Building Your Word Power: Sastruga

Over the years, I’ve posted photos of one of my favorite winter phenomena and a couple of years ago, blogger Sandra, from A Corner of Cornwall, told me there was a fancy name for it!

Sastruga (pl. sastrugi) It means: “ridges of snow formed on a snowfield by the action of the wind.”

When the wind screams off the lake, it sculpts the snow into constantly changing shapes . . . sastrugi.

Some are subtle.

Some are gorgeous, sinuous, and flashy.

It may look like striations in rock

Or waves of water, breaking

Or just plain peculiar . . .

This was from earlier this week. Those “duck bills” have an overhang of at least a foot!

Sastruga–A new word for you–you’ll need to use it three times, in a sentence, to make it your own . . .

Would you ever have a need for such a word, in your neck of the woods?

Hand Quilt Along: Reinspired

I’m back.

Back to the hand quilting work I started last year and walked away from for many months.

If you asked me why I came back now, after this long hiatus, I’d tell you that the sun is shining in my front window, right on my quilting chair. And the sun beckons me.

I’d tell you that winter is the best time to quilt because it’s so warm and cozy under that blanket of fabric.

I’d say that I have just gotten sick to death seeing the quilt cluttering up my living room and I only want it finished.

But the real reason I’m back, right now, is this:

 

You may not recall, it’s been so long, but my quilt is a celebration of women’s rights and includes quotes from women of many backgrounds. Those women and their words inspire me.

And these women and their deeds are inspiring me.

Our new Congress, seated in January, is the most diverse mix ever, and many of new faces are women. 

(From Elle magazine, “A Woman’s Place is in the House” by Jill Filipovic and Photography by Christelle De Castro, Dec 4, 2018)

These faces, those determined faces, without a trace of a coquettish, man-pleasing smile, linking arms and staring directly into our eyes, inspired me to get back to my work, to honor all the women who stand tall and are willing to take on all comers, in order to make the world a better place.

These women believe this:

And I believe in these women.

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This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Lori, Margaret, Kerry, Emma, Tracy, Deb, Connie, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, and Gretchen

 

Hardanger Hijinks

There’s a new stitch-along in town.

Kathy, at Sewing, Etc., is doing tutorial on how to work hardanger.

Hardanger is a special needlework technique that combines embroidery and drawn thread work. You embroider and cut, embroider and cut, all while hyperventilating and hoping you don’t cut too much or too far.

From Kathy’s blog–see how she’s cutting those threads? Eek.

I’ve seen a lot of hardanger in my years of selling vintage linens and am fascinated by the technique but I told Kathy I wasn’t going to participate in her stitch-along.

And then, you know, she posted the first instructions in a tutorial.

And I said, what the heck.

I whipped out some pretty blue linen I just happened to have on hand—not too fine cuz I’m new to this—and some white thread and I just took the plunge.

It went pretty well, don’t you think?

I made two placemats then got bored with the pattern so I made two more with a different pattern.

Then I thought, well, who wants a set of four placemats when six is within reach and I just dashed off two more in yet another different pattern.

I’m darn good at this, huh?

And then, since I had more fabric left and I was feeling frisky, I stitched up a cute little apron.

I am the queen of hardanger.

Wait . . . why are you looking at me like that? As if you doubt me? Don’t believe me?

I can see what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Really, Kerry??”

NO!

Not really! Ha.

Of course I didn’t make these pretty things. They were part of a stash of vintage linens I got recently. According to a handwritten tag attached to them, they are Danish.

But they are a beautiful example of the hardanger techniques. You can see how the white embroidery frames and secures the background cloth so that threads of that blue cloth can be cut and removed to create the classic look.

So, no. I’m not joining this stitch-along. I have plenty to keep me busy and feeling stressed without adding another deadline to my life. But I’ll follow along, watching the progress made by others, and offer my pretty vintage hardanger as inspiration.

 

 

Winter’s Silver Lining

At this point of winter, we Northerners look for silver linings.

Many are the reasons to pity the poor Southerners, but one presented its silver self this morning.

Freezing fog and the delicate, sparkling rime it leaves behind.

I’m no meteorologist and I would have to look up the specific conditions that give us freezing fog, but Northerners know it is distinct from garden-variety frost.

In its wake, freezing fog leaves the most delicate fuzz of crystals on the entire outdoors. Every tree and twig and dried weed and fence post is enrobed so they all appear a bit softened, muted, as if behind a scrim.

Fuzzy berries

Cedar bough

Teazles

And more

All the vegetation

Even the neighbor’s ugly mailbox looks good

Our mailbox cat looks extra handsome!

The iron fences

And my favorites . . .

The cedar fences

Prettier than usual

For the uninitiated, that’s snow on the left, rime from freezing fog on the right

(If you click on the photos, you can count the little spikes of ice!)

The temperature rises a degree or two, the sun comes out, and it’s gone. Winter is cold and a little bleak and hard-edged again. 

But we had our silver lining for a moment . . . and that counts for a lot during winter.