Sunday, July 29, 2012

The Familiar, the Unfamiliar

The pattern of my days sometimes seems so calm, so normal, so regular. Occasionally I wish for a little change, for some out-of-the-ordinary excitement. But when I imagine some of the possible changes that could come I find I am grateful for and prefer the everyday calm and normal.

Robin Oliveira wrote in My Name is Mary Sutter:

“Always astonishment, the world over,
when one is affected by upheaval.
We are bored by the familiar,
but terrified by the unfamiliar.”

Perhaps not terrified but definitely stressed and certainly uncomfortable when a situation causes upheaval in my life. Sometimes I think how well I handle upheaval depends on how much advance notice I have. If I have a plan of attack, I handle it much better. But by its definition, upheaval is usually the result of a major, unexpected event.

How about you? How do you handle upheaval in your life?

Saturday, July 28, 2012

My "High Five" from Sunday Morning Quilts

Do you ever have - or see - an idea you want to try, begin it, then have second thoughts about it? Was it a bad idea because of your abilities or the materials you have? Will it work? Do you decide to quit, then reconsider, and work on it a little longer just to see how it will turn out if you keep going?

This happened to me. I saw "High Five" in Sunday Morning Quilts and fell in love with it. I had been looking for an idea for a baby quilt. I began. I wasn't sure. I almost quit but I decided to persevere and not judge the finished product by a few blocks.


This quilt is about one fourth the size of the one in the book. Because it's so small I decided to make and sew four tiny blocks to equal one 5" block. I made five of them and scattered them on the quilt (instead of making five large blocks as in the original).

Now that it's finished I see ways I could have improved it. I would shift colors for a little more balance. In the next one I will try to keep the color range within each block closer. And I will take more care in the placement of the blocks.

This is probably one of the most fun quilts I've ever made. I love playing with color and I love scrappy. I have plenty of scraps but I found I had to buy quarter yards of a few colors to bolster my lack (particularly of blue and orange). I think log cabin-style blocks take longer to make than some other patterns - stitch, iron, cut, repeat several times per block for 280 blocks.

This quilt was hand quilted. I used an improvised (unmarked) fan pattern. Because the quilt is so busy I thought a quiet, overall pattern would be best. I love it but I think an outline stitch would be calmer (but boring to quilt!).

Amanda Jean Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts and Cheryl Arkison of Dining Room Empire are the authors of the fabulous Sunday Morning Quilts. Amanda Jean is hosting a link party (which ends the evening of July 28, 2012) for those who have made quilts from the book and written blog posts. I have enjoyed seeing others' interpretations of the patterns and ideas. Thank you, Amanda Jean and Cheryl.

"The Audition"

If you need a chuckle or a laugh and you have a few minutes, you might enjoy this little video.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Fragrance of Lavender

This is the harvest from my single lavender plant. It was cut from the bush before the flowers were fully open so as to preserve the fragrance and to keep the buds on the stems.

I wish you could smell the fragrance. It fills my home. I hope Heaven smells like lavender. (But then, when the woodbine is in bloom, I hope the same thing.)

I often weave lavender baskets. A friend once asked me to show her how. She decided it was just too hard. One does have to manage keeping 15 stems in order without breaking them and also keep the ribbon smooth, neat, and unsullied.
This lavender bush -- or shrub -- is not mine. It grows at the Arboretum at the University of Kentucky. It is probably 5 feet across. The horticulturist was very proud of it.
Lovely, lovely lavender!
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