Grunt Work

I've finally, finally gotten myself next to the sewing machine. This year is not turning out to be so productive quilt-wise as last year. I've been spending a lot of free time working on the latest lace shawl, as there's a bit of a deadline with that. The deadline isn't exactly looming yet, but at the speed I knit lace, I'd better be paying attention to time. More about that soon.

Snow and sleet at this time of year makes me want to cover all the windows. Or just avert my eyes and not look out. So with that, I head into my windowless sewing room and get busy.


So I'm in the trenches of making my Double Ninepatch quilt--the production sewing part: the strips, the strip sets, the cuts, the tiny ninepatches. They're all building blocks and have to be done before I can get to the fun stuff--figuring out just how to set these blocks and trick them out. And yes, I often start a quilt like this with no clue how it's all going to go together. I'm not a fan of set patterns.

Tonya: I hope you're noting the appearance of cheddar in these blocks.

My sewing companionship media-wise this week has been pretty funny--some DVDs of old Looney Tunes cartoons. Every once in a while I just get a hankering for Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!"

As sewing lately has been disjointed, so has the reading. I started and gave up on two novels concerning the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, and The Women by T.C. Boyle. Wright is very Wisconsin, and I've spent some time tromping around Taliesin, Wright's home and studio near Spring Green, Wisconsin. I guess I know enough about him that I don't care to read anymore. I just didn't find him or his women to be sympathetic or appealing reading material. MHO

Then I started The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl for the THIRD time. And once again, I'm bogged down. Has anyone been able to make it through this book? Maybe it's time for a good biography, so now I'm reading Flannery by Brad Gooch, a life of Flannery O'Connor. It's slowish, but at least I'm learning something.

Some Thanks, a Request, and Actual Quilting Content

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who took the time to send along birthday wishes in response to my shameless ploy to get people to tell me they never would have DREAMED I was anywhere near 60 years old. It was a great week, involving flowers from my husband, birthday treats at work, and a gift of one of these, in honor of one of my fave movies. From the ridiculous to the sublime and back again!

But now, listen up for a timely message: I always try to respond personally to commenters. But I can't do that if you don't have an email address enabled when you comment. I can follow a name link all the way to a commenter's blog and very often there's no email address there, or else only a blank profile page. Frustrating! Especially when a commenter asks a question and leaves me no way to respond.

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The calendar says that it's spring here. It's been sunny lately and a bit warmer, but still the landscape is full of the monotones of winter.




There's beauty in this landscape, but it's a subtle beauty, and you have to keep eyes wide open for the particular charms of this season.


I had internalized a lot of this palette when I started this new project back in January.



It began as an idea for a wedding quilt for Caroline and Eric. But as it's developed, I think it's heading WAAAAY more to the dark side of country than any self-respecting Young Urban Professionals would be caught dead sleeping under. So this may end up as another house quilt for THIS house. And it would work in my bedroom...

I'm still thinking scrappy, and this will incorporate some of the 1.5" strips still lurking in the scrap bin.


But I confess to purchasing a few half yards for this quilt, just for variety.



Because of the 1.5" strips, I was thinking compatible patterns, and had settled on the Double Ninepatch. The first block didn't look so awfully country. But once several more blocks took shape, it was hard to see anything but country happening here.


I'm planning to relax and embrace it. I'm thinking of using an alternate block set of some kind. And I'm thinking I may try an appliqué border here. This would be a maiden voyage into large scale appliqué, if it happens. And I'm not committing myself to anything, mind you. Just saying it's a possibility... This will be a quilt to play with at retreats this year.

Milestone

I am sixty years old today.

That's a concept that's hard to wrap my mind around. Age numbers have always seemed hard to believe as they have rolled up, year after year. But SIXTY. That's in a class of its own. At first blush, I want to shrink away and hide from it. But on the other hand I have some well-remembered good friends who didn't make it to sixty. Looking at it that way, I think I'll choose to celebrate. And taking it further, every single day that's left is something to celebrate too. Now there's a resolution.

I think there are trails to blaze in the business of getting older, and I intend to be out there blazing some of them myself. Just please don't tell me that I am "so active for the demographic..."

My St. Patrick's Day birthday has always been fun. It's not like having a Christmas birthday when the two big days get combined and diluted. And people have always been cute about it, making a fuss as far back as I can remember. Everyone always acts like a St. Patrick's Day birthday is just about the luckiest thing possible. And it's fun to be a member of that small club that has special day-appropriate birthday cards.

Just don't send me cards about drunken Irishmen--that's a concept that has long outlived what humor it ever had. Yes, I am wearing green today--but I think the map of Ireland on my face is really just about all I need!

Hurray for the Weekend!

A good weekend! Saturday night we went out to dinner with our son and his lovely girlfriend at a terrific French restaurant in Milwaukee, Chez Jacques. I had saumon aux epinards and the best onion soup gratinee I've ever had. I can usually be trusted to order salmon, no matter what the language. ...As well as a glass or two of merlot.

It was a great evening--and we ended up at Will and Kelley's apartment for dessert. Flourless chocolate cake! I tend to hole up out here in the country; it's always a huge treat to take the plunge and trek into the city, especially when I am this well fed.

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And in fiber-related news, here's a week's progress on the new shawl:


Sunday morning I gathered up the shawl and its accoutrements and met up with several friends for knitting at a coffee shop in Pewaukee. If you bought a large drink, the pastries were only a dollar--sounded like a deal to me.

Many of the usual suspects were there.


Everyone knits and quilts and the conversation was devoted to both.


Well, except for non-knitter Betsy, below. What was she doing here? I can't remember but it wasn't knitting. We will suck her into it, though, I bet. Eventually.




Our knitting group used to meet regularly but life has gotten in the way in the last year or so. We're going to hope this is the first of a more regular habit of getting together.

And the temp hit 60 degrees! Whoo hoo!

Wishful Thinking

I am here.

I am thinking about being here.

Back into the Fray

I'd been lucky enough to avoid getting sick for several years, but my good luck ran out this week. I came home from last weekend's trip with a fever and was on a bit of a reduced schedule throughout the week. Working was like a game of peekaboo--one coworker is currently undergoing chemo and I was so concerned about challenging her already-compromised immune system. I would work for awhile and then leave before she arrived.

Thank goodness AT LAST I'm feeling fine despite a very barky cough. Feels good to be back to 100%.

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We have a family wedding coming up in September and I'm starting to think about the real important issue--what shall I wear? The wedding will be on Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada, and it would seem like a pretty shawl might make a nice accessory. At the rate I knit, I haven't got one second to waste.

I've decided to make The Victoria Shawl from my favorite book, Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby.


OF COURSE nothing in the yarn stash seemed suitable. So yesterday I hit the LYS and dropped a bundle for the privilege of a return engagement with my old nemesis Kidsilk Haze. Just look at this color--I couldn't resist.


This yarn needs to be approached cautiously and respectfully but I'm not quite so afraid of it anymore. I have one KSH shawl under my belt after all, and that one survived having a glass of merlot dumped on it.

So I've thrown caution to the winds and have cast on.



One repeat down, 24 more plus a big wide knit-on border to go. Wish me luck!

Now for Something Completely Different...

It's hard to believe that it's been 15 months since some friends and I took a Sue Spargo class at Yellow Bird Art in Lansing, Iowa. Most of the class takers were together a few weeks back and we were all lamenting the large amount of money spent and the fact that not one of us has picked up a needle on this project since. (Some pictures from our class and shots of Sue and her work are here.)

Let's see. I paid for the class. I bought the kit for the entire project--hand-dyed wool and all the trimmings. Not cheap. I bought Sue Spargo's CD-Rom, plus a pattern for yet another project. Then there were trimmings and threads she was selling--essential to the project. Of course I needed a lot of those too. And then a few months later when she published a book detailing the same project I had bought the kit for--I should emphasize that the kit came complete with all instructions--darned if I didn't buy that too. It's like I want to give this woman any excess money I have laying around.

For anyone not familiar with Sue Spargo, she is a folk art applique and embellishment artist, working mostly in a primitive style. Her pieces are constructed with a combination of felted and over-dyed wool and wild cotton prints, reflecting her African upbringing. She was born in Namibia.


We decided to form a Sue Spargo support group. We're planning to meet regularly and get SOMETHING done on this most expensive project. Our first meeting was a quick getaway this past weekend for some uninterrupted stitching time. We traveled to Reedsburg, Wisconsin, and stayed at a small conference center which is known to be quilter-friendly. One of our number needed to trek from far northern Wisconsin and this was a more central location than the Milwaukee area.

An outstanding idea! We pushed several conference tables together, pooled all our threads, ribbons, beads, and rick-rack,




and sewed till late Saturday night. We resumed early Sunday morning and sewed till mid-afternoon.





All of us got a good start on these blocks and most importantly got over the Sue Spargo intimidation we all felt. Subsequent meetings are planned. Stay tuned!