More on the green bags

Hello, everyone.

This will likely be the final post about the little green bags. There are now three of them!

The cute green ribbon with ladybugs was not in great quantity around here. In fact, there was just enough for the first bag. I discovered a forgotten roll of rattail cord. This is satin-covered round cord that is sometimes used for stringing large-hole beads. The spool had been in the bead stash, not the fabric stash, or it would have been used on all three of the bags.

(Yes, when there is enough stash, it subdivides. The fabric is divided again, between clothing, cushion cover, and quilting. Also "other" for making toys and such.)

 The fabric here is a lightweight nylon poplin from Fabric.com. (This is the search page of whatever they have in taslan. The orange blouse I made in 2014 was also taslan, but it's a thinner, crush-look fabric. So it's a good idea to get a swatch of the stuff before buying yardage.) It is stated to have DWR coating, but I was unable to determine which side the water resistant coating is on. (Shower bags don't get a lot of abrasion anyway. I just wanted enough splash resistance to keep the undies dry!) The fabric doesn't ravel much at all and this was the most successful and pleasant experience I have ever had with French seams. I used a #10 sharp needle in the machine and Coats & Clark poly-wrapped poly general-purpose thread. A #9 needle might have worked out even better, but the only thread I was sure would go through it is "bridal ivory" in color. I went with the matching thread. (Yes, there is thread stash, too.)

In future, I intend to make a ripstop bag just about the same size, to hold clean clothes inside the backpack. When we walked the Portugues in 2015, I acquired a plastic bag in a store and began to keep the clean clothes in it. They stayed together and I always knew where to find them. Between the plastic bag of clean clothes and the mesh bag of medical sundries (hung from an internal strap near the top of the pack) my mind was a lot more peaceful. And there is some ripstop, in about three colors, in the stash. Perhaps I'll use the Sew4Home ripstop grocery bag pattern.

A little tote sack (updated for typo)

Hello, everyone.

While we were walking on our two pilgrimages, we often encountered showers that were, well, a new experience. Or, in the case of gang showers, a long-forgotten experience!

The problem of how to keep the new, fresh clothes dry while bathing, therefore, popped up a lot. Some of the showers had lovely dressing areas inside the (one-person) shower cubicle, and sometimes even a bench to set things on. Others had one or more closet-hooks to hang things from. Occasionally there just wasn't much at all.

DH suggested that we might try using a shower bag to carry things in...something that is a bit splash-resistant, and has enough space to hold the clean underwear, the clean tee shirt, and maybe clean shorts. Plus, of course, the camper's towel!

Being well provided with stash, and looking for ways to use it, a new little project got started after the Pink Explosion quilt was finished.

among the various spec fabrics, there was a yard of taslan.
with DWR for moisture resistance!

The marking pen, and the first candidate for a drawstring.

I used French seams on the sides and double-stitched the bottom. Added some poly mesh stay tape where the openings would be in the casing. Inserted the pink cording, with the help of safety pins.

the bag assembled and candidate drawstring inserted

The first try, drawn up to test.

 The pink drawstrings were shunt shiny, but not slippery at all. They didn't just hang up a little in the casing. They locked the bag closed. Visions of trying to access a towel and dry panties inside the bag crossed my mind--nope, this wouldn't do at all.

I pulled the pink drawstrings out and started cruising through the various bits of stuff on hand. As the pink stuff had been the best cording candidate on hand, I decided to try a ribbon next, (After all, the small versions of this bag, used to hold rosaries, used satin ribbons and worked fine.)

With satin ribbon in the casing

hanging up.

While the ribbon is still a wee bit stubborn, it's not impossible to open the bag. It will do.

A hope, a memory

Hello, everyone.

We have a new occupant of our back patio area:

Behold our baby olive tree! We repotted it into a 20 inch pot--that should hold it for a year or so, by which time we should know where it will be permanently planted.

We so miss the wonderful Spanish olives.  With any luck, this little guy will produce some fruit, and we'll explore the new and wondrous world of home olive treatment.

Socks

Hello, everyone.

I was trolling around through the photo files on the computer, moving food pictures to "cooking" and flower pictures to "flowers" and I came across one that I don't think has been discussed here: my new favorite hiking socks.

My toes have always wanted to crawl on top of each other and rub. This makes painful, hard-to-bandage blisters. But these socks, which I wore almost non-stop on the Camino Portugues, solved that.

This particular pair is the Injinji Liner sock. I was still wearing the same boots as in 2014...with new insoles...and after trying unsuccessfully to wear two pairs of socks, abandoned the outer pair and just wore these. I had 4 pair of them! They did accumulate ticky-tacky from adhesive tape on the front of the soles...it was really hot, and the adhesive tape tended to melt the glue out onto the sock. It didn't matter. These socks kept the toes from making the kinds of blisters that had been so difficult the previous year.

Of course, since then I've acquired a larger sized boot. Probably could wear the regular Injinji hiking socks now. But this year it hasn't been in the cards for us to go on the Camino again. (Wipes away a tear. Sniffs.) But soon! Soon! We hope that next year we will be able to take the pilgrimage trail again. And I intend to wear socks like these when we go.

Mosquito eaters!

Hello, everyone.

I was outside and my local mosquito eaters were putting on a show of their presence.

The Mosquito Patrol, ready for work.

If you live in a mosquito area--at least if you are where these birds might reside, you really want to have a Purple Martin House. They arrive at approximately St Joseph's day (last third of March) in the spring, they chase out interlopers, they set up housekeeping and rear a brood, and they and their new generation hang around until it's time to migrate south again.

Purple Martins actually love to have apartment houses! You can have several pairs and they all live together. They even allow other birds to use the cubbyholes that they don't like. (English House Sparrows, mostly, where we are)

Update on Pink Explosion

Hello, everyone.

Y'all may remember that I needed to finish off a quilt top  before starting on the Whaley Quilt a couple of months back. That one is nicknamed Pink Explosion. (This isn't your demure little-princess kind of pink.)

It has returned to the action list and there is progress.

First there was pinning:

Then the quilting began:

And now the rows of quilting are done.

All it needs is a binding and it's done.

A new (to me) recipe

Hello, everyone.

After making plum butter the other day--well, it came out stiff like jam, but it's plum--I got inspired to try out a strawberry jam recipe on the internet. The lady claimed that her recipe, which only called for 2 pounds of strawberries, would make "6 cups" of jam. Strawberries were on sale at the store, so I got a 2 pound package and the other ingredient I didn't have already, and got down the canning stuff and got started.

Jars ready to sterilize in the canner

sliced strawberries, sugar, a splash of vinegar, and vanilla

I cooked the fruit mixture until the jelly thermometer said 220F, put it into the sterile jars, and processed it in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. All two of the jars.

The two jars on the right was all I got from the deal

Apparently the lady who put the recipe up thinks that 4 ounce little jars are "cups." The jars you see here are 12 ounce jars. I estimate that the yield of the recipe gave me an actual 5 and a half tiny jars' worth of jam.

I don't think I want to do this again. It's really kind of disappointing.

When I used 4 pounds of sliced plums, I got a little more than 4 of these tall jars. Well, actually 3 of the 12 ounce ones and 2 8 ounce ones.

Of course, I was aiming for "butter" but forgot to put little plates in the fridge to test for viscosity. So used the jelly thermometer...which doesn't have a temp specifying "butter" to use. It goes straight from "scald milk" at 150 to "jelly" at 220. And "jelly" gives a stiff result.

Got to remember to put those plates in the freezer next time. DH really likes "butter" on his ice cream. He says that jelly just isn't the same. The butters are less viscous, softer and closer to a liquid. He doesn't have to smash them down onto the ice cream to get them to spread out.

Got to remember the little plates. And got to use either more fruit or a different fruit next time!