I Understand

For the first time in my quilting life I can understand the need for more than one sewing machine. I always thought it would be nice, if I had the room or the money for a second machine, but never really thought it could be a necessity. Now I wish I had the room to have two machines set up all the time. That way I could leave out the flannels, continue playing in those scraps, and not have to switch out the needle and the tension settings all the time. I could begin making blocks for DarlingGrandDaughter's quilt without getting the two projects all mixed up. It would also be helpful to have a place where I could sit and do the hand work I like to do from time to time. Right now I have to juggle all my projects and the stuff that goes with them in pretty much one space. This is going to require some thought on my part, to see whether I can come up with at least a partial solution. I only have a couple of months before the Bead Journal Project starts up again. I don't want one type of creativity to suffer because of another.

And speaking of the flannel scraps, I made this little dog using some of them.

He will probably be another drop for The Toy Society, maybe for their Christmas Drop. He's a pancake dog so he has only two legs. DH suggested I figure out a way to give him all four legs.

That's been in the back of my mind and I'd like to follow through before I put the flannels away. I want to shorten the muzzle on the pattern a bit too.

I finally found a piece of yardage in my stash that I like for binding on the Lincoln Logs quilt.

It's a paisley from RJR Fabrics. I don't even remember when or where I acquired it. I was thrilled to discover that there was enough to make it all the way around the quilt though!

Before I apply the binding to the quilt sandwich I'll have to get the little scraps out of the way, one way or another. Flannel picks up everything and this is one big quilt. :- )

Turkey Meme

I saw this over on Freebird's blog and thought it would be fun to share. :- )

1. Which do you like better: Cooking at your house, or going elsewhere? If I could I would go elsewhere, but since my husband - bless his heart - does most of the cooking for this meal it's like I already do!

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird? We buy a fresh bird, organically fed and raised.

3. What kind of stuffing? I prefer the stuffing I grew up with, as does my husband. Which means we have two kinds of stuffing every year. I was born a Yankee [and have been trying to overcome it all of my adult life ;- )] so I like the bread stuffing seasoned with sage. He likes cornbread dressing. Truth be told, I like them both!

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie? Pumpkin, hands down. One of my favorite memories of Thanksgiving Days in my youth was the buffet of pies my mother and her sisters would make. We had our choice of apple, cherry, pumpkin, and mincemeat. There were years when I think we had an even wider variety. It was common to see three or even four skinny slices of pie on a plate when it was time for dessert.

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing? At this point in my life the leftovers are the reason we do the whole bird. That provides me with meals to eat for days afterward. DH is pretty well done with turkey after the second day.

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu? Probably the cornbread dressing. Oh, we also have to have black olives!

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock? I'm not the cook so it depends on how DH is feeling any particular year. He has made both soup and stock from our birds a couple of times. It's nice to have the stock on hand because then it's easy for me to put together a soup for myself if I'm in the mood.

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier? A little bit bigger dining room so we could have a bigger table. There's never enough room for all the food and all the place settings, never mind having a centerpiece!

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour? We've done both, but most recently we've been eating close to our regular dinner hour.

10. If you go to somebody else's house, what's your favorite dish to bring? Probably my mother's frozen cranberry salad (which isn't really a salad in my mind, but more of a dessert). It's a high treat and can be made ahead of time. Plus it's one of those dishes that goes a long way amongst a crowd of people.

11. What do you wish one of your guests wouldn't bring to your house? Everyone has to be very mindful of any fragrances they may bring in with them. It's amazing how little will set me off.

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you're happy to see? It's usually just our immediate family any more, and not even all of them, so we're happy to see them. It was a joy to get together with aunts and uncles and cousins on my mother's side of the family when I was a kid. (We hardly ever saw my dad's side of the family, except during summer vacations.)

13. What's your absolute favorite thing on the menu? I think I would have to agree with Freebird on this one: the pumpkin pie! Or maybe the stuffing... either variety! It used to be my mother's cranberry salad but I can't eat most of those ingredients these days.

14. What are you thankful for this year? So many things! First of all, that we are able to afford the more expensive organic foods that my body now requires. I'm grateful for a cozy little home in which to gather our family together. I'm grateful for the two darling little granddaughters we already have and the two that are on the way. And, among other things, I am grateful for the new friends I feel I've made in keeping this blog. I truly appreciate those who take the time to leave comments and those who give me support when I'm feeling less than confident or even unwell. I am also grateful for those who may not leave comments but think of me on occasion or remember me in their prayers.

And now it's your turn! If you feel inclined to play along be sure to let me know so I can swing by and see what you have to say. :- )

Flannel Birdies!

We've had sunshine the last couple of days. And then this morning the dark clouds and the rain were back. {sigh} I wish I could somehow change my thought processes so that I could look outside and enjoy being cozy inside instead of feeling oppressed and depressed by the weather.

On a happier note, I believe I am done swapping out the dark ties on my Lincoln Logs quilt. I didn't take all of them out, but enough to make their presence less noticeable.

I still have to figure out what I'm going to use to bind this beast. It will definitely be a regular cotton, not flannel. Before I put the flannel away I couldn't resist the urge to try making a couple of birds out of the littlest scraps. I like them!

They still need eyes and hanging loops.

I also sewed up this postcard foundation.

I've signed up to participate in the 2010 Bead Journal Project and thought I might warm those muscles up by making a postcard a month between now and when the Project officially begins in January. If you're interested in the Project you can see what others have been doing here. There's still time to sign up too!

Flannel Finish

The preemie quilt is done. The white print stands out rather a lot but I really wanted to include those horses running across the landscape. If I hadn't been so focused on getting the thing put together I might have taken the time to try tea dying those two strips. Ah well, it is what it is.


Of course I still have blocks and scraps and strips left over. At this point I think I'm just going to put them all away somehow so I can move on to other things. I could probably make flannel quilts in a variety of small sizes for the next six months before I used up my stash. Well, maybe not. Some of the flannel I have is not up to my current standards for utility quilts. Back in the day I would buy flannel shirts at the thrift shop to cut up and use in my quilts. In the years since then I have learned from sad experience that you have to be fairly discerning when recycling fabric. Some of those yummy plaids are too thin to last through very many washings.

This is the view from our back porch these days:

Those are some of the members of our local murder of crows in the tree. A moment or two sooner and I would have had the whole group in the shot. Notice the color of the sky. And this is after I brightened it up with my photo editing program! (For some reason our camera seems to take dark pictures.) This is the color we will be living with for the next four months or so. That's the price we gotta pay for the beauty we enjoy the rest of the year I guess.

This morning we had a sunbreak. See that hole of blue in the cloud cover? Once again, if I'd been a bit quicker I might have been able to capture the sunshine.

As it turned out I was lucky to get what I did. This is what that spot looked like just a few minutes later:

So much for sunshine for today! Guess I'll have to go create my own somehow. ;- )

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I read about this on The Corvidarium and just had to check it out. Truly cute clothes for children; not the usual run-of-the-mill stuff you see in the stores here in the States. Best of all they're giving away a $100 gift card!
Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!