This & That: Hiding Out

September 28, 2023August 31, 2025 Elizabeth E.19 Comments

I think it started with the post-fun-trip dreck (laundry, cleaning out suitcase, realizing I couldn’t just walk out the door and play all day), then it morphed into I-got-an-RSV-vaccine blahs (a needed shot, as I already had a doozy of a respiratory illness last December and I don’t want another one). Add that to the I-just-don’t-feel-like-sewing, and before you know it, a week, then two goes by without ever turning on the machine.

I also started trying to find photos of my first 100 quilts, and regretfully, some just can’t be found. Or if they are found, they are a photo-of-a-photo-of-a-bad-photo sort of thing, and by this point in this narrative, the Hyphen-Police are going to be coming after me (and yes, I know that last one wasn’t a proper usage).

So, hiding out is the best term for what I’ve been doing. I like seeing you all on Instagram, but felt like I want to pull the covers over my head when assaulted by all of Meta-formerly-Facebook’s ads, including questionable movie ads filled with gore, cleavage, and anger. It’s a Catch-22 for all of us, so I try to find you to comment; sorry if I missed you! I haven’t even replied to the comments on my last blog post which is something I genuinely love doing, and I would offer up an explanation, but this whine has gone on far too long. So…photos:

That’s Susan there, and that charming sewing-machine quilt (proper hyphen usage: linking together two or more adjectives that can’t stand alone) is hers too. When I was feeling stronger after last winter’s events, I volunteered to help with our Guild website. Which turned into their FB (bad, b/c I hate FB), which turned into setting up a new website, helping my friend Char write a set of Bylaws (8 pages) and Standing Rules (16 pages), and take photos when the photographer doesn’t show, and notes when the secretary can’t. Yes, my simple little stream volunteerism has turned into a torrent, but those of you who are involved with Guilds know how this goes.

This next month we vote on these Bylaws (in 24+ years they’ve never had any and now the President of 22 years wants to retire, but it’s a process made easier if you have guidelines…hence the process) and then hopefully I can slink back into my favorite place: doing hand piecing while the Guild meeting takes place.

Still feeling the buzz after picking up my new phone (it’s for the camera, the camera, the camera), we walked through Pottery Barn and what to my wondering eyes should appear??

FAKE QUILTS! Boo! Hiss!!

Speaking of Boo, we decorated, both inside and out, both stuff from the bin in the garage and naturally. That spider is on like 15x zoom OUTSIDE my bedroom window and it has on its own grumpy scary face, like it has also decorated. It’s an Orb Spider and is pretty harmless. We used to spray for bugs, etc. all the time, but when they raised their prices and insist on coming every quarter (in our territory that is not needed), we do it ourselves (since my husband is a toxicologist and has worked with bugs). Which means we live with a lot more spiders outside.

Moving on, this photo means I had to weigh a package that is going to France. (Hint: one of the QuiltMania magazines)

I also set up my quilt stand in my bedroom, and let the diffuse afternoon light shine in while I photographed this quilt and this quilt and this quilt to enter into Road. I do love the back of the Autumn Leaves quilt, with blocks made for me by the Gridsters. I will link you a hashtag, but Instagram — in all their bone-headed wisdom — has decided to not allow us to see the full range of hashtags. But the Gridsters were, and are, quite active, with over 1300 photos of our blocks and quilts. (Do I expect to get into Road to California this year? Not in the least, but it’s good to keep in practice.)

Finally got this one pinned. We have our church’s General Conference this weekend, which is broadcast over the internet. We don’t go to our church buildings, but we get to listen at home to thoughtful, uplifting talks. It’s good to have a project to keep my hands busy, so I plan to quilt this one. Or make the one below:

I’ve already written the pattern, and here is one of the graphics:

Yes, there are TWO solar eclipses and I went back-and-forth on whether to label it “Dual Solar Eclipse” or “Double Solar Eclipse” and that’s how you know I am losing it.

So now there are double-not-dual graphics of the Double Solar Eclipse for you. The first celestial event is an Annular Solar Eclipse and is October 14th. The second one is a Total Solar Eclipse and it’s on April 8, 2024. Those in the southern Midwest and on the East Coast will have the best views of that one.

Lastly (finally!! She’s at “lastly!”) while I didn’t turn on my sewing machine for nearly three weeks, I did sew a stitch. I finished this little wool mat filled with pumpkins and all sorts of twiny-viney lines of stem stitching, which I can finally say I’ve mastered. I purchased this for a friend who was going through stem cell treatments, but her eyes took a turn and she couldn’t see very well until she got new glasses. (She is working on the larger one I already gave her.) So I kept it back, then lost it, then found it again, and decided it would make a nice doo-dah for our table.

Happy Doo-dah to you, too!

Even Gritty People Get Discouraged

August 12, 2023August 31, 2025 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

The title of this post comes from Angela Duckworth, the researcher famous for talking and writing about those who have what she calls “grit” — that innate quality that helps you to keep going. I used to show it to my freshmen English classes, in a teacher’s quest to motivate her students. But in a recent article on IdeasTed.com, she wrote about discouragement and surprisingly, even she gets discouraged. She tells the story of crossing the Rubicon, and how that metaphor came to mean a decision point. Duckworth has a list of “grit” items, available in her Ted Talk (video is at the bottom of that post), but now she adds one to it: “Setbacks don’t discourage me for long.”

I’ve saved the Advice for Discouraged Sailors in one of my computer files, and just like cleaning out a drawer, this scrap of an idea keeps popping up. And like Duckworth, there is this moment of decision, of stopping and steadying your boat and figuring out where to go. I’ve never been a sailor, but I can only imagine how critical the advice is to “seek the wind,” if you are surrounded by a water everywhere, with no land in sight.

So, incorporating both of those ideas — setbacks don’t discourage me for long, and seek the wind — I started (again) on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I tried listening to a book when I worked and that was a disaster. I needed to study my compass, not be distracted, even if it is a good book. And I had this in mind:

Yeah, that’s a Temperature Quilt, all right.

I made progress, by cutting triangles, cataloguing them in my box and making a fabric key on the lid. To the lower right is the calendar for January, and that’s when I discovered that the color for 60-64 degrees F was missing. I had to order some, and it will be here hopefully Monday. But I pressed on, keeping notes where the gaps were:

I figured out that I wanted a stripe for precipitation, and figured out how I wanted to make it:

Clunky, but it works. These are my samples, not my quilt blocks. I have a PatternLite I’m working up so that people can download my bits and pieces, but I need to do more trials and add more info before it’s ready. Patience. But here’s my graphic so you’ll know I’m serious.

Sketches of the layout. If you want your strong bands of color vertical, that’s the middle image. If you want them horizontal, that’s the last image. I went with vertical, just like my last quilt. I’m still puzzling over what to do for the month block. I didn’t need a month block in my 2019 Temp Quilt, but I want one here because unlike 2019, I’m wrapping the days from one column into the next. I need something that will blend, but be distinctive.

Anniversary treats: two Totoro buns from our local bakery, and pink carnations. The Totoro buns have blueberry jam in them, with chocolate-dipped bases. It was a quiet, but lovely day, and I finished it with the Creatives:

A group of women from my town, and we are quilting, stitching, crocheting. Glad they all could come.

This popped up the next day, and it’s a reminder to myself to take social media posts with some caution. While I’m completely envious — and enjoy the scenery of all your trips and excursions — I’m well aware that there are bee stings, mosquito bites, schlepping the luggage, losing the luggage, fatigue, upset GI systems, missed connections and sore feet as well a glorious flower-filled grand square in Europe. Likewise, for this blog. I have my highs, my lows, my moments of satisfaction and other days when a good piece of chocolate is the only answer. Okay, maybe two.

So cross that Rubicon, seek the wind, and carry on with the journey–

Totoro and bee friend

This-and-That

Messing Around July 2023

July 23, 2023August 31, 2025 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

Literally.

And that’s not an ironic use of that word.

To see if I’ve made any progress, here’s an earlier shot from January 2020:

I know it’s a little fuzzy, but the glump of fabrics in the lower right, for Bee Happy Sew-A-Long? It’s finished and renamed Picties and Verities. So is My Small World, now called Golden California. And North Country EPP, called almost the same thing: North Country Patchwork.

I’m here to say that messes can be creative, and allow us to focus on the big picture, and not sweat the small stuff, like seeing the floor once in a while. Projects can get done, even if it is a mess. And doesn’t it feel nice to clean up the messes once in a while — I feel so virtuous when that happens…before I mess it up again.

The other night at Guild, I offered to do an EPP demo for them, and they accepted. So I packed up all my little EPP kits I used to teach with and then made 30 more, a few examples of EPP quilts, tons of needles and tins of thread and participated in the round-robin. The grandmother’s flower garden quilt, above, is designed by Sherri McConnell of A Colorful Life, and is titled Flowers for Emma.

I said I would bring back the RWB version of Shine, and there it is, in all its glory. I have now returned it to its place of honor, hanging in our upstairs hallway. The title, I Hear America Singing, is from the Walt Whitman poem.

Maybe all this was triggered by seeing the movie, Barbie, where mess and chaos and order and structure are part of its themes. A friend bought me this little souvenir treat; it’s the first movie I’d been to since covid, and boy, has movie-going changed! You buy your seats ahead of time, they are the size of my car and they have foot-rests and tilt backwards and arm rests with trays the size of what I used to take notes on at school. When the previews would pause before the next one played, the entire theater sounded like munching mice. And the line for the concessions was longer than the line for getting in. Who knew?

What else have I been working on?

Well…living.
Laundry
Meals.
Dishes.
Making messes in my sewing room.
Quilting on the Guild’s Challenge Quilt. I don’t think it’s a problem to show it publicly, but just in case, I’m not. Yet.
This block, from Raincross Guild’s BOM, called Sedona:

sedona-mountain-block Download

If you want to play, the lightweight pattern has two sizes, and two versions of putting it together. Have fun.

Flying Geese Tip Tricks Cover Download

I use the no-waste version of Flying Geese. You can find directions for it on the Flying Geese Tips and Tricks handout that I made — click the black download button to get a copy (again, it’s free). Or click on the title to see it online.

I think the AMH fabrics in the second version look like the Very Large Array in New Mexico. With all the press about the Oppenheimer movie, I think I should also see Trinity (the testing site), the VLA, and certainly Roswell. I’m adding it to my travel list. I’ve already checked out hotel rooms, as we plan to head to Texas for the Solar Eclipse. Rooms that are normally $134/night are now $500. I saw some in Fredericksburg for a thousand bucks. Wow. Celestial events of one kind or another are big business.

I once made an eclipse quilt, but I think I’d rather see the real thing in person, thank you very much. And yes, I just noticed the monster in the upper right corner. Maybe you have to take your celestial events with a creature from Outer Space?

Happy Messy Room and Sky-watching!

This-and-That

JanFebMarAprMayJune 2023 This and That

June 25, 2023August 31, 2025 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

Yeah, just lumping them all in here together, because I just can hardly remember the first six months of this year. I know I dropped a lot of balls: unfinished quilts, undusted corners, unsent messages, un-called friends, as well as an un-kitchen for awhile, but you’ve already heard that story. I’m sort of waking up here from where I’ve been, and am sorry if you were undusted, or un-called, or unsent or generally on the outside of this internal and pervasive fog. But overall, I’m here to tell you that:

I think signing up for the Modern Mystery Summer Camp Quilt-a-Long helped ease me back to reality. I was two weeks behind, and now I’m caught up. Good thing it is easy sewing. I like all the videos that teach us — given the brain fog I had, I definitely needed them — and these two solid MidWesterners are like chatting with your best pals.

I embraced my inner dorkdom and bought the T-shirt. But really, it was a light touch of fun that was really needed.

I have conquered hard-boiled eggs: take eggs from the fridge and smack the wide end lightly on the counter, just until you hear the slightest crunch, but no shells are dislodged. Place them in a pan of water to cover. Place pan on high, uncovered, and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, put a lid on the pan, turn OFF the heat and set a timer for 8 minutes (10 minutes if you are doing egg-salad sandwiches). Remove from heat, and run some cool water in the pan, and add a hunk of ice cubes. Let sit until cool. They should peel easily, and be perfect for this, a rice noodle salad with lettuce and herbs:

Slice a bunch of radishes. Grate a carrot. Mix together 1½ tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, and a pinch of fine sea salt. Whisk the dressing and pour over vegetables. Let sit while you do the rest.
Cook up 8 ounces rice noodles (we like the vermicelli kind), drain, then rinse under cool water. Let drain, and save.
Whisk together: 3 tablespoons lime juice (from about 2 limes, plus more to taste), 2 tablespoons grapeseed or other neutral oil (we use safflower), 1½ tablespoons fish sauce, 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated, 1 garlic clove, finely grated, and 1 jalapeño chile, thinly sliced.
In a large-ish bowl, place the noodles. Top with carrot/radish mix. On top of that, add: 1 cup thinly sliced Persian cucumber (regular is okay, but not as good), a handful of lettuce leaves, torn if large, 2 thinly sliced green onions (I think they call them scallions now), a large handful of fresh, soft herbs, such as dill, mint, cilantro. (My husband hates cilantro, so we grabbed some basil instead.) Pour over the dressing you made in step three. Over the top of that, add ½ cup chopped roasted salted peanuts. Kind of mush stuff together, but leave layers intact. Surround with 4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced in half.

Perfect for summer days. It was good the next day, too.

First harvest. The little yellow tomatoes are what I call Garden Candy.

Did I tell you I gave away my quilt? She loves it, and sent me a photo where she had hung it above her sewing machine. If that’s not immortality, I don’t know what is.

Well, maybe this, too. @rowdyquilter made my Shine: The Circles Quilt, and I love seeing it every time she posts on Instagram.

You can find most the circles for FREE, in the tab above labeled “Shine: The Circles Quilt.” Then, if you want more, head to my pattern shop, where there are nine more to choose from in one pattern, and then finishing instructions (sashing and borders in the pattern above).

Here’s the original. I”ll post up the RWB version next month sometime. It’s good to visit old friends once in a while.

I was reading a high-end magazine while the car was getting washed (a once-a-year treat), and saw these quilted bags. I’m like, Hey–those are FMQ circles there on the sides. Nice to know we are being copied by expensive bag makers.

As I said to my friend Mary, labels are like the cherry on top of a sundae.

Whoever runs this Instagram account should get a raise. (Answer.)

Some days are No. But I’m always hoping for a Yes.

I wish the same for you no matter what you are going through, from finding yourself after a long absence in your own life, or frustrated after a series of hard quilty things, or sitting by a bedside or a beach, or on top of an overlook into your own valley — literal or figurative. Yes, yes, yes, all the way.