Mexican Yarns

Lil Twister Mini Quilt

2012-01-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

I have a casual "to do" list for quilting projects and was able to cross off two items at once with this little quilt, Terrain and Lil Twister. Terrain, by Kate Spain, is the focus fabric and I have been wanting to make something with it for awhile. I also recently bought a simple tool called the Lil Twister template that helped immensely in cutting out these pinwheels. There is a good tutorial here explaining how to use it. I like the finished result very much, and it wasn't difficult to make though the cutting part is a little fiddly.

The background fabric is Moda Bella Solid Terrain Iris and is a deep bluish purple. It is hand stitched with orange and purple embroidery floss. The finished size is a bit over 18" square. There is more Terrain on the back.

This quilt will be entered into the mini category of the Tangerine Tango Quilt Challenge, which has been organized by two quilting bloggers, Erin at Two More Seconds and Ali, at asquaredw.

Dave's New Toy

2012-01-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

1976 BMW R90/6

One might think he is angling for companionship

with that sidecar

but

I doubt it.

TNT Beaded Scarf

2012-01-18T09:21:00.000-08:00

I received a wonderful gift this Christmas from my friend, Dianne. This scarf kit, the TNT Beaded Scarf, came with pretty yarn and hundreds of prestrung beads. It was easy to transfer the beads to the yarn and the stitch pattern wasn't difficult. The instructions in the kit were lousy but Ravelry and Youtube helped me out and I was quickly on my way. It was a totally fun project and a really nice finished product.

It has such a perfect heft to it. The beads give it some weight and it gleams prettily in the sunlight. It looks even better on a human but a wooden bird won't roll its eyes when asked to model. Thanks so much, Dianne!

White Balance

2012-01-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

Oh, yeah, read the manual.

I have a new book, which I have not yet read. But even glancing through it, I got some help. The automatic mode on my camera is so good that I sometimes forget about all the adjustable features. Simple tips like read the camera manual and adjust the white balance were helpful when I was having trouble with mitten color.

My neighbor, Barbara, has two adorable Springer Spaniel puppies who chewed up a pair of Ambroso mittens I gave her for Christmas, so I made her another pair, this time with a simpler design.

Hemingway

2012-01-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

Winslow Homer Canoe in the Rapids

I had trouble sleeping last night. It may have been the handful of M&Ms, the pep band music from the basketball game, the snoring, the menopause, who knows. We lost, the girls didn't box out and were rattled by the full court press, they threw too many long passes, looking for a hero play. But the band always wins, the boys were giddy in the car coming home, Poker Face never stopped playing in my head, in bed, though I was trying to bridge it with a Welsh lullaby, trying to sleep. There was also a story keeping me awake, a story made into a movie I will never watch, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, which I read, thanks to Katherine. English major, doll, who was your favorite, I asked, then I bought the book and why have I never read Hemingway's short fiction? A writer with a blackening, rotting wound, dying on safari, on a cot by a fire, with drifting thoughts, is thinking about the things he won't write about his life, he won't turn them into stories like he planned, he won't have a chance.

Dark and drifting, warm, I don't think about quilts, I'm not even under one. I see some of my stories, see the whale rising by the rowboat, folding in my oar to miss it, so close, so very big, the water calm and greeny black, the floating kelp, then standing on a small bridge in a foreign city, some Lonely Planet neighborhood, looking at a dirty river and watching the animals and the children and the everywhere commerce, only awake because of jet lag. The train ride in Scotland with the bad haircut, the all night lava in Guatemala with other stoners on the Gringo Trail, peering into the volcano for hours, then getting up early to watch the sunrise and, bonus! Picaya was burping smoke rings in the cold morning air. Teahouses and outhouses on the Annapurna trek and boiled potatoes and dal bhat and carmelized tea. There was a safari, too, with lions and zebras and hyenas but no guns or whiskey-sodas or gangrene. Tea fields in Uganda and bullet holes in Kampala hotels, a friend's malaria in Zanzibar with shaking fevers and nasty brown urine, frantic with worry, then the ferry to Dar es Salaam and an easy recovery. Riding all day in the Peace Corps truck, not liking the wind but quiet about it because the driver wanted the window down and country music from the US on the tape player. Steven Banda, he had a liquid voice and a beautiful smile, two daughters but he wanted a son. He changed the oil in my car before I sold it and I left him a shiny red bicycle.

The fictitious writer with the bad leg remembers war, a ranch, whoring around and his several wives, Paris - for me, it is not war but the domestic grief of the ER and the hospital and the clinic. The sharp image of a neck X-ray, held up to the light, too much space between the bones, the child still alive but now we know. The pain, the all the time pain of arthritis and old age, the drug seeking, the parents walking in, knowing the waves dashed the head of their large young man on the rocks and that he is dead but not believing it. The mom on the phone, leaving a message on her father's answering machine, Please, Dad, I know you don't believe but please, Dad, pray to Jesus that Spencer will be healed. Her boy had fallen and was unconscious and drifting away but, when I checked in the morning, he was all right, he had gone home.

No Paris in my story, and no ranch but sweet months on a boat with my one baby boy, low tides, steep ramps, slick docks. Picking out a route in the fog, in the plane or looking for a headland in a boat. Lovers, yes, and husbands, and we won't call love and sex whoring around when it is spread out over decades and no one is drunk or getting paid. This man lying beside me is the best man, the right man, but no regrets, love is my religion, love and work are enough to shape life and give it meaning.

This morning, walking on Sharpe Road, I passed one of the old guys in his reflective vest. It is winter, but mild and clear. He waved and said, "It's grand to be out on a day like this." Yes, it is grand.

Quilts of 2011

2012-01-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Before I could post a year end summary of quilts, I wanted to learn how to make a photo mosaic. I used Flickr and a website called Big Huge Labs and it wasn't hard at all. It is kind of fun to see the bigger projects all organized together like this.

There are seven finished quilts - two were long arm quilted by a professional, two were free motion machine quilted by me and I hand quilted the others.

Hmm - how many quilts will I make this year? So far, I have only had knitting in my hands and I haven't sewn a stitch. I do have three mini quilts to finish, though, and some beguiling piles of fabric so there is hope.

Hexagon Table Runner

2012-01-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

This project has been finished for a month or so but it has taken awhile to get some pictures of it. It is 16" x 42", a nice fit for our small dining table. I liked doing the English paper piecing; it was easy to find tutorials online and make adjustments in technique to what seemed to work best for my sewing style. I used the ladder stitch to join the hexagons together and machine quilted the hexies to the background fabric.

Hexagon prints for binding and background!

It doesn't sit perfectly flat on the table top but it is close enough. It will likely settle down a bit as it ages. Yeah - don't we all?

Vago

2012-01-02T13:06:00.000-08:00

I am glad we went to Reno for the first half of Christmas break, because the second half proved to be filled with inactivity. We went to a couple of nice parties around Christmas which were great and it was delightful to have Katherine around for five days but we didn't do anything special while she was here. She was content to lie around, on one couch or another, flipping through books and we all went on with our usual hobbies and entertainments. I made a pretty beaded scarf which I need to photograph and Dave put the kids to work for a few hours splitting up some rounds for firewood.

I titled this post "Vago" because it captures our week so well. Vago became a frequently used word in our family when we had our fabulous, Spanish speaking, Peruvian exchange student, Leonardo, living with us eight years ago. It means both vague and lazy, and once he used it to describe somebody else, we lovingly attached it to him. Leo, at 19, would sleep until four in the afternoon and then would get up and drink a gallon of grape juice. He is the friendliest guy and we called him hijo and guapito way more than we called him vago. Some day we will visit him and his family in Piura.

June 2004

Two Small Projects

2011-12-28T14:53:00.000-08:00

This hat was slated for destruction. I was rummaging around, looking for a knitting project or two for the road trip to Reno, when I found this mostly finished hat. I remember getting near the top and deciding that I was going to run out of yarn before it was done so I cast it aside intending to rip it out. Instead, I picked it up again and started decreasing from where I left off. It worked out just fine.

The pattern is here. It is called the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret.

Yippee, I had another finished project but nothing to knit in the car. After more scrabbling around, I found a pattern for mittens and some leftover yarn. These are Ambroso mittens. They turned out a little small but made a nice gift for a friend with small hands.

Christmas Break

2011-12-25T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ray doesn't like to miss classes (his parents agree) which leaves school holidays for family trips. Jury duty, my part time job, airfares, weather and highway conditions were all factors that we considered before we decided to pile in the car and drive to Reno to see my family over Christmas break.

Road trip

Two pair of glasses, Dave?

It is always great to see everybody. Our mother seems sort of regal to me now, I've just realized. She is the head of the family, the eldest. The fog of her Alzheimer's has thickened, though, and my siblings warned me that she no longer appears to recognize who we are. She used to say "Hi, daughter" or "There's my family" when one of us came to visit; now, we guess, she only knows that we are there to see her. I saw her face brighten when she first saw me. She didn't look puzzled. She didn't say hi or anything at all. She just lit up for a flash and then looked away.

It was good to have my sister's grandchildren along for the visits to Memory Care. Little kids dash around and play catch and ask questions and have plenty to say so there is no need to direct conversation toward a person who can no longer engage. We brought in a swirl of activity and then we left.

Goodbye Mom, I love you. Okey dokey.

Yo-Yos

2011-12-15T10:57:00.000-08:00

What is it?

A mini-quilt?

A wall hanging?

It is 10.5" x 15".

It was inspired by this tutorial.

Sampler Quilt Finished

2011-12-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

One thing led to another with this quilt. It started with an urge to try a new technique - paper piecing - and grew into a lap sized quilt. I sashed the twelve blocks with Kona Snow and used scrappy cornerstones to break up the white. Soft flannel backing and cheerful striped binding finish it off.

The machine quilting was done on my home sewing machine. I wanted dense quilting because of all the small chunks of fabric and quarter inch seams. In some places, eight seams come together so the quilting was needed for strength. The Free Motion Quilting Project, is a blog that is a great resource for different quilting patterns. I used one called Spiral Knots. My finished product wouldn't do well in a judged quilt show but it will definitely hold the three layers together for a good long time. I will get better with practice.

Below are a couple of blooper shots from piecing the blocks. One can sew merrily along for quite awhile before even noticing that something is way off.

Finished size: 43" x 57"

Backing: Erin McMorris Greenhouse Flannel

Binding: Ready Set Snow Candy Stripes

Summer Sampler Series

One Christmas Was So Much Like Another

2011-12-09T21:41:00.000-08:00

Dylan Thomas "A Child's Christmas in Wales"

Windows Quilt

2011-12-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

This quilt was inspired by a pattern for a sewing machine cover in the book, Fresh Quilting by Malka Dubrawsky. I liked the way the simplicity of the block seemed to give the quilt some movement, some vibrancy and that the blocks were big enough to highlight the fabrics. When I came upon these ethnic appearing fabrics, most by Marcia Derse, at the downtown fabric store, I knew the combination would work well.

I am happy with the quilt and sent it off to my sister as a gift. I warned her to wash it in cold water and to use a Shout color catcher for the first laundering as I am a little worried that the red will run.

It is hand stitched with embroidery floss inside each colored block. I was planning to stitch a line or two along the neutral sashing but the quilt sat there for a bit while I considered whether or not it was needed and I eventually decided against it. The binding fabric is the feature fabric of the line and it didn't seem to work as one of the blocks but does well on the edges, I think.

The back was made with available materials. Somehow, using what I had was the most important criteria while fashioning the backing. It's okay - I don't love it but it isn't awful.

The finished size is 52" x 68.5".

More Summer Sampler Blocks

2011-12-01T13:59:00.000-08:00

I have twelve blocks completed now for the Summer Sampler Quilt. These first two were paper pieced with instructions from the Summer Sampler Series.

Evening Star

Kansas Dust Storm

Two of the blocks are traditional, but I found cutting directions in a Fons and Porter magazine, Sampler Quilts and Blocks.

Churn Dash


Windblown Square

I followed the directions here for this next block, called Alpine Cross.

The last two blocks to make the blog were just sort of put together. Neither one is very original but they were not done with a pattern.

Yesterday I received a delivery of fabric for constructing the rest of the quilt. I feel like 12 blocks is enough and think I will be able to find a layout that is suitable to finish this one off very soon.

Boeing Factory

2011-11-27T07:30:00.000-08:00

Dave and I talked about taking a trip to Oregon this weekend for the Thanksgiving break. Ray was out of school and I wasn't working so it is one of the few times during the school year that we can all get away together for a few days. We would drive down the coast, stop and see some friends and relatives, maybe go to the Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville (again). But, as it turns out, the teenager didn't want to go. Too boring. He wanted to stay home and we were okay with that.

Everybody wanted to go to Everett, however. We took Ray and a friend on a tour of the Boeing factory, the world's largest building (by volume!), where 747s and several other types of commercial aircraft are built by the hundreds. 38,000 people work there. The building is Ginormous! - and was probably the most impressive part of the day. This picture shows about 1/12th of the factory floor. In the gallery, I could stand next to the vertical part of the tail section of a 747, which was over 30 feet tall, and see the engines and wheels up close, giving me a better idea of how big these jets really are.

Can it really be true that the paint for these planes comes in one gallon cans? That's what the guide said...

Photo by David Brown

Used by permission

airlinereporter.com

Summer Sampler Quilt

2011-11-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

An urge to learn paper piecing techniques has led me to a summer quilt along using spring colors in the fall.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The first block was Starry Night.

Starry Night

The woman who wrote the tutorial for that block co-hosted a quilt along called the Summer Sampler Series. She and two other bloggers posted instructions for 12 blocks over a four week period, and since the Internet is such a handy storage device, it didn't matter that I was late to the party.

Star

Lucky Pieces

Greek Cross

Star of Virginia

Rivercat Socks

2011-11-21T08:20:00.000-08:00

The Daughter came through town a couple of days ago. Refreshed from a month in Hawaii and a trip down on the Alaska ferry, she had her belongings in a bulky backpack and is ready for the next phase of her life. She wants to live on a boat and/or go to graduate school; the plan is vague but she is acting her age. She has another 10 day trip to Oregon before she catches a bus to Bellingham, the place she has chosen for her new home. It will be good to have her close by.

She likes my hand knit socks. Love that. I had made up a pair for her and another as a Christmas gift for my friend, Barbara. I let Katherine choose which ones she liked best and she picked Barbara's Rivercat Socks. She likes the baggy fit and the not-so-lacy design and didn't mind modeling for a quick snapshot on the porch.

Paper Pieced Block

2011-11-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at paper piecing. While knocking around the quilt blogs on the web, I found a great tutorial for this pretty block and decided to make up an example to try the technique. It was easy enough, because the instructions were so clear but it took some attention to avoid mixing things up. I did have to tear out one small seam. It is all done backwards and behind the back, but once it is complete, it looks nice and neat.

Here's the link for the tutorial: Starry Night

The Next Quilt

2011-11-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

I am close to finishing the next quilt. Most of the hand quilting is done and I am working on stitching down the binding. I will do a bit more hand sewing with embroidery floss once the edges are secure. This one is a gift for my sister. Once I had the fabric and pattern fixed in my head, I knew who it belonged to. I like when that happens; I can add in a bit more love and affection with every step.

Homework

2011-11-12T16:02:00.000-08:00

It seems to be all computers and video games around here but there is evidence that other activities sometimes intrude into a boy's brain.

A Few Small Sewing Projects

2011-11-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Here are a few small sewing projects from the past couple of months. These were all quick to make and were a way to use up fabric scraps or try a new technique.

A potholder made as a gift for a friend using improvised piecing.

A small pouch, from this tutorial. This pattern is super popular online - because it is well written and explains the little zipper trims very well.

A small bowl, from this tutorial. There is no scale in my pictures, but it is about 2" high and 5" across the bottom.

And a coffee cup insulator, made using this pattern.

Ready for the Symphony

2011-11-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

Autumn

2011-11-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

Distractions

2011-10-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to get back to this quilt - the top and the backing are both finished.

The progress on a hexagon table runner halted once the pieces were all sewn together. I intend to sew it onto a background, quilt it and bind it. It sits waiting.

In the meantime, I got distracted reading felting books and just had to do a wet felting project.

The first attempt went well but now that project gets added to the unfinished pile because it really wants some kind of embellishment such as beading, machine stitching and/or needle felting.

I recently finished a pair of knitted socks that just needed the toes grafted together and did some mending, including a MOTH hole (the horror) in a pair of gloves. I could write quite a bit on wool eating MOTHS but it would just be so much whining.

The Week

2011-10-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

Working full time is taking a big chunk out of my week. There have been some changes at the clinic with computerization and new personnel and I have been asked to work a lot more than usual. I want to help and I still feel so lucky that I was able to have all summer off, knowing I would have a job to return to in the fall. It has been absorbing to be there so much and help train a new nurse and learn (and teach) the new software. No day is the same. My favorite chief complaint (the boiled down essence of why someone is coming to see the doctor): Night Fatigue. Wuh? "I get soooo tired every night."

Our jeans-and-T-shirt boy looks pretty good in his new suit. He has a concert next week with the Youth Symphony and needed some stage clothes. He will wear a white shirt and black silk bow tie for the performance. The purple is for Classy Day at school.

I missed the high school homecoming parade downtown yesterday. There were floats and convertibles with the "royalty court" and, my favorite, the marching band. After work, we went to the football game and saw the parade at halftime. Former graduates were asked to stand and wave their hands so I guess that is the essence of homecoming.

The last home game has been played. I began to get the Friday Night Lights feeling over the course of the season - parking a couple of blocks away, walking towards the field with the lights blazing and pep band music in the air, able to hear the announcer clearly from my car. Now that we have been in town for more than two years, we know more people and I feel like part of the community. I think I will always miss Juneau and the JDHS basketball games but even that has changed forever with the opening of the second high school.

It was fun to watch a talented young man rush for 337 yards and 5 touchdowns. Too bad he was playing for the other side. Our team lost the football game, but - we like to say - the band always wins.

Bands for the Band

2011-10-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

Raising money is a big part of high school activities and the Band Boosters tackle the challenge in various ways. Some of the parents shudder at the idea of baking brownies and others wince at the idea of asking businesses for donations. But the bake sale table fills up for every function and fund raising pizza cards materialize. Lots of people contribute and the band plays on.

I made a banner to use at concerts and other events where we will have things for sale to benefit the band. The kids (and their parents) are making paracord bracelets, which are selling well. They are easy to make and have a pretty good profit margin. We will need to sell quite a few, though, to buy a new baritone sax.

Salt Spring Island

2011-10-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

We went up to Canada for a weekend last month to visit friends on Salt Spring Island. It is a two ferry trip each way- first a Washington State ferry from Anacortes to Vancouver Island and then a British Columbia boat to Salt Spring. There was minimal driving, maybe 15 miles total, on the highway between our two houses. Still, it takes most of the morning to get there.

The weather was mild, leaving the sailboats "racing" outside of Victoria floating in place, looking lazy. I was lazy, too, and took my photo from the table where we sat to read, to make bracelets, to watch our fellow passengers.

Our friend, Luann, is a professional percussionist. Her music room is filled with marimbas, xylophones and all sorts of tympany production devices. Ray brought his trumpet and, with a small effort, the two musicians were able to play a couple of duets. "Yesterday", by Paul McCartney, arranged for the trumpet and marimba. Who'd've thought it would sound so good? We watched a bit of Wynton Marsalis on You Tube and learned some interesting things about Monette mouthpieces and Fake Books and other things that musicians talk about.

I liked our easy going weekend as a family with our friends. We talked knitting and motorcycles, went to the fair and walked along a pleasant path by a bay that lead to a small grove of Glenn oak trees. Oaks may not be rare or even uncommon in the Pacific Northwest but it surprised me to see trees I associate strongly with California.

Quilted Needle Cases

2011-09-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Quilting, linen, hand stitching and patchwork all come together with these two needle cases. I had two sources of inspiration - a photograph on Flickr and the tutorial used to make it.

Repetitive Themes - Christmas, Mugrugs, Hexagons

2011-09-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

I didn't have a Santa mug to use for the photo shoot or any fresh cookies, for that matter. These small projects use up leftovers, though, and satisfy the strange notion of sewing pieces of fabric around small paper shapes and then stitching them together, edge to edge.

Ninja Quilt

2011-09-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

We had a few minutes downtown before a haircut appointment and Ray came in to the fabric store with me. There is not much else to look at in such a place and he saw one bolt which warranted a comment. "This stuff is cool," he said.

An offhand remark from a teenage boy is enough to inspire a quilt but I was also working from a memory of this quilt when I bought the Chisai Ninja fabric and some more red and black coordinates. As it turns out, my finished product looks nothing like the pretty art quilt that I liked. The kanji characters on all of the prints are oriented vertically and Ray said he thought the quilt should mimic that layout.

It is sort of an Asian fusion design because there is some Confucius text fabric in the mix and Chinese dragons on the back. I had the quilting done by Gretchen Monti. She said the pantograph characters spell out "Challenge, Conquer, Success", but I don't know what the red characters say on the fabric.

2011-09-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

Intentions to blog on a regular basis fall away when life gets busy. I am back to work and seem to have stepped in to a new role as a band mom. Certainly I wanted to help with the uniform alterations and I had some pillows to donate for fund raising and some of the kids were making spirit bracelets out of parachute cord (I can help with that, methinks) and then there was discussion about buying all new uniforms or perhaps supplementing what we have and, well, I had an opinion about that so I took charge of gathering information - so, yeah, I am a band parent now. It's good. I really like the band director who is a young, new teacher with enthusiasm and reasonable plans to build a strong music program throughout the schools. I am happy to help.

I still feel like sewing non-stop but it has actually been nice to take a break from the Bernina and do some other things. One doesn't want to miss the Steam Engine Show every year, after all. There are trains and water pumps and buzz saws to look at. And it is nice to be out on a warm day with your dog, or to sit in the sun with an old friend and talk about the trips you have taken in your boat.

Band Uniforms

2011-09-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Ray started high school last week and we learned that taking a band class means being in the marching band. Our daughter went to a high school in Juneau that didn't even have a football team, let alone a marching band, so it has been interesting to learn a bit about the traditions and practices of these loud and colorful groups. A fellow parent talked about her history with a BIG, seriously competitive band that her son was involved with in San Diego, which made me realize how relaxed and easy-going this year is going to be by comparison.

School started on a Wednesday and three days later, Ray's band marched with 28 other high schools during halftime at a University of Washington football game in Seattle. There were 3000+ musicians performing in front of 62,000 (or so) people. It was a dramatic start to the year. Ray's favorite part of the day was a flyover by a military C-17 jet but I think he had a ton of fun just riding the bus and hanging out with his 40 some band friends all day.

All of the new students and some of the returning students needed to be fitted for uniforms. I helped with some of the alterations and was duly impressed by the excellent quality of the fabric and tailoring that went into these military style garments.

Cathedral Windows Pillows

2011-09-07T16:43:00.000-07:00

I accidentally bought Christmas fabric. It was an online purchase and having chosen one line of Kate Spain fabric, I spontaneously bought a second charm pack without looking at it very closely. Candy canes and snowflakes would not have made the cut, had I only been paying attention.

Ray and I like origami so this folded fabric method of sewing was fun for me to learn. I can see that there are a lot of different things one could do with the basic techniques. It takes a fair amount of fabric and is time consuming but the finished product is great. No batting is necessary as there are four or five layers when complete.

The back

Main Fabrics: Kate Spain Flurry

Kona Red and Kona Snow

Pattern: Charming Window Pillows

Zen Rain Shawlette

2011-09-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dianne spun this lovely yarn from a roving which was a blend of Tencel and merino wool. The skeins were hanging on her studio wall and I had to have it. The yarn was a real pleasure to work with, soft and pretty. To show the lacy fabric, this is modeled as a shawlette (dumb name), but it would actually be worn more as a scarf.

The pattern, Zen Rain Shawlette, is on Ravelry, here.

Hexagon Pillow

2011-09-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it helps to ask someone what they want. A few years ago, at work, we were having a potluck to mark some occasion around our friend Ruth. Her favorite dessert, she said, was tapioca pudding. I would never have thought to bring a jiggly bowl of goo to a party but Ruth got what she loved best because I remembered to ask.

I told Patty I was sewing like a fiend and asked, What shall I make you? She said, A small pillow for my back to use when I am driving my car.

I had trouble with the zipper and fought the fraying linen. The hexagons were English paper pieced from scraps and the colors seemed all wrong in every combination. I decided, at one point, to throw the whole thing away, but it rested a while and eventually became a suitable small cushion for my pal.

The back

Back Up Your Hard Drive

2011-08-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

Without warning, my three year old hard drive gave out. The computer wouldn't boot up and I tried everything I knew to find a fix or a work around, including whining for help to my teenage son and geeky Mac friend (Hi, John!). Off it went to a computer repair shop and the word came back that the hard drive was inoperable and no data could be recovered from it.

There was a half hour where I thought the back up drive was also toast. The tech called and said he could find no personal data on the external drive but finally agreed to look again. He found my music and pictures but restoring to a particular date was somehow not something he could do. Why not? His explanation sounded like this to me: "Right click blah blah blah control A blah blah blah Windows security system blah blah blah."

I now have a new hard drive and pretty much all of my photos back. My iTunes and music are still scattered between the iPod, the external drive and the new drive. Never having looked at the files on the external drive, I was surprised to learn that the filing system of storing the data there involves breaking it up into small packages and cramming it all into vast numbers of compartments, scattered throughout time and space.

But it is better than nothing. Back up your hard drive today.

Montana

2011-08-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here are two pretty mountain photos from my trip to Montana. The first is from Glacier National Park, taken on the drive up Going to the Sun road. The second snap is through the windshield (obviously) of the mountains in North Cascades National Park in Washington.

Ray and I drove over to meet Dave, who was finishing a long motorcycle trip up the unpaved roads of the Continental Divide. Dave's brother and sister-in-law live on Whitefish Lake so it was an easy and totally pleasant place to meet and have a holiday away from home. We went out on the lake in a pontoon boat and met some nice dogs from the neighborhood and enjoyed our time with family. Ray's point of view is altogether different, though. When I asked him what his favorite part of the trip was, he said, without any thought at all, "Guns and motorcycles". Uncle Gary knows how to make his nephew smile.

Hi, Willy

The Cabin

2011-08-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

It is such a very long drive to our cabin in Alaska and this year, I didn't go. Dave drove up in a maniacal two days and got the systems up and running. He launched boats and beat back the brush and repaired a ramp on one of the docks.

Ray flew up to Juneau when school got out and spent a few days with some of his old friends. Then he and Katherine joined Dave up at the lake for some Father's Day fun.

Dahlias

2011-08-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

There was a blurb in the local paper about a flower show in a nearby town. It was rather like a county fair with first place ribbons and judged categories and all, but there weren't any goats or angora rabbits or quilts. It was strictly dahlias.

They are such showoffs! It is so tempting to post ALL of the pictures I took. Love these flashy blooms!

Not Enough Yarn

2011-08-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things just don't work out. A hat pattern and a ball of yarn seemed destined to be together and I was more than halfway done before a feeling of unease set in. Did I make a mistake on the cables? No, the increases that shape the slouchy, beretishness of this hat made the cabling go askew, and, well, there wasn't going to be enough yarn to finish. I could buy more yarn but I will rip it out. There is a better hat to be found for this particular skein.

More Pincushions

2011-08-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

Crushed walnut shells (sold as lizard litter at the pet store) proved to be a much better filler for pincushions. They add a bit of heft which keeps the cushion from lifting up with the pin you are trying to extract. Maybe the coarse grains also sharpen the pins? Who really cares about that? They are fun little projects and making half a dozen or so might seem excessive until one looks on Flickr for the real zealots.

Project Runway - The Dragon Quilt

2011-07-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

This quilt project was a bit like one of those reality shows - Project Runway, Top Chef, Design Star. The contestants get a few materials and work from there. Tim Gunn tells them to "Make it work."

A woman I work with had some fabric left over from recovering her dining room chairs. She mentioned that she liked the print so much and she wanted to have a quilt made from the scraps. I happily volunteered to sew one up for her and suggested we go shopping together for additional fabric. No, she said, she would buy some and bring it in. Here are my materials:

The scraps - gray dragons on white background

Cherry blossoms with green and black background - Also orange sun (or moon?)!

Japanese ladies with blue dresses and pink flowers

I began by fussy cutting the dragons from the scraps.

Then I began a long process of trying to make these fabrics she loved all work together. My friend, Barbara, had a pile of Asian fabrics that she offered to the project which were essential to the final result.

And gradually I made a quilt. I learned a lot along the way (metallic thread is not my favorite) and my friend at work was THRILLED with her gift. It was well worth the effort and, I gotta admit, just the sort of thing I like to do. Figure it out and make it work.

The front - hand and machine quilting


The back - she wanted the dragons and the ladies separated.

Binding

Paddle to Swinomish

2011-07-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

The local Swinomish Tribal Community is the host this year for the Salish Sea Canoe Journey. Native Americans from up and down the West Coast travel in to celebrate and share heritage and traditions. The longboat canoes are spectacular pieces of art but they are truly seaworthy and the paddlers can get them going really fast.

A few of us rowers got together on the day that many of the canoes were arriving. We lurked about, taking pictures and eating watermelon. We considered saluting the canoes with our oars, but I couldn't get my oar up on end. Too heavy! What a wimp...

Tumbler Pillow

2011-07-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

The tumbler block is an old fashioned classic quilt design and I have been wanting to make something out of it. I also wanted to make a pillow for my mother-in-law's bed, something to go with her new comforter and pillow shams.

I stumbled across this tutorial which saved me from having to figure out the proportions. It is a 20 inch pillow with an envelope back.

Airshow

2011-07-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Ray hangs around with Daniel, who has a cool Navy dad so when Dave suggests going to an airshow, he finds some takers pretty easily. Dave and the boys recently went to an airshow in Arlington and saw Steve there, working but pretty happy to be around all of the aircraft. Steve is now a Commanding Officer for the Northwest Navy Recruiting District but we all still think of him as a Navy pilot.

The mirror sunglasses seem to appear for airshows only. We all went to a Canadian airshow two years ago and there were younger faces behind the mirrors. Also Donna... Hi, Donna!

One reason I post these older pictures, besides the enjoyment I get out of seeing the changes in Ray, is that the blog serves as a backup for photos. I do have a portable hard drive and a Flickr account but if the house were to burn to the ground, we would have a lot of motorcycle photographs on Flickr and not much else. Resolving to store my hard drive away from home and getting another photo storage site activated and updated doesn't make it happen. At least I pay some attention to the blog.

Small Projects

2011-07-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

I was playing with scraps and made some pincushions. The first one was made with paper pieced hexagons, just to try out the technique. I can see how it would only appeal to some but I like needle and thread hand sewing (as long as I have good light) so it was enjoyable for me. The other two are scraps from the latest quilt, just pieced together then shaped into a square and circle. All are stuffed with poly fiberfill; on my next trip across the Skagit Valley I will buy some lizard litter at Petco. I have read that crushed walnut shells are better stuffing as it adds some necessary heft to the cushions.

I also made some beanbags (filled with popcorn) for juggling. Ray was grounded from electronic screens for 24 hours and had to fill his time doing something. The interest in learning to juggle did not last very long, but it was a mighty quick sewing project.

Three Boys

2011-07-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, Ray made a couple of new friends. We had just moved in to our new house in a new town and these boys lived in the neighborhood. Within a few days, they found each other and became buddies.

They are a lot taller now and are still pals. They will all go off to high school in the fall.

Square in Square Quilt - Part 2

2011-07-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

This quilt was made from a layer cake, which is a stack of 10 inch fabric squares from the same designer line. It is called Modern Workshop by Oliver + S for Moda Fabrics. I varied the placement of the squares just a bit to give it some movement.

The finished quilt is 48" x 55" and has a pieced back and a two piece binding. I quilted it with an allover meandering stitch pattern. It was my first attempt at free-motion quilting and it wasn't too bad. The final product is acceptable and it was fun to do. I learned it all on the internet. What a resource! Quilting on YouTube! Good times...

Mountain Colors

2011-07-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

This yarn is 25% mohair and the socks were feeling rather limp as I neared the end. I was ready to rip them out and use the yarn in a different project but my friend, Dianne, thought they were fine as is. Okay - some socks for Dianne.

Square in Square Quilt

2011-07-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't been happy with the pictures of my latest quilt. I also haven't been trying too hard to get more photos. I need good light, no wind and motivation.

The quilting and the border details show up well in these indoor shots.

2011-06-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am finishing up another small quilt but didn't take many pictures of it along the way. I love the stage where the top is pieced and pressed but I missed that shot. This photo was just to mark the rough layout if I wanted to return to it exactly. I didn't need it, though, as the arrangement of blocks was not that critical for this scrappy design. I will post more details later and pictures of the finished quilt.

Maelstrom

2011-06-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

I liked this sock pattern from the moment I saw it. Sometimes it takes awhile before the image on the internet becomes socks on the feet. The yarn is Dream in Color - Smooshy (color Beach Fog) and the pattern is Maelstrom.

I will send these socks to Katherine with wishes for strong knots and calm seas.

Sharp

2011-06-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

When my interest in quilting surged a couple of months ago, I decided to move in a new direction. Typically, I would concentrate on using materials I had on hand and so, typically, I made the first quilt from my stash of fabrics from Africa. Then I went to the fabric store and bought all new fabric, half yard cuts of prints that appealed to me. I ordered a layer cake online and a couple of yards of the same line. I bought new blades for the rotary cutter, new needles for the machine, a new seam ripper and new pins. Sharp is nice! I had what I needed but I've been using the same tools for twenty (okay - thirty) years.

And all these years, I have been using my mom's old Singer Slant-O-Matic. It is a fine machine but the tension would drop spontaneously and I had to push on the bobbin winder to get it to go. I took the old girl into a local service center and the repairs were made in a couple of days.

I claim to be unsentimental but my sewing skills came from my mother and having her Singer has been a lifelong connection to her. She moved in April from Assisted Living to Memory Care and the Bernina 1130 that had sat in her closet unused for three years came home with me. She would want me to have it. I stuck it in a cupboard for six weeks. It took some time before I was ready to even look at it. Now, cleaned and serviced, the Bernina is ready and I, sentimental, will sew away on my mom's machine.

Two Hats and A Head

2011-06-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

I crossed paths with a styrofoam head and brought it home. My favorite hat model is 900 miles away and the heads that live here are all unsatisfactory for one reason or another. A fake head is always available and doesn't need to try to take the picture while modeling the hat. Hats just look better with heads in them.

Enough about that...

These are odd colors but I was using up yarn and keeping my hands busy. This hat has gone along on a few rowing trips as it fits just right and feels good.

On this fourth version of the Joni hat, I actually followed the pattern and knit in the stripes on top. I thought the colors looked a bit off balance, though, so I added a knitted ball at the end.

Music in the Parks

2011-06-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

Ray's school participated in a music competition at a water park yesterday. These events are held each year in amusement parks across the country. The competition was more like a festival; I think every school got a trophy and the venues are selected to reward the kids for their practice and improvement over the school year. The local band director expects a lot from the bands he teaches and puts difficult and challenging material in front of them on a regular basis. The middle school choir also performed and took home first place and overall trophies.

When chaperones were chosen for the all day affair, I took two steps back but since the organizers wanted a nurse or a medical professional, I still made it on the list. It was pretty fun and the kids had a great time. I enjoyed the music and the water park was fabulous for people watching. I had some knitting on the bus and tried not to hear the details of Truth or Dare or "who likes who". Even without the brass and the drums, those kids were loud.

Plus Quilt

2011-05-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

I finished the Plus Quilt last weekend. It is hand quilted with white Perle Cotton 8 and measures 47" x 59". It will shrink a bit in the wash. It is a baby quilt or a lap quilt - I dunno - it is just the size I felt like making. The next quilt I make will likely be a similar size. Not too big to be annoying but big enough for a real project.

It has a pieced backing which looks a bit random but it actually required some squinting and trial and error. I am happy with this pretty little quilt and am ready to toss it aside and get started on the next one.

Fingerless Gloves

2011-05-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I made a dozen or so pairs of fingerless gloves. My neighbor got a pair and then she wanted some for two of the elderly women she cares for in their homes. They were good to wear indoors, I heard; comforting for arthritic hands.

They are also good little projects for the knitter. I sort of engineered a pattern that worked and remembered at some point to make a few notes. Now I can make a pair without having to calculate the distribution of finger stitches every time.

Waterfront Festival

2011-05-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of festivals in this town. Last weekend, down by the water, there was fair food. (There is always fair food.)

There were guys with matching hats -

And our favorite trumpet player played for an hour. I could only manage to load a short clip.

Done!

2011-05-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

The quilt is finished. I bought the block printed fabric in 1995 so this was a project that has been in the works for awhile but it came together quickly once it got started. Like many quilts, it evolved as it went along, somehow declaring itself and deciding what it wanted to be. I am not heavy into the spirit of bedding or personification of objects but it just seems to be the best way to describe the process. I stand back and look at what I am making, to think about what comes next, but I always want to call it listening.

Red Cedar Bark

2011-05-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

Fiber artists often wander off into the world of basket making. I never had that particular interest but there must be something ancestral on the X chromosome because when I was asked if I wanted to join some fiber friends in gathering some red cedar bark for weaving baskets, I said yes.

Actually, I thought it through in this way. No, I don't want or need any bark because I don't make baskets. Well, maybe it would help my friends to have another set of hands along to gather material and do the work. Maybe I would learn something. Maybe my sister, who is a serious willow basket maker would like some cedar bark. So yes became my answer and today seemed sort of tribal as we peeled pieces of bark from young trees while the mist encroached and the eagles circled and cried in the sky above.

My arms are sore from tearing the rough outer bark from the strips with a pocket knife. Soaking and drying and splitting comes next. There is more to learn about this business of bark.

The Weekend

2011-05-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, we had dinner with The Parents. Dave's dad had been up to Juneau on the ferry and had spent a couple of days checking in with people and places in Alaska. We ate some family-caught red snapper and got the report from his trip. They also came over for a visit on Sunday.

There was brunch at a barn on Saturday morning - eight former Alaskans eating quiche and fresh sausage and swapping stories.

The teenage boys opted for a Nerf war - a Humans vs. Zombies event at Washington Park. We fed them later at a waterfront restaurant opened this week by our neighbors. How did they find the time to open a full service restaurant in six weeks when they already run a huge catering business and two other restaurants? The liquor license alone would take forever. We are friends because our kids are friends. The two women are a college chemistry teacher and an engineer; the men are Naval officers. We had great conversations all day and the boys had deep-fried Twinkies.

Works In Progress

2011-05-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

I have two quilts that are almost done. The larger one is just back today from the longarm quilter, Gretchen Monti. She did a great job, did the work for the price she quoted and had it back to me sooner than predicted. Thank you! I love that she stabilized the edges and trimmed it square. That might be standard procedure but it made it super easy to sew on the binding strip. Now I just need to handstitch the binding to the back and it will be done.

The smaller quilt is bound with the majority of the hand quilting finished. I'll post more pictures soon.

Sewing

2011-05-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

We are called "sewists" now, apparently. People who sew (contrived), seamstesses (old maidish and excludes men) and sewers (calls up images of pipes used to carry sewage) are terms that can be used in a pinch. Quilters are a only sub-category of sewists but the term is simple and satisfying.

Good thing I am just making quilts lately. I can be a quilter for now.

I have made a few more mug rugs. I like having a mat to protect my desk from my cup of tea and I like a few soft landing spots for my camera and cell phone. These are made from fabric selvages, adapted from this tutorial.

I also made a mat for my sewing machine which matches the cover I made a few months ago. The mat makes the machine look old and unattractive (it is) and the machine covers up the pretty new mat. Hmm...

Me - On Facebook

2011-05-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

From the New Yorker

West African Batik

2011-05-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

When I lived in Zambia in 1995, there was an outdoor market in my neighborhood where fabric was sold in six meter lengths. I loved the block printed batiks and bought some to make curtains for my flat. At the time, I thought I could always use some of the pieces to make quilts.

Quilt top

Detail of backing fabric

Naked Bed Challenge

Moby-Duck

2011-04-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

In January 1992, a cargo ship in the eastern Pacific Ocean lost twelve containers overboard in a storm. Boxes of bathtub toys broke open and a fleet of 28,800 yellow ducks, green frogs, blue turtles and red beavers were set adrift.

Nineteen years later, this small story is still in the news. The Daily Mail wrote an article about it a few years ago and Wikipedia has an entry, calling the toys "Friendly Floatees". I recently read a review in The Week about a new book, Moby-Duck.

These plastic toys have traveled far.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, Flotsam scientist

Chart from Wikipedia

I did a lot of wilderness rowing and kayaking in Alaska back in the mid-80's to mid-90's. We would travel hundreds of miles each summer, picking our weather and camping on the beach.

One year (it must have been 1993), there was the added attraction of looking for bathtub toys at each new campsite. We found quite a few, but I only have one frog now.

I keep going back to the tulip fields...

2011-04-28T05:55:00.000-07:00

Quilt Blogs

2011-04-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

How does an internet derailment occur?

I can't quite remember how I went from my usual wanderings on blogs about knitting (and design, cooking, infertility, art, photography...well, mostly knitting) to being obsessed with quilt blogs and new lines of fabric.

Quilt Dad? I don't know how I got there, but there I was, looking at virtual quilting bees, online fabric stores, Etsy and blogs. Lots of blogs. My sister asked me which ones I liked and I couldn't say. There were so many that they all blurred together.

My mind was fuzzy but I made it down to the local fabric stores and brought home a bag of new yardage. It must be time to make a quilt.

Mug Rugs

2011-04-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Mug rugs are all over the internet. There are tutorials, Flickr groups and organized swaps. There was even a blog-hosted event recently called Mug Rug Madness. I was late to the party, so there was no virtual hobnobbing for me. Just a couple of quick projects.

Both "rugs" were made out of leftovers from baby quilts I made last year. The pink quilt found a home with Eastyn, my niece's sweet girl and the turquoise one is still sitting around.

Tulip Festival

2011-04-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

I was out with the tourists yesterday. The tulips are in full bloom, it was Saturday and it was sunny and warm. There was traffic, which I expected, so I brought my bicycle and pedaled around the crowds. I was not going for Photo of the Year so it was enjoyable to mill amongst the throng with their dogs and kids and cameras. The Sheriff's Department was busy writing parking tickets and were on scene quickly when someone failed to yield at an intersection. Crash! Lights and sirens, ambulances and fire trucks. It looked like the airbags deployed and hurt some chests. Drive carefully!

River Rapids Socks

2011-04-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

River Rapids Socks

Trucks

2011-04-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the whole fam damily went to an open house event at the nearby PACCAR facility. PACCAR is a large multi-national corporation that had its origins in Seattle in 1905 producing railroad and logging equipment. It now designs and manufactures trucks, trucks and more trucks - Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF.

The local plant is one of their facilities used for research and development and it is where the trucks are extensively tested. We saw trucks in a freezer, trucks being shaken and truck parts being studied in an electron microscope. They have a 3D printer out there. It looked like a pretty interesting place to work, even for the non-engineers among us.

Photography was not allowed in most areas. But some of the display trucks were willing to pose for a few shots.

Dave's Picture

2011-04-16T07:08:00.000-07:00

The tulip fields, a year ago...

Tulips

2011-04-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

The Skagit Valley is famous for tulip and daffodil bulb cultivation and up to a million visitors come every year to see acres and acres of colorful, blooming flowers.

The daffodils are peaking now and the tulips are not far behind.

Crop rotation is necessary for disease management so each field will be used for tulips just once every five years. Agricultural workers walk through the rows during the early blooming stage to cull out the rogues, varieties of flowers that are different than the ones planted.

Shortly after full bloom, the plants are "topped" to prevent the spread of disease and to force the plant to store energy in the bulb. Forty five days later, the bulbs are harvested and prepared for sale. Gardeners around the world will plant them in the fall and enjoy Skagit Valley tulips in their gardens next spring.

Topknot Hat

2011-04-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is how one hat becomes five. Make a generic hat from the top down, holding two strands of sock yarn together. Notice that there seems to be a fair amount of sock yarn leftovers in the drawer. Weigh hat and other available materials and knit away.

These hats only take a few hours to make and will fit a toddler sized head.

Johnny Cash

2011-04-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

When I was just a baby

My mama told me son

Always be a good boy

Don't ever play with guns.

But my family went to Reno

Just to have some fun

And my crazy Uncle Jaime

Gave me my first gun.

Elmira

2011-03-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

We hear that our house was originally a chicken coop. An old guy, Elvin Brevik, lived on a big piece of land, which he gradually split up and sold in parcels to our neighbors, many of whom have been here for 25 years or more. They remember when there were no trees in our front yard, when there was no "Seaview", a swanky subdivision down the hill, and when our house was home to chickens. Andrew and Becky bought our place from Elvin and transformed it into what it is today. Becky had three boys, one after the other, and Andrew built cabinets professionally and expanded the house and shop.

The realtor praised the custom cabinets in the kitchen and pointed to the stove. "It is completely modern but it looks old fashioned. It cost $6000."

What? Meet Elmira.

A home renovation blog could turn this story into a series of posts with blah before and twinkly after shots. Let's just say that Dave removed sweet Elmira, hacked into the cabinets and installed a stove and ventilation system that he preferred.

Demolition

After

And the postscript for our old girl, Elmira? Craigslist found her a home in Wisconsin and she is now installed in a Log-Crete cabin. Yes, those logs are made of concrete. The stove's new owner told me, "Everything worked out great."

Photos courtesy of Log-Crete.com

Snowbirds

2011-03-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

The Skagit Valley is winter habitat to thousands of snow geese and trumpeter swans. They arrive in the fall and feed in the wetlands and agricultural fields until early spring. Large flocks can be seen from the highway and, on side roads, it is not difficult to get close to the birds.

The numbers are truly spectacular. During the summer, at the cabin in Alaska, we would see pairs of trumpeter swans, sometimes a dozen or so, and it seemed rare and precious and wild. They'd fly by, honking, with a backdrop of craggy mountains and glaciers or float on the lake, coupled up, shy and evasive, and one would feel lucky to get a close look. I didn't know that, come winter, thousands of drivers on Interstate 5 would be looking at the very same birds.

Ida's Kitchen

2011-03-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

Katherine picked out this pattern and selected the yarn. She is working at a ski area and will be out on the water in Alaska all summer. There will be plenty of hat weather for her this year.

Ida's Kitchen

Dike Trail

2011-03-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

Between the Skagit River and the sea, there is a lot of water around here that needs to be kept in place. We don't want salt water in our tulip fields so we have dike districts and miles and miles of dikes. Some of these dikes have fences and no trespassing signs but others are managed as public trails.

It was fun to get out yesterday morning and go for a run on a dike trail. We saw flocks of green-winged teals, a big old rusty winch in the wetlands and Mt. Rainier in the distance. It was great to have some sunshine; the cold morning became a warm afternoon. Yay, spring!

Spring Forward Socks

2011-03-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

I am not a fan of Daylight Saving Time. We all know that no daylight is saved; it is merely shifted forward and back. It is hard to believe that this country and most of the world agreed on something as silly as changing our clocks, in unison, twice a year. Arizona and Hawaii wisely bowed out of the foolishness and they still seem to get their schoolchildren on the bus and the crops harvested. Whatever. Enjoy the longer evenings. You can always make socks.

Spring Forward Socks

Drawing Lab

2011-03-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

An artist in Mexico, Geninne Zlatkis, has a blog that I have been reading for years. She was recently featured in a book written by another artist/blogger, Carla Sonheim.

Drawing Lab

The creative exercises in this book are probably familiar to people who have taken art classes. Draw with your non-dominant hand, draw without lifting your pen, draw without looking at your paper. One of the quotes in the introduction is that the lessons make people feel like "being a child again, but you get to do it [draw] as an adult."

This was not the case for me. I was a scared little kid when it came to art class at school. Give me a stack of books from the library and I was happy for days but a blank page and a marker with instructions to do whatever I wanted freaked me out every time. I remember drawing scalloped waves, a sun in the sky and a ship with curling smoke from a stack every. single. time. I could never think of another subject.

Now the list of things I like to draw starts with A (animals) and ends with Z (zentangles). There are birds, buildings, cars, doors, faces, flowers, fonts and many other things on my list and I am no longer afraid of a white piece of paper. Sometimes it is good to grow up and leave your childhood fears behind.

Hats for Gary

2011-03-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

I found a pattern (Joni) that is easily adaptable to both sexes and all ages. My first two versions of the hat were for a guy who lives in Montana and works on a ship in Alaska. He will always need a warm hat.

Big Trees

2011-03-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

A year ago, in February, we met some friends out on the coast for some winter camping. The Olympic Rain Forest did its thing and poured buckets on us the first night. The next day was unseasonably warm and we even saw a few young people out swimming in the waves. The screams made it sound pretty cold.

We met a man at the campground who recommended a book about big trees called The Wild Trees by Richard Preston. I remembered reading an article in the New Yorker about him and his interest in climbing trees. The book proved to be a good read and inspired another trip in search of the largest trees in Washington. Some are pretty easy to get to and they are BIG.

Family Pictures

2011-03-12T06:27:00.000-08:00

August 2009 - John Corso photo

December 2010

School Colors

2011-03-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some custom gloves for a trumpet player. Next year the M for middle school will have to be changed, but the high school colors are the same. Marching band? Pep band? There is some great music out there.

A House in a Holler

2011-03-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

We found our house online. We limited our search to places with a shop and some land - a reaction to living in a townhouse in a city ringed by mountains. Some feeling of spaciousness, please!

It is luxurious to have light and elbow room and more sky and sun. One elegant friend, though, standing there in his Italian loafers, remarked "Oh, this is like a cabin!" He is a sophisticated fellow. And another woman said, "Your house is kind of in a holler."

So, no pretensions here. Our cabin in a holler is a sunny spot in a cloudy climate, warm in the winter, with room around it to grow tomatoes. Our neighbors are friendly. There are no barking dogs and we only hear the rooster in the morning when we walk down to get the newspaper. The Navy jets fly overhead on occasion, making a horrible noise, but someone in the family thinks all airplanes are cool. It's a good spot.

Two More Quincy Hats

2011-03-08T07:45:00.000-08:00

Knit a rectangle

Fold it

Seam the ends

Pick up stitches

You are done!

Toys

2011-03-07T06:34:00.000-08:00

What can I say? There was a snowstorm.

The town isn't completely paralyzed but there are many around here who lack proper vehicles and tires for winter driving. The road maintenance has improved in the last two years but many events get canceled and the general approach is to just wait it out. The snow will melt.

So I made toys? I never had before so it must have been cabin fever.

He Plays the Trumpet

2011-03-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Last year, Ray was just a 7th grader when he was asked by his middle school band teacher if he would like to play in the jazz band. The class would meet at the high school at 6:30 am twice a week. Our son is not a musical prodigy; the teacher is just very inclusive and believes in bringing kids along and challenging them to work hard and improve by trying new things.

The local library has been open in some form or fashion for 100 years. There was weekend fanfare to commemorate the occasion and the high school jazz band played a few tunes. The band set up in front of a bank of windows and the trumpets lined up on a balcony. With the strong backlight and bad angles, it wasn't a good set up for parental paparazzi .

Well, how about some audio instead? Here is a 24 second movie:

Undergrowth Hat

2011-03-05T09:27:00.000-08:00

This was knit up as a prototype, with the thought that the gauge or the length would need to be adjusted. But, the fit is perfect for a woman or a teenage boy so the hat will easily find a home. What needs adjustment is my ability to capture true color with my camera. It is time to go back and read the manual.

Thanks for modeling, Daniel.


A better representation of the color with the flash.

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport

Pattern: Undergrowth

Needles: US 4

Rowing

2011-03-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

There are rowers in town and they are organized. They have boats and schedules and a website. There are established crews and club rules and, happily, there is a welcoming attitude and newcomers are encouraged to participate.

Michele Pope photo

I have joined the club and have been out a few times as a substitute. The usual set-up is a four person crew with a coxswain (aka a master) who sits in the stern and calls out commands in a friendly way. At least one of the boats has a rudder; none have sliding seats but the rigging varies a bit. They are all beautiful classic wooden boats.

Michele Pope photo

We hope for nice days out on the water and scheduled outings are canceled if it is rainy or windy or foggy. Monday morning, I was at the dock at 0700 and five men and five women left together in two boats. It was 34 degrees, calm and cloudy. It was a short, winter row but it was good to get out there.

Ukulele

2011-02-27T08:51:00.000-08:00

Alternate Titles for this post:

My Teenage Guitar Failure
If a Ten Year Old Can Learn to Play the Trumpet
Avoiding Cabin Fever in the Winter

My neighbor, Sally, is the Administrator of the Senior Center in town. We talked about the ukulele group that meets there each week. She and her teenage son both have ukuleles and have participated with the group. I saw notices in the local paper periodically about the class and thought I might go have a look someday.

I had a guitar briefly in high school. The steel strings cut into my fingers and I could never tune the dang thing. But now there are cheap digital tuners that clip on the headstock and if you can tell a red light from a green light, you can tune your instrument. With only four nylon strings - a ukulele seemed easier and more comfortable than a guitar.

It was my son, though, that actually got me to the music store. He picked up the trumpet at age ten, thanks to his music teacher at school, and has progressed in three years from "Hot Cross Buns" to performing with the high school jazz band.

"Where will I be in three years if I start to play the ukulele now?" I wondered.

Mismatched Mittens

2011-02-24T15:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is hard to settle on a project. I flip through magazines and look again and again at the materials I have to work with. What do I feel like doing with these itching-to-knit hands?

Once started, even barely going, on these mittens, I knew I wouldn't have enough yarn of one color to make two. But I had another color...

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport

Needles: US 3

Pattern: Generic, garter stitch rib

Hat Problem

2011-02-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

The hats are starting to pile up. We don't need any more ourselves. Except for baby hats, I hesitate to give my knitted items as gifts mostly because I don't presume to know what someone else might like. I have sent hats to Dulaan and Caps for Kids. Sometimes I hear of someone who is going to Eritrea or Guatemala or to an orphanage in Russia and if they are willing to carry a bag of hats to donate, my hats will go along. But I also feel fine about giving them to the Goodwill or to a local thrift shop like Soroptimist. The organizations make a few dollars on the sales and the buyer is choosing what they like and what fits.

Yesterday Ray asked me "Why do you like to knit? What's so satisfying about it?" I was driving so gave it very little thought. "I like to make things. I like the process of design and creation. Why do you like to shoot Airsoft guns?"

"It's satisfying."

Yeah, it just is.

May 2006

November 2004

The Neighborhood

2011-02-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

It was chilly this morning when I went for my walk. I thought about running but I had a jacket on and a hat and too many toys (phone, camera, iPod) with me to really take off. Most of the time I walk, I admit. There is always something.

I love our neighborhood. It is about five miles from town in a rural area. There are cows and horses in a pasture next door. It feels spacious and open, though there are lots of tall trees and hills. I took this photo a mile and a half from our house. The lake didn't fit in the frame.

Alison's Scarf

2011-02-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

I bought a couple of new jackets last fall and, going all out, fashion-wise, gathered up some yarn and knit a lace scarf. I have made this one before 5 years ago. It is an easy pattern and would look nice with many kinds of yarn. This one was made with Ella Rae Shibu, 90% silk, 10% viscose. I used three skeins and something close to the needle size that was recommended on the ball band. The link to the Annie Modesitt pattern is here.

Gretel Hat

2011-02-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

Pattern: Gretel.

Yarn: Targhee Handspun

Dianne Corso

Needle: US 6

Anacortes

2011-02-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

Dave's sister, Lauren, likes to look at real estate online. She has a good eye for property and she finds it interesting to study areas and see what places are available. She looked at Reno listings while we searching for a house there and would us send links on occasion.

One day, she said, "We're looking at Anacortes. There is good sailing right there on Puget Sound and it's a small town and looks like a great spot."

Dave, the research arm of the family, switched gears and started looking at Anacortes real estate websites. And the condensed version of the story is -- we found a place, he came down to have a look and we bought it. The plan to move to Reno evaporated.

We were helped along (enabled, one might say) by our friends, John Corso and Dianne Corso. They had moved from Juneau to Anacortes in 2006. We had a lot of help from them during every phase of the move. Did John just need an excuse to go for a motorcycle ride and take pictures of houses with his new iPhone? Perhaps, but having a report from a friend on the ground meant a lot. We were 900 miles away.