WIP 18 Sep 2009

Latest projects, Works in Progress.
The blue blocks are for a charity quilt being made by Heidi over at Pottery and Everything Else. She is the one who made the beautiful doll quilt and check book cover for me.

Starting a Short & Sassy lime green purse for my niece. She had a Catholic Confirmation this summer and I am proud of her.

Who knew you could knit two socks at once on one circular needle? This yarn is bamboo yarn. I purchased it this summer when we went to San Jose. I found it in a Yarn store in nearby Campbell. Green Planet Yarn is a fun store and really inspired me.





The Wonky Star is for Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts. She is making a quilt or two for Quilts of Valor.

If you are interested in helping either Heidi or Amanda Jean on either of these good causes hurry on over and see if they still need some help.





Lastly on my way to choir, I noticed an amazing thunderhead cloud. I aimed and just took a shot while I drove. I didn't even know if I was getting it or not, couldn't stop or even frame it up. Turned out pretty good.
Have a good day.
~a

Bread and Quilts

Yesterday evening I made bread. I have taken to grinding the wheat first with our hand grinder. It takes 100 cranks to get a cup. I wanted four. So each hand alternately ground 25. I had started the bread mixing upstairs in my wonderful Kitchen Aid. I love that machine. I set it on low after I added the warm milk, water, yeast, salt, sunflower seeds, chopped pecans and honey. Oh and for good measure since I was adding the heavy nuts, I added gluten. Then as each cup was ground, I went upstairs with it and added it to the mix.
After a half hour of letting it sit, I couldn't see too much change in the raising, so I mixed another cup of water with new yeast and more sugar. This time it raised. Then I added the last three cups of flour, this time unbleached white.

One trick I learned on a website was to add a pan under the bread in the oven, and just before closing the door, pour a cup of water in the pan. It supposedly makes the bread better, crispier. I've done this before and it is wonderful, but I forgot yesterday, and it still turned out with the most delicious crispy crust. Of course after you let it sit overnight in a plastic bag, that crispiness is gone and never completely returns, even with toasting, but it still is wonderful. Those loafs are worth $7 at Great Harvest, with all the goodies added in the middle. My bread is just in a rectangular loaf, not a round one, but it still is really good.

Of course we had to taste the hot bread as soon as it came out of the oven. What is better than that? I usually make enough so we can immediately slice into one of the HOT loaves. Spread some real butter and honey, and you have yourself a wonderful treat. I found some honey in Colorado at the Safeway market called Madhava Honey Ambrosia Raw Wildflower. It is so delicious.

While I let the bread rise, I was working on quilting my almost-completed quilt. I have been just learning about machine quilting. No I don't own one of those long-arm quilting machines. What a luxury! I am just using my domestic sewing machine. It takes some careful planning, stretching onto a frame, basting with safety pins, then removing from the frame. Also before I started, I picked out quilting designs I wanted around the borders and made several xerox copies.
I then folded layers of Golden Threads paper and pinned the copy of the border I wanted. Next I stitched through the pattern with an unthreaded needle on the machine and "sewed" on the lines.
This picture shows after I had stitched all the paper. The patterns are ready to be laid out on the borders to guide my machine quilting.
I must say my quilt is far from perfect, even with these lines helping me. A queen-sized quilt is fairly heavy and bulky to try and maneuver through the machine.
To reduce bulk, I double fold the quilt up to the border I will be stitching and roll the side that will be going through under the arm. Then I fan fold the quilt in the opposite direction so the unquilted part rests in my lap as I quilt. You can watch this procedure, if you are interested on this video. Skip to the 5:46 minute to see that part. She quilts differently, she stitches in the ditch, I made it harder for myself by making all these fancy feathery designs in my boaders.

I usually find out, after the fact, that my first learning experience turns out to be one of the more advanced methods. I'm not sure why I go for the harder project to learn, maybe it looks cooler. But I am sure I jumped into the deep end of the learning curve here. I hope after much practice I can make my stitches look better, and I can learn to control the machine better.

A wise person once said, don't practice on scraps, make quilts and practice your machine quilting on them. You have something to keep after wards, and your progress is recorded from "kindergarten" to "high school and beyond". Her name is Sharon Schamber. She is a winner of many quilting shows. She has many wonderful videos that help you make a more excellent quilt. I watched her videos some time a go, but don't remember this one on basting. I think I will try her method, although for a queen-sized quilt, I know it will take up a LOT of room, but it seems like an excellent way to make a perfect quilt. This picture shows the Golden Threads Paper beyond the fold after I have quilted it, ready to tear away.

So there you have it. I have a few more borders to go, but I am making progress. . .

~a
PS, here is the picture of my friend Mike, the guy who baptized me so many years ago. I blogged about this reunion several posts back.

My Version of a 9 Patch Quilt

Well, not really. I joined the second round of Crazy Mom Quilts Nine Patch challenge. the challenge is to sew one block a day.

I loved the idea of taking out a little part of my day and just sit down and sew. I admire all these people in the blog world who accomplish so very much. It is because of several traits they have that I don't. One, they are tenacious. They sit down and work on their projects. Two, they spend less time on the computer than I do. I decided that I have to get myself a laptop and only allow myself to surf the web while I am on the treadmill walking or something like that.

I know a habit is formed in about 21 days. If you make time for the habit you are trying to form, whether it be exercise, reading scriptures, saying prayers, cleaning the kitchen (making that sink shine) , or any other improvement in your life, it takes commitment. Baby steps. Start with something small. Just make sure your sink is clean before bed. Just read ONE verse in your scriptures. Just one nine patch a day.

As I thought about which fabrics I would use for my nine patch quilt, I thought about my own Tumbling Blocks quilt that is all cut out and awaiting me to piece them together.

So, Amanda Jean, at crazymomquilts.com, this is MY Version of the nine-patch quilt. I am committed to cleaning out my UnFinished Objects (UFO's) before I commit myself to yet another thing.

I will do more than 9 patches, mine requires 12 to make one block. I LOVE this fabric and the Tumbling Block pattern.

My goal, eventually is to outfit each guest room with a queen-sized memory foam mattress, new soft sheets and two quilts. I want a soft wintery/Christmasy one and a light weight summer one.

I've ordered the sheets, Sailor built one bed so far, and this is my effort to make a beautiful quilt to put on one of those beds. We have three guest rooms that I have to redo.

One baby step at a time. Wish me luck.
Oh and by the way, I am trying to improve myself with all the habits I have listed above. Not only do I need you to wish me luck, but I need encouragement and probably all your prayers.

Now back to work. I cannot spend too much time on the computer. I am serious about getting a laptop and limiting my time on the computer by only allowing myself to surf the web as I walk on the treadmill. I will have to modify the treadmill so it holds a computer, but I think Sailor would be able to do that. Don't you think, Honey? (love you Friend)

have a happy and productive day
~a

yuck

I feel like c**p today. Notice my biorhythm on the right hand side of the blog? Everything except intellectual are all below the mid-line and heading south.

Funny thing. I never check my biorhythm until I am feeling just awful and then it all makes sense. Speaking of intellectual, guess what I have been doing today instead of getting ready to drive to Salt Lake to choir? I have been having great fun studying and ordering stuff from this site.

I have been looking into replacing the shades in our bedroom for quite some time. I have a beautiful quilt that I made for this room. I received the purple "Sweepstakes" ribbon at the local county fair a long time ago when I made it. When I purchased the fabric, I had absolutely NO idea how much you need to purchase, so I have an orange box filled with the left over fabric.

Today as I googled "hand made window shades" and among other sites I found the one in the link above. It seemed to have all the answers and most instructions. I had no idea how much it would cost me in the end, but with the left over fabric on hand, it should cost less than custom made ones. I even purchased some drapery lining fabric which is a light-blocker. How cool is that? We live in the city limits and the street lights shine so bright, you can walk outside practically without stubbing your toes. I found I sleep much better with no light. For instance when I am at my mom's home, I sleep like a baby. She lives in the country and no light comes into the room except if an animal pass the motion sensor light. Also at the hotel last week we had such a nice dark room, I slept so peacefully. So I guess this is a good investment. Now, how do you block the barking dogs or the train a block away as it sounds its lonely horn when passing through the intersection? See why we are still looking out in the country for a place?

I looked into custom made blinds and they quoted me $300 a piece. Are You Kidding Me? For teeny tiny little inconsequential windows like the ones in my "master" bedroom?

So I guess I will design my own. I am so excited.

But in the mean time, I just took the old roll-up blinds off and replaced them with a piece of cloth the same with and length with serged sides and top, and a hem wide enough to hold the wood pull. I replaced the tape with new double-stick tape and adhered the cloth to the roller. It looks better than sheets or cloth draped over the top.

This cold gets me down, but my mind is working overtime.

Last night something weird happened. The cat decided he could climb my screen to get to the lattice roof. I was NOT happy. Scared me to death to hear that, then look out to see this large animal climbing my screen. YIKES. I opened the shade and he jumped down, only to start again when he thought the coast was clear. grrrrr. I yanked the shade and knocked it off trying to get at the window, so I could open it and spray water on him, but he had accomplished the dastardly deed and was on the lattice. I'm AWAKE NOW. Couldn't go back to sleep for at least an hour. Sailor says he will put a piece of board over that part of the lattice so he can go nowhere when he finishes climbing. I would love to make some sort of moat for him to pass through to get to my screen. What a stupid cat.

I started coming down with a slight sore throat on Sunday. I didn't believe it. I never get sick in the summer, but I did live on the edge last week, staying up late for several nights in a row. Yesterday I sort of lounged around, but still exercised in spite of how bad I felt. I reasoned that if I got my blood circulating, that the bad stuff would be washed out, eh?

Today I am worse. Just one of those things, in spite of all the stuff I am doing, including OTC drugs, nothing seems to get me better. Sailor called to see if I would like him to drive me up to choir tonight and just be there to listen, even if I sat away from everyone and recorded. My heart wanted to do this more than anything, but my body rebelled. I told him, I would see how I felt by 3 pm. As soon as the Dayquil wore off, I was back to yucky. He called around 2 to say that he, too, was feeling down.in.the.dumps. And was aparently rescinding on his offer to drive me. That was fine by me. I was ready to tell him "thanks, but no thanks, not going."

So the two of us "sickies" will just chill tonight. Hopefully not getting chills, but rather just veg instead. Going to bed at a decent hour and resting. I have already consumed about a gallon of liquids and my throat still feels dry. Glad I didn't have this last week. That trip was SOMUCHFUN!

Luckily you, the reader, can't get anything contageous while reading this post. I hope your day is happy and you are NOT sick. Now I am going to open the windows and try to smell this wonderful rain.

Onto happier stuff. It's raining. I LOVE the rain.

Oh I *LOVE* the RAIN! Bring it on, I could take this kind of rain every.single.day.

God Bless,
~a

I Left My Heart. . .

We just got back from a most fun trip. Sailor had a class to attend for his work, and he brought me along. We went to this same seminar 3 years ago and stayed at a really nice hotel, so when this came up again, we booked an extra ticket for me. We stayed in the same hotel again in San Jose.

The Sunday before we left, we quietly celebrated our 35th Wedding Anniversary. So we decided this would be our "trip" to commemorate that day.

I LOVE these jacaranda trees. They were everywhere.

Anyway, three years ago when we were here, I discovered how to travel via the light rail. I explored a few places beyond the train stops and found a fun mall. I entertained myself buying clothes and shoes for the upcoming trip to Austria. This time I had plans to try and find my way to San Francisco via rail. I knew we could connect from the light rail to Cal Train, but that was about as much as I knew.


The first night, the company hosted an introduction luncheon and we met all the participants of the class. They announced that this time the company were providing an excursion on a catamaran in the San Francisco Bay the next evening. So instead of finding my way to San Francisco via rail, the first day when Sailor went to class, I found my way to another place to shop. The name of the town is Campbell.


I found a wonderful little knitting shop called the Green Planet Yarn Store. They had different kinds of yarns, from wool and cotton to sugar cane and bamboo. The latter two are so soft, they feel like silk. I had to purchase some. I will attempt a scarf made from sugar cane and socks made from bamboo. There are no synthetics at this store. I found a cute measuring tape that was covered by a handmade sheep. You pull his tail and that is the measuring tape. I couldn't afford to buy him after I got all the yarn and needles for my two projects, so I took a picture of him instead.



While in the town of Campbell, I saw a bike made of bamboo or something like that and a cat sleeping in a bookstore window. Click on bike picture to enlarge and you tell me what you think it is.





I got back in time to soak my feet a bit in the hot tub, then change and be ready for the bus that left at 4:15. The bus was arranged with two seats facing backwards, a table and two seats facing forward. The hosts provided drinks and snacks. That was anything from water and soft drinks to beer and wine along with all variety of chips, pretzels and nuts. We were glad we didn't have to drive in the traffic. Our first stop was at the top of a hill called Twin Peaks. We were supposed to see the best view from there, but the fog had rolled in and we didn't see as far as they had hoped.


Then we headed to Pier 39 to meet our boat, the Adventure Cat II for a Sunset Cruise on the San Francisco Bay. It left from Pier 39 where the sea lions have taken over the pier.

The Captain was named Hans and he had a great accent. He was an excellent Captain. It was fascinating to watch the crew setting the sails.

As we sailed along, dinner was served below. It was a Mexican feast with an assortment of fruits and a wonderful plate of cookies and other desserts.





We sailed past Alcatraz and around that island, then turned back and rode so close to a restaurant jutting out from Sausalito that we could wave at the diners, and they waved back.






Then we sailed toward the Golden Gate Bridge. We sailed under the bridge and then turned around.







As we turned a huge cargo ship was heading out to sea, and another one coming in had apparently called for a tug boat. We passed it on its way to meet the next boat coming into shore. I made sure we kissed while under the bridge, and we whispered "Happy Anniversary" to one another.

Coincidentally, ten years ago we celebrated our 25th on a boat as well. We were on Lake Powell and were honored by all present on the house boat.


While heading to the Bridge the first time, I was invited to take the wheel. I can now say that I sailed a catamaran in the San Francisco Bay. That is something I never thought I would say about myself. What a wonderful memory.

The people in charge of the conference were the most gracious, generous and kind people. We felt like royalty. I guess they have this seminar every year. I think Sailor had so much fun that he will sign up again next year. wahoo.

Coming back to shore, the sun had set and we got some amazing night shots of the San Francisco sky line. It is all so magical. I LOVE it there.

Living in the middle of a desert makes all this ship and sea stuff quite unique and wonderful. I loved the Bay, I loved the fog, I loved the waves and the sea air. I could have stayed there for a month and never missed a thing at home.
I thought of the movie, Big Business where Sadie says to Rose, "I could live here the rest of my life and be as happy as Beulah the cow." Pretty much, I felt the same way.


I traveled the light rail a few more times the next day, once to go back to the Green Planet Yarn store to purchase things I forgot yesterday and again with Sailor to eat dinner after the light reception they held after the class was over. One more time on the day we left to show Sailor the mall I loved near Oakridge.

The airport is very tiny in San Jose. Our airline was delayed due to a downpour in Salt Lake. The plane coming was delayed taking off from Salt Lake and again from San Jose until the storm had subsided.

We arrived home to find out we had also gotten the downpour here in our tiny desert town. We have had beautiful rains all week and I am loving it. I am singing my Soft Rain song over and over and over.

I hope you had a great week.

~a

ps. it is now Wednesday after I wrote this. We have been enjoying rains all week. In fact tonight it has rained for an hour and a half now. I am loving it.

What shall I name her?

I got a new (to me) car! A 2005 4-door Grand Am. The only time I purchased a brand new car right off the lot was after college. I got a job and bought a Mazda 616 piston engine. I was so proud of it. But it got worn down pretty quickly after our marriage and one day the engine overheated.
Ever since, we have gotten second-hand cars. This one feels like it just came off the lot. The three owners before took extra good care of her.

• She had 65,000 miles on her, she was owned first by a rental company, then two private owners.
• The heater and AC works on my feet! wahoo. I feel a bit disloyal to White Grand Am, but her heater and AC didn't work on the feet. White GA is now reassigned to Sailor. He drives her to work. She gets great milage. But so does the new Gray Grand Am.

• This one has 4 doors, some pretty fancy wheels and a satellite ready radio. I haven't felt so luxurious in a long time.
• She has tinted automatic windows!
• Automatic transmission and . . . and. . . cruise control. hee hee.
• She even has a spoiler on the back. Wow so racey.
  

We saw her on the parking lot near Leo's just before the Outage in March. We thought it would be nice, since the white one has close to 200,000 miles. I was offered the temp job during the outage. If I was able to get many hours in, perhaps we could afford her.

We talked about it for quite some time and finally called the owners. The Blue Book was around $1000 less than they were asking, but these were a young couple. The dad of the girl selling it was so pleased we were looking at it and told Sailor at work how they were trying to get out from under some of their debt.

Of course sweet Sailor couldn't talk them down to the Blue Book price. He just offered exactly their asking price. It did come with a new set of Snow Tires, so I guess that is about the amount we overpaid.

Anyway, the amount I earned at the Outage was able to pay around half of the asking price and the rest was in savings, so that is sweet. She is all paid for, licensed, insured and sitting in our carport.

The photo above is one I found on the internet, but it is exactly how she looks.

So what is a good name for her?

I have to keep pinching myself to realize she is really mine.

oh and she came with one of those key fobs that you can press a button and it says "beep" while the doors lock. How fun is that? Sometimes I just get that out and press the button just to hear it beep. hee hee

I hope you have a nice night

~a

Did You Know. . .

Some interesting facts:
Did you know that 88 pounds of grapes

• takes about 1 1/2 hours for two people to pick?

• fills up 10 shopping bags?

• cost $44.00? and $30 for lids?

• yields 220 quarts of juice?

• takes about 15 hours to bottle and process?

• causes a person canning to take 7976 steps (on my pedometer)?

• used up all the rest of my jars?

• wreaks havoc on my house for a couple of days?
  

For the last few weeks, I had been calling all over Utah to various orchards to see if anyone had or knew of a vineyard with concord grapes for sale. Everyone answered in the negative except one. She said her son had a vineyard and gave me their number. I didn't hear from them and had given up. I felt terribly sad. My sweet son in Denver told me they would can some grape juice for me. I was somewhat heartened, but still sad I couldn't do it myself. Then the phone rang. The woman in Sandy was returning my call and said they did have a tiny vineyard and we were welcome to come pick.

It was very tiny. I figured we wouldn't get much, but ever the optimists, we brought along plenty of bags. We set about picking and began to fill many bags of grapes. After an hour an a half we had pretty much exhausted the ones we could find. I am sure there were more, but we had a blessing for our grand daughter to attend, so we picked everything up and headed to the scales. The farmer was very kind and gave us a discount, so we only ended up spending 50 cents a pound. We got a bag of white grapes and the rest concord grapes.
I have been bottling fruit as long as I have been married. We are celebrating our 35th next summer. I have tried many ways to bottle grapes including steaming, but the way I do it now makes such delicious grape juice.

The way I process grapes is something I learned long ago:


Put a cup of washed, stemmed grapes into a quart jar.
*optional add 1/4 cup sugar (I didn't this time)
fill to within 1/2 inch with warm tap water.








Process in hot water bath for 20 minutes.
cool, label, date and place jars in box and transport to cellar.

As I write this, the last seven jars are still processing and about 160 jars are still upstairs either boxed and waiting by the steps or sitting on the counter or floor.






I used up every jar I had except for about a dozen. I really didn't know how many I needed or if I would need to buy more. I washed every jar I had in the cellar, even the old mayonnaise jars.
I even used some really old jars. I have no idea where these came from, they are half gallon jars. Some have wide mouth lids, some narrow mouth lids. The white grape juice, in the picture, is a regular narrow mouth quart to give you perspective. Two of the large jars broke yesterday. I was a little afraid to try them today, but I came up with a brilliant idea. I first filled them with water, put old lids on and processed them for 20 minutes. When none had broken, I spilled about a cup of hot water out and replaced the spilled water with two cups of grapes and got them right back into the hot water bath. I didn't lose any of the large jars today. Only one quart broke today and one didn't seal. Not too bad of a loss for that many canned, eh?

That is OK. We will have a toast tonight with our newly made grape juice at dinner.
Today a neighbor came back from Idaho with 50 pounds of russet potatoes for $11.00. I think we will have a potato bar for dinner.
Then I have a date with my sweetie who is taking me to the movies tonight. Can we all sing Mamma Mia? We saw this on Broadway when I went to Carnegie Hall in NY several years back, so we know we love it.
I hope you all have a nice night.
~a

bed time

Its funny how "set in our ways" we get as we grow older. We become creatures of comfort and habit. We prefer the way things are at our own house, and it makes it hard to go visit others.
I remember my grandpa used to always say, "Fish and company stink in three days." That was his excuse to leave and go back to Kansas. I tried to talk him into staying, I loved when they came, but they headed back after just a short visit. Now that I am around his age when he said that, I can understand.
Bedtime has such a routine with so many comforting things involved. For instance, our bed has a memory foam mattress, 400 count Egyptian Cotton sheets, feather pillows, my pillowcase is made of tricot. I love my flannel nighty, which Sailor calls "The Fortress". It is a fortress, in a way, it keeps out the cold, and in the winter I cannot sleep with anything cold blowing on me. The Fortress protects me from the cold. I have several pillows above my head keeping anything from infiltrating from the head.
Our house was built in the '40's and doesn't have very good insulation or windows, so flannel nightys and quilts are really wonderful to have.
The main quilt is a cotton one I made (and received Sweepstakes ribbon at the county fair), and we have two additional flannel quilts I tied. The quilts are folded in half lengthwise so we each have our own personal quilt doubled. We find we don't have as many "cover wars" if we each have our own flannel quilt. Sailor can kick his off and I snuggle deeper under mine.
We *love* our memory foam mattress. It just has a way of sucking you into the bed. When making it, for instance, if I lean in to straighten a pillow in the middle, it makes an imprint where my knee is leaning. One just naturally leans further and before they know it, find themselves trying out the supine position. ahhhhhhh
Our headboard holds only funny books. Sailor always reads to me from something funny. We love Pat McManis, James Harriot, Garrison Keillor, and anything else that makes us giggle before we fall asleep. Life is much too serious already, and we find that if we fall asleep laughing, our dreams are much sweeter.
As Fall arrives and the nights get cooler I find myself getting ready for the winter. The warmth of a comfortable bed and bedding is so important to me.
As I was making it this morning, I was thinking of how humble, yet comfortable our tiny "pretend" master bedroom is. I am grateful for this comfort.
~a