A REALLY SCRAPPY QUILT

I know, it's been far too long since I posted.  My apologies!  There has been just too much going on, and I'll mention that later, but for now, just "hot off the needle" a really, really scrappy quilt.

We in the sewing room are gifted with many, many fabrics.  There was a small stack of 5" squares, and my friend Joan had brought two long strips of "piano keys" meaning sidewise small strips sewn together.  I had finished the last quilt I was working on for the sewing room and was looking for another project.  We combined the strips with the 5" squares, cut them apart and arranged them in this order, "sandwiched" them and yesterday I machine quilted them in a meander pattern and bound them with the left over fabric from the backing.  We think it's kind of cute and proof that you can put anything together in a scrappy quilt.  The squares that look black are actually navy print fabrics.  So this makes a third finish this year for the Sewing Room's stack of quilts to give away.

Here is the second finish:

 

This quilt, like the next one was printed material that we "sandwiched," quilted and bound.  A rather plain quilt, but perhaps someone will like it.  And the first finish (actually first in order of time) was also printed fabric, "sandwiched," machine quilted and bound.  Not a bad tally for the time spent on them.  

 

Now I'm desiring to make a quilt "from scratch"--not just a printed piece of material, but make the blocks, sew them together and make a "real" quilt.  In the quilt room on Thursday three of us were joking around about a remark a very, very precise woman made a few years ago.  She said, offhand to a woman she was teaching how to quilt, that what we made were not "real quilts"!  We decided to call them "stuffed blankets."

The very first thing I did here this fall was get the binding on this nice little December wall hanging that is currently on our patio wall.  I don't have a hanging for January, so maybe I'll leave this one up for a few weeks yet.

                           

Another project finished just this past week was a pair of socks for my brother-in-law.  He really loves his hand-knit socks so I make him a pair every year.  I started these at the end of September but finished them only last week, a pair for Christmas instead of his birthday this year.  The picture is actually of last year's socks for our grandson, but I neglected to take a picture of Wayne's socks which were the same, so substituted this picture for the one I forgot to take.

There have also been rehearsals and concerts, so much fun!  Here's a snap or two from the Santa Lucia Christmas Concert at church.  My friend Nan took these pictures:

                                 

There were three choirs involved, and a bell choir, piano, organ, small orchestra.  Quite a group to manage all together.  We had a total of 900 people attending over the two nights.  A really good crowd, considering the church seats 480 people!

It's evident I enjoyed it:

That Friday morning Nan and I attended a short Jr.Hi. concert in the Community Center foyer.  This school comes every year to serenade us.  There was a small string group (5 violins and 2 cellos), a fairly large choir (to the left waiting for their turn) and a small band group.  The choir was amazing!  They had memorized all their songs--at least twelve and were obviously enjoying singing.  One girl in the back row was so into the songs, swaying and waving her hands.  One young boy in the front row chewed busily on some gum in between phrases!  What a hoot!

Because the choir had memorized their songs they were all almost always watching the director.  Kudos to them!  I look forward to these musical treats each year.

The Sun Cities Orchestra did not give a December concert this year, but we have one coming up the last Sunday of January.  Something more to look forward to!

Plus there has been lots of choir music.  In addition to the concert we sing at services each Sunday.  This morning I played Brahm's "Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming" on the organ during communion, and I've played a few violin pieces and a viola piece during various services.  AAAH, what a lot of fun I've had!

So, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

A PROJECT & TWO BOOKS

I've been working on a quilt project here at our S.V. quilting group for a few years.  It's a red, white and blue quilt that I started maybe two or three years ago.  Making the blocks was a breeze, but when I went to put them together I discovered that all the blue/white blocks needed to be repressed in different directions in order for the seams to "nest" with the red/white blocks.  It's a HUGE PAIN!!!  I now have 6 our of 9 rows repressed and sewed together, but I am sick of it.

So I picked up a quilt that had been 505'd together last year but never quilted.  505 is a temporary adhesive that many quilters use (and love) to hold the three layers together -- without wrinkles -- when doing the machine quilting.  This fabric was in the sewing room, one of many, many pieces of fabric that are donated from time to time.  It was printed to look as if it had been pieced in the Wedding Ring pattern.  This is called a "cheater" quilt.

Last weekend in about 3 hours I machined quilted along the pretend piecing and then bound the quilt with prefolded binding.  On Monday I washed it because the fabric had been sitting in the cupboard so long.  It will make a nice lap quilt for some child.

This week I'm reading an interesting book, Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson.  My cousin Joan had mentioned it to me and I bought it at the nearby Barnes and Nobles.  The subtitle is "The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste."  And it certainly is the ultimate Guide.  Bea discusses step by step, room by room, how to achieve a Zero Waste home and lifestyle.  Her suggestions are well taken, but probably go beyond what most of us are willing to do.  Her wardrobe is extremely limited.  And although I will follow some of her suggestions I will retain a lot of clothing in my closet that is not worn often, just because I like to have a fair bit of variety to choose from.  Some days a plain, even severe "costume" seems appropriate and other days I like to dress colourfully to express my joy in life.

 

Still, this is a good book to buy, read, and keep on hand for suggestions.  Recommended.

I read another very interesting and encouraging book recently, Our Towns, by James and Deborah Fallows.  We saw an interview with this couple on t.v. awhile ago and that made me interested in buying their book.  I highly recommend this perceptive and hopeful book.

They spent four years travelling around the U.S. investigating the health of towns and small cities (43 in all) some not so small.  They looked into several areas of interest: local government, business, education, sports and arts, the whole panoply of what makes up our social environment, to see what was working well and what strategies towns and small cities were employing to better their possibilities for a well-working present and a hopeful future.  At the local level there is an entirely different discourse from the aggressive, divisive national conversation which is more like "verbal war."

About Erie, Pennsylvania they write on page 384: "The point that comes back to us is the starkness of the contrast: on the one hand the flattened terms -- "angry," resentful," "hopeless" -- the language the media and politicians use to describe America in general; on the other hand, the engaged, changing realities people understand about the places where they actually live.  The point may sound banal, but it has consequences.  In the very same terrain that was just described as Rust Belt loser land in a big presidential-campaign rally, and whose urban landscape clearly shows the structural and human makes of traumatic change, people are trying to anticipate and adapt to those changes, to improve their individual and collective futures, and generally to behave as if they are actors in their own dramas, rather than just being acted upon.  Being active, rather than passive, is one working definition of today's American idea."

The following sentence is remarkable in explaining Erie's source of hope: "Erie finds a hyper charged boost of optimism and energy from another sizeable portion of its population: refugees and immigrants."  Their explorations in Dodge City, Kansas, also reveals a remarkable story of how refugees and immigrants are essential to recovery in a depressed area.  Such a different insight from the coverage of Dodge City's troubles during the recent Mid Term elections!

If you'd like to be encouraged and cheered about the possibilities ahead for the US. this is the book to read!

BACK TO KNITTING

Have you notice that there's been no knitting since May?  I was going along well on my sweater and then developed swelling and pain in my left wrist, on the thumb side.  I quit knitting which I thought might be irritating that joint.  I tried everything I knew of to make that swelling and pain go away.  Nothing worked, so I finally went to the Dr. to see what he could do.  He said, "It's either arthritis or tendonitis.  For arthritis you should get one of those "squishy" balls and squeeze it for two minutes every day.  That will warm up that joint and loosen it.  But if it's tendonitis then you need to rest that joint, not work it." 

He sent me to a clinic in Airdrie for X rays and an ultrasound where it was discovered to be arthritis.  In September I had a shot in that joint and the swelling and pain more or less went away.  By the end of September I cast on a pair of socks for my brother-in-law Wayne.  I usually give him a pair of socks for his birthday, which happened to be the day I cast on the first sock.  

Then we were in Arizona where I have musical activities almost every day and quilting, art, and visits to the swimming pool with the Dear One, so not much knitting got done.

Yesterday I finished the first sock and cast on the second one:

I guess this year Wayne will get his socks for Christmas instead of for his birthday.

Dear Son #1 plans to arrive here early this afternoon.  He's been travelling, hiking and climbing for a year now. 

This evening (6 p.m.) we will be at a Thanksgiving Service for our Lutheran Church, the Synagogue next door and the Methodist Church next door to the Synagogue.  This is a yearly get together and one of the features is a large combined choir of the Lutheran and Methodist Churches.  The other feature, aside from the actual Thanksgiving Service, is a pie social that follows the service.  That's always an enjoyable time of fellowship and I will be baking a pie for that.  I plan to make a Cranberry/Pecan Pie.  You can find the recipe for that in the blog post of September 25, 2018.

Approaching Thanksgiving Day I have been thinking more than usual on our many blessings.  We watch news programs a lot and when you do that you are aware of how very, very many people in this world are suffering from war, from oppression, from famine, floods and fires.  It can make a person feel guilty about living such a pain-free life.  I am deeply grateful for the innumerable blessings in our life!

THE WEEKLY ROUND

When we are in Arizona I have a fairly "dense" weekly schedule, which I've mentioned before.  So it never seems as if there is something worthy of blogging about--or that everything is worth blogging about, which is just too much to handle.

As the week starts with Sunday, it begins with church service either at 8:30 or 10:30 and that includes singing in the choir, which I love doing.  This morning I also played a violin piece during communion, Count Your Many Blessings, a very simple piece, but one that enables people to think of the words, and in that way adds to the worship.  Last week Sunday afternoon the orchestra played a very patriotic concert, it being Veterans' Day.

Tomorrow morning I look forward to practicing on the pipe organ for two hours.  I'm working on a new piece for Christmas based on "O Come All Ye Faithful," a spritely cheerful piece of music, and also reviewing "Sheperhds Carol" based on The First Nowell. Usually Monday afternoon is spent at the swimming pool.  Tomorrow I will also drive my sister to her eye exam appointment.

Tuesday means more organ practice, another two hours of concentrated enjoyment.  This Tuesday I have to go to the village's back gate and wait in line for a new windshield sticker that will automatically open the gate for me to go out or in.  I'll take along my knitting to occupy me while I wait in line for the sticker.  Fortunately this is a once-off happening and doesn't need to be done every year.  I'll also pay the Cox bill for phone, internet and t.v.

Wednesday usually means orchestra practice from 9 to 11 a.m., but we will not meet this week as this is the day before Thanksgiving.  Instead in the evening there will be a combined Thanksgiving Service with the neighbouring churches: the Synagogue next door to Lord of Life and the Methodist Church next door to them.  This is a yearly affair and very enjoyable.  The Lutheran and Methodist choirs are combined to sing a wonderful anthem of praise.  And, according to some--best of all, the service is followed by a pie social.  I plan to make one of the Cranberry/Pecan pies for that affair.

Thursday is U.S. Thanksgiving day.  Our older son will be with us and we will join many others in the village restaurant for a Thanksgiving feast.  The best part is not having to cook!

Friday I have an appointment to have a perm at Walmart and realized after I made the appointment that that day is BLACK FRIDAY!! Oh, Oh.  Good thing the beauty salon is right inside one of the doors, so I can sneak in and out and try to avoid the crushing crowds that are expected.  For the life of me, I cannot understand why people are willing to suffer through that experience just to save a few bucks!  I'd rather do without that battle  through crowds to buy a new t.v. or whatever!

Saturdays are given to a quick but reasonably thorough cleaning of the condo--with Jim helping by doing the vacuuming.  Yesterday the vacuum for the rugs died an abrupt death.  Dennis is looking at it to see if it can be revived, but it's a hand-me-down, so no great loss if it's at an end.

Saturday day afternoon is sister time.  Joanne and I usually go to Starbucks at a nearby Barnes and Nobles for a coffee or latte, a good visit and perhaps a look at some books.

And then, before you know it here comes Sunday again!

So while we are here I am quite busy, quite "scheduled up" but it all seems kind of everyday and not worth blogging about.  My original intention with this blog was to keep our kids informed on what was happening at their parents' home.  If others read it, that's fine but the intended audience is quite small.

Have a wonderful week!  If it includes Thanksgiving Day (U.S.A) may you be blessed and may you recognize your blessings.  If you reside other places, the same good wishes go to you.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

PAINT SURPRISE

About three years ago I painted our bathroom a very deep blue that came from my brother-in-law Wayne.  They had painted some walls in their house here that wonderful colour.  He had at least a 1/2 gallon left and was kind enough to let me use it to paint our bathroom.  The bathroom is very, very small and half of it is taken up by a walk-in acrylic shower stall, so I used just a small amount of paint.

The blue was applied over a very pale cream and one coat seemed to cover it just fine.  But sometime in the next year a picture fell off the wall and the frame gouged a small divot out of the blue paint, revealing the white beneath.  Other little dits and dats showed up as we went along, so this fall I "borrowed" back the 1/2 gallon of paint.

Today I got around to using it.  I stirred it well with a paint stick, dipped in a little foam brush as the areas were very small and didn't require a regular paint brush.  It took about eight minutes to fix up those white spots that were showing through.  But when I went to move the paint can from where I had placed it in the shower stall --thank heavens!-- these rather big blobs of paint had leaked out of the bottom of the can.  Could it have rusted through?  The can is four years old.  YIKES!!

Was I ever happy that it was in the shower stall!!!

I put some paper towels under the can and put the can into a plastic garbage bag.  Then I cleaned up the paint spills.  They were quite thick blobs.  I quickly rinsed them away and then got the scrubbing powder and scrubbed the entire basin because I know from painting with watercolours how very staining a blue paint can be.  I think it looks o.k. now.  And the bathroom walls are all fixed up.  One more job off the list of upkeep tasks.

We also were able to replace our old spring and mattress on Monday.  Remember that last year I had such good luck finding a new sofa bed on the residents' bulletin board?  I looked there again and found a virtually new queen sized spring and mattress for $175.  Someone's son and daughter-in-law had required a king size bed rather than the queen size that was in the guest house.  So Donalda had a queen sized spring and mattress to dispose of.  Monday afternoon our helper Dennis, Jim and I went there to pick it up.  Fortunately her son Stuart was there and helped greatly with manuevering the awkward spring and even more awkward mattress into Dennis's truck and then into our condo here.  Many thanks to Stuart and Dennis for helping us with that.  And now we have a firm mattress to sleep on--no more lying in a "trough."  

IN MEMORY OF MARCY

This past Sunday our church celebrated All Saints Day.  We light a candle for each member who passed away during the last year.  We also have a large bouquet of white roses, with one red rose in the middle.  Anyone who lost a loved one in the past year is invited to take home a rose in his or her honour.

We are appreciating this beautiful white rose in honour of the memory of Marcy, a dear

friend who died last March and is deeply missed.

When we returned to AZ my friend Nan, who also loved Marcy, remarked to me that she often thought she saw Marcy at a distance and then realized that it was impossible.  Marcy is gone.  I hadn't had that experience.  But now, being back in AZ I do think I catch sight of Marcy, and have to suffer that disappointment again.  I guess it's because here is where Marcy was, here is where I knew her.

This beautiful white rose is an appropriate tribute to Marcy, who was a beautiful soul.

JUMP ROPE

Did you play "jump rope" when you were a kid?  I was thinking about that today.  We had recess twice a day at school, a 15 minute break in the morning and in the afternoon.  There was also a longer noon hour, but most of us walked home, had lunch, and then walked back to school.  There were several games we played on our macadam playground.  No soft wood chips for us!  When we fell we got up with bloody knees and elbows.  Scabs were almost universal.

Jump rope was a popular recess pastime.  We had several chants to accompany our jumping.  I was remembering one that went this way: (using the name of the next girl in line while the current girl was still jumping): Vote, vote, vote for Margy.  Margy's waiting at the door.  Margy is a lady and she has a hundred babies, and we don't need Linda anymore!"  Linda jumps out of the jump rope and Margy jumps in.  The chant is repeated with the name of the next girl in line. And they were always, only girls.  I think the boys played mostly marbles. If I had music score paper I could write down the tune.

Another sing-song chant went like this: "Down in the valley where the green grass grows, there sat Judy as sweet as a rose.  Along came Dale and kissed her on the cheek.  How many kisses did she get that week?"  Then the girls holding the ends of the rope whipped it around at double speed while Judy tried to jump successfully as often as possible, with the other girls counting, 1...2...3....  And that, supposedly, was how many kisses Dale gave Judy that week.  (At that point in our lives, not one of us was being kissed!)

I often think of these old time things.  Also of songs that I learned as a child, such as "Barney Google, with the goo-goo-googlely eyes!  Barney Google had a wife three times his size.  She sued Barney for divorce.  Now he's living with his horse.  Barney Google, with the goo-goo-googlely eyes!"  What fun nonsense!  We would put our faces right up against each other, close our eyes, and say, One, two, three, google eyes! And open our eyes, staring crosseyed into our partner.

There was a nice little gang of kids who lived within a few block radius that hung out together.  We played softball on a dead end street.  We rode our bikes to Franklin Park, a mile away to go swimming in the summer--free, in a city pool with life guards.  We played hide and seek and "ghostie" a twilight game played around the outside of a house, preferably with shrubs and other places to hide.  We liked to scare each other.  We also played "eenie, einie over" in which we were on either side of a house, preferably the back extension which was just one story high.  One group threw a ball over the house and the group on the other side had to catch the ball, run around the house (the mystery was which was to run, which way those who were "it" would come from) and try to catch the kids on the other team.

There was a kind of naughty song we liked to sing:  Oh, I wish I was a little bar of soap, Oh, I wish I was a little bar of soap!  I'd go slippery, slippery, shiney, over everybody's heinie, Oh I wish I was a little bar of soap!  Actually, I think the verb form was: I wish I were....  The subjunctive was still then a recognized and respected verb mood along with indicative and iussive.

My sister (two years younger) and I were fortunate to have as friends two sisters who matched our ages.  We did so much together!  I remember all sorts of card games, monopoly, Chinese checkers, Parchesi, passing many summer afternoons and evenings with the four of us.

Well, those were the "golden summer days of youth" all right!  Nice memories to have, now that we are the "old folks."

A REALLY GOOD MEAL

I picked up a bag of prepared salad yesterday.  It has broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, and chicory.  For supper tonight there was a large half chicken breast thawing in the fridge.  In the freezer were four cheese biscuits (homemade) left over from Wednesday evening's dinner.  These were heated up in the microwave.

The chicken breast cut into four pieces and breaded was ready to go on the George Foreman grill.

To the salad I added the packet of dried cranberries and roasted pumpkin seeds that came with it and then also added some fresh, fat blueberries and some ripe strawberries that I cut up.  A packet of poppyseed dressing was included.  The crowning glory of the salad was some little lumps of goat cheese.     
                         

It was a very tasty, healthy meal, very easily prepared.  Just how I like to cook and just how we like to eat!

MORE PROBLEMS

No pictures this time.  The glass doors on our shower stall fell off the clamps.  Everything here is getting pretty old.  The condo was built in 1987.  It's possible that the walk-in shower was put in later, but I don't know about that.  The doors were held on by two fairly small clamps that were connected to the shower stall with rollers in the top bar.  It was a poor design.  The glass doors were very heavy and the clamps were not very big.

We had the same problem a few years ago and a handy man fixed it up for us then.  They didn't seem "fixable" anymore, so they went to the recycle.  I took the tension bar and shower curtain from the second bathroom and put them in place of the glass doors.  Tomorrow I need to go shopping for another tension bar and shower curtain.

Hope we're finished with that sort of problem now!

PLUMBING PROBLEMS

Our place here was built in 1987 and sometimes it shows.  The bathroom with the main bedroom has been having toilet troubles.  Shortly after we arrived I turned the water on at the point where it comes into the condo and then flushed the toilet and heard a big bang!  It scared me.  I wondered what was wrong.  The cause was air in the water pipes.  Once I figured that out, I didn't worry about it.

But later when I went into that bathroom, I found the floor flooded with water--clean water fortunately!  I turned off the supply to the toilet and investigated.  That initial big bang of air from the water supply more or less blew the control of the float valve off, so it continued to run.  BIG PROBLEM!!!

I went into the second bathroom and examined the toilet there.  I saw that the arm of the float valve that turned off the water could be screwed back on.  So I did that and turned the water supply back on.

OOPS!  When I happened to go there again later the floor was again flooded.  What happened?  I think maybe the connection to the float arm had been stripped.  I turned off the water supply again.  Things were pretty busy just then, so we left the toilet turned off and used the second bathroom.  A few days later I got in touch with Dennis and he came over to fix the toilet.  I had bought the parts needed at Walmart and he installed them.

It was a real struggle for him to deal with the old, rusty screws and other parts in the toilet.  He sweated and grunted and persisted--and finally the job was done.  Now another problem has showed up.  The tank sits too loosely on the base and that's leaking.  He's coming back tomorrow to see if he can add some washers to those connections.  Otherwise, it looks like we need a new toilet.

On another topic, this past Sunday our pastor preached a very good sermon based on Psalm 8 and dealt with "earth keeping" -- very timely.  We try to have a small footprint.  Back home in Alberta we are able to keep our trash to the very minimum--just a few garbage cans of trash go to the dump each year.  All of the organic waste (and we create a great deal of that!) goes into the compost.  We recycle everything else possible; styrofoam is the one exception that cannot be recycled there.  So I buy eggs in cardboard cartons, and try my best not to bring home any other styrofoam.

We use reusable bags for our groceries.  I do that here, also, but this morning by the time I got to the checkout I realized I didn't have those bags with me.  I parked the cart and went to the car to get the bags.  Oh, Oh, they weren't there, and then I remembered they were still by the living room door.  So I went through the checkout with my rather small load of groceries, and they came home in these: 12 FLIMSY PLASTIC BAGS!  Several things had been double bagged.  Some items were one in a bag!  I hadn't been watching closely enough as the cashier transferred them to bags.

                             

Have you been watching the PBS News Hour series this week on The Problem of Plastics?  I'm am just appalled to be part of that problem today!

JONATHAN OKSENIUK, A VERY FINE AND VERY YOUNG MUSICIAN

I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful concert this afternoon: Jonathan and Victoria Okseniuk performed on violin and piano at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Sun City West, AZ.  Victoria, 10 years old, accompanied her 12 year old brother on just one song: a lovely hymn arrangement.  Jonathan starred in the whole of the program, on both violin and piano.

We didn't have a printed program, so this is the order of the music from my sometimes faulty memory.  Jonathan began with a Bach unaccompanied partita, I think it was #3, the Minuet and one other movement.  We listeners were awed at his facility and nuance in the performance.  He followed that up with a movement of a Mendelssohn violin concerto, accompanied by his piano teacher (whose name I don't have).  Again we were amazed that a 12 year old could perform at that level.  That was followed by three numbers: a Fritz Kreisler piece (lots of fireworks) a Chopin Mazurka, performed on piano by Jonathan, and a piano duet with his teacher, written by Mozart.

Jonathan then played a lovely hymn arrangement (forgot which hymn) and then Victoria accompanied him as he played a violin arrangement of another hymn (likewise forgotten, even though recognized and enjoyed in the hearing of it).

There was a short quiet time as a collection was taken up to help support these young musicians and their parents.

The program was concluded with a piece by Saint Saens, another brilliant display of mastery of musicianship by the very accomplished and very mature young violinist.  The concert was a "rip-roaring success" as proved by the very enthusiastic and sustained applause of all present.

There was opportunity right afterwards for photos and I was able to capture a few:
Jonathan, the piano teacher/accompanist, and Victoria:

The Okseniuk family:

I give a great deal of credit to Mr. and Mrs. Okseniuk.  No young musicians reach this level of mastery without the total and complete support of their parents.  As Mr. Okseniuk remarked to me: Most of the credit goes to their mother!  As a retired Suzuki violin teacher, I recognize the depth and extent of their support of and involvement with their children.  Congratulations all around!

IN THE WARMTH

Well, we are in warm (sometimes hot) Arizona once more, and just in time!  Back home there's been snow and the thermometer struggles to get above freezing during the day.  We had a few days of rainy weather, sometimes heavy rain here.  That's always welcome in a dry area!  But it meant that we didn't take advantage of the pool here.  Jim did get there today and yesterday, but I had choir rehearsals both days--and an orchestra rehearsal on Wednesday morning.  SO NICE to be back in music activities!

So we've been busy, first packing up, then travelling, and then unpacking.  I didn't do such a good job this year.  We both have just one pair of shorts to wear, so we need to go shopping.  I also forgot to pack my "concert clothes"--a long black velvet skirt and a nice black velvet top.  Fortunately there are lots of places nearby to shop for clothing.

Not much else to report now, but I'll be posting as, hopefully, some interesting things happen.  Have a good fall season!  To my Canadian friends, have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

MOON IN THE MORNING

This morning the moon was perfect, shining in a blue sky just before the sun came up in the opposite direction.  What a nice way to start the day.  You can even see the moonlight casting shadows of the railing on the balcony. Just click on the picture to enlarge it.

The snow is gone and we had a lovely, warm and sunny fall day.  Quilt club started at 9 and we were there until a bit after 5 p.m.  We all agreed it was a pity to spend the day indoors, but it was quilt club time so we did.

Today we had a lunch-time potluck and, as always,  the food was delicious.  Last potluck we had was a total salad meal.  But we all agreed that it had been a terrific meal.  This time it was very balanced, a crock pot of stew, a crock pot of chili, some salads, a loaf of fresh homemade bread and a few desserts.  I brought two pies: Cranberry Pecan pie.  A simple but very tasty pie, suitable for Thanksgiving dinners:

Cranberry Pecan Pie

Preheat over to 375º.
Spread a single pie crust in a 9" or 10" pie plate.
Spread 1 1/2 cups cranberries (fresh or frozen) on the crust.
Mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup chopped pecans.
Sprinkle this mixture over the cranberries.
With your electric mixture beat two eggs until thick, about 5 minutes.
Gradually beat 1/2 cup sugar into the egg mixture, and then gradually beat in 1/2 cup flour, alternating with 1/2 cup melted butter.
Spoon this mixture over the cranberries.
Bake on the lower rack until the crust is brown, 40 to 45 minutes.
Cover the pie loosely with foil during the last 10 to 15 minutes if the top is becoming too dark.
Cool and slice into 8 pieces.

I use four toothpicks to hold the foil off the top of the pie.  Otherwise the foil will stick to the custard topping and rip off the nice browned surface.

I cut the pie into 8 pieces, but as the women helped themselves to a piece, most often they first cut the piece in half.  So we ended up with about 16 pieces from the one pie.  I think they did this so that they had room for more than one dessert.  Aren't we indulgent!

I was busy machine quilting the Jacob's Ladder.  Hoped to finish it today, but there's still more to do, so I will have to put it away for now and finish it when we get back from AZ.

THE VIEW THIS MORNING

This all arrived overnight:

Time to do the "snowbird" thing!

LAST OF GARDEN

Last week S. and I put most of the garden "to sleep."  We knew that frost was forecast for later that week, so we picked all of the tomatoes in the front garden.  We stripped the plants of green tomatoes, threw the plants onto a pile to go to the compost and carefully spread the green tomatoes on tables in the Sales Building, covering them with newspaper.  Did you know that you can keep green tomatoes covered in a cool place in the fall and they will gradually ripen?

On the table behind them under the old curtains (from the 70's, can't you tell) are boxes of potatoes and one box of carrots.  This building is not heated, but they will be good here for many weeks.  We'll just use them up as they ripen.  Here are two more tables of covered tomatoes:

                        

There were a lot of tomatoes in another bed in the back garden, but since we have probably more than enough tomatoes I convinced S. that we should just leave those other tomatoes.  If someone wants to come and pick them, they would be welcome.

Last Saturday I picked all the ears of corn that remained in the back garden.  We had been eating them for about two weeks and sharing the harvest with friends.  It was great corn!  I had been very disappointed that only 18 of the seeds I planted (out of 43) actually germinated and produced a plant, but OH MY! those plants!  They towered over my head and produced about 5 ears each!  There had been some frosts all right, but the corn still there was all right, so on Saturday I picked all that remained, blanched and cooled them and put them in the freezer.  There are 30 nice ears of corn in the freezer for eating later when there is no fresh corn available.

Today after the morning walk I pulled up the Fava Bean plants that remained in the front garden.  I stripped off the bean pods that seemed to have beans in them and threw the plants on the pile of wilted tomato plants, all destined for the compost pile.  The blue pail in the foreground holds the pods that have been picked.

                         

Here are the few remaining plants:

In the house I stripped off the pods and had a very modest amount of beans.  I started a pot of "vegetable stew" with some olive oil, chopped onions, a cut up mild Italian sausage, and garlic.  When that was sautéed I added some chopped tomatoes (skin removed), the beans and a zucchini that I picked this morning.  That didn't look like enough for dinner, so I got out a package of Bear Creek minestrone soup, added the water and stirred that in. Some frozen corn kernels would be good in that. Just before we eat I'll add one can of beans in sauce.  That, plus the cheese biscuits that I made on Saturday and we'll have just the right meal for a cold, damp, cloudy day!

A MISTAKEN BLOCK

Today I sewed together the Jacob's Ladder quilt top.  I'm really loving the combination of fabrics and they are far from my usual palette.  At this point the borders are just stuck onto the design wall, not sewed onto the quilt.  I need to buy more of this gold fabric so that there can be whole borders, not so many pieces.  And we need some more for the binding.  There are just scraps of the purple and of the batik left.  Fortunately there will still be more of the gold to finish a border and binding, as that was a very recent purchase.  For the backing I'm thinking a nice purple flannel would be a good choice.

But as I sat looking it over just now I saw that one block was sewed together wrong.  It's still very "fixable" I just need to remove a few seams, turn things around and sew it back together.  

Can you spot the block that needs fixing?

DUCAN DECKING, DUKE AND REFRESH

I just happened to come across a comment on a post from 2015 asking about the Ducan decking and the use of the cleaner Duke and the product Refresh to "spiff up" the Ducan decking.  Sorry I didn't see it when it was posted this past June, but I hope whoever asked the questions sees this belated answer.

We installed the Ducan decking probably around 2001.  So it was a good 14 years old when I first used the Duke and Refresh on it.  The decking itself was still in pretty good condition but had faded dramatically and needed some help.

I applied two coats that first summer and then either in '16 or '17 I did another coat.  When the snow is gone in the spring I do a good wash.  Because the surface is "dimpled" it needs a good scrubbing to get the dirt out of the dimples.  I cleaned it this spring, but because of all the soot from the wildfires this summer it needed another cleaning recently.

Two weeks ago tomorrow I got out there with a power washer, a push broom and some Duke cleaner.  After an hour and a half it looked great again.  But my right shoulder was painful for a week and a half.  So I won't do that again.  This week I ordered a Boss Mini Gloss Floor Machine from Home Hardware.  That will provide the "elbow grease" the next time I scrub the balcony or the tiles in the sun space, the glassed in windowed area below the balcony.

PEAR JAM

One Wednesday while I was gone to pick up dear son #1 at the Calgary airport, S. picked a load of pears from the three pear trees at the back of the garden.  Thursday morning she came and helped me wash them and cut them up.  After she left I began the process of boiling them and putting them through the food mill in preparation for turning them into pear jam.

I found that they needed to be boiled quite a bit longer than the apples.  It took quite a bit to make them mushy enough for the food mill (a simple hand-turned French style food mill) to turn them into sauce.  I tried putting them through an Omega juicer but that didn't work well at all.  So I just kept on plugging away with boiling and using the food mill.

When there was 6 cups of pear "sauce" I made a batch of jam.  Then went back to making sauce.  I did this all day, with just two breaks, one for a cookie and glass of milk, and one for some late, late breakfast.  It was 5:38 by the time I finally finished "saucing" and making jam and got the kitchen cleaned up.  Fortunately DS#1 had gone for pizza, so that was a treat after a day "slaving away" in the kitchen!

PEAR JAM
Mix together:
6 cups of pear sauce
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp.  nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger.

Mix together:
1/4 cup sugar with
1 pkg No Sugar added Pectin.

Stir this mixture into the pear sauce mix.
Bring to a boil.
Add 4 1/4 cups sugar.
Return to a boil and boil hard for one minute.

Ladle into hot, sterile jars and seal with a
hot self-sealing lid  Screw the ring on tight and
place on a pad of towels to protect the counter.
Leave space between the jars so they cool and
snap shut.

The day's total: 19 jars and a little leftover in the fridge.

This is enough for a few years, I think!  There are lots more pears to come, but I will be giving them away and this is more than enough.  Especially since I had already made 17 quarts of raspberry freezer jam and 4 jars of cooked raspberry jam.

MAKING APPLESAUCE

Today dawned cold, rainy and very windy.  The thermometer stood at +2C, or about +35ºF.  But this was the day to pick apples and make applesauce.  The apples on the tree by greenhouse #1 were ready.  There was nothing else on the schedule, other than the usual chores.  So S. came over and together we picked two large pails of apples.  Not so many as usual, but enough for now.

She helped me wash and cut up the apples.  From there they went into two big stockpots to cook down to sauce.  I took a break while they cooked, had a cup of coffee and read for a while.  Latest book: Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers.  Around 12 I started putting the soft cooked apples through the food mill, spooning them into 1 pint jars and putting them into the hot water bath in the canner.

I was really thankful that I had a frozen lasagne, Basilli's Best, in the freezer, the right size for just the two of us.  I'm not very good at making lasagne, it's a lot of work, and this grocery store freezer lasagne is actually very good.  That saved me making dinner at the same time that I was making applesauce.

By 1:50 p.m. the applesauce was finished.  Ten pint jars (actually slightly more content, as they are metric) and three 4 cup containers.  All the jars sealed!!!  I used to have at least 2 out of 7 jars that didn't seal.  S. clued me into the fact that the boiling water needs to be about 2" ABOVE the tops of the jars.  Somehow I never knew that, although I've done lots and lots of canning over the years.  So I was VERY happy that all 10 jars sealed themselves.  This tree, which I call the "Greenhouse Apple Tree"--we don't know what variety it is--makes lovely pink applesauce that needs no sugar.  We use lots of this applesauce, both with dinners and on our breakfast pancakes.

A very satisfying accomplishment on a cold, cloudy, windy Monday.

QUILTY FUN

At our planning meeting last May the Pieceful Stitchers, the in-town quilt club, decided that we would all make a Jacob's Ladder quilt this year and submit them as a group to the Red Deer Quilt Show.  The idea is to demonstrate how one pattern can be interpreted in so many different ways.  I wanted to get started on that project so I looked in my stash and found two fabrics that looked good together, the batik print on the left and the purple print in the middle.  I took them to the Fabric Nook and found this gold that looked good with them.  I thought I was all set.

I looked up and printed a Jacob's Ladder quilt block from the internet.  Using that I calculated how much fabric I would need to make a 12 block quilt, 12" per block.  According to my figures I had just enough of the batik and plenty of the purple.  I bought .6 of a meter of the gold, figuring that was plenty.

I checked my calculations several times, and, to my dismay, ended up with different figures each time.  I'm not very perceptive about math, so I was a bit worried.  Finally I decided to take the fabrics to the Fabric Nook and find replacements for the batik and the purple.  You'll see them later.  But back home again and after another attempt to figure out how many inches of each fabric I needed, I thought my originals might possibly do.  So I simply started cutting and sewing, figuring, "I'll see how it turns out."

I made the squares for one block and put them up on the design wall.  This is the second try.  I discovered something funny: I had figured things out wrong and what was supposed to be the background became the ladder.  Oh well, if it looks different, maybe that's a good thing!

That was yesterday afternoon.  Today I made all the squares for all of the blocks.  THERE WAS PRECISELY JUST ENOUGH FABRIC!  If I had needed one more block it wouldn't have worked.  How many times does THAT happen?

The squares needed for each of the 12 blocks are in neat little stacks on the cutting board.  When I get the blocks made I'll play around a bit with the placement.  It's an ongoing adventure!  

HELLO AGAIN

The Thursday after my last blog post our dear daughter and two grands arrived for a visit. That's always such a pleasure because not one of our four kids and no grands live closer than a 10 hour drive.  This is being just a great summer because three of the kids and three of the grands either have been here or are still planning to come.  And we hope to see some of them around the turn of the year again!

That Saturday the garden harvest took off.  This is what S. and I picked that day:

She helped me with the snipping and preparing.  The carrots are all washed and in the fridge for present eating.  The beans were processed and yielded 15 pints.  That's plenty to have on shelves downstairs.

 

 There has been lots more from the garden.  We are eating most of it fresh.  I've been making a "vegetable stew" from Fava Beans, onions, zucchini, tomatoes and bell peppers. That's a nice filling meal that we've had several times in the last few weeks.

Our t.v., which we've had since 1986, started doing strange things.  After we turned it off, it would turn itself back on, display static and emit and VERY LOUD static sound.  I was afraid it would explode!  So this Monday I went to Red Deer and asked a lot of questions at London Drug.  Mike patiently answered them all and guided me to what would be a good choice for us.  A Samsung 43" 1080P LED Smart t.v. came home with me.  It's all hooked up and we are really enjoying it.  I'm the techie here, and not much of a one, but I did manage to get it set up.  The funny thing is that we need to use the new remote to turn it on, control the volume or mute it.  To change channels we need to use the remote that came with the HD Bell Express Vu satellite box.  If we knew a bit more about these things, we might be able to do better, but this works for us.  It's a much bigger, brighter picture than the old RCA.

And today I finally was able to get at the latest quilting project.  This sample Pinwheel quilt top is now finished.  It will go to the IDA as an unfinished top, i.e., not "sandwiched" and quilted.  That will allow those interested to examine the back and see how the seams are pressed.  There is already a completely finished Pinwheel quilt there, meant to interest quilters in a "Demo Day" in September when I will demonstrate my method of making Pinwheel Blocks.  When I have the directions all printed out I will post them on the blog.

 

FIXING HOLES

The Dear One always said No when I asked if he'd like a pair of hand knit socks.  I thought that maybe it was because he thought the colour would be too bright.  Finally in 2015 I simply knit him a pair of hand knit socks in Patons Kroy Sock Yarn, my favourite for socks (75% washable wool for warmth and comfort and 25% nylon for strength) in this colour, Flax.  I gave them to him for Christmas.  He put them on and had an epiphany: hand knit woolen socks felt GREAT!!!  Turns out he always thought they wouldn't  feel good.  Since then I've knit him six pairs of socks.

Because it takes a lot of time and effort to knit a pair of socks, and because they tend to get holes under the heel and ball of the foot while the rest of the sock is still in prime condition, it is very worthwhile to repair these holes.  Here's a small hole and a very thin area in a pair of socks I knit for him in February of 2017.  And here's how I fix holes in socks.  First with a very thin double point (dp) needle I pick up the stitches in a row below the hole.

Then I begin knitting these picked up stitches with the regular size sock needles.  At the beginning of each knit row I pick up a stitch from the sole of the sock, in the same vertical column of stitches but the second row up.  I slide that stitch onto the needle ahead of the first stitch and knit the two stitches together.

                       
I knit to the end of that row of stitches.  Before the last stitch I pick up a stitch from the sole in the same vertical column of stitches as the last stitch on the needle and knit those two stitches together.

Turn the knitting and purl back to the beginning.  Repeat until the hole and thin area are covered with the new knitting.

When you are a good long way past the hole and worn out spot cut the yarn quite a distance from the last stitch at the end of a purl row.  (The picture shows the working yarn at the beginning of a purl row.  Don't let that confuse you.)

Thread the end of yarn through a yarn needle.  Thread the yarn needle through a stitch in the sole, bring it up purl-wise through the first stitch on the needle.  Pass the yarn under the needle tip, pass it under the point of the "v" of the corresponding stitch in the sole.  (Sorry, no picture.)  Now pass it under the point of the needle and through the first stitch knit-wise.  Slide that stitch off the needle.  Repeat with the next stitch--first passing the yarn through that stitch purl-wise.  This is a modified version of the Kitchener stitch which is used to connect two pieces of knitting invisibly, by creating a hand-needled row between the top and the bottom of two pieces of knitting.

Sorry about no picture.  The next time I do this procedure I'll take and post pictures.

Here are the mended socks:  The left sock looks a little different.  It's just a change of yarn after a few inches on mend on that sock.  Just started the mend with the wrong yarn, but who will notice on the sole of the sock?

This repair will extend the life of these socks considerably.  This pair is one of my favourites because of the cable design on the top of the foot and on the legs.  Several of his pairs of socks are this same Flax colour, but I make each one somewhat differently so that when they come out of the wash I can match them to their mates.

There was another pair with even bigger holes in my mending basket, but I thought I'd try something different.  The Dear One only recently told me that the reason he likes hand knit socks so much is because they are softer and cushion his feet more than bought socks.  He has Peripheral Neuropathy in both feet and legs which makes them feel "pins and needles" much of time.  These socks help with that by cushioning his feet somewhat.

Well, that gave me an idea for the next "hole repair" session.  I picked up and knit a whole other sole with this difference: I stuffed bits of roving between the "holey" sole and the new sole, thinking: this will really give him a good cushion.

This pair had been mended earlier--you can see the mend  on the heel at right, but now the mend had a hole in it and beside it where it joined the sole.

This time I started at the toe and picked up extra stitches along the side of the toe.  When I got to the side of the sole I used the method described above.  As I went along I stuffed the cavity between the new and old soles with cut up roving (roving is unspun yarn).  The majority of time yesterday was devoted to this project.  I finished by 9 p.m. (having taken out time to have a hair cut, buy groceries and go out for lunch).  

It looks like a sock with a foot in it!

When he tried it on he asked, Will it compact a bit?  Probably, with some wearing and washing.  But what a lovely new sole for this sock!

Next week I'll try to do up the other sock of this pair.  It's still a LOT less effort and time compared to knitting a whole new pair!

A BOOK, A RECIPE & RASPBERRY JAM

This morning I finished reading a very interesting book:

Published in 2013 Deep South tells the story of Paul Theroux's year of travel in the U.S. South.  Travelling alone by car he explored the back roads and small towns of the south, meeting locals and learning how they lived, most of them in dire poverty.  

Many of the small towns had been prosperous in the first half of the 1900's.  Then came the violent times of civil rights unrest and the devastation wrought by the departure of most industries to countries with cheaper labour and fewer taxes.  He also discovered, to his surprise and chagrin that although the U.S. sends millions and millions of aid dollars overseas, the poor in the south struggle without that kind of aid.  Most of the people he spoke with, many of whom became his friends, were poor blacks.  What shines through his writing is his empathy with all sorts of people.  What a good book!  I highly recommend it.

Sunday suppers here are not like the main meal on weekdays.  They are much "lighter."  Quite often we just have a bun with salmon salad.  Another frequent meal is homemade pizza.  This week I used an old recipe from way back when, Salmon Biscuit Ring.  I don't know where this recipe came from, but haven't made this for years.  I'm thinking of making this when DD #2 and her two kids are here in August so thought it would be a good thing to have a run through now.  It turned out terrific:

                        

It calls for biscuit mix (Bisquick, I guess) which I didn't have so I made some.  That recipe came from the net and was simple to make.

SALMON BISCUIT RING
Combine:
1 large or 2 small cans of salmon, drained
1 egg
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped parsley.
 
With a fork, stir together:
2 1/2 cups buttermilk baking mix
2/3 cup milk  (I used Kefir, very much like buttermilk)
Form a soft dough.
On a floured board knead 12 to 15 times.
Roll into a 10" x 15" rectangle.

Spread the salmon mixture on the dough.
Roll the dough up (like cinnamon rolls).
Moisten the edge with water.  Seal the ends together.
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Make 12 cuts, 2/3 of the way through the ring.
Turn each piece on its side.
Brush the dough with a beaten egg.
Bake at 375º for 25 to 30 minutes.

I halved this recipe and still got a big enough ring that we ate only half.  The other half is in the freezer for some other meal.

This morning S. picked raspberries and got this mounded gallon pail.  I made 4 four cup freezer containers of raspberry freezer jam.  Last year we put 16 of these containers in the freezer and just this morning I took the last one out to thaw.  The date on the top of that container was 31/7/17.  So--just enough raspberry freezer jam to last one year.  We also used the cherry jelly I made last summer, and for most of our time in Arizona I bought jam at the supermarket.  Only Smucker's raspberry or strawberry jam seemed good enough.

How to make raspberry freezer jam:

Start with four cups of mashed fresh raspberries.  Mix 1 1/2 cups of sugar with one package of Bernardin Freezer Jam Gelling Powder.  Mix the sugar/jelling powder into the crushed fruit and stir for three minutes.  Pack into freezer containers.  I use plastic four cup square containers, as they stack very nicely in the freezer.  

Do try this, even if you have to buy some raspberries -- or strawberries.  It works equally well with either fruit.  I tried it once with some pitted, crushed cherries, but for some obscure reason, that did not turn out well.