Quilting Ideas...

Going through a bin of scraps, I came across several dozen 5.5" squares, most in various shades of mauve.

I started joining them in rows, intending to make another quilt. (Not sure how big this one will end up being!)

Now I've been drawn to these quilt pictures I found on Pinterest...

I love the idea of mixing rows of colored squares with a wide row of a plain fabric...

What contrasting color would go with my many mauves?!

Grey is popular with a number of colors.

White also adds a dramatic touch...

Not sure that's what I want... I'm also hoping to avoid buying any new fabric...

I'll have to keep looking. In the meantime, the piecing of the squares continues. I'm happy to see the scraps in my mauve bin diminishing quickly. Actually, the pile of smaller pieces is growing. Once this is done, I'll have to think about how to use those "crumbs"

Three Christmas Gifts

Now that our Christmas tree is down, I'm "setting up" some of our Christmas gifts...

This pretty  Himalayan salt lamp was a gift to our son. It's a piece of pink salt with a small light inside. The salt is supposed to counter winter blues (among other claims).  I've set it up in our dining room, where it adds a comforting glow to our dark evenings. (It's dark by 5 pm these days.)

It does add a different "feel" to the room - but whether it's psychological or physical, I don't know. 

It took me a few hours to set up this new easel that "Santa" brought me. I've always wanted one - though recently I haven't done much painting. I'm looking forward to using it with acrylic paints. Not sure where to set it up. If the paint splatters, I'll have to use it in the basement... or outdoors once warm weather arrives.

This third gift was actually a wrapper that another gift came it...

But I love it - inside and out!

My iPad fits in it perfectly. It could be useful when I travel. It also inspires me to  make some zippered pouches like this - perhaps quilted - in different sizes, for books, my phone...

The list of ideas goes on!

Recycling Two Favorite Shirts

One of my sons came in while I was looking through some of my mother's old clothing, wondering what to do with it... Was it good enough to give away? Or should I make something out of it...?

I don't suppose you'd ever consider just throwing it out? he asked.

Actually, ... I find that very hard to do, I replied.

Raised in a household where both my parents had grown up in hard times, I was never taught to throw things away. Their poverty had nurtured their creativity. Recycling old things came naturally to them and, later on, to me. (Interestingly, I don't believe that my brother - four years younger than me - suffers from this same burden of guilt!)

***

(Now on to what I was planning to write about!)

I have three favorite fleece-lined plaid shirts, purchased years ago from L.L. Bean. They suit our winter weather very well, particularly our indoor temperatures. We don't keep our house all that warm, so I wear them as an extra layer around the house most winter days. 

Two of them are particular favorites, so of course, they were the first to develop holes in the sleeves...

Should I throw them out?! If not, what else could they be used for?

I toyed with the idea of making them into a blanket, fleece on one side, plaid fabric on the other... Or what about removing the sleeves and making them into vests?

So that's what I did, leaving a little fleece trim on the edges! 

Will I like them this way? I'm not sure. I'll try wearing them like this. Then - if they aren't all that warm and cozy, I can still make them into a quilted blanket!

And if that doesn't work, I can always throw them out... (though that would be a real struggle)!

Lost!

About a month ago - when I received my first Christmas card of the season - I pulled out my cards to send them to friends. It was then that I discovered that my address book was missing!

I hunted for it  - but only found several old ones... that date back 20 years and more.

I also found an unused one... Time to add addresses from cards I receive in the mail this year...

I managed to send a few Christmas cards - to relatives and friends who hadn't moved in the last 20 years (whose addresses were still in my old books, above). I started to add addresses to the new book...

But I kept wondering about the book I had lost.

When I tried to remember the last time I had used the book, it occurred to me that I'd had it in Montreal on our last trip there.

Terry checked the glove box and the back seat - and, sure enough, it was in one of the pockets in the back seat!

(But by then, it was too late to send out Christmas wishes!)

Remembering Our 1998 Ice Storm

Twenty years ago, our part of the country was encased in ICE!

In early January we had a serious ice storm that caused power outages throughout our area - as well as in Montreal and parts of Quebec. Damage to the electrical grid was so extensive that some neighborhoods were without electricity for weeks.

Most of us had an extended winter holiday: Roads were impassable - so many trees and branches were down that roads were blocked.

All have our own memories of the ice storm.

Terry remembers the sparks and sound of crashing trees, brought down by the heavy weight of ice. I remember standing and watching the main power line behind our house - which supplies electricity to the whole block - encased in ice... wondering if it would come down. A branch of a neighbor's tree held it up - but another branch ripped down the line that went from the main line into their house, so they were without electricity for days.  Would we suffer the same fate?!

We had a tree removed when branches started to crack. It was jeopardizing the telephone and electric power lines leading to our house...

We stayed home from work and school for days...

In the midst of this, my mother was visiting us, after having spent Christmas in Dallas. It was four years after my father's death and five years before she moved to Ottawa.

The following Christmas, we gave her this book about the storm - and a "survival certificate"!

It was a tense time spent wondering if we would eventually have to vacate our home, like so many others in the city and the whole region. But in the end, we were fine. Electricity only went out for an hour or two, here and there, as hydro lines were repaired.

For anyone who wonders what life was like back then, here is a YouTube video of a television news report from 20 years ago - January 8, 1998 - Day 4 of the ice storm.

Vocation: Accepting the Gift of Who We Are

Let  Your Life Speak (by Parker Palmer) has been a refreshing book to read as I reflect on my life - the paths that led me to where I am today, the jobs I've had and the interests I'm currently pursuing.

In a recent post, I mentioned Palmer's idea about accepting our limitations - and working within them.

A related aspect of vocation that should be obvious - but often isn't - is that, to be happy in our work, we have to accept the gift of who we are:

Today I understand vocation... not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess... It comes from a voice "in here" calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.

It is a strange gift, this birthright of self. Accepting it turns out to be even more demanding than attempting to become someone else...

Reading this, I think of all the jobs I attempted and left, the jobs I applied for and didn't get, the jobs I never pursued, though I wanted to - and the parts of my work as a teacher that were extremely difficult for me, and the parts I loved.

I also think about a conversation I had with my mother when I was still in high school, applying for my first year at university. Looking at all the programs that the university offered, I was drawn to the study of art...

This is interesting, I told my mother.

That's for people who don't need to earn a living, she replied. You need to study something practical...

And so I studied languages... But now, all these years later, I am still drawn to pottery, quilting, and other tactile (sometimes practical) art.

How would my life have been different if I had studied art instead of languages? I wonder. Would I have been able to earn a living? 

Maybe it doesn't really matter what I studied... True - inborn - interests always win out in the end!

Thinking of this conversation with my mother reminds me of the dozens of times I've also urged my children to be "practical" - (for their own good)!! Will they, too, someday think I  held them back?!

While we're working on accepting the gift of who we are, can we also accept the gift of who our children are - not just what we want them to be?!

How Crazy is This?!!

I rarely write about the weather in Ottawa... It could be (and probably is) a full-time blog topic.

I also rarely check my weather app - unless I plan an outing and want to know how to dress. (Besides, Terry does enough checking for both of us! I'm sure he checks hourly...)

But I didn't go out of the house yesterday...

Like much of Eastern North America, Ottawa is in the grip of a cold spell... Fortunately I have lots to do in the house (like quilting) so I don't mind staying indoors for a day or two...

Would I be wise to stay indoors for another day? That question led me to check my app in the early hours of the morning...

The answer is YES! Another cold day ahead... But as I look at the 14 day forecast, I see that we are expected to go from
MINUS 22 degrees Celsius today... (That's -7.6 degrees F) but it feels like minus 28 degrees Celsius, with the wind chill. (Or -18.4 F)

However, in two days, on Monday, the temperature is supposed to be PLUS 1 Celsius... (Or 33.8 F)! How crazy is that?! From extremely cold to balmy... (Or that's how it will hopefully feel.)

A 23 degree jump! (Although that's not all that unusual, I guess. Some seasons of the year, I've noticed a daily 20 degree temperature difference, between night and day.)