Going Green

At our house, we've recently become fascinated by the Planet Green channel on TV. We like to watch Living with Ed, where Ed Begley Jr is on a continuing quest to tweak the everyday encounters with electricity that we all have into a more green, planet friendly form. After watching the show for a while, we made some changes in our daily lives that have resulted in our electric bill being cut in half from what they were a few months ago.

Some of the changes we have made are: changing our light bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs. The next generation of screw-in fluorescent bulbs is here, they are more roundish than the older ones which look like a cross between spaghetti strings and a soft serve ice cream cone. You know which ones I mean! The light is a bit blue and faint when you first turn it on, but in a minute or so you can't tell the difference from incandescent. We turned off all of our outdoor lighting, which was nice to look out at, but not necessary. We also cut our pool pump run time in half, which didn't seem to affect the water quality at all. We make a conscious effort to unplug our TV's, phone chargers, and any small appliances when not in use that are otherwise just sitting there sucking juice all day.

We learned about solar tubes, shown above. Michael recently cut a circular hole in our garage roof and inserted this tube, which allows daylight to come through some sort of a prism which makes the area under the tube really bright. It looks like there is a light on, but you can't find the switch to turn it off. Very cool.
Yesterday, we had a solar hot water system installed. As we live in South Florida, it seemed a smart way to go. It is sunny for at least part of every day here. I took this photo nearly at dark, when they had just finished the install. We actually got money back from the state, a tax rebate, and an incentive from the company that installed it so that the final cost to us was very reasonable and will pay for itself in several months' time. My husband cautioned me that we will not be able to regulate the temperature of the hot water, and that we must be careful to mix it well with cold water so we don't get burned. He said we would'nt need to boil water for tea any longer, it would be hot enough right out of the tap! I woke up this morning all ready for a hot shower, with water heated by the sun. I stood under the tap and...well, lukewarm would be a generous way to describe the temperature of the water. Since they finished installing it last evening, there was no sunshine to heat it overnight and therefore my tepid intro to the world of solar heated bathing. It was sunny and 80 degrees all day today, so will hope for a warmer shower tomorrow morning. And of course, a nice cup of tea!

Bruce's Christmas Quilt

I recently quilted this quilt for a customer who made it for her boss for Christmas. It is all batiks, and several have an african or animal print feel.

This is a close up of the quilting. It is a ginko leaf all over pattern, in a royal blue thread. The top and back are busy enough that the quilting does not show up too much. The arching pattern of the top of the leaf is the most dominant graphic element, which surprised me. It was the first time I had used this design.

Christmas Parade

Every year, the first Saturday in December is our town's Christmas Parade. We don't have many of the seasonal reminders of Christmas that you would see in the North (like snow!), so the parade is the signal to one and all that the Season is open!
I think everyone in town knows someone, and most know several people who are in the parade. Our friend Bill was in the Knights of Columbus contingent. Yes, he gets to keep the car!! Our godson, Sebastian, rode with our friend Laurie who is on the School Board, in her convertible. He's reaching into the basket to throw some candy to the kids.The shriners were there with their crazy little cars and the clowns. There were 4 bands! This is our friend Sara, playing the tuba. (3rd one in) She looked like she was ready to fall over. It was about 80 degrees, and they were marching into the sun. Harry was there in his motorized armchair, with his kids. The guy who drives the porta-potty that pops wheelies didn't show this year, though.Lots of boats, including one 18 foot sportfishing boat that was left to a local waitress as a tip (!) from a loyal customer when he got too sick to enjoy it. Love the sea horses! Lots of animals Tshirts and beach balls were thrown to the crowd And a great time was had by all!

Block printing with gelatin

Today, in our Secret Artists' fiber art group, we had fun making some prints from trays of gelatin. It was a gorgeous day, and we were able to work outside at a big table on the porch of my studio. This is a technique introduced to us by one of our members, Billye, who is a collage artist.

I made up the trays of gelatin ahead of time. The recipe (for each tray) was: dissolve 4 packets of plain Knox gelatin in one cup of water. Add 3 cups boiling water and pour into 11 x 9 or so inch pan. Pat out any bubbles, so the surface is smooth and clear. The mixture will set up in a few hours without being refrigerated. In fact, I don't recommend even trying to put it into the fridge, because the whole thing is very unstable and it sloshes all over your counters, floors, shoes and the inside of the refrigerator. It especially seeks out those little nooks and crannies where you put eggs and things. AFTER it has set up, you can transfer the tray to the fridge for longer term keeping.

OK, so armed with our gelatin trays, the secret artists put some block printing ink on our palettes and loaded up a breyer. We then rolled a thin-ish coat of ink onto the surface of the gelatin.
To make the prints, we placed rubber stamps onto the ink, which lifted up the ink and left the impression of the design we were after. For variety, we also tried pressing lace, paper doilies, and string onto the surface to absorb the ink. One person had a little problem with using a sharp-ish object, and it made a slice into the gelatin.

THEN, we gently patted a piece of fabric onto the surface of the gelatin. You could see the design emerging, like watching a photo come up in a chemical bath. We lifted the fabric up and draped it over a hedge to let it dry. We really came out with some interesting prints.

This was a copper print on black satin. We used cotton, satin and organza for our printing fabrics.

The very cool thing about printing from the gelatin block was that the ink did not ever dry out. To change colors, you could blot up the remnants of your previous color. This is fun and would be easy to do with kids.

I had a blast, even though my head was still pretty stuffy and I was kind of out of it from The Thanksgiving Cold.

Celestial Cookies

Each year for Christmas, I like to bake cookies for friends. I saw some cookies that had been made with cookie molds, and thought I'd like to try them out for my cookie gifts this year. I have always been attracted to the clestial theme, and it fits well with my business, sleep disorders. I found celestial cookie molds on ebay. There are 4 designs that I was able to find. I actually tried to make them last year, but my recipie didn't work out! So, I brought the molds with me to Maine and made them in Mom's kitchen. She is a great cook, and I figured that she'd be able to help me figure what went wrong. I made the same recipie, and the problem turned out to be the temperature of the dough. The dough needs to be fairly cold to be pressed into the molds. In Maine, I put the dough outdoors on the step in 20 degree weather, and it worked fine!

I was able to press the chilled dough into the molds, then peel the cookies out of the molds onto the cookie sheet. They are so big that only 6 cookies fit on each sheet. I love how they looked on the sheet. I floured the molds to try to give some definition to the designs. When they are cooked, they rise up a bit, and some of the definition is lost. I thought the next time I make them, I might use dark Karo syrup, instead of the light. I think the darker cookies might show the design better.

Home is where the heart is

Last week, I flew to Maine to visit my parents. My parents have been divorced for many years, Mom is remarried to Paul, and all 3 of my parents are good friends. For that, I consider myself very lucky. We have all been able to spend holidays, birthdays, and vacations together, without the children and grandchildren having to divide time between parents. One of my favorite memories is watching my Mom and Dad looking through pictures of my Dad's high school reunion (Mom was 2 years behind him at the same school) and my stepfather sitting in the same room, reading the paper without a care as Mom and Dad laughed and reminisced.

They both live in Maine. My Dad moved to an assisted living community about 2 years ago, and has been very happy there. It is set up so that all of the residents live in their own homes on a central campus, but they have access to services such as transportation, healthcare, food service, gym, pool, etc, or not, as they desire. My Mom and Paul have lived for the past 20 years in a home in a beautiful but remote setting on the Maine coast. They are out on a peninsula which requires a 40 minute drive to get a gallon of milk or loaf of bread. They have a steeply pitched driveway, which if overshot, would result in a 20 foot drop off a sheer cliff into the ocean.

Mom is an avid gardener, and her garden is also on a steep slope. As they have gotten older, and Paul is now 88, it has become more difficult for them to perform maintenance tasks around the house, and to commute to all of their many activities. So, with great reluctance, they put their house on the market this fall. And it sold!! So, Mom and Paul are moving to a home in the same community where my Dad lives. I was able to help Mom pick out carpeting, flooring, countertops, appliances, paint colors, etc. for the new house on my trip. They are planning to move the week of Christmas, weather permitting. It was hard to say goodbye to the home where many of our family vacations and celebrations had taken place over the years. But, without them in it, that house is just a house. And it will be so convenient for them to live on one floor and to have assistance when they need it with home and yard maintenance.


When I was little, Mom read me a book called Sad Day, Glad Day, about a little girl named Sal who was moving to a new house. I think most moves have some element of sad day/glad day.

Guild Challenge Entries

Each year, the executive board of my quilt guild issues a Challenge to it's members. We sell (for $5.) a fat quarter of fabric sealed in a paper bag, which also contains the Challenge rules.
This year, we used this fabric in these two colorways. If you got the red fabric, but wanted the blue or vise versa, you could trade with someone, or just buy another bag and hope you got the color you really wanted. The rules of this year's Challenge were: you had to use a recognizable amount of the challenge fabric in your quilt, it had to be 30 inches by 30 inches or smaller, had to have a top, batting backing, and be quilted and bound.
We offered a choice of theme suggestions for those who needed a little inspiration. The themes were Earth/Water/Fire/Ice, or Save the Earth. We chose something we thought would be open to many different interpretations. Many groans were heard as the bags were opened!


> We had 17 entries. Unfortunately this post was not able to load the last 2, I think I exceeded the space limit with all these photos.

First place was the Tree of Life, second from the bottom. One of the members of my art quilt splinter group won!! Second place was the undersea life scene, third was the red planet in distress piece. And, Viewer's Choice was also the undersea life piece.

Mine was the Mermaid!

We all had a great time. Can't wait to do it again next year!!

Friends and Politics

I normally don't write about politics, because I realize that people's political views are intensely personal, and I don't wish to offend anyone with mine. But since we are almost at the end of this long season, I will risk it here.
I have learned a lot about my friends as we have weathered this contentious political season. Who and how they support their candidates has been interesting to watch. Of the friends who are willing to discuss such things, and I have many friends who just won't discuss politics, period, most seem to have been motivated by either fear or by hope.
I am at the stage in life where most of my friends have worked hard for many years at careers and businesses built over their lifetimes, and are either in their peak earning years, or are just starting to retire with substantial nest eggs. They are deeply concerned with keeping the money that they have worked hard for. And I think that is the one issue with which they are most concerned, and on which most have based the decision for whom to vote. These are what I think of as the "fear" voters. They are voting for McCain, because they are afraid Obama would take their hard earned money and "redistribute" it. From among this group, I have friends who were dining out recently. Their waiter sported an Obama button. At the end of the meal, they told said waiter that they were going to donate his tip to the Red Cross, because he supported Obama, and Obama supported re-distributing wealth. They were quite proud to tell this story. Another very good friend had lived through some racial unrest following the aftermath of the MLK assassinations. He voted for McCain because he thought that if Obama was elected, he would surely be assassinated and that would spark race riots which would threaten the lives of his children and grandchildren. These are deeply held and serious beliefs of people I love and care about. I respect their right to have and to act on these beliefs, and I am glad that they trust me enough to share these opinions and feelings with me.
Then on the other hand, I have what I think of as the hope voter group. I count myself in that number. We are not unafraid of what has become of our economy, our image in the world, our security, the state of our planet and it's finite resources. But we hope that the ideals of this eloquent young man who has run such a remarkable, tireless campaign and inspired so many of our young people will bring about a brighter future for us all. We are ready to take a risk for the sake of changes that we believe will benefit us all.
The eyes of the world will be on us tomorrow as we choose our new President. May God be with whoever wins this office, as it is a Herculean task.

Mosaic Quilt

This week, I made a mosaic quilt.
I had attended a class in August taught by Tammy Bowser, who developed this method. She wrote a software program that allows you to enter a photo, and it will print out this paint-by-number type graph. You decide how large your finished piece will be, and how many colors you would like to use. The examples she had at her booth in Nashville were striking. Her uncle was a jazz musician in the 50's and she had wonderful photo mosaics of musicians playing and singing jazz.

I used 15 colors, divided into light, medium and dark color values. I placed a tricot fusible over the chart, and placed my squares over the numbers. I then fused them down with my mini iron, (and I have the burns to prove it!) My squares were 1/2 inches. This is my work in progress...can you tell who it is??

I finished it today, it's Bill! (Love Bill) Now, I have to peel off the fusible tricot and layer it over the batting and backing and quilt it together. I hope to give it to Janey for Christmas.

Dana's Magnolia Quilt

This weekend, before the kids came, I machine quilted this quilt for my friend Dana. She couldn't remember what the name of the pattern was, so we just call it the Magnolia quilt. I was a little distracted when I was taking the photo at the end, so I didn't get a close up of the quilting, but I was happy with it. I used a pantograph called Dynasty and she picked a beautiful sage green thread color. It is a Christmas gift for her Mom, who is also a quilter. She just has to put the binding on. Yikes, Christmas!! I've been so focused on the upcoming election, I haven't even started to think about the Holidays this year!