SAYING GOODBYE

Dear Friends,
My last post rather briefly and abruptly announced that my Dear One had died.  The time since then has been a whirlwind of detail and activity.  Throughout all of it I have been aware of being greatly blessed.  The blessings continue to be made manifest.  My family and I have been lovingly upheld with gifts of food, letters and cards, personal conversations from friends near and far and especially by the people here in my small town.

Here is a photo I just received from a friend.  The last photo of Jim and myself together.

I've been writing the blog for just over 10 years now, and now it is time to say "goodbye" to all of you, also.  This started as a way of keeping our four children and seven grandchildren up to date with our doings.  And it grew to reach people all over the world.

So, thank you all for reading and sometimes reacting to what I put out here.  It's been a good 10 years for me and now I wish you all the best in the future.

THANK YOU and GOODBYE!

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

Last time I wrote was on August 8.  Dear Daughter #2 and granddaughter arrived that day.  On August 9 she and I went to the Rosebud Chamber Music concert in Rosebud, Alberta.  It was beyond marvellous.  It took place in the Akokinskway Gallery which used to be a small church, so it was an intimate venue.  She and I sat in the front row and we were just  awed by the first number on the program.  Aaron Schwebel played Bach's Chaconne from Partita No. 2.  His performance was transporting!  It was magnificent.  If that were the whole program it would have been more than worth the ticket cost.

That was followed by "Five Pieces for String Quartet" by Erwin Schulhoff which is wonderful, humorous music.  After Intermission a group played "String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, op. 36" by Brahms.  All in all a fantastic, deeply satisfying evening!

The Dear One was scheduled to preach on Sunday at a Southern Alberta church we knew well and liked.  He preached a sermon on Jesus' words: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, which was very well received.  He also baptized the baby of a young woman whom he had baptized 26 years ago.  It was a very satisfying experience for us.

He had had some dental work done the week before and complained of worsening jaw pain.  They X-rayed his jaw and found nothing, no inflammation or infection, but it did keep on getting worse.  Coming home on Sunday he was very tired.  In the following days this worsened, and I could see him failing day by day.

Early Friday morning he passed out in our bedroom and died shortly after.  I'm so thankful that he was gone before the EMTs arrived and start resuscitation efforts.  He wanted to die at home, he did not have a long, painful illness, and he managed to avoid being brought back to end his life in an ICU.

There were so many blessings in his last week and in his passing.  Especially that our daughter was here to help.  The same afternoon Son #2 arrived, the next morning Daughter #1 and on Sunday afternoon Son #1.  They were all with me for a week, and we had a wonderful time of healing, being together, shedding tears and sometimes enjoying much laughter.  It was a wonderful sendoff for their father.

There will be a Memorial Service on Saturday,  October 5 at 2 p.m. at the Mount Olive Evangelical Free Church in Three Hills.

Here is the last picture taken of the Dear One:

EVENING

Beautiful clouds!  Beautiful sky!  I love clouds--as long a there is also some clear sky for contrast.

We have very good views from our home.  We can see the sunrise and the sunset on the horizon, no buildings in the way.  Clouds fascinate me.  Each one unique. 

Dear Daughter #2 arrived this afternoon with Dear Granddaughter #4, the youngest granddaughter, almost 15.  Some years ago when we all gathered together to celebrate an anniversary, #4 said, "I'm tired of being the youngest all the time!"

Sorry, sweetheart that doesn't get to change.  Granddaughter #1 is the only one not taller than myself.  #2, 3, and 4 are all very tall young women.  #2 is about 5'10", #3 is 6', and #4 is at least an inch or two taller than I am, about 5'7" or 5'8".  They each LIKE being tall.  How very neat!

MOST PEOPLE ARE HONEST

Yesterday an acquaintance came to visit, someone whom I think will become a good friend. I had met Rebekah very early in our coming to this small town.  We were looking at real estate and she had an advertisement in the local paper for her kitchen products business.  I had been looking for several months for a used grain mill and realized I'd probably have to buy a new one.  She had grain mills for sale, so we went to her home to buy one.

When I gave her a check, from a bank quite far away in Alberta, she asked, "You wouldn't bounce a check on me, would you?"  I replied that we had agreed to buy property here and start a garden centre, so there was no way I'd tarnish our reputation with a bad check.

When I reminded her of that yesterday, she was apologetic about asking that.  I thought it entirely proper of her.  She thought a bit and then said, I found that most people who bake their own bread are honest!  Nice thought! 

Then The Dear One and I went out for supper--a rare treat!, offered because I had spent the morning finishing the project of the downstairs door and windows.

Sure glad to check that project off the list!

When we came back from our outing Jim found a little pile of cash and a nice note in the Garden Centre: "I bought 6 little geraniums.  Thanks, (signed, indecipherable)."  The "Sorry we're closed" sign was at the end of the driveway, but it's rather small perhaps she didn't see it.  Nevertheless, doesn't it just seem wonderful that people are honest!

This morning I got out the red, white and blue quilt that has been an ongoing project for the last three years.  The problem here is that the seams between the blocks don't nest, even though they are supposed to.  I finally sat down and figured out what's wrong.  The trouble came because of my liking for "spinning" the intersections.  That threw the calculations off.  Now I know what to do and was making good progress.  The bottom three rows are new, and now I have to make some more blue and white blocks to finish up.        

                                

I have the squares to finish up these blocks and this morning confidently sewed together three of them for this row.  Sewed them together all wrong!  I had to take them completely apart, quite discouraging.

This weekend I'll make the rest of the blue and white blocks, this time the RIGHT WAY!

 The block on the left is the wrong way, the block on the right is what it should be.

Sometimes I'm surprised at how stupid I can be!

REFURBISHED SIGN

When Jim retired from the ministry in '99 the church we were serving gave us a terrific retirement party and a wonderful gift:  A carved wooden sign for the Garden Centre:  

This has stood at the end of our driveway for almost 20 years now, and was looking very much worse for wear.  I had repainted it once long ago, but it needed a lot of help.

Two weeks ago I devoted a lot of time to it.  I sanded and scraped and then put on a good coat (or was it two) of Killz primer.  Then I repainted the whole thing.  It took two coats. It was totally worth the effort!  It looks absolutely as good as new.

We had some help this weekend erecting it again.  It's solid wood, 2 x 2s, and really, really heavy.  Our carpenter had put in new posts--that was quite a job in itself.  And then some friends helped us carry it from the greenhouse where I had done the renew, and set it up on the new posts.  Alas, it teetered on the rock underneath.  Craig, who is enormously strong, lifted the big rock and moved it over, took some dirt out from underneath.  Had to repeat that process, but the result is lovely.

This finished project was completely worth all the effort it took.  We are very happy with it.

And in July our landscape is always at its most colourful, so here are a few pictures of it today:

And here's the rented construction fence, guarding our small vegetable garden from the deer depredations:

This is working very well, and I'm so glad I thought of this.  Dinner tomorrow will be "Kale Plus" with pretty much everything, except rice, coming from this garden.  

We had a terrific windstorm yesterday which tore down the sugar snap pea vines.  I'm hoping enough of them will survive to keep us in fresh sugar snaps for a long time yet.

HARDWORKING DAY

Well, harder than usual.  About six years ago, as far as I can determine from checking dates in iPhoto, I scraped, sanded and repainted the surroundings of the front door and the windows on either side.  I started removing the paint on the other door and windows that exit into the solar space at the downstairs front of the house.  Somehow or other the project stalled there.  This week is the week that it will, by hook or crook, be finished!

I have a free week, no commitments other than the usual cooking, housekeeping and preparing music for Sunday's service.  Did I mention that I've been playing organ for the Knox United Church here in town?  They are very appreciative and it's very good for me to practice, prepare and play the music for the Sunday morning services.  But other than that, it's a free week, so this is THE WEEK to finish that project!

It was an all day effort, beginning with using the heat gun to loosen the paint and the scrapers to bring it down to bare wood again.  The problem was that it had been sloppily painted some time in the past.  What really bothered me was that it seemed the paint had been applied over a build up of fly dirt.  Hence the need for a thorough stripping.

Sanding followed the stripping, and was followed by a primer coat of KILZ2 and then the first coat of the brown finishing paint.  It will need a second coat to insure the white of the primer does not show through.  But WHOOEEE!  I got all that done!  It's looking good.  Later this week the window beside it needs the same treatment.

BAG #4

This morning I finished Bag #4 in the Quiltsmart Midi Bag series.  I really enjoy this bag!

Mary Keenan gave the the fabric to make this bag, as I am going to teach a class in how to make this bag at her quilt shop in August.  It turned out very well.  We are both happy with it.  It's now hers.

Here's another view:

I learned a lot making this bag and am understanding the pattern much better.  I drew out a sketch that shows how the four panels relate, to help in placement of the squares.  Here's the schematic:

This shows which square of the four panels will attach to which square of the adjacent panel.  By charting this out I was able to plan which squares should go where in each of the four panels.  I'm very happy with the result.  So is Mary.

Of course, now I have an idea for another variation of this pattern!

COOKING WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

Especially when the garden begins producing I practice what I call, Cooking With What You Have.  On Sunday there were several things available, but not a whole lot of any one thing, so I made "Kale Plus"--something original.  Here's the recipe (if that's what you can call it.)

KALE PLUS

All ingredients freshly picked, washed and chopped:
Kale
Swiss Chard
Celery
Mushrooms
Zucchini
Sweet Potato
Green and regular onion
Broccoli
Red and Green Peppers
shredded Carrot

Additional:
crushed garlic
oregano
basil
fresh Rosemary leaves
salt and pepper

Heat some canola oil and sesame oil in a heavy pot.  Add the cubed sweet potato and cook until softened.  Cook the kale in another heavy pot with a little chicken bouillon.  When the kale is wilted add the other ingredients.  Add the cooked sweet potato and some precooked rice for volume.  Serve hot.  Top with chopped tomato, diced avocado and some dollops of sour cream.

This was delicious and well worth repeating.  The ingredients could vary with what ever is available.

Here's what is in the oven right now:

I had bought two medium sized sweet potatoes at the end of last week.  The first one went into the Kale Plus.  Tonight I peeled and sliced the other sweet potato and added some cut up fresh pineapple, some broken pecans and some real Maple Syrup.  I'm figuring about 45 minutes at 350º should do it.

The rest of dinner: steamed cauliflower and grilled pork medallions.  I hope it turns out well!

P.S.  I usually have some cooked rice in the freezer for a quick dish.  See Alton Brown's Baked Brown Rice.

LOTS TO DO

We're having a cold, rainy summer here.  Once in a while we get a nice, warm, sunshiny start to the day, as we did today, so I dress for summer in shorts and shirtsleeved shirt.  Then I go outside and find it's really quite cold and windy.

This morning the fences we're renting to keep the deer out of the vegetable garden arrived.  S. and her husband brought them on a flat bed trailer, as they are 6 feet high and 10 feet long.  We got them set up and I'm confident they will do the job of keeping out the deer.  There are showers just now, so I'll take a picture tomorrow and show you how neat and effective they are.  Rental is just $.50 per linear foot per month.  That's pretty doable.

Over the weekend I did another of the "Snowman" panel quilts.  This one is for IDA, for use in The Fabric Nook to help create interest in this really cute panel.

This one has a different border, a directional fabric showing cardinals and top hats, made to coordinate with the panel.  Because it's directional I needed a pretty long piece of the border fabric, but it's pretty cute.  I added a wider than usual binding to make a statement that relates to the inner border of red.  That worked well.

The snowman actually has a triple layer of polyester batting, cut to size to "puff" him up.  The rest of the quilt has just one layer of that batting.  The machine quilting on the snowman and his hat, etc. was done with threads the same as the backgrounds: red, brown, black and white.  The quilting on the background was all done with an invisible (dark) thread.  It looks really cute and The Fabric Nook was delighted with it.  Now I need to make up a hand-out sheet of useful tips on creating this cute quilt

VISITORS AND VITTLES

Almost two weeks ago our older son Tim came for a visit.  It's always a pleasure to have him around!  He did a lot of work in the landscape, which was a great help to Jim.  I made some very nice meals.  So our mealtimes together were delicious and a good time of fellowship.

The day after Tim left a couple whom we know from many years ago came for a visit.  We both enjoy both of them, so again we had some times of fellowship that were a big treat.

Now it's back to just the two of us, and not so much cooking.  Well--that's not quite true because this afternoon the quilt club has a planning meeting to set up next year's schedule and we follow that with a potluck.  Our potlucks are always delicious!

When we went on our yearly "shop hop" two weeks ago I mentioned my recipe for potato salad, which includes some ingredients not ordinarily included.  Some of the women expressed doubt about how that would turn out.  So I decided to make a batch of potato salad for tonight's potluck.

Here's the recipe.  See what you think of it.

SUPER POTATO SALAD
(This recipe is for a crowd, supposed to serve 30 people.  I cut it down according to how many people will be present.)
10 pounds of potatoes
12 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
1 cup sliced radishes
1 bunch green onions, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 large onions diced
2 cups of diced celery
1 cucumber, peeled and diced (That was before long English cucumbers were available.   I include the skin.  The green is a nice accent.)

Peel and dice the potatoes.  Boil for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain and cool.
While the potatoes are boiling prepare the other ingredients.  Fold the cooled potatoes into the other ingredients and fold in the dressing (recipe follows).  Refrigerate.  Tastes fine the first day, but better the second.  Garnish with paprika and parsley.

DRESSING
(Also good for coleslaw)
2 quarts of salad dressing
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vinegar (I like cider vinegar.)
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons salt (Original recipe calls for 3 tablespoons.)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pepper
1 teaspoon prepared mustard (yellow mustard)

Mix all ingredients and add to potato salad.  Extra dressing can be stored for a long time in the refrigerator, just like the salad dressing.

This recipe seems to have come from a magazine.  Mom copied it and gave credit to Helen Schwartz.  This is the only potato salad I make because I think it's just the best!

I made the potato salad yesterday and Jim and I had some for supper.  Now what am I going to leave for him to eat for supper tonight while I'm away?  (I treat him awfully well--when I'm away there is always a meal prepared for him to heat up.)

As I picked up some groceries this morning I had an inspiration.  I bought 2 bags of split peas, came home and started a batch of this really good pea soup.  He'll be happy with this for his supper.  It's made in a crock pot, so it's perfect for making ahead and being ready to serve when he's ready to eat.

SUPER PEA SOUP

8 to 10 cups of water
2 (450 gram) bags of split peas
1 onion, chopped
2 good-sized carrots, diced
3 (mild) Italian sausages, cut into rounds and then the rounds cut in half
1 tsp. salt (we don't use much salt in our food.)
1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper
1 large or 2 small bay leaves

Put all into a large crock pot, bring to a boil on high, turn down to low and simmer for several hours.

This recipe makes a LOT of soup, more than we'll eat in one meal.  That's one of the good things about this recipe.  I ladle the soup that remains into quart containers and freeze it.  Freezes well and thaws out just fine.  You do have to remove it from the freezer well ahead of time because it is pretty thick and takes a long time to thaw.

Well, those are two of my favourite recipes that I use over and over again.  The potato salad is especially nice on a hot summer day and the pea soup is great when it's cool and dark outside.  ENJOY!

FUN DEMO DAY

Yesterday I was at IDA where The Fabric Nook is located from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., doing a "Demo Day."  The subject of the demo was this quilt:

This is the second quilt I made on the "Charming Baby" quilt pattern, with the 3D Pinwheels.  The demo was devoted to showing how to make the 3D Pinwheel blocks.  We had a small but fairly steady stream of people interested in seeing how the blocks were made.

I had prepared blocks for another baby quilt and pinned them to a display board, made from one of those very old, folded cardboard design boards we used to use in our home sewing.  I had covered it up with a picnic table cloth, with the flannel side out.  It worked well.  You can see it to the right. 

Mostly when no one was there to see the demo I made the four patch blocks for between the pinwheels.  When I had a lot of time I bought a charm pack of 5" squares in kind of fall colours and cut them up for a new Midi Bag.  I'm going to demo that in Mary's Quilt Shop in July, and she needs a few to advertise that class.

There was a good set up in the fabric area with a table for sewing, cutting and pressing.  I finished all the Pinwheel Blocks that day.  Soon I can sew that quilt together and donate it somewhere.

It was a very enjoyable day, and I got a lot accomplished.  In September I will be doing two Demo Days on paper piecing.  The first one extremely simple as all the pieces are made with either 1 1/2" strips or you can make them with 2" strips.  

Some time ago I made some placements from this pattern, Tessellated Leaves, which I got off the internet.  And about two years ago I made a wall hanging for our AZ condo from that pattern, very enlarged, from placemat size to wall hanging size.

SO CUTE!

A pair of robins are raising their brood in a Medora Juniper (an upright form) that grows at the southwest corner of our home.  We are staying away from that area until they are all fledged.  But yesterday as we were sitting downstairs we saw this very young robin sitting on the top of a Caragana standard near the nest.  He sat there for about an hour, every now and then opening his large mouth in a begging food gesture.

Jim had spotted him and called me down to see.  I grabbed my camera and got this shot:

He seemed lonesome, a little lost and definitely hungry.  The drops are some rain sprinkles on the window.  After I took the picture, with the telephoto lens fully extended and turned the camera off, Mama Robin showed up and began stuffing worms into his wide-open beak.

I quickly turned the camera on again and extended the telephoto lens, but I was too late.  She was finished.  She flew off to find more food for her brood.  I won't forget that sight!

Later the stray returned to the nest, preferring that to the cold, wet world out there.

Landscape Blooms

We like to go for a stroll around our landscape on Sunday afternoon.  Here are a few of the plants currently blooming:

Allium

Anemone

Lilac 

 Spruce buds

Spurge

And here's my finished project for this weekend, a Disappearing Four Patch.  

This quilt top was made last year for a demonstration at The Fabric Nook of my method for Disappearing Four Patch blocks that results in every intersection "nicely nesting."  I find nesting seams much easier to achieve good points, so I worked out a method that gives that result.  This weekend I made the "sandwich," quilted and bound it.  This will be a donation quilt.

A SNOW DAY

Believe it or not, it snowed here today.  The day started cold and stayed cold.  I think our high was about +3ºC, or not far above freezing.  But we didn't have it so bad!  West of Calgary there were at least 4" of wet snow.  We're not complaining because we really, really need moisture.  Hard to imagine that the north of Alberta is still suffering wild fires and here we had a dump of snow today.  But Albertans take pride in being able to handle a surprise like this.  We just tough it out!  (As if we have any choice!)

I had a nice finish today to a lap quilt that my friend Susan asked me to make for her.  Work started on it this past weekend; I did a lot on it yesterday and today I was able to finish sewing on the binding.  On my give-away quilts I sew the binding to the back, press it toward the front and sew it down on the front by machine.  I think it's pretty cute:

EXTREMES

Alberta is a place of extremes:
                                                              February 25                                                                        

                                                               May 29

Second finish this week:

This second QuiltSmart Midi Bag will be given to the woman who gave me the batik strips that are used in it, with the addition of some fabrics in my stash.  I had a bit more knowledge in making this bag, and it did turn out a bit better.  There are at least two more in my future, maybe more.  I will guide a class through the steps to make this bag during July at Mary's Quilt Store in town.

BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES

That is, a lap quilt with beautiful butterflies.  The Fabric Nook had these panels, but they weren't being noticed, so I volunteered to make one up into a lap quilt.  I think these colours are just luscious!  This goes into The Fabric Nook tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see if those panels start selling!

This will be one of their "Angel Quilts" next Christmas when they collect quilts for needy children.

Our weather has finally turned spring-like, and sure enough! the activity at the Garden Centre really "cranked up" this past week.  And it was surely time for those plants to move out and be planted in soil.  

Many of our flowering trees and shrubs are in bloom, and the landscape looks so good!  Our neighbour who farms thousands of acres has finished seeding for this year, a little later than usual.  And Friday and Saturday we had a lovely, very much needed rain.  Just in time for the newly planted crops!

PLAYING WITH KITES

This afternoon's fun was "playing with kites."  Not real kites,  fabric kites.  Since I figured out how to make 3D pinwheels, I've been "tickled" with the idea of trying to figure out some 3D kites.  And this afternoon I started fooling around with some ideas.  First I tried something very similar to the 3D pinwheels.  Here's my first effort:

Not too bad.  I had worked on this idea some weeks ago, but cut the block differently and couldn't figure out how to make the kite work.  This afternoon I cut this block square (I forget how big), then sliced it into four pieces at an angle.  The top half of the kite is 2x2" squares folded diagonally in half and sewed into the seam.  The bottom half is 2x3" squares, similarly folded.

I tried again, using the same method, and found it's pretty hard to get the points to meet exactly:       

                        

 Here's what the back looks like:

Time to try something different.  I cut a 10" square, planning to cut it up on the straight vertical and horizontal, and then trim it on an angle.  But when I cut it I followed, accidentally, the same angel cuts that I had been doing.  The top and bottom half of the kites were the same size I had been cutting.  This block would need trimming to make it look right.

I didn't have enough of this background to cut another 10" square, so this one started as a 8 1/2" square.  This one I cut into four pieces on the vertical and horizontal, not on an angle.  I sewed in the kite quarters and then trimmed the block on an angle.  It turned out at 7 1/2" square.

And now for another method altogether: I cut out the kite in one piece, folded the corners to the inside and sewed it to a whole block on an angle.  This is a much simpler, surer method!  But the folded-over corners did not reach the middle back on the bottom half, leaving a noticeable different colour showing through the kite fabric.  You can't see it on this picture, but it is noticeable.

So one more try:  This time I drew out the kite shape on paper, transferred it to a piece of manila folder.  The first try didn't work out, so I refined the shape and tried again.  Success this time!

The whole kite is double, so no background shows through.  I had also changed the shape, slightly, making it longer.  I think this might be the method I use if I put some of these "kites" on a quilt.

The surprise is the shape of fabric that needs to be cut in order to end up with the kite:    

                        

When the square corners are folded into the center, you end up with the kite shape.  What fun!

On Friday I took a pillow with one big pinwheel on one side and four small pinwheels on the other side in to The Fabric Nook.  The little ones are just too cute.  But I had neglected to take a picture before I took it in.  I'll post a picture next week.  Also will post a picture of the denim/pinwheel bag that I brought there a few days earlier.

SUCH FUN!!!

I had almost too much fun today!  I went this morning to The Fabric Nook, located in our local IDA and bought a WHACK!! of material.

This first set of fabrics, nearest the camera, are from a range of fabrics that I used to demonstrate "Disappearing 4 Patch" last year.  I have 13 finished blocks from that day, but had run out of fabrics to make more of the same.  Last week I saw this same fabric range on the cutting table and was delighted to know that I could now buy what I needed to finished up 42 blocks for a whole new large lap quilt.

Then Angie and I picked out this middle stack of fabrics for the "demo" day in June when I will show how to make the 3D pinwheels for a baby quilt.  The purple on the left will be used for the pinwheels, the inner border and the binding.  The yellow to the right of it, which is repeated later on, will be the border.  The other seven fabrics, including the repeat of the yellow will be the big 4 patch squares that make up the body of the quilt and also the background for the pinwheels.  I bought enough to make 2 quilts like that.  I will have them cut out and the 4 patch blocks sewn before the "demo" day.

My last purchase was this beautiful blue fabric with clouds, along with the purple, red, blue, and green.  These are to make a pillow for an inspiration for another use for 3D pinwheels.  One side of the 14" pillow will be one big pinwheel.  The other side will be four smaller pinwheels.  All this just to give ideas of how to incorporate 3D pinwheels into smaller projects. 

I had made a mid-size bag over the last weekend of denim with an orange pinwheel on it, but neglected to take a picture.  That bag is already over at IDA, so I will have to take my camera in some time to get a photo of that project.

 Then I noticed some very attractive panels folded up and lying on top of some fabric bolts.  I had an idea!  If I would take a panel and make it into a nice lap quilt that they could display, people would be enticed into buying the panel and fabric for that project.  So we added a panel and some bright gold and purple for borders to my stack.

When I got home I started on the borders for the panel.  Bigger side borders and smaller top and bottom borders because the panel is quite long for how wide it is.  Then I planned equal 5" borders on each side.  I usually sew two WOF strips together for one of the long borders, trim it to fit and sew what's left onto another strip for the other long border.  I did that first. 

Then I took one of the WOF strips for the short border, but happened to notice that it was precisely the right length for the long side.  So I sewed both long sides onto the panel.  Now for the top and bottom.  And to my great surprise, the WOF strip was precisely the right length for the shorter sides, the top and bottom, JUST THE WAY IT WAS!  It fit exactly.  Now how often does it happen even once in a project the the strip fits perfectly?  

Oh, but alas!  The reason the top and bottom strips fit was because of a mistake in sewing on the side borders!  I had inadvertently used not the WOF 5 1/4" strips for both of the side borders.  One of the strips sewed on here was the remnant left when I cut five 5 1/4" strips.  It was only 4" finished, compared with the 5" finished on the other side.  OOPS!!!

I decided to use the two 5 1/4" strips sewed end to end for a binding, and trimmed an inch off the fatter side border.  So now I have a kind of goofy quilt: the inner border is fat on the sides and skinny on the top and bottom, and the outer border is fat on the top and bottom and skinny on the sides.  

Should I cut an inch off the top and bottom to even things out?  Maybe......

In the meantime I had washed the flannel for the backing of the lap quilt, using a "colour catcher" to see if that fabric would run or not.  Well....the colour catcher on the right is what came out of the washer.  It's the exact same colour as the fabric, meaning the it runs like mad.  So I put about 3 1/2 quarts of very hot water into a big pail, added 6 tablespoons of the Rit Colour Stay to the water and put in the length of fabric.  Soaked it for about 30 minutes, stirring it around once in a while.  Then I washed it again with another colour catcher, and here's the result.  In the second wash it didn't bleed at all.  That's evident from the colour catcher on the left.

I can heartily recommend Rit Colour Stay for treating fabrics that bleed colour.  I do find it important to prewash flannels, which not only tend to bleed colour but also tend to shrink up a bit.

As I said, almost too much fun with fabric today.  I feel a little giddy.  Time to sit down with a cup of herbal tea and plan our dinner for today.

ODDS 'N ENDS

Last week had lots of quilting going on.  I finished the QuiltSmart Midi Bag and gave it to my friend Shirley for her birthday.  It was a hit.

I really like it too, and have started another very similar for Karen, who gave me the batik strips for the bag.  Some of my own batiks are in there also, just for variety's sake.  I used 27 different fabrics, four 2 1/2" squares of each to make the bag.

Although I've done very little knitting the last year because of a "wearing out" of a joint at the base of my thumb, I do want to finish up a few things:  One of them is to knit new soles for this pair of Jim's socks, originally knit in 2016.      

                                       

It's much less work to reknit the sole, picking up stitches at the toe and including a stitch from the original sock at each end of each knit row.  The sock on the left has a new sole, the one of the right has a new toe so far.  You can see the hole under the heel, and there was a very worn spot under the toe. 

I started fixing the left sock quite a while ago, and had the "bright" idea of stuffing in bit of roving (carded but not yet spun wool) as I went along.  The idea was to make a nice soft cushion under the sock, but it didn't turn out well.  It was way too puffy.  So I picked the heel loose and took out the stuffing.  I should go back and reknit the heel as I was trying not to run out of war.  There's a tiny tail left, but the heel got a little scrunched up.

And I spent some time the last several days cutting up scraps and sorting material.  This is the pile to be given away: some whole pieces and two big plastic bags of scraps.  The scraps have the potential to become lots of cut squares of various sizes, but I've done so much of that kind of cutting I'm finished!  These bags of scraps will go to a quilting group that can use them.  OUT THE DOOR!

In the meantime the weather has warmed up nicely and we've had some very nice days.  Mother's Day was pretty much a perfect May Sunday, except for about an hour in the afternoon when a band of rain showers blew through.  But once that moved on east, the weather returned to a lovely Spring day again.

With the warming weather comes an increase in Garden Centre customers.  Well, we've been waiting for that.  The greenhouse is quite full of blooms and it's time to move them on to their new "homes."  Hope the good weather continues!