To-Do-Tuesday: September 1, 2020

How did it get to be September already?

Today is To-Do-Tuesday when bloggers post their goals for the coming week.  It's hosted by dear Roseanne and you can check out more posts of inspiration here.

I haven't been doing much sewing but spending as much time in the garden as possible.  So my goals remain pretty much the same as two weeks ago.  

My scrap quilt blocks are finished and I'm hoping to get these assembled into a top this week.  It's my only sewing goal this week because work on the garden continues.

Today is baking day and it's a big week for making chocolate zucchini bread.  It's really more of a cake than a bread but the family goes nuts for it.  Last week I made my husband's gluten free loaves:  

I'll probably be baking loaves of this for most of the week.  My favorite recipe is from allrecipes.com and is "Chocolate Zucchini Bread II".  This bread freezes wonderfully and I like keeping a couple of loaves for later in the winter.

Have a safe and happy week! 

I Like Thursdays: August 27, 2020

Good morning!  Today is I Like Thursday!  Hosted by LeeAnna, we try to fill the internet with positive energy!

My prayers go out to all those impacted by Hurricanes this week.  

Today I like that I know what day it is.  I totally missed "To-Do-Tuesday" (sorry Roseanne).  When Brad is self-isolating, we tend to lose track of time.  I haven't sewn at all this past week.  I've been gardening (mostly watering) and assessing what needs to be changed.  I rearranged this border yesterday because the temperature was cool enough.

I'm reevaluating the garden for the moves that need to be made in the fall.  The small hydrangea bush under the window has been struggling because of too much sun.  So that will need to be moved.  Shade is scarce in the back garden so I cleared a space that I hope will be more beneficial.

I like clean bird baths!  My husband scrubbed this one out yesterday and it looks almost brand new! Thanks hubby!

I like second blooms.  Sometimes they are unexpected and sweet gifts of the garden!

That's all I have to report today.  Soon enough it will be cool to be outside for very long and I'm savoring the fresh air while I can!  

Have a safe and happy day!

I Like Thursdays: August 19, 2020

My blogging friends and I post positive things on the internet on Thursdays, thanks to our sweet hostess LeeAnna.  Be sure to check out the other bloggers as well for some happy thoughts and inspiration!  Here are things I like and love!

Tuesday was the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. I have loved studying and writing about the suffragists and all the wonderful women and men I met on my Pennsylvania Piecemaker blog!  Check out the blog to see the quilts that five women made in honor of the centennial (here)! 

Next week I'll be moving onto a new theme on that blog:  "Blooming Where We're Planted."  It will feature a wide variety of features on various topics, mostly sewing themed, inspiring women, coping, and the creative process.  It seems like these days we all need some diversions and positive energy.  Join us if this sounds like a dose of happiness that you need.

I have found that the Democratic Convention is the best thing on tv this week.  The message is of hope and unity and the America that I grew up believing in.

In the garden:  I love that the cayenne pepper is keeping the groundhogs and squirrels at bay!  Now we get nightly visits from our local cat population!

Last weekend the weather was good and I made a garden border more senior friendly by reducing it's space.  Pulled out a lot of plants, built a wall around the old bed (which is taller than it looks on the photo, I set down a lot of mulch).  We pulled out some 1960s furniture we bought at a flea market before the pandemic.  Hubby is going to strip and repaint them.  It will be a nice seating area

I like starting flowers from seeds.  This year I planted a new marigold called Mission Giant Yellow and they finally began blooming this week!  I love the texture of these marigolds!  We call them "Fuzzy Wuzzies"!

The weather had been better and this girl and I have been going for more walks!  

Have a safe and happy day friends!

To-Do-Tuesday: August 18, 2020

It's To-Do-Tuesday and many of us bloggers like to list goals that we hope to accomplish during the next week.  This party is hosted by our friend Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us.  Be sure to visit her blog and the other bloggers that participate.

The weather broke and I spent more time working in the garden than sewing.  Last week I filled 5 garbage cans with weeds and I have another 3 full this week.  It had just been too hot to do any work in the garden and I'm grateful for the few days of tolerable temperatures.  

In a weird turn-about, I actually finished a goal from two weeks ago and finished Block 3 of my embroidered quilt.  I am now working on Block 4.

Last Week's Goal:

1-Get more and better sleep:  It's a battle but I am making an effort to get better rest, even if it means taking a nap.  Almost everyone I spoke to last week is having similar sleep problems.  It's the pandemic and a lot of stressful news.  Sleep is important if we are going to stay healthy and for me, it means sewing better so I don't have to undo what I've stitched.  How are your sleep patterns these days?

2-Prepare tops for the quilter:  Done!  

3-Complete scrap quilt blocks:  Half-Done!

Next week's goals:

1-Take tops to the quilter.

2-Complete more of the scrap quilt blocks.

3-Work on Block 4 of the embroidered quilt.

The goals are simple.  Life is busy these days so I get done what I get done.

Have a safe and happy day!

I like Thursdays: August 13, 2020

Good morning!  It's "I like Thursday" and time to post positive posts!  Please visit LeeAnna for more inspirational posts!

Yesterday morning I went out to pick up the newspaper in my bathrobe and saw about 6 hummingbirds flitting around our peegee hydrangea tree!  I couldn't get a photo of them.  I knew that once I went into the house I would have spooked them.  Sometimes it's just nice to sit tight and enjoy nature anyway!

Happy the dog came to visit Scout last week and that made her day.  The two dogs get along so well and Happy's name is truly fitting.  He's a happy and carefree dog and he never seems to want to leave our garden!

My niece Christina has taken up sewing and it is wonderful!  I'm sending her a box of fabric.  I picked up a bunch of different things for her when I cleaned the sewing room!

I love this combination of magenta butterfly bush flowers and russian sage.  It's not a great photo but I will say it pleases me whenever I see it!

I like 8 lbs. of Cayenne Pepper.  YES EIGHT POUNDS!  It was bad enough when the squirrels were eating our tomatoes but we have a groundhog that enters our garden (day and night) and does some real damage.  My brother (who lives down the street) has lost his entire crop of tomatoes and my neighbor next door isn't doing well either.  I'm entertaining my neighbors and friends with our war on groundhogs and I read that Cayenne repels groundhogs or squirrels.  So I ordered the peppper in bulk.  I've used up one 4 lb container so far but that is because I gave jars of it to my neighbors and family.  It's only if it rains or the pepper gets wet (tomatoes do require watering) that the groundhogs return.

I can't have a groundhog in my garden because I know Scout will go after it and I don't want her hurt.  She does a really good job of letting me know when we had intruders in the garden and yesterday showed me a new entrance the groundhog used (I peppered the old entrance).  

Good dog!

Have a safe and happy day!

To-Do-Tuesday: August 11, 2020

Well it's time for To-Do-Tuesday and post goals that we hope to achieve in the coming week.  Sponsored by our dear friend Roseanne, be sure to visit her and the other participants for inspiration!

It was a bust of a week for me.  I don't think I've wrapped my head around everything yet and joke that I have pandemic brain.  Did you ever have one of those weeks?  First there was the Isaias and the flooding and the wet basement.  The heat was and is awful and was best summarized by our local weather report:

And then of course, my husband got sent out again to another Covid spiking state.  It's been a lot of stress.

I had three goals last week and achieved only one:

1.  Clean the sewing room!  Done!!!

2. Finish the blocks for the scrap  quilt:  Not done and what was done has to be ripped out as I sewed the wrong side of the block, nice eh?  It was a ripping kind of week.  I worked on block 3 of my embroidered quilt and had to rip stitches out of that one too.

3.  Prepare some tops for the machine quilter, also not done.  So next week's goals are:

1- Get more and better sleep, it may help my sewing!

2- Prepare tops for the quilter

3-Complete the scrap quilt blocks.

It seems like most of the country is just wilting with heat waves right now.  Stay cool and safe and have a great week!

I Like Thursday: August 6, 2020

Well it's Thursday and today me and my blogging buddies fill our corner of the internet with positive posts!  Our hostess is LeeAnna, be sure to check out other blogs for inspiration!

I'm grateful that my friends and family made it through Isaias safely.  We had a lot of flooding and most of our surrounding roads had to be closed off.  The flooding was worse than Superstorm Sandy and although we had high winds for a while the winds didn't do as much damage as Sandy had.  Water rescues had to be done in our neighborhood and down the hill where my brother lived, he saw parked cars getting swept up in the flood. It will be a while until many of our roads are open.  

The lake is usually a few feet behind the trees in the foreground.

We only lost power, had flooding in the basement, and I still can't face cleaning up the garden.  But it could have been so much worse.

Caught in the act!

  We now have a groundhog coming into the garden to eat our tomatoes.  He did a lot of damage to my flowers and tomatoes.  These photos of our wildlife are entertaining us and our neighbors; the neighbors think my ongoing war with the groundhog is hilarious.  This week I scattered garlic cloves around the tomatoes.   Apparently garlic is supposed to repel groundhogs as well as vampires.  Judging by last night's visitor, I would say that garlic doesn't repel Pepe La Pew:

I like a clean sewing room.

Until the flooding of the basement began and we lost power, I spent time cleaning up the sewing room.  I finished yesterday morning.  

 

I don't have much else to report this week.  I'm just grateful that we have had another safe and healthy week.

Have a safe and happy day!

To-Do-Tuesday: August 4, 2020

Good morning!  I hope you are all safe if you are along the East Coast and dealing with Hurricane Isaias!  Today is "To-Do-Tuesday" and time to post goals for the next week!  It is hosted by Roseanne and be sure to visit her blog for more inspiration!

I did so-so with my goals for last week, mostly because I got side tracked.

1-Finish block 3 of the embroidered quilt:  Not done.  I've had to change the drawing a few times and that has held me up.

2-Finish the beach quilt top:  Done!    

3-Finish Lavender Sachets:  Not done.  This is an outdoor project and it was just too humid this past week.  I got some of the flowers off the stem yesterday when it was cooler but it's not as far as I would have liked.

And that brings me to next week's goals:

I got sidetracked because as I worked on the beach quilt, I saved all the scraps 2.5 inches or bigger.  

So instead of finishing the rest of my goals, I just started making 4 patches. 

I call making a scrap quilt immediately after a finished project, "good to the last drop quilts".  I just can't embrace cleaning up the scraps and finding a place for those pieces.  I wasn't sure what to do with these but then I remembered a similar piece made by Sarah at "Confessions of a Fabric Addict" after she finished a Christmas quilt (see here).  So I'm going with that layout, partly because I can use up more fat quarters for the frames.

Next week's goals:

1- Clean up the sewing room.  It's time.  I finished about 5 tops this past month and it's needed.  I can't function well in a disorderly workspace.  Hopefully I will finish that today or tomorrow.

2-Finish the four patch blocks (above).

3-Prepare some more tops for the quilter.

Have a safe and happy day!

Quilt Fever

I was reading the news feed on my tablet yesterday when this story appeared.  It's about a new documentary about quilting (actually about Paducah) and it's hilarious to see how others perceive quilters.    Here's the link.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/slow-down-and-bask-in-quilt-fever-and-the-charmingly-weird-academy-awards-of-quilting

But of course I was curious and wanted to see the film.  It was free on PBS so here it is.  The film is called Quilt Fever and I have to admit, I got choked up watching it.   It also won some awards! Anyway, enjoy it!  It's only 16 minutes long.

Here's the link.

https://www.pbs.org/filmfestival/films/quilt-fever

Enjoy and have a safe and happy day!