After 34 years, still going strong

Hello, everyone. My cactus is coming into bloom.

Thanks to the Easter rain, and the followup rain the next Sunday, a lot of plants are waking up.

 

I was going to include my Indigo Spires salvia, with its deep blue blossom spikes, but the photo turned sideways when I imported it.

This is a miniature basil plant. It's about 4 inches tall. It smells lovely.

An Easter project finished (updated to add link)

Hello, everyone.  I finished another Easter project, probably the last for this season.

This is the front. I started with a blank rectangle and imported the applique egg and the row of tulips.  (I will probably change this if I do it again. The row of tulips took a *really* long time to stitch out.)

Pages 2 and 3: Palm Sunday and then Carrying the Cross. Used without changes from the Resurrection Table Runner design.

Pages 4 and 5: the Crucifixion and Finding the Empty Tomb. Used without changes.

Pages 5 & 6: a Bible verse and the traditional Easter greeting. The Bible verse page was used without changing. The Easter greetings page is my own.

The back cover. Another page of my own.

This began as a banner/table runner embroidery pattern set. I added the front cover and the Easter greetings page/back cover to convert it to book format.

There is a lot of stitching in the rocky-ground portion of each image. I will, if I do it again, make the ground surface as an applique piece. (My Hatch software has the feature to convert a shape to applique.) This will make the pages less of a "bulletproof" experience. 

The Bible verse was digitized in block letters. I sewed it out with #60 thread, finer than the standard #40 embroidery threads. It came out a bit hard to read. (The dots on the i's were merged into the rest of the letter.) I was in an experimenting mood, so I swapped the block lettering for a scrip font for the next time. Haven't done a test prototype yet! 

The book pages ended up being 8 layers of cotton, so sewing it into a book was difficult. I suppose leaving off the back cover piece would help it a little. This one, however, will do nicely for a gift for visiting children this Easter. 

Pretty flower for Easter time

Hello, everyone.  

We have the first blossom from the new, little Desert Rose plants we got at last year's Home and Garden show.

I'm not sure which way these little pictures will be facing when it's published. The last one was an experiment to see how an extreme close-up of this large double flowered blossom would come out.

The top is a side shot to show the structure.

It's possible that another of these assorted-colors plants will bloom in a week or two. The first one, which finally got repotted into the biggest pot on hand, is also displaying some single flowered, deep-pink blossoms and a whole flock of buds are coming on.

A Fun Walk

Hello, everyone.  Yesterday we took part on a large community walk. The La Lomita walk is an annual event of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Mission, Texas.  It is a Palm Sunday event, complete with donkeys and palm fronds.

They begin at the parish church and walk the 7 km (about 4 miles) from there to one of yhe oldest chapels in the area, La Lomita. 

Preparing to leave

The leading edge of the procession. 

The donkeys go along, but they get to ride. It's pretty warm in the afternoon at this season.

At the end of the walk.

While it's billed as a walk, accommodation is made for people who aren't able to walk. Strollers, bikes, golf carts, and even a contingent of autos participate. We enjoyed our afternoon walk with everyone. 

A new project is completed (edited for spelling and to add link)

Hello, everyone.  It's almost Easter-time, and I found a little decorative project in the "to be made" pile, with its fabrics already chosen, and decided to finally do it.

This is one of the Sweat Pea designs. It's a machine embroidered applique, made in four parts. I elected to use Minky scraps and some fake-suede for the animal bodies. 

Rabbit attack?

Hello, everyone. It's been a little busy around the place and I forgot to post.

I went out to check on plants yesterday and was shocked to see this:

My alpine iris plant has been eaten down to a nubbin! And several rain lily plants are either gone altogether or chomped to a little thing like this! 

DH says he saw a rabbit in the yard a couple of days ago, which darted out under the fence. (Smart rabbit.) Maybe this explains a number of disappearances lately.

What can be used to repel rabbits? Especially since a lot of the grass they used to have for munching on has gone dormant or died because there's been no rain.

Tried the flourless Greek Yogurt Bread

Hello, everyone.  We're having a bit of a cool spell today: this morning it was about 50°F. We're wearing long sleeves,  of course! 

I had run into a high protein, no wheat bread recipe on Youtube, and today I tried it out.

These little sandwiches are on yogurt bread slices.

The recipe makes a slightly wet bread. The loaf fell a bit while cooling, bit it didn't collapse. There is no real strength to the structure. I had noticed this about another eggs and cheese type bread recipe also.

 If I do it again, I will adjust the time and temp for a slower, cooler cooking. I'm thinking my oven is a little bit hot. Though the bread's pretty good in turkey sandwiches. 

Costume update

Hello, everyone.  The costume is finished.  I'm posting a picture of the reticule (Regency era purse) that goes with it.

There was enough of the accent ribbon to embellish the reticule. As the fabrics for this were either extra from the dress or (lining) sitting in the sewing room, I'm calling this little bag a stash buster. 

I did quilt the bag exterior for the extra strength it gives, because the satin and tulle are a little delicate for purse construction. 

It's nice to get the dining room cleared of project materials.

Ribbon storage idea

Hello, everyone.  The costume project is progressing. DD has been looking around to find bits and bobs for it, and she found some embellished ribbon. It came in a package, and we needed to store it safely until it will be used. 

I always knew that the center cores of embroidery stabilizer rolls would come in handy someday! Happily, there was one available. Added a little bit of painter's tape to secure the ends and the ribbon is protected from knotting or other damage.

What I learned from Ripstop By The Roll (edited to add links)

Hello, everyone.  Today is just a short note about how glad I am that I watched and learned from the Ripstop By The Roll how-to videos that go with the sampler stuff sack kit.

The guys there have a great demonstration of what I can only call Mock French Seams. 

Today I am using it to seam perle-embellished tulle for a costume. (Yes, I'm sewing a seam with the narrow-width zipper foot. Nothing else sneaks by those stapled perles so well.) This looks a lot like a regular French seam, but only requires one pass under the needle. You just place the fabric right sides together, roll the edges together a quarter inch and then re-roll it again. Pinning A Whole Lot! At least on the tulle. Then edgestitch along the fold. I should have thought of doing this on the other seams of this skirt! It's a lot less fraught than the regular French seam, since the tulle cannot be pressed like some other lightweight fabrics.

Spring feels like it's here...(edited for spelling)

At least, right now it feels like spring. (Last frost date probably 3 weeks away, but today is tee shirt weather.)

The fiddlewood,  the happiest of the three, is putting on a flush of blooms, while still having half ripe berries and some old, ripe, black ones. This fiddlewood is in partial shade. The others have at least 4 or 5 hours of straight sun every day, and they're less content. These are native to South Texas and are supposed to get around 8 feet tall with time.

Walked at Bentsen State Park today

Hello, everyone. Today started out cloudy and cool, but we went over to the park anyway. There were a lot of birds for a change.

The turkeys were hanging out on the access road for the canal, later they went farther into the park and started vacuumung up all the dropped seed at the feeders. The boys did some tail fan displays but the girls didn't care.

There was a lone white pelican near the boat put-in, and a solitary roseate spoonbill as well. (Think big pink bird, not a flamingo.) 

The weather was good for walking, not too hot or cold and not much wind. The park has upgraded one of their bird blinds to have a roof and seating like their premium on on the ring road. This newly upgraded blind is in the very middle, accessible to a walk or bike only path. We saw a lot of cardinals and waxwings there. Green jays, of course. On the way out we also saw some chachalaca. So it was a nice bird-seeing day.

We got in a little over 2.5 miles today, this was a training walk to maintain fitness.

Lemons are ripe now

Hello, everyone.  It's lemon picking time, and so we're doing something with as many as possible. 

We have squeezed many lemons and filled an assortment of containers for frozen lemon juice. That way we have home grown lemon juice for much or all of the year.

The lemons that gave their peels to the recipe.

The lemon peel marinating in vodka.

This year we're doing crema de limoncello. Like regular limoncello, it's really sweet and involves alcohol. The crema also has boiled-down milk. This is about our third batch of the sweet dessert sipping drink. It's very tasty.

The second little fabric tree is done

Hello, everyone.  When I posted about the fabric table top tree a few days ago, I mentioned that the pattern makes two trees. The areas between the pieces of the bigger tree provide also three more triangles for a companion tree.

It's about half the size of the first tree.

Decorations are once again sequins, pailettes, and beads from stash. There was a little mother of pearl butterfly which got tacked onto the center panel (the "front") for a bit of an accent.

It's nice to have finished one of the "gonna-do" projects in the sewing room.

It's early for planting but...

Hello, everyone.  It's a warm, "Chamber of Commerce" weather day today--about 80°F, clear, sunny, just nice to be out in. So of course I was wanting to mess around in the garden.

This appears to be a volunteer fennel plant, left over from garden salad mix seeding in the past. It looks too spikey to be dill, IMHO.

I planted some "summer spinach vine" seeds. Instead of loads of leaves, that we could pick for a vegetable,  we get these little flowers. 

And the runt of the litter has made berries!

A more optomistic thing: we have decided that a corner of dying grass would be better as a planting bed. Aloes to the rescue! Also our Porterweed, a poinsettia, and a volunteer flower. A few rain lilies have been tucked in as well. 

A new Christmas craft project

Hello, everyone. As promised, a picture of the latest Christmas craft project.

As you can see from the pattern photo, this makes two fabric trees. The first is done enough to stand on the table. It lacks a seam or closure on the third side. If I do a seam as called for in the pattern, I have to find a place to store it standing up. The tree is around 15 inches tall, so this is a little bit difficult. 

If I do a closure on the third side, like maybe some little snap tabs made of ribbon, the tree can be stored flat with such larger objects as the Nativity scene.

The second tree has been pieced and cut out. It needs the binding on the three triangles, decorations, and the seams. (Plus closure?) 

The decorations on the tall tree are sequins, in stash, and #8 seed beads, also from stash.

Speaking of stash, all of the fabric and batting was in stash. I do think that my scrap batting was a bit too thick. If I make this again, I'm going to either cut the batting strips narrower than the fabric strips or buy a craft pack of the extra thin cotton batting for potholders and potato bags.

This is what needs to be done with the batting. 

During the 12 days of Christmas, a look at the Christmas Day wreath

Hello, everyone.  As we all know, Christmas Day was the 25th of December.  The Octave of Christmas, a whole week of official rejoicing, ended on the first of January.  The 12 days, however, go on through the 6th of the month, culminating on Three Kings' Day. In many places around the world, the remembrance of the visiting wise men was, and in some places remains, the day for giving gifts.

At Christmas, the season of Advent, with its purple and pink candles,  is over. Our decorators found a lovely statue to place in the wreath for the festive season. 

On the home front, half-completed Christmas crafts are still being worked on. When the current one is finished, I'll post a picture.

Happy New Year to all y'all!