Category Archives: Sewing Clothes and for the Home

Take THAT diarrhea lettuce

Can you say chef’s kiss?

One of the happy consequences of diarrhea lettuce is that I’m shopping my town’s Farmers’ Markets. Salad above features radish sprouts, a spicy addition to already tasty salad. I tossed in some pumpkin seeds for extra crunch.

We also had melt-in-your-mouth corn on the cob. Local. It was so tender Ken said that I could’ve risked it, referring to the fact that ever since my front crown fell out of my mouth twice, I shave my cobs.

Sounds like a guilty admission: I shave my cobs.

TODAY? I plan to finish piecing this with a simple edict: when solving a dimension issue, GO SMALLER NOT BIGGER.

Jeez.

Legs knit w/yarn I dyed with indigo. This was in hospital waiting for Dan’s arm surgery to be done. He was 14. It was the second break.

I ordered some indigo powder from Dharma Trading Company yesterday. I don’t have the bandwidth for leaf processing and who knows, I may not have what it takes to make up a batch with powder either. I’d like to though. It’s been a minute. In cleaning out the basement, I found piles of white t-shirts, rubber bands, resist plates of glass, a thermometer. All kinds of dye supplies, in other words.

In October I will be spending a day with an African dye master, Gasali Adeyemo. More about this another time. A writing friend is hosting him in New Mexico.

Saturday after Hope Hicks

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Mulch, dirt, and planting day. Since getting a cortisone shot in my hip on Thursday, gardening is practically back to normal.

I moved some slates that had slid out of place. Transplanted more ferns. Filled in places that needed dirt. Potted up some annuals.

It’s so apparent that we got a ton of rain this winter with no snow pack because water tracks are everywhere and roots are exposed.

It was chilly today. Still needed a fleece vest to be comfortable.

In other news, I hired a graphic artist to design my book cover today. Whew! Plodding along, in other words.

Who will back, quilt, and bind? That is the question

Another blue one begun.

I’ll leave you with not one, but two, Hope Hicks haiku. Same idea in both.

5/3
She’s pretty alright,
but what defect of person
let her work for him?

5/4
The question is not,
“Why did she cry?” But, “Why on
earth didn’t she quit?”

Lawrence O’Donnell

The Leftover Blanket

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I finished piecing the couch throw aka “leftover blanket” this morning. I love all the polka dots and the jazzes of red. Two shirts and one Crate and Barrel napkin are included.

Meanwhile it is nasty outside. Cold and rainy.

I’m preparing a password-protected blog post to be able to share book cover ideas with a designer. Let me know if you’d like to take a peek. Any and all input is welcome.

Pics and a little sound

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We walked in the woods today. The frogs were LOUD.

Next door neighbor’s yard crew showed up for the first time this season today. After asking them to take their ladder off of my Rose of Sharon sapling near the curb, I retired to the basement. Two leaf blowers went on and on but I didn’t care. My new plan. My sanctuary!

Cleaned out three bins of fabric, worked on D’s quilt until I ran out of bobbin thread, and made this little collage, above.

The initial three-house black and white was a gelatin print made with a cardboard and onion bag resist.

We just had an early and simple dinner: grilled cheese sandwiches and leftover soup. For real sustenance, we listened to Biden’s speech from this morning.

Things that weigh

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Things. That. Weigh. Heavily.

I’m not talking about the rise of tyranny around the globe, the shameless demagoguery of racist GOP Senators, or the horror show of Ukraine. I’m talking about unfinished quilts, books I have purchased but not yet read, and inherited and collected stuff that needs sorted.

Also yesterday I made the mistake of reading a few sections of a journal from 1995. Whew! Fortunately this is not a forum to discuss such matters but let me just say I see the value of re-instituting a practice of self-forgiveness.

These are mostly first world problems and they exist in a terrain of gratitude, but they also are harsh enough to create a choking sensation.

So today I picked one particularly bothersome unfinished quilt and resumed work on it. Because I can. Because it’s do-able. It’s a loosely-patterned log cabin in blues and greens, sized for a couch. It’s intended for D. Part of why it’s been languishing is that in several places I pleated the back by accident. Ugh. Initially, I started unpicking but got discouraged and gave it up.

I’ve decided to keep going and sew right over the pleats and then create a new back instead. It’s not a great fix, but the result will be functional and pretty enough.