A Six-Month Catch-up

I'm going to tackle this in order... Quilts, Garden, Stupid-Ass Politics, and Sundry.  I know that you like to keep things orderly, same as me.

QUILTS

This is one of my little House Block Swap blocks that I sent out in March.  I can't tell you how much we all enjoy getting little parcels in the mail every couple of months.

Last year the Binbrook Guild President's Challenge was to make something based on either birds or animals.  I have shamelessly copied a quilt that I found on the internet.  After this pic was taken I gussied up these gals with some of mom's old junk jewellery, so they all now have either necklaces or hat gew-gaws (sp?), or both.  I had so much fun working on this.

In June I went to Winnipeg for Quilt Canada.  Took some lectures, won some fabric, bought some fabric 😳, and happily had no bad experiences.  I stayed an extra day and spent that taking the Trolley Tour and then a few hours at the Art Gallery.

This quilt is all made from flying geese blocks.  Seeing several versions of it on the intenet dragged my brain down the rabbit hole.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out and it will be headed for the donation box. 

Again, at the Binbrook Guild, we were doing Schoolhouse lessons.  I was demo-ing the Twister ruler.  Ahem, note to self - do not demo something that you have never done before.  It can be embarassing.  So, I threw my hands up in defeat, took this project home, and finally got 'er done.  It still needs binding, but it's certainly a cute little table topper. 

I've been working my way through the guild donation tops.  I have maybe five or six more to quilt, then I will pass the gavel on to someone else.

GARDEN

In early June, this is how it starts.  Innocently enough.  A nice little box of seedlings.

TONS of room there for things to grow.

And my BEST garden tool:  the infamous DH.  He built two boxes for me this year - one is planned for strawberries and the other is planned for raspberries.

Down in the center front is the rhubarb I got from my quilting/Red Hat buddy Jane.  She's a fierce gardener with the most beautiful yard.

The garden has been mulched with hay - here you can see that I'm part way through that job.  It's a BIG job but it really saves my bacon through the rest of the summer and fall.  This pic was taken at the end of June.

Mmm - in late July green beans are starting and so are the jalapenos.

Mid-August:  A surround of Tinfoil And Pieplates will hopefully save my roma tomatoes from any further destruction from unknown rodent(s).  Whatever-it-is has also trampled my onions in pursuit of the tomatoes. 😡

Here are the September 2nd pics:  We've gotten a bunch of sweet peppers.  They seem really happy this year, probably from the copious amount of rainfall.  (actually right now there is another tornado warning for us)  Next week I might get a basket of jalapenos to the food bank.

A two-week progress report on the tinfoil:  It has worked fairly well, although the wind sure does a number on it, as you can see.  So I have to re-anchor it periodically.  If we actually DO get some severe weather later today our neighbours may be pulling tinfoil out of their ditches.  Oops.

I've had THREE watermelons.  One I picked too late.  One I picked too early.  I'm hoping that the third time's a charm.

Fer crying out loud.  There are way too many kale plants in the garden this year.  I've been strategically checking them on a very regular basis for eggs and worms.  Today I find this one has been sculpted by the little bastards into a nice piece of green lace.  Yuk.

The butternut squash has been really happy since it's planted kind of underneath the tumbling composters.  With the hot and humid Singapore-like weather it is succumbing to mould.  The fruit (proper term?) doesn't seem bothered by it yet.  I just roasted one today for supper and it's d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.

My *cough cough* useless assistants, and the hole they are extremely proud of.  That hole is probably 18" deep.  But it's in their 'forest' where they stay in the backyard playpen and keep an eye on me in the garden.  So far it's not bothering anyone.

Uh huh...the wind just blew over this planter, which is very heavy.

Yup.  Windy as hell, for sure!  That pic, btw, is the dogs' forest. Ha ha ha.

 No pics because I am not going out to the garage, but I harvested 80 heads of garlic and 40 or 50 onions.

STUPID-ASS POLITICS

Ugh.  Fucking USA.  Do they have ANY idea how much the rest of the world truly hates them right now?  This morning, once again (!), I kind of lost it when I read about Hegseth poking rude fun at two teenage girls who are Canadian Armed Forces Cadets.  Really Petey?  Targeting teenage girls?  WTH IS WRONG WITH YOU???  Don't you have a war in Iran to go finish losing?

My thoughts on the Iran war:  USA = Russia.  Iran = Ukraine.  Same shit, different countries.  Countries quietly minding their own business invaded without provocation by somebody bigger and with more money.  And the USA started it by bombing a girls school, killing 160 people.  Why?  Mmmm... MORE money?  Like maybe from Iran's OIL?  

The same thing with Venezuela.  Oil = money.  

Now Trump is currently starving the Cubans.  Do they have oil too, or does he just want the country so he can build more resorts and casinos?  Rest assured there will be something in it for the Trump family.  

I can also move on to the Israeli war with Palestine.  Dear God.  Enough already!  Israel has slaughtered so many thousands of women and children, surely Netanyahu should feel avenged by now. 

And of course, let's not let this post go by without a mention of the New and Improved Lake America!  Yup, I'll be ordering the t-shirt.  As much as our Ontario Premier Doug Ford makes me angry, I really appreciate his comment that Trump can "kiss my ass".

THE EPHEMERA

Sigh.  Let's move on to the fun and nonsense stuff.

This was my Round Robin returned to me.  I made the center block, then three more borders were added by different guild members.  I love (!) what each of them added.  Hopefully I'll get it quilted soon.

I'm still working on the House Block Of The Month.  This came to a screeching halt over the summer but I'm ready to get back to it.

I went to Margaret's for a few days in May.  Love that woman. 💗

When I was working for RBC, one of my coworkers used to refer to me as Eagle-Eyes.  That's a skill that didn't endear me to very many people.  And, apparently it's not left me.  For some unknown reason I actually READ this ad in the newspaper.  It bugged me to such a degree that I was forced to take a pic of it and send it to the company.  Whatever $$ they're paying their advertising firm is much too much.

Glass Fusion class with my Red Hat girls.  

There was also my few days with the Beach Girls for our annual Beach Day sleepover at Diane's.  This year we did Dot Mandela painting on these tea light rocks.  That was fun. 😃

Aaand, now we're all caught up.

If you want a good book to read, after all it IS still summer, one of my favourite authors is Ann Patchett.  I just finished Whistler which ultimately is a story about her step-father and their family relationship.  Really good story.  Take a few afternoons for yourself on the lawn swing so that in February you'll remember how nice the summer was. 

Celebrating Another Birthday

 Someone did math.  Apparently I've been around for this number of days.

The Beach Girls came for Winterruption, which (ahem, cough cough) just happened to include my BIG 70.  They took me to the Royal Botanical Gardens to see the Bloomland In OZ exhibit.  Fabulous. Her tiara is bigger, but I think I wore mine with more enthusiasm!  I mean really - she's looking quite sullen, dontcha think?

The creativity and imagination of the crew that puts these exhibits together is amazing.

Lots of great spots for photos.

Then it was on to Waterdown for high tea.

They stayed from Thursday until Sunday, with our next get-together scheduled for April.  Love these girls. 💕

Moving on to the quilting front...

Super Bowl Sunday came and went.  I made my traditional top on Sunday, stitching during the game.  Then taking my foot off the go-pedal, watching the commercials and half-time show.

I added the borders on Monday, quilted it on Tuesday, then completed the binding and label on Wednesday in time to take it to guild for Show 'n Share.  This goes in my donation box, as always, and will likely end up at the women's shelter.

At my other guild, we had a schoolhouse session.  I demo'd inserting a zipper, with the assistance of 1/4" fusible web to temporarily fuse the zipper in place.  I've been sewing zippers since I was 10 years old, so I'm not afraid of them.  But I'll tell you - this is a slick technique!

I'll also tell you - following a Youtube video, with no English, to make a bag like this, is a really stupid idea.  If you scorn my caution, you might want to block off the whole day.

As far as using a sewing machine is concerned, these days I mostly quilt.  But back in an earlier life I made most of my own clothes.  I got to thinking, now that I've practiced on zippers, maybe I should go back to clothing.  I found these really inspiring...

Ha ha ha - if you don't know me, that's a joke.  WTAF are those women wearing???  For more fashion & sewing humour I've discovered peachesanddiesel104.  That's her instagram name, but she's on facebook too.

Someone else I love on Instagram is the Tiny Pricks Project.  I'll leave you with this as my end-post humour.  😆 Have a great day!

WHY OH WHY DO I SET ANNUAL TARGETS???

 Sigh.  Every January for the past several years I've set some targets for the year ahead of me.  If you don't know where you're going, you will never get there, right?

• Lose 5 lbs.  ha ha ha ha ha...  To my credit, I DID lose 1.5 lbs.  However I have since located those pounds. 😒
• Reduce stash by 80 meters.  ha ha ha ha ha...  I would have been down 20 m., but a quilting buddy passed away and left me two totes that contained about 20 m. 😢
• Finish three UFOs.  ha ha ha ha ha...  Although, I did clean up some sh*t.  Does that count?

HOUSE BLOCK SWAP

I make five blocks every month, with something 'cute' in the window, and give four of them to the other gals in the group.  We have a target date of the 15th each month to have them pieced so they can (theoretically) be delivered by the end of the month.

My January blocks turned out kind of cute.  Dark & gloomy, but cute. I put the goofy faces in the windows because we are all going STIR CRAZY with this awful weather.

I told DH to put on 'real pants' one Sunday a few weeks ago, that we were going for a drive to get the heck out of the house!  As far as guild meetings go, I've had one hellish drive home in the dark from an evening meeting - when I got home I swore I was not doing that again.  In the future, questionable weather will mean I'm staying at home.  Then my daytime guild was postponed for a week because of a blizzard.  We'll see what February brings.

But...back to my blocks:  Since I've been inside, I figured I'd make the February blocks early.  Oh, very bad words.  I remade all the blocks - they were THAT BAD.

Bad blocks on the left, better blocks on the right.

And since my last post, my cooking has not gotten any better!  This was planned as our Christmas Morning Breakfast.  Yes, I'm aware that Christmas is now a distant memory but there hasn't been a lot going on - I'm trying very hard to keep you amused.  A lovely pan of cinnamon rolls.  I prepped them on the 24th - this is what they looked like after they rose.  At this point I put them in the fridge, with plans to bake in the morning.

6 am Christmas morning I took them out of the fridge:  Whoooaaa Nellie!!  WTF??  I was pretty sure that some alien from Planet Zyborg stole my cinnamon rolls and left these in trade.

I'd never heard of 'over-proofing'.  Apparently (?) that's what happens when dough rises too much, and then collapses on itself.  Hoping to spare you from experiencing my angst,  if you're refrigerating dough for baking the next day, DO NOT allow the second rise to happen - it will do that itself in the fridge.

I'm very grateful that DH has low expectations when it comes to my baking.  It has been a long-standing joke that when the smoke alarm goes off then supper is ready.  If you read my last post about my Red Hat lunch you'll agree that this 'joke' is sad, but true!

This, unbelievably, is what they looked like after baking.  And he ate them.  That, ladies, is true love.

I have since redeemed myself with a lovely ham quiche (recipe from Dairy Goodness - you know, the Milk Calendar).  The recipe is actually for Asparagus quiche.  You may have noticed that I've got no qualms about editing recipes to suit myself and my supplies.  😬

Then there's my favorite tuna casserole, with my normal changes/additions (recipe from the Looneyspoons cookbook.  Truly, in my opinion the Best.Cookbook.Ever.)

And I'm two steps closer to heaven after quilting a couple of Binbrook Guild donation quilts.

To end on a humourous (sp?) note:

Janice came by for tea yesterday afternoon.  I guess I was backlit by the sun - she started laughing.  Then told me, between giggles, that I had an inch long hair growing sideways out of my neck. I gave her a pair of scissors and she thankfully cleaned me up.