A Feast of First Fruits

Lammas Day, or "Loaf -mass" day is a holiday on the Christian liturgical calendar that's still observed in some countries north of the equator -- traditionally on August 1.  It marks the blessing of the 'First Fruits' of the harvest, particularly where wheat and other bread-making grains are grown.  "Lammas-tide", when the wheat harvest begins, is the name for the days between the Summer Solstice in June and the Autumn Equinox in September -- in other words, now.  

Traditionally, a loaf of bread, sometimes nested in a basket with flowers, is brought to church on that day to mark the blessing, and it is then often broken and used as the bread in the celebration of the Eucharist.

I don't eat as much bread as I used to, but when I do, I like to make it myself (I have a bread-maker because I've never been able to master the art of kneading) and I love it fresh and warm, or toasted, with a bit of butter and home-made jam.

In the last ten days or so, the rhubarb (several cups chopped and frozen; some baked into coffee cake, some stewed and eaten with yogourt) has been joined by a harvest of Saskatoon berries (12 cups in the freezer, 3 cups given to a neighbour, and an unmeasured amount eaten fresh), and this morning I just picked my third colander-full of raspberries, with more ripening on the canes.

My 'First Fruits' -- raspberries and rhubarb

I've enjoyed them fresh, in a bowl with a bit of milk and sugar, over yogourt or ice cream...and just now I've "jammed" four jars, each holding a cup or so of my favourite simple jam: berries, sugar and lemon juice.  Something tells me there's bread in my near future... 😉

The rest of my garden continues prolific as well.  Though the peonies have finished blooming, the hollyhock -- mine is white -- is just coming into its own, and there are wee pearls of cherry tomatoes starting on my seed-started plants.  

My daughter visited a couple of weeks ago; she has an app on her phone that identifies flora -- some of the time, at least! -- and found the name of this one for me.  It came with my house and there's this batch of it at the corner of the peony bed as well as a larger quantity of it competing for space now with my raspberries.  I've always found it very pretty, but it's a spreader, and has to be reigned in regularly!

"Cluster Bell Flower"

I have a long, curving flower bed on the southwest corner of my property.  Again, it came with the house, but over the almost dozen years I've been here, I've added to and subtracted from it regularly to make it mine.  The photo below is just a sampling of what's in that bed.

White yarrow, purple sage, deep pink shrub roses,
marigolds just under the rose bush,
 and orange agapanthus just beyond that.

Weather-wise it's been darned hot -- what I call "the cat days of summer".  Because my studio is hot much of the day right now, I've been dividing my time according to shade and breeze distribution.  I start out on my front stoop, in the shade of the north side of the house, and move to the back as the sun permits.

When there's just the right amount of shade from the trees above, and just the right hint of a breeze, Miss Pookie likes to sit near me on the bench in the Outdoor Studio.  Ah...to have a cat's life!  

I've been focused on hand-work.  The Toronto sampler is finished and now trimmed to size and pinned for hemming so I can attach the bellpull hardware.  Meanwhile, I've begun a cross-stitch entitled "Man Cave", for my neighbour John for Christmas.  John's not really the gardner in the family -- his wife is -- but he has a collection of sheds filled with all manner of supplies for car maintenance, home maintenance and garden maintenance.  One of these -- his newest -- is a mini-barn, a brilliant red (as it should be) with white trim.  I've been trying to persuade him to let me hang a barn quilt on the windowless wall that faces my side of the barn, but he's not been keen.  Perhaps he'll hang this inside, over his work bench.  Whaddya think?  😉

Designer: Peter Underhill
Source: Heritage Crafts

I have another piece to do up for his wife, Edna, of course, which I hope will suit their bedroom or living room.  It's "Spring in the Air" from Just Nan -- very feminine, very flowery, very pretty.  I've had it -- fully kitted up -- for several years, including the lovely silk threads (!), and am really looking forward to doing it up for her.

In keeping with Christmas-in-the-heat-of-summer, I've started a pair of socks for my nephew in a black-and-white marl from Patons.  I'm using the same pattern as I did a few months ago for another Xmas gift -- simple, mindless knitting which I do in the early morning over coffee, breakfast and the news, or while waiting at the train crossing.

Pattern: A Nice Ribbed Sock 
Designer: Glenna C.

 

I finally got back into the sewdio (indoors) early this morning (around 6 a.m.) because it was cool and breezy enough, and the sun had yet to climb very high.  I continued my work on "Star Crazy";  I've finished and attached one 8-block side border (the block is shown here), and have two of the next 8 finished.  

I've also assembled 27 little blocks in Bonnie Hunter's current Leader/Ender Challenge, which she calls "Easy Breezy".  This is the first of these challenges I've ever done, and I've only attempted it because I have such a stash of the right size squares and rectangles (all from scraps) to make a lot of 4" (finished) blocks.  These will go with my charm squares to make more tummy time quilts for the Stepping Stones program in Lacombe.  Turns out, though, that each 36" square blankie will need 81 (!) blocks -- 1/2 piece, 1/2 charm squares (and one odd one!)  Or maybe just 32 of them -- and borders!  No never mind, I'll make the blocks as I go; they're darned satisfying to do -- no templates, no half- or quarter-square triangles, no flying geese.  Just straight-up squares and rectangles (see this photo from Bonnie's instructions), bringing order to continued chaos.  😊

As for new work...I've been puttering with respect to the second piece about 'chaos' using the 'crumb-pilations' technique.  Early this morning I finally made a decision about quilting and how to mount it on the painted stretched canvas.   I'm aiming to start work on that part tomorrow a.m., if the morning is cool enough.  My daughter photographed And It's Only June: Reflections on  2020; I've now got the results in a Drop Box file, awaiting my review.

And so it goes.  August 5th brings another hair cut (hooray!!) -- it'll be seven weeks since my last one.  August 8th brings another of Joe Cunningham's online workshops -- this one, on how he uses just two colours to create a quilt -- and the 15th brings (I hope!) a road trip to a quilt shop, a mobile yarn shop, and perhaps an outdoor art show, with a gal pal.  

The 17th brings a day trip to Calgary for a dental check-up (delayed since May due to COVID).  Both Calgary and Edmonton have now mandated masks to be worn in indoor public places, like shopping malls, so I will go equipped.  My dentist's office is in a professional building connected to a large indoor mall, and it's not far from a strip mall with a Chapter's/Starbucks outlet -- my favourite books and coffee all in one place!  When I go to The Big City, a stop there is a must, and I won't mind in the least wearing a mask so I can enjoy it at my leisure before heading north again to my little piece of heaven on the rolling prairie.

Old barn at the home of my long-arm quilter
and her DH --
near the eastern shore of Buffalo Lake, Alberta

That wide sky continues to nourish my soul, which in turn "feed[s] my inner artist" -- which is Nina Marie's topic this week over at Off the Wall Friday.  I leave you with a wish for you to be nourished, inspired, encouraged, safe and well as the summer travels on through August to whatever waits in the fall.

Take care -- and come back soon!

Loosening Up...A Bit...

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)
Source: Poetry Foundation

"The world is too much with us" wrote poet William Wordsworth a very long time ago.  Very often these days, I feel very much the way he looks in the drawing at left -- and I know I'm not alone, not at all.

Prairie Quintet - September 2019

A couple of weeks ago -- a few days before I wrote my last post -- I received word that the dear elderly friend who'd commissioned the bed-cover-from-an-art-quilt, "Prairie Quintet", died in mid-May, at the age of 99. 

In her obituary her doctor was thanked for his care over the prior two months.  I'd written her at the end of April -- a practice of mine for decades now, as her late husband's birthday was May 1 -- so she'd have received that note.  I've never expected her to respond because of her advanced age, but she usually did within a few weeks, and now...

I am thankful for her friendship all these years, and am comforted to think she may be in a place where she is again well and surrounded by those she loved who'd gone before.

On the heels of that came the murder of Mr. Floyd in the U.S., bringing with it demonstrations, responded to with government-sanctioned violence...going on for almost two weeks now.  All in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic...

It has been a charged and grief-filled time. 

Juggling anger, grief, tears, uncertainty, I've managed to put one foot in front of the other, thanks to having to mow a lot of grass -- twice in the last two weeks -- and to the self-imposed discipline of reading (Psalms -- one a day; The Genesis Trilogy by Madeleine L'Engle (she of A Wrinkle in Time and The Crosswicks Journals); and gardening memoirs), as well as the ongoing work of my hands.

In the yard -- besides mowing! -- I've been watching my seedlings pop through the earth in my raised bed: lettuce/mesclun mix, zucchini (2 hills), broccoli and Brussels sprouts.  And in the flower beds, the Bachelor Button seeds seem to be growing a good 1/2" a day!  Basil and cherry tomatoes too. 

Late last summer I spray-painted an old steamer trunk -- which I'd (sadly) allowed to develop rust (😟).  It's now a wild shade of purple, courtesy of Rust-Oleum -- "Grape" colour-way.  I don't generally like to use spray cans but this is so much easier to use and to clean up after -- and if I am careful, the can is easier to dispose of than a regular can of paint, plus brushes. 

I've put the trunk on two-by-fours in the new part of the yard, near my budding honeysuckle.  I put a folded plastic piece of tarp in the bottom, plus 3 recycled styrofoam meat trays, and on each tray, a large plant pot, recycled from prior years when I brought home roses for the flower bed:

All I need now is some plants!  I'm thinking annuals...perhaps pansies or marigolds or whatever.  The challenge will be to find them, because they are in rather short supply this year.  One nearby nursery has already closed (they usually are open till at least the end of June if not longer), and another has a very picked-over selection -- mainly vegetables (except tomatoes).  I'll keep looking...

In the sewdio, I've been constructing a gazillion 1/2-square triangle units for Round 4 of Bonnie Hunter's "Unity" quilt.  The pattern is now complete, but I'm only partly there (it has 8 parts), and I'm taking my time.  It's official: I've decided to name it "Star Crazy"! 

My sister visited for an hour or so earlier this week -- the first time we've felt it was safe to get together -- and she said she really liked it, so she may end up with it eventually.  Although I'm enjoying the process, this particular pattern is not really my cup of tea, so I am glad it looks like it has a home to go to once it's quilted!

At the same time, stitching continues on the Toronto Sampler from Jeannette Douglas Designs.  I ordered bell pull hardware recently, and have just received word that it'll be in the post tomorrow; though there are postal delays due to COVID-19, it's only coming from Calgary (2 1/2 hours away) so I expect I'll have it by the end of the week.  I must keep plugging away at this because the gift has to be finished and mailed in early August.  Here's what it looks like right now, with fourteen of twenty-one "lines" completed:

I still have a way to go!  😉

In all of that, there have been stirrings -- nudges to 'play' more, to loosen up in the hopes of returning to making some original work.

I took a leap and signed up to take a webinar with one of my very favourite artists -- Joe Cunningham.   Yesterday he gave his first "Zoom" webinar: "Quilt Freedom" -- and it was a tonic!  I can't say that I'd adopt this style of free piecing, but I can say that I enjoyed it, and that it might just be an approach I'd use in the future now and again, should a subject call for it.

I decided to warm up for the class by digging into my scraps and creating a few 'crumb' blocks. I'd made a few some months years ago, when I thought I might like to make an entire quilt of them -- and ended up turning them into a quartet of abstract pieces I call "Crumbpilations".  After that, I went on to other things.  Yesterday, while waiting for the class to begin, I dug into my scraps and made some more.  I now have 3 that are 6 1/2" square, and many more 'under construction', as I used them as "leaders and enders" while I sewed what Joe had us work on during the webinar.

 

The focus of the class was how he uses the inspiration of old quilts to create a new expression of the ideas behind the blocks used in them, how he chooses his fabrics, and how he puts a new quilt all together.  The pattern he used for the class looked like a star sitting on a chalice, but I've located a version of it -- complete with free pattern, called "Vase of Flowers" -- for obvious reasons... 😉  

I was so engrossed in the process that I didn't take any photos as I went along, but here's what my 'impression', using Joe's approach, looks like:

"Blue Pot Too" - in progress

I'm undecided about 'squaring up' the piece by dealing with the angle of the right side...I kinda like it.  I thought too that the pot/vase is a bit over-sized, but if I make it shallower, it will be overwhelmed by the 'plant'.  

Joe's idea was to make a piece about 36" square but I confess that, while I continued to slice fabric with relative abandon, as the afternoon wore on (long after the 3-hour class finished!), I found myself cutting smaller pieces, and then trying to be more focused on the design/lay-out.  Hence the narrow side strips, which are far more deliberate than the rest of it.   Joe did say that while he starts out not having any idea what a piece will look like, as he works into it, and it starts to take shape, he does become more intentional about the work -- so perhaps I wasn't so far off the mark after all, even though it's less than half the size Joe had in mind for us to make.

The class was an apparent success, so Joe is setting up to teach one per month -- usually on the first Saturday (except in July, when it's moved from the 4th to the 11th).  You can find out about it HERE.  I'm not sure I can manage it yet (the CAD exchange rate is a factor), but I'm thinking about it, for sure.  Joe says he believes that quilting is a way to 'be free' -- to find freedom of expression, because there really are 'no rules', and I like that very much.  

I've always been a rule-follower, but if there are no rules, I don't have to feel guilty about breaking any!

I've longed to bring more abstraction to my work; I'll only know if I'm "there" when I can take what I'm learning and use it more than once.  Not simply in response to a class, but in an ongoing way, fitting my style (not "being Joe") but with a freer, looser approach.

I'm linking this week to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday -- wherein this week she too talks about abstraction in art, but from a different perspective than Joe.  Check it out...and see what you think.

And may the coming weeks find you well, safe and ever more able to find 'comfort and joy'.

More of This and That

I don't know about you, but I'm rather glad to see the back end of March this year!  In these parts it roared in like a lion, taking over Leap Day with a snowstorm -- and another the next week -- and COVID-19 cancellations the following week -- and then more snow.  As I write on this sunny-blue-sky April a.m., it's still in the minus-double-digits Celsius, and more snow is forecast for tomorrow!

Sheesh!

To make it even crazier, yesterday my laptop played an April Fool's prank -- or would have, if it actually had a brain.  I dunno; after yesterday, I'm beginning to wonder.  Perhaps it does!  I got up early as usual, turned on the laptop while I heated my coffee, and went to sign in.  I couldn't.  No matter how I tried, it would take only 2 digits of my 4-digit PIN.  I restarted it at least three times -- to no avail.

My son is a techy, but it was far too early to phone him (6:40 a.m.)  Hmmmph!  So...I called Dell, the maker of my aging machine (bought in 2013).  This is my fourth or fifth Dell PC; I love the brand.  Anyway, as my warranty had long expired, I was instructed to purchase a "single event" plan so I could talk to a techy and see if it could be resolved online -- a software/driver issue with the keyboard, perhaps.

$135.00 CAD later, I had an appointment with a techy; he called right on time (9 a.m. my time) and we were on the phone for over an hour trying to sort it out.  Finally he let me go and continue to work on the machine remotely.

While he was doing that, I distracted myself with some sewing.  On Tuesday I'd started the first section of Bonnie Hunter's "Unity" Sew-in-Place Quilt-Along, which I mentioned in my last post. 

Here's my selected colour palette:

Hard to tell, but there's a chunk of off-white neutral
fabric on the far left!

The first section is the centre medallion,
seen here starting to take shape on my design wall.

While the techy worked away, I added some more units:

A 4-patch of 4-patches!
BKH loves to construct in sets of units!

I really like how it's shaping up.

The techy called me back (as promised) and said...sorry...try as he might, he couldn't seem to fix the problem; it looked like it was a hardware problem.  He would be refunding my $135.00 -- Dell's policy for this plan because it couldn't be resolved online.  We talked about options and, in true Canadian Anglican fashion (😉) I chose the via media -- the middle way:

1. Purchase an external hard drive so I can back up my data in the event the aging PC should give out altogether;
2. Limp along using the on-screen keyboard OR purchase a wireless keyboard;
3. Prepare to replace the laptop as soon as I am able/ready/willing.

Staples had both the external drive and the keyboard...they should be delivered later today or tomorrow (free delivery too!)

What to do?  I needed groceries, and a break, and my LQS owner had my batting ready for pick-up at her door...so off to Stettler I went.  Got the batting, got the groceries...and stopped in at a dollar store and a hardware store, where I found potting soil and packets of veggie and flower seeds.  We may still have drifted snow a foot deep around here but ##@@!!!** it, I'm going to plant some seeds!  (If the shed door isn't frozen and I can get my starter pots out!)

By the time I got home and unloaded everything, it was after 4 p.m. -- and my PC had been asleep for over 3 hours.

I woke it up and signed in with the on-screen keyboard.  Then I went to FB Messenger to type a note to my son, and by force of habit, forgot the on-screen board and began to type on the laptop's own keyboard.  

Here's the spooky, weird thing: it was working again! 😲

I have no idea why -- but I have a theory.  After I put it to sleep and went away for a long while (3 hours at least)...it likely turned off altogether, or was in a state something like that...and the "reboot" it had when I returned to use it might have been sufficient to trigger success based on whatever the techy had done with it.  That's the only explanation I can hold in my mind...assuming gremlins aren't living inside my laptop!

No, I didn't cancel my Staples order.  I figure it's a good idea to have my own external hard drive and a back up of my data -- up-dated periodically -- and the wireless keyboard may come in handy eventually.  Neither were terribly expensive, and with the refund of the repair fee, I'm not out as much money as all that.

I finished off the day with a wee dram, casting on and knitting 15 rows of the first of the pair of socks I've chosen for the April Challenge in Ravelry's  "Socks From Stash" group:

Yarn: Bouquet Sock & Sweater (discontinued)
Pattern: "Canon" from Caoua Coffee***

This morning I shared this cast-on photo with the group on Ravelry, and discovered I'd won a door-prize following the March Challenge!  Whoo-hoo!  I'm to receive a free pattern ($8 USD value) from one of the group's designers!  😊  This made my day -- and made up for the grief from yesterday. 

Tomorrow marks the beginning of GE Designs' "Strip-Along 2020"...and I'm in.  Clearly I have a need for the repetitive, soothing work of cutting and piecing fabric, and knitting simple lace.  My brain relaxes and my hands are happy.

As Melanie Falick writes in her new book, Making a Life: Making by Hand..., I have been looking at my hands...and discovering the life I am meant to live -- need  to live -- right now.

So...I leave you with wishes for a safe, healthy, creative, blessed day wherever you are, Gentle Readers.  I'm linking this to WIP Wednesday over at the Needle and Thread Network, and to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

***Editted:  "Canon" was frogged last night (April 2) when I found myself floundering to follow the lace pattern (lots of yarn overs and ktbl -- Knit Through Back Loop -- in quick succession).  Clearly my concentration isn't spot on these days.  I'm using the same yarn, but have switched to a simpler pattern I've made before that will fill the requirements of the Challenge:  Hermione's Everyday Socks, designed by Erica Lueder -- another free pattern on Ravelry.

Nina Marie is talking about the comfort of routines in a time like this.  I'm happy to oblige.  How about you?

Do take care, Gentle Readers.

Find a rhythm and routine in your daily round,

and may the work of your hands be blessed.