Row Robins

I don't know what possessed me, it must have been a weak moment, when I agreed to participate in a row robin with some of the people that attend the AZ retreat. It must have been something about pushing myself a little in my quilting, but I feel totally out of my league.


This first picture is top to bottom, mine and Pat's rows. I had the silk screened squares and Pat added to them while I bound a quilt for her. She also wanted to keep me participating and I was uninspired and threatening to drop out.




These next rows belong, top to bottom, to Ami, Chris, and Kim. When we were discussing these rows everyone was talking about keeping it simple--as their lives were very busy. Simple?? I don't think so!




And last but definitely not least are, top to bottom, Judy's and Ellen's row. I got the honor of being first to work on Ellen's row. I've already started, and yeah, I'm keeping it simple!

Treasures unearthed!

The back entry and existing bathroom are finally finished and DH didn't take long to start on the living room. It featured a gawdawful shag carpet in reds, brown, and orange. When we lived in Colorado, our house came with a similar shag with green, brown, dark yellow. I called it my dead lawn carpet. This one looked like a lawn on fire. I'm sure things lived in there and when I vacuumed clouds of dust would emanate! Vacuuming always created more dust in our already dusty house. Pulling up the carpet revealed a layer of dirt, actual dirt, beneath the pad resting on several layers of old linoleum in an array of patterns. There are holes in the floor boards cleverly patched with flatened tin, but below the floorboards there were some treasures to be found.
He discovered four marbles, which I'll add to my marble collection, a knife, a glass chip in a green turquoise color, and a horse, which I'm thinking of incorporating in landscape "quilt" (I use the term loosely) which will cover our bedroom window blocker. I have a beautiful Ball jar full of marbles that came from a long ago auction, and I periodically add new finds to it. Also under the floorboards there was a mouse nest, though this house has been the least mouse infested place we've lived in. Field mice are a fact of life in the country, and I think they are rather cute until the take up residence in my cupboards! I also spied an intact, perfectly clean mouse skull. It's truly remarkable, but I'm having trouble getting a picture of it.

After my birds mobile, I must have still been in the mood to make three dimensional things because instead of working on my convergence quilt, I made a couple of sock creatures. They will await final adoption when just the right foster parent comes along!

It's a gloomy day, and now the wind has started again. There are signs of spring, and I'm ready for relief from the wind, but it's not going to happen today.

Where does the time go?

Boy my days just get away from me, one after the other until it's been weeks since I posted anything to my blog.

I made this little "mobile" (I don't know what else to call it and my husband dubbed it as such) for a long skinny wall in my bathroom, but it was too big. It fit perfectly on this little strip of wall beside the back bathroom door, near the back entry door that we use almost exclusively. It was fun, and a good use of beads and fabric scraps.

The wind continues to blow fiercely here. Today they claimed it was just going to be "breezy" instead of windy, but now I think it's progressed to "windy" once again. There are signs of spring though, a few tulip leaves up and the irises are getting taller and greener.

Whoa,I just remembered I had muffins in the oven! Good thing they didn't burn! Of course they weren't done when the timer went off and I checked them, and I thought...just five more minutes... It's a dangerous thing to sit down in front of the computer for "just" five minutes. Guess it's back to the sewing room for National Quilting Day. I'm getting ready to load my convergence piece on the longarm. Have some ideas of what to do with it after re-discovering the work of Jane Burch Cochran.

Getting ready...

I always procrastinate. Probably not something that's likely to change at this point. I figure once you're past 50 most character traits are set in stone. And without exception I tend to do a lot of stuff I've put off doing right before going somewhere. Go figure. So of course while moving furniture yesterday and cleaning and reorganizing my sewing room today, I decided to make the pincushion for the swap I'm participating in on About.com. I don't have to mail it out until March 10, but since I received my pincushion yesterday, I was feeling a bit guilty that I hadn't yet started it. I did have an idea that I wanted to do.
Once I started on it, it was hard to stop. I borrowed the idea from Bella Dia. Her pincushions are amazing. Mine are a mere imitation, and I hope she'll consider it flattery that I tried! Of course I'm doing all of this because I'm leaving Wednesday for a quilting retreat. Am I ready with all I have to do before I leave?? Of course not. That would be totally uncharacteristic.

Lefse anyone?

Well, I was supposed to do my Week 3 check-in, but I think I'm going to drop out at this point. I'm so far behind, and I just am not into it. I was doing well with the morning pages, then my thumb started giving me grief. I moved on to morning pages on the computer, but it just wasn't the same, and I gave them up, and found more reasons for not doing the reading and exercises. With very intermittent internet connection, I've also been doing other things to fill my time.
When I married my husband I became exposed to a different food heritage, Norwegian, which included krumkake and lefse. Since I love to cook, I quickly adopted these things in my repertoire. Lefse is a very much like a potato dough tortilla.
I adapted my recipe this year, and substituted the half and half in the recipe with soy milk for my lactose intolerant husband, and I'm happy to report it was a success. It's a time consuming process which starts the day before with cooking the potatoes, ricing them, and mixing with the liquid ingredients. This sits overnight in the refrigerator, and the next day you can start rolling out the dough, and cooking on the griddle. The rolling pin is ridged and covered with a stockinette. There is also a lefse stick which you run under the rolled out circle of dough, and transfer it to the griddle. Since I make them thin and the dough is rather fragile, at this point the lefse can break and fall apart on the griddle.
I make it a point of eating many of these imperfect ones (sparing my family) warm off the griddle with a little butter.

I've never tried lefse's companion, lutefisk, but I think it's an acquired taste, and since my husband's family didn't eat it, it's not likely to make an appearance at our table. Occasionally the lefse comes out just perfect like this one.

Week 2 Check-in

I seem to be getting further and further behind with these. But I did read the Chapter and do the exercises. I'm beginning to wonder if the writing of morning pages isn't contributing to my thumb pain. I have arthritis at the base of both thumbs, and this past week it has decided to remind me of it. Guess I'll try doing the morning pages on the computer keyboard which isn't nearly as painful as holding a pen/pencil. I did my morning pages 6 days out of 7. I guess now I need to decide how much printed text is equivalent to 3 handwritten pages (on a very small notebook).

In looking back at my childhood I was never discouraged from art, on the contrary I was encouraged. That was true until it came time to pick a career, and I knew I wouldn't have the luxury of waiting to see if art panned out, and I shifted to something where I knew I would be able to find employment, the medical field.

I really don't have a problem with other people's expectations of me. I long ago gave up giving the opinions of others too much importance in my life, and aging has made me more successful at weeding out toxic relationships. I have few friends, and they are secure enough and supportive to accept me even if I "shape shift." Who knows what we could all accomplish if we had such insights much earlier in our lives.

I'm using my saved outing from our trip as a second artist date. I went to the swap meet in Tucson two days in a row, where I found a few treasures. It combined both walking and an artist date. What a great place with foods, fresh produce, and an abundance of "stuff." The best of my purchases was on the second day when I scored a set of cushions from (probably) a love seat. They were new, and worked perfectly for creating the seating area with the IKEA coffee tables in our little living room. We had been looking at a chaise from IKEA, but this was much more affordable and works perfectly.

I really didn't get out and walk. I'm recovering still from knee surgery, and walking for enjoyment isn't a part of my days just yet, especially when some days are entirely filled with too much necessary walking. I am making progress though with exercises, but can't overdo the weight bearing (and there is way too much weight to bear) or my knees complain bitterly. Maybe this week I'll walk around our home a bit.

My smaller treasures from the swap meet, a pink depression bowl (50¢), little wooden spools of knitting and crocheting silk & cotton (25¢ each), little resin Buddha (25¢)to put in a little cactus pot, and a little framed picture that was lumped with a miniature Regina red wine vinegar bottle--not in the picture. Here's hoping I catch up and make the effort to post my week 3 check-in a little earlier, but I'm not promising anything. I try not to make promises I might have trouble keeping. ;-)

Week 1 Check-in

Rather than explain at length to my readers (joke here), I'll link to another blog for the specifics of what I'm doing. Or at least I'm making an attempt.

Our trip to Phoenix and Tucson was delayed a week, and so I'm just back Monday this week. I did morning pages 5 days out of 6. Usually it's easier for me to get them in, since the mornings are pretty much my own, but with traveling, it was more of a challenge.

I had so many artist dates that I'm going to have them hold me probably until the end of the month. I'm calling our trip to Goodwill and then IKEA in Phoenix as the artist date for the first week. I love shopping at Goodwill, but just missed the everything 50% off at the Phoenix store by a day. I didn't find too many things I couldn't live without, and just got three tops, but I love just looking at everything. I tempered my shopping because I knew we were going to IKEA. We had an extensive list for IKEA, and the one must get was the ANEBODA cabinet to fit the very specific space in our new bathroom. We also got a couple of bookshelves with glass doors that will go in our back entry and in the old bathroom which at the moment is being demolished. Picked up a few things that weren't on the list...ESPRESSIVO halogen light to replace the one above the laptop which was a PITA to turn on and off. Also got a medium sized skillet, and a bunch of rugs, and some fabric yardage. I hope it is still on my clothesline. I did laundry yesterday, and forgot that I had hung it outside. The wind was blowing rather fiercely all day, and I never ventured out after hanging it outside. The photo is of my sale fabric, $1.99/yd, 59" wide! I thought it would make great backings for the kid quilts.

Got several walks in. Thursday, our travelling day was punctuated by walking in rest areas. Walking all day in IKEA was enough to do me in by the end of the day. Pain medication and sitting all the way to Tucson revived me.

I did the tasks in the chapter, and that's about all I'm willing to share on that topic. The best thing I took from the chapter is to just "do it." I have a tendency to not do anything if I can't work on some "work." My husband is just the opposite and plods along with many menial steps. They all accumulate, and in the end he has a body of work. I think the longer I'm inactive, also makes it harder to start something, like I have to paint a masterpiece instead of just doing a little bit of art. I'm going to work on just doing.

Snow anyone?

This was the scene off and on all day with a little sunshine sprinkled in so we could enjoy the sparkling snow. At times it was a veritable blizzard, and then just as quickly it would completely stop, melt, only to start the process all over again.
I finally finished completing the move into the new bathroom which meant going through everything in the old bathroom and doing a major cleaning and moving of stuff. It amazes me how things just keep accumulating, the sheer volume of it all. After the holidays Dale will start on the old bathroom, which will get a jacuzzi tub along with a total remodel. A room at a time and our little house will be all new.

I finally got a little bit of decorating done. Made some fabric Christmas trees for the entry. It wasn't my best sewing job, but quick, and at least I have a bit of decorating done. I saw this adorable owl pennant, and followed the link to the directions. I'm tempted to make these tomorrow, when really I should be working on my younger daughter's quilt.
The clouds, of course have moved off, leaving us with a cold, clear night. But hopefully that means a nice sunny day tomorrow with good solar gain.

Winter Wonderland

Well, the day dawned dark and drizzly, but the moisture turned to snow off and on all day yesterday. Surprisingly the 8 ft. baseboard heater and the little fan heater are enough to keep the sewing room comfortable even on cloudy days. It will likely be next year before we have gas out there.

I've been busy, cleaning up my sewing room which desperately needed it. I've bound a few more quilts and also put together a black and white quilt from the blocks I won at least year's retreat. I'm pleased with the results, and I also tried out the new pantograph I got at the NM Longarm meeting Dec. 1st. I got it from Dave Hudson, the "Pattern Man."

Having done a few pantographs, I know what I like and what is easier for me now. I don't like a lot of sharp points, finding those much easier to execute from the front of the machine. I got my "winnings" from ebay, a box of threads, mostly polyester which the machine seems to like, although I've also had good luck with Signature cotton.

The sun is shining at the moment, but there is a dark bank of clouds to the south. I hope they don't come this way. I need the sunshine, which is why I live in the southwest. Hope you all have sunshine in your day.

Soup weather

The wind blew all night, and continued through the morning until just a bit ago, and now we're finally getting a little bit of precipitation driving against the windows by the wind. Definitely makes me want to cook and have soup. I love my pressure cooker. I don't think I'd be able to cook dried beans without it. The first time I tried, we were living in Colorado at 5,000 ft. elevation and though I cooked the beans all day, they were still hard by afternoon. That's when I got a pressure cooker and have never looked back. I still don't soak my beans overnight, preferring to zap them with just enough water to cover in the microwave for 10 minutes, before cooking.

I had a productive day Thursday, but not nearly as productive yesterday. I've got the black & white blocks I won at the AZ retreat last year made into a top, and loaded on the long-arm for today's task. It will be another donation quilt for an older child.

I thought the challenge to post every day in November was great, but I knew I wouldn't be able to participate. But I'm challenging myself to be more than just an occasional poster.

My regular visit to the post office yielded a box of fabric from Fabric.com that I didn't order! I tried to contact them, but I'll have to wait until Monday. Either someone sent me a gift, or somehow they pulled my name out of the ether because I've never ordered from them and don't have an account. A mystery to solve.