Peter Piper Picked...

Well, not a peck.  And certainly not pickled, but definitely some peppers.

I overheard a vendor/customer conversation at the farmers' market about how good these were and decided to give them a try.  Sweet peppers, like bell peppers, and so good!  If we start our vegetable garden again someday, I want to grow some of these, so I need to find out what variety they are. Aren't they pretty!

Winging It

Quilt projects and planning are inseparable to me--draw it out on graph paper, write down the measurements, determine the number of pieces to cut, etc.  This project, however, was pretty much on the fly, so there was no knowing from the beginning how it would turn out in the end.

At my quilt group, we have a large tub of quilt beginnings that people have donated that were never completed.  Sometimes they consist of a few blocks, but sometimes it is just cut pieces.  UFO's, we call them (Unfinished Objects), and our goal is to turn them into quilts. 

One of my ladies (W) put together a few nine patches from some cut pieces, but there were not nearly enough for a whole quilt.  She came to me for ideas on what to do with them. She and I pulled together some fabrics, and I asked her if she was willing to wing it on this project, and she said to just tell her what to do.  

We started with the five green and white nine patches and created a large nine patch with the pink fabric.  After that we kept adding borders until it was large enough to be a little throw quilt.  Bright, happy, wild are some of my adjectives to describe it, but it turned out all right.  And W was a great sport in taking on the adventure.  

So here is Winging It...

 I did a double circle loop meander in the nine patches--a new favorite design.

Swirly flowers and leaves in the purple border.  I have since used this design again.  It is fun and pretty.

This design, a Dahlia type flower, was one I had seen and wanted to try. It is in the pink squares of the large nine patch, but the thread match is so close that I had trouble seeing it as I quilted it, so here it is from the back.  It turned out to be more challenging than I expected and really too dense for our Tuesday quilts.  Once I start, though, that is what I go with.  No ripping out unless the design is a complete mess. 

I added leaves and a looser version of the Dahlias in the outer border so it would go faster.

A little swirl and leaf in the dark green border (again from the back).

A little three leaf ivy in the light green border (from the back).  I did more double circle meandering in the outer nine patches, and that finished it out.  

Three cheers to a cheerful quilt.  

Appliance Trials and Tribulations

Two weeks ago today, the heating element in my dryer went out.  Since the washer was the same age, we decided to go ahead and replace them both, and for the first time I have a matching washer and dryer.  Not a big thing, really, but nice to my sense of orderliness.  I had not wanted to do a front loading washer, but after researching online, I realized it would be the best option.  So the saga begins.

The next day, Tuesday, I place an order for the washer and dryer online at the website of one of the big box stores.  The delivery date was set for July 12, so I had to find some way to manage laundry for a week and a half.  My neighbor across the street graciously allowed me to dry the two loads that I had had in process when the dryer went out.  I only have a small drying rack in the laundry room, and it certainly couldn't handle a full load of laundry.  I wandered around the house considering my options and came up with this:

The Elfa tower actually worked quite well as a drying rack.  I stacked the baskets in the closet and kept out the two that we use the most.  

Finally, this past Friday my new appliances arrived.  I was very much looking forward to having my dryer back.  Line-dried towels tend to be scratchy and knit tops tend to lose their shape.  This time we decided to go with a gas dryer, and when the delivery man brought it in, he asked if I had the hose for the gas hook-up.  Well, it seems they failed to tell me I needed that when I ordered it (they were supposed to let me know).  And, by the way, it needs to be installed by a certified plumber, which the delivery man was not.  Great....I have my new washer and dryer, and the dryer still doesn't work.  

I decided to schedule my regular plumber instead of having the box store's installer.  We haven't had much success with those guys.  So, it looked like I would have to wait until the following Tuesday.  I went back to my neighbor across the street, who had said to bring my laundry over for drying when I needed to.  I told her what had happened, and then repeated the story to her husband when he came to see what was going on.  He had connection to a plumber, gave him a call to set up something for that same afternoon, and then went to the store to get my hose as I didn't have the car at home that day.  What great neighbors!

The dryer finally is working, and on Saturday, as I did a load of laundry, we realized that the delivery guy didn't level the washer well.  My dear hubby put that to rights and we tried to do a rinse and spin cycle to test it out, as the instructions said.  Push the on button, push the rinse and spin setting, and then push start.  Nope, it would only do the whole wash cycle.  Okay, so I call the service number in my appliance info, and tell her what is going on.  First she starts asking me this series of questions:  did I use to much laundry soap? too much softener? is the load too big? and by this point I am getting a little frustrated and repeat the problem.  So, she says, the washer isn't rinsing.  No, it won't do just rinse and spin.  So, it isn't spinning.  Sigh, no it will only do the wash cycle, not just the rinse and spin.  Let me set up an appointment with a technician.  Thank you.  

We will get the quirks work out yet, but in the meantime, I can do my laundry.  Happy sigh!

A Sight Worth Seeing

Recently we had some unexpected rain showers some through in the very early morning. As we got around for breakfast, the clouds were breaking up as the sun was rising.  We looked out through our French doors and saw this:

It has been ages since I have see a double rainbow.  The main rainbow actually made the full arc, but since it was still stormy, I couldn't get out to see the whole thing.  A lovely beginning of the day, both in terms of the rain and the rainbow! 

Feathered Fanfare

Let's celebrate the 4th with a lovely quilt, shall we?  This top was done by one of the newer ladies to our group, and she is also new to quilting.  She jump right in with a bit of a challenging block pattern (Bow Tie), and then also had the challenge of running out of fabric.  She rose to the occasion, however, and did a great job of achieving balance and symmetry.  And for me, it was an excellent opportunity to practice some feathers.  

Presenting Feathered Fanfare: