Sunday Sundry 7-4-2021

This episode of Sunday Sundry runs the gamut, from half-square triangles to hand surgery on the horizon.  Let's have at it!

Little Farmer Baby Quilt

I'm calling this small quilt "Little Farmer."  It's made from bonus half-square triangles left over from the County Fair quilt—and there were a LOT of them—starting with the largest, which went into the center pinwheels, to the smallest, which made the mini plaid pinwheels in the outer border.

It'll be around 36 inches square when it's finished.  It could be a wall hanging or a large table topper, I suppose, but I think I'll donate it as a baby quilt.  

Garage Sale Haul

We stopped at a rummage sale a week or so ago as we were out walking.  I saw a box full of patterns that looked interesting, but because it was too hot to poke through them all, I offered five bucks for the whole lot.  The woman running the sale accepted and helped me pack them all into an oversized shopping bag.  My hubby raised an eyebrow and muttered under his breath (imagining he'd be the one to lug the bag home), but it was totally worth it (and I carried it myself!).

I still haven't looked at them all in detail to see what's all there, but I'll have some down time to do that soon, because...

A Handy Solution

I will be having surgery this week to remove some kind of cysts or growths on my left pinky.  I've had them for a year and a half or so, but in the past few months they've started to distort my finger to the point that I can't fully extend it anymore.  They don't hurt; they're just hard lumps that have grown to the point they're putting stress on the tendons.

I may be approaching crone status, but I feel like I'm still too young for witchy-looking fingers if it can be helped.  Hopefully, the growths can be removed without further injury to the finger and I'll be able to regain full range of motion in it with some therapy.

The doctor didn't say what the lumps might be, except that it could be "many things," but they'll be sent to pathology and we'll be enlightened from there.

Cutting While the Cutting's Good

In the meantime, anticipating that I may be out of commission for a bit after surgery, I started cutting into 3.5-inch bricks the fabric I had left from making masks during 2020.  It's a wild and crazy bunch, which may not play well together...or maybe they will?  

The plan is to just sew a light and a dark brick together and arrange them in a scrappy zigzag or rail fence way.  I hope to be able to sew something simple as that while the finger heals.

Gardening and Grandma

My flower garden is nothing to write home about at the moment, but the coral bells plant next to the foundation is going gonzo this year!  

That thing never did much when I had it in the flower garden, so a few years ago I dug it out and plopped it in the gravel next to the house.  I had seen someone's coral bells doing well in what seemed like a hot and dry area like that, so I gave it a shot and then pretty much ignored it except to squirt it with the hose now and then.  It took awhile, but this year it's never looked better!  

Grandma Gatewood's Walk is a book I started reading today and so far I really like it.  I can't remember if I saw it on somebody's blog or if it was mentioned in a podcast, but it sounded like something I'd enjoy.  Our local library happened to have a copy, so now I've got a good read for this week.

I've also started Nothing Daunted by Dorothy Wickenden, which was another book mentioned by a fellow blogger recently that sounded interesting, and I like that too. 

I've been into pioneer stories this summer.  I listened to the audiobook version of The Pioneers by David McCullough, about the settling of the wilderness north of the Ohio River, as well as Wau-Bun: The Early Day in the Northwest by Juliette Kinzie, first published in 1856, about the early days of my home state.  Nonfiction and historical books are my jam.  Both of these were excellent.

I'm also making my way through the environmentalist classic, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold.  What's on your summer reading list?

Positivity Blocks

Have you heard The Joyful Quilter is having a Positivity Quilt Along Block Drive?  I was going to send her one or two, but just like that I had six...then seven.  I'll be mailing these off to her soon.

They go together fast.  Check out the link for the details and see if you'd like to make a couple.  Block mailing deadline is July 30.

Well, that's it for now, friends.  Hopefully, all goes well this week and I'll see you on the flip side of finger surgery after "taking my lumps."  ;) 

Going Fourth

I hope those of you in the States are having a magnificent 4th of July! It's been a pretty low key holiday for us, and that's just fine.  We did do a little grilling at suppertime, since the weather was not just cooperative but spectacular.  After I get done with this post, I'm looking forward to taking a walk at sunset and enjoying the beautiful evening.

Are you a cloud watcher?  I sure am.  Is there a better word for someone who likes looking at the changing sky?  (No, not an airhead or space cadet, thanks brain.)  We live in a fairly level area but with some gently rolling hills.  My favorite walking route takes me up a couple small hills that are great vantage points for cloud watching or sky-gazing, and, in the fall, noticing the changing colors of foliage.  It's a highlight of my day, strolling along, feeling the breeze or the humidity, as the case may be, the warmth of the sun as it sinks toward the horizon.  Listening to an audiobook or sometimes just the birds...or barking dogs...or the highway...or the lawnmowers...or the Med-Flight helicopter...

Although I haven't blogged for a month, I have taken a lot of pictures.  In general, there hasn't been a whole lot of quilting and sewing, though there has been some.  There are plenty of other things to engage and distract me this time of year.  Here are a few of June's highlights—in alphabetical order, how about that.

Backing - Baking (with Beets!) - Biking - Bird-watching:

Family (Father's Day) - Flora:

Listening:


Mini-Making - Mural Marveling:

 

Planting - Picking:

Quilting:

Reading - Relaxing:

 Watching (Wrestling!):

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.

* * * * *
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.

* * * * *
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. 

* * * * *
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).

* * * * *
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!

Media, Music, and Movies

Read any good books lately?

Dad reading to great-granddaughter Cali on Thanksgiving Day.

I enjoy a good story, but I'm a multitasker, so I tend to listen to a book while I'm sewing, walking, or doing dishes.  

I caught up on a few of the classics this past summer via the collection of free audiobooks available on Loyal Books and Librivox.  These are read by volunteers, and some of the readers are very good, others not so much.  As I discovered a particularly good narrator, I'd see what other books he or she had read and listen to those as well.

Recently, I resubscribed to Audible in a special 99 cents a month, "we want you back" deal.  It was an offer I couldn't refuse.  Especially since I wanted to pick up the audio versions of a couple of the Outlander series books I didn't have yet.  Davina Porter narrates the Outlander audiobooks, and she is a delight, voicing all of the characters in such an authentic, credible way.  With the series on TV, I've started relistening to the first couple of books again.  I've found myself wondering, as I watched the Starz TV series, did it really happen that way in the books?  Some things no, or not exactly, but they are getting the essence of it right and it's been extremely well done so far.

I've also really gotten into podcasts the past couple years.  Some favorites are Serial, Startup, Reply All, Mystery Show, and Surprisingly Awesome (the last four can all be found on gimletmedia.com).  

I could name about a half dozen more  that I regularly listen to, but if I could recommend just one today, it would be Serial.  The second season is in the works and should be starting soon (I hope).  What is Serial about?  From their website: 

Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, and is hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story - a true story - over the course of an entire season. Each season, we'll follow a plot and characters wherever they take us. And we won’t know what happens at the end until we get there, not long before you get there with us. Each week we bring you the next chapter in the story, so it's important to listen to the episodes in order, starting with Episode 1.

I'm not usually a huge mystery or crime drama fan, but the story in Season 1 was so compelling, I was hooked after the first episode.  Apparently, I wasn't the only one to feel that way.  The podcast was so successful, it's going to become a TV series.  If you haven't checked it out already, you can catch up on past episodes online or on iTunes.

In movies, I watched a little-known gem this past week called A Little Chaos.  It's a period piece, or costume drama, about the building of one of the gardens at Versailles.  

Ultimately, it's a romance starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts (yum) as landscape architect Andre Le Notre.  The latter actor is the main reason I rented the movie.  He captured my attention in Far From the Madding Crowd, and I'm catching up his body of work to date.  To my surprise and delight, though, I found out in the first scene that the movie also stars Alan Rickman as King Louis XIV.  Be still my heart!  Alan Rickman could read me the phone book.  Stanley Tucci also has a fun role that gives the film some levity.  I really enjoyed the movie and watched it twice, in fact.

As for music, I heard a new song on the radio yesterday that I really liked.  It's by Tor Miller, called "Carter and Cash."  There's kind of a subtle '80s vibe to it that is pretty cool.  See what you think.
 

It's Monday...It's Miscellany

Overheard at the Flea Market
 "See this hat?" said the woman in charge of the pie booth, pointing to her head, "We Amish and Mennonite do not lie."

I didn't catch what the customer had pressed her about, but I had to chuckle.  Gotta love that Anabaptist sense of humor.

We came home from the flea market with nothing more than a couple pounds of bison from a friendly farmer (who wore a baseball cap, in case you're wondering).

Grateful for the Growing Season
The friendly farmer in my family, a/k/a Dad, has had a good crop of kohlrabi this year.  I think it's my favorite vegetable.

If you've never tasted kohlrabi, it has a mild, cabbage-y flavor, and the texture is kind of like a radish.  I enjoy it peeled, sliced and eaten raw alongside a sandwich for lunch.

The beets have been doing well too.  My favorite way to eat those is in the chocolate beet cake recipe, which I shared last year.  Can you freeze beets, do you know?  I'm wondering if I could just grate and freeze them in Ziplock bags, like you do with zucchini.

Media Musings
We watched Locke starring Tom Hardy last weekend.  I liked it very much, despite its mixed reviews on Redbox.  If you love your action flicks, you may want to pass, but if, like me, you'd like nothing better than to stare at Tom Hardy for a couple hours, then by all means, see it.  I found it fascinating and compelling the whole way through, as the viewer comes along for the ride and eavesdrops on a man trying to keep a handle on various situations threatening to spin his life out of control.

I'm still working my way through the Outlander series of books (in the middle of book five, The Fiery Cross, at the moment), but have taken a short break to read something different.  

A Wilder Rose by Susan Albert is right up my alley.  I loved the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, but on discovering they were, in essence, ghost written/heavily edited by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, I was curious about Rose.  Many years ago, I had read the biography of Rose Wilder Lane, A Ghost in the Little House, and then enjoyed one of Rose's novels, Free Land, after that.

I'm really enjoying A Wilder Rose.  It's been a terrific summer, weather wise, for grabbing some time to read every day out on the deck with my lunch.  I am savoring these days of sunshine and warmth and only wish I could soak it up and store it like a battery for those long winter months ahead...when the deck will look like this again, GAH!

(Okay, it is kinda pretty, I have to admit.  In pictures anyway.)

Palate cleanser/back to reality photos:

This little plant, whose name I forget, is doing well on my semi-shaded front porch.  And the barrel out front is a-blooming with some red and white star-like impatiens I tried this year.  

Note to self:  Forget about planting the begonia in the center of the barrel next year.  It got entirely swallowed up by the impatiens.

How is your summer winding down?  Are you grabbing the gusto of these last days before school and schedules?

Random Thursday 6-5-14

June is one of my favorite months of the year.  We had such a long, drawn out winter here in the Upper Midwest and a fairly cool spring, but now that June has arrived, it feels like a different world. Like when the Wizard of Oz movie changes from black and white to color.  Everything is so lush and verdant green!

My yellow irises opened this week!

Remember getting out of school the first part of June, when it seemed like the summer stretched out before you with so much fresh potential?  If you were like me, you followed your whims for a time.  Sure, there may have been swimming lessons and babysitting jobs, but whenever possible, you slept in 'til late morning, went for walks or bike rides when the spirit moved you, hung out with friends and talked about everything and nothing, hit the tennis ball against the house (and tried not to break the windows), played "horse" basketball (and tried not to break the yard light on the garage), watched Match Game and The Gong Show, walked the dog, painted your nails, pored over Teen Magazine, Glamour, and Cosmo (shhh...), and wrote in your diary in a rainbow of Flair pen colors.  Maybe next month you'd start sewing your back-to-school wardrobe, but not now.  Now there was dreaming to do.

Well, I still sort of feel that way come early June.  Sure, there are things to be done, but they can wait a bit.  This is the time we longed for back in January, February, and March.  No more heavy coats, no navigating snowstorms.  We move about the world more freely and less encumbered.  And now it's here!

Not much sewing has been happening this week, except for piecing together a quilt backing.  But when I'm not working part-time Job #1...

(Working from home, pants are optional.)

or part-time Job #2...

I've been making my way through the third book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.  

I haven't been able to get the audio version for this book from the library, so I am just reading, reading, reading.  It's is a thick novel, and I am not a speed reader, just enjoying the journey page by page.  After that, only five more books to go!  :P

In a way, I miss being able to multitask, i.e., sewing while listening to the audiobook, but then again not.  There is surely nothing wrong with sitting on the deck with a really good book in the glorious month of June.

Of course, it's not all sitting on my duff.  I walk a few miles every day around the neighborhood.  It seems the least I can do for exercise, but I enjoy it especially this time of year, with the birds and blooms, fresh smells on the breeze, the ever changing sky. 

Truth be told, though, I have been lollygagging around on Candy Crush.  It took me a couple weeks, but yesterday I finally beat level 29.  Sure, go ahead and laugh.  

I've never been much of a gamer.  I've never won a game of Scramble with Friends with my daughter yet, either.  (That's the sum total of all the games I play: Two.) I'm getting better, though, and I believe that day will come.

We had a family get together on Memorial Day, also to celebrate my dad's 82nd birthday.  Here are the siblings and I and Dad.

L-R: Darrell, Me, Dad, Nita, Russ

On Monday, Dad lost five trees in a storm, one of which came down right where we were standing for that photo.  Thankfully, the downed trees missed the garage and other outbuildings, but took out his peonies, garden bench, compost barrel, and wheelbarrow.  The garden will need replanting too, as it got washed out in the deluge.  Today the tree guy is coming to cut up the wood.  Sometime later, it'll get chipped into mulch for the path down to the pond.

Darrell and Russ entertained a request by Dad to play Galveston by Glen Campbell. They did mighty fine.

What about you?  How are you enjoying the first bit of summer when you're not sewing?

Linking to Really Random Thursday at Live a Colorful Life.