Sewing is my therapy

It has been two weeks since I last blogged; a lot (or maybe very little) has happened in the meantime.  Paul's sister Pat has come to stay with us.  It was to be a few days while she got her cabin on a lake habitable for the summer, but immediately upon her arrival, we could see she isn't fit to be alone there.  And she needs help.   Her husband passed away early this year, and she is both depressed (my diagnosis) and alcohol dependent (everyone else's).  She has been detoxing, and, while it initially was quite tense around here, we have settled into a fairly quiet situation.  Our house is fairly small, so it has taken a couple of weeks for us all to adjust.

My sewing room is also our guest room, so I haven't been sewing much.  I finished knitting one hat and started another.  I have a sashiko piece all ready to start, but we had a few extremely (for us) hot days when I just didn't feel like starting anything.  I'll save it for my next Calico County Quilters meeting July 12.

Yesterday we finally moved my backup machine into the basement.  Earlier in the week, we moved enough stuff so I could cut fabric.  Yesterday I set up my little Brother machine (internet photo above) and went back to making Jen Kingwell Double Date blocks.  I have made about 20 and need 44 more (I think).    I bought a few more green fat quarters one day last week and also discovered quite a few neutral fabrics here and there.  

Ahhh!  What a relief to be sewing again!  I kind of like sewing in the basement where it's cool and quiet.  I looked around and thought maybe I should move all of my sewing stuff downstairs.  That would require getting rid of the trundle bed that we just put stuff on these days.  No one has slept on it for years.  But where would I store my fabric?   And I really do enjoy looking out of the window onto the street when I'm sewing.  

Peace appears to be reigning as we continue to get used to a temporary change in our situation.  I do think it will be a few more weeks before we know what's next for Pat.  Meanwhile, she seems to be recovering slowly, and we are mostly going about our regular routines.  My sanity is returning now that I can sew again.

Progress?

Let me get this out in the open first.  Sometimes, but not too often, I make huge mistakes.  My recent baking of squash bread was an absolute disaster!  I set the timer for what I thought was 60 minutes, put two loaves of bread in the oven, and went off to look something up on the computer.   

It smelled good at one point, and I thought the time was nearly up.  Then, much to my surprise, my oven started making a very odd noise, one I'd never heard before.  When I went to check, the display said "F2" which I took to mean "fire" because the kitchen was somewhat smokey.  I looked to turn off the oven but it had already shut itself off.  I got the bread out and immediately took it outside to cool in the driveway.  Then I opened all the windows and turned on the exhaust fan.  Phew!  Crisis averted.

Later, I got the bread out of the pans and cut all the burnt parts off the loaves.  What was left tasted surprisingly good.  I had planned to make a loaf of regular bread in my bread machine, but somehow I had lost my appetite.  It was time to stop cooking and start sewing.  I have been cutting fabric for Double Date in advance, so it's easy to sit down for an hour or so and work on paper piecing the blocks.

I'm finding these to go together more easily as I go along because I've developed a routine.  Paper piecing can be rather tedious, so I just work on a few each day.  This means the quilt will take some time to finish.  But that's OK.

I like the way the blocks look together, and I hope to pick up a few more green fat quarters soon to augment my stash.  I have made a dent in my larger pieces of green, but I need some lighter shades for variety and sparkle.  I'm not sure exactly how many blocks I will need to make - 56? 64?

My sewing room will be off limits for the coming week, so I'll work on what's cut up today and tomorrow and then put most of my tools, including my ironing board, away.  

The air conditioner will need to go in the window so Paul's sister Pat doesn't roast.  She'll be here while getting her lake cabin habitable for the summer; we aren't sure how long that will take, but it's fine.  I'm hoping she will help me go through some of my quilts to give away to family members at a memorial event for her late husband June 28.

A Leisurely Vacation

Paul, son Chris and I got back late yesterday afternoon from a trip to Golden, Colorado, where my Mom lives.  My sister Jenny lives about an hour north and comes down to help Mom most weekends.  She works like a Trojan on the yard and keeping the house in order, too.  Mom, who will be 103 in a few weeks, is doing fine but doesn't get around as well as she used to.  She has caregivers a a few days a week, a cleaning person, and yard people.  All of these kind folks keep Mom in her house which has a great back porch that overlooks very pretty flower gardens.  Jenny has planted some vegetables in planters there, and it's fun to sit and watch the birds at the feeders.  The hummingbirds are particularly fascinating because, of course, out west, they are bigger than ours.

We spent a lot of time sitting outside, reading, talking, and, in my case, sewing.  I read two books and almost finished the Kawandi piece I brought.  It just needs one last small piece and three of the little corner triangle thingies ("phula").  I am now wondering what I'll do with the piece - maybe use it as the front of a tote bag?

We did a little sightseeing, ate well, played several rounds of "Rummikub" with Mom and Jenny, and watched some of Mom's favorite old movies.  She loves ones on TCM (Turner Classics) and can invariably recount most of each plot.  Her mind is pretty sharp still.

One morning, out of curiosity, we visited the Mother Cabrini Shrine, just outside Golden.   We had to drive up a steep, winding road about a mile from the main road.   But it was a lovely day and the views were amazing up there.  We didn't walk all the way up to the statue of Jesus, but we did hear voices up on the trail that leads there.

We visited the little chapel with stained glass windows that tell the story of her life, a grotto with holy water, and a small museum with memorabilia and a timeline about Mother Cabrini.  The atmosphere was very serene and, even though we aren't religious, we were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it there.  Paul and Chris even drank the holy water.

Our week went by much too fast, and now we're back to our old routine:  laundry, grocery shopping, handling the mail, charging our devices.  Our flights were OK although our flight to Denver encountered bad weather and had to be diverted to Grand Junction until the storm passed.  I didn't mind that much because I had the window seat and loved looking at the mountains from both east and west.

Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

We are already back home after a nice week in Golden, Colorado, visiting my mom and sister.  Mom will be 103 on June 27, and we in the family are spreading her birthday out so we can all enjoy each other to the fullest.  We took Mom out to breakfast at Denny's one morning - that's her favorite place to go with us.  Another morning was spent at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, just a few miles from Mom's house.   There are usually two exhibits going on, and this time there was large selection of modern quilts and a smaller room of sampler quilts by Japanese-American women.  Here are a few of the contemporary ones.

First is one with a pieced background, topped with applique and embellishments.  The "grass" is a grayish silk thread.

This is a fairly traditional string quilt made of 16 blocks, half cream and half strings in mostly blues and greens.  What was interesting is that it was closely quilted with a serpentine stitch.

I liked the blend of colors and the quilting of this beach scene.  It's hard to tell, but the waves include small stitches made with white perle cotton.

This was Paul's favorite.  "The End of the Rainbow" shows an appliqued trout colored with fabric pens or pencils.  Out of its tail are gold beads pouring into or out of a pot of gold.  There's lots of texture created by machine quilting in the background.

The museum shop is slated for expansion so it's bursting at the seams.  There doesn't appear to be a quilt shop in the area, so this may be the only in-person source for local quilters.  I love to look at the related items, and because there was a gallery with Japanese-related quilts, there was a nice selection of sashiko kits.  

I would like to do more sashiko but instead decided to buy this panel which was designed especially for the museum by David Taylor.    I don't usually buy panels, but this one called to me, especially with the sun and trees.  It will make a nice throw.  The picture shows a wide border, but the panel really stops before the thin brown border, which is fine with me.

Pre-vacation busy-ness

There are just two days before we head out to Colorado with Chris to see Mom and Jenny.  Can't wait!  I am amassing things I don't want to forget on the guest bed and trying not to make a big mess in that room which doubles as my sewing room.  

I don't want to start any big projects, but I am always hankering to sew a little each day.  What to do?  Work on the guild block of the month.  This month's is called Dutch Treat and I used purples for my block which will go into a lottery at the June guild meeting.

I don't usually put my name into the lottery even though I make a block because I have plenty of UFOs to keep me busy.   But this time, I hope I win.   A bunch of these would be a perfect border around the Holland map quilt I'd like to make this summer.  Karen Abrahamovich has made patterns for all 50 states and is working on countries now.  I bought the pattern last year with an eye toward making the country in blue scraps.

I think this pattern will take some concentration, and I haven't decided what size to make yet.  So I decided to get out the foundation piecing papers for Double Date by Jen Kingwell.  I tried one 6" block and found it not too difficult, so I made a few more over the last couple of days.  I'm going to like working on this, using up some of my green scraps.  I have never made a whole paper pieced quilt, so I suspect I'll spread the work out most of the summer.

This afternoon, I'm going to settle in to watch "Quilting Arts" on PBS and do a little knitting on the shawl I started in January.  It has been waiting to be finished for a long time.  I'm anxious to start on a few hats for Bags of Love soon.

It's been fun, but...

I haven't sold anything via Etsy in a long time, so today I finally decided to close the shop.  I've been thinking about it for a long time.  I give away many of my quilts and sell more items at the local florist's shop on consignment anyway.  Selling can sometimes be stressful - finding a box and getting things in the mail ASAP.  I don't like to make quilts with an eye toward what will sell anyway.  And lately I've been producing fewer quilts, perhaps because I've been making more complicated ones most of the time.

Paul's sister Pat is due here in the middle of the month, and we have a family gathering a few weeks after that.  I'm going to ask her to help me figure out which quilts might be good to give away at that time.  I think some of the folks will be driving up so I won't have to mail them.  I do want to send one to California after Paul's nephew, who has a new job, moves.  

Here is one of my unsold favorites from the shop.  I remember making these star blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every month in 2023 (or was it 2022?).  It will make a cozy throw for someone's couch or dorm bed.

More rainy weather

We have not had a weekend without precipitation since December, and this weekend is no exception.  It is another gloomy day, but I do plan to get out into the garage and pot up some impatients for the front stoop.  Maybe I'll even transplant some houseplants that need larger pots.  Everyone is tired of this gloom, but the rain does make everything look lush and pretty.

Yesterday I sewed the binding to the back of this little table runner.

It's about 10" x 20" and made of scrap purples.  The focus fabric and the pattern came from the quilters auction at the state guild.  My friend Tess wrote the pattern, and I bet she put the fabric in with it.  I will send her a picture soon.  I chose to make the smaller size, but the pattern has instructions for a larger one, and I just might make that one, too.   These are just my colors.

Tonight, we are going to the opera downtown - La Traviata - put on by Opera Vermont with a soprano from Italy.  We have been invited to a "meet the cast" reception beforehand which should be fun but will mean a very early dinner.  And, as usual, I'm wondering how dressy it will be.  Vermonters don't dress up much, so I probably could wear almost anything at all.  And that's probably what will happen tonight.  

In just another week we'll be heading to Colorado for a week with my mom and sister Jenny.  I'm beginning to pile up things to take along.  Mom's 103rd birthday is on June 27, so we're visiting early to have plenty of time with her alone.   We like to spend time chatting on the back porch, so I'm taking the kawandi piece I started last weekend.   She's looking forward to going to brunch at Denny's with us, and I'm sure we'll do a little sightseeing, too.  Chris likes to shop at the Coors Brewery, and I have to go to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.   We're hoping for sun in Golden.