a puzzle for you

How did this:




an ornate box turtle get into this:



Ducky's water bucket?

I went out to feed and water the critters last night.  When I got to Ducky's pen and peered over the fence looking in her water bucket there was the shell of an ornate box turtle floating in her half-filled water bucket.  Then the water and shell moved a little bit.  I quickly retrieved the bucket from the pen and dumped it out.  The turtle didn't seen too worse for the wear and headed for a rock to hide under.

So how did that turtle get in her water bucket?  The bucket is twice as high as the turtle was long and where would a duck grab hold of a turtle to plop it in the bucket?  I know Ducky is not your average duck but still.



Ducky looks very similar to this one.  I guess I need one of those wildlife camcorders to see what is going on in my backyard.  But then again maybe I don't!  Did you every read 'Tuesday'?

Have a good day!

Judy

Rain

Rain!  We have Rain!  And Thunder!  And Rain!  Whoopee!  Maybe the ponds will fill and the cracks in the yard will close up!  And in a week or two maybe the farmers will get to plant wheat!  And the leak in the roof is still there!

Yeah!

Judy

life

Life or why I haven't been posting up-dates on my latest creative endeavor.  I have had to go back to work.  Hubby has been laid-off now for two years.  My pension is not covering the bills.  I was given the opportunity to go back to work so I have.  I will be continuing the blog but the posting is going to be few and far between as I just don't have the time to be as creative.

Catch you when I can!

Judy

Sister Suzy is off to college

Sister Suzy is off to college in a couple of weeks, so we have been scurrying around getting things ready for her to move into her dorm type apartment.  She decided that a pedestal bed that she could store things under was a good idea.  So I have made a tailored bed-skirt out of the material we bought for curtains when we were BD (before doors) while building our house.

Then I reupholstered an office chair she had found at a garage sale while out and about with Hubby.  The chair had a brick red Herculon fabric that was stained.  Original I was just going to make a slipcover for the chair but had a flash of brilliance upon spying a piece of Naugahyde in a tub and went for the reupholstering.  It took a while to do because I had to do a mock up of the back in muslin.  Naugahyde is not forgiving when you go to poking a bunch of holes in it.  The very back of the seat back is smaller than the front of the back.  So there was the ease factor to get right between the two pieces, also.  The seat was a breeze; just cut a big square and tack it on.  I think the chair turned out fairly well, all things considered.  (I am going to have to get the blow dryer out and heat up the wrinkle so it relaxes out.)

The next thing I worked on was a bag for her yoga mat, block and belt.

To make one you need a pair of blue jeans that the yoga mat will fit down the leg, two zippers, two 'D' rings, some Velcro, a seam ripper and a good pair of scissors.  Trim the hem of one leg then measure up about 29" and cut.  Cut the other leg off at the crotch line and open both of legs up flat with the seam ripper.  Take off the back pockets and the belt loops.

Measure the circumference of the pant leg then divide by pi and then again by 2 to get the radius of your circular piece for the bottom.  Lay that out on the second pant leg and cut it out.  For the yoga block pocket I measured up the side across the width and down the other side adding 1" for seam allowances and 1" for ease.  I didn't take into account for the couture of the mat when it is in the bag so the block is tight in the pocket.  I should have added at least a couple more inches for that.  Then I measured up the end of the block and across the length of the block adding 1/2" for seam allowance and 2 1/2" for the hem at the top of the pocket.  Then doing my best origami folding, after cutting and putting in the hem at the top, I fold the corners and pinned for all I was worth.  I marked the outline of the block on the leg that was to contain the yoga mat and pinned, shuffled fabric around until I had it place where I wanted it and sewed it up.  It worked!

Built the strap to hold the block into the pocket and applied Velcro.  Next I took the fabric that was left and made the cargo pocket to hold the yoga belt, socks, and gloves.  I cut 4" off the top of the piece and inserted the zipper I found in my stash.  Did the origami thing again with the marking, pinning and sewing.  It worked!  Again!

Then I tackled putting the back pockets on the other side of the leg.  One pocket is closed with Velcro and the other with a zipper.  Easy peasy!

Sewed up the side seam, then put the bottom in along with the bottom part of the strap with the 2 'D" rings.  I had to piece the strap together from the seat of the pants cutting it into 3" strips.  Next up was the 2" hem at the top of the bag.  Then applying the belt loops and bar-tacking the tie strap to the top.  Finally I applied the top part of the carrying strap and I was done.  (The tie strap came from the flat-felt seam I cut out with my first miss-step at making the bag.)

I showed it to Sister Suzy and she was quite impressed!  Yeah!

Have a good day!

Judy

kelsey's baby quilt

One of the girls Sister Suzy graduated with is having a little one in August.  Sister Suzy asked if I would make a baby quilt for her to give to Kelsey.  Of course, I will make one!

I found the pattern for the block a while ago and thought it was a great way to use scraps.  It was from the Quilting Daily web site and a hexagon shaped baby blanket.  It is baby quilt #4.  I loved the idea of the block construction but not the shape of the quilt.  So me being me, I changed it around into what I believe to be a far more useable shaped quilt.

The quilt measures 43" by 55".  You will need 18 whole blocks, 4 half blocks, 9 half diamonds and 2 quarter diamonds.  The border is 2 1/2" wide with a matching bias-cut French binding.  I don't know how much fabric is in the quilt because I used scraps but there is 13" of fabric in the binding.  LOL!

I used a traditional weight cotton-batting for the inside layer.  Not as thick as I like but after washing the quilt it has a very old-timey look so all is wonderful.

This is the shape of the basic unit of the block.

I started by sewing long strips of fabric together and then cutting out the shapes.  Lots of wasted material in my mind and as you cut, your temple gets smaller. Not very satisfying! So what to do?  How about paper piecing?  I have never paper-pieced and it works amazingly well.  Here is a link to a youtube video if you are curious.  And when you have the three basic units sewn together they look like this.

Well I got tired of putting the blocks together the recommended way and I was also running out of strips long enough, so I tried something a little bit different.  I rotated my scraps 90 degrees and made a few blocks this way.

I thought that was cute and wish I had done a few more like them.

I did outline quilting for the most part in the body of the quilt.  I wanted something different for the quilting on the border.  I did a search in some quilt stencil books I have and found this one I really liked.

The stencil comes from the book Quilting Designs from the Amish by Pepper Cory.  When you are looking for stencil designs for machine quilting look for designs that flow from one repeat to the other.  If you can't take your finger and follow the line for long distances the design is not a good candidate like the very top design.  There is a lot of starting and stopping in that one.  The one I chose (in the middle) the lines flow for however long you want to repeat the design.  This is how I did the corner.

There are several ways to do corners.  Hum, I think, I will do a blog post on how to make your quilt stencil design turn the corner!

And lastly the back and label!

Bubbles!  I love that fabric for the backs of children's quilts.  Yes, I do!

Until next time, have a good day!

Judy

chocolate covered strawberries

We bought a flat of strawberries and before I froze all of them I wanted to try something new with the strawberries. I have always been curious as to what all the buzz was about with chocolate dipped fruit. So, I had my first chocolate covered strawberry this summer.  They were okay, just, okay.
 
I must have a truly unsophisticated palate, because, why would you cover up the wonderful taste of strawberry with chocolate?  So I turned the bowl of chocolate over to the resident chocoholic (Sister Suzy) and sprinkled a wee touch of sugar on my bowl of strawberries and was in heaven.

It just wasn’t the strawberries, I tried chocolate with pineapple and blueberries, and that didn't turn my crank either.  I know!  Pure sacrilege!  A female who doesn't like something covered in chocolate!  What can I say, except, I will save the my chocolate for cookies, cakes or brownies!

Have a good day!

Judy

The apricot post

This is the apricot post I promised so many moons ago.  I finally got my recipes together and at the computer all at the same time!  Amazing!

History; I like apricots, specifically dried apricots, a lot.  So I bought two sweet-pit apricot trees from Stark Brothers Nursery about 12 years ago not knowing that the Kansas State Extension Service considers apricot trees as ornamental because they bloom so early.  What happens is we will have a spell of warm weather in late February or early March then we will have a heavy frost or snow storm late March or early April most years.  The blooms freeze so no fruit.  We have only gotten two crops from the trees.

A couple of years ago was our first harvest of apricots.  I pitted, dipped them in a Fruit Fresh solution and individually froze them.  They turned dark about six months after freezing them.  I was disappointed, I thought just dipping them would have been enough.  They tasted okay, but weren't pretty any more, best used for cooking. I then dehydrated what was left for use in cooking.   If I ever try freezing apricots again I will freeze them in a simple syrup solution with Fruit Fresh in the solution to see if the color is preserved any better.  One of the issues with just dehydrating the apricots that are dipped in Fruit fresh or lemon juice is they will go ahead and turn dark.  You really need to treat them with sulfur to keep the apricots from darkening.  Too much sulfur consumption and I develop hives.  No Thank-You!

This year I decided to do something different with the apricots, so I decided to make leathers with them and apricot nectar because I found a couple of recipes that used apricot nectar in them.  I also wanted to use the nectar in fruit punches.

This first recipe I found several years ago.  It calls for fresh apricots but I have used dried (re-hydrated) in it with good results.  The recipe is called Djedjad (Chicken Roasted With Apricots).  It calls for rose water but if you don't have any, just leave it out.  The rose water does add a nice subtle fragrance and taste though, so if you have access to an Indian Market go for it. Or snag a cup of fresh rose petals; bring a 1/2 cup of water to a boil.  Then pour the water on the rose petals, cover and let steep for 15 minutes.  Strain and store in the fridge.  I freeze the rose water in little condiment cups in one-teaspoon portions; ice cube trays would work too.

I have fixed Djedhad several different ways.  As described baking a whole chicken.  Then as rotisserie chicken with the apricots stuffed in the body cavity and then all the pan juices and apricots pureed in the blender as gravy.  The last way was with the chicken cut up in a baking dish and baked.  The last way I though was the best.

The next way I have used apricots is in Apricot-Orange Marmalade, very good, and of course Apricot Jam. (use the second recipe)

This year I used Apricot Leather recipe from makeandtake.com.  These were great and we still have a few left that I have hidden away for this fall.  The other recipe is for Apricot Nectar from myfamilyprepared blog.  I found a recipe for Apricot Nectar Pound Cake from allrecipes.com we loved and an Apricot Nectar Cheesecake from bestrecipes.com we haven't tried yet but looks promising.  I modified the pound cake recipe somewhat (What else is new!) so here it is.

1 yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup apricot nectar

1/2 cup apricot nectar
1/3 cup sugar
4 TBSP butter

1 cup of whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 TBSP sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9 x 13-cake pan.  In a large bowl mix together the cake mix, eggs, 1/2-cup sugar and cup of apricot nectar on low speed until blended.  Then mix on high speed for 3 minutes.  Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan.

When the cake is cool poke holes all over the top of the cake.  In a small saucepan mix the 1/2-cup apricot nectar, 1/3-cup sugar and butter. Cook over a medium heat stirring until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved.  Pour over the cake; place the cake in the fridge while making the whipped cream topping.

Beat the cream until stiff.  Then add the vanilla extract and 2 TBSP of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Spread over the cake and keep chilled until ready to serve.

Okay this is long enough!
Have a good day!

Judy