6.27.16

MONDAY MANTRA

Yes, I waited until some were ripe. I tasted them this morning while out walking the dog. Sweet and delicious!!!

Here is another example of my patience. For three years or more, this plant has tried to grow in the same spot in one of my flower beds. I don't know what it is. The first three years, I pulled it out when it was only about four leaves big. This year, I'm waiting for it to bloom or do whatever it is going to do. The leaves are a little furry and the insects and snails seem to leave it alone. Do you know what it is?

6.26.16

From Stashtea.com

DLB brought me some tea from Portland. It is delicious! 

Last night I had Portland Blend and this morning, I'm not sure of the name but it has a flowery bouquet and it is a white tea base. 

The D in DLB stands for DEAR, because she is!

Splendid Sampler #38 was designed by Pam Kitty Morning (Pam Viera-McGinnis) and is called Vintage Flower Basket. I thought I would be adding buttons to the centers of my flowers, but they looked better without any. Maybe some "perfect circles" will do the trick. I am still able to do these blocks from my scrap Civil War type fabrics, although it was difficult to find enough blue to go with the only color of ric-rac I had in my stash.

Block #39 is designed by Aylin Ozturk and is called Balls in the Air. She designed it to be a complex foundation paper piecing work made up of 64 pieces. I simplified my version to 5 pieces on a background.

The next Temecula Circa 2016 block marks the 24th episode in this mystery quilt. It is called Four Patch Pinwheel. I'm having trouble staying in the scrap bag of batiks and have had to dip into my stashed fabrics from time to time, but I am not making a dent on these fabrics in the least. Finished blocks are 3", so some of the things I'm cutting are only 1.25" squared.

6.25.16

Guess which meeting
this bottle of wine goes to?

This round of quilt guilds is as full of parties as the November/December meetings are. Last night, Pieceful Mountain Quilt Guild met early and went to a quilt show just up the street, then walked back to a special dinner meeting of salads and desserts. I try not to eat desserts, but Mrs. Wazoo's bar cookies let me ignore that. I took two home and enjoyed them so much.

Next week is Misty Mountain Quilt Guild's June Memorial Meeting. The spread will be sumptuous, since EVERYone is expected to bring something, and this guild is filled with southern cooks, church ladies, and military wives who ALL have a best dish. We will have a program that remembers the beginning of our group, and memorializes friends and family who have died in the past year.

Then, at Southern Appalachian Modern Quilt Guild, we are having Christmas in July. We are to bring a $20 gift, wrapped uniquely. I have to remember to bring tea, sweeteners, and lemons. 

I spent all Friday morning researching how to wrap a bottle of wine uniquely. I printed out a couple of patterns for wine carriers, but then I realized FUROSHIKI was the answer. After  a few youtube.com videos, I was ready to come up with a combo of techniques. Instead of the light weight Furoshiki fabric, I cut two pieces of quilters cotton, about 24" square and put wrong sides together to begin my wrapping. I tucked in raw edges wherever I could. 

This is the only Christmas fabric I had on hand, and since I am not buying anymore fabric, I had to cut it and free it to go live somewhere else. These are vintage pieces, 20 years older than the wine.

6.23.16

I am not a supplement taker. I know plenty of people that eat whole piles of pills every day mixing minerals, vitamins, and other who knows what. So much so, that I'm sure they have to skip meals because there is not room in their stomachs for food with all those food replacements and enhancers. 

But, I DO take Calm. I take it every night. It can range in price from about $12 to $24 a month. I used to get about three to four hours of sleep a night before coming fully awake and finding it difficult to go back to sleep. Now, mostly I sleep five hours and after waking, I can fall back asleep with minimal effort and sleep two more hours.

I can't easily find it locally--at least, I haven't asked my groc store pharmacy yet if they will order it in. I did pay DOUBLE the usual price at a teeny health food market inside a chiropractor's office (not my chiro) When I got home, I found my bag had my Calm, the organic lentils and organic black beans I purchased, and several religious tracts.  I decided to find a different source, so AMAZON to the rescue.

Except, I could not find exactly what I wanted at what I was willing to pay. I ended up with this, instead.

I'm not sure what the benefits are to having the mgs of the calcium BALANCE the mgs of magnesium, but it seems to work the same as far as my sleep pattern goes. With the other version, I get 80% of my MDR of magnesium, but only 20% of my calcium. I will have to go back to inputting my meals at Sparkpeople.com because they calculate all that and much much more at the bottom of the nutrition tracker page.

6.23.16

I am not a supplement taker. I know plenty of people that eat whole piles of pills every day mixing minerals, vitamins, and other who knows what. So much so, that I'm sure they have to skip meals because there is not room in their stomachs for food with all those food replacements and enhancers. 

But, I DO take Calm. I take it every night. It can range in price from about $12 to $24 a month. I used to get about three to four hours of sleep a night before coming fully awake and finding it difficult to go back to sleep. Now, mostly I sleep five hours and after waking, I can fall back asleep with minimal effort and sleep two more hours.

I can't easily find it locally--at least, I haven't asked my groc store pharmacy yet if they will order it in. I did pay DOUBLE the usual price at a teeny health food market inside a chiropractor's office (not my chiro) When I got home, I found my bag had my Calm, the organic lentils and organic black beans I purchased, and several religious tracts.  I decided to find a different source, so AMAZON to the rescue.

Except, I could not find exactly what I wanted at what I was willing to pay. I ended up with this, instead.

I'm not sure what the benefits are to having the mgs of the calcium BALANCE the mgs of magnesium, but it seems to work the same as far as my sleep pattern goes. With the other version, I get 80% of my MDR of magnesium, but only 20% of my calcium. I will have to go back to inputting my meals at Sparkpeople.com because they calculate all that and much much more at the bottom of the nutrition tracker page.

6.21.16

TEA TIME TUESDAY

I tried a new flavor for some iced "tea".  I like caffeine-free beverages after noon, and this looked like it might be good. So far, I've made it twice and can't seem to get a nice strong flavor. First, I tried it with four teabags in a half gallon, then six the second time. Next time, I'm using the remaining 10 bags.

I think it would be more flavorful if I added sugar, but that is not the point of drinking this. The point is to drink more fluids that DO NOT contain sugar. It's okay, but it's no Tazo Iced Passion.

I've been doing other things, besides making and drinking iced tea. 

I am working on a quilt top for the PULSE project, through Southern Appalachian Modern Quilt Guild. 

The Modern Quilt Guild of Orlando is spearheading the project. 

Those dark things on the left side blocks are safety pins. I use them to help me keep the rows in the right order. At this point, I've only sewn the top two rows together but you can get a pretty good idea of how its going to look.

I also made a pillow case that is long enough for my queen sized pillow. I've had the fabric for a couple of months, now, so it was time.

6.19.16

Here's the Monday Mantra a day early. I know I haven't been as regular with these as I might. I'm not presenting an excuse.

Splendid Sampler block #36 is called Inchy Hexagon Club, designed by Jane Davidson.  

Let me just start off by saying I NEVER thought I would do hexies this small. In fact, I have been entertaining the idea of doing them LARGE, like the size of a dinner plate. These took two and a half hours to prepare and 20 minutes to sew together each flower.

ALSO, let me say, this is a 6" block and the hexies are NOT one inch, but half inch. Hexies are measured along one of the six straight sides. 

There are women who do QUARTER INCH hexi quilts. 

NOT on my bucket list.

Splendid Sampler block #37, Dashing by Chocolate, is designed by Laura Flynn of Cotton Patch Quilt Shop, which is in University Park, FL. I can't imagine there is a quilt shop in Florida that I have not yet visited. The website gives you no idea where this is except an exit number off of I-75. I'm going to guess it is near U of F.

Temecula's Circa 2016 this week is called Old Maid's Puzzle. I think it is reminiscent of last week's baskets, but it is much easier to figure the assembly.

6.12.16

Our weather has been mild and lovely. I have had the windows open a number of times since the rainstorms passed. Its so nice to hear the birds in the morning.

Spent some time thinking about quilts. Surprised, aren't you? 
A woman I know from several of my quilt groups gave me a quilt her mother had made--AN APPLIQUE' QUILT! It is so charming and looks nice on my guest room bed. 

I made some comfort blocks this past weekend--blocks for a quilt to be given to someone experiencing a life-changing event. In other words, something horrible that isn't breast cancer.


I'm working on FIVE secret applique' projects, but they are only secret from a few people here and there. QuiltyFriend has seen them all and says my applique' is improving. Always nice to hear. I will share pictures when they become less secret. One of them is the pineapples from a year ago. I just need to piece the blocks together, then quilt it. Don't know why I'm dragging my feet so. I think its because I get tempted by the start of something new.

Anyway, here is Splendid Sampler block #34, designed by  Amy Gibson. It is called Lemonade Block.

Yes, I cheated and didn't sew the curved pieces on the machine. They were such tiny squares, I just applique'd them.

Here is block #35, called The Wishful Garden.  It is designed by Kristyne Czepuryk.
You should click on one of the links above, because Kristyne designed her block with a boatload of embroidery. WISHFUL GARDEN, to me, means, "I wish I felt like doing all that embroidery, but I didn't, so I found a convenient striped fabric."

Here is the latest Circa 2016 from Temecula Quilt Company. It is called Baskets.

Ridiculously difficult to assemble. The directions are something like "Cut pieces these sizes, make it look like the picture." 

Aw, c'mon. You know I exaggerate. I DID have a difficult time trying to figure out where the pieces went, though.

6.9.16

Pink is NOT my favorite color, except when it is. Glad I planted Glads.

6.8.16

Oops, thought I saw kudzu on my street. There probably is some but this is not it. These leaves are shiny and it reminds me of the air-potato vines from Florida.

Pueraria montana

Kudzu has a flower, did you know that? And it makes a grapey tasting jelly. Who knew?

Still, I am NOT inspired to have some in my yard.

6.7.16

Remember my dejunkification? I got up to week 13 back in January. Well, I'm going to take up that task again. At least, that is my plan. AwaySon has tickets to come help with the basement, and also visit! There are a lot of tools and musical instruments that need new homes. There are collections of music that need to be sorted and dispatched to whatever target is to be their final destination. There are boxes of books that need to be re-gifted.

Stole this from a site that wants to teach me how to STORE my stuff. NOPE.

I have books on the main floors that I can part with. My plan is to go to each room and select my few most favorite things and fit them in one box to keep. Great plan, huh? Books I thought would be hard to part with, but I have a good idea of which reference books are worth keeping. Plus, LIBRARY. Who needs books when there is the library?

6.5.16

FINALLY we got some rain. Lucky for me, my three Knock-Out Rose bushes were planted about an hour before it began in earnest. We have had rain off and on and it has been wonderful.

A couple of my amaryllis have come up and I succumbed (sucame?) to the call of the annuals and bought some petunias. They were inexpensive and I was hoping they would last a week but they have done better than that. I think I got my money's worth. 

Petunias always remind me of when I lived with my grandmother and students at my elementary school were allowed to order a petunia for Mother's Day. We were told to bring in a dime and the Friday before Mother's Day, we would have our little plant. I wanted one very much because I was sure it would help my mother get well. I remember hopping off the bus and crossing the road to the house with the petunia behind my back in case my mother should watch from an upstairs window. I was so excited to have this little gift. When I got to the house, I was told I could not disturb my mother because she was sleeping. I don't remember if I every gave her the petunia or not.

Keeping up with Circa 2016. This is called Little Tree.
I think it is an odd little block. I put the blue one together a couple of times.

Block #33 of the Splendid Sampler was designed by Pat Sloan.  She called it Selvage Saver, but I did mine from fabric strips. It looks like it is waiting for a nice little applique'.

6.3.16

QuiltyFriend's hydrangea bush. 
She is called Mother because she has given up so many branches to start new plants here and there in our neighborhood. 

Isn't she lovely?

She is mother to three of my own hydrangeas.

I took these photos early one morning on a visit. 

The afternoons around here promise and promise rain but late in the day, ALL the hydrangeas are drooping. 

I keep hearing the thunder, but not much comes of it.

I am up to date with Splendid Sampler. Block #32 is called The Constant Needle and was designed by Laurie Simpson. Here is my version. I really enjoy applique.

6.1.16

Yesterday was Tea Time Tuesday, and I didn't even show you the most recent addition to my tea box.

I am trying this tea out. It tastes good, doesn't seem to need sugar, but I'm not exactly sure if it lives up to its claims.

Only the top one has caffeine, so that suits me quite well. You drink the Lean in the morning, the Lost at night and the Burning after any meal.

It's interesting and the cost was a little lower than I expected.

I also have more of an old favorite, Decaf Ginger Peach.  I now wish I bought the travel tin, as well. This is a nice little tea to have hot when flying and all the stewards have is black.









Finally finished Splendid block #31, Blossoming, designed by Jennifer Reynolds. Even though I chose to do mine in all one color, it took some time. Of all the thousands of people doing the Sampler, I believe I will be number 23 or 24 to submit my Blossoming block. I am proud of that.