Gone To The Beach

Monday, March 6, 2017

Fall Festival Quilt Part 2, Westering Women, Wild Geese updates

Hello! It's the first Monday of March--already! Time for some sewing updates.

Fall Festival is a sewalong with Lori on Humble Quilts. Despite February being a short month, our assignment was BIG! Very diverse blocks We did all the patriotic blocks, plus the oh so adorable Turkey.

I needed hand sewing to sit out with Mo on the [frigid] deck, so I did Turkey first. Very fun.

Flag..getting good at Flags, we've made a bunch by now. Though why we have the flag of Texas in the quilt remains a mystery to me. (Ok I looked it up, the flag of Texas is different! But still....)

Then these Stars. big stars. Big pieced Stars. Made in an odd manner with freezer paper and ''eyeballed'' seam allowances. I was crafty, and cut all the outer seam allowances XXL, so mine worked out okay.

Can't wait to see what we'll so next. Pineapples, anyone! [symbol of hospitality.] Not even gonna put the Baskets on my To Do List, probably save them for a lovely summer day, since I do all hand applique.

Yes, upside down. I know.

....
Last night I made my first extra block for Westering Women. My block is called "Prairie Queen".

It's a modified Churn Dash with Four Patch, very humble for the queen! It represents my young pioneer woman in my imaginary travels west. She has used her favorite fabric scraps here, her practical brown dresses and a pink apron stripe; a bit left over from a Sunday best white polka dot shirtwaist bodice.

Today I was going to make my next WW block, ''Corn and Beans''. But I couldn't face all those half-square triangles today ...

and instead made a bunch of Wild Geese spacer blocks for When the Wild Geese Fly.

The blue shirts' worn soft fabric is harder to work with than the new cotton prints, I found. I expected to like the blues the best. This is the blue that inspired me to make the quilt, a gorgeous soft French blue.

The wild geese blocks are made in sets of four. Neither fast nor slow, but a workable method from the internet, also being used currently on Temecula Quilt Company's blog. here
The sewed blocks are overlarge and require trimming, a quilting method that chafes my garment making soul and habit, where a pattern had to fit and fit together perfectly before being cut. But it does make for neater quilting pieces, I suppose.

48 Geese done, 100 more to go.
.......
On the home front, we had a huge change of weather~and howling March gale winds. Power outages even, though thankfully brief.

Brrrr.

My pussy willow catkins are flowering.

And I taught myself to make origami boats, for my next beach walk! I was so proud, even though I have no understanding of what made this work. I'll fold some tiny boats with real origami paper, and have them in my pocket for my next ''spring'' walk to the beach.

cute but only 2 dimensional

3-D, site suggests pebbles 'or shells!] for stabilty.

Have a great week. Other quilters' Fall Festival blocks can be seen on Lori's blog HERE Be sure to take a look!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

...

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Reinventing Oneself

Hi! There's been a number of mentions in Blogland---Like everyone got Fitbits for Christmas, lol---"Walk 1000 Miles This Year!" or more challengingly, "2017 Miles in 2017!".
Ah. If only.

A few years ago---ten maybe?--- I was very into walking. I worked my way up to 5 or 6 miles a day on the beach. East to the village, back home then west past the golf course to where the ice cream stand is a landmark; some days even further to the surfing beach. [No I never went in for ice cream; like many women I felt I didn't need or deserve such a treat.] In addition, I walked my elderly pug daily. I enjoyed these walks; I began my blog about walking on the beach. But then illness reared its ugly head and I was hospitalized for 2 months. Some of those days were in intensive care, I didn't so much as sit up, let alone put a foot on the ground. I walked nowhere.

A less than supportive family member told me my prognosis was hopeless: I'd never recover.
But I did. It was hard. But I am nothing if not an optimist.
I never got back to 5 or 6 miles a day, but I was getting there, maybe doing 3+?, when I again fell ill and was hospitalized, though for a shorter time. But again I worked my way back. Not so much on the beach, but I acquired a very active pug puppy, [you all know Mo] and as he grew we were up to about four brisk miles a day! I now had an iPhone with Map My Walk and Map My Dog Walk apps to keep track. Things were hopeful. Maybe I'd start bike riding again!

As I was sewing the Dotty squares together last week, I looked in the accompanying diary. My hip inflammation and severe pain began one year ago. I shoveled snow--badly. As you know by May of last year I couldn't really walk. The pain was beyond imagining, so bad I would almost pass out. To slowly shuffle to the bathroom was like running a marathon in excruciating pain. By Fall my doctor finally got things under control and I slowly have recovered. The pain is held at bay with a cocktail of pills, but I am much better. [Thank you to those who ask!]

The reason I'm writing this is that this past week a milestone has been passed! I can now walk Mo every day! We only go around the block, to the beach bench and home, but we do walk! (I rely on my dog walker and children and friends to exercise Mo more fully.)

.For me that walk around the block is a huge accomplishment. Yes the doctor warns me that the pain/ inflammation can return at any time. He preaches caution and rest. But walking Mo means so much to me. And on very good days I now can even walk down to the beach. The beach is big right now. The walk to the ocean's edge is about a half mile each way. Small distances but huge for me.