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.

 

Spring in Caledonia

 Spring is crazy around here. (You'd have to live under a rock to not be aware that I like to garden.)  My body has been talking quite loudly: "Lady - what the fark do you think you're doing??? You sat on your ass all winter watching tv. I can't do this stuff - and if you make me, you're gonna pay!"

And yes, I'm hurting. Bursitis in my shoulder, an awful knot in my shoulder blade, golfer's elbow, and a bad knee. Oh, and whatever is wrong with my neck, that I woke up with yesterday. Sigh. HOWEVER, I still manage to get out of bed every morning, and for that I'm grateful.

In early April the Bloodroot blooms. Such a welcome sight. When the blossoms fall off and it leafs out I remove the seedheads because I do not want a whole garden of them - I have just enough.

In early May the asparagus starts showing up on the kitchen counter.

All that healthy goodness needs to be followed by something not quite as healthy. Yogurt cake.

The cake (a loaf, really) was fun to make. First you make lemon sugar with granulated sugar and lemon zest. Then you make a bowl of wet ingredients that includes the yogurt. Then you make a bowl of dry ingredients and blend that with the wet ingredients, put it in a loaf pan and pop it into the oven.

The fun part comes when you are putting all the messy equipment into the sink and notice that the bowl of sugar is still sitting on the counter. 😳

About 18 bad words later, the loaf pan has been removed from the oven, the batter has been put into the bowl of lemon sugar and mixed up, then returned to the loaf pan and put back in the oven. The result was surprisingly good.

Did y'all get to see the Northern Lights last weekend? Friday night was supposed to be our big event, but I was so tired I was snoring by 9 pm. I guess the Universe is aware of my love of these celestial events and took pity on me...on Monday morning I got out of bed before 6 am and was treated to this sunrise.

The weather has been exceptionally warm and Nina was getting very, um, fluffy.  DH gave her a bath on Saturday, then on Sunday I got out the clippers.  About 2 1/2 hours into the haircut I sat back to see where I was at and got a silly fit of the giggles.  That usually has something to do with vodka, but I was stone cold sober... check out those front legs!

I got them fixed up so they look a little better now, but trust me - I'm no dog groomer!

There is so much garden work (euphemism for "weeding") that if I live to be 100 it will still not be done.  However, maybe these will make you feel better about your own plot of ground?

Of Spring, Sewing, and Bats

WORLD NEWS:  Spring is in the air, AND in the ground.  I have snowdrops and crocuses blooming in the front flower bed.  And dandelions that have turned a lovely bright green, in time for St. Patrick's Day which is this coming Sunday.  Yesterday was sunny and 17c., perfect weather for walkies on the rail trail.  Today will be 18c. and maybe sunny (?).  That's VERY warm for this time of year.

GUILD NEWS:  I did a demo for the Binbrook guild on Improv Curved Piecing.  Working on these was quite fun.  Prep involved a few Youtube videos.  I swear, you can learn anything on Youtube.

SEWING NEWS:  A client gave me a big box of fabric for use in donation quilts, so I've started with the panels that were in there.  These need to be trimmed and bound. 

STORY TIME:  I'm pretty sure everyone has at least ONE bat story.

It was summer, several (many) years ago. DH was sitting in his chair in the living room, minding his own business.  Reading a book.  It was evening...8 pm?  9 pm?  I was in the kitchen, also minding my own business, reading the newspaper.  Enjoying a bowl of ice cream because being summer, the weather was hot.  I was having a problem with my eyes, though. I kept noticing a dark swirling as I was reading the paper, but it was very intermittent.  I'd look up -  things were fine, then I'd look down and dark swirling would start again, then the whole scenario would repeat.  Finally, one of the times I looked up I saw that something was flying around the room.  At first I thought it was a bird, but then the "thing" landed on the small kitchen speaker up in the corner at the ceiling.  Holy Mackerel Batman!!  (Hah, notice the pun?)  And, yes, I am a girl at heart, so of course my first response was a bit of a scream.  Then another scream for DH who, as many men would do, said "whaat?"  I continued screaming:  THERE'S A BAT.  THERE'S A BAT.  THERE'S A BAT.  And again, as many men would do, he said "what do you want me to do about it?".  I'm thinking to myself:  Uh...wtf?  This is why I got married?  I did a little more panic-ed screaming at him, until he finally came into the kitchen... to make sure it was a bat and that I wasn't imagining things.  Since, you know, ladies don't always understand these wildlife things.  Apparently.  Uh huh.  Then he got a light jacket out of the closet and managed to fling it over the bat as it was whirling around the kitchen.

The poor thing was lobbed out the front door, jacket and all, where it eventually made it's way to freedom.  We assume that it flitted into the house from it's normal roost by the front door when the dog took a little too long to come inside.  

I no longer say "Oh, look,  honey - there's a bat living by the front door.  How cute is that?"

 

2024 In Pictures...

The apron I made for my egg-providing neighbour.  I know she appreciates these...I popped over there one day for a visit and she was wearing a tattered apron that I'd made her a couple years earlier.  Ever since then I make her a new one every couple years.

I'm lucky enough to have friends who I meet at Mapleview Mall for an irregular dinner date, maybe a half dozen times a year?  We met through our work at Royal Bank ...so many years ago I don't even want to think about it.  Somehow these new shoes managed to come home with me last night.

Today's completed wall hanging, not quite in time for Valentines - the hand stitching won't be finished, but I CAN take it to the guild tomorrow for Show 'n Share.  In the fall of 2021 when things were starting to open back up after the pandemic, our guild meetings were being held in the church gymnasium.

We all had L O T S  O F  R O O M  T O  S P R E A D  O U T.  

I couldn't book speakers at the time, so I did a lesson on one-patch quilts.  This is all 2.5" squares, from stash/scraps.  Any simple shape can be pixellated like this - it makes a fun, easy project.  The first one I made was a Christmas tree, but the heart has been on my to-do list for the last few years.

Did you watch the Superbowl?  My sewing machine was by the tv - I stitched during the "game", then watched the commercials and the half-time show.  I make this "Simply Squares" quilt every year during the Superbowl....it still needs two borders, then it will be ready for quilting.  I buy one charm pak, then cut up another 40 squares from my stash and use all 80 in this top.

I saw a quilt online that was made with those triangle blocks on the right.  I had to google the instructions, then I made a sample for myself.  This is another quilt in my "To-Do" file.

I unthinkingly put my hand up and volunteered to do a quilt ruler demo for my guild.  When I got home I realized that I had to MAKE something so I could do the demo.  This is a Double Four-Patch quilt and I really like the way it turned out - all scrappy, using light (all the creams), medium (all the yellow/golds) and dark (all the blacks).  Hey - did you notice that my NEW SHOES match this quilt?

I'm also doing the Mystery Quilt that is being hosted by the CQA.  Duh - the last mystery quilt took me 25 years to finish...is my head actually screwed on????  Instructions said "do not use directional prints" (whoops - my black is directional).  And "do not use large scale prints for the background" (whoops - my red has large snowflake-ey motifs in different colours).  Apparently I'm a rule breaker?

  

Knowing that I sometimes forget what my intention was when I put something in the freezer, I guess I recognized my limitations last fall, when I wrote the name & page of the cookbook.  lol...  The apples, btw, were from my same egg-neighbour. ❤

 Pretty, calm & sedate Coco.

Nina.  Hellraiser on four paws - now six months old.  My theory:  puppies only have two brain cells, and one of those doesn't work.

Lots of things to be grateful for so far this year. ❤

Happy New Year - UFO's and Stash Report

Aah, New Years Day. 🎆 Time for a reckoning.  I set some targets every year so there's an endpoint where I'd like to find myself.  I don't manage to fulfill ALL of my goals, but taking a few minutes early in the year to think about where I've been and where I'd like to go does help to give me some focus.

This is a quilt I started several (!) years ago.  It's a Bonnie Hunter leader & ender pattern TO THE NINES from one of her books.

Occasionally we have enough sleepover company that I need to put the sofabed to use, but I didn't have a quilt that looks nice in that room AND that fits properly.  So woohoo!  Problem solved!

My target for UFO completion in 2023 was finishing up any THREE ufo's.  I only managed to take two off the list but I'm still happy with that result. 👍 Especially considering that one of them was 25-ish years old.  Good Lord.

As for my stash, like many quilters I probably have more fabric than I will use in my lifetime.  I set a moratorium on purchasing but, well, that didn't work out for me this past year.  In 2022 I generally only purchased fabric that I needed for a specific project.  But in 2023 I got a bunch of stuff at the guild, either for free or dirt cheap.  I also bought some fabric just because it was pretty.  AND I bumped up my collection of reds.  When all that intake happens during a year when not many projects were finished, the numbers tell a sad story.  2023 target was net OUT 50 M.  What actually happened was net IN 1.8 M.

My targets for 2024 will remain the same - finish any three UFO's and a net stash OUT 50 M, along with a minimum of 5 donation quilts.  If you see me in a fabric shop, wandering around with a couple of bolts in my arms please make me put them back!

SLEEP AND DOGS

I used to be able to sleep like the dead.  My head hit the pillow and I'd be zonked out within about three minutes, falling into such a deep sleep that an atomic bomb wouldn't wake me up.  Now, I often DO manage to fall asleep in short order, and then within a half hour something...usually a hot flash, wakes me back up.  Aargh.  So frustrating.  Or, I fall asleep and then wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to dreamland.  Today it was 4 am, so I stayed in bed for an hour, then gave up and got out of bed at 5.  It's a good thing I prep the coffee the night before and don't wake anyone up when I flick the coffee maker on.

This is the vision I took with me to la la land.  10 or 1030 at night is when playtime starts.  Again.

I think Nina was trying to do a Thread The Needle pose, maybe?

I have NO idea what anyone was trying to do here besides creep me out with the whites of her eyes.

I will be spending today sewing with a friend, then we're having Chinese food for supper.

And, speaking of UFO's, maybe I'll get something done with this in 2024.

I hope you have a healthy, happy, and productive year!