Monthly Archives: April 2015

Evidence of days gone by

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A weekend of clutter clearing turned this up — one stuck to the other, found in the way-back shelving of our bathroom. I can make up a whole story about the boys from it — probably none of it true — but it does speak to a certain kind of effort that happened over a period of many years.  (I don’t think I ever used lollipops as bribes, but who knows?!)
Bathroom shelving is one thing. The garage is another. It’ll take more than a couple of afternoons to clear this up enough just to be a workable storage space again. It’s always been a mess, but after in-law downsizing, it’s REALLY a mess.

Fortunately that work can be alternated with effort out of doors.  I pulled out a lot of English ivy over the weekend… while tossing a dirty, drooly ball for Finn, who seems to possess a bottomless love for playing fetch. The vine below is hydrangea and a real keeper.
IMG_8816Everywhere around the neighborhood, people are making repairs to damage done by this past (unbelievable) winter. If my neighbor’s basement cleaning crew shows up again today, I will need more than the ‘jackpot boy’ I made for Finn to keep him distracted (speaking of days gone by — that fleece was one year’s Christmas pajama bottoms).  Finn has no trouble with humans, but I guess men in hazmat suits don’t look like people to him!

Broke my Rules : Redo 

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I wanted to make C’s log cabin blanket with on-hand fabrics only.    

  But I also really wanted to like the results and was, believe it or not, running out of the ‘right’ blues and greens.  And hey, I drive right by a decent fabric store coming home from dog obedience class. New: acid greens and military greys.

I struggled to make the sides of the log cabin distinct from each other. I SHOULD have selected based on value (dark/light) instead of color (green/blue). In order to be moderately able to make a zig-zag pattern move across the surface, I have ended up ripping out some of the strips and replacing them. Also added another couple strips to each to attempt to ‘fix’.

In the process, it just became kind to myself to use the rotary cutter and grid to make uniform squares. So there it is.  Being VERY careful to keep rotary cutter away from dog’s mouth (he seems to really like pin cushions and scissors!).

Up to about thirty squares. That may be enough.

The pulmonaria is up and forsythia is flinging glorious sprays of yellow all over the neighborhood — some small compensation for how chilly it’s been.  Even though cold, K and I spent a ton of time in the yard. Had to bring all the plants BACK inside and I am STILL wearing down. WTF?!!

P.S. Perhaps a cloth diary is only interesting to the maker, but re-looking at that top picture, I see the VERY first purchase I made on ebay — years ago (back when it was more like a Salvation Army and less like a Pottery Barn outlet), as well as a scrap of a shirt I made many moons ago and wore the day K asked me to marry him. That is a sweet piece of history for my son, no?

Front and back times two

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Piecing on the ironing board is an old way of working. As is piecing on the machine.             Flipping to the back and tacking down seams or opening them and stitching down the quarter inch flap is new.

I am interested to see where this intersection of old (machine-work) and new (hand-stitching) will take me. For years, I have been wondering what a more lively synthesis of the two might look like.

Not sure batting will be involved, as I like the light shining through.

Weather changes 

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Why does weather transition make you tired? It’s all I can figure right now. I went to Salem today and it was stressful for all the usual reasons, (which is always somewhat wearing), but I am WAY exhausted. 

Given that, forgive my throwing a few pictures up and leaving it at that.    

   

Removing excess

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Hanging this quilt in the window makes uneven layering obvious. An excess of layers often results when you add already quilted sections to other cloth. From Jude at Spirit Cloth, I learned the (now seemingly obvious) technique of cutting some of the thickness away — what she calls ‘managing layers’. Some stitching was sacrificed in the process and I will have to fix that later, but for now, I like how it lets the light through.