Rewind

I almost can't believe it is Palm Sunday already.  (We in the East are a week behind this year).  The kids and I have been passing around a respiratory infection during spring break, so it has been a low-key week for us.  Birdie's infection developed into pneumonia mid-week, so I'm keeping her home from church this morning.  We'll stream the service from our cathedral in DC so at least we get the flavor of the day.  I've missed a number of Sunday services this Lent because of my own or my kids' illness, but that is okay.  To everything a season.  I'm grateful to have streaming options for times like these.  

We also received most excellent news this past week: my dad's cancer is in remission! Thank God!! He still has a long way to complete healing and recovery, and he'll need to be checked every few months for a while, but we'll take it. That said, even after recovery, he won't be going back to work as chief pharmacist at the hospital again, so his semi-retirement of September turned rather abruptly into a full retirement when everything happened last October. So we'll see what God has in store for him in this next season and will trust in His provision.  Thanks to everyone who has prayed, given financial support, brought meals, etc.  It has been such a help and blessing.

A dear friend of our family is also going through cancer treatment at the moment and I decided to make her a lap quilt.  My dad used his birthday quilt so much when he was in the hospital and during his recovery at home that I thought it might be a useful thing for her.  I had bought a couple of charm packs from the Moda Songbook fabric line and made up a simple patchwork quilt with some small sashing around the edges.  The backing and binding was from the same line of fabric.  The hardest part was figuring out the best arrangement of blocks!

I found a walking foot that fit my Bernina and quilted in diagonals, which was fun and satisfying.  I found the whole process of this quilt quite fun, actually.  My only complaint is that the walking foot is really hard on needles, and I had to change mine several times during the quilting process, but the result was so even and nice that it was worth it.  I have several more patchwork lap quilts in mind for both my home and as a gift or two.   

I finished several books lately.  Kristin Lavransdatter has been on my nightstand for a year now, and I finally finished the beast.  Fittingly, I started it last Lent, and finished it at the end of this one.  The last 50 pages were really beautiful, and I'm glad I read it, but I don't think I'll be revisiting the story any time soon.  (I know, I know.  I'm a terrible person.  Hopefully we can still be friends?)

I finished Martin Malia's The Soviet Tragedy after poking through it for several months and found it a very good and informative read.  Malia gave me a different perspective on Khrushchev that I appreciate very much.   It's also interesting to integrate Malia's work with Slezkine's, as they approach the same material with quite different frames, but both have important contributions toward understanding the period.

From there, I re-read Sana Krasikov's The Patriots, which is about the American emigration to the USSR during the Great Depression.  I noticed in her notes that she relied on a monograph called The Forsaken for parts of the story, and decided to run that book down.  It was an extremely engaging and informative read, although parts of the story are hard to take in and some are just plain infuriating.  (If you've seen Mr. Jones, the unconscionable Walter Duranty makes more than one appearance in Tzouliadis' book).  After that, I wanted to read more Krasikov, so read her first book of short stories called One More Year.  Each chapter is about a different post-Soviet immigrant.  Even though the book tends toward black humor, it was an informative window into the post-Soviet experience.

Somewhere in there, I also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and enjoyed it very much. I loved the epistolary format, and wanted to read something similar, and found Letters from Skye, by Jessica Brockmole, which I started last night. I can hardly put it down, and am enjoying it almost as much. I also decided to re-read Dead Souls, which is a hilarious romp through the 19th century Russian countryside. Gogol was a comic genius.

Finally, I've been reading Pride and Prejudice aloud to the girls at bedtime for the past month or so, and we finished it this week in a marathon read-aloud on Friday during lunchtime.  We watched the BBC version with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth over several viewings this past week while the boys were occupied with a different show.  I also want to show them the 2005 movie version because I like both for different reasons.  The BBC version is extremely faithful to the book, but there is something about the condensed 2005 version that just grows on you.  I happen to like Matthew McFayden very much, and enjoyed his take on Mr. Darcy.   

We just started Persuasion, and I look forward to showing them the film version with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones when we've finished the book.  So much Austen, so little time!  I feel as though I'm getting a great books education right alongside my kids and it is fabulous.  

A Year of New Things

Nothing like leaving a year in review to last minute, eh?  I scrolled through all my posts this year to see what I had made and wrote about, and it was a Year of New Things.  I tried a bunch of new-to-me patterns, knitting techniques, and silhouettes, and had some great successes.  

I fell in love with stranded knitting (colorwork), got more confident with lace charts (open work), and found that I like working with sport or fingering weight yarn best, even if it takes longer to complete.  I found a few well-fitting basic sweater patterns that I can modify or adapt going forward.  Pullovers are still my happy place.  

Sew House 7 topped my list of great pattern companies after I made the Remy Raglan and the Elemental skirt in the spring.  It took me a while to get the sizing right on the former, and the fit right on the latter, but I loved wearing both once I did.  

My summer was again a horror of heat, humidity and feeling crazy in my clothes, but I guess I went into it knowing that, so it wasn't as bad, perhaps?  I made the Free Range slacks in the early fall, but decided I liked the pattern better as a skirt and have happily made several in different weights.

I revisited the Coco dress pattern after writing it off years ago, and discovered it makes a great knit shirt.  Hot flashes and tucked-in shirts are not a great combination, but it is hard to find tops that look good untucked on me, so having a go-to pattern that works for my short torso is fantastic.  

I frankenpatterned a woven top that I like very much (and can also wear untucked).  I got better at inside finishes and did a lot more handwork, including some embroidery to fancy up a linen skirt from 2020. 

 

I made some dresses: the Sorrel, Terrace, and a Frankenpatterned knit dress pattern that were fine.  I used my bodice block and Anne Adams skirt bottom to make a flannel dress this fall.

 

In unselfish sewing, I did a lot more than in years past.  In September, I became a godmother again and made the baptism ensemble.  My Weekender sweater worked out well for Ponchik last winter and she wears it constantly right now.  I made my dad a linen shirt for his birthday.

I made a lot of simple panel lap quilts for family and my kids and enjoyed the process of quilting very much, although perhaps not the self-imposed deadlines. I made myself use up almost all the scraps from the quilts on pillowcases or zipper pouches or tote bags, so that was useful. Panel quilts are very straightforward, so I'm not sure pieced quilts are in my future, but I have in mind to make some kind of crazy quilt with my scraps. 

Making my first bra was a fun project, but I'm unsure about making all my own going forward.  I'll probably have a mix of me-made and RTW in that department for a while.   

I had several outright fails and some alterations, but overall, I had a lot of successes, and ended up pieces I wear a lot, so it has been a good year of making! 

So long, farewell, до свидания to 2021!

The Cancer Train

For those who have been following along this past month or so, you'll know that my dad was diagnosed with cancer in mid-October.  He has stage four lymphoma, and there is a fist-size tumor wrapped around his bronchial tubes in one lung, cutting off his air on that side.  After spending a month in the hospital at Mayo (a Providential occurrence if ever there was one), he was finally discharged last week.  He's completed one round of chemotherapy and is due to start the next one today.  We are so grateful for the excellent medical team around him and for all the support and care we've all received.  

The first round of chemo started the process of breaking up the tumor, and he is off continuous oxygen now, although he remains extremely thin and weak.  My mom has been staying at a nearby hotel this whole time, and they are there together now while he completes this next round and stays for a few days to make sure there are no complications as there were last time.  

They hope to return home to Missouri at the end of this week.  He will have a total of six rounds, spaced roughly three weeks apart, and while he plans to return to Mayo for the next round of chemo in December, barring the weather, his medical team will continue to direct his care from afar, another great blessing.

My dad is semi-retired from a 45 year career as a pharmacist, and was working per diem at the psychiatric hospital where was he had been head of pharmacy when all this happened.  It is unclear whether he will be able to resume part time work any time soon, and there are substantial medical bills that will come due in the coming months.  My sister set up a GoFundMe account for my parents; I know these are difficult financial times for everyone, and the holidays are approaching, but we'd be most grateful for any assistance.  

And as long as I'm talking about my dad, I should show the shirt and quilt I made for his birthday in September.  He is often hot in the summertime, and I fixed a lightweight camp-style shirt he loves when I visited in July, but the fabric was really on its last legs.  And more importantly, my mother does not like the pattern on the shirt.

I decided to make him another shirt in the same style, out of handkerchief weight linen in a lovely pale minty green (called Meadow on the fabrics-store.com website).  I used Simplicity 9157 for the pattern, and found it mostly fine.  The packet I was able to find started at size 44, which was slightly bigger than I needed, so I graded to a 42, but otherwise made no changes.  (Although my dad has lost so much weight in the past month and a half, I'll probably need to alter it for him before next summer).  

My only complaint about the pattern is that the back of the collar is finished a little bit less neatly than I would have liked.  I've made this type of collar before, and there is more than one way to finish the edges.  

This one has you tack the front facings to the shoulder seams, and turn the inside edge of the back collar under and stitch in the ditch to secure. I tried to draft a back collar facing instead, but it just didn't lay nicely, so I gave up and finished according to the packet directions.  

I did flat-felled seams throughout, to mimic ready-to-wear, and used up the last little bit of lightweight fusible interfacing I had on hand for the button bands.  I had to piece the fusing significantly to make it work, but I was on a deadline and didn't have time to wait for additional interfacing to arrive.  

The buttons are vintage from my stash, and were the ones that looked the best.  I like the contrast.

The quilt is just a simple panel quilt with a fishing theme, done in free-hand stitching on my machine.  I noticed a note from my gram in the manual about using the darning foot/setting for free hand quilting, which I never would have thought to do, so thank you Grandma!  (I have her machine, and the manual is full of her notes and stitch swatches--so handy!)  

It was the first time I used that feature on my machine, so I was trying to learn control with the stitching, but the end result looks like tangled fishing line, which I quite like, and fits the theme.  More importantly, my dad liked it, and that is what counts!

Gofundme here.