Fondle

 After reading Chookie's post about her trip to Libertyville and at the end finding myself green with envy I thought I would look to see what I've got stashed and what I've done with mine (it was just an excuse to fondle my Liberty of London fabrics.)

I'm one of those that doesn't want to use something that's a favorite because, well, if I use it, it will be gone. Our first trip to England was a couple of years before covid and I bought just a little of the Liberty fabric.  And I didn't want to use it because it had to be used for something special and I didn't want to waste a single thread. So it sat.

Then we went back to the Liberty of London store during each of our four trips and I bought a little more.  Then I found a place here in Michigan that sold it only through mail order.  Then JoAnn's started selling it.  Finally, I had a stash. 

The circle quilt was just finished a couple of weeks ago, at first I didn't dare start something like this because I would have waste from cutting circles.   But the flying geese did not.  I love flying geese and I like the peasant look of just lining up four of them and putting them together in rows.  That four at a time way of cutting flying geese is a favorite.

 No rhyme or reason to placement.  I don't have a design wall or curtain nor the wall space to put one so I just wing it.  

Like here.  This was my first peasant look flying geese quilt and LOVED it.  It was so much fun finding quirky put togethers from my stash, the only thing I was concerned about was strong contrasts. Everything else was a free for all. This is a favorite.

And this one.  Honestly?  I don 't even remember making this top.  It was folded up in a basket and when I unfolded it thinking "what's this?" I was very surprised.  I love it.  I must have made it after the peasant one above because it really was fun and a stash buster for sure. I bought some batting and am trying to find enough in the stash for a backing.

But back to Liberty. 

I gathered all my Liberties from the different pouches they were stored in and now I know I have lots. More than I thought and enough to do something with.

This last visit to England in January I had soft colors in mind because I think I'm going to stick to the 'don't waste a single thread' philosophy and do simple squares, like a charm quilt but not a charm. The squares will be bigger than charm.

These are the bigger pieces, truly fondle worthy, and there is a pouch with small bits and bobs that came from Friend Barb and leftovers from my projects.

I felt better after seeing what's here because if I'd been to the Liberty Lollapalooza that Chooky was at I'd probably have ended up in a corner sucking my thumb from envy, lack of money to buy it all and the realization of how old I am and big plans have to be carefully made.  

Easter

 However you celebrated yesterday, whether alone and quietly or on spring break somewhere warm, or with friends or with family I hope it was a good day and didn't include snow. 

This year we were at our daughter's with SIL's mom and brother and two nephews.  There were nine of us and as usual daughter outdid herself to make the day memorable for all of us.  It's a lot of work having big dinners AND making it special.  I know. PH and I usually hosted Easter and had about 22 people.  This year Easter was during spring break from schools so most of the people who come here were off travelling.  Our daughter stepped up, we shared cooking duties and had a wonderful day.  And it didn't snow.  It was cold enough, and for about 5 minutes in the morning it DID but I think it was just March's way of having the last laugh...even though we are a week into April.

We are a very lucky family.  Our table was full and delicious

This was the centerpiece our daughter made, I didn't get the tulips sticking up out of the top in the photo.  So pretty!

Dessert was a collection of cookies and these little pots filled with pudding dirt, crushed chocolate cookies and strawberries dipped in orange colored white chocolate for carrots sticking up.  Very fun, delicious and who doesn't need a bit of chocolate after a meal?

We had games.  SIL made this tomb from a cardboard box.  You have to give him leeway for his dry but astute sense of humor.  

He put things appropriate to the tomb in the box, one at a time, and we shook the tomb and guessed what was inside. Some things were quiet and some things rattled.

We each took a turn and guessed.

Adelaide guessed the shroud.  SIL being who he is, added blood colored paint.

There were other things, too, keys (to open the rock door,) crown of thorns, you get the picture. 

And the egg toss.  Honestly, we could have done this game inside the house.  We don't know what these eggs were made of but they would NOT break!  You toss, step back, toss, step back, etc. But we actually ran out of yard and were throwing the eggs like a baseball (instead of gently lobbing them) and one of the eggs had grass stains on it but STILL didn't break.  Craziest thing I've ever seen. 

We came home with warm memories and leftovers for another meal, just like Thanksgiving! 

 

Active Syrup

 Not much quilting happening, it's been very busy around here but I can add a bit to the maple syrup post.

The other day PH asked if any of the trees around here (see background for trees!) were syrup trees and I pointed to two I knew of.  Yesterday I was filling the suet feeders and right at nose level I noticed something move.

The dark strip on this tree is a line of sap running out of the tree.  It's wet.

You can't see it very well, I could only get the camera to focus from this distance but what I saw moving was sap dripping from the tree like a drippy faucet that needed a new washer. Quite an active drip. Just about midway on this photo you can see the next drop forming, ready for the dive.

See that dark blob?  It's an active run.  

I tasted it.  Not like the squirrels do, putting my mouth to the tree and licking, but put my finger out to catch a drip.  It's sweet water. Doesn't taste maple, just sweet.

At the ground where the crumbs from the suet lay for the ground feeding birds they aren't consciously choosing the wet spot. I thought they would.  Then I remembered birds don't really 'taste' like the squirrels do. 

Next year I might just get a bucket and spigot. 

Maple Syrup Time

 It's maple syrup time in Michigan. When the days are what we consider warm but the nights still are cold the sap flows back up to feed the trees.  If a tree is particularly juicy it will seep out of the space where the branches meet the tree. Always in March but sometimes in late February.  

When our daughter moved into their house one spring they noticed squirrels laying on those branches and licking the dark spaces at the junctures.  

The next year she found a place that sold spigots and buckets and watched the squirrels. 

It tastes, straight from the tree, like water with a "what's that?" background.  I think you can taste the tree if you wait for it. The sap drips drip by drop into the bucket.  Somedays the bucket will be quite full, other days not so much.

Then you cook it down.  Those two pots in the background are used up and dead to the chore. The propane goes fast, the little stove wore out.  She's been doing this for years.  With the new open cook pot more will evaporate quicker.  You can see it's starting to change color as the sap boils down.  

It takes about forty gallons of sap to get one gallon of syrup. This is the real thing, no additives, preservatives, sugars, nothing but cooked down sap.  And better eating you won't find! 

Finally, Finally

 This is finally a finish!!  I started the Liberty circles during Covid when Friend Barb and I decided to do a circle quilt "together."  Since then I believe she said she has done seven circle quilts.  

I did this one. O  N  E.  I got bored so easily appliqueing circle after circle after circle and I do believe if I wasn't using the Liberty of London fabric, I would have quit long ago.  But not wanting to waste a single thread, I kept going.  I am glad I did, it's very pretty.

Finally, finally it's done, I love it and it's already been claimed by my daughter. 

Will I do another one?  Seven?  No. No. No. 

Please notice the sun is shining.

Sunshine

 

This weekend the high school's musical production of Chicago: Teen Edition played.  Our Adelaide was Mary Sunshine, a very appropriate character for her to play because she IS sunshine.

The play was wonderful, by the way.  The talent in these kids is incredible.

We were all excited that our son and Ceci and Charlie came in for the performance.  They live two hours away and with three kids involved in everything, this was, according to Ceci, the only free day they have in two months.  We were excited they were here and gave that free day to Adelaide.

This is how we see the girls when they are together.  They are always forehead to forehead tucked into some corner catching up, sharing, and just excited to be together for however long that is.  

She loves the theater, the acting, the everything about it.  And proud daddy, too.

It was a fun, fun day to be sure.

Update!

 Comments are coming through my email again! Hooray! Thanks for the tips and patience, I don't know what I did but it worked!

Two Heads Are Better Than One

First of all, blogger comments are still not coming through.  I've pushed every button I can think of  with your tutorial ideas next to me on my phone.  Tomorrow I call for techie help.  Sheesh.

     But today, Friend Laurie and I put our two heads and four hands together to work out a project for this summer's museum day camp.  

     Sticking with the 250th birthday of the US we thought replicating Betsy Ross's flag might be a good activity for the kids.  For the past few months Laurie and I batted around ideas and soon discovered she and I were talking about two different activities - or two ways to approach the one activity.  We brainstormed and decided we needed to just get some supplies and actually have a work session to see how accessible our ideas are to 7-12 year old kids.

     Laurie did teacher research on the flag will give the kids instruction:  there are thirteen red and white stripes, red on top and bottom.  The thirteen stars were to be on a blue field.  All good.  Of course a star was added with each new state but in the beginning it was a thirteen star and stripe flag. 

So, we - well, rather SHE - measured size for stripes, the blue field and we big stitched the red felt onto a solid white piece of felt. 

Our concern all along the way was making this accessible to a seven year old with no needle skills,  I wanted finished edges, which meant big stitching the red onto the white. No seams.

We had stencils for the stars because in the beginning when flag designs were being presented the stars could be and were placed at random OR in "Betsy's" circle.  We want to give the kids the freedom to choose their own design.

We each did our own thing,  I added the blue field with a running stitch and used the circle star stencil

Laurie used a stamp for her stars and did a blanket stitch to hold the blue field.  I like that, she liked mine.  Go figure.

The bottom line is daughter loved the way they turned out, we proved to ourselves we can get this through the kids' project and give them choices in how to design their own.  Our next step is to give this project kitted to three kids in the age range and time them in completing the task. 

Check this off the list! 

 

Blogger Bugs Again

 For some reason Blogger decided once again to fix something that wasn't broken so your comments are not coming through to my email.  If you know how to fix this, please let me know, otherwise I'll start pushing buttons on my own and who knows what will happen?  In the meantime, I apologize if I don't respond to your kind remarks. 

Hugs. We need them.

Theo of Golden

I'm not much of one for reviewing adult books here.  I like the connection kids' books give me but I can and often get lost in explaining the meaning of adult books.   Especially when they are completely out of my comfort zone.  

I avoided this one because of a preconceived notion it was too sweet. Something along the Mitch Albom genre.  I like thick, meaty, original fiction.  Someone tell me a story.  Escape.

But friends handed this to me last week hoping I'd like it and one of them said her brother said it was the best thing he'd read in a year.   I had just that evening before finished the book I was reading so timing was right.

Well.  Do you do Lent?  I once knew a priest who read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown for his Lenten reading. That's a book that stares you in the face.

If you haven't read Theo of Golden this is a simple synopsis.  A man mysteriously travels to the town of Golden in a southern state and notices in a coffee shop that a local artist  sketches, draws, creating people's portraits - their faces - and they hang on the wall of the coffee shop.  Theo decides to purchase each painting and give them to the subjects as a gift. And listen to their story.  

This simple act transforms people.  They feel seen.  A complete stranger is telling them of their worth, something none of them thought they had. He remains mysterious, offers just the one name, refuses publicity or thanks.  Just take the portrait and feel seen.

Immediately upon reading those first few pages I thought of a Michigan artist who has a studio and gallery in Saugatuck, Michigan.  His name is James Brandess and on the wall of his shop/gallery/studio he has lined the walls with the residents of Saugatuck.  The portraits are small, maybe 5 x 7?  4 x 6? In the winter quiet he paints these people and sometimes their dogs and hangs them on the surrounding walls.  They belong to James.  I'm quite sure while he is painting there are stories being told.  So, in a small way I connected with the book.

In this horrid time of ridiculously dangerous people (I refuse to call them leaders) beating their chests, playing at war, the anxiety in my brain is trying so hard to take over.  As friends march and protest I do not.  I feel it a complete waste of time - who is listening?  Who cares? The more we do the meaner and worse he gets.  I am hiding under a rock, every morning asking PH "Well? are we still here?  Is the world?"  I truly don't know how much more we/I can take.  

Then this little book was put in my hands and after thinking of James Brandess's studio I started thinking Lent.  Someone put a small, tiny, spark of light in my hand.  Hope.  Someone has to have some. Will this change anything?  No. Nothing will tame the dragons, I truly believe that, but I can hope. 
 

Projects

The Thinking Bed is empty. (By the way, that white quilt is keeping the sun off the tops of the other quilts that are piled onto the bed that is next to a window.)

Once the museum classes ended last week I went into hyper drive with the free days and got things moved to the next level.  When working with the kids, which is fun and interesting always, I am standing for four hours and talking for four hours and come home exhausted so not much energy for anything else.

Liberty circles have a binding sewn on but not down, quilting has begun on the green and blue scrappy and I'm doing big stitch quilting so it's going fast, several smaller pieces have been layered, the blue snowballs are layered.

And here they all sit, all piles off the bed and waiting but are at least at THIS stage

This is the emergency insurance two yard piece of fabric I bought last week.  I cut the tissue circles bigger than the end product will be but wanted Adelaide's idea on placement.  By text we moved them around a bit and I told her that it will probably have a framing border to widen it a bit.  But she is happy with this - leaving room for stems and leaves.  Sunflowers have long stems!   

With the Thinking Bed now empty of nagging little projects, getting them to the point of picking one up and quilting it, I will now focus on the flowers.  My plan is to get at least one flower done for a trial - remember, my concern is holding the fabric in my hand without having to cut it up, and then take it to retreat in April.  Might even get the stems and leaves ready.

I think now I am not worried about holding the fabric.  I remember I did it with Charlie's quilt so will make this work.  

I think that circle on the right needs to be moved down a bit. 

Sunflowers Part Two

 I'm getting good tips for the sunflowers.  One emailed and asked how big the flowers are.  At the widest point, after applique they would be about 15 inches across.  Thank goodness they ARE big and I'm not going to have to deal with itsy bitsy.

I don't use glue.  I don't fuse.  I know that's stubborn on my part refusing to use what's so commonly used.  I'm not judging anyone who does glue or fuse. I just personally don't like the idea.  I will baste the little buggers down very well to hold them in place and if a petal veers a little here or there, who's to know?  Has anyone actually ever gone out and measured the space between or around a real sunflower's petals?  I already warned Adelaide she will get what she wants but with MY interpretation. This isn't a photograph, it's a quilt.

Another email response was that I should be able to roll the extra fabric into my palm and hold it that way.  I'm going to measure and baste the circle size onto the dots and try that before I buy that plan. But she might be right.  I tried to remember how I handled Charlie's quilt and remembered I DID gather the extra into my palm to hold it.  If anything, the petals will be one piece of fabric and the stems and leaves another MAYBE being able to hide the seam under some of the leaves.  We'll see. 

There's a lot of measuring to be done, the only parts that are cut are the petals, nothing is final yet. The Thinking Bed will be put to use in placing the flowers because it's about a twin size. I went back to the store and broke my fast on purchasing fabric but I did buy more of the dots.  I have been kicked by THAT mule a few too many times.  I would rather have more than I need. The store still had what I wanted, I bought the last of it (2 yards) and now feel comfortable making a mistake or ending up with a pillow case for her if I have leftover.

Till then I will start prepping these after this week.  Until then, more classes at the museum. 

Sunflowers

 I had a few days off from the museum last week so spent some time organizing my brain around Adelaide's quilt.

She wants a navy polka dot background and I had collected a few yellow/orangey batiks for the sunflower petals.  

I enlarged the style of flowers she chose, labelled each flower and each petal. Then cut out each petal, again labelling everything well. She isn't going to notice the placement of each petal but I do want to remember how they fit together in the picture.  

After tracing them and cutting them out I thought I should get her opinion before proceeding.  Remember, she knows exactly what she wants and I don't want any disappointments at the end of this.

                                       I texted this photo to her and she replied, "Perfect."

                                     So now comes the part that is keeping me awake at night.  

This is an example of the arrangement she wants...not these flowers, not this pattern, not this background but this arrangement of flowers, a spray of three.  I do realize this is a copyrighted pattern and I am not using it, copying it or stealing it.  I'm just showing you an example of an arrangement of a spray of flowers she wants.

OK, that's done.  I needle turn applique by hand.  I don't used fusibles nor glue or machine applique ever.   My conundrum is how to do this without holding yardage in my hand and lap.  Right now I'm leaning toward cutting the background fabric into three large pieces that will accommodate the flowers individually and then putting them back together. But then there are the stems.  

I keep staring at this and thinking "ok, do it."  Or "ok, cut it so two flowers can be done and then a smaller piece."  Or "cut them into three large squares, applique the flowers, put them back together and then do the stems" which will be more straight line-ish stitching than the twisting and turning of the flowers. 

Usually I can fall asleep trying to solve a quilt problem and then a solution will come to me.  But this one keeps giving me options on how to handle it.  I am TERRIBLE with that adage "measure twice, cut once" because I can measure ten times, leave it for days, look at it, decide, cut and dang if it's wrong! 

Opinions? Options I don't see? Thoughts? Ideas?  

Winter

                                                          This is what winter looks like.

Every week I go to an elementary school and read to a class of first graders.  When I turned the corner down the corridor a couple of weeks ago I stopped and laughed and took this picture. 

Kids are required to wear boots, hats, mittens and snowpants.  This class just came in from recess - I think.   

There is no doubt why the lost and found is overflowing! 

We had a very nice respite from the cold this past week.  Yesterday I had a window in every room open for the fresh air and sunshine. Snow is gone, melted away.  Winter isn't through with us yet but we've seen the worst of it. 

Reality

You remember I said I don't take photos ( much) of buildings, but I couldn't resist this bookstore in Winchester.  

Amazingly, we didn't go inside.  For me, bookstores are worse than fabric stores are for you.  Definitely a rabbit hole.  

We should have gone in but we were with Brian and his daughter and SIL and truly, I would have held up the day. We didn't have much time and wanted to keep going. This was a hard pass.

Look at that little sign.  How true!  How needed! One of the things we discussed before this trip was whether or not we would admit to being Americans.  How's that for reality?  We know as soon as we open our mouth people will ask where we are from, it's obvious we aren't British.  We decided if anyone asked we would say we were Canadian. 

Well, first day someone asked if we were American.  I actually hesitated. A long hesitation. Stared at her. Sighed and said, "We aren't admitting to that (being American.)"  She smiled and said it was ok, they loved us.  I said, "uh...no you don't."  Then I assured her WE are NOT like THEM.  

Next day, another one.  By the third time I realized we were like Thomas, denying the third time.  

    As soon as people knew, though, it opened the door to them giving us their opinions and one actually, ACTUALLY asked if "he" was crazy.  "Yes," I said, "he is." 

This trip we didn't do the souvenir thing.  We are old.  We are purging what we have.  But I can't and don't resist books.  We stopped just a couple of times because I knew I'd buy and books are heavy to transport.  But these are the ones I did get.  The top two I brought from home to read on the trip.  If you haven't read Remarkably Bright Creatures, do. It took me a long time to decide to read it because I couldn't understand the premise of the octopus but the recommendation from Friend Laurie made me finally do it.  I read half on the way to London and finished it over Newfoundland on the way home.  There was NO time to read while we were there.  

Like I do when home, when I finish a book immediately after closing it I search out the next one. That was Tilt.  I'm not one for survival stories and this one is certainly How-Would-You-Survive-A-Disaster-Like-This and setting priorities and what IS a priority to you and how far could you extend yourself. We have certainly been racking up natural disasters lately so I thought this was worth the try.  We aren't inclined to earthquakes in Michigan.  This one was really, really good.  A lot of "oh,yeah, didn't think of that, I guess that would be a problem" moments because truly we just don't realize how good we have it when everything works.  And then it's gone.

 

Hampton Court

 When we travel I take photos of not normal things.  I take photos of things I want to remember but am not great on pictures of buildings.  I like the quirky things inside the buildings.  

On Wednesday of our trip we visited Hampton Court. Henry VIII's house. It's not a ruin, it's still a viable building used for events and films like Wolf Hall. As we walked we were well aware we were walking the same paths and on the same stones as Henry VIII and his retinue, beheaded wives, counselors, Elizabeth I.  This isn't the first castle we've ever visited but this one was daunting. 

Don't you sometimes wish you could give your guests a behavioral expectation when they walk in the door?  Especially those vagabonds, rascals or boys? Notice boys is in all capital letters.   It was interesting that there were a few signs of the times that specifically targeted boys. 

The Great Hall was organized for us to see that it was a place of meeting both for court but also feasts.

I thought this was a great idea for visitors.  Each place setting included an expectation of table manners of the time.  These are all true, documented expectations of guests.

Turns out things don't change much.  Must have been a boy.

This was the king's chocolate kitchen. Of course he had a chocolate kitchen.