Quilting · Weekending

Weekending

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I didn’t venture far from the house over the weekend — to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, and to a local bar & grill to pick up some wings during the second quarter of the football game yesterday (I had a hankering!). There was a lot of laundry to do, fold & put away on Sunday. And we watched some of the Olympics — mostly the figure skating team competition. And putzed. As we do.

I worked on my quilting class homework on Saturday. I was to make the “Economy” block, start-to-finish, and then choose fabrics & cut the pieces for the “Friendship Star.”

A patchwork quilt square featuring four colorful diamond shapes surrounded by blue fabric with white polka dots and a center design of multicolored circles.
A colorful quilt block featuring four sections, each with patterned fabrics including polka dots and circles in various colors.

Just for grins, I played around with different arrangements of the half-square triangles to see what it would look like. I love this play on circles & squares & triangles & dots & diamonds & grids & I thought of Josef Albers more than once. As it says on my Ravelry profile, IDEAS WILL EMERGE! haha.

A colorful quilt block featuring four diamond-shaped patterns, each surrounded by polka dot borders and filled with various circular designs in vibrant colors.

This is how the block is actually put together & sewn up. I’m excited to make the star block tomorrow night… and also get extra homework because I’ll miss next week’s class.

I’m flying down to Albuquerque on Friday to meet Kate (& Kai) for a long weekend. We’ll be getting together with my cousins on Sunday morning, have a dinner reservation on Sunday night, and we’re winging it other than that! There are a half-dozen or so places to consider on our “to visit” list & we’ll just see what happens.

It’s been almost 15 years since I saw my cousin, Missy, and even longer since I’ve seen her sister, Mel — it had to have been at their brother’s wedding, and that was in 1998!! We’ll have fun catching up.

I hope you had a great weekend! I’ll be back on Wednesday with… don’t faint… KNITTING!!

Quilting · Unraveled Wednesday / Knit & Read

Unraveled Wednesday: QB3 & 4

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I’m joining Kat & the Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday!

KNITTING:

Nothing new here.

QUILTING:

I made my sewed together my third & fourth quilt blocks last night which were previewed the other day!

Colorful patchwork quilt featuring spirals and polka dots in shades of pink, purple, orange, and white.

Here’s how that Disappearing Nine Patch sliced up & got rearranged.

A colorful quilt square featuring a central floral motif surrounded by various patterned fabrics, including polka dots and zigzags in vibrant colors.

And the Squared In pansy block.

The day I can both cut and sew in a straight line will be one worth celebrating. haha.

A vibrant quilt featuring four colorful patchwork squares, each with distinct patterns including swirls, polka dots, and floral designs.

Here are the four blocks that I’ve completed so far! They won’t be arranged like this & they won’t be all jammed up together in the end, but it really helps to see them all together so I can make fabric/pattern choices for the next one or two or three. I have homework!!

READING:

Continuing (bedtime pages): No Time on My Hands by Grace Snyder.

George Saunders’ Vigil on audio. I have one more chapter… and then I might start all over again!

It’s been a weird week, y’all. I ended up going to work yesterday morning because of a domain expiration due to a credit card expiration and because of such, we were getting no email. So, I ended up going to work on all three of the days I would normally have had off last weekend! Oh well. On top that that, Rusty returned from a long (work) weekend in Todos Santos & his flight didn’t arrive until 11p — last night! So, after quilt class, I drove down to Milwaukee, arriving at 9p, and snoozed in my car for a couple of hours — well, an hour, maybe — after I caught up on all my Crossplay games & messages. I must have actually fallen asleep, though, because my alarm woke me up! And I didn’t have to work ALL day yesterday, so I was able to get in a little nap in the afternoon, too.

Quilting · Weekending

Weekending

Vicki6 Comments

It’s a funny one. It’s supposed to be one of my long weekends, but I ended up working on Friday (half-day) & today, too, because my co-worker’s mom had heart surgery on Friday.

I had Ginny, Malina & Davy overnight on Friday — Junah was otherwise occupied! There was painting, coloring, game-playing, K’nex building, jigsaw puzzling, movie watching, plenty of eating, and time on the iPad (which they love, but I limit to :20 each, once or twice a day).

A child stacking blue game tokens while sitting at a wooden table, with a board game featuring playing cards in the foreground.

If you knew how wiggly my old kitchen table is, you’d understand why I was bracing for a disaster as I snapped this pic while Ginny & I were getting a game of Sequence underway. She got them all stacked up without mishap! Whew.

A boy sitting on a bed with a laptop, and a girl sitting beside him on the bed using a tablet, surrounded by a colorful quilt and soft furnishings in a cozy bedroom.

Davy, patiently awaiting his turn in my sunny & bright bedroom, holding the empty iPad case while his sister tests her limit. haha.

It happened to be Eagle Days on Saturday (plural, even though it’s only one day… I guess “Eagle Day” sounds dumb) at 1000 Islands Environmental Center, our local nature center. They had a live presentation by the National Eagle Center (HQ in Wabasha, MN) featuring Latsch, one of the centers “eagle ambassadors,” who was found on the ground near an eagle next nine years ago, and discovered to be blind in one eye.

A smiling man in a blue shirt stands beside a bald eagle perched on his arm, while an audience watches in the background.

One of the day’s presentations was timed perfectly, so we met Ali & Junah at the nature center. As far as those types of programs go, this one was pretty good — not too long, informative, entertaining, and interactive. Plus, live bald eagle! Oh, and it was standing room only. We ended up standing right next to the tarantula cage (aquarium) and he/she was very active! Ew (shudder), but also wow!

I didn’t leave the house all day yesterday. I putzed, tidied & napped, watched some Shetland (catching up on the last few seasons) & the Grammys, and pressed & cut some fabric for the next two quilt blocks.

A quilt square featuring a patchwork design with nine sections, incorporating various patterns such as spirals and polka dots in shades of pink, purple, and red.

This will be a Disappearing 9 Patch, and will undergo a bit of a transformation during construction. I’ll have an update on this one, for sure, on Wednesday.

A colorful quilt block featuring a central diamond shape surrounded by squares in various patterns including polka dots and zigzags, predominantly in red, navy, and pink colors.

I also auditioned & cut pieces for the fourth block, which is called Squared In. As soon as I cut the piece for the middle, I knew it wasn’t going to work very well — it’s a stylized hydrangea but the scale is all wrong.

A colorful patchwork quilt square featuring a central floral design surrounded by polka dot and zigzag patterned fabrics in vibrant colors.

I just happened to have more of that Big Blooms fabric (two or three cuts in different colorways), so why not another pansy? There are a few more “centerpiece” blocks in this sampler quilt… not sure they’ll all feature pansies. But maybe. If all goes well, I’ll have an update on this one for Wednesday, too, though it won’t look much different (just more put together).

GOOD THINGS

Good Things

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Whoa. I just had a deja vu moment typing those words… GOOD THINGS was always the first (and sometimes the only) section of Martha Stewart LIVING that I’d turn to, back when I had a subscription (my mom gave & renewed our subscriptions for years).

Anyway.

I’m joining Kym’s Happy Hour this week, sharing something GOOD!

I recently wrote about redoing the art on our living room walls and shared some photos of a painting that my husband made in 1991.

A framed painting depicting a serene beach view from a porch with wooden flooring, featuring a chair, ocean waves, and seagulls flying in the sky.

I neglected to share a part of that story. The painting had been sold to a client 35 years ago, and that client recently retired & sold his business. He contacted Rusty with questions about what to do with it… he didn’t really have a place for it elsewhere (i.e., at home). They set up an appointment to meet, and Rusty was considering buying the painting back, but by the time he met with the client, the client had decided to just give it back… he’d loved it & enjoyed it for all those years in his office and it wasn’t really about money… he wanted Rusty to have it.

And that’s how that painting came to be back in our possession.

I’d also shared a couple of detail shots from the painting, including this one:

A watercolor painting depicting a colorful mug placed on a wooden floor, surrounded by plants and flowers, with sunlight casting a shadow.

The model for that was the very For Better or For Worse coffee mug that I used every day back then, and I was so sad when it broke. (I don’t know how Rusty has used the same mug nearly every single day for the past 41 years, but he has… it’s faded almost beyond recognition!)

Well, look what he sprung on me for our anniversary!

A coffee mug with a cartoon illustration of a woman in pajamas saying 'After my coffee...' with a dog, sitting on a wooden table next to a watercolor painting of a house by the sea, while snow can be seen outside the window.

I haven’t used it yet; it’s just been sitting on the kitchen table… where I see it & enjoy it every day!

3TT: Three Things on Thursday

3TT: Camera roll

Vicki7 Comments

Three on Thursday this week.

Thing 1. 

A boy wearing glasses smiles at the camera while sitting at a table with a blue and white cake decorated with a snowman on top.

This guy had a Golden Birthday on the 12th! We were all finally able to get together 10 days later, and it’s another week before I’m getting around to posting. Who cares? The kid who made me a grandma is a dozen years old!! Crazy. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUNAH!! (They are only blue-light glasses, he just likes wearing them.)

Thing 2.

I had a vague recollection of someone taking my phone when they were over… Malina! I think she even flashed it in front of my face in order to unlock it. That explains the random photos I found alongside the birthday pics.

A vintage painting depicting a woman in a long dress and headscarf, walking along a path while carrying a basket of flowers, surrounded by trees and a building in the background.

I have at least three versions of this print — Flower Girl in Holland (1887) by George Hitchcock — including one that isn’t cropped like this, as they so often are, which also crops out the artist’s signature. I first became aware of this print because my sister Sharon had one, which I inherited… but not before I already acquired one of my own (the uncropped version) and maybe another besides. Anyway, naturally, Sharon’s always the first to come to mind whenever I see one and, though I don’t always have to have it, there are times. This one is different. I don’t know if unframing it would give me more context, but it’s almost like it was a “coloring page” of sorts and someone interpreted it for themselves — but didn’t sign it themselves. It says “Flower Girl in Holland” on the bottom left and “Hitchcock” on the right. Anyway, for $10? Nicely matted & in a frame? Yes, please.

A collection of whimsical snowman figurines made of felt and other materials, featuring one snowman with a scarf and stick arms, another in a tall hat, a small snowman, a wooden tree, and an additional figure holding a shovel, arranged on a yellow table.

“Winter tableau.” Actually, all of these, except for the gnome candle, have resided year round, for many years (hence the dustiness), on the top of the doorway header between the living area & kitchen (living room side). They were displaced with the great artwork re-hang a while back. I’m not sure I’m ready to be rid of them yet.

Thing 3.

I bought a LEGO set… for myself.

Two assembled flower designs made from colorful building blocks surrounded by various loose pieces in different shapes and colors on a wooden surface.

I have been an Assistant LEGO Builder/Scrounger for years… it’s been ages since I took the lead.

A pair of handmade sunflower models made from colorful materials, displayed in a clear glass bottle on a wooden surface.

Again, the need for color in my world, I guess. This was also last Sunday, so something to focus on for a few minutes other than the incomprehensible (still) murder of Alex Pretti that happened on Saturday in Minneapolis. Sunflowers were also my mom’s favorite flowers, and she’d have celebrated her 88th birthday this Saturday.