Living Simply
Walking out the front door to go for a walk, I breathed in the fresh air as I walked across the street to the nearby park trail.
What a gorgeous day it was!
The trail is a little over a mile and I only saw one other person around who was sitting on a bench.
As I continued walking, I looked up and saw the beautiful blue sky and it reminded me of the song by Fred Rogers on his TV show “it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”
Because indeed, it was beautiful!
I purchased the Bjorn Bear Quilt pattern to see how well I would do with all the piecing as I haven’t done much piecing as a “sometime” quilter.
I was surprised at how easy it was. It was delightful to see how each section connected with another and made the faces of the bears complete.
This is the start of the nose of each bear. Working in “assembly like” manner, it went pretty quick.
Once you start cutting and sewing the pieces together, it goes quickly.
Isn’t it cute?
And here are pictures of the finished quilt. I decided to use a modern square type quilting pattern for this quilt.
Here’s the final picture of the finished Bjorn Bear Quilt. Our granddaughter, who is not yet one year old, enjoyed the colorful quilt. I decided to use a baby blue in the back so it can be used by a boy or girl.
What do you think?
Awhile ago, my sister-in-law sent me a Facebook post from a nursing home in Fargo that was looking for quilts for their residents. I had lots of fabric left over from other quilts that I had made so I decided to make two and will be delivering it to them this weekend.
Hopefully the two residents who get them like them. I didn’t worry too much about the binding and sewed them both on the machine instead of hand sewing it. They came out quite beautiful.
I used the Fast Four Patch Quilt Pattern by the blogger Diary of A Quilter. I change the pattern some but use the same measurements.
What do you think of these scrappy quilts?
A recent trip to Las Vegas afforded us the privilege of visiting the Red Rock Canyon.
What a beautiful park this is! We went in late morning/early afternoon and the beauty here is spectacular.
Have you visited here at a different time of the year? Our visit was in November.
Our trip back to town also had a beautiful view. Wow! Isn’t it beautiful?
My sister-in-law had requested a queen size quilt about 3 years ago and I finally was able to complete one for her.
Part of the “problem” is that when I first started learning how to sew and quilt, I asked people if I could make quilts for them so I would be able to practice. My sister-in-law was way down on the list of people who requested a quilt as I did them on a first-come first-serve basis.
The Split Decision pattern I used is by Weeks and Ringle from Modern Quilt Studios.
The pattern is very easy as it’s mainly long different sized strips of fabric. My sister-in-law chose her colors and I shopped for fabric. I used a tan color in the back.
On this quilt, I asked the long-armer to quilt it with long curves.
I think it came out quite nicely, no?
It’s been a little while since I made this modern Cascade Quilt which turned out beautifully.
I purchased the kit that included all of the fabric except for the backing from the Craftsy website. It was easy to put together and I’ve received many compliments on it.
I love the bold colors of the varied fabrics.
For the backing, I chose a variegated green fabric. I sent the quilt to a long-armer and asked her to do swirls for the quilting.
What do you think of this quilt? Do you like modern or more classic style quilts?
Somewhere in my early teen years I came across a book called The
Boxcar Children.
This book, written by a first grade school teacher by the name of
Gertrude Chandler Warner, was aimed at children in grades 2-6
yet I can’t remember reading it as a younger child.
I must have stumbled across it at the local library near my home.
We never had books in our house growing up. My mother, who
didn’t make it too far in grade school, never read us story books.
I fell in love with the book and the story it told of 4 orphaned children who fled what they thought was a cruel grandfather although they had never met him. They found and made a home in an abandoned boxcar and thought they were being self sufficient when it was a doctor who the oldest boy was working for who was helping to supply odds and ends for them in addition to what the older boy was able to get on his own.
The grandfather had put an ad in the paper looking for his grandchildren but the doctor remained silent until one of the young girls got sick. The doctor then notifies the grandfather of the situation and when they meet this kind man they move in with him and he, being wealthy, moves the boxcar to his backyard for them.
There are so many ways I enjoyed this book. Although not a negative word is said about the children’s decision to run away from their circumstances, I sense the stubbornness in them ~ one that I also was familiar with growing up. Yet, the way the book tells the story, it was more about the children learning and being given opportunity to work things out for themselves.
I read the series of these books to my boys while they were growing up.
Sometimes, as an “older†adult in need of sanity in this world, I’ll go back and get the 1st book and re-read it a few times.
Do you have a favorite children’s book?
Babies, babies ~ lots of babies being born. So I decided to gift a baby quilt and purchased a baby girl quilt kit called Lily & Loom Candy Splash from the Craftsy website.
The quilt was quite easy to make and came out very pretty.
Since the mother’s favorite colors are pink and purple I decided to make the back of the quilt pink and have it quilted with hearts ~ because it I made with love. Awwww … special.
It came out quite cute, wouldn’t you say?
After a record breaking cold polar vortex week in Minnesota, we finally broke through to a beautiful day of fog.
I love how the oak leaves contrast beautifully against the trees.
The first meal we tried was the One Pot Creamy Chicken Chowder which was delicious!
Our second Home Chef meal was the Penne Pasta with Sun Dried Tomato Cream. This meal is also shown as “mild” for spiciness but I have found that if I use all the red pepper flakes in the recipe I will suffer since I don’t enjoy spicy food.
So with this particular recipe I reduced the red pepper flakes to 1/4 of the packet. That gave the meal a “friendly” hint of spice without being overpowering.
I have to say ~ the Home Chef meals, although “appearing” to be small in portion size, are quite hearty and very delicious. This meal was no exception. Even the mushrooms (and I’m not a mushroom fan) tasted great!
To view the recipe click here.
