Rayen

I'm trying the blind date with a book experience again, and yesterday these three arrived. I asked the seller to surprise me with the titles and genres, and as it happens I haven't read any of these novels or the authors who wrote them. I'll write up how my dates go once I've read each book. You're excited to know, right? Ha. Well, I am. :)

After being dazzled by Happiness last year I decided to take a chance and watch The Silent Sea , a Korean near-future dystopian lunar adventure series on NetFlix. It turned out to be a good choice. This series begins on an Earth with rapidly-dwindling water resources. Water becomes far more valuable than petroleum or gold, and people are subjected to strict rationing, are compelled to euthanize their pets, and live generally miserable lives -- it's pretty much like Dune without the sand worms and still suits. Meanwhile, a team of scientists and soldiers are sent on a mission to a research station on the moon abandoned five years earlier to retrieve some samples left behind there. From the moment this crew blasts off you know things aren't what they seem. The lead astrobiologist's sister died at the abandoned base along with everyone who worked there, and it's obvious from the start that she's going to find out why. The captain of the crew is remarkably ti

The news that Twitter agreed to be bought by a certain billionaire proves yet again that politics, power and (of course) money matter most didn't surprise me. It does make me uncomfortable to think of continuing to contribute content to it, however, so if/when things become toxic I will probably leave the platform. Sadly there are only a few alternatives for users like me. Mastodon seems the safest, but I'm not particularly tech-savvy. Reddit has an enthusiastic quilting community, but they all seem to be far more skilled than me. I've avoided Instagram since it was acquired by Facebook (also not an option.) Perhaps I'll just stay at my blog here. :) I will miss everyone in my circle on Twitter, though. They're lovely people who have truly inspired me over the last year.

Yesterday I was walking the puppies in the backyard when something fluttering on the ground caught my eye. It was a gorgeous red-spotted purple butterfly (why they named it purple when it's mostly blue I have no idea), a species I've only seen a few times here. It didn't fly away from us, so I put the dogs on the porch and went back with my camera to see if I could get some pics of it before it took off. That was when I realized why it was fluttering on the ground. One of its wings was mostly gone, probably from a bird attack. These butterflies live only a week or two so they can mate and lay their eggs. I know there are a million butterflies around now, too, so others will live on and continue the lifecycle of their species. Still, it made me feel terribly sad to see that while it kept trying to launch itself off the ground, this one would never fly again. Life seems unfair and at times quite scary, but perhaps never more so than now. With the hatred, viol

Tomorrow it will be a week since I started stitching the linen quilt, and this is the progress I've made (it looks like a lot to me, but in reality I haven't even finished one block.) It could be better, but I was sad when I started the work so I'm going to forgive myself for the obvious mistakes. To avoid frustration and project burn out I'm going to change how I've always worked just on one project until it's finished. This time I plan to set aside the quilt every Wednesday and do something different for a day or two. I expect the little weekly projects will be stitch tests or just practice, but I expect they'll make me happier to go on with the bigger project.

Lots of things are happening in the gardens; our brussel sprouts are full-size so I'm picking a few every couple of days to have with dinner, along with the radishes that are ready. Both are amazing and delicious. By next week I should be able to add pole beans to our menu; ours are growing like weeds. We have a bumper crop of tomatoes, too. I'd like to make these into juice for my guy, and pasta sauce for both of us when they ripen. The bell peppers are also doing nicely. These will save me $$$ in the weeks ahead; I cook with them all the time but they've gotten insanely expensive at the market. The cucumbers are ready to start climbing their lattice. These will be nice to have as the summer arrives in June. In the herb garden the chives have flowered a lot this year. Did you know you can eat chive flowers? They taste a little like onion. Just be careful if you grow them and have pets, as they're said to be toxic to dogs and cats. We haven&

I started embroidering the linen quilt last week, and made some decisions on embellishments, although I reserve the right to change my mind down the road. I won't be using anything but #3 perle cotton thread for the needlework, and I put away the beads and lace. I just want this quilt to be linen and thread. For guidelines (and to sketch out embroidery shapes on the linen) I'm using a disappearing fabric marker -- but sparingly. I discovered it's not disappearing, for one thing, and I trust my eye more than my hand these days. I'm also working very slowly. The first patch took three nights to complete, and I'm on night three with the circling feather stitch in the next one. I imagine this quilt will take at least six to eight months to finish. This pic shows how I work on the quilt, no hoop (I find it's easier to work without one), plus I pinned the quilt together with a million or so safety pins, so it's not moving.

I took out an old idea this week, dusted it off (I haven't looked at it for months) and did a little tinkering on it before I realized I didn't want to keep at it. Often I do this to get ideas out of my head so I can focus on the work I'm doing. I've learned that if I throw away every idea I may change my mind in the future and then regret not having the original concept with which to work. This concept was basically solid, but a bit too complicated to really be workable. The time I spent not working on it gave me some objectivity, which is also why it's good to set aside ideas if they're not working or don't feel right. Embracing the bright and shiny excitement of a new project is always fun, but it's best to trust your instincts once the initial rush is over and you can't easily keep on with it. Image credit: santiagotorresc195 from Pixabay

Mom died a year ago today. So many people have died over the last two years I feel almost selfish thinking about my own loss, and I prefer to celebrate birthdays of those I've lost rather than the day they passed away. Still, it's always in the back of my mind when the calendar rolls around to that particular date. Because I knew it was coming at me I pressed ahead with getting the linen quilt ready for stitching so I'd have something to work on today. I feel a little depressed, mostly, but also calm and accepting. Emotionally I had a much harder time dealing with losing my dad. My mother's death released me from many ties and obligations to people who have been toxic to me all my life. Since Mom passed I've also had to send my favorite person off to start her new life, so in a way it reminds me to be a better person to those I love while I can. I've done okay, I think, but I can do better. I think Mom would understand all this. As for mourni

Last night I kept that promise I made to myself and backed, batted and pinned the linen quilt. I waited until the pups went to sleep so they wouldn't come over to help. The warmer weather has them shedding like mad, plus lately they think every textile on the floor is an invitation to tug-o-war. I went slowly with the pinning so I wouldn't bleed on the quilt, so it took about six hours altogether. I had to iron everything again first (linen tends to wrinkle if you breathe on it) including the batting. Lately every roll of batting I take out of the bag is puckered and bulgy and makes me a little crazy. I also forgot to square the bottom, something I didn't realize until I'd finished pinning. I don't know if I mentioned it before now, but the top is comprised entirely of scraps from a small bed linen company. The backing is a beautiful vintage navy linen I found on eBay, a bit darker and heavier than what I used for my first linen quilt, but very comfort

I've pieced the top for my next large quilt project out of scrap linen. Tonight I plan to batt, back and pin the quilt so I can get on with the quilting. I had this bag of scraps leftover from piecing the top, so I made most of them into two panels on which to practice my embroidery stitching. Linen is excellent fabric to embroider, as it has a looser weave and more flexibility than quilting cotton. It's not necessarily easier, hence the practice pieces. I feel I'm fully prepared to tackle a larger version now, which was the point. Stay tuned to see what happens.

After a whirlwind week with my favorite person visiting, and our contractor finishing up our bath renovation, I'm finally back to blogging. You remember the old shower, yes? Here's what it looks like now: My guy has a bit of paint touch-up work to do on the walls and baseboards, and he'll be installing new towel hangars. We'll also be having custom glass doors added so we don't have to use shower curtains anymore, but otherwise it's ready. I took the inaugural shower in it last night, and having the room to move around and the light to see what I'm doing was amazing. The tile is so much prettier than the prefabbed shell of the old shower (I feel safer with tile versus slippery fiberglass under my feet, too.) We also discovered and fixed a water leak in the piping that we didn't know we had, so that was a big bonus. Designing the new shower, picking out the tile and making sure it worked for both of us took time, but it was also worth

Turns out my favorite person will be visiting us this week, so I am going to take a few more days off from blogging to spend time with her. See you later. :)

I'm unplugging today to finish my current work project. See you tomorrow.

After ironing all of my linen fabric, which took a full night, I cut all the pieces into three widths I like and began improv piecing them. I have no plan for this, I just piece together what I have to work with in combinations and sets that I like for embroidery purposes. I'm also keeping all my trimmings in a bag and will try to add them in with the piecing as I go along to reduce my leftover scraps.

I have an old corkboard in my home office that I used for inspiration for a side project, but I decided against pursuing that idea, so I took down everything (which made me a little sad, honestly.) To fill up the space I pinned some of my little slow stitch projects, along with two beadwork pieces by one of my favorite artists. Which made me realize I really need an embroidery idea board like this, as I can look at it while I'm working on the computer and let the ideas percolate. The little burlap bag hanging from the edge has an interesting backstory. Once I became successful in my current job I paid off my only credit card before I closed the account and cut up the card (the pieces of which are in that bag.) It was such a relief to not owe anyone money anymore, and put the money I was paying for the monthly credit card bill into a retirement account. Since then I either pay cash for what I purchase, or go without -- and the little bag is to remind me to keep doing that. :

I'm ready to start work on my next large quilt project, which will be an embroidered linen quilt. I have to iron this pile of scrap linen this weekend, and finally decide on what patchwork design I want to use for the quilt top before I begin cutting and piecing. I did some sketches, and looked through a ton of block patchwork patterns, but nothing planned feels right to me. I might instead improvise the patchwork as I did with the first linen quilt I made. I've been looking through my photo archives from 2018 to see how I did the improvised patchwork. I seems like I just cobbled different size rectangles and strips of different colors together. This is what the quilt top looked like back then. I like the look, but I want to refine my process. Since I have a lot of linen I might go bigger, too. So thinking some more.

Last night I completed my slow stitched spool project and sewed on the wrapping ribbon. Here's the whole strip unwound. I felt a bit timid when I began the project, as I've never made one of these. I also didn't feel sure I could be very creative in a 2-inch-wide work space. One thing slow stitching does for me is help me let go of my doubts and worries, and find the joy in the work. I don't want to be perfect when I slow stitch; instead I embrace my limitations and all the imperfections that come from them. I didn't consciously decide to make it beach-themed, but as that's my safe place I'm not surprised it evolved into that. For the last space I stitched a sand castle like those I always built at the beach. The final touch was naming the project Beach Memories. Very glad I tried this, as I'm now in a good place in my head to begin the next large quilt project.

Our shower renovation passed the flood test, which our contractor did to assure the floor base would not leak by filling it with water and letting that sit overnight. He uses rubber duckies to see if they float to a particular corner, which would indicate a leak there. I thought that was cute. After the flood test was completed he installed this floor tile. My guy picked this out, and I really like it (weirdly we have the exact same taste in home decor and things like this.) Tiling the walls will be next, and then grouting and sealing, and the shower will be done. Stay tuned for the part three and the big reveal. :)