makereadgrow

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Makes me want to play with fussy cutting. I am not that person, but this makes me want to be.

⋆ ｡ ° ✩ Starquilt ✩ ° ｡ ⋆

38"x39.5" English paper piecing - all handsewn

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ily, menswear guy

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Could really use more media where wives viciously protect their husbands

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Note from your Friendly Pollworker

As a poll worker we are encouraged to vote early so we aren't worrying about it on the day of (and especially on presidential elections as they tend to be busy days). I went and voted on Friday after work. It took me just under an hour from the time I joined the line until I looked at my watch headed out the door and I always have some thoughts leading up to the election.

Please go vote if you are able. PLEASE.

Voting is harm reduction, its a bus going in the general direction you want things to go, its a chess move in a complex game. Vote for the candidate who you feel will do the least harm and prevent the most harm.

Vote down the ticket. While you may not be directly impacted by the president (which in 2025 feels like a pretty unenlightened view) I promise you that your local council or school board will affect your life.

Go to your local county clerk's website and check your registration status, download a sample ballot, and check your polling location. Be prepared and informed. You can bring notes into the booth with you regarding your choices.

Don't talk about who you are voting for in line. This is illegal. In many states you cannot wear clothing promoting a candidate either.

Be kind to your poll workers. They are having a very very long day (usually 14-15 hours by the time its all said and done) and will be dealing with SO MANY PEOPLE. This is not their day job and they are paid a nominal amount (its $250 for me) for their time, most people have to use leave from their jobs to volunteer. Don't make your poll worker regret having one less day of vacation.

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I'm sure many people have already shared this here, but I think it's important that people here on Tumblr need to see this.

"I disagree with Kamala's position on the war in Gaza. How can I vote for her?" by US Senator Bernie Sanders

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And vote down the ballot. Even if your life is never affected by who is President (unlikely, but possible) your life WILL be directly impacted by your local council member, your school board, that constitutional amendment or funding proposal.

A friendly reminder to USians: if you are planning to vote on Election Day, your mantra is "Nothing I see today convinces me not to go vote."

Exit polls suggest DT cannot be caught? YOU STILL GO VOTE.

Exit polls suggest KH has it in the bag? YOU STILL GO VOTE.

Pundits are saying the country is swinging overwhelmingly red? YOU STILL GO VOTE.

Pundits are saying the country is swinging overwhelmingly blue? YOU STILL GO VOTE.

Polls can be misleading (intentionally or not). The methodology can be biased (or simply poor). Early results may not reflect what the full count will show. There may be a red mirage. NOTHING YOU SEE CONVINCES YOU NOT TO VOTE.

The biggest Democratic win in swing states means nothing if democrats don't turn out everywhere to keep the reliably blue states blue.

VOTE. Wear appropriate weather gear if you think you may have to stand in a line outside (coat, hat, gloves, umbrella, sunhat, whatever, you know where you live). Bring water and a snack and something to do (book, game on your phone, podcast and headphones, whatever, you know what you like). GO VOTE.

NOTHING YOU SEE ON ELECTION DAY CONVINCES YOU NOT TO VOTE.

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It takes a whole group of spinners to keep up with a weaver so picture this: a group of women and children, young and old, sitting together with spindles and wheels - telling tales and spinning yarns. Creating mythology, and history, and connections. Creating language. Spinning yarns.

One of my favorite things about learning about traditional textiles is the little ghosts they left in the language. Of course the ghosts are there, now that I know to look for them. Once upon a time, half the population spent a majority of their day making textiles. Spinning, at the very least, has been a part of humanity since the Neanderthals. That kind of knowledge doesn't just disappear.

A heckle was a device with sharp metal spikes, and people drag flax through the spikes to separate out the fibers from the chaff. When you say someone heckled a performer, you think you are being literal but you're speaking in an ancient metaphor.

When my grandpa says "spinning yarns" to mean telling stories, he knows that one's not quite literal, but its vividness is lost to him. There is no image in his mind of rhythm, muscle memory, and the subtle twist that aligns clouds of fibers into a single, strong cord.

When a fanfic writer describes someone carding their fingers through someone's hair, that's the most discordant in my mind. Carding is rough, and quick, and sometimes messy (my wool is full of debris, even after lots of washing). The teeth of my cards are densely packed and scratchy. But maybe that's my error, not the writer's. Before cards were invented, wool was combed with wide-toothed combs, and sometimes, in point of fact, with fingers. The verb "to card" (from Middle English) may actually be older than the tools I use, archaic as they are. And I say may, because I can't find a definitive history. People forget, even when the language remembers.

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Wally Dion, born 1976, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Fabric Star Quilts.

Wally (Walter) Dion is a Canadian artist of Saulteaux ancestry living and working in Upstate New York. Working in a number of media including painting, drawing and sculpture.

Wally explains:

"The first fabric star quilt was made as part of a 2022 residency at Wanuskewin Park. It was my way of reflecting upon prairie tall grass and the reintroduction of bison into the Great Plaines. I wanted to make several transparent quilts and superimpose them; one in front another... a quilt for the microbiome, another for the bison, their manure & hooves, another for the summer fires that scorch the ground and a final quilt for the sweetgrass braid.

I was considering how all of these things worked together for thousands of years to create what is known as the 'prairie tall grass ecosystem'. A vast and fertile expanse of land stretching from the foothills of Alberta to the banks of the Mississippi. I wanted to highlight the invisibility of systems when everything is working well, as it should be.

I started with the green quilt because it is the colour of the sweet grass braid that is exchanged in ceremony and relationship building. I considered the nature and tradition of quilting; impoverished craftspeople using tiny scraps of fabric. I considered the act of offering fabric and adherence to tradition. I thought of a thousand tiny prayers and how that might look; invisible acts of respect and adherence to protocols spanning decades. My thoughts travelled across the land, imagining the trees and rocks collecting these prayers like a bush of cloth, or an etched boulders."

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Only amendment is that there are lots and lots and lots of examples of prehistoric pottery from Lexington and it's surroundings.

Okay but like whenever europe and USA are compared in terms of ruins and artifacts it makes me think "oh but what about Native American artifacts and ruins" and it reminded me of another post I meant to make ages ago but forgot

A while back I went thru the library looking at all the books I could find on the history of Kentucky.

My textbooks and most "reliable" sources when I was a kid said that Kentucky was never actually home to Native Americans, it was just a "hunting ground." This is total bullshit, the living Shawnee whose ancestors lived here know it was bullshit, but how did we get there

A lot of the more recent books I found (from like the 1990's) repeated the "it was only just hunting grounds" thing

But heres the weird thing

When you go back further

The narrative is completely different

so here's the first page of a book published 1872, it's "History of Lexington Kentucky: Its Early Annals and Recent Progress" by George W. Ranck

Let the shock of this first paragraph settle in. Like, damn, this is a whole different picture being painted

now, this Rafinesque fellow he refers to, has been widely referred to as the originator of many claims about Kentucky, and an exaggerator and liar, outright dismissed and scorned by many historians.

Rafinesque is considered to be the source of many claims found in this chapter, and the pompous, flowery language used to state them makes them seem a bit unbelievable. But the claims themselves are not highly unrealistic. These are several of the claims found on pages 2-12 of the book

An artificially built stone well was found by settlers

Earliest settlers plowed up pottery fragments

Settlers dug into an old abandoned lead mine

"Stone sepulchers" were found containing human bones

A large earthen mound 6 feet high was found with pottery and burned wood

A stone mound was found containing human bones

An extensive cave used as a cemetery was found under Lexington, containing embalmed bodies

Flint arrowheads were found

Polished and worked fragments of iron ore were found

Sandstone and limestone tools perforated with holes were found

Rough ingots of copper were found

Stone walls were built defended by entrenchments

It is very important to note that this chapter is insistent that the inhabitants that built these ruins and left these artifacts were NOT Native Americans. Why? Because Native Americans didn't build stuff so advanced! Very circular reasoning.

It was a very common myth that there was some kind of "pre-native-american" race of people that existed in Kentucky. Sometimes this was a way of justifying colonization by saying that well, the Native Americans were just taking over land that wasn't theirs too, so it's okay for us to do it.

It seems to me that when it became clear that Native Americans were the first and only pre-European inhabitants, the stuff about an ancient city under Lexington and all that became dismissed as lies. But are they lies?

I tried to find out, and we know for certain that central Kentucky had many, many burial mounds (some of which I had seen the site of without knowing what I was seeing) and quite a few stone ruins. The builders of the stone ruins are referred to as the "Fort Ancient" people because the earliest settlers incorrectly assumed the stone structures they saw were forts for some defensive or military purpose.

The tools and artifacts being referenced are all known to exist, except I think there aren't any confirmed extant examples of pottery.

The most widely criticized claim in the chapter is the underground cave used as a tomb, but I don't see why—central Kentucky is a limestone karst region and EVERYWHERE has a cave under it. The embalming or mummifying of bodies could have been a flourish or rumor, but the essence of the claim is totally reasonable. Then again, it might not have been, since the area had access to sources of salt. The supposed "lead mine" probably wasn't that specifically, but it's known that Native Americans went inside, explored and used caves.

It was really interesting to me how so many later sources dismissed these claims despite most of them being plausible or just true, and how many of those sources repeated the idea of Native Americans using the land for hunting but not "inhabiting" it. It is two different ways of denying Native Americans were here.

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This amazing quilt was the Best of Show in the 2023 Black Canyon Quilt Show. It was an original@design by Margaret Noah and is called Bea the Bear-Contemplation.

Check other award winners from past shows on blackcanyonquiltshow.com

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I haven't made much this week, haven't done much at all that isn't just the daily grind of unending tasks.

Part of the reason is this gremlin here, who after 8 solid days in my house managed to injure her hind leg (probably by jumping off something she shouldn't). Nothing is broken and the ligaments aren't torn but she injured her ACL. Beyond the stress of it all, I am now down nearly $500 on the new vet bill and she's not even sorry (mostly because she's on drugs).

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I'm still getting the hang of curved and circular piecing, but yesterday I had my templates out for *reasons* and ended up cutting out a practice. Turned that into a coaster and will give it to a coworker who has been using random napkins under her drinks.

Printed fabrics from here - I've used this artist's Kaufman fabrics before and she was SO nice when I tagged her on Instagram. Super enthusiastic about what I was doing and even told me she was showing her kids my stories as I made progress.

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Its the turn it off and then off again of sewing

i was panicking for half an hour, googling the local sewing machine store and the cost of repairs and etc

then i tried rethreading the whole machine rather than just the bobbin for the millionth time and guess what

works perfect again. imagine that

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The spinning spinosaurus is scanned and added to redbubble, as requested!

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She's settling in so well, and it's amazing she's not even been here a whole week.

Not a craft, but there is a new baby in my house.

She is 2 and did not sleep through the night and is perfect regardless.

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Ah, you need this model

Be me.

See the rotary blades you need are 50% off.

Realize that even at 50% off, they're way out of budget. I use the Missouri Star 45mm rotary cutter because it has a ball-bearing in it, which means it takes half the effort to cut through fabric. Most especially several layers at a time. With the wrist issue I have, this is a must. My mother gifted me this, and that's due to how low the price is, about $24 USD. The name brands stuff? Ouch!

MIssouri Star's rotary blades, however, have proven hit-or-miss. I order their blades to go with their cutter, but often as not, the blades either have nicks or a slight bend to them. The 10 pack refills they sell? I have one, and three of the blades thus far have been virtually unusable. The blades were a gift, and I've since informed the sender of the situation. It's what you get when you pay less than $30 for ten blades.

Which is why I want the blades currently linked above. Normally $150 for a 10 pack, but right now they're 50% off. They're titanium, and guaranteed to last twice as long as their steel counterparts.

I have seven blades of my own pack left, so I'll wait until I'm down to the last dull blade before I purchase new ones. Ideally the first link.

Before anyone suggests sharpening these: you can't. Oh, sure, you can find sharpeners. I purchased one...and it just makes the blades duller. It's by Clover, and an absolute waste of money. I did more hunting, and saw much the same from everyone else who left reviews. Every single rotary blade sharpener makes them duller. I contacted a local knife sharpener, and he'll come by your home with his van, take your knives, and sharpen them all in your driveway. When I told him the size and style, he said even my 60mm blades are simply too small for him to even try sharpening.

Hence, long lasting blades. Rotary blades can be very expensive, and when you cut through as much fabric as I do, you dull them rather quickly. How can you tell your rotary blades are dull? If the fabrics are getting more difficult to cut and/or the edges of those cuts aren't straight nor smooth, they need to be changed. On a similar note, if you've been using the same needle, be it on your machine by hand, and it's snagging on the fabric or getting more difficult to push through layers, it needs changing.

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I use these - the are around $10 and I've never had one come out of the package flawed. They may not last as long as the fancy ones above, but I haven't noticed them lasting any less time than the name brand I've had come with my cutters and they are inexpensive enough that I don't hesitate when I need a new blade.

Be me.

See the rotary blades you need are 50% off.

Realize that even at 50% off, they're way out of budget. I use the Missouri Star 45mm rotary cutter because it has a ball-bearing in it, which means it takes half the effort to cut through fabric. Most especially several layers at a time. With the wrist issue I have, this is a must. My mother gifted me this, and that's due to how low the price is, about $24 USD. The name brands stuff? Ouch!

MIssouri Star's rotary blades, however, have proven hit-or-miss. I order their blades to go with their cutter, but often as not, the blades either have nicks or a slight bend to them. The 10 pack refills they sell? I have one, and three of the blades thus far have been virtually unusable. The blades were a gift, and I've since informed the sender of the situation. It's what you get when you pay less than $30 for ten blades.

Which is why I want the blades currently linked above. Normally $150 for a 10 pack, but right now they're 50% off. They're titanium, and guaranteed to last twice as long as their steel counterparts.

I have seven blades of my own pack left, so I'll wait until I'm down to the last dull blade before I purchase new ones. Ideally the first link.

Before anyone suggests sharpening these: you can't. Oh, sure, you can find sharpeners. I purchased one...and it just makes the blades duller. It's by Clover, and an absolute waste of money. I did more hunting, and saw much the same from everyone else who left reviews. Every single rotary blade sharpener makes them duller. I contacted a local knife sharpener, and he'll come by your home with his van, take your knives, and sharpen them all in your driveway. When I told him the size and style, he said even my 60mm blades are simply too small for him to even try sharpening.

Hence, long lasting blades. Rotary blades can be very expensive, and when you cut through as much fabric as I do, you dull them rather quickly. How can you tell your rotary blades are dull? If the fabrics are getting more difficult to cut and/or the edges of those cuts aren't straight nor smooth, they need to be changed. On a similar note, if you've been using the same needle, be it on your machine by hand, and it's snagging on the fabric or getting more difficult to push through layers, it needs changing.