Sunday Sundry 6-4-17

It's a gorgeous day in this neck of the woods.  I have mixed feelings about sitting here in front of the screen when it's so nice outside, but here I am, letting my oatmeal and blueberries digest.  There will surely be time enough to soak up some sun later on, until either the rising temps outside or self-made in my own internal furnace (being a certain age) kick in, and I run for the AC.

Hot and cold, hot and cold.  My nights often go like this:  2:45 a.m. - kick blanket off.  2:50 a.m. - sheet off.  3:00 a.m. - sheet on but leg out.  3:05 a.m. - blanket on but arm out.  3:10 a.m. - arm in, blanket pulled up to neck.  3:30 - kick blanket off...and the cycle repeats.  All the while, the house is a steady 71 degrees, so it's just me and what's left of my hormones in a quasi-sonambulistic rodeo of the bedclothes.

Somehow, after a couple go-rounds, I do sleep pretty decently, so it works out, I guess.

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What I'm listening to on my daily walk:  The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy.

Over the past summer or two, I've read/listened to Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure.  I've yet to read The Mayor of Casterbridge (and others), but they'll have their turn.

These Victorian-era stories with characters set in the English countryside so lushly described by Hardy are the perfect companions on a summer walk.  I download the chapters free from HERE.  The narrator, Tadhg Hynes, is excellent.  I have searched for other books he has narrated and given them a listen as well, including David Copperfield last summer.

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On Memorial Day, we celebrated my dad's 85th birthday with a cookout and gathering of about 40 people, family and friends.  He's been pretty cooped up for the past five months recovering from his ankle fracture, so he especially enjoyed the day. 

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In the sewing room, I made a back for the bonus HST quilt, which you can see on the design wall here, to the left of the quilt top.  I used what was left of the FQ bundle of solids for it.

Also worked on making a sample of a hobo/hippy bag that my niece has commissioned me to make as a gift for a friend of hers.  She wants a bare tree appliqued on the bag, and I wanted to see how that was going to work.  

I just used some random fabric I had on hand for the bag exterior and interior.  It didn't much matter what that looked like, as I was mainly interested in testing the applique.

I used the Crafted Applique technique, and it turned out great!  I didn't back the exterior bag fabric with interfacing or stabilizer, just starched it, like Lara suggests in her book.  I prepared the green fabric, cut out the tree shape, pressed and stitched it down, then went over the trunk and branches with some additional stitching.  I'm very happy with how it came out and have no qualms about making the actual bag with whatever fabric my niece selects (bag tutorial here).

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A few weeks ago, a friend asked me to make her a little zipper pouch for her purse.  She picked the general color scheme and I made this for her, using this tutorial.

We worked a trade.  She got a little clutch, and I got a month's worth of farm fresh, free-range eggs from her chickens.  What a sweet deal!