Solidarity

From the Portland High School Website:

Portland is the largest city in Maine with a population of nearly 70,000. It features industrial and business interests, professional sports, an orchestra, theaters, museums, a busy port and working waterfront, an international jetport and lively arts district. One of three public high schools in the city, Portland High is among the oldest public high schools in the nation. Portland High School is a comprehensive four-year school located in the downtown district.

There are 791 students enrolled as of September 15, 2025. Approximately 40% of our student population is made up of immigrants representing 39 different countries and 26 languages, making Portland High School one of the most diverse high schools north of Boston. PHS cultivates the academic, social, emotional and civic skills of every student by fostering a mindset of lifelong learning and inspiring students to become dynamic participante in our local and global community. 

In 2000...our family moved from a predominantly wealthy white suburb into Portland in search of more opportunities and diversity for our two boys. We found it...and we love our vibrant, immigrant welcoming city on the Maine coast. 

Both Nate and Sam went to Portland High School and Paul and I are proud of the school's support and commitment to immigrant and non-traditional students. 

Ice agents have come to Maine and have named their mission "Operation Catch of the Day." I think that is despicable. They are targeting students and residents just because of their race and regardless of citizenship status often using violent and inhumane tactics.

Attendance at all Portland schools is down and immigrant families are urged to shelter in place. 

Paul and I joined a small group of Portland High School students and faculty on January 20th to protest the inhumane and targeted acts of violence by ICE against their fellow classmates and their families.

Earlier this evening we attended a Minnesota/Maine solidarity protest and we were impressed with the turnout and the energy of the crowd. We are heading to Lewiston tomorrow...another targeted immigrant welcoming city. 

Even in the chaos...there is always joy. We have walked by these lights going to protests during the day many times...but this is the first time in the dark. 

I think they're magical. 

For some reason I was not able to reply directly to a comment on the blog this morning. If you leave a comment...I can still publish it, and I will respond in a separate comment until I can figure it out. I may have to consult Clarke this weekend...she is my tech support and can usually figure out anything.

Color Palettes

How to stay on top of housework when you have a craft room (or a puzzle). 

1. You can't.

2. Find a new dream.

I continue to sit at my puzzle table for at least a few minutes every single day. It's almost meditative. Actually....it IS meditative....and a nice escape from the complete nightmare going on in our country. 

I finished the top half of Philippa's puzzle and got to push it up on the table and attach the bottom border. The bottom almost feels like a blank canvas.....

....and here's my color palette.

And here's another color palette I get to play with.

I'm going to make a joy journal for Judy...and these are the papers she sent me. I'm king of giddy...and it will be fun to see where these papers take me. I'm up for the challenge!

No Surprise

Joy is not a final destination....it's always a work in progress.

It's no surprise that the Kawandi paper quilt ended up being a journal cover. That's what I'm mostly doing these days.

Since it was a long narrow piece...I did a trifold...just like a wallet. That gave me two folds to attach two different signatures. 

It's kind of chunky...and the fabric backing lends itself to the more rounded spine. I just love the way it felt in my hands. 

There were a few larger papers in Roseanne's pile that I didn't work into the altered journal for one reason or another. So I used ALL of those...and EVERY SINGLE scrap of the other papers that were left over in this chunky little joy journal. I smiled all the way through making it!

I glued smaller scraps together to create bigger pages...I collaged on the back the thinner papers for reinforcement and I glued in little snippets. No scrap went unused! 

I folded pages to create pockets to tuck in more scraps and snippets. 

There are still plenty of spaces and places for Roseanne to add quotes and writing...and snippets and art.

This page spread has a pocket on the left...and a belly band on the right. 

I tucked in some of Roseanne's scraps (one I made into a little tag) in the pockets and tucked a few art papers under the belly band.  I added a few words here and there leftover from my tag project.....let's just love one another! That would solve a lot of problems.

Roseanne got her journals today...and she opened the box during a Zoom call. 

We had a good time...and it was fun to visit and talk about the process.

Kawandi Style

As you may know I'm quite taken with Kawandi style of quilting. I've played around a bit with both fabric and paper and have shared almost all of those projects here on the blog.

This was one of my first paper Kawandi style paper quilts...and you can read about it here in this post.

I used this tried and true technique with Roseanne's pre-stitched brown paper and those precious scraps.

My first step was reinforcing the back of the paper with some fused fabric. Stitching on paper creates perforated holes...so it can easily rip. Fabric backing gave the paper strength to hold up to stitching.

I started in one corner with a little scrap...

and kept adding...overlapping and stitching the scraps around the edge.

I stitched a couple rows before I needed to add additional squares and I would tuck them in to fill in the gaps and cover the brown paper. A variety of size and shape gives it interest.

I kept going....and once I get to the middle I was done.

Easy Peasy....and so satisfying. It only took about 10 minutes.

The papers are pretty diverse...but there's a good mix of light and dark they all work so well together and tell a personal story for Roseanne. Tune in tomorrow to see what I made for Roseanne with this Kawandi style paper quilt.

Precious Scraps

There is something about love that builds and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Martin Luther King Jr. 

As I've already mentioned....I finished Roseanne's altered art journal...but before I got it in the mail I wanted to do something with the leftover paper and small scraps. 

When I fold and stitch papers around the edge of the journal pages there are always little cutoffs....and I can't bear to throw them away. So I started a second project for Roseanne with this little pile of precious scraps...

....and this pre-stitched brown paper piece that Roseanne included in the pile she sent me. Once I got started....it took on a life of its own and has been another joyful microburst of art and crafting over the last couple of days.

I'll share this second project over the next couple of posts....stretching it out as I get the box in the mail.   

I really enjoy these little challenges...and it has me thinking.....

Joy in the Snow

I'm not big on blog stats. I used to pay more attention because it was interesting at first....but now I'm driven much more by feedback, comments and interactions with readers. The stats are mostly driven by one time clicks where someone is exploring something they saw on Pinterest. But I guess that's a thing too....thinking that one of my images or creations ends up on Pinterest....then captures someone's attention.

I spent the morning with Kelly...and she told me that she was searching for art ideas for her middle school students on Pinterest and clicked on an image that took her to Joyful Puttering. She chuckled...and thought she would close her computer and go right to the source. We had a delightful morning talking about art....and she went home with more supplies.

That's what drives me.

That's what brings me joy.

 

But....as of today I have had over 1,000,000 clicks/views on this Joyful Puttering blog. I guess that's a thing too....and it kind of blows my mind.

We had a few inches of snow yesterday....and the world looks fresh and new. I absolutely love zooming in to see how the snow settles onto surfaces.

If you choose not to find joy in the snow you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow. 

I found joy in the snow today.

Beautiful Hands

Roseanne snapped this photo of her dear mother's hands while she was napping...and I have her permission to share it with you. It brought tears to my eyes because it's so beautiful......and it triggers memories of the older women that have been in my life...and their beautiful hands. 

Think about the stories in these hands.

They've held babies and wiped tears. They've stitched on buttons....and picked flowers. There is so much wisdom and strength...in these beautiful hands. 

Smidgen

Happiness is not something you find, it's something you practice. 

I am practicing happiness as I work on this fabulous puzzle from Philippa Stanton. When I boxed it up last time I divided it in half putting the top and bottom in separate bags. The intention was to make it easier for Margie to manage the pieces. I can't remember if she got to it....but the system is helping me out and I can't help but think about her.

I will completely finish the printers drawer in top half before I connect the border and move it up on the table. Managing 500 pieces in my boxes is easier than managing 1000!

I started with all the colorful objects in the printers drawer. 

I'm down to the pieces with just a smidgen of color which will leave me with just a box or two of connecting browns. Do you see that smidgen of pink on this piece?

I think smidgen is on of my favorite words...and it fits right in with thinking micro and working small. 

Several paths are already connected from side to side....and I love that they are connected by sometimes just a smidgen of color.

Microburst of Joy

I have been working in little microbursts on Roseanne's altered art journal....the final burst just today. It's all done...and I'm quite pleased with it. 

These journals are fun because they're so unique and personal. The papers are almost all from Roseanne...so it will be personal to her. And it's unique because there's not another one like this anywhere! 

Our friendship means a lot to me...and that I was able to do this for her makes it personal to me. 

Almost all of the pages are edged...giving some color inspiration 

for each spread. And it looks really cool from the side.

Almost every time I've assemble one....I think of something new. While I was making Becky's I thought to fold lighter weight papers over the edge of the journal page so they would be more stable. I used to always rip the pages down and stitch on the extension. I still rip pages...but I do a whole lot or wrapping....and every page is stitched.

Just today...as I was running low on Roseanne's papers and going through the leftovers and scraps and I had another idea.

Here I glued two scraps together...folded it over the edge and stitched it down.

I love this new technique...and used it in several places. 

This is what a microburst of joy looks like!

Micro Within Micro

It was a lovely winter day....a good day for a micro adventure. I've been curious about the store Terrarium in downtown Portland for quite some time now. I paid for an hour of parking....visited the store and walked around the city until my hour was up. I got some exercise...and had magnificent micro adventure. 

The store is a lovely warehouse type space with lots of exotic plants. But mostly it's a build your own terrarium place...with colorful tiny plants and interesting moss and accessories. There even a snack bar. 

It would be a fun place for small group gathering or party.

Colorful tiny plants in the winter are good for the soul.

I just put two and two together! It was a micro adventure....to a store with hundreds of micro plants...for terrarium building. 

Micro within a micro! Win win! 

Journeys

I have four healthy leaves emerging from my amaryllis bulb. What a wonderful distraction this winter tracking the journey of this odd and amazing freak of nature. 

Speaking of journeys...I'm guessing some of you are following the Walk for Peace on social media. It's a balm for my soul...such a wonderful contrast to the violence and chaos going on in the world right now. 

A group of monks and their dog Aloka are walking 2,300 miles from Texas to Washington D.C.  They started in October, and plan to finish in February...and their only goal is to promote peace, unity, compassion, and nonviolence. Couldn't be better timing. I highly recommend following along..the photographs and stories of community and support are amazing and uplifting! 

https://www.instagram.com/walkforpeace.usa/

https://www.facebook.com/walkforpeaceusa

The Shared Love of Birds

The birds have been an absolute joy this winter. About half dozen bluebirds or more continue to come to the feeder by the patio every morning for breakfast. They are a delightful part of my morning ritual.

This morning we had some unfamiliar visitors at the feeder in the woods. The regulars were there too...titmouse, chickadees, cardinals, doves, and a few woodpeckers. The new visitors looked a bit like finches....but they were way too big and the coloring was a bit different.

With the help of the Maine Birds Facebook group I belong to I learned they are Evening Grosbeaks....a declining species in the Eastern U.S. I was quite taken with lovely conversation  between eight or ten of us online....all because of our shared love of birds. Community is an act of resistance. 

Works Like a Dream

Jane and I are both fans of Jo Diggs and her landscape quilts....and we each have a little collection of our own. Mine hangs as part of a collage wall in my entryway which I walk by many many times a day. I have five of her pieces.

I was actually all signed up to take an in person course with Jo when COVID hit so unfortunately it was cancelled. Just a few years later she passed away. She was such a talent!

More than a year ago Jane took one of her smaller pieces apart because there was fading...or some other issue. She added a new linen layer for the snow and handed it off to me to frame using my fused binding technique. 

I got as far as replacing and repositioning the moon....but then it got put on the back burner and lost in the whole mix of all things life. Until just recently. 

Jane is coming over later this week to shop my fabric stash....and I wanted to hand it off to her. So it's finally done!

I used a wooden canvas for the base.....which I padded with a thin layer of batting.

I cut the binding out of hand dyed fabric and attached strips of fusible webbing along one edge. I sewed it on the quilt mitering the corners. 

I stretched it onto the canvas and fused the binding to the back. I added some extra fused strips to tidy it up and make it more attractive.

 

It's a framing/binding techniques that I have used over and over again...

it works like a dream!

I wrote about hanging my gallery wall here in this post. 

Jane's piece would fit right in!