This piano key table runner has now been quilted and gifted. See what a difference a bit of quilting makes.
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.
This afternoon we went to get the potatoes and carrots. The farmer had just delivered our orders to the co-op, so they are really right out of the ground. The potatoes should last a good part of the winter and I will can half the carrots now and see how long the others last – or maybe they will just get eaten. I didn’t plant carrots this year, but we do still have potatoes in the garden. So between the ones we still have to dig and these, I’m hoping that will be enough to last.
Beets and cookies
After my Wednesday time at the gym, I came home, made cookies and lunch. Then I picked the rest of the beets in the garden.
They are now cooked, but I ran out of energy to put them in the jars and actually can them, so that will happen tomorrow.
The cookies I made were 1 cup of oatmeal to 1 very ripe banana. Mash them together. You may add nuts or chocolate chips, if you like, but don’t need to. Bake 325 for 15 minutes. They are terrific to have on hand after a workout or for that matter any other time.
I did get the fabric washed and dried for the sashing and the back of the patchwork quilt, but cutting will wait for another day after all the blocks are done. Its seems I always plan to get more done than I do.
socks
What do you do when half way down the leg, you realize the repeat was for 3 rows each time and you only worked it for 2 rows? I will just keep going and will knit the socks correctly the next time. They are still socks which will work just fine in shoes.
NOW FOR THE BIG NEWS
Today, I went to the doctor and he decided he could do a bone graft on my ankle instead of a complete ankle replacement at this time. So instead of 3 days in the hospital and 3 months off the foot, it will be a 90 minute day surgery and 2 weeks off the foot. He believes this will buy me another 3-4 years before the big surgery will have to be done. I am delighted he could do something less invasive and scheduled the surgery for his earliest time which is in December.
Back to quilting
The quilts I had made earlier have been delivered to some of the people living at the Okanogan campground tent city for families who were burned out and had no where to go. I understand that the Wenatchee group gave 80 and Spokane another 60. However many more are needed and will be given to these people as soon as they are completed. So I have started on my next set of quilts. It seems patchwork is always welcome, so this is the one I started today. I think I may want 30 of these blocks as they will measure 10″ finished.
In addition to that the summer is over and it is getting colder and darker. Today we took the shade cloth off the greenhouse and picked most of what was in it. There are still some squash, celery, and beets.
Bye Bye sheep
