Category Archives: Uncategorized

Family

Posted on by

My youngest sister, Frankie, and her husband are coming to visit.  They’ll be arriving today so that we have some time together.  Tomorrow we are all taking a class in bread making at Sur La Table.  Their classes are just wonderful.  Frankie and I have taken classes there before.

We hope My-Sister-The-Nurse will join us, but she has a dreadful cold, and may have to beg off.  She doesn’t want to share the cold, and we really don’t want to catch one.

I’ve been working on the first twin-sized quilt for Scraps on a Mission.  Pictures will follow when the binding is on.  I’m so very pleased at how well this is going.  I thought the larger quilts would be much harder to work on at the machine, but the 11″ opening on the Janome makes a huge difference!

Monday I see the foot specialist.  I have some minor issues to run past him.  The orthotics he prescribed have helped!

Tuesday, Scraps on a Mission meets, and right after the ladies leave, our realtor comes.  We’ll be signing contracts for the sale of our house.  I’m sad, but I’m tired of living in limbo.

Thursday, I finally get my perm!  I’ll look like Little Orphan Annie for Easter, but it will make it easier to shape my hair for the next few months.

I hope to get more quilting in this coming week, and then we go to My-Sister-The-Nurse’s for Easter.

We start the week with family and end the week with family.  I’m a happy camper, getting to see so much of my family.

Suckers

Posted on by

I look like I’ve had an encounter with an octopus!

Both Dear Husband and I visited our dermatologist on Tuesday.  She got us both with the liquid nitrogen.  She’s treating a spot on his nose, and four spots on the left side of my face.  Unfortunately, I have these red, blistery circles that are very prominent. I look like an octopus has wrapped a tentacle across my face and “kissed” me!

I know it’s good to keep track of skin problems, but I sure do hate liquid nitrogen!

January Studio Work

Posted on by

I chat with a group of ladies on Facebook who are predominately knitters and crocheters, but they welcome ladies who quilt and make period clothing and a variety of other specialties.  The woman who moderates this group encourages everyone to post pictures the first of each month of what they are in the process of creating.  I’ve worked on three quilt tops and squares for charity afghans, and I have some pictures to share.

This first top is a collection of blocks made from my stash.  I have a LOT of fabric that is a quarter of a yard or less, and it’s organized by color (mostly), so I can go to the shelves and take down a handful of fabric to make a block. This particular block, and quilt were designed for “Sunday Morning Quilts.”  I love the book, and used this pattern for a quilt for Scraps on a Mission last Fall.  I liked it so much that I’m making one for us.

Missing U #2 Resized

I haven’t decided what to use as the backing and binding, but most likely they will be dark. I’ll quilt this one on my sewing machine, and we’ll use it in the great room.

This next quilt is a color block design that went together in just a couple of hours,  It will be quilted using parallel lines about 2″ apart.  The center strip will be quilted vertically, and the rest will be quilted horizontally.  This quilt will be given to a women’s shelter that Scraps on a Mission is supporting.  I’ll quilt this one at home, too.  It’s close to twin size.  I’m trying to decide if I want to add a strip at the bottom, or both the top and bottom, to give it a little more length. (The light spots in the yellow are from the quilt behind this one on my design board.)

Colorblock 1 Resized

There’s one more quilt top that is done and ready to be sent to my favorite long arm quilter, but I need to get a picture tomorrow, so I’ll add another post then.

This last picture is  the six inch crocheted squares that I’ve started for a charity project.  I like to have something to work on while I sit with Dear Husband at night, and these fill the bill.

Squares for CC Resized

The Maple Leaf Quilt that I was working on in December is ready for a day when I can just sit and sew.  I know one of those days is bound to show up, sooner or later.  I’ll post pictures of that quilt when it’s further along.

 

Weather…..oh, bother.

Posted on by

And we had such a good day, Tuesday.  Dear Husband and I had appointments with the dermatologist in the morning.  He drove so that I could take care of three phone calls that needed to be made.  We have the loveliest dermatologist, and I really enjoy visiting with her, but she got both of us with the liquid nitrogen this time, four spots on my face and one on his nose.  It’s good to be proactive about this stuff, so I’m really not complaining.

We treated ourselves to lunch at Pappadeaux, a Cajun favorite.  We know they serve OMG sized meals, so we were unusually prudent about our choices and still took home enough food that I didn’t have to cook.  Turning out of the parking lot, I mentioned that had we gone left, I could have visited a quilt shop we’ve finally tracked down.  DH is the most remarkable man.  He turned around and visited the shop with me!  I picked up some brights for baby quilts and browsed through their amazing selection of batiks.  It’s a place I want to visit again.

When we got home, I was chained to the chair in the office, where I sorted several days worth of mail, and organized what needed immediate attention and what could be thrown away.  I filed for a bit, all the while keeping an eye out the window.  Around 2:30 it had started raining.  The skies were quite dark to the south, so I thought we might miss the worst of it.  Hah!

It  looked as though the sun had set at 3:00 and the rain came down in earnest.  It continued to come down harder and harder all afternoon. In fact, it’s rained quite hard for about twelve hours now, and is expected to continue into the morning. The thought I shared with Dear Husband was that we were incredibly lucky that it had been in the 60s, otherwise we would be under twelve feet of snow!

Speaking of snow…. the temperature is expected to continue to drop, and by late morning we will have a mix of rain and snow, followed by snow in early afternoon.  I doubt that much of the early snow will accumulate because of the sodden ground, but as the day passes we will probably have ice to deal with.

It’s the middle of the night, a time when I am not usually at the computer.  I had a dream of the house floating off the foundation and sliding down the front lawn.  Somehow, that blended with the scene from “The Wizard of Oz,” and the house was at a crazy tilt at the road with legs in black and white striped stockings sticking out from one corner.  I guess I’d rather be awake than continue that dream, so perhaps I’ll get a little more filing done.

Have a good night, all!

I forgot…

Posted on by

…to tell you.  Last Wednesday, December 12th, I was driving home and saw a HERON fly across my path.  I darned near had an accident watching that bird soar past!

Usually our herons and egrets have left for their winter homes by late October, or possibly into the beginning of November.  I have never seen one here so late.

It can be said that we have had an incredibly warm stretch of weather.  Perhaps this guy was the one elected to round up the stragglers and encourage them to make the trip home.

Two Projects

Posted on by

It’s time to see if I can upload pictures in Word Press!  I’ve been working on two projects and I’d like to share them with you.

The first project started out as a charity quilt for Scraps on a Mission, but I’ve put so many hours into the project that I may keep this quilt, and redesign a version of it that won’t take as long for us to make.  This is the Maple Leaf Log Cabin quilt from my stash:

I need 56 of the Maple Leaves, and there are ten extra in this picture.  I’ll have to pare it down a bit.  Based on what I can see here, I’ll probably delete ten of the darker blocks.  I have all the strips cut to add the log cabin pieces to the blocks, so in January I’ll sit down and pop a DVD into the player and sew like crazy!  The finished quilt is roughly twin sized.

This second project was the result of wanting to pack up part of the studio that doesn’t get used frequently.  I was sorting through some of the boxes, to see if the unfinished projects and unused materials could be packed, and found 29 blocks that had been made from the scraps of several previous quilts.  Some of the strips have been pieced to make them long enough for these blocks.  It’s truly a scrap quilt.

What looks tan in this picture is actually an old gold, and the pieced strips are all darker than they look here.  The fabric to the right is being auditioned for borders  for the quilt.  Trust me, it all looks much richer in person than it does here.  This quilt will most likely be square and slightly smaller than a twin size bed quilt.

I love it when a scrap project comes together.  Having TWO on the board at the same time makes me itch to sew!  Hopefully, I’ll have pictures for you when these are done.

Houseplants

Posted on by

My Christmas Cacti have bloomed!  They’re about five or six weeks early.  We have several of the fuchsia pink version, and the oldest one, which sits in the west window of the green room has bloomed.  One of my Mother’s cacti has also bloomed.  It has a hot reddish orange bloom that makes me think of firecrackers for some reason. *S*

The English Ivy in my bathroom is kaput!  I knew there was a problem, but when I went to pick it up to move what I thought were a few dead leaves, virtually all the leaves fell off.  Normally I give my plants greater attention than that. I’m sure I had sprayed this particular plant with Safer’s soap.  Either I over-sprayed it, or I used the wrong spray, or I over-watered.  I’m not sure what happened, but it was so severe a problem that the plant has been pitched.  You need to know that I almost never give up on a plant.  I have a basil plant that seriously needs to be cut back for the winter.  I’m going to have to make pesto this weekend, I think.

My Pothos is not a happy camper.  I’ve carried this plant through the years, and I wonder if it’s just time to let it go.  I keep finding leaves here and there that need to be plucked.  I think it’s root bound, and there’s hardly any soil.  I need to think about this.  The room might look better without the plant, and I probably don’t want to move it, when we sell the house.

It’s time to buy evergreen wreaths.  I usually put a wreath on the front and the back of the fireplace, but Dear Husband is allergic to cedar, and his chair is next to the fireplace.  I may try to create a Christmas wreath from silk or dried flowers to spare him the sniffles.  I’ll put a fresh wreath at the front door.

I may need to buy an African violet.  Mother always had them in her sitting room.  It seems like we should have at least one.  I’ll have to start looking for one.

Thanksgiving 2012 and Knees

Posted on by

Okay, that was easy.  All I have to do to post another message is to click on “Add New.”  This looks pretty user friendly!

Thanksgiving, 2012.  For the first time in perhaps twenty years, we are not hosting Thanksgiving.  My oldest sister has volunteered to have the celebration for her family and Dear Husband and me.  It seems so very odd not to be cleaning, and cooking, and decorating tables!

We will be selling our home.  We hope to put it on the market March 1st.  We have a bit of work to be done in the basement, yet.  This summer we boxed up all the china and most of the crystal.  I still have all the silverware where I can get to it, but we would need to use Chinet paper plates (as we did last year), if we were hosting dinner.  We’ve even boxed up the table cloths!

The real reason we are not hosting Thanksgiving, is that Dear Husband has had a knee replacement recently.  His surgery was November 12th, and he needs to be the focus of my attention as he heals and recuperates.  He’s doing very well.  As a matter of fact, his physical therapist will be here in fifteen minutes, and I know he will strive to do EVERYTHING she asks, and more! *G*  He should be back to a relatively normal life in three to five weeks, by Christmas, or New Year’s, I’d think.

For our Thanksgiving feast I will be making Vernice Kastman crescent rolls, and this year I’ll cook carrots.  I know there will be at least one pan of just plain old buttered carrots, but there might be a second dish with something fancier.  It depends on how I feel tomorrow morning as I pull things together.  (I should tell you that no one other than My-Sister-The-Nurse will get any of the Vernice Kastman rolls.  She’ll grab the bags of rolls and hide them in her bedroom!)

I have so very much to be thankful for.  My husband has come through his surgery well.  I still have all my siblings, and their children, and their children.  Our children are all doing well, and our grand daughters are growing like weeds!  We are sliding into retirement as our company slowly comes to a close.  We are fortunate to have food and shelter, and love from our families.  I hope you are all as fortunate.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

A Heron!

Posted on by

I saw a heron yesterday. Dear Husband and I went to the Farmer’s Market at O-dark-thirty yesterday morning. I was surprised that DH was willing to get up so early, but he went with me to carry things. I wanted to see if I could pick up raw honey to use on my colds this winter, and I couldn’t leave without picking up some unusual pumpkins to add to my collection. DH encouraged me to pick up 4 green peppers for stuffed green peppers, and a head of cauliflower.
We were on our way home, and I saw a very large heron in one of the least welcoming retention ponds. He was wading next to a line of cat tails, intent on breakfast.
So, as of 10-27-12 there was still at least one heron in the area! I stand corrected.

Head to toe

Posted on by

I am filthy from head to toe! It’s just about noon on Thursday. I have a hair appointment at 3:00 and a major change in the weather is coming through this afternoon or evening. I wanted to be ahead of the cold and rain, and I succeeded, partially.
This is the time of year when those of us in the Midwest are putting their gardens to bed for the winter. I am fortunate to be able to have my favorite landscaping service give me a hand, but there are some things I want to do for myself. I purchased eight mums for color this year and distributed them through out the gardens, but I never dug them in. After they bloomed, I cut off the blooms and gathered them where they would get rain and would be easy to water. I’m not sure when I realized they were hardy mums, but I’m too frugal to throw plants away, so I planned where I wanted to plant them.
The alarm was set for 7:00 this morning, and I was up, but a book called to me and I frittered away about three hours. Dear Husband went off to do errands, and I hot footed it out to the garage. I collected all the potted geraniums that I want to winter over and moved them to the garage. I’ll spray them with Safer’s soap before I bring them into the office.
Then, I gathered up the wheelbarrow, the shovel, bags of tulips and crocus, the mums and a bag of composted dirt and headed for the east driveway garden. That garden has never been an easy garden. It’s dark clay and the plants really struggle. Never the less, that was where the mums and bulbs were going.
It took me at least fifteen minutes to dig a trench long enough for three mums and two pods of tulips and crocus. I got down on my hands and knees and clipped out roots and moved dirt out of the trench. Once I was satisfied that the hole was deep enough, and smooth, I set out the plants and bulbs, and then shoveled some of the composted dirt over them. I pulled the original dirt back into place and tamped it down, collected my tools and headed for the second site.
That side of the garden went much faster. I think I must have composted more in that section in the past. In no time at all I had things back in place and I moved the wheelbarrow into the garage, where it will sit temporarily.
It will be cold tomorrow. I plan to disperse the last of the composted soil, and some mulch on Friday, if the weather will allow. I’m really glad to have finished this project. I feel as though it was a good start on what needs to be done, and I’m really glad the mums weren’t wasted. Next spring we should see four lovely pods of frilly tulips and some giant crocus if the rodents cooperate.
It’s a good day!