I've been doing some work in the garden - mostly weeding. The first Siberian iris is in bloom.
Thursday, 29 May 2025
First Bloom of the Season
Saturday, 24 May 2025
A Lid for an Altoid Tin
Jen1 and I have talked about putting stitching on top of an Altoid tin for quite a while. I have an empty one and a couple with the mints still in them, ready for the task.
Vonna Pfeiffer has a tutorial here with some good tips. I will use it as a guide when I go to finish mine.
Last week, I stitched a couple of pieces that would fit on a lid - basically anything the size of a business card would do.
I designed the top piece and stitched it with DMC115 - my favourite variegated DMC floss. The bottom one was adapted from 'Spring Sampler' by Whitley Quimby of Sugar Maple Designs. It appeared in the current (Spring 2025) Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher Magazine.Saturday, 17 May 2025
Chocolate Cake in a Mug
Do you ever get a hankering for some chocolate cake but don’t want a lot of muss or fuss? I just made myself some chocolate cake in a mug in 5 minutes. I’m sure there are other recipes online but here’s mine, courtesy of Vickie Hartog - a recipe she gave me at least 20 years ago:
4 Tbsp cake flour (non-rising)
4 Tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp baking cocoa
1 egg 🥚
3 Tbsp Milk 🥛
3 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla essence
1 coffee mug
Put dry ingredients in mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Add the milk and oil and mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix again.
Microwave for 2 1/2 minutes on high. The cake might rise over the top of the mug - no worries.
Allow to cool a bit and eat. Tip out onto a plate if desired.
Mine was yummy (urp!). I put whipped cream on top and ate it right out of the mug.
A 17 Year UFO - Finally Finished!
I’ve been poking away at tidying and organizing my office/craft room. Today I found a knitting project I abandoned in 2009. I had bought the yarn in Muncie, Indiana in 2007. I vividly remember that day.**
I had one sock finished in January of 2009 and most of the second sock done. I got all that information from my Ravelry page. But I do remember Danner’s, where I bought the yarn. It was basically a book and gift store that sold yarn. I just tried to do an Internet search and it appears that it is no longer open.
What attracted me to the yarn was its colourway. Opal Rainforest in the Raupe (caterpillar in German) colourway. (I used to raise monarch butterflies)
Thursday, 15 May 2025
Poking Away at Odd Jobs
I got the new fridge in place and the old one cleared out and moved to the front hall awaiting it being taken away.
The bottom freezer is significantly smaller than the former fridge so I have vowed to eat down much of the frozen food that is in there.
The other not so great thing about the new fridge was that there wasn't a way to store an open wine bottle or my Brita jug upright unless I removed a shelf.
I do, however like everything else about the fridge. It is 4" less deep than the previous one. Only the doors extend beyond the cupboards now.
The 1980s honey oak cabinets will be removed on June 6 and the install of the new cabinets will be June 9. A new microwave over will go over the stove. I'm sure I'll manage over that weekend without the full use of the kitchen. Why not just get the cupboards refaced, you say? The particle board cabinets were deteriorating and I could no longer clean the shelf paper the previous owner had MacTac'd down. At one point, I had to basically rebuild and re-install the cutlery drawer. The whole place just needs refreshing.
The one bit of yard work I've been pretty dedicated to has been pulling dandelions. I do need to start preparing a couple of the garden beds for seeds. I bought a pack of seed mix so it will be interesting to see what all emerges. I also bought a bag of potting soil but still haven't done the indoor planting I had planned to do. I'll continue to poke away at these jobs.
Saturday, 10 May 2025
Grinding to a Halt
The fridge and microwave were delivered this morning. This will stay in the front hall until I swap it out with the old one.
The delivery guys removed most of the packaging (styrofoam and cardboard) before wheeling it into the house. I haven't peeled off the plastic, organized the shelves, nor even plugged it in yet.- I don't have to clear the rest of the stuff out yet
- I have lots of time to dispose of the excess kitchen stuff
- I don't have to spend my weekend doing all this
- I can resume my normal slothful or creative activities
Friday, 9 May 2025
Millbrook Needlers Quilt Show 2025
This morning, Jen1 and I headed up to Millbrook for the annual Needlers Quilt Show. On the way we stopped at DooDoo’s Bakery in Bailieboro. They are always on the Butter Tart Tour and have won many prizes at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair over the years in the butter tart category. Jen1 was hoping to buy gluten-free items to take to her mom for Mother’s Day but it turns out they have to be ordered ahead of time. I bought a couple of butter tarts to take home.
We then headed directly to the Cavan Monaghan Recreation Centre for the quilt show. Marilyn, Barb, and Jeanette arrived shortly after we did.
I love seeing all the quilts. Many are simply works of art with wool felt, beading, and embroidered embellishments. I’ll devote another post to some of my favourites.
I managed to restrain myself shopping-wise. I recently had a good look at my stash. It was very humbling. However I did fins this fabric
Bee Kit Has Finally Arrived
At the beginning of April ago I saw an interesting ad for an embroidery kit on Facebook. I can’t even remember how much I paid for the kit it was so long ago.
Thursday, 8 May 2025
A Good Start on Some Major Tasks
On Monday, my kitchen cupboards are being ripped out and replaced. This afternoon, I started clearing them out. Then I realized I still needed to order a couple of appliances. It’s possible all the demolition and installation would be completed on Monday so the microwave oven for over the stove needed to get ordered and delivered by then. I ordered the fridge at the same time but it can be installed at any time. One of my friends expressed an interest in taking the old fridge so if she doesn’t commit to that, it’ll be sitting in my front hall for a while until someone else comes and gets it. The appliance guys could take it away (for a fee) but it still works perfectly so I didn’t want it just to go to a dump.
The sales person was able to give me the delivery date of Saturday (two days from now) and kindly gave me ‘free delivery’ by knocking the value of the delivery fee off the price of the appliances. On the bill of sale, the delivery fee will still show so the deliverers will get paid and it will look like I got a deal on the microwave and fridge. I much appreciated this.
I’m taking it easy this evening but will continue emptying the cupboards on the weekend. Most stuff is going in the dining room - on the table with all the leaves inserted, and on the floor. I’m also taking the opportunity to get rid of stuff I haven’t used in ages, either to the recycling bin, donation box, or garbage.
After the cupboards are installed, measurements will be made for the countertop. It’ll be a couple of weeks before it is manufactured and installed. In the meantime, I won’t have a sink or running water in the kitchen but can do dishes in the laundry tub. My laundry room is just steps away from the kitchen on the main floor. The fridge will be plugged in somewhere and I can prepare food with my current microwave or use the toaster oven. I think I’ve got things most of the logistics figured out.
I watched the announcement of the new Pope with interest this afternoon. I am not a theist but it is a historical moment and very important to over a billion Catholics worldwide. The TV announcers didn’t figure out his papal name when it was announced in Latin but with my high school Latin, I thought what the cardinal said was ‘Leo XIV’. After a few minutes the TV announcers confirmed it. I hope Pope Leo XIV will continue to be as accepting as he predecessor.
On the craft front, I started another pair of two-at-a-time, scrappy, striped socks. Only a couple more inches to go on the cuffs.
Last night, I also gridded some very light fusible interfacing. I quartered some of the 5” squares into 2 1/2” squares, laid them out, checkerboard-style on the interfacing, and pressed them into place with a hot iron.I’ll use the coordinating fabric I bought for the lining. Not sure when I’ll be able to do the sewing - the house is in chaos - but all I need to do now is cut the lining and batting, cut the vinyl, and pick a zipper.
One of the table gifts I received at the Hobby House retreat was a scissor fob. I’ve been using it as a zipper pull on one of my project bags and it broke the other day. A quick task will be to re-string the beads with sturdier wire. I’ll make a couple more zipper pulls while I’m at it. A couple of my stitcherly friends want to make some beaded zipper pulls/scissor fobs so we can discuss when I’ll give them a tutorial.
Tomorrow 5 of us are meeting in Millbrook to attend a quilt show and go for lunch. Again, I certainly don’t NEED any quilting supplies but it will be fun to have a nice day out and look at beautiful handiwork.
And finally, today is World Donkey Day! Francey texted me this morning to make me aware of it. I have no recollection of this but I did a blog post on last year’s World Donkey Day. You can read about it here.
Tuesday, 6 May 2025
A Wee Shopping Trip
I had lunch this afternoon with my friend, Paulette. We sat and gabbed for almost 3 hours. After leaving her place, I stopped into the Quilter’s Cupboard to see what all they had that might entice me. My existing stash is quite vast so I certainly didn’t NEED anything but I was quite drawn to this Moda line of fabrics by Barbara Brackman:
Quilter’s Cupboard sells 5” square packs with all the fabric in the line - 42 in a pack. It is much more economical for them to cut and collate the squares from yardage than order the 5” charm packs from their distributor.I still have a bunch of lightweight fusible interfacing left over from making masks during COVID so will spend my evening gridding lengths of it into 2 1\2” squares.
Lunch with a dear friend, fun shopping, and beautiful weather has made for a really enjoyable day.
Monday, 5 May 2025
I Actually Fully Finished Something! 😮
I finished the last little bits on the Spring Floral Sampler yesterday. This afternoon I fully finished it.
I wrapped the piece around a piece of foam core. Then found some yellow fabric in my stash for the border and mounted it on some cardboard.Sunday, 4 May 2025
Getting (Some) Stuff Done
I’ve been enjoying knitting while watching TV. And I watch a LOT of TV. Last night I binge-watched the new Tina Fey/Alan Alda production of ‘The Four Seasons’ whilst knitting away on my TAAT, striped socks.
And I finished them!
I maintained the 6 rounds per colour pattern, even to the toes. Any variations are due to the variegation in the sock yarn I was using.This morning I finished the last little bits of the spring sampler.
Friday, 2 May 2025
Some Modification
Jen1 was over for some stitching today. She works on Saturdays so we won’t be seeing her at our guild’s stitch day tomorrow. We had a very pleasant afternoon chatting about our respective retreats attended last weekend.
At the Trillium Guild retreat, Jeanette organized a stash sale. Jen1 picked this up for me.
And the tin is part of the kit! Thanks, Jen!While we chatted, I poked away at the Spring Floral Sampler. It’s going to be a gift for a non-stitcher so we discussed omitting the alphabet. I thought I’d chart ‘Welcome Spring’ and stitch that below instead.
Since the alphabet is gone, I’ll add a leaf onto the left of the tulip and right of the daffodil. That will be my primary task tomorrow at our stitch day.