First Prize and Judge's Choice!

The Red River Quilter's Guild in Wichita Falls, TX. hosted their Quilting in the Falls: Bi-Annual Quilt Show on October 9th and 10th.

DDIL enters each show with a quilt that she hand quilts.  Her work is so perfect that even though she encourages me to enter my quilts... no way...lol   So here I am in bragging mode and delighted that she placed with a blue ribbon and also won Judge's Choice this year.

She does much more than just quilting.  She crochets, embroiders, knits... and is just as talented with those crafts as with the quilting.
Have a look at some of the things she is working on now at her blog Black Cat.  It's written in Japanese, but the pictures are self explanatory and there's always Babblefish.. ;o)

Congratulations, Tomomi...

Crystalized Ginger... Easy Almost Tutorial

I use ginger root in my tea sometimes, but often have lots of that tuber left over to throw away after it shrivels up into nothing.  Today I decided that there was no way I could drink enough tea to use up what I had on the cabinet, so I searched the net and found recipes to crystallize it.  Had no idea it would be so easy. 

First... peel or scrape the ginger. Rinse it off and slice it as thinly as you can.

Put it in a small saucepan and just cover with water.  Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer and simmer the ginger for 30 minutes.  It should be tender and getting translucent when this step is done.




My sweet DH came in about now and I forgot to take pictures of the next steps. (Did I tell you to open all the windows and turn on all the fans in the house?  I didn't!  Well, perhaps you should.  ;)   I actually like the smell, but some people don't, so better safe than sorry.)

When the 30 minute simmer is done, pour off the water.  Measure the amount of cooked ginger using a food scale or  a dry measuring cup.  Place back in the pan and then add an equal amount of sugar and about a teaspoon of water.  Bring to a boil once again and it will take another 20 minutes or so for the syrup to boil down.  When it reaches the stage that it begins to look like the bubbles that come up when making candy, be sure to stir it constantly until it is almost dry. 

While the ginger is cooking, take a paper plate or something and put about a cup of sugar in it.  Gently spread it around a little.

After the ginger has cooked almost dry, pour it onto the bed of sugar.  Using a fork, spread it around quickly to cover each slice of the ginger.  Spread it out on a paper towel and let it cool and dry out completely.

After the ginger cools and dries, it can be stored in a sealed jar for several months.  The left over sugar has now become "ginger sugar" and can be used in your tea or in baking. 

I love this and will definitely not be without it from now on.  As I was researching ginger, I found that chewing this is good for nausea...among LOTS of other things.

BTW... if you were one of those kids who loved Red Hots  when you were a kid, you'll love this.  Tastes wonderful, but as you go along eating it suddenly it becomes hot and then hotter.  Never hot like a jalapeno tho.. just more like the Red Hot candies..

This was fun... If you try it, I hope you will let me know how your came out.

Have a wonderful day.. ;o)

Frustration... so let's sew!

We thought we would have to call a repair man to check out the washer and dryer when we began to find dark spots that look like oil on our clothes.  But we turned to the trusty personal computer and internet and guess what we found?...  Gunky build up on the dispensers and in the tub are supposed to be what causes it.  We spent all day yesterday working on this...took all the dispenser apart and cleaned them in the kitchen sink, washed the entire dispenser area until it squeaked.. ran a full load of whites with the recommended 1/4 cup of powdered Cascade w/Dawn degreaser and 1 cup Clorox.  Whites came out pretty white, but the next load of his shirts and my pants showed no appreciable difference in the spots... ughhh  Still working on this today... ;o((

By the time our tempers had vented from the frustration we decided it was time for a hug, supper and a little quiet.  We had supper, watched "Frost" solve another case,  and I decided to do a little hand sewing. 

I have had that terrible urge to do something...anything... with a hand needle for the last couple of weeks.  Why is that do ya think? Anyway, I have this pile of wonderful flour sack tea towels that I've had hidden away in my work room (there's a story...more on that later) so I decided to dig them out.  Over on Fabric Follies Two , I will be blogging about some embroidery that I used on one of them.  I digress...again.. sigh 

After cutting them in half, the hemming went like a charm.  This stuff sews like butter.  I'm thinking of buying another dozen and sewing me up a blouse or something to wear with it... you think I'm kidding.. not!  ;o)



It's going to be a busy week.  Company flying in from Idaho that DH hasn't seen in many years.  I'm really looking forward to this.  They get on the phone and do nothing but laugh...  It does a heart good..  ;o)

Hope your day is good... Hugs..

Look What I Found!

Back in 2003, my sweet DH and I attended a reunion of the LRRP Rangers in San Antonio, TX.  What a time we had!  I met some of the most wonderful people I have ever known. Fun, fun, fun!  One of the other wives and I wandered off down the River Walk and came across a guy sitting out in the sun doing pastel caricatures.  I just had to do it.. ;o)  And a couple of days ago I came across this stashed in one of the guest room closets.  I love it...lol  Just as he was finishing up, Karin was standing there hurrying us up... poor guy did a great job anyway...

News of the Day

I've deleted my Facebook account.  While I truly enjoyed it most of the time, I found myself on it far too much.  It seemed that every day I spent more time sitting there looking than I did up and about doing things.  So, yesterday the deletion took place.  I will miss very much being in touch with far away friends, but there really is the old fashioned email and absolutely archaic snail mail.. ;o) 

The weather here has veered to the slightly hot for the last few days.  We've been in and out and find it just as funny now as we did when were we kids...tripping over stuff when the car door is opened and the hot air fogs the glasses.  And it's even funnier when you look over and everyone you see is carrying their glasses in their hand for the very same reason.  ;o)

I've almost completely cleared my work room.  Essentially all of the contents with the exception of my sewing machines and mat cutter, tools and few other things were delivered to the Salvation Army yesterday.  That includes all the craft paints, oil paints, pastels, brushes....everything.  I will let you know if I have any real remorse when the reality finally sets in...lol

Finally got pictures of the spider lilies the other day.  So pretty.  They are like magic, popping up out of nowhere with a splash of color.  

I find it a bit ironic that the City of Sherman does a bit of moaning about losing businesses in the downtown area.  The Sherman Heritage Festival is this weekend...that would be 2 days from now... and not a word of it has been in the paper, on television.... not anywhere.  Does that sound like a real effort to help the downtown businesses... ????  Oh well....

Hope all is well wherever you are and shades of happiness cover your day.  :o)

Hello, Hermine and Cafe Press Impressions

Occasionally a swath of the hurricanes that hit the coast of Texas will swing up here and we'll get rain...sometimes lots of rain.  As far as I have heard, we here in North Central Texas have had pretty steady gentle rain, but no hard downpours.  This is the perfect rain... just enough to fill your hair with fairy diamonds.   ;o)

I haven't mentioned it, but I've opened a Cafe Press shop for Fabric Follies Two... and that's what it's called... Fabric Follies Two.  I decided that before I said anything about it I would order some of it and see if the quality was as good as I would like.  So far, I've ordered and received 2 mugs, 1 set of postcards and 1 journal.  I am really impressed with the quality.  

This is the first one I ordered.  The pic on this one is of the first crazy quilt block I ever made.  The colors are great and image is clear.  But I hadn't quite figured our how to make the image wrap around, so I did another image.

This one is the pic of the bottlebrush bush that was outside our motel in El Cajon, CA.  It did much better.  With the mug, I also added postcards and a journal.

The quality of these is wonderful.  I have been so impressed .. ;o)  I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it.  So now I will go ahead and mention the Cafe Press Shop..lol 






Looks to be a busy day ahead... Good day for cleaning out my work room... again.. ;o)

Hope all is good for you today.

Creating A Home... Free Thread Holder Tutorial

One of the most popular posts on this blog concerns a thread holder that my sweet DH made for me a few years ago.  It's made of wood and is really good for use with a side table.... However, if there is no side table and you have to either hold the thread/yarn in your lap or on the floor, this may not work too well.

 Jim, from Creating A Home , has posted a wonderful tute using the most basic thing on the kitchen shelf... a coffee container.    I had to make me one.  I use it not only for crocheting, but also for needle tatting, holding the thread/yarn when I am warping my Kromski Harp, when I'm measuring thread/yarn for my tablet weaving loom..and any other time I need to pull a continuous length of thread/yarn.  Love it...

I think the heat has finally pushed my bad mood buttons.  Been a little funky for the last few days... my poor sweetie..sigh  So I think in response to the cold wave pushing through that will bring the temps down to 97° (we can only hope) today, I will be looking around and appreciating all that I have... my sweet DH, those warm snuggles in bed in the mornings, even the gray in my hair.. ;o)  Soooo.... for a few days we will be playing Pollyanna around here... it never fails to make me realize that bad moods are just that... not even a reality... just a passing fancy...

Have a really good day.. ;o)

The Winter Guest

I was working hard on finishing up the cards, shuttles and thread packets for the last Tablet Weaving Class at the RR Historical Museum tomorrow.  DH was gone to coffee...the house was quiet.  I began to scan through the guide on the television and came across a movie starring Emma Thompson... she's one of my very favorites.  I had never heard of the movie, but decided to watch it anyway just because she was in it.  And another thing... this was the Directorial debut for Alan Rickman... another of my favorites.

I have to say that it was one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time.  The depth of the personal insights for all the characters reached out and  touched me. Emma portrayed a relatively young widow with a 17 y/o son... the visitor was her mother who was portrayed by Emma's real mother, Phyllida Law... and their interactions were so deeply true to life.  I cannot tell you about the movie... if I did I would only make it sound trite.  I am unable to verbalize how it affected me... It may not do the same for you. But I have to give this movie an absolute 10..

Have a wonderful day.. ;o)

Kitchen Towel Holder Pattern

I was wandering the web the other day looking at some of my favorite craft sites and came across a pattern for something almost like this.  For the life of me I cannot remember where it was.. sigh  If any of you know where to find that pattern, please let me know and I will give the author of that post the credit she deserves.

I did make one change to the pattern, but this one is almost completely the same...

What I needed:

1 metal clothes hanger
Cotton yarn ... I used Sugar and Cream Cotton  Yarn by Lily but this pattern would work with acrylic or wool in either sport or worsted weight
Crochet Hook  size I

The first thing I did was have my DH cut a metal clothes hanger to a length of approx. 10 inches.  Then we curled the 10 inch length into a circle with the ends overlapping about 1 inch.  I used tape to hold the ends together.

Row 1:  Starting anywhere on the circle, attach the yarn.  SC as many stitches around  the metal circle as it takes to hide the metal circle. Join with a slip stitch to first sc.

Row 2:  Ch 1, sc in same stitch and in each sc around the circle.  Join last sc with a sl st to first sc of round.  Ch 1, turn,

Row 3: sc in same stitch, sc in next 11sc,  ch 1, turn.

Row 4 thru 14: , sc in same stitch, sc in next 11 sc,  ch1, turn,

Row 15: sc in same stitch,  sc in next 4 sc, ch 2, skip next 2 sc, sc in next 5 sc, ch 1, turn, (The skip 2 sc and the 2 ch stitches make your buttonhole.)

Row 15: sc in same st, sc in next 11 st, ch 1, turn,

Row 16:  sc in same st, sc in next 11 st. ch 1, but do not turn.
 Now sc in each stitch completely around the piece.  Fasten off.

I used a button about 1" across.  Fold the top of the piece down until it just touches the circle.  Find the button hole and use that as a guide to place your button.  Sew the button on using either the same yarn as what was used in the piece or any sewing thread that you like.

Now sit back and enjoy your Kitchen Towel Holder.. ;o)

This is a really quick project.  This was crocheted in about an hour last night while watching tv.  I hope you enjoy it.  It would make great quick gifts for Christmas... throw in a couple of kitchen towels, a few hand knitted dish cloths and there ya' go.. ;o)

The summer sun is still hanging in there giving up 100+ temps every day.  Even the birds get all their running around done in the morning or evening..

Have much to do today... Hope your day is good and that you are staying cool.. ;o)

Still can't put any comments up on my own blog...?????

First of all... thanks to Kristy of This Bean Knits for trying and succeeding to comment on my blog.. ;o)  However... I have not been able to post a single answering comment or any other comment since I changed the look of my blog... Still wondering what's up with that and having a dickens of a time trying to contact Blogger Support... Oh well... will keep trying.  Just wanted everyone to know that I am aware of the problem and trying to fix it... sigh