SCHEDULING UPDATE
At the moment I still have seven quilts here that I will be working on. As they're ready I'll contact you and arrange a porch pickup.
I am not taking in any quilts until the provincial restriction on non-essential businesses has been lifted. I realize you might find that to be an inconvenience, but as a rule I do what the "people in charge" tell me to do. Depending on how long this situation persists it might mean your booking in May gets delayed until Julember, or whenever. With all the UFO's that are being completed you can certainly be added to the calendar, so feel free to contact me.
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I was on retreat the first weekend of March and worked on these three tops. The first little panel quilt is a challenge at the Binbrook guild. It's due in June and I hope we're back to having meetings by then.
DH and I cleaned and defrosted the freezer. We had to throw a few things out that have been hanging around too long, but overall it was pretty good except for the frost. I really like the accessibility afforded by the upright but it seems to be much worse for frost, or perhaps I can just SEE it better. Another plus: it defrosted REALLY FAST. Although we left everything in coolers outside overnight (it was well below freezing that night) we could easily have reloaded it within a couple of hours.
The cleanout located a couple bags of frozen cranberries, which meant I had to (had to?) make a cranberry loaf. This was really good with the cheddar, so I will definitely make it again.
Deciding on quilting designs is helped along by a bit of doodling on cello wrap.
And when life gets to be too much, make brownies! This is a Buttermilk Brownie recipe from an old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I never have buttermilk, so I've always had to substitute with soured milk (by adding vinegar or lemon to regular milk, not by using the stuff that's gone off and makes your gag reflex kick in... in case you're new to cooking). Now that I make my own yogurt I use the strained whey - it also adds that nice bit of tart flavour. My other baking tip is to reduce the sugar by about 25% and to skip the icing. Trust me, they are still quite edible. I bake this in two 8" cake pans and hide one of them in the freezer after baking.
Here's where I've ended off with the Four Patch Posie. I got sick of the news Sunday night so I finished this up while I was waiting for the I Heart Radio Living Room Concert to start. Now it needs quilting.
The panel quilt is finished and ready for presentation.
LOCAL COVID HAPPENINGS
3/22 Hamilton cases = 27
3/23 Ontario closing all non essential business as of midnight tomorrow. Porch dropoff of 2 quilts today and I won't open the bag until 27th at the earliest. DH got 2 emergency bags of dog food, just in case.
3/24 Hydro rates are going down for 45 days - woo hoo, I can do laundry in the middle of the day for a change. Took a walk this morning to get away from the news, and spent a lot of time messaging with the Beach Girls about our respective needs for batting. I spoke to a customer who's a little annoyed I won't take her quilt now. Did not wash my face OR make the bed this morning. I thought this was just a facebook joke, but apparently it's not. 😜
3/25 I spoke to a customer who is picking up on Friday - she wanted to drop off 2 quilts. I initially said yes since she was going to be on my porch anyways, then I called her back and said no. I've penciled her in for June. It was 13 degrees today so we went for TWO walks. I set pea seeds in water tonight to presprout, and a friend has an "in" with someone at Stokes Seeds - she's trying to get us a seed order. Apparently, seed companies have been overwhelmed with orders. There are 100 new cases in Ontario today, and Hamilton is reporting 39 cases today. NY governor announced 5146 new cases in one day. Omg.
3/26 Any travellers coming in to the country are required to quarantine under the quarantine act - 14 days, the only exception is essential workers. Trump wants to put troops at the Canadian border. Wtf? Sigh. Nice day today, the pea seeds are soaking to presprout. A friend of ours quit her job at BMO because they have done nothing to protect the staff in the branch. Cases in the U.S. rose to 83,836 on Thursday — more than any other country, overtaking both Italy and China — while the death toll passed the 1,000 mark.
3/27 Regarding the McDonald's closure in Hamilton last week ...the employee FAKED the doctor's note. Lol. Teenagers can be sooo stupid! (and yes, that also applied to me when I was a teenager)
3/28 First death in Haldimand-Norfolk was announced last night, a resident of a nursing home. Current stats: Ontario 1144 with 19 deaths. Canada 5655 & 61 dead.
3/29 Ontario gatherings are now limited to no more than 5 people. Six Nations starts limiting access to the reserve - they have two people tested positive. Haldimand-Norfolk has 23 cases.
3/30 Hamilton has 70 cases today...from March 22nd (8 days) that's an increase of 43 cases.
I am quite horrified by the numbers coming out of the USA. Their screwy health care system is leaving uninsured people to fend for themselves. They can't afford to get tested (one news article reported a cost of $900.00 for the test), and if they land in the hospital they will end up bankrupted by the final bill. HERE is a news article about a California teen who was denied medical care over a lack of insurance and subsequently died. If you have precarious employment and live paycheque to paycheque, chances are pretty good that you will get sick but keep going to work. If you have no medical insurance you won't go to the doctor, won't find out you're infected, and will carry on infecting everyone you come in contact with. Dear God... HERE's an article about medical insurers and their adjustments to the co-pay system from March 12th. This should scare every American (AND every Canadian, since they're our next-door-neighbour).
At the moment I still have seven quilts here that I will be working on. As they're ready I'll contact you and arrange a porch pickup.
I am not taking in any quilts until the provincial restriction on non-essential businesses has been lifted. I realize you might find that to be an inconvenience, but as a rule I do what the "people in charge" tell me to do. Depending on how long this situation persists it might mean your booking in May gets delayed until Julember, or whenever. With all the UFO's that are being completed you can certainly be added to the calendar, so feel free to contact me.
◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈◈
I was on retreat the first weekend of March and worked on these three tops. The first little panel quilt is a challenge at the Binbrook guild. It's due in June and I hope we're back to having meetings by then.
DH and I cleaned and defrosted the freezer. We had to throw a few things out that have been hanging around too long, but overall it was pretty good except for the frost. I really like the accessibility afforded by the upright but it seems to be much worse for frost, or perhaps I can just SEE it better. Another plus: it defrosted REALLY FAST. Although we left everything in coolers outside overnight (it was well below freezing that night) we could easily have reloaded it within a couple of hours.
The cleanout located a couple bags of frozen cranberries, which meant I had to (had to?) make a cranberry loaf. This was really good with the cheddar, so I will definitely make it again.
Deciding on quilting designs is helped along by a bit of doodling on cello wrap.
And when life gets to be too much, make brownies! This is a Buttermilk Brownie recipe from an old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. I never have buttermilk, so I've always had to substitute with soured milk (by adding vinegar or lemon to regular milk, not by using the stuff that's gone off and makes your gag reflex kick in... in case you're new to cooking). Now that I make my own yogurt I use the strained whey - it also adds that nice bit of tart flavour. My other baking tip is to reduce the sugar by about 25% and to skip the icing. Trust me, they are still quite edible. I bake this in two 8" cake pans and hide one of them in the freezer after baking.
Here's where I've ended off with the Four Patch Posie. I got sick of the news Sunday night so I finished this up while I was waiting for the I Heart Radio Living Room Concert to start. Now it needs quilting.
The panel quilt is finished and ready for presentation.
LOCAL COVID HAPPENINGS
3/22 Hamilton cases = 27
3/23 Ontario closing all non essential business as of midnight tomorrow. Porch dropoff of 2 quilts today and I won't open the bag until 27th at the earliest. DH got 2 emergency bags of dog food, just in case.
3/24 Hydro rates are going down for 45 days - woo hoo, I can do laundry in the middle of the day for a change. Took a walk this morning to get away from the news, and spent a lot of time messaging with the Beach Girls about our respective needs for batting. I spoke to a customer who's a little annoyed I won't take her quilt now. Did not wash my face OR make the bed this morning. I thought this was just a facebook joke, but apparently it's not. 😜
3/25 I spoke to a customer who is picking up on Friday - she wanted to drop off 2 quilts. I initially said yes since she was going to be on my porch anyways, then I called her back and said no. I've penciled her in for June. It was 13 degrees today so we went for TWO walks. I set pea seeds in water tonight to presprout, and a friend has an "in" with someone at Stokes Seeds - she's trying to get us a seed order. Apparently, seed companies have been overwhelmed with orders. There are 100 new cases in Ontario today, and Hamilton is reporting 39 cases today. NY governor announced 5146 new cases in one day. Omg.
3/26 Any travellers coming in to the country are required to quarantine under the quarantine act - 14 days, the only exception is essential workers. Trump wants to put troops at the Canadian border. Wtf? Sigh. Nice day today, the pea seeds are soaking to presprout. A friend of ours quit her job at BMO because they have done nothing to protect the staff in the branch. Cases in the U.S. rose to 83,836 on Thursday — more than any other country, overtaking both Italy and China — while the death toll passed the 1,000 mark.
3/27 Regarding the McDonald's closure in Hamilton last week ...the employee FAKED the doctor's note. Lol. Teenagers can be sooo stupid! (and yes, that also applied to me when I was a teenager)
3/28 First death in Haldimand-Norfolk was announced last night, a resident of a nursing home. Current stats: Ontario 1144 with 19 deaths. Canada 5655 & 61 dead.
3/29 Ontario gatherings are now limited to no more than 5 people. Six Nations starts limiting access to the reserve - they have two people tested positive. Haldimand-Norfolk has 23 cases.
3/30 Hamilton has 70 cases today...from March 22nd (8 days) that's an increase of 43 cases.
I am quite horrified by the numbers coming out of the USA. Their screwy health care system is leaving uninsured people to fend for themselves. They can't afford to get tested (one news article reported a cost of $900.00 for the test), and if they land in the hospital they will end up bankrupted by the final bill. HERE is a news article about a California teen who was denied medical care over a lack of insurance and subsequently died. If you have precarious employment and live paycheque to paycheque, chances are pretty good that you will get sick but keep going to work. If you have no medical insurance you won't go to the doctor, won't find out you're infected, and will carry on infecting everyone you come in contact with. Dear God... HERE's an article about medical insurers and their adjustments to the co-pay system from March 12th. This should scare every American (AND every Canadian, since they're our next-door-neighbour).
