Rayen

With spring just around the corner my guy is sprucing up the gardens and getting ready to prune our trees. This second year for our strawberry plants has been a bit odd; they flowered early but all the berries died during the last two cold snaps. Now they're flowering again. I'm seeing new berries, too, so I'm hopeful these will grow up. I want to make some vegan strawberry ice cream as soon as it gets warmer. The herbs are thriving. I need to trim the chives and dry some more oregano and parsley. We decided to leave the broccoli plant rather than cut it out after we cut the first floret bloom. The brussel sprouts are growing nicely, and we still have radishes to pick. We have multiple smaller florets growing now, so we'll cut these altogether to have broccoli a stir-fry one night. The tiny little buds between the stalk and leaf stem will grow up to be the actual brussel sprouts. We still have a couple of grapefruits to pick from Mom's mem

Back in January I signed up for these four at-home Covid-19 rapid tests the government is offering, and they arrived last week. I did not pay a dime for them or the shipping. I don't know if we'll ever use them, but I feel better having a way to test us and visitors at our home. The tests are still available at covidtests.gov if you want to order some for your household.

My guy and I have self-isolated since the pandemic began, and I feel that we have done all we can to protect ourselves and those around us. We were vaccinated as soon as we qualified. We have always worn masks and maintained proper social distance in public places, and still do. We gave up dining in restaurants and only occasionally get take-out. We have put up with supply shortages. We really only leave home if we need something from the market, the home improvement store or the post office. I've sewn masks for our family, friends and neighbors, and learned to make my own hand soap and sanitizer. I lost my mother and a good friend during this pandemic. That grief, as well as the fear of losing more people I love, lingers in my heart. In March it will be two years since the virus changed our lives. We'll go on being sensible and doing what we should in order to survive. I try to calm myself when I become particularly fearful or frustrated, and reassure myself th

May you sparkle. Image Credit: meineresterampe from Pixabay

Summer is my favorite season of the year, but number two on my list is the week when winter begins to shift into spring. I felt it yesterday, as the cold snap we've had finally retreated. I think that might have been the last one. This week the forecast says we should get back up into the 80F degree range during the day. I used to think I could live in the north, as it's so pretty in places like Maine. But I don't think I could handle the months and months of cold and snow. I'm a summer child.

I usually work from 7 p.m. until 2 a.m. before I go to bed, and split the time between work and quilting. Work comes first, of course, and once I reach my quota I feel okay to play. About an hour before I go to sleep I try to mentally prepare for bed by clearing my thoughts. A busy mind makes falling asleep more difficult, and I always need more headspace before I can settle down. Lately it's been tough to do that. Professionally and financially things are shifting again. My last project is proving to be quite successful, which is great but more pressure, too. I'm reaching the end of my first phase of the current project, which I want to do as well or better. That corner of my head is constant thinking and rethinking different aspects of the work. Meanwhile, I'm trying to stretch our budget to deal with the rising prices at the market every week. If they go much higher I'll have to find a cheaper place to shop, or shop at a bunch of different places to find

While I've been working on the koi quilt this week I've also had Doom at Your Service playing on my laptop. I like to rewatch things while I'm stitching so it doesn't matter if I miss a few subtitles; this is my third or fourth time replaying this series. It still moves me to tears, especially the last few episodes, but it's pretty wonderful, too. I highly recommend watching it as time well spent. There are a couple of k-dramas I never tire of watching: Healer , What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? and Encounter are my top three favorites. Like Doom they're romances, but they all touch my heart and make me feel better about people and the world. All three have some dark aspects and depressing elements (from the beginning Doom is funny but also really sad, too) but don't try to sugar-coat or entirely resolve what causes so much unhappiness. It's life, and we have to get through those things to be appreciate the happiness and love that may c

In a few days I'll be wrapping up my first work project for 2022, and while it needs a good edit I'm very happy with what I've managed to do. It's difficult for me to talk about my job as I can't relate many details, but it feels good to continue my productive streak from last year. I have made a few more adjustments to my process as well as my work sessions. I felt a little overloaded by the ambitious daily goals I had for the last three months of 2021, and worried I'd end up with burnout again, so I eased back on those. I'm making a point to shut off my work computer as soon as I've finished a session so I'm not tempted to go back and fiddle with the day's writing. I'm also finishing earlier every evening so I have ample time to work on my quilting and relax before bed. All these things are helping me maintain my work schedule without feeling exhausted. On the contrary, I feel just as enthusiastic about this project as I was when

I joined Twitter exactly one year ago on February 20th, 2021. I meant only to dip my toe in social media; I want to find an online community of like-minded creatives and see if it helped me feel less isolated. I quickly realized I wasn't a good fit for the writers on Twitter (and that was definitely because of me and my day job, not them.) Textile art, my next biggest interest, seemed the direction to go. So I started posting pics of my quilting and embroidery and looking at other creatives doing the same. It's been an interesting twelve months. I've met a small circle of quilters and artists who do amazing work, and a few other people who don't sew but are bright souls. Sometimes it can be very random, but so is life. I think the most private thing I've posted was how I felt losing my mom last April, and then offering consolation to someone who tweeted about losing her dad to Covid. But mostly it's been about creativity and what we make, do and see.

I've made good progress with the koi quilt this past week; I have six blocks left to hand-quilt and then I can embroider the center furoshiki. No problems showing on the backing fabric, either (sometimes at this point I find a mistake and have to unpick some stitching to fix.) I have a pretty good idea of how I want to stitch the center, but I won't know for sure until I start that work next week.

While walking the pups I noticed two glowing golden things in the yard that at first I thought were some parts my guy might have dropped -- in the sunlight they looked like round pieces of brass. Turned out to be mushrooms. Maybe this is what you find at the end of the rainbow. :)

I watched the j-drama film Go Away, Ultramarine as it was labeled as a sci-fi film, when in reality it's something like a modern fantasy and perhaps an allegory, or a love child of both. The story revolves around people abandoned by lovers or companies who end up with amnesia on a beautiful but mysterious island. These people are looked after by caretakers and live a seemingly idyllic life. They can't remember how they got to the island, and they have to follow certain rules. They're told that can't leave the island until they remember what they've lost, which seems a little cruel considering everyone has memory gaps. The story centers on the island's high school and a handful of students reacting to the female lead Yuu Manabe (Marie Iitoyo) a newly-arrived girl who is outspoken, politely defiant, and only wants to leave the island. The male lead, Nanakusa (Ryusei Yokohama) knew and was possibly involved with the new girl before he came to the island.

Here's something that troubles me: earlier this month one of the patchwork images I posted on Twitter drew close to a thousand views in one day, and added a bunch of folks to my followers. That was not my intention in posting that image; I just wanted to show it to the friends I've made among the textile art community because I thought it was interesting. I keep forgetting anyone can see what I do on that platform. This happened only once before when I showed an image of an embroidery technique I use with metallic thread and burnout velvet. I know the whole point of social media is to make connections and build a following, especially among professionals, but these sudden bursts of popularity make me nervous. I've always been slow to make friends, but I prefer that. Also, I'm just doing this for fun. I don't intend to open an online shop or sell my textile art. All this attention is wasted on me. Ah, well. I'd like it if I can divert the temporarily

Recently I added some 19th century patchwork blocks to my never-ending collection; this one is a beautifully embroidered heron on rose silk that has sun-faded a bit but is (unbelievably) still intact. The border strips are made of silk velvet and tapestry. Of all fabrics from the quilting past silk tends to be the one that shatters and disintegrates, so I feel rather privileged to own this block. I always like to see the back of the stitching, too, as it tells me a little about the maker and usually shows the original colors of the embroidery threads. Crazy or kaleidoscope patchwork, all cotton, still vibrant. Love the vivid reds. I think this piece illustrates the determination of many makers in the past, who always tried to use up their fabric scraps. The back of the block. This was all hand stitched together. Crazy quilt block with hand-painted flowers and leaves. The embroidery on this piece has such great energy. The two rows of slightly askew EEEEEs on the

May you spend some time today with someone you love.

We harvested our first head of broccoli from the veggie garden yesterday. The little yellow flowers are the "pick me now" indicator. I steamed the florets with a little olive oil and sazón completa (a Cuban seasoning), which is the way we most like to have it. It was delicious, and the stalks very tender. Success!

Since May of last year my guy and I have lived together alone. This isn't unusual for most couples, but since the very beginning of our relationship we've always shared our home with extended family. We kept a room ready for my favorite person, who would come and stay with us on weekends while she was at university, and then moved back in with us after she graduated. Once she moved to the Pacific Northwest we could finally call ourselves empty nesters. Since I do most of the cleaning, cooking and caregiving work for our household I find living with just my guy very restful and peaceful. Even after nine months it still feels like a bit of a vacation for me. For the first time in my life I'm also able to focus on what I like to do rather than sacrifice my spare time to take care of someone else. As an introvert there is no place like home for me, so I've settled into our second life very happily. My guy is an extrovert, and he's lonely. After working his

Despite two hard freezes our little raised bed gardens are holding on with few losses. This is the second year for our strawberry plants. Most of the first flowers and berries have died because of the cold, but a few made it. Nothing seems to hurt the herbs. The brussel sprouts and radishes also seem okay, although the radishes aren't growing as fast as they did in the fall. The broccoli is a monster now. We'll probably harvest this in the next week or two. I definitely want to grow more, too. The only total loss was our little bell peppers, but we're going to plant them again once warmer weather arrives.

The much-needed cold snap was a bit colder than we expected, and although we covered up our two little citrus trees they took a bit of a hit from the hard freeze. Here's Mom's tree. It may have killed Dad's orange tree, which is sad, but we'll plant another one if it dies. On a happier note, we are harvesting the fruit now (technically the only orange, on the right, fell off the tree, but we don't care.) Since my guy has been doing most of the gardening work I let him have the first grapefruit we picked. The rinds are on the thick side, and they're very seedy, but they taste delicious -- not too bitter, not too sweet -- just like the grapefruit I had as a kid. Thanks, Mom.