Month: October 2021

Turkey Tracks: October 31, 2021

Wild Storm

It’s Halloween tonight.

I think the wild storm that tore through here last night and this morning has traveled enough away now so that the children will be able to Trick or Treat tonight.

AC and I went out mid-morning to the grocery store, with rain clouds still swirling around but not actively producing rain. All along the road wherever water ran over the road in the night, it had carved out serious ditches which probably compromised the stability of the road at the edges. The worst places were marked with orange cones the town had installed to warn drivers to stay away from the edge of the road.

We couldn’t get to the athletic field at the Snow Bowl as Hosmer Pond was pouring over Barnstown road which runs alongside the pond—and it was deep enough I wouldn’t take the risk of traveling along it to get to the field. The car in front of me turned around, and I did as well.

I thought I’d try the parking lot at Barrett’s Cove at the lake to see if AC could chase his ball there. All along Molyneaux Street, which runs below my house, the creek was raging.

Here’s the second part of the video as I had to travel down the creek to get this part of what was happening.

Other people were out and about to see how things looked.

I had a tree limb down in the driveway that I was able to pull to the side. I had to get the bow saw to cut off one of its limbs, and I’ll pull it further down the hill when things dry out a bit and I have on sturdy boots. So, I’m feeling lucky with regard to trees falling and water flooding.

AC did get his time chasing his ball—and he chased the ducks on the pond near the water line and took a little swim. He didn’t stay long though as the water must be really cold now. Our temps are dropping pretty low at night, but so far, no hard freeze up here on the hillside. That’s coming though, any night now. The zucchini plant is still trying to grow zucchinis.

Turkey Tracks: October 25, 2021

Mid-October 2021 Update

I spent most of last week outside putting the garden to bed and putting away outdoor things that get stored during the winter.

And yesterday I did the last mow and spent some time blowing off the new crop of fallen leaves to get ready for the crew coming this morning to do the heavy lifting I can’t do—like putting down the snow boardwalk—and the weed whacking I can’t do of trees that sprouted this past year in places where trees getting bigger pose future problems.

And I am still finishing up, but most of what I can do is now done until we have a hard freeze.

On some days I wasn’t too tired in the late afternoon to do another row of quilting on ”Joyful,” the wedding ring quilt designed by Tara Faughan. I used my solid scraps to make it, and I have loved working with all these colors. The binding has been installed and is being sewn down at night and all the threads on the front have now been buried.

I used the Innova attached ruler equipment to quilt ”Joyful,” as I thought it just needed something plain. Along the way, the extra heavy ruler foot arrived, and I installed it. The thicker foot makes working with rulers a lot easier. The quilting is NOT perfect—as using this ruler was another learning curve, but along the way I got better and better at making lines meet and not making rookie mistakes. In any case, the whole effect looks grand, and I’ll let it go at that.

The quilt really needed lines on the diagonal—it would have been easy to do a horizontal grid, but that would not have played well with these blocks. And as longarm quilters know, the longarm machine can only go on a diagonal as far as the quilting space allows. And, with the ruler foot supportive pad installed beneath the quilt, that space gets shortened as the pad bumps up against the rollers front and back. Plus, one has to ”travel” to get to the next horizontal line—so part of my learning curve involved accurate stitching in the ditch—which got better as I went along because I got way more comfortable with the machine itself.

I can’t wait to make this quilt again using a controlled fabric palette. The block is just so much fun to make.

Speaking of fabric palettes, the first month’s fabric for The Color Collective, season 4, is due to arrive in the mail today, and the first pattern designed by Tara Faughnan releases November 1. It’s a really fun quilt, and I look forward to playing with these new blocks. If you want to see the pattern, go to Tara’s Instagram account and take a look. I took a screenshot but don’t think I should use it without her permission. (The Color Collective online class is hosted by Sewtopia and runs for six months with Tara’s designs and one month with guest designer Annabel Lowe Wrigley.) When I have a few of my own blocks on the design wall, I will be able to share those.

Meanwhile, I’m working on the 12-inch block light grey/dark grey/black chimney log cabin project, AND I’m playing with a quilt idea seen in the most recent Simply Modern magazine. More on these projects along the way.

We have rain coming in, and I can use a few rainy days for sewing, weekly inside cleaning/laundry, and some cooking.

October 24, 2021

Some Inspiration

Here’s a poem and a picture a friend posted on Facebook. She got it from a site called “Midwives of the Soul.”

“In difficult times, you move forward in small steps.

My grandmother once gave me a tip:

Do what you have to do, but little by little.

Don’t think about the future, or what may happen tomorrow.

Wash the dishes.

Remove the dust.

Write a letter.

Make a soup.

You see?

You are advancing step by step.

Take a step and stop.

Rest a little.

Praise yourself.

Take another step.

Then another.

You won’t notice, but your steps will grow more and more.

And the time will come when you can think about the future without crying.”

– Elena Mikhalkova

(Image of Tasha Tudor, American Illustrator 1915-2008)