Back on track with walking

Hello, everyone.  We're having pleasant weather this week, and we're getting back on track with walking. 

Yesterday we returned to one of our favorite training walks, the Mission Hike and Bike. This trail has a paved track with gentle inclines along the way. We walked 3 miles there yesterday and it was purely relaxing.

We also saw a little bit of wildlife. There was a first-time sight:

He or she had crawled out of the burrow, probably because the cloudy sky looked like evening to a "little " fuzzy spider.

There were also some roadrunners.

Today we walked at Bentsen State Park. We had a good pace and the 4 miles were so peaceful. 

Color play: reverse side edition

Hello, everyone.  Today's color play is a test layout of the reverse of a queen-sized bedspread. The yardage alone isn't big enough to get the job done, and an assortment of blocks are posing with it here.

This isn't going to be the final, but it's looking good as a start, in my opinion. Here is the black-and-white version:

It seems like the values are reasonably spread out. 

Study of the small blocks reveals that they're not 4.5 inches, mostly, they're 4 inches. This calls for either switching them out or adding sashing strips.

As these are all orphan blocks, this counts as a stash festival. 

The cold snap arrived

Hello, everyone.  The arctic air is here in a big way and so we have put some freeze protection on some tender plants.

The Caribbean tree cactus, a tropical opuntia, is a cutting from the one that came with the house. (That one froze in 2021.) 

We put incandescent Christmas lights around the pads and wrapped the plant in an old sheet. There was extra length on the string of lights which got draped on a nearby basil.

The dragon fruit, a tropical pitaya that makes hot-pink fruits, is also tender.

More Christmas lights and two sheets.

We did what we could for the avocado. 

Three strings of lights, as far as we could reach. 

Lights and sheets have been helpful many times during short frosts. The lights must be incandescent or they won't make any heat for the plant.

Trying a new recipe

Hello,  everyone. It's cold outside, so it's a good day to do sewing and baking.

Well, it's determined to put it in sideways. I think y'all can see reasonably well. The recipe is from Cherry Republic's web site, Sharon's Cherry Scones. I didn't like the way her recipe says to shape them, and it looks a lot like a buttermilk biscuit recipe, so I patted and gently rolled the dough to 1/2" thick and used my 2" biscuit cutter. With this system, I got 28 round Cherry flavored biscuits. 

I sampled one with some cream cheese and it was good. Also very tender!

This one looks like a winner, and it helps to use up some of the dried sour cherries that are in the pantry. 

Starting a new quilt

Hello, everyone. It's a chilly, wet day in South Texas. Fairly typical for this time of year.

As the title says, a new quilt is in process. The design is sketched out on graph paper requires 14 star blocks. Here are the first few.

Thanks to the advice on the internet from Mr. Appel! These sawtooth stars are 4.5 inch unfinished. 

As y'all can see, the theme will be Western. I was able to make the centers of the whole set of stars from one print, a few strips of 2.5 inch fabric that was in the stash. 

Cold weather has arrived

Hello, everyone. It's really chilly out today, it was yesterday,  and it's supposed to be tomorrow, too. We call it "winter", no fancy names needed. It's warmer than a lot of places farther north, but it is in the 40'sF. 

I had some tallow in the house, left over from making chili, and I melted it and poured it over some birdseed. 

When it firms up it can be broken into chunks for the poor little birds outside. 

Final finish of 2024!

Hello, everyone. Happy New Year to all of my readers!

The final finished project, just under the wire yesterday! is the panel quilt.

The reverse is in a cream colored Australian aboriginal style print, no fancy piecing or creatively used orphan blocks, just getting the job done.