Tuesday, September 5, 2023

 

Happy Labor Day 2023

Funny things one remembers- I remember growing up Labor Day was the official end of summer and one shouldn’t wear white shoes!! Probably white slacks, dresses and skirts too.

Galen was away for a few days last week Getting back on Friday, they had an interesting trip on I-37. There had been a shooting in Corpus Christie. The suspect tried to out run the Police on I-37. They put spikes across the road, he got out of his pick up wearing an armored vest and shooting. Not a smart move on his part. Fortunately no one else was hurt, but it was a good 90 minutes before traffic slowly started to move in either direction. This all started about 30 minutes earlier, so Galen was not close to any of it. Their plans of getting back early on the Friday before Labor day didn’t quite work out, but they still weren’t too late.

White he was away I found more partial blocks to press, measure and trim. If I ever get all this organized it will be amazing! 3 1/2 inch 4 patches. Think these will end up being centers for some scrappy star blocks. The red and black half square triangles were from me not using the correct size triangle paper! No problem, will get used some where.

I was able to get the rest of the blocks made for the Strips and Strings Rail Fence I had posted earlier. 48 blocks. On Saturday I put the top together using the webbing method. That took me a little while to get used too when I did it for the quadrille quilt last month. But it makes more sense the more I do it. Basically chain piecing rows together!! Everything lines up and doesn’t get mixed up! The top isn’t quite this bright-nice sunny day. But it is colorful! The top is about 54 by 72. Nice throw size. And no it did not make a dent in my scraps!

I have been enjoying watching the Hummingbirds coming into our feeders. The feeders are getting more activity this year since the heat and drought have really taken a toll on the flowers. We have some blooming but not like normal years. The Firebush is doing well as is the Pride of Barbados but not many others. Took this one thru a window with my phone. Not the best picture.

Lady and I took advantage of cooler mornings and had our morning coffee on the deck. Had been missing being able to do that. No it hadn’t rained, had just given some plants a drink.

Tomorrow is our 53rd wedding anniversary but we also have trees being trimmed tomorrow so will fix a nice dinner at home and we will go out later in the week. We need to get some big branches off that are over our roof once again. Hopefully we won’t have a winter like we had in 2021 and this year but you never know. It’s hard to imagine with all that came down or split and needed to come off after the ice storm in February, but the one big Live Oak really took off and unfortunately over the house roof. This evening we will have to get all the birdfeeders down and out of the way.

Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend and have a good rest of the week.

Last Monday in August 2023!

 

Last Monday in August 2023!

Still hot, enough said! Spent last week filling boxes with fabric for Linus Connection. They will get the fabric into quilts faster than I can. We have Farmbox delivery just about every week. (Texas produce and meat). Linus likes this size of box, easier for lifting.

11 boxes, also 2 not in the photo!

While cleaning out big boxes I found this pattern. It’s my Wedding Dress. Funny to find it right now with our anniversary next week.

Love the price $3.00 in 1970. Mom made my dress. We found the satin at a warehouse and remenant store outside of Reading. Mom found most of my fabrics for gowns there. College recital gowns etc. All told, my Wedding Gown cost all of $100.00. I didn’t find the pattern for the wedding party dresses that I made. We kept everything simple including their dresses. Princess line dress that could be shortened afterwards. Fun to reminisce a little.

I wasn’t able to get back to the Two Rivers quilt last week. Howver I did sew some non-thinking blocks for the String and Strip quilt that I started earlier this month. This is 13 more blocks, not all trimmed to size yet. Should get the rest finished quickly then will get back to Two Rivers!

Hope to get more sewing done this coming week.

Friday, August 25, 2023

 

Another Hot Day-8/22/2023

The title says it all, still no relief from the heat and still no rain. So you know where I have been, inside!! Actually we have had our morning coffee outside, not often but we have. And at dusk we have been able to sit out at times, if there is a breeze. Sitting here watching a hummingbird at the feeder right outside. We put out fresh food every couple of days. Which reminds me, need to make more today! We have pulled out a few geraniums- empty pots look better than those with dead plants!

I have managed some sewing as well as cleaning-need to do a lot more of each but am slowly making headway. Have one top with backing set aside for Osie to quilt. And did get started on making blocks from my Two Rivers quilt. Pattern by Pat Speth. It’s a scrappy quilt and using batiks. I need 24 of each block. Think this one will be a keeper!

Also made 5 more blocks for my Strips and Strings quilt. Good progress on that one. Using that as my beginning and ending when I need to remove my Two Rivers blocks from my machine. Or leaders and enders as most quilters call those pieces. It’s a great way to get another bunch of blocks or parts of blocks done. Will share a picture of my strip and strings progress later. Am really enjoying scrap quilting right now.

Did make a really good Chinese chicken dish last night. Honey Sriracha Chicken. Will definitely keep that recipe. It is from the site. www. Creme de la Crumb

Lady says it’s too hot to be out for long so she will watch the squirrels from inside.

For some eye candy and to see what other quilters are making go to

Until next time have a great rest of the week!

Thursday, October 21, 2021

 

The Demise of our Lacy Bark Elm!

We planted this tree the first summer here- 1999. Never thought we would be having it cut down 21 years later. But Mother Nature had a different idea with our deep freeze in February.. It was just as well we decided it needed to be done this year. It would probably have died in another year. It had some big limbs that were getting brittle. They came out with truck that had a bucket so no one.had to climb.

Once again they did a great job of cleaning.up the yard. Also great job of not letting any if thr heavy limbs hit other plants. They covered the yard with plywood sheets where the branches would be falling. No damage to sod either. Very professional

No more work this week. They will be back on Monday he thinks to tackle the Red Oak. They will also use the bucket for it. It needs a lot of lityle dead stuff removed.

Monday, October 18, 2021

 

Peaceful Monday

Am sitting on the deck enjoying a cup of coffee. Finished up putting applesauce in the freezer. And have dinner in the slow cooker. So now I relax for a few, look through today’s catalogs before they go in the recycle and watch the Monarch and Queen Butterflies on our Mexican Sunflower and Butterfly Weed. And Lady is keeping watch for squirrels!

Tomorrow the tree trimmers will be back. Not sure which will happen first- remove the Elm out front or get the dead limbs off the Red Oak in the back. Then they will also raise the crowns on the Live Oak take out the dead stuff and get one large branch away from the house roof. They’ll be here at least 2 days.

And I have managed to sew a little more too. Have all the blocks made for this quilt. They are up on the design wall waiting to get put together

Hoping to have the top together by the end of the week.

That about does it for now. Time to get busy. My coffee is finished!

 

Day 1 – trees

Our guys finally got started today. We had rain yesterday morning. As much as it is good to get rain we, of course, wish it would rain on our schedule! The crew today worked on trimming our Live Oaks in front. Raised the crown and got a branch that was close to our roof in front. Today they were able to do everything from the ground. The Live Oaks in back aren’t as easy. One person will be rigged for climbing. We have a good size limb over the roof in back.

They do a great job of cleaning up
And now the branch is away from the roof over the master bath.

I did get to work more on the Home and Away quilt. Now the blue blocks are done. They still need to be pressed. I have half the red blocks trimmed. Need to trim the rest and cut the last 4 inch squares of background. Maybe this evening?

Not sure if we will have tree work done tomorrow. Tropical Storm Pamela is pushing rain our way.

Pork and sauerkraut in the slow cooker for dinner. Need to fix potatoes and homemade applesauce is thawing. Will need to decide soon if I should can more sauerkraut this year.