Rayen

Seeking Persephone is a short four-part historical British romance series based on a novel written by an American romance author. Yes, you may cringe. It has a somewhat sparse production (likely to save money) and a storyline that is not particularly historically accurate or even remotely plausible (my opinion, of course.) Given my upbringing I found the whole thing gruesomely fascinating, and spent a couple of hours being very grateful I escaped my past while watching it. The author, screenwriter (or perhaps both) follow in the LDS footsteps of Twilight's Stephanie Meyer, which makes it safe for any tween to watch, not that I would recommend that. The lead female, a penniless woman of questionable nobility, is sold to a Duke for over $100,000 pounds for him to marry. Considering marriage to a duke was the ultimate achievement for any woman of the ton, him paying for someone of no rank is so implausible as to be laughable. His reasons for buying this girl are because his...

When you're wired differently you see things from an uncommon perspective. It's why people like me are unable to join in groups and behave like others, and why we're often made to suffer because of it. The herd demands uniformity and obedience to their demands, and from their persepctive when you don't fit in or obey them, you have to be corrected and punished. The tragedy is that you're really no different from anyone in the herd, except that you don't need or want to be part of the herd. You're fine on your own. Your crime, if you want to call it that, is that through your independence you make the herd see that the herd isn't necessary. That is in their view unforgivable. I came to the realization that I've tolerated the herd's bullying for much of my life because I regarded myself as defective -- as missing something important that everyone else has. This need to herd, to be part of something bigger and (questionably) better than ...

Since my attempt to actually coffee stain something failed, I'm going to try to stain the same bag with tea, since that seems to work better for me. Recycling tip: when your black tea bags expire, don't throw them away. Save them in a jaw and label it for tea-staining. I didn't leave the bag soaking in tea for long -- about an hour -- but the difference is remarkable. No more coffee staining for me. :)

Once I put together and machine quilted both panels of my calendar project's September tote, it was time to make handles and assemble it. I sewed together more of the vintage fabric strips for the handles, and then sewed them and the panels into a tote. This is the first quilted project I've ever made entirely by machine. This also represents basically all the quilting I can do going forward, because hand quilting has become impossible for me. I need a lot more practice with quilting by machine (I might look into an online course, too, if they have one with captions), but I'm happy with what I was able to do, particularly under so much pressure at the moment as a family caregiver.

Once I had all the strips for my calendar project's September tote sewn into blocks, it was time to sew them into panels, batt and back them, and machine quilt the patchwork. Here's one panel, completely finished. The machine quilting was a bit hairy for me, probably because just before I started working on it I had to deal with yet another drama situation. Lesson learned: never try to machine quilt when you're distracted and upset. The backing (this pink fabric came from the thrifted bundle.) It's absolutely not perfect, but I learned a lot from doing it.

I began sewing together the strips I made from 10" squares from the vintage fabric basket, and I didn't follow a pattern. To keep my stress level manageable I want to stick to a simple improv of the rail fence patchwork scheme (here's a free tutorial for a rainbow version.) I thought four strips would make a square, but I actually needed five per block. This is roughly what one panel of my calendar project's September tote will look like. I am hoping to make this tote entirely by machine. I finished sewing together all eight blocks and switched them around until I liked the placement. Next up is sewing them together to make two panels, and then batting and backing them for the machine quilting.

Since my favorite person left a little of her cold brew coffee (which we don't drink) behind when she left, I decided it was the perfect time to try coffee staining. I soaked my muslin bag in the cold brew for about three hours. It came out looking dirty (I neglected to take a pic) so I tossed it in the washer with some things I laundered on cold/delicate with regular detergent. Here is the stained bag (right) next to an untreated bag. It shrank, and all the coffee staining came out in the wash, so that was a complete fail. I didn't care for how this sort of staining looked, so in a way it was a win for me.

I took all the 10" vintage fabric squares out of my basket and sorted them into print types. Basically I have 29 geometric, butterfly, floral and other type prints. That's plenty for a tote, and perhaps enough for a small quilt as well. I decided not to get too ambitious, and cut all the squares into 2-1/2 strips. I then had to sort them according to their value, light to dark (didn't take a picture of that.) I randomly put together four strips out of all the piles, which I plan to sew together into blocks, and then turn the blocks into my September tote for my calendar project, and (possibly) a quilt top. Stay tuned to the blog to see how that goes. :)

My friend B sent me a get-well package (my arthritic back + caregiving for a 200 lb. man = much pain) that included some mystery dice. I don't need more dice, but it's the thought that counts. This brand happens to be my favorite, too. :) The dice turned out to be black and red, and rather ominous looking. I blurred a bit of the red pin that came with the dice because of some salty language on it, with which I could absolutely sympathize. I actually do like the dice, as they're darkly beautiful. They've also given me a story idea, always a good thing. :)

Yesterday for me started at 5:30 am and didn't end until 12:30 am, when I finally, totally passed out next to my guy. It was a very fine day for him, considering, and a horrible day for me personally, but I got through it with the same spine I've always had -- the titanium one I haul out when things get truly challenging. Here he is waiting to go into surgery. He's completely self-absorbed, telling me this and that and joking about the whole thing because that's what he does when he's really scared. I am trying to keep it together. They're going to put the love of my life under general anesthesia, cut into him and repair the damage he's inflicted on himself by trying to be thirty years old again, but I just have to get through the day and put my faith in people I don't know and can't hear when they talk to me and only get about every third word by reading lips. They're also running an hour and a half late. Yes, totally relaxing. Her...

I'm taking off today (9/4) to be with my guy for his surgery. Talk to you tomorrow.

On the crochet front I'm doing quite well, as I have for the last year. Currently I'm making a prototype blanket, sort of a practice run for a charity donation. I love this new-to-me pattern as well as this yarn. The crocheting challenges me in the good way, and the hexagons turn out fabulous. The yarn I'm actually using is from a mill end value bag. Everything is exciting with crochet these days. On the quilting front things are a bit quieter. I have this thrifted bundle of fabric to use this month for my quilting projects, which is kinda-sorta exciting. I also have this basket of vintage scrap fabric to use for my calendar project's September tote, which I do like a lot. But the thrill that crochet gives me is not there with quilting. Despite all my tricks with fabric and motivation quilting still feels like a chore, or taking medicine. I need to do more new things to challenge myself with quilting. I've not made a proper quilt in a while -- ab...

For my first quilting project of September I decided to do some stitch practice to see where my hands are, and picked two large squares from my basket of vintage fabric from the Coop to make a mug rug. I just sandwiched these squares with some batting and stitched. I used holographic light gold thread and the smallest, sharpest quilting needle I have, and stitched for a couple of hours without too much fuss. My thumb and forefinger are in pretty good shape right now, so I was able to handstitch the entire block. The stitching is not what it should be, but it helped to do it the way I wanted to. Now I can move on to machine quilted projects without too much angst, I think.

One of my aspirations for fall is to use the time to creatively heal. Crochet has been absolutely amazing for me this past year, and I am very grateful for how much it's helped me deal with my ongoing struggle with arthritis-induced limitations. Yet I'm still fighting myself and my dislike of how little I can hand stitch anymore, and the fallout is that I'm not quilting much at all. It's time to fall back in love with sewing, with my sewing machine, with fabric, and with making things from fabric. I don't have to hand stitch to quilt, and I know it. Fabric still grabs my heart. I have, do and always will love fabric. That's the place to start, because 1) I already have a lot of fabric and 2) I still want to make things with it. The other thing I haven't been thinking about is how good it feels to work with fabric and turn it into something. I love that, even when I don't hand stitch it. When I made the mat for my nephew's dog...

For my calendar project's September tote I have to first decide which fabric I want to use, and I have a couple of candidates. This basket of vintage fabric that I got at the Coop keeps tempting me to use at least some of it for patchwork. I also have no bad feelings about it. I also have this table cloth I thrifted originally for a summer tote that I have yet to use (I'm not sure I can cut it up. It's really pretty.) The brown shorts on top of this pile of thrifted pants was part of an idea I wanted to try -- recycling an item of intact clothing into a bag -- but I'm not sure I can make it work like I see it in my head. Anyway, I need to pick a fabric first before I get started, and out of these three possibilities the basket of fabric is the most appealing (and it's already cut up!) So I will use that for the September tote.

My nephew is obsessed with the Miami Dolphins. I remember being the same way when I was a kid, when the NFL was not as it is today but a truly remarkable and exciting sport (as an adult I found out the inidividual cost of that sport for the players, and my hero worship abruptly died.) Anyway, because I understand his obsession I agreed to make him a quilted table runner for his house using licensed Dolphins fabric and the team's colors. So we visited Michaels, where I picked up some bleached muslin, Kona solids and embroidery floss in the team's colors for the project. My nephew likes this runner I quilted some years ago, which features friendship star patchwork, and asked me to make his the same. Unfortunately the patchwork was actually made by someone else (I bought the top and backing fabric from an Etsy seller who has since closed her shop) and I just sewed together, quilted and embroidered the runner. Since I don't have the pattern I'll have to rever...