Fiber and Pulp

Chilly Spring

The weather has turned chilly this week with high temperatures in the low to mid 50s. Brrr! There was rain yesterday but today the skies were fairly blue though there was an unpleasant cold wind blowing.

Hugh and I went for a nice long walk today, mostly through our neighborhood, and I saw some new-to-me flowers. The yellow ones above are Primroses which we spotted planted around the base of a large tree. Right next to the tree were a lush stand of Lenten Roses - green like the ones in the lower photo. Those I have not seen in person before, only in pictures. They were pretty but kind of ... odd ... for flowers, being completely green and hence somewhat 'invisible' from a decorative sense. There were a number of lovely azaleas starting to bloom, too, most of them in hot red or pink colors.

I managed to do some sewing yesterday - I finished my corner log cabin block baby quilt top.

I tried to put it together in such a way as to emphasize the pink 'log' strips; sadly, I did end up with two blocks touching mirror image. Not going to rip it out but I was annoyed with myself. :)

Today when I went in to sew, I took down, folded and counted my tops - I have definitely got seven baby quilt tops finished and ready to be quilted. So, of course, I sat down and started another one - or maybe more as there were a LOT of strips in the red, black and gray bags that I chose to work with. This one might end up being an  adult bed sized quilt, depending on my patience levels as there are many, many blocks worth of strips sewn together. :) I am starting with making four patches so I can use up the numerous single square scraps that have developed (2.5" wide strips and squares). 

Black 'plain' with red 'figured' then black 'figured' prints with red 'plain' ones ... then gray with reds ... until I got to the bottom of the common piles. I sewed pairs together for about two and a half hours so that will make a fair lot of four patches, ultimately. :) I am planning to take it all along to Barbara's house tomorrow to trim into sets during our Sewing Together afternoon.

I also have an appointment tomorrow morning with a real estate agent to get educated about the local marketplace for condos. Wish me luck!!

:) Linda

PS Linking to the Peacock Party weekly.

Overcast

When we bought our house (in January 1987) there were about a dozen azalea bushes in our front yard. Azaleas and rhododendrons are a huge 'deal', gardening-wise, here between Baltimore and D.C. They typically bloom in late April, early May and put on a huge show. Lots of colors, vast rich display. :) We got to see the blossoms the former owner planted once ... then all but one of the little bushes died of (probably) fusarium wilt fungus or maybe nematodes. Only one little azalea was left (and I'm not likely to plant more given how many die in our neighborhood from the long-lasting soil pests). 

That little bush has about quadrupled in size over the years and has bloomed faithfully every spring in memory. Today when Hugh and I went outside for our walk it was blooming again. Spring has now, officially, well and truly 'sprung'! :) Happily, our lone bush flowers in one of my favorite colors, too - what I call 'orchid' (one of my favorite 'neutrals').

We had a very pleasant walk today. It was gray and overcast but mild temperatures and felt quite comfortable without a jacket. I was feeling energetic so we went farther than we have been, down the hill past Patty's house, across the street and up the court to the walking path, south to Cradlerock and then back around to our house. Maybe 3/4 mile? I was tired but not breathless by the time we got home. I filled the bird feeders and then settled in to read for a while.

Yesterday when I sat down to sew, I dithered again (still) over what to sew ... so I opened up my scrap bags again and started yet another baby quilt. I decided to make quarter square log cabins using pink and green. Made twelve 12" squares by the end of my sewing session:

The pink scrap collection is still pretty full so I will certainly come back to do something else from that. I am thinking to make a three by four block layout with these twelve pretties. That should be a decent sized baby quilt (maybe 36" x 48").

I never did go up to sew any today - read and napped instead. I did go out and run errands after our walk, once Skip got home from work. I went up to our new bank (on Rte 40, west of Chatham Mall) and then to Walgreens to get a prescription and some washer fluid for the Bolt (the windshield is getting increasingly brown:). I forgot to stop at Mother Nature's to buy birdseed and suet. Both of the blocks of suet I put in the holder were totally gone when I looked at it this afternoon. Last winter the birds only ate one block all winter so I think we have attracted some new bug-eating birds to our feeding station. YEAH! I'm way in favor of insectivores. :)

Tomorrow should be another pleasant, quiet day in retired-land.

:) Linda

Gear Changing Time

The last three days had not too much sewing time in them. Thursday I had an appointment with my primary care (family) doctor - discovered at my weigh-in that I have lost exactly 50 pounds to date! We were _supposed_ to discuss lowering my dosage on various meds but I forgot to get my blood tests drawn. :P So, Friday morning I went off to the lab and had blood drawn (had to be fasting) ... then home to eat breakfast. :) 

The weather was glorious (mid 70s and sunny) so my drive to the northeast side of Baltimore on Friday was pleasant. It was my six month post-surgical assessment with my bariatric doctor. My weight loss is on schedule ... he suggested going back to taking the omeprazole for my stomach woes ... and had me meet with the nutritionist to talk about ways to increase the protein intake in my diet (improves weight loss and prevents muscle decay). 

Today (Saturday) I spent three hours watching Quilters for the Ukraine by Joe Cunningham on Zoom. There were eleven really well-known professional quilt makers giving 15 minute demo-shops on techniques dear to their work. Tickets cost $35 with all proceeds going to support refugees in Ukraine. They raised $30,800+!! I was really pleased with all the presenters and was happy to part of such a great effort. :)

Other than watching those bright lights, I have spent most of today vegetating - took an afternoon nap, ate leftovers, did dishes, read. Kind of ideal day, in my humble. :)

I have reached a breaking point in my sewing plans. On Friday afternoon, after I got home from Rosedale, I finished sewing together a sixth baby quilt top for charity. Here are my last two tops:

You can click to embiggen the photos. I cut two of each novelty print square, intending to use one in each top. With my typical lack of order though I managed to duplicate several of them. sigh. Still, finished is better than perfect! :)

Now I will fold my six tops up and think about backings for them. I get to return to my 'regular' sewing schedule ... and I can't decide exactly what to do now. This is normal for me - whenever I get to a finish point, I always agonize over what to work on next. ;) I _could_ go back to assembling my chicken scratch quilt top. OR I _could_ start to work on the quilt that is burning a hole in my backbrain, begging to be finished - the leafy one. Not sure which I will do when I sit down to sew tomorrow.

:) Linda

Outing

Today was pretty though still cool (mid 50s in temperature) - blue skies and pretty spring day. The redbud and dogwood trees are in high bloom and everything is leafing out green. Glorious! 

My friend Patty and I went to Photoscraps in Sykesville/Eldersburg (I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins:) this afternoon to attend a lecture/demo of Taylor brand stencils. Really a pretty good concept in my humble opinion. :) The rep demo'd a simple birthday party themed set that makes four cards at one go ... and a more complex floral set that makes three cards at once. Very pretty!

I ordered the floral set and the company's snowflake set, too. I keep having delusions that I will make winter holiday cards myself. :) I also bought my usual selection of card kits (here's a sample):

I enjoy making the cards (and sending them:) ... and buying the kits keeps me from accumulating too much in the way of raw materials.

Once we got home, I managed to sew for a while. I stitched the edges of all those circle shapes I fused yesterday. Then, during the modern guild Wednesday Sip&Sew session (via Zoom), I cut alternate blocks of 'I Spy' style novelty prints and started sewing together a five by five array for two baby quilt tops.

Turns out that putative set of 30 circles only had 25 in it ... so I divided them up into 12 and 13 according to the value of the background fabric print I had fused them onto. I got about four rows sewn together before I stopped:

I have doctor's appointments tomorrow and Friday afternoons so not sure if I will sew any more this week. The weekend for sure, though.

:) Linda

Breezy Sunshine

Today was very breezy and somewhat chilly (mid 50s) ... but the sunshine was lovely. I did take a shorter walk than I have been just to avoid the wind - I truly dislike wind blowing in my ears (always have). :)

I managed to finish sewing together the Floating Rectangles quilt top yesterday:

I am really pleased with how this came out! I think controlling the color palette I use with my scraps is making for more harmonious results (what a concept!:). This is about 40" square and is the fourth baby top I've made this scrap session.

When I was at Barbara's house on Friday, she gifted me a set of precut 6" circles already prepared with fusible on the back. Today I decided to make a fifth baby quilt using those. I cut a semi-random selection of 7" squares for backgrounds and fused all thirty circles to a coordinating print. Now I am sewing around the raw edge of each circle to finish the appliques. I am still debating with myself whether to use all 30 resulting blocks in a single quilt (a 5 block by 7 block set) or to make two tops, separating the applique circle blocks with print alternate squares. Really, it's a question of how 'busy' the tops will look. Once I get all the circle edges embroidered, I'll lay some blocks out and assess what I think.

Other than that sewing, I spent most of today reading and napping. I'm still struggling between sleeping way, way too much or way, way too little. Sigh.

:) Linda

Happy Easter!

In  honor of all the lovely violets blooming right now, I thought I'd share this antique card (from the Graphics Fairy). :)

It was a bit cooler today at 55 degrees or so, sunshiny and breezy. A lovely Easter Sunday! Not being observant church-goers, we spent our day in blissful leisure here chez Schiffer. :) I took a very nice walk around the neighborhood enjoying the flowers and spring air. I _did_ find some more names exploring online.

Remember this tiny plant?

Turns out this is called Birdseye Speedwell

This lovely is Fig Buttercup.

I checked on the neighbor's Bleeding Heart today and found it in full flower - so lovely!

Friday morning I got up much earlier than usual, having gathered my stuff the evening before, and drove into Catonsville to see Kim Komet (whom I know from Mimi's Grad Class). Kim does beautiful long arm quilting. I took Eva's sofa quilt top, the backing I sewed up on Thursday afternoon and a nice Dream Wool batt. In a month or so, when I get the quilt back, I'll share a photo. :)

I got that wool batt by visiting Springwater Designs quilt shop on Thursday. Who should I spot when I strolled inside but my friend Barbara Bennett! She and our friend Polly Mello were at the shop for their Repro Club meeting. Polly was working on her next Dear Jane block and Barbara was perusing the new fabrics for sale. She got me to notice a selection of Tula Pink's Handmade collection prints in the clearance section ... and I bought some:

I bought a half yard set of all the prints in this line when it first came out so these will add to that pile. Still have not decided what to make with them. :) 

In addition to those pretties and the wool batt, I bought the spring issue of Simply Moderne magazine. In it there was a project for Floating Rectangles which caught my fancy. I decided to make that for my next scrappy baby charity quilt. That is what I took along to work with at Barbara's house on Friday afternoon (after I dropped off at Kim's house:). I managed to cut all the pieces I needed for a 25 block (five by five) set from blue/orange and red/green prints.

Saturday I started to sew the half block sets together:

And made a great pile of sets:

Today I sewed all the blocks together and started making the entire top:

As you can likely tell, this is going to be a bright and lively quilt. Just the thing to entice a tiny child to enjoy visual wonder. :) I thought it was funny that one set (the last one) turned out to have the same fabric around both halves - AND both had cats as central images. I expect one or two more sewing sessions will finish this top.

At that point I will have four baby tops and I can take these off to be quilted, too. :)

Another task I got done at the end of this week was opening and installing new silverware in our kitchen. Skip and I have been married since 1975. Both our parents gave us silverware for wedding gifts ... which has now dwindled down to mere remnants (for example, we had only two spoons left). I decided to buy new a while back and have now unboxed, washed and 'installed' the new in our kitchen utensil drawer:

I even bought a new divider to put them in. I am not particularly interested in household decor so I was surprised to discover, when I went looking to replace our losses, that the patterns we had been given were no longer available. Both sets we were given were Oneida which does not seem to be available any more. The one shown above is Pfaltzgraff and was the design that appealed to me most of what I could find readily available. Quite different from our originals! 

On the whole, it has been a lovely end-of-week time. I am looking forward to more springy weather during the coming week.

:) Linda

Spring!!

In my on-going effort to celebrate spring:

Today my Japanese bloodleaf maple trees are leafing out!

White and purple violets growing intermingled.

Wildflower friends growing on the sidewalk verge.

 

Another common wildflower that I love - dent de lion (tooth of the lion, for the leaf edge shapes) or dandelion.

 

Bleeding heart coming into flower in my neighbor's fence row.

Another neighbor's cheerful daffodils.

The weather this afternoon was outright glorious! Temperatures in the mid 70s, sunny, blue skies - perfect in every way. :) I went for my walk after lunch - managed to go farther than has become usual so I guess I'm feeling better at last - and enjoyed all the flowering things I saw along the way, no matter how common. I am becoming familiar with my very local area's plantings and wildflowers and am enjoying watching the daily changes.

I managed a few simple household chores (doing dishes, taking out the recycling for tomorrow's collection) and then retired to my sunny sewing room upstairs. I got quite a bit done today. From that pile of 'twosies' I sewed together yesterday, I constructed twenty-five 8" (finished size) rail fence blocks and sewed up a 40" square patchwork baby quilt top. 

This is the third baby quilt top I have hanging on my work wall. I will sew at least one more before I build a backing big enough to contain them all to be long-arm quilted. I might make three more for an even number of six tops if I can sustain the interest. :)

I used an additional hour or more of evening sunlight in my room to further sort some of my scrap piles. I parsed out the 'red' bag into separate pink, orange and red print sections; the 'dark neutral' bag into black background, brown background and gray background prints; and the 'light neutral' bag into white, cream, 'calico/multicolored' and pale gray background prints. 

Now I just have to decide what design I feel like making next. I have one rail fence, one 'log cabin' and one 'plaid-ish' baby top now. I am thinking maybe four or sixteen patch blocks next. :)

More sewing on tap for tomorrow ... plus a Zoom webinar _and_ a zoom sew-in in the evening. Wednesdays are FUN days.

:) Linda

 

Perambulations

The pachysandra ground cover growing under my Japanese maple is flowering.

The first rhododendron I've seen blooming this spring ... with blooming vinca as a ground cover beneath.

In that same bed of vinca, decorated (paper?) flowers attached to a bush.

Apparently this is some kind of neighborhood celebration of spring and our cherry blossoms here near D.C.; the next cul-de-sac up the street to ours has several decked out houses.

Back in our own front yard, the grape hyacinths are blooming with vigor and abandon,

More beautiful purple clusters under our front mountain ash tree.

This is a so-called 'weed' growing in our yard - love those tiny blue eyes brightening up the sky. I have no idea what this plant's name is - and it is likely to be a European invasive species (most 'weeds' were imports that came along with the first European colonists four hundred years or so ago). 

Even the squirrels are leaving muddy footprints all over our recycling bin lid after the last week's rainy weather!

 

In my on-going effort to record the advance of flowering spring this year, I took a series of photos as I walked our neighborhood today. The colors make me happy and flowers cause my joy to spike. :)

My stomach continued to be a bit, um, delicate today (sorry if this is TMI for you; I need to remember the series of eruptions in case it matters for my health, later). Mimi's Dietrich's Grad Class met today at Bear's Paw quilt shop in Towson but I decided to stay home. I spent parts of Friday, Saturday _and_ Sunday feeling less than good and thought I should be quiet today. 

I did go out for my walk - the sun was shining and the temperature was in the high 60s. Felt lovely outside! I walked slowly (much more so than usual) and stopped to take pictures often (thank you to the person/people who put a camera in my iPhone!!). Still, the wandering did me good.

When I got home, I sat down in my sewing room and finished cutting the last of my scrap fabric pile into strips/squares. Then I spent another hour or so sorting all the 2.5" wide strips by color. Once that was done, I realized that I'd better start sewing those scraps into _something_ or all the last week's labor would be in vain. :) I chose to start with the yellow and purple piles on a whim and managed to create quite a tall set of 'twosies' by the end of the afternoon:

This pile might not look like much on first inspection ... but it is a good four or five inch thick set of 12" or longer pairs of strips sewn together. Yellows and purples. Tomorrow I will press them and sew 'foursies' ... and then 'sixies'. I'm thinking to make a baby sized rail fence from this set as that takes little or no thinking to produce. :) Minimal thinking, maximal sewing is my favorite way to work through the scrap piles!

I don't know if I have mentioned this but I've been watching Time Team seasons on YouTube for entertainment as I sew or do handwork. Started with the most current series (the 20th?) and am now back to series/season 4. I have particularly enjoyed the ones where the archaeologists explore prehistoric sites in England or anything in the new world.

They even did a very interesting episode in Maryland, exploring St. Mary's City, the site of the first settlement in MD around 1634, the fourth English colony in the US. I had massive sympathy and some chuckles watching those poor British scientists, even inured to working outdoors as they have to be, sweltering in a Maryland early summer environment. The weather here is in NO WAY like that of Britain and they _were_ suffering in our humidity and heat.

More quiet life on schedule for tomorrow with, fingers crossed, plenty of time for more sewing.

:) Linda

Filming!

Today was novel in several ways. :) It was the Sew&Tell group's April Sunday afternoon meeting date and we had special guests today. One of our members, Deborah Kinsey, has been administering a Maryland Arts Council grant this year to develop community quilt making in Baltimore city ... and there was a team of film makers at Barbara's house (where we meet now) to film our group _being_ a community quilting group as part of documenting Deborah's grant activities. Matt and two Brandons were adept film takers and I had no trouble ignoring their presence to carry on as usual.

I took more scraps to cut up while we chatted and visited as I had planned (but did not get to the bottom of my current pile, quite:).

We spent a considerable amount of time looking at quilts various members brought that had been made by the group to commemorate significant events - 'big' birthdays, retirement, marriages, babies, a texture quilt for a member who developed Alzheimer's, etc. Also Beth Rice, as the unofficial historian and photographer of the group brought a large album of pictures of past special meetings and quilting milestones.

On the whole, it was a sort of tear-jerking afternoon from some respects. Several long time members of the group have died (we counted five that I, personally, knew) over the years since the first group started meeting (they were all people who worked at Social Security, beginning in the mid to late 1990s). I came into the group by self-invitation (more or less:) when they started meeting at Seminole Sampler after I purchased the store in 1999. 

Here is a photo of all but one of our members (who was self-isolating from Covid exposure), taken by one of the film guys:

I am sitting at the diagonally opposite corner of the table. That woman giving me bunny ears is Kathy Fain. To her left is Amy Sheib, then Barbara Bennet (hostess), Beth Rice, Deborah Kinsey, Sandie Horst and Peggy Syzmanik. I have come to intensely value each and every one of these women and enjoy all our meetings - part of my 'keep Linda sane' plan for life! I am looking forward to seeing the resulting film sometime this summer (fingers crossed).

:) Linda

Walking Along

It has been quite wet this week here in Columbia. The temperatures have been moderate, though, from the mid50s to high60s, so I've been making an effort to go out walking every day. I am up to about a half mile before I'm tired which is a doubling of my range since last summer. :)

Thursday was rainy when I went out and I thought it gave the forsythia flowers a lovely glisten - shown here by some blossoms hanging over my neighbor's fence. There are quite a number of wildflowers in bloom now - violets, daffodils, hyacinth, grape hyacinth, vinca, and I saw some bleeding heart flowers opening this afternoon when I walked out.

I am fond of common violets with their sweet purple faces.

When we first moved into our house in 1987 I planted a dozen grape hyacinth bulbs in our front yard. They have naturalized and spread all across the yard area - their purple clumping blossoms make me smile.

I came across a group of white violets in a neighbor's yard while walking this week. I don't know whether they were purposefully planted there or if they are a sport of the more usual purple type. Lovely!

This little guinea flower comes up every spring from a bulb I planted years ago. I should plant more!

 

I have been trying to capture at least one joyful idea or moment every day as a way of keeping myself encouraged with life lately. These little signs of the advance of spring make me happy when I can spot them. :)

I have also been trying to sew some every day. Yesterday (Friday) afternoon I spent my Sewing Together time with Barbara and Patty on cutting scrappy bits into my chosen sizes (1.5", 2" and 2.5" squares and rectangles). I cut so many pieces my index finger (that pushes down on the rotary cutter) has a bruise today. :) More cutting is on the agenda for tomorrow as it is the monthly Sew&Tell meeting at Barbara's house.

One of the pieces of scrap fabric Barbara gave me yesterday was a nice piece of a delicately printed upholstery-weight 'canvas'. Today I made it into four pencil-type pouches to donate to the $10-and-under-table at the Faithful Circle Quilt show (scheduled in midMay).

I am pleased with how the four pouches turned out. They should be good sellers, I think. :)

I got a book in the mail earlier this week that I have been slowly reading through - it's one I think I will tackle working through the exercises:

Although the title makes this sound like some kind of scrapbooking text, the ideas in it will work for any kind of figurative art work from what I have read. I look forward to taking some time to experiment with the ideas inside.

:) Linda