Adventure

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and she and my brother and aunt came over for lunch. My mom had requested subs and brownies, so we had those--plus pizza for Dave, a salad that no one touched (lol), a pineapple upside down cake my mom brought and a pecan pie from my brother. Oh, and ice cream. And iced tea. Yes, I ate way to much. We gave my mom a gift certificate and a batik scarf in a Native American-ish design. We're also planning to send her and my aunt on a cruise once they decide where they want to go, since we missed their big milestone birthdays (60 and 70) during the pandemic. So far, my mom has expressed an interest in going to the Panama canal and on a transatlantic cruise and my aunt wants to go somewhere there are beaches. Hopefully they can work a common destination out of those things. We'll see.

My aunt brought my great grandmother's sewing machine with her. It's trashed from living in sheds and outside under tarps and the machine can't be salvaged. Heartbreaking. The iron treadle may be able to be used as table legs and the drawers might be pressed into service as small display shelves, but the rest of the cabinet is lost. We put it in the garage for now.

My aunt also brought some more of my grandmother's embroidery, two pillowcases that my grandmother made for her. I'll post photos of them soon.

A book came in the mail today, Cecilia Blomdahl's Life on Svaldbard: Finding Home on a Remote Island Near the North Pole. She is a 30-something woman from Sweden who moved to the northernmost city in the world, planned to stay a few months, and instead has been there almost a decade. I've followed her on youtube for awhile; There's something so appealing about her and her life, about the adventure of living so remotely and in such an austere setting. I want to support that kind of life, so I ordered her new book. I hope she publishes a million more books. We need more women who embrace adventure in our lives. 

My adventure this week? Macrobid and dental surgery (postponed until Monday).

The State Of

A doctor's visit this past week; a good doctor but not a pleasant visit. Still waiting for test results.

Yes, I still wear a mask everywhere. The doctor did not, nor the staff. One other patient was wearing a mask.

You can guess from this display what kind of doctor I went to see.

The days have been fine, even if I am not. The last storm however shook many of the golden leaves from the trees near the pond, but Gray Kitty (he's there, you just have to search) was still able to find a spot to have a drink.

 It's a beautiful day today again.

My post-election retail therapy booty has been arriving. Things from Ikea (small decorative items, bathroom rugs, a bamboo cutting board, two flexible cutting boards, a food cover for the microwave), from Target (a pair of miniature Christmas threes and lights and things to go on them), from Missouri Star Quilt Company, from E-Quilter (yes, more fabric, always more fabric), from Amazon (bread books and oven thermometers for Dave)...I've slowed down some on shopping for myself or for Dave or the house. Christmas is coming--though I'll probably make a fair number of our gifts.

Speaking of Christmas, is it time to put up the tree? Sigh. Last year, we left it so late. This year, I don't want to do that. Our mantle is half Day of the Dead right now, but that should have been taken down weeks ago. 

What else?

I have been doing some sewing. I decided in the end not to make a third leaf quilt, so I took the 18 blocks I had already made and used nine of them to make a table runner or wall hanging (still needs to be quilted). While I was folding that up, I found another table runner or wall hanging that I made from leftover blocks from the last leaf quilt I made (still needs to be quilted). I had 100% forgotten that I had even made it. I still have 9 blocks from this abandoned leaf quilt--as well as another eight or that I made in the process of trying out different sizes and fabrics. I probably bought enough fabric to make another dozen leaf quilts--maybe I'll make one annually. I do love fall.

While I sew, I am still half-watching episodes of Elementary, the Sherlock Holmes based series. I like it a lot actually, but it is a bit much when episode after episode plays in the background. I've just started season six of seven. Don't know what I'll half-watch after this. Maybe Bridgerton. Again.

This past week, I also did some housework and a lot of laundry. Today, more of the same. (We're taking a break right now.) Tomorrow is my mom's birthday and she and my brother and aunt are coming for lunch. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can sit on the patio, but I want to make sure the dining room table is cleared off enough to sit in there if the weather is not nice. We use that table for everything from eating our meals to watching Netflix to art journaling so it gets quite cluttered. The house also gets quite dusty, too. I'm not a great at dusting, my hands get itchy and I get congested, but today I'm putting on gloves and getting it done. I also have to clean at least one bathroom...then there's the sink full of dishes...and the floor to be mopped...

Ain't No More

 

By now you know the worst of it, the fascist rapist child molesting nightmare will return to the white house. He promised to be a dictator on day one and his cronies are promising mass deportation of immigrants starting on the same day. They have promised to begin "denaturalizing" American citizens in order to deport them. Women's rights are on the chopping block. Further eliminations of reproductive rights for women, including IVF and birth control. More tax cuts for the wealthy. Public lands being sold to private owners to be stripped of their resources. They lied about Project 2025 and are now admitting that it will go into effect as soon as possible. Businesses will have an avenue to not pay workers overtime. The Department of Education will be eliminated. The FDA which ensures drugs are safe and effective will be hamstrung. Pre-existing conditions will reappear in insurance policies preventing people from getting care. It will go on and on and on.

People still think that this will only last four years until the next presidential election. There may very well never be another election in the U.S. 

I'm sad--spent Wednesday on the couch in an anxiolytic haze, strange dreams and all--and slowly that sadness transformed into anger. I'm now willing to watch people suffer over their votes--or over staying home and not voting or leaving the president choice blank on their ballots or voting third party. Sorry not sorry about slashes to your Medicaid and Medicare. Sorry not sorry about the increased taxes and prices of goods because of tariffs. Sorry not sorry about your social security checks being cut. Good luck. We'll help if we know you voted for Harris/Walz, but other wise I'll be over here snacking on schadenfreude while the leopards eat you up.

Wednesday night we had wind and snow and our power went out around 1:00 a.m. It was supposed to come back on by 2 a.m.--then 4 a.m.--then 6 a.m.--then noon...The house got colder and colder and we turned on the hot spots on our phones and we piled on the quilts and watched Netflix. Everything in the house is electric so we had no heat and no water. We couldn't even flush the toilets. We used our backup battery generator for my oxygen concentrator and Dave broke out the gas powered camp stove so we could make hot drinks. The power came back on around 2 p.m. and we flushed the toilets and I took a shower.

Today, only partly cloudy and the snow is mostly gone or melting rapidly. 

I finally got off the couch today, ordered some more fabric online, did some laundry, put away some cluttery things. Now I'm sitting at my sewing desk. Maybe I'll sew. I'm going to be doing a lot of that in the coming days and weeks and years. How else to maintain sanity?

Seeds

While working on my current project, I started as a potential leader and ender project, this:

This is a bear paw block--one quarter of it anyway as they are grouped into four (bears have four paws), each facing a different direction. I used my new AccuQuilt cutter and some scrap fabric to cut the components for this block. It's smaller than I usually like to work--the red and blue half-square triangles finish at two-and-a-half inches, smaller than my patience usually allows. 

This charming little thing came in the mail yesterday.

It's a small pincushion (not really that small, but the maker calls it small). I ordered it from a woman on Etsy who calls her business "Dolls and their Girls." She makes them by hand and they are very well made.

 

The print is a Tula Pink holiday print. I love it. In fact, several years ago I had a very small bit of it in a different colorway and used it to make two needle books, one large for at home and one small travel one.

Because we don't really travel anymore, I don't use the travel one. (It used to live in my work bag.) And because of my arthritis, I rarely use the at home one.

I have two pin cushions from the same maker. One I actually use as a pin cushion. The new racoon one is going to just be for show.

I don't collect many things (besides books and fabric), but these pin cushions? The Brain likes them. I can see having more.

Falling Again

We voted today, early, at the small polling station in the village. I'm glad it's done. Now I can watch the election carnage with a clear conscience. It's terrifying that the election is even close. I can't believe the number of stupid people--racist, misogynistic, hateful--in this country, people willing to vote for a convicted felon and rapist because--why, again?

That's a lie. I don't have any trouble believing it. I'm from here. I've been at the shit end of this system--the system that bell hooks calls the white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy--my whole life. It's exhausting.

Have you voted yet? If you haven't and you can, get your shit together and do so.

Before and after voting, I worked on the latest leaf quilt. Sewing is keeping me sane at the moment. (This is a staged photo with my favorite leaf block so far and  my iPad with an episode of Elementary playing in the background. To the right of the iPad is a stack of 3.5 inch squares that I use to make up my scrappy leaf bodies. )

I have thirty-eight of these blocks done. I'm trying to decide how many I'll need to make a big quilt. It may be upwards of 100 blocks like this for a queen sized quilt. Or I may just make it a lap/nap quilt and be done with it. I don't know yet.

Oh, and of course the six yards of sapphire blue I ordered was not the right color. I'm using it anyway. 

The woman who taught me quilting--a woman I've never met and who will never meet, but whose online tutorials have turned me into a quilter--has a phrase that she repeats often: Finished is better than perfect. That is my motto when it comes to quilting, too. As far as my quest for the perfect blue: Another art teacher I follow online often says, don't waste time looking for the perfect thing, go with the first thing that works.  (That said, I have six yards of azure blue in another cart just waiting for me to hit the order button. But do I want to make this quilt again? That would make it three times. Do I want to make the same quilt three times? Maybe I do. I'm still thinking about it. Maybe I want to make this quilt again and again and again until I'm done making it. I don't know yet.)

This is something else I made recently:

A year (!) ago, my friend Grace gave me this flannel yardage and asked for pajama pants. There was only one yard of it, so the back is made from a red plaid flannel that was in my fabric stash. This pattern makes enormous pajama pants. That is only an XL. After I made these, I went online and looked for the same pattern in a smaller size. Turns out the pattern was discontinued, but I found an online seller on Etsy who had it and I ordered it (along with a pin cushion from another seller). 

 

I also used this pattern to make an apron for my mother recently. I tried to photograph it, but it was hard to photograph an apron just hanging there, so I'll get a photo when I give it to her.

 

What else? 

 

Last night, on the way home from picking up dinner, a young coyote ran across the road in front of our car. We see them from time to time, but this one was very bold, crossing the road. I feel for them having to do that. I feel for any wild animal having to try to make its way in this increasingly hostile world. I love the coyotes. I love to hear them howl at night.