This piano key table runner has now been quilted and gifted. See what a difference a bit of quilting makes.
Monthly Archives: October 2015
The baby quilt flimsy
Mary and I had fun putting the baby’s name, birthday and details on this today. The batting (since it is going to Florida, I’m using a very light weight) is now in the dryer and I’ll be able to finish it soon.
Now off to fix the block no one mentioned was in yesterday’s quilt reverse
Warm wishes quilt with planets
Today was intense. After the workout this morning, I came home and made pear sauce and knowing the freezer is too full to add more fun, I canned some of the grapes I had frozen.
Did you know the grapes would float like this? I filled the jar with grapes and because they grapes are very sweet, I didn’t want to add sweetening. So I just added water and canned them in a water bath. They don’t look the same as the fruit cocktail ones, but then maybe they wouldn’t look so full if it was just grapes. It was a good experiment and since I’ll use them in smoothies, nothing is lost.
After lunch, I headed to the studio as I had cut out a quilt top last night that I really wanted to sew. So I pushed myself and the flimsy is done. It is 59 x 70, which is about the same size as the one I made yesterday. I like this pattern as it is so fast and easy and looks harder than it is. The binding will be the blue color. I see this as going to a kid of any age.
Now tomorrow morning, I must clean all this mess up as Mary is coming over and we will do some embroidering and she will help to fix the quilting machine. And I must get a lunch ready as well.
Patchwork top finished
I’m going to have to do more stretches as when the quilts are this long, it is difficult for me to get them up over the top of the board. I used a Hunter green as my dark solid, thinking it would do better for a guy, but then I’m told that with all the color, it is still more feminine. What is your opinion on this?
After finishing this we met our youngest and her DH for a Mexican lunch. That should have called for a walk, but I really wanted to get started on the next quilt top since I promised myself to try to finish another 10 for the fire survivors before the first of December and I’ll have to really push for that. If anyone else wants to contribute, they are trying to give each one a quilt by Christmas and their goal is 1000 quilts.
Patchwork
The blocks are finished. I decided on 4 across and 5 down, which with the sashing and border will give me approximately a 60 x 70″ quilt. I’m happy with that size.
We spent the afternoon at the doctor to find that DH does not apparently have Parkinson’s – great news
Canning and food storage
Mother always canned as much as she thought we would eat until the next harvest. I’m sure that was because she grew up on a Midwest farm and if they didn’t put food up in season, they wouldn’t have eaten throughout the winter. I have local grocery stores and at this point, it isn’t as though we wouldn’t eat, but rather a carry over that I am happy to continue. And the food I put up is of better quality and fresher than the store. If we do have a power outage or whatever, we will be good for at least a week. After that we need water (we are on a well), a blender and a cook stove for our breakfasts.
So this morning I canned the beets and as many of the pears as were ripe. There are still 2.5 boxes of them. I didn’t realize that they were bred to keep so long. If I had kept them in a cool dark place, they might have lasted until February. But I purchased them for canning, so wanted them ripe by now. Next year, I will plan differently.
