Mending without Spending

I need to cheer three times because I finished three projects during the three-day weekend! All three are from my mending pile instead of my WIP list, but I'm making progress, slow but steady, in finishing things that have needed to be done, some for a decade or more.

First up was a very short stack of various batik layer cake leftovers I thought could make a good quilt or quilt back in a bind. This stack has been on my sewing table (which sometimes doubles as a dining room table, ha ha) for at least a couple of years. My mending pile has sojourned right next to these layer cake remnants, so I've always considered the blocks part of the mending pile. The scrappy layer cake has grown a bit in the last two years until it finally contained 12 blocks, which is my own definition of perfect for a kid quilt layout.

Somewhere along the line, I bought a half-price jelly roll, thinking that would make perfect sashing for this leftovers project. When I finally sat down to work out a layout, I found I wasn't very happy with two of the 10-inch squares, and I found out why the jelly roll was on sale. I didn't like it too much at all.

I ended up cutting out three more 10-inch blocks from my batik stash, then incorporating leftover batik strips I cut myself back when I was designing batik jelly roll quilts for my grands. I also threw in a few blocks from a sale charm pack I picked up who knows how long ago. I LOVED the charm pack, but there were only 24 blocks, so not really enough to make a quilt. Using the squares in this project helped me feel like at least one sale precut I bought was worth the price!

I'm thinking this might be an excellent quilt backing. It could be a quilt front, too, but I promised I would not create any new quilts until I finish a few more WIPs. I can even make this flimsy bigger by adding more of my home-cut batik strip leftovers around the edges if I need to, perhaps even creating a fancy border.

Next up is the dress I intended to wear to my niece Lyndsie's wedding. Back in 2016!!! Lyndsie actually gave birth to her second son last week, and I have a pretty nice little stash of finished kid quilts now, so I was able to get one off in the mail the day after my new grand nephew arrived instead of spending the three-day weekend making another baby quilt.

I bought this border-edged rayon batik even further back than Lyndsie's wedding, perhaps in 2010, at the now-defunct Denver National Quilt Festival. Oh, how I fell in love with the fabric!!! Total impulse purchase! I bought three yards, because it was wide, thinking that would be enough for a dress. I finally began the dress perhaps a month prior to Lyndsie's wedding... I typically can finish most dresses in one day. But no, not this one... I did not have enough fabric for both the bodice top and back.

I can't remember how long it took me to find a nearly matching rayon batik so long after I bought that original fabric. I do remember I didn't find it in time for the wedding. So I had to wear something else on that special day.

What I bought doesn't truly match, so I ended up cutting both bodice parts from the additional fabric (and sending the original bodice piece to the scrap stash), hoping the dress wouldn't look too bad with the top of the dress made from a different fabric than the bottom.

I can't remember why I didn't put the top and bottom together when I finished cutting them out, but it's possible the timing coincided with 15 quilts for my new grandkids for Christmas! A very worthy distraction! Oh, and in looking up that significant event, I discovered that's also the time period when my 34-year-old beloved Viking Husqvarna finally gave up the ghost. I distinctly remember that unfortunate event putting all kinds of delays into all quilting, sewing and mending projects. The dress got buried by one more mending project after another, until I couldn't even see what was on the bottom of the stack and until I bought a new, very inexpensive sewing machine, a Brother Project Runway (approximately three years ago). Last weekend I began deconstructing the mending pile to discover why it had grown so tall and what secrets it held.

I thought perhaps I may have procrastinated finishing the dress because facings are not my favorite thing to do, particularly when I blind-stitch tack them down by hand. I don't remember even putting the top of this dress together, but, lo and behold, I did. I also don't remember crocheting (and installing) the loop I planned to use for the back button, which I no longer have (at least in a location I might think to look). Thankfully, my button stash included a suitable button that fit the crocheted loop, and half an hour later, my dress was done!

Last but not least, the mending pile included two pairs of bike shorts. One needs a new chamois. Cheaper than buying a new pair of cycling shorts. But doing a project like that by hand (which is how I began... 15 years ago!!!), obviously convinced me I'd be better off buying a new pair of spandex shorts. The second pair of bike shorts in the stack needed the chamois tacked to the shorts because each washing resulted in serious slippage and very uncomfortable rides. I tried my hand at this pair using my sewing machine and learned why the first pair of shorts was being done by hand. Those chamois pads are not the easiest things to sew, by hand OR by machine!!! Nevertheless, my stash of cycling shorts now is one pair richer without a single dime being spent.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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Wordless Wednesday

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Pineapple Expectations

Back in September of 2015, one of my bosses gifted me a pineapple crown fresh from Hawaii. (She brought back a bunch of whole pineapples, which she graciously shared at the office, and I discovered fresh pineapples are SO much tastier than canned or what we can occassionally buy in the store.) I researched how to root the crown and was delighted when it began sprouting just a few days later, especially since the articles I read then said it could take months.

I transplanted the crown as soon as the roots grew long enough. My little crown quickly grew and needed a gigantic pot within a year or so. I've kept it in the sun in my living room ever since because I didn't think it could survive our extremes on either end of the mercury.

Earlier this summer, I decided to put the pineapple outside because it still hadn't bloomed six or seven years later andf because I've been trying to clear living room floor space so Lizard has clear walking space when his legs are severely restless. I had kind of given up on the pineapple. I'd researched once again and learned not only does the plant make just one pineapple before it gives up the ghost, but it typically makes the fruit in two to four years. In my mind, it had passed its prime and outlived its usefulness. It was a fun project, and I loved watching it grow. But it just takes up too darned much space.

my pineapple plant back in 2018, when it should have bloomed

We've had an abnormally hot summer. Trending hotter each year. I expected the pineapple plant would fry in the heat, as did my raspberry bush and my blueberry bush. It did change color, probably due to the heat. But my goodness, look what's finally happening!!!

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Snowflake Monday

For the first several months this year, I'd been trying to update snowflake patterns sporting typos, booboos and/or lack of clarity. During a spring editing session, I noticed the code Blogger began throwing into permalinks (that gibberish you see in the address bar above) a couple of years ago did not match what I had copied and pasted from Blogger's own Permalink tool in one specific pattern. I've been including permalinks in my patterns for darned near all 14 or so years I've been doing this in an attempt to stem theft of my patterns to be published on scraper blogs (scammy blogs with no original content, just plagerized content from successful blogs and typically bloated with completely irrelevant search terms - such as any big star or popular movie - to attract wider viewership) that often include dangerous links and cookies, and we're not talking chocolate chip.

I was horrified when I first realized Blogger had begun adding a sequence of random numbers onto the end of every permalink of similarly titled blog posts (such as Snowflake Monday or Wordless Wednesday) without telling bloggers (that I know of) what was happening. I tend to have a lot of repetitive themes, so I have way too many blog posts with the same titles. I knew there must be some security reason behind the change, so I spent all my free time the next three weeks or so going back to check (and replace when necessary) permalinks to make sure my links work. (Thankfully, the first duplicate blog post title each month doesn't get changed by blogger. 12 posts each year I don't have to change! Thank heavens!!!)

That's probably way more technical than non-blogging readers comprehend or even care about, and I get a lot of readers who don't even read what I write at the top of each pattern. (I get regular snarky emails or comments such as, "Where's the pattern!" if I write too much before the pattern.) So why do I even care whether links work?

More than a decade ago, the best way bloggers could direct readers back to their blog when content was stolen and republished without permission was to include language such as "If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original." Yes, that's why every single pattern includes that little bit of text you probably skip over when you're making a snowflake.

I don't know that taking the time to add that text helped or brought readers back, and I don't know if it's helpful now. In case it does work, I'm going to keep doing it. But with this recent discovery - the number tacked onto the end of my web address apparently changes when I hit that orange "publish" button. That means I once again have to go back and fix the link in the pattern again. And that I have about nine years' worth of patterns to go back and change.

I'd finished all the patterns published so far this year, back to the first week in January, when I first noticed this back in February. I was discouraged then because I knew it would take me a good long while to go back and fix all the rest. As if I didn't already have enough blog administrative tasks weighing me down!!! I still haven't gone all the way back to the beginning of my blog to replace all the http codes in every link with https (the new secure socket code). In addition, I still have about six more patterns readers have alerted me that need to be corrected. Sometimes, blogging is a neverending story (the inspiration behind today's snowflake name).

I guess as long as there are scammers, there will be mandated changes like this. It doesn't look like scammers are going to go away anytime soon.

Please forgive me for venting like this here; I want readers to understand why links sometimes don't work and why some of the things I say I'm going to do don't get done as quickly as I would like.

And everything above this paragraph, Dear Reader, was written back in February, before my blog totally disappeared from my paid domain, snowcatcher.net, in July. It took six exhausted weeks to get that straightened out!!! So, I'm now behinder than ever, but still plugging away. (I think that should be a snowflake name, too!!!) Let's keep smiles on our faces because no matter what technology throws at us, we can and will survive!!!

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. So my goal is to make a teal snowflake each week. You're invited to join me!

Here's the inspiration for this week's pattern. Yes, I do indeed plan to make a bigger snowflake inspired by this beauty by j_man25599 soon!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 2.25 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Falkor Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 11 dc in ring; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2. Pull magic circle tight.

If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 2: 1 sc in next dc, ch 6, 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each of next 2 ch, ch 2, 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook, ch 4, 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each of next 2 ch, sl st in next 2 ch, 1 sc in same dc, 1 sc in next dc] 6 times; sl st in st sc; bind off. Weave in ends.

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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Friday Fortius

I can relate to this on SO many levels.

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Matthew's Quilt

I was looking through the basement for a box that would fit Matthew's quilt so I could mail it to him after I finished it very late Wednesday night. Matthew's been patiently waiting for this quilt since about 2015.

When I found just the right box, the box itself fit perfectly into my 2022 goal of getting rid of stuff in the basement that has never been unpacked in all the years we've lived in our home. On the top of this box were folders of tax records dating back to the turn of the century. I think you only have to keep your tax records for seven years! Mama's gonna have a fire pit tonight!

Beneath all those copies of tax returns were some real gems, many of which brought tears to my eyes. Tears of joy, tears of grief, tears of unbelief, tears of memories...

Tons of cards and letters... co-workers congratulating me on being drawn for my first Ride the Rockies in 2003, weekly letters from my adopted daughter while she was in rehab, a thank you note from a total stranger I'd taken home when she was stranded at the salon where I was having my hair cut, wedding announcements from dear friends who have kids graduating from high school now, a handwritten letter from my maternal grandmother, who died in 1998...

So, there is a bit of dried salt water on Matthew's quilt as I ship it off. Do you suppose he'll notice??? :)

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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