4/8/18

Activity Abounds

Yesterday I had in mind to mop the floors, but then Facebook informed me that it was National No Housework Day.



And, hey...who am I to question that kind of wisdom? Like a trooper, I did without housework for the day. It was a sacrifice, and I probably deserve some kind of medal.

In lieu of a medal, I decided to finish up the first row of blocks for the Shop Hop quilt. This took absolutely forever. I needed to cut the embroidered names into strips, trim the fabric swatches, choose and sew on the flanges, cut sashing strips and cornerstones, and then sew the whole shooting match together. It took the entire afternoon. It was fun though, and I'm having so much fun revisiting the fabrics I've collected. This first one from Reno was already finished. My reason for choosing it should be self-explanatory.


It occurred to me that it might be fun to go back and see if some of these shops are still in business. This one, Going Batty, definitely is. You can find its website right here. I remember this store being very enjoyable to visit. You can read my blog post about it right here.

I totally remember this next one. Great little quilt shop in a great little town. You can read my blog post about the Sun Valley Fabric Granary right here.


Sun Valley is a ski resort, and so the snowflake fabric seemed a good choice. This fabric caught my eye. Is it still in business? Let's see...Yes, indeedy. Check out their website right here.

Okay, now this next one is kind of special because I acquired it on a visit with my dear friend, Marei. Marei and I have known one another since 7th grade. She lives out in eastern Idaho now. When we visited with her in the Fall of 2016, she took me to Beyond Bolts. It's a fabric store within a hardware store. Isn't that a clever name for it?


Thayne, Wyoming, is just west of the Grand Tetons and the area is teeming with wildlife. I can still picture Marei and me standing together and picking out this fabric. The store's website is right here. You can read my blog post about my visit to the store with Marei right here.

This next one was from Boise, Idaho, which is known as the City of Trees. This was a simple one to choose.


Oh boy...I'm going to regret not checking on the name of the quilt shop before I did this embroidery. Lesson learned. This actually came from a shop called Quilt Expressions. Oh well...I'm not changing it. At least I got the city right. So sorry, Quilt Expressions. Anyway...you can read my blog post about it right here. Their web presence is right here. Okay, shaking it off and moving on.

This one came from a shop in Eugene, Oregon. I was on the hunt for fabric to recognize our arch evil nemesis, the University of Oregon Ducks. This shop had none. And when you consider the team, it's hardly surprising. If I'd been looking for OSU Beaver prints, they probably would have had plenty of those. Oh well. We were there in Eugene for a fundraiser for the Cascade Raptor Center, and so I chose this owl print.


As it so happens, this was also Miss Sadie's first RV outing. The shop was very cute. You can read my blog post about it right here. Their website is right here.

This next fabric is the one and only fabric I'm including from a quilt shop I did not visit personally. Actually, I've never been to Alaska, but it is definitely on our bucket list. This fabric was a gift from my son Matthew when he visited Alaska a few years ago.


The have a Facebook page, but if they have a website, I can't find it. Nevertheless, it appears they are still in business.

This next fabric was picked up as a backing and border fabric for the Quilting Snowladies quilt.


It also worked as a representative fabric for Bend, Oregon, which is another ski community. I visited this shop when I attended the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show several years ago with my good friend Lenelda. Lenelda and I have been friends since we were kids too. We attended school together, but we also swam on the city swim team together. You might recall that we met up a couple of times in two different states on our last trip.


Sew Many Quilts still has a web presence right here. You can read my blog post about it right here. That was a fun weekend.

This last one came from Kalispell, Montana. Some places made it difficult to choose a specifically "regional" print, and this shop in Kalispell was one of those. Here's the blog post I wrote about it.


It appears they are still in business. Here's a link to their website.

When all the blocks were embroidered, trimmed, sewn, and flanged, I sewed them into the top row for my quilt. Here's how it's looking.


Okay, now I'm going to set that aside for a while. My plan is to work on it at the beginning of each month. If I do that, I should have it all finished by the end of the year.

On the bread front, it looked as if the whole wheat starter was ready for baking some bread. When I fed it yesterday morning, I poured off half and set that aside. The other half was fed and put back into the refrigerator. I'll just keep it fed and happy for some later day. For the half I set aside, it too was fed, and then yesterday evening, I used it to start some bread. This is going to be an Artisan Whole Grain Sourdough. The original recipe came off the Breadtopia website.  I had pretty good luck with this bread last year, and so I decided to try it again.

This bread takes three days to make. Last night, I mixed the starter with some whole grain flour and water and then let it sit on the counter top for 12 hours. When I mixed it up, it looked like this.


By the time we went to bed, it was obviously rising some. When I got up this morning, it looked as if it had risen and then fallen some, but there was plenty of bubbly activity going on.


From there, I added some white bread flour, spelt flour, rye flour, and salt, and then kneaded it for five minutes. Then I put it in a bowl and into the refrigerator. There it will sit for the next 24 hours.


Just look at that whole grain goodness in there. Gotta be good diet food, right? So anyway...the real action will start tomorrow. I'll form it into a boule and let it rise for around 5-6 hours. Hopefully, it'll be ready to bake by then.

Also, I'm working on getting another white sourdough started. It's been sitting for the past 48 hours. I didn't expect to see any activity from it. It's hard to tell from this picture, but where I've circled in pink there, I could see just the beginnings of some fizzing.


This morning I added another two tablespoons of bread flour and two tablespoons of pineapple juice. An hour later, I was seeing more bubbling action. This is a very good sign. Now I'll let it sit for another 48 hours before moving on to the next step.


So...there's lots going on. And I guess I'll get back to mopping floors today. When that's done, I'm going to finish off my Itty Bitty Bow Ties.


If there's time left in the day, I'll get going on my Rainbow Scrap Quilt.


My friend Di suggested that I might go a little slower on my plan to catch up with four months worth of colors. It occurs to me that if I do two colors per month, I'll be caught up by July, and so that's my new plan. I'll start with April's yellows and January's blues and call it good for the month.

For now, I'm going to get started on the embroidery for the second block of Friendship's Garden.


I traced it out a few days ago, but have yet to start it. It's a busy day ahead.

11 comments:

Cathy Smith said...

The last time I was in Alaska a couple of years ago Whale's Tail had changed ownership. The shop was physically half the size it had been with the previous owner. It just seemed a little forlorn to me. Hopefully they are hanging in there and have had a resurgence.

Suzanne said...

Thank you for the wonderful blog tour of so many shops. I have visited the one in Thayne too. Fillmore Utah has a great little fabric shop in their Hardware store too.

Paula said...

Thank you for taking us along on your quilt shop adventures. I just started reading you blog recently and appreciate the links to the previous posts and to the quilt shop websites. I've found (and ordered) some great stuff from blog posts about different shops around the country. My husband finally started quilting in 2016, so now he enjoys the trips to the shops almost (well, maybe not) as much as I. We try to stop at a shop or 2 along our travels throughout the year. I need to retire so I can start using my stash.

QUILTING IS BLISSFUL, DI said...

Wow love all those shop stories and review of the fabrics you picked out--it is looking really good-and you do seem to have lots of projects going--good then you won't get bored--can't have that can we--
and talk about mopping floors--I need to do that too--I do have some house hold chores that I need to do today, unfortunately--and there is just me living here--no hubby and no fur babies--so how does this place get dirty???
enjoy, di

QuiltShopGal said...

I visited Whales Tail about 1-1/2 years ago. Small shop in the same location (but smaller space) of Silver Thimble, which had been in business for decades, but did end up closing their doors. I hope you get a chance to go visit one day.

Kate said...

The shop hop quilt is going to be so cool. It will be fun to see the parade of fabrics again. Have a great week.

piecefulwendy said...

Wait, we're supposed to mop our floors?? Haha! Mine needs cleaning too, and I'm basically ignoring it. Your quilt shop quilt is going to be really fun. Glad you shrugged off the name glitch, I like your name for it better anyway. You've got a good schedule set up for all your stitching. Today I need to prep backs for quilts. That's right up there with mopping my floors. Uffda.

Californianativedaughter said...

What's your secret to keeping the kitties from checking out your sour dough starters? I can't leave ANYTHING out on the counter as our youngest, Joshua, will 'inspect it.' I have a warming drawer, a steam oven and a convection oven in which I stash anything I'm working on. I also have a covered cake dish in the dining room for baked cookies, cakes and pies. This prevents Joshua from "inspecting "them.
Yesterday, my husband thought he was clever in placing some new prescription food for our oldest, Ben, an orange tabby. When I went down to the kitchen after my shower, I discovered that Joshua had opened the box and "sampled" about half of the treats. One small bag was torn and contents scattered on the floor. Of course the cans were intact and so was the other bag of treats. I rubber banded the sampled bag and put all of the contents in the cardboard box and put it upside down and wedged it between two other boxes and the paper towel holder on the counter of our "pool" table room. I went out to pull some weeds in the garden. In an hour, when I had finished weeding, I discovered that he was tearing the top of the box in an attempt to get into it again. It was about lunchtime, and so I told my husband about it and it put the box and it's contents on a shelf high up in the cabinet. The cabinet we keep the dry cat food in, Joshua is adept at opening in closing, so we keep the food in a Rubbermaind container.
One evening, my husband was getting ready to cook hot dogs. He mistaking left them out on the counter and when went to cook them, discovered one had been "sampled.

Rosemary

kauanoeanuhea said...

Thank you Barbara. I was going to do some housework this morning, but I immediately headed to my sewing machine. Thank heavens I read your blog before I started cleaning the bathroom!! I love your idea about the shop hop quilt. I too have been collecting fabric from all the quilt stores I visit on my trips and have the pile getting higher and higher; now I have some ideas from you to brainstorm my quilt. Enjoyed traveling around America with you and Mike.

Brown Family said...

The Shop Hop quilt is interesting. I love the big prints and the flanges.

quiltzyx said...

Now we can really see the quilt shop hop quilt coming together. I can't believe you already have the first row done!

Bubble bubble bubble up starter!