Hello 2019!

I think (I hope, I pray) that I have set up MailChimp properly to send an e-mail at 9 a.m. MST on the days that there is a new blog post. If you’ve signed up to be notified and you’re not getting a notification, or you got a notification and you have suggestions about the appearance, please let me know at JanetK Szabo at gmail dot com. I am a rank newbie at some of this stuff but I’m willing to learn.

My high school guidance counselor said something to me one time that has stuck with me all these years (and I am paraphrasing here). He said that we pay better attention when we’re traveling at 70 miles an hour than we do when we’re traveling at 35 mph. I’ve been thinking about that a lot since I stopped doing transcription. I feel like I got a lot more done when I had a full-time job because I was traveling at a speed which required me to be at the top of my game all the time. Now I am traveling much more slowly and I feel like I am meandering a bit. Part of it may be the season; winter is always slower than other times of the year. Still, I’m feeling uncomfortable about my level of productivity. The husband says it is not a contest, but I cannot help trying to keep up with him. I have to remember, too, that he produces a lot of permanent things, like concrete foundations. A lot of my work consists of pushing the same rocks up the same hills day after day. Perhaps I just don’t feel as productive because as soon as I sweep the floor, it gets dirty again.

We’ll see what happens when gardening season arrives.

I took advantage of DD#2’s presence yesterday and had her help me measure myself for the Rhapso-T pattern and the Made to Measure Leggings pattern, both from Zede and Mallory at Sewhere.com. I would have started making a Rhapso-T for myself yesterday but I need more tracing paper (now ordered and on its way). And I have mixed feelings about the leggings. They don’t tend to be a staple of my wardrobe, mostly because of the sensitivity issues I have with spandex. However, I bought a pair at Target about a month ago, specifically to wear with some tunic dresses. I put them on for the first time on Sunday and they were so comfortable that I wore them yesterday, too, with a long turtleneck sweater. If I can’t find more at Target and if I can source a material for leggings that I can tolerate, I’d like to try making some for myself. The process of drafting them from my measurements will be educational.

[My personal feeling is that spandex is a privilege, not a right. Just because something is comfortable doesn’t mean you should wear it out in public. I may start to wear leggings more often, but it will be with tops that cover my butt.]

I knocked out another four blocks for the Ritzville quilt yesterday afternoon. Four to five blocks seems to be my limit per session, which is odd considering they are not that hard to put together. Maybe I am getting tired of them. I’ve got a nice stack of pieces for a Sparkling Diamonds quilt, too, as I was using those squares as leaders and enders while making the Ritzville quilt blocks. At the end of my sewing session, I decided that the cover of my ironing board needed to be washed. However, when I took it out of the washing machine, I saw that the cover had developed a hole in it. I’ll be making a new one as soon I get some more poplin. It seems like I have to make a new one about every six months or so. I make my covers because I have two vintage Mary Proctor ironing boards. (Covers are still available, but they are ridiculously expensive and it only takes me about an hour to make one.) My mother had (still has, actually) a Mary Proctor ironing board and that’s what we learned to iron on using a heavy old GE iron. I have four of those vintage GE irons, too, because I hate hate hate the newer irons.

This is my single-flip Mary Proctor ironing board:

That part at the end flips down to make a point and flips up to make a rectangular-shaped surface that is perfect for pressing yardage. It’s a brilliant design and I wonder why they ever stopped making ironing boards this way. I also have a double-flip Mary Proctor ironing board, which has the piece at the end and another piece on one side that flips up to make an even wider rectangle. I keep one upstairs and one downstairs.

I am very particular about my pressing, as you probably can tell.

And this is where the Ritzville quilt stands right now:

I am happy with it thus far, although some of the blocks likely will get moved around in the final layout. I need to get some more white fabric yardage to make the setting triangles for the sides and corners. (The way those blue corners stick out at the edges is what drew me to this design in the first place.) I haven’t figured out exactly how many blocks I need but I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 or so. I have 13, which is a fine start.