Sunday, January 26, 2014

Magic Circles

Strangely, the circles are more obvious in person, but you can still see them here. This also shows the colors more accurately than the first photo. Second time around should be the charm this time.

Update: I have sewn 30 squares so far on the the redo. Not only can I be assured that the points match and the circles appear but the squares are square as well.

Begin Again Finnegan

Well if you thought I was crazy for appliqueing the Winding Ways blocks, now you will be convinced that is true. When I started sewing the squares together, I realized that this wasn't going to work at all. So I unpicked all 70 blocks, sewed the squares together without "blades" and am now re-appliqueing the blades on the blocks. The magic circles are definitely coming through this way and the entire little top will be much improved. It is a good thing I like to do hand applique.

My husband will probably have a cardiac ablation this year. He has been having recurrent episodes of atrial fibrillation for years now but as he gets older they get more frequent. So he has been participating in a trial to determine if patients should go through ablation before even beginning the pharmaceutical side of the treatment. He got randomized to the drug side first but the drugs he was given not only didn't help, the symptoms became more frequent and more severe. So they changed his medicine last week but if he hasn't improved dramatically by Tuesday, they will start the process of preparing him for the ablation. since there are only two days left for the medicine to work and he keeps careful records, it's a pretty safe bet that he will go in for the procedure pretty soon.

We have been married for 44 years now, known each other for almost 47. I certainly hope those long happy years continue starting with this, the year of the Horse.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Essays, Essays

I spent the day scoring essays. These were a mixed bag in all ways. The students picked something from a list for winter break reading and then picked the prompt from another list of ten ideas. The winter reading includes more contemporary works than the standard class list, though few are less than forty years old. Still they can pick from  works as varied as To Kill a Mockingbird or The Color Purple or indulge their inner French existentialist by reading The Stranger. I suppose the very fact that they get to pick rather than have an assigned book is as free as free reading gets in a structured class such as AP English literature. The prompts were taken from the forty plus years of prompts that are online and included ideas such as how does the author use literary techniques to advocate societal change and how does a parent-child conflict drive meaning in a work.

Out of 75 or so essays perhaps a dozen got passing scores. While I admit to having tough standards for scoring, reading plot summary after plot summary put a dent in my good mood. There are only three months left before the exam and I doubt many of these students will pass let alone achieve that desired "5" score. Time was there were grade and experience standards that had to be met before students were allowed to enroll in the class but nowadays anyone who wants to can sign up. I am fine with encouraging students who may never have thought about literature before but to pretend that this is college level reading or writing does a disservice to real college level reading and writing.

As for quilting, I have 70 small Winding Ways squares sewn and probably will start sewing those squares together to check the size of the projected 10 x 10 (or 10 x 7 or whatever).

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Pleasant Surprise

My husband did bring the flu home from LA with him. No matter how hard we try, I always end up catching what he is spreading so I have been moving along that flu pathway since last Thursday. I don't think I got as sick as he did--at least he seemed more miserable--but I got sick enough with a deep wracking cough. Even my stomach muscles got a workout trying to clear my lungs enough to breathe without coughing. Lots of lying in bed reading so not so many small blocks sewn. I have more than 50 done at this point.

I tutored a young woman this afternoon. Like most of the students at this particular high school she is more interested in math and science than in language arts but savvy enough to know she has to score well on this exam to even think about a top college. She surprised me with a present that she had gotten before Christmas. We haven't had any tutoring sessions since mid-December. The school went on break and then the weather was seriously bad making driving to my house rather than home seem perilous indeed. Anyway, she actually went to a quilt store and got fabric and a pattern to make a small quilt. Keep in mind that this young woman doesn't sew so the whole quilt store experience was a novelty for her. It is a very cute pattern called Wonky Winter, by Sandra Workman. Nice surprise.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Working on Those Winding Ways

My husband came back from his business trip to LA with a horrendous cold. He did get a flu shot in September so I hesitate to call it the flu but he is very congested, achy, and feverish, up all night coughing. That means I was up all night too, including out of bed at 3: 30. Oh well, forty-four years of better and worse, sickness and health. It was a snowy day as well so staying inside and sewing is what I did until a few minutes ago when I shoveled snow. In any case, I made a bunch more small (4 inch) Winding Way blocks.

These are laid out on our dining room table, obviously not sewn together yet. The light does weird things to the colors so what looks like pink is either a brownish burgundy or a coral to orange, many of the backgrounds that look white are yellow, and there are no pale blues, just greens from olive to celadon. In this picture it is hard to see the color connection between the blocks. You get the idea but not the real flavor. I don't piece much unless I can do it with foundations so I am appliqueing all of these. It isn't as bad as it might seem if you enjoy applique which I do. There are 37 completed squares and I am aiming for 100 so just over one-third done. The crazy circles will show up when they get sewn together. That's one reason the alternate name for the Winding Way block is Magic Circle. They aren't as pronounced when there are value and pattern issues but they will still show up. My husband thinks this looks Japanese but I don't see it.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Frog Quilt Finished (Sort Of)

As I wrote after putting the Mistletoe quilt together, sometimes my great ideas don't turn out as nicely as I might wish. I can't say for sure what it is about this quilt other than the lack of value contrast but this is not my favorite quilt of the year. Individual elements are nice but the whole lacks something. Anyway, it is done.

.

Long Ago and Far Away

I found an old photo of a quilt I made and then donated to a charity auction here in town.  since I haven't taken any new photos as yet of the frog quilt or the new project. I have made 16 or 17 four-inch blocks so far but my goal is 100 so that will take a while.

Anyway, Happy Twelfth Night tomorrow--the end of Christmas. I have to put away all the nutcrackers and all of the Christmas decoration. Probably won't get many blocks made.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Try It, You'll Like It

Over the years I have mentored at least a dozen students, male and female, helping them reach their dreams. They have gone on to Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Cal Tech and numerous other colleges. Of course the students who come to me are self-selecting since I don't charge any money and I don't advertise so they have to find me. Many of them are from immigrant families but by no means all. I just got a New Year's message from one of the young people from last year, the one who is currently a freshman at Harvard. Knowing that I helped make that possible is humbling but exhilarating.  That's why I want to encourage all of you to make yourselves available to young people in your neighborhoods. Maybe your skill is in math or science or computers, not language. Perhaps you have business contacts. Simply being an adult who is not the parent is often the helping hand needed.

I have begun my French fabric quilt. Of course the yardage I picked up in Dijon and Paris (see posts) is not going to be enough so I have added from my own stash. So far the plan is for the center to be small Winding Ways blocks (4") with one narrow border followed by a wider applique border. Since my husband, the semi-retired but not really retired guy, is in LA doing some consulting, I can't post any pictures. I don't use cameras. It's a long story, partly due to my very, very bad vision and partly to my distaste for technology. I am not a Luddite but I do lean in that direction.