Triangulating

~ Liz A ~ 13 Comments

I often have a hard time putting colors together. So I decided to tear strips of virtually every linen I had on hand …

and then started to put colors together in triads to see what combinations appealed to me …

I’ve only just begun.

And I confess that the idea was inspired by Josef Albers’ decades-long series of paintings entitled Homage to a Square …

which are most often four colors, but I’m more at the New York Times Tiles level …

Obviously my triads are fairly random in size, so their final arrangement may be strongly influenced by that aspect. In any case, I expect they will most likely end up on the table cloth project currently residing on the back of my stitching chair …

which is gloriously sun-soaked today, even if it is still below freezing outside.

Thank goodness for small blessings.

Projects and more projects

~ Liz A ~ 18 Comments

Winter break for the Austin school district didn’t end until Tuesday, January 9th(!) so we had the pleasure of doing some projects with Griffin and Parker while their parents went back to work.

Parker, who’s in first grade, did her first science project …

Meanwhile, Griffin pursued a project on whether he could create biodegradeable cold packs that measured up to commercial gel packs. As part of the project, he used thrift store linen and sewed it into bags to be filled with dried rice, beans, or peas. He got the hang of the sewing machine in no time flat …

G also has a project due on his cultural heritage. Since Don’s grandfather immigrated from Scotland (as did my great grandfather), that became the focus of G’s efforts. He interviewed his great great aunt Marge, who at age 82 was able to tell him about growing up with immigrant parents.

I told him about tartans and tried to weave a sample of the family Angus tartan, which is a bit too weft-faced, but gives the general idea …

Don pulled out the family photo albums. And even though it wasn’t a part of the project rubric, G looked up and drew the Angus coat of arms …

Luckily for us, Scottish shortbread is also on the project list, so I’m looking forward to making another batch next weekend before his project is due … since we’ve already eaten the first and second batches.

I’m also looking forward to dinner tonight, as the formerly green tomatoes that Don picked last month before the freeze have finally ripened to the point of edible …

Yum!

A few of my favorite things

~ Liz A ~ 13 Comments

I might have mentioned before that our grandchildren get to choose ornaments to take from our Christmas trees each year. It’s a tradition that my mother-in-law started with our daughters and I’m delighted to keep it going (Betty was also my role model of how to be a good grandparent … a tough standard to meet at times).

And it has been my own on-again-off-again tradition to make a new ornament each year, this year’s being made from Ellis’s outgrown Christmas dress from 2021 (a nice balancing act that keeps our total number of ornaments fairly constant) …

So, it’s probably not surprising that we are often gifted with ornaments from our loved ones in return …

most of which have been safely tucked away in the Christmas storage bins. That said, a few of the gifts that are less seasonal will happily remain on display throughout the year.

And so the Christmas season has come to a close and the new year lies ahead, full of potential. I can’t help but wonder what I’ll be writing about at this time in 2025 … fingers crossed it will all be good news 🤞