A Journal Page For AJJ

    It's back to cloudy and rain-lots of it-all morning so far. Reading blog posts this  morning I was inspired by Erika to get my journal and stamps out.

   I created a page for AJJ for the challenge this month-Favorite Things.

        One of my most favorite things is to take a walk in the woods, never know what wildlife one might see or hear.

     I glued down a dark green paper that I saved that was used for wrapping in something we had purchased, then I crinkled and glued down this sparkly green tissue paper, and grabbed some stamps.

   Hope you like it

Good morning Friday

 Good morning Friday everyone, yeh finally we woke up to sunshine here at the lake. It has been soooo dreary and depressing looking here for some time.

  I brewed up a mini teapot full of Simpson & Vail's Louisa May Alcott's Green tea blend which is green tea leaves, apple pieces, strawberry pieces and rose petals. a really delicious blend and we had the last two slices of the lemon meringue pie for breakfast this morning.

  More later but I ended up taking the quilt off of the large frame-just too hard to work on it there, and am trying out a big hoop-which many people use instead of a frame. I ordered another assortment of needles as the one that will work is a bit short. The others will be perfect for wool appliques.

Have an awesome day-what are you all up to today??

  This is another handmade pottery cup, perfect for tea

Thread Finally Arrived and Lemon Meringue Pie

    I was happy happy to finally to see the thread in my mailbox for the flannel quilt

I thought I came pretty close with the color having to choose colors online. I wanted the color to blend in a bit for the backing, and not be to dark to use on the blocks with white backgrounds.

I also got the needles in last Saturday. I have allot of needles in my stash, many I picked up at garage sales or resale shops but I didn't have quite the right ones for this project or for wool applique. These are Sue Spargo's smaller collection of needles  and hoping one of the chenilles will work for this quilt.

  I have not made us a from scratch lemon meringue pie since we moved to the lake house. I really like baking this in my dutch ovens outdoors over a fire but haven't got set up for that yet here.   For some reason the meringue did not want to get super stiff like it should but I think it will still be good. I baked a ground almond crust.

A Mixed Media Page & This and That

   I have not been doing anything with mixed media, painting since early fall when I got into quilting.

   Last week I dug out my watercolor pencils, water, and watercolor journal and did a painting of flowers in bottles. It wasn't too bad. I don't have the photos any more-so wasn't super great-but got me back into a little painting. 

   This morning I dug out one of my mixed media journals and decided to create a page. Had nothing in mind for sure-but did want to express we need more love, tolerance, respect for each other instead of all the hatred, and being attacked when one's opinion is different.

  So I am pleased what I created. I glued down for the background one of those wet wipes I had used when I was playing with acrylic paints.  I remembered to save those. The photos are saved items from cards and magazines.

  I did begin using my very vintage desk to write to my pen pals and to send off Birthday cards. At the lake house it finally is in the perfect spot. In the bedroom, on carpet, and facing the lake when I open up the blinds.  The rug is a hooked rug that my Mom had made back in the '50's. She learned the east coast style of hooking back then at a class at the ymca. This rug is on burlap, she dyed all of her reclaimed wools and cut into very very thin strips. Now they are doing 1/4" strips back then they used very small 1/32" up to 5/32" . One can achieve more detail using this size.

This is the only rug I have left of Mom's The few I had I passed on to a cousin who has children that he can then pass down to  I picked up the good color sense from my Mom.

  Haven't made any gluten free brownies in some time. I still had a couple boxes of the mix I had picked up at Aldi's several years ago. (no longer an Aldi near me)  It is an excellent mix but it is high in sugar and carbs so just using up what I have for a treat.

  I will not be joining T for awhile-I really need a major break from social media sites. If you missed it my last post was welcoming pen pals and or exchanging cards during the year-can send me a note in the contact form on my page if you like to stay connected that way, or even sharing photos etc through emails

.Closing with a photo of the eagles I took over the weekend.  First there was just one, then the second one flew in, and then later on they sat together.

Happy new week to all of you

I am Thinking of Getting Back to Slow Mail

                  

(photo found online)

                  I have been thinking about getting back to slow mail and spending less time online. 

Sending out birthday cards and holiday cards, and perhaps a postcard or short note, or dropping a handmade card in the mail to friends. 

I do love finding mail in my mailbox it always brightens my day, and if you would like to do this too send me an email with your birthday and address.  (I have a contact link on my page) 

January 20, 2021

 

   I don't remember ever in my lifetime so much hate towards fellow Americans-Yes we are ALL American citizens in the USA-only because you have different beliefs, different opinions, or believe in God, and believe the unborn have the right to be alive.  To destroy business's only because they don't believe the same way you do is absolutely unheard of in this great country of ours. To take down social media sites with different opinions is Not what our country is about. 

     I am beginning to understand the meaning of Cancel Culture-cancel our heritage, and cancel anyone that does not believe the same way the left does.  Shameful.  Our President Reagan always said we were one generation from losing our free country. It has begun one minute after noon today.

   Our forefathers created this country to fight this exact same thing that is happening right now in our country-a government Over the people and Not By the people.  

     

 

 

T Stands for Tuesday-Quilts and Sunrises

 Hi Everyone,  I can see this month is going by slow and then again also fast.

    It is still soooo dreary here with very little sun. With my husband's ptsd this is not good weather for him, and it's too cold for his outdoor projects-mostly trying to finish the dock project, and still needing to stay away from people.  He has been working on upgrading the very very bad electric here and making progress. A really big job-we knew the electric was in bad shape here when we bought this lake home-but when we bought it Hubs was feeling healthier and then the following spring he needed a heart valve transplant-it has been a very slow recovery for him.  We are always grateful for every day we have.

   I have been as you know engrossed in my quilting since early autumn. Most of you mixed media artists are probably tired of reading about it haha-hope not too bored 😀   I did get the quilt onto the frame over the weekend, it's a vintage Sears we picked up at a garage sale and Hubs swapped out the poles for a queen size quilt.   My mixed media journals have been calling me lately so that may be a nice break while I wait for supplies.

   I  ordered the perle cotton size 8 thread and I needed new needles-I have allot of needle choices but I don't have quite what I needed for this project, so I ordered a set designed by Sue Spargo on Etsy. She creates gorgeous wool appliqued quilts if you are not familiar.

Sunday I searched online for pattern ideas for big stitch quilting. I found out this is very popular right now, and it looks really nice. I probably won't be able to get perfectly even stitches any more, but I am going to give this a go. This is really a huge hand quilting project for me now so I will need to pace myself.  

    I saw allot of straight line ideas sashiko style which I liked but I don't want this to be heavily quilted-sometimes that takes away from the coziness of this type of quilt-flannels and wool.

    Then I remembered I had a few stencils I had made for other quilts when I first retired, and I made a few more from my yellowstone animal cookie cutter collection.  I now have a bison, wolf, bear, star, two oak leaves and some small oak leaves. I think I will give this idea a go They fit perfectly in the smaller blocks and may just do the sashiko style in the large 12 inch blocks  At least I now have the start of a plan  Hoping it won't take super long to get my threads and needles in the mail.

   We enjoyed a lovely sunrise over the lake

  

   T for Tuesdays are when we gather together for T over at our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth and share a post with a drink related photo.  I have a couple to share.

   I have been enjoying cups of my decaf coffee with whipped cream in the mornings. I like using the whipped cream as it stays fresh in the frig longer-and I love how it melts into the hot coffee

and in the afternoons, I brought out another one of my single serve tea pots. I have a few of these made in Japan. I love them and haven't used them in awhile. I don't remember now which one is which and they are all different-I used one for black teas, one for green teas, and the third for white teas.

   Some of you may remember when I bought several teas from this company-these got buried in the cupboard and just got them out so I can see them.

The cup is a hand thrown pottery cup-perfect size for a cup of hot tea

and I will leave you with this Sunday morning's pretty sunrise

Happy T and new week to all my readers

Good Morning Saturday

Thursday and Friday I got my latest quilt layered-backing, wool batting, top and got it all basted with large stitches-I will be putting it on the hand quilt frame today

While ironing the backing I spotted this visitor

How is the weather where you are??  A tiny bit of snow, and cold here at the lake

T Stands for Tuesday

  Good morning friends,

      Just a note I took down my last post discussing censorship. I appreciate everyone's comments very much. It was good to discuss and not accuse and most of us did that-so thank you all.  

     Due to the massive censorship by big tech-including Google, I took down the post as a precaution so none of us would face any possible discrimination by them or feel concerned about expressing ourselves. 

   Tuesday's brings us to T with our hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth, find link in my sidebar. Any one is welcome to join just share a drink related photo in your post.

       I did get the quilt pattern book in my mailbox Saturday. I was so happy I did the splurge and bought this-I feel it was worth the money. There were stories of pioneer women that I hadn't read about before, all the patterns for the appliques are at full size-loved that, and there are several more quilt patterns included besides the featured quilt. One being a fish quilt-I think I need to make that one for sure 😀

  I am thinking I want to make this a wool quilt. I still have Lots of felted down recycled wool clothing in my stash. Just need to go through it and see what colors and patterns I have. Especially for the appliques in wool as it will be easier and more fun for me to stitch instead of the needle turn with cotton-that's a bit more challenging for me.  So using wool appliques I will need heavier flannels for the blocks,which I would need to buy or I could make the blocks with wool as well and I should have plenty for that as well.  I could sew the blocks together crazy quilt method or with seams-will decide when I get into it. Before I get into this quilt-gathering the wools, I need to get my big woodland quilt layered with backing and batting, basted and ready to hand quilt. I am going to order perle cotton #8 and quilt with big stitches.

    I started doing that over the weekend, then I decided the backing-which is all one piece-needed to be washed, and then laying out the wool batting ugh it's been in the bag tightly rolled up and needs time to get flat. I did read that I can mist it lightly with water and then fluff in the dryer with no heat or a low setting. So will work on that this week.

  This latest quilt adventure actually started when I was looking for this book, that was written in 1947 as part of a trilogy. Hoping this book comes in today Most  of you know I love the time period era of the late 1700's to the  mid 1800's and would gladly time travel back if possible

   I didn't get any photos but one morning I got to view eagles-lots of them very exciting. I was looking out to see if the eagle pair was there and I got to see them circle and land together on the same branch. That was awesome-but then looking up I noticed several large birds flying around overhead-no not crows but at least 6 eagles--that made my day very exciting!!

Most days here are still very cold and dreary, but we did get a few hours of sunshine on Sunday

   I made me a cup of green tea a few afternoons last week.

and I made us a pot of homemade chicken soup one day. I used organic chicken bone broth, added lots of herbs and spices for soups, threw in handfuls of dehydrated soup mix veggies, jar of my home canned tomatoes, frozen mixed veggies, Bob's Red Mill flaked potatoes-to thicken, and a large can of white meat chicken just before serving-yum

    ( just noticed my handle on the pan looks awful-these are revere ware copper bottom pans made in the usa that are at least 50 years or older now and the handles have seen their prime-they don't scrub up to black any more.)

 The Canada geese have been "hanging" around on the lawn in front of the lake. One morning a crane (oops per David thank you blue heron) was sitting on the edge amongst them. I decided to carefully and quietly open the door to the deck and take photos. It was going pretty well til the crane saw me sqwaked loudly and flew off. Half the geese jumped in the lake and the others just looked around-what's going on haha

Happy T everyone

I Did Get The Quilt Top Finished & Outlander in my Mailbox Just now

   I finished it yesterday, and went through the back of this quilt cutting off long threads etc today. The seams need a bit of a steam, and sigh I have three seams to fix.

   I cut each square out with a rotary cutter, and that will usually leave a little cut in the fabric above it. I missed not seeing the cut on three pieces-once everything was pretty much together except for the rows.  So I added another piece of small fabric to the seam-the cut goes deep into the seam, and I have no more fabrics big enough to replace the blocks.  So I am going to go through my stash and see what fusibles I have to seal the cut area to the other piece of fabric.   This is a first so I guess my eyes are not catching everything now that I am over 70.

   I will tackle that tomorrow. This ended up much bigger than most of my quilts I make for us. Pretty much a queen minus a few inches and our bed is a full long. I do love the top finish, now to decide how I want to hand quilt this.

   First photo before I added the borders

I am pretty happy with the layout of these scrappy blocks. I did end up with tree blocks in a row, but didn't see a good swap.

    

These borders ended up being a two morning project. I had enough fabric to do this and didn't think it mattered to line up any pattern, so I tore the strips so they would be straight.  I sewed on two sides and could see this was not going to be pretty unless I followed the pattern that you see. The others had no berries in the print. So I took all that apart and had enough fabric to get all the berries in the strips

I am looking into #8 perle cotton to hand quilt larger stitches with. This is a flannel top and bottom with a wool batting.  Our small wal mart did not have this so I could see what it looks like.  Anyone familiar with this and think it would be ok to hand quilt with? thanks

  Back around Thanksgiving weekend I was looking at Outlander inspired jewelry on Etsy. I found a dragonfly bracelet I fell in love with it-the maker in Spain. For free shipping she said it would take up to two months to the US.  This week I started thinking about it and it arrived today. I love the simplicity of this piece, the dragonfly is a bit shiny for me, but I do love it.  

    I had a couple dollars coming in ebay bucks so I wanted to use them before I forgot to, and found an Outlander box calendar which I have never had before. Thought it would be nice in my craft room. Wow I just ordered this and it arrived in two days. I am still waiting for the quilt pattern I ordered and a book that is a bit overdo. our mail seems to get slowed down in different places-patience Kathy patience. 

  I see these photos shows my hand where I fell on concrete several years ago and dislodged the joint out of the socket under my thumb area above my wrist.-it gets a little worse every year, I try to stretch it out as I have noticed that my thumb area is now kind folding under my hand. At the time my doctor didn't recommend the surgery at my age. So glad I am right handed otherwise I would have a really difficult time doing things

Sad Day for America

 

  Just a handful out of thousands destroy the opportunity to investigate the truth 

   I do Not condone violence of any sort, neither does President Trump, he had given a speech asking everyone to go home and be safe-of course big tech took down his message

God save us all

T Stands for Tuesday-Photos Overload

   Tuesdays we gather for T(ea) over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog. Anyone is welcome to join in just share a drink related photo.

   The first full week of the new year is upon us. Here in Missouri so far it has been very cold, ice around me, and a bit of snow-just enough to say we got snow.

   If you missed it I shared in my last post a look back at my art and crafts in 2020-find here

   We never go out for New Year's eve-although for several years when our friend Lilburn was still with us he put on a huge shrimp boil and everyone brought a dish. Since his passing I now do a shrimp boil for the two of us.

  Over the holiday weekend I did make a couple desserts-keto churned chocolate mint ice cream and a keto NY style cheesecake.

The ice cream was keto but I did bring out a couple toppers with sugar, I had picked up these vintage ice cream dishes for one of our anniversaries

Of course I added whipped cream to mine-😀

  The tv programs I did not enjoy at all for New Year's Eve this year, but I did get to sit in front of those big windows and watch fireworks for an hour-directly across from me on the lake. They must have been bundled up well,  as it was very cold and raining. 

  I opened up a bottle of wine for me, my husband never stays up til midnight  and I had brought up some of the hand dipped chocolate fruits that were stored in the freezer earlier in the day.  The little glass is handmade porceline pottery, it's perfect if I just want a little of something.

   It has been cold, foggy, and just very dreary outdoors for the past week or so. Over the weekend I drove to the hardware store for some things my husband needed and Wow once I got out of our lake area and up on to the main road-Wow ice everywhere-except the road-I drove through a winter wonderland-everything-trees, bushes, grass etc all covered in ice. It was like that all the way to the hardware store. Very errie. I later learned this city had lost their electric for awhile. I never think to bring my camera along.

   We thought we were seeing ice across the lake from us and it was. Our little area got missed.

  Here are photos I took from our lake house over the last few days

I put the Christmas tree and ornaments away that weekend, and left the luminaries up til New Year's Day

These little birds are all cuddled up in their birdhouse--which needs to come down soon for repairs and cleaning

When there is nothing to watch on the tv I have been turning on this naturescape fire and reading. They have different wood fires every 30 minutes or so.

With a cup of tea

and perhaps a slice of cheesecake

Happy T everyone.