Two Modern Quilts & ....

 These were two beauties that both wanted the pantograph Modern Curves.  

That's such a striking quilting design and it shows up really well on solid fabrics.

And, HEY!  I MADE A QUILT!  This was for a young man who's gone off to university.

Here are the strips of geese.  My original intention was to use a border print as sashing between the rows, but I didn't like the look, so I opted to stick with the solid black.  These are 4" x 8" geese made using the Quilt In A Day ruler.  Definitely one of my favorite rulers.

DOG STUFF

You may have seen this goofy pic already if you follow me on facebook or instagram.  A few people have suggested that we get another dog to help Coco relax, so...yup.  Being a crafty girl I made another dog.  Since this was taken I have brushed out this much fur AGAIN.  TWICE MORE in fact.

Here's another fun one - this one's from daycare.  Obviously neither one of these goofs has gone to Etiquette Class.  Elbows on the table??  Helloooo!

KITCHEN STUFF

Oh, hubby, hubby, hubby.  After one of my weekly chats with the Beach Girls I mentioned to DH that three of them have air fryers, and they were pretty surprised that I didn't have one.  Well, hubby doesn't need more than one reason to go shopping. 

 

I used it last night to bake frozen shoestring fries and onion rings and they both turned out pretty well.  Better than in the oven, as in crispier.  I don't think it did anything to make them healthier though.  That would require an act of God.  In a pointless attempt to make him repent I was reading the recipes to him that came in the little book... lots of sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and fish recipes.  All on his personal list of "foods to avoid", ha ha ha. 

I'll close with a bit of beauty from Sept. 8th, courtesy of The Universe.

SUNSET

MOONRISE

Let's wrap up June (since it's already August!) Log Cabin & A Unicorn

Log Cabin - I love the colours in this.  The quiltmaker wanted it quilted "like in the magazine".

That involved feathered swirls in the blocks, from the center out to the corners, and then a simple meander in the rest of it.

No s.i.d. kept the cost down a bit.

Unicorn - this is all paper pieced.  Whoo baby!  

Thankfully the quiltmaker sent me a pic of how she wanted it quilted.  Otherwise I'd probably still be staring at it wondering what the heck to do.

I had to get a little bit of technical help from a longarm buddy who has done this style of work.  The background rays were done with the I.Q., and that was a bit of a challenge too, but in a good way.  I like learning new things.

On the personal front, the garden is coming along nicely.  The zucchini is a bust this year.  In an attempt to thwart the zucchini bugs I planted it in large pots on the patio. Two of the three plants died from wilt.  The third one is hanging in there, so far.  We shall see.  Thankfully a friend has an abundant crop and she's been willing to share.  The bumper crops this year will probably be potatoes and tomatoes.

Pizza and bread made from a big-batch artisanal dough recipe has made a frequent appearance on the dinner table.  In fact, it's pizza night tonight, in celebration of some very expensive mushrooms I picked up at the market.

Since the end of June:

• I had a real haircut from a real hairdresser.  Sooo nice.
• I've had several backyard dinner-at-a-distance with friends and relatives.  The hardest thing is definitely coping with the fact that I cannot hug anyone.
• I've had two massages.  My neck & shoulder have decided they want to compete with my hip to see which body part can cause me more pain.  Aargh.
• I had an honest-to-goodness restaurant meal, on a restaurant patio.  I was very trepidatious but it was long enough ago that I obviously did not catch anything.  Why does Blogger not like the word trepidatious?  Anyone???
• I had a bone density test, then a telephone appointment to review the results (which are good).
• I had an eye exam that had been postponed several times from last fall.
• I was back at the dentist, just for my semi-annual cleaning.  
• I actually received a refund for my trip to Italy that had been scheduled for August 28th.  That shocked the hell out of me, in a very pleasant way.

COVID STATS AS OF AUGUST 9, 2020

I pulled these numbers from the news this morning:

Global:  19.6 million cases, 270,000 daily new

USA:  5 million, 54,000 new daily

Canada 119,500, 220 new daily

Ontario:  40,000, new <100 daily (70 yesterday)

I have to remind myself not to get too cocky over the Canadian numbers vs. the USA.  We are opening up and I KNOW our numbers will be going up too.  Dear God, I hope not to that extent.  I like to think that our politicians have our best interests at heart and will handle things accordingly.  I do, however, have great sympathy for my friends in the US.  I can't see myself ever crossing the border again.

Tobermory Retreat Recap & Technology Mixed With Idiots & Scammers

I abandoned hubby for six days - he and the dog were feeding each other kibbles and bits for a week.  Although, a friend took pity on him and had him over for a roast beef dinner mid-week so he didn't starve.

I played THREAD CHICKEN and won.

The railing with completed projects.  This is always such a satisfying pic!  Debbie definitely took the prize this year - completing all those wee monthly quilts.  So cute.

Of course, cocktails.

I work on my Double Wedding Ring for one day every year.  The Tobermory cottage is a great space for it.  This year, to my horror, I discovered that I used bad math when I had the pieces cut several years ago by a quilting buddy, using her GO die cutter.  The quilting buddy has fallen off the face of the earth, and of course I no longer have any of that white fabric.  (Non-quilters may not realize that there are a zillion different fabric versions of white, so yes, this will show in the end.)  I threw in the towel around 3:00, poured a glass of wine and curled up on the couch with a book, nursing my angst.

This is the top I pieced, I managed to get it quilted and bound this week.  So girly.  I used up lots of strips that I have been collecting through the Strippers Club at the Caledonia Guild.

Now we wait until Winterruption for our first retreat of 2020.

TECHNOLOGY MIXED WITH IDIOTS & SCAMMERS

Dear God.  Did you see this story?

Attempted sextortion leads to call for stricter phone porting rules

I do feel great sympathy for the idiot.  His cell phone number was stolen.  Once the scammer accomplished that, he gained access to the idiot's emails, personal files, credit cards, and (of course) his personal sex tapes.
Why do men think they need to make sex tapes of themselves and their partners?  Why does ANYONE think they need to have nudie photos of themselves and/or their partners on their phones?  Do they get bored while they're standing in line at Starbucks and think "hmm, maybe I'll pull up one of my sex tapes and jerk off while I'm waiting for my Grande Mocha Latte"?  Or, in a boring meeting at the office do they decide to get the conversation started by showing pics of their former girlfriend's boobs?  Seriously.  Get a life, idiots.
This fella has admittedly compromised his own reputation, but Dear God, also the poor people who were intimate with him.  They will be on pins & needles for the rest of their lives, wondering if and when their pics/videos will be shared all over the web.

Not that anyone cares what I think... but my suggestion would be that you don't take photos and keep them on your cell phone or send them up to the cloud.  Really.  Simple.

A Modern Quilt, the Garden, Social Media

Oh, I love (!) modern quilts.  Especially when they have random bits of 'word' fabric in them, like this one does.

And I love quilting them with swirls & pebbles.  This makes a wonderful contrast against the straight lines & graphic design of the top.

THE GARDEN

I try to be a thrifty person when it's not too much of an inconvenience.  I dug up a coleus plant last fall and left it in a pot on the windowsill all winter, then took cuttings of it in the spring.  I got seven FREE plants.  No special hints - these root in one or two days in a glass of water, then just pot them up.

I did the same thing with a geranium.  Seven freebies.  Yay!  😀 Hint passed down to me from Mom: take your cuttings and let the cut stems dry out for several hours, then stick them in water.  They are not as likely to rot in the water if the wound has healed.  When there are nice roots, pot them up in a good potting mix and put them in a plastic bag to keep in humidity for a couple of days while they settle in to their new pots.  Open the bag before they get mouldy.

Prepare yourself...I will be starting the annual ZUCCHINI REPORT in my next post.  I've picked nine (?) so far this week.  I gave some away yesterday, then tonight I made a nice little stir fry with onions, garlic, zucchini, and diced tomatoes, topped off with crumbled feta cheese.  Yum!  And 'cause I know you're wondering:  no, DH did not eat any of it.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Do you get all depressed when you sit around by yourself on a Friday night, listening to DH snore from the bedroom, while you're cruising Facebook?  I do, sometimes, thinking that everybody in the world is having a much more fun and eventful life than I am.  So I pulled down the kitchen calendar and looked at what I've been doing since the beginning of June.

• 3 lunch dates
• 4 dinner dates
• 2 movie dates
• 1 family overnight company & daytrip
• 1 family afternoon & dinner date
• 1 family breakfast date
• 2 theatre dates
• 1 concert date
• 2 guild meetings w/ pot luck supper

It would appear that I do, in fact, have a social life which includes family, friends, and lovely acquaintances.  So no more Miss Crybaby-Snotty-Nose!

Sampler in Black & White, Asparagus Recipe

I can't make up my mind what I love more - the Black & White part, or the Sampler part.

This quilt was interesting to work on because in spite of the "modern" appearance, the maker requested the quilting be done in a more "traditional" style.

I tried to accommodate her request for 1/4" outline quilting as much as possible.

 Many places required MORE quilting (in my opinion) so I used straight lines to continue the mood.

Some curves were needed too, to soften the hard, angular edges.

Yum.  I love curved piecing.

If I live to be one hundred I probably won't figure out how to effectively photograph black quilts, so hopefully you can see the quilting of borders, etc., on the grey backing.

I try to blog weekly, but that doesn't always pan out.  The last few weeks have, um, challenged my serenity.  DH and I took his truck to his brother's shop for some major repair work, which ended up taking three weeks due to some unforseen circumstances.  During that three weeks hubby and I were a one car family.  Working at home is great for such occurrences but my ZEN mentality requires a weekly reboot at my yoga class.  Which didn't happen.
Thankfully, the Universe provided me with a love of gardening, so I spent many hours out in the mud, and occasionally the rain, weeding and  planting... side dressing with the occasional curse word.
If you want the lowdown, I have planted:

• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 10 sweet peppers
• 8 lettuce
• 8 celery
• 6 cabbage
• 20 tomatoes (4 different varieties)
• a dozen garlic plants transplanted, and six clumps given away
• a lonely potato volunteer transplanted beside the other potato volunteer
• beet seeds
• bean seeds
• pea seeds
• zucchini seeds! 👍
• butternut squash seeds
• basil seeds
• Thai basil seeds
• flower seeds, several varieties

Planting asparagus a few years ago is paying off in such a wonderful way!  (mind you, I'll be sick of it by the end of June)  Try this... sooo good! 

If you are too lazy to click on the link, here is the recipe.

Asparagus/Tuna Pasta

from Outoftheoffice.com

INGREDIENTS:

100g dried pasta- we prefer bowties for this recipe

• 2 bunches asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2cm lengths
• 425g can tuna in olive oil, drained, flaked
• 1 cup thin cream or PHILADELPHIA cooking cream (low fat works too) 
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• squeeze lemon juice as desired
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 brown or red onion- finely diced
• 2-3 cloves minced garlic
• fresh parmesan cheese for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cook pasta in a pot of salted water, until al-dente- and set aside.

In a separate pan- add oil, minced garlic, onion and chopped asparagus. Lightly fry for approx 5 minutes.

Add cream, lemon zest and tuna.

Toss pasta through the sauce

Add a small squeeze of lemon juice and a generous shaving of fresh parmesan cheese. Salt & pepper to taste.

A Black & White Christmas

Modern quilt, from a Drunkard's Path base.

Love the pillow ticking fabric.

Modern Dresden Fan.

The turquoise really pumps up the black & white prints.

Labyrinth quilt.  So graphic!

You don't dare mix up your piecing with this quilt.

I knocked off work at 2:30 pm on the 24th.  Went directly upstairs and cracked open the Baileys. 😁
DH and I had very specific plans for Christmas Movies this year.

• Dec 23rd - Diehard
• Dec 24th - The Sound of Music
• Dec 25th - The Grinch with Jim Carrey

I had never really thought of Diehard as a Christmas movie before.  But in fact, it takes place at a Christmas office party,  so I guess that qualifies it.  I was giggling at the 80's hair.  And startled to see people SMOKING IN THE AIRPORT. Wow, the good old days, eh?

DH has never (!) seen The Sound of Music.  He gave me a bit of stinkeye when he realized it was three hours long, ha ha ha.  But he was a trooper and sat through it. 💓

Today I started The Winter Project.  All three bedrooms need painting, so this afternoon I did the cutting in part on the first two, which are the same colour.  Tomorrow will be 'roller' day.  Room number three is the master bedroom, and it can't be started until a large hunk of drywall is replaced.  Bad windows were leaking for, like, 30 years.  That problem is finally fixed.  DH has torn out the bad drywall, but he had enough brains to stay away from the home improvement store today.  Also, it was pouring rain.  That is NOT a good day to bring home drywall in the back of a pickup truck.

When I'm working on a Project I am grateful for leftover turkey in the fridge.  We don't have to worry about cooking for DAYS.  When repeated turkey dinners get nauseating we can switch it up with either turkey pot pie, or shit-on-a-shingle (translation:  hot turkey sandwich).