Last Monday evening, we had chicken/rice/vegetable soup for supper, along with Strawberry Cheesecake Flip Yogurts. That didn’t seem like quite enough, so, even though those Flip Yogurts are basically dessert, I pulled some unbaked cherry turnovers from the freezer and popped them into the oven. Yum, perfect.
Listen to the instructions: Preheat oven to 475°. As soon as the oven is up to the correct temperature, put the turnovers in, then immediately turn the oven down to 400°. Bake for 20 minutes.
The turnovers rise to about double in size, and are golden and flaky when done. Delicious.
Tuesday, I finished blind-stitching the hanky skirts to the Crinoline Ladies quilt, added beads and pearls, and machine-embroidered the label.
The square coral pieces and the pink and coral beads atop them were from an old broken bracelet of mine. I thought Violet would think that was nifty, as she’s a sentimental little dear.
That afternoon, Hannah wrote to ask, “Do you have the Strawberry Lemon Streusel Muffins recipe nearby? Joanna was reading your old journals last night and saw that I had made them, and now wants to make them as well. You called the muffins your favorite at the time.”
I looked in my cookbooks, but did not find the recipe. I found a few similar recipes online, though, and sent her the links.
I looked up the story in my journals, in case the time frame might help Hannah know what cookbook the recipe came from.
And here it is, from June 9, 2003:
“Bobby and Hannah came visiting, bringing us those strawberry/lemon streusel muffins that are my favorites of all time. Mmmmm…no other muffin in the world can beat them. They came in one at a time (Bobby and Hannah, that is; not the muffins; the muffins all came in together) to see how we’d been progressing on the house, while the other stayed in the car with the children, just in case by some miracle they hadn’t been exposed to chickenpox.”
(Our younger four children were in various stages of chickenpox. We’d just moved out here to the country a couple of months earlier.)
I sent the excerpt to Hannah, remarking, “You will now forever connect strawberry/lemon streusel muffins with chickenpox.” Then, looking again at the date, I added, “That was two months after we moved out here.”
More from that same story:
“Keith was talking to Aaron, who was waiting out in the car: ‘Are you cold?’ he inquired. Aaron shook his head. ‘Are you warm?’ asked Keith. ‘No,’ replied Aaron, ‘I’m two.’ hee hee” (Possibly Aaron thought Keith asked, “Are you one.”)
“Later that evening, Larry’s brother Kenny was pouring our new neighbor’s driveway (or walkway or something). The neighbor lives over on old Highway 81, about a quarter mile to our west. Kenny had some left-over cement, and he offered it to Larry; so Larry and Keith made a little entry at the patio door, being sure to leave it low enough to accommodate the bricks we plan to lay for the patio. They weren’t quite done smoothing it out when Tabby proceeded to walk straight through it, purring the while.
“Cats.
“About the same time, Caleb bounced a soccer ball onto one of my pansies, dumping pansy and potting soil both right out of the pot.
“Boys.”
I closed out of that folder before I accidentally read a dozen more journals.
“Look what you got me started doing!” I said to Hannah, sending her a couple more passages.
Midmorning Wednesday, it was 65° and sunny. The dewpoint was high, and it felt quite a lot warmer than that. The high would be 77°. I hurried outside to take pictures of the Crinoline Ladies quilt before it got any hotter.
It took me a good 35-40 minutes to set up the frame, attach the quilt, and take the pictures, especially since I got sidetracked with the Rose of Sharon Hibiscus that was blooming profusely. I didn’t use the paracord and stakes to hold the frame in place, since, for once, the wind was only blowing at about 5-7 mph.
By the time I went back indoors, I was boiling hot. My hair, which had been damp from the shower, had not dried out there in the humidity. I turned the air conditioner down, cranked an EdenPURE fan up to High, and gulped cold-brew coffee while I dried my hair, holding the ‘COOL’ button down on the blow-dryer. That’s an inefficient way of drying one’s hair, but it was COOLer.
In the 35 or 40 minutes I was rushing around outside, the temperature had risen to 70°, the head index to 83°. The humidity was 66% and the dewpoint was 58°.
Yeah, I’m a weather wimp. Not as much in cold temperatures as in hot. Besides, the frame that holds the quilt, the sandbags that holds the frame in place, and the quilt itself, are fairly heavy, and I carried the quilt downstairs from my quilting studio, then hauled everything out to the back yard, which entails going down a flight of steps from the deck to the yard.
Come to think of it, I guess I’m just an overall wimp!
Victoria planted this hibiscus about 12 years ago, before she was married. It was only about a foot tall back then; now it’s a good ten feet tall and puts out hundreds of blossoms every summer.
Here’s the description of the Crinoline Ladies quilt:
The quilt measures 86” x 86”. The batting is Quilters’ Dream 80/20. I used a variety of threads on top, from 40-weight to 60-weight: Omni, King Tut, Gütermann, YLI, Signature, Bottom Line – and even some old J&P Coats, just because it was the only thread I had in the right color. I used 60-weight silver Bottom Line in the bobbin.
The quilt was designed in EQ8. The central panel is by Michael Miller, and is called ‘Dreaming of Tuscany Blooming Vase’. It measured 24” x 45” until I cut off the top and bottom borders and incorporated them into the side borders of the quilt.
The quilting is free-motion and rulerwork. The tops of the Crinoline Ladies are machine-embroidered with embroidery designs from Hatched in Africa. The vintage-look hankies are actually brand-new hankies from eBay. I saw several lots of ‘real’ vintage hankies, but the fabric was quite thin, and most were not 100% cotton, and the sizes weren’t uniform. (These aren’t either, really, being more rectangular than square; but I made them work.) These were all cotton, all different prints – yet all coordinating. I did wash them, as they were quite stiff. Now they’re all soft and nice. I blind-stitched them in place and added a few beads and pearls.
I bought these hankies (there are about 18 left) because I own a grand total of only two vintage hankies. One was mine when I was a little girl; it has kittens printed on it.
When I was little, I sometimes sat next to another little girl in church, and I once made her giggle out loud (which earned me a side-glare from her mother) by stretching the hanky unobtrusively cattywampus one way, making the kittens grin; then quickly (and still unobtrusively) stretching it cattycorner the other way, which made the kittens frown.
Why did her Mama glare at me like that?! I was being unobtrusive, wasn’t I?! I tell you, I was hardly moving a muscle! Plus, I had on my very best “Who, me?!” face. I was so innocent. It was not my fault she snickered! It was the kittens’ fault.
The other hanky is white, fairly large, and has a one-inch tatted border of fine blue thread. Maybe I’ll do something with it, one of these days.
That afternoon, I attached the label to the quilt, then hunted through my bins for fabric for Arnold’s quilt.
After church that evening, I picked up a couple of quilts that a customer wanted me to quilt for her. Driving home via a country road, Common Nighthawks and American Woodcocks and at least one Barn Owl were flying up from the sides of the gravel road.
This picture of the American Woodcock is from All About Birds. The Woodcock is also known as Timberdoodle, Bogsucker, Mudbat, Labrador Twister, Night Partridge, Brush Snipe, Mud Snipe, Swamp Snipe, Big-eye, Bcasse (from the French bécasse for woodcock), and Hokumpoke. They’re in the Sandpiper family (Scolopacidae), though they usually live in upland forests rather than near water.
The Woodcock has a plump body, short legs, a large, rounded head, and a long, straight prehensile bill. Adults are 10 to 12 inches long and weigh 5 to 8 ounces. Females are considerably larger than males. The bill is 2.5 to 2.8 inches long. Wingspans range from 16.5 to 19 inches. They come in a mix of different shades of browns, grays, and black. The chest and sides vary from yellowish-white to rich tans. This mottled coloring provides camouflage against surrounding leaves and earth. Woodcocks have large eyes located high in their heads, and their visual field is probably the largest of any bird, 360° in the horizontal plane and 180° in the vertical plane.
They inhabit forested and mixed forest/agricultural/urban areas, wet thickets, moist woods, and brushy swamps. They like moist soil where they can use their long bills to probe for invertebrates and earthworms. A Woodcock can open and close the tip of its upper bill, or mandible, while it is sunk into the ground.
Woodcocks migrate at night. They fly at low altitudes, individually or in small, loose flocks. Flight speeds of migrating birds have been clocked at 16 to 28 mph. However, the slowest flight speed ever recorded for a bird, just 5 mph, was recorded for this species.
American Woodcocks occasionally perform a rocking behavior where they will walk slowly while rhythmically rocking their bodies back and forth. This occurs during foraging, leading ornithologists to theorize that this is a method of coaxing invertebrates such as earthworms closer to the surface. Woodcocks like to debunk such theories by also rocking while slowly walking across the road, creating long lines of cars awaiting the birds’ crossing.
Now, that’s probably just for the sheer devilment of it.
Whatever the reason, the Woodcock certainly has a glide in his stride, and a dip in his hip. Here’s a video of a mother with two chicks, all of them bumpity-jouncing along. Somebody please tell me, do they ever get where they’re going?? Woodcock Hen and Chicks
I stayed up way too late playing with EQ8 that night, but I got a good part of the design for Arnold’s puppy quilt nailed down.
Thursday, Larry went to South Dakota, a two-hour-drive one way, to pick up an old farm truck which he then partially took apart and sold for scrap metal. He does usually make some good money doing this; but he would be driving through some dense fog, and the steering in the truck he was driving wasn’t working quite right. Since he didn’t seem particularly worried about it, I did it for him. Worry, that is.
Worrying is good! After all, when I worry about things, everything often turns out just fine. That proves it to be a worthwhile effort, right?? Further proof: sometimes things that I hadn’t even considered worrying about go all sideways and askew.
Very scientific and analytical. 🤔 Yep. 🤭
A friend assured me that she would worry a bit for him, too. 😄
A few hours later, I told her, “See, our worrying was successful! – he made it back home safely. 😁” Then I added, “Truth to tell, I’m not one to worry too much. If I happen to think about various ones of my family who might potentially be in harm’s way – or even those who are not, but I happen to think of them – I pause what I’m doing for a moment and pray for them. Much better than worrying! ❤ ” – and she agreed.
You know, if you read too many Internet comments, you’ll continuously lose brain cells. Look at this remark under a video of a bison walking verrrry slowly and carefully in Yellowstone National Park: “His back hip got gourd.”
Somebody responded, “I seen him, too.”
And there are so many “seen him when he done it” comments, I live in constant fear of the Grammar Establishment throwing their collective hands up in despair and deciding, “Improper grammar will now be considered proper, and vice versa, since the majority of people say it wrong anyway.”
One person tried to correct the first by writing, “ *gored,” which earned him the immediate ire of a dozen or more untutored Internet brawlers.
“U new what he mean right that all that madders!!!” wrote one person.
>>...head explodes...<<
Meanwhile, I loaded my customer’s quilt onto my quilting frame and began quilting it.
I took time out a little later to pop a Detroit Pizza into the oven for supper. It was a Supreme this time. Larry and I are in agreement: it’s our favorite of the four varieties from Motor City Pizza Co.
By 9:00 p.m., the first little quilt was done.
Friday, it was hotter than it had been for over a week, with a high of 90° and a heat index 10° higher. I filled and hung the bird feeders, played the piano, did a bit of cleaning, then blow-dried my hair whilst sipping Georgia Peach cold-brew coffee, listening to Rural Radio on my tablet, and typing posts and answering texts and emails.
After eating something, I trotted upstairs to my quilting studio, where I had my customer’s second quilt ready to load on my frame. The pantograph was already printed and ready to be positioned on the quilting table. It wasn’t long before I was quilting away.
The large-leaf hostas around my yard have burnt leaves and look pathetic. They’ve only just started putting up stems for the big white blossoms they have in late summer, so they’re going to look pathetic all through the blooming season, despite rain, and despite our watering them. When I planted them, they were in the shade of many Austrian pines. Pine beetles killed those trees years ago. We replaced them with Douglas firs and Blue Spruce trees. One of these days, they’ll be big enough to provide more shade. They were about three feet tall when we bought them; now some of them are 25 feet tall. They did not all grow at the same rate; some are only about 15 feet tall. We have three distinct types of soil in our yard: sand, clay, and good dark loam. That and the slope of the yard, creating different water depths, made the difference in tree growth.
This was my snack that afternoon: one of Walker’s shortbread fingers, along with a cup of Orca Spice Chai Tea. Each biscuit is 100 calories, so one is enough, especially since I make that tea with a cup of skim milk, 80 calories, and one tablespoon of the tea mix, 35 calories. On the side of the can it calls for two tablespoons per serving, but I don’t like it that strong.
I’ve been trying to find some tea that tastes as good as some I had when we were in Iowa a few months ago. This is pretty close, especially when I make it with milk and heat it. Sometimes I make it cold, and put ice in it. It’s good either way.
The second little quilt was done by 7:00 p.m.
At 11:30 a.m. Saturday morning, it was 73° and sunny, but wouldn’t be for long, as a severe thunderstorm was bearing down upon us.
At 11:54 a.m., one of my weather apps warned that hail had been detected and would arrive in six minutes. I, typing away on my laptop, didn’t pay a whole lot of attention until suddenly I realized that the whole house was dark, except for the light on my screen!
I looked out the window.
Wow, it really was dark, as dark as it usually is an hour and a half after sunset! I don’t know if I have ever seen it that dark at noon. I’m talking about nighttime dark!
I hastily pulled up a weather app. Any weather alerts were unremarkable, other than ‘thunderstorm’. Rain fell, but not hard. It was quite eerie.
It stayed very dark until nearly 1:00 p.m., by which time it had lightened up to what it’s usually like half an hour after sunset. The rain had nearly stopped by then, and the worst of the storm was 20 miles to the east and continuing to move east.
It was somewhat dusky for 2 ½ more hours, and then it hailed for a while. It was mostly small hail, with the largest pieces about the size of a penny.
After half an hour, the hail quit, the rain tapered off, and the sky gradually grew lighter.
Meanwhile, I was pulling out a few more pieces of fabric, measuring, tweaking EQ8, hoping to make do with fabric I already have. But... I have one yard of the puppy print. Only one yard! I needed 2 ⅛ yards, according to EQ8.
I have just half a yard of the paw print fabric. I need 1 ⅞ yards. And I have no black-on-white that reads mostly white.
Okay, this is going to take some brainstorming, if I’m really going to stick to my guns about ‘not buying any new fabric’.
I then found a piece of puppy-print fabric that was in one of my late sister-in-law’s bins. It doesn’t exactly match, but maybe I can make it work. I ironed it, laid out the fabrics I’d scrounged up, and pulled out the ones that went together best.
I have hunted for the dog print (by Tara Reed, for Quilting Treasures), and can’t even find a solitary picture of the stuff. Even the fleece I had thought to use on the back of this quilt isn’t nearly big enough.
At 4:30 p.m., it thundered. LOUDLY. I looked out the window, watched for lightning, counted seconds until the next thunder... and decided it was some distance away. The rain began again.
And then – FLASH-CRACKCKCKCKCK!!!!!
A bright bolt of lightning lit up the sky at the same time thunder shook the house. That bolt of lightning surely hit something nearby!
This storm, according to the weather apps, was moving to the northwest. So odd. Summer storms here almost always move from west to east, which is the direction the first storm was moving. This second one blew through quickly.
I went to put wet clothes in the dryer and start another load in the washing machine. The lights flickered while I was in the laundry room. Hoping the washer and dryer would get done with their cycles and the electricity wouldn’t go out, I took a basket of dry clothes to the bedroom to fold and put away.
As it turned out, the storms were mostly over, and the electricity did not go out.
It was 68° at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, on the way up to 89°. I drained the last of the Georgia Peach cold-brew coffee that morning; I would need to make a new gallon that afternoon.
Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
When we got home from church, Larry fixed his scrumptious pancakes for lunch. He put applesauce in them this time. Sometimes he adds yogurt to the mix. We topped them with peanut butter and syrup.
After the service last night, we chatted with several of the children and some of our friends, then went to pick up an order at Walmart.
Home again, I put the groceries away, and we had a late supper of cranberry-almond lettuce salad, slices of fresh red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, Mozzarella cheese, dragonfruit (half for each of us), and cherry turnovers, fresh out of the oven. We had peach/white grape juice to wash it all down.
After getting only an hour and a half of sleep Saturday night (no reason; it just happens now and then, and I spend the night scrambling about, getting up and remaking the bed, getting back in and scrambling about, getting back up and remaking the bed, and on and on until the alarm goes off), anyway, last night I made up for it by sleeping 9 ½ hours, after going to bed about midnight. 9 ½ hours! I practically never sleep that long. My usual hours of sleep are about 7.
I’ve done a bit of housecleaning, refilled and rehung the bird feeders, played the piano, and put away a few groceries that arrived via FedEx.
Larry has been working on a Hyundai that he picked up to dissect and sell for scraps – but he then thought it was much too nice to demolish, and instead sold it to grandson Levi. He thought it would be an easy fix. All these years, and he still thinks something – anything – will be an ‘easy fix’! HAHA!
The vehicle needs a new motor, as the head is (probably) cracked. Cracked heads aren’t good. 🤕 But even with the new motor, the car will still be a good buy for Levi.
Look at this AI-generated image. See anything wrong with it? I hope Levi’s car doesn’t wind up like this one, with the front grille where the door belongs! 🤣😂😆
I’ve blow-dried my hair, and have a tall mug of newly-steeped cold-brew coffee. This is a new flavor for me: Maui Joe’s, which has essences of coconut, pineapple, and macadamia nut. Yum, it’s good.
Time to get back to work on Arnold’s quilt! I’ve decided to call it ‘Puppy Pause’. Reckon the lady that got all worked up over the horse quilt I named ‘The Mane Event’ will be equally troubled over ‘Puppy Pause’? Calm, lady, calm. These are whatcha call ‘puns’.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
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