Learning New Things and Clearing Out the Pantry

Saturday we had a nor'easter. Torrential rains all day. I worked on clearing out and organizing the garage. I got almost everything done.

Sunday from 11:00 - 1:00 was an open house. It was still raining. We got up and got all in order. Vacuumed and dusted, all the laundry done and headed out with the dogs on the back seat. We did a few errands and then just drove around. The realtor did say that one couple came and they said they were interested. Haven't I heard that before......

That meant when we got home at 1:00 the house was clean and the rest of the day was ours. We put everything out again that we enjoy and I took a long nap.

When I got up I felt like cooking so since I am working on clearing out the pantry (only going to have the absolute necessities..........) I played in the kitchen.

I had a box of Jiffy Raspberry muffin mix and a recipe for a coffee cake was on the box. Since it required chopped nuts I was able to use up some from the freezer. We will enjoy this for the rest of the week.



And what is this you ask? Home made yogurt. We had terrible rains on Saturday but since Lem had to go out anyway I went with him to get some milk and yogurt. Late Friday afternoon I learned from Judy that you could make your own yogurt in the crockpot. Yogurt is a favorite food but a bit pricey so I don't eat as much as I would like. I followed the directions and here is the outcome..........I got strawberries for mine and blueberries for Lem. We have enjoyed it every morning this week.


I even made a batch of dog food for the children. Ground beef, brown rice, sweet potato, carrot and green beans. They will eat well this week at least.


Oh before I forget, I have finished the March block of my 2008 Jan Patek BOM. This is something I pick up when I have nothing else ready to stitch. One day it will get my undivided attention.

The Studio

I had insomnia for two night this past week. That seemed a great time to clear out the studio. Things wander in while I am out and take up residence. The plop down by the wall and slowly the mound moves until there is little room to walk.

It has reached crisis proportions and we had people looking at the house on Wednesday. Amazing what you can get done in the early hours when there is no sound in the house and no one to interrupt you.

My computer and printer fit nicely there and the cabinets are good storage.


Perhaps a clean ironing board cover would have been in order before I took the pictures. I must get that washed this weekend...............


This view is the small section to the left of the door.


Here sits the Duchess on her special Field Desk. The desk is low and I am short so it is a perfect fit.



At one time these drawer sets went all around the room. I am learning to keep fewer projects in view. If there are too many I start several at one time. Not a good thing. Now I am trying to limit myself to the number I have going. This does not include the BOM's of course.


The cutting table has Bonnie Hunter's scrap method set up in the drawers under it. That system works a treat.

Getting the Bits and Bobs Together.

All of the pieced parts of the 18 blocks of the border have been assembled and are here on the sewing table to be assembled.

The two complete blocks and the fabric cut for the blocks in sashing that goes between the blocks.

Now if I can find time to do some assembly.

Eight Done and One to Go

Not a good picture but at least I got a chance to take one....


The weekend was spent mostly in the basement... Several more boxes of STUFF gone.. I also tightened up my packing and now I have more plastic boxes I can pack with things upstairs. We still have about a day of work down there. Lots of cobwebs........ and spiders......... I sure will be glad when that job is done.

Last night I sat down to work on my Leanne's house block. Something I needed was upstairs so I put it to one side and moved on the seventh bunny hill block. That had the wrong fabric so i put it aside. The next item in my bag of tricks was a Jan Patek BOM. I did get some stitching on it. It was early to bed for both of us. Lem is still feeling rode hard and put up wet but he has a Dr's appointment at 3:00 this afternoon. I sure hope he gets better soon.

Goodby Bill

I suppose we slept through that storm. We both worked hard in the basement getting rid of more STUFF and brushing down spider webs. No rain or wind till late evening. When we went to bed last night at 10:00 PM the ocean was really roaring..... We are 1.5 miles away and we could hear it loudly. I know the lights were on at 4:40 AM and then went off but came back online. No signs of even extra leaves down in the yard so we must be fine. I did check online to find the he is still passing offshore. The surfers here will be pleased.


Several years I did a cross stitch piece for a dear nephew on black fabric. I promised that would be my last trip on the dark side.

I was wrong. I found this graph and it really needed to be on black and the friend I was doing it for is such a treasure that I felt she was worth the effort. Once again I promised myself ..NO MORE BLACK...

But I really liked the way it turned out. And also determined that is was perfect for me.

So I began another one... I am not stroking each stitch on this piece. That makes a difference but I am hoping to get this finished and framed before we leave here because the framers here did such an exceptional job and the frame really made the piece. I am trying to get at least 30 minutes a day on this piece so you will be seeing constant progress....

This was from last week. I will confess it took me some time for set up. I needed to get the fabric on the frame and gather the thread together but finally the first stitch was in place.

Saturday

Today started off early. I did get to sew for about 45 minutes. I made a Cool Tie for Lem. The heat is really getting to him. He has felt bad for several days now. This official heat wave is not moving off like they originally thought and today we are waiting for BILL...... to visit.

The children were up and needed breakfast. I went downstairs to feed them so Lem could try to get a bit more sleep. After all he does get up at dawn everyday to walk them. Then they usually will sleep for another hour.....

While they ate I worked on a cross stitch piece for me. More on that later.

After everyone got up I made Copper Pennies and macaroni salad. My cooking is done for the day.

I am planning a short break and then I will go downstairs and work on the basement.

Pictures later.

Number Five

Now Block five is complete. Only two behind on this BOM. July and August. I might get caught up one day.


Grocery store again this morning.... I needed more Gatorade for Lem. He drank four of the six bottles I got for him yesterday.

We are planning a cold supper tonight... Ham steak, potato salad, deviled eggs and tossed salad. I have the potatoes and eggs already cooked. That will be easy to assemble when I get home.

They had big bags of cooked shrimp on sale so I purchased one. We can have that one night but I will have french fries with the shrimp... and of course another salad.

Saturday we picked up a eight piece fried chicken bucket at the grocery store and half of that is left. That will be supper tomorrow night. Now that I have meals planned for a few days I can think of other things.

I wanted to work on quilting my nine patch this morning but the sun was not up enough in that room for me to see. I worked an assembling the parts for the border blocks for Rebekah's quilt.

A Couple of Finishes

Last night I put the finishing touches on block 6 of Bunny Hill BOM. I then began block 5. I don't know why I did block 6 first....



I also finished the hand work on Block Three of Leanne's House. This morning I put it together.
My sewing time was cut short so that is all I got done. Tonight I will work on my Bunny Hill block and then block eight of Gail Pan. When they are done I will begin Block Six of Leanne's House. I can't believe that I actually have six of them completed..........




This morning after balancing the checkbook I dressed and headed to the grocery store. Got that done for the next several days. I even got my banking done. All weekend errands are complete except for getting my muffins from Joanie tomorrow afternoon.........

No Picture, Just Chat

Yesterday we made the trip to Boston for another back treatment....... We managed to have an appointment on the hottest day of the year........... A record breaking heat day..........

Did I mention that running the air conditioner in the car made it run hot? I discovered that if the automatic temp was set at 80 we could use the air conditioner. That wee bit of tepid air blowing on my face was preferable to having the windows open and a bit cooler too...... What did we do before cars had air conditioners in them.............. Rolled down the windows........ Well that was part of the problem. Saturday the driver's window broke............. (they are electric).......... We could not get the car fixed on Monday so we had to go with it as it was.............

I had a different Doctor this time. She might have been 15.......... I don't think she was old enough to drive. Not quite as good as before. I had to have the local anesthesia twice because it did not work the first time. She hit my sciatic nerve twice but thinks she got the right place on the third try. I am not too sure. It is twinging today more than is really comfortable but not as bad as Monday..........

I did manage to sew a bit more this morning on the quilt for Rebekah. I have two border blocks done and now am beginning to piece the different parts and lining them up for a faster block assembly.

It is too hot upstairs in the afternoon to sew.... I am beginning to rethink having my studio on the second floor.

I also have my nine patch layered ..............THANKS VICKIE.............. and ready to quilt. I might put Rebekah's quilt aside for a few days and try to get the nine patch quilted. We shall see.

Errands after work tonight......... Three of them........... Grocery store for a few items, library and the final stop at the butcher.............

Spanish rice tonight. It will cook in the electric frying pan in only 30 minutes. I will not need to heat up the kitchen with the oven. Hot tonight too, only cooling off to 75 but relief is in the forecast for tomorrow with a high of 84 and 65 degrees at night........good sleeping weather.

Tonight I will finish Block Six on the Bunny Hill blocks. Don't know why but I skipped block five. I will grab it next.

I have all the applique and embroidery done for block 3 of Leanne's House. I might even get it put together tomorrow morning so that I can have a picture.

Loose Feathers

There were a few questions yesterday about Loose Feathers. They are small cross-stitch designs by Barbara Adams and Alma Allen. These talented ladies also have wonderful quilt designs and their company is called Black Bird Designs.





This is a picture of the bonus designs included with these loose feathers. I should be able to have a nice stitchery set should I ever make these lovely items.


No stitching yesterday. Just house and errands and home for a long rest. The car window jumped the track or something and now will not go all the way up. It was in the high eighties here and while that might not sound too bad to some of you, let me remind you that we have no air conditioning. Usually don't need it. The heat really saps your energy. Perhaps I should re-think living in NC........................

Little and Often

Finishes the quilt...............

The center is done........... I am delighted with how it looks. I sure hope Rebekah is pleased.

Now on to the border It is all cut and ready. The center is complete...........

Open house today so I won't get much sewing done. We will get the house ready this morning and do errands this afternoon....

Barry called. He has another Loose Feather. I will be heading to Brewster to indulge myself.

Half of the Middle

The first two rows of the middle are assembled. If all goes well, I could finish the center portion of this quilt tomorrow. Then I can begin the 18 blocks for one of the borders.............

The Last Three Blocks

The last three blocks are done. I did have enough fabric to finish them. Now on to the sashing for the quilt center.

I got that cut out and began stitching them on this morning. I had to cut my sewing time short today because someone was looking at our house this morning at 10:00 AM.





I also removed all the little pieces I had appliqued to the wrong fabric. Now to put it on the correct background and stitch it again.

This and That

Block 11 is complete..... only three more to make for the center.


And I finally finished my little nine patch. This has been in the making for years. I have been using it as my Leander Quilt (leader - ender). Bonnie Hunter's Leader Ender method makes sense to me. I consider this quilt made with free thread... You know that two inch bit you cut off and put in the trash and the beginning and end each time you sew. Now I have a stack of pieces cut from making other quilt blocks that I will assemble into HST's..... They will all go into BOB and if I ever live in a permanant home where I can put up a design board they will become a quilt.

Here is a closer view...


And two more to give you an idea of size....




For the last two evenings I have worked on this block from Bunny Hill. It has the most pieces of any of them so far. As I neared the end with only three more pieces to stitch into place I realized that I had used the wrong background fabric.......

Those pieces have to come off and the stitching needs to be done again.............

Since tonight is Dinner and a Movie night I will work on removing them. If I don't it will be put to one side and never completed............

People coming in at 10:00 this morning to look at the house. In just a few minutes Lem and I will be dusting and vacumming and putting everything away. Making the house look like no one lives here................... While the house is being shown we will run a few errands...........

Then this afternoon I have the pleasant task of putting moisture barrier paint on the walls in the basement.......................

No stitching for me till real late.....................

Progress...

Last night I put the last embroidery stitch in block two of Leanne's House. This morning I assembled all the parts................


That puts me over the half way mark on this quilt............ I began preparation of block three and tonight I can begin stitching it.


I also finished two more blocks on Rebekah's quilt center. Eight done and four to go. Keepsake quilts had no more fabric. I am cutting especially carefully now and there is an outside chance I will be able to make the other two blocks with what I have. We shall see

Two More Blocks Completed

I did manage to finish two more blocks for Rebekah's quilt. This gives me six complete. Half of the center is done.


The big problem is that I cut two blocks wrong and I am anxious about having enough fabric. I called Keepsake Quilts and she is checking for me. Of course it has 18 blocks in one border so I am not anywhere close to the end yet.............

Upstairs and Downstairs

I should know by now that if you stay with a project you can finish it rather quickly. Not to mention that you don't lose parts of it................

I have upstairs sewing that requires a rotary cutter and mat, a sewing machine and other tools of that kind.

Then there is downstairs sewing that requires only fabric or yarn and my own two hands.

Upstairs is for daytime when the light is good and I am reasonably fresh. Downstairs if for evening when I need to sit and recharge while plying my needle.

Having at last finished my all the things I promised for other people upstairs, it was time to identify the next project. There are many to choose from. Some begun and others still in the wrapper.

I remembered a quilt that Rebekah had bought several years ago from Keepsake Quilts. It was a block of the month and she liked the colors. I agreed to do the assembly. We even went so far as to purchase fabric for me to make one from the same pattern.



First thing is to delve into the closet to find the missing parts of her quilt and the fabric for mine.




This is the fabric that came with her quilt.



Here are the four blocks that are already complete. That means I am one third done piecing the center already.




Here is my fabric......


Downstairs I am working on block 2 of Leanne's House. Another couple of evenings and a few hours one morning and that block will be done.

Yes, I do have the two hexagon quilts ready to sew but they are for emergencies.