Watching and Listening

I wanted to tell you about a series I just finished watching on Amazon Prime over the past few days called A Stitch in Time.  My daughter tipped me off to it recently.  She thought it'd be something I liked, and boy, she was right!

A short description from IMDB reads: "Fashion historian Amber Butchart fuses biography, art and the history of fashion as she explores the lives of historical figures by examining the clothes that they wore."

For me, it ticked all the boxes.  Historical methods of clothing construction?  Check!  Art history?  Check!  Social and cultural conditions from the period?  Check!

In each episode, a small team of historical costumiers recreate a garment depicted in a period painting, which the show's host then models at the end of the episode.  They use materials and sewing methods that would have been used during that period.  The presenter may visit museums where similar pieces of clothing are held and preserved.  The garment is discussed in terms of how the fabric was produced at that time, what societal issues were in play, etc.

My only wish is that each episode were longer...and that there were more than one season.  Okay, that's two wishes.

It was originally produced in 2016 and, I assume, aired on British TV at the time.  I'm not sure how long it's been available on Prime.  I think it's also available on AcornTV.

Anyway, I loved it!  Maybe you will, too.

I listen to a lot of podcasts while I'm sewing.  Some of my favorites are Revisionist History with Malcolm Gladwell, Hidden Brain, This American Life, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, WTF with Marc Maron, and many more.

Usually that's more than enough to keep me occupied in any given week, but the other day I explored a couple of recommendations that popped up for sewing-related podcasts.

One that I liked is called Stitch Please.  I've listened to about three episodes so far but plan to go back and listen to more.  I especially enjoyed the episode called "Sewing Supplies Beyond the Fabric Store."  Check it out in the link or wherever you get your podcasts (I use the Stitcher app).

And I am late to the party for The Great British Baking Show, but I've also been working my way back through all the seasons of that on Netflix during the past couple months.  Love it!  That was another one my daughter suggested a year or more ago already.  Took me a while to get around to it, but I'm glad I did.

One of the reasons I hesitated was because I thought watching it would make me want to bake (hence eat) more sweets, and I already struggle with keeping my sweet tooth in check.  But it really hasn't had that effect, thankfully. 

I thought I knew how to bake pretty well, but it turns out there's a LOT I don't know (like, most things!).  Getting to know the contestants and seeing their creativity shine through in their bakes is a treat.  And who can resist the way Paul Hollywood says "spoonge" or those ice-blue eyes?

How about you?  Any recommendations for must-see series, movies, or podcasts?

What's Not Working

I spent the last three nights glued to PBS from 8 to 10 p.m., watching the American Experience series on World War I.  It was a very good program.  "Good" from a historical perspective, and I learned a lot.  I didn't know much about the Great War, other than the few paragraphs I recalled from History class all those years ago (and maybe Downton Abbey).  This series painted a broader picture of what was going on at home and abroad during those years, and that was very enlightening.

Old oak along the walking trail.

Striking that there's been 100 years between then and now, yet some of the same or similar issues persist.

An ancestor (center) during WWI.

My overall takeaway:  We human beings can most certainly be good to each other, espouse lofty goals, try to behave morally, get along and work toward a greater good—and at the same time we are capable of doing awful, shitty, horrific, and terrible things to one another and our world.

I know.  Nothing new there.  We all know this.  We love and we hate.  We want peace and make war.  We rain down destruction in the name of our ideals, but in moments of truce, we celebrate and shake hands and share food and commonalities.

From an ancestor's personal photo collection - Local WWI Red Cross volunteers.

Things are not ever 100% black and white, right or wrong.  They are complex and nuanced and cast in varying shades of gray.  And we don't particularly like gray.  We prefer clarity, often to the point of inventing a vision of it and disregarding or quashing anything that would threaten to cloud it.

Can you see it?

What can we do?  Must history continue to repeat itself?  I don't have the answer.  But I think we strive do the best we can with what we have, what we know or can know, and then do better.  Be open to other perspectives, new information, old information if we didn't comprehend it the first (or 100th) time around.  Get out of the trenches of our biases, groupthink, self-interests, and us-versus-them mentality, and cultivate compassion and greater understanding.

This pair has been checking out the yard - male wood duck and female mallard.

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Well, how to segue to sewing from there?

I put the Solstice Challenge Quilt-Along blocks on the design wall last week and was promptly underwhelmed.

Meh.  It's just not working for me.  But that's okay.  

I've decided not to worry about catching up on the rest of the blocks that I'm behind on, and will just put it away for now.  Later on I'll look at it again and maybe have a different perspective.  Perhaps parts of it will wind up in a donation quilt or two.

In the meantime, I've started to pull and cut fabric for this year's Hands2Help charity quilt.  Sarah posted some eye candy recently that tripped a light bulb for me, and I ran off to round up some bright graphic scraps.

I'm excited to get started on it!

Sunday Sundry 2-12-17

I started another quilt on a whim this past week.  One minute I'm cutting up a laundry basket full of solid colored scrubs and the next I decide to just start sewing some of the strips together.

Since I had the scissors in hand, I thought I'd shoot for a free-pieced, Gee's Bend style "Housetop" quilt, using just my scissors and eyeballing it, no ruler, no rotary cutter, no pins.

A while later, I had this.  A little wonky and bowed in places, to be expected, but all in all, not bad!

Decided to make it more rectangular, and I had two good sized pieces from a pair of scrub pants that worked well for that.

I think it might be hard to part with this one as a kennel quilt.  I really like it!

* * * * *
My dad had surgery this past week to fix the multiple fractures in his ankle, foot and lower leg from falling on the ice.  Four hours, five plates, and forty-two screws later, it was done.  His surgeon said it was the worst break he had seen in his entire career.  Dad had some tremendous pain after surgery, as you can imagine, but it seems better controlled now.  Now we wait for the bones to mend and healing to take place while he stays off it for a few months.

* * * * *
I was pretty frustrated this past week with trying to maintain a low-FODMAP diet yet things still not sitting well.  I'd had a streak of good days and then it seemed that no matter what, things turned to crap. It's been a month of watching and journaling and limiting and testing, and yesterday I was having a "forget it" moment.  And by "forget it," I totally mean the other f-word.  

So I thought:  If eating right isn't working, try...drinking?

And boy, did it taste fantastic! 

Just one, though.  I'm a lightweight like that.

* * * * *
Of course, laughter is the best medicine.  I am binge-watching Schitt's Creek on Netflix and laughing out loud!  I am loving the entire cast, but Eugene Levy playing it straight is a complete hoot, and his real son, Dan Levy, plays his son on the series and is equally hilarious.

* * * * *
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I gave in to my sweet tooth today and tried out a new (gluten-free, dairy-free, low-FODMAP) recipe.

Brownie bites with peppermint frosting.  Thumbs up!  This one's a keeper.  Oh, and Norm too.  ;)

Monday, right?

I woke up this morning unsure of what day it was.  That doesn't happen very often, and maybe it was because I was coming down out of a whopper of a dream, wherein I had discovered I had a head tattoo in the shape of a red multi-line zigzag pattern underneath my hair.  When I mentioned it to someone, they informed me I also had a matching tattoo on my back, which I was unaware of.  Why didn't anyone inform me of this before?  Oh right, because it happened during the time I was kidnapped and lost my memory; I forgot.

Yeah, that made sense.

So as the dream faded, I was glad to realize today was Monday, not Saturday, not Sunday, and also that my scalp was tattoo-free.  Not that there's anything wrong with head tattoos, if that's your thing.  I would only hope you remember why they're there.

Perhaps I was dreaming about patterns because I've been binge-watching Vikings, in which there are indeed head tattoos, but more interesting to me are the beautifully simple and colorful patterns on their shields.  I am not much into the battle scenes and ensuing gore, but am happy to zone out during the mayhem whilst admiring the variety of shields.  I am counting it as quilt inspiration.

I had my ancestry DNA analyzed this past summer and was surprised to find in the motley mix a portion of Scandinavian ancestry.  Having known next to nothing, until recently, about Viking history, how far and wide they ranged (to put it politely), it now kind of makes more sense.  

What does not make sense, in terms of the Vikings TV series, is why—why-oh-why—can they not BATHE?!  I mean, they live on the coast of the sea (water).  They pilot great ships to distant lands (in the middle of copious amounts of water).  It rains a lot (more water).  So why does the main character have to constantly look like he just emerged from a coal mine and rolled downhill, past the slaughterhouse, and into a pig sty?  

Granted, Travis Fimmel is quite pretty in real life, so maybe they feel they have to muss him up to look Ragnar Lothbrok tough. 

I said to my husband as we embarked on Season 2, "It's like the makeup department on set has a vat of stuff called 'Viking Grunge' which they apply liberally."  I don't know, but it makes me want to take a long soak in a hot tub on his behalf.

Well, I didn't intend to get so carried away by the Viking theme, but there it is.  And one more thing:  The Last Kingdom.  Netflix it.  That is all.

But wait, there's more:  I finished the Hunter's Star quilt top.

And put together a backing and binding.

The backing is a vintage thrift store find I've had in the stash for years.  Burnt orange and pea green were all the rage in the mid-to-late 1970s.  My first car was a used 1976 Pontiac Ventura muscle car in burnt orange (with genuine rust accents).  Can't say I've seen too many tulips or whatnot in burnt orange/rust, but I love the funky print and am glad to have found a use for a big ole swath of it on the back of this quilt.

I used up a lot of the batik scraps and stash.  It measures about 56 inches square.  A nice throw or lap quilt size, for sure.  I might have liked it a little bigger, and the outer border in the blue batik versus the green, but when you're using up what you have, it is what it is.  Anyway, I like the surprise of green. 

Media, Music, and Movies

Read any good books lately?

Dad reading to great-granddaughter Cali on Thanksgiving Day.

I enjoy a good story, but I'm a multitasker, so I tend to listen to a book while I'm sewing, walking, or doing dishes.  

I caught up on a few of the classics this past summer via the collection of free audiobooks available on Loyal Books and Librivox.  These are read by volunteers, and some of the readers are very good, others not so much.  As I discovered a particularly good narrator, I'd see what other books he or she had read and listen to those as well.

Recently, I resubscribed to Audible in a special 99 cents a month, "we want you back" deal.  It was an offer I couldn't refuse.  Especially since I wanted to pick up the audio versions of a couple of the Outlander series books I didn't have yet.  Davina Porter narrates the Outlander audiobooks, and she is a delight, voicing all of the characters in such an authentic, credible way.  With the series on TV, I've started relistening to the first couple of books again.  I've found myself wondering, as I watched the Starz TV series, did it really happen that way in the books?  Some things no, or not exactly, but they are getting the essence of it right and it's been extremely well done so far.

I've also really gotten into podcasts the past couple years.  Some favorites are Serial, Startup, Reply All, Mystery Show, and Surprisingly Awesome (the last four can all be found on gimletmedia.com).  

I could name about a half dozen more  that I regularly listen to, but if I could recommend just one today, it would be Serial.  The second season is in the works and should be starting soon (I hope).  What is Serial about?  From their website: 

Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, and is hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story - a true story - over the course of an entire season. Each season, we'll follow a plot and characters wherever they take us. And we won’t know what happens at the end until we get there, not long before you get there with us. Each week we bring you the next chapter in the story, so it's important to listen to the episodes in order, starting with Episode 1.

I'm not usually a huge mystery or crime drama fan, but the story in Season 1 was so compelling, I was hooked after the first episode.  Apparently, I wasn't the only one to feel that way.  The podcast was so successful, it's going to become a TV series.  If you haven't checked it out already, you can catch up on past episodes online or on iTunes.

In movies, I watched a little-known gem this past week called A Little Chaos.  It's a period piece, or costume drama, about the building of one of the gardens at Versailles.  

Ultimately, it's a romance starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts (yum) as landscape architect Andre Le Notre.  The latter actor is the main reason I rented the movie.  He captured my attention in Far From the Madding Crowd, and I'm catching up his body of work to date.  To my surprise and delight, though, I found out in the first scene that the movie also stars Alan Rickman as King Louis XIV.  Be still my heart!  Alan Rickman could read me the phone book.  Stanley Tucci also has a fun role that gives the film some levity.  I really enjoyed the movie and watched it twice, in fact.

As for music, I heard a new song on the radio yesterday that I really liked.  It's by Tor Miller, called "Carter and Cash."  There's kind of a subtle '80s vibe to it that is pretty cool.  See what you think.
 

Sunday Sundry 8-9-15

Welcome to Sunday Sundry, the almost-birthday edition!  That exclamation point is about as excited as I get about my birthday, although I do enjoy getting together with people to celebrate.  I'm looking forward to having lunch tomorrow with Dad and my sister, and I very much enjoyed visiting with my daughter over a meal at Outback yesterday.

As far as cake, that's been covered with the Chocolate Beet Cake I made this weekend.  Because when life (via the garden) hands you beets...you make cake!  Am I right?  Doesn't everyone?  ;)

Well, whether or not beets are involved, we do love our cake around here.

(But we do, darn it...we really do.)

This was the first beet I pulled from Dad's garden—it's heart-shaped!  Two plants grew together and formed one.  Ah, now there's a lovely metaphor.

Not so lovely to behold were the first rutabagas (elsewhere known as swedes...which reminds me of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, slavishly digging swedes from the muck for winter cattle feed).

Certainly, they are not a glamorous veg, but I put them—washed, peeled, and cubed, of course—in the slow cooker today with carrots and a tenderloin tip roast.  They were delish!

On the Wall
I finished two more kennel quilts in the past week or so, and have another small one on the design wall.

This one uses parts of two scrub tops with butterflies and two scrub pants, in sort of a Charlie-Brown-shirt zigzag or chevron.

You can see the backing I pieced for it on the cutting table below.  I love being able to use up odds and ends from the stash for the quilt backs and bindings.

Here are the other two I finished during the week.  Just patchwork squares.  Soft and simple.

These particular quilts are 25 x 45 inches.  

The pink/butterfly chevron above will be 24.5 x 32.5.

Being Human
Season 1 of Poldark finished last Sunday, unfortunately, before I was finished admiring its star, Aidan Turner.  Thankfully, I found a new-to-me series on Netflix to tide me over.

 

Being Human, the UK version, is pretty awesome!  I'd never seen the American TV version (which some say sucked, and they weren't talking about the vampires).

The premise almost sounds like the setup to a joke:  A vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost move into a flat together.  Drama (and some hilarity) ensues!  The characters are interesting and funny and have great chemistry, and you end up caring about what happens to them.  I'm only on episode four, but I predict some serious binge-watching ahead.

Looks like I picked up a few new followers yesterday, and welcome to you all!  My Blogger stats tell me a whole bunch of people popped in from Facebook in the last day or two, but I don't know why.  Can anyone enlighten me?

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Mixed Media

What have you been reading, viewing, or listening to this summer? 

The HST kennel quilt, now finished!

I've been enjoying a few of the classics in books by Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens.  These are things I hadn't read in my youth.  I was motivated to read the book Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy after I saw the movie this spring, the one starring Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts.  Loved the movie, had never read the book.  I found a wonderful free audiobook version on Librivox.  That led to reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, also by Hardy (all free audiobooks linked to the titles, should you wish to explore).  In between the latter two, I also read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, which I adored.  Now I am making my way through Oliver Twist by Dickens, though I'm not enjoying it quite as much as Copperfield. 

I haven't been to see any summer blockbusters in the theater, but my peepers are getting their share of dramatic action thanks to Masterpiece's Poldark.  

And, oh my, Aidan Turner is enough to give a gal the vapors!  Or was that a hot flash?  Never mind, judge for yourselves:

Mm-hm, that's what I'm sayin'.  Who knew scything could be that kind of hot?

Speaking of Masterpieces, friends and I went to see the Dressing Downton exhibit at the Paine Art Center in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this past weekend.  Where photographs were not allowed, unfortunately.

On display were many of the costumes of the various Downton Abbey characters we've come to know and love.  The real deal, genuine article duds!  That I could not take pictures of! 

But, oh, they were exquisite.  Mary's riding costume, Matthew's army uniform, Lord Grantham's stunning red wartime uniform, and dresses, dresses, dresses!   The beading and stitching and other details were to swoon for.  The clothes were all posed elegantly on (headless but not creepy) mannequins throughout the rooms of the grand old mansion of the Paine Art Center.  What fun to see!

(Image Source)

Afterwards, we walked the impeccable gardens of the grounds outside the mansion and mooned over the flora and foliage.

Here we are below, ignoring the rules of photographic composition in posing the tallest member of our posse (that would be me on the left) next to the shortest (dearest friend Kathy).  But friends shouldn't let friends have to stare at your belly button.  This was not my idea, folks.  However, with a volunteer poised at the ready with my camera and my sister saying we should just "be bookends," I assumed my position on the end.  Do not do this at home.

Which brings me to a new show on TLC this summer that I have begun to watch, against my better judgment, but now I am sucked in:  My Giant Life.

I mean, as a woman nearly 6'3" myself, I basically live this show, so why do I need to watch it?  Well, because it's about people, dang it, and people interest me.

I watched Little People, Big World all those years, not because they were vertically challenged, but they were interesting.  The ladies of My Giant Life are no different.

But seriously?  Can they quit with the unflattering camera angles?  Here is Colleen, who is 6'6", and they are shooting her from the view of Lilliputians.  Get off the floor, camera crew—and find that woman a decent chair!

Here too is 6'9" Lindsay, who is apparently being shot by poodle-cam.

*Sigh*  

Anyway, here's me and my lovely sister Nita below.  Do not call me a giant or I'll step on you.  Kidding!  I'll just pick you up by the collar and give you a little shake.  ;)

Totally kidding, I don't have that kind of upper body strength.

I am strong enough, however, to hold my grandniece Cali on her first birthday, as she explored the heart-shaped chocolate muffin her Grandma Nita made.  

She is such a cutie!  Most of that muffin ended up on her clothes and mine and whoever else came into her magnetic little tractor beam.

Now this...

This kohlrabi is a true giant.  Dad grew a row of this giant hybrid variety in his garden, and they were delicious!  Big as a cabbage, where normally kohlrabi are the size of a tennis ball.  Not woody either, but tender all the way through.

How does your garden grow?  Mine is looking kind of raggedy about now, but the potted coleus out front is showing off.  I just moved it to the birdbath/plant stand on the front porch so that trailing stuff (that I can't remember the name of) that I planted with it has a place to flow.

As far as what I'm listening to this summer, other than audiobooks, I'm enjoying some of the music of Florence + The Machine, Ryn Weaver, this song by Twenty-One Pilots, and for the orchestral jazz fusion king of thing, this song by Snarky Puppy.  Yep, that's a pretty random smattering.

Oh, and I've been meaning to share a video.  Earlier in the summer, my brother Russ flew his drone camera over the area where my dad lives and captured some footage of the surrounding marsh wetlands and farms, which he then set to music.  You can see it HERE.  I find it very serene and relaxing.  Perhaps you will enjoy it too.

As far as sewing, what's that?  Nah, I'm working on a little of this and that, but altogether not much.  I made another little kennel quilt top yesterday, from more scrubs.  Went with a simple low volume version this time.

And up top of this post, you see that I got the last kennel quilt quilted and bound.  I used some wild 1980s or '90s tropical yardage I found on a shelf while putting the basement back in order after getting rid of the damp spot a couple weeks ago.  Serendipity!

How about you?  When you look back on the Summer of 2015, what images will come to mind?  Will there be an accompanying soundtrack?  Any particular smells conjured up in memory—a smoky barbecue, your rose garden, suntan lotion, mosquito repellant?  Feel free to share in the comments!