Sewing & Such

We are doing very well. I have been busy getting the sorting and cleaning done. It is a big task each autumn season. We have to rearrange the furniture in the front room to make room for a supply of firewood to be stored in the house when the cold weather is upon us.I am moving my sewing area to the back of the house again. We are determined to have heat back there this year. The only rooms currently with heat in the winter are the kitchen, front room, and the children's bedroom. They are all heated with the wood stoves. One is a heating type and the other is a small cookstove. Between the two, the front of the house stays very warm. We have a kerosene heater that we can light on the very cold nights to heat the bathrooom and our bedroom if necessary. We don't like using it very much though due to costs.

I am still working on the PIFs. They are taking longer than I had hoped to complete. It seems that daily tasks keep setting back my time to work on them. I am making ..........oops! You thought I would post that before I got them mailed, huh? LOL

I received some old baby quilts recently and am recycling them into new ones for a charity quilt project. I cut away the worn, loose areas if need be then use the old quilts as batting inside a new one. It makes the project go very fast. I have already donated the blankets/quilts that were done. Now, I am starting up a new batch.

A fun project I am doing is the friendship quilt block exchange that I am organizing. It is a fairly simple one. All blocks are 8.5 inch square (allows for a 1/4 inch seam) and each person who sends one to me gets one made by me to add to their own quilt. Can't be simplier. I am doing a combination of appliqued block with some embroidery - name, location, year. I found a pattern in a quilt book for an appliqued oil lamp since that seems to be a good choice representing our non-electric lifestyle.

The garden is still producing zucchini. I mainly use it in breads, cakes, muffins, and pancakes. Just a quick tip - add shredded zucchini & the same spices that you would put into zucchini bread to your pancake batter. Increase the flour content a bit since zucchini can make the batter too thin. The result is a pancake that tastes like the bread. Very yummy!

May the Lord's blessings be with you all.Paula