Black History Month

Some years back, I was into making fabric art journals. Some I did in round robins, and some I did alone, just me. Below are photos of one of my favorites that I did alone. I just call it "Africa." I'm not African nor African American, so my knowledge of the continent and the cultures might not be exactly correct. So if my art shows any glaring errors (or God forbid, offenses,) please forgive my ignorance. My intentions were pure.

Happy Black History Month, everyone. I hope we all learn much. I have already learned several things this month about black brothers and sisters, past and present, that I didn't already know.

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On 02/11/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

How perfectly marvelous! I think you've captured the glory and joy of the people and the colors that seem to me a shine in Africa. My frame of reference is from South African friends and from movies like "The Gods must be Crazy".
Thank you for sharing your wonderful creation.

Hugs!

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On 02/12/2022, Judy Cloe said ...

I love it Susan! African fabrics give me much joy and I have made many quilts using them. Your journal is beautiful!
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Full of Hot Air

A few days ago Jesse got us an air fryer. I haven't used it yet, but the steaks he has cooked in it have been excellent. I'm going to use it tonight to cook pork chops.

I've spent the last few days trying to clean downstairs. Since I let the Merry Maids go, things had got a little grungy--and things weren't too neat when they were coming. That's why I let them go.

I'm a good cleaner, I think, but very slow these days. I have to take frequent breaks. I remember back in my working days, I would clean the entire house on Saturday morning, do a few loads of laundry, then go out with Vann in the evening for dinner or a movie. Those days are history.

Sister Ramey and I were talking the other day about how getting older brings numerous challenges. I was telling her about an incident here one recent night when I was cooking, tangled my feet with Skipper, almost fell, thew a pot lid across the room, but managed somehow not to fall or do any damage to me or to Skipper. After I had straightened up, Jesse (who was in the kitchen sharing the cooking) looked at me, shook his head, and said, "Lord have mercy." I cracked up. Even now when I think about it, I get the giggles. So after telling Ramey about it, I said at least we still have a sense of humor.

"Yeah, that's all we have left," she replied.

Oh well, it beats the alternative. Not everyone is blessed (?) with enough years to be considered a senior.

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On 02/06/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Gotta love it when a young man or woman uses a tried and true Southern expression, perfectly placed for the circumstances!! Well done in not falling, not hurting Skipper, not spilling the food, and hope you didn't dent the pot lid.

It's a real bummer when you have to sit more than you're up and doing but I"m right there with you. Good thing I'm retired because I certainly couldn't work an 8 hour shift, then do all I used to do effortlessly. Sigh.

I need the Merry Maids of some equivalent service to give this house the once over.

Hugs!

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On 02/07/2022, Alicia P. said ...

Our cleaning ladies hardly ever come anymore and boy can I tell. I had to laugh at the image of the pot lid flying across the room.
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Got a Little Work Done

Below are some photos of my new sewing digs. It's to the stage where I can at least get some sewing done. Now if I could just find things.

It isn't yet completely organized; but all my stuff has been moved to my new sewing wing. Trouble is, I just can't find anything now.

I started constructing binding for Blakely's teddy bear quilt, and "the first dash out of the box" (as my mama would say) I broke my sewing machine needle. In the old sewing room, I had a complete armoire drawer full of needles. But I boxed up all the stuff from the armoire, and bequeathed it to the thrift store. It's big and ugly, and I didn't want it in my new quarters. Trouble is, now I can't find which box I put the needles in. I finally found a partial pack of sewing machine needles on a sealed box that I had left in the old sewing room. God is good.

I finally got the binding cut and joined, folded and pressed, and I started sewing it to the quilt. I broke another needle. Thank goodness there were still a couple of needles in the pack I found.

With the binding sewn to the joining point, I discovered I had forgot how to join the ends of the binding on the quilt. I dug and dug and dug around and found Liz Porter's laminated sheet that she had given me years ago that tells how to join the ends of binding. It's not the way I'm accustomed to doing it, but maybe it will work. It didn't. I sewed it wrong the first time, at which point I discovered I could not find the first seam ripper, although I own many. Using a straight pin, I pulled out the stitches, reread Liz's instructions, and joined them again (wrong again).

By that point I was just about to go into a hissy fit, so I decided it was time to retire for the day. I'm going to find Jenny Doan's binding video and refresh my brain as to how it's done( https://youtu.be/0vCWpxBRs20). Jenny has the best technique to bind a quilt. But for some reason, I just can't remember the order of the final steps. I'm sure it's because it's late in the day and my back is killing me.

So I'll try again tomorrow.

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On 02/01/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Hi! LOVE your new sewing room's arrangement and all the cute stuff you have in addition to the fabrics and quilt books. Wish I could enlarge each photo but that doesn't work for some reason.

I've sent you an email with a pictorial tutorial that I use when I'm joining binding ends. Hope it helps!

Also hope you're feeling better today.

Hugs!
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COVID Home Tests

Did you know you can receive four at-home COVID test kits, free of charge? I just got mine yesterday. I hope to never need to use them, but it's another thing that makes me feel a little bit more secure in the time of plague.

If you haven't ordered yours yet go to covidtests.gov to find out how.

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On 01/28/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

You can also get them for free from the post office on-line and mine should ship out tomorrow. I also hope I never need to use it. The rule is 4 tests per household unless that's changed since my order was placed.

Stay safe, everybody!

Hugs!

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On 01/28/2022, Shasta said ...

Thanks! I have ordered mine.
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A Year of Books

One positive thing about having to spend so much time off my feet is that I get a lot of reading done. In 2021, I read 62 books, by far the most books I've ever read in one year.

I read a lot of good books, but my favorite, by far, was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I have never met a literary character that I loved as much as I came to love Rocky, in spite of his looks. (The carapace thing did sort of freak me out though.) If you read and liked The Martian by this author, do yourself a favor and read this book. It's even better.

Another one of last year's favorites was The Witching Hour by Chris Bohjalian. Women accused of witchcraft has always interested me, starting in high school when I wrote my senior term paper on the subject.

I'm almost finished with my fifth book of 2022, so it looks like maybe this year will be another record-breaking reading year.

For brief reviews of these and other books I read in 2021, see the list in the left sidebar.

 

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On 01/25/2022, Nicole said ...

I loved those two books as well! You have some other interesting ones on your sidebar that I will have to look into.

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On 01/25/2022, Ramey Channell said ...

Project Hail Mary is one of my favorites too! I just finished Hour of the Witch, and liked it a lot, after not liking it at the beginning.

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On 01/26/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Love to read and am always looking for authors who are new to me. I'll request these two books from the library but am aware that you enjoy much scarier books than I do.

Big hugs!
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Guess I Better Say Something

Former Sewing Room

Future Sewing Room

As you can see, I'm still in quite a mess. Almost everything from the former sewing room is now in the future sewing room. But being totally organized and ready to work is still a bit in the future.

And I'm about to panic. I have lots of sewing to get ready for my guild's June quilt show. I am hoping and praying that I'll be ready to rev up the Bernina by the end of this month.

Then Jesse will have to get started making the former sewing room into his man cave. I don't plan to be much involved in that.

It's very cold here, but I guess we're fortunate to not be having the snow, ice, and storms that other areas of the country are experiencing. Personally, I wouldn't mind a little more snow before the winter is over. We had one beautiful snowfall a couple of weeks ago. It was maybe an inch and was totally gone in a couple of days. Didn't cause any power or travel problems. I'd like another one like that.

I'm sorry I've been so incommunicado lately. This moving and cleaning out exercise just takes all my energy and focus. Along with a little cooking, a little laundry, a little grocery shopping, and a goodly amount of animal care, I have nothing much left to devote to fun stuff. When I've got all this stuff straightened out, I plan to set myself up some kind of schedule so that I can keep regular blog posts and get a whole lot of sewing done.

Happy New Year, everyone. I'm glad I managed to say that before January is gone.

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On 01/23/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Isn't it draining to have the house or part of the house in disarray because of making a change? Same here although my mess is due to trying to label a bazillion family photos, some of which are very old. I hesitate to put them all in a suitcase without names and dates (if possible). Where is Samantha and her nose wiggle when you need her?

Perhaps you can arrange for the women in the family to come for food and lifting help to get your sewing room furniture where you want them so you can fill them with fabric and whatever else as energy allows. At least your sewing machine would be ready for use.

Hugs!

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On 01/23/2022, Dorris from Illinois said ...

I'm so glad to hear from you. It's a long process to change rooms and reorganize. Don't overdue,the world is round you'll get there.

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On 01/24/2022, rose said ...

Good to hear from you.
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Oh My Back!

2022 doesn't promise to be much better than 2021. It has already taken Betty White.

When we first started this upstairs room switcheroo, Jesse said our goal was to be finished by the end of the month. I don't think we're even halfway through, and we're into the new month/new year. And Jesse seems to have lost interest. I'm not getting the help I need.

Normally when you switch rooms, I think you switch out two rooms. We're doing four, the entire upstairs. The storage room goes to the basement; the fabric and sewing supplies go to the storage room; the sewing room goes to the guest bedroom (which adjoins the storage room); the guest room goes to Jesse's room; Jesse's room goes to the sewing room. THe current sewing room is the largest room upstairs, and Jesse wants to turn it into his bedroom/sitting room/entertainment center. And I was fine with that. I don't need that much room for sewing so long as I have the storage room to store all my supplies. But the deal was, that Jesse was going to do the major part of the moving with me directing. It hasn't turned out that way. His schedule seems to have changed, and we're never both available at the same time.

He did get the storage room moved to the basement and the shelves from my current sewing room moved to the storage room. I got all the fabric storage bins and most of my other supplies moved to the new fabric storage room, but I'm at a standstill until he moves some things our of the guest room and moves the rest of my sewing room to the guest room. I could move some more, but I've really moved all that I should (and maybe more) considering the condition of my back. I'm going to have to light a fire under that guy.

I go tomorrow afternoon for my cataract evaluation in preparation for surgery. I'll be glad when that's over. Just about everybody I know over 50 or 60 has had this surgery with only good results. But I'm still nervous.

I go later next week for my back evaluation with the ortho surgeon, the one that Dr. G. wants a second opinion from.

It was 80 degrees on my back porch yesterday. Today we're in the 60s with temperatures dropping. Tonight snow is predicted. 2022 is off to a really good start.

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On 01/02/2022, Mary said ...

You have a LOT on your plate. Progress on the move might not be as fast as you'd like it to be, but you HAVE made progress. Maybe a new timeline is in order? And of course, the cataract surgery is one more thing. (My father had this surgery when he was 96! Came out of it with flying colors and 20/20 vision!) You will do great. I suggest we all find a rerun of The Golden Girls on TV and binge watch. :-)

"My mother always used to say, 'The older you get, the better you get, unless you're a banana.'" - Rose Nylund, from the Golden Girls.

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On 01/03/2022, Barbara Anne said ...

Wow! You and Jess certainly made BIG plans! Wonder if you should hire two strong guys from church to do the remaining lifting and moving under your supervision. I do admit to having concerns about your fabric storage being two floors down from your sewing room.

Hope your medical appts.go well and that the weather is good on those days. Our cataract procedure were a breeze.

Mary, I love that quote!

Hugs!

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On 01/07/2022, Beverly said ...

Happy New Year, Susan. My husband had his cataract procedures in June and July, and I had mine in August and September. Really easy. Neither one of us was nervous. I know you will be glad to get it done.
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