Fathers Day 2013

My father, J. Davis Romine, always wore a white dress shirt, even on the weekends. He unbuttoned the collar and took off his tie for a casual look. Despite this, he was a fun guy and his dry humor made me laugh.

He had an adventure on a train when he was a young man. He met Al Capone. Read about it here.

My laundry today

Here is my laundry hanging to dry.

I just washed a bunch of 4-inch paper pieced blocks I made way back in July of 2009. They needed a good wash because the other day my cat, Feather, got locked in my sewing room all day. When I finally discovered him late at night he had been confined for at least 12 hours. He was very happy to get out and I thought all was well. NOT. My sewing room smelled very peculiar (that's putting it nicely). Today I searched and sniffed every pile of fabric in there. I found one small collection of blocks that the poor cat had decided to use as his temporary sandbox. Whew!

After this wash, I hope they will be as good as new. If you want to see some of the blocks, go to the July, 2009 archive here. I did a block-a-day series that year. There are free paper piecing foundations to print out, too.

Got some 'splainin' to do

I made the chocolate quilt top and took progress pictures as I went along. I know what I did and how it went together, but now I have to explain how to do it so I can put out a pattern for others to follow. I have 10 draft pages of Dear Hearts so far. I will look for a pattern tester to try it out in another color-way. I'll show the tester my project and hand over the pattern draft pages. I won't add any verbal explanation. If she or he gets terribly stuck we can talk and I can add more words or pictures. It is an interesting process to come up with a final, salable pattern.

 

Where did Feather go?

Last evening, way past dinnertime, I started to worry about my cat, Feather. I called and called him but his big white form did not emerge from the darkness outside. By 10:30 PM I was really worried. I had to go to bed. I passed by my sewing room door and thought I'd peek in there. To my great surprise, there was Feather. He had not made a sound. I did not go into my sewing room all day yesterday. I don't even remember opening the door once during the day. Very strange. I am sure he was comfortable because he had lots of soft piles of fabric to cuddle with.

 

And, speaking of cats, we have a new resident in the house. Her name is Phoenix. She is less than a year old. She was abandoned by a family which moved out of a rental house on Taylor Road in late March. The day after they moved out, the house caught fire and burned to the ground and burned up the house next door, too. A cat rescue organization found her and she was in "foster cat care" for a while. A friend called me and asked if I wanted a cat. I did not want a cat, but when I heard her story I said, "bring her over." When I saw her I was so surprised because she looked just exactly like our old cat Aucuba who lived with us for 18 years. Phoenix seems to be the right name for her because her coat looks as if it is "sooty." She knows her name now, is very pleasant, and gets along very well with Feather. I've tried and tried to take a good photo of her with no luck. She looks grumpy in her pictures, but she isn't.

Chocolate craving

This project has increased my craving for chocolate. The top is finished and I can sandwich it and quilt it. Ice cream sandwich? Next I am going to do a vegetable one -- you must have all the food groups. This is for my Dear Hearts series.

Filling the box

I'm halfway with my chocolate box quilt top. I had to run to the store and buy a Hershey bar because I got so hungry while working on it.

I started at the top left corner and pinned the patches on my design board. Halfway done now. We have dark chocolate, milk chocolate, strawberry, raspberry, a gold foil-wrapped surprise, chocolate-marshmallow, butterscotch, and I am just adding a honeycomb (or seafoam) piece now at the bottom left.

My mother used to make honeycomb candy and I believe See's Candies still sells it. I looked up recipes for seafoam candy on the web and here is a good site with step-by-step instructions and a video -- http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/honeycomb/

Delicious fun

Sometimes you need a bit of inspiration to get going. I received a gift certificate for See's Candy. It's been sitting on a counter that I pass by every day. So tempting.

I've got it! I'll make a chocolate box quilt. I pulled fabric from my stash. I had everything I needed -- lots of browns and a few accent colors. Now I am putting it together. At last, I am making a table runner with my "Dear Hearts" pattern. I'm photographing the steps as I go along and writing the instructions. Such fun

Island Crab Feed and my checkered past



Photo by BrendaLou Scott

Last Saturday, I attended the Island's Annual Crab Feed benefiting the Santa Sack program. There were hundreds of people in Scout Hall (our community center). The Santa Sack program gives gifts to needy children in the Bethel Island area and holds a Christmas party for them.

The Hall was so full and I wandered around looking for someone I knew. People come from neighboring towns for this delicious event. I did not see a familiar face (except my friends tending bar, collecting 212 tickets, and helping in the kitchen). After fifteen minutes I had almost decided to leave and go home. Then I spotted a quilting friend, Maxine. Whew, I had a dinner companion.

We had all the crab we could eat. The servers were high school students doing their community service work. They kept the huge platters of crab, French bread, and melted butter coming without a moments pause. They also kept the waste buckets coming for the empty crab shells. There was pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. What good workers they were.

As I was getting dressed before the event, I pulled on a favorite pair of black and white houndstooth wool pants, and thought, "I've had these pants for a long time." I pulled on a black jersey from my high school class reunion in 2008. I spiffed up the outfit with my brand new red corduroy Big Shirt from L.L. Bean.

Yesterday, I was looking through some old photos trying to find pictures I could use to promote my 40th anniversary reprint of my little Spinning with a Drop Spindle booklet. One photo surprised me.

There I was in 1974, spinning on my spindle wearing the same houndstooth pants. Yes, I realized I've worn these pants for at least 38 years!

So, if you know any knitters that might enjoy spinning their own yarn, click on the cover picture and get them a nice little Christmas present. It's time for me to get a new pair of pants!