Staycation

My husband and I are on vacation - staying at our home in northern Germany because our son will be going to Australia for his semester abroad in July and we can't afford to go anywhere else right now. It feels really good not to have to go to work for a couple of weeks, I must say. I had not fully comprehended how exhausting the first few months of the year had been at work! Actually, I am starting my vacation days only today, and I have two more weeks. Nice!

This morning I left the house without taking my phone with me, which was hooked up to be charged, and I simply forgot to take it. By the time I realized I had already gone to far (by bike) that I didn't want to go back and fetch it. I didn't think I really needed it, and I didn't really. But knowing it wasn't there, I almost felt a bit, well, naked, because I had several instances where I wanted to reach for it, perhaps take a photo, or to take a note. We had gone to a book store, and I would have wanted to take down a few titles for perhaps later reading, trying to get those books through my e-book-club as I am trying to be serious about buying fewer books. The frequency of these reflexes reminded me of a moment when I was taking an online class with Lisa Call many years ago and she told us she had 'put her whole life on her phone' and at that point I thought I would never want to do that. To be honest, perhaps not my whole life, there are things digital I don't do on the phone, but isn't it amazing how much we depend on these things these days? Many advantages, but so many not quite so advantageous developments as well, and how often do you reach for the phone when a moment could be spent just being yourself by yourself and then you end up caught up in some social media environment instead. I have noticed changes in my concentration and consistency with which I follow tasks that have alarmed me, and consequentially I am trying to be more conscientious about using the phone. But it's hard going, trying to extract oneself from that digital web. And, to be honest, I love the fact that I can feel connected to many people around the world, talking to my friend in Australia, in Canada, in the USA...

So when we went for a walk this afternoon I took the phone with me again and took photos of the surroundings, the forest is just turning green.

 

I took my plunge today at a different small lake than usually.

 

Only a few kilometres from here used to be the German-German border 
from 1949 until 1989. This entire area profited from this phase of 
borderline existence and is now a natural reserve. Unfortunately, 
some people don't respect easy things such as keeping dogs on a leash, 
or keeping them out of the water. There are 3 places for visitor to take a swim, 
though.

I am happy that the apple tree I planted just a few weeks ago is already in bloom, quite abundantly for its size. (After flowering season I will remove any potential fruit beginnings ths year, so it can concentrate on building strong roots this year. But let the bees have their fun first.)

It is a bit cold for the bees still, and very windy, so I don't think 
there are that many of them out there right now.

Did some gardening, too, and am slowly discovering what's growing 
in the garden that I am seeing in spring for the first time now.

 

Spending time knitting, during my last lengthy train ride I did some serious swatching, resulting in not being able to make up my mind about which pattern to choose.

I probably have enough yarn of each color for a sweather by itself, 
but right now I think I want to combine the two, to reach a bit of diversification.

 

So I started trying myself at a knit-along. 

 

Picking a lot of debris from a rather expensive hand-dyed linen and silk yarn which is slowing me down a lot. But as I am a person who removes any label from clothing because it bothers me I am afraid that these little pieces protruding from the yarn will be a nuisance. 

 

By now it has become clear what I assumed from the beginning anyway, that I don't have enough of my original choice of yarn and I will have to morph into another color. Which is a clear plus in terms of color and interest to the piece - and with regard to the picking out of linen pieces, too, because the red does not contain any of that. I hope, when I progress further, I will be able to knit a lot faster, as the picking out makes it rather slow going right now. But I don't want to abandon the green altogether, I'd rather get it out of my stash now than having to come up with another solution.

 

Thinking about new quilt projects, too. 

This one was started before we went north, so it looks a bit different 
already and has gone beyond mere 'thinking about it'.

 

This one is emotionally charged, and still brewing.

And waiting for my custom printed fabric for my next piece of femina.

When life gets in the way...

 

A couple of days ago I read a post by Anna Wharton who posts as White Ink on Substack about how life had got in the way so she couldn't write her weekly newsletter. It feels a little bit like that for me right now, except that I can't say what the reasons were for never completing and posting the two starts for posts that were waiting in my 'blogger stash'. I did get started, then something called me away, I never returned, time passed, I did keep telling myself 'you must put this into the post'... And here we are, again it has been too long, really, since my last post.

On Tuesday I spent an involuntary hour at Hamburg main station
 because of a canceled train. I tried to make the best of it by 
taking pictures, 'training' my eye. I posted more of 
those on my instagram account, @justquiltsjustcolors.

 

A lot has happened, even some things in my art-part of life, and it won't be possible to now catch you up on everything. But I am still at the beginning of almost 4 weeks off work - 2 weeks for my 'off-time' and another 2 weeks vacation - so I may actually be able to sew and write again? We'll see.

During our 20 Perspectives bi-weekly zoom-meeting two weeks ago we talked at length about the exhibitions that our various collections have been traveling with, and I realized that I had no real understanding where my quilts were going or had been. And will be going. We do have a spreadsheet for the group that lists exhibition dates and venues, but I admit, once a quilt is on its way to somewhere I don't check that spreadsheet. But we had a lot of exhibitions, and after I finish writing this post I will try to post two videos on Instagram that members of the group sent of our exhibitions, so you can get an impression of what's going on with 20 Perspectives. (Keep your fingers crossed that this works! That's another something going on ... me and digital stuff ... no further comment!) During the discussion it became clear that the recent developments of world situation, shipping restrictions, uncertainties, tariffs etc. have made it decidedly more difficult to transfer quilts to and from wherever they are. The group is a web of clandestine quilt movements, and I am certain none of us could easily recollect who is taking whose quilt to where to be handed over when and to whom. 

Just how precarious shipping has become I have experienced during the past three weeks. I was informed that three boxes of EQA-quilts of the challenge "Contrast" had been shipped to me from Finland. Two arrived rather quickly. The third one was missing. 

 

Tracking information told me it had never left Finland. The Finnish IR called the post office. She called again. Tracking information was removed from the app because of time lapse. No news from the search in Finland... I was getting nervous. I had only told the Finnish IR, who did the searching on her end, and our new EQA Chair because I did not want to scare anybody else. But it seemed like it was getting tight because my husband and I are leaving next week and if nobody is here to receive the package... Tuesday afternoon I suddenly received an email that the next day the box would be delivered - and it was. What a relief. Now there are three boxes, and the exhibition at Patchworktage in Suhl in May can go ahead as planned. And I will suggest to EQA that we start shipping those collections with air tags!

When walking to the hairdresser yesterday I passed the 
local pond and liked the light condition. And the fact that 
spring is slowly beginning to put green on the trees.

 

I recently returned to my husband's place and immediately started working on my piece for EQA's challenge 'Insects', which will premiere at Carrefour in Ste. Marie-aux-Mines in September. Fortunately, I am the person who is in charge of delivery of German entries and have a lot of time left, because I don't have to send it anywhere in advance. But I would like to get it done soon, quickly, to be able to continue with other things. It was a messy situation yesterday, because I had put markings onto the piece by sewing over paper and that had to be removed. Not a favorite activity of mine...

 

For this piece I let myself be inspired by the so-called Picasso-Bug, using a selection from the markings on its back and changing coloring a bit. It will be called "Picasso Bug in Yellow". Here is a first glimpse.

Probably the orientation is going to change in the final state, 
but that needs to be decided.

 

Also further planning for my next "Femina"-piece for 20 Perspectives. Need to order some custom printed fabric for that!