Broken Promises

If you make a promise to yourself and you don't keep it, is it really a broken promise?  After all, it was only to yourself.  And besides, it was a silly promise anyway.  One I knew early on I couldn't keep.  Sigh.

I sandwiched a quilt top today.  That just seems to take forever doesn't it?  It's on my UFO list...#3.  It's blue and brown so I'm calling it Blue Skies Over Planet Earth.  UFO numbers 1 & 2 are finished so I'm right on target.  Working on #3 was the right thing to do.  No new things, that was the promise after all.  I don't count the table runners I made day before yesterday because they're for a post I promised Madame Samm.  And my goodness promises made to other people have to come before promises to yourself, right?  And I refuse to count the two mug rugs I made yesterday.  After all, they're teeny tiny.  They shouldn't count at all.  But I think I have no excuse for the 121 green squares I cut today for this quilt.

It only called for 64 squares but I used my Go! to cut the squares and they were smaller than the pattern called for and I wanted the quilt to be bigger anyway so I cut a few extra.  Ok, 57 extras.  It will be a little wider and a little longer.  I might need a few more.  And I positively won't work on the applique part until I quilt Blue Skies.  I promise.

Thoughts About Pumpkins

I got to spend several hours in the sewing room today - such a good thing!  I'm still ironing scraps and cutting them with the Go! cutter and I've got a really nice stack of squares and strips for my next scrappy quilt.  Then I spent a little while making a couple of Christmas table runners for a tutorial I'm working on - later I'll post that but today I really want to talk about pumpkins. 

Last week I made several pumpkin coasters.  Some I'll mail to friends, some I'll keep.  Are these not the cutest things?  I found a pumpkin applique picture on the internet, printed it off and made a template of it.  Waaaaay too big.  Started over.  Cut the size down and tried again.  Better!  I used a very light weight fusible for both the front and back and ironed one of them to some batting.  I trimmed that, then ironed the other (not sure which was front and which was back!) to the batting on the other side.  I did a blanket stitch around the outside and a "hand quilting stitch" (which looks nothing like hand quilting to me) for the definitions of the pieces of the pumpkin.  Before I did the blanket stitch at the top I put a wool stem in between layers.  When I did the blanket stitch it held the stem in.  Done!  Quick and easy and uses up some scraps.  I should do some leaves the same way....and maybe acorns.

Now that I look at that picture though it occurs to me, wouldn't it make a cute table topper to make a bunch of these and overlap them like they are in the picture and them sew them somehow to each other?  There are 5 in the picture so with 2 or 3 more it would make a nice size table topper.  I need to think about how to do that.

Do you have pumpkins left from Halloween?  I do too.  And it's about time to cook them - I've done that before though not often.  This time I'm going to try canning the pumpkin.  If you've canned pumpkin I'd sure love to hear from you - how you did it, how you liked it, how you used it.  Last year I ran out of pumpkin and I hated that!  I couldn't find it anywhere and every time I asked at the store they said there was a freeze and it was a bad year for pumpkin.  I'm like a little squirrel I guess - I want to store some up. 

Which reminds me of something else.  We have chipmunks.  This is the way my mind works, get used to it ya'll.  I think maybe we have a married couple - a Mrs. and a Mr. Chipmunk.  When I sit in my chair in the den/sunroom I see a chipmunk come running onto the deck, cross it, go down the steps and out into the yard, stuff his/her cheeks with acorns, run back up the steps, across the deck and down to the yard, I guess back to his/her nest to store the acorns.  The deck must be a shortcut.  Over and over and over they do that.  They come and go so fast I think there must be two.  Cute, cute, cute.  I can stand right at the patio door and they are so busy running back and forth they never see me.  If their activity is any sign of the winter to come - well I'm just sayin' those chipmunks are working steady at gettin' ready.  Maybe I better buy another pumpkin.

Three Things I Wish Had Never Been Invented

1.  Leaf Blowers - My neighbors seem to have some sort of agreement.  One blows his leaves on Saturday and it takes him all day.  The other neighbor blows his on Sunday and it takes him all day.  Noise, constant noise, all weekend.

2.  Sagging pants - I know the history behind this style that's been so popular for years now but really, isn't it time for it to be gone? 

3.  Junk food.  All junk food.  Not just fried twinkies - though I admit I've never even had a fried one, just plenty of regular ones.  If I have it, I will eat it - you know like "if you build it they will come."  I wish there were no potato chips or onion dip, no Butterfinger candy bars, no Coca Cola or Dr. Pepper or even diet ones because they're nothing but additives and if those things and the million others like them had never been invented I would never have eaten the first one or sipped the first one and I wouldn't want them!  And I'm convinced I'd be much healthier not to mention thinner.

Anyone care to add to my list?

Peace

I sit in my chair in the early morning looking out at this beautiful view outside my door and I feel the peace of God surround me and enfold me.  And I wish that I could share it with each of you.  It fills me with wonder and with renewed strength.  I'd love to see the place that does that for you - can you tell me about it?

Girlfriends Are Gifts From God

Yes, we really did all go to the restaurant dressed alike.  Our shirts say "Sisters of the Heart" - and that's what we are.  Friends for nearly 50 years.  Some of us for longer than that - some of us met when we were 5 years old and we're all 64 now.  And we're such Fashionistas we even had a second shirt alike!

We met, we hugged, we laughed, we ate, we told stories that we've heard hundreds of time before.  As we were having our picture taken at the restaurant I heard a young woman say, "Oh that makes me want to cry it's so sweet."  I think that meant she thinks we're old.  She would have loved some of our stories.  Especially the one about the thong panties.  But I'll never tell.  :)

Ok you girls can quit hounding me for an update on the new floor.  Hundreds of you just keep asking and asking what I did.  Well maybe not hundreds but several.  Well maybe not several but someone asked me.  I'm pretty sure someone asked anyway.  I went with the LVT (which is luxury vinyl tile and I'm fairly certain that luxury is stretching things but that's what it's called).  It comes in either squares and looks like tile, or planks and looks like laminate.  I chose the planks.  Then once you decide you want planks, it comes in different "woods".  I think this one was supposed to be pine but all I know is that it blended with the brick walls, rock fireplace and wood trim - and trust me that was a job finding one that would do that!  In addition, this house is on a little lake and so I wanted something that looked more rustic than polished.  The durability was what really sold me but I must say, now that it's down I'm very pleased.

This is really kind of an odd room.  Originally this house was U shaped with a deck between 2 bedrooms that made up the legs of the U.  Back in 1990, before we bought the house, it flooded.  I mean really flooded... 52" of water in the living room.  They took it down to the studs and rebuilt.  When they did that they enclosed the deck.  It is 12' x 32' and I sort of "divide" it into 2 areas of use.  My husband's office is on one end and my "nest" is on the other.  The fireplace is in between.  It gets lots of traffic because we keep wood on the deck in the winter and have to come in and out to the fireplace with the wood.  And it's the way we go out to the deck and the back yard and the lake so you can imagine everything that's tracked in.  My grandchildren claim the end where I nest and I let them watch television, make tents, have snacks and pretty much whatever else they want in there.  This floor should hold up to all of that!  Cleaning is a breeze - I can mop with pretty much any cleaner but I like vinegar.  I can use my Shark steam cleaner if it gets too bad.  But mostly just a Swiffer will do the trick.  I'm pretty pleased with it and more than pleased that the carpet is gone!