QUILTS, QUILTS, QUILTS

This morning our quilt group here had its weekly meeting.  We come together to make quilts that we donate to a variety of places.  This morning we chose 30 quilts from the stash we had accumulated and two of our members brought them to the Surprise Fire Department.  Here are a few pictures:

These are all lap sized quilts.  They are meant to comfort someone who has just experienced loss and hardship.  

We also donate quilts to a shelter for abused, neglected and abandoned children who often arrive with nothing more than the clothing they are wearing.  They receive a quilt that is their very own to have and to keep.

We decorate the walls of our room in Sun Village with some of our recent creations.  This morning we put up some new ones:

It just happens that none of mine are displayed just now.  These will be donated after about a half year and other samples will be put up.

We have a large stash of fabrics in the cupboards of the Sewing Room, almost all of which has been donated.  People clean out a cupboard and think, what can I do with all this fabric?  We sort through what comes in and keep the fabric that is appropriate for quilting and donate the rest of it to a thrift store.

On Tuesday evening of this week we had an organizational meeting for a new quilt group here.  This new quilt group will meet one evening a month for the purpose of sharing our latest projects and ideas.  Quilting hints, patterns, techniques and so on will be shared.  We can ask each other for suggestions and ideas for ways of accomplishing things. We enjoyed that evening and think this is a good new idea.

CLEANING UP

This morning the landscape crew arrived and got to work cleaning out the frost damage.  Some of the shrubs are looking pretty sad, but everything is neat and clean again, and the shrubs will most likely make a good recovery.  It may take a year or so.  This is the same Bouganvillea that I showed yesterday, with all the dead parts cuts off.  Just a bunch of sticks left, with a few green leaves at the bottom.

After trimming off the dead parts, a member of the crew neatly rakes up all the debris.

 Here are three of the four working together:

They turned around after I took the picture, so I explained what I was doing and that I had posted a picture of the damage yesterday, so this is a good follow-up.  The fellow in the middle said, "Can you take another picture?"  Of course.

So here's a last picture with a big smile from one of the crew.  They do seem like a cheerful bunch working together.

There's a lot of prejudice against people of colour these days.  I suppose there always was.  But the truth is that a place like our neat, cared-for gated community here could not exist without their willingness to do that work here.  I don't know what they get paid per hour, I don't imagine it's a whole lot, or if they have any benefits, but they are unfailingly cheerful and hard-working.  What's not to like about that?

When the garbage trucks come around every few days, young men like these fellows are literally running with the truck, trundling out the bins from the compound, hoisting them up to empty them, and running the bins back into place.  I can't help but admire them for the "heart" they put into their work.  AND WE NEED THEM!

FROST DAMAGE

Some time ago we had an overnight low of 26ºF.  It left a lot of damage; flowers and leaves froze and died.  Here are two views of a used-to-be beautiful bush just outside our little walled patio:

 All those flowers and leaves are dead and dried up.  You can see just a few green leaves at the very bottom.

Today a landscape crew came around and began cleaning up the damage.  They were working across the road.  Here's how the same kind of bush there looks now, with all the dead leaves and blooms blown off:

And down at the very bottom, one lonely blossom still hanging on:

I don't know if all the branches will be trimmed off later.  Wouldn't it take a long time for this bush to regain its full glory!  Or maybe the crew will come around later and cut off all the limbs that look dead.  Jim says they will regenerate.  I guess time will tell.

Oh, by the way, in landscape parlance, these are not "bushes"--they are "shrubs."

A MUSICAL SUNDAY

Choir sang at the 10:30 service this morning, a simple and effective anthem based on I Corinthians 13:13, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love."  I have one more choir rehearsal this Thursday, one more service to sing in, and then it's back to Alberta.

And this afternoon at 3 p.m. the Sun Cities Community Orchestra gave an hour long concert in Temple Beth Shalom.  The cantor sang several songs with us, such as "The Impossible Dream," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Old Man River."  He has a great voice and it sounded very nice.  Orchestra was crammed together on the stage, but it all worked out o.k.

That's the end of orchestra for this season for me.  They are giving a concert four weeks from now, and I had hoped to remain here for that, but it's not working out.  Nevertheless, I am very grateful for the time I have here and all the enjoyable activities available.

BEAR CREEK SOUP MIXES

 Have you ever tried Bear Creek Soup Mixes?  They are really, really good!  Tonight we're having Bear Creek Chicken Noodle Soup, with additions of course.  I always add things to new recipes or packaged mixes.  Actually, I hardly ever use packaged mixes, but for chicken noodle soup I do.

Since this package has been opened the "Bear Creek" is missing from the top of the package.  What was added?  Three carrots, cut up, several slices of onion, cut up; some leftover rice and green lentils; four turkey meatballs, cut up.  If I had other leftover veggies, I would add them also.

Usually on Saturday we have burgers for supper.  That's pretty standard.  I make our own patties out of lean ground beef, a handful of quick oats, some oregano, some basil, some nutmeg (a very little), some powdered garlic and some chili powder, mixed together with one egg, beaten.  For the Dear One's burger I use ground chicken or turkey as he doesn't want to eat beef anymore.  But the frozen burger patties and the burger buns are all used up and there's only one more Saturday for us here, so I didn't want to make another batch of patties.

The other Bear Creek Soup Mixes are equally good.  We especially like the Cheesy Broccoli Soup, and the Potato Soup Mix, both with additions, of course!  

TODAY'S FUN

So in keeping with what I wrote yesterday, here in midday are some snippets from today:
this morning Art Group met in the Art Room.  Friday mornings from 9 to 12 a few of us gather in the art room and work on our projects.  Some are working on alcohol inks, some on pastels and some on watercolours.  I started a project last week and it is more or less finished now:

I think, as my friend Jeannie said there needs to be a larger yellow area on the bottom.  This was my first venture into this sort of painting.  It's watercolour on Yupo paper, a very shiny, slick surfaced paper on which the paint will slide and run.  If you don't like it you can just wash it off.  I had done two similar beginnings last week.  The other picture died when I worked on it this morning.

Then Marcia, another friend, came into the art room and said she was going to Michael's for some yarn.  She is a prolific knitter of scarves and shawls.  I've been wanting to buy one more ball of Patons Kroy Sock Yarn in Cascade Colors so I went with her.  That was fun, yarn shopping with a knitting friend!  

Then we stopped by Steinmart and she found a leather-looking long tan skirt with two stripes of "leather" lacing down the front--very attractive.  We looked at shirts to go with it, but ended up going back to her house and finding a perfect coordinate in her closet--which is really, really full of clothes.  About 10 times as many of everything, at the least,

as what I have here.  It was a lot of fun for both of us.  She said, when she dropped me off at home, Anytime you want to go shopping, give me a ring and I'll go with you!

FREQUENCY OF POSTS

I've been completely neglectful of posting on this blog lately.  And the longer I don't post anything, the harder it becomes to write a post.  I read several blogs every day, one of which is Yarn Harlot, a knitting blog.  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka Yarn Harlot, usually posts frequently, but wrote only three posts so far in January.  Still, even if we count this post, she's one ahead of me for the month!  And she wrote yesterday about how hard it becomes to write a post after a long absence.  I could relate to that!

An Aside: Stephanie has also written some very good books--on knitting.  Our daughter-in-law Cindy was reading a book a few years ago, chuckling as she read.  Geoffrey asked her what she was reading and laughing about and she replied, It's a book on knitting!  Surprising answer.  How can a book on knitting be that much fun?  It can if it's written by Stephanie.  Cindy later sent me a copy and I laughed while reading it.  Then I loaned it to my friend Jan who is a knitter and then I sent it to our daughter Sara who is also a knitter.  I recommend the Yarn Harlot's blog and books!

I also read Bonnie Hunter's blog.  She blogs DAILY!!!  I love it.  She is currently in Japan, leading a tour of quilters there.  Busy, busy days, so she's having a bit of a hard time finding the time in the day to post a blog entry, but she DOES IT!  She's decided that a short post is the way to go.

So I thought over those two bits of input.  I had been considering quitting writing this blog.  In February it will be an anniversary: ten years of blogging.  But after reading the Yarn Harlot's and Bonnie Hunter's ideas, I thought I might try writing more often, and just a comment or two and hopefully a picture or two.

So here's today:  our quilting group here met this morning and one of our regulars came up with an idea.  Let's start a new group that meets maybe once a month in the evening to share their latest creations, answer questions, collect and share tips, and, in a good tradition, have a snack together!  Sounds like a winner!  Our first meeting will be next Tuesday evening.  Good, I'll still be here to join in.

Then this afternoon I went to a choir rehearsal.  We are always looking at new music and one of the newest is a spiritual, Upon-A That Cross.  Real heartfelt music.  I think we'll really enjoy it.  Last Sunday we sang He Never Failed Me Yet, from Sister Act, a Whoopie Goldberg movie.  Nappy sang the solo part and did a bang-up job.  We all loved singing that song.  One of the other altos, a woman who taught English to middle schoolers for 40 years, commented to me on the word "yet" in the song and how she felt about that word.  I really hadn't noticed, but after she mentioned that I felt pretty uncomfortable singing, He never failed me--yet.  Sounds like Jesus might fail us tomorrow!

This evening we held our choir potluck party.  We prefer January because December is so busy anyway.  I made lasagne (from frozen) and was worried it would be overcooked while I was at choir.  When I got home it was undercooked and needed another half hour in the oven.  We got to the party late!  But it was still a lot of fun.  Now I have a half lasagne for some later meal.

Well, that did not exactly follow Bonnie Hunter's idea of just get a few lines down every day!

VISITING

We've been enjoying visits lately with our #1 son, and recently for a few days with #2 son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.  Some pictures: Granddaughter working on school work.  She stayed in the hotel most days and worked hard on her school work.  She's an excellent student and a self-starter.  Good on you, Kim!  And in the background daughter-in-law knitting a hat for a nephew.  Many years ago Cindy asked me to teach her how to knit and she's been making lots of knitted gifts over the years.  These were some very cute "football" hats, one for her brother-in-law and one for her nephew.  Hope they appreciate them!

Looks like Grandpa's almost asleep.  Was the conversation so dull?

                          
Brothers having a good time:
                          
No pictures of me since I was behind the camera.

Monday night was one of my 1/2 nights.  It often happens, like once or twice a week, that I wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep.  After trying to 1/2 hour or so I get up and do things.  So very early Tuesday morning I started cutting pieces for a quilt.  Actually there are enough cut pieces for a few quilts.

These are for a new "Picket Fence" quilt.  I got the pattern from an old (1994) Quiltmaker magazine that was given to me.  It's a very simple quilt with just one piece.  Here's a picture of an older quilt that I made in that pattern:

I made that three years ago, and made another one like it recently in connection with "demoing" it at the local quilt store, a section of our drug store.  The colours look a little garish in this photo.  

The original pattern called for 3" wide strips, but I reworked it to be able to use 2 1/2" strips.  Recently I bought a few "Bali Pops" packages and added a few more dark batiks from the sewing room.  Here's how to cut the pieces:  Place the strip on the cutting board with the left side on the 5" line.  Cut it at a 45º angle with the ruler crossing the bottom of the strip at the 10" line.  Cut again vertically at the 12 1/2" line.

There are Post It notes marking out the 5" line, and just to the right of 12 1/2".  The ruler is lined up with the 45º line on the cutting board, placed to meet the bottom of the strip at the 10" line.  Hope that makes sense!

Here is a stack of around 500 dark pieces for a quilt.  I need 192 for a good sized lap quilt.

                         
And here are 242 lighter pieces, with 96 needed for that lap quilt.  So I'm oversupplied, but will eventually use them all up in quilts.
                         
The quilting group meets here tomorrow, so this will be fun to start making blocks.  I'll post whatever gets finished there tomorrow.

In the meantime, now that DS#1 has departed I have converted that bedroom closet back into my sewing room and have been doing some mending that was waiting for attention.  I do enjoy having the sewing room operational again, rather than using the dining room table!

P.S. Thanks to Andrea for her comment.  I tried to write a reply, but it just keeps on disappearing!  I'll see you in a few weeks, and am looking forward to that.  Keep calm and Quilt On!