Damp

The past week has been more interesting than usual (in the 'may you live in interesting times' curse sense:). My meeting with the real estate agent went very well - she's a nice lady and so is her assistant ... and they both seem quite knowledgable about local markets. I _was_ startled to discover that a one bedroom condo will cost between $175 and $225 THOUSAND dollars. Our house cost less than that when we bought it (in 1987, admittedly:). We are on our way to becoming multiple home owners. Sigh.

The weather has been pretty wet - or cloudy and overcast when it wasn't actually raining - for the past week. Today was no exception. Monday _was_ pretty, luckily - I drove Patty, Barbara B and Barbara L up to Towson for Mimi's Grad School meeting at Bear's Paw quilt shop. It was especially nice to see everyone as I have not been able to attend regularly for a while. I even managed not to buy much in the shop (though Barbara B did get me in trouble with the pattern of an English paper piecing designed rooster:). I LOVED the trip, the visit, seeing everyone. Great day! :)

Today I had a follow-up appointment with the glaucoma specialist. She reported that my eye pressures were down quite a bit since my last appointment three months ago (likely responding to allergies as they get better or worse). She also checked the drainage on my tear ducts as my eyes water excessively. Turns out that my left tear duct is blocked and not draining, hence the copious overflow (I just always put it down to allergies). Now I have to decide whether to have unblocking surgery. :P

I took a class via Zoom over the weekend about Altered Book making. Yes, I've done ABs since about 2001 and am tolerably good at it. I have not done any of that kind of work for several years, though, and wanted a refresher. The class was inexpensive and I enjoyed it. The young man teaching was very nurturing and encouraging of all the students, pointing out that there are no rules and the point of the hobby is to enjoy the process and remember that anything you don't like can be papered or painted over. :) I decided to start working in my Q shaped book - it has been mine for a while (ten years?) and has become a bit 'too precious' to me ... I wanted to nip that feeling in the bud (perfectionism is always my personal demon to fight against). So, I just started. Some of what I do in this book will be great and some will be awful ... and I likely won't be objective enough to judge which is which. :) 

Here is the first spread I did, during the class:

As you can see, each page has a round hole in the center. The beautiful mariner's compass medallion on the right was just the right size to be mounted inside that hole and to show from the front of the book. I wrote the likely characteristics/traits of the quilt's maker around the outer border (imho).

Being on a naval theme, the previous two pages became this spread:

See the medallion showing through on the right? The quilt on the left is a very poor photograph of my to-date magnum opus, my patriotic quilt. I have done some more work to the left page since I took this photo.

Next I worked on the previous two page spread to this one (yes, I am working backwards in my book, starting about in the middle):

Now I have two more medallion-esque fillings for the central holes. shrug. I am quite happy with this spread. The flowery background is a printed napkin (in person you can see the page text gently showing through the flowers, an effect I like).

I've also been sewing. Last week I started making four patches in red/black, gray/red, black/orange and gray/orange sets. I made quite a pile of blocks (about 100 or so):

Today I started cutting alternate blocks to set these into a quilt. I have barely gotten started - I sorted them out by color and hope to make a bright focal point with this beginning:

I started with the gray/yellow patches (six of them), alternating with yellow print squares. Then I surrounded those with gray/orange four patches and orange squares. Tomorrow I will set gray/red squares around this I think, followed by black/orange and black/red ones. We'll see. I'm going to let this quilt grow to be whatever size it wants rather than restraining it to baby sizes. It will be interesting to see how it develops. :) All from my scrap bin.

Barbara is visiting her Mom for  Mother's Day so we won't be meeting for Sewing Together tomorrow. I plan to sew here at home all afternoon and see how much I can get done.

:) Linda

Comments

[LindaSchiffer]

Hi Linda. :)

I am SO pleased to be inspiration! How gratifying. :) I love playing with paper and glue and rarely think beyond that - nice that someone else values what I do, too. :)

I am looking forward to playing more with my scraps. I was surprised how much black and gray I had in my scrap bin as I rarely use either color. I usually prefer very dark flavors of blue, green or purple in place of black. I have learned to like gray from the modern quilting friends I've made (and from nature:) but it still is an acquired taste for me.

:) Linda

[Linda]

Hi Linda! It's always nice to meet another Linda. ;) I have dabbled a bit in book altering and LOVE it but need to overcome that "should I keep it as is" factor. You have inspired me to do it! I love your naval theme and your results in your class. Those are pretty fabrics on your patches. I'm a big fan of grays and blacks with bright colors.
What a delight to see you joining in with To Do Tuesday!