Disappearing #$%^@$%&%#& 9 Patch

Donna Jordan and Jordan Fabrics had a nice video (they all are nice).  You can see it below.



My bright idea was to do this quilt.  I bought some adorable fabrics from the Dear Stella line.  However, when I assembled my disappearing 9 patch, I ended up with my fabrics disappearing into each other as I did not have enough contrast.  See the squares below.  On their own each fabric is adorable, but not so much when side by side.  I used the gold/yellow fabric as a buffer.  Yes, I could have laid this out better. 



Here is the reverse. 

This was a cheerful fabric.  Allowed me to hone develop my quilting skills.  I was comfortable enough that this would serve a baby's hiney quite well and would be cheerful to look at and use despite my gaffes.

 With my goofy pieces, I experimented with some layouts for placemats (for my own use)

Maybe not inspired, but it made use of what I had on hand.  It is bright and cheerful, and no baby hiney will grace them. I used the facing method....meaning that I quilted the top piece to the batting using nothing more imaginative than just stitching in (and occasionally out) of the ditch.  I then placed the back fabric over.  Sewed a 1/4th heavy seam (v. scant) leaving enough room for my hand to fish out the insides to turn it over.  I then top stitched the opening narrowly with the seam allowance tucked inside.  No ^#%$^%$^& binding to fool with.

I still had a few pieces left over.  I searched YouTube for coasters, and I found a whole genre of "mug rugs".  So I fashioned one with a left over piece.  Because I wanted quilting on both sides, I simply sandwiched.  Did my mediocre quilting (developing skills exercises).  Cut it squarish and used the overock foot on my Bernina 910 (yes it is old) to finish the edge.

It looks better in person than the photo!  It works.  It lays flat.  Will protect your surfaces from heat and inadequate handling of your beverage.

After making that, I had an idea.  I had some OLD fabric from dresses that my Nana must have made for my Mom.  My Nana was an expert seamstress, and I haver her 1924 Singer Red Eye sewing machine.  It is a treadle.  I don't use it.  The cabinet has served as my makeup table for all of these years.  Though I did open it up for the first time this weekend to see exactly what it was.  You can tell that it was well used...... I had a little mist in my eye seeing how my Nana and put pin cusions on the arm to keep pins handy.  (I will also mention that her father (she is Armenian and she lived near Constantinople coming to this country to escape the genocide in 1920), was a tailor).  He died by swallowing a pin.  Be mindful if you carry yours in your mouth.

I made one of these rug mugs for my sister, and I put a square of fabric (Teal rose on white background) on the obverse side). I'm glad that I saved the dresses.  They were beautifully made by my Nana, but they were not wearable due to seam failure.  I'm glad, because I almost donated them to a vintage shop.

With my interest in looking at quilting projects, I elected to salvage the fabric.  I'm glad I did.

I will aim for better/elusive perfection.  But for now, Perfection is the enemy of the good.  I need good, not perfect, experiencing putting things together--to include how colors works (or not).  You learn by doing and from your mistakes.  I found these ways to transform my mistakes into useful and cheerful items.






Sewing & Cursing | Baby Quilt

My big idea to make a baby quilt for one of my daughter's life-long friends who is having a baby in July, turned out to be extraordinary fodder for my sewing and cursing series.  A baby quilt seemed approachable enough.  It was small, and there are tons of adorable baby fabrics.  How hard can it be?

PFFFFFFFFTTTTT!  Cut right. Piece right. Stitch right.  Don't get your pieces mixed up.  Don't let your mind wander about what you are going to dinner and find that your 1/4" stitch has grown or shrunk on you.

Sigh.

So the "Daisy Baby" quilt that I was going to make ended up look like Daisy Crazy quilt.  I had one side triangle that ended up being 1/2" short.  (They were all cut the same!).  And I figured that a straight edge could fix the other issues as I had managed the deadly trifecta of cut wrong, piece wrong and stitch wrong.  Those things compound in the worst sort of way.  That 1/2" inch shortfall on that singular triangle was fixed by my having the bright idea that a pocket (for a Binkie!) might not be a bad idea. Problem fixed.

But no...my other indiscretions (clears throat) I thought could be covered with binding.  And on the face of the quilt that worked.  But when I turned the binding over, it felt like (and looked like!)  I was stuffing too many errors in too small of a binding.  It just looked goofy.

So I will keep the quilt. One of my cats will lay on  It was GREAT practice.  Helped me with getting motivated to create a sewing area in my home (that was larger than what I had), remembering lost skills, building muscle memory and developing a process where I could manage my project without getting confused or confounded.

I pulled my expectations lower.  While the quilt was a bust as a gift, my cat will have a lovely little mat.  I had material for another quilt, which I had cut out.  But when I was piecing it, I realized that there was not enough contrast among my fabrics.  (There's a lesson in that).  But my material was lovely, so I simply made placemats that I could enjoy every day.  That was a win. And while doing them I concentrated on my scant 1/4" stiching, carefuly rolling and ironing the seam flat.

What a difference not being a hack makes! 

Back to gift mode.  A quilt?  Nope.  Let's do a changing pad.  I've made 2 and they look terrific.

!$%^#$^$%&^ Sewing and Cursing

I pulled out my Bernina 910.  I have had the machine since 1987.  I had to think on that.  But I remember that I made maternity jumpers on it, and 1987 put me squarely with being pregnant with my first child.  I think that I bought the machine after I saw the price of women's professional maternity wear.  You don't want to sink alot of money into maternity clothes.

So in that year I bought the 910 and a serger. I am a self taught sewer.  I still remember my Mom futzing around with her sewing machine.  So when my tension rises because the tension in the machine is screwed up, I remember my Mom sewing and cursing.  Having children and delving into any of the domestic arts (cooking, sewing) is a great way to build empathy with your Mom.  Regrettably, my mother died when my daughter was just 18 months.  So, I never really had the chance to tell my Mom how much I now "understood." 

While my first round of sewing I remembered my Mom.  My most recent round of sewing made me remember my first round of sewing.  Sewing and cursing....truly a natural pairing.  In the interim between first round and now, I had a dog leash/collar round. Dogs coming out of the shelter had unsafe (ill-fitting or poorly made) collars and leads--unsafe as in cheap. If you've ever had a dog that you don't know, doesn't know you and has possessed an unfamiliar name to him or her for less than a month get away from you, you will do it once and ensure that never happens again. 

I never had a successful escapee. Running after a dog after a couple of cups of coffee is hard on the lungs and the bladder. So after a couple of those sheer terror moments, I vowed never again. I sourced high quality webbing that would not chaffe the handler or the dog and high quailty hardware that was strong and secure.  I ensure that the lead could clip onto the collar and that the lead could thread through the shank so that a slip collar safety resulted.  No dogs backing out of their collars or their collars breaking without a backup.  Once my machine was set up, these leads were easy to make.  I don't do my volunteer work anymore, and I have a goodly amount of this stuff on hand.  I need to make more leads and donate to shelters. 

We are ever-utilitarian here. I had accumulated a good deal of birdseed bags (made from the strong plastic).  I headed to You Tube to find out what folks were doing with them.  I decided that I was going to make some totes.  Setting up tension to sew through those bags was no fun.  I still did not get it right.  While the top looked fine, the bottom was still a mess.  But I persevered and made myself some handy bags (and used my webbing for the handles). 

Material such as plastic is good fodder for sewing and cursing.  At least my machine was out and used.  I made a few repairs to clothes (without cursing) then my needle lift broke.  I took my machine in for its very first servicing after 32ish years.

With the Bernina if full fighting form, I thought that it was time to try my hand at a baby quilt.


Cutting, sewing and @#%$%^@#$%&%#&#*.  I'll write more on that in another post.


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A Serpent in the Garden

I live on the edge of the woods.  Deep woods.  Below our home is a swamp.  You can find it on the Civil War maps identified as Higgins Swamp.  Norfolk and Southern Railway runs on the other side.  Only a few trains per day, and when they come through the house slightly trembles and the stochatic noise of the rails and wheels is rhytmic and comforting.  We live in an area that was carved out, and we kept as many trees as we could.

Our bluebird house is at the edge of the woods.  This year we had one successful fledging.  No sooner had I emptied the old nest, than a new nest was built.  I witnessed the 5 eggs and the first hatching.  Also during that time I spied a female cardinal on a well-hidden nest.  I was excited in the anticipation of seeing these two avian families care for and dispatch their young into the world.

About 1 week into the nestling period, I noticed that the male and female bluebirds were not going to the nest.  I also could not see the female cardinal sitting on her nest at any time since I first spotted her.  Mark climbed aboard our de-commissioned Ford Taurus SHO to get a better look.  A black flash on the ground alerted me to the serpent. 

I went to check on the bluebirds.  I whistled my way to the box to not alarm inhabitants. Taking the top off the box, I saw nothing but an empty nest cup.  Something had predated the nest.

I can only suppose that it was the a snake, likely the rat snake living about the place.  I tangled with him last year a couple of times as he was near the bluebird box. Once he was in an adjancent tree, and just scared all of the birds.  The second time, he was on the ground near the box.  Both times was alerted to his presence by the bird behavior and intervened.

But this time, there was an intrusion during a time that I could not intervene.  I thought the snake guard on the box would be effective.  Apparently not.  I'm deeply said that they nest did not make it.  I'm reminded that everyone has to eat...and for one to survive in the animal kingdom, something else does not. 

The male and female bluebirds are still about.  I've not checked the box.  But for failures, there are also successes.  My neighbor, Tim, keeps me apprised of his nestlings.


  His bluebirds had fledged, but this ratsnake was making a nest inspection.  You can see the one unhatched egg.   His nest as no nest guard, but it is on the side of his grape arbor post.  His cardinals had a nest of two, and those fledged successfully. 

A habitat is just that:  a place for all to make a home and survive.  Not everyone ends up on the right side of the equation.

Wood Thrush!

I have been bemoaning the lack of wood thrush vocalizations wondering if they were even nearby.  I've only heard faint singing in the recesses of the woods not my own.  Normally, these guys are singing their hearts out in third week of April.  Here it is mid-May...  One of the joys of getting old is that you get tuned into the large rhythms of nature. I've always noted when I began hearing them and when they fade away. Seems like they are coming later and staying later than some time ago..but 15-20 days or so.

So, my heart skipped a beat when I heard the loud lyrical song of my beloved bird.  I have said in the past that it would be a long, sad lament if I could no longer hear the wood thrush.  What I also noticed, is there is slight variation in the song.  I've noticed that in the past too....as if there are different tribes of thrush that have adopted just the smallest variation.  Unmistakenly a thrush, but with its own little flourish.  Like Tim's (my neighbor) bluebirds adding chicken feathers (he has chickens) as a nest flourish, while mine garnished with pollen stems.


Happy Mother's Day

In the bird backyard, Mother's Day takes a special meaning.  I have a bluebird hen on her second nest, and I see her prior  fledglings at the mealworm feeder and getting suet.  Three of them were there with Dad.  They were begging, he said," PFFFFTTTTT!"  He took a mouthful of worms and flew off.  You can lead a fledgling bluebird to mealworms AND make them eat.  The funny thing was that when Dad left and the red-bellied woodpecker showed up, one of the fledglings was begging.  The RBW was having none of that. When he left, they all got in the dish and ate. 

Also spied is a female red-bellied woodpecker sitting in her lovely nest hole that she and her partner excavated.  It's a largish hole, in a dead outcrop of a healthy white oak.  It was fun to watch them work away at it early in the Spring.  I could just see her poking her head out the other day.  I had not seen much activity otherwise.

The barred owls a the Cornell Lab of Ornithiology fledged.  The first owlet gracefully pushed and flapped his way off the branch affixed to the nestbox.  the second (1 day younger owlet) was on the branch by itself, when it lost footing and was hanging upside down like a bat.  It valiently hung on until it didn't.  Hopefully it had a graceful landing.  There was a picture of an owlet on the ground (unhurt) the next day.   Watching them go from egg to fledging was a treat...but not for the squemish and there was a steady procession of "stuff" brough to the nest for current consumption or for the "pantry". 

I noticed my Eastern PeeWee is here.  It was on a brush pile outside the back window (dense woods just outside a small grassy plot.  He was there for almost 2 hours perching and then flitting skillfully in the air to catch an insect on the wing.  A little aerial twirl and back to the perch.  I was surprised how long he was there. 

And then there is the squirrel family.  They raid my suet.  I put food out for them, but the crack suet attractly everyone.  I bring it in at night to avoid attracting other creatures...though the squirrels try to ensure that there is none.


My fledglings (adult children) are bringing dinner over.  I made a chocolate cake for us to enjoy for dessert.

Happy Mother's Day.

Summer Tanager and Others Arrival

I began to hear the stochatic "pit-ti-tuck" (as described by the Cornell Lab) of the Summer Tanager a couple of days ago. I have been awaiting the arrival of the male and female; I noticed them for the first time last year. The male was very elusive, I had a hard time spotting him in the tall canopy of the trees. It took me a couple of days to identify the female as she is looks nothing like the male.  You can see pictures of them here. (I didn't include any copyrighted photos here). I marvel that this pair managed their migration from South-Central America to my little patch of heaven here.  But they are here, and I am happy.

Not so happy, though, that my beloved Wood Thrush have not returned.  The third week in April generally welcomes my beloved birds--who instantly let me know they are here with their song.  However, they are perhaps just silent--busily making their nests.  Last year their choral work was greatly muted, and I worried about them.  Last week, when I was expecting much, I heard little. It was a faint few notes, and then nothing.

My white-throated sparrows have departed northward.  I miss their lovely calls and their flitting about in the brush they called home.  The yellow-rumped warblers are gone, too, insofar as I can tell. I saw an indigo bunting briefly (as with last year).  I'm on the look out for the rose-breasted grossbeak that did a 2 week layover with a female.

My bluebirds have already made a second nest in the box.  No sooner had I cleaned the old nest out at 4 p.m.....left the top off for it to dry out...returned at 8 a.m. to find a fully-constructed nest.  It looked identical to the one that I took out to include a crown of pollen!  I'm enjoying seeing the fledglings, but I only see two of the four that I think fledged.

Hope you are keeping an eye out in your neck of the woods for visitors.