Squirrel

This has been a full week with many distractions. :) I last wrote on Tuesday evening, late. Wednesday dawned sunny and warmer than usual - the high for the day was 74 degrees! Random temperature fluctuations are not that unusual here in Maryland and this one was welcome. :)

My friends Barbara, Patty and I took a road trip southward to La Plata, MD in the sunshine. We braved Washington beltway traffic to go around the city to the east, past Andrews Air Force base, and then south to Charles County, to visit Material Girls quilt shop. It took us just over an hour to get there (we made good time). I have not been down since late last summer and it was a pleasure to visit. I always enjoy chatting with Robin (Mom) and Amy (major operator). :)

I actually made a shopping list of 'basic' things I could think of that I need in my sewing room ... and, of course, I bought some niceties, too. Here are some pics of my haul:

I saw this sample on the front wall of the shop as I walked in and snatched up the pattern. It is made with 1.5" strips which is one of my scrap cut sizes. I'm always attracted to interlacing designs, too.

I saw a review of this book online and was glad to get a look inside. I bought it because there are a number of good ideas for using scrappy bits.

For some reason I had 'background' prints on my mind when I looked at fabrics. The cute scissors/case went straight onto my computer desk for 'tv' sewing when I got home. :)

These goodies fell under the 'basic' shopping list - more machine needles, some clear vinyl for making project pouches - as well as 'squirrel' pretty threads (on sale for $2 a spool).

So, shopping was fun. We had lunch at the little deli around the corner from the shop. Their salads are a pleasure to eat. :) The drive home was sunny. Could not have asked for a happier day! I was tired when I got home, though. Gotta go into training to ramp up my stamina for quilt show visitations. :) Wednesday evening is a regular weekly Zoom chat & sew with my Baltimore Modern guild buddies ... but this time I just sat in my comfy chair and chatted while they sewed.

Thursday was a quiet day. I sat and thumbed through that Crumb Quilting book a bit. There were a few patterns that really caught my eye:

I like the idea of using scrappy bits to make applique shapes. Leaves always get my attention, too.

Here the applique design is probably reverse and there is hand embroidery to accent it. Hits several of my check points :) I can see myself making an entire (small) quilt of this design.

I've been thinking about making a quilt with irregular flower blocks like this for a while. Not sure I'd do the block-block-block assembly like this one, but the idea _should_ stick to me.

 

I managed to do some sewing on the Morris interlaced quilt I'm making for my daughter in the afternoon. It is sloooow going as I have no design wall (yet!) in my sewing room ... so I had to carefully choose what fabric squares to place where so the interlacing design was clear.

I also started working again on my embroidered silk hand project on Thursday evening while watching episodes of Time Team on YouTube. :) I carried it with me to Barbara's house on Friday afternoon for Sewing Together with B and Patty, too. Don't know which time I did these bits so am sharing them together:

The way I've been approaching these fingers is to embroider a 'spine' of some kind and then embellish it with other stitching. Here is the Hungarian Chain stitch spine I made for finger number three.

And here is how that spine/finger looked after additional embroidery.

Here is the thumb area showing the Chevron stitch spine and embellishing.

And my stab at the littlest finger area with a Fly stitch 'spine' and leaves/flowers from there.

I am really enjoying this project! I'm at the stage now where I will do small areas of various 'braid' stitched around the central heart in the palm area. Still have not decided exactly what I will put inside the heart.

Saturday (yesterday) afternoon is the usual Quilting With Friends zoom for the Columbia area of the Baltimore modern guild. I _thought_ I would work on the Morris interlacing project ... but, when I got out the bit I had finished on Thursday to look it over, I realized I had made a BUNCH of errors when piecing last. Grrr! 

Here is where the squirrel comes in. I was so annoyed with myself and the struggling with my dyslexia, I dragged out my scrap bags and started a charity baby quilt to calm my piecing nerves. :) Barbara had hung an uneven log cabin top on Friday afternoon as one of our 'discussion' events (she often solicits opinions from Patty and me about fabric choices) ... and I remembered that I like the circular visual illusion of those blocks. So I got some bright 2.5" strips and some 'background' 1.5" strips and went to piecing.

I made four 'round' log cabin blocks and then four spiral design log cabins (my very favorite log cabin layout). Today I pieced a Housetop log cabin (giving it the Gee's Bend name:) and put this top together (it measures about 42" square):

I like this a lot and am glad I could turn my negative annoyance feelings into a positive outcome. :) That makes TWO charity tops I will need to quilt. 

Now I'm off to eat some dinner and then probably embroider some more. I have two Netflix dvds to watch (not at the same time) while I work. Life in retirement has its compensations.

:) Linda

Rain, Rain

I have eyeglasses on my mind today. Yesterday I spent most of my time in the sewing room, with a break to visit Springwater Designs (I bought some more William Morris fabrics to help in the enlarging of the sofa quilt for my daughter). The other major task for the day was to get in touch with a 'family' legal firm in Kansas to begin the guardianship process for my younger brother. Oh, and my son and I made corned beef with potatoes in the crock pot for dinner (the house smelled really good all afternoon:).

Today dawned very, very gray. By the time I went out it had begun to rain and has been raining ever since (as I type this, the forecast says rain is supposed to end just before midnight). I needed to run two errands while I was outdoors.

We have been banking with a local independent institution since pretty early in the years after we bought my quilt shop. Very recently the bank's owners sold out to First National Bank and, will-we, nil-we, we have a new place to deal with. The previous branch location we habitually used is gone and I had to find the nearest FNB branch to deposit a (very tiny) check. I frequently give major thanks for the existence of GPS/Map apps and today's search made me give out a particularly loud hosannah! :) Had no idea where to go and was lucky to figure it out, courtesy of Apple Maps. Whew!

As I mentioned, the other errand I had was to visit the eye doctor we use to order new glasses. Not my favorite occupation, to say the least. Took me a while to decide but much less time than is usual for me as there were really FEW choices I even considered marginal. Sigh. The price of eyeglasses is ridiculous, too. I know that makes me sound like a miser but, seriously, $450 for fixed-focus simple eyewear? I think retirement might drive me back to the 'big box, low cost' sources. :P

Anyway, once my errands were completed, I sloshed my way home and spent the rest of the afternoon sewing. Today I got half of the border strips pieced for my daughter's quilt. Here's a teaser for what I did:

I think of this shape as 'picket fence slats' - you can see the pattern layout there beyond the Morris fabric patchwork section I am sharing here. I have another two sides/border strips to finish piecing and then I can begin on putting together the body of this design. I settled yesterday on a block pattern I want to use at the top and bottom of the quilt to lengthen it (my daughter is short-ish but my son-in-law is not:).

I really enjoyed my sewing and would still be at it but the lighting situation in my atelier is pretty dismal after sundown. Sooner or later I will find the Stella lamp I bought while I still owned the store to set up in there. Sigh.

Tomorrow I am venturing out on a day trip with Barbara and Patty - REALLY looking forward to it!

:) Linda

Friends Meeting

This is definitely in line with my personal opinion, especially in these days of social isolation! :) Today was the scheduled monthly meeting of my Sew&Tell group via Zoom this time. Some of us were missing for various 'ordinary' and 'special' life reasons ... but those of us who came enjoyed one another's company. :)

It was also my daughter's (my oldest child's) birthday. 41 years ago I became a mother and my life changed forever (for the better, in my experience:). Being a mother has enriched my existence multifold and beyond any expectation I ever had before the fact. I've learned and grown in many, many different ways in the aftermath! I did call my dearheart and wish her a great day (she was excited to be going to visit her in-laws with the family - their gift to her was a day sans children to spend with her husband:).

Back to S&T. I spent the entire afternoon in my sewing room which is situated upstairs at the southeast corner of our house. Today was sunny, without the wind that was so chilling earlier in the week and not too cold (mid to high 40s). It was really pleasant to sit at my sewing machine in the afternoon sunshine!

I sewed two labels on baby sized charity quilts (our guild makes labels to put on the quilts we donate).

Then I managed to finish making a felt bowl that I have struggled with for some weeks, off and on. I bought a kit from The Bead Shop in the UK - saw it on a YouTube video and liked the idea. :) I struggled with it first because of the kind of thread included in the kit - very strong but very slippery. My hand strength was just not sufficient to manage tying off at the end. I had some bobbles with following the instructions, too (not the fault of the video, strictly user errors:). Finally today I managed to get my act together - I chose to use some of my book making waxed linen thread instead of the beading thread included with the kit ... and that worked fine for me. Here is the result (scissors added for scale - not sure exactly what I will really use the bowl for, yet:)

My apologies for the scattered light effects - was nicely sunny in my room. :) Having made this one, I will likely order more of these kits as I think they are lovely general purpose containers.

Once I had accomplished those two tasks ... I turned my mind (already focused as my back-brain was on my daughter) toward starting a 'new' quilt project. (I can't make any more headway on the embroidered quilt until the additional brown fabric I ordered online arrives). I promised my girl quite a while ago to make a nice sofa quilt for her/her family to go with their pretty Arts&Crafts style sofa/living room furniture. I'm FINALLY going to work on that.

I've dithered for several years over finding the TWO fat quarter collections of William Morris fabrics I bought for the purpose (heaven alone knows where I've stashed them). Then over just what project I should make with them. I finally decided to cut past all that when I visited my local quilt shop (Springwater Designs) recently and found the new 'Best of Morris' collection by Barbara Brackman for Moda. The sample they made is a very contemporary design but I like it and said 'Go for it, Linda!' to myself. :)

Anyway, I started in on cutting for the quilt and managed to get the bits for the body and first border produced before we called our meeting to an end. YEAH! When I go back into my sewing room (tomorrow, with any luck), I can start sewing right away. One of my coping-with-easily-distracted-self techniques is to try to always leave my working area in an easy state to begin again ... where it is obvious to me what I should do next. Any time I don't do that, it takes me ages of dithering to get going. :)

Here is what I managed the last time I worked on my embroidered quilt project (last Wednesday? Thursday?):

Just a quick pic to record progress made. :) Pegged up on my blackboard and waiting for more buddies when fabric comes.

In the evenings this week I've been working on free hand embroidery of my silk hand image. Here are some photos to show where that had gotten to (I've done more work since this but not taken more pictures):

I'm pleased with how this is coming along. I do so enjoy free hand surface stitchery - basically, the 'old fashioned' kind of embroidery my Grandma taught me as a small child. Pretty much what I do with crazy quilting, without the seams. :) The thumb area is mostly finished now and I'm contemplating how to proceed with the next finger length. I'm thinking of putting initials and dates inside the heart ... but my ideas will develop as I go along. I tend to 'gestate' the design as I proceed - I find that MUCH more entertaining than trying to make all the layout/design decisions up front. Less taxing, too!

When the S&T Zoom finished, I went out for a drive around my neighborhood in the sunshine. And ran into a big black billowing cloud over on Snowden River Parkway - avoided driving toward the area to see what was happening when two fire trucks roared past me on the road. When I got home, I hit the Google and discovered that there was a big fire at the Lincoln Technical Institute building a little farther up SRP than I drove. From the size and energy of the clouds I saw, it must have been a pretty big fire.

Tomorrow should be pretty quiet, though I do have to deliver those two baby quilts to the guild collecting volunteer. Otherwise, sewing is on the menu.

:) Linda

Energy

Now for a very personal and un-compensated public service ad: 

    The five-part "What is Writing?" series was recorded and is now viewable at https://youtu.be/Tu7hYGimlh4.
Next week's talk, the last in the series, will be "Why are mother tongues and mother scripts important?"--a topical subject given that International Mother Language Day is the following day, Monday February 21--is available for registration (click on the photo above).

One of my odd patreon accounts is to support Tim Brooks in his efforts to preserve the little-known and vanishing writing systems of the world. Currently he is trying to save some obscure southeast Asian writing systems that are nearly as old as the ancient Chinese characters. If you believe in the preservation of indigenous culture and history, go read about Tim's work and contribute a few dollars. Please. :)

 

Today was actually pretty busy for me. I woke up yesterday around 6:30 a.m. Today I managed to sleep until 9:30; hard to say if that was because of or in spite of the cloudy weather. :) I must be healing more as I'm definitely feeling peppier these days! I got somewhat frustrated yesterday as I was sewing together my new machine cover because of all the 'stuff' sitting around my work area. Most of it is tools and things I need to be able to access easily and quickly ... but my machine's table is small (the one I'm using right now, anyway) and the crowded state of it was making me squirrely. 

So, today, after I ate breakfast, I started digging into the detritus in my workroom and finally found the Raskog rolling cart I bought for my 'stuff' last fall when I visited IKEA in White Marsh. I am not a particularly handy person with building things, but I thumped and bumped my way around until I had the thing unpacked and put together. (My husband did come to check to be sure I was ok as all the metallic thumping worried him:). YEAH:

While I was in the room, I took a photo of my machine covered in its new protective wrapping, too. This shows the un-embroidered side as that is where I was standing (near the room's door):

By the time I finished and wheeled my new cart into the sewing room, I had to leave to go to a dentist appointment. I broke off the bottom edge of an incisor around Christmas time in December and I finally got to get it fixed. Luckily the break did not go into the nerve so my guy (Dr. Katkow) could do the work without novocaine. Now my mouth feels 'normal' again. More yeahs! :)

I went back to sorting through 'stuff' for a while when I got back home - I managed to clear about half the hallway outside my sewing room. Tomorrow I might be able to finish the rest. :) Among the things I unpacked, sorted and stored correctly was a nice big tote full of gifts from my Sew&Tell holiday exchange in December. So fun to find all the goodies again - like Christmas all over. :)

Among other finds, there was a very nice set of playing cards from (I think) my friend Barbara with pretty quilt pattern backs. Recently I watched a video on You Tube from Kit Davey on making a lovely box using cards so I used about 1/3rd of the deck to make myself a nice small box. (I hope B will forgive me - I am too clumsy to play with cards by hand any more, especially when my computer does it so much better:)

I'm quite pleased with how this made up. You could use any kind of equal-sized papers to make this box. I might try one with hand colored or printed things next time. My daughter fancies boxes of various kinds; maybe I can make one for her. :)

By the time evening came, I was pretty tired so I sat down at my computer desk to watch 'tv' and embroider quietly. When I was searching my room the other day, I came across a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric I won in a blog drawing from Laura Wasilowski a couple of years ago. It had a hand shape printed on it (think 'Hand of Fatima' or hamsa). Since I finished my chicken, a new embroidery project was needed and I have started in to work on this. Not sure where it will go or what it will be made into as I'm doing this entirely intuitively. :) Here's what I've made so far:

This photo makes the darker purple seem dominant on the print. It really looks a bit more medium to me with my eyes. The outlining thread is a light purple but the contrast makes it look gray to me. :) More of that lovely primary variegated Sashiko thread is the embroidery so far. It makes for good tv watching hand work as it is not too taxing mentally.

My daughter suggested I watch Time Team, a British archaeology/ancient history program, since I enjoy such things (and my entire ethnic background is English with a little Welsh and west African thrown in). I enjoyed three episodes on You Tube as I stitched this evening - and there are lots more to go. :) Quite fun.

When my hands got tired of needle and thread, I finished a double page spread in my Creating Art journal, exercise 20 from Creating Art at the Speed of Life. This one was a little more involved than most and took a couple of days, mostly due to drying times. :)

The purpose of this exercise, beyond learning the technique of creating and using paper clay, was to explore the disjunction between the 'masks' we wear outward and the feelings we have inward. I have never done much with paper making so creating the mask itself was interesting.

As usual, I recorded my thoughts on the whole lesson.

I enjoyed making the mask which has a double layer of 90 pound watercolor paper as a base and then is built into dimensionality with paper clay and finally covered with a paper mache 'skin.' The stamped/painted rectangle of paper I used to hinge the mask to the watercolored surface beneath is a bit of something I created on a gelatin plate years ago.

On the background page, behind the mask (see it, hinged forward, on the right side of the picture?), we were to use resist to write the various feelings and ideas we conceal from the outside world as we 'wear our mask' daily. The resisting agent I used was not very successful so I re-wrote my words with regular pens. I need to get a better resist crayon/pencil.

So, busy day. I am reading the newest J D Robb mystery Abandoned in Death right now (it was just published) and listening to Death of a Green Eyed Monster (a Hamish McBeth mystery) on audiobooks.

Tomorrow I have to go for my annual echocardiogram of my heart. Fun, fun, fun never stops. :)

Linda

 

Under Construction

Today was a pretty, sunny day but chilly. It _is_ winter (sigh). :) I did not step foot outside my front door today but did soak up some sunshine while working in my sewing room.

I started in on the construction of my sewing machine cover. Unlike the makers of that housing construction above, I was pretty much feeling my way on this project. I know what I want to make - I even have a mental image of the end product - but have been experimenting my way to the results.

Because I am working with scraps instead of dedicated yardage, I was not planning to simply applique down the chicken shape on my rectangle of cover fabric. I measured my machine and realized that I want to quilt a rectangle about 16" wide by 22" across to cover the machine (above the sewing platform which sits down into the table). The ends will be open with ties to hold it onto the machine. Basically, the cover will be shaped like a big placemat with two ties at each end.

So, I had to measure the chicken shape then estimate how much fabric to add beyond each end to make the length up to 16" or so. The chicken itself is about 12" tall which is already a bit more than half of the 22" total that I need. I found some double sided fabric tape to apply to the edges of the cut out shape that helped hold the added fabric strips in place so I could sew on the chicken. 

I'm sure none of this makes much sense without a visual. Here is the finished first (outer) side (I chose to start with the un-embroidered chicken for practice): 

If you click on the image to embiggen it, you can see the 'fancy' stitch I used to applique down the raw edges of the chicken. I wanted the edges to be firmly held in place. :)

Tomorrow I will piece the embroidered side together. Also, if I get up early enough (so I have enough day length), I might be able to piece the backing and get the cover quilted. Fingers crossed. :)

I did manage to make that third important phone call today. I learned two useful things - lawyers in my area charge $335 per hour for assistance (wow! I definitely majored in the wrong discipline for money making) ... and I need a lawyer in Kansas to pursue guardianship of my younger (disabled) brother (because he lives in KS). The hunt is ON.

:) Linda

Fancy Hen!

This is a very colorful bantam rooster - brightly feathered. :) My hen is not nearly this elegant but she sure is colorful!

Today was a quiet day. I managed to make two out of three of my important phone calls (plain forgot to make the third, despite my calendar notes - task for tomorrow). When I woke up, it was chilly in the house because of the outdoor temperatures - my husband told me it was 12 degrees Fahrenheit when he left for work (probably around 5:30 a.m.). 

In the process of getting dressed, I decided to put away all my clean clothes (fresh from the laundry my sweetheart did on Sunday afternoon while I was playing with fabric:). In the process of doing _that_, I lost all patience with the junk cluttering up the floor of my closet and had an impromptu and savage clear out. By the time I managed to get dressed an hour later I had filled two garbage bags with 'stuff' - one for charity donation and the other for the clothing/fabric recycling bin at the nearby school. Whew!

So, out I went in my Jeep (it had 'warmed up' to 24 degrees by then) - dumping things that I hope will have new and useful service in someone else's home. :) I drove through the local Taco Bell and bought myself a chicken burrito (sans sour cream) for lunch as a pacifier for my efforts ... and sat in the car at dockside (Lake Elkhorn, near my home) eating and enjoying the quiet view for a few minutes. 

By the time I parked again at home, I felt virtuous and entitled to the rest of the day at my embroidery. LOL. Sooooo easy to evade responsibility, eh?

I managed to finish the embellishing of my chicken panel and am pleased with the results. Here is how the finished fluffer looks:

Here is a close up of the rear half of my work (look back at yesterday's post for a view of the face and upper neck:):

Tomorrow I will look for a background print and start making the dust cover for my Nina. I have been meaning to do this for several years and I can't tell you how glad I am to finally get around to it!

:) Linda

Slow Stitching Sunday

We got snow last night which startled me entirely as I had not been following the forecasts. Only about a half inch or so here in my neighborhood though maybe 4" in other places nearby. It was pretty gray all day ... which might account for how late I slept in this morning. I had a hard time waking up ... and my stomach was on strike all day, pretty much rejecting most of what I tried to eat. Tends to put me in a withdrawn mood fer shure. :P

I did manage to attend the Baltimore modern guild monthly meeting (via Zoom) this afternoon. though I missed the sew-in entirely. Sigh. I sewed my way through most of the meeting while listening to the presentations. I managed to finish piecing the second section of my embroidered quilt top and emptied another thousand meter spool of Aurifil thread (gray), too! I always feel accomplished when I can show my dead thread soldier spools - that's a LOT of seams. :)

By the time the guild meeting was over around 3:30 in the afternoon, I was tired of sewing (and had finished the section I was assembling) so I started looking for the materials I bought recently to use for making my daughter's birthday gift. NO luck finding the pattern/materials. :(

I DID find a gift my friends Barbara and Patty brought back for me from a guild show they attended last year - a printed chicken panel in bright colors (reminds me of Guatemalan fabrics). 'Chicken in the Kitchen' by the De Leon Design Group for Alexander Henry Fabrics, 2015 it says on the selvedge so probably no longer available? 

When I bought replacement thread for finishing my chicken scratch/depression lace embroidery, I also bought a collection of five or six variegated Sashiko thread skeins that appealed to me color wise. I dug those out and moved myself downstairs into my comfy upholstered armchair to embroider again. I do like hand work and this should be a fairly quick project. My intention is to applique the chicken shapes onto another background and quilt it into a dust cover for my Bernina sewing machine - after I finish the embellishing fun. :)

Here is how far I got this afternoon - maybe halfway done?

The chicken was meant to be a stuffed animal or maybe a teapot cozy originally so there are two (mirror image) hens in the set. Here is what the original, unembroidered chicken looks like.

Here is the side I am doing the embroidery on. I will probably only embroider this side and leave the other as-printed on the opposite side of my machine cover.

Here is a close up of the stitching I had done when I took this photo. Can you see it? You might have to click to enlarge the picture to really see the embroidery. So far I have used fairly simple stitches - crosses, straight lines, French knots, detached chains ... the eye is a woven spiderweb which gives a nice 3D effect.

After I took the photo above, I went back and did more stitching in the face area. Can you tell? I really like what I added to the brown half-crescent shapes especially. 

This is a fun project and will keep me entertained as I watch 'tv' for the next couple of nights at least. Then I will have to decide on a color/fabric for the applique background. More brain work. :)

Don't know how much time I will have to devote to hand work tomorrow. I have about five phone calls to make that are likely to take way too much time. Sigh.

:) Linda

Frustration

 

Today was lovely and sunny though a bit cooler than yesterday. Still, it feels like spring is actually coming along. :) I noticed that the sun is setting later in the afternoon than before, too. YEAH! :)

The quote above made me laugh - at first - but yesterday it was especially appropos. I took the time to write a nice post for this blog with a number of photos ... and somehow Typepad threw the entire thing away before I could click the 'publish' button. Sigh. User error, I'm sure. Though I do think my computer glitched which did not help.

For some reason that my hardware guy (Dear Husband) cannot figure out, my modem/internet connection (yes, I know that actual modems are passe) keeps switching at random and without warning from our out-going 5G port to the in-house port to our shared laser printer. Why and how to prevent it, he cannot figure out. Sigh. Anyway, yesterday the connection switched just as I pushed 'publish' and the entire post went soundlessly and without a trace into the black aether. :P

Sooooo, try again today - but with less patience and fewer photos (just in case).

Today I managed to sew for about 2 and a half hours before my brain fried and I had to stop. I am working on piecing the second panel section of my Depression lace embroidery quilt. I got it mostly finished (just have to sew one last seam to join the two parts) before I melted down into impassivity. :) Yesterday I pieced the first section which was about 14"x56" in size. Today's was about 14"x 51" for each of two pieces - so maybe I'm getting more efficient as I solve the sizing issues? Progress is good.

Last week I jumped the gun on tomorrow's Baltimore modern quilt guild sew-in by piecing a nine block Plaidish baby quilt top. It's a free pattern (click the link for the tutorial) and is designed to use 1.5" and 2.5" strips - tailor made for my scrap collection. :) Here is what I made up:

I will put a border (maybe 3" wide?) around this and then quilt it for donation. It is about 30" square now so will maybe finish around 36" square? A good size for a charity baby quilt, I think. I have three other baby quilt sized quilts to bind and then they will all get donated to the modern guild's love quilt projects (along with the two baby quilts I've already bound that are waiting). 

In the meantime, I have to pause my embroidered project piecing to make my daughter a birthday gift. It dawned on me today (as I was driving to Walgreens to pick up some more allergy meds) that this is FEBRUARY and Eva's birthday is coming up. I swear sometimes I live in an alternate universe like the famous groundhog and only occasionally lift my head for a look around. Sigh.

Tomorrow will be a good time for me to get my head in order and find the goodies I planned to make for her. Better get cracking 'cause the 20th comes soon!

:) Linda

Persistence

How does a frog relate to persistence? Darned if I know. Grin. Just liked the pretty green! There is precious little green to be seen outdoors here in the MidAtlantic region in February. The birds are starting to sing occasional territorial songs, though - the day length must be encouraging them to believe that winter _will_ come to an end sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed on that!

I have been keeping my head down here at home this week. I did not go to the in-person meeting of Mimi's Grad Class on Monday ... but did go to my doctor's appointment on Tuesday. It has been chilly (low 40s for a high temperature) this week but not quite as wet as last week. There was sunshine most of yesterday and today which made working in my sewing room pleasant - I had to actually shuck off my sweater for part of the day. :) On the other hand, our power bill for this month is higher than it has EVER been before by quite a lot. I think I need to get someone in to examine the heat pump. :P

I have continued my finding-the-floor exercise in my sewing room all week. The modern guild is having a Super Bowl Sunday sewing party - the chosen group project is Plaidish by Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting. Since it is made with 1.5" and 2.5" scraps, it seems tailor made for my scrap heap! :) I have persisted for five days and finally achieved my goal:

This is my scrap-catching basket which sits to the left beside my sewing table - I toss all the scraps I make into it, willy-nilly, until it is full. Then I chop them into usable pieces and make charity quilts. Apparently I am at that stage of the year now! :) Of course, along the way I found a number of what I like to think of as 'starter' projects - things that are the beginning of creation ideas. Way, way too many ideas. :)

This evening (Wednesday) was the regular Sip&Sew zoom and, along with eight other quilt makers, I sat and sewed up three blocks for my plaidish project. I am thinking to make a baby quilt sized product using however many scraps it might take - maybe 12 blocks or more, depending on the finished size of top. Here are the first three I sewed up tonight:

This will be a really random walk through the last twelve to fourteen months of fabric usage in my room. Bits of things I've sewn of all kinds ... along with a selection of larger cuts (5" squares or so) of fabrics I have in my stash. The pattern calls for light, dark and medium value prints of all kinds ... which should be fun as long as I can keep my eyeballs alert. :) I doubt that I will be awake for the 9 a.m. starting whistle for the sew-in ... but I'll get there before closing. LOL.

I saw my eye doctor on Monday afternoon, too. I have not had new glasses since 2017 which is way, way overdue. Strangely, my eyesight is getting better as I age - I'm very near sighted which tends to ease up as your eyes get older (why so many people grow to need reading glasses). My doctor did give me a referral to see a specialist as he thinks the pressures in my eyes are a bit too high for comfort. Shrug. I made an appointment to see her (the specialist) in late March. I need new glasses seriously - I can see to read and sew at my machine without any correction at all now! 

I have been working in my art journal, too. Again, not claiming this is great 'art' ... just documenting what I've done for myself to remember later. 

This lesson was about collaging an image. The instructions were to use your own silhouette as the shape.

The size of my page/image did not lend itself to many collage papers due to size. I like the ones I chose.

We were instructed to note our 'critique' on the reverse page. I had a few thoughts. :)

 

This lesson was about positive/negative spaces and using them in balance. 

I got a little carried away with my filling scribbles. :)

Again, lots of scribbles. I had fun with the colors, too.

 

My stomach continues to be picky about what I eat ... which makes me not take many risks with food. Basically, I am still just eating whatever won't make me nauseas. :P Managing about 800 to 1000 calories a day now (as scheduled), but still having trouble getting those 60 grams of protein. Sigh.

The next few days should be pretty quiet. I don't think I have any errands or appointments to do in the near term. Fingers crossed the weather continues pleasant.

:) Linda

Finished Stage One

I'm sure you've seen ads for the new company Noom that promises you a no-fail method for making life changes (like losing weight) via small, easy step-wise changes (if you click on the illustration above, you can go read about the theory) . I think quilt making is a step-wise activity, too. Many, many steps. :) 

Today I finished the first phase (made from many small steps/stitches) of my Snowflake Block of the Month quilt (it desperately needs a catchy new name:) - I completed the embroidery of the last panel for the quilt. YEAH!

Being Saturday, today was the regular (Zoom) meeting of the Columbia area Quilting With Friends group. I walked into my sewing room and sat in my chair and decided that I wanted to sew. I have not sewn anything on my machine since early October ... and haven't worked in that room for weeks. Today was (forgive me) a nice step toward getting my sew-jo back. :)

The first thing I realized, before the meeting even started, was a glaring need for a clean up! Stuff was higher and deeper in my work space. :P So I booted up Zoom, dialed into my chat and started shifting stuff. I folded and tidied and boxed up projects - all in the same general area where my scrap basket sits beside my sewing table.

I finally found the carpet (yeah!) and cleaned  up enough to SEE the scraps. At that point I decided to cut the accumulated fabric bits into my selected strip sizes (1.5", 2" and 2.5"). I will probably be doing that for several days. I cut scraps and tidily bundled them all through the two hour Zoom while chatting with a few modern quilting friends.

Eventually my stomach called out to be fed and I had to quit cutting. Got a nice dose of sunshine through the bare tree branches outside my sewing room window, too - it was cold (low 30s) but sunny all day. Breezy, though - glad I was not outdoors!

After I ate, I sat and watched a couple of nature shows while finishing the embroidery on my last chicken scratch panel (one of the things I found while cleaning was my once-lost skein of thread needed to finish this). Here is a rather poor photo of the piece for documentation purposes:

The thread I needed/found was for those outer borders and corners. This is a big panel at about 28" square so it was difficult to photograph with just my camera (and 5'4" of height:).

Here is a closeup of one corner to show the design better. Sadly, the white parts of the pattern disappear from any distance.

Other than that finishing and my Zooming earlier today, I have been pretty quiet. Just the usual reading of emails and blogs, solitaire playing and careful eating to baby my stomach. :) Another quiet day in the life of retirement.

:) Linda