The Gray Potholders

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned I was making a couple of potholders for a friend of my daughter's, and M had requested I use gray fabrics.

She stopped in and picked out some fabrics from the (scant) grays I had in my stash.  I, personally, would never have chosen grays, but have been pleasantly surprised at the attractiveness of the finished product.

The fronts of the potholders.

And the backs.

Here's a close up to show the fabrics

a little more clearly.

M and her husband, J, share cooking duties at their house and J had put in a request for a smaller potholder than the first ones I had made for them.  We gals (M, my daughter and I) questioned why his "bigger hands" would want a smaller potholder . . . but we aim to please so his is the smaller one shown.

Gotta say the particular block M picked out for J's potholder was a bit of a challenge.  All those small triangles cut on the bias made for a not-so-square block when I got them all put together.  Another lesson learned that some old-fashioned blocks (this one is Aunt Mary's Double Irish Chain) don't go together as easily as others.  (In my opinion, Aunt Mary must have been a glutton for punishment.  Or a really, really good quilter who loved a challenge.)

I'm glad I was forced to use the gray fabrics, colors I would never have chosen myself as I tend toward brighter colors with more contrast.  Just shows to go, that working outside the box every now and then is a very good thing.

 

Ramblings

There are four mailboxes in a row across the road from our driveway.  The first two got relocated by the snow plow after our hefty snow this past weekend.  Ours is was the second in line.  Right now those first two boxes are securely (?) planted (dug in) in the top of the snow bank which is holding them up.  As Papa Pea said, "Well, we were due for a new mailbox anyway."

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A good friend of my daughter's received a pair of my quilted potholders a couple of years ago, and has politely asked if I might make her a new pair.  She requested I use gray fabric.  Hmmm, wouldn't be my first choice, and I don't have a lot of grays from which to choose, so I asked her to stop by to look at what I had and pick what appealed to her.  Thankfully, she picked a dark, medium and light out of my limited stash so I had nice values with which to work.  I got the top for the first one done today, and you know what?  Although I would never have chosen grays myself, it looks pretty good!  Yet another lesson on why it's important to work outside the box every now and then.  I'll post a picture of the pair when I get them done.

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Papa Pea went into town today to get gas in the Samurai.  It's his banging around in the woods vehicle and, boy howdy, riding in it gives one a real banging around.  (Have I given away the fact that it's not my favorite vehicle to drive or ride in?  Or to get in and out of for that matter.  The short leg syndrome strikes again.)  I did hitch a ride into town with him, though, for a quick run through the Co-op to pick up a couple of needed ingredients (a big kitchen cooking day planned for me tomorrow), and a stop at the library to pick up a book I had ordered.  We killed two birds with one stone.  Or perhaps it was 2-1/2 birds.  I'm not sure which.

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I'm down to my last pre-made pie crust in the freezer (the ball of crust, that is) so making another batch of crusts was on my list today.  But today, like most days, the hours zoomed by way too fast and I didn't make it that far down my list.  Hopefully, tomorrow when I'm simmering a big pot of Beef Vegetable Soup, I'll have time to do the pie crusts.  If any of you are interested, I did a post on how I make my crusts.  Click here and it should pop up for you.  The only change I've since made in the instructions is that instead of using the pastry cutter to incorporate the butter and lard into the dry ingredients, I found I can do that step faster and much easier (much!) using my KitchenAid mixer with the flat beater attachment.

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Time to sign off for the night.  I have a big beautification event planned.  Shower, shampoo, shave, pedicure . . . TMI?  Hey, we all have to do it every month or so.  ;o)

We Got Snow, Ho-Ho-Ho!

Not a Christmas snow, but definitely a nice, mid-January snow.  Below pictures were taken when we were out doing chores this morning.

I made just a shovel's width test swath out onto the front deck to check the snow depth.  Looks like about 12" to me.

And that rings true by the topping on the bird feeder out front.

This was taken standing at our house's back entry looking to the right toward the wood sheds and storage building.  (I had already knocked the snow accumulation on that stump off.)

And then looking to the left toward the driveway out and away from the house.  (Still to be plowed.)

It's our biggest snowfall so far this winter.  Lots of shoveling, clearing and plowing to be done today.  Also lots of exercise in the clean, beautifully covered environment!

I Got Plenty of Nuthin'

Nothing important or earth-shaking to write about today.  Just miscellaneous thoughts traveling from brain to fingertips to computer.

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We got about 4" of new snow last night.  Very light and fluffy, easy shoveling despite the temp in the high 20s over night and up to 32° right now.  We've certainly had a mild winter so far.

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I'm so grateful for the wonderful organic co-op grocery store we have way up here in northern Minnesota.  My freezer is still full of vegetables from last year's garden, our root cellar holds cabbage, potatoes and apples, and the co-op produce section has more than we could want in the way of fresh fruits including wonderful grapefruits, oranges, lemons, tangerines, bananas, pears, etc.

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Speaking of good food to put in my tummy, I don't crave cheese as much as some others do, but there's something about the winter weather that has me standing before our co-op's intriguing cheese section contemplating new-to-me varieties of cheeses to try.

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Here it is nearly the midway point of January and I still have all our Christmas decorations up.  (Should I hang my head in shame?)  I'm sure I've never delayed putting them away so long after New Year's.  It's not my laziness fault this has happened.  Every time I casually mention I really must take them down and store them away, Papa Pea pleads for me to leave them up "just a little longer."  He says the color and lights bring him happiness and joy in what has for us, so far, been an extremely gray, sunless winter.  Okay.  I'll go quilt instead.

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Perhaps as my own way of combating the gloominess of the weather outside, these days I like to use candles for warmth, coziness and a sense of peacefulness.  I love that candlelight seems so perfect in many ways this time of year, especially in the evening.  Although it certainly wouldn't be the same of a summer's day.  An outside campfire to sit around, yes, but lit candles on the table and in other rooms then?   Nope.

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"Year by year, the complexities of

this spinning world grow more bewildering

and so each year we need all the more

to seek peace and comfort in

the joyful simplicities."

                                       Women's Home Companion

                     December, 1935

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Excuse me now so I can go light some candles.

One of My Best Christmas Presents

I hate doing the dishes.  That's my very, very least favorite household task.  No, I don't have an automatic dishwasher so I do it the old-fashioned way using two plastic dishpans, one for washing and one for rinsing set in the bays of my double sink.

When we bought and remodeled this house, I did contemplate installing a dishwasher in the kitchen I designed, but decided against it (silly me) because 1) I didn't want to give up the cabinet space, and 2) all the units seemed to be exceedingly wasteful of energy.

That man I'm married to?  Papa Pea?  For years now, the wonderful man has (cheerfully even) volunteered to do any and all the dirty dishes I create each Saturday and Sunday.  That is one heckuva treat for me, and one I totally, absolutely, utterly appreciate.

But back to the title of this post.

To the left of our sink is where the rinsed and stacked dishes to be washed are set.  See that little rectangular frame above the counter?  That's where I've always kept a seasonal small picture or quilted wall hanging.  From now on, only one picture will occupy that space.

It is a framed saying given to me by my daughter at Christmas.  Here's a close-up of it.

Just in case you can't see the printing clearly, it says:

NO HUSBAND

HAS EVER

BEEN SHOT

WHILE 

DOING

THE DISHES

Truer words were never spoken, and I smile every time I look at it. 

I'm A Success!

Here we are, a whole five days into the New Year, and I've done a good job of spending more time in my quilt room.  How long can I stay so disciplined?  And let all the rest of my multitudinous tasks I should be working on list go neglected?  No matter.  Nothing has come back to bite me in the posterior (yet), and I'm having a great time.

I made the center blocks (well, most of them anyway) for this baby quilt a long time ago and then they got stashed away in the land of unfinished projects.  Recently, I came upon them, dove into my (very large) collection of 30s fabrics, and made a few more of the blocks to finish out the center and then added the borders.  I finished the machine quilting yesterday and put on the binding.  This quilt measures about 33" x 39".  Done.  Done.  Done, done, DONE!

I'm also in the process of working on yet another UFO (where do they all come from?) which is this slightly larger baby quilt measuring 35" x 40".  

The center of the star blocks have different pictures of cute, yellow ducklings in various poses. 

Often I have to leave a quilt on my design wall where I can look at it for a certain amount of time before I figure out how I want to quilt it.  That's the stage this one is at now.

This decorating idea (using miniature quilts on shelves) is one I've seen in several books and magazines and have had a yearning to try myself.

Toward that end, yesterday I made this miniature quilt, measuring 12" square, and finished hand quilting it last night while Papa Pea and I were relaxing and chatting in front of our living room open fire.  I'm eager to see how I can incorporate it onto a shelf in my quilt room (and maybe a couple more?), but first the room (bookshelves, mainly) needs a good cleaning and a bit of rearranging.

It's a good thing Papa Pea always encourages me to leave the Christmas tree and other decorations up longer than most people do after the holidays because even though I was planning on packing it all away this weekend, I've gone completely off the rails and have been happily creating (happy hands, happy heart!) while holed up in my quilt room.  And it feels GREAT!