playing with quilts

I decided to do something different with the quilts I am making.  This is it.  I still really love the nine squares so they are a component but I wanted to see what happened when I added larger pieces of fabric.  I have done some of the backs of my quilts this way and people seemed to really like them.  

This is the top.  I had thought about just using a large piece of thrifted flannel for the back but decided to piece it as well.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

I am also dyeing fabric for my quilts.  I have purchased used 100% cotton sheets at thrift stores and have started to put them in dye pots of dye made with plants.  I am very curious what will come of that fabric and quilts that will be put together with those fabrics.  I have a feeling they will be quite harmonious in a strange way.  Combining two things I love will be so cool.

I am hoping my schedule for this week goes better then last but we will have to see.  I am starting to count how many bowls of dough or just dough I have going at any one time.  I will have to share Koda Bear's favorite bun soon because it is pretty fabulous as a cheese sandwich with prosciutto.  That and some fruit, veg, and tea, I could drive cross country.  Yes, ice cream and cookies would also make it pretty spectacular but I could go many miles before I sleep with his favorite buns!  

Life has not slowed down any at all but I have adjusted to the current new normal.  It will change when we start building the sharpening truck.  I will be helping to design and build that before I start doing mobile sharpening.  I am actually very excited.  I could put a small stove top in it for making tea and plant dye.  I have thought of this.

The sharpening truck could mean never again stepping into an office!  In some ways, I hope the truck cabin takes off too!  I just feel like I need to hold on to life because it is going different ways then I could every forsee!

How to cook a wolf

I am really not cooking wolves.  I am referring to the book written by MFK Fisher called How To Cook A Wolf.  Basically, it is a well known treatise on who to make ends meet in a very common sense way.  It was written in 1942 and still is very wise.

Where it comes to play in my life, is that we have added three people to our household.  Plus the boyos in the shop.  We have money for food but when there are no plans for food, what to eat at 7 pm becomes difficult.  Because the food in my kitchen is food that needs to be made into something most of the time.  Which means that food for dinner might not happen until 9. 

Also, Koda Bear can come home from school hungry.  I do not plan snack food.  There is usually bread but what if more is wanted.  Or needed.  He is growing.

One part of the solution is to make sure there is soup in the house.  I took a potato bacon soup that Koda Bear did not really like, greens that really needed to be used, beans, and vegetable broth and put is all into the slow cooker. 

I let it cook all day.  Then blended it.  I adjusted the seasonings and all was good.  I served it to family company later the first evening.  I ate it before I went coaching.  It is just nice to have in the refrigerator as a go to.  And it is made!

More of this is happening in my life.  It also cleans out the refrigerator a bit.  When I have veg that is not at its best, I can always blend it into soup.  I do admit, most of these come out vegetarian but it does all depend on what bits and blobs are left over from past meals.

a wool blanket for Blue

When Koda Bear was very small, I crocheted him a wool afghan that got used a lot.  The Tall Short Person still uses it a lot today.  Koda Bear not so much.  I make him many blankets and he runs warm.  Except for his hands.  Brr....

I decided Blue needed something similar but this time I used yarns I already had.  I used greys and blues and the theme.  All the yarns are either something I spun, leftover yarn from another project, or something I just had one skein of that color.  It turned out well.  I think it is actually bigger then Koda Bear's.

I am still trying to find balance with the newest small person in my life.  I have Grandma magic so I get handed him a lot.  And the weather has not been kind to my joints.  But I am feeling the need to quilt more.  My kitchen has three kinds of dough rising because of empty bellies and because my hands need dough.

On top of this, I get an industry call.  It is too far away for me to seriously consider.  Especially since I have a truck cabin to design for mobile sharpening.  The boyos need more hands.  I did not mind being back in an office but it was not a happy place.  I wish more happy places.

Maybe I can get my yarn box finished soon.  More yarn storage since I am trying to spin everyday.  I may need one for my projects in the truck cabin so I can have things with me.  I might have down time at a farmer's market.....

sling

After so many years, I did not think there would be another grandbaby in my life.  I also knew if there was, I could make many of the things I liked using with Koda Bear.  One of those was a sling.  I did not use a sling so much with Koda Bear when he was the smallest but I used it a lot when he was three.  That is when I would have him for grocery shopping and he would fall asleep in the car.  It was a way I could carry him and still carry on.

I needed one for Blue.  I find I carry him to pick up Koda Bear from school.  It keeps my hands free and I feel like he is just a bit safer.  Blue turned from back to belly by himself yesterday.  Three weeks old.  He just wants to move and tries.  He has definite ideas of how the world should work.  

I decided to use a Victorian style print for the outside and lined it with an autumn crow print on the inside.  I do not normally line the slings but I wished this one to be.  I am glad I did now because I have had him out in it when it is chilly and it just gives a little more warmth.

There are very few pictures of the sling with Blue in it.  No pictures of Blue and me using it.  Koda Bear thinks it is great because he can carry his brother across the house and no one worries.  Or at least worries so much.  The only negative is that I look like I am carrying a watermelon around because of the coloring and pattern on the print.  Not so negative!

silk and cotton comforter

I have been spending too much time on Instagram and YouTube.  I came across India Flint's eucalyptus printed silk comforter she made her grandbaby.  I also came across the videos of the woman in China (?) who is living a very sustainable life and making silk comforters for those in her life.

The Tall Short Person did not like the idea of the eucalyptus printed fabric for Blue so I dyed some silk cotton fabric I had with a touch of indigo and purple cabbage.  The indigo came out the palest of blues.  It only looks blue against white.  The purple cabbage is a blue lavender.  Almost silver grey.

I quilted wonky straight lines after filling it with two layers of organic cotton.  It felt like I was on a deadline since Blue was already here but I really was not.  More, there was always something else that needed my attention.  That feels fairly normal for right now.  

I bound it with at natural colored silk charmeuse I had and it turned out so soft and lovely.  Now, if the rest of my life was this elegant. 

For someone so small, Blue takes as much time as I expected.  The Tall Short Person takes more time then I expected.  Koda Bear just needs love and attention, which I give freely.  We have had some lovely learnings recently that I will share soon.  

There has been a lot of making going on.  Just not for my shop.  I am trying a new dye pot.  It is steeping as I type and I will see what happens with the silk I put into it in a few days.  I may decided to dye it with stronger solution.  I just have a feeling.  I really wish to see what color spinach would make.  Soon.