waffles, new embroidery

  Current US COVID-19 deaths:  187.227

    Yesterday:  186,874

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It was waffles and bacon in the Devo household Sunday morning (8/30):  

Michael said the waffles melt-in-your-mouth!  I think it's been awhile since I made this recipe (it's his favorite) and they really were particularly light!  Then (as usual), he said he would clean up the kitchen and put everything away so that I could dive into my crafts!  

The day was sunny with not even a hint of rain, so I finished off the quilting on the tree skirt first thing:  

I spent the rest of the day working on my string blocks, but also managed to get one embroidery done:  

I found out I mis-counted my string blocks and need to cut and make 13 more  :~(.  Oh well….that’s why I am giving myself until Oct 1^st…right?  If I get done sooner than that…well, it’s all good!  

Michael headed out to our bluebird house in the afternoon…there was definitely a nest with feathers:  

Somehow we missed seeing the babies this year….and we missed them last year because we were in Tahiti!  Better luck next year.  

We both had salads for dinner and I worked a bit longer in the studio after that before joining my honey for some TV.

pretty trash, library quilt continues

   Current US COVID-19 deaths:  186,874

    Yesterday:  185,985

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Michael left for golf on Saturday (8/29) while I headed to my studio.  The weather looked iffy all morning, so I didn’t want to longarm, instead I concentrated on getting 8 more string blocks done (I need a total of 48 of these):  

I got them trimmed and couldn't resist taking a picture of my 'trash can' (I put that in quotes because these trimmings will go to someone who uses them to stuff pillows for the animal shelter).  Doesn't my trash look pretty?

Michael was home around 1 PM and I quickly made ham & pickle for his lunch (as the hot dog cart had closed down due to the threat of rain).  He said his score was an 81…more or less….I guess there were a couple of mulligans involved :~).  And his birdie streak is back up to 2.  

I fired up my embroidery machine in the afternoon and got another one done: 

and continued to work on the string blocks.  I think it is a reasonable goal to have this quilt totally finished and ready to be hung by October 1^st, so that’s what I’m going to aim for.  That gives me approximately 2-ish weeks to get all of the blocks done, and 2-ish weeks to sew it all together and get it quilted and bound…but still leaves room for life happening along the way :~).  We had leftover ONE POT PASTA for dinner and I got one more embroidery done after that (Connie - leaving out the 'lie' line just didn't work):

and by the time I went to bed, my design wall looked like this:

 

beginning library layout, weaving meeting, steak dinner

  Current US COVID-19 deaths:  185,985

    Yesterday:  184,927

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Michael took Cookie for a walk first thing Friday morning (8/28), while I headed downstairs to get my blog out and dive back into my new project :~).   There’s NOTHING like a new project to get you fired up about quilting again  :~).  When he got home, he made me the standard egg/cheese/toast:  

so that I could continue working.  By the time I left for a mini-weaving meeting at 1 PM, I had completed 8 string blocks and got them all trimmed (it is amazing what a difference trimming makes!): 

And I got my so far completed embroideries and strings up on the wall (so you can see how the string blocks will go together): 

I had a WONDERFUL time with Pam and Rosalie: 

and we never stopped talking even once!  Rosalie brought her inkle loom, which I had never seen:

I left home around 1 PM and didn’t get home until 5.  One other kind of neat thing....Pam made her own marachino cherries, and insisted we try them....they were quite good:

The golf club had a special on rib eye steaks (the only kind of steak I’ve ever liked), so Michael headed up there to pick up our dinner:  

I headed back to the studio after dinner and got one more embroidery done:

Thankful Thursday, full story of library project

   Current US COVID-19 deaths:  184,927

    Yesterday:  183,677

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Have you heard of thankful Thursdays?  Here's mine for this week:

1. I am so thankful that for the last few days there have been long periods of time when I did not think about the fact that I had a hip replacement 7 weeks ago!  

2. I am so thankful that it seems like my sleep has settled down and I am getting some good zzz…zzz…zzz… 

3. I am so thankful for a husband who has NEVER ONCE acted irritated or annoyed during the last 7 weeks as he took care of me every minute.  

4. I am so thankful for friends and acquaintances who have let me know that they have been thinking about and praying for me.  And who have been happy for each of my small successes as I healed.  

5. I am so thankful for my furry friends (Cookie, Lucy, Ethel) who allow me to pick them up and nuzzle them when I am feeling blue. 

Another excellent night of deep sleep….YAY!!  I didn’t get up until after 7 AM on Thursday (8/27), and spent a few hours getting my regular morning stuff done (emails, blog, brain puzzles) before diving back into my new project.  My goal for today is to set up the program and kick off quilting on the tree skirt, and to get all of my fabric cut for the new wall hanging.  So, here’s the story on the new wall hanging.  I have wanted to make a quilt for our Del Webb library for a long time…and have been collecting embroideries about reading for a long time…but I never thought the head librarian here would go for it (right or wrong, some interactions have led me into thinking that  :~).  Our library is closed now for renovation, and so I had gone to the Lancaster library to pick up books a couple of times (pre-surgery).  The Lancaster library is also in temporary quarters and while picking up my books once, I noticed this big, empty wall…with a water stain or a crack or something ugly looking and I remember thinking ‘‘a quilt would look really nice there and also cover up that mark’’.  Last Sunday Connie texted me that she would be going to the library on Monday and would be happy to pick up books for me if I needed them.  I started telling her what I had noticed, and asked if she could measure the wall to see how big a quilt would be needed to cover up all of the wall damage.  She said ‘‘wouldn’t you need permission to hang something?’’  Of course I would, and luckily it turns out Connie is well acquainted and connected with everyone at that library, and she volunteered to be my ‘manager’ and get permission for a quilt and voila…..I’m now making one and I could NOT be more thrilled!!!  I think the head librarian at Lancaster is thrilled as well.  

So, I knew I was doing embroideries and I cycled through several sashing/border ideas, with some help from a fellow quilter (thanks Susie!!!)  But, when I eventually found out the wall hanging needed to by 60’’ by 60’’, sashing no longer seemed viable.  I needed to put in 10’’ separator blocks if I didn’t want this wall hanging to take 6 months to complete!  First I thought about doing crumb blocks, then I moved on to thinking about blocks from the ’Loree’ quilt, then I moved on to log cabin blocks, then I moved onto wonky log cabin….but FINALLY I settled on what I thought would be perfect (you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how they go together):  

When Connie was here for retreat day, I drew out a schematic of the quilt: 

and we semi-finalized which embroideries we wanted to include (see that teeny, tiny writing):  

So, those are my 'directions' for the quilt  :~).  I say ‘semi-finalized’ because some of the embroideries need to be tweaked a little and I am not yet sure that can happen.  But in the meantime I have PLENTY to work on.  

I took the sample string block and measured how long each color should be and noted that: 

and continued my cutting:  

Paula swung by around 1 PM with a rotisserie chicken from COSTCO, and her own already picked carcass.  Within 25 minutes of her leaving, my own carcass was picked and both carcasses (carcassi??) were in the crockpot along with some herbs, cooking down into stock.  

I spent the afternoon and a good part of the evening (Michael wanted to finished the season of YELLOWSTONE), quilting away (there are tiny snowflakes in Julie's tone-on-tone white, so she piced a snowflake pattern): 

and getting another embroidery done:

and working on my setting blocks for the library wall hanging:  

I got 8 of them almost completed before heading upstairs at 9 PM to collapse!  

I headed to the kitchen becuase I wanted to turn over all of the bones in the crockpot to continue cooking overnight, and that's when disaster struck!  My crockpot was not hot AT ALL!!!  Sometime between 1 PM and 9 PM, it just quit working....I am BEREFT!!!  I have NOT wanted to buy a new crockpot ever since I read an article YEARS ago that the government got involved, decided that crockpots were not hot enough, and made the manufacturers up the temperatues.  People started complaining that stuff they had cooked for years was suddenly burning  :~(.  But, I guess I have no choice....I really use my crockpot and can't do without.  Luckily last night, I quickly called Paula and ran down there in the golf cart...and she gave me her crockpot as a loaner.

A word from Jimmy Stewart’s daughter:  Kelly Stewart Harcourt, daughter of late actor Jimmy Stewart, lambasted a speaker at the Republican National Convention for comparing President Donald Trump to the mild-mannered character her father played in the classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  “In her speech at the G.O.P. convention Monday night, Natalie Harp, a cancer survivor, made reference to the film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ comparing Donald Trump to George Bailey, the main character in the film, played by my father, Jimmy Stewart,” Harcourt wrote in a letter to the New York Times published Thursday.  She went on, “Given that this beloved American classic is about decency, compassion, sacrifice and a fight against corruption, our family considers Ms. Harp’s analogy to be the height of hypocrisy and dishonesty.”  

And a FB funny:  I started jogging yesterday…..I didn’t want to, but the margarita truck wouldn’t stop!

 

gas housers, Pat, Cookie, library project starts

  Current US COVID-19 deaths:  183,677

    Yesterday:  182.421

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My honey was up at 6 AM for golf on Wednesday (8/26) and after a reasonably good night’s sleep, I was up by 6:30 :~).  He left for golf after making perfect gas houser eggs: 

and I got emails/blog/whatever done before SKYPE-ing with Janice at 9 AM.  She gave me a really good perspective on getting my knee done this year.  She said with her first baby, it was really hard for the first 6 weeks partially because she was fighting what was happening and wondering when it would be over and they could all settle into some sort of routine.  With her second baby, she knew things would be up in the air for at least 6 – 7 weeks, so was in a much better frame of mind, knowing that things would probably settle down again in something close to that same time frame.  That feels true to me…..I had no idea when I would be able to do things I wanted to do with my hip, and it was irritating/frustrating not to know that.  I know recuperating from a knee replacement will be harder/longer/more painful but still, by 8 weeks I should be well on my way to being able to do almost everything I want.  I think that put me in a much better frame of mind, and nudged me closer to getting it done later this year  :~).  

Loree texted just after Janice and I were done, offering up a bit more of her garden produce to me and Paula….so Paula and I both wolfed down some breakfast (we discovered neither one of us had eaten while talking on the phone, so decided we’d leave at 11:30…giving us both time for breakfast) before taking off.  

Funny story, I KNOW if given her druthers, Paula would always rather drive when we are going somewhere.  So, I was assuming she was driving.  I left my house a bit early and started walking to hers.  I noticed that her big black SUV was not in the driveway, instead there was a white sedan.  I assumed hers was in the shop and she had gotten a ‘loaner’.  As I got closer, I realized it was not in her driveway, it was in the neighbor’s driveway!  So, I got out my phone and called and said ‘bad news, I don’t have a car and assumed you were driving, but you don’t have a car either!!’  She said she was just getting ready to step outside and wait for me at the curb when she heard the phone ring.  Luckily, she and Doug have a seldom used car in the garage, so we were off.  It was very pleasant sitting socially distantly on the patio, chatting with Loree and Reg.  

As I walked through the door home once again, Pat gave me a call to see if she could come over and show me her new fabric.  Her daughter had given her a gift certificate to SEW MUCH FUN, so she found a new purse pattern, and gorgeous fabric to make it out of:  

We chatted for a bit before she left and I headed downstairs.  

I worked until dinnertime, and Michael joined me when he got home from golf.  Cookie came down and decided to snuggle in....she looked SO CUTE:

I made a great start on cutting out fabric for the new project.  I got also 2 embroideries sewn:  

and a test setting block: 

before quitting for the evening.  Once again, Loree gave us a cantaloupe and gorgeous garden tomatoes, so I made ONE POT PASTA for dinner (which we haven't had in probably a year....it was YUMMY).  Of course it always look gorgeous in the skillet before you start cooking, and OF COURSE I neglected to take a pic.  I am a TERRIBLE blogger sometimes  :~).