AMANDA'S BASKETS: ROUND ROBIN REVEALS, LEFT OVER PAINTER'S CLOTH, A NEW PROJECT & HEALTH CARE

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

ROUND ROBIN REVEALS, LEFT OVER PAINTER'S CLOTH, A NEW PROJECT & HEALTH CARE

Well, the temperatures may be in the mid to high forties, but with the damp, dark, windy and cloudy weather, it feels a lot colder. I wore my winter jacket today when I was out walking including gloves! I even stopped in for a cup of hot coffee to warm up. So I thought that beginning my blog with a flower would chase away those chills.

ROUND ROBIN REVEALS

Four of the five round robin groups got to see the results last Saturday. I was late in getting photos of most of the reveals but here are the ones I did photograph...

I really loved the results of my round robin. Remember this was the center...

And this is my reveal...

LEFT OVER PAINTER'S CLOTH

When I finished making my design wall and photograph wall, I had a small piece of painter's cloth left over that I knew I would not be able to use when making the wingback slipcover. Rather than discard the piece, I cut it into smaller pieces that could be used as background when making quilt wall hangings. Now this fabric ravels easily...

That needs to be remedied while working with it. There are several ways to stop the raveling. Stitching with a zig zag stitch all around the edges works well. Using a tape like duct tape to cover the edges also works well. Another way is to completely finish the edge as shown.

A NEW PROJECT

With one of the painter's cloth background, I decided to try a new project. I saw an article in the Winter 2006 Quilting Arts Magazine titled "Harmonious Attraction: Painterly Effects with Yarn and Fabric" by Kirsten Chursinoff.

The first step is to create a picture. I choose to create a mosaic out of a variety of fabrics...

I will be adding lots of thread work and yarn. Not sure where it will end up but I always enjoy trying new techniques.

HEALTH CARE

There's a lot of talk swirling around the Affordable Health Care Act. Joanne at "Wednesday's Child" has a brief but interesting post about the difference between Access and Coverage. Check it out here.

That's all for today folks,

Thanks for dropping by,

Talk to you tomorrow...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?