Category Archives: color pattern love

Snapshots of Quilt WIP

Continuing with the Epstein quilt. Had a moment of considering machine-quilting the night sky — to get it done, to craft with an appropriate savagery — but the urge passed.

News as I type: “Trump is just straight up lying about the Strait of Hormuz.”

Mostly hand-stitching to reruns of The Great British Baking show. Seen them all before but the show fits the narrow band of what we can tolerate right now.

I decided to watch the finale of The Pitt even though I knew from comments from friends and online that it was going to be difficult.

When did I cry? Not listening to the conversations about suicide for some reason but this: watching Dr. Robby swaddle and hold Baby Jane Doe.

Did you watch the series? Did the finale make you cry?

TG day 2025

Once I started seeing this small vertical quilt as a landscape, the chartreuse bar (midsection) needed interrupting. I used floral patterning from a rayon shirt.

The design came together after I went down to the cellar to get something and came up almost two hours later without it.

This is the front of our basement fridge. It was probably something in there that I needed?

This WIP is right next to the fridge. An old strip of houses lies atop a beige brocade with swirly floral shapes and above one of Deb’s amazing splatter cloths.

I’ve been baking up a storm for today but thankfully not hosting. Turkey dinner with all the fixings is one of my least favorite meals to serve company!

I placed a Ukrainian soldier next to a close up of Lady Liberty in one of my collages this week. It’s one of those times that if I could identify the photographer or publication, I would make an attribution. My storage methods (top left), pretty much make that impossible.

It occurs to me that though glued down this one is not done yet.

I hope one and all of you have a happy thanksgiving!

One of my big blessings is that I will be dining with like-minded family. In other words, there will be no bracing myself for the fox sound bites and no prepping snappy, informative but somehow non-offensive rejoinders. Phew!

What are you thankful for today?

Bigger. Then smaller.

So what I’m calling the Turtle Quilt is exasperating me.

I’m tempted to make that vertical strip its own piece because of how problematic joining everything up has been. Here is the latest incarnation.

I could finish it by sewing three, maybe four, seams but I think I like the earlier version better (below). Difference? That that strip of warm-toned patches under the yellow silk turtle.

I will just walk away for a few days. Even the B&W version doesn’t make the solution click (the way it should).

All thoughts welcome.

Is it Saturday? 5/24

Ever since Ken retired we hardly know what day it is. That’s why we announce on Friday evenings, “IT’S THE WEEKEND!” For a while, I made a point of cooking up a nice hot breakfast on Saturday mornings but not so much anymore.

Still weekends feel different, they do. No appointments or classes or zoom calls (for me). He has a cocktail in the evening. Less roaring and beeping construction sounds. Fewer kids at the playground next door.

Soon we’ll be treated to the “Cape Effect.” Love it. The Cape Effect is when our town becomes noticeably quieter because so many vacate to their second homes.

As for us, we’ll be heading to LA soon. Just in time for their “June gloom.” I’m gonna load my kindle up with books this time so I’ll always have a novel in my pocket.

My brother won’t be up for attending a protest, but since one of the No Kings gatherings will take place in nearby Pasadena, I may pop down the hill for a bit.

PS Two digital collages above from this week’s Paris Collage Club visual prompt. Combines my photo of Ken with Finn, a former PCC prompt (the tree), and photo of a quilt.

Two more:

It was a shocker to find a figure framed in that slave cabin window (above). Revealed by the quirks of the filter. As many times as I looked at that photo of mine, I’d never discerned the person inside. Photo below.

Here’s the exposure slid to the brightest setting.

Thank you Cory Booker

I listened to Cory Booker for a short while before my doctor’s appointment and then for a good long while later, stitching in the afternoon sun. I’m noticing how much better I feel. I’m noticing how much it matters for people in power to speak up.

Got quite a few “finishers” in the works. Antidotes to despair I suppose. Medicine against feeling powerless. One stitch at a time.

Trimming, binding, signing, and adding dowel sleeves. It always takes longer than I think.

Here are examples (below) from four recent series of digital collages. Almost all incorporate paper collage or photos of my own. If I weren’t feeling tongue-tied by national events I might have something to say about them but they can speak for themselves I guess.