Stuff That's Not About Sewing

Not too much sewing at the end of last week. My daughter and son-in-law went out of town for a couple of days and we went to stay with the kids. We had a bunch of fun. They are such good kids.

Saturday morning, the littles wanted waffles for breakfast. I thought, what the heck. It's not any harder than pancakes really. And after checking for all the ingredients, this is what we had. N likes lots of little containers of things to dip hers into. She was very interested in the making of whipped cream. Her brother tried to convince her that you just shake up the cow, but she didn't fall for it.

These are a few of the flowers in my daughter's garden. The lilies are stunning! I have never seen any like the ones with the dark centers. Right behind them is the Nasturtium. No flowers on that one yet.

Here, the Gladiolas are just beginning to open. They are such a bright beautiful red.

And this is the first Dahlia of the season. It is opening slowly. It seems to unfurl only a few petals a day.

And lastly, I baked some whole wheat bread. I found a really good recipe on line if you google it, look for "the very best whole wheat bread". It makes two loaves and this wat the best whole wheat bread I have ever made.

It rose high, and stayed soft on the inside. Very much the texture of store bought bread. Also had a very nice flavor.

Now, the recipe calls for vital wheat gluten, which helps with the rise. There is only one rise, in the bread pans which is nice. If you bake bread and are looking for a good recipe for whole wheat, this one is a winner in my book. Have a great day. See you soon.

Rain Rain Go Away

It has been raining here. All. Week. Long. We have apparently received another 1.5 inches overnight last night. Ark building may be the next task here if it doesn't stop soon. There is water in the basement that we can't even deal with until this stops. What a week.

 So, in no particular order, since Blogger just re-ordered my photos, I am working on this cute little stitchery from Liz at Cozy Blue. I usually just buy the PDF versions and trace them onto cloth myself. A Grammie's limited income you know.

 Made a couple of masks for some friends. I have been doing this a bit. Someone calls or texts and asks, and then I sew a few up. I just can't bring myself to crank them out. But I am doing my part.

 I made myself this one to try out this style. I put a layer of Pellon 809 init for body and a bit of extra filter protection. I have made a few of these. I have been splitting elastic since all I have is 3/4 inch wide elastic. So far it's working. I did make one with ties to try that technique out. I love having options.

 I started quilting the heart quilt this week. It's the kind of small quilt I can usually do quickly, but my engine seems to be stuck in low gear right now. Everything is in slow motion.

 I am working on some new pillow covers for my daughter. I made up these 4 Dear Dottie blocks for the first one. It will need a thin-ish border to be the right size. I plan to make 5 different covers using block techniques that I want to play with on a smaller than a quilt scale. This one is fun!

 I baked Challah bread yesterday from the Smitten Kitchen recipe. It made two loaves that grew so huge they grew together on the pan. The taste was great and I will definitely bake this again, but I will cut the recipe in half to make a single loaf next time. It was way too much bread for our household.

 Last weekend I baked a Country French Loaf from a King Arthur recipe. I baked it in my cast iron Dutch oven. A very good bread for toasting, sandwiches and garlic bread.

 I decided that since I have tons of earrings and I used to wear a different pair every day back in my working days, I would post and wear a different pair every day on my Instagram, until I get through them all. These were my earrings from my cancer days.

And there was one miracle morning where the sun shone so brightly for just a few moments before the clouds and the rain came back. It was awesome!
I hope you have a good weekend my friends. Stay safe.