Author: louisaenright

I am passionate about whole, nutrient-dense foods, developing local markets, and strengthening communities.

Turkey Tracks: “Octagons: Blue and Orange” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  April 23, 2015

“Octagons:  Blue and Orange” Quilt

I’ve been working on a series of paper pieced color studies:  opposites on the color wheel–red/green, blue/orange, and purple/yellow.

These opposites really “pop” the two colors, don’t they?

Here’s the latest:  octagons separated by squares.

I saw a smaller version of paper pieced octagons with squares some time last year.  So I ordered the paper templates–not quite realizing that these patterns are measured by the size of each side, not the overall size of the octagon itself.

Then, LOL, I have to tell this on myself–it took me some time to realize that in essence this octagon is just a “snowball” block–only the separating squares are not part of the octagon itself–forming the square when each square block is pieced to the others.  Boy did I feel silly when the light bulb went off.

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I used pearl cotton to quilt.  Orange in the middle and blues in the borders.

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Then I went mad with buttons–but had so much fun.   (I like the geometric shapes that the quilting lines formed.)

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Here’s a corner:

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And here’s the first quilt in the series–to remind you–where I used Lucy Boston honeycomb templates.

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Both quilts are hanging in or just outside my quilt room.

 

Interesting Information: Liver Detoxification: Starve or Nourish?

Interesting Information:  April 23, 2015

Liver Detoxification:  Starve or Nourish

Well, it’s spring, and our thoughts turn toward spring cleaning in all sorts of ways, including our bodies.

What about liver cleanses?

About this time of the year I start to hear people talking of juice cleanses and other ways they feel they need to detox their bodies from a winter of eating what they feel are heavier goods.

I’ve always believed that if we were eating nutrient dense foods–whatever the season–our bodies would be just fine because they’d be getting exactly what they need to function optimally.

This article by Tabitha Farrar, in the Weston A. Price Foundation’s journal Wise Traditions Fall 2014 discusses this whole issue of detoxing “cleanses.”

 

Liver Detoxification: Starve or Nourish? | Weston A Price.

 

Farrar is a health editor and writer, believer in eating nutrient-dense foods, and the author of the upcoming book LOVE FAT.  So, she is not a scientist or MD, but she does provide a “jumping off” place on this topic if you want to dig deeper.

First she notes the lack of medical literature to support claims that we need to detox.

Next, she explores how the liver actually works in our bodies–and comes to the conclusion that, for instance, the master cleanse promoted by Mike Olaski “might actually work to put stress on the liver and deprive it of nutrients, and consequently have the opposite effect of its purported claims.”

How?  She goes on to detail the pitfalls.  There are sidebars discussing other cleanses, including one devised by Dr. Oz.

She also notes that detoxification is an industry meant to sell you something.  So, beware.

Don’t confuse “cleansing” with “cleanliness.”

Remember that the liver is a filter.  Toxins don’t stay in the liver.  They are moved along.  And, hopefully, out.

But I am simplifying a more complex subject, which Farrar covers quite well.

Do read, as it’s always good to know how your body actually works.

Interesting Information/Vaccines: Terry Wahls, M.D., On Vaccine Theory

Interesting Information/Vaccines:  April 22, 2015

Terry Wahls, MD, On Vaccine Theory

Terry Wahls is a clinical professor medicine at the University of Iowa and a staff physician at the Iowa City VA Hospital.

Terry Wahls cured herself of MS.  Her Ted Talk about how she effected that cure is elsewhere on this blog.  (Use the search button.)

Jeff Hays, who made BOUGHT, is sending along short “outtakes” that did not get into the movie.

Here’s Terry Wahls discussing her concerns about the theory and practice of vaccines:

Bought Movie Bonus Short- Terry Wahls, M.D. | Jeff Hays Films.

Interesting Information: Erin Brockovich Calls For End to Fluoride in Drinking Water

Interesting Information:  April 22, 2015

Erin Brockovich Calls For End to Fluoride in Drinking Water

The legendary Erin Brockovich has come out with a strong statement on putting fluoride into our drinking water.

It’s on her Facebook page–in case my link below somehow does not work.  Scroll down to the large blue and white circle that says “STOP FLUORIDE.”

You should also know that I have put lots of solid materials on fluoride in drinking water on this blog, including three Mainely Tipping Points Essays covering a major book by three senior scientists who also damn putting fluoride in water:

The Case against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There by Paul Connett, James Beck, and H. Spedding Micklem.  

Indeed, since I wrote those essays, more and more information has come out that damns putting fluoride into EVERYONE’S water.

(1) Erin Brockovich.

Interesting Information: What is Homeopathy?

Interesting Information:  April 22, 2015

What is Homeopathy?

When I first moved to Maine I’d never heard of homeopathy.

At the time, I had crippling back aches and joint pains and had just recovered from a case of poison ivy so severe that it went all over my body so that I had huge patches of open, weeping sores everywhere.

Friends here connected me with a terrific homeopath.

Eleven years later, I’m so happy to be working with a homeopath.

I’d try to explain the diametrical differences between mainstream medicine (allopathic medicine) and homeopathic medicine, but I think Amy Lansky does a much better job.

And, yes, there’s plenty of science and lots of studies behind homeopathic medicine:  you just never get to read any of them.  In my terms, that’s how a market works to demonize, ridicule, and drive out a competitor.

I have not had a bad case of poison ivy in twelve years.  I have no more constant pain.  And I am rarely, rarely sick–not even with a cold.

I also now have my own fledging little homeopathic medicine chest which I use when I need to.

Take a look?

The Side of Amy Lansky on Homeopathy.

Turkey Tracks: “Foxy Blue” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  April 2015

“Foxy Blue” Quilt

It’s official.  “Foxy Blue” was delivered, by SIL Maryann Enright, last Sunday.

This BIG quilt (97 inches square) does not photograph well in its entirety.  It’s much more subtle than the light/dark the camera is picking up.

The focus fabric is a Foxglove pattern–thus the name.

I wanted to make a low-impact quilt, Kaffe Fasset style, and to use my blue 2 1/2-inch squares.  (I have a whole BIG box of these squares left.)

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I chose a batik backing that works really well.  It sort of glows.  And a sort of seafoam binding.  You can also see that I mixed hourglass/broken dishes blocks into the borders, which gave, I think, a lot of visual interest.

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Here’s a good shot of the focus fabric.

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And one of the movement in the quilt.

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The corners.  I used a pantograph called Hyancith Grande that I’ve had for some time.  It’s by Patricia Ritter.  And I used a low-contrast thread.  The quilting came out really well.

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Another view:

 

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And another:

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The middle is comprised of the stash squares, with no attempt made to order them in any way in terms of light and dark.

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It’s a beautiful quilt…

Love, too, the bits of purple foxglove that punctuate the quilt.

Interesting Information: “Honesty vs. Policy”: Suzanne Humphries, MD

April 21, 2015

“Honesty vs. Policy”

Suzanne Humphries, MD

Suzanne Humphries, MD, is a nephrologist (kidneys) and internist who practiced at a Maine hospital before she quit due to the hospital giving her patients vaccines without her permission–vaccines which were making her fragile kidney patients much sicker. She tried her best to work within the hospital’s protocols to change the policy, but was isolated, demonized, scorned, and so forth.  (That’s the oldest industry story in town.)  She is so courageous.

She went on to research and write DISSOLVING ILLUSIONS with Roman Bystrianyk, which traces the history of significant diseases and the impact of vaccines on them.  (A review is on this blog.)

Here she gives invaluable information about many of the unintended consequences of current vaccine policy.  They’re pretty serious.  Best we all pay attention because this woman has done her homework and has a the credentials to understand where things are going so badly wrong.

The whole essay is broken into parts for easy viewing.

Honesty vs. Policy. Suzanne Humphries, MD – YouTube.

PS:  Dr. Humphries has a whole series of youtube videos if you are interested.

Interesting Information/Vaccines: CDC Uses Elmo to Sell Vaccines to Minors

Interesting Information:  April 21, 2015

CDC Uses Elmo to Sell Vaccines to Minors

In case you missed it, below you’ll find the Surgeon General’s appearance on Sesame Street, wherein he uses Elmo to sell vaccines to children.

I keep hearing doctors trying to reduce the seriousness of giving a child a vaccine to parental fears about needle pinprick and a child crying.  Most parents are far more worried about what that vaccines DOES inside their child.

Ginger Taylor, whose child has vaccine induced autism, is doing a smash up job of trying to educate the public about the REAL issues that vaccines pose and of which parents should be aware.

Anyway, if you’re so inclined, here’s the whole chain of tube videos:

Adventures in Autism: CDC Uses Elmo to Sell Vaccines to Minors.

Interesting Information: Food Sensitivities: Amy Myers MD

Interesting Information:  April 2015

FOOD SENSITIVITIES:  Amy Myers, MD

Amy Myers is a functional medicine MD.

Here’s an url to her site–which at the moment is featuring 10 signs of food sensitivities.

I used to be totally incapacitated with seasonal allergies–that started to be year round.  Bummer.

But when I began to make the connections between certain foods I was eating and stopped eating them, the seasonal allergies went away.

I don’t really have them any more–or not the streaming eyes, blowing nose version.  (I do have heightened sensitivities in the early spring that certain foods can trigger–foods I can eat just fine the rest of the year.)

I will say that I also work with a homeopath and have for about 10 years now, and I know she has made a huge difference in my constitutional health.  (I don’t seem to get poison ivy any more, for instance.)

Amy Myers MD.

Interesting Information: Household Bleach Exposure Increases Infection Rate In Children

Interesting Information:  April 20, 2015

Household Bleach Exposure Increases Infection Rate in Children

When my mother got really sick, and we children had to clean out her house, I took on the bathrooms.  I wanted them to be really clean so the house would show better.  The bathrooms were old at this stage, and there was a lot of “stuff” in the grout on the floor–after years of use and just surface cleaning.  I used almost pure bleach to scrub the tiles clean.  Now, mother’s bathrooms were not big, so the spaces were very confined.  Additionally, I cleaned out the bottom kitchen cabinets and scrubbed them with bleach.  More confined spaces.  Lots of fumes.

For some time after this cleaning frenzy, I knew that I had harmed my lungs.  How could I have been so stupid?  It took at least a year before I felt like my lungs were healthy again.

This study is one of those that can ONLY show correlation, not causation.  Questionnaires are not gold standard science.  But this kind of study can point to areas that need further study.

Chlorine is, as we know but, like me, don’t pay enough attention to–I mean, bleach is just so ubiquitous in all of our households–poisonous, toxic.

So, be careful with it.  And try other chemicals first–like hydrogen peroxide and baking soda…

Google a bit, and you’ll get some recipes to try.

Here’s the article, and the url is below:

 

Household bleach exposure increases infection rate in children, according to new research from the British Medical Journal.

The research team believes that the results of the study should be cause for concern in the area of public health. They are urging for more research on the subject.

The team analyzed the effects of bleach exposure among over 9000 children in the Netherlands, Barcelona, and Finland between the ages 6-12.

Their parents were asked to complete a questionnaire on the rates of flu, tonsillitis, sinusitis, bronchitis, otitis, and pneumonia their children had in the past year. They were also asked about bleach use in their households.

In Spain, 72 percent of participants used bleach, while in Finland, usage rates were only 7 percent. Additionally, all Spanish schools were cleaned with bleach, while the Finnish schools were not.

After analysis of all factors, the research team concluded that household bleach exposure increases infection rate in children.

The risk of one episode of flu infection was 20 percent higher, and recurrent tonsillitis risk was 35 percent higher among households that used bleach.

The overall risk of any infection was 18 percent higher in households that regularly used bleach.

The researchers wrote: “The high frequency of use of disinfecting cleaning products, caused by the erroneous belief, reinforced by advertising, that our homes should be free of microbes, makes the modest effects reported in our study of public health concern.”

“Passive exposure to cleaning bleach in the home may have adverse effects on school-age children’s health by increasing the risk of respiratory and other infections. The high frequency of use of disinfecting irritant cleaning products may be of public health concern, also when exposure occurs during childhood,” they concluded.

The study showing that household bleach exposure increases infection rate in children was published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.

Note: None of the information in our website is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any illness or disease. The content on our website is for educational purposes only.

Health Freedom Alliance – Household Bleach Exposure Increases Infection Rate In Children.