Sewing with mom: Pineapple quilt progress

Still much to do, and after I got home from mom's, she texted to say that she found a mistake.  Oh well, I get to rip when I get there tomorrow. At least she is doing all the pressing!

This is the center.  Our thought is to sew more triangles for a saw tooth edge around the "sunshine".  Sleeping on this.

I like the pineapples.  Decided to use the "kiwi" fabric in this quilt to brighten it up a bit.

We sewed lots of extra pineapple tops to use thru out the quilt. 

When you put 4 pineapple tops together, you get a pineapple top star!

Breakfast playtime

I spent last night at my moms.  She is part of my tight circle during this time.  It was too hard to bring her to my house for the 2 or 3 weeks, but I can certainly go stay with her as much as possible.  We have been working on some sewing, eating too much, going for walks when no one is around and keeping the laughter and prayers in our lives.  This morning I found myself playing with my food. 

#mendmarch / beginning a book

It's been an interesting few days being in "lock down".  My son made a point of reminding me that I don't go places very much any way, so this shouldn't feel any different.  True.  It does seem that when you can't go, all you want to do is go somewhere!  I've been trying to stay with my mom a few nights a week, and will bump that up until we go back to "normal" life. What ever that is... She looks suddenly so much older than last year.  I'm glad that I can spend time with her.

I have managed to keep up with #mendmarch and see the light at the end of the tunnel.  As the pile of butterflies and Haiku's has grown, I've decided that they will go into a book that will also remind me of surviving covid-19 and at some point remind my children of just how upside down life can become.  I began work on the first page this morning.  It needs more layers, but for now I just wanted to get started on something to show for the month of March and all the extra time I have on my hands.

Thursday blues...

A trip to the market for groceries this morning, was maybe not the best thing for my state of mind:

Finding the pasta aisle almost bare, my favorite hummus out of stock, and very limited fruits and vegetables sent waves of panic and anxiety thru my entire body.  I was close to tears just trying to take in everything.  Fortunately there was plenty of tofu and black bean burgers.  After driving home, I knew I had to do something for myself this afternoon and out came the paints and gelli plate - always a mood lifter.

Mend March

When #mendmarch began this year, I really didn't have much to mend.  I guess not having young children around, my mending has dwindled thru the years.  I really do like to participate, but put my own twist on the month long project.  There are daily prompts that you may or may not use.  I decided to use the prompt but to write a Haiku and mend a butterfly each day.  Nothing like making the project harder than need be. 
While I struggle to be creative each day, the writing has been difficult and rewarding.  One silly thing I discovered is that if I am driving, I come up with better ideas! I know it is illegal to text and drive, but writing and driving - is that ok? As all my daily posts are on instagram - I'm only posting a few pics here.

Back to dyeing / avocado, my favorite!

My container of avocado skins and pits was finally full enough to cook up a pan of dye.  I decided to use just skins this time and ended up with some unusual colour.

The linen thread began as a very light pink.  The cotton fabric is what I am used to getting when cooking up an avocado dye pot.  The light blush colour always makes me smile

The next day I added more fabric to the dye.  I wasn't sure if there was much colour left.  Both the hankie and aida cloth took much colour.

This fabric was my big surprise.  It began as gold on white. The "white" is far darker than I've ever had avocado dye the fabric.  Is it because of a finish in the aida cloth? I don't know.

These all came from the same dye bath, just on different days.  To my surprise, the darkest pieces were on the third day.  The pot is still sitting on my stove....  What shall I add today?!?

 

Graduation quilt

My son's roommate is graduating with his master's in may.  Somehow I was talked into making him a quilt.  He told me that his favorite colours are brown and blue.  No problem - I had plenty of fabric in my stash to make this quilt.  How nice to not run out and purchase something.  Don't get me wrong.... I do enjoy shopping for fabric, but have been on a mission to use what I have on hand.  Much of the dark blue was leftover from last years wedding quilt for Trace and Michelle.  I think I even have fabric to use for the back in my stash. Now to get the blocks sewn together...

little boats

Natural dyed fabric and treads, washi tape, memories of a wonderful trip

Cathedral at St. Lucia

Just a short walk from the cruise ship, this cathedral caught my eye and I had to explore!