September Cornucopia

 

Here's September's cornucopia post of links to articles, videos and other miscellany I've come across this past month. It's a pretty short list this time, but that was September. Photo is from a teahouse in Hong Kong.

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An ephemeral public art project in a mountain town in Italy.

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Maybe this is why I'm so drawn to art with a single human eye.

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Harmony Block

Curated Quilts magazine put out a call for blocks a Harmony quilt. It's an interesting one, and the color palette was almost identical to my Safe At Home quilt. 

 And I had some scraps left over, some of which were from a cutting mistake I made. Guess I'm already creating a new stock of random quilt blocks for another Kitchen Sink Quilt.

Haphazardly Coordinated

 It's always always the scraps that get me. I couldn't stop myself from sewing these together. 

And of course I couldn't iron it because the power is out Yet Again (grrrrr PG&Egrrrrr).

So it's held down on the edges by rulers. Otherwise it looks like this:

At one point the block was 6.5" square and was going to be in the top, but then the layout changed. I still had a lot more scraps, so I just kept sewing them all together in smaller and smaller bits. 

It's random and not. And I really like the haphazardness and coordination of it.

Courthouse Complete

When last I shared about the Courthouse Steps top, it wasn't top, but after a lot of rearranging, it is now. This was one of the initial ideas, can you spot the non Courthouse Step block?

For that layout design to work, it needed an extra non-solid block, so I made this up out of the scraps.

I decided I just didn't like breaking up the Courthouse Steps blocks, it kind of loses the point of the block design. 

But I'd cut out all these match-y solids already. They worked out to be a great border and I'm really pleased with the look of this top.

56 Years

 I was listening to yet another podcast, The Experiment, and they had an episode that really struck a nerve, 56 Years. If this embedded link works you can listen to it here:  

It's based on this truly remarkable essay in the Atlantic by Vann R. Newkirk III, American Democracy is Only 55 Years Old and Hanging By a Thread. 

The author's mother was born in 1964, (just like me), but it might as well have been a world away with how utterly different our lives were. The Voting Rights Act which passed in 1965, brought our country closer to having an actual representative democracy up until it was gutted in 2013 by the Supreme Court. And every year since, we're moving further and further away from that goal of an actual representative democracy. Not everyone believes we should be one. And unfortunately it's those people who fervently disagree with that specific goal have captured our courts at every level now. That means it will have to be a legislative fix, and that means Congress. Which seems impossible given the slim majorities in both houses the Democrats hold, and the filibuster too, but then...so did the Voting Rights Act back when it passed. 

From the Senate history page:

Once the bill emerged from the Judiciary Committee, it faced a filibuster on the Senate floor. On May 25, the Senate mustered the necessary two-thirds vote and achieved cloture by a margin of 70 to 30. The next day, the bill passed 77 to 19. 

Hard to imagine that we could get the 60 votes now required for cloture.  (See the filibuster can be changed!) I have to say even with that stark reality Newkirk's essay left me more hopeful about the future.

The quilt above was one I made in the month after 9/11 twenty years ago.

Steps Done

 Pshew! All the Courthouse Blocks are finally done. I'm going to fool around with the placement a little more.

These were the last six blocks.

Here they are all stacked up and trimmed.

This was a surprise when I turned over the paper. How in the world did I manage that one? ribbitribbit

Time for a Flower Friday

 It's been a while since I've made a Flower Friday post, so here's a bunch all at once.

Jacaranda trees are really quite striking.

White blooms on my white sage.

A sunflower about to bloom at the local library.

Camelias are so fragrant.

A single petal rose.

Thistles are fascinating plant structures.

The Naked Ladies surviving and thriving in the early fall heat.

My grandma's Cymbidium making a strong return

A rose at Camp Joy.

Pomegranate blossoms.

The surprise return of an heirloom hollyhock.

RIP Cecile' Bruner, there was a palace coup and I was made to remove this favorite.

Another 4

Worked on the Courthouse Steps again, the end is in sight of these blocks. 

It's honestly getting a little old, but it's easier now that I've done so many of them. I'm still enjoying the fabrics.

 I didn't line up the directionals of the strawberries, but it still works. They just look very busy going back and forth on their strawberry highway.

Wandering Wednesday - Hot Creek

In Inyo National Forest, there's a geologic site called Hot Creek it was a very interesting short hike and think it was really worth a visit. The clouds in the blue sky above as we drove out on the rutted dirt road.

The creek used to be a popular swimming spot, but the heat of the pools became unstable and burned/killed too many people, so it got closed off. Previously there was a bridge and a trail on the other side.

The bright blue hot pools were very striking in the landscape. The bubbling and the steam were kind of hypnotizing.

I really loved the super Green-ness of the plants in the water. It was so eye-catching in person, absolutely the most colorful thing around to see.

The rocks along the cliffside were beautiful too, many different colors and types, and lots of shady spots for critters.

I spent a lot time staring at the changing patterns in the creek as it flowed over the plants.

The sky was almost cartoonishly beautiful that day, we were very lucky to be there before all the fires really got going. 

Heather's Favorites

After watching Heather Black's very interesting presentation on Balance and Depth in quilt design to BAMQ, I was very intrigued with her use of solids. She gave us a nice discount on buying stuff from her Quiltachusetts shop, so I took advantage and bought myself some of the solids on offer. I'm liking the non-Kona solids these days, it's nice that there are alternatives that are easier to sew with. The grey is Painter's Palette in Pale Silver, the hand of it is just lovely. And the FQ stack is called Heather's Favorites. I thought it was a nice selection of colors and it'll be fun to try and make my own quilt just with these colors.
 

Four More

 Well, not too much sewing got done over the weekend, but I did manage to finish four more of the Courthouse Steps paper--pieced blocks on Friday. Before sewing, I took a little time to rearrange the remaining pairs of fabrics.

I always like looking at the rotary cutting scraps.

I like these ones a lot, especially the orange/blue ones. I paid a lot of attention to the direction of the print on the orange fabric and think it gives a lot of movement. Even though it's the same print in the green version, it's much less graphic and obvious.

Now that there are only five blocks left to go, I'm already dreading picking out all that paper...

Six Steps

An even six Courthouse Steps blocks are done. And I'm liking how it's looking even though they haven't been ironed quite yet.

Look at those mushrooms! Adorbs.

Little strawberries on that light and slightly odd pink/salmon background goes well with the brownish grey.
 

September

 Time for a new month!

Last September 1st, we were evacuated, so I can really say from experience here, wow, what a difference a year makes. Honestly it's quite hard to remember that overwhelming time as I've obviously blanked out the horrifying details as a self-protection strategy or something. It's getting retriggered a bit seeing the Caldor Fire approach South Lake Tahoe where we've spent so much fun vacation time. Really really sad that this is our new normal.

As always, the monthly marker photo is made by combining two photos in the app SnapSeed. One is in a sewing process picture and the other is a tree in Tuolumne Meadows.

One Second Everyday of August 2021, it's a real smorgasbord this month. The great outdoors, food, pets, flowers, and of course quilts. I really recommend using this app to document your day to day life.

And just because it's such an uplifting, fun, and groovy song, listen (and dance) to this one: