Immovable Deadline Versus Irresistible Issue

I have been simultaneously a headless chicken and an energyless sloth.  Argh!

I've got a sewing project cut out and bagged for England (a flannel rag quilt for Jazzy, to equal Squiddle's, and keep them both warm in bitter weather) and I have the fabrics for their Christmas pillowcases ready to cut and bag up in the morning.  The tree is decorated and on a timer.  Jazzy gave a jar of quince jam to his teacher today for a Christmas gift, and I have another ready for Squiddle to give to his teacher tomorrow.  Transportation to the airport is arranged, all that's left is... packing.  And laundry and dishes and deep-cleaning the three bathrooms, and and and.  At least I vacuumed today?

I ALSO had the unpleasant experience of taking Squiddle to the optician today and finding out just how bad his vision is in one eye.  The school gave him a screening test back in OCTOBER and didn't let us know until THIS WEEK that he needed help!  We managed to get him an appointment before we leave, and found out he is severely amblyopic, and will need both glasses and to wear an eyepatch at least two hours each day to strengthen his vision.  Unfortunately, given how long it takes to order glasses versus when we are leaving, we will not be able to take care of this until we get back, a month from now!  Why didn't the school let us know sooner?!  (I'm not upset about the glasses, and neither is he so far.  I'm upset that we can't start helping his vision get better for a whole month.)

Sorry.  I'm stressing.  Hard and fast deadlines going up against my child's health does that to me.  At least our Christmas cards got mailed out?

Triumph!

I finished the Scrap Stars quilt yesterday, along with the coordinating pillowcases.  Two weeks and two days, start to finish.  Eleanor Burns I'm not.  This morning I got up at the usual time, fed the cat, made banana muffins from the last two bananas which were just past their prime, and tossed the quilt and pillowcases into the washer with a couple color catchers.

We then got the children up and dressed, fed them, and I put Jazzy's laundry away (everyone else's was put away yesterday).  I packed Squiddle a lunch (he gets a cafeteria lunch one day a week and this week he chose to have it yesterday), then tossed the quilt and pillowcases into the dryer on the way out the door to school.  The color catchers were a medium blue, but the light colored sections of the quilt didn't, at a quick glance, show any staining.  Which is why I use the color catchers for the first wash!

After dropping the boys off at school, Wonderful Husband and I went to the bank to talk with financial advisors, then picked up our prescription refills.  I dropped him back off at the house and made it back to the school just in time to pick up Jazzy.  Now to (metaphorically) make hay this afternoon!

ETA: Turned the last dozen quince into another six jars of jam.  Repotted ten or so strawberry plants.  Culled through the remaining bag of cranberries and tossed the good ones into the freezer to be used up at Half-Thanksgiving.

Ugh.

I woke up at 4:45 this morning.  After not being able to fall asleep until midnightish.  And it was one of those waking ups where you know after a couple minutes that you're not going to be able to go back to sleep.  So I got up, did internet things, had a lapcat for a bit, until I felt ready to tackle quilting.  (Which involved a trip out to the cold garage to look for my quilting gloves.  Luckily, I found them in the third box I tried.  I have no idea where my binding clips are, but that's going to be an adventure for another day.)

I spent a good chunk of the morning quilting, until my sister and niece arrived and we all packed into her car to go up to Poulsbo and the Sons of Norway Scandinavian Bazaar and Julefest.  Which was quite nice.  It's a cute downtown, right on the shore, and we got a couple ornaments and a couple Christmas gifts.  There was also The Quilt Shoppe right opposite the bazaar, and I popped in there and picked up a few things I probably don't need but was really intrigued by.  Nice little shop!

After we got home, I quilted a little bit more, to where I can say the quilting is more than half done, then I crashed for a little bit.  I've still got a bit of a headache, but I've taken painkillers and it's bedtime in a few minutes.

(And, yes, I realize there are no pictures of the quilt.  It's going to be a present, and I don't want to give away the surprise to the person it's for.)

Post Thanksgiving Post

Ugh.  We did Thanksgiving on Friday this year, as my sister (ER nurse) had to work on the day itself.  Fortunately her shift was light on anything resembling carving knife accidents!  But I feel that, having cooked a complete Thanksgiving dinner all by myself, I finally get an Adulting Award.

(A 16-lb turkey, giblet gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, succotash, jazzed-up cornbread, homemade cranberry sauce, glazed carrots, apple pie, pumpkin pie, homemade whipped cream.  And jello because I knew the three kidlets would not eat pie.  And ALL the leftovers are in my fridge because she wouldn't take any.  Also I steamed 18 eggs because my boys love them as snacks.)

Today, I am determined, I shall sew.  My project started as this:

Nineteen white and cream fabrics, and fifty-two purple/blue/gray/black ones.  No reason for the numbers, that just happens to be what I pulled from the easily accessible tubs in the garage.  Oh, and that stack pictured is what was LEFT after cutting.  Argh!  But I took a 4.5" strip from each, which got cut into these:

And then sewn together:

I've got the small triangles sewn to the large to make squares.  (I ended up overcutting on the small triangles.  Must think of something to do with them... later.)  Next I start assembling the blocks.  I'm working from a pattern in the March 1994 issue of Traditional Quilter, but I'm adding more blocks so it'll be slightly bigger.  I love some of the older quilting magazines.  They have patterns and attitudes that just aren't the same as what comes out in the modern magazines.

Rectangles and Triangles

So I finished up the blocks for this month's Block Lotto and just have to post about them there:

And I also sewed together the remaining scraps from the guild into ninety HSTs and stitched them together:

It measures 13.5"x11.875".  Wonderful Husband isn't keen on that black triangle near the center, but for me it was an exercise in using up all the scraps.  And now that they're all used up and into flimsies, I'm hoping to get to a bigger project.  Three weeks until my project workspace goes away.  Go!

Surfacing

Let's see.  I've made a flannel rag quilt (35"x49") for Squiddle for the car.  He picked out every single pink flannel I had; I ended up telling him that a quilt needs contrast, so it's pinks and blues now.  Ten bajillion snips into the seams!  It took me three days to do them all because I'd worn a spot sore on my thumb after the first day.  Next up is a rag quilt for Jazzy for the car.  I think I'll pull all the bright flannels and see if he likes those.  No picture right now because the quilt is in the car, as intended.

Jazzy will be starting preschool on Monday.  On one hand, I feel bad that I am not the one helping him with his speech delay, but on the other hand, I know a good parent gets their child the help they need, even/especially when it comes to outsourcing things to professionals.  So for now I'll be driving both boys to school four days a week and picking Jazzy up four days a week and Squiddle on Wednesdays.  We'll see how long it lasts, whether the parking lot in the morning will drive me mad or not.  I'm just not feeling sanguine about putting my three-year-old on a bus yet.

At the auction last weekend I got two chairs and a side table and set them up in the living room bump-out.  It's a nice little spot for sitting and reading, drinking tea, or working on handcrafts.  Which is what I've been doing, since I found a 90% complete Bucilla's Celestial cross-stitch kit at the thrift store.  For $2!  That's at the level of insult on top of injury.

I also got two more bookcases set up and hauled a bunch more boxes of books in from the garage and got them sorted on the shelves.  I think we need one more half-bookcase on the right, but Wonderful Husband disagrees.  Me, I'm of the mind that if we're leaving our books in boxes in the garage, what's the point of having them?  We can't read them if they're out there.  We also went through an interesting little experiment where much of our childhood reading is mutually unknown to one another.  There are a few overlaps - Narnia, Tolkein - but largely we were going "huh?" at each other. :)

Also this week I went to Quilters By the Bay, which meets across the toll bridge and is a little bit farther from me than the group that meets in Port Orchard.  But I had such fun!  There was laughter and joking during the meeting, and I've missed that.  The meeting itself was a sort of workshop on string blocks.  Which I know how to do, but there were some variations I hadn't thought about before.  The team I was on made the ten blocks below, for charity quilts:

I liked the bright fabrics we were working with, so I asked if I could keep the scraps to turn into a mini.  One sandwich baggie of scraps plus a black remnant has so far yielded this (10.75"x9.375"):

and I still have ninety half-square triangles to pair up and sew with black to make a second mini.  Part of me is hoping that I can use the eight hours of child-free time I'll get from Jazzy being in school to do some serious writing and sewing again.

Squishing fruit into jars and jugs

A small mystery solved: the partially eaten apples I've been finding under the red apple tree are not (entirely) the work of the local rabbit population.  They're the work of the local bird population!  The red apples have thinner skin and softer flesh than the red-green stripey ones, so I guess it makes sense the local wildlife would prefer them.  (Myself, I prefer the stripey ones.  They're kind of like Fuji apples. Who knows, they may even be Fujis.)

We finally have all the equipment to press our own cider, so this afternoon the boys and I picked a basket and a box full.  Then I washed most of a box, Wonderful Husband cranked the grinder, and manned the press until it got a bit too dark to continue.

When we did this at the cider pressing event, the basket-and-boxful netted us about two and a half gallons.  Today's most-of-a-boxful got us most of a gallon.  So, slightly less, perhaps?  It might be due to different equipment not being able to press the ground fruit as hard.  Or it might be due to me deliberately picking lots of the small/misshapen apples off the striped tree (the red tree doesn't seem as prone to them).  I'm going on the theory that they're the apples not really suited for eating or cutting up for pies etc., so I might as well get use out of them in the form of juice.

I also sorted the quinces, stored the unblemished ones out in the garage, and made another batch of jam from blemished ones (after cutting the bad bits out, natch).  But I forgot the lemon juice, so it didn't deepen to the lovely ruby red the first batch did.  Ah well.  I did check out the quince tree and it's got less than two dozen fruit left on it, so at least that is finally coming to a slow.  And, oddly, one of the fruit that's already fallen as well as one of the ones still on the tree is definitely a pear.  I was told by the previous owner that it was a pear tree, and apparently pears are frequently grafted onto quince rootstock, so... was it a pear tree at one point but for some reason the rootstock took over?  I likely will never know.

Tomorrow: more cider pressing~!  And jam making.

Homestead Happenings

Well, we have a cider press now, but the apple grinder has been delayed and won't be delivered until tomorrow.  We have five emptied and cleaned milk jugs waiting, and figure a good deal of what we squeeze into juice is going to go into the deep freezer.

The windfall apples have slowed down (either that or the local bunnies are eating the whole apples, which is actually possible given how little remaining I've found of some) but there are still tons on the trees.

Meantime, I'm drowning in quince!  I did a morning cleanup under the tree yesterday, and brought in about a dozen.  My afternoon cleanup netted another seventeen!  I mean, I cooked eight or so into poached quince for dinner Sunday (to go with lamb-garlic sausages, and zucchini sauteed with matchsticked elephant garlic, seasoned with salt-pepper-oregano-pepper flakes-cinnamon), but I seriously, seriously need to start turning them into preserves.  My big harvest basket is heaped full.

(ETA: Have now made a batch of quince jam. Need to make much more.)

I also started a quart and a half-gallon of red cabbage apple ginger sauerkraut fermenting out in the garage.  I discovered that Wilco carries actual fermentation crocks, but for all the parts, they range from $65 (2-gallon) to $130 (5-gallon) apiece.  Which... they're tempting, but.  The only things I really ferment are sauerkraut and pickles, and I can do those in canning jars.  I have about six or seven sets of weights and fermentation lock lids.  (I just need to keep my eye open for more half-gallon canning jars.)

And the reason we were at Wilco was to get wellies for Wonderful Husband and myself, so we could try the classic Pacific NorthWest hobby of clamming.  Which we did.  Except... the two closest clamming beaches are inaccessible, and when we got to the slightly farther away one, about half an hour past lowest tide, very little of the area clams would be was above the water.  So I went back and studied the tide charts, and realized that the low low tides for the next couple months are... at night.  Well.  That puts that plan back on the drawing board!

Yesterday, I ran to IKEA to return a drawer organizer which just didn't fit our kitchen drawers, and pick up some more shelves for the bookcases.  Then I met up with my sister and Niecelet and went thrift storing down in Lacey.  One shirt and two pants for Jazzy, who will now only wear knits, not woven stuff, a scarf and a hat for Squiddle, who has been complaining at the bus stop that he is cold even in his coat, and two pairs of jeans (one of mine died the death over the weekend) and three shirts for me.  And today, after an appointment, we hit up Goodwill, where I found a shirt apiece for the boys and a very nice almost complete celestial cross-stitch piece.

The Boys Discover Their Parents' Anime Collection

Wonderful Husband bolted the new media storage cabinet to the wall on Sunday, so I dragged out our boxes of DVDs and Blu-rays and began to fill it.

Problem: we have four boxes.  It will only fit about three.

A lot of this problem, of course, is predicated on the fact that we have several anime series, which take anywhere from four to twelve DVDs each.  So we've agreed that we need to winnow out some which are not our favorites, and for some of the must-keep series, see if they've been re-released in more compact forms.  Spend more money to save space, I guess.

But this afternoon, Squiddle pulls a DVD out of box four and shows it to me.  "Can we watch this now?"

It is Princess Tutu.  Of which he has only ever seen the (AWESOME!) "Håll om mig nu" AMV.

Wonderful Husband and I each independently give consent, and, well... my boys are now watching their first non-Ghibli anime.  And it's a good one.

(And, hmm, the whole series is now available as one single Blu-ray instead of six DVDs.  Step one to a less bulky anime collection!)

Quince and Auction Finds

Well, the quince pie I tried making was... not quite a disaster, but let's just say that better than half of it ended up in the bin.  The membrillo, on the other hand, turned out quite well.  There's just rather a lot of it.  Well, let's call it a year's supply....  Next I'm going to try a couple recipes from Food in Jars and see how they come out.

Yesterday, despite (still) being sick, I went to the monthly Stokes Auction again.  A lot of the stuff I bid on or wanted to bid on went for more than I wanted to pay, but I did get two things:

A bunch of pots, for all those strawberry runners I keep rooting.  Seriously, I bought two plants and now I have upward of twenty!  And for future patio plant needs.  A lady standing next to me asked if I wanted the piece of pottery painted with a dragon in the rightmost carton.  I didn't particularly, so she gave me a couple dollars for it and said she planned to hide it in a park for kids to find.  $39.

I also got another sofa.  Much smaller than the last one I bought, this actually fit inside my Fit!  But it's sturdy and comfy and I've vacuumed it thoroughly, washed the cushion cover, and reassembled it.  Interestingly, it has four rings on the sides of the cushion cover, and four elasticated hooks on the base, so the cushion hooks in and isn't going anywhere.  And the best part?  It cost $17.  So now there's something in the living room that Wonderful Husband and I can sit on to watch TV.  And the folding metal chairs can go out to the garage.

Sunday, Sunday....

Yesterday we went to the cider pressing event that was part of the second day of the Key Peninsula Farm Tour!  In doing so we found a new to us local park, and ended up meeting one of Squiddle's friends from the schoolbus.  We took a box and the large harvest basket I use, both full of apples.  For $25 we washed them, tossed them into what Wonderful Husband called "an apple chipper," and then got to crank them through the press.  I'd brought four jugs - we only ended up needing three.  But out of it we got two and a third gallons of fresh-pressed cider which Squiddle has declared is more delicious than our regular apple juice.  Win!

(I think we will eventually get our own press. And figure out a grinder.)

We also took the boys to get their flu shots (Wonderful Husband and I got ours a week or two ago, but Walgreens apparently doesn't offer shots for kids; fortunately Rite Aid does).  Both boys were pacified by the bribe of a lollipop.  And then we went to Home Depot and investigated riding lawn mowers. ^_^

Pear... or Quince?

Next to the two 30' apple trees, there stands a small (6-8'?) pear tree.  Or, at least, I thought it was a pear tree....

I've had one sitting on the counter, ripening, for about a week.  Today I tried a bite out of it.  Firm as a rock still, and not wholly inedible, but... I'm wondering if it's maybe a quince?  The fruit are bright yellow, very bulbous, but still have a small neck as pears do.  They're also covered in a light layer of grayish fuzz while on the tree.  Unfortunately, googling for ways to tell pears from quinces is useless, as they're more or less sister species.

I suppose I'll pull the others out of the box-and-basket of apples for the cider press event tomorrow, and see how they cook up.

Misc Bits

Ugh.  I woke up this morning with a stomach bug.  Not fun!  And not good timing, since today I was going to pick up Squiddle from school, pick up our co-op order, take Squiddle to the library, and then go to the quilt guild tonight.  None of which happened.  Fortunately Wonderful Husband was able to take care of picking up Squiddle and our co-op order.

Here are a few of the photos from my phone I keep meaning to put up on the blog.  First, the rainbow cupcakes I took into Squiddle's school for his birthday last month:

And our two apple trees.  This is the view out of my bedroom window, on the second floor of the house:

And a basket of bounty. The two trees are two different varieties, though I don't know what they are:

A patch I sewed on the tear on the back of our $35 auction sofa.  Had to find my curved needles to do this!  Eventually I'll reupholster it, but the sofa cleaned up pretty well for the most part, so it's a very low priority.

And about two-thirds of the scrappy Double Irish Chain quilt as I was laying it out on the floor to sew up over the weekend:

Grey Gables Update

All of a sudden fall has descended upon Gig Harbor!  It's cold in the morning and at night, though it does warm up into the 60s during the day.  Consequently, I'm thinking about flannel rag quilts for bundling up in.  (And... not thinking quite as much as I should be about the Double Irish Chain quilt top I just finished.)

Over the weekend I helped Wonderful Husband build a couple of shelving units, and then took it upon myself to finish organizing the garage.  My fabric stash is now somewhat more accessible!  And, more importantly, the boxes are all arranged in two aisles, with all their labels facing outward, so as time goes on and we continue to move in, we'll be able to find and unbox things more easily.

As part of that organizing process, I also spent part of today working on Squiddle's room.  And got it all done! I moved his dresser and laundry hamper moved into his (walk-in) closet, unboxed and sorted the three boxes of his and Jazzy's clothing, moved the box of mostly stuffed toys into the workroom, and switched out his and Jazzy's summer clothing for cool-weather clothing.  (All the while muttering "Uncle Knicknack's summer wardrobe. Uncle Knicknack's winter wardrobe. Uncle Knicknack.")  And I put clean sheets on both boys' beds, and tonight they get baths and clean PJs.  Jazzy's room still needs some organization, but Squiddle's is done until we paint it.  (Knowing Squiddle, he will want it painted pink.)

I'm on like the fourth huge basket of apples from the two trees (one basket each given away to two of our neighbors who don't have apple trees, and some to my sister) with no end in sight.  I've been looking up long-term storage techniques, and, of course, cooking them to make applesauce, apple crisp, apple pie....  Squiddle had an apple festival at school last week, and he loveslovesloves using the apple peeler.  Meantime, there is a farm tour and cider pressing event this weekend, so I'm kind of looking at apple presses on Amazon to get one for our own use.  I've also signed us up for the co-op the local farms run, and will be picking up our first order tomorrow, at the community center near Squiddle's school.  Which has weekly roller skates, among other things!

Possible House Name: Grey Gables

Jazzy turned three this week, and got lots of presents.  Anyone who wants to give him noise-making vehicles, no, please, he has enough now! :)

I also got my belated birthday present: a Roomba!  Hooray, no more needing to sweep downstairs!  Now we just have to name it.  I'm leaning toward Stabby, for Internet Meme reasons, but other names have been put forth as well.

I also got the fourth bookcase built and Wonderful Husband bolted it to the wall.  I decided it is the manga/comics bookcase, and have been filling it.  Well, filling the top half.  I'm babysitting Niecelet for another five days next week, and she has no regards for other peoples' possessions, and we have no doors yet for this bookcase.  But, hey, four more boxes emptied!  And all* the boxes of books and toys have now been carted up to the bonus room, leaving the living room completely devoid of boxes!

*All, in this case, not including the boxes of books that I know are in the garage, and the boxes of books I suspect are in the garage.

The living room and dining room are devoid of boxes.  I begin to sympathize with Helen Parr, in the beginning of The Incredibles, gloating over having finally unpacked the last box... three years after the move.  I know we need at least one and a half more bookcases, and I'm hoping that will be enough.

The other problem with unpacking books, though, is the urge to stop and reread them all!

Tales From Boxville

Squiddle continues to enjoy school.  Yesterday was his sixth birthday!  So I made rainbow cupcakes, as one does, and took them in for his class.  Turns out district policy is store-purchased stuff only.  Oops!  They made an exception, and now I know for next year.  But he was so excited he practically danced in front of his class and declared it "the best birthday ever!"  He got a ton of Lego, some money from my parents, and his own strawberry pot, complete with strawberry plants.  My mom had wanted to get him a baby chicken, but we don't yet have a setup for chickens.

We've got three bookcases and a 4x4 Kallax unit built in the bonus room, and Wonderful Husband has bolted the bookcases to the wall and added doors, against future incursions by Niecelet, who has the bad habit of grabbing anything she can reach and throwing it on the floor.

I'm itching to sew, but the fabric is all in boxes in the garage and desks and sewing tables still need to be shifted around in the bonus room to final position before I can plug anything in.

ETA: Fourteen and a half boxes of books put away, and I know some of what's still missing  Artbooks, half of my Lois McMaster Bujold books, half of the Temeraire books, etcetera.  I'm hoping they're either in mislabeled boxes, or somewhere out in the garage.  As it is, I haven't even cracked the boxes labeled manga, or kids' books, or sewing/quilting books.

Someday This Will Be A Funny Story...

So my sister is in the process of moving.  I've been going over this week and helping pack boxes and such while Squiddle is in school.  (My baby is now in kindergarten! Which, actually, I am really chill with.  But I digress.)

Today was moving day!  Three guys and a U-Haul at Sister's house, along with myself and our mother and the two toddlers mostly across the street being babysat.  Except for the part where two of the guys got into a violent altercation which left both of them bleeding.  (I witnessed the start of it, ran into the house and yelled for my sister, who is an emergency room nurse and as such possesses immense reserves of fortitude in crisis situations, a gift I definitely do not have.)  Sister called 911, three cop cars and a firetruck pulled up, apparently there was a knife involved which I did not even know about until it got to the taking-statements part of things.  Who the frack carries a knife around with them?!  Both guys were bleeding.

I had to leave mid-afternoon to meet Squiddle at the bus stop, but apparently (at a quarter after eight at night) they are finally almost done getting everything onto the trucks.

I told my sister her move was cursed (this has been, by far, not the only issue with it, just the most violent) and suggested burying the statue of a saint or burning something in effigy or something.  She didn't say no....

Still Searching For A House Name

So we are moved in!  And slowly unboxing things.  I have a working kitchen.  The beds are all set up, even if they and the bureaus are probably not in final position.  The rest is dross.  And the to-do list stretches endlessly before us.

The sofa from the auction, I'm pleased to say, cleaned up nicely... washing the back cushions and the seat covers, and vacuuming the rest of it within an inch of its life, did the poor thing good.  I found eight cat toys jammed down into the back!  There's a hole in the back that I'm contemplating just tacking some mostly-matching quilting fabric over until I'm at a point where I can address reupholstering the sofa.

Slightly hindering the unpacking process in Boxville is my providing child care for Niecelet.  Her usual care provider had emergency surgery and will be unable to care for her for the next six weeks.  Friday, when I wasn't caring for her, I was able to hit up a couple thrift stores in Port Orchard along with other errands.  About $4 got me eight quilting magazines, two fat quarters of fabric, and five canning jars.  I also spotted two solid-wood frame sofas from the 1970s that I'm considering.  They, too, would need reupholstering.  But furniture that is nigh-indestructible by small children appeals....

I think I'm glad that we moved in during the latter half of summer.  It means that getting a vegetable garden in is not even a consideration for this year.

Busy Week

As you may imagine, after having bought a house on Monday, we've been busy moving into it!

For a certain value of "into."

We're still living at the apartment, mostly.  But our possessions have been getting boxed up and carted over.  My car (a Honda Fit) doesn't hold much - six to nine boxes - on account of having two car seats in it.  Wonderful Husband's vehicle, the same model as mine only a few years newer, can hold a lot more because he can put the back seats down.  And my sister's car (a Honda Pilot) is positively cavernous!  So between us three we completely emptied the storage unit (oh god, so many boxes marked "books"... and so, so many marked some variation of "fabric" and/or "quilting supplies"... if we ever move again, I swear I am donating my entire fabric stash first) save for the potting bench my dad made me a couple years ago.  For that, we had to rent a truck.

Which actually neatly dovetailed with my attending the Stokes Auction for the first time this month!  I had spied two pieces I particularly wanted.  This sofa and this table.  And I got them both, the sofa for a LOT less than I think it's worth.  But there was no way the sofa would fit into a Fit, so the truck rental did double pickup duty.

The sofa needs recovering and a touch of cleanup work on the wood.  But it's comfy, solid like you wouldn't believe (weighs a ton; solid wood), and fits all four of us.  Yay!  Something to sit on that's not office or dining chairs!

At this point, tomorrow is ferrying as much of what remains in the apartment over, and then sometime on Tuesday the moving company will show up and handle the big pieces.  Which maybe we could have done ourselves with a rented truck, but when you factor in the dubious help of two small children and us really not looking forward to hauling mattresses and dressers upstairs at the house, is probably worth it.

So come Tuesday night we will finally be sleeping at the new house... touch wood.

House!

We have a house again!

After dropping Squiddle off for Jumpstart (where he had a good time), we went to the title office, where Wonderful Husband and I signed about fifty autographs, then we picked Squiddle up, went for lunch, picked up the keys, loaded up both our cars for a first run, and went to drop stuff off at the house.

We still need something to call it.  Our house in Anaheim was "Greenwood."  Beyond Squiddle's suggestion of "Stonham Village," though, we haven't really got a name for this house yet.  I'm sure it will come eventually....

Meantime, book report!  Over the last few weeks I've worked my way through Onions in the Stew by Betty MacDonald (The Egg And I was better), The Second Sister by Marie Bostwick (ugh, if it hasn't been adapted into a Hallmark movie, I don't know why), and The Martian by Andy Weir, which I loved.  As in, considering adding it to our library and watching the movie liked it.  Current book is Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth, which I like so far.

Catching Up

Gah!

So tomorrow we go sign papers and give away a rather large chunk of money and become homeowners again.  Stressful~!  Then we need to deal with moving again.

On top of which, tomorrow morning is Squiddle's first day of "Jumpstart," which is basically a few weeks of practice kindergarten, from nine to noon.  Which he is doing at the school for where we currently live, but then we need to get him transferred over to the school where we will be living.

Aside from that, I've been making some blackberry and some blueberry jams from what I've picked, and been washing, drying, and freezing blackberries then transferring them into quart bags for the freezer.  Did I mention the house's owner is leaving the deep-freeze for us? ^_^  I've also actually been sewing a little - Niecelet's Christmas quilt is half done, and I started working more on the Double Irish Chain quilt that I've decided is probably for my own bed.

And a couple weeks ago there was Costume College, which I still haven't blogged about.  The boys and I flew down on the Wednesday before it so we could spend some time with my parents, and on the Thursday I took the boys for dental appointments (no cavities!) and haircuts and we went to downtown Disney for lunch.  So hot~!  I also did a drive-by on our old house in Anaheim and was surprised to see the new owners hadn't changed anything yet except for a new front door.  Which had long been on our to-do list anyway.

Friday I borrowed my mother's CRV and drove up to Woodland Hills for Costume College.  Not knowing if I was staying there or not, since my theoretical roommate never answered her phone or responded to my voicemails or texts, I took my stuff with me and told my mother I'd let her know.  Long story short, I ran into said theoretical roomie and she was rooming with someone else.  Whatever; she added about six hours of commuting to my weekend but I'm over it now.  (I wasn't then, but I was polite.)

The classes I took were interesting: Making a Miniature Top Hat, Elytra Beetle Wing Embroidery, Gold Bullion Embroidery, and Italian Hem-Stitching.  I've only got my sample for that last one complete yet.  And the class I taught, Beginning Blackwork, went extremely well.  I feel that all fourteen of my students left feeling confident in their newly-acquired skills.

I kind of want to go to Costume College again, but... it's no longer geographically convenient.  In addition to registration, there will henceforth be plane flights, shuttling to and from the hotel, room costs, and meal costs.  And I'm a SAHM.  So I need to think on it.

I did manage to scavenge the Bargain Basement when it hit the point of "free, please haul it away" and got mostly quilting fabric, about half of which I donated to one of my quilt guilds down in Orange County.

Because while I was down there, I managed to meet up with my quilt guild friends, and also with my writing class friends!  Though that latter actually ended badly, when I got a call from my mother that Jazzy had gotten into her pill sorter and taken some of her meds.  Most of which were benign, but we took him to the ER about her diabetes medication.  In the end, he didn't need to be admitted, but it was quite a scare.  And quite reminiscent of the time Squiddle did the same thing with Wonderful Husband's meds almost three years ago.  (Although he was admitted, and six months we later found the pills under the fridge, so he didn't actually take them, whereas Jazzy definitely did.)

Still, overall it was a good trip...

Second week of July

Kind of a slow week.  I got the rest of the supplies together for the blackwork class I'll be teaching at Costume College, just need to divvy them up into bags for each student.  And make copies of the instruction sheet!  I also turned most of the boysenberries into jam:

And I made a rhubarb pie, which turned out kind of mediocre:

Wednesday evening, I went to the West Sound Quilters Guild again and joined as a member.  The speaker was Mr. Domestic, and he had some fascinating techniques, including fabric weaving.

And yesterday, surprising me, Wonderful Husband suggested a trip to the thrift store(s) that carry furniture, so he could get an idea of what they might have.  We didn't get any, but I did net another dozen-plus canning jars and a nice flatware box that I'm going to try and rehab.  And he found a couple techie toys to play with.  All in all, a nice outing and I took the boys to the park afterward.

Week in Review

We didn't "do" the 4th of July.  At this point in my life I'm sufficiently disenchanted by my country and the neo-Nazis running it that I couldn't dig up a shred of patriotic pride if you paid me.  I'm sad, terrified, and enraged by what has happened and what is yet to come.

But since Wonderful Husband had the day off, we went to Ikea since we'll hopefully soon be in our own house again and thus want to have a bit more furniture.  Like a sofa.  And maybe an outdoor dining table and chairs.  And bookcases.  None of which we really decided on or bought, but it was something to do, and the drive ensured Jazzy got a decent nap in.

Though it was quite strange that the food section at the end was out of frozen meatballs.  Is Ikea allowed to be out of meatballs?

Afterward, we went to Carpinito Brothers, since it was quite close, and got some fruit and vegetables.  Including a flat of raspberries!  It's been a good few years since I've gotten to indulge, and, well, last night I ended up reading about how to grow raspberries and whether marauding rabbits are likely to eat the plants.  (Spoiler: they are.)

After a pizza dinner, we took the boys and walked over to the mini-park by our apartment, where I'd noticed there were fireworks set up.  Because despite my feelings about the USA, I was not going to deny my children colorful explosions.  Apparently there was a sort of block party going on for all the apartments and new tract homes in the area.  The fireworks display was really quite impressive and went on for over half an hour before the sprinklers turned on.  Oops!

Friday was Legos at the library, after which Jazzy caused an unfortunate bit of excitement by pulling our apartment building's fire alarm. -_-;;

Yesterday, we went to the Puyallup Farmers Market, which was sufficiently impressive that Wonderful Husband wants us to go back.  We didn't get a whole lot - lunch, some corn, some strawberries, and a half-flat of boysenberries - but a good time was had by all.  And afterward we went to my sister's house for a bit, where I raided her sour cherry tree for everything I could reach.

After washing, culling, destemming, and pitting, there ended up being just over two pounds of cherries, which I used the very last of my sugar to turn into sour cherry jam:

Two jars for us, two for my sister.  Since she's moving soon, and her new house doesn't have a cherry tree (and neither does ours), this may be the one and only time I get to make this jam.

(And while I was making the jam Jazzy opened the spigot on my sun tea jug and emptied almost the entire gallon into the bottom of the fridge.... -_-;;)

Catching Up

No new pics today, I'm afraid.  I have done a bit more sewing; I'm now up to fifteen Hot Cross Buns blocks.  But I'm also out of bits, so time to dig up scraps and cut more!

I did hit up a couple thrift stores yesterday.  The drive up to the two I like in Port Orchard is long enough to knock Jazzy out, so it's strategic for me - I get to treasure hunt, he gets a nap.  And Squiddle is easily bribed to be happy about this with a packet of fruit gummies.

I acquired seventeen 8oz canning jars for about a quarter each (for jams! cherry, blackberry, and blueberry seasons are imminent!), some construction paper for Squiddle, a couple sewing patterns, a plant pot and a hanger I intend to use with it, and another packet of scraps.  Which I intend to cut up for more hot Cross Buns blocks. :)

And afterward, we went to one of the parks that's closer to our house-to-be, where the boys got to play until they pinked.  Yesterday: hot and sunny.  Today: cool and damp.

Today, we went over to the house-to-be and got a demo of the sprinkler system from the current owner, as well as debating whether or not we want to take the pool table that he doesn't really want to have to move.  And I got a question answered - the three fruit trees are two apple and one pear.

And, on a final note, I'm a little sad.  I'm done breast-feeding Jazzy.  He's two years and eight months now, so I've probably let him have nursies longer than most mothers do.  And he's been tapering off on his own the last few weeks.  But we/I set a deadline, since I'll be away from him at Costume College later this month.  Which is actually the same thing we/I did for Squiddle as well, but a year earlier in his case since we were also going to start trying for Jazzy then.  But still, I am a little sad.  I have nursed my last baby....

Hot Cross Blocks

I didn't really have anything to blog about today, until the nebulous time in between coming back from the park and dinner, when I sat down and started putting together five 5" blocks from a back issue of Quiltmaker that I picked up at the thrift store for a quarter.

(Yes, I know I have this pattern in the Addicted to Scraps book, but that's packed somewhere.  And I had a grab bag of small scraps to play with.)

Now to go and cut more strips and squares for more of these.  Or possibly iron and cut fabric for Niecelet's Christmas quilt.

Easy Peasy Wood Reconditioning

So a couple days ago I gave a link to the spoon butter recipe I use.  I use it to keep my wooden kitchen utensils looking happy, and I've also been using it for rehabbing the wood pieces I've found at thrift stores.  I thought I would show you a couple of the bowls and stands I've acquired.

Here's the first one I bought.  I don't have any pre-rehab pictures, but look at all those lovely stripes!  Imagine it as dry, though, with white spots and gummy bits of stuck-on stuff.  And now it's all pretty!

Here's a before picture of another bowl.  Parched looking, with crayon marks.  I buffed out the marks with a dry sponge, then rubbed spoon butter on, inside and out, with my bare hands.

And here it is post-treatment!  I use a paper towel to wipe up the extra spoon butter.  There's not much color change, but the bowl looks much happier now.  Less parched.

And its final (for now) home on the counter, holding some potatoes and onions.  Much nicer looking than just having them sitting there in their plastic sacks from the grocery store. 

I've no idea if these pieces are artisanal hand-made or if they came from Target.  Well, except for the little bowl on the left above, it has "Wild Cherry" hand-written on the bottom.  So that one's probably craftsman-made.

The Window Gardens

First, the dining area window:

Left to right: peppermint; basil just sprouting; oregano; a baby spider plant; and pothos.

The kitchen window:

Left to right: geraniums rooted from cuttings I brought up north; an owl jar I found at the thrift store that amused me with its 1970s kitchen witchiness; an unknown succulent that a coworker gave me years ago; a couple jade plants rooted from ones that were growing at Greenwood when we bought the place; one of the jade plants upgraded to its own pot; a fancy grated cheese shaker that amused me at the thrift store; and the spider plant I brought up north.

Hmm, looking at this now, maybe I should switch things around so that the herbs are actually in the kitchen??

Canning, Cooking, Indoor Gardening

Well, I may not be posting much, or sewing, but I haven't been entirely useless (says the mother of two small boys).  Over the past month I've nudged back into canning, putting up a few jars each of strawberry-rhubarb jam and blueberry-rhubarb jam.  As well as baking a rhubarb crumble.  The very first things I've ever made with rhubarb.  And I'm 42!  But those culinary experiments (as well as the fact that rabbits apparently don't eat it, possibly related to its poisonous leaves) have made me determined to grow rhubarb at the new house.

Other culinary experiments have included Blackberry Black-Bottomed Pie (which I shall definitely repeat once blackberries are in season) and, today, Zucchini Bacon Cheddar Scones (also a repeat-worthy recipe).

I have also slowly been expanding my three little garden spots (kitchen window, dining area window, patio) with mismatched thrifted pots, a few deep plates under them for when they get watered, and a couple of wooden probably-supposed-to-be-fruit-bowls to give the pots in the back some height.  Actually, I've been enjoying looking for nice but beat-up-looking wooden objects (bowls, fruit stands) when at thrift stores.  I made up about a cup of spoon butter and it does an amazing job at revitalizing abused wood.  With the mismatched pots and stands, my little indoor gardens are slowly looking more and more boho chic.  Pictures tomorrow, maybe?

No Sew, Go Slow

I haven't stitched anything since my last post.  We're in the process of buying a house, and that's absorbing most of my mental focus.  It needs a bit of love, fortunately more on the outside than on the inside, and is on an acre of land.  An acre!  That's more than five times as big as the lot our last house was on!  (And the house itself is twice as big.)  So I'm doing a lot of garden dreams and plotting, and researching ways to foil the local wildlife, since when we were there for the inspection three rabbits were hopping around the yard.

Things other than rabbits I need to adjust my plotting to: a different climate.  We're now in zone 8b, where before we lived in 10a or 10b.  Cooler, wetter, actually freezes in winter.  If I want citrus (and I do!), I'll need to have them in pots and haul them into the garage or shop each fall.  That said, the property has a couple blackberry bushes on site, and three mature (if overgrown) fruit trees, two of which I'm pretty sure are apple.  The third one I'm not sure on.  Peach?  Quince?  Its fruits are fuzzy right now, so who knows.  I do want more fruit trees, though, and blueberry bushes, and I think I can plant them away from the septic field.

I also to take out a good deal of the severely overgrown landscaping around the house and spruce it up with new.  Half-dead hedges and rhododendrons that are probably twenty years old?  Those gotta go.  It's a blue house, so I'm thinking yellow and white roses and lavender plants would be pretty?  And a picket fence in place of the hedge?  I also want to add beds around the house in the back and make them mixed flowers, herbs, and veggies.  Maybe a border of garlic chives all the way around might help deter the bunnies?

Next year, hopefully, we could put in a fenced veggie garden and maybe a chicken coop?

For right now, though, I'm dreaming and reading and researching and sufficing with potted plants in the apartment's two deep windows and out on the tiny patio. ^_^

A Bit of Progress

Today, after we got back from house-hunting, I bought my (and my boys') plane tickets... me for Costume College, them to have a few days with Nana and Gampa while I'm at Costume College.  And Wonderful Husband to have a week of peace and quiet while we're gone.

That said, I still haven't heard back from my theoretical roommate (I've texted her and left her a voicemail) so I currently have no idea whether I'm staying at College or driving back and forth to Fountain Valley and crashing on an air mattress at my parents' house each day.

I'm definitely not doing any costumes for College this year (big shock, I know).  My fabric and patterns are all buried in the storage unit, and I have no oomph with which to do that level of sewing.  That said, I did finally sit down for another spate at the sewing machine today, and finished off the last three green string blocks, for a total of thirteen:

Now I just need to decide what my next batch of sewing will be....

Finally, Some Sewing

I haven't stitched an inch since well before the move.  I've embroidered some, which is its own pleasure, but not the same for me as taking fabric and making it into something.

Last night, in particular, I was going to be missing one of the local guild meetings.  Again.  This time because Wonderful Husband is in San Francisco at a conference.  So maybe I'd just hit my tipping point of enough, because I plugged in the machine, pulled out the box of fabric that came to the apartment with us, and dug out one of the two projects in it, which is foundation-pieced 8.5" string blocks.

I was doing them as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I had sorted out all my green strings into a ziploc back in early March.  And fortunately my box of thread had ended up at the apartment as well!  So I threaded up the machine and set to sewing as I could and as little boys allowed.

So far, four green string blocks!

And when I finish them, I will only be two months behind on the RSC (blue and orange, apparently).  I wonder if the rest of my strings are maybe in one of the semi-accessible boxes at the front of the storage unit....

Kissing Frogs

According to my dad, house-hunting is like a fairy tale.  You kiss an awful lot of frogs before you find a prince(ss).

He's not wrong.

Our tally so far: weird layout; structural damage; too far away; weird layout; structural damage.  Plus two that accepted other offers the day we were to go look at them, and one (foreclosure) where the (bank) owner didn't respond to our realtor for an entire week, so we never got to see it.

Another Moving Day

Finally, two weeks after we moved into the apartment, our stuff arrived yesterday!

The boys' room is all set up.  Our bedroom is half-done (hooray for no longer sleeping on an air mattress on the floor!), and I have at least my main sewing machine and one box of fabric to play with.  And a cutting mat.  The location of my rulers, thread, rotary cutter, etc., have yet to be determined.  Many boxes to open and sort through here, as well as a storage unit stuffed to the gills.

I Aten't Ded

(Post title borrowed from Terry Pratchett's work.)

In short, we have sold our house in Anaheim, California, and moved our household up to an apartment in Gig Harbor, Washington.  Where we are now camping and hoping the moving company will call us one day soon and tell us they'll be delivering our stuff to us.  Thus, not really much going on beyond varying flavors and degrees of stress....

A Finish!

Haha, last night I finished sewing the binding onto the Spiraling Geese quilt, and finished dating the back.  It still has to go through the washer/dryer, but here it is:

It's still a bit wobbly at the edges (which it shouldn't be, as the striped/branch parts of the spiral were cut from the length of the fabric and therefore should not stretch), but I'm hoping that's just because of handling while sewing the binding on.  I'll wash and dry it today and see if the issue persists.

And here's the backside, with all the extra geese blocks pieced in so that I could stretch the blue backing material and make it enough.

Next, I think, is looking at the various orphan blocks I have and figuring out if I have enough to make a strippy quilt out of them....

Sunday Sunday

Not much sewing got done yesterday, other than continuing to work on binding the Spiraling Geese quilt.

In the evening, however, I broke out the book I bought from Edyta Sitar at Road to California (I will not get to attend her class in April, waaah! ;_;) and paged through it while the boys sequentially bathed.  This worked until Jazzy splashed water at it.  It is currently drying on the kitchen counter with paper towels between the pages....

We did take my parents out to dinner for my mother's birthday (which is actually today!), and some yardwork and laundry got done.  As did the relatively important transfer of the boys' birthday height markings onto a painted board which will be taken with us.

Stress Bunny!

If all goes well, our escrow will close on this coming Friday.  And then we have 29 days to pack up, find a new place to live up in Washington, and move out.

This is, as you might imagine, a tiny bit stressful.  So much so that I could not get to sleep Thursday night.  I finally gave up at a quarter after one in the morning, and got up.  And started cleaning and tidying what I could without being loud.  Went back to bed at half past four, finally fell asleep some time after five.  Friday night I slept somewhat better, but still not great.

Yesterday we started reaming out the garage, so we can get it organized and retrieve our things from the storage unit, as there is no way a moving van could get into the storage unit area.  A carload of stuff got taken to Goodwill, and our recycling and trash bins are now full.

Quilting-wise, I went through my bag of binding scraps and pulled out all the blue ones, as well as one piece of green to make up the length, pieced them together, and stitched it on to the front of the Spiraling Geese quilt.  I've started hand-stitching it down to the back.

A Few of My Favorite Strings...

Life.  Stuff.  Things!  But I have been forcing myself to sew (and to get in some Swedish and Japanese practice each night on DuoLingo).

In lieu of anything more project-oriented, I've been working on my project for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Which is taking my three big jars of scraps and turning them into 8.5" blocks.  Here they are as of last night:

I have nine red blocks and seven yellow blocks and not enough left of either color to do even one more.  So I'm counting that as a win.  They haven't been tugged and trimmed and pressed yet; I figure that can wait until further along in the process.

I am currently undecided as to whether I'll pick out another color and keep going for the week and a half until March's color is announced, or turn my energies in another direction.  Of course, I could try and catch up on the Tiny Tuesday blocks....

Tic-Tac-Toe

Fighting against not enough sleep, between pre-7am wakeups (cat, little boys) and staying up late working on finishing a story that I've left abandoned since 2013.  But that's done now, at least.  So, bed early for a while.

Yesterday I cut and sewed a sample block for Block of the Month at guild on Tuesday:

It's called Tic-Tac-Toe and I adapted it from a Quilt magazine pattern from 1995.  The original block was 15"... mine is 9.5".

That said, I switched back to the Singer Rocketeer for this, put on a new foot, and forgot to check my seam allowances.  So the sample block is about 3/8" too small.  Grr~!  Well, teaches me a lesson.  I used it for the picture on the handout, and will chuck it into my collection of orphan blocks.  I've cut out the pieces for three others (there's room on the display board for three blocks plus instructions) and will sew those up today, being more careful of my seam allowance.

Wednesday, Wednesday...

In escrow for the third time.  Had our house inspected yesterday for the third time.  Blargh.

In happier news, I pushed through and finished the quilting on the Spiraling Geese quilt:

Ginormous feathers in the ginormous geese!

As part of keeping myself busy during the inspection, I trimmed the quilt and pulled out my bag of bindings.  I have enough of the bright bindings already pieced together to do it, but I'm not sure.  I'll look at it all again later.  Right now I need to fill my head with a Pink Floyd song (Learning to Fly) in order to write a climax scene (narrative climax, not sexual) so that I can stop thinking about that one scene and go back to working on the stuff leading UP to that one scene!

monday, monday...

The boys' naptime yesterday was taken up with house stuff (offer #5...) so I didn't get stitching time until the evening, when I did get the second line of quilting on the alternate spiral done.  So now I need to tuck away the Rocketeer and haul the 15 and its table into place for some free-motion quilting on the geese spiral.  I wish I could say I made more progress on the embroidered tablecloth, but Squiddle's speech therapy session is just about the right length of time to do my writing class homework (editing my classmates' submissions).

I am pleased that my boys had their dental check-ups yesterday and have no cavities!  And especially that Jazzy's spacing issues are resolving themselves and his last baby tooth is just coming in, right on schedule.

I'm still keeping up on my Swedish and Japanese practice on Duolingo.  As I'm half Scandinavian, it feels a touch shameful that the Japanese comes so much easier, but then I did get a BA in the language once upon a time.

Oddball thoughts: if this offer on the house does go through, I'll be missing the workshop with Edyta Sitar by something like two weeks.  Alas!  As soon as I know one way or another I need to let the guild know so they can see if someone else wants the space.  On the other hand, it means I'll be up in the Seattle area in plenty of time for the PNW Treadle On Gathering, which is something I've been curious about for a couple years now....

A Tiny Bit of Quilting

Yesterday's two house showings turned into four - two in the morning, two in the afternoon.  So in between I put the walking foot on the Rocketeer, discovered the smaller bobbin tire does indeed make winding bobbins faster (though I still haven't gotten the handwheel clutch loosened), and filled a couple bobbins.  Then I set to the first line of quilting on the alternate (black/white/blue branch fabric) spiral of the Spiraling Geese quilt.

Except that I was quilting in the wrong direction, so that more and more of the bulk of the quilt was getting stuffed under the arm of the sewing machine, it went well.  The tree trunks on the branch fabric are straight, so they made for a wonderful guideline.  And for the second line of quilting on the alternate spiral, I'll be going the "correct" direction, so it should be much easier.  After that I'll switch over the the 15 and do free-motion quilting in amongst the geese.  I'm still debating between feathers and outline quilting.

I've also started going through the old quilting magazines (Traditional Quiltworks, Quilt, Miniature Quilts, and some of the old Aunt Martha's booklets) I got at Road to California.  Swoon!  So many exquisite vintage/traditional designs that you just don't see in today's magazines because they're not easily strip-pieced....

All Roads lead To Quilting

Woohoo!  Yesterday I went out to Road to California for the first time!  Despite the four-plus years I've been quilting, I've never managed to go before, and I had a good time, going with some friends from guild.  I spent too much, but I love the patterns and templates I purchased, and I only bought two small bits of fabric, both for gifts.  There were lots and lots of lovely quilts, some of which blew my mind to the point where I got into sensory overload and couldn't process them for a bit.  I did take plenty of pictures of quilts which had color combinations or patterns I really liked, so I have a reference catalog for future inspiration.....

I have also gotten the Spiraling Geese quilt basted, and I've fiddled with the Rocketeer so hopefully it will wind bobbins faster.  I have also unboxed the slant shank walking foot I bought for it, so hopefully today, after the morning house viewings happen, I can start getting it quilted.

One Step/Stitch At A Time...

Yesterday my mother and I resumed our usual Thrift Store Tuesdays.  Which surprised me, as she's only a week out from surgery.  But she broached the idea, and felt up to it, so off we went.  I was good and got no fabric!  She bought a new sun tea jar, while I got two blouses, some Lego for Wonderful Husband, a pair of unopened wooden alphabet puzzles (one a giraffe, the other a dragon) for Squiddle, who's starting to learn his letters, a new pair of shoes for Jazzy, who has recently outgrown two of his three pairs, and a couple of Muppets/Sesame Street Little Golden Books that we did not have.  By the end of the store, though, Mom was feeling pretty winded.

I've got the label written out for the Spiraling Geese quilt, so I should get that sewn on and get it basted.  And I've also started catching up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Tiny Tuesdays blocks.  I somehow fell three weeks behind!  But I cut, pressed, and hand-stitched on Block 2 yesterday:

The red circles fabric was initially used to make Squiddle a pair of pyjamas (which Jazzy has since inherited) and every time I use the scraps I think of those PJs.  Two more blocks to go and I'll be caught up!

Treading Water

Haven't been here in a few days. I apologize.  Life kind of got away from me for a couple days between my boys' classes at the community college starting up again, and my mother going into the hospital for a few days for surgery.  (All is well, she's out and recovering.)  Plus Friday I twisted my foot while going down the steps to the laundry room, and between that and a nice emotional stress breakdown I had to cancel going to Disney California Adventure on Saturday with my sister and niece.

Today is better.

Over the weekend I got a good deal (though not all) of the trimming done on the trees in the backyard and the bush in front of the electrical box.  I need to do more, but that has to wait until the yard waste gets picked up Tuesday morning and the bin is empty again.  I also got the backing pieced together for the Spiraling Geese quilt, using the extra blocks and a three-and-some-yards bit of blue fabric from the thrift store.  And I made cupcakes for Niecelet's birthday - cupcakes from a box, frosting from scratch.  Her birthday was actually yesterday, but we're celebrating today since she was at Disneyland yesterday.

A Finished Flimsy!

I sewed on the last two strips of the branch fabric, and the spiraling geese quilt is now officially a quilt top!

I've put together the extra geese for a strip up the center of the backing, and I have pulled out the two blues I'm going to use for the backing, so I can get that prepped tonight or tomorrow.  I'm thinking straight-line quilting in the branch fabric, and either feathers or outline quilting for the geese....

Cosmic Coincidence

Amusingly, the same day I posted a picture of my Spiraling Geese quilt, Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting posted a picture of hers!  I didn't even know she was working on one, so clearly this is some sort of meant-to-be thing, no?

Since we had an afternoon house showing yesterday, I didn't get much sewing done.  Everything got cleaned up and put away in the morning, then Wonderful Husband and I left our boys with my parents for a couple hours and went to see Mary Poppins Returns.  It was good, but felt different than the original.  Emily Blunt's portrayal of Mary Poppins felt much closer to the books than to the first film.  That said, there were two costumes of hers that I absolutely loved.  I must see if there's an artbook, or something, with details!  I was also charmed that Karen Dotrice (Jane in the original film) had a cameo!

And, somewhat relatedly, I submitted my class proposals for Costume College.  I had been e-mailed asking if I might reprise my blackwork class, and last year I was asked if I could teach a free-form embroidery blackwork class in addition to the counted-stitch class, so that was two, and for a third I offered to teach the Beaded Fringe Evening Bag class I haven't taught in a couple years.  As I'm expecting to have moved out of the area by then, classes with easily transportable supplies were on my mind.  Well, I'll know in a couple months what I need to prep supplies for.

Trudging Along...

I'm slowly trudging along with assembling the Spiraling Geese quilt, with 8.5" red string blocks as my leader/enders.  Here's a picture of where I was yesterday afternoon:

It's about as scrappy as I could make it: most of the duplicate blocks have been banished to the back.  I think I like it...?  Looking at this picture I'm less sure.  But regardless, I have three more strips to sew on, and then the top, at least, will be done.

I need to clean up the small heap of stuff by my sewing desk before the house showing today, but I did at least manage to take the old Comic-con booklet I had and cut it into foundation papers for more string blocks.  It's significantly lighter weight paper than the printer sheets I had used for the first two, which will make it much easier to tear the paper off the back later.

The boys (well, Jazzy, but since Squiddle isn't in kindergarten yet he comes with) started school again yesterday.  And while Jazzy's circle time attention span still isn't great, at least for part of the time where he wandered off to play on the rocking horses etc, he was actually still paying attention to the teacher.  Which is a good development.

After we got back from that, I started sewing the top for the Spiraling Geese quilt together.  I got maybe about a third done with it, but forgot to take any pictures.

I also started back with my schooling last night, with my novel-writing class starting up again.  I'm happy to still be here and attending it.  (I'm also kind of hoping that my burst of writing last week can be repeated with my novel as the focus.)  The teacher and her husband recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.  How's that for relationship goals?

January Guild Meeting

Yay, guild meeting last night!  I dropped a large bag of stuff (fabric, books) on the freebie table and most of it got taken.  I took a few new-to-me back issues of magazines to peruse.  I also turned in round two of the Round Robin project, and picked up my third round.

Here's what I turned in:

Apologies for the wonkiness of the picture - it was breezy this morning.

The center appliqued block was what was turned in.  Last month one of my guildmates added the blue and green diamonds border.  I flailed about until I found the pale grey marble remnant in my stash, then I machine-appliqued the scrolling bias vines, and pulled the leaves out of a bag of leaves and hand-appliqued those.  Looking at this picture now, I'm not entirely happy with it, but it's out of my hands and I have another to work on this month.

I did take in Jazzy's Galaxy Quilt and Squiddle's Tinkerbell quilt for Sew'N'Tell.  Good thing, too; the walls were pretty bare this month.  I guess most quilts that my guildmates might have made for Christmas presents probably left their houses....