weather

Happy Dance

by Karen on July 13, 2011

It is raining and only 80 degrees right now – wow after 100+ for how many days now – I have lost track and only one rain fall for my particular area since the end of May this is a reason for a little happy dance. Earlier today I was outside on the porch and thinking it was cool compared to usual – a balmy 92 Smile

Then all of a sudden dark clouds moving in – thunder in the distance, the smell of rain in the air – would it really happen?

A little on the deck – will it continue?

getting darker

Pouring so hard I couldn’t get a clear photo!

It’s running down the driveway – slow up a little bit and sink in the ground darn it!!

Here it is 15 minutes later and it is still pouring, thunder blasting, lightening in the air—I think some of it will soak in good enough that I might not have to water anything for a couple days at least. We actually have a chance of this lasting for a couple hours it looks like. I have lost satellite signal for the tv so will have to depend on the computer to tell me what the weather will be. I hope we don’t loose electricity – or get large hail –

Well we have already lost electricity once, and I just thought of a something that happens when it rains – we might just have to end up cutting the grass! we have only cut the grass maybe 3 times since early May.

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What a day

by Karen on July 12, 2011

in 2011 quilt projects, gardening, Inklingo, Joseph's Coat--Morning Glory, quilting links, quilts, Signature Quilt, weather

(I wrote this last night and scheduled it for morning)

Back up into the hundreds again today, I can’t keep up with the watering. We have had one rain that I can remember since the beginning of June other than a few sprinkle showers (the kind that stops before it hardly starts). I have flower plants that are dying much earlier than they normally do – even the ones that are supposed to be good in droughts like the Black Eyed Susan’s and Purple Cone-flowers. I try to mainly water early in the morning or late in the evening. I now have 4 soaker hoses scattered throughout the many flower beds and tonight I put one hose on a trickle by my dogwood tree for an hour or so and then the sprayer that gets a big area on to another area but turned down so it was mainly getting flowers not the yard. If the flowers that I sprayed tonight do not look good tomorrow I will give up on them – they are normally sturdy plants and should come back next year – the kind you can’t kill if you try Smile

Today I did not get done with everything I said I was going to do on my post this morning. I did not quilt Sad smile I really should have and at 10 PM I do not feel like it now, I’m almost ready to go to bed.

I did sew the backing together for both “Pave the Way” and the “Wedding Signature” quilt. Tomorrow I will get the small quilt basted – most likely with pins. This one is ready for the living room floor tomorrow to get pinned.

This is the backing for the wedding quilt, I didn’t have a piece wide enough for it either and I got that taken care of today.

I went through all of my batiks looking for pieces that will be put into the Joseph’s Coat quilt that I will be hand piecing soon. I think this will give me enough for a queen size combined with the light color background. I broke down and ordered some light color batik for the background from the Fabric Shack – I was going to use a white that I had but I would rather not mix two different types of fabric for this quilt – the the light batik will work better when using other batiks.

I did get some worksheets done up so I can decide on color placement for the Joseph’s Coat, I had to cut and paste a bit and make copies but it worked – I have about 10 copies now to use and decide color – this will be a queen size at least;

My friend Regina (no blog)I told you all last week o r so had won one of the $100 prizes in the candy bar boxes from the Fat Quarter Shop – well she got her winnings in the mail today – she sent me photos from her phone so they are not real clear but here is what she got. If I remember what she said right all of her goodies was packed into a tote bag and some small things were in it as well. Just look at all of this and drool right along with me, sampler box of 2 1/2 inch squares, that big big bundle of fat quarters, a jelly roll – can’t tell if that other one is a honey bun or if it is two jelly rolls, and is that some candy bars in the back? If she gets on here she will have to leave us a comment and tell us what all she got.

Congratulations Regina – what a great bundle of prizes!!

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I want hot dry summer weather!

by Karen on April 27, 2011

in quilts, weather

I am tired of these storms!! We were in the storm shelter two times last night – one around 6PM and then again around 8PM. Nothing touched down and we got tons more rain! The ground is so water logged – I brought the camera with me to the shelter and snapped off photos as we were on our way back to the house the first time – the second time it was getting too dark to get good photos. I would like to find out just how much rain we have had in the last 3 days.

In back of the workshop a little waterfall!

more water heading to the overflowing pond

Before the storms I got started on machine quilting the baby quilt! The sun was actually out and the windows open – about 66 degrees outside.

I will take some close ups when I work on it again. I am having to measure and draw lines on – the little thing that the walking foot thing attaches to broke – the plastic part where that little leg like thing is on if you know what I mean. No local store to buy one at, I will have to look for a new one next time I am out someplace that sells them or order one on line.

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Quilting, Piecing, Applique

by Karen on February 6, 2011

in Going in Circles, quilts, Red & Green Traditional Applique, weather

If it isn’t one project it is another, this past week I have been working on all three projects at once. Last night I was quilting on the big frame and wouldn’t you know it after being so careful to not have two colors next to each other I have these two circles of the same identical fabric right near each other. There were very few duplicates of the circle fabric and I thought I had them scattered about. Oh well, not changing it now!

After all I don’t think with this many pieces it will be noticeable! Just about at the top of the frame is the halfway mark so I am I would say 1/4th of the way with the quilting – lot’s of work left to do.

This is the 10th of the 12 needed Red and Green Applique blocks – I have some of the leafs left to work on (maybe during the super bowl – GO PACKERS!!) when the applique is finished there is some gold embroidery to do on the big flowers in the centers.

And “Geese in the Park” is coming along nicely – the first two rows on the left are finished – I think I will be putting 3 strips together at a time and then decide if I will try machine quilting in sections or if I will end up putting the whole top together and use my hoop for hand quilting.

Right now for quilting either way I am going to follow the zig-zag of the white maybe in three rows – color thread to be decided. The blocks to be decided.

We are getting some rain today and should stay in the 30’s so I don’t think we will get ice. Right now looks like it will turn to snow tonight and tomorrow morning – they are being very careful about Wednesday and not giving totals right now just saying it will be “plowable” what’s with that – just say we are going to get a lot and be done with it!! Why be cute, we have winter this year and we know it and are tired of it already Smile and it is only mid February – we almost always get snow at some time in early March the last couple of years and then it is done – hopefully it will be done this month instead.

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Snow and Quilting

by Karen on February 5, 2011

in quilts, weather

I think all who responded to my question of what do you do on a snowy day agree – quilting, sewing, cooking, baking, & reading. We ended up with about 3 or 4 inches of snow here – I didn’t get out the measuring stick to see – maybe I will do that later.

Here is what it looked like yesterday in the late morning, it continued to be a light snow all day, stopped for awhile then started up again before we went to bed.

This morning we woke up to this much:

My quilt top grew somewhat yesterday as I was playing with placement. I had cut too many pieces as I had mentioned and ended up with way more units than called for. The pattern says 7 across 15 down. Right now I have 8 across and 16 down and there are still leftovers. I am going to start sewing all of these together in long strips and see how big it is and then decide if I will continue to use up the extra pieces or if they will get set aside.

Right now I do not know if I will try to machine quilt this in sections or hand quilt on my hoop. For now I will sew the units into long strips and see what it looks like and then decide. If I machine quilt this in sections I would put together two rows at a time which I should be able to manage with the size of machine that I have – 3 rows at the most.

If you machine piece in sections do you have any special tips? I have heard that when you piece your strips together you should press open your seams – do you find that helpful. I have a book by Marti Michell “Machine Quilting in Sections” and I will get it back out and look over it before I make the attempt. I received the book about 2 years ago but have not actually looked through it all that much being a hand quilter. The book was given to me and I kind of just glanced through it without reading it. There are also 2 videos on her page I think that shows techniques also which I should watch first.

I am certainly not giving up my love of hand quilting, but I have been hand piecing less and machine piecing more – therefore I am accumulating too many quilt tops. I don’t want them to sit around for years and years before I am able to use them so I think I might actually have to start looking things over and decide what to do.

We might get two more snows this week!! Sunday it might be more rain than snow and then again on Tuesday night going into Wednesday – I tell you all of us in the south are getting tired of this stuff – we move to the south for various reasons – one of which is mild winters Smile what’s happening here!!

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Hand Work

by Karen on February 2, 2011

in Give Aways, quilts, weather

Pigtales and Quilts is having a sponsored give away you might want to check out this design wall. Tell her I sent you and I get another chance!

That Girl…That Quilt is also having a give away of a jelly roll go see her site to see what you have to do to win.

I decided I better take time away from the sewing machine this morning to get a hand work item ready – I go to a quilt group that will meet tomorrow night and then the usual one that meets on Friday morning and I didn’t have anything to work on – I don’t feel like having to bring my machine.

The next red/green block:

my stack of blocks that I worked on yesterday:

More ready to work on later and all week?

I finally got done with a row of quilting on the frame and gave the rollers a crank and got done with one side of the border last night – the borders are the part that take the most time.

Now for those of you in the north snow is a normal thing for you – but not as much snow as you got for the last two days. My daughter near Madison Wisconsin sent the following photos that I thought I would share – believe me having grown up by Lake Michigan in Wisconsin I do not miss this!!

My grandson standing by the backdoor this morning at 6 AM – no school today!

My daughter Jessica taking the dog outside this morning – looks like Marley got stuck in the snow

The back of the house – you can see where it all drifted from the wind – she said they had a two day total of 18 inches or there about.

Jessica told me that everything is closed today – I know that doesn’t normally happen – life goes on in the north no matter if you have snow or not – it is a fact of life.

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Star Crazy–Almost Done!

by Karen on January 21, 2011

in quilts, Star Crazy, weather

I have worked off and on all day on Star Crazy – well as you all know I have been working on getting everything put together in this quilt for the last 11 days now!! And I am still not finished. I can just put so many hours in on a sewing machine a day and it drives me crazy after awhile. There were a few days that I skipped working on it and concentrated on the baby quilt instead – which by the way is nearing the finish line also – just a little more to quilt and put the binding and it will be done.

Two more borders to go on Star Crazy. The next one is the background color – beige and that border is 4 1/2 inches wide. Then one more skinny border of the aqua. I have just about run out of space to show the quilt – it is taking up the whole area right now so the next time you see it I will have to spread it out on the floor. I hope to finish it this weekend or Monday. I’m not sure if we are doing anything this weekend so that is why it might not get done until Monday. The final 2 plain borders will make it look not quite as busy as it looks now I think. The final measurements are supposed to be 84 1/2 inches square – somewhere along the way I have lost about 2 1/2 inches and right now it is 73 inches square (or almost square that is.) Where did those inches go to? Most likely when I was attaching the star border – some of those blocks were not quite the right size – but who cares – this quilt is for me not the quilt police I had talked of maybe making it queen size but I decided not to. This will be a good throw size for an extra quilt on top of the bed on cold winter nights or whatever.

Our snow is still here. Funny only about 5 miles down the road and there was hardly anything left. Amazing up here on the ridge it has not gotten above freezing for two days but I was told that yesterday while it was snowing it was 36 degrees in town where here it was 32 dropping to 28. Then today it did not get above 28 here and it was well into the 30’s in town again. Maybe the snow will melt tomorrow.

I will be so glad to get done with this quilt top and the baby quilt. This big quilt will be added to the growing pile of quilt tops to be quilted. I think when I finish these two projects I will get back to quilting on the big frame – I have neglected it for a month and also get back to the Red and Green applique blocks. I will have 3 finished baby quilts stacked up waiting for a baby or a paying customer and 3 large quilt tops waiting in line to be quilted. I think other than the red/green applique quilt top that no other large quilts will be made for the next two years!! I must stick to wall hangings and baby quilts for the next several years!!

I do have one other couch size quilt to make and that is for my niece. She had been collecting some more signatures the last couple months since her wedding so I have not started her quilt for her yet as I wanted to make sure I had all of the blocks first so I knew how many I was going to be working with. She will get them to me soon I think and then I will get started.

Have a good weekend everyone!

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Sour Dough Bread and Snow

by Karen on January 20, 2011

in Baking/cooking, weather

A short while after we woke up it started to snow. We knew it was coming but I thought it would start as sleet first, but that only lasted a couple minutes and changed over. It has been snowing lightly since 8 this morning. You can see the snow coming down here in front of the workshop.

And the trees are covered already. It looks like we will get 2 to 4 inches of the pretty stuff ending late this afternoon.

Late yesterday afternoon I felt like making bread. The day before I was thinking sour dough bread so I got my starter ready. If you want to make the recipe you need to have a sour dough starter ready. This the recipe I like for it – I found it on a blog last year but I lost the site and can’t find it any longer – this was the recipe

Sour Dough Starter

4 cups flour

4 cups water

1 package yeast

Mix altogether, put in a plastic container with a tight lid and stir every day – make sure it is a large enough container for expansion. (If you want to keep using your starter – every time you take some out replace – for instance if you use one cup of the starter stir in 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water to replace. ) Your starter should sit at least 8 hours in a warm place to get it started then move it to the refrigerator. I made my bread yesterday by taking the starter directly from the refrigerator. You can take it out several hours or the night before baking if you wish and put the amount you are going to use in a tightly covered bowl and sit on the kitchen counter so you have it ready to use. I find it works pretty much the same no matter if it is cold or warm – my opinion.

The recipe I used I changed up a little bit so I will call it

San Francisco Mixed Grain Sourdough Bread

4 3/4 cup flour – I used 1 cup of wheat flour, 2 tablespoons ground flax seed and 3&3 /4 cup white flour — use what you want to equal 4 3/4 cups
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons softened margarine
1 1/2 cups of sourdough starter

In a large bowl combine 1 cup of flour, sugar, salt, and dry yeast. Add the milk and softened butter. Stir in the starter. Mix in some of the flour gradually. I use a kitchen aid mixer and can get it all mixed in fairly well before I turn onto the counter top for hand kneading.

Knead on floured surface using the rest of the flour and more if needed for about 8 to 10 minutes -

Place in a greased bowl in a warm area for about an hour to double rise. Punch down and knead just a couple minutes, shape into two loaves and put in greased bread pans. Allow to raise again for about an hour.

Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes until a nice browned color. Brush the top with melted butter. Makes two nice size loaves.

Slice and from the multi-grain flour it looks like this.

If you have a chilly house with some drafts like I do I find the best place to have my bread rise is in the oven! What I do is I fill the tea kettle with water and bring to a boil. I place a medium size bowl on the lower shelf in the oven with the boiled water. I put my bowl of bread dough on a rack above the water. I lay a folded towel over the burner on the top of the stove that has the vent so the steam doesn’t escape (if you have the type of stove/oven). This keeps the steam in the oven. The space is warm and my bread rises faster in the oven then out on the kitchen counter. I have heard of some people setting their oven on warm setting and doing it that way – I’m always afraid it might get too warm so I use the water method instead.

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Half Square Triangles

by Karen on January 13, 2011

in life in general, quilts, Star Crazy, weather

This step of the quilt top Star Crazy that I am working on is going to take a little bit of time and concentration – of which I do not have tonight! Attention span that is. I added the color strip around the whole top yesterday and started to play with the next step involving the hst’s. I got one row selected and all turned properly and stacked up to sew today. One thing led to another today and I didn’t get around to working on it until 5:30. I got that one strip sewed together but not connected to the quilt – what it looks like now:

A close up:

That half square triangle border is just pinned in place for now. I think I will get all four of this border done before I attach in case I have to change a couple colors around in the corner areas. I don’t want the same color/print to end up on the same corners. After this – is a skinny white border, then a border of smaller stars, then another skinny white border, another border of tiny hst’s! then a skinny border matching the light aqua that I have – then a white border then another thin aqua border – then – Done!

What else did I do today – a haircut that was a bit overdue, a run to the library to pick up some much needed books, a trip to the insurance office for last minute car accident paperwork. Monday I can get the tags and license plate stuff done – yippee that will take awhile – I am being very sarcastic with that remark. Any of you in the U.S. and especially Arkansas will know that for some reason the people in the revenue office that deal with paperwork for cars and stuff are greatly understaffed (or that is what it appears to be anyhow). A trip there to get new license plates, drivers licenses ect is dreaded as you know most of the time it will take a chunk of your time sitting on hard metal chairs waiting your turn and waiting for your number to be called.

Our cold spell of weather seems to be just about at an end for this time! Today got above freezing! Tonight one more cold night around 20 degrees then about 4 or 5 days in the high 40’s is coming – it will be welcome indeed.

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Quilting, Piecing & Cake

by Karen on January 12, 2011

in Baking/cooking, quilts, weather

I have been working on a variety of things today in between feeding the fireplace and keeping warm. What a cold night we had last night – down to 11 degrees and tonight to maybe get down to 5 degrees. My Wisconsin daughter laughed at me this morning and said that wasn’t anything compared to 20 below zero! and I do agree with her – I am a wimp and whining – just not used to this kind of weather any more.

So today I finished the center of the Star Crazy BOM assembly process. There is still a bit to go and I might get around to working on more of it today – here is where it stands for now. It is nice to have this much of it assembled.

EDITED: 3:19 OOPS! good thing I checked the directions and looked at the photo of the quilt one more time – almost forgot I have to add a strip of fabric all the way around the center before the hst’s

The next step is a skinny border of half square triangles. They have to be pointed in the exact location or it will throw the corners off. So glad that I laid the first border out on the design wall to look at it and compare with the photo as of course I noticed right away when I stepped back that I had started to turn them in the wrong direction about half way through the row –this row of the border is just stuck up there = they still have to be stitched.

Besides working on the sewing machine with this quilt I take breaks from it and go work on the hand quilting on the little quilt – I am about 1/3 done with it I think - The areas without the pins are finished.

And as I have in the title of this post – CAKE – every now and then I get a craving for chocolate cake. Last year I bought two fancy pans of individual bundt cake pans – 6 cakes to a pan. A very nice way to make cake and freeze some of it so I don’t sit and eat it all in 2 days = of course I had to have a break time and eat one of them Smile A little bit of frosting put on while the cakes were warm caused it to pool up on the little indention on the top, but that is ok – it tasted good!

The recipe – a chocolate cake in the old Betty Crocker cookbook with a cup of chocolate chips thrown in and a cup of chopped walnuts. Using these little pans I tried the amount of time that is normal for cupcakes 20 minutes but it wasn’t quite long enough so put them in for 4 more minutes – making it 24 minutes of baking time if you use pans like this.