OPAM

This is the shortest 'work in slow project' I have completed this year. I started the book only a year ago when grandson #4 was born. a project that was supposed to take 2 weeks to make took a year. I blogged about it here and here. Unfortunately this book has a 'loose leaf' kind of 'binding' soooo you could say it is never done 'cause I could certainly add to it if I ever go crazy again and decide it is fun to make messes in the sewing room....you're right of course I'll do that again but not for Austins' book! So, although I'd like to do at least one more page, because I've already given it to him I CAN CALL IT FINISHED IT I WANT TO. (Since I've not managed to finish any other project this month it is important to my mental well being to claim at least one thing finished this month!)

The ribbons on the side concerned me a bit. I love the purple feathers and so does Austin, but how sanitary could they be? Once I got home and could use scraps of my own ribbon I realized how nice it was to use up some odd bits of ribbon and rick rack. Melissa loves rick rack so I added it where I could.

The blackboard is a vinyl type fabric and can easily melt if ironed. Don't ask me how I know.

The brown pocket worked out as a great place to put the chalk and the brown fleece I cut for the eraser. The brown corduroy is a scrap of the baby's father's pants.

This page is made from a felted wool sweater and I traced around a 3 year olds hand in my ward to get it the right size. If I started over I think I would have used a marker for the lettering instead of embroidery, it would have been faster and just fine for the baby.

Uncle Jeffrey

Jeffrey requested the photos with Tyson, since Jimmy was wearing Jeffrey's shirt for pajamas last night. In the first photo he is studying a flag sticker his Great-Aunt Lynn sent him. I remember my Great-Aunts...they were really old. :)

sheets

I signed up to attend my first quilt retreat; it takes place in September.

We're going to a Christian Renewal Center and I was surprised to learn that to cut costs everyone brings their own sheets, blankets, and towels. It made me think that I could do the same when I visit my parents or sisters to make my visit less stressful for them. (Not the blankets though.)

I remember, when visiting my Grandmother with my 4 young children, that I was worried about making extra work for her so we slept in our sleeping bags on top of the mattresses. She wasn't really happy with us doing that though.

I try to strip the beds when we leave or even go so far as to get the laundry started for the sheets; but when we have to get up early and get going for a 24 hour drive home it doesn't always happen. It would be simpler to just bundle up the bedding and do the laundry at home.

stash report

Hey, Judy!

No hiding MY head in shame! I skipped a week but I'm back. I decided these posts were so boring...the one's I'm writing anyway, that I'd do it every other week until my life is less busy.

I still have my grandchildren; 1 is in diapers and I'm trying to potty train! They are both charmers...a lot of the time but not all....

Remember the saying 'spoil your grandchildren then send them back?' Not happening.

In: 1.5 yards- I know you're wondering how I went shopping....I am too. Hancock's is practically next door to Mr. Gatti's Pizza which was the destination for my oldest. We went to Hancock's and he walked over to have lunch with his friends. Hey, they have a grocery cart and I could have at least one fastened down. I found one piece on clearance that I thought would make a great zipper bag. Then I needed to go to the quilt store and they had some fat quarters for .95 . I only bought 2- they were stripes and although I have enough stripes, I think, for my Stripe Quilt, I had to get them.

Out: 3/4's of one yard! I figured a rough estimate for a lined zipper bag is 1/8 of a yard. I've made 6 in the last 3 weeks and hadn't counted them yet. Most are pictured here and here. The sixth one hasn't seen the camera yet...I'm trying to get one for my purse that will hold 3x5 cards and my first effort didn't work...but it's cute.

Year to date:

In: 20.25 yards

Out: 85.75 yards

Our favorite camera quit working so we're unhappy with the camera left for us to use. I can blame that camera for no pictures here. (When actually I'm just too lazy, since blogspot fights with me every time I try to load a picture.)

Dresden Plate

This quilt has a short history: I started quilting years ago and my Mother suggested that I ask my Grandmother for her unfinished wedding ring quilt. The next time I was in Durango, Colorado I did; it was probably 1984 give or take 5 years. She dug around and found it but she also found a stack of Dresden Plates; none were appliqued down, just the plates made. She claimed that she had never seen them before. I thought that her sister; Aunt Edie-the quilter in the family, may have made them. When I showed them to Mom she had no memory of them either.

Recently Mom remembered an old woman that lived near her when she was young that she would visit almost every week. The woman was lonely and she made quilts. Mom admired her quilts and she gave her the Dresden Plates.

I appliqued the Plates to muslin while my 4th child was young...I remember working on it on a short trip we went on to look at canoes and check out a dutch oven cook-off. Later (I mean years later) I pieced it into a quilt.

• 1938? blocks are pieced by unknown quilter
• 1939? Blocks are given to my Mother
• 1984 I received blocks from my Grandmother
• 1988? appliqued to muslin
• 1997-Feb designed sashing and sewed together
• 1997 unsewed the patterned corner squares- left quilt 'holey' for a few years
• 1999-March cut and pieced into the top the muslin corner squares
• 1999-April added the borders
• 2009-??? sure hope the quilting gets done; but I'm thinking about the pattern- that's a DEEP border that will take something interesting. Any ideas?

I'm hoping that seeing the quilt will help Mom remember the piecers name.

My mother is in her 80's; the woman that pieced it was probably in her 80's. It's 2009-at least 70 years in the making. 1939-2009. Could be much older but looking at the fabrics....it looks like 30's fabrics to me.

buttermilk

I decided not long ago to keep fresh buttermilk in the refrigerator all the time. In the past I'd buy it if a recipe called for it; then wait and wait to use it; then Roger would finally drink it, yuk, and then I'd look for it to use. So since I have several recipes that I love fresh buttermilk in I buy it every week now. I just finished making our new buttermilk pancake recipe (this one also had 1/4 cup sour cream, which was free at HEB this week) for the third time since Thursday (my shopping day). The grandkids eat a lot of pancakes and are not hungry for at least an hour.

I also made raspberry syrup. OH my word, I love raspberry syrup. Since I am a lazy bum I did not strain it and there are actual lumps of raspberries occationally. Andrew is the only kid that will eat it and he is very verry careful to not get any seeds or actual berries. In fact his pancake looks like it is slightly sunburned, his portion is so small. On the other hand I have more syrup than pancake.

The pictures are for Angela.

zippers

Here are 4 zipper pouches I made in the last 3 weeks. Each one takes at the most 1/2 hour unless you go crazy trying an experiment. like the red one. I ironed on a freezer paper heart and put soft scrub on it. All of the fabrics had the bleach on it the same amount of time. I also did a reverse print that I threw away; where the heart was the bleached area; it looked horrible.

Now for the quiz; Who did I make these for? I had a specific person in mind while I was sewing; although the heart experiments was just me; the bag and the 'redness' of it wasn't. I have no idea what the recipients will use them for (OK, one I do know). This is against the blog tradition; I'm picturing them and then mailing them; therefore building anticipation... 3 people will be getting a surprise package.... but which 3 of my vast audience?

Hey, I used 4 zippers! And I improved my bag making technique.

Down to 74 zippers; again.

lemonade

Since my niece posted about raspberry lemonade we have many batches. Almost every day gets a new batch made. It takes about 5 minutes and is so good. (We'll have no scurvy HERE!) Most of the batches do not include the raspberries since the boys do not care for them. But we vary the recipe according to our ingredients. We did stop making it while Melissa was here since she couldn't drink it.

The boys' favorite is the juice of 2 limes; then lemon juice to bring it to a cup. Yesterday's was the best so far; we had no sugar in the canister so we used a cup of vanilla sugar I'd made last year; although we couldn't taste the vanilla for some reason it seemed better--placebo? just knowing it was there made it taste better? My favorite is the former but after I get the lemon/lime juice to a cup I add the juice of 2 oranges. Yummy. Sunday we were out of lemons but had plenty of limes so made a batch of straight limeade. Everyone liked it but not as much as the mix.

I finally planned ahead and heated the sugar and water before I went to bed so it got cold faster. And yes I know I could make a double batch but then I find it very hard not to drink it in the evening and then I can't sleep. :( This way everyone get a glass and then it's gone.

1 cup water boiled with 1 cup sugar; cooled (although I just use more ice in the next step)

3 cups cold water and crushed ice

1 cup lemon/lime juice

throw in some vanilla seeds if you want.

very good.

equipment; I use a metal lime squeezer I bought for $10. The one I pictured here is plastic and it broke during my first batch of lemonade. I bought a similar one made of enameled metal. I think I'm ready to get one of these. But after reading everyone's comments I'm not so sure. I bought a juicer years ago that worked great but it was aluminum and it started putting black bits in the juice; yuk.

zipper update-stash report

I know I haven't posted much recently but there isn't much time around here right now. Last week's post showed a book I started last June. If you look real close you can see a zipper on the brown page. do you realize that was my only brown zipper? If I'm going to make another lame brown pocket for another 'color' book I'll NEED another brown zipper. SSSSSSSSSSo I went to the thrift store to check and see if they had any zippers left.... I'm sad to report that my obsessive disorder kicked in and although I found 2 brown zippers I ended up buying 10. And I filled up my punch card that they are discontinuing the end of June... So I HAVE $10. to spend there before June 30th. If I can't find anything better there I'll come home with free zippers then.

So does anyone out there NEED a zipper pouch?

I made one for Austin out of denim and 2 old labels. His Mom had made pictures of Austin's relatives that she laminated for the pouch.

So I'm down 2 zippers but I started with 75 and I now have 77!

Stash report hasn't changed;

This week:

in 0

out 0

year to date:

in 18 2/3 yards

out 85 yards

a funny

I have 2 of my grandsons staying here, 5 and 3. I wanted to get a toy out of the cupboard that they had never played with so we got almost all of the Legos and Duplos picked up yesterday...BUT there were a few still scattered around and when I tried to get them to pick them up

• Tyler (5) got a tablet of paper and told me he was writing a list of what needed to be picked up; then he told the 3-year old that HE had to pick up what was on the list. Tyler tried several times to insist that Jimmy pick up what was on the list before he went to experiment #2;
• Tyler went to the piano and played a 'clean up song' so that his brother would pick up the toys... he came crying to me that Jimmy wouldn't pick up the toys even when he was 'helping by playing the clean-up song' (It only made Jimmy go to the piano to play the clean-up song too.)

I sat down and helped them so now they have gotten to play with the Brio Builder. A hit; the older one wants some for his birthday.

stash report

week 23

My stash report is first this week.

in: 1/3rd yard blackboard fabric and

1/3rd yard vinyl

Out: I'm guessing here at 1/8 yard per page so the book took 8- 1/8 yards; so 1 yard

Year to date:

In: 18 2/3 yards

Out: 85

So I could almost finish the color book I started for my daughter 11 months ago. She got to take it home with her although I'd still like to make a 'blue' page. My problem is that I have to have things I can draw and find vaguely interesting. Blue sky....too boring, blue ocean....too boring, Blue whale... too difficult to draw... so I'm still thinking and hoping to come up with a perfect blue page. I could give up like I did on the brown page... and do another pocket. We thought about brown pants but the zipper would be too short; actually the pocket is a 'close-up' of a pr. of pants. The black page was a bit of a cop-out too; so the blue can't be. (AND IT USED A ZIPPER!)

My daughter and baby came for a week; Austin is a sweetie but very attached to his mother. That's okay we all are at that age.

My 2 grandsons have been here almost 2 weeks. The 5-year old is swimming across the pool and the 3 year old is in a life jacket and has managed to let go of the side and kick himself around as long as granddad is close by.

Andrew (12) climbed on top of our toy cupboard (a wardrobe thingy tall) to get the Lego bucket down. When Roger helped him down they stood behind the couch while Roger 'beat' Andrew; He whispered to Andrew to yell and then Roger clapped his hands, pretending to him, while telling him what a bad boy he'd been. Tyler(5) needs to be discouraged from climbing.

Having these kids is a bit of a challenge but they are very sweet most of the time and have adapted to our rules quite easily. Very few 'time outs'. When they bug each other I eliminate the toy that caused the problem and so have had very few. The Legos were put up while Austin was here so today is a 'serious lego play day'.

They just got a package from their mom; they will be so excited. (I'm hiding it until Tyson wakes up from his nap.)