It's A Block!

I needed a fabric fix.

I couldn't stand waiting anymore

so I took some of the scraps and matched colors and sewed.

I feel better now that I know

this is the way I feel most comfortable piecing quilts.

I'm a liberated quilter!

Well, a very new liberated quilter,

but piecing fabric together in such a way that pleases me

is what makes me happy.

I appreciate quilt patterns, but I like piecing this way best.

How about a block a day?

Every other day? Two a week?

If I make some blocks,

I will get to know how the fabrics should go together.

Sounds like a plan to me.

All these rocks were hiding under the leaves.

My brother and sister-in-law made the bridge.

The pavers don't really belong because they are not natural.

I'm thinking of moving them to the garden.

It is covered with leaves too.

Peaceful.

I would like a solar powered water feature.

The chickens like to wander around and over the rocks.

They check out the basins and have a drink.

Time to lock up the chickens

and go in the house and warm up by the wood stove.

The ladder is there so we can climb up

and clean the chimney cap when it gets clogged.

Doesn't happen very often. 

If you click on the photo

you can see the leaves are still on the garage roof.

As soon as it stops raining I need to get up there

and rake them off.

Smiles

Love and Hugs!

Christmas!

Look at all the lovely goodies

on the snack table.

It looks

so festive!

And here is the star

of the evening.

Is that a beautiful turkey

or what!

It tasted even better than it looked.

Master chefs

at works!

Those were great

mashed potatoes.

Where's the gravy?

Need any help?

Happy Camper!

What is this?

Merry Christmas!

Where is everybody?

At Last...

I told you I was going to get a photo

of Dolores and her quilt.

Isn't

she lovely!

What a cute smile!

Is someone tickling her behind the quilt?

We had a lovely Christmas, but as always the time went by too quickly and it was soon time for us to brave the roads and weather and head off for home. I do have more photos but I'm still not exactly sure about what I can post or whether I can use names or not. I know my daughter doesn't want anything to do with being on the blog. 

I still haven't figured out why some photos will enlarge when you click on them and some won't. I'll keep checking. I did finally find the About Me profile on the side bar. I had stuck it down at the bottom and it didn't show up... so I put it on the sidebar and even added a photo. I will eventually get a better one or at least a different one for my profile photo.

 What do you think about putting your whole name, city, and recognizable photo on your blog? I live in a tiny town and don't really want to become known as the lady who has "that blog." It must be easier in a city where you can kind of disappear.

I have planned this blog to be fun, informative, and eventually to be a journal that I will have printed and thus it will have a more permanent life than if it existed solely on the net. After all it could all go poof into the ethernet. I found a site that will scrapbook the blog. Take a look at the site and click on the pages and turn through the sample. Pretty neat, huh, and more fun than just getting the blog turned into a book.

Enjoy your day.

Smiles!

Lemons and a Quilt

My makeshift double boiler.

Hey, it works!

First I put this together and heated the water, 

then I added the eggs, sugar and lemon juice

to the smaller pan and placed the pan in the

bigger one with the bottom

in the simmering water.

And then whisked away nonstop!

(for about 10 minutes)

The recipe said until it thickens to the

consistency of sour cream...

eh... it was more like soft pudding

when I quit.

Here are the ingredients:

3 eggs

1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh)

(I strained the lemon juice)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tb lemon zest

1/2 cube butter

I had to keep whisking so the eggs

wouldn't turn into

scrambled eggs.

After it thickened I poured it into the bowl,

(I skipped a step here and didn't strain it to

get out any eggy bits --- guess I was so

good at whisking there were no eggy bits)

I then added the lemon zest and butter and

mixed it in until the butter melted.

I had everything room temp

so no problem.

Here is the finished product and boy does

it taste yummy!

I love lemony stuff!

I covered it and put it in the fridge

and the next day

it was just like pudding only better.

We had the lemon curd for breakfast

 on our buttermilk pancakes...

well Dad had jam, but that's just him.

There are lots of lemon curd recipes on the net

with more specific instructions,

so go ahead and give it a try.

All you need is a good arm,

or some help.

As promised...

Here is the blue and yellow quilt.

Isn't Jean cute!

I took this on Christmas evening 2008

Love + Hugs

I have to give my mother-in law a call

and find out if it is OK with her

to put her and her quilt

on the blog.

No eggs!

This is the second day the chickens have let me down.

There is still snow outside

so maybe they are cold

or

they are laying their eggs outside in the oak leaves?

I want to make the persimmon pie

so I sure hope we get some eggs tomorrow

or I am going to have to figure out

something else to do

with the persimmons.

Yea! it is raining!

Smiles!

Happy New Year 2009! and DIY

Well, almost... it is still Dec. 31st, but I don't plan on being up to post at midnight. So, I'm wishing us all a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year!

Here is a one day old Brahma chick to help bring in the New Year.

Peep, Peep, Peep!

We are going to celebrate with Pizza fresh from the best pizza

joint in town... well, the nearest town. I'm not looking forward to hearing gun shots and the sound of fireworks at the stroke of 12. Well, at least with the snow bits laying around I won't have to worry about any fire danger. Maybe this year things will be quieter. hope hope

After I have some pizza and post this, I'm going to make lemon curd, because we received a bunch of free home grown lemons and Fuyu persimmons. I have to do something with the

lemons... there is always lemonade, but I'll resort to that only if I mess up the lemon curd. Next I 'll have to figure out what to do with the persimmons. I tried one and it was so sweet! Kinda like a very, very, very sweet cantaloupe. I think they are 25% sugar. I need to find stove top recipes because the oven is not online. I'll let you know how it all turns out... hopefully with photos.

I said I would post about the Christmas quilts, so I will begin at their beginning: a photo of the hand pieced beige block and one of the layouts of the blue and yellow. My sewing machine broke and I began hand piecing the beige block out of scraps from the wedding quilt. I found that I loved hand piecing. I don't think I did a great job of it because it was my first attempt, but there is something very satisfying about holding the fabric close and taking your time sewing. When piecing or quilting, I hold the fabric in my hands and lap, no hoop, and use quilting thread and a long size 10 Milliners needle. I would like to use a size 11, but I can't thread the things. I try for even stitches and get about 5 to 7 per inch if you count the stitches on one side.

I wish I had been able to learn to quilt from someone in my family, but I learned mostly from searching for helpful quilt sites on the internet. I'm glad I did because I have found that my quilting leans heavily toward what is called Liberated Quilting. I do love traditional quilt patterns, but even more I love making up my own quilt patterns. I have only made three quilts. The wedding quilt was from a pattern, but the other two were from blocks I made from patterns, some blocks I made up, and then arranged them the way I wanted.

I have decided that if I want to get a quilt finished quickly I need to machine sew, and that is OK too. I have a new sewing machine that I love called The Heart Truth. Pretty nifty machine with 50 stitches and it makes great button holes. I'll have to get a photo of it and make a Heart Truth post. The sewing machine in the photo is of my old Singer Touch and Sew... the one that jammed. sniff sniff

I have included a photo of my built-in ironing board (from an old house in San Francisco) that I built into the wall here in my book/computer/sewing room. That was a fun DIY project.

Here you can see that while sitting in the chair I have access to the computer, sewing

machine and ironing board. Pretty neat! I built the shelf out of old doors and put the bookshelves on top. Needs painting.

The books are due to be sorted through this year and the dead computers need to be fixed or taken to where ever dead computers and monitors go to lead their afterlife.

I am going to try and post 5 photos with this post, if that doesn't work I will post the photos by themselves. I'll get the hang of this eventually. oh yeah (PS ... my daughter informs me that 5 photos are too much for blogger to handle, but I am trying anyway. So far I have three photos posted, but the two of the quilts keep going poof... Yea! I just got the last one! Save Now! Bye)