Design week

The cutting bender I was on last weekend continued and I cut out a couple more quilts.  

This is one that Rob and I designed in the car on the way home from the quilt show where I bought the fabrics.  There's a print in it with triangles and I wanted to blow that up and out a bit.  It should finish at 24" squarish.  A lot of math went into that calculation, so I hope it's right.  

And a little Christmas table runner from a fq bundle we got at JoAnn's a while back.   There's a nice green and a white with trees on it for borders.  It probably won't have the curve in it when it's finished, but I ain't makin' no promises.  

I also cut out and started this little Lone Star kit that I've had for probably 15 years.  They must have made a bajillion of these kits.  Mine wasn't new when I bought it and I still see them on eBay.  It was popular.  I put the strip sets together as leader/ender then cut them yesterday.  I'll have to mark the 1/4" seam line, then I can start pinning and assembling (no!!!!  not more pinning!).

I also have a ringer that I decided not to show today.  It's too cute and nearly finished...I told Rob I might have to take part of the morning off work to finish it, I'm so excited about it.  I also finished piecing this little top.  It's about 32" square and I'm looking forward to some really simple quilting.  It feels very spring-ey and should make a nice wall hanging.  

And, on Saturday, I laid out the wedding ring to look at it for placement.  I realized that with this much busy-ness, the mistakes I was worried about can't happen.  There are no spots of too much or too little color.  I'm such an idiot.  I laid it out that morning and when I got to the end, there were three blocks that didn't fit and I moved wedges around to fix them.  Then, I came in later and realized that I'd laid it out wrong and instead of joining rows with S seams, I was going to be joining rows by scalloped seams, which was going to be much harder.  So, I laid it out right, and guess what.  I had three blocks that didn't fit and I had to move wedges around to unfix them.  I need to remember that sometimes, my mistake is in the execution, not in the original plan.  Because I do this a lot.

There is one (and only one) purple piece of fabric in this quilt.  When I laid it out the first time, it ended up near the center and once my eye found it, I couldn't see the rest of the quilt.  All I could see was that purple piece.  I've moved it now, but don't look for it.  You won't be glad you did.  

And, there were flowers this week.  I finally got around to feeding yesterday.  It was late.  Now the plants will be thriving in July and I'll spend a fortune on water.  If I'd fed in March, like I was supposed to, the peak would be ending in July.  

This Iris came from my Mom's.  When they called me home last year because she was in hospital, these were blooming next to her driveway.  And, I just told my Dad I was taking one.  I picked a young one that wasn't blooming and dug it up and brought it home.  I think I found a nice place for it.  I think it's only going to bloom this one flower this year, but that's okay.  It's a pretty one!

The last poppy.  I enjoyed these.  I hope I've found a place they'll be happy.  I've never been able to grow poppies before.   Full sun doesn't mean full sun here.  

The first yellow Iris.  it was a little early and there should be more soon.  

I don't often buy pink flowers, but this geranium looked so cheerful that I had to have it.  It's just adapting to its new spot and is blooming happily.  

These are called indigo spires.  I have this clump and a smaller one that needs moving.  These came from the neighbor's trash pile 3 years ago and are having their best year.  Rob's rule of thumb is 'the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year, they leap.'  

Another early Gerber daisy.  I have four, in different colors.  The instructions said full sun.   I don't think growers realize what that means here...or maybe they do and are expecting everyone to replace plants frequently.  These struggled for two years.  I moved them into a shadier spot and they appear to be recovering.  

One of the places Sydney lived had these Iris growing out near the curb.  There are also some purple ones that bloomed last year, but no stalks this year so far.  Anyway, I think it's beautiful.  It didn't bloom for a couple years and I nearly forgot about it, then last year, it went nuts and this year, is going to do the same.  

And, the first daylily was this Stella D'oro.  It's cute and small and put on a real show this year.  There are daylily scapes everywhere now and they'll be blooming any day, but Stella is always first.  

Today is Rob's birthday.  We're only one year apart again and he has to stop calling me old man.  This was his battery powered birthday and he is tickled beyond measure.  He's excited about his new toys, but I have a motive.  In the summer, he waits til after 8 to mow so he doesn't disturb the neighbors.  Sometime in September, I'll say screw the neighbors and make him start at 7.  This new lawnmower is so quiet, he can mow as soon as the sun comes up.  Instead of being out there at 11am when it's 102*, he can be done, showered, and ready to take me to run errands at 11am, as is his duty.  Seriously.  We're too old to be working in the yard when it's over 100*.  We'll leave that to the young people and maybe set a good example for them to follow when they're older and sleeping late is less important.  

Blower, trimmer, mower, it looks like a showroom display.  

Syd went with us to dinner on Saturday.  Mexican food and laughs.  It was nice.  This is one of the new dresses we bought a few weeks ago.  She looked so good, we had to get a picture.  But for some reason I don't fully understand, it's not a picture of her with the birthday boy.  Why didn't anyone think of that?

Tonight, he'll get his favorite dinner.  Swiss steak.  Do you remember Swiss steak?  It was one of those really big recipes in the 70's.  It used cheap tenderized round steak and cooked it in a tomato sauce to help tenderize it even more.  I found a recipe that Rob says is just like his Mom used to make, and I make it for him on special occasions.  Or when I need to butter him up for something.  

Everyone have a good week.  Try to find happy things to do.  I'm at the point where it doesn't really matter what it is,  or how impractical it is.  I'm just squeezing all the joy out of every day that I can.  I finished a couple big projects at work last week and am feeling pretty good about that.  I'm managing to keep the scaries at bay.  Hope you are too!  

Lane

If I want to

Sometimes I'm in the mood to quilt.  And, sometimes, I'm in the mood to sew.  But, I'm rarely in the mood to cut.  Cutting is work.  Stoop, bend, iron, measure, measure, measure, cut, repeat.  If it didn't come with the fun and challenge of original design, we'd all go to precuts, right?

Precuts...now there's an idea.  

I took Good Friday off and it was a Good Friday indeed.  I worked in the greenhouse a couple hours, then the garage for 5 hours.  I took a shower and worked in the kitchen for an hour and then I sat and played the ukulele for an hour and a half, til Rob got home.  It was a very nice day.  I got a lot of things that had been weighing on my mind taken care of.  And, I worked through a lot of what's been on my mind.  

Saturday, I worked in the greenhouse another couple hours and got finished out there and then we did a little shopping and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up those last 12 wedding ring blocks.  Next step is to lay that quilt out in the floor and determine each block's final placement, then I'll number them and can proceed with final assembly.  Not bad, considering I think I just started that quilt in the middle of January.  While making it, I've made significant progress on my leader/ender, so yesterday, I decided to cut another couple of small projects.  Hey, it's my fabric and if I want to cut it into little pieces, I can.  

The first one is fabrics I bought at the Georgetown quilt show 2021.  Just a handful of scraps, tied with a string.  There was a smaller scale floral that I decided didn't fit, so I removed it and went with the paisley for a focus.  I have plenty of pink and green to make borders.  This is a Burgoyne Surrounded quilt block.  I've wanted to make a quilt of this pattern for years, but for now, one block will have to do.  This should finish at 17".  I'll add a couple of borders and it will be a nice size for a wall hanging.  

This top is based on the center fabric, which I bought at the same quilt show as above and added to the bundle of fabric.  I had 2 8x9" squares.  I kept trying to design a quilt with this as the focus and that pink paisley as well and I couldn't make that work, so I separated this and designed a different quilt around it.  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  It feels so cheerful!  But, that's as close to an ocean waves block as I want to get.  This one is a little bigger and should finish at 30".  

I have another couple to cut out, while I'm in the mood.  There's a Christmas table runner and a Christmas panel with pieced blocks around it.  There's a lone star quilt kit.  And, there are multiple bundles of fabrics I've put together over the years because I thought they'd make pretty quilts.  And, if I cut them all out and leave them unsewn, who cares.  Right now, being creative is my distraction.  And, I certainly have the fabric resources to be as creative as I want.   As I was cleaning out the garage, I found another bin of scraps.  (Holy cow, they're reproducing!  Send help!  Send sewists...I'll provide the machines and thread!)

I'll never sew it all up.  But, I'm gonna put as big a dent in it as I can.  

Not many flowers to show from last week, but this week should be better.  

This Dahlia opened.  Dahlias are sold as annuals here, but I'm hoping this one grows well enough that I can dig it up in the fall and maybe keep it for next year.  My Grandmother grew beautiful dahlias, but I've never had any luck.  I'm trying a less sunny location this year.  Hope it works.  

And, I finally got a nice rose off that bush I stole from the neighbor's yard when the house was bing flipped.  It's not as big as they were last year.  I need to feed it.  I need to feed everything, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Like a lot of other things. 

I've been doing 20 minute cleaning during the week.  Most days, there's 20 minutes after breakfast and another 20 after lunch.  Most of that was spent doing those tedious little things that I shoved in a corner rather than put away.  Those are the things that make cleaning so hard to be motivated for.  They're these mini-projects that have to be done before the real project begins.  But, once I'd knocked them all out in my 20 minute cleaning, I was able to make huge progress when I had a long stretch of time to devote to it.  I hope I can remember to do that in the future.  Fill that time that I would have spent reading the bad news with something more productive.   

I need all the distractions I can find.  Anything is better than reading the news.  Anything is better than checking on my retirement account.  Anything is better than thinking about my Latina daughter's future.  For me, that distraction is quilting and gardening.  I hope that you're able to find time to step away from the bad news and take care of yourself.  We need that so much.  

Lane

this and that

For someone that decided he didn't need any plants this year, I sure bought a lot of them.  I'm putting in a few veggies and herbs, hoping for a little more success than last year.  And a few flowers.  Mostly things in pots.  Yesterday,  I bought a bonsai.  Of course, I didn't think to take any pics, but I have a pic of these Amaryllis that went nuts this year.  

And, this very early iris.  I've had several things bloom really early this year.  None of the other iris or daylilies have put up a scape except Stella D'oro, which will likely bloom at the end of this week.  

The mock oranges are in bloom.  This is one of my favorite shrubs, but sadly it only blooms a couple weeks a year, so I spend 50 weeks a year looking forward to it.  

The Japanese emperor maple is having a great year.  We saw these in a nursery yesterday and plants this size were more than $300.  Mine was smaller and a lot less expensive, but it's grown into a beauty.  It came with a common pest that damaged the leaves.  I read about the pest and how to get rid of it and treated it last year, and this year, no damaged leaves.  It was the first time I'd used a pesticide other than a little Sevin dust in the 25 years I've gardened here.  

I also spent a lot of time sewing, but nothing got to a point for a photo.  That's definitely because I'm working on three quilts at one time.  On the anniversary quilt, I'm making the last 12 blocks.  Because of the haphazard way I've gone at the quilt, assembling in the order I wanted to so I could see results sooner, I got to the end and had to go back to the beginning and piece two arcs that were damaged early in the process and had to cut out those last two centers (which turned out to be 3 for some reason).  Things I knew I'd eventually have to go back and do, but they slowed progress.  And, there's all that pinning.  And, because my head is so into the precision of that quilt, I'm even pinning the leader/ender I'm working on too.  I'm pinning everything.  I even pinned a block to my shirt the other day.  

That might have been because I was pinning during a meeting.  

I got really frustrated last night.  I'd felt frustrated all day.  Everything I tried to do, I had to do something else first.  Something I should have done a while ago and knew I was going to have to do, but put off until I had to.  That is a familiar frustration and it means something I don't fully understand.  It's something related to clutter, probably clutter in my mind that I can't separate from the clutter in my life.  The anniversary of my Mom's death was last Friday.  I didn't know what to expect and took the day off.  I called my Dad.  I worked in the yard.  I sewed.  I sailed through it.  And, I'm pretty sure that yesterday was the reckoning of that.  It's my pattern.  Being aware yesterday meant I could make sure I wan't accidentally aiming that at my husband.  

I read an article the other day about trump's popularity and why he still has loyal supporters.  People love to watch the destruction of things they feel excluded from.  So, if they can't afford the Kennedy Center, burn it down.  If they're not on medicaid, burn it down.  If they're not collecting social security and have no hope of collecting it when they retire, burn it down.  If they can't afford to take vacations, then get rid of public spaces.  And, trump is doing that for them.  Burning everything down to create a nation of people that enjoy wrestling and racing and wife beating.  The bro lifestyle.  Beer and showing off.  Bellies and making fun of the handicapped. 

We're watching the end of law.  What trump likes is legal.  What he doesn't illegal.  If the federal govt won't prosecute you, one of these law firms that's toadying up to him will.  They don't need to win, just destroy people they take a dislike to.  There's plenty of ways to legally destroy someone's life without winning in court or deporting them to a gulag.  

I didn't mean to say last week that people that are carrying on don't hear the klaxon.  Just that I don't understand how they're carrying on.  I feel stuck.  Unable to move.  And yet, I carry on.  I am surprised by that every day.

Carry on.  That's all the encouragement I have for this week.  Carry on and survive and find joy in every day.  Because every day that we survive means there's a possibility for a better day in the future.  It's only when we give up that we're defeated.

Lane

Get moving

 I realized the other day that I've been sitting still, waiting for the end of the world and maybe it's not going to happen that way.  Or, based on the stock market's reaction to the lunacy, maybe it will.  But, either way, I need to keep us ready.  And, that means keeping up with doctor's appointments and having the warranty work done on the car and knocking out that project at work.  And, most importantly, I have to stop reading the news and get on living.  

But, I also have three quilts in the works for distraction.  And, it's working for me fine.  

We needed a little bit of an adventure this weekend, so on Saturday, we drove to the suburbs and had lunch in a cute little old-fashioned diner.  It feels weird to call something from the 80's old fashioned, but it is.  The colors, the menu, the smell of maple syrup and coffee.  Even though it was lunch, we both had breakfast.  I ate as much French toast with eggs and sausage as I could manage and still left a half a slice on the plate.  It was fun and kitschy and good food with a waitress that had been doing that a really long time and knew just how to handle every table and create a relaxed and fun atmosphere.  Then a quick trip to a Goodwill we don't visit often for some things we didn't need, didn't know we needed and/or probably could have done without...but Rob looked really good in that red and green plaid flannel shirt this weekend,  Reelly good.  

I had a bunch of wedding ring blocks that were nearly ready and I finished them on Saturday and laid the blocks out.  And, yes, I realize how dangerous it is to make a black anniversary quilt.  I think our relationship is strong enough to stand up to a little quilt lore.  

After that, I finished 12 more blocks, but when I went to lay them out, I had made an error on 6 of them.  Fortunately, if I make the corresponding error on another 6, it will negate my original error, and you know what a negated error is?  Not an error at all.  12 more blocks to go, but for them, I need additional wedges, and for additional wedges, I needed more joining squares, so I cut them and got started on that.  I've made significant progress, but there's all that pinning and pinning and pinning.  

You're wondering what my error was, right?  See how there's a convex curve on the left side and a concave curve on the right?  On two rows, those will be reversed...but since I'm going to add a wedge to all those concave curves and make them convex before I assemble the rows, you'll never even know.  

I was asked about the kit I bought at the Georgetown quilt show.  This is the picture.  I was fascinated.  The seller from thecottoncupboard.com (I have no affiliation) said her son picked the fabrics for this one.  They're all from a line by Seth Apter.  The prints are much too large and abstract for the small pieces, giving it this quilt a slightly insane look that I love.  

This is the first block.  They're a wonky 9 patch, made of what the pattern calls log cabin blocks, but they're not really.  When I made this block, I made the sections in tandem, but I found that it's easier to cut out all 8 blocks and make 8 of each section, then assemble them.  

This is the pattern.  How do people pick fabrics to make something that looks like this look like that?  That's part of the art of quilting that I missed out on...but I can draft a block like nobody's business and that's become a lost art.  

And, the third quilt is a little leader/ender.  Years ago, I was making a feathered star quilt.  When I'd do business travel, I'd go to quilt shops across whatever state I was in and gather 4-6 fat quarters and I'd do the same at quilt shows, then I'd make a feathered star block out of them to commemorate the event.  I was supposed to be able to remember where each fabric came from (hahahahahahahahha!)  That quilt is assembled and awaiting quilting but I still pick up little collections of fabrics at quilt shows and like to make a small one block quilt from them.  These are from the Georgetown Quilt and Stitchery show 2022 (I already made the quilt for 2023).  I ran out of white and had to add a fabric from my stash to fill in those last 8 squares.  Is okay.  I always seem to end up adding a little something.  I pick the fabrics, then I find the block.  I've already found the block for the 2021 quilt, too.  These are just a little bit of fun to commemorate a a good day.  

Yesterday, it was cold so I cooked instead of working in the yard.  From left to right, a frittata.  I make a frittata every Sunday and it feeds three men breakfast all week (me, Rob, and his co-worker).  Next is a chicken and pasta casserole that I can't wait to taste.  An original recipe.  There's a pan of cornbread above and to the right are a bowl of chili, because it was cold and Rob asked for it.  And a bowl of sloppy Joe.  We were in the store and saw this new sloppy Joe mix and even though it was unreasonably expensive for what it represented, it looked fun.  So, tonight we're having sloppy Joe, which I haven't made since Sydney lived here.  

This clematis bloomed.  This was in one of those boxes of tubers that you can get at a garden center.  There were two kinds in the box.  I found it at my Mom's last year, when she was passing and asked if I could have it.  I brought it home.  One was too far gone, but this one came up and last year, it put on roots and this year, it's leapt out of the pot and already put out a bloom.  I need to find it a permanent home in the ground.  

I don't have anything witty or clever to say about politics.  I watch the people in my life going on about their day, planning for the future, and I realize I have to move forward with them or risk getting left behind.  But, in my head, there's a klaxon sounding; run/hide, run/hide, run/hide.   I can barely move and all I want to do is be self-indulgent and eat all the cake and ice cream and Doritos I can get my hands on.  I am filled with barely suppressed anger and grief over the future I built for me and Rob.  And, I'm having trouble changing my ideas about what that future looks like so I can start preparing for that.  

be well!  

Lane