Busy Hands, Happy Hands

It is August already.  Yes, time seems to be speeding up again.   The worst of the hot weather and storms is over 🤞, and we are heading into my favorite time of the year.  The dozen Sew Powerful purses for this month have joined June and July - I’ll ship these purses next week.  Wednesday former guild president Lauren has arranged a Sew Powerful workshop here with three others.  It’ll be fun.  I’ve made kits so that we can focus on the mechanics of the pattern.  

Evenings I hand quilt with No 8 Perle cottons.  And as I’ve said before, it’s too hot in the summer to hold a quilt on my lap.  So this summer’s quilting project is an odd one.  But I love it.  I can’t imagine anyone else looking at this quilt and thinking they must have it. 

These are all 15” squares, batted with wool and backed with something low volume. These squares are from fabrics I love.  And I’m not sure I can explain why.  But each one delights me.  The last five still need to be quilted, but I can already see the finished project.  Grey grunge will be perfect for the interior sashing and the border.  Currently this quilt is 60” x 75”.  I’m thinking of a way to make it wider.  

The bottom three blocks are all from a favorite designer, Marcia Derse.  I’m thinking a quilted 6” strip  down both sides would nicely unify these odd blocks. 

But here’s what I’ve really been working on.  September is the Sew Powerful fundraiser and Purse-a-thon. I’m getting my materials together and am even asking the grandkids to contribute.  People in my building were so supportive; I had a special dinner last week for a few of them, including my note writer Lynne.   And my Weight Watchers group was so generous.  This year, before asking them to help fund the supplies for the purses I make, I want to show them that I don’t take their support or money lightly.  So using my scraps I have made bowl cozies - 56 so far.  

  

Very satisfying.  Here’s to September! 

Another Smokey Summer

Which is just perfect for sewing.  Can’t go out? Sew! Go to the condo gym or pool! Bake!  I just baked a Muslin navy bean pie.  It’s not bad!  My July dozen for Sew Powerful are all set to be mailed along with the June purses.  And I’ve even made a small dent in August’s purses. 

My sister returned to me a quilt I made for her husband’s ENT practice in St. Joe.  There was an atrium sort of space, and this tall piece (96” x 48”) hung there.  I’m not quite sure what to do with this piece - I love it,  maybe cut it up and  make tote bags? 

A few months ago I was working on granddaughter Nikki’s baby quilt - little Charlotte Rose was born July 15.  She and her mom are doing well.  We hope to meet her this weekend!  As I started Charlotte’s quilt, I realized, as I was cutting out the clamshells, that some of the colors were not right.  So I jettisoned those and found fabrics that more accurately reflected what Nikki wanted for the nursery.  But meanwhile I had all these bits cut out.  So for the last weeks  I’ve hand pieced these leftover clamshells and then quilted the piece.  It’s complete and very pretty.  Nikki might be getting this one, too!   

What’s on my mind all the time is my SIL Chris in Orlando.  She’s taking care of her husband, who has Lewy Body Syndrome, and is doing such a terrific job.  It’s hard to imagine walking in someone else’s shoes…  I’m not sure I could give John the same level of support that Chris is giving to Jerry.  So when Chris mentioned she could use new mug and plate cozies, I sprang into action - these went into UPS this morning.  Think I’ll make myself some! 

Yikes, how did it get to be December?

 

In all the flurry of November and my trip to Santa Fe and out of towners for Thanksgiving, I continued to sew, just without blogging.  I’m utterly thrilled with a quilt I just finished, but I’ll do an entry tomorrow about this quilt.  It is just too special for a little mention.  The Santa Fe trip was wonderful.  The landscape of this area is intriguing.  It’s so unfamiliar to me.  The clarity of air is noticeable.  So is the aridity and the elevation.  

Our first Thanksgiving in Oak Brook was a good one - we had 8 around the table.  We are just so happy in this space.  And we’re hoping to get a bit happier - we may have found a buyer for our house.  

Small projects for perfect when sewing time is so broken up.  And I've been wanting to make bowl cozies.  We use ours all the time and they need updating.  Several of these were for gifts, and someone bought two pair although I really don't intend to sell them.  They are satisfying to make and use up the cotton and wool batting scraps.  

But the month ended on two very sad notes.  One is the death of Stephen Sondheim.  He was a brilliant artist whose work spoke deeply to me.  I've blogged about Sondheim before.  The ambivalence he often wrote of is akin to Keats' Ode on a Grecian Urn.  And his music? Just wonderful.  I felt this same sadness when Julia Child died.  Alexa and I have been going through the Sondheim canon.  And I'm still doing it.  But more importantly and sadly the chief cheerleader among Sew Powerful volunteers and purse makers, Shirley Utz, died.  Pancreatic cancer.  She s leaving a huge footprint.  Her grace during these last few months is a model of how to live.  

My life rhythm has been off with the move.   We love where we are but are realizing that the move was not easy.  And the biggest unease has been the house not finding its buyer.  But I'm snapping out of this irregular rhythm.  I'm very good at sewing my way through grief and sadness.  My December intention is to sew a purse a day and get them in the mail.  Being married to the guy to who all the Christmas allows me the luxury of the commitment.

No Trick or Treat Candy!

 I like my new home.  It's a condo of people pretty much my age and no children, not that there's anything wrong with them!  We're not in a neighborhood - we're in nature.  And it's lovely. There are walking paths, and our across-the-street neighbor is the Hilton Oak Brook Hills Resort.  Instead of agonizing over what kind of Halloween candy to buy and whether we have enough, this holiday is a candy-free zone.  A nice change of pace.  One negative:  one more leaves fall I we will be able to see an over-the-top magamansion.  I'll need to keep my eyes in the studio.

I've been working on this, now that it's cool again.  This quilt is based on a pattern by Yoshiko Jinzenji and features bit of favorite fabrics.  There are 6 boxes of negative space, each one with different hand quilting.  Sometimes I can't see for forest for the trees, so I asked John to hang this off the balcony for some photos.  I'm trying to vary the stitching, but it just doesn't show up all that much.  So now?  It's just a matter of getting it done.

Meanwhile I went through my batting scraps and made some presents, both for this house and for others. These bowl cozies are so handy for soups and chili and anything else that comes out of the microwave too hot to safely handle.  Mine are in the bottom right - that black and white fabric I bought in New Zealand and it represents Maori designs.  The colorful dots back with orange prisms?  for Eileen.  The bottom left - very dark blue and a dress pattern print for Sarah.  And there are several for Melissa featuring topographical fabric, Native American design,  and house design plans.  It was good to work on small things that are easy to complete!

For the most part John is appreciative of what I do and lets me hang whatever I want.  However, he looked at this wall hanging, meant for above the fireplace in the dining room, and said he didn't understand how this was representative of Fall.  And this is indeed my Fall wall hanging.  Ill admit it's abstract at this point, but I have stitching plans that I hope will make this piece easier to understand.  And if he doesn't get it, that's okay too.  It's 3' tall and 4' wide.  

This quilt is one I started after fracturing my wrist.  I foundation-pieced selvage strips onto batting.  I could operate my machine and was able to do rough cutting by stabilizing my ruler with my elbow.  Foundation piecing meant that there were no seams to iron.  And its obvious I stuck to lights, greys, reds, and black.  Then I attached each 12" square to a neutral backing.  When it was too warm to work on the above Yoshiko-ish quilt, I worked on hand-quilting these blocks.  31 of them or complete.  I'm saving the remaining 4 for some traveling mid-November, and then I'll connect these blocks using the reversible quilting method.  I know the sashing/binding strips on the front need to be neutral, but I'm trying to decide whether I want to do something different for the sashing/binding strips on the back.  I have a few weeks to ponder on this.  And I'll watch the leaves continue to fall.  Happily.

Design Decisions

My collection of black and white fabrics has been growing, and I have been looking for projects.  One for sure is going to be a log cabin, using 2" logs and creating 14" blocks.   I've also been eyeing a quilt of half-square triangles.  Here's that inspiration picture.

So, I began making half-square triangles using a separator strip between the two triangles, like in the inspiration picture.  And here's what I wound up with:

These blocks are in a symmetrical barn-raising design.  And - I don't love it.  What about adding a bit of color? 

I instagrammed this picture and asked "Color - or no."  The overwhelming majority said to for sure add color.  One friend suggested maybe just adding one color.  But the comment that hit home with me asked why add color to a quilt of black and white?  Let the black and white speak. 

So I tried putting the blocks on point, around a center rectangle of smaller half-square triangles.  And adding strips of a greyish-white fabrics. This quilt is going to be for our bedroom.  Using a center rectangle means this design will be bed-shape.  I'm happy with how this is going!

 While dithering about the above issue, I did some simple sewing.  John asked for one of his t-shirts to be turned into a Mors bag and used it for a door prize at the Brookfield Jazz Society. 

And look!  I made bowl cozies.  I did roll my eyes when I first heard of them, but then I saw one and how useful it is.  These have been around for a while, but they are new to me.  Here's the pattern I used.