LIFE IN OUR STRANGE TIME DAY 173

AND GETTING STRANGER ALL THE TIME

Moth block from Helen Godden's Midnight Madness.

I changed this block quite a bit as the original has a moon and I want my moon to be in another place on the final design.  I thought a lantern would be suitable for drawing moths to the light instead of the moon.  As Helen pointed out to me, it has strong diagonal lines which will limit it's placement in the overall layout.  I may change it as I work with the concepts I have for the final piece. Unfortunately, for the background I choose a fabric which is out of stock everywhere seemingly rare as hen's teeth (so many of our aphorism are dated from the time when 90% of Americans lived on farms).  Hancock's says they will have some soon.🤞

Here is another question for everyone....I have been attempting to add pages to my blog and have added two.  I have several more in draft form but no matter what I try, i cannot publish them.  I know some of you have pages-please tell me the secret to this.  All advice welcome.

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Speaking of the plague in our times. I am one of the best suited to isolation which we rigorous maintain due to our ages and health concerns.  My life in isolation is not too different from other times-I am a home-body , a bit agoraphobic, with a busy and creative internal life.  In the past six months , I have not entered any building but home and rarely spoken to anyone outside of home.  I value the on-line world of blogging and on-line quilt classes and quilting/painting facebook  groups (I am a moderator for one quilting group).  These are a real outlet for my social side and I am glad for it.  Each blogger/facebook member has interesting stories of how they are faring in this time and what they are working on.  We creator/quilters are a lucky group.

Since I have to wait for black background fabric, I am going to start quilting (gulp) the tree blocks.  Have the thread, have the backing, just need the courage.

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AND NOW....

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN

I collect staircases.  We go around in our everyday lives , see the everyday world but I see no reason why  beauty or interest cannot be injected into it.  Street art is one of my favorites as you can probably discern from the zen moments.  Why isn't street are everywhere?  

Over the next few posts, I will share my staircase collection-here are some....

Do you feel the little girl's happiness that these stairs are there for her to run up and down on?  Photo by Abe Kleinfeld.  I think the stairs reside in my old stomping ground in hilly San Francisco.

Why have an ordinary balustrade when you could have this strange and lovely piece.  Photo came with no attributions as to place or photographer.  

Staircase to the Uni library at Univerzitet Babamand

Looks like the most calming place in the world. Transport me there, Scotty!

Post linking up with:

Patchwork and Quilt at www.quiltingpatch.blogspot.com 

Sew and Tell Monday with Bambi at http://bambisyr-evaj.blogspot.com/
Monday Making at http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
Design Wall Monday at https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

LongArm Learning at http://cheekycognoscenti.blogspot.com/

Free Motion Mavericks at http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.com/

Keep creating, stay well, stay cheerful

LANGUID WEEPING WILLOW IN THE AUGUST HEAT

At least there is a stream in which to cool off or perhaps go fishing.  The little mice are playing in the marshy area among the cattails.  

My aim was to use washed out greens and even some gold-greens for the leaves to show that summer is moving towards an end, things are dying out, losing their bright summer looks.  The leaves are pointing downwards to contribute to the lazy, slow summer feel.

August was my most stubborn problem child.  No background was right and the foreground was too blue or too green, and the mice always hid in the fabric. After a lot of trial and error I arrived at this final version.

Lots of water side vegetation.  Do you like my pretty ceramic fish?  When I get to the crazy quilting part of this which is seeming like my life's work, there will be more of these small delights among the 

rest of stitching activity. 

I am thinking now about the quilting.  I will machine quilt it but not sure what size thread.  Maybe 100 wt wonderfil invisafil?  I have used that before and my Tiara, Queenie,  likes that thread.  I might use a few colors like pale blue, pale gold, pale pink or maybe just use a light cream as invisafil sinks into the fabric.

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All set up to begin fabric painting.  I am painting Helen Godden's Midnight Magic BOM.  You can see more on her webpage https://helengodden.com/store/midnight-magic-bom-2020/.  Her class prices are listed in Aussie dollars which translate into about 66 to 75 cents in US dollars depending on the currency values at that moment.  She has excellent painting and quilting videos for each block

 

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This photo reminds me of my father who was born in 1911.  He was in 1st and 2nd grade in San Francisco at the time of the 1918 -1920 pandemic.  He told me everyone in school wore masks for most of this period.  Here it is 100 years later and we are back at it.

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AND NOW

YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN

Incredible moths...first the dead leaf moth in brown and then the walking leaf moth in green.  Photographs by Robert Clark.

These camouflage experts are fascinating.  Here are some more:

And then there is this moth which is just plain amazing.

I am linking up with these wonderful quilt sites

Oh Scrap at http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/
Patchwork and Quilt at www.quiltingpatch.blogspot.com 

BOMs Away at https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog/
Sew and Tell Monday with Bambi at http://bambisyr-evaj.blogspot.com/
Monday Making at http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
Design Wall Monday at https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/
Colour and Inspiration at https://www.cleverchameleon.com.au/blog/

Keep creating, stay well, stay cheerful