Camino training is starting

 Hello, everyone. We are resuming our walks in hope of walking the Camino once again. We were not able to walk the Via de la Plata in 2020, as had been planned. Perhaps it will happen this time.

We have found a new series of YouTube videos, by an Australian fellow with the screen name GreenEnergyGavindelaplata. It's interesting. He, like us, is interested in how the local folks live. He learned a lot about cork culture (this is a crop, the bark of the cork oak tree) and shared it in his first video.

Today, though, we were just practice walking. We went to Bentsen State Park and saw the Green Jays, the doves, the Chachalcas, the orioles, and even the local flock of wild turkeys.

Mister Cardinal at the feeder

Mrs. Cardinal thinking about the feeder

Orioles and Chachalacas considering the feeder. (The Chachalacas did eat some peanut butter mix.) The orioles didn't seem to know what to make of the feeder. Theywould fly over to look at it and not eat. Perhaps they thought the yellow-orange peanut butter mix was cut up fruit.

A Green Jay eating peanut butter mix. Almost all of the birds love the peanut butter mix the park feeds them in the winter season.

After the frost

 Hello, everyone.

A quick update on our recent frost: it's not as bad as we feared it might be.

Before the frost, the Lila avocado was covered with a sheet and also wrapped in a C7 incandescent strand. Y'all will note that a rock was place to keep the sheet from blowing away. (Fairly stiff winds were forecast for this front--almost a true Blue Norther in fact.)

After the frost, the sheet was removed and the light strand was moved to the base of the baby tree. As y'all can see, she has survived. Though with her branches bent over from the weight of the wire and sheet.

She grew about 7 inches or so last year after we painted her stems with white latex paint. It's almost time to get the paint out again and protect those new, tender inches of growth.

We're going to keep the light strands where we placed them until potential frosts are in the rear-view mirror.

It's Christmas type weather for the holiday this year (updated)

 Hello, everyone. Merry Christmas to all!

We're at the edge of the huge cold pool that has rolled down from the Artic.

It's still a lot colder than usual. Today has been low 30's F (near zero C) all day. Last night I think we bottomed out around 30. We have done what we could for our plants.

This is a Desert Rose and a poinsettia, wrapped and with incandescent lights.

A baby avocado tree, also with incandescent lights and a wrap. The stems are still so thin that the lights weigh them down.

I hope they all make it through.

(Updated to correct spelling and formatting.)

A completed project: Christmas Apron

 Hello, everyone.

There has been some sewing done lately: The Charm Squares Apron pattern has been made. Link goes to Shabby Fabrics, the place I got the pattern. (The lady who did the design has an Etsy shop, but when I looked at that page all the prices were in pounds, instead of dollars. So if a reader would rather deal in pounds, I put the Etsy link in this parenthesis.)

This project used up a whole package, or equivalent, of 5 inch squares. ("Charms") The instructions make a lined apron with pockets at the sides. Instead of putting a name across the top, I embroidered a dove with an olive branch and some hearts. I used a quilter's binding method for the bottom hem instead of the one she suggests in the pattern, the quilter's one gives a double layer at the bottom edge which I think is going to be more durable. I also used the expansion proposed by Ms. Bethany at Shabby Fabrics to make the pockets fully lined with no raw edges exposed. I recommend this, as her point about better durability seem good.

It's not hard to make, but there is a deal of sorting, piecing, squaring up, and deciding about placement.

I'm thinking of making more Charm Squares Aprons, as there are a lot of charm squares in the stash, even before turning odd shaped scraps into 5 inch squares. (The off-cuts become input to crumb quilting, which makes a new fabric.) 

There is also a plan afoot to make some more wall hangings instead of taking the hook off of the wall where the Kimberbell Jingle All The Way quilt is currently on display. Valentines? Easter? Camino hiking? Fall? The possibilities are endless!

Action Photo: the new tree skirt

 Hello, everyone. The new tree skirt is with its tree, and for a bonus the Kimberbell Jingle All The Way quilt is hung alongside.

The Kimberbell Jingle All The Way quilt was a multi session class at the (late and much lamented) A Block Away quilt shop. Sadly, that shop is no longer. But I still have the things I made in classes there. 

And!

A new quilt shop is opening in the next town over from me. When I have a good picture, I will show it. I already stopped by to say hello and get a charm pack. (I didn't actually need it, but I want to support the ladies who have opened the shop.)

The wall quilt has a hanging sleeve at the top, and I put a curtain rod (with a cute finial) into it. Careful use of rubber bands to both set the amount the inner part sticks into the outer part of the rod, and to try and control the natural tendency of the hanging yarn to pull toward the center has been my friend in this. The hanging yarn is one of the fat, braided ones from Hobby Lobby. It's a sort of garnet red.

This is the only picture I have that really shows the bow on the tree, too. Thanks to the late afternoon sunshine, plus turning on every light in the room!

New Christmas tree skirt (updated for formatting)

 Hello, everyone. We're having "Chamber of Commerce weather" in South Texas just now. That means, in Fahrenheit numbers, nights in the 60's and days in the  80's. Very comfortable! And seasonal for this area.

The moon was playing peek-a-boo behind some clouds the other day.

Since this area doesn't generally see anything that looks like snow, or ice, we have to use our decorations to make it look like it's Christmas season.

I have now used my (new) 10-degree ruler to make the panels of a tree skirt. Fabrics are from stash. Also the little tying ribbons are from stash.

The front. I used nine different fabrics for the panels.

The back.

The tree that needs a skirt. (It got a few more ornaments after this photo was taken, but the general idea is the same: decorated egg shells, beads, and crystals. And a bow for the top, because the traditional stars are too heavy for it.) This is a small tree, so we set it up on a coffee table.

(Edited to fix formatting. I don't know what happened, but using my phone to post made a huge pile of empty space for no reason that I can see. Now fixed!)

Cutter Ants (edited for formatting and clarity)

Hello, everyone. While we were gone, the weather in South Texas was mostly cool and damp. The plants loved it! And, to my surprise, so did the ants that have made their home down the road.

This is what we saw while walking. (Bearing in mind that I had thought the ant city had died out last summer.)

 The shoe is left in for scale!

This was really sudden. Presumably the ants were hiding during the day, avoiding the heat, and possibly there was another entrance or two on the other side of the fence. 

These are the kind of ants that children's "ant science kits" come with. They cut leaves from trees, shrubs, and even small plants, carry them back into their underground city, and grow fungus on them. Then they eat the fungus. They're farmers, actually! 

(Edited to fix formatting and increase clarity.)

It's been busy (edited for formatting)

 Hello, everyone. I had intended to post earlier, but got distracted and forgot. We did make a small family trip, to a wedding on St. Thomas.

From the plane en route

The day before the wedding gatherings commenced, we visited the famous mountain top viewing spot. The water there is so amazingly blue! And everything was so, so green. It rained once or twice in each of the days we were there.

We had gone across to Mexico to find clothes for the wedding before leaving, as the bride had chosen a patio wedding in the afternoon. This little blue dress is cotton, very comfortable, and with a cascade of necklaces worked out great. (The long one is jades, some from my grandmother, and aventurine. The short one, a gift from a relative, is cultured pearls. The middle one, like the long one, is from my stringing, but it's just a pretty color combination I had seen in a magazine.) 

I learned that all of the beaches there are artificial, which explains why the sand is the exact same stuff as we see at South Padre Island. Ours comes from the Mississippi River outflow, I don't know where the landscapers at St. Thomas got theirs. The natural shore there looks a bit more like this:

Pretty! And just chock-full of lovely oxygen for the fish. Not really a place to wade, though. Looks really turbulent.

Also for the first time in my life, I saw sargasso weed. DSIL1 tells me that the sargassum patches are popular with bait fish, and if he sees them while boating on the open water, he will dive in and hunt for the predator fish that come to eat the bait fish hiding in the weeds.  

Another little bowl filler

 Hello,  everyone. I have learned that making house blocks isn't as easy as it looks!

This was crumb piecing with an emerging plan.

The back side, an orphan 6 inch block.

Sitting on the side table with its friends. 

Making these little things is just relaxing!

Little embroidery stocking stuffers

 Hello, everyone.  By stocking stuffers, I  mean small gifts that would be suitable for younger children. If y'all are inclined to seek it out, there is a least one old post about little minky-type animals and angels.

Well, Christmas  giving approaches, and it's coming at quite a clip. Also I happened to be looking at the various fleece like fabrics in the stash and encountered some polyester baby flannel, left over from making gifts for babies. 

I decided to see how the baby-garment brushed poly works with the angel and animal patterns.

I also wanted to sew more than one at a time, cutting down on stabilizer usage, fabric usage, and time consumed in hooping.

The angels used pink fabric. I had figured out that the angel is an applique pattern, so I used some gold left over from the Camino Trails project and a lace sample that was also in the stash.

The stitching time according to the embroidery machine for a pair of angels was 61 minutes. This doesn't include thread changes, fabric preparation for the back side (it needs a turning opening), turning and stuffing, and stitching the opening by hand. The texturing on the wings takes quite a while to stitch out.

The fish, on the other hand, have fewer color changes and no texturing on the fins, so they take about a fourth as long to complete a pair. I used mint green brushed poly for them.

In the picture,  for an idea of scale, I included the small trimming scissors that is usually used for cutting out projects and trimming off excess fabric from the in-the-hoop appliqués. 

The fish are from an OESD pattern set. The angel is from the Janome blog some while back.

These little things are fun to make and fun to tuck into a stocking, pouch, child's purse, or to use as party favors.

The Camino and Embroidery combine!

 Hello, everyone. 

For some time this last summer there had been a personally significant embroidery project in the works. It recaps (to date) all of our Camino walks.

 

Our Camino journey

There are two years listed for Camino del Norte, along the northern coast of Spain, because we needed two trips to complete the walk. 

Noticing sorts of people will see that the little road signs are connected to each other by carabiners. And of course the bottom sign just cried out for a quote from Bilbo's poem in Tolkien's Middle Earth books. (The Hobbit, a sort of prequel, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King)

I used two pieces from the nature themed Layer Cake bought from Missouri Star Quilt Company and the low volume wood grain print was perfect for the top and bottom pieces of the set. 

The road signs template was modified from a wall hanging embroiderypattern I bought from Sew It Begins online. She has a bunch of cute wall hangings sets.  

Quilt Festival trip

 Hello, everyone. Last week our sewing club--those who could find the time--visited the quilt show in Houston.  We were so busy taking it all in, and shopping, that I hardly took any pictures.

There was one booth, though...representatives from LSU were there to promote the uses of alligator leather in sewing projects. 

The nice young lady had done a project. This is the rest of the skin after she cut pieces out for her item.

Alligator leather corset

This is a boned corset she made from the leather and a kind-of khaki green fabric. She has placed eyelets for a laced back...this garment will absolutely require an assistant to get dressed!

The stuffed toy gator at the bottom was cute, made of fabric, and had a mouth that can be opened during play.

Another of the little things

 Hello, everyone.  Today, I finished another of the little pinnies...started it yesterday I think. It's made from a pile of half square triangles, left over from piecing a couple of months ago.

This is the top of the pinnie. It's made from a lot of small half-square triangles. 

This is the bottom of the pinnie. It's made from various honeybun size strips.

I am still inspired by the book about pincushions,  but have been making them from fabric bits on hand.

It's a calming thing to do when there is a lot going on.

The back of the quilt is assembled!

 Hello, everyone.  Today I sewed the final seams  of the quilt backing.

A little better look at the floral fabrics. I got them from A Block Away. The purple solid was at Hobby Lobby. 

I stood on a chair to get the overall view. The pieced strip in the center is intentionally offset, by making one of the white floral strips twice the size of the other.

I used up all of the angel blocks in the stash, I think. Plus a lot of leftover Log Cabin blocks!

I love Log Cabin because it goes so well with making larger designs in the layout. There are a lot of layout ideas on Pinterest; interested readers can use their search setup to have a look.

The next step for this quilt is to find somewhere I can lay out each of the layers, tape them down smooth with painter's tape, and using basting spray and safety pins baste it all together for quilting.

Lo carb and wonderful

 Hello, everyone. 

DH had dental work,  and I have been trying to thread the needle between eating lo carb and not stressing his teeth a lot.

Yesterday I was inspired by Mr. Bevin at Spain on a Fork (a Youtube food channel, y'all should check it out) and the discovery of a new variety of fish patty at HEB Grocery. "Cajun style salmon and crayfish" raw fish patty. A.K.A. fishburgers, I know, but many of their fishburgers have been good.

I had seen Mr. Bevin do a salmon and veg dish that looked really good, and decided to do the new style of fishburger that way.

It involved fat (butter this time)  in the skillet, then some diced onion and garlic, let it work on getting translucent, then two bell peppers diced, continue cooking, then the last part of the mixed super greens bag, let this wilt in. Then add the fish patties, and a little water and Better Than Bouillon vegetable concentrate, and cover.

This was the vegetables getting ready for the fish.

And here is the cooked fish with the vegetables. 

It really came out tasty!

Color play again

 Hello, everyone. 

It's color play time again. The floral fabric has been sewn onto the gray stripes.

As y'all noted in my last post, there are a lot of colors in this floral, and on the back overall.

On the left side, assorted purples

On the right side, assorted reds/pinks/oranges

After looking it over a few times, I think the purple has it. But it might be purple solid instead of the mix of prints...since there weren't enough 2 inch strips to finish the length. ;-)

Also the solid will be more relaxing to the viewer than a million prints all on top of each other. There are already a lot of prints going on here!

Latest on the quilt

 Hello, everyone. Today I have a small update on the vintage quilt top and new back.

First, the current status on the back.

Now, the washed and ironed top:

I found numerous little orphan blocks, Square within a Square type. Here are three of them.

Progress on the quilt back

 Hello, everyone. I was up to my ears with the pumpkin coasters and forgot to post for a few days. Sorry about that!

There has also been progress on the quilt back.

The orphan blocks--most of the log cabins, plus the triangle--have been sewn into short strips and dove-gray jelly roll strips are there to calm the busyness and unify the colors a bit. The pieced jelly roll section at the bottom was added to be sure of enough length. The side jelly roll pieces have been sewn on since this picture was taken. There is going to be a strip of 30's style floral on each side, then probably gray strips again, and finish out with a green 30's floral.

The top has been serged around the edge and washed. It awaits a session at the ironing board.

The lady, now unknown, who pieced the top did crumb piecing to make diamonds, which form stars, and bordered the stars with solid diamonds. After it gets ironed I will try to get a photo.

Until later!

Christmas is coming

 Hello, everyone.  Christmas is indeed coming, and the approach of the season was signaled for my by our most recent Sewing Club project. 

This beauty is from the Anita Goodesign Christmas cookie pattern set.

In doing this I learned how to incorporate craft foam sheets into an embroidery project.

I like the white on white look on the felt "cookie". Some of the other ladies in the club did ornaments without the contrast applique fabric. They were gorgeous!

Garden flowers

 Hello, everyone.  

I have been working on the little pumpkin coasters a lot, and so what I have to share today is flowers. Not that it's ever unwelcome to see flowers!

 The eggplants that I rescued from the garden, where the clay soil was just too heavy for them, are rewarding me with blossoms. 

This is a native plant that butterflies,  especially the monarch clan, just love. It needs water but it's just so pretty. Ankle high and no thorns, too.

When we moved into our new house, leaving behind the beautiful roses, DGD gave me a mini rose for Mother's Day. It's still going strong.

Last of the list, a rain lily. 

We have put compost and topsoil into the rectangular raised bed. I plan to put greens, radishes, and maybe some herbs into it. There are some basil seedlings that are now in gallon sized pots and would look pretty across the end.

That's our progress on the garden bed so far!

Garden season again

 Hello, everyone.  Before the garden, a picture of the sky yesterday morning.  

 This cute, little cloud was showing the dawn colors. Seeing the dawn is one of the best things about walking in the morning. (Almost as great as doing the walk before the day heats up!)

As the soil in my yard is very full of clay, and thus heavy, I have been somewhat disappointed in the yields of various vegetables. Other folks I know are having great results with raised bed culture. We decided that this is the year to try it out.

The first box. It's 12 feet by three feet. (A little over three meters long by almost a meter wide.)

There will be two smaller boxes added later. That will pretty much be all the rectangles we can tuck into our oval bed. And we have no particular desire to make the bed into a rectangle as that would require moving the critter-fence.

The depth of the bed will be about a foot: 2 fence pickets. 

We shall see how the fall garden turns out with boxes!

New coasters

 Hello, everyone.  There is a growing list of projects in process.

Today I am sharing a coaster. The ITH outline is from Sew4Home, and the center design is one of the free OESD designs that came with my Hatch3 embroidery software. 

One of my Altar Society sisters is thinking of doing the Halloween treat thing called "booing" for various folks in the parish.

This little combo is simple, but elegant, and doesn't take a lot of time. (Don't ask how many thread changes, though!)

It's fun and I got to practice combining two different patterns.