Our daughter has the perfect kitchen for gatherings. So we usually meet at her house for our family gatherings/potlucks. This table is perfect. And Father’s day was the occasion.
Just a few photos to show how much fun we have at our gatherings. We have many cooks which means that I just bring my dish and enjoy the party. The girls and granddaughter take over. Come to think of it, once one gets past the teen years, daughters are pretty nice to have in the family.
I really need a better background to hang these larger quilts, but until then, I’ll make do with this. Here is the finished flimsy. The pattern is called “Summer’s Promise” by Ann Lauer. The instructions are excellent. I found it in the American Quilter magazine dated May 2016. It does a good job of showing off the focus fabric. In this case, I had the daffodil fabric hanging on the wall, just waiting for the right pattern.
This afternoon’s harvest was three lovely heads of broccoli. I had planned to pick berries and lavender, but after fertilizing the hoop house and getting it water, the heaven’s opened and it poured. So maybe I can pick berries tomorrow as there is only a 30% chance of rain. And that will give me a break from the housework from which I am way behind.
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This bit of unused yarn from a pair of socks is a very soft yarn from Lorna’s Laces. I made a full pair of socks from this yarn which I absolutely loved. However, last winter when I washed several pair of socks, the pair vanished. I have looked everywhere for them and they haven’t shown up. So, I will see how far I can get with the yarn left and finish with another yarn. I understand a single sock disappearing, but a pair of socks, where ever could they have gone?
Today I picked the first head of cabbage out of the hoop house. It’s a small one, but was really good in
the stir fry we had for lunch. This included pea pods, Swiss chard, and garlic scapes from the garden. From the store we added onion, cauliflower and celery which needed to be used. It was delicious!
A little at a time, the center is now finished. Next will be the borders. I’m liking it more and more and hope you are too.
We assembled the lye, fragrances, colors, and other items needed (we didn’t use the borax as we didn’t make laundry soap)
Then we mixed the water and lye – using old peanut butter jars – outside and let it cool until it reached 110 degrees.
Then we slowly poured the lye/water into the oil, while stirring with the hand blender. We blended until it looked like thin pudding, maybe 5 minutes. At that point we added fragrance and could add the colors.
Another batch filled the casserole dish you see in the back and the third batch filled a loaf pan the two small containers in front. The loaf pan and two small containers have poppy seed in them. We will wait until tomorrow afternoon to pop them out of the containers and slice the soap. Then it needs to set for two months to cure. After that we will enjoy it. Meanwhile, we will probably be making more soap.
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We get venison scraps in the fall for our dogs. They come packaged in the large banana boxes with 40-50# of meat in a box, frozen. So when we have room for separate packages in the “dog” freezer, we thaw it out and repackage it into daily portions. This was one of the morning chores today.
Then it was time for lunch which was potatoes (These are larger than a softball) and cooked Swiss chard along with bread and hummus. The bonus here was that all the kitchen work caused the step counter to record 5000 steps by noon.
At last I was able to work on this daffodil quilt again. I love the colors! My goal is to get the top done this week.
