Stress sewing

I finally got to work on my gradation kit yesterday and the day before. It was mainly sewing to alleviate stress. Boy do we have a bit of it these days. None of it is life threatening, but mostly the inconvenience stuff.

• I am trying to get my retirement benefits sorted out. Tiaa-Cref sent me a distribution from my retirement account  before they were supposed to and the state of NJ did not like that. My health benefits and life insurance hinges on getting this right. I just wonder if anyone can get stuff done correctly these days. Everyone tells me it will get sorted out, but it does make me worry and lose some sleep.
• We are building a house and ready to sign off on paper work that was first given to us in November. All of a sudden there is an additional $6000 charge added. Where the hell was this back in November? Not happy about this.
• We are getting our house ready to sell and that means super cleaning, painting and fixing things. I could certainly live without those things.
• I had a problem with an order from Interweave and did not receive the materials I was supposed to receive. I contacted them via email with no answer. I finally found a phone number after 30 minutes of digging on the internet and got it sorted out.

So in all of that I am glad that I am working on a kit and don’t have to do any thinking about creating an art quilt. Good thing I am not taking the master class this year! Although an art quilt might be a good way to express all of this stress. Will have to think about that.

Do you sew to relieve stress?

Has anyone been reading my Weather Monday blog? I notice that I lost a follower after I started posting it. I guess someone was not happy with it. Do you like it or should I skip doing it?

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Thanks as always for reading…..back to the sewing…still stressed out today.

Chris

Weather Monday 1/26 (Blizzards)

 

“California Dreaming” is the name of this quilt. That’s what a lot of us in the NE will be doing today as we get hit with a major winter storm.

I was going to talk about forecasting today, but decided that since we are having a big storm to address that topic instead. I will address forecasting next Monday on Groundhog day!

 

 

What is air pressure?

You might remember from my first blog about weather that the Earth is surrounded by a blanket of gases that we call the atmosphere (air). This air has weight just like all things have weight on our planet due to gravity. We are located at the bottom of this blanket of air that is about 200 miles thick. That air pushes down on us and all the things on the surface of the Earth. This pushing is what we think of as air pressure. The amount of this pushing can vary from location to location. Some areas have lower pressure and some areas have higher pressure. That means that there is more air above some locations than others. The difference, however, is very small. But is it enough to cause storms in some locations and beautiful days in others.

Nor’Easters

If you live along the Atlantic coast of the USA, you are really very familiar with coastal storms called nor’easters. They are major storms for the east coast. A typical nor’easter has a few components.

• It is a low pressure. All the bad weather on our planet is caused by low pressure. Highs bring clear skies and fair weather. So a storm is a strong area of low pressure.
• Not only is a nor’easter a low pressure, but it is a low pressure that gets stronger. That means that the pressure gets even lower. That results in a stronger storm with stronger winds.
• A nor’easter typically has winds that come from the NE (hence why it is called a nor’easter) and moves up the coast toward the NE creating a mess wherever it moves.
• Because it is right along the coast where there is lots of water, we tend to have more clouds and precipitation (rain or snow) with it. The storm feeds off of the ocean creating more clouds and huge amounts of precip. You certainly have heard the forecasted amounts for this storm to know that is probably going to be the case.

Notable Nor’Easters

Lots of people have been discussing other historic storms this past weekend as we have been preparing for the current storm. There is a long list of notable nor’easters. Maybe you remember some of these!

• Great Blizzard of 1888
• Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962
• Groundhog Day gale of 1976
• Great Blizzard of 1978
• Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978
• Late November 1984 Nor'easter
• 1991 Halloween Nor'easter (the "Perfect Storm," combined Nor'easter/hurricane)
• Storm of the Century (March 1993)
• Christmas 1994 Nor'easter
• North American blizzard of 1996
• North American blizzard of 2003
• Atlantic Canada blizzard of February 2004 ("White Juan")
• North American blizzard of 2005
• North American blizzard of 2006
• Late November 2006 Nor'easter
• February 2007 North America Winter Storm
• April 2007 Nor'easter
• March 24-25, 2014

What does a nor’easter look like from space?

These are huge storms that can be a thousand or more miles across. They have a distinctive shape from space that resembles a comma and hence is called a comma shaped cloud. I have outlined in red the comma cloud sitting along the east coast in this satellite image. This was the Blizzard of March 2014. Can you spot the comma cloud off of the west coast? How about the one entering the NW?

Sometimes a really strong storm even has an eye like feature like a hurricane does. The storm last March had an eye. You can see that in the image below.

Here is a comma cloud from a March 2013 storm that was gigantic. Make sure you click on the picture.

What is a blizzard?

Not only does a blizzard have tremendous snow amounts and cold temperatures, but it also has strong winds. This means winds of about 35 mph or more. Snow and winds can cause all kinds of problems from white out conditions, power outages, flight delays and cancellations, dangerous driving conditions. A blizzard is the worst kind of winter storm. (or is a great ice cream drink from Dairy Queen!)

So if you are hunkered down for the storm today do some California dreaming on such a winter day!

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Chris

Jelly roll Friday

I have mainly been cleaning this week getting our house ready to sell in February. I am pretty exhausted since the house has not been cleaned this well for a while. I guess I would rather quilt!

I have been taking some breaks from the cleaning to work on a jelly roll kit for a lap sized quilt. The strips are very colorful gradated fabrics. I have never made a jelly roll quilt before and it was nice having the strips cut out already. One issue I had with it is that the edges of the strips are pinked and I have a hard time judging the seam allowance. I would prefer a straight edge cut. I am not sure what is the norm since I have never bought a jelly roll before.

This is all I have to show:

Long dark strips run between the rows of blocks. You see them as white right now. It is weird working from a kit after the master class last year. Somehow I feel like I am cheating….

 

 

 

 

 

I will have to postpone Weather Monday on the 19th since I will be away visiting my dad.

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Thanks for reading….back to cleaning.

Chris

Weather Monday 1/12/15 (Why we have weather)

Classes at my college stated today and I did not have to go out in this messy weather. Yeah retirement is actually here.

A fabric postcard with lightning made several years ago in an exchange.

 

 

 

 

 

My topics for today.

Why do we even have weather on our planet?

That actually happens for a very simple reason. All the Earth’s weather is driven by the Sun. When the Sun shines on the Earth, the tropics get warmer than the poles. This difference in temperature causes the air to move around on our planet. What the air is trying to do is to balance heat and moisture around the world. The warm, moist air from the tropics moves toward the poles and the cold, dry air from the poles moves back toward the equator. So all our weather stems from this simple fact….the equator is warmer than the poles. Storms, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, thunderstorms, tornadoes, fronts, heat waves, cold spells, droughts, flooding all come about because of the differential heating of the Earth by the Sun. If we all had the same temperature there would not be all these weather phenomena on our planet.

How does the USA’s weather compare to the rest of the world?

The United States has the craziest weather on the planet. We have terrible winter storms, hurricanes, droughts, thunderstorms and tornadoes. In fact the USA has the most tornadoes of any where on Earth. Yeah we are number 1!  Here is a map of the world showing where tornadoes occur. You can see that the central plains of the United States in the area known as “tornado alley”  has the most tornadoes by far of any other place on Earth.

 

A lot of people think this area has the most tornadoes because it is flat and that tornadoes do not happen in mountainous areas, but that is simply not true.

Remember that cold, dry air heading back toward the equator and the warm moist air heading out of the tropics toward the poles? Mountains could actually prevent those air masses from meeting and colliding with each other. But in the USA we don’t have any mountains that run east and west to prevent these air masses from running into each other and brewing up supercell thunderstorms and tornadoes. Yes we do have mountains in the United States like the Appalachians and the Rockies, but they mainly run north and south and cannot stop these air masses from colliding. There is a joke that says that the only thing that is there to stop the cold air from slamming into the warm air are only a few snow fences.

Where the cold, dry air and the warm, moist air meet and clash is in the central plains….tornado alley. So all of the tornadoes that happen here are a result of the equator being hot and the poles being cold.

The tropics breed the worst storms on Earth…hurricanes. These terrible killer storms might start in the tropics, but they don’t stay there. The move out of the tropics toward middle latitudes. And where is the USA? You guessed it…middle latitudes. Hurricanes are one of the ways that nature balances heat and moisture around the planet. Certainly not a very nice way and a very expensive way, but that is all these storms are. They are a balancing mechanism. Hurricanes are not very friendly storms, but we give them nice friendly names like Katrina, Bob, Sandy, or Andrew. I guess that is one of the bad things about naming them after people.

I think when they first started naming storms in Australia they named them after politicians they did not like. I could think of a few names. In fact here is a very funny video using that idea. If you are a tea party person, a FOX network watcher, a very conservative republican, or a global warming denier then you will probably will not find it funny and you might not want to watch it. My students were crying last semester because they were laughing so hard when I showed it in class.

Naming storms after politicians!

Well I hope you enjoyed that. One of these Mondays I will address global warming. For now I am going to sign off. Next week I will talk about how accurate forecasts are.

Thanks for reading. If you have questions just ask me.

Chris

Retirement is official

Yesterday my school had the before semester meetings and I did not have to go. So I am officially retired. Plus I finished my first project of my retirement. I quilted the Halloween table runner and bound it today. Now I will have something to display with my antique pumpkins.

 

A few years ago I did a sketch of my pumpkins for the fun of it.

Halloween is a big deal in terms of decorating in our house and I have made several Halloween quilts. I would imagine since I still have some Halloween fabrics that I will make at least one more someday.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading. Linking to Nina-Marie.

Chris

First “mindless” sewing project of retirement

I was going to make a tote bag that I have a kit for, but got distracted by some house blocks that I have had sitting around for a while. I guess retirement is going to be full of distractions! The 6 smaller blocks in the center are from an exchange last year and the 4 larger Halloween houses are from an online sewing day about 5 years ago. The point was to make something without templates or a pattern. Yesterday I decided to put these blocks to rest and do something with them.

 

I know the small exchange blocks are not Halloween except for my little house, but I thought “what the heck let’s just use these up.”

I will be using up scraps of batting and some more of my Halloween stash for the binding and backing. That makes me feel really good. 

This will be used in our new house as a table runner in October. It is 22 in by 40 in so will be a nice size.

You know I said “mindless” sewing. I guess I was not really focusing because I made several mistakes and had to do more ripping than I am used to. Yikes…better pay more attention!

 

 

Thanks for reading.

What are you working on today?

Chris

Weather Monday 1/5/15 (What is weather?)

Since I have retired from my teaching job I have decided to write a blog each Monday on weather topics. I think that if you see this aspect of my personality you will understand some of the quilts that I make. I will try to keep these weather blogs short and simple so if you are reading you won’t have too much to absorb at once.

 

My northern lights quilt. Colors happening high up in the atmosphere. 12 in by 12 in. I just gave this quilt away to someone I worked with at my college.

 

 

 

 

 

So here goes my first Monday weather blog….we have to start with the basics.

What is the atmosphere? What is it made of?

The atmosphere is the blanket of gases that surrounds the Earth. The atmosphere is quite thin. If the Earth were shrunk down to the size of an apple, the atmosphere would be the thickness of the skin of the apple. Most people know that the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen gas, oxygen gas, and other gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor as well as what I like to call crud. These are things like dust, pollen, ash, salt particles that get suspended in the air. However, what a lot of folks get wrong is that they think oxygen is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere. Actually nitrogen is 77% of the air and oxygen is 21% of the air. So nitrogen is the most abundant. Things like carbon dioxide and water vapor are only found in small amounts in the air. And just because we breathe in oxygen it does not mean it is the #1 gas.

What is weather?

Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a particular time and place. These conditions would include temperature, humidity(moisture), winds, clouds, precipitation (precip), air pressure. Weather conditions can vary a lot from place to place and from time to time. Weather can change slowly or quickly. Most of us can recall a time that it can go from warm and beautiful to yucky and cold in a very short time. I know when I first lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming people would say that if I did not like the weather now just wait a little and it would change. And they were right! Weather conditions are measured all over the world every hour on the hour every day of the year. The collection of all this weather information allows meteorologists to make forecasts of what the future weather will be.

What is climate? How is that different than weather?

Climate is the average weather for a location. It usually is a 30 year average. Sometimes weather people on TV call climate the normal weather. For example,  if you want to know the average temperature on the 4th of July in a city such as NYC you would take the temperature on this day for 30 years and do some math to find the average. Of course the temperature on the 4th of July in NYC this year could vary a lot from this average.

I like to think of climate as what you expect to have and weather as what you actually get.

On a test with an 80% average a student might expect to get an 80%. However, they might do better or worse than that. Maybe they actually got a 90%. So 80% was the expectation (climate) and 90% was the actual score (the actual weather).

Even climate can change over a long period of time. The Earth has had ice ages (colder climate) and currently we are warming the climate of the planet (even if FOX network denies it). The average temperature of the Earth is rising. I will discuss the evidence for that in a future blog.

The topic next Monday will address the question, why do we have weather on our planet? Why do we have winds, winter storms, hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes, droughts, heat waves, cold spells?  These are all the interesting things we call weather. Also what county on Earth has the craziest weather?

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions just ask….

Chris

How important is a sketch? Photoshop? Electric Quilt?

One of the most important things I learned from my 2014 master class with EB is the value of sketching before making a quilt. I have never been a wing it kind of girl so using sketches in this class was not the first time I sketched out an idea before beginning a quilt. Although in the past the sketches were mainly outlines of the pieces with no thoughts to adding in values. The class changed that. Now I make my sketches including the values.

Some artists have an idea in their head and just pull out fabrics and start the quilt without sketching anything. I have to have a plan and really enjoy the sketching phase. I think if I tried to just throw things together I would end up wasting more fabric than I do now.

April’s “Spiritual Sanctuary” is a good example of using sketches with values. I had done 3 value sketches and decided to go with the light ceiling and dark and medium supports.

 

 

 

But even before I did the 3 value studies I edited my original outline sketch in Photoshop.  I love how you can crop your sketch as well as changing the proportions. I have often exaggerated the vertical dimension by elongating the height and keeping the width the same as it was.

 

 

So now to pick fabrics. I have discovered Electric Quilt (EQ) software to be useful in helping me decide on fabrics before I even cut anything. In fact before I even open the closet with my fabric stash.  I trace my sketch in the EQ software and then try out different fabrics and color schemes. I tried out several ideas and settled on the blue and green one.

 

EQ only gives you an idea of what to do. There usually are modifications that are still needed for the final quilt. But at least you don’t have to pull out every fabric in your stash to figure out what works!

 

 

 

 

 

The final quilt. You can see that it is a good match to the sketch and to the one that I did in EQ. So editing in Photoshop, sketching with values, and trying out fabrics in EQ have been the tools that I used last year and will continue to use this year.

 

Do you do value sketches? Have you ever used EQ to plan your quilt?

Thanks for reading.

Chris

 

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Another year begins

Some of my Christmas gifts.

• Roll of Steam a seam, new sketching pencils, Golden fluid acrylics, marking pencils, bobbin holders, bar of lavender soap for relaxing, quilt book. A good way to begin 2015!

 

 

 

I guess this is the time of year where we look back at 2014 and what we accomplished and look forward to 2015 and what we want to accomplish in the new year.  I already blogged about the quilts I made in the master class last year here. In terms of the new year I plan on making bed and lap sized quilts. This is what I call mindless sewing. I got some inexpensive kits from Craftsy that I liked so as soon as my husband heads back to work on Monday I will start working on them. I am also making a tote bag and overnight bag from kits. So the beginning of the year is going to be a break from art quilting. I feel I need that after the intensity of the master class last year. We are moving into a new house in August and I want to have some beautiful new quilts to put on the beds. Of course while I am doing all this mindless quilting I will be thinking about what my next art quilt will be.

 

There is of course my canal house quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there is the forest quilt that I have always been meaning to make. Our trip to Pittsburgh over Christmas inspired me to consider doing it. I loved seeing the mostly blue gray or green gray trees and background with the orange brown dried up oak leaves mingled in. This photo is not exactly what I have in mind except for the color.

 

 

Then there is the abstract grid quilt of the Christo gates. This was the second idea I had for my master class back in November, but did not have time to work on it. I would still like to do it.

 

So there are several ideas for art quilts in 2015 for me to work on.

 

 

 

I loved some of the things Idaho Beauty said in her current blog. If you haven’t read it you should check it out. I really liked the rules she posted. I agree with her on rule 7. That one stuck out to me even before I read her comments about the rules.

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RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

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I think I learned that last year in my master class. Creativity and great artwork comes with a lot of work. There will be “failures”, but also successes.

Linking to Nina-Marie.

Well onto to enjoy my retirement and time for lots of quilting.

Happy new year and thanks for reading.

Chris