More quilting done

I finished quilting these two pillow covers.  I was taking them off the machine when the owner knocked on my door.  That was cutting it really close on finishing.  If they weren't finished the customer would not have minded.... but I would.  I like to keep my promises.  No pictures of the quilting but it was the same designs as the quilt. 

I loaded the next quilt on the machine ready for stabilizing it today.  Then I tried working on my helpful hints blog for awhile.  I'm creating "pages" with links on them for the different step by step posts and making those into printable pages.  I kept getting this message.... over and over and over again.  It got frustrating enough that I just quit.  Decided some house cleaning and laundry might be a little less stressful than dealing with a cranky internet. 

Later I sat on the porch and looked at the fall colors for a while.  In just a few days the trees will be naked again and really cold weather is just around the corner. I cleaned out the square foot garden on the side of my house.  Nothing but lots of tomato vines left so it wasn't a really big chore.  I think my garden was successful enough for not having done any for a very long time.  I will add a couple more small beds for next year. 

Today will be filled with cooking bread, cleaning the kitchen, mopping floors, and making lists of what I want to accomplish during my holiday break..... whenever it starts.  For the first time in many years, this time of year is 'quilting stress' free.  I'm not working 16 hours a day and I'm not rushing around like a mad woman.  I'm actually cooking instead of popping something into the microwave to eat a bite in between rows of quilting.  I do miss the quilting income because paying bills is much harder; but, the freedom from stress is worth more than all the money I could have earned. 

On point quilt

This is the next quilt going on the machine.  It's an on point set quilt with special issues.  I'm going to be doing some posts on my helpful hints blog about dealing with the special issues of on point quilts.  I realized I had very few posts on that blog about quilting hints.  I kinda got fully involved with frugal foods and other stuff then neglected quilt or sewing posts.  Later I hope to do more posts about dealing with issue quilts, my backward piecing techniques, and some other sewing stuff.  If you want to follow the posts about this quilt just click on the link on the side bar. 

I'll still be posting how I'm progressing on this quilt on this blog.  I plan hope to make some changes to all three blogs over the holiday break.... after all the customer quilts are finished for the year.  I'm going to put links into pages at the top where everything will be easier to find.

Over the weekend I worked some more on my window quilts.  I sewed the bar holders and the cabone rings into place.  Next will be attaching the strings to raise and lower them.  One step closer to getting those darned window quilts installed.  Thank goodness it hasn't gotten really cold yet.  I've still got a little time. 

I planning hoping to do quite a bit of organizing over the holiday break too.   It's been too long since I actually did any organizing of my craft stuff.  It's hard to be creative when I can't find the one thing I need.  You know the one thing that is perfect for the next step but it's hidden underneath all the other one things I wasn't able to find several days ago for the other craft.  We all know about that don't we.  Those things that tend to hide from us until we are busy with something else, then they pop up to be right in view.  Strange but they weren't there the other day when I was looking for them.  Everything needs a home.  I'm going to do my best to find them one.

Wild knitted socks

Has anyone seen the wild color socks on Melody's blog?  (Tuesday, October 12) The mis-matched ones, (with orange and purple at the foot) look just like my kind of socks!  She's making knitted items and giving them away to her readers. I would love to have those socks but I'm too shy to ask for them. 

I got the borders of the current quilt finished.  This is how it looked a few days ago.

This is after I did the feathers on the two sides.

This is after I did the lines between the two feathers.

This is after the first inside border is done and I'm working on the second inside border.  Notice the little fullness spot on the left next to the setting triangle?  That was my target spot for taking all the pictures.

After the second inside border is done.  See how the fullness is being worked in so far?  Those are not pleats or tucks, they are just extra fullness.

Before the third inside border is done. 

After I got it finished.  There is only one tiny tuck at the target spot.

Here is how it all looks now.  I didn't do a stitch in the ditch between the inside borders when I was stabilizing the quilt.  I only did beside the widest outside border and next to the setting triangles.  Now that the quilting is done I'll go back and stitch in the ditch between those borders which will smooth out the last of the extra fullness.  The part that looks like tucks in the photo but really aren't. 

This is the design I've chosen for the large open areas of the quilt.

One of these feathers will be on the setting triangles.  I haven't decided which one yet.  It will be V shaped though.

I won't be quilting today.  I've got two bushel of greens to clean, cut up, blanch, and put into the freezer before Ladybug arrives later today. 

Semi-retired?

My weekend was filled with non-quilting things that really needed getting done.  I had an abundance of eggs to deal with thanks to a generous neighbor.  I froze some and dehydrated some.

I had some boxes of cereal that I decided to grind up with my new grinder attachment.  Now I have cereal crumbs that can be used as extenders in recipes.  I can also use these as coating mixes just like using bread crumbs.  One is sweet and the other is savory. 

Next there was the abundance of cheese getting close to the use by date.  I froze some and started dehydrating some. 

Hmm.... more food that needed to be preserved.  I dehydrated some and froze some onions that were starting to show signs of softening.

Decided that I would need bread this week.  Made a couple of loaves.   Made a bread pudding too.  Then made 6 pie crusts to put into the freezer.  Hmm... did I tell ya I love the new mixer?  How on earth did I get along without it for so many years?  Geeze, now I'm spoiled.

Then I worked on the window quilts some more.  I got all the edges finished.  I decided there was no need for a regular quilt binding.  Functional is better than fancy.  These are not contest quilts.... they are quilts to keep my windows warm.  My house doesn't care if the quilt edges are zig-zagged closed.  The weather is getting closer to winter.  I need these finished and installed in the next week or two. 

I do have the next quilt on the machine.  Today I will get it stabilized and decide on a quilting design.  Giggle.... yes, sometimes it does seem like I'm still quilting full time instead of semi-retired.  This time of year the machine quilter lists grow more silent because the professional quilters are in full swing with the Christmas rush.  Many of those won't have time for doing what I've done over the weekend.  A couple of years ago I would have given away or thrown away the eggs, cheese, and onions because there simply wouldn't be enough time to deal with them this time of year.  I would never have had the time to bake my own bread unless it was with the bread machine.  The customer quilts would take first priority over life happenings.  Only another professional machine quilter can understand the need for finishing just one more quilt, to make just one more customer happy before Christmas.  AND..... how it feels to be working Christmas Eve so the last of the quilts can be picked up for giving as gifts the next day while your own family is having fun without you.  For me.... never again.  Yes, I am semi-retired.  I have time for life again.  I sincerely hope you have time for life too.

Daughter feels better now

A little homemade chicken soup and some rest works every time.  So here's the next finished quilt. 

Outlined all the applique with clear thread.  Yes, I did travel from the vine to the little berries.  This give the illusion of a stem attaching the berries and leaves to the vine without distracting from the simple design.

Line dancing on the squares.

A view from the back.  I used a slight green thread so it shows up better on the back.  Now you can see how the vine berries and leaves look attached.  I'll be putting the next quilt on the machine today.  It's a very large quilt.  I'm hoping it actually fits on the machine.

The sewer company finally got around to washing out the sewer with water.  No rain, lots of neighborhood flushing, add in hot weather and the sewer had gotten pretty rank smelling.  Having a sewer street grate with holes for ventilation in front of my house made for very unpleasant sitting on the porch time.  Sometimes it  makes a smell inside the house too.  Very embarrassing!

The food fairies were here again.  I still don't know who is leaving the foods.  I suspect it's a neighbor that goes to the food bank regularly.  These are probably foods she has been given and doesn't really want.  At the rate food is being left for me by the food fairies.... I won't need any groceries for a very long time.

Four more pounds of rice, more peanut butter, and more cereal.  Gosh, I've got to find some new recipes for those.  I can't see wasting any of this food and at the same time there are only so many peanut butter sandwiches, stir fry, and bowls of cereal one person can eat a month.  I also get those items in the commodity box every month.  Don't worry, I've a bunch of recipe books to help.

Today is a day for cooking, cleaning, crafting, and studying..... after I get that quilt on the machine. 

This one now finished

Well I have another quilt finished.  It will definitely need blocking. 

This is the background design. 

In case you can't see it, here's what it looks like drawn out on wax paper.  I know it looks like a lot of work for stitching that won't show very much.  That's ok.  I wanted it to have texture and a little surprise when someone looks closer. 

The flower in the center.  There was nothing I could do to the very center of the flower.  It will need to be sewn by hand to hold it down.  I'll leave that for the owner to do.

The leafy looking part. 

The border designs.

Here they are drawn out on wax paper so you can see it a little better.

Simple, yet enough to give texture without overwhelming the top design.

The food fairies have been here again.  Who is it?  I still don't know.  This was left on the porch when I wasn't looking.  Clam chowder.  I'm not sure I like clam chowder.  I've never eaten it but I'm willing to try it anyway.  I'll save it for a cold day when warm soup will be nice.  The bagels went into the freezer.  I may need to find a recipe using these instead of eating them as just bagels. 

I have the next quilt on the machine but I may not get a chance to work on it for a couple of days.  My daughter is now sick.  I may be babying her through it and seeing after Ladybug.  I have chicken on the stove for some home made chicken soup.

About the bread

This is the quilt currently on the machine.  I've done the stitch in the ditch around all the pieces to stabilize it.  There are some places where the fabric is way too thick to stitch around.  I haven't figured out what design to use for the border triangles yet.  I've started doing the background design even though it won't be very visible when finished.  It's more for texture. 

I had to stop about midway through the day to go get my commodities foods.  These really do help with my food budget except sometimes it's more than I can eat in a month.  I give the excess to someone I know can use it too but doesn't qualify to get commodities.

Of course, when my brother takes me to get the commodities we stop by the thrift store only a couple of blocks away.  I found a couple of things I could use.  I'd thought about dehydrating some eggs which requires a non-stick skillet to prepare them.  I found a decent skillet I can use and it only cost a dollar because everything was 50 percent off for the day.  I found a hand mixer to have here in case the power is out and I still want to mix up something.  If the electric is off, I can still cook because I have a gas stove.  We never know when a storm may knock out our power. 

I got a spoon, a french fry cutter, and the cutest Ladybug computer mouse.  Everything together cost only 3.75 which wasn't bad at all.  About the bread I baked.  I remembered that back in the days when I baked bread regularly, I used mashed potatoes in the recipe.  The mashed potatoes is what keeps the crust soft.  Well anyway, I did an internet search for a bread recipe using potatoes.  I came across this site in a round about way.  I first found a YouTube video of someone baking bread and followed it back to the site.  It's called Fun with food storage written by a member of the LDS church.   

I spent quite awhile looking at the site.  I like her site because the lady does a lot of the things that are similar to my desired way of life.  Not the religious part but the organized, scratch cooking, frugal thinking part.  Her site has sort of updated versions of what many of us cooked back in the 1960s and 1970s.  What's old is new again.  It's refreshing to see young people doing the things I've long ago forgotten how to do and want to learn to do again. 

Monday already?

 On Wednesday afternoon I was starting to feel kind of yucky.  Thursday and Friday I spent in bed with a sort of cold or allergy like symptoms.  Headache, muscle aches, sneezing, watery itchy eyes, and just feeling really tired. 

Saturday was the big yard sale at my daughter's house.  That was a big flop.  Lots of yard sales, lots of people out shopping, no one was really buying anything.  Most just looked and went to the next house where they looked and moved on again.  I made a whopping 75 cents and my daughter got about twenty dollars.  You know the economy is bad when even yard sales don't do much in sales.  Especially kids clothes. 

Yesterday I felt well enough to bake a couple of loaves of bread.  No bread machine this time.  Good old fashioned kneading by hand.... well almost.  The mixing was done with my Kitchen aide and the dough hook.  Yea!  I love that machine.  I finished the kneading after the mixing was done.  These loaves are truly a whole lot different than bread made in a bread machine.  These turned out as light and fluffy as store bought.  Bread baked in a machine has a hard crust but these don't.  I think I'll be developing some arm muscles before long.  I just know I'm gonna be making more bread this way.

Of course I had to eat some for supper.  Then the rest got sliced and put away.  One loaf for the freezer.  It's hard to tell from the photo but these loaves are smaller than a normal loaf.  That's because there's only me so a large loaf is not necessary.  I cut a one loaf recipe in half after kneading so it would make two smaller loaves. 

Then I made two meat loaves.  One for dinner, one for the freezer.  I've rested and feel much better.  Today I hope to answer some emails, put away the leftover yard sale stuff, then get back onto the quilting machine for the rest of the day. 

Window quilts quilted

I finished quilting 12 window quilts.  This is a photo of 9 of them before the sun went down and I lost the natural light.  I seem to take better photos when using natural light.

Now I need to finish the edges and install them.  Why white fabric instead of pretty colors?  Well, as I get older I find I need more light to see.  White reflects light.  That's why I have white walls in the studio. 

I seemed to have started a craving for pizza with the pizza picture.  Hmm..... maybe it's the time of year for pizza cravings.  Changes in the weather do trigger thoughts of certain foods. 

Now that I've got the window quilts quilted, I need to get a customer quilt on the machine for today. 

Busy day

I decided to give the bread a try for supper last evening thanks to the comment from RNMOM.  It looks like more stuff on the bread than it actually was.  (fat bread)  Not too bad.  Not something I would pay such a high price for though. 

For a good part of yesterday I sorted, inventoried, and boxed up most of my canned foods.  It's all going to my daughter's house.  We are sharing what we have in our grocery stock.  I have the freezer for our frozen foods, she has the storage room for everything else.  Every couple of weeks I'll choose what I need from her house and she will choose what she needs from the freezer. 

After that, I decided to take the time necessary to cut the pieces for my window quilts.  Winter is not far away.  I'm determined not to let another winter pass by without getting the window quilts finished.  It's been too long already.  Some readers may not know that I used to have quilts on all my windows.  From the first year we lived in this house, it had window quilts.  I took them down to wash and they completely fell apart.  They had dry rotted from the sun. That was 4 or 5 years ago.... maybe longer. 

Hmm.... while I was busy cutting fabric, might as well cut the pieces to make myself some bed sheets and pillow cases as well.  I plan to make more sheets later using more colorful fabrics.  It's a great way to use up some of the stash fabrics. 

I know, I know, I should be getting another customer quilt finished but this is important too.  I can't keep my creative mind working on a customer quilt when my mind is cluttered up with thoughts of things that need to get done before cold weather.  Hmm.... must get started.  It won't get done if I'm sitting type-talking when I should be working.

Left at my door

Yesterday was shopping day.  My SIL has changed her way of shopping again.  Instead of every other week, now it's once a month.  When I got home there was a box of food setting on the porch in front of my door.  I haven't a clue where it came from.

Inside were some interesting things.  Lots of bread stuff and one is this strange looking bread.  I don't know what it is.... but at around $4 a pound I can't see me not using it.  There are some recipe suggestions so I may use one of them.  Sure hope it freezes well because that's where it went.  The expiration date was the 13th.  I didn't see any signs of mold on it. 

There was also this.  I thought goodie!  Chicken gravy that doesn't need to be cooked.  It's a very small package so I thought it would be neat for a quick meal.  Then I read the directions.  It makes a half gallon that isn't gravy at all.   It's what's called white sauce for chicken.  It's still gravy to me though.  And, yes, it does need to be heated after mixing.  It just doesn't need to be boiled.  Looks like it might have come from a restaurant supply place or somewhere similar.  It would be great for a large family.  I'm only me.  It's gonna be a challenge to figure out what to do with a half gallon of white sauce all at one time.

This only adds to the mystery of who could have left it for me.  I don't know anyone that works in a restaurant or buys from a supply house either.  My grandmother always told me that when someone likes you, they feed you.  The better the food you are fed, the better you are liked.  Well some person likes me because they left me food.  Since it wasn't cooked...... what does that say about how much I'm liked by this person?  I sure wish Ma Ma was still here so I could ask her.

Busy weekend

Friday and Saturday were days filled with sorting and organizing papers; like my greeting cards and this address file.

Sunday afternoon was spent creating a pattern for me to make my own bras from t-shirt scraps and quilting stash. 

I have the pattern done and made one sample to test for fit.  It's not completely finished.  There are only a couple of adjustments to make in the pattern and I'm ready to make some bras.  I plan to do a tutorial on my helpful hints blog as soon as I find time.  (Does anyone know where Mr. time is hiding?)  I need time for cutting fabric and sewing so I can take photos of the process then write the directions.  What do you think.... pretty colorful huh?

Yesterday I got back onto the quilting machine.   I got a little over half way finished with the quilt.  There's lots of stops and starts when doing the background design of cross stitched quilts.  I should be able to get pretty close to finishing this one today before Ladybug gets here. 

I feel as if I'm moving at a snail's pace most days even though I'm getting stuff done.  I guess it's because in the past my days were filled with quilting and little else.  Now that I'm not finishing one or two quilts a day, time feels different.  It's hard to describe the feeling.  I feel as if I should be producing more quilting work and at the same time I feel good when I accomplish something other than quilting work.  Maybe I'm just weird.