Tuesday's Orts--Nov 2, 2010

Election Day so closely following Halloween kinda suits my mood.  But that's not the focus of this week's Orts, I have much more important things to talk about!

• Short Sock Syndrome.  It's a serious condition whereby manufacturers feel that women do not need to cover more than their ankles yet still have to pay the same price as men's trouser socks that come up to the calf.  It's a conspiracy. Being tall, I am often subject to this discrimination and I protest!(simulated dumping tea sound here)
• We had hordes of trick or treaters of all ages this year, as usual, however I was glad to see that all were in costume, including an adult Sponge Bob carrying his Lion baby.  We've had older teenagers come to the door in years past just holding out their hands.  No candy unless you're in costume, I say, or go buy your own!
• We gave out 10 bags of candy before running out at 8:30 and shutting off the porch light--with many folks still out on the street.  Only one group rang the doorbell on the dark porch and had to be turned away with "Sorry, we're out of candy!"
• We've had a very warm Fall after a cool Summer and the leaves are late to turn color.  The ginkgo across the street is finally getting golden.  Today they are predicting an 85 degree high temp for our city.  My poinsettia is totally confused!
• Traffic rant of the week:  Jaywalkers who WALK (not jog!) across four lanes of traffic holding their hand up, when there is a signal and crosswalk at each end of the short block they are on. Grrr.  Oh, and bicycle riders who ride against traffic on a four lane road, ride on the sidewalk, ride side by side instead of tandem, and ignore stop signs and red lights. Double Grrr. 
• Several hours were spent pinning a big quilt over the weekend at my parent's.  I finally got smart and we used three of their large folding tables in the studio/garage instead of clearing the living room floor to lay it out.  We'll never do it another way now!

We used some leftover pavers to raise the table even higher.

Here's the backing all taped down, Erica's initials backwards there.

And the quilt top.  The border is a polyester suede that is a purple plum color but it looks black in this photo.  It's hard to photograph purples!  It was so much easier to pin this standing rather than crawling--next time I think we'll even double up the pavers to make it taller.  I did run into some tucks on the back because I had no clamps to secure the sides, but they were easy to fix.  This was the first time I have used wool batting and it is very light, which should help counteract the already heavy quilt from the silk dupioni in the triangles and the suede in the border. 

Erica is already asking when I am going to quilt this!  I told her this is a weekends type of quilting task.  I am happy it is a sandwich now, and not a top and backing that is mocking me from the closet every time I open the door to get out the ironing board.