Sewing, raining, dreaming, chocolate

It's been raining all month and I needed a color fix, so I turned to two Christmas projects that didn't get finished yet. I'm using the thumb splint while I embroider the wool trees, taking frequent breaks and going slow.

I also sewed together the rows of Christmas blocks from the ladies in Sew Day. I just finished basting it for quilting, and I think I'm going to do free-motion white wintry swirls today.

Yesterday we had a brief break in the rain where we could actually see some blue sky! This is the view in the harbor, with a paddle boarder and his little dog gliding by.

I've been dreaming about moving to the sun and have been looking at homes in Tucson (the Oro Valley and Catalina Foothills) on Zillow. They are sooooo much more affordable there than here in the Northwest where prices have gone crazy. There's no way I could get a nice, 1,784-square-foot home here with views like this for that price. This one is a condo with community pools and other facilities. I'll be downsizing, but I still want a large space for a sewing studio and a nice guest room for friends and family.

Facebook continues to deliver humor:

A few days ago I NEEDED chocolate, so I whipped up a chocolate wacky cake and had a large portion for dinner. A perk of living alone.

Have a colorful day

Need I say more?

I just cannot take this rain anymore, so I'm going to Tucson for a week next month! 

A friend and I have rented a house in Oro Valley, just north of Tucson, and are going to bask in the sun and eat Mexican food and sight see and go to quilt shops and bakeries and cafes and the desert museum. I'm going to hike a little every day and look at the blue sky and mountains and take pictures of desert sunsets.

And I'm going to look at houses for sale and maybe move there later this year. 

In the meantime, another friend took me to this fantastic bakery that just opened across the bridge in Tacoma. We ducked our heads as we scurried across the street in the rain, but inside it was heavenly and fragrant with baking aromas. We bought cheesy bread, savory croissants, a chocolate croissant and a fresh bagel with garlic herb cream cheese that we shared there. Later, I pulled apart the cheesy bread a stuffed it in my mouth while I watched the impeachment hearings. I'm saving the chocolate croissant for today's proceedings.

Have a colorful day

Bum thumb and no snow

My new splint for arthritis in the thumb.

I finally went to a doctor about the arthritis in my thumb that has all but put a stop to my hand stitching. He told me I have "severe very advanced end stage basically nothing left in my joint" arthritis!

He said I'd be an immediate candidate for surgery if I wanted that, but I said I'd like to try some less extreme measures first. So he gave me a splint and a steroid injection. I'd always heard that those injections in the thumb hurt like hell, but it was nothing compared to the pain I've been putting up with for years when using that thumb.

If the injection is going to work, I should know in the next few days. If not, then I'll probably get surgery later this year.

Then there's the letdown from not being buried in snow and having to stay home and live on comfort food while watching a storm howl outside. We got a little snow early in the week, but the roads stayed clear so life went on as usual. The photo above shows how it looked yesterday -- sunny and not a speck of snow left on the ground. Below is earlier in the week, but that melted by the next day.

The day we got the snow started in yoga class, where we have a view of majestic trees from the wall of windows on the second floor of the Y.

It's pretty awesome to do tree pose while looking out at those big trees swaying in the wind.

I'll end with this Peanuts observation and will try to seize each day, snow or not, arthritis pain or not.

 Have a colorful day

Snow, snippets and full moon

It's been dark, rainy, dreary. A few days ago we had a burst of flurries foreshadowing a week of predicted snow starting tonight, so I laid in stores of food and fabric.

When the going gets tough, the tough turn to color and quilting! So I made a few more stars in the baby quilt for my niece.

And yesterday a friend who is new to quilting came over to plan a first project to make with her brand new sewing machine. We cut out squares in mouthwatering oranges and cool blues, greens and purples for a table runner. So far, so good.

Then an hour of anxiety and laughing followed as we tried to figure out how to thread the machine, wind the bobbin and get started. Her machine is nothing like mine, which is a 30-year-old Bernina, and instruction manuals in tiny type give me anxiety attacks, so I wasn't much help. Here she is with one hand on the thread and the other hand on the manual. I'm holding my breath. She'll do fine, because she always does.

I came across this picture and it looks exactly like so many of my friends! Haven't we all sewed more than we should have without bobbin thread? I sure have.

I need laughs like that, because I've been backsliding a bit lately. I blame it on the gloomy weather. I know that color is the best therapy, so that's the plan.

We had a full moon the other night -- the Wolf Moon. Our yoga teacher led us in some moon salutations. It was nice to be in the companionable company of other women, all of us showing up week after week for Joy's class and urging each other through the dark months.

 Have a colorful day

Vashon Island Sew Day trip

My Sew Day group went on its annual holiday trip last weekend. This year we went to Island Quilter on Vashon Island. Island Quilter stocks every single Kaffe Fassett fabric, if not in the store then online. We needed that color shot, because look at the weather here -- not a speck of sun on the horizon:

Inside the store, it was cozy and colorful. Almost all of us bought some of this fabric ...

... which reminded me of this card from my quilting friend Sheila. I've been looking at the card for a month, channeling inspiration for my next quilt.

Then we headed to the Hardware Store, an always bustling restaurant in the center of town. Besides lunch (actually, we all had breakfast food), we exchanged gifts and revealed our row-by-rows.

I won't show all the gifts, but here are two handmade ones. Linda P. wrapped luxury soaps in wool roving and felted them. If you google "felted soaps" you can read all about the process. You scrub yourself with the wrapped bar, and as the soap is used up, the wool keeps shrinking to stay snug. It's antibacterial and also exfoliates.

Linda J. crocheted doilies, each in a different design. I'm going to use mine under a candle.

For the row-by-row challenge, we each made one row to start in the beginning of last year. Then we sent them around to each of the other four along with coordinating fabric and instructions for a general theme. You didn't get to see any of the rows being made for your quilt until the big reveal at the Hardware Store. They turned out great!

I started mine with a row of log cabins in red, green and white. I specified a Christmas/winter theme, and I'm so pleased with what I got back! I can't wait to finish the quilt.

I took pictures of the other rows in the middle of our restaurant table, so I didn't get very good overall views, but you can get the idea.

And, since it's me, you know there will be a food picture. This is Nancy's pancake, which the kitchen  decorated by laying a fork on the pancake and sprinkling powdered sugar around it. I had French toast with a peach/blueberry compote. Delicious!

Then it was back onto the ferry for the 15-minute ride across the water to Tacoma, and then a drive over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to take me home.

Have a colorful day

Welcome 2020!

A new year, a new decade, a new me!

I said goodbye to 2019 at a party with Nancy and Joyce (below) from the Feet & Forks and a houseful of other old and new friends.

The food was fabulous.

But most fabulous of all were our hosts, Barb and Paul, who have been throwing this shindig for years and thoughtfully have it end at 7 p.m. so we can all be home and in our jammies early enough to watch the ball drop in New York (9 p.m. our time) and then hit the sack.

I don't make resolutions anymore because I never keep them, but I always start out trying to eat healthier and get more exercise. So my first cooking of 2020 was roasted sweet potatoes with pecans, dried cranberries and an orange vinaigrette served with quinoa. I made enough to last several days.

And New Year's Day our endless rain was interrupted long enough to go for a three-mile sunny walk in the harbor with Nancy and Joyce.

This is the view from our walk, looking out over Commencement Bay toward Tacoma.

I'm also gearing up for my next creative challenge, which was sparked by this fabric sent to me by a very talented textile artist friend in Texas who dyed it.

Finally, this quote seemed a fitting way to say goodbye to a rough year and look forward to better times in the new year.

Have a colorful day