This and that

Today I got back to quilting. It felt really good to be in the sewing room. After Jo's Little Women's Club I did some quilting on the customer quilt currently stretched onto Gandalf's table. Then I finished prepping April's and May's blocks for Jan Patek's 2009 mystery quilt. The flower arrangement is for April and the bee skep for May. I finished the appliqué on the February and March triangles, so they will be sewn to the center tomorrow.





My patio garden is growing very, very well. I've already used some of the herbs in cooking - Italian parsley and cilantro. What fun to step outside to pick them fresh for immediate use! We've had four ripe strawberries, with lots more to come. The birds got the first one, but Fred and I shared the other three. The tomato plant was blown over in the short, violent storm we had about 10 days ago, but it doesn't seem to have minded. I need to pick up some stakes so I can tie it upright again - in the meantime it's leaning against the support for the patio cover.

I've started walking to Starbucks again - this time going the longer way so it's close to a 4-mile round trip. Today our neighbor tuned up my bicycle, so tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Kim about three blocks away, and we'll ride to Starbucks together. I need to add the exercise to help me get into shape while I lose weight.

Speaking of losing weight - I'm now 3 pounds from my WW goal of 164 pounds. I've lost a total of 39.2 pounds - feels great! A couple weeks ago I spent the day shopping - buying new clothes for the summer and also for our August cruise to Alaska. I'm feeling so good about the way I look. I plan to attend the WW meetings indefinitely - this time I'm determined not to put the weight back on again!

So what have I been cooking? Well, today was tilapia fillets roasted on the grill in foil packets. In addition to the fish the packets contained orange segments and tomato wedges flavored with salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. Tilapia is pretty flavorless, so the sauce really helped. The cold salad was orzo, shrimp and broccoli florets tossed in a sauce made from pesto, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. A glass of white wine rounded out a dinner that totalled 10 points - not bad at all! And very filling. The recipes are from two different WW cookbooks and are copyrighted, so I can't pass them along.

One thing leads to another

We had a Weber kettle years ago. Loved that barbecue! I even did a few Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys in it. When it wore out we replaced it with a gas grill. We bought a $199 "special" that I thought would be so much better than the Weber.

It wasn't. It cooked hot dogs and hamburgers OK, but I gave up on anything else. Cooking with indirect heat was a joke - things too close to the fire burned and things too far away weren't cooked. I gave up. We didn't use it at all the last two summers.

I missed cooking outside and eating wonderful barbecue. I told Fred last fall that I wanted a new grill this spring when our income tax refund arrived. We got a HUGE surprise when we learned that a considerably bigger refund was coming than we expected (hence the new things in the kitchen too).

I did my research at the library, online and at quite a few different stores. I was determined to get a good barbecue this time. And this is the result. I especially love the color! I'm very eager to give it a

One thing leads to another I guess. I borrowed the neighbor's power washer to clean the concrete slab out back that was supposed to be a patio. What a difference! The slippery moss that loves to grow on the covered north side of the house in our wet climate is gone. Once that was done the grill moved into place.

I decided to try growing herbs in pots this summer as I've started using fresh herbs a lot in my cooking. Figured I'd add strawberries and tomatoes while I was at it. The pots look so pretty all lined up in a row - tarragon, marjoram, flat leaf parsley, thyme, dill, rosemary, sage, mint and chives. I still need to get one more pot for mint - can't forget mint for summer drinks! The bigger pot in the corner holds a grape tomato plant, and the strawberries are in a hanging basket. I can hardly wait to start harvesting!

When I stood in the door and surveyed my handiwork I figured something was missing. We've never had room for a patio set, but I figured I could fit in a bistro table and chairs. So back to the stores I went - looking and looking for something that would work that didn't cost a fortune. I'm thrilled with the result. It's going to be so nice sitting out here for brunch or a casual dinner.

I have hanging baskets of shade loving fuchsias and impatiens. Since I don't do ladders they are waiting for Fred to hang this weekend. Now we are all set for summer!

I've been busy

Let's see - what have I been doing since Saturday's post? Still pressing fabrics. I had more than I thought because when I went to do laundry on Monday I found a big load of fabrics in the dryer - I thought I'd taken out the last load! So I ironed the rest of the afternoon and evening on Saturday.

Sunday I started my friend Kathi's quilt. I thought I could finish it in one day - wrong! I spent about 6-8 hours on it Sunday, then finished in three more hours on Monday afternoon. I'm so glad to have this done - Kathi is so glad to have it back - and I'm happy to say she liked what I did to it very much. I was very relieved - Asian just isn't my thing when it comes to quilting, so I really didn't know what to do. I was right - the quilt started talking to me as soon as I started doing the anchoring stitch-in-the-ditch.

Monday morning I watched Joseph while his dad took his mom to physical therapy and a doctor appointment. I needed to head north to Momma Made It in Longview to pick up 80 more "opportunity quilt" tickets for a guild fundraiser. I'd unexpectedly sold 140 tickets in about 10 minutes - a huge surprise! - and all I had was 60 tickets. Of course, I can never go to Momma Made It without spending money, and this was no exception. I'm making sure Joseph feels very comfortable in a quilt store LOL! I didn't take a picture of the new fabrics - rats!

We've had spectacular spring weather the last few days - it reached 80 yesterday and Monday! - and the flowers are so beautiful. I just had to take pictures to post - I'm practicing with the macro setting on my camera. Spring flowers are my favorites - I love the blues of grape hyacinths and windflowers, the yellows of daffodils, tulips, and forsythia, the reds of tulips and rhododendrons, and the purples and pinks of azaleas. And the trees are so beautiful - the crab apple in the front yard and the apple and cherry in the back yard. I ran all over taking pictures. The beauty of the macro setting is that most of the time the weeds don't creep into the pictures! I can't get down on my knees right now to weed, so we are having a neighbor boy clean out all the beds and move some plants for us. Then I'll have him put down new bark dust and plant other flowers for me. I can hardly wait for it to be finished!

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Gratitudes:

1. Rebecca's recovery is progressing well

2. Breakfast with a friend

3. Continuing discovery of new joys while cooking

4. Weight loss going in the right direction

No more sewing for this gal . . .

Oh well, I had great visions of getting at least one more customer quilt finished this weekend, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. At least I have it loaded on the machine and all ready to go.

Saturday morning I worked outside about 4-5 hours. I pruned the crab apple tree, which looks MUCH better. I deadheaded all the spring blooming perennials and the iris. I dug the holes for the rest of the petunias, marigolds and phlox, but it was getting too hot, so I didn't do the actually planing until after dinner. Fred spent the morning taking all the tall, overgrown perennials - Siberian iris and some kind of daisy - out of the bed on the east side of the driveway.

Yesterday morning I planted last of the flowers and cut up all the crab apple limbs for the yard recycle. Then I put Preen, a weed inhibitor - on all the beds. About the time I was going to call it quits Fred came outside to see how I was doing. (He'd been inside doing school work all morning.) As soon as he saw that the beds were finished he hopped in the truck and went for bark dust. So we spent the next 5 hours spreading two yards of bark dust. We still need one more yard for the east of the driveway and the west side of the house, but that will wait until next weekend. We were just too tired and I was too sore to do any more - besides, City Bark was closed by 4:30. I hopped in the shower and Fred went to the athletic club to shower, and then picked up Subway for dinner

I'm very happy with how things are looking. I just wish we had a front porch - even a tiny one - so I could sit outside to stitch and enjoy looking at all our hard work. Right now the annuals look a bit puny, but with regular doses of fish fertilizer and regular deadheading they will spread marvelously over the summer. For the first time in several years we'll have a front yard to be proud of.

I planned to quilt this morning but I'm hurting too much. Sure shows I need the exercise! So I'm reading blogs and drinking coffee instead. We head to our son's at 11:30 for an early birthday celebration - and of course a visit with Sophie! I can't believe my baby will be 31 tomorrow!

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Gratitudes:
1. Seeing the results of our weekend labor
2. Fred's help with the yard
3. Kids who let us put two containers of stuff in their yard recycle bin
4. New quilting magazines to read
5. Four day weekends

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I'd forgotten how much my body can hurt!

I love having a beautiful yard with beautiful gardens all around. When the children were very small I a created decorative beds all round the back yard and filled them with vegetables and fruits. The front yard I filled with flowers and evergreen shrubs. I stayed home for 6 1/2 years and spent much time keeping the entire yard looking beautiful. My father always had beautiful flowers all over our yard when I was growing up, and I inherited both the gardener genes and the love of flowers from him.

It's been almost 20 years since I've been a stay at home wife and mom, and the yard really showed it. Fred mows the yard and sometimes trims the edges of the beds, but he really doesn't like yard work at all. For a long time I tried to keep things nice but just didn't have enough time. I'd go crazy with yard work for a weekend or two - working from dawn until dark - and then spent several days recovering because I could barely walk due to the muscle pain all over my body. Then when the heat of summer hit I didn't want to be out there at all. The backyard went to pot first, and now grass has grown over almost all of my gardens. For some time we did better at keeping the front yard presentable, but it too began to rapidly deteriorate when I started spending more and more of my free time quilting. First I discovered the Internet and joined several Yahoo quilting groups, and I started spending much more of my "free time" quilting. Then I discovered folk art and primitive quilting, learned to machine quilt, and then got a longarm. From completing only one or two small tops every year or two, I once again started sewing like a mad woman. I spent no time on the yard at all, and refused to listen to the little voice of guilt telling me things needed attention.

The front yard got to the point where I couldn't bear to look at it. All the perennials I'd planted were in desperate need of dividing. Grass had crawled into all the beds. The edges of the beds had totally disappeared. I could fool you with close-up shots of pretty shrubs but I never took shots that showed the true mess things had gotten into. My artist's eye was crying in pain whenever I looked out the front window. A week ago Friday I decided enough was enough. I called a local landscape and nursery business and asked them to come give me an estimate on the cost to clean all the weeds and grass out of the beds and re-edge everything. I knew I'd never be able to do it all even if I had the time - my body is MUCH older now that when I gardened every day. Their estimate was very reasonable, so last Monday I had them do it. They'd almost finished by the time I came home from work, and the results were remarkable. Money very well spent! Most of what was left to do was the fun stuff - shopping for plants and getting them in the ground. Our weather has been beautiful, and I could hardly wait.

Friday I bought large trays of petunias and marigolds at Costco. Then after coffee yesterday morning my daughter and I went to Home Depot and went crazy. I bought two beautiful hanging baskets - they'd given me one for Mothers Day - as well as a huge cart full of plants. Spirea and azaleas to replace several that had died in the ice storm winter before last. Several kinds of perennials to fill in bare spots in the beds. Geraniums and sun-loving impatiens. Lots of other little annuals that caught my eye. Plus a new wheelbarrow, as the handles on ours had rotted away after 30 years. It was a good thing she'd driven her truck as we totally filled it.

When we got home I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then started to plant. In no time at all my body started to protest. I've been incredibly lax at exercising - very bad, I know! - and in no time at all I was breathing hard and my heart was pounding from spading. We have heavy clay and hardpan, so gardening has always been a challenge. I started by dividing and transplanting perennials that I'd planted originally in an inappropriate place for their height. Then I did a severe pruning on our pink dogwood, getting rid of lower branches that crowded out the plants growing below the tree. Next I started planting the larger plants. Every 20-30 minutes I had to stop to sit, rest, and drink a bunch of water. It was slow going. I was starting to feel every year in this 60 year old body. At least I got smart and stopped about 4:30 even though I wasn't done - something I'd never have done even 2-3 years ago. I filled a tub with hot water and climbed in - by then my legs could hardly hold me. Fred went to Subway and got us sandwiches for dinner. I was so tired, but in spite of taking Advil I slept poorly due to muscle pain.

It rained overnight and was obviously going to rain more today, so I was back out this morning about 7:30 planting the rest of the larger plants and all the small annuals I bought to go along the side fence. I would have kept going but it started raining in earnest by 8:30 - good thing for my body I think. Now everything's in but the petunias, marigolds, and some pretty little purple and white flowers that weren't labeled but look sort of like a dwarf phlox. I wasn't going to take pictures until I was totally done, but I don't like to post without pictures so I went outside to take a few. The rest will have to wait until this next weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. I bought some stuff to sprinkle all around the plants which should keep weeds down for 3 months, and then we'll get a load of bark dust to finish it all off. I still have to deadhead the early spring perennials and trim a bunch of shrubs, but then I think I'll be done for the time being. I may have to buy a few more plants to fill in holes but I won't know for sure until everything else is planted. My goal is to have it all finished by Memorial Day.

In the meantime my body is crying from the abuse I've given it yesterday and today. I did finish quilting the quilt on the machine after I came inside this morning - I don't suppose that helped much. None of our chairs seem comfortable enough to sit in right now - and I know it's just me. But I keep looking outside and seeing how much better things look, and the pain is worth it. I just hope it's gone by next weekend so I can bend over again to sit on the ground and get back to work!

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Gratitudes:

1. Wonderful rain today - the yard needed it!

2. Three charity quilts quilted

3. Flowers!

4. A hot soaking bath and a glass of wine

5. A new Quilt Sampler magazine

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A question of patience

Do you consider yourself to be a patient person? If so, are you always patient or does the particular situation make a difference?

So often when I mention that I quilt the person I'm talking to says something like this, "I could never make a quilt. I'm not nearly patient enough." My response is always the same. "It takes impatience to make a quilt. You must have a desire to see what it will look like when it's all finished. Otherwise you'll never stick to it long enough to finish it." The last person I said that to was one of our new employees at the credit union who'd just finished taking my class. I got to thinking about her statement and my response, and for the first time I asked myself whether or not that was really true.

Most people consider me a very patient person, because anyone who teaches other people how to do anything must be patient. And when it comes to my students I am always patient - even when I have to think of a third or fourth way to explain something because they didn't "get" the first two or three explanations. But outside of work and outside of teaching I'm the most impatient person you can imagine. I have trouble waiting for things I've ordered to arrive in the mail or by UPS. If we are expecting guests and they don't arrive right when I expect them to I begin to worry that something might have happened to detain them. And when I get involved in a project - especially one I'm excited about - I find myself dropping everything else in order to get that project done. It's like I'm driven - I block out everything else.

You'd think that would mean that I have no UFO's right? Because I'm driven to work on one until it's finished. You know by my sidebar that it isn't true. If only it would really work that way. Instead I find myself driven to accomplish a set goal, but the goal is often something other than finishing a quilt.

Take today for example. I was supposed to be upstairs quilting. I even got up early - about 6:30 am - so I could get a good start. I told myself I'd just trim a few more triangles so I could clear off the cutting table. Then I decided to trim until my daughter came to take us to coffee. Then it was just until the DVD I was watching was over. Can you see the tendency here? What I REALLY wanted to do wasn't quilt - it was to get those triangles finished. So I did - about 3:30 this afternoon. Something like this always takes way longer than I think it will. I've posted a picture of results of my efforts. Who was I kidding when I happily (and proudly) said I'd emptied an entire plastic shoebox by sewing together these triangles? Now that same shoebox contains half-square triangle squares, all trimmed nicely and waiting for the next step towards becoming whatever they are going to be. They range in size from 1" to a bit over 2". And the shoebox is right back on the shelf where it was originally when it was full of triangles.

I'm telling myself I did accomplish something - after all, they are just that much closer to becoming part of a finished quilt. But there they sit, because I don't dare start stitching them together. If I do I'll become driven to complete another goal - sewing them all together into a finished flimsy - and I still won't get any quilting done. So I'm calling it quits for now - especially since the second Yankee-Mariner game is about to begin. I'll take the laptop upstairs, sit in the recliner, and read blogs while I watch baseball. Notice that still doesn't have anything to do with quilting a flimsy. Tomorrow morning I'll go upstairs to load a quilt on the machine - at least that's what I'm thinking tonight.

Obviously I have way too much patience when it comes to quilting all these flimsies. So I guess what I said is true - I have to be impatient to see them finished or I'll never stick to the job required to get them done. So tell me - what do I need to do in order to be impatient when it comes to quilting these tops?

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Gratitudes:

1. Azaleas and rhododendrons in bloom

2. A tasty new rub and barbecue sauce - a gift from a casual friend

3. A glass of white wine

4. A box full of triangle squares

5. A new pedicure

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