“So it turns out now is a good time to spend more time at home. On the bright side, that means nobody will judge you for canceling plans and spending all day at your sewing machine! And there’s nothing like creative thoughts, beautiful things, and busy hands to bring peace to the stresses of life” -- From the Missouri Star Quilt Co. newsletter for 14 March 2020
I liked this quote, its calm lightheartedness and sensibility in these trying days of uncertainty and sometimes panic. It had already occurred to me that if we were required or even decided to hole up at home for a few weeks, or even a month, we might run out of milk or toilet paper but I would have quite enough things to keep me from being bored! If nothing else, I've been steadily acquiring books faster than I can read them, so there is always a stack at hand.
I was going to do a quilting of criss-crossed diagonals on the New Boro quilt, but I stopped after one pass, and only partly because it was such a pain wrestling the thing into my sewing machine -- I rather like the single diagonals against the strong horizontals and verticals of the stacks. I am also pretty happy with the piecing on the back, its unstudied air. The binding is purchased, I admit, and is more sapphire than navy blue, I would have said, but isn't usually as bright as it looks in the photo, and it was, frankly, easier at this point than making my own. I've got it all sewn on and am about a third of the way along in tacking it down on the back by hand.
I went to an estate sale of a member of a nearby miniatures group last week. Estate sales are always bittersweet -- sometimes you can find really wonderful things, but of course it's sad to think of going through someone's belongings after they've died. More than one of the folks there was heard to murmur, "This will be what happens to my things after I'm gone." I hope the lady would have been glad to know that, for one, this charmer will be loved by me --
not to mention the miniature Martha Washington cabinet just like my grandmother's full-sized one that I still have and use. The seller's label on the doll says "Kewpie with flowers" but it's nothing like a Kewpie except in her little-girl tummy, so if anyone knows her maker I'd be very grateful to hear. Her clothes appear to be stuck on pretty firmly, so I can't tell if there's a name underneath. She has the look of some of the Hertwig Limbach dolls, to my untrained eye.
I put together this kit for a toy train by Gary Handschug of Magic Touch Miniatures -- maybe this was a souvenir at some NAME house-party, as it was clearly meant to be completely assembled by the purchaser, but everything was already glued together except the dividers and the silk-ribbon hinge on the box, with a note on the instructions saying that he'd already done the assembly. All I had to do was sand it and paint.
The cars don't actually link together, but the illusion is certainly there at this tiny scale, so I'm quite charmed regardless. I roughed it up a bit to make it look like it has been played with!
Tomato seedlings getting a bit bigger indoors before I put them into the ground.
And of course there's my Granny Square Sampler afghan still waiting. I have to finish it this year, I've already made a date block! --
It is a glorious day today after quite a lot of rain -- very welcome rain, mind you!
The wider photos don't convey the vivid blue-purples of the arroyo lupines and the orange of the poppies!
Stay well, be nice! We are all in this together!
Yes, we are. I am still well - we now have to stay indoors with just one period of exercise out of doors each day. Our General Practice medical centre has closed its doors for 12 weeks and I am wondering just how sick people are going to get help.
I just go downstairs to my little garden to change/fill the bird feeders so I get some air. Yesterday I was emptying a bucket that I keep in my garage and a poor dead mouse fell out, quite drowned it was. I shall be sure to empty the bucket always now, and keep it on its side so any creatures can crawl out. I did feel sad.
Other than that, I am trying to resist buying new books by reading the whole of the Discworld genre for about the fourth time. I had started on the latest Lyra book but it was edging me toward the Black Dog so my daughter has put it in a cupboard and got out all my Pratchetts. I am happier now. Stay safe!
Posted by: Toffeeapple | March 25, 2020 at 11:58 AM