Monthly Archives: October 2012

lucky with storm

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We lost power last year with Hurricane Irene, so we were ready this year for Sandy.  Luckily, aside from a dozen or so smaller branches coming down, we were unharmed.  School was cancelled yesterday and today, but the sun is out right now.

I have been ‘out of it’ here and elsewhere online – forgive!
K. and D. took down the mini-ramp on Saturday, which marked the end of an era.
I will leave you with that for today and be back soon with Middle Passage and turtles galore!
Those two pictures are from 2008.  Here is how it looked on Saturday:
And Sunday:
And, this morning:

Middle Passage reveal

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This is ‘Middle Passage I’ after dunking the lower edge into the indigo vat. By adding more resists, I managed to retain more of the original fabric than I did with the other Middle Passage piece (where I turned the bottom four inches of the quilt into a solid band of dark blue).
I like how some of the dye concentrated on the stitches.
The indigo edge visually relates to purchased hand-dyed fabric pieced above the border, which is nice. I think the process would’ve worked better had I dyed the cloth prior to piecing — the batting absorbed a lot of the dye that might have otherwise saturated fabric, for one thing. Below, is a section of the quilt that did NOT get immersed.
This morning, I twisted and dunked yet ANOTHER Middle Passage quilt (III?).
I can’t show you how it looks yet, but it is the least successful of the three by a lot. Here’s how it looked prior to submersion:
Because I liked the red batik border on this one, I folded the quilt and immersed the mid-section.

Because I’m unhappy with the result, tomorrow I will probably go ahead and dunk the entire lower half.  I wish I knew how to apply a rice paste – I would use that to preserve some of the red.

dunking, dingy, houses and blues

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This is the vertical Middle Passage quilt, after adding some cloth and rubber band resists to lower edge and dunking into indigo vat.
Our bathroom receives late afternoon sun – from the weekend.
It was such a beautiful day here.  Since we abut an elementary school, all my activity out back this morning was accompanied by the sounds of children playing.
I was happy to spend some of such a glorious day outside with cloth, and raking, and taking a walk around Crystal Lake.

Friday mishmash

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I am stitching with lots of lights on today, because it is cloudy and dark.  Leaves litter the front lawn — bright yellow decals that will fall as fast as we can rake them up for the next few weeks.  Thankfully, D. tackles them now, earning movie-ticket money.

A few hours ago, I had lunch with friends from the elementary school days and we all wondered (without having to answer our own question), why we don’t do so more often.  It is always an informative, ‘pick me up’ to chat frankly with parents who have kids the same age as yours.  Somehow this is the case even as we report troubles and worries.  Why is that so?  Is the recognition that we are not alone THAT important?!  Does it help to see that some angst is universal?

On a lighter note, for reasons I don’t understand or have forgotten, this circle of women is comprised of an unusually high proportion of  foodies, and that means ANOTHER KIND OF SATISFACTION – delicious, homemade food.

Here’s what I brought:

To make this a true MishMash post (is this a new tradition?), I’ll add an INSPIRATION LINK —  Maryline Collioud Robert Quilts — and a very short ANIMAL VIDEO that is hilarious: Life as a Dog   . . . just to demonstrate that I can be serious and silly in the same paragraph.

What kinds of off the wall or ridiculous things do you like to discover online? Inspiring, or otherwise?

Have a great weekend everybody!

 

Green Tomato and Eggplant Salad

5 or 6 green tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 Eggplant, cut into cubes
1 Zucchini, cubed
1 Small onion, cut into half-moons
1 Green pepper, sliced
5 Cloves of garlic
Olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh oregano, parsley, and thyme

Roast green tomatoes after coating with olive oil in salt in a hot oven (425 degree) for 45m to an hour.  Then roast onions, eggplant, pepper, and zucchini (also with salt and olive oil), but for closer to ½ hour.  Smash garlic and chop with some fresh herbs .  Mix well into vegetables.  Add pepper, and additional salt, to taste.

Serve at room temperature with garlic toasts.

(P.S.  If my mother was somewhat of a decorating genius – resourceful, with a wonderful sense of color and scale – I am somewhat of a salad genius… )

takin’ it slow

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Two lists for you today.

First, in defense of an upholstered chair as design board:

  • it’s there
  • it is soft — meaning: “will take a pin readily”
  • it is tattered — meaning:  I don’t have to worry about ruining furniture here, and most importantly
  • at about 12 feet from the couch,  it provides a view of the work while I am relaxing doing something else.

Second list enumerates a few insights that have allowed me to finally enjoy this project:

  • I can take my time
  • I can revise in a whole host of ways — by unpicking seams and replacing poorly-fitting fabrics, by abandoning whole chunks of pieced sections, and by appliqueing onto pieced sections
  • I don’t have to know how it’ll all come together at this point, and
  • I can trust that I’ll figure out HOW to connect it all up when the time comes.

In the meantime, I continue to make three to four side-designs with rejected sections, which also provides relief when the going gets tough.