together. :) Anything video-wise I watch is done streaming from my desktop computer as I long ago canceled our cable tv service.

Once a week my daughter calls and I get to chatter with her and my two grandsons (6 and 3 years old now). I deeply enjoy those chats even though they are generally small talk about our daily lives. One thing about the virus lockdown is that I have become convinced how important simple daily life is to my well-being. :)

I have two new projects going on at present in my sewing room. Earlier this year I bought a half-yard bundle of Kathy Doughty's newest fabric collection Earth Made Paradise by Free Spirit. It is rare for me to buy that large a selection of a collection - usually I limit myself to fat quarter bundles. I really like the colors and 'feel' of this one, though, so I splurged. Now I am finally starting on making a quilt with the beauties. :) I dug out my Go! accuquilt diecutter and cut a set of 4" tumbler patches using one strip of each of the  17 prints in the collection. 

Now I am sewing them together in rows, trying to do a somewhat random arrangement of each print. Here is my first four rows:

I've hung this piece vertically for space but I imagine this as a horizontal beginning to a central medallion of eight rows of eight tumblers each. As you can see, two of the opposite edges are slanting. I think I will use those two spaces to do some applique work a la Kathy's book, Organic Applique. I decided as I sewed a second section this size today that I will make another medallion quilt with my fabrics (rather like the Aboriginal medallion I made last year which now lives on my cushy living room armchair). I will decide as I go along what borders to create/add. The only decision I need to make soon is what color the 'background' fabric should be (I'm thinking to find a soft blue-gray like the background of the print with pink parakeets you see above). Market forces will determine what I find, of course. :)

The other thing I'm working on at the moment is a fabric covered book with sewn binding. Ali Manning of the Vintage Handmade Books group is leading a week-long challenge and teaching this project. So far I have made my two fabric covered book boards and the eight signatures of paper (I'm using quarter inch grid paper as I expect to use this as a quilting journal). Still to come are punching the holes and sewing together the book. I probably won't do that until early next week as I need to prepare for the Modern guild monthly meeting on Sunday afternoon. :)

So, not bored but not too busy, either. Life is flowing along here ... with a summertime casual beat.

:) Linda