Temperature Tree

Thoughts on the tree project: 

In the beginning of my hand work life, over 50 years ago, I started with cross stitch then moved on to needlepoint then quilting. As I progressed from one to the other, the previous activity was put aside. 

SO, it's been a very long time since I've done cross stitch. I 'forgot' how tedious it can be. My eyes are older and not so inclined to teeny anymore.  Neither is my patience. 

This tree would not stand the test of comparing it to the pattern. Certainly not the leaves.  But as I fiddle and struggle while stitching I am pretty much finding space for another leaf and sticking it in. I know nature is more perfect than this but I'm not.

Too late I realized I didn't really have to stick to the color chart and if I had been thinking logically for this hemisphere I would have for these warm green months made the leaves green, not the yellows the chart is using. I would have had some oranges and reds for the coming fall months.  I'd leave the blues for the winter but I'm not loving the yellow for now and looking at the color chart there isn't much room for change.  Maybe.  It IS only May. I could green up the summer maybe. Saying this, I understand it's a temperature chart so the temperatures are represented, not my esthetic desires. 

Maybe the yellows aren't making me happy because I used an oatmeal color for the background and they kind of disappear. 

And yes, there are still days left in May but our weather people are SO precise I can take the projected temps for the rest of the week and finish the month.

Yes, I will finish this, I've gotten almost through half the year and I am happy with my system of collecting temps for a couple of weeks and then stitching.  I could have and would have never made a temperature quilt so this is a good substitute. 

Graduation

 Last night our Elizabeth graduated from high school.  It was a proud evening for all of us. 

I think my fingers are holding onto her very tightly 

The ceremony was held in the football stadium (outdoors, COLD and very windy) and this procession of the graduates from the high school building down the hill to the football field was so impressive and beautiful and well, there could have been a tear or two.

Here it is, the moment. They can't take it away.  She worked hard for this.

After, we all went to a late dinner on the river and basked in her.  Notice mom hanging on tightly, too.

Well, that's two of the five fledged from the nest.  Sigh.

Decisions

 I am not a good passenger.  I get bored and I tend to backseat drive.  Ever since I was a child I would be carsick.  But about ten years ago I discovered I could do some hand work if I'm careful about the carsick thing.  

My latest take along project if we are going to be driving 2 hours or more is to stitch hexies together. I keep a small tightly packed tote of everything I need.  When we are leaving for anywhere, I grab the tote all packed and good to go.

They are scrappy, used up scraps of fabric, no rhyme or reason to placement except for trying not to put two reds or dark blues together. 

I put this box on my lap, the thread in the door handle pocket and when I take out the cardboard pieces they go in the bottom of the tote till we stop for gas somewhere. The box is thinning out and I need many more for the road trip

so last time I zoomed I cut fabric to fit the foundations and put everything in baggies.

Now, I make more hexies to store for the big road trip we are planning this summer.  It's a long one and I will need lots.  It's porch work.

The decision?  As I recuperate from new hip surgery I have to decide whether to sit on the front porch or the back.  Front porch chairs are more comfortable and I can easily fall into a nap so not much might get done.  Back porch offers an aquarium of bird activity at the feeders, which is distracting to getting anything done.  But it's such a gorgeously beautiful day today I won't be inside.

Tinkering

 I've packed up the piles and put away the stuff for a bit because I'm going to have a new hip Thursday and won't be in the mood for messes.  Instead I've been tinkering with my ladies.

A few days ago Lou was going through old linens and wondering what to do with pieces that were stained and damaged by time and use.  I told her when I go to estate sales I head first to the bedrooms where the linens are stored. I want those pillow cases, table cloths, dresser runners, etc.  Some are very damaged and have holes or big stains.  And because of that I get them for pennies. Some are in good condition and useable.  Still very inexpensive.  

What I've done is cut the handwork off the damaged pieces and tucked them away for....I don't know, just another stash, I guess.

But then with Lou's post I thought "hmmm" and dug out the crochet trims that I saved from disintegrating pillow cases and they fit nicely as trims for my ladies.  The pattern I am using for inspiration for the ladies shows a pieced 'lace' around their faces.  This sure beats that!

There was a piece that was salvaged I turned into an apron for this one.

I really like the look, the crochet pieces - and I do mean pieces - that I saved are resurrected.

I am making up this project as I go along.  It's going to be very funky when I finally decide it's finished.

Books this week.  Probably the last week for me.  If not, then possibly just one or two more as I heal.

Another Holly Hobbie book.  This one from her own life.  

Holly's family lived in a thriving, busy, noisy neighborhood and suddenly her parents bought a run down old farm house out in the country with no indoor plumbing and no electricity in her bedroom. It was culture shock.  But Holly learned to love the animals of the country and their little farm.  But mostly she loved the horses the neighbors had and wished for a horse more than anything.  They had a barn, there was tacking hanging on the wall, she learned to draw horses, she even picked up 'road apples' from the neighbors' horses and put them in her barn.  

On her birthday her big present was in the barn and she ran her fastest to get there.  The kids and I had a good chat about that ending. 

I always save this book for the last book of the year.  Gum wasn't new.  The ancients chewed pine resin and other things. Chewing gum was good for you.  But what if you could make a gum that was able to hold a bubble?  And when you succeeded in that, make it a color but pink was the only thing available in the lab?  The kids LOVE this book.  Or is it because I bring in a big bag of bubble gum for them?  

We discussed that things don't just magically appear.  Someone has to think...."hmmm, what if?" and tinker and tinker and think and think to invent the things we have now.  

CIRCLES! and books

 I don't think I've ever been happier finishing a quilt top.  During covid Friend Barb and I started a circle quilt.  It was a way for me to appreciate the Liberty of London fabric I bought but was afraid to use

                                It's taken that long for me to finally get from this point Five years? 

To this.  I was so excited this morning when I whipped it out of the machine I didn't even iron it before hanging it for a photo.  So if it looks a little wonky, well, it is till it's ironed.   But that will have to wait till I'm ready to layer it and that won't be for another while.  But this far?  Ecstatic.

They are four inch white squares and the reason it took so long was because I got bored with sewing circle after circle after circle.  Barb?  She's made seven circle quilts. SEVEN.  We sew differently.  She uses her TV downtime in the evening on boring but that's my main sewing time and so there are other things to work on. 

This week's books were a little prehistoric-ish.  

After surviving a shipwreck a young boy finds himself on a remote island with a creature he has never seen anything the likes of before.  Hom is his name.  Hom is the last of his kind.  There are cave paintings of his family to prove it.  Hom shows our young boy what foods are safe to eat, how to live on a deserted island.  Our boy shows Hom his first wheel.  They play, become the best of friends.  After a note is put into a bottle telling civilization where he is, a ship does come and there is a silhouette that looks like it could be the boy's mother on board.  But boy also knows what will happen to Hom if he is found by the world. 

Can you remember what it was like to be dragged along with your mother on Errand Day?  But this day is different.  Instead of a balloon at the barber there is a dinosaur to take home.  And another from the bakery, the doctor, and every other place they stop.  Mom is furious.  What are we supposed to do with a real DINOSAUR?  Every kid in town is delighted, though. Dream come true!