Summer in a blur

June is gone, and we're half past July. I had surgery on my right thumb, and read the month of June away with my thumb in a splint. I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, and then went on to the first two books of the Twilight series. Now waiting for the third book from the library or paperback edition whichever comes first.

The best laid plans...my right thumb surgery didn't go as easily as the left, with an infection after the pins were removed which put me in the hospital for several days on IV antibiotics. It's now healing nicely, and I'm slowly regaining strength and motion.

Back to sewing. I made some postcards, and finished up another couple of donation quilts. Looks like we're going to take the camper out and head north, to cooler temperatures and maybe some hot springs. I need to get some more books, but my thumb is also well enough to knit.

It's raining, it's pouring

There was a nice reward this evening for the an entire day of off and on showers, an awesome, bright, double rainbow. I convinced everyone to go see it even though it was still sprinkling a bit.

We've also had a little early morning visitor. Not the greatest picture quality, but he was busy going all along the fence line checking out plants for insects? grubs? I wouldn't mind it if he found another place to hang out. They are so pretty, if only they didn't stink! We're getting lots of migrant birds now. Western Tanagers have found the oranges I put out there, and the hummingbirds need air traffic control for the feeders!


Pat is here and we are having a quilting holiday, trying to get a bunch of quilts done for Dr. Kaufman. Together we are so much more productive.

WIP Wednesday

Hard to believe another month has passed since I last posted. Spring is a busy time of year. There is so much happening outside and new birds keep arriving every day. I finished another pair of socks, and started on my third. So now, no matter whatever else I'm doing, I have a pair of socks in the works as well. I enjoy the knitting, and can knit while riding in the car or watching TV. I don't have to be fast, just keep plugging along on it.

These are both made with Panda Cotton, 59% bamboo, 25% cotton, 16% elastic nylon. I'm hoping they will wash well, and shouldn't shrink like my wool socks.

I'm trying to whittle down my UFO pile. This is a quilt I started last summer for a friend. It's a Nine-Patch Pizzazz, which I don't tire of making. While working on this one, I also cut focus fabric for a donation kid quilt. I won't bother saying I'll try to post more often. Maybe after I have surgery on my other thumb and won't be able to knit or sew as much.

Windy, windy, windy

The wind has been blowing for the better part of a week--seems even longer. It's wearing thin. Tomorrow we're going to town. Thanks to the generosity and help of friends, I have another five quilts to take to Dr. Kaufman. I also finished a couple of baby quilts for gifts. This is another quilt top from Sophie, to which I added borders. I decided to go with more girly colors since the previous one was predominantly blues. I also have a stack of I Spy squares to make up into more quilts.



The blocks in this quilt were from Tonya's "fungly challenge" which seemed rather hideous and destined to become a UFO. With help at the retreat in Phoenix, I was able to put them together into a bright, not too hideous child's quilt, and I did give it a milder back, so that it could be loved at least one one side! I still have quite a few of the fungly blocks left--enough to make another quilt. Some of my blocks had little contrast. I was trying to make the fabrics play nicely which was a mistake, so they may not find a home.

Seems I was a bit premature with my assessment of the peach tree. Since not all of the blossoms had opened, it seems like it's trying hard to keep the remaining blossoms from freezing. It's been tough, and now only time will tell if we get any fruit. I'm ready for spring.

Spring storm

Yesterday early morning I just had to snap this picture as I was putting dishes away. I love my Fiesta dishes. They are bright and add color to any day. This morning I need the color!

The predicted snowstorm arrived while we slept and we have a couple of inches on the ground and it's still coming down. Our poor peach blossoms! I don't think they'll recover from this. It was the last of our fruit trees to blossom but unfortunately it didn't wait long enough. This is our fourth spring here. We've had just one bumper peach crop.

Tah Dah!

Well, I just finished knitting my first pair of socks! The picture is tastefully arranged to so that the first sock is hiding beneath the second sock. I'm just amazed that I was able to do this largely without personal instruction, and depending on the wonderful resources available online.

I couldn't believe it had been the end of January since I last blogged, and now we're coming up on the end of March--okay so just a few days past the middle really. I attended the annual retreat in Phoenix. Our guest speaker this year was a very entertaining Patrick Lose.

Thanks to wonderful donations from Sophie and Pat, I was able to get some quilts done for donating to Dr. Kaufman upon my return. I have another couple ready to load and quilt.
As I sit here and try to account for the past two months, I realize my time has also been occupied with doctor visits. I started and finished a round of shots of Synvisc in my knee. So far this seems like it's going to help. Perhaps when I go back in another four months to assess the efficacy, I'll be wanting to do the same for my other knee. Also am on the queue for surgery on my other thumb. While it's not the miracle cure, the "repaired" thumb is a lot less painful.
This quilt started life as a table runner, and I think it will comfort some newly diagnosed diabetic teen as it turned out to be a generous size after adding my big borders.
Spring seems to be just around the corner, and I hope we don't get any late frost that wipes out the fruit blossoms. We have yet to see apricots from our trees, and our lilacs haven't survived a bloom killing frost since we moved here three years ago.

Woolworks

The baskets in the previous post were for trash pickup, which is an almost daily affair in most towns in Brazil. The baskets keep the trash out of reach of dogs, etc. My aunts were horrified when I told them that trash pickup in the U.S. was weekly!



Pat and I had our quilting get-together, and were a little less productive because of a cold she brought from Phoenix. Being the generous person she is, she shared it with me. We were able to take these three and a couple of other quilts to Dr. Kaufman. Thanks to Sue who contributed more kitty blocks, and Rosie who had the perfect bamboo fabric for the pandas. Dr. Kaufman generously gifted me with a pair of her luscious knitted mittens after I shared with her that I'm trying to learn to knit socks. I've already had occasion to use them.

As the title of this post alludes to...I've been working with wool, and got quite the production going. It is the one bit of hand sewing that doesn't seem to overwork my hands. The felted wool is soft and doesn't require too tight a hold to work into submission!

Blog Giveaway

Gosh, it's been a week since I last posted. Lots of visiting, eating, and walking. I walk everywhere around in the town my dad lives in. I figured out what these oddities were soon enough, but I thought them rather interesting. As always people find a way to make art out of utilitarian objects. I made a flicker set of some of these wire and cement baskets around town. The first person to guess what they're used for will win a prize...what would you like a fat quarter after I get back to the U.S. or maybe a postcard from here in Brazil??

I made a flicker set of them here. Check out all the different shapes and sizes.

Today's featured fruit is jabuticaba. There is such a wealth of fruits here. The mangos are downright obscene in size. Happy Thanksgiving to all. I'm thankful that I'll be heading home in a couple of weeks. It's been great visiting my homeland, but I do feel I'm a foreigner here. Most of the time I'm on sensory overload. The noise pollution is unreal, and this is in a "small" town. Of course nobody here believes me when I saw I live in a town of only 200 people. I'm headed to another colonial coffee with my cousin, Edson, who is helping me make arrangements for travelling. Because this is a small town, I can't easily get to where I want to go by bus, without going out of the way first. Oh well!

Rare sunshine

The days go by with lots of excellent, cheap food. Yesterday afternoon my cousins and I went to "colonial" coffee buffet at the supermarket. There was such a variety of traditional savory dishes which I love. There is one in particular, emapada, which is a pie crust with hearts of palm stuffing, that is my favorite. They also stuff it with chicken or beef, but always the crust melts in your mouth. I picked up the tab, and for four of us eating rather well it was less than $15!

It was a rare sunny afternoon and afterwards my cousin drove us to different scenic spots around the town. The highlight for me was a park where I caught this Crested Caracara having a meal. We were able to get pretty close. I've been lucky enough to see one before in TX, but never quite this close. This morning while hanging clothes out on the line at my dad's I was treated to a rather large green parrot eating apples off the neighbor's tree! I must admit I get rather excited to see these birds in the wild. I've yet to ID the parrot though.

Sunshine again

Man, I wasn't expecting the cooler weather we had the last few days. I brought mostly warm weather clothes, after all it's spring here, and generally warmer. It was cold and damp last night. Today the sun has broken through, and of course, it's a bit muggy now, but I'm very much solar powered, and though I love the lush green of everything here, I get easily depressed without my sunshine.
The picture, though very inviting, is from Sao Paulo, a lovely park. They normally serve refreshments there, but it was the wrong time of day for it, and again, a rather gray day.

This was another park where I went my second day in Brazil. It had beautiful stands of bamboo, and so thick and lush that it dwarfed my friend. It was in the city of Sao Jose dos Campos. We strolled the park and saw a lot of birds and then enjoyed a fruit slush made with Acai. It was quite tasty, but I have no idea what the real fruit is like as the slushy was made with a fruit paste which was mixed with guarana...the national soft drink also make from a fruit, loaded with caffeine, and of course sugar. At least for those not inclined to consume high fructose corn syrup, it is not a problem here.