Saturday, May 30, 2009

Favorite Colors




I have my favorite colors. They are, in order, blue, turquoise, sky blue, robin's egg blue, grayed blue, teal, navy blue, royal blue, baby blue, periwinkle, any other blues I forgot, white, green, pink, purple, gray, brown, black, some reds, yellow, and finally all the orange reds and orange. This is an improvement. Once the list stopped at green. More recently the list stopped just before black. It is only since I have been quilting that I have accepted that any other color has a right to exist, particularly orange.


Orange is an obnoxious color. It demands to be in a quilt, and refuses to leave. (The fact that it is right is highly annoying.) Yellow at least asks politely and goes away (without whining) when you say no. Which is probably why there is so much of it in the quilt above. It is acting like an adult. Orange acts like an obnoxious teenager.


The second quilt was originally an autumn leaves quilt. This would have required me to actually use orange. So I changed the leaves to flowers and happily used blue and green, and a little purple. I tried to make the borders out of blue, but none of them would cooperate. But, since blues are my favorite color, I forgive them. But green and purple cooperated, and I did bind it with blue.


Thanks to my niece orange is actually on the list. She requested a blue and orange baby quilt. I groaned, partly because blue and orange are colors that You Are Not Supposed To Put Together, and partly because I dislike orange. But I found this cool pattern of rectangles and stars, and it turned out really neat. In fact, one of the oranges I liked so much that I went out and bought a yard of it, thinking that I now have my lifetime supply of orange. A year later I went back and bought the last of the bolt, about 2 yards (and now on sale). That is almost gone... I now have quite a collection of orange, including peaches and apricots and such. And all my yellows are currently on the ironing board, being incorporated into a baby quilt. (Time to go shopping!)
I also discovered that if you want to mix blues that don't like each other, like royal blue and periwinkle and baby blue and navy, if you sash it in orange they start behaving.
Since I started quilting, I don't look so much at whether I like the color as I look at how they go together, so I can appreciate the autumn colors. I don't, after all, have to wear them! But blues are still more fun to sew with. Particularly turquoise. And sky blue. And navy. And periwinkle. And ...
Nadia: If you don't like that picture, I can put a new one in with your head chopped off.

Monday, May 25, 2009

The New Star Trek Movie

I have just gotten back from seeing the new Star Trek Movie, which, as far as I can tell, is called "Star Trek." It is, apparently, the eleventh Star Trek Movie, which means that I have missed a few. So you can see I am not a trekkie, I have taken Shatner's advice and gotten a life.

I suppose, if the Klingons can change from being human clones to almost humanoid between TOS and TNG, I can handle a bunch of differences, like the clear displays on the Enterprise and the budding romance between Spock and Uhura. And then, of course, we find out that it is an alternate timeline. And so, we will need another movie to fix a few things. Like restore the planet Vulcan. Yes, the entire planet!

I'm pretty sure that the label on the Enterprise should read NCC-1701 B or C, but that gets into "What is the combination of your safe?" territory so I'm not going to even say that Kirk is going to have to destroy two more Enterprises in the next 15 years in order to get things back on track for the orginal series.

One of my friends (and you know who you are) claims that nothing has to be fixed, that we now have a whole new world to play in!

I guess I am just a stick in the mud.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Up with the times

I may be 53, which sounds old and decrepit to my daughter's friends, but I want you to know that I am thoroughly a part of the wired in generation.

Even if I don't yet have an ipod.

(And when I do, I will also get those little speaker jobbies, because I don't like earbuds. Or earphones. Or headsets.)

I had to get a new dryer, mostly because the old one took too long to dry things, and then it started to smell, well, smoky. So I bought one (cash), and instantly loved it because it only took 40 minutes to dry what used to take 2 hours or more! I am in heaven! I am not tied at home all day anymore! I can do all my laundry in one day and still go somewhere if I have to!

Then I realized that I missed the end of cycle notification, so I waited next to the dryer to find out what it sounded like. Instead of that obnoxious blazzing sound of the old dryer, now I have a nice melody that lets me know politely and with joy that the load is done.

So this is my point: I am part of the wired in generation because my next thought was "Can I download a different ringtone to my dryer?"


PS. I actually enjoy doing laundry now. I think I need to get out more.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

A good Mother's Day






It is Mother's Day, and I don't have to work at all.

OK, I did have to hold the Salmon while my husband put mesquite wood on the grill. At one point he called me to put the dishes away, then remembered exactly what day it was and put them away himself. I probably should have stepped in; when someone else puts away the dishes things end up in Strange Places. I just found a bowl that my sister put away in February. It only took 3 months!! (Don't worry Annie, we found it!)

The menu was mesquite grilled salmon with cucumber dill sauce. (1/2 sour cream, 1/2 mayonnaise, dill until it looks like enough, then add finely chopped cucumber without skin or seeds), salad, and desert is brownies that we eat before they are cool. Plus the chocolate that I got as gifts. Plus I licked the brownie bowl. I have enough chocolate to keep me happy for a while. Three days, at least. The wine was rose' d'anjou from Domaines des Charmes that our Czech girl brought over in February.

The other half of the salmon will be for dinner tomorrow, it will have a strawberry sauce that I found here: http://www.thismamacooks.com/2008/06/strawberries-ar.html We were inspired by the strawberry sauce we got at a local restaurant. And the rest of the wine.

And I sewed. I have been working on this block of the month since January. The top picture is what it would look like in March if I sewed the corners on, but I can't yet because the rest of it sticks out. I need to make 24 different stars (or more, because I changed the layout) like the second picture, and 72 sawtooth stars (or more, ditto), all different. (Kind of like little twisty passages; if you can remember THAT computer game.) Then, in October, I make a whole bunch of flying geese (160?) (or more) and a sew it all together. I think. The sawtooth stars are 4 inches finished, and the ones pictured are 6 inches finished. Forcing me to be more precise than usual! The one in the top left looks funny because it refuses to lay flat. I will let it have its childish rebellion now, it doesn't realize that it will have to conform next fall.
Right now the husband is off with the daughter practicing driving. In my car of course, the other has standard transmission and no power steering.
In other news, I inherited my family's grandfather clock when my mom passed away 17 years ago. We drove it over the mountains and, for some reason, it wouldn't run! There just happened to be a guy making housecalls next door, so my husband called him over and now it is running! Of course, it loses about 1/2 minute per hour. Which is an hour and 20 minutes every week...but I am really enjoying hearing it bong.
But wait, there's more! My son-in-law might be employed again!
Tomorrow it is back to reality...I have to finish paying bills for the month. And wondering what time it really is every half hour (less 1/4 minute). But right now I think I will find this month's Analog magazine and a couple pieces of chocolate.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Your dog can teach you a lot


Things you should learn from your dog:
Greet everybody enthusiastically, especially if you have not seen them for a long time.
Love everybody. Except if someone mistreats you, be wary of them.
Drink plenty of water.
Spend some time outside every day.
Going for a walk is something to look forward to.
Be flexible. (see picture)
Be interested in everything, or as much as possible.
If you can't think of anything else to do, take a nap. You might need it.
Stretch properly, especially after that nap.
Use only approved places for relieving yourself. (This is for the youngest of us.)
Things I wish my daughters had not learned from my dog:
Someone else will clean up after that mess.
Beg (or even whine) for meals.
Eat the wrong food.
I'm sure this is not a complete list.