An introduction

Hello to Stella Avrie my third great-grandchild. Her two big brothers are happy to have her and Mommie home after a few days in a Boston hosptial where Stella arrived nearly a month early although she weight 7 pounds 11 ounces.  Mother Cori is well and very happy to be home again-- the more so because she and her husband only moved into their new (first) house on New Year's Day -- a very memorable January in the family's life.

I was enchanted with Stella and especially with her long, elegant fingers.  I'm convinced she'll be a pianist -- her mother and father both are very musical people.  Big brother Finn was showing his own musical talent with a spoon drumming on the coffee table, while middle brother, Cole, has learned to walk holding onto objects and makes very sure he's in the middle of all goings on.  Oh, I should mention that Cori is a talented photographer so the boys and their sister are going to have well documented lives.

Does that woman look old enough to have three great-grandchildren?

Miniature quilts

Never -- never, never will I be a maker of miniature quilt blocks and miniature quilts. I look at that and think about angels dancing on the head of a pin.  Today four members of the Bayberry Quilt Guild talked about how they got together a few years ago and began with 6 inch miniature blocks and a couple of them progressed (regressed?) to making the same complex blocks (some had as many as 92 pieces per block) in three inch size.  And they had examples which were jaw droppping.

When I belonged to the Empire Quilters Guild in New York City among the members were Mr. and Mrs. George Sicciliano. He was making miniature quilts at that time and has since become very well known in the quilt world.  His wife whose first name I do not remember was making very interesting art quilts of a normal size, i.e., at least 18x18 and mostly larger. 

I understand enjoying a challenge but some challenges are, I know, not for me.  I don't intend to do any rock climbing or deep sea diving, I like being alive too much.  And I don't intend to do any miniature quilting projects, I prefer to remain mentally, relatively, stable.  (The illustration is a copyright free photo - by count the purple and white part of the quilt ha 125 pieces! -- and the lady has a lovely manicure.)

Chinese Coin Quilt

I do not know why this design is called "Chinese Coins", it looks more like "third world paper money" to me since many countries print very colorful paper money.

Early in December when I began sewing together the rectangle pieces -- which I cut out last summer when I had a week-long spasm of making my scraps usable by cutting them into squares, strips and rectangles-- I thought: this is a really quick and easy quilt. I'll be done in no time. It WAS an easy quilt but I only finished it yesterday, some six weeks after starting it.  Of I really like it.  I have a pile of scraps in need of cutting up and I will once again begin to collect a baggie full of these rectangles for a future quilt of the same style. 

Working on, but often interrupted

A  fairly traditional block, just a square and half-square triangles. I'm using stash fabrics that are mostly fat quarters that have been cut into so I only have enough for a square and then a bit left over to make strips or smaller squarees for future scrap quilts.  This goes together so quickly and easily that I've made up some for the block of the month for Feburary for the Bayberry guild.

These are on my design wall, abutted to one another but when I stand back the stars disappear and I get a jumble of squares that confuses the eye. So the quilt will be put together with white sashing between the blocks, then the stars will be prominent.  I'm use somewhat grayed tones, nothing really bright, so it will have a sweet old fashioned feel -- although the white stripping may seem to put it into the "modern" category.  Category doesn't matter, I'm using scrapes, I enjoy the almost automatic sewing and I need to have a stash of two or three completed quilts that are basically utility quilts that can be give to charities when disasters happen and our guild offers to send quilts.

Two short winter poems

               Glove in the  Snow

The black glove
frozen stiff
pointed at footprints
in the snow
leading to my door.
Prowler!  Voyeur!
         oh....
my glove
my own steps
as I came home
late last night.


                 Onset

Drip
         Sniffle
..... sneeze ...... sneeze!
drip-drip.        BLOW!
scratchy throat
         Sniff-sniff
sinus pain.  Wince!
         SNIFF          BLOW!
Where's the slippery elm tea?
         Still good after a year?
Oh rats! The half lemon in the fridge
has grown a green fur coat
BLOW!    BLOW!
Can't smell the tea
Stir in honey --  sip, slurp, slurpppp
         SNIFF          BLOW-BLOW
Sinus pain,    Aspirin.     Bed.
Tomorrow the coughing starts.

Someone mentioned to me yesterday a need for short poems.  I dug these up.  Profound they're not but timely.  Happily I don't have a cold ...   yet.

January 1, 2013

HAPPY 2013 --  

                     MAY IT BE A PEACEFUL, HEALTHY AND HAPPY ONE.