Sewing!

Yes indeed. Yesterday sewing happened here. I've been sick, The Tramp is still hobbling around, but I finally got enough focus to just sit down and accomplish something. *happy dance* Of course there were the usual interruptions, but it was still good. :-)

Cell phone photos, so they aren't the best, but you get the idea. My bee is (was) doing a block swap. Twice a month during 2010 we swapped a 6" half-square triangle block and 6" four-patch block made from a medium/dark and a neutral. The idea is you can easily cut down both those blocks to any size you need. Because of the house move I'm six months behind so this is one of the items I really want to check off my 2011 Sandbox List. I've been observing all the lists of finishes coming up on other blogs and I think doing the same will give me the motivational push I need this year. We shall see.

I decided to put my swap blocks towards making Bonnie Hunter's Patches & Pinwheels quilt. This means however, I have to cut all my blocks down to 3 1/2". Ouch! That means cutting down almost 400 blocks. And I'll still have to make plenty more to make the large quilt. Arrggghhh. :-) So yesterday I sewed about half of what I owe to hand out at the next bee meeting and then got down to the cutting. I was very happy to have a little revolving mat!

I know this is scrap quilting, but I can be pretty OCD about the placement of my scraps. So I set aside a pile of untrimmed blocks to take apart and sew back together in different configurations. The contrast was bugging me. And actually, the quilt doesn't require nice neat four-patches, but twelve-patches. So some of the high contrast four-patches will probably stick out like sore thumbs in those twelve-patch blocks. That blue and white one up above is probably one I should have taken apart, but.....I'm darned if I'm going to be that OCD. I am not crazy enough to take apart all 200 four-patches. Really! (says me while sitting on my hands) :-)

This was also an opportunity to get back to my "leaders and enders" quilt. Blue Ridge Beauty, also by Bonnie Hunter.
I keep the pieces sorted in gift bags in a basket next to my sewing chair. Progress is slow but it's so fun to watch it grow.

The dogs spent most of the day either getting in my way, or barking at neighborhood sounds, of which there seemed to be an awful lot. Sigh.

Ivy lay with her nose helpfully between my chair wheels.
Ngaire gracefully commandeered the open space in front of my ironing table.
And after sitting and peering one-eyed up at me through the clear acrylic part of my sewing table, Maisy finally settled down underneath.....
which is why there is pipe insulation covering my most important and expensive wired connections!
Interruptions included bread baking. Yum!

And calls from the always needy laundry equipment. At least it seems very needy. The machines are always plaintively beeping for attention! It's a recurring theme here. The stove beeps, the microwave beeps, the timers beep, the cell phones beep, the computers beep, the weather radio beeps, the UPSs beep, and now even the new dishwasher beeps. Sigh.

I'm really liking the laundry on the second floor. Between the bedrooms and the sewing room. What could be better? Right away we had a proper laundry valve installed to lessen the likelihood of a flood. When I paint the upstairs we'll finish closing in the hole in the wall. But for now....it works just fine!


We also had the dryer re-vented with proper solid ducting rather than the old fashioned vinyl spiral stuff. It was completely jammed with lint and the dryer wasn't drying anything. Scary. We were doing fine with the new ducting then a joint pulled apart on Tuesday. Urg. A real pain because we had to haul both machines out again and add a connector, but it works fine now and I'm thrilled. It's the small things that make life comfortable. :-) Of course, with modern machines there is no chance we could leave up the bi-fold doors, but I found a retro looking shower curtain at Target and I think it looks just fine.


A little bit of clearance fabric buying today for finishing the swap blocks, and tomorrow I'm going to Sanford with a quilty friend to The Quilting and Fiber Art Marketplace. I can't wait! It's so nice to be sewing again.

One week later

Last Sunday we lived in a winter wonderland and today it was 65F and the snow is all gone. Kind of amazing. It was hard to know when to stop taking pictures!



The Tramp and I decided to go for a walk in the snow to the mall which was open, but many of the stores were not. Kind of weird for the day after Christmas, but for the best considering the condition of the roads.

The geese and ducks were unperturbed by the weather and these four were seriously foraging for something at the bottom of the pond.

It was odd seeing the big southern magnolias heavy with snow. Unfortunately, on that walk, The Tramp slipped on a wet rock while helping me jump the creek, and twisted his ankle. So this has been a quiet week at home with only a trip to the doctor and for xrays. I have been able to do some sorting out of the sewing room and did put together an "Accidental Landscape" of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It still needs to be quilted though.

Today Mom and Dad came over to watch the Rose Parade and partake of the Christmas dinner we missed because of the storm. It was so warm out a mist developed over the pond.


And there were birds singing all around, including a flock of robins. :-) Robins have become rare in my experience and it's wonderful seeing them every day lately.




It was neat watching the mist ebb and flow across pond and then finally slide away to envelope the neighbor's house.

And then it was gone.

Happy New Year!

White Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Actually today is Boxing Day....but it did begin to snow last night! We had a dusting a few days ago and that was exciting enough.


This however, is pretty darned amazing! On the news they are saying the last Christmas snow in our area was in 1947. And we don't even own a shovel! I suppose that's a good thing. If we had one I'd feel obliged to go outside and use it. :-)


Sadly though, the snow means no Christmas visiting. The Tramp and I had a very quiet day and are anticipating a quieter week than planned. I've got lots of sewing to do so I shouldn't complain.

The Tramp was served his Christmas bacon and egg breakfast.

We enjoyed opening our presents.
And Maisy took charge of all the new dog toys.
On Christmas Eve we went outside to help our neighbors decorate the neighborhood with luminaries. We placed them on both sides of the road all around the pond and along the access road to our subdivision. The kids (large and small) had the best time setting them out and lighting them. They lasted well into the night.

Our house is just to the right of the setting sun.
It got better and better as it got darker and all of the neighborhood Christmas lights came on. Since there was ice on the pond we didn't get the crystal clear reflection of all the lights, but it was gorgeous anyway.
This was the view from our front porch. It was tempting to keep running to the windows all evening to see if the lights were still there!
And just before Christmas, the latest project I finished here was to finally paint the TV armoire. We bought it on Craigslist and didn't realize until we brought it home that it reeked terribly of cigarette smoke. I couldn't go near it! So we figured we could solve the problem by painting it. It was mostly successful.
Not my best paint job. I was very tired from the oral surgery and pretty spaced out on Percocet. But since I couldn't go out, it made sense to find something useful to do that didn't require sharp things like needles, scissors and rotary cutters. :-)
And it looks just fine now it's in place.

Cinderelly

I was kind of getting into the swing of things...blogging wise....then the tooth cracked. Last Monday evening. The week of agony is finally over, as of this morning said tooth is gone. 'Nuff said.

I did however, manage to get this little cutie made for my quilting bee Christmas grab bag gift. I'm glad to say she was well received. She is a PretTea Mouse Pin Keep from Happy Heart Patterns and was great fun to make. The pattern is well written.


Every day I still marvel that we live On The Pond. I never imagined glancing out my window and seeing a Great Blue Heron landing in my front yard! This time it didn't stay long as it was closely watching the parent and child walking around the pond towards it. Sometimes when I drive by it flies up into a tree. It's always surprising to see such a tall bird perching on a branch. :-)

Beanies

Just so there is a mention of sewing today, the treadle machine on the left very recently came to live at our House on The Pond. It is a Singer and is one of the model 15s. I just haven't figured out which one. :-)

Not that I'm complaining, but this living with a parrot is very....interesting. I'm determined to make him comfortable and happy, well fed and well trained. To make him comfortable, he now has a new cage! We bought it on Craigslist from a pleasant young man who was moving and had no space for it. Yesterday (after I took this picture) we took the legs off the cage and it's now sitting on top of the dog crate. A much better use of space!

In this photo he's working his way through some Cheerios on a string and the crumbs are landing like snow on Ivy's back. :-) Parrots are messy but happily the dogs take care of most of what falls on the floor!


Feeding Charlie has been a challenge. He's pretty picky and I haven't got him on a full pellet diet yet. A complete seed diet is very bad for caged birds so I'm working through all the healthy alternatives. I've been baking pellets into birdy cookies and birdy bread in the form of corn muffins and I'm trying hard to get him to eat his fruits and veggies. It's about as easy as getting green stuff into The Tramp. Sigh. Yesterday I was browsing for recipes again and I discovered Parrot Nation and became very interested how she feeds her birds. So today I decided to embrace her methods and make what she calls Teenie Weenie Beanies. Not so teenie. Let me show you.

Today I went to three markets for ingredients. Good grief!

Patricia shows how to make a huge batch of the stuff and she does the final mixing in her bathtub! I wasn't so sure I wanted to do that so I scouted around the house for an alternative and found an empty plastic bin. Of course I had to take it up to the bathtub to get it nice and clean. :-p


I finally got the prep done and was at the mixing stage after dinner. I made a grand mess of the kitchen. Some went in fresh and some had to be cooked. My food processor earned it's keep!

I think this is a complete list of everything that went into the bin. Flax seed, millet, sesame seed, broccoli slaw, yellow squash, zucchini, red kuri squash, carrot, sweet potato, dandelion greens, cilantro, parsley, barley, red cabbage, okra, green beans, corn, quinoa, dried corn (boiled popcorn), parsnip, turnip, whole wheat pasta, 15 bean mix, lentils, garlic, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, orange bell pepper, poblano pepper, ginger root, oatmeal and brown rice. Phew!

After the bin is full (or all the pots, pans, packages and bowls spread all over the kitchen are empty) you roll up your sleeves and dive in and mix it. It actually smells really really good.


The last part is spooning it into plastic bags for the freezer. I filled almost 200 of the suckers. Urg! We lugged the bin into the living room in front of the TV and I set to work. After a while my fingers hurt from zipping the bags and I had to ask The Tramp to come down and help me finish. (love you honey)


The small bags filled six gallon freezer bags and at one a day it's going to last us a long time. Thank goodness!


It looks as good as it smells. So colorful. And it's tasty too! Just needs a little salt for my taste. The dogs were underfoot during the whole cooking process. I make stew for them so I suppose they thought they were going to get something when I was done. The Tramp gave each of them a bit in their dinner bowl and they loved it! Go figure.


The Tramp thinks I'm nuts. He also knows I'm not a particularly willing cook. So let's hope Charlie really likes it!