Kindness of Strangers

Recently I found a group of quilters here in town. I'm new to town and new to their group but we're quilters, right? It's summer so there were just four of us last night. I said something about "my wall" and was asked to show some pictures.  I mentioned that I was sort of bound to doing geometrics I can tape off because I can't draw freehand. No talent there!  Well, one of the women said she had an overhead projector I can use to project some applique patterns onto the wall, then I would be able to do some.  Wow. She didn't even know my name and she's offering use of her projector! I was touched.  I thought about it overnight, revisited my Wall post on Pinterest and decided to take her up on her offer.

 So this was my task for today.  While I have the machine I am going to project the birds on the clotheslines and draw them all on and do some applique squares to add a little variety.

 I always liked the oak leaf pattern and since we are in the forest I want to inject some tree and bird things in some of the squares.

 Putting a little brown here and there will help with the finale square at the very end.  THAT one will be a big one and will take days so I'm saving it for last.  In the meantime, a shot of brown here and there. 

 Yesterday

 And today.  This is another one I used the machine for.  I painted it like a robin because we have one that builds a nest on the front porch.

 Don't the birds just add so much?!!??  With the birds up there, we have movement!  I also did the schoolhouse block this morning. I always liked that one, too, but it's too much piecing so I put it here in paint.

 The laboratory

My goodness.

Step 5

 Step 5:  Keep on keepin' on. It's still fun.  This is how far I've gotten and the things I learned by Step 4 still pertain.
     * LOTS of tape.  Buy a case of it.  Points are points. 
     * The bigger ones are easier than the smaller ones, surprisingly.
     * Caffeine
     * Big is better but small breaks it up visually and it also means more tape.
     * Unless you are a freehand artist, stick to the geometrics you can measure and tape off. This means not a lot of 'applique' blocks. That's ok. I applique with fabric, I piece with paint.
     * It's ok to finish one, hate it and paint over it with white to begin something else.  Who's going to  know?

 This is the view as you drive up the hill

 This is what we see when we open the garage door.

The birds are paper, just trying them on for size.  Elizabeth-with-the-artist's-eye said they are proportionally good.  I'll copy some different poses for them and make some patterns.   The orange peel pattern will have textures painted on all of the peels....eventually. I'm leaving the background white.

I don't like that blue stripe that matches the wall on the rainbow.  Maybe a border to break it up.

 

 I can only work in the morning because of the angle of the sun so it takes a couple of days, really, to do one square.  The first day is drawing it on and maybe taping it if the weather is going to be good overnight.  Maybe get one color on. The second day is the second or third color.  There's a lot of waiting for paint to dry but it's been so hot it dries quickly.  I try to have two or three patterns drawn so I can go back and forth.  I'm stuck on the geese.  There isn't space to do anymore so I have to find something else geometric to put in that middle.  The little green thing is my tease on wool.  It's little and makes me laugh so it can stay.

   I love, love, love gingham. You can see that even though tape is tape, a concrete wall is also a concrete wall with dips, holes, ridges and grooves that allows paint to ooze past.Sometimes I just have to touch up, like I will have to on the bottom border.  This one has been up for a week and I just noticed sitting here looking at this photo that there are supposed to be seven button flowers and I have painted six..  This one is my favorite if I had to pick one. Generally, I don't care much for the black/white/red combination but Elizabeth said go red and she was right.

This would be a close second favorite.  I did this one this morning and it went up really fast.
I find a lot of ideas and color schemes on Pinterest and browsing through my books.  This one was on Pinterest and I loved it.  Simple, clean and one little bird to draw you in. (By the way, it's straight on the wall.)

There are seventeen blocks total. There are eight blanks left to do and much detail and birds, too. I'm not sure what I'll do going up the stairs. Maybe something, maybe nothing. 

Phew!

We've had quite a week! Not one stitch applied to a piece of fabric, but sometimes you just have to take a break and that's what we did.

 

Last Sunday PH's family reunion  included the required game of Euchre. 

In this family the children are weened on Euchre. You're never too young to sit on someone's lap and learn.

The next day we joined our daughter and her family at a cottage at the lakeshore where we used to live.  We have good friends who graciously gave us their place for a week and we looked forward to seeing our friends from the neighborhood and doing the things we did while we lived there. 

 This was a very hot week so everyday was beach day.

 And everyday the waves were too much fun.  The girls stayed in the water for hours. They wore themselves out.

 But there was time off occasionally for some painting on the beach.

 Elizabeth's picture shows everyone playing in the waves and you can see the five of them in the surf (minus me.)

That's me in my beach chair catching up on my reading.  Notice the sand Elizabeth put on her wet canvas.

 And, ever true to detail, she is comparing her tube of white paint to my hair to make sure she has a good match.

 There were go carts

 and miniature golf

 more painting on the patio where Adelaide painted a picture of her pink puppy

 and a concert at the vineyard

 It's hard to be young and full of energy and sit still listening to music so a game of frisbee helped.

 We were busy having fun but there was ample time to read

 and catch a quick nap.

Now we are home and ready to begin again. But it sure is nice to take time off to play.

Thursday

 What do you do with 18 pounds of cherries?

I told the girls my mouth was very sad because we were half finished with summer and I haven't even tasted a cherry yet and there's not much time left before they're done with U-pick. So we went cherry picking today, our daughter told us of an orchard she found close enough to be considered.  It was a clean, well kept place that also offers raspberries, peaches, apples and tomatoes for U-pick.  We were in heaven!   But the problem with picking cherries is the pail fills so fast and easily we don't want to stop.  So we picked 18 pounds.

 There's an Adelaide somewhere in that tree.  She says she is "partly evolved spider monkey" because she will climb anything vertical.  Yes, she will.  Fearlessly.

 When Elizabeth needed a turn at the ladder, Adelaide just climbed the tree. We told Elizabeth next time the people who own the orchard will weigh her when she comes and weigh her again when she leaves because not many cherries make it into her bucket.  Long pause. "Really? They'd do that?"

 Back at home I tried to interest Elizabeth in pitting them but you can see by the size of the bowl she didn't take to this messy task.  I'll do it tomorrow.  It's so squirty!

 It was much more fun dipping them in chocolate.  Much more fun.

Oh, and taste testing.  That, too. That's what you do with cherries!

 After all the action we needed a quiet creative break.  Elizabeth was painting birds

 While Adelaide was writing a book about a tiger.

Book Tag

My reading friend Laurie  participated in this Book Tag event and it looked like fun so I'm going to give it a try.  If you go to her page you can see her answers - she is much more astute and has taste more refined than me. But she's not a book snob. 

 First of all, never let it be said I don't read.  I can't imagine not having a book in my hand either paper or electronic or audio. It's what I grab when I leave the door before I take my keys.  While this may look like a lot of books, believe me, I painfully purged when we moved into this house. this is a fraction of what I had before.

There are even books in the bathroom closet.  These are the holiday children's picture books. In this new house there just wasn't room on the shelves.

So, here goes:

What are you reading now?
I have a Kindle full of books that I am reading for review, those you will see periodically on my blog page.  I currently have The Trouble with Goats and Sheep  open. It will be published on July 12 so I need to get going on it!

What's the next one on your list?
There are several and I have to decide, usually the publication date dictates what's next, but I am anxious to get ahead so I can read some from my own shelf, too.  For now, I have the book The Midwive's Revolt by Jodi Daynard in hand along with The Muse by Jessie Burton on Kindle.

Do You Prefer a Real Book or a Reader?
Is it possible to say I don't prefer one or the other?  I find I read faster with the Kindle but I would never, ever, ever give up a book in my hand.

Do You Stop Mid-book If You Don't Like It?
Oh, way before midbook.  I've looked in the mirror, life is getting short and I don't have time anymore to struggle through a book I'm not enjoying.

Do You Have to Finish a Chapter Before Putting a Book Down?
I prefer to but it isn't necessary.

What's the Best Series You've Read?
I tend to tire of a series well before I finish.  I read Harry Potter and loved the first three but got tired at number four and bored with five, six and seven. I do NOT enjoy fantasy and the later books got very fantastical.  I would have to say the best series I've ENJOYED was the Mitford stories. Sweet, simple, "oh, if life were really like this" stories.   When I was a kid I didn't read Nancy Drew because everyone else was reading it.  I had to be different.  I chose Cherry Ames, Student Nurse.

What's The First Book You Remember Loving?
Certainly not the first book I read, but the one that never left me and shaped my whole reading life was Little Women.

Ever Been if a Book club?
A good friend has a book club and I have a standing invitation to join them but the shelves are so full now I don't know how I'd fit in what the club chose.

Favorite Book You've Read in School?
Truly, it was Beowulf.  Really.

Least Favorite Book You've Stuck With?
I kept waiting for Goldfinch to be what all the hype said it was so I kept going. Sigh.

What Author Would You Like to Have Coffee With?
Without a doubt, Cynthia Rylant.  Maeve Binchy.  Geraldine Brooks. William Joyce.  Kevin Henkes. Michael Hoeye.

If You Could Visit a Place in Any Book Where Would it Be? 
Mitford.  Or Medieval England in Ken Follett's books. Or Geraldine Brooks' plague ravaged England. Or The Australian Outback of Bill Bryson or Robyn Davidson.

What Character From a Book Would You Love to Meet?
Mr. Putter

What is Your Favorite Children's Books?
Oh, there are too many to count.  How about authors that I love because I love their characters:
Anything by Cynthia Rylant
William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood books
Hollie Hobbie's Toot and Puddle and Fanny
Mem Fox
Kevin Henkes' Penny
Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie
I have to stop or this could go on all night. I spend my time in the children's section of the bookstores because I can't resist. 
Tag! You're it! 

Step 4

Step 4: No excuses. Weather is beautiful, it's probably the last open weekend of the summer.
Things I've learned:   Points are just as hard with paint as they are with needle and thread.
                                   Buy lots of painter's tape
                                   Little squares are a pain
                                   If you're in it for the long haul, have caffeine handy
                                   Use GOOD paint (I am) 
                                  There are probably other things but I'm too tired to think of them.

 The green basket isn't finished.  I'm going to put flower detail in the pale yellow but I have to get a couple of artist brushes with very fine but stiff points. The only one that IS finished is the big Amish one.  In the beginning I thought of doing an Irish Chain but I slapped myself into submission instead.  And after doing these corner blocks there is absolutely no doubt I would be insane after an Irish Chain.  I AM going to add detail, texture, etc. to all of the blocks.  I don't want them all looking Amish. How many of us quilt with solid colors exclusively?  Not many.

 I also try to draw a couple on so I can think of them as I go or just go outside when I have an hour or two to fill some spaces in.  This one is going to be a Grandmother's Fan.

This one the Orange Peel. I haven't decided yet what color I want the background to be but when I had the other colors open I painted in a peel.  Painting a curve is immensely easier than taping off and painting a square.  LOTS of touch up needed with those little brushes I have to buy because this is a concrete wall and you can see the seams on this one.  Painting in those grooves - even drawing them in is hard.  Painting a square over a lumpy seam wasn't pretty at all. These will all have a pattern on them when finished.

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks so this will probably be it for awhile.  But maybe not, if I get those little brushes for detail.  This one should go quicker if I can think of a background color.  Any suggestions?

Beach day

Yesterday was our first beach day.  And while we had sunshine and blue skies and elephant clouds  it was chilly.  Quite chilly by the lakeshore.

 The girls brought their new boogie boards and played in the stream that fed into the lake.  They like this beach because of that stream, it keeps them busy forever.  The lake was so cold Adelaide said you could get frostbite going in, but it didn't stop her.

 In fact she dared Grandpa to see who could stay in the longest and she stood there determined to win.

 

 But when she came out she wrapped herself in blankets and towels to calm that gooseflesh down.

 Elizabeth and Grandpa worked on skipping stones.  The lake was calm enough to get some results.

After hours in the sun and sand and cold water and lunch and finishing my read aloud of the BFG, she gave up.