Saturday, August 27, 2016

Music in the Backyard

Today we had a few friends over for a potluck and some music making along with some new music makers. It was a lovely day to spend in the backyard visiting with friends and listening to stories and music. Later in the afternoon after some had gone home those who were still playing were all on the stage and I managed to get a video of part of a song sung by Alison you can hear it here Music on High Noon Stage . She has such a rich voice it was wonderful to listen to her. I hope the new group comes back they were a lot of fun and added to the music.
Last week Mama cat brought out here new kittens from where ever she had been keeping them and I finally managed to capture a picture of one. She has 3, two Black and White ones and one grey tiger striped one. They are sure cute and run really fast when I try to get outside to get a better picture of them.

Yesterday I spent some time in the quilt room and managed to get 4 Kitchen Hand Towels done. I need to get a few more finished and a couple of other things made up and I'll start putting what I have so far up on ETSY. When I do that I will include a link so you can check it out and hopefully give me some feedback on what you think of my ETSY site. Well, it has been a long day here so I'm off to take a hot shower and read for awhile before sleep.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Where has the Summer Gone


Here it is the middle of August already and before we know it winter will be here. I spent the last several days cleaning out the small bedroom so we can put the new queen size adjustable bed in there. In case we should get overnight company they now have a place to sleep. The bed will be delivered Friday.


I dried apricots and with a second batch I made apricot jam. The jam is really good. If I'd known it would come out that good I would have made some sooner.

 I ended up with 12 8oz jars of jam and 4 baggies of dried fruit.
I'm hoping to get all my "have to finish chores" done so I can sew on Friday and the weekend. I am the program for the quilt guild this month. They asked me to demo the Accuquilt Go cutter so I will be putting a program together. I'm also doing the quilt block for August and providing the drinks (fruit juice) for after the meeting. DH has been traveling and should make it home Friday night which is his birthday. So there will be pinto beans and cornbread for dinner.


Have been learning my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. So far I've, made pinto beans, rice, popcorn and this morning I made steel cut oats for breakfast in it. Next I am going to try yogurt and cheese cake. I used the new Electric Water Bath canner to do the Jam and it worked like a charm. It has a spigot on the side so you set it up by the sink and when you are done canning it drains almost all the way right into the sink.

The other news around here is Mama Cat (stray who adopted us) has 3 new kittens. I was only able to get a good picture of one of them this afternoon the other two are black and white. Will show you pictures when I'm able to get some they move so fast it is  hard to get a clear one. Can't get outside to take one they scatter when the door opens.

Well that about covers the last two weeks around here what have you been doing in your neck of the woods?


Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Summer Chores

Here it is almost the end of August and winter is not far away. The last few days I have been gifted some Apricots and Plums. Since canning can't be done on the new stove top I am dehydrating the Apricots.

Yesterday while visiting friends I learned that there is an Electric Water Bath Canner so I will be making jelly with the plums when the new canner gets here on Friday. If you want to check it out you can find it Product Detailson Amazon. I didn't even know they made this I sure am glad to find it.


So last week while DH was in Pittsburgh I cleaned out the back bedroom which had become the catch all. Discovered there were mice making themselves to home which wouldn't do at all. So I had to haul everything out clean, buy a couple of new stands to put food on, wash all the jars, cans and boxes of food that were still usable and put everything back. In the mean time between the sticky traps and the cats we have done away with about 8 or 9 mice.  This is the after picture. Still have some arranging to do and clean out the closet which houses my yarn storage. We will be putting a queen size adjustable bed in there so when we have company they will have somewhere to sleep.

Our county fair just finished on Saturday.  I entered a couple of quilts and they each took a Blue Ribbon. So it has been a good month so far. I had a birthday the 1st of August and DH will have his on the 19th. So that is pretty much what has been going on around here. What's happening in your neck of the woods?






Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Update on Echo

About three and half months ago Echo came to live with us. I can't thank Nichole enough for thinking of us when she needed to find him a new home. He has settled in and now thinks of our house as home. He has in the last couple of weeks become very playful with me and tries to get the cats to play with him. They just look at him with horror and run and hide. (After a few choice words)

 The picture on the left is Echo in the quilt room. He likes to spend time there while I sew and wants to check everything I am doing in case it is edible. Then he lays on the rug and naps until we are ready to leave.

The next picture is Echo in the backyard up on one of the tables. He likes to get up there and take his afternoon nap. From there he can see the back door, the drive, the canal, and the bottom field.

The bottom picture is Echo working on his rawhide bone. In the evenings he comes in and has a rawhide treat and when he is finished with that he curls up and sleeps until bedtime.  He has become my companion and is such a joy to have around. When DH travels it is really nice to have him for company. Unlike the cats he lets me know if someone is around before I am surprised.
We took him to the vet and he is healthy and has had his teeth cleaned. We walk everyday usually a half a mile and some days we do a mile. He really likes the walks and has met several of the neighbors. He really likes the kids down the street, but doesn't always see them when we walk by. So that is where we are at the moment. Now I can't imagine life without him around. If you want to know anything else let me know.


Thursday, May 26, 2016

Catherdral Windows Class

Thursday 9 hardy souls from Magic Valley and Mt Harrison quilt guilds gathered in the McGregor Building at the Rupert Fairgrounds to learn how do make a Catherdral Windows block using a method Billie K from the Desert Sage quilt group in Twin Falls came up with. I think I can safely say that the class was enjoyed by all. We had a good time visiting while we sewed and I think everyone completed their block or were almost done by the end of the class. The block below is the one I finished. My husband really liked it and wanted to know if I was going to make a quilt. I think that I might do a table runner or a wall hanging, but will have to think about a quilt.

The two picture below are pieces to make a Bonnie Hunter quilt called Blue Ridge Beauty from her Scraps and Shirttails Book. I cut more pieces because I wanted more variety in my blues and neutrals. So now I probably have enough to make two or three quilts. I used my Accuquilt Studio to cut the second batch of pieces and it was so much faster than the first batch using a ruler and rotary cutter.

So that's what I have been up to lately. What have you been doing?





Saturday, May 14, 2016

Pioneer Farm Days in Declo, Idaho

Yesterday and today Pioneer Farm Days were held in Declo, Idaho. They have old buildings, old buggies and wagons, and show you how they used to do things. There is music and food. My Dh talked to the man building a stagecoach which he hopes to have finished in time for it to be in the parade at Declo Days. The top left  is the picture in it's current state of construction. Then there are a couple of pictures of some of the wagons on display and a man showing how they repaired leather items. It was an interesting display and makes me greatful for the modern way of life we now have. It was warm, but we had a nice breeze so it wasn't to bad.

 
 


Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Saturday Accuquilt Workshop

Saturday was our first workshop of the year and we had a good turn out. I reserved a classroom at the fairgrounds and invited my Accuquilt customers and anyone else I know who has an Accuquilt to come spend the day sewing and using their Accuquilt Cutters and dies. Kellie and her Mom have been coming since I did the first one. Kellie was working on a double wedding ring quilt with 30's fabrics.
 Dena had gone to the Dollar Store and purchased some placemats to decorate for her young relatives to have come Christmas time. The one here I did today after seeing her idea. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the other projects. Linda was working on a quilt for her Granddaughter and Liz was working on fabric gifted to the quilt guild which she was using to put together some charity quilt tops and Julie was working on a baby quilt for a new grandchild. I didn't hear what Anne was doing, but it was really nice she could make it and have some fun with us. I'm looking forward to seeing some finished projects.
These are the placemats I purchased today to do some decorating on. The colors didn't come out like they should have they are black, lt green, brown, beige and red.
So have any of you purchased and use an Accuquilt system. Any fun projects to share?

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Spring Comes and Goes

Is your spring as confused as ours? You never know what to expect weatherwise here. Makes life interesting.

On the second of April Dh had his music making friends over to play music. It turned into a lovely spring day and you'd never know we had 12" of snow just 3 days before. We had a new couple come he sings and she plays the guitar. We started the afternoon with lunch and the music began.  I listened for a couple of hours and then went into the house to read. Echo had a great day. He met lots of new people and they gave him lots of attention. He stayed in the shade and just enjoyed the company and the afternoon. We always have a good time when the music makers visit.


Were you aware that Accuquilt is sponsoring a Block Contest with $13,000 worth of prizes? ACCUQUILT BLOCK CONTEST this link will take you to the blocks entered and you can vote once a day until the 22 of April. I had planned to enter the contest until I read the rule that said, "Blocks entered become the property of Accuquilt". Normally that would be okay with me except I had made a block of one of my (read about them here) Quilt Bugs to enter. I decided I didn't want to enter my block so I'll just plan to make something else next year and keep the Quilt Bug block I designed to put in a quilt one of these days. If you get the chance do go and vote there are only 147 blocks entered. It will give you practice for next year when I enter. lol
That's pretty much what is new here for the moment.




Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Welcome to Idaho

The weather this year has been confused here in Southern Idaho. One week we have pleasant weather and 50 -60 degrees and then one morning the end of March you wake up to this:


Last night we had winds so strong the house shook and they picked up this 10 x 20' storage cover and placed it on top of the house. The good part (I think) of all of this is the Winter Storm Warning is supposed to be from Midnight last night to noon today and then it is supposed to rain and this should all be gone by tomorrow. The weather man got the first part right I'm just hoping the second part is also correct. After tomorrow we are supposed to have actual spring mid sixties. I sure hope so I am way past ready..

On another note on the 16th of March we added a new member to our family. Several years ago while we were stationed in Japan we acquired a Japanese Shiba Inu which the whole family grew to love dearly. We lost her to pancreatic cancer after 10 years. Since then we have often said if we could find another dog like Schatzie we'd get one again. The lady who used to cut my husbands hair at the Beauty School (a couple of years ago) one day was telling him about her new dog and how sweet he was and then mentioned that he was a Shiba Inu. Dh told her about Schatzie and said if she knew where to get one or heard of a Shiba Inu needing a home we would be interested. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. Dh received a phone call from the lady saying were we still interested in a Shiba Inu she had just had a baby and needed to find a good home for her dog. Needless, to say we went over the next day to meet the dog and said yes we would love to have the dog so on March 16th Echo came home with us. He is a sweetheart and he is getting used to us. He is eager to see me every morning when we go for our walk and loves to play with his hedgehog stuffed toy. Treat is his favorite word. He's met the cats, they are not happy with the idea of having a dog and have said so quite loudly. He goes to the quilt room with me and wants to smell whatever fabric I'm working with and then lays down and takes a nap while I sew. I'm really glad he is here. It will be nice to have him when Dh has to travel.
Sorry I was absent so long I'll try to do better about staying in touch. Now that the Schedule C part of taxes are done I've been getting some sewing done so I should have pictures soon of what I have been doing. 
 

Friday, January 15, 2016

Hello 2016

It seems like the days fly by and here we are already half way through January. As some of you may know I am an Accuquilt Retailer so I thought I would share with all my quilting friends the following link. It is the video version of So God Made a Quilter. It is copyrighted by Accuquilt so if you wish to share please respect the copyright. Enjoy as it describes so many of us so well. So God Made A Quilter


On the sewing front there hasn't been much going on here since it has been so cold I can't get the heat high enough to be able to sit and sew. We are expecting 1-3" of snow over night tonight and another storm front coming in over Saturday. Hope you all are staying safe and warm. Hopefully, I will have some progress to show soon.