Category: Low Country Living

Isn’t it wonderful? Bryan came back yesterday with the white duck tape and two girlies in tow. After they left, I installed the white flannel. I couldn’t be happier about the completion of this project.

The late afternoon sun comes through the windows, so I’ll have to remember to either close the shutters or set them in a way to deflect the light so it does not fade anything pinned to the wall.

Of course I couldn’t resist pinning SOMETHING to it, so I dragged out the last batch of Churn Dash blocks I made in Maine–with the last (ok, almost the last) of the Cotton+Steel fabrics. They just went on the wall mostly willy nilly–I’ll be moving them around a lot I’m sure. As I sew, I’ll notice what isn’t working, and that’s what I love about having a design wall. I can’t “see” this way when I try to lay out blocks on a rug or a bed.

Two of these blocks had piecing errors, so they are now on my sewing machine table–along with some pieces ready to be made into blocks and neatly pinned together back in Maine. And, I will need more blocks to get 8 by 9 rows. I will use some sashing between the blocks.

I took these pictures this morning–it is kind of a murky day, so the colors are not showing up as vibrant as they are. But these “random” blocks–with just interesting colors combined–are so darn cute. Some of the centers have cute images, but that is just because I had some of those blocks on hand already cut.

Putting up these blocks on the wall is tricky as I do not want them to distract from finishing the quilt from hell.

Here is the next block center in the quilt from hell–it’s the 3rd in the 5th row (of 6 rows). I’ll sew it together today.

Here’s how I lay out the rings, and I can see that I will want to move the bright yellow piece at the bottom to another spot. Taking pictures of work is always…revealing. In the big scheme of things though, in the whole of a finished quilt made from so many tiny pieces, it will mostly all just work out. Mostly.

Everything is very quiet here this morning. A lot of the dog walkers are not out. People must be enjoying Sunday morning breakfasts and for many, a day off tomorrow.

Bryan met me at Loew’s yesterday, where I purchased the needed screws and the panels for the design wall he is making for me.

Somehow I didn’t get a picture of the car (Corinne’s) loaded with the panels. His car is wide enough to allow transport of the 2 inch by 4 by 8 feet panels, with all the back seats laid flat. Loading the panels was a production in order to get them in “just right” and involved removing their last-needed car seat and stowing tennis gear into the back hold.

These panels are a form of styrofoam (ugh) and are used mostly to insulate roofs. They are 2 inches thick, so pins don’t hit wallboard. They are installed with screws that go into the wall joists, so the screws have to be long enough to go through the 2-inch panels and firmly into the joists . And for this product, there is a plastic disk that distributes weight and keeps the screw head from going right through the panel. I found the disks some weeks ago on Amazon, with Bryan’s help.

Here’s how these disks and screws look installed.

And here’s the design wall at this point. The screws and plastic washers will always be there–they were back in Maine–but it is easy enough to avoid them with pins–and the overlaid flannel mostly hides them.

Bryan is coming back today sometime with a roll of wide WHITE duct tape–which he’ll use around the electrical outlet–after peeling back the dark silver duct tape from the panel as it will show beneath the white flannel covering I will install. He is thinking to use the white tape to finish the bottom edge he had to trim as well–and maybe along the seams.

I ordered white flannel weeks ago from JoAnn’s–and they sent me TWO separate pieces of 108 wide flannel, from two different stores, rather than one 4-yard piece–so I spent some time yesterday piecing the two pieces. They are ready to pin to the wall’s edges when Bryan deems his work done.

We’re almost there…

And Bryan is such a love to make this wall for me.

My fingers are itching to pin completed blocks to the wall.

This morning there is a tennis match, with two of my grand girls paired against another team. So I’m off to enjoy being there for them. And, for me.

Corinne and I had a gorgeous walk on the Isle of Palms beach yesterday–after I picked up and delivered the raw milk for our three family households. I had a nice visit with Michael and Tami when I dropped off the milk to their house before meeting Corinne.

I met Corinne at home and admired the white gardenia that was blooming at the front stairs. It was full of buds back in December when we had 17-degree cold nights that froze outdoor water pipes for many people. (The Rinnai water heaters are hung on outside walls.) And I was so hoping the buds had not been killed.

This glossy-leafed plant–a gift from Mike and Tami’s family many years ago when Bryan and Corinne bought and moved into this house–has many buds opening up now.

On that note, I’ll also say that the dormant Centipede grass in my neighborhood now has a green glow happening. I’ll have to think about mowing issues soon.

Corinne and I walked to the beach from the house. The Isle of Palms beach has numerous officially sanctioned pathways between houses to get to the beach. Here’s one:

Turtles hatch regularly on this beach. The mother turtles form nests from May through mid-August. Each nest can have about 120 eggs. The eggs incubate for 55 to 60 days and babies can emerge from July through October. Signs go up in early spring that seek to protect the beach nests.

I can’t wait to see a baby turtle “walk to the water” event. Here’s a picture from September 2021 of grandchildren holding baby turtles.

We both went barefoot once we got to the beach–leaving our shoes just above the tide line!

The roaring surf was beautiful with the incoming tide. Here’s a little video.

We walked and talked about an hour–and it was good to catch up with this sweet and very busy DIL.

Later in the afternoon, I sewed. Here’s the first block of the 5th row (of six). The first and last blocks in each row requires three rings. This block took me several days to make, and I’d already made the center. (All the centers are Cotton+Steel fabrics.)

It is important to lay out the ring fabrics for each block so the colors don’t repeat. I’ll show you how I do that next time. But here are the rings for the next block in this row, for which I am now sewing its center. All these ring pieces are already glued and are in sacks sorted by type–all of which was very time consuming along the way. And all the centers are glued, but not yet sewn together. I’ve done nothing with the outer border yet.

No whining this morning. I promise.

I got so engrossed in my current Juliete Marillier audible book (DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST), that I sewed until well past 8 pm. Marillier was born in New Zealand, but now lives in Western Australia. She writes historical fantasy–most of what I have read is laced with Celtic stories/myths and music. (She has a strong background in music.) Her most recent series is the Warrior Bards–but one should really start with the Blackthorn and Grim series, which is the story of the parents of the characters in Warrior Bards.

However, DAUGHTER OF THE FOREST may be my most favorite book, and it is the start of a 6-book series. How fun is that?

Marillier is a wonderful story-teller. Her stories provide a wonderful escape from the despairs of our current world while one is inside one of them. She has won many awards and has written many books and many complex series that contain twists and turns in the plots and where truth and beauty win out in the end. She holds a very strong place for the mysteries of the natural world. She also has a blog–and I just copied down all of her recent book recommendations for future reading.

She loves dogs!

AND, today there is an early morning haircut with a recommended person who cuts CURLY hair.

But, I’ll backtrack to Sunday night–where there was a family celebration for three birthdays in close proximity in my oldest son’s family. There were happy people, lovely presents, a lovely meal, and I spent the night. We stumbled on to the Super Bowl after dinner and presents and cake as there were two of the birthday folks who follow football–and we watched the whole thing to the sad end for the Eagles supporters.

That halftime show…didn’t hit my amusement or delight range. Strange, to say the least. Maybe it is a generational thing? And I have no idea what the words to the song were. They all looked like desert people who had lost their tents and were adrift in the sand. With a killer storm coming. And high ground wasn’t going to help. And they knew it.

I realized when I went to bed that I had forgotten my new hearing aid charger. These days new hearing aids don’t use batteries unless one demands them. When I got up Monday, both aids were totally dead, so there was nothing to do but go home and charge them up as I am profoundly deaf without them. So no nice early coffee morning interlude with my DIL and son.

I had the old hearing aids for the 3 hours it took to charge the new ones. It’s always good to have back-ups. These new aids are beyond awesome–the bluetooth technology now is so amazing. I can talk on the phone (once I answer it) or listen to an audio book with the phone even in another room. And the sound quality is so, so good. I can control the volume on my phone, too, rather than trying to push the tiny volume buttons on the back of the aids. I feel so lucky.

I had defrosted lamb chops for my main meal, which I eat in the middle of the day. (Costco has reasonably priced lamb, which is harder to get here than in Maine.) I had half of a small cabbage in the refrigerator, and I do like to slice cabbage thin, add salt and olive oil and some herbs (fresh dill this time), and eat it like a salad. The cabbage gets soft in a bit and exudes juices–this would be the begining step of fermenting cabbage to make a sauerkraut actually. But I can’t eat fermented foods with my Histamine Intolerance. The next thing I knew, I was adding other fresh veggies to the cabbage while the chops cooked and was putting some water on the stove to cook some buckwheat noodles.

Delicious!

Here’s are the quilt rows I have completed now–laid out on the upstairs rug. I’m stuck until more fabric arrives. I love this project, which has color changes within each row, some more subtle than others. The Windham Artisan cottons (shot cottons) just…glow.

The longarm is not arriving on Thursday. Both Judy and Rob are down with bad colds–so Judy is projecting arrival for next week. Hopefully.

Already I have two quilts backed up to quilt, and the Traverse project will need to be quilted. And I have a whole stack of super cute Churn Dash blocks that will make a quilt. So what to work on while I wait for the longarm?

The EPP project (English Paper Piecing) from hell is the sad answer–it’s the unfinished 36 Ring Circus quilt. It has 6 rows: three are done and attached and one is finished and waiting for the remaining two unfinished rows. There is also an outer border that could be added–I have all the paper pieces for it.

So, yesterday, I sat quietly upstairs in my new chair, with my view to the street from the window available. I was surrounded by light and with the iron close at hand. And, I hand sewed. I have all the middle parts of the remaining 12 blocks glued (all Cotton+Steel fabrics) and ready to go. And all the outer ring parts are glued as well.

Here are the three completed rows and part of the fourth row–a picture I took way back in March 2022. I don’t even want to think how long I’ve been working on this quilt. The rings are boring to sew, and the piecing of the rings and rows is difficult going with all the curves.

OK, I’ll stop whining now. But this quilt won’t be a big one in the end. It’s way to much work for a baby quilt, and I don’t know about it for a wall hanging either. BUT, I have NEVER abandoned a quilt project this far along, and I’m not going to stop now.

So many hours already… The glueing alone…

Yesterday I put the adorable little office chair out on the curb late afternoon as Tuesday is trash pickup day. It was gone by nightfall when I put out the big trash bin.

Happy travels, little chair.

But rain is coming later in the morning. I don’t mind–it means I don’t have to worry about watering any of the dormant grass–assuming I can even manage to undo the tight hose bolts the movers closed on BOTH ends of two hoses by linking them into a big circle so there would be no loose ends.

I have to say I like solving problems like this hose problem though. Maybe two sets of pliers? Maybe a son or grandson…

Here’s a problem I could not solve though. My DIL was replacing this chair, and I asked her for it. Isn’t it the cutest, sweetest little chair–one just meant for my sewing room?

My DIL warned me that the chair was not holding its height and would gradually slide down to its lowest level.

Maybe that low level would be ok?

Nope.

Maybe I could fix it?

I went online and discovered that chairs with hydraulics gradually lose their air over time and will slide down to their lowest level. Who knew? The first, easier, fix involved tape for traction and a hose clamp to prevent the chair from sliding down.

Nope. The whole shaft would have to be taped with a hose clamp at either end maybe.

The next fix involved taking off the wheel apparatus and placing a metal or PCP pipe over the shaft–centered on the pipe with washers if the overlaid pipe had too much play on the chair shaft. The chair would then hold in a permanent height–set by the overlaid pipe. That would have worked–but I had no way to cut a metal or PCP. So…

Nope.

I ordered a new chair from Amazon as I could not find one locally for a price I would consider. Sewing chairs at JoAnne’s were $300 plus!!! And office chairs at Staples were also expensive and so…”officey.” This chair was $138 with tax!!!! Lovely. But it had to be put together. So I spent a quite lovely hour doing that task while sitting on the upstairs rug under a good light.

And now I’m very happy! The chair is very comfortable, the arms can be slid up and out of the way, there is lumbar support for a lower back, AND I had fun putting the chair together.

I am really enjoying having my machine facing this outside window. It is easy to open the shutters, which swing open into the room, to open a window to let a breeze inside. And in the late afternoon, a time when I mostly sew, I can see families out walking with children and dogs and visiting with others they see along the way. There are a lot of dogs and children here, too.

The Traverse quilt is coming along–here are two sections on what was my temporary design wall.

Now these sections are on the rug out in the big room as I will soon have other sections to joint these two.

The final 4 rows and batches of fabric for Traverse will arrive from Sewtopia in a few weeks now. And while I wait, the longarm will come next week, and I’ll quilt the two quilts that are waiting for it–and trim and bind them.

I so looking forward to diving into all the saved projects I have acquired.