Saturday 11/16/2024

 Just a quick check in.  I managed to get a couple of days with a few hours a couple of times since my last post.

I'm actually making some progress on the things I'm working on!  I'm quite pleased by this!

1/2 of the Mariner's compass medallion minus the corners is done.

And I managed to get a couple of rows of the Polaroid quilt, quilted.

Right now I'm moving between these two projects and sitting when I need to.  I almost fell off of a really short stair landing at a friend's house yesterday.  Thankfully I didn't fall all the way off but I did manage to twist parts of myself incorrectly so I am sore today so just taking it easy.

I guess the older I get, the less able I am to bounce. 😁

Mid Month Update November 2024

 Greetings and salutations!

This last couple of months haven't seen me doing much more than working and running around like a person who is running around (hopefully not aimlessly?).

I have this week off from work and I had "Big Plans" for how to spend the week but so far nothing I had planned has happened.  

Tuesday (yesterday) was an at home, sewing, baking generally relaxing day.  That did not happen as some other things that basically sucked the whole day away had to be done.  The upside is it verified to hubby and I that a large choice we've made in the last couple of years was the exact right choice.  At times sacrificing small things that you like can lead to large rewards in the long run.  Cryptic I know.

Today I had other plans but since yesterday went south I am doing the baking part today since otherwise I'd lose about $30 worth of ingredients that I had slow proofing in the fridge.  

Today I managed to get everything formed into loaves and doing a final proof.  We have someone coming over for an early dinner so I'm not sure I'll get much sewing done today but I have been slowly working on things.

I've had my quilt frame with the mid-arm on it for something like 7-10 years.  I can't remember exactly when we got it so the plastic parts have slowly been wearing out and now they are starting to break.  Thankfully my spousal unit is learning to use the 3-D printer we bought and the CAD software and he has printed new brackets (one broke, the others were getting really sloppy) and a couple of new gear pieces since one of the gears was losing teeth at an alarming rate.

We replaced the broken bracket and the rest will be replaced once the current quilt is done and off the frame since it was a large ordeal to replace the one while we left the quilt on.

Slow but sure progress.  I think tomorrow (unless we go test drive cars) I'll be able to get this mostly done.

In the wings are a couple of projects. Next to go on the quilter will be this small baby/toddler/lap quilt.

And I'm actively piecing 2 more tops, one for my friend who likes the Seattle Mariners (so I started a Mariner's Compass in green and blue):

Also still slowly figuring out layout and piecing the Marilyn Monroe quilt. 

On Sunday hubby got my cutting/work table all put together and I love it!  It has a couple of drawers which are full of thread right now.

In other news I've finally dialed in my traditional sourdough loaves with fresh ground flour.  Ever since I started trying to grind my own flour from organic wheat grain I've been making loaves that are delicious but a bit flat.  After hours of you tube research I found a solution that worked at 72% hydration which involves a LOT of kneading.

The ones that are proofing right now are 82% hydration with add ins (jalapeño cheddar) so we'll see what happens.

Last Sunday's bake made me really happy though. Lots of oven spring which I haven't seen in long time in any bread I've made. 

 I think that's it for now.  I'm going to go finish getting things straightened up for company then try and get some quilting done while my bread rises.

Back At It? Maybe....

 Things break.

One of the brackets on my quilting frame broke.  Then, since I couldn't quilt on the Polaroid quilt I decided to rearrange my room again.  I'm not sure what I've done makes any sense but it's done now.

Between the time the bracket broke and today I was trying to figure out where to find one online that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg.  Also between then and now my spousal unit got a couple of presents from me (since the one he had was old and was giving him fits)....

He did super glue the bracket and it lasted about a day... but today he took the broken one, measured it, put it in his CAD program and 3D printed a new one.  The new one works better than the old one and since he got about $500 worth of printer filament for free a couple of weeks ago it didn't cost anything!

I showed him the plastic gears that are starting to lose their teeth too and he said next time there isn't a quilt on the frame he'll take one of them and create a file and print me 2 new ones!

I did keep busy while I couldn't sew, now that the cold weather is back I'll go back to baking sourdough everything on Saturdays.  I found a really good sourdough brioche recipe that is a favorite here and I make bread, rolls, cinnamon swirl bread, cinnamon rolls and cheese Danish with the dough.  This was last weekend's work.  Someone gave me a bunch of grapes from their vines so I made grape jam too.

At the moment I've got more bread, rolls and cinnamon things with and without raisins proofing in the oven so I can bake around 8:30 tonight.

Tomorrow I'll mix a couple of traditional loaves of sourdough, maybe a cheddar jalapeño one if I have enough gumption and a plain one.

Soup and chili weather is upon us so bread is very important. 

Hopefully next weekend I'll have sewing to report.  If not then definitely the following one since I have a couple of days off and we are not going anywhere, just working on some home improvement. 

That's it from here for now.  Everyone have a splendid week!

And Then It Was a Month Later

Hello blog readers.... 

So, it has been a month since I posted anything.  Time got away from me.  I haven' t had time to quilt on the quilt on the machine in my last post so it still looks just the same as it did. (Polaroid quilt).

I've been working 50-60 hour weeks.  Hopefully that will lighten up by the end of October.  Today I repotted plants and set up a grow light situation since I'll need to supplement the light for my plants over the winter.

My daughter went to my local fabric shop (Gee Gee's) and bought fabric to make my daughter-in-law a quilt.  So now she has a quilt top in progress and one still in fabric stage needing to be cut!  Maybe she's starting to become a fabric-aholic like me?

In other news, a friend of ours gave me a quilt!  She is one of the 3 or 4 other ladies in our congregation who quilts and I love everything she does.  She pieces the tops then sends them out to get them quilted, I told her she should come over here and use my quilter but she likes to do bigger (king size) and I have to do king size in sections so she hasn't taken me up on it yet.

I remade the bed right away so I could put it on there!  One day we'll get our bed side tables under control.  Small house so things tend to go where only we will see them. :)

What else..... made my first sourdough bread using flour I ground myself.  They didn't get very airy but they sure tasted good!

I think that's about it for now.  It's 5 PM and I got off work at noon but I just don't have much gumption so I think I'll go watch youtube quilting instead of doing my own.  Hopefully next week I'll have some gumption.