There have been well water issues—which are slowly getting resolved. The well pump removal and new pump installation likely caused a coliform bacteria overload, alongside all the rain we’ve had this summer and fall. The water tables are really high these days. Coliform bacteria are NOT e.coli bacteria, which derive mostly from animal feces contaminations. Coliform bacteria come from plants and other vegetation. The well test didn’t show e.coli problems. It did show way, way too much radon—which is a colorless and orderless gas that comes from granite and can dissolve into water—and emerge when you use water, like in the kitchen sink or the shower. A “bubbler” filter will be installed soon now. High radon levels are associated with lung cancer.
But, the GOOD NEWS is that my oldest son visited for a long weekend recently. I had not seen him for 2 1/2 years, so we had a grand and sweet visit. We cooked, ate, talked, binged watched WICKING and MANHUNT, on Acorn, talked and cooked and ate more, and took some sightseeing drives off and on.
Mike took this video of AC putting a flock of turkeys into the air. Note that if a turkey turned on AC, I’m quite sure that he would run the other way. The turkeys were in a neighbor’s roadside field up the hill from me.
And Mike took this video of me after I pulled out the apple corer to process some apples we were going to bake for dessert. Mike loves lamb like I do, and it is hard to get in South Carolina, so I roasted a leg of lamb for him while he was here.
I had forgotten how fun the apple corer is—so I may buy more of these Black Oxford apples and make some applesauce. They are a Maine heritage apple and are delicious.
The past few days have been an Indian summer festival—warm and sunny and delightful.
The Ladybugs gathered on every warm surface of the house—and if you opened a door, they tried to fly inside. Some of them succeeded. Some come through cracks in the house upstairs and settle in to winter over in the dry storage spaces upstairs. They land on you. They are just…everywhere.
Not all Ladybugs are the original ones we know from pictures and our childhood experiences of them. They come in different colors now, as there have been some mixing with other species from abroad. Some can ”skunk” you with a really bitter, rank smell.
Porcupine has been very present this past week.
AC remembers what a bad word ”porcupine” is and clearly associates it with his puppy experience of getting tangled up with one late at night. The outcome was a mouth and face full of quills that I had to pull out. That little dog stood so still and let me do it. There was no way I could take him to the emergency vet clinic on my own as he would have scratched his face to ribbons while I was driving. I got buried quills out of him for several days afterwards.
Anyway, porcupine has been noshing on most anything green left in the garden—including all the strawberry leaves. It won’t hurt them permanently as a hard freeze would get them any minute now anyway.
Today it is raining—so I will be able to sew. Yesterday was too busy. But thanks to David Hannan, the last of the outside tasks is done, for which I am really grateful.
Today, Sunday, emerged as sunny and as cool as the rest of the past week. But I have not had a hard freeze yet.
I set the clocks back late last night, so when I awoke in the dark at my normal waking time, I turned over and went back to sleep until the clock and the sun said it was time to switch over the body clock and get out of bed. What was 6:30 am on Saturaday morning was now 5:30 am. And that meant ”no,” just ”no.” I woke again at 7:30, which was really 6:30, and so it goes for a few days. Or, longer.
The past week was busy, but easy. Monday meant an EARLY trip to Rockland to the Toyota Dealer for ”Girlie’s” first checkup and the installation of snow tires while there. Girlie is a Rav4 Prime plug-in hybrid acquired at the end of April. She plugs into the 110 volt outlet in the garage. I don’t think I’ve put even 3 full tanks of gas into her in the past 6 1/2 months. I use the gas feature when I get out on a highway, but otherwise she stays in her electric mode. And, no, my electrical bill has not risen.
I voted on Tuesday, and the referendum that interested me most was refused by the Maine voters: the building of a pipeline through Maine forest that benefitted Canada and Massachusetts and not Maine. Once shrinking wild forests are cut, they can’t really be replaced. Our Maine energy company is not American; it is foreign owned. Time for some changes there I think. And that possibility is simmering.
Friday saw AC doggie and me headed to Augusta for AC’s 3-month checkup for the Lyme infection he got. He was totally cleared, so the herbal tinctures worked. And his urine was also healthy. I’ll use up what is left of these tinctures as the ticks have been really bad this fall. His bloodwork will go to a bigger lab to make sure there aren’t any other issues. You may recall that AC reacted to his 1 year rabies booster so that he could not eat any meat protein without terrible allergic reactions that caused himto chew at himself constantly. The holistic vet in Augusta was able to stop the reactions—and we put AC on a fish diet. His favorite fish is the local farmed salmon (ugh!), but it goes on sale every 3 weeks, so I buy it then and freeze it. The next step in terms of diet may be trying some hamburger.
There was time for late afternoon quilting this week. Here’s the log cabin quilt now—it will be 8 rows square, or 96 inches—so I am getting right along with it. I will move around blocks to balance out the more dramatic fabrics before sewing blocks together.
The fabric palette on the longarm bars is from the first project from The Color Collective, season 4–a quilt designer Tara Faughnan is calling ”Sunny.” Resisting making more and more of these blocks is hard—so I’ve limited myself to making two a day and cutting out two more. LOL, I now have 4 cut out and ready to sew. But I need to get the log cabin off the design wall before setting up ”Sunny” there. And that is why my quilting is always endlessly engaging for me.
I’ve added the soft grey and Kona ”snow” to the mix in the fabric palette. I’m not exactly sure what the Kona grey is…Lighthouse maybe. Part of the joy of this project is seeing how different fabric combinations work out visually—and then how they work in the quilt when near other blocks or how they work in the overall quilt. The prepped blocks involve the darker navy and the soft lavender—in part—so then I will have used all 12 colors at least once.
The blocks can be combined in many, many ways of course. In that way, ”Sunny” is like the ”Tenderoni” block Latifah Saafir designed for last year’s guest designer project in the 7th month. Tara set her blocks like the red and pink blocks in the picture above—like rising ”suns” made with half circles. And her quilt is…Sunny…so lively and bright.
Here’s “My Tenderoni” quilt—which is very different from Latifah Saafir’s—and that is what is fun about The Color Collective. The creativity that emerges from people is just awesome.
And, oh my goodness, what a visual impact this one has.
To remind, this is Tara Faughnan’s wedding ring quilt pattern, and Tara Faughnan is also the designer for 7-month The Color Collective online class hosted by Amy Newbold at Sewtopia. Indeed, season 4 starts TODAY, and, LOL, my fabrics are washed and ironed for the first project, but the design wall is FULL of the log cabin quilt at the moment.
I quilted with a light grey thread by using the 40-inch Innova ruler equipment on the new Innova longarm. There is a basting line crease in this photo that is gone now as I express washed and dried Joyful to remove the basting lines.
Here are some close-ups. The quilting is not 100% perfect all over the quilt as this ruler was a learning curve. Now that the quilt is bound, washed, and dried, one would not notice the kinds of things I note about the quilting. It’s all good, and I’m happy with the results.
After Joyful was dried and while she was all warm from the dryer, I brought her up to my bedroom where she is going to live for this winter at least. I almost took a little nap to bask in the warmth, but thought better of it.
Joyful is a treasure. For sure.
When I checked the rain gauge yesterday, it showed FIVE INCHES of rain from the wild storm.
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.
I have been super busy outside getting ready for winter. We had three rainy days though, so I was able to take a break and come inside to sew—which I did. I also spent some time working on a document that contains all the old family recipes that I’ve saved and loved—the ones that go back to my grandparents, for instance.
Nevertheless, I’m making progress on the dark grey/light grey log cabin. Pretty much all the strips are cut. Of course I’ll move blocks around as I go.
I ”digressed” to play with this very modern ”Whirlygigs” block—designed by Wendy Sheppard and shown in the newest issue of Simply Modern (No. 26). The block is 8 inches finished, and as more blocks are added, one begins to see a doughnut circle also forming. I’m trying to use as much of my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society stash as I can.
After the rainy days, the log cabin got a bit bigger. I’m liking it a lot. I especially like the texture in the fabrics.
AC doggie was really missing his hard daily run. He is so not a fan of hearing ”rainy day, AC. It’s a rainy day.” He brings me toys or his ball as he attempts to connect and play. It’s hard to resist him as his little face is so earnest. And it is good to stop and let myself play some too.
Today was bright and sunny, so AC did get his hard running over at the Snow Bowl athletic field.
The wind is ”up” though—so weather is blowing in again.
The snow boardwalk got put down last Monday—just as the rain was starting in earnest. It’s a beast, that boardwalk—the sections are heavy and difficult to place evenly. I’m thinking of “starting over” with a new one next summer. I spent an hour outside getting it level so no one takes a spill out there. I think it is as good now as it’s going to get.
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.
The pattern is “Monkey Business” from Abbey Lane Quilts, and I saw a version in a recent Simply Modern magazine issue (no. 22). I made it using all Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics from my stash, so it is a kind of fabric ”sampler” quilt.
I had enough of this backing fabric, and isn’t it sweet?
I used a pale, pale, pale peach thread (Signature’s ”Linen”) and Deb’s Swirls for the pantograph.
This one is going to stay with me. It is replacing an older quilt that hung on the stairwell wall for MANY years and then was the lap quilt for this couch. That one is now getting a much deserved rest and lives with other of my stored quilts.
This quilt is the second one I’ve done on the new Innova longarm. It was my ”learning curve” on Innova tension—and I learned that the problem I was having was due to a bobbin that wasn’t correctly wound. That was a whole tension learning journey that is, I think, solved.
I wound up taking out the stitching I had done—about 1/3 of the quilt—and redoing it. And now I am happy. The stitch I have now is BEAUTIFUL. And I LOVE my Innova longarm.
It is made from the “liberated” wedding ring block designed by Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston in their book FREDDY AND GWEN COLLABORATE AGAIN: FRIENDS.
I used solid and print scraps to make the rings, but went to my grey solids for the backgrounds. As you know, greys can be blue grey, green grey, brown grey, etc. So I just mixed them all up for this scrappy look.
I bought this backing on sale some time back and I thought it would be fun to use it here. I like it.
The green grey binding blends with the teal on the backing and looks just fine on the front.
I quilted with an icy blue thread that blended well on both back and front. The pantograph provided lovely texture I think: Check and Chase by Lorien Quilting.
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