Another Hair Cut

My DD2 gave Kipper a hair cut and this time she cut his ears and even his face. Oh well, it will grow. And he is cool. Then she took him to the dog beach to swim and play with the other dogs. He sure loved that. Kipper doesn't look like a 10 year old does he? There is a little tell-tale gray under his eyes but he gets away with it very nicely.

We have had warmer than normal weather lately with 10 days over 80 degrees in December. Normal is low 70's. We are back to that today.

Oranges are ripe and even some early strawberries but they weren't too good.

All that snow up north is nice to see in pictures but I'm glad I'm not feeling it or trying to drive in it. It is flowers here.

2008 is almost over. It has been a very eventful year. Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy New Year.

Finish

I have finished a UFO butterfly quilt. It was quilted by hand and bound in black.

I also made a utility quilt for my DGS. I wanted to use fabric I had but just wasn't happy with any of it for a young boy so I bought these two patriotic fabrics. It went together easily and looked nice. Then I looked through my stash for something for the backing or fabric I could sew together to make a backing. Nothing. I went to Hancock and discovered their selection of St. Jude fabrics. They are just wonderful and a dollar of each yard is donated to them. This is such a wonderful place to donater to anyway. I really loved the pokadot fabric so bought it for the back - and extra for the stash. I also bought some coordinating fabric from this collection. See the bottom picture. Sorry the color is still not good. Enlarging it helps.

The quilting of this quilt was a disaster. I put on my walking foot and the sample looked fine. But when I went to reverse, the stitches were very short. So I ended up only going forward and turning the quilt. Ugg. With most of it done, I left it and went to bed one night. The next morning, everything was wrong. I broke needles and got thread messes. For the next hour I worked on it. I finally decided that the plastic area where the bobbin case goes is somehow broken. This is an inexpensive machanical machine. I got it when the needle of my even older and cheaper one refused to move from right to left (couldn't make an accurate 1/4 inch seam). I bought it for Florida and didn't want to spend much money as I figured it would be damaged with the high humidity when I went north for the summers. I found this machine in the back of the closet and used it to finish the quilting and putting on the binding of both quilts.

Now I need to think about getting another machine here in Florida. When I put in a new heating/cooling system, I got a control that regulates the humidity when am gone. I also keep a dehumidifier set up and draining into my kitchen sink. These work well and I haven't had any machine damage. So now I guess I need to start shopping. Well, after looking at my finances again.

Kipper was in the bedroom and had something in his mouth. His jaws were locked tight and whatever he had was falling out of his mouth. It was definitely wet and looked furry. I asked him what he had and he crouched down and pleaded with me to keep it. Oh me. Did he have an animal? And inside my house. I told him to leave it and he begged to keep it. I insisted and out came a large gray glob. It least it didn't move. What was it? A well chewed spool of my gray quilting thread. You know, one of those big cone ones of cotton thread. I remembered dropping it and not wanting to crawl under the table to get it. Then I forgot to pick it up. That will teach me.

Kipper and I are going to my DD's for the holidays. Hope everyone has a happy, healthy time with families. See you next year.

Mobile Home Park

This is a sign in my mobile home park in FL. If you can't see it, the bottom two lines say, "Seniors at Play Strictly Enforced." I ride my bike and Kipper runs with me through the park every day. I stopped to take the picture and Kipper thought he better check to see what other dogs had been by. There are lots of dogs, and some cats, too in my park. Many of the other mobile home parks don't allow dogs at all. My park has only about 300 homes so is one of the smallest ones. There are 600 mobile home parks in this county and most would have many more homes than mine. Most, like mine, are senior (over age 55) parks.

It has been cold here. Okay, nothing like up north. I've sure been happy I came south when I did. Here is Kipper curled up to keep warm. He always wakes up when I get the camera out but was so comfortable that he only opened his eyes this time.

It has been good soup weather. I made squash soup. Roast a butternut squash and remove the flesh. Boil some potatoes and onions in chicken broth. You can boil the squash with the potatoes and onions but I like the roasted flavor better. I beat the potato/onion/chicken broth mixture with an electric mixer, add the squash and then put it in the blender. Put back in the pan and add milk. I think you are suppose to use cream but I use whole milk. Since I drink skim milk this tastes like cream to me. Season to taste. I use seasoning salt, butter and bits of cooked bacon. For a large squash and a couple potatoes, I use two cups of milk. Really good the next day and the day after that too.

I have finished making 12 hot pads for my younger grandchildren to give teachers and other people for gifts. I bought that insulated batting and made the first three by adding a second layer of plain cotton batting. Then I decided the second layer make them too thick to use in your hand to grab something hot from the oven. The two layers make a nice pad to set a hot dish on.