Creative Abundance

The Very Little Quilt that Thought it Could: Acceptance of Imperfection or Thinking Outside The Block

I began my first Baltimore Album quilt when we lived in northern Virginia over fifteen years ago.   

I had the great opportunity to take a class at G Street Fabrics from a lovely person, Ann, who had learned needle turn applique from Elly Sienkiewicz, the goddess of Baltimore Album quilts.

This quilt has  been hibernating while others have been finishished and I even cannablized a couple of blocks from it.  There was an emergent need for blocks for a group raffle quilt that was based on the theme of theme of shelties and the beach.  I donated two blocks.  Before I did, I changed one of the blocks to include a mermaid and a sheltie.  

What I (humbly) find incredible about this block (the basic block is one of Elly’s)  is that I did the permanent ink drawing after the applique was finished. (I took a portion of the applique apart in oder to insert the fabric mermaid tail “behind” the applique.)  I drew the mermaid and the sheltie directly on the fabric with ink “free-hand", and the image is out of my imagination.  Given those variables, I am delighted with its outcome. So delighted that I photographed the image and had a printer make some large greeting cards from it.  This was one of my first applique blocks and the circles near the mermaid’s head are not perfect but you know, I still love the block because of the drawing.  I love the way the light plays on it and I believe that it communicates an emotional connection between the mermaid and the sheltie.

The whole topic of Baltimore Album quilts is quite fascinating.  The first time I saw one, I was truly captivated by their beauty. In the late nineteenth century the seaport of Baltimore was receiving some exquisite fabric - and the idea of making quilts for decoration instead of warmth had emerged.  Further, the blocks are very symbolic, many with symbolic origins associated with Masonic ideas.  The quilts also had inkings - messages as well as signatures.  Beyond being decorative, they were a form of communication. This site has a great deal of information about the original Baltimore Album quilts.  It discusses Dr.William Dunton’s role in studying and “archiving” the quilts. He was a psychiatrist and placed the quilts so they were viewable by his patients.  This site also discusses how he and his wife felt that needlework was important therapy for nervous ladies. (LOL)  I have enjoyed many chuckles about this especially because it relates to the recent saying, “I knit so that I don’t kill people.”   

This quilt has not turned out as it was planned.  It is much, much smaller.  But I think it is important to finish it and enjoy it - imperfections and all.  This is the block that stopped the progress.  It is a cornucopia with fruit - symbolic of blessings.  I disliked the fruit element.  So I began to cover some of the fruit with flowers.

 

This first ruched rose on the right was the first effort at covering the fruit.  It is made from a fabric that was the first border on the quilt that I donated to Sophie’s rescue. This fabric was also on the entire back of the quilt.  Being able to use this fabric in this quilt reminds of Sophie and the many blessings she brought to us.  I liked this rose so much I used the same fabric again in a rose that has a slightly different construction and it looks a little different but still related.  This rose and the the one in the center have not been sewn on yet they are just pinned for a little audition- but I think that this is going to work.

Even after I resolve the fruit problem there are some things to resolve like the red leaf to the left of the pear, and I am wondering if I can get away with not adding any more red grapes...

Originally I was going to applique the border.  But there is a problem - I have had some of the blocks out and they have yellowed a bit with age (Denise, is this not a surprise?) while the fabric to finish the quilt has been in a container, and it is slightly lighter.  So here is the new plan.  I found some fabric in my stash that would be perfect for a border.  The only problem is that I did not have enough and it is discontinued.  I found some in Canada and it is on the way.  I am going to use it for the border and I am going to also use a design element in it for sashing between the blocks.  I was not going to do sashing either but one of the blocks is slightly lighter (surprise, surprise) than the others and sashing will make it less noticeable.  The block that is slightly lighter is not in the photo. 

The blocks are on point and here are two others with the border fabric and sashing (Sorry the picture is so dark - the border fabric is there, it is just hard to see.)

 

The last block to be added is a wreath of rose buds it just needs the buds - hope to have a picture of that very soon... 

Grateful Thursdays/Fridays: "Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.” Rainer Maria Rilke

I really believe that Spring has returned, even though we had ten minutes of flurries yesterday and some more flurries are forecast for next week.  But the trees have a reddish cast, and look like they are ready to bud....

I am sorry to be gone so long...  

The GarnStudio Drops jacket is finished.  I blocked it before sewing together but did not block the seams yet.  It has snaps instead of button holes and the jury is still out on the buttons. 

I knitted it according to the pattern but with a couple of changes. I substituted the double moss stitch on the hem instead of the rib that the pattern suggested.  I haven’t decided what I am doing with the collar.  I knitted it a little longer and it is supposed to be tacked down - the jury is still out on that one.  The buttons that I am considering aren’t really buttons - but since I have snaps that should not be a problem - here is a link to what I am contemplating for the buttons.  

I used Garnstudio yarn Alaska.  The pattern is written for a bulky or a worsted/Aran weight.  The Alaska yarn worked perfectly for the lighter weight pattern.  I love the yarn - it has a bit of a heathered look. It is slightly scratchy but I think this jacket design needs something with substance - something not too drapey.  I think that the yarn almost needs to be scratchy in order to have some substance.  The Alaska works perfectly in that respect. 

The jacket fits well and I am very happy with it.  So happy that I am about to order more Alaska yarn to make it in a different color.  Hope to post pictures (with buttons attached) very soon!  

I am playing the harp for a fund raising event on March 14.  I consider it somewhat of a “long” event, and I have been spending huge amounts of time practicing.  I have prepared some new music and during the next two weeks I need to polish/perfect everything that I will be playing.  Many of the pieces are related to spring - I’ve promised to post some music, and hope to do so very soon.  One of the pieces I have prepared is Garden Psalm by Kathryn Cater. It is so glorious...and I am grateful that Kathryn Cater recorded it on Youtube...it reminds me that spring will be here very shortly. 

The Elly Sienkiewicz/Sharon Schamber applique workshop:   It snowed twice during the workshop. The first day it snowed, there was a forty car pile up right outside of Williamsburg at 8 AM - I would have been in that traffic had I tried to go that day.  Am so grateful that I did not try.  On the other days that it did not snow, I was feeling “under the weather” and could not go.  I was disappointed about how things evolved but was very pleasantly surprised when I received a wonderful package from the workshop.   

Elly Siekiewicz is the goddess of Baltimore Album quilts.  She’s written 20 fantastic books about them - and the quality of the historical research is outstanding.  Her workshops are like stepping back in time. Elly recently made two DVDs - I have both and they are exceptionally well done. If you have not done needle turn applique, I recommend her first book and her first DVD. They are both incredible.  I am very grateful that I have had the opportunity to attend her workshops in the past.  Having access to Elly via a DVD is frosting on the cake - or in quilting terms, like silk thread and good light.

Although I could not attend the workshop, I am finishing a Baltimore Album quilt that I started, ahem, fifteen years ago.  I really hope that I can get it ready to go to the “quilter” within the next two weeks.   I promise to post a picture tomorrow.   Don’t expect a huge quilt. I have cannibalized blocks from this quilt for other quilts.   Rather than trying to make it larger, I am going with the blocks already complete - and I have the minimum number for a very small quilt.  The goal is to finish it...very soon!  But I do know why I stopped working on this quilt - one of the blocks is a cornucopia filled with fruit - it was three quarters complete and it became the emotional anchor to the quilt.  I just did not like the block - so it sat - for fifteen years.  In the past week I totally changed the block - it is now a cornucopia with flowers - and it reminds me of spring!

 

Grateful Thursdays but Remembering that Nature Bats Last

The weather wimps (that includes me) in this area survived the snow storm which was forecast to be “historic” but actually turned out to be what many, many people routinely deal with in January.  I am very grateful that the 40MPH winds did not happen.

Most of the camellias have a little dried, antique look.  I am trying to appreciate this variation.

 

I did notice that there are still some buds on the tree that will probably be okay. But I am keeping that quiet.

On the up side I have a couple of camellias that haven’t started to bloom at all yet, but I am remembering the order in which nature bats.  

 

The ferns look a little beaten up even though I covered them. 

 

But the daffodils still look like they are on track.  Still haven’t forgotten that nature is up to bat next week - a couple of times.

And the fall blooming Shi Shi Gashura still managed to have a bloom or two that look good despite last weekend’s snowy home run.

 

Prior to the storm I had raked most of the gum balls up...  They are back because nature bats after I rake.

And my neighbor has a huge number - I’ve never seen so many.  Bonnie was trying to have a snack and the gum balls were interfering with access to the blades of grass.

 We are expecting a couple more storms.  We do not need the moisture.  Here’s a look at a neighbor’s front yard...there are floating camellias 

I had hoped to drive to Fayetteville, NC tomorrow to attend a special dinner sponsored by Peachy’s rescue, the Friends for Life of Robeson County Humane Society.  That is out of the question because nature is up to bat tomorrow.  As a side note, my plans to go were tentative because Cassidy was not doing well.  However, since Tuesday she has made a dramatic recovery - and I am very grateful.   

Weather next week may interfere with my plans to attend Elly Sienkiewicz’s applique workshop.  But it is not a worry.  If I cannot attend, Sharon Schamber always provides a DVD containing  complete demos for every participant.  Note to nature: this is not a taunt.

"Baking is ....

one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony.  

It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... 

there is no chiropractic treatment, 

no Yoga exercise, 

no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, 

that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”  

M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

This evening I made another recipe from the Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way cook book.  This time it was a biscuit recipe that had butter milk and molasses.  

Cassidy has been a little under the weather in the last week or so.  She has been very picky about what she will eat, and the biscuits have helped quite a bit.  And the Drops jacket is well on its way.  The front and back are finished.  I am knitting the sleeves simultaneously.  I have one modification so far.  Instead of the rib at the hem, I substituted the double moss stitch which is on the front panel and on the sleeves.   

 I had my priorities right in line today - the only place where housework came before needlework was in the dictionary.

When it Snows you Can Choose to Shovel it or Make Snow Angels

We did neither.  

I think this may have been the first snow for Cassidy, Lucy, and Peachy.  The poodle girls did not like it one bit.  It is likely that there will not be any pictures of them in the snow because they run out, stop five feet from the garage, potty and run back immediately.  At first the potty part was not working. I had to remove some snow so that they could see grass.

This morning Joy modified the process, she decided it would be a better idea to finish the potty process inside the garage.  No one had any accidents inside the house but they were attempting to wait until things melted...

I have one picture of Peachy in the snow at 8AM Saturday morning.  It had started snowing at 3AM.  She definitely doesn’t look like she is having a good time - she didn’t even look for any squirrels.

 

I had hoped to knit a lot.  I found I had too much nervous energy and spent the time cleaning.  I was really worried that we would lose power for days.  And we probably would have if we had gotten the amount of snow they were predicting as well as the 40MPH gusts.

 
   

I have no plans to go out until it melts - and I think the poodle girls have similar plans - they are only venturing out to the little patch of grass.

Today was an special day for us.  A year ago I drove to southern North Carolina to bring Peachy home.  I have wonderful memories of the members of the Friends for Life, Robeson County Humane Society. 

To celebrate, I made dog cookies from the Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way cookbook. They were more like people biscuits, and the girls loved them.  We tried to exercise some restraint, there’s some left for tomorrow. 

 

Grateful Thursdays/Fridays: Snowflakes are kisses from heaven (?)

Thursday’s temperatures were in the high fifties.

Today was cold and we are expecting a “historic” snow fall to begin just after midnight. I am trying not to complain about the weather- Kin Hubbard said “don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while."

But honestly I have been fretting about all the plants in bloom or about to bloom.  I did cover the ferns with tarps but I really couldn’t find a way to wrap the camellias.  So I cut them and brought them inside to enjoy.

 I’ve really had to search to find something positive about this storm.  Of course, I am very, very grateful to be with my family in a warm, comfortable home. 

This area only experiences a major snow storm once every seven years.  So I guess it’s time. 

Tomorrow there will be many children in the area who will be thrilled to be able to build a snow person. And I am sure that tomorrow’s adventures in the snow will be very memorable for many families with small children.  

I am trying to embrace the snow forecast and think of snow flakes as kisses (very cold ones) from heaven.  Oh, that is a very big stretch for me.   But I am remaining positive, and all paws are crossed here in hopes that we do not lose power.

Whiplash

We are experiencing Whiplash Weather.

On Sunday it was in the sixties.  Monday morning brought a severe storm.  We are back to seasonable temperatures in the forties but tomorrow is expected to be in the high fifties, and snow is expected on Friday or Saturday.

Monday brought quite a storm.  We have one tree that is on its way down. 

It is in area that the dogs do not have access to, so it isn’t an emergency. 

Things continue to be saturated.  Two days after the storm, a neighbor’s front yard looks like this

One good result of the storm is this.  Our chime is now working.  After the Nor’easter, the clapper was wrapped around a branch. The chime is a memorial for our magnificent companion, Sophie.  When she passed away I created a quilt in her honor as a fund raiser for the rescue that nursed her back to health. But the chime was our very personal reminder of how she touched our life, and I am so happy to be able to hear it again.  

 

And while the furry companions napped through the storm (they waited patiently for their delayed outing and breakfast), I started the back on the Drops 103-1 jacket.  

I am about half way through with the back and the fronts are finished.  That snow storm this weekend may give me a chance to get a great deal done on the sleeves.  

 

Prior to the expected snow storm, I am plotting how I can wrap up the camellias so that they can gracefully weather this Rambo introduction to spring...

 

Thankful Thursdays/Fridays: "Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. " ~Doug Larson

Fall camellias are still producing blooms like this Shi Shi Gashira...

Although it is likely to get very cold again, many spring blooming plants are strutting their stuff.  Like these camellias.

Or these

 
The ferns are even looking great - I have never seen them look this good at this time in the year.

It’s grey and very wet.  The flash on the camera was needed because it is so overcast. However, the camellias and the ferns are telling me to start pruning the roses because Spring is right around the corner.  

Thankful Thursdays

Several years ago, and totally out of the blue, my husband decided he wanted a vanity license plate for his car. It wasn’t anything witty or funny, just his initials.  He then suggested I get one as well.  I told him that I wanted mine to say, SHELTIE.  He told me he would take care of it, and he was true to his word.  

Because SHELTIE was taken as well as numerous approximations, he came up with SH_L_T  .   

He was impressed with his creativity and resourcefulness.  I was appalled that at ten feet away it appeared to spell something else entirely.  

Today when I was doing some errands I noticed a license plate that said “EVIL LIZ.”  I must admit that when I was parallel to this car that I glanced over to see what EVIL LIZ looked like. 

Who Would Have Thought?

While driving a few weeks ago, I was listening to All Things Considered (Eric calls it All Liberal Things Considered).  The report that was on the air was so engaging, I sat in the car and listened to it for its duration even though I had reached my destination.  

The report was a “biography” of a particular drug, Fosamax.  If you haven’t heard it, I strongly recommend it.  At the end of the report they challenged the listener to go home and look at the contents of our medicine cabinet, and they concluded that you are likely to find many of the drugs with a very disturbing biography, just like Fosamax.

That appalling report certainly got my attention, and I began to do some reading about vitamins.  We subscribe to reports from Consumerlab.com, a company who does independent testing to identify the best quality health and nutritional products. Yesterday I discovered that they had done testing with Pet Tabs, a multivitamin, that we give our dogs.  

They found that Pet Tabs "was contaminated with 6.45 mcg of lead per tablet. This is several times higher than the amount of lead (1.41 mcg) ConsumerLab.com found to be in this same product in 2007. Contamination limits for dogs are not well defined, but, as reference, the FDA notes that children should not be exposed to more than 6 mcg of lead per day and, as noted above, California requires warning labels on supplements for human use that contain over 0.5 mcg of lead per day.”

Our furry companions have been taking Pet Tabs because I cook their meals - rice, vegetables and ground chicken - and I wanted to ensure that they were getting all the necessary minerals and vitamins. (I am picky about the ground chicken - it is organic...I buy it in bulk when it is 50% off...and yes, I am very painfully aware that our companions eat better than many people.)   I have been cooking their food for many years. The melamine contamination of pet foods a couple of years ago reinforced my belief that I did not trust a commercial company with our companions' nutrition.

Luckily I did not give them Pet Tabs every day - just on those days that I was a little short on vegetables.  It took a year for me to use a bottle of Pet Tabs.  And just the other day, I bought another - and luckily I haven’t opened it.

 

I did do a google search on “Pet Tabs Lead” and did find many articles including a rebuttal by the manufacturer.  However, I was not totally convinced by their rebuttal.  I am not at all comfortable giving them a supplement that has any amount of lead in it - and the manufacturer does not dispute the fact that it does have lead. I would rather do a little more research to identify the vitamins and minerals that are currently deficient in their diet, and then add different foods to resolve the deficiency.  That approach is important to me because two of our companions weigh five pounds.  The manufacturer may indeed be right that the levels of lead in the supplements are safe. But is there sufficient research with dogs as small as five pounds?  I simply do not want to have to worry about it if they are wrong. The whole issue regarding safe levels is incredibly complex, and I think that it is important for every individual to review the information that is available and make their own decision.

One product that I have found especially helpful is FortiFlora.  It is a probiotic for dogs.  

Ms. Peachy was on a powerful antibiotic for four months - doxycyline - to treat the tick borne disease, and it was given while she was undergoing heart worm treatment. 

I gave her Fortiflora every day to ensure that the “good” microflora in her intestine wasn’t killed by the doxycyline.  

It is also helpful with Amazing Maizy. Even though I “pick up” in the yard, she does some really "bad snacking” every chance she gets.  Skipping a meal and a packet of Fortiflora will quickly remedy diarrhea. Who would have thought?

(FortiFlora with the almost completed left and right front panels of the Drops A Line Jacket that everyone in the world has already knitted (except me))

(Edited on January 21 to elaborate on information regarding Pet Tabs.)