Jammin' and plantin'

I haven't done as much sewing this weekend as usual - it's spring!  Thursday morning, I thought I'd get a jump on holiday planting, so we went to a local greenhouse.  I planted a couple of tomatoes (Memorial Day is the traditional time to plant them here), impatiens, and two hanging pots.   We had to run to the hardware store for more potting soil.   I am trying a new planting bag for some tomatoes (this photo came from their website) that I got on sale at the end of last season.   The lady at the greenhouse suggested Pink Lady tomatoes - we are optimistic.

Saturday, I found a lovely set of petunias at the grocery store so filled a few more planters.  Yesterday, we took another trip to the hardware store for potting soil after I got a couple more planters for tomatoes I started indoors.  I still have a few herbs to set out and a little edging to do, but I'm almost finished with my gardening frenzy for a while.

Yesterday it was cooler, so I made jam for the first time in a few years.  We had just finished a jar marked "Strawberry 2015."  Now we have a stash of strawberry-rhubarb and spiced pear.   I'll take some to Paul's sister's today when we go for a holiday BBQ.  In case you are wondering about spiced pear jam, it is an old recipe that I got from my ex-mother-in-law.  Maybe someday I'll get to pass it along to a young person wanting to make an unusual jam.  It's simply "use the Certo recipe, but add 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, and 1/4 tsp. ground cloves."   Yum!

Scratching my head

Books have been a part of my life, all of my life.  I loved to be read to as a child and learned to read in both English and Dutch at an early age.  My Dutch has diminished quite a bit, but I hang onto my old fairy tale books, including a huge Andersen's that we used to use to elevate visiting kids at the dinner table.  Its covers are a little worse for wear as a result.  When I blew out my birthday candles as a girl, I always used to wish for more books.  Of course I became a librarian and, even in retirement, I read book reviews and book-related news.

I was excited to hear about the PBS Great American Read initiative because I think everyone should read more.  As Emily Dickinson said, "There is no frigate like a book / that takes us lands away."  But the list compiled by PBS (how?) is very puzzling indeed.  How did some of the less literary titles get on there?  And how or why did they choose some of the more obscure titles by "classic" authors?  For example, why not Slaughterhouse Five over Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan?  My friend Sarah who just read Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad says it is "right up there with To Kill a Mockingbird."  That's high praise from a good English teacher.  Yet The Intuitionist is on the list rather than the Underground Railroad.  

It is true that the books were chosen on popularity, but I would say that the popularity of The Shack will diminish far more quickly than Pride and Prejudice or The Lord of the Rings.  Paul and my favorite in recent years has been One Hundred Years of Solitude yet last night's TV kickoff didn't give it a lot of attention.  Why no sign of my favorite childhood series that began with The Little House in the Big Woods?  There seems to be no way to add a book to the list.  I guess they wanted to stick to a neat 100 titles so that anything added means something must be removed (which would be OK by me).

I'll be keeping an eye on this program, even though I'm pretty skeptical that it will have much of an impact on our nation's psyche, except on some people who, like me, will generate a short list of books to read.  You can vote every day through mid-October.

Busy, busy

It's been a busy week, and this coming one looks like it will be similarly busy.  Monday was our usual monthly library board meeting, and Tuesday the monthly quilt guild meeting.  Our speaker, Sharon, at the latter came from Bennington, 2.5 hours south of us, and because I know her slightly, I offered to have her spend the night rather than driving home late.  I was not on the May guild "team," but so many of their members couldn't come that I arrived early to help Sarah, Marty and Betty set up chairs and tables.  Then we all met Sharon for a quick dinner across the street from the church.

Sharon's program on mini quilts was amazing because she showed a seemingly endless array of minis she has made.  I estimate about 75 came out of her suitcase, and we spread them out on tables around the room.  I had made a mini for the paint chip challenge which was one part of the show and tell, too.  The colors I drew were royal blue, light blue, and lime green, and the night we drew the colors, a floral in the same colors happened to be on the "free" table.  I just had to use it.

After the program, Sharon came home with me and we had a great chat about all sorts of quilting things.  She isn't a fan of the Studio 180 approach to quilting (sew it bigger and cut it precisely using specialized rulers) either.   She shared some hints for paper piecing and gave me a nice schoolhouse pattern.  I do think I should make more minis but somehow my quilts always end up so large.

Later in the week, I worked on my "convergence" quilt, begun after the Ricky Tims Luminarium.  The top was hanging on the design wall, waiting to be sandwiched, and I noticed it was crooked.  So I cut the borders off and squared it up again.  Then I added a new border and quilted it Friday.  It looks good.  I finished sewing the binding down to the back on Saturday at my other, smaller guild meeting where we do handwork while chatting.  Very relaxing and often very informative.

Also on Friday, I started pin-basting a sampler quilt made of blocks from an exchange with an online group, Moda "Blockheads" weekly blocks, and other miscellaneous blocks.  There were so many colors in the blocks that I sashed them with a black print which has a green vine with red dots.  I have the binding all cut and ready to put on whenever I finish quilting.  But I took a couple of days basting because, when I use the bed in the guest room, I need to bend over and, thus, was taking care of my back.  It's only 62" x 72" so will end up a nice throw.

This week:  house cleaning! emergency library board meeting!  more quilting!

Happy Mother's Day!

These were last year's Mother's Day flowers from Chris.  It has been 36 years since I became a mother.  It seems like just yesterday.  I don't feel a whole lot older although I've travelled many a mile, figuratively speaking.  Chris was just 18 months when he and I moved into the "handywoman's special." 

When he was little, he drew pictures of me as he saw me - with a pony tail in sweat clothes - because after work and on weekends, I was taking down wallpaper, painting, cutting the grass, digging the garden, and doing other indoor/outdoor stuff.  Now he helps me with all that.  He's coming over today to wash the car.  Maybe I can persuade him to clean the garage, too?

We had some interesting times during Chris' childhood.  Some I'd rather forget, and some make me laugh.  Fooling around on the bus after camp, he had the misfortune of throwing someone's bathing trunks out the window.  (He was not the only boy who got in trouble that day.)  Then there was the wilderness camp a few summers later.  He wanted to go, but, riding over, he didn't want me to leave.  Yet when he met another Chris while settling into the cabin, he hardly knew I was leaving.  Both mothers walked back to the cars, still worried but happy they'd found each other.  

And then there was the summer he decided to become a vegetarian.  I have some nice ground beef defrosting because, thank goodness, he eventually gave that up.  Tofu pups just weren't that good.  Here's to mothers everywhere.  I'll try to call mine but know she's going to the opera Falstaff today.  At age 96, she is active, both mentally and physically, thank goodness!

Spring!

These pretty pink and purple tulips are growing right next to the house in full sun.  Otherwise, it would be a few more weeks before they bloomed.  The daffodils out front, which are in the shade, are blooming, too, and the lilacs are budding.  Whoo hoo!  Yippee!

The "Luminarium"

 For the last two days, I have been immersed in Ricky Tims' quilt "Luminarium," and my head is spinning!  I came home with so many new ideas.  Some to try.  Some to think about.  Some to recognize as "not me."  The sessions went from 10:30 am to 7 pm on Thursday and from 8:30 am to 5 pm on Friday.  I was glad I took my lunch each day because I needed some time to sit quietly and read, gaze out over Lake Champlain, and basically decompress.  It was intense.

I was glad to drive over with Jane and Gracie and to see Pauline, Joan, and Sarah there.  They will be people to bounce ideas off of in the coming months as we all digest.  Here are a few of his quilts.  He dyes his own fabric, and they are beautiful.

The circles in this quilt were created using some of the special stitches on his machine and a circle making foot.  He uses a lot of piping along his borders which I find very near.  It's hard to see but there are squiggly lines of couching around the circles.  This is made with a "couching foot" - a circle of clear plastic that you run the yarn or thick thread through.

Ricky had a lot of short cuts that he offered as well as suggestions about other tools and products.  Of course, he had a "shopaterium" to go along with the workshop, and we had plenty of time to "graze."  Even though I swore I wasn't going to buy anything, I came home with two yards of hand dyed fabric, two spools of thread, and a DVD about quilting and other finishing techniques.

I love the way the light shines through the squares in this quilt, but what I really took it for was the quilting - free form squares.

And it's hard to tell, but the last photo has wonky borders and very thick machine embroidery stitching around the petals/leaves.

The last two quilts don't have bindings, but rather are finished with facings.  This gives them a clean, sharp look (sorry for the fuzziness - my phone's camera leaves something to be desired).

My quilting mojo is re-energized, but I need to finish a few UFOs before I dip back into the extensive book we received.