satisfying monday

For the first time in several weeks, I awakened this morning with some energy. The antibiotics that I started about 6 days ago are working. I mixed up a Christmas molasses cranberry steamed pudding. I want to have everything done before Christmas day for the perhaps 15 to 20 family members who may be eating here. The cranberries were starting to go soft, so I then made a quick batch of cranberry oatmeal muffins.

A friend gave me this simple recipe:

2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup molasses
pinch of salt
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup cranberries, dusted with flour

Combine the baking soda, molasses, and salt. Pour in the boiling water and mix. Add the flour and baking powder. Gently fold in the cranberries. Put in greased tins and steam for 50 minutes to 2 hours. You cover the tins with foil but you can take it off to check with a bamboo skewer. I used 2 - 540 ml cans and it took 50 minutes. This is a little lighter than the usual pudding with all the candied fruit. It can be served with any sauce. It calls for a butterscotch sauce.
It was such a beautiful day today that I went for a walk down my favorite trail after lunch. I took my little bag of seeds to hand feed the birds. That is such balm to my soul. The chickadees landed today but I couldn't entice the nuthatch. There was a thin blanket of snow all through the woods, and the sun was sparkling through the branches.
Here is a picture of my new shelves that my husband put up next to my kitchen sink. I will decorate with some snowmen maybe this week. The green is really a nice soft green, not as bright as it appears on my screen.

some snippets

I will probably have some access to my computer over the next few days, but maybe not my sewing machine. We will be clearing out my room tomorrow to prepare it for some new flooring. I have purchased a floating floor in a rustic finish which I hope will stand up to some wear and tear as I wheel around my room from computer to sewing machine to cutting table. This is one of the last rooms in my house to have the flooring replaced and it's pretty bad. Here you can see a a piece of the new flooring and the old gray carpet underneath.

Today, I needed to start  tidying up to get ready to move furniture. Before I did that though, I free motion stitched some confetti leaves made from rotary cut snippets of fabric sandwiched between 2 layers of Saran Cling Wrap Plus. Later the Saran will be ironed between sheets of paper to melt it and I will be left with the leaves to use on my wall hanging.

Then I finished that last 7 squares for the zigzag quilt. They will all need to be trimmed. It will give me something to do while I cannot use the sewing machine. I am moving my cabinet temporarily into my bedroom, so I could use it if I'm desperate. How long can a person go without?

put together wall hanging

I finished putting together my wall hanging. I kept wanting to add another bit of turquoise somewhere but it just didn't seem to fit. I will have to use it in the embellishing. Now can begin the fun part of embellishing. I have some ideas for confetti leaves, and perhaps a moth for starters. There will be free motion quilting and hand embroidery eventually so this will be an ongoing project.

 I am in Christmas gift mode at the moment. Here is my current (I have about 3 on going) knitting project. It is a shawl that is meant to be sewn together into mobius curve when it's finished.
Since I'm not working this year, I'm trying to keep my expenses down. Instead of buying a wreath for my front door, I decided to recycle some old bits. This is what I came up with. The birds I did purchase for a few dollars each. It's fairly simple, but that 's me.

After I made it though I came across a wreath here that I really liked and which I have all the supplies for except the foam base. I don't remember the page, and there are a lot; you might like to browse for Christmas ideas. There was one done in white with strips of music and bits of lace. It was so pretty that I just might try it.

finishing touches and visiting the doctor

Yesterday, I sat down and put the finishing touches on 3 pillows. They all needed velcro added to the closing and a line of top stitching around the outside. It feels good to finish up the little things.

I have my wall hanging together except for the outside borders. I'm anxious to get those on, maybe later today so I can set it aside for when I'm in the mood for adding embellishments. I have lots of ideas and will probably work on it over the next few months.
Last night, I put these blocks sewn from pieces left over from another quilt up on the design wall. Originally, I thought to do it as a trip around the world but now I'm not sure. I need to sew 7 more squares. I will also border it but it will not be a large quilt. The blocks are 7 inches square.

This morning I'm going to see either a doctor or the dentist. I seem to have something going on in my mouth since my dental work. I don't know if it's a coincidence, but I've not been feeling well and have also had skin rashes. I've had to increase my cortisone and due to my immune system problems, I've got to go get checked as things seem to be getting worse. I have an appointment at the dentist near noon, but I think I will head out and stop at the walk in clinic if it's not too busy to see what  the doctor says. I had hoped to stay in on this damp snowy day. Perhaps, this afternoon.

my son is visiting.

My eldest son is visiting from Nova Scotia for a couple day,s so I have not been sewing much. I did go to  a guild UFO day yesterday before he arrived where I finished up a couple pillows I was making and showed my blocks for my wall hanging. I took a little time today to put some of it together. There are still a couple of changes to be made and another piece to put in, but it is getting closer. I plan to add 2 more narrow strips of pink, and I will put a narrow border of the turquoise before adding the green to the final border. Also, there will be a narrow strip of green added between the blocks on the left. Once it's all together I will be embellishing with textural fibers, embroidery and I'm thinking of painting a Luna moth on fabric and adding that. I can work on these pieces for months sometimes.

My son has a cold so my husband Gord and I went for a walk by ourselves this morning. It was -6 Celsius. we had a few centimeters of our first snow yesterday. The trail that we walk on has some stations for bird seed that have been built along the way and the chickadees and nuthatches will eat form your hands. I always walk with a bag of seed in my pockets and often stop to feed them.

I hope Jesse will feel better tomorrow. I may take him to the salt water pool and sauna before we go to lunch at our favorite cafe.

dilemma

I'm off for a day of appointments, lunch and errands. I'm pondering this wall hanging trying to figure out the next step. I may need to add some strips in between to account for different size blocks. Which color is best I wonder. I'm leaning toward the mossy green with dots, but then I have the one block with the turquoise. Do i change its turquoise border? I will play some more as I'm thinking that I could change just 2 of the mossy green strips on the fist example below to turquoise and add a 1 inch border of the turquoise as an accent before I add the mossy green final border.
The second example with the turquoise running together doesn't work for me.

a good day

I was finally feeling a little creative today. My energy has been so low that  it's been a while. I started by pulling out 2 projects that were tucked away in the closet. The first one is a large block trip around the world made from some triangles leftover from another quilt. I needed a few more, so I cut those.

Last week while watching the show Best Recipes, I saw a recipe for egg rolls that are actually baked instead of fried. Since I've been watching my fat intake, I was inspired. Then because I  will have 3 vegetarians here at Christmas time, I further decided to make them vegetarian. For the filling I researched a bit more for some filling ideas. I bought a package of coleslaw mix to which I added a grated carrot, sliced pea pods, onion, garlic, and 1 can of chopped water chestnuts. I used the same wet ingredients from Best Recipes added at the end. I've only managed to resist trying one because I didn't make the plum sauce and don't have any in the  house either. I think I'd like to make another batch with the pork filling recipe from the show.

This evening Gord and I are going to a turkey dinner at a church downtown, so I've had the afternoon to spend in my sewing room. I started playing with these blocks that I  gelatin mono printed last summer. A couple had a border already and I had done a little thread painting on most of them. This process  can take me a lot longer than putting traditional blocks together. I arrange it one way, then another way. I take one border off add another. Re-arrange again. I am starting to get the feel of where I'm going with it, but I'm not sure if I want to put my border fabric in between blocks or not. I will cut more and audition it. That is the hardest part for me--making up my mind. I think I must let it rest for today.