Block Six

 

Block six for My Favorite Color is Moda.  Twenty-seven inches square.  Half square triangles are not my friend, and there are ninety-six of them.  Usually there have been two blocks per month, and I think there is a good reason why there is only one this time.  And why, next month, the blocks don't look complicated.

This was the last day of school for the grands - Nora is now a junior and Aaron the top dog eighth grader in the middle school.  I hope that next school year will be a more normal one.  I finished masks for Nora and the other two drum majors for mini band camp next week and I wondered whether those will be the last masks I make.  Or whether they will need to wear masks to school next year as well.

The coolness of this Memorial Day Weekend is a surprise.  Fifty-two now, high of 57 tomorrow, and it had been so hot.  The air conditioner is quiet.  I have a whole stack of books to amuse myself.

Twenty Years

 

I pieced this table runner twenty plus years ago on a Singer sewing machine.  I didn't know what I was doing and used the edge of the presser foot as a seam guide.  Was there even blue painters' tape to use to mark a 1/4" seam line that long ago?

Digression - my new sewing machine has both metric and English guides on the needle plate and a 1/2" and 5/8" marking on the bobbin cover.  It's the little things that make us happy.  And of course a 1/4" piecing foot is now easy to come by.

I was enough of a math person to know that my strange seam allowance wouldn't work for any other kind of pattern so I didn't even try.  I did use the little square nine patches as part of a paper piecing pattern, you'll see that soon.

Today I quilted the table runner and put on a contemporary binding to mark the journey.  The simplest project ever but it spent most of its life unfinished in a drawer.

Tell me I'm not the only one.

Make Something For Me

 

Someone brought me this inner panel and said, "Make something for me"  A little trimming, some rectangles pieced to the left and right edges, and this came out.

A little meandering.  A backing meant for something else - hope I can get more.  

Binding with fabric that I got from my friend Ginny.  I miss her, hard to believe she's gone.

You would think that the panel would be from the same fabric collection as the little black rectangles and backing.  You would be wrong.  Not even the same company.

Red Candles

 

Red candles, for Pentecost, which is Sunday.  My church is still on Zoom and we needed a visual to use during the service.  Red symbolizes joy and the fire of the Holy Spirit.  I had to look that up.

And so, I had five red votives left from the band fund raiser.  And last week I made a Cincinnati Reds mask and used this fabric for lining so I knew just where to put my fingers on it.  I always enjoy the back stories of how things come together.  One of the pandemic lessons has been to think about what is available right here, in my home, to make whatever it is that I want to make.

I guess that now I can put aside the elastics for mask-making.  I never did have a box of masks on my sidewalk for neighbors to help themselves.  The masks just disappeared out the door in groups of two or three.  Yesterday at Kroger almost everyone was still wearing them.  

Yesterday afternoon I watched a live stream of the awards ceremony at Nora's high school.  Masks on everyone.  Lots of the perfect attendance students weren't there because they were part of the group that learned online this year.  I wonder what the first days of school will be like for them next year, especially for the students who were freshmen this year.

What a year it's been, in so many ways.

First One

 

Nothing too special to see here, except that this embroidery is the first one on my new sewing/embroidery machine.  And, you all, there is an app on my phone that tells me how much time is remaining on my current thread color, when to change the thread, and what colors come next.  Isn't that so amazing?

I spent the day yesterday uploading the embroidery software to the laptop I got back in November.  And setting up a folder on my laptop so I can send designs wirelessly to the sewing machine.  I would say that it's magic except that it took me a while to get everything in place.  You probably could have done everything in no time at all.

It was so nice this afternoon to sit in the warm sunshine to watch Aaron's baseball game.  The previous games I've seen have been so chilly.   It was a week of make-up games from previous rain outs, as well as the regular schedule. 

I'm glad that my state is moving a little more slowly than some in opening up 100% capacity and totally ditching the masks indoors.  I'll need a few more masked trips to the grocery store before I feel ready to ditch the mask.  

Not My Wallhangings

 

Not my wallhangings - Joanne made them.  Several years ago, probably, she shared them with me and they lived at my house for awhile.

Recently I saw them and realized that they needed their bindings sewn on  and then shared back with her.  Her hand quilting is so exquisite.  I wish I had taken a close up picture.  It made me happy to think of her surprise when she opened the package that came in her mailbox in Maine. 

There is a new Viking sewing/embroidery machine at my house.  Thanks to Margaret and Nick at Luke's for helping make that possible.  It has an integrated dual feed foot - after all these years I no longer have Pfaff envy.  And to go along with it, a laser line that can be turned on to help with straight seams.  Wi-fi capability for transferring embroidery designs.  Oh, my goodness.

It's the week of Aaron's make-up baseball games, postponed earlier because of rain.  Who would have thought that it would be so chilly in the evenings in mid-May.  Good thing the team mom had decided to order warm hoodies for the kids.

The House Where I Lived

Last week someone posted on facebook a picture of the house where I lived in Berea.

Right now, I have the house I need, in the place where I need it, but seeing this picture reminded me of the things that I miss.

A first floor laundry room with a wall of closets with shelves.  A sweet little pantry.  A kitchen large enough to eat in.  A usable garage and a big driveway with plenty of parking.  A fireplace.  A high deck and a shady deck.  Enclosed outdoor storage under one of the decks.  A nice half bath.  And gardens - so many gardening spaces, no longer there now.  I could even go out the bedroom windows and clean out the gutters from the roof.

If I lived there today I'd use the big family room, the single story, as a sewing room.  With doors at the two entrances so I'd have a private space.  I'd combine triple paned windows and walls with great insulation in place of the glassed-in porch across the back and make that a family room.

I could be very happy living there.  Although the yard is big for mowing.  And the driveway is big for shoveling snow.  I'm probably too old to be going out on the roof.  I have no need for four bedrooms.

It's in a small town.  I'd miss the easy access I have for non-Walmart shopping.  The quilt shop down the street and the big library.  The city view I have coming home, the river view I can get to in a few minutes.  My church.  I'd miss the grandkids. 

Home is wherever I am - I know that.