2010 April — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Moving Day for the Chicks

April 29, 2010 · by JudyL

During the spring and summer, we moved the chickens’ run once a week to give them fresh grass and a new crop of bugs. During the winter, since most of the grass/weeds were dead, and the ground was too hard to drive stakes into, we left them in the same spot. Vince would throw in alfalfa hay or straw to keep them from having to walk on such messy ground all the time.

See the big dead spot there in front? That’s where they spent the winter. They were so happy to be on fresh grass again. Too bad that within 24 hours, it will look almost just like the spot where they spent the winter. We will hose down the dead spot, then Vince will break it up with the tiller, plant grass seed and by the time we move the chickens back to that section, there will be fresh grass. Think they appreciate all that work?

The funny thing is he blocks them from going into the coop while he’s cleaning in there.

When Vince is finished cleaning the coop and adding fresh straw, he opens the trap door and they all come parading up the ramp.

They’re rushing and trying to get in front of each other . . just like kids, they all want to be first in line.

Every moving day they all rush in. For what?

Bugs! There could be bugs in all that fresh straw.

Having fresh grass and a clean coop makes my hens so happy. Look what they did for me the next day.

Actually, they do that for me every day!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 13 Comments

Tuna

April 28, 2010 · by JudyL

Any time we go out to eat, if there’s tuna on the menu, that’s what I get. Sunday Vince and I had gone to the grocery store for something . . I already forgot what it was! We have two little local type grocery stores. One I like a lot, one is ok so I mostly go to the one I like but we were closer to the ok store so we went there. I walked by the meat counter to get milk. As I passed the meat counter, I noticed some nice looking tuna. Then Vince came to meet me at the milk cooler and he stopped at the meat counter and called me over to see the tuna. While it was frozen and not fresh, and who knows where it came from . . I probably don’t want to know! We got 3 tuna steaks and a couple of lobsters and cooked them on the grill.

I marinated the tuna in ginger and soy sauce and it was so good! Went back to the store on Monday and got more. Each steak was vacuum sealed in its own bag but I put two per bag and vacuum sealed them again so they should keep ok for a while.

Guess I should check out the grocery store I don’t like so much more often!

· Filed Under: Cooking · 12 Comments

Adding Borders

April 28, 2010 · by JudyL

My border notes got a few comments and questions so I thought I’d explain. This is what I make for every quilt:

Here’s how I read my little chart. There’s really no algebra there and it’s quite simple. The first border pieces I will add will be my side borders for the first border. According to my chart, those are cut 2″ x 63.5″. I mark the halfway point of my borders to match up with the halfway point of the quilt top and then the halfway point of the second border will match up to the halfway point of the first border. Make sense? The halfway point of this border s 31.75″ so that’s what’s in parenthesis. That border is yellow so that’s why there’s a “y” next to it.

The second segments I add will be the top and bottom of the first round of borders. They are cut 2″ x 51.5″. The halfway mark is 25.75″ and it’s also yellow.

Next will be the second round. Following along on my notes, the side borders are cut 1.5″ x 66.5″. The halfway point is 33.25″ and the “a” means it is cut from the aqua fabric.

The picture shown below is one of the side borders for border #3. You will see that I’ve marked the center at 34.25″ and it is yellow. (Notice the Bernina magnetic pin holder? Told you I was a Bernina girl forever!)

I lay out all the border segments, sides first and then top and bottom for each border round.

Actually, I had already added the first border, which is yellow, to the top before I decided to do this blog post so what you see here are border #2 (aqua), border #3 (yellow) and border #4 (print). Notice that the bird fabric is cut on the length of the fabric for the side borders and on the width for the top and bottom borders so the birds are all going the same direction when added to the quilt.

Once my borders are all cut, I stack them so that the first one I need is on top, then the next one and so on til the last one I’ll need is on bottom.

If I were cutting this quilt to pack up to take along with me somewhere else to work on, I’d roll these borders up, just like they’re shown in the picture, into a tight little roll and pack it so that I don’t have to re-measure or guess which border goes where when I get to where I’m going.

Before someone asks, under my sewing machine are half gallon jars of wheat.

There are several reasons I do my borders this way:

I don’t have to get up and look at my EQ file every time I’m ready to add the next border.
I don’t have to deal with calculating, cutting strips, making seams to join the strips and then measuring each time I go to the next border.
I know me . . and if I didn’t have everything all ready to attach, once the blocks are made and the center of the top is assembled, I just might go on to the next project and this one would never get finished. With everything all cut, seamed and already sized to fit, the project has a lot better chance of getting finished.

The borders are all done before the quilt blocks are ever started. And, if I’m going to make a pieced backing, that is done before the top is ever started. Look how much Moda Marble I was able to use in this backing! Stashbusting on steroids!

Knowing me like I do, I also know that the binding needs to be made and ready to attach so that once the quilt comes off the longarm, I’ll sit down and put the binding on and finish it by machine right then or it will go into a stack and wait and wait and wait to be finished. So . . the binding gets done before the quilt blocks are started.

This particular project was a UFO. When I opened the box over the weekend, only the blocks and the extra aqua, yellow and print fabric were in there. No borders, no sashing, no backing and no binding. I sat down with EQ, figured out how I was going to finish this top. I wanted it to be a donation quilt and most of those are in the 60″ x 80″ range. I worked on it til I got it 65″ x 80″. Then I made the borders, the backing, the binding and then I finished the top. By the way, the name of this quilt is “Bird of Paradise”. I’ll explain it later. You may not want to hear that story!

But, for quilts I start these days, as soon as I’ve decided on a design, I make the borders, the backing and the binding, then I start the blocks. That’s not the way most people do it but that’s what works for me.

So now you see . . there’s not really any algebra, just a little addition and division and lots of sewing!

· Filed Under: Quilting · 14 Comments

Sorry, Sad State of Affairs

April 27, 2010 · by JudyL

Monday night I went to bed reading a book on the Kindle. I was about 2/3 through it and it was a good book. Suddenly, it got sad . . really sad. And I started bawling. I cried so much I couldn’t breathe. Why didn’t I just put the darned book down and go to sleep? No! I didn’t. I finally got out of bed and came into the living room so I could sit up and cry and read and maybe continue breathing. Breathing is imperative, even while crying like a baby.

At 1 a.m. I finally said to myself . . the chickens are going to need to be let out in 5 hours. Stop crying and go to bed! So I went to bed, though I still could hardly breathe. At just before 7 Vince woke me up and said “what about the chickens?” Either I didn’t hear my phone go off or never set it. Who knows . . in the state I was in when I went to bed! So I hopped out of bed, realized I had a headache from crying so much, puffy eyes from crying so much and went back to bed after letting the chickens out.

Vince wasn’t coming home for lunch so I fixed myself a plate of leftovers and sat down to finish the book and cried all the way through the end of the book. I had black (actually brown/black) mascara running down my face and whatever other makeup I had on was washed away.

I sewed for a while and about 3:30 decided to go work in the garden. I was hot and dirty and had on my rubber boots and still had black streaks down my face. Vince got home and said “Let’s go somewhere!” Why today? So I ran in the house, changed my clothes and shoes, tried to wipe the black off my face, powder my nose, spray on some super duper extra strength cover up any odor deoderant and off to Fort Scott we went. All for fish tacos from Long John Silver’s. Something is just wrong with this entire picture! Had we stayed home we were going to have grilled chicken, fried okra,baked beans and cucumber salad. I’ll never understand my husband. Does anyone besides Vince actually like Long John Silver’s?

So, Mr. Laquidara . . if you’re reading this . . when you come home and find me working in the garden, I am not going anywhere! I was nice today but I will not be so nice again. If you want to go somewhere, look at your lovely wife and if she looks like she’s been working in the field for days on end and has black streaks on her face, do not even try to take her out into public, unless it’s some place a whole lot better than Long John Silver’s.

All was not lost though. We stopped at a garden center and I got two lime green/pink petunias. The ones we bought actually have more lime than pink. They’re really pretty.