More Free Motion

After despairing of my free motion quilting last week, it went much better this week.  Primarily, I think, because I was back in the groove and because I remembered to use a NEBS bobbin along with the Aurifil thread in the needle.  My Viking machines are much happier with this combination.  How could I have forgotten?  Two of the samples are done with the walking foot, by the way.  I don't want you to think that I can free motion straight lines like that.

Some of you know that I worked at Berea College for nineteen years and I am so proud of the work the college does.  So, I'll share this USA Today story with you.  It mentions a group of students who went to Selma last week along with a group of twelve who went from the college's group of 59, fifty years ago.  Listening to the president's speech and reading this story has been very emotional for me.

I am so enjoying the rain today.  It's such a lovely change from the snow of recent weeks.  Feels more like I think March should be.  

Pigs and Chicks

Thanks to Ginny in our baby quilt group for gifting each of us with half a yard of a dark green fabric with scattered pigs and chicks.  Very cute.

I wanted the blocks to be fairly large so each one would have lots of chicks and a pig or two, so I cut those blocks 6 1/2" square.  The strips for the other blocks were each 2 1/2" x 6 1/2".  And I added 2 1/2" strips at the top to make the quilt rectangular.

Can't wait until next Monday when the group gets together again so I can see what others did with their fabric.

Urban Angels

It must have been years ago that I got this Urban Angels foundation piecing pattern from Sweet Peas, designed by Kim Halvorson.  I wish I could remember where I got it, but I really don't remember and the price sticker had no clues.  I only remember that I loved it.  The picture on the pattern had a red background and there was some homespun and gingham used.

I also don't know why I never made it.  Maybe I wasn't experienced with paper piecing at that time, or maybe I wasn't sure how to quilt it, who knows.  

One of my goals this year is to spend an hour every week making something that I'd just like to work on, and that's how this little wall hanging finally was finished.  Of course it took longer than an hour, but that hour was the beginning.

One thing is certain:  if I don't free motion on a regular basis, it takes some time to get back up to speed.  I'm not sure if that's true for everyone.  

I might have ripped out some stitches, but in our Art and Spirituality group we're reading a book that encourages us to sometimes lower our standards and just make art.  So, I kept in the stitches, and really, the mottled blue background is very forgiving.  I'll wash it and the forgiveness will be increased as the batting shrinks away a little.

Finished size is 12" x 16 1/2".

Home and Garden

My neighbor had tickets for the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show, so we went today.  

With lots of snow still on the ground, it was fun to see a little spring preview.

This collection of decorative twigs looked more like winter, but it was still pretty.

There were way too many hot tubs (who cleans those?) and way too many basement waterproofing displays.  Lots and lots of windows.  I must have had the show on my mind because last night I dreamed that I had French doors put in my kitchen.  Not in this house.

There were also a few things for me to ponder, like garage doors and gutters.  A vendor with handmade marshmallows.  One of my friends gave me some for Christmas, and I'd really like to try making them.

Snow Tracks

The birds don't seem to care for the corn in the feeder mix and it mostly ends up on the ground.  It does look as if someone does like it, though.  Someone who doesn't worry much about balancing on the edge of the wall.  Someone big.

Surely this is the last snow.  Next week should be in the 50's and I'll be trimming back the ornamental grasses and looking hopefully for new shoots here and there.  A whole different world.

Yesterday I made oatmeal rolls that were really wonderful.  If you're into bread baking you can find the recipe here.

My daughter is going to a baby shower on Saturday and will be taking this bib, among other things.  Anita Goodesign Bundle of Joy.  I'm sure I've used this design collection more than any other.

Poor Little Snowman

This little snowman came to live on my porch Christmas before last.  He was white and shiny with a glossy top hat and a red scarf.  Stars in his belly.  So pretty.

After last year he had lost half his gloss.  My porch faces south, doesn't have a cover, and the roof has a high slope.  When the snow melts, the gutters dam up and ice forms and drips.  I had plans to repaint him last year, then I saw someone else's snowman that looked like mine and it had a certain appeal, kind of shabby chic.  So he lived on without an update.

Now, he's looking kind of sad, and his snow and ice nest hasn't all melted yet.  This year he will surely need replacement or painting, depending on how much of his terra cotta chips off.  I think that the "new" one should live on the back porch, which is covered.  Poor little guy.

Cranberry Orange Scones

It is a rainy/icy afternoon.  I'm out of my usual eating suspects.  I made spinach and artichoke mac and cheese with my leftover artichokes and some frozen spinach, and that was good.  I made a lot, freezing several little casseroles, so it's a good thing that it was good.

And then I tried these cranberry orange scones, from the King Arthur recipe here.   I did use frozen cranberries, half a bag left from the holidays.  I think that if I'd used the dried cranberries these would be sweeter, and sweeter is often good.  These are just a little bitter - I did use a LOT of cranberries.  But still, good.

My grandmother always made cranberries at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that was quite a departure from her usual cooking.  Her usual was very plain and quite frugal.  She would eat two kinds of cereal, Shredded Wheat and Corn Flakes, and would rotate the two of them.  She would rotate molasses and sugar cookies.  She would rotate pink mints and white mints.  I can remember only twice that she ate between meals.  Cold water and yellow cheese in the refrigerator, always.  She would dry corn and store it in mason jars and she would make noodles and spread them on unused beds to dry.  Those memories are precious.  I can't remember what she cooked for meals, other than smoked pork chops.  Those cranberries were really a special thing.  One year, cranberries were scarce or there were problems in the cranberry bogs.  I missed them.

I wish I could share grandmother memories with my sister, but she is ten years younger than I am and she mostly relies on me for those stories.

I hope that my grandchildren have good memories of me.  I hope that they remember that I rode the roller coasters with them, took them swimming and to lots of parks, went to the movies and to Orange Leaf and Sweet Frog.  To the Playscape at the Nature Center.  To the baseball games.