Helper gifts

 Hi stitching buds.

Today is nutroll day #3.  The first yeast cake dated 1/24/24 was opened after all other dough ingredients were in the bowl, and it had black spots.  Hubs went to the store for another, same date, but dead.  Not a bubble, no foaming at all.  Day #2.  A different store with date of 1/17/24, very active, but hubs insisted on using the previously prepared bowl and I knew the foamed yeast would not incorporate once the dough's butter had hardened in the fridge overnight.  Men.  What can I say?  Another failure and wasted cake, this time, our fault.  At $4.50 each x 3, I was ticked.  So today, starting over from scratch, with dry yeast.  We could go back for another fresh cake but what if it's not as good as the last one?  The store would not replace or refund the first two duds and I will not take the chance again.  Never ever in all these years have I had a bad cake, and this year, two.

This week I plan to start cleaning Carole's house and I've already purchased a few items to organize and hold the clutter in the kitchen.  

A stand that creates a shelf over her air fryer and coffee pot, adjustable to 23" wide, was a surprise.  The quality for the price is great and the shelf will get items off the counter.  Several options offered HERE.

Wire baskets on the inside of the broom closet and pantry door will hold lots of packets, treats, spices, wraps. Larger and deeper ones will be installed inside the linen closet door for often used OTC products and soaps. 

She was really pleased with the Christmas gifts I chose for her making food prep easier.  The magnetic double sided spoons, rechargeable can opener, battery motion light for ceilings in closets and stairs, easy hold peelers.

When  you can't get out to see what's in stores, or browse/order from a flip phone, receiving gifts to make chores easier and safer is a great help.  This motion light requires 4 D batteries which should last for months and gives a good amount of light for a battery lamp HERE.  I now check lumens before lighting purchases!

I started watching Colorado Cross Stitcher's floss tube and added her to my top five favorites.  Her latest showed an oddly shaped project and wondered how a final finish would be.  The first thing I was taught when working at the framer was to check the borders of needlework for missed stitches, and notify the owner.  Then we moved to creative options when necessary for odd shapes.  For that Alpine design, the mat and frame looks the best (to me) but much higher in price than having wood or HDF cut to shape.  Affix the stitchery to the wood like a hornbook, maybe outline with rustic studs.  The PAINT program is a great tool to play with, helping to envision options.  And fill your time when the knee immobilizes your overweight body. 

The butter is softened, the flour measured, it's time to make the dough!!

Have a  wonderful  day!

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Oh those professional finishers

 Vonna and Faye always tempt with photos of their work.  Many times, designs were never seen, and in some cases, designers not heard of!  Such is the case with Needles and Fred and their chart titled Three stockings.  Oh my.  So I searched and searched, with no satisfaction, and will try to stitch from the photo. Shouldn't be too difficult (sure).  Separately on perforated paper, sweet!  Or on fabric sewn into stocking shape or square, just darling.  Or as charted, divine.

Watching flosstubers reveal their hauls, WIPs, and stash, there are so many designers that I am unaware of.  Maybe that's a good thing.  

Nutroll day!!  Finally.  Unfortunately, the 1/24/24 dated cake yeast had black spots.  Hubs is roaming the stores now looking for another, probably end up with dry.  Searched and searched online, found five different reputable sites claiming entirely different measures for subbing the dry for cake.  Flour and all else is bowled and ready so ....  let's rise!  Bolbalki this weekend hopefully.  I found a new pastry cloth and will try it for kneading the sweet doughs.  My MIL was an excellent baker and would not knead/roll without it.

If you are interested in the hemstitch finish, search for how to videos online, better than diagrams.  Jeanny Cobben is not blogging now but you can still visit her remarkable works HERE.  She shares many photos of edge finishing, visit her September 2020 post.  If I wore a skirt, it would fly up.

Hope your day goes swell.

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Boom 1

 Many changes!

Small pillow ..... or hemstitch edge?

3.5" x 6"

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A stroke of luck

 Working on the primer chart with changes (of course).  Should have been completed but ....

The last row will be solid fill with her name, I may add the date also, the two rows above that are left off.  Small, very quick, quite similar to my favorite small of last year.  

My aging brain was shocked when I realized Notforgotten Farms little thread pouch was not stitched in 2023 (another favorite small).  Since I fail to add labels to posts, looking back for the year's finishes took some time.  Where was that pouch?  2022!!  Very hard to accept my sense of time is that bad.  Vocabulary too!  What the hell is happening?  I wrote 2024 at the end of the date line on a load of personal checks, guaranteeing no flubs until I adjust to the change.

Now for the luck.   Decided to change all bulbs to LED bright white from the soft white.  Not the stark ultra or bluish daylight, the bright is mid range.  Just grew tired of the warmer yellow, this bright is soft enough but whiter, without being harsh.  While browsing that display, a man said "hey, you got old".  As we turned to face him, after a few seconds I recognized the construction pro we had used a few decades ago.  Wow!  He got old too.  So he spent time here yesterday (hours) catching up and we have an excellent knowledgeable pro now!  YAY!  He was working as the foreman for a large builder which is why we couldn't find him.  Now on his own after major surgery (no more scaffolds and roof trusses), he will be fitting our projects into his schedule. 

Someone asked for the source of Spring Green and Budding Twigs finishes in my 2023 recap.  They are both in BBD's Ooh la la book.  

Hope everyone is well and safe.

Happy 2024.

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2023

I'm not absolutely sure if these were all 2023, I think a few smalls may be left out.  Close enough.

Frosty

Joyeux Noel

Hannah Baker

Ghosts and Goblins

Maud Fuzzard

Whittaker

Quaker Rose

Petite Lettres Rouges

Sarah Needham

Lizzie Peddie (still missing)

Elizabeth Roberts

Susanna Hartley

A Little Dutch

Kindred Spirits

Ann Stone

Jane Plews

the Budding Twigs

Spring Green

Sauerkraut, kielbasa and pork in crock pot.  Tomorrow making two sheets of the Hawaiian sliders with poppy seed dressing (one ham/swiss one turkey/swiss), buffalo chicken dip, and baby dills stuffed with cream cheese and rolled with ham.  Carole is making the rest.  She has always gone overboard with "pickins" for New Years and this is the first time in years she is able to again.  Much less than previously, but still good stuff!  Rather than discourage, we are encouraging her.  Excellent hostess and cook, she has missed this.  That huge motorized wheelchair makes it difficult to maneuver in her tight kitchen, but she manages.  Harley the Great Dane is so loved by their family, but a nuisance to handle, control, and a big obstacle.  She . is . huge.

Happy new year to all!! Wishing you a safe, healthy, happy 2024.

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Sampler source

 Working on Stonestreet Stitchworks 

Schoolhouse Primer Lesson #1

here

My plan is to move Mary Graves (the last row) to beneath the verse and disregard the other three rows. This will be a drum, the finish will be short and wide.  Seeing the photo, I may start over on a larger piece of linen for the full chart, use the charted colors.  Another hornbook to cut!  

Sorry I didn't post it before.

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 Thanks for the help with Frosty.  But I'm still baffled.  My numerate brain needs to have definitive answers!  I get that the top would be somewhat puffed, but the template for the flat bottom is 4.5" without foldover allowance.  The fabric to go around the drum (14.5" less .5" seam allowance) is over 4" when sewn into a circle.  The interior of the 4" box is 3.5".

Cutting Frosty's linen too short was my fault entirely.  If I hadn't,  could have finished into a fabric drum of my chosen proportions.  So why does this bug me now?   Numbers need to be exact for me, always have, and I wanted an explanation as to why I can't understand this!  

Let it go girl.

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