Progress Update for February

February hasn't been my most productive month for me. It started with us out of town and then last weekend we spent the weekend moving my sewing room from upstairs to a downstairs room.  I have had a knee bothering me for the last year and my husband thinks being downstairs will help it so I am moving the sewing room from a 13' x 26' room to a 10' x 10' room.  YIKES!!!

 

Good news is I am back to being able to sew and this weekend got quite a lot of things caught up.

 

I have my round robin addition on and ready to send on it's way to it's March destination. The pictures I took turned out terrible so I will try to get a couple snaps before I send it on it's way so I can show a tidbit.

 

I spent the week carousing my fabrics looking for the right combo for my beehive block this month.  It is the first block for the swarm and this month Melanie is our Queen and picked out the Chainlink block from  Alyce at Blossom Heart Quilts.  I was a little unsure of all the pieces but it went together so smoothly and Alyce's directions were super!!!  It has been so fun to see all of our blocks as they are added to our IG feed.

Second up was the second block for my RSC blocks.  This month the color selected was pink and it only seemed fitting for Valentine's Day to use all the heart fabrics.  I love how these are going to look in all the colors and I really love how it looks next to last month's block.

Then I worked on two more blocks for the Sew Simplicity block of the month by Jacquelynne Steves.
This one I adore by itself but seems so muted next to the others.  I still have to do the applique to the center of these last two but am excited to get them this far.  These have SO many pieces!!!  I think if this one is going to work I am really going to have to use the dark values in the applique pieces because right now it seems so washed out.

No wonder, look at it compared to the others it seems so light, too light.  It totally reminds me of the awesome Spring weather we had this weekend but is so unlike the other blocks.  If there was going to be 9 or more of these blocks I could make it work in the center but this BOM only has 6 block and I do not want to do all of these twice.  Jacquelynne suggested a setting of 4 or 6 blocks so maybe I should just settle on 4.

 

I have been having fun over on IG.  More checking out what everyone else is up to but in doing so found a couple of IG only swaps that I simply could not pass up.  First one is a gnome swap and the second is a Fairy tale swap.  Both have June/July finishes so I am anxious to get partnered up and start planning on what to create for both of these swaps.

 

Still Stitchin'



Manzanar Trip

Not much sewing done this last weekend as we traveled south to California to drop my daughter off for a three month internship at Manzanar National Park.  Located near Death Valley in a valley between the Inyo-White mountain range and the Sierra Nevada mountain range it sure is a very picturesque spot to spend some time.  Unfortunately it marks a dark time in American history during World War II when about 10,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to Manzanar from as far away as Bainbridge, WA to spend three years there before finally being allowed to leave. 

The building behind my daughter houses a very nice museum recounting the three years the interment camp was being used during the war.  During the war, this building was used by residents as a community center and held regular dances there according to the video we watched inside. 

In this picture you can see the barracks that stood row upon row.

 

 

This map shows the layout as it was during it's use.  Today only two barracks remain and they are actually resurrected buildings as the camp was torn down after it's closure and the wood was sold off by the government. 

What a dry and arid area to have been forced to live in.  It is also very windy at Manzanar as it is so closely nestled between the two mountain ranges that the wind is pretty steady through here.

This is a monument that is erected in a cemetery area of the site. 

In 1992, Congress established Manzanar National Historic Site and entrusted the Park Service to preserve the site and its stories.  It serves as a reminder to todays generations and to future generations of the fragility of American civil liberties.  For over 10,000 people were held here behind barbed wire and armed guards with no due process and they deserve for us to know of their stories and learn from the events of this time in American history. If you would like to learn more about the Manzanar site you can go HERE. 

During my daughter's internship though the Student Conservation Association she will be doing some repair work on site and pruning and grafting trees.  She will also be there during a college Archaeological dig and be present during the annual pilgrimage to Manzanar for internees and their families wishing to visit.

The trip down there was about 950 miles from our house and while you would think I had lots of time in the truck to do some hand sewing all I got done was this.  Well this and about 20 hexagons that I didn't take a picture of.

I had the center part done but added the white embroidery stitches between the border and the center.
Hopefully, I can get this up and hanging on the wall this month as it is from the Year of Bertie blocks from 2014 and is the February block.  Seeing as how the January block has been hanging in the kitchen all year long it would love to be replaced by this beauty soon.  Hopefully it won't be a year before the March block is done but I wouldn't doubt it.  Seriously, I think I should start on the June or July block and hope it is done by this June or July. We do have another long trip to go down and bring her back up so it just might work out that I can get another one done this year.

Don't you just love the Circus Circus carpet in the above picture. Can you believe I was against staying there because I wasn't sure I could stand to see it all the time but it quickly grew on me.

Despite the limited hand sewing on the way down to California and back through Reno I seemed to have developed some rather large muscles which I attribute to the muscles used doing the minute amount of sewing I did accomplish.  Good thing I didn't over indulge!!!

Keep Stitchin'