Chopping wood

With no idea of what I am doing, I have been playing with log cabin blocks.

Hmm... random scraps might make a pattern hard to see.

I spent a whole day trying to sort the "gifted" stash. So much is cut with dangling pieces and bunched up in containers because it can't be folded.

I pulled out pieces, Ironed them, and trimmed off the strings that are too small to use. I suppose someone with a machine could make string blocks, but since I work by hand, I marked what was large enough into squares or strips, and anything smaller than a one-inch square, went into the trash. There is no way I can ever use all these fabrics, even if I live to 100. (or maybe 200) Some of the fabrics are large cuts and might be used for backings, but there are certainly a lot of random scraps.

My night-blooming cereus has a bud that is getting larger by the day.

It is promising a show one of these days.

 The tiny pot at the lower right is one of the plants I rescued from my friend Wally's garden.

There are about four or five different succulents in that pot and those tall flower spikes are coming from one  of them.

The green spiky plant behind it  has a number of red flower spikes coming up. I can't remember what it is, but it lives in damp moss rather than real soil.

The pineapple lily has sent out a big spike of flowers this year.
I think this is the biggest bloom it has ever had over the years.

And ... this has been a great year for the lily clan.

I was outside sweeping the street, and one of my neighbors who is an artist, brought out a painting to show me.

It was a lovely picture of a variety of flowers all gathered together. He pointed out one of a lily, saying he had taken a picture of one those in my garden to use as a model.

The flowers don't last long, but they are tall above everything else and very showy.

So ... the days drag by ... almost to the point I forget what day it is. This morning I had to drop everything and rush the "pura" out to the end of the street for the days collection ... before zooming in to  morning meeting. Tuesday I had to rush from a scout Executive Board meeting to another meeting without even time to fill my coffee cup. Sometime I get notices of meetings only a few hours before and by the time I check my email, I have missed the first half hour and missed the discussion point.
I'm beginning to wonder if I will be able to switch back to my former life once things reach a new normal ... if I even know what "normal" is...

Starring Feed Sacks

Friday, the 17th of July, I put the final stitches in the feedsack quilt. From then on it was sitting patiently on my sofa, waiting for a photo time. But... with all the rain ... even predicted through all  of next week ... I thought it might be quite a while before an opportunity might happen.

Surprise! When I brought my coffee cup to the coffee table and sat down with the morning paper, that quilt began nudging me and saying, Look! The sun is peeking out! You promised I could go to the park for a picture." Well, at least it let me finish my coffee before grabbing the stepladder and my camera and going off to the park.

Actually, it took a bit of walking to find a piece of fence that was tall enough and had the light coming from the right direction. This was my first time to try this section of the fence and it wasn't tall enough to take the picture with the quilt straight up. On the other hand, the fence was not all bent from kids kicking balls at it and the trees were not blocking the sun.

The direct sun doesn't show off the quilting much. I tried to keep it at a minimum as the center blocks are just quilted in the ditch plus a diamond shape in the center of the four inch feedsack prints.
I did not applique the yoyos, but tacked them down near the edges so things would not get caught on them as they might with a button.
Rain is predicted for most of next week so I may get to cuddle under this before the sauna weather sets in. For now, I'm glad it got its day in the sun.

This morning, the sayonara banner went of to its new family. I was not at the early service to see it go, but I was sent a photo of the smiling family.

Yesterday I began chopping logs to build a cabin, and with the silkworms off the coffee table, I laid out the coronaville houses to get an idea of how to put them together. It is looking more and more as if this down time is going to last long enough to make another bed cover... and those houses are only three by four inches! Ah well, tomorrow is another day.... If I need time to think, I am covered.

Playing with yoyos

Well, these are not the ones that swing around on strings...

I got a plastic yoyo maker (sold by clover) that makes the process fairly easy once I figured out the right-handed pictures that went with the instructions.

The device comes in three sizes and I wondered if I should have gotten the smaller one, but now these are in place, I think they will be OK.

So far I am using gingham and polka dot fabrics.

When I made the blocks, I picked up two colors from the feedsack print to make the setting star.
I am now trying to get a balance of those colors in the border.

The flower petals are made from small feed sack scraps.

I put the binding on when I was halfway through quilting the larger empty spaces in the border.
The backing was getting in the way while quilting, and since the border was basted anyway,  the binding in place sped up the process considerably.  Now I am thinking I might just take this WIP upstairs with me at night and sleep under it. But then again, that might be dangerous to the finishing process with diminished incentives.
Anyway, I can't take a picture of the finish quilt in all this rain ... so ... may as well keep on playing with yoyos....

Meeting expectations

When most of the church family knows you can make things, beware!

Last Monday a request came ... one family is leaving and will be at church next week for a sayonara blessing... could I make them a gift to thank them for their service.

Well, if I do make something, it will have to be finished by this Monday morning so I can leave it off when I go to pick up food items for the homeless mission.  Oh, I hate deadlines! Going to the end of the wire is just not my thing ... so I put down all I had been working on and hunted up some fabric that might work.

This family has been active in leading a program called "Saturday Night Out" or "SNO"

The first Saturday evening of each month, people gathered for fun and games, a nice meal, and while the kids had some entertainment, the adults had a video in a bible topic and a discussion.

I think  I attended every gathering from the beginning and enjoyed  the variety of food, the games, and getting to know members I don't often see when I am engaged in choir activities.

I picked out some night sky and stars for the border. The SNO letters got some red embroidery to help them stand out and the little letters cut from an alphabet print  got a gold outline on the family name and red on the rest.
The pink heart says "LOVE" in quilting and the long green says "and THANKS", with TUC in the left corner square.

I figured they could use this as a wall hanging or a table runner or toss it over the back of a chair.
Anyway, the expectations have been met and I didn't have to stay up past midnight to finish. I am wondering if, when we start back to gathering, this activity will be continued by someone else. This morning it was left in the postbox at the church.

Last Friday was my virtual Cub Pack meeting, We started with a game using a pencil, a meter of string, a paper clip, a scout cap, and a bottle with a narrow neck. The game was to put the pencil on one end of the string and clip the string to the cap brim, then stand and try to put the pencil into the bottle without using hands. Fastest and most successful was the only girl and it was fun to cheer them on.  As usual there was a lot of coaching once a system was discovered. When it comes to teamwork, my group is stronger then with competition.
Plans were made for a junk art challenge and a game that will meet advancement requirements. for the next meeting.
Another expectation checked off the list.

bits and pieces

Little by little things are getting checked off my list,

The feedsack quilt is all quilted in the border. I still have to add something in the more empty areas, put feelers on the butterflies, and make yoyos for the flower centers. Then add the binding.

Meanwhile, lest I fall too far behind, I have gone back to my "must do" list.
First was something for my birthday girl. (Our family draws names for Christmas and Birthdays, and this year I got #4 daughter, Kimie. ) She wanted a blue and white carrying cover for her laptop. Luckily her device is the same as mine so mine offered to sit as a model.

I dug out all my yukata scarps, turning all the space I had spent tidying into a mess.

This is what I came up with.

Last week I found a tenugui with the three comma crest. I added the triangles that makes it the same as the Fukuda family crest.

I thought Kimie might like the daruma with the"fuku" kanji and the beckoning cat.

I used a dark, rather traditional print for the lining.

I was thinking of adding a tie to be wrapped around a button but when I was going through my button collection to find something that would work, I came across the button in the shape of bamboo.

I decided to add a loop of elastic and that long button.





Below is a view of the back side with my laptop posing underneath.

I am thinking of making a drawstring bag to hold the cord and plug-in fixture.

This was a fun project and I spent the better part of the week laying out the scraps and sewing them together.

The binding was mostly stab-stitched to make it strong with many small stitches through a rather thick batting.

My other item on the to-do list was my block for the partnership quilts.
The deadline to make it to its destination is the end of the month ... and I can't say mail delivery is running smoothly or quickly.

The theme selected is "Love the Earth".

I really dithered over this one. Finally I dug out a background fabric with a map print and put my Ohio Cardinal over the center.

I'm not sure the background sets it off well, but stuck in a random fashion among 59 other blocks, who is going to notice?

Now I only have to fill out the form and get this into the mail. Maybe tomorrow ...

Time then to check in with Marie, who is my Christmas giftee, and see if there is something I might make for her. Judging how long it took for the koinobori to fly off to Oregon, there won't be a lot off time for dithering,