Unfinished ... But Not For Long

 A box of UFOs ... UnFinished Objects ... that's been hidden in my quilt stash for a very long time. 🧵

It's finally fall and warm days spent outside in the yard and garden are fading. After a very long hiatus, it's time for me to get back into my sewing room. This box is one of many in my stash that holds UFOs ... unfinished objects in quilt talk. I can't even call this a box of WIP ... works in progress, because what's inside doesn't show much progress! In fact, what has been hidden in here are random orphaned quilt blocks ... including some that date back 25 years. 

Digging in.
There are more blocks in here than I thought there were!

Close up.
I made some of these while I spent afternoons and evenings with my mother in her nursing home room. I kept a small portable sewing machine in her closet. 🧵

At this point, some quilters would be able to part with them, but not me. I either have a love affair with every fabric I've ever owned, or am so guilt ridden that I can't admit to myself (and now you, dear reader), that I've lost my way. And, I'm not getting any younger. Time waits for no man, or in this case, woman and quilter. I have more fabric than I can realistically use in the years ahead. At least I've stopped buying, but thats more a result of my shopping habits and opportunities changing. First, the COVID-19 pandemic kept me home and out of the quilt shops, second ... over the past couple year ... a few of my favorite shops closed, and third ... some of my other hobbies required more of my time. Avoidance behavior? I'm not sure if these are reasons or excuses, but at this point, what does it matter?

My local quilt guild, Museum Quilt Guild  ( https://museumquiltguild.blogspot.com ), held its monthly meeting on Saturday morning. I waffled on whether or not I'd go. After a few years of not attending, I was a bit anxious about it. Why? I'm not sure. I was active in the guild until about 4 years ago. I decided there's no time like the present . . . and also came to the conclusion that if I missed one more opportunity to be social and get inspired, it wouldn't help me get and stay connected again with people I'd known for years. I'd remain isolated and that's not the goal I have in mind for myself. So, I went to the meeting. I was greeted by many familiar faces and got lots of hugs. I mingled during the break and caught up with people. It was a great way to kick off my day. I look forward to getting involved again, finishing quilts for the next quilt show in October 2024, and enjoying a hobby I've loved during much of my life. ♥️

Today is predicted to be chilly. I hope by its end I can pat myself on the back and say, "I did it! I spent the day in my sewing room, and finished one little project." Baby steps. It's a start. 🧵

Where should I begin? 🧵

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them if you want a closer look. 👁👁 As always, your questions and comments are welcome here on my blog or on my Facebook post. Kindly add your name, initials or something that will identify you to me when you post comments on my blog. Blogger doesn't always recognize my friends and calls everyone "anonymous"! I love to read your comments and after I've read and approved them, they'll appear on my blog.

It is my sincere wish that you and those you love are happy and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy

Before Daybreak . . .

3 a.m. It's too early to be up and at 'em, so I sit in my favorite old chair in the dining room, next to the hospital bed that my husband is using during his convalescence from heart surgery. Together 24/7. Learning what it was he did around the house that I wasn't aware of and figuring out how to fit his chores, my chores, errands, patient care and visits from the home care nurses and physical therapists into each day. I think I'm coping, but being up in the wee hours of the morning, which is my new "normal", isn't the best way for me to spend my nights. I should be sleeping. Our mind and our body have a sensitive relationship. When one suffers, the other is affected. My brain is full of thoughts. My body is weary. 

So, here I am ...  up at 3 in the morning. I watch my husband sleep. I listen to his soft unlabored breathing. His chest slighty rises and falls in a soothing rhythm. Soft music plays on the TV channel called New Age music. I like it because the tunes are unrecognizable and there aren't any lyrics to get stuck in my head. And then, there's the coffee. Coffee at 3 o'clock in the morning tastes really good. It's a little ritual that I'm enjoying during this crazy phase in our life. Life. As I type the word, it jolts me. Life. It's never boring or predictable. And as much as I like to plan out my days, and my imaginary routine, those plans often go out the window as soon as I put my pen down after I finish composing my to-do list. There is no routine.

Flexibility is a learned habit, practiced under duress and a requirement made real by this unpredictable life we're sharing. When my husband was recovering in the hospital, I marveled at how the nurses dealt with the challenges of their job. Their "normal" 12-hour shift was exhausting to observe. How they coped was a mystery to me. I gained a greater appreciation for their profession. Their ability to be flexible and handle emergencies was part of their job, and not for just one patient, but for 8 or more patients ... each one with different medical needs. They taught me so much. I need to remember them in my prayers. 

Deep breath. I can hear the much-needed rain falling on the roof and trickling down the gutters. In the absolute quiet, I can settle down a bit. My brain and body have a chance to chill out and do a reset before daylight introduces another day.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. As always, your questions and comments are welcome here on my blog or on my Facebook post. Kindly add your name, initials or something that will identify yourself to me when you post comments on my blog. Blogger doesn't always recognize my friends and calls everyone "anonymous"! I love to read your comments and after I've read and approved them, they'll appear on my blog. It is my sincere wish that you and those you love are happy and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Missed Calls

The advancements in communications over the past 50 years is mind boggling. In my lifetime, which is well over 50 years, we've gone from having every phone call that was made from home facilitated with the assistance of a live telephone operator, to wireless texting that is instantaneous. And it's not only for a small calling area, but across the globe. I can text a friend in Europe and receive a reply in mere seconds.

But let's go back a few years . . . to how it was when I was growing up. My family lived five miles from town and the telephone was our lifeline. My earliest memories of our phone is of the heavy black one that sat on a table in the living room, just around the corner from the kitchen. When it rang, we had to halt whatever we were doing and count the rings. We were on a party line with five other families in our neighborhood, two of whom were both my maternal and paternal grandparents. We were the terminal phone on the line and we had to hear six rings before answering. Of course, as you can imagine, in a busy household with kids playing, the dog barking, my mother working in the kitchen, outdoors at the clothesline or in one of her flower gardens, we would often miss hearing the first one or two rings, or all six, so we'd miss the call.

orbis Historical via Getty Images

Photo: Corbis Historical via Getty Images

My mother was a social person and loved to talk on the phone. When she sat down for a break in the afternoon, she often called someone for a chat. She also took calls from buyers who called to schedule picking up truckloads of hay, straw, seed wheat, dry beans and potatoes.

When I was around 10 or 12 years old, the phone company modernized and upgraded to dial phones. It felt odd to spin the dial on the phone instead of talking to an operator. The numbers changed, too. They doubled in length. Our number changed from four numerals and one letter to an area code followed by seven numerals. But we now had the convenience of directly dialing any number in our phone company, or other companies, without operator assistance. This convenience changed our lives a little, but changed the lives of the operators and their families tremendously when their jobs were eliminated.

In his article, "The Rise And Fall of Telephone Operators",

https://www.history.com/news/rise-fall-telephone-switchboard-operators, Greg Daugherty writes, "With the coming of the 1930s, technology that allowed telephone users simply to dial another phone without the aid of an operator had become widespread. Phone companies took advantage of the moment to slash their workforces, and thousands of operators lost their jobs." Our rural road finally caught up with the rest of the world in the 1960's!

The new dial phones could be installed in more than one room in the house. You could get long cords that allowed you to hide in a closet or, as in our house, the stairwell, for quiet conversations. Party lines became a thing of the past and private lines were available even on our remote road! Eventually answering machines, and later on messaging services through the phone company, became available on our home phones. I enjoyed the convenience tremendously. 

Today missed calls are noted on the screen of our smartphones. The caller has the option to leave a recorded message. It's not easy to miss a call when the phone in your pocket or purse has a distinctive ring, often customized, and has the optional setting to vibrate. If a call comes in at an inconvenient time, you can set your smartphone up to automatically text the caller to let them know you are busy. Times have indeed changed.

Like my mother, I love to talk on the phone. I like short calls to check in on a friend, long calls while I sew, knit, work on papercrafting, and even while I work in the kitchen, thanks to my noise cancelling earbuds. However, even placing calls to friends and family has changed. Instead of just dialing someone's number, the current trend is to text first, find out if they're available for a call or not, and then proceed. For me, it takes away the spontaneity of just reaching out when you think of it. Often my friends and family want to schedule our calls. I oblige, but it still feels very strange to me. Having appointments to talk on the phone means I need to alter my plans so I'll be available when it fits their schedule. Isn't voice messaging enough? If someone can't answer, or doesn't want to, the caller can leave a voice message. Am I the only one who finds this strange?

The phrase "missed calls" has a double meaning for me. I miss calls in the traditional sense, but I also really miss calls that I used to make freely and moreover, used to receive. My phone rarely rings these days. Instead, I receive a lot of text messages. I think that text messages are great for several kinds of communication, especially the hearing impaired; but for an authentic conversation, there is nothing that will ever replace the human voice. Hearing someone's laughter, the concern in their voice, or their excitement is lost to me in words typed on a screen. When I am alone and in my old age someday, will I recall those special moments when I received a text message? I don't think so. But I believe I will remember a certain phone call, the voice at the other end and the comfort that I felt in the connection over the telephone. And, for me, that is important.

Missed calls. Yes. I miss them. But if you call me and I can't answer, please leave a voice message. I will call you back!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. As always, your questions and comments are welcome here on my blog or on my Facebook post. Kindly add your name, initials or something that will identify you to me when you post comments on my blog. Blogger doesn't always recognize my friends and calls everyone "anonymous"! I love to read your comments and after I've read and approved them, they'll appear on my blog.

It is my sincere wish that you and those you love are happy and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy 

Lost and Found . . . Again!

A few of the hexagon blocks I've prepared to sew together in the Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern. When I started working on completing more blocks a few weeks ago, after a long time of neglect, the blue-black fabric wasn't in the box with all the "flowers" I'd made. This wasn't the first time I had misplaced this particular fabric, either! I recall having to search for it in the past. I needed it and had no idea where I'd purchased it, even though I typically make a note on special fabrics about where and when I bought it, the name of the maker and the design. But that note, if I wrote it, wouldn't help me now since it was probably pinned to the fabric! My chances of finding it online or at a local quilt shop were slim. 

I know it's not a function of my age, because I've lost (and found) things all my life. So, I can't blame turning 70 on my last birthday for the problem I have for keeping track of things. Actually, I like to use the term "misplaced" instead of "lost". It might seem merely like semantics, but the word "lost" seems so final to me. The word "misplaced" feels less permanent and like the object will be found.

Akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, this blue-black batik fabric was hidden beneath this nest of colorful pieces I'd used for my hexagon quilt project. While it was missing, I wasn't able to move forward because I needed it to surround all the hexis I'd pieced together to make the floral motif for my Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern. I prayed to God that he would lead my hands to it and when I opened a box of fabric I had put away in my sewing room, there it was! Pray first! 

Over the past year or so, I've been trying to train myself to pay more attention to my habit of dropping things in obscure places, thinking I'll remember later where I put them. It's working for things in the present. For other things that are still in hiding from a year or more ago, there's no method that'll work to find them other than good old methodical searching. It's time consuming and frustrating because it steals away the precious time I could be devoting to things I'd rather be doing.

Case in point. While writing this post, I took a break after I completed the paragraph above (⬆️). I decided to spend a few minutes cleaning my studio. It has become a vault for anything I claim to be mine, from tools and materials for making things to tins of seed pods collected in the fall from my flower garden, and a variety of found objects that are too cool to discard because they may one day find their way into something wonderful on my workbench! Well . . . as serendipitous as it may seem, just a few minutes after I began cleaning, I picked up a pile of neatly stacked tissue paper that I'd saved for a future project, only to discover my garden clippers that have been missing for over a year. In fact, the pair I purchased to replace them have been missing since mid-summer! How funny . . . that while taking a break from writing about losing things, I find my missing clippers! How they hid there for so long is amazing since I have walked past them almost every day for who knows how long.

My garden clippers were hidden underneath these clipboards and tissue paper. 

My garden clippers were hiding in my studio.
At least they were in good company with the mini album I made to keep tags and growing instructions for my perennial garden.

Yesterday, the search was on for my English Muffin Bread recipe. Of course, the obvious place to look was my recipe box. I looked in there and then I asked my husband to look, too. No dice. I checked my two bread cookbooks. I didn't see it listed in either book's index. I decided to  check my stack of recipe cards I purchased. They're much better than the chintzy 3" x 5" cards I've been using. Lo and behold, there it was. I guess I pulled it out of the box to transpose it onto a new card. And, guess what? It is from one of my two cookbooks! Somehow I missed it in the index. 🤓

Not lost . . . just misplaced. 
These nice recipe cards are glossy and the permanent ink doesn't bleed if they get wet.

One habit I've established is putting my keys in my purse when I get home. In the past, I'd be ready to go out the door only to discover my keys were missing. It made me crazy, not to mention late for appointments! It was a pretty easy thing to get used to and now it's second nature. Being more intentional about my thoughts and actions takes work, but I'm finding the payoff is worth it.

Having the methods in place that work for me is key. Pretty containers with pretty little labels is one I employ. I label things as if I have a staff that needs to know where things are  . . . but it's only for myself. I know where my hexi fabric is. It's all in two pretty boxes that I keep in the living room. I've been sewing in the early morning and sometimes at night while watching TV. Hopefully, I'll get my hexi project finished this year!

My hexis are tucked away in these pretty boxes with all the fabrics, needles and thread and notions I need.

Organizing my life and my possessions seems to be a life-long project for me, but once I manage to come up with a good solution, it works. I just need to keep paying attention to my habits and fine-tuning my methods! Do you misplace things? Have you devised ways to keep track of items? I'd like to hear from you. 

The snow and ice from last week is finally starting to melt and it has me itching to get outside and do some yard and garden clean up. When I can, my rediscovered clippers will come in handy. 🙂

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them if you want a closer look. 👁👁 As always, your questions and comments are welcome here on my blog or on my Facebook post. Kindly add your name, initials or something that will identify you to me when you post comments on my blog. Blogger doesn't always recognize my friends and calls everyone "anonymous"! I love to read your comments and after I've read and approved them, they'll appear on my blog.

It is my sincere wish that you and those you love are happy and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy

Back to Papercrafting

I tend to hoard my prettiest papers.
 This time, I tried to just jump in and start cutting into my Tim Holtz vellum collection.
After the initial slice, it was easier to proceed!

It had been way too long since I sat down at my workbench and enjoyed making cards, journals and other papercraft-related things. Why? I'm not sure of the reason. I'd venture to guess it was partly due to the shock and stagnation that was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, but other than that.  . . I'm not sure. In conversations with other people who are makers or creatives, I've learned that it's not all that unusual to just stop delving into a particular interest, whether it be a gradual or a sudden change. That information has been freeing for me. Instead of beating myself up for my creative shortcomings, I'm trying to accept them as a typical thing in my life. Over my lifetime, I've pursued many hobbies, such as sewing, crocheting, knitting, quilting, beading, embroidering, flower arranging, wreath making, drawing, altered art and probably a few more that I've forgotten about. I used to knit one project every winter . . .  usually a warm scarf. I'd try to learn a new stitch or a more complicated pattern and a scarf is a perfect size on which to practice. It's been a few years, though, since I've picked up my knitting needles, even though I have some beautiful yarn and a pattern that I bought several years ago at a yarn shop while on vacation.🧵🧶📿🧣🖌✍

I found this lace and burlap Tim Holtz dress form die cut hiding in my stash.
I thought it would be pretty on this little note card, along with some bling.
I used more of the Tim Holtz vellum inside. 

Having delved into so many things over the years and amassing the inventory of materials and tools required for each new obsession, I have A LOT of stuff in my studio. One of my goals is to use the things I have on hand before buying more. My studio is overflowing with opportunities!

I used the "Once Upon A Time" card stack by DCWV for this little note card.

To that end, I pulled out a few tablets of scrapbooking paper a couple of weeks ago, dug out my inks and bling and made some cards. Surprisingly, the method came right back to me and I was able to get a few cards made, which are in the photos interspersed in this post. As I dig out more tools and materials, I'll make more intricate designs, which is my preference. But these were a good start and I felt good to be back at my work bench. 🖼🎨👩‍🎨

The weatherman is predicting that today will be a snowy day. What a gift! I think I'll stay inside and carry on with making some cards and maybe tonight I'll get my knitting basket out. March has traditionally a time of creativity for me. Let this month be no exception! 🧶

Beckoning springtime with this card made with DCWV's "The Botanicals Stack" floral paper.
I can write a message on the butterfly insert. 🦋

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this post. As always, your questions and comments are welcome here on my blog or in the comments on my Facebook page. You can click on the photos to enlarge them for a closer look. 👁👁

Another butterfly from the DCWV "The Botanicals Stack" collection with pretty flowers inside.
I like all the pretty papers!

It is my sincere wish that you and those you love are happy and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy

Adventures in Breadmaking

A loaf of beer bread. It's one of our favorites. You can use any beer and it always comes out tasty and easy to slice. 

It's been over a year ... 365+ days ... since my breadmaker arrived at my front door. I had considered buying one for a while, but didn't give it serious thought . . . until, while switching the channel on TV, I saw one advertised on a shopping channel. That's all it took and I was on the hunt. With my husband's help, I narrowed down my choices to a few and then we comparison shopped features and price. The Hamilton Beach 2 lb Digital Breadmaker, Model 29881, won out with good reviews and a super price at Walmart.

There's something you probably don't know about me. How could you? Here's my little secret: I am reluctant to use, possibly even fearful of, new appliances. (I'll write about my new mixer another time! 😉) Huh? Yes. You read that correctly. I'm not sure why, but it's the truth. Whenever we've needed to buy a new kitchen appliance, washer, dryer, sewing machine, computer or even a car, I opt for the simplest model that doesn't have lots of fancy features. It's less stressful for me to learn how to use it . . . and I've convinced myself that I really don't need all the bells and whistles anyway! I guess you could say ignorance is bliss . . . and I don't know what I'm missing. 

However, I was determined not to fall prey to my fears with my new breadmaker, and while the machine was on it's way, I spent hours and hours pouring over bread machine blogs and recipes on the internet. I researched cookbooks on Amazon and settled on two that weren't too intimidating.

One of the two cookbooks I ordered from Amazon: The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook

The second of the two cookbooks I ordered from Amazon: The No-Fuss Bread Machine Cookbook

When the machine arrived, I let it sit in it's box for a day. I needed to be in the right mood to open it and unpack it. It was simple and straightforward looking. There was a little booklet enclosed with instructions and quite a few recipes to try. I ordered some baking supplies from the grocery store and picked them up the same day . . . bread flour, eggs, butter and yeast. I had all.the other ingredients on hand. I'm proud to say I jumped into making my first loaf of bread with confidence and it came out perfect. It was even tasty. 🍞 For once, my tendency to over research things paid off. And ever since that day, I've been using my breadmaker two or three times a week. I've tried many recipes and have had only two total failures plus a few loaves that we just didn't care for the taste or texture. I make small loaves because there's just the two of us and I also make dough for sandwich rolls and pizza that I bake in the oven. 

Here she is!
My favorite kitchen appliance. Well, maybe it's a tie with my coffee maker. ♡

Making bread in the breadmaker has been a learning experience for me. Knowing that the breads we eat are fresh and healthy, without preservatives makes me happy and having such a variety of choice is fun and makes mealtimes more interesting. I freeze the ends of the bread and any slices that are a few days old. I use them to make croutons for our soups and salads. 🥗

My breadmaking station. My inner home ecomomist is in her glory. 

These challah sandwich rolls are a staple in our house. I have made them with an egg wash, as seen here, as well as sprinkled with kosher salt and caraway seeds for beef on weck.

So far, I've made calzones just once, but they were a hit with the hubs. ♡

I need more practice, but the calzones turned out okay for my first try. 😋

This is probably our favorite thing to make at home. The dough is a very simple recipe that I found on the internet. It's been fun to experiment with different sauces, cheeses and toppings.

Did I mention that we haven't had a single loaf of store-bought bread since I started using my breadmaker? And the convenience of frozen pizzas is a thing of the past.

So, there you have it, as promised . . . with some photos. You can click on the photos to enlarge them for a closer look. 👁👁

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read this post. As always, your questions and comments are welcome. And, if you have bread machine experiences or recipes to share, please add them in the comments below or on my Facebook page under this post. 

I hope this finds you and those you love happy and healthy. And until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy

Signs of Hope

Pictured are snow drops, daffodil leaves pushing up, our forsythia bush, tulips emerging next to a tree and a close up of the new leaves on the forsythia. 

Spring will officially arrive one month from today, but here in Alexander, New York,  there are some welcome signs that indicate spring is as anxious to get here as I am to welcome it!

It's been a windy winter and some days it's been just too bone-chilling cold and muddy for me to walk about in our yard. But today, the wind was only 11 mph, the ground had dried out a little and the temperature was a mild 39°F.

I grabbed my leaf blower on the way out the door and used it to move a lot of the leaves away from my path. I left most of them right where they were on the flower beds though, because it's way too early to uncover them . . . especially when there's ice and snow in the forecast. The weather is very changeable in February and March in Western New York. We've already had days in the 50's that were followed by temps a few days later that dipped into the teens.

On my next walkabout, I'll cut some forsythia branches. They'll look pretty as they blossom in a tall vase and they require no special attention, except water. It's a big reward for no effort!

I hope you are enjoying the hope that spring's return offers and that you'll be noticing signs in the coming weeks.

I had written in my last post that I'd write about my adventures with my breadmaker. It's been a year since I started making breads and I will write about it soon. It's been fun and rewarding. 

Thank you for taking a few moments to read this post. Your questions and comments are welcome, either on Facebook or in the comment section here in Blogger. 

It is my sincere hope that you and those you love are happy and healthy and until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy

 

70

Birthdays. I usually don't lament them. Instead, I have always looked forward to birthdays. But this year I've been in a bit of a funk as the big day has been approaching. It's not the number that makes me sad. I don't feel old. It's the fact that there's so much I have yet to do while I'm on this earth. And as my mother used to say when she got to be my age, "Ive got more years behind me than I have ahead of me." I've been fortunate to have lived a pretty amazing life ... by my terms ... and I want it to continue for many more years. I have goals and I'm trying to make each day count ... not always in big ways, but in small and significant ways that make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

There's a YouTube channel that I like to watch ...

https://youtube.com/@NikolJohnson

I really enjoyed her message today. It was what I needed to hear as I lived this last day of my 6th decade of life. Granted, Nikol is much younger than me, but she works with many clients who are my age and older. She gets it.

There are lots of thoughts and memories running through my mind tonight as I write this, but I'll let Nikol sum it up for me. Here's a link to the video she published yesterday:

https://youtu.be/EHHrdCZqFVg

Thanks for reading my post. It is my wish that you and those you love are happy and healthy; and until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy