Books, Documentaries, Reviews: November 4, 2013
Want to know all the “ends and outs” of Downton Abbey and Masterpiece Theatre?
NPRs Diane Rehm interviewed Rebecca Eaton last week. So go find out all about Downton Abbey–including why we won’t see it in the US until January–and why Matthew had to go “under the car.” And hear a lovely history of how Masterpiece Theatre became such a success.
ENJOY! a lovely hour with Diane and Rebecca!
Turkey Tracks: November 3, 2013
The Wheels of Mystery/Winding Ways quilt top is finished. (This light/dark block is known by both names.)
I have Bonnie Hunter to thank for the border treatment, and I think it works really well.
I am working on piecing the back now–which is taking 9 yards of fabric right out of my stash. YEAH!! This quilt is finishing up at just under 90 by 90 inches.
I have yet to find a binding I like…
Here’s a close-up of the blocks:
I hand pieced more than half of these blocks–and really enjoyed the hand sewing. Indeed, I’m off on a whole new hand-sewing project list–which I’ll talk about in another post. But these blocks sew well on the machine too.
This kind of quilt is drawn from what can only be called “deep stash”–Bonnie Hunter’s term–as there are so very many wonderful fabrics in the quilt–fabrics that have been collected for over 10 years.
The other hand-quilting project is this little clam shell quilt–made from fabrics inherited from a local quilter here who died tragically of cancer, Susan Barry.
I have two clam shell templates–this one (4 inches) and, yikes!, a smaller one. I could not find much online on how best to sew a clam shell block. There is a lot of excess fabric in the curve that has to be eased into its complimentary arc. It isn’t easy. Many on-line suggestions involve appliqueing the blocks, but I didn’t want to do that. Clipping the curve is absolutely necessary. Deeply clipping. And lots of pinning and lots of easing in by hand. One could, I suppose, sewing a basting line to ease in the material, but I did not.
This week I got the clam shells trimmed up and the borders on. These pictures do not do this little quilt justice. It’s pale and sweet, and just isn’t showing up well at all.
Here it is on the design wall, where it is absolutely dying with the white border on the white wall:
Here’s a close-up of the blocks:
Here’s a close-up of the border fabrics. I wanted something darker to set off the clam shells’ paleness. And the little rose fabric came in the fabric mixture. I had thought it would be the backing. But it isn’t. I used, instead, a white rose with green accents fabric–which I did not take a picture of here.
I am going to hand quilt it. I layered it together late one night–too late–I should have stopped. And used a too-thick batting I had on hand. I am so spoiled with Lucy the Longarm. I have not layered and pinned a quilt in a long time. It’s so tedious. Anyway, I took it all apart and put in a thinner batting–and it’s hand-quilting so nicely now.
Enjoying my quiet nights of hand quilting and watching tv shows…
Have seen all of HOMELAND, Season 2; all of FALLING SKIES; all of SUITS; all of ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK; DAMAGES, season 5; all of Kenneth Branaugh’s WALLANDER; and am up-to-date with THE GOOD WIFE and REVENGE. Last night I watched a very young Reese Witherspoon in THE MAN IN THE MOON, which is a real tearjerker. Now moving on to new episodes of NIKITA, but it’s starting to play out now as a series. Am waiting for GAME OF THRONES, season 3; NEWSROOM, season 2; CALL THE MIDWIVES, season 3?; and, of course, DOWNTON ABBEY.
Documentaries: November 3, 2013
Terry Gross interviewed David Hoffman, the developer of the FRONTLINE television show that aired last week on the presence and threat of Superbugs that are now present in our world.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) allowed, and helped, Hoffman address–and surface–this very real problem.
Hospitals are really threatened with these Superbugs, but they are present in other environments as well.
Below find a link to Gross’s very informative interview:
Antibiotics Can’t Keep Up With ‘Nightmare’ Superbugs : NPR.
And here’s a quote from the web page–which has a link to the Frontline program.
We’re used to relying on antibiotics to cure bacterial infections. But there are now strains of bacteria that are resistant to even the strongest antibiotics, and are causing deadly infections. According to the CDC, “more than 2 million people in the United States every year get infected with a resistant bacteria, and about 23,000 people die from it,” journalist David Hoffman tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross.
Many people are familiar with the type of resistant infections often acquired in hospitals, caused by MRSA, the acronym for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. But most people don’t know about the entirely different group of resistant bacteria that Hoffman reports on in Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria, airing Tuesday on PBS’ Frontline. The show explores an outbreak of resistant bacteria at one of the most prestigious hospitals in the U.S., and explains why there is surprisingly little research being conducted into new antibiotics to combat these new superbugs.
“We really have a big information black hole about these really, really dangerous bacteria, and we need to know more, and it ought to be a national priority,” Hoffman says.
Me, I’m staying out of hospitals unless I get carried in there on a stretcher.
Books, Documentaries, Reviews: November 3, 2013
Well, here’s a book I’m buying.
THE BROTHERS is a really good example, I’m thinking, of what I learned in Cultural Studies–the power of those with cultural power to effect vast and sweeping changes in a nation.
The “brothers” are John Foster and Alllen Dulles. AT the same time, one was head of the CIA, the other Secretary of State. Together they changed the course of our nation from being a nation that would help out with something like World War I or II, to a nation that went out actively and sought out actively “monsters” to police.
The “brothers” could no begin to imagine the blowback from this shift in philosophy–with which we are dealing profoundly today.
I think it would take a long time to pass before a nation could look back on accumulated history and see the philosophical shift and to understand how it happened and why it happened.
Kinzer is a journalist, not a historian. So there might be a critique mounted against his credentials. But, I don’t think one can say that THE BROTHERS is a populist, read lightweight, book.
I’m going to read it…
At the very least, you’ll learn a lot from the interview by NPR’s Terry Gross:
Interview: Stephen Kinzer, Author Of The Brothers : NPR.
Here’s a quote from the web page:
In 1953, for the first and only time in history, two brothers were appointed to head the overt and covert sides of American foreign policy. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed John Foster Dulles secretary of state, and Allen Dulles director of the CIA.
Journalist Stephen Kinzer says the Dulles brothers shaped America’s standoff with the Soviet Union, led the U.S. into war in Vietnam, and helped topple governments they thought unfriendly to American interests in Guatemala, Iran, the Congo and Indonesia. In his new book, The Brothers, Kinzer says the Dulles’ actions “helped set off some of the world’s most profound long-term crises.”
John Dulles died in 1959. President Kennedy replaced Allen Dulles after the covert operation he recommended to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba ended disastrously in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
Kinzer tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross that the Dulles’ shared background and ideology played out in their policy decisions: “They had this view of the world that was implanted in them from a very young age,” Kinzer says. “That there’s good and evil, and it’s the obligation of the good people to go out into the world and destroy the evil ones.”
Turkey Tracks: November 1, 2013
Friendship Samplers is the Pine Tree Quilting Guild chapter located to Camden’s north, in Belfast, Maine.
(We are the Coastal Quilters here in Camden.)
The Friendship Samplers quilters are strong, competent, wonderful quilters. There is just so much talent in that group.
They do a quilt show every other year, and this year was the year.
And this year, their show was as wonderful as ever.
I did not begin to take pictures of everything–or even of some of the most amazing quilts–and there were many. I took pictures of work that stimulated my own creativity. And do remember that the quilts I love best are scrappy quilts that are functional.
First, my most favorite quilt was my friend Joan Herrick’s “Logs and Ladders”–where she has combined a log cabin block with a Jacob’s Ladder block–and took advantage of their strong directional orientations. There’s one of these in my future!
I was intrigued by the quilting in this quilt–and later realized it’s called “McTavishing,” after Karen McTavish, who invented it. You can see how to do it on Leah Day’s web site, along with at least 400 other free-motion quilting designs she has put onto utube videos.
Don’t you love this modern “take” on the log cabin block?
I love the work of Alice Parsons. And she had a hand in this quilt below:
It’s stitched with bright orange thread in squiggly lines up and down the quilt. And look at the use of purple for the sashing. That purple is making the yellow leap out of the quilt!
Look at how the center square is varied–and the use of the adorable funky bird–and the use of rows of the squares…
I want to make a quilt with birds at the center of some kind of block. And I love what these quilters have done here. It’s just so much fun!
Here’s another creative idea for making use of a central square with something (birds!) fussy cut inside it. Surround the square with flying geese and corner blocks:
The flying geese and their backgrounds can vary in color choice. What’s uniting the quilt here is the sashing/border fabric–in this case black and white and the use of the center square with a border around it.
The Friendship Samplers always have a “quilt alley” where you buy chances (25 for $2!!!) and put your chances in the can/s of the quilt/s number you like.
All these quilts were to be “won” on Friday. Another set went up on Saturday.
I found many little quilts I liked on this wall. But this one was my favorite:
Here’s a close-up of the blocks:
The Friendship Samplers always have goodies to eat–and they COVER FOOD TABLES WITH QUILTS–which fascinated Giovann McCarthy–on her first outing to a Frienship Samplers Quilt Show:
I really loved some of these “table cloth” quilts. I cringed at using a quilt for a table cloth, but their use does remind one that quilts are made to be used and loved:
Here’s a close-up of a table cloth quilt. I’ve never found a squared square form that I didn’t like:
Here’s a close-up:
I was most intrigued with this pattern as well:
Here below you can see the two blocks that make the pattern together: 4 half-square triangles with the colors to the inside making a square AND a sixteen patch with four red blocks making the center. I’d cut the block to combine two of the white squares into a rectangle though
This quilt was HAND STITCHED!!!
Imagine it made in any number of colors–as long as you keep the light and dark values: blue, yellow, orange, brown, etc.
SO, our group really enjoyed the Friendship Samplers Quilt Show 2013 and look forward to attending in 2015!
Thanks Friendship Samplers!
After the show we had lunch at Chase’s Daily–which specializes in local foods mostly from (in season) their farm. And we visited Nancy’s Quilt Shop on Route 3 just outside Belfast to pick up more of a fabric that two of our quilters wanted to buy more of than Nancy had at the show.
Turkey Tracks: November 1, 2013
This summer I had the kitchen counter formica, which was shredding, replaced with Corian.
What a treat!
I chose a warm peachy shade–thinking it would blend well with the paint color–Beeswax–Benjamin Moore–which I liked a lot.
When we bought this house, there was a lovely paint palette in place–some thought combination of Martha Stewart colors.
But, as we lived here, we realized we wanted warmer colors–the Martha Stewart colors were all smoky greens, almost going over into greys. They were just too cool.
So, that’s how the kitchen became a shade of orange.
BUT, BUT, the new Corian fought with the wall paint. Or, maybe, they just weren’t doing a thing for each other.
Here’s what the kitchen looked like…
Nothing special at all…
I went and got lighter shades of peach–and settled on several that would work–and asked everyone who came by to “vote” on their favorite. Again, the kitchen would be warm and comforting.
But, something just wasn’t right. And my mind turned to thinking about other colors. Green kept popping up.
About that time, Kathleen and John Nixon came and one of them immediately said “Have you thought about green?”
Well that did it.
Off I went to get all the green paint chips. And we spent the next week eliminating colors and propping others on walls and under cabinets. There were several sensible greens that would have been lovely, but I kept returning over and over to this one–Stem Green.
It makes me happy every time I go into the kitchen.
The peach counter is singing now. And the white cabinets are so…white!
Here’s looking back at the stove. What you cannot see is how the green is making the yellow walls in the living room sing, too. The orange was just killing the yellow in the living room.
Look how the green brings the green outside right into the kitchen:
Kathleen Nixon said in passing “you could get green glass knobs”–an idea that I immediately loved.
I ordered some–and the only green color is a forest green–which did nothing. More importantly, the screw has to go through the front of the knob, through the door, and tightens with a bolt. That bolt protrudes on the cabinet doors–making them not shut properly. So I sent them back.
I looked for a lighter color glass knob–more of a fern/yellow green–and sent a message to Potterville.com. The most amazing man called me up and walked me through which knobs might work, and here’s what came to me in the mail:
The screws were bigger than the current holes, and though I tried to enlarge them with the electric screw drivers in the garage, I quickly realized I was way out of my skill set. A call to Stephen Pennoyer brought him to the house, and he sorted out the screws and knobs.
And here’s how the knobs look on some of the drawers and cabinets:
(Miss Reynolds Georgia is eating again, sort of, after having to be force fed for the past three months. She won’t look at the camera.)
And:
Now I need to make a rug with more green in it.
But I am a happy woman!
Books, Documentaries, Reviews: October 27, 2013
Want to take 13 minutes and listen to an amusing, smart, funny, classy TED video?
Parul Sehgal’s TED talk, “An Ode to Envy” starts with Sehgal telling us a really funny piece of her past. Then she moves on to discuss Envy, jealousy, and where it appears in some of our great literature.
I’ve already listened twice and will do so again likely.
ENJOY!
PS: You can download the TED talks as podcasts on ITunes. That way you don’t have to search around for different one.
Turkey Tracks: October 27, 2013
I love baseball.
But I never watch it on tv unless, now that I live in Maine, the Boston Red Sox are playing in The World Series.
One must support the Boston Red Sox if one lives in Maine.
And that’s ok. I can do that. Because I do love baseball. I was probably taught to love it by my younger sister, Jamie Philpott Howser, who married Dick Howser’s younger brother, Larry. Dick started as a third baseman for the NY Yankees, went on to manage them, and went from there to taking the Kansas City Royals to the only World Series win in their history–or so says Wikipedia.
So, it’s safe to say that I have not actually watched a major league baseball game in…more years than I might want to say.
Can I say that I have deeply shocked at how BIG most of these baseball guys are.
So I’ve been studying this bigness. And I’ve decided in most cases here, BIG means FAT.
I will state up front that these guys are amazing athletes. Watching baseball is like watching a cat stalk a prey. It’s all quiet and stillness and creeping until–BAM–the action unfolds lightening fast. Such was certainly the case in last night’s third game where all changed for the Red Sox in less than the 30 seconds at the end of the game. (I still would like to see an instant replay of that last call–from several different angles.)
Aha! The runner did beat the ball. The call was obstruction back at the third base. Seemed to me to be more about two big guys running into each other… But, I am a novice, so what do I know?
But watching this game has produced the realization anew that Americans have more than gone round some sort of bend into obesity. These guys look pumped up with a bicycle pump, as my mother used to say. Their faces are shiny smooth and as round as melons. And their legs and buts are HUGE–they look like Mack Trucks. Or, what? Gladiators would be the kind of word that might lend itself to thinking this over-developed body is ok. The giveaway is their bellies. Start counting how many have bellies overhanging whatever they use to hold up pants. Wheat Bellies and what? Steroids?
Probably someone will tell me that all the statistical data shows that the game is faster, bigger, better, etc., now. That may be true. But what does it do to a heart to play at this level when one is so unnaturally BIG? That’s my question. Many of these guys are in their early twenties. It’s a long, long way to sixty or seventy from there says this old woman.
I’m shocked at this new “normal.”
The Red Sox are in a hole now. I don’t know if I can watch them try to crawl out. They need a few BAMS for sure.
Turkey Tracks: October 27, 2013
Before the first freeze I cut as many of the hydrangeas in my yard as I deem necessary for the house. Once the winter weather hits them, the blooms are ruined.
I strip the leaves off the canes and just stick them into a dry vase. Most of them dry just fine. Some will shrivel up almost right away, and that’s just the breaks of this endeavor. (This year none of the lime green Annabelles dried for me.)
For the ones who dry nicely, the brilliant colors stay true for months and months. Often, I stick blooms into the fir Christmas Wreath I hang at the front door–and they are gorgeous there.
Here’s a lot I put into the kitchen. The pinkish lavender blooms came from a plant that JoAnn O’Callaghan Gladbach gave me on one of her visits before John died. It survived the winter beautifully–and one transplant this spring–and bloomed all summer.
I’ve often thought I’d love a house where the rooms were painted the shades in one of these fall hydrangeas: lime green, deep blues, aquas, deep purples, magenta pinks. Such a color scheme would not go with a thing in my house though.
JoAnn carried hydrangeas in her wedding bouquet–as did Tamara Kelly Enright. Tami’s blooms came from my Virginia garden. I made JoAnn and John a wedding quilt using hydrangea fabrics, called “Delectable Mountains” after the traditional block name and because JoAnn and John live in Denver, Colorado. Here it is being held by my sister-in-law Maryann Enright and me before I mailed it to Joann and John.
Local quilter Joan Herrick quilted this quilt using the Celtic New Grange symbol that JoAnn used in her wedding invitations. New Grange in Ireland is the site of one of the oldest and most amazing solstice sites.
Here’s another block:
And a close-up of a corner:
I love life circles like this one. I mean the giving and receiving of items that signal you love someone.
Here’s a picture of the counter about three weeks later. You can see the pink hydrangeas did not dry well, but the others are going strong. One never knows.
Melody Pendleton brought me this gorgeous pumpkin from her garden–and a Butternut squash which I cooked that night for dinner–on the day she finished painting the stairwell. Melody is a meticulous painter and a delightful person.
I have a jar of Sparky’s Honey (wild, unheated, local) for her.
And that’s how these things roll…
Turkey Tracks: October 24, 2013
Their colors take your breath away.
Dahlias.
And at Endless Flower Farm in Camden, Maine (on East Fork Road) there are thousands and thousands of these dahlia’s–in every color imaginable.
This farm is within walking distance of my house–and I took Susan there on our way home from our trip up north.
Every fall, each dahlia tuber has to be dug up and stored and each spring each one has to be replanted. Keeping track of all these tubers–and knowing where to plant them next year–is mindboggling.
Here’s Sue, who was amazed.
Here’s a view of one of the gardens:
And here’s Susan in that garden:
Many of these dahlias are way taller than a person. All have lavish, glorious blooms.
We also liked this building design on the outside of the house!
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