Yosemite

I left for Yosemite on November 22nd and returned the following Saturday.  Had fun with my son, Dean, his friend (who shall be nameless (for now)), my daughter and my two grandkids.  I hadn't been there before regardless that I lived in CA for 43 years before moving to the PNW.  I loved it... very scenic. 

 But crowded even in winter.  Tourists walking right up to the deer and having their picture taken with large horned animals.  Not my idea of the right thing to do; I like my wild animals wild.  Anyway, I'm back.

I managed to complete some borders on my BOM quilt before I left so I can actually post a picture or two.  Yay!  And I'm going to sew like crazy today.... although I do have to run to the store, which is about 14 miles away but I'll be back in plenty of time to sew.

The star blocks before I sewed the setting triangles onto the sides.






Then I made long strips by sewing the star blocks and the setting triangles together to form four long strips for all sides.

The Stars for a New Day quilt top now looks like this with the star borders sewn onto the sides.

The smaller star blocks will be sewn into strips with setting triangles for the outer border next.

But first I have to add three thin borders before I can do that.

I have a couple of small adjustments to make before I can sew on the next three border strips though.

Notice that the side border doesn't match up with the bottom border.  I think it will adjust if I make the border between the pinwheels and the stars less wide.  That's next... then three thin borders.

This quilt looks VERY scrappy to me.  Usually I like scrappy but this one isn't 'grabbing' me yet.

Quick Thoughts

I haven't worked on a quilt for a week now.  I wake up and mean to but it just isn't happening.  I've been caught up in teeny-tiny events that use up my day although I did see a man refer to his pick-up and drop-off driving as Driving With Love so maybe I'll think of it like that.  I seldom feel put upon when asked to accompany someone or drive someone somewhere so I'm not complaining except for the fact that my quilting isn't getting done.  But I'm not on a schedule and I'm not selling these things... I'm just making them for the fun of it so I must tell myself not to stress about not working on one or the other of them.  Right?  Right!

I ordered the book by Jennifer Chiaverini (sp) to make her Sylvia's Bridal Quilt so I'll soon be piecing blocks for that.  I enjoyed making my Dear Jane quilt and I think I'll enjoy this one... as long as it has NO stars in it.  I'm tired of making half-square triangles although people seem to admire the look of my current project.  Maybe I'll learn to love it.

I also want to comment on how prolific some bloggers are.  I read many, many sewing blogs each week and I'm just amazed at how much they get done and they find the time to blog also along with (usually) looking after a family and keeping house.  Yikes!  I don't even find the time to blog every day although as you can read, I always have lots to say... just no time to say it.  I guess I wonder where these thoughts were kept, to say what they wanted to say, before there were blogs on the internet.  And all those beautiful quilts were unseen

I bought tickets to go to San Francisco yesterday for one of my dd's and myself.  My son has rented a tent-cabin in Yosemite so we'll spend a couple of days down south of there too over Thanksgiving.  It was sort of a sudden decision and I didn't check with my dd although I knew she wanted to go see her brother also.  He's going through a divorce and it gets sticky at times.  I can tell it wears on him that he can't travel when and where he wants to until the court weighs in on who gets to do what with the two kids involved.  We'll have some fun that will take our minds off all the drama of real life.

I drove my DIL to the ferry early yesterday morning.  She was flying to SF for a birthday party.  Then later that night, I drove my granddaughter home and picked up some yummy chocolate chip cookies that her mother had made.

Do I have a picture to post?  My sewing area hasn't changed a bit from the last so... no, probably not.

Working on the BOM quilt

This Stars for a New Day BOM quilt from The Quilt Show that I'm working on is driving me kuh-ray-zeee.  I'm so tired of making stars... big ones, little ones and finally I'm at the point where I can put the triangles on them to that they'll make a border but I had a difficult time finding the right color fabric.  The instructions call for an off-white floral on the inside tri's and a light green floral for the outside tri.  For whatever reason, I just couldn't find the right color fabric... and I dislike florals a lot so maybe that's what was annoying me.

I have star blocks everywhere... they're piled on my sewing table and laid out on my table so I will have to overcome my dislike for all things floral and get those triangle pieces on so I can attach these stars to the quilt.  But first I have to know how long the star borders are so I can determine how long and wide the inside sashing should be.

Liza has done a wonderful job hand-quilting the 'tree' quilt I made for a Christmas gift.  She's using gold and silver threads and is almost through with it.  I'll be able to post a picture in a few days.  Now if only I could talk her into hand quilting my Dear Jane quilt.  ;-))  I've got to start on that one soon.  It's been sitting waiting for a few months.  It was too hot to quilt in the summer so that was my excuse but no longer is it too hot here... been in the 50's daytime lately with rain 3 days of the week.  We even had a thunder and lightning storm a few nights ago.  Scared the kitties and they ran to hide under the bed.

My sewing area is a mess so tomorrow morning I'm going to straighten it up and start cutting fabric.  Look at this.  I can't even see the table.  I've been tossing things on it and haven't taken the time to put any of it away.  Room is needed so I can cut 11 inch squares and quarter them for the triangles.  That takes up a lot of room.

I was at my LQS yesterday and finally remembered to pick up an art quilt from a contest they held in July - yes, you read that right... July!  I'm going to take some of the beading off it, finish the quilting and possibly use it as a donation quilt.  It was fun to make but I don't know what to do with it... so off it goes.

Trouble, trouble...brew and bubble!

Five more days to Hallowe'en. I haven't had much of a chance to catch up here; I seem to always be rushing here or there. Maybe it's because Liza and Madeleine now live here... maybe it's because I just have too much on my mind but it's taking me a long time to get my BOM quilt finished. I think the last time I worked on it was in August so I have to do September still - 12 blocks - to be ready to start on October's.

In my defense, I have completed two Christmas wallhanging quilts... one for myself and one for my dd, Cheryl. Liza offered to quilt Cheryl's so at least only the binding will have to be done when I get it back... and it's going to be a foldover binding, from the back to the front and hand-stitched down. Easy-peasy! The quilt I made for Cheryl is in the McCall's Quilting magazine for November/December.  This picture does not show the sashing on the sides and top of the quilt but I'll post another picture when I get the quilt back.  It was fun to paper-piece the trees in different colors.








Of course, Jaik himself had to help out on the quilts... it wouldn't be a quilt from me if it didn't have some black cat hair on it.  Jaik is a master at determining the exact right time to plunk himself down on what I'm working on... in this case, the sashing.

The other quilt I worked on and have almost finished is 'this one' - a Two-Kitty quilt wallhanging.  Yes, I have two black tuxedo cats, Jaik and Jules, so when I saw the pattern (in what book I don't know), I knew I had to make it.  When I find the book the pattern was in, I'll edit this post; it's a very cute quilt.  I used silver thread to machine-quilt stars and circles in the 'sky' and in curvy lines for the 'snow on the ground'.  It's very subtle.  Then I used a red sparkle thread to stitch 3 straight lines around the border.

I think it turned out quite well considering that I'm not a connoisseur of cute Christmas quilts.  Before I hang it, I will add the kitties button eyes and some embroidered whiskers.  That should do it!

Now Pheno is Gone

I asked Richard about Pheno before he left. He seemed philosophical about his chances to survive long without Richard to look after him. Yesterday, Pheno died... or was killed. I don't know which, but I had a feeling...

Bummer!

Richard is Gone to CA

Richard left on the 10:25am ferry this morning. Abigail gave him a ride. Knowing how difficult it is for Richard to say goodbye, I did not go to the ferry and hug him. I wanted to.

He'll be fine with Dean... but I miss him already.

Mamacita

Sheez, I wish Mother's Day would go away and just not happen at all. I can't stand being feted.... hypocrite that I am... as a good mama. I'm going to go away by myself next year. I think I said that last year, too. Last year was okay though because my mother had died in March and so I didn't have to think about her except to feel like a bad kid. At least I didn't have to act hypocritically and send cards and gifts. She didn't want them from me anyway so it was just a silly game.

My DIL made a special effort yesterday to make me feel wonderful on Mother's Day and my dd's gave me home-made cards extolling their reasons for caring. I can't tell you how each remark felt... like daggers in my brain. I couldn't wait to leave and be alone... it was all I could think of.

I'm a woman who was raised by socially and mentally inept persons. Some very bad things happened to me while I was a young girl... rape, pregnancy, relinquishment, marriage to a drug addict. I wasn't raised to have any strength so couldn't cope with any of that. I stumbled through life... raising children because it was expected of me. I loved them and I would never do anything to put their lives in danger; I worked every day and spent my entire paycheck on feeding and housing them. But is that enough to be considered a good mother? I don't think so. I did what I had to do.

Thank goodness all of my children have done well in life and I'm proud of them.... not always of everything they do, but proud that they are contributing members of society and good parents to their own children. I like spending time with them and I suppose that's a compliment to how great they are.... each of them in their own way. But I don't attribute any of their skills or personalities to anything I taught them.

So, though I appreciate that there are good mamas out there who deserve all the praise heaped upon them on their own special day... I also know that I am not one of them... and I don't want to celebrate another god damned Mother's Day ever again.