Friday, August 10, 2018

A long, hot week

Hi all!  Are you enjoying the dog days of summer?  I understand that most of the world is experiencing a hot summer, and I'm here to tell you that I'm just done with it.  I've had enough.  It's at the point where I'm starting to feel ready for snow, and we all know how desperate a situation that is!  There's a reason why most of my neighbors are off on vacation right now, and it's not because of great hotel rates.

I'm really just writing this post today to say hello and give a small update.  I didn't have a lot of time for stitching this week, or much of anything else, but I did make a little progress on the t-shirt quilt:


I fused all the shirts and trimmed them, and I've started arranging them into columns.  I don't know what possessed me to fuse the shirts with a hot iron when it was 95 degrees outside, but the sweat was dripping off my nose midway through.  It worked out, though, and I do like the black sashing, too.

I decided to put the quilt together in columns, so that I only have to make sure that all of the shirts are the same width and the length of the design won't really matter.  So far two of my columns are 12 inches wide, with the center column at 15 inches.  The bad part is that I'm going to have too many 12 inch ones and not as many 15 inch ones, so that center column may need some filler pieces.

That was it for the stitching!  I also pulled out this basted little quilt:


I basted the Harry Potter quilt, too, but didn't get a picture.  I'm going to try to get those done soon, but I'm making no promises about when that will be.

The only other thing I accomplished (that I can photograph) was to make some bread, which does not sound exciting to many people, but I finally got to eat some decent bread for the first time since February.


All of the packaged and frozen gluten-free bread I've tried is just awful, and seriously expensive.  I made this from a mix from King Arthur Flour.  It tastes like "real" bread and I got to have a sandwich.  This was the happiest I've been about a PBJ since first grade!

Anyway, that's the update from here!  I hope your weekend includes a ton of air conditioning and lots and lots of stitching time, or at least some lemonade and ice cream.  I'll be sitting under the ceiling fan with some books and daydreaming of the sewing machine.

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday.

13 comments:

Linda said...

I eat gluten free and found a wonderful sourdough bread recipe at the flip flop barn blog. GF folks can often eat sourdough without problems because of the chemical action of the sourdough. You may want to check this out. I appreciate your blog and your creativity. Linda

piecefulwendy said...

Oh -- so many names I recognize, and people we know in those t-shirt blocks! Haha. Now we're curious if my husband knows your daughter. I'm taking note to wait until fall to do all that ironing work on mine! So glad you found a good bread recipe. I recall when we did the Atkins diet years ago, trying to find no carb bread was the pits, so I understand the happiness you experienced actually having a sandwich!

Louise said...

The heat finally broke here and temps are in the 70s, woo hoo! I hope it lasts. I don't remember the green and yellow quilt. I really like the border on that one :)

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

many mixes out there now and flours for no gluten - good luck in your search and I know what you mean, sometimes a person just wants a good sandwich.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

My sewing room is the hottest room in the house. Each time I plug the iron in, it raised the temps in that room 1-2 degrees. I have a fan aimed at the ironing board, and several other fans in the room, too. I feel your pain. I turned on the iron several times yesterday. I unplug it as soon as possible each time.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

Have you checked out the Mennonite Girls can Cook blog? Lots of GF foods on that blog. They even have a bisquick type mix that is GF.

Tu-Na Quilts said...

I am intrigued by your very neat stash shelf. My goodness, it's lovely and so organized. How did you organize them so well? I'm sure you must have a post on it somewhere.

Alycia~Quiltygirl said...

I think if you sweat its called exercise ;-) How come you are eating gf? I missed that.... try pamelas bread mixes too - I've been gf for 15 years - so I forgot what real bread tastes like. I will look up your mix too ;-)

Sara said...

The heat did break here in South Dakota last week, but today it's hot again and will be over the weekend. My sewing room is in our basement so it's a nice cool place to hide during those sweltering days.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Looking good!! I worked on a T-quilt this week, too. Mine is not as far along as yours is! I hope to knock out another step over the weekend.

JanineMarie said...

Wow, you sure picked a labor-intensive activity for such swampy weather. Those t-shirts look great with the black sashing, though, and I have a feeling you’ll find a wonderful way to fit all the pieces together. I have avoided my iron this week in favor of “cool” pressing with a roller. Our drought and extreme heat did finally break. We had 4 1/2 inches of much needed rain in a very short time. If not for the drought it could have been a disaster. I’m not ready for winter, but will admit to dreaming of a fall wardrobe. I’m glad you found a bread that you like that works for you. It looks yummy!

Bernie Kringel said...

The extreme weather this summer has made many people weary. It is too darn hot. We are dealing with temps in the high 90's and really unhealthy smokey air quality. Ugh.
Mari, how did I miss the whole gluten free thing? When/how did this happen? Good to find a bread that works for you. I remember when the migraines were just starting (9 years ago or so) I tried going gluten-free to see if that was an issue for me. Bread was a tough one and the store bought breads were strange taste wise and texture too. Enjoy this bread!! It looks great. Though this is hardly bread baking season.
;-)

Preeti said...

The heat and humidity has eased up a bit. Or may be it just seems that way since I returned from Mexico. T-shirt quilts are wearying even in the best of the weather. It is really tedious work. On the upside, there is no equal to homemade bread. Save me a slice and I will slather it with cream cheese and jelly. Hope you get some well-deserved rest before school begins.