Dear Jane — or Insanity as I call

More quilting

by Karen on October 25, 2009

in Dear Jane - "Insanity Revisited", Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call, life in general

I have been busy with all kinds of projects lately.  Yesterday we went shopping though and I didn’t do any quilting until evening.  I got a new computer!  It is a Toshiba Satellite.  It is a lot smaller machine that I had for the past 3 years.  A lot lighter too.  It will take a little getting use to but it sure works great compared to the one that has given me such headaches the last year.  It is faster and has more memory and a bigger hard drive.  Now if you ask me what I am talking about I will be  LOL and say all I can do is type (fast too) Mike set it all up for me.  I am computer illiterate.

The old laptop next to the small new laptop. The smaller size is better for me when we are traveling. Our motorhome is small and the table that I use for my sewing and computer use is not big. The old laptp took up the whole space. Also I wanted something smaller and easy to move room to room if I want to at home. I also found when flying to my daughter's house last month that something smaller sure would be easier for carting on planes - not that I fly that often but if I do it will be nice.

The old laptop next to the small new laptop. The smaller size is better for me when we are traveling. Our motor home is small and the table that I use for my sewing and computer use is not big. The old laptop took up the whole space. Also I wanted something smaller and easy to move room to room if I want to at home. I also found when flying to my daughter's house last month that something smaller sure would be easier for carting on planes - not that I fly that often but if I do it will be nice.

We had actually went shopping for a new table and chairs for the dining area if you remember me mentioning that the other day and we did find one – a little bigger than I wanted but I could find nothing the size I wanted in the right wood.  It is on back order but we should get it in about 2 weeks or less.  I have no photo’s but I will take a photo of my dining area when we get it set up.  I have to get everything hung back up on my kitchen walls and plan to get that done today.

I worked on one of my “Insanity Revisited” blocks last night and finished that block.  I have to try to spend more time working on that quilt and now that I am almost finished with “Insanity” I am sure I will.  On average each of these little blocks takes anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours to make for me doing hand piecing and/or needle turn applique/reverse applique.  That is including the preparation time of getting the fabric cut and marked for sewing.

Row 8 Block 6 I reversed appliqued all of the curves. I use a glue stick and glue the two fabrics in place so I don't have any pins in my way with these small pieces. Then I applique and when I am finished I cut away the excess fabric from the back.

Row 8 Block 6 I reversed appliqued all of the curves. I use a glue stick and glue the two fabrics in place so I don't have any pins in my way with these small pieces. Then I applique and when I am finished I cut away the excess fabric from the back.

With the “Insanity” quilt I did get a little more quilting done last night and it is moving right along.  I have 4 more pieced triangles to quilt, one cornerstone, and 4 plain triangles.

one pieced triangle and two plain triangles

one pieced triangle and two plain triangles

the scarf is growing. I am done with one ball of yarn and started the second. I'm not sure how long I will have it. I don't really need to use the whole of the second ball of yarn but I might. I will take the wait and see approach and keep draping it around my neck to see what length I like.

the scarf is growing. I am done with one ball of yarn and started the second. I'm not sure how long I will have it. I don't really need to use the whole of the second ball of yarn but I might. I will take the wait and see approach and keep draping it around my neck to see what length I like.

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Back to work

by Karen on October 22, 2009

in Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call, life in general

Maggie at Patchmaker Quilts is having a give away for her 100th blog post.  Go on over and see her blog.

Well after taking two days off or was it three from painting I felt like I could handle it today.  I finished painting the ceiling of the whole room.  The walls on the kitchen half still need to be painted and I will work on that tomorrow.  I’m not going to over do it!   Also I just got finishing painting the ceiling so it will stay damp for a while longer and I know I don’t want to start painting the rest of the walls at 7 this evening!

dining area before new paint job

dining area before new paint job

This is the dining area with the fresh paint.

This is the dining area with the fresh paint. I had wanted to go with something really different but then didn't like the darker paint that I had gotten so stuck with something neutral. Maybe I will change it next year to something darker. If I do it would be just the walls that I would be doing not the ceiling also. This time the ceiling had to be done as it had not been painted in about 20 years! I also got a new wall hanging hanger for my wall hanging on the wall. The lighting in the room hardly makes it look any different but believe me it is. If I had the lights turned off it was too dark to see it right. Go to the bottom of this blog post for a photo from a different angle to see what I mean.

I got done with some more triangles on “Insanity” last night and this morning.  It is coming along.  I have 5 more pieced triangles to quilt, 1 corner stone and 6 more plain triangles to do.

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a close up of the wall hanging.

a close up of the wall hanging. After seeing the photo I think I need to have Mike move the wall hanging higher up on the wall, means I will have to do a tiny patchwork maybe on the holes, but it will be just a tiny patch and dab of paint to cover them.

the lightening in the photos makes it look like the color is hardly any different than it was to start with so I took this photo from another angle where it meets up with the next area to paint and you can see the difference in color better. I'm still not completely happy with it and just might end up painting again next year and go to a darker more modern look - I will wait and see.

the lighting in the photos makes it look like the color is hardly any different than it was to start with so I took this photo from another angle where it meets up with the next area to paint and you can see the difference in color better. I'm still not completely happy with it and just might end up painting again next year and go to a darker more modern look - I will wait and see. It would only be one can of paint that we are talking about so not a big expense.

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Fall is coming early

by Karen on October 21, 2009

in Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call, life in general

I think it is anyway.  We have a large tree in the middle of the front yard that is normally one of the last that we have to turn colors and leaves fall.  It is not unusual for the leaves to wait until the end of November after Thanksgiving for the tree to loose it’s leaves.  I happen to glance up at it today when I was backing out of the driveway and saw it had yellow leaves in places and October isn’t even over yet!  Tomorrow we will have rain and if it is the least windy several of the trees in our yard will not have any leaves left anymore.  I don’t know about you but fall is coming early to my neck of the woods.  I will have to take photos of the yard later in the week when the rain clears to show.

I managed to get a little more of the quilting done on “Insanity” today.

A couple more triangles done - half done with the last border.

A couple more triangles done - half done with the last border.

I should have gotten more quilting done seeing as I decided to take one more day off of painting the kitchen but instead I got started reading a new book last night and it carried on off and on throughout the day.  Patricia Cornwell has a new book out - “The Scarpetta Factor”.  This is a continuation of the Scarpetta series that she has been writing for almost 20 years now – I can’t believe some of the books are that old now.

My new book

My new book

Well I guess I better get back to work on quilting for at least a little while.  One of my favorite shows is on in about 40 minutes and then I will do some knitting on the scarf.  I watch very few tv shows but “Criminal Minds” is one of them.  I don’t care for many of the shows out anymore and prefer to watch old reruns than reality and the comedy’s that are out now.  I don’t even like many of the dramas anymore.

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Painting continues

by Karen on October 18, 2009

in Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call

I have barely begun to paint.  First it was the color choice that was wrong and I ended up having to put two coats of primer over the dark color that I had first put up on one wall.  Now the color choice is right but we decided to repair a corner of the ceiling before I begin to paint.  What can I say – we have an old house that we are constantly fixing and remodeling.    My advice to anyone thinking of buying an old house to save money — don’t do it!!  You might think you are saving money as we thought years ago when we bought it but the constant work that you put in to the house makes it so you aren’t really saving at all.  If I could do it over again I would never buy an old house.  Hopefully the ceiling repair will be finished tomorrow and I will be able to start to paint.

I have only done a little work on “Insanity” since I posted the last photo and that was yesterday.  Doubt I will do any this evening.  I have gotten about 10 more rows of knitting done on the scarf though in between things and also I have gotten some applique done on the Baltimore Bliss 4th block.

More quilting on border triangles

More quilting on border triangles

On the topic of weather it was 38 degrees this morning – sure is feeling like fall in the air!

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Look at These Quilts – IQS show winners

by Karen on October 16, 2009

in Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call

I am just in awe of the talent shown at this show.  http://www.quilts.org/winners.html If you have time go through this web site and look at the quilts.  They are all so beautiful.

As I mentioned I was going to be painting today and something happened that has never happened before — I hate this color!!! I couldn’t believe it looked so different on the color card than when it was on the walls.  I only painted about a third of the ceiling which was supposed to be a  lighter color than it turned out –  it looks pink! that is right pink and on the walls were suppose to be a shade of rusty brown I guess you could say and it looks too pink also.  Yes I knew there would be a touch of pink in the shades but what it looked like on the card was just that – a touch of pink.    I absolutely hate it, I couldn’t believe how pink they both looked and now when I hold the card up to it – it looks exactly the same as the card – but for some reason when you hold the card away from it under a light it doesn’t look the same.  Tomorrow I am getting some white primer and covering it all up and will start again and find some thing different.  I am so glad I had not bought large amounts of the paint – once you have the color added and pay for it – it is yours, you can’t take it back (especially after you use a portion like I did).  I had thought maybe it would look different after it dried which is why I painted one wall and part of the ceiling  – but no way!  I can’t live with it like this.  Back to the drawing board for this project!  A learning experience :(

In between painting and letting it dry and going back and forth to look at the painted walls in disgust I actually got some quilting done :)

3 of the pieced triangles and two of the plain ones.

3 of the pieced triangles and two of the plain ones.

I will show a photo of the kitchen when I’m done with it :)

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Blue Sky

by Karen on October 15, 2009

in Dear Jane - "Insanity Revisited", Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call, life in general, weather

This is what we had today - blue sky for the first day in I don't know how long - it felt like forever in my opinion. It got up to 63 degrees and now here it is this evening and not a cloud in the sky. I could do with some more days like this.

This is what we had today - blue sky for the first day in I don't know how long - it felt like forever in my opinion. It got up to 63 degrees and now here it is this evening and not a cloud in the sky. I could do with some more days like this.

After I said yesterday or maybe it was the day before that my quilting was going to have to wait a couple days because of sore fingers – what can I say – I went ahead and started on the border last night anyhow and continued on to a bit this afternoon -

The first part of the final border of "Insanity" to be quilted. My fingers can heal next week!

The first part of the final border of "Insanity" to be quilted. My fingers can heal next week!

I also got one more block finished on the “Insanity Revisited” quilt, I am working on the 8th of the 13 rows of blocks to do on that one.  It will be another couple years of working on it in between other projects to complete.  I am in no rush with it but would like to keep working steadily on it.

row 8 block 5 of Insanity Revisited

row 8 block 5 of Insanity Revisited

Some have asked how do I accomplish so much – the answer is easy – no children at home, no grandchildren close by, no job outside of the home and a husband who is working a contract job right now with long hours which means I am not spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  I suppose I could clean the house more often but it isn’t really dirty if you know what I mean.  With two people in the house it is easy to stay on top of and keep things picked up.  Yes it could use dusting more often than I do but dusting is not a favorite activity.

I will be busier  this upcoming week and I will be in the kitchen more – but not because I am going to start cooking – today I picked up paint.  Yes the kitchen needs a make over :)   It has been absolutely years since any work has been done in the kitchen.  I took some before photos today and will take after photos next week hopefully.  It is not a large room but I am a slow painter!  When the kitchen gets done the bathroom will be next.  As I say I am a slow painter though and I take a lot of breaks.  All that reaching and bending my head backwards to do the ceiling will start up my neck arthritis again so I take frequent breaks to do neck stretches (and to pick up needle, thread and fabric).  Work will continue on all of the projects.

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Sunglasses – for a moment or two anyway!

by Karen on October 14, 2009

in Dear Jane - "Insanity Revisited", Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call

It did not rain today – so far that is, maybe tonight from the way I hear it.  The sun struggled so hard to come out today and it managed to break through the cloudy sky for a minute or two – just long enough for me to get the sun glasses out of my purse – and then it disappeared!  It did get up to 63 today though and without it raining I decided to take a much needed walk outside – not inside a building going round in circles.  The forecast does say that starting by the weekend we will have about 5 sunny days in a row – I will believe it when I see it – but we are due.  We need to some sun to dry up all this water that is sitting around.  I have no idea if we will be able to do any work outside again this weekend unless some of this water dries up!  I haven’t even ventured to certain parts of the yard where I can still see standing water!!  I’m afraid I would sink to the top of my shoes at least!

Last night I got done quilting row 13 on my Dear Jane “Insanity“  that leaves only one border left to quilt.  I am about to wear a hole in one of my fingers though so I think I will not quilt tonight and take a break and start fresh on it Thursday evening perhaps.

Row 13 blocks 13 & 12

Row 13 blocks 13 & 12

row 13 border triangles

row 13 border triangles

my scarf is growing! It really is coming along nicely. I think I have this knit stitch down really well.

my scarf is growing! It really is coming along nicely. I think I have this knit stitch down really well.

I got one more Dear Jane block pieced for my "Insanity Revisited" quilt. Now that I am getting back into it I am making progress. I will get another block prepped tonight.

I got one more Dear Jane block pieced for my "Insanity Revisited" quilt. Now that I am getting back into it I am making progress. I will get another block prepped tonight. This is block 4 on row 8 (H)

Mike has been working a lot of evenings lately so I have the entire evenings to myself – that is one reason for moving along pretty well on all of these projects.  Tonight I need to look over the fabric left over from the  Christmas Baltimore Album and see what I have for the backing fabric.  I might have to order something for it and if that is the case I want to do that soon.  The Dear Jane quilt should not be on the frame for much more than a week to 10 days and it will be done!  I can hardly imagine being done with it.  It has been a part of my life for almost 5 years!!

This morning before working on anything else I got the 4th Baltimore Bliss block prepped and ready to go other than making 8 circles – 4 of two different sizes.  Once that is done and glue basted in place I can start stitching it.

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And the Rain Just Keeps on Coming :(

by Karen on October 13, 2009

in Dear Jane - "Insanity Revisited", Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call, quilting links, weather

The weather just won’t give us a break – I haven’t seen the sun in days and it is raining almost every day.  The ground is saturated!  I can see I wouldn’t do well in states that have a lot of rain – I want my sun back!  The temperatures for Arkansas are below normal for this time of the year and has been pretty much steady in the 50′s most days instead of the normal high 60′s for this time of year.

Rainy weather is good for sewing though and I have been busy in the house working on that.  I actually dragged out my storage box with all the “Insanity Revisited” blocks and fabric and got back to work on those yesterday.  I had only done one block when I was traveling and had concentrated on the project of hand piecing the So Charming quilt – which of course is done but waiting in line to be quilted. I got two more of the Insanity Revisited blocks done between last night and today.

"Insanity Revisited" Row 8 (H) the first 3 blocks

"Insanity Revisited" Row 8 (H) the first 3 blocks

I also got more of the “Insanity” blocks quilted last night and this morning.  I have two more blocks of the final row to quilt then on to the last border.

Row 13 (M) blocks 9 & 8

Row 13 (M) blocks 9 & 8

Row 13 (M) blocks 11 & 10

Row 13 (M) blocks 11 & 10

I finished this 3rd Baltimore Bliss block the other day but neglected to get a photo of it until today.

I finished this 3rd Baltimore Bliss block the other day but neglected to get a photo of it until today.

Tonight I will get to work cutting out the pieces for the 4th Baltimore Bliss block and maybe get the block prepped to work on.  Also I want to quilt the last two blocks of   Row 13 on “Insanity” I doubt I will have time to work on the “Insanity Revisited” quilt tonight.  That one I hope to work more on than I have been doing, but I will try to fit it in here and there.

Of course now I am trying to come up with ideas for a jelly roll that I have and the Moda Bake Shop just keeps giving me ideas!! Too many of them of course.  You can click on the “jelly roll” words to see which one I have.  Right now I think my ideas all go to pairing the jelly roll strips with an off white or white fabric and do something easy like the “Sweet Menagerie” quilt that they posted today.

Then again maybe I just need to hold on to that jelly roll for awhile and concentrate on all the on-going projects!!

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Dear Jane, Knitting & Baking

by Karen on October 12, 2009

in Baking/cooking, Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call

A productive weekend seeing as the weather was nasty and we didn’t work outside like planned.  I am half way done with quilting the last row of blocks for Dear Jane – my “Insanity“!! It really and truly is coming to an end.  Here are the blocks I  worked on yesterday.

Row M blocks 3 & 4

Row M blocks 3 & 4

Row M Blocks 5 & 6

Row M Blocks 5 & 6

Row M Block 7

Row M Block 7

I am going to try to get more work done on this quilt later today.  I have quite a few errands to run today though and I am trying to daily go to the fitness center (Monday – Friday) and work my way back up to an hour work out.  I kind of let it slack for awhile.  Then I got use to physical activity when we were travel because we would take 2 or 3 walks a day and sometimes they were long walks.  At my daughters house for the week I was there I was walking a lot and climbing stairs as she has a two story house and a finished basement.  Lot’s of stairs which I am not use to.  The neighborhood was so nice for walking also.

Here I do not walk in the neighborhood – we live in the country and the road barely has any shoulder to speak of to walk on and we have some traffic of forestry trucks and other large vehicles go by.  We also have quite a few stray dogs which aren’t always very nice – not as many strays as there use to be but still enough that I do not like walking out here.

I have continued on with the knitting of my scarf although like I say I am just using the knit stitch instead of the pattern that I had intended to make.  Here is what it looks like so far:

the yarn is pur merino wool and it says kettle dyed if that tells you all that are into yarns anything.

the yarn is pure merino wool and it says kettle dyed.

Yesterday I caved in and did some baking.  It was chilly outside, drab and cloudy the day just called out to me to do some baking.  I made a large batch of pumpkin bread mix.  I made two loaves and a dozen large muffins.  Here is the recipe.  I like to use as many whole grains as possible without having too heavy of a loaf.  This recipe can be made with just white flour if you prefer.

Pumpkin bread with pecans. Pumpkin muffins with pecans and raisins

Pumpkin bread with pecans. Pumpkin muffins with pecans and raisins

Pumpkin Bread

2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 – 15oz can pure pumpkin (no spice added)
3 1/2 cups flour ( I used 1 cup of oat flour, 1 1/2 cups of graham wheat flour, and 1 cup of white flour)
1/4 cup of ground flax seed (you may leave this out of you don’t have it)
2 teaspoons of baking soda
2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of allspice
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cloves
2/3 cup of water (if you use the grains that I do I normally add just a little more water – maybe a 1/4cup)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins to half of the batter

I do not do anything fancy with mixing.  I normally just place the oil, eggs, pumpkin & sugar in the mixing bowl and whip until blended.  Then I add the dry ingredients in any order I feel like.  Pour in the water and blend until everything is mixed.

I poured mix into two loaf pans 2/3′s full.  Then with the remaining batter I added the raisins and stirred.  I made a dozen large muffins out of that portion.

Bake on 350, the loaves for about 75 minutes – check after an hour.  The muffins are large and I baked them for 25 minutes checking after 20 minutes to see how they were coming along.

I like to wrap the loaves and freeze – you may keep them frozen for up to 3 months (they won’t last us that long!) The muffins I also freeze and take one out as I want it for a quick breakfast or snack and pop in the microwave to warm up.

(I doubled the recipe to have enough to make the muffins also)

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More on “Insanity”

by Karen on October 11, 2009

in Dear Jane -- or Insanity as I call, life in general

In the last couple days I have spent little time on quilting.  I have gotten a book read, seen a movie and had an evening meal with dear daughter & son-in-law more than an hours drive away.  And of course I have been trying to learn how to knit once again!  Can’t say it is going that well, I have decided the pattern I was going to make was confusing for a first try.  That knit two, purl two was driving me crazy!  I have decided instead for this scarf to just use the knit stitch through out the whole thing – once I have that down I will make another where you knit one row and then purl a row alternating as you go.  Then I should have both stitches down in my head and maybe I can go from there!

On “Insanity” I have two triangles down and just about two more blocks.

Triangles on the edge of Row M - the blue marks are just from my wash out blue pen to mark quilting lines - I have been wetting it as I am done so the quilting lines show up in the photos and didn't use enough water - the blue does come out in the wash.

Triangles on the edge of Row M - the blue marks are just from my wash out blue pen to mark quilting lines - I have been wetting it as I am done so the quilting lines show up in the photos and didn't use enough water - the blue does come out in the wash.

Row M (the last of the rows with the blocks!!) blocks # 1 and 2. Number 2 isn't quite finished but almost so it got it's picture taken.

Row M (the last of the rows with the blocks!!) blocks # 1 and 2. Number 2 isn't quite finished but almost so it got it's picture taken.

I have been so busy looking at all of the photo’s on Amy’s Quilt Festival – it is time consuming.  I do not know if I will look at all of them, but I am trying to and have over 300 to go!! Amazing how many people post on it.  I love what I have seen so far.

Thank you to the people who have commented on my quilt that I showed for it.

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