Everything I need . . .

I sent my Ichthy bog coat off today to the NW Quilting Expo.  I was going to drive it down but the drop off locations were both on the south end of Portland.  It just wasn’t worth it.  With insurance the shipping was $14.  I can’t drive there for that.

I swung through WalMart and got 4 lengths of inexpensive yardage for two quickie bog coats, one in pinks and greens and the other in fall colors.  I’m working on a technique by which the bog coat sandwich can be held in place in the longarm frame for quilting and can be easily assembled when the quilting is complete.  The resulting bog coat should be completely reversible.  We’ll see how well I do.

When I got the Ichthy bog coat back after the quilting I spent quite a bit of time picking quilting out of the seam allowances, then trimming out batting, basting down the seam allowances and appliquéing a strip of lining to cover the seam allowances.  My poor planning really bit me in the butt.  Yuck.  The finished coat is very smooth and a pro job, but I know I can make the quilting easier for Karen and the assembly easier for me by spending a small amount of time preparing ahead.  I want people looking at how the coat was construction to scratch their heads about how it was done.  <evil grin>

The picture shows the pink and green paisley and matching camo.  Also shown are the batting (rayon), water soluble stabilizer and water soluble thread.  I’m hoping the rayon batting will provide a better drape than my normal Warm and Natural quilt fav.  Warm and Natural softens with washing and use, but I’m hoping the rayon provides that softness right from the start.

And, in case you didn’t know, WalMart has batting in bolts.  Our local store has 45″ wide Warm and Natural as well as the 45″ wide rayon.  For this app, 45″ wide is perfect and being able to buy off a bolt lets me get only what I need.

The construction technique I’ve got floating around in my mind is a little complicated, so I’ll take pictures as I go and write a good description.

I’ve gotten four meals of lettuce out of my growbed so far.  I don’t have a lot of lettuce in the bed . . . I should have a lot more.  I’m supplementing with store bought lettuce.

I found a place to get hydroton in Olympia.  It was max expensive, $40 a bag when the going rate is closer to $28.  I bought two bags.  That should be enough to fill both growbeds with a bit left over.

I pulled the gravel out of the wall gutter and replaced it with hydroton.  I also trimmed the heck out of a bunch of plants in the grow wall to allow some slower growing things a little bit of daylight.  I put some of the trimmings in the gutter along with a couple of sprouting grapefruit seeds.

The orchid in the wall is not doing well.  I don’t know if it will recover or not.  Time will tell.  I should have moved it ages ago.

I long ago faced my addiction to plants and decided it was not a bad thing.

I finished the sunset quilt last night.  I’ll get a picture of it when it’s quilted and post it.  It’s beautiful.

Black is attached!

I’ll get this sewn on and get the borders added.  I’ll decide if I’m doing anything more once that’s done.

Wall in profile with ricinifolia Immense on display.

I was forced to shuffle plants around in the plant wall.  Terry couldn’t feed his fish without having to fight through the ricinifolia Immense, and the plant was happily increasing in size.  The largest leaf is over 18″ long on a 2′ long stalk.  As the leaves matured the situation was going to get much worse, so decisions had to be made.

To reconfigure the wall I pulled a areca palm on the left side of the wall and increased the opening and installed one of the begonias.  Then I cut another opening in a blank spot and installed the other, removing the majority of the large leaves at the base of the plants.

Orchid is the stick at the very right of the wall half-way up, the Immense begonia is on the left and the new philodendron is center right.

I pulled the orchid and put it in a new spot against the right side of the wall next to the window and put a split leaf philodendron in the spot where the largest begonia was removed.  This fills in the spot and gets the orchid out to where it’s not so crowded.

I was amazed when I pulled the ricinifolia Immense how little root it had added since being installed in the wall.  It had not much more root than when I put it in the wall, but the leaves were getting . . . well . . . IMMENSE.

Now Wadly can get to his tank to feed his fish without  having to do it by braille.

Overworked yellow jacket

The pump house has a temporary roof which just begs for critters to build their nests therein.  It’s a fav spot for yellow jackets, though the space is tight.

The yellow jackets started their nest under the metal in much more temperate weather.  Though it’s barely 9 a.m., it’s already promising to be in excess of 80º.  The yellow jackets have already got the air conditioning going full blast.  This little guy is working his wings off to get the air moving up the channel to cool the nest.  It’s a bit difficult to see in the picture but he’s got his body canted in such a way as to direct the flow of air up the channel.

I went out to water a couple mornings ago to discover what I had thought were seeds on the water lily pads weren’t.  Everything in the pond was covered with hundreds of aphids.  Ugh.  I guess I need to wear my glasses when I check things out.  Wadly missed it too but he’s been working long hours for National.

I hosed the aphids off the leaves, swished the lone water lily in the water until the aphids were washed off and overfilled the pond washing the floating aphids off onto the ground.  There are benefits to an above ground pond.

The second wash off  was yesterday.  I’ll keep an eye on this.  Jill at JMH sent me a recipe for a fish safe aphid killer.  It is my sincere hope I don’t need it.

Ready to go to Karen

I spent yesterday getting borders on the nested pinwheel quilt.  It’s pretty and ready to go to Karen.  I’ll pick backing up when I go out on Monday.

I still have a tremendous frustration with getting lasts that match my feet.  Winter’s coming and all I have to wear is a poorly fitted pair of expensive custom boots.  Honestly, the 10th century shoes I made are more comfortable, though they rub the ends of my toes, have zero support and are worthless in the wet.  If I can get lasts made I can remake the boots into something that will work for me and be worth close to what I paid for them.  I can also make shoes for everyday wear that are comfortable.

Not my foot, cast in RTV Silicone

So, I’ve been doing more research.  I found a  guy who made shoe lasts out of A20 RTV silicone rubber.  Hmm.  To make a mold to accurately reflect the shape and size of the foot, the foot should be weight bearing during the casting phase but that’s the only issue I have with his method.

I want to make a clay base to stand on, then pour the alginate around my foot while standing on the clay pad.  I don’t need to come up my leg as far as he did.  Using clay for the bottom should give me a reusable 2 part mold, though alginate is  not a product I expect to hold up for long.  There’s a potter on Main in Chehalis.  I’ll stop in and see if I can buy a couple pounds of worked clay.  If not I can stop and dig some out of a bank somewhere.  It’ll take longer to get it ready but it will work as well.  It’s been decades since I’ve wedged clay but I haven’t forgotten how.  I have Plaster of Paris for a wedging table and enough scrap lumber to knock one together.

Once the casting is done I’ll add material around the toes until I have models I can make molds from whenever I need to.  I can get 2 part fiberglass resin for permanent molds.  Lorr says he’s got a casting material that mimics spruce.  That’ll be a good test material for lasts.

I occasionally toy with the idea of carving my own lasts.  I’d need more chisels and gouges than I’ve got.  I wouldn’t start from scratch.  I’ve got 5 pair of women’s lasts I can cut apart and scab material to to get the right width.  With the models of my feet to work from I think I can get really close to what I need.  It’s a lot of unnecessary work if I can get molds made and find the right casting material.

Click to see the detail

I love Karen’s quilting.  She is so creative.  I never would have thought to add a quilted in fish for the appliquéd fish to chase.  That creativity is one of the things I love about Karen.

Update: LouAnn tells me my coat got a blue ribbon and an Honorable Mention, which I take to mean it’s the runner up for best of class.  That’s nice!  It wouldn’t have happened without Karen’s quilting.

The traveling fish

My bog coat is off and traveling.  Karen did a beautiful job on the quilting giving a quite spectacular result.  The coat is being judged at the local fair today and slated <fingers crossed> to go to the NW Quilt Expo next.

I learned a lot building this bog coat. I will construct the next one differently.  It won’t effect the look, just the ease of final construction.  The goal on the next is to be able to put the seams together with a slip stitch.  In this one I sewed the seams, picked out the quilting in the seam allowance, clipped away the batting, fastened the seam allowance open/flat with a basting stitch and covered the open seam with a strip of the coat lining.  It was tidy, but very work intensive.  I am WAY too lazy to go that route again.

No closure, but the binding's done

I wanted to make this one with no binding on the center front so there was no disturbance of the row of pinwheels. I didn’t make that happen. I will next time.

I need to purchase two things before starting the next bog coat.  I need soluble thread and wash away stabilizer.  I will pre-assemble the sandwich with exposed grippers of soluble stabilizer so Karen can quilt right to the edge of the front and the yoke and underarm seams.  I think I can make this happen . . .

Ready to pop in the oven

My dad was a commercial fisherman, so we ate fresh fish a lot.  In all the time I was growing up we never had fish cooked like this.  We always had it broiled with lots of butter, which is truly delicious, but only for the true salmon lover.

The concept for this recipe came from Greg Landwehr.  He made something like this at a barbecue at a horse event.

And you know what comes next . . . I couldn’t leave the recipe the way it originally came to me.

If you’re going to buy salmon, there are two tests for freshness.  If it’s in a package and you can smell it through the plastic, it’s not fresh.  If it’s in a fresh meat case, when the slab is picked up, the meat side shouldn’t break or split when it’s picked up.  It also shouldn’t have a strong fishy odor.

Fresh from the oven

If you live in an inland state, your best bet is to buy frozen salmon.  It was probably processed and flash frozen within hours of the catch reaching shore.  Most of that salmon is farm raised.  The freshest wild salmon is trawled (hook and line), immediately gutted, dipped in sugar water and frozen until the boat came in to dump its load.  From there it would be hauled in a refrigerated truck to the plant where it was processed.  I’ve seen frozen salmon in packages of 4 or 6 individual servings at Costco and Safeway.

If you’re really lucky, you buy it from a fisherman right at the dock.  Few of us will ever have the opportunity to do that.  If you do, the smell and integrity tests are very valid.

So here’s how you make this culinary star.

Chop onions.  Chop peppers (I use red and green).  Stir in dressing.  I’ve used mayo and it’s excellent.  Last night I used Litehouse Ranch and it was spectacular.  Put the salmon in a shallow pan with the skin down.  Smear the mix on and pop it in the over at 300° for about 20 min.  Don’t overcook.  If it flakes and is no longer pink, it’s done.

The skin will stick to the aluminum foil.  Cut the fish into serving sized pieces and lift the pieces off the skin.  We had ours with fresh corn on the cob.  Delish!

Bead lanyard

I got a replacement cell phone yesterday. The new one is beauteous! It has a slide out qwerty keyboard, which is nice for the 6 or 7 text messages I send a year <rolls eyes>.

I got my bead lanyard switched over this morning. I like the bead lanyard because it does a few important things. It helps me correctly orient my phone without looking, allows me to keep hold of the slippery little sucker, identifies my phone at a glance and hangs out of my pants pocket so I can easily and quickly retrieve it. That’s a pretty good list for a length of Kevlar fishing line and a miscellaneous collection of beads.

Oh, and can you tell I like blue?

Current state of the wall

With the surrounding plants pulled away to sweep and clean, it’s time to take a picture.  Yes, the Hawaiian begonia really is that big.  The leaf showing fully to the camera is 17″ long.  The stem it is on is 23″ long.  The largest leaf is over 18″ long.  It is immense.  Click the picture for more detail.

Everything is filling in nicely.  I’ll use this time to put one more plant in the wall and clean up dead foliage.

When the new house is up (years in the future) I’ll have a plant wall whose system spans two rooms.  I’ll put the aquarium in the tv room where it can shine.  The plant wall will be on the other side of the wall in the living room where it can get lots of natural light and act as an art piece on the wall.

Hunting lunch

My bog coat is back from quilting.  Overall I am pleased.  I’ll get it assembled and bound in the next week or so.

32 blocks remain

I’m on target to be done by Thursday.  I have 32 more blocks to complete.  At 16 blocks a day I should be done with this Wednesday.

I’m planning for a scarlet stopper and a multi-colored batik border.  We’ll see what we find when we get to Fabric Depot.  This isn’t anything special, it’s just a bed quilt.

Almost halfway!

Another vertical column or two and this quilt will be halfway assembled!  I’m more than halfway done, of course, because quite a few of the left hand blocks are done.  I’ve got three more big pinwheel fabs to which I must add green.  I don’t have enough yellow (or green) wedges cut, but I’m getting there!

LouAnn and I are planning a trip to Portland.  Her electric lawn mower isn’t working and we both need backing, batting and border fabric.

While we’re in Portland I want to pick up 2 50 liter bags of hydroton for my aquaponic grow beds.  Oregon Organiks is about 4 miles south of the repair shop and Fabric Depot is between the two.

If we time it just right we can catch lunch at Chang’s Mongolian Grill (same area).  That’s what I call smart planning!

Ricinifolia 'Immense'

It turns out the big begonia in my wall is Ricinifolia Immense, a rhizomatous variety.

I got a start for my ricinifolia Immense from a friend over 20 years ago.  I’ve propagated it, given friends starts, passed my plant on to someone else and just lately got a start back.  This plant LOVES being in the plant wall.  The growth is more lush than when it was potted.  The leaves are bigger, the stalks are longer.  The largest leaf on this new start is 17″ long and over 13″ wide.  The stem is a full 2 feet long.  This new start hasn’t bloomed yet.  I don’t expect to see a bloom stalk until this fall.

And I’ll be really glad when the weak chlorotic leaves age and fall off . . .

El Pleco

We have one plecostomus in our tank.  Click on the pic for El Pleco in all his spotted glory.

Chlorotic leaves

It’s important to note the plants in the wall aren’t going to get everything they need from the fish.  From this I’m going to extrapolate that the fish aren’t getting everything they need from the fish food.

If you look at the two leaves in the picture, you’ll see one is chlorotic (showing insufficient chlorophyll from deficiencies in nutrition aka splotchy color).  The leaf on the right, the chlorotic one, is the older leaf.  The leaf on the left is healthy with a much more even distribution of chlorophyll.  The leaf on the left is new, appearing after I sprayed the wall with worm casting tea.

So I extrapolate . . . if the plants are getting incomplete nutrition from the fish, the fish are getting incomplete nutrition from the food they are eating.

Art deco stained glass window

The next quilt I’m planning to start is a big hand appliqué project, art deco thing based on a sliding stained glass window (separated the kitchen from the dining/living) I saw online.  I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while but got charmed away by the water color sunset and the obligation to finish the workshop quilt (nested stars).

An absolute jewel of a woman sent me a bunch of really good quality hand died fat quarters just perfect for this project.  I will use those to build the elements of the window on a champagne colored batik background.  I have all the material for this one (sans batting and backing), so it’s just a matter of execution.  It’s all hand appliqué and I may not be physically ready for it just yet.  I can get the machine basting of the layers done and work on the appliqué as my fingers and ability to sit still will let me.

Center of koi pond quilt

But my next-next quilt is in the planning stages.  I want to redo the koi pond center I did for the Guild web quilt using the sunset water color technique in 2″ square dance squares.  I’ve asked Charles (Brandy’s Quilt Products) for the new smaller template set.  I told him not to rush.  I’m still months away.  The art deco stained glass quilt has to get started first.  I may have to do them at the same time, pecking away at each.

I may change my mind and do this one in small honey comb blocks . . . you can see why I plan so far ahead.  By the time I get to the execution, I pretty much know what I’m doing and have all the fabrics collected.

Chuck, ever the sybarite

Today’s “cold days” picture is even better.  This guy makes me laugh out loud.

Warm rice in a sock and a blanket and this boy's all set for chilly weather

We’re having a “cold” day.  It’s chilly out.  Not cold enough to run the heater but not warm enough to do without the basic comforts of warm bean bags.  Chuck feels the cold pretty quickly.  He looks pathetic and shivers.  Wadly kindly donated a Carhart sock to act as Chuck’s “stay warm” rice bag.  His pretty red one bit the dust a while back.  The sock makes a nice replacement.  I can dump the rice into another sock while this one’s being washed.

I got the glass for LouAnn’s aquarium a couple days ago but didn’t get around to peeling the paper away until today.  It looks good.  The edges were really sharp so I used a foam sanding block to knock down the abrupt edges.

I need to make a frame for the bottom, so I’ll stop in at Home Depot and see what kind of corner molding I can find.  If I can’t find corner molding I can make a frame by cutting down some larger dimension lumber.  I’d like to use hard wood, if I can find something I like within my budget.  I used to have an iron wood 6×6 but I think Dan (brother) saw it and got wood envy.  Maybe I can find some maple . . .

Cucumber and lettuce seedlings

Our weather has been really miserable this year.  Everyone’s gardens are in sad shape.  We just haven’t had warm enough weather for plants to grow.  We’re weeks behind on strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  It’s the middle of July and I’m just now getting local farm raspberries.  I’m still picking salmon berries!  In July!  <gasp>

The tomato seedlings I planted out in May got hammered flat by hail.  This year has been such a gardening bust I have lost most of my enthusiasm for trying to raise anything to eat.  Pretty sad.

Last week I threw a variety of seeds into the grow bed.  I’ll know what they are as they mature.  Until then I’ll take joy in the fact that something’s growing . . .

Next year I’ll be ahead of the game.  I’ll have my grow beds well started inside my sun porch until it’s warm enough to move them out.  I’ll have hydroton in the beds instead of gravel which will allow me to move them with growy bits intact.  That’s the plan, anyway.

Added height and color dimension adds interest.

I picked up water plants for Wadly’s “pond” today. I happily spent every penny in my pocket! Jill Hartman at JMH Greenhouse and Water Garden was wonderful to work with as we picked through her stock, determining what would work and what would be questionable. I’ve got two hardy plants and two that will have to come in for the winter. I also got pennyroyal and fairy moss!

When winter gets close I’ll run over and refresh my knowledge on what will hold in the pond and what has to go indoors.

Wadly planted the big potted stuff in rock filled wire baskets.  I put the pennyroyal and one of the reeds in the particulate filter.  Everything else went in the bog filter.

I still have more to do, but this will hold for a bit.  I’m happy!

I’ve added a page (at the bottom of Long Bits of Stuff) on cutting fabric using cardboard templates. I figured something out and wanted to share.

Pecking away . . .

This is definitely an “improve your technique” pattern.  I am getting better at getting clean points and matching pinwheel center points.  I think this quilt is just what I needed to clean up some less than ideal sewing habits I’ve managed to acquire.

At this point I’ve got 15 wedges that need to have green added.  I’ve got a bunch of the center parallelograms ready to install (green added).

I was working across the top and was going to work my way down but going up and down the ladder to get to the top was taking a toll.  I’ll go back to that in a couple days.  Until then I’ll peck away at the bottom half.

This is about 1/6th of the center of the quilt, a 24"x24" section.

This is going fairly quickly.  I’m working from the upper right corner completing blocks as I go.  The edge blocks take two different sizes of strips with a slanted end.

I like the quilt.  I think it’s pretty.

Basic nested pinwheel block, click to see the blocks assembled into a pinwheel

A couple years ago LouAnn and I attended the Aberdeen quilt show.  One of the entrants was a lovely nested pinwheel quilt we thought would be a good pattern for a workshop.  The quilt had big blue and green pinwheels and small green and yellow pinwheels on a dark background.  It looked complex but it was a single square.

After a bit of back and forth and discussion, we were able to convince Peggy Gelbrich to teach a workshop in that pattern for our Guild.  The pattern size for the workshop was a ~9″ block.  I wanted a smaller block in queen size.  Yeah, yeah, I know . . . ever the rebel.

Nested pinwheels

This is how far I got on the quilt top by the end of the two day workshop.  LouAnn and I pinned everything to a sheet and I put it away to bring out later.  This is later!

As you can see the background is black.  Rather than use pinwheels in two colors only, I wanted each pinwheel to be a different color.  Each of the large pinwheels is a different batik.  The yellow pinwheels are each of 6 or 8 bright yellows I had in my stash.  The small green pinwheels are all the same batik fabric.  The color distribution is complex enough to require working on a design wall.