I'm on my own this weekend. Mr. Kathie is in Florida, visiting an old friend. The two of them--both former ski jumpers--are no doubt amusing themselves discussing the Byzantine politics and issues of the sport...when they aren't emailing me to tell me how nice the weather is!

But I've managed to amuse myself too. All 700 half square triangles are trimmed and ready to be sewn into strips for my blue strippy quilt. That was an ugly job!


Most of these HSTs were made from trimmings from connector corners, and I knew some would be small. I had to discard a few that didn't measure quite 1.5". I think I still have enough because the quilt may end up a bit smaller than was originally planned.

A strippy makes for some interesting design issues....and not all the issues of this quilt are resolved yet.

But what the heck! I plan to take the plunge this week. Now that the component pieces for the strippy quilt are all ready, I can get down to business and start serious sewing. More to come on that.

I'm usually not one for making a quilt from just one line of fabric but I surely got all excited about Moda's French General Rouenneries! Last fall, before yardage was available, the overwhelming urge to pet this fabric came over me and I couldn't resist buying a layercake. I've since picked up a couple other coordinating fabrics and the idea for a small quilt began to take shape. Tonight I watched the Olympics from my cutting table and voila--my very own DIY kitted French General quilt ready to sew.



Simple, simple. This will be just sashed and cornerstoned squares. The colors look pretty terrible in this picture--the real colors are much more soft and lovely--not so nerve-jangly.

Took time out from all this industry to drive into Wauwatosa this afternoon to meet my son and his girlfriend for brunch. It had been weeks since I'd seen them. Good food, good talk.

And last but not least, Miss Lucy got a bath.


Westies must be made of that sham-wow material because they can soak up water like nothing else I know. After her bath, most of the house was soaking wet, and that includes me. She had to run and run and run and shake that water all over. She's a bit dried off here--this was the first I could get her to sit still long enough for a picture.

Just finished reading The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan. This book was a big deal here at our library. Our director had chosen it as a pick of the month for the library reading group at Goodreads. She connected with the author, who was planning a Chicago visit, and graciously agreed to a Wisconsin side trip to speak at the library this past weekend.

And unfortunately I missed the whole thing, due to the DeSoto trip.

The novel's setting is Niagara Falls, ON in 1915 to the early 1920s--the years when the power companies were lobbying the Canadian and U.S. governments to allow the diversion of more and more water from the Falls for generating electricity. It's not much of a stretch to say that the Falls are the main character of the book, lovingly explored and described. I grew up not too far from Niagara Falls, have always loved the area, and really enjoyed this focus.

The plot itself was less involving and I had some questions about what seemed to be jarringly modern language used by the characters. Did people say "pitch" to mean "throw away" in 1915? Was something easy to do "a cinch" back then? If only my mother were still around--she would be able to answer these questions...

If you've been to the Falls, you'll remember the Niagara Scow, the rusted wreck stuck on the rocks above the Falls since 1918. Thanks to this book, I finally know how it happened! Still hoping to be at the Falls on the day the scow breaks loose and plunges over the edge...and that should happen someday.

I'm just starting Driftless, by David Rhodes, which seems appropriate since I just visited the Driftless area of Wisconsin, the area left untouched by glaciers. Looking forward to this book.

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In other news, the Olympic games hold sway chez Threadlines. We love it all. Yes, NBC coverage is dumbed down and vacuous, but we watch it anyway like the lemmings we are. To keep myself feeling like I'm accomplishing something, anything, I've dug out what has come to be known as The Purple Shawl of Death and am slowly knitting on the borders.



I haven't shown the progress on this piece for some time, so a refresher is in order. This is The Victoria, from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. The yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze, color Dewberry.

I'm good for about one white knuckle 18-row repeat per night. Then the window of mental alertness slams shut and it's time to just sit and stare at the TV. Working at this snail's pace, I still have several months of this project ahead of me. It's one honkin' big shawl!

DeSoto was a blast--a long weekend full of productive work and inspiration. Beautiful weather, congenial friends.

I got a great deal accomplished. The blue strippy quilt is progressing in a hopeful way. Hopeful that it will be completed by May, that is. Above are 25 of the 700 half-square triangles I made this weekend. Tedious sewing, but made better when it's done amid good friends, good conversation, and a glass or two of Argentine Malbec, which is my big new wine crush.

The inspiration came in the form of two spectacular quilt tops brought by one friend. The maker is a longtime traditional and repro-only quilter who has, to say the least, broken free of those limits.

Here is an amazing Lone Star top:


and a detail of the same quilt.


Glorious, liberating color for sure:


And a detail. Fabulous.


Some of us worked on machine tasks. Here are Deb and Renee, hard at work on their next sets of tiny stars. And are mine even started? Of course not.




Mary brought handwork. Exquisite handwork...


So now I'm home, batteries recharged and raring to go. But we're Olympics watchers, glued to the tube until the Closing Ceremonies. Mr. Kathie, having been a competitive skier and ski jumper, has LOTS of opinions. This will probably be a knitting week for me as I watch the competition, and listen to those opinions.

Woohoo--snow day today! This is a long and drawn out snowstorm--it began Monday night and is to continue through tonight, with the blowing and the drifting increasing. So the real concern, if the library is to be open Wednesday, may be getting out of a very drifted-in driveway in the morning. We'll see how that works out.

Uncertainty, your name is winter.

And, I'm OK with all this as long as the roads are clear by Thursday, as I'm headed to De Soto for a long weekend of quilting with friends. And I don't intend to be delayed by weather.

I made good use of today, making blocks for a new quilt. 26 blocks completed out of 36 needed.


I've actually been working on this one sporadically since last fall but this is its blog debut. It's going to be a strippy, with rows of Variable Stars setting off a particularly handsome blue toile.


This will be an antique-y quilt, with colors severely restricted to...blue. This is the all-blue quilt I've wanted to make for a long time.

I have a blog reader to thank for cueing me in to the fact that this toile was even available in blue--I had only seen it in brown. I can no longer remember who it was. But thanks.

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My last post provoked a good deal of dialogue, some in the comments and some as private emails. There are other quilt groups grappling with serious issues and there are other shops fighting for their existence. But I'm happy to say that I heard from young quilters saying, "We're here! We're quilting!" Of course you are! That's a huge mood brightener.

Quilt on...

This has been a sad week for quilters in my area.

Monday morning began with the news that Yellow Bird Art, one of the most wonderful quilt shops anywhere, will be closing.


Yellow Bird Art has been the go-to shop when my friends and I have been retreat-ing in DeSoto, Wisconsin. It was located just a short hop over the state line, across the bridge in Lansing, Iowa. A destination shop for sure. Always full of an exciting mix of the traditional and the contemporary--hand-dyed wools, kimono silks, Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler fabrics, cutting edge garment patterns, unusual beads, buttons, and other findings--shoppers could find just the right raw materials to bring out the artist in anyone.

Yellow Bird was a Quilt Sampler Top Ten shop in 2007--so well-deserved. The staff was friendly and the owners always remembered us by name, even though we visited only a couple times per year. So inviting and well merchandised...well, I could go on and on.


It's very sad to see this exciting shop succumb to the pressures of our turgid economy.

The week ended with the news that WQI, our Wisconsin state quilt organization, will disband at the end of the year. WQI has been active for many years, offering seminars, classes and great opportunities for learning and growth. But membership has been declining as the big regional shows have come in, offering nationally-known teachers and huge vendors' areas.

Looking at attendance at quilt shows and classes, it's obvious that quilting is aging out just a bit. Those of us who got into quilting in our 20s and 30s, in the wake of the big quilting revival of the 70s and 80s are suddenly (suddenly??) getting older. And many of the next generation see quilting only as their mother's hobby.

A couple weeks ago, I was looking at a home dec blog featuring a home with a couple well-executed quilts in evidence. More than one blog commenter expressed the opinion that the rooms would be greatly improved if the quilts would be donated to the local animal shelter. OUCH!

Times change and various craft media move in and out of the spotlight. I've loved quilts since I was a kid, studying the mix of early 20th century fabrics in the old family Log Cabin and Monkey Wrench quilts on my parents' bed.


I believe I would have made quilts whether or not there was a "Quilting Revival"--it seems to be in my genes. I still love them like nothing else.

Please--support your local quilt shop AND your area guilds. Such precious resources...

Busy week. There were a couple of evening commitments, the best of which was tonight's Open Knitting at Knitch of Delafield, Wisconsin, which, while not exactly a LYS for me, is reasonably close. A couple friends and I have vowed to hit the twice-a-month Open Knitting night as often as possible. It was really good to spend a companionable evening with knitters. I learned some things, and got lots of inspiration seeing what everyone else was doing.

I'm moving along mindlessly on these basic ribbed socks. Blistering speed, for me! These were begun in mid-December and, thanks to a couple tedious recent days spent on airplanes, I'm already nearly half done with sock number 2. This is a yummy variegated grape-y yarn. And the color is distributing MUCH BETTER than was the case with the last socks I made.

One thing that needs work is my perception of relative gauge of yarn. This stuff looked like fingering weight to me, and I cast on size 1 needles, like always. But the socks are working up to be quite dense. I think they might have been better with a needle sized up slightly. Live and learn.

But heavy and warm is good. Our library director likes to keep things chilly and my feet have been freezing at work.