February 2023 • This and That

February 27, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

I finished all the tendrils and vines and flowers and now just have the center circles to appliqué and so I started thinking, what’s next?

A border with leaves…with flower buds and occasionally not flower buds. This wasn’t my first idea, but it seems to stick. I was hoping my brain would cough up something a little wilder, like Gaugin, or something. I can’t figure out a title for this quilt-in-progress, having gone from Midnight Garden, to Twilight Garden. Which sent me down the rabbit hole of what is twilight?

I wanted a title for how flowers look when the sun has gone down but it’s not yet dark, and it turns out I have three different descriptions: civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. I think I was trying for nautical twilight. Stay curious and read about it here.

What else?

I used to be paranoid about releasing my ideas before they were a pattern [coming soon!], but I know whoever is looking at this won’t steal it, right? But this is how it looked in my head and this is where we are today:

Inverted Log Cabin. Yep, I sewed that last seam, raced downstairs, grabbed Dave and we snapped a photo in — what else is on my brain in this post?–twilight. I’m thinking Civil Twilight.

Now to figure out how to quilt it. I’ve been highly influenced by Christine Perrigo‘s ideas (took a class from her at QuiltCon once) about how to think outside the lines. On the left, last night’s attempt. On the right, this morning’s. I just worry that it may all obscure the center floating square. And what color of thread? I try never to start with my first ideas, but let them jell a bit.

I received this amaryllis from a friend for Christmas, and on the left is how it looked when it bloomed in December. On the right, is the flower now, nearly DOUBLE the height. Is it because it’s a low-light window? When it is on the countertop, it’s taller than I am now and almost taller than my husband. Should I stop watering it? Let it go dormant? Does this blooming ever stop? I’m looking for tips from all the amaryllis experts out there.

And it’s awards season so we get to see what all the stylists dress their clients in, as well as see Fashion Week’s street fashions, as well as things that in the shows. Mostly, I think: “There’s no way I could ever wear this!” And the Fashion Person replies, “Made you look.” Although I do like some elements of all the fashion shots above, remember, they are highly curated. By me.

That pocket is black check, sewn on in a non-factory method, on a navy-checked shirt. I think Dad sewed it on at one point, because his shirt didn’t have a pocket. Or he took it to a terrible place that had terrible machines. And where did he get the square of fabric? (He was highly resourceful, all the time.) I only took two shirts from his closet when we cleaned out, and we donated the rest to a group at the local university who lets students “shop” from the selection to look spiffed up for interviews, etc. I am pretty sure they wouldn’t be needing this one, or another worn one. I cut off collars/cuffs/buttonplackets and will use them in a project I have in mind. In the background are couple of my husband’s old shirts, too. Now if I could just find the bag with the other blocks from this Project I Have In Mind, I’d be really happy.

I have since distributed these, but I also brought home his paintbrushes. Several members of my family wanted some, and it’s nice to know he’ll be thought of, whether they are put to use, or tucked into a pencil cup. All of this is a way to re-integrate parts of my life together.

I had been feeling this way, for a bit too long. (I’m going to start calling things on my To Do List “Mysterious Activities.”) But this week I had a whole free day without anything scheduled and pushed forward on several fronts (like finishing the appliqué at the top of this post). And a quilt showed up from my quilter:

Halfway there on getting the binding on my 2023 Temperature Quilt. I am aiming to finish it by February 29th because how cool to finish a quilt on Leap Day, right?

And the last thing in What I Dragged Home from my Parents’ House Category is this reading stand. No, I didn’t get it from the parents, but it has to do with them. I borrowed my mother’s journals back from my niece and am slowly reading them. Having this, helps.

Almost done here, hang on. This is the set of trees, made for the Gridster Bee, for February. It’s from someone’s pattern, but it kind of drove me nuts, because…the center seam on the tree. (Why?) But the game in online Bees is they choose the block they want. And we make them one, or two…or three.

I went to pick up my friend to take her to her Birthday Lunch, and this gorgeous hibiscus was blooming in the rain on her front patio. Couldn’t resist snapping a photo.

And even though it’s still February, I have already put out March’s St. Patrick’s Day girl, because right before that holiday is the Dreaded Daylight Savings Time Shift on March 10th (hate it because I like morning light, and NO, DST doesn’t give you “more light”), and right after THAT ignominious day, we will have St. Patrick’s Day, then dance in our gardens for the First Day of Spring (March 19th), and and then after that we drag out the bunnies and eggs and stuff for Easter, which is the last Sunday of March. Couldn’t we have spaced these out a little more?

Happy Whatever!

This and That • January 2024

January 14, 2024August 30, 2025 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

Sometimes the title for these posts can nudge toward the trivial, but the first thing I want to talk about was anything but trivial.

My family.

Our four children do not live near us, for some, the far-away is very-far-away, and for others, it’s a bit closer. My husband proposed taking me out to dinner for my milestone birthday, but to “prepare for photos.” And “maybe don’t wear your sneakers.” We went to our local Fancy Dining Place, The Mission Inn, which was still decked out in holiday lights. When I rounded the corner to our table, the kids were all sitting there. Oh, My! I was quite touched that they would come to celebrate with me, and they spent the next day with us, too. Quite the loveliest of birthday surprises. By Sunday, they had all gone home, and the house was very quiet.

When an opening became available, I rejoined the Gridster Bee. It was one I’d started several years ago, but I’d bowed out last year. Patti, ever capable, took over and has been a steady hand in keeping it going, as many bees dissolve after a short time. We had our kick-off Zoom call at the beginning of the month (one positive from the 2020 pandemic is this technology):

I loved seeing Carol’s Christmas quilt, one done in an earlier iteration of this Bee.

I finished this. It’s a free pattern, here on the website (keep reading). I’d started writing it ages ago, but who knows where time flies? Inside is the color key for both this 2023 (softer) version of Painter’s Palette fabrics, as well as the (bolder) version used in 2019:

I haven’t yet finished the 2023 quilt; for one, I’m still embroidering the temperature range numbers onto the Circle of Geese block that I’ve used for a key.

And about this geese pattern. It was originally made by Kelly Liddle of JelliQuilts. If I could find her again, I’d link to it. She seems to have vanished without a trace, and it’s a pretty good pattern for this sort of thing. I’ve even written to the last email I have from her, when I paid for and downloaded the pattern: Zip. Nada.

Which brings me to the podcast I listened to this past week, where Ezra Klein and his guest, Kyle Chayka, talk about how the internet isn’t fun anymore. Boring, too. And part of it is what Chayka calls the SEO-ification of the algorithm. Everything resembles everything else, as we use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to get a wider reach. While this can have benefits, Chayka and Klein argue that we seem to be homogenizing our world, as every website looks like another as the robots send you to whatever you’ve liked before, and assume you will like again.

I’m fine with that, especially when I do a search on Temperature Quilts on Instagram. But I’m also not fine with it as it seems to have flattened out what we see. Like hashtags used to be an interesting way to get a range of images, from temperature quilts that began as crocheted blankets to the most recent version of houses, leaves, and birds. Now we just get the “TOP” images. Are they the top “eye-ball-getting” images? The most colorful? The most interesting? And how will we ever know what the robots, aka: algorithm, have come to choose what they are showing us.

Chayka says he misses the curated web, where various people wrote random things, like a writer went flying through a rainbow and put the colors up on a blog. A blog!?! Who writes those anymore? Well, I do. Maybe that is why I also write about quilting, but also more-than-quilting, trying to avoid being boring, and maybe to avoid having to clean up my sewing room:

(*from 2020, but it still looks the same*)

One more thing: this week is Road to California, a local, national quilt show. I’m signed up for two classes: one from Lori Kennedy (FMQ on Monday) and one from Annie Smith (Design Your Own Appliqué on Thursday). I’ll also go one more day, Saturday, so I can stay to get my quilt that is hanging in the show: Aerial Beacon.

I would take a closer photo of this, but it will have to wait until next week, when I get some pictures of it hanging in the show. If you are headed there, find me and say hi!

Here’s the Temperature Pattern download. It will stay here on my website for a bit, then move over to my Pattern Shop on PayHip. Enjoy!

UPDATE: The pattern is now over on PayHip, so head over to my Pattern Shop to download your copy.

This-and-That

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!

Temperature Quilt · This-and-That

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–