Month: February 2019

Turkey Tracks: The “36-Ring Circus” EPP Project

Turkey Tracks:  February 24, 2019

The “36-Ring Circus” EPP Project

…is taking shape.

There are six rows, six rings to a row.  I’m working on the last ring of row one now.

This project is the hardest I’ve done as sewing the rings to the center block is challenging.  There is a learning curve here, but I am getting faster now, which is also probably driven by seeing enough of it now to think I like it.

So far, the centers are Cotton+Steel, but I’m not sure I’ll keep to those fabrics.  The outer rings are pastels, and the inner connecting pieces are solid darks.  The quilt is designed by Joanne Lewis, and the pattern is at Paper Pieces.  I did NOT buy all the templates for the centers, just the ones for the center points and the rings.  It’s easy enough to just trace what I need for the centers from the paper templates and add an eyeballed seam allowance.

 

A few years back I discovered that this old lap top “table” platform works great for EPP projects.  With pins and clips, I can keep everything together, from my thimble, my thread, to my scissors.  PLUS, the high width of one side is perfect in terms of getting the project up high enough from my lap so that I am not hunching over and making my neck sore.  I usually sew this project at night in front of the tv, so I prop the top edge against a tv table edge, and that makes the height-from-lap distance really perfect.

 

Turkey Tracks: View From My Dining Space

Turkey Tracks:  February 17, 2019

View From My Dining Space

I love winter in Maine.

It’s a fairly quiet time for me, with lots of time for sewing.

And for slowing down to take in the pretty winter view from my windows.  And, to notice that the bulbs are sprouting.  The amaryllis in the near pot is finally showing a green stem.  They have been slow this year for some reason I don’t understand.

AC and I have been visiting the dog park a lot as the woods are too full of ice to visit.  But, the days are getting longer now, and in other parts of the country, trees and shrubs are blooming.

AC is waiting patiently for me now—to get dressed and “to go in the car.”

It is time.

Turkey Tracks: Wood-Chewing Dog

Turkey Tracks:  February 14, 2019

Wood-Chewing Dog

Happy Valentine’s Day to ALL.

We can use more love in the world.  Always.

So…

It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that my No No Penny dog is waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge, alongside Miss Reynolds Georgia.

When I came back from a recent weekend trip on a Sunday afternoon, Penny was experiencing a bad episode of her syndrome.  She was paralyzed, in a lot of pain, and miserable.  She had just had enough suffering.  I had had enough of watching her suffer.  So I wrapped her up and carried her in my arms to the emergency vet.  They agreed, that at 16 years (sometime this year) and as sick as she was, that it was time.  They thanked me for not letting her suffer anymore.

AC had been nurse-maiding her for some time.  He took her outside, followed her around, and brought her back inside and loved on her a lot.

So when she disappeared, he really missed her.  I had been keeping him separate from her when I left for any length of time, so when I disappeared for several days, I think he got really scared.  He chewed up the bottom of my pine kitchen desk while I was gone.  It is really bad.  Friend Linda taped it up and barricaded it, but once a dog starts chewing something like that desk, s/he keeps on chewing.  Despite bitter apple spray and more barricading and LOTS of chew toys to include a bong stuffed with peanut butter and frozen, he took apart the protective pieces and chewed some more both last Friday and Saturday when I left him in the kitchen for a few hours alone.

This picture does not begin to show the shredding that took place.  I’m still amazed he could do such damage.  Friend Karen Martin thinks it could be repaired with some wood compounds.  I’ll deal with that later.  It is not an expensive piece—it just works really well in this spot.  And it may live out its life with a slightly better tape repair.  Who knows.  I don’t.

After Saturday, I gave up.  Something had to be done.  He knew it was bad when I came home.  He apologized all over the place.  I’ve never had a dog that chewed furniture.  I’m hearing that it is fairly common however.  But…  I headed out to buy a LARGE crate.  I am not a fan of dog crates, preferring Peter Loeb’s methods in SMARTER THAN YOU THINK.  But there isn’t a place in my kitchen to set up the confinement strategy Loeb uses.  And I am about 5 months to late for that stragegy.  I stuffed the cage with one of the VERY plush dog beds.  AC knows exactly what it is and will not go near it, of course.  It will get used tomorrow morning as I will be “out” without him for a few hours.  He mostly goes everywhere with me most of the time.

Having AC is, at times, like having a toddler in the house.  There are LOTS of toys that get played with a lot.  And frequent trips outside.  And visits to the dog park.  We can’t walk in the woods again, yet, but we both are looking forward to getting back out there.  There are sheets of ice EVERYWHERE right now, so I’m not going to risk it.  But I love the energy this little guy has brought into my life.

AC, as I’ve said before now, is very aware of what’s on the TV.  There is a dog show—a series of documentaries that are very sweet—that I have watched from time to time.  AC reacts strongly to seeing dogs on the screen.  He then wants to run outside to check that side of the house to see where the dogs are.  He also objects to other images and runs to the screen and barks at them—until he is called back and soothed.

He’s a very funny little dog, and I’m so happy I have him.  The cage will likely be a temporary thing.  He will be a year old in late March.

Here’s a video of AC and the tv.

Interesting Information: Bathrooms and Toxic Exposure

Interesting Information:  February 12, 2019

Bathrooms and Toxic Exposure

Our skin is the largest “organ” in our bodies.

Our skin ABSORBS what gets put on it—straight into our bodies.

Much of what we are putting on our skin these days is extremely toxic.  We gleefully slather on toxic brews that we think smell good.  Only, unless one is using an essential oil, the smells are chemically composed.

We wear clothing we have doused in laundry products that are also toxic.  Be especially aware of the toxic nature of dryer cloths.  I only put then in my mailbox to deter hornets from nesting there.

We shampoo often with toxic brews—you can just rinse out your hair unless it is really greasy.  You don’t have to shampoo every day.

We soap ourselves off with soaps composed of fake chemical smells.  Also, over-soaping our bodies washes off the natural colonies that form and that protect us from invastion through our skin.  So, wash often, especially in warm weather, but don’t soap up unless you have really gotten into grease or actual dirt.  You won’t “smell.”  Water is corrosive in and of itself, and it can clean you off just fine.  In modern water systems, the water is heavily treated to keep it clean anyway, and your skin aborbs whatever is in that water.

Use a non-toxic deoderant. I love salt sticks which are readily available.  Baking soda and a bit of corn starch to make it less scratchy also  works.

Make-up, of course, is a real problem.  As are “moisturers.”  I use a good coconut oil laced with fun essential oils.

Here’s a post with more information:

http://adifferentkindofdoctor.blogspot.com/2019/01/5-ways-to-reduce-toxin-exposure-in.html#more

Turkey Tracks: A Modern Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  February 12, 2019

A Modern Quilt

Rebecca Hokkanen is one of our snow birds who winters in Florida.  She sent me this picture of a modern quilt, and I thought you all might like to see it as well.

Rebecca wrote “I attended an “Airing of the Quilts” in Venice. The quilts were all designed by members of the local modern quilt group.  This one brought you to my mind because of the use of the muted colors ( low value/low volume?).”

It’s a pretty quilt, don’t you think?  Cutting blocks with “sticks” is showing up more and more these days in modern quilts.

Thanks, Rebecca!

 

 

Turkey Tracks: A Yummy Lunch

Turkey Tracks:  February 10, 2019

A Yummy Lunch

It’s cold today up here in Maine, but clear.  A big storm is moving our way and will arrive Tuesday night.

I wanted something starch for lunch—after buying food and visiting the dog park.

Rice noodles started to drift through my head.

So…

Noodles, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, a yellow pepper, a head of bok choy—and I should have added some celery—chicken, ginger, herbs, and garlic.  I eat a lot of veggies at the two meals I eat in a day.  I almost always have an apple for “dessert,” but vary that with frozen/defrosted organic Maine wild blueberries and the strawberries and raspberries I froze from my garden.

And:

Next up:  a coffee in town with a friend.  And then some sewing.  My design wall is absolutely crazy, but I’m having fun.  More on sewing projects later.

The book is the 9th in the Poldark series by Winston Graham.  The tv series will end before the series gets to the children, and I was not quite ready to let go yet, so I started reading the rest of the novels.  I think there are…12?  I have to check on that.

 

Turkey Tracks: “Star Bright” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  February 10, 2019

Star Bright Quilt

I love this lap-size quilt!

The blocks are all Katja Marek’s from THE NEW HEXAGON and all made with Cotton+Steel fabrics.

The border and text print “stars” around the blocks are not C+S, but everything else is.

For some reason I bought TWO of the 52-block packages from Paper Pieces, so I did feel compelled to make this set.  I am so happy I did.

I added my own templates to “square off” the quilt top, rather than floating the blocks on a border.  I also wanted the print-text fabric “stars” to be present at the top and bottom of the quilt.

I used the same “mouse” print for the back, only in a dusty salmon, as I used in the squaring off around the quilt top.

I quilted the “diamonds” that are present on the front of the quilt on my domestic sewing machine, using a walking foot.  And added some stabilizing cross lines.  But I put the quilt on the long arm to make the quilt package.  That works really well I’m finding.  It is much easier to pin with no issues on the long arm.  I like the quilting in the border as well. It’s all very geometric, like the hexies and star points.

Well!!  How cute is this?

 

I have SEVEN GRANDCHILDREN, and I want each of them to have a hand-piecedquilt from me.  I have six done now, and am working on the 7th—a wedding ring riff called “36-Ring Circus.”  I just completed the fourth “ring” last night.    It will have 6 by 6 rows/rings.

This one is hard I think.  One needs to use a flat-back stitch with the curves…  But I’m getting faster now.  And I’ve glued a lot of the templates.

 

Turkey Tracks: Anna Graham’s Noodlehead Pillows

Turkey Tracks:  February 4, 2019

Anna Graham’s Noodlehead Pillows

Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild has two new ongoing projects:  “Bee Inspired” and “Noodlehead,” inspired by Anna Graham’s projects, some of which can be seen in her book HANDMADE STYLE.  More on “Bee Inspired” in future posts.  At our January meeting, some of us shared our Noodlehead projects.  We don’t demand that projects by totally Anna Graham’s, but, rather, be handmade.  In February, we will bring our first “Bee Inspired” blocks for the quilter chosen for this first month.  She will walk away with the block makings for a quilt.  You can see info on that project on our Mt. Battie Modern Quilt Guild Facebook page, which is now public.

I really needed some low-back pillows in my two deep living room chairs, so I used Graham’s book measurements and invisible zipper closure to make long, narrow pillows.  I didn’t quilt the fronts as the fabric didn’t really want to be quilted.  I made my own strip of flying geese.  Graham’s instructions included muslin linings for both front and back of the pillows—and the zipper means the casings can be taken off and washed easily if need be.

It is a lovely pattern, and I have ordered a set of 4 square pillow forms to replace tired pillows on the downstairs couch.

 

I put the geese trips on opposite sides of the pillows.

And here is Graham’s book, which is full of “handmade style.”