Two Frog Home

Our official spring ritual occurs when we change from flannel to linen sheets and has nothing to do with the calendar.  Despite bits of snow and night temperatures under 30, I decided today was the day to have that little ritual.  With the changing of the sheets also comes the changing of the quilt from:

The quilt I made from old t-shirts and scraps.  It’s a variety of fabrics, made warmer because the “batting” is from an old blanket I got at the thrift store.  This quilt is replaced with:

The treasure made by my grandma.  Each square was hand embroidered by her and hand-quilted.  The amazing thing to me about this quilt is that each block is quilted slightly different than the others to match the particular embroidered design.  It’s not a heavy as my quilt, but it is still incredibly warm because of the quilting.  My grandma’s love makes it seem warmer, too.

Yesterday, Jeff and I hit the thrift store.  One of the local thrift stores moved recently into a much larger building and we decided it was time to check it out.  It was much better than the old one in that things aren’t so cramped together.  The book section grew quite a bit too, with tables and chairs for folks to sit a spell and look through the volumes.  As we walked by the one table, I noticed a book sitting there as if left just for me to notice, World Sourdoughs from Antiquity by Ed Wood.  I, of course, couldn’t pass it up.  The book is a treasure, though obviously geared by the author to sell his starter products, it is chock full of wonderful looking recipes and lots of tidbits regarding sourdough throughout different regions of the world.  Today, I tried out the Honey Walnut Sourdough recipe, more or less.  I always seem to modify recipes a bit and I used my local whole wheat starter instead of the one he sells that includes white flour.  The bread turned out wonderfully moist and flavorful.  I can’t wait to try a few more of them in the future.

I’ve been working on ways to use up my large stash of scrap fabric pieces in various sizes.  I have a quilt top in process and finished two placemats, this morning.  I’ve been wanting to practice my free-motion quilting skills as well and the placemat seemed a good way to do that.  I used the same fabric for the backing of each placemat and I have enough of that backing to make a few more placemats, this way I’ll have a collection of mis-matched yet matching placemats for all occasions.

100 Things - #7 I sew barefoot.

I’m not sure how I developed this habit, but when I sew with the machine, I always do so barefoot.  Even when I have slippers on (which almost always) I take the slipper off before stepping on the foot pedal.  When I’m done sewing, I slide back into the slipper and repeat the process every time I begin stitching again.

I don’t have an Irish bone in my body, but Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you that do!

While it may be almost spring according to the calendar, we continue to get snow.  Promises of the gardening season to come, arrived via mail today, however.  I got my order from Seed Savers as well as a little love from Laurie over at slowly she turned in the form of Hungarian hot wax pepper seeds!  Thanks so much, Laurie!! I can’t wait to start some seeds in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I’m taking advantage of some creative juices and working on a few projects, I’ve had in mind for some time.  I started working on this quilt yesterday, the top is about halfway pieced at this point.

 For those of you asking about my sourdough recipe, I more or less used this recipe from Mother Earth News.  My starter is made from 100% freshly ground Montana wheat and our well water.  I’ve only fed the starter with whole wheat - the bread after 1 cup of starter was removed for future use - was a mixture of whole wheat and white flours. I’ll continue working on using 100% wheat, a little at a time.  Honestly it just felt right - I used that recipe from Mother Earth News as a guideline and it really helped.  I spray the oven with water before adding the loaves (I spray the water and shut the door, then slash the loaves, then insert the loaves into the oven).  I spray the oven with water again immediately after adding the loaves and that seems to help me get those super crusty loaves, we enjoy so much around here.  I hope that helps, everyone a little.

I just loved the way this seam looked and had to take its picture. 

The sun is shining yet again and its such a beautiful day.  I’m glad it’s not overcast so that we can see the lunar eclipse in all its glory, later.  The natural light streaming into my sewing room seems to stimulate my creative mind.  I’ve been doing a little sewing and some boring paperwork, but continually basking in the gorgeous sunlight.  I must say there’s nothing like a few bright sunny days to get a gardening soul through a Montana February.

A lunch bag & flatware roll in progress, will be added to my shop by the end of this month.

New placemat & afternoon snack.

I keep a little box full of fabric strips leftover from other projects.  I kept thinking I’d make a strippy quilt, but today made some new placemats out of those strips.  I have a big bag full of bias tape that I thrifted recently and used some of that to bind the placemats.  I made two placemats today but had to use different colored binding on each one because of what I had on hand.

Sometimes there’s something so satisfying about using up things in my stash pile.  Do other crafters feel that way?

It’s been a nice quiet, productive morning:

• I’ve worked on (& almost completed) my handouts for a few continuing education courses I’ll be teaching in a few weeks on frugal living and vermicomposting.
• Cleaned and re-organized my sewing room to accommodate a more official “office space.”  I got a laptop this week and needed to set up a workspace for myself.  Jeff and I have shared a desktop for the last 8 years and while I can’t believe I arrived at a time in my life where a laptop and 2 computers are necessary, I am there.  It makes typing my class notes and working on other projects just plain easier.  I always felt bad asking Jeff to get off the computer when He so rarely uses it.  We also set up a wireless network in the house for multiple projects.   (We were so geeked out by it last night that we played scrabble against each other online.  I know we’re dorks.)  Now, I have something that can travel with me so I can make the most of lunch breaks, etc.
• Made simple valentines to mail in the coming weeks to friends and family.  I’m not much of a card maker, but I wanted to do something nice for my loved ones.  I used materials I had in my stash:  card stock in various textures and colors, glue, pinking shears, and some ribbon that I’ve had for years but never touched until today.
• Planned the coming week’s menu and grocery shopping list.
• Did laundry.

I did all these tasks while listening to the following soundtrack (I love reading what other folks are listening too, and figured I’d jump on the bandwagon):

• Not For Kids Only - David Grisman & Jerry Garcia
• When I Woke - Rusted Root
• American Beauty - Grateful Dead
• Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - Sarah McLachlan
• Further In - Greg Brown
• The Cole Porter Songbook - Ella Fitzgerald (currently playing)

I wonder if I need to update my CD collection?  That’s quite a list of oldies (or almost oldies) but goodies.

I’ve been working on these lovely lunch tote bag sets.  I love making them and can see myself making many more in the weeks to come.  It’s a simple tote bag with a matching flatware roll that doubles a placemat.

This set is for sale at my etsy shop.

Think the cat likes watching and being near me or just the warmth of that lamp?

I’ve been struggling with my breathing again.  It seems that while I have kicked the pneumonia, I still have some asthma like symptoms hanging on.  I’m getting winded very easily and for the most am just tired.  I feel well otherwise, but I did take a ton of naps this past weeked.

I woke up at one point and noticed the cats napping all around me.

Meggy’s paw is outstretched because she swatted at me after I tried to pet her.  I love her sleepy eyes in this photo.

Patches is rather blurry in this photo, seems I was more interested in the quilt I was laying under when I snapped the picture.  This is the quilt I made for Jeff a few year’s ago.  It’s a nine patch design, the center square in each block was handpainted by either one of his grandkids or kids.  The other fabrics, I picked out meant something very specific to Jeff or our life together.  I did love the particular block in the photo because I had picked out the baseball fabric before I got the squares from the grandkids and when I opened the envelope and saw this block Jake had painted, well it was just too perfect.