The Ice Has Melted & Sashiko Finish & Catch Up

  Good morning (early), 

      We have been slowly warming up here. Still a little ice floating by on the lake. Yesterday a very long narrow piece of ice was filled with the small sea gulls-that was fun to watch them most of the morning.

  The warm up feels good, I waited til Thursday to go food shopping as there was too much ice on our steep hill. We will be enjoying spring weather for a few days-back to the 20's F though at night -and the birds are happy too as they have been singing.

   The time difference between us and Italy for the Olympics-is perfect as opening ceremony started live around 2 in the afternoon Missouri time. A few sports events started a day before already. So I will be enjoying watching lots of sports for the next couple of weeks.

  Last night I did finish up stitching the sashiko dragonfly pillow. Since this is a small piece I hand stitched the seams. It is ready to hand wash to remove all the pattern markings-dry and fill with a stuffing-I still have quilt batting in my craft stash so will look for a bag of scraps-hoping not to need to buy anything. I will start on the second dragonfly pillow that I had purchased at the same time soon.  Nice to have hand stitching projects while watching the sport events.

  Yesterday I made us fish tacos-we are really liking those-and for me I can leave out the spicy and the tomatoes do to the acid reflux issues. I am getting better but still having a difficult time keeping my weight above 110. 

    The mail was so slow over Christmas. Yesterday I received a Christmas card from Germany-that I think was mailed in November. Usually Germany mail to me is around 2-3 weeks. Gorgeous postage stamps that were not cancelled by the post offices.  Same day I also received a handmade Valentine's day card from a dear friend-so I loved the mail yesterday. Smiles Thanks to the both of you.

  To my slow mail friends I will not be sending out Valentine's Day cards this year. Thinking of something for March-April for Spring.

 

Update: around 11:30 am

   I did find a small bag of cotton quilt batting scraps so I tore up enough to stuff this pillow. I am pleased with the results of this pillow.  photos will enlarge just click on them

  Some of you may remember this pillow I made quite a few years ago now. I didn't want to make a whole crazy quilt but I wanted to make something small so I made this pillow. The yellow fabric is natural hand dyed pieces I did probably from the mimosa tree leaves. The stitched blocks are all recycled wool fabrics that were from clothes .I found at the resale shop

Here is  my next sashiko project-still not sure on which colors of threads to use-any ideas? I have different greens for the leaves, I have a yellow-green as well, and I have a brown and greyish thread color-thought for the dragonfly when I bought the sashiko threads-but now not sure if I like that or not. 

Enjoy your weekend

Super Bowl Half Time Alternative

   I am not watching the super bowl this year-as there is no team for me to cheer for this one. I have never watched the game to just watch it. I need a team I like to cheer for haha.

  I have been waiting for more information on where to watch Turning Points Half Time Show which is  much more family friendly than what will be on during the Super Bowl and is also faith based. 8pm ET

 They finally announced where to watch in on tv or online They have an awesome lineup of singers. Will be on the same time as the Super Bowl's half time.

Brrrr We Are So Cold Again

 Good morning-Early

   I am back to waking up in the middle of the night again and brrrr it is so cold again the last few days-we are 7 degrees F in the middle of the night right now.  When I wake up too early and can't sleep I go on jigsaw planet and work on puzzles for awhile. My computer room has no heat vents installed-this lake house has so many issues like this-so I wear a coat haha.

  Yesterday I baked us an apple crisp-the apples needed to be used up. I did not have quite enough so I opened up a can of apple pie filling-no sugar added and that worked out so well. May just do that again I also made chili and baked up cornbread.  

  I did call the dentist for an antibiotic and he sent it in-the next warm up is Sunday and mostly Monday so I should be able to get my car dug out so I can drive in to pick it up. My Mountainier is a 1999 so I won't drive it in bitter cold temperatures.

  I am so ready for the Winter Olympics starting soon. They are in Italy this time. The winter games are my favorites. I plan on lots of slow stitching with the games on. Do you like to watch the Olympic games? I never liked playing any sports-except maybe badminton when I was a kid but I always have enjoyed watching sports. 

  Enjoy your weekend and stay warm

  

 

Not a Warm Up After All & a bit of Political Reflections

   The weather has changed this week- we were supposed to have a few days of near the 30's F degree for day highs-only had one day and have been back to the frigid temperatures.  In this cold I am not getting out to shovel the hill-was hoping that would melt off this week but not happening til next week. I do have snow and ice behind my car-so not going anywhere. I don't need to right now, except for maybe get an antibiotic for my tooth infection.

  I am thankful that we are safe, have food, and our electric is on-- a huge plus for us now with our senior ages..

   I don't post politics because it alienates friendships   In America we all have the right to free speech-but that does have consequences in times like these. I don't debate with anyone  I just wanted to post a bit about the hatred and violence.

    I have stopped watching the news-all I have seen is the same over and over again-I would love to turn the clock back to the '60's-when we protested the Viet Nam war those were peaceful-many just sit downs at colleges-I even attended one of those-very peaceful not like it is in today's world. So nothing I can do at this point in my life so not watching news for awhile as nothing I can do about it

 

I found this online we were peaceful protesting the Viet Nam war

• Early Activism (1960-1964): Quakers and pacifist groups initiated early protests, including a 1,100-person silent vigil at the Pentagon in 1960.
• Mass Mobilization (1965-1967): On April 17, 1965, 15,000–25,000 protesters marched on Washington D.C.. On April 15, 1967, up to 400,000 people, including Martin Luther King Jr., marched from Central Park to the UN.
• The Pentagon March (Oct 1967): A "March on the Pentagon" saw thousands, including hippies and activists, attempting to "exorcise" or surround the building.
• Moratorium and Student Strikes (1969-1970): The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam brought millions to march in Oct/Nov 1969. Following the 1970 Cambodia invasion, protests hit 900 campuses. 

Tactics and Themes

• "Flower Power": Symbolized by activists placing flowers into the barrels of soldiers' rifles.

    I did live during the hippie era.   

    I do scan the internet a bit for news updates. So now I am reading that one side wants to shut our government down-again-what does that do? nothing for it's citizens. 

   We live in a chaotic America at the moment-mostly because "they" despise Trump--if you ask usually they can not tell you why they just do. 

President Obama deported thousands more illegals when he was in office-it was ok then-what's changed?. 

     I am taking a step back from worrying about our great country and leaving all this in God's hands-he is totally in charge-always

An update: Wow this is bold and unacceptable to me-I just got an email from a weaving company that I purchase yarns from-telling me that I Must go out and protest against Trump today!    Really?? is this how business's are treating their customers now?   

A Warm up Begins & Kantha Project

   Good evening, a warm up is slowly coming on scene.  Still very frigid in the evenings, but during the day we have no wind and full sunshine. Sun makes such a big difference. We got to around 30 F yesterday but the snow is still melting slowly, and the ice has broken away from the docks-a very good thing. I did just see that we have  more wintery weather returning soon.

  I did get the steps cleared off the other day, but the hill to the top is very icy as the snow melts and then turns to ice at night. As long as I have snow on the hill-I can get up there to check the mail

 Awhile back I shared Kantha fabrics that I had gotten as a gift from a friend in my Christmas box.  These are vintage old quilts that have been cut up into different sizes to use in craft projects. I was intrigued by these so I found a shop I liked on Etsy and ordered another assortment.  This bundle I got in the mail a couple days ago- had a dozen of large squares around 12 to 14 inches or so and also several sizes half that size-so those can be sewn into a block.

   I got to thinking I could put together a quilt for the couch-lightweight-perfect for spring and summer. These pieces are three layers of thin cotton-all different designs-and then were hand sewn together in long running stitches.   

    In the past I had made several blue jean quilts-those blocks are layered with jeans and batting in the middle sewn together with seams exposed.  Then those seams were all snipped towards the quilt to create a fringe.  I am thinking of doing the same with these Kantha pieces, as there are different designs on both sides of these old quilt pieces.  I know another project starting-but this hopefully will go fairly fast. I don't think I will even square up the blocks first to be the same size (would waste fabric) -just go for it to see what happens Trim the sides straight after sewing together the rows.  

 I really liked the shop owner on Etsy here. So I wanted to share her shop for any of you that enjoy sewing projects. She was very helpful putting another bundle together for me with just those two sizes of pieces I want  The link takes you to her Kantha fabrics but she also carries so much more. She has a you tube channel as well.

  I thought this was interesting-these types of old quilts cut into pieces for new projects-I have not seen this before-great way to repurpose

as always better viewing if you click to enlarge

She even has vintage yo yo's-that would save a lot of time for stitching up into a quilt. Years ago I tried making these-sooo time consuming to make these so I stopped that project.

  

Here are a few photos of the Kantha blocks I pulled for a quilt.  This will make into a very light weight quilt but I think I will like it. I am not usually drawn to this type of color pallet but I like the colorfulness of these pieces-and these were all hand stitched so I honor that.

I am thinking to sew together strip rows in the down line of blocks-and then trim of the edges so that will be straight to sew the next row to it.

Below are the half blocks that will be mixed in with the above blocks. (wool rag rug is handwoven by a neighbor of my Mom's many years ago when she was still living on the family farm-these rugs are treasures and I have several of these that I still use after all these years. They are placed in light foot traffic areas

  I have been dealing with a really bad tooth or perhaps a couple and are now getting infected-I found a partial bottle of antibiotics that I am stretching out with the herbal medicines. My dentist appointment is not until the second week in February-this dentist is always hard to get in to see him. My car on top is still not shoveled out-hoping for more melting today.

 

    Have an Awesome day

Good morning Wintry Monday & Sashiko and Painting

   We have sunshine this morning but we woke up to below 0 F temperatures brrrr this lake house is very cold-poor insulation even though we spent a lot for attic insulation, and I do keep the thermostat down at 72-otherwise the bill is just too expensive. So  I have two sweatshirts on, and since I don't wear shoes in the house I have thick wool socks and cotton socks over those.

  I am seeing on the news this morning that the east coast has been hit with Lots and Lots of snow along with cold temperatures.  All my friends on the east coast hoping you are safe and warm and have your electricity on. If not those with woodstoves or fireplaces at least can get some heat and cook on it too.

   I did another watercolor painting over the weekend-it was so so, am also making progress on the sashiko stiches-the dragonflies. I am getting a bit better with the stitches, even though the stitches are not all the same size I am liking it.

  There is a dragonfly ready to stitch inside the hoop but not showing up

I like my backgrounds much better in this one, trees just so so I had filled up the watercolor spiral papers so this one is in watercolor book I started in 2020-I was so much better then

  

Stay safe and warm

So Far the Storm is Not Too Bad

  How are you fairing with this major storm coming through?  I know the east coast has not gotten it yet-but from the news reporting it's been a rough one for us states that have gotten it so far..

  The temperatures are pretty severe here in the Ozarks, wind and a little snow today maybe a couple inches. We are supposed to get a lot of snow tonight and tomorrow before it moves on. Wouldn't mind at all if we didn't get that-smiles.

Stay safe and warm those of you in the path

  I have seen photos on Facebook with bare shelves in the grocery stores-glad I went early when I did.