February Crazy Quilt block

So it's February!  The month started out with a dumping of snow but for the next few days it is going to be like Spring!  I love February!
February block:
A pine tree with a howling wolf with purple mountains in the back and a luscious pink sky.  Did you know the sky is pink when it is snowing?
Crazy quilts are mismatched pieces of fabric - usually velvets, silks and satins- and usually scraps from the Victorian era clothing.  The pieces are sewn together and embellished at the seams with embroidery and ribbons. Spider webs were often sewn on the quilts as well- very Victorian and very crazy quilt.  When I look at this work I can assume that the winter Olympics were going on this year. Love charms signify Valentine's and there are a few candles near the bead spider to remind me that this is also my birthday month.

February block

Wolf silhouette embroidered pine tree and love charms

Cupid charm, Olympic rings, lots of beads and leaves

snails eat the garden in February, moons and stars and a spider climbing to her web 

howling wolf, flowers, Happy Birthday to me!, spider and her web

Gold spider web, beaded spider, lazy daisy stitch flowers.  Camellias do bloom in February

Weekend project

These bar chairs had made it out to the garage because of their color.  There was a time when red was perfect but not now ant not in this house.  I took another look at them and thought "But what if they were blue?"  I started this project last Sunday dressed in shorts and working outside in the January sunshine but this Sunday it is cold and we had nearly a foot of snow overnight.  I just had a few finishing touches left and now these chairs are new and back inside where they belong.  I am trying out this "Blissful flue" color for my kitchen cabinets (lowers only)

before

Blissful blue- trying out the color for my kitchen cabinets

February 1- snowy morning

Saturday project

Today I decided to repurpose a glass vase that I have used to hold long stemmed flowers.  The vase is glass and looks like beach glass.  It is, in fact, recycled glass with a bluish green tint.  The base of the vase is only about 4 inches and is heavy so it is stable on its own.  Last week I had a lamp that needed  rewiring so I went to my local True Value hardware store INSTEAD of Home Depot.  I was ready to pay someone to rewire my lamp but the helpful man in the hardware store told me it may only need a new switch.  He was right.  For less than $5 I updated my floor lamp with a new switch!!  I was ecstatic so went back to True Value with this glass bottle vase.  I asked some questions.  Tim in the back drilled the exact right size hole in my rubber stopper, I picked up a 3-way switch; took a deep breath and headed home.  30 minutes later I have a new lamp:  total cost not counting the 7 year old glass vase I was ready to take to the Goodwill--> $28.  I LOVE my local hardware store and the terrific guys who work there:

Completed lamp on my bedside table

$28 worth of stuff

Lamp base neck

so far so good

learned what an underlap knot is

All done! Can't drill a hole in glass so the wire must be near the socket

HIGH TIDE FARM

It's official:  I have a new sign, thanks to Whitney, Ryan and the Denver girls: High Tide Farm!  Well I had to mix my love for the beach and the reality that I am at the base of the Rocky Mountains so I came up with High Tide.  It would take a weather disaster to have an ocean tide in Denver but it is in my heart and it's the name of my farm.  Mountains, sunshine, surf and a little starfish down in the corner.  My design, a metal artist's work

Health food salad!

I love healthy food and I love cooking- but you probably know that already.  It is nothing but brown, black, gray and blue in Denver with not a thing growing in anyone's garden but who says there aren't beautiful fruits and vegetables to eat!  This beautiful colorful- full of antioxidants salad is delicious.  I started with raw beets- red, orange and chioggia and carrots and shredded them in my $15 slicer from Williams-Sonoma.  Then I found blood oranges, naval oranges and mangoes.  I did have some little limes growing indoors so added lime juice, blood orange juice and pomegranate vinegar- oh and a little olive oil for dressing- oh and a little orange zest.  As if it weren't pretty and healthy enough already I added some dried cranberries.  Try it!

Pretty January salad

beets and carrots

Blood oranges, mango, key limes and navel oranges

My first attempt at making hard cheese!

My Christmas gift to myself is a new cheese press!  I have been making soft cheeses, yogurts and ice creams with my delicious goats' milk but I needed this piece of equipment to press the curds into a hard condensed wheel.  A very simple machine, really.  No electrical cord!  After a series of pressing at different pressures I have my first wheel of Cheddar!!!! So exciting!!  I will use a rub of salt to help it dry; then coat it in wax and place it in a cool place (my wine cooler) for 4-12 weeks!

Cheese press

2 pound wheel of cheddar

Happy New Year! January quilt block

Happy 2015  Wow!
I am busy working on a new quilt in the cold evenings in Denver where all you can do is stay in.   These are some pictures of the January quilt block.  The trees are all bare around here and a few birds around - but mostly ice and snow and very cold days.

This was my first block- a little catywampus.  I did improve through the process

The Canadian geese hang out in Denver.  The button looks just like one in a flock of hundreds.  The ribbon detail is a branch of an evergreen with pine cones Lots of beads.  Lots of stitching..  Lots of French knots for the berries on the tree

Snowman and snowflake buttons, ribbon snow and pinecones

I tried to add flowers that were blooming in my garden in California where I lived when I stitched this quilt.  In the lower left are narcissus in bloom

Who doesn't like a snowman in winter?  Here is a stitched on and several on the ribbon.  

Sorry it's blurry.  Hundreds of French knots for berries