Monday, June 25, 2012

We spent all morning outside working in the yard. We both dug some weeds out of the corners that were bothering us most, and then Pat trimmed the edges of the lawn while I did the mowing. By the time we had the grass raked up and the tools put away it was almost time for lunch, but neither one of us had the energy to do anything about it!

My arms were so sore from the work that I could barely lift my cup of coffee. After a shower and an ibuprofen I started work on my rhubarb syrup. The rhubarb that I got from our neighbour isn’t very good, but I hated to just pitch it. I had hoped to make some rhubarb-ginger jam, but after the rhubarb crisp ended up being a bit stringy I changed my mind. I found a recipe for rhubarb syrup – you cook the rhubarb on top of the stove and then put it through a sieve to get out the juice. It was an easy enough process and I have enough juice that I will try some rhubarb-ginger jelly. Of course I can’t find a recipe so I’ll be winging it!

When that was done (and cleaned up) I headed upstairs to see what I could accomplish. Tomorrow is the bee and I wanted to sort out some Christmas projects in keeping with my “Christmas in July” theme. Technically it isn’t July yet, but I can never start too early because I never seem to finish all I want to do.

I had one project that didn’t get finished in time for last year so I started with that. It took me awhile to figure out where I had stopped in the process. Very soon I was aware not only where I stopped, but also why I stopped. I needed two more yards of ¼” bias binding! When I got that finished I put everything up on the design wall to see how it looked. I had originally thought I would change the pattern a bit, but now I don’t see an easy way to do that so I will finish it according to the instructions. The project won’t travel well though so that won’t be going with me tomorrow.

I had three kits that I purchased in post-Christmas sales and I thought I could start one of them. I looked through the instructions and one of the projects looks a bit complicated – it may bring back memories of the pincushions I made last year. The second pattern calls for a lot of appliqué work and there would be a lot of prep required to get it started. The third piece is a “quilt as you go” table runner. I could have taken that but I hate to start a new project at the bees – I’d rather work on something that is already in progress.

So I have decided to spend another week on the Butterfly quilt. I have lots of work to do on it that won’t require my sewing machine so my load will be a bit lighter.