Happiness is . . .

Happiness is the view from my sewing room window. It's been raining since 4:00 yesterday afternoon and it is still an amazing view. Especially since spring is here and everything is turning green.

The trees are budding and seeing the fenced-in garden reminds me that I can start thinking about planting vegetables. I've already planned out where things will be planted and I've made a list of seeds and plants I need to purchase. It's still a bit early to actually do the planting but it's fun to think about it.

Even through the gloomy day, I love this view.

My Small World Project

Yesterday I cleaned my sewing room. I love how nice it looks once all my fabrics are organized and put away. All the notions are stashed away and there's no more piles of batting and other stuff laying about. It's like starting with a clean slate. I even took all my city blocks off my design board. The room even feels brighter.

I thought I would take the opportunity to make a few more blocks for the my small world project. There are so many very small blocks in this quilt that I've decided to work on it a little at a time. The quilt has seven sections and I am still on section 1. I'm really not in a hurry to finish it, I want to enjoy the process and take my time. It sure is fun to mix new colors into the project.

This will definitely be a long-term project. I'm thinking maybe I can complete it by the end of summer. That feels like a reasonable goal. For now, I will work on the pinwheel blocks. I need to make 3 4-inch pinwheel blocks and 16 2-inch blocks.

The 100th Block

I completed my version of block #46 for the City Sampler. This is the final block so I now have all 100 ready to go! It feels so good to accomplish this very unplanned project.

Sometimes just winging it can be a challenge that doesn't work out to well but in this case, I really like the results. I can't wait to pick out the background fabric and set the blocks in place

Block #46

I am finally at the finish line with my 100 city blocks project. I am proud to say that using the charm pack, layer cake and jelly roll that I won a few months back, I managed to get all the blocks made.

That is all except one. That one block number 46 where I need 8 3-and-a-half inch squares - 4 from one fabric and 4 from a second fabric. The problem is that I only have pieces left 2-and-a-half inches wide or smaller. I really did not plan this out very well.

Actually, I didn't plan it out at all. I just decided to wing it. So I think I did pretty well all things considered. But for this last block, block number 46 I was at a loss.

My daughter stopped by to see my progress. I really think she wants this quilt when it's done. I had to remove blocks 1 through 40 from my design board. There's just not enough room to hold all 100 blocks on the board. So I could show here blocks 41 through 100.

When I told her my dilemma with block number 46 she says, "why don't you just cut 2-and-a-half-inch squares since that's all you have then put a border around the whole thing"? That is just genius. I guess I never thought about deviating from the book. But I really think that would be better than purchasing two fat quarters just to complete this project. Especially since I have enough jelly roll sized pieces to make it work.

Tomorrow I will get that last block completed so I can get to work planning on my layout. I also have to choose my background fabric. I'm not sure what color it will be, I just know it will be a solid. It's always fun choosing fabrics and I really look forward to it. So here are my blocks starting with block number 41 through block number 100 minus block 46!

Bird Houses WIP

I asked my husband to whip me up some birdhouses. I wanted 5 of them to place on top of the arbor that is the entrance to my garden. I was surprised how quickly he came up with these. My only request was that they were not all the exact same size to give them some interest and to make grouping them together much more appealing.

So I painted the birdhouses with some pretty colors. Now my granddaughters will want to embellish them with some cute designs on the paint. I was surprised how true to form the birdhouses were. They had no perches which helps keep predators out and the tall ones have false floors in them to make them more desirable to small birds. In fact the opening holes are cut just the right size for small birds.

I can't wait until they are installed over the garden gate. They will look so cute there!

An Earth Day Tradition

We always get a real Christmas tree. We are lucky to know someone who owns their own Christmas tree farm and all we have to do is just ask for a tree. We tell them we want a Frasier Fir, preferably a skinny, shorter version. Like a Charlie Brown tree. Of course, it's never like that. The trees are always very beautiful and we are grateful that all the fuss of going out in the cold to personally pick out a tree is removed from the process. Some people enjoy that ritual but not me, I am really not fond of cold weather. So this works out perfectly.

For me, the hard part about having a real tree is letting go. It seems such a shame to cut this beautiful living thing down for something so (realistically) unnecessary. But there is something to be said for the amazing pine smell that permeates the house. So I keep the tree up for as long as is practical. And once we take it down we place it in my garden for the duration of the winter where it becomes a refuge for the birds. It's amazing to see how many little birds protect themselves among the branches during bad weather. It's a beautiful thing.

Once spring comes I have to get the tree out of the garden. So we have a bonfire to turn the tree into ash. The ash gets turned with the compost that goes back into the garden. It's a great way to complete the circle and use every bit of that tree. So another year goes by and we feel good about renewing nature's gift and giving it back to the earth.

More Cheese Making

For my second attempt at cheese making I used a recipe called Super Easy Basket Cheese for Children. I had a spare gallon of raw milk that I had to use very soon before it expired. I could have froze the milk but I really didn't want the stress of knowing I had to eventually use up the frozen milk. I just wanted to use it while it was still fresh. I also kept the whey from my first batch of cheese. Some articles I read about cheese making stated that adding the whey made better cheese. So for this batch I used a gallon of raw milk and a quart of whey.

My first cheese making experience made me much more confident for this time. I poured the milk and whey into the pot and turned on the heat. I also added a teaspoon of salt right off the bat. My first batch was not salty enough. I wanted to fix that. So as the milk cooked I prepared the bowl for the curds and got ready to scoop them out. I got the baskets cleaned and ready - no cheesecloth this time! I have the real cheese making equipment!

Once the milk reached 86 degrees I added the rennet, stirred and turned off the pot. I waited minutes to find perfect curds. I turned the pot back on while removing the curds from the whey. I filled the basket to the very top. I squeezed and squeezed until more whey came out. After a few hours, I removed the cheese from the basket and put it in the fridge.

By dinner time the cheese was ready and we had it as an appetizer before dinner. It was squeaky like cheese curds when biting into it. It was fantastic. Much better than the first batch. I can't wait to try another recipe - it sure is fun to make this wonderful food from scratch.

City Sampler WIP

I've decided to work on the city sampler blocks today and I completed another 12 blocks. These are coming along pretty quickly considering I've set the project aside for a few weeks. Between Easter and some other commitments, there hasn't been enough sewing time. Happily, I have every Wednesday as a dedicated sew day. My friend, Sue comes over and we sew together all day. It's great to have the extra incentive from seeing someone else's creativity. It sure inspires my own. So today was a good day to complete more of the 100 blocks. I now have 57 completed and another 10 blocks cut and ready to sew. I don't think it will be long to the finish line now.