Work in Progress & What I'm Reading Wednesday

I want to thank Tami at Tami's Amis and Other Crochet for sponsoring "Work in Progress Wednesday."

First off, I am happy to report that the Helix socks are no longer a work in progress! I finished them on Saturday!! Yay!! (follow the link for pictures)

Over the Labor Day weekend, I did some thinking about the other project I mention in that same posting, and I think I have some ideas. I think I'm going to slice those big hexagons in half, add in some other fabrics cut as trapezoids, and alternate those strips with the striped fabric that is at the far left of the "accompanying fabrics" picture. I have some tan and white striped fabric in my stash I could pull in as well. So, that's the plan I worked out while out walking in the overcast skies of Labor Day.

I spent Sunday and Monday afternoons making Peppermint Candy bigger. I started with making the green blocks:

and then I had to figure out how many yellow blocks to make. Don't laugh, but I have trouble counting. I get distracted part way through, etc. It's a real trial to me. Anyway, I came up with a number and then added a couple for insurance (because I have failed to make enough blocks in the past, hmm??). So, then, I had this set of fabric pieces:

I then chained the middle portion of the blocks:

I pressed those and added the green sides:

Then, I added the yellow sides and sorted into two sets so that both the green and the pink sides would have the same kinds of pale blocks:

I arranged the pale blocks on the green side, made an extra dark green block (I told you I can't count!), and here is where the project stands:

Next, I'll flip this around and start making the dark pink blocks for the other side. I know that a couple of my "pale" green pieces are not pale. I can see that. I may just run to a fabric store and get a quarter yard of whatever and fix that. grrrr

As to what I'm reading: I am deep in the middle of Robert Hutchinson's biography of Thomas Cromwell. I seriously had a nightmare this weekend related to this period. I think I need to step away from the Tudors for a while. I am at the part of the book where he is dismantling the monasteries and nunneries and grabbing all of the valuables for the king. Also, he is trying to find a fourth wife for the king.

When I was a freshman in high school, taking a course in Western Civilization, I realized that for me history was a big scroll with drawings on it. There are parts of history that have the thinnest, most cursory lines - I'm afraid that for me China has a few lines of migration pencilled in, with sketches from the Boxer Rebellion, a water color of the Rape of Nanjing, some drawings of The Long March, and then some detailed paintings of modern-day China where the people actually move around (it helps that I work with so many Chinese, and they have helped fill out the picture of modern China). In other words, though, the more I know about a period, the richer the pictures are on my scroll. Over the course of my life, I've been adding to my knowledge base so that much of 16th- and 17th- century Europe is at least water colors, sometimes oil paintings, and some sections having moving figures. US history between 1770 and 1820 is also that way. Anyway, when I am wondering which part of history to read next, I consult my scroll and try to fill out some of the sketchier areas. I have a book on my stack about European colonialism in Africa in the 1800s. I think it's time that book rose in the queue.

However, my next book will be a book I plucked off the bargain table at Border's. More next week.

Decision Making Help, Please

Before I get to the help request, I want to show off a finished object (or set of objects) - yep, the socks are done!!

Yay!! I've started in on Abby, using the soysilk and bamboo yarn that I finished spinning during the Tour de Fleece this summer. Okay, I'm gauge swatching, but I've got the yarn wound into center-pull cakes, and I have needles going. Basically, I went on Ravelry and searched for patterns that used under 300 yards of mixed-weight yarn. We'll see how this works out.

Now for the help request. I've told you about my friend, Enabler, who is one of the gals in the quilt guild responsible for pulling together kits of donated fabrics and blocks for people to turn into quilts for SAFE House, a wonderful and worthwhile local agency. Well, she gave me a kit a few months back that I rediscovered in my sewing room last month while looking for something else. I pulled the materials out yesterday and here are the blocks:

and the accompanying fabrics:

and the original maker's diagram and notes:

Well, I started auditioning fabrics for that "C" position in the middle. Here is the fabric she had in mind:

Here are some other fabrics I auditioned from my stash:

I showed these pix to hubby, and we both agreed that the etoile (original), the light blue with suns, and the white with tulips should be eliminated. He really likes the orange, but prefers the blue. I really like the burgundy. Anyone out there have an opinion? That's the first request for advice.

He asked me where I was going with this, and I realized that I was getting ready to commit probably two or three weekends, at least, to a project that leaves me feeling "bleah!" After talking things over with him, I put the fabrics back in the bag and worked on the Peppermint Candy quilt that really pleases my eye. So, here's the second question: Should I just make a contribution of the dark blue fabric to the bag and hand it back to my friend at the next guild meeting, suggesting that someone else should have the fun?

I am seriously leaning in this direction. Something about being 50 and finally knowing that the world won't fall apart if I don't do the particular project . . . . In the meantime, Hubby did say something about the orange fabric and the burgundy fabric being in a project together; that thought had not occurred to me, but I'm having some seriously happy thoughts about maybe fussy cutting some blocks with those leaves and framing them with the burgundy and setting them in an off-centered sort of pattern. THAT would be a fun project!

Have to show you why I put up with bad behavior from a certain someone - because little Miss Brat Cat is capable of being SO darned cute! Next week will be the sixth anniversary of our finding kittens under our porch and deciding that the little tortoise-shelled one should stay with us. Gaaadd!! I LOVE this creature!

Work in Progress & What I'm Reading Wednesday

First off, this is my first WIPW! Please check out the other folks who are participating by going to this blog: http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/

My work in progress starts in my garden; well, it's not really "my" garden. I live in a condominium complex, and this is a piece of common ground I said I would care for. A year ago in the spring, I went in and cleared a bunch of weeds and ivy, etc. An old pine tree had been cut down the previous year from this area. I planted an herb garden, and this past spring, I added some more plants. Well, we had a very hot summer, I was serving as volunteer coordinator for the quilt show, and I was pumping out two major quilt projects; I was not out weeding the garden or otherwise tending to it. A lot of plants died (or never quite took), and a lot of weeds sprang up. While I was on vacation, the president of the condo association took it upon herself to weed and yank and otherwise clear out the yucky stuff. I apologized to her for not being more diligent, and she just snorted and said she knew how full my plate had been.

This past Saturday, I went to a local nursery and bought a bunch of hardy perennials that I knew would dig in and spread. I bought Stella d'Oro lilies, coreopsis, phlox, a lilac bush, and something called a "smoke tree." On Sunday, I talked to a friend at church who does landscaping, and she said that I made very good choices. Here is what two hours of work in 90-degree weather looks like. Mind you, the lavender, thyme, sage, and basil were all there before; I also moved the black-eyed Susan plants to new places as they hadn't fully rooted before.

Here's the smoke bush:

Here's a wide-angle shot of the whole garden. My friend suggested getting a soaker hose, and that's the black thing you see snaking through the garden. That was a 20-minute Monday evening project:

I am proud of that. I'm also proud of the bountiful tomato crop we've had this year. Here's one "patio bush" plant. Also, this quince bush was here when we bought the place, and I've made quince preserves each fall. VERY tart!

Finally, here is the current progress on the Helix socks. I'm starting to feel as though they're getting close to being done. Last night I measured, and I'm within 3/4" of the top of the cuff. I really am a slow knitter. It's so sad.

Finally, I wanted to briefly mention what I've been reading. When I posted last Wednesday, I mentioned Guy Consolmagno's book, God's Mechanics. I didn't get my hands on it until Thursday evening, and I was "that close" to being done with "Wolf to the Slaughter" by my "new discovery" Ruth Rendell. I started Guy's book Friday evening, and then on Saturday after I came in from the heat, I took the rest of the afternoon and into the evening to read the entire book. You may recall that we had promised to lend the book to a friend at church.

Without going into a long discussion, let's just say that this born-and-bred Catholic has been struggling with issues of faith and religion for over 40 years (I'm 50, do the math). There have been moments of profound insight, months of crushing doubt, weeks of fierce anger, and years of a sense of being part of something that is still being born. This was a good book for me to read at this moment of anger and doubt (this "moment" that has been going on for a couple of years). He talks about how people with a geeky frame of mind approach religion. At one point, he took a sabbatical from his job as an astronomer at the Vatican observatory to spend several months in Silicon Valley interviewing scientists and engineers about their experience of religion. He does a lot of nice descriptions of the issues for such folks in this area. He ends with reflections on his own life's journey. He never once says, "Here is the answer for you;" rather, he says, "Here are some things that make sense for me; maybe they'll spark something in you." I'm glad I read this book. It's going to continue to percolate in my brain for some time.

Last evening, as sort of an inadvertent companion piece, I read this article in the current issue of the National Catholic Reporter. It's a lifelong journey. I'm not trying to convince anyone else about anything; I'm very much a work in progress myself.