Pastoral

WHEN I was younger
it was plain to me
I must make something of myself.
Older now
I walk back streets
admiring the houses
of the very poor:
roof out of line with sides
the yards cluttered
with old chicken wire, ashes,
furniture gone wrong;
the fences and outhouses
built of barrel staves
and parts of boxes, all,
if I am fortunate,
smeared a bluish green
that properly weathered
pleases me best of all colors.

No one
will believe this
of vast import to the nation.

William Carlos Williams

Matryoshka Number One

I finally figured out a place to take etsy pictures indoors. This house is blessed with many windows, which I love. But it makes hanging things on the wall difficult. I have a wall of book cases in the living room compounding the problem. I worried that taking pictures on the green background would mess with the colors of the work, but it seems ok so far.

I think that I will make more of these, which is why I named this one One. So Two and so forth will be forthcomong.

Work has been so freaking weird. The administration is messing with our work and hours, we're switching over to computer charting, and they are building a new hospital across the street. Change is in the air, and it is making everyone tense. I like my current job, and would like to keep it, but there are rumblings that my department may be dissolved. I guess I can do any kind of nurse work, but I actually prefer to not think about changing jobs until I have to.

I'm actually not sure if I want to continue being a nurse. It is interesting, important work, but I long for a job that fills my cup rather than drains it. I don't know if there is such a job out there, or if the earlier sunsets are getting me down, or what. Guess I'll go sew something!

Mother in Law Quilt

I have friends, long together but never married. They refer to each others parents as "the out laws". As in, My mother-out-law will be here for the weekend.I, however, having the good luck to be attracted to people of the opposite sex, was able to marry my beloved, and thus I have in laws.

This disappearing nine patch, made with 10.5 inch starting size squares, was conceived on a Monday, pieced on a Tuesday, sandwiched on a Wednesday, and meander machine quilted Thursday and Friday. My husband left on Saturday, and gave it to her on a Sunday. I hear she liked it. I just used every damn floral I had, and figure finished is better than perfect.

Shown above is the poodle Magic, serving as chief quilt tester.

I am experimenting with using batting squares as foundation. This came to me as I was ripping off the three million tiny shreds of paper from a paper pieced spiderweb block. I know lots of people have good luck getting the paper off through various methods- I don't. I've shortened my stitch, folded on the stitch line, misted the paper lightly with water, you show me some site on the Internet with a hint, and I've tried it.

I have been making a ton of doll quilts- my dismal selection in my Etsy shop to the contrary- and that has used up a lot of batting, but not as much as I would wish. The idea of a cloth foundation bugs me. I don't have any ugly fabric to use up. I never buy fabric I think is ugly. The fabric is lost inside the quilt, not enough to serve as batting but still a whole nother layer of expense. Cheap muslin shrinks terribly, and unevenly, and they is a giant pain to iron after prewashing. I have so little time to quilt as it is, I hate the thought of it.

But, if I use the batting as the foundation, the batting is already there. I cut the batting into roughly eight inch squares. This is using up large quantities of those strips of batting left on the sides of quilts. I'm trimming the squares to about eight and a half inches. The seams are mostly fabric to fabric, although some of them have some batting caught in them. With a nice pressing, the seam is fine on the right side. The quilt itself will need very little quilting, as the batting is well secured. I'll use a flannel back for coziness, and to mitigate any places where the batting does not quite meet. This method doesn't need the backing cut into squares as the quilt as you go method does, and needs much less precision overall. I like less precision. I also like making strip quilts.

I've got a rail fence made out of strips from the top of my cutting table and the sewing machine- piecing as a cleaning method! I'll take pictures for next weeks post, but I'm pretty darn pleased with myself. Course, this could be one of those things that every one does, and as the Lone Quilter, I have just never heard of it, but I'm pleased with it none the less.

Book Review

Well, since I haven't managed the complicated cascade of making something-finding the camera-taking a picture-downloading picture-blogging, I decided I could manage a book review.
Love Soup by Anna Thomas is the best cookbook I have read in a long time.

The book has the warm chatty tone I remember from the Vegetarian Epicure, but is a much lighter cuisine. I have found more recipes that I want to make than I do not, and for someone who keeps kosher, is allergic to seafood, and has strong opinons about vegetables, that is a rarity.

I am going to make soup on my next day off. Yummm.

Today at work I was three nurses all at once. ( Two more nurses in my office down with the flu. We are speculating that they are pumping it through the air vents to infect as many employees as possible, and thus save some coin on purchasing vaccines.) I await with anticipation the pay raise I shall receive for this. What, why are you laughing?

Oh, Hai....

Still here.

not recommended:

Lumbar puncture ( spinal tap)
post tussive emisis ( coughing until you throw up)- quick, protect the laptop!
letting the dog on the bed before checking him for ticks ( will I create some kind of super Lyme/flu?)



recommended
Reading Insctructables.com
Having the kind of neighbor who takes your bored, hyper dog for the day, leave cold seltzer and hot coffee on the porch, and acts like this is all no big deal
sending the kids and husband to the sister in laws

Swine Flu

I has it. The CDC wants people to blog about it, so I am. They thought I had meningitis, so H1N1 is actually a much better deal. Yeah for little Miss Sunshine, always finding the pony in the pike of poo!

Somedays You're the Monster, Somedays the Gnome

Ugly or scary? Not much of a choice, actually, all though the odd little creature is actually very cuddly.

I am having bad nursing mojo. I am sick of my hospital and the weird things going on with management. I am sick of the doctors who put pressure on me to place lines, teach,and get the patients out the door. I am sick of the patients who don't realize that the fact that they are ALIVE and able to bitch at me is a modern miracle, that even ten years ago they would not have lived, let alone had the option to bitch at me. I am tired of the coworker with the chronic everything, bless her little malingering heart, and I am tired of the the coworkers who care less, more, or about different things than me.

None of this is any ones fault, really, but if someone were to come to me and say, wide eyed and earnest: "I want to be a nurse. I am going to help people, make a difference in people's lives, and give my all to humanity".

I would turn to them, and with a tone somewhere between a shriek and a growl " Run!!! Run for your life! You will be harmed by this profession, you will see horrible, haunting things. You will be treated like dirt, and you will be shit on. Literally. You will be mocked by doctors and looked down upon by many, many people. You will be back stabbed, you will be humiliated, you will try your best and be told that your best is not good enough. Run for your life. Find another job."

So, uhm, if you are a new nurse, or thinking about becoming a nurse, go find someone else to talk to.