8/31/15

Leafy

It was a nice day yesterday...rainy and cloudy, with sunshine toward the end of the day. It gave Mike a chance to get outside to work, and it gave me a chance to sew for most of the day. I was interspersing a little cooking and some light housework in between making the last of the stemmed leaves for the Blushing Aspens table runner.

When I left this on Saturday, I had taken it this far:


The first thing I did when I picked it up again was to make the tiny little leaf in the upper left of the image below.


After that, there were two more leaves to make in Section 2. When I had those finished, it was time to sew the whole section together.


If you read my post from last Wednesday, you know this was tricky business. Remember this diagram? Partial seams were clearly in order, but I wasn't sure where to start or which order to sew the leaves together.


There were several good suggestions and a lot of cheering. Eventually, I went with the method Gayle suggested, thus:


That made sense to me, and it worked perfectly! Thanks, Gayle! You guys are so smart. I knew someone would steer me in the right direction. So I've turned the image below in the same direction as the diagram so that you can see how it went together. No seam ripper required, thank goodness.


With that done, I was ready to sew Section 2 to Sections 3 and 4:


After that, there was one more leaf to make for Section 1.


Now all of the "veined" leaves are complete. I just have the little row of ten leaves along the right hand side as you see in the image below.


The smaller leaves go much faster than the veined leaves. Each veined leaf took about an hour to make. I'm thinking I can make several of the little ones in an hour's time. Then I'll just need to add the borders, and the top will be finished.

Today I need to head back to see my orthotist. You might recall that she's been working with me trying to get my custom orthotics right since I was fitted in a half size larger shoe recently. The shoe size was a good move, I think, but it threw off the fit of my custom orthotics. My right foot, especially, has been hurting ever since. 

Going into a larger shoe makes me think of a time Mike was up skiing on Mt. Bachelor and he was complaining to a fellow skier that his ski boots no longer fit his feet. The younger skier's reply was, "Gravity, Man." And thus, I'm in a larger shoe size now too. Gravity, Man. Did you ever stop to consider how many of aging's woes can be summed up in that one simple phrase? Wrinkling skin? Gravity, Man. Falling boobs? Gravity, Man. That's all you need to know most times. Fall down and break one of your aging brittle bones? Gravity, Man. See what I mean?

Anyway...that's going to take at least a couple of hours. Also, I'm heading to the post office to mail off my letter to the Salem Municipal Court, and that baby is going Certified Mail. Hopefully, I'll have time to work on my leaves when I get home this afternoon. 

It's the last day of August. Use it wisely. Fall is on the way.

7 comments:

gayle said...

You're welcome! (I love puzzles...) I'm fascinated watching you work this project. The colors are gorgeous, and the complexity of the pattern is entrancing.

And yeah, gravity has a lot to answer for.

Vroomans' Quilts said...

I'm with Gayle - this has been a fascinating piece to watch you work out. And I know all about that gravity man - along with Arthur Itis. And you know it's scary when you start making the same noises as your coffee maker.

Quilting Babcia said...

I love the great info shared on your blog, not to mention the levity...yours and your commenters! Awfully glad I hadn't just taken a sip of the hot tea by my side when I read sharon's last line!

Dana Gaffney said...

We should all be hanging upside down with gravity boots man. Sharon's made me happy since I don't sound like my coffee maker, yet.

quiltzyx said...

Isn't wonderful to have so many smarties to help out when you need it? It's like each one of us has our own little special part of the puzzle & when we share, we all get more awesome!
I remember when my friend Bill started working at Disneyland. He had to get some new shoes - all black - and went to a shop that specializes in shoes for police & fire employees. I think ever since he got out of the service he's worn the same size shoes - 9 mediums. He'd go to the army surplus store & get boots, always the same size. So when he went to this store for his new shoes & the clerk asked him if he wanted to be measured, luckily Bill said "Sure, why not?" And then he discovered he was now actually a 10 wide!! He started out working as an attendant in the parking lot, so was on his feet all the time. He told me that yes, his feet were tired & sore when he got home, but the new shoes were "like walking on clouds" compared to his old ones!! Gravity, man.

Kate said...

Your leaves are falling into place beautifully!

Angie in SoCal said...

What a wonderful table runner this is going to be. It is coming together beautifully and your progress reports very informative.