This Is A Sleeve?

Yes, this IS a sleeve, for my eyelet cardigan. Because of the way the shoulder extends down the arm, the length of the sleeve is quite short and straight across the top. One more to go and I can complete seaming the sweater to completion.

I also layered up the orphan block for the pillow and machine quilted it by stitching in the ditch which you can see from this back view. I studied the seams to see how I could quilt with the least amount of starting and stopping and was pleased to find that I only had to start in a new place three times. A little game I played that was pretty satisfying. 

It's been hot here so I'm usually inside until the sun goes down and it starts to cool, making for some very pleasant evening walks that include some star gazing although I have little idea of what I'm looking at. I do spend a little time on my east-facing deck late morning to do a little reading. Its shade and slight breezes are equally a pleasant way to enjoy the waning summer. How are things like in your part of the world? 

A Zentangle, An Idea & Something To Read

This is what I decided to do with that last panel of my Be Well Zentangle book. I'm not totally pleased with what I did down the center, did not come out exactly as I envisioned it in my head, but I've always like the Holliebaugh tangle which gives that over and under effect and filling the open spaces with small circles always appeals to me. The quotation is one from a book of quotations I started when following the now defunct Box of Crayons that posted what it called Great Works Quotations. It seemed quite appropriate as zentangling is meant to slow you down.

I have more than one purse or tote bag pattern bought over the years but never made - something always on my to-do list. Yet when a picture of this bag from Charlie's Aunt Vintage Inspired Sewing Patterns by Emma Brennan showed up on my Facebook feed, my immediate reaction was that this might be the perfect thing to show off that wildebeest pelt. Options might be to use the pelt where the wool plaid is shown in the picture - front and back - or just use it in that angled insert and a pocket on the back. And gee, that 2 inch wood button I just bought might work perfectly here too.

Finally, you might enjoy a post by Kelly Rae Roberts titled The Gift of Aging As an Artist. It made me feel so much better about about how my artistic life has changed as I've aged. She speaks from the viewpoint of someone who makes a living with her art, which is something I never have, but still, I find myself nodding along as I read through this.

Turns out, aging as an artist is such a gift. I can feel myself letting go of the chase for relevance and instead tuning into resonance. 

What do you think? Are you aging gracefully or still feeling the need to push and be out there?

Now THIS Is Something Different

The gal who cuts my hair is a long time serious hunter and she can't talk about her hunts with all customers. But having been brought up in a hunting family, I actually enjoy hearing her stories, especially since she is an ethical hunter and nothing she kills goes to waste. Her husband is a taxidermist to boot (talk about a marriage made in heaven!) so many of her best he has mounted for her. The highlight of her hunting career was a safari trip to Africa a few years ago. The company she chose for her trip has what I think you would call a reserve; not a fenced in place where they are raising the animals for the hunt but more managing the area wildlife as it comes and goes off their private land. The meat from game taken is given to local villages and they do all the preparations for the "trophy" parts to return with the hunters. One animal she successfully hunted was a blue wildebeest, also known as a gnu, a native to Africa related to antelope, cattle and goats. Hers looked close to the size of a small cow or big elk, and after mounting, there was quite a bit of hide left over which she offered to me, thinking about how "crafty" I am. I've never worked with anything like this but sensing a challenge I couldn't refuse, I accepted. The hide is quite thick as leather goes and the hair surprisingly soft. I may just admire it for awhile while I'm pondering how to use it. Any ideas?

I had a doctor appointment down in the almost big city last week, and there's a Michaels craft store there which I hoped might have the kind of buttons I'd like for that orphan block pillow. I think the lack of the right buttons in my stash is partly responsible for my not getting on with the project. They didn't have a great selection but you don't need a lot of options if what you do see is just what you were looking for. Not sure what these are made of, possibly wood but could also be nut shell (made in Thailand) and struck me as a bit pricey ($5 a card but I had a 20% off coupon), but I decided worth it to be happy with the final look of the pillow. As for the larger single button, well, it was all alone, nothing else like it, and it spoke to me. It might be perfect for a book closure, who know? I just couldn't leave it there. 20% off! 

Knitting and Zentangle Progress

I am more than a little excited about the eyelet sweater getting to this stage. It may look a little strange but what you are seeing is both front panels now done and joined to the back at the shoulder seams. The seed stitch side of the panels will fold back as I've tried to show. I have to admit that it was a long slog knitting 24 inches of the front panels so a sigh of relief when the second one was ready for the 3 needle cast off that joins front to back. Three more inches knit on the remaining stitches that form a tab that will be sewn around the back of the neckline and joined to the matching tab on the other side; this will turn down and help those front edges of the panels to turn back on themselves. For now, the stitches await on a stitch holder, although I'm not sure why the pattern leaves this step to last. For now, it's on to knitting the sleeves which, because of the drop shoulder requiring a shorter sleeve, may finish fairly quickly (maybe!).

I must admit that after getting the second panel to the joining stage, I took a little break for a few days, then got out the previously joined pieces, laying them out on the coffee table and reviewing in my head how that 3 needle cast off was done. But for 3 days I found I could not face that step of casting off. It's not hard but a bit fiddly and easy to drop stitches, so I kept putting it off, knowing I couldn't do this while watching tv but needing to give it my full attention. On the fourth day, in the morning before I got on with my day, I said enough is enough and picked up my needles. Shortly after I ran across the above internet meme. Oh yes, that describes me especially well, so often the case with things I put off, although this thing was not put off for that long and did take a bit more than 12 minutes. 

I've finished the Be Well Zentangles. I'm happy that early on I decided that whenever color would or could be added, I used the same color of colored pencil. The Zentangle people have really gotten into using colored pastel pencils which are easy to smudge from dark to light like a graphite pencil but I've nothing like that among my many art supplies. I'm just fine with how my use of color worked.

Sad to say, these last two struck me as anti-climactic. I guess I was really getting into the over and under complicated looking designs, feeling like we were building from simple to more complicated with each day and these are not exactly that. I do have one extra panel which I've not decided how to use. I actually did not do the "Dream" one correctly, was hurrying along and drew lines into that bottom area with the dots before realizing they were starting another starfish-like thing in there, doing a "save" with the additions of the big blacked out dots. I could give that one another go or make up one of my own. We shall see. If you would like to see the list of all of the themes and quotations, you can find them here.

Pillows. Zentangles & a Quick Booklet

I was doing a scan of things stacked along one side of the garage and spotted this bag with the lace ruffle sticking out the top. What's in there? I move to this location in 2012, leaving some boxes unpacked in this area along with some other things I ran out of steam to deal with. I more or less know what's in them all and why I've not done anything about them in all this time but this bag did puzzle me, even when I realized there were pillows in there.

No immediate recognition nor memory of why they would have been relegated here and together. And then I remembered. I made these to use on a rocking chair I've always had in my bedroom. One for the seat, one for the back. The one for the seat which has hand quilting is the same block as in this exchange block quilt made prior to 2000 while I'm pretty sure the one for the back which has no quilting at all was made from leftover half-square triangle blocks or pieces trimmed off in the making of the block for the seat pillow. No wonder I was having a hard time remembering them! That exchange block quilt was always close by, either on a cedar chest in the bedroom or draped over the back of the rocking chair. In the new location, the cedar chest with quilt on top just fit in the new bedroom but there wasn't room for the rocking chair in either my bedroom or any place else - it has languished in the garage because I really don't want to get rid of it, always found it comfortable for knitting and other handwork. I'm forever a "some day maybe" sort of person. And that explains why these pillows had too been relegated to the garage. I think I'm going to have to do something about that.

In the meantime, the current pillow project is a bit stalled. When I went to Walmart to get a pillow form and maybe some buttons, they only had one size of pillow form and it wasn't the size I needed. Well, I've made pillow forms in the past so I guess I can do it again. And while I didn't score on any buttons, at least they had this fiber fill for stuffing a form. 

Speaking of buttons, it was driving me crazy trying to remember where the souvenir wood buttons might have disappeared to so I took another look in the drawer where I knew they should be. And I did find them in there, no longer along the side of the drawer but shimmied in between a stack of fabric. But there aren't enough, I didn't want to try mixing in other buttons and I think I'd rather save these for a cardigan sweater anyway. But it eases my mind to have put my finger on their whereabouts. I've cut the big rectangle of fabric for the pillow and can worry about the buttons later, so why can't I move on to the next step? Relatively easy enough to press in the folds along the sides of the pillow base.  Easy enough to cut a couple of squares of muslin, seam all around leaving an opening and stuff away. Should be easy enough to layer the block for a little quilting before attaching it to the pillow base.  Yet with each of the little road bumps I've encountered, I'm finding it more difficult to get with it to get this pillow made. That's the thing I've found about dealing with my auto-immune syndrome: the fatigue that often accompanies it can make even the smallest routine task feel like an insurmountable mountain. And that's sort of where I'm at right now. I know it will pass, and making this pillow right away is not important. 

Zentangling continues at a leisurely pace as it does NOT feel like an insurmountable mountain but something I can do sitting down and is relaxing as I follow instructions. Closer and closer to finishing the Be Well series.

Here's something I recently ran across that I found quick and easy and required absolutely no tools or supplies except a group of same size envelops. Karen Abend shared this method of making a pocket booklet in one of her e-letters and since I had a stack of these brown envelops sitting on my work table (and wasn't getting much else productive done it seemed), I decided to give it a try. The glue on the flap when moistened is what holds the flap in place when slipped inside the opening of another envelop.

It works remarkably well, and I'm probably going to add four or more envelops to mine. Karen tried different media to sketch on the right hand side envelop and says all worked well. I'm really not one for using pockets in my books and am not sure what I would stick in mine, but this might be fun to take on a trip to hold things like receipts, ticket stubs and other travel ephemeral while making a quick sketch of locations where they were collected. How might you use something like this?

 

 

I'm Back

There's a song that goes "Back to life, back to reality" that I reluctantly sing in my head once my week of seclusion (or any break really from the usual routine) is over. I don't actually totally isolate myself from the world, but I do turn off the phones (alerting people who might worry if I don't pick up or return calls) and don't schedule appointments or meetings during that week. I aim for a week devoid of the usual responsibilities of everyday life and focus on, well, that varies from year to year. I soon slipped into a more relaxed routine that banished guilt that might be asking if I was spending my time as I should. The zentangle Be Well sketchbook sat open in front of the computer screen (of course I spent time on the computer!), inviting me to work in it daily. The rest I took as it came.

I was slightly amused to find some of the Be Well prompts mirroring things I was working on or running across. The tangle at the top right is one that I learned long ago and used as inspiration for a quilting design, which brought back a good memory. Some days I found myself a little unhappy with their interpretation or shading, like the basket weave above. I really want to color the entire square in alternating colors to show the over and under weaving. Once I get through the full 21 days' worth, I may redo some on the backside more to my liking.

This prompt mirrored a meditation/journaling class on growth

What I learned 

I didn't set out to learn anything, but I was struck by how my spirits lifted once the phones were off and I'd cut myself off. I realized just how much subconscious dread I've been carrying around. I've always known about this phone phobia I have which was heightened by years of earning a living answering and making phone calls. But the dread lifting was not just about unwanted phone calls. Good to know and deal with. At the same time, I did end up having to take a phone call for the old fashioned dreaded way of learning about the death of a friend (are you old enough to remember that when the phone rang it was often bad news?). Lesson number two: you can try, but you can't run away from life. On a more positive note, several times I put aside my usual tendency to procrastinate and experienced an almost buoyancy upon completing 3 notes to be slipped in the mail. "DO NOW" reaps great rewards.

What happened to 2024?

My pansies are doing really well this year, and there is a lighter colored flower on one of them that I've been wanting to sketch for weeks. What better time than now to immerse myself in a little detail sketching? I remembered using the sketchbook kept in the livingroom for this in the past and leafed through it to check. I always date my sketches and could hardly believe there were none after September of 2023. I do remember last year as a difficult one health and energy wise but really, no sketches in this sketchbook last year? I am quite pleased with how the pansy turned out as I worked to capture the creamy slightly green color and those slashes of purple. The camera does not pick that up on the original so you'll have to trust me that I got a perfect match using a surprising number of colored pencils to achieve it.

Thoreau's White Pines

I mentioned earlier about taking a more relaxed guiltless approach throughout my day, and that led me to take my coffee and sit on the steps to the back deck and just stare into the woods. I don't do this as often as I should. I'm usually reading or doing something with my hands when I sit out here or actively inspecting my container garden (and inside I'm constantly taking in information of one kind or another, seldom just aimlessly staring without much thought - such an active mind!). My eyes wandered up to the tree tops where I saw something that I had just read about in an entry in Thoreau's journals. He had climbed to the top of a white pine and discovered what he called "blossoms" - the beginnings of pine cones.

I was stunned. I've lived in this spot for 11 years and never noticed that particular pine tree having pine cones only at the top. I scanned up and down the greenbelt and didn't see another one. I grew up in this area spending so much time in the woods and never noticed a tree like this. I've lived in many states and never noticed a tree with pine cones only at the top like this. I don't know if it's a white pine but it looks like the white pines Thoreau described. So another thing learned I guess. No matter how observant you think you are, you may still need to slow down, let your eye and mind wander and notice what is there. 

Final conclusion 

I enjoyed my week of a variety of this and that, things that had been put on hold now tended to, things intentionally experienced that made me think of my husband (Star Trek movies and lots of motorcycle racing), things planned and unplanned. One of the possible options I'd jotted on a list meant to keep me from wondering how I meant to spend my time was to take another orphan block and turn it into a pillow cover. I pulled out all the fabric I'd been setting aside to make more blocks to go with it thinking there'd be something suitable to set it against (pile on the left) but nothing worked. Of course, I had the perfect fabric in my handdyes stash (under the block). I found the pattern I've used before for making a pillow cover with wider sides that would be closed with buttons (upper left). I should have stopped there and got it made to the point where the buttons go on but instead, I dumped my button jars on the table and rifled through them. Nothing quite right or of the right number. Couldn't find the card of wood buttons with maple leaf design bought as souvenir of our Canada vacation many years ago. Tried Walmart since I had to go there for a pillow form anyway but nothing even close. None at my quilt shop. Searched through more places where I might have stashed odd buttons. May have found something that will work. Anyway, this is my next project! And I still have a few other things on that list that I didn't get to when this is done. I truly never run out of things to work on.

 

That Unwanted Anniversary

F. Allen Barnes 1953 - 2000

As the anniversary of my husband's death loomed, I came to the realization that I have lived without him for as many years as we were married (we'd met and started dating only two years prior). Sigh. The day before he died was the Fourth of July and he was barbecuing up the traditional brats, showing his slight irritation at me and my camera, which of course makes me smile to this day. Traditional brats you may ask? Well yes, as we were living in Wisconsin at the time, and the all American hot dog just wouldn't do. I still fix brats every Fourth, although barbecuing is not my thing. This year I tried the Air Fryer and they turned out great.

Our 25th wedding anniversary was just a week later, and perhaps presciently, we'd done our celebrating early. I quickly chose to use the bracketing of those two events as a chance to go into seclusion, my own private retreat to reflect on our life together and consider how I might honor the support he always gave me by working on a special quilting project. I'm not doing much quilting at the moment but I'm sure he would be happy to see me take on any creative task that I've been neglecting for one reason or another. I started jotting down things I could do during this coming week and it is quite varied, mostly things that on their own would not fill up a week. So maybe a lot will get checked off my long want-to-do list. Or maybe I'll spend more time in quiet contemplation and walks down memory lane. However I end up spending my week of seclusion, I hope to maintain and even strengthen that connection I still have to that man who was the love of my life.