Friday Stitching

 It is the end of November and normally we would have been having my Sweet Husband's family Christmas dinner tomorrow. Two new great-grandchildren have joined the mob this year but we will have to wait to meet them. The snow we had last week has disappeared. Most of it into the hats and mitts and boots of our grandchildren who made angels and snowmen and body surfed and all sorts of other muddy versions of play. 

We are preparing for a cold winter, but I cannot complain. My children and their children all live here so we get to see them most every day. That has its ups and downs. That's a lot of food to prepare every day, but they all help. And that is a lot of dishes to wash, but they all help. That's a lot of laundry, but I got a new washing machine two months ago and they all help. And we have enough lego and bacon to see us through a long cold Canadian winter. Spring is only five months away. Well, until the tulips and daffodils we planted start blooming and we can run around outside in our bare feet again.

This weekend I am pulling out the Ella box of fabrics and prepping a whole bunch of patterns to foundation piece. I have been putting that off. I am again joining the gang in Australia for Friday Night Sew In. Tomorrow I will be hanging out with my Quilting @ Farm friends right here. 

But first I have to find my table. It has once again disappeared under a mountain of stuff I am puttering with. And there will probably be a new puzzle show up sometime tomorrow. 

Blessings,

Chris

November 2020 OMG Completion

My November one-monthly-goal was to complete at least twenty 150 Canadian Women blocks. Silly me. I did block 16 twice. I now have a total of 28. Only 122 more to go. 

We have snow and everything looks so white and cold. 

Blessings,

Chris

Friday Night Stitching with Friends in Australia on Sat Morning in Canada

 Some of us meet on Facebook Messenger to sew together on Sat mornings. I have been working on some the 150 Canadian Women blocks that were a block of the week project 4 years ago to celebrate Canada's 150 birthday. I started a Facebook group called Quilting @ Farm several years ago for the women who came out to the farm to learn to quilt. We usually got together Sat mornings. Seven of us took on the challenge to make the Dear Jane quilt. Mine is complete but not yet quilted. We often had small retreats. That was when the guest rooms were guest rooms and not family living in them. There are presently 10 of us living here. Well, most of the time. The 3 girl grandchildren go to their mom's half time. So it is only chaos part of the time. 

Last week I got 8 blocks made. So far this week I have made another 8. My OMG goal for this month is to have at least 20. Now to find the bin of patterns and precut pieces to put another 4 together. 

It's only noon so I have lots of day left to sew. 

Blessings,

Chris 

linking with: design-wall-monday

Weekend Stitching

 

All I got done in the hand stitching area this past month is one and a half little buds on this 3030 block. There are only 5 more weeks of blocks to be released including the outside border and final setting. 

Now if that is not slow stitching, I wonder what is? 

I did this during a business meeting last Sat. Now to complete the last bud and get the flowers back-basted on then the leaves. 

I did start sewing up some of the 150 Canadian Women blocks I prepped back in Sept. 

My OMG for November is to complete at least 20 of these. 

However, there are no applique blocks in this quilt. I wonder if I could find or create some? 

Not holding my breath about that. 

That's about it for this week. Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. 

blessings,  needleandthreadnetwork

Chris

Blooming Geraniums

 

I have been overwintering geraniums for most of the 49 years we have been married and living in this old farmhouse. I wasn't always successful. One time I phoned in to a radio talk show asking for advice. They laughed at me when I said my geraniums just sort of wilted and drooped in the pots. I was told they were in transplant shock. Okay. Now I know.

My mother used to pull hers up and hang them upside down in her basement. I tried that. They might still be hanging down there after all these years. This house has a full basement with dirt floor and hanging pie shelf and cobwebs that would make the Munsters proud. We have often joked about starting a grow-op down there but there are no windows for light. Yes, I know we could put in hydroponic lights, but that would require a plan and follow through.

I used to plant them in the ground for the summer then pot them up to bring inside. It turns out that you have to water them sometimes. Got that. But they still drooped. Then I read a great suggestion in a  Country Woman magazine about 25 years ago.   Pot them then remove ALL the leaves and buds, put them in a sunny window and start watering them. More than once. The ones that did the best were the ones on the window in front of my computer. I poured what was left of the water I was dinking into the pot and was rewarded with flowers. I think I was on to something. 

This red geranium is one of 10 I bought from a girl about 25 years ago as a fundraiser for a school trip. I still have 2 of them. 

At first, I potted them in small pots then as they grew larger, I put them in bigger pots. Instead of planting them into the ground each spring, we put the whole pot in then brought the whole pot into the house in the fall. I have discovered that geraniums are not so particular about the temperatures, but really like direct sunlight. The ones in south windows have fared the best. Those on east or west windows get tall and scraggly but no flowers. 

In the spring, I put the pots in the flower beds in places that have no bulbs. Then in the fall when they are taken out of the ground, I plant tulip and daffodil bulbs in the vacated holes. Saturday we planted about 300 bulbs. There should be magnificent colour in the spring. But we have to do winter first. That could arrive here anytime since it is the second week of November, but we are still enjoying wonderful sunny warm days for now. 

And Ava is now a teenager. How did that happen?

Blessings,

Chris 

And I got almost no stitching done this week again. 

linking with: needleandthreadnetwork.

Women's Mentoring Group

Back in the summer, I led a small group at our church. It was the first in-person group to meet since lockdown in March. It was a pilot project of figuring out how to do live meetings, streaming, and zoom meetings at the same time. The study book we used is called Broken Crayons Still Color: From our mess to God's masterpiece by Shelley Hitz. It is an amazing book with lessons, coloring sheets, discussion questions, reflection questions, videos, and homework. There were 16 participants.

Out of this grew a mentoring group for women. We meet here at the farm every other week. We met outside behind the house for the first few times but it was raining so we came inside the other day. I placed cushions on every other seating spot so everyone could spread out. It was nice. Everyone had their masks. 

I have been addressing such topics as goal setting, time management, journaling, drawing pictures to illustrate Bible passages and this week we had a workshop on anger. It is a favourite workshop for me. Ever since I did a course on anger and anxiety in the context of pastoral counseling when I was doing my masters, I have loved teaching about what anger is and is not and how to have a "good anger." I think I will write it into my book on surviving menopause. After all, anger was my constant companion. Now it is a defeated enemy. Do I still get angry? Of course? I am human. But I do not live there anymore. I live at the crossroads of peace and joy. It is a much nicer place to be. 

Next time we meet we will be learning about grief and how to have a "good grief." After all, we all grieve at some loss. We do not need to live there. Healing does take place if we know and understand how. So I teach about that kind of thing. It energizes me. Teaching. Especially when I teach from the Word of God and integrate my counseling training with the Bible and invite people to draw closer to God so they can receive healing from painful memories. 

This group of eight women has decided we will continue to meet as a closed group. This simply means no new people will be able to join us. Instead, they suggested I lead the Broken Crayons book study again and invite new people to come and form a new women's mentoring group in the new year. I have a scathingly brilliant idea of getting them to be alpha readers for my book once I get the first draft done and the first edit. That gives me a deadline, doesn't it? 

We are planting amaryllis bulbs today. I got 5 different varieties to get the grandkids to each plant one and observe the growth rates. A science project. My sister will be so proud of me. If I tell her that is. 

Now back to work. 

Blessings,

Chris

November 2020 OMG Goal

I thought I would change things up a bit this month. I have been studying ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and the shoe fits. It helps to understand why I do the things I do and not do the things I do not do. Sometimes I just get bored with a particular project. Other times I am avoiding doing it. I moved my big desktop computer to one of my eight-foot tables and now have at least six feet of space to my left which allows me to spread out some of the projects I am working on. Not quilting projects, even though I have a bin nearby with the few applique blocks I prepped a couple of weeks ago. I have a different view above my computer. No longer the big window with the trees and cows outside. I have given my desk space to my son-in-law for his doctoral studies. So, even though I have been trying to get faster internet, I am still waiting. He needs access to the internet and that is here in my office/quilt room. And with the big monitor between us, we do not see each other, and less distraction. Well, for me anyway. He plugs in his earbuds and is in another world. He works in here 2-3 days a week. I have the small design wall and a different big window reflecting on my screen. Sometimes it is nice other times a glare of too much light. And the sun now shines (when it shines at all with all the rain ) on my right side through the third window. Also, I can see who comes into the room and they do see what I am doing and no more crossing the room when I am online in meetings. 

So what will my OMG goal be this month? 150 Canadian Women from 2017. The project has been revived by the originator as a block of the week. My plan is to sew up at least 20 blocks. I have that many cut out and prepped ready to sew up. It should not be too big a deal. There are no applique blocks to distract me. I have enough applique on the go already. 

November is NaNo month. What is NaNo you ask? National Amature Novel Writing Month. I plan to write every day and finally finally get a first draft of one of my books.  

In the meantime, I am still plugging away at my coursework. Getting closer to the end. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: design-wall-monday. boms-away-  midweek-makers.  wednesday-wait-loss  needleandthreadnetwork. wendysquiltsandmore.