A Corner Was Brightened

This clunky door 

stood all broken down and sad

quite uncomely and dejected

against a weary fence

as I drove by one day 

a long while back.

Pass it by

I could not

for hidden beauty was seen

by this silly girl.

Married Man loves 

that his girl,

 with side-of-the-road treasures in hand

arrives home

as happy as if she had been treated

to the greatest of shopping sprees.

Loading this rather weighty find so lovely

into the car by myself

was quite a feat,

But maneuver it into the car, 

this girl did.

Since that day long ago,

it has been waiting in the corner,

or rather glaring at me,

demanding some inspiration

other than the random draping of this thing or that.

A few days back

this girl decided to make something

and of course, make it now

when preparing dinner for delightful friends

was the more appropriate use of this girl's time.

Being in such a hurry,

the room,

no, the house, 

was quite strewn 

with scraps of all possible goodnesses.

of yarn, fabrics, laces and more...

A few hours and a big mess later,

voila!

a curtain-ish lovely brightens the corner.

But a meal for dear friends

must be made.

The table set.

Our hearts prepared.

So set aside this curtainly creation I did.

Being the imperfectionist that I am,

tape and thumbtacks hide behind said door

where none can see.

So, indeed, someday I will return,

new lovely.

This girl will in time add

a goodly amount of stitches and adornment

to our newly brightened corner.

An Improv Single Girl Quilt

I love Denise Schmidt's Single Girl Quilt:

I love the simplicity and the old fashioned yet modern design. Most of the fabric is solid and the colorful circles are made with scraps, making it a budget friendly project. Being the patternless sewist that I am, I thought this might be a great pattern to embark upon actually following. With further research, and to my great disappointment, I discovered it's loveliness to not be as simple as this married girl had hoped. Each of the circles takes 32 separately cut shapes using templates. Doing the multiplication, I realistically decided such a pattern is not for moi. A smallish baby quilt alone would take nearly 200 smallish intricately cut pieces. Oh dear. A bit much for a highly non-perfectionist girl who likes to see a happily finished product sitting around the house in less than a decade.

So. What about an improvisational version? This girl, needing pillows around the house, and lots of them, alighted upon a small experiment, hoping for a simple way to create an Improv Single Girl circle. I think I did it. My own way. This one circle measuring about 22" x 22" was joyfully held up for my married man's approval in less than an hour and turned into a pillow shortly thereafter:

 

Although married man didn't jump up and down or burst out in melodious praises at the greatist of  accomplishments, this girl is now ready to begin the Improv Single Girl Quilt journey. Not being in the hunkering for a journey alone, and being somewhat enticed by the idea of an old fashioned quilting circle, I'm welcoming a few kindred dearies into my homey home for said circle of happy sewists.

For those of you kindred ones who can not make it to this homey home filled with quiltie friends, a tutorial is in the workey works. I promise. But as my homeschool week is upon me, time for reading good books and guiding my remaining two is quite at hand for this girl...

Today I'm linking up with Kojodesigns. They have some pretty amazing tutorials.

These are my days...

Down the street:

In my kitchen:

 

In process for my Dear One:

 

In the snow:

I Am a Home Schooler

An Early American Day - And One Man

I am a home schooler.

My two youngest boys go to Covenant Family Tutorial one day a week,

with other classical Christian home schooled children.

I am one of the teachers.

We have been studying the early years of our nation.

We had an Early American Day.

We began our day by exploring:

noticing our surroundings,

and taking notes

to inspire nature poems.

We prepared:

and ate rustic food:

We played some of the same games

the Native American children might have played:

Cliff Hodges, owner, founder and CEO of Adventure Out, was our guest:

 

He showed us many things the early Americans made to survive:

He told us great stories of his own hunting adventures using only his handmade weapons.
He is a brave man.

He chipped obsidian to make the beginnings of an arrowhead:

A finished arrowhead takes more than 20 hours to complete.
It is good for only one shot.
He is a patient man.

He makes bows from a thick piece of special hard wood,

and even uses various parts of the animal to complete all his weapons,

just like people of earlier times would have done.

He is a hardworking man.
Like the earliest of Americans.

The younger children made their own bows and arrows,
using foam shapes, sticks, feathers and string,
and imagined life in early America:

 

A great day was had!

*****

Personally, I was inspired by One Man.

A man who is patient.
A man who works hard.
A man who followed his passion
and built a successful business because of it.
A man who inspires others.
To embrace that which interests them.
To work hard developing skills.
And to work hard some more.

*****

Are we always telling our children to work hard
so they can go to college
and get a good job
and live happily ever after?

Or do we encourage
our children
our friends
our selves
to find that which naturally flows from them,
their passion,
their gifts,
and work hard at that?
To find their Place?

For I dare to think
each of us finding our Place
is what will bring
our children
our friends
and ourselves
the richness of this life.

And a difference in our world it will make.

*****

Homeschool-mom hat # 342:

Help my children find their unique gifts and run with it...

Wednesday's Bread

 

Today was a learning day! To begin with, I discovered that my adventure in Tartine Bread making will take some goodly amount of patience. Not only does it take at least a week to make the starter each bread begins with, but there is alot alot alot of reading and persnickity details to familiarize ones self with. I'm up for the happy challenge, though. This book has a plenteous amount of  gorgeous pictures, showing each baby step of the way, making my personal challenge seem sufficiently do-able. Can I say that I even like how the pages of the book feel to the touch? It is definitely not ordinary slick and shiny paper. It has texture. I appreciate such detaily things.

Today I familiarized myself with my new, long awaited for, scale, by remaking a recipe from Amy's Bread. Measuring in grams using the scale was significantly different than the given cup measurements, making for a better dough, for sure. It made a grand difference. 

I also tried kneeding in the bowl like shown in Tartine Bread. Fabulous. It was sooo much easier. I didn't kneed any extra flour into the dough at all, and no mess on the floor or  me.

My starter is beginning to come alive. I will be feeding it. Smelling it. Taking notes. Until it's ready for a Wednesday's Bread of it's own.

Simeon's Quilt - Loved

This boy and his momma made a quilt:

He made all the different shaped doggy squares.

You can see this boy was a tiny bit younger when this project he began:

I put them together:

****

I always take another quilt of the desired size and lay it on my bed. Then I arrange the squares on top. It's my small-house version of a design board. Simeon had a big say in the design process here. After arranging them, I cut and pieced in the brown negative space, or sashing. A lot of up and down from my machine to the ironing board, then to my bedroom, and back....

You can read more about our process here.

****

The back of the quilt is simple.

  A dog house on two of the corners,

One for Beau and one for Maddie, 

was sweetly insisted upon by this boy 

who misses his doggies so:

 for once upon a time, 

buddies they were: