I'm Back!!!

I'm back. That was a much longer break than I intended--due to camera issues (it's disappeared)!

I just finished quilting and binding this and hanging it on our door.  Pre-printed panel made it great for quilting fun. I think it's the only finish (or start, for that matter) since the unintended blogging break that started in June.

Mostly I've been knitting socks (most still in progress) and one finished fade sweater.  Pictures later, hopefully.

In the meantime, the Engineer returned to school and is half way (maybe farther) through her master's degree.  I was offered a new job, which I accepted, but have worked there for only one week since my previous school refused to release me earlier. I was in physical therapy for quite a while because my lumbar spine and sacrum kept locking up (and because it took five months to get into the orthopedist who specializes in backs). There is some lumbar deterioration that is common with aging, but what an MRI showed in addition is a pelvic mass, which raises concerns for ovarian cancer. Blood markers for cancer are only slightly elevated, CT scans show the mass but are not definitive.  Therefore, next Friday, 12/29, I'm scheduled for surgery.  In addition to praying for healing, we are praying the DaVinci computerized surgery and surgery room become available--since five small incisions would heal much more quickly than one vertical incision. (Sick days do not transfer to new jobs, so I've lost six weeks of sick leave and have only five days, which will not be sufficient.) My daughter doesn't have to return to university until January 22, so that is a blessing.  In the meantime, I'm praying a lot, keeping things calm and sweet, and enjoying all the small delights and music that make the holidays so special.  I welcome additional prayers for healing and for the availability of the DaVinci since it's scheduled for weeks out and we need it to become available for this coming Friday.

I hope to post more of what I've been making and working on soon.

Happy knitting and quilting, and have wonderful joyous holidays!

Happy Valentine's Day

After my run to the post office today, I took a little drive around town and saw such pretty Valentine greetings on the doors of various homes.  I thought about making something, but just didn't have that budgeted in my time.  However, I do have this treasure.  I think it's about 23 years old.

 I made this when I lived near Camp Verde, Arizona.  I think this was the result when my quilt guild held a workshop with someone from the Phoenix area.  I'm pretty sure every one of these fabrics appeared in quilts during that time.  I'm hoping to make one or two more quilts from these fabrics one of these days. However, for today, I was glad I remembered to get this out.

One of my all time favorite quotes is lettered in the center: "...For it is turmoil and confusion and not calm assurance that mark the growth of the mind."  That was written by Timothy Ferris in Coming of Age in the Milky Way Galaxy.   I loved his books; he has a magic way with words, but I'm not sure how many people are familiar with his works.

Yes, the ink was heat-set (Pigma Pen), but it has faded, as have the rest of the quotes I copied onto this little quilt.

It's interesting to me that I used both hand and machine piecing and both hand and machine quilting.
From the size of those stitches, I'm guessing I used size 12 betweens and Mountain Mist Quilt Light batting.  (I'm told the quality of the batting has seriously declined over the last 25 years.)

This is my other heart quilt.

This one hangs in my living room. This too was made in a class my Camp Verde guild had.  I made this around the time I had started machine quilting; if I quilted it today, it would be full of feathers. I did use a lot of Sulky metallic sliver thread in silver, gold, purple, and teal to quilt it.  The batik background is quilted in huge swirls.

The story behind this quilt shows how times have changed.  The instructor told us to use reds in our quilt and was not very happy with my choices.  She also told us she had spent two and half days figuring out the pattern and not to share it with anyone.  However, she herself had copied it from a famous quiltmaker whose name I have forgotten.
Edit:  I just remembered whom she copied this quilt from: Emiko Tado Loeb.  You can view Emiko's Gallery online here.

I hope your Valentine's Day has been filled with hearts and flowers and many other lovely things.  (I think I'll have my supper on an antique rose strewn plate and my tea in an antique rose cup.)


Happy quilting and knitting, as well....

A Sweet Birthday

 One of the fun things about my birthday is that I share it with Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisl.

One of the sweet things about my birthday is that three years ago a sweet young woman whose mother was one of my teaching assistants and whose sister was one of my kindergarten students gave birth to a little girl on my birthday.  She named her Faith, and now Faith is three years old.  She was born in a year that was difficult for me, and although she has never lived closer to me than a thousand miles, she helped sustain my faith.

This year my birthday was marked by some additional lovely things.
Sweet Teen took me to lunch at the Swiss Alps Bakery and Cafe.  I've been wanting to go there since it opened, but we are so seldom in Albuquerque together at a time when we can go to lunch.  We had high expectations, for before there was a Swiss Alps Bakery and Cafe, there was a Swiss Alps Bakery, and on rare occasions during warmer months of the year we would sometimes be fortunate enough to find the Baker at farmer's markets.  There were no disappointments about our lunch at the Cafe.  Well, that's not quite accurate. Sweet Teen tasted the chocolate covered rum ball I selected for dessert and made the most horrible face I have seen since she was a preschooler. I wish I'd managed to take a picture of that face.  She says if she'd ever had any interest in consuming an alcoholic substance, it's definitely gone now!

 The lovelies in these two photos were waiting for me at the post office.  First one of those lovely, ruffled scarves that so many people are knitting.  Now I want to make one.  (Much faster project than socks or shawls.)

 The second is an old silver-plated spoon converted into a tiny pin-cushion by one of the women who was in some of the classes I taught 25 years ago or more at Chandler Fabrics in Dalton, GA.  Doris, who now lives in Ohio, made the pincushion and sent it to my friend Harriet, who sent it on to me.  It's just perfect for pins and needles for chairside when doing handwork.

Harriet also made the tiny tote in the first picture--it's the perfect size for a sock project--although at the moment it's quite happy cuddling my meadow blossom shawl-in-progress.

The magazines below are self-gifted.  I felt they would be perfect to flip through while enjoying a cup, or a pot, of tea.  I've flipped through one, and hope to get to the others very soon!

 I'm one of those people who just loves beautiful magazines.  I come by it naturally.  When I was in 8th grade, we were asked to do a survey of how many magazine subscriptions our families had.  Some families had none.   I stopped counting when I reached twenty-eight active subscriptions for our family!
 Of course, in those days, those 28+ subscriptions undoubtedly cost less than three or four magazine subscriptions today.  I hope to at least look at every page in these beautiful publications within the next week.  Think I can manage it?

Happy quiltmaking.....

Quilt Plan and the Turn of the Century Home

I've been working on the plans for Sweet Teen's Opportunity Quilt.

 Here is the plan for the quilt.  I decided that due to it's size, I wanted the simpler blocks  in the corners so the quilt will show itself off better on a bed.

 I'm still figuring yardages for cutting since I want to strip piece it and EQ7 can't really provide me exactly the information that I need. This quilt was inspired by a 1903 triple Irish Chain made in the Oklahoma Panhandle that by the mid-1980's was living in East Tennessee.  I made a rather close copy of that blue and white quilt, but I no longer have the quilt.  I'll look for a photo of the original or of my quilt and scan it so that I can share it at some point while I'm making Sweet Teen's quilt.

These are the main fabrics.  The one in the Lower left barely shows, but it has many colors in it, is much more intense than the background fabric, and will show up in the quilt. I think one of the challenges of making quilts is that complicated fabrics don't usually show up well in photos.

I've also been very busy painting in preparation for the likelihood that I'll be back to work on Friday (after I see the rehab doctor on Thursday).

I repainted the fireplace surround in the livingroom and changed the display to seven of the pitchers I've collected over the years.  The one on the left is the oldest--from the days when my grandparents lived in a house without indoor plumbing.

 When we first bought this house, we used the fireplace all the time, and I didn't understand that the reason we were getting smoke in the house was that our chimney just isn't tall enough.  Now we never use it.  It's pretty, but it's just not worth the work and the mess. In any case, the mantle and the surround direly needed painting.

 This is why I'm questioning "The Turn of the Century."  When I was a child I always loved visiting homes that were much like they had been at the turn 19th to the 20th century.  I'm sure almost anyone would say I have just too much in my house, but since I'm not trying to sell it right now, and since my house is definitely my haven, I love being able to see things I treasure.  These boxes are full of yarn and needlework.  The lovely spider plant is one my assistant gave me a start of when she moved last January or February.  Clearly, it loves living in my haven too!

In any case, we may have passed the next turn of the century, but I still have a seventeen year old turn of the century house.

I rearranged another wall in my living room--putting up more plates that need a new home now that my buffet has a "hutch". Two of these plates have been in my family for at least three generations, one is fairly new, and the others were gathered from thrift stores, antique stores, friends, and a flea market over the course of many years.

Although my computer shows the wall color as somewhat lavender, it's actually a pale orchid.  Because the living room is on the north side of the house, blue would have been too cool a color (although I did use blue and yellow in the kitchen).  The orchid shade looks cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

 I really was a Victorian when I rearranged the piano and the wall above it. I will be putting more doilies along the edge of the shelf when they are dry.  I just love the little things I've collected.
The plate on the wall to the right is a commemorative plate from my hometown's centennial in 1954. (My daughter loves that it has a picture of my high school--apparently built from a plan used by many different communities.   Some people bought enough of these plates for a table service.  My mother had a few, but this is the only one I have.

 I love the antique candy dish my cousin Joy gave me a few years ago, and the inkwell is one that has been in my family for many years.  I have no idea what happened to the lid.  It had been a while since I polished the tray it sits in--but it's no long blue and black with tarnish!

 The rose plate at the rear is very old, but I found it cast aside at a thrift store.  The silver birds are a salt and pepper set my mother received as a wedding gift (the salt has corroded the head and neck of one).  The little blue iridescent bird is dated 1990 and was a gift from my Aunt Louise.

This little harp playing angel was part of a set my mother purchased decades ago, but it's the only one left, the others having been seriously chipped and broken over the years.

See?  Lots of little treasures that I still treasure (and which make my daughter crazy).

 And here's the freshly painted "hutch" that is actually an Ethan Allen Nutmeg book case from the 1950's  I bought it because I've been looking for about 15 years for a hutch that matched my buffet.  The irony:  you can't even see the lines at the top that match the bottom and top of the buffet.

I'm going to link to Esther Liu's WIPs on Wednesday and Freshly Pieced, as well as Connie's Freemotion By the River  and will hope that none of my visitors mind seeing the redecorating endeavors.

Updating to add a link to Vintage Thingee Thursday over at Suzanne's blog.


Happy Quiltmaking.....

Charm Stack & Visit with Neurologist

I have no finished product to show, but I do have a finished task.....

This is my stack of charm squares for a "low volume" exchange.  There are actually two different fabrics, but they are stacked in A/B, A/B order so only one shows.

The big event of the day was a visit with a good neurologist (after the rehab doctor decided to pull some strings, thank goodness!) Lately, the wait to see a neurologist in our city (or maybe the entire state) has been three to six months.

The neurologist thinks my headaches are due solely to stress.
Although neither of the other doctors would do so, he showed me my MRI and assured me that I have never, ever had a stroke (as the radiologist, the rehab doctor, and the worker's comp case manager were saying as they made excuses for not being more helpful)  and that there are two tiny spots in my brain from broken blood vessels consistent with my diabetes but my brain is not riddled with ischemic disease as they were saying.

I hope the relief of knowing that will help with the horrible headaches (although it hasn't helped yet). I didn't realize what a heavy burden that was, so I'm hoping things get better now.
I'm expecting that when I see the doctor again on Sept. 27 that he will say I can work full days again.

I also stopped at the Habitat for Humanity Resale shop and found a hutch for the top of my buffet (I've been looking for one for close to 15 years) and a small chest that will work in our main bathroom (so I'm hoping to get them sanded and painted in the next few days).  Big expenditure:  $30 total!  I have never found good buys like that before, so I am thrilled. (Of course, the hutch went into my car very, very easily and is balking at coming out--and Sweet Teen is at a football game, so it will have to wait until morning unless I get a sudden burst of problem solving ability and extra muscle.)

I'd like to think of today as my lucky day.

Happy quiltmaking......

More Progress: Sew, Snip, Press, Sew

Little Miss Gardener is kind of lagging behind here--or at least lagging behind where I wanted her to be.

 Snip.  Snip.  Press.  Seam.

 Trim.  Sew.

 Seam.  Press.  Cut.

 

More length of pieced border than absolutely necessary.  Hooray.

Back to more calculations and more decisions and more cutting.

I did plan to take my hand crank Singer 99 outside to piece this morning, but I haven't managed it yet, so I may not get to that.  I can say that while I love my Featherweight, treadles are soooooooo much quieter!

In other news...Sweet Teen's first day of her last year of high school.

 Actually, it's a special day because FFA Officers will be making presentations at the district's midschools today and then working at the county fair.  Therefore, her first day of real classes may not happen until Friday.  She's somewhat disappointed because she loves the first day of school.  But then she's also excited and honored to be making presentations to younger students.

We also picked up the proofs for her senior pictures at the post office on our way over to the school.  I am sooooooo unimpressed!  In order for her to have her picture in the yearbook, we were forced to use a certain photographer.  We have 10 proofs--all of which are no better--and maybe worse--than the usual school pictures, just more poses.  The photographer used a terrible angle so that the frames of her classes cut across her eyes horizontally.  But, hey, an easy way for them to make $100 or so [times how many hundreds of families?]!  We're going to have to find another photographer to take some decent ones!

I'm not sure how much more I'll get done on the Little Miss Gardener Quilt today because tomorrow a friend from church is coming over to install my new kitchen sink.  I'm praying he doesn't run into any unpleasant surprises--and I'm certainly looking forward to a new sink despite the fact that it's a new one and not one of the vintage porcelain farm sinks I'd really prefer (but which wouldn't really look so great in this house anyway).

I'm linking up to Esther's WIPs on Wednesdays and to Freshly Pieced.

My "How to Quilt on a Treadle Sewing Machine" post is still available.


Happy Quiltmaking......

Quilt Progress and Sunshiney Goodness

 Just a bitty-bit of progress on Audrey's Spring Breeze.  I'm wondering if the impediment is lack of focus, lack of sustainability, lack of organization, or just plain fatigue.  (Had plenty of the latter yesterday.)  I did sew one more HBT this a.m.

The great joy was this---a sunshiney breakfast--freshly ground and brewed coffee, muffins, lemon curd eaten in the sunshine.  For years, and certainly for the long winter months, I've been out of here while it was still dark. Sunshine just makes me happy--and even more so today when we're not predicted to have winds more than 10-15 miles an hour and temperatures in the low 70's.

I'll have a house full of sweet teens for movie night tonight.  Now I'm off for more therapies--and hoping I'm not in tears by the time we reach the end of speech therapy.  (Earlier this week a medical professional said something to me about how young I look, and I had to admit that [since I've never felt "pretty"], I've been more vain about my brain than my looks!)

Update:  Sweet Teens are here.  I'm back from appointments--quite a bit more fatigued than I thought I'd be, but still hoping to get some stitches made.  Going to link to some linky parties--please stop by and meet some new people and their creations and have a really great time!

 Thanks to Karen at Sew Many Ways

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

and Amy at amylouwho

Marcia's Crafty Sewing

Happy quiltmaking.....

Home Sights

Miss Harriet has been after me to post some pictures from my home.  Since it's been over a month since I posted and since I've not finished a quilt, her wish is granted.  Mind you, she's been asking for many months, and I just haven't managed it.  I decided to put a new quilt on my bed today--needed a change of quilt to inspire me to wait for spring.  Right now our winter is much milder than last year (about this time last year we had a low of -34 F).

 This quilt is "Dolly's Baskets." I dreamed about it for years before I started it in 2002 (with fabric I'd been collecting for 10 years).  I finished it in 2007--hard to believe it's been finished for five years!
It was inspired by a similar basket quilt of solid white and solid violet made by my paternal grandmother in the early 20th century.  When I saw this set on a Mennonite quilt from the same period, I wanted to use it because of all the lovely spaces for quilting--feathers, of course!

I do love the haven my home, and especially, my bedroom, provides.  (And, yes, I know my bedside table is cluttered. Sorry.)  That table was part of the red maple bedroom set in my room when I was a child.  I painted it white 20 years or so ago--and have never regretted it.

 The pillowcases are lonely singles I've collected over the last 15 or 20 years--maybe longer.

 I do love boxes.  I've loved and collected boxes since I was in primary school.

Of course, I have no trouble filling them up!
The bed and armoire as well as the dresser that's not pictured are from a furniture series that was for many years the most popular one in the U.S. I painted the bedroom furniture white about ten years ago--it was a menopausal thing, I think.  I just couldn't get enough light into my life.

I also purchased other furnishings from the same line. I gave away the TV/stereo armoire because it was just too big for my small house.  I have a farm table from the same line, although I now use it in my sewing studio. I have two chairs from the line too.  They've not been painted white, but I did recover their cushions with a very small lavender and white plaid a few weeks ago.

 

After I added sweet LED lights to the kitchen for the holidays, I decided to leave them up.  See that ugly florescent light fixture?  I really dislike it.  I don't know what era it's from, but I'm certain its era was long before the house was built.  Someday it will be replaced, but for now the other lights are bright enough to make our meals very pleasant.

Okay, those are a few sights from my home/haven.

I did finish quilting my great nephew's John Deere quilt, but I want to get the binding on before I show it--and I haven't even cut the binding yet. I'm suddenly behind on children's and baby's quilts--one of my nieces gave birth to a daughter this past Tuesday [they sent a picture to my phone, but since I have pins with heads bigger than the baby's photo, I'm not quite sure what she looks like]; one of my former kindergarten students will soon have a daughter; and one of the members of my youth choir from 20+ years ago is about to have a son, her third.

I do need to figure out a way to get more quilting time into this busy, tiring winter!

Thou Shalt Not....., Etc.

New commandment at our house--enforced by the manufacturer's design:  Thou shalt not put anything on top of the washer or dryer--'cuz if you do, it will slide right off!  Reminds me of those German toilet paper roll hangers--where there's a metal plate enforcing the rule that the toilet paper must unroll from the top toward the front!

 Amidst warnings of approaching snow storms, we made a grocery run yesterday.  By the time we left the store seven miles away it was snowing, so we thought it would hit our community within 30-60 minutes.  Didn't happen.  This morning we awoke to less than an inch of snow.  We're told more is on it's way. We'll see.  The high winds arrived last night and are supposed to be worse today.  It remains to be seen if they'll be accompanied by snow.  In any case, it is icy out there, so I'm glad to stay home and work on this:

 This project has been years in the making.  When my niece Barbara announced that she was expecting a baby at the end of January and Nola's room is being decorated in Mardi Gras colors (yes, she's being named for New Orleans, LA), I knew it was high time to get these blocks into quilt form.  The almost baroque design of the printed fabric does remind me of the French Quarter with all those ironwork balconies and French history. Problem was, I hadn't worked on it since November and couldn't find it.  My sewing room has had a partial reorganization--not that there's any visual evidence of such!--but I couldn't find the quilt pieces.  Fortunately, they turned up under the cabinet under the extension of the Singer 66 treadle in the living room.  They're put together and pressed.  The red plexiglas triangle is to make the triangles and half triangles that square up two edges.  Just need to go get some yellow green fabrics from my hand-dyes.  (I hope to get back to hand dyeing fabrics after school gets out at the end of May.)
Obviously too cold and windy for breakfast outside this morning--so I improvised and had coffee and the last of Sweet Teen's scones at my 66--same view, but a lot warmer!

Autumn Cooking and Getting Stuck

One of the things I love about fall is the fact that using the oven is so much more pleasant.  On my treadle sewing machine list a topic of conversation has been cleaning pans after cooking.  I confess, that's something I don't really concern myself about, since I can always clean my pans in a few seconds.
That wasn't always the case.
About six or seven years ago, one of my friends told me about DeMarle at Home.  By now most people probably know about Silpats, even if they haven't bought one.  At that time I hadn't even heard of them; then my friend began selling DeMarle products--and I fell in love with cooking nutritious meals and cleaning up (in a hurry).  DeMarle products are made in France to extremely high standards.  Their products are made from silicone and a glass mesh--and have almost nothing in common with the silicone cooking products you may have used or purchased elsewhere.  They literally clean up in seconds!  Other people make gooey or messy foods in pans that they throw away or soak for hours after cooking.  I no longer hesitate to make gooey or messy foods.  I do make the concession of using a silpat on a perforated aluminum tray beneath the Flexipans when there's likely to be a spill or bubble-over. The acorn squash above could have been a mess because I had to cut off the very pointy end of one of the squash halves to get it to sit upright--and then before it was done cooking, the buttery, spicy sweetness inside ran all over the bottom of the pan--creating what would have been a caramelized challenge if I hadn't had access to a Flexipan.
(The other cool thing about these pans, a trick I use with the muffin pans, is that they can be turned inside out to make clean up even easier!)
I don't work for the company--but I would if I could manage it!
Next up:

Ever just get stuck during the quilt-top process?  I'm stuck right now--and neither EQ7 nor a mechanic ;-) would help. Over a month ago I picked out these for a quilt for Mary's birthday.  Some of these fabrics are gifts from Mary--she's given me quite a few fabrics for prayer quilts, and she really, really deserves a quilt.  But I just can't get moving on it.

It's not the only quilt top I'm stuck on.  I'm also stuck on a purple/gray/white one for a nephew--it's a prayer quilt.

And I'm guessing that despite how much I need quiltmaking therapy, I'm not likely to get much of it with the really long commute that begins Monday and will be part of my life for the rest of this academic year.
Trying to stay positive--a lot of niceness from fellow staff members at the school I've been at for seven years has been gratefully received in the last week--and I banked it in memories and am going to be drawing on it frequently, I'm sure.