I like putting puzzles together but I don't want boxes of them setting around. You put the puzzle together once and I'm ready to move on to the next one. I wonder if they have puzzle exchanges. You know, like, game exchanges where you take in your x-box/PlayStation games you are tired of and exchange them for something different. In a city, the size of Phoenix you would think so. I guess I need to do an Internet search out of curiosity.
So, while I was stuck sitting in my chair because moving set the back muscles to spasming, I found a puzzle site out on the web. The site is called Jigidi and at a price, I can afford. Free! I'm having a lot of fun zoning out and putting the puzzles together. My favorites are landscapes and doors, of all things.
This puzzle was created by jayelldolls and the link to the puzzle is http://www.jigidi.com/puzzle.php?id=614Y0VWL. I have noticed it takes me about twice as long as the slowest time shown. I don't know if I'm slowing up in my old age, have trouble with shape and color placement, or I'm taking the time to really enjoy putting them together.
Well, I have some more puzzles bookmarked, so I'm going to dive back in and avoid the housekeeping for a while longer.
I found some pictures of quilts Mother and I collaborated on and I am playing with Hubby's computer to see if I can up-load them. Guess what, I think it is going to work!
This is the last embroidered quilt Mom and I made together. This quilt is for a friend of my younger sister. Tricia and my sister went to high school together. Mom and Dad kind of finished raising her, the hugs and encouragement when she needed it and the lecture/boot when she need that too. If Mom called, as she became frailer Tricia was right there to help Mom when we couldn't get to her. As a token of Mother's appreciation for Tricia's time and trouble, Mom wanted to make her a quilt. My sister helped with color selection for the embroidery floss and borders. I suggested the flying geese sashing to tie all the different blocks and colors together. The great part was having Tricia help to pick out the fabrics because Tricia didn't know the quilt was for her. She was just having fun playing with fabric!
As I was researching how to make flying geese, I discovered the symbolism of the background as being the sky. I had originally planned to make the background scrappy too. So my 'ah moment' was to turn the background into blue and make all the corner squares green for fields. I thought it pulled the quilt together quite nicely so did everyone else. The original idea for the border didn't work once I had the main body done. So a trip to the quilt shop with it laid out on the floor in the classroom auditioning fabric culminated with me calling my sister and asking her to come help. Boy, does it ever help to have someone who has had some art/color training! She didn't have any trouble pulling the hand-dyed fabric for the outside border off the shelf. I looked at it, but it was expensive...and I was spending Mom's money. The inside border took a little more trial and error to get the right shade of green for it. Tricia was so overwhelmed she cried when Mom gave it to her.
Mom's being silly in this one! She likes having her picture taken about as well as I do!
This quilt was for my sister. The embroidered blocks are lilacs and dragonflies. I decided it needed to be set together with some kind of lattice sashing. There are two colors of green. The blue patches are the same fabric as the border believe it or not and the on-point cornerstones are a deep purple. I had to hand-sew the points to the border to get them to come out right. There were 50 billion little pieces to this sashing. I was surprised I didn't have more problems setting it together.
This one went to my older brother and his wife. The embroidered blocks are Jack Dempsey rose blocks. As my sister and I were trying to find fabric to set this quilt together with, one of the ladies who worked at the quilt shop said, if it were her, she would eliminate some of the excess white around the edges. The light bulb went off for us and we changed up the layout. Then, as I am wont-to-do, I changed it even further after I got home and started playing around with the idea. I ripped and resewed several spots because I was having trouble getting it to lay smooth with no puckers. There were a few spots I ended up hand sewing to get it right.
Yeah, a blog post from some pictures I found while cleaning out and rearranging closets! And yes, I'm avoiding the mess, why do you ask? LOL
Well as you can tell I have been playing with the format of my blog. What do you think? I'm kind of liking it. It looks clean, easy for me to read without my glasses. I have most of the blogs I read listed. I do have a few that I can't get Blogger to list. Strange. I would love to add a quote-of-the-day or something similar as a top gadget but not if it includes an ad. You know rearranging the furniture on your blog is a whole lot less stress on the old bod than moving furniture in a house! LOL Off to play some more.
I finished the puzzle book and it is now in the trash! I went to this web site and downloaded instruction on how to work the puzzles. Piece of cake! I had more trouble with a level 2 puzzle than I did the level 4 puzzles. If only crossword puzzle worked out so easily!
Next Item. Derek's quilt.
I decided to do the Attic Window treatment to the blocks. I used a modified version of the Easy Attic Window. I saw no point in the second cut and seam. Less cuts and seams for me means less matching and more satisfaction with the finished product. KISS it works every time!
Thursday I went to Jenny's and had her lay out the blocks where she thought they ought to go. We had enough blocks left over to add another row. So the quilt has grown to be at least a regular size and may end up queen depending on how much green I think it needs between the blocks for balance. While that is fermenting in the back of my mind I have been working on the last item. . .
Sister Suzy's sweater.
The gradual color change is coming along nicely. After showing my plan to my sister and a friend, who are both artists, and both saying they thought it would work, I have foraged ahead. The back of the sweater has some long floats so when I get to the last section I may try to do some duplicate stitches.
While I was out on the web killing time instead of being productive. I ran across a blog that reads like I wrote it, In the Shadows by Shadowmoss. I found her blog through Brian Gore's blog goin' RV Boondocking .
So what did I take away from reading her blog? Not entirely sure. There are several musings.
Why do we have more things we want to do than the energy to do them?
Are we trying to meet the expectations that we think the world has for us and not what we really want to do? You can't serve two masters.
Or because we are not well 'domesticated' we find society's expectations overwhelming? I used the word 'domesticated' in the context of The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.
Because we tend to accumulate unnecessary stuff, is that where the lack of energy comes from? Feng Shui says the stuff you accumulate blocks the flow of energy in your life and you are, also, avoiding dealing with unpleasant life issues; and your local psychologist says so, too.
Are we adult ADD? We think about doing things, we plan the projects out, and we may even start the projects but the projects or chores just never get done. Our minds wonder off to something else or we get interrupted and we don't get back to 'whatever' to get it finished. So, the project is one more thing to weigh us down.
Or are we basically 'present hedonists' and are at emotional odds with our 'Protestant' upbringing which makes us so tired? Professor Philip Zimbardo video The Secret Power of Time
It is nice to know I'm not the only one out there that can't seem to 'git'er done'. The only solution I have seen or heard of, about the problem of 'no energy/too much stuff' is pretend you have the 'energy'. (psychology) You just keep putting one foot in front of the other until 'energy' becomes a habit. That whole scenario of pretending to be full of pep just makes me tired and frustrated thinking about it. Because I can only pretend (lie to myself) so long and I know it.
You know, I think the two, no energy and too much stuff, are related somehow or they are symptoms of the same problem. I will have to give that some thought and see what kind of research there is on the relationship of the two. More time to kill on the web! All right! LOL
Hubby brought home some Sudoku puzzle books. I have found another thing to suck up my time. With cruising for something to read on the web and now I have Sudoku. I didn't get a whole lot done last week. The only thing I finished was the scarf using the yarn from the 'yarn tasting' event I went to at the Twist Yarn Shop in Wichita. When I get pictures I will post them with a run down of the yarns and the stitch I used.
After downloading instructions on how to solve the puzzles, I am now up to level two in the book. I am starting to ration the puzzles to one a day. What a time sucker! I got too much stuff I want to get done.
I went out and picked apples today. I don't know what kind of apples they are but I think they are Cox Orange Pippins. Whatever they are, they taste good!
The tree next to it has some small yellow-greenish apples that are dry, mealy and with no flavor at all. So that tree is going to get a severe prune job so we can mow under it. I think this tree just has the root stock left. I will leave it to pollinate the 'Cox'.
These two trees were dwarfs from Stark Brothers. One had five modern apples grafted on it and the other had five antiques grafted on it. The neighbor's dog used one for a fire hydrant and the other, the local young malcontent used it as the object of a temper tantrum. So we have been waiting for them to grow out and see if we had anything usable on them. The 'Cox' isn't a dwarf any more, either. So I'm going to do some topping on it.
The other apple tree in the yard is an Arkansas Black. The apples on it won't be ready for another month. And I think I need to find a tree to cross pollinate with it. It just hasn't set that much fruit in the three or four years it has had apples.
So tomorrow I am going to start on the damaged apples. The damaged ones have bug bites. I saw wasps, BIG flies, and some butterflies. I am undecided as to what to make with them. I could dehydrate them, make applesauce, or apple butter, but I'm looking for something with more pizazz. Hubby doesn't much like apple butter, I love it on toast, but I'm trying to get away from grains. Applesauce doesn't do that much for me but hubby likes it. If I dehydrate them, beyond pies, what I am I going to do with them? Guess I'll sleep on it. I'm sure to wake up with some kind of inspiration.
Time to check on dinner. We're having Hawaiian Ribs from Stephanie O'Dea's blog A Year of Slow Cooking.
