Putter Putter Putter

I did not do a good job of managing projects in the pipeline after all, because now I have nothing in the pipeline. And while it feels good to have finished so many projects, I was at loose ends yesterday, which does not feel good. I hesitate to start another big project, because I am sure that as soon as I do, the weather will improve and I will need to be spending my time outside.

I played around with BlockBase+ and EQ8 for a while and came up with a few more quilt designs. I boxed up the Guidepost sweaters to mail this week. I went out to the greenhouse mid-morning because Ali and her little guy were over there re-potting some of their seedlings, so I organized my tomatoes and planted a few more trays of seeds (flowers, mostly) and visited with them. We are all a bit concerned about the upcoming fire season. Our fire department was called to an out-of-control grass fire on Wednesday because the homeowner—someone who moved here from out of state—had been advised NOT to burn but went ahead and did it anyway. I saw the aftermath when I took some supplies to the crew. The fire had burned an area the size of two football fields in just an hour or so, and threatened not only this homeowner’s land, but neighboring properties as well.

A large part of Ali’s job is homeowner education on fires and fire behavior, but we worry that some people just aren’t educable. This particular homeowner may think twice, however, about burning again in the future. And while snowpack is near or above normal in the mountains, we need more rain than we’re getting at the moment.

I wanted to sew, so I got out the bin of 5” squares and started putting together some comforter tops for us to tie at our monthly sewing meetings at church. Finished comforters will get donated to Mennonite Central Committee. Our sewing group is meeting again May 6 after more than a year.

I’m still poking around the Newspapers.com website. I ran across a “quilt designer” whose name was unfamiliar to me—Hetty Winthrop. Interestingly, I found her name on a clipping from the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

A Google search led me to Barbara Brackman’s site for her Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns. In the entry for May 25, 2020, she notes that Hetty Winthrop seems to have “lifted liberally” from other pattern designers of the time (ironic, given the copyright notice in the newspaper ad). She goes on to say:

So who was this pattern pirate? Of course Hetty Winthrop is a pen name, evoking Colonial ladies and old New England families for the Bell Syndicate, a large newspaper company in business from 1916 to 1973. They distributed many comic strips and fiction other than needlework. But quilt patterns were hot in 1932 and '33. I would imagine Hetty was an artist working for Bell recruited for this needlework task at which s(he) was not too talented.

Wilene Smith has posted a page on Hetty, noting four US papers that bought the column in the first go-round beginning in December, 1932. It was revived in 1938 & '39 for Canadian papers through Dominion News Bureau, which also printed it in the early 30s.

Wilene Smith’s page can be found here. This stuff is fascinating.

A few months ago, I set up an online library card in the Montana library system and have been borrowing and reading books on my iPad. I just finished one by an incredibly well-known romance author—so well known that when I said her name to the husband, he responded, “The woman who writes all those romance novels?” As he is not in the habit of reading romance novels (or monitoring my reading preferences, for that matter), that should tell you how well known this person is.

I can’t believe this person got published, let alone written more than several dozen books. The writing was awful. I don’t do much creative writing, but one rule I do know is “Show, don’t tell,” which means to set up the scene so that the reader can imagine it in his or her head. This novel consisted of several hundred pages of “And then this happened,” followed by “And then this happened,” etc. The storyline was interesting, which was why I finished the book, but it was like going to a fancy restaurant expecting a delicious meal and being served a McDonald’s hamburger instead.

My gold standard for excellent storytelling is a woman who writes historical fiction under the pen name of Sara Donati. She has spoiled me for anything less.