Newsy 2021 Post

Santa brought me a new tablet so I've been having my perpetual challenge with technology, trying to transfer over all my "stuff".  Today's project is DROPBOX, setting up the auto transfer of all photos from the tablet to the cloud, and from there I transfer them to the desktop.  The desktop has folders for each month of the year, and folders for my personal quilts, trips, special events, guilds, etc.  This kind of filing system is the easiest way for me to locate items, although I must admit I've had the occasional "oopsy" where I've moved something inadvertently and then not been able to figure out where I sent it.  I didn't want to do a blog post until I had this project finished...why?  I don't know.  Just because.

This was my New Years Day Sewing Marathon project, a Block of the Month from the Binbrook Guild 2017/18.  Each pattern was made twice using the opposite colours.  That was a fun exercise.  I had 16 blocks complete but I wanted four more to give the quilt a rectangular shape, so I pulled two of the block patterns and made them again with different colours.

Apparently I cannot follow graphic instructions which resulted in a NEW BLOCK.  lol... 

Normally Janice comes over and spends the day with me, sewing and (ahem) drinking and having dinner.  Sadly, covid made that not possible so I had to sew & drink alone.  Hubby had dinner with me, thankfully.

Within a week I had the blocks together into a top, and here it sits waiting for borders.

Major news event from 2021 that will remain burned in our memories for a long, long time include the insurrrection on January 6th at the U.S. Capitol.  Egged on by Donald Trump, thugs broke in and disrupted ("disrupted" is a very weak word to explain what happened) the vote count that cemented Joe Biden's win of the presidency.  Worries that the actual inauguration on the 21st would be also be disrupted were, thankfully, unfounded.

2021 CHALLENGES

Me, personally, I have perhaps foolishly, joined a few challenge groups again this year.

• Lose five pounds.  Last year my goal was TEN pounds and that turned into a major fail.  Overall I was ok with my fail, because so many people struggled with weight GAINS during the pandemic, and staying on track prevented that from happening to me.  Year over year I was only down 0.6 lbs., so not even one full pound was lost.  And my sanity was saved by the distractions and deliciousness of the breads, cakes, pies, crostatas, rolls, and creamy cheesy casseroles.
• Get rid of 2021 things in 2021.  Unbeknownst to me, DH had already started thinning his  many many piles of collections and saved items.  For example, we have, I think, three broken office chairs in the basement.  Why?  Oh, Helen, don't go down that rabbit hole.  Not today.  Yesterday I put cardboard box #1 just outside of my workroom doorway so as I find things for the Goodwill I can easily add them to the box.  Coincidentally there is a whiteboard on the wall there too, so we can track our progress.  Items counted will be thrown away, given away, and donated.  At the moment the filled cardboard box won't be able to go anywhere because Ontario is still under STAY-AT-HOME orders.  But someday...
• Stash reduction of 50 m.  Last year my target was also 50 m. and it was easy-peasy, especially with all the covid lockdowns.  How's a girl supposed to shop?  Last year my total year over year was down 108.5 m.  I anticipate no difficulty with this challenge, at all.

Next Sunday is the Superbowl.  

Quilters' Math:  tv football = piecing & cocktails

I have not yet settled on a project but it may be a small quilt using two charm paks from Missouri Star Quilt Company that I bought in 2017.  These are pretty pastel florals by Moda.  I need to drag the card table & sewing machine up in front of the tv so I don't miss any of the commercials.  Supper might be nachos using the corn chips that were in a Christmas gift basket.

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLDWIDE:  98.983 million cases, 2.12 million deaths, 600,790 new cases yesterday

USA:   25 million cases, 417,000 deaths, 168,000 new yesterday

CANADA: 746,000 cases, 19,065 deaths, 5,965 new yesterday

ONTARIO: 257,000 cases, 5,764 deaths, 2,417 new yesterday  (3,555 on Jan. 11th was the highest, so our numbers are finally dropping!  The current stay-at-home order is in effect until Feb. 11th at the moment.  I expect it will be extended.  My understanding is the daily average cases need to go below 1,000 before the order will be lifted.

HAMILTON:  8,611 cases, 232 deaths, 71 new yesterday

Comfort and Blessing Quilt and 2020 Year End Posting

 This was the last custom quilt of the year.  I love working on sampler quilts.  This is Comfort and Blessing by Piecing The Past Quilts.

Lots of s.i.d. with some common elements throughout the blocks.

It's a little easier to see the quilting on the back.

Here's a shot of the borders.

This is such a pretty pic of a sunset on December 10th.

Hmm.  What else?... Christmas was quiet with just DH, Sadie and me.  I had to cook a turkey, which I'd almost forgotten how to do.  Normally 1-800-LUKE takes pity on us and invites us for dinner but this year we all stayed safe in our cocoons.  Although we did have a nice driveway visit with Luke and his wife a few days beforehand.  Oh, I miss hugging people. 😢  New Years Eve tonight will be the same thing - two people and one furbaby.  To celebrate kicking 2020 to the curb we're eating junk - frozen appetizers (along with some veggies - I do have some standards).

New Years Day is normally spent in person with a friend who comes over and sews with me, and then she stays for supper.  This year of course, no go.  We'll stay in our own messy sewing rooms and keep in touch with messenger video chats.  The two of us are always part of a bunch of quilters from Ontario having our New Years Day Sewing Marathons, so lots of emails and photos will be flying back and forth.  I am putting DH in charge of supper.  It will be pork tenderloin in the crockpot, with some kind of veggies and some kind of potatoes - I'm leaving that all up to him.

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLDWIDE:  83 million cases, 1.8 million deaths, 444,400 new cases yesterday

USA:   19.8 million cases, 343,000 deaths, 229,300 new yesterday

CANADA: 579,000 cases, 15,600 deaths, 7,476 new yesterday

ONTARIO: 182,000 cases, 4,500 deaths, 3,328 new yesterday **record numbers, AGAIN!

HAMILTON:  6,057 cases, 168 deaths, 156 new yesterday

The provincial lockdown didn't happen on Dec. 24th as anticipated.  The Province delayed it until Dec. 26th.  Stupid, stupid, stupid, not that anybody asked my opinion.  The Premier decided to let people "shop" and get together for dinner.  I think he also wanted to let religious people have their church services, since they are a big part of his electoral base, but he didn't say that - that's just my thoughts.

Besides that, the latest asinine behaviour was the Minister of Finance for Ontario.  

Keep in mind that the government of Canada AND Ontario have instructed all of us to stay home and travel ONLY FOR ESSENTIAL REASONS.  So, what does idiot Mr. Phillips do?  He goes on a two week vacation to St. Barts.  AND posts fake videos on his twitter feed to make it look like he's enjoying Christmas at home.  Dickhead.

His boss, Doug Ford, the Premier of the Province, tried to tell us that he didn't know his minister was down there. Huh. But as soon as he found out he told him to come home.  Huh.  However, the next day, Ford has to backtrack and admit that well, yes, he DID know,  but not until after Phillips had already arrived there in St. Barts.  So he was going to give Phillips "what for" and wouldn't tolerate that kind of thing "any more".  So...clearly not firing the idiot.  

THEN... we find out that this same idiot had gone to Switzerland for a vacation in August.  WTF?

OMG.  I need the head exploding emoji here. 

To recap:

• the Minister of Finance took a trip out of the country but pretended he was still in Canada, all while the REST of us have been told to stay home and stick to ONLY OUR HOUSEHOLDS.
• his boss, the Premier, pretends he didn't know.
• then his boss, the Premier, confesses that he lied - he DID know.  (my word not his - he would not be honest enough to say that he lied to us)

The final note to this story is that Mr. Phillips has resigned his position as the Minister of Finance.  Probably as soon as he got off the plane in Toronto.  I figure Doug Ford threw him under the bus and made him resign.  Doug has already had so much bad press over the Covid  response that he really cannot afford any more shit going down.

Dear Universe, 

Could you please have a cannabis cookie?  

We really need 2021 to be a bit more reasonable. 

Thanks, xxoo, Helen

Using Beautiful Focus Prints, and a Covid Update

Remember back in the old days before covid when you could have company?  And occasionally someone would have "one too many" and need a nap?  These are perfect.  Pick a great print and add some borders.     

These quilts make a nice throw for the couch.

They would also make a nice quick gift.

If you can't get in to your longarm quilter in time you can easily do straight line stitching on these with your domestic sewing machine.

I've finished up my 2020 customer quilts and am taking a couple weeks off.  Yesterday the fur-baby got a bath, so she's nice and clean for Christmas.  And I started the Christmas baking.  I also have a couple little things I want to sew for small gifts.  I'll take care of those projects in between listening for the dinging of the oven timer.

I DID have some big excitement, which let me tell you - has been pretty scarce these last many many many months.  I have a friend who is distantly acquainted with a painter I have loved for a long time.  She discovered this painter had donated a piece of art to a fundraising silent auction.  Super!!  I checked out the bids - there were a couple on there already, so I threw my hat in the ring too.  Well, of course I got bidded up.  So I stealthily waited until the last 30 seconds and placed one more bid and yee-hah!  Success!  Sorry for all the exclamation marks, but I was VERY EXCITED!

Here she is, Catching Fish by Sandee Ewasiuk.  

COVID-19 UPDATE

Worldwide:  76,912,000.  Wow.  Almost 77 million cases, 1.7 million deaths, 700,000 daily new cases.  

USA: 17.8 million cases, 317,700 deaths, 189,000 new yesterday.  

Canada:  511,000 cases, 14,200 deaths, 6,000 new yesterday.

Ontario:  155,900 cases, 4,150 deaths, 2,300 new yesterday.

Hamilton:  4,885 cases, 136 deaths, 98 new yesterday.

• The U.K. has locked down the south of England due to a variant of the virus, which apparently spreads much faster.  I thought it was spreading plenty fast as it was, but I guess I was wrong.  Several countries, including Canada, have stopped incoming flights from there until something (?) happens with this issue.
• Hamilton, which is the city next door to my small town, is in lockdown effective today.  Numbers have been escalating and the hospitals are on alert to cancel surgeries, along with whatever other measures they take when they're worried about incoming patients and lack of patient beds and staffing levels.
• The whole province of Ontario will be going into lockdown, apparently, effective December 24th.  The official announcement will be made later today, so at the moment I don't know if the timing is 24th morning, or 24th midnight.  
• Vaccinations have started in much of the world but it's going to take a long time for that to get us out of the mess we're in.  I understand that politicians want to save the economy by keeping everything open, but money doesn't help you when you're dead.

Stack & Whack, putting the garden to bed, and a Galette w/recipe

Here are two same-but-different quilts.  The blocks are the same, but the quilts have different settings.

This one has no sashing, and plain alternate blocks.  A dark and a print border.

This has sashing with cornerstones and an outer print border.

OMG that is a beautiful print.

I chose an Asian-style pantograph to pair with the Japanese fabric.

 GARDEN REPORT

DH dug all the remaining potatoes.  We had a bumper crop this year, in spite of the dry summer.  Watering every week produced some great tomatoes and the wonderful pile of 'taters.  

IF YOU LIKE CABBAGE:  I put in six cabbage plants back in May (?).  As I harvested them I left the plants in the ground and let them continue growing.  I kept harvesting from those six plants until last week when DH ripped them out so he could rototill.  Through the summer these were small enough to manage - perfect for soup or a quick coleslaw.  

PUTTING THE GARDEN TO BED

Every couple of years we add something to the garden to keep a nice soil tilth and lots of nutrients.  DH went to the local mushroom farm and got a trailer load of mushroom compost.  He also had a HUGE quantity of leaves.  I was downstairs in my sweatshop quilt studio, minding my own business, when he came in and asked "if I wanted to help with the leaves?".  Um, no?  Ha ha, that didn't fly!

After the leaves were down it was time to top them up with compost.  I am a very smart woman who has managed to never learn how to drive the tractor. 😁

This will have all winter to break down so we can feed ourselves again next year.

My to-do list today has pie-making hi-lited.

On one of the pandemic-stock-up shopping trips, a few bags of walnuts came home from Costco.  Walnuts only keep so long before they start to go rancid, so I put two bags in the freezer, but I'm still trying to use them a bit more often.  I found the walnuts.org web site and marked a few recipes.

KALE, BUTTERNUT SQUASH & WALNUT GALETTE

As I showed you last week I have that volunteer kale plant I've been working with, and I had some butternut squash already roasted, sitting in the fridge.  I also had two single crust pastry doughs in the freezer, left over from when I made the peach pies this summer.  I managed to whip this up for supper in practically no time!  Since I didn't have gruyere cheese I substituted with cream cheese and it was delicious.  I ate the last leftover piece this morning for breakfast with a runny egg on top.  Yum!

On a side note, cooking shows are often screening on our tv.  I mean, what else is there to do these days?  Anyhow... we were watching America's Test Kitchen (?) and they were making a galette. 

Hah!  I pointed out to DH how lucky he is that he gets fed this kind of stuff all the time.

COVID NUMBERS

Worldwide:  total 54 million, deaths 1.4 million, new 628,136

USA:  total 10,977,635.  Deaths 245,460, new cases 159,021

Canada:  total 293,183.  Deaths 10,977, new cases 4,613

Ontario: total 95,964.  Deaths 3,387, new cases 1,248

Catching Up, again

 I seem to have put my blog posting on the same schedule as my house cleaning...pretty darned infrequently! My new system for cleaning is to keep an eye on a couple of the pictures hanging on the wall - if I notice gooey, stringy cobwebs hanging off them I make myself vacuum some time in the following week.  

I'm just going to give you some pics of a few quilts that I've completed for customers over the last couple of months, ok?  OK.

This quilt came with a special request to add a couple of hearts in the quilting.

This was so stinkin' cute.

This is a special quilt for some Florida people.

I love these Quick Curve Ruler quilts!

Another quilt made from embroidered blocks.  This is #3 for this gal.

Scrappy - my all-time favorite quilts.

Like many people these days, I've had it up to the wazoo with politicians.  I was SO ticked off with one local provincial representative that I actually wrote a letter to the editor.  They edited out some of it, but I think they should have kept the comment that Oosterhoff is part of the governing provincial party that has mandated the regulations currently in place.  WTF???

I have a new t-shirt to get me through the rest of the year.  This arrived in time for me to cry in my wine over the cancellation of the annual Tobermory retreat with the Beach Girls.  This cancellation might explain some of my fit over Oosterhoff.  He gets to play with his friends, but I don't???  WTF???

Then I soothed the savage beast with copy-cat Starbucks Pumpkin Scones.

This was my most interesting volunteer in the garden this summer.  It's a kale plant in the same spot where I had one two years ago.  It's been feeding us for weeks (a fact that DH is not particularly impressed with, seeing as it is a green leafy vegetable).  These days if he makes any kind of negative remark over supper all he gets from me is an eye roll and "suck it up, buttercup".  Yeah.  Not winning any BEST WIFE, EVER awards.  Oh, covid... how many marriages are facing some less-than-stellar-days thanks to you?

On a personal quilting note, I stitched up and quilted a whack of Christmas panels.  Since this pic was taken I have cut them all apart and trimmed to size. These will be donated whenever I get all that binding finished.

The current GOOD news is that Biden/Harris won the US election.  I cannot wait to see Trump get his arse booted out of the White House.

COVID NUMBERS

Worldwide: 49.9 million cases and 1.2 million deaths.  Daily increase in cases 540,000.

USA:  9.9 million cases and 238,000 deaths.  The US hit a new daily high of over 130,000 cases yesterday.  Sad.

Canada:  261,400 cases and 10,493 deaths.  New cases yesterday 4,246.

Ontario:  84,153 cases and 3,233 deaths.  We hit a new daily high of 1,328 new cases yesterday.  Sad.

2 Quilts (one complex & one simple), What's Cookin'?, and Covid numbers

PLEASE NOTE THAT I ONLY HAVE A FEW OPEN SPOTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS - GET IN TOUCH SOON IF YOU WILL NEED QUILTING DONE.

Here's the complex quilt, with a medallion setting and a bunch of paper pieced sharks teeth.

And curved piecing.  Don't forget the curved piecing.

This quilt took me back in time.  When I was a kid, Mom had made me a skirt that I loved - dark grey with box pleats.  The inset in the box pleats was pink with a tiny black print.  I felt so sassy when I wore that...every step showed off the pretty pink.  To this day that is still one of my favorite colour combinations. 

Lots of s.i.d. and straight line quilting on this one.

Here's the simple quilt.  Well, not simple exactly - it's all on point, which makes the outer edges really stretchy when it's time to add the borders.  But simple in the sense that it's a one-block quilt, and the blocks are only 2 pieces.

This is from a Fons & Porter magazine, and the maker requested quilting similar to what was in the pics.  I love her colour choices, and she did a great job with the layout.

WHAT'S COOKIN'?

There have been lots of PIES coming out of the oven lately, both savory and sweet.

1.  tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, cooked sausage, green peppers, tomatoes, onions
2.  pesto, mozzarella, shredded cooked chicken, tomatoes, onions
3.  tomato sauce, mozzarella, diced ham, pineapple, onion
4.  peach (plus another one in the freezer!😁)

And I've been doing lots of sweating over a hot stove.  Peach marmalade, blueberry marmalade, peach-rosemary jam, mango chutney.  I will save DH's reputation and not tell you the story of how I came to be in possession of enough mangoes to necessitate the making of chutney.  You can use your imagination for that.   Not shown are the 21 quarts of diced tomatoes which I finished on Friday.  By February you can expect to see my arse another size larger.

COVID NUMBERS

Worldwide: 25 million cases and 843,000 deaths.

USA:  5.97 million cases and 183,000 deaths

Canada:  128,000 cases and 9,113 deaths.

Ontario:  42,000 cases and 2,800 deaths.

PERSONAL COVID UPDATE

I had my Red Hat girls over last week for a brown-bag-lunch-at-a-distance on the back patio.  Our patio isn't fancy, but it is nice and big.  We hadn't seen each other in MONTHS so it was really good to have a chance to catch up in person.  A few of the gals couldn't make it, but that's par for the course.  Since we're all members of the Caledonia Grand River Quilters' Guild we did a bit of guild catch-up too.  Our guild donated a quilt to the Fair Board to raffle as a fundraiser (see the Guild Feb. 9th post), so many of us bought raffle and/or 50/50 tickets.

I was supposed to leave for two weeks in Italy on Friday.  Yeah, no.  I have actually received a refund for what I'd paid to date, which is good.  I have not yet received anything regarding my seat upgrade for the flights...still waiting on that. ✈

I have another HAIR appointment next week. 👩 Yaay.  This stuff is way too long, and way too hot.  It's going to get a very generous trim.

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.