Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you're enjoying some turkey and family time this weekend. We're celebrating with our usual "Waltz Across Texas" to visit lots of family. So fun to catch up and see what's new at their houses.

The US has the latest Thanksgiving day. I wish ours coincided with Canada's. Friendlier, more uniform and perhaps we wouldn't feels so rushed. Kaja and I have discussed Christmas preparations for a while. We both like desserts; mince and Christmas cakes are her favorites while sweet potato and quince pies are mine. However, cornbread dressing is my absolutely favorite item. We serve it at both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Despite dressing being a national dish {if America can ever be said to have one} recipes vary wildly from one region to the next: white or yellow cornbread, white bread, wild rice. People can get into heated arguments which is best. Like O. Henry's story, A Cosmopolitan in a Cafe, we're very worldly until dressing is on the table. I prefer yellow cornbread with sausage, mushrooms, and apples - so much so that I don't even serve potatoes until leftovers roll around so there's more room for dressing.


Double Vision - Circular Anomaly
Here are the pinks I pulled for Circular Anomaly, the quilt I started in Louisa Smith's class last month. I folded fabrics into smaller squares to see what they look like...

Foreground fabrics chosen for Circular Anomaly

and then cut many of them into kisses rather than hugs. Now that most are cut I moved the rest to the side so I can plan the intersection of these x's and o's.

Continuing foreground placement of Circular Anomaly

In the top left, one background blue has a large pink rose. Do you think it looks better with hugs or kisses?

Should the foreground of this block be hugs or kisses?

Wherever you are I hope you spend some time with family and friends - in person or by phone. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Enjoy the day, Ann

Circular Anomaly on the Last Day of Class

One of the problems with taking a class {or attending a retreat} is which fabrics to take. And how much of each. I'm not sure which bothers me more: running out or "wasting" fabric by pre-cutting the wrong amount. In consequence I bring laundry baskets of fabric. But this time especially I'm determined to try something different.

Deciding a little waste beats a lot of fabric hauling, I precut both the reds and the blues into squares. It was only during the class I determined to fuse the foreground. {It's not my favorite method but makes the most sense in this case.}

As another change from my usual practice, I chose her Circular Anomaly design. {It's the fifth image on CT's page.} This should allow me to delve more deeply into her process and circumvent technical issues. Usually I try to branch into my own design during the class. According to Louisa's plan the background is squares or rectangles. {No waste there. ;-) } It is layered with what she calls hugs and kisses.

In both her book and her class Louisa shows several construction methods including piecing and applique with and without fusing. Intended use informs your sewing choice. I'm cutting the centers out of the fusible to minimize stiffness. Even the best fusibles make quilts quite rigid and this only needs to hold until it's sewn. {I did consider glue basting, something Louisa didn't mention. I forgot to ask her why.}

Progress by end of class.

Top layer arrangement of my Circular Anomaly quilt

Why isn't the lower left covered with reds? Well... They simply didn't work. The blues run from white to navy but the reds only ran to medium pink. There wasn't enough contrast at that end. Louisa and I placed those pink circles on the dark blues and it just looked lost/washed out. By moving them to different areas, I realized where they looked best. That's fine but means I will be digging out more fabric when I get home. {Perhaps I should have brought it all.}

No. I wouldn't have gotten further with more fabric. I'd have spent all my time picking and choosing colors. Made that mistake last class with her. Time to move on to a "new mistake." Ha. This way I concentrated on color placement of what was here. And there's quite enough - over one hundred squares. Including the backs, that's more than enough choices to make during one day.

BTW, Louisa doesn't overlay her foregrounds as squares. It was my own idea to make the single color flow across the quilt. This idea is another coping mechanism from Strips 'n Curves where I used way too much fabric. It sounds great; after all, who doesn't love more fabric. But in reality, the colors didn't segue quickly enough. Templates ended up covering only a single value when they could have ranged much further.

I pulled some pink fabrics at home that evening. Some don't seem quite right but it's late and the color is way off in this photo. The blue tints into white. Should the reds range into a white background Should there be more medium pinks? Things to consider.

Here's the final shot of the evening. Watching the grid emerge in the top right is quite exciting.

Top layer choices for Circular Anomaly quilt

The Double Vision book is quite thorough on its own. Louisa covers an amazing number of variations on the theme of optical illusions. She makes these complicated patterns doable. When instructions repeat, she refers the reader to another section. Some readers didn't like this but I found it more honest than pretending each quilt is entirely disconnected from the others.

Louisa also discusses fabric, color, construction, and thread in her book. You could learn her technique without a class but you'd miss her upbeat personality, her hands-on attention to each student and her contagious enthusiasm for quilting. If you have the opportunity, take her class, too.


Reading
Reading blogs about everyday life in various parts of the world is one of my secret treats. Bookreader blogs are also a delight although most don't last that long. I like to think they've gotten lost in their books.

More recently I've found a couple that share poetry. I'm so well-trained by book reading that I often read cover-to-cover in one sitting. Reading one poem a day in a blog post causes me to stop and think more. Threadcatcher posted Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye. What do you think? Can we only become kind after sorrow? Are older people kinder? Why do some people choose kindness while others choose hatred? How do we make the kind choice?

Enjoy the day, Ann

First Day of Double Vision Class

Today is Election Day in the US. I voted. Have you?
Democracy doesn't work without everyone's input.

"It is the duty of every citizen to vote on Election Day."

Lots of fun with Louisa and my classmates. One of the best things about classes is seeing the variety of fabrics and ideas each participant brings.

Boy, I'm glad I pre-cut my fabrics. Here's my final layout for a background. Of course it took several iterations: take photos, move squares, repeat. Digital cameras are so helpful in this process.

Arranging background for a Double Vision quilt

Two rows sewed by lunchtime. After a short break we returned to our machines and the background sewing was completed by the end of the day. The colors in this shot are so much truer than the previous photo.

Background for my Double Vision quilt sewn

Environmental Progress That Caught my Eye

For years I've known willows are good choices for wastewater remediation. Anyone on septic systems probably knows this, too. Here are some links to articles from countries around the world. {Unfortunately most links are not https but you can at least get a feel for the research depth.}

However, I didn't know about newer research involving poplars. These trees naturally remediate groundwater but often at the expense of their own health. John Freeman, a plant physiologist at NASA, conducted an experiment at a Superfund site in the Bay Area. He fortified half the poplars planted with bacteria from healthy poplars at a TCE-contaminated site in the Midwest. Results show the trees reduced TCE to undetectable levels, pulled out other contaminants, and actually resulted in healthier trees. A better way to clean up some toxic wastes. Good news indeed.

Found in sites worldwide and now linked to cancers and Parkinson's, TCE was used as an industrial solvent and degreaser. It mixes with groundwater and is easily volatilized. That means it gets into the air. If your house is well insulated, concentrations build. In that respect, it reminds me of radon. People who live on granite understand.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Prepping for Louisa Smith Workshop

The next US Election Day is November 7. Go vote.
At Ellis Island I saw a photo of citizenship classes with this instruction on the chalkboard:

"It is the duty of every citizen to vote on Election Day."

There is always talk of our rights but very little mention of responsibilities. I wish everyone would heed this message.


Double Vision Workshop
Louisa Smith spoke to my guild last month about her new book, Double Vision Quilts, and showed examples of her gorgeous work. She has such a wonderful sense of color and is always interested in curved piecing, especially Drunkard's Path variations.

Double Vision Quilts by Louisa Smith

You can see the relationship between these quilts and her earlier series, Strips 'n Curves. We were the first group to hear her newest lecture, What If? That phrase inspired her to develop ideas into quilts and turn a series of quilts into a book.

Strips 'n Curves by Louisa Smith

During Louisa's Strips 'n Curves class, I made a safari quilt for my sister but had lots of "made yardage" left. Her upcoming visit spurred me to finally finish the leftovers from her Strips 'n Curves class.

Now I'm ready to cut up more fabric for a new class. And somehow my stash never seems to decrease. I think it multiplies like Tribbles.  The two colors occupying the most space in my stash are sky blue and cherry red into pink. No idea how this will turn out but, "No fabric was purchased for the production of this quilt." With this King's X: friend Gayle gave me several bits from her stash. They aren't reducing my stash but at least I didn't purchase them. Perhaps they're helping reduce her stash. How altruistic of me. ;-)

My fabric pull for Double Vision class

Last time I took all my fabric to cut during class. I won't make that mistake this time. I'm pre-cutting everything into squares. It's a lot less weight to lug around.


If It's October, It Must be Time for a Cold
As seems to happen every fall, I'm again fighting a lingering cold. The older I get, the more these drag me down. We have lots of supplies on hand, just need a minion to make and serve them. Ha.

My mother made tiny dishes of soup, jello, fruit, and sherbet when we children were sick. She brought them to our bedside on a lovely tray. Only three or four bites of each, then more medicine and back to sleep. What a tender memory.

Once when my sons were in grade school I woke from a fever to find they'd left a note for me under a small silver bell. It was so touching to think they were channeling their grandmother and me. Nope. The message read, "We took your TV. Ring the bell if you want it back."

Enjoy the day, Ann