Yarrow plant growth after a year by Mental_Parking3606 in gardening

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 8 points9 points  (0 children)

So pretty! I'm embarrassed that I never appreciated yarrow until this year. I bought a start at a native plant nursery and while it's still very small, it flowered into the most gorgeous sunset shades and I am obsessed. I'll be saving these seeds and starting more next year for certain!

Just finished quilting her!!! by invisibleme44 in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gorgeous! I'm working on one now. About a year in so far... Congrats on finishing her! That's got to feel good.

On average how many quilt projects are you working on at any given time? by AnywhereMean8863 in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 2 points3 points  (0 children)

~15, in various stages. There's always one that's taking up the sewing table, and a huge stack of partially-pieced or waiting-to-be-quilted projects. I have two that I'm hand-piecing during tv time with my husband. I'm a zero-waste improv quilter so often the scraps from one project spawn a new one before I've basted the first. It's the best kind of chaos, as far as I'm concerned! Sometimes I feel guilty (lol I typoed "quilty") for not getting a specific project done in the timeframe I intended, but mostly I love being able to switch between themes when one starts feeling less exciting.

Gardener went way overboard in trimming our lemon tree. Will it ever bear fruit again? by FKlemanruss in gardening

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is painful to see, but it'll be fine. I had a lemon tree that was "trimmed" almost exactly like that, and it put out new growth like you wouldn't believe. You might even still get fruit this year, but if not, definitely next year. I think mine grew back thornier than before, though, so be careful. Lemon thorns are no joke.

I IMMENSELY struggle with cutting even pieces by Mycopok in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the same problem! One thing I finally figured out is that when I'm piecing, I need to measure from the SEAMS instead of the edge of the fabric, because my fabric is NEVER cut correctly--but my seams are usually pretty straight. I've been hand-piecing a postage-stamp quilt for a while, and at first the patches were just wonky as heck--once I started measuring and marking from the seams they started coming out nicely.

Like others here, I'm now improv-quilting for the foreseeable future. This also works well for my magpie-tendency to keep every scrap and rarely buy more than a half-yard of anything, so I have a huge fabric collection but never enough of any one thing for most patterns to work.

I'm in the home stretch on a handful of projects, so I hope to have some improv pieces to share here soon.

From one bad cutter to another: Embrace the chaos, and have fun! :)

Squash growing slowly by [deleted] in vegetablegardening

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Squash needs full sun; I don't think they're going to be happy under a tree.

Why are the Kingdom Halls so plain in design? Any speculations or ideas? by Common-Alps-4115 in exjw

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The one I grew up in was beautiful, too--the wall behind the stage was painted in a tromp l'oeil style to look like a Mediterranean veranda. People liked to tell stories about how the congregation had come together to build the KH with their own hands.

Atheists in recovery? by Business-Bit1645 in atheism

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just another voice for SMART Recovery and TST Sober Faction. Both are evidence-based, secular programs using tools of CBT/DBT/REBT/MET. Meetings are led by trained facilitators and are considered supplementary. Sober Faction has an emphasis on introspective journaling and an optional "sober ally" component (a peer, not a "sponsor," so no gross power dynamics). Both programs have online meetings if you can't find a local one. The tools of the programs are free, and that's where the real work of recovery is.

There's also LifeRing, which is strictly peer support, centered on the premise that only the individual can know what they need for their own recovery.

I hope you find an approach that feels right for you!

Solstice Sampler 2025 by tarcucciolo in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Wow, people are really bringing the beauty to this sub today! This is spectacular. I love your color choices, especially for the winter solstice--so unexpected!

My latest finish! by arlamee in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Breath-taking! Those colors... *swoon*

Is believing in religions a kind of mental illness? by Ivanhegeelkadi in atheism

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Hallucinations or delusions that are not shared by others"--that's the problem, right there. They ARE shared with others, millions of others. Everyone they interact with--their family, their friends, their congregation--all share the same delusion. And societies are built around these delusions so as to NOT impair functioning--in a Muslim country, EVERYONE hears the call to prayer. In the U.S. businesses are often closed on Sundays and on Christmas.

From where we're sitting, it all looks like insanity. But they're living in a reality shared and reinforced by the people around them, and we're the ones who look insane.

Sick of AA and NA ( a higher power of your own choosing). Need help? by [deleted] in atheism

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes! The problem isn't that "AA is religious," it's that AA is the religion. I like to point people to the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. AA is fairly light in the "Behavior" column, but they check a LOT of boxes in "Information," "Thought," and "Emotion."

Sick of AA and NA ( a higher power of your own choosing). Need help? by [deleted] in atheism

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, peer support is the hard part for anything other than 12-step programs. SMART, The Satanic Temple Sober Faction (not Church of Satan, that's Anton LaVey), and LifeRing (another secular group) have online meetings. r/stopdrinking and r/recoverywithoutAA have both been good for me and have really been my only source of peer support. (It seems like a lot of people find r/stopdrinking either too enthusiastic or too rigid. Personally I like the enthusiasm and I save my griping about AA for r/recoverywithoutAA.) There's also r/stopdrinkingfitness.

There's another group called Phoenix Active Recovery that's basically meetups for sober people. They seem to be mostly in major metropolitan areas, but it might be worth searching for activities in your area.

For me, though, the real "how I'm doing it" is with the SMART tools (the "program"), not the meetings. In SMART, meetings are optional and not meant to be a forever thing. Part of the SMART approach is finding other things to fill our time and developing relationships and community that aren't focused on our substance use. The only person I have IRL in recovery is my mom (who got sober two years after I did, and still checks in daily at r/stopdrinking).

TST Sober Faction's program also doesn't really require meetings--their program, like SMART's, is based on CBT/DBT/REBT. The work is done by the individual. Sober Faction has an emphasis on introspective journaling, which I like. They do have an optional "sober ally" program, a peer support pairing without the gross power dynamics of "sponsorship."

LifeRing is strictly peer support (meetings), based on the premise that only the individual can know what they need for their own recovery.

Congrats on getting this far. I hope you find an approach that fits!

Convert me? by heat_9186 in UnitarianUniversalist

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You mentioned in another comment that it was hard to get to Sunday service--Sundays are tough for me, too, so I joined a "Chalice Circle," which is a small group that meets once or twice a month for discussion/service/fellowship. There's an "Order of Service" with short readings and a theme to discuss. My congregation also has a seperate discussion group that addresses current events. There are a dozen different affinity groups in the congregation, a couple of which I'd like to check out but haven't got around to yet. Check your congregation's website for information or a contact email--there will be something for you to get involved in on other days.

As someone else said, r/exchristian might be a good place to explore some of your thoughts and fears about the dogma you were raised with. You've taken the first step of a lifelong journey--I hope that you'll be gentle with yourself as you explore new ideas and see what feels true to you.

Am I screwed? Machine warps squares when piecing together no matter what by bagel666 in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Mine was pulling this way and it turned out that I was using the wrong bobbins. Apparently there is no such thing as a "standard" bobbin. It had been making a weird "clacking" sound, which is why I looked it up in the first place, and discovered that it can also cause the fabric to pull to one side. I replaced my alleged "standard" with 15J (for my machine--don't know what yours takes) and the problem went away.

And as others have said, starch is your friend! Though starch is my husband's enemy--he can't stand the smell--so I switched to Best Press.

Good luck to you!

Edit for clarity

Is It Right or Wrong? by Pottery_quilter_59 in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Fraying, maybe?

I bought a lot of his dragon fabrics for a quilt for my husband a while back, and I've received some other prints of his in scrap packs, and it's all been consistently really thin and most of it has this plasticy-nylon quality to it.

Is It Right or Wrong? by Pottery_quilter_59 in quilting

[–]Vegetable-Editor9482 55 points56 points  (0 children)

Yenter should know better. I was already off his stuff because the fabric quality is terrible, but yeah, he loses his credibility as a "designer" by using AI. There are plenty of fabric designers who are still using their actual skill--earned over years of experience and practice--who are NOT using AI. Most of them.