Fiber and Pulp

Melancholy May

May has been a melancholy month for me, beginning with the death of my niece, Kim, on the 4th. Above her son begins to dig the hole to inter her ashes beside my parents and my two brothers in a small cemetery in southeastern Ohio. You may not be able to tell from the photo but it was raining buckets that day (hence all the umbrellas). To the left of Kim's son is his foster father, Christian and to the right is my niece Amy (Christian's sister-in-law).

Our private family services were actually quite beautiful - I found them comforting ... and also elating in that it revealed Kim's siblings to all be spectacular people! I was so proud of my family that rainy morning ... for their caring and compassion and mutual support.

We have been working to sort out Kim's possessions - some to give to family members, some to donate to worthy causes, some to keep as memorials to Kim. There are still things to be donated but Hugh (my son) and I are slowly distributing things. It's inspiring me to sort and de-stuff my own house faster so that's a positive aspect to the sadness, I suppose.

I have taken some comfort in nature this month. My brother and I went for a stroll through the azalea gardens in western Howard County (where we live) earlier this month. I found it soothing and reassuring. I go to nature when I visit 'church.'

I've also been sewing quietly in my room, when I can grab a few minutes, working on two projects that I started earlier this spring. 

The first is the Call Me Crazy sew along. I have made six blocks now (out of a total, eventually, of 52?):

 

The other project I'm nearly done with is the Create Your Own Adventure quilt along being run by the Baltimore Modern quilt guild. Today I sewed in the afternoon with my friends Barbara and Patty (and the Faithful Circle Sewing Buddies via Zoom) ... and managed to trim and baste my final story quilt from this exercise. I'm quite happy with it!

Just to share more of my family here ... I was given a copy of a photo of my parents when they were very young (probably 19 or 20) and first dating, standing on the campus of their college:

:) Linda

Tears and Sighs

Kimberly Danielle Berry

6/24/1991 to 5/4/2023

Beloved niece

 

Major Gaps

It has been a beautiful spring here in the MidAtlantic region - lots of lovely flowers (the paulownia trees are flowering now) and the waterfowl pairing off to set nests and raise little fluffy ball babies. :)

I have been massively buried in taking care of my brother and my niece. There have been some happy times, too. A couple of local guild quilt shows to attend ... beading with my niece (who is a past master at stringing pretty baubles!) ... a few days here and there of sewing ... some lovely walks (until this past week when the weather turned unseasonably chilly and wet).

Here is a string of beads I composed in progress. I did finish it and a bracelet to go with:

We bought new summer sun hats one afternoon while shopping and I mugged for a photo to check them out (the color varied between the two a bit - one was beige, the other pinkish ... I chose the pink):

We went walking at Centennial Park one afternoon and Kim brought along one pair of her fans to Flow with:

We went to the long-postponed quilt bingo by Baltimore Modern quilt guild. My friends Barbara, Patty and Kim came with me. I got to see a quilt I made three years ago for one of the 'special' prizes. I collected blocks I had chosen from guild members and designed/assembled the top; other members quilted and then bound the final quilt. I love it! You can click to enlarge the image - take a look at all the great novelty prints used for book covers. Fun!

This past weekend I attended MidAtlanticMod quilt retreat in central PA, sponsored by five of the region's modern guilds (one of which was Baltimore). I had been to MidMod before and enjoyed every minute of it - and this time was even better. I had been feeling pretty left out of sewing as I had so little time for it lately - so it was a delight to be able to devote myself completely to nothing but for four whole days. :)

I got some happy progress made. First I spent a couple of hours resewing and refining the drawstring bags I had made several years ago to carry the various tools and accessories with my travel machine, Blue, my Featherweight. No photos, though. :)

Then I worked for almost two full days to make the first month's block of the Shoreline b.o.m. - the Tulip Shell. If you can imagine it, I improv foundation pieced this pattern:

The designer intended the shell to be made from just one fabric print but I decided to make mine more 'realistic' with assorted stripes. :)

That was so intense and fiddly, I decided to work on another block of the 'month' (I think it is actually two block a month?) I'm doing, Call Me Crazy. I managed to make the first two blocks and am really having fun with this - trying to work some novelty prints into my bright/happy batik assortment.

Oh, I almost forgot. I also participated in one of the collaborative projects at Mod - we had two. The one I worked with was themed around the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School of Architecture. Here is how it ended up:

One of the people who worked on it won the top (@robinbirdrobin on IG). I made the block in the upper right with the slanting red-brown strip (the roof of a famous house), the brick patchwork set in the lower left, and I sewed a number of the units together. I would have loved to win it! :)

So, things are flowing along. I will try to do a better job of keeping track of my life and recording it here - my memory is very visual and I tend to completely forget events if I don't write them down.

:) Linda

1874!

In early February I had a doctor's appointment and noticed this forsythia bush on my way out - blooming especially early in this year, even for our fairly warm area. We have had a much-milder-than-usual winter (with the exception of  a ten day period in late December that was _much_ colder than usual).

I took this photo of the daffodils near my front step this morning. We have lived in our house since January 1987. Only ONCE before have the daffodils bloomed this early (the year my daughter was about 11 years old).

It was over 70 degrees today!! It has not been that warm in late February since 1874!! The world here in Maryland was a very different place then. Wow!

The past week has been more than usually blah for me. My stomach/intestines have been giving me troubles. I _think_ it is some kind of developing food sensitivity as I have no fever or other sign of infection (and negative Covid tests twice). Sigh. I took my condo crew grocery shopping on Tuesday afternoon (which was a mistake, health-wise). Otherwise, just filling the two bird feeders in my front yard was a huge effort. :P

Tomorrow is Sewing With Friends day at my friend Barbara's house. I look forward to some zen stitching!

Linda

Flashes of Light

Our skies were very gray today, much like this photo. There were occasionally flashes and patches of sunshine glowing through but it was mostly overcast throughout the day. I did manage to do some sewing:

I finished making my eight extra Chilhowie mystery project blocks ... if you look carefully at the one on top of this pile, you will see why I had to take two of them apart and resew the elements. sigh! Two out of eight were backwards. I get disgusted with myself easily when I make this kind of mistake (one that reveals my basic dyslexia) ... but I whipped out Jack and ripped out some cotton seam guts right then (rather than grumpily dwelling on my errors). Sewed them back together. Now I have 11 blocks ... gotta make one more. My math decisions are questionable these days. LOL.

I took Kim to her first therapist appointment late this afternoon ... then we shared dinner at the local Subway (had a bit of trouble choosing through the new menu; lots of my familiar favorites are gone). 

Tomorrow I have three major to-do items: pay bills, make phone calls (mostly to repair people), and receive/put away groceries I ordered tonight. 

:) Linda

Joy Despite the Drear

Choose Joy! What a lovely idea. :) In practice I have trouble following that advice sometimes. Sigh.

Today was gray, overcast and dreary. Sunshine broke through the cloud layers at times in the middle of the afternoon. I know because I spent several hours in my sewing room, visiting with my modern quilting friends via Zoom. :) We have re-started our Quilting With Friends sew-along sessions and I enjoyed every minute of it today.

I went back to working on my Bonnie Hunter project this afternoon. I have my Dragon Scales top hanging on the work wall at the front of my sewing space to admire when I need a place to rest my eyes.

I managed over the two hours or so I worked on my block bits to finish eight blocks worth of units for more of the Chilhowie:

I ran out of 'go' by the time I had counted, re-counted, piled and assembled all these bits. I plan to work on sewing them together tomorrow afternoon (since, for a rare change, I don't have any Sunday afternoon commitments:).

I am still really happy with this color palette. Makes me think of summer time at the beach. :) What you can't see from my piles is that the prints in each unit are pretty scrappy - they aren't all exactly the same as the surface fabrics. I look forward to making the larger blocks from these units. Step by step does it with this project. :)

I will have 11 blocks when I finish this pile, I _think_. Might have to make one more to get an even number for a quilt design/layout. Hmmm.

Other than sew, I spent most of the rest of my day reading and resting. Getting to be outright lazy! There are plenty of household chores, phone calls and book keeping errands I could be doing. :P

:) Linda

PS. For my own record keeping: as of this evening, I have lost 79 pounds in the past 15 months due to my bariatric surgery and resulting new eating regimen. I have 18 pounds to go to achieve my 'ideal' weight. :)

Dragons

 I have been a reader of fantasy fiction since I was about nine or ten years old. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time when I was in middle school (and re-read it every couple of years). The painting above depicts the dragon Smaug from The Hobbit, lying on his pile of treasure. If you look very carefully at the lower right corner, you might see Bilbo Baggins, THE hobbit, bowing to the dragon. This particular illustration was drawn by Tolkien himself (author of these books).

What does this relate to in my life (other than my niche reading preferences:)? Several months ago a friend (whose name I have forgotten in the interim) gave me three pieces of silk fabric - weaving samples that were probably rep color/order charts. Luscious, elaborate silks. They've been sitting beside my sewing machine, attracting my eye ever since. Recently I've been sewing on Bonnie Hunter's mystery project Chilhowie pretty much exclusively ... and, even though I truly love the fabrics I've chosen and am plugging away with the effort, I was getting bogged down in the minutiae of piecing the block units. 

Suddenly last weekend I decided to step aside and follow that silk "squirrel" temptation for a few days. :) When I looked at my fabrics, I 'saw' dragon bellies embedded with gems and jewels from sleeping on their treasure piles. :) The project has veered away from my original vision, but that's ok with me - I might even try for a series on this topic and start a new one. :)

Here is what I originally created:

I pictured these quarter-square log cabin blocks as dragon scales - set on point and overlapping like belly scales. You might have to click and embiggen the photo to see the luscious sheen and print pattern of these silks. When I finished piecing the block units, I set them together thinking I would turn the whole thing on point as if I were looking at the scales face-on. The project fought with me, though, and this is what I ended up making:

I could not find a/any fabric(s) in my immediate stash that would suit as the setting-on-point print for the central nine block array ... and so cut up the striped silk print into a piano-key style border. I am thinking to hand quilt this with big stitch embroidery in, possibly, black or some other intense neutral color. To be determined. :)

I went back to work on the BH project today. Faithful Circle quilters have arranged a Friday afternoon zoom for us to sew together on this project. Today I did not feel up to going out (my stomach was grumpy) so I joined the group from home with my sewing instead of going to Barbara's house as is my usual wont. 

I need to rummage through my stash and find something nice for the back of this piece (it's about 26" square) so I can sandwich it. I look forward to doing the hand quilting on it. :)

The weather has been mild temperature-wise but very windy today. Gray the past couple of days. It was sunny on Wednesday - I took my Condo Crew out grocery shopping all afternoon and was grateful we did not have to deal with rain while we were out!

:) Linda

PS I forgot to note that Skip and I went to the lab on Tuesday afternoon for Covid tests. We both tested negative. Thank you, Science!

Damned Virus

The expletive-deleted virus has struck at my house at long last. :( Shortly after I wrote my last post, I got a call from my niece about my brother (with whom she lives, in the condo we bought for them, about 3 miles from our house). He was raving and sick. I drove quickly to the apartment and discovered chaos.

To make a long-ish story shorter, visits from police and firefighters, accompanied by mental health professional, followed by EMTs with an ambulance ... and my brother was on his way to the local hospital (part of the Johns Hopkins University medical system). Of course, I was right there behind them ... and spent a number of hours hovering as Kevin was admitted to the ICU. We didn't know, then, what was wrong with him, only that he was raving and delusional and fevered.

He was in hospital for three plus days. Multiple blood and body tests of all kinds ... eventually it was decided that the only detectable issue was Covid. Sigh. He was released on Tuesday afternoon and I tested positive for Covid, too. :P

I have gone to see to them all three for two afternoons ... but today I woke up with a very sore throat and stayed home. In my nightgown all day, wrapped in three quilts, sitting in my comfy armchair watching the birds and sky out our front patio window. Sigh. Not sick but not well, either.

I expect I will be staying home a couple more days at least. Fingers crossed I don't get any more sick - have had all the vaccinations and boosters which I think must be helping as, other than the sore throat, I don't have any other symptoms. 

I did help Kim hang some of her art works on Wednesday afternoon - she is still unpacking and settling in. I took a photo of this one (about 12"x12" in real life), thinking it would make a spiffy quilt:

I got the first block of the Shoreline Shells block of the month project I signed up for. Am Looking forward to making this quilt:

I am way behind in doing my paperwork (paying bills, posting receipts, balancing bank accounts). Sigh. Too sick to make much order out of the tasks right now, though.

Linda

Chilly Skies

Winter can be pretty here in Maryland but today is NOT it! Chilly (highs in the mid40s), windy, cloudy skies with occasional flashes of blue ... drab and gray is more the usual in my neighborhood.

I spent most of today in a cocoon - nightgown-with-sweater, reading, eating and napping. I had planned to do some sewing and to try some book keeping ... but never achieved anything of note. :P

Yesterday was much more productive. It was the last Friday Zoom of sewing with guild buddies on this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt, Chilhowie. Patty and I met with Barbara at her house (the usual happy comfort of Friday afternoons:) to sew along with the zoom. I took Blue (my Featherweight machine) and worked on assembling units to build more BH blocks. I had the pleasure of using one of my happy holiday gifts, too:

I was given this cute little pinnie by a modern guild friend - she was thanking me for the use of my Accuquilt cutter for the guild's charity program (Days for Girls) this year. Along with this adorable little owl, there was a big owl pinnie that is living in my non-traveling sewing room. :) So cute!!! Thanks, Sue. :)

I got quite a bit of sewing done Friday. Sadly, when I got home, I was too tired to bring my bag of supplies and the machine (in its Tutto case) inside. Still out in the back of my Jeep. Maybe tomorrow I'll have the gumption to go get the stuff. Sigh.

Tomorrow is the first monthly meeting of the Baltimore Modern guild (on zoom). I look forward to that.

:) Linda

Day One

Today has been peaceful and quiet. It was sunny and warm-ish at 60 degrees or so for a high temperature. I meant to go out walking but never did get around to it (sigh).

I decided to participate in the Merry Mayhem Mystery for today (held annually on New Year's Day) and I'm glad I did. :) A couple months ago I won a very nice set of color coordinated batik fat quarters from Island Batiks and wanted to use some of that fabric to make at least one donation quilt. Turns out this was a good design to use for a baby-sized top. 

Here is what I ended up with by the end of my sewing day (from about noon until around 4:30 p.m.):

The mystery instructions include an inner and outer fabric border ... but I have decided I like this top as it is, without any border. I will choose a dark pink binding to frame the quilt, I think. 

I made at least one mistake I didn't see until looking at the finished top. Not taking it out, though, as I don't think it detracts. Shrug. :) Now I need to find a nice batik backing fabric and get this quilted. I will donate it to the Baltimore Head Start reading program my modern guild supports, I think.

Other than that sewing - exactly how I want to spend the rest of this year! - I mostly read, lazed about in my cozy armchair and watched the wild birds come to my feeders. Lovely day. Tomorrow I have to take my niece to the doctor and visit with my condo crew for a while.

:) Linda