Round up Week 25: Half-way to 1,000 Mile Goal and an Online Irish Wedding

No sewing this week - the online hand applique class was demo on "Wool appliqué with embroidery".  One of the projects was making Mackintosh Roses with Wool Felt.  First she showed how to draw a rose, then how to get the design on the felt.  The lesson went quickly but included new to me embroidery stitches.

Found a YouTube with directions for Drawing a 'Mackintosh' Rose: https://youtu.be/4P2Nx85POfs

The second project was making a wool heart and sewing it on a shirt sleeve.

Very nice looking, but I still don't understand how the stitching would not make holes in the stretchy t-shirt she was proposing we sew the design on....  she showed other designs too.

So the that class is over.  I will join the four heart blocks I made perhaps and make a little something for Buffy, or maybe not.

The sewing machine repair man is on holiday until early/middle July so I can't sew on a machine until then.

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I have been a bit inspired by Darlene https://darlenemichaud.com/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6OsS-yoLc9rpDzn4ELjjg clearning out her house as it is going on the market soon.  She has a lot of stuff - I have mainly paper and books to go thru.  Or at least that is what it seems like to me now.

 

I have bags and bags (8 right now) of paper ready to put into recycling.  Three bags of trash. and perhaps another bag worth of stuff to shred.  For a brief moment I had an empty table top, but now I have moved more paper there to go thru.  This week I want to go thru all the newer papers.  Then I will continue writing notes in the blog so I remember things and I will decide what to work on next. And then finally finish the tax stuff. Or maybe will work on taxes then record memories.  I can only work on this a few hours a day, then I have to do something else...

I told my personal trainer I needed to take time off to work on things.  Last Friday she wrote that she wanted to chat, but she was going to visit family over the weekend.  I missed her call this morning, but did connect finally.  She said she couldn't save my time slots for that long, so I said to go ahead and fill the spots and I would contact her when I was ready to exercise on a schedule again.  I told her I understand it might take a while then to fit me back in.  I had sort of planned on starting again September first, but sounds like that might not happen then.  I enjoy the exercise - but really, really, really think now is the time for me to go thru things and get rid of things.  So this is the right decision for me right now.

I have a few exercise ideas to do on my own so may start that the middle of July, just to keep a little in shape.

I have crossed the 500 mile mark for my 1,000 miles in 2021 goal!

My idea of getting Home Chef meals from Ralph's may not work out as it seems they are not rotating the meals very often.  : (  But it has been easy to have them put the groceries I pre-order in the truck of the car so that is good. 

We got up early, early to see our cousin's child's wedding in Ireland.  Very nice wedding.  Most beautiful bride and Mother, Grandmother and Aunts of the Bride!

We didn't get standing photos of the groom nor the father or mother of the bride...  Will ask them to send some...

Aunt, Mother, Bride, Grandmother, Aunt

Aren't their facinator's wonderful and fun!

From Wikipedia: A fascinator is a formal headpiece, a style of millinery. Since the 1990s the term has referred to a type of formal headwear worn as an alternative to the hat; it is usually a large decorative design attached to a band or clip.

There was social distancing in the church, and many had masks on too.  

The ceremony itself was different than here.  There was no giving away of the daughter.  The priest instead asked the two if they were legally available for marriage - or something like that.  They exchanged rings, but then there was a piece of silver or gold that went from the groom to the bride and back again.  And at the end they pulled out a table and signed the license in front of everyone.  I'm sure there were other differences but that is what I remember.

We were invited to the original wedding to be held last year.  This year they had to keep it smaller so we watched in our pajamas!  (5 am our time).

I hope they will be very happy!

Later that day we drove to Ramona for Ham Radio Field Day and to go to lunch in a restaurant!  We are really starting to go out into the world again.

Hopefully will be in Ireland and other places soon...

Memories: Notehand and Spelling

When I was in high school I took notehand.  It was a fast way of writing that was really fun for me. 

Through the years, I have acquired books to review and learn this in more detail.  I still think that would be fun to do.

In reading today's post from https://fatdormouse.wordpress.com/2021/06/24/egg-custard/ I swas reminded of a day in my high school Notehand class.

I was taking the final exam.  The test was lines and paragraphs of notehand to translate to words and the other way around:

_ tm to thk iz   = the time to think is

I had practiced a lot and did the translations easily.  I finished first with over 30 minutes to spare.  It wasn't enough to do the translations though things had to be spelled correctly too.  We were allowed to use dictionaries, so I had more than enough time to find the word that I suspected I had spelled incorrectly.

But really if you don't know how to spell some words, it's hopeless to try to find in one of those things.

I am not sure what the word was.  I just went blank and it bothered me so much. 

Perhaps the word was 'enough', I'm not sure.

But I didn't get 100% that day.

Later in college I took an exam and thought I was so smart to write about rubrics in my answer. But I misspelled the word 'rubrics' consistently and was really put down a notch.  My misspelling distracted the professor from realizing I really had something to contribute to the class.  Oh well.

Please go ahead and read the post from https://fatdormouse.wordpress.com/2021/06/24/egg-custard/, she tells her stories in a very entertaining way.  You will enjoy the visit!

Memories: Girl Scout Cooking Badge

 Do you remember what you made for your Girl Scout Cooking badge?

I don't remember the entire meal, but do know I made hamburgers, and a mocha frosted cake.

My folks left the house so I would have to do it all by myself...

I thought I had everything in order.  But then reading the recipe calling for 2 tablespoons of coffee I was confused.  

I didn't think very much flavor would come from coffee that one would drink.  It was an old cookbook so I didn't think it was referring to instant coffee.  So I put in 2 tablespoons of coffee grounds.

It was very crunchy.

I remember we all laughed while eating my gourmet meal...

and my mom signed the paper so I got the badge.

Earlier in my clearning out I came across my Girl Scout badge notebook, but I didn't think to save the recipes or notes on this badge.

Only in my memories now.

All About Me Task Cards - Teaching Memories

When I was teaching I often set up little places in the room with different activities and the children would go and get what they were to work on. Sometimes they would cycle thru and do everything, sometimes. as I learned more about teaching, it was a more prescriptive thing where they would do certain things based on an assessment. 

Some gyms do this kind of thing today.  It's a good way to set things up when the pieces of equipment are limited.

Anyway, I found these cards in a box by Frank Schaffer that I used to use for writing. Each card was numbered and had a cute drawing on it. As they did a card they colored a sort of cover sheet to show they had done a certain card.  No one ever did all the cards. They picked the ones that looked fun to respond to.

I bought a lot of these kinds of things when I first started teaching, and as I'm clearning things out now I am finding some of them that I did not give away or sell at my teaching garage sale before I married. 

These kinds of activities really clicked with some of the kids. They had a lot of fun with the assignment and ended up with nice folders with all their writing. 

When I taught, the school had a requirement to have something on the bulletin board. Although nice to have a good bulletin board, it was stupid I thought/think to just put something up that would be read one time if at all.  I didn't have time to cut out the construction paper letters.  Or I didn't make time to do it very often.  When teaching sixth grade language arts I got away with covering the board with pure white paper and then putting a new label every couple of weeks.  Mashed potatoes, polar bears in the snow.  I had found a book with ideas and used that. The kids always noticed the change of the labels and chuckled as they came in the room after there was a change in the label.

While teaching second grade though I thought it would be good to actually post something new every couple of weeks. So I had the students all draw something from their home. Draw your bedroom, draw the room where you eat, etc. Then we'd arrange their art on the bulletin board. 

At the end of the year I had them draw a diagram of their house and we labeled the different rooms or areas they had drawn earlier. It was fun to see the different homes and way they saw them. 

For another bulletin board I had them draw different people in their lives.  I hope the parents kept these books. 

I should have had my son do this too when he was little.... 

Tell me what you do when you are angry. 

Tell me about things you like to see indoors. 

What do you see in your mirror? 

What do you like to do when it's hot? 

Tell me how you feel now. 

Tell me about your favorite time of day. 

What makes you feel happy? 

Tell me about your next birthday party. 

Write ten words that tell about you. 

What would you like to learn to do? 

What do you look like on Halloween? 

What do you like to eat for breakfast? 

Tell me about things you like to smell. 

Tell about five ways to have fun. 

Write your story. 

What is your favorite word? Why? 

Tell me about something you can make. 

What do you like to eat for lunch? 

Tell about the foods you can make. 

Tell how you help your family. 

Tell about five songs that you like. 

What's funny? Draw a picture of something funny that happened to you. 

What do you like to eat for dinner? 

Tell your favorite story. 

What will happen tomorrow? 

What can you do in the kitchen? 

Tell about things you like to taste. 

Make your own footprint. 

Tell about some nice things that happened to you. 

Tell about a store that you like to visit. 

Who would you like to be like? 

Tell about something that is not real. 

Tell about things you like to do outdoors. 

Tell about five animals you would like to have for pets. 

Draw yourself with your friends. Write their names. 

Tell about your favorite place 

Tell about some toys you like. 

Write a letter to someone.... Your teacher, your friend.... 

What is the most important thing you can do? Why? 

What do you like to do when you are alone?

The value added with the Frank Schaffer cards was the cute little drawings he added.  So 'Tell me about things you like to taste' had a smiling snail with a mouthful of grass looking at you.  So the prompts could be interpreted in different ways. Here are a few I made into overhead transparencies.

Drawing would be a good thing for us all to know how to do, but especially teachers.  I remember my second Master Teacher drew some numbers on yellow paper for some reason.  We were working in a reading math lab.  Instead of just putting the numbers she surrounded each with a little drawing.  It was amazing how quickly she did the work.

One time I had the kids use special fabric crayons to draw a flower.  Then my mom transferred the design to the edge of a flowing skirt that I wore for school functions.  It was a wonderful way to remember the children and my mom's talent.  I doubt I still have this flower outfit, but perhaps I will find it in the next box I open!

Anyway, in going thru the bookcase yesterday I found some folders with teaching stuff so decided to write this memory.  No other reason.

Not quilting. Not doing paperwork.  Just going thru the bookcase.

Round Up Week 24: I Just Don't Know

My sewing machines are still not in working order.

I finished my hand work for the In the Studio with Lauren Class.  Couching.  She only demoed machine couching though so I had to look online for help on how to do it by hand.

I ran the string that I was couching thru a stick of glue to help it stay in place.

And I cut the design out of cardboard so I had a shape to guide me.

At the end I wasn't sure how to finish the thread so I just doubled up at the end and beginning so it's thicker there - and I added more stitches.

This one for sure would fall apart if it were ever washed.

But at least I have the block done.

The class this week was another version of the first week's lesson, reverse applique - but this time instead of just cutting the line to be exposed, we are to have an pattern to cut out and then push the seams back and sew them down.  The example was a heart with sort of petal designs.  Way too complicated for beginners.  As the weeks go by it seems that fewer and fewer of the people are sharing their completed homework...  : (

I went to my once a month sewing group this week for the first time since the shut-in.  It was nice to see the other ladies.  They have been meeting for several months but I needed more time before I felt comfortable being with others.  Only 7 people were there.  The tables were more than 6-week apart.  I spent the time setting up to start making charity quilt kits - got an okay start on cutting strips.  My friend in RI happened to call when I was in the other room (away from the others) getting fabric so I lost a lot of time to that.  I left just as their group lunch was starting as I hadn't planned to stay and didn't bring food to share or eat. I received my share of the Christmas Swap Blocks!  I put them on my bed for a photo but I couldn't get all 20 of them in one shot.  Some have so much detail.  Very nice.

It will be nice to put these together and to have a holiday quilt....

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I used an app to order groceries and for the first time went to the store and had them put the food in the truck.  This was a great system.  The store I went to is the only one in San Diego with Home Chef Meal Kits on order - when I used instacart I could not get the meals.  They have been nice to make and eat.  My husband even helped out the first night.

I got more books gone thru and have six books of books and things for Goodwill.  There is a lot more to go thru, but I think by taking photos of what I'm giving away it will help me let go.  Not that I will ever be able to find the photos again easily, but I will have photos anyway.

When I was in between 6th and 7th grade I went to Germany to visit my Godsister and her husband (he was in the service).  I had a grand time traveling with her and staying with them.  I go this cute baby set while on that trip.  I never used with our son, so it was just boxed away.  I hope someone will enjoy using them now or at least displaying them now.

I had several books from the Barbie series - already gave some away to the little girls in our son's play group.  So dated now.... but I looked online and see offered for sale for between $23 and $45! So hopefully Goodwill will price accordingly.

I picked this book up at a free book place, as I liked the cover...

Ah well.  So started making more progress going thru things - and still avoiding paperwork.  I'm finally ready to chuck it all though.  No one would ever look at things if I scanned them so pretty sure I'm just going to shred things older than 2014 - I think 7 years is the magic number for how long needed to keep bills and statements for possible audits?  I just don't know.

Round Up Week 23: Slow Start

In the Studio with Lauren: Class 3 Session 3:
Bias tube appliqué for Celtic designs and Indian Kolam

The class was presented well - I'm getting the hang of hand sewing.  Last week finished my first ever hand stitched binding to finish a quilt because of these classes.

The homework for the Bias tube applique actually had two examples to try out, but they were large I thought for me. Instead I used the technique to make another heart.  From a distance, the work looks rather nice - it's the detail look that shows the rough concave and convex points...

To make the bias tubing I cut a strip from a cereal box and inserted that to get the seam so it was in the center of the tube when pressed - easy peasy!  If I were going to make a larger, more beautiful piece I can see how purchasing the metal tubes would be very useful in making flat tubes.

The lesson this week was on couching - but she used the machine instead of showing hand methods. Actually my machine is not stitching well so I will find a tutorial online to help me do this by hand.

I searched for mechanical sewing machine repair in San Diego and now have a name to try out having the machines maintained.  The previous place more than doubled their prices and I had to return the machine to have the repair refined as it did not work the first time.  So I want a new place for this work.

Five Star Resources:

YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/c/TinyOrchardQuilts/featured
Website: https://tinyorchardquilts.com/

Megan at Tiny Orchard Quilts has many useful, creative and innovative projects.  Very professional presented.  There are so many tutorials, I had a difficult time picking out a few as examples:

How to Change the Size of a Quilt Block! Make A Block Any Size with These Tips!

https://youtu.be/sffeszovP98

How to Calculate Fabric Requirements for a Pattern! Take Your Sketch to a Quilt Pattern!

https://youtu.be/JYL955rn-Qk

Gradient Quilt Tutorial: Choose Your 3 Favorite Colors to Make this Easy to Piece Quilt!

https://youtu.be/LtsN8p69j9U

The Easy Way to Get PERFECT 1/4" Seam Allowances! Improve your Accuracy and Stop Losing Your Points

https://youtu.be/X9-C0B5CZII

Beyond the Free Motion Quilting Basics: Combining Designs and Resources for New FMQ Motifs

https://youtu.be/0fUGrkwvmG4

Megan will be starting a new summer QAL that will probably be wonderful to do.  I'm in a rush to finish up my bookkeeping so I can start the end of the month. First post about this now at:  https://tinyorchardquilts.com/blogs/news/summer-skies-medallionalong

YouTube page:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6OsS-yoLc9rpDzn4ELjjg
Blog: https://darlenemichaud.com/

Darlene Michaud - Videos on piecing, semi-quick recipes, and new series on decluttering to get ready for a cross country move. She is a one person production and posts something when she is inspired to do that.  For her lesson videos she plans ahead and at least usually thinks about the best way to present an idea. Sometimes she includes a lot of personal background information. She does not always post things that the quilt police would approve of.

I'm interested now to see her documenting getting rid of stuff in preparation for putting her family home on the market so she can move from Maine to Mississippi (to be near her son and away from the snow). 

She used to have videos (Organized so you could see progress each month or quarter) where she shared how much money she was earning from doing all the videos, but I can't find the link to that now.  But when I first found her she was making a few hundred a month, then it grew to I think a few thousand the last time I looked.  It was interesting to see the behind the scenes of all that part of YouTube business.

Here are some examples:

Make 2 Half Rectangle Triangle Quilt Blocks at Once

https://youtu.be/edTmHXtiYEY

Stained Glass Quilt Block Tutorial

https://youtu.be/Eqegl-ddbSw

Apple Raisin & Walnut Cornbread - Darlene's Concoctions - tried this delicious!

https://youtu.be/j2Hx-EJb0tc

Brown Sugar Walnut Ice Cream - No Machine, No Cream, 3 Ingredient Base

https://youtu.be/wiXmxHUCGbs

Crumb Quilt Adventure - https://tinyurl.com/y9zcg63f

Quilting with Darlene - https://tinyurl.com/y3752cyn

Crazy Crumb Quilt Adventure - https://tinyurl.com/yajctndh

Quilt Block Party - https://tinyurl.com/ha4uq2u

Postage Stamp Quilt - https://tinyurl.com/y4tw3tow

Easy Quilt Blocks - https://tinyurl.com/y742k6cc

YouTube Business - found one video https://youtu.be/6uLT3NwrLEk

A-Maze-ing Quilt - https://youtu.be/ocN4r6yWwio - pattern for $1

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXBQx7Mn77PQ46tRPpW9-oQ/videos
Website: https://quintessentialquilting.com/

Cindy Seitz-Krug.  A few years ago she set out to create and share a free motion quilting design based on starting with a grid.  I keep going back to her videos for inspiration. 

I may use this design in my wavy line quilt... (but enlarge so I do once for every block in the quilt).

Week 16 of "A Grid Design Every Week"; Flip/Flop Baptist Fan
https://youtu.be/lT27dWBgRXI

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I went thru my clothes, looking for a certain shirt, and in the process realized that some of the things I had put away had stains.  So plan to go thru again and pull things out - wash the ones that need it and then give them to Goodwill.

I also had a plan to go thru the books on my shelves in the bedroom - There are a few I have put aside, but I am hoping I can come up with some way to group things and then to be able to give away many more.  I decided that anything that had to do with teaching reading or writing I would just let go, so that will be easy.  But then there are cook books, learning language books, math books, novels I haven't read.  So already this is difficult to do.

All I can do is what I can do....

Oh, both of my sewing machines now need maintenance beyond what I can do.  I found a new guy, highly recommended on Yelp - but he will be on holiday until July.  So for the EBHQ classes the last weekend of this month I will just use the time to watch, and cut fabric in preparation for sewing later....

Round Up Week 22: Log Cabins and Power Bars Quilt Finished!

In the second session of the In the Studio with Lauren class "Appliqué", she covered freezer paper appliqué.  I again used a heart for my practice piece...  I'm pretty sure I finished this while still in bed. So I didn't notice until I was done that the shape of the heart had bent while I was working on it.  My concave and convex points need more practice, but this experience was sort of fun.

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Lauren's class gave me confidence to try my hand at stitching binding.  I'm glad I finally did this..

I started and finished my first ever hand stitched binding!  The quilt is about 36 by 40 inches, and was done as part of the second session of the online classes: In the Studio with Lauren "Log Cabins and Power Bars'.  Without her classes I never would have had the nerve to try this, and I am sold!  It perhaps took a few hours for two days - I had the TV on in the background while I worked for part and listened to The Wedding Quilt on Audible for some of the time too.  Although I need to work on getting better corners, I'm very pleased with how the binding looks.  I tried to sew the 2.5 inch binding 3/8 of an inch from the raw edge, but once I hit the corner could see that I needed to be closer to 1/4 inch.  Next quilt I am going to try surrounding the quilt with a zig zag stitch instead of several victory rounds of straight stitching.  Perhaps that will be easier to place the stitches for the binding.  I sewed the binding to the back then stitched it down on the front by hand.

This quilt was made for our little dog, Buffy.  She has already liked being under it - and for a while sat on in when it was in the sun.  I haven't washed it yet, nor put a label on the project...

I realized after sewing a bit that being thrifty and using the needles left to me by my Mom was not going to work out.  With each stitch it felt like there was a little tug - as if the needle had a rough spot on the side.  So I actually went to a quilt shop to get new needles!  While I was there I brought the Add a Quarter Ruler that I had purchased online and some gizmos that were supposed to make it easier to thread a sewing machine needle to the store.  To exchange the Add a Quarter with the newer beveled edge version, and to get direction on how to get the needle threader to work.  It turns out the online purchases have to be returned to the online store for online store credit.  This was not clear to me at all when I made the purchase.  But at least I have online credit.  The threader took two people at least 20 minutes to get it to work. It did but not consistently.  (I had gotten three of them since the shop owner said they worked so well.  I was going to give two away as gifts.)  But it took so long to get it to work - and the one we used got bent up too.  So I returned everything (sans the bent one) to the store - so I have about $21 of credit now in the online catalog only. I am thinking of getting the Hex n More ruler recommended by the teacher of my next EBHQ class...

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Wavy blocks (from May 2021 EBHQ class by Marge Tucker) in white and pink WIP.  I made a total of 21 6.75-inch blocks and decided to sew them together in rows of 4 x 5 (so I have one left over block) as I had really run out of the fabric I had in the right colors.  It now measures 26 by 32 inches.  I'm thinking of how to do the next part of the project - still trying to make it look like it was planned fabric, rather than being scrappy looking...

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Not Quilting

I had my hair cut and a pedicure!

The hair had been about five or six inches longer than it is now.  When I made masks for neighbors, I found out one of them owned a salon - it was a very nice looking place - in a terrific location in downtown San Diego.  Everyone wore masks - felt normal and nice to be out again.  The neighbor wrote to thank me for my support of her business.  Times are tough for businesses...

I did well with walking the first day of June.  Passed some nice looking houses....

And passed a junior high, school in session. 
The music class had moved to practice outside.  It was a beautiful day.

Round Up Week 21: to the end of May

 Hmm, I seem to have been so late with my round up posts that I have lost a week...

So I should be on week 21 - so changed the title to reflect that.

What did I do this past week?

I made more of the wave blocks from the EBHQ workshop.  I attended the zoom lesson on applique - this time she presented freezer paper technique.

I have decided to up my walking again, so will share a few photos from that...

I took the phone out to take a photo of the big ant, but then this lovely cat came and wanted to be in the picture too.

The other side of that same cactus arrangement.  I've walked this block so many times, but guess I was always facing the other way so missed this until this walk.

A modern neighborhood library, with a sloping roof so the rain will fall off.

The first time I have seen a solar panel cleaner!  She was very comfortable up on the roof, and got the job done very quickly.  I missed seeing how she got the pail and brush down.  I was curious to see if she also washed windows.

So this takes me to the end of the fifth month of the year.  I went to CVS and the grocery store for the first time since this pandemic hit.  I have been vaccinated - every one in the house has for more than a month.  So it is good to start to get out and about.  I discovered that I didn't miss CVS or the grocery store at all - so think we will continue having groceries delivered at least for a while.  I went to a sandwich place after a doctors appoint.  I also went to a bakery while my husband was picking up food in the same shopping center.