Caitlyn, Seasons, sewing

Old News

 

I’m late, I know. Halloween is so last month. We’re less than 10 days from Thanksgiving. Everyone else has already posted their Halloween Costume Posts and moved on. It’d be neat if I had some sort of reasonable excuse, but I don’t. And now, it sounds like Caitlyn’s Halloween costume was some amazing, intricate thing. She had been asking for a mermaid costume “with a real tail.” She was apparently fully aware that this would prevent walking, since requests for such a costume would move on to descriptions of locomoting in roughly the style of an elephant seal. How this …

quilts

No, really, I had to

 

I usually try to have at least some idea of what I’m going to do with a length of fabric before I buy it. It’s not like there’s a shortage of fabric in my sewing space. When Pacific Fabrics sent out an announcement that this fabric line, Catkin from In the Beginning Fabrics, had arrived in their stores, I sorta did a happy dance in my chair. How can you not love cats in paisleys? A week or so ago, when I was popping in for sewing machine needles (not an excuse, really!) I happened to notice something small (a …

community

Origin Stories

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At the school bus stop this morning, some boys were discussing origins. One, a first grader and a child of a recent East African immigrant, pointed out to another boy, also the child of a recent East African immigrant, that they’d both come from Africa. The second boy, H, sort of rolled his eyes, “I know I came from Africa.” The first boy, whose name I don’t know, so I’ll call him M, then turned to a third grader who is African-American and dark skinned and attempted a similar claim, which the third grader, T, denied. Before things got out …

quilts

Colorful Pinwheels

I’ve actually finished a quilt this year! I have a pile of Works in Progress teetering on the chest in my work space and I keep adding new fabric for additional projects to it (see the sidebar for details). Somehow, the size of the pile doesn’t seem to deter me from seeing some new project and rushing out for supplies for that, too. There’s probably some deep psychological statement to be extracted here: I’m afraid of running out of things to do? I’m afraid of the risk of starting something? Whatever. It’s time to celebrate something being finished. This quilt …

Seasons

Another fall leaf post

 

The leaf pile was deliberate this year, I’m sure of it. And when the bus let the kids off, several dove right in. So much joy from one pile of leaves! Which, frankly, isn’t much of a pile anymore, now being unevenly redistributed around the park. Fortunately the maintenance crew has blowers and can make short work of re-piling leaves before they haul them away. The Annual Big Pile of Leaves in the Park Event means we are well and truly into Autumn. There was frost on the grass and some roofs this morning, and the kids played at being …

homesteading

Grape Harvest

 

I’ve brought in the fifth or sixth basket of grapes last week, wrapping up this year’s grape harvest. For something I planted for summer shade and fall color, all these actual grapes are an unlooked for bonus. Funny how blue they look when outside on the vine, like I was growing some weird grape leaf/blueberry fruit hybrid. We still have grape jelly from last year’s harvest in the pantry, so this year whatever we couldn’t just eat fresh either went into the dehydrator to be converted to raisins or cooked down enough to be juiced. I have a bit of …