Arc-out

All 194 arcs are complete and I told Rob yesterday we needed to pick a background.  If we're going with gray, it needs to be a warm gray.  I laid arcs out on a couple, but I didn't have a medium gray that was warm, so we'll need a trip to the fabric store.  Oh, no, not the fabric store.  Oh darn.  

Here's a quick review of how I make an arc.  Unfortunately, I didn't start taking pics until the last arcs were already in progress.  

I'm using freezer paper piecing instead of regular paper.  That means I don't sew through the paper and I can use templates over and over (about 6 times).  If you do regular paper piecing, you're going to notice that I trim at a weird place.  

First, I center the first wedge of the template on the wrong side of a fabric square, making sure it covers all the seams and edges, then I iron it to stick them together.  Next, I match a second square to the first, right sides together and fold the paper back along the seam line and sew along the fold.  The 2.5" squares are convenient because I can just line them up along the side when attaching the next piece.  

Then I use my add a quarter ruler to trim the seam allowance.

Then I unfold the fabric and the paper and finger press the seam fold and iron it down from the front.  You're just forming a crisp fold at the seam line.  Don't iron the whole piece of fabric and be sure not to touch the iron to the freezer paper.  

Ironing from the front won't adhere the paper to the fabric very well, so I also iron from the back, making sure I only adhere fabric to paper up to th next fold line.  I'll need to fold at that seam line in order to attach the next piece.  Notice that I haven't trimmed that.  I'll use that extra fabric to line up the edges of the next square.  

When all the pieces are attached, I trim all the way around with scissors.

And, then peel the paper off.  Be sure to peel in the direction of the seam allowances.  If you go against that, the seam allowance will ravel.  

Doing it that way, I was able to make 194 arcs in three weeks.  I estimate it took about 35 hours.  I made 20 templates to start with, but accidentally ironed a bunch of them together, damaging them.  4 didn't last long and I made another 8, but 16 of the originals made it all the way through.  You can see from the one above that they collect lint.  Eventually they'll pick up so much lint that they won't stick anymore.  

This is the most expensive fish I ever bought.  The woman at the fish store was treating me like I was a moron when she sold him to me (she's 90% of the reason we don't go back to that fish store.  the other 10% is because a third of the fish I bought there died, a day or two after their warranty expired), but I'm glad I bought him.  I never know where he's going to be hanging out...and by that, I mean literally hanging by his mouth.  He loves to hang upside down from the underside of a rock.  Here, he's hanging on the side of one.  

This weekend, we cleared out the garden.  It's a perennial garden, so dies back every year after the first good freeze and I cut it to the ground.  This year, we're sealing the fences again, so it was double important that I get it all out of Rob's way so he can move freely.  While I was digging around, this little guy decided he'd like to see how bad he could scare me.  He was wildly successful.  

We are entering week 3 of the horror show.  I keep reading on social media that someone should do something and I keep wondering who could do anything and what could they do?  I think we're all sitting here with stunned looks on our faces, watching the nightmare unfold, waiting to see if those checks and balances that we learned about in school are going to work.  

Rob thinks I should be more careful about what I say on here.  He didn't say that because he wouldn't, and that approach wouldn't have worked.  But, he conveyed it nonetheless and I know he's right.  No need to draw attention to myself.  Online is not anonymous.  

But, I can't resist this one.  This is the DEI that we don't need.  

Everybody have a great week!  I have to go to the office on Thursday.  Excuse me while I go hunt for my excitement.  But, I'm learning that this is just one day and I can easily get through it pretending.  I'm a good pretender.  But in my heart, I still yearn for retirement.  

Lane

Arc de Triomphe

Okay, well maybe not "triomphe" yet, but close.  

It looks like I'll need 194 arcs for this quilt.  If anyone has made one and wants to check my math, that would be great.  It's 7 blocks by 6 blocks.  I have 146 completed and another 24 half completed.  They really do go fast when you have everything prepped.  Unfortunately, I have to stop and cut fabric again.  194 arcs takes a lot of 2.5" squares and I'm trying to be careful about variety.  I looked at arcs the other day because there were some I liked better than others.  I ended up setting aside the darkest and lightest squares.  I love mediums and this is a chance to let that flag fly.  

We're thinking about background now.  This is the original brown I had chosen, but Rob is thinking maybe a gray, so I'm going to lay some arcs out on a couple of different grays and see what he thinks.  I think he's thinking of something a little less traditional.  

We both had Monday off for MLK day and then Rob was home Tuesday due to icy roads.  We had "snow", but it didn't cover the whole yard.  The ground was still too warm for it to stick most places, but it was more than willing to melt on the road and then re-freeze.  

The only drawback to working from home is there are no snow days.  But, when I weigh that snow day against all the days I don't have to go to the office, it works out.  Believe me.  

We had the greenhouses all snug as a bug.  Everything thrived.  We uncovered everything Saturday as we're not supposed to have freezing temps this week.  

I don't post pics of Bella often.  She's been "old".  But, she is getting more curious and more active.  She's having more trouble jumping places, but for the most part, we enjoy watching her play with Dottie.  They look so vicious jumping and leaping at one another and wrestling around.  Bella is 15.  Dottie turned 1 last week.  

I'm sure we all spent last week waiting for the nightmare to get really scary.  It hasn't.  Yet.  And, still we wait.  Some of his nonsense will be impossible to enforce (I don't know about you, but it's always going to be the Gulf of Mexico to me).  Some, he may not be able to pull off, like mass deportations.  I suspect they'll round up some criminals and that will be that.  Token service provided.  So far, what I'm reading on social media is the solution to high egg prices is no eggs are available.  It's not a problem he could solve in a week.  We all knew that.  But he SAID he could solve it in a week.  And, he didn't.  

He did give us another 'nasty woman' to look up to. 

Still have it in my head that we'll survive.  Going to do my best.  And, if ICE asks, I don't know and I don't remember.  I watched a video provided by a law firm a couple weeks ago.  A very respectable older couple of attorneys giving advice.  One would spell out a situation.  The other would tell what to do, and what they said do in every situation was to "shut the fuck up".  Passive resistance.  It was hilarious because it was like watching your Grandparents use the F word.  But, it was real.  

Everybody have a great week.  Live up to your higher potential.  We win this by sticking together, no group left behind.  That means you might have to stand up for something you find personally distasteful.  Bite the bullet.  Only compromise your beliefs for the right reasons.  Find something to ground yourself in.  

Lane

Gonna make a quilt.

Or is it maybe 'Gonna make a quilt?'  Or 'Gonna make a quilt!!'  

Either way, a bed-sized quilt.  Yes, there is one that is 90% quilted hanging on the back of my sewing chair, but that's neither here nor there.  Apparently.  

For some reason, there's no label on the back of this quilt, but I believe it was made for our 15th anniversary.  It was a quilt before its time.  I got asked so many questions.  Green?  That green?  It's all going to be green?  That green?  But, it's green.  And, beige.  And that's all?  But, I thought it was beautiful.  Still do.  It felt like a very different interpretation of the pattern at the time.  I'm not sure why I didn't enter it in a show.  I would have liked to have gotten judges' feedback on it.  

We slept under it once.  It has a wool batting and we both sweated through the night, so it's been in the top of the closet since then.  We've pulled it out to use as a bedspread and I'm not hating it in the blue room.  

Rob and I will be together 25 years this year.  Over those 25 years, he has given me multiple collections of fabric.  Lots of brightly colored pre-cuts and some yardage to go with them.  I've always wanted to use them to make a double wedding ring, so I made the freezer paper templates yesterday and cut a whole lot of 2.5" squares and started piecing arcs.  They go pretty fast once the prep work is done.  I'll be able to re-use the templates for another round. I started with 20, but lost 2 to a tragic moment of 'stoopid' and damaged some others, so I won't get the full 5-6 uses out of them all, but I will from some and I can make more.  

I was going for totally random, but I can already see that I need to pay more attention to dark/light.  I have mixed emotions about assembly line-style piecing.  Yes, it's fast and efficient, but it takes the soul out of carefully selecting and attaching each piece, one block (or arc) at a time.  I enjoyed that about making block of the month quilts.  You focus on just one block, choosing just the right fabrics and laying them out and looking at them in black and white to get the right values.  But, if I did that with all the arcs I'm going to need, we'd be together 35 years before it was done.  

I have a very nice chocolate brown fabric with little white sprigs that I planned for the background, and it would look great!  But, I'm not cutting into it yet.  When I get a few arcs made, I'll lay them out on a couple of backgrounds and see what I like the best.  Green?

No, not green.  That's the only color it cannot be.  

We came over the hilltop yesterday on the way to the grocery.  Yes, we shop very early to avoid the crowds.  We step over the stockers, but they all recognize us and are quick to get out of the way on the rare occasion I need them to.  There were eggs.  That was good to see.  Look at me digress.  Anyway, we came over the hilltop and Rob shouted 'look at the moon!'.  And goodness, but look at it hanging up there.  It looks huge!

And, then we made up a story about how the moon was crashing to earth and the election of trump was to keep us from noticing until it was too late for much anarchy.  We might watch too much sci-fi.

I don't know if you know Hazel.  I don't.  But, somebody freaking loves Hazel.  This was her birthday cake and I am deeply impressed.  Happy Birthday Hazel!!!

That's the cake I'm going to make for Easter.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahha!

Thinking of deleting my Facebook account.  I don't need more masculine energy from a small man with a bad perm.  I didn't need it when that perm was in style and I sure don't need it now.  I deleted twitter years ago.  Left Mastodon when they started over-monitoring.  Now, I'm on another app, but they need to up their monitoring for content warnings, so am iffy there.  Hopefully, I have too small a presence on the internet to attract any haters.  

Everybody have a great week!  Remember, Greenland, the gulf of America, the 51st state, these are all just distractions to keep us from seeing the crimes being committed.  Don't be distracted.  But, don't get too bogged down in it either.  We still have to live through it.  

Lane

Why did the toilet paper cross the road?  Because it was stuck to the chicken's foot.

I will not suffer these dad jokes alone.  

First freeze

 I know some of you are having some rough weather right now.  My thoughts are with you.  Stay warm, stay safe, and make sure your heat source is properly ventilated.  For us, this is just a light freeze, but it was a good opportunity to practice for the real thing, so all the plants that are going to get in the greenhouse, got in the greenhouse.  

I was back at work on Thursday, but I think I was the only one on my team that was.  We had a big project elevate on 01/01, except the people providing the source material didn't, so all that prep for everyone else wasn't much use.  But, I had everyone on my end ready, and that's what counts.  Other than that, it was a nice couple days spent putting out holiday fires.  Everyone will be back today and it will be a different story.  

The Christmas cactus bloomed.  Two weeks late.  Oh, well.  Syd picked this and then abandoned it and I took it over.  This year, she asked for a cutting and got it.  Someday, I suspect she's going to ask for it back.  

True confessions:  I "took" this rose.  And, what's more, I wish I'd "taken" the other one too.  

Our neighbors sold their home to a flipper.  The last thing the flippers do is dig out all the landscaping and replace it with new and cute plants that probably won't make it.  This rose was in a pot and one day, I just picked it up and brought it home.  And, sure 'nuff, they either dug the beautiful red knock-out rose next to it up or cut it to the ground and planted over it.  I feel no shame.  

It's a beauty.  Big blooms with lots of petals and a beautiful smell.  These were about to open in the greenhouse and I cut them and brought them in.  

I wish I had a before picture.  Rob brought this rubber tree into our lives 25 years ago.  I have cared for it and taken cuttings to root and done my best to control it, but it really took on a life of its own this year.  I tried keeping the branches tied up, but the squirrels would eat my ties every time, so I finally gave up and just let it go.  The branches drooped and touched the ground and then turned up again.  It looked like a spider.  But it wouldn't fit in the greenhouse.  So, I tied it up again and it came out GREAT!  I'm lucky to live in an area where I can grow tropical plants outside and let them get as big as they want.  

This was the big greenhouse after we got everything in.  I could not get in there if I needed to, it's so full, but when we remove 5 really large plants, I'll have access all the way to the back to tend to the rest.  I use this greenhouse for tropicals and more delicate plants.  

Plants that would normally stay outside in cold weather, but I'm growing them in pots, go in the plastic greenhouse.  This is just to keep the roots from freezing in the pots.  As long as the roots don't freeze, these will come back.  

It's a big anniversary in our country.  A day of violence and menace that we apparently didn't learn enough from.  

We continue to prepare for the future in little ways.  An extra bag of flour, some cans of soup.  Yesterday, in the grocery store, eggs were restricted.  You couldn't pick them up and put them in your basket.  Apparently, you needed to ask for them.  I didn't know that so I opened the dairy case, stepped in, pushed the empty cart out of the way and grabbed myself a carton.  Rob said he would have loved to video that.  Anyway, I'm worried that those eggs are just the beginning of a cascading series of shortages, some created by politicians, some created by profiteers.  So, I convinced Rob to buy the bigger package of toilet paper yesterday...because we don't get the Sears catalog anymore.  

The rich will live in lavish comfort and we will be expected to do without so that false promises can pretend to be kept.  

Ooh, that was negative.  Sorry, don't want to end on that note.  

    Why was the snowman digging through the bag of carrots?

    He was picking his nose.  

I should never have bought Rob that box of Dad jokes.  

Everyone have a great week.  Be strong.  Be safe.  Stay warm.  Find peace inside and out.  

Lane