I thought I would share some things we collected on our beach walks. We found a number of beautiful shells.
Shark teeth.
P's pink collection
Favorites.
We found a number of shells that were still connected.
Winter Color
We have had snow on the ground here in Michigan for weeks. Again, this morning the thermometer showed sub zero temperatures. The natural color palette outside consists of shades of gray and brown.
When the sun comes out and the sky is blue we certainly take notice.
We enjoy any burst of color at this time of year.
What brightens your winter days?
Charmed
It is still January and I have high hopes for 2009. I will eliminate clutter in my home, live a simpler life, lose ten pounds, and finish all those UFO's. I can do that. Well, I can try.This little quilt, started more than twelve years ago, recently resurfaced. I have it on my cutting table now and I am not allowing myself to put it away again unfinished. If I want to use the cutting table I must finish this quilt first.
I was on a roll when I started it. I got all the pieces cut - each piece from a different fabric. I sewed it together - please notice all those set in seams. I even got the seam allowances to twirl where the six points come together. They lay nice and flat. I basted it together and decided on a design to hand quilt. The quilting lines were going to be the topographic contour lines of our property. That, my friends, is where the progress stopped. I put it away until I could scale a map of the property to the size of the quilt and mark it. And there it stayed.
Every so often I pulled the quilt out, and then remembered - The Contour Lines.
I found it again a couple of days ago, looked at how small the pieces are, and decided that I really didn't want to hand quilt over all those seams. D came in and quickly came up with a quilting plan. He also chose some thread and left the spool sitting on the quilt. I am going with his design.
Keep it simple. Finish it. Try not to be fussy about it.
Also, as part of my goal for refocusing in 2009 I have started a year long photo project.
I am taking a photo a day that will be a documentation of the year. I am trying to focus on activities or simple things that are meaningful to me. It helps me to think about what is important in my life, to capture the small everyday things that may be easily forgotten. You can see the year so far here.
My Haystacks
Like Monet, I am noticing the difference the lighting and time of day make on my surroundings. Monet painted the haystacks near his home. I am photographing the icicles hanging from my porch roof.
Morning
Afternoon
Evening 1
Evening 2
Evening 3
Icicles from last year can be seen here.
Triptych
I have mentioned before that I often participate in swaps because of the interesting and challenging themes. The Triptych theme in the mini quilt group intrigued me. I have never done anything like this and am eager to give it a try. I thought something simple and graphic in nature would work to tie the design of the three little quilts together. Piet Mondrian's artwork came to mind.
I have some fabrics ready to go and hope I can work on these tomorrow. I plan to make three little quilts of the same size - about 6 inches.
Children's Literature in Needlework
Children's literature has always been a part of my life. I remember my mother's voice at bed time reading our stories. To this day I hear Captain Kangaroo's voice in my head when I read Are You My Mother, Caps for Sale, or Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. One year for Halloween I even dressed as Pippi Longstocking. We put wire in my braids to make them stick out.
Years ago, while earning an Engineering degree at Virginia Tech, (yeah, what was I thinking?), I also took some child development classes and the ever popular "Kiddy Lit" class. I enjoyed that class even though my sister had to give my oral report because my mouth was wired closed at the time. I still believe that she sabotaged me as she got an A and I received a B!Becoming a mother brought it full circle for me. I started reading aloud and sharing old favorites with my own children. When D was in first grade we read Charlotte's Web and made this little sewing project together. I love that little Wilbur he cut from felt. There is also the spider web that is connected to nothing.
I have made a few quilts and needlework projects inspired by children's literature. Magic at Midnight inspired by Cinderella Mushroom Fairy Quilt from the Flower Fairies Blueberry Apron from Blueberries for Sal.
In honor of my birthday today, I have started a flickr group for needlwork inspired by Children's Literature Please add photos of your own handiwork inspired by children's stories; I'd love to see it.
Magical Light
Brown was the color of the day for our walk this weekend.
I love that magical time of day when the low sun makes everything glow.
Don't you love the way the milkweed seeds look like a fish?
Change of Seasons - Change of Light
Now that fall is here, the days are shorter but the temperature is still very warm. We have had some beautiful sunny days this week.
It is time to start the mental shift into the dark time of year. We are losing daylight each day. This is not something I noticed much when I was growing up. In Virginia, the difference is not so great. Maybe I am just more aware of my surroundings as an adult.
It seems that the earth is sending up a burst of color in an effort to fight back the coming dark.
We are soaking it all in. Trying to make the light and color last, at least in our minds.
We know that in the winter months things are more subtle. We will have to notice textures, and shades of brown and white. We will find the beauty in the "non colors." Yes, there will be bits of color here and there, but not like the show of color we are getting now with the fall leaves and garden harvest against a brilliant blue sky.
A Garden Conversation
conversation from the garden while I was weeding out the grass.
P - "Are you pulling out grass?"
Me - "Yes."
P - "You don't like grass in the garden, do you?"
Me - "No, I don't."
P - "I like grass in the garden."
Me - "Why do you like grass in the garden?"
P - "Because it WANTS to be there."
-----Perhaps I need to rethink my gardening strategy.
In the Sewing Room with P
One of the things on my to do list is making a few things for P to wear to preschool this fall. The first up will be a peasant style top for her. I'll use a pattern in Girls Style Book (ISBN 4579111817). I also have been wanting to make the ubiquitous Simplicity 3835 for myself.
My plan is to make them out of linen. I was waiting to get some alone time in the sewing room to work on these so have only gotten the preliminary steps done. Yesterday, I traced the pattern for Ps top (a shorter version of the one in the picture) and decided that a little embroidery would look good on the linen fabric. I drew a woodland fairy inspired by some drawings in one of my old books. P saw me drawing and declared that she wanted to draw a fairy too.
She said I could sew her design onto my shirt! Just think what I would have missed if I had been working alone. I can't wait to get them made!!
Yellow in July
Just a quick break from sewing and knitting to share pictures of the cone flowers blooming in our native prairie area that we burned in April.
Clouds at Sunset
The low sun in the morning and evening is great for photography. The colors are often more vibrant. We have noticed that the barn is a very vibrant red on some evenings.
Last night, on our after dinner walk I noticed the clouds.
Light on dark.
Dark on light.
Dark and light.
Cracking the Code
P has been surrounded by books and folks who love to read her whole life. She has seen her parents and brothers read. Everyone but her reads books with no pictures! This fascinated her when she first picked up one of the boys books and noticed that the pages were filled with very small letters. She would sit hunched over one of their open books and study it until she found a letter she recognized. This was usually one of the capitol letters at the beginning of a paragraph. We would watch her concentration peppered with "there is an E." or "I see a P."
She has progressed to doing a little writing.
And even some reading!
I love that she is not afraid to try reading! She will run her fingers along the words and read aloud what she sees. Recipes often say "You must eat all your dinner before you have a cookie."
The other day I gave her a little tea set that used to be mine. She set out a little tea party right away.
As she was feeding little "ploopy" she noticed that there was writing on the bottom of the tea cup.
It says, "I need more tea." Can you read it?
Faces in Places
Here are some interesting photos from the last few days. Looking around flickr has gotten me to try new things with my photography. I have been trying to see things in a different light or point of view.
Face (where the banister used to be attached to our plaster wall.)
Barn Robot
Resting Dog
That resting dog is actually the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes this morning. It REALLY looked like a dog in the dim morning light.
The inspiration for these photos came from the flickr group Faces in Places. Go have a look at some other great faces in unexpected places.
Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow
I think I need to slow down and take more time to enjoy the flowers.
Maybe then I would be able to say deep and thoughtful things like my daughter.
Things like "Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow."
And Ella starts with "L," Emmy starts with "M," and Arlene starts with "R."
Really, how does she come up with this stuff? She's only three!
And she loves pink!
Small Amusements
Sometimes tending the chickens gets to be mundane. Give them food, give them water, collect the eggs, shoo them out of the flower gardens, let them out in the morning, close them up at night. Some days, however, there are fun little surprises for us. The other day, P and I were out in the yard and stopped by the chicken barn on our way back to the house. There were eggs in the nests and we gathered them in P's hat. There was one egg that was much smaller than the rest.
Another day we went in the barn and saw three hens sitting in the same nest. There were a couple of empty nests but for some reason they all wanted to be in that one.
I am easily amused.
Lots of Ideas
I was thrilled to learn that ‘Calamity Kim’ and I are swap partners for a mini quilt swap. I have been reading her blog and admiring her work on flickr for some time. Since we were assigned to be swap partners, I have been looking at her things with a new eye trying to get ideas for her little quilt.
I love this book she posted. I may just have to get one of these for myself.
In addition to great quilts and aprons, she makes some fabulous paper dolls.
I have had several ideas of things to try for her quilt. My most recent idea involves these dolls
which I found on the back of this book.
So far I have this:
If it doesn't work out, I have other ideas.
It's a Perfectly Cromulent Word
I love words that kids make up to fit a particular thing or situation.
Yesterday, as P was playing with her "easy blocks" she was also giving a running dialog. I heard her say that her blocks were "betwards" my spinning wheel. Betwards- that would be her new word for between her and something else.
When my nephew was little he coined the word "smurgled" to describe the clean laundry that has not yet been folded.What fun words have you learned from the little people in your life?
Patience
Saturday, we found this dove who had made a nest in our supply of twine in the barn. She sat patiently on her nest all day as we went about our business getting tools, and starting the tractor and lawn mower. She will be a mother soon.
We will keep an eye out for the babies. The incubation period for dove eggs is 17-18 days.
Back in the winter, we ordered baby chicks to be delivered on June first. The incubation period for chickens is 21 days. That means that our little chicks started their incubation at the hatchery on Saturday, as we discovered this dove.
We will also be waiting and watching for these grapes to flower and grow. This will take a lot longer than incubating chicks.
That is the way it is.
We have to wait for some of the best things in life, it helps to have a lot of things that we are anticipating along the way.
Believe
We have been enjoying the warmer weather lately. I have been sitting out on our back porch to knit and read during P's naps. I even ended up taking my own nap out there one day.
This afternoon, P and I were out enjoying the scents and colors of the flowers. We ended up, as usually happens, weeding on one of the flower beds. I was discouraged by the amount of grass and weeds in the garden. I also had to keep reminding P to keep her feet on the grass and not in the garden. She would respond with, "It's a gard'n, honey." I guess she was trying to correct my pronunciation! After several reminders to keep her feet out of the garden, gard'n, I explained that different people say it different ways. That seemed to satisfy her and she busied herself pulling the yellow (dandelions) out of the white (all the flowers are white in the garden we were working on) garden. A little while later she stood up and said, "You can believe it's a garden if you want," and then walked away.
I will keep believing it is a garden. Maybe one day it will be free of weeds and grass. Maybe I will see that it is lush with foliage and flowers. Maybe I will see it as it was in our minds when we planted it. I just have to believe that it is a garden.
