coyote

There has been a coyote in the back field a couple of times recently so I am worried about letting the cat outside.

She has seen the coyote too and growls as she watches it through the back door glass.  She knows it's not friendly!

I assumed the coyote wouldn't come too close to the house but then there were these tracks in the driveway....

Some are coyote tracks...

But there are deer tracks too...not necessarily from the same time.

Sorry to show gross stuff here. This was in the grass near the driveway. I thought at first it was hair from a skunk, but then I remembered there is a rotting deer carcass out near the road a few feet down from the driveway.   I think this is hair from a deer tail.  That's probably why the coyote was passing through there...for snacking on that dead deer.

I hope the coyote stays away.  I read online they are becoming a problem.  They kill and eat so many small animals and have no predators except for humans.  Their population is growing.

Puss is very alert and very fast...and she is a good tree climber.  She'd better keep her guard up!

a quilt in the works

This quilt I am working on started as one of those clearance priced kits.  When I ordered it a few years ago, I planned to make the pattern that came with it, pictured here, but to add more borders to make a toddler sized quilt.

Back then, when I started cutting the fabric, I really started to dislike the mix of colors.  I like things colorful but these seemed to all be fighting for attention and not even coordinating that well.
Maybe that's why it was so cheap!

And that's why I had bagged it all up and stashed it in the closet to figure out later.

Well, later is now, and it's time to do something with this unfinished project.

My first idea was to use some of the fabrics and use the pattern for a 3 yard quilt like one I made last year.

That turned out just sort of okay looking so I dug around in my stash to try to see what else I could use to make it cuter.  Sashing? Borders?

What if I set the blocks on point and bordered them with this raspberry colored fabric?

I sort of liked this layout below, but there wasn't enough raspberry fabric to also fill in the edges.

What about having some blocks point left and some point right?

Getting closer...how about blocks forming a zig zag with raspberry sashing!

Nope, Puss doesn't care for this layout.

Okay then, let's try this...

Hey! This is the one! I like that it sort of forms a lattice...and that it isn't symetrical.

I sewed it all together and had enough raspberry for borders too. 

Puss approves and declares it to be comfy enough for a snooze.

I also added some stars in the sashing intersections to add a little interest.

Now it is pin basted...

...and ready for quilting.

New Year's Cleaning

It seems like a new year inspires us to clear out the old and refresh and clean our homes.

Judging by the mounds of stuff I saw piled outside the door of the Goodwill store, a lot of people feel this way.  Or maybe they just got so much stuff for Christmas, they have to clear out a place for it.

I decided to wash my kitchen cabinet doors and, at the same time, replace the shelf liner that's been there since the cabinets were new.   I stepped up in quality with this washable shelf liner that I found on Amazon.  Made in USA too.

It's easy to trim with scissors.

Chaos has been conquered and order is restored!

I realized I have a lot of weight in this cabinet.  It's Fiestaware dishes and they are heavy.  I'm never sure how much weight the upper cabinets are meant to hold. I could probably pull out a few of the plates and saucers and store them elsewhere.

Speaking of cabinet cleaning...see in the photo above how my cabinets are mounted a few inches below the ceiling?  It's the way I chose but it does collect grease and dust up there.  I can't really get up there and get my arm in to wipe it off so I just ignore it.

Am I missing something?  What does everyone else do?

I am also working on clearing out my basement.  Apparently, I never met a half full rusty can of paint that I didn't love.  But - no more...out they go!  Well, there are a few more but I didn't want to fill the garbage can up with them.

The mischevious Puss must have discovered a new hiding place when she was in the basement with me.

Later, after I came upstairs, Lonnie and I heard a crashing noise.  We had no idea where it came from or what it could be.  When I flipped on the basement light there stood a very guilty looking kitty.

She couldn't help but to lead me to the scene of the crime.

Broken flourescent lights and torn insulation...plus the light fixture was separated and hanging from it's wires!

I figure she must have climbed from the middle of the stairs on to an air duct and from there wiggled between the ceiling and the insulation.  When the insulation ripped loose, she must have jumped on or tried to grab the light fixture, knocking the bulb out.  

Such a big catastrophe for such a small cat.   I checked her little feets for glass splinters but she was unscathed.   Surely she won't try this again!

Here is something that I though was funny.  When I go to the grocery I take my own bags.  I always just put them on the moving belt first then load my groceries on there.

On this particular day, when I finished unloading my cart, I turned around to see the bag boy using plastic bags.  As I was telling him that I had brought my own bags I glanced down to see that he had bagged up my reusable bags!

He was embarrased of course and I guess new to the job.  I told him I had never seen such an effecient bagger!

other finishes from this year

I was reading another blog and the writer was listing all her finished quilts for the year. That reminded me that I had a few things to show also.
I had shown some photos of all of these in progress, but not finished up.

These first two were made with one kit from Connecting Threads.  The kit was only for the larger quilt (54"x65"), but they had included extra border fabric in case the quilter wanted to make the print match up in all the borders.

So with the scraps and border fabric I was able to make the smaller (44" square) quilt.

 The fabric is flannel.  The color is not true in these photos.  More pleasing in person.

(Maybe my New Year's resolution will be to try to take better photos!)

I used regular cotton fabric on the backs of both.

Not sure what I will do with these quilts.   Wait for someone to have a baby I guess!

Just for fun, I sewed and quilted this little 13" square made from the corner trimmings of the snowball blocks in the larger quilt.  

 These two crocheted baby afghans qualify as 4th and 5th finished projects for my " Finish Up Unfinished Projects" goal.
Most of the squares were made in 1999 - 20 years ago! I don't know what I was thinking but, at the time, my plan was to use the blue and green together in one afghan.  What?  I am pretty sure that would have been creepy looking!

Instead I made two small baby blankets (about 30" x 43").  I just kept crocheting the edging until all the yarn was used up. Happy about that!

The blocks have a heart motif made with the popcorn stitches, sort of hard to make out.

No plans for what to do with these either. More than likely they will be donated.

This one doesn't count for my list because I started it illegally... after I made the vow to finish up the old things first.  This one is a "Three Yard" quilt.   Very quick to cut and sew. 

It measures about 44" x 59".   That's a good size for a baby/toddler quilt.

I will probably give this to my dental hygenist (who is more like a friend since I've been going there for so many years!)... for her grand daughter due to arrive in early spring.

Again the colors are "off" in the photo. Not so gaudy in real life.

And, I made this chicken block, quilted and bound.  It will go to some sort of Extension office state conference to be included in an auction of blocks made by homemakers across the state.

I guess it's some sort of fund raiser but I'm not sure for what.

I'm pretty sure that's all I will get finished for 2019.

if you use it a lot - it wears out

I think the saying goes "If you don't use it you lose it".  I think that  applies to body parts but it definitely doesn't apply to my stove.

I chose this range with double ovens back in about 2006 when we had the kitchen remodeled. Since then, I've  used the smaller upper oven 99.9% of the time.  It would heat quickly  and was easy to see into and easy to put in pans and take them out.

A few months ago, I noticed a difference in things I baked in there and discovered the bottom element wasn't heating.  I ordered a new element and replaced it but still, it didn't work.

Meanwhile I started getting in the habit of using the bottom larger oven which was working fine. But look...it opens way down at floor level.

Just before Thanksgiving, I decided to have an appliance repair company take a look at it...even though it seems like appliances aren't meant to be repaired.

Sure enough, the repairman found that it was a "board" that needed replaced - but it was no longer available.  Even if it was, I was told they usually cost around $300.  I'm not sure if I would have chosen to have it fixed for that price or not.

Anyway it still works for broiling or keeping things warm.  So I will hang on to this stove for now.

The large oven worked fine for Thanksgiving. I just had to get down on my knees to baste the turkey!

Just kidding...I always use that oven for the turkey anyway.

I wanted to mention something new we tried this year...Cranberry Orange Relish from Trader Joe's.

It's fresh and sweet and tangy.  I bought one and we ate it before Thanksgiving so I went back and got two more!

It's not perfectly smooth like the canned kind but it's not quite as chunky as the recipe I normally make with fresh cranberries.  But it's much better than both of those.

Ingredients are simply cranberries, sugar, and oranges.

They also have it without the oranges but I can't vouch for that one.  The clerk at the store said they normally run out of both before Thanksgiving.  I am going to mark my 2020 calendar to buy it in early November.

the quilt has been delivered

Once I finish a quilt I am ready to  clean up the sewing room, put away the scraps, clean and oil my machine, and get started on a new project.  

Here is the recipient of my last quilt, my sister's husband, Don.   They are a great couple and are always finding fun things to do from cruising to motorcycles to camping to building and piloting their own plane.

I have made quilts for all my immediate family members over the years and I wanted to include one for Don as well.

I really had to put my thinking cap on to figure out what design to use for his quilt.  I knew I didn't want to make a "grandmaw" looking quilt, but something more modern instead.

I searched Pinterest for "man quilts" and I found this pattern called "Gentleman's Agreement".

I ordered the pattern but wanted brighter fabrics (Don likes things colorful).

I ordered these fabrics...ombre blue and yellow and the bubbly looking one for the background.

When the fabric arrived, I realized it wouldn't work for the pattern.  It requires the shading of the fabric to graduate from dark to light to dark again...and these only went from dark to light.

I couldn't find any appropiate fabric in colors I wanted so I scrapped that idea.

But I did use a lot of the blue and yellow in the final quilt.

Next I saw this pattern below online and thought it would be a good quilt for Don.  He is also a helicopter pilot so I pictured the arrows pointing up, down, and sideways being like a simplified toggle stick in a helicopter...although I'm quite certain there's a lot more to flying a helicopter!

I ordered yards of yellow fabric for the background and planned on the arrows being bright primary colors...then I decided this quilt would look too childish, and I scrapped that idea.

But, I did use up nearly all that fabric for the back of the final quilt. (That strip in the photo is all that was leftover.)

I considered a quilt using this"Magic Squares" pattern, which I already had, but I doubted that the 3D effect would look as good if I used brighter colors.

I was starting to feel hopeless about finding the right thing...then, at the Paducah Quilt Show in April, I saw the sample quilt that the quilt I finally made was based on. 

I knew that was the one I wanted to make! The pattern was included in this book. The pattern name is "Color Junction".   I did figure out some shortcuts on piecing but stuck with the original size and colors.

Every quilt has a story.

finished the quilt

I finished up the "Y" quilt and took it outside one sunny afternoon for photos.

It's sort of an unusual size...96" long and 64" wide, but the person it's going to is tall so I wanted it to be plenty long.

It was a fun quilt to make. Different than the usual quilt piecing.

I would like to make this pattern again...next time maybe trying to make each "Y" a different color?

That woud be tricky and I would need somewhere to lay out the whole thing where the cat wouldn't bother it.  That will definitely not be my next quilt.

Speaking of the cat...she absolutely loves this quilt.  "Get off of there you little varmint!"

Lot's of work with the lint roller ahead.

Fortunately the recipient has spoken fondly of past pet cats so I'm pretty sure there are no allergies.

Anyway a bright yellow for the back with a strip of some of the leftover scraps.

 "No Puss, I can't have you underneath there either!"

   That's the name tag there in the corner.  It's sewn down with the binding but I still need to stitch that one side down by hand.

I wanted a photo of the quilt from a distance but the sun was too bright for hanging it up there.

One more...

Changing the subject but I'm having a hard time adjusting to the time change. Once it gets dark I can't seem to get involved in anything...even sewing.

Then, as I was coming out of Lowes the other day I happened to glance down and notice something didn't look right...

I don't know if anyone else noticed or not.  It was sort of a relief that I didn't know I had on mismatched shoes before I went in...not sure if I would have driven home to change or not.

It was morning but I'm still blaming the time change!