2009 August 07 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Weekend Project

August 7, 2009 · by JudyL

You know what I’m avoiding doing, right? Let’s not talk about it any more. The path is big enough that Chad can get to his room without fear of injuring himself and that’s what really matters. You see . . Chad doesn’t like for me to mention him on my blog. I don’t think he really cares but I think it’s all an effort to be disagreeable with mom. So, I won’t go into a lot of details . . use your imagination. He wanted the downstairs clean. His room is spotless. His bathroom sparkles! He cleaned his car . . like went to the car wash and piad $$ to clean it. He vacuumed it. He polished it. He left here about noon to go with his best friend and his new wife, and another girl to go out to dinner in a far away city. Far away being less than 100 miles. If you’re a mom, you know that the more you say about something, the less likely it is to happen but I like this girl a whole lot. Enough said.

I can only iron fabric for so long and then I have to stop and play with it .. cut it and sew it. I’ve ironed as much fabric as I can iron this month. It’s now time to stop and play.

Then I saw on Alycia’s blog that she’s (1) collecting more quilts for injured soldiers. Read about how many she’s already collected! And, (2) she’s having a quilt along. Get in on it if you have time.

I have this little quilt design that’s been sitting in EQ waiting to be made so I think I’m going to sew it up in patriotic fabrics this weekend.

It’s simple, simple! And, if someone else has a similar or exact pattern, I didn’t copy it! It’s just three rails with a frame, with blocks turned alternating horizontal and vertical.

This is the block:

I’m going to make my three strips 2.5″ finished so I’ll cut two ecru sttrips and one blue strip at 3″. Sew them together and then cut them into 8″ segments.

Then I’ll frame them with blue strips (or red, depending on which blocks I’m working on) that finish at 1″. Two strips will be cut 1-1/2″ x 8″ and two will be cut 1-1/2″ x 10″. This will result in a 9-1/2″ finished or 10″ unfinished block.

I’m going to set mine with 5 blocks across and 7 blocks up and down. Here’s the size of the borders I’ll add to end up with a top that’s 62″ x 81″.

Border #1 – Ecru – Cut 1-1/2″

Border #2 – Navy – Cut 2″

Border #3 – Ecru – Cut 2-1/2″

Border #4 – Navy – Cut 3-1/2″.

Anyone want to join me in working on one of these to send to Alycia?

· Filed Under: Quilting · 13 Comments

How Many Eggs?

August 7, 2009 · by JudyL

How many eggs can one chicken lay in a day? I really don’t know but am hoping some of you chicken experts can tell me. Here’s why I ask.

I’ve been getting four eggs per day for a few days. I was hoping to get five today. It’s not unusual to get three in the morning and one in the afternoon. This morning I got three . . as usual. I went back out when I got home from lunch and a chicken was sitting on the nest so I left her alone. I went back after about 30 minutes and there were three eggs in that one box. All three were real close to each other.

The three darker ones were the ones I got this morning. The three pinkish eggs were the ones all in one box. I’m thinking that when I get the speckled looking eggs, they’re from a new layer. The one on the left if real speckled and small, typical of a new layer. The one on the right is a bit speckled and the one in the middle hardly has any specks. The three pinkish ones are kinda unusual. I did get a pink one yesterday but all the rest have been brown.

Could my Ameraucanas be laying pink eggs? Could one hen have layed all three of those pink eggs? The Ameraucanas have very small combs but they are starting to get brighter so if they’re not laying already, they should be real soon, right?

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 12 Comments

Sock Yarn Winner

August 7, 2009 · by JudyL

Then winner of the sock yarn and needle case is Denise. Congratulations Denise and will you please email me your mailing address?

Thanks and we’ll want to see the socks you make from the yarn . . soon!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 1 Comment

Not Much Cleaning

August 7, 2009 · by JudyL

Cleaning . . I’m just not a good cleaner. Never have been and probably never will be. I can find more to do to keep from cleaning and then when I finally do start cleaning, I get side tracked so easily.

Wednesday I spent 3 or 4 hours ironing fabric. You asked so I’ll show you one “before” picture. The “after” picture isn’t ready yet . . might never be!

This is the bottom of the stairs in the downstairs kitchen area. When I wash fabric, I toss it downstairs. I could fold it neatly out of the dryer and take it down on my next trip but no . . I lean over the stair railing and toss the whole bundle down the stairs. This is where the fabric ends up. Some of this fabric has been there since before the Paducah show in April. The rest was added from the Paducah show I think.

Those two wine bottles . . we didn’t drink the wine. Our neighbor did. And, he had the bottles sitting out with his trash and . . I just couldn’t let two nice glass gallon jugs with screw on lids go to waste. They’ve been sitting there several months. How’s that for not going to waste?

The fabric did get ironed Wednesday evening. The wine jugs . . they’re still sitting right there.

And that little trash can . . you might think it’s full of trash. Nope . . it was upstairs and it belongs in Chad’s bathroom. It was upstairs to get cleaned and once it was cleaned, I filled it with “stuff” to bring downstairs . . about 6 months ago. There it sits, still full of “stuff”.

Oh, I need help. Who will come and help me clean?? Just what I thought . . no one!