Isn't It The Truth?

 

 I'm finally getting back to putting the frames on the last batch of blocks for the teal blue/orange quilt.  The "nekkid" 9-patches are there at the top of the piles.

It always seems that if I get away from something for a while it's hard to go back, and needing to cut more pieces is the worst!! Now I can SEW and that always goes better.

Question:  Why do we always wait so long to change the cutter blade?  I was positively sawing the fabric to get it cut and when I finally broke down and put the new blade in it was like a hot knife through butter.

Weekend Buddy

This is Max, my weekend buddy. His family went to the girls State Basketball tournaments this weekend. He's such a sweet, happy little guy. So good. He'll probably be here until sometime tomorrow since the girls play for the championship in their class at 4:30 today.  Granddaughter #2 is a student manager for the team and I can imagine just how excited she is to be a part of this as an eighth grader.

Not much else going on. Just getting paperwork done to have an income since hubby will be retired as of this coming Thursday.  That might be a good thing for him. For me?  The jury will still be out for a while on that.

Have a good weekend everyone.

It's No Secret.......

......that some things just really aggravate me & then I like to share. :)  Today I came across this article about the United States' health care and insurance systems. Is it any wonder this great country of ours is on its way into the dumpster? Forcing people to buy insurance isn't the answer. I really don't know what is, but that isn't it. Maybe going from an overly medicated, disease treating system to a prevention system is the answer.....though of course not as profitable for hospitals, clinics, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical giants.

Read the article for yourself and draw your own conclusions as to why health care is in the situation it's in.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/50-signs-that-the-u-s-health-care-system-is-a-gigantic-money-making-scam-that-is-about-to-collapse

Wednesday....

Wednesday is "What's Cooking?" day over at JudyL's blog and last week's ingredient was Cinnamon.  I use a lot of cinnamon in pies, crisps, oatmeal, french toast etc., but my favorite recipe using cinnamon is this seasonal one, French Pear Pie. We have our own pear tree so most years I have a good stock of pears on hand in the fall.  It's a pretty easy recipe to make, so here's what you need:

9" or  larger unbaked pie crust

Filling:  

Enough peeled & sliced pears to fill  the crust level full
3 T. frozen orange juice concentrate
1/2 t. grated lemon peel (I use the dried)

Mix well and pour into unbaked crust.

Topping:

3/4 to 1 C. flour
1/2 C. sugar
1/8 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/3 to 1/2 C. softened butter (Not melted)

Mix thoroughly and spread over the filling, covering well to the edges. Pat down gently.
Bake at 400* for 40 minutes.  (I usually bake for a little longer at 375* so the crust doesn't get too dark.)  Cool and serve topped with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

French Pear Pie

And this is what it usually looks like before I can get the camera out. :)

 That pie plate is a humongous vintage one that is at least 10", maybe 11", so I get eight good sized pieces when I make this pie, adjusting the amount of pears and topping ingredients accordingly.

What Am I Reading?

This is what the start of my day looked like:

Frosty view.

Close-up.

Right after this the wind started blowing a little, knocking the frost off the branches. Looked like snow.

Saturday night I stayed up way too late to read the Obamacare Survival Guide by Nick J. Tate.  It puts into understandable language what citizens can expect. It will be available in the local library as soon as I can get it cataloged and processed.

 

The other book I've been reading is Ready Scrap Shoot by Joanna Campbell Slan. It's the fifth book in the Kiki Lowenstein mystery series. I've enjoyed all of them so far, though I thought the fourth one was the best to date.  The sixth book in the series comes out in May.  If you have a Kindle, she also has some Kiki Lowenstein e-book short stories available on Amazon.

Block Piles Growing

The piles of blocks for the teal blue/orange quilt are growing. When the upper pile gets the frames sewn on they will be ready to set together.

The pattern is a variation of the QOV quilt designed by JudyL.

I Had Plans...

.....for my

I was going to watch a
movie.

I was going to sew.






Didn't happen!!!!  The snow didn't even start till after 2pm and I get off work at 3. Bummer!!!!!   I didn't go back for the evening hours so I guess you could say I got a 2 hour Snow Day.  I did make some yummy homemade veggie beef soup and homemade biscuits for supper. Perfect for a snowy night.

And today I finally got to sew.
No movie though.
Scalded my thumb pressing
seams. Looks like it will
even blister.  :(





So if you were one of the lucky ones to get a snow day today I hope you made one of these.

What I'm Reading

Here's what I'm currently reading:

All about genetically modified seeds and the REAL story of the effects of GMOs.  BtCorn, Roundup ready soybeans, BtCotton,  and Roundup ready canola are the most common.  If you read food labels you will find that corn and soy are in almost everything. I always thought canola oil was one of the "healthy" fats; now I know better.

GMO products have been linked to various negative health effects from allergies to cancer.  They have never been tested for safety beyond ninety day studies until a French scientist did a two-year study on rats. The rats fed GMO grain developed horrendous cancers and 70% of them died before their natural life-span was up. The GMO industry has tried to smear this scientist's reputation and say his methodology was faulty but it isn't working very well. 

GMOs are banned in many countries around the world yet have the full backing of the FDA and the U.S. government.  In fact, the U.S. government pressures these other countries to allow GMO products in. Personally, after reading even half of this book and doing further reading online, I think the GMOs should be banned worldwide and  GMO pushing companies should be fined into oblivion for what they are doing to unknowing consumers.....using us as guinea pigs for something that should never have existed in the first place.

In addition to the adverse health effects of GMOs the increased use of herbicides is creating "super" weeds.  Farmers may think they have the world by the tail because they can spray their fields and the weeds are all gone. But just wait, soon the sprays won't work any more and stronger, more poisonous chemicals will be introduced or farmers and their families will be back to walking their beans & corn, chopping out the weeds with machetes like we did in the good old days. Back to using cultivators. (Do younger farmers even know what those are?)  If BtCorn kills insects do you really think it's not doing harm to the animals and humans who eat it?  I'm afraid our farmers have been hoodwinked and they've joined in whole-heartedly because they've been promised bigger profits. In America money talks.

Really I should just stick to reading my mysteries. It would be better for my blood pressure. What good does it do to know about stuff like this?  Big business and the U.S. government says it's all good for us. So it must be, right????

See what others are reading at Patchworktimes.

What I'm Working On

Who needs a design wall when you have an ironing board???  Especially when you only have two blocks to show.

These are the first two completed blocks for #2 Granddaughter's orange & teal blue quilt.....though the blue doesn't look very teal in the picture. In looking through my fabrics everything was either too green or too blue. Finally I settled on three that were what I thought were about right and went with it.  Besides when it's done that orange is just going to pop out and hit you in the eye and no one will even notice if the blue is the exact right shade.

Sounds like this week will be good sewing weather. Supposed to have 6-10 inches of snow from Wed. afternoon through Thurs. afternoon according to Accuweather. Oh, please, please can we have a snow day on Thurs. ???  It's getting late in the winter and we all NEED a snow day!!!

P.S. I just noticed that this is post 400. How did that happen so fast?????

Baby Steps......And An Ooops!

Tuesday night's Quilt Club was a "bring your own project night," so I worked on putting together some of the star blocks for Orca Bay. These finish at 6".  Cute!

 

I was surprised that I got ten of them done, what with all the visiting and snacks and all. Now I see that the one on the lower right has a little "oops" that will have to be corrected. It's funny how I don't notice these things until I see them in a picture. 

A while after I got home on Tuesday night my throat got real itchy and I coughed a lot in the night.....and I'm still at it. Don't feel sick or anything, just keep coughing because of the itchiness. My voice has been croaky and my ribs ache from the coughing and the throat feels quite sore at times though it doesn't look inflamed. I've sneezed a bunch of times today so I sure hope it isn't working up into something. Last year at this time I was in the process of coming down with  shingles so this seems minor in comparison.  Maybe next year we can just skip February??? Guess I'll just medicate myself well before going to bed so I'll be ready to go to work in the morning.  Working on Saturdays....grrrrrrrrr!

Hope you have a nice weekend.

 

Hearts To You

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

What I've Been Up To

Well, let's see. I got my annual new ironing board cover. It looked so nice when I took this picture.  No stains, no scorch marks. Lovely.  It's already showing some wear.

 

I've also gotten two baby quilt tops put together. 

They're the same, but different, made from 30s reproduction fabrics for the twin girls my niece is expecting in early April.

Today I was playing with fabrics, trying to choose what to use for two more quilts. Big ones this time.

Orange, teal blue, cream & lime green accent for my #2 granddaughter.  Generous double size. Why she had to choose such a strange shade of blue to paint her room I will never know. If these aren't quite right she will just have to deal with it.

Queen size in dusty purples, chocolate and a cream print. I'm not really satisfied with these browns so might have to see if I can run across some I like better. I've made enough quilts with browns that the best ones are pretty much used up.

Looks like I'll be busy for a while. If I don't post you'll know I'm cutting and sewing like mad.

Decisions, Decisions

And that's about it for today.....except to mention that it's raining. A good day to stay inside and work on some project, but what???

Quiet Sunday

Last Sunday we had the Risinger Family Christmas at the Senior Center in Plainview with a pretty good turn-out....DH's brothers & sisters, their kids & grand-kids, cousins...basically any Risinger relative who wanted to come. Potluck dinner, visiting & GAMES.  Bingo...complete with silly prizes & prize stealing. It's surprising how much the kids like that.  Then some of us played dominoes....Chicken Foot. I hadn't played dominoes in YEARS!!

Today was a quiet day at home....and I sewed!!

One block done.

 

And fifteen more to go. Well, seventeen actually, since I cut a couple extras. You just never know when a block might turn out really ugly or you find a mistake in the middle of it. Extras can be handy.  I got eight blocks completed. They are for a baby quilt for my niece who is expecting twins early in April.  The other one will be the same fabrics, but string blocks with a W-O-W center strip.

As for the rest of the day, well I made a pan of apple crisp out of some home-canned pie filling that needed to be used up and a big pot of chili for supper.  Should last a couple days. And then there was unloading and loading the dishwasher....twice!!!   And there's still dirty dishes setting on the counter.  Sometimes I have to wonder how two people can get so many dishes dirty so fast.

A little reading, a little blog reading and just relaxing took up the rest of my day.  I hope yours was as nice.

New Year's Day QOV Sit 'n 'Sew

The results as of 6:15pm.

It's a good thing I had it all cut out on Friday & pieced the inner parts of the blocks on Sunday or I wouldn't have made it.  The picture isn't the best since I took it after dark with only the overhead light on. Actually, Photoshop improved it quite a bit. :)

Greetings

Oh. My. Goodness.

#1....

Right there at the top of the list......Me....Just call me "Blabber-Fingers."  This is a count of comments I've made this year on one of my favorite blogs. Kind of spooky in a way. Who would have thought blog comments are tracked.  Lurking is sounding better and better.

I commented on someone's blog just recently that I thought one of my goals for the coming year might be talking less.  Not sharing my opinions, stuff I'd read, or much of anything beyond a short comment on the weather ocassionally.  Maybe I'll just have to keep my typing fingers firmly in my pockets too.

On the other hand, maybe this will be the only time I'm ever #1 at anything. :)

Winter Wonderland

Pretty, but cold.  I'm not sure how much we got, but it looks like around 4-5".

Last night was just a perfect snowy night.  Not a breath of wind and the snow coming down was so powdery and glittery against the street lights.  And so quiet.  One of those nights where you just want to be out enjoying it.

Christmas At Our House--2012

Christmas past---another one for the books. After all the decorating, shopping, cleaning, cooking, it's over all too soon.  Today is my quiet day to get things put away, dishes washed, empty boxes & wrappings disposed of.  I was really glad to send DH off to work today......four days of him at home, hovering over my shoulder, questioning if I intended to do this or that...GEEZE!!!  :)

And here's some pictures of part of our day:

Just killing them to wait while I took a picture!

Filleting knife, camo

and a shop vac. DH got some pretty nice gifts.

And so did I.

Of course we ate well too. This year I didn't rock the boat and served the traditional turkey and fixings. Not a word of complaint when you give them what they expect.  :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their family.

New Year's Day plans??

Do you have plans for New Year's Day?  If not, maybe you would like to join the QOV New Year's Day Sit 'n Sew.  Here's a link to Judy L's blog with the particulars.

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012/12/23/qov-new-years-day-sit-and-sew/

Start the new year out right, doing something good for others. I think I will get busy cutting some strips later this week to be ready to join in on New Year's Day.

Merry Christmas, Blog Readers

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each of you kind enough to read my blog.

It's gettin' down to the wire now.  Did some cleaning, made fudge, canning deer & wrapping deer steaks. Tomorrow it's pies and rolls; some more cleaning. Somewhere in there the presents get wrapped.....I need a nap!!!

New BFF

Today I spent some quality time with this new friend.

My new Hoover carpet cleaner. Actually we spent time together yesterday too, since I had to put it together after FedEx left the big box on my porch.  Today it was time for the test drive. First, the spinning brushes wouldn't spin. What the heck?!!  Got that figured out with some tinkering.  Later I realized it wasn't sucking any dirty water into the return tank. More tinkering. Got that working and continued. Dumped, cleaned, and went back over the entire floor to suck out more water.

The carpet looks so much better and I didn't have to half-kill myself hauling a rental machine home from the store and back again.  I always hated doing that. It was always either still wet & drippy from the last use or dry and full of someone else's dirt that wound up in my car or scattered all over the newly vacuumed carpet before I'd get it all hooked up and ready to go.  Sometimes after all that it wouldn't work at all.

My new BFF and I will get along just fine.  Until it dies.  Putting it together and then tinkering to get a couple things working showed me that it isn't made of the most sturdy parts. PLASTIC!!!  Imagine that!

What did you do for fun today??

Here It All Sits

Five boxes and a couple bags of sorted out Christmas stuff on it's way to the Christmas thrift store.

I have to admit, I feel kind of Scrooge-like for getting rid of the biggest share of a life-time collection. But, I'm tired of all of it and someone else might as well enjoy it. I think when I put my Christmas stuff away this year it will all fit into 2, maybe three boxes, a big bag and the tree coffin.  There will be empty space on the storage shelves. Yahoo!!!

The view out my front door this morning

SNOW!!! (click to bigify :)  & really see the snow coming down)

It really came down there for a while, but most of it melted before the end of the day.

Looking For Some Christmas Spirit

When it's 67 degrees out and the outdoor scenery is all kind of brown & blah it's kind of hard to "think Christmas."

I did take myself Christmas shopping on Wednesday in O'Neill.  Now that there is a Shopko store there the shopping is a little better.  Thurs., Fri., & Sat. was their Grand Opening but everything was marked with the sale prices already on Wed., so I lucked out.  I have a pretty good handle on Christmas gifts now, with the things I ordered online.  Still a few things to get, of course.

I need to get started on some cleaning, but don't really want to think about that.

Today I started making room for the Christmas tree and a few other Christmas_y things.  I used to decorate the house to within an inch of it's life, but now I like a less cluttered, more simple look.  Is that an age thing??  I've been sorting through stuff and only bring up the stuff I want to use from the basement. Before I started bringing stuff up I had to take stuff down....empty jars, canners, car show trophies, etc.  Many trips up and down the stairs. (How come I'm not thin?)

My kitty was helping me. Here she is holding down the tree skirt and stand so they don't get away before the tree gets set up. She'll spend the season hanging out under the tree. She does it every year.

Maybe I'll feel more "Christmas_y" once the tree is decorated and the lights are turned on.  I'll set out a few of my Santas and call it good.

Once I've decorated like I want I think I'll take the rest of the stuff to Good Will or the thrift store or something.  My eventual goal is to have all my Christmas stuff in ONE good sized tub and the tree storage "casket."

Gray & Dreary Day

Today was such a dark, dreary day. Heavy gray clouds that made it look like it could rain or snow any minute. It didn't, of course. We don't know what moisture is here in Nebraska anymore.  It was a really good day to just stay inside and work on quilts.

I've been working on the same two all year......Bonnie Hunter's Jamestown Landing and Orca Bay.  When you just work on units for so long it doesn't seem like you ever make much progress. Today I got these pressed.

 

These are the last small units I need to sew for Orca Bay. The next step is cutting some red, black & neutral squares and piecing blocks. 

Then I moved on to removing the paper from the back of these string-pieced units for the Jamestown Landing.

Once that's finished they can be sewn into pairs for the setting blocks. All the blue and neutral HSTs are finished and ready to sew into blocks.  Progress has been slow but soon there will be actual results.  

The brown handled tool laying on the mat is so handy for removing the paper from the blocks. Slip it in under the paper & loosen the paper from the seam then fold it back at the next seam & rip it off. Repeat, repeat and repeat some more.  I think the tool is from my ceramic making days way back in the mid-to-late 70s. It was used to scrape off the seams on the green-ware made by the molding process. Either that or it's the only surviving piece of an old manicure kit. It works great, that's all I care about.

Not that I was going to.......

Thanksgiving Wishes

Even though we had our family Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday evening I'll still fix a smaller Thanksgiving dinner just for the two of us. The pumpkin pie is already baked & I may just have a piece before bedtime.

I just got to thinking this afternoon that yesterday would have been my Mom's 98th birthday. And then I remembered that today is our anniversary...we won't even talk about how many years.  #2 granddaughter's 14th birthday was the 12th. It kind of feels to me that it got overlooked, but when they become teenagers that family birthday party just doesn't hold the same charm that it once did. I looked back through my pictures and #1 granddaughter's 14th birthday is the last one I have pictures of too.  They grow up too fast.

Daughter & #1 granddaughter are coming on Friday to work on a photo slide show for granddaughter's graduation.  I have the scanner & know-how. :)  So sometime tomorrow I suppose I'll have to do a little straightening up and housecleaning. I've been letting it slide & we wouldn't want them to think Grandma's a slob, now would we?!?

Hoarder???

I'm not there yet, but I do sometimes wonder how I will use it all up in my lifetime.

Fabric For Life

Nothing exciting going on here so I just want to ask if you've entered the "Fabric for Life" contest?  Enter here: http://ck.upickem.net/r/zWadc7FXJS?r=482528 
After all, who wouldn't want fabric for life?

And that about says it all.

Ahhh............

....it's over!!! Election 2012 is history. If I never got another political call or saw another campaign ad I would be a happy camper.

Yesterday was a LONG day. I'm one of the minimum-wage election workers who make it all happen. Before every election all of us make a trip to the county courthouse for election training. Before every election we're told how important we are, how they couldn't do it without us, etc. etc.  So what's up with the minimum wage?  Is that what all election workers all over the country get?  Or is our state/county just cheap?  I'm the messenger, so with the training, picking up the election materials and returning them to the courthouse, I rack up about 150 mi.  I'll have to figure it up to be sure, but I think I make more in mileage reimbursement than I do in wages.  However, on the bright side, now those political calls and ads will go away.  Now it will be the news media endlessly rehashing the whole thing.

So, yesterday I was gone all day and today I'm being a slug and/or catching up on things at home. Needless to say, I'm not getting any of  THIS done:

That was LAST Tues. & Wed.   Canned the chicken I got on sale a couple weeks ago, and all the good broth. It's a lot of work and takes a lot of time, but buying the little cans of chicken for like a $1.69 apiece when I want a chicken sandwich or some stir fry for my lunch is ridiculous.  I canned it in 1/2 pt. jars and each one has about as much meat as three of those little cans.  The amount of meat in the cans just keeps shrinking. Really, do the food processing companies think we're all stupid???