Fiber and Pulp

Pleasant Air

I slept in today. By the time I woke up, Skip was coming home from work. He wanted to go out to run errands so I rode along. He had to stop at Walgreens and our new bank which is out on Route 40 (Baltimore National Pike), near Frederick Road. Nearby is an Arby's so we did drive through to get lunch. Then, as is my wont, we drove back near home to the dockside of Lake Elkhorn to eat en pleine air. :)

The weather was a bit odd today. Balmy temperatures in the 70s but heavily overcast. It kept looking like it might rain all afternoon (apparently it did, some, in the morning). It was pleasant to sit at the tables near the lake and eat our sandwiches (I had pecan chicken salad, my favorite from Arby's  - should be, for 700+ calories!). I talked Skip into a short walk along the lake afterwards - where we saw the flowers shown above, growing on the edge of the lake.

I _think_ they are some kind of iris - not the common bearded iris, but something. :) Pretty!

Speaking of flowers, I saw these while on my walk yesterday:

This is tradescantia, commonly called spiderwort. It usually grows by water or in a shady place.

As you can see, it was growing near the curb - on a cul-de-sac circle.

These are the first peonies I've seen this summer.

This is mock orange, I think. It was growing at the edge of open woodlands, along the walking path.

Here are the first wild strawberries I've seen this summer. The squirrels and little birds love them.

I did manage to do some sewing today - while I visited with my modern buddies via Zoom this evening. I promised my daughter I'd make new sun hats for my two grandsons. I started cutting them out tonight but I might have to find more fabric for the younger one's hat - ran out of what I chose. He likes animals and I'm sure I have more of those in my stash. :)

Apple TV has a great show on now - Prehistoric Planet, narrated by David Attenborough and filmed by the folks that made the series Planet Earth (one of my favorites). There are five hour-long episodes -- of which I have seen the first three. Highly excellent, so far! :) This is one series I might like to buy as I think my daughter (the life-long dinosaur lover) would like to watch it ... and I'd be happy to see it again (being also a dino lover myself:).

Tomorrow I can get Covid tested. I did manage to buy some wide backing fabric for the red/black 4Patch quilt today (Connecting Threads is having a sale through 5/30). I might manage to go buy some more background fabric for Saturday Morning tomorrow, too. Fingers crossed!

:) Linda

Cooler Progress

This is the work of a Danish design team. In my continuing fascination with art that reflects fiberwork, this caught my eye. Go and read the review link - maybe you can be inspired to make your own. We aren't allowed to have chain link fences here in my community. :)

Today was cooler and overcast - clearly all that rain brought a weather front with it (or vice versa:). I rousted Hugh up from bed in the morning and convinced him to help me build another piece of our new deck furniture - this time we made the two person chair. The lawn mowing people were chopping our grass at the same time so it was a bit noisy. I did sweep off the porch before we started. 

Skip and I strolled out to get the mail after I ate lunch. Still very damp out but the sun was shining. Must have rained well into the early morning hours. In today's mailbox came two things I have been waiting for - the extra half yard of fabric I ordered to finish my Saturday Morning quilt top (an out-of-print Heather Ross design which I was truly lucky to find! and my catch-all box from St. Louis Art Supply about which I will write more after I unbox it tomorrow).

Since I had more fabric, I decided to go back to sewing on my Saturday Morning project. First I took the red/black/orange/gray 4Patch top outside to photograph (quick! before it rains again).

I am quite pleased with the way this totally scrappy project turned out! My friend Kate said she thinks it looks like Maryland flag colors ... which I had not noticed at all. This top will get quilted and will become a bingo prize for the Baltimore Modern guild's fundraiser next year.

Once I had folded up my colorful top, I went back upstairs to my sewing room and tackled piecing the next quadrant of Saturday Morning. I did not get completely finished with it before I had to stop to eat supper, but the central 'fussy' parts are done.

Hope to continue tomorrow.

 

:) Linda

 

PS Linking to Midweek Makers.

Caught!

I have been captured (possibly) by the dreaded virus. :P Here's the story.

Yesterday evening I got word from my friend Barbara that our mutual friend Polly Mello (whom we had visited with at the FCQ quilt show) has Covid. I did not spend as much time with Polly as B did ... and I was masked the whole time ... but one cannot know if infection will follow. So, I am down with five days of isolation followed by testing.

Today was _supposed_ to be the monthly meeting of Sew&Tell group at Barbara's house ... which, now, had to be held on Zoom (for obvious reasons:). Well, that's ok, I'll stay home and sew and visit virtually.

Which is exactly what I did. It was lovely, as usual, to see my quilt-y buddies. We chatted about the show and the infections and many other topics. I sewed all four borders on the outside circumference of my 4Patch red/orange/black/gray quilt. YEAH! It turns out to be twin bed sized (well, within the measurements of a twin sized batt) and is destined to become a bingo prize quilt for my modern guild. Now to get a batting and backing and binding made up so I can have it quilted. :)

Once I finished that task, my chatting became more erratic as my stomach started growling. Yes, I had breakfast ... but the body was insistent. :) I had to leave the meeting earlier than is my usual so I could eat.

I wanted to take my now-bordered top outside to photograph ... but thunderstorms rolled in as I ate and heavy downpours of rain nixed my photo session. Maybe tomorrow. It really pounded down for a while but there was very little wind or lightning so not too dangerous. 

Once I had eaten, I went back upstairs and sat down to stream watch some Netflix and work on more embroidery for the Bluebird project. I am getting on toward a foreseeable finish on that:

One more large blossom to do then some leaves and I'll be finished. I'm looking forward to mounting the finished embroidery in its frame and sending it off to my beloved. :)

Oh, I did manage to sew some more on my Saturday Morning project, too. I added the background yardage to the section I was framing in. After careful examination of my design sketch, I figured out exactly how to sew the whole top together. Now I'm set to finish that soon, too.

Good thing as I will have lots  of time to sew this week as I isolate. :P

:) Linda

PS. Linking to Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday linky party. Go take a look! :)

Quilt Show and Shop!

One of the two guilds I belong to - Faithful Circle Quilters - has their biannual quilt show in progress right now. Started yesterday (Thursday), through today (Friday) and tomorrow. I volunteered yesterday - working two hours at the entrance table, selling attendance tickets and two hours at the raffle quilt table selling tickets there. On Thursday I walked the entire show after my four hours of sitting taking money - gosh was I tired when I got home! I worked again today for two hours, at the entrance table. So much fun greeting people. :)

There were about 300 quilts on display at the show, four vendors, a silent auction, $10 and under table, peddler's table, raffle baskets, etc. It is held in a large church on the north side of Columbia and is extensive. Our last show was scheduled in the spring of 2020 - and, of course, did not happen due to the Covid lockdown. So it has been four years since we held a show. We were all so READY to rumble. :) Lots and lots of happy faces!

I took a few photos to please myself today when I walked around. I also visited more of the vendors. :) Yesterday I found a beautiful set of digitally printed dragon blocks - could NOT leave those behind! :) Today I found some luscious sailboat scenery - my husband loves to sail so I think it's time to make him a quilt. Also some lovely gradient colored dots. I even penetrated the peddlers table room (think God the a/c was running well as it was crowded; this is the area where guild members put things from their stashes to sell - books, patterns, notions, whatever). I found a kit for a lovely crazy quilt style embroidered vest ... and a small booklet of patterns for four applique cornucopias. 

On the whole, a lovely event - so wonderful to see people in person, enjoy color and pattern and design. :) Here are my pics, for the record.

Some of these photos will go into my Pictures folder to be used as desktop decoration on my iMac. :) I just took somewhat random pics of ideas I wanted to remember.

It is supposed to be HOT tomorrow (above 90 degrees, effective temps with humidity of 100 degrees). I expect to spend the day quietly in my sewing room hiding out. 

:) Linda

PS. I spent a couple of hours late this afternoon sewing on my Saturday Morning project. I have almost constructed the lower half of the quilt top. Maybe tomorrow?

Lovely Days

Today was gloriously beautiful, weather-wise! The temperature was almost 80 degrees, the sky was mostly blue with fluffy white clouds and the breeze smelled sweet. :) I saw iris of the color above blooming in several places around town, too. :)

I had to pop out of bed fairly early (for me) to take my Jeep Renegade to the repair shop for routine (mostly) maintenance. I was there until about 12:30. When I got home, Skip and I went out for a drive (in the Bolt), did drive through and found a place to sit in the shade at the lakefront to eat lunch. So blissful!

There were plenty of people walking their dogs, children and selves around Lake Elkhorn. We watched one guy on rollerblades go by at least three circuits of the lake's worth - very speedy and professional in appearance. :) The dog trainers were there with at least two young and large-ish dogs, getting them accustomed to distraction and paying attention to the leash-holder's commands. Lovely day!

We had an appointment with an independent financial investor whose office is on the north side of Catonsville (off Rolling Road) to discuss plans for funding our purchase of the condo unit for by brother. We were there for an hour and a half and the fellow had many useful things to tell us (including a referral to an estate planner who can help us with a will and probably establishing a trust to support my son and brother after we are gone).

I had a nice chat with my daughter this evening. She was tv-babysitting with her boys (blamed too many crises - her husband had just gone off to the urgent care clinic with stabbing leg pains). I hope he's ok!!

I did manage to do some sewing on my Saturday Morning bee project yesterday and today. First I made a 22nd block - more crumb piecing - which I think looks like our house (a bit wonky:):

I also sorted the blocks into types and sewed together the various rows that will be needed to create the overall layout. I left it there for now. I still have to decide exactly what fabrics to use for the 'background' structure of the quilt ... most likely I will be doing something scrappy that uses the remainder of my fat quarter collection (still have plenty of yardage left, even after 22 blocks).

I have another appointment with my nutritionist tomorrow afternoon ... and two important phone calls that need to be made. If the weather is nice again, I hope to finish assembling our new deck furniture. Might even sew some.

:) Linda

Sewing Joys

Clover is blooming! That is my personal 'summer is here' signal. :)

This flower is unknown to me. Beautiful, though.

I _think_ this one is Ajuga, growing in a quiet woodland corner of a neighbor's yard.

This has been a wonderful weekend! Friday I got to spend the afternoon with my friends Barbara and Patty. I took my knitting along so I could make swatches of the new yarns I've bought. This will help me get started on the two new summer cotton sweaters I want to create.

After our Sewing Together, I went home to get three things I forgot to pack and drove myself and my 'stuff' eastward to Linthicum, MD to MITAGS for a Baltimore modern guild retreat. 'Make May Modern' was the theme. :) The sew-in was scheduled from 7:30 a.m. til 6 p.m. on Saturday. As you likely know if you follow my blog, 7:30 is o-dark-thirty to me! :) To help me get to the sew-in while there was daylight left to share with my friends, I decided to stay at the MITAGS hotel on Friday night (the room price included Friday night dinner and breakfast on Saturday). The accommodations were very good and the food was especially good for cafeteria eating. Satisfying all around.  The only thing I forgot to pack, in the end, was a nightgown. LOL. Good thing (for many reasons, of course) that there was no fire that night!

I did get to set up my sewing area when I arrived on Friday evening. That was a really good thing as it was pretty rainy for most of last week and rained especially hard on Saturday. :P 

The sew-in was well attended. It was wonderful to see my friends in person - I've only seen most of them (except for Zoom of course) once in the past two years (we had a in-person picnic last July). So great! There were three classes taught by members during the day and I took all three: Judy Dunlap taught an approach to improv quilt designing, Heather Kojan taught piecing the Interrupted Nine Patch block, and Phyllis Cook taught making a QR Code patchwork.

I took my Saturday Morning block box along to work on. Several years ago (pre-Covid) we had a 'Quilt in a Box' bee at the guild where we put fabrics and instructions in a box and then passed them around once a month at meetings. You had the following month to make at least one block for the box and then it went to another Bee member. At the end of the year, we each got our box of fabrics plus blocks back and had enough material for a sampler quilt of some design.

I have never done anything with my block collection (life, you know) but I love the fabrics I chose (from the Saturday Morning collection designed by Basic Grey for Moda). I want to finish this quilt for my bed! So, took the box along.

First thing I did was count the blocks I have - nineteen, including the one I made to start the rounds was what I got back from the Bee circuit. So, I made one more, after Heather's class, in the I9P pattern:

I'm pleased with how it turned out and it balances a couple of the other blocks I got from bee members.

Then I decided to sew all the little bits and pieces left in my box into a Crumb block. That took some sorting (lots of the bits were way to small to sew into anything:). I only got partway through that job before the end of the day.

We had snacks in the afternoon and I bought lunch so had a great salad and even a small piece of lemon meringue  pie. The raspberry yogurt pretzels I had for snack were yummy as was the Japanese pear. Nom, nom! :)

By the time the end of day came and I began to pack up my stuff, I was suddenly very, very tired. Whew! Not used to such sustained going full bore all day - have gotten accustomed to resting here and there throughout the day. :) Gotta build up my stamina for sewing marathons!

We had a goodie bag of donated delights each and mine had fun things in (including two craft sized batts, thread, beautiful stickers, patterns, etc). 

A totally satisfying day in every way. :) The drive home was faster than Friday afternoon's had been (I was traveling to Linthicum through rush hour traffic). It was raining by the time I got home so I hobbled into the house and settled gratefully into my comfy chair in the living room where I sat for an hour or so. So good to go away, so good to get home! :)

Today it was overcast and drizzly when I got up but had stopped raining by the time I finished my breakfast. While I was away, two boxes had been delivered and I was really excited by them. I had ordered new furniture and an outdoor rug for my back deck and they came!

I rousted out my son, Hugh, and we carried the rug back to the deck (took us a while to unpack and unroll it as it was swathed in two layers of thick plastic and tape). The furniture box was too heavy for us to carry so Skip found our hand dolly and we rolled the stuff (big box) around to the deck. Thank goodness there is a gate entry to the deck from our carport!

Poor Hugh was pretty tired and wanted to sleep so we only built one chair before he threw in the towel. Might be able to do the rest of the building tomorrow, weather provided. Here is what we managed:

There is another chair like that one and a two person sofa with coffee table to go. :) I really like the rug I chose (from pictures on my monitor) and, happily, so does my husband. :) Soon I will be able to sit on the deck and sew or knit or just dream away the outdoor air. :)

Once Hugh went to bed, I retired to my sewing room and went back to finishing my crumb block. I have enough parts to maybe make another one if I need it. For now, 21 blocks will do. :)

I spent some time later in the afternoon sketching ideas for a sampler layout design ... here are some very sketchy plans (haven't chosen one, yet):

Other than sewing - and eating and reading - I spent the day very quietly. So great to be at home and so satisfying to have seen my quilt making buddies.

:) Linda

Lovely!

Yesterday and today have been beautiful in ways that we rarely see hereabouts. Pure blue skies without clouds, mild temperatures, lovely spring weather. Ahhhh! :)

Yesterday my son and I bought a fast food lunch and then had a nice walk around Lake Elkhorn here in Owen Brown (our village, one of ten in Columbia). Of course, I can only eat about half a normal lunch portion these days - half my Impossible burger and Burger King fries, tiny bit of my soda. Plenty for me. :)

The walk was glorious! Columbia Association (I think) has been labeling the various kinds of trees along our walking paths which was a delight for my name-loving self. :) One tree we saw especially caught my attention:

This appears to be a major signpost tree in our village! Although the fonts of this carving are surely quite similar (could all this have been done by one person?). 

The names etched into this bark jumped right out at me but my son only saw the overall patterns - I had to point out names for him to see them. :) 

We saw any number of turtles sunning themselves - as is usual for spring, earlier in the morning it had been chilly (in the 50s) and I think these guys were trying to warm themselves up a bit. They were each about the size of my two spread hands together.

More sunning ... several turtles came and went as we watched.

Is this a honeysuckle bush? If so, it seems awfully early for it to be blooming! 

Another warming-up exercise - this Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is the first one I've seen in a long time. Was wonderful to watch her pretty colors.

I think these are Columbines flowering - many of these were scattered throughout the woods along our path.

In more cultivated settings, the iris is blooming!

So much beauty to be seen everywhere! :)

Today we went out walking, too, this time around our neighborhood. So lovely - again, blue skies and pretty flowers everywhere. Life is good.

:) Linda

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is the designated celebration of mothers here in the USA. The picture above is a famous print by Japanese artist Utamaro of a mother and baby. A universal theme. :)

I had hoped to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival here in Howard County this weekend but the weather pretty much put a stop to that ambition. It has been cold (highs in the mid 50s) and raining for most of the weekend and overcast with wind the rest. :P So, I stayed home and sewed. 

I worked for a couple of hours this afternoon on my scrappy four patch project. Here is where it has gotten to as yet:

When I looked at the stacks of pieced four patch blocks, I thought this was going to be a fairly dark-ish quilt. Clearly I was not taking into account the bright cheerful colors of the alternate print blocks! Each of those squares and the alternating four patches finish 4" on a side so that bit in the photo is about 40"x44" so far. I started with the yellow and gray colors in the middle and have worked my way through gray with orange and black with orange. Now I've started on gray with red and ultimately black with red to go - a quite a number of blocks in each of those stacks.

I've been piecing this in slow color-blending stages, one side at a time. I rotate 90 degrees to add the next row. I am piecing my way from middle out toward the edges on this project. I'm _hoping_ this will create a color flow effect - we'll see. :) All of the four patch elements and many of the alternate square prints have come from my scrap bin. I am having to cut into my regular stash for alternate squares as the top grows, though. I am happy to have a project to use some of it up!

Other than sewing, I spent a couple of hours in the late afternoon (once my tush got tired of sitting in the sewing chair:) watching a Japanese medieval history documentary on Netflix and knitting. Last month I attended a spring yarn 'tasting' party at my Local Yarn Shop (Cloverhill in Catonsville) and I'm using the five small skeins of Berroco brand cotton-blend yarns to make a triangular scarf/small shawl. I've finally knit it down to the lacy edging rows and am pretty happy with the results:

As you can see, the colors were a somewhat coordinating but rather eclectic mix, mostly in the 'cool' palette range. I am looking forward to finishing this project so I can wear it (especially if this spring continues to be so cool). The cotton is mixed with fibers like merino wool, hemp, linen, rayon, viscose, nylon, acrylics and polyesters (most of the artificial fibers are there to increase the loft of the yarn). Each of the five skeins was a slightly different fiber content added to cotton. Should be a fairly moisture-wicking final scarf. :)

My daughter called to chat ... my son and I had a nice hug ... and we did not go out to dinner (haven't for a couple of years due to Covid). I miss that. (shrug) On the whole, a very pleasant, quiet day of doing exactly what I felt like by way of personal reward.

:) Linda

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