Flower Friday: August 30, 2024

 

Happy Flower Friday!

Oh how I wish we had rain!  But it is that weird year.  I've started pruning and hope to get a lot done this year because the bushes are really overgrown.  This pruning may mean sacrificing some blooms next year but I'll take it just to get things in order.

In the meantime, the anemone is blooming:

And so is the Turtlehead.  It is way to close to a bush now but I'll transplant it after it blooms.

Even though they aren't flowers, I'm enjoying my Japanese painted ferns.  They are spring up everywhere in the garden but I never mind.  The leaves are so pretty, they are not unlike a flower!

Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend!

Lucky and the Faun

 

Greetings and happy Wednesday!

A few weeks ago, I posted on one of my blogs about two faun that were playing in the park where we walk each morning.  We watched from afar and couldn't believe that the dogs lined up never barked and frightened the deer.

Friday was our turn to have that kind of experience.  To be honest, I wasn't even sure why Lucky was trying to stop on our walk.  Then a woman stopped and I realized there was a faun on the other side of the fence.

Lucky never barked but watched with fascination.

It may look big on this photo but believe me, it wasn't much bigger than Lucky.  Then the faun moved up to the entrance of the inner park and wasn't much more than a few feet from Lucky and me.

At one point, Lucky even pointed at the faun.  I'm not sure he even knew why he was doing that 😂😂😂

The mother wasn't around but we surrounded by thick brush and a woods and I'm sure she was watching her kiddo!

If you have anything to share for Flower Friday, please email me at allentownquilter@gmail.com

Anyway, wishing you a safe and happy day!

Tuesday's This and That: August 27, 2024

 

Good morning and Happy Tuesday!

Last week I posted about Amish Quilts and then Sue and I had a lovely text discussion about Welsh quilts.  I think you should check out the articles below for some interesting comparisons and history!

This was my favorite and full of neat insights on quilting in the U.K.  (here).

A look at a strippy quilt here.

And two books you might want to order if you have an interst.

Here and here.

***

If you are a baseball fan, you can almost smell that the season is going to conclude soon.  But here's two stories for you in honor of Women's Equality.

A woman who grew up not far from where I live,  made baseball history by being the first woman to be on a professional baseball team in 1898.

Her name was Lizzie Arlington and you can read about her here.

And later in the 20th century, a woman named Jackie Mitchell is believed to have struck both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig out.  You can read that here.

Have a safe and happy day!

Women's Equality Day!

 

Happy Women's Equality Day!  Today we celebrate the 124th year of women's right to vote.  

In case you are new to the blog, I'm an historian and spent most of 2020 writing about the struggle for women's suffrage.  Beth and I had a program we offered for 2020 focused on the centennial.  

Because of the pandemic, I posted most of the information we had collected on the blog. 

Why is this so important?  Well some of the reasons now are exactly what suffragists cited in the early part of the 20th century:

  

Women's suffrage didn't occur overnight.  Many states like Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho had women's suffrage even in the 19th century. This study published in 1917, showed that the states where women voted have the best policies and protection for women and children.

Both Beth and I made quilts (as well as showing antique examples) to relay the story of suffrage.  This is one I made:

The number 7 was the last block and the audience would often question me about it.  "The age of consent" for women was often before a young girl reached puberty; one state's age of consent was 7 years old.

So today let us be grateful for the brave women who fought for our right to vote.  Many braved terrible things and even were incarcerated for expressing their opinion.  Most of all, let us all vote in November and use our hard won vote to make the world a better place.

My suffrage garden from 2020.

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: August 23, 2024

 

Happy Flower Friday!

Sue shared a lovely photo of Maggie in the butterfly bush! 

This week I'm focused on volunteers in the garden.  No not people helping me weed but plants that I didn't sow that are growing on their own.  The plants I'm most charmed by are the impatiens.  I didn't plant any this year and now I'm thinking I would like a lot of them next year.

Many of them have appeared in pots!

And some are truly a surprise like this impatien that managed to grow in a wee crack where the patio floor meets the wall!

....And then there is this plant.  I have no idea what it is and I certainly didn't plant it.  It reminds me of either a sunflower or a jack o'lantern.  Do you know what it is?  Is it a weed?

  

Wishing you a safe and happy weekend!

Better Done Than Perfect!

 

  

Happy Wednesday!

At our guild we've been running a challenge during the year called Better Done Than Perfect!  The idea of course is to clear out some UFOs from our sewing room.  I love these kinds of challenges and have finished a number of pieces so far:

I have an additional one for Remi finished but I forgot to take a photo of that (will work on it).

While I was cleaning up my sewing room, I remembered another UFO on my list.  I called these blocks "batik diamonds" but the pattern maker referred to it as Kite Block mini quilt (and you can get the pattern here for free by signing up for Flying Parrots Quilts' newsletter).  The pattern is foundation pieced.  Last year I was trying to use up some of my batik scraps and made a number of blocks.  

And then I got tired of them and put them in a drawer.  This week I decided to do something with them.  The leader of our guild challenge has no problem with us changing directions on our original project.  She demonstrated this last year when she made a table runner or some other smaller project with her blocks, something lit up in me!

So instead of making a quilt, I decided to use the blocks to make table runners!

I love the way these turned out and can't wait to gift them.  Unfortunately I have a round table so I can't use either of them.  But I'm so glad to get the blocks used up.  I still have a drawer of batik scraps but I'll figure something else to do with them.  In the meantime, another UFO finished!

How is your sewing going?

Flower Friday is coming up so if you have anything to share, please email me at allentownquilter@gmail.com

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday's This and That: August 20, 2024

 

Happy Tuesday from me and Goofball and his fox 😁

Since I wrote about organizing my sewing room again, I thought I would share two posts about sewing room set-ups:

From Polka Dot Chair and a more general one for craft rooms from the Scrap Shoppe.  

How do you store your fabric?  I'm interested in learning what you do to make your sewing easier.

***

Here's an interesting article on an exhibit in Washington D.C. that focuses on Amish Quilts.  I liked seeing the photos as well!

***

Speaking of Amish Quilts, I have two in my collection.  Both are from the late 19th/early 20th century:

Wishing you a safe and happy day!

Fabric Therapy

 

Good morning to you!

Before the pandemic, a few of my friends and I used to visit our local fabric store.  It was sort of an event.  We would have lunch together and make our way to the Mennonite farm where our fabric store was located.

Upon entering the shop, I always began our excursion by saying (rather dramatically), "see the fabric, feel the fabric, pet the fabric!"  And sure enough the tactile journey would begin with one or two of our friends stroking the fabric.  

Now most of us have heard that petting an animal can help reduce stress.  According to John Hopkins, petting a dog can reduce the stress hormone cortisol.  The hospital also reported that 84% of people with PTSD who are paired with a service dog often have less symptoms and often can reduce their medications.  You can read the article here.

The week before last, we had a lot of rain and I spent the week pulling all of my fabric off the shelves and refolded, reevaluated, and reorganized all the material.  

There are times when I know I shouldn't sew.  If I am distracted, stressed, or anxious, I am sure to make a mistake at the machine or reading the pattern.  It's a wiser choice to just stick with a task that I can't mess up too much.

But then I got to thinking about what I was doing...

That rubbing fabric between your fabrics has been scientifically proven to be beneficial to your mental health?  According to this article, it can reduce heart rate and blood pressure.  The action can often produce a sense of calm, relief, and comfort.

In fact, one of the first articles I found was a number of people that expressed that they love rubbing fabric between their fingers.  The relief that folks expressed about finding similar folks on this site was amazing.  Some folks even mentioned that this one action takes them back to early childhood and their blankies (or woobies as our family called them).

So next time you are feeling stressed, reach for some fabric to help calm you down! 

Do you find touching fabric helps you?

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: August 16, 2024

 

Happy Flower Friday!

Sue shared this photo of False Sunflower.  She said it was very stunted this year and that was probably because of the hot dry weather.  

Sue's photo of Morning Glory.  Linda had commented weeks ago that she had a Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory in her yard and I think it might be the same as this one.

Sue also shared photos of her Okra.  Below is the Okra blossom followed by a photo of the plant!

In my garden, I'm finally getting some decent blooms from my zinnias.  A lot of plants suffered this year from weather.  I'm sure many of you can relate to this as well.

Thanks Sue for the awesome photos!

Have a safe and happy weekend everyone!