Yesterday morning when M. and I walked south the wind was bitingly cold. It was about -5º and heavily overcast. The second half of our walk home was a lot more comfortable because the wind was at our backs. Shows the reason for the old Irish blessing: May the wind be always at your back!
I had planned to do some housecleaning, but without sunshine housecleaning is no fun. Besides, I had done a whack of cleaning on Monday--dusting and vacuuming the upstairs (where all the living quarters are) and washing all those windows, inside and out. That was a warm, sunny day and I'm so glad I got the windows all cleaned up before winter. But because Friday was dark and gloomy I gave myself a day off.
Jim was working outside in the afternoon when I sat down to work on the Slave Lake quilt. It was cozy in the sewing room, and I remembered another dark, cozy day late in 1993.
Dear Son #2 had brought his girlfriend home for Christmas to meet us for the first time. I had knitted them matching sweaters as a way of making her feel welcome into our family. Our previous glimpse of her was a photo that #2 sent, taken at the end of a three day canoe/camping trip with no showers, etc. She had clamped a baseball cap over her hair, and her face was hard to see. "Well," I thought, "she must be really sweet, 'cause she's not too pretty." The first thing I said to her when they arrived that December was, "You're way more pretty than your picture!"
We had a nice time together, especially one afternoon when the guys were out somewhere and she and I were together in my sewing room. That was another dark day, but we were cozy together. She was working on a quilted hearts wreath for #2 for Valentines Day, and I was working on one of my projects. What made that afternoon memorable, aside from the fellowship we had, was listening to a CD of the music from Shindler's List that they had brought along. It's sad, haunting music, perfect for a dark afternoon when you just want to be stitching and drinking tea together.
So yesterday, another dark afternoon of sewing, I put that CD (which they gave to me because I loved the music so much) on the player and quilted to that sad, haunting music. Sad and haunting in a good nostalgic way. It's a long CD, and when it was finished I started it all over again. Partway through the second time I turned it off and put on a record of Scott Joplin Piano Rags, also quite laid back, but quite a bit more upbeat.
By 5 p.m. I had the machine quilting finished and started sewing the binding down by hand. I have about 65" of slip stitching to do on the back yet, but ran out of the colour thread I need.
Later today I'll go pick up a few groceries from town and another spool of black cotton thread. Then all that remains is to print off a label.
I really like this quilt. It's the top I started in July when D.S.#2 and his family and D.D. #2 and her family left after a week-long visit. It's all scraps except for the borders, binding and backing. I managed to find a piece of batting in my stash just the right size. The scraps encompass a lot of history--back to the early 90's at least. I hope this "comfort" quilt warms someone's heart!
P.S. The book on the coffee table is quite interesting: Dirt, The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan. Read it and learn lots of interesting things about the soil on which we depend for all our food.
I had planned to do some housecleaning, but without sunshine housecleaning is no fun. Besides, I had done a whack of cleaning on Monday--dusting and vacuuming the upstairs (where all the living quarters are) and washing all those windows, inside and out. That was a warm, sunny day and I'm so glad I got the windows all cleaned up before winter. But because Friday was dark and gloomy I gave myself a day off.
Jim was working outside in the afternoon when I sat down to work on the Slave Lake quilt. It was cozy in the sewing room, and I remembered another dark, cozy day late in 1993.
Dear Son #2 had brought his girlfriend home for Christmas to meet us for the first time. I had knitted them matching sweaters as a way of making her feel welcome into our family. Our previous glimpse of her was a photo that #2 sent, taken at the end of a three day canoe/camping trip with no showers, etc. She had clamped a baseball cap over her hair, and her face was hard to see. "Well," I thought, "she must be really sweet, 'cause she's not too pretty." The first thing I said to her when they arrived that December was, "You're way more pretty than your picture!"
We had a nice time together, especially one afternoon when the guys were out somewhere and she and I were together in my sewing room. That was another dark day, but we were cozy together. She was working on a quilted hearts wreath for #2 for Valentines Day, and I was working on one of my projects. What made that afternoon memorable, aside from the fellowship we had, was listening to a CD of the music from Shindler's List that they had brought along. It's sad, haunting music, perfect for a dark afternoon when you just want to be stitching and drinking tea together.
So yesterday, another dark afternoon of sewing, I put that CD (which they gave to me because I loved the music so much) on the player and quilted to that sad, haunting music. Sad and haunting in a good nostalgic way. It's a long CD, and when it was finished I started it all over again. Partway through the second time I turned it off and put on a record of Scott Joplin Piano Rags, also quite laid back, but quite a bit more upbeat.
Later today I'll go pick up a few groceries from town and another spool of black cotton thread. Then all that remains is to print off a label.
I really like this quilt. It's the top I started in July when D.S.#2 and his family and D.D. #2 and her family left after a week-long visit. It's all scraps except for the borders, binding and backing. I managed to find a piece of batting in my stash just the right size. The scraps encompass a lot of history--back to the early 90's at least. I hope this "comfort" quilt warms someone's heart!
P.S. The book on the coffee table is quite interesting: Dirt, The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth, by William Bryant Logan. Read it and learn lots of interesting things about the soil on which we depend for all our food.
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