winnowings

Clean living

2009-07-13T13:34:00.001-07:00

We are all cleaned up here at home (at least for today). The cleaning ladies came this morning and buzzed around the house. We went out for a walk while they were here. Our house is too small to contain five busy people at one time.

The ladies bring all their own equipment and supplies. They wear rubber gloves and big aprons. Their activity motivated me to make a yellow rubber glove and sponge block today.

The 4-inch paper pieced block is one I’ve had on my pattern site for a long time. It is called Heart in Hand and it is free to print out. I modified the block today by extending the bottom of the hand straight down to make it look like a glove. I just drew lines on the block with a Pigma fabric pen instead of making separate fingers as shown in the original pattern. The sponge will be sewn on the block when the whole quilt is quilted; it is temporarily tacked on right now. It should be washable.

You can get the basic pattern foundations by clicking on the small diagram below. It will take you to the free pattern which you can print out.

Our friend Lilia started her housekeeping business way back in the 1980s. She and her ladies have been coming to our house, on and off, for 24 years.

Everything is peachy pie here

2009-07-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor, Mary Mac, brought us some fresh picked peaches yesterday. They were good and they inspired my quilting block for today.
Robert made a peach pie, and this morning I had pie for breakfast. I love pie for breakfast, especially peach pie. I am sure it must be very good for me because it fulfills part of my daily dietary requirement for fruit.

If you want to make a 4-inch paper pieced pie block, click on the small diagram below and you will go to a full size foundation which you can print out for your personal project

They said STOP

2009-07-11T15:14:00.001-07:00

Just after I posted Friday’s block (safety cones), I received an e-mail from Blogger which said:

“Hello, Your blog has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog. Your blog will be deleted in 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and your readers will see a warning page during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. Once we have reviewed and determined your blog is not spam, the blog will be unlocked and the message in your Blogger dashboard will no longer be displayed. We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error.”

Sure enough, my blog was blocked for posting. I filled out the “unlock form” and figured I’d have to wait at least two days to post again. But, surprise, I found I was able to post this afternoon.

Because I’d been told to STOP, I decided to make a quilt block called “Stop and smell the roses.” Here it is:
If you would like to paper piece a 4-inch stop sign block, you can click on the small image below and print out a foundation to use. Your block could be called “Stop and smell the flowers” if you have flowery fabric, or perhaps you have some bacon fabric and can make a “Stop and smell the bacon” block.

Complementary colors

2009-07-10T18:41:00.001-07:00

My walk to the Bethel Island Bridge construction site this morning inspired the block for today. There was a lot of activity going on. A big crane is set up next to the existing bridge. Traffic was blocked while they moved another giant piece of equipment over the bridge.
If I am going to hang around this busy place, I think I’d better dress for the occasion. I’ve ordered an orange T-shirt from the C.C. Myers Company Store. All the workers wear orange safety vests. There are lots of orange cones set here and there to direct traffic.

When I searched the web for information about “Safety Orange” I learned that the color was chosen because bright orange stands out against blue skies. Wikipedia says: “Safety orange is used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in complementary contrast to the azure color of the sky (azure is the complementary color of orange, and therefore there is a very strong contrast between the two colors).”

I found a nice piece of orange batik while shopping in my stash for the block.

If you want to paper piece a 4-inch safety cone block, click on the small diagram below and you will find foundations to print out and put together.

A piece of cake for Jackie

2009-07-09T09:48:00.001-07:00

My friend Jackie was being interviewed recently and was asked, “What is the date of your birth?”
She replied, “July 9.”
The interviewer said, “What year?”
“Every year,” Jackie said.

Jackie just had a new story accepted for the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. She has had four or five stories in the books, her last one was in Chicken Soup for the Soul: the Golf Book. She is a good writer.
A month ago, she took up knitting again and now she has two long scarves and an almost finished shawl. She said that it is getting too hot to knit in the summer so she is putting her project aside for the fall.
If you want to see Jackie in a halter top and learn more about her, click here.

I skipped my walk to the bridge construction site this morning and made this block instead.

I’ve had this cake wedge pattern around for a long time. If you want to make a 4-inch paper pieced cake block, click on the small diagram below and you will find a foundation you can print out.

The original block I designed is still on my website. It is smaller, a 3-inch block. You can see it here: http://www.winnowing.com/cupcake.html

Bamboo walk

2009-07-08T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today, I noticed a small bamboo clump at the other end of the lane while we were out walking.
I knew I had some bamboo print fabric at home, so the choice for today’s block was easy. The main fabric is by Robert Kaufman from the series “Portraits of the Wild” (print D#4235). It’s not a new fabric. That’s why I enjoy shopping from my stash. I buy fabric I love when I see it even if I don’t have any immediate plans for using it.

We picked a leaf and I found a green print in my stash that matched the color. Plain brown was a good background for the paper pieced leaf.

If you would like to make a 4-inch Bamboo Walk block (and you happen to have suitable bamboo fabric in your stash) click on the small diagram below and it will take you to a foundation to print out.

I think I’ll wander over to the bridge construction project tomorrow and see what’s going on. I hear the sound of pile driving today. I suppose I can design a pile driver block or something for the next one.

Moon over Mt. Diablo

2009-07-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

July 7 is a full moon day, so here is my block for this day.
Our view of Mt. Diablo is from the east. Most pictures show the west side of the mountain. The lower peak is on the right for us.

If you want to make a Moon over Mt. Diablo 4-inch paper pieced block, click on the little diagram below and it will take you to a full size foundation to print out.

I used a quarter to make my moon for appliquéing. Wet some fabric and wrap it around the coin, twist it tightly and secure it with a rubber band. It looks sort of like a large Hershey Kiss. Let it dry completely. Remove the rubber band and cut off the fabric tail. Give it a steam to flatten it a bit and appliqué it in place.

Waving palm leaves

2009-07-06T17:08:00.001-07:00

On our walk today I noticed the palm tree at the end of the lane and snapped a picture.

When I came home I looked at the photo on my computer screen and decided to make a classic palm leaf block. I tried out several fabrics next to the screen and picked two. (My little Emma Bird from Terry Grant sits next to the screen on the left and watches everything I do.)

Here is my block for today:

If you want to make a 4-inch paper pieced palm leaf block, click on the diagram below and it will take you to a full size paper foundation to print out for yourself.

Quilt Block

2009-07-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

I’ve been suffering from “quilt block” so I decided to do something very simple to get past it.

We picked some cherry tomatoes today from our small ziggurat garden. I made a small quilt block to commemorate our first harvest. It’s a very simple 4-inch paper foundation pieced block. Click the small diagram below and it will take you to a full size paper foundation to print out for yourself.
Yesterday, of course, was the 4th of July. I made a five pointed star block to commemorate this year’s 4th.

I found the pattern on Quilter’s Cache – Marcia Hohn’s free pattern site. Her five point star was an 8-inch block so I printed it out at 50-percent and added a line around the foundations for full ¼-inch seam allowances. Click the bold text for Marcia’s Five Pointed Star pattern.

If I made one 4-inch block a day for 365 days, by the end of a year I’d have enough blocks to make a small quilt. I said IF. It might be fun to try.

New bridge

2009-07-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Bethel Island bridge is going to be replaced. When we arrived here in 1979 we were told that the bridge was “at the end of its lifespan.” It was built in 1948.

We kept anticipating a replacement any minute.

C.C. Myers arrived late last month and action is beginning.

We are going to have a front row seat. We can go out on our balcony and lean way out and see the C.C. Myers yard. Lots of big equipment has arrived.

The bridge replacement is going to take 20 months. I will post pictures of the construction as it goes along.

Bon Voyage and Farewell

2009-06-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Tears and smiles filled the day yesterday. A celebration of Al Sandecki’s life was held in San Jose. Al is my son’s father-in-law. More than 130 people gathered together at Al’s church, St. Victor’s. Then the whole group moved on to Il Fornaio, Al’s favorite restaurant, for a sumptuous lunch.

It was a most unusual gathering. We were presented with leis in the restaurant’s foyer. The tables had puzzle box centerpieces. Huge stacks of puzzle boxes and flowers were the decorations in the restaurant.

If you didn’t know Al you might wonder what this meant. All of us attending the Bon Voyage and Farewell knew immediately. Al loved to go on cruises and he managed to include many, many friends and his family on these ocean jaunts. He also loved jigsaw puzzles and bought them and put them together all the time. Al’s daughters brought 500 puzzles to the gathering and we were told we had to take at least five home with us.

His daughters, Toni, Sheri and Angie pulled hundreds of photos of Al’s life and these were projected on a screen during the luncheon.

Al also had to be one of the world’s busiest sports, concerts, theatre, and movie goers. He had season tickets to all the major sports games, plus season tickets to live theater productions in the Bay Area, and in his spare hours he went to every single movie that opened in San Jose. He made sure that all his friends and family were invited too.

A most important piece of his friends and family’s life is missing now. The puzzle will never be the same again.

Emma Bird

2009-06-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

Isn’t she darling? This stuffed cloth bird was made by Terry Grant.

Emma arrived at my place yesterday and she is perching here and there trying to find a perfect spot in the house. Right now Emma is sitting by my computer and looking up at me with her bright blue eyes. Living here in California with me will be a climate adjustment for her. She hails from the foggy, rainy Northwest – Oregon, and we are expecting a sunny day today with temperatures predicted to reach 106 Fahrenheit.

Terry Grant is a very talented fiber artist and printmaker. She now has an Etsy store at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7583915

She had eight fabric birds up for sale on Etsy June 23. I was so pleased to find Emma.

Terry wrote about this bird on her blog on January 6, 2008. I fell in love with it that day.

New art

2009-06-26T16:04:00.000-07:00

I bet you don’t have one of these. I just purchased this piece from a young artist, Stephanie Davis. I call it “Baby Buggy.” It arrived today and I am thrilled to have it. I’ve been carrying it all over my house looking for the perfect spot to place it.

Baby Buggy is a ceramic work. The gold part is a cast doll head and the coppery round part is also ceramic. The wheels are metal and they do roll.

Stephanie just graduated from high school. I am sure she will be a famous artist someday.

I saw this piece on Vicky Davis’ Cat in the Batt blog and immediately fell for it.

Skewered

2009-06-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

The carrot section of the planter bed is now protected from visiting cats. We stuck wooden skewers amongst the carrot tops. O.C. does not curl up for a morning nap in the bed anymore. Click Carrot warming to see the first post about this. Vicky and Del inspired us to put up deterrents. Thanks.

We are also making progress on the repair on the house. AT&T arrived promptly and put up a new phone line last Thursday.

Click on Ripped off for the background story. Commenters gave me good advice and I took it. Thank you all so much. I have such smart friends.

I contacted the agency that grants the franchise to the garbage company and they were very receptive and nice. They have power over the garbage company. They assured me that they would get an incident report and give me a copy. They also said I could send my building contractor's bid for repairs to them and they would make sure it was paid.

Ripped off

2009-06-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

Our garbage truck guy took more than garbage this morning. He managed to rip down our telephone line and pull off the corner trim on the house.

The garbage company, Oakley Disposal, seemed indifferent about the incident. The supervisor said, “Get it fixed and send us the bill.” However, he would not put anything in writing. We have to find our own contractor. I can’t imagine that many contractors will do the work without some sort of paperwork.

Our insurance agent told us we would have to pay a $250 deductible if we put in a claim. Nertz.

Carrot warming

2009-06-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

The neighbor’s cat O.C. (Orange Cat) comes by in the morning and climbs in the planter bed and sits right on the carrot section. What is he trying to do? He stretches out and goes to sleep until we chase him away.

Did you ever read the book Horton Hatches the Egg? Perhaps O.C. is trying to hatch the carrots, but he is squishing their tops. This will not work.

Flag Day 2009

2009-06-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

I didn't know it was flag day, but Robert put it out so it must be.

Minding my business

2009-06-13T13:12:00.001-07:00

Last year, I finally got a neat, efficient office. For years and years I worked in a crowded, messy space.

I put a video tour of my new office and sewing room on YouTube when it was finished.
I’ve loved being in my new space.

Today I took pictures of how I mind my business. I sell quilting patterns and my orders arrive from PayPal.

When the orders come in I check my warehouse (ware box under the dropleaf table). If I’m lucky I find all the patterns I need for the orders.

I enter the information for the invoices in my MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) program.

I print out the invoices.

Then, I scoot my roll-around chair back and pull out envelopes and labels from the convenient cupboard on the other side of the room.

I pack the orders and hand them to my delivery guy (Robert). He takes them to the post office.
What fun it has been for this past year.

Fig leaf cover up

2009-06-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

Fig leaves can cover things you don’t want to look at.

We had a big fig tree on our lot next door. It covered up something we did not want to look at. Here is what the tree looked like this morning.
Our neighbor to the south has a kind of ramshackle looking house. She called last week crying. She said our fig tree was scraping the top of her plastic garage roof and she was a poor woman, nearing 70, and so she could not cope with the tree. She told us that if the tree branches broke the plastic roof it would cost $800 to replace it.

Enough said. We called our lawnmower guy and asked if he could find someone to take the tree out. He sent a fellow with a chain saw today. At 8:30 a.m. it cranked up and got to work. There are more branches to haul away tomorrow, but here is our new view from the back porch.

A bunch of radishes

2009-06-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

I knew something would come along to brighten this gray day (mood).

Robert picked a bunch of radishes from the little ziggurat garden bed. He had to clear out a lot of radishes to give the carrots some room to grow.

Too blah to blog

2009-05-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

My life is so boring right now. I have nothing to blog about. I re-started my walking program as of April 24, 2009. I am still fiddling around with my hearts pattern, but it isn’t working as I want it to. Perhaps in a week or so something exciting will happen and I’ll blog about it.

First strawberry

2009-05-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

The first strawberry appeared yesterday. Robert planted our little garden April 21.
We must pick the berry before the birds spot it. It looks a little small to split two ways, so I think Robert should eat the whole thing.

Unnecessary worry

I’ve been feeling gloomy because I thought my blood pressure was going sky high (190/80). I have been worried for almost a month. I took up my walking program again 20 days ago, but my home monitor kept reporting alarming numbers. Yesterday, I went to see my doctor. The blood pressure reading at the office was normal. That surprised me. I had him do it again. Hummmmmm.
My home measuring device must be on the blink. I’ve had it for 8 years and I guess it just doesn’t work very well anymore. Whew.

No cradle fell…

2009-05-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

…when this bough broke. It wasn’t even windy. Wham – we heard a big thump and rustling and went out to see a big willow limb teetering on the edge of the back porch. It was fortunate that the 4-inch-diameter limb did not hit the storage shed or the air conditioner. It didn’t even damage the porch rail. Very odd.

April and Joe's wedding

2009-05-12T18:39:00.001-07:00

As I promised yesterday, here are the photos of the wonderful wedding on May 9. You can click on most of the pictures to see larger images.

Here comes the bride as Joe waits smiling.

Little Joey carried the rings up the isle as the groomsmen beamed.
April and Joe recited their vows. Joe gave a very enthusiastic “I do.” Linda, April’s mother, looked very happy when the couple walked back down the isle together. A splendid reception was held right on the grounds of the wedding site. The food was delicious. One of Joe’s groomsmen provided special wine from the winery where he works. Joe and April just glowed with happiness as they greeted their guests. Look at the back of April’s gown. It was so beautiful. The gown appeared to be Peau de Soie satin and it draped in sumptuous folds. A soft pink sash with a bow was the perfect touch.
Lisa made the wedding cake which carried out the pink bow theme of April’s dress. The cake had fresh strawberry filling between the chocolate, strawberry, and white layers.
Joe’s best man told the story of the couple meeting in high school. It was love at first sight on Joe’s part when he saw her walk on campus.

Jack, the bride’s father, told a funny story about April bringing Joe home for a first introduction. “His name is Joe,” said April. Jack thought that would be easy to remember. A few weeks later, Joe came visiting again with a friend. “This is my friend Joe” he told Jack. Several weeks went by and Joe paid another visit with another friend. He told Jack, “This is my other friend Joe.”

Jack continued, “Then a few years later they had a baby, and what did they name him? – Joe.”

All the Joes were at the wedding on Saturday.

I don't have a good photo of all the bridesmaids, but here is the best I could do. The dresses were the same shade as April's shash.
Here I am with my son Rob, the groom’s father, (left) and my son Davis (right). What a splendid day it was.

A lovely wedding

2009-05-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

Joe married April this weekend. It was a beautiful wedding. Here are the bride and groom taking their first dance as a married couple.
Joe is our grandson. Many more pictures tomorrow (whether you want them or not). I have to sort through all the photos and pick out the ones that best capture the magic.