It's been a bad week but Alfie is still awesome and getting more comfortable each day.
He always wants to say hi to people, dogs and is fascinated with workmen in the hood.
the conversation starter this week is
ice cream or snow cones?
I liked snow cones as a child but now it's all about ice cream
a quick memory, DH and I visited Ben & Jerry's factory in VT the first time we went. They gave our labradaughter a cup of her own of vanilla and the three of us sat in the patio and enjoyed our treats!!
Chelsea had never had her own before, so she'd pick up the treat roll it around in her mouth spit it out. Look at it
I worked on projects in progress this week. But, then I looked ahead to Saturday's post on RSC but a color had not been announced.
oy vey, it's generally too late to post your color work on the day it's announced and we only have 4 post days so I tried to reason out the probability and decided chances are it will be yellow or purple.
so I worked on both!
this was one of last year's yellow scrap quilts and I like it so much I hung in on my studio door
I start by organizing the scrap bin by shape and size. This time I took out squares of certain sizes to put in my growing squares collection boxes. Then the tiniest scraps are put by the machine to jump start my month.
not knowing, I chose to go thru this process with both purple bin, and yellow bins
I did start the border choices for last week's piece, and thought I might surround this yellow block with purples but stopped here since I like the way this looks now
It's satisfying to use little bits just as color but to also see them turning into something... a tote? a table topper? book cover?
speaking of books I ordered this but haven't looked through it yet
as I mentioned earlier I also worked with purples... the tiniest scraps became another cutie needlebook
pieced then machine quilted with metallic turquoise thread, the inside
batting scraps become the needle beds
then some embroidery stitches by hand or machine
and beads put on with the hand stitched buttonhole to close the edges
squee! my friend Cindy sent me a box of beads in the Swa---eeeetist little boxes. SO thoughtful, and what a fine mix of turquoise sparklers to use. PLUS
I did the hand work while chatting with her so it was a double gift!
(I also sewed all the buttons back to my pink shirt while chatting)
french knots with size 8 perle cotton in aqua
it's been so very hot, which drains me of energy and causes sleep disturbances, so I am just glad to be doing much of anything but necessities like cooking, laundry, dogwalking
how's about a walk Mama?
and the calendar monthly flip reminds me of time passing by
welcome to this week's list of likes... starting with the blue skies of colorado
but less a like but something to discuss are our brown dry brittle lands. We are under strict watering rules and neighbors now ask, does your yard look as bad as ours?
(the only acceptable answer is "YEP" )
we spent weeks around 100F but the last few days have been merely in the 90's F.
Alfie always wants to go for another walk but the sidewalks and street are so hot. We ordered him some doggie crocs so we'll let you know how they are.
some yarrow in the community garden... I see a dog like a spaniel looking back over it's right shoulder do you see it?
red hot pokers in yellow in our neighbor's yard... she zeroscaped so no mowing for her now!
passed by this unusual sight (we live in a golfing neighborhood) and I started laughing at a hole in one limb
(Alfie peed on the trunk)
After 10 drops of rain, this sight was so gorgeous one night
Fine Dining:
I had some scrambled eggs with mushrooms left over, and some boiled potatoes, so I made a really yummy lunch for us this week.
The potatoes became sort of hash sauteed with minced onion + bell peppers
the eggs went into a quesadilla... if you melt butter in a hot pan, put in a tortilla with fillings, the tortilla crisps up...
this time I used leftover turkey bacon crumbled and cheddar cheese with the eggs.
It was so good!
and quick to make really. I had cut up the citrus on Monday making ambrosia a la my family
grapefruit and orange sections, coconut, cherries, pineapple chunks with banana slices
we had that for a sweet finish.... I love it when the stores have food to buy here
speaking of that, my four cucumber seeds are leafing out and I have one (!!!) tiny half inch cucumber on one... hope it makes it!
reading on audio book
A family of Native Americans tells their story which is very intriguing. Sad to hear the way people used to be so prejudiced against them... have you noticed when one group treats another badly (like taking their lands and livelihoods ) they then run them down to further punish them. I think it comes from the bully feeling a teensy bit guilty so they act like the group deserved it?
disgusting really
Mama all them 25 dogs in my first house bullied me too....SO glad we all found each other!
Mama: well, you are our boy now and you are adorable! Now we need to make sure you stop vomiting in the morning from stomach acid. Do you like me giving you a cup of kibble before bed to help with that?
Alfie, sure do! I also like that miniature golden doodle I met this week. You and his mama talked a long time and he was cute but seemed afraid of me, can you believe it? I never hurt a fly! Still I looked my cutest and hope he plays the next time we meet.
our conversation starter this week... feel free to use it with your spouse or children too
vivid memory of a family vacation you'll always remember... when you were young? or after you grew up, either. What made it stand out and memorable? People, place, activity, etc
When I was 5 my mother, aunt and uncle, another aunt, the woman who watched me, and I went cross country from Florida to LA, California!
I got my first barbie on my birthday that trip, got to see so much country including the painted desert, and Disney World at the end! We even went to Mexico. Our AC went out while crossing the desert with all those fat people squeezed in one sedan!
Regular family vacations included going to local beaches, or to our mountain getaway in Maggie Valley NC. I loved both. At the beach I fondly remember blow up floatie rings, eating sandwiches with sand in them! the scent of coppertone lotion. At the mountains, I had so much freedom and hiked a lot, picked blackberries by the side of the road, went to dances, auctions, amusement areas... and it was cooler than Florida which I loved.
I took a vacation to Europe as a young adult, my friend worked there as a nurse on base but lived on the economy in Frankfurt. I had a Eurail pass and went all over Several countries by myself and it was just wonderful.
the beloved blue green (aqua to teal) from rainbow scrap challenge has made hot July more lovely
I got my hexi spiral ready to stitch and just love these colors
love the prints and colors!
I have been busy going through batik scraps, unused for years. I pulled out those easy to cut to squares in sizes 2.5" 3" and 3.5" and those joined all the other colors I cut out of other fabrics. I have many in each size to use in future projects
this changes a long held practice of keeping all batiks separately but which led to not using them often
All my fabrics and scraps have been washed in hot water and detergent, then sorted and kept by type or color. This is usually workable for me.
Batiks cause sinus trouble when pressed if not thoroughly scoured. You know that scent they have?
now I am mixing them in more, they make me happy with their color intensity and pattern
this was made from tiny scraps of regular printed fabrics...
scraps from making my GGG squares that filled the design wall and the next rows are still on the sewing table ready when there's room
compare the jewel tones and watercolor like batiks in the piece I sewed this week on the bottom to
prints of regular prints at top,
All are so pretty
this is an audition of borders for the 14" X 20" new work
then I ran across this little scrap and it will become inspiration for future works... the pattern, the colors and the relative amounts of each color to each other.... inspiration comes from many sources!
the extra GGG blocks ( on the right below) will make it 15 rows by 12 across.... with borders maybe large enough to cover a human for a nap
otherwise I have less flashy work to do this week. The watercolor quilt needs borders and quilting.
the two tiny scrap pieces also need to be finished into "flimsies" and then maybe tote bags or book covers for notebooks, or or or....
a close up of one of our patio chairs for the end of blue green month... but I will continue to work on my projects of blue green because they sooth my soul at a time when it is in need of soothing
if you need me (or my snoopervisor) we'll be in the studio!
Alfie the grateful poodle
I still love crochet and this seems like a great method!
recipe centercutcook and they are fragrant, moist, and just the right sweetness
Also made Thumbprint cookies again, made with almond flour, and seedless raspberry jelly (no pic)
my fave Peanut butter cookie recipe.... just right...
my potted cucumber set blossom, so the vege will hopefully soon
love the way tendrils sprout to hold on for safety in our winds
we managed a bit of porch time despite the near 100F temps this week
mama, it's hot but I like being out
shadow shot on a walk this week
I took a photo through a latice and like the distance on it!
Reading ebooks and listening to audio books while in the studio
watching Big Brother... great summer entertainment... anyone else want to discuss strategy?
Our conversation starter this week
did you or do you keep a diary? what kind of things did you put in
yours? ever have a summer crush or vation romance?
I started about 6th grade with a traditional child's diary, with a tiny key. I wrote daily telling what happened, who I had a crush on, what I did, how school went. I remember loving the process, and hiding the diary since my mother was a snoop.
I romanticized life, so yes summer crushes happened.
I often spent a month with my sister's family, and when she lived in Washington Indiana I fell for her neighbor's son, who was older than I was by a year. He was 14 and soooooo handsome. Our two families often hung out in evenings, the kids played and chased lighting bugs. We rode bikes together and talked and I pretended he was my boyfriend.
I met a guy at beach week after high school graduation, and we had a summer romance but he wanted more than I was prepared for then. Still....
so many crushes over the dam, summer flings.
I fell for a guy I met while staying with my friend's family at their beach place... he was tall and skinny, I had such a crush on him, he juggled, and worked at the newspaper office, and it lasted the summer.
"see you in september"
shadow shot on a walk this week
please visit these folks to see what they like in a picnic basket, and share here with me!
if you ever want to do an I Like Post to include, let me know to add in your link!
it's been so hot, it's hard to do much of anything...
oh there are people who say, but that's in the sun....
well, we don't really have shade here so that's how hot it is on our walks. We drag thru morning walks, and I'm in too much spinal pain by the evenings now to go much more than a mile after dark.
Almost too hot to sew as my creativity nook is over the hot garage. Did I tell you we moved here to evade heat? We had about 3 years in the beginning with nicer colder weather but now it's hot all year.
on to what we were able to do... no beading, no painting, no embroidery but I was obsessed with...
making GGG blocks with my scraps, and enjoyed sorting through my scrap bins seeing them in this new way. I am focusing on Aqua/turquoise, purple, lime, fuchia colors
there are about 140 blocks done
don't get too excited, when they are sewn together this center would be about 40" X 56" so I continued
as I sorted, to prep more blocks
then..., all the bits I cut off were improv sewn into
groups and strips, then the groups sewn together. I LOVE it. Not sure what it will become or how large
but very few little scraps went back in the color bins
it's so satisfying to see color/pattern next to another... growing faster than my cucumbers
it's similar to my big quilt in percentage of colors too
my snoopervisor has been pleased with my progress,
or at least with my happiness in these colors... all he knows is this is where we go every day for him to nap
I realized I need to do a mundane but necessary task of sewing on a replacement button
this lovely shirt has been mine for approx 40 years.... still beautiful on and brilliant color. Made by an independent clothing designer (in Florida ) called Ooo La La
so the heat continues to increase my inflammation and pain, our AC can't fight the temps, promised relief in form of 80's this week, are now dashed in favor of near 100's. A creative person still needs to make things AM I Right?
