Temperature

 We're not officially in a drought again.

But parts of a local creek are dry.

Our county is considered "abnormally dry" while nearby municipalities are now officially in drought.  We are being asked to cut back on water use.  That is not difficult at this point.  The price of municipal water has gone up so much that most of us are really stunned at our latest bill.

A few weeks ago, I talked about making a temperature quilt in 2026.  A lot of you had really REALLY good tips and advice.  But I think one reader asked, "what will you do with the quilt afterwards?"   And that made me pause.

Enter Sarah Homfray.  I love her youtube channel on embroidery and other creative projects.  The project I was inspired was on her "Sarah Homfray Creates" channel.  

Instead of a quilt, Sarah chose to do a sampler years ago.  It was essentially a long ribbon of embroidery and can easily be hung up anywhere.  You can see the video here.  She even provides links on how to record your temps and weather.  For rain or snow she added beads or sequins and I'm going to be looking through my notions this weekend to see what I have.

Foruitously, I found some things I can use for this project at the quilt guild show.  The first important piece was this thread binder I bought for 1 or 2 dollars:

It even came with thread!

I also found some striped fabric that I'll use for my temperature lines.  I will sew about 4-6 inches across each line.  You can see the fabric behind the binder above.  I figured this is easy to do in the evening and I want to try and practice some new embroidery stitches.

The daily chart that Sarah shares a link means that I can easily keep track of precipitation and temperatures.  

So technically this will be a temperature sampler but I like the idea and it's much easier to complete.

What do you think?

Have a safe and happy day!

Jenny's Quilt

 

I finished Jenny's quilt last Friday.  It was a memory quilt of her mother's blouses after Paula was killed tragically by a boy who was high and crashed into her.

I won't lie.  It was a tough quilt to make for many reasons:  the shirts Jenny chose, the fact that so many of her blouses seemed to have darts everywhere, and most of all--the shirts still had Paula's scent on them.

Jenny visited my mom on Tuesday so  I took the quilt over for her.  It was an emotional day but she loved the quilt.

Anyway, here is the layout I chose.  I asked Lizzie to quilt it with lots of hearts and she did!

Have a safe and happy day!

Oh Deer!

 

One day a doe walked along the park path eating acorns.  She saw the old lady and the little poodle up ahead but continued walking towards them...chomping acorns all along the way.

She was passing the old lady when the poodle decided to stand on his hind legs.  It was as if he said, "Look at me!  I can be big too!"

The doe ran off into the bush and the poodle was very proud of himself.  That happened about two weeks ago.  

We saw the same doe last week.  This time she was eating the brush aside of the path.  Her photo is above.  Lucky stood on his hind legs, "Look at me!  I can be big too!"

The doe chewed her acorns and stared at him. "I'm not falling for that trick again" and my pup reluctant and disappointed had to continue on the path.

It's acorn season and we are nearing drought conditions so we are seeing deer at the park almost daily.  On Sunday we had this doe with two fawns.  One of the fawns and Lucky appeared to be fascinated with each other.

Pennsylvania and Maine continue to lead the cases of lyme disease so we continue to be vigilant about ticks.  We also keep an eye out for bucks.  The rut season has probably begun and bucks can be aggressive.  So we also keep a look at for that but so far it's only been female and baby deer.

Hope you have some wildlife to keep you entertained too!

Have a safe and happy day!

The Crazy Quilters Craft Show!

 

I'm a member of the Crazy Quilters Guild here in Allentown.  I really like the guild and on Saturday, we had a quilt and craft show.

I took a lot of photos and thought I would share them with you.

We had a special corner just to focus on our community service work.  

We also had a boutique where we sold things are quilters had made, fabric, and a silent auction.  This photo was taken in the late afternoon.  A lot of thing had been sold by then.

We also had demonstrations throughout the day.  I didn't attend those because I was working as a white glove attendant in the church.

Even outside the main church we had various exhibits of quilts:

Inside the church was full of quilts our members made.  These weren't for sale.  They were just an exhibit and we met so many nice people!  Some even decided to join our guild!

There was about every kind of quilt you could imagine.  The diversity and the craftsmanship was truly stunning!  

One of our members redesigned the blocks from Tula Pinks 100 Modern Quilt Blocks and we loved that!  She had the blocks falling 😁

And here are lots of other quilts:

We had a lot of fun working the show but of course, we were all tired afterwards.  I didn't even work the entire day like some members (had to go to Mom's, etc.).  I will see, I did sleep really well that night!  It was a really fun event!

Hope you had a great weeekend!

Have a safe and happy day!

 

Happy Flower Friday!

The mornings are cooler and the flowers are fading due to the temperature and the lack of rain.  Here are some selections for today:  daisies, cleome, feverfew with japanese painted ferns, and chickory!

Have a safe and happy day!

Ring the Bell!

 

For some time I've been taking my neighbor for radiation four times a week.  His son would take him on chemo day.  On Tuesday, Dave got to "ring the bell" signally that his treatment--for now--is finished.  We won't know how effective the treatment was until about a month when they can scan him again.  We are all praying it worked.

It's been an awful month of September.  Dave had to go to the ER 3 times due to illness and some dumb stuff.  2 of these times required ambulances.  

The dumb stuff?  Loading up his arms with things and going up the stairs.  The result?  He fell down the entire staircase and ended up with 19 staples in his head.  Why dumb?  Because he kept telling me that he was so unstable he swayed back and forth on the steps like a ping-pong ball. 

And I said...

USE THE STAIR LIFT!😠

He does now.

Yeh, dumb man stuff.  But even my husband says (at least once a day) he can't believe he didn't have more injuries.  

So we will know in a month how effective the treatment was and we are still saying prayers for him.

Thanks for all the prayers you sent his way!

Have a safe and happy day!

Wayback Machine: Techology and Other Mysteries

 

My neighbor's grandkids were visiting and they spied a box of junk she was going to donate.  Included was a rotary phone.  The boys had no idea what it was or how to use it...yes, she had to teach them how to dial.  They were so fascinated that they begged to keep the phone and of course, grandma agreed.

Did you have a party line on your phone?  We did for a while on my Nana's phone.  There was also a party line on the phone at the camp I was always sent to in the summer.

Did you have a transistor radio? 

 

I received mine at Christmas, 1965.  Weirdly, when we got the battery in it and turned it on, it played "Michelle" by the Beatles.  I thought that was pretty cool.

What about a Polaroid camera?  

I got a Polaroid Swinger a year or two later.  I think my paternal grandparents bought it for me.  You had to treat the photos with something that smelled like fish.  I still have the photos I took with that camera somewhere in the attic.

Then there is the dumb stuff we did as kids!

But the dumbest thing for this week was told to me by my husband.  We were talking about this big bar of chocolate he saw at the store and for whatever reason, it made me remember a different kind of chocolate.

"Do you remember the ex-lax chocolates when you were a kid?" I asked him.  "I remember eating one piece of my parents' and it tasted awful and I never touched it again."

My husband started laughing.  "Oh yeh, me and my brother found a box of that.  We ate the whole box."

WHAT?  Yes and apparently the boys couldn't go to school for a couple of days because well, the laxative worked.

Have a safe and happy day!

Nuts

 When I was a kid, we often walked through Bethlehem searching for horse chestnuts.  My aunt (my age) and I were captivated with these nuts.  Once the prickly exterior of the seed was cracked, a hard nut with an almost silky surface that was shiny was revealed.  We thought they were treasure.

Last year while we walked at the park, two women stopped us and asked if we knew what kind of tree produced the pinecones near the path.  

They had never seen such small pinecones and were collecting them to take home.  I wasn't sure which pine tree produced the cones but I thought that the size had more to do with the drought than the species.

This year, I am fascinated by acrons.  The acorns at the park are normal size but only 2 blocks away near my mothers, the acorns are tiny.  

It's much more dry near my mother's home than at the park.  We are not "officially" in a drought but all the gardeners in the area will tell you the gardens are suffering.  The tiny acorns are falling before they have a chance to mature; most of the nut is green when they fall.

How are things where you are?  Are you finding anything fascinating ourside this fall?

Have a safe and happy day!