Happy June! (or Good Lord I'm Sick Of Politics!)

 

After You-Know-Who's inauguration in January sh*t started happening.  Every morning I was glued to the news sites, my jaw dropped, often in shock saying "honey - did you see this???".  I kept thinking that once Trump got that (whatever executive order he'd just signed) out of his system things would quiet down and politics would go back to normal.  But no!  There was more!  Every single day!  

After four+ solid months of this I've decided to give it a rest.  The USA is not my country, and I cannot do anything to effect any kind of change down there.  I made a committment to myself back in 2016 when he was elected the first time that I would not travel there, and that still stands.  My two personal biggest issues are their free-for-all gun laws, and the steady withdrawal of women's rights.  But there are so many more drastic changes in progress that I can't even keep track any more.

I'm still planning to read the news over my coffee & breakfast in the mornings, but no more wasting my life until noon - which is what I have been doing.  Stupid, giving up my time to keep track of him and his antics.  WE'RE DONE, DONALD.  I'M DIVORCING YOU.  YOU'RE FIRED! 😆

The quilt above was a challenge for TWO guilds.  The Binbrook Guild had a President's Challenge to work with circles.  Any kind of circles.  Circle quilt, circle fabric, appliqued circles, pieced circles, quilted circles, whatever.  Maker's choice.  The Caledonia Guild let us buy a 5" strip of fabric for $2 that had to be used in any quilt with a max perimeter of 80" (I think 80"??).  80" would be too small for my intended space, so I played along anyways and simply disregarded that rule. 😯  The fabric is the mottled turquoise/green used for the appliqued leaves.  

The design was copied from a Dover copyright-free book on Art Deco designs.  I'm pretty happy with it, it looks nice hanging on the wall.  I didn't win the challenge in Caledonia, since I admittedly did NOT adhere to the rules but that's ok - I wanted to play anyways.

That was finished in February.  Next up are the March finishes:

These are the two small leader/ender quilts I've been working on for several (!) years,

Cute labels:  

Here's a Disappearing 9-Patch that took me several years to get around to finishing.  I don't like anything about this quilt except maybe the border. 🙈

The Super Bowl Sunday quilt is finished. I always like the way these turn out.

In April I made a big bag to carry a Tupperware Cake Carrier, as a birthday gift...both the Cake Carrier and the bag.

I also made a BARN QUILT.  Diane (beach girl, you know) made arrangements for us to have an early Beach Day at her place.  We took a class with KADI BARN QUILTS (check 'em out on facebook).  I still have to hang mine - I think it's going on the wall of the front porch.  Maybe this coming week.

In May I managed to get this little quilt pieced.  It's mostly from fabric donated by a customer and will end up going to the women's shelter with my other donation quilts later this year.  The pigs-on-motorcycles border fabric is from my stash. Cute.

There's also been a lot of this in May...

I'll close out this post with two of my favorite memes this year.

Super Bowl Sunday!

 First - the January completion.  This is the top I pieced in the fall up in Tobermory.  It's ready for a label & the washing machine.

I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  And I used a new-to-me panto which I'm also pretty happy with.

This month I'm working on this.  There will actually be TWO of these.  It's a leader/ender project that I've been poking away at for a couple of years, and I finally finished all the blocks.  98 of them.  Those half-square centers are cutoffs from a baby quilt I made for my friend's daughter.  Setting is 7 x 7 blocks, and they're 7" each, so both of the finished quilts will be approx 48 x 48.

Now for today...I wait ALL YEAR for this.  The lasagne is in the oven and the salad is made (no thanks to me - DH made that).

Here's my setup:

DH will be sitting on the couch, watching the game.  I'll be stitching during the game, and watching the commercials and the half-time show.  The noise of the sewing machine makes him turn the volume up on the tv, so the workaround is a little sound barrier (which is normally my small design wall). Here's a closeup with a couple of descriptors:

Not shown - the martinis.  It's still a bit early for that but don't worry - my setup is within arms-reach of the bar. 😁  Apparently the (ahem, cough cough) leader of the free world will be at the game.  If I have to look at him very much I may end up a little drunker than I originally planned.  I've been so angry at the United States since January 20th that for a few days I couldn't even think straight.  Anyhow - no more air time for him here...going to find my shot glass.

December sewing & today's pop-quiz

 I was asked to make a Christmas table runner.  This was pretty easy to do, using my 60 degree ruler and 1.5m of border print fabric.

I cut two 10" swaths along the length - if you look you'll see there is waste fabric * in between and along the top because the swaths need to be identical sections of the print.  Using the 60 degree ruler, cut triangles.  This makes an 'uppy' and a 'downy' set of triangles.  You can see from the finished piece above how to put them together. 

* we all know there's no such thing as waste fabric, ha ha ha

I also finally made myself a new purse.  The old one was at the point of being embarassing, it was so worn.

Pockets ring the inside of the bag.  I've stitched these into the appropriate size to accommodate all the junk that we think we need to carry around every day.  Like:  who would dare to go out without their emergency binder clip?  weirdo

TODAY'S POP QUIZ

Today's pop quiz is brought to you by the Canadian government.  What follows are the comments made by some of our political well-knowns (aka political leaders) in regards to Justin Trudeau's resignation.

The game is to figure out who said what.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

My personal opinion on these comments is:

1 & 2 - mean-spirited

3 - a neutral remark but at least it's polite

4 - apparently responding to a different question.  Hellooo...?

5 - what you should say to someone (and I mean any politician) who has spent the last ____ (insert some length of time) in government

Whatever.  No one cares what I think.  Here is the newspaper article with the pop-quiz answers, from today's Hamilton Spectator.

More of my opinion (that no one actually cares about)...Pierre Poilievre is the worst.  Right up there with Donald Trump.  P.P. wants us to think we're living in a dystopian nightmare ("dark chapter", "break the country").  DJT wants to suck us into his realm of gun violence and everybody working their way towards the bottom, except for his mega-billion dollar buddies.  See the disgusting comment that P.P. made when Charles Angus annouced that he would be leaving Ontario politics (Hamilton Spectator 4/17/24):

As far as Jagmeet Singh's comment, also being mean-spirited: IMO he took excellent advantage of the collaboration between the Liberal party and the NDP and got some very well-received legislation passed.  But now, does he think that if he acts like a prick too maybe he'll gain more popularity?

And Doug Ford's comment?  I guess there were none of his cronies involved, so he didn't know what was going on.

I have to confess here - I DO like Chrystia Freeland.  (Not as much as I love Elizabeth May, but still.)  Yes, I find her a little tedious, but she's one smart cookie.  I was glad to see that Chrystia's comment was polite and expressed gratitude - which is what a 'normal' person would do when their remarks are going to be preserved for a very long time.

How's Your Blood Pressure?

I'll start off with a little quilty-stuff, then move on to the topic du jour.

Pieced at Tobermory retreat but not yet quilted:

 Started an embarrassingly long time ago, finally quilted, and heading to the hospice as a guild donation:

TOPIC DU JOUR

Dad died of a heart attack when he was 72.  He was a tough guy.  A contractor, specializing in drywall I think.  I was one of those teenagers who paid zero attention to the people who really had some import in my life, so I don't honestly know.  As a teenager I slept until noon, by which time he was more than half way through his day.  Dad made himself bacon and eggs, every. single. day.  In spite of his hard, physical labour, his diet may or may not have had something to do with his early demise.  I fell heir to his 7" cast iron frying pan, which has so many years of seasoning on it that NOTHING will EVER stick to it.  DH and I have a pretty significant collection of cast iron pans now, and in spite of their weight, they are the BEST things to cook with. 

Next...

Mom developed alzheimers, most likely caused by several small strokes.  She lived to 94, but her last, um, 10 years or so (?), were not good.  And the 10 or 15 years before that were filled with sticky notes on the bathroom mirror reminding her of coming events and appointments, forgetfulness, repetetive questions, and confusion.  I didn't realize what was going on with her for a long time.  She'd ask me over and over again "how much money have I got in the bank?" and I'm ashamed to say that after answering this question 10 or 15 times during my Friday visits, I would lose my shit.  For the last few years she couldn't walk, couldn't talk, couldn't hear, couldn't see, lost her teeth several times, and another stroke had left her unable to safely eat 'real food' - everything had to be pureed.  There was a day when my brother told me that he'd been to visit her.  He'd brought a box of Timbits, and she'd scarfed down every single one.  OMG.  "Bruce!!  She can't eat solid food!!  WTH!!  She'll choke!"  Well, no, that didn't kill her thankfully, since he was telling me this story after the fact. 😳  She passed quietly at the nursing home on a cold March night.

My sister Sharon, who was 10 years older than me, died at 72 of a heart attack.  She'd been suffering with several forms of cancer, along with non-alcohol-related-cirrhosis for several years prior to her death.  Everyone in our family drinks so much that the "non-alcohol" bit surprised me, but she'd also lived in China for several years and may have contracted Hep C?  I know she had a heart attack while she lived there - that was during the SARS epidemic and the Chinese government keeps all news of that sort very quiet.  I don't think she knew about SARS while it was going on.  Now, I'm unsure if the fatal heart attack was an inherited weakness, or incidental to her other health issues.

The firstborn in the family, my brother Ted, also died at 72.  He was felled by cancer.  In the mid-80's he left with his boat and his girlfriend for the islands, and basically disappeared from our lives. His life was a complete mystery to us after that, until I received a call this summer from his wife (who'd been his girlfriend at the time of his departure so long ago).  She was surprised that none of us knew that he was dead.  Um, hello???  He never contacted any of us. Ever.  How he managed to show up for dad's funeral 39 years ago remains a complete mystery to this day.

My 70-year-old brother Bruce, 1 1/2 years older than me, is still kickin' up a storm on Vancouver Island. 💕  We are the only ones left from our family of origin.

Now you've got the lay of the land.

DH does most of the cooking around here, for which I'm very grateful.  We get into some ahem disagreements over nutrition occasionally.  Based on my story above you can see that three out of four deceased family members died at the age of 72.  Three out of four deceased family members had disastrous results related to heart troubles.  I'm already on cholesterol meds, thyroid meds, and heart meds.  And I'm 68.  

If you follow me around the grocery store you'll see my cart filled with apples, bananas, lettuce, avocados, peppers, sweet potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.  I gave up cream and sugar in my coffee a looong time ago. I mean, I'm no saint - don't get me wrong. I can empty out a bowl of cheezies faster than you can say 'Those aren't good for you, you know, and by the way I like your shoes.'  I'm really lucky in that I like healthy food.  I don't wrinkle up my nose when faced with brussel sprouts. But as a rule, I try pretty consistently to stay away from salt.  Outside of baking I don't use it when I'm cooking.  I rarely add it to food on my plate, unless we're talking about potatoes - in which case all bets are off. 

Last week I was cleaning up after another good meal cooked by DH when I noticed the salt shaker on the cooktop.  

me, pretending to ask an innocent question:  "Honey, why is the salt shaker on the cooktop?"

DH:  "I salted the pasta water."

me, fanning away the steam that was spurting out of my ears:  "YOU PUT SALT IN THE WATER???!!  WHAT??!!?"

DH, wondering when my hormones came back:  "Um, ...yes?  It was only a little?"

me, carrying on:  "Blah blah blah (about my health issues), blah blah blah (about high blood pressure), blah blah blah (about how he's trying to kill me), etc..."

DH trying very hard to be cooperative:  "Um, ok. I won't do it any more?"

Last Friday I bought two lovely cabbages at a farm stall.  Half of one was made into coleslaw.  For the second half I suggested a recipe that I cut out of the newspaper several years ago, but have never tried.  The cooking fell to DH because I ended up having a quilting buddy come by to talk about her book.  When she and I were through and she left for home, I wandered into the kitchen to check on hubby's progress.  The casserole was heading into the oven at this point.

DH:  "Did you see the first ingredient on the recipe?"

me, looking at the recipe:  "Uh, cabbage."

DH:  "Nope."

me, looking at the recipe again:  "Yeah, cabbage!"

DH:  "Nope."

me, getting a little annoyed:  "Yes it is!"

DH, wandering over and pointing at the first word - salt.  Sigh.

Don't ya just hate it when someone does that to you?

CABBAGE AND POTATO GRATIN

This was very good.  DH added some cooked & sliced Italian sausages to the mix.

Mom, where are you going??

 

Tobermory!

A better lunch than I'd usually get at home.

And chicken pot pie for supper, with apple crisp for dessert.

Head honcho of the Beach Girls to crack the whip and keep us in line.

Second-in-command who likes to pour the wine.

Traveling companion who keeps me awake on the road (and makes my bed every day!).

Best week of the year. ❤❤❤

September...what??

 What happened to the past few months!  Well:

This was the last group project that I organized.  It was for the Binbrook guild and I had "planned" to do a demo on back-basting at the June meeting, to end the season.  All the background squares were either white, cream, grey, or black, with text of some kind.  All the center circle pieces were somewhere between yellow and red.

However, it was scheduled for the day I got home from Quilt Canada in Edmonton.

As you can guess, I did not make it to the guild meeting.  I also managed to pass the virus along to hubby, so we were both sick for a while.  Thankfully one of the other guild members came over and picked up all the supplies and filled in to do the demo on my behalf.  You've gotta love such willing partners.  And in truth, she knows the technique much better than I do anyways.

I was very well behaved in Edmonton and bought basically nothing.  A couple of thimbles and almost no fabric: only one fat quarter and one charm pak.  Lectures every day kept me busy, zipping from the show floor to the conference rooms and back.  Somewhere in there I managed to, ahem, drop my phone in the toilet.  Thankfully it was a CLEAN toilet.  Unused.  Putting your phone in your back pocket is not smart!  I heard the "clink" "sploosh" and thought What the hell? Hoo boy.

I took it apart and gave everything a shakeoff and wipedown, put it back together, then made a call to see if it worked.  That was the point when it occurred to me: I had a toilet-washed phone up at my face.  Eeeuw, gross.  Shudder.  After it dried out it has been working fine ever since.

Anyhow, continuing with the CQA, I've finished the mystery quilt they ran this past year.  I modified the size a bit and altered the border a bit.  Quilting still needs to be done but I'm glad the top is complete.  It certainly is RED.

I've also completed a little quilt using the sample blocks from a 60༠ ruler demo. Sooo often I cut all this stuff out, piece a bunch of blocks, present the demo, then throw everything into a box somewhere.  I've been pretty good this year about NOT leaving more UFO's than what I started with back in January.  I still have some stuff laying around from demos, but not as much as usual. 

Nina got some love from me and the clippers.  Dog grooming is certainly not a strength of mine.  Four and a half hours later...

The little quilt I pieced on SuperBowl Sunday was next up on my list.  All finished now.  I've got TWO charm paks to choose from for the 2025 event.  This size quilt uses 80 squares, so I buy one charm pak and then cut an additional 40 squares from my stash.

Aren't these the prettiest little glasses of flowers?  Cosmos.  So happy.  I needed two little centerpieces for our big social event of the summer.

We had DH's family here in August for a BBQ lunch.  There were 11 of us all together; long distances make these visits difficult to arrange.  I think we had at least three different dates on the calendar, changing from one to another then back again, before choosing another one.  Somehow the pandemic changed our habits and we don't have company the way we used to in the before times. Poor Nina has never seen that many humans!  After person number six showed up you could see her little brain saying "what the hell???".  This visit was especially great because DH's brother recently got married - it was so nice to spend some time with his bride and get to know her a bit.

This is my most recent finish.  I got involved in a challenge with some gals on a longarm forum I belong to.  This is a Potato Chip quilt, so named because you can't make just one.

There are a multitude of block layouts and colourations to work with.  I really like this dark/light version.  There's enough 'colour' in the dark blocks to keep it cheerful while still maintaining the DARK feel.  I'll get the binding on it in the next day or two.

This is a very s.c.a.t.t.e.r.e.d. post - I clearly have not been doing any writing for the past while.  The final update I'll give you today, which I know you are DESPERATE to hear about, is the zucchini. Well, I had three plants.  One of them died pretty early in the summer, leaving me with two plants.  I made an attempt to grow them up a trellis, which was not very successful, but it did keep them off the ground.  I have not been overrun with fruits, the plants have been very well behaved, producing a zuke every day or two.  I'll probably get some zucchini loaves made and put away for the winter but there shouldn't be much produce for shredding and freezing.  

The butternut squash, on the other hand, are big enough to kill someone.  Holy sh*t.