Chookshed Challenge Accountability

 It's mid-month accountability time for the Chookshed Challenge.  I surprised myself when I pulled out the blocks I'm doing for Elizabeth's graduation quilt and saw there are six.  I'm really having fun with it.  Luckily she didn't request really busy blocks and I'm enjoying looking for blocks that mean something to her life....so far.  She requested the predominant colors of red, green and yellow.

You've seen the Hamilton logo, and I think I caught it the third time.  What it needed was for the legs and arm to be thinner.  The red pineapple is for her choice to study Colonial history/archaeology. The laurel wreath was a request to remind her of Ancient Rome. The acorn/oak leaf is because she has an oak tree outside her bedroom window that has been dated to before the Civil War (1860s) and to which she is allergic ( !!! ) and makes her miserable in the spring.  The yellow cat is for her yellow cat, Hobbes. That one is still being worked on as I diddle with the leaves.  The yellow/red flower is because she asked for 'lots of flowers' and was the one I did after Hamilton.  

Not sure how many more than 20 blocks I will do because she wants sashing but at this rate I have many ideas, 6 more cut and waiting to be stitched and some that I haven't even gotten to...like 'lots of flowers.'   I'm thinking I'm going to have to hide some Easter eggs in some of the blocks because they might not get blocks of their own. 

I am feeling much better about this quilt after my initial panic upon seeing she wanted a Baltimore Album.  It is what I am working on almost exclusively but I just took a day last week to grab a bundle of scraps I was tired of looking at and on a nice porch day put my cranker sewing machine on this table on the front porch and started to put them into a VERY scrappy I-don't-care-what-happens-to-it topper for the kitchen table. I will just be glad the scraps are not in the bin anymore. 

So, as August slips by us very quickly and is going to give us exactly six unplanned days till the end, I am very glad we are retired and have time.  That was a joke. 

Chookshed Challenge 3

 Chookshed Challenge number 3 is to work on my Liberty of London circles.  I have a lot, a LOT done but still have some not done and a few more white backgrounds to cut and so they languish.  To be honest, Friend Barb and I were kind of working on this project together.  Of course hers is done and beautiful but I just plain got bored.  But, since this is August and there are couple of long drives coming up I think I'll take them along and see if I can applique in the car.

It would be SO nice to finish this one.

Otherwise, I continue with the Baltimore Album.

Eulogy

 

Request

 Good morning, everyone,

I am putting the call out for a moist, light, tasty spice cake recipe.  Does anyone have one?  It's going to be used as oversized cupcakes so it must be moist.  I've not made spice cake - ever - so I don't have something in my repertoire that I can count on.   Frosting doesn't matter, I'm doing something different. 

If you have one, I will reply to your reply and we can continue with email.  

On the quilty side, I have 3.5 Baltimore Album squares finished, about 8 more prepped and ready to go. Of course as I go I might change my mind on some of the designs I've chosen so am working on the ones I absolutely will include.  

The Thinking Bed is busy having big thinking thoughts as I rummage through the chosen colors for each square. You can clearly see my quilting space is limited but surprisingly I know where everything is.

Camp Day

Before I go any farther with this post I want to acknowledge and thank Bruce Doll for the generous use of his photos.  Bruce is Lowell's unofficial official photographer and not much happens around here without him recording it.  His photos are always perfect, published on his FB page and I think everyone secretly hopes he will catch themselves in the act. And he probably has because he is everywhere.  I didn't get the chance to tell him yesterday to warn me first so I could suck in my stomach, so of course there are no photos of me in here.  I was busy cooking so couldn't take my own photos so thank you, Bruce.

OK.

Yesterday the museum held its day camp and this year's theme was the lumbering era here.  Each camp is very well researched, conducted by the education director for the museum and her husband and sister and it's always a fun day for the kids I think because it's so hands on.  Being a museum sponsored day you might expect to hear, "don't touch" but that never happens.  

The day began with the explanation of marking logs because when you see photos of a log run in a river, well, when those logs end up at a mill the lumber company wants its money so the ends of the logs are marked with a brand that identifies the lumber company.   Here they are shown a branding hammer

                                                                    How it's used  and 

                    then it's given to the tiniest peanut of the day and she tries her hand at it. 

Their activity was to design their own brand and mark a cut off

Aren't they just the toughest looking bunch of lumberjacks you ever saw?

Last year the theme was the Civil War and it was a huge hit with the kids so these soldiers were asked back to give the kids another lesson.

Again, no one said "don't touch" as they examine a typical soldier's kit

And speaking of kit, look who made themselves right at home!  This young kitten/cat found the camp because I think it smelled the bacon cooking.  The kids played and played with it and as you know cats will do, they stop, drop and sleep just about anywhere, the more inconvenient the better..

I was camp cook and lunch was pancakes, bacon, donuts, cheese cubes, apples, watermelon.  I was a cooking fool, let me tell you.  That's why I had to rely on Bruce's photos because it took a long time to cook bacon and then pancakes for this group.  I cooked four packages of bacon and two boxes of pancake mix.

And I surely made a mess doing it.   One of the things that surprised photographer Bruce Doll was that I was cooking the pancakes in bacon grease.  He had never seen that before.  I told him it's how you get the crispy edges. Everybody likes crispy edges on their pancakes, don't they?   

               In the afternoon there were activities, some crafty and some soldiering

At the end of the day it looks like kitty was either settling in or hiding from the kids, probably just as tired as the kids were!

 

A Special Place

 This one is picture heavy but the place was beautiful so you might want to endure.

This is us.  We were at the fort, which affords the most beautiful views of the island because it's the highest place on the island

This restaurant is called The Woods and it certainly was.  A hidden gem off the beaten path up in the woods it was gorgeous and delicious and we had so much fun. This was our anniversary dinner. 

PH and I sat out the ride around the island.  Turns out it was a good choice.  Son-in-law is a bike rider and he led them half way around on this nice road but then cut up through the middle of the island - up hill, no gears. Ugh.  I opted for the bookstore and PH took a walk. 

This was our Inn.  Madame LaFranboise is special to Lowell because she built a fur trade post here in Lowell and took over the fur trading business her husband started before he was killed.  She was Native American, he, French.  She is credited with being the first business woman in Michigan.  The house was built after she retired from the fur trade and lived permanently on the island.  

She built a school and a church and was respected for all her days.

Evenings on the porch of this beautiful place.  Thank goodness we are all good porch sitters. 

These roses attracted us all, like bees, we all stopped (by all I mean everyone who walked past them) for a sniff and a smile before walking on.

After the old fashioned foot races and relays for the kids and the booming of the cannon the Declaration of Independence was read.  After that a volley was fired for every state in the union.  When it was Michigan's turn all nine muskets were fired together. 

At the fort, which is painted white on all outside surfaces, the geraniums bloom.  Geraniums all over the place.  Do you see that peek of yellow umbrella on the left?

That's part of this porch that insists you stop, have a drink or a snack or lunch and just relax and soak in that view. What's the rush?  

The fort is on the highest part of the island, with good reason.  This lawn was once the food garden for the soldiers at the fort and now it's an island park and where we watched the fireworks.  Since the day trippers were all gone (the ferries don't operate past 10 p.m.) we had this park pretty much to ourselves. Not many more there for the fireworks than you can see now. The island sets them off in two places so it's extra beautiful.

Turn and this is the view to the right.  The town - Main street right along the water, where the fudge shops, t-shirt shops, bike rentals, many restaurants and PEOPLE are.  Go one block up, to the street that runs perpendicular to that oblong structure (which is a reconstruction of the first church on the island.) You can just see a horse drawn wagon turning onto the street, and it thins out considerably and is the part most people miss. This is such a beautiful place if you just get off that main street.

OK, you get the idea, blue is your favorite color when you leave here.  Sky, water, this place is a gem.  If you visit Michigan and wonder what to see and do, people will usually say number one on the list is Mackinac Island.  And if you are lucky enough to stay ON the island overnight, it's extra special. And that's what this trip was, extra special.

Lesson Learned

 Do you prewash? I will have to admit to the Quilt Police that I don't often. Just sometimes and I don't know why I don't.  Do I like the feel of new fabric?  Do I not want to take the time?  I can't say it's because I can't wait to cut into it and use it.  Some of the fabric in my stash is decades old.  Who knows?

This morning I woke up thinking of Charlie's quilt and that dense, deep navy blue and that niggling in my brain telling me to prewash it.  I did and was stunned at the dye that came out of that navy.

Elizabeth's Baltimore Album will have a lot of red in it. She specifically said she wants red, green and yellow to predominate.  I pulled many, many reds out of the stash and put them on the thinking bed.  So, this morning I paid attention to the brain niggle and put them in the sink and ran hot water and I was horrified.

I know the rule is to wash reds but, head hanging, I admit I don't.  And look what happened!   The sinks looked like Kool Aid. One of the batiks ran dark orange to yellow. And I mean RAN.  I started with the batiks and as I was watching in horror I thought of how much I had already used on quilts.  

Holy cow.  When I die I am going to have to leave strict instructions with the recipients of these quilts to use BOXES of Color Catcher.   The water looked like a rag wash out after a nose bleed.    

Some of them even stained the sink!  Needless to say reds will always be washed after this.  And here I sit looking at some of the quilts I've made with red in them.   And no, I don't usually wash a quilt after it's been made.  Some people put that last stitch in and immediately wash it. While I like a crinkled look of a quilt that has been washed and scrunches up on itself, I like that clean, smooth look better. 

Yesterday the weather was iffy so I spent the afternoon forgoing the nap and instead thought I'd better get THIS pile off the thinking bed so I can devote myself to the Baltimore Album. People, when I say I am math challenged I am not kidding.  I can't do it till I can SEE it.  Forever and always I have been a "show me, don't tell me" person. If I can SEE it, I can DO it but don't try explaining it.  I can read the map but don't try to give me verbal directions. That sort of thing. 

With the Daffs I don't want a straight on setting, I want the diagonal look.  Well, like I told Friend Barb yesterday, my mind pretty much works up and down, but diagonal thoughts can make the circuits in my brain spark. 

I started the Baltimore Album quilt and I thought if I started with the Hamilton logo it would be the easiest.  Well.  Not.  I bought a batik for the star because batiks don't ravel and I needed to make those points without doing paper piecing.  But Hamilton was regular fabric and looks like a giraffe so he came off as soon as I put the last stitch in.  I will get a batik in mottled black for him.  And yes, I will wash that black first!