Dawn's Early Light: blue strings for RSC

It's been a long time since I've devoted a full day to relaxing with some piecing up in the quilting loft.  I ventured up right around 8AM, turning on Virgin River, and continued piecing some blue string blocks for the Dawn's Early Light quilt.  A fair amount of time has clearly been spent in the quilting loft lately, because I only tune in to Virgin River while quilting... and I recall beginning the series right around New Year's.

Folks, this photo is quite misleading!  The tidy piles give the impression that much of today was neat, petite, smooth and organized.  Bahaha... but this is the current state after about 8 (EIGHT!) hours of piecing and burning through most of my scrap blue strings!  

The bag be empty, folks!

Half of the necessary blocks are completed, with the remaining half partially started.  The plan for tomorrow will be to check the 1.5", 2" and 2.5" bins for blue strips to trim down into strings;  if not, some yardage will be pulled to finish these up.

The red/white star block subunits for Dawn's Early Light have been machine-side as my leader-ender.

... and this was my sign to call it a day.  

With another 4-5" of fresh snow, the fire's been burning away all day.  

There are zero plans in my mind to head out running, much to the NON delight of Bailee girl.
I've officially allowed the weather to win and beat my mindset.  Ugh.  I've been in a funk...

Perhaps tomorrow though... 

A batch of soap was also prepped this afternoon while lunch was cooking.  This "Lavender Rose" is a new-to-me fragrance. It came home with me from a Florida flea market last summer, and seems to be holding its scent during the initial phases of saponification.  Some ground up oats were also added to the mixture to act as a light exfoliant.  Unfortunately, I'm on-hold for any more soap creation until I reorder some olive oil - going to give this olive oil pomace a try; seems to be a good deal.

Linking up with SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge today.

Finished Friday - 2011 RSC Squares; and a lil' tree-trimming, wood-stacking, and dog-grooming

After Tuesday's organization of flimsies and UFOs, Wednesday found me dusting off the Q'nique and refreshing my skills with the 2011 Rainbow Scrap Challenge top.

I'll say again, all these skills are truly coming back just like riding a bike!  There is only one quilt I remember where I sewed the binding to the front and actually hand-stitched on the back.  Psht.  I really don't have the patience for the hand-sewing; I hope that doesn't make me a bad person.  Since I've pretty much mastered machine-sewing the binding, that's the ticket I'm sticking with.  

A scrappy binding was attached from digging in the 2.5" strip bin, and v'iola!  My first full-quilt finish in a few years.  Although not 100% certain, but she will most likely be packaged up and sent off to
Quilts for Kids

Speaking of riding a bike...
Last summer, a couple coworkers and myself started meeting up weekly for a 'bike around the lake.'  This year, we've grown to five ladies in our group, and yesterday was our first meetup of the summer.  The ride is just shy of 9.25 miles and mostly flat, and it was a BEAUTIFUL mid-60s low-humidity morning.

Feeling great and energetic following the ride, motivation was kicking for some outdoorsy tasks that have been on my todo list when time (and weather) allowed.
We have a 20-year old apple tree as a sole-survivor from a half-dozen or so that were planted when we first bought the land, AND remarkably has been producing apples in recent years.  The apples haven't been the best, but I'm hoping that a good (first-ever) heavy pruning will kickstart some legitimate production...  eventually... even if it's definitely the WRONG time of the year for pruning.

The saying is, "if it acts like a shade-tree, it needs a prunin'!"

Bailee girl was most definitely enjoying her time in the shade!  LOL.
(Before)

Although I didn't have any ladders, I dare say that a good pruning commenced.
(After)

POV after cleaning up and clearing many of the middle branches... and YES!  The thought(s) did cross my mind: what if I fell? you're no spring chicken anymore. no one is home.  are these branches strong enough? is your knee really okay to handle this?

We can now see SKY from ground-level.

What a happy lil' tree - Love, Love, Love.
Much of the top is still quite full, however we'll see how she behaves moving forward.

Last summer, the sole-surviving cherry tree was also heavily pruned, its first ever also.  And I mean, HEAVY pruning!

And she's LOADED with cherries this year, all beginning to ripen.  Montmorency cherries; they are a bit on the tart side, but make a MEAN cherry pie and some great wine!

THEN, ...this pile.  I mean, who needs to pay for a gym membership when you have outside physical hobbies too?  Hm, maybe we shouldn't actually call this a 'hobby.'  Perhaps 'homesteading life' is a better description, but all the same... this load of logs was processed and dumped into a pile last summer, so it was given my attention for the next couple of hours.

No, no no... the entire pile hasn't been finished!  LOL.  Good golly, THAT'd be impressive!  But an additional 'dent' was made and a pallet added and stacked while being spoiled with absolutely PERFECT afternoon weather;  still upper 60s/maybe lows 70; partly sunny.  The pile is my ongoing 'little bit at a time' past-time this summer when I'm in need of some physical activity.

Some soapin' has been happening these past couple of days as well

THEN, today... oy! Bailee girl was well overdo for a bath and grooming!  Goodness, I was a bit shocked at the passing of time when I checked the calendar.  Today marks a day shy of 10 weeks since her last groom!  

Bailee's our 6 and a half year old Golden Doodle.  She has the absolute BEST demeanor!  Her fur has the natural poodle curl when she's wet...

but once fully dried, it relaxes a bit more like the golden retriever in her.
My goodness!  What a poofball.  LOL. 
I wasn't the least bit tempted at keeping her hair long; she's due for a nice summer cut.

Look at those furry paws... the water was FILTHY from them due to all the rain (and mud) this past week

Peek-a-boo!  (couldn't resist)

No WONDER she's been slip-sliding on the hard wood floors lately...
(before)

(after)

Seriously, 10 weeks?!?!? THAT won't happen again.
So one full garbage bin later...

Our Bailee is back!

... and of course it rained all morning... LOL. 

Winter's here; Whipped Lotions & Soap

Snow is finally falling in northern Wisconsin.  Despite have a gloriously warm pre-winter season these past few weeks, the furnace has been running, burning up the LP.  Yesterday, however, Paul made sure everything was ready to get the wood-furnace set for the season, considering temps are expected to plummet this week :(
Last night = our first wood heat of the year.
It gets SUPER TOASTY HOT!
But DRY!!!

Therefore, this afternoon, the humidifier was set up.
Also, since my lotion containers are just about empty, the afternoon was whittled away whipping up a new batch of lotion.

I've made lotion bars in the past, but once I cooked up my first whipped lotion recipe last summer, the lotion bars were all but forgotten; although I still have one of my cocoa butter bars left (it is wonderful for my elbows, knees and heels).

As a reminder...

Simple recipe for whipped lotion

120g (~1/2 cup) coconut oil

120g (~1/2 cup) Shea butter

4g beeswax

1/2 tsp Vitamin E

Melt oil, butter and beeswax together.  

Mix, add vitamin E, and then chill in fridge for ~30 minutes.

Whip to desired consistency...

Within a few minutes, it takes on a frosting appearance.

After whipping for about 10 minutes, a thick and creamy texture is reached; ready to pour.

This small batch fills 3 of my larger and smaller containers;  each container receives some fragrance (the rough measurement:  5mL or 1/8 - 1/4 tsp).

Since I was in the kitchen and had my ingredients readily available, a 2lb batch of soap was cooked up as well.

This batch used my simple master-batch recipe:
240g Coconut Oil
280g Olive Oil
280g Canola Oil
240g Yogurt/Water half-n-half (frozen)
113g Lye

At the completion of cooking, 1/4 ground oatmeal and 1Tbsp honey were added.  Additionally, it was enhanced with some Hazelnut Cappuchino fragrance.  The light exfoliating nature of the oatmeal is my ALL-TIME favorite!!!

Switching gears...

My quilting and crocheting world has been quiet, but while cleaning up some photography files, this image of our rooster, Sunset, inspired me to make up a color-card.  I haven't jump on-board Bonnie's mystery En Provence (yet), however Andee seems to agree that these colors may just work out.

Happy Sunday!

Soaping Sunday, RSC 15 & some quilt reparing

The lard-rendering crockpot was emptied and turned off last night at 11:00;  four quart jars were filled and cooled overnight...

...never having rendered lard before, waking up to this picture was kinda fun!  Pie crusts recipes were sought out and discussed, however, the first use of the lard was reserved for a new soap recipe to try!

Tropical Vacation, hot process soap will spend the night in the mold seeing I didn't make it up until mid-afternoon.

The 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge had me teaming up with Andee (The Modern Diary).  She pieced up Bonnie K. Hunter's "Betty's Choice" blocks (shown below) while I designed up a simple connector block; each of us creating two blocks per month;  one to keep and one to share.  A final block (aqua) was pieced today to round out my collection to a dozen.  I can't wait to see these blocks play together!

A bit of time was spent organizing up my 'piles' around the sewing area, and an old "FIX-ME-UP-SOMEDAY" quilt has me inspired.

This Blue Hearts was one of my first quilts made in the early 2000s, and is begging for some mending.

The quilt was only tied with buttons & yarn in a few locations; clearly this was created LONG before I knew about the method and idea of actually QUILTING the layers together! 

It has been loved and wore in, certainly!  A poly batting had been used, a simple muslin backing -- it was such a snuggler!!!!

....and falling apart at the seams from its use.  

I've already separated the layers and stitched up the seams that were falling apart.  I'm planning to play around with the quilting, branching out with some custom quilting rather than a pantograph.  It'll be a good piece to practice with.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Soaping Sunday [Orchid & Amber; Ginger & Lemon tea]

The past week has fired me up for some soap making again.  The gift baskets of soaps and lotions were a hit;  there wasn't any one fragrance that won the crowd over -- although the Cherry Almond and Hazelnut soaps ended up getting sniffed a bit more than the rest.

So -- a new batch of Cherry Almond, as well as a batch of Chocolate Hazelnut, were made up yesterday, using my go-to recipe for my hot-process method.  Although, the 850g recipe is a WEE bit too large to fit my 2lb mold comfortably;  no biggy if I have an extra mold or two handy for the overflow. 

The fragrance oil used for the Choc Hazelnut is called "Mint Chocolate chip," but there didn't seem to be any mint tones.  At all.  Therefore, I dumped in the last of my Hazelnut (maybe 2 tsp), to give it a little fragrance assistance.

I used the last drop of Castor oil with those batches, literally.  I also emptied the last of my yogurt, but had ZERO interest in running to the store --- on the DAY after Christmas.  No thank you, ma'am.

Therefore, I tinkered around with the SoapCalc.com site and came up with a good standby recipe...

... and used some remaining Heavy Whipping Cream (left over from an amazingly rich hot chocolate recipe.)  Note:  I also reduced the oils to 800g and decreased the water % -- the result:  a perfect fit for my 2lb mold, and a nicely hardening bar.

Orchid & Amber milk soap

Seeing how the suds were so excessive AND the soap feeling lovingly luxurious (from the single soap ball created from scraping the sides), this may end up being my new go-to.

THEN---today, I wanted to make up another couple of batches, but... I was out of olive oil!  nearing Ol' Mother Hubbard stage.  Once again, I had zero interest in heading to the store, so....

.... playing commenced on the site once more, in addition to some research on using brewed tea as a liquid...

Ginger & Lemon tea soap

The tea cubes ended up being darker than I expected.  Two bags of Green Tea & Lemon, along with a sprig of fresh Rosemary were steeped for about 2 hours before freezing into cubes.

Once emulsified, the mixture looked a bit like melted caramels!  

I needn't be worried about this recipe as a non-sudser!  Running some cleanup water into the bowl not only gave me an idea of the bubbles it is capable of, it also gave me an excellent idea of the aroma created by the lemongrass & ginger essential oil combination.  The ginger seems to be hidden under the citrusy lemon fragrance.  Very light and 'clean'!