Friday check in: playing with batiks + reading

 

I automatically think of Winnie the Pooh on a blustery morning like today.   

It's been a week of attending to a number of things.  On Monday my sister and I met halfway between our respective homes for a little retail therapy and lunch, and I was finally able to give her gift(s) for her mid-February birthday.  Tuesday I met with the trust attorney to get the ball rolling (belatedly) to retitle Stevens' car in my name (a different process when the vehicle is inherited).  Tuesday evening AAUW met in person with a really informative program about recycling.  (Among the things we learned:  just dump paper into the bin, don't bundle it or put it in boxes or paper bags;  it's okay to rinse jars and other containers, you don't have to scrub them clean; keep lids on containers because small things (like a soda bottle cap) just fall through the sorting screens and are swept up and landfilled.)   

# # # # #  In the studio:  the mug rugs are all bound.   I put the binding trimmings in the batik scrap bin and that led to making some batik crumb blocks.   

I've been perusing both of Emily Bailey's crumb quilting books so these may be put to use in the near future.

Off and on (mostly off) I've made 4" star and 4" basket blocks to use up a box of 1-1/2" batik HSTs and squares. 

 I made a few more last evening and put them on the design wall. 

I'm fairly sure the blocks will be sashed partly due to all the seams that are pressed one way and the other way and partly as a way to differentiate the stars and baskets.  Other than that I'm not sure where this design will end up.  It's just fun to play!

# # # # #

Recent reading:

Thomas and his mum live in an English coastal town in the late 1950's.   He's following in his grandad's career as a shrimper, doing it in the traditional way with a horse and cart. It's a hard living that's threatened by new ways.  Even as he dreams of other things (he's an aspiring folk musician) he doesn't let himself hope too much. Then an American filmmaker comes to town with cash and a flashy offer.  Thomas gets caught up--momentarily.   

Brian Underwood writes with such precision, saying just enough and not a word more.  A story that sticks.

Buckeye is as good as everyone has said.   Two families are brought together by chance and by circumstance in a city in northwestern Ohio.  Ryan's observations of human nature are great.  "'The whole reason you build a bridge together is so the water can run under it, right? And not wash the two of you away? Sometimes one of you makes it a flood, and then the water recedes.'"(348)    "What is it about tie that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we done with it. We gife it away. We want it back....Felix saw it so clearly: all we should ever want of time is more of it." (430)  "The wisdom that comes with age was needling, [Cal] found, because it brought the calrity of hindsight without the means to change anything." (446)     

I wonder what Buckeye would be like as a movie.

Ann recommended this in a recent blog post (Fret Not Yourself). Thank you!

 Roxie Laybourne was an ornithologist at the Smithsonian who pioneered forensic techniques to indentify birds, particularly those involved with airplane crashes and human crimes.  She was independent, determined, and opinionated, both in her scientific research and as she dealt with the male-dominated world of 1950's-70's science. Chris Sweeney's writing style is very engaging.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday Brag About Your Beauties