Fiber and Pulp

Busy Sewing

Today was a happy, inspiring time! It was the monthly meeting of the Repro Club at Springwater Designs quilt shop (my LQS). The geese above were two different families with goslings strolling around the fields beyond the building where Springwater is located. So cute!! :)

Today's topic at the club meeting was English Paper Piecing. Lots of great inspiration there! :)

First, Heather (the facilitator) shared two blocks made with the day's mid19th century reproduction prints (we get two fat quarters at each meeting):

The green and light red prints were today's selection. :) I did not photograph everything shown/shared at the meeting - only the things that caught my attention.

Here is an EPP block (a Bloomfield flower pattern) made by Dawn (shop owner) in soft colors:

The block had been basted to a background square but not yet appliqued down (hence the little 'dog ear' flags on the star points:).

We had wonderful show and share items - most of the club members have done EPP, some quite a lot of it:

I found the meeting quite inspiring. :) I did buy some new notions ... and some soft&stable for a bag-making project I have in mind. 

I spent the rest of my evening doing house chores and making supper (Hugh and I made deep dish pizza from scratch). I am reading my way through Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books right now and enjoying them enormously. I first met Phryne with the television series from Australia. So much fun! :)

Tomorrow is my weekly meeting with Barbara and Patty to Sew Together. Afterwards I'm driving straight to MITAGS in Linthicum for the first of two days with Baltimore Modern quilt guild's Make May Modern retreat. Took me forever to decide what to take to work on ... having more trouble than usual concentrating this spring. :P

:) Linda

This Past Week

This was a pleasant week in the fairly-uneventful life of me. :) The azaleas and rhododendrons are still blooming. The pretty deep pink one above was flourishing in the beds outside my doctor's office on Thursday afternoon (more in a sec). It has rained a fair bit this week so I expect the Azalea and Rhododendron gardens near Brighton Dam are muddy and maybe a bit delayed in blooming - usually exceptional in time for Mother's Day. :)

I forgot to share a couple of photos I took at my guild's quilt show week before last. I gave  up taking photos except of things I want to remember for my 'make this!' list. :)

This quilt by Linda K. of my guild excites me (I think she and I might be hidden tribe members as this is not the first thing I've seen of hers I'd like to copy:). I have thought about making this quilt ever since the book first came out but have been cautious about the matter - I'm not sure I have the persistence to make this many small blocks of the same pattern. :)

Linda used fabrics from her extensive Halloween themed stash which I especially love. :) There was another quilt of this design in the show (forget who made it) - but the maker set the blocks horizontally in rows. A different take on the theme. :)

I don't know where this pattern came from (do you?) but I love it. Autumn and pumpkins are among my favorite themes ... and using William Morris prints to do this just caps it off for me. Great idea! Sadly, I neglected to record who made this quilt.

This past Monday was the monthly meeting of Mimi Dietrich's Grad Class at Bear's Paw quilt shop in Towson. Mimi was still out (knee replacement) so we had a good chin wag about the Measure For Measure project for the Folger Shakespeare Library. I worked on my block during the meeting and got the rest of the crazy piecing almost finished (one more triangle block left to add:). Attendance was down a bit (the weather was wet and gray) but we had fun, as always. I bought some more 'leave in' English Paper Piecing templates and a very pretty panel of a gray hawk.

I did go to the evening meeting of Faithful Circle on Monday evening (the first Monday of the month is always a loooooong day with two guild meetings:). We took the hanging sleeves off the Linus Project charity quilts so the quilts could be donated soon. I also delivered the two quilts of my friend Kathy I picked up from the guild show for her as well as the raffle basket she won. :)

Tuesday I took my brother Kevin to lunch at Taco Bell (his choice) and grocery shopping at our local Giant. I enjoy my afternoons with him - nice to have family nearby. Unlike my usual, I went into the condo with him to help put away groceries. I had promised to make him some cinnamon rolls (from a can:) and baked them while I worked on my jigsaw puzzle. At the rate I am finding pieces, it won't be finished before fall. :)

Wednesday I pretty much slept through the day. Was not feeling well - just draggy and sloooow. Probably a result of the weather which was continuing to be gray and dismal.

Thursday afternoon I had an appointment to see a new eye doctor for my every-two-year exam. Well, really he was an old doctor - I went to him for some time and then he moved his offices and I started going to someone else. Now I'm back to him as I figured out where he moved to. :) I like him (Dr. Sirotkin). Got to see the azaleas I pictured at the top of this post (although my image was much blurrier than what my camera saw - dilated eyes you know:).

Today I had thought to go out but it was rainy and cool again. NO ambition at all in me. :P I did some sewing in the middle afternoon and otherwise just laid about and read, trying to stay warm under my quilts. Brrr! I did have a nice FaceTime call with my daughter this evening.

It is supposed to rain quite a bit this weekend and be in the 60s. Not my idea of great May weather. Think I'll stay in and sew!

:) LINDA

Daily Doings

When I went off to search on 'daily life' I had no idea what a rabbit hole I'd fall into! There were any number of images I could have chosen (statistics in daily life, science or chemistry in daily life, many good quotes to ponder:). Getting down to the basics, though, the quote above is my 'brass tacks' saying. 

I keep this blog to be more-or-less a dairy of my life. I am dysgraphic (as they labeled my son in early elementary school) and find handwriting a chore. All the diaries I have ever tried to keep before this blog fell by the wayside after a brief time for this reason. This blog allows me to type (yeah!), share photos, and has been going on since February 2006 ... so I'd say it has been a better platform for my personal history keeping. :)

I find however that I only note the highlights of my time - the things I am making and special events I get involved with. I often forget to record the everyday ideas and actions that make up most of my life. Like cooking dinner with my son ... and housework (what very, very little I actually do) ... and routine grocery shopping ... and my solitaire playing at night before bed ... and various anime shows or video games I watch with my beloved. Chores I have to deal with - like calling the manufacturer of the life-time-warrantied bird feeder the squirrels chewed to bits. Just small joys. :)

This past five days has been one of those too-busy-to-breathe times for which I am deeply grateful. My guild's quilt show gave me a volunteer job for four hours each on three days ... including May the Fourth which was the hard-for-me-to-deal-with first anniversary of my niece Kimmi's death. I have shed many tears over the loss but I can't shed any more right now; I just feel sad and regretful and 'down.' Having to deal with other people (especially quilting friends) was a blessing in many ways!    

Today was a very quiet resting period after three busy days. I got in a nap and some book reading. Cooked dinner. Generally 'laid low' and relaxed. Tomorrow is the regularly scheduled meeting of Mimi Dietrich's Grad Class at Bears Paw quilt shop in Towson, MD. I look forward to seeing my applique friends there.

:) Linda

MidWeek Dithering

When I did a 'midweek' search on images online I found this one - a vintage Sami (reindeer herder) image of father and daughter (?). Do you have certain cultures that you are drawn toward? Maybe due to your family genealogy, maybe you like their iconic designs ... I certainly do. The Sami are one of my favorites. I think I should have been born a nomad. :)

Anyway, this has been a quiet week so far. The weather had been lovely ... 80s and sunny. We did have rain last night - and one thunder clap that woke me up so hard I almost fell out of bed. Scary! I took my brother Kevin out to lunch (Chipotle) and grocery shopping on Tuesday. Two well-spent hours of family time. :)

My 'traditional' quilt guild, Faithful Circle Quilters, here in Columbia is having our bi-annual show this week. I am planning to volunteer in various spots from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I look forward to this every time. :) It's always an excellent show - lots of quilts (350+), good vendors, pretty things. :)

I noticed as I was leaving my brother's condo on  Tuesday afternoon that the azaleas are blooming there, too. Here are some neighbor's houses (through my car's window, sorry about the reflections):

Maryland is so pretty in the spring! We are supposed to get rain for the next three days. I hope it doesn't cut into the attendance at our show! Highlights later.

:) Linda