Garden intrigue and so many crafts

I know you’re here for brassica content — don’t worry. I know what the people want. So let’s start there.

Brassica mystery

For the past four years of my longcovidness, what I eat has changed drastically. I eat chicken soup every day now, I haven’t had a potato since January 2021, and I use rutabagas and turnips as my spud-like food — fries, mashed, diced in soup, etc.

We buy all our groceries using delivery, because masks are not mandated in stores (and even if they were, it would be physically and cognitively exhausting for me to go into a store and also I can’t drive anymore etc). So when I order a rutabaga, sometimes I get a turnip. Sometimes I have no idea what root I have but I treat it the same regardless.

Rutabagas And Turnips: What’s The Difference?

And every once in a while, I leave a root in the fridge long enough for it to think it’s in the cold dark earth of winter, and it starts to grow. The most vigorous of these, I placed in a pot of soil by a cold shaded window and watered it — and it grew even more vigorously! Fun.

But what brassica is it? The link above was the one I found the most helpful. Everything else I saw, just said it’s easy to mix them up and then made claims about root size and purpleness that I found unhelpful. This resource, above, notes the comparison of colors and flavors of the greens.

I told this to my friend J on the phone, and then while we were chatting I bravely nibbled one of the leaves. It did have a kick to it, so I decided it’s a turnip; rutabaga would be milder and sweeter, I think. And I’m pretty sure J made a funny joke about root vegetables that I have forgotten since.

Duvet cover

I made a duvet cover for the electric blanket. This way, we won’t get as much cat hair on the harder-to-wash blanket – and can put the cover in the washing machine. The hot blanket is the best thing, both for my longcovid muscle/joint/bone/skin/head/chest pain and for my 17-year-old arthritic baby cat. We basically live on the hot blanket all day. So yeah, it needs to be washable.

The shape is basically a giant pillowcase; I decided not to pre-wash the fabric. Once it was done, I did a preliminary french seam (oh just a casual french seam) to connect the top fabric with the bottom, and hemmed the bottom edges separately to be the opening. Now it’s been through the wash, and I can always take apart the french seam (I enjoy unpicking stitches, fun fact) and re-stitch it more evenly.

kitten enjoying the now-covered hot blanket. fabric bought new, on extreme sale, at a local independent fabric store.

Lil thread-catcher

I saw this interview with Andrea Tsang Jackson with a picture of a triangular thread-catcher — see the link below — and it’s so cute and convenient! Having tiny threads everywhere in my life is how I know I’m living well, but it’s probably not great for the cat to accidentally consume lots of threads, so it’s great to have a lightweight container for them.

What’s in Your Sewing Bag 3rd Story Workshop?

The tutorial I found for it was helpful, but I wanted the triangle corners cut off like Andrea’s so I modified it a bit.

triangular thread-catcher in sage solid, with the lining fabric of a button pattern on a cream/offwhite background

Fun-A-Day bear paw mini quilt

basting pins are no impediment to the cat’s ability to claim a quilt as her own

partially quilted

I finished the quilt top, quilted it, trimmed it, bound it, and even washed it because the cat had claimed it as her own and then peed on it a little.

the cat had claimed it as her own – kitten lying on the quilted quilt with the binding only half on

I’ve made a label for it, though I haven’t written out the text yet, and made a hanging sleeve as well – but haven’t sewn either of those on yet. I did make a tag for it — you know how some people have a tag of their logo or their name, and sew it into the binding? Here’s mine:

“Homemade, homo made” — next time I’ll use a darker thread than this beige on a salmon background

the tag sewn into the dark grey binding; I do so love this backing fabric, a medium lavender with an organic pattern of lighter lavender that adds curve

And more…

patchwork Palestinian flag; pattern credit to Mallory of queer.sewist on insturgrum; sometimes I put a stick in the loops at the bottom to keep the flag weighted and visible despite the wind

lil snap pouch = my new wallet, made of green canvas which used to be an apron, with a low-volume lining with an organic pattern reminding me of jellyfish or maybe coral

For this wallet, I used this tutorial and found it helpful and easy enough. I’ve offered to make another one, but with loops to attach to the belt, but we have the important and thrilling task first of choosing colors.

And like Vanessa Williams told me to, I’ve saved the best for last

As you might remember, last summer I made a giant quilted pillow cover for my sister. Since I love figuring things out on my own (and dislike paying for stuff), I took SuzyQuilts’ Maypole design and drew it out on dot grid paper and figured out the math. I wanted to make a practice quilt top to make sure I had the math right. Since my sister requested jewel tones in the blue-green family, and I’ve been in a very PINK PINK PINK season of life, I made the practice quilt using pinks and other warm colors and just reveled in the joy of it. And then basted it, and left it in the WIP bin till recently.

I knew that I needed more time to decide how to quilt it. I had “baptist fan!” whispered in my head for months but I’d never used the baptist fan quilt design yet, and doing new things takes me way more time and adjustment than it did pre-covid.

Then I read Conscious Crafts: Quilting by Ellie Beaven, and it was the right book at the right time. The author loves baptist fan quilting too, and explained how to make a template and how to use it, so I got a piece of cardstock (probably from all the election reminders coming in the mail — thanks, I’m waiting on my absentee ballot to come) and whipped one up!

this curved quilting is called “baptist fan”; the cardboard to the right is the template; the blue marker washes out, so I use it to mark the lines before I quilt them

I’m using white 12wt quilting thread, which I’ve now run out of — what color do you think I should use for the rest of the quilting now that I’ve done the perimeter in white?

I’ve finished quilting baptist fans around the perimeter, which is not how Ellie Beavens said to do it in the book but how Bonnie Hunter says to do it — and it seems like it’s how it was done for the first 100+ years of its use; now with maroon continuous binding clipped to the perimeter to make sure i’ve got enough, which hooray I do!

I’m not 100% sure of where the name of this type of quilting comes from, but it’s possible nobody is 100% sure of that. The two theories I’ve seen the most are:

• it’s curved like the fans that are often used at church, especially in Southern churches before/without air conditioning, or..
• it was named for the communities that used this technique – it’s also sometimes called the Methodist fan – because quilting circles would use this technique.

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville, linked above, shares more about these ideas and the history of this quilting technique and how it’s used in groups, on her blog.

Happy Birthday B!!!

Today is also a very special birthday for B, so there’s some secret sewing I’m not sharing here until she’s received it in the mail — any minute now! — but please join me in wishing her many adventures and treats and covid-safe community for many years to come. Love always.