What’s new?

Well, the President taking such a stand on gay marriage yesterday.  That’s new.  He sure did steal the thunder from my blog post, tho and made it seem very redundant.  But, he’s forgiven for that.

Hey, how’s this for new.  I found out I can’t count.  What I thought were blocks 15 and 16 were really 16 and 17, so the block I’m working on now is block 18, and that’s half way there. 

Block 18 is made up of 24 paper pieced sections.  That’s new.  Up to now, the most has been 8.  Now, I have to get all those 24 into just one.  I do love a challenge.

This is new.  I needed a new iron for paper piecing.  Two reasons.  The big iron heats up the whole room, which was welcome in winter, but not so much, now.  And, the big iron would not fit in just the space of the piece I was adding when paper piecing.  I couldn't even maneuver the tip into the little spaces.  That meant I was stretching and pulling threads from my bias seal allowances when I would peel them off the freezer paper to add the next piece of fabric.  So, I decided to get a smaller iron that would do that. 

I bought the petite press.  The ironing surface is so tiny.  And, at it’s highest setting, it gets hot enough to melt fabric to freezer paper.  If it got hotter, I would like it more, but in the battle to reduce heat, it’s da’ bomb.
In summer, we do everything we can to reduce in-house heat.  It takes the air conditioning forever to recover.  No big oven, no big iron (anymore).  You would not believe the creative uses I’ve found for a toaster oven, which will roast a chicken, if you don’t mind roasting half at a time.  It will also bake cakes and pies and breads. 

But, I wanted to try convection, so this is new.

I got a much bigger oven than I realized.  I like the clear bowl because I can reassure myself that the food is cooking.  I’ve made pork roast with potatoes and carrots, breaded pork chops, pizza (did not work, won’t try that again), chopped steaks and two cakes in it.  Other than the pizza and the carrots from the pork roast, everything worked great.  The carrots were a bit “al dente” for us.  The pizza didn’t get crisp on the crust.  We like a crisp crust.  The cakes haven’t been all the pretty.  Both have stuck to the pan.  but, they’ve tasted delish and were very moist and fluffy!

This is not new.  I refuse to look back and see when I started this.  I don’t need to know.  It is all hand pieced and by the time I got to quilting it, I was tired.  Later, I picked it up and did a bunch of quilting.  Then, I set it down again.  I did almost all of the rest of the quilting.  And, I set it down again. This is about the time I started shopping for a thimble because hand quilting was making my fingers hurt because of the old one.  Last week, I finished the quilting that I had planned for the quilt and thought…that’s done.  And, I looked at it and I looked at it and it was too plain.  Way too plain.  So, now, I’m adding quilting.  I’m showing it to you because I want you to shame me if I have not finished it soon.  I do not want to let this sit again.  Remember, I’m trying to finish projects.  FINISH.

 
Lane