Hurricane Hilary is streaming towards us, so we spent most of Saturday morning doing something that East-Coasters have memorized: make sure we have water, food that can be prepped w/o power, and have sandbagged potential flooding areas. We put in French drains ages ago, but our up-above-neighbor’s water always pours into our yard (unhappy face, here). He’s a nice guy, but we have to prepare against his run-off, so my husband did something we’d never done before: went and got sandbags.
I cleaned out the garage, sweeping it clean and propping up all cardboard boxes off the floor, just in case the water runs through the back door. We then loaded all the patio furniture (even the BBQ) into the extra space. I think we are ready. The humidity is off-the-charts, and the storm hasn’t even arrived yet. (And in case you are wondering, that is a 30-year old wisteria vine on the patio cover. I planted it when we first moved in and I hope it all survives the predicted winds.)
But that’s not the only weather on my mind. On this day as I sewed the squares for January 2023 together, I was thinking about how cool the weather was at that time (yes, we even had a few nights of freezing, which would explain why our jacaranda tree is currently toast — we have hopes it will come back), and how many rainy days we had. When I sewed March, we had one day of 10 minutes of snowflakes (it happens in Southern California), and a third of the month were rainy days.
I mentioned how I was needing a month identifier block, and I decided to use whatever colors were in the mix at that month. So for January, they are pinned above the beginning of the month. I sewed two of the triangles together, then added another:
Then trim:
Now I have a month block. Of course, I can’t do them ahead of time, but that’s okay.
This is how my cutting space looks. It’s getting quite cramped. The box with all the colors-in-bags is next to the yardage. I purchased 1 yard of all the Painters Palette solid colors. In front, the construction/cutting zone, which I clear away and then set up again, as needed.
And here I’ve pulled all the “highs” for that month, and have written the dates in the seam allowance. Yes, please, do this.
Do I just sew them together randomly by date? Yes, I do them by date, but first pin them up to see how they relate to the other blocks around them. If the temps are lower than the day before, the angle is down to the right. If the temps are higher, angle up to the right. Of course, the first couple of rows, I just sewed, but now it’s a pattern game: what will I see when this one is next to that one. This is the fun part of it all, and I’m enjoying seeing what these HSTs make. (And the temps are getting warmer, shown by the pinks.) I pin the loose ones together:
Then I sew them together. I press one row going down, then the next row going up, so they will nest together and I can sew them together (albeit a bit more slowly) without needing to pin them. If you are a “press-open” sort of sewer, have fun pinning those seams.
Then I got up early Saturday morning, before the work of the day (moving stuff into the garage — even the gazing ball is now tucked away) and take a photo. I just turned the corner on the month of May, so I’m catching up to August. Now I’m thinking I need to make a different color band for our hurricane. Yes, I know it will be a tropical storm by the time it hits us, but wow–this is definitely something I’ve not experienced in Southern California living. Ever.
Now I have a question for you. Have you ever journaled about your quilts? If so, have you tried any of these techniques?
- Blog, then print the book
- Blog, with no printing
- Instagram, with/without printing
- a notebook, where I paste in my photos, and write about my quilts
- no Quilt Journal
- just photos in an album
I’m thinking of proposing to our Guild that we have a Quilt Journal night, prompted by this article in the NYTimes, where Laura Rubin believes corporate American could benefit from the practice. But why not quilters, too? She says that “journaling works. It gets you where you need to go,” but in my life, it’s also a way to collect what I’ve done, to not lose my life in the details.
And do you:
- use a pre-designed quilt journal, like the ones available on ETSY?
- make your own from a blank spiral-bound book?
- Buy a bound book?
- Write just about the nuts and bolts of creating that quilt?
- Or do you take time to write the inspiration, the story of the quilt, and why you chose the title?
- Does it include photos? Fabric swatches? Sketches?
So, anything you have to add about the idea of quilt journaling, leave a comment, or an idea.
The storm is still not here, and we are all in anticipation. It’s killing us, smalls. We’re used to earthquakes, with no advance notice. Boom, and you are shaken. I just came in from outside, the twilight sky is dark and deep, with a thick layer of clouds overhead that deaden all sound. Eerie. Guess I’d better quilt before we lose our power, right?
…who is looking to survive Hurricane Hilary!
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Best to you and yours. Stay safe!
I do hope you don’t have any problems with the weather. I’ve only had flooding once and it was minimal. Living on the Gulf Coast, we have been evacuated a few times. We would put our important papers and a few things in our RV and get out of town. I remember walking away thinking about all of the quilts I might lose, but they were ok.
I’ve been blogging since 2013 but not printing.
I’ve put a few pics with a brief history in albums.
Did not get pics of my first quilts.
I do have a nicely bound quilt planning book which holds a lot of information on almost 50 quilts, but I only have UFOs in that one.
I’ve never entered one of my quilts in a show. I did enter some of my grandmother’s quilts in one of the earlier Houston Quilt Festivals almost 40 years ago and I learned that they could be quite critical. She was a good quilter and there weren’t any real positive comments. Her quilts weren’t shabby and I still have one that I entered for her. I only make quilts for family and friends and not for sale or for show.
Having recently “survived” Ian in Florida, I hope you and your family will be OK.
Yes it is that waiting waiting waiting. In Ohio the severe weather is tornadoes- quickly arrive and just as quickly gone. My first hurricane in Massachusetts, I didn’t think the wind would ever stop blowing. Just relentless all day long. I hope Hilary’s touch is gentle.
When I read your title I thought first of the weather quilt, then remembered the actual weather coming. I just read that the last time there was a Pacific coast hurricane was 1939. It sounds like you are well prepared. FIngers crossed.
My blog is my quilting journal. Of course when formats change it could become obsolete. Guess I can live with that.
Wow, I know. Have a brother and his family in San Clemente. I only hope they are either prepared or travelling, as was the original plan. Stay safe, if not dry.
I hope everything goes well when Hurricane Hillary hits! I love your wisteria – don’t worry, it will survive – they are so strong. My husband had to replace our archway due to rotting, so when he rebuilt it, he said no more wisteria 😦 Every week we find new wisteria starts trying to get back to the arch!
Now I need to look and see what your humidity is – here in the SE US where we feel that we KNOW high humidity intimately it’s always of interest to me what seems high in other places. I tell myself it’s good for ones skin to live with high humidity!
Hope all goes well for you and yours,
Ceci
You are in my prayers. I used to live in Huntington Beach, half a mile from the beach. We had a flood once, but nothing like this. It must be so scary. Take care and keep us posted.
I remember my mother talking about the 1938 storm. We’d gone to my aunt and uncle’s home in La Cañada for the evening, and it took hours to find a way back home to South Pasadena, normally a distance of 8 miles. Those two towns are on opposite sides of the Arroyo Seco Canyon. (Which wasn’t so “seco” that day!)
Hope all is well. I’ll be interested to know what responses you get about quilt journals. I’ve been wanting to make a scrapbook story of all my quilts with photos, facts and the story behind each one. Just haven’t made much progress so far.
Your progression on the temperature quilt looks great and I agree that you need a marker or color to denote Hilary. Also: did you just feel the 5.1 earthquake outside of Ojai? We had a good rumble even up here. Nature is letting us know what she is thinking. I hope the sandbags are helping keep the neighbor’s water at bay. So far our additional drainage work we did on Thursday through Saturday morning has made a huge improvement here (no water in the kitchen, so far, hooray!).
Still hearing reports about the hurricane, still thinking about you! I hope everything is ok. You’ll be caught up with your temperature quilt in no time, you are so focused and single minded. Best wishes….S
Glad you survived! Can’t wait to see what colors you use for the tropical storm. X0
I’m so glad to see from Instagram posts that you made it through without much damage! Although I keep small notebooks with notes and “to do” lists, the only real “journal” of my 30 year quilting journey has been my blog for the past 11 years and, to a much lesser extent, my Instagram posts for the last 3. Nothing is printed out. Because my posts are so photo heavy, to keep costs down, I can only keep about 3 years of photos in my site’s media library so my post archives are gradually being purged of their photos to make room for newer ones and those photos are disappearing from their posts. This constantly reminds me of the ephemeral nature of life, my journey, and my creations. My acceptance of this means I’m OK with not leaving tangible detailed written records. Eventually my quilts and their labels,, along with their appraisals will survive for a while with family and friends (and 2-3 with the NEQM!) and that is enough! Your temperature quilt is looking great!!
Well! I am waaaay behind on reading posts, so I see you survived the “weather” just fine–thankfully!
I have my blog made into books annually. I do have a grid-ruled notebook in which I keep notes about my quilts/designs/classes as I go along and sometimes I look back at that.
And I’ve been meaning to tell you, I told one of my quilt groups about your idea of sometimes being trapped in the Dungeon of Cute and now we all use your term 😀