what I am sewing

I have finally gotten started on a quilt that I bought fabric for back in May 2013.

I've been putting it off...mostly because of the instructions.  The first step tells you to cut all your fabric pieces for  the whole quilt.   This seemed like a scary idea to me.  This fabric was a little more expensive than I usually buy and I didn't want to get goofed up and waste it by making bad cuts.

So I had to figure out the cuts I needed to make one block for a test.  Everything came out fine after some squinting and forehead wrinkling.
It's a BIG block, almost 22"square!

Can you see how it's designed to look three dimensional?  It's more evident from a distance. Can you see it in the photo below?

The name of the pattern is Labyrinth Walk.  One of my quilt group friends had made this pattern and brought it for show and tell. I liked it because it is a masculine looking quilt, and modern looking. 

 My friend told me what magazine the pattern came from and offered to lend me hers, but I went ahead and ordered a back issue for myself.  It's a good thing I did...since I've taken so long to get started on it.

Here is a page to show the finished quilt. Mine will be rectangular instead of square - I am adding an extra row for more length.

I've blurred out some measurements on the page (copyrighted) , but you can see it is complicated...at least this first block was for me. Challenging!

There are two different blocks that make up the pattern, so now I need to figure out what to cut to make a test block for the other one.

more birthdays

We actually helped celebrate more birthdays this past  weekend.  Three of Lonnie's great grandchildren have August birthdays, as well as a grandson and another grandson's wife. Whew!

They had a cookout to celebrate all  the birthdays at once. Here is the kids table...

Oops, one was missing! The two on the left are both having birthdays. All of these kids are Lonnie's great grandchildren. The third birthday boy didn't get in the photo...he was too busy to eat!

The kids spent the day jumping on a trampoline they had there, running up and down a dirt mound that covers a storm cellar, and racing in and out of the house.

Presents were opened and no one had a meltdown because they weren't the one receiving gifts! Good kids!

Here is Lonnie with his oldest great grandson, who is nearly as tall as Great Grandpa!

I got a little surprise of an early birthday gift, too!  These hand woven pot holders that the girls made.

Now isn't that sweet!

Yellow is my favorite color.  They are too pretty to use as potholders, I might use them as coasters instead.

birthday boy

We celebrated my older son's birthday this weekend.

Here he is, just opening a card from Lonnie, who always writes a lot of good and funny things in cards.
Plus there was some cash in there! Always a welcome gift.
We also gave Chopper a book and an electronic thingy that has to do with recording music (he plays a bass).

I always ask the birthday person to pick out what they want for their birthday meal.  Some years he asks for cheese subs (I think just to annoy his brother, who doesn't really like them - it's sort of a joke now).

This year he asked for beef Fajitas with all the fixings.  I hadn't made them for a long time but they came out pretty good.  

For the birthday cake he asked for chocolate cake with white icing.

I've only ever made a few cakes from scratch, but since cake mixes seem to be getting smaller and of lower quality, I decided to make a chocolate cake recipe from allrecipes.com.  Click HERE  to see the recipe if you are interested.

It made a huge cake. The instructions were, to bake in three round cake pans, but I baked it in two 9"square pans instead.   There was a layer of cream cheese frosting in the middle and sweetened whipped cream on the outside.

It was a good cake recipe. Chocolatey and not overly sweet. We had a tub of Turkey Hill gelato to go with it.

Happy Birthday, Chopper!!

homemakers auction and potluck

Each year, when it's time for Homemakers to renew their membership, Ruth, our extension agent holds a meeting day for all the homemakers in all the groups.

New calenders and booklets are handed out. Upcoming activities are discussed.  And of course, we eat !

Sometimes the meal is catered, but this time everyone was asked to bring a side dish or dessert, to go along with fried chicken contributed by the extension office (from Walmart, I think).

I took the opportunity to make a something using up some jalapenos from my husband's garden.

I cut 2 straight sides on a flour tortilla, spread with cream cheese, sprinkled with parmesan, diced roasted jalapenos and diced red bell peppers.

Then I rolled them up and sliced them.

They were good. I had to test a couple to make sure they weren't too hot.

Here is a look at the food everyone brought...

No one leaves hungry!

Another table for desserts....

There was also a silent auction to raise money for ovarian cancer research.  Some of the ladies donated hand crafted items to be auctioned off.

I bid on this fabric pumpkin but didn't win it.   Look at the cute wreath made from flip flops right behind it!

I also bid on another cute fall decoration on the left here...didn't win that one either...so I came home empty handed.    

Except for a big plate of chicken. There was so much fried chicken left over, they told us all to take some with us.

Lonnie was glad to see me walking in with that!  And I didn't have to cook supper! 

light bulbs

Are you as confused about light bulbs as I am?

Ever since "they" announced that incandescent light bulbs would be phased out, I have been confused and worried about what I am going to use for light.

I really like those good old incandescent bulbs...especially in the kitchen. I want that kitchen lit up like an operating room!  My overhead fixture in there uses two 100 watt bulbs....

....and I don't intend to ever run out of them...

I did some stocking up before they phased them out.

I haven't been a fan of the CFL bulbs.  Even though I was ready to try them out, for energy savings, way back in 1996. That's when I bought a couple of these bulbs.  I wrote the date on them so I could see how long they lasted.  It wasn't a good  test though, because it's hard to find a place to use them. They look stupid sticking out of a light fixture and they are too tall to fit under the harp of any of my lamps.

I just don't like the cold dead look of the light from fluorescent bulbs.

On our recent trip to Ikea, my older son picked up some of these LED bulbs. Trusting his judgement, I bought a couple of packages for my younger son and myself.  I like them pretty well and they were reasonably priced.  

My younger son really likes them too. He is all about saving money on electricity, so he ran a test using a kilowatt measuring gadget that he has, to compare the energy usage of different types of light bulbs...and he made these detailed charts to show the results.  You might have to biggie size this to read it.

This second chart is a real eye opener! You can see how much more the incandescents cost over time.

(these figures are based on burning the bulbs 24 hours a day)

It looks like my secret hoard of 100 watt bulbs are going to cost me in the long run. But, I only use them in  the kitchen, and then only when I'm working in there.

We usually turn on the under-cabinet, cold, dead fluorescent lighting after I'm finished in there for the evening.

So we have light when we run in there and look for snacks!

What I've been reading

Before I tell you about the book, I want to show you this pretty little bookmark my mother made for me.

She had my dad to look around outside for small wildflowers and tiny leaves. She then pressed and dried them between the pages of a heavy book for a few days.

Then they laminated them on both sides of a strip of cardboard and added a tassel.

Pretty clever, huh?

Well it was a shame to use something so sweet and pretty as a place marker in this book about a horrendous murder...but that's what I've been reading.

"A Deadly Game" by Catherine Crier. 

The author is the very same Catherine Crier you may remember if you were a Court TV fan.

She has done an excellent job with this true crime novel about Scott Peterson and the murder of his pregnant wife Laci Peterson, on Christmas Eve 2002.

It was a highly publicized case and Court TV kept viewers up to date as the investigation progressed and the trial got underway, but they were not allowed to show the trial on the air (judges decision).  So there are a lot of details in the book that didn't get out to the general public at the time.

The story starts out with Scott Peterson's version of events that took place on that Christmas Eve that Laci went missing.  He had been fishing that day and arrived home to find his dog in the yard but wearing his leash, and his eight months pregnant wife no where in the house, but her car is there.

Well, he washes his clothes and eats some cold pizza before calling his mother-in-law to see if  Laci is there. Laci's mom springs into action right away and gets the police involved. The police are way more responsive than usual because of Laci's advanced pregnancy.

It's this early investigation by police and a smart and watchful detectives that turns the focus on Scott Peterson as a possible murder suspect.  The book gives lot's of details about  small things that made them suspicious of Scott...even though both Scott and Laci's families and friends felt sure he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

The author keeps the story moving along as she describes the Peterson's childhoods, family members and early married lives.

Finally the book reaches the part where Laci's headless body washes ashore and the body of her baby son is found washed up a short distance away.

A bit about the murder trial brings the book to a close. Just the right amount of information without going into long courtroom word for word exchanges.

I don't want to give away too much of the story. I would recommend reading it if you like true crime.

I checked to see if Catherine Crier had written other books, and she has, but this looks like her only murder investigation novel.

behold, the burning bush

I have written before about 3 smallish Leland Cyprus trees in the front yard that slowly died from disease.
They looked horrible and I have been intending to cut them down since last spring but kept avoiding it, because I knew it would be a scratchy, itchy job with all those dry needles on the trees.

I had an idea to just light them on fire and burn the needles off!  I mentioned it to the Sasquatch when he was here...and he was right on it!    We just balled up a couple of newspaper pages and stuck them in the branches and lit them.

 This is all the same tree. We did them one at a time, even though it would have been neat to see all three burning at once. We aren't reckless!

Woosh! fast burning!

The Sasquatch was going to bring his chainsaw next time and cut down the remaining trunks, but the next day I wanted to see if I could dig them up instead. It seems like no matter how close to the ground you cut with a chainsaw - the stump will heave up and you can't mow over it.

So it turns out they were easy to dig up.  Well maybe not easy, but do-able.

I used my cordless Sawzall with this special pruning blade to cut through the roots. Perfect for the job since the blade is somewhat flexible. 

But my battery ran down after digging up two trees, and the saw battery ran down too!  So there is one tree left to finish up.

The only disadvantage to burning ahead ...handling the blackened remains. I had black soot on my clothes and all over me. It went right through my gloves.

But the soot still isn't as bad as dealing with those scratchy evergreen needles.