There has been a perceptible shift in the seasons.
The weather is still too hot for me, by far, though we have had some relief in the form of slightly cooler temperatures and drier air—however, no-one in their right mind expects autumnal weather in August. Not on the Gulf Coast, at least!
What I’ve noticed (or imagined, perhaps) is a shift in the quality of the daylight. Am I imagining it, or can you see that the angle of the light is different now than, say, at the beginning of July? Looking out from the air conditioned house, it feels more autumnal, already. The light feels more golden, more aslant, more beautiful.
The daylight is changing every day of the year, I suppose, by gradual degrees, but for some reason it seems to have reached a certain tipping point where it has a different feeling.
It’s just a promise of meaningful seasonal changes, at this point, but I guess I’ll take what I can get. I’m feeling desperate for some glimmer of positivity—something to hope for and look forward to—grasping at something as ephemeral as “quality of light”! Bring on the autumn!
Crumbs Complete, Stars to Follow
Well, I may as well admit it to myself: I didn’t follow my self-imposed instruction to attend to the quilting machine before working on the construction of another quilt top.
I did some work in that direction, but not enough to call it done. Life’s too short: I’m having my dessert first, or in this case, allowing myself to do what I want to do, which is piecing.
Last time, I was allowing myself to piece crumbs, because apparently crumbs don’t count. But then I reached my goal of 30 green crumb squares…
So what next? I decided to thumb my nose at my own rules and move on to the next phase of the crumb project.
My inspiration for this project came from something I found while browsing other quilters’ crumb quilts online. This blog post, by Cathy at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting, shares photos of a bright, colorful quilt made up of sawtooth stars with a crumb-pieced square in the center of each.
I’m only using green stars for my version, so I thought I’d stick with pink, orange, yellow/gold, and possibly red for my backgrounds.
I made a quick test block, and everything seemed to work, so then I made another:
Searching for fabric, I found some cheap pre-cuts that worked, as far as size went. That led me to expand my palette into a few prints with white backgrounds. That may not work as well as the original plan (pink/orange/yellow), but we’ll see. I just wanted to get dug into this project with minimal headache, and the pre-cuts were convenient.
There are a few more blocks kitted up and ready to go, but then I’ll need to cut some more fabric.
Watercolor Cacti
There’s less watercolor stuff to share, this time. I did start something, though. It should come as a surprise to no-one that this was inspired by a YouTube video by Diane Antone, who was in turn inspired by something she saw in a book. Painting Calm, by Inga Buividavice, is a book I’m currently looking through, myself, having seen it highly recommended so many times before.
I’m still not finished with this one, but here’s where I left it:
I like the way some of it turned out… Less enthused by the cactus that looks like a watermelon standing on end and the overly dark lines on the pot to the left.
That’s all I’ve really done since last time, despite wanting to do so much more. Some of it is running out of time after other responsibilities or feeling tired at the end of the day—but also I sometimes feel there are so many things I want to try that making a choice is in itself overwhelming, so I end up doing nothing (and wasting the time online, instead). Too many things to try, too little time!
Recent Listening
I’ve been listening to some podcasts lately, but nothing I feel compelled to mention by name (because I don’t want to damn with faint praise).
Right now, the house is quiet (early enough that the A/C hasn’t kicked on yet). I can hear the hum of the fridge in the kitchen—one of the joys of open-plan living, I guess, that my desk in the far corner of the living room isn’t separated by any walls from the kitchen, which was more of an issue before we replaced the noisy old dishwasher.
I can also hear the tapping of my fingers hitting the keyboard… the drone of a small aircraft overhead (a frequent occurrence around here)… and the summertime (late summertime?) chirping, clicking, buzzing chorus of insects outdoors.
Am I imagining it, or has that changed since the middle of summer, as well? It feels like the composition—frequency—something must change somewhat over the course of the months, but I can’t say for certain. It’s simultaneously an otherworldly sound and an integral part of the essence of summer in the Deep South. I’ve heard it every year of my life, but when I take the time to really listen, it’s bizarre that mere bugs can make so much noise!
