Amazingly, I'm Back!

The 4th of July weekend is upon us and it has cooled down from the triple digits to the nineties which seem much cooler in comparison.  We were even able to open all the windows last night, which I love to be able to do.  

I continue to work on my autumn cross stitch picture and here's where I was earlier today:

Isn't that just the cutest house?  As I mentioned in my last post, simple but with details that take it a step above primitive.  

And here are a couple pictures of the completed Christmas tree quilt top.  So glad to finally be done with it! I do like it very much in spite of the fussy nature of all the triangles.  

Of course it still needs to be quilted, but I can wait on that.  Now it's on to making Daniel some new boxers for his jammies.  They're all cut out and ready to go.  

Maybe I'll get going on them tomorrow. That sounds like a good 4th of July project!  Too hot to be outside much and my sewing room is air conditioned.  :-)  

And that's it from the resort today!  ♥

March

March is such a strange month.  Weather all over the place, daylight savings time kicks in (and kicks me!), and it's neither winter nor spring. But, it is what it is.  Even the muse has been missing.

I have been reading lots of fun "cozy mysteries" on my iPad using Kindle Unlimited.  I've kept up the subscription as it's less than ten dollars a month.  You can hardly buy one paperback for that price and the library has been either closed or on weird hours due to the virus, so it's been a treat to be able to prowl for books and download whatever strikes my fancy.  I'm currently on a series in England in the l930s.  

The sewing room has actually been seeing a little of me and I'm working on a Christmas quilt from a kit Dan got me for Christmas.  It's been a little slow going as the template that was sent to use with it had an error in it.  It took some doing to get that settled and then I had to figure out how to line up the different pieces as they're triangles. Tricky to do to get them placed properly before stitching, but now that I've gotten the hang of it, I'm finding it fun.  A learning process for certain though. In the picture below, only the top row of trees is done.  Hard to tell since the white triangles between are the same color as my flannel backdrop.

And a further update on the new dishwasher, christened Louise by Dan (also called Weezy and LuLu).  She continues to perform perfectly!  I'm so happy! ♥

Busy Day!

Apparently I recovered my mind after a night's sleep and I've amazed myself at what I've gotten done today.  I cleaned the inside of the frig, removing everything from the door bins and washing them out followed by the shelves and drawers.  It looks so tidy in there now. Orderly even.  At least for a day or so! 

Next up was deep cleaning the main bath upstairs, scouring the sink and the toidy so they sparkle.  So that leads me to my next set of decorating photos.  Christmas, even in the bathrooms.

The little lamp stays on twenty-four hours a day and gives a warm glow to a bath that has no outside window. The door to the bathroom is just to the right of this photo. Below is a view of the other side of the sink area, taken from the doorway. 

Next up is a closeup of the quilted wall hanging I made using my embroidery machine.  I'm still amazed I can do such large designs!

And last, this cute little snowman soap dispenser. Can't remember where I found him, but I love him!

And last, but not least, I made more cookies! A double batch of Puddin' Head gingerbread cutouts.  

I've been making these for thirty-six Christmases! Tradition!!  ♥

Fall in a Heap Day

Apparently I used up all my energy and brilliant words over the last few days and to use one of our favorite phrases, I've fallen in a heap today. I've done nothing constructive and thought no deep thoughts.  (Do I ever think deep thoughts? I'll think deeply about that.)  (Smile)

So here are a couple of photos of past projects. The first is a stitchout from Embroidery Library which is no longer available. I suspect it's because the digitiser used the UK spelling of counsellor instead of the American counselor. I don't mind. It hangs at the top of the stairs to the basement.

And here's a closer view of the window pane quilt in the living room.  It uses Holly Taylor's fabrics in a Doug Leko of Antler Quilt Designs pattern.

And that's it for today from the Resort. I think we're going to pick up dinner curbside somewhere tonight. Heap! It's fall in a heap day! ♥  

 

Christmas in the Kitchen

I seem to spend a lot of time in my kitchen.  Dan has never eaten cold cereal so a hot breakfast it is each day.  From the start of the day until evening, I am probably in the kitchen more than another other room in the house, unless I'm on a sewing mission.  Decorating my kitchen happens with each season, but never so much as for Christmas.  These are new photos, but may be very similar to ones I've posted in past years.

The cookbook cupboard Dan made me some years ago is my favorite spot of all.  The Jim Shore trees and Santa just make the top and were gifts from Ann at past Christmases.  

The broom is many years old, probably dated, but I still love it.  I made it probably forty years ago. The calendar is a Susan Winget one, the same artist who did the illustrations for the book in my Bear Corner pictured a few days ago.  The snowman platter was a gift from Bruder Bear and Karen, and under it, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, is a garland of little angels, a gift from Susan Boehne, a teacher friend of mine.  The wooden mitten on the door knob was made by Cyndie McCabe, another long-time friend and former neighbor.  I get the best gifts! 

These little snowmen, perched by my sink, were also a gift, made by a former assistant principal at the school where I taught.  So cute!

And on the wall in the breakfast nook is a quilt I made from a Country Threads pattern, called Uncle Santa, also many years old.  

Even my stove gets a little decorating.  I put my lovely dark green Staub dutch oven on the back burner, put an appliqued towel on the oven handle, and park an adorable snowman timer next to it.  Those red spatulas in the utensil crock fit right in, too!

And last, here is the breakfast nook table.  

You can see Uncle Santa on the wall, and on the table is a runner I made for Mom and Dad and brought home after we cleared out their house. The sleigh centerpiece was made by a friend the first year we moved back to town, so it's been on that table since Christmas of 1985.  Tradition!!  ♥

November's End

I really meant to do four posts this month, but the busy end seemed to be my undoing.  And here we are, on the last day of November. Oh well! 

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We ended up celebrating on Friday with Ann, Eric and the boys. (Daniel asked what we ate on the actual Thanksgiving day and I told him, "Frozen ravioli and salad!"  He seemed astounded.)  But on Friday, we had the whole Thanksgiving dinner! We enjoyed all our visiting the most, I think.  (The pumpkin pie Dan and I had for Saturday morning's breakfast was pretty good, too.)

Now it's time to think about decorating for Christmas and I decided to wait until tomorrow to start.  I've been cleaning bathrooms today and as I set things out tomorrow, I'll dust and vacuum. Some days I really miss having the cleaning lady of my teaching days.  But then some days I really enjoy cleaning, so there's that.  

I finally finished the Peace on Earth wall hanging and I am very happy with it.  My plan is to hang it in the downstairs guest room where I have a large, empty wall just waiting for it.

I have also been continuing to do a lot of reading. Ann loaned me an interesting book and I really enjoyed it.  

The Traitor's Wife is a fictionalized story about Peggy Shippen Arnold, Benedict Arnold's wife, but it is based on fact.  As it turns out, history has shown that she was the major force behind his defection during the Revolutionary War.  If you're looking for a good read and love history, this will surely appeal to you. 

And that's it for the end of November, in the strange year of 2020.  ♥

Snoctober!

Well.

I took some photos of our beautiful leaves last Thursday night.  The yard and the trees were so beautiful!

And then Friday came.  And so did the snow.  

This was just the beginning.  We ended up with about four inches.  And it's still here!!  I feel like it must be December.  (I have refrained from playing Christmas music, however!) Five days of snow and cold in October.  Tomorrow is supposed to finally be above freezing and then maybe the snow will melt.  

We stayed in and cozied up to the fireplace and I've been knitting away on those brown socks.  Good news!  I should be done tomorrow.  I was able to get away with undoing just the toe of the too-short-sock and I'll be the first to say how amazed I am. I'm just glad it worked!  Time for a new color of yarn!

I'm also getting the Christmas wall hanging quilted, a little at a time.  I finally decided to just stitch in the ditch using my Bernina 830 and a walking foot.  I'm so thankful for a machine with a large throat space and my nice sewing cabinet so that everything is level with room to spread out.  Spoiled, that's what I am.  

Well, that's the latest here at the Resort.  Just trying to stay warm and get a few projects done. I made a yummy ham and pea soup in the Instant Pot this week and that's kept our tummies warm, along with muffins.  I do love winter cooking!  ♥

Goodness Gracious!

How can the time have passed so quickly?!?  Guess I've been busy.  But with what?  That's the question.  The days just seem to fly by and they're much shorter now, too.  We have to learn to drive in the dark again, which seems to be more difficult each year.  

Our church secretary knows she can call me when she needs someone to take over the office when she can't be there for one reason or another.  I've done it several times the last couple of weeks and will again this Friday. Kind of fun to pull out my secretarial skills again.   

Last week was Ann's birthday and she wanted Mexican, so we masked up and made our way to our favorite place early and were able to score a table.  They have seating portioned off and it was like our own section. We were just grateful to all get to sit together and could since we were all family.  After eating, we came back to our house for cake and presents and some good visiting.  For some reason, D likes to take baths at our house, so he happily hopped in since it was his bath night and would be too late for one when he got home. He came out all bright and shiny clean.  

I've been helping a friend out with a quilt she is making for a daughter and son-in-law for Christmas.  It's a funny story as the son-in-law saw a quilt kit and bought it not realizing that his bride didn't sew.  (A natural assumption as all the other women in her family did.) So he gave it to my friend to make and she's had it for eighteen years.  She finally decided it would make a perfect gift this Christmas but was hesitant as it involved processes she'd never tried before and that's where I came in to help and cheer her on.  

I haven't taken any recent photos but here's a great one of D when he and his dad were out on a recent hike. Note the bee nest in the background!  

Fall has truly arrived.  We had a wet weekend and the leaves are swirling.  I've had to dig out sweaters and fleece tops and wool socks.  It feels good!  I love fall!  ♥

  

It's a Knitting Kind of Day--In August!!

Yes, people, it's barely sixty degrees and cloudy out there.  Brrr! I'm thinking of picking up my knitting needles and getting back to a pair of socks I started earlier this year.  It's just that kind of day.  

Dan and I have been saying for the past few years (maybe even ten), that fall seems to arrive in August anymore.  When we were kids the famous words were "hot August nights", but we've burrowed under the covers all month.  And daytime temperatures have been mostly in the eighties.  We're not complaining! Dan grew up in Spokane and remembers many hot, hot days and nights and the little town I grew up in was in a canyon and never cooled off at night after day temperatures in the nineties and hundreds.  I remember laying on top of the covers and having the windows and curtains wide open hoping for cooler air.  No one had air conditioning in those days.  

(And let me drift off, for a moment, and remember shopping for school clothes on 90 plus degree days in unairconditioned stores, trying on wool sweaters and skirts.  And of course, we did this in the nearest "big" town, so my mom, coming from the Seattle area, insisted we had to dress up to go to town and that included wearing nylons.  Yikes!  Of course our car had no air conditioning either, and it was a 45-minute or longer drive to get there.  There was, of course, the ol' "four-sixty air conditioner" -- sixty miles an hour with all four windows rolled down, but that created havoc with our hair. . .)*

Suffice it to say that I'm not the least bit sorry to have a cool day today.  Here's a picture of my finished quilt top on my design wall.  I think I've come up with my quilting plan so hopefully I'll get to that in a few days.

I've been in a baking mood since finishing the top and tried Joanna Gaines recipe for blueberry rolls to great success.  If you have her second cookbook, I can totally recommend her recipe.  Our zucchini have come on and I made a double batch of zucchini bread two days ago. An old standby, but still so delicious!  Just had a mid morning snack (or as the British call it, elevenses) of a piece with my coffee.  

And last, here's a picture of the butte and sky to our south taken a few evenings ago.  Love the light.

And that's the news for now!  ♥

* I realize I've used "of course" three times in a row in this paragraph, but on reflection, they needed to stay. They define the situation.  Of course! 

Stitching On

I got more done on the Christmas quilt.  The tree stars were added and I machine blanket stitched around all the applique pieces.

Next I cut the pieces for the row of sawtooth stars that will be added just below the house. Here they are, stacked in rows according to the alphabet letter for each piece.

I was able to make one star this afternoon.  I finally remembered to stitch just to the inside of the drawn diagonal line which makes for a much truer sized block. I was very pleased with the end result!

I think there are twenty-one pieces in that 6 1/2" block!  Only four more of them to make.  

I don't think I've talked about that gray mat the star block is shown on.  A year or so ago I noticed that many quilters were talking about a wool mat to be used for pressing that they were very happy with so I ordered one.  I really does help with the pressing process--the blocks don't seem to stretch on it and if you use steam, the wool holds the steam for a bit helping to hold the press.  I think mine is 14" square and it works for most of the blocks I make.  Once I join the blocks, of course, I take it off the ironing board and just use the top of the board for long seam pressing.  I do see some huge mats out there, but I have no place for one and this size works well for me.   ♥

And I'm Back!

Hey, I'm actually back with the scoop on my quilting project.  It's a kit I purchased sometime in the last year from Craftsy/Bluprint. A Christmas quilt, like I need another Christmas quilt; but somehow, I just can't stop myself.  

{Side note:  Craftsy has been around for a while and sometime in the last few years was bought out and the name was changed to Bluprint.  Everything stayed pretty much the same until this spring when it was announced that Bluprint was closing.  The thing that got so many people riled was that part of C/B, a BIG part, was video classes that once purchased were available to view by the purchaser forever.  There was much grumbling and dissatisfaction, especially by those who had just purchased new classes.  I recently received an email that Bluprint has been purchased (rescued?) and will continue.}

But I digress.  Back to my project.  As mentioned yesterday, it has a lot of pieces.  A LOT.  So I backed off from my cutting and began assembly with parts I had.  

The house is the center of the quilt.   Next up were applique trees.  I actually had some Heat and Bond in my stash so I drew out the shapes and ironed them on the fabrics, cut and ironed again.  Voila!  Trees!

Now I'm back to cutting, cutting, cutting.  Here's a picture of the pattern showing the whole quilt.  

See those stars?  The checkerboard?  The flying geese? The appliqued letters?  Yup, lots of cutting coming right up!  ♥

Stitchin'

Technically, knitting involves stitches, but this time I'm talking about sewing stitches.  Remember that Valentine table runner I started back in January or February? The one that got derailed as I knit little tiny complicated doll sweaters?  Yes, that one.  Two days ago I decided it was time to get back to it.  My sewing room is a mess, things have been stacked hither and thither, and then pieces of that runner were consuming the top of my cutting table. Time to get to work!

And so I did.  

Stitched together and layered with batting and backing

One end section, all stitched down.

Close-up 

Another

And another

Stitching away 

So thankful for a machine with a walking foot!

All quilted and trimmed, ready for binding

I think I mentioned that I ordered the kit from Shabby Fabrics.  The applique pieces were a dream to work with, already backed with Steam-a-Seam and laser cut!  I just popped them out, peeled the paper backing, placed them in position and ironed them in place.  They also were quite generous with their fabric so I didn't have to worry about running out as I cut (but never the less, I did check and recheck before I did actually cut).  

I have the binding all cut and joined and ready to add. It will make the perfect Sunday afternoon project for tomorrow.  ♥

Pieces

Well I've finally looked up from my knitting needles and decided it was time for a post.  I have been on a doll sweater binge and made a new one for my AG Samantha and then branched out into a pattern that's been a bit more complicated.  Hopefully it will all go together.  I blocked the pieces today and here's a picture of them as they continue to dry.

The sleeves look so big compared to the body of the sweater, but I think that's true of all sweater knits. Here's a closer look at the pattern it's knitted in.

I've enjoyed knitting this, just have a little trepidation over putting it all together and then picking up stitches to knit the neck edge and plackets.  

After I finished the blocking (which I did in my sewing room), I turned around and saw the Valentine table runner I'd started before knitting pulled me in.  Just one block was done and so I sat down and began stitching.  I got the other two center blocks completed.   It's a kit I ordered from Shabby Fabrics and I really like their instructions which you can see in the following picture.  

Since they put the kit together, all the fabrics in the pictures match the actual fabrics which makes it much easier to get things in the right places.  The center blocks start with a simple nine-patch which is then cut and more squares are added in.

Here's a finished one.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get more done if I don't fall prey to the knitting bug and decide to work on finishing the little sweater.  ♥

Snow!!

Wow!  Winter has arrived!  As I type (I'm old school, I don't think I'll ever use the term key-boarding), Dan is out on the 4-wheeler plowing at least 8" of the white stuff.  It's been coming down heavily as he's plowed so I'm sure it's continuing to pile up.  As this storm winds down sometime later today, another is slated to arrive tomorrow, followed by much colder temperatures.  

Plowed and already turning white again. . .

Brrrr. . .

As I sit warmly inside, I've found this to be perfect knitting weather.  I'm currently working on a doll sweater set for my American Girl doll.  I've finished the front and back, and am alternating between the sleeves (almost done) and the scarf.  With this weather, the doll is in need of some warmth.  :-)

Oh, and I need to show another potholder.  I found the snowman fabric and matching snowflake design in my stash.  I had no idea it was there, but then I remembered back and realized I'd bought them to make a table runner.  Well, potholders seemed to be a better idea.  I was only able to make three because of the amount of the snowman cut, but they turned out so cute!  I gave two away, and still have this one.

The red/white stripe was just the perfect choice for the bias tape and was leftover from a pillowcase project from last year.  I love puttering in my sewing room and knitting in my living room! ♥

A Little Seque

Yes, I know I left my last post indicating that I was about to start our Christmas cards.  Didn't happen.  A picture of a pattern which I had previously downloaded popped up on Facebook. Now done up in Christmas colors, it drew me down the rabbit hole and I headed for my sewing room, inspired to action.  The pattern was for a very cute potholder and it is a free download.  

Here are the two I made:

And a closer view of each one:

I chose red and green but not in obvious Christmas fabrics so they can be used year 'round.

I had so much fun quilting the fabrics and then choosing coordinating colors for the bias binding.  I love my Clover 1" bias tape maker!  Also, using Bernina foot #10 makes topstitching a pleasure.  It's so nice to have just the right tools for every job.  ♥